Daily Clips for December 20, 2011

FEATURED STORIES

FAMU trustees say no to Rick Scott's request to suspend school president
By Katie Sanders
St. Petersburg Times/Miami Herald Tallahassee Bureau
Florida A&M University trustees needed just two minutes Monday to dismiss Gov. Rick Scott's call to suspend President James Ammons as authorities investigate a student's hazing death and allegations of financial fraud.

Critics: Bondi lax in pursuing big mortgage lenders amid continuing foreclosure crisis
By Mary Shanklin
Orlando Sentinel
As attorneys general in other foreclosure-battered states step up their investigations into fraudulent mortgage practices by large U.S. banks, some Florida groups are accusing state Attorney General Pam Bondi of being soft on the giant lenders.

Florida students face higher FCAT passing scores
By Jeffrey S. Solochek
St. Petersburg Times
Florida's FCAT is already tougher to take — and now it will be tougher to pass.

Talk of Jeb run for president still percolates, especially after his WSJ piece today
By Scott Powers
Orlando Sentinel
As the Republican presidential field continues to bubble candidates to the top, where they pop and drift down again, speculation is rising anew that Florida’s former governor Jeb Bush still might be viable and interested.

FLORIDA POLITICS

Rubio battles White House over ambassador riff
By Scott Powers
Orlando Sentinel
U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio battled the White House and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid on Monday over who sank the nomination of a Puerto Rican woman that all of them wanted to be ambassador to El Salvador.

Republican chairman has ‘confidence’ in Buchanan, despite ethics investigations
By Virginia Chamlee
Florida Independent
Rep. Pete Sessions, chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee, says he has “confidence” in Committee Finance Chairman Vern Buchanan, despite a U.S. Department of Justice criminal investigation and an Office of Congressional Ethics investigation into the Sarasota congressman over an alleged campaign finance scheme to reimburse employees who contributed to his campaign.

Ethical conflict? What ethical conflict?
By Daniel Ruth
St. Petersburg Times
Only in that strange and mysterious land of Tallahassee, the Potemkin Village of the Panhandle, would elected representatives who are more ethically compromised than a Dale Mabry brass-pole-swinging floozie lather themselves up in conflicts of interest without a scintilla of embarrassment.

Frozen Out in Florida
By Brian E. Crowley
Columbia Journalism Review
Florida’s political reporters are a lonely bunch.

POLITICAL RACES

Gingrich replaces Cain as keynoter for Palm Beach County GOP dinner on Jan. 28
By George Bennett
Palm Beach Post
Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich will replace Herman Cain as the keynote speaker at the Palm Beach County Republican Party’s Jan. 28 Lincoln Day dinner — three days before Florida’s high-stakes presidential primary.

BALLOT INITIATIVES

It doesn't belong on ballot
Editorial
Palm Beach Post
Floridians who don't want their tax dollars underwriting vouchers for religious schools should start to educate themselves on Amendment 7.

ENVIRONMENT AND ENERGY

DEP initially balks at environmental groups' records request in water rule challenge
By Bruce Ritchie
Florida Current
The Florida Department of Environmental Protection has objected to records requests by environmental groups challenging to proposed new state water quality rules but now says it is working with those groups on their requests.

Nuclear plant foes get a meeting
By Fred Hiers
Gainesville Sun
Critics of Progress Energy's proposed Levy County nuclear plant will have another chance to voice their opposition to the facility that some say will hurt the area's environment and damage the local aquifer.

Lawmakers urge Obama administration to ban trade in large snakes
By Virginia Chamlee
Florida Independent
A group of Florida lawmakers is urging the White House to stop delaying action on a rule that would ban the import of tens of thousands of large constricting snakes — snakes that have caused major problems for South Florida.

Open the spill spigot
Editorial
Pensacola News Journal
It was good news last week to see the announcement that $5 million in BP oil spill restoration money was approved for several projects in the area.

LGBT

Florida Family Association Fabricates Success Of Anti-Gay Advertising Campaigns
By Zack Ford
Think Progress
The Florida Family Association (FFA) has attracted media attention for convincing Lowe’s and Kayak.com to pull their ads from All-American Muslim, but the additional scrutiny has also revealed that the one-man organization is guilty of making inaccurate claims about the success of its advertising outrage campaigns.

EDUCATION

State approves tougher FCAT scoring system
By Allison Ross
Palm Beach Post
The state Board of Education unanimously voted Monday to enact a tougher FCAT scoring system that state education officials say will help ensure that students leave school better prepared for careers and college.

Tallahassee doesn't plan to pay for merit pay
By Randy Schultz
Palm Beach Post
Anyone who knows the politics of public education in Florida would have seen it coming.

MDC School Board Member: Charter School Turned Away My Daughter Because of Autism
By John O'Connor
StateImpact
Our recent story on the difficulties students with severe disabilities have found trying to enroll in charter schools has drawn plenty of reaction from parents in similar situations.

JOBS, BUDGET, AND ECONOMY

Gov. Scott pushing lawmakers on insurance issues
By Brent Kallestad
Associated Press
Gov. Rick Scott wants lawmakers to fix a pair of auto and property insurance issues that are costing Floridians hundreds of millions of dollars but have eluded resolution for more than a decade.

FL puts smiley face on gruesome unemployment numbers
By Stew Lilker
Columbia County Observer
Florida continues to reel with an unemployment rate in the double digits at 10%, which is the lowest since May 2009, when it was also 10%.

Gretna track opens up card room
By Gray Rohrer
Florida Current
Operators of the Gretna barrel racing track opened the doors to their 20-table card room Saturday, where gamblers from Panama City to south Alabama and Georgia flocked to the Gadsden County town.

HEALTH AND SENIORS

PolitiFact's 2011 Lie of the Year is Democrats' claim on Medicare
By Angie Drobnic Holan and Bill Adair
St. Petersburg Times/Miami Herald PolitiFact
Republicans muscled a budget through the House of Representatives in April that they said would take an important step toward reducing the federal deficit.

Oral argument dates set in Supreme Court review of healthcare reform
By Katie Sanders
St. Petersburg Times
The U.S. Supreme Court has scheduled oral arguments in the multi-state healthcare lawsuit for March 26-28.

Kaiser/Post: Florida ‘flat-out’ won’t establish health insurance exchange
By Ashley Lopez
Florida Independent
Kaiser Health News and The Washington Post report that the “pressure is growing on the federal government” to create health insurance exchanges for states falling behind in implementing the federal mandate, as well as states that are “flat-out” refusing to create exchanges — such as Florida.

Florida teen pregnancy task force says abstinence-only sex education is not enough
By Ashley Lopez
Florida Independent
Last month, the Northeast Florida Teen Pregnancy Task Force released a report outlining recommendations for dealing with the region’s persistent teen pregnancy problem.

Number of Floridians on AIDS drug waiting list increasing again
By Marcos Restrepo
Florida Independent
The waiting list to enroll in Florida’s AIDS Drug Assistance Program grew to more than 1,070 people by last Thursday, according to the National Alliance of State and Territorial AIDS Directors.

CIVIL RIGHTS, PEACE AND SOCIAL ISSUES

NAACP report: Florida has ‘most restrictive’ felon disenfranchisement ‘approach’
By Ashley Lopez
Florida Independent
A report released earlier this month by the NAACP found that Florida is among the states with the “most restrictive” felon disenfranchisement “laws in the country” — one of many aspects of the state’s voting practices that will limit voter participation among minorities, according to the group.

JUSTICE AND THE COURTS

Florida justice shuts down foreclosure mediation program
By Kathleen Haughney
Orlando Sentinel
Florida Supreme Court Chief Justice Charles Canady shut down the state's 2-year-old foreclosure mediation program Monday, after low success rates and criticism from both lenders and borrowers deemed the program unsustainable.