A Florida Senate committee followed the House lead on Monday and passed legislation to clarify state law to ban on Internet cafes that are operating electronic sweepstakes in strip malls across the state.

The move comes less than a week after a federal and state investigation led to the arrest of 55 individuals in Florida and five other states on racketeering and corruptions charges linked to gaming centers run by the Allied Veterans, a purported charity that gave only 2 percent of their proceeds to veterans.

The fallout also prompted the resignation of Lt. Gov. Jennifer Carroll who previously represented the Allied Veterans in her consulting company and has led to one of the fastest legislative responses to a gambling probe in decades.

The Senate Select Committee on Gaming voted unanimously to pass the bill, even amid concerns that there may be unintended consquences that could affect penny arcades for children and seniors.

But the committee spent most of the meeting laying the foundation for why the bill is needed this year, when they had planned to wait until next year to clarify the law, when they will attempt a sweeping rewrite of the state’s gambling laws. “The events last week made two things very clear,” said Sen. Garrett Richter, R-Naples, chairman of the committee. “One, that we could not wait another year to address Internet cafes. Two, instead of a moratorium we need an outright ban.”

He said that the bill clarifies that “gambling is illegal in Florida unless it’s legal” and there is nothing that makes the electronic sweepstakes games and online slot machine software used by the Internet cafes, adult arcades and maquinitas legal.

Owners of adult arcade operators urged the committee to reconsider the attempt to tighten the rules on them. Under the bill, the so-called adult arcade may only offer games of skill and may not give patrons rewards valued at more than 75 cents.

Jason Fischer of “Play it Again Arcade”  in Davie told the committee the bill will discriminate against older people who see their amusement centers as their “home away from home.”

He and his brother run two arcades and

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Article source: http://www.tampabay.com/blogs/the-buzz-florida-politics/senate-committee-passes-plan-to-ban-internet-cafes/2109668

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. –  Gov. Rick Scott announced plans Wednesday to expand Medicaid coverage to roughly 900,000 more people under the federal health overhaul, a surprise decision from the vocal critic of President Barack Obama’s plan.

Scott said he will ask the Legislature to expand the program under a bill that would expire in three years, after which it would require renewed legislative support. He’s the seventh Republican governor so far to propose expanding the taxpayer-funded health insurance program.

Scott said he would support the expansion as long as the federal government pays 100 percent of the increased costs, which is the deal offered to states by the Obama administration. After that, the federal government said it would pay 90 percent of the cost for the additional enrollees.

The governor said he gained new perspective after his mother’s death last year, calling his decision to support a key provision of the Affordable Care Act a “compassionate, common sense step forward.”

“Before I ever dreamed of standing here today as governor of this great state, I was a strong advocate for better ways to improve healthcare than the government-run approach taken in the President’s healthcare law. I believe in a different approach. But, regardless of what I — or anyone else — believes, a Supreme Court decision and a presidential election made the President’s healthcare mandates the law of the land,” Scott said at a news conference.

The governor said he still worries that the president’s plan could “lead to less patient choice, worse care, and higher costs” but he can’t “in good conscience, deny the uninsured access to care.” Scott stressed he won’t simply deny new Medicaid recipients health insurance after the three years are up, but said he will spend that time measuring how the expansion impacts healthcare costs, quality and access.

Scott, a former CEO of the HCA hospital chain, entered politics in 2009 running national cable TV commercials criticizing the president’s plan. Florida led the way in challenging the ACA in a lawsuit that went all the way to the Supreme Court. Scott also made the rounds on conservative talk shows repeatedly expressing

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Article source: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2013/02/20/gov-scott-agrees-to-expand-florida-medicaid-program/

“Head Start: Head Start and Early Head Start services would be eliminated for approximately 2,700 children in Florida, reducing access to critical early education.

“Protections for Clean Air and Clean Water: Florida would lose about $5.2 million in environmental funding to ensure clean water and air quality, as well as prevent pollution from pesticides and hazardous waste. In addition, Florida could lose another $1.1 million in grants for fish and wildlife protection.

“Military Readiness: In Florida, approximately 31,000 civilian Department of Defense employees would be furloughed, reducing gross pay by around $183.2 million in total.

“Army: Base operation funding would be cut by about $7 million in Florida.

“Air Force: Funding for Air Force operations in Florida would be cut by about $23 million.

“Navy: $135 million in funding for aircraft depot maintenance in Jacksonville and four demolition projects in Pensacola ($3.2 million) could be canceled.

“Law Enforcement and Public Safety Funds for Crime Prevention and Prosecution: Florida will lose about $970,000 in Justice Assistance Grants that support law enforcement, prosecution and courts, crime prevention and education, corrections and community corrections, drug treatment and enforcement, and crime victim and witness initiatives.

“Job Search Assistance to Help those in Florida find Employment and Training: Florida will lose about $2.3 million in funding for job search assistance, referral, and placement, meaning around 78,960 fewer people will get the help and skills they need to find employment.

“Child Care: Up to 1,600 disadvantaged and vulnerable children could lose access to child care, which is also essential for working parents to hold down a job.

“Vaccines for Children: In Florida around 7,450 fewer children will receive vaccines for diseases such as measles, mumps, rubella, tetanus, whooping cough, influenza, and Hepatitis B due to reduced funding for vaccinations of about $509,000.

“Public Health: Florida will lose approximately $1.8 million in funds to help upgrade its ability to respond to public health threats including infectious diseases, natural disasters, and biological, chemical, nuclear, and radiological events. In addition, Florida will lose about $5 million in grants to help prevent and treat substance abuse, resulting in around 4500 fewer admissions to substance abuse programs. And the Florida State

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Article source: http://weblogs.sun-sentinel.com/news/politics/dcblog/2013/02/white_house_warns_about_budget.html

Brigantine, N.J. –

President Obama soberly toured the destruction wrought by superstorm Sandy on Wednesday in the company of New Jersey’s Republican governor and assured victims “we will not quit” until cleanup and recovery are complete, while rival Mitt Romney muted criticism of Obama as he barnstormed Florida.

Forsaking partisan politics for the third day in a row, the president flew with Gov. Chris Christie over washed-out roads, flooded homes, boardwalks bobbing in the ocean and, in Seaside Heights, a fire still burning after ruining about eight structures.

Despite the break on the surface from heated campaigning, a new controversy flared over Romney’s new television and radio ads in Ohio.

“Desperation,” Vice President Joe Biden said of the broadcast claims that suggested General Motors and Chrysler are adding jobs in China at the expense of workers in the bellwether state. “One of the most flagrantly dishonest ads I can ever remember.”

Republicans were unrepentant as Romney struggled for a breakthrough in the Midwest.

“American taxpayers are on track to lose $25 billion as a result of President Obama’s handling of the auto bailout, and GM and Chrysler are expanding their production overseas,” said an e-mailed statement issued in the name of Republican running mate Paul Ryan.

As the race nears its end in a flurry of early balloting by millions of voters, unrelenting advertising and so many divergent polls that the result was confusion, not clarity, the storm added yet another element of uncertainty.

Christie was waiting when Air Force One landed in New Jersey, and he and Obama, two figures in blue windbreakers, walked together toward the president’s helicopter to begin their tour. It was a tableau that seemed impossible a week ago – a president struggling to defend his economic record in a tight election, flying off to a non-battleground state to spend the afternoon in the company of the man who delivered the keynote address at Romney’s Republican National Convention last summer.

Three hours later, the two men spoke of one another in glowing terms.

“He has sprung into action immediately,” Christie said.

Obama said of the governor: “He has put his heart and soul into making

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Article source: http://www.sfgate.com/politics/article/Obama-pledges-cleanup-Romney-in-Florida-3998883.php

Hurricane Isaac, currently a tropical storm brewing southeast of Puerto Rico, is on track to hit Florida the same day that Mitt Romney and 50,000 Republican delegates, journalists, protestors and guests descend on Tampa for the Republican National Convention.

While it is too early to accurately predict the storm’s path, ABC meteorologist Max Golembo said it will hit southern Florida. Whether it will skim the east coast near Miami or crash head-on into Tampa, is still up in the air.

“Any way you take it, it’s going to be a wind and rain event in Tampa,” Golembo said. “We don’t know if it’s going to be damaging to Tampa, cancelling the convention or just delaying it.”

As of this morning, the worst possible scenario is that Hurricane Isaac stays on the western track, skating over the Caribbean Sea south of Haiti, crossing the primarily flat landscape of western Cuba into the Gulf of Mexico then curving east and hitting Tampa dead-on.

“Tampa is just as vulnerable as New Orleans was in the sense that the water will funnel into the bay area and from the storm surge which will flood completely the whole entire city of Tampa,” Golembo said referring to Hurricane Katrina that devastated New Orleans in 2005.

“It would be a disaster in the Tampa area,” Golembo said.

But Tampa Mayor Bob Buckhorn downplayed any serious threat to the convention.

“Come on down,” Buckhorn said. “The event is going to take place, it’s going to be a great event and we’re looking forward to having you.”

He said Isaac was still 2,500 miles off the Florida coast and “is not an imminent threat.”

While most prediction models show the storm taking a more eastern track, Golembo said one “very important model,” one the meteorologists use “a lot,” has Isaac slamming directly into Tampa.

“That’s why the meteorologists are pulling their hair out right now,”

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Article source: http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/OTUS/hurricane-isaac-threatens-swamp-republican-convention/story?id=17057501

Once again, the state is courting problems as it seeks to purge supposedly ineligible people from voter rolls.

Making sure that only eligible citizens cast a ballot is a fine idea in theory. In practice, it must be done carefully in order to avoid far-reaching mistakes — as Florida has proved twice before. Voter purges in 2000 and 2004 were riddled with errors; some legitimate citizens were deprived of their voting rights.

Florida law bars noncitizens from voting. The same goes for felons who have not had their rights restored. Periodically, deceased voters must also be removed from the rolls.

State officials and hired help compare various databases in an attempt to weed out ineligible voters. It’s an imperfect process, in which faulty data entry, misspellings, similar-sounding names, transposed numbers and such can cast doubt on legitimate voters.

Recently, the state notified county election supervisors about some 2,700 voters who might be ineligible, but further review has validated citizenship status for numerous people on that list.

UNEVEN APPLICATION

What’s especially troubling about voter purges is their potential to tilt the playing field on election day. This week, a Miami Herald computer analysis of election records found that “Hispanic, Democratic and independent-minded voters are the most likely to be targeted in a state hunt to remove thousands of noncitizens from Florida’s voting rolls.”

These concerns are further amplified by state laws that make it more difficult to run voter-registration drives. A recent article in the Tampa Bay Times, St. Petersburg, cited a study that found new registrations dropping by more than 81,000 (compared to 2008) since the new laws took effect last summer.

The statutes — which subject volunteers to onerous penalties if they do not hand in registration paperwork within two days — are under legal challenge. The courts should strike them down swiftly, because primaries are rapidly approaching. With redistricting, new precinct lines and other changes to deal with, voters and election workers don’t need any additional headaches over registrations.

Evidence of fraud is rare among the state’s 11 million voters. While guarding the integrity of the vote is important, it is just as vital to ensure that

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Article source: http://www.theledger.com/article/20120525/EDIT01/120529596?Title=Florida-Voter-Polls-Purges-And-Politics-

The sharp turn toward deep budget cuts, with no consideration of new revenues, reflects the looming influence of Gov. Rick Scott, the Tea Party and more conservative Senate leadership.

Senate Republicans have filed legislation seeking to collect $40 million from a levy on bottled water, up to $200 million in new cigarette taxes and up to $800 million from taxing online transactions. Democrats are pushing a $500 million effort to close corporate tax loopholes.

But none of the proposals were included in the $70.8 billion budget moving toward adoption in the ­Senate. The House already approved a spending plan that relies entirely on cutting state programs to close a $2 billion budget gap.

Sen. Thad Altman, R-Viera, said the rigidly ideological budgeting approach hurts the state economy.

“If you’re simply dogmatically not looking at the cost-benefit ratio and say no to any new investment you’re going to become stagnant,” Altman said.

As recently as 2009 the Republican-majority Legislature raised $2.2 billion from cigarette taxes and motor vehicle fees to help make ends meet.

Nothing similar is on the table today.

Top lawmakers — many of whom voted for the 2009 budget — have stiffened their resistance to tax proposals as the Tea Party gained prominence and concerns about the federal budget deficit made fiscal discipline a pressing political issue.

The change is especially noticeable in the Senate, once a haven for moderate Republicans but now sharply more conservative under the leadership of President Mike Haridopolos, R-Merritt Island.

Senators spent many hours debating various proposals to close tax loopholes in 2009 and 2010. Most of these ideas failed to even get a committee hearing this year.

Only the Internet sales tax has seen significant debate, but Senate leaders are insisting the proposal be offset by tax cuts elsewhere to make it revenue neutral.

‘Facing a mail piece’

A hearing on the legislation in the Senate Banking and Insurance committee on Thursday made it clear that many lawmakers support the plan but worry about the political consequences.

“The problem with this is everybody who runs for office is going to be facing a mail piece that says you taxed the Internet and raised people’s taxes,”

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Article source: http://www.theledger.com/article/20120219/NEWS/120219277/1410?Title=Legislature-s-Focus-on-Cuts-Not-New-Revenue-