Daily Clips for July 2, 2012

PROGRESS FLORIDA IN THE NEWS

Governor Scott doubtful about expanding Medicaid
By Craig Patrick
FOX 13 Tampa Bay
Excerpt: "It would really be devastating and breathtakingly irresponsible for Governor Rick Scott to reject funds to continue to fund Medicaid," said Darden Rice, an activist with Progress Florida.

FEATURED STORIES

Scott says Florida won't implement health care law
By Tia Mitchell
Tampa Bay Times/Miami Herald Tallahassee Bureau
Related column: Gov. Scott putting politics above people in need
Gov. Rick Scott said late Friday that Florida will not begin implementing the federal health care law because he believes it is bad policy and too costly for Floridians.

Health care ruling strengthens GOP ability, resolve to repeal mandate
By Dara Kam
Palm Beach Post
The U.S. Supreme Court decision upholding the federal health care law was a victory for President Obama, but it also could put a repeal of the individual mandate within reach of Republicans – if they can win both the White House and a simple Senate majority.

Florida's work-release centers quietly going private
By Steve Bousquet
Tampa Bay Times/Miami Herald Tallahassee Bureau
Related: Florida's privatization of prison health care still locked up in disputes
When Gov. Rick Scott and legislators tried to privatize South Florida prisons, the state Senate rejected it.

State’s loser lawsuits waste taxpayer money
By Fred Grimm
Miami Herald
The current regime in Tallahassee, for example, has been spending a considerable chunk of taxpayer money on loser lawsuits of the ideological kind.

Rubio faces Latino dilemma with his immigation stance
By William March
Tampa Tribune
Bridging the gap between his own conservative backers and the immigrant community he represents may be harder than Florida Sen. Marco Rubio expected.

EDITORIAL CARTOON OF THE WEEK

By Jim Morin
Miami Herald

FLORIDA POLITICS

Questionable new Fla. laws go into effect Sunday
By Bill Kaczor
Associated Press
A trio of constitutionally questionable measures and legislation designed to crack down on no-fault auto insurance fraud are among about 150 new Florida laws going into effect Sunday.

Rubio says he wants readers of his book to learn from his successes and mistakes
By Alex Leary
Tampa Bay Times
U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio sounded tired, and simply turning on the TV in the past week explains why.

Rubio brings rock-star tour to Orlando Monday -- will he finally bring heft?
By Scott Maxwell
Orlando Sentinel
You can't turn on a TV nowadays without seeing Marco Rubio.

Fla. Gov.'s net worth dropped again last year
By Gary Fineout
Associated Press
Florida Gov. Rick Scott, a multimillionaire who bankrolled most of his successful campaign in 2010, says he's worth less money now than he was just before he entered office.

Prospective Florida House Speaker Dorworth fends off fire from GOP rivals
By John Kennedy
Palm Beach Post
Already tapped by ruling Republicans as Florida’s House speaker in a couple of years, Rep. Chris Dorworth faces unusual hurdles on his path to power.

POLITICAL RACES

Democrats feeling convention blues, but RNC has its awkward notes: Greer, Paul, Scott
By Adam C. Smith
Tampa Bay Times
Republicans have been crowing about some of the struggles facing organizers of the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte, N.C., who last week scrapped plans for a much-touted public Labor Day bash at Charlotte Motor Speedway.

Trailing super PACs and their super smears
By Carl Hiaasen
Miami Herald
Eighteen weeks before the elections, and already the airwaves are clogged with competing political commercials.

Enthusiasm Grows Among FL Latino Voters
By Jennifer Carroll Carson
Public News Service Florida
President Obama's recent immigration policy changes are igniting enthusiasm among Latino voters, according to a recent survey.

Obama floods Orlando airwaves with attack ads
By Scott Powers
Orlando Sentinel
President Barack Obama's re-election campaign is already dropping millions of dollars in Orlando as it floods the TV market with attack ads against Mitt Romney, grabbing the early summer momentum.

Ann Romney's job: 'unzip' Mitt
By Tia Mitchell
Tampa Bay Times/Miami Herald Tallahassee Bureau
Four years ago, Ann Romney swore she'd never do this again. No more campaigns, she told her husband when he stepped off the stage after conceding the Republican presidential nomination to John McCain.

Growing Puerto Rican population near Disney will be critical in picking a president
By Adam C. Smith
Tampa Bay Times
To understand how a once rural county best known for cattle ranches has emerged as one of the nation's most critical presidential campaign battlegrounds, go back more than three decades to a shrewd marketing decision by a Miami developer.

Florida’s Write-In Frauds
By Pierre Tristam
Florida Voices
Florida has a long and undistinguished history of defrauding voters.

BALLOT INITIATIVES

Non-believers say proposed Florida amendment is backdoor to religion in government
By John Lantigua
Palm Beach Post
Liz Murad, once a Franciscan nun, says she no longer believes in God but does believe in the U.S. Constitution. And she worries that attempts to change Florida laws will violate the U.S. political principle that separates church from state.

ENVIRONMENT AND ENERGY

Florida to share money from BP law; Mack, Rubio vote 'no'
Staff Report
Naples Daily News
Florida and other Gulf states will share the bulk of any money received from BP Oil under the RESTORE act passed by Congress on Friday.

Debby's pounding waves wiped out turtle nests as well as beaches
By Craig Pittman
Tampa Bay Times
Tropical Storm Debby did more than just wipe some of Pinellas County's beaches off the map.

Growth and sprawl on the march
Editorial
Tampa Bay Times
Gov. Rick Scott's vision of Florida's economic future looks a lot like its past: heavily dependent on grand-scale development that creates sprawl and environmental damage but comes with no money to pay for the consequences.

Attacks on environment invite public suspicion
Editorial
Orlando Sentinel
These are perilous times for public land in Florida.

LGBT

Sarasota considering creation of a domestic registry
By J. David McSwane
Sarasota Herald-Tribune
Following a recent trend among Florida cities like Tampa and Orlando, Sarasota could be the next to extend more rights to gay and domestic partners.

EDUCATION

Southern states get failing grades for school funding fairness
By Sue Sturgis
Facing South
Many states are failing to provide public schools with the resources they need to serve all students equitably, and Florida and North Carolina doing a particularly poor job in addressing educational disparities caused by concentrated poverty.

State's push for digital textbooks, tests has schools scrambling
By Erica Rodriguez
Orlando Sentinel
Students at Lake Minneola High School spent the year reading from shiny, new iPads instead of textbooks, something many say helped them stay engaged with schoolwork.

School districts likely to ignore 'inspirational message' law
By Brandon Larrabee
News Service of Florida
A controversial law that would allow student prayer at mandatory school events could have limited impact even after it goes into effect Sunday, both supporters and opponents of the “inspirational message” bill say.

With tuition rising and job prospects dimming, college students feel the pinch
By Kim Wilmath and Alli Langley
Tampa Bay Times
Tuition increases taste like ramen noodles.

JOBS, BUDGET, AND ECONOMY

Peek at Florida corporate handouts isn't pretty
Editorial
Tampa Bay Times
Oops. Gov. Rick Scott's administration late last month inadvertently gave Floridians a more complete picture of how their tax money is being given away to corporations in an expensive attempt to create jobs.

Attorneys: Budget shortfall not enough justify changes to retirement benefits
By Travis Pillow
Florida Current
The lawyer leading a lawsuit challenging a 2011 retirement law says in court papers that a budget shortfall does not necessarily justify reducing cost-of-living increases for public pensions or requiring employees to contribute a portion of their salaries to their retirement.

These Numbers Aren't Quite Positive
By Lloyd Dunkelberger
Lakeland Ledger
A national survey by a nonprofit think tank gave Florida high marks for the financial health of its $126 billion state pension fund.

HEALTH AND SENIORS

Gov. Rick Scott: Florida won't comply with health care law
By Gary Fineout
Associated Press
Florida Gov. Rick Scott now says Florida will do nothing to comply with President Barack Obama's health care overhaul and will not expand its Medicaid program.

Opt-out on Medicaid would have odd result
By Carol Gentry
Health News Florida
If Florida says no to Medicaid expansion, as the Supreme Court has said it can, it will forgo billions in federal aid over the next 10 years to save a fraction of that amount.

Florida Officials Must Scramble to Implement Health Care Law
By Ashley Lopez
Florida Center for Investigative Reporting
Yesterday, the U.S.  Supreme Court mostly upheld President Barack Obama’s Affordable Care Act of 2010.

GOP in Disarray After Obamacare Ruling
The Progress Report
Think Progress
Aside from launching a new false attack on the law (which also happens to be an attack on Mitt Romney) and promising to vote one more time on repealing the law, Republicans don’t quite know what to do.

Feds join suit over treatment of Florida’s disabled kids
By Carol Marbin Miller
Miami Herald
Citing federal civil rights laws that forbid the segregation of disabled people in large institutions, the U.S. Justice Department has joined Florida children’s advocates who say the state is improperly forcing children with complex medical conditions into nursing homes designed to care for frail elders. 

JUSTICE AND THE COURTS

Loosen '10-20-Life' law
Editorial
Pensacola News Journal
There is growing concern the state’s 10-20-Life law is too harsh, especially in cases where the facts clearly don’t support a lengthy prison term.