Daily News Clips for January 2, 2013

FEATURED STORIES

Rubio breaks ranks, votes against Senate's bipartisan compromise
By Ledyard King
Fort Myers News-Press
Republican Sen. Marco Rubio broke with his party Tuesday and voted against a bipartisan compromise to avoid the "fiscal cliff" of tax hikes and spending cuts.

Florida's minimum wage increases to $7.79 per hour
By Arlene Satchell
South Florida Sun-Sentinel
Related: Minimum wage gap grows wider between states
Many low-wage workers in Florida will be getting a little bit more in their pay checks in the new year thanks to an increase in the minimum wage that took effect Jan. 1.

Big Medicaid, Obamacare issues face Florida in 2013
By Jim Saunders
The News Service Of Florida
Dealing with issues that affect the health care of millions of poor and uninsured residents, Florida leaders in 2013 could move forward with a long-awaited overhaul of the Medicaid system and likely will decide how to carry out the federal Affordable Care Act.

PIP reform law finally takes effect
By Kathleen Haughney
Orlando Sentinel
A major overhaul of the state's no-fault insurance law — which insurers have said could cut motorists' rates by 25 percent or more — will take effect Tuesday, one of a handful of new laws that will go on the statute books.

FLORIDA POLITICS

Rick Scott faces many challenges at term’s midpoint
By Lloyd Dunkelberger
Sarasota Herald-Tribune
Gov. Rick Scott enters the second half of his four-year term in some ways a far different politician from the one who shocked the Florida establishment in 2010 by winning his first-ever race for public office.

Don Gaetz defends staff members’ salaries
By Tom McLaughlin
Northwest Florida Daily News
State Sen. President Don Gaetz has been criticized across Florida for big salary increases given to members of the management team he selected to run his office.

Florida Democrats: our best weapon is Republicans
By Dara Kam
Palm Beach Post
Never miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity. That’s a criticism about Florida Democrats lobbed not by Republicans but by Sunshine State Democratic strategist Steve Schale, a comment about his own party, broadcast on his Facebook page.

Race for Democratic chairman intensifies
By Travis Pillow
Tallahassee Democrat
The Florida Democratic Party is set to pick a new leader within the next month.

Lois Frankel preps for work and life in Washington
By Anthony Man
South Florida Sun-Sentinel
Her bags are packed. She's found an apartment on craigslist and the utilities just got hooked up. And Lois Frankel, a Floridian for four decades, has a new and toasty winter coat, hat and boots.

ENVIRONMENT AND ENERGY

|Ignoring the real water problem
Editorial
Ocala Star-Banner
On the surface, North Florida's two regional water management districts appear to be showing commendable initiative in studying ways to recharge our depleted and declining aquifer.

Florida Panther Deaths in 2012 Break Record
By Kyle Swenson
The Daily Pulp
Over the last year we've kept you clued in on the fate of the Florida panthers, the big cats that have been showing up dead at a surprising rate.

Wildlife officials fight to keep scrub jays from extinction
By Kate Spinner
Sarasota Herald-Tribune
Oscar Scherer State Park was once the go-to place to spot scrub jays in Southwest Florida. They would flit gregariously among stunted scrub oaks and land on visitors' heads.

EDUCATION

Less Than 5 Months In, Charter School Closes, Upending Parents, District and County
Staff Report
Flagler Live
The Christmas decorations right from the entrance announce nothing but cheer, the poinsettias’ reds still sparkling almost as much as the fresh paint on the walls, the blues and yellows there less than five months.

Charter, voucher, online schools campaigning for bigger role in Florida
By John Kennedy
Palm Beach Post
Charter school, voucher and online education companies poured more than $2 million into this fall’s political campaigns, primarily those of Republicans who are again demanding more alternatives to traditional public schools.

Education Commissioner: Work Together for Students
Editorial
Lakeland Ledger
It's no surprise that Tony Bennett, Florida's newly hired education commissioner, would be bullish on testing, vouchers and charter schools, or that the state's largest teacher union would object to his appointment.

Editorial: Florida colleges should not charge math, science majors less
By Andrew Marra
Palm Beach Post
It is often said that the future of the American worker lies increasingly in the realm of science, technology and math.

JOBS, BUDGET, AND ECONOMY

Scott's goal of tax cuts a mixed result
By Aaron Deslatte
South Florida Sun-Sentinel
Gov. Rick Scott was following a well-read playbook when he campaigned in 2010 to kick-start the economy in part with deep property tax cuts. It just didn't come off as scripted.

Scott oversees steep decline in state jobs
By Bill Cotterell
The Florida Current
Gov. Rick Scott, who campaigned as a conservative business executive determined to shrink the size and cost of state government, has overseen a sharp decline in Florida government employment, a steep drop in state personnel costs and a six-fold increase in state employee layoffs during the first half of his term.

HEALTH AND SENIORS

How Florida limits care for disabled kids
By Carol Marbin Miller
Miami Herald
In a drab, cramped conference room in Doral, a 45-year-old single mother is fighting with the state to secure in-home nursing care for her severely disabled daughter — while the 10-year-old fights for her life.

GOP governors walk balance beam on health law
By Bill Barrow
Associated Press
Florida Gov. Rick Scott, who made a fortune as a health care executive, long opposed President Barack Obama's remake of the health insurance market.

2013 Brings Big Changes in FL Health Care
By Carol Gentry
Health News Florida
This is the year that Florida will tackle a raft of controversial and difficult health programs, from the privatization of Medicaid to a debate over how to carry out the Affordable Care Act.

CIVIL RIGHTS, PEACE AND SOCIAL ISSUES

Florida surpasses 1 million permits for concealed weapons
By Miriam Valverde
South Florida Sun-Sentinel
Amid soaring gun sales, Florida distinguished itself from the rest of the country with a milestone this month: issuing 1 million permits for concealed weapons.

JUSTICE AND THE COURTS

Former Florida Supreme Court Justice Overton dies
By Aaron Deslatte
Orlando Sentinel
Former Florida Supreme Court Justice Ben F. Overton, a Green Bay, Wisc., native who was the first justice elected after merit-retention reforms in the 1970s, died Saturday in Gainesville after complications from heart surgery, the court announced.