Daily News Clips for October 26, 2012

PROGRESS FLORIDA IN THE NEWS

Amendment 1: Testing public support for 'Obamacare'
By Tia Mitchell
Tampa Bay Times/Miami Herald Tallahassee Bureau
Excerpt: Progress Florida executive director Mark Ferrulo thinks the Republican-led Legislature was playing politics when it put Amendment 1 on the ballot. "We believe it's just largely throwing a bone to the sort of tea-party wing which was so incensed over Obamacare," he said.

The BluVu: Week of October 28^th
By Gayle Andrews
The BluVu
The debate was a slam dunk for the President but the race is still tight nationwide, the battleground states like Florida are still in command and Progress Florida’s Damien Filer has a firsthand look at how education remains in the spotlight as political reality comes your way!

FEATURED STORIES

President Barack Obama in Tampa: 'We can write the next chapter together'
By Marissa Lang, Katie Sanders and Adam C. Smith
Tampa Bay Times
Related: 'Surprise' Obama visits make morning anything but routine
The final push to squeeze every last vote out of Florida brought Barack Obama to Ybor City on Thursday, where the president exhorted thousands of supporters to help him "finish what we started in 2008."

Democrats gear-up for early voting, an edge they exploited in 2008
By Christine Stapleton
Palm Beach Post
An hour before sunrise Saturday, a group of clergy will gather outside the Palm Beach County Supervisor of Elections headquarters, bless the polls and lead the faithful in eight days of early voting — a seemingly benign practice that has become a righteous exercise for Democrats.

Floridians appear in TV spots for Obama
By Adam C. Smith
Tampa Bay Times
Local Voices, a group founded by filmaker Lee Hirsch, a Sundance-Film-Festival and Emmy-award winner, and creator of the documentary “Bully," has produced a series of 60-second spots airing now on Cable and targetting  Osceola, Manatee and Polk Counties.

Election 2012: Florida U.S. Senate race a study in contrasts
By John Kennedy
Palm Beach Post
Democrat Bill Nelson and Republican Connie Mack IV are giving voters sharp contrasts but few fireworks in their duel for U.S. Senate, the premier state race on Florida’s Nov. 6 ballot.

Scott unveils schools plan, as elections near
By John Kennedy
Palm Beach Post
With Republican legislative candidates under siege from Democrats over school spending, Gov. Rick Scott unveiled an education platform Thursday that includes steady classroom funding, a new approach to testing and more charter schools.

BEST OF THE BLOGS

ALEC On The Ballot: ALEC's Influence In Florida Amendments
By Martha Jackovics
Beach Peanuts
Eleven constitutional amendments appear on Florida's ballot in the upcoming election, and many groups including Progress Florida and the League of Women Voters of Florida, along with several newspapers, are urging voters to "just say no" to all of them, and for good reason.

Florida Leads Race to the Bottom on Unemployment Compensation
By Kenneth Quinnell
AFL-CIO Now
Americans faced with a tough economy face significant struggles when they lose their jobs.

Quick Guide to the 2012 Florida Amendments – Just Say “No”
By Bruce Seaman
Daily Marion
This year’s ballot is a mammoth mess for voters thanks to the GOP dominated legislature piling all kinds of nonsense into it.

5 Voter Misinformation Campaigns To Watch Out For
By Aviva Shen
Think Progress
Though most voter ID laws and voter purges have been thrown out or delayed by judges, voter suppression efforts are still alive and well.

A better way for Republicans to understand this election
By Gimleteye
Eye on Miami
The way to achieve a return to the center and away from extremism that characterizes the heart of the GOP is for Republicans to either vote for Barack Obama and Democrats, or, not to vote at all.

FLORIDA POLITICS

GOP Voter Fraud Accusations Suddenly Blowing Up In Their Faces
By Dan Froomkin
Huffington Post
Republican officials, who have used hysteria about alleged voter fraud as an excuse to support measures that disproportionately block Democratic voters, are furiously trying to distance themselves from a growing number of GOP voter registration drives that either submitted false applications or threw away authentic ones.

RPOF Chairman Target of Voter Intimidation
By Whitney Ray
Capitol News Service
The head of the Republican Party of Florida ineligible to vote?

Copying of bad Palm Beach County absentee ballots going well — so far — as elections supervisor adds workers, hours
By Jane Musgrave
Palm Beach Post
After more than a week of bad news about absentee ballots with printing errors and the potential chaos of hand-copying an estimated 27,000 of them, Palm Beach County Supervisor of Elections Susan Bucher on Thursday found something to smile about.

Absentee voting's rise means more risk of problems
By Curt Anderson
Associated Press
Because of a printing error, somewhere around 27,000 absentee ballots already cast by voters are being painstakingly copied by hand in Palm Beach County to make sure they can be read by a scanning machine.

Scott Cancels Events for Emergency Trip to see Mother
By Mike Vasilinda
Capitol News Service
Governor Rick Scott cancelled his scheduled events this afternoon to fly to Kansas City to be with his mother, Esther.

POLITICAL RACES

Mack family name may not be enough
By Scott Powers
Orlando Sentinel
Related: Nelson works hard to be seen as moderate
A baseball adorns U.S. Rep. Connie Mack IV's U.S. Senate campaign logo, replacing the "O" in his name.

Poll: Romney erases Obama lead among women
Associated Press
Tampa Tribune
Less than two weeks from Election Day, Republican Mitt Romney has erased President Barack Obama's 16-point advantage among women, a new Associated Press-GfK poll shows.

Charts: Women Are Backing Obama by the Binderful
By Dave Gilson
Mother Jones
Earlier this week, the New York Times' Nate Silver wrote about the gaping "gender gap" at the heart of the presidential race, specifically the degree to which women are breaking for Barack Obama and men are breaking for Mitt Romney.

After two days of uncertainty, Bucher appears ready to approve Romney campaign poll watchers
By George Bennett
Palm Beach Post
After more than two days of uncertainty that put Mitt Romney‘s campaign legal team on high alert, it appears that Palm Beach County Elections Supervisor Susan Bucher will accept the Romney camp’s designation of 487 poll watchers to monitor voting at county precincts during the Nov. 6 election.

Pasco school officials criticized for allowing Romney rally at stadium
By Ronnie Blair and Laura Kinsler
Tampa Tribune
The Pasco County School District is being accused of violating its own policies by allowing Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney to hold a political rally on school grounds Saturday night.

Campaigns deploy radio ads to gin up base voters
By Beth Fouhy
Associated Press
Tired of all those political ads on your TV screen? Don't look to your radio for relief.

Ann Romney's brief stop in Gainesville draws crowd of supporters
By Christopher Curry
Gainesville Sun
Borrowing from the lyrics of a popular country music tune, DeLena C. May says she was for Mitt Romney before Romney was cool.

BALLOT INITIATIVES

Voters finding Florida ballot issues confusing
Associated Press
Palm Beach Post
The League of Women Voters of Florida says it's gotten more than 1,000 calls from voters who are confused and frustrated over the 11 proposed state constitutional amendments on the Nov. 6 ballot.

Another GOP power grab
Editorial
Florida Courier
The amendments that you will see on this year’s ballot are proposed changes to the Florida Constitution.

ENVIRONMENT AND ENERGY

Collier, Franklin counties balk at joining oil spill consortium
By Bruce Ritchie
Florida Current
Collier and Franklin counties have refused to join 21 other Gulf Coast counties in forming a consortium to determine how fines from the 2010 oil spill should be spent.

BP pulls plug on planned biofuels plant in Highlands County after four stalled years
Staff Report
Tampa Bay Times
Energy giant BP said Thursday it canceled plans to build a commercial-scale cellulosic ethanol plant in Highlands County four years after first unveiling the Central Florida biofuels project.

LGBT

Obama backs gay marriage measures in 3 states
By David Crary
Associated Press
President Barack Obama on Thursday threw his support behind ballot measures in Maine, Maryland and Washington state that would legalize same-sex marriage.

Romney rejected new birth certificates for gay parents
By Murray Waas
Boston Globe
It seemed like a minor adjustment. To comply with the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court ruling that legalized gay marriage in 2003, the state Registry of Vital Records and Statistics said it needed to revise its birth certificate forms for babies born to same-sex couples.

EDUCATION

Charter school spent more on principal than teachers, students
By Lauren Roth
Orlando Sentinel
An Orange County charter school that gave its principal a $519,000 departure payout was an academic failure that struggled to provide its students with basic materials and qualified teachers, an evaluation by the school district shows.

Kudos, caution in reactions to Scott's 2013 education agenda
By Bill Cotterell
Florida Current
Gov. Rick Scott issued a wide-ranging agenda for education Thursday that calls for replacing Florida's math and English tests with "common core" standards, giving teachers debit cards to buy classroom supplies, and ending enrollment caps on charter schools to give parents more school choice.

JOBS, BUDGET, AND ECONOMY

Consultant says companies will be lured to Florida by larger checks and smaller job-salary requirements
By Aaron Deslatte
Orlando Sentinel
A new report on Florida's economic competitiveness recommends that the state beef up Gov. Rick Scott's ability to lure new corporations with large checks and also lower standards for the wages these companies would have to pay.

Florida's Infrastructure Fails To Make the Grade in New Report
By Clark Barrineau
Columbia County Observer
Florida’s infrastructure has not improved over the last four years according to a new report by Florida’s civil engineers.

HEALTH AND SENIORS

‘ObamaCare’: Its impact on FL
By Carol Gentry
Health News Florida
In the hyperbole of the campaign season, the truth about the Affordable Care Act -- aka "ObamaCare" -- has been stretched to the breaking point.

Obamacare will save lives, make Florida healthier
By Dr. Marc J. Yacht
Tampa Tribune
Florida ranks third in the nation for numbers of medically uninsured.

Justice Dept. Amps Up Lawsuit Threat Over Kids In Fla. Nursing Homes
By Jessica Palombo    
WFSU Tallahassee
The federal government has sent another letter to Florida health care regulators, this time threatening to sue the state “in the very near future” if it does not cooperate. 

JUSTICE AND THE COURTS

Florida justices' supporters say fears easing
By Bill Kaczor
Associated Press
Supporters of three Florida Supreme Court justices seeking up-or-down retention votes say they're now less worried about losing due to indifference by the legal profession, the public and news media because the Republican Party's opposition to the trio has raised the race's profile.

Conservatives Taking Aim at Three Supreme Court Justices
By Paula Dockery
Florida Voices
As the election nears, voters are taking a look at this year's lengthy ballot.

Robes and rubes in Florida
By Daniel Ruth
Tampa Bay Times
We all know a so-called "activist judge" is a judge whose decision somebody disagrees with.

Keep justices on the job
Editorial
Orlando Sentinel
Should they stay or should they go? Since Florida began holding merit retention elections for its Supreme Court justices and appeals judges in 1978, state voters have always voted to keep them on the bench.

Sanford court hearing set on gag order request in Zimmerman case
By Frances Robles
Miami Herald
George Zimmerman’s defense lawyer is a familiar face on cable TV news programs, holds the occasional press conference, gives interviews to newspapers like this one, and keeps the public posted on the goings-on in the case via a controversial website.

Daily News Clips for October 25, 2012

FEATURED STORIES

Report from conservative legal group: Florida justices are not activist
By Mary Ellen Klas
Miami Herald
A Florida professor commissioned by the conservative Federalist Society to review controversial cases of the three Florida Supreme Court justices up for merit retention concluded Wednesday that some of the most loaded charges used by opponents against the justices are unfounded.

Obama resumes campaign marathon in Florida
By Ben Feller
Associated Press
President Barack Obama has resumed his campaign marathon in Florida, delivering doughnuts to a firehouse less than five hours after he wrapped up the previous day's campaigning in Las Vegas.

Women voters at heart of presidential candidates' fight
By Alex Leary
Tampa Bay Times
The stands behind the stage were jammed with women — white, black, Hispanic, Asian, college students, career moms and retirees — a striking visual reminder of President Barack Obama's advantages over Mitt Romney.

FBI launches investigation into fraudulent Florida voter letters
By Michael Van Sickler
Tampa Bay Times/Miami Herald Tallahassee Bureau
The FBI confirmed Wednesday it is investigating fraudulent letters that falsely tell eligible Florida voters they may no longer be U.S. citizens and that they could go to prison if they cast a ballot in the Nov. 6 election.

$500,000 payout to charter principal sparks outrage, call for probe
By Lauren Roth
Orlando Sentinel
The principal of a failed Orange County charter school took home a check for more than $500,000 as the school closed down in June and is still being paid thousands of dollars a month to wrap up the school's affairs.

State ethics commission: David Rivera broke 11 ethics laws while serving in Florida Legislature
By Scott Hiaasen and Patricia Mazzei
Miami Herald
Already facing FBI probes and a daunting reelection, U.S. Rep. David Rivera was charged Wednesday by state authorities with 11 counts of violating ethics laws for filing bogus financial disclosure forms, misusing campaign funds and concealing a $1 million consulting contract with a Miami gambling business while serving in the state Legislature.

FLORIDA POLITICS

Copying bad Palm Beach County ballots will likely prevent repeat of 2000 election spotlight, experts say
By Jane Musgrave
Palm Beach Post
Palm Beach County residents who still remember the post-2000 election sting of being the butt of jokes from late-night comedians and smug out-of-state relatives, can relax.

Dorworth finances are tale of two accounting methods
By Scott Powers and Jason Garcia
Orlando Sentinel
Last January, amid a bitter divorce dispute with his estranged wife, state Rep. Chris Dorworth told the court that he was worth negative $3 million.

POLITICAL RACES

President Obama arrives in Tampa as part of cross-country swing state campaign
By Marissa Lang
Tampa Bay Times
President Barack Obama arrived in Tampa around 7 a.m. Thursday morning, just as doors were scheduled to open for supporters attending a 9 a.m. rally in Tampa as part of his campaign's nonstop, two-day tour of swing states.

Polk County residents make positive, local case for Obama in new ad campaign
By Peter Schorsch
Saint Petersblog
Jack Banton from Lakeland and Shemmer Thomas from Bartow are each sharing their personal stories about why they’re voting for President Obama this election through 60-second, documentary-style commercial airings on cable television and online.

Charts: Women Are Backing Obama by the Binderfull
By Dave Gilson
Mother Jones
Earlier this week, the New York Times' Nate Silver wrote about the gaping "gender gap" at the heart of the presidential race, specifically the degree to which women are breaking for Barack Obama and men are breaking for Mitt Romney.

Ann Romney campaigns at Wright's Gourmet House in Tampa
By Molly Moorhead
Tampa Bay Times
Ann Romney swung through town Wednesday, greeting the lunch crowd at Wright's Gourmet House in South Tampa and chatting with volunteers.

Obama, Clinton to make Monday stop in Orlando
By Scott Powers
Orlando Sentinel
President Barack Obama will be coming to Orlando Monday, and he's bringing former President Bill Clinton with him.

Mack teams up with McCain at Tampa campaign stop
By Robbyn Mitchell
Tampa Bay Times
In his quest to unseat Florida's Democratic senator, GOP U.S. Rep. Connie Mack IV toured the state Tuesday with former presidential candidate John McCain, stopping in Tampa.

Webster touts his bipartisan abilities in Congress in seeking re-election
By Mark K. Matthews
Orlando Sentinel
The first test for U.S. Rep. Dan Webster came early in his rookie term, at a raucous town-hall meeting in south Orlando in 2011.

Val Demings moves from police to politics
By Mark Schlueb
Orlando Sentinel
Val Demings didn't set out to be a congressional candidate any more than she set out to be a police officer.

Campaign Profile: Sachs-Bogdanoff Senate race is No. 1 priority for both parties
By Bill Cotterell
Florida Current
About the only thing state Sens. Ellyn Bogdanoff and Maria Sachs agree on is that their race is the most expensive and important legislative contest in Florida this year.

Learn the issues and vote early
Editorial
Miami Herald
The 2012 ballot that South Floridians will face at the polls on Nov. 6 is a long one.

BALLOT INITIATIVES

Amendment 8 draws reactions
By David A. Schwartz
South Florida Sun Sentinel
It's called the "religious freedom" amendment but opponents say that if Amendment 8 passes on Nov. 6, it would undermine religious freedom.

‘No on 6′ launches third TV ad against abortion-related amendment
By Dara Kam
Palm Beach Post
The “No on 6″ political committee, funded largely by Planned Parenthood organizations from around the country, launched a third television ad in Florida urging voters to reject a proposed constitutional amendment dealing with abortion.

Business tax cut amendment draws little attention
By Toluse Olorunnipa
Miami Herald/Tampa Bay Times Tallahassee Bureau
Tucked near the end of a lengthy ballot that features contentious issues like abortion and the Supreme Court is a little-discussed business tax cut amendment hoping to make it into the state Constitution.

ENVIRONMENT AND ENERGY

Air Force, Florida officials reach agreement on using state forests for military training
By Bruce Ritchie
Florida Current
State officials and the U.S. Air Force have signed an agreement to use Florida state forests for military training exercises.

EDUCATION

State proposal: Vary cost of college tuition by degree sought
By Scott Travis
South Florida Sun Sentinel
If you want to save money at Florida's universities, you may soon have to choose biology over ballet or engineering over English.

Pinellas schools superintendent wants to revisit controversial system of evaluating teachers
By Curtis Krueger and Cara Fitzpatrick
Tampa Bay Times
Responding to an outcry from teachers over a controversial new rating system, Pinellas school superintendent Mike Grego says it's time to revisit the program and possibly ask state lawmakers for changes.

JOBS, BUDGET, AND ECONOMY

Perfect storm threatens oysters, way of life in Panhandle county
By Margie Menzel
News Service of Florida
Drought, a massive oil spill, a tropical storm and the state's long-running water war with a neighboring state have combined to put the Florida Panhandle seafood industry in crisis, threatening the $6.6 million seafood industry — and for many people here, a way of life.

HEALTH AND SENIORS

GOP Plan Would Cut Medicaid By $1.7 Trillion, Study Says
By Phil Galewitz
Kaiser Health News
The House Republican plan to repeal President Barack Obama’s health law and turn Medicaid into a block grant program would save the federal government $1.7 trillion from 2013 to 2022, a 38-percent spending reduction, according to a report today by the Urban Institute for the Kaiser Family Foundation.

Florida report: deaths from prescription drugs drop but street narcotics killing more
By Dara Kam
Palm Beach Post
Gov. Rick Scott and Attorney General Pam Bondi are crediting their efforts to crack down on pill mills with an 18 percent decline in accidental deaths from oxycodone overdoses and a 6 percent drop in prescription drug deaths statewide, signaling a reversal of a decade-long trend of rising prescription drug fatalities.

Over 1,000 got bad shots: DOH
By Carol Gentry
Health News Florida
As three more cases of fungal meningitis were confirmed in Florida on Wednesday, bringing the case count to 22, the state's top health official said the number of patients who were placed at risk by contaminated steroid injections was considerable: 1,038. 

JUSTICE AND THE COURTS

'Stand your ground' law doesn't apply in shooting, judge rules
By Shannon McFarland
Sarasota Herald-Tribune
A judge Wednesday denied the argument that a man who killed his stepfather by shooting him 14 times in April should get protection under Florida's “stand your ground” law.

Daily News Clips for October 24, 2012

PROGRESS FLORIDA IN THE NEWS

Privacy clause is at center of Amendment 6 debate
By Tia Mitchell
Tampa Bay Times/Miami Herald Tallahassee Bureau
Excerpt: Amendment 6 opponents say consequences could be far-reaching if it passes and these privacy protections evaporate…"Certain people could be targeted, and having certain aspects of their health care taken away," said Damien Filer, who works for Progress Florida, and is serving as a spokesman for the "Vote No on 6" campaign. "Who knows if we're opening a floodgate to just about anything?"

FEATURED STORIES

Florida early voting starts Saturday, with wide variations in hours across the state
By Steve Bousquet
Tampa Bay Times/Miami Herald Tallahassee Bureau
Early voting in Florida begins Saturday, nearly a week later than past years — and with wide variations in hours from county to county.

Obama fires up Delray
By Maria Herrera
South Florida Sun Sentinel
President Barack Obama delivered an incendiary speech at The Delray Beach Tennis Center Tuesday, imploring a throng of supporters to let him finish the job he started four years ago.

Obama Holds Narrow Edge Over Mitt Romney With Presidential Election Two Weeks Away: Poll
By Andy Sullivan
Reuters
President Barack Obama pulled slightly ahead of Republican Mitt Romney in a Reuters/Ipsos daily tracking poll on Tuesday, but the race remained essentially tied with two weeks to go until the Nov. 6 election.

Bogus letters target Florida Republican voters
By Adam C. Smith and Michael Van Sickler
Tampa Bay Times
The Florida Division of Elections and state law enforcement officials are investigating reports from at least 24 counties — including Hillsborough, Pasco and Pinellas — that eligible voters have received bogus letters saying they have been flagged as suspected noncitizen voters.

Scott to announce education package this week
By Bill Cotterell
Florida Current
After weeks of meeting with students, teachers, parents and school administrators, Gov. Rick Scott is set to announce his "College and Career First" education plan for the 2013 legislative session.

FLORIDA POLITICS

Gov. Rick Scott isn't calling for investigation into Citizens yet
By Toluse Olorunnipa and Jeffrey S. Solochek
Tampa Bay Times
Gov. Rick Scott said Tuesday that he is open to having an investigation into the recent firings of Citizens Insurance's entire Office of Corporate Integrity, though he stopped short of calling for the immediate inquiry that some good governance groups have asked for.

Bondi, Scott won’t say whether they support the justices
By Lloyd Dunkelberger
Sarasota Herald-Tribune
Two of Florida’s top Republican leaders today refused to take a position on whether they support the retention of three Florida Supreme Court justices who face an up-or-down vote on the Nov. 6 ballot.

Gov. Scott calls for study of texting drivers
By Kathleen Haughney
South Florida Sun Sentinel
A new report that traffic fatalities are up by four percent this year has top state officials taking a closer look at texting while driving.

Is Florida's delegation the wackiest?
By Kate Nocera
Politico
Scandal-plagued politicians, partisan firebrands and sequined hats: The Sunshine State has it all.

POLITICAL RACES

Obama launches 2-day blitz; Romney also ups pace
By Ben Feller
Associated Press
Locked in a stubbornly tight race, President Barack Obama and Republican Mitt Romney are demonstrating the urgency of the campaign's final stretch, with the incumbent alone set to cover 5,300 miles in the busiest single day of his re-election bid.

Romney looks to Pensacola to help win Florida
By Louis Cooper
Pensacola News Journal
Pensacola is in line for Republican love this weekend, GOP officials confirmed Tuesday.

Former Congressman Wexler says Jewish voters will stick with Obama
By John Lantigua
Palm Beach Post
Former South Florida Democratic Congressman Robert Wexler of Boca Raton, now president of the Washington-based S. Daniel Abraham Center for Middle East Peace, disputes GOP claims that many Jews who voted for President Obama will not vote him this time due to rocky relations with Israeli Prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other missteps.

Romney's shifting stands
Editorial
Tampa Bay Times
Mitt Romney has reinvented himself in the closing days of the campaign as a measured leader whose steady hand as commander in chief would rebuild America's standing in the world.

Sen. Bill Nelson stumps for votes on Rep. Connie Mack’s turf
By John Kennedy
Palm Beach Post
Democrat Bill Nelson visited family grave sites Tuesday and reminisced about his bonds to rural North Florida in campaign stops steeped in the past but designed to assure his future in Washington.

Mack's political philosophy shaped by his father
By Brendan Farrington
Associated Press
Related: Mack calls for defunding the United Nations
Almost as soon as Congressman Connie Mack IV started running for Senate, his Republican primary opponents and Democratic incumbent Bill Nelson began attacking his character, pointing at a bar fight, a separate bar arrest and road rage incidents from his 20s.

Pugnacious Grayson seeks to bury little-known foe
By Mark K. Matthews
Orlando Sentinel
In Congress or on the campaign trail, it's often not enough for Alan Grayson to win. He has to win big. For proof, look no further than his campaign for Florida's 9th Congressional District.

Attorneys battle for SD 14 seat
By Gray Rohrer
Florida Current
Two trial attorneys are vying for the Senate District 14 seat in Central Florida that snakes from eastern Orlando south through Kissimmee and into Haines City.

Veteran officeholder Gibson faces newcomer in Florida Senate election
By Adam Kealoha Causey        
Florida Times-Union
Getting Northeast Floridians to work is a top priority for the incumbent and a political newcomer in the race for state Senate District 9.

BALLOT INITIATIVES

Separation of church and state at the heart of Amendment 8
By Brittany Alana Davis
Tampa Bay Times/Miami Herald Tallahassee Bureau
In many ways, Amendment 8 boils down to this: When Jerod Powers, 38, left prison in Jacksonville, he had only a change of clothes, his release papers and pocket change.

ENVIRONMENT AND ENERGY

Putnam urges closer scrutiny of state land management assignments, raises doubts about land-buying
Staff Report
Florida Current
Agriculture Commissioner Adam Putnam on Tuesday urged the state to review which agencies are managing particular tracts of state land and he expressed concerns about spending more money on buying conservation land.

BP seeks spill deal for relief from class-action suit
By Michael Kunzelman
Associated Press
Oil giant BP has asked a federal judge to disregard objections from a fraction of claimants and give final approval to a proposed multibillion-dollar settlement over economic damages from the Gulf oil spill.

Florida's environmental clock
By Barbara Ferguson
Gainesville Sun
Florida is looking like a clock, a clock of environmental disaster in all directions.

Sandy could bring rain to South Florida by weekend; storm watch issued for waters off Palm
By Sonja Isger, Alexandra Seltzer and Ana M. Valdes
Palm Beach Post
A brush with Tropical Storm Sandy could bring 1 to 3 inches of rain to parts of South Florida on Thursday and Friday, as well as rain squalls and wind gusts of up to 60 mph in some coastal areas, forecasters at the National Weather Service in Miami said.

LGBT

New contract: Boca agrees not to discriminate against gays, lesbians
By Anne Geggis
South Florida Sun Sentinel
The Boca Raton City Council Tuesday approved a contract with Palm Beach County with a provision that says the city will not discriminate against people on the basis of their sexual preference, gender identity or gender expression.

EDUCATION

Undo race-based goals, Florida PTA urges State Board of Education
By Jeff Solochek
Tampa Bay Times
The Florida PTA has joined the chorus of organizations and leaders calling upon the State Board of Education to rethink its strategic plan that sets achievement goals based on races.

Educators Push for Bully-Free Florida
Stephanie Carroll Carson
Public News Service Florida
October is National Bullying Prevention Month, and Florida educators are being asked to take a pledge to stand up for bullied students.

SCF's Hafner appears poised for exit
By Christopher O'Donnell
Sarasota Herald-Tribune
It's not quite the end for State College of Florida President Lars Hafner, but now it is likely just a matter of days.

JOBS, BUDGET, AND ECONOMY

Why Florida Is Sitting on $300 Million Meant to Help Homeowners
By Cora Currier
ProPublica
Florida has the highest percentage of home loans in foreclosure in the country. So why is more than $300 million that could help homeowners sitting unused?

Florida slams on brakes, delays action on license plate makeover
By Steve Bousquet
Tampa Bay Times/Miami Herald Tallahassee Bureau       
Florida hit the brakes Tuesday and delayed a redesign of its license plates, sparing Gov. Rick Scott a clash with county tax collectors.

State debt to decline again this year
News Service of Florida:
Florida Times-Union
Florida will report in December that it has significantly reduced its outstanding debt for the second year in a row, and that continued refinancing of outstanding debt will save more than $1 billion on future interest payments, the state's top bond finance official said Tuesday.

HEALTH AND SENIORS

Uninsured kids’ rate dips
By Carol Gentry
Health News Florida
Florida is making great progress in getting children enrolled in health insurance, according to a report released Tuesday.

Another meningitis case confirmed
By James Call
Florida Current
Florida health officials said Tuesday the number of Floridians infected with fungal meningitis continues to rise. 

JUSTICE AND THE COURTS

US Supreme Court upholds stay of execution in Fla.
By Tamara Lush and Curt Anderson
Associated Press
Following a slew of conflicting court rulings, a federal appeals court has blocked the scheduled execution of a mass killer convicted of eight killings that jolted South Florida in the 1970s. The U.S. Supreme Court upheld the stay.

In fatal shooting, did Stand Your Ground law apply?
By Shannon McFarland
Sarasota Herald-Tribune
A man who killed his stepfather by shooting him 14 times in April was in court on Tuesday arguing that it was self-defense, and that he should be protected by Florida’s “Stand Your Ground” law.