FEATURED
STORIES
White House: Layoffs, cutbacks loom for Florida if feds can’t make budget deal
By Laura Green
Palm Beach Post
Related: A look at automatic budget cuts in Florida
Virtually every sector of Florida’s economy will be hit if Congress and the White House cannot reach yet another deal to stop deep cuts in defense and domestic programs set to take effect Friday.
Gov. Scott versus Legislature bound to cause sparks
By Matt Dixon
Florida Times-Union
With the 2014 election cycle already under way, this year’s legislative session is sure to be marked with heavy-handed clashes between Gov. Rick Scott and legislative leaders.
Will House Go Along on Medicaid?
Staff Report
Health News Florida
On Thursday, even as national news outlets were treating Florida's Medicaid expansion as a done deal, mutters of trouble ahead emerged from the north end of the Florida Capitol -- the House of Representatives.
How to cure Florida’s electoral dysfunction
By Desiline Victor and Gihan Perera
Miami Herald
One of us came to this country from Haiti for a better life arriving at age 79 and toiling hard as a farmworker.
Florida task force says no major changes needed to Stand Your Ground law
By Toluse Olorunnipa
Miami Herald/Tampa Bay Times Tallahassee Bureau
A 19-member task force commissioned by Gov. Rick Scott to review Florida’s Stand Your Ground law has put out its final report, largely voicing support for the law.
Florida needs no advice from Jeb Bush on education policy
Editorial
Palm Beach Post
Former Gov. Jeb Bush has an undeserved reputation as an education reformer.
EDITORIAL
CARTOON OF THE WEEK
By Mike Luckovich
Atlanta Journal Constitution
FLORIDA
POLITICS
Fla. lawmakers seek elections, ethics changes
By Brendan Farrington
Associated Press
President Barack Obama used a 102-year-old Florida woman who waited for hours to cast a ballot as an example of voting problems that need fixing, Jon Stewart used a profanity to describe Florida's elections process and Jay Leno suggested Floridians shouldn't even be allowed to vote on American Idol.
The case of the phantom ballots: an electoral whodunit
By Patricia Mazzei
Miami Herald
The first phantom absentee ballot request hit the Miami-Dade elections website at 9:11 p.m. Saturday, July 7.
In David Rivera investigation, suspected ringer charged in federal court in $81,486 scheme
By Marc Caputo
Miami Herald
A one-time candidate whose suspicious campaign finances led to an FBI investigation of former Miami Congressman David Rivera was formally charged Friday in federal court with three crimes.
Renewed fight begins for bill to ban texting and driving
By Rochelle Koff
Tampa Bay Times/Miami Herald Tallahassee Bureau
It was supposed to be a joyous occasion.
Imagine if Greer weren't the choice
By Lucy Morgan
Tampa Bay Times
In October 2006 it looked as if House Speaker Allan Bense would become the next chairman of the Florida Republican Party.
The Party of Us Should Prevail over the Party of Me
By Dan Gelber
Florida Voices
About a decade ago Fox commentator Bill O’Reilly published a book entitled “Who’s looking out for you?”
POLITICAL
RACES
Alex Sink says she's unlikely to run for governor in 2014
By Adam C. Smith
Tampa Bay Times
There are only two top-tier Democrats considering a run for governor, Charlie Crist and Alex Sink, and Sink sounds unlikely to do it.
ENVIRONMENT
AND ENERGY
As BP Trial Nears, Hints of Progress on a Deal
By Barry Meier and Clifford Krauss
New York Times
As settlement talks continued Sunday on the eve of a trial against BP stemming from the 2010 explosion of a drilling rig in the Gulf of Mexico, the details of an offer by federal and state officials to the oil company started to emerge.
Billboard company agrees to settle for $100,000, a small fraction of what state is owed for taking trees
By Matt Dixon
Florida Times-Union
Three years after what a grand jury called a flagrantly illegal $2 million tree giveaway to a well-connected Panhandle billboard company, the Florida Department of Transportation settled for pennies on the dollar.
Environmental group could sue to protect two Florida species from the dangers of sea level rise
By Sean Kinane
WMNF Tampa
An environmental group hopes the threat of a lawsuit could help to protect two Florida species that face threats because of rising sea level.
FPL builds plant that will actually work
By Ivan Penn
Tampa Bay Times
The hulking hunk of steel that towers over U.S. 1, across the Indian River from the Kennedy Space Center, stands as a monument to one utility's success — and another's failure.
LGBT
State probes fundraising by anti-gay-marriage group
By William March
Tampa Tribune
After more than four years, the Florida Elections Commission is still investigating allegations of illegal fundraising by backers of an anti-gay-marriage constitutional amendment that voters narrowly passed in 2008.
Ruth: Hillsborough County's rejection of domestic registry squashes equality
By Daniel Ruth
Tampa Bay Times
Perhaps nothing gets all that sackcloth in a Gordian Knot of a wad than the prospect of gay folks being granted civil union rights by way of a domestic registry.
Obama administration asks U.S. Supreme Court to void section of Defense of Marriage Act
Associated Press
Miami Herald
The Obama administration is asking the Supreme Court to declare unconstitutional a section of federal law that only recognizes male-female marriages.
EDUCATION
Rubio's stale school plan
By Robyn E. Blumner
Tampa Bay Times
Sen. Marco Rubio has so much star power at the moment his teeth seem to gleam when he smiles.
Remedial lessons on charter school expansion in Florida
By John Romano
Tampa Bay Times
Theoretically, the role of a state legislator is simple.
2013 Session Outlook: Education
By James Call
Florida Current
The stage is set for the third act of a 14-year old ideological battle pitting traditional public education supporters against proponents of competition to improve schools.
JOBS,
BUDGET, AND ECONOMY
Analysis: When it comes to Citizens, property insurance costs, Gov. Rick Scott keeps mum
By Steve Bousquet and Toluse Olorunnipa
Miami Herald/Tampa Bay Times Tallahassee Bureau
He says he is protective of Florida families, but Gov. Rick Scott can’t get a grip on one of the big pocketbook issues for many of them: the rising cost of homeowner insurance.
New agency chief promises more oversight of economic-development money
By Aaron Deslatte
Orlando Sentinel
When Gov. Rick Scott tapped his top lawyer last December to take over the Florida Department of Economic Opportunity, Jesse Panuccio became the agency's fourth director in 14 months.
Experts argue over effect of minimum-wage hike
By Jim Stratton
Orlando Sentinel
When President Barack Obama asked Congress to raise the federal minimum wage from $7.25 to $9 an hour, the response was swift and predictable.
E-Fairness Closer to Reality
By Whitney Ray
Capitol News Service
For 12 years Florida retailers have been pushing legislation they call eFairness.
Your tax dollars at work: on the side of a race car
By Michael Van Sickler
Tampa Bay Times/Miami Herald Tallahassee Bureau
Quick: You're a state that has twice the pedestrian deaths than the national average.
HEALTH
AND SENIORS
Medicaid expansion affects everyone
By John Kennedy
Palm Beach Post
Until she was laid off from her job at a cell phone company, Toni Rosenberg said she’d always prided herself on being self-sufficient.
Get to know some of those affected most by Florida's Medicaid expansion debate
Staff Report
Tampa Bay Times
The tea party governor now says he wants to expand Medicaid. The Republican Legislature isn't as sure.
DCF: Medicaid paying nursing home bill for wealthy
By Kelli Kennedy
Associated Press
Florida welfare officials are proposing a bill that targets Medicaid fraud among patients who hide their assets with family and friends to get the taxpayer-funded program to pay for their nursing home care.
Too Good a Deal to Pass Up
Editorial
New York Times
Rick Scott, the Republican governor of Florida, did an about-face this week by agreeing to expand the state’s Medicaid program, a critical element of the Affordable Care Act.
Editorial: Medicaid expansion the right call
Editorial
Miami Herald
There is governance, and there is politicking. One is grounded in practicality; the other floats — and sinks — on ideology.
Gov. Rick Scott visits Miami drug-testing lab
By Douglas Hanks
Miami Herald
Days after surprising political watchers by accepting a federal expansion of Medicaid, Gov. Rick Scott came to a Miami drug-testing lab that attracts trial participants with the promise of free advanced care.
CIVIL
RIGHTS, PEACE AND SOCIAL ISSUES
Defense of Voting Rights Act points to bailout provision
Associated Press
Tampa Bay Times
The Obama administration and civil rights groups are defending a key section of the landmark voting rights law at the Supreme Court by pointing reformed state, county and local governments to an escape hatch from the law's strictest provision.
Illegal farm workers to D.C.: A little would do a lot
By John Lantigua
Palm Beach Post
Undocumented Guatemalan tomato picker Mateo Sebastian has not been home in five years, and that is the main reason he listens closely to any news about immigration reform.
Grassroots effort builds for laws to curb gun violence in South Florida
By John Lantigua
Palm Beach Post
The Newtown, Conn., massacre Dec. 14 took Jonathan Schuman back more than four decades to 1968, when he was an aide to Sen. Robert Kennedy and the Democratic presidential candidate was shot to death in Los Angeles.
JUSTICE
AND THE COURTS
How Much Support Does "Smart Justice" Bill Really Have?
By Sascha Cordner
WFSU Tallahassee
A Republican-backed proposal to reduce the number of former inmates going back into Florida’s prisons is now taking shape in the form of a bill.
Execution of murderer raises new questions about the death penalty in Florida
By Mary Ellen Klas
Miami Herald/Tampa Bay Times Tallahassee Bureau
The execution of Paul Augustus Howell scheduled for Tuesday has put Florida’s death penalty process under the microscope again.
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