Scare tactics or straight talk? The FL #s in the White House's state-by-state sequester-cut guide

@MarcACaputo

The White House this evening started a well-planned offensive to let residents in every state know what the automatic budget cuts scheduled for March 1 could mean to them and their community.

In Florida, 31,000 civilian contractors with the defense department face furloughs and reduced pay; 7,450 children could go without some vaccines; thousands will get smaller unemployment checks and schools could face a small reduction, according to the White House.

In all, about $85 billion in spending nationwide is scheduled to be reduced as part of what's known as "the sequester." It's a roughly 2.4 percent reduction of the roughly $3.6 trillion in federal spending. (Florida's budget, for those keeping score, is about $70 billion this year).

The Rivera files: Why Mr Smith...er...Mr. Sternad didn’t go to Washington

@MarcACaputo

Lamar Will Take Us Far.

The catchy slogan of the congressional candidate who called himself Lamar Sternad was the earliest indication of a campaign of deception. His first name isn’t Lamar.

But Justin Lamar Sternad’s slogan was spot-on in one regard.

Of the hundreds of no-name political neophytes who mount quixotic bids for office in Miami, Sternad went farther than them all: The 10th floor of a federal justice building.

There in open court Friday, Sternad was formally accused of violating three federal laws stemming from his suspicious campaign finances, which were first uncovered in an investigation by The Miami Herald and El Nuevo Herald.

Raul Castro: I'll leave Cuba presidency in 2018

Reuters:

Cuban leader Raul Castro announced on Sunday he would step down from power after his second term as president ends in 2018.

Castro made the announcement in a nationally broadcast speech shortly after the Cuban National Assembly elected him to a second five-year term in the opening session of the new parliament.

In a surprise move, the new parliament named a rising young star as his first vice president, Miguel Diaz-Canel, 52, a member of the political bureau who rose through the party ranks in the provinces to become the most visible possible successor to Castro. Diaz-Canel would succeed Castro if he cannot serve his full term.

More here

The legislature's Medicaid dilemma: Meet some of the lives in the balance

Florida’s Medicaid system today serves more than 3 million people, about one in every six Floridians. The decision whether to expand the system by a full third will be made by men and women in suits in Tallahassee’s mural-filled chambers this spring.

But the impact is elsewhere, in children’s hospitals in Tampa and Miami, in doctors’ offices in New Port Richey and in the home of a woman who recently lost her full-time teaching job. Here are some of the names and faces of people whose health care future is in the hands of Florida's lawmakers.

Photo: Nancy Fraze was making too much money waitressing to be eligible for Medicaid. So she quit her job. Her son, Dustin Rozwarski, 16, has severe allergies and asthma and requires expensive care. MAURICE RIVENBARK / TAMPA BAY TIMES

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/02/23/v-fullstory/3250065/the-faces-of-floridas-medicaid.html#storylink=cpy

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/02/23/v-fullstory/3250065/the-faces-of-floridas-medicaid.html#storylink=cpy