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Miguel Diaz de la Portilla - page 4

More Senate district maps filed Monday

in Statewide by

State Sens. Gwen Margolis and Miguel Diaz de la Portilla have filed their own versions of state Senate district maps, according to the chamber’s redistricting website. Margolis, a Miami Democrat, and Diaz de la Portilla, a Coral Gables Republican, submitted maps on Monday afternoon. Margolis filed one; Diaz de la Portilla turned in four. For details on those maps, click here. Those maps are intended to contend with the map favored by Senate Reapportionment Committee Chairman Bill Galvano, and another five…

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Mitch Perry Report for 4.16.15 — The $2 billion elephant in the Capitol

in The Bay and the 'Burg/Top Headlines by

For those of you out there less enamored by Florida’s reputation as the “Gunshine State,” there was some positive news out of Tallahassee Wednesday night. That proposal that would give school superintendents the ability to designate a school district employee or volunteer to carry a concealed weapon on a school campus was scheduled on the docket Wednesday in the Senate Education Committee. Committee Chairman John Legg, though, exercised his authority and said it wouldn’t come up again in his committee.…

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Abortion waiting period advances, constitutional questions unanswered

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Abortion rights opponents and proponents packed a Senate meeting room Wednesday when the Judiciary Committee took up a proposal to mandate a 24-hour waiting period. SB 724 requires a face-to-face meeting between a physician and a woman to discuss the procedure at least 24 hours before it is performed. “When one makes a major decision 24 hours is not an undue burden,” Sen. Anitere Flores, the bill’s sponsor, told the committee. Flores is relying on a 1992 U.S. Supreme Court…

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Gwen Margolis’ ‘palcohol’ ban progresses in Senate

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A bill to prohibit the sale of powdered alcohol — known in industry lingo as ‘palcohol’ — before it has even arrived at Florida retailers passed another test in the Senate on Thursday. The ban was unanimously approved by the Rules Committee. State Sen. Gwen Margolis’ SB 998 now awaits a vote by the full Senate. Brandon state Sen. Tom Lee spoke for a lot of casual observers as well as his panel-mates when he asked Margolis — like Lee, a former Senate president…

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Two colleges, Catholic law school group join fight for Competitive Workforce Act

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A Catholic student group and two colleges are the latest organizations to voice support for the fight for statewide discrimination protections in employment, housing, and public accommodations. Winter Park-based Rollins College joins a coalition of 30 major Florida employers, including the University of North Florida (UNF) in Jacksonville, in supporting the Competitive Workforce Act. The act is comprised of House Bill 33 from Republican state Rep. Holly Raschein of Key Largo and Senate Bill 156 from Democratic state Sen. Joe…

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Florida Senate denounces Obama overture to Cuba

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President Obama‘s diplomatic breakthrough with Cuba last December has been met mostly with approval in the Tampa Bay area among political and business leaders. A delegation from Pinellas County visited the communist island for the first time in January, while the Greater Tampa Chamber of Commerce is planning another visit in May. And Hillsborough County area U.S. Rep. Kathy Castor will soon be hosting a summit on Cuba in Tampa. But that excitement is not shared across the state — and certainly…

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Local government labor contracts bill narrowly cheats death

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State Sen. Jeff Brandes‘ SB 934, which preempts local governments from creating labor agreements with contractors containing certain wage, residency or diversity requirements, found an unlikely “No” vote in Senate Community Affairs this afternoon: Brandes himself. The vote was part of a legislative maneuver undertaken by Brandes to bring his bill back from the dead. After the bill was voted down by the committee on a 6-1 vote — state Sen. Rob Bradley casting the lone “Yea” — Brandes asked for…

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