Daily News Clips for April 3, 2013

PROGRESS FLORIDA IN THE NEWS

Florida’s Top Political Tweeters for April
By Peter Schorsch
SaintPetersBlog
This is SaintPetersBlog‘s ranking of Florida’s Top Political Tweeters for April 2013…and Progress Florida at #27 is the top ranked organization.

FEATURED STORIES

Nelson under pressure on gay marriage
By William March
Tampa Tribune
Florida U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson is getting pressure from the liberal side of his party as the only Democrat in the state’s congressional delegation, and one of the few in the Senate, who opposes gay marriage.

Speaker Will Weatherford says 'never say never' to federal money for Medicaid alternatives
By Tia Mitchell
Tampa Bay Times/Miami Herald Tallahassee Bureau
As the Legislature weighs options for insuring the state's low-income residents, House Speaker Will Weatherford, for the first time, indicated Tuesday he might be open to accepting federal money.

Fear, loathing and partisanship in Senate on elections bill
By Steve Bousquet
Tampa Bay Times/Miami Herald Tallahassee Bureau
A series of partisan clashes on an early voting bill Tuesday brought a stern lecture from Sen. Jack Latvala, R-Clearwater, the point man on the legislation, who said he was "taking it a little bit personal."

Fla. House sets up "parent trigger" for passage
By James L. Rosica
Associated Press
The Florida House on Tuesday debated a bill that will give parents a vote in turnaround options for failing public schools, as the measure continued to be assailed as a way to ease takeovers of public schools by for-profit companies.

Orange-inspired sick-time ‘preemption’ bill gets closer to House passage
By Aaron Deslatte
Orlando Sentinel
The Florida House edged closer Tuesday to blocking Orange County voters from having a referendum on whether to offer paid sick-leave to workers.

FLORIDA POLITICS

Lane Rees, Florida GOP Committeeman, Arrested On Child Pornography Charges
By Nick Wing
The Huffington Post 
Lane Rees, a 61-year-old GOP committeeman for Walton County, Fla., was arrested Monday night for possession and transmission of child pornography, according to a Northwest Florida Daily News report, since confirmed by other Florida outlets.

Worse? GOP Scandals or Dems' Inability to Exploit?
By Peter Schorsch
Florida Voices
Firmly in control of the Governor's Mansion and Cabinet, as well as both chambers of the Florida Legislature, the Republican Party of Florida's hegemony over state politics has been unquestioned for over a decade.

Senate moves closer to outlawing slots-like cafe and arcade games
By Mary Ellen Klas
Miami Herald/Tampa Bay Times Tallahassee Bureau
Despite pleas from senior citizens and veterans groups, the Florida Senate moved closer to outlawing all slot machine-like games at Internet cafes, Miami’s maquinitas and South Florida’s adult arcades.

Scott Signs Law Repealing Special Driving Permits
By Lloyd Dunkelberger
Lakeland Ledger
Gov. Rick Scott on Tuesday ended a controversy that began three months ago when a Florida law took effect requiring foreign visitors to obtain a special driving permit before taking to the Sunshine State's roads.

Charlie Crist's wife regains joint custody of her two girls
By Adam C. Smith
Tampa Bay Times
Former Florida first lady Carole Crist has regained joint custody of her teenage daughters, her lawyer says, but contentious court fights with her ex-husband continue.

POLITICAL RACES

Too early for 2016? Not for Hillary Clinton's fans
Associated Press
Tampa Bay Times
Hillary Rodham Clinton stayed on safe political ground Tuesday, advocating women's rights globally in a 12-minute speech, but that was enough to excite fans imploring the former first lady, senator and secretary of state to run again for president three years from now. 

ENVIRONMENT AND ENERGY

Report: Dolphins, Turtles Still Dying in Gulf
By Stephanie Carroll Carson
Public News Service Florida
Florida wildlife continues to feel the impact of the 2010 Deepwater Horizon explosion.

Agricultural water bill wins support from former environmental opponents
By Bruce Ritchie
Florida Current
A bill that was shaping up to be the most controversial fight over water in the legislative session now has support from environmental groups that were opposing it.

Sen. Hays says his state lands bill likely dead as Senate panel delays action
By Bruce Ritchie
Florida Current
A Senate committee on Tuesday delayed action on a bill that would have restricted conservation land-buying by state agencies and local governments, leading the bill sponsor to acknowledge the legislation was dead this session.

LGBT

Equality Florida Twitterbombs U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson: It's 'Time to Evolve' on marriage equality
By Steve Rothaus
Miami Herald
Related: Two more U.S. senators announce gay marriage support, bringing total to 50
Equality Florida has launched a Twitterbomb of U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson, telling the Florida Democrat en masse that it's "Time to Evolve" on marriage equality.

EDUCATION

Moraitis says he'll amend charter schools bill
By Kathleen McGrory
Tampa Bay Times/Miami Herald Tallahassee Bureau
Rep. George Moraitis plans to remove the most controversial provision from his sweeping charter schools bill, he said Tuesday.

FEA President Andy Ford Slams Parent Trigger Bill, ALEC, and 401(k)'s
By Robert Lorei
WMNF Tampa
On the first part of today’s program we’ll talk with Andy Ford who is president of the Florida Education Association- the statewide teachers union.

Local superintendents raise questions about arming teachers in schools
By Katie Tammen
Northwest Florida Daily News
Local education leaders expressed strong feelings this week about a proposed state law which would permit designated teachers to carry concealed weapons on school grounds.

Bright Futures changes could impact thousands of Hispanic and black students
By Stephanie Hayes
Tampa Bay Times
Bright Futures was always a program designed to reward high-achieving high school students by helping shoulder the cost of college.

FAU remains in denial about stadium deal with GEO Group
Editorial
Palm Beach Post
Florida Atlantic University got a reprieve Monday when The GEO Group pulled its $6 million donation for naming rights to FAU’s football stadium, but the university still doesn’t understand what it did wrong.

JOBS, BUDGET, AND ECONOMY

Fla. lawmakers to take up $74 billion budget
Associated Press
Sarasota Herald-Tribune
Florida legislators are taking their first votes this year on a new state budget.

Bill would make sports teams, stadiums compete for subsidies
By Aaron Deslatte
Orlando Sentinel
An attempt to fund Miami Dolphins stadium improvements morphed Tuesday into a catch-all sports stadium package that could provide tax dollars for everything from Major League Soccer in Orlando to spring training improvements statewide – but require teams to compete for the money.

Proposed Hurricane Catastrophe Fund Changes Put On Hold
By Regan McCarthy      
WFSU Tallahassee
When it comes to insurance, Florida has had more than its share of trouble. Some insurance programs are struggling with fraud.

Sequester cuts to cost Palm Beach County elderly, children under measures approved Tuesday
By Andy Reid
South Florida Sun Sentinel
Needy senior citizens won’t get breakfast and poor children won’t get rides to pre-school under $2 million in Palm Beach County budget cuts approved Tuesday as a result of Congress failing to reach a budget deal.

Renew commitment to affordable housing
Editorial
Tampa Bay Times
For four years, Florida lawmakers unwilling to have broader discussions about raising revenue have used the same excuse to undercut the state's longtime commitment to affordable housing: Cash-strapped state budgets required them to raid affordable housing programs to cover other general government needs.

HEALTH AND SENIORS

Senate committee approves Bean's Plan C for health coverage
By James Call
Florida Current
Related: House panel OKs state regulators to work with federal health plan
President Barack Obama has a plan to reduce the number of uninsured people, called the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.

House and Senate poised to let feds set insurance rates under ObamaCare
By John Kennedy
Palm Beach Post
The Florida House and Senate look intent on shielding state regulators from any consumer criticism that stems from the insurance expansion that is part of the federal health care overhaul.

'Bold' Plan Would Replace Lawsuits
By Carol Gentry
Health News Florida
Imagine a medical-malpractice system that resolves patients’ complaints of harm quickly, without rancor or legal fees.

Needle exchange bill inching forward in the Florida Legislature
By Audra D.S. Burch
Miami Herald
For nearly a dozen years, George Gibson worked in the shadows of Miami, meeting intravenous drug users at bus stops, corners and alleys to exchange dirty needles for clean ones.

IMMIGRATION, CIVIL RIGHTS AND SOCIAL ISSUES

Lawmakers Say They Want More Attention For Real Gun Law Change
By Steven Rodriguez
WFSU Tallahassee
There are many bills in Florida this legislative session that deal with gun laws.

Florida legislators join anti-Islamic crusade
By Scott Maxwell
Orlando Sentinel
Last week, someone told the Rev. Joel Hunter that they hoped his family dies in a fire.

Daily News Clips for April 2, 2013

PROGRESS FLORIDA IN THE NEWS

Advocates Say More Work Needed on Ethics, Elections And Campaign Finance Reform
By Lynn Hatter
WFSU Tallahassee
The legislature is working to revamp the states ethics, elections and campaign finance laws. We check in with Phil Claypool, former director of the Florida Ethics Commission, Damien Filer of Progress Florida and Dan Krassner of Integrity Florida. Advocates are so far giving lawmakers a “C” grade for their efforts, and say there’s still plenty of time to make the reforms stronger.

FEATURED STORIES

Senate Education Committee OKs hot-button parent trigger
By Kathleen McGrory
Tampa Bay Times/Miami Herald Tallahassee Bureau
The contentious parent trigger bill got its first hearing in the Senate Education Committee on Monday. Not surprisingly, it passed along party lines.

Public school parents solidly reject 'Parent Trigger' legislation
By Kathleen Oropeza
Ft. Myers News-Press
Despite a bruising defeat in the 2012 Florida Legislative session, Parent Trigger is something proponents are too stubborn to drop. Anointed 2013 sponsors, Rep. Carlos Trujillo and Sen. Kelli Stargel, struggling to re-position their brand say, “We want to give parents a seat at the table.”

Domestic partnership bill passes committee, though victory likely symbolic
By Rochelle Koff
Tampa Bay Times/Miami Herald Tallahassee Bureau
Supporters of a bill that would create a statewide domestic partnership registry won what is likely to be a symbolic victory Monday when a Senate committee narrowly passed a bill that would grant same-sex couples in Florida specific rights.

Feds Like FL Plan, But Some FL Officials Don't Want Feds' Money
By Carol Gentry
Health News Florida
In the Friday afternoon rush, those who are tracking the debate on Florida Medicaid expansion may have missed three important events.

Prison firm withdraws gift to name FAU football stadium
By Michael Vasquez
Miami Herald
Just hours after the latest student protest, Boca-Raton based GEO Group on Monday withdrew its planned $6 million gift to Florida Atlantic University, a gift that would have put its name on the school’s football stadium.

Inside the NRA's Koch-Funded Dark Money Campaign
By Peter Stone
Mother Jones
"This election is going to be won on the ground," Chris Cox, the National Rifle Association's top lobbyist, told me early last year as the gun lobby prepared to launch its all-out campaign to defeat Barack Obama.

FLORIDA POLITICS

Lobbyist gift ban getting 'tweaks'
By Steve Bousquet
Tampa Bay Times/Miami Herald Tallahassee Bureau
The free lunch is making a comeback in Tallahassee.

What you need to know about Florida's seven-year-old gift ban
By Gary Fineout
The Fine Print
Sen. Tom Lee – who has already acknowledged that his effort is likely a long shot this year – moved his rework of the state's seven-year-old "zero tolerance" gift ban through its first committee stop on Monday.

Seize historic chance to bolster ethics reform
Editorial
Orlando Sentinel
The Florida Legislature is about to adopt the most sweeping changes to government ethics law in 36 years, and yet the changes don't go far enough.

Gov. Scott to sign first bill of 2013 in Tallahassee
Staff Report
WTXL Tallahassee
Governor Rick Scott is scheduled to sign the first bill of the 2013 legislative session Tuesday.

U.S. Rep. Steve Southerland, Critical of Government Spending, Doled Out Staff Bonuses
By Steve Miller
Florida Center for Investigative Reporting
U.S. Rep. Steve Southerland, a Republican from Panama City, in January complained that the profligate spending in Washington was at the heart of the country’s financial woes.

Allen West doled out $88K in bonuses to congressional staff after losing in 2012
By Peter Schorsch
Saint Petersblog
Tea Party favorite Allen West talked a lot on the campaign trail in 2012 about the need for reigning in government spending.

POLITICAL RACES

Gov. Rick Scott’s political committee raises big dollars from few donors
By Jim Turner
News Service of Florida
The money from Internet cafes won’t be missed.

Former governor’s daughter files for office
By Randal Yakey
Panama City News Herald
Gwen Graham, daughter of former Democratic Gov. Bob Graham, has filed to challenge Rep. Steve Southerland, R-Panama City, for his Second Congressional District seat in 2014.

Nelson campaigning for Democrats
By Jeremy Wallace
Sarasota Herald-Tribune
U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson doesn’t have to worry about his own re-election until 2018. 

ENVIRONMENT AND ENERGY

Trial over Gulf oil spill set to resume Tuesday
Associated Press
Palm Beach Post
A trial over the deadly Deepwater Horizon disaster is scheduled to resume Tuesday with testimony expected from Halliburton employee Jesse Gagliano, who was on the rig at the time of the April 2010 explosion.

Red Tide fades; manatee population down about 10 percent
By Craig Pittman
Tampa Bay Times
The Red Tide algae bloom blamed for killing more than 200 manatees this year appears to have finally dissipated, according to state wildlife officials.

'Cat colony' bill delayed amid sharp divisions between groups, concern from landowners
By Bruce Ritchie
Florida Current
Leon County resident Charles W. Hall Sr. said living near a feral cat colony has been a "nightmare" that cat lovers won't help him deal with.

LGBT

Gay marriage is about civil rights, not religion
By Michael Mayo
South Florida Sun Sentinel
To me, the issue of gay marriage is pretty simple. If two consenting adults want to get married, they should be allowed to do so, no matter the race, creed, color, religion or gender/sexual orientation of the two parties.

Don’t Cram Your Heterosexuality Down My Throat
By Pierre Tristam
Florida Voices
Several years ago around Christmas I was standing at a Walmart checkout counter with my son when a stranger behind me felt compelled to make me his homophobic bosom buddy.

EDUCATION

Florida bill would create ‘innovation schools’
Staff Report
Tampa Tribune
A Florida Senate panel has approved a bill that would allow school districts to create “innovation schools” that act like charter schools but remain under district control.

FAU instructor who led class exercise to step on ‘Jesus’ says he’s ‘very religious’
By George Bennett
Palm Beach Post
The Florida Atlantic University instructor who asked students in an intercultural communications class to write “Jesus” on a piece of paper and step on it says he’s a “very religious” Christian who has been unjustly attacked and threatened for simply doing his job.

Bill would allow universities to seek presidents outside the Sunshine Law
By Jeff Schweers
Gainesville Sun
For 46 years, the search for candidates to lead Florida’s universities has been conducted in the sunshine from start to finish, allowing the public an unfettered view of the selection process for the state’s highest leadership posts in education.

Proposal would lead to high-school free agency, opponents say
By Kathleen McGrory
Miami Herald/Tampa Bay Times Tallahassee Bureau
When the Florida High School Athletic Association disqualified the top-ranked Krop High School boys’ basketball team from the state playoffs in 2011, it had uncovered that several players, including a Bahamian-born guard, were ineligible to play for the northeast Miami-Dade high school team.

JOBS, BUDGET, AND ECONOMY

Wage theft bill clears Senate panel
Associated Press
First Coast News
A Florida Senate panel has cleared a bill that would set uniform state standards for employees to seek compensation when they say they haven't been paid their full wages.

Florida Senate panel criticizes Citizens chief then gives him support
By Toluse Olorunnipa
Miami Herald/Tampa Bay Times Tallahassee Bureau
The president of Citizens Property Insurance Corp. faced a grilling from lawmakers Monday, but ultimately received a unanimous vote of support after explaining his response to a series of recent scandals at the company.

Scott's manufacturing tax cut gets renewed push in Senate
By Gray Rohrer
Florida Current
The Senate is taking a new approach to the $141 million tax cut for manufacturers, a top legislative priority of Gov. Rick Scott.

Postcard alerts of foreclosure cash for more than 683,000 Floridians could be ignored
By Kimberly Miller
Palm Beach Post
More than 683,000 Floridians are expected to receive foreclosure-restitution checks beginning this month through federal agreements with banks, but consumer advocates fear the letters could be mistaken for a scam or junk mail and thrown away.

HEALTH AND SENIORS

Comparing the Bean and Negron alternatives to Medicaid expansion
By Tia Mitchell
Tampa Bay Times/Miami Herald Tallahassee Bureau
Sen. Aaron Bean has come up with a bare-bones approach to helping Florida's uninsured that he hopes his colleagues in both the Senate and the House will rally around.

Challenge: Luring Healthy to Buy Coverage
By Carol Gentry
Health News Florida
Former Gov. Charlie Crist’s pet project, Cover Florida, seemed a creative way to cover the uninsured with low-cost health plans.

Florida Senate should reject Medicaid plan that does nothing for the uninsured
Editorial
Palm Beach Post
The Florida Senate Health Policy Committee is scheduled this afternoon to consider an alternative to expanding Medicaid that wouldn’t provide health coverage or health care to the state’s uninsured.

Nursing home bill proceeds
By James Call
Florida Current
A bill making it more difficult to sue nursing home for punitive damages was approved Monday by the Senate Judiciary Committee.

New legislator laments likely failure of medical marijuana bill
By Bill Cotterell
Florida Current
A newly elected House member and a woman with Lou Gehrig's Disease whose medicinal marijuana plants were seized in a raid expressed great disappointment Monday that bills to allow use of the drug have not moved in either chamber of the Legislature during the 2013 session.

Rx Drug Deaths Down in Florida
By Whitney Ray
Capitol News Service
Drug deaths nationwide are on the rise, but not in Florida.

IMMIGRATION, CIVIL RIGHTS AND SOCIAL ISSUES

Rubio claims pivot point on immigration overhaul
By Erica Werner
Associated Press
Whatever immigration deal might be claimed by labor and business, or by Democrats and Republicans, Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida is serving notice it has to go through him.

Rubio’s Immigration Cowardice
By Michael Tomasky
The Daily Beast
Why were we all talking about Marco Rubio yesterday? Because Marco Rubio made sure of it.

Social justice groups say 'no' to armed teachers
By Kathleen McGrory
Tampa Bay Times/Miami Herald Tallahassee Bureau
Four social justice organizations are speaking out against proposed legislation that would allow some classroom teachers to carry weapons on campus.

Florida Senate panel advances measure to bar mentally ill from buying guns
By Dara Kam
Palm Beach Post
Florida lawmakers are moving forward with a National Rifle Association-backed measure aimed at blocking dangerous mentally ill people from buying guns.

JUSTICE AND THE COURTS

Negron's death row plan to cut down lengthy appeals process clears Senate committee
By Jonathan Mattise
TC Palm
State Sen. Joe Negron’s plan to cut down lengthy, expensive appeals that can keep inmates on death row for decades cleared a Senate committee Monday.

Daily News Clips for April 1, 2013

PROGRESS FLORIDA IN THE NEWS

Real election reform isn't what Florida is getting
By Mark Ferrulo
South Florida Sun Sentinel
Excerpt: We need true election reform, so that all eligible citizens who uphold their responsibility to participate in our democracy can cast a ballot and know it counts.

FEATURED STORIES

In quick Miami stop, Obama pitches new ways to attract private investment for public-works projects
By Patricia Mazzei
Miami Herald
President Barack Obama traveled briefly to — and under — PortMiami on Friday afternoon to push for new ways to secure private dollars for big-ticket projects to renovate highways, bridges, pipes and schools.

Rubio: Reports of immigration deal 'premature'
By Phillip Elliott
Associated Press
Even with one of the largest hurdles to an immigration overhaul overcome, optimistic lawmakers on Sunday cautioned they had not finished work on a bill that would provide a path to citizenship for 11 million illegal immigrants.

More money for teachers, state workers in House, Senate budget plans
By Gray Rohrer
Florida Current
In initial budget plans released Friday by the House and Senate, lawmakers fund Gov. Rick Scott’s request for teacher pay raises and increased education spending, but ignored other Scott priorities or left them funded at significantly reduced levels.

Restrictions hurt women's health
By Judith Selzer
Tallahassee Democrat
The Legislature meets for only 60 days every year — that’s 60 days to create and pass a budget for the state and consider all other legislation needed to help Florida as our economy recovers.

Audit questions $2.4M government grant to Tampa lawmaker
By Michael Van Sickler
Tampa Bay Times/Miami Herald Tallahassee Bureau
Jamie Grant was two years out of law school and a freshman member of the state House when he made a bold claim.

EDITORIAL CARTOON OF THE WEEK

By Jeff Parker
Florida Today

FLORIDA POLITICS

Florida Legislature: Floridians Have a Lot at Stake on the Outcome
By Lloyd Dunkelberger
Lakeland Ledger
With a new $74 billion-plus state budget taking shape, the 2013 Legislature will pass the halfway point of its annual 60-day session this Wednesday.

Florida's legislative harmony yields few achievements
By John Kennedy
Palm Beach Post
In the weeks leading to the start of the legislative session, House Speaker Will Weatherford and Senate President Don Gaetz seemed inseparable.

Undercover slot machines expert to be key witness in Allied Vets probe
By Mary Ellen Klas
Miami Herald/Tampa Bay Times Tallahassee Bureau
Working undercover as just another aging patron, D. Robert Sertell watched as customers streamed into Internet cafes in strip malls across Florida to buy access to Internet time or long-distance phone service.

Lobbyist has a say in billboard law rewrite
By Matt Dixon  
Florida Times-Union
The Florida Department of Transportation is giving a lobbyist for the state’s outdoor advertisers influence over its rewrite of the law overseeing that industry.

Florida lawmakers weigh bill to tweak lobbyist gift ban
By Jim Saunders
News Service of Florida
Enjoying a steak dinner on a lobbyist’s tab would still be banned. But a cup of coffee? Maybe not.

Changes key to sweeping ethics reform
Editorial
South Florida Sun Sentinel
The Florida Legislature is about to adopt the most sweeping changes to the government ethics law in 36 years, and yet the changes don't go far enough.

POLITICAL RACES

Sen. Bill Nelson keeps saying no to Florida governor's race
By Alex Leary and Katie Sanders
Tampa Bay Times
U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson said he is not planning to run against Gov. Rick Scott in the 2014 governor's race but stopped short of completely ruling it out.

In Palm Beach County, campaign fundraising for 2014 hit high gear last week
By George Bennett
Palm Beach Post
Hank Aaron — baseball’s all-time, non-steroid-enhanced home run king — dashed off an urgent request Friday on behalf of his neighbor, U.S. Rep. Lois Frankel, D-West Palm Beach. 

ENVIRONMENT AND ENERGY

Springs revival languishes in Legislature
By Craig Pittman
Tampa Bay Times
U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson rode around on a glass-bottom boat in Silver Springs last week to highlight how he's concerned about the state's springs.

Environmentalists call this a greener Legislature
By Aaron Deslatte
Orlando Sentinel
The 2013 legislative session is proving to be a re-greening year of sorts for Florida's once-beleaguered environmental community.

Deck stacked for developers
Editorial
Tampa Bay Times
There is a reason everyone kept quiet about the federal government handing the state the power to grant development permits that could hurt Florida panthers, gopher tortoises and other endangered species.

LGBT

Nelson under pressure on gay marriage
By William March
Tampa Tribune
Florida U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson is getting pressure from the liberal side of his party as the only Democrat in the state’s congressional delegation, and one of the few in the Senate, who opposes gay marriage.

Same-sex marriage: the debate
By Sergio R. Bustos and Stefania Ferro
Miami Herald
The U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments last week in two major cases that put the issue of same-sex marriage before the nation.

A supreme injustice if same-sex couples don't get full equality
By Michael Mayo
South Florida Sun Sentinel
Michael Gallacher got married in New York last year. It was a small ceremony, in Madison Square Park.

Take some of the same-sex hatred in Florida’s off the books
By Randy Schultz
Palm Beach Post
The Republicans who lead the Florida Legislature could help their party and the state with a gesture that would be compassionate and practical: Repeal the ban on same-sex adoptions.

EDUCATION

Debate grows over merit pay plan for teachers as deadline nears
By Kathleen McGrory
Tampa Bay Times/Miami Herald Tallahassee Bureau
Sen. Anitere Flores has a simple fix for a complex problem.

The $2,500 raise is Scott’s attempt to placate teachers
Editorial
Palm Beach Post
Gov. Rick Scott wants all Florida teachers to get a $2,500 raise and give him credit for it. Legislators protested that any raise should be based on merit.

PolitiFact Florida: Parent trigger bill didn't come from White House efforts
By Katie Sanders
Tampa Bay Times/Miami Herald PolitiFact
A Republican lawmaker said he doesn't know why his "parent trigger" bill isn't gaining more support from Democrats in the Legislature.

GED tests going digital — and getting costlier
By Danny Valentine
Tampa Bay Times
Janet Vasquez will pick up her pencil early next month surrounded by test-takers anxiously trying to pass their high-school equivalency exams.

JOBS, BUDGET, AND ECONOMY

Company gets bigger state contract even as unemployment rate falls
By Toluse Olorunnipa
Miami Herald/Tampa Bay Times Tallahassee Bureau
As Gov. Rick Scott was touting the state’s drop in unemployment last summer, his top jobs agency made a curious prediction: the number of people applying for jobless benefits would increase sharply over the next year.

Florida's jobless rate dips to 7.7 percent in February
By Gray Rohrer
Florida Current
Florida’s unemployment rate dropped to 7.7 percent in February, according to numbers released Friday by the Department of Economic Opportunity.

Florida's Pension Issue: The Upcoming GOP Showdown
By Sascha Cordner      
WFSU Tallahassee
In recent weeks, the pension issue has been a topic of hot controversy, and there are two competing proposals.

NYC deal gives juice to national paid sick leave campaign
By Ned Resnikoff
MSNBC
New York City’s multi-year battle over paid sick leave may soon be at an end.

HEALTH AND SENIORS

Refusal to expand Medicaid could cost Florida businesses
By Jodie Tillman
Tampa Bay Times
When it comes to opening up Medicaid to cover more uninsured Floridians, business groups have put forth either lukewarm endorsements or red-hot opposition.

At CPAC, House Speaker Will Weatherford emphasizes opposition to Medicaid expansion
By Alex Leary
Tampa Bay Times
Introduced as the youngest House speaker in America, Florida Rep. Will Weatherford used a speech Saturday before a large gathering of conservative activists to double down on a promise to reject a federal expansion of Medicaid.

Hospitals: Medicaid expansion would create jobs
By Kathleen Haughney
Orlando Sentinel
The state's hospitals made the pitch Friday that accepting federal Medicaid dollars to insure more poor people under the Affordable Care Act would be an economic engine for Florida.

Lawmakers put women's health at risk
By Jenna Tosh
Orlando Sentinel
The new "Women's Health at Risk" report from Planned Parenthood reveals that more than two million women and girls in Florida are uninsured, and our state has the second-highest number of women and girls with AIDS in the U.S.

Filling a gap in children's health care
Editorial
Tampa Bay Times
In typical Tallahassee fashion, money is trumping children's health care in a fight over a House bill that would close a gap in the state's medical safety net.

IMMIGRATION, CIVIL RIGHTS AND SOCIAL ISSUES

Toughen concealed carry law, local NRA members say
By Willie Howard
Palm Beach Post
Related: Gun background check system has holes, but will expanding it save lives?
Some of the most ardent supporters of gun rights in Palm Beach County say it’s too easy to get a concealed weapons license in Florida, where gun owners from as far away as Alaska take the course to get the right to carry.

Guns Sales Soar
By Mike Vasilinda
Capitol News Service
Floridians are continuing a gun buy binge. For the first three months of the year, the state has conducted one hundred thousand more background checks on gun purchasers than it did last year.