Daily Clips for June 21, 2012

FEATURED STORIES

George LeMieux quits Senate race
By Marc Caputo
Miami Herald
Former Sen. George LeMieux abruptly quit Florida’s Republican U.S. Senate race on Wednesday, all but guaranteeing that frontrunner Connie Mack will be the party’s nominee.

Romney Campaign Said to Ask Scott to Downplay Job Gains
By Michael C. Bender
Bloomberg
Mitt Romney’s presidential campaign asked Florida Governor Rick Scott to tone down his statements heralding improvements in the state’s economy because they clash with the presumptive Republican nominee’s message that the nation is suffering under President Barack Obama, according to two people familiar with the matter.

Scholars Ding News Media For Uncritically Repeating 'Job Killer' Charge
By Frank James
NPR
"Job killer." You don't have to listen very long to what passes in American politics for debate about the economy before you hear that phrase.

Obama walking tightrope in deportation debate
By Alex Leary
Tampa Bay Times
A week after the bombshell announcement he was blocking the deportation of young illegal immigrants, President Barack Obama will arrive in Florida on Friday flush with confidence.

Rick Scott shifts on E-Verify promise
By Mary Ellen Klas
Tampa Bay Times/Miami Herald Tallahassee Bureau
Maybe it was the work day Gov. Rick Scott spent last month in a citrus grove that changed his mind, but Scott left no doubt Wednesday that he has backed off a campaign promise to require private employers in Florida to use the federal E-Verify system to determine their employees' immigration status.

FLORIDA POLITICS

Scott email deletions an oversight, investigation says
By Gary Fineout
Associated Press
Florida authorities have concluded that Gov. Rick Scott and members of his transition team did not willingly delete public records shortly before Scott was sworn into office.

Rick Scott Defends Voter Purge As Part Of “Good Process”
By Josh Israel
Think Progress
As a group of civil rights and voting rights groups filed another lawsuit against Gov. Rick Scott’s (R-FL) error-riddled and likely illegal attempt to purge people his administration said were non-citizen voters from the voter rolls, the continued to go all-in on the effort.

Floridians Really Like Rick Scott's Voter Purge...Sort of
By Tim Murphy
Think Progress
Quinnipiac released a new poll on Wednesday about a wide range of Florida political issues.

Scott’s Popularity falls to 39 Percent
By Whitney Ray
Capitol News Service
Governor Rick Scott’s popularity is plummeting.

Mail voter registration drive causes confusion with voters
By Michael Van Sickler
Tampa Bay Times
Jacqueline Paulausky has been a registered voter in Florida since she moved to the state in 1981.

POLITICAL RACES

Obama, Romney court Hispanic vote at Orlando conference
By Lloyd Dunkelberger
Sarasota Herald-Tribune
Over the next two days, Florida will again become a hot spot in the 2012 presidential campaign as Barack Obama and Mitt Romney court Hispanic leaders attending a national conference in Orlando.

Obama regains small lead over Romney in Florida
By Brent Kallestad
Associated Press
President Barack Obama holds a small lead over Republican challenger Mitt Romney among Florida voters in a new poll.

Fla. GOPers: Mitt needs immigration plan
By Ginger Gibson
Politico
The consensus among Republican strategists in this key state: Mitt Romney needs a clear immigration policy, and fast.

Behind Mack’s Hubris
By Paula Dockery
Florida Voices
The last poll I saw showed 37 percent of Florida Republican voters undecided in the U.S. Senate primary.

GOP candidate sails through untested
Editorial
Tampa Bay Times
Republican U.S. Senate candidate George LeMieux claimed Wednesday he was ending his campaign so that the overwhelming favorite for the Republican nomination, U.S. Rep. Connie Mack, has the best chance to beat Democratic U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson in November.

BALLOT INITIATIVES

10 Issues To Watch On State Ballot Initiatives This November
By Guest Blogger
Think Progress
This November, voters won’t just choose the next President of the United States, they will vote on referendums and state constitutional amendments that may determine the course of public policy in their states in a number of subject areas.

ENVIRONMENT AND ENERGY

Bob Graham, Florida Conservation Coalition ask Scott for leadership on springs issue
By Bruce Ritchie
Florida Current
Members of the Florida Conservation Coalition are asking Gov. Rick Scott to establish to establish a committee to oversee the protection of Silver Springs and Rainbow Springs in Marion County.

LGBT

Southern Baptists: Gay rights not civil rights
By Travis Loller
Associated Press
A day after electing their first African-American president in a historic move that strives to erase its legacy of racism, Southern Baptists passed a resolution opposing the idea that same-sex marriage is a civil rights issue.

EDUCATION

Florida university presidents urge board to OK tuition hikes
By John Kennedy
Palm Beach Post
Gov. Rick Scott said Wednesday that he didn’t expect leaders of the state university system to approve much in the way of tuition increases, saying he thinks they share the same goals of holding down costs for Florida students.

USF grilled by state higher ed leaders on graduation rates
By Kim Wilmath
Tampa Bay Times
State higher education leaders had warned universities that tuition increases this year would be a tougher sell than ever.

Business group gives high marks to Florida higher education
By James Call
Florida Current
Florida’s higher education system received a better than average report card from a business group affiliated with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

JOBS, BUDGET, AND ECONOMY

Economic report says reason behind unemployment drop is people dropping job hunt
By Mary Ellen Klas
Miami Herald
Gov. Rick Scott was asked today why the lastest Quinnipiac poll numbers keep showing his public approval rating dropping below 40 percent.

The Fed cuts its national growth forecast as experts here say Florida is starting to recover
By Jeff Ostrowski
Palm Beach Post
As the on-again, off-again economy continues its bumbling recovery, the Federal Reserve on Wednesday issued a pessimistic forecast that predicts weak job growth and hinted at continued turmoil in Europe.

GOP Plan: Raise Your Taxes, Slash Them for Millionaires
The Progress Report
Think Progress
As we’ve been discussing for months, the core of the Romney-Ryan budget plan is massive tax cuts for wealthy paid for by increasing taxes on the middle class and slashing funding for Medicare, Medicaid, and basically everything else the government does — including programs that benefit the middle class each and every day.

State employees may be asked to pay more for insurance
By James Call
Florida Current
State economists predict that Florida employees’ health insurance trust fund will open a shortfall in 2014 and that if no changes are made the gap will widen to more than $600 million by 2016.

HEALTH AND SENIORS

Awaiting The Court Ruling, A Consumer Guide To Health Reform Law
By Mary Agnes Carey
Kaiser Health News
The Supreme Court is expected to rule within a week on some key constitutional challenges brought by states against the 2010 health care overhaul law.

Former Official Says Florida Department of Health in Turmoil
By Ashley Lopez
Florida Center for Investigative Reporting
On the heels of a mass flush of top-level employees at the state Health Department, one ousted employee sent a 2,900-word e-mail to former colleagues and others, warning that the agency was in decline and being run by “idealogues.”

Digital payoff to FL: $400M
Staff Report
Health News Florida
Doctors and hospitals in Florida have received over $404 million from the federal health agency as a reward for switching from paper to electronic health records, according to data released Tuesday.

ACA grants go to UM, 15 health centers
Staff Report
Health News Florida
University of Miami and six collaborators have won a $4.1-million, three-year Health Care Innovation Award to improve care to children with chronic illnesses, the Department of Health and Human Services announced.

Miami-Dade charter review task force votes to set permanent governance structure for Jackson Health System
By Patricia Mazzei
Miami Herald
A group tasked with proposing changes to the Miami-Dade County charter gave tentative approval late Wednesday to create a seven-member Public Health Trust to oversee the troubled Jackson Health System.

CIVIL RIGHTS, PEACE AND SOCIAL ISSUES

U.S. Rep. Rooney sponsors bill to undo Obama’s deportation policy change
By John Lantigua
Palm Beach Post
South Florida Congressman Tom Rooney is co-sponsoring a bill that would prohibit President Obama from granting some young undocumented immigrants a two-year stay of deportation without the consent of Congress.

In our national interest
Editorial
Miami Herald
Gaby Pacheco, Carlos Roa, Felipe Matos and Juan Rodriguez, please take a bow.

JUSTICE AND THE COURTS

Massive job shifts, some resignations, mark state's prison consolidation
By Bill Cotterell
Florida Current
Florida's prison system is winding up an $89 million cost-savings initiative, with the closings of 11 lockups across the state, and beginning a new effort to cut future costs by preparing inmates -- from the day they arrive -- for their return to society.

Police chief at center of Trayvon Martin probe fired
Associated Press
Palm Beach Post
A Florida city official says the police chief who was strongly criticized for his agency's initial investigation of Trayvon Martin's slaying has been fired.