Daily Clips for June 28, 2012

FEATURED STORIES

Awaiting Ruling on Fairly Simple Questions About a Complex Health Law
By John Cushman, Jr.
New York Times
Related: Health Care Ruling Won't Stop All of Industry's Changes
Related: What It Will Mean If the Supreme Court Strikes Down Obamacare
The Supreme Court is expected to announce on Thursday morning its decision on the health care overhaul that President Obama signed into law in 2010 — an act of Congress thousands of pages long, containing hundreds of changes costing hundreds of billions of dollars and affecting nearly every American from cradle to grave.

The truth about the Fast and Furious scandal
By Katherine Eban
Fortune
In the annals of impossible assignments, Dave Voth's ranked high. In 2009 the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives promoted Voth to lead Phoenix Group VII, one of seven new ATF groups along the Southwest border tasked with stopping guns from being trafficked into Mexico's vicious drug war.

Judge denies request to stop Florida voter purge
By Steve Bousquet
Tampa Bay Times
A judge on Wednesday rejected the federal government's attempt to block Florida's voter purge of non-U.S. citizens, partly because the purge has been suspended.

FLORIDA POLITICS

Poll: 58% of Florida voters support Obama immigration directive
By George Bennett
Palm Beach Post
Florida voters strongly support President Obama’s new directive temporarily lifting the threat of deportation for as many as 1.4 million young illegal immigrants, according to a new Quinnipiac University poll that also finds Obama edging Mitt Romney in the Sunshine State.

Poll: Scott's ratings recede
Staff Report
The Florida Current
A poll late last month that showed Gov. Rick Scott's approval rating surging above 40 percent for the first time may have been an anomaly, recent surveys suggest.

Health care ruling could boost Bondi's standing
By William March
Tampa Tribune
Pundits speculate whether President Barack Obama or challenger Mitt Romney will benefit from the U.S. Supreme Court decision on Obama's Affordable Care Act, expected today.

POLITICAL RACES

Dems, Nelson reserve $2.8M in Orlando TV ads
By Scott Powers
Orlando Sentinel
U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson and congressional Democrats are loading up already for a big fall TV advertising blitz, combining to buy more than $2.8 million of ads on Orlando TV stations months ahead of the November election.

Oelrich, Stearns running negative race in 3rd Congressional District? They say no
By Matt Dixon
Florida Times-Union
When it comes to their campaigns, candidates never say they want to go negative. An issues-based race, they maintain, is the key to victory.

ENVIRONMENT AND ENERGY

After state cuts in beach water testing, feds now propose ending grants
By Bruce Ritchie
The Florida Current
Related: Fla. ranks No. 5 in beach-water quality
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency proposes eliminating a beach water testing grant program nine months after Florida reduced testing at beaches as a result of state spending cuts.

Deal reached on RESTORE Act
By Deborah Barfield Berry and Ledyard King
Florida Today
More than two years after the BP oil spill ravaged the Gulf Coast, lawmakers reached a deal Wednesday that could spend billions to boost the region’s economy and restore its environment.

Appeals court rejects arguments against new wells
Associated Press
A federal appeals court has rejected arguments by a coalition of environmental groups, who maintain that U.S. regulators failed to thoroughly review the potential dangers of drilling new deep wells in the Gulf of Mexico.

EDUCATION

School Board joins critics of 'extensive' state standardized testing
By Joe Callahan
Ocala Star-Banner
The Marion County School Board has unanimously joined a statewide effort against what it calls "extensive" state standardized testing, such as the FCAT.

USF Preparing Phase-Out Of Lakeland Operation
By Mary Toothman
Lakeland Ledger
Changes at the University of South Florida's Lakeland campus have come in rapidly during the past 11 months: switching from a campus abuzz about becoming Florida's first public polytechnic to one gasping its final breaths.

JOBS, BUDGET, AND ECONOMY

Awkward agency merger may have led to accidental incentives leak
By Gray Rohrer
The Florida Current
Trouble merging three bureaucracies may have led to an accidental leak of some of the most economically and politically sensitive information in the state.

Clock running out for South Florida prison privatization
By Travis Pillow
The Florida Current
An attorney representing the state told an appellate court Wednesday that it's too late for the Department of Corrections to outsource the operation of South Florida prisons as the Legislature ordered in the 2011 budget.

New state web site shines light on billions in contracts
By Mary Ellen Klas
Florida will spend $47 billion this year hiring outsiders to do state work, but the state’s chief financial officer warns that hundreds of contractors will not be required to show they provided the services they agreed to and that state documents could be rife with errors.

State Farm requests sixth rate hike in 2.5 years
By Julie Patel
South Florida Sun Sentinel
State Farm, Florida's third largest home insurer, is requesting a 14.9 percent statewide average rate hike due to changes it wants to make on home insurance discounts and deductibles.

Big dreams for South Florida tempered by unique threats, experts say
By Ben Wolford
South Florida Sun Sentinel
In the next few decades, Southeast Florida should offer free public wireless Internet, effortless transit and a wellspring of jobs, according to about 400 policymakers who laid out their vision Wednesday at a summit to bridge the region's economies.

HEALTH AND SENIORS

One more time
Editorial
Miami Herald
Once more — with commitment, Gov. Scott. The governor has reconvened the task force whose recommendations to bring deep reform to how assisted-living facilities treat their vulnerable clients died in the Legislature this year because (a) lawmakers caved in to big-money industry interests and (b) the governor, who swore that protecting the frail and elderly was his priority, failed to get out and push

CIVIL RIGHTS, PEACE AND SOCIAL ISSUES

Certainty of losing a costly lawsuit forces board's vote on gay-straight alliance
By Joe Callahan
Ocala Star-Banner
The Marion County School Board announced Tuesday night that it does not want a student-run Gay-Straight Alliance club at Vanguard High School, or any school for that matter.

JUSTICE AND THE COURTS

Group formed to defend Fla. Supreme Court justices
Associated Press
A new group is defending three Florida Supreme Court justices who are seeking voter approval for another term.

Florida's Innocence Commission finishes its work
By Rene Stutzman
Florida's Innocence Commission on Wednesday released its final report, hundreds of pages laying out ways to stop bad eye-witnesses, jailhouse snitches, over-zealous cops and unprepared defense lawyers from sending or allowing innocent people to be locked up in prison.