FEATURED
STORIES
Gov. Rick Scott removes more than 200 non-citizen voters from rolls
By Tia Mitchell and Marc Caputo
Miami Herald/Tampa Bay Times Staff Writers
Gov. Rick Scott and the Florida Department of State have already removed 207 noncitizen voters using a federal immigration database, and there could be more to come.
Panel okays privatizing inmate health care
By Brittany Alana Davis
Tampa Bay Times/Miami Herald Tallahassee Bureau
A union for state workers is racing to sue Florida after lawmakers cleared the way Wednesday to privatize health care in prisons.
Madeira Beach Fundamental teachers tell Gov. Scott they are 'suffocating' under FCAT emphasis
By Cara Fitzpatrick
Tampa Bay Times
Related: Open? Closed? The governor's listening tour moves on
Sitting in a circle with Gov. Rick Scott, a group of teachers at Madeira Beach Fundamental spoke frankly about how their profession has been "degraded and demeaned" to the point where they dread people's reactions when they say, "I'm a teacher."
Stand Your Ground law’s impact needs more study, task force told
By Toluse Olorunnipa
Miami Herald/Tampa Bay Times Tallahassee Bureau
Lt. Gov. Jennifer Carroll has repeatedly said that the task force commissioned to look into Florida’s controversial “Stand Your Ground" law will make its decision based on facts, not emotions.
After a dour half-decade, Florida budget picture inches closer to ‘rosy’
By Aaron Deslatte
Orlando Sentinel
For the first time in five years, Florida policymakers are looking at a horizon free of projected budget shortfalls, thanks to growing tax collections and cuts to classrooms, road-building and the state’s social safety net.
Clinton stumps for Obama in Orlando
By Adam C. Smith
Tampa Bay Times
Inside a dark and smoky Daytona Beach bar this week, bartender Trish Mackie commiserated with a customer about the sorry state of the economy and political leadership.
FLORIDA
POLITICS
Lawsuit trimmed after state revises method of identifying non-citizens on voter rolls
By Dara Kam
Palm Beach Post
County elections officials will contact 2,400 people flagged by the state as potential non-citizens and tell them to ignore letters sent earlier this year notifying them that they may be ineligible to vote, under an agreement with Gov. Rick Scott’s administration filed in federal court today.
For Crist, principles only means to an end
By Dr. Akshay M. Desai
Tampa Bay Times
As I read former Republican Gov. Charlie Crist's endorsement of President Barack Obama, listened to his address at the Democratic National Convention and heard his introduction of the president this past weekend in Seminole, I can't say that I was shocked or surprised.
Jeb Bush to publish book about immigration in 2013
By Alex Leary
Tampa Bay Times
Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush is writing a book with a title that cuts directly to the emotion and complexity of the subject: Immigration Wars.
POLITICAL
RACES
Expert: Florida “Tipping Point” for 2012 Election
By Ashley Lopez
Florida Center for Investigative Reporting
Political soothsayer Nate Silver writes at The New York Times that Florida is one of two tipping point states for the 2012 election.
Bill Clinton in Orlando: Choose Obama over 'You're on your own'
By Scott Powers
Orlando Sentinel
In Bill Clinton's world, opposing political sides cooperate, arithmetic counts, everyone's in it together and prosperity is shared by all.
Ann Romney tells raucous crowd in Largo that her husband 'will not fail'
By Will Hobson
Tampa Bay Times
Two weeks after Ann Romney told a crowd of thousands at the Tampa Bay Times Forum how great a man Mitt Romney is and how great a president he would be, she returned to the area Wednesday afternoon to give a shorter version of that message to a smaller, though no less raucous, crowd at Largo Community Center.
BALLOT
INITIATIVES
Sick-time backers seek court order for Nov. 6 vote
By David Damron
Orlando Sentinel
Related editorial: Sick Trick
The group behind the sick-time initiative Wednesday sought an emergency court order to force Orange County leaders to put the proposal on the Nov. 6 ballot.
Amendment 3 opponents kicking off Orlando campaign
Staff Report
WFTV Orlando
Opponents of Amendment 3 are kicking off their campaign against the measure Thursday in Orlando.
ENVIRONMENT
AND ENERGY
Congress members join call for Apalachicola Bay declaration while environmentalists question lack of action
By Bruce Ritchie
Florida Current
Five Florida members of Congress on Wednesday wrote to the U. S. Department of Commerce in support of a fishery disaster declaration request for Apalachicola Bay while environmentalists pointed to lack of action by the governors of Alabama, Florida and Georgia in resolving their differences.
EDUCATION
Education Lawsuit will go Forward
By Whitney Ray
Capitol News Service
State lawmakers will have to defend education cuts in court. A lawsuit filed three years ago claims the state doesn’t provide a high-quality level of public education as laid out in the state constitution.
K12 Did Not Disclose State Investigation to Investors
By Trevor Aaronson
Florida Center for Investigative Reporting
Executives for K12, the nation’s largest for-profit online educator, discovered in May that the Florida Department of Education had launched an investigation of the company’s practices in Seminole County.
Volusia joins probe of private online education company
By Annie Martin and Linda Trimble
Daytona Beach News Journal
Volusia County school officials launched an investigation Wednesday into the nation's largest online education company, which has been accused in another Florida district of using uncertified teachers in violation of state law and trying to cover up the practice.
U.S. News: UM is Florida's top school; UF, FSU improve
By Scott Travis
South Florida Sun Sentinel
The highly anticipated U.S. News and World Report college rankings are out, and Gators, Seminoles and Hurricanes all found something to brag about.
JOBS,
BUDGET, AND ECONOMY
New report undermines Gov. Scott's rosy jobs message
By Toluse Olorunnipa
Miami Herald
The Florida’s Legislature’s Office of Economic and Demographic Research came out with another report Wednesday that refutes Gov. Rick Scott’s claims that Florida’s unemployment rate is dropping rapidly because the state is creating jobs.
Census numbers: In Florida, toughest times in half-century strain those on low end of income scale
By Ana M. Valdes
Palm Beach Post
While the number of Americans in poverty stalled at 15 percent in 2011, Florida saw its first decrease since 2005 in the percentage of residents living below the poverty line, the U.S. Census Bureau reported Wednesday.
Digital Domain film company failure leaves state on hook for $20M
By Brittany Alana Davis and Toluse Olorunnipa
Tampa Bay Times/Miami Herald Tallahassee Bureau
Promised their investment would help lure 500 high-paying jobs to Florida, lawmakers in 2009 sidestepped existing procedures to funnel $20 million to a well-known movie production company that animated the scenes in Titanic and the Transformers movies.
Who was looking out for taxpayers in the Digital Domain deal?
By Eve Samples
TC Palm
Former state Senate President Ken Pruitt was serving his final term in Tallahassee when John Textor was making the rounds in 2009.
Florida ranks second in nation for foreclosure activity
By Kimberly Miller
Palm Beach Post
For the first time in nearly two years, Florida took a top ranking nationally for foreclosure activity, coming in second only to Illinois.
Regulators fighting with insurer over 'excess profits'
By Gray Rohrer
Florida Current
State insurance regulators are battling with Premier Group Insurance over $3 million in “excess profits” earned between 2005 and 2007 that they say the company should refund to the state.
Plans continue for train to link Miami, Orlando
Associated Press
Sarasota Herald-Tribune
A privately financed company that wants to link a 240-mile train system extending from South Florida to Orlando International Airport is still trying to hash out a feasible plan.
HEALTH
AND SENIORS
State denies forcing disabled kids into nursing homes
By Carol Marbin Miller
Miami Herald
Florida healthcare administrators will visit hundreds of medically fragile children living in geriatric nursing homes, and speak with their parents, to determine whether families are being forced to abandon their youngsters in institutions, as federal civil rights lawyers are claiming.
Health-care issues pose challenges for Florida
By Liz Freeman
Naples Daily News
There's a bright spot on the horizon for children's medical care in Southwest Florida.
CIVIL
RIGHTS, PEACE AND SOCIAL ISSUES
ACLU alleges governor’s drug-test mandate for poor is over-reaching
By Dara Kam
Palm Beach Post
New court filings in a lawsuit over Gov. Rick Scott’s mandatory drug testing of applicants for welfare assistance reveal a hastily patched-together system marked by a lack of protocol and uniformity and concerns by state workers that the process was overreaching.
Florida pastor says he did not promote anti-Islam video because church website was hacked
By Mary Ellen Klas
Miami Herald
The retired Florida pastor who got international attention two years ago for threatening to burn the Quran was again in the media spotlight on Wednesday for purportedly promoting a video that may have incited the violent attacks in Egypt and Libya.
JUSTICE
AND THE COURTS
State justice uncomfortable with campaigning to keep seat
By Elaine Silvestrini
Tampa Tribune
State Supreme Court Justice Peggy Quince isn't used to asking people for their votes.
No comments:
Post a Comment