Daily Clips for October 24, 2011

PROGRESS FLORIDA IN THE NEWS

VIDEO: GOP Insensitivity Toward Florida Citizenry
By Gayle Andrews
The Blu Vu: Florida’s Political Reality Show
“What’s left to destroy in Florida?” Damien Filer, Political Director of Progress Florida, discusses the anti-middle class agenda of the Florida Tea Party legislature.

AWAKE THE STATE IN THE NEWS

Awake the State organizes to fight Gov. Rick Scott's agenda
By Eloisa Ruano Gonzalez
Orlando Sentinel
There is a need for people to continue to voice their opposition to what's going on in the state," said Ray Seaman, online director for Progress Florida, which helped host the summit.

FEATURED STORIES

Why won’t Rep. Chris Dorworth explain $713,000 in new assets?
By Scott Maxwell
Orlando Sentinel
Two years ago, State Rep. Chris Dorworth was in a heap of financial trouble.

Florida tax incentive programs creating 1 out of every 3 jobs promised
By Michael C. Bender
St. Petersburg Times
A recent "business plan" for Gov. Rick Scott's new economic development agency showed that just 71 percent of the state's tax-incentive contracts the state had signed in the past decade were fulfilled.

Gov. Rick Scott’s proposal could cost area governments $37.7 million
By Matt Dixon
Florida Times-Union
A proposal by Gov. Rick Scott could wring nearly $40 million in pension savings from local governments in Northeast Florida.

Middle-class outrage fuels South Florida Occupy protests
By Mike Clary
South Florida Sun Sentinel
Now that thousands of people have taken to the streets of South Florida in solidarity with the worldwide Occupy Wall Street movement, de facto leaders of the local protests are struggling to harness the anger fueling the demonstrations.

FLORIDA POLITICS

Florida ‘on the right track,’ gov says
By Tim Engstrom
News-Press
Increased hiring in the job sectors that include hospitality, education, health care and retail helped push unemployment down in September across Southwest Florida.

Capitol View: Gov Scott’s office and the flow of information
By Kathleen Haughney
South Florida Sun Sentinel
Information is power in the framing of politics and policy, and Gov. Rick Scott's administration is working hard to tightly control what comes out.

Internet cafés stir heated debate
By Catherine Whittenburg
Tampa Tribune
State lawmakers are again wading into the debate over Internet sweepstakes cafes, even as local officials weigh their own proposed ordinance to ban the facilities in Hillsborough County.

Settlement for South Florida tomato pickers leads to dispute among their advocates
By John Lantigua
Palm Beach Post
Life for migrant farm workers in the United States, including in South Florida, has always been pretty slim pickings.

POLITICAL RACES

U.S. Senate candidate Craig Miller changes tires, cleans restrooms during Lake County ‘workday’
By Christine Show
Orlando Sentinel
Republican U.S. Senate candidate Craig Miller spent a day in Lake County last week sweeping floors and changing tires.

How will Marco Rubio’s past affect his political future?
By Chris Cillizza
Washington Post
The news that Florida Sen. Marco Rubio had, at times over the years, wrongly recounted the timeline of his parents’ arrival in America is the first major test for the national Republican party’s fastest rising star.

As Justice Department Focuses on Buchanan, Competition Gathers
By Dennis Maley
Bradenton Times
The U.S. Justice Department has launched an investigation into allegations that U.S. Congressman Vern Buchanan coerced former employees and a business partner to make illegal donations to his campaign.

ENVIRONMENT AND ENERGY

Rally for environment in Miami finds a friendly audience
By Jon Silman
Miami Herald
Maybe the best way to air out your environmental grievances is by rallying for a group of environmental journalists.

Put U.S. interests above political fray in dealing with Cuban oil drilling
Editorial
South Florida Sun Sentinel
Havana and Washington appear to be in no mood to talk. That said, both countries share a common interest in a common waterway — the Florida Straits.

Jupiter’s new solar-powered trash bins already having effect across Florida
By Bill DiPaolo
Palm Beach Post
Collect, crunch, call. That's the job of the high-tech trash bin perched on State Road A1A at Marcinski Road.

EDUCATION

U.S.-citizen children of immigrants protest higher tuition rates
By Michael Vazquez
Miami Herald
The far-reaching immigration debate in Florida and the nation has been going on for years, but until last week, the plight of students like Wendy Ruiz — an aspiring podiatrist — had been largely invisible.

Education board OKs new pre-kindergarten standards
Associated Press
The Florida Board of Education has approved more rigorous learning standards for students in the state's voluntary pre-kindergarten program.

Science matters
Editorial
Miami Herald
Gov. Scott doesn’t have to skewer anthropologists to bolster his argument that Florida’s university system needs to produce more graduates with the kinds of degrees that employers wielding well-paying jobs want most.

JOBS, BUDGET, AND ECONOMY

Florida unemployment rate dips slightly to 10.6 percent
By Jim Stratton
Orlando Sentinel
Florida led the nation in job creation in September, as the state added more than 23,000 new jobs and saw its unemployment rate dip slightly to 10.6 percent, down just a bit from the August rate of 10.7 percent.

Companies got millions – but state got not jobs
By Aaron Deslatte
Orlando Sentinel
Florida's economic-development agency has paid $37.9 million to six companies for thousands of jobs that were never created and is now attempting to renegotiate their contracts in the hope of still saving some of them.

State unemployment rate dips slightly; growth in ‘lower wage industries’
By Marcos Restrepo
Florida Independent
The Florida Department of Economic Opportunity reports that the state’s unemployment rate for the month of September dipped slightly to 10.6 percent, still well above the 9.1 percent national rate.

Buchanan pushes NASCAR tax break, reaps donations
By Jeremy Wallace
Sarasota Herald-Tribune
U.S. Rep. Vern Buchanan is using his new political influence in Congress to try to carve out a special tax benefit for NASCAR racetracks worth hundreds of millions of dollars.

HEALTH AND SENIORS

Florida anti-abortion bill part of upcoming national trend
By Ashley Lopez
Florida Independent
NPR and Kaiser Health News report that abortion opponents are pushing for legislation that will shift focus to the “supply-side” of abortions, which would mean regulating and restricting “the doctors, hospitals and clinics that provide the services.”

Breast cancer: So many lives at stake
Editorial
Florida Times-Union
So, are you getting tired of all of the pink?

Legislature Eyes Health Care Costs
By Lloyd Dunkelberger
Lakeland Ledger
Wal-Mart is cutting back health benefits for its workers and requiring them to pay more for their coverage

CIVIL RIGHTS, PEACE AND SOCIAL ISSUES

Another attack on Hispanics
Editorial
Miami Herald
Where is Jeb Bush when you need him? State Sen. Alan Hays surely needs the former governor to set him straight about who Hispanics are, what they do for Florida and how many of them vote.

Florida a top source of guns linked to out-of-state crimes
By Alexia Campbell
Orlando Sentinel
More than 2,000 Florida guns last year were linked to crimes committed around the country, and experts say they likely came from the cars and homes of law-abiding Floridians.

Ethnic gamesmanship has no place in reapportionment
Editorial
St. Petersburg Times
Republican state Sen. Alan Hays of Umatilla is either woefully ignorant or suffers from a befuddled anti-Hispanic bias, or both.

New Florida election law stirs up controversy
By Staff
Daytona Beach News-Journal
The teacher who heads up New Smyrna Beach High School's student government association could face thousands of dollars in fines. Her transgression? Helping students register to vote

JUSTICE AND THE COURTS

Lawmakers look at rehabilitation over incarceration
By Kathleen Haughney
South Florida Sun Sentinel
Republican lawmakers are looking at easing some of Florida's drug laws and establishing more treatment programs for offenders.

Cost of Florida Prisons: Too Many in Prison Too Long
Editorial
Lakeland Ledger
If Gov. Rick Scott and Florida legislative leaders would get over their obsession with privatizing prisons, perhaps they might focus on the real cause of Florida's runaway correction spending.