Before reviewing the coverage of the "big story" - the rift between "Jeb!" and the Florida Senate - please take a look at this editorial in the Gainesville Sun: "Poisoning the well". The editorial asks "where did Gov. Jeb Bush learn his leadership skills? From Genghis Khan?" And "what does Gov. Khan do? Two days before the session began he sent an e-mail to thousands of Republicans around the state, the purpose of which was to bludgeon the Republican leadership in the Senate for not caving in on the issue of punitive damage caps." Bush's behavior is truly that of a petulant child who has been surrounded by courtiers - including those in the media - all his life.
Let's Hope The Rift Is Permanent - "As a weary Legislature returns today for a second special session to grapple with Gov. Jeb Bush's insistence on medical malpractice reform, the governor is lashing out at his fellow Republicans in the Senate, blaming them for endangering Florida's healthcare system. In an e-mail sent late Monday to supporters, Bush accused the holdout Senate of being beholden to the state's trial lawyers, and urged recipients to call individual senators and tell them to support his proposal or 'we'll hold them accountable.'" See "Bush rips GOP senators on malpractice awards". See "Bush rips GOP senators on malpractice awards".
And unlike the "amen chorus of goose stepping legislators" in the House, Bush's tactic "angered Senate Republicans so much they shut down negotiations Tuesday with the House and Lt. Gov. Toni Jennings. Tuesday's negotiating, on the eve of today's special session, was supposed to take three hours. 'It lasted five minutes,' said Sen. Dennis Jones, R-Treasure Island." See "Bush's rebuke incenses senators".
In the meantime, the dopey Florida Times Union lauds "Jeb!" and his lackies in the House, and accuses the adults in the Senate of engaging in "stunt[s]".
This Could Be The Tipping Point - "This summer's marathon of legislative special sessions will cost some Florida lawmakers the best junket of the year." See "Legislators told to cancel national-conference plans". By the way, our Governor is visiting Canada on a junket of his own, offering to make "snide comment[s]" and otherwise lecturing Canadians about this and that in his usual condescending manner.
"A Pollution Ponzi Scheme" - "A state panel Tuesday signed off on a plan to determine where farm and suburban runoff is poisoning the Everglades, a complex and instantly controversial rule that leavens its tough pollution standard with complicated loopholes. David Struhs, Florida's chief environmental enforcer, praised the ''historic'' decision by the Environmental Regulatory Commission, stressing that it delivered on the state's pledge to set a super-low standard of 10 parts per billion for phosphorus, which even at incredibly low levels can alter the sensitive and struggling Everglades system."
"But others -- including environmentalists and even the federal government -- weren't so upbeat. Mary Barley of the Everglades Trust argued the ERC had loaded the regulation, a rule that spells out the technical details of how to measure phosphorus levels in the Everglades, with so many out-clauses that it amounted to 'a pollution Ponzi scheme.'" See "Glades water quality plan backed".
And There's More - "Florida is stuck with a mountain of acidic phosphate waste at the edge of Bishop Harbor and a cleanup tab that is $140-million and growing, but forget what environmentalists are saying. The most damning assessment of the state's regulatory collapse at the Piney Point fertilizer plant comes from the industry itself. 'Did they (state regulators) have enough authority to shut Piney Point down? I think they did,' says Bob Hugli, senior vice president of the Florida Phosphate Council. 'I don't know why they waited so long.'" See "A regulatory disaster".
Psst, The New Law Is A Joke . . . It's Just So Much Window Dessing - "A sweeping new Florida civil rights law is being hailed as a breakthrough in fighting discrimination based on race, religion, gender or age and gives the state new legal weapons, including a $10,000 penalty. But the law still does not go as far as those in many other states." See "New civil rights law fails pregnant women, gays".
Graham - "U.S. Sen. Bob Graham will report next week that he raised about $2 million for his presidential campaign during the three-month period that ended June 30, his campaign said Tuesday. That total -- at the bottom of the campaign's estimated range -- leaves Graham with slightly more than $1.5 million in the bank as he begins a critical period in which he will try to demonstrate his viability in a crowded Democratic field." See "Graham fundraising trails major contenders". See also "Graham trails in fund raising".
Cream Rises To The Top - "Reg Brown, former deputy general counsel to Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, longtime Federalist Society member and formerly a lawyer at Wilmer, Cutler & Pickering, is starting at the White House counsel's office. He succeeds Noel Francisco, who has moved to the office of legal counsel at the Department of Justice." See "In The Loop".