Daily Clips for June 22, 2012

FEATURED STORIES

Before rally in Tampa on Friday, President Barack Obama will address Hispanic leaders
By Adam C. Smith
Tampa Bay Times
Before President Barack Obama arrives in Tampa today to rally as many as 3,000 people, he will make his case to Hispanic leaders in Orlando.

Romney campaign: We never told Gov. Scott to stop boasts of job growth
By George Bennett
Palm Beach Post
Both Mitt Romney’s campaign and Gov. Rick Scott’s office are denying a report that the Romney camp asked fellow Republican Scott to tone down his boasting about Florida’s job growth.

Divided Board of Governors OKs tuition increases
By James Call
Florida Current
A divided Board of Governors struggled Thursday at times but finally reached agreement to raise tuition at Florida's public universities.

Rick Scott Will Not Implement Health Care Reform Law in Florida
By Ashley Lopez
Florida Center for Investigative Reporting
Next week, the Supreme Court of the United States is expected to rule on the constitutionality of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), the health care reform law signed by President Obama in 2010.

5 Reasons you should care about the voter purge
By Billy Manes and Erin Sullivan
Orlando Weekly
Threaten to curb someone's right to own a gun in the state of Florida and you're likely to provoke a war – you'll be threatened, castigated, called un-American.

BEST OF THE BLOGS

Immigration: The GOP Fumble
By Benjamin J. Kirby
The Spencerian
I have always thought one of the least appreciated -- and least understood, in many respects -- "job descriptions" of the President was that of leader of his political party.

Florida House Race Ratings – June 20
By Kartik Krishnaiyer
The Political Hurricane
With qualifying complete and picture for the State House clearer, we publish our inaugural State House ratings.

Puh-leeze: Why is anyone buying this Rubio-might-have-dropped-out story?
By Peter Schorsch
Saint Petersblog
While the Associated Press first reported it, I have now read the section of Marco Rubio’s autobiography revealing that Rubio once considered dropping out of the US Senate race against Charlie Crist.

People's Budget Summit, St. Petersburg
By Diane
Occupy My Soapbox
Depending on when you tuned in, there is in the vicinity of a $10 million shortfall projected for next year's city budget in St. Petersburg, Florida.

ALEC's Latest Effort To "Stand Their Ground" Backfires
By Inkberries
Beach Peanuts
While I was off the grid last week, it seems that another company joined the now long list of those companies cutting their ties with the American Legislative Exchange Council (Better known as ALEC.)

FLORIDA POLITICS

Judges hear arguments on Fla. voting law changes
By Henry C. Jackson
Associated Press
Lawyers for the state of Florida and the Justice Department argued in federal court on Thursday about whether Republican-backed changes to Florida's voting laws constitute a violation of the federal Voting Rights Act.

Jeb Bush: I was proud to introduce President Barack Obama in Miami
By Adam C. Smith
Tampa Bay Times
Hispanic leaders gathered at a national conference in Orlando may have given Mitt Romney a lukewarm reception Thursday, but they rose to their feet and cheered former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush.

POLITICAL RACES

President takes his campaign to Tampa today
By William March
Tampa Tribune
President Barack Obama will give a campaign speech at Hillsborough County Community College's Dale Mabry campus today, the first of what are likely to be many campaign appearances by the president in the Tampa area and Florida.

In Orlando, Mitt Romney moves to middle on immigration
By Alex Leary and Adam C. Smith
Tampa Bay Times
In the presidential primary, Mitt Romney seized a hard line on immigration, but Thursday before an influential group of Hispanics, the Republican nominee made a careful turn toward the middle.

New poll shows Dems Obama, Nelson with narrow leads in Florida
By John Kennedy
Palm Beach Post
With independent voters shifting to his side, President Obama has regained the lead in Florida over presumptive Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney, while in the Florida Senate race, Democrat Bill Nelson is edging Republican Connie Mack, a poll released Thursday shows.

BALLOT INITIATIVES

Homeowners may pick up property-tax slack if amendment passes in November
By Mary Shanklin
Orlando Sentinel
The burden of Florida's property taxes would likely shift away from first-time homebuyers, developers, snowbirds and landlords and weigh down the state's existing homeowners under a ballot measure approved last year by state lawmakers and pushed this year by Florida's real-estate industry.

ENVIRONMENT AND ENERGY

DEP's Vinyard responds to Graham with concerns about starting from 'square one' on water
By Bruce Ritchie
Florida Current
DEP Secretary Herschel T. Vinyard Jr. said Thursday he's concerned that establishing a committee to oversee springs issues could delay department efforts to protect water.

Everglades restoration is progressing, but water is still lacking, report says
By Curtis Morgan
Miami Herald
Everglades restoration is finally moving forward but the struggling system still needs more water - and fast, according to a progress report on the $13.5 billion project released Thursday.

LGBT

Fair and equitable
Editorial
Miami Herald
The rebuff reverberated across the country, all the way to the White House and back to Jackson Memorial Hospital, where it was first meted out.

EDUCATION

Obama renews call to stop student loan rate hike
By Ken Thomas
Tampa Tribune
President Barack Obama is urging Congress to stop interest rates on student loans from doubling on July 1.

Without Scott's blessing, new tuition increases are all over the map
By Kim Wilmath
Tampa Bay Times
In a back-and-forth banter befitting a cattle auction, state higher education leaders on Thursday settled on myriad new tuition increases for Florida's public universities.

University tuition votes reveal divides within board of governors
By Lynn Hatter 
WFSU Tallahassee
The board that oversees Florida’s public universities fought long and hard over the schools’ plans to raise tuition, and the requests  narrowly cleared a sharply divided state board.

Don’t Dim Bright Futures in the Liberal Arts
By Steven Kurlander
Florida Voices
One of Florida’s big pluses is Bright Futures, the scholarship program that offers high school graduates with good grades some financial help to attend a state college or university, no matter their chosen field of study.

Land dispute over new Florida university resolved
Associated Press
Palm Beach Post
A dispute over the transfer of land donated for Florida's newest state university is resolved.

JOBS, BUDGET, AND ECONOMY

Report: Florida ranks 4th in economic insecurity
Associated Press
Ocala Star-Banner
When it comes to economic insecurity Florida's hard to beat.

Home sales, prices jump in May
Staff Report
Florida Current
Existing home sales in Florida shot up 7.2 percent last month compared with May 2011, and the median sale price got a boost of 8.9 percent in the year-over-year comparison, jumping to $147,000, according to a report released Thursday by Florida Realtors.

Transportation loans available for local road projects
By James Call
Florida Current
The Florida Department of Transportation announced Thursday the application period for the State Infrastructure Bank program.

HEALTH AND SENIORS

Affordable Care Act a life-saver for ‘Susan.’
By Dawn Harris Sherling, M.D.
Palm Beach Post
Susan’s life was finally on the upswing. Over the past year, she had lost 30 pounds, and quit smoking with the help of a nicotine patch.

Ex-Department of Health official blasts Scott
By Bill Cotterell
Florida Current
The ousted Department of Health official who left behind a withering indictment of Gov. Rick Scott's management style Thursday accused the administration of replacing experienced professionals with political "ideologues" and tolerating no questions about conservative operating methods.

Scott reins in cancer centers
By Christine Jordan Sexton
Health News Florida
Gov. Rick Scott, who made millions as a private health executive before turning to politics, is setting up new rules for the state’s cancer centers.

AHCA resets bidding on discount drug program
By Travis Pillow
Florida Current
The company challenging the Agency for Health Care Administration's decision to switch providers for a program that provides discounted drugs to Floridians has dropped its protests after the agency chose not to award the contract to another company.

State to release 18 TB patients as A.G. Holley closure nears; layoffs near for 138 hospital workers
By Stacey Singer
Palm Beach Post
As a first group of A. G. Holley State Hospital’s tuberculosis patients were evacuated to Jackson Memorial Hospital on Thursday, a state health official said 18 patients will be released out into the community in the coming days, to be cared for by their own doctors and monitored by their own county health departments.

JUSTICE AND THE COURTS

Zimmerman on Trayvon: ‘He assured me he was going to kill me’
By Frances Robles and Marc Caputo
Miami Herald
Three days after George Zimmerman killed an unarmed teenager and went home free, he had a predicament: The lead detectives investigating the shooting seemed to no longer believe his story.

Youth Rehabilitation Centers in Florida Under Scrutiny
By Susan Ferriss
Center for Public Integrity
A group of Florida public defenders is asking a state court to remove and stop sending troubled juveniles to a privately run detention facility they claim is rife with abuses.

Prison stays need curbing
Editorial
South Florida Sun Sentinel
Florida has the dubious distinction of being No. 1 in keeping inmates behind bars.