We’re live-blogging this afternoon’s U.S. Senate field hearing on the new voting restrictions approved by state legislatures around the country — including Florida’s — last year. Send me an email with any comments you’ve got, or hit us up on Twitter, and I’ll be sure to post them here. Keep hitting refresh to get the latest.
A study released Thursday shows that wage theft — employers stiffing workers out of money they are owed — remains a widespread problem that affects millions of Floridians, while this week the GOP-sponsored bill that would ban local anti-wage theft ordinances moved forward in a state Senate committee.
A Florida House subcommittee this morning advanced House Bill 421, a measure that would allow those who have obtained a “limited certification for urban landscape commercial fertilizer application” to be exempt from local fertilizer regulations. The bill, sponsored by state Rep. Jimmie Smith, R-Lecanto, has come under fire for taking power away from local communities.
GOP presidential candidate Newt Gingrich accused President Obama of being a “Saul Alinsky radical” who works to “appease the Taliban” at a campaign rally held in a Sarasota airplane hangar today.
The Florida Department of Economic Opportunity reported Friday that the state’s “seasonally adjusted unemployment rate in December 2011 was 9.9 percent,” a drop of 0.1 percent compared with November.
The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee has launched its “Red to Blue” program, which “highlights top Democratic campaigns across the country, and offers them financial, communications, grassroots, and strategic support” and aims to introduce Democratic supporters to new, competitive candidates in order to help expand the fundraising base for these campaigns. One candidate earning a spot in the program is Florida’s own Keith Fitzgerald, the Sarasota Democrat running to unseat Congressman Vern Buchanan.
During this morning’s inaugural meeting of the Everglades Legislative Caucus, former Sen. Bob Graham spoke out against a bill that would privatize the reclaimed water used by utilities.
Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., has announced the details of his subcommittee’s first field hearing into the controversial elections laws passed this year — the event is set to take place in Tampa, Fla., on Fri., Jan. 27. Durbin has also written a letter to Gov. Rick Scott requesting him to testify at the hearing.
An omnibus agriculture bill containing a provision written to stop animal rights activists and food justice advocates from taking pictures of farming operations in Florida passed through an agriculture committee this week.
Tampa Mayor Bob Buckhorn is backing a bill that would privatize the water that is reclaimed by utilities. The legislation, which is sponsored by state Rep. Dana Young, R-Tampa, would essentially redefine reclaimed waters and prohibit water management districts from requiring a permit for their use.
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