Weekly Roundup: Bill signing season arrives in Tallahassee

BY JIM TURNER
THE NEWS SERVICE OF FLORIDA

THE CAPITAL, TALLAHASSEE, March 25, 2016…… It may have been a quiet, post-session week in the Capitol, but the rest of the state wasn't exactly slumbering at the start of spring.

State wildlife officials announced that Florida black bears, which were prolific enough to be hunted last year, continue to have a "robust" population. But no word yet on a 2016 hunt.

It wouldn't be Florida without a fix of redistricting-related news involving the courts.

A three-judge panel of the 1st District Court of Appeal unanimously rejected the request for legal fees from a coalition of voting-rights organizations in their mostly otherwise-successful battle over congressional districts.

Congresswoman Corrine Brown's fight against her redrawn District 5, stretched across Northeast Florida to Tallahassee, went before a federal three-judge panel in Tallahassee on Friday.

And Gov. Rick Scott drew a few headlines Thursday by pushing Florida as a travel destination while he criticized President Barack Obama for not abandoning an international trip in order to address Tuesday's terrorist attacks in Brussels.

Scott made the biggest news this week, however, in ink --- the kind he used to sign more than 100 bills into law.

HERE COME THE NEW LAWS

Other than a single local bill involving a regional utility in Gainesville --- where Scott objected to the prospect that authority board members could be paid up to $18,000 a year --- Scott gave his blessing this week to 111 proposals sent his way by legislators.

The measures range from the serious to the sublime, including a controversial plan (HB 1411) that bars public funding for organizations associated with abortion clinics, a bill (HB 307) that will allow terminally ill patients to have access to full-strength marijuana, and a proposal (HB 4009) authorizing the sale of a maritime device known as a "slungshot."

Most of the bills were signed without comment from the governor, but Scott did chime in on a measure (SB 636), backed by Attorney General Pam Bondi, intended to speed up testing of law enforcement "rape kits."

He also commented on a proposal (HB 427) that will provide a discount of about 12 percent on vessel-registration fees for boaters that have purchased emergency locator devices.

The boater-safety issue was crafted in response to the disappearance of two 14-year-olds from Tequesta, who went missing in July after steering a 19-foot boat out of the Jupiter Inlet into the Atlantic Ocean.

"We have made it a priority to make Florida the safest state in the nation, especially for those sailing and enjoying our beautiful waters," Scott said in a press release on Friday.

Among the bills Scott signed Thursday is a measure, backed by Democrats, requiring law enforcement agencies to set standards if they intend to use police body cameras.

Rep. Shevrin Jones, D-West Park, a sponsor of the bill, said the procedures could help protect police officers and citizens.

The bill garnered additional attention after musician Corey Jones was fatally shot last year by a plainclothes Palm Beach Gardens officer who did not have a body camera.

"This bill is one that really hit home for me after the death of Corey Jones, and hopefully now that it has been signed by the governor, we can hear less about lives lost and more about the unity between law enforcement and the community," Jones said in a press release.

Scott has so far signed 177 of the 245 general and local bills that have been sent to his desk. The legislature approved 272 bills in the regular session.

MORE BUSH-TRUMP SMACK TALK

Jeb Bush, whose exit last month from the Republican presidential contest came much quicker than the former Florida governor expected, on Wednesday announced he was backing U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz in the whittled-down race.

And, true to form, GOP front-runner Donald Trump couldn't contain himself on social media in reaction to the news.

Bush, widely seen as the establishment favorite when he officially entered the contest back in June, issued a statement that described Cruz as "a consistent, principled conservative who has demonstrated the ability to appeal to voters and win primary contests."

But Bush also pointedly raised the concern of many GOP leaders that part-time Palm Beacher Trump would turn off general-election voters and keep Republicans from taking the White House.

"For the sake of our party and country, we must move to overcome the divisiveness and vulgarity Donald Trump has brought into the political arena, or we will certainly lose our chance to defeat the Democratic nominee and reverse President Obama's failed policies,'' Bush said.

Trump, a master at using social media to wallop his adversaries, fired back the same day on Twitter.

"Low energy Jeb Bush just endorsed a man he truly hates, Lyin' Ted Cruz," Trump tweeted, using one of his nicknames for Cruz. "Honestly, I can't blame Jeb in that I drove him into oblivion!"

AND THEN THERE WERE TWO

The search for the state's appointed insurance commissioner is down to a former federal official with experience in insurance issues related to terrorism and flooding --- and who has been backed Scott --- and a state representative who was once Iowa's insurance commissioner.

On Thursday, Chief Financial Officer Jeff Atwater agreed to go with the two finalists --- State Rep. Bill Hager, R-Delray Beach, and Jeffrey Bragg --- that made the cut from 55 applicants.

Scott and Atwater must jointly recommend the next commissioner before the Cabinet, meeting Tuesday, votes to fill the position, advertised as paying up to $200,000 a year.

Hager, 69, who was once Iowa's appointed insurance commissioner, was backed by Bondi.

Bragg, a 67-year-old Palm Harbor resident, was executive director of the U.S. Department of the Treasury's Terrorism Risk Insurance Program from 2003 to 2014. Before that, Bragg spent a little under two years as a senior vice president at Zurich Risk Management in New Jersey. In 1981, Bragg was appointed by President Ronald Reagan to the Federal Emergency Management Agency, where he oversaw the National Flood Insurance Program and worked with Congress to terminate the federal riot reinsurance program.

STORY OF THE WEEK: Gov. Scott signed 111 bills into law.

QUOTE OF THE WEEK: "I am clean. Goodness. Clean. Yes." --- Congresswoman Corrine Brown, a Jacksonville Democrat under investigation by the U.S. House Committee on Ethics and the Department of Justice, responding to reporters' questions about the probes.