Daily Clips for October 26, 2011

FEATURED STORIES

Scott's latest pension proposal could cost local governments millions
By Erica Rodriguez
Orlando Sentinel
Local governments and school districts across Florida are bracing for grim financial news next legislative session that means hundreds of millions of dollars now available from this year's pension overhaul could be taken away.

Exposing secrets and salaries — bring it on!
By Scott Maxwell
Orlando Sentinel
Last week, Gov. Rick Scott stirred up a hornet's nest by putting the salaries of all public-university professors online for the world to see.

Scott should give up on unconstitutional drug tests
Editorial
St. Petersburg Times
When Gov. Rick Scott and the Florida Legislature decided against good sense and legal reasoning that the state's welfare recipients would have to submit to a drug test to receive benefits, they must have known Florida would end up in court.

Lt. Gov. Jennifer Carroll's former aide faces charges in tape leak
By Matt Dixon
Florida Times-Union
A former spokeswoman for Lt. Gov. Jennifer Carroll is facing felony charges because police say she illegally taped a conversation with Carroll's chief of staff and leaked it to the Times-Union.

Documents give shape to Marco Rubio's family history but raise new questions
By Alex Leary
St. Petersburg Times
On May 18, 1956, Mario and Oriales Rubio walked into the American Consulate in Havana and applied for immigrant visas. The form asked how long they intended to stay in the United States.

FLORIDA POLITICS

A financial recovery plan only a legislator could love
By Daniel Ruth
St. Petersburg Times
If things go according to plan (insert wry smile here), by the end of 2014 the Florida House will be ruled by a chap who until recently was in worse financial shape than a fruit peddler.

Office of Congressional Ethics investigating Buchanan
By Virginia Chamlee
Florida Independent
The House of Representatives’ Office of Congressional Ethics has launched a “preliminary” investigation into Rep. Vern Buchanan, R- Sarasota.

Justice Department sees no need to rush elections law case
By Travis Pillow
Florida Independent
The U.S. Department of Justice does not see a need to expedite a federal decision on Florida's elections law, recent court filings show.

Nelson urges Scott to revamp elections law after teacher draws warning
By John Kennedy
Palm Beach Post
Democratic U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson has sent a critical letter to Republican Gov. Rick Scott and plans to meet Wednesday with a Volusia County high school teacher whose student voter registration drive could violate Florida’s tough, new elections law.

FL Dems want to know – What have Republicans done for you lately?
By Dara Kam
Palm Beach Post
The Florida Democratic Party launched a new website today blaming Gov. Rick Scott and his fellow Republican lawmakers for the state’s dire economic straits.

More questions about Marco Rubio's life story
By Mark K. Matthews
Orlando Sentinel
The family history of U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio -- and his own version of it -- continues to haunt the rising Republican star, as the Florida lawmaker this week faced more questions about his parents' exodus from Cuba.

POLITICAL RACES

Florida a popular destination for big political names this week
By Michael C. Bender
St. Petersburg Times/Miami Herald Tallahassee Bureau
With the 2012 presidential campaign in full swing, this week brings some prime-time visitors to Florida: Rick Perry, Michelle Obama and Joe Biden.

Perry tax plan offers each taxpayer choice of 20 percent flat tax or status quo
By George Bennett
Palm Beach Post
Mitt Romney has his 59-point, seven-pillar economic blueprint. Herman Cain has the 9-9-9 tax plan.

Herman Cain adds big names to Florida campaign team
By Adam C. Smith
St. Petersburg Times
Several of Florida's most prominent Republican political pros have jumped on board Herman Cain's presidential campaign as he tries to ramp up the operation to catch up with his surging popularity.

ENVIRONMENT AND ENERGY

Water management district Swiftmud to shed up to 150 employees
By Craig Pittman
St. Petersburg Times
The state agency that oversees water supplies in the 16 counties around Tampa Bay will shed 130 to 150 of its 768 employees by early next year, its board decided Tuesday.

Obama administration approves BP’s plan to drill in the Gulf of Mexico
By Virginia Chamlee
Florida Independent
The Obama administration has approved BP’s first plan to drill for oil in the gulf since last year’s Deepwater Horizon disaster, which left 11 dead and damaged the gulf ecosystem and the economies of the states that border it.

EDUCATION

Professor salaries in Florida are below the national average
By Zac Anderson
Sarasota Herald-Tribune
After 15 years on the job, New College sociologist Sarah Hernandez still earns below the nationwide average for professors at similar institutions, but her $65,707 salary is under scrutiny by Gov. Rick Scott.

Florida charter schools' track record at issue in expansion
By Topher Sanders
Florida Times-Union
Florida Education Commissioner Gerard Robinson said Tuesday the state application for opening charter schools doesn’t need to address performance.

Two Miami-Dade charter schools lose funding
By Kathleen McGrory and Scott Hiaasen
Miami Herald
Two troubled Miami-Dade charter schools have had their funding cut off by the school district — an extraordinary measure that could threaten the schools’ ability to survive.

Study finds flaws in virtual education, including motives of for-profit virtual schools
By Lilly Rockwell
News Service of Florida
A new study is sounding alarms at the quick expansion of virtual education programs in states like Florida, saying for-profit companies are pushing states to offer full-time virtual instruction paid for by state tax dollars with little research on the quality of these programs.

JOBS, BUDGET, AND ECONOMY

Florida fourth in the nation in mass layoffs in September
By Marcos Restrepo
Florida Independent
Florida had 69 mass layoff actions during the month of September, the fourth highest number in the nation, according to a U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics summary released today.

Senator wants refund of incentives that created no jobs
By Aaron Deslatte
Orlando Sentinel
Related editorial: Cast more light on business incentives
Senate President-designate Don Gaetz is demanding that the state's jobs agency disclose which companies might owe taxpayer money for jobs that never materialized and which state-awarded tax-breaks for job-creation were inked with no strings attached.

Florida consumer confidence stays near record low
By Jeff Ostrowski
Palm Beach Post
Floridians' consumer confidence remained near record lows this month, and a national reading of consumer sentiment plunged to its lowest level since the dark days of March 2009.

Casino bill sacrifices horse and dog tracks for gambling megaresorts
By Mary Ellen Klas
Miami Herald/St. Petersburg Times Tallahassee Bureau
In a move designed to shift Florida's gambling focus, two new bills to be filed Wednesday would award exclusive full-casino licenses to three large "destination resorts" and leave the struggling parimutuel industry to wither.

Florida Business Groups Push for Online Tax Collections
By Whitney Ray
Capitol News Service
A group of heavy hitters in Florida politics want online stores to collect state sales tax.

HEALTH AND SENIORS

Health-care law to save average Florida family $1,520 per year by 2019, group says
By William E. Gibson
South Florida Sun Sentinel
The nation's controversial new health-care law will save the average Florida family $1,520 a year by 2019, mostly because of lower premiums for the insured and expanded support for the uninsured, according to a report released on Tuesday by Families USA, a cheerleader for the law.

Florida Legislator wants to arrest doctors who perform abortions
By Mitch Perry
Creative Loafing Tampa
Although he's been unsuccessful in pushing it the past couple of years in an extremely conservative state Legislature, Florida House Republican Charles Van Zant says he will once again soon introduce a bill that would make abortion illegal in the state of Florida, with the only exception being for the life of the mother.

Still no agreement in sight, feds tell Florida to submit another Medicaid waiver extension
By Christine Jordan Sexton
Florida Current
Acting Medicaid Director Justin Senior left a Medicaid medical advisory committee meeting Tuesday to read an email he received from the federal government.

19 health centers get extra federal $
Staff Report
Health News Florida
Nineteen of Florida's community health centers will receive a boost in federal dollars over three years to speed up Medicare patients' access to primary care.

Florida prison inmates still can't smoke, but now correctional officers can
By Steve Bousquet
St. Petersburg Times/Miami Herald Tallahassee Bureau
Inmates can't smoke in Florida prisons anymore, but employees still can.

CIVIL RIGHTS, PEACE AND SOCIAL ISSUES

Immigrant advocates protest deportation of young student, call for prosecutorial discretion
By Marcos Restrepo
Florida Independent
South Florida immigrant advocates will be at the Broward Transistional Center today to take part in a national day of action to protest the deportation of Shamir Ali.

JUSTICE AND THE COURTS

Florida Supreme Court: We want to suspend Judge Shea for yelling, being a bully
By Rene Stutzman
Orlando Sentinel
The Florida Supreme Court has ruled that publicly chewing out Orange-Osceola Circuit Judge Tim Shea is not punishment enough for the way he's yelled at and belittled attorneys in his courtroom.

Daily Clips for October 25, 2011

FEATURED STORIES

Fla. probe of Lt. Gov’s staff now with prosecutor
By Gary Fineout
Palm Beach Post
A Tallahassee prosecutor is deciding whether any laws were violated in making a tape recording of a conversation between two employees in the office of Lt. Gov. Jennifer Carroll.

Federal judge blocks Rick Scott’s welfare drug-testing law
By Aaron Deslatte
South Florida Sun Sentinel
A federal judge has temporarily blocked the state from drug-testing welfare recipients in a challenge brought by an Orlando man who says his civil rights were violated by the new law pushed by Gov. Rick Scott.

State Sen. Alan Hays’ case of foot-in-mouth disease
By Steve Bousquet
St. Petersburg Times
State Sen. Alan Hays is a retired dentist, so it's surprising to see him stick his foot in his mouth.

Despite Florida incentives to companies, job creation lags
By Michael C. Bender
Miami Herald
Florida has given tax breaks and other cash incentives to some of the world’s biggest companies in return for creating jobs.

FLORIDA POLITICS

How one Tampa address handles millions in campaign cash, influences elections nationwide
By Ashley Lopez
Florida Independent
A little over a year ago, no-party gubernatorial candidate Bud Chiles stood outside an off-white single-story building with a carefully manicured lawn in suburban Tampa and said, “This building behind me is ground zero for what’s wrong with Florida politics.”

Is Chris Dorworth fit to be speaker?
Editorial
Orlando Sentinel
State Rep. Chris Dorworth, a Lake Mary Republican, was nearly broke in 2009, according to financial disclosure forms.

POLITICAL RACES

Hispanic voters: Stick with Obama or go with GOP?
By Ken Thomas, Christina Silva
Associated Press
A year before the 2012 presidential election, Hispanic voters are facing a choice.

Mike Hightower, Jeb Bush to help raise money for state Senate candidate Aaron Bean
By Staff
Florida Times-Union
Though state Senate candidate Aaron Bean has been filed to run since 2007, he’s now really getting into campaign mode.

LeMieux says college is too cheap
By Adam C. Smith
St. Petersburg Times
Here's something you don't necessarily expect to see from a candidate trying to win votes from Florida's families: a call for higher tuition at state universities.

ENVIRONMENT AND ENERGY

Renewable energy group blasts PSC for failing consumers with nuke decision
By Mary Ellen Klas
Miami Herald
Here's the release from the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy, a nonprofit that promotes renewable energy, blasted the decision by state utility regulators to grant the rate increase request sought by FPL and Progress Energy to pay for speculative nuclear projects:

State regulators OK FPL’s nuclear rate hike of $1.87 a month for typical customer
By Dara Kam
Palm Beach Post
State utility regulators decided Monday that Florida Power & Light customers must pay $196 million next year for new nuclear projects, including two reactors yet to be approved.

LGBT

More schools take action to stem anti-gay bullying
By Steve Rothaus
Miami Herald
A history teacher amends his lessons on the civil rights movement to include the push for gay equality

EDUCATION

Senate proposal to reauthorize No Child Left Behind meets opposition
By Marcos Restrepo
Florida Independent
A diverse group of organizations have rejected the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 2011, recently passed by the U.S. Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee and that will now move to the full Senate.

Arizona State president says Rick Scott’s wrong on higher ed
By Jeff Solochek
St. Petersburg Times
Gov. Rick Scott's message on refocusing college degrees more exclusively on science, technology, engineering and math as a jobs initiative has spread well beyond Florida's borders.

JOBS, BUDGET, AND ECONOMY

Government outsourcing gone wrong
Editorial
St. Petersburg Times
>From the beginning, one man's deal to corner the market on the Official Florida Driver's Handbook should have drawn red flags at the Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles.

Don’t let health tab squeeze state budget
Editorial
Orlando Sentinel
It'll be tough enough for Florida lawmakers to balance the state budget next year, with a $2 billion shortfall projected and leaders ruling out any tax hikes, no matter how limited or reasonable.

Florida lost 10,000 jobs as stimulus funding winds down
By Michael C. Bender
St. Petersburg Times
Florida has lost about 10,000 jobs as contracts and grants from the federal stimulus program dry up, according to a new report from the Collins Center for Public Policy.

State may consider changes to public employee health benefits to save money
By Lloyd Dunkelberger
Sarasota Herald-Tribune
It remains unclear if lawmakers will radically change the plan in their coming session.

HEALTH AND SENIORS

Health care: When time is most costly
Editorial
Florida Times-Union
You're a doctor. A patient arrives with a viral infection.

Florida among states cutting costs by limiting Medicaid hospital coverage
By Ashley Lopez
Florida Independent
Kaiser Health News and USA Today report that Florida is among a slew of states that have been cutting costs by limiting hospital coverage in their Medicaid plans.

Hospitals, nursing homes team up to cut high readmission rates
By Letitia Stein
St. Petersburg Times
Florida's hospitals are tackling one of the most vexing and costly problems in health care — the revolving door between hospitals and nursing homes.

CIVIL RIGHTS, PEACE AND SOCIAL ISSUES

Not enough Hispanic speakers at state Democratic convention, group says
By Jeannette Rivera-Lyles
Orlando Sentinel
A group of Hispanic Democrats in Central Florida is chastising the party for what it calls a shortage of Hispanics in the lineup of speakers for the party's state convention, which starts Friday.

Legislator wants to change law that denies in-state tuition to students with undocumented parents
By Marcos Restrepo
Florida Independent
Under Florida statutes, a student who wishes to qualify for in-state tuition fees for higher education has to provide proof of residency, and if the student is a dependent also must provide proof of his or her parents’ legal residency.

Insurance commissioner hikes workers’ comp premiums by nearly 8.9 percent
By Christine Jordan Sexton
Florida Current
Insurance Commissioner Kevin McCarty on Monday approved an average 8.9 percent increase in workers' compensation rates and reiterated his support for prescription drug packaging changes in the upcoming legislative session.

JUSTICE AND THE COURTS

Democratic senator urges Scott to drop drug-testing court fight
By John Kennedy
Palm Beach Post
A federal judge Monday temporarily halted drug-testing of Florida welfare recipients, siding with opponents of the new law championed by Gov. Rick Scott and the Republican-led Legislature.

Daily Clips for October 24, 2011

PROGRESS FLORIDA IN THE NEWS

VIDEO: GOP Insensitivity Toward Florida Citizenry
By Gayle Andrews
The Blu Vu: Florida’s Political Reality Show
“What’s left to destroy in Florida?” Damien Filer, Political Director of Progress Florida, discusses the anti-middle class agenda of the Florida Tea Party legislature.

AWAKE THE STATE IN THE NEWS

Awake the State organizes to fight Gov. Rick Scott's agenda
By Eloisa Ruano Gonzalez
Orlando Sentinel
There is a need for people to continue to voice their opposition to what's going on in the state," said Ray Seaman, online director for Progress Florida, which helped host the summit.

FEATURED STORIES

Why won’t Rep. Chris Dorworth explain $713,000 in new assets?
By Scott Maxwell
Orlando Sentinel
Two years ago, State Rep. Chris Dorworth was in a heap of financial trouble.

Florida tax incentive programs creating 1 out of every 3 jobs promised
By Michael C. Bender
St. Petersburg Times
A recent "business plan" for Gov. Rick Scott's new economic development agency showed that just 71 percent of the state's tax-incentive contracts the state had signed in the past decade were fulfilled.

Gov. Rick Scott’s proposal could cost area governments $37.7 million
By Matt Dixon
Florida Times-Union
A proposal by Gov. Rick Scott could wring nearly $40 million in pension savings from local governments in Northeast Florida.

Middle-class outrage fuels South Florida Occupy protests
By Mike Clary
South Florida Sun Sentinel
Now that thousands of people have taken to the streets of South Florida in solidarity with the worldwide Occupy Wall Street movement, de facto leaders of the local protests are struggling to harness the anger fueling the demonstrations.

FLORIDA POLITICS

Florida ‘on the right track,’ gov says
By Tim Engstrom
News-Press
Increased hiring in the job sectors that include hospitality, education, health care and retail helped push unemployment down in September across Southwest Florida.

Capitol View: Gov Scott’s office and the flow of information
By Kathleen Haughney
South Florida Sun Sentinel
Information is power in the framing of politics and policy, and Gov. Rick Scott's administration is working hard to tightly control what comes out.

Internet cafés stir heated debate
By Catherine Whittenburg
Tampa Tribune
State lawmakers are again wading into the debate over Internet sweepstakes cafes, even as local officials weigh their own proposed ordinance to ban the facilities in Hillsborough County.

Settlement for South Florida tomato pickers leads to dispute among their advocates
By John Lantigua
Palm Beach Post
Life for migrant farm workers in the United States, including in South Florida, has always been pretty slim pickings.

POLITICAL RACES

U.S. Senate candidate Craig Miller changes tires, cleans restrooms during Lake County ‘workday’
By Christine Show
Orlando Sentinel
Republican U.S. Senate candidate Craig Miller spent a day in Lake County last week sweeping floors and changing tires.

How will Marco Rubio’s past affect his political future?
By Chris Cillizza
Washington Post
The news that Florida Sen. Marco Rubio had, at times over the years, wrongly recounted the timeline of his parents’ arrival in America is the first major test for the national Republican party’s fastest rising star.

As Justice Department Focuses on Buchanan, Competition Gathers
By Dennis Maley
Bradenton Times
The U.S. Justice Department has launched an investigation into allegations that U.S. Congressman Vern Buchanan coerced former employees and a business partner to make illegal donations to his campaign.

ENVIRONMENT AND ENERGY

Rally for environment in Miami finds a friendly audience
By Jon Silman
Miami Herald
Maybe the best way to air out your environmental grievances is by rallying for a group of environmental journalists.

Put U.S. interests above political fray in dealing with Cuban oil drilling
Editorial
South Florida Sun Sentinel
Havana and Washington appear to be in no mood to talk. That said, both countries share a common interest in a common waterway — the Florida Straits.

Jupiter’s new solar-powered trash bins already having effect across Florida
By Bill DiPaolo
Palm Beach Post
Collect, crunch, call. That's the job of the high-tech trash bin perched on State Road A1A at Marcinski Road.

EDUCATION

U.S.-citizen children of immigrants protest higher tuition rates
By Michael Vazquez
Miami Herald
The far-reaching immigration debate in Florida and the nation has been going on for years, but until last week, the plight of students like Wendy Ruiz — an aspiring podiatrist — had been largely invisible.

Education board OKs new pre-kindergarten standards
Associated Press
The Florida Board of Education has approved more rigorous learning standards for students in the state's voluntary pre-kindergarten program.

Science matters
Editorial
Miami Herald
Gov. Scott doesn’t have to skewer anthropologists to bolster his argument that Florida’s university system needs to produce more graduates with the kinds of degrees that employers wielding well-paying jobs want most.

JOBS, BUDGET, AND ECONOMY

Florida unemployment rate dips slightly to 10.6 percent
By Jim Stratton
Orlando Sentinel
Florida led the nation in job creation in September, as the state added more than 23,000 new jobs and saw its unemployment rate dip slightly to 10.6 percent, down just a bit from the August rate of 10.7 percent.

Companies got millions – but state got not jobs
By Aaron Deslatte
Orlando Sentinel
Florida's economic-development agency has paid $37.9 million to six companies for thousands of jobs that were never created and is now attempting to renegotiate their contracts in the hope of still saving some of them.

State unemployment rate dips slightly; growth in ‘lower wage industries’
By Marcos Restrepo
Florida Independent
The Florida Department of Economic Opportunity reports that the state’s unemployment rate for the month of September dipped slightly to 10.6 percent, still well above the 9.1 percent national rate.

Buchanan pushes NASCAR tax break, reaps donations
By Jeremy Wallace
Sarasota Herald-Tribune
U.S. Rep. Vern Buchanan is using his new political influence in Congress to try to carve out a special tax benefit for NASCAR racetracks worth hundreds of millions of dollars.

HEALTH AND SENIORS

Florida anti-abortion bill part of upcoming national trend
By Ashley Lopez
Florida Independent
NPR and Kaiser Health News report that abortion opponents are pushing for legislation that will shift focus to the “supply-side” of abortions, which would mean regulating and restricting “the doctors, hospitals and clinics that provide the services.”

Breast cancer: So many lives at stake
Editorial
Florida Times-Union
So, are you getting tired of all of the pink?

Legislature Eyes Health Care Costs
By Lloyd Dunkelberger
Lakeland Ledger
Wal-Mart is cutting back health benefits for its workers and requiring them to pay more for their coverage

CIVIL RIGHTS, PEACE AND SOCIAL ISSUES

Another attack on Hispanics
Editorial
Miami Herald
Where is Jeb Bush when you need him? State Sen. Alan Hays surely needs the former governor to set him straight about who Hispanics are, what they do for Florida and how many of them vote.

Florida a top source of guns linked to out-of-state crimes
By Alexia Campbell
Orlando Sentinel
More than 2,000 Florida guns last year were linked to crimes committed around the country, and experts say they likely came from the cars and homes of law-abiding Floridians.

Ethnic gamesmanship has no place in reapportionment
Editorial
St. Petersburg Times
Republican state Sen. Alan Hays of Umatilla is either woefully ignorant or suffers from a befuddled anti-Hispanic bias, or both.

New Florida election law stirs up controversy
By Staff
Daytona Beach News-Journal
The teacher who heads up New Smyrna Beach High School's student government association could face thousands of dollars in fines. Her transgression? Helping students register to vote

JUSTICE AND THE COURTS

Lawmakers look at rehabilitation over incarceration
By Kathleen Haughney
South Florida Sun Sentinel
Republican lawmakers are looking at easing some of Florida's drug laws and establishing more treatment programs for offenders.

Cost of Florida Prisons: Too Many in Prison Too Long
Editorial
Lakeland Ledger
If Gov. Rick Scott and Florida legislative leaders would get over their obsession with privatizing prisons, perhaps they might focus on the real cause of Florida's runaway correction spending.