Daily Clips for August 10, 2012

FEATURED STORIES

Battle over Fla. voter purge flaring back up
Associated Press
Tampa Tribune
A battle between Florida and the federal government over the state's push to identify and remove potentially ineligible voters is gearing back up.

Rubio trending as VP talk intensifies
By William March
Tampa Tribune
For more than a year, even before Republicans settled on a presidential nominee, the name of Florida Sen. Marco Rubio has dominated speculation about a vice presidential nominee.

State economists see recovery taking hold in Florida
By James Call
Florida Current
Florida’s budget numbers seem to be improving, state economists said Thursday.

11 state constitutional amendments struggle for voter attention
By Aaron Deslatte
Orlando Sentinel
Florida’s statewide election ballot this November will ask voters to give their blessings to a collection of conservative causes — in some cases making significant changes to the state’s educational and tax policies.

BEST OF THE BLOGS

GOP Won't Speak His Name
By Jake
Rantings From Florida
Stories like this just make me chuckle. It seems even Republicans have embraced the Voldemort comparison, and dare not speak the name of a Governor Rick Scott, even as the campaign in primary season.

Barron vs. Bruner: The Most Important State Senate Race in Modern Florida History
By Kartik Krishnaiyer
The Political Hurricane
At the time it was the most expensive election in Florida legislative history.

State Political Parties in Florida
By Gimleteye
Eye on Miami
What is one to make of the Republican Party of Florida?

Florida education chief resigns amid controversy
By Valerie Strauss
The Answer Sheet
Gerard Robinson is resigning as Florida’s education commissioner at a time of growing discontent with — and a series of blunders involving — the state’s standardized test-based accountability system.

Florida's Transportation Battle: Smart Road Improvements
By Ann Mesnikoff
Daily Kos
All across America there are roads lined with strip malls and box stores.

FLORIDA POLITICS

Feds demand voter removal data from nine counties
By Steve Bousquet
Tampa Bay Times
Related: State finally releases 'obsolete' noncitizen voter list
Florida's voter purge efforts are suspended for now, but the lawsuit over the removal of suspected non-citizens from the rolls drags on.

Ballot-fraud probe embroils commissioner’s aide, former Hialeah mayor’s uncle
By Patricia Mazzei, Marc Caputo and Melissa Sánchez
Miami Herald
A ballot-fraud investigation that has already troubled two top Miami-Dade political campaigns has now embroiled the office of a county commissioner and could result in the arrest of the uncle of Hialeah’s former mayor, The Miami Herald has learned.

POLITICAL RACES

Florida Democrats struggle to attract Hispanic candidates
Associated Press
Sarasota Herald-Tribune
This election year would seem a dream come true for Florida Democrats in their efforts to woo the state’s growing Hispanic population.

Democrats to taunt Romney as he drives through Fla
By Adam C. Smith
Tampa Bay Times
Mitt Romney will have some unwelcome company in Florida Monday as he takes a bus tour from St Augustine to Orlando to Miami.

New Obama ad hits Romney on taxes, tax shelter
By Scott Powers
Orlando Sentinel
The latest TV ad coming from the re-election campaign of President Barack Obama again presses Republican challenger Mitt Romney’s refusal to release multiple years of tax returns and this time cites a published report accusing him of helping another company set up a $70 million fictitious tax shelter.

Government buildings in Tampa to be fenced off for RNC
By Josh Poltilove and Jose Patino Girona
Tampa Tribune
Yet another fence is coming to downtown Tampa to protect public buildings from the thousands of protestors expected to gather during the Republican National Convention.

Faith leaders to march night before RNC
Associated Press
Miami Herald
A group of faith leaders in the Tampa Bay area will protest the Republican National Convention in St. Petersburg the night before the event begins.

For candidates, supervoters deliver super results
By Anthony Man
South Florida Sun Sentinel
For candidates in Tuesday's party primaries and nonpartisan elections, no one is more powerful than Jim Demarest of Fort Lauderdale, Susan Freeman of Dania Beach, Susan Goldberg of Boca Raton or Deborah Nix of Delray Beach.

Bill Young faces first GOP opponents in 42 years
By Craig Pittman
Tampa Bay Times
U.S. Rep. C.W. Bill Young has been in Congress since 1970.

BALLOT INITIATIVES

Progressive Groups Lobbying, Collecting Signatures for Sick Pay in Florida
By Ashley Lopez
Florida Center for Investigative Reporting
Two large cities in Florida are working to get earned sick pay for low-wage workers.

ENVIRONMENT AND ENERGY

Wait or be flexible in planning for sea level rise, experts tell planners
By Bruce Ritchie
Florida Current
Plans to address sea level rise should be flexible and some could wait about five years for science to be more precise, experts said Thursday at a workshop in Tallahassee for planners and other state and local officials.

Florida ranked sixth-worst in power plant air pollution
By Susan Salisbury
Palm Beach
Florida ranked sixth among all states in air pollution from power plants in 2010, the Natural Resources Defense Council said Thursday.

State park attendance increases for 2nd year after big drop 3 years ago
By Bruce Ritchie
Florida Current
Attendance at Florida state parks increased for the second straight year in fiscal year 2011-12 following a decrease three years ago.

LGBT

Source: Democrats draft platform backs gay marriage
Associated Press
Tampa Tribune
A draft of the Democratic Party's official party platform includes support for gay marriage for the first time, months after President Barack Obama said he was in favor of same-sex unions.

Group wants protest against changes to Jacksonville gay-rights bill
Staff Report
Florida Times-Union
Advocacy group Equality Florida is fighting back against changes made to the legislation that would expand Jacksonville’s human rights ordinance to cover sexual orientation.

EDUCATION

South Florida teachers learn they must work extra hour
Staff Report
WPLG South Florida
Some South Florida teachers will be spending an extra hour teaching without being paid, according to their union.

Demand outstrips supply of Florida corporate tax credit scholarships
By Jeff Solochek
Tampa Bay Times
When state Rep. Richard Corcoran proposed increasing the cap for Florida's corporate tax credit scholarship, to allow another 9,000 children into the program, many Democrats decried the move as taking money away from the public schools.

Florida Students Party Hard And Get Easy A’s According To Latest College Rankings
By Gina Jordan
StateImpact
For those who love higher education rankings, the last week has been a bonanza.

JOBS, BUDGET, AND ECONOMY

Revenue forecast shows Florida rebuilding
By John Kennedy
Palm Beach Post
Florida’s economy is slowly putting on muscle, packing away increased tax collections which could keep the state from facing another troubled budget next spring, analysts said Thursday.

Florida Pension Issue: A Look Forward and A Look Back 
By Sascha Cordner      
WFSU Tallahassee
Over the course of about a year, major changes have taken place in Florida’s Retirement System.

Retirement Becoming Impossible Dream in Florida
By Steven Kurlander
Florida Voices
A recent survey of middle-aged Floridians found more and more of us don’t hold out much hope for retiring as well off as our parents -- or even at all.

Governor speeds up Port Canaveral expansion
By James Call
Florida Current
Thousands of new jobs were put on a fast track Thursday when Gov. Rick Scott OK'd $24.4 million in state funding for a channel widening and deepening project at Port Canaveral.

Passenger trains to run from Miami to Orlando
By Andres Viglucci
Miami Herald
It’s full-speed ahead on a privately financed, $1 billion plan that will launch fast, hourly passenger rail service between downtown Miami and Orlando by 2014, Florida East Coast Industries officials said.

Study: 90% of Miami restaurant workers have no sick days
By Elaine Walker
Miami Herald
Nine out of 10 Miami restaurant workers do not have access to paid sick days and nearly 50 percent of these workers have gone to work sick.

HEALTH AND SENIORS

Half a Million Florida Kids Don’t have Health Insurance
By Whitney Ray
Capitol News Service
Today Florida’s Healthy Kids Corporation launched its annual effort to boost enrollment in the KidCare program. 

JUSTICE AND THE COURTS

Can Zimmerman win 'stand your ground' hearing?
By Rene Stutzman
Orlando Sentinel
Since the night he shot Trayvon Martin, George Zimmerman has insisted he killed the unarmed 17-year-old to save himself.