Florida challenges fed's authority over voting laws
Florida is challenging the federal government's long-standing authority to review and approve new voting laws in five counties in order to protect minority voters from discrimination. The counties -- Hillsborough, Monroe, Collier, Hardee and Hendry -- find themselves at the center of a growing legal battle as the 2012 presidential election unfolds in the nation's largest battleground state. On Tuesday, Secretary of State Kurt Browning asked a federal court to remove the five counties from the voting law preclearance process. At issue is a provision of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, passed when black voters routinely confronted poll taxes, literacy tests and other barriers to voting. Florida's Republican-controlled Legislature last spring approved sweeping changes to Florida's election laws, and four of the most controversial provisions remain suspended in the five affected counties pending the federal review. [Source: St. Petersburg Times]
 Jordan Raynor, Vice president, media and public affairs / Engage — Tampa |
Social media for political junkies
Florida entrepreneurs are making tools to help political junkies track their favorite candidates, and help candidates track their followers. Take Jordan Raynor, for example. He's VP of media and public affairs for Engage in Tampa. The next big wave in social media politics, says Raynor, will be using data from platforms like Facebook to inspire supporters to take more action on a candidate's behalf. Engage's Multiply allows campaigns to extract data from Facebook accounts so they can, for example, measure who their biggest supporters are. Read more about Raynor and other tech entreprenueurs here. [Source: Florida Trend]
Electric utilities back state's challenge of federal air pollution rules
Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi has joined 24 other states in challenging proposed federal air pollution standards. And now some local power companies are now backing the move. The federal EPA was set to enact its first-ever national standards for mercury emissions from coal and oil-fired power plants. Florida's generators would have had to reduce their emissions of nitrogen oxides, or ozone. Long-term exposure to ozone has been shown to increase respiratory illnesses and deaths. [Source: WUSF]
131,000 unemployed Florida workers face cutoff of benefits in January
Nearly 2 million jobless Americans, including 131,000 in Florida, face a cutoff in unemployment payments at year's end unless Congress approves another round of extended benefits, according to a report released Tuesday. The National Employment Law Project, an advocacy group for low-wage workers, issued the analysis to spur support for continuing the federal program of extended unemployment insurance, which is due to expire Dec. 31. "For millions of out-of-work Americans hanging on by a thread, unemployment insurance is the only thing preventing a free fall into destitution and despair," NELP executive director Christine Owens said in a statement. The picture isn't rosy however, because a divided Congress has shown little drive toward passing another round of extended benefits amid a strong, cost-cutting climate. [Source: St. Petersburg Times]
Beneficial bacteria can help keep Florida coral healthy
Bacteria that could potentially help corals resist the devastating disease white pox have been found by researchers at the University of Florida and Mote Marine Laboratory. The findings could help maintain the health of Florida's coral reefs, which bring in billions of dollars to the state annually and are important for tourism, fisheries, shoreline protection and pharmaceutical research. White pox is caused by Serratia marcescens, a bacterium that commonly occurs in feces of animals and is capable of attacking a variety of animals and plants. [Source: UF]
ALSO AROUND FLORIDA:
› The numbers are in: Florida's Legislature faces budget hole of $1.5B
Gov. Rick Scott and the Florida Legislature face a $1.5 billion revenue shortfall, state economists said Tuesday, complicating a budget picture in which health care and education costs are expected to rise as much as $1 billion.
The new revenue forecast is $600 million lower than state economists projected in March for the 2011-12 budget and $968.3 million lower than predicted for 2012-13.
The culprit, said Amy Baker, director of the Legislature's Economic and Demographic Research, is a state economy that is "more anemic than originally anticipated."
› Florida GOP outraises Democrats by a 5-1 margin
Florida Republicans are outraising their political opponents by 5-to-1.
Campaign finance reports filed on Tuesday show that the Florida Democratic Party raised just $894,445 in cash for the fundraising quarter that ended on Sept. 30. The Republican Party of Florida reported raising $5.51 million in cash.
That's the lowest amount the Democrats have raised since late 2006.
» Related: Gambling, insurance and development groups fuel FL Repubs $5.5m cash haul.
› Opinion: Hardly any welfare recipients use drugs
Here are the latest numbers on Florida's law requiring welfare recipients to pass a drug test because, you know, poor people use drugs. The New York Times reported Tuesday that since July, only 32 applicants for temporary assistance from the state of Florida failed their drug tests, while 7,030 passed. The American Civil Liberties Union happily pointed out that equates to a failure rate of four-tenths of 1 percent.
› Shift workers face a host of challenges
The growth of the service economy, fewer choices in the job market and needs in the family are behind a dramatic spurt in shift workers, particularly among women. "I'm always exhausted," says Tiffany Sebregandio, an emergency room nurse at Memorial Regional Hospital in Hollywood.
Eleven years after starting her nursing career on the night shift, she continues to work 7 p.m. to 7 a.m.
Now, with young two children, Sebregandio often spends her night starting IVs or administering CPR to an accident victim and arrives home just in time to have her 5-year-old daughter tuck her into bed before dad drops her at school. "My sleep pattern is all over the place," she says. "But if I worked the 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. shift, I'd never get to see my kids."
› A super disappointment: Tampa passed over (again) as Arizona picked to host 2015 Super Bowl
For the second year in a row, Tampa Bay has come up short in its efforts to host the Super Bowl again. Instead, National Football League team owners Tuesday chose Glendale, Ariz., near Phoenix, as the site of the 2015 championship during their fall meeting in Houston. As NFL commissioner Roger Goodell announced the decision, the Arizona committee screamed in delight. At the same instant, lunchtime diners at the Press Box sports bar in South Tampa exclaimed, "What?"
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› For Florida Museum, dispute over Romano painting is a boon
For many museums, the prospect of a United States attorney swooping in to seize a painting on loan from a foreign institution on suspicions that it had been looted by the Nazis would be a potential public relations and diplomatic nightmare. For the Mary Brogan Museum of Art and Science in Tallahassee, Fla., it has been a fund-raising opportunity.
In July, Pamela Marsh, the United States attorney for the Northern District of Florida, ordered the Brogan to hold onto a 16th-century painting on loan from an Italian gallery because it might have been stolen from a Jewish family during World War II.
Recognizing a chance to raise its profile and attract donors, the Florida museum trumpeted the news on its Web site with the headline "The Brogan Museum at the Center of International Intrigue."
› Opinion: Florida's failed policies keep economy on ice
While the answer may seem obvious to you, it continues to elude the elected officials in Tallahassee. Because Florida's economy is clearly broken. Yet politicians continue to order up more of the same failed policies that got us into this mess. We must start by realizing that Florida's economy is worse than America's in general. Our unemployment rate alone is significantly higher — 10.7 percent in Florida, compared with 9.1 nationwide. So if you're mad at Washington or Wall Street, you should be downright livid at Tallahassee.
› Marco Rubio, Bill Nelson split ways on jobs vote
Florida's senators split their votes on a proposed $447 billion jobs bill, which failed to get enough votes Tuesday night to move forward in the Senate. Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson voted to continue debate on the jobs package, which also included a tax increase on the wealthy; Sen. Marco Rubio, a Republican, voted against it. The legislation needed 60 votes to come to the floor for debate.
› In Orlando, the daily deals just keep on coming
Online daily deals from Groupon, Groupon Now, LivingSocial and AmazonLocal are hot among Orlando merchants and residents, and the offers are continuing to multiply. Google Offers is preparing to add the City Beautiful to its roster. Dealfind, a popular Canadian daily-deal site, added Orlando to its collection of 20 U.S. cities Friday. Atlanta-based Half Off Depot incorporated Orlando into its list in September. Initiatives such as Drinkbin (for bar discounts), and the Orlando Sentinel's Hot Deals Orlando have jumped into the market as well.