Thursday's Daily Pulse

› Pasco school district looks to cut more than 500 jobs [St. Petersburg Times]
About 513 Pasco County school district jobs, including 458 school level positions, are on the chopping block as the School Board looks to cut $54.4 million in next year's budget. The shortfall is slightly less than originally expected because of changes to school district retirement contributions set by lawmakers. The proposed cuts, which were discussed Wednesday morning at a School Board workshop, also include 35 jobs at the district level and 20 positions in self-sufficient departments such as food and nutrition. The savings generated from those cuts — about $27.8 million — would not cover the total shortfall, though. After using some federal Edujobs funds and applying some capital funds toward property insurance costs, a hole of about $5.9 million would remain.

› Ex-appraiser faces fraud charges over failed development [Sarasota Herald-Tribune]
Jay Whitham was willing to give up his appraiser's license for 10 years and pay more than $2,000 in fines and fees for writing a flawed appraisal for the now-defunct First Priority Bank. But the state's Real Estate Appraisal Board was not willing to let the former Sarasota appraiser off that easily. During a February hearing, board chairman Michael Rogers called Whitham's $8.3 million valuation "a bad, bad appraisal." His five-member board then voted unanimously to pursue fraud charges against Whitham. "In my opinion this was a clear indication of someone writing a report to mislead a reader," said Appraisal Board member Joni Herndon at the hearing. The case is significant because it shows that regulators are starting to look hard at appraisers and the role they played in helping unscrupulous investors inflate real estate values and commit mortgage fraud during the real estate boom.

› Bill diverting unemployment funds advances in Congress [South Florida Sun-Sentinel]
A bill voted out of the House Ways and Means Committee on Wednesday would allow states to transfer federal unemployment insurance funds away from helping the long-term jobless and use them instead for other purposes, including tax breaks for corporations. The legislation, dubbed the Jobs Act by its sponsors, Rep. Dave Camp, R-Mich., and Sen. Orrin Hatch, R- Utah, sets the stage to strip away insurance benefits that the long-term unemployed need, earned, and are counting on, says Christine Owens, executive director of the National Employment Law Project, an advocacy group for the unemployed. HR 1745 would allow states to take the $31 billion allocated for these programs and spend those dollars on reducing federal and state unemployment taxes for businesses. It also would allow states to reduce the number of weeks of federally funded benefits, reduce the amounts paid, or eliminate them. One provision would allow a state to take the federal benefit funds and use them to finance its depleted unemployment trust fund rather than collect employer taxes, or use them to pay regular state benefits instead.

› Doctors Express coming to St. Petersburg [St. Petersburg Times]
Doctors Express, a chain of quick clinics for less-than-emergency room injuries that charges about $70 a visit, is setting up shop in the Tampa Bay area. With a clinic opening in June in a remodeled restaurant at 1530 Fourth St. N in St. Petersburg, the Towson, Md., company plans to have three or four locations running on both sides of Tampa Bay within a year. It's yet one more option from a fast-growing cluster of chains looking to win insurance company cost-cutting favor without jeopardizing quality of care. They aim to siphon off the less complicated urgent medical care business — anything as serious as setting broken bones or suturing deep cuts —- from more expensive doctors offices or emergency rooms that routinely cost seven to 10 times as much.

› Amid sea of travel sites, Jacksonville still a market for personal touch [Florida Times-Union]
In the days before widespread Internet use, people often hired local travel agents to arrange a flight to go anywhere for any reason. Today, there are numerous websites that perform much the same service - finding and reserving the best travel and other rates - without an agent's fee. There's Expedia, Travelocity, Orbitz and Priceline, to name a few. Other travelers now opt to buy tickets directly from an airline's website or use numerous airline sites to shop prices. The advent of Internet-based travel booking had a chilling effect on the travel agent industry, but surviving firms have differentiated themselves by emphasizing business travel bookings, said Steve Crandall, owner of Discount Travel Brokerage Services. In addition to booking flights and reserving hotel rooms, rental cars and cruises, today's travel agencies provide services the Internet can't, he said. That includes holding seats or reservations without payment and shifting one's seat assignments, he said.

› Noise law falls victim to lawyer's crusade [St. Petersburg Times]
Tampa Bay can now turn the dials up to 11: An appellate court has declared the state statute allowing police to ticket booming car stereos is unconstitutional and violates the First Amendment. It's another victory for St. Petersburg corporate lawyer Richard Catalano, whose 3 1/2-year fight against the state law prohibiting loud noise started when he got a $73.50 ticket for blasting Justin Timberlake from his white 2003 Infiniti G35. It's a legal battle that's been followed closely by governments across Florida that are battling for peace and quiet, including the city of Tampa, which has been trying to fine-tune its noise ordinance. On Wednesday the 2nd District Court of Appeal in Lakeland — which oversees 14 counties, including Hillsborough, Pinellas and Pasco — ruled that the state's noise statute is unconstitutional. The court decided that the statue is not "content-neutral" — in other words, it decides what noise is and isn't allowed. A candidate has the right to blare political messages from one vehicle, for example, but the booming stereo from another could be considered illegal. "There is no compelling government interest requiring disparate treatment of commercial or political speech vs. amplified music," the court ruled.

› Sarasota County abandons plan to discourage 'pill mills' [Sarasota Herald-Tribune]
Amid concerns the changes would do little to curb the prescription drug epidemic, the County Commission abandoned a controversial plan Wednesday that would have discouraged rogue pain management clinics through new zoning laws. Instead, commissioners will soon explore whether recently passed state legislation regulating the so-called "pill-mills" will be sufficient. Several scrub-clad doctors and nurses told commissioners the proposed zoning changes — such as one that would require pain management clinics to operate a mile away from Interstate 75 — were "silly" and would instead harm those who require prescription drugs for chronic pain. "We see people every day that can barely make it to the grocery store, much less cook their own meals," said Kathleen Burkhart, a representative from a Venice-based pain management clinic run by Powel A. Crosley. "Why do you persecute us like drug dealers, or worse, pedophiles or strip joint owners?" Last week, state lawmakers passed legislation expected to be signed into law that would place strict regulations on pharmacies dispensing prescription drugs and on doctors prescribing them.