FEATURED STORIES
Statement to Miami Herald writer haunts Senate President Haridopolos
By Steve Bousquet
Miami Herald/St. Petersburg Times Tallahassee Bureau
Testifying in a deposition, Senate President Mike Haridopolos admitted he didn’t tell the truth last year when he denied knowledge of a secret settlement that ended Jim Greer’s tumultuous tenure as chairman of the Republican Party of Florida.
Is Florida GOP's biggest prize? Maybe
By William March
Tampa Tribune
When Florida Republicans go to the polls on Jan. 31 for their presidential primary, they'll award the winner a major coup, 50 convention delegates.
Florida's brighter job picture obscures longer-term problems like low pay, lack of diversification
By Aaron Deslatte
Orlando Sentinel
Florida's overall employment picture is brightening after three lost years.
Florida owed more than $800 million by taxpayers, but many debtors don't pay
By John Kennedy
Palm Beach Post
Even as legislators struggle with a $2 billion budget shortfall, more than $800 million in debt is owed Florida taxpayers - IOUs piled up by businesses, individuals and even a few politicians.
Everglades restoration: Can this marriage be saved?
By Bob Graham
Miami Herald
The Everglades is in danger again.
EDITORIAL CARTOON OF THE WEEK
By Andy Marlette
Pensacola News Journal
FLORIDA POLITICS
Tensions over minority redistricting divide legislators
By Mary Ellen Klas
Miami Herald/St. Petersburg Times Tallahassee Bureau
Racial divisions in Florida’s increasingly diverse state have become a tense undercurrent coursing through the redistricting debate in Tallahassee as lawmakers decide how far to go to carve out new districts for Florida’s growing ethnic minorities.
Fla. Senate set to release redistricting plan
Associated Press
Palm Beach Post
The Florida Senate is set to release its proposed plan for redrawing the state's legislative and congressional districts.
Haridopolos says Greer was ousted because of politics
News Service of Florida
Florida Times-Union
Senate President Mike Haridopolos said in a deposition last week that he believed ousted Republican Party of Florida Chairman Jim Greer was pushed out for political reasons -- not necessarily for the misuse of party funds, something RPOF officials had suggested was a major source of discontent.
GOP Latinos face questions over immigrant pasts
By Russell Contreras
Associated Press
New Mexico Gov. Susana Martinez is forced to research and clarify her late grandfather's immigration status.
Thrasher pushes bill to benefit Jacksonville company, client of his former lobbying firm
By Matt Dixon
Florida Times-Union
Since joining the state Senate in 2009, John Thrasher has tried to add a Jacksonville financial company represented by his old lobbying firm to a list of providers for a lucrative state retirement system.
Bennett takes last shot at extending term limits
By Jeremy Wallace
Sarasota Herald-Tribune
State Sen. Mike Bennett is putting one final charge into trying to pass legislation that would extend the terms of state legislators from 8 years to 12.
POLITICAL RACES
Rick Scott may shape fate of 2012 election
By Joy-Ann Reid
The Grio
Unlike other high profile tea party governors like Rick Snyder of Michigan, Ohio's John Kasich and Scott Walker of Wisconsin, Florida Gov. Rick Scott has largely flown under the national media radar.
Once again, GOP hopes this is their chance to defeat Nelson
By William March
Tampa Tribune
In a state dominated by Republicans, Bill Nelson stands out like a sore thumb.
A year before election, new strategy could change outcome
By Anthony Man
South Florida Sun Sentinel
The outcome of next year's election could be decided far from the polls and long before Election Day.
As rumors fly, Orlando mayor Buddy Dyer denies that he would quit to run for governor
By Mark Schlueb
Orlando Sentinel
Buddy Dyer wants voters to give him another term as Orlando's mayor in an election next spring. But if they do, can voters count on him to stay?
Underachiever Connie Mack IV perfect for Senate seat
By Frank Cerabino
Palm Beach Post
First of all, congratulations, Mr. Mack. You haven't even officially declared yet to run for a Florida seat in the U.S. Senate and you're already the front-runner in the polls.
Tampa police prepare for anarchist attacks at Republican National Convention
By Jessica Vander Velde
St. Petersburg Times
Up to 15,000 protesters are expected to descend on Tampa next summer for the Republican National Convention. Many will wave signs and march peacefully.
ENVIRONMENT AND ENERGY
As task force prepares oil spill report, questions arise on who will pay to restore the gulf
By Craig Pittman
St. Petersburg Times
More than a year after the Deepwater Horizon disaster dumped nearly 5 million barrels of oil into the Gulf of Mexico, a federal group stands ready to unveil an ambitious plan to repair the damage.
BP set to keep cleaning beaches
By Kimberly Blair
Pensacola News Journal
As BP wraps up its oil spill cleanup phase and shifts into its restoration phase, one looming question remains: What about the tar mats still believed to be submerged along the shorelines of local beaches?
Utilities, water districts join to map Florida water's future
By Kevin Spear
Orlando Sentinel
The state's most-powerful water bureaucrats and the Orlando area's biggest water utilities have met several times this year, in near-secrecy, in an attempt to dole out the last drops of cheap, clean and highly coveted water from the giant Floridan Aquifer.
Nelson effort to ban interstate python trade concerns Fla. wildlife officials
By Christine Stapleton
Palm Beach Post
The good intentions of Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson to help control the invasion of Burmese pythons in the Everglades has Florida wildlife officials slightly cringing.
Heads butt over plan to thin bison herd at Paynes Prairie State Park in north Florida
By Craig Pittman
St. Petersburg Times
Florida's state parks are a haven for all sorts of wildlife — roseate spoonbills, bats and black bears, to name a few. But only Paynes Prairie Preserve State Park can claim to have a herd of bison.
LGBT
St. Petersburg women find love, marriage — and legal tangles
By Stephen Nohlgren
St. Petersburg Times
Rachel Jolley, 25, and Charlotte Lambert, 28, merged into Lambert-Jolley on a cool Connecticut evening in September.
EDUCATION
Florida Courts Closer to Answering: Are State’s Education Cuts Unconstitutional?
By Ralph De La Cruz
Florida Center for Investigative Reporting
Things could be getting very interesting for Gov. Rick Scott and the Florida legislature, and their push for education by charter school, private school and the Internet.
Florida college students rallying against Rick Scott's "attack on higher education"
By Kristal Roberts
ABC Action News Tampa
Students from seven Florida universities are joining forces to rally against what they’re calling, an "attack on higher education".
Rising tuition, 'Occupy' spark new campus activism
By Lindsay Peterson
Tampa Tribune
Dani Leppo planned to keep her head down, study and finish as fast as possible when she transferred from St. Petersburg College to the University of South Florida this year.
Florida universities say they've passed the performance test
By Scott Travis
South Florida Sun Sentinel
Gov. Rick Scott had a lot of questions about the state's 11 universities. Now he has received answers that rival "War and Peace" in their size.
JOBS, BUDGET, AND ECONOMY
Missing middle class imperils American Dream
Editorial
St. Petersburg Times
Among the disturbing economic trends in America is the sharp decline over the last four decades of families living in middle-income neighborhoods. Instead there is increasing segregation into enclaves of wealth and poverty.
Gov. Scott helps feed hungry at East Naples shelter, gets fed some advice
By Aisling Swift
Naples Daily News
Gov. Rick Scott joined a legion of volunteers Thursday at St. Matthew’s House in East Naples, doling out Thanksgiving dinners, taking orders for desserts – and getting political advice from the jobless and homeless.
Some lawmakers say taxing internet sales will fill the state's budget holes
By Regan McCarthy
WFSU Public Radio Tallahassee
State Representative Michelle Rehwinkel Vasilinda, a Democrat from Tallahassee, is putting forward legislation once again that she says would increase the state's collection of internet sales tax.
Officials ignore our greatest needs
By Stephen Goldstein
South Florida Sun Sentinel
What do the recent Penn State sex scandal, Hurricane Katrina, and the sad state of America's — and Florida's — infrastructure have in common?
HEALTH AND SENIORS
Gov. Scott, federal officials at odds over Affordable Care Act
By Stacey Singer
Palm Beach Post
Related editorial: Ideology no cure for Florida
Florida Gov. Rick Scott, a longtime foe of the Obama administration's health overhaul, says he will not allow the state to implement the 18-month-old health law for a fundamental reason: "It's not the law of the land," said Scott, an attorney and co-founder of the Columbia/HCA hospital chain.
State supreme court invalidates arbitration agreements in nursing home cases
By Travis Pillow
Florida Current
The Florida Supreme Court ruled in two separate cases Wednesday that nursing home arbitration agreements that limit damages in ways that contradict state law are not valid.
Medicare’s drug coverage gap shrinks
By Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar
Associated Press
Medicare’s prescription coverage gap is getting noticeably smaller and easier to manage this year for millions of older and disabled people with high drug costs.
CIVIL RIGHTS, PEACE AND SOCIAL ISSUES
FAMU student death prompts probe of hazing practices
By Katie Sanders
Miami Herald/St. Petersburg Times Tallahassee Bureau
Fallout from the death of a Florida A&M University drum major intensified this week with the firing of the school’s band director, the suspensions of four students and Gov. Rick Scott ordering the state’s law enforcement agency to assist with the investigation.
Gun law shows Florida's political, cultural divide
By Anthony Man
South Florida Sun Sentinel
To the mostly Democratic residents of South Florida's cities and suburban communities, it may seem like a common-sense move to prevent gun violence.
Immigration not state’s top priority
Editorial
St. Petersburg Times
As the Florida Legislature prepares for its 2012 session, illegal immigration is sure to make headlines again.
JUSTICE AND THE COURTS
A New Twist in FL's Private vs. Public Prisons FeudBy Les Coleman
Public News Service Florida
When the Florida Legislature put a bill on Gov. Rick Scott's desk to partially privatize prisons, Department of Corrections officers filed a lawsuit to block it.
Fix the death penalty
Editorial
Miami Herald
In 2005, the Florida Supreme Court took the unusual step of begging the Legislature to clean up Florida’ s death-penalty statute.
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