Daily News Clips for October 8, 2012

PROGRESS FLORIDA IN THE NEWS

The BluVu: Week of October 7^th
By Gayle Andrews
The BluVu
This week we're talking about GOP voter registration fraud, the latest polls, and Progress Florida’s Damien Filer discusses Rick Scott’s effort to control the Florida Supreme Court as political reality comes your way!

FEATURED STORIES

Presidential race rumbles into final 4 weeks
By Ben Feller and Steve Peoples
Associated Press
Rumbling into its final four weeks, the presidential campaign is playing out on both coasts and multiple fronts, with Republican Mitt Romney seeking stature on foreign affairs and President Barack Obama raising political cash by the millions.

Inside complex, colorful Miami-Dade, Florida's largest county where every vote is critical for Obama
By Adam C. Smith
Tampa Bay Times
What if a presidential election came down to the strangest county in the weirdest state in America?

Newly confident Romney rallies thousands in St. Petersburg
By Katie Sanders
Tampa Bay Times
A newly confident Mitt Romney returned to Florida on Friday and picked up where he left off at the first presidential debate, attacking President Barack Obama on taxes, spending and regulation.

Election 'mania' missing on college campuses
Associated Press
Ocala Star-Banner
What a difference four years can make.

Voters in Florida Are Set to Weigh in on Two Contentious Ballot Questions
By Lizette Alvarez
New York Times
In a year in which most states have steered clear of contentious ballot initiatives, Florida voters are facing two proposed constitutional amendments — one on abortion, the other on the separation of church and state — that could have far-reaching repercussions.

Fla. Supreme Court justices fight back to retain seats
By Mary Ellen Klas
Miami Herald/Tampa Bay Times Tallahassee Bureau
Related editorial: GOP’s unwarranted assault
The host committee for the campaign fundraiser at the DoubleTree Hotel here in June included former Gov. Reubin Askew, five former Supreme Court justices and some of Florida’s most prominent lawyers and lobbyists.

EDITORIAL CARTOON OF THE WEEK

By Jim Morin
Miami Herald

FLORIDA POLITICS

Florida the 'Wild West' for third-party PACs
By John Kennedy
Palm Beach Post
Nancy Watkins’ accounting office on a leafy street in Tampa may be one of the scariest addresses in Florida — for Democrats.

Fla. Gov. target even though he's not on ballot
By Gary Fineout
Associated Press
There's one person not on this year's ballot who is still getting his fair share of grief. And that's Gov. Rick Scott.

Rep. Allen West: Jobs Report Is an Obama Plot!
By Tim Murphy
Mother Jones
The monthly jobs report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics was released on Friday, and it had good news for President Obama: Non-farm unemployment numbers dropped below 8 percent—to 7.8—for the first time since January 2009.

Memories of vote suppression, old and new
By Bill Maxwell
Tampa Bay Times
During this presidential election year, as Republicans seek to oust President Barack Obama from the White House, Americans are getting a chilling blast from the past.

New politics seeks to rig elections legally
By Randy Schultz
Palm Beach Post
It is 2015. Democrat Charlie Crist has just taken office as governor of Florida.

Ethics commission readies reform 'wish list' for Florida lawmakers
By Matt Dixon  
Florida Times-Union
Although election season is still in full swing, the Florida Commission on Ethics is readying its wish list for lawmakers when they leave the campaign trail and return to the capital.

Sick-time group sues county over lobbyist texts
By Mark Schlueb
Orlando Sentinel
Advocates for a sick-time ballot initiative sued Orange County on Friday, saying county commissioners violated state public-record and open-meeting laws by exchanging text messages with lobbyists opposed to the measure and later deleting those messages.

POLITICAL RACES

Key to Florida victory might be Jacksonville area
By Brendan Farrington
Associated Press
Eric Allen was 18 and voting in his first presidential election when he chose Barack Obama over John McCain. Four years older now and looking for a job, he is just the kind of voter Republican Mitt Romney needs to win — and win big — in northeast Florida’s Duval County and take the most coveted of the toss-up states.

Mitt Romney thrills throngs of admirers in Apopka
By Scott Powers
Orlando Sentinel
Under a threatening evening sky, an energized and confident Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney spoke of the "greatness of the American spirit" Saturday night — and thousands of people spilling up a hillside returned his energy.

Romney skips on way to moderation
By Myriam Marquez
Miami Herald
After Mitt Romney’s masterful debate performance in Colorado, my blue Democratic friends are feeling, well, blue.

In 2012 race for Congress, rage is out, solutions are in
By Alex Leary
Tampa Bay Times
Related: Florida congressional vulnerability rankings
This is Rep. Allen West in Washington: aggressive, blunt and partisan — the tea party hero who compares Democrats to communists and Nazis.

Congressional ratings indicate Nelson is a centrist
By William March
Tampa Tribune
Much of Rep. Connie Mack IV's U.S. Senate campaign is summed up in a single phrase he repeats in nearly every stump speech: His opponent, Sen. Bill Nelson, is "a lockstep liberal with Barack Obama."

Out-of-state donors loom large in Florida’s U.S. Senate race
By John Kennedy
Palm Beach Post
Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush headlined a fundraiser Friday for Republican Connie Mack IV’s campaign, but the state’s high-stakes U.S. Senate race is featuring more murky out-of-state spending groups than any household names.

West, Murphy appeal to the middle in first appearance together
By George Bennett
Palm Beach Post
Running in a classic swing district, both U.S. Rep. Allen West, R-Palm Beach Gardens, and Democratic challenger Patrick Murphy appealed to the political center when they appeared together for the first time at a League of Women Voters forum last week in Fort Pierce.

Spending heavy in 3 Senate races that could tip power
By James Call
Florida Current
In his first run for a state office, a Volusia County commissioner is heading into the final month of the 2012 campaign with more money in his account than a veteran Republican lawmaker.

BALLOT INITIATIVES

Abortion issue raises privacy concerns
By Dara Kam
Palm Beach Post
More than a year before the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the federal health care act, Republican legislators put two constitutional amendments on the Florida ballot designed to keep portions of it from going into effect in the state.

Vote no on Amendment 8
By Deirdre Macnab
Naples Daily News
As mail-in ballots are delivered to voters all across Florida, they are now seeing the scope of the many important decisions they must make this election year.

Reject bogus ‘health services’ amendment
Editorial
Palm Beach Post
The proposed Health Care Services charter amendment on the Nov. 6 ballot — Amendment 1 — is nothing more than a reminder that the Florida Legislature cares more about making political statements than about the health care needs of Floridians.

Reject revenue straitjacket
Editorial
Tampa Bay Times
Two decades ago, capping future revenue in fast-growing states was all the rage, as voters concluded that governments flush with cash had grown fat and arrogant.

A cut too deep
Editorial
Gainesville Sun
We're not surprised that the Gainesville City Commission is opposing Amendment 4.

Amendments 6, 8? No
Editorial
Orlando Sentinel
For Florida voters, November's ballot is practically a novella.

ENVIRONMENT AND ENERGY

Holding Florida Utility Customers Hostage to Nuclear’s False Dawn
By Pierre Tristam
Florida Voices
Private investors aren’t big on nuclear power. It’s not cost-effective.

Push for Amendment to Protect Florida's Environment
By Stephanie Carroll Carson
Public News Service Florida
Efforts continue to pass an amendment to Florida's state constitution to protect annual funding for environmental protection and restoration. The Florida Land and Legacy Campaign is working through a petition drive to put an amendment on the November 2014 ballot to guarantee annual funding for land and water conservation.

Slime torrent polluting state’s coast
By Carl Hiaasen
Miami Herald
The biggest public toilet flushing in the country is underway at Lake Okeechobee.

Gulf Coast senators to Obama: Ensure BP spill deal is fair
By Roberta Rampton
Reuters
Senators from the U.S. Gulf Coast urged President Barack Obama on Friday to ensure that any legal settlement for the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill does not undermine a recently passed law that would funnel billions of dollars worth of fines to their states.

LGBT

Clash over same-sex marriage motivates voters
By William E. Gibson
Orlando Sentinel
President Barack Obama sparked a burst of enthusiasm from Florida's gay and lesbian voters and a backlash from conservative Christians in May when he proclaimed unequivocal support for same-sex marriage.

EDUCATION

Florida weighs reaction to allowing in-state tuition for illegal immigrants' kids
By Denise-Marie Ordway
Orlando Sentinel
State education officials are debating how to respond to a federal ruling that deemed it unconstitutional for Florida colleges and universities to charge higher tuition to the dependent children of illegal immigrants.

Miami-Dade Has The Most Low Performing Schools
By Gina Jordan
StateImpact Florida
Miami-Dade has overtaken Duval as the district with the highest number of “priority” schools, formerly known as “intervene.”

FAMU band members' GPAs raise more questions about Marching 100
By Denise-Marie Ordway
Orlando Sentinel
Nearly 50 members of Florida A&M University's famed marching band had GPAs last fall that were below a 2.0 — the minimum grade-point average required to participate in student organizations on campus.

JOBS, BUDGET, AND ECONOMY

Officials reject conspiracies on unemployment data
Associated Press
Tampa Tribune
When conspiracists suggested Friday that the Obama administration had engineered a sharp drop in unemployment to aid President Barack Obama's re-election, the response was swift.

Key lawmaker wants Legislature to review Citizens plans
By Toluse Olorunnipa
Tampa Bay Times/Miami Herald Tallahassee Bureau
The plan to loan $350 million to private insurers from the surplus account of Citizens Property Insurance Corp. hit a major roadblock Friday, when the incoming speaker of the Florida House asked the state-run insurer to halt the program and submit it for legislative review.

Driver savings a sham under PIP law, critics say
By Charles Elmore
Palm Beach Post
A Miami auto insurer that gave $100,000 to Gov. Rick Scott’s political committee seeks an 18.6 percent increase in personal injury protection rates, records show — a far cry from a targeted 10 percent reduction under a law Scott made one of his top 2012 priorities.

HEALTH AND SENIORS

Fla. Medicaid program in limbo
By Kelli Kennedy
Associated Press
Millions of uninsured Florida families and health care providers are in a purgatory of sorts.

TB testing finds another 19 cases
By James Call
Florida Current
The Florida Department of Health reported Friday another 19 cases of people testing positive for the TB bacillus. Since July, health workers have been locating and testing individuals on a priority list of people thought to have come into contact with the bacterium that causes the lung disease.

Florida Drug Database Rarely Used by Doctors
By John Woodrow Cox
Tampa Bay Times
One year ago, Florida created a weapon meant to help stop the prescription drug epidemic that kills an average of more than six people a day in this state.

8 FL clinics got tainted drug
Staff Report
Health News Florida
So far eight clinics in Florida have been identified as having received shipments of an injectable drug thought to be contaminated with a fungus that causes a rare form of meningitis, the state Department of Health announced Friday afternoon.

CIVIL RIGHTS, PEACE AND SOCIAL ISSUES

Billboards Unveiled Friday in NAACP ‘Felony Disenfranchisement’ Campaign
By Sascha Cordner      
WFSU Tallahassee
The deadline to register voters in Florida is just days away, but there’s a group of people who won’t be able to participate in this year’s election regardless of their Florida residency.

JUSTICE AND THE COURTS

Three justices worry pressure groups could corrupt courts
By Bill Cotterell
Florida Current
Three state Supreme Court justices fighting for their jobs told Florida State University law students Friday the real issue on the ballot next month is whether the judicial branch of government will remain free of political influence and potential corruption.