A six-pack of noteworthy tidbits from this week’s news:
- Open government watch: Lawmakers poked some more holes in Florida public records laws this year, but this year’s rollback of open government requirements was “about average” compared to previous years. Gov. Rick Scott, not exactly known for being a champion of open government, did put the kibosh on one of those measures.
- SunRail watch: Now that Scott has jumped on board, Congressman John Mica may have to convince his Republican colleagues to keep allocating money to the project.
- Growth management watch: A somewhat old bit of news that hasn’t gotten much attention:
The agency that was responsible for Florida’s growth management wants to drop out of a big fight over rock mining in eastern Lee County.
The move could trigger a more sweeping legal battle to get the state’s new growth-management overhaul overturned in court.
- Hitler watch: Times like these call for a different kind of Independence Day greeting. At least Adam Hasner thinks so:
Today, our nation is being driven deliberately toward a future unworthy of our past.
…
On July 4, 1941, as Hitler’s Reich spread its influence across Europe, President Roosevelt used a radio address to proclaim the Fourth of July holiday as an example to the world in its fight for freedom. President Roosevelt said, “several new practices of tyranny have been making such headway that the fundamentals of 1776 are being struck down abroad, and definitely, they are threatened here.”
Nearly five months to the day later, the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor. Despite the challenges, a generation of Americans would answer the call to save America, and the world, from a dark future under the control of brutal empires and savage dictators.
Today, the biggest threat to our liberty is not a foreign government, but our own.
This coming from the insiders’ favorite to win the GOP nomination in Florida’s United States Senate race. The message is obviously a few days old, but started getting renewed attention from Democrats and supporters of Hasner’s fellow Republican primary contenders after it was posted online by the St. Petersburg Times.
- Number of the day: $1.39 billion — Amount of revenue Florida received from various forms of gambling, including the lottery, last fiscal year, according to the Las Vegas Business Press. That makes us No. 3 in the nation (via).
- Bonus number of the day: 40 percent — Amount by which premiums have been reduced for Florida’s federally managed health insurance pool for people with pre-existing conditions as of July 1. The pools are intended as temporary measures that will be phased out when the federal health reform law takes full effect.
