January 2017 - Page 14 of 76 - Florida Politics - Campaigns & Elections. Lobbying & Government.

Mitch PerryJanuary 26, 2017

Last September, Governor Rick Scott ordered new public notification rules and legislation to ensure the public is kept informed of incidents of pollution that may cause a threat to public health and to Florida’s air and water resources. He made that announcement following the sewage spill in St. Petersburg and Mosaic’s sinkhole in Mulberry the sent toxins in the drinking-water […]

Mitch PerryJanuary 26, 2017

Members of the Florida House Subcommittee on Children, Families and Seniors heard from five different speakers on Thursday regarding the process by which refugees are resettled in Florida. However, Democrats on the committee only heard from four, as they walked out en masse in disapproval to hear from Mark Krekorian, executive director of the Center for Immigration […]

Scott PowersJanuary 26, 2017

On Friday, the South Florida Regional Transit Authority will consider awarding a deal to run the state’s largest public commuter railroad, Tri-Rail — worth up to $511 million — after tossing all competing bids, including some asking far less money. The SFRTA’s board of trustees is being asked Friday to award Tri-Rail’s operations and maintenance contract, […]

Staff ReportsJanuary 26, 2017

Running out of time for a vote, the chair of the Senate Regulated Industries committee postponed a bill that would repeal the cap on the amount of money tobacco companies have to put up as appellate bonds. On Thursday, committee chair Travis Hutson yanked the bill (SB 100) from the agenda mid-discussion as the hearing’s noon ending […]

Jim RosicaJanuary 26, 2017

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Even though the bill sailed through its first committee, state Sen. Anitere Flores Thursday said she would tweak her “whiskey and Wheaties” legislation to make sure it wouldn’t apply to gas station convenience stores. The Senate Regulated Industries committee cleared the bill (SB 106) to repeal the Prohibition-era state law requiring businesses, such as grocery chains and big-box […]

Michael MolineJanuary 26, 2017

The percentage of the Florida Supreme Court’s caseload still pending after 180 days doubled after the U.S. Supreme Court upended the state’s death penalty system last year, a court representative told a House panel looking into court delays on Thursday. In Hurst v. Florida, the justices in Washington invalidated Florida’s death penalty because the law […]

Florence SnyderJanuary 26, 2017

Naika Venant kept a journal and hoped one day to write a memoir. Instead, her life story will be told by the Miami Herald. Eight of the paper’s most experienced reporters collaborated Tuesday to piece together the last hours of the last chapter of the 14-year-old foster child’s life. But it was old news to […]

Guest AuthorJanuary 26, 2017

Health care continues to be at the center of debate across our nation and in Florida’s State Capitol. At the national level, House Speaker Paul Ryan and Representative Tom Price are vowing to make tort reform a key part of their replacement plan for the Affordable Care Act which is usually referred to as “Obamacare.” […]

Joe HendersonJanuary 26, 2017

Gov. Rick Scott threatened Florida ports with sanctions if they do business with Cuba. He underscored it with a pair of tweets, the first in Spanish: “No podemos tolerar una dictadura brutal en Cuba.” Translation: We cannot tolerate a brutal dictatorship in Cuba. In another tweet, channeling his inner Donald Trump, Gov. Scott noted, “We […]

A.G. GancarskiJanuary 26, 2017

A bill filed Thursday in the Florida Senate would reduce harmful discharges from Lake Okeechobee and increase water storage capacity. Senate Bill 10, filed by Republican Rob Bradley, would bond money backed with Amendment 1 funds to purchase land south of the lake for water storage. Bradley, chairman of the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on the Environment and […]

Month: January 2017

Bill Galvano files “spill bill” strengthening notification requirements

Florida Democrats walk out of committee discussing refugees resettlement

Tri-Rail’s half-billion dollar, single-proposal deal raises questions

Senate postpones tobacco bond cap measure

Anitere Flores: Gas stations will be carved out of ‘whiskey and Wheaties’ bill

House subcommittee looks into state courts’ caseload backlogs

Florida’s children live and die at the crowded corner of Dickens & Orwell, part 2

Wayne W. Oliver: Solution to address health care affordability

Rick Scott cannot condone Cuba’s ‘oppressive behavior.’ What about China’s?

Lake Okeechobee reservoir bill filed in Florida Senate