Daily Clips for February 6, 2012

FEATURED STORIES

At halfway point, Florida legislators are two houses divided
By Aaron Deslatte
Orlando Sentinel
On one side of the Florida Capitol rotunda Friday, House lawmakers were busily passing redistricting maps.

Ethics bill left on cutting room floor of state capitol
By Brittany Alana Davis
Miami Herald/St. Petersburg Times Tallahassee Bureau
A proposal to ban state lawmakers from influencing bills that could earn or cost them money is headed to the cutting-room floor for the fifth consecutive year.

Florida prison privatization push stalls despite big spending
By Dara Kam
Palm Beach Post
Millions of dollars in campaign contributions from for-profit prison companies may not be enough this year to push through a prison privatization plan that is a priority of Gov. Rick Scott and Republican legislative leaders.

Did tax money go to lobbying? Jobs agency's $50K to chamber draws flak
By Jim Stratton
Orlando Sentinel
A $50,000 payment to the Orlando Regional Chamber of Commerce is drawing fire from an array of critics who wonder why tax money was used to support the agenda of a business group.

Obama campaign is gearing up for Florida November battle
By Adam C. Smith
Tampa Bay Times
While most of the political world was still buzzing about Mitt Romney's overwhelming Florida primary win, Ashley Walker rose from her seat to address a room full of Florida field directors for the Barack Obama campaign gathered at the University of Tampa.

EDITORIAL CARTOON OF THE WEEK

By Andy Marlette
Pensacola News Journal

FLORIDA POLITICS

House okays new redistricting map
By Mary Ellen Klas
Miami Herald/Tampa Bay Times Tallahassee Bureau
The Florida House voted along party lines for three redistricting maps Friday that proponents say reflect the state’s growing diversity and meet new anti-gerrymandering standards.

Florida lawmakers can't be forced to testify in election lawsuit, judge rules
By Steve Bousquet
Tampa Bay Times/Miami Herald Tallahassee Bureau
A federal judge ruled Friday that four state legislators and two staffers cannot be forced to testify in a case that challenges changes to Florida election laws.

Ugly rush by powerful lawmakers to privatize prisons
By John Romano
Tampa Bay Times
Usually, our mistrust of lawmakers is a little fuzzy. Just a vague sense that something's happening, and we're not quite sure what that something is.

Lawmakers owe citizens more respect
By Jessica Lowe Minor and Deirdre Macnab
Orlando Sentinel
With the recent presidential primary debates, most citizens expect mudslinging between candidates, but how many of us expect to experience such animosity before our own Legislature?

Black Florida Conference to feature Obama’s mentor
Staff Report
Florida Courier
The 10th Annual State of Black Florida Conference takes place Feb. 8-11 in Tallahassee.

POLITICAL RACES

Republican voter turnout in Florida primary speaks volumes
By Adam C. Smith
Tampa Bay Times
Turnout in last week's Republican presidential primary dropped more than 14 percent from Florida's 2008 GOP primary.

Florida Likely to Teem With Nasty Ads at Election Time
By Zac Anderson
Lakeland Ledger
Florida's exceptionally negative and expensive GOP presidential primary could soon give way to an even nastier general election, with experts predicting Category 5-level political ad wars.

ENVIRONMENT AND ENERGY

House approves Florida water pollution rules
By Bill Kaczor
Associated Press
Legislation that would clear the path for a pair of state water pollution rules supported by business, agriculture and utility interests won approval Friday from the Florida House. Some environmental groups, though, say the rules are too weak and prefer tougher federal standards.

Watchdogs for environment neutered
By Ron Littlepage
Florida Times-Union
Floridians who care about clean water and healthy natural resources had better start kicking behinds and taking names.

Expedition Aims to Protect and Restore Land
By Tom Palmer
Lakeland Ledger
For the past few weeks, a small group of outdoor adventurers have been combining geography, biology and public relations to revive a concept that has been well-known, but not always well-received in Florida for decades.

EDUCATION

'Parent trigger' bill stirs praise, fear over what it means for Florida public schools
By Jeffrey S. Solochek
Tampa Bay Times
Karen Francis-Winston joined the advisory committee at her child's school, intent on improving academics and discipline.

New bill being proposed to redistribute funds for traditional schools
Staff Report
WFTV 9 News Central Florida
Central Florida school officials are concerned about a bill that would redistribute funds for traditional schools.

Florida’s simpleton rankings
Editorial
Miami Herald
Any way you slice and dice the numbers, Florida’s new way of ranking its 67 school districts — based solely on FCAT results, a one-shot test — tells parents and taxpayers absolutely nothing about the quality of their public schools, be they traditional schools or charters.

ALEC Education "Academy" Launches on Island Resort
By Dustin Beilke
Center for Media and Democracy
ALEC ExposedToday, hundreds of state legislators from across the nation will head out to an "island" resort on the coast of Florida to a unique "education academy" sponsored by the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC).

Panel discusses misleading recruiting, stat-keeping practices at for-profit colleges
By Virginia Chamlee
Florida Independent
A panel of former for-profit university students, professors and recruiters discussed the controversial higher ed institutions yesterday, making strong claims about questionable practices at schools like the Art Institutes, Argosy University, Brown Mackie College and South University — all of which are owned by the Pittsburgh-based Education Management Corporation.

JOBS, BUDGET, AND ECONOMY

Florida Democrats working to change budget conversation
By Ashley Lopez
Florida Independent
Flanked by nurses and educators, a group of Democratic state lawmakers held a press conference in the capital yesterday to denounce the GOP-led Legislature’s plans to cut health services in the state budget in order to save money for education.

House approves bill to allow unregulated insurers to take over Citizens policies
By Toluse Olorunnipa
Tampa Bay Times/Miami Herald Tallahassee Bureau
Florida's mammoth state-run insurance company is looking to downsize, with lawmakers turning to unregulated out-of-state carriers to help with the effort.

Bill to expand uses for resort tax advances
By Sara K. Clarke
Orlando Sentinel
Legislation that would let counties spend their resort-tax revenue on aquariums advanced in Tallahassee last week, without any opposition — at least so far — from a Florida hotel lobby that usually vehemently opposes measures designed to expand the number of approved uses of the tax.

As bill dies, future of mega-casinos remains uncertain
By Mary Ellen Klas
Miami Herald/Tampa Bay Times Tallahassee Bureau
A statewide television ad campaign, glitzy architectural renderings — even the promise of thousands of jobs — couldn’t change the political odds this year against the resort casino bill in Tallahassee.

High-speed rail would have been profitable, state report says
By Ted Jackovics
Tampa Tribune
The high-speed rail project that Gov. Rick Scott doomed last February by turning down more than $2 billion in federal money would have made an annual surplus of $31 million to $45 million within a decade of operation, according to a state report.

HEALTH AND SENIORS

Healthy Start spared cuts in House budget
By Ashley Lopez
Florida Independent
The Healthy Start Coalitions of Florida, so far, are not poised to suffer budget cuts this year. Last year, the group saw millions taken from its budget.

DOH costs ‘outrageous’: docs
By Carol Gentry
Health News Florida
Florida’s health boards face a revolt by doctors, dentists and others refusing to pay what they call “outrageous” costs for their own prosecution in the wake of an appeals-court ruling.

Marco Rubio pushes back at Obama contraception rules under healthcare plan
By Erika Bolstad
Miami Herald
Sitting in his pew at St. Louis Catholic Church in Miami one recent Sunday, Sen. Marco Rubio heard the same homily as other parishioners who were urged by church leaders nationwide to contact Congress about the use of contraceptives.

Victory! Komen Apologizes, Backs Off Planned Parenthood Defunding
The Progress Report
Think Progress
In a huge victory for women’s health care and progressive values, the Susan G. Komen Foundation both apologized for its decision to dump Planned Parenthood and said the group would continue to be eligible for grants.

CIVIL RIGHTS, PEACE AND SOCIAL ISSUES

FAMU death: Brutal rituals defied ban, band members say
By Jeff Kunerth and Denise-Marie Balona
Orlando Sentinel
It's 7 p.m. on Aug. 22, 2011. A thunderstorm is passing through Tallahassee as 350 members of the Florida A&M University Marching 100 assemble for the first time inside the school's cavernous band-rehearsal hall.

JUSTICE AND THE COURTS

Foreclosure lawyer probes left up to Florida Bar
By Kimberly Miller
Palm Beach Post
The Florida Bar's investigations into foreclosure fraud by its members jumped 63 percent in the past year, but no disciplinary actions against attorneys have been levied since complaints began to mount in the fall of 2010.