Associated Press - page 628

The Pulitzer Prizes, journalism’s highest honor, will be announced today. Among the potential contenders are reporters who revealed the massive U.S. government surveillance effort. Revelations about the spy programs were first published in June in The Guardian and The Washington Post, which last week received a George Polk Award for national security reporting. Other reporters who are potential Pulitzer contenders include Andrea Elliott of The New York Times for her five-part series “Invisible Child” and John Cichowski of The Record,…

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Former Gov. Charlie Crist is due to speak before a large crowd in South Florida as he fights to reclaim his former office. Crist addresses the Forum Club of the Palm Beaches on Monday. He’s running as a Democrat. Recent polls have shown him leading Gov. Rick Scott in a potential head-to-head matchup. Scott has been airing ads criticizing Crist’s support of the Affordable Care Act. Crist’s campaign says Scott is simply trying to distract voters from his own record.

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The Florida Legislature won’t be getting much work done in the next week. State legislators are taking off the seventh week of the 2014 session because it conflicts with Passover and Easter. The session lasts 60 days and is scheduled to end in early May. Legislators have already passed major bills dealing with sex offenders and a rollback in auto registration fees. However, the Legislature must still pass a state budget in order to adjourn on time. House Speaker Will…

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Republicans eyeing the 2016 White House race battered President Barack Obama’s health care law and nicked each other Saturday, auditioning before a high-profile gathering of conservatives that some political veterans said marked the campaign’s unofficial start. A speaking program packed with potential presidential candidates weighed in on the House Republicans’ controversial budget, the party’s struggle with Hispanics, the GOP’s future and the upcoming midterm elections while taking turns on a conference room stage facing hundreds of conservative activists gathered in…

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After months on the defensive over his health law, a more combative President Barack Obama has emerged to fight about gender politics, leading to an election-year competition with Republicans for support from women. No single group will be more important to Democrats’ fortunes, say White House advisers, than unmarried women, who are likely to go Democratic — if they vote, and that’s far from certain when trust in Washington is low. The president is trying to convince women that Democrats…

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The process to get federal funding for long-planned Everglades restoration projects is underway, now that the state agency that oversees those projects has approved the $1.9 billion plan. This week, the South Florida Water Management District’s governing board approved a resolution signing on as the local sponsor of the Central Everglades Planning Project. That’s a plan to redirect more water south of Lake Okeechobee into the central Everglades and south into Everglades National Park and Florida Bay. The vote affirms…

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A federal appeals court on Friday upheld a regulatory safety finding against SeaWorld in the drowning of a trainer who was pulled under by a killer whale at the theme park. In a 2-1 decision, the appeals court said SeaWorld’s challenge to the finding was unpersuasive and that the Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission was correct when it found that the SeaWorld park in Orlando, Fla., had violated a federal workplace safety law. The court said SeaWorld had exposed…

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