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Miguel Diaz de la Portilla - page 3

Child-support activist ejected from Senate panel vows to return

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The woman who was thrown out of a Senate committee meeting Thursday was unapologetic about her outburst, saying lawmakers deserved it. Cynthia Wheeler, a nurse and child-support activist from Palm Beach County, has come to Tallahassee before to speak on family-law related bills. She was in the Senate Judiciary Committee Thursday for a bill (SB 250), sponsored by Brandon Republican Tom Lee, that would change state law on child-sharing. The panel ran late, though, and Chairman Miguel Diaz de la Portilla,…

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Time runs out before Senate panel can vote on LGBT rights bill

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A bill that would extend protection from discrimination based on sexual orientation, gender identity, and gender expression in Florida was to be debated and voted in the Senate Judiciary Committee on Tuesday. However, time considerations precluded that from happening so it will come back before the same committee next week. “We’re going to dedicate up to an hour next week to debate on the bill,” vowed Committee Chairman Miguel Diaz de la Portilla. “We’re going to have it fully vetted.” Boynton…

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Bob Buckhorn slams Legislature for pushing Open Carry legislation

in The Bay and the 'Burg/Top Headlines by

Wading into the current debate in Tallahassee, Tampa Mayor Bob Buckhorn is slamming state lawmakers who are advocating that Florida allow nearly 1.5 million Floridians with concealed carry permits to openly carry their firearms, rather than having to keep them hidden. “This bill is totally unnecessary,” Buckhorn declared at a news conference held at Tampa Police headquarters, where he was joined by Police Chief Eric Ward, Hillsborough County State Attorney Mark Ober and the Florida League of Women Voters Patricia…

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Senate submits proposed redistricting map

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In the ongoing saga over state Senate redistricting, everything old is new again. The state Senate on Wednesday disclosed its proposed fix for its gerrymandered districts, a mash-up of two previous maps: One was passed by the Senate, another was drawn but not voted on in the recent Special Session. Because lawmakers couldn’t agree, it’s now up to Circuit Judge George Reynolds to recommend a map to the Florida Supreme Court for adoption. A trial is set for the week of Dec. 14.…

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Redistricting chairs agree to go back to House-approved map

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The Legislature’s two redistricting chairs hastily agreed Thursday on a map the House passed earlier this week as the one lawmakers should adopt to redraw the state’s Senate districts. It’s the same map that senators already had rejected to force this week’s conference process between House chair Jose Oliva and his Senate counterpart, Bill Galvano. In a one-and-a-half-minute long meeting, the two concurred on the House map. That map was passed by a vote of 73-47, with all Democrats in opposition and some Republicans joining…

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What’s next after Florida Senate narrowly approves new Senate map

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Amid an ugly political brawl in which one senator publicly accused another of being a bully, the Florida Senate on Wednesday narrowly approved a new map for the state’s 40 senate districts. But some senators predicted shortly after the 22-18 vote that the proposal may not pass the Republican-controlled Florida House. That’s because the Senate made last minute changes to a handful of districts in Miami-Dade County that some Democrats said were aimed at helping an incumbent GOP senator from…

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Plaintiffs now say they’re filing their own Senate district map

in Statewide/Top Headlines by

The “coalition plaintiffs” in the state Senate redistricting challenge announced Tuesday night they were submitting their own redrawn district map – weeks after the chair of the chamber’s redistricting panel invited them to participate in the mapmaking process. The Senate set up its own map on Tuesday for a Wednesday vote, one that combined a version of South Florida districts drawn by GOP state Sen. Miguel Diaz de la Portilla with a base map of the rest of the state favored by Senate Reapportionment Committee chair Bill Galvano.…

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