Daily Clips for April 26, 2011

FEATURED STORIES

House Democrat: Speaker Dean Cannon tried to trade favorable treatment for support on court bill
By Mary Ellen Klas
St. Petersburg Times/Miami Herald Tallahassee Bureau
Related: Senate committee passes Supreme Court overhaul plan
House Speaker Dean Cannon's attempt to play hardball Monday with his top priority court reform bill wasn't the first time the speaker has used political pressure and dealmaking to advance his plan.

Florida budget talks stall under accusations of negotiating in bad faith
By Marc Caputo
St. Petersburg Times/Miami Herald Tallahassee Bureau
A squabble over spending turned tense Monday when the Florida Senate's budget chairman accused the leader of the Florida House of negotiating in bad faith and attempting to hamstring Senate President Mike Haridopolos' run for U.S. Senate.

Corporate income tax cut postponed, might be dead
By Brandon Larrabee
News Service of Florida
Leading senators sent mixed signals about the fate of Gov. Rick Scott's signature corporate tax cut proposal after a skittish committee temporarily postponed consideration of the measure at its last scheduled meeting Monday, leaving the idea's future in doubt.

Florida state budget cuts spark outcry from poor, mentally ill
By Linda Shrieves
Orlando Sentinel
Florida lawmakers are headed into final rounds of state budget negotiations this week, but the proposed cuts have sparked an outcry from advocates for the poor and the mentally ill.

Stunts, threats and the possible meltdown of the 2011 session
By Gary Fineout
Florida Tribune
Despite sweeping to new heights last year, the potential meltdown of the 2011 session proves that having everyone with an R after their name doesn’t lead to harmony or complete agreement.

Immigrants rally statewide
By Laura Wides-Munoz
Associated Press
Hundreds of immigrant activists and supporters are organizing protests this week across Florida to protest two tough immigration bills being debated in the Legislature.

FLORIDA POLITICS

Proposed bills would make voting harder for many Floridians
By Kathleen Haughney
Orlando Sentinel
College students seeking to vote at their campus precinct will find it harder to do.

Does Florida have a voter fraud problem?
By Gary Fineout
The Fine Print
As the GOP-controlled Legislature pushes ahead with a widespread elections bill, those pushing the bill deny that it has anything to do with targeting voters who could be voting Democratic in next year's crucial presidential election.

An assault on the voters
By Deirdre Macnab
St. Petersburg Times
2011? Some of us feel as though we're time traveling back to the Stone Ages.

Assessing (the ulterior motives of) the House Redistricting Committee
By Peter Schorsch
Inside The Lines
To those of us closely following the reapportionment process, last week’s announcement of the House Redistricting Committee was the legislative equivalent of the annual unveiling of which films are nominated for Academy Awards.

Scott spending more than $7.3 million a year on spin doctors
By Dara Kam
Palm Beach Post
Gov. Rick Scott – whose mantra is “Let’s Get to Work” – is paying $7.3 million to 126 aides for image-boosting and spin, according to a report released by Florida TaxWatch today.

Gov. Rick Scott evades question about killing Citizens Insurance
By Michael C. Bender
St. Petersburg Times
Asked to explain his secret push to kill Citizens Property Insurance within four years, Gov. Rick Scott today balked.

Public deserves to see pension accounts
Editorial
St. Petersburg Times
Perhaps it's not surprising that, amid the 2006 bull market, the entire Legislature was hoodwinked into surrendering one of Florida's core values: transparency in government.

Today in Tallahassee: Abortion limits
By Jodie Tillman
St. Petersburg Times/Miami Herald Tallahassee Bureau
Abortion takes top billing on the House agenda today as Republicans push through measures that put new limits on when women may get the procedure.

POLITICAL RACES

Florida Democratic lawmakers on outside looking in, expect GOP backlash in 2012
By Ryan Mills
Naples Daily News
They introduce legislation. It’s ignored.

Florida Senate hopeful looking to follow Marco Rubio’s lead
By David Cantanese
Politico
He’s a young, little-known former state lawmaker who is steadily piling up praise from the chattering class as the most authentic conservative candidate in the race for Florida’s Senate seat.

Common decency in short supply
By Daniel Ruth
St. Petersburg Times
Ambition does funny things to people, like turning them into backstabbing, duplicitous oafs with all the loyalty of The Godfather's Tessio.

Jeb Bush endorses Hogan for Jacksonville mayor, despite abortion clinic bomb ‘joke’
By Virginia Chamlee
Florida Independent
Jacksonville mayoral candidate Mike Hogan is today claiming the endorsement of former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, despite Hogan joking that bombing an abortion clinic “might cross [his] mind” during a candidate’s forum in February.

ENVIRONMENT AND ENERGY

NWF: Oil Spill Data Kept Secret
By Les Coleman
Public News Service Florida
Doug Inkley, a senior scientist with the National Wildlife Federation, is not a happy fellow these days, because the effects of the BP oil spill on wildlife along the Gulf Coast are his concern.

Phosphate company asks PSC to reconsider its role in allowing nuclear cost recovery
By Bruce Ritchie
Florida Tribune
One of the state's largest power users is asking the Public Service Commission to play its traditional watchdog role in overseeing nuclear cost recovery by utilities.

Bill would make it easier for billboard companies to cut down trees
By Craig Pittman
St. Petersburg Times
One of the biggest problems facing the billboard industry is the tree.

EDUCATION

Broward School Board to tackle $150 in cuts
By Carli Teproff
Miami Herald
With state funding cuts, inflation and federal stimulus money running out, the Broward school district is looking at cutting nearly $150 million from its $1.9 billion budget.

Dade school district: Bill would hurt graduation rate
By Patricia Mazzei and Kathleen McGrory
Miami Herald
Last year, 28,500 Miami-Dade high school students enrolled in a night school class – many of them to retake a math or English class they failed, needing the credit to graduate.

Top educator OKs plan for Jacksonville struggling schools
By Topher Sanders
Florida Times-Union
Duval County Public Schools will likely be able to move forward with its plan to improve its four most struggling schools after getting the state's top educator's blessing Monday.

Skipping school may cost families their homes
By J. David McSwane
Sarasota Herald-Tribune
For students whose families live in public housing, ditching class could soon mean much more than detention.

JOBS, BUDGET, AND ECONOMY

Gov. Scott says he's confident Fla. will cut corporate tax
By Bill Cotterell
Florida Capital News
Gov. Rick Scott's plan to phase out Florida's corporate income tax flopped in a Senate committee Monday, but the Republican governor said he is confident he can persuade conservative lawmakers.

Gov. Rick Scott pushes corporate tax cut plan but Senate committee balks
By Mary Ellen Klas
St. Petersburg Times/Miami Herald Tallahassee Bureau
With the clock ticking on the session, Gov. Rick Scott's pledge to cut corporate income taxes got a last-minute rescue Monday, but senators are still balking at the price tag.

Florida budget negotiations begin in earnest
By Matt Dixon
Florida Times-Union
Budget negotiations between the House and Senate kick off this week, initiating what can be a contentious process.

House and Senate unwilling to compromise on unemployment compensation
By Brent Henzi
Florida Tribune
While the House and Senate battle over the state budget, another standstill has developed over which chamber has a better proposal for unemployment compensation changes.

As state leaders push for higher rates, property insurers enjoy robust year
By Robert Trigaux
St. Petersburg Times
In keeping with his mantra that smaller government is better government, Florida Gov. Rick Scott reportedly wants to do away with state-backed Citizens Property Insurance.

HEALTH AND SENIORS

‘Parental Notice of Abortion’ bill moves forward with tight restrictions on judicial bypass
By Ashley Lopez
Florida Independent
The Florida Senate Judiciary committee today passed the “Parental Notice of Abortion” bill with new language that would restrict which courts a minor has access to when seeking a judicial bypass of parental notification.

PIP bills stall in House, Senate
By Michael Peltier
News Service of Florida
An insurance-backed effort to make it easier for the industry to deny personal injury protection claims stalled in both chambers Monday following a withering assault from attorneys who represent motorists, physicians, chiropractors and other providers.

'Politicized' high court won't hear health overhaul, yet
By Stacey Singer
Palm Beach Post
The U.S. Supreme Court announced Monday that it won't fast track Virginia's challenge to the Obama administration's divisive health overhaul, a decision as significant for what it did not say as for what it did.

Federal report alleges Florida mismanaged AIDS Drug Assistance Program funds
By Marcos Restrepo
Florida Independent
A January 2011 federal report provided to The Florida Independent on the condition of anonymity alleges that federal audits and site visits show that Florida’s Bureau of HIV/AIDS failed to use “available resources in the best interest of people living with HIV and AIDS” while administering its AIDS Drug Assistance Program, which provides HIV/AIDS medications to low-income citizens.

Bondi announces plan, like McAuliffe's, to pay for drug database with cash seized from criminals
By Dara Kam
Palm Beach Post
Criminals could foot the bill for the state's prescription drug database under a plan launched by Attorney General Pam Bondi.

Tampa Bay's Medicaid patients up for grabs
By Richard Martin and Letitia Stein
St. Petersburg Times
Hospitals in the Tampa Bay region that long have vied for patients now may band together to take on a bigger competitor: the managed care industry.

Leave the exam rooms, lawmakers
By Mona V. Mangat, M.D.
Tampa Tribune
The doctor-patient relationship is critical to the delivery of quality health care.

CIVIL RIGHTS, PEACE AND SOCIAL ISSUES

Tampa Bay protesters rally at Capitol ahead of immigration bill debate
By Katie Sanders and Patricia Mazzei
St. Petersburg Times/Miami Herald Tallahassee Bureau
A swarm of protesters bused in Monday from the Tampa Bay area called on God to prevent lawmakers from rolling ahead with an immigration crackdown, warning it will divide their families and lead to racial profiling.

Latino leaders oppose Arizona-style immigration bill in Florida Legislature
By Jeannette Rivera-Lyles
Orlando Sentinel
A group of Latino leaders from Central Florida traveled to Tallahassee on Monday to oppose an Arizona-style immigration bill being considered by the Legislature.

ACLU calls on Justice Department to review rollback of felons’ voting rights
By Travis Pillow
Florida Independent
The American Civil Liberties Union is calling for the U.S. Department of Justice to review state clemency rules approved in March that would end the automatic restoration of civil rights, including the right to vote, for former felons.

JUSTICE AND THE COURTS

Senate offers to trade court realignment for budget progress
By Aaron Deslatte
Orlando Sentinel
In a gesture to appease House Speaker Dean Cannon, Senate budget chief J.D. Alexander agreed Monday to fast-track a major realignment of the Florida Supreme Court, adding language to another bill that would break the court into two separate divisions.

Private-prisons lobbyists count more than reality
By Fred Grimm
Miami Herald
Seven years ago, a prison riot exploded in Palm Beach County that ought to give pause, in 2011, to legislators determined to outsource South Florida’s state prisons to private, for-profit corporations.

Daily Clips for April 25, 2011

FEATURED STORIES

Republican legislative agenda targets major Democratic donors
By Mary Ellen Klas
Miami Herald/St. Petersburg Times Tallahassee Bureau
With an eye toward the 2012 elections, Florida Republicans are mounting the broadest assault on their Democratic counterparts since taking control of the Legislature 15 years ago.

Documents show a Scott push to shutter Citizens
By Paige St. John
Sarasota Herald-Tribune
Gov. Rick Scott has secretly pushed to kill Citizens Property Insurance before his first term ends, a goal that alarmed even representatives of private insurance companies seeking to remove Citizens as a competitor, the Herald-Tribune has learned.

Scott, Legislature may clash on budget
By Jim Ash
Florida Capital News
Related: Scott confident Fla. legislature to phase out corporate income tax
If Gov. Rick Scott makes good on a threat to veto the entire state budget, he will be following in the footsteps of Gov. Claude Kirk, the last executive to go nuclear with his line-item veto power.

GOP vow to cut government, spur private jobs likely to raise other costs for Floridians
By John Kennedy
Palm Beach Post
Gov. Rick Scott and Florida's ruling Republicans have vowed to pass a no-new-taxes state budget, slash government spending, cut regulations and spur corporations to create jobs.

Pension payments would gouge state workers at lower end of pay scale
By Lindsay Peterson
Tampa Tribune
Gov. Rick Scott called attention to the state's largess last month when he launched a website listing state workers with pensions of more than $100,000 a year.

Florida wage growth at lowest level since the Great Depression
By Laura Green
Palm Beach Post
Growth of wages in Florida, where pay already lags the nation, has nearly ground to a halt, reaching its lowest level since the Great Depression, according to the state Agency for Workforce Innovation.

EDITORIAL CARTOON OF THE WEEK

By Andy Marlette
Pensacola News Journal

FLORIDA POLITICS

Do we really need this Legislature?
By Howard Simon
St. Petersburg Times
Does Florida really need a Legislature?

Appeal to people of Florida to stop direct bribery of Legislature
By Howard Troxler
St. Petersburg Times
Let the record and the history books show that no matter what else the 2011 Florida Legislature does, wise or unwise, it has done one thing utterly and morally despicable, and beyond any excuse or redemption.

Get ready for start of redistricting war
By Aaron Deslatte
Orlando Sentinel
Redistricting battle lines are already forming a week into the yearlong job of redrawing Florida's legislative and congressional maps.

Time is tight for state legislators
By Paul Flemming
Pensacola News Journal
The Florida Legislature has managed to erase the memory of former Gov. Charlie Crist in its first six weeks in session, but nearly everything else remains to be done in the final two weeks.

Today in Tallahassee: Start of whirlwind budget talks
By Jodie Tillman
St. Petersburg Times/Miami Herald Tallahassee Bureau
Today marks the start of the Legislature's two-week whirlwind to close a budget gap worth billions of dollars.

Stop assault on all voters: Even Republican election officials say that Florida doesn't need this
Editorial
Palm Beach Post
This year, Florida's secretary of state told legislators that the November general election had been free of major problems.

Election overhaul is bad for voters
Editorial
St. Augustine Record
Florida's Republican lawmakers want to make it harder for us to vote in the 2012 election cycle and beyond.

POLITICAL RACES

Florida GOP stands firm on decision to keep 2012 primary as scheduled
By Jeremy Wallace
Gainesville Sun
Florida Republicans are not ready to give up their newfound influence in selecting the nation's presidential candidates.

Florida's presidential straw poll could help pick GOP nominee
By William March
Tampa Tribune
Florida Republicans are taking advantage of the state's size and swing-voting status to try to make this the decisive state in the 2012 Republican primary contest.

Much corporate political spending stays hidden
By Noam N. Levey and Kim Geiger
Orlando Sentinel
Despite mounting calls for greater transparency, only a few of the country's 75 leading energy, healthcare and financial services corporations fully disclose political spending, according to a review of company records and state and federal campaign finance reports.

LeMieux can't shake Charlie Crist legacy in Senate bid
By Marc Caputo
St. Petersburg Times/Miami Herald Tallahassee Bureau
George LeMieux could only think of one major difference between him and Charlie Crist.

BALLOT INITIATIVES

Vindictive Florida lawmakers seeking to revamp constitutional amendment process, high court
Editorial
Naples News
Still stinging from the state Supreme Court's decision last year to remove three legislatively approved constitutional amendments from the ballot, lawmakers are fighting back.

ENVIRONMENT AND ENERGY

Year later, little in Gulf has changed
By Carl Hiaasen
Miami Herald
One year and 206 million gallons of oil later, all that gushes from the wreck of the Deepwater Horizon is blame.

FSU prof warns of oil's ‘tipping points'
By David Adlerstein
Apalachicola Times
A Florida State University oceanographer who questioned early estimates of how much oil and natural gas was flowing into the Gulf of Mexico during the Deepwater Horizon discharge, told members of the Apalachicola Riverkeeper last month to focus on small changes in the Gulf that could have a large impact on marine life.

Gov. Rick Scott to U.S. EPA: We'll take care of our own water
By Janet Zink
St. Petersburg Times/Miami Herald Tallahassee Bureau
The day after the Florida House passed a bill to ban implementation of water quality standards set by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Gov. Rick Scott on Friday asked the agency to rescind a January 2009 determination that the federal rules are necessary for Florida.

State renewable energy bill in doubt
By Travis Pillow
Florida Independent
Last summer, the Deepwater Horizon oil spill helped inspire a series of conferences dedicated to weaning the state off fossil fuels.

Former EPA chief says ignoring global warming would be costly
By Adam C. Smith
St. Petersburg Times
In these tough economic times, it's no surprise political leaders spend a lot less time talking about combating global warming than about the need to create jobs.

Permitting bill includes "sneak attack" on local rock mining regs
By Bruce Ritchie
FloridaEnvironments.com
In a move described as a "sneak attack" by one environmental opponent, a House bill that supporters say would streamline the state permitting process was amended Thursday to prevent local governments from regulating rock mining.

Gulf Oil Spill Threatens the Bluefin Tuna
By Les Coleman
Public News Service Florida
Every spring, the bluefin tuna uses the northern Gulf of Mexico as spawning grounds, at the exact time and place the BP spill happened a year ago.

Groups plan to sue for species protections
Associated Press
Miami Herald
A coalition of environmental groups has notified the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service that it intends to sue the agency, claiming it failed to act on a petition asking that more than 400 species in Southeastern streams and rivers be listed as threatened or endangered species.

LGBT

The Offensive Defense
The Progress Report
Think Progress
This week, Speaker of the House John Boehner (R-OH) released the details of the House's intervention in defending the constitutionality of the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), responding to President Obama's announcement in January that the Department of Justice would no longer defend the law's constitutionality in court.

EDUCATION

Statewide, schools face cuts
By Lilly Rockwell
St. Augustine Record
Completely virtual 7th period classes. Teacher furloughs. Layoffs of hundreds of school employees. Four-day school weeks. Fewer school buses.

Cuts likely for Bright Futures scholarships
By Bill Kaczor
Associated Press
The Florida Legislature is poised to cut the popular Bright Futures scholarship program, meaning thousands of college students and their parents will be paying higher costs and less affluent families may have to take out loans, seek other financial aid, get jobs or maybe even go on a low-cost diet.

Dade school district: bill would hurt graduation rate
By Patricia Mazzei and Kathleen McGrory
Miami Herald
Last year, 28,500 Miami-Dade high school students enrolled in a night school class, many of them to retake a math or English class they had failed, needing the credit to graduate.

Weaker public schools would be the familiar result of new universal voucher scheme
Editorial
Orlando Sentinel
Late last year, Gov.-elect Rick Scott outlined bold plans for bulldozing Florida's scholastic landscape.

JOBS, BUDGET, AND ECONOMY

Do Florida's corporate tax breaks pay off in jobs?
By Aaron Deslatte
Orlando Sentinel
As the 60-day lawmaking session winds to a close next month, Gov. Rick Scott is relentlessly promoting his "jobs" agenda and exuding confidence that he'll get a massive infusion of tax dollars to reel in new employers.

Fla. budget challenges going down to wire
By Derek Catron
Daytona Beach News-Journal
Joe Sullivan sat at the end of a long table, stacks of advertising stickers before him.

Amid report that Scott tried to kill Citizens Insurance, Fasano asks delay on rate increase
By Janet Zink
St. Petersburg Times/Miami Herald Tallahassee Bureau
Saying he wants to hear from Gov. Rick Scott's office and industry lobbyists, a state senator is trying to delay a committee vote today on a bill that would dramatically increase state-run Citizens Property Insurance Corp. rates while dropping some customers.

Cops urged to boycott Florida Chamber banks
By Mark Schlueb
Orlando Sentinel
The union push to boycott banks whose executives help lead the Florida Chamber of Commerce got a big boost Friday, when a state police union asked its 20,000 members to close their personal accounts.

Paycheck Protection Act: More bogus arguments in Tallahassee for a non-problem
Editorial
Palm Beach Post
Related: Provide a paycheck deduction for unions?
The Legislature's "paycheck protection" bills are really political payback.

Florida's pension administrator touts transparency…with exceptions.
By Sydney P. Freedberg
St. Petersburg Times
Want to find out how the state of Florida invests your money?

Bill would erase some consumer protections
By Zac Anderson
Gainesville Sun
They targeted ballroom dance instructors who preyed on lonely widows, a car repair industry that topped the state's consumer complaint list and sketchy movers holding possessions hostage for higher fees.

Central Florida business leaders talk SunRail with Gov. Rick Scott
By Janet Zink
St. Petersburg Times/Miami Herald Tallahassee Bureau
Six business leaders from Central Florida met with Gov. Rick Scott on Friday to talk about SunRail.

HEALTH AND SENIORS

Medicare fix promises to be painful, costly
By William E. Gibson
Orlando Sentinel
Today's younger generations would pay thousands of dollars more each year for health care when they become seniors and would have to wait longer to qualify for Medicare under a Republican budget plan passed this month by the U.S. House.

With possible eligibility cuts, funding shortages, Florida’s AIDS Drug Assistance Program remains in crisis
By Marcos Restrepo
Florida Independent
On Monday, the Florida Department of Health will hold the first of several public debates to decide whether to reduce eligibility to Florida’s AIDS Drug Assistance Program (aka ADAP) from 400 percent of the federal poverty level to 200 percent.

Hospital Privatization on the table
By Sascha Cordner
WFSU Public Radio Tallahassee
A bill that would put the approval of the public sale of hospitals in the hands of a circuit court judge recently passed in the House Judiciary Committee.

Florida ranks last in nation in providing dental care for poor kids
By Megan O'Matz
South Florida Sun Sentinel
Across Florida, schoolchildren, single moms, janitors, busboys and thousands of others go about their daily lives with missing teeth, untreated toothaches and worsening tooth decay.

Medicaid cuts hurt more than patients
Editorial
St. Petersburg Times
In its effort to balance the state budget without raising revenue, the Florida Senate wants to eliminate $1.8 billion in hospitalization coverage for the sickest and poorest patients.

CIVIL RIGHTS, PEACE AND SOCIAL ISSUES

Immigration debate: bill splits GOP Cuban-American base
By John Lantigua
Palm Beach Post
An immigration bill recently introduced in the Florida Legislature is doing something to the Republican Party's Cuban exile base in South Florida that Democrats have had trouble accomplishing over the years.

Hispanics remaking the Deep South
By Halimah Abdullah
Miami Herald
Huge surges among Hispanic populations in the Deep South could mean a political sea change over the next two decades, as immigrants become naturalized and they and their American-born children register to vote.

JUSTICE AND THE COURTS

Effort to privatize Florida prisons raises questions of cost
By Scott Hiaasen
Miami Herald
Related: New private prison in Milton shows Florida cost-savings challenge
Florida lawmakers are poised to make dramatic changes to the state's prison system, turning over as many as 14 prisons to private companies in hopes of trimming the cost of housing the state's criminals.

Stealing justice from South Florida
Editorial
Miami Herald
Under a scary plan in the Florida House, the state attorneys and some public defenders in South Florida counties would find themselves thrown under the financial bus.

Take great care with changes to court
Editorial
Florida Times-Union
Changes should not be made to the Supreme Court of Florida without the most careful and deliberate planning.

Daily Clips for April 22, 2011

FEATURED STORIES

Florida House passes elections law overhaul
By Steve Bousquet
St. Petersburg Times/Miami Herald Tallahassee Bureau
Related editorial: Partisan effort to tilt votes
The Florida House passed a sweeping overhaul of election laws Thursday that Republicans say will streamline voting machinery and Democrats say will make it harder for people to vote in the nation's biggest battleground state in 2012.

House OKs bill cutting state involvement in land use issues
By Catherine Whittenburg
Tampa Tribune
The House voted Thursday to shrink the state's control over land use in Florida, a move that supporters lauded as a rightful return to "home rule" but critics have blasted as turning the state into a free-for-all for developers.

Advocates decry cost of mental-health cuts
By Bill Cotterell
Florida Capital News
Big cuts in mental-health and drug-abuse spending will wind up costing the state far more in emergency services and child care, advocates for people with mental illness and addictions said Thursday.

Florida House passes sweeping prescription drug bill
By Janet Zink
St. Petersburg Times/Miami Herald Tallahassee Bureau
With a nearly unanimous vote, the House of Representatives on Thursday approved a sweeping bill to combat Florida's prescription drug abuse epidemic.

A Regulatory Disaster
By Sue Sturgis and Chris Kromm
Facing South
Related: Poisoned in the Gulf
Following the BP oil disaster, federal agencies took steps that may have further compromised the health of cleanup workers and Gulf Coast residents.

BEST OF THE BLOGS

Florida’s descent into the pre civil rights era continues: voting rights for the military shredded too
By Joy-Ann Reid
The Reid Report
As part of their push to restrict voting rights in the state to older white Republicans, Florida’s Republican legislators have resisted even attempts to preserve the ability of members of the military to change their address on election day.

Bare Naked Choices: Florida’s Failed Education Experiment
By Julie Delegal
Jacksonville Ledger
Conservative operative Adam Hollingsworth, defending the proposed budget that slashes $1.75 billion from public education, insists that public schools are only one part of a spectrum of “choices” available to students in Florida.

Governor Scott and The Supremes
By Geniusofdespair
Eye on Miami
There are 9 justices on the Supreme Court of the U.S. 5 are conservative and 4 are liberal. Once in a while Justice Anthony Kennedy is a swing from the conservative side.

Eliminate Term Limits
By Jake
Rantings From Florida
It is no secret in Tallahassee that term limits have not been what they were cracked up to be. Imposed by voters in the late 90s, the idea had its appeal to voters across the spectrum.

Rick Scott: Florida Won't Join Oil Lawsuit, Another Day, Another Conflict Of Interest?
By Inkberries
Beach Peanuts
Florida Governor Rick "Run The Government Like A Business" Scott chose the eve of the one year anniversary of the BP oil spill to give Transocean, the business, a break by announcing that Florida won't join the other Gulf states in a lawsuit against the company, just as he had hinted last week.

Say what? Rubio cites Jesse Helms as his ‘foreign policy model’
By Peter Schorsch
St. Petersblog 2.0
I could barely breathe after reading the first few paragraphs of this National Review Online story in which Marco Rubio states that the late Senator Jesse Helms is his ‘foreign policy mentor’.

FLORIDA POLITICS

Gov. Scott Coached During TV Interviews
Staff Report
WESH 2 News Orlando
Gov. Rick Scott declined to be part of a lawsuit against the company that owned the oil well involved in a massive spill in the Gulf of Mexico one year ago.

Cannon: Don’t get “hung up” on 60-day session
By John Kennedy
Palm Beach Post
This week’s cooling-off period between the House and Senate hasn’t served to help frame terms of a budget agreement between the sides, now separated by $3.3 billion in their bottom lines.

Florida Legislature passes dramatic overhaul of state election law
By Kathleen Haughney
Orlando Sentinel
Related editorial: State Republicans' election reforms all about strengthening the GOP
Florida lawmakers passed a dramatic overhaul of state election law Thursday night, a move that GOP legislators say will bring integrity to the process and one that Democrats counter will disenfranchise voters across the state.

Fla. GOP Pushes Controversial Voting Law Changes
By Greg Allen
NPR
It's still a year and a half until the presidential election, but members of Florida's Legislature are already jockeying over who will be able to vote and how.

Today in Tallahassee: Legislature breaks for holiday
By Aaron Sharockman
St. Petersburg Times
House members return to their districts today as the Legislature is off in observance of the Easter holiday.

POLITICAL RACES

Shhhh, Adam Hasner's officially in U.S. Senate race
By Alex Leary
St. Petersburg Times
Adam Hasner has formally entered the U.S. Senate race.

Trump's brash style upstages GOP hopefuls
By Adam C. Smith
St. Petersburg Times
It's not just about Donald Trump's celebrity or Barack Obama's birth certificate.

Rep. Ron Paul, still the iconoclast, visits Tallahassee
By Aaron Sharockman
Miami Herald/St. Petersburg Times Tallahassee Bureau
U.S. Rep. Ron Paul, the quixotic Republican from Texas, doesn’t know anything about Gov. Rick Scott, can’t remember much about U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson or name one of the Republicans challenging Nelson in 2012.

ENVIRONMENT AND ENERGY

Fla. gets $100M for oil cleanup
By Bill Cotterell
Florida Capital News
Florida will get a $100 million "down payment" from BP Oil for cleaning up environmental damage caused by the Deepwater Horizon spill last year, state and federal officials said Thursday.

State CFO: BP intentionally slow so claimants will abandon process
By Louis Cooper
Pensacola News Journal
The state's chief financial officer believes the Gulf Coast Claims Facility is deliberately stalling claims from those who say they were injured by the BP oil spill.

The Costs Of Fossil Fuel Dependence
The Progress Report
Think Progress
Reminding us all how dangerous the dependence on fossil fuel can be, yesterday marked the one-year anniversary of the BP Deepwater Horizon disaster in the Gulf of Mexico -- the "greatest man-made disaster" since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the World Trade Center -- which resulted in the loss of eleven men, crippled the livelihood of Gulf residents, and severely deteriorated the Gulf's fragile ecosystem.

Rollback of growth limits passes in Fla. House
By Bill Kaczor
Associated Press
The Republican-controlled Florida House handed business interests and Gov. Rick Scott a victory Thursday by passing legislation that would lift most state controls over urban sprawl, leaving it up to local governments to deal with that issue.

Toxic emissions fell in Florida as economy plunged
By Kevin Spear
Orlando Sentinel
Styrene causes nausea, is under investigation as a possible cause of cancer and is an ingredient in the fiberglass used to manufacture boats.

Everglades wading-bird nesting increases amid drought
By Andy Reid
South Florida Sun Sentinel
Drought conditions straining South Florida water supplies actually could lead to a wading-bird baby boom in the Everglades.

EDUCATION

Parents, teachers rail against weight given to students' test results
By Jason Schultz
Palm Beach Post
Hundreds of angry parents and teachers from Palm Beach and Broward counties packed a middle school auditorium tonight to tell a top U.S. Department of Education official that the state and federal governments need to stop evaluating teachers and students based on test results.

Florida lawmakers grapple over hundreds of millions in higher ed spending
By Jodie Tillman
St. Petersburg Times/Miami Herald Tallahassee Bureau
Here's a big item on the Legislature's to-do list: Agreeing how much to spend on higher education.

JOBS, BUDGET, AND ECONOMY

Florida Chamber goes hard after unions
By Beth Kassab
Orlando Sentinel
Unions are hardly a force in Florida, where cheap labor, low taxes and its right-to-work status make it one of the most employer-friendly states in the nation.

Budget cuts hit home for 80-plus women in Santa Fe program
By Jackie Alexander
Gainesville Sun
Avis Gay, 55, knows she has lived a wild and varied life.

HEALTH AND SENIORS

Flying blind on crime
By Carol Gentry
Health News Florida
After three years in a federal pen, dentist David Goldston is back in practice in Polk City.

House wants state to self-insure
By Jim Saunders
News Service of Florida
A House committee easily approved a bill Wednesday that would overhaul the state employee health-insurance system, but the issue hinges on upcoming budget negotiations.

House passes pill mill crackdown
By Dara Kam
Palm Beach Post
By a 116-1, the Florida House approved its plan to crack down on rogue doctors and rein in prescription drug abuse.

House speaker: 'No way' state can stop felons running summer camps
By Michael LaForgia
Palm Beach Post
Despite vowing to close a loophole in state law that allows anyone, even a convicted child molester, to run a summer camp for Florida children, top state lawmakers have failed to act on the issue.

State Rep. Schwartz: Abortion-restricting constitutional amendment a GOP ‘get out the vote’ maneuver
By Ashley Lopez
Florida Independent
State Rep. Elaine Schwartz, D-Hollywood, today expressed frustration with what she has called the Florida state legislature’s “war against women.”

Proposed Medicare cuts bring out political swords
By Alex Leary
St. Petersburg Times
The intensifying debate on Capitol Hill over the national debt has seemed abstract for many Americans, with incomprehensibly big numbers and concepts.

CIVIL RIGHTS, PEACE AND SOCIAL ISSUES

Activists vow court fight against anti-immigrant legislation
By Alfonso Chardy
El Nuevo Herald
Immigrant rights activists plan to sue the state if the Legislature passes legislation that would impose state controls on undocumented immigrants, including one that would make it a misdemeanor crime to be illegally in Florida.

House shoots down measure to restore voting rights for felons
By Travis Pillow
Florida Independent
State Rep. Alan Williams, D-Tallahasee, offered an amendment to an omnibus elections bill that would have rolled back changes approved recently by the state Cabinet that make it harder for ex-felons to vote.

JUSTICE AND THE COURTS

Bills would ban restraints on some pregnant inmates
By Elaine Silvestrini
Tampa Tribune
A national human rights group in October gave Florida an F for its policies regarding shackling pregnant inmates.