House subcommittee rejects ban on sweets for food stamps

A House panel on Monday defeated a measure that would ban food-stamp users from purchasing sweets, sodas and salty snacks. 

The proposal was part of a controversial bill from Rep. Scott Plakon, R-Longwood, meant to reform the electronic benefit transfer program -- and promote healthy eating.

Critics, however, said government had no business dictating Floridians' grocery lists.

On Monday, Rep. Dana Young, R-Tampa, introduced a pair of amendments that substantially changed the bill. The first removed the ban on sweets, snacks and sodas.

Young's amendment passed unanimously.

"I will definitely come down on the side of us not being big government and telling people exactly what to eat," said Rep. Dennis Baxley, R-Ocala. "Thank God there is still freedom and a fat guy can get a Coke once in a while."

The second amendment eased a proposed ban on EBT purchases at establishments with liquor licenses. Young worried it inadvertently included grocery stores and gas stations, which can also be licensed to sell beer and wine.

That amendment passed, too. Now the ban applies to liquor stores and bottle clubs.

The amended bill passed by a 9-5 vote.

Before the meeting adjourned, Young urged her colleagues to "be mindful" of the fact that the Senate version still has the ban on sweets.

Obama for America launches "Truth Teams"

The Florida branch of Obama for America today announced the launch of its "Truth Teams," which Democratic leaders say were formed to combat lies about President Barack Obama put forth by Republicans during the 2012 campaign.

Florida Democratic Party Chairman Rod Smith said the teams would refute negative adds about Obama, but do not aim to pour more poison into the political atmosphere.

"You can't let things go unanswered, you have to respond," said Smith, standing alongside Rep. Darren Soto, Orlando-D, Rep. Scott Randolph, D-Orlando, and Rep. Alan Williams, D-Tallahassee.

Soto said one aim is to make sure people don't believe the Republican mantra that the economy is still in the dumps.

"We are moving in the right direction," he said.

 

Supreme Court schedules redistricting arguments on Leap Year Day

The Florida Supreme Court has scheduled to hear oral arguments for the Legislature's redistricting maps on Feb. 29, Leap Year Day. (The day is added to the Gregorian calendar every four years to synchronize with the astrological drift.)

Meanwhile, briefs are due from the intervening parties -- from the Legislature to the Florida Democratic Party to the Fair Districts coalition of voters -- by noon Friday. The court will then have to decide by the last day of session whether to accept or reject the Legislative maps.

Another option: the court could accept the maps without prejudice, basically waiting for a legal challenge like the one being pursued by by the Democrats and Fair District opponents to provide the evidence to challenge the maps. Stay tuned.

 

 

Florida Senate roll call vote on anti-privatization 'study'

Here's how members of the Florida Senate voted Monday on an amendment that would have gutted a major prison privatization bill (SB 2038) by replacing it with a study. A yes vote would have effectively killed privatization; a no vote keeps the measure alive. The Senate has 28 Republicans and 12 Democrats.

YES (19)

Oscar Braynon, D-Miami Gardens; Larcenia Bullard, D-Miami; Charlie Dean, R-Inverness; Miguel Diaz de la Portilla, R-Miami; Paula Dockery, R-Lakeland; Greg Evers, R-Baker; Mike Fasano, R-New Port Richey; Audrey Gibson, D-Jacksonville; Arthenia Joyner, D-Tampa; Jack Latvala, R-Clearwater; Gwen Margolis, D-Aventura; Bill Montford, D-Tallahassee; Steve Oelrich, R-Alachua; Nan Rich, D-Weston; Jeremy Ring, D-Margate; Maria Sachs, D-Delray Beach; Chris Smith, D-Fort Lauderdale; Eleanor Sobel, D-Hollywood; Ronda Storms, R-Valrico.

NO (21)

JD Alexander, R-Lake Wales; Thad Altman, R-Melbourne; Lizbeth Benacquisto, R-Wellington; Mike Bennett, R-Bradenton; Ellyn Bogdanoff, R-Fort Lauderdale; Nancy Detert, R-Venice; Anitere Flores, R-Miami; Don Gaetz, R-Niceville; Rene Garcia, R-Hialeah; Andy Gardiner, R-Orlando; Mike Haridopolos, R-Merritt Island; Alan Hays, R-Umatilla; Dennis Jones, R-Seminole; Evelyn Lynn, R-Ormond Beach; Joe Negron, R-Stuart; Jim Norman, R-Tampa; Garrett Richter, R-Naples; David Simmons, R-Altamonte Springs; Gary Siplin, D-Orlando; John Thrasher, R-St. Augustine; Steve Wise, R-Jacksonville. -- Steve Bousquet

Connie Mack talks ‘thugocrats,’ touts top congressional support in Hialeah

Bashing the “thugocrats” in Venezuela and Cuba, U.S. Senate candidate Connie Mack touted the support of Miami-Dade’s Cuban-American congressional representatives Monday in a speech that highlighted his foreign-policy chops.

Mack, a Republican Fort Myers congressman and House Committee on Foreign Affairs member, suggested the Obama Administration wasn’t backing its allies as Venezuelan strongman Hugo Chavez expands his influence in Latin America.

“We can no longer have a government that tends to side with our enemies and turns our back on our allies,” Mack said.

U.S. Representatives Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, David Rivera and Mario Diaz Balart echoed the sentiment when they officially endorsed him at Chico’s Restaurant in Hialeah. Also in support: former U.S. Rep. Lincoln Diaz Balart.

The support of the four Miami-Dade powerbrokers is crucial in the state’s largest Republican County, where nearly two-thirds of the registered Republicans are Hispanic.

Mack, leading in the polls, faces former Sen. George LeMieux and businessman Mike McCalister in the Republican primary. They seek to unseat incumbent Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson, whom Mack often describes as a “lockstep liberal” for his support of Obama’s policies.

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/02/13/2639780/connie-mack-talks-thugocrats-touts.html#storylink=cpy

Story here

Prison privatization alive in Senate -- but just barely

A tense and divided state Senate voted 21-19 on Monday to keep a controversial prison privatization plan alive.

The vote was on a so-called killer amendment by Sen. Mike Fasano, R-New Port Richey, that would have substituted a study of privatization for the actual privatization of 27 prisons and work camps in 18 South Florida counties. Fasano's amendment would have gutted the bill (SB 2038).

The vote followed more than two hours of questions and debate. Backers emphasized the cost savings, at a minimum of $16.5 million the first year, which they said would boost education and health spending. Opponents argued that cost savings are unreliable and that public safety is too basic a government service to be outsourced to profit-making companies.

Eight Republicans joined 11 Democrats in supporting Fasano's amendment. One anti-privatization senator voted against the study: Sen. Dennis Jones, R-Seminole. He remained silent throughout the debate, but voted against the bill in a key committee two weeks ago.

A privatization supporter, Sen. Mike Bennett, R-Bradenton, noted that the bill would require private prisons to be run at a 7 percent cost savings compared to state prisons. "If they don't perform, we don't pay them. It doesn't get any better than that."

At one point, Sen. Paula Dockery, R-Lakeland, an outspoken opponent of prison privatization, faced Sen. JD Alexander, R-Lake Wales, a leading supporter, and said: "I've asked you for a document showing the savings and you haven't presented it to me." --Steve Bousquet

House Democrats urge Speaker to move on Brody, Dillon claims bills

They were the first bills heard on the Senate floor back when the 2012 Session kicked off on Jan. 10, but measures that would pay a South Florida man injured by a speeding cop and a Brevard County man wrongfully jailed for 27 years haven't made a peep in the House.

Curious about the delay, House Democrats have sent a letter to speaker Dean Cannon, R-Winter Park and Rep. Eric Eisnaugle, R-Orlando, urging them to set the claims bill for committee hearings as soon as possible.

House minority leader Rep. Ron Saunders, D-Key West, penned the letter on Monday, urging House leadership to move on the bills, which would allow Eric Brody, of Sunrise, to collect a $10.8 million settlement and William Dillon, of Brevard County, to collect $1.35 million.

"As President Haridopolos has repeatedly stated: The fate of these important pieces of legislation rest in the hands of House Republican leaders," Saunders wrote. "I encourage your urgent consideration of this request."

Miami federal judge likely to be confirmed, but in messy process

A dispute in the U.S. Senate over President Barack Obama's executive branch nominees threatens to snag the appointment of the first Cuban-born judge to the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

The U.S. Senate is scheduled this afternoon to vote on Adalberto Jose Jordan, a Miami federal judge who was confirmed unanimously last year by the Senate Judiciary committee and has the support of Florida Sens. Bill Nelson, a Democrat, and Marco Rubio, a Republican.

No one has any ideological objections to Jordan, a well-regarded judge who clerked for U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor. 

But a Utah senator who objects to the way Obama has been appointing federal nominees has said he'll vote against Jordan's confirmation. Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, has vowed to vote against or hold up all of Obama's nominees -- even those from Utah -- in response to a recess appointment by the president. Lee objects in particular to Obama's appointment in January of Richard Cordray, the director of the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

Committee postpones amendment on electric rates

A Senate committee postponed a vote on plan to restructure the way electricity customers pay for new power plants when the author of a late-appearing amendment, Sen. Bill Montford, D-Tallahassee, withdrew it.

The amendment, proposed to be tucked into a clean energy bill, would make it easier for Florida's electric companies to raise rates to pay for modernizing or building their power plants. Florida Power & Light currently has a proposal before state regulators to allow it to spend $1.1 billion to modernize its Port Everglades power plant.

"There's been a lot of mischaracterization and that has caused some confusion,'' said Mike Sole, lobbyist with Florida Power & Light, after the Senate Agriculture Committee postponed a vote on the  amendment.

The proposal would allow utility companies to bypass the traditional rate case before the Public Service Commission for certain construction projects, and instead receive an "incremental adjustment to base rates."

School prayer bill continues moving forward

The so-called school prayer bill is zooming toward the House floor.

On Monday, the House Education Committee approved the proposal by a 9-6 vote.

All six Democrats on the panel voted no.

The proposal comes from Sen. Gary Siplin, a Democrat from Orlando. It would allow student volunteers to deliver inspirational messages at public-school functions. School district employees could not participate or control the message.

Siplin's bill found some bi-partisan support in the Senate, where it was recently approved on the floor.

Not so in the House Education Committee, despite pleas from Siplin before the vote took place.

Rep. Dwight Bullard, D-Miami, said the proposal would open the door to hate speech in public schools.

Said Rep. Cynthia Stafford, D-Miami: "I have a big, big concern with first-graders and kindergartners determining what is an appropriate inspirational message."

Republicans countered that the bill would teach tolerance, and help restore respect and discipline to the public school system.

"All this bill does is allow for kids to inspire one another," said Rep. Erik Fresen, R-Miami. "It is as simple as that."