Daily News Clips for March 25, 2013

FEATURED STORIES

Florida House votes to ban internet cafes
By Mary Ellen Klas, Toluse Olorunnipa and Connie Humburg
Miami Herald/Tampa Bay Times Tallahassee Bureau
Related: Florida regulators to probe another charity tied to alleged illegal gambling at Internet cafes
Stung by a criminal investigation into an online gambling ring that poured $1.4 million into legislative campaigns, the Florida House on Friday voted 110 to 6 for a bill aimed at shutting down Internet cafes, adult arcades and Miami’s “maquinitas.”

Florida House pension limits plan follows national conservative group’s lead
By John Kennedy
Palm Beach Post
The Florida House’s push to overhaul the $136 billion pension plan used by more than 600,000 teachers, police, firefighters and other government workers is headed toward tense, end-of-session deal-making with the Senate.

Campaign-Finance Overhaul Passes House, Mostly Along Party Lines
By Jessica Palombo    
WFSU Tallahassee
A sweeping package of changes to the way political candidates can raise money passed the Florida House on a largely party-line vote on Friday.

Marco Rubio brings GOP hope with Hispanics but challenges remain
By Alex Leary
Tampa Bay Times
Related: Poll shows Rubio lagging in popularity around the state
Sorry, Washington superstar, Time magazine coverboy and hip-hop maven, she's never heard of you.

In Push to Close State Tax Loopholes, Gov. Rick Scott the Obstacle
By Ashley Lopez
Florida Center for Investigative Reporting
Plans to close tax loopholes in the state might not come to fruition, because a bill that would close those loopholes doesn’t have the expressed support of Gov. Rick Scott.

EDITORIAL CARTOON OF THE WEEK

By Jim Morin
Miami Herald

FLORIDA POLITICS

Genuine reform
Editorial
Tallahassee Democrat
For the first time since 1976, there is action in the Legislature on comprehensive ethics reform.

Majority rules? Not in Tallahassee
By John Romano
Tampa Bay Times
Somewhere along the line, they stopped caring what you think.

Politicians have air travel defense
By Betty Parker
Ft. Myers News-Press
Elected officials’ use of private planes to travel between Southwest Florida and Tallahassee, a drive that can take six hours or more, with commercial flights little better, has created controversy over the years, and this session has produced its chapter.

Chamber cheers bill to block local sick pay efforts, while churches, police union object
By David Damron
Orlando Sentinel
A bill to block paid sick time referendums such as the one pending in Orange County continued to glide through the state Senate this week while a companion measure now sits on the House calendar, a legislative push the Florida Chamber of Commerce strongly supports.

POLITICAL RACES

Nelson versus Scott in 2014? Maybe
By William March
Tampa Tribune
So important is it to Florida Democrats that they unseat Republican Rick Scott that some are saying the only Democrat holding statewide office, U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson, should take on Scott in the 2014 governor's race.

Charlie Crist: The luckiest pol in America
By Maggie Haberman and Alexander Burns
Politico
After a years-long slump, Charlie Crist is starting to look again like one of the luckiest men in professional politics.

BALLOT INITIATIVES

Medical Marijuana Debate Lights Up In Florida
By Tom Parkinson and WMFE
WFSU Tallahassee
It’s a busy afternoon at the NORML table at the University of Central Florida as students stop by to discuss their views on pot legalization and pick up buttons, literature and tote bags.

ENVIRONMENT AND ENERGY

Big Sugar’s subsidy — how sweet it is
By Carl Hiaasen
Miami Herald
Cut by cut, the forced budget reductions known as the sequester are beginning to affect millions of Americans.

Petroleum tanks bill moving amid concerns about cleanup program
By Bruce Ritchie
Florida Current
Florida has more than 7,000 contamination sites in its petroleum tanks cleanup program with a potential cost of $2 billion to the state.

Beach habitat designated for sea turtles, but feds say they expect no changes in permitting
By Craig Pittman
Tampa Bay Times
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced Friday that it is proposing to designate more than 700 miles of coastline around the South — including a large chunk of Florida's beaches — as critical habitat for the loggerhead sea turtle.

LGBT

Rapid change in public opinion of gay marriage challenges GOP
By Adam C. Smith
Tampa Bay Times
Related editorial: Embrace marriage equality
Opponents of same-sex marriage will march en masse outside the U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday as justices hear arguments on two cases.

Same-sex marriage attitudes show times are-a-changin'
By Howard Simon
South Florida Sun Sentinel
It should be obvious to everyone that America is in the midst of a fast-moving revolution in the way that lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender individuals are perceived and treated by the law.

EDUCATION

'Parent trigger' bill is cocked and loaded for House floor
By James Call
Florida Current
Opponents to HB 867 in the House Education Committee Friday attacked the “parent trigger” bill on two fronts but failed to stop its march to the House floor.

Florida lawmakers propose three kinds of high school diplomas
By Kathleen McGrory
Tampa Bay Times/Miami Herald Tallahassee Bureau
What if high school were less like an assembly line and more like a Choose Your Own Adventure novel?

Lawmakers seek access to empty public schools
By Bill Cotterell
Tampa Tribune
Two state senators from opposite parties, sharing a professional interest in public education, are working on a compromise this week in Florida's high-stakes political struggle over charter school funding and operation.

Florida Private Schools Do Not Want FCAT Requirement For McKay Scholars
By John O'Connor
StateImpact Florida
A coalition of private schools which accept publicly funded scholarships for students with disabilities says a majority of their members would no longer take the scholarships if they were required to administer the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test.

JOBS, BUDGET, AND ECONOMY

House passes major pension revamp
By Bill Cotterell
Florida Current
Related: Policy Note: Pension Reform
By a straight party-line vote, the state House passed legislation Friday closing the Florida Retirement System to newly hired public employees after next Jan. 1, sending one of Speaker Will Weatherford's top legislative priorities to an uncertain fate in the Senate.

Gov. Scott tells Republicans that GOP is turning economy around
By Curtis Krueger
Tampa Bay Times
By cutting taxes and slicing government regulations, Florida's Republican leaders have turned the state's economy in the right direction, Gov. Rick Scott said Saturday.

Despite campaign promises, government has grown under Scott
By Aaron Deslatte
Orlando Sentinel
On the campaign trail, Rick Scott made it sound like such common sense: career politicians had driven the train in Tallahassee, and it was headed off a cliff because of spiraling government growth.

Fla. lawmakers consider wage theft bill
By Christine Armario
Associated Press
Businesses and workers-rights advocates are fighting over a bill that would set uniform state standards for employees who say they haven't been paid their full wages to seek compensation.

House, Senate close on budget numbers, timeline, not policy
By Gray Rohrer
Florida Current
The House and Senate budget allocations revealed this week show the two chambers aren’t far apart on overall funding for education and health care, but differ significantly on specific policy proposals in those areas, as well as taxes.

HEALTH AND SENIORS

Planned Parenthood to FL Lawmakers: Bring Focus Back to Women's Health
By Stephanie Carroll Carson and Deb Courson Smith
Public News Service Florida
More than two million women and teenaged girls in Florida lack access to health care.

Senate Republicans, Democrats Back 'Healthy FL'
By Carol Gentry
Health News Florida
State Sen. Joe Negron's "Healthy Florida" plan, officially launched without dissent Thursday by the Senate Appropriations Committee, has already attracted support from a broad swath of industries and leaders of both political parties.

House Speaker Will Weatherford says 85 percent of people covered by Medicaid expansion are “single, childless” adults: Mostly False.
By Katie Sanders
Tampa Bay Times/Miami Herald PolitiFact Florida
Florida House Speaker Will Weatherford offered a compelling personal story to emphasize his support for a robust social safety net despite his stance against expanding Medicaid under the federal healthcare law.

Adopt Florida Senate’s plan to cover the state’s uninsured
Editorial
Palm Beach Post
One week after a Senate committee rejected an Affordable Care Act provision to extend Medicaid to 1 million uninsured Floridians, Sen. Joe Negron, R-Stuart offered an alternative to provide those individuals with private insurance using the same pot of federal money.

IMMIGRATION, CIVIL RIGHTS AND SOCIAL ISSUES

Banning Internet Cafes While Gambling on Guns
By Pierre Tristam
Florida Voices
It’s a tale of two triggers. It didn’t take long, after the resignation of Lt. Gov. Jennifer Carroll, for the Legislature to get busy banning those low-stakes gambling parlors called “Internet cafes.”