FEATURED STORIES
Federal judge raises questions about Florida’s random drug-testing policy
By Jay Weaver
Miami Herald
A federal judge in Miami Wednesday cast serious doubts about Gov. Rick Scott’s order requiring thousands of state government employees to undergo a random drug test, suggesting his policy “sweeps too broadly.”
Anti-abortion measure passes Senate committee, moving in House tomorrow
By Dara Kam
Palm Beach Post
Republican legislators are pushing an omnibus anti-abortion measure that revives some of the most controversial portions of proposals left out of a package of anti-abortion bills passed last year and signed into law by Gov. Rick Scott.
Activists launch campaign against bill that would reduce tipped workers’ minimum wage
By Marcos Restrepo
Florida Independent
Fight for Florida has launched a new initiative to involve waiters and waitresses in a campaign to oppose a state Senate bill that would allow employers to pay tipped workers a lower minimum wage than what is currently authorized.
House bill encouraging oil drilling on state lands passes final committee stop
By Bruce Ritchie
Florida Current
A bill that would encourage oil and gas exploration drilling on state lands passed a House committee on Wednesday, the day after a Senate committee temporarily passed the companion bill.
Senate race turns testy between Mack and LeMieux
By Marc Caputo and Katie Sanders
Miami Herald
Just as Congressman Connie Mack looked as if he’d escape a campaign controversy over a property tax break, his top Republican rival in the U.S. Senate race hosted a Wednesday press conference armed with a zinger over his other legal troubles.
FLORIDA POLITICS
Rick Scott agency head, top lawyer resigning
By Steve Bousquet
Tampa Bay Times/Miami Herald Tallahassee Bureau
The "jobs governor," Rick Scott, has two important jobs to fill in his administration.
Strong arms and strong stands in Tallahassee
By Lucy Morgan
Tampa Bay Times
What are things in the Florida Legislature coming to when one senator needs protection to walk on the Senate floor?
Scott, Rubio, West invited to attend Values Voters Summit
By Ashley Lopez
Florida Independent
Gov. Rick Scott, Sen. Marco Rubio and Rep. Allen West have been invited to attend this year’s Values Voters Summit — one of the biggest conservative and religious right summits in the country.
A Chronology of an (attempted) Senate Power-Grab
By Aaron Deslatte
Orlando Sentinel
There is a long story of personal ambitions, conflicting corporate-versus-populist agendas, and shifting allegiances behind the latest palace coup attempt in the Florida Senate.
Miami Beach House Rep. Steinberg under investigation by feds for bizarre texts
By David Ovalle
Miami Herald
Federal agents are investigating Florida House Rep. Richard L. Steinberg, D-Miami Beach, for sending a series of suggestive and harassing text messages to a married Miami female prosecutor, court records show.
POLITICAL RACES
Arizona debate features clash of Republican front-runners
By Mark Z. Barabak and Maeve Reston
Los Angeles Times
Days before a pair of crucial primaries, Mitt Romney and Rick Santorum clashed Wednesday night in a testy debate that magnified small differences and underscored the big stakes in their neck-and-neck presidential fight.
Obama to address gas prices, pitch energy policy
Associated Press
Tampa Tribune
President Barack Obama is confronting Americans' anxiety over rising gasoline prices by drawing attention to his energy policies and taking credit for rising oil and gas production, a greater mix of energy sources and decreased consumption.
President Obama fundraiser will gather NBA stars, at $30K a plate
By Mark K. Matthews
Orlando Sentinel
An All-Star lineup of current and former NBA stars is coming together tonight for an event that won't feature dunks, buzzer beaters or free throws.
Rubio’s Moment Arrives in ‘Time’
By Howard Goodman
Florida Center for Investigative Reporting
This looks like U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio’s moment in the sun.
Mack could face scrutiny over exemption
By William March
Tampa Tribune
Lee County Property Appraiser Ken Wilkinson said Wednesday he probably will investigate whether Rep. Connie Mack and his wife, Rep. Mary Bono of California, are entitled to two separate homestead exemptions in their home states, although his "first blush" opinion is that they are.
Senate hopeful LeMieux likens rival Mack to Charlie Sheen, in hopes of winning
By George Bennett
Palm Beach Post
Florida's leading Republican Senate rivals invoked Hollywood bad boy Charlie Sheen and Florida GOP pariah Charlie Crist while trading character attacks today in an increasingly nasty primary race.
ENVIRONMENT AND ENERGY
Bill would allow a slow flow of treated sewage into ocean after 2025
By Ariel Barkhurst
South Florida Sun Sentinel
A bill making its way through the Florida Legislature would allow the dumping of 5 billion gallons of treated sewage into the ocean every year, but save South Florida’s utility ratepayers at least $1.3 billion.
State working to put new water rules in place
By Virginia Chamlee
Florida Independent
In a letter sent to EPA Regional Administrator Gwendolyn Keyes Fleming, the head of the Florida Department of Environmental Protection requests that the agency “return to Floridians the responsibility for protecting Florida’s waters.”
PSC approves far-reaching Progress Energy agreement
By Bruce Ritchie
Florida Current
The Public Service Commission on Wednesday approved a far-reaching settlement between Progress Energy and the Office of Public Counsel and commercial power customers.
Everglades restoration needs bipartisan buy-in
Editorial
Orlando Sentinel
President Obama wants to spends $232 million on restoring the Florida Everglades, a vital project stalled by sporadic government funding.
EDUCATION
Senate to weigh in on USF Poly's future Thursday
By Kim Wilmath
Tampa Bay Times/Miami Herald Tallahassee Bureau
Related editorial: USF fight for equity begins today
While debate surrounding the University of South Florida's budget has gotten most of the attention in the Legislature recently, there's another big decision coming today: JD Alexander's over-arching vision to create the state's 12th university.
Gov. Scott, charter students rally, but Democrats don't want to forget public schools
By Gray Rohrer
Florida Current
About 500 charter school students, parents and teachers from across the state gathered in the Capitol courtyard Wednesday to urge support for legislation to expand and fund charter schools, which are publicly funded, but privately run.
School prayer bill passes another Florida House committee
By Ashley Lopez
Florida Independent
A bill that would allow K-12 students to deliver “inspirational messages,” including prayers, during mandatory and non-mandatory school events was approved by a Florida House judiciary committee today.
Simulation shows school grades plummeting under possible new rules
By Jeffrey S. Solochek
Tampa Bay Times
Pasco principal Kimberly Poe had no illusions that her school's annual state grade would suffer under tougher FCAT passing scores.
JOBS, BUDGET, AND ECONOMY
Business tax cut backed by Gov. Scott stalls on House floor
By Gray Rohrer
Florida Current
A measure granting businesses a more than $20 million annual tax break originally was set to be prepared for a floor vote later this week, but was postponed on the House floor Wednesday.
Senate could revive 'super exemption' property tax measure
By Travis Pillow
Florida Current
The Senate sponsor is looking to resurrect a new property tax exemption that previously failed in a House committee.
More Kids Growing up in Poor Neighborhoods in FL
By Jennifer Evans
Public News Service Florida
A new KIDS COUNT Data Snapshot from the Annie E. Casey Foundation released today shows that the number of children living in high-poverty communities has increased by 28 percent in Florida.
One-sided budgeting
Editorial
Ocala Star-Banner
The Florida Senate is scheduled to vote today on a budget that, like the version approved by the House of Representatives, focuses on the spending side of the ledger and ignores the potential for new revenue sources.
HEALTH AND SENIORS
Planned Parenthood rallies as anti-abortion measures move through Legislature
By Ashley Lopez
Florida Independent
With the final days of 2012′s legislative session drawing near, Planned Parenthood held a rally at the capitol yesterday to denounce a slew of anti-reproductive rights bills that have already made their way through committees in the Legislature this session.
Department of Health reorganization bill stalls in Senate
By Christine Jordan Sexton
Florida Current
A bill to reorganize the state’s largest health care department was moving through the legislative process but was slowed down in the Senate on Wednesday, causing lobbyists to wonder why.
Here’s crazy: Reducing money to treat mental illness in Florida
By Fred Grimm
Miami Herald
Thank God for Texas. Else we’d rank as the most barbaric backwater in the nation.
Rich introduces budget amendment stripping CPCs of state funding
By Ashley Lopez
Florida Independent
State Sen. Nan Rich, D-Sunrise, has introduced an amendment to the Florida Senate’s budget bill that “eliminates funding for the Crisis Counseling Program in the Department of Health and increases funding to the Family Planning Program.”
Senate health committee approves HPV vaccine bill
By Ashley Lopez
Florida Independent
A bill requiring schools to give parents of students entering the sixth grade information about HPV vaccines passed in a Florida Senate health committee today.
Miami-Dade and its cities lead nation in federal cuts for social services, economic development
By Charles Rabin and Christina Veiga
Miami Herald
Miami-Dade County and its largest cities — including Hialeah, Miami Beach, Miami and North Miami — are among the nation’s top losers in federal funding for social services, meaning meals for the elderly and afterschool programs for kids face dramatic cutbacks that will hurt thousands of residents.
Contraceptives debate all about women's health
By Debbie Wasserman Schultz
South Florida Sun Sentinel
This month, a debate on contraception gripped the nation in a way we have not seen in decades.
JUSTICE AND THE COURTS
Metz’s bill passes, despite dearth of evidence that ‘foreign law’ is entering Florida courtsBy Ashley Lopez
Florida Independent
A Florida House judiciary committee passed a bill today that would outlaw the use of “foreign law” in family court cases.
Partisanship creeps deeper into judiciary
Editorial
Tampa Bay Times
The independence of Florida's judiciary is under legislative assault again.
A softer 'Caylee's Law' looks more certain
By John Kennedy
Palm Beach Post
Months after Florida lawmakers joined many nationwide in pushing tough new laws in the aftermath of the Casey Anthony verdict, a generally modest change in state law was approved Wednesday by the House Judiciary Committee.
Some inmates given long sentences as teens would be eligible for release in 15 years under proposed bill
By Brittany Alana Davis
Tampa Bay Times/Miami Herald Tallahassee Bureau
Kendrick Morris was 16 when he brutally raped and beat a teenager outside the Bloomingdale Regional Public Library.
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