Senators: Does ‘Rachel’s Law’ compromise go far enough

Irv Hoffman and Margie Weiss are the parents of Rachel Hoffman, who was killed last year while working as a confidential informant for the Tallahassee Police Department, appeared Wednesday before the Senate Criminal Justice Committee

A push to regulate the use of confidential informants cleared an important hurdle on Wednesday, but only after the heart-wrenching pleas of a grieving father left some lawmakers wondering whether “Rachel’s Law” goes far enough.

The bill is named after 23-year-old Rachel Hoffman, a recent FSU graduate who was slain last year after she was recruited to serve as a confidential informant for the Tallahassee Police Department.

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Crist’s approval still soars

Gov. Charlie Crist’s political teflon keeps shining, even in the middle of a grinding recession and after slashing more than $6 billion from the state budget in the last two years.

A poll released this morning shows Crist’s approval ratings at a stratospheric 73 percent.

The poll was conducted for the Florida Chamber of Commerce’s Political Institute by Public Insight Research, an arm of Cherry Communications. The survey of 610 likely voters was conducted from Jan. 30 through Feb. 1 and has a 4 percent margin of error.

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Crist seeks to ‘protect the most vulnerable’ with budget plan

Gov. Charlie Crist said today he tried to make budget cuts as painless as possible in laying out his plans for plugging a $2.3 billion state-revenue shortage in next month’s special session.

Crist and his wife, Carole, visited a senior citizens center a few blocks from the Governor’s Mansion. He was asked about dipping into the Lawton Chiles Endowment for $600 million and gambling on quick ratification of his Seminole Tribe casino compact for another $135 million, which were pieces of the plan Crist sent to lawmakers late Tuesday.

Crist said the Chiles money will be repaid promptly. The late governor’s family has threatened legal action if the state includes the health-care fund among its sources of borrowing, and may ask that the Chiles name be removed from the endowment if it is treated like a regular revenue source.

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Crist proposes cuts, sweeps to make up $2.3 billion gap

Gov. Charlie Crist has proposed spending cuts, sweeping trust funds for extra money, using Seminole gambling money and borrowing to build prisons to meet a projected $2.3 billion shortfall in the state’s spending plan.

The Legislature is set to meet in special session starting Jan. 5 to fix the budget. An economy in recession and a burst housing bubble has continued to drain tax revenue.

Crist’s proposal, released this afternoon, includes $561.5 million in spending cuts.

It pulls extra money from a variety of sources. The biggest is $600 million from the Lawton Chiles Endowment Trust Fund, set up with a portion of proceeds from the state’s settlement in tobacco litigation.

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