Daily Clips for February 1, 2012

PROGRESS FLORIDA IN THE NEWS

University Students Recoil at Koch Influence
By Howard Goodman
Florida Center for Investigative Reporting
Could it be that students at Florida State University have a deeper understanding of academic freedom than their professors do?

FEATURED STORIES

Mitt Romney wins Florida primary
By Alex Leary
Tampa Bay Times
Related: What we learned from Fla's GOP primary
Related: Florida GOP sends signal: Defeat Obama, stop infighting
Mitt Romney scored a blowout win in Florida's Republican presidential primary Tuesday, steadying a campaign that was jarred by a loss in South Carolina just 10 days ago and again staking his claim to the nomination.

West, Rooney and Hasner remix congressional, Senate races
By Erika Bolstad, Amy Sherman and Marc Caputo
Miami Herald
The political dominoes are tumbling in South Florida, reconfiguring the state’s U.S. Senate race and recalibrating the region’s congressional contests.

After Decades, Journo Still Covers Fla. Legislature
By Noah Adams
NPR
Seventy-one-year-old journalist Lucy Morgan is an institution in Florida.

Short on support, Senate leader holds off on prison privatizing vote
By Dara Kam
Palm Beach Post
A split Senate GOP caucus is threatening a prison privatization effort despite the support of GOP leaders, including President Mike Haridopolos, Rules Chairman John Thrasher and budget chief JD Alexander.

Court shoots down anti-Fair Districts appeal
By Cooper Levey-Baker
Florida Independent
A three-judge panel today denied an appeal filed by Reps. Corrine Brown and Mario Diaz-Balart and the Florida House in their quest to have one of Florida’s two Fair Districts amendments thrown out.

FLORIDA POLITICS

Groups speak out against prison privatization ahead of final state Senate vote
By Ashley Lopez
Florida Independent
Labor groups, corrections employees and legislators held a press conference today denouncing the state’s plan to privatize prisons.

Bill to publish foreclosure notices online only dies in committee
By Katie Sanders
Tampa Bay Times/Miami Herald Tallahassee Bureau
Lawmakers on Tuesday killed a Republican-backed push to move legal notices of foreclosures to the Internet and away from the newspaper industry, which has benefited from the notice requirement for decades.

POLITICAL RACES

Economic Issues Drove Florida Voters
By Marjorie Connelly
New York Times
The economy, not social issues, mattered most to the Republican voters in Florida.

Some things to take away from Florida primary (other than who won)
By Gary Fineout
The Fine Print
Well if everything goes according to plan Mitt Romney will leave Florida's Jan. 31 primary with a convincing victory that could likely give him the GOP nomination for president.

Gingrich to supporters: I won't give up
By Mark Schlueb
Orlando Sentinel
Newt Gingrich suffered a huge loss Tuesday, but the former speaker told a crowd of supporters in Orlando that he wouldn't give up, saying: "This is the most important election of your lifetime."

Charlie Crist: I might vote for Obama
By Mackenzie Weinger
Politico
Former Florida Gov. Charlie Crist said Tuesday he wouldn’t rule out voting for President Barack Obama in November.

ENVIRONMENT AND ENERGY

Has the Gulf oil disaster fallen off America's radar?
By Sue Sturgis
Facing South
For residents of the Gulf Coast, the BP oil spill is an ongoing disaster that's still causing serious health problems, environmental damage and economic hardship in one of the nation's key fisheries and tourism centers.

House panel backs off investor-owned water utilities bill, creates study committee
By Bruce Ritchie
Florida Current
Legal concerns prompted a House committee Tuesday to rewrite a bill that would have clamped down on investor-owned utilities, opting instead to appoint a study committee.

EDUCATION

GOP K-12 education bill faces opposition by teachers, parent organizations
By Marcos Restrepo
Florida Independent
A coalition of Florida teachers and PTA organizations are opposing a K-12 education bill filed by state Sen. Lizbeth Benacquisto, R- Fort Myers, and known as “Parent Empowerment in Education.”

Lawmaker pitches school tax swap
By Kathleen McGrory
Miami Herald/Tampa Bay Times Tallahassee Bureau
Cash-strapped school districts may soon have an alternative to the property tax revenue that currently funds construction and maintenance.

Debate heats up over bill allowing private school athletes to play at public schools
By Gray Rohrer
Florida Current
A bill making it easier for private high school students to play for public schools that offer a sport not offered by the private school moved through two committees this week, but even some lawmakers voting for the proposal are wary of the legislation.

Florida lawmakers wrestle with ways to fix STEM-degree shortage
By David DeCamp
Tampa Bay Times
Gov. Rick Scott and top lawmakers want universities to find ways to produce more science and technology graduates to fill higher-paying jobs.

Tuition time-out
Editorial
Orlando Sentinel
As students at Florida's public universities and their families have been buffeted by a tough economy over the past few years, they've also been clobbered with annual 15 percent tuition increases — a combination of hikes ordered by lawmakers and approved by the system's Board of Governors.

JOBS, BUDGET, AND ECONOMY

Primary Battleground Florida Is The Worst State For The Long-Term Unemployed
By Amanda Peterson Beadle
Think Progress
As Floridians head to the polls for today’s GOP primary, it is likely that many of Florida’s unemployed voters have been looking for a new job for a while.

Wage Theft: A Multi-Million Dollar Problem Here In Florida
By Robert Lorei
WMNF Tampa Bay
Coming up today we’ll talk about wage theft here in Florida—are employers paying fair wages to employees.

Objections to pension changes take sponsor by surprise
By Travis Pillow
Florida Current
One of the architects of sweeping government pension legislation passed last session said he was taken by surprise on Tuesday, when a host of public employees opposed a measure that would walk back one of its most contentious provisions.

Senate panel to move on Internet sales tax bill
By Gray Rohrer
Florida Current
Online retail companies such as Amazon.com will start paying sales tax on goods sold in Florida later this year under a bill filed late Monday by the Senate Budget Subcommittee on Finance and Tax.

Voters approve slot machines in two rural counties, but legal battle looms
By Mary Ellen Klas
Miami Herald/Tampa Bay Times Tallahassee Bureau
Voters in the rural counties of Gadsden and Washington became the first in the state Tuesday to agree to install slot machines outside of Miami-Dade and Broward, as voters approved referendums to bring Las Vegas-style slot machines to their local horse and dog tracks.

HEALTH AND SENIORS

Rubio introduces bill to overturn federal birth control decision
By Ashley Lopez
Florida Independent
The Hill is reporting that Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., has introduced a bill that would roll back a recent decision by the Obama administration to require that insurance providers — with the exception of religious employers — cover birth control as a preventive service.

Many In High-Risk Insurance Pools Face Lifetime Coverage Limits
By Michelle Andrews
WFSU Public Radio Tallahassee
Thanks to the health care overhaul, most people no longer have to worry about getting sick and running out of health insurance coverage.

House Democrats: ‘Fetal pain’ bill ‘gives a legal right to a rapist’
By Ashley Lopez
Florida Independent
One of two anti-abortion bills that passed through a justice committee in the state House this morning would grant “a legal right to a rapist,” Democratic members of the committee argued today.

Florida House panel OK's ban on food aid for snacks
By News Service of Florida
Ft. Myers News-Press
A proposal to prevent poor people from using federal assistance to buy certain snack foods was narrowly approved by a House committee Monday, but the sponsor said after heavy debate that he may change sections of the bill dictating what foods the aid can be used for.

DEA sees sharp drop in Florida oxycodone sales
By Amy Pavuk and Bob LaMendola
Orlando Sentinel
The crackdown on Florida's pill mills, rogue doctors and drug abusers — through a range of new legislation, law enforcement efforts and other programs – is having a significant impact, federal officials say.

CIVIL RIGHTS, PEACE AND SOCIAL ISSUES

Committee kills bill that would give illegal immigrants' kids in-state tuition
By Kim Wilmath
Tampa Bay Times
A bill that would have given in-state tuition to students who live in Florida for two years -- regardless of their parents' residency -- died in the Senate's higher education committee.

School prayer bill expanded to include elementary school students
By Ashley Lopez
Florida Independent
A school prayer bill was today expanded to include elementary school students during one of its final readings on the state Senate floor.

JUSTICE AND THE COURTS

Retooled ‘foreign law’ bill sparks Sharia debate in Florida House committee
By Ashley Lopez
Florida Independent
Florida’s anti-Sharia activism made its way into the state Legislature this morning, as a bill that would regulate the “application of foreign law in certain cases” passed through a House justice committee.