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Naked Politics

• Hospitals that serve Florida's neediest patients concerned about proposed change to Medicaid payments

  Hospitals that serve Florida's neediest patients stand to lose the most under a new system for how the state doles out Medicaid dollars.

  The DRG payment model — or "diagnosis-related group" — would categorize Medicaid patients based on the type and severity of illness and pay hospitals accordingly. Currently, hospitals are [...]

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• Alex Sink backs Alan Clendenin in FL Dem Party chair race

  Interesting high-profile endorsement for Alan Clendenin in his bid to lead the Florida Democratic Party: Alex Sink, the 2010 and possibly 2014 candidate for governor. To date, Clendenin opponent Allison Tant has soaked up all the establishment help, namely Sen. Bill Nelson and Democratic National Committee Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz. [...]

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• BLOOMBERG: Gunmaker Tax Breaks to Lure Jobs Face Renewed Scrutiny

  Bloomberg's Michael Bender reports:

  Governments in nine states, including Florida, have awarded at least $49 million in subsidies in the past five years to gun and ammunition makers whose products are under scrutiny after last month’s school shooting in Connecticut.

  Almost 85 [...]

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• Attorney General Pam Bondi's father Joseph Bondi dies

  Attorney General Pam Bondi's father passed away Tuesday after an extended illness. The Associated Press is reporting that Joseph Bondi, 76, was a professor and former mayor of Temple Terrace and had been diagnosed with leukemia. Attorney General Bondi, whose full name is Pamela Jo, says her family is "heartbroken."

  Around 8:30 [...]

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• Scott floats new tax break for manufacturers

  Gov. Rick Scott is planning to cut taxes further for manufacturers in the coming year as a mechanism for creating more jobs and boosting the state’s manufacturing industry.

  Scott announced Wednesday that he will seek a new sales tax exemption for manufacturers that purchase industrial equipment and machinery.

  “We have 17,500 manufacturing companies in Florida today that [...]

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• Florida gave subsidy to gun maker as part of job creation package

  Bloomberg's Mike Bender reports today on tax breaks dished to gun manufacturers, raising questions about the $1.6 million tax subsidy given to Colt on Florida. An excerpt:

  In Florida, Republican Governor Rick Scott hailed an incentive for the West Hartford, Connecticut-based Colt Manufacturing Co. in 2011 saying it showed the [...]

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• Do Hagel and Obama differ on Iran?

  President Barack Obama’s nomination of former Sen. Chuck Hagel, R-Neb., as defense secretary is expected to create a hotly contested fight about his comments on Israel and Iran.
  
  Pro-Israel hawks have cast a portrait of Hagel as too soft on Iran and not chummy enough with Israel. Sen. Lindsey [...]
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• Gov. Rick Scott accused of using 'false' Medicaid expansion numbers

  In a Sunday Tampa Bay Times editorial and again when speaking to the media in Washington on Monday, Gov. Rick Scott said it will cost Florida $26 billion over the first 10 years to expand Medicaid under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.

  "As you know Florida's Agency for Health Care Administration [...]

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• Levine, Huizenga Jr., others seek coveted BOG slots

  Gov. Rick Scott has an important decision to make. Six of them, to be exact.

  Six of the governor's 14 appointments to the State University System Board of Governors are up for review this month. The BOG sets policy for universities, and they are among the most prestigious appointments in state government. The cluster [...]

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• Carlos Lopez-Cantera sworn in as Miami-Dade property appraiser

  New Miami-Dade Property Appraiser Carlos Lopez-Cantera was sworn into office Tuesday in a County Hall ceremony packed with a who's who of local politicians.

  Amid the schmoozing mayors, commissioners, lawmakers, lobbyists and political operatives were Miami Republican Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart and Sen. Marco Rubio, whom Lopez-Cantera -- a former GOP majority [...]

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