Daily Clips for February 24, 2012

PROGRESS FLORIDA IN THE NEWS

VIDEO: Scott comes under fire for hefty campaign contribution
By Virginia Chamlee
Florida Independent
Excerpt: “What’s he got to hide?” reads a recent press release from Progress Florida and Florida Watch Action. “Could it be that he doesn’t want to talk about ramming a Medicaid overhaul through the legislature last year that will move all patients into managed care where his buddy Mike Fernandez will be able to reap the profits?" Scott refused to answer questions about the donation when approached by a tracker for Progress Florida and Florida Watch Action’s Adams Street Project, who posted the exchange on YouTube.

FEATURED STORIES

Senate approves $71 billion state budget; now come negotiations with House
By Steve Bousquet
Tampa Bay Times/Miami Herald Tallahassee Bureau
The Florida Senate passed a $71 billion budget Thursday with bipartisan support after Republicans agreed to Democratic moves to save a rural prison from closure and to spend $1 million more to keep elderly people out of nursing homes.

Florida House committee okays bill to require 24-hour wait for abortions
By Dara Kam
Palm Beach Post
A House committee approved along party lines an anti-abortion measure that would impose a 24-hour waiting period and restrict ownership of new abortion clinics to doctors who specialized in abortion procedures during their residency.

Senate votes to create 12th university
By Kim Wilmath
Tampa Bay Times
Related editorial: Bay area senators undo damaging cuts to USF
The Senate has approved Sen. JD Alexander's vision to immediately create the state's 12th university out of the University of South Florida's branch campus in Lakeland.

Florida joins suit over contraception requirement
By Tia Mitchell
Tampa Bay Times/Miami Herald Tallahassee Bureau
Seven states, including Florida, have decided to take on President Barack Obama's mandate that health insurance policies include coverage for contraceptives.

President Obama talks gas prices, energy policies — and raises lots of cash
By Marc Caputo
Miami Herald
President Obama stopped in Miami Thursday to refuel his re-election campaign with $4 million in big-donor cash and to bash Republicans for politically “licking their chops” over the high price of fuel at the pump.

BEST OF THE BLOGS

JD Alexander’s audacious misdirection
By Peter Schorsch
St. Petersblog 2.0
Pay no attention to what is going on over here…look at how bad it is over there!

Florida Passes Minimum Wage Reduction: Another ALEC Bill?
By Inkberries
Beach Peanuts
Today the Florida Senate Commerce and Tourism Committee passed a bill that will allow employers to pay a lower minimum wage to tipped employees, waiters and waitresses.

The Further Decline Of Florida Education Under Rick Scott And A GOP Legislature
By Ronald Feinman
The Progressive Professor
Florida is the fourth largest state in population, and will surpass New York in the next decade.

Florida Republican Legislators Give Themselves “Absolute Shield”
By Trish Ponder
Pensito Review
If you noticed an avalanche of lawsuits over your decisions, would you: a) Take a moment to consider objectively what you’ve been doing and adjust your actions going forward, or b) Pass legislation that says you can no longer be sued.

Florida Imagine Charter Schools pay huge leases to a company owned by...Imagine Charter Schools.
By FloridaGal
Daily Kos
Some bloggers have pointed this out for a few years now, so it is a good feeling to see the Tampa Bay Times (previously known as the St. Pete Times) cover it so extensively.

FLORIDA POLITICS

News from Marco Rubio: He used to be Mormon
By Alex Leary
Tampa Bay Times
News broke Thursday that U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio was baptized as a Mormon at age 8, when his family lived in Las Vegas.

Three things you don’t know about Marco Rubio
By Marc Caputo
Miami Herald
From vice-presidential shortlister to auto-biographer, Marco Rubio is gaining the type of nationwide attention that most freshmen U.S. Senators only dream of.

Andy Gardiner secures 2015-16 Senate presidency
By Aaron Deslatte
Orlando Sentinel
Orlando Sen. Andy Gardiner on Thursday secured enough signed pledge cards to become the Florida Senate president for the 2015-16 term, ending a three-day attempted coup by two former supporters that had bitterly divided the caucus in the final days of the session.

Revamped alimony bill gets nod from full House
Staff Report
Palm Beach Post
The House approved a watered-down version of what began as a rewrite of the state's alimony laws but still contains provisions critics say favor the bread-winning spouse.

Rick Scott to talk about Legislature in West Palm Beach
Associated Press
Tampa Tribune
Gov. Rick Scott plans to discuss the legislative session in a speech in West Palm Beach.

State Rep. Steinberg returns home to Miami Beach amid federal probe into texting
By David Ovalle
Miami Herald
As fellow lawmakers convened Thursday in Tallahassee for the annual session, state Rep. Richard L. Steinberg, D-Miami Beach, has returned home to be with his family in the wake of a federal probe into possible stalking.

POLITICAL RACES

GOP fears rise over 2012 tone, message
By John F. Harris, Jonathan Martin and Alexander Burns
Politico
In 2008, after Republicans were routed in the presidential and congressional elections, there was widespread consensus within elite GOP circles about the party’s structural problems: The Republican voter base was too old, too white, too male and too strident for the party to prosper long term in a country growing ever more diverse.

Obama's All-Star party fundraiser pulls in $2.1 million
By Scott Powers
Orlando Sentinel
President Barack Obama came to the Isleworth mansion of NBA player Vince Carter on Thursday night to talk with basketball stars and a handful of others who could afford the $30,000 ticket about his campaign theme of fairness in America.

Obama in Coral Gables: GOP's 'drill, drill, drill' is a bumper sticker, not an energy policy
By John Lantigua
Palm Beach Post
President Barack Obama used the friendly confines of the University of Miami Thursday to push a diversified energy policy and also to attack his Republican adversaries, who he claimed have the same answer to every energy issue.

Study: Gingrich, Santorum plans would increase deficit
Associated Press
Tampa Tribune
Massive tax cuts proposed by GOP presidential candidates Newt Gingrich and Rick Santorum would cause the national debt to explode while Mitt Romney's budget plan could generate red ink in line with current projections, according to a new study released today.

Slugging it out for the Senate
By Daniel Ruth
Tampa Bay Times
This is hardly a point of personal honor, but by the time I turned 45 somehow I had managed get through life without being involved in numerous bar brawls.

ENVIRONMENT AND ENERGY

Senate passes revamped bill that would increase oversight of water management districts
By Bruce Ritchie
Florida Current
A bill that would require water management districts to receive budget approval from the Legislature was substantially revised Thursday and passed by the Senate.

Port of Miami project gets help from Tallahassee
By Kathleen McGrory and Curtis Morgan
Miami Herald
A bill that won the support of the Florida House on Thursday could jump-start the stalled Port of Miami Deep Dredge.

Fix last year's water supply mistakes
By Eric Draper
Gainesville Sun
The time has come to correct a major mistake in Florida's system of managing water resources.

Its day in court
Editorial
Gainesville Sun
Presidents and governors have advocated restoration of the Ocklawaha River.

Message is clear: Clean up Florida waters
Editorial
Tampa Bay Times
Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi and her legal allies from polluting industries are doing a victory dance over a U.S. District Court ruling that set back the federal effort to clean up the state's waterways.

LGBT

Tampa councilwoman proposes domestic partner registry
By Kevin Wiatrowski
Tampa Tribune
Following the lead of Orlando and several South Florida cities, the City of Tampa may let unmarried couples register as domestic partners.

Judge: DOMA unconstitutional; U.S. can't deny health benefits to wife of lesbian federal worker
By Lisa Leff
Associated Press
The government cannot deny health benefits to the wife of a lesbian court employee by relying on the 1996 law that bars government recognition of same-sex unions, a federal judge has ruled.

EDUCATION

Florida Schools Chief Says New Grade Proposals Under Review
By John O'Connor
StateImpact
Education Commissioner Gerard Robinson says the state may not include schools that specialize in students with disabilities in the new school grading formula now under discussion.

Pasco schools learn FCAT recognition money is on the way
By Jeffrey S. Solochek
Tampa Bay Times
As Feb. 1 came and went, teachers at John Long Middle School began wondering whether they would ever see a penny of the promised funding for their school's strong FCAT performance a year earlier.

Designed to fail
Editorial
Gainesville Sun
Florida's practice of grading public schools on the basis of test scores has always been a superficial — even lazy — methodology for measuring a very complex and highly variable process; education.

JOBS, BUDGET, AND ECONOMY

Florida Senate OKs $70.7 billion budget; stage set for talks with House over $1.5 billion gap
By John Kennedy
Palm Beach Post
The Senate approved a $70.7 billion state budget plan Thursday that restores most of last year's deep cut to public schools while imposing a fresh round of reductions on Florida's increasingly crowded universities.

Delay of Citizens assessments for private insurers passes House
By Gray Rohrer
Florida Current
Legislation to all but eliminate regular assessments on property insurance premiums after a catastrophic storm by instead increasing emergency assessments passed through the Florida House on Thursday by an 89-25 vote.

As Senate backs off communications tax overhaul, House approves it unanimously
By Travis Pillow
Florida Independent
The Senate backed away from an overhaul of communications service taxes on the same day the House of Representatives approved its version on the floor.

Florida Foreclosure Bill: Don't Rush Home Cases
Editorial
Lakeland Ledger
As Florida lawmakers pursue legislation to accelerate the foreclosure process, a new study from California demonstrates why speed is not necessarily a good thing.

HEALTH AND SENIORS

Legislators add ‘fetal pain’ measure to ‘omnibus anti-choice’ bill
By Ashley Lopez
Florida Independent
A bill that was already being described as a way to pass a slew of anti-abortion rights measures all at once has just absorbed another bill.

Pro-Life, Pro-Choice Collide
By Whitney Ray
Capitol News Service
Pro-life and pro-choice advocates collided twice in Tallahassee today.

Attempt to strip CPC funding from Senate budget fails
By Ashley Lopez
Florida Independent
Another attempt to strip $2 million in taxpayer funds from Florida crisis pregnancy centers failed on the Senate floor today.

Florida Legislature's proposed cuts to Medicaid too draconian; stakeholders must find reasonable solution
Editorial
TC Palm
Medicaid is a vital health care program for about 80,000 Treasure Coast residents and 3.1 million Floridians.

Daily Clips for February 23, 2012

FEATURED STORIES

Federal judge raises questions about Florida’s random drug-testing policy
By Jay Weaver
Miami Herald
A federal judge in Miami Wednesday cast serious doubts about Gov. Rick Scott’s order requiring thousands of state government employees to undergo a random drug test, suggesting his policy “sweeps too broadly.”

Anti-abortion measure passes Senate committee, moving in House tomorrow
By Dara Kam
Palm Beach Post
Republican legislators are pushing an omnibus anti-abortion measure that revives some of the most controversial portions of proposals left out of a package of anti-abortion bills passed last year and signed into law by Gov. Rick Scott.

Activists launch campaign against bill that would reduce tipped workers’ minimum wage
By Marcos Restrepo
Florida Independent
Fight for Florida has launched a new initiative to involve waiters and waitresses in a campaign to oppose a state Senate bill that would allow employers to pay tipped workers a lower minimum wage than what is currently authorized.

House bill encouraging oil drilling on state lands passes final committee stop
By Bruce Ritchie
Florida Current
A bill that would encourage oil and gas exploration drilling on state lands passed a House committee on Wednesday, the day after a Senate committee temporarily passed the companion bill.

Senate race turns testy between Mack and LeMieux
By Marc Caputo and Katie Sanders
Miami Herald
Just as Congressman Connie Mack looked as if he’d escape a campaign controversy over a property tax break, his top Republican rival in the U.S. Senate race hosted a Wednesday press conference armed with a zinger over his other legal troubles.

FLORIDA POLITICS

Rick Scott agency head, top lawyer resigning
By Steve Bousquet
Tampa Bay Times/Miami Herald Tallahassee Bureau
The "jobs governor," Rick Scott, has two important jobs to fill in his administration.

Strong arms and strong stands in Tallahassee
By Lucy Morgan
Tampa Bay Times
What are things in the Florida Legislature coming to when one senator needs protection to walk on the Senate floor?

Scott, Rubio, West invited to attend Values Voters Summit
By Ashley Lopez
Florida Independent
Gov. Rick Scott, Sen. Marco Rubio and Rep. Allen West have been invited to attend this year’s Values Voters Summit — one of the biggest conservative and religious right summits in the country.

A Chronology of an (attempted) Senate Power-Grab
By Aaron Deslatte
Orlando Sentinel
There is a long story of personal ambitions, conflicting corporate-versus-populist agendas, and shifting allegiances behind the latest palace coup attempt in the Florida Senate.

Miami Beach House Rep. Steinberg under investigation by feds for bizarre texts
By David Ovalle
Miami Herald
Federal agents are investigating Florida House Rep. Richard L. Steinberg, D-Miami Beach, for sending a series of suggestive and harassing text messages to a married Miami female prosecutor, court records show.

POLITICAL RACES

Arizona debate features clash of Republican front-runners
By Mark Z. Barabak and Maeve Reston
Los Angeles Times
Days before a pair of crucial primaries, Mitt Romney and Rick Santorum clashed Wednesday night in a testy debate that magnified small differences and underscored the big stakes in their neck-and-neck presidential fight.

Obama to address gas prices, pitch energy policy
Associated Press
Tampa Tribune
President Barack Obama is confronting Americans' anxiety over rising gasoline prices by drawing attention to his energy policies and taking credit for rising oil and gas production, a greater mix of energy sources and decreased consumption.

President Obama fundraiser will gather NBA stars, at $30K a plate
By Mark K. Matthews
Orlando Sentinel
An All-Star lineup of current and former NBA stars is coming together tonight for an event that won't feature dunks, buzzer beaters or free throws.

Rubio’s Moment Arrives in ‘Time’
By Howard Goodman
Florida Center for Investigative Reporting
This looks like U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio’s moment in the sun.

Mack could face scrutiny over exemption
By William March
Tampa Tribune
Lee County Property Appraiser Ken Wilkinson said Wednesday he probably will investigate whether Rep. Connie Mack and his wife, Rep. Mary Bono of California, are entitled to two separate homestead exemptions in their home states, although his "first blush" opinion is that they are.

Senate hopeful LeMieux likens rival Mack to Charlie Sheen, in hopes of winning
By George Bennett
Palm Beach Post
Florida's leading Republican Senate rivals invoked Hollywood bad boy Charlie Sheen and Florida GOP pariah Charlie Crist while trading character attacks today in an increasingly nasty primary race.

ENVIRONMENT AND ENERGY

Bill would allow a slow flow of treated sewage into ocean after 2025
By Ariel Barkhurst
South Florida Sun Sentinel
A bill making its way through the Florida Legislature would allow the dumping of 5 billion gallons of treated sewage into the ocean every year, but save South Florida’s utility ratepayers at least $1.3 billion.

State working to put new water rules in place
By Virginia Chamlee
Florida Independent
In a letter sent to EPA Regional Administrator Gwendolyn Keyes Fleming, the head of the Florida Department of Environmental Protection requests that the agency “return to Floridians the responsibility for protecting Florida’s waters.”

PSC approves far-reaching Progress Energy agreement
By Bruce Ritchie
Florida Current
The Public Service Commission on Wednesday approved a far-reaching settlement between Progress Energy and the Office of Public Counsel and commercial power customers.

Everglades restoration needs bipartisan buy-in
Editorial
Orlando Sentinel
President Obama wants to spends $232 million on restoring the Florida Everglades, a vital project stalled by sporadic government funding.

EDUCATION

Senate to weigh in on USF Poly's future Thursday
By Kim Wilmath
Tampa Bay Times/Miami Herald Tallahassee Bureau
Related editorial: USF fight for equity begins today
While debate surrounding the University of South Florida's budget has gotten most of the attention in the Legislature recently, there's another big decision coming today: JD Alexander's over-arching vision to create the state's 12th university.

Gov. Scott, charter students rally, but Democrats don't want to forget public schools
By Gray Rohrer
Florida Current
About 500 charter school students, parents and teachers from across the state gathered in the Capitol courtyard Wednesday to urge support for legislation to expand and fund charter schools, which are publicly funded, but privately run.

School prayer bill passes another Florida House committee
By Ashley Lopez
Florida Independent
A bill that would allow K-12 students to deliver “inspirational messages,” including prayers, during mandatory and non-mandatory school events was approved by a Florida House judiciary committee today.

Simulation shows school grades plummeting under possible new rules
By Jeffrey S. Solochek
Tampa Bay Times
Pasco principal Kimberly Poe had no illusions that her school's annual state grade would suffer under tougher FCAT passing scores.

JOBS, BUDGET, AND ECONOMY

Business tax cut backed by Gov. Scott stalls on House floor
By Gray Rohrer
Florida Current
A measure granting businesses a more than $20 million annual tax break originally was set to be prepared for a floor vote later this week, but was postponed on the House floor Wednesday.

Senate could revive 'super exemption' property tax measure
By Travis Pillow
Florida Current
The Senate sponsor is looking to resurrect a new property tax exemption that previously failed in a House committee.

More Kids Growing up in Poor Neighborhoods in FL
By Jennifer Evans
Public News Service Florida
A new KIDS COUNT Data Snapshot from the Annie E. Casey Foundation released today shows that the number of children living in high-poverty communities has increased by 28 percent in Florida.

One-sided budgeting
Editorial
Ocala Star-Banner
The Florida Senate is scheduled to vote today on a budget that, like the version approved by the House of Representatives, focuses on the spending side of the ledger and ignores the potential for new revenue sources.

HEALTH AND SENIORS

Planned Parenthood rallies as anti-abortion measures move through Legislature
By Ashley Lopez
Florida Independent
With the final days of 2012′s legislative session drawing near, Planned Parenthood held a rally at the capitol yesterday to denounce a slew of anti-reproductive rights bills that have already made their way through committees in the Legislature this session.

Department of Health reorganization bill stalls in Senate
By Christine Jordan Sexton
Florida Current
A bill to reorganize the state’s largest health care department was moving through the legislative process but was slowed down in the Senate on Wednesday, causing lobbyists to wonder why.

Here’s crazy: Reducing money to treat mental illness in Florida
By Fred Grimm
Miami Herald
Thank God for Texas. Else we’d rank as the most barbaric backwater in the nation.

Rich introduces budget amendment stripping CPCs of state funding
By Ashley Lopez
Florida Independent
State Sen. Nan Rich, D-Sunrise, has introduced an amendment to the Florida Senate’s budget bill that “eliminates funding for the Crisis Counseling Program in the Department of Health and increases funding to the Family Planning Program.”

Senate health committee approves HPV vaccine bill
By Ashley Lopez
Florida Independent
A bill requiring schools to give parents of students entering the sixth grade information about HPV vaccines passed in a Florida Senate health committee today.

Miami-Dade and its cities lead nation in federal cuts for social services, economic development
By Charles Rabin and Christina Veiga
Miami Herald
Miami-Dade County and its largest cities — including Hialeah, Miami Beach, Miami and North Miami — are among the nation’s top losers in federal funding for social services, meaning meals for the elderly and afterschool programs for kids face dramatic cutbacks that will hurt thousands of residents.

Contraceptives debate all about women's health
By Debbie Wasserman Schultz
South Florida Sun Sentinel
This month, a debate on contraception gripped the nation in a way we have not seen in decades.

JUSTICE AND THE COURTS

Metz’s bill passes, despite dearth of evidence that ‘foreign law’ is entering Florida courts
By Ashley Lopez
Florida Independent
A Florida House judiciary committee passed a bill today that would outlaw the use of “foreign law” in family court cases.

Partisanship creeps deeper into judiciary
Editorial
Tampa Bay Times
The independence of Florida's judiciary is under legislative assault again.

A softer 'Caylee's Law' looks more certain
By John Kennedy
Palm Beach Post
Months after Florida lawmakers joined many nationwide in pushing tough new laws in the aftermath of the Casey Anthony verdict, a generally modest change in state law was approved Wednesday by the House Judiciary Committee.

Some inmates given long sentences as teens would be eligible for release in 15 years under proposed bill
By Brittany Alana Davis
Tampa Bay Times/Miami Herald Tallahassee Bureau
Kendrick Morris was 16 when he brutally raped and beat a teenager outside the Bloomingdale Regional Public Library.

Daily Clips for February 21, 2012

FEATURED STORIES

Alex Sink regrets defeat to Rick Scott in 2010, thinks about 2014 rematch
By Steve Bousquet
Tampa Bay Times
Alex Sink feels regret. That's understandable when you come within 1 percentage point of being elected governor of Florida.

Following outcry, legislative immunity bill dies in House committee
By Tia Mitchell
Tampa Bay Times/Miami Herald Tallahassee Bureau
In a shining example of how quickly the political tides can change, House leaders on Monday backed away from a proposal to clarify legislative immunity shortly after the incoming Senate president expressed his opposition to the idea.

Florida Senate panel advances bill to speed foreclosures
By James L. Rosica
Associated Press
The state's mortgage foreclosure process would be accelerated and streamlined under a proposal cleared by a Senate panel on Monday.

Pam Bondi, 11 other AGs, ready to 'vigorously oppose' Obama contraception rule in court
By Marc Caputo
Miami Herald
Must have misssed this in the ole inbox, but Florida's attorney general, Pam Bondi, is ready to join 12 other colleagues to sue President Obama's administration over its contraception mandate – this after challenging all of the Affordable Care Act.

President Barack Obama back in Florida this week for official events, but also campaigning
By Alex Leary and Adam C. Smith
Tampa Bay Times
President Barack Obama is rewriting Florida's advertising tagline: Come for the sun and soak up the electoral votes.

FLORIDA POLITICS

House lays out rules for the governor's rules
By Brittany Davis
Miami Herald/Tampa Bay Times Tallahassee Bureau
The House set out to clarify the governor’s authority today and lay out how much power the executive office really has in restricting the rules that state agencies must invent in order to carry out new laws.

Texting and driving ban motoring through Florida Senate
Associated Press
South Florida Sun Sentinel
The Senate's budget panel is expected to consider a statewide texting-while-driving ban that has eluded passage for several years.

Don't rush to resurrect private prison proposal
Editorial
Orlando Sentinel
The brawl over prison privatization may be over in the Florida Legislature.

Give public right to speak at public meetings
Editorial
Tampa Bay Times
Florida has a proud tradition of requiring the public's business to be conducted in the open.

POLITICAL RACES

Poll: Florida Senator Marco Rubio favorite VP candidate
By Angela Delli Santi
Associated Press
A new poll released Monday indicates Florida Sen. Marco Rubio is mentioned most often by registered voters when asked who should be the GOP's vice presidential nominee.

GOP contenders look ahead to 13-state test
Associated Press
Tampa Tribune
A resurgent Rick Santorum hopes to spring his next big surprise in Michigan.

Mack pounds Nelson in appearance before GOP group
By George Bennett
Palm Beach Post
Finishing last in Sunday's Florida Federation of Republican Women straw poll did not knock U.S. Rep. Connie Mack, R-Cape Coral, off his strategy of focusing on Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson and barely alluding to his GOP Senate primary.

Homestead exemption could be issue for Mack
By William March
Tampa Tribune
When news broke last week that Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson gets a big tax break because of a small herd of cattle grazing on his family's Brevard County pasture land, his potential Republican opponent, Rep. Connie Mack, called it "appalling" and "disgraceful."

ENVIRONMENT AND ENERGY

Progress Energy settlement agreement praised, criticized at PSC hearing
By Bruce Ritchie
Florida Current
The Office of Public Counsel and the Florida Retail Federation on Monday joined large power customers in supporting an agreement that settles several Progress Energy cases before the Public Service Commission and locks in nuclear cost recovery charges for the next five years.

Judge backs federal agency's decision to set pollution limits but throws out some of those standards
By Bruce Ritchie
Florida Current
A federal judge on Saturday upheld a federal agency's decision to set pollution limits in Florida waterways while also claiming some of those limits are invalid.

Bill sponsor owns land surrounded by state forest where company is exploring for oil
By Bruce Ritchie
Florida Current
A state senator who is pushing a bill that would encourage oil drilling on state lands owns property surrounded by the Blackwater River State Forest, where a company is exploring for oil.

Drill, Baby, Drill: How Mica and Other Florida Republicans Rejected Everglades Protection
Staff Report
FlaglerLive.com
Last Thursday, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a bill that would compel the federal Bureau of Land Management to lease potentially up to half a million acres of federal land in Utah, Colorado and Wyoming to oil companies to “research” and explore oil shale and tar sands development, two largely unproven or prohibitive technologies.

Trails for Sale
By Whitney Ray
Capitol News Service
In an effort to fund state parks, seven Florida trails may soon be open to advertisers.

LGBT

Activists positive, but wary, about Jacobs' registry plan
By Mark Schlueb
Orlando Sentinel
Related editorial: Mayor Jacobs' domestic partners decision
Gay activists said Monday that Orange County Mayor Teresa Jacobs' new plan for a countywide domestic-partnership registry is "a turn in the right direction," but they hadn't yet decided whether they would support it.

EDUCATION

USF, Alexander have 'productive' meeting on cuts
By Lindsay Peterson
Tampa Tribune
The ice broke between University of South Florida President Judy Genshaft and state Sen. JD Alexander on Monday afternoon, but it's still unclear how far Alexander will back away from plans to cut the USF and USF Polytechnic budgets.

University of Florida, Florida State could get power to charge higher tuition
By Kim Wilmath
Tampa Bay Times/Miami Herald Tallahassee Bureau
The University of Florida and Florida State University could soon have the power to set higher tuition rates than the state's other 11 universities — a flexibility they have been seeking for years.

Florida early learning bills on move, despite spar over standards
By Margie Menzel
News Service of Florida
Governance of a billion-dollar business is the subject of a heated debate this session, but it’s mostly been under the radar – until now, as bills revamping school readiness programs reach the House and Senate floors this week.

High school sports measure advances to next round in House
By Gray Rohrer
Florida Current
An effort to make it easier for private high school students to compete for a public school in a sport not offered by their own school passed through the House Rules and Calendar Committee on Monday, but concerns the bill will grant loopholes for illegal recruiting still dog the proposal.

JOBS, BUDGET, AND ECONOMY

Wage theft bill suffers setback
By Dara Kam
Palm Beach Post
Lawmakers trying to keep counties like Palm Beach from handling "wage theft" claims outside of the courts suffered a setback Monday but a measure barring ordinances similar to one the county is considering is still in play.

Hurricane fund overhaul unlikely with Florida lawmakers
By Brent Kallestad
Associated Press
State lawmakers have gambled with their constituents’ money for years when it comes to dealing with Florida’s property insurance issues.

JUSTICE AND THE COURTS

Supremes set 90-per-side minutes of oral arguments on redistricting
By Bob Shaw
Orlando Sentinel
The Supreme Court of Florida announced Monday it would hear three hours of oral arguments on Feb. 29 about the reapportionment maps for the Florida House and Senate.

Access to the courts
Editorial
Miami Herald
The fund that pays for lawyers to represent poor people in civil cases has seen its budget tank 88 percent since 2008.