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Mitch Perry Report for 5.8.15 –The MOSI-USF Football stadium dilemma

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Hillsborough County Commissioners (and Administrator Mike Merrill) are gung ho on having the folks who run the Museum of Science and Industry (MOSI) explore an opportunity to move their facility into downtown Tampa, where it could be a part of Jeff Vinik’s grand plans to redevelop the Channelside area, even though there are serious questions about how productive such a move would be. As La Gaceta’s Patrick Manteiga noted last week, there’s the little issue about available parking in the area that has plagued…

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Florida Family Action urges Gov. Scott to veto adoption bill

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Social conservatives in Florida are urging Rick Scott to veto an adoption bill because it lacks a “conscience protection” provision for faith-based adoption and foster care agencies. CS-HB 7013 was a bill strongly supported by Senate President Andy Gardiner as the session began. It re-creates a program to provide a financial benefit of $5,000 or $10,000 to state employees who adopt foster children, as well as provide incentives to community-based care lead agencies and their subcontractors for achieving specified adoption performance standards. But…

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Florida House moves ‘conscience protection’ bill forward

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The Florida House today passed a controversial bill that its sponsor says would protect the religious rights of private adoption agencies, but Democrats, LGBT activists and others say gives those agencies carte blanche to discriminate against same-sex couples. Sanford Republican Jason Brodeur’s bill emerged in the past month, immediately after the House passed a measure that repealed the ban on gay adoption from state statute. Gay couples have been allowed to adopt since the 3rd District Court of Appeals ruled…

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House committee passes bill to allow private adoption agencies to deny gay adoption

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The Florida House Judiciary Committee today passed a controversial “conscience protection” bill (HB 7111) that would allow private adoption agencies to refuse child placements with gay couples. Conscience protection legislation grants a person or an entity the ability to refuse to perform an otherwise required duty, because the individual or entity violates their religious or moral conviction, explained the bill’s sponsor, Sanford Republican Jason Brodeur. Brodeur maintained that the bill was not proposed (in the middle of the legislative session)…

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Dennis Baxley on why he reversed his vote on gay adoption: ‘I simply can’t affirm homosexuality’

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Speaking to talk-show host Bill Bunkley on Tuesday afternoon, Ocala House Republican Dennis Baxley stood by his decision to reverse his vote on a bill that would provide incentives to state workers who adopt children from foster care — while also repealing part of state law that in the past banned same-sex couples from adopting. “If you get it wrong you need to own it and you need to seek forgiveness, and that’s where I’ve been with this,” Baxley told…

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New restrictions on abortion could pass in state Legislature

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The Florida Legislature is considering several new measures to restrict abortions, including one with a strong chance of passage that calls for a 24-hour waiting period before a woman can undergo the procedure. That measure, House Bill 0633, would require that a woman make one trip to the clinic for legally required counseling before coming back 24 hours later for the procedure. Another measure, House Bill 147, with less chance of passage, would require that abortion clinic doctors have admitting…

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New survey shows Floridians support Medicaid expansion, medical marijuana and same-sex marriage

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With a Republican governor and overwhelmingly GOP-led Legislature, Florida is being well served by its legislators in Tallahassee, right? Not exactly. A new Public Policy Polling survey released on Thursday shows that 58 percent of Floridians want Medicaid expansion. Independents support it by 57 percent, while there is a 12-point difference among Republicans (33-45). Despite those numbers, the Florida House remains obstinate in refusing to try to work with the state Senate on a hybrid expansion plan. Such a program…

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