The House last night agreed to the Senate’s plan to revive the Florida Correctional Medical Authority, a watchdog agency responsible for overseeing health care to Florida’s prisoners.

Lawmakers shuttered the agency last year despite concerns that the closing may put the state in violation of a federal court order. Gov. Rick Scott expressed concern that its elimination could “could cause public health and safety risks” in a veto message killing a bill pushed by the House that would have eliminated the CMA, but lawmakers zeroed out its $700,000 budget, forcing the agency to close its doors last summer.

Considered a national model, the CMA was created more than 25 years ago as part of a class action lawsuit. The shut-down came amid a statewide effort to privatize health care for the state’s 100,000 inmates. Scott is now facing two lawsuits over the outsourcing effort.

The CMA until last year consisted of a nine-member panel housed under the Department of Health. Under the new plan, the oversight board will be comprised of seven governor-appointed members, have a budget of about $580,000 budget and six workers who will be part of Scott’s administration but will continue to operate independently.

Senate budget chief JD Alexander cited the elimination of the CMA as an example of a problem with the conference process in which issues get “bumped” to the budget chairmen, who are responsible for ironing out differences on sometimes arcane items in the state’s $70-plus billion spending plan. Alexander, R-Lake Wales, said this year he regretted away to do away with it.

The Florida Legislature’s last week of session is usually a frenzied time of bills passing and last-minute cajoling by lawmakers to keep other must-pass measures from fading into oblivion.

It’s usually not a time when the House and Senate adjourn, as they did Wednesday, well before nightfall.

“Anti-climactic in the last week of session is usually a good thing,” said Rep. Will Weatherford, R-Wesley Chapel, in line to become House speaker this fall. “I think the citizens want us to do our work on time, under budget, and get out of town, without too many fireworks. And, hopefully, that’s what we’ll see in the next 48 hours.”

A decision on whether to revamp the state’s personal injury protection requirements for motorists looms as the only big-ticket issue both the House and Senate are working toward a consensus.

Gov. Rick Scott also wants a deal on PIP, which leaders say is rife with fraud.But settling the issue also involves untangling a knot of well-connected doctors, lawyers, pain management clinics and insurers.

A special session on PIP, however, is expected if a deal isn’t done by Friday’s scheduled finish.

Other than PIP, a $70 billion budget awaits a Friday vote. And a Supreme Court ruling on the Legislature’s redistricting plans could emerge by week’s end, which could also force a special session before the month is out.

But when asked about other finish-line priorities, Weatherford was coy.

“We want to pass our bills,” Weatherford said.

A waterfront enclave in St. Lucie County could be moved into neighboring Martin County under a measure approved 113-2 Wednesday by the House.

Just days after the Tallahassee-area commemorated the Battle of Natural Bridge, the Confederacy’s last major victory of the Civil War, the Florida Legislature appears poised to settle the battle of Beau Rivage, a 129-acre development where some residents want to secede from St. Lucie County and join Martin, with voter approval.

Beau Rivage is on the north fork of the St. Lucie River. Residents have a Stuart address and can access their home St. Lucie County only by driving through Martin County.

“They are technically in St. Lucie County,” Rep. Gayle Harrell, R-Stuart, said of the 560 residents affected by the legislation (CS/SB 800). “But really, economically, physically and socially, they are in Martin County. It is true, St. Lucie County would prefer they not move…I understand that. They don’t want to lose their tax base.”

The measure is expected to be approved by the Senate before Friday’s scheduled adjournment.

Residents are divided about the proposal, which would require voter approval before the boundaries change. But others want the switch because St. Lucie County school officials have indicated they may back away from allowing the neighborhood children to attend school in Martin County.

The last time the legislature changed the county lines was in 2007 when part of southern Palm Beach County was annexed into Broward County.

Following a partisan skirmish, the Republican-ruled House agreed Wednesday to expand the state’s corporate tax credit scholarship program, with Democrats decrying the move for pulling dollars from the state treasury which could go to public schools.

Businesses get a dollar-for-dollar tax credit for donating to the program, which began in 2001 as a centerpiece of then-Gov. Jeb Bush’s push toward giving parents private school options to leave troubled public schools.

The program began by setting aside $50 million for tax credits. But the measure approved Wednesday would expand the amount available for credits to $229 million next year.

Legislation approved two years ago set in motion a sliding scale that would allow the cap to climb to $219 this year. But Democrats fiercely fought the proposed increase, which still needs to clear the Senate.

“This bill is about private schools,” said Rep. Franklin Sands, D-Weston. “Please don’t take any more money out of public schools.”

The tax credit increase comes as lawmakers set aside an additional $1 billion increase in public school spending. But critics have cautioned that the boost fails to cover the $1.3 billion reduction in school spending approved last year by Gov. Rick Scott and the Legislature.

Last year’s cut brought per-pupil spending to its lowest level in six years.

But the House sponsor of the measure (CS/HB 859), Rep. Richard Corcoran, R-New Port Richey, said the tax money helps students leave “failing schools.” He rattled off state Education Department statistics that suggest student performance improves when they move to private schools.

Rep. Dennis Baxley, R-Ocala, said the scholarship money is a ”lifesaver” to low-income students and their families. He also lashed out at Democratic opponents.

“These kids are stuck. Condemned. And you wouldn’t even send them a lifesaver?” Baxley said.

As of November 2011, there were 1,181 schools participating in the program and scholarships were awarded to 37,578 students, records show. The scholarship amount per-student is about two-thirds what the state spends on public school students.

The corporate tax program has long proved controversial. The Palm Beach Post reported in the program’s early years that questionable organizations and storefront schools were getting scholarship money, prompting state officials to more closely monitor participating schools and collect more data on how they were using those dollars.

Students in private schools are exempt from such public school testing programs as the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test (FCAT). But the measure authorizes participating schools to administer state assessment tests, ordering public school districts to provide the material and whatever support the private schools need. 

After a heated debate on a Penn State-inspired measure dealing with child abuse reporting, the Senate included a change critics complained is overreaching and rejected repeated efforts to weaken the proposed financial penalties on colleges and universities.

The proposal (HB 1355) would require anyone to report suspected child abuse or neglect to the Department of Children and Families hotline. Now, the hotline is only required to accept reports if caregivers are suspected of sexually abusing the children. DCF officials say they take all calls and refer calls about abuse other than by caregivers to local authorities. The change would require hotline operators to process all abuse complaints.

Sen. Joe Negron said the measure goes too far and ignores personal and cultural differences regarding what constitutes abuse.

“Some people think it’s abusive to raise your voice to a child,” Negron, R-Stuart, argued. “It seems like it’s almost turning every Floridian into an informant for the government.

And Senate Democratic Leader Nan Rich cautioned that the abuse hotline is already overloaded.

“We need to be very careful,” Rich, D-Weston, said. “We can revisit it next year so we don’t have everybody calling the hotline and the hotline not being able to handle it because they can’t even handle what they’re required to do now.”

Sen. Ronda Storms acknowledged that the proposal could be problematic but said she tried to narrow it with an amendment.

“I’m going to get hate mail on this but I spank. I spank my children” which could make her vulnerable to being reported as a child abuser, Storms, R-Valrico, said.

The bill is being pushed by influential lobbyist Ron Book and his daughter Lauren, a childhood sexual abuse survivor and founder of advocacy organization “Lauren’s Kids,” who watched from the first row of the public gallery overlooking the chamber.

Sen. Evelyn Lynn tried but failed to lower the penalties against college and university officials from $1 million to $25,000 and also failed to include reporting of hazing by officials and students in the bill.

But the Senate rejected her attempts.

“We can’t stick up for institutions over people,” Sen. Nancy Detert, R-Venice, said. “If the Penn State thing happened here, a million bucks wouldn’t be enough. People would want his head. I’m sorry this became a university funding issue rather than a child abuse issue.”

With two days left until the session ends, the Senate will vote on the measure tomorrow and send it to the House for approval.

Florida Democratic Party Chairman Rod Smith joined House Democrats in blasting ruling Republicans Wednesday for falling short in dollars for public schools and forcing university students to shoulder an increasingly bigger share of state higher education spending.

“Rick Scott said he was going to focus on our education system — but sadly he and the Republican legislature seemed to only focus on tearing it down and making education less affordable for Florida’s middle class,” Smith said at an election-year media event held outside the Capitol.

 ”While the GOP has failed to improve education, they have succeeded at what they do best: prioritizing corporate tax breaks, special interest projects and Tea Party extremism ahead of Florida’s families,” he added.

Reps. Lori Berman, D-Delray Beach, and Mark Pafford, D-West Palm Beach, were among the half-dozen House Democrats flanking Smith.

University spending faces a $300 million reduction in the $70 billion state budget positioned for a final vote Friday. While public school spending is boosted $1 billion in the budget, that still falls short of the $1.3 billion cut from classrooms last year, when per-pupil dollars dropped to their lowest level in six years.

“These devastating cuts to higher education make it increasingly unaffordable for students like me to attend college,” said Dominique Gelin, president of Florida College Democrats.

The Senate grudgingly approved a measure giving future governors the ability to wipe out a majority of members on panels who help select judges, including Supreme Court judges, and sent it to the House for approval.

The proposal (HB 971) is a compromise with Gov. Rick Scott, who wanted to be able to wipe clean the entire judicial nominating commissions, nine-member panels made up of five gubernatorial appointees and four selected by the Florida Bar.

The House version of the measure would allow Scott to remove effectively fire JNC members picked by his successor Charlie Crist. But the Senate rejected that plan, allowing only members appointed after Scott took office to be affected.

Two Republicans joined Democrats in voting against the bill, which passed 24-14.

Democratic lawyers complained that the measure would politicize the panels, urging their colleagues excogitate the issue before voting.

“This bill gives too much power to a governor who said he wanted people who thought like him to sit on the judiciary of the state of Florida. And that is exactly what we should not allow,” said Sen. Arthenia Joyner, D-Tampa, a former JNC member.

Giving one governor the ability to control a majority of the panels could erode diversity on the bench, Joyner, who is black, warned.

But bill sponsor Sen. David Simmons, R-Altamonte Springs, called the bill a “middle-of-the-road” solution that keeps both the JNCs from “gaming the system” by sending the governor unqualified applicants. And it prevents the governor from doing the same, Simmons said, by giving him control of only five of the nine members.

“They would only have to have one other person, one of those five, to go along with them in their decision-making,” Simmons, a lawyer, said.

The bill would give judges the ability to work as part-time judges immediately after retiring without losing their retirement benefits.

Governors could fire most of the panelists who help pick judges — a watered-down version of a Gov. Rick Scott priority — under a bill up for a vote as early as Wednesday in the Florida Senate.

The new language is a compromise between Scott and Sen. David Simmons, R-Altamonte Springs, the bill’s sponsor, who said the system is fine as it is but agreed to make a concession to Scott.

Scott wanted to be able to fire all nine members of the state’s Judicial Nominating Commissions, but lawmakers balked, calling it a power grab by the governor that could tip the courts and overly-politicize judicial selection.

The panels send the governor a list of three candidates to replace retiring or resigning judges. Governors appoint five of the nine members of the JNCs; the Florida Bar appoints the other four.

Under the original version of the measure (SB 1570), Scott would have been able to fire all of Gov. Charlie Crist’s appointees to the panels. Current law only allows the JNC members to be removed from their staggered, four-year terms if they have done something wrong.

The compromise would only apply to JNC members appointed after Jan. 4, 2011, the day Scott took office, meaning Crist’s picks are safe until their terms run out.

But the new proposal gives Scott the ability to keep the panels from essentially forcing him to go with their selection by including two unqualified candidates on the list, Simmons, a lawyer, said.

The controversial “Parent Empowerment” proposal isn’t just causing a bipartisan kerfuffle in the Senate where critics say the measure is a cash cow for for-profit charter schools and private management companies.

But the “parent trigger” measure could also make hay for Gov. Jeb Bush’s non-profit Foundation for Florida’s Future. Bush is backing the bill, pushed by Los Angeles-based Parent Revolution and education reformer Michelle Rhee and fiercely opposed by a teachers’ unions and a Florida coalition of parent-led groups, including the PTA.

Patricia Levesque, executive director of Bush’s Foundation, sent out a blast e-mail asking supporters to contact their senators to urge them to vote for the bill. But that wasn’t all.

“Additionally, won’t you help us in our efforts to fight those opposed to parents’ rights? Please consider making a one-time contribution of $500 or $1,000 or a monthly contribution of $50 or $100 to the Foundation for Florida’s Future. With your support, we can ensure that parents have representation and more options as it relates to their child’s education,” Levesque wrote.

Levesque sent out the missive in response to a blast message from left-leaning Progess Florida condemning the bill.

According to the exchange, the forces lining up on either side of the issue range from Koch brothers to the League of Women Voters.

“Anti-public school extremists in the Florida Senate are trying to pull a fast one, and we need your help right now,” the Progress Florida e-mail began. “So, if not parent groups, who is really behind this latest attack on public schools? According to Parents Across America “model legislation based on the Parent Trigger has been written and promoted by ALEC, the shadowy organization backed by the Koch brothers that has a radical right-wing agenda.” And who profits? Not parents and students. No, the ones who profit are unaccountable corporate charter school operators who aren’t held to the same standards as public schools and don’t necessarily have the best interests of students, parents or teachers at heart.

That prompted the e-mail from Levesque:

“Yesterday, the Foundation for Florida’s Future tweeted “Conspiracy theories and outright lies—who knew #edreform would be so exciting?” This was in response to emails, like the one below, that are being sent in opposition to the Parent Empowerment Act. You will not find the vitriol in the below email surprising. Despite incredible successes over the past 10 years, those who seek to protect the status quo are as passionate as ever. This includes the League of Women Voters, AFL-CIO, Florida Education Association and local affiliates such as Fund Education Now and Save our Schools.”

The Senate is set to take up the measure on Thursday and an ugly committee meeting – along with the above exchange – set the stage for what will likely be a heated debate before a vote on Friday.

A testy Senate Special Order Committee meeting over a controversial “parent trigger” measure late Tuesday night set the stage for what will likely be an ugly end to the legislative session for the second year in a row.

But in a departure from the more typical animosity between the House and Senate, Senators can expect intra-cameral hard feelings before Friday’s sine die.

Intense bipartisan wrangling over the parent trigger measure peaked Tuesday night when Sen. Evelyn Lynn, R-Ormond Beach, and Senate Democratic Leader Nan Rich tried to remove the proposal (SB 1718) from a list of more than 50 measures being sent to the floor on special order on Thursday.

But committee chairman John Thrasher, R-St. Augustine, backed up by Senate Majority Leader Andy Gardiner and Senate President-designate Don Gaetz, refused to grant the pair the option of voting solely against the “Parent Empowerment” measure, which they both oppose.

Near the end of the meeting, Lynn repeatedly tried to ask Thrasher to allow her to vote no on the bill. An increasingly angry Thrasher finally cut Lynn off and, speaking over her, ordered the vote on the entire package, which passed by an unusual 4-3 vote, setting the “special order” calendar for Thursday. Lynn, Rich and Sen. Chris Smith, D-Fort Lauderdale, rejected the entire list rather than sign off on the parent trigger bill.

Lynn called the block vote a “political maneuver” that was “inappropriate and incorrect.”

But Gardiner, R-Orlando, chimed in, reminding Lynn that it was a procedural maneuver on the part of a bipartisan coalition led by Rich and Sen. Jack Latvala, R-St. Petersburg, that kept the measure from being withdrawn from a committee and sent to the Senate floor and instead required a special – and very rare – Saturday morning budget meeting to move the bill along. (Thrasher and Gardiner are an odd coalition, considering they are locked in a fight over the 2014-2016 Senate presidency.)

Gaetz, R-Niceville, agreed, accusing the bipartisan group of an “effort to stymie the process so the bill could not get to the floor.”

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The House sponsor of a bill aimed at reducing the number of homeowners covered by Citizens Property Insurance opted to kill the measure (HB 245) rather than allow the state-run insurers’ customers to “opt in” to switching to unregulated “surplus lines” carriers.

Consumer advocates cheered the apparent death Tuesday of what they called the backdoor deregulation of Florida’s property insurance market.

A bipartisan House coalition voted 63-52 in support of the Senate’s language requiring that Citizens insurance customers have a chance to sign off first before being moved to the “surplus lines” companies with unregulated rates.

The House refusal to strip the Senate’s “opt in” provision inserted a day earlier proved to be a deal-breaker for the bill’s sponsor, who said this year’s effort appears finished. Industry lobbyists preferred a system where customers of the state’s insurer of last resort would be automatically switched unless they took steps to “opt out.”

“We’re finished with it for this year,” sponsor Rep. Jim Boyd, R-Bradenton, said Tuesday.

- Palm Beach Post staff writer Charles Elmore contributed to this story.

UPDATE: Easter baskets could get even more festive if Gov. Rick Scott signs off on a bill heading his way that will allow farm animals, including bunnies, ducklings and chicks, to be dyed – that’s colored, not killed. The House passed the measure 109-5.

Nearly 50 years ago, Florida outlawed dyed bunnies, chickens and ducks.

But just in time for Easter, kids may find pink or green bunnies tucked in with other mellifluous treats in their holiday baskets after the Florida Senate tacked on an amendment to an agriculture bill (HB 1197) dealing with honeybees and other critters.

Animal- loving Senate Democratic Leader Nan Rich tried to get the amendment stripped off, saying the statute banning animal dying comes under the “animal cruelty” section of the Florida Statutes.

Dyed bunnies, ducks and baby chicks “look really cute at a couple of months of age” Rich, D-Weston, argued. “But when they get older and nobody wants them, then they get loose or taken to our shelters.”

But Sen. Ellyn Bogdanoff, the amendment sponsor, said dog groomers want the ban on dying lifted so they can colorize pets for competitions and parades. She said dying dogs isn’t cruel and rejected Rich’s argument that pets don’t get asked if they want their fur dyed.

“We neuter dogs without their permission. I’ve never asked my poodle if he wanted a hair cut,” Bogdanoff, R-Fort Lauderdale, said. “Animal cruelty is wrong…but dying a dog’s hair or horse’s tail I don’t think is cruel.”

But Rich didn’t back down.

“This is not about grooming poodles,” she said. “This…is a way of ensuring that we don’t have a lot of little adorable ducks, rabbits and chickens that are given away at Easter time and look so cute and then two or three months later nobody wants them.”

Rich’s attempt failed, and the amended ag bill now goes back to the House.

House Speaker Dean Cannon reflected on his two years leading the chamber Tuesday, as his official portrait was unveiled and fellow House members chipped in for a gift — a new shotgun for the outd00rs-loving lawmaker.

Cannon thanked his wife, Ellen, and three children for hanging with him through the demands of leadership and the turmoil of politics. His parents were credited for guiding him, and a host of fellow lawmakers for inspiring and motivating him toward policy decisions during two years of challenging budgets.

Cannon, who will leave office in November with no clear plans for future political office, praised governors he served under, Republicans Jeb Bush and Rick Scott. But he singled out another, Republican-turned-independent Gov. Charlie Crist for a special shot.

Cannon thanked, “Jeb Bush for showing me what a leader could be, Charlie Crist for showing me what a politician should not be, and Rick Scott for showing me that sometimes against the odds, the right person ends up exactly where he was meant to be.”

A final state budget deal Monday cut $24.8 million from Florida Atlantic University as House and Senate negotiators capped days of talks with last-minute additions that tucked dozens of hometown projects into a $70 billion spending plan.

The agreement sets the stage for budgets to be placed on the desks of lawmakers today. A constitutionally required 72-hour waiting period means final votes are likely Friday, the two-month session’s last scheduled day.

FAU’s reduction trims about 10 percent of the school’s budget and is part of a $300 million cut leveled across Florida’s 11 public universities.

Officials said FAU can use $16 million in reserves to help ease the lost dollars. Still, it marks the fifth straight year of declining state aid for universities – a trend that has heightened the push for tuition increases.

The higher education cuts come even as the budget deal anticipates a 12^th state university – with the Legislature approving separating the University of South Florida from its polytechnic campus in Lakeland.

Senate budget chief J.D. Alexander, R-Lake Wales, spearheaded the break with USF, as the term-limited lawmaker will leave office in November with a new school created in his home Polk County.

But Alexander wasn’t the only leading lawmaker to land a favored project Monday as millions of dollars was steered to community centers, social service programs, local road projects and even $5 million for a Sarasota rowing center, already vetoed once by Gov. Rick Scott.

Alexander’s House counterpart, Rep. Denise Grimsley, R-Sebring, steered $520,203 to an international baccalaureate program at her hometown high school.

When asked about what critics call political pork, Alexander said lawmakers had a right to fight for hometown spending.

“It’s a fair amount, all and all,” Alexander said of the projects. “We haven’t done a lot of that in a number of years…but at the end of the day, each of us is elected to represent our districts and their unique needs.”

Scott, though,  last year vetoed a record $615 million in spending by lawmakers. Mindful of that, Alexander added a caution to the items lawmakers managed to include Monday.

“Of course, most all that will be subject to discussion with the governor,” he added.

A measure that aims at banning the use in Florida of Sharia, a code of law based on the Koran and the teachings of Mohammed, is on its way to the Senate floor after a procedural maneuver removing it from its last committee of reference.

Critics, including the Anti-Defamation League, say the measure, already approved by the Florida House, would also keep Jewish couples from using Jewish Bet Din tribunals to get a divorce, something their faith requires for remarriage.

A Senate Criminal Justice Committee last week signed off on the measure (SB 1360) with less than three minutes of debate. The Senate committee vote coincided with the fourth Muslim Annual Capitol Day on Tuesday.

Ahmed Bedier, the rally’s organizer, blasted lawmakers for reviving the measure, first offered last year.

“We’re not the people who are un-American,” Bedier said last week. “They are, for violating the Constitution and introducing legislation that limits religious freedom.”

The Anti-Defamation League asked lawmakers to reject the proposal, saying it is unnecessary because both the state and U.S. constitutions already prohibit the use of foreign or religious law in the courts. And the ADL contends it is based on legislation proposed by anti-Islamic leaders outside Florida.

The Senate could vote on the measure as early as Wednesday.

- The News Service of Florida contributed to this report.

Gov. Rick Scott, insurers, chiropractors, masseuses, acupuncturists and consumer advocates are just some of the “special interests” trying to have a say in a personal injury protection overhaul.

And with the House and Senate still far apart in their proposed solutions and just four days left until the legislative session wraps up, Senate President Mike Haridopolos would not rule out the possibility of a special session on the issue.

The Florida House passed a bill to loosen the grip of massage therapists, chiropractors and acupuncturists last week, keeping alive one of Scott’s top legislative priorities. The Senate version, among other differences, puts fewer time restrictions on treatment but also largely shuts the door on massage therapy and acupuncture.

Stuart Republican Sen. Joe Negron, leading the charge on PIP reform in his chamber, called the differences reconcilable.

But Haridopolos said he’s not sure he’s got the votes to get the proposal out of his chamber at all.

“All I can do right now is try to figure out how it can pass in the Senate. I know the House has been on a little bit different glide path,” Haridopolos, R-Merritt Island, said, calling Negron’s bill “outstanding.”

“Overall, the fraud component has been handled in a thoughtful manner,” Haridopolos said. “I do support where he stands on massage and acupuncture but I’ve got to get it off this floor.”

Haridopolos said he’d be willing to come back in a special session on the matter, especially because he’s expecting lawmakers will have to come back to Tallahassee anyway to redraw legislative maps. The Senate President is expecting the Supreme Court to reject at least in part the new legislative districts. House Speaker Dean Cannon, R-Winter Park, said he does not want to hold a special session on PIP.

“I’m willing to come back. I think it’s an important issue. It’s not just the justice issue of eradicating fraud. It’s also a financial issue to a lot of families because they’re paying too much for auto insurance. So if we needed to have a special session, you won’t see me object at all,” Haridopolos said.

Senate Republican leaders are predicting an anti-abortion measure will not get a floor vote after a bipartisan coalition blocked its withdrawal from a committee Monday afternoon.

The Florida House had already signed off on the measure (HB 277) and added controversial “fetal pain” language requiring abortion providers to inform patients that fetuses can feel pain after 20 weeks, something critics call “junk science” because it is under dispute.

With four days left until the session ends, Senate Rules Chairman John Thrasher called the bill dead after the 23-16 vote to remove it from the Senate Budget committee, which required a two-thirds majority, or 26 votes, to pass. It is unlikely the procedure will be invoked again, Thrasher said.

“I don’t think so. That’s was a pretty definitive vote,” Thrasher, R-St. Augustine, said.

Lawmakers last year approved five anti-abortion measures, and moderates are not prepared to go to the board again, Rich said. The proposal would impose tough regulations on abortion clinics, impose a 24-hour waiting period before a woman can get the procedure in a state that abortion providers say already has the most restrictive laws on the books.

“We’re tired of focusing on right-wing social issues like abortion. We did more than enough last year to curtail women’s reproductive rights,” Rich, D-Weston, said.

The bill’s sponsor Anitere Flores, R-Miami, said she was disappointed that the chamber won’t debate the issue on the floor.

But Rich said it might be better for Republicans to avoid drawing attention to abortion, tied up in a national firestorm over Planned Parenthood, contraception and government funding.

“If the Republicans thought about it, they would realize that not having this raw debate on the floor actually will help them,” Rich said. “Because any time we’re going to have this type of discussion now, in light of what’s happening with contraceptives and Rush Limbaugh and all that’s going on in this country, the polls are beginning to show that’s hurting the people who are trying to reduce women’s reproductive rights.”

South Florida’s Tri-Rail board would be reshuffled, the rail line could expand to Monroe County, and its administration could be privatized under a sweeping transportation bill (CS/HB 1399) approved Monday by the House.

The House OK’d the measure 97-16. A similar bill (CS/SB 1068) is still awaiting final action in the Senate.

The legislation would turn the nine-member South Florida Regional Transportation Authority into a 10-member panel, with Gov. Rick Scott authorized to appoint four members. The bill earlier created an 11-member panel, with Scott naming five — but lawmakers bowed to critics worried about giving the governor too much authority over the rail board.

Still, the agreement addresses the governor’s desire to privatize Tri-Rail. Two-thirds of the board would have to approve such a step.

The bill also creates a program for the Palm Beach County School Board that would allow it to display the names of board “business partners” by displaying their names on district property in unincorporated areas.

Florida’s surgeon general, Dr. Frank Farmer, announced Monday that he is stepping down to assist in the care of his wife, Peggy, who was recently diagnosed with breast cancer.

Farmer, an Ormond Beach physician, was named surgeon general last year by Gov. Rick Scott. The surgeon general is Florida’s chief medical officer and also leads the state’s Department of Health.

Legislation already approved by the House (CS/HB 1263) would reshape the surgeon general’s role, removing the position as the state’s leading voice on wellness and disease prevention. The legislation also would change some duties of the Department of Health, while closing Lantana’s A.G. Holley Hospital, the state’s last tuberculosis sanatorium.

For Farmer, though, his departure appears more personal.

“My position and the path I must choose have now changed,” Farmer said in an email to DOH staff.  “I want to support my wife and family through this time.”

The governor’s office announced no immediate plans for a successor.

A coalition of parent-led groups, including the Florida PTA, and Democrats bashed a fast-tracked “parent trigger” proposal that would let parents at failing schools determine their fate.

The bill “has everything with laying the groundwork for the hostile, corporate takeover of public schools throughout Florida, a direct attack on public education,” Senate Democratic Leader Nan Rich of Weston said at a press conference this morning.

Before the event began, Los Angeles-based Parent Revolution lobbyists handed out press releases asserting that national Democrats support the controversial measure. The California group called opponents “defenders of the status quo” and accused the Florida Education Association of invoking “new boogeymen” in “an attempt to confuse parents and political observers.” The “parent trigger” is now in place in first-in-the-nation California, Texas and Mississippi.

In those states, Democrats including Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, have favored the plan. The at-time unctuous, election-year parent trigger debate is pitting teachers’ unions and parent groups against charter schools and for-profit management companies throughout the nation.

At least 20 states, including Florida, are now considering “Parent Empowerment” legislation. The business-backed, conservative American Legislative Exchange Council has crafted model bills similar to the one (SB 1718, HB 1191) now on its way to the Senate floor in Florida; the House approved an identical measure last week along partisan lines. The Florida proposal is being pushed by former Gov. Jeb Bush and his education foundation, Senate President Mike Haridopolos, R-Merritt Island, and other GOP leaders.

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