Daily Clips for April 24, 2012

PROGRESS FLORIDA IN THE NEWS

Lawmakers urged to cut ties with the American Legislative Exchange Council
By Troy Kinsey
Central Florida News 13/Tampa Bay News 9
Excerpt: Around three dozen Republicans in the Florida house and senate count themselves as members of ALEC. Damien Filer with Progress Florida says it’s time for them to break their ties...Aside from 'Stand your Ground', the parent trigger and prison privatization, ALEC also helped inspire legislation to overhaul florida's election law. It cut the early voting period in half...

FEATURED STORIES

Democrats, Republicans bicker over who to blame in failed redistricting deal
By Mary Ellen Klas
Miami Herald/Tampa Bay Times Tallahassee Bureau
Slapped down by one court and facing years of partisan legal wrangling over the Legislature’s redistricting plans, the Senate’s top Republican quietly met with the head of the Florida Democratic Party last month to discuss a deal that could end the lawsuits.

How Governor Rick Scott is Sabotaging Florida's Universities
By David DiSalvo
Forbes
Florida Governor Rick Scott signed the 2012 state budget at a Jacksonville elementary school, presumably to emphasize the budget’s inclusion of an additional $1 billion for education.

Scott cuts funding for rape crisis centers during Sexual Assault Awareness Month
By Ashley Lopez
Florida Independent
On April 17, smack in the middle of Sexual Assault Awareness Month, Gov. Rick Scott vetoed $1.5 million for the Florida Council Against Sexual Violence.

Vice-President Joe Biden, Sen. Bill Nelson visit Everglades with heavy dose of election-year politics
By Marc Caputo
Miami Herald
With a politically threatened Sen. Bill Nelson at his side, Vice President Joe Biden mugged before the television cameras Monday to tout the Democrats’ successes in helping to restore the endangered Everglades.

Valedictorian Facing Deportation Cool to Rubio's DREAM Act Redo
By Arlette Saenz
ABC News
As he starts to preview what his alternative to the DREAM Act will look like, Sen. Marco Rubio often mentions the story of Daniela Pelaez, an 18-year-old valedictorian and aspiring molecular biologist who faces deportation because she is undocumented, as an example for why such a plan needs to be developed.

FLORIDA POLITICS

Florida election law review will extend into July
Associated Press
Sarasota Herald-Tribune
A federal court review of Florida's new election law will extend into July, just a month before the Aug. 14 primary.

West’s ‘Commie’ Claim Creates More Ripples
By Howard Goodman
Florida Center for Investigative Reporting
Allen West’s “commie” smear of Democratic members of Congress continues to reverberate.

Scott appoints 344 to state boards, but leaves several vacancies
By Travis Pillow
Florida Current
Gov. Rick Scott on Monday reappointed 344 people to dozens of state boards and other positions.

As governor, Rick Scott still a work progress
By Steve Bousquet
Tampa Bay Times
As governor, Rick Scott remains a work in progress.

Former Fort Lauderdale legislator Mandy Dawson pleads guilty to tax evasion
By Jay Weaver
Miami Herald
Former Fort Lauderdale legislator Mandy Dawson, who became entangled in a U.S. Justice Department probe into “pay-to-play politics” in the state’s capital, pleaded guilty Monday in Miami federal court to tax evasion and failing to file a tax return.

POLITICAL RACES

Sen. Marco Rubio joins Mitt Romney campaign in Pennsylvania, shuns vice president talk
By Alex Leary
Tampa Bay Times
Related: It's too soon for Marco Rubio as vice presidential candidate
U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio quit talking about it Monday.

Romney shifts stances as possible VP Rubio shares stage
Associated Press
Tampa Tribune
While Mitt Romney may not have seen eye-to-eye with Florida senator Marco Rubio on a key immigration issue, the two shared smiles and handshakes Monday during a Pennsylvania campaign stop that some see as a possible preview of the Republican presidential ticket.

ENVIRONMENT AND ENERGY

Some advisory council members want DEP to consider effects of sea level rise on state parks
By Bruce Ritchie
Florida Current
Some members of a state advisory council want the Florida Department of Environmental Protection to consider the effects of sea level rise when purchasing state lands and managing coastal parks.

Florida Wildlife Corridor Expedition wraps up after 1,000 miles in nearly 100 days
By Bruce Ritchie
Florida Current
They crossed sawgrass marshes, wet prairies, pine forests, cypress swamps, floodplains and rivers.

Exploratory oil drilling off Cuba renews oil-spill fear factor in the Keys
By Cammy Clark
Miami Herald
In Cuba’s North Basin, the Spanish company Repsol has begun risky exploration for oil and natural gas on a semi-submersible rig, now just 77 nautical miles from Key West and even closer to the ecologically sensitive Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary.

EDUCATION

USF Can't Keep Everyone From Lakeland, Staff and Faculty Told
By Mary Toothman
Lakeland Ledger
There will not be enough money to keep all the faculty and staff on the payroll while the University of South Florida's Lakeland operation is phased out, President Judy Genshaft told a somber crowd of employees Monday morning.

FCAT, exam frenzy under attack
By Marc Freeman
South Florida Sun Sentinel
Fed up with the FCAT and high-stakes standardized testing, the Palm Beach County School Board wants to join a growing national campaign to reduce the demands on students and teachers.

What is the University of Florida thinking?
By Fred Grimm
Miami Herald
Ever wonder how we’re perceived, out there in the techie universe?

A true cynic
Editorial
Gainesville Sun
In approving a bill creating a brand-new state university in Polk County — shortly after signing a state budget that cut $300 million from the State University System — Gov. Rick Scott demonstrated last week that he possesses neither fiscal nor common sense.

JOBS, BUDGET, AND ECONOMY

Conservative Nonprofit Acts as a Stealth Business Lobbyist
By Mike McIntire
New York Times
Desperate for new revenue, Ohio lawmakers introduced legislation last year that would make it easier to recover money from businesses that defraud the state.

New GOP Economic Plan is Same as Previous Disastrous GOP Economic Plan
The Progress Report
Think Progress
In nearly every policy area, Republicans from Mitt Romney on down the line have been proposing that we go back to the disastrous policies of the Bush administration — only on steroids.

Gov. Scott shoots down CAT Fund tax credit for insurance companies
By Charles Elmore
Palm Beach Post
Gov. Rick Scott has vetoed a plan billed as a way to help a state reinsurance fund raise money, saying it was not properly vetted in the legislative process.

Do You Know Your Rights?
Editorial
New York Times
Under federal labor law, employees have the right to join together to seek better pay and working conditions, with or without a union.

HEALTH AND SENIORS

Experts see few barriers to stop people from buying health-care coverage only when sick
By Charles Elmore
Palm Beach Post
Marlene Mahle teaches a graduate course at Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton on the federal health care law under review by the Supreme Court.

Florida invests more in children's services
By Ana M. Valdes
Palm Beach Post
It could be a promising year for some of the neediest children and families in Palm Beach County and across the state, advocates say, after Gov. Rick Scott approved a budget that includes more money for child abuse prevention, maternal health, and improvements to the state's early learning and child welfare systems.

G.A.O. Calls Test Project by Medicare Costly Waste
By Robert Pear
New York Times
Medicare is wasting more than $8 billion on an experimental program that rewards providers of mediocre health care and is unlikely to produce useful results, federal investigators say in a new report.

Florida part of $40 million multistate agreement with MetLife
By Gray Rohrer
Florida Current
As part of a Florida-led investigation along with 29 other states, life insurance giant MetLife will pay out $40 million for the cost of the investigation into unfair practices in paying out claims for industrial life and annuity policies.

CIVIL RIGHTS, PEACE AND SOCIAL ISSUES

Arizona immigration law is bad for small business and the economy
By Benjamin Markeso
The Hill
This week, the U.S. Supreme Court will hear oral arguments for and against Arizona’s SB 1070, the strict immigration law enacted in 2010 that has served as the basis for similar proposals across the southern states.

Police chief in Martin case remains under scrutiny
By Kyle Hightower
Associated Press
While George Zimmerman is free on bail, the police chief criticized for not charging him after Trayvon Martin's slaying remains under scrutiny, as city commissioners want to wait for the results of a federal investigation to decide if they will accept Chief Bill Lee's resignation.

Can this jury be fair?
Editorial
Palm Beach Post
If George Zimmerman's fate remains in doubt, the outcome of the panel examining Florida's "stand your ground" law seems far more certain.

Poor start for review of 'stand your ground'
Editorial
Tampa Bay Times
Gov. Rick Scott responded smartly to the shooting death of Trayvon Martin by creating a task force to review Florida's ill-conceived "stand your ground law.''

JUSTICE AND THE COURTS

Fla. Supreme Court justices nearly missed ballot
By Gary Fineout
Associated Press
Florida Gov. Rick Scott nearly got a chance to replace three veteran state Supreme Court justices.