PROGRESS
FLORIDA IN THE NEWS
Amendment 1: Testing public support for 'Obamacare'
By Tia Mitchell
Tampa Bay Times/Miami Herald Tallahassee Bureau
Excerpt: Progress Florida executive director Mark Ferrulo thinks the Republican-led Legislature was playing politics when it put Amendment 1 on the ballot. "We believe it's just largely throwing a bone to the sort of tea-party wing which was so incensed over Obamacare," he said.
The BluVu: Week of October 28th
By Gayle Andrews
The BluVu
The debate was a slam dunk for the President but the race is still tight nationwide, the battleground states like Florida are still in command and Progress Florida’s Damien Filer has a firsthand look at how education remains in the spotlight as political reality comes your way!
FEATURED
STORIES
President Barack Obama in Tampa: 'We can write the next chapter together'
By Marissa Lang, Katie Sanders and Adam C. Smith
Tampa Bay Times
Related: 'Surprise' Obama visits make morning anything but routine
The final push to squeeze every last vote out of Florida brought Barack Obama to Ybor City on Thursday, where the president exhorted thousands of supporters to help him "finish what we started in 2008."
Democrats gear-up for early voting, an edge they exploited in 2008
By Christine Stapleton
Palm Beach Post
An hour before sunrise Saturday, a group of clergy will gather outside the Palm Beach County Supervisor of Elections headquarters, bless the polls and lead the faithful in eight days of early voting — a seemingly benign practice that has become a righteous exercise for Democrats.
Floridians appear in TV spots for Obama
By Adam C. Smith
Tampa Bay Times
Local Voices, a group founded by filmaker Lee Hirsch, a Sundance-Film-Festival and Emmy-award winner, and creator of the documentary “Bully," has produced a series of 60-second spots airing now on Cable and targetting Osceola, Manatee and Polk Counties.
Election 2012: Florida U.S. Senate race a study in contrasts
By John Kennedy
Palm Beach Post
Democrat Bill Nelson and Republican Connie Mack IV are giving voters sharp contrasts but few fireworks in their duel for U.S. Senate, the premier state race on Florida’s Nov. 6 ballot.
Scott unveils schools plan, as elections near
By John Kennedy
Palm Beach Post
With Republican legislative candidates under siege from Democrats over school spending, Gov. Rick Scott unveiled an education platform Thursday that includes steady classroom funding, a new approach to testing and more charter schools.
BEST
OF THE BLOGS
ALEC On The Ballot: ALEC's Influence In Florida Amendments
By Martha Jackovics
Beach Peanuts
Eleven constitutional amendments appear on Florida's ballot in the upcoming election, and many groups including Progress Florida and the League of Women Voters of Florida, along with several newspapers, are urging voters to "just say no" to all of them, and for good reason.
Florida Leads Race to the Bottom on Unemployment Compensation
By Kenneth Quinnell
AFL-CIO Now
Americans faced with a tough economy face significant struggles when they lose their jobs.
Quick Guide to the 2012 Florida Amendments – Just Say “No”
By Bruce Seaman
Daily Marion
This year’s ballot is a mammoth mess for voters thanks to the GOP dominated legislature piling all kinds of nonsense into it.
5 Voter Misinformation Campaigns To Watch Out For
By Aviva Shen
Think Progress
Though most voter ID laws and voter purges have been thrown out or delayed by judges, voter suppression efforts are still alive and well.
A better way for Republicans to understand this election
By Gimleteye
Eye on Miami
The way to achieve a return to the center and away from extremism that characterizes the heart of the GOP is for Republicans to either vote for Barack Obama and Democrats, or, not to vote at all.
FLORIDA
POLITICS
GOP Voter Fraud Accusations Suddenly Blowing Up In Their Faces
By Dan Froomkin
Huffington Post
Republican officials, who have used hysteria about alleged voter fraud as an excuse to support measures that disproportionately block Democratic voters, are furiously trying to distance themselves from a growing number of GOP voter registration drives that either submitted false applications or threw away authentic ones.
RPOF Chairman Target of Voter Intimidation
By Whitney Ray
Capitol News Service
The head of the Republican Party of Florida ineligible to vote?
Copying of bad Palm Beach County absentee ballots going well — so far — as elections supervisor adds workers, hours
By Jane Musgrave
Palm Beach Post
After more than a week of bad news about absentee ballots with printing errors and the potential chaos of hand-copying an estimated 27,000 of them, Palm Beach County Supervisor of Elections Susan Bucher on Thursday found something to smile about.
Absentee voting's rise means more risk of problems
By Curt Anderson
Associated Press
Because of a printing error, somewhere around 27,000 absentee ballots already cast by voters are being painstakingly copied by hand in Palm Beach County to make sure they can be read by a scanning machine.
Scott Cancels Events for Emergency Trip to see Mother
By Mike Vasilinda
Capitol News Service
Governor Rick Scott cancelled his scheduled events this afternoon to fly to Kansas City to be with his mother, Esther.
POLITICAL
RACES
Mack family name may not be enough
By Scott Powers
Orlando Sentinel
Related: Nelson works hard to be seen as moderate
A baseball adorns U.S. Rep. Connie Mack IV's U.S. Senate campaign logo, replacing the "O" in his name.
Poll: Romney erases Obama lead among women
Associated Press
Tampa Tribune
Less than two weeks from Election Day, Republican Mitt Romney has erased President Barack Obama's 16-point advantage among women, a new Associated Press-GfK poll shows.
Charts: Women Are Backing Obama by the Binderful
By Dave Gilson
Mother Jones
Earlier this week, the New York Times' Nate Silver wrote about the gaping "gender gap" at the heart of the presidential race, specifically the degree to which women are breaking for Barack Obama and men are breaking for Mitt Romney.
After two days of uncertainty, Bucher appears ready to approve Romney campaign poll watchers
By George Bennett
Palm Beach Post
After more than two days of uncertainty that put Mitt Romney‘s campaign legal team on high alert, it appears that Palm Beach County Elections Supervisor Susan Bucher will accept the Romney camp’s designation of 487 poll watchers to monitor voting at county precincts during the Nov. 6 election.
Pasco school officials criticized for allowing Romney rally at stadium
By Ronnie Blair and Laura Kinsler
Tampa Tribune
The Pasco County School District is being accused of violating its own policies by allowing Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney to hold a political rally on school grounds Saturday night.
Campaigns deploy radio ads to gin up base voters
By Beth Fouhy
Associated Press
Tired of all those political ads on your TV screen? Don't look to your radio for relief.
Ann Romney's brief stop in Gainesville draws crowd of supporters
By Christopher Curry
Gainesville Sun
Borrowing from the lyrics of a popular country music tune, DeLena C. May says she was for Mitt Romney before Romney was cool.
BALLOT
INITIATIVES
Voters finding Florida ballot issues confusing
Associated Press
Palm Beach Post
The League of Women Voters of Florida says it's gotten more than 1,000 calls from voters who are confused and frustrated over the 11 proposed state constitutional amendments on the Nov. 6 ballot.
Another GOP power grab
Editorial
Florida Courier
The amendments that you will see on this year’s ballot are proposed changes to the Florida Constitution.
ENVIRONMENT
AND ENERGY
Collier, Franklin counties balk at joining oil spill consortium
By Bruce Ritchie
Florida Current
Collier and Franklin counties have refused to join 21 other Gulf Coast counties in forming a consortium to determine how fines from the 2010 oil spill should be spent.
BP pulls plug on planned biofuels plant in Highlands County after four stalled years
Staff Report
Tampa Bay Times
Energy giant BP said Thursday it canceled plans to build a commercial-scale cellulosic ethanol plant in Highlands County four years after first unveiling the Central Florida biofuels project.
LGBT
Obama backs gay marriage measures in 3 states
By David Crary
Associated Press
President Barack Obama on Thursday threw his support behind ballot measures in Maine, Maryland and Washington state that would legalize same-sex marriage.
Romney rejected new birth certificates for gay parents
By Murray Waas
Boston Globe
It seemed like a minor adjustment. To comply with the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court ruling that legalized gay marriage in 2003, the state Registry of Vital Records and Statistics said it needed to revise its birth certificate forms for babies born to same-sex couples.
EDUCATION
Charter school spent more on principal than teachers, students
By Lauren Roth
Orlando Sentinel
An Orange County charter school that gave its principal a $519,000 departure payout was an academic failure that struggled to provide its students with basic materials and qualified teachers, an evaluation by the school district shows.
Kudos, caution in reactions to Scott's 2013 education agenda
By Bill Cotterell
Florida Current
Gov. Rick Scott issued a wide-ranging agenda for education Thursday that calls for replacing Florida's math and English tests with "common core" standards, giving teachers debit cards to buy classroom supplies, and ending enrollment caps on charter schools to give parents more school choice.
JOBS,
BUDGET, AND ECONOMY
Consultant says companies will be lured to Florida by larger checks and smaller job-salary requirements
By Aaron Deslatte
Orlando Sentinel
A new report on Florida's economic competitiveness recommends that the state beef up Gov. Rick Scott's ability to lure new corporations with large checks and also lower standards for the wages these companies would have to pay.
Florida's Infrastructure Fails To Make the Grade in New Report
By Clark Barrineau
Columbia County Observer
Florida’s infrastructure has not improved over the last four years according to a new report by Florida’s civil engineers.
HEALTH
AND SENIORS
‘ObamaCare’: Its impact on FL
By Carol Gentry
Health News Florida
In the hyperbole of the campaign season, the truth about the Affordable Care Act -- aka "ObamaCare" -- has been stretched to the breaking point.
Obamacare will save lives, make Florida healthier
By Dr. Marc J. Yacht
Tampa Tribune
Florida ranks third in the nation for numbers of medically uninsured.
Justice Dept. Amps Up Lawsuit Threat Over Kids In Fla. Nursing Homes
By Jessica Palombo
WFSU Tallahassee
The federal government has sent another letter to Florida health care regulators, this time threatening to sue the state “in the very near future” if it does not cooperate.
JUSTICE
AND THE COURTS
Florida justices' supporters say fears easing
By Bill Kaczor
Associated Press
Supporters of three Florida Supreme Court justices seeking up-or-down retention votes say they're now less worried about losing due to indifference by the legal profession, the public and news media because the Republican Party's opposition to the trio has raised the race's profile.
Conservatives Taking Aim at Three Supreme Court Justices
By Paula Dockery
Florida Voices
As the election nears, voters are taking a look at this year's lengthy ballot.
Robes and rubes in Florida
By Daniel Ruth
Tampa Bay Times
We all know a so-called "activist judge" is a judge whose decision somebody disagrees with.
Keep justices on the job
Editorial
Orlando Sentinel
Should they stay or should they go? Since Florida began holding merit retention elections for its Supreme Court justices and appeals judges in 1978, state voters have always voted to keep them on the bench.
Sanford court hearing set on gag order request in Zimmerman case
By Frances Robles
Miami Herald
George Zimmerman’s defense lawyer is a familiar face on cable TV news programs, holds the occasional press conference, gives interviews to newspapers like this one, and keeps the public posted on the goings-on in the case via a controversial website.
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