Bill to keep foreign laws out of family court cases stalls in Senate

A controversial bill that aims to keep foreign law from being used over Florida law in family courts is “effectively dead,” Sen. John Thrasher, R-St. Augustine, chairman of the Senate’s Rules Committee, said after that body's meeting Thursday.

Democrats blocked an effort by the bill’s sponsor, Sen. Alan Hays, R-Umatilla, to get the House bill through in the Senate by a 25-14 vote. Hays needed a two-thirds vote, or 27 votes, to substitute the House version (HB 351), which passed April 18 by a vote of 79-39.

Hays said the bill aims to make sure that American law trumps foreign law in cases related to marriage, divorce and child custody cases in cases that violate state statutes or a person's constitutional rights. Opponents say the measure is based on anti-Sharia legislation. With one day left of the session, it's unlikely the bill can be salvaged this session.

 

 

Dolphins bring Cristiano Ronaldo's star power to appeal to fútbol fans in stadium renovation ads

@PatriciaMazzei

Real Madrid forward Cristiano Ronaldo is lending his superstar power to the Miami Dolphins in their quest for a subsidized renovation to Sun Life Stadium.

On Thursday, the Dolphins' campaign arm, a political action committee named Friends of Miami First, said it is rolling out Spanish-language television and radio advertisements and automated phone calls to voters featuring Ronaldo, one of the world's best soccer players. Ronaldo is getting paid for his efforts, campaign spokesman Eric Jotkoff said.

If Florida lawmakers sign off on Dolphins-backed legislation in Tallahassee and Miami-Dade voters approve a May 14 referendum supporting a hotel-tax rate hike to fund part of the $350 million renovation, the Dolphins have agreed to host at least 20 internationally televised soccer games at Sun Life over the next 30 years. Failing to host those games or other major sporting events, such as at least four Super Bowls, would result in up to $120 million in penalties for the team.

In trying to appeal to Miami-Dade's majority Hispanic voters, the Dolphins have played up the soccer games in Spanish-language ads. One radio spot says the team is "committed" to hosting a World Cup -- soccer's biggest tournament -- even though Sun Life in practice has little say over whether the U.S. would get to host the event at all. The team has said the stadium improvements are necessary to bring Sun Life up to standards set by FIFA, international soccer's ruling body, to host games other than friendlies.

"Hi, I'm Cristiano Ronaldo," Ronaldo, who is Portuguese, says in Spanish in the TV ad. "Me and many professional soccer players love Miami. We know that Miami has many fans. The modernization of Sun Life Stadium in Miami will establish the center of professional football in North America.

"Please vote yes to modernize Sun Life Stadium on May 14 in Miami so I can come back every year to Miami to play."

  

Listen to the radio spot and robocall below.

Ronaldo Radio

Ronaldo Phone

 

At job fair, Dolphins invite people to apply for stadium jobs. And take a campaign flier.

via @doug_hanks

The Miami Dolphins attracted hundreds of people to a job fair for a tax-funded renovation of Sun Life Stadium that depends on voter support. Along with a chance to sign up for would-be construction jobs, applicants were handed literature urging them to vote for the hotel-tax hike the Dolphins want for the renovation.

The mix of a job fair and quiet campaign event unfolded as the Dolphins have just two days left to win Tallahassee approval for a May 14 referendum, where Miami-Dade voters will decide whether to raise taxes on most hotels outside of Miami Beach to fund a $350 million upgrade of Sun Life. At the heart of the campaign is an argument that a modernized stadium will be a boost to the county’s battered economy, particularly with the addition of hundreds if not thousands of construction jobs.

Gene Eugene, 27, was the first in line for the event Thursday morning, arriving around 8 a.m. for a fair scheduled to start two hours later. Security wouldn’t let him walk past the stadium’s gate, so he stood on a grassy median as more applicants gathered behind him.

“I haven’t worked since 2010,’’ said Eugene, a Haitian immigrant who lives with an uncle in Miami. “I’ll take any job.”

Carmen Brown, 57, stood in the second spot behind him. She has been cleaning houses but a drug problem kept her out of work since 2006. Now she describes herself as recovered and hoping to find her way into a steady job at the Dolphins event. “It’s pretty rough,’’ she said of hiring prospects in Miami-Dade. “Especially for someone like me.”

More here.

Marino: Weatherford thinks Dolphins bill has 'good chance' of clearing House

National Football League hall of famer and former Miami Dolphins quarterback Dan Marino made a special appearance Thursday at the Florida House, where lawmakers have stalled on an effort to give the Dolphins taxpayer support for a stadium upgrade. 

Marino is the fourth high-profile figure from the NFL to show up in Tallahassee this week. On Monday, Dolphins owner Stephen Ross, NFL commissioner Roger Goodell and team CEO Mike Dee spent hours in the Capitol talking to lawmakers about the Dolphins stadium effort.

Marino met with House Speaker Will Weatherford, other House members and Gov. Rick Scott to talk about his foundation, and the sports stadium bill.

"I'm definitely supporting the whole thing with the stadium," he told the Times/Herald before meeting with Scott. "I'm a Dolphin for life and a South Floridian for life. 

Weatherford told Marino he thought the sports stadium bill had a "good chance" of passing before Friday.

The Dolphins need Tallahassee approval in order to get taxpayer support for its proposed stadium upgrade and the legislative session is nearing an end without a deal.

The bill passed the Senate on Monday, but was in danger of failing in the House, which has faced procedural gridlock this week as Democrats protested a stalemate over healthcare reform. Session ends Friday.

Marino walked into Gov. Rick Scott's office around 3 p.m on Thursday after meeting with other lawmakers. In addition to being a former Dolphins quarterback, Marino has a foundation to support autism research and treatment. He has traveled to Tallahassee in the past to gin up support for his foundation and cause.

An honorary co-chair of of South Florida's Super Bowl bid committee, Marino also used the opportunity to speak to lawmakers about the sports stadium bill. 

"I think it would be great for the community," said Marino. "People have got to understand the economic impact it would have on our community. Not only the jobs, but revenue for businesses, and there's great examples of that throughout the year's Super Bowls have been here, and national championships. From that respect, I'm all for it. Hopefully it'll work out."

If the bill passes and a referendum vote is approved, the Dolphins could receive up to $289 million in taxpayer support from an increase in the Miami-Dade hotel tax, from 6 to 7 percent. It would also offer the team up to $90 million in state sales tax rebates.

If the bill doesn't pass, the referendum vote--scheduled for May 14 and already underway via early voting--would be called off.

The team is looking to spend more than $350 million for its stadium upgrade and has agreed to pay much of the tax money back after 30 years.

@ToluseO

Supreme Court rejects clean energy advocate's challenge to nuke fees

On the same day the Florida Supreme Court upheld a nuclear fee on utility customers, Florida legislators sent to the governor new tools regulators can use to hold electric companies more accountable when collecting the money.

In a unanimous opinion, the Florida Supreme Court rejected the arguments of the South Alliance for Clean Energy which had claimed that the Public Service Commission exceeded its authority when it allowed the Florida Power & Light and Duke Energy (previously known as Progress Energy of Florida) to collect the nuclear fees for nuclear plants that may or may not be constructed.

The clean-energy coalition argued that the PSC decision was "arbitrary and unsupported by competent, substantial evidence.''  Download SCOFLA SACE ruling

The court ruled that the legislation provided sufficient guidelines that neither the agency nor the courts can determine whether the agency is carrying out the intent of the legislature. Citing a previous decision regarding AT&T, the court said there is “no indication that the legislative policy-making function has been usurped by or improperly transferred to the PSC.” 

Dolphins stadium renovation splits Miami-Dade Democrats

@PatriciaMazzei

The Miami Dolphins’ push for a subsidized renovation to Sun Life Stadium appears to have divided the local Democratic Party, whose leadership has opposed the plan for weeks.

The divisions were evident Wednesday night at a forum the party organized featuring Miami-Dade Commissioner Barbara Jordan, a renovation proponent, and former Commissioner Katy Sorenson, a critic. Both are Democrats.

Jordan accused the party of “bias” for taking a public stance against the Dolphins’ proposal.

“If the party has taken a position on this, there’s bias,” she said. “The party should stay out of this race.”

Party Chairwoman Annette Taddeo-Goldstein issued a statement last month opposing the stadium deal, which will go to voters in a May 14 referendum unless Florida lawmakers block Dolphins-backed legislation by Friday.

At the forum, party members said that while the party’s steering committee took a vote against the stadium renovation, the full Democratic Executive Committee will not weigh in until Monday.

Trauma train on life support in Senate, prognosis not good

Sen. Aaron Bean's 135-page bill has been saddled with 250 pages of proposed amendments and so, the sponsor said, it may be time to pull the plug.

"We had a record 57 (amendments),'' said Bean, R-Fernandina Beach. Among them, inserted by some of the busiest lobbyists occupying the Fourth Floor rotunda: provisions to change policy not only on certificate of need for trauma care centers, but dozens of other health care programs from HIV programs to carving out dental care for medicaid reform to tightening regulation on assisted living facilities. 

Bean said early Thursday the bill "may just not come up." In Tallahassee parlance, that's another way of saying it may be loved to death. 

One provision of the bill, that remains a major interest of Senate President Don Gaetz -- which would allow his local county to build a trauma center -- is likely to be added to another bill relating to certificate of need for a nursing home for The Villages.

Scott details reasons for vetoing alimony bill: unintended, unfair results

Gov. Rick Scott's veto letter for SB 718 relating to alimony:  Download Alimony veto

After nail-biter of a day in the House, foster care bill passes

For Sen. Nancy Detert and the backers of a bill extending foster care from age 18 to 21, Wednesday’s House session was a nail biter.

Named the Nancy C. Detert Common Sense and Compassion Independent Living Act, House Bill 1036, which is co-sponsored by the entire Senate, was temporarily postponed Wednesday morning as Democrats, protesting inaction on health insurance reform, demanded that all bills be read in their entirety. The House is using a robotic auto reader to speed-read bills.

“I was really on pins and needles,” said Christina Spudeas, executive director of Florida’s Children First. “I didn’t know if it would really come back. I got really scared."

Detert said she was “nervous” because under House rules, “if they didn’t read the bill today and pass it out, it wouldn’t pass. And it’s such a long bill, they weren’t getting to it.”

The Venice Republican said she met with House Speaker Will Weatherford and his chief of staff Kathy Mears to discuss the bill Wednesday morning and was told that Weatherford would “see that it gets done even if they have to stay here till midnight. He said we don’t let politics get in the way of children. And he kept his word.

After the auto-reader went through the 54-page bill (which took at least 40 minutes)  the measure passed 116-1 (Rep. Matt Hudson, R-Naples, voted against it).

“We didn’t want to have to lose it because of process,” said Detert, who stood in the back of the House to watch the bill pass. “That would have been a tragedy.”

Legislation approved by Florida Senate could deny Miami Dolphins some funding for stadium redo

via @doug_hanks

A rewrite of a state bill could deny the Miami Dolphins as much as $90 million in Florida funds if the team starts the renovation of Sun Life Stadium as planned this summer, people close to the franchise said Wednesday.

The revised bill that passed the Senate Monday dropped a provision that would have allowed the Dolphins to apply for state stadium funds in the coming months, when the team hopes to begin a $350 million upgrade of the 1987 stadium in time for the 50th Super Bowl in 2016. Dolphins executives and lawyers believe the passed bill effectively bars Sun Life from receiving state dollars if construction work starts in 2013, according to two sources close to the team.

Sen. Oscar Braynon, the Miami Gardens Democrat who wrote the Dolphins-backed bill, confirmed that the new language does prevent the team from receiving new state dollars if the project starts this year. He said he does not know what the Dolphins plan to do, but suggested a delay in the start of construction was possible.

“It may move their timeline,’’ Braynon said. “It may force them to move their timeline to fit in with what the bill says.”

Team executives would not comment on the potential loss of state dollars, but the two sources close to the team said a delay of the renovation is not an option and that Dolphins owner Stephen Ross owner would start the renovation without state money as long as the county funds are approved. Eric Jotkoff, a team spokesman, issued a statement that said: “Our priority continues to be making sure that the voters of Miami-Dade have the final say on modernizing Sun Life Stadium, which will create thousands of local jobs and provide a substantial boost to Miami-Dade’s economy.”

More here.