Michael Moline, Author at Florida Politics - Campaigns & Elections. Lobbying & Government.

Michael MolineJanuary 23, 2017

Members of the Senate Committee on Commerce and Tourism couldn’t resist hazing Sen. Kathleen Passidomo before approving her bill to exempt female sanitary products from the sales tax. “I think this is Sen. Passidomo’s first bill” as a member of the committee, Sen. Jack Latvala said of his colleague, a Naples Republican elected to the […]

Michael MolineJanuary 23, 2017

The new head of Enterprise Florida Inc. defended the organization Monday against complaints that it doesn’t raise enough private-sector money, saying a required one-to-one match of public and private dollars applies only to operating expenses. Chris Hart, who became president and CEO just weeks ago, cited the statute that created the economic development organization in […]

Michael MolineJanuary 19, 2017

In a post-truth world, beset by fake news, in which people segregate into information bubbles impenetrable to unfriendly ideas, constitutional scholar Jeffrey Rosen finds inspiration in Louis Brandeis, the late justice of the U.S. Supreme Court. Addressing students Thursday at the Florida State University College of Law, Rosen, president and CEO of the National Constitution […]

Michael MolineJanuary 19, 2017

A state appeal court panel appeared skeptical Thursday of the Office of Insurance Regulation’s arguments that trade-secrets protections don’t exempt State Farm Florida from having to turn over business information for public scrutiny. The judges wondered whether the plain language of the trade-secret exemption in Florida’s public records law doesn’t protect the information at issue […]

Michael MolineJanuary 18, 2017

Proposed reforms to Florida’s continuing care retirement community regulations ran into heavy flak Wednesday during an advisory council meeting, with the body’s president lamenting a breakdown of trust in the Office of Insurance Regulation. Joel Anderson, chairman of the Governor’s Continuing Care Advisory Council, complained that office staff unexpectedly unloaded a 61-page rewrite of the statute governing […]

Michael MolineJanuary 18, 2017

Self-driving cars promise to reshape the country into a more urban, but more humane, place. But we need to make sure the technology serves human needs, rather than adjust ourselves to technology’s demands. That was the word Tuesday evening from Tim Chapin, a professor of urban and regional planning and interim dean of the College […]

Michael MolineJanuary 17, 2017

An intermediate state appeals court refused Monday to let a workers’ compensation claimant introduce a second medical opinion, in a case testing an evidence code provision the Legislature adopted in 2013. Baricko v. Barnett Transportation Inc. turned on the applicability of the Daubert evidentiary standard. The Florida Supreme Court heard arguments in September about whether […]

Michael MolineJanuary 13, 2017

Despite broad consternation over rising workers’ compensation insurance rates, Florida’s market is relatively stable and competitive, according to an analysis released Friday by the Office of Insurance Regulation. The market “is served by a large number of independent insurers and none of the insurers have sufficient market share to exercise any meaningful control over the […]

Michael MolineJanuary 13, 2017

The Campaign to Keep Guns off Campus has added Jacob Elpern, the former chief of its Florida State University chapter, to its lobbying team in Tallahassee. Elpern, who graduated this year, joins the organization’s staff full time, state affairs director Kathryn Grant said. His registration took effect on Dec. 14. Grant also lobbies for the […]

Michael MolineJanuary 12, 2017

Senate Appropriations Chairman Jack Latvala sent a message Thursday to the House leadership: Don’t expect to force the Senate to abide by your strict new budget rules. “We have our own rules in the Senate. We are going to abide by our own rules,” Latvala told reporters following a committee meeting. “I think it would […]

Michael Moline

Tampon tax exemption clears Senate Commerce Committee

Enterprise Florida’s new chief defends the economic development program

Jeffrey Rosen urges law students to channel their inner Louis Brandeis

Court question’s insurance office’s claim to State Farm sales information

Council sees breakdown of trust with Office of Insurance Regulation

FSU “policy pub” chat surveys a future with robot cars

1st DCA rejects challenge to evidence standard in workers’ comp case

Insurance office finds workers’ compensation market stable, competitive

Campaign against guns on campus adds lobbyist

Jack Latvala to House: The Senate makes its own rules

Florida politics had 11 questions before federal qualifying week. Here are the answers.