Insisting the Legislature has ignored Florida voters, environmental litagator Earthjustice filed suit Monday to compel lawmakers to comply with Amendment 1, Water and Land Legacy, in the state Constitution.
The suit (see attached document below) was filed in Leon County Circuit Court on behalf of the Florida Wildlife Federation, the St. Johns Riverkeeper, and the Environmental Confederation of Southwest Florida.
You know the Republicans have a clear presidential front-runner when every liberal news source in the nation is trashing him. I'm talking about Jeb Bush.
Every day I look at the headlines:
Most Florida environmental groups this special session made a lot of noise -- you heard them -- and spent a lot of money, but in the end, came away empty-handed and bitterly unhappy.
Not The Nature Conservancy.
The Conservancy (TNC), largest private conservation landowner in the world, including more than 60,000 acres in preserves from the Keys to the Florida Panhandle, walked its own path during both legislative sessions, never putting the U.S. Sugar Corp. option on its wish list.
Here's a newly minted decision you probably didn't expect: We're getting a woman's face on the $10 bill.
What woman, the Treasury Department isn't sure yet. And you'll have to live at least another five years to see it -- the bill won't be unveiled until 2020, the 100th anniversary of the 19th Amendment giving women the right to vote.
But, hey, Americans can take the summer to help choose. The department is asking Americans to submit their ideas on a website, thenew10.treasury.gov, or on Twitter with the hashtag #TheNew10.
If you're wondering why the Legislature didn't restore Florida Forever's once-upon-a-time $300 million for land purchases ... could it be because the program's managers gave lawmakers the perfect excuse?
According to figures provided by House staff, the Florida Forever program is sitting on a pile of unused money -- not just the $12.5 million it was budgeted last year, but a total $84 million.
In the bank. Eighty-four million greenbacks just hanging out.
In less than six weeks James E. Michalik, a children's advocate and former judge from New Hampshire, will arrive in Tallahassee to steer the 32-member Florida Association of Healthy Start Coalitions (FAHSC).
The job is all-new -- first time the statewide nonprofit has had an executive director. Michalik will lead the independent organizations, helping them advocate for public policy initiatives that promote quality health care for mothers, infants and children.
Some environmental groups have more money than they do brains. Meet the Everglades Trust.
They don't learn.
First, as the legislative session began in March, this "501(c)(4) corporation of non-elected board appointees" -- "committed to keeping Florida's water flowing clean and safe" -- launched a fact-twisted, six-figure TV, radio and online campaign to buy U.S. Sugar Corp. land.
It did nothing for them but make new enemies.
Can you spell h-y-p-o-c-r-i-t-e? Here's a closer look at one: The Treasure Coast newspaper group that spent more than a year dogging lobbyist Ken Pruitt like a bloodhound at a crime scene for taking a sugar company's money ... well, how can I put this? ... climbed into bed with a sugar company.
So Gov. Rick Scott signed HB 633, the abortion-waiting-period bill. What else is new? Another year, another opportunity for Florida to shame a woman.
You have to ask yourself, what's next? You know there's going to be a something-next. This bill that mandates a woman terminating her pregnancy make back-to-back visits to the medical clinic within 24 hours is all part of a coordinated, national strategy to end access to safe, legal abortion. I'm sure of it.
Now the Sunshine State can get on with finding a real solution to helping its locked-out citizens in need of health care. It can become a national model in melding innovation and compassion without -- please, God -- firing an order to Washington to print more money.
Let's look a little more closely at the nation's fiscal predicament.
