Daily Clips for March 14, 2012

FEATURED STORIES

Unemployment rate is down, but jobs numbers look bad for Rick Scott
By Katie Sanders
Tampa Bay Times/Miami Herald Tallahassee Bureau
Yes, Florida's unemployment rate dropped to 9.6 percent in January — its lowest point since March 2009.

Capitalism, Florida-style: Private profits, public pain
By Daniel Ruth
Tampa Bay Times
It's a common refrain among the parishioners of the rock-ribbed, conservative, free enterprise faith: "Government should be run more like a business."

Legislators return for special session to redraw rejected Senate map
By Mary Ellen Klas
Miami Herald/Tampa Bay Times Tallahassee Bureau
As Florida lawmakers reconvene Wednesday for a two-week special session to redraw the Senate maps, one question remains: Will they be able to stop themselves from protecting incumbents?

Governor accepts $100,000 donation
By Tammie Fields
WTSP Tampa Bay
While the economy continues to struggle, lobbyists are shelling out big bucks and setting records in Florida.

Gov, Lt Gov not saying much about FBI investigation
By Sascha Cordner
WFSU Tallahassee
Florida’s Lieutenant Governor is remaining tight-lipped on a federal investigation looking into allegations that she bribed a Republican Congressional candidate to drop out of the race.

FLORIDA POLITICS

Senate snubs hundreds of Gov. Rick Scott's appointees
By Christine Jordan Sexton
Florida Current
The Florida Senate snubbed hundreds of Gov. Rick Scott's appointments to state agencies and local governing boards when members adjourned the 2012 session without confirming the appointees.

Redistricting Retry May Bring Major Effects
By Zac Anderson
Sarasota Herald-Tribune
Florida Senate leaders hope a few tweaks can fix their state Supreme Court-­invalidated redistricting plan, but any changes could have a domino effect on local and statewide politics.

Top Democrat says Senate’s redrawn maps will need more than tweaks
News Service of Florida
Florida Times-Union
Senate leaders are wrong to argue that they can make limited changes to a redistricting plan that was found unconstitutional, Florida Democratic Party Chairman Rod Smith told reporters Tuesday.

Senate's task is clear
Editorial
Pensacola News Journal
As the Florida Senate opens its special session on redistricting today, it must do what it failed to do previously: Draw 40 Senate district maps that conform to the Florida Constitution.

Deputies break up Occupy Orlando camp
By David Damron
Orlando Sentinel
Orange County deputies broke up the Occupy Orlando camp in front of the county's government headquarters in a pre-dawn raid Tuesday.

New Florida law prohibits Miami-Dade, other governments from hiring companies tied to Cuba
By Patricia Mazzei and Martha Brannigan
Miami Herald
Delving into Miami-Dade’s tricky exile politics, Florida lawmakers passed sweeping but little-noticed legislation this session prohibiting local governments from hiring companies that do business with Cuba.

POLITICAL RACES

Rick Santorum wins Alabama and Mississippi
By Alex Leary
Tampa Bay Times
Rick Santorum may finally get the two-man race he craves after victories in the Alabama and Mississippi primaries Tuesday, a double shot that further rattles overall frontrunner Mitt Romney and increases pressure on Newt Gingrich to withdraw.

'Nurses for Obama' among campaign appeals to female Florida voters
By Alex Leary and Kim Wilmath
Tampa Bay Times
President Barack Obama's campaign is launching a Florida effort to highlight popular aspects of the Affordable Care Act, the sweeping, and still controversial, health care law enacted two years ago this month.

ENVIRONMENT AND ENERGY

Florida at highest risk for flooding from sea level rise, report finds
By Curtis Morgan
Miami Herald
South Florida, low-lying and smack in the middle of Hurricane Alley, has the greatest number of people and places at risk from rising sea levels, according to a new report released on Wednesday.

2012 session summary: Environment and Natural Resources
By Bruce Ritchie
Florida Current
Former U.S. Sen. Bob Graham and Nathaniel P. Reed of Hobe Sound were among the speakers in November during an environmental rally outside the Capitol.

Concerns Grow Over Florida's "Jurassic Park" Bill
By Stephanie Carroll Carson
Public News Service Florida
Living next to a state-owned park in Florida might lead its neighbors to expect they would be living next to native species.

FPL's fuel-shortage plan given state approval
By Susan Salisbury
Palm Beach Post
Florida's Public Service Commission on Tuesday approved the long-term energy emergency plans for Florida Power & Light Co., and 14 other utilities that own or control electric generation facilities.

LGBT

Mayors for gay marriage get another Broward supporter
By Anthony Man
South Florida Sun Sentinel
Wilton Manors Mayor Gary Resnick is now officially a supporter of gay marriage.

Orlando to bid for 2018 Gay Games
By Sara K. Clarke
Orlando Sentinel
A new visitors' bureau that aims to attract gay tourists to Orlando is getting things started with a bid to attract one of the world's largest amateur athletic events, the Gay Games.

EDUCATION

Business wins as colleges take a fall this session
By James L. Rosica
Associated Press
Florida's businesses scored victories in the Legislature in the newly concluded annual session, but some college students say they wonder if the treatment lawmakers gave that sector came at their expense.

Wrapping Up Education Bills In The 2012 Florida Legislative Session
By John O'Connor
StateImpact
The big school issue was the budget, and Gov. Rick Scott threw out a challenge early on — add $1 billion to K-12 funding or risk a veto.

JOBS, BUDGET, AND ECONOMY

Florida’s unemployment rate at 9.6 percent in January 2012
By Marcos Restrepo
Florida Independent
According to a Florida Department of Economic Opportunity employment report issued Tuesday, Florida’s unemployment rate was 9.6 percent in January 2012, down from 9.9 a month earlier.

A Labor Point of View on the Recently Completed Florida Legislative Session
By Robert Lorei
WMNF Tampa
The state legislature just finished it's 2012 session. We're going to talk about the measures passed in Tallahassee and how they will effect low and middle income people.

Workforce overhaul
Editorial
Orlando Sentinel
In one of their more constructive moves during this year's legislative session, Florida lawmakers passed a bill to promote some needed accountability and transparency at the state's regional job-development agencies, including Workforce Central Florida.

HEALTH AND SENIORS

Feds Question Florida on Medicaid
By Jim Saunders
News Service of Florida
Trying to transform Medicaid into a statewide managed-care program, Florida health officials face dozens of questions from the federal government about how the plan would work.

Dems blast absence of health care reform money during budget passage
By Ashley Lopez
Florida Independent
As Florida’s $70 billion budget passed in the Legislature late last week, Democrats in both chambers took the opportunity to criticize GOP leaders in both the state House and Senate for denying federal funds from the Affordable Care Act.

Do Lawmakers Know No Illness, No Elderly, No Shame?
By Mary Jo Melone
Florida Voices
Florida may be the elderly mecca of America, but apparently most members of the state House haven't noticed.

Controversial anti-abortion ‘freedom rides’ moving through Florida this month
By Ashley Lopez
Florida Independent
A campaign comparing the anti-abortion rights movement to the civil rights movement is making its way through the state of Florida this month.

Unjust 'solution'
Editorial
Gainesville Sun
The Florida Agency for Health Care Administration has a problem.

CIVIL RIGHTS, PEACE AND SOCIAL ISSUES

Advocates launching smartphone app aimed at undocumented immigrants
By Marcos Restrepo
Florida Independent
Immigrant advocates have launched a campaign to raise funds to develop an emergency alert and personal protection smartphone app that could be used by undocumented immigrants.

JUSTICE AND THE COURTS

Flash, Flash Away
By Whitney Ray
Capitol News Service
Warning an oncoming driver there’s a speed trap ahead by flashing your headlights is legal in Florida.