THIS SAYS IT ALL - "Under the proposal, losing an arm or an eye in an accident at work would no longer be considered enough to get permanent 'catastrophic' disability benefits. A worker would have to lose both arms, legs, or eyes to get full benefits. Injured workers also would face a tougher time hiring a lawyer. And people with permanent injuries would lose all benefits when they turn age 75.""
"Republicans were pressured to vote for the bill by the governor and Senate President Jim King."
Housing Trust Funds - "First, the good news: It now appears that lawmakers won't kill affordable housing trust funds that earlier budgets of the House and Gov. Jeb Bush had deleted. Now, the bad news: Like many other Florida trust funds, these are on the verge of being plundered by transferring nonrecurring revenue to the state's general revenue coffers." See "Housing trust funds: saved but savaged".
Don't Tell Ashcroft - "The people of Pinellas County can relax. It is not a jailing offense anymore - at least not for now - to speak 'disrespectfully' to the County Commission. Neither will the commission have you removed and thrown in irons, as it did to a citizen at its May 6 meeting, for being 'boisterous' or saying something 'irrelevant,' 'impertinent' or 'slanderous.'" See "Insulting speech is free speech after all".
You Call That A Compromise? "The state House offered to compromise Tuesday on tuition rates: Rather than giving state universities the power to increase tuition by 12 1/2 percent, the House proposed a 12 percent cap. Half a percentage point. That's still a far cry from the 7-1/2 percent tuition increase contained in the Senate budget plan. So consensus on tuition — one of the biggest differences between the Senate and House — continued to elude state lawmakers, who are struggling to reach agreement on a $52 billion budget for the fiscal year that starts July." Associated Press: "Lawmakers continue negotiations on budget".
Question - Will "Jeb!" Get Any Heat On 'Glades Bill? "Deriding the 'political science' of Everglades restoration, Gov. Jeb Bush engaged Tuesday in rhetorical contortions to justify his support for legislation despised by environmentalists. By signing the bill into a law that critics fear will delay Glades cleanup, Bush stuck to his conviction that the measure was sound policy built on smart science. By demanding that the Legislature come back to tweak it, he could tell environmentalists that he felt their pain." See "Governor tries to prevent a potential publicity nightmare".
Answer: No - When Bush signed the 'Glades bill, we are told he "was, characteristically, stubborn. Jeb Bush is a politician who, after all, has made a career in Tallahassee of pushing hard for ideas that are not always popular -- but retaining the public's approval. Consider his creation of school vouchers and his opposition to mandatory reductions in class size. He signed a bill that will most likely raise telephone rates, rolled back affirmative action, and is privatizing much of state government. He has even survived child welfare scandals and a souring economy. But as recently as this month, polls put his approval ratings in the high 50s." See "Governor tries to prevent a potential publicity nightmare".
Remembering "Jeb!" - According to Alan Farago, a Sierra Club official in Florida: "'When voters visit the Everglades and see a river of cattails instead of a river of grass, when they see more birds circling municipal waste dumps . . . they should remember Jeb Bush'".