Month: September 2011

State Sen. Joe Negron, R-Palm City and Senate Majority Leader Andy Gardiner, R-Orlando, issued statements Friday responding to Democratic leader Nan Rich's letter calling for the federal government to reject proposed changes to the state's Medicaid program.

Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla., is now the only statewide elected Democratic official in Florida — meaning he will likely face a stiffer challenge than his opponent in 2006, former Florida Secretary of State Katherine Harris. But a Public Policy Polling survey (.pdf) shows Nelson with solid favorability ratings for an incumbent, though many statewide still don’t know him since he was first elected to the Senate in 1998.

The Florida Eduaction Association filed a lawsuit in Tallahassee today, challenging the constitutinality of Senate Bill 736, approved by the state Legislature and signed by Gov. Rick Scott in March.

South Daytona becomes the latest city to debate whether to back away from a new 30-year franchise agreement with its local utility (in this case Florida Power & Light). Plus: five more bite-sized bits of Florida news!

In a last-minute scramble yesterday, Planned Parenthood's clinic located in Overland Park was granted a license from a Kansas state agency allowing the clinic to continue providing legal abortion services.

Water pollution in the state of Florida might be a major problem for the state's citizens, but a Monday meeting of major stakeholders in the EPA's numeric nutrient criteria — a set of standards to clean up Florida waterways — revealed that industry and agriculture leaders have laid claim to the issue.

The St. Petersburg Times reported this weekend on efforts by researchers at the University of South Florida St. Petersburg to develop generator-sized batteries that can store power from solar panels.

The number of people living with HIV/AIDS that are on Florida's AIDS Drug Assistance Program waiting list has dropped slightly through the month of June.

Daniel Hay Lewis, charged by the Broward Sheriff's Office with criminal transmission of HIV despite the fact that he does not have the virus, is no longer in jail.

An immigration enforcement bill recently signed into law by its governor has triggered threats of boycotts and other forms of protest by groups that led an

The Republican leadership of the Florida legislature yesterday detailed plans to override most of the vetoes by Gov. Charlie Crist that they first announced would be discussed a week and a half ago. Today's agenda features a handful of bills that, if passed, could have large consequences for Florida's environment and the state's ability to regulate industry.

The Obama Administration shifted Bush-era immigration enforcement policy from job site raids and sweeps to deporting undocumented immigrants. In 2009,

According to a recent Kaiser Health Tracking Poll conducted by Public Opinion and Survey Research Program, 66 percent of Americans agree with the federal government's recent decision to include birth control in its list of preventative services.

Would-be GOP presidential nominee Michele Bachmann began her weekend tour of the Sunshine State today, making a late afternoon visit to a sub shop in Jacksonville Beach.

Florida's Catholic bishops repeated their plea for Gov. Rick Scott to call off the execution of Manuel Valle, the subject of Scott's first death warrant.

A women's health clinic in Pensacola, Fla., closed its doors recently after failing to pay its mortgage. Anti-abortion groups are attributing this to a prayer rally that was taking place around the same time outside the clinic.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has awarded Florida about $1.8 million to help the state sign up more children for health insurance.

During a July redistricting hearing in Jacksonville, Fla., Democratic Rep. Corrine Brown called her district the most popular one in the country. Because of its size and shape, Brown's district has taken center stage in Florida's intense fight over gerrymandering.

Gov. Rick Scott defended Florida's decision to not implement federal health care reform in the state in an interview today with C-SPAN.

The Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals today affirmed a lower court ruling that the requirement in the federal health care reform law that individuals buy health insurance or face penalties is unconstitutional. It also upheld the lower court's rejection of an argument by Florida and 25 other states that the law's expansion of Medicaid is coercive to the states.

Hospital corporation HCA warned investors in a Friday filing that reductions in Florida's Medicaid program could cost the company $50 million over the next year.

Rep. Cliff Stearns, R-Ocala, will host a congressional hearing on the economic impact of the EPA's proposed water quality standards next week.

In the confusion that followed Friday's attacks in Oslo, Norway, some observers in America — including one Florida congressman — were quick to point to preliminary reports, which turned out to be inaccurate, that the perpetrator was an Islamic terrorist.