Daily Clips for November 21, 2011

PROGRESS FLORIDA IN THE NEWS

November 14th Weekly Show
By Gayle Andrews
The BluVu: Florida’s Political Reality Show
The Governor keeps funneling badly needed taxpayer dollars to his friends, Republicans keep letting the 1% get away with billions in tax loopholes and Damien tells us what’s up with Marco Rubio.

FEATURED STORIES

Alarming Climate Change Effects on Florida
By Les Coleman
Public News Service Florida
"Managing the Risks of Extreme Events and Disasters to Advance Climate Change Adaptation" is out, and none too soon: 2011 has been one of the most costly years on record for extreme weather events worldwide, and the U.S. has had more "billion dollar events" than ever before.

In Florida, Anonymous Attack Money Floods Elections
By Ralph De La Cruz
Florida Center for Investigative Reporting
In 2008, $4 billion was spent on political campaigns in the United States.

Florida's Oct. jobless rate drops to 10.3 percent
By Bill Kaczor
Associated Press
Florida's unemployment rate dropped to its lowest point in 28 months in October but remained significantly higher than the national rate, state officials said Friday.

Michelle Obama and Jill Biden booed at NASCAR race in Florida
By Shannon Owens
Orlando Sentinel
First Lady Michelle Obama and Jill Biden, wife of Vice President Joe Biden, got a cold reception in warm Miami at the Homestead-Miami Speedway.

Casino debate revives concerns over broken promises
By Mary Ellen Klas
Miami Herald/St. Petersburg Times Tallahassee Bureau
Related: Florida’s proposed 10% casino tax called jackpot for industry
Related: In casino fight, all bets are off
The press conference called by the heads of South Florida’s horse and dog tracks in October 2004 had one goal in mind: to counter voter skepticism.

EDITORIAL CARTOON OF THE WEEK

By Jim Morin
Miami Herald

FLORIDA POLITICS

In Florida politics, it's hard to tell who gave cash, who got it
By Aaron Deslatte
Orlando Sentinel
Florida's flood of unregulated political spending by independent groups is vast, expanding and characterized by anonymous attacks, bogus or inflated allegations and often-untraceable cash.

NAACP redistricting maps have familiar look
By Aaron Deslatte
Orlando Sentinel
Republican lawmakers say voters who last year endorsed the anti-gerrymandering Fair Districts constitutional reforms may be in for a rude awakening when the first drafts of congressional and legislative maps are released in the coming weeks.

Carroll bill shields loan agency records
By Matt Dixon
Morris News Service
A Florida taxpayer-funded program designed to give loans to African-American-owned businesses that can’t qualify for bank financing has been plagued by shoddy bookkeeping, unreliable job-creation figures and numerous bad reviews from state auditors.

Vern Buchanan’s legal troubles linger
By Jeremy Wallace
Sarasota Herald-Tribune
U.S. Rep. Vern Buchanan indirectly suffered a pair of legal setbacks this week that will likely prolong the litigation that has swirled around him for more than three years.

Official who received overpayment resigns
By Gary Fineout
Associated Press
An official with Gov. Rick Scott’s administration who had been given three years to repay the state more than $21,000 is no longer on the job.

In new alimony bill, wealthy, cheating men could pay less
By Scott Maxwell
Orlando Sentinel
If a Brevard County legislator gets his way, Florida will completely overhaul its alimony laws.

POLITICAL RACES

Mack topping Nelson in latest poll
By John Kennedy
Palm Beach Post
Republican Connie Mack is shaping up as big trouble — not only for his fellow GOP contenders for the U.S. Senate nomination, but two-term Democratic incumbent Bill Nelson, a poll shows Friday.

Pawlenty should have stayed in presidential race, some say
By Adam C. Smith
St. Petersburg Times
What goes through the mind of Tim Pawlenty these days?

St. Petersburg Mayor Bill Foster wonders about security costs if RNC party comes to Tropicana Field
By Richard Danielson
St. Petersburg Times
The prospect is exciting: a showcase party at Tropicana Field on the eve of next year's Republican National Convention.

ENVIRONMENT AND ENERGY

Climate change begins to affect South Florida
By David Fleshler
South Florida Sun Sentinel
The debate over global warming tends to focus on future perils — scary maps of flooded suburbs, the northward creep of tropical diseases, rich farmland turning into desert.

EPA tells Florida: Enforce rules on fertilizer in canals
By Christine Stapleton
Palm Beach Post
After years of legal ink-slinging, missed deadlines and countless hours of mind-numbing scientific testimony, Florida's Department of Environmental Protection and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency tentatively agreed this month on pollution rules to protect Florida's lakes, rivers, estuaries, streams and springs.

Progress Energy defends failed Crystal River nuclear plant project in letter to state legislators
By Ivan Penn
St. Petersburg Times
Progress Energy moved last week to calm growing concern about its idled Crystal River nuclear plant, telling state lawmakers the problems that shut down the reactor two years ago "could neither have been predicted nor prevented."

A $1 billion upgrade for Turkey Point
By Curtis Morgan
Miami Herald
Way down where East Palm Drive cuts through the mangroves lining southern Biscayne Bay, Florida Power & Light is ramping up one of South Florida’s largest construction projects — a $1 billion upgrade of the nuclear power plant at Turkey Point.

Game changer
Editorial
Gainesville Sun
Mike Joiner, Florida's assistant commissioner for agriculture, nailed it on Wednesday when he said, at the Alachua County Farm-City luncheon, that water shortages will be a “game changer” for Florida agriculture.

EDUCATION

Going cheap is no bargain
Editorial
Palm Beach Post
Gov. Scott is taking Florida Higher Ed 101, amassing information on the state university system as part of his push for an overhaul during the 2012 legislative session.

Florida university students don't want Gov. Rick Scott's signature
By Jeff Solochek
St. Petersburg Times
It's not likely that they'll get their demand.

Trying to clarify school grading system, Florida seeks waiver from No Child Left Behind law
By Leslie Postal
Orlando Sentinel
Related: FCAT scoring system: State Board asks for another panel to consider plan before it votes
Florida has been grading its public schools A-to-F for more than a decade, using a system most educators and parents find easy to understand.

JOBS, BUDGET, AND ECONOMY

Tax Hike Could Yield Major Tax Cut
By Lloyd Dunkelberger
Lakeland Ledger
With the state's struggling finances, Gov. Rick Scott's plan to eliminate the $1.8-billion-a-year corporate income tax seems unreachable.

Florida growing but some still left behind
By Michael Peltier
Naples Daily News
With Thanksgiving just days away, a few more Floridians will have something to be thankful for as the state's economy continues to rumble, albeit slowly, back to life.

Members of Congress are Getting Richer – Why Aren't You?
By Dennis Maley
Bradenton Times
According to analysis by the Capitol Hill newspaper Roll Call, members of Congress saw their average net worth rise by nearly 20 percent between 2008 and 2010.

Gambling in Florida may be set to explode
By Kathleen Haughney
Orlando Sentinel
With the Legislature set to consider allowing Vegas-style casinos, even as smaller operators seek a rash of new pari-mutuel permits, Florida finds itself at a gambling crossroads.

Fake food stamp websites scam poor Floridians, officials say
By Alexia Campbell
South Florida Sun Sentinel
Even poor Floridians are getting ripped off these days.

HEALTH AND SENIORS

Florida Sanctions Top Medicaid Prescribers — But Only After A Shove
By Tracy Weber and Charles Ornstein
ProPublica
At Dr. Huberto Merayo’s bustling psychiatry practice in Coral Gables, Fla., hundreds of poor patients on Medicaid walked away each year with prescriptions for powerful antipsychotic drugs.

27% pay cut unlikely: experts
By Brittany Davis
Health News Florida
Every year, doctors in Florida and around the U.S. sweat out possible deep cuts to their Medicare payments.

Jackson Health System board to hold private meeting on system’s future
By John Dorschner
Miami Herald
After months of preparation and years of discussion, Jackson Health System’s executive team has crafted a strategic plan to turn around the financially distressed public hospitals, which have lost more than $400 million over the past three years.

CIVIL RIGHTS, PEACE AND SOCIAL ISSUES

Upscale Fla. town in fight over immigrant prison
By Laura Wides Munoz
Associated Press
In one of South Florida's upscale, rural enclaves, where peacocks roam and horse trails are as common as sidewalks, town leaders decided to bring in much of their money from an unusual business: a prison.

Family Policy Council starts campaign to help pastors register ‘pro-life and pro-family’ voters
By Ashley Lopez
Florida Independent
John Stemberger, the president of the anti-gay and anti-abortion Florida Family Policy Council, has started a new project to get as many religious voters to the polls as possible.

JUSTICE AND THE COURTS

Proposed Parole Changes
By Whitney Ray
Capitol News Service
56-hundred inmates sentenced to life before 1994 are eligible for parole every two years.

Even with life terms for most juvenile criminals banned, many still face long sentences
By Jane Musgrave
Palm Beach Post
Jenny Clark was a 17-year-old student from Switzerland in 1994 when she was grabbed at gunpoint on North Flagler Drive and raped by two teens.