Florida

Governor Rick Scott today announced Florida’s statewide unemployment rate for April 2013 was 7.2 percent, the lowest rate since September 2008. Down 0.3 percentage points from March’s rate of 7.5 percent, Florida’s unemployment rate continues to fall below the national average of 7.5 percent for April. Over the month, Florida added 16,700 private sectors jobs throughout the state.

Attorney General Pam Bondi today filed a lawsuit against BP and Halliburton over the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. The lawsuit was filed in the Panama City Division of the Northern District of Florida.

Attorney General Pam Bondi announced a $7 million multistate settlement with Google over its collection of data from unsecured wireless networks nationwide while taking photographs for its Street View service between 2008 and March 2010. Attorney General Bondi’s Office served on the executive committee that negotiated the agreement, which requires Google to destroy the data it gathered during that time period.

Today, Governor Rick Scott participated in the 16th “Let’s Get to Work Day” at Joker Merchant Stadium and announced that he will work to provide $5 million annually to be used only for spring training facilities.  During the workday, the Governor participated in daily operations for the Detroit Tigers Baseball team, including working at the concession stands, managing equipment and working with the grounds crew.

Governor Rick Scott announced that he would support a limited, three-year expansion of the state’s Medicaid program under the president’s healthcare law while the federal government is paying 100 percent of the cost in order to protect both the uninsured in Florida and state taxpayers.

A federal jury found Abubakir Khidirov (26; New Orleans, Louisiana) guilty of marriage fraud yesterday. He faces a maximum penalty of five years in federal prison. A sentencing hearing is scheduled for March 14, 2013. Last week a separate federal jury found Rustamon Bahiriddinov (26; Charleston, South Carolina) and Rachel Ruiz (36; Orlando) guilty of marriage fraud. Their sentencing hearing is scheduled for February 28, 2013. They each face a maximum penalty of five years in federal prison.

Attorney General Pam Bondi announced today that Florida will receive more than $11.4 million as part of a global settlement totaling more than $151 million with McKesson Corporation, one of the largest drug wholesalers in the country. The settlement resolves allegations that McKesson violated the Federal False Claims Act and various state false claims acts by reporting inflated pricing data for prescription drugs, causing the state Medicaid programs to overpay McKesson.

Governor Rick Scott welcomed Wawa convenience stores to Orlando yesterday at the grand opening of their first store in the state of Florida. The store is the first of five stores opening in the greater Orlando area by mid-August, with 100 Florida stores planned during the next five years. These stores represent the company’s first outside of the Mid-Atlantic states of Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, and Virginia.

British Prime Minister David Cameron and Florida Governor Rick Scott met today at the Farnborough Air Show in the United Kingdom.

After reviewing the impact of the Supreme Court ruling that gave Florida the flexibility to legally opt out of implementing one of the costliest provisions of the Affordable Care Act, commonly known as “ObamaCare,” Governor Rick Scott has decided two major provisions in the law are inconsistent with his mission to grow jobs for Floridians, make sure there is adequate funding for education, and to keep the cost of living as low as possible.

Attorney General Pam Bondi made the following statement regarding the United States Supreme Court's decision in the health care lawsuit.

“All of us who are disappointed with the ultimate outcome today cannot lose sight of what we accomplished. We fought for the principle that the Constitution limits Congress’s power to direct the lives of our people, and on that point, we won.