FEATURED
STORIES
Firm fired over Palm Beach voter registrations had issues in other counties, states
By Michael Van Sickler, Tia Mitchell and Toluse Olorunnipa
Tampa Bay Times/Miami Herald Tallahassee Bureau
Related: Republicans play defense over voter registration fraud
Related: State Republicans find fraud close to home
A vendor fired by the Republican Party of Florida for submitting questionable voter registrations forms in Palm Beach County is also responsible for filing flawed applications in other counties and states, election officials confirmed Friday.
Battlegrounds for voting laws besides Florida: Wisconsin, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Colorado
By Steve Bousquet
Tampa Bay Times/Miami Herald Tallahassee Bureau
Strict new photo ID laws for Wisconsin and Pennsylvania voters.
With Obama ahead in polls, Romney advised to focus on economy in debates
By George Bennett
Palm Beach Post
Related: As race stands, Obama within reach of second term
Heeding the advice of strategist James Carville and focusing on “the economy, stupid” helped Democrats unseat a Republican president during an economic downturn in 1992.
Billionaire Koch brothers try to buy state’s court
By Carl Hiaasen
Miami Herald
The new stealth campaign against three Florida Supreme Court justices is being backed by those meddling right-wing billionaires from Wichita, Charles and David Koch.
RPOF's former director: 'Presumed' prostitutes attended GOP fundraiser
By Rene Stutzman
Orlando Sentinel
Delmar Johnson, the state's star witness in the fraud and theft trial of former Florida Republican Chairman Jim Greer, told attorneys in a sworn statement that he saw a golf cart full of women — he presumed they were prostitutes — at a party fund-raiser in the Bahamas in 2008.
EDITORIAL
CARTOON OF THE WEEK
By Jeff Parker
Florida Today
FLORIDA
POLITICS
More Suspicious Voter Forms Are Found
By Lizette Alvarez
New York Times
The number of Florida counties reporting suspicious voter registration forms connected to Strategic Allied Consulting, the firm hired by the state Republican Party to sign up new voters, has grown to 10, officials said, as local election supervisors continue to search their forms for questionable signatures, addresses or other identifiers.
Florida's non-citizen voter purge is much ado about little
By Michael Mayo
South Florida Sun Sentinel
To hear some alarmists explain it, you'd think armies of illegal immigrants are about to swarm Florida's voting booths and tilt the upcoming election, diluting the votes of U.S. citizens.
GOP, Dems Voter Registration Numbers Lag, Mad Dash Now Across Fla To Sign People Up
By Sascha Cordner
WFSU Tallahassee
Florida’s voter registration numbers for both Republicans and Democrats stagnated over the course of about a year, and political experts say it’s mainly because of a law passed last year that put limits on third party voter registration.
Woman who dropped off questionable ballots did political work on county time
By Melissa Sanchez and Enrique Flor
Miami Herald
Like many Hialeah ballot-brokers, 25-year-old Anamary Pedrosa began collecting absentee ballots this summer from those close to her, including her mother and a cousin’s boyfriend.
More Dorworth embarrassments for GOP -- time for a new speaker
By Scott Maxwell
Orlando Sentinel
Four years ago, two freshman lawmakers were engaged in a heated — if premature — battle to decide who would be speaker of the House in 2014.
GOP names new candidate after Horner prostitution scandal
By Toluse Olorunnipa
Tampa Bay Times/Miami Herald Tallahassee Bureau
The Republican Party of Florida on Saturday chose Michael LaRosa, R-Celebration, as a replacement candidate for House District 42, which became enmeshed in scandal this week.
Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz celebrates birthday, steers clear of campaigning at Nova
By Curtis Morgan
Miami Herald
U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz celebrated at a major wing-ding on her 46th birthday — but the party wasn’t for her.
Is the tea party’s influence slipping?
By Tom McNiff
Ocala Star-Banner
They still draw 80 or so people to their weekly meetings at Berean Baptist Church, and they can still marshal volunteers to picket against President Barack Obama and the “liberal left” on Wednesdays on the downtown square in Ocala.
POLITICAL
RACES
Biden, in Boca’s Century Village, says Romney view of “dependent” Americans is skewed
Staff Report
Palm Beach Post
Two miles and a few economic strata from the site of Mitt Romney‘s “47 percent” remarks, Vice President Joe Biden told a retiree crowd Friday that Romney and running mate Paul Ryan don’t understand America and have “bet against the American people.”
Hey, this is Florida, so be skeptical of big poll leads for Obama
By Adam C. Smith
Tampa Bay Times
The latest New York Times/CBS/Quinnipiac Poll shows Barack Obama trouncing Mitt Romney by 9 percentage points in Florida — 53 percent to 44 percent.
Democrats launch Florida voter sign-up effort in Tampa
By William March
Tampa Tribune
The Obama campaign began a 10-day voter registration drive in Florida today, kicking it off in Tampa with visits from San Antonio Mayor Julian Castro, a star of the party's Charlotte convention, and Jamal Simmons, a former Florida Democratic political strategist and now a CNN commentator.
Conspiracies aren't enough to defeat Barack Obama
By Tad Delegal
Florida Times-Union
Lt. Col. Orson Swindle III’s recent letter urging readers to vote against President Barack Obama reinforces the very reasons why Obama will be re-elected in November.
Connie Mack battles polls, voter lack of interest in quest to unseat Sen. Bill Nelson
By Mary Ellen Klas
Miami Herald/Tampa Bay Times Tallahassee Bureau
Related: GOP hopes of a Senate takeover fade
If Republican Connie Mack IV is shouldering the burden of his party’s control of the U.S. Senate, you wouldn’t know it last week as he finished a six-day bus tour of 17 cities in north and central Florida.
BALLOT
INITIATIVES
Critics say amendment veiled try to get public money to private schools
By Rob Saw
Tampa Tribune
The ballot title says it's an issue about religious freedom.
Amendment Three Would Limit Florida's State Revenues
By Tom Flanigan
WFSU Tallahassee
Amendment Number Three is an idea that's already been tried in the state of Colorado with not-so-great results.
Groups opposed to proposed amendment limiting state revenue more active than those supporting it
By Dara Kam
Palm Beach Post
Depending on who’s doing the analysis, a proposed amendment that would change the formula for limiting the amount of revenue Florida can collect each year from taxes and fees would either rein in willy-nilly government spending or cause Draconian cutbacks to education, roads and schools.
Amendments might need warning label
By Jerome R. Stockfisch
Tampa Tribune
Not everyone will be scratching their heads over the 11 constitutional amendments tacked onto the end of this November's general election ballot.
Sentinel Exclusive: Jacobs' texts show coordinated campaign with foes of sick time
By David Damron
Orlando Sentinel
Related: Orange leaders, stop texting while governing
Thousands of cellphone text messages accidentally released by Mayor Teresa Jacobs paint the clearest picture yet of how the sick-time ballot initiative was kept off the Nov. 6 Orange County ballot.
ENVIRONMENT
AND ENERGY
Rising lake water: Breach unlikely but dike around Lake Okeechobee still unsafe
By Christine Stapleton
Palm Beach Post
A month after Tropical Storm Isaac flooded the region with more than a foot of rain, Lake Okeechobee continues to rise and now stands at its highest level since 2006, when a highly critical report found that the dike posed a “grave and imminent danger.”
Customers should not pay costs of FPL’s nuclear plant expansion
By Stephen A. Smith
Palm Beach Post
A misguided state law that allows large utilities to charge consumers for new nuclear reactors before delivering any power is making things more difficult for Floridians trying to recover from the worst recession in recent memory.
LGBT
For Elderly Gay Widow Edith Windsor, The GOP Is All For High Taxes
By Steven Thrasher
The Daily Beast
When Barack Obama proved unwilling to hound an octogenarian widow for a tax bill she never should have been charged, House Speaker John Boehner proved more than willing to take up the task—even at a cost to taxpayers of far more than the money she owed.
EDUCATION
Florida Districts Fight K12′s Plan for Virtual Charter Schools
By John O’Connor and Trevor Aaronson
Florida Center for Investigative Reporting/StateImpact Florida
Thousands of Florida students already are taking classes from Virginia-based K12, Inc., the nation’s largest online education company.
In case Scott didn't hear it all . . .
By Gary Stein
South Florida Sun Sentinel
I'm not saying Florida Gov. Rick Scott has an image problem, but in the latest poll I saw, his popularity rankings are actually a few steps below NFL replacement officials.
DOE's Stewart Gets Praise From Governor And Teachers Union As Ed Commissioner Search
By Lynn Hatter
WFSU Tallahassee
A national search for Florida’s next Education Commissioner continues after the state board extended the deadline for applicants.
Gov. Rick Scott calls for 'top-down' review of leadership at FSCJ
By Kate Howard Perry
Florida Times-Union
Gov. Rick Scott called on Sunday for a review of leadership “from the top down” at Florida State College at Jacksonville.
The Bright Futures quandary persists
By Nathan Crabbe
Gainesville Sun
It's a debate as old as the program itself: whether the state's Bright Futures scholarships should be based on merit or need.
Mum's the word
Editorial
Gainesville Sun
The cat's out of the bag. University of Florida President Bernie Machen is expected to announce this week that UF has exceeded its $1.5 billion, five-year, Florida Tomorrow fundraising goal.
JOBS,
BUDGET, AND ECONOMY
Suggestions for how Disney World can align more with its GOP dollars
By Frank Cerabino
Palm Beach Post
Dear Walt Disney World: As a Floridian who has spent many a day traipsing through your theme parks, I thought I was an expert on all things Disney.
Florida banking on the mend
By John Hielscher
Sarasota Herald-Tribune
In his 40 years in the banking business, 1st Manatee Bank president and chief executive Thomas Hodgson has weathered some difficult years.
HEALTH
AND SENIORS
Can Florida’s Medicaid reform plan be the model for the nation?
By John Dorschner
Miami Herald
Quietly, over the past six years, an experiment in providing healthcare for the poor has been playing out in Broward and four other counties around the state. Its basic goal is to relieve the financial pressures of Medicaid on Florida’s taxpayers by turning over poor and disabled patients to private companies, a move lawmakers believe will cut costs.
Another active TB case found in Duval County
By James Call
Florida Current
The Florida Department of Health reports it has found another active case of tuberculosis.
Funding for drug-abuse database is in doubt
By Kathleen Haughney
South Florida Sun Sentinel
Backers of a year-old drug database widely heralded as a key to stopping the state's prescription-drug-abuse problems said the project has nearly run out of money, triggering concerns about the survival of a program that Gov. Rick Scott and House lawmakers once tried to kill.
JUSTICE
AND THE COURTS
Florida justices under attack for ruling that turned on defense attorney's tactics
By Curtis Krueger
Tampa Bay Times
Related editorial: In court threat, GOP hides behind silence
The Republican Party of Florida says it is working to unseat three Florida Supreme Court justices partly because of one "egregious" opinion that said a murderer on death row should get a new trial.
'This Is Supposed To Be A Non-Partisan Race': Judges Face Republican Party, Super PAC
By Jessica Palombo
WFSU Tallahassee
Media campaigns against three Florida Supreme Court justices are accusing them of making decisions based on political leanings.
Cops, firefighters to formally oppose "political attacks on the Florida Supreme Court”
By Matt Dixon
Florida Times-Union
The Florida State Fraternal Order of Police and Florida Professional Fire Fighters are holding a conference call Monday to officially oppose “political attacks on the Florida Supreme Court.”
Stop assault on the courts
Editorial
Tampa Tribune
Floridians have many important races to decide in November, including the presidency and a U.S. senate seat.
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