Daily Clips for December 7, 2011

FEATURED STORIES

Poll: Scott the most unpopular governor in America
By Marcos Restrepo
Florida Independent
Public Policy Polling released a poll Tuesday showing that Gov. Rick Scott’s approval rate among Florida voters is at an all-time low.

Fla. Gov. wants a billion dollar boost for schools
By Gary Fineout
Associated Press
Florida Gov. Rick Scott, who was criticized for pushing school funding cuts a few months ago, is asking for a billion dollars more for education to come during an election year.

Proposed Florida House redistricting maps pit incumbents against each other
By Steve Bousquet, Darla Cameron and Mary Ellen Klas
St. Petersburg Times/Miami Herald Tallahassee Bureau
Related: Senate Democrats’ unified front crumbles with first redistricting vote
The Florida House's first attempt at redrawing its districts would force dozens of incumbents to run against each other in Tampa Bay and South Florida next fall.

Haridopolos says Jim Greer should be paid severance if acquitted
By Aaron Deslatte
Orlando Sentinel
Senate President Mike Haridopolos said Tuesday that if ousted Florida Republican Chairman Jim Greer is found not guilty of money laundering and fraud, he should get the $123,000 in severance that party leaders negotiated before he stepped down last year.

Obama: Middle class at ‘make or break moment’
By Ken Thomas
Associated Press
President Barack Obama delivered a sweeping indictment of economic inequality in the U.S. on Tuesday as he summoned the memory of President Theodore Roosevelt and pledged to fight for fairness at a "make or break moment for the middle class."

FLORIDA POLITICS

House redistricting maps would add Hispanic seats
By Aaron Deslatte
Orlando Sentinel
The Florida House released its first drafts of congressional and legislative maps Tuesday, formally beginning the long and politically perilous process of carving out new electoral turf.

Redistricting maps: Southwest Florida shut out for new congressional district
By Ben Wolford
Naples News
The Florida House and Senate agree, so far, that Southwest Florida will not receive one of two new congressional districts the state gains because of population growth.

Elections law sponsor: ‘Nothing’ in law limits ‘participation’
By Ashley Lopez
Florida Independent
Politico reports that state Rep. Dennis Baxley, R-Ocala, says that nothing in Florida’s elections law, which he sponsored, is “going to limit anybody’s participation.”

Scott wants Citizens to change but time, politics not in his favor
By Gray Rohrer
Florida Current
Gov. Rick Scott again pressed for legislative changes to state-backed Citizens Property Insurance Corp. during a Cabinet meeting Tuesday, but a reluctant Legislature and an early start to the legislative session mean any major reforms may have to wait at least another year.

POLITICAL RACES

Buzz’s Fla Insider Poll predictions: Romney favored in Fla, extended primary expected
By Adam C. Smith
St. Petersburg Times
Newt Gingrich may be riding a wave of momentum three weeks before voting starts in Florida, but among Florida's most experienced political pros Mitt Romney remains the heavy favorite to win Florida's primary, according our latest Florida Insider Poll.

GOP not worried about convention protests, weather
By Mitch Stacy
Associated Press
Republican National Convention planners on Tuesday played down concerns about protests and potentially stormy or steamy weather as they provided the media with a glimpse of plans for next summer's event.

GOP’s road to Tampa is a proving ground
Editorial
Tampa Tribune
For many Republicans, the winnowing process for presidential candidates has been unusually traumatic this season.

ENVIRONMENT AND ENERGY

EPA penalizes Clean Water Act violators, including three in Florida
By Virginia Chamlee
Florida Independent
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency today announced that it had issued Consent Agreements and Final Orders against 25 entities throughout the Southeast for violations of the Clean Water Act.

Proposed state water quality rules would cost less than federal pollution limits, FSU study shows
By Bruce Ritchie
Florida Current
Proposed state rules that the Florida Department of Environmental Protection says would limit nitrogen and phosphorus in waterways will cost the state between $55 million and $160 million a year, Florida State University researchers said Tuesday.

Fast-moving ethanol bill clear committee despite biofuel industry opposition
By Bruce Ritchie
Florida Current
A bill that would repeal the state requirement for ethanol in motor vehicle fuel passed a House committee despite opposition from managers of planned ethanol plants.

Legislators seek to tap old oil wells with tax incentives
By Jim Saunders
News Service of Florida
Trying to encourage more oil production in Florida, a House panel Tuesday approved a proposal that would offer a tax incentive for tapping old wells in Southwest Florida and the Panhandle.

PSC approves Florida Power and Light fuel rate cut
Associated Press
Miami Herald
Florida Power & Light Co.'s residential customers are getting a $1.92 cut in their monthly bills due to falling fuel expenses.

LGBT

US to use foreign aid to promote gay rights
By Julie Pace
Associated Press
The Obama administration is announcing a wide-ranging effort to use U.S. foreign aid to promote rights for gays and lesbians abroad, including combating attempts by foreign governments to criminalize homosexuality.

SGA Works to Include Sexual Orientation, Gender Identity in University Policy
By Jason Lawrence
Famuan
Despite Florida A&M officials having to face more immediate, pressing issues, the Student Government Association is working to include sexual orientation and gender identity in the university's non-discrimination policy.

EDUCATION

Senate prez: Universities should trade majors like baseball cards
By Aaron Deslatte
South Florida Sun Sentinel
Senate President Mike Haridopolos said Tuesday that university presidents should have to sit around a table and trade majors and professors like baseball cards in order to eliminate programs and save the state money.

Flagler weighs ad sales on district website, fields to recoup school funding
By Annie Martin
Daytona Beach News-Journal
Flagler County school officials are hoping to turn space on the district's website, athletic fields and other property into dollars for the district.

Alachua county schools face $6.8 million shortfall
By Jackie Alexander
Gainesville Sun
Alachua County Public Schools face a potential $6.8 million budget shortfall for the upcoming fiscal year, but a pending court case could cause that figure to balloon to $14.1 million and put the district at financial risk, staff said Tuesday.

JOBS, BUDGET, AND ECONOMY

A Fair Shot v. You’re-On-Your-Own Economics
The Progress Report
Think Progress
“I hold that while man exists it is his duty to improve not only his own condition, but to assist in ameliorating mankind.”

Report: RESTORE Act would generate many jobs for Florida businesses
By Dave Heller
WTSP 10 News Tampa Bay
A lot of jobs are on the line as Congress prepares to vote on a bill that would set aside the cash BP will eventually pay in fines for last year's oil spill.

Florida’s debt drops
Associated Press
Pensacola News Journal
Florida owes less money than it did a year ago.

Plan would speed foreclosures
By Kimberly Miller
Palm Beach Post
Some Florida lawmakers want to tweak a rarely used fast-track foreclosure law to shrink the state's court backlog and as an end run around Wall Street reforms that may bar nonjudicial foreclosures.

AIF touts gambling bill
By Kathleen Haughney
South Florida Sun Sentinel
Associated Industries of Florida, flagged by building and construction companies, promoted legislation to bring three destination casinos to the state, but would not comment on whether Genting New World Resorts had asked them to advocate on their behalf.

Tampa Bay area sheds second highest number of construction jobs in country
By Jeff Harrington
St. Petersburg Times
While other parts of Tampa Bay's economy pick up steam, its construction industry just hit a new low.

HEALTH AND SENIORS

New right-wing think tank touts Medicaid reform and welfare drug testing at ALEC event
By Ashley Lopez
Florida Independent
Tarren Bragdon, the president of a new Naples-based right-wing policy group, touted the state’s controversial Medicaid reform plans and Florida’s welfare drug testing law during an event held last week by the American Legislative Exchange Council (known as ALEC).

Proposals could drastically revamp public hospital funding
By Lloyd Dunkelberger
Sarasota Herald-Tribune
A panel appointed by Gov. Rick Scott to review the role of tax-supported hospitals moved closer to a controversial conclusion on Tuesday, advancing a series of recommendations that could dramatically change the funding of public hospitals.

Florida Grappling With Questions About Taxes For Indigent Care
By Lynn Hatter
WFSU Public Radio Tallahassee
A special panel appointed by Florida Gov. Rick Scott has been meeting to figure out a way to scale back what taxpayers at the local level contribute to hospital costs in some parts of the state.

Constitutional amendment proves no guarantee to opening up hospital records to patients
By Amber Statler-Matthews
Broward Bulldog
Harlan Ginsberg of Coral Springs was rushed to Margate’s Northwest Medical Center in 2006 after a kidney stone attack.

CIVIL RIGHTS, PEACE AND SOCIAL ISSUES

Judge denies Scott’s requests for ACLU records in drug testing challenge
By Ashley Lopez
Florida Independent
The American Civil Liberties Union of Florida announced that a judge has denied Gov. Rick Scott’s “attempt to subpoena records from the ACLU of Florida and subject ACLU officials to depositions in the ongoing legal challenge to Scott’s order requiring illegal, suspicionless drug testing of state employees.”

With Florida Capitol no longer asking gun owners to secure firearms, Senate installs panic buttons
By Michael C. Bender
St. Petersburg Times
Metal detectors at the entrance of the state Capitol help protect Florida lawmakers.

Florida farmworker advocates turn to Obama for protection for laborers
By John Lantigua
Palm Beach Post
Jeannie Economos of the Farmworker Association of Florida recalls a woman who walked into her office recently.

JUSTICE AND THE COURTS

Palm Beach County files lawsuit challenging state gun law
By Andy Reid
South Florida Sun Sentinel
Palm Beach County Tuesday filed a lawsuit challenging the Legislature's ability to penalize local officials for regulating guns.