Daily News Clips for April 15, 2013

FEATURED STORIES

House Speaker Will Weatherford in control of Medicaid decision
By John Romano
Tampa Bay Times
Related editorial: House health plan: little care, high cost
Time and dissonance have a way of obscuring the past. We lose track of where an argument began, and which roads led us to this point.

New Report Finds Hidden Savings in Medicaid Expansion
By Carol Gentry
Health News Florida
State lawmakers may have overlooked more than $430 million in yearly savings for Florida taxpayers by not accepting the federal dollars promised through the Affordable Care Act.

Florida leads in denying ex-felons voting rights
By Bill Kaczor
Associated Press
Changes under Republican Gov. Rick Scott are making it more difficult for Florida's former felons to get their voting rights restored, which critics say has suppressed the minority vote and hurt Democratic candidates.

Exclusive: Miami New Times Finds David Rivera's Missing Pal Ana Alliegro
By Francisco Alvarado
Miami New Times
In the lakeside tourist city of Granada, Nicaragua, visitors strolling along La Calle Libertad come upon a blue Colonial-style building with a small sign reading, "Salon La Libertad."

AFL-CIO: "Pre-Emption Bill" threatens FL Wages, Economic Development
By Stephanie Carroll Carson
Public News Service Florida
Florida lawmakers are pushing legislation that could have a far-reaching impact on wages, sick leave and benefits for thousands of Floridians.

In Sunday show blitz, Sen. Marco Rubio presses immigration reform
By Alex Leary
Tampa Bay Times
Crushing any doubt that he stands behind a sweeping immigration reform bill, Florida Sen. Marco Rubio went on seven TV news programs Sunday and sold the legislation as tough on enforcement while "fair and compassionate" toward 11 million people in the United States illegally.

EDITORIAL CARTOON OF THE WEEK

By Andy Marlette
Pensacola News Journal

FLORIDA POLITICS

Election reform lite
Editorial
Miami Herald
After legislative hubris made voting in Florida an exercise in torture, lawmakers are working to rectify their misguided efforts.

Take the pain out of voting in Florida
By Charley Williams
Orlando Sentinel
The next time Floridians go to the polls, I hope the pain will have faded from the long lines and long ballot that frustrated so many voters in 2012.

Gov. Scott touts accomplishments to GOP leaders
By Bill Cotterell
Tampa Tribune
Gov. Rick Scott did the math for top leaders of the Florida Republican Party today, concluding it's their own fault if the GOP doesn't expand its control of state government next year.

Florida task forces improve public relations, rarely public policy
By Toluse Olorunnipa
Tampa Bay Times/Miami Herald Tallahassee Bureau
As a state hearing to outlaw local "sick-time" ordinances grew heated recently, Sen. David Simmons offered an olive branch to dozens of pro-worker protesters: After banning counties from mandating employer-sponsored sick-time benefits this year, the Legislature would create a task force to study the issue and propose a "statewide solution."

State lawmakers raked in nearly $1.1 million in campaign cash on ‘Fat Monday,’ day before session start
By George Bennett
Palm Beach Post
Florida legislators aren’t allowed to accept campaign contributions during the annual 60-day legislative session, which usually begins on the first Tuesday in March.

'Textgate' has yet to bring major reforms in Orange
By David Damron
Orlando Sentinel
Six months after "textgate" broke in Orange County, no major reforms have emerged from the cellphone-driven scandal over public records.

Five things to look for in Monday’s legislative session
By Katie Sanders
Miami Herald/Tampa Bay Times Tallahassee Bureau
State lawmakers return to Tallahassee on Monday with much remaining on their legislative plate and just three weeks to clear it.

POLITICAL RACES

Hostility to possible Charlie Crist run for governor fuels Bill Nelson speculation
By Adam C. Smith
Tampa Bay Times
Related: Gov. Rick Scott beginning to look a lot like Charlie Crist
Major Democratic financial backers, including trial lawyers and teachers, are gushing about Charlie Crist and his prospects for 2014.

Rick Scott makes move to the middle
By Zac Anderson
Sarasota Herald-Tribune
At various points this week Gov. Rick Scott championed expanding federally subsidized health care for the poor, limiting the wealthy’s influence on politics and scaling back property insurance reforms that could raise rates.  

ENVIRONMENT AND ENERGY

Gulf oil spill's effects still has seafood industry nervous
By Craig Pittman
Tampa Bay Times
Three years after the Deepwater Horizon disaster, the Gulf of Mexico seafood industry is still holding its breath and expecting the worst.

To save and protect precious Everglades
By Bill Maxwell
Tampa Bay Times
As a South Florida native who spent many years fishing, hiking and canoeing in the Everglades, I have watched this natural treasure come under assault from decades of pollution, overdevelopment, agricultural abuses and other human acts of greed that are exempt from rigorous government oversight.

House ban on growth referendums cedes control to cities, developer activist says
By Bruce Ritchie
Florida Current
A unanimous House vote Friday on a bill dealing with growth management referendums didn't sit well with Kathleen Kennedy, a builder and real estate broker in Boca Raton.

Judge upholds suspended wetlands expert, blasts DEP for permitting controversial project
By Craig Pittman
Tampa Bay Times
A judge has ruled that the state Department of Environmental Protection was wrong to ignore its top wetlands expert and issue a permit for a controversial project that she had warned would damage the environment.

Bill repealing ethanol requirement clears House; differences remain with Senate version
By Bruce Ritchie
Florida Current
The House on Friday passed a bill repealing a requirement that gasoline contain ethanol, but there remain serious differences with the Senate version.

LGBT

The year of equality: South Florida LGBT activists, allies describe why they've got pride in 2013
By Steve Rothaus
Miami Herald
South Florida’s large gay community is celebrating the fifth annual Miami Beach Gay Pride festival at what might be a pivot point in history.

EDUCATION

Sweeping education bill headed to Gov. Rick Scott's desk
By Kathleen McGrory
Tampa Bay Times/Miami Herald Tallahassee Bureau
A bill that would revamp the requirements for high-school graduation and make dramatic changes to the state university system is headed to Gov. Rick Scott's desk.

Online learning plan out of line
Editorial
Tampa Bay Times
The Legislature's stampede to significantly expand online learning for students in public schools has nothing to do with offering more options and meeting unmet needs.

Schools feel ready for the annual FCAT challenge
By Erin Jester
Gainesville Sun
As Florida’s main benchmark for public school students — and a graduation requirement for high school — the FCAT is a high-stakes test for everyone.

Steady push to computerize the FCAT spells strain for schools
By Jeffrey S. Solochek
Tampa Bay Times
Computerized FCAT testing reaches into the elementary schools for the first time next week, continuing its slow spread from the high schools downward since 2010.

Florida's test-obsessed style of education hits disabled families hard
By Scott Maxwell
Orlando Sentinel
Andrea Rediske knew her special-needs son had no business taking standardized tests.

Florida House okays giving citizen children of undocumented immigrants in-state tuition
By Kathleen McGrory
Tampa Bay Times/Miami Herald Tallahassee Bureau
When the Florida House voted Friday to extend in-state college tuition rates to the U.S.-born children of undocumented immigrants, Republican Rep. Frank Artiles called the move "a huge step forward." Some Democrats saw it as an empty gesture.

JOBS, BUDGET, AND ECONOMY

House OKs budget plan — setting stage for homestretch dealing with Senate
By John Kennedy
Palm Beach Post
The Florida House approved its $74.4 billion state budget Friday, setting the stage for end-of-session negotiations with the Senate over a final spending plan for 2013-14.

Who Should Define A Living Wage In Florida: Your State Or County?
By Gina Jordan
WLRN Miami
The Florida House has passed a bill that would preempt local living wage ordinances and a similar version is making its way through the Senate.

Florida Chamber slams job-creation 'opponents'
By Jim Stratton
Orlando Sentinel
Julie Norris doesn't seem like someone trying to topple capitalism.

Unclaimed insurance: Florida’s hidden windfall
By Jay Weaver
Miami Herald
A few years ago, Sharon Likins learned about the state government’s bounty of unclaimed money turned over by banks, insurance companies and other businesses.

Good news and bad on Dolphins stadium deal
By Carl Hiaasen
Miami Herald
Incredible as it seems, Miami-Dade voters might actually be allowed to decide whether or not tax dollars are used to renovate the Dolphins football stadium.

HEALTH AND SENIORS

Go with Negron’s plan for Florida’s uninsured. House proposal is awful.
Editorial
Palm Beach Post
The Florida House last week released an anemic alternative to Medicaid expansion that excludes hundreds of thousands of working poor, childless adults who would be covered if the state expanded Medicaid under the guidelines of the Affordable Care Act.

House GOP’s balking at Medicaid cash could hurt party
By Marc Caputo
Miami Herald
"Republicans don’t care.” Lenny Curry, the Republican Party of Florida chairman, reluctantly acknowledged the criticism in an email.

Florida Blue quietly pushing changes that would allow expansion
By Matt Dixon
Florida Times-Union
Jacksonville-based Florida Blue, one of the state’s largest campaign contributors, is quietly using a legislative maneuver to make a change that would allow the company to expand beyond what current law allows.

Major differences in state's health coverage proposals for poor
By Kathleen Haughney
Orlando Sentinel
How much health care can a person get for $30 per month? What about $192? Poor Floridians may be about to find out.

Akshay Desai and the rise and fall of Universal Health Care
By Susan Taylor Martin and Jeff Harrington
Tampa Bay Times
In August, Universal Health Care Group was crumbling. Regulators circled. Bankruptcy loomed.

IMMIGRATION, CIVIL RIGHTS AND SOCIAL ISSUES

Labor, business see daylight ahead on immigration reform
By John Lantigua
Palm Beach Post
Fernando, 35, from Mexico, held a job in Naples installing windows and doors — until his employer found out he was undocumented and let him go.

Undocumented immigrants face major hurdles, more than decade long wait for U.S. citizenship
By Marc Caputo
Miami Herald
Pathway to citizenship? Try pathway of probation.

In Marianna, dig for truth encounters desire to keep past buried
By Ben Montgomery
Tampa Bay Times
The old reform school on the edge of town is all but abandoned.

Background checks have support at Tampa gun show
By Caitlin Johnston
Tampa Bay Times
While Congress haggles over the latest gun control legislation, thousands of gun owners descended on the Florida State Fairgrounds Saturday for a two-day gun show.

Gun control faces perilous road ahead
Editorial
Miami Herald
With the tearful parents of the children killed at the Newtown, Conn., school massacre watching from the gallery above, 16 Republican senators joined 50 Democrats and two independents to quash an attempt by conservatives to filibuster gun control legislation.

Police sergeant fired over Trayvon Martin shooting targets
Staff Report
Palm Beach Post
Officials with Port Canaveral said a police sergeant has been fired after he brought Trayvon Martin shooting targets to a firearms training session.

JUSTICE AND THE COURTS

Florida lawmakers look at accelerating executions
Staff Report
Tampa Tribune
For Janet Spears, the waiting is the hardest part.

Absentee ballot fraud case in Madison County disintegrating
By Steve Bousquet
Tampa Bay Times/Miami Herald Tallahassee Bureau
The state's case alleging absentee ballot fraud in a North Florida county continues to crumble as a judge has dismissed all 17 counts against a former supervisor of elections.