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Development bill passes first stop despite opposition from cities and counties

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A bill that would eliminate a state process for reviewing large developments cleared its first committee stop on Tuesday. Meanwhile, another bill that would eliminate Florida’s 11 regional planning councils was amended to eliminate only one of them. Large developments such as shopping malls and housing projects with hundreds of homes now are classified by the state as “developments of regional impact” subject to review by state agencies and neighboring cities and counties. But developers long have complained that the…

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Jack Latvala’s fundraising numbers suggest Senate President race may not be over

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If the race to be the next president of the Florida Senate is only a special election in Senate District 6 from being over, don’t tell that to Jack Latvala’s fundraising numbers. The Pinellas lawmaker has posted a head-turning fundraising report for the month of February … one that suggests, at the very least, that Latvala is not going down without a fight. According to the Florida Division of Elections, Latvala’s Florida Leadership Committee raised $498,949 in February and expended just $54,273.…

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Uber bill greenlighted by House transportation panel

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State Rep. Matt Gaetz successfully steered legislation to formally legalize “transportation network services” like Uber through the House Transportation & Ports Subcommittee on Tuesday. Debate on the bill — heated at times — lasted about an hour and featured an unusual aspect identified by committee Chairman Tom Rooney: “This has got to be the first bill in five years that I’ve seen where every member debated the bill,” he said, just before putting the bill to a question. The bill passed by a 9-4 vote, with…

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Look for Ed Montanari to announce next month he’s running for St. Pete City Council

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Ed Montanari, one of St. Petersburg’s most involved and respected citizen leaders, will announce next month he’s running for the District 2 seat on the City Council, according to those close to the plain-spoken, razor-sharp airline pilot. District 2 is currently represented by Bill Dudley, who is term-limited from running again. In 2007, Dudley upset the better-financed Montanari in 2007 for the seat comprised of much of northeast St. Petersburg. Four years later, Montanari flirted with challenging Dudley before eventually deciding not to run. 2015…

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NextGen Climate brings Rick Scott’s gag order on climate change to the GOP presidential race

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A report published over the weekend says that under Rick Scott, officials with the Florida Department of Environmental Protection have been banned from using the terms “global warming,” and “climate change.” The story has received massive media attention in the past 48 hours. Never one to let bypass an opportunity, NextGen Climate is seizing on the apparent censoring to ask fellow Florida Republicans (and potential presidential candidates) Jeb Bush and Marco Rubio to respond to the report, and put them on the spot as to…

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Senate Health Policy Committee to decide how Medicaid expansion would be handled

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The Florida Senate is considering a Medicaid expansion and wants to create a new program to administer the expansion called the Florida Health Insurance Affordability Exchange. Senate Health policy committee members will not only debate the merits of tapping into available Medicaid dollars under the federal health-care law, often called Obamacare, but will also debate the merits of what organization should administer the new program. Senate Health Policy Committee chairman state Sen. Aaron Bean wants the Florida Health Choices Program…

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State officials say arrests in Florida have been declining over the past 5 years

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With an annual budget of $2.3 billion and over 23,000 positions, the state Department of Corrections is one of the biggest  — and most important — agencies in the state of Florida.  And as a department that relies so much on general revenues for its funding, that reduction in revenues has undoubtedly played some part in the problems that have grown inside the system. And as the Senate Criminal Justice Committee was hearing about issues of corruption within the Department of…

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