Florida ballot recommendations: U.S. Congress, Florida State Legislature, Florida State Supreme Court, 11th Judicial Circuit Court, Miami-Dade Questions Early voting for this November’s election begins in Florida this Monday October 24th. Besides the election of the President, there are 40 offices up for vote. The number of offices on your ballot will vary depending on…
Tag: florida
Florida considering weakening restrictions on discharging chemicals in water
The Florida Department of Environmental Protection has proposed revising limits on toxic chemicals that can be released into surface waters, something it’s supposed to do from time to time under the Clean Water Act but hasn’t since the early 1990s. The agency is updating human-health criteria for 43 dangerous chemical compounds it currently regulates and…
TRP News – Progressive News & Information – August 24, 2015 – The Rational Progressive
TRP News with James Andre. This week – can Sanders win the Democratic primary? Do Clinton’s emails really matter? What do you know about the Senate elections? Two states fail to draw legal voting district maps, migrants storm the Macedonian border, and the Koreas exchange artillery fire in the middle of a joint U.S. –…
Florida Among States Undercutting Health Care Enrollment
As many states prepare to introduce a linchpin of the 2010 health care law — the insurance exchanges designed to make health care more affordable — a handful of others are taking the opposite tack: They are complicating enrollment efforts and limiting information about the new program. Chief among them is Florida, where Gov. Rick…
Florida Rep. Wants To Limit Death Penalty Appeals In State With Most Exonerated Death Row Inmates
Like most death penalty states, Florida has a web of state-level appeals processes and additional checks to ensure that every aspect of a case is thoroughly examined before an accused criminal is executed. This system is expensive and often cruel, which is why many death penalty advocates cite extended death row wait times during the…
Scott in a very bad position
40% of Republicans would prefer someone else Scott’s approval rating is just 33%, with 57% of voters disapproving of him. Scott’s numbers had gradually improved over the course of 2012, but these numbers represent a regression from early November when he was at a 37/48 spread. Scott meets with near universal disapproval from Democrats (21/71)…
Florida Gov. Rick Scott Wants A Favor—From Obama
Last June, after the Supreme Court decision making the Medicaid expansion optional for the states, Scott said he won’t take the money. But when Florida hospitals realized Scott’s decision could cost them about $650 million a year in other federal payments, they started lobbying furiously to get him to change his mind. So now,…
Medicaid Cost Estimates Trigger Florida Flap
Florida Gov. Rick Scott’s concerns about the health law’s Medicaid expansion during a meeting Monday with HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius is continuing to draw criticism that he is exaggerating the potential cost. The Associated Press: Fla. Gov. Under Fire For Health Care Cost Estimate Gov. Rick Scott is again facing criticism that he is overstating the potential…
Florida Governor Inflates Cost Of Medicaid Expansion By 2,600% To Avoid Implementing Obamacare
Internal email messages uncovered by Health News Florida reveal that Gov. Rick Scott (R-FL) is knowingly citing inaccurate cost estimates to justify his refusal to expand Florida’s Medicaid program. Though the governor’s office is fully aware that the numbers are wrong, Scott continues to use them anyway, the documents show. Florida, which has one…
Expanding Medicaid Would Save Florida $100 Million Per Year
Obama has won re-election and the health law’s implementation is marching forward, Scott has showed some signs that he may consider softening his stance. And a new report from Georgetown University’s Health Policy Institute could give him even more reason to do, since it concludes that Obamacare’s Medicaid expansion would save Florida about $100 million…
Rick Scott Rejects Health Care Funds That Would Keep Disabled Kids Out of Nursing Homes
Florida’s Republican governor Rick Scott loathes Obamacare so much that he turned down $40 million in federal health care funds that would keep hundreds of disabled kids at home with their parents, rather than warehoused in nursing homes. So says the Department of Justice, whose civil rights division recently investigated the situation in Florida. ABC News…
How’s Medicare Playing In The Florida Senate Race?
News outlets report on how Medicare is shaping the much-watched Florida Senate race as well as how this year’s House candidates that are physicians also tend to be Democrats. Politico: Medicare Shaping Tight Florida Senate Race Rep. Paul Ryan didn’t just inject Medicare smack into the presidential race in swing-state Florida. He also created a new…
In Florida, Registering Voters A Whole New Game
Six months before the presidential election, the Florida ground game is already underway. In political terms, the ground game is the process of mobilizing voters and getting them to the polls. And the first step is registering people to vote. But in Florida this year, there are tough new restrictions on groups that conduct voter…
Rick Scott Drug Testing Executive Order Ruled Unconstitutional By Federal Judge
A federal judge has ruled that Florida Gov. Rick Scott (R) violated the Constitution last year when he ordered drug testing for state government workers. U.S. District Judge Ursula Ungaro ruled on Wednesday that suspicionless drug testing testing for state workers violated the Constitution’s Fourth Amendment ban on unreasonable search and seizure. Scott had suspended…
Rick Scott Vetoes Bill Sending Non-Violent Drug Offenders To Rehab After Serving Half Sentence In Jail
“He said it was a ‘public safety’ issue. No it’s not,” said bill sponsor Sen. Ellyn Bogdanoff (R-Fort Lauderdale) according to the Miami Herald. “These are non-violent drug offenders.” The bill, a rare common sense favorite during a legislative season that saw Scott approve dying animals and Jay-Z lyrics debated on the House floor, was…
Sunshine State Bets On Sunset For Health Care Act
Scott holds that, until the Supreme Court decides the case, the Affordable Care Act is not yet the law of the land. In an interview with member station WUSF in Tampa, Scott says until then, he has no interest in setting up a health care exchange. “All it’s going to do is raise the cost…
New Black Panther Party Offers $10K Bounty For George Zimmerman
Over the weekend, members of the New Black Panther Party showed just how tense the situation in the Trayvon Martin shooting has gotten: They offered a $10,000 bounty for the capture of George Zimmerman, who shot and killed the unarmed teenager. The Orlando Sentinel reports that Mikhail Muhammad announced the reward during a protest on…
DOJ: Florida Voting Restrictions May Discriminate Intentionally
New Florida laws that place harsh restrictions on third-party voter registration groups and limit the early voting period may have been passed with a discriminatory intent, lawyers with the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division suggested in a court filing on Tuesday. DOJ told the court that the federal government’s position was that Florida “has not…
What Everyone Should Know About Trayvon Martin (1995-2012)
On February 26, 2012, a 17-year-old African-American named Trayvon Martin was shot and killed in Sanford, Florida. The shooter was George Zimmerman, a 28-year-old white man. Zimmerman admits killing Martin, but claims he was acting in self-defense. Three weeks after Martin’s death, no arrests have been made and Zimmerman remains free. Here is what everyone…
Florida Republicans’ Plan to Block Out the Sunshine
In their longstanding fight to privatize the state’s prison system—and a lot of other public services—Republican lawmakers in Florida are trying a new angle: doing it in secret. Proposed Committee Bill 7170, introduced Tuesday in the GOP-dominated state legislature, aims to prevent “information relating to the outsourcing or privatization of an agency function” from being reported…