Daily Clips for July 31, 2012

FEATURED STORIES

Scott omits email account from state website
By Toluse Olorunnipa
Miami Herald/Tampa Bay Times Tallahassee Bureau
Gov. Rick Scott said he was championing transparency in May when he gave the public access to his emails by posting them online for anyone to see.

Gov. Scott stokes fears, misleads public on ACA
By Margaret M. Byrne, Kathryn E. McCollister and Harold Pollack
Miami Herald
The long legal battle over the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) is finally over.

Judge in Jim Greer case declares potentially embarrassing witness statements public record
By Lucy Morgan and Katie Sanders
Tampa Bay Times
There is a bit of bad news for some of the witnesses slated to testify at the trial of former Republican Party of Florida Chairman Jim Greer.

Some Florida lawmakers tied to firms that lobby Legislature, group says
News Service of Florida
Sarasota Herald-Tribune
At least eleven sitting lawmakers derive some of their income from work with firms that lobby the Legislature, according to a new report by the watchdog group Integrity Florida.

Florida to appeal ruling blocking law banning doctors from asking about guns
By Dara Kam
Palm Beach Post
Gov. Rick Scott, as expected, is appealing a judge’s ruling that blocked the implementation of a Florida law barring doctors from asking patients about guns.

Buchanan a no-show for deposition
By Jeremy Wallace
Sarasota Herald-Tribune
U.S. Rep. Vern Buchanan did not appear for a scheduled court deposition in Orlando on Monday, prompting an angry response from the opposing attorney who said the three-term congressman should be held in contempt of court.

FLORIDA POLITICS

Dr. Gisela Salas, chief of state elections division, resigns
By Steve Bousquet
Tampa Bay Times
Dr. Gisela Salas, director of the state Division of Elections, has resigned effective Aug. 1 to take a job closer to her family in Ocala.

Pam Bondi splits her schedule between Tampa, Tallahassee
By Tia Mitchell
Tampa Bay Times/Miami Herald Tallahassee Bureau
Attorney General Pam Bondi seems to be everywhere these days — stumping for Mitt Romney in New Hampshire, schmoozing with Rudy Giuliani in Tampa or talking about health care on Fox News.

POLITICAL RACES

Obama begins 2-day campaign swing in Florida
Associated Press
Florida Today
President Obama's campaign is making a two-day swing through Florida.

As Mitt Romney pursues must-win Florida, Jewish vote is key target
By Adam C. Smith
Tampa Bay Times
As sure as the TV ads start blitzing the I-4 corridor every presidential election, so does the chatter that Democrats have a Jewish voter problem that could deliver Florida to the GOP.

Romney's foreign misadventures
Editorial
Tampa Bay Times
Mitt Romney bounced from careless to reckless over the weekend during an overseas trip meant to showcase his foreign policy credentials.

RNC shows off Forum changes, including improved acoustics
By Ted Jackovics
Tampa Tribune
More than a half-million dollars in acoustics improvements at the Forum for the 2012 Republican National Convention will not muffle sounds at sporting events and will improve the venue for concerts, officials said today. 

ENVIRONMENT AND ENERGY

Florida water pollution rules in election-year limbo
Associated Press
Sarasota Herald-Tribune
When the Obama administration agreed to set the first-ever federal limits on runoff in Florida, environmental groups were pleased.

Front & Center: Everglades effort helps economy
Editorial
Orlando Sentinel
U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack visited Central Florida earlier this month to announce that his department would spend $80 million to protect the Everglades ecosystem by conserving and rehabilitating ranch land between Orlando and Lake Okeechobee.

Why hasn't Gov. Rick Scott taken a stand on FPL's proposed rate hike?
By Julie Patel
South Florida Sun Sentinel
Critics of Florida Power & Light's proposed $690 million base rate hike have questioned why Gov. Rick Scott hasn't taken a position on it.

Rallying point
Editorial
Gainesville Sun
Silver Springs was an obvious rallying point for those opposed to the Adena Springs Ranch consumptive-use permit request to pump 13 million gallons of water a day from the aquifer.

LGBT

Source: Dems move to formally back gay marriage
Associated Press
Tampa Tribune
A Democratic official says support for gay marriage is set to be included in the official party platform adopted at this summer's convention.

Boy Scouts' gay ban seems outdated
By Michael Mayo
South Florida Sun Sentinel
If the U.S. military, the Girl Scouts and the Boys' and Girls' Clubs don't have a problem with gays in their ranks, why does the Boy Scouts of America still insist on banning "open and avowed homosexuals"?

EDUCATION

Democratic report blasts for-profit colleges
Associated Press
Bradenton Herald
For-profit colleges put revenues above education, and charge students high tuition and loan rates that could leave them in debt for years, a Senate Democratic report said Monday.

Do-overs reinforce need to do over FCAT-based education system
Editorial
Palm Beach Post
Despite rising graduation rates, lots of kids are graduating from Florida high schools without the math, reading or English skills to do college-level work.

Duval School Board eyeing anti-FCAT resolution
By Teresa Stepzinski
Florida Times-Union
The Duval County County School Board on Tuesday will discuss whether to jump on the bandwagon of school districts statewide calling for alternatives to the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test.

JOBS, BUDGET, AND ECONOMY

Economic, education study says South is down
By Dave Breitenstein
Ft. Myers News-Press
Blue-collar jobs lost in the recession might never return, and Florida’s housing collapse and health care concerns are barriers to a quicker economic recovery.

Skilled workers high on list of why companies come and go in Florida
By Charles Elmore
Palm Beach Post
With 840,000 Floridians out of work, it’s not merely interesting to find out why companies come to the state and why they leave, Carrie Blanchard says.

GOP senators bring budget fight to Tampa
By William March
Tampa Tribune
Three Republican senators brought the federal budget battle to Tampa today in what they said was a nonpartisan effort to avoid "devastating" defense cuts but which carried overtones of political gamesmanship.

HEALTH AND SENIORS

Under fire for handling of TB outbreak, state health department releases plan
By Stacey Singer
Palm Beach Post
Under fire for its secretive handling of a Jacksonville tuberculosis outbreak, the Florida Department of Health today released an ambitious new plan for cutting the state’s tuberculosis rate in half by 2020.

Health rebate checks arriving
By Mary Shedden
Tampa Tribune
When the $78 check showed up in David Knowlton's mailbox two weeks ago, he wasn't quite sure what to think.

Florida's waiting list for home-delivered meals more than doubles
By Sonja Isger
Palm Beach Post
Rena Drye once relished cooking a good stuffed pepper or cheesecake.

Florida's most vulnerable in danger of abuse
Editorial
Tampa Bay Times
Recent newspaper investigations have found rampant abuse and neglect in Florida's assisted-living facilities and now at a rehabilitation center for brain-injured patients in Hardee County.

CIVIL RIGHTS, PEACE AND SOCIAL ISSUES

Stigma and misconceptions could hide human trafficking in Florida
By Liz McKibbon
WMNF Tampa
Florida residents may not consider their community a hub for human trafficking.

JUSTICE AND THE COURTS

No-bid contract for MP3 players has other Florida prison vendors crying foul
By Steve Bousquet
Tampa Bay Times
A little music is generating a lot of static inside Florida's prison system.