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Featured

Commissioner Adam Putnam to Address Florida Highway Patrol’s 137th Recruit Class at Graduation

Posted on December 14, 2017

MEDIA ADVISORY

Florida Commissioner of Agriculture Adam H. Putnam tomorrow will address Florida Highway Patrol’s 137th Basic Recruit Class at their graduation ceremony.
Event: 137th Recruit Class graduation
Date: Friday, Dec. 15, 2017
Time: 10 a.m.
Location: Christian Heritage Church
2820 Sharer Rd.
Tallahassee, Fla.

Filed Under: Featured Tagged With: Commissioner Adam Putnam, florida department of agriculture and consumer services, Florida Highway Patrol, graduation, Recruit Class

New JMI Report Lauds University of Florida’s Efforts to Promote Free Speech

Posted on December 14, 2017

A new report by The James Madison Institute’s Marshall Center for Educational Options finds that the entire Florida higher education system could be “very well positioned to meet the growing demand for intellectually-serious academic study at an affordable cost.”
Entitled, “Free Expression and Intellectual Diversity: How Florida Universities Currently Measure Up,” the JMI report compiles a variety of different measures that examine how well today’s universities protect free speech, promote a campus culture open to different viewpoints, and respond to speech-bullying by those seeking to drown out viewpoints they oppose.

On all of these measures, the University of Florida ranks among the nation’s leaders. In fact, UF’s ranking tied for 5th nationally in the composite scores of Heterodox Academy, an ideologically-diverse consortium of scholars working to improve viewpoint diversity in their academic fields and institutions. In addition, UF is one of only three dozen universities in the U.S. to claim the highest “green light” rating for protecting free speech given by the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE).

Six other Florida universities have improved their FIRE ratings since JMI collaborated on a similar report in 2013 – Florida Gulf Coast, Florida International, New College, North Florida, South Florida, and West Florida. Of these, UNF stands out, as it went from “red light” status to “green light” status.

Still, Florida’s higher education system has room for improvement, says JMI President and CEO Dr. Bob McClure. Citing recommendations found in the report, McClure called for “Florida’s university leaders to abolish all ‘speech codes,’ and ‘speech zones.”

“It would be a mistake to think that Florida’s public universities are in no way threatened by the rise of speech-bullying nationwide,” observed report author and Director of JMI’s Marshall Center for Educational Options William Mattox. He cited the University of Missouri’s troubles in the wake of a 2015 speech-squelching incident as a cautionary tale.

“At the same time, it would be an even bigger mistake for Florida higher education leaders to approach this topic with fear and trembling,” Mattox observed. “The campus unrest at many universities around the country gives Florida’s institutions of higher learning an opportunity to distinguish themselves as citadels of free expression, intellectual diversity, and academic excellence.”

 The JMI policy brief, including each university’s score, is available HERE.

Filed Under: Featured Tagged With: Free Speech, Marshall Center for Educational Options, The James Madison Institute’, University of Florida

FHCA: Constitution Revision Commission Should Act Carefully on Changes Affecting Care Options for Frail Elders

Posted on December 14, 2017

Members of the Florida Health Care Association (FHCA) today provided members of the Constitution Revision Commission (CRC) with invaluable information and insights to help preserve a crucial policy affecting the care of Florida’s most frail residents. In presentations to a CRC panel, FHCA speakers detailed why nursing centers should be removed from any repeal of the Certificate of Need process.

FHCA, Florida’s largest advocacy organization representing 82% of Florida nursing centers and the elderly they serve, told the CRC General Provisions Committee that both the quality of care for the state’s seniors and the health of the nursing centers that care for them could be significantly impacted by a proposal under consideration. The association is advocating for an exemption for nursing homes from a proposed Constitutional Amendment (Proposal 54) that would eliminate the Certificate of Need (CON) process for all health care facilities.

“Repealing nursing home Certificate of Need will most certainly result in unmanaged growth, low occupancy rates, inefficiencies in how buildings operate, and a reduction in the value of our state’s nursing centers. All of this will greatly impact how quality care is provided to our state’s seniors,” Brian Perry of HCR ManorCare, which operates 29 nursing centers in Florida, told members of the committee.

“CON repeal has affected elder care in other states,” Perry noted. “For example, Texas operates twice as many nursing centers as Florida but is plagued by facilities that have beds that remain empty and deliver a poor quality of care. Indiana was forced to impose a moratorium on building nursing centers due to unmanaged growth 16 years after it repealed its CON process.”

Jeff Marshall of Omega Healthcare Investors, a real estate investment trust with the nation’s largest portfolio of nursing home investments, told committee members that limiting the supply of nursing home beds to meet demand through the CON process represents a very important element of stabilizing nursing home value, encouraging both initial investment and subsequent reinvestment to enhance quality of care and environment for residents.

“Elimination of the nursing home CON process would ultimately lead to the unintended consequence of reduced access to nursing home care for Floridians covered by Medicaid,” said Marshall. “As newly built nursing homes focus on admitting profitable Medicare, insurance, and private-pay patients to cover construction costs, Medicaid residents will increasingly be restricted to older nursing homes. Those facilities that serve the highest percentage of Medicaid residents will suffer the most upon elimination of the CON process – not a desirable outcome.”

FHCA speakers also noted that by promoting an environment in which new nursing centers would have to lure elders to fill costly beds, repeal of CON for nursing centers would run contrary to Florida’s long-standing commitment to enabling elders to remain in their homes or in community-based care for as long as possible.

“Florida has attained a system that strikes the right balance. Those who can be cared for in a home and community-based setting are receiving it there – and those who come to my nursing center and others around the state do so because that is the only place they can safely receive the more specialized care they need,” said Joe Mitchell, CEO of mid-size nursing center operator Summit Care.

More information on how the Certificate of Need issue may affect the care of Floridians in skilled nursing centers can be found at cqrcengage.com/ahcafl/CONProcess.

Filed Under: Featured Tagged With: FHCA, Florida Constitution Revision Commission, Florida Health Care Association

Report northern bobwhite quail sightings to help conservation efforts

Posted on December 14, 2017

Seeing northern bobwhite quail on your land?
Report sightings to help conservation efforts

To help restore the state’s northern bobwhite quail populations, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) is asking private landowners to report sightings of bobwhite quail on their land.
Landowners can go to a new FWC webpage to record when and where they see northern bobwhite quail on their property: MyFWC.com/QuailSightings.
Hearing bobwhite quail calls also qualifies as a sighting.
The information collected will be useful to biologists in the FWC’s Landowner Assistance Program, who collaborate with private landowners on the restoration of bobwhite quail habitat. Bobwhite quail populations in Florida have declined by an estimated 82 percent over the past 50 years, primarily due to loss of habitat.
“I encourage landowners to get involved and let us know when you see or hear bobwhite quail on your land. The more landowners who decide to report their bobwhite quail sightings to the FWC’s new webpage, the more data we will have on the current locations and abundance of bobwhite quail throughout the state,” said Morgan Richardson, who heads the FWC’s Landowner Assistance Program. “Your participation will help us improve our efforts to restore bobwhite quail populations in Florida.”
The National Bobwhite Conservation Initiative in its State of the Bobwhite 2017 report mentions how FWC’s private lands biologists “provided technical assistance and cost share opportunities to landowners, creating roughly 8,000 acres of new bobwhite habitat throughout the state – nearly doubling last year’s acreage total.”
More than 19 million acres of Florida’s nearly 35 million acres are in private ownership. The land management practices encouraged by the FWC to maintain and restore bobwhite quail habitat include:

  • Planting low-density longleaf pine forests (less than 500 trees per acre).
  • Frequently doing prescribed burns.
  • Planting and maintaining field borders with native plants, providing food and cover for bobwhite quail.

The FWC wants to record sightings of wild quail, not pen-raised quail that are released for hunting. Sightings of bobwhite quail that are current or within the past year are preferred, but older sightings may be reported if the year and month are known.
Learn more about the Landowner Assistance Program at MyFWC.com/LAP where you can contact an FWC private lands biologist.
The FWC also relies on citizen scientists to report sightings of other species. Go to MyFWC.com/Get-Involved and click on “Citizen Science” and then “Sightings.”

Filed Under: Featured Tagged With: bobwhite quail, conservation efforts, Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission

Excerpts from Commissioner Adam H. Putnam’s Remarks at Rural Economic Development Summit

Posted on December 13, 2017

Florida Commissioner of Agriculture Adam H. Putnam today delivered remarks at the Rural Economic Development Summit in St. Augustine. The following are excerpts from his remarks:
“The goal of rural economic development is not to turn our rural communities into urban communities. The goal of rural economic development is to embrace the things that make our communities strong and create new opportunities that are vertically integrated in the strengths we already have so that our kids don’t have to all leave to find good jobs.
“The things that I think we need to do are all about creating opportunities for our kids to be able to find their piece of the American Dream—in the same town, in the same county, and in our state.
“So how do we get there? First and foremost, it begins with education, and it begins by making sure that our rural counties, our small-town schools, get the resources they need to help our kids be successful in a very complicated and rapidly changing global economy.
“It means putting vocational, technical and career education and skills back into middle schools and back into high schools. Think back to when you were out of power. Have you ever been happier to see anyone than when the bucket truck gets to your house? They did a phenomenal job. The average age of that workforce continues to grow. We can’t find enough linemen. Those are great jobs.
“Our students need to know what they can earn. Maybe it’s as a lineman, maybe it’s as a service tech at a Chevy Dealership, maybe it’s the person who’s going to come fix your air conditioner, fix your plumbing, fix your electrical. Those are great jobs that our kids can do and stay in their communities and become their own business owners.
“So before we pressure all of our students into student loan debt for a degree they don’t want and can’t use, we need to let them know what they can earn. That means reorienting the system so that it’s not only about university degrees. It’s also about post-secondary education, where they top off their skills and they come out of school employable.
“The number one job vacancy in Florida every month has been in nursing. If we’re going to rebuild the middle class, and rebuild our rural communities and rebuild our inner cities, we have to invest in our community colleges and state colleges.
“The state that’s the Fishing Capital of the World ought to build more boats. The state that put a man of the moon ought to be the leader in the next generation of innovation for the next giant leap of mankind. Our rural communities are not at a disadvantage for many of the jobs of the future.
“It comes down to having the workforce, having the skillset, having the education system, having the infrastructure. And by ‘infrastructure,’ I don’t just mean roads and bridges. I mean water infrastructure to protect our springs, to convert failed septic systems to sewer, to make sure that people have the experiences that make Florida, Florida. And I mean the digital infrastructure.
“We need to lead in education, infrastructure and workforce development. Florida is stronger because of our diversity and because of our size and because we have world-class attractions, and the longest coastline and cities that are international brands unto themselves. But Florida is also special and strong and better because we have communities that don’t have their own interstate exists, whose economies are rooted around the land, attached to the land, and they offer plenty of room for the next great manufacturing facilities if we can guarantee the talent pipeline is loaded.
“We have the logistics and rail and highways. We have plenty of land, low taxes, and a group of the world’s finest economic developers who are ready to roll out the welcome mat to anyone who wants to call Florida home.
“The future of Florida will only be strong and right if we have a balanced and comprehensive approach to economic development that doesn’t leave rural communities behind. Rural economic development is about bringing real job opportunities to our communities, creating sites that are ready to go, branding and marketing our regions as places that are open for business and ready to welcome anyone who wants to call Florida home.”

Filed Under: Featured Tagged With: Commissioner Adam Putnam, florida department of agriculture and consumer services, Rural Economic Development Summit

Governor Scott Celebrates Hanukkah with Florida Cabinet

Posted on December 13, 2017


During a meeting of the Florida Cabinet today, Governor Rick Scott and Cabinet Members celebrated Hanukkah.
Governor Scott said, “Ann and I would like to wish Florida’s Jewish community a happy Hanukkah filled with family and loved ones. Earlier this month, we had the opportunity to visit Israel and experience some of the rich traditions and history of the Jewish community first-hand. During this holiday, let us all reflect on the many blessings we had this year and on the importance of tradition and family. Happy Hanukkah!”

Filed Under: Featured Tagged With: Florida Cabinet, Governor Rick Scott, Hanukkah

Caldwell Campaign Reaches $1 Million Cash-on-hand

Posted on December 13, 2017

Representative Matt Caldwell announced another successful fundraising month in his bid for Florida Commissioner of Agriculture. In November, Caldwell’s campaign and Political Committee raised a combined $140,570 and has over one million dollars cash on-hand.
In November, Caldwell’s campaign for Florida Commissioner of Agriculture raised $87,970, while Friends of Matt Caldwell, a Political Committee supporting his bid, brought in $52,600. After tallying another strong month of fundraising, the campaign and Political Committee have now raised more than $1.5 million.
Representative Caldwell said, “It is a blessing to see support continue to grow and momentum build as we engage with Floridians across the Sunshine State. As we share our conservative message and build our grassroots campaign, it is clear that Floridians want a principled conservative that can lead in Tallahassee on day one.”
The Commissioner of Agriculture serves as a member of the Florida Cabinet and is critical to the foundation of Florida’s economy. The Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services helps the agricultural industry with its daily challenges, promotes Florida’s agricultural commodities, manages state forests, safeguards consumers, implements the school lunch program, and oversees the concealed-weapon license system.
The campaign recently announced the endorsements of Republican House members from the Panhandle, Northeast Florida, Central Florida, Southwest Florida, and South Florida delegations. This is in addition to endorsements from the Associated Builders and Contractors of Florida, U.S. Rep. Matt Gaetz, former candidate for Commissioner of Agriculture Paul Paulson, and a number of county constitutional officers.

The campaign continues to travel across the Sunshine State as a part of Caldwell’s statewide #2LaneTravels Work Days Tour that highlights and showcases industries overseen as Commissioner of Agriculture. 

Paid by Matt Caldwell, Republican, for Commissioner of Agriculture.

Filed Under: Featured Tagged With: Cash-on-hand, Matt Caldwell Campaign

Florida Supreme Court’s Commission on Access to Civil Justice members announce new mobile device app for family law help

Posted on December 13, 2017

MEDIA ADVISORY

Who: Gregory W. Coleman, Chair of the Access Commission’s Executive Committee
What: Media Availability to discuss the work of the Florida Commission on Access to Civil Justice
When: 11:30 a.m., Friday, December 15
Where: Horizon Grand Ballroom, Hotel Duval, 415 N. Monroe Street, Tallahassee
Streaming: Media availability at 11:30 a.m. and Commission meeting at 1 p.m. aired on The Florida Channel on cable systems and streaming at thefloridachannel.org.

Gregory W. Coleman, Executive Committee Chair of the standing Commission on Access to Civil Justice and a West Palm Beach attorney, will lead a media availability to discuss the continuing work of the Commission ahead of its meeting that day in Tallahassee.

Coleman will announce a Commission initiative, a new mobile device app to help Floridians who represent themselves in court on family law matters such as divorce, child custody, name changes and orders of protection. Judges and other court personnel are set to address the Commission on family law issues as part of a panel discussion scheduled for the afternoon after the Commission is introduced to the features of the new app.

The Commission works to address the barriers of access to civil justice faced by hundreds of thousands of Floridians.

Filed Under: Featured Tagged With: Commission on Access to Civil Justice, Family Law, Florida Supreme Court, mobile device app

Governor Scott Recognizes Educators with the Governor’s Shine Award

Posted on December 13, 2017


During a meeting of the Florida Cabinet today, Governor Rick Scott recognized seven outstanding educators with the Governor’s Shine Award. The Shine Award is presented to teachers and administrators in Florida who make significant contributions to the field of education. Five of the seven teachers honored today are 2017 district teachers of the year.
Governor Rick Scott said, “I am proud to present these outstanding educators with the Governor’s Shine Award today and thank them for their commitment to ensuring students reach their full potential. The educators honored today represent the thousands of great teachers around the state who are dedicated to preparing students for college and a future career.”
The following educators were presented with the Governor’s Shine Award:
Rudy Diaz, Miami-Dade County – Rudy Diaz teaches TV Production Media at South Miami Senior High School. With 30 years teaching experience, Diaz has been at his current school for 26 of them. Diaz has won three Emmy Awards for his expertise in editing, camera and producing, and is the 2017 Miami-Dade County District Teacher of the Year.
Lisa Gault, Bradford County – Lisa Gault is a veteran teacher with 33 years’ experience and teaches Adult Special Needs Transition at the Bradford-Union Technical Center. Gault is a member of the Bradford Education Foundation and the 2017 Bradford County District Teacher of the Year.
Felecia L. King, Hillsborough County – Felecia King teaches fourth grade English/ Language Arts at Lockhart Elementary Magnet School in Hillsborough County. King is the 2008-09 Ida S. Baker Teacher of the Year, 2014-15 Hillsborough County Teacher of the Year, member of the High Impact Teacher Corps and Leadership Florida, Education Class III.
Anne Jones, Dixie County – Anne Jones is an Instructional/Reading Coach at Ruth Raines Middle School in Dixie County. Jones has 21 years’ teaching experience and is the 2017 Dixie County District Teacher of the Year.
Nardi Routten, Indian River County – Nardi Routten has been an educator for 20 years and teaches fourth grade at Chester A. Moore Elementary School in Indian River County. Routten is the 2015 Milken Educator Award winner; member of the Teacher Leader Fellowship 2016; member of Leadership Florida, Education Class II; and is currently working on her second Master’s degree in Educational Leadership.
Timothy Stevens, Putnam County – With eight years’ experience, Tim Stevens teaches fifth grade English/Language Arts and Social Studies at Ochwilla Elementary School in Putnam County. Stevens is a member of the Superintendent’s Advisory Council and is the 2017 Putnam County District Teacher of the Year.
Dr. Karen P. Welch, Gilchrist County – Karen Welch teaches Intensive Reading and Intensive Language Arts at Bell High School in Gilchrist County. An experienced educator with 18 years’ experience, Dr. Welch was a district finalist for the 2009 Middle School Reading Teacher of the Year and is the 2017 Gilchrist District Teacher of the Year.

Filed Under: Featured Tagged With: Governor Rick Scott, Governor's Shine Award

Chief Financial Officer Jimmy Patronis Sponsors Resolution For Children’s Home Society of Florida

Posted on December 13, 2017

During today’s meeting of the Governor and Cabinet, Chief Financial Officer (CFO) Jimmy Patronis sponsored a resolution highlighting the Children’s Home Society of Florida’s tireless efforts supporting the growth, protection and success of Florida’s foster children.
“Florida’s children are the future fabric of our communities and it is imperative that we continue to provide all children with as many opportunities for success that we can,” said CFO Jimmy Patronis. “I applaud the Children’s Home Society of Florida and their 115-year commitment to ensuring Florida’s foster children have the support they need to rise above life’s challenges and reach their full potential.”
The Children’s Home Society of Florida has been the leader in enacting change for children, from driving policy establishing child labor laws and compulsory education laws to fiercely advocating for children’s rights in foster care and developing innovative solutions such as community partnership schools to turn odds into opportunities for kids.
The Children’s Home Society of Florida first opened its doors on November 17, 1902, as an orphanage, providing a safe home to the growing population of abandoned and homeless children in Jacksonville. Since 1902, the Children’s Home Society of Florida has grown from a team of two caring for 24 children to a team of nearly 2,000 empowering more than 50,000 children and family members every year.

Filed Under: Featured Tagged With: CFO Jimmy Patronis, Children’s Home Society of Florida

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