Daily News Clips for July 2, 2013

FEATURED STORIES

Weatherford: No to special session
News Service of Florida
Sarasota Herald-Tribune
Reiterating his opposition to expanding Medicaid, House Speaker Will Weatherford, R-Wesley Chapel, said in an interview with a South Florida television station that lawmakers should not meet in a special session on the issue.

Rick Scott is worth $83.8M, report shows
By Steve Bousquet
Times/Herald Tallahassee Bureau
Gov. Rick Scott's net worth increased last year to $83.8 million, up slightly from the year before, according to his financial statement published Monday by the Florida Commission on Ethics.

Bennett challenges superintendents' solutions to school grading
By Jeffrey S. Solochek
Tampa Bay Times
Florida Education Commissioner Tony Bennett made few promises Monday after listening to a task force of superintendents push for adjustments that would improve this year's school grades at the eleventh hour.

New Study Shows Latinos and Blacks Suffered Long Lines in 2012 Election
By Robert Lorei
WMNF Tampa
Last week the US Supreme Court threw out a portion of the Voting Rights Act because it relied on 40 year old data.

Civil Rights Activists Outraged on Supreme Court Ruling
By Matt Horn
Capitol News Service
The latest Supreme Court ruling on voter rights has civil rights activists outraged. Now, Florida civil rights groups are planning to fight back.

FLORIDA POLITICS

Gov. Rick Scott signs bill to protect veterans from fraud
By Charles Scudder
Tampa Bay Times
Gov. Rick Scott signed a bill Monday that will allow for harsher penalties in fraud cases against veterans and military families.

Gov. Rick Scott signs bill that targets artifact looters on water authority lands
By Eloísa Ruano González
Orlando Sentinel
Gov. Rick Scott has signed a bill that makes it a crime to pilfer arrowheads, pottery and other archaeological artifacts on water-authority lands.

Comparing Scott to Crist, Bush on vetos
By Jeremy Wallace
Sarasota Herald-Tribune
If you saw my column on Monday, you know Florida Gov. Rick Scott has only vetoed 8 bills from the Legislature this year.

Orange Superintendent Barbara Jenkins as Rick Scott's Lt. Gov? Not seeing it
By Scott Maxwell
Orlando Sentinel
Recently, I read a political piece that made me chuckle.

DBPR fires Alcohol-Tobacco captain in wake of employee complates
By Bill Cotterell
Florida Current
The Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation fired a law-enforcement captain Monday after an internal investigation that described a "good ol' boy" management system in the agency that enforces the state's liquor laws, marked by racially and sexually offensive remarks, employee favoritism and a blunt threat that employees should obey illegal or unethical orders -- or get fired.

Aide to Miami Congressman Joe Garcia embroiled in absentee-ballot fraud investigation resigns
By Patricia Mazzei
Miami Herald
Giancarlo Sopo, Congressman Joe Garcia’s communications director who has been ensnared in an ongoing criminal investigation into fraudulent absentee-ballot requests, has resigned.

Welcome to Oh, #Florida, the state of wild weirdness
By Craig Pittman
Tampa Bay Times
The other day my friend Shannon called me asking for help. She said her women's group was putting on a luncheon for a group from some other country.

POLITICAL RACES

AG Pam Bondi files for re-election
By Tia Mitchell
Times/Herald Tallahassee Bureau
From the News Service of Florida: Attorney General Pam Bondi said Monday she filed papers to seek re-election in 2014, joining fellow Republican Cabinet members Jeff Atwater and Adam Putnam in taking formal steps to run again.

Patronis drops out of Senate race against Matt Gaetz
By Tia Mitchell
Times/Herald Tallahassee Bureau
Rep. Matt Gaetz's plan to suceed his father, Senate President Don Gaetz, just got a little easier.

BALLOT INITIATIVES

'Big Marijuana,' 'sugar daddies,' politics behind push to legalize medical marijuana in Florida
By Matt Dixon  
Florida Times-Union
From the beginning, the legislative push to legalize medical marijuana came with a deep-seated sense of impending doom.

ENVIRONMENT AND ENERGY

Florida Keys prepare for sea level rise
By Jennifer Kay
Associated Press
Hurricane storm surge can inundate the narrow, low-lying Florida Keys, but that is far from the only water worry for officials.

President Obama's push to curb emissions leaves Florida in tough spot
By Ivan Penn
Tampa Bay Times
President Barack Obama's strategy to curb greenhouse gas emissions doesn't bode well for Florida.

LGBT

Wanted by Equality Florida: Same-sex couple willing to sue state of Florida over gay marriage
By Steve Rothaus
Miami Herald
Equality Florida is seeking a same-sex couple who wants to sue Florida for marriage equality.

EDUCATION

Student loan rates double without Congress’ action
Staff Report
Gainesville Sun
College students taking out new loans for the fall term will see interest rates twice what they were in the spring — unless Congress fulfills its pledge to restore lower rates when it returns after the July 4 holiday.

Bad school grades reports to cause loss of credibility if state doesn’t find stopgap, superintendents warn
By Allison Ross
Palm Beach Post
A group of school superintendents from around the state urged Florida’s top education official on Monday to put in stopgap measures that would protect schools’ crucial A-to-F grades from nosediving this year.

Arbitrator overrules Broward high school schedule change
By Scott Travis
South Florida Sun Sentinel
Many Broward County high schools could return to block scheduling this fall, after an arbitrator ruled that a switch to seven-period days violated a contract with the teacher’s union.

New standards don’t make the grade
Editorial
Miami Herald
Too many students are being set up to think they are failures by the very people who say they are pushing students to excel.

JOBS, BUDGET, AND ECONOMY

Moody's proclaims 'Florida is back on track'
By Mary Ellen Klas
Miami Herald
With a headline that reads “Florida Back on Track,’’ Moody’s Investors Service gives Florida an Aa1 rating and a stable outlook in a report issued last week, proclaiming that “the state’s recovery is well under way.”

State report: Gambling does have economic benefits
By Kathleen Haughney
Orlando Sentinel
Florida has one of the most competitive gambling markets in the country, bringing in more state tax dollars than all but two other gambling states, a new report concludes.

HEALTH AND SENIORS

Dental care for poor Florida children, already scarce, could get worse
By Jodie Tillman and Claire McNeill
Tampa Bay Times
Seven-year-old Ebony McCray arrived at the dentist's office last week needing two crowns and four fillings.

Fraud-Fighters Being Laid Off
Staff Report
Health News Florida
Florida, one of the nation's hotspots for Medicare and Medicaid fraud, is at particular risk as budget changes in Washington combine to force the layoff this year of 400 employees of the Inspector General's office at the Department of Health and Human Services.

West Palm Beach woman sues to stop part of state law aimed at reining in medical malpractice claims
By Jane Musgrave
Palm Beach Post
A West Palm Beach woman, with the help of the Center for Constitutional Litigation, today filed suit in U.S. District Court, seeking to invalidate part of a new state law that is designed to rein-in medical malpractice litigation.

IMMIGRATION, CIVIL RIGHTS AND SOCIAL ISSUES

G.O.P. Groups Offering Cover for Lawmakers on Immigration
By Jeremy W. Peters
New York Times
Fox News viewers in Florida will see a new commercial in the coming weeks urging them to call Senator Marco Rubio.

Jeb Bush: ‘Republicans need to cease being the obstacle to immigration reform’
By George Bennett
Palm Beach Post
Former Florida Gov. and possible 2016 GOP presidency seeker Jeb Bush is urging House Republicans to embrace “compromise and a comprehensive approach” as they take up immigration reform now that the Senate has passed the bipartisan “Gang of Eight” bill.

Top Democrat says Webster and three other Florida Republicans are 'persuadable' on immigration
By Mark K. Matthews
Orlando Sentinel
Could U.S. Rep. Dan Webster, R-Winter Garden, be convinced to support an immigration package similar to what passed the U.S. Senate last week?

JUSTICE AND THE COURTS

First Challenge Filed Against Fla's Execution Speed-Up Law      
By Lynn Hatter 
WFSU Tallahassee
Outside Florida’s historic Capitol building one man stands with a plain, black and white sign. Kurt Wadsworth is a 27-year-old University of West Florida Student.

Florida 'stand your ground' law yields some shocking outcomes depending on how law is applied
By Kris Hundley, Susan Taylor Martin and Connie Humburg
Tampa Bay Times
Florida's "stand your ground'' law has allowed drug dealers to avoid murder charges and gang members to walk free.

Investigators take the stand in George Zimmerman murder trial
By Evan S. Benn and Audra D.S. Burch
Miami Herald
Some details in George Zimmerman’s account of what happened the night he fatally shot Trayvon Martin changed in his various interviews with investigators, according to testimony Monday in Zimmerman’s second-degree murder trial.