Daily Clips for May 8, 2012

FEATURED STORIES

Fractious Florida weighs heavily on presidential campaigns
By Paul West
Los Angeles Times
No state is more crucial to Mitt Romney's chances of winning the White House than Florida, and no issue here is more important than the economy.

Common Cause urges state investigation of conservative group ALEC's nonprofit status
By Dara Kam
Palm Beach Post
Common Cause is asking Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi to determine whether a conservative nonprofit that disseminates model bills like Florida's "Stand Your Ground" law nationwide is breaking state laws regarding its tax-exempt status.

Religious leaders ask Jacksonville mayor to back anti-discrimination bill
By Steve Patterson
Florida Times-Union
A push to ban discrimination in Jacksonville based on sexual orientation gained some faith-based support Monday as 25 religious leaders asked Mayor Alvin Brown to back legislation being introduced this evening to the City Council.

Florida Cabinet trip to the Keys doesn’t come cheap
By Brittany Alana Davis
Miami Herald/Tampa Bay Times Tallahassee Bureau
Accompanied by staff and security, Gov. Rick Scott and Cabinet members descended on the Florida Keys Monday night, 590 miles from their Tallahassee base.

Chopping higher education
Editorial
Tampa Tribune
There always is debate about what should be done to attract new businesses and bolster economic development.

FLORIDA POLITICS

Rick Scott to reporters: You're mean to my chief of staff
News Service of Florida
Florida Times-Union
Here's video of this morning's media gaggle in the Capitol, where Gov. Rick Scott chides reporters following a critical report in the Miami Herald about his chief of staff Steve MacNamara.

Allen West Joins Advisory Board of Far-Right, Anti-Islam Law Center
By Rich Abdill
Broward New Times
Congressman Allen West, everyone's favorite defender of the Constitution, has joined the citizens advisory board of the Thomas More Law Center, a conservative legal organization that has spent more than a decade trying its best to roll back a rather important section of the Bill of Rights.

Negron, Atwater join Scott for ceremonial signing of PIP bill in West Palm
By Andrew Abramson
Palm Beach Post
Gov. Rick Scott, joined by two local Republican heavyweights, ceremonially signed an insurance bill at the Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office as he thanked sheriff's deputies for a recent reduction in car accidents.

Local small businesses still waiting for RNC contracts
By Elizabeth Behrman
Tampa Bay Times
With the Republican National Convention just three months away, some Tampa Bay small business owners are worrying they won't get a piece of the $175 million convention pie.

Photographer for nine Florida governors had a VIP angle
By Brittany Alana Davis
Tampa Bay Times/Miami Herald Tallahassee Bureau
With his camera, Eric Tournay documented the days of Florida's last nine governors — cataloging Wayne Mixson's three days in office to Jeb Bush's eight years.

Jack Latvala raising money w eye on Senate presidency
By Adam C. Smith
Tampa Bay Times
Billing himself as the first Pinellas resident since John Stansel Taylor in 1925 to have an opportunity to be Florida Senate president, Jack Latvala is hosting a May 16 fundraising reception at Ruth Eckerd Hall.

POLITICAL RACES

Obama launches $25 million 'We're coming back' ad in Florida, swing states
By George Bennett
Palm Beach Post
President Obama's reelection campaign today launched a $25 million TV ad blitz that seeks to persuade voters in Florida and other swing states that the economy is "coming back" from a meltdown that Obama inherited.

New Marco Rubio faces key test
By Andres Oppenheimer
Miami Herald
Sen. Marco Rubio, the 40-year-old rising star of the Republican Party and among top contenders to be Gov. Mitt Romney’s running mate, is trying to rebrand himself from a right-wing Cuban-American politician to a center-right Hispanic one.

Mitt and Marco, Picturing the Ticket
By Bill Cotterell
Florida Voices
The fastest-selling trinkets at the recent Republican Party of Florida meeting in Tampa were a pair of lapel pins -- $2 for the little one, $5 for the bigger -- bearing the smiling faces of Mitt Romney and Marco Rubio.

Santorum endorses one-time rival Romney
Associated Press
Tampa Tribune
Rick Santorum is endorsing his one-time bitter rival Mitt Romney in a late-night email to his supporters.

Despite state oversight, vote-counting errors abound
By Pat Beall and Adam Playford
Palm Beach Post
Harri Hursti may be the best-known hacker you've never heard of.

Oh, Flori-duh! County Notorious for Hanging Chads Still Has Trouble Counting Votes
By Howard Goodman
Florida Center for Investigative Reporting
Twelve years after Bush v. Gore, Palm Beach County still faces serious problems with its voting machines.

Redistricting leads to ugly GOP vs. GOP races
Associated Press
Tampa Tribune
Community and business leaders in affluent Seminole County talked about the jobs and economic development that will come from the new 61-mile commuter rail through Orlando.

ENVIRONMENT AND ENERGY

Hernando poised to become first county to opt out of septic tank inspections
By Bruce Ritchie
Florida Current
Hernando County is poised to become the first county to opt out of requiring septic tank inspections under HB 1263.

Q&A with: Eric Draper
By Bruce Ritchie
Florida Current
Eric Draper, executive director of Audubon of Florida, is a veteran environmental lobbyist at the Capitol.

Lawsuit blames BP's Gulf pollution for divers' injuries, suicides
By Sue Sturgis
Facing South
A commercial diver who worked in the Gulf of Mexico following the BP disaster has filed a lawsuit blaming his serious health problems -- and his colleagues' suicides -- on the oil and chemical dispersants used to break up the slick.

LGBT

VP, Top Obama Administration Officials Back Marriage Equality
The Progress Report
Think Progress
Yesterday, during an appearance on Meet the Press, Vice President Joe Biden became the highest-ranking Obama administration official to back marriage equality.

Gay activists, allies gather in Miami for first White House LGBT Conference on Aging
By Steve Rothaus
Miami Herald
For years, Bruce Williams managed a Texas retirement community.

EDUCATION

At USF Poly's last commencement, Dockery laments poor leadership
By Stephanie Wang
Tampa Bay Times
A good leader, state Sen. Paula Dockery told the graduating college students, is not someone who dictates.

Budget cuts could kill UF journalism, music libraries
By Nathan Crabbe
Gainesville Sun
The University of Florida might close its journalism and music libraries as a result of budget cuts.

Senate turns to partisan fight over student loans
Associated Press
Tampa Tribune
The Senate is the newest arena in the election-year face-off over federal student loans, and both sides are starting out by pounding away at each other.

Florida College Democrats push Rubio for student loan relief
By Scott Powers
Orlando Sentinel
Groups of student members of Florida College Democrats turned at at the offices of U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Miami, here in Orlando and in other Florida cities today seeking help with student loan interest rates.

Florida Board of Education to rewrite teacher dismissal rules
By Jeff Solochek
Tampa Bay Times
The passage of Senate Bill 736 a year ago has prompted the Florida Department of Education to redefine "just cause" for purposes of suspending and dismissing teachers.

JOBS, BUDGET, AND ECONOMY

Group wants foreclosure fraud settlement money for affordable housing programs
By Gray Rohrer
Florida Current
Lawmakers again swept document stamp tax funds this year that were supposed to go toward affordable housing programs, but a multi-state foreclosure fraud settlement has given groups supporting those programs new hope.

Millionaires keep getting breaks at nation's expense
By Milton Gussow
Palm Beach Post
The House Republican budget plan, by Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis., slashes safety-net programs and sharply lowers income tax rates for households.

HEALTH AND SENIORS

FL hates law, but plans for it
By Christine Jordan Sexton
Health News Florida
While Florida waits to see whether the U.S. Supreme Court will kill the Affordable Care Act, a state agency is laying the groundwork to carry it out, just in case.

Health Care Increasingly Out Of Reach For Millions Of Americans
By Phil Galewitz
Kaiser Health News
Tens of millions of adults under 65 — both those with insurance and those without — saw their access to health care dramatically worsen over the past decade, according to a study released Monday.

Many postponing medical care – or going without
By Donna Gehrke-White and Marni Jameson
South Florida Sun Sentinel
One in four Floridians skipped getting health care they needed because of cost, according to a report released Tuesday from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

Florida scores poorly on Senior Hunger Report Card
By Britt Kennerly
Florida Today
Every weekday, at least 1,700 meals are prepared at the Brevard Community Kitchen in Cocoa, for delivery to Meals on Wheels recipients and people dining at senior meal sites.

State's Medicaid changes to double Pinellas County's deficit
By Anne Lindberg
Tampa Bay Times
Pinellas taxpayers could see property taxes climb next year because of a new state law that changes the way counties are billed for Medicaid costs.

CIVIL RIGHTS, PEACE AND SOCIAL ISSUES

Capitol ceremony focuses on officers killed in the line of duty
By Regan McCarthy
WFSU Tallahassee
Florida leaders are recognizing the state’s fallen law enforcement officers.

JUSTICE AND THE COURTS

Florida still looking for balance between drug treatment, jail time
By Kathleen Haughney
Orlando Sentinel
As Gov. Rick Scott prepared to take office, his advisers released a document advocating he try a new approach to prisons, sending more nonviolent offenders to drug treatment instead of cells.

Fla. justices hear homestead exemption argument
By Bill Kaczor
Associated Press
The Florida Supreme Court heard arguments Monday in the case of a Honduras couple that could determine if they and other non-resident homeowners, whether they are from foreign countries or other states, can obtain homestead property tax exemptions.

Cursory review of three justices' acts will do
Editorial
Tampa Bay Times
The dust-up over using state employees to finalize election ballot paperwork for the merit retention of three Florida Supreme Court justices is more political jockeying than a legitimate concern over lawbreaking.

Judging on merit
Editorial
Sarasota Herald-Tribune
Thirty-six years ago, a majority of Florida voters judiciously approved a "merit-retention" system for state Supreme Court justices and judges on district courts of appeal.