Daily News Clips for January 14, 2013

FEATURED STORIES

Rick Scott's midterm: Criticized Naples Republican governor defends record
By Jenna Buzzacco-Foerster
Naples Daily News
Related: Rick Scott's midterm: Timeline of governor's first two years
Two years ago when Rick Scott completed his improbable rise from novice politician to governor of Florida, the state had a 10.9 percent unemployment rate.

Experts Tell FL Lawmakers: Just Do It
By Carol Gentry
Health News Florida
An expert on health insurance exchanges told Florida lawmakers today they made a mistake in not deciding to build a state-based exchange under the Affordable Care Act, leaving it to the federal government.

Will Rick Scott do right by Florida this time?
By Tim Nickens
Tampa Bay Times
Related: A political fable: The governor who cried wolf
Related editorial: Medicaid numbers add up for Florida
We are about to find out if Gov. Rick Scott has learned anything about vision and investing in Florida's future — or whether he remains driven by short-term political calculations, rigid ideology and disdain for President Barack Obama.

More Guns or Fewer Guns? That’s The Question Some Florida Lawmakers Are Debating 
By Regan McCarthy      
WFSU Tallahassee
What’s the best way to protect Floridians from tragedies like the school shooting in Newtown Connecticut?

GOP tripled Democratic Party spending in Florida in 2012 election cycle
By John Kennedy
Palm Beach Post
New reports show Florida Republicans ended the 2012 campaign with another fund-raising surge after vastly outspending Democrats yet still losing the state to President Barack Obama and suffering setbacks in Congress and the state Legislature.

EDITORIAL CARTOON OF THE WEEK

By Jeff Parker
Florida Today

FLORIDA POLITICS

Florida's elections supervisors seek more early voting days
By Matt Dixon  
Florida Times-Union
Giving local election officials the option to restore recently cut early voting days is part of a legislative package being pushed by county supervisors of elections.

Gov. Rick Scott rewards donors with high-ranking posts
By Noah Pransky
WTSP Tampa Bay
Governor Rick Scott has rewarded a number of political allies and donors with key posts on state boards.

Will Rick Scott's charm offensive become more than a hill of beans?
By Marc Caputo
Miami Herald
Rick Scott seemed fascinated with the beans.

Florida first lady Ann Scott finding her voice
By Katie Sanders
Tampa Bay Times
Ann Scott stepped up to the microphone in a tangerine dress, her blond hair curled in at her shoulders, flags of her country and state behind her.

Tight race to succeed chairman of Dems
By Adam C. Smith
Tampa Bay Times
Not since at least 1992 have Florida Democrats had as heated and competitive a race for state party chairman as the one now raging between Tampa's Alan Clendenin and Tallahassee's Allison Tant.

Local tea parties regroup after election, tax deal losses
By George Bennett
Palm Beach Post
Jolted by the re-election of President Barack Obama, the defeat of congressional tea party icon Allen West and the cracking of Republican anti-tax orthodoxy during the recent federal budget showdown, the tea party movement is trying to rebrand and repackage itself in South Florida.

Lobby limits welcome, but probe still needed
Editorial
Orlando Sentinel
Mayor Teresa Jacobs is right: Orange County's textgate scandal never should have happened.

POLITICAL RACES

2012 campaign dollars poured into unlimited accounts
By Mary Ellen Klas
Miami Herald/Tampa Bay Times Tallahassee Bureau
Florida’s sputtering economy did not stop interest groups and donors from spending $306 million this election cycle on state political campaigns, according to final election year tallies released Friday. 

ENVIRONMENT AND ENERGY

What Kind Of Role Will Congress Play This Year In Everglades Restoration Efforts?
By Sascha Cordner      
WFSU Tallahassee
Congressional, state, and environmental leaders are hoping to continue trying to make the Everglades a focus this year.

South Florida bird count finds wood stork in ‘unprecedented decline’
By Christine Stapleton
Palm Beach Post
Late in December, about the same time federal wildlife officials were filing notice of their intention to take the wood stork off the endangered species list, wading bird experts at the South Florida Water Management District were finishing a report detailing the plight of the bird after three years of poor nesting.

Hunters, media turn out for Python Challenge kickoff
By Christine Stapleton
Palm Beach Post
Python hunters barely outnumbered journalists and film crews at the kickoff of the first Python Challenge on Saturday — a contest that veteran hunters say will grab more headlines than snakes.

U.S. Supreme Court to hear landowner's 'weird' challenge of wetlands mitigation
By Bruce Ritchie
Florida Current
When Coy A. Koontz Sr. sought to build on 3 acres of wetlands on his property in Orange County, he was told by the St. Johns River Water Management District that he could if he paid for work restoring wetlands on agency property seven miles away.

EDUCATION

New Fla. education commissioner followed Bush lead
By Bill Kaczor
Associated Press
As schools chief in Indiana, Florida's new education commissioner had a reputation as a hard-charging, caustic, union-battling advocate for the kind of conservative policies pushed by former Sunshine State Gov. Jeb Bush — a friend and supporter of the Republican.

Some UF supporters worry Gov. Rick Scott crossed line to keep President Bernie Machen
By Tia Mitchell
Miami Herald/Tampa Bay Times Tallahassee Bureau
News that Bernie Machen will remain president of the University of Florida has been widely regarded as a positive step for the school yearning for higher national prominence.

A recipe for mediocrity in higher ed
Editorial
Tampa Bay Times
The Board of Governors, which oversees the state university system, needs visionary members with varied backgrounds who come from throughout the state.

JOBS, BUDGET, AND ECONOMY

Florida's growth challenges are the same, but political realities aren't
By Aaron Deslatte
Orlando Sentinel
For more than a year, Florida's job-creation agency has been developing a 50-year strategic "vision" for handling the state's growth.

Regulators, business lobby, insurers to make property insurance pitch to Senate panel
By Gray Rohrer
Florida Current
Business groups, insurance regulators and property insurance companies will make their case on Wednesday for changing Florida’s property insurance market before the Senate Banking and Insurance Committee.

HEALTH AND SENIORS

A business case for expanding Medicaid
Editorial
South Florida Sun Sentinel
Now we can have an honest conversation about the costs and benefits of adding more uninsured Floridians to the state's Medicaid rolls under a provision of the federal health reform law known as Obamacare.

Scott, Trump, Frankel, Murphy go bipartisan at fundraiser for Komen for the Cure
By Toni-Ann Miller
Palm Beach Post
Gov. Rick Scott and his wife joined congressional leaders and other dignitaries at a fundraiser for breast cancer research Saturday evening at Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago Club in Palm Beach.

Telemedicine likely coming to a computer near you
By James Call
Florida Current
A consumer may find it easier to pay a mortgage on-line, make an airline reservation or purchase tickets to a concert or a ballgame than it is to find a doctor.

CIVIL RIGHTS, PEACE AND SOCIAL ISSUES

Floridians join big push for immigration overhaul
By William E. Gibson
Orlando Sentinel
From the White House to the vegetable fields of South Florida, advocates for immigration reform are about to launch a public-pressure campaign to prod Congress to enact sweeping legislation that provides a path to citizenship for millions of illegal residents.

Coalition to Stop Gun Violence calls for substantive action from Biden task force
By Lisa Marzilli
WMNF Tampa
Guns headlined the news both nationally and locally all week. Vice President Joe Biden met with a variety of groups, including gun retailers, video game manufacturers and the NRA, as part of the White House task force on gun violence.

Group blasts proposals to send more police into schools
By Lauren Roth and Jon Busdeker
Orlando Sentinel
A national civil-rights group Friday condemned placing more police officers in schools, as Orange County did this week, as an overreaction to the massacre in Newtown, Conn., that will end up hurting children.

Appropriate job for big NRA backer
By Carl Hiaasen
Miami Herald
It’s only fitting that the NRA’s biggest tool in Florida is a funeral director.

Fewer Guns? Forget About it! Arm Everyone
By Pierre Tristam
Florida Voices
I’ve been listening to Wayne LaPierre, the National Rifle Association CEO and executive vice president,  talk about how to protect our children from the next school massacre.