Tag Archives: State: Florida

Baptist Press: Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich finished in a virtual tie among evangelicals in Florida’s Republican primary, with each candidate claiming a small victory depending on which exit poll was used.

Palm Beach Post: After a heartfelt debate from both sides, the Florida Senate approved a measure authorizing student-led prayers at schools as long as adults are not involved.

TheHill.com: With 99 percent of precincts reporting, Romney topped his nearest rival, Newt Gingrich, by 14 points, 46 percent to 32.

CSMonitor.com: Ron Paul is likely to win more delegates to the 2012 GOP convention than either Newt Gingrich or Rick Santorum this week. Wait. What? That’s why he campaigned in Maine this weekend.

LaTimes.com: Members of a younger generation care less about Castro and are more liberal, but many are disappointed in President Obama.

NYTimes.com: A steady stream of endorsements has been flowing to Mitt Romney, with his campaign promoting Republicans who are giving their blessing to his presidential candidacy. Yet on the eve of the Florida primary, he has been unable to land the biggest catch of all: Jeb Bush.

NationalJournal.com: Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich rode a strong performance and crowd enthusiasm at a debate in South Carolina to victory in that state’s primary, but the crowds at two debates in Florida this week haven’t been as wild for Gingrich.

Rasmussen: Mitt Romney has jumped back ahead in the fevered Florida Republican Primary race with his support back to where it was before Newt Gingrich’s big win Saturday in South Carolina.

TBO.com: They all were united by a mission. And one by one, the speakers took the Hillsborough County School Board to task Tuesday over what they said was the improper teaching of Islam in a high school classroom last year by the leader of the local Council on American-Islamic Relations.

CBS Miami: The state’s abortion battle was back in the spotlight as a House panel approved bills that would block abortions after 20 weeks, require 24-hour waiting periods and target abortions that might be motivated by the race or gender of the fetus.

OneNewsNow.com: Though a Florida legislative bill to allow prayer at public school events has made it through the Senate Judiciary Committee, opponents warn it could be unconstitutional.

ClickOrlando (includes video): “Gay advocates call for county-wide registry.”

Christian Newswire: Personhood Florida received a major endorsement this week from Family Research Council’s (FRC) Tony Perkins. Similar to the Personhood Amendment recently on the ballot in Mississippi, the Florida Amendment bans all abortion.

Orlando Sentinel (includes video): Orlando made history Thursday as couples filed into city hall to sign the city’s first Domestic Partnership Affidavit.

Florida Independent: Senate Bill 98 would “authorize district school boards to adopt resolutions that allow prayers of invocation or benediction at secondary school events.”

LifeSiteNews.com: A bill outlawing race- and gender-based abortions was introduced in the Florida state senate by State. Sen Gary Siplin, D-Orlando, on January 6th. Rep. Scott Plakon, R-Longwood, filed the same measure in the House of Representatives.

News from The Associated Press: A man accused of plotting to attack Tampa, Fla.-area nightclubs and a sheriff’s office with bombs and guns also railed against Christians, Jews and Western living in videos he posted online.

The Washington Independent: Van Zant’s bill would make performing an abortion a felony. House Bill 1151 would create the “Florida for Life Act,” a law that would essentially outlaw all abortions in direct defiance of legal abortion rights in the U.S.

LaTimes.com: The 5th District Court of Appeal ruled that the U.S. and Florida constitutions trump Florida law and give parenting rights to both women. State law, it added, has not kept up with the times. | D.M.H. v. D.M.T., No. 5D09-3559 (Fla. Dist. Ct. App. (5th), Dec. 23, 2011)

News from The Associated Press: Investigators enlisted a chemical-sniffing dog from the Florida state fire marshal’s office on Tuesday to help determine if a New Year’s blaze at a Pensacola abortion clinic was arson.

Sunshine State News: Attorney General Pam Bondi has resubmitted ballot language a week after a Leon County judge agreed with critics that the wording of the “Religious Freedom” amendment was too “ambiguous.” The revised ballot summary for Amendment 7 on the November 2012 ballot adopts suggestions from Leon County Circuit Judge Terry Lewis, the attorney general’s office stated in a release.

OneNewsNow.com: A religious freedom ballot issue is slowly moving forward in Florida. Mat Staver of Liberty Counsel explains that the Florida constitutional amendment is opposed by the American Civil Liberties Union and teachers unions because it could lead to school vouchers allowing parents to send their children to religious and private schools.

A Florida judge has removed a constitutional amendment from the 2012 election ballot that would have deleted the state’s ban on using taxpayer money “in aid of any church, sect, or religious denomination or in aid of any sectarian institution.”

OrlandoSentinel.com: The relatively easy passage of a new domestic-partnership registry in Orlando is the latest sign the city has grown more accepting, members of the gay community say.

Palm Beach Post: New legislation sponsored by Wise, if passed, would require districts to officially refer to the period during which school is not in session and includes Christmas Day as Christmas Break. It would go into effect July 1, 2012.

Orlando Sentinel: The ACLU announced today it’s come out with a free pamphlet laying out citizens’ rights to video- and audio-record police and public officials in public places

ClayTodayOnline.com: The Clay County School will seek a preliminary injunction against a Green Cove Springs minister who has led prayer at four schools for the past 12 years. Declaring that students’ safety and dangerous traffic situations are a concern, Superintendent Ben Wortham also announced Tuesday, Nov. 22, that he would immediately order principals at those schools to issue trespass letters to the Rev. Ron Baker and his followers if they come onto school grounds after the Thanksgiving holiday.

According to reports Monday, two female students were debating who liked a 12-year-old boy more when one of the girls walked over and kissed the boy. Lee County Sheriff’s deputies were dispatched to Orange River Elementary School in Fort Myers, Fla., reportedly in response to the incident.

Florida Independent: John Stemberger, the president of the anti-gay and anti-abortion Florida Family Policy Council, has started a new project to get as many religious voters to the polls as possible . . . He also adds that pastors “have a virtual ‘army’ of attorneys at [their] disposal.” He cites the Alliance Defense Fund and the Liberty Counsel (who largely defend anti-abortion activists) as resources for the pastors.

BradentonHerald.com: The Manatee County Commission has been asked by a non-profit organization to halt prayers before its meetings, contending they violate the nation’s constitutional principle of separation of church and state.

Ocala.com: Two years after a former Marion Technical Institute instructor sued the School Board for violating his religious freedom, the two sides have reached an agreement and will forego a federal court showdown.

Florida Independent (includes FFRF letter): “In a letter to state legislators, the co-presidents of the Freedom From Religion Foundation warn policy-makers that a new school prayer bill is “patently unconstitutional . . . Last week, a state education committee amended Senate Bill 98 . . . ”

St. Petersburg Times: Personhood USA, the Colorado group behind the Mississippi ballot question, has been collecting petition signatures to bring a similar proposal to Florida. But Florida election laws already have dashed the hopes of the group to have the measure appear on a statewide ballot next year.

WOKV.com: Against the wishes of the Clay County school district, a Green Cove Springs pastor held a prayer ceremony at the flag pole outside Clay Hill Elementary School.

Christian Post: Ron Baker, pastor at Russell Baptist Church in Green Cove Springs, said that he would continue to pray no matter what happens. The flagpole, which is the site where the prayers have been taken place, is at the center of an ideological standoff between the school board and those who wish to pray.

Arizona News from USA Today: Five students, all born in the U.S. to illegal immigrant parents, sued the state last month for denying them in-state tuition rates even though they’d lived in Florida, graduated from state high schools and were entering state colleges and universities.

Huffington Post (includes video): Although newlyweds Rachel and Charlotte Lambert-Jolley say they were told they would be able to change their names in Florida with the appropriate documentation, authorities at a Pinellas County DMV ultimately rejected their request after an hour-long wait, Saint Petersburg 10 News is reporting.

The News-Press: A proposal to permit students to pray or deliver “inspirational messages” at school events was approved by a Senate committee Wednesday, over strong objections from groups dedicated to protecting religious freedoms.

Religion Clause: According to yesterday’s Jacksonville Times-Union, in Clay County, Florida, the attorney for the county school board last week sent the board a Legal Memorandum (full text) concluding . . .

OneNewsNow.com: “In fact, the Freedom From Religion Foundation turns the constitution on its head,” Cortman contends. “It basically argues that because someone is employed by the government, they somehow forfeit all their constitutional rights — and that is simply not true.”

Miami Herald: Republican Rep. Charles Van Zant will introduce his twice-failed “Florida for Life Act” during the 2012 legislative session, a proposal that bans abortion in nearly every circumstance.

MiamiHerald.com: The school district is withholding more than $185,000 from the Academy of Arts & Minds charter school in Coconut Grove because the school has failed to provide some services for children with special needs — a violation of state and federal law. Last month, the school, which has 460 students, was also slapped for illegally charging fees to students for basic classes.

The debate was sponsored by the Federalist Society and is here. The video runs just over 80 minutes.

Religion Clause: UPI reported yesterday that a Florida state appeals court has affirmed without opinion a decision of a state trial court that Islamic law can be used in deciding whether to enforce an arbitration award between a mosque and certain trustees of the mosque who had been removed from office.

News-Journal Online: By a 6-1 vote Monday, the City Commission said, “Let us pray.”

The Independent Florida Alligator [includes photo]: Speakers included Austin Nimocks, senior legal counsel for a group of Christian attorneys called the Alliance Defense Fund, and professor Danaya C. Wright, of the Levin College of Law, who each took a stance on DOMA . . . “The thrust of this debate is over the Equal Protection Clause,” Nimocks said. “The Equal Protection Clause has never required that different things should be treated the same … and marriage therefore does not violate that.” Nimocks went on to relate the involvement of federal government in marital matters to the issues of bankruptcy, military and immigration. “I think there is a solid history and a right and a reason for federal government to take up the right of marriage,” Nimocks said. [includes photo]

NBC Miami: “In this case, music or a religious message amplified so as to be heard twenty-five feet away from a vehicle would violate the statute, while a sound truck blaring ‘Eat at Joe’s’ or ‘Vote for Smith’ plainly audible at a great distance, would be authorized,” wrote Chief Judge Richard B. Orfinger.

MiamiHerald.com: Gov. Rick Scott has approved a $45.6 million loan so Florida’s court system can avoid an impending deficit due mainly to a decline in mortgage foreclosure filing fees.

CNN.com: Florida is now expected to hold its presidential primary on the last day in January 2012, a move likely to throw the carefully arranged Republican nominating calendar into disarray and jumpstart the nominating process a month earlier than party leaders had hoped.

Love Your Neighbor ministry seeks used cookbook donations – St. Petersburg Times: Brooksville Wesleyan Church, 8168 Jasmine Drive, will recognize Pulpit Freedom Sunday at 10:30 a.m. Oct. 2. The Alliance Defense Fund created the day in 2008 to encourage pastors to preach boldly and biblically about current events. Visit pulpitfreedom.com

The Advocate: A bill to repeal the federal Defense of Marriage Act now has bipartisan support after Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen of Florida announced Friday that she would cosponsor the legislation, becoming the first Republican to do so.

Religion Clause: In Rosenberger v. Jamison, (FL App., Sept. 16, 2011), a Florida state appellate court held that deciding a dispute about governance of the First Baptist Church of Micanopy would unconstitutionally entangle the court in a religious controversy.

A Florida couple will receive $4.5 million after winning a wrongful birth lawsuit claiming their son, born with no arms and one leg, should have become a victim of abortion. They complained the doctor in the case should have detected the physical disabilities before birth and suggested an abortion

LifeNews.com: A Florida county has voted to revoke $500,000 in taxpayer funding to the Planned Parenthood abortion business. After significant pro-life lobbying, the Children’s Services Council Taxing Authority (CSC) stopped funding Planned Parenthood after sending the abortion giant millions of dollars over the years.

WESH Orlando: “Future breaches and failure to maintain the separation of church and state may lead to more serious disciplinary issues,” the superintendent said in the letter.

LaTimes.com: The strongly worded statement issued Wednesday by the Canoga Park-based Free Speech Coalition came in response to complaints filed by the AIDS Healthcare Foundation with federal and Florida state health officials after the disclosure that an adult film performer tested HIV-positive.

TheStar.com: Unmarried couples who want to take the plunge and move in together, take heart. A Florida legislator is seeking to make you legal.

OneNewsNow.com: “I’m pleased to report that … both the constitution and common sense prevailed in the Lake County School District of Florida,” the attorney tells OneNewsNow. “The school board completed its — quote, unquote — ‘investigation’ and concluded that Jerry Buell has done absolutely nothing wrong, has done nothing that would warrant disciplinary action, and therefore has reinstated him effective immediately.” Buell returns to his job today.

LifeNews.com: An abortion business in Pensacola is the latest to close its doors and the closing follows a 40 Days for Life prayer campaign where local pro-life advocates prayed this would happen.

A long-time educator recently named his district’s ‘Teacher of the Year’ is under fire after he likened same-sex unions to a ‘cesspool’ on Facebook.

Three churches sue Port St. Lucie, claim zoning laws discriminate: “The law is very clear that when you allow similar uses that include assembly of people, you have to allow churches,” said the attorney for the churches Kevin Theriot. He is with the Christian nonprofit Alliance Defense Fund based in Kansas City. Theriot said the city claims the churches have to leave because they’re not allowed in areas zoned “neighborhood convenience commercial.” [more]

TCPalm: Kevin Theriot, the attorney representing the churches and senior counsel with the Alliance Defense Fund in Kansas City, Mo., said churches have operated in the Southport Shopping Center for at least the past nine years. He said the city began enforcing the zoning code only when it received a complaint against the churches. “Generally speaking, non-profits are allowed to locate without obtaining licensing similar to for-profit commercial enterprises, so there really hasn’t been any problems with them,” Theriot said. “Essentially, what the city told me is until somebody complains they usually don’t do anything. They are pretty much a complaint-based system. There are some definite problems with the code as a whole.”

Religion Clause: The Florida Independent reports that a group known as Citizens for National Security announced that they were filing suit yesterday in Florida state court to enjoin the effectiveness of Florida S.B. 2120 which, among other things (Sec. 21), calls for two state or national experts to review instructional materials that are up for adoption each year.

AP: Dixie County officials and residents say support for their monument is unanimous and they accuse outsiders of trampling on their way of life.

ADF attorney Greg Baylor at Speak Up Movement University Blog: Florida’s voters will decide whether to improve the state constitution’s church-state provisions — unless the ACLU and its allies get their way

Florida Gov. Rick Scott Holds Pro-Life Bill Signing Ceremony | LifeNews.com: A changing of the guard in the governor’s mansion in Florida made it so pro-life advocates could enjoy a bill signing ceremony with Governor Rick Scott — whereas pro-abortion Gov. Charlie Crist vetoed pro-life bills.

LifeNews.com: In a legal case that has received no mainstream media attention, a Florida abortion practitioner has been ordered by a court to pay the survivor of a failed abortion $36 million in damages for injuries she suffered from the abortion.

Jacksonville.com: The Florida Education Association, and religious leaders filed a lawsuit Wednesday challenging a proposed constitutional amendment that would remove language from the Florida constitution banning public dollars for religious groups. | Links to the complaint in Shapiro v. Browning, 2011 CA 1892 (Fla. 2nd Cir. for Leon Co.)

Jacksonville.com: Two Jacksonville nude dance clubs are running out of ways to stay at their current locations. This year, the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals found that zoning and municipal codes approved by City Council in 2005 and 2010 legally allowed the city to evict the Doll House on Atlantic Boulevard and the New Solid Gold Club on Blanding Boulevard. Lawyers for the two clubs asked for a rehearing on some issues, but the court refused

TheLedger.com: A transgender student made University of South Florida officials stop and think. Frustrated by a hostile housing experience, Taylor McCue wanted USF to join the growing number of colleges across the country — like Rutgers and Harvard — now offering students the option to live with anyone of any gender.

WSJ.com: School may be out for the summer, but school choice is in, as states across the nation have moved to expand education opportunities for disadvantaged kids. This year is shaping up as the best for reformers in a very long time.

Liberty Counsel: Faced with an imminent trial and damning evidence of their constitutional violations, the ACLU and the Santa Rosa School District have agreed to settle Liberty Counsel’s federal lawsuit, challenging their Consent Decree on behalf of 24 students, teachers, parents and community members.

LifeNews.com: Florida Gov. Rick Scott has signed two pro-life bills that would help stop abortions — including one that calls for tightening parental involvement laws on teen abortions and another that allows women to see an ultrasound of their baby before the abortion.

Orlando Sentinel: With support from Central Florida’s gay community, Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer said he plans to ask the City Council to consider such a registry this summer, but it’s unlikely Orange County leaders will move as quickly.

LifeNews.com: Florida Gov. Rick Scott has signed the first of several bills he is expected to sign that put new limits on abortion in place. The first bill he’s signed makes it so the state doesn’t have to pay for abortions under Obamacare.