Daily Clips for February 16, 2012

FEATURED STORIES

Sen. Jim Norman blasts budget committee over cuts to USF
By Kim Wilmath
Tampa Bay Times/Miami Herald Tallahassee Bureau
Related column: A textbook lesson in bad leadership
Related editorial: USF’s fight for fairness
Senate budget writers relented partially Wednesday and restored $25 million to the University of South Florida's proposed budget for next year.

Senate panel signs off on $70.8 billion budget
By Travis Pillow
Florida Current
A Senate panel quelled early tensions over planned cuts to universities and unanimously signed off on its nearly $70.8 billion budget proposal at an eight-hour meeting on Wednesday.

House passes $121 million business tax cut package
By Gray Rohrer
Florida Current
Tax cuts and exemptions for Florida businesses totaling $121 million per year passed the House floor Wednesday on a 93-22 vote.

Federal oversight needed to ensure Florida Medicaid serves those in need
Editorial
Tampa Bay Times
The federal government is more protective of the well-being of Florida's poor than Gov. Rick Scott and the Florida Legislature.

Marco Rubio and Obama duel on diplomacy
By Glenn Thrush
Politico
Sen. Marco Rubio isn’t waiting for a vice presidential offer to go after President Barack Obama: He’s been locked in a quiet battle with the White House for months, blocking key diplomatic appointments in hopes of getting his say on foreign policy.

FLORIDA POLITICS

Right-wing groups to ‘pressure states and localities’ to purge voter rolls
By Ashley Lopez
Florida Independent
A right-wing group has announced it will “pressure states and localities” through lawsuits, if necessary, “to clean up voter registration rolls pursuant to Section 8 of the National Voter Registration Act (NVRA).”

Companies, interests, spend $127 million to lobby lawmakers
By Aaron Deslatte
Orlando Sentinel
They are waging multi-year campaigns to build billion-dollar casinos, get their tax bills reduced, break into the renewable energy business, and fight over the right of injured parties to sue.

Redistricting lawsuit? Legislators want more immunity
By Mary Ellen Klas
Miami Herale
Florida legislators have traditionally had to fend off lawsuits that attempt to subpoena them and their staff to talk about the sausage-making of the legislative process.

Privatization, What Next
By Whitney Ray
Capitol News Service
The defeat of the prison privatization bill in the Florida Senate last night doesn’t end the conversation.

Private prisons are a bad idea
By Michael Mayo
South Florida Sun Sentinel
If you repeat something often enough, people start to believe it.

POLITICAL RACES

Obama up in polls, despite high pessimism
By Jennifer Epstein
Politico
There’s not a lot of confidence in the direction of the country or what President Barack Obama’s done to help the economy — but he’s gaining in popularity nonetheless.

ENVIRONMENT AND ENERGY

Bill to encourage oil drilling on state lands amended to apply only to areas west of Tallahassee
By Bruce Ritchie
Florida Current
A bill that seeks to encourage oil exploration and drilling on state lands was amended Wednesday to apply only to areas west of Tallahassee.

House OKs bills extending alternative water supply permits and authorizing statewide wetlands permit
By Bruce Ritchie
Florida Current
Related: Suwannee River Water Management District chief quits, warns Senate panel about water policy
Bills that would create a statewide wetlands permit and would extend the length of alternative water supply permits passed the House on Wednesday.

Earthjustice says Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission violated open meeting laws
By Virginia Chamlee
Florida Independent
Environmental law firm Earthjustice yesterday announced that it has filed suit against the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, alleging that the agency “illegally held closed-door meetings to craft a plan which would cut off the public’s boating access to part of Fisheating Creek in Glades County” and therefore violated state open meeting requirements.

LGBT

Gay soldiers meeting set for Disney World
Associated Press
Palm Beach Post
A national convention of gay military personnel on active duty will be held at an Army-operated resort on Walt Disney World property next fall.

EDUCATION

Florida graduation rate plunges under new federal rules
By Leslie Postal
Orlando Sentinel
Florida has recalculated its best-ever 2011 high-school graduation rate using tough, new federal rules — and the Sunshine State's new figure isn't nearly as sunny.

Fitch: Florida School Bill Could Strain District Resources
Staff Report
Bradenton Herald
Fitch believes a Florida bill that could force public schools to divert a portion of their budgets to charter schools presents a challenge to already cash-strapped districts.

Senate budget would have FAU, other universities, dig into reserves
By John Kennedy
Palm Beach Post
A $400 million cut in university spending included in a $70.8 billion state budget proposal was approved Wednesday by the Senate budget panel, whose chief said schools can plug the gap with reserve funds he accused them of hoarding.

Higher ed, lower politics: More time spent on personal agendas than on helping state
Editorial
Palm Beach Post
If Gov. Scott and the Legislature truly want a top-ranked higher-education system that graduates students who can compete in the emerging knowledge economy, they will stop giving to the system with one hand and taking with the other.

Remove Alexander from budget panel
Editorial
Tampa Tribune
Voices of reason throughout the Tampa Bay area are rallying in opposition to devastating budget cuts proposed in the state Senate Budget Committee for the University of South Florida.

JOBS, BUDGET, AND ECONOMY

Florida 5th most financially distressed state, index shows
Staff Report
Florida Current
Florida ranks fifth nationally for households likely to be in financial distress, a report in the Jacksonville Business Journal says.

Legislation to speed foreclosures sparks protest
By Zac Anderson
Sarasota Herald-Tribune
Homeowners would be forced to quickly mount a defense to prevent foreclosure on their property under proposals that Florida lawmakers are considering to speed up the legal process in Florida’s still-recovering real estate market.

Sales-tax holiday approved for Aug. 3-5
Staff Report
Orlando Sentinel
Shoppers, mark your calendars.

Payroll tax deal to shorten job benefits
By Laura Green
Palm Beach Post
Tom is the kind of guy you'd think would have no trouble finding a job. He's an engineer with 17 years of experience who has a degree from the University of Florida.

HEALTH AND SENIORS

The GOP Candidates’ War On Women’s Health Care
The Progress Report
Think Progress
Conservatives have launched an all-out assault on affordable access to birth control, but their war on women’s health care doesn’t stop at contraception.

Unions sue over plan to privatize prison health care system
By Steve Bousquet
Tampa Bay Times/Miami Herald Tallahassee Bureau
Two labor unions have filed suit against the state Department of Corrections in an effort to prevent the privatization of health care for all 100,000 inmates in the Florida prison system.

Legislator criticizes House elimination of federal home visiting grant
By Ashley Lopez
Florida Independent
In a new Florida Times-Union op-ed, state Rep. Mia Jones, D- Jacksonville, writes that it is “not right” that the state is turning down federal grant money for child abuse prevention and maternal care home visiting that advocates fought hard for last year.

Florida Senate wants 7th graders to get meningitis vaccine
Associated Press
Tampa Tribune
School children in Florida may have to get an additional shot before they can enter the 7th grade.

CIVIL RIGHTS, PEACE AND SOCIAL ISSUES

Lawmakers just say no to state worker drug tests
By Gray Rohrer
Florida Current
A bill allowing state agencies to randomly drug test their employees died in the House Appropriations Committee on Wednesday, as a sampling of Republicans teamed up with Democrats in voting against the measure.

Cracking down on human trafficking in Florida critical to saving lives, fighting other crime
By Pam Bondi and William Snyder
TC Palm
Human trafficking is modern-day slavery and a $32 billion global industry. Unfortunately, the exploitation of those living in the shadows has become increasingly common in states like Florida and will only continue to worsen if left unchecked.

JUSTICE AND THE COURTS

Fla. executes killer of St. Petersburg mother
By Mitch Stacy
Associated Press
A man convicted of raping a 29-year-old mother and dragging her into Tampa Bay's surf to drown more than three decades ago was executed by lethal injection Wednesday at Florida State Prison.