The complicated new voter-purge process comes after supervisors scrapped last year’s non-citizen purge — the brainchild of Gov. Scott — after learning that many of the voters flagged by matching the state’s voter registration database and driver’s license records were naturalized citizens. More than half of the voters on the list were minorities.
Ron DeSantis
Texting-While-Driving Ban Goes in Effect as Do Food Stamps Limits and Other New Laws
An attempt to curb motorists from texting while driving goes into effect Tuesday, along with laws that put limits on funeral protests, late-night massages and the use of tax dollars at strip joints and liquor stores.
A Republican Abandons Rick Scott: Paula Dockery and Florida’s Fraying GOP
Democrats now look like a party united compared to the Republicans, Cary McMullen argues, as Paula Docker, one of Florida’s increasingly endangered moderate Republicans, announces her desertion of Gov. Rick Scott’s campaign for re-election.
Gov. Scott Defends Exiting Common Core Testing In Face of Criticism and Fact-Checks
Scott did not say specifically how he thought tests developed through a state-led initiative could be an instrument of federal intrusion, or cite an example of federal intrusion, as he defended his order to move Florida away from the Common Core testing consortium.
Gubernatorial Crist-al Clearing: There Will Be No Sink-Scott Rematch
Ending months of speculation, former Florida Chief Financial Officer Alex Sink said Friday she will not run for governor against incumbent Republican Rick Scott in 2014, further fueling “will he or won’t he” chatter about Democrat Charlie Crist.
FDLE Lays Down Florida Capitol Garrison Rule to Avoid Repeat of Summer Protests
Under the proposal by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, members of the public would be expected to leave the Capitol building by 5 p.m. each weekday or within 30 minutes of the end of public meetings. Capitol police could arrest for trespassing anyone who didn’t leave when they were told.
Sen. Dorothy Hukill Proposes Cutting Sales Tax on Commercial Rental Property to 5%
Senate Finance and Tax Chairwoman Dorothy Hukill of Port Orange’s proposal could cut $250 million a year from state revenue. Business leaders want the tax, currently at 6%, eliminated altogether as Gov. Rick Scott travels the state on a tax-cutting tour.
Resisting Obamacare, Florida Becomes National Aberration as Scott Battles Sebelius
Florida officials are callous and secretive, willing to keep information from citizens that could save their lives, according to the Obama administration’s top health official., while Gov. Rick Scott and other state officials are ramping up their attack on the federal online Marketplace and the “Navigators” who will help the uninsured use it to enroll in a health plan for 2014.
Pam Stewart Appointed Education Commissioner Amid Common Core Strife
Pam Stewart’s appointment came amid jockeying over the future of education in Florida and rumors that Gov. Rick Scott will soon issue an executive order on schools, possibly dealing with whether the state will go along with a common-core related multi-state test aimed at measuring new, national standards for learning.
Flagler Health Department Chief Defends Ban on Navigators, Citing Privacy and Logistics
Flagler County Health Department Director Patrick Johnson defended the state’s controversial ban from DOH property against outreach workers called Navigators, who help uninsured people sign up for subsidized health coverage under Obamacare–a law Florida officials have actively and chronically obstructed.