Associated Press - page 619

Half the U.S. Senate urged NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell on Thursday to change the Washington Redskins’ name, saying it is a racist slur and the time is ripe to replace it. In a letter, 49 senators cited the NBA’s quick action recently to ban Los Angeles Clippers owner Donald Sterling for life after he was heard on an audio recording making offensive comments about blacks. They said Goodell should formally push to rename the Redskins. “We urge you and the National Football…

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Florida Gov. Rick Scott is being joined by New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie at an event to highlight funding for Tampa’s port and others across the state. The two Republican governors will appear Thursday afternoon at Port Hendry, part of Port Tampa Bay. Scott’s campaign bills the event as his “Let’s Keep Florida Ports Working Tour.” The campaign says Scott will discuss $1 billion in funding for Florida ports and other infrastructure around the state. Earlier this week Scott appeared…

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A tabloid that has long prided itself on turning heads in supermarket checkout lines is heading back to its New York roots. The National Enquirer is leaving its Boca Raton, Florida, headquarters and in June will begin operations in New York under a new editor with a mandate to broaden its audience and give it some Internet-age flourish. “This is a move that is designed to build on the extraordinary,” said Dylan Howard, the 32-year-old who is becoming editor of…

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The Florida Supreme Court is refusing to take up a challenge to a year-old state law that allows elected officials to place their assets in a blind trust instead of reporting each investment publicly. Justices unanimously ruled on Wednesday to transfer the lawsuit down to a lower court. Earlier this month the high court was asked to decide whether using a blind trust goes against the “Sunshine Amendment” that was adopted by the state’s voters in 1976. The amendment marked…

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A top Republican state senator and current chairman of Gov. Rick Scott’s re-election campaign is now the lone candidate to become Florida State University president. In a highly unusual move, an FSU search committee on Wednesday narrowly voted to interview John Thrasher for the job. Thrasher, R-St. Augustine, is a former House speaker and FSU alumnus who helped his alma mater get a medical school. The 15-9 vote came after search committee members heard from a consulting firm that FSU…

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Florida Senate President Don Gaetz is insisting that state legislators followed the law when drawing up new political maps. Gaetz testified Wednesday during a trial looking at how the Legislature drew up new congressional districts. Gaetz, a Niceville Republican, was in charge of the Senate committee that oversaw redistricting in 2011 and 2012. Voters in 2010 passed the “Fair Districts” amendment that says districts cannot be drawn in a way to favor incumbents or members of a political party. A…

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Cuba’s first major independent general-interest news outlet in five decades was hacked on Wednesday shortly after being launched by the country’s best-known dissident blogger. A little more than an hour after its launch, the site www.14ymedio.com was directing readers inside Cuba to a page dedicated to scathing criticism of blogger Yoani Sanchez by well-known pro-government writers. Access outside Cuba appeared to be unimpeded. Sanchez accused the Cuban government of using its control of the country’s internet to divert readers to…

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