A six-pack of noteworthy tidbits from this week’s news:

  1. 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 ā€œabout averageā€ 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.
  2. SunRail watch: Now that Scott has jumped on board, Congressman John Mica mayĀ have to convince his Republican colleagues to keep allocating money to the project.
  3. 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.

  4. 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, ā€œseveral 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.ā€

    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.

  5. A number of the day:Ā $1.39 billion — Amount of revenue Florida received from various forms of gambling, including the lottery, last fiscal year, according to theĀ Las Vegas Business Press. That makes us No. 3 in the nationĀ (via).
  6. 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.
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