Daily News Clips for March 28, 2013

PROGRESS FLORIDA IN THE NEWS

Florida Pension Changes Rooted in ALEC Model Legislation
By Ashley Lopez
Florida Center for Investigative Reporting
Excerpt:  A new plan that would overhaul the state’s pension system can be traced back to the American Legislative Exchange Council, or ALEC, The Palm Beach Post reported this week…According to a 2012 report by Progress Florida, about a dozen bills have been introduced in the Florida Legislature that have been based on ALEC’s model legislation.

FEATURED STORIES

Free-spending ex-Florida GOP chief Greer gets 18 months in prison
By Michael Kruse
Tampa Bay Times
Related editorial: For Greer, prison and unanswered questions
Jim Greer, hand shaker, party thrower, power seeker, former chairman of the Republican Party of Florida, was sentenced on Wednesday to 18 months in state prison plus one year of probation.

Nuclear cost recovery law shifts risk to customers, critic says, as legislation remains in question
By Bruce Ritchie
Florida Current
Related: Policy Note: Nuclear Power
A 2006 law that allows utilities to charge customers for nuclear plants that may never be built actually shifts the risk to utility customers and away from investors and stockholders, a former U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission member has told a House panel.

Digital Domain $20 million state incentive didn’t violate law, but could happen again, inspector general finds
By Jeff Ostrowski
Palm Beach Post
Related editorial: Avoid sequel to Digital Domain and the $20 million
Digital Domain Media Group, the largest failure in the history of Florida job incentives, didn’t break the law as it pried $20 million from state coffers, Gov. Rick Scott’s inspector general said in a report released Wednesday.

Abortion bills clear Florida House panels
By Bruce Schreiner
Associated Press
Bills seeking to ban sex- and race-selective abortions and to require that babies surviving botched abortions receive medical care cleared House subcommittees on Wednesday as the hot-button issue resurfaced during a legislative session that's been largely bereft of battles over social issues.

Gun-toting teachers? House education panel says 'yes'
By Kathleen McGrory
Miami Herald
A controversial bill that would allow schools employees to carry weapons on campus won the support of the House K12 Education Subcomittee on Wednesday.

FLORIDA POLITICS

Senate creates task force to review budget transparency
By Mary Ellen Klas
Miami Herald/Tampa Bay Times Tallahassee Bureau
Five months after pulling the plug on a $5 million budget transparency program, the Florida Senate passed a bill Wednesday to create a task force to increase transparency but moved no closer to offering the public real-time access to budget data.

Digital Domain CEO slams IG report, says it's a Scott-Crist thing
By Toluse Olorunnipa
Miami Herald
The former CEO of Digital Domain is hitting back with an alternative script after an Inspector General report slammed the process that helped the now-defunct Port St. Lucie film studio get $20 million in taxpayer grants.

Repeal of international driver permit law sent to governor
Associated Press
Palm Beach Post
A repeal of a state law requiring foreign visitors to have international driving permits is on its way to Gov. Rick Scott’s desk after the Florida Senate passed it Wednesday by a vote of 38-0.

Bills starting to die as session moves along
By Travis Pillow
Tallahassee Democrat
It’s the fourth week of the 2013 legislative session, and bills are dying.

Florida Senate remembers Larcenia Bullard
By Tia Mitchell
Miami Herald/Tampa Bay Times Tallahassee Bureau
Members of the Florida Legislature, past and present, remembered former Sen. Larcenia Bullard for her smiles and friendly personality during a memorial service in her honor.

POLITICAL RACES

Nelson says no, again, to gov’s race talk
By John Kennedy
Palm Beach Post
In case he wasn’t heard the first time, U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson on Wednesday again dismissed talk that he was considering challenging Republican Gov. Rick Scott next year.

Will Charlie Crist launch his gubernatorial campaign on May 11?
By Peter Schorsch
Saint Petersblog
Charlie Crist will headline a joint Kennedy-King Dinner for the Hillsborough and Pinellas Democratic Parties on May 11. 

ENVIRONMENT AND ENERGY

House, Senate budget proposals include money for land-buying, beach restoration
By Bruce Ritchie
Florida Current
Proposed Senate and House versions of the 2013-14 budget for agriculture and environmental agencies closely track Gov. Rick Scott's budget request on some major funding issues, but not others.

Florida House hears arguments over controversial nuclear advance fee law
By Mary Ellen Klas
Tampa Bay Times/Miami Herald Tallahassee Bureau
The Florida House broke its silence on the controversial nuclear cost recovery law Wednesday and, for the first time in years, allowed a workshop hearing into the 2006 measure that allows electric utilities to charge customers for nuclear plants before they are built.

Trial over Gulf oil spill set to resume Tuesday
Associated Press
Palm Beach Post
BP's cement contractor on the drilling rig that exploded in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010 will continue presenting its defense next week at a trial over the deadly catastrophe.

LGBT

Supreme Court justices question validity of Defense of Marriage Act
By Alex Leary
Tampa Bay Times
With one justice declaring there are "two kinds of marriage: the full marriage, and then this sort of skim milk marriage," the U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday seemed poised to strike down a federal law denying benefits to legally wed gay couples.

EDUCATION

Fla. House budget boosts K-12 spending, allows higher ed tuition hikes
By John Kennedy
Palm Beach Post
The Florida House would increase K-12 school spending by $395 per pupil next year while also allowing Florida colleges and universities to boost tuition by 6 percent, under an education budget released Wednesday.

Charter schools make the case for facilities funding
By Kathleen McGrory
Tampa Bay Times/Miami Herald Tallahassee Bureau
The House Choice and Innovation in Education Subcommittee held a workshop on Wednesday to take up the controversial issue of charter-school funding.

Florida Polytechnic fights for funding, independence
By Tia Mitchell
Tampa Bay Times/Miami Herald Tallahassee Bureau
The leader of the state's newest university would like to respectfully disagree with those who say the school may be better off as a branch to another institution, including House Speaker Will Weatherford.

More missteps at FAU
Editorial
South Florida Sun Sentinel
If you've ever been in the middle of a group of protesters, surrounded in your car, you can understand how FAU President Mary Jane Saunders might have suddenly accelerated, reportedly hitting a student with the passenger-side mirror before fleeing down the wrong way of a one-way street.

JOBS, BUDGET, AND ECONOMY

Stop assault on fair-wage laws
Editorial
Miami Herald
Will the state Legislature’s assault on people who work for a living never end? Once again, lawmakers from the north part of the state not only are trying to pick the pockets of working folks, they want to neutralize Miami-Dade County’s home-rule charter in the process.

House less stingy than Senate with incentive funds
By Gray Rohrer
Florida Current
Related: Policy Note: Economic Incentives
The House budget would give Gov. Rick Scott more business incentives than initial Senate recommendations, but not as much as he would like.

Florida Economic Development Gone Awry
By Paula Dockery
Florida Voices
As lawmakers begin in earnest to craft the state’s budget, they are considering how much to put in the spending plan for economic development incentives.

Homeowners rankled by foreclosure money going to dorms and developers
By Kimberly Miller
Palm Beach Post
Struggling Florida homeowners and consumer advocates are questioning how plans by state lawmakers to spend $200 million in bank foreclosure reparations will stave off foreclosures.

House, Senate differ in approach to foreclosure settlement money
By Gray Rohrer
Florida Current
Members of the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Transportation and Economic Development unveiled their plan to spend $200 million from a multi-state foreclosure fraud settlement on Wednesday, revealing a significant departure for the House.

Obama to speak on economy Friday in Miami
By John Lantigua
Palm Beach Post
President Barack Obama will deliver an address on the economy at the Port of Miami Friday.

Miami Dolphins agree to pay back more stadium tax dollars
By Toluse Olorunnipa and Adam Beasley
Miami Herald/Tampa Bay Times Tallahassee Bureau
With the clock winding down on the Miami Dolphins’ quest for a taxpayer-supported stadium upgrade, the team called an audible Wednesday, announcing a new concession aimed at boosting support for the deal.

HEALTH AND SENIORS

Medicaid expansion fight harms you
Editorial
USA Today
The biggest selling point for President Obama's health care law was that 30 million uninsured people would get coverage, about half through private insurance and half through an expansion of Medicaid, the federal-state program for the lowest-income Americans.

Medicaid expansion (or Healthy Florida alternative) could impact thousands of Florida veterans
By Karen Cyphers
Saint Petersblog
Nearly 42,000 uninsured Florida veterans and 13,400 spouses could gain access to health coverage through the expansion of Medicaid — or a state alternative — according to a report just released by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

Foster care bill would give kids more freedom
By Rochelle Koff
Tampa Bay Times/Miami Herald Tallahassee Bureau
Martin Gordon, 19, came to the Capitol to tell legislators his experiences in the foster care system hoping that his voice — and the voices of 26 other current and former foster children — would make a difference. On Wednesday, they got their answer.

IMMIGRATION, CIVIL RIGHTS AND SOCIAL ISSUES

Sen. Bill Nelson seeks money to investigate reform school
By James L. Rosica
Associated Press
U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson said Wednesday that he's pursuing funding from a $3 million federal grant program to help identify buried remains at a defunct boys' reform school in the Florida Panhandle.

For kids in isolation, a shrug from Florida lawmakers
By Fred Grimm
Miami Herald
Reports that Immigration and Customs Enforcement has been subjecting scores of immigrant detainees to solitary confinement, many of them for 23 hours a day, some for stretches of 75 days or more, brought a quick, angry response in Washington.

JUSTICE AND THE COURTS

Groups Blast Bill Giving Governor More Power Over Judge Selection
By Jessica Palombo    
WFSU Tallahassee
Should the Florida governor get to remove and replace people from the committees that nominate judges, whenever he wants?

Crump: Judge, don't make me answer questions from Zimmerman's lawyers
By Rene Stutzman
Orlando Sentinel
Benjamin Crump, the attorney for Trayvon Martin's family, has filed new paperwork, saying there's no valid reason for a judge to reverse herself and order him to answer defense attorneys' questions in the George Zimmerman murder case.