James Call - page 25

The Jobs Governor had a good November; he won reelection and the latest jobs report led him to declare he fulfilled a pledge from his first campaign. The unemployment rate for November dropped slightly to 5.8 percent, down 0.2 percent from October and 0.7 percent from a year ago, according to the monthly job report from the Department of Economic Opportunity. “Four years ago, we unveiled an ambitious plan to fix Florida’s economy and turn the state around. Our goal…

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A key Florida  state senator said he is very pleased the Department of Health did not appeal a judge’s ruling invalidating a regulatory structure for a medicinal marijuana industry. Sen. Rob Bradley sponsored the Compassionate Medical Cannabis Act and Bradley said Thursday that although he is extremely frustrated by the delay in getting cannabis oil to market to treat children with extreme epilepsy, he endorsed Secretary of Health John Armstrong’s decision to accept the judge’s ruling. DOH is writing a…

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Florida TaxWatch, the private sector non-partisan watchdog on government spending, has developed a metric to measure effective governance. TaxWatch Thursday released its annual report on potential cost savings in state government spending. The initiative began during the Great Recession and now that the economy is growing the report’s focus has switched to government efficiency. “As defined in the report as the intersection of cost avoidance, targeted investments and effective governance,” said Robert Weissert, TaxWatch’s Chief Research Officer. The TaxWatch Center…

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As expected, Gov. Rick Scott Thursday said Christina Daly will be his Department of Juvenile Justice Secretary for a second term. Daly has served as interim Secretary since July following Secretary Wansley Walters’ retirement. Daly had served as Walters’ deputy secretary when she when DJJ changed its focus from punishment to prevention. She has been with the department for seven years also serving as legislative director and chief of staff. “Christina has provided strong leadership at the Department of Juvenile…

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Florida for Care is trying to jumpstart a renewed effort to change medicinal marijuana regulations. The Orlando-based organization formed earlier this year to advocate for a well-regulated medicinal marijuana industry under Amendment 2, which failed in November. Two weeks after the initiative to allow doctors to use the marijuana plant to treat patients was snuffed out, Florida for Care began organizing a two-day strategy session on how to move forward. The Miami conference concluded Wednesday and featured updates on legislative…

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Gov. Rick Scott’s second-term management team continues to take shape with December appointments and reappointments. Wednesday Scott announced Cynthia O’Connell and Ken Detzner will continue in their roles as Secretary of the Lottery and Secretary of State. O’Connell was appointed Lottery Secretary in 2011 and is a former advertising manager for First Florida Bank Inc. The Lake City native leads a lottery staff of about 400 and a network of more than 13,000 licensed retailers of lottery games. “Under Secretary…

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Forty-five seconds is how long it took. Kevin Bist’s update on the Office of Compassionate Use took all of 45 seconds from the time he said Office to the report’s conclusion. Department of Health Secretary John Armstrong permitted a rare public update on DOH’s implementation of a medicinal marijuana law Wednesday in Tallahassee. He included discussion of the Office of Compassionate Use on the agenda of a meeting of the Drug Policy Advisory Council meeting. Senate Bill 1030 permits the…

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