Daily Clips for October 25, 2011

FEATURED STORIES

Fla. probe of Lt. Gov’s staff now with prosecutor
By Gary Fineout
Palm Beach Post
A Tallahassee prosecutor is deciding whether any laws were violated in making a tape recording of a conversation between two employees in the office of Lt. Gov. Jennifer Carroll.

Federal judge blocks Rick Scott’s welfare drug-testing law
By Aaron Deslatte
South Florida Sun Sentinel
A federal judge has temporarily blocked the state from drug-testing welfare recipients in a challenge brought by an Orlando man who says his civil rights were violated by the new law pushed by Gov. Rick Scott.

State Sen. Alan Hays’ case of foot-in-mouth disease
By Steve Bousquet
St. Petersburg Times
State Sen. Alan Hays is a retired dentist, so it's surprising to see him stick his foot in his mouth.

Despite Florida incentives to companies, job creation lags
By Michael C. Bender
Miami Herald
Florida has given tax breaks and other cash incentives to some of the world’s biggest companies in return for creating jobs.

FLORIDA POLITICS

How one Tampa address handles millions in campaign cash, influences elections nationwide
By Ashley Lopez
Florida Independent
A little over a year ago, no-party gubernatorial candidate Bud Chiles stood outside an off-white single-story building with a carefully manicured lawn in suburban Tampa and said, “This building behind me is ground zero for what’s wrong with Florida politics.”

Is Chris Dorworth fit to be speaker?
Editorial
Orlando Sentinel
State Rep. Chris Dorworth, a Lake Mary Republican, was nearly broke in 2009, according to financial disclosure forms.

POLITICAL RACES

Hispanic voters: Stick with Obama or go with GOP?
By Ken Thomas, Christina Silva
Associated Press
A year before the 2012 presidential election, Hispanic voters are facing a choice.

Mike Hightower, Jeb Bush to help raise money for state Senate candidate Aaron Bean
By Staff
Florida Times-Union
Though state Senate candidate Aaron Bean has been filed to run since 2007, he’s now really getting into campaign mode.

LeMieux says college is too cheap
By Adam C. Smith
St. Petersburg Times
Here's something you don't necessarily expect to see from a candidate trying to win votes from Florida's families: a call for higher tuition at state universities.

ENVIRONMENT AND ENERGY

Renewable energy group blasts PSC for failing consumers with nuke decision
By Mary Ellen Klas
Miami Herald
Here's the release from the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy, a nonprofit that promotes renewable energy, blasted the decision by state utility regulators to grant the rate increase request sought by FPL and Progress Energy to pay for speculative nuclear projects:

State regulators OK FPL’s nuclear rate hike of $1.87 a month for typical customer
By Dara Kam
Palm Beach Post
State utility regulators decided Monday that Florida Power & Light customers must pay $196 million next year for new nuclear projects, including two reactors yet to be approved.

LGBT

More schools take action to stem anti-gay bullying
By Steve Rothaus
Miami Herald
A history teacher amends his lessons on the civil rights movement to include the push for gay equality

EDUCATION

Senate proposal to reauthorize No Child Left Behind meets opposition
By Marcos Restrepo
Florida Independent
A diverse group of organizations have rejected the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 2011, recently passed by the U.S. Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee and that will now move to the full Senate.

Arizona State president says Rick Scott’s wrong on higher ed
By Jeff Solochek
St. Petersburg Times
Gov. Rick Scott's message on refocusing college degrees more exclusively on science, technology, engineering and math as a jobs initiative has spread well beyond Florida's borders.

JOBS, BUDGET, AND ECONOMY

Government outsourcing gone wrong
Editorial
St. Petersburg Times
>From the beginning, one man's deal to corner the market on the Official Florida Driver's Handbook should have drawn red flags at the Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles.

Don’t let health tab squeeze state budget
Editorial
Orlando Sentinel
It'll be tough enough for Florida lawmakers to balance the state budget next year, with a $2 billion shortfall projected and leaders ruling out any tax hikes, no matter how limited or reasonable.

Florida lost 10,000 jobs as stimulus funding winds down
By Michael C. Bender
St. Petersburg Times
Florida has lost about 10,000 jobs as contracts and grants from the federal stimulus program dry up, according to a new report from the Collins Center for Public Policy.

State may consider changes to public employee health benefits to save money
By Lloyd Dunkelberger
Sarasota Herald-Tribune
It remains unclear if lawmakers will radically change the plan in their coming session.

HEALTH AND SENIORS

Health care: When time is most costly
Editorial
Florida Times-Union
You're a doctor. A patient arrives with a viral infection.

Florida among states cutting costs by limiting Medicaid hospital coverage
By Ashley Lopez
Florida Independent
Kaiser Health News and USA Today report that Florida is among a slew of states that have been cutting costs by limiting hospital coverage in their Medicaid plans.

Hospitals, nursing homes team up to cut high readmission rates
By Letitia Stein
St. Petersburg Times
Florida's hospitals are tackling one of the most vexing and costly problems in health care — the revolving door between hospitals and nursing homes.

CIVIL RIGHTS, PEACE AND SOCIAL ISSUES

Not enough Hispanic speakers at state Democratic convention, group says
By Jeannette Rivera-Lyles
Orlando Sentinel
A group of Hispanic Democrats in Central Florida is chastising the party for what it calls a shortage of Hispanics in the lineup of speakers for the party's state convention, which starts Friday.

Legislator wants to change law that denies in-state tuition to students with undocumented parents
By Marcos Restrepo
Florida Independent
Under Florida statutes, a student who wishes to qualify for in-state tuition fees for higher education has to provide proof of residency, and if the student is a dependent also must provide proof of his or her parents’ legal residency.

Insurance commissioner hikes workers’ comp premiums by nearly 8.9 percent
By Christine Jordan Sexton
Florida Current
Insurance Commissioner Kevin McCarty on Monday approved an average 8.9 percent increase in workers' compensation rates and reiterated his support for prescription drug packaging changes in the upcoming legislative session.

JUSTICE AND THE COURTS

Democratic senator urges Scott to drop drug-testing court fight
By John Kennedy
Palm Beach Post
A federal judge Monday temporarily halted drug-testing of Florida welfare recipients, siding with opponents of the new law championed by Gov. Rick Scott and the Republican-led Legislature.