FEATURED STORIES
Romney, Gingrich get testy in Florida
By Mark Z. Barabak and Seema Mehta
Los Angeles Times
Standing face to face, Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich traded barbs over honesty and integrity in an acrimonious debate that opened a fierce fight ahead of Florida's crucial presidential primary.
Hundreds of protesters rally outside GOP debate at USF
By Alexandra Zayas and Richard Danielson
Tampa Bay Times
Lining the streets of the University of South Florida before Monday's Republican presidential debate, the crowd thickened with hundreds, bull horns blaring, signs held high.
Prison workers decry privatization
By Dara Kam
Palm Beach Post
Emotional pleas and threats of questionable savings and a danger to public safety failed to move an elite group of senators who gave preliminary approval to a sweeping prison privatization plan struck down by a judge last year.
Proposal would change public/private boundaries on Florida's lakes and rivers
By Craig Pittman
Tampa Bay Times
It seems like little more than bureaucratic tinkering.
Contentious voting law to face hearing in Tampa
By Mike Salinero
Tampa Tribune
Florida's new election law, which critics say is a thinly disguised Republican effort to suppress likely Democratic voters, will be the focus of a U.S. Senate committee meeting this week in Tampa.
FLORIDA POLITICS
Florida's story of Republican dominance starts with a Democrat
By Steve Bousquet
Tampa Bay Times/Miami Herald Tallahassee Bureau
It's an important week for Florida Republicans, so it's a good time to trace the beginning of the dominance of the modern GOP in the state.
More-expensive inmates shifted from prisons to be privatized
By Aaron Deslatte and Kathleen Haughney
Orlando Sentinel
As the Legislature was steaming toward passage of privatization of a huge chunk of its prison system last spring, public records suggest the Florida Department of Corrections was removing its most violent prisoners from the facilities slated to be outsourced.
Tattoos and other privatization fantasies
By Fred Grimm
Miami Herald
Related: Prison privatization bills move forward in senate
First off, after my new company wheedles a contract to privatize a state prison, I intend to do away with traditional prison tattoos.
Florida state senator calls for opening stadiums, including Sun Life Stadium, to homeless
By Dara Kam
Palm Beach Post
Florida professional sports teams have ignored a 25-year-old law long enough, according to Sen. Mike Bennett, who wants to use that law to force teams to refund some of the money taxpayers have spent subsidizing stadium construction.
West urges more blacks to join GOP
By Erika Bolstad
Miami Herald
It’s a lonely world out there, black conservatives said Monday, especially as they try to recruit more African-American voters to their ranks.
Rubio staffer quits after arrest on domestic battery charge
Associated Press
Tampa Tribune
A regional director for U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio resigned Monday after his arrest days earlier on a domestic battery charge, accused by his wife of rolling her up in a carpet and punching and kicking her, according to the arrest report.
POLITICAL RACES
Florida Republican primary is 'Armageddon'
By Alexander Burns and Robin Bravender
Politico
In only the first few days of the Florida campaign, every aspect of the GOP contest has blown up on a grand scale: the price of competing, the nastiness of the attacks and the cost of a potential defeat for Mitt Romney or Newt Gingrich.
Mitt Romney slices, dices and silences Newt Gingrich -- Finally
By Marc Caputo
Miami Herald
Say goodbye to Mr. Nice Guy Mitt. Mitt Romney on Monday night came with verbal knives for newly minted frontrunner Newt Gingrich.
Romney paid $3 million in federal income tax in 2010
Associated Press
Tampa Tribune
Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney paid about $3 million in federal income taxes in 2010, having earned more than seven times that from his investments.
As Race Moves to Florida, Facing Political Implications of a Housing Crisis
By Susan Saulny
New York Times
When Mitt Romney swept into the contentious battleground state of Florida on Sunday, the first local issue he raised was the nation’s mortgage foreclosure crisis, which is arguably at its worst here, from this city on the northern coast to the ghost-town developments in what used to be farmland south of Miami.
GOP leaders say immigration, unemployment will define Florida primary
By Marcos Restrepo
Florida Independent
Related: Poll shows Gingrich up in Florida
Florida GOP leaders said over the last two days that the economy is No. 1 in the minds of Florida voters and that their party’s presidential candidates must be aware of how they address immigration.
Several counties scale back hours of early voting in primary
By Steve Bousquet
Tampa Bay Times/Miami Herald Tallahassee Bureau
When state legislators cut back early voting from 14 days to eight, they said the total number of hours would remain the same at 96.
ENVIRONMENT AND ENERGY
Oil rig arrives off Havana; drilling 70 miles from Keys
By David Goodhue
Miami Herald
An offshore oil drilling operation has begun less than 90 miles from the coast of Key West.
Energy group wants court to throw out nuclear-cost law
By Mary Ellen Klas
Miami Herald/Tampa Bay Times Tallahassee Bureau
The state law that has allowed Florida Power & Light and Progress Energy to charge customers $1 billion so far for speculative nuclear power plants is unconstitutional, a group of energy advocates claims in a lawsuit before the state’s highest court.
Environmental groups want summer-time ban of nitrogen in fertilizer upheld
By Janelle Irwin
WMNF Community Radio Tampa
Lawn care giants like Scotts and TrueGreen Chem Lawn are pushing a bill in the Florida House that would overturn summer bans on the use of nitrogen on lawns during the rainy summer months.
Progress Energy customers still on the hook
Editorial
Tampa Bay Times
Put away the party hats.
EDUCATION
Critics say ‘parent trigger’ bill favors charters over public schools
By Kathleen McGrory
Miami Herald/Tampa Bay Times Tallahassee Bureau
Florida parents are taking sides over a controversial piece of legislation known as the parent trigger.
Florida ranks school districts using FCAT scores
By Ron Matus
Tampa Bay Times
The Florida Department of Education released a ranking of all 67 school districts Monday, using FCAT scores alone.
State of Florida considers tougher rules for grading schools
By Topher Sanders
Florida Times-Union
A set of rule changes proposed by the Department of Education to the State Board of Education could result in four times as many F schools and 493 fewer A and B schools across the state.
Panel OKs ban on professors in Fla. Legislature
Associated Press
Tampa Tribune
A bill that would prohibit state college and university employees and contractors from serving in the Florida Legislature is still alive – but just barely.
Don't charge more for STEM classes, most poll participants advise
Staff Report
Florida Current
At a recent meeting with the House Education Committee, presidents of Florida's two leading research universities -- Florida State University and the University of Florida -- suggested that lawmakers let them pay for expanding expensive science, technology, engineering and math programs by charging those so-called STEM students higher tuition.
JOBS, BUDGET, AND ECONOMY
Brand names and lawmakers' games
By Daniel Ruth
Tampa Bay Times
Given Florida's penchant for being the nation's tattooed neighbor who walks around the yard in a Speedo, swilling a beer and blaring Jimmy Buffett's Margaritaville, do we really want to sell the naming rights to our public facilities?
Rick Scott's incomplete grade
By Gary Fineout
The Fine Print
Gov. Rick Scott - who has billed himself as Florida's jobs governor - says repeatedly that he receives a new grade every month when Florida's unemployment rates are released.
Internet sales tax bill hinges on House support
By Gray Rohrer
Florida Current
A bill to collect sales taxes on goods purchased over the Internet is stalled over the reluctance of some House members to take up the measure.
Major banks offer $25 billion over foreclosure abuse
By Derek Kravitz
Associated Press
The nation's five largest mortgage lenders have agreed to overhaul their industry after deceptive foreclosure practices drove homeowners out of their homes, government officials said Monday.
HEALTH AND SENIORS
Three abortion bills to be taken up in state Legislature tomorrow
By Ashley Lopez
Florida Independent
Related: Lawmakers wants to make this week ‘Reproductive Rights Awareness Week’
State Rep. Dennis Baxley, R-Ocala, has put three anti-abortion bills on the state Legislature’s calendar for tomorrow.
U.S. bishops: We will sue over birth control mandate
By Ashley Lopez
Florida Independent
The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops is announcing that it will continue fighting a mandate for health insurers to cover birth control without co-payments.
House looking at establishing a health insurance exchange
By Christine Jordan Sexton
Florida Current
A House health care spending panel will tackle on Tuesday a bill that would limit emergency room services to nonpregnant adults to 12 visits per year and also would limit chiropractic and pediatric services to Medicaid patients under the age of 21 only.
1 in 3 Florida retirees who receive Social Security survive solely on government checks
By Donna Gehrke-White
South Florida Sun Sentinel
A third of Florida's senior Social Security recipients survive on only their monthly government checks, according to an analysis by AARP.
CIVIL RIGHTS, PEACE AND SOCIAL ISSUES
Fla. Civil Rights Hall of Fame inductees announcedAssociated Press
Miami Herald
A pioneering teacher, a Baptist preacher and a U.S. congressman have been named inaugural inductees of Florida's new Civil Rights Hall of Fame.
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