In Flagler County, not a single school saw its grade improve and five fell back a grade, though two maintained their A rating: Indian Trails Middle School and Belle Terre Elementary. Grades would have been worse had the state Board of Education not agreed to artificially prop them up, limiting grade drops to a maximum of one letter grade.
Florida
Back-to-School Tax Holiday Now Includes Computers, Tablets and Electronic Gadgetry
Florida’s back-to-school tax holiday Aug. 2 through Aug. 4 for the first time includes high-tech computer and other electronics as long as each individual item is priced under $750. Retailers are preparing for the demand, in some cases lowering prices to match the benchmark.
Tropical Storm Dorian Graying His Way West But Florida Not Yet in His Picture
Thursday morning Tropical Storm Dorian was closer to its nursery grounds in Africa than to either North or South America, but it was making a beeline west for the northern part of the Antilles, which it is forecast to reach by early next week. It’s too early to speculate about a threat to Florida.
Common Core Here to Stay Despite Heckles by Conservatives, But Testing Questions Remain
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. And it causes complications for Florida education officials, many of whom support common core.
“Anybody But DCF”: Judge Wants Failing Agency Off Child Investigations After 5th Death
On Monday, the department released information about the weekend death of a Homestead child who had earlier come to the attention of child-welfare officials. The death was the fifth such case since May 16 and followed the resignation last week of DCF Secretary David Wilkins, who left amid controversy about his approach to child safety.
Obama in Jacksonville Thursday in Economy Tour as GOP Ridicules Visit
President Barack Obama plans an appearance Thursday in Jacksonville to talk about economic issues, and the Republican Party of Florida has already launched a counter-attack.
Dream Defenders’ Stand Your Ground Standoff at Scott’s Office Continues Into Second Week
Members of the Dream Defenders, a student-led group that has protested at the Capitol since last Tuesday, said they’re busy making plans for the rest of this week and beyond as Scott reiterated Monday, before leaving Tallahassee for an event in southeast Florida, that there will be no special session to review the state’s controversial “stand your ground” law.
Florida’s Self-Insured Not Likely to See Premiums Drop Much as a Result of Obamacare
New York’s announcement last week that insurance premiums would drop 50 percent next year for individuals buying their own coverage in new online marketplaces made good talking points for proponents of the health law, but consumers in most states are unlikely to see similar savings.
Demonstrating and Reporting Outrage Over Zimmerman’s Acquittal Isn’t Overkill. Shooting Trayvon Was.
Marches and other responses to the George Zimmerman trail are focusing needed attention on a culture at times too comfortable with the the paradox of imagining itself past the sort of racially motivated mindsets that made the killing of Trayvon Martin possible, argues Steve Robinson.
‘The Struggle Continues’: Civil Rights Generation Shows Palm Coast How It’s Done in 100-Voice March
Some 100 people, most old enough to have lived through the civil rights era, walked for almost 4 miles on Palm Coast Parkway Saturday morning, singing and showing their solidarity with Trayvon Martin’s family and their opposition to Florida’s stand your ground law. Several had taken part in marches dating back to the 1963 March on Washington.
Obama on Stand Your Ground and Zimmerman Aftermath: “Trayvon Martin Could Have Been Me 35 Years Ago”
As protests have continued and grown, President Obama Friday afternoon spoke on the stand your ground law, the Zimmerman trial aftermath, Trayvon Martin and race more expansively and in more personal terms than he had since his speech on race from Philadelphia as a presidential candidate in 2008. The full text and video are included.
Trayvon Martin Solidarity March in Palm Coast Saturday as Protests Elsewhere Continue
The Saturday morning march in Trayvon Martin’s memory is being organized by Valerie Ottley, a retired Palm Coast resident of 22 years who is herself a neighborhood watch coordinator. The march will start at 8:30 a.m. at Kohl’s on Belle Terre Parkway and follow a course down Palm Coast Parkway to U.S.1 and back.
Flagler’s Unemployment Back in Double Digits While Florida’s Stalls at 7.1%, Mirroring U.S.
Flagler County’s unemployment rate shot back up to 10.2 percent as 830 fewer people had jobs, one of the sharpest drops of the year, though seasonal fluctuations account for much of that drop. Florida added just 2,300 private sector jobs.
Boycott Florida Movement Grows in Protest Of Stand Your Ground and Zimmerman Verdict
The boycott-Florida movement has quickly grown on social media and with such headliners as Stevie Wonder while Gov. Rick Scott and the state’s business groups downplay the effectiveness of the effort, which could nevertheless hurt the state’s tourism and convention business.
Middle School Boy Invokes Stand Your Ground in School Bus Fight With Girl, and Court Agrees
Showing the breadth of Florida’s “stand your ground” law, an appeals court Wednesday said the controversial legal defense can be used by a boy involved in a fight with a girl on a school bus. No weapons were involved. The boy making the stand your ground claim was arrested on a battery charge.
Commissioner to Lobbyist: Milissa Holland Joins Powerful Southern Strategy Group
In a pair of candid interviews, former Flagler County Commissioner Milissa Holland traced her personal and professional trajectories that took her from representing taxpayers in government to representing the special-interest clients of the Southern Strategy Group, one of Florida’s–and the nation’s–most powerful lobbying firms.
Some 600,000 Floridians Getting Rebates from Insurers Not Complying With Health Care Law
Because insurers are overspending on profits and administration instead of medical care, the amount that must be refunded in this state by Aug. 1 tops $54 million. That’s only half of what insurers had to pay in rebates to Floridians last year. Nationally, insurers are refunding $504 million.
Students Stage Sit-In at Gov. Scott’s Office, Demanding Special Session on Florida’s Gun Laws
The students, part of a group called the Dream Defenders, said they’re responding to the “not guilty” verdict in the trial of George Zimmerman, want a special legislative session addressing laws such as Florida’s “stand your ground” self-defense provision they say unfairly affect minority youth.
Fail-Safe: Education Commissioner Recommends Artificial Prop-Up of School Grades
Education Commissioner Tony Bennett will ask the State Board of Education next week to prevent schools from dropping by more than one letter grade on the state report card in an effort to counter what superintendents say could be an alarming drop in grades.
Anxieties Over Profiling and Vigilantism as Bunnell Marchers Protest Zimmerman Verdict
Fewer than two dozen people gathered on South Bacher Street in Bunnell Sunday afternoon for a protest march following the not-guilty verdict in the George Zimmerman trial. The group turned its gathering march into an impromptu town hall on the trial, its meaning and its implications for blacks, whites and gun laws.
Zimmerman’s Gunshine State: White Man’s Verdict, Black Men’s Burden
Zimmerman is a free man, but his legacy should not be that he was “right” to do what he did. He should be viewed as the sad, angry embodiment of the fear and paranoia that would have us believe that owning a gun and using a gun are equal and inseparable rights.
Sheriff: Violence Not Expected in Flagler Reaction to Trayvon Martin Verdict, But Cops Preparing Anyway
As the jury may begin deliberating Friday in George Zimmerman’s murder trial of Trayvon Martin, state and local law enforcement agencies, including Flagler’s police forces, have been coordinating a response to potentially violent reactions to the verdict.
Florida Supreme Court Green-Lights Trial Challenging Fairness of GOP Redistricting
The 5-2 ruling, which fell along common ideological lines on the court, allows a coalition of voting-rights groups to continue trying to prove that the Senate maps drawn in 2012 violate the anti-gerrymandering “Fair Districts” standards added to the Florida Constitution two years earlier.
Florida Lottery Sets Record With $5 Billion In Sales as Gambling’s Attraction Grows
A little more than 62 percent of the money is paid out to winners, while $1.41 billion will go to the Educational Enhancement Trust Fund, though that hasn’t kept local school boards’ budgets from being cut. The voter-approved Lottery grew from $1.8 billion in sales in 1989, its first full year.
Florida Cabinet Trio’s Combined Personal Worth: $9.76 Million
Cabinet members — Chief Financial Officer Jeff Atwater, Attorney General Pam Bondi and Agriculture Commissioner Adam Putnam — are now collectively worth $9,756,748, still a far cry from the $83.8 million Gov. Rick Scott reported last week.
As Democrats Dither, Local Republicans Hail Scott’s 4th Visits to Flagler in 2 Years
It wasn’t long ago that Flagler County Republicans were an embarrassment of internecine warfare as fringes and factions threatened to tear the party apart. Dave Sullivan, chairman of the Republican Executive Committee, has kept the local party cobbled together, capping the achievement with Scott’s visit for a fund-raising dinner this evening. Meanwhile, Democrats continue to be a non-entity.
Florida’s Corporate Step-Up Scheme: 51,075 Students Now Enrolled in Private Schools at Taxpayers’ Expense
Under the program, corporations are allowed to take tax credits for money that they contribute to Step Up for Students, which then uses those funds to essentially provide private-school vouchers.
Downton Abbey Makes Room for Bunnell as City Celebrates Centennial in Lavish Style
Bunnell city commissioners dressed in period costumes, the commission reenacted the very first meeting of the Bunnell Town Council in 2013, and a time capsule was buried, not to be opened until 2063, as Bunnell marked its one hundredth anniversary under a sun borrowed from the days of Genesis.
It Ain’t Texas: Florida Supreme Court Reverses Two Death Sentences, Citing Mental Issues
In two separate decisions that illustrate the fallibility of death sentences, the Florida Supreme Court this week overturned the death sentences of Michael Shellito, 37, and Ralston Davis, 28, ruling in both cases that the murderers’ mental state at the time of the killings should have played a larger role in theirs sentences.
Florida Supreme Court Again Hammers Insurance Industry in Three Rulings
Florida Supreme Court justices ruled against insurance companies and in favor of policyholders and medical providers. The cases divided the court and, ultimately, all had financial implications for insurers and the other parties.
Another Floridian Goon With a Gun
The story of Jerome Hayes’s murder of Fred Turner on I-4 Saturday in a supposed case of “mistaken identity” evokes rage at the case of yet another Floridian hothead–following in the footsteps of George Zimmerman, Jacksonville’s Michael Dunn and Flagler Beach’s Paul Miller– whose temper would not have been an issue had it not been loaded in the chamber of a firearm.
Florida’s Political Scientist:
Five Questions for Susan McManus
Susan MacManus is probably Florida’s most-quoted political scientist. A distinguished professor at the University of South Florida’s Department of Government and International Affairs, she’s also a featured columnist on the Sayfie Review website and a political analyst for Tampa’s WFLA Channel 8.
Panicked About Big Drop, Superintendents Want School Grades Artificially Held Up
Curbing the possible declines in school scores — which would essentially continue a policy from last year allowing the marks to drop no more than a letter grade at each school — was one of several recommendations the superintendents made during a meeting of a task force Commissioner Bennett put together at the request of the State Board of Education.
If You’re Gay, Would Like to Legally Marry and Are Ready to Sue, Equality Florida Wants You
Equality Florida, the state’s the largest civil rights organization dedicated to securing full equality for Florida’s LGBT community, is looking for potential plaintiffs for a lawsuit to challenge Florida’s ban on gay marriage. Voters approved a ban on marriage equality in 2008, by a 62 percent margin.
The Agonizing Over, Gov. Scott Signs Bill to Restrict Gun Buying from Mentally Ill
Gov. Rick Scott defended his support for the Second Amendment as he signed a narrowly-focused firearms bill into law Friday, making it harder for the mentally ill to buy guns. The bill (HB 1355) blocks firearms purchases by some people who voluntarily admit themselves for mental-health treatment.
Florida Supreme Court Rules Against Geico Auto Insurer in Unusual Victory for Consumers
In a blow to the insurance industry, the Florida Supreme Court on Thursday ruled 5-2 that Geico could not require a woman to give a statement under oath as a condition of receiving injury benefits after an auto accident.
Emergency Lawsuit Charges Law Fast-Tracking Death Row Inmates Is Unconstitutional
The suit alleges that the law, which goes in effect July 1, would violate the separation of powers by imposing obligations on lawyers that conflict with judicially-determined rules, and that it would alter the court’s authority to govern capital post-conviction litigation and would violate due process and equal protection.
Florida GOP Rallies Around Marriage Inequality as LGBT Community Mobilizes
Though Floridians rejected gay marriage in a 2008 vote, Florida LGBT activists, fired up by Wednesday’s Supreme Court rulings favoring same-sex unions, said they have no intention of leaving matters as they stand.
Floridians’ Consumer Confidence Hits Post-Recession High as Personal Finances Improve
Stock market gains for the first part of June played a role, while perceptions of current buying conditions are at a post-recession high of 93. The last time it reached this level was April of 2007 when it was 97. Four of the five overall components that make up the index rose while one stayed the same.
Big Sugar Goes to Work for Scott as Reelection Team Hauls $700K While Governor Does Paris
The “Let’s Get to Work” political committee posted $695,447 in contributions from 91 sources during the time Scott was highlighting the state to foreign aviation interests as part of Enterprise Florida’s June 14 to June 21 trade mission to the Paris Air Show.
Aiming to Break GOP Stanglehold on State Offices, Democrats Look Beyond Scott in 2014
Aside from Scott, the state GOP also counts among its elected officials U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio; Attorney General Pam Bondi, Chief Financial Officer Jeff Atwater and Agriculture Commissioner Adam Putnam. Rubio will not be on the ballot in 2014, but all three Cabinet officers will go before voters along with Scott.
With Opposing Gun Lobbies Taking Aim at Him, Gov. Scott Mulls Over Firearm Sales Bill
Gov. Rick Scott is being flooded with calls and emails about a bill that would stop some gun sales, and whichever course he chooses could be risky as he runs for re-election.
Flagler Unemployment Ticks Up to 9.5% and Florida Sees Net Loss of 6,200 Jobs
Flagler County’s and Florida’s jobs picture in May reflected the nation’s as the economy appears to sputter more than to gain momentum, though longer-term trends remain encouraging, including a 2 percent jump in Flagler’s labor force over the month.
Board of Governors Shoots Down Florida College Fee Increases Backed By Students
The most sweeping decision, rejected 3-2, came on a proposal by eight universities to increase the “capital improvement trust fund” fees, or CITF fees, which pay for construction projects approved by university panels that draw at least half their members from the student body.
How Horses Help Patients Cope With Cancer and Other Ailments, Even When Insurers Won’t
It’s not a prescription that a doctor can write. It’s not something insurance will usually pay for. But more patients are finding out how horseback riding, or even just being around the animals, can help them feel better.
Hillsborough Grants Amazon $6.6 Million Gift as Tax Watch Endorses Online Sales Levy
The Hillsborough County Commission is the first of several local communities expected to throw tax-supported incentives at Amazon, as the usually anti-tax Florida TaxWatch declared support for online sales tax collection once Amazon starts doing business from a physical location in Florida.
Hillary Clinton Would Easily Beat Rubio and Bush in Florida as Even Hispanics Rally Behind Her
In the latest Quinnipiac poll, Jeb Bush would beat Joe Biden in Florida, by a close margin. Marco Rubio would beat Biden by an even closer margin. But Hillary Clinton would beat both Rubio or Bush quite easily: 50 to 43 percent against Bush, 53 to 41 percent against Rubio, whose Hispanic heritage would not help him overcome the deficit.
Fearing Another School Grade Collapse Across Florida, Education Board Looks for a Plan
With preliminary calculations showing a possible collapse in the grades for schools across the state, the State Board of Education is asking the Education Commissioner to appoint a task force to examine the test scores used to calculate the grades and avoid another botched rollout.
Scott Makes Up Some Ground Against Crist and Improves Favorability to Still-Low 40%
Some 40 percent of respondents now view Scott favorably, up from 33 percent last March, with 42 percent seeing him negatively. But his best showing since becoming governor is still well below what he needs to overcome deficits against either Charlie Crist or Bill nelson in gubernatorial matchups, while only 35 percent of Floridians overall say Scott deserve a second term.
Federal Government Approves Florida’s Medicaid Overhaul, Shifting Millions to HMOs
The announcement was a victory for Gov. Rick Scott and Republican lawmakers who approved the proposal to move to statewide Medicaid managed care in 2011, amid controversy about whether the changes would best serve the needs of low-income Floridians.