Daily News Clips for May 20, 2013

FEATURED STORIES

Scott to veto tuition hike, okay Medicaid transition money
By Steve Bousquet and Tia Mitchell
Times/Tallahassee Bureau
Gov. Rick Scott today will veto a 3 percent increase in Florida college tuition and approve $65 million in extra Medicaid funding to hospitals that provide much of the care to the poor, including Tampa General and Jackson Memorial in Miami.

Gov. Rick Scott speeding up Florida inmate execution process
By Steve Bousquet
Times/Herald Tallahassee Bureau
Gov. Rick Scott has accelerated the pace of signing death warrants in Florida by lining up three executions over the next few weeks, the most in such a brief period of time in more than two decades.

In Florida, Incentives Only the Beginning for Favored Companies
By Steve Miller
Florida Center for Investigative Reporting
It is, by any number of measures, a beautiful building.

Speculation surrounds campaign finance reform
By William March
Tampa Tribune
Some Democrats saw campaign finance reform passed by the Legislature this year as helpful in their bid to defeat Gov. Rick Scott but, in fact, it could help Republicans more, campaign finance experts and Florida political figures say.

Notoriety follows Rivera pal in Nicaragua
By Patricia Mazzei
Miami Herald
In this quaint colonial town, vigilant residents who keep close tabs on their neighbors know the enigmatic woman as Doña Anita, a sometime hairdresser with a mean temper.

EDITORIAL CARTOON OF THE WEEK

By Jim Morin
Miami Herald

FLORIDA POLITICS

Sen. Marco Rubio, in Tampa, says controversies have 'shaken' him
By Adam C. Smith
Tampa Bay Times
Sen. Marco Rubio's efforts to reform immigration may be drawing skepticism from many conservatives.

Pension vote puts some House Republicans in awkward position
By Tia Mitchell
Times/Herald Tallahassee Bureau
Florida House Republicans tried to close the state’s pension system to new employees this year, saying it’s a ticking time bomb that could cripple the state’s budget for years to come.

IRS hearing puts Vern Buchanan on national stage
By Jeremy Wallace
Sarasota Herald-Tribune
U.S. Rep. Vern Buchanan stepped onto the national stage on Friday, sternly questioning the outgoing Internal Revenue Service commissioner and raising concerns about the overall culture at the agency during the first major hearing on Capitol Hill into the growing controversy.

Actually, Tea Party Groups Gave the IRS Lots of Good Reasons to Be Interested
By Stephanie Mencimer
Mother Jones
Virtually everyone in Washington agrees on at least one thing about the IRS scandal: The tax agency's trolling for tea party groups and giving extra scrutiny to their applications for nonprofit status was an egregious violation.

POLITICAL RACES

Last two Florida Democrats to run for governor urge Nelson to run
By George Bennett
Palm Beach Post
Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson has said repeatedly that he has no plans to run for governor in 2014.

ENVIRONMENT AND ENERGY

In Pinellas 200 alternative energy advocates hold hands to oppose offshore drilling
By Sean Kinane
WMNF Tampa
On Saturday 200 Tampa Bay residents protested against oil drilling in the Gulf of Mexico.

Oil industry eyes South Florida again
By Curtis Morgan
Miami Herald
The oil industry is primed for resurgence in South Florida.

Time running out to address climate change
Editorial
Tampa Bay Times
The big threat to Florida's future that elected leaders aren't talking about: the average amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.

Floridians press for Everglades and port money
By William E. Gibson
South Florida Sun Sentinel
The next big phase of Everglades restoration will plug canals, build levees and create giant storage areas to guide fresh clean water through western Broward and Palm Beach counties and into the core of the famed River of Grass.

DEP attorneys seek new hearing in permitting case involving employee who testified against bosses
By Bruce Ritchie
Florida Current
A Florida Department of Environmental Protection attorney is requesting a new hearing on an administrative law judge's recommended order strongly backing a DEP employee who testified against her bosses in a permitting case.

LGBT

Will Boy Scouts accept gay youth? Vote is imminent
By David Crary
Associated Press
With its ranks deeply divided, the Boy Scouts of America is asking its local leaders from across the country to decide whether its contentious membership policy should be overhauled so that openly gay boys can participate in Scout units.

Looming decision on gays in Scouting spurs activism
By Kevin Wiatrowski
Tampa Tribune
Greg Poe wasn’t a Boy Scout growing up. He joined with his son seven years ago, drawn to the program’s religious and moral foundations.

EDUCATION

Gov. Rick Scott asks university presidents for promise not to seek tuition increases
By Tia Mitchell and Toluse Olorunnipa
Times/Herald Tallahassee Bureau
Gov. Rick Scott has all but guaranteed a veto of the 3 percent tuition increase in the state budget and he recently reached out to an unlikely group to aid his cause.

Florida mandate will cost school districts
By Ashley A. Smith
Ft. Myers News-Press
School officials are facing a tough decision. Pick up the tuition tab for high school students to take dual enrollment courses or cut their college prep options.

Options lacking for parents of disabled kids at F schools
By Lauren Roth and Leslie Postal,
Orlando Sentinel
The notice in the mail told Carmen Olmeda she could transfer her profoundly disabled daughter out of Orange County's F-rated Magnolia School.

Legislature's intent different from charter school reality
By Kathy Kidder
Gainesville Sun
Many families who live in low-income neighborhoods with struggling schools hope charter schools will be better and some are.

16 Head Start programs to reopen in Jacksonville
By Charles Broward      
Florida Times-Union
A coalition of mostly government officials and agencies announced late Sunday the reopening of 16 of the 24 Head Start programs that were closed Friday.

JOBS, BUDGET, AND ECONOMY

Scott touts job numbers, signs tax break in Tampa
Staff Report
Tampa Tribune
Florida’s jobless rate for April dropped to 7.2 percent, numbers touted Friday by Gov. Rick Scott during a visit to a Tampa to sign a bill that creates a tax break for state manufacturers.

If Florida wants more Hertz headquarters, buy more CEOs waterfront condos
By Robert Trigaux
Tampa Bay Times
Forget those pricey state economic incentives used like catnip to persuade companies to expand to Florida.

Gov. Rick Scott heading to Chile for trade mission
By Steve Bousquet
Times/Herald Tallahassee Bureau
Gov. Rick Scott will lead a state delegation to Chile next week, his eighth overseas trade mission since taking office.

Citizens offers cheaper rate option with no fanfare
By Toluse Olorunnipa
Herald/Times Tallahassee Bureau
Last year, the Florida Legislature mandated Citizens Property Insurance Corp. to offer a cheaper, more limited coverage option to homeowners, potentially saving them up to 70 percent on their premiums.

HEALTH AND SENIORS

Paying for benefits, getting none
By Alan Green
Tampa Bay Times
Economists like myself are accustomed to seeing politicians act in ways that don't make economic sense.

House has no shame on insurance
Editorial
South Florida Sun 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. They were hypocrites.

Feds Make It Easier For States To Enroll Poor Under Health Law
By Phil Galewitz
Kaiser Health News
The Obama administration is making it easier for states to sign up the poor for health coverage – and to help those people stay covered.

IMMIGRATION, CIVIL RIGHTS AND SOCIAL ISSUES

Cutoff date in immigration bill would leave many in shadows
By Alex Leary
Tampa Bay Times
Huber David Hernandez got a surprising phone call from a friend a few months ago. Congress is working on immigration reform, she said, and it would benefit both of us.

Jeb Bush met with tea party on immigration
By Tarini Parti
Politico
Jeb Bush met with several tea party officials in Florida last month to talk immigration reform as the Gang of Eight bill was nearing completion.

Zero-tolerance policies are needlessly criminalizing kids
By Adora Obi Nweze
Orlando Sentinel
When Kiera Wilmot curiously mixed toilet-bowl cleaner with aluminum foil near her school gazebo last month, she did not imagine the experiment would end in adult felony charges.

JUSTICE AND THE COURTS

Court Rulings Send Legislature Back To The Drawing Board
By Lynn Hatter 
WFSU Tallahassee
Florida’s 2013 lawmaking session is slowly fading into the mists of history.  But although lawmakers may have finished their work, some of what they did or didn’t do could prompt much more work on the part of the state’s courts.

Battle Over Florida Prison Health Privatization Continues...Where Will It Lead?
By Sascha Cordner      
WFSU Tallahassee
It could take weeks before a Florida appeals court decides whether to allow the Florida Department of Corrections to move forward with privatizing the prison health care services in several Florida regions.

Scott should veto ‘Timely Justice Act’ on the death penalty
Editorial
Palm Beach Post
In 2006, the American Bar Association showed Florida how to fix the state’s death penalty system in the best way.