Daily News Clips for May 16, 2013

FEATURED STORIES

A case of failed leadership
By Allison Tant
Tampa Tribune
In a recent opinion column, Florida House Speaker Will Weatherford described the abject failure to expand access to affordable heath care to 1.2 million Floridians as “a thoughtful, researched and purposeful action on the part of the House of Representatives” (“A responsible safety net,” Other Views, May 9).

House GOP needs to end its health-care hypocrisy
Editorial
Orlando Sentinel
When state House Republicans turned down billions of federal dollars to expand health coverage to a million working poor Floridians, they weren't just heartless.

Florida Watch: Protest Koch brothers bid for Tribune, Sentinel newspapers
By David Damron
Orlando Sentinel
The progressive group Florida Watch Action is planning a protest Thursday in front of the Orlando Sentinel newspaper to oppose the potential sale of that and other Tribune Company newspapers to the conservative Koch Brothers.

Rubio's financial disclosure shows $800,000 book advance
By Alex Leary
Tampa Bay Times
U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio, who likes to joke in speeches that his book An American Son is available on Amazon, earned $800,000 off it in 2012, his newly filed financial disclosure shows.

Consumer group, decrying bad year, calls for batch of vetoes
By Gray Rohrer
Florida Current
Although some consumer advocate groups were pleased with watering down property insurance bills and pulling down more funding for legal aid for homeowners in danger of foreclosure, other groups are bemoaning a bad legislative session for consumers and pushing Gov. Rick Scott to veto a slew of bills they say harm consumers.

FLORIDA POLITICS

Legislative staff flip-flop on supermajority clause after Scott tax cut falls short of 80 votes
By Toluse Olorunnipa
Times/Herald Tallahassee Bureau
After Gov. Rick Scott’s highly prioritized manufacturing tax cut passed the Florida Legislature without receiving a two-thirds vote majority, legislative staff analysts have had a change of heart and now believe such a supermajority was not necessary.

Gov. Scott must reappoint three state agency heads, others
By Steve Bousquet
Times/Herald Tallahassee Bureau
The "jobs governor" was unable to get his jobs czar confirmed by the Florida Senate in the 2013 legislative session, and that means Gov. Rick Scott must reappoint Jesse Panuccio as head of the state Department of Economic Opportunity.

Gov. Scott signs 2nd ethics law
By Bill Cotterell
Florida Current
Gov. Rick Scott signed into a law a public records exemption Wednesday that complements the broadened new ethics standards approved in the 2013 legislative session.

Will Gov. Scott Sign Texting While Driving Ban Bill Into Law?
By Sascha Cordner      
WFSU Tallahassee
With less than a week left to take action on a texting ban bill, Governor Rick Scott is not giving any indication as to whether he will sign the measure into law.

Lobbyists piled up fees in early 2013
By Jim Saunders
News Service of Florida
When the legislative session started in March, it was prime time for Florida lobbyists.

Lax State Rules Provide Cover for Sponsors of Attack Ads
By Alan Suderman
The Center for Public Integrity
While much criticism has been lobbed at the federal system for failing to adequately identify who is spending money to influence campaigns, 35 states have independent spending disclosure laws that are less stringent than federal election law.

Acting commissioner of IRS has resigned, as Rubio and others called for
By Alex Leary
Tampa Bay Times
President Obama just announced from the White House East Room that Steven Miller, the acting commissioner of the IRS has resigned, a step Sen. Marco Rubio and other Republican lawmakers sought.

Defeated candidate Ricardo Corona says he never hired ‘boletera’ Deisy Cabrera
By Melissa Sanchez and Enrique Flor
Miami Herald
After having learned that his name appears next to the amount of $1,500 in a notebook kept by an alleged Hialeah ballot broker, lawyer Ricardo Corona said Tuesday that he never hired anyone to collect absentee ballots on his behalf during his unsuccessful campaign for a Miami-Dade judgeship in 2008.

POLITICAL RACES

Nan Rich to Florida mainstream media: Don't count me out
By Mitch Perry
Creative Loafing
When Nan Rich's name is mentioned in stories about the Democratic race for governor in Florida, it's generally an after-thought, long after paragraphs that are given to the prospects of Charlie Crist, Bill Nelson, and sometimes even Pam Iorio.

Florida to keep 2016 presidential primary in March
By Jeremy Wallace
Sarasota Herald-Tribune
With one sentence, Florida has reshaped the 2016 presidential contest, potentially enhancing its role in determining the next American leader.

ENVIRONMENT AND ENERGY

River of Grass flows again into Everglades National Park
By Craig Pittman
Tampa Bay Times
Eighty-five years ago, work crews built a dam across the Everglades and called it the Tamiami Trail.

Reservoirs language stripped from federal bill while Florida groups support alternative approach
By Bruce Ritchie
Florida Current
Georgia's U.S. senators have stripped from a bill language apparently supported by Gov. Rick Scott to require congressional approval of water for the Lake Lanier reservoir north of Atlanta.

Public can review plans for 13 Florida species
Associated Press
Sarasota Herald-Tribune
Mooring buoys near coral reefs are among the recommendations in more than a dozen conservation plans that Florida wildlife officials want the public to review.  

EDUCATION

Key decisions await Rick Scott on education
By Brandon Larrabee
News Service of Florida
The biggest battles on the education front in the 2013 legislative sessions have already been fought and largely decided: Educators will get $480 million in pay raises, though not precisely how Gov. Rick Scott had asked, and the Senate killed a bill allowing parents more of a say in the future of failing schools

What tests will replace FCAT? Florida to decide by June
By Leslie Postal
Orlando Sentinel
Florida plans to retire most FCAT exams and replace them with new tests aligned to the new Common Core standards. The switch, set for the 2014-15 school year, has been in the works since at least 2010 -- but now just what tests the state will switch to isn't clear.

FAU President Mary Jane Saunders resigns
By Michael Vasquez
Miami Herald
After months of controversies, Florida Atlantic University President Mary Jane Saunders has resigned.

Bartow Teen Won't Face Criminal Charges for Chemical Explosion
By Suzie Schottelkotte
Lakeland Ledger
Prosecutors announced Wednesday they won't file criminal charges against a 16-year-old Bartow High School student who was arrested last month on allegations she ignited a chemical explosion at school, but she must complete a series of requirements outlined in a diversion program agreement.

JOBS, BUDGET, AND ECONOMY

As veto threats loom, Scott takes aim at three budget recipients
By Steve Bousquet
Times/Herald Tallahassee Bureau
As threats of line-item vetoes by Gov. Rick Scott loom large over the Legislature's recently-approved budget, he's taking the unusual step of forcing some organizations to agree in writing to forfeit  taxpayer money if they don't generate the tax revenue they're promising.

Fiscal watchdog to release annual 'budget turkey' list
By Kathleen Haughney
South Florida Sun Sentinel
Did your county get road construction in the budget? How about a ballet school? Or money for a rowing center?

Florida insurance fund strongest ever for storm season
Associated Press
Tampa Tribune
Florida is heading into storm season with some good news.

Florida tourism boom in 1Q of 2013
Associated Press
Tampa Tribune
State tourism officials say that more people visited Florida in the first three months of 2013 than any other quarter in the state's history.

True flexibility
Editorial
Gainesville Sun
Flexibility is sorely needed in today's workplace.

HEALTH AND SENIORS

Safety net hospitals scrambling to prevent $65 million Scott veto
By Tia Mitchell
Times/Herald Tallahassee Bureau
Gov. Rick Scott may veto $65 million in hospital Medicaid funding, although safety net hospitals are mustering all their resources in order to change his mind.

Hefty Insurance Industry Donation Helped Small Business Group Fight Obamacare
By Catherine New
Huffington Post
The insurance industry helped one of the nation's leading small business groups to push its anti-Obamacare message with a hefty financial donation, the National Journal reported on Tuesday.

Gun Restriction for Mentally Ill a Hot Topic
By Matt Horn
Capitol News Service
Under a new bill sent to the Governor by state lawmakers, Floridians battling mental illness will be banned from purchasing a gun.

IMMIGRATION, CIVIL RIGHTS AND SOCIAL ISSUES

Fight for "Compassionate" Immigration Reform in Florida
By Stephanie Carroll Carson
Public News Service Florida
Immigration advocates are turning up the heat on Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., asking him to stand strong in his support of what they call "compassionate" immigration reform.

JUSTICE AND THE COURTS

Exonerated former inmates urge Scott to veto Timely Justice Act
Associated Press
Ocala Star-Banner
Two exonerated former death row inmates are urging Gov. Rick Scott to veto legislation that would accelerate the state's capital punishment process.