Daily News Clips for July 25, 2013

PROGRESS FLORIDA IN THE NEWS

Bob Graham Supports A New Environmental Conservation Amendment
By Alexa Davies
WUFT-FM
Bob Graham wants to make sure there’s an amendment placed on the November 2014 ballot that ensures Florida spends money on land and water conservation, management and restoration.  He and Progress Florida are working with Florida’s Water and Land Legacy Campaign on the amendment to the state constitution.
...
“Critically important in Florida is that our whole economy here is based on tourism,” said Damien Filer, political director for Progress Florida. “So if we don’t have clean beaches for people to come to and have parks and natural spaces, then we don’t have an economy here in our state, either.”

FEATURED STORIES

Feds to Florida: Not too late for Medicaid expansion
By Daniel Chang and Kathleen McGrory
Miami Herald
Federal officials on Wednesday renewed calls for Florida lawmakers to accept an estimated $50 billion over the next 10 years to expand Medicaid, the joint state and federal health insurance program for the poor, to cover an additional one million Floridians who would otherwise remain uninsured even after Jan. 1 when healthcare reform begins in earnest.

Standoff at Fla. Capitol shows no sign of ending
Sarasota Herald-Tribune
The protest gripping the Florida Capitol is showing no signs of ending.

Lawmakers need to fix 'stand your ground' law
Editorial
Tampa Tribune
The focus of those outraged by the George Zimmerman trial has now shifted squarely onto "stand your ground" laws in Florida and the two dozen other states with similar statutes.

Can Sen. Marco Rubio recover with tea party? 'Absolutely,' leader says
By Alex Leary
Tampa Bay Times
Sen. Marco Rubio did not avoid the obvious in a meeting with the tea party Tuesday, addressing his high-profile work on immigration reform.  For 30 seconds.

Marco Rubio wants to be lead sponsor on anti-abortion bill
By Burgess Everett
Politico
Sen. Marco Rubio said unequivocally Wednesday that he hopes to be the lead sponsor of a bill banning abortions after 20 weeks.

FLORIDA POLITICS

Florida delegation divided on failed effort to limit NSA data collection
By Alex Leary
Tampa Bay Times
The U.S. House on Wednesday narrowly defeated a measure to curtail data collection by the National Security Agency, and Florida's delegation showed the odd alliances.

Residency of all legislators under review
By Rochelle Koff
Tampa Bay Times
Legislative leadership wants to know where House and Senate members are when they say they're at home.

POLITICAL RACES

Gov. Scott heads to Aspen for RGA summer meet
By Steve Bousquet
Tampa Bay Times
Gov. Rick Scott will be in Aspen, Colorado on Wednesday and Thursday attending the summer meeting of the Republican Governors Association.

President’s speech in Jacksonville underscores battle over economy
By Mary Ellen Klas
Miami Herald
The tweet from Florida Republican Party Chairman Lenny Curry summed up the GOP challenge as President Obama travels to the port of Jacksonville on Thursday to tout the economy and underscore the plight of the middle class.

EDUCATION

Broward School Board renews deal with K12
By Michael Vasquez
Miami Herald
With little discussion, the Broward School Board on Tuesday unanimously approved a one-year contract renewal with K12, a for-profit virtual learning company that has been dogged by complaints from other districts.

JOBS, BUDGET, AND ECONOMY

Housing Market Rebounding; Buyers Still Struggling
By Matt Horn
Capitol News Service
Florida’s economy continues to improve after the ‘Great Recession; and the housing market is on the way up, too.

IMMIGRATION, CIVIL RIGHTS, AND SOCIAL ISSUES

More fallout from voting rights act ruling: court dismisses challenge to FL's voter purge
By Mary Ellen Klas
Miami Herald
A federal court in Tampa dismissed the claim by civil rights activists Wednesday challenging the controversial 2012 voter purge enacted by Gov. Rick Scott and the state's Division of Elections to rid the rolls of what they believed were scores of fraudulent voter registrations.

Protesters demand pathway to citizenship for undocumented immigrants
By Kathleen McGrory
Miami Herald
The Dream Defenders weren't the only activists at the Florida Capitol on Wednesday.

Advocates line road to back immigration bill
By Jessie Van Berkel
Sarasota Herald-Tribune
Ailyn Cervantes stood along U.S. 41, waving at traffic and chanting. The 15-year-old from Bradenton wanted to send Congress a message: Pass comprehensive immigration reform. Now.

Joe Garcia blasts Steve King's drug smuggler-DREAMer comments, then campaigns on it
By Marc A. Caputo
Miami Herald
Miami Rep. Joe Garcia gave an impassioned speech yesterday in the U.S. House Judiciary's Subcommittee on Immigration and Border Security where he tore into Iowa Rep. Steve King for saying illegal immigrant kids are more likely to be drug runners than valedictorians.

Judge wants DCF to transfer child-protective investigations
By Margie Menzel
Tallahassee Democrat
In the wake of a fifth child death in little more than two months, a circuit judge Tuesday called for the Florida Department of Children and Families to stop doing child-welfare investigations and transfer that responsibility elsewhere.

Interim DCF Chief Calls On Staff To Refocus; Child Advocates Say It's A Start
By Sascha Cordner
WFSU
The new interim head of Florida’s child welfare agency is calling on her staff to refocus in the wake of the recent spate of child deaths associated with the agency. But, some child welfare advocates say there’s more work to do.

JUSTICE AND THE COURTS

Sharpton vows to make Florida central in fight against racial profiling, voter suppression and ‘stand your ground’
By John Lantigua
Palm Beach Post
Civil rights leader the Rev. Al Sharpton told a packed Baptist cathedral here Wednesday night that he plans to make Florida “ground zero” in the fight to repeal “stand your ground” laws around the nation between now and the 2014 elections.

Residents, senators sound off at FAMU forum on stand your ground law
WFTV
Some think George Zimmerman's acquittal of killing unarmed teen Trayvon Martin left Floridians with a bad impression of the state's justice system and laws.

Daily News Clips for July 24, 2013

FEATURED STORIES

Fed must save children from state apathy
Editorial
Tampa Bay Times
The federal government took the only recourse available by finally asking the courts to end Florida’s shameful practice of warehousing disabled children in nursing homes

Cruel and unusual
Editorial
Miami Herald
If the federal government weren’t looking out for the welfare of Florida’s severely disabled children, who would?

Media blitz coming for online health exchange
By Kelli Kennedy
Tampa Tribune
In less than three months, uninsured Floridians will be able to purchase medical insurance online under a new federal health law. Making sure average citizens understand how it works will be a Herculean task accompanied by a massive marketing blitz promoting the biggest expansion of the social safety net since Medicare.

‘Stand your ground’ protesters to pressure governor with weekly mock legislative session
By George Bennett and John Kennedy
Palm Beach Post
Protesters in their second week sitting-in at Gov. Rick Scott’s office said Tuesday they plan to hold a mock special session to heighten attention on a range of issues affecting minority youth.

FLORIDA POLITICS

The Risen Crist
By Neal B. Freeman
National Review
The Honorable Charles Crist has just informed key supporters that he will run for governor next year as a Democrat

Rubio meeting with tea party today
By Alex Leary
Tampa Bay Times
Sen. Marco Rubio later today will face some of his toughest critics: the tea party.

Rubio reconnects with tea party activists
Tampa Tribune
Sen. Marco Rubio is renewing his outreach to tea party supporters and his advocacy for GOP causes as he struggles to repair his image as a conservative standard-bearer.

State GOP should pull ad with teachers' comments
Editorial
Tampa Tribune
Most of us were taught to be polite when we're invited into someone's home. So it's no surprise that finalists in the annual Teacher of the Year competition said nice things about Gov. Rick Scott at a recent gathering in the governor's mansion in Tallahassee.

ENVIRONMENT AND ENERGY

Environmental groups rip federal proposal on regulating water pollution from coal plants
By Bruce Ritchie
The Florida Current
A coalition of environmental groups says stronger federal regulations are needed to protect waterways and fish from discharges from coal-fired power plants including 14 with discharge permits in Florida.

GLBT

Equality Florida urges advocates to hold off on same-sex marriage legal challenges
By Aaron Deslatte
Orlando Sentinel
A coalition of civil-rights groups led by Equality Florida, the ACLU, the National Center for Lesbian Rights and others is planning to eventually challenge the state's 2008 constitutional amendment barring same-sex marriage.

Gay-rights coalition: Now is not the right time to put same-sex marriage on Florida ballot
By Steve Rothaus
Miami Herald
Gay marriage will "be imposed" on Florida by the U.S. Supreme Court before state voters, judges or lawmakers would repeal a 2008 constitutional ban, predicts ACLU of Florida Executive Director Howard Simon.

EDUCATION

Florida may work on its own in creating 'common core' education tests
By Brandon Larrabee
Naples News
The decision by legislative leaders to call for Florida to withdraw from a group of states preparing new tests for student learning has set off a round of battles over the future of Florida’s involvement in the “common core” standards project.

Florida Republican Party Leaders Urge Support For New Education Standards
By John O'Connor
State Impact
Five former Republican Party of Florida leaders have sent out an email asking state GOP members to support new education standards adopted by Florida and 44 other states.

Teachers going to school to learn about Common Core
By Nancy Winckler-Zuniga
St. Augustine Record
Ilea Faircloth wanted a relaxed, energetic atmosphere, so for the moment she kicked off her shoes. It was summer after all.  But for 1,600 teachers gathered at Jacksonville’s Atlantic Coast High School, it was more like the first day of school.

JOBS, BUDGET, AND ECONOMY

Homelessness in Orlando continues to rise
By Scott Maxwell
Orlando Sentinel
Last week, Florida officials celebrated news that the state's homeless population is shrinking.

Scott high on getting Colorado companies to move here
By John Kennedy
Palm Beach Post
Gov. Rick Scott has reached out to another Democratic-led state with a pitch to business owners in Colorado that they move to Florida to bask in what he called the state’s “incredible economic turnaround.

UCF report says state economy to grow faster but won't take off
By Gray Rohrer
The Florida Current
A report released this week by Sean Snaith, director of the Institute for Economic Competitiveness for the University of Central Florida, projects the state economy to grow more rapidly in the next three years, but a robust recovery will still elude the Sunshine State.

HEALTH AND SENIORS

Better healthcare for less money, if you can find it
By Beth Pinsker
Orlando Sentinel
Consumers intrigued by the new model of accountable healthcare - which promises better-coordinated care that could save lots of money - are going to have to actively seek out participating providers.

Who Will Enroll FL Latinos?
Health News Florida
Finding uninsured people and helping them enroll in health plans through the new online marketplace -- set to open Oct. 1 -- will be hard. If they don't speak English, it will likely be harder still.

Deciphering The Health Law’s Subsidies For Premiums
By Julie Appleby
Kaiser Health News
Tax credits to help low- and moderate-income Americans buy health insurance will become available in January under the health law, when for the first time, most people will be required to have coverage or pay a fine.

Senior arcades come back to life in South Florida
By Nick Sortal
South Florida Sun-Sentinel
More than three months after a new state law forced senior arcades into retirement, the low-stakes, adults-only gaming venues are re-emerging across South Florida, with their owners and patrons playing by a new set of rules.

JUSTICE AND THE COURTS

Protesters at Florida Capitol: ‘We stay until we win’
By Kathleen McGrory
Miami Herald
When the young activists known as the Dream Defenders marched into Gov. Rick Scott’s office last week, few observers expected the group to attract much attention.

400 miles from sit-in, Gov. Scott meets with mayors, commissioners in Palm Beach County
By George Bennett
Palm Beach Post
Four hundred miles from sit-in protesters at his office in Tallahassee, Gov. Rick Scott met with some mayors and Palm Beach County commissioners here today and said he’s not planning to return to his office in the capitol this week.

Daily News Clips for July 23, 2013

FEATURED STORIES

Feds sue Florida over 'warehousing' of children in nursing homes
By Carol Marbin Miller and Katia Savchuk
Miami Herald
Florida health care agencies have acted with "deliberate indifference to the suffering" of frail and disabled children by offering parents no "meaningful" choice but to warehouse their children in nursing homes along with elders, the U.S. Department of Justice said in a lawsuit against the state filed Monday.

Do Over for DCF
Editorial
Miami Herald
Gov. Rick Scott has a life-or-death decision ahead as he selects a new leader for the troubled Department of Children & Families. And those whose lives are affected are thousands of Florida’s children at risk of abuse.

Sit-in at Scott's office continues
By James Call
The Florida Current
“If this was easy we would have won by now,” said Gabriel Pendes, a Dream Defenders organizer from Miami, to about 20 people during a training session for the sit-in protest going on over Florida’s "stand your ground" law.

FLORIDA POLITICS

Obama to travel to Jacksonville port for economic development speech
By Mary Ellen Klas
Miami Herald
President Obama will travel to Jacksonville Thursday and deliver remarks at the Port Authority as part of a series of events scheduled to focus on the economy, the White House announced today.

Rubio Shift to Solidify Support Recalls Florida Tenure
By Michael C. Bender
Bloomberg
Marco Rubio took office ready to push for a big policy change. He won support in his chamber, only to watch fellow Republicans on the other side of the Capitol pick apart the measure.

POLITICAL RACES

Big PAC givers to Buchanan
By Jeremy Wallace
Sarasota Herald-Tribune
If you saw my column in Monday's Herald-Tribune, you know U.S. Rep. Vern Buchanan has been on a big fundraising push of late, having raised $800,000 in the first half of 2013 for his re-election.

ENVIRONMENT AND ENERGY

Phosphate giant Mosaic pumps from Florida's aquifer to dilute its pollution
By Craig Pittman, Times Staff Writer
Last year, a state water agency granted the world's largest phosphate mining company a permit to pump up to 70 million gallons of water a day out of the ground for the next 20 years.

State moving along with natural gas rebate program as Florida TaxWatch urges companies to act
By Bruce Ritchie
The Florida Current
The Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services is moving forward with developing rules for a natural gas vehicle rebate program following a bill that passed the Legislature in May.

GLBT

FL Dems political director, Christian Ulvert, ties knot in DC with partner Carlos Andrade
By Marc A.Caputo
Miami Herald
Christian Ulvert, the Florida Democratic Party's new political director, married his partner Carlos Andrade in Washington, DC last week in a ceremony that they couldn't have in their home state.

EDUCATION

PolitiFact Florida: Fact-checking school testing requirements
By Jeffrey S. Solochek
Tampa Bay Times
Florida is in the midst of implementing new, tougher academic standards to make its students more internationally competitive. To do that, the state needs to replace the well-known FCAT with a new set of tests.

PARCC: Florida’s Departure Won’t Sink Next Generation Test
By John O’Connor
State Impact
Florida Legislative leaders left no wiggle room in last week’s letter to Education Commissioner Tony Bennett: They want Florida to pull out of a multi-state partnership developing a next generation standardized test to (mostly) replace the FCAT.

PARCC estimates tests would cost less per student than FCAT; Georgia drops out
By Jeffrey S. Solochek
Tampa Bay Times
When questioning the need to remain in the PARCC testing consortium, House Speaker Will Weatherford and Senate President Don Gaetz referred to concerns over cost.

Broward School Board to vote on renewing deal with K12
By Michael Vasquez
Miami Herald
The Broward School Board is scheduled to vote Tuesday on a one-year contract renewal with K12, a for-profit virtual learning company that has been dogged by complaints from other districts.

Florida gets an F on public school assessment system
Editorial
Bradenton Herald
Standardized testing in Florida's public schools has once again come under withering fire.

JOBS, BUDGET, AND ECONOMY

In casino fight, Orlando tourism leaders raise the specter of unions
By Jason Garcia
Orlando Sentinel
Led by Walt Disney World, the Orlando tourism industry is lobbying hard to prevent the construction of Las Vegas-style casinos in Florida, arguing that the multibillion-dollar resorts would undermine the state's family-friendly reputation.

State Finances Looking Brighter
By Bill Rufty
Lakeland Ledger
A Friday afternoon telephone conference and meeting took place from Tallahassee that probably was little noticed by Floridians, but the result (fingers crossed, everyone) could mean more money in state coffers for the 2014 Legislature to use.

HEALTH AND SENIORS

State says feds lawsuit accusing state of warehousing disabled children is 'disruptive'
By Mary Ellen Klas
Miami Herald
Liz Dudek, secretary of the Agency for Health Care Administration, staunchly defended the state's handling of disabled children in nursing homes on Monday and called the lawsuit filed Monday against the state by the U.S. Department of Justice a "disruptive" lawsuit that is intended to take over "control and operation of Florida's Medicaid and disability programs."

1 ACO Flinches, Another Launches
Health News Florida
JSA Care Partners, a St. Petersburg-based multi-site physician group, was among seven Accountable Care Organizations that are leaving the high-risk “Pioneer” ACO group, federal officials announced last week.

JUSTICE AND THE COURTS

State's refusal to dig at Dozier "a dodge," Sen. Nelson says
By Ben MontgomeryBen Montgomery
Tampa Bay Times
The University of South Florida argued Monday that the state has the authority to allow researchers to excavate graves around a clandestine cemetery at a notorious state-run reform school.

Sen. Nelson rips governor for not exhuming graves at Dozier School for Boys
By Jamal Thalji and Ben Montgomery
Tampa Bay Times
U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson called out Gov. Rick Scott on Monday for saying the state doesn't have the legal standing to allow the exhumation of graves at the infamous Dozier School for Boys.

Poll shows vast racial divide between blacks and whites over Trayvon, Zimmerman, justice system
By Marc A. Caputo
Miami Herald
American public opinion about race, the justice system and George Zimmerman’s shooting of Trayvon Martin are as starkly different as black and white, a new poll shows.

Protesters stand ground in state Capitol, urge special session to undo self-defense law
By John Kennedy
Palm Beach Post
With a sit-in by protesters in Rick Scott’s office entering its second week, the governor Monday sent his top juvenile justice official to meet with those gathered and try to ease tensions roused by the George Zimmerman acquittal.

Daily News Clips for July 22, 2013

FEATURED STORIES

Will George Zimmerman Bring Down a Governor?
By Beth Reinhard
National Journal
Rick Scott couldn’t do much worse among black voters than in 2010, when only six percent backed him for governor.

Gov. Scott skips out on governing
Editorial
Tampa Bay Times
Gov. Rick Scott HAS BEEN missing in action. While the governor spent five days in New York and bounced around the Florida Panhandle and Tampa Bay boasting about bringing new private sector jobs into the state, firestorms were breaking out all over state government.

Stand Your Ground law targeted at Trayvon Martin rally in Miami; about 500 march, hear call for new civil rights movement
By John Lantigua
Palm Beach Post
About 500 people at an impassioned rally in downtown Miami, part of a nationwide day of protest in response to the Trayvon Martin verdict, heard that the time has come for a new civil rights movement.

FLORIDA POLITICS

Rubio: Jesse Jackson's talk of Florida boycott 'outrageous'
By Mike Synan
WOFL Fox 35 Orlando
U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida called Jesse Jackson's talk of a boycott of Florida "outrageous" and "divisive" Friday during a stop in Orlando.

President Obama will visit Jacksonville Thursday
By Andrew Pantaz
The Times-Union
A White House official says President Barack Obama will visit Jacksonville Thursday for an event related to the economy.

POLITICAL RACES

Dems eye taking back Florida where Gov. Scott looks vulnerable
By Michael LaRosa
MSNBC
It’s been more than a decade since Florida has elected a Democratic governor, but party leaders are seeing the next 15 months ahead of the 2014 elections as a chance to oust one of the most unpopular incumbents in the country—Republican Rick Scott.

GOP looks for its racial identity
By William March
Tampa Tribune
Should the Republican Party be the party of white people?

Stand Your Ground for voters: Pols fired up to make it an issue in 2014
By John Kennedy
Palm Beach Post
Florida’s “stand your ground” law has emerged as a powerful political symbol in the wake of the George Zimmerman case, with Democratic-allied activists looking to carry the issue into next year’s elections as a sign of Republican leadership working to oppress minorities.

ENVIRONMENT AND ENERGY

Scott should intervene on key Everglades project
Editorial
Palm Beach Post
A year ago, South Florida had too little water. These days, South Florida has too much water. Worse, South Florida also is saturated with water politics.

Florida legacy campaign, A chance to guarantee water and land protection
Editorial
Sarasota Herald-Tribune
There was a time when protecting and preserving Florida's natural treasures was a proud piece of our state's public policy.

Looming development spells trouble for commuters
By Mike Salinero
Tampa Tribune
More than 1,000 people in Bloomingdale have told county leaders they were surprised and angry to learn a new big box store would be bringing traffic to their neighborhood soon - and angrier still there was nothing they could do about it.

Federal help for sugar industry shows no sign of drying up
By Jonathan Mattise
TCPalm
Given a chance to scale back federal help for the sugar industry, Florida’s congressional lawmakers almost all had the same recent response: No thanks.

GLBT

St. Petersburg politicians increasingly embracing gay community
By Anna M. Phillips
Tampa Bay Times
Down the street from the community center where Mayor Bill Foster recently debated a rival in the city's mayoral race, a half-dozen of his campaign signs stood in the grass next to Georgie's Alibi, a well-known gay bar.

Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen speaks for LGBT youths in proposed Student Non-Discrimination Act
By Steve Rothaus
Miami Herald
As the House of Representatives considers an education bill, Equality Caucus members from both parties pushed to amend the bill to include lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender students.

EDUCATION

Decision to pad school grades shows Bush-Scott split
By Tia Mitchell
Tampa Bay Times
The state Board of Education's decision last week to inflate school grades for a second year was widely praised by parents and educators, but it also exposed a hard-to-miss rift between the closest allies of former Gov. Jeb Bush and those who back Gov. Rick Scott.

School-grade sanity
Editorial
Miami Herald
State Education Commissioner Tony Bennett gets a B+. Based on a task force’s concerns, he recommended that the formula used to calculate letter grades schools receive after their students take high-stakes, standardized tests be revised.

What's in a grade? Plenty for Volusia, Flagler schools
By Linda Trimble & Annie Martin
Daytona Beach News-Journal
The waiting game is on to see how Volusia and Flagler schools will fare on their state report cards this year after Florida schools got a last-minute break for the second year in a row from the scoring rules on the state's highly-touted A-to-F grading system.

Switch to Common Core national reading, math standards alarms some parents
By Dave Weber
Orlando Sentinel
With Common Core standards in reading and math just a year away for Florida schools, some Seminole County parents are questioning the planned switch to the uniform national academic standards for instruction and testing.

Teachers, principals finding new learning standards are anything but common
By Allison Ross
Palm Beach Post
Santaluces High School was abuzz this week with thousands of summer school students getting a few extra lessons before the start of classes this fall.

JOBS, BUDGET, AND ECONOMY

Business groups endorse Internet sales tax legislation
By Tia Mitchell
Tampa Bay Times
The Florida Chamber of Commerce, Florida Retail Federation, Associated Industries of Florida and Florida TaxWatch have banded together to endorse closing the online sales tax loophole.

Study touts Internet tax gains
By Lloyd Dunkelberger
Sarasota Herald-Tribune
In the latest move to generate support for an Internet sales tax, business groups are touting a national economic study that shows Florida could gain some 107,000 new jobs over the next decade if the tax advantage that out-of-state retailers now enjoy is eliminated.

Jobless rate in Metro Orlando up to 6.9 percent
By Jim Stratton
Orlando Sentinel
Unemployment in Metro Orlando rose to 6.9 percent in June, as the region lost about 4,600 jobs and the number of people reporting they were unemployed – calculated from a separate survey – rose by about 3,800, state officials reported Friday.

State lawmaker finds living off minimum wage is barely living
By Frank Cerabino
Palm Beach Post
“So what’s for dinner tonight?” I asked.  “I’m looking at that box of cereal again,” said state Sen. Dwight Bullard, D-Miami, who was seeing what it was like last week to live on the minimum wage.

HEALTH AND SENIORS

Answers to Obamacare questions
By William E. Gibson
Orlando Sentinel
With major provisions of Obamacare less than six months from kicking in, millions in Florida already are seeing some benefits, yet questions remain about its full impact on consumers and their pocketbooks.

U.S. relaxes health law income, insurance status rule for exchanges
By David Morgan
Reuters
Days after delaying health insurance requirements for employers, the Obama administration has decided to roll back requirements for new state online insurance marketplaces to verify the income and health coverage status of people who apply for subsidized coverage.

Miami docs are employing cost cutting model spawned by Affordable Care Act
By Mary Ellen Klas
Miami Herald
Patient Robert JAfter suffering two heart attacks within one month in 1997, Robert Rivera sees a cardiologist regularly, and a nephrologist for an unrelated kidney disorder.

HCA chain to buy three Tampa Bay hospitals
By Letitia Stein
Tampa Bay Times
The nation's largest for-profit hospital chain, HCA, announced Thursday it is buying three Tampa Bay hospitals — Palms of Pasadena Hospital, Memorial Hospital of Tampa and Town & Country Hospital.

IMMIGRATION, CIVIL RIGHTS AND SOCIAL ISSUES

Sit-in demonstration in Florida Capitol enters fifth day
By Kathleen McGrory
Miami Herald
Despite steady rain, three dozen people showed up outside the Florida Capitol on Saturday to show support for the Dream Defenders, a group of young activists who continued their five-day long occupation of Gov. Rick Scott's office.

House Republicans must deal with immigration
Editorial
Tampa Bay Times
By now, the House should have passed the Senate's immigration reforms and President Barack Obama should have signed the legislation into law.

Why did four children the state knew about die within three months?
Editorial
Palm Beach Post
When Sen. Eleanor Sobel, D-Hollywood, holds a hearing in September on how four children known to the Department of Children and Families died in three months, former DCF Secretary David Wilkins won’t be there to explain why state workers failed those children.

JUSTICE AND THE COURTS

As its Capitol vigil continues, Dream Defenders gain allies
By Michael Van Sickler
Tampa Bay Times
Dream Defenders, a statewide group of college students and young professionals that met Thursday night with Gov. Rick Scott, won’t be abandoned as they continue to push for a special session to end racial profiling, said Adora Obi Nweze, president of the Florida State Conference of the NAACP during a Friday rally at the Capitol.

Let's talk "stand your ground" law and its flaws
By John Romano
Tampa Bay Times
If reasonable doubt is the threshold, then consider it reached.  You can believe wholeheartedly in the Second Amendment and still have reasonable doubts about Florida's self-defense laws.

Hundreds rally for Trayvon Martin
By John Woodrow Cox and Keeley Sheehan
Tampa Bay Times
The girl in braided pigtails, her bright eyes wandering, led the marchers up Third Street S in St. Petersburg.

Trayvon’s father decries ‘senseless violence’ at Miami rally
By Marc Caputo, David Smiley and Kathleen McGrory
Miami Herald
Demonstrators rallied in about 100 U.S. cities Saturday, chanting, singing, sign-waving, and demanding justice in the shooting death of Miami Gardens teenager Trayvon Martin.