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Florida Senate passes concealed carry bill during emergencies

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Last year, a proposal in Tallahassee that would allow people to carry a concealed weapon without a license while evacuating an emergency was met with resistance from law enforcement, and didn’t come to pass. But after bill sponsor Jeff Brandes made some tweaks this year, the Florida Sheriffs Association endorsed it, and that seemed to be the difference at it cleared the Senate this morning on a 29-10 vote. The biggest change that Brandes made was limiting the time that…

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Medicaid expansion passes second Senate committee unanimously

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Despite testimony urging them to be wary of tapping into any increased Medicaid dollars, the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Health and Human Services on Tuesday passed its Medicaid expansion bill that would provide coverage to an estimated 800,000 uninsured Floridians. Though the committee had been given three hours to debate and discuss SB 7044, sponsored by state Sen. Aaron Bean, it moved the bill in less than one hour. It passed unanimously despite opposition from Americans for Prosperity as well as…

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Florida bill would repeal law that bans shacking up

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About 1 million Floridians are breaking state law by committing lewd and lascivious acts and a state senator doesn’t want them to be punished for it. And the Senate Criminal Justice Committee unanimously agreed Monday when they approved Sen. Eleanor Sobel‘s bill to repeal a law that makes it illegal for unmarried men and women to live together. Sobel said the law was enacted in 1868 and anyone breaking it could be fined $500 and sentenced to 60 days in…

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Poll: Floridians oppose converting dog tracks into casinos

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A Mason-Dixon poll publicized by the Florida Greyhound Association finds that nearly seven out of 10 Floridians are opposed to turning increasingly out-of-fashion dog racing tracks into casinos — at least without a referendum. “Floridians are sending a loud message to the Legislature; don’t turn greyhound tracks into casinos on your own,” said Jim Blanchard, president of the greyhound welfare group. “So-called ‘decoupling’ would not only subvert the will of voters who have repeatedly rejected casino gaming but would also cost 3,000 Florida…

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If Florida Health Choices is a gift, Richard Corcoran will return it

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Health Policy Committee Chairman and Vice Chairman Aaron Bean and Eleanor Sobel are working together on a Senate Medicaid expansion plan. But the two are at odds over how it should be administered, with Bean championing a little-known program called Florida Health Choices and Sobel throwing her weight behind the better known Florida Healthy Kids Corp, which administered the popular state children’s health insurance program. Sobel withdrew an amendment that would have carved the Florida Health Choices out of the mix in the development…

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Lewd and lascivious? Senate panel eyes living-in-sin ban

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Shacking up in Florida can cost you. Living in sin is a crime that, if found guilty of, can show up on an employment background screening and can be used in civil cases involving child custody. Unmarried cohabitation has been in the state’s lewd and lascivious laws since the 1860s. The crime was included in the state’s Level II screening background laws initially passed in 1995. It was picked up in child protection laws passed in 2007 and grandparent visitation…

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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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