Daily News Clips for May 1, 2013

FEATURED STORIES

Democrats bring House to halt over health care stalemate
By Mary Ellen Klas and Tia Mitchell
Times/Herald Tallahassee Bureau
Related editorial: Weatherford should allow open vote on Medicaid expansion
Related: Crist: Governor should force Legislature to keep working on Medicaid expansion
Florida's smooth-running legislative session hit a rough patch Tuesday as House Democrats demanded that every bill be read in full to protest the stalemate on health care reform.

Acrimony Has Florida Lawmakers At Nearly a Standstill
By Gary Fineout
Associated Press
The annual session of the Florida Legislature nearly came to halt on Tuesday amid acrimony and finger-pointing.

For second consecutive year, 'parent trigger' bill dies on tie vote
By Kathleen McGrory
Times/Herald Tallahassee Bureau
The controversial "parent trigger" bill died a dramatic legislative death Tuesday the same way it did last year: in a surprise tie vote in the Florida Senate during the final week of session.

Speaker Will Weatherford loses Senate showdown over Florida pensions
By Michael Van Sickler
Times/Herald Tallahassee Bureau
After months of calling pension reform a top priority in his inaugural year as Florida House speaker, Will Weatherford could do nothing Tuesday as his plan went down to defeat in the Senate.

Florida House rejects attempts to repeal nuclear fees
By Mary Ellen Klas
Herald/Times Tallahassee Bureau
The Florida House on Tuesday rejected attempts to repeal a controversial state law that allows utility companies to charge customers for nuclear power plant development in advance of construction.

FLORIDA POLITICS

Let us decide for ourselves
Editorial
South Florida Sun Sentinel
Even if you agree that government shouldn't tell business how to do business, a proposal in the Florida Legislature that would pre-empt local governments from exerting local control is bad public policy.

Smooth session hits gridlock on Day 57
By Gray Rohrer
Florida Current
Related: A star is born when the House bill auto-reader is switched on
A legislative session that had been marked by compromise deals on perennial interest group fights and relative bipartisanship bogged down Tuesday as House Democrats brought its smooth sailing to a screeching halt.

Weatherford, Thurston trade jabs, gird for a long week
By Aaron Deslatte
Orlando Sentinel
The Florida House's top Republican and Democrat made it clear Tuesday night that the slow procedural slog forced over a fight on Medicaid reform will continue through the end of session this week.

Gaetz discusses topics left to tackle before May 3
By Jennifer Curington
Orlando Sentinel
The Senate now has three session days left to get a hefty workload done and Senate President Don Gaetz has started to show his more outspoken side on many topics left to tackle.

Supporters fear texting while driving bill might be in danger
By Rochelle Koff
Times/Herald Tallahassee Bureau
A late amendment could derail a bill banning texting while driving for another year, supporters fear.

National Democratic Party chief blasts Scott
By Bill Cotterell
Florida Current
Gov. Rick Scott's support of Medicaid expansion, added education funding and revision of election laws is just a "death-bed conversion," the head of the national Democratic Party told Leon County party members Tuesday night.

Scott: Floridians should be Republicans
By Jacqueline Bostick
Panama City News Herald
Gov. Rick Scott’s message at Edgewater Beach Resort Tuesday night was straight to the point — all Floridians should be Republicans.

POLITICAL RACES

Beaming Rick Scott
By Robert Costa
National Journal
‘Seven-point-five percent.” When you meet Florida governor Rick Scott, you hear that phrase over and over again.
 

ENVIRONMENT AND ENERGY

Senate nuclear bill ready for a vote in House
By Bruce Ritchie
Florida Current
A bill revising the 2006 law allowing utilities to charge customers for nuclear power plants was amended Tuesday in the House and is ready for a vote.

House Says No To Tracking Sickness Caused By Toxic Algae
By Thomas Andrew Gustafson
WFSU Tallahassee
An amendment to a water pollution bill wanting to track toxic algae deaths and illnesses failed in the Florida House Tuesday.

New US interior secretary will tour Everglades
Associated Press
Sarasota Herald-Tribune
The country's new secretary of the interior is touring Florida's Everglades.

LGBT

A good teammate
Editorial
Gainesville Sun
National Basketball Association center Jason Collins has drawn praise from fellow athletes as well as politicians for becoming the first openly gay athlete active in a major U.S. sport.

EDUCATION

Senate shoots down 'parent trigger' bill
By James Call
Florida Current
The Florida Senate Tuesday killed the "parent trigger" bill. It is the second year in a row a measure creating a petition process for parents to turn a failing public school into a charter school died in the Senate on a tie vote.

Senate Proves Value, Stops Bad Education Idea
By Rick Outzen
Florida Voices
The Florida Senate proved its value on Tuesday by not approving SB 0862, the Parent Empowerment in Education Act -- better known as the “Parent Trigger” bill.

Legislature looks to speed release of school employee raises
By David Smiley
Miami Herald
Florida lawmakers are looking to speed up the release of $480 million in school employee raises one day after the House and Senate negotiated a budget that proposed delaying them until June 2014.

Rep. Castor says Head Start at risk due to budget cutbacks
By Mike Salinero
Tampa Tribune
Florida’s Head Start early education program will have to turn away 2,000 children next year if Congress doesn’t fix automatic, across-the-board spending cuts, Congresswoman Kathy Castor said Tuesday.

Even on teacher raises, Legislature puts up hurdles
Editorial
Palm Beach Post
In 2010, the Legislature required Florida’s public schools and universities to gather and report statistics showing how much material each had recycled during the year.

JOBS, BUDGET, AND ECONOMY

Pension bill dies in Senate
By Bill Cotterell
Florida Current
House Speaker Will Weatherford's plan for closing the Florida Retirement System to new employees died Tuesday in a close Senate vote.

Gambling With State Worker's Retirement?
By Robert Lorei
WMNF Tampa
A coalition of groups in Florida is taking aim at a plan in Tallahassee to shift more public employees into a 401(k)-like retirement plan.

Gov. Scott: 'Ridiculous' legislature dragging its feet on tax cut
By Steve Bousquet,
Times/Herald Tallahassee Bureau
Gov. Rick Scott fired back at legislative leaders Tuesday for not embracing his call to eliminate the sales tax on manufacturing equipment, one of his two priorities in the 2013 session.

Legislature passes $200 million foreclosure settlement spending package
By Gray Rohrer
Florida Current
Although lawmakers won’t vote on the $74.5 billion budget until Thursday at the earliest, $200 million has already been appropriated.

Florida House holds firm on not raising new Citizens insurance rates, split with Senate remains
By Charles Elmore
Palm Beach Post
A clearinghouse to shrink state-run insurer Citizens is fine, but substantial rate increases for new customers are not, the Florida House made clear Monday in rewriting a Senate bill with its own version.

Florida consumer confidence continues upward trend
Staff Report
Florida Current
According to a report from the University of Florida's Survey Research Center, consumer confidence went up three points for the second month in a row, bringing it to 79.

HEALTH AND SENIORS

Medicaid Impasse Sparks Rebellion
By Carol Gentry
Health News Florida
Democrats are so angry over House Republicans' refusal to accept federal funds to expand health coverage that they deliberately caused action on the floor to grind to a halt Tuesday afternoon.

Thrasher on Medicaid expansion: Take a deep breath
By James Call
Florida Current
Sen. John Thrasher surveys the divide between the House and Senate proposals to reduce the number of uninsured Floridians and doesn’t see a way to a compromise on health care in the session’s final three days.

Abortion-related bill headed to governor
By Rochelle Koff
Times/Herald Tallahassee Bureau
For the first time in two years, an abortion-related bill has passed both legislative houses and it is headed to the governor, who has already indicated his praise of a bill that focuses on infants born alive after a failed abortion.

'End the R-word' bill heads to Gov. Rick Scott
By Rochelle Koff
Times/Herald Tallahassee Bureau
Brittany Norman, a 25-year-old Tallahassee woman with Down syndrome, had a message for Gov. Rick Scott on Tuesday: "Sign the bill."

House sets up Fla. Health Choices program for vote
Associated Press
Tampa Tribune
The Florida House has set up a bill for a vote that would give $900,000 to an online marketplace where individuals and businesses can shop for health insurance.

IMMIGRATION, CIVIL RIGHTS AND SOCIAL ISSUES

Sen. Marco Rubio talks immigration at Pasco Republican gathering
By Molly Moorhead
Tampa Bay Times
Speaking to 600 diehard Pasco Republicans, Sen. Marco Rubio on Tuesday night cast the sensitive work of immigration reform as a national security issue that can't be ignored.

Gun Law Changes Few for 2013
By Mike Vasilinda
Capitol News Service
State lawmakers have sent the Governor a bill closing a loophole that has allowed mentally ill people to purchase guns.

JUSTICE AND THE COURTS

Florida Passes Law To Speed Up Executions
By Stephanie Mencimer
Mother Jones
States across the country have spent the last few years reconsidering the wisdom of capital punishment.

Zimmerman Won't Seek Immunity Hearing
By Kyle Hightower
Associated Press
The former neighborhood watch leader charged with fatally shooting a Florida teenager told a judge Tuesday that he agrees with his defense attorney's decision not to seek an immunity hearing under the state’s “Stand Your Ground” self-defense law.