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Florida House: Use conservation money on Everglades

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The Florida House wants to dedicate as much as $200 million a year on projects to help restore the state’s fabled Everglades. House Republicans on Tuesday announced their “Legacy Florida” initiative. It would require that each year that the state set aside conservation money for a variety of Everglades restoration projects. The list would include projects that lessen the level of discharges from Lake Okeechobee into nearby estuaries. In recent years federal authorities have been criticized for discharging polluted water…

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‘Year of water’ failed along with environmental bills, but some did pass

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Another legislative session dubbed the “year of water” failed to deliver in 2015 as the House went home early over a healthcare spending dispute with the Senate. HB 7003, a water bill that was a legislative priority of House Speaker Steve Crisafulli, passed the House by a 106-9 vote on the second day of session. Agriculture Commissioner Adam Putnam and industry groups supported the bill, which would have set milestones and timetables for cleaning up springs and other waterways. The Senate…

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Water, fracking bills die as Senate meets without House

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A House bill establishing comprehensive water policy was amended and passed by the Senate on Wednesday but was dead because the House had adjourned on Tuesday. And House bills dealing with hydraulic fracturing were not voted on in the Senate because their Senate sponsor said they lacked the two-thirds vote needed. The 2015 legislative session continued in an unusual atmosphere on Wednesday with the Senate taking up bills after the House adjourned amid a budget impasse over healthcare spending. A…

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Obama sounds alarm on climate damage in visit to Everglades

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Amid lurking alligators and the steamy heat of Florida’s Everglades, President Barack Obama on Wednesday sounded the alarm about damage from climate change he said was already wreaking mayhem in Florida and across the United States. In an implicit rebuke to Florida’s governor and other Republicans, Obama accused those who deny the man-made causes of climate change of sticking their heads in the sand. He said rising sea levels that have infused the Everglades with harmful salt water have already…

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Today on Context Florida: Florida’s mack daddy, PLSAs, Earth Day and teaching economics

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Today on Context Florida: The annual Harlot Show and Prostitution Expo – commonly called the Florida Legislative Session – has been such a wowsa so far, Diane Roberts says that we have neglected to pay sufficient attention to the mack daddy in the Mansion. You know, Rick Scott. He’s not governing; he has people for that. He’s running for the United States Senate. William Mattox writes of an innovative new policy adopted by Florida legislators last year called Personal Learning Scholarship…

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House speaker says water bills closer, advisory council could be sticking point

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House Speaker Steve Crisafulli said Wednesday that the Senate is getting closer to the House on a comprehensive water bill but some differences remain. SB 918 was rewritten in a committee on Wednesday in response to requests by business groups and environmentalists, both of whom had raised concerns. Both sides still have issues, with environmentalists still more critical of the Senate and House bills than business groups. The Senate bill would establish springs protection zones, provide consistency in pollution regulations dealing…

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Audubon’s Eric Draper says Legislature ‘out of sync’ with voters

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Eric Draper of Audubon Florida told a television audience during a weekend broadcast that legislators are showing they are “out of sync” with voters who supported Amendment 1. Seventy-five percent of voters in November approved the funding initiative, which provides an estimated $742 million for water and land conservation in the 2015-16 state budget. Environmental groups say the House and Senate have ignored the intent of voters in their spending plans. The House approved perhaps $10 million for land acquisition…

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