By BTU President Sharon Glickman, Esq.      “Today’s Florida Supreme Court ruling against Florida’s hardworking public employees is disheartening.   The only reason the Legislature and Governor took this action in the first place was to balance the state’s budget by taking money from Florida’s middle class workers who can least afford to lose it.   Florida’s public employees were promised a non-contributory ...

THE CAPITAL, TALLAHASSEE, January 17, 2013.........An undocumented immigrant seeking Florida Supreme Court approval to practice law has received a boost from an Obama administration policy aimed at helping young illegal immigrants stay and work in the country. Jose Godinez-Samperio, who came to the United States at age 9 from Mexico and graduated from the Florida State University law school, has been approv ...

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Florida A&M University (FAMU) is continuing its negotiation efforts with one of the candidates for the director of marching and pep bands. The university will not make an announcement about an appointment today, but will make an announcement if all details are finalized. “We felt we had a firm commitment on Monday, but there were concerns expressed by the candidate regarding the new ...

Washington, DC) Today, Congressman Alcee L. Hastings (D-FL) commemorated President Obama’s signing of the Uninterrupted Scholars Act (S.3472). The Uninterrupted Scholars Act is bipartisan legislation that Hastings co-sponsored, which amends the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act to grant a child welfare agency direct and unencumbered access to the academic records of young people in their care, while ...

A state senator says he has an idea to fix the long lines that plagued Florida's 2012 election. Democratic Sen. Jeff Clemens says since the Republican-led Legislature stacked the ballot with 11 constitutional amendments last November, he thinks voters should get the chance to limit the number of amendments from lawmakers. Sen. Clemens has filed legislation that would prohibit state lawmakers from placing mo ...

By Michael Peltier, Reuters     TALLAHASSEE, FL - In a dramatic about-face, Florida's health agency now says the cost to state taxpayers of expanding Medicaid under President Barack Obama's healthcare reform law would be barely more than a tenth of its original estimate. Governor Rick Scott, a Republican who had fought hard against the reform law known as Obamacare, had complained earlier last week that the ...

Florida House Democratic Policy Chair Mark Pafford Statement Medicaid Expansion, Not HMO Experiments Should Be Rick Scott’s Focus   TALLAHASSEE, Fla. -- Representative Mark Pafford (D-West Palm Beach), the Florida House Democratic Caucus policy chair, issued the following statement in regards to Governor Rick Scott’s meeting today with U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius.   “Gove ...

(Washington, DC) Today, Representatives Alcee L. Hastings (D-FL), Grace January 10, 2013   Mr. Jeffrey Zients Deputy Director for Management Office of Management and Budget 725 17th Street, NW Washington, DC 20503   Dear Deputy Director Zients:   We write to urge you to maintain funding for mental health programs as you plan for the President’s budget for Fiscal Year 2014.   There have b ...

By MARGIE MENZEL THE NEWS SERVICE OF FLORIDA THE CAPITAL, TALLAHASSEE, January 10, 2012......The controversial "stand your ground" self-defense law would be repealed under a bill filed this week by a House Democrat. The law, which allows those who feel threatened to shoot back at assailants out in public, seized the national spotlight last year with the February shooting death of Trayvon Martin in Sanford. ...

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