Anti-muslim preacher captures attention again after Libyan attack

GAINESVILLE _ The retired Florida pastor who attracted international attention two years ago for threatening to burn the Quran was again in the media spotlight on Wednesday for purportedly promoting a video that may have incited the violent attacks in Egypt and Libya.

But Terry Jones, 60, told reporters from his now-dismantled church here that his organization’s website was hacked and that he had not been able to post the short video mocking the Islamic prophet Muhammad.

Whether he promoted the video or not, U.S. authorities were so concerned about Jones that Gen. Martin E. Dempsey, the chairman of the Joints Chiefs of Staff, asked him not to post the controversial 14-minute video in fear it could further inflame tensions in Libya or Egypt.

Jones said he told Dempsey in a phone call Wednesday that he would “definitely consider it,” but later told reporters he would ignore the request during a lengthy interview in the building that once housed his congregation.

U.S. State Department officials believe the video, a trailer for a longer movie entitled "Innocence of Muslims," may have contributed to the violence in Egypt and Libya, where four people, including the U.S. ambassador to Libya, were killed. But Obama administration officials also believe the attacks — which happened on the 11th anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks — may have been planned.

The Associated Press reported late Wednesday that Nakoula Basseley Nakoula, 55, has acknowledged that he was manager for the company that produced movie but denied he directed the film and said he knew the self-described filmmaker, Sam Bacile. But the cellphone number that AP contacted Tuesday to reach the filmmaker who identified himself as Bacile traced to the same address near Los Angeles where AP found Nakoula.

Jones said Wednesday he spoke with the movie's director on the phone and prayed for him. He said he has not met the filmmaker in person, but the man contacted him a few weeks ago about promoting the movie.

"I have not met him. Sam Bacile, that is not his real name," Jones said. "I just talked to him on the phone. He is definitely in hiding and does not reveal his identity. He was quite honestly fairly shook up concerning the events and what is happening. A lot of people are not supporting him. He was generally a little shook up concerning this situation."

Photo: Pastor Terry Jones shows reporters his 40-caliber handgun he carries with him.

Bad economic deal could leave the state on the hook for $20 million

Promised their investment would help lure 500 high-paying jobs to Florida, lawmakers in 2009 sidestepped existing procedures to funnel $20 million to a well known movie production company that animated the scenes in Titanic and the Transformers movies.

But this story's ending isn't one for the movies.

The company, Digital Domain Media Group Inc., closed its Florida operations last week and on Tuesday filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, laying off 300-or-so Florida employees and likely leaving taxpayers without a return on its $20 million state investment. Local governments stand to lose around an additional $110 million.

The news of the bankruptcy and the potential loss of the economic incentives underscores concerns about governments doling out taxpayer dollars to politically connected private companies with little oversight and few guarantees. From 1995 to 2011, the state has paid $739 million in incentives to create 86,284 jobs, state officials say.

"Of course, 100 percent of all new businesses are not going to be successful. In fact the majority are going to fail," said Sen. Nancy Detert, R-Venice, who helped pass a 2012 law to make the state's economic incentive program more transparent. "There's something worse than not having a job … that's having one and losing one, and having the taxpayers chip in for that disaster.

"The failure of Digital Domain, in particular, shares some of the same traits of the failed solar-panel manufacturer Solyndra, which received $535 million in federal loans before closing its doors and filing for bankruptcy in 2011.

Read more here.

Rick Scott's elections office: We've "confirmed" 207 noncitizens on the rolls, removing them.

Gov. Rick Scott and the Advancement Project have agreed to settle part of a suit over his noncitizen voter purge, but that doesn't mean noncitizens won't be purged.

Scott's elections division reported today that it has "confirmed" 207 noncitizens on the voter rolls out of a pool of about 1,700 potential noncitizens whose names were checked in a federal immigration database called SAVE. Some of the registered voters had previously admitted they weren't citizens, but most were found due to the SAVE search, said elections division spokesman Chris Cate.

"The information about these voters will be provided to State Attorneys to investigate as well," Cate said. "It's a felony to provide false information on a voter registration application or to vote as a noncitizen."

Rick Scott restores some voters to rolls, but might continue noncitizen voter purge after agreement

Update: The headline was changed. The Department of State's Division of Elections says there was no settlement in this case. Instead, the two sides came to an agreement. And anyone found to be a noncitizen will be removed from the rolls. To date, the state says, there are 207 of them.

Here's the Advancement Project press release:

Breaking news… the State of Florida has agreed to several key concessions in the Advancement Project lawsuit over its voter purge (Arcia v. Detzner). They include: 

• Restore to the voter rolls any individual from the list of potential non-citizens (the 2600 person list) who was removed from the voter rolls and whom the Supervisors of Elections cannot confirm as non-citizens in the SAVE database.
• Send a notice to all registered voters who received letters in April (the letters informing them that they may not be eligible to vote) informing them that they are indeed registered to vote, excluding individuals confirmed to be non-citizens.
• The inclusion of anyone’s name on the list of potential non-citizens should not be interpreted as a determination of his or her eligibility to vote
• No one should have to vote a provisional ballot simply because his or her name appeared on the list of potential non-citizens.

Workers union poised to sue after state clears way for prison health privatization

A union for state workers is racing to sue Florida after lawmakers cleared the way Wednesday to privatize health care in prisons.

A legislative panel voted 6-4 to allow the state's Department of Corrections to try and plug its $60 million deficit by turning inmate care over to private for-profit companies.

The lawsuit could be filed as early as Thursday, said Doug Martin, spokesman for the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, known as AFSCME.

About 2,600 state workers who provide prescriptions, mental health and other medical services to prisoners find their jobs and benefits in limbo over the deal, which was vetted through a 14-member budget panel, with four members absent, rather than through the more rigorous legislative committee process.

Romney criticizes Obama administration for "sympathizing" with attackers. Did it?

The deadly U.S. embassy attacks gripped the presidential campaign Wednesday when Republican Mitt Romney claimed the president’s administration had been “sympathizing” with the attackers and apologizing “for American values.”

President Obama’s supporters were quick to point out that Obama and the administration made no apologies or expressions of sympathy, and they accused Romney of politicizing tragedy.

“I don’t think we ever hesitate when we see something which is a violation of our principles,” Romney said Wednesday in Jacksonville, echoing comments the night before when he criticized Obama’s handling of the situation.

The political fallout began hours after violent crowds stormed the U.S. embassy in Cairo, Egypt and the consulate in Benghazi, Libya where Ambassador Chris Stevens and three members of his diplomatic staff were killed.

"It's especially tragic that Chris Stevens died in Benghazi because it is a city he helped to save," Obama said Wednesday in the Rose Garden, declining to take questions from reporters or criticize Romney.

Later in the day, Obama hit back.

"Governor Romney seems to have a tendency to shoot first and aim later," Obama told CBS. "And as president, one of the things I've learned is you can't do that."

New report undermines Gov. Scott's rosy jobs message

The Florida’s Legislature’s Office of Economic and Demographic Research came out with another report Wednesday that refutes Gov. Rick Scott’s claims that Florida’s unemployment rate is dropping rapidly because the state is creating jobs.

According to the report, titled “Florida: Long-Range Financial Outlook,” the drop in Florida’s unemployment since December can overwhelmingly be attributed to a shrinking workforce.

“If the [labor] participation rate had held steady since 12/11, the unemployment rate would have been 9.8 percent—91 percent of the drop in the unemployment rate is due to people dropping out of the workforce.” (emphasis added)

A similar trend emerged nationally last week, when the unemployment rate dropped from 8.3 percent to 8.1 percent despite lackluster job growth in the U.S.

Gov. Scott released a new chart last month, stating that the unemployment rate in Florida has dropped 2.3 percentage points during his term to 8.8 percent, a faster drop than in any other state.

"Florida continues to see evidence that Governor Rick Scott’s strategy for growing private-sector jobs is the right direction for Florida’s economy," Scott's office said in a statement accompanying the chart.

But a deeper dive into the federal data shows that the rate of job creation has been below average in Florida in the last year, and the falling unemployment rate offers little evidence of above-average job creation.

As we pointed out last month, Florida has created 69,900 jobs in the last year, a growth rate of less than 1 percent that trails the national growth rate and is worse than a majority of states. For comparison, Florida lost more than 715,000 jobs during the 18-month recession.

Preliminary data on Stand Your Ground law remains murky

Lt. Gov. Jennifer Carroll has repeatedly said that the task force commissioned to look into Florida's controversial stand your ground law will make its decision based on facts, not emotions.

Carroll and 18 other task force members learned Wednesday that those facts—like many Stand Your Ground cases—are incredibly difficult to pin down.

A University of Florida professor presented a slew of data on crime and tourism since the 2005 passing of the Stand Your Ground law, but ultimately concluded that no definitive connections could be made at this time.

“The data the we collected in response to the task force request is insufficient to provide a conclusion on this issue,” said Professor Monique Haughton Worrell, of UF’s College of Law. “It’s a complex issue, requiring complex analysis.”

Worrell told task force members meeting in West Palm Beach that a more in-depth study would be needed before the university could determine a connection between Stand Your Ground and crime rates, gun ownership rates or tourism in Florida.

Gov. Rick Scott commissioned the task force in the wake of the February shooting death of Miami Gardens teenager Trayvon Martin, which thrust the state’s controversial gun laws into a national spotlight.

The 17-year-old was shot by a Sanford neighborhood watch captain, George Zimmerman, who claims that he was acting in self-defense. Zimmerman was charged with second-degree murder several weeks after the shooting, after nationwide protests and the appointment of a special prosecutor.

Marco Rubio "deeply saddened" by the death of Ambassador Chris Stevens, staffers in Libya

From a press release:

U.S. Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL), a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and Select Committee on Intelligence, issued the following statement regarding riots in Libya and Egypt that resulted in the murder of America’s ambassador to Libya and three members of his staff:

“I am deeply saddened and troubled by the mob attacks in Libya that led to the murder of our ambassador and three members of his staff. I had the chance of meeting Ambassador Chris Stevens during his confirmation process and again when I visited Libya last year. He was an exemplary diplomat and his embassy staff could not have been more helpful and knowledgeable during my visit. My prayers are with the families and loved ones of these courageous diplomats who were working to help the Libyan people rise from the ashes of Gaddafi’s rule.

“It is imperative that these senseless mob attacks be condemned by the Libyan government and that it commit to stop this violence and bring those responsible for the deaths of our American diplomats to justice. In both Libya and Egypt, their governments have an obligation to resolutely condemn these violent attacks and protect American diplomatic missions and personnel based on their soil.

“The Libyan and Egyptian people should understand that the U.S. shares their commitment to building more hopeful and prosperous nations. However, if left unchecked, violent attacks like these against our embassies and diplomats will lead Libya and Egypt down a dark path and rob them of their hopes of a more prosperous and democratic future. The broader publics in Libya and Egypt should condemn the violence and distance themselves from the unruly and intolerant elements of their society that threaten the security and future of their nations.”

Barack Obama's new ad uses AARP to criticize Romney's Medicare plan

For the second time, President Obama is using the AARP to bolster the case for his Medicare plan. And he's now using its voter guide to go after Mitt Romney. The ad, however, suggests AARP called Romney's plan a "voucher" proposal; it didn't. And, in saying Romney's plan could increase per-senior out-of-pocket costs by $6,400, Obama is relying on an old analysis of an old plan from Mitt Romney's running mate, Paul Ryan, which the campaign says no longer applies.

So what is Romney's plan? He's not really saying (more here on that).

The script: