Daily News Clips for April 1, 2013

PROGRESS FLORIDA IN THE NEWS

Real election reform isn't what Florida is getting
By Mark Ferrulo
South Florida Sun Sentinel
Excerpt: We need true election reform, so that all eligible citizens who uphold their responsibility to participate in our democracy can cast a ballot and know it counts.

FEATURED STORIES

In quick Miami stop, Obama pitches new ways to attract private investment for public-works projects
By Patricia Mazzei
Miami Herald
President Barack Obama traveled briefly to — and under — PortMiami on Friday afternoon to push for new ways to secure private dollars for big-ticket projects to renovate highways, bridges, pipes and schools.

Rubio: Reports of immigration deal 'premature'
By Phillip Elliott
Associated Press
Even with one of the largest hurdles to an immigration overhaul overcome, optimistic lawmakers on Sunday cautioned they had not finished work on a bill that would provide a path to citizenship for 11 million illegal immigrants.

More money for teachers, state workers in House, Senate budget plans
By Gray Rohrer
Florida Current
In initial budget plans released Friday by the House and Senate, lawmakers fund Gov. Rick Scott’s request for teacher pay raises and increased education spending, but ignored other Scott priorities or left them funded at significantly reduced levels.

Restrictions hurt women's health
By Judith Selzer
Tallahassee Democrat
The Legislature meets for only 60 days every year — that’s 60 days to create and pass a budget for the state and consider all other legislation needed to help Florida as our economy recovers.

Audit questions $2.4M government grant to Tampa lawmaker
By Michael Van Sickler
Tampa Bay Times/Miami Herald Tallahassee Bureau
Jamie Grant was two years out of law school and a freshman member of the state House when he made a bold claim.

EDITORIAL CARTOON OF THE WEEK

By Jeff Parker
Florida Today

FLORIDA POLITICS

Florida Legislature: Floridians Have a Lot at Stake on the Outcome
By Lloyd Dunkelberger
Lakeland Ledger
With a new $74 billion-plus state budget taking shape, the 2013 Legislature will pass the halfway point of its annual 60-day session this Wednesday.

Florida's legislative harmony yields few achievements
By John Kennedy
Palm Beach Post
In the weeks leading to the start of the legislative session, House Speaker Will Weatherford and Senate President Don Gaetz seemed inseparable.

Undercover slot machines expert to be key witness in Allied Vets probe
By Mary Ellen Klas
Miami Herald/Tampa Bay Times Tallahassee Bureau
Working undercover as just another aging patron, D. Robert Sertell watched as customers streamed into Internet cafes in strip malls across Florida to buy access to Internet time or long-distance phone service.

Lobbyist has a say in billboard law rewrite
By Matt Dixon  
Florida Times-Union
The Florida Department of Transportation is giving a lobbyist for the state’s outdoor advertisers influence over its rewrite of the law overseeing that industry.

Florida lawmakers weigh bill to tweak lobbyist gift ban
By Jim Saunders
News Service of Florida
Enjoying a steak dinner on a lobbyist’s tab would still be banned. But a cup of coffee? Maybe not.

Changes key to sweeping ethics reform
Editorial
South Florida Sun Sentinel
The Florida Legislature is about to adopt the most sweeping changes to the government ethics law in 36 years, and yet the changes don't go far enough.

POLITICAL RACES

Sen. Bill Nelson keeps saying no to Florida governor's race
By Alex Leary and Katie Sanders
Tampa Bay Times
U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson said he is not planning to run against Gov. Rick Scott in the 2014 governor's race but stopped short of completely ruling it out.

In Palm Beach County, campaign fundraising for 2014 hit high gear last week
By George Bennett
Palm Beach Post
Hank Aaron — baseball’s all-time, non-steroid-enhanced home run king — dashed off an urgent request Friday on behalf of his neighbor, U.S. Rep. Lois Frankel, D-West Palm Beach. 

ENVIRONMENT AND ENERGY

Springs revival languishes in Legislature
By Craig Pittman
Tampa Bay Times
U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson rode around on a glass-bottom boat in Silver Springs last week to highlight how he's concerned about the state's springs.

Environmentalists call this a greener Legislature
By Aaron Deslatte
Orlando Sentinel
The 2013 legislative session is proving to be a re-greening year of sorts for Florida's once-beleaguered environmental community.

Deck stacked for developers
Editorial
Tampa Bay Times
There is a reason everyone kept quiet about the federal government handing the state the power to grant development permits that could hurt Florida panthers, gopher tortoises and other endangered species.

LGBT

Nelson under pressure on gay marriage
By William March
Tampa Tribune
Florida U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson is getting pressure from the liberal side of his party as the only Democrat in the state’s congressional delegation, and one of the few in the Senate, who opposes gay marriage.

Same-sex marriage: the debate
By Sergio R. Bustos and Stefania Ferro
Miami Herald
The U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments last week in two major cases that put the issue of same-sex marriage before the nation.

A supreme injustice if same-sex couples don't get full equality
By Michael Mayo
South Florida Sun Sentinel
Michael Gallacher got married in New York last year. It was a small ceremony, in Madison Square Park.

Take some of the same-sex hatred in Florida’s off the books
By Randy Schultz
Palm Beach Post
The Republicans who lead the Florida Legislature could help their party and the state with a gesture that would be compassionate and practical: Repeal the ban on same-sex adoptions.

EDUCATION

Debate grows over merit pay plan for teachers as deadline nears
By Kathleen McGrory
Tampa Bay Times/Miami Herald Tallahassee Bureau
Sen. Anitere Flores has a simple fix for a complex problem.

The $2,500 raise is Scott’s attempt to placate teachers
Editorial
Palm Beach Post
Gov. Rick Scott wants all Florida teachers to get a $2,500 raise and give him credit for it. Legislators protested that any raise should be based on merit.

PolitiFact Florida: Parent trigger bill didn't come from White House efforts
By Katie Sanders
Tampa Bay Times/Miami Herald PolitiFact
A Republican lawmaker said he doesn't know why his "parent trigger" bill isn't gaining more support from Democrats in the Legislature.

GED tests going digital — and getting costlier
By Danny Valentine
Tampa Bay Times
Janet Vasquez will pick up her pencil early next month surrounded by test-takers anxiously trying to pass their high-school equivalency exams.

JOBS, BUDGET, AND ECONOMY

Company gets bigger state contract even as unemployment rate falls
By Toluse Olorunnipa
Miami Herald/Tampa Bay Times Tallahassee Bureau
As Gov. Rick Scott was touting the state’s drop in unemployment last summer, his top jobs agency made a curious prediction: the number of people applying for jobless benefits would increase sharply over the next year.

Florida's jobless rate dips to 7.7 percent in February
By Gray Rohrer
Florida Current
Florida’s unemployment rate dropped to 7.7 percent in February, according to numbers released Friday by the Department of Economic Opportunity.

Florida's Pension Issue: The Upcoming GOP Showdown
By Sascha Cordner      
WFSU Tallahassee
In recent weeks, the pension issue has been a topic of hot controversy, and there are two competing proposals.

NYC deal gives juice to national paid sick leave campaign
By Ned Resnikoff
MSNBC
New York City’s multi-year battle over paid sick leave may soon be at an end.

HEALTH AND SENIORS

Refusal to expand Medicaid could cost Florida businesses
By Jodie Tillman
Tampa Bay Times
When it comes to opening up Medicaid to cover more uninsured Floridians, business groups have put forth either lukewarm endorsements or red-hot opposition.

At CPAC, House Speaker Will Weatherford emphasizes opposition to Medicaid expansion
By Alex Leary
Tampa Bay Times
Introduced as the youngest House speaker in America, Florida Rep. Will Weatherford used a speech Saturday before a large gathering of conservative activists to double down on a promise to reject a federal expansion of Medicaid.

Hospitals: Medicaid expansion would create jobs
By Kathleen Haughney
Orlando Sentinel
The state's hospitals made the pitch Friday that accepting federal Medicaid dollars to insure more poor people under the Affordable Care Act would be an economic engine for Florida.

Lawmakers put women's health at risk
By Jenna Tosh
Orlando Sentinel
The new "Women's Health at Risk" report from Planned Parenthood reveals that more than two million women and girls in Florida are uninsured, and our state has the second-highest number of women and girls with AIDS in the U.S.

Filling a gap in children's health care
Editorial
Tampa Bay Times
In typical Tallahassee fashion, money is trumping children's health care in a fight over a House bill that would close a gap in the state's medical safety net.

IMMIGRATION, CIVIL RIGHTS AND SOCIAL ISSUES

Toughen concealed carry law, local NRA members say
By Willie Howard
Palm Beach Post
Related: Gun background check system has holes, but will expanding it save lives?
Some of the most ardent supporters of gun rights in Palm Beach County say it’s too easy to get a concealed weapons license in Florida, where gun owners from as far away as Alaska take the course to get the right to carry.

Guns Sales Soar
By Mike Vasilinda
Capitol News Service
Floridians are continuing a gun buy binge. For the first three months of the year, the state has conducted one hundred thousand more background checks on gun purchasers than it did last year.