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Naked Politics

• Emails show legislative staff talked with party consultants over redistricting maps

  Florida’s legislative leaders appear to have authorized their staff to use private email accounts, secret “dropboxes” and to engage in “brainstorming meetings” with Republican Party of Florida consultants in attempting to draw favorable political districts, despite a constitutional ban on such coordination.  Download E-mails (Bainter, Reichelderfer & Heffley)

  The allegations arise from a lawsuit challenging [...]

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• Sen. Menendez bashes prostitution "smears," defends friendship with eye-doc donor

  CNN's Dana Bash and a few reporters caught up with Sen. Bob Menendez over allegations, which he vehemently denies, that he consorted with prostitutes in the Dominican Republic. Menendez questioned why the mainstream press is covering the "smears" and (to use a previous term of his) "fallacious allegations."

  The answer:' [...]

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• Task force releases final report on 'epidemic' of newborns addicted to drugs

  The Statewide Task Force on Prescription Drug Abuse & Newborns, chaired by Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi, released its final report on Monday, laying the groundwork for a “holistic approach” to the “epidemic” of babies born addicted to pain-killing medication.

   The task force was created during the 2012 legislative [...]

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• State gave tax break to company Bondi was investigating for foreclosure fraud

  While attorney general Pam Bondi was investigating Lender Processing Services for foreclosure abuses, the state of Florida was preparing a sweet tax break deal for the Jacksonville-based company.

  Last week, Bondi announced a national settlement with LPS, and the company agreed to pay $120 million to settle allegations that it operated as a so-called foreclosure mill, making [...]

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• In Sen. Menendez saga, donor's cousin calls hooker claims false, a "diabolical plot"

  From our man in Santo Domingo, Ezra Fieser:

  SANTO DOMINGO -- Prominent Dominican lawyer Vinicio Castillo on Monday said allegations that linked U.S. Sen. Robert Menendez to sex parties with prostitutes in the Dominican Republic were part of a “dirty campaign” aimed at discrediting his cousin, a Florida eye doctor who [...]

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• Florida receives permission to privatize long-term care Medicaid

  The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has granted Florida permission to transfer management of a part of its Medicaid program to private companies. Seniors who utilize Medicaid for their long-term care coverage, mainly nursing home stays, will begin working with managed care companies.

  The state first asked HHS to [...]

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• Did Univision really talk to suspected prostitute in Bob Menendez case?

  There's an interesting Spanish-language report from Univision, in which it interviewed a young woman possibly tied to the Sen. Bob Menendez saga.
  

  Menendez was accused of consorting with prostitutes, some underage, in the Dominican Republic. According to the anonymous/pseudonymous tipster, who said that, among "the girls Senator Menendez prefer [...]

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• State: Number of prisoners who re-offend is dropping because of 'culture change'

  From the News Service of Florida: Fewer Florida prison inmates are re-offending after their release, Corrections Secretary Mike Crews said Monday. 
  
  The percentage of inmates who commit another crime within three years of release has dropped from 33 percent for those freed as of 2003 to 27.6 percent for those [...]

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• AARP wants text driving ban, no nukes recovery and sales tax parity

  Banning texting while driving, providing adequate home and community-based long-term care services and closing the loophole that allows online retailers to have an unfair advantage in their competition against bricks-and-mortar stores are three of the top legislative priorities of Florida voters 50 and over, regardless of party affiliation,  according to a [...]

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• Older voters want text driving ban, no nukes recovery and sales tax parity

  Banning texting while driving, providing adequate home and community-based long-term care services and closing the loophole that allows online retailers to have an unfair advantage in their competition against bricks-and-mortar stores are three of the top legislative priorities for Florida voters age 50 and over, regardless of party affiliation,  according to a new AARP survey.

  The most “eye-popping” [...]

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