PROGRESS
FLORIDA IN THE NEWS
The BluVu: Week of August 5th
By Gayle Andrews
The BluVu
The Dream Defenders gain momentum and support from Jesse Jackson and Harry Belafonte in their efforts to draw attention to the controversial stand your ground law and Damien from Progress Florida tells the truth about Obamacare as political reality comes your way!
FEATURED
STORIES
Florida House Speaker Connected to Citizens Contractor
By Steve Miller
Florida Center for Investigative Reporting
State House Speaker Will Weatherford is a founding member and former director of a Texas company that since 2008 has received $826,676 from Florida’s state-run insurance company, according to records obtained by the Florida Center for Investigative Reporting.
Renewed 'scrub' of Florida voter list has elections officials on edge
By Steve Bousquet and Michael Van Sickler
Times/Herald Tallahassee Bureau
Gov. Rick Scott will soon launch a new hunt for noncitizens on Florida's voter roll, a move that's sure to provoke new cries of a voter "purge" as Scott ramps up his own re-election effort.
Weatherford orders hearing on SYG, taps Gaetz to chair
By Michael Van Sickler
Times/Herald Tallahassee Bureau
Related: Dream Defenders willing to consider hearings as alternative to special session
In an op-ed published Friday, Florida House Speaker Will Weatherford agreed to hold hearings this fall on the state’s “stand your ground” law.
In August, Republicans and Democrats prepare fresh fight over Obamacare
By Alex Leary
Tampa Bay Times
A playbook handed to House Republicans on their way home for the August recess contains instructions for an "Obamacare media tour."
Tony Bennett scandal sparks new discussion on validity of school grading
By Jeffrey S. Solochek and Kathleen McGrory
Tampa Bay Times
The national push to grade schools has slammed into an unexpected roadblock, causing even supporters to question the validity of the widely celebrated A-F system that Florida started 14 years ago.
EDITORIAL
CARTOON OF THE WEEK
By Jim Morin
Miami Herald
FLORIDA
POLITICS
'Stand your ground' intransigence is Democratic cannon fodder for 2014
By Aaron Deslatte
Orlando Sentinel
Think what you will about the protesters outside Gov. Rick Scott's office who want Florida lawmakers to address their long list of grievances: from racial profiling and voter disenfranchisement to "stand your ground."
Fla Dems video: Gov MIA
By Adam C. Smith
Tampa Bay Times
A new video from the Florida Democratic Party attacks Gov. Rick Scott for being MIA.
Rick Scott apparently has had enough Let's Get to Work days
By Aaron Sharockman
Tampa Bay Times
Best we can tell, Gov. Rick Scott hasn't had a "Let's Get to Work Day" since January.
Felon voting rights have a bigger impact on elections than voter ID laws
By Peter Schorsch
Saint Petersblog
Although Democrats are decrying voter identification laws, Harry J Enten of The Guardian says they actually should turn their attentions to felon voting rights.
Text messages show lobbyists "begging," behind the scenes political gamesmanship
By Matt Dixon
Florida Times-Union
It was two days before the end of the 2013 legislative session, and tensions were running high.
State trooper fired over stopping lawmakers wins his job back
By Steve Bousquet
Tampa Bay Times
Former Florida Highway Patrol trooper Charles Swindle, who was fired in March over his handling of traffic stops involving two state legislators, officially won reinstatement to his job Friday.
POLITICAL
RACES
Waiting on Crist
By Lloyd Dunkelberger
Sarasota Herald-Tribune
Former Gov. Charlie Crist is widely expected to challenge Gov. Rick Scott’s re-election next year.
$25-mill on hand by Jan? Rick Scott has to get to work
By Adam C. Smith
Tampa Bay Times
“I will have $25 million in the bank by the end of the year and will use it in early 2014 to define my opponent,” Gov. Rick Scott declared last week.
BALLOT
INITIATIVES
Clash over medical marijuana fires up
By William March
Tampa Tribune
Michael Derigo arrived home from a trip to the grocery store June 25 to find half a dozen police cars surrounding his mobile home in Gibsonton.
ENVIRONMENT
AND ENERGY
Charging Florida utility customers in advance for nuclear power plants likely to persist
By Jeff Harrington
Tampa Bay Times
It was supposed to save Duke Energy's customers millions of dollars. It was supposed to make building the Levy County nuclear plant both faster and cheaper.
State set to hear FPL’s prepaid nuclear costs request
By Susan Salisbury
Palm Beach Post
FPL will ask the state for permission Monday to charge its customers millions in planning costs for nuclear reactors that have yet to be approved.
Advances in testing help scientists zero in on sources of beach water pollution
By Bruce Ritchie
The Florida Current
About five years ago, advanced testing of beach water for bacteria only allowed scientists to determine whether the bacteria source came from humans or animals.
LGBT
Fla. Hospital Visitations Not Impacted By DOMA's Demise
By Ryan Benk
WFSU
After the US Supreme Court Struck down the Defense of Marriage Act, the president directed hospitals to begin giving equal visitation rights to same-sex couples. Gay couples say there’s been
Advocates for expanding gay rights in Jacksonville say their work is not done yet
By Matt Dixon
Florida Times-Union
It went down in a dramatic, narrow defeat one year ago this month.
EDUCATION
Bennett's interim replacement named amid call for elected education commissioner
By Dave Weber
Orlando Sentinel
Florida's State Board of Education on Friday appointed Pam Stewart as the temporary replacement for Education Commissioner Tony Bennett, who resigned Thursday amid the fallout over charter-school grade fixing in Indiana.
Tony Bennett resignation buoys Florida school-testing critics
News Service of Florida
Saint Petersblog
For the third time in Gov. Rick Scott’s two-and-a-half years as governor, there is no permanent leader in place for the Department of Education.
Gov. Scott needs an education commissioner who will focus on kids, not politics
Editorial
Ft. Myers News-Press
The rapid turnover of Florida education commissioners — three in just as many years — couldn’t come at a worse time for Gov. Rick Scott.
Florida's race-based education goals discriminate, complaint alleges
By Karen Yi and Lauren Roth, Staff writers
South Florida Sun-Sentinel
School leaders and advocates across South Florida are championing a complaint that alleges the state's race-based education goals for minority students violate civil rights law.
Gov. Rick Scott has a chance to get education right
By John Romano
Tampa Bay Times
This is your chance, sir.
JOBS,
BUDGET, AND ECONOMY
Florida's economy takes on new look after the Great Recession
By Jeff Harrington
Tampa Bay Times
Florida's workforce — the post-recession version — has a new face.
Gov. Scott has modest progress in cutting corporate taxes
By Lloyd Dunkelberger
Sarasota Herald-Tribune
Gov. Rick Scott offered mild praise for Barack Obama's plan to cut the federal corporate income tax, indicating that Obama seemed to be following Florida's lead in reducing business taxes.
Florida home ownership stays low
By William E. Gibson
outh Florida Sun Sentinel
Home ownership in Florida has gone down and stayed down since 2005, and there's little likelihood that will change any time soon as many of the state's financially strapped residents still find it hard to buy a home or choose to rent one instead.
Florida’s tax-free holiday lures back-to-school shoppers
By Lawrence Mower
Palm Beach Post
Dr. Arun Iyampillai has three kids in college, so he’s eager to save where he can.
HEALTH
AND SENIORS
If health insurance rates rise, blame Tallahassee, not Obamacare
Editorial
Palm Beach Post
Related:Florida Dems demand federal intervention on health premiums
Related: Democrats challenge Florida’s assertion that Obamacare premiums will spike
When The Post reported on Tuesday that health insurance policies in Florida’s individual market will rise 30 percent to 40 percent when the Affordable Care Act takes effect next year, one reader asked, “What happened to ‘This will bend the cost curve down?’ ”
Analysis: In Obamacare rate debate, price gets political
By Caroline Humer
South Florida Sun-Sentinel
With the October 1 date for enrollment in the health insurance exchanges being created by Obamacare less than two months away, a war of numbers has been escalating.
After tragedy, judge clamps down on DCF
By Carol Marbin Miller
Miami Herald
Reeling from the brutal death of a 2-year-old boy he was entrusted to protect, Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Michael A. Hanzman is peeling away much of the authority state child welfare officials normally enjoy in his courtroom — and taking more matters into his own hands.
Americans for Prosperity protest outside Blue Cross and Blue Shield
By Rochelle Koff
Tampa Bay Times
The Florida director of Americans for Prosperity, the advocacy group founded by the conservative Koch brothers, protested today in front of the state headquarters of Blue Cross and Blue Shield in Jacksonville to rebuke the company for having a "key role" in the nonprofit Enroll America.
IMMIGRATION,
CIVIL RIGHTS AND SOCIAL ISSUES
Religious leaders encourage Dreamers' protest
By James Call
The Florida Current
The Dream Defenders began their third weekend locked inside the Florida Capitol building on Friday with more than 100 people singing and gathering around the Great Seal of the State of Florida for interfaith prayers.
Marco Rubio disses Jesse's "apartheid" comment, stays mum on King's DREAMers-drug-mules line
By Marc A. Caputo
Miami Herald
Related: Rap star Talib Kweli plans to visit Dream Defender protest outside Rick Scott's office
Immigration? What immigration? Steve King who, what? Cantaloupes?
Webster endorses immigration reform — with preconditions
By Mark K. Matthews
Orlando Sentinel
On the same day Congress adjourned for a five-week break, U.S. Rep. Dan Webster did something he's avoided for months: speaking at length about immigration reform and declaring his support for an approach that would give unauthorized immigrants a pathway to citizenship.
JUSTICE
AND THE COURTS
Attorney General Pam Bondi seeks to avoid deposition in Allied Veterans case
By Kate Howard Perry
Florida Times-Union
Prosecutors and defense attorneys in the Allied Veterans of the World case are disputing whether Attorney General Pam Bondi must answer a subpoena and testify.
Man who killed 8 scheduled for execution in Fla.
Associated Press
Tampa Tribune
A mass murderer from Miami-Dade County is scheduled to die by lethal injection at Florida State Prison.
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