Daily News Clips for October 4, 2012

FEATURED STORIES

Obama and Romney, in First Debate, Spar Over Fixing the Economy
By Jeff Zeleny and Jim Rutenberg
New York Times
Mitt Romney on Wednesday accused President Obama of failing to lead the country out of the deepest economic downturn since the Great Depression, using the first presidential debate to invigorate his candidacy by presenting himself as an equal who can solve problems Mr. Obama has been unable to.

Mitt Romney aggressive, confident in first debate
By Alex Leary
Tampa Bay Times
Related: Breaking down the presidential debate
Related: PolitiFact: Fact-checking the Denver presidential debate
Editorial: Romney on style; Obama on facts
Mitt Romney, needing a strong showing in the first presidential debate Wednesday night, delivered a commanding one, helped by a flat rival who was forced to defend the past.

FDLE launches criminal investigation into voter registration forms by GOP vendor
By Michael Van Sickler
Tampa Bay Times/Miami Herald Tallahassee Bureau
The Florida Department of Law Enforcement announced Wednesday that it is launching a criminal investigation into voter registration forms filed by a GOP vendor, Strategic Allied Consulting.

Liberal groups tout get-out -the-vote efforts, bemoan 'suppression'; RPOF says there's no problem
By Gray Rohrer
Florida Current
In a conference call with reporters Wednesday, liberal activist groups said their efforts to register voters were overcoming Gov. Rick Scott’s bid to remove non-citizens from the polls and an elections law they say is aimed at dampening turnout among traditional Democratic voters -- women, college students and minorities.

Ex-Sen. Graham: Education cuts undermine Florida economy
By John Kennedy
Palm Beach Post
Florida’s ruling Republicans are undermining their own pledge to boost the state’s economy by shifting millions of dollars away from public education, former U.S. Sen. Bob Graham and state Democratic Party Chairman Rod Smith said Wednesday.

Courts should be off-limits to partisan politics
By H. Lee Moffitt
Gainesville Sun
In 1976, when I was a member of the Florida House of Representatives, I sponsored HJR 2762, a constitutional amendment for the merit selection and retention of our appellate and Supreme Court judges.

FLORIDA POLITICS

Huge ballot likely to test voters' concentration, patience
By Aaron Deslatte
Orlando Sentinel
County election supervisors are bracing for an unprecedented influx of frustration from voters in the coming weeks, thanks to the extraordinary length of this year's election ballot.

Minority Advocates On Track To Register 50,000 New Florida Voters
By Jessica Palombo    
WFSU Tallahassee
Several minority-advocacy groups in Florida are conducting large-scale voter-registration and education drives ahead of the state's registration deadline on Oct. 9.

The Matter with Voter Registration
By Susan Clary
Florida Voices
Voter turnout in the Florida primary was dismal this year – less than 20 percent statewide - despite the efforts of dozens of campaigns and hundreds of volunteers to get people to the polls.

Rick Scott Fundraises Off Florida Voter Purge Effort
By Nick Wing
The Huffington Post
Florida Gov. Rick Scott (R) has launched a new fundraising plea seeking to draw donations from supporters of his controversial move to purge suspected non-citizen voters from the rolls.

POLITICAL RACES

Obama and Romney trade jabs over jobs, taxes, Medicare
By David Lightman and Anita Kumar
McClatchy Newspapers
With the presidency hanging in the balance, President Barack Obama and Republican challenger Mitt Romney clashed sharply Wednesday in their first debate, trying to convince voters they’re uniquely qualified to lead the country to full recovery from the worst economic downturn since the 1930s.

GOP exults over Romney’s debate performance
By David Nakamura and Philip Rucker
The Washington Post
The candidates were still onstage, delivering their closing statements, but behind the scenes the march of the Republicans had begun. Into the vast media hangar they came, parading triumphantly beneath red signs bearing their names under the "R" campaign logo of Mitt Romney: Portman. Rubio. Giuliani. Hatch.

NBC/WSJ/Marist poll: Nelson up 11, Obama-Romney tied in Florida
By William March
Tampa Tribune
Sen. Bill Nelson is up 11 points over Rep. Connie Mack IV and President Barack Obama held a 1-point lead over Mitt Romney—essentially a tie—in a new poll by NBC News, the Wall Street Journal and the Marist College Institute for Public Opinion.

Mitt Romney to hold rally in St. Petersburg on Friday
Staff Report
Tampa Bay Times
Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney is headed to St. Petersburg on Friday for a rally.

Democrat Jessica Ehrlich's fight to upend C.W. Bill Young gets a little tougher
By Craig Pittman
Tampa Bay Times
First-time candidate Jessica Ehrlich already was facing an uphill battle by challenging longtime U.S. Rep. C.W. Bill Young, an 81-year-old incumbent with more government experience and name recognition who has been re-elected since 1970.

Bogdanoff, Sachs face off in state’s only Senate race between two incumbents
By Ana M. Valdes
Palm Beach Post
The battle between Sens. Maria Sachs, D-Boca Raton, and Ellyn Bogdanoff, R-Fort Lauderdale, for the newly drawn Palm Beach-Broward District 34 seat is the one to watch this election season.

BALLOT INITIATIVES

Amendment 8 pits religious groups against backers of church-state separation
By Leslie Postal
Orlando Sentinel
Dead almost 120 years, James Blaine — the GOP presidential candidate in 1884 — is making an appearance in Florida's 2012 election.

About All Those Constitutional Amendments
By Paula Dockery
Florida Voices  
The Nov. 6 general election ballot is very lengthy. The culprit -- 11 proposed constitutional amendments added by the Florida Legislature.

Cheap political ploy
Editorial
Gainesville Sun
We get it, Gov. Rick Scott and state legislative leaders hate Obamacare.

Don’t tread on judiciary
Editorial
Miami Herald
Once again the Florida Legislature can’t seem to keep its collective hands off the separate and co-equal branch of government, the judiciary.

ENVIRONMENT AND ENERGY

While visiting struggling seafood workers, Scott says water focus should be on federal reservoir operations
By Bruce Ritchie
Florida Current
Gov. Rick Scott visited struggling Franklin County seafood workers on Wednesday and seemed to dismiss the idea of working with the governors of neighboring states who are battling with Florida for water.

Coalition backs repeal of nuclear advance cost recovery law
By Susan Salisbury
Palm Beach Post
A Florida law that has allowed utilities to collect millions of dollars from customers for pre-construction costs for nuclear plants that might never be built should be struck down by the Florida Supreme Court, a bipartisan group of elected officials and AARP said today.

U.S. senator blasts BP at environment hearing.
Associated Press
Florida Current
U.S. Sen. David Vitter, R-La., blasted oil giant BP PLC  for what he called its attempt to run from its full cleanup responsibilities for the 2010 disaster that left the Gulf Coast heavily oiled. Vitter spoke during a briefing of the Committee on Environment and Public Works, a Senate body that oversees environmental issues.

Preserve Florida land by getting Florida's Water & Land Legacy amendment on 2014 ballot
By Chuck Barrowclough
TC Palm
There comes a time in life when you start thinking about the kind of legacy you want to leave behind.

EDUCATION

Fla. Dems Attack Republicans For Tuition Hikes, Higher Ed Budget Cuts
By Lynn Hatter 
WFSU Tallahassee
The Florida Democrats have been attacking Republicans for cuts to higher education and tuition increases.

PB school officials discuss opposing Amendments 3, 4
By Karen Yi
South Florida Sun Sentinel
School officials in Palm Beach County said Wednesday they were concerned two ballot initiatives that would limit state and local revenues, could negatively impact public education.

Chinese funding Florida charter schools
By Meisha Perrin
Miami Today
Investment money is pouring into Florida from wealthy Chinese who find that Florida has exactly what they are looking for — and what they need to secure US green cards.

JOBS, BUDGET, AND ECONOMY

Report: 1 million state jobs by 2020
By Marcia Heroux Pounds
South Florida Sun Sentinel
Florida is expected to add 1 million new jobs by 2020, according to data from the Florida Workforce Estimating Conference.

Experts: Citizens insurance increase will hurt home sales
By John Hielscher
Sarasota Herald-Tribune
A scheduled rate increase next year by Citizens Property Insurance Corp. could scuttle some home sales, especially among buyers who may be stretching to snap up Southwest Florida's rapidly diminishing inventory.

HEALTH AND SENIORS

How Will The Election Change Medicaid?
By Phil Galewitz
Kaiser Health News
The future of Medicaid -- the state-federal workhorse of the nation's health system that provides health coverage to the poorest and sickest Americans -- hangs in the balance on Election Day.

Lives will be lost if state lets drug database die
Editorial
Orlando Sentinel
Nothing succeeds like success. Except in Florida.

JUSTICE AND THE COURTS

Democratic chairman: 'Don't politicize the judiciary'
By Bill Cotterell
Florida Current
The Florida Democratic Party will not follow state Republicans, who last month urged voters to reject three Supreme Court justices at the polls next month, but party Chairman Rod Smith said Wednesday he will personally speak out against "politicization" of the judiciary every chance he gets.