Democratic U.S. Rep. and Senate candidate Kendrick Meek criticized the Obama administration’s response to Israel’s decision to build 1,600 homes in a disputed area of East Jerusalem.

Vice President Joe Biden, who was visiting Israel at the time of the announcement, and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton have blasted the plan, straining relations with America’s strongest ally in the Middle East.

“What started off as an internal, domestic disagreement within the Israeli government has turned into an unnecessary international dispute complicated by some undiplomatic language from U.S. administration officials,” Meek said today.

(more…)

WEST PALM BEACH — Democratic governor candidate Alex Sink today proposed a variety of tax breaks and other incentives aimed at boosting Florida’s economy and highlighted her private-sector background in a meeting with local business leaders.

Sink, who is Florida’s chief financial officer, kicked off a two-month “Business Plan for Florida” tour at the Business Development Board headquarters here. (Click here to see a copy of Sink’s plan.)

(more…)

A Florida Senate panel on Tuesday approved a second year of cutbacks for the popular Bright Futures scholarships, citing declining tax collections.

But just down the hall in the Capitol, another Senate committee approved cutting tax collections further to help pay for a massive expansion of a different kind of “scholarship” — one that gives corporations tax credits for the contributions they make to a program that gives poor children vouchers to help pay for private school tuition.

“It’s sadly ironic,” said Sen. Dan Gelber, D-Miami Beach, a member of the Senate Higher Education Appropriations Committee considering the Bright Futures changes. “Floridians want our schools funded and fixed, not privatized.”

Story here.

From the New York Times editorial board this morning:

Some environmentalists complained that Mr. Crist paid too much and that the cost of the deal would crowd out other restoration projects.

But some of those projects — a string of underground storage wells, for instance — made little sense to begin with and none are as important as the land deal. The payout to United States Sugar and some other aspects of the deal seem excessive. But the agency can negotiate the price downward or cancel the arrangement if United States Sugar refuses to bargain or if the economy keeps tanking and the deal becomes unaffordable.

What the taxpayers need to remember is that this is a very good deal for the environment. Without an ample supply of clean, fresh water, the Everglades will never be restored to anything approaching their former vitality.

As local supporters and opponents of health care overhaul took to the streets Tuesday to make their case, it was clear that many supporters of the Democratic legislation don’t see it as the culmination of decades of struggle but as a starting point for future changes.

“The day after it’s passed we’re going to start working on it to improve it. It’s a mess,” said Charles Oliver of Delray Beach, one of about 15 demonstrators at a MoveOn.org event outside U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson’s office in West Palm Beach. Oliver wants a government-run public option, and says even if it doesn’t make it into the emerging legislation now, the bill will provide “a structure” for future change.

About 30 opponents of the Democratic legislation made their case Tuesday outside Democratic U.S. Rep. Ron Klein’s office in Boca Raton at an event organized by conservative tea party and 9-12 groups.

Read more here.

Senate President Jeff Atwater allowed Democrats to talk about repealing the state’s gay adoption ban during the afternoon session today.

Sen. Nan Rich has tried and failed for the past four years to have her bills that would do away with Florida’s 33-year-old prohibition against gay couples or individuals adopting.

But today, Atwater allowed Sen. Charlie Justice to offer an amendment on a bill that would prohibit adoption agencies from discriminating against gun owners. Justice’s amendment proposed a similar prohibition for discrimination based on sexual orientation.

“Whether a person owns a gun or not has no bearing on his or her ability to be a loving parent,” Rich, D-Weston, said.

The ban on gay adoption is a “far graver inequality,” she said, and is “a law grounded on fear and ignorance rather than in sound public policy.”

Gay couples are allowed to be foster parents but are barred from permanently adopting the children. More than 3,000 Florida kids are waiting to be adopted and about 25,000 of them live in foster care.

A state appeals court is currently considering whether the law is unconstitutional, as some judges have recently ruled. The 1st District Court of Appeals could rule at any time on a case in which a judge allowed Martin Gill, a gay Miami-Dade County man, to adopt two foster children who have been in his care for years. The state is appealing the adoptions.

“I know this amendment is not going to pass today and that Florida’s discriminatory adoption ban will not fall today,” Rich concluded. ”It’s been four year since there’s been any debate on this issue in any official Senate proceeding in any Senate committee and it’s been 33 years since this issue has been debated on the floor of this chamber. It’s about time we did something about that.”

Justice, D-St. Petersburg, withdrew the amendment before a vote could be taken.

Rep. Scott Randolph, D-Orlando, offered a similar amendment on the House floor this afternoon. He also withdrew the measure before it could be voted on.

Former Republican U.S. Rep. Mark Foley continues to elevate his public profile.

Last week, he made his first appearance at a Forum Club of the Palm Beaches luncheon since his 2006 resignation in a national firestorm over sexually charged Internet messages he sent to former congressional pages.

This week, Foley is planning to attend Wednesday night’s 66th annual Radio and TV Correspondents’ Dinner as a guest of Talk Radio News. It’s Foley’s first Washington appearance since his resignation, according to Foley publicist Jamie Holmes.

Foley On Politics airs Tuesdays at 6 p.m. on Seaview Radio 95.9 FM and 960 AM and at www.seaviewam960.com

Republican lawmakers in the Florida Senate took turns firing shots at the state’s largest teachers union today during a committee hearing over whether the GOP-majority wants to approve a massive expansion of the school voucher program. (They do.)

Finance & Tax Chairman Thad Altman said expanding vouchers would help reduce class sizes, a priority of the Florida Education Association, which opposes vouchers. Sen. Rhonda Storms, R-Valrico, asked FEA lobbyist Lynda Russell to read a Harvard study often cited by voucher advocates “for your education and intellectual expansion.”

Sen. Mike Bennett, R-Sarasota, challenged the union’s assertion that parents top priorities were small class sizes, safe schools and less emphasis on the FCAT.

“They don’t want better teachers for their kids?” Bennett said.

The bill’s lone opponent on the committee, Sen. Charlie Justice, D-St. Petersburg, tried to reign it all in. “Everyone has had their shot at the teachers union,” he said. “Can we get back to the bill?”

But Storms said that FEA President Andy Ford “can take care of himself.” She used her laptop to pull up a copy a recent speech from Ford, who said the union saved millions for public schools during the 2009 session and “once again fought back the barbarians at the gate.”

“That’s us … We’re the barbarians,” an upset Storms said.

House members are going after bands of rogue pizza pitchmen that they say are targeting tourists in Central Florida by posing as pizza purveyors to gain entree into hotels.

The criminals hand out flyers with phony phone numbers and rape or steal from the unsuspecting tourists once they arrive at their hotel rooms to make their “deliveries,” Central Florida Hotel and Lodging Association President Richard Maladecki told the House Domestic Security and Public Safety Committee this morning.

The proposal (PCB PSDS 10-03) would enhance penalties already on the books restricting people from putting flyers on cars in hotel or motel parking lots.

It would give law enforcement the ability to seize the cars, weapons or computers of repeat offenders who distribute the “handbills” without written permission of the owner.

And it would allow law enforcement officers to arrest potential offenders without probable cause.

The unions are up in arms over the measure because they fear it’s a way for hoteliers to keep workers from unionizing.

“There’s something else going on here other than pizza flyers. That has us very concerned,” Florida AFL-CIO spokesman Rich Templin told the committee.

And an Orlando pizzeria owner told the committee the proposal is a way for the large pizza chains to shut out small business owners like himself.

“I think that what this boils down to is that you want people to have permission to come into your facility.
At the end of the day these are private properties,” said Rep. Julio Robaina, R-Miami. “Would you not agree that it would be a good idea that before you walk into any private property you would have some consent before you pass out flyers?”

The measure would enhance penalties for a new law approved by lawmakers now requiring that people handing out flyers on private property get permission from the owners.

The committee approved the bill, which has several more stops before getting to the House floor.

House Speaker Larry Cretul reversed his position on a measure that would make 911 calls exempt from public records.

Cretul, R-Ocala, had pushed the bill at the behest of Florida Farm Bureau President John Hoblick, whose organization contributed $30,000 to the Republican Party of Florida over the past two years. Hoblick was incensed about a 911 call aired after his son died after a night of drinking and using prescription pills.

“The issue of broadcasters using taped calls of desperate citizens seeking help from 911 remains a very important one. I’ve listened to many people on this matter, both pro and con, read news articles, correspondence, and editorials. There’s no question that the broadcasts provoke strong feelings. For now, it’s best to take a breather, turn our attention to the bill to improve 911 service in Florida—an equally important measure. I don’t think we need to move forward on the 911 tapes bill at this time,” Cretul said in a statement provided by his spokeswoman Jill Chamberlain.

The proposal outraged First Amendment advocates and some crime victims, including the family of Denise Amber Lee, who was murdered after the botched handling of a 911 call in Charlotte County, who want the tapes to remain available because they hold emergency dispatchers and law enforcement agencies accountable and because they are used to train dispatchers.

Denise Amber Lee’s family is backing a measure that would make Florida require training and certification of 911 dispatchers.

Chamberlain did not know whether the House sponsor Rep. Rob Schenck, R-Spring Hill, would pull the bill from his committee where it is scheduled to be heard later this week.

Thanksgiving Day shootings, Deerfield teen set on fire: Listen to more recent high-profile 911 calls


Take the Poll: Should 911 calls be kept off the air?

Free speech advocates are up in arms about a House bill that would harshly penalize individuals handing out flyers on property owned by hoteliers.

The bill (PCB PSDS 10-03) would allow the seizure of cars, computers or items in cars if a person has been caught more than three times handing out fliers, such as those organizing unions.

The bill would also permit those handing out the fliers to be arrested without probable cause unless they have the written permission of the company that owns the property.

The proposal is slated to be heard in the House Public Safety and Domestic Security Policy Committee tomorrow morning at 8 a.m.

“Diversity” was advertised as a prominent feature of the “coffee party” movement that held hundreds of gatherings Saturday to counter the conservative tea party movement.

But the meeting of about 40 people in West Palm Beach was predominantly white, and a perusal of Coffee Party USA photos from around the nation on Flickr.com shows mostly white faces.

“I’m a little surprised that there aren’t more young people and more people of color. I’m glad to see these people, though,” said Phil Stelly of North Palm Beach, who is 54 and black. He left early from Saturday’s meeting at a Panera Bread restaurant, but said he remains interested in the nascent group.

Two black women took part in the West Palm Beach meeting. Local organizer George Papison said he believes several participants were Latino.

“I would have liked to have seen more participants of color, but I don’t know whether we had any control over that….I would have liked to have seen more younger people, frankly,” said Papison, who is 59.

(more…)

West Palm Beach Mayor Lois Frankel says she’s made no decision on what she plans to do when her second term expires next March.

Frankel can’t seek a third term unless the city charter is changed, a process that would probably require a petition drive and referendum between now and November.

“I have no initiative under way,” Frankel said, and nothing planned. But, she added, “a lot of things could happen” in the next few months.

Read about it in this week’s Politics column.

WEST PALM BEACH — About 40 people showed up for Saturday’s first meeting of the local “coffee party” chapter, part of a national movement triggered by by pro-Obama filmmaker Annabel Park’s rants against the conservative tea party movement.

“To me, government is the answer. I’m really sort of perplexed,” said one coffee partier.

The event was one of hundreds nationwide. Read more here.

A Times/Herald analysis of IRS records shows Rubio’s spending “belies his image as an outsider riding a wave of anti-establishment fervor and gunning to knock off Gov. Charlie Crist for the Republican U.S. Senate nomination.” From the story:

• Rubio failed to disclose $34,000 in expenses — including $7,000 he paid himself — for one of the committees in 2003 and 2004, as required by state law.

• One committee paid relatives nearly $14,000 for what was incorrectly described to the IRS as “courier fees” and listed a nonexistent address for one of them. Another committee paid $5,700 to his wife, who was listed as the treasurer, much of it for “gas and meals.”

• He billed more than $51,000 in unidentified “travel expenses” to three different credit cards — nearly one-quarter of the committee’s entire haul. Charges are not required to be itemized, but other lawmakers detailed almost all of their committee expenses.

Full Palm Beach Post coverage of the Acreage cancer cluster

4:25 p.m. – The meeting ended after more than an hour of comments from Sen. Bill Nelson and other officials and questions from residents.

Several of the key residents in the cancer cluster debate, such as Greg Dunsford (one of the parents of a child diagnosed with a brain tumor), said they got more answers and the proceedings were much more civil than the last public cancer cluster meeting. The last meeting, held by the health department at Seminole Ridge High School last month, was characterized by hours of people screaming and yelling at each other and speakers from the state health department. (more…)

From WUSF:

The New York Times story hinted the change was meant to benefit U.S. Sugar and its law firm, where Crist’s ally, U.S. Sen. George LeMieux, was a partner.

Alan Farago of the group Friends of the Everglades says Crist abandoned the Bush plan because of science.

“Gov. Bush is quite critical of the U.S. Sugar deal, but in fact, the plan that he advocated and committed a billion dollars to was also based on very, very uncertain technologies and investments,” Farago said. “For instance, the largest man-made reservoir in the world, which is now sitting off U.S. 27 in a state of half-completeness.”

Environmentalists are upset that the story targeted Crist’s ties to U.S. Sugar, but failed to highlight the connections involving Crist’s opponent, former House Speaker Marco Rubio.

The WFSU story quotes our blog item pointing out Rubio received more than $14,000 from Florida Crystals, one of the main opponents to the Everglades deal. We updated that number to $24,200 in a blog post yesterday.

Gov. Charlie Crist on Fox News this morning said he’s being thumped in the polls right now by fellow Republican Marco Rubio because “nobody has talked about his record.”

What part of his record is no one talking about?

(more…)

WEST PALM BEACH — Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani told a packed crowd at Howley’s restaurant this morning that Republican Bill McCollum is Florida’s best defense against a California-style fiscal meltdown.

“This is a very difficult time to govern, whether it’s Florida or Texas or California,” Giuliani told about 70 McCollum supporters who crowded the diner for a $40-a-head meet-and-greet event.

McCollum, who is Florida’s attorney general, was state chairman for Giuliani’s 2008 presidential campaign. In addition to this morning’s breakfast, Giuliani will appear with McCollum at a fund-raiser at a private home in Stuart later today and at a restaurant in Miami’s Little Havana late this afternoon.

“You don’t want to become like California,” Giuliani said of the state that faces a $20 billion deficit. Giuliani said McCollum, who’s currently the Florida attorney general, would keep Florida’s spending under control.

(more…)

It would be more difficult to sell carburetor pipes, chillums and chillers in Florida under a bill approved today by a panel of state lawmakers.

Don’t know what those items are? Most members of the House Finance and Tax Council didn’t either. Not that that stopped them from approving the bill 16-0.

Story here.