One of Gov. Rick Scott's line-item vetoes: $250,000 for security at presidential debate at Lynn University

Among $142.7 million in line-item vetoes in the state budget, Gov. Rick Scott nixed $250,000 for security at the final presidential debate, scheduled at Boca Raton's Lynn University on Oct. 22.

Lynn University spokesman Joshua Glanzer said the event will be safe no matter how security is funded.

"We know we have our state support, we know we'll have our community support," he said.

Wellington Democratic Rep. Joseph Abruzzo, who was once student body president at Lynn, said he's disappointed by the veto. The money would have helped protect the candidates and citizens, he said.

"You have a smaller scale university that's going to have the eyes of the entire world on it. It's going to cost hundreds of thousands in security,"
he said. "This is such a major event, it should have shared responsibility throughout the state."

The Commision on Presidential Debates has three planned for the general election. The other two are Oct. 3 at the University of Denver and Oct. 16 at Hofstra University in Hempstead, N.Y. A vice presidential debate is planned for Oct. 11 at Centre College in Danville, Ky.

Brittany Alana Davis, Herald/Times Tallahassee Bureau

ALEC retreats from push for gun rights in wake of corporate defections

The organization that helped spread Florida’s controversial Stand Your Ground law across the country is halting its push for gun rights in the wake of the national outcry over Trayvon Martin’s shooting death.

The American Legislative Exchange Council said Tuesday that it would shift focus from social to economic issues, abandoning causes like gun rights and voter identification laws.

“Today we are redoubling our efforts on the economic front, a priority that has been the hallmark of our organization for decades,” ALEC national chairman and Indiana state lawmaker David Frizzell said in a statement. “We are eliminating the ALEC Public Safety and Elections task force that dealt with non-economic issues, and reinvesting these resources in the task forces that focus on the economy.”

Sparked by several defections by a number of large companies in recent weeks, ALEC’s announcement signaled a major about-face for an organization that wielded considerable sway in changing the way 25 states deal with deadly encounters and self-defense.

George LeMieux’s Senate campaign in trouble

In a series of one-two-three blows, George LeMieux's Senate campaign has been staggered by anemic fundraising, the specter of a big-name Republican jumping into the race and new court documents that make him a witness in the criminal case against the former governor’s hand-picked Republican Party of Florida chairman.

Now some are wondering how long LeMieux’s campaign will last.

LeMieux knows he's struggling against fellow Congressman Connie Mack of Fort Myers.

“Do I have an uphill climb? Sure I do,” LeMieux said. “I’m not the frontrunner in this race. I’m the underdog. Connie Mack the Fourth is the establishment candidate.”

LeMieux’s campaign got even tougher this week when Florida Chief Financial Officer Jeff Atwater said he was considering entering the Republican race to unseat Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson.

As a statewide office-holder and solid-fundraiser, Atwater would pose an immediate threat to Mack’s top-dog status and would further threaten the viability of LeMieux’s candidacy.

Mack, the namesake of a former Senator and baseball player, raised nearly three-times the money last quarter as LeMieux, who reported Friday taking in just $305,000.

The day he reported his fundraising numbers, LeMieux was dealt another setback when he was mentioned in connection with the fraud case against former RPOF Chairman Jim Greer. Greer is accused of defrauding the party for allegedly setting up a dummy company and funneling some of the party’s fundraising proceeds to himself.

Greer says he’s innocent, and that the fundraising work he did saved the party money and was legitimate.

More here

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/04/17/2754273/george-lemieuxs-senate-campaign.html#storylink=cpy

U.S. Rep. David Rivera won't face criminal charges in state probe over finances, sources say

U.S. Rep. David Rivera will not face criminal charges following an 18-month investigation of his personal and campaign finances by the Miami-Dade State Attorney’s Office and the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, according to sources close to the probe.

Though records released late Monday show FDLE last year suspected Rivera of “possible criminal and ethical violations” ranging from campaign fraud to falsifying financial disclosure forms, prosecutors have concluded that they cannot charge the Miami congressman with any crimes because of ambiguities in the state’s campaign finance laws and a shortened statute of limitations that barred prosecution for expenses more than two years old.

Prosecutors also concluded that Rivera did not break any laws by raising hundreds of thousands of dollars in secret donations to campaign for obscure posts within the state Republican Party. The state attorney’s office is expected to issue a memo formally closing the investigation in coming days.

Ed Griffith, a spokesman for Miami-Dade State Attorney Katherine Fernández Rundle, declined to comment on the status of the case. FDLE spokeswoman Gretl Plessinger confirmed that the agency has concluded its investigation.

Rivera’s campaign said in a statement that he “at all times acted in compliance with both the letter and spirit of Florida and federal campaign finance laws and has timely and properly reported all personal income.

“All funds raised and spent in relation to Congressman Rivera’s campaigns for State House, Republican State Executive Committee, or U.S. Congress, were done with the strictest adherence to all applicable legal standards,” the statement says. “Any suggestion to the contrary is completely false.”

The end of the investigation would lift a cloud that has hung over the first-term congressman since he was elected to the U.S. House in 2010 after serving eight years in the Florida Legislature. Rivera has struggled to raise money for his re-election campaign next November. More here.

Universities push back against governor's suggestion to limit tuition hikes

Gov. Rick Scott's suggestion that the Florida Board of Governors limit universities' tuition increases sent shudders through the higher education world.

"What I've asked our universities and our state colleges is, first, step back and do what Florida businesses have to do," Scott told reporters after the signing Tuesday, amid talk about the Florida College System's tuition increases, which are set at just 5 percent in the state budget. "What costs can we have and what costs don't make sense? I want all our state colleges and our universities to step back and say, are there costs we don't have to have?"

Reporters asked him whether he meant that universities should limit their tuition increases, normally allowed to rise up to 15 percent, to that same 5 percent. Scott said: "I'm very comfortable the Board of Governors will do that sort of review and the right thing will happen."

The Florida Board of Governors quickly put out a statement praising the Legislature for funding some university construction projects and for its cooperation with the board in setting accountability metrics -- even while cutting $300 million from the state university system. The statement included a note for media, saying the 5 percent tuition hike Scott was talking about applied just to Florida Colleges -- not universities.

Governor cuts $24.8 million in projects from Miami Dade and Broward

Gov. Rick Scott said he used his veto pen sparingly this year when he removed $142.7 million in projects from the state's $70 billion budget. But when it came to South Florida projects, the region sustained nearly one fifth of all the cuts.

From vetoing $500,000 for the Bay of Pigs Historial Museum -- on the 51st anniversary of the invasion -- to rejecting a plan to replace aging trucks for the City of Hialeah, the governor vetoed $24.8 million from Miami Dade and Broward alone out of the $142.7 million in projects he cut.

Left in were projects he deemed worthy because of their economic development potential, such as a $500,000 plan to develop a rowing center in Sarasota. Left unsaid were the projects that remained in the budget because of the governor's relationship with its sponsor or other programs that were rejected because of the governor's disagreements with lawmakers.

Scott approved $1 million for the Boys and Girls Club of Pasco County, the homeown of incoming House Speaker Will Weatherford, R-Wesley Chapel, while he removed from the budget $100,000 for Girls Incoroporated of Sarasota County. Scott said he considers Boys and Girls clubs student focused programs that provide "measurable results."

Miami-Dade state attorney draws election opponent

For the first time in eight years, longtime Miami-Dade State Attorney Katherine Fernández Rundle has an election opponent.

This time it’s Miami criminal defense attorney Roderick Vereen, who on Monday filed to run for the seat of the county’s top prosecutor.

Like Fernández Rundle, Vereen is a Democrat. If no independent or Republican candidates file by Friday’s qualifying deadline, the two would square off for the seat outright during the Aug. 14 primary.

“I want to be a professional prosecutor who will make fighting crime my number one priority,’’ Vereen said Monday night trough a spokesman. “That’s why I’m running. That is what is lacking. I want to be a prosecutor, not a politician.” More from David Ovalle here.

Tuition increase to rise 5 percent under new budget; $142.7 m in vetoes

Signaling a newfound commitment to education, Gov. Rick Scott not only signed a budget that partially restores money cut from the budget last year but he approved a 5 percent increase in state and community college tuition after months of warning that he would accept no increase in cost-of-living for Floridians.

The $70 billion budget, approved at Cunningham Creek Elementary School, an A-school in St. Johns County, also dramatically reduces the number of projects vetoed this year. The governor eliminated $142.7 million from the legislature's 2012-13 spending plan, four times less than last year's $615 million in vetoes.

Among the vetoes this year: $500,000 for the Dan Marino Foundation Vocational School for disabled kids, $1.5 million for the Florida Council Against Sexual Violence and $100,000 for the Autism Center of Miami. Scott also vetoed $250,000 to provide security for the Oct. 22 presidential debate scheduled at Lynn University in Boca Raton and $500,000 for the Florida Aquarium. Download Final-Veto-List-4-17-12

Scott signs budget but provides no details

Gov. Rick Scott signed the state budget this afternoon during a low-key ceremony at a Jacksonville-area elementary school.

Scott signed the state spending plan surrounded by adoring students at Cunningham Creek Elementary School. In brief remarks, he touted an additional $1 billion for the state's school systems. The infusion of money does not offset last year's cuts of $1.3 billion.

Scott did not immediately reveal his budget vetoes, and instead spent time chatting with the students and explaining the budget process.

Pres. Obama to visit Holocaust Memorial, discuss plan to stop 'mass atrocities'

From a White House official:

On Monday, April 23, 2012, at a time when Americans are engaging in Holocaust Days of Remembrance, President Obama will visit the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington D.C. He will give remarks commemorating the Holocaust and discuss how the United States is honoring the pledge of “never again” by developing a comprehensive strategy to prevent and respond to mass atrocities.