Daily Clips for June 5, 2012

PROGRESS FLORIDA IN THE NEWS

In debate over Jacksonville sexual orientation bill, critics cite conscience
By Steve Patterson
Florida Times-Union
Excerpt: The legislation would outlaw orientation as a reason for discrimination in hiring or promotion, housing or access to public accommodations like hotels and restaurants. “We see Jacksonville as a place that needs to catch up to the rest of Florida,” said Mark Ferrulo, executive director of Progress Florida, a group that advocates for a number of liberal causes.

FEATURED STORIES

Florida Official Behind Gov. Rick Scott's Voter Purge Linked to $1 Billion Campaign Effort Against Obama
By Lee Fang
Republic Report
On Thursday, the U.S. Department of Justice asked officials in Florida to suspend the controversial voter purge conducted by Gov. Rick Scott's (R) administration, citing possible violations of voting rights law.

State to Challenge U.S. Government on Voter Purge
By Mike Vasilinda
Capitol News Service
The State of Florida wants to keep checking the voter database for non citizens, even though the US Department of Justice has said the process is illegal this close to an election.

GOP Steps Up Bogus War on Voter Fraud
By Earl Ofari Hutchinson
Huffington Post
Related: Rick Scott Defends Voter Purge As Necessary 'To Have Fair Elections'
A defiant Florida GOP governor Rick Scott essentially told the Justice Department where it could go when it demanded that Florida stop its loudly trumpeted campaign to purge tens of thousands it claims aren't eligible to vote.

Fifteen Voters Removed In Rick Scott’s Purge Reinstated By Florida Elections Supervisors
By Josh Israel
Think Progress
Related: Heritage Foundation ‘Expert’ Cannot Cite Any Examples Of Actual Voter Fraud
Last week, the Clay and Pinellas County Supervisors of Elections’ offices told ThinkProgress that they had already removed names from the voter rolls on the basis of not responding within 30 days to letters demanding proof of citizenship.

Exclusive: Senator Marco Rubio’s Chief of Staff Maintains Financial Ties To Lobbying Firm
By Lee Fang
Republic Report
Lobbyists, hoping to persuade lawmakers and their staffs on any number of important issues, breeze in and out of the halls of the Capitol every day.

Florida Versus Spain
By Paul Krugman
New York Times
Mainly as a note to myself: What was once Peter Kenen’s big insight about optimum currency areas is now a commonplace: They’re much more likely to be workable if you have fiscal federalism, so that there are large automatic transfers to depressed regions.

FLORIDA POLITICS

Florida: Nelson opinion 'superfluous' to election-law review
By Mark K. Matthews
Orlando Sentinel
Florida officials want to exclude U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson from a federal court fight here over changes to the state's voting laws, filing court documents opposing Nelson's attempt to argue against the provisions.

Governor Scott addresses voter purge and county Medicaid billing dispute
By Regan McCarthy
WFSU Tallahassee
Last week, the U.S. Justice Department ordered the state to stop its effort to purge its voter rolls of potentially ineligible voters.

Overruling Florida's onerous attacks on voting
Editorial
Bradenton Herald
When a federal judge blocked enforcement of a portion of a new state law that clamped down on voter registration drives, phrases in his ruling made even sharper points than opponents of the provision.

POLITICAL RACES

Candidate qualifying week opens for fall elections
By James Call
Florida Current
The fall election season officially began Monday with the start of a four-day qualifying period for congressional, state and county races.

Protesters complain about parks access during RNC
By Keith Morelli
Tampa Tribune
Jared Hamil has a message for Republican National Convention organizers who think protesters will be deterred by the RNC Host Committee reserving most of the large downtown parks during convention week.

Ron Paul activists complain RNC is trying to block their festival in Tampa
By Richard Danielson
Tampa Bay Times
Supporters of Ron Paul suspect the Republican National Convention is toying with them, and they're taking their complaint to social media, talk radio and anyone else who will listen.

To promote congressional debate, group asks if Bill Young will be too sick to campaign
Staff Report
Tampa Bay Times
The Suncoast Tiger Bay Club tends to be provocative when it touts upcoming speakers. 

ENVIRONMENT AND ENERGY

State moving forward with new Everglades restoration permit after talks with federal agencies
By Bruce Ritchie
Florida Current
South Florida Water Management District Executive Director Melissa Meeker on Monday described a tentative agreement reached with state and federal officials for proceeding on a revised plan for Everglades restoration.

LGBT

Lesbian parental-rights case in Brevard County draws attention
By Jim Saunders
News Service of Florida
State and national legal groups are trying to sway the Florida Supreme Court in a parental-rights case that pits two lesbian partners who used in-vitro fertilization to have a child but later ended their relationship.

Same-sex marriage issue proves divisive for churches
By Steve Heisler
Sarasota Herald-Tribune
Long before President Barack Obama offered his opinion on same-sex marriage, the issue has been divisive and hotly debated, threatening to alter the makeup of area churches.

EDUCATION

Vice President Joe Biden tells Cypress Bay High grads to think big
By Marc Caputo and Alexandra León
Miami Herald
Vice President Joe Biden couldn’t have picked a better spot Monday to make an election-year pitch: The new Marlins Park baseball stadium, site of Cypress Bay High School’s 2012 graduation ceremony.

Mom says son hung himself due to bullying, pressure of the FCATs
By Sean Kinney
Key West Keynoter
Sheri Leitch of Key Largo says the constant pressures of bullying and the state-mandated Florida Comprehensive Assessment Tests prompted her 13-year-old son to take his life on May 2.

Pinellas, Hernando may vote on FCAT resolutions
By Danny Valentine
Tampa Bay Times
As the stakes keep increasing in Florida's standardized testing system, teachers have protested and parents have complained about anxious students more fearful than ever of failing.

School Board to vote on resolution opposing making FCAT so important
By Joey Flechas
Gainesville Sun
Local school officials say they are getting tired of all the testing.

Top education leader: Hold FAMU's Ammons accountable
By Denise-Marie Balona
Orlando Sentinel
One of the most powerful education leaders in Florida wrote a harshly worded letter to the Florida A&M University Board of Trustees on Monday in which he demanded university President James Ammons be held accountable for a "number of serious issues" confronting the university.

JOBS, BUDGET, AND ECONOMY

State government layoffs are coming, but more slowly than last year
By Travis Pillow
Florida Current
Staff reduction plans are trickling in from state agencies, but without as many mass layoffs as last year.

Gov. Scott takes jobs talk to rural Panhandle counties
By Tia Mitchell
Tampa Bay Times/Miami Herald Tallahassee Bureau
Gov. Rick Scott toured the Panhandle on Monday, visiting with community and business leaders in a series of "roundtable" meetings focused on the unique challenges Florida's small counties face in creating jobs.

Long-Term Unemployed Losing Program Benefits
By Elvina Nawaguna
Lakeland Ledger
The economy is still fragile, jobs are still scarce and recent data shows consumers are still worried about money.

For GOP grown-up, a tax pledge too far
By Daniel Ruth
Tampa Bay Times
Related editorial: Making room for budget compromises
It probably gives you some idea how far the Republican Party has drifted into the 16th century when Jeb Bush has emerged as a moderate voice of reason and common sense.

State must feed the 'beast,' not starve it
By Randy Schultz
Palm Beach Post
Florida needs money.

Twenty-five state lawmakers back move for higher Citizens’ rates
By Lloyd Dunkelberger
Sarasota Herald-Tribune
Twenty-five Republican state lawmakers issued a letter today saying they support efforts by Citizens Property Insurance to raise the rates for the state-backed insurer.

Summer jobs fade for Florida teens
By Emily Roach
Palm Beach Post
Sisters Rosy Ayala and Josselyn Casaleno want jobs to pay for school activities, gas and odds and ends like shampoo.

HEALTH AND SENIORS

Orange leaders to tackle pain clinic ordinance
By Amy Pavuk
Orlando Sentinel
Orange County leaders will vote on an ordinance Tuesday that would make sweeping changes in the way local pain-management clinics, physicians and pharmacists conduct their business.

CIVIL RIGHTS, PEACE AND SOCIAL ISSUES

Time to fix a flawed 'stand your ground' law
By John Romano
Tampa Bay Times
It seems many of us want to believe in Florida's "stand your ground'' law. The polls show it. The politicians sense it. Common sense probably even dictates it.

JUSTICE AND THE COURTS

Florida: New Bond Hearing Sought
Associated Press
New York Times
George Zimmerman, the neighborhood watch leader charged with killing Trayvon Martin, 17, was confused and fearful when he and his wife misrepresented their finances at a bond hearing that allowed his release, his lawyer said Monday.

Odebrecht sues Florida over new law banning government hiring of firms tied to Cuba
By Patricia Mazzei
Miami Herald
The Coral Gables-based subsidiary of Odebrecht, the Brazilian engineering and construction conglomerate, sued the state Monday over a contentious new Florida law that bans governments from hiring companies with business ties to Cuba.