Judging from Justices’ questions, the legislators’ case to force the governor to accept $2.4 billion in federal funding for the bullet train looked slim after Thursday’s arguments before the high court.
Florida Legislature
Senators Against “King” Scott Face Off at Florida Supreme Court Over High-Speed Rail
Set for 3 p.m. Thursday, the Florida Supreme Court showdown over $2.4 billion in federal money underscores the divide between Gov. Rick Scott and the Republican-dominated Legislature ahead of next week’s legislative session.
Florida Department of Health Would Cut 1,600 Jobs and Move Out of Primary Care
The plan doubles the original estimate of job losses at the department. Of those jobs, almost 1,050 would be outsourced or privatized, for budget reductions of $185 million.
Senators File Supreme Court Challenge To Gov. Scott’s $2.4 Billion Rail Spurn
The central Florida senators–one Republican, one Democrat–say Scott had no authority to cancel an act of the Legislature and cash appropriations former Gov. Crist had already approved for the $2.4 billion Orlando-Tampa high-speed rail link.
Florida’s Drug Database Targeted for Destruction as Lawmakers Swallow Pill Mills
Florida’s drug database, even if caopable of fighting pill mills, is “Big Brother” to Rob Schenck, Republican House Health and Human Services Chairman. Others are joining him to do away with the drug database.
Florida Pension Redo: Rank and File Would Contribute 2%, Management and Elected 4%
Gov. Rick Scott is backing a proposal that would have all county, school and state workers contributed 5 Percent of their pay to the state pension system. A new proposal would bump that down to a maximum of 4 percent.
Severe, $3.5 Million in School Cuts on the Way: 40 Teachers, Shorter Days, Shorter Calendar
The Flagler County School Board agreed to the cuts today, the result of federal stimulus aid running out and Gov. Rick Scott’s proposed cuts to the education budget. Many of the cuts must be negotiated with the unions.
Florida to Jobless: Tough Luck.
Benefits To be Cut. Businesses To Get a Bye.
Driven by Florida businesses, the Legislature is preparing to cut eligibility for the jobless and making it harder to claim benefits. Flagler’s unemployment rate is hovering around 16%, Florida’s around 12%.
Cops Recoil Over Florida Pension Reforms; Deferred Retirement (DROP) Slated to End
Senate plans introduced Wednesday would replace traditional state pension plans with 401(k)-style systems, and would end the deferred retirement option plan known as DROP.
Despite Potential for 14,000 Jobs, Scott Rejects $2.4 Billion in High-Speed Rail Money
SunRail in Volusia and the passenger rail line between Jacksonville and Miami are also in jeopardy as Gov. Rick Scott announces focus on roads and seaports.
Medicaid Changes For 2.9 Million Floridians: Fewer Choices, More HMOs
A Florida Senate proposal would vastly increase the role of managed care in Florida’s $20 billion Medicaid program, and pull out of the federal system if the federal government doesn’t approve it.
More Charter Schools, Less District Oversight: Where Rick Scott and Jeb Bush Merge
Gov. Rick Scott and former Gov. Jeb Bush’s education foundation are teaming up for a concerted push to open more charter schools while reducing or eliminating local school district approval and oversight, among other plans under the school “choice” umbrella.
Premature Celebrations: Scott Silent on Park Closures. Legislature May Still Ax Some.
State parks such as Washington Oaks Gardens appear to have been spared closure in Gov. Rick Scott’s budget, but they’re far from safe as the Legislature begins to look for ways to close a $4 billion deficit.
So Much for Pill-Mill Policing: Citing Privacy, Florida Verges Away From Abusers’ Database
The matter is of immediate relevance in Flagler County, where local governments passed ordinances imposing moratoriums on new pain clinics while awaiting stronger state regulations. The state’s direction would effectively invalidate the moratoriums’ justification.
Skipping Specifics, Scott Calls for $5 billion in Spending Cuts, $4 Billion in Tax Cuts
Gov. Rick Scott today unveiled to a tea party crowd a budget that would cut an unprecedented $5 billion and provide for $4 billion in tax cuts, $1.4 billion of which in property taxes. Scott’s details are few.
Florida’s Broke, But It’s Refusing a $1 Million Health Insurance Oversight Grant Anyway
Insurance Commissioner Kevin McCarty forfeit a $1 million federal grant that was supposed to go toward beefing up oversight of health-insurance rates.
Flanked by Tea Party, Rick Scott Will Unveil State Budget in Central Florida Monday
As tea party activists gather from Central Florida to Eustis, Gov. Rick Scott’s budget unveiling Monday will have the feel of political rally as he attempts to close a nearly $4 billion hole while still proposing tax cuts.
Washington Oaks Gardens and Bulow Ruins Among 53 State Parks That Would Close
Similar proposals have been made before, but the state must close a $3.6 billion budget gap, and Gov. Rick Scott is not as friendly to the environment as Charlie Crist was.
Unconstitutional Mandate: Florida Judge Calls for Repeal of Entire Health Care Law
Though Florida Federal District Judge Roger Vinson termed his ruling “reluctant,” he also ruled that the private insurance mandate is so intricately tied to the the law that the entire law must be repealed.
Pill Mill Regulation Price Tag in Florida: $65 Million; Medicine Board Approves New Rules
The $65 million cost of the proposed pill mill rules would be due to urine test requirements on patients and other minor costs that would be spread out among 1,300 pain management clinics and tens of thousands of patients.
Legislators Bash Pill Mill Crackdown Delays They — and Gov. Rick Scott — Provoked
Florida senators are complaining about the state department of health’s slow implementation of pill mill crackdowns. But the Legislature and Gov. Rick Scott are to blame for the delays.
FPL’s Bogus $1.25 Billion Rate Increase: Ex-PSC Commissioner Nathan Skop Tells All
The Florida Public Service Commission was right to turn down all but million of FPL’s rate-increase request last year, former commissioner Nathan Skop says
Floridians, Start Your Orwells: Rick Scott’s Buzzword-Assault on State Health Care
Judging from a 68-page transition team report, Rick Scott will seek to accelerate privatization of state health services. He has a willing audience among business-friendly Republican legislative leaders.
How Sheriff Fleming and FDLE Are Manipulating Press and Public Over Pill Mills
Sheriff Don Fleming on Tuesday led one of of three simultaneous news conferences on prescription-drug related arrests in 10 northeast Florida counties. It was more hype than news, much of it recycled.
Half of Flagler’s Legislative Delegation Listens to Local Pleas Without Quite Hearing Them
Sen. John Thrasher and State Rep. Fred Costello listened to 90 minutes of pleas and policy suggestions from Flagler County officials Wednesday in Bunnell. Whether they heard anything is debatable. And two of Flagler’s legislators didn’t show up.
Turnout Strategy: Florida’s War on Federal Health Care Reform Targets 2012 Ballot
Florida Senate Republicans approved a proposed constitutional amendment that would exempt Floridians from following federal health care reform mandates. The 2012 ballot measure is intended to bring out anti-Obama voters.
To Ban Texting While Driving in Florida: Ormond Beach Lawmaker Will Try Again
Such bans have failed repeatedly in previous years. Sen. Evelyn Lynn, the Ormond Beach Republican, hopes Florida will be the 31st state this year to ban texting and other such uses of cell phones while driving.
State DOT Unveils Its Priority List for Flagler, Riling Commissoners Over Matanzas Overpass
Long-sought dollars to help build the Matanzas interchange at I-95 made the list, at Number 2, but not before 2014, and only for the design phase of the project–which would be done by then, the county argues.
How Rick Scott Bought the Election
Rick Scott spent more than $60 million of his own money, and drew on a slew of health care industries through a front called the “Let’s Get to Work” committee.
Your Papers Please: Arizona-Style Immigrant-Profiling Law Introduced in Florida
It’s already routine in Flagler: cops ask passengers in a car for their papers even if the vehicle isn’t involved in a crime. A proposed law would formalize the process and slap $100 fines on immigrants without papers.
Deceptive Calm: Flagler and Florida Spared 3rd-Busiest Hurricane Season on Record
The calm is deceptive: Florida has done nothing to reduce its colossal property-insurance exposure. To the contrary. Builders are increasingly encouraged to build anywhere to reverse the effects of the real estate crash.
Dismantled or Reorganized, It May Be the End of the Department of Health As We Know It
The state Department of Health is facing a reorganization–and possibly a dismantling–that may affect the way local departments of health are run, and the diseases they keep track of.
Swelled by Supermajority, Florida GOP Signals First Assault Victim: Medicaid
A quick special session in Tallahassee would provide $9.7 million for Gainesville’s Shands teaching hospital and lay down markers on overhauling medicaid, the health care program for the poor. One idea: forcing all beneficiaries to enroll in managed care.
In Florida, Endangered Democrats Will Approach Extinction Status on Election Day
The map is set to go redder in Florida Tuesday evening as one-term Democrats like Kosmas and Grayson lose and the Legislature edges further right. Sink-Scott is the only drama.
Health Care Deformed: Florida’s Incoming House Speaker Defies Federal Law
With no apparent authority from the Legislature or the courts, incoming Florida House Speaker Dean Cannon is aiming to scuttle state agencies’ enactment of federal health care reform laws and regulations.
Governing Divide: Nurses Are for Sink, Doctors Are for Scott, Voters Still on Mars
The GOP’s Rick Scott snubbed the Florida Nurses Association, Democrat Sink visited in person. For doctors, Scott would take a hatchet to malpractice lawsuits–doctors’ overriding wish.
Election Primer: Amendments 5 and 6 Pit Power Against Voters in Redistricting
Florida’s proposed Amendments 5 and 6 would diminish the power of incumbents and legislative majorities to pick their own voters when they draw up voting districts every 10 years.
Why Republicans Are Listed First All Over Flagler’s Nov. 2 Ballot (It’s Not a Conspiracy)
Being listed first does matter in local races, especially in non-partisan ones, as lazy or uninformed voters tend to go for the first choice they’re presented.
The Live Wire, Tuesday, Oct. 12: Pink Boots Lenny Keeps His Job, Hiaasen on Amendment 4
Palm Coast’s Breast Cancer Awareness man of the week, Lenny Grocki, was not fired; Carl Hiaasen speaks truth to Amendment 4 detractors; Wall Street continues to rake it in, and much more.
Abu Ghraib Brutality in Florida’s Youth Prisons: Suit Charges Rape and Other Abuses
A class-action law suit against a private Florida juvenile prion contractor claims children were physically abused, forced to have sex with counselors, and kept from seeing lawyers.
The Live Wire, Monday, Oct. 11: A Nate Update, St. Pete Goes for Crist, Plus Yukon Gold
The latest on 7-year-old Nate in ICU; St. Pete Times Goes for Crist, Everglades’ sugardaddy deal goes through, Amendment 4 and sex offender hysteria, plus the Yukon, SNL at 35 and Art Blakey at 91 and more.
Bill Proctor and Doug Courtney Struggle To Out-No Each Other In Florida House Race
In the race for the Florida Legislature seat closest to Flagler residents, Republican incumbent Bill Proctor of St. Augustine is facing perennial candidate and Democrat Doug Courtney of Palm Coast.
The Live Wire, Oct. 6: Ormond’s Bikini Grab, Sink and Scott Neck, Grayson’s Times
Ormond Beach annexes the Cheaters’ strip club property, suspended for being black in middle school, oil drilling ban may make it to the 2012 ballot, and more.
Palm Coast Consistently Beating Florida As Taxable Sales Indicators Continue to Improve
Tourism and retail sales, and fewer people traveling elsewhere to buy goods, are keeping Palm Coast’s taxable sales among the most-improved in the state, compared with 2009.
Past Tea Party Bluster, Commissioners Eulogize Budget Season and Put Wailers On Notice
The tea party’s local version of budget oversight proved more noise than substance as county commissioners concluded a nearly half-year-long budget season with cautious positioning ahead of next year’s.
The Live Wire, September 23: Taj Mahals, Obama Shake-Ups and Gay Santas
Marco Rubio as Taj Mahal pasha, Mainland Coach Maronto resigns, police brutality on the elderly in Orlando, Harvey Firestein as gay Santa, septic tank emanations, Philip Roth on suicide, and more.
The Other Tax Referendum: School District Battles Misperceptions to Preserve Levy
What looks like a new school tax on the Nov. 2 ballot is, in fact, the continuation of a tax property owners have been paying all along. The school district still has a battle on its hand to convince voters.
State’s Small-Government Plan to Scale Back Food Inspections at Child Cares Backfires
Weeks after a new state law removed Florida Department of Health inspectors from child-care centers in hopes of saving money, they’ve quietly been welcomed back into a few centers, with more to come.
The Live Wire: September 16, 2010
8 p.m. Update Live coverage of the Flagler Beach City Commission’s discussion on its next manager. Also: Competing congregations in Flagler Beach, but no demonstrations. Attention fired Bunnell cops: the Border Patrol is hiring. Florida is redistricting. NASA is going nowhere fast. Florida’s Energy Star program is hostage to GOP games. And more.
15 Palm Coast Residents Arrested in Oxycodone Bust; State System to Tackle Abuse Is On Hold
All 15 men and women arrested in the prescription-drug bust are from Palm Coast. Three are still at large. A system designed to reduce prescription-drug abuse is on hold.