Daily Clips for June 14, 2012

FEATURED STORIES

Legal voters may have been purged from rolls in Florida's noncitizen hunt
By Marc Caputo
Miami Herald
Florida Gov. Rick Scott often says that no actual citizens have been removed from the voter rolls in his program to make sure noncitizens don't have the chance to cast ballots.

Some Fla. counties aren't suspending purge
Associated Press
Palm Beach Post
Election officials in two southwest Florida counties are not ending a contentious push to remove potentially ineligible voters from the voter rolls.

Sen. Haridopolos comes to aid of politically connected firm
By Carol Marbin Miller and Mary Ellen Klas
Miami Herald
When a politically connected company was in danger of losing a $9.4 million no-bid contract with the state, Senate President Mike Haridopolos came to the rescue of the outfit — a firm that employs his good friend and political benefactor as a lobbyist.

Sen. Marco Rubio's plan for alternate Dream Act lacks details
By Alex Leary
Tampa Bay Times
It's one of the most hyped bills on Capitol Hill, and it doesn't even exist.

Democrats: Obama could lose, donors better get moving
By Julie Pace and Jim Kuhnhenn
Associated Press
In growing numbers, once-confident Democrats now say President Barack Obama could lose the November election.

FLORIDA POLITICS

Governor Rick Scott signs a bill at a public forum on youth homelessness – and is called out by an angry protester
By Liz McKibbon
WMNF Tampa
In downtown Tampa this morning Governor Rick Scott signed a bill to help homeless youth during a related public forum.

Police union cusses governor in newsletter
By Mary Ellen Klas
Miami Herald/Tampa Bay Times Tallahassee Bureau
Fed up with the closed-door treatment from Gov. Rick Scott, the Police Benevolent Association sent a nasty gram using a word game in its quarterly newsletter, Roll Call.

Minorities Won't Let Vote Suppressors Get Off Scott Free
By Andrew J. Skerritt
Florida Voices
It’s obvious that Gov. Rick Scott is bent on discouraging minority voters from heading to the polls.

Nearly half of Florida's purged voters in Lee County
By Michael Peltier
Naples Daily News
Of the 96 people purged from Florida voter rolls because they're in the country illegally, about half were in Lee County, a fact the county's supervisor of elections says does not mean she is on a crusade.

Voter Purge Brings More Dark Days to the Sunshine State
By Dennis Maley
Bradenton Times
Starting with the embarrassing events of the 2000 presidential election and continuing almost unabated since, Florida officials have demonstrated what can only be either a sinister attempt to shade elections through deliberately flawed, outcome-based policies, or a prolific level of incompetence when it comes to participating in federal elections.

GOP Front Group Suing States To Force Voter Purges
By Annie-Rose Strasser
Think Progress
A Tea Party group is suing states to try to purge their voter rolls before November’s election.

Welcome to the Florida Office of Unconstitutional Initiatives
By Frank Cerabino
Palm Beach Post
It’s a bright sunny day in the not-so-distant future, and Gov. Rick Scott, holding a huge set of ceremonial scissors, opens Florida’s newest governmental center.

POLITICAL RACES

Democrats Fail to Recruit
By Mike Vasilinda
Capitol News Service
This was supposed to be the year fair districts resulted in a competitive election for the Florida legislature, but almost one-third of the House and Senate were elected before the first vote was ever cast.

Leading U.S. Senate candidate Mack turns down GOP debates
By George Bennett
Palm Beach Post
With former Gov. Jeb Bush and other big-name Republicans backing Rep. Connie Mack’s Senate bid and polls showing Mack with a sizeable lead over his GOP rivals, the Mack campaign says a debate of Republican primary candidates would only help Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson.

Primary Voters, Not Establishment, Should Pick Nominees
By Paula Dockery
Florida Voices
There was a time when political parties -- at least the Republican Party, to which I’ve long proudly belonged -- didn’t get involved in primary elections, except perhaps when a favored incumbent faced a really tough opponent.

Texting cash to candidates seen as boon to local campaigns, citizen involvement
By James Call
Florida Current
Cell phones have become the latest campaign fundraising tool since the Federal Elections Commission ruled Monday that citizens may text message donations to political campaigns.

BALLOT INITIATIVES

Crusade for religous freedom in Florida is all about the money
By Stephen Goldstein
South Florida Sun Sentinel
It's all about your money in America. And by it I mean everything.

ENVIRONMENT AND ENERGY

EPA approves state Everglades plan
By Curtis Morgan
Miami Herald
Federal environmental regulators on Wednesday approved an $880 million state plan intended to dramatically reduce the flow of farm and suburban pollution into the Everglades.

Florida lags behind other states on generating solar energy
By Ivan Penn
Tampa Bay Times
Ask state lawmakers why Florida doesn't focus more on solar energy and they'll complain about too many clouds. 

EDUCATION

Key education group takes aim at state's FCAT culture
By Leslie Postal
Orlando Sentinel
Frustrated with the FCATand a school-accountability system they think tramples educational quality, a key panel of the Florida School Boards Association on Wednesday urged state leaders to scale back Florida's use of standardized tests for important school decisions.

Tuition hikes urged by Florida state universities wrestling with loss of funding
By John Kennedy
Palm Beach Post
With Gov. Rick Scott still fighting tuition hikes, Florida’s 11 public universities may be forced to wheel-and-deal next week when they go before the higher education system’s Board of Governors.

JOBS, BUDGET, AND ECONOMY

Report: In Florida, Tough Economy Hurting Children Most
By Ashley Lopez
Florida Center for Investigative Reporting
Florida’s struggling economy has hurt a lot of people, but none more than children.

Florida dead last in protecting workers
Editorial
Miami Herald Editorial
Miami-Dade County’s effective wage-theft ordinance emerged safe and sound from this year’s legislative session, despite the best efforts of lawmakers — in the sway of monied special interests — to kill it.

Rick Scott said Citizens has $500 billion in risk exposure but less than $10 billion in cash: Mostly False
By Toluse Olurrunnipa
Tampa Bay Times/Miami Herald PolitiFact
Related: Citizens insurance gets new president
It’s become Gov. Rick Scott’s favorite talking point in the escalating debate over raising rates at Citizens Property Insurance: The state-run insurer has a whopping $500 billion in risk exposure, and a paltry $6 billion in surplus, or cash-on-hand.

Foreign buyers bullish on Florida housing even if Floridians are not
By Robert Trigaux
Tampa Bay Times
To the snowbirds of Canada, the sunseekers of Europe and flight capitalists of Latin America, Florida sends you all a great big Thanks! for buying homes here in such abundance.

State losing dedicated technology agency
By Travis Pillow
Florida Current
For the second time in less than a decade, Florida is preparing to do without a standalone agency that deals with technology throughout state government.

HEALTH AND SENIORS

AIDS chief joins Medicaid HMO
By Carol Gentry
Health News Florida
Tom Liberti, who has been fighting the spread of AIDS since before the disease had a name, is taking his decades of expertise and contacts into the private sector.

Florida gets 'D' rating on helping new Dads
By Marcia Heroux Pounds
South Florida Sun Sentinel
This Sunday, June 17, is Father's Day, so there was bound to be a report on Dads.

Repeal health care law? Too late
Editorial
Palm Beach Post
Regardless of how the U.S. Supreme Court rules this month on the Affordable Care Act, the law has made it all but impossible to return to the health care industry status quo.

CIVIL RIGHTS, PEACE AND SOCIAL ISSUES

Gov. Scott Assures Growers on Immigration
By Kevin Bouffard
Lakeland Ledger
The Legislature probably will not revive an unsuccessful 2010 bill that would to require Florida employers to verify job applicants' Social Security numbers through a federal database.

Stand Your Ground Law: Confusion and Disparity
Editorial
Lakeland Ledger
It's a good thing that Lt. Gov. Jennifer Carroll has an open mind about her task force's examination of Florida's controversial Stand Your Ground Law.