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Dean Cannon: Special Session Needed on Senate Redistricting

Submitted by Anonymous on March 9, 2012 - 10:20am

House Speaker Dean Cannon, R-Winter Park, announced on Friday that there will be a special session of the Florida Legislature later this year to focus on the redistricting maps.

The Florida Supreme Court ruled on Friday that there is no problem with the maps of the new House districts -- but the Legislature will have to address the Senate proposed new lines, Cannon said. The Florida Supreme Court ruled on Friday that the Senate districts proposed by the Legislature are unconstitutional.

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Senate Approves Creation of Division of Food, Nutrition

Submitted by Anonymous on March 9, 2012 - 10:04am

The Senate approved a House bill, HB 7021, Friday that addresses various issues relating to the Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, includiung creating a Division of Food, Nutrition and Wellness within the department, extending the deadline for the fertilizer tonnage-fee program from the end of 2022 to Dec. 31, 2027, and renaming Wounded Warrior Special Hunt Areas in state forests as Operation Outdoor Freedom Special Hunt Areas.

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Rick Scott to Decide on Random Drug Testing for State Employees

Submitted by Anonymous on March 9, 2012 - 9:36am

State employees would face the chance of being randomly drug tested once every three months under a bill, SB 1358, the Senate approved 26-14 Friday.

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Online School Builds Catholic Education While Trimming Tuition

Kenric Ward

March 8, 2012 - 6:00pm

The nation's first fully accredited online Catholic school is growing in Coral Springs.

Catholic Schools K12 Virtual at St. Andrew's School is attracting students from 19 states, Belize, Venezuela and even China with low tuition costs, wide course offerings and student-teacher ratios that few brick-and-mortar campuses can match.

Faced with thin operating margins and losing enrollment, Catholic schools have been closing across the country.

Temp and Food Service Jobs Keep Unemployment Rate at 8.3 Percent

Submitted by Kevin Derby on March 9, 2012 - 9:14am

The Department of Labor Statistics unveiled the latest national unemployment figures on Friday and, while there were an additional 227,000 non-farm jobs added to the economy in February, the unemployment rate remained unchanged -- 8.3 percent. There remain almost 13 million unemployed in the United States.

But look deeper. The numbers produced on Friday are not exactly reassuring.

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Amid Stagnant Employment Report, NFIB Sees Dim Job Outlook

Submitted by Anonymous on March 9, 2012 - 9:05am

With the U.S. unemployment rate stuck at 8.3 percent, the National Federation of Independent Businesses said the job outlook remains cloudy at best.

NFIB economist William C. Dunkelberg said the organization's monthly survey showed a mixed bag on Main Street.

"For small employers, the net change in employment per firm (seasonally adjusted) was 0.11. This is certainly better than Januarys net zero report and trending in the right direction, but still nothing to get overly excited about," Dunkelberg said.

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Mitt Romney Gets the Backing of Mississippi Gov. Phil Bryant

Submitted by Kevin Derby on March 9, 2012 - 9:00am

Mississippi holds its Republican presidential primary on Tuesday and Mitt Romney got a big boost there when he received the endorsement of Gov. Phil Bryant.

It is an honor to have the support of Governor Bryant -- he has been a great public servant for the state of Mississippi, said Romney in a statement. His support will be needed to help defeat President Obama in November, repeal Obamacare, and restore fiscal sanity in Washington. I look forward to discussing my pro-growth plan to fix our economy as I campaign in Mississippi.

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Newt Gingrich Calls Rick Santorum Out on Conservative Credentials

Submitted by Kevin Derby on March 9, 2012 - 8:52am

Republican presidential hopeful Newt Gingrich took aim at Rick Santorum in a new Web video slamming his GOP rivals record on a host of issues.

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Rick Scott On the Air Telling Legislators to Reach PIP Deal

Submitted by Anonymous on March 9, 2012 - 7:44am

Gov. Rick Scott is spending Friday morning crisscrossing the states airwaves as part of a last-day push for reform of personal injury protection auto insurance.

Theres no reason it cant get done today, Scott told 540 AM WFLA in Orlando.

On 1260 AM WFTW in Fort Walton Beach he expressed optimism that compromises can be found in the House and Senate bills.

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Legislature Votes to Give Businesses Break on Unemployment Tax Hike

David Royse News Service of Florida

March 8, 2012 - 6:00pm

Businesses would see a much smaller increase in their unemployment compensation tax because the state would take longer to pay back a loan to Washington under legislation passed Thursday by the House and sent to Gov. Rick Scott.

The tax paid by businesses for unemployment benefits was scheduled to go up to about $171 per employee, but if signed into law, the bill, HB 7027, would reduce that to about $121 per worker.

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