1. Property Rights/ineligible aliens:
Would remove provision that allows Legislature to bar "aliens ineligible for citizenship" from owning or inheriting property.
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Would remove provision that allows Legislature to bar "aliens ineligible for citizenship" from owning or inheriting property.
To read the rest of this story, click here.
Struggling as we are with the housing bust, the credit crunch, shrinking consumption, rising unemployment and faltering business investment, we can be forgiven for thinking that all the big shoes have dropped. There is another one up there, however, and it is about to come down.
State and city governments have yet to shrink the economy; indeed, they have even managed to prop it up. They have quietly maintained their spending at pre-crisis levels even as they warn of numerous cutbacks forced on them by declining tax revenues. The cutbacks, however, are written into budgets for a fiscal year that begins on July 1, a month away. In the meantime the states and cities, often drawing on rainy-day savings, have carried their share of the load for the national economy.JUPITER — Florida Atlantic University faculty and staff will receive no salary increases for the second year in a row as state budget reductions force a $9.6 million cut from school coffers.
The budget cuts, which were discussed by FAU trustees Wednesday, are also expected to mean a loss of 120 jobs, larger class sizes, and the elimination of degree programs from some campuses.
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It is by now well-established that the high profile and expensive merit-based financial aid programs that numerous states have established to keep their best and brightest in college within state borders are far from the panacea their supporters envisioned. While the programs have often accomplished the goal of encouraging top-notch high school students to attend local colleges and making college more affordable for state residents, they have been criticized for disproportionately favoring higher-income students over those from low-income backgrounds and doing relatively little to encourage students who might not otherwise have gone to college to do so.
A study presented this week at the annual forum of the Association for Institutional Research suggests that, at least in one case, a state merit-based financial aid program may be working directly at odds with another priority that is near the top of concerns of most state and federal policy makers and educators: increasing the flow of Americans into scientific and technological fields.
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A walk through the University of Florida's Turlington Plaza will require more maneuvering than usual this summer.
Scaffolding blocking off the majority of the plaza is due to a renovation project of the lecture halls. Rooms L005, L007 and L011 are each part of the project.
"Our goal is to freshen things up, turn it into a more modern space," said Jay Beckenbach, project manager with the Architecture & Engineering Department of UF's Physical Plant.
Leaders of the University of Florida's faculty and graduate assistant unions are raising questions about whether university officials could have tapped unspent money to prevent layoffs.
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Sansom, a Republican from Fort Walton Beach, will be Speaker of the Florida House of Representatives for the 2008-2010 legislative sessions. He assured members of the Navarre Area Board of Realtors (NABOR) last week that his roots grow deep in Northwest Florida, and he won't forget that during his term in the Speaker's chair.
TAMPA - With a warning that class sizes will enlarge and course offerings will tighten, the University of South Florida announced plans Wednesday to cut $50.4 million by eliminating about 450 jobs.
TAMPA — The University of South Florida will cope with a $35.6-million loss in state funding by eliminating 450 staff and nontenured faculty positions, scaling back campus maintenance and some student services, and shutting down many academic buildings at night, administrators announced Wednesday.
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TAMPA - As the University of South Florida prepares to announce its budget-cutting plan this week, its faculty union is saying, not so fast.
Over the weekend, union leaders sent an e-mail calling on the university administration to suspend any plans to reorganize USF's various academic departments so the faculty can discuss pending cuts further.
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The News Journal sent e-mail inquiries to the 13 members of the University of West Florida Board of Trustees, seeking their opinions on the challenges facing the university as a search is launched for President John Cavanaugh's replacement.
The responses of six trustees follow. Not responding were trustees Honor Bell, Marny Gilluly, Sharon Hess Herrick, Jeanne Godwin, April Jardine, Thomas Scott Marzilli and J.T. Young.