One of those ideas is the undermining of public schools. Under the guise of helping lower-income parents, Rubio is offering the Educational Opportunities Act to move students from public to private schools, most of which are church-affiliated, at taxpayer expense. To get around church-state separation problems his plan would give taxpayers dollar-for-dollar federal tax credits for "donating" money to designated scholarship funds that would pay for private school education. Some would call that money laundering.

This is a tea partier's dream come true. It starves the federal treasury of tax revenue, funnels children into religious indoctrination, erodes support for public schools by having parents abandon them and, perhaps sweetest of all, harms all those progressives who have chosen to be public school teachers as well as their unions.

In Florida, voters dislike the idea of taxpayer-funded vouchers going to religious schools so much they rejected a constitutional amendment in the last election that could have opened the door even wider to them.

Yet despite this antipathy the Florida Tax Credit Scholarship program has grown by leaps since it was established in 2001, more than tripling in size largely due to Republican dominance in Tallahassee. Last year, $229 million in corporate taxes was diverted from the state treasury into private scholarship funds. About 83 percent of the approximately 50,000 students using the scholarships attend religious schools.

At the Kingsway Christian Academy in Orange County, the school gets about $1.4 million in state scholarships that fund 318 out of its 408 students in kindergarten through eighth grade, according to the Orlando Sentinel. The school uses the A Beka Book series that intersperses religious dogma into its science curriculum, teaching biblical creationism and denouncing as heretical the evolution theory of man's origin.

This is Rubio's idea for bringing a competitive edge to the nation? No wonder he had trouble with how old the Earth is.

Rubio's proposed legislation would grant individuals a dollar-for-dollar federal tax credit of up to $4,500 for donating to a nonprofit "Scholarship Granting Organization." For corporations, the tax credit shoots up to $100,000. Families qualify for the scholarships if they earn up to 250 percent of the federal poverty line, currently $58,875 for a family of four. Not exactly targeted solely to the poorest families.

"The world has gone mad, and Scott has explaining to do"

Joe Henderson assumes Rick "Scott is savvy enough to understand just what he unleashed this week by announcing his support to expand Medicaid coverage by a whole lot in our fair state. It's the political equivalent of a Category 5 storm."

Over the last couple of days, I heard people say they were "disappointed" and "surprised" and, oh, "extremely disappointed." These were also people who theoretically like the governor.

That group includes Commissioner of Agriculture Adam Putnam — which is why I used the word "theoretically." Putnam can't order farm fresh Florida eggs for breakfast these days without someone asking if he plans to challenge Scott in the 2014 Republican primary.

One thing can't be denied, though. If it comes down to attack ads, the old Rick Scott would have a field day with the new Rick Scott, but how would Democrats approach that? I mean, these days he is doing what they want him to do. Can they rip him for that?

There is no other way to put this: The world has gone mad, and Rick Scott has some explaining to do.

"Gaetz not sold on $10,000 limit"

"Gaetz not sold on $10,000 limit on campaign contributions".

From the "values" crowd

"State Lawmakers Move to Restrict Living Wages, Sick Leave Ordinances". See also "House panel votes for restricting county wage rules". More: "Florida Senate Committee Weakens Ethics Bill".

Crist complains about Scott's "metamorphosis"

"Ex-Gov. Charlie Crist, however, says the governor's 'metamorphosis' won't help Scott next year when he's running for re-election. Mac Stipanovich, though, said from a political perspective 'it's another significant move by Rick Scott toward the center, where most elections are won.'" "Republicans stunned, Democrats happy with Scott's Medicaid decision". See also "House Democrats: We can work with Scott".

Meanwhile, "Tea Party responds to Scott".

Related: "Medicaid numbers add up", "Get to know some of those affected most by Florida's Medicaid expansion debate" and "South Florida hospitals could lose $368 million".

The Tampa Trib editors: " Tea party activists are dismissing Gov. Rick Scott as a traitor after the former health care executive who rode his opposition to Obamacare into the governor's office agreed to expand Medicaid coverage under the administration's health care program. It's true there is reason to be dubious about all this. But Scott is acknowledging something his critics are not: reality." "Scott nods to Obamacare".

The Sun Sentinel editors: "Florida Gov. Rick Scott defined compassion in public policy Wednesday by switching his stance and agreeing to expand Medicaid to cover another million of Florida's poorest citizens." "Bravo, Gov. Scott. Bravo!" Background: "Scott's turnabout on Obamacare angers allies".

Good luck with that

"Grassroots effort builds for laws to curb gun violence in South Florida".

Pantywaists parrot the Chamber of Commerce line

Although the pantywaists comprising the Palm Beach Post editorial board concede that "most people agree that hiring more local workers is generally a good thing", they - parroting the Chamber of Commerce line - worry that

trying to require companies to do so is legally fraught. Federal courts have ruled strict local-hiring mandates illegal because they violate a constitutional ban on states discriminating against residents of other states.

Session Outlook: Education

"2013 Session Outlook: Education".

Scott makes the rounds

"Gov. Rick Scott visits Miami drug-testing lab".

"Where the Fur Will Fly"

"Florida eyes may be focused on the gubernatorial race, but once in a while they might want to look up and notice some of the intriguing 2014 congressional races already shaping up in the Sunshine State. . . . CD 26 -- Republicans Lining Up Against Garcia . . . CD 18 -- Patrick Murphy Looks to Hold On . . . CD 2 -- Democrats Target Steve Southerland." Details: "Florida Congressional Races in 2014: Early Look at Where the Fur Will Fly".

"Think about what might have been"

Lucy Morgan: "Think about what might have been."

In October 2006 it looked as if House Speaker Allan Bense would become the next chairman of the Florida Republican Party.

Bense was completing a scandal-free run as the leader of the House and insisting he had no plan to run for another political office. He was ready to go home to Panama City and return to his private business despite some heavy pushing from lots of Republicans who wanted him to run for the U.S. Senate.

Then in October, less than a month before Bense would leave office, GOP gubernatorial nominee Charlie Crist asked Bense if he would take the reins of the state party.

George LeMieux, Crist's campaign manager, and the former governor say Lemieux suggested Greer as one of several names to be considered. Both say Bense was also on the list.

"I learned not long after Crist was elected that Greer would be the guy,'' Bense recalled. "Quite frankly, I was disappointed. I thought, 'Boy this is really embarrassing,' but I didn't complain.''

Asked recently why he thought Greer was qualified to run the state party, Lemieux said he had been "the best county chairman for the campaign in terms of organizing and he and Charlie knew each other from when Crist was at the Department of Business and Professional Regulation.'' (Crist, in a deposition last year, said he didn't recall knowing Greer back then.)

Week in Review

"Week in Review for Feb. 18 to Feb. 22". See also "Weekly Roundup: Scott Pulls Off a Stunner".

Feds closing in on Rivera and Alliegro

"A one-time candidate whose suspicious campaign finances led to an FBI investigation of former Miami Congressman David Rivera was formally charged Friday in federal court with three crimes."

Shackled at the wrists, waist and feet, Justin Lamar Sternad pleaded not guilty to conspiracy, false-statement and illegal campaign-contribution charges.

Sternad is expected to strike a plea deal as he cooperates with federal authorities in their investigation of Rivera and the former representative’s close friend, Ana Alliegro, who managed Sternad’s disastrous Democratic primary campaign for a Kendall-to-Key West congressional seat.

The Pew Research Hispanic Center in Washington, a respected demographic research institute, found that the Hispanic population in the U.S. during those 11 years swelled from 35.2 million to 51.9 million. The total U.S. population as of 2011 was 311.6 million, meaning that 16.7 percent of people living in the U.S. were Hispanic, compared to 12.5 percent in 2000.

And that percentage is expected to increase. Of all births in the U.S. in 2011, 23.1 percent were to Hispanic women.

The Dean Cannon amendment

"The proposed sweeping ethics changes that would expand the prohibition on legislators lobbying for the first two years out of office won’t take effect until after the 2014 election."

An amendment added to the bill expands the ban to include the executive branch of the state government, a rule some have tied to former House Speaker Dean Cannon who quickly built a Tallahassee-based lobbying firm, Capitol Insight LLC, after he left office last fall.

Close ties to Jeb Bush pay off

Fred Grimm: "The FIU deal was like so much else in Florida. It’s like those hinky contracts awarded to providers of mandatory online high school classes. Or the private for-profit companies hired to run the publicly funded charter schools. It’s the same explanation behind the rush to privatize prisons. Or why a certain company gets to erect electronic billboards on public land."

Randy Best, the Texas business man behind Academic Partnerships, has something far more compelling in Florida than mere business expertise. He has political juice.

Best, who was a major fundraiser for the presidential campaign of George W. Bush, scored big with contracts spawned by Bush’s No Child Left Behind. And when congressional investigators charged that his company’s contracts were based on politics and financial ties rather than merit, it hardly affected his business plan.

And what matters in Florida are Best’s close ties to the Bush family, particularly former Gov. Jeb Bush and the Republican establishment. FIU may have plenty of expertise around campus. But Randy’s got the juice.

Just what Florida needs: "melding the business and education communities"

"The Senate President urges the business community to get behind a proposal melding the business and education communities into a joint venture that will prepare students for a job and career. Senate Education Committee Chairman John Legg had his panel Tuesday 'dot the i's and cross the t's' on the bill he said he would file Wednesday." "Gaetz says education bill is 'going to make history'".

Legislature loves that stimulus

"The state plans to increase transportation spending to boost jobs, build more roads, and get the state’s ports ready for the Panama Canal expansion." "More state spending on roads, ports".

"Another real estate bubble"?

"Hedge funds and investment firms are buying up Florida foreclosures, beating out homebuyers and local flippers, while steering the state into what some fear is another real estate bubble." "Investment firms buying up Florida foreclosures".

"It was all a big fraud"

The Tampa Tribune editorial board: "Last year Florida lawmakers and Gov. Rick Scott made a mockery of Florida's higher education system when they created a 12th university while cutting the existing universities' budgets by $300 million."

Supporters insisted that transforming the University of South Florida's Polytechnic branch campus in Lakeland into an independent university would not cost any additional dollars or harm other universities.

It was all a big fraud, as is abundantly apparent now.

As the Tribune's Jerome Stockfisch reports, Florida Polytechnic University's trustees are asking for an additional $25 million this year, though it has about $109 million to get the university running by 2014. Most of that money was left by USF.

But now the trustees of the unaccredited school with no students say they need more for infrastructure, including landscaping, roads and furniture.

Smart Justice?

"Prison Unions Skeptical as Bipartisan 'Smart Justice Bill' Filed in Legislature". Here's some not so smart "justice": "Wrongly jailed at 15, Broward man finally gets his day in court" ("He was swiftly convicted by a jury and sentenced to life in prison by a judge who told him that he would have sentenced the juvenile to death — which was allowed at the time — if the jury had recommended his execution.")

Florida for sale

"Florida Atlantic University’s announcement to change the name of its football stadium to that of a private prison corporation accused of human rights violation has surprised and outraged students as well as South Florida’s pro-immigrant activists." "Boca Raton firm that runs prisons gets naming rights to FAU stadium; it’ll be called GEO Group Stadium".

"Session Outlook: Transportation"

"2013 Session Outlook: Transportation".

Domestic partnership bill faces long odds

"Vowing not to give up, Democratic state Sen. Eleanor Sobel delayed a committee vote of a domestic partnership bill that looked unlikely to pass and still faces long odds."

Florida's mini-Obama

"President Barack Obama's administration drafted legislation this month that could give undocumented immigrants a pathway to citizenship in eight years, require employers to check workers' immigration status and increase penalties for those who break immigration law."

The ideas appear in three separate draft bills, obtained Monday by the Miami Herald, that closely resemble many of the reforms advanced in 2011 by Obama and, more recently, by Republican Florida Sen. Marco Rubio.

Never mind that state run exchange

"The committee reviewing how Florida should respond to the federal health-care law agreed Monday not to pursue setting up a state run exchange. At least, not for the next year or two." "Florida Senators Say No to State Run Health Care Exchange". Related: "The builders of the Sen. Marco Rubio brand", "PolitiFact: Does Sen. Marco Rubio live in a “working-class” neighborhood?" and "Marc Caputo: A swig of water isn’t going to sideline Marco Rubio".

Raw political courage

It is always a laff to see politicos stand shoulder-to-shoulder in opposition to dumping raw sewage into springs and streams.

Scott Maxwell: "Last week — when most Florida politicos were still buzzing about the guilty plea of former GOP party boss Jim Greer — some of the state's biggest names were throwing a party."

Attendees came at the invitation of a host committee that included the likes of Bill Nelson, Bill McCollum, Charlie Crist, Alex Sink, Jeff Atwater, Buddy MacKay and dozens more.

Though the atmosphere was celebratory, the cause was serious: the environment.

In that regard, it was also unusual.

Because in recent years, when leaders of this state have gathered, our natural resources have often paid the price.

In fact, they have been savaged. . . .

Finally, we may be waking up to that reality.

"We finally got it, Marco — the sheer brilliance"

Carl Hiaasen concocts a "secret Valentine’s Day memo to Sen. Marco Rubio from the Strategy Office of the Republican National Committee:"

Dear Marco, One simple word sums up your unorthodox rebuttal to the President’s State of the Union Address: Genius.

Pausing in the midst of a speech that nobody would otherwise remember, lunging off-camera for a bottle of water and then slurping it like a demented hummingbird . . .

Time magazine was right. You are the savior of the Republican Party.

Was the whole country laughing at you? Possibly. OK, yeah.

But was it the most unpresidential thing you could have done? No! You could have walked out with your fly unzipped (whoa, don’t get any ideas!).

Truth be told, all of us here at the RNC started freaking out when we saw you stop and take that sip.

What’s that goofball doing? we wondered. Does he think it’s a rehearsal? Doesn’t he know he’s on live TV in front of, like, 50 million voters?

But once we stopped throwing our coffee cups and kicking our garbage cans, we calmed down and thought about what you’d done.

The water grab wasn’t really a spontaneous and awkward moment, was it? You’d planned the whole darn thing, right down to your deer-in-the-headlights stare at the camera.

Of course you did, because that’s what saviors do. They see the big picture.

The script we gave you to read the other night was incredibly lame. In fact, it was basically Mitt Romney’s stump speech for the last three years. Didn’t work for him and, let’s face it, it wasn’t going to work for you, either.

Truth is, we don’t have any new ideas in the Republican Party. Our plan was to retread all our stale old ideas through a sharp, young Hispanic dude — you! — and hope people would think they’re hearing something fresh.

Obviously, you read through the script ahead of time and realized it was a turkey. So you improvised a visual distraction, something so ditzy that all of America would instantly stop paying attention to what you were saying.

In retrospect, it was the best thing that could have happened to our party. Thanks to you, Marco, nobody’s talking about that moldy little speech. They’re talking about you jonesing for that water bottle.

Based strictly on that performance, they don’t. President Obama, whom Sen. Rubio spent most his time bashing, had just gone more than an hour without breaking a sweat. Sen. Rubio couldn’t last 15 minutes without a panic attack.

Pennsylvania looks to close "the Florida loophole"

Frank Cerabino has "a beef with Pennsylvania’s new attorney general."

Kathleen Kane, not even in office for a month, has decided to pick on Florida, and pick on us in a way that strikes at our very essence.

We here in Florida take great pride in the number of concealed weapons permits our state issues. We were the first state to issue them, and today we lead the nation in concealed weapons permits, reaching the mark of 1 million active permits in December.

We like our gun permits so much, we consider them a crop.

That explains why you get a Florida gun permit from the state Department of Agriculture, not the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, which would treat guns like, well, a public safety issue, instead of something that needs to grow.

Fortunately, we had that figured out, too.

That is, until this new attorney general from Pennsylvania got herself elected.

You see, about 4,000 people who are Pennsylvania residents got their concealed weapons permits from Florida, not from Pennsylvania, where they really live.

They’re not doing anything illegal by getting a Florida permit. They’re just taking advantage of something known in Pennsylvania as “the Florida loophole.”

Success is practically guaranteed. Florida approves 98.5 percent of all concealed weapons permit applications. This hasn’t gone unnoticed in Pennsylvania, where suspected street gang members in Philadelphia flash valid Florida concealed weapons permits to officers. That city, alone, has about 900 residents carrying Florida concealed weapons permits.

One of those Florida permit holders is Marqus Hill, 28, of Philadelphia, who had his Pennsylvania gun permit revoked due to confrontations with police.

After failing to win an appeal to get his weapons permit back, Hill went on-line and got a Florida gun permit through the mail. A year later, he spotted a teenager breaking into his car and killed the fleeing boy with 13 shots, according to police. Hill was charged with murder.

That case and others have led Pennsylvania’s new attorney general to question a 12-year-old reciprocity agreement that has allowed a Florida gun permit to be valid for Pennsylvania residents.

You gotta problem with that?

"Amid higher premiums, Citizens execs land big raises".

Big of them

"The committee reviewing how Florida should respond to the federal health-care law agreed Monday not to pursue setting up a state run exchange. At least, not for the next year or two." "Lawmakers consider revising claims law to help those wronged by governments get paid".

Will GOP-heavy Florida Legislature to sympathize with social conservative concerns?

"Florida's Catholic and evangelical social conservatives expect the GOP-heavy Florida Legislature to sympathize with their moral concerns as the 2013 session gears up, but they're not taking anything for granted as they prepare to lobby legislators on issues dear to them." "Florida’s Social Conservatives Gear Up to Strengthen Families, Oppose Gambling, GLBT Rights".

One man's "baloney"

Lloyd Brown rushes to the defense of Enterprise Florida: "Bashing of Enterprise Florida has the Appearance of Baloney".

"Politico cognitive dissonance"

Aaron Deslatte: "There's sort of a politico cognitive dissonance occurring this year in Florida's Capitol when it comes to corporate welfare. The Legislature is in a full-throated "show me the jobs" mood over Gov. Rick Scott's plans to give $278 million in new tax dollars to corporations that pledge to grow. But lawmakers are also rushing to line up more tax perks for companies and sports teams." "Tax incentives are questioned — except when lawmakers want more".

Pollution-related tax breaks for building even where there is no proof of pollution

"It looks like Florida businesses will still be able to get pollution-related tax breaks for building on land even where there is no proof of contamination. Despite concerns raised about the practice, proposed bills filed in the Legislature (HB 415, SB 554) tweaking the state's brownfield program make no substantial changes to the definition of a brownfield." "Brownfield loophole won't get tightened this year".

Hospitals support Medicaid expansion

"Florida hospitals back Medicaid expansion".

Legislature asks Supreme Court to toss legal challenge to redistricting plan

"The Republican-dominated Legislature has asked the Florida Supreme Court to throw out a legal challenge to its 2012 redistricting plan for the state Senate."

The high court put the case on a fast track Monday, setting tight deadlines for additional filings. Former Justice Raoul Cantero submitted the petition on behalf of the House and Senate on Friday. Cantero argued that only the Supreme Court can decide legislative redistricting cases and that the justices already have done so.

He's asking the high court to order a trial judge to dismiss a challenge to the Senate map lodged by the League of Women Voters of Florida, Common Cause, National Council of La Raza and several individual plaintiffs. The justices ordered the plaintiffs to respond by Feb. 28 and gave the Legislature until March 5 to reply.

Circuit Judge Terry Lewis rejected the Legislature's claim last month in Tallahassee and ordered the case to proceed. Lewis wrote that the Legislature's argument "flies in the face of case law." He cited prior Supreme Court and appellate rulings that said trial courts have jurisdiction over redistricting challenges.

"Outrageous capitulation to anti-regulatory ideologues"

Fred Grimm: "The assumption was that Florida fixed these perversities. That new legislation had banished strip-mall oxy peddlers. That we were done with pill mills."

But the great triumph was supposed to have been a statewide database that tracked opiate and other controlled-drug prescriptions. Doctors and pharmacists, with a few strokes on their computer, could check a patient’s history of prescription controlled drugs and tell whether the patient had been doctor-shopping: going from clinic to clinic and collecting multiple pain prescriptions. Doctor shopping had become the great engine supplying America’s booming oxy street trade.

Except the database law failed to make the checks mandatory. An investigation last fall by the Tampa Bay Times looked at 48 million prescriptions for controlled drugs since the database was initiated in September 2011.

Only 2 percent of the prescribing doctors and 1.7 percent of the pharmacists had bothered to check their oxy patients against the prescription database.

State law, in an outrageous capitulation to anti-regulatory ideologues, also bans the use of public money to fund the database.