2011 Wed. Jan 12

The picture is at the lake shore at the resort.

Today we went for lunch at Ruby Tuesday’s at the Florida mall. The mall is huge and a good place to spend an afternoon. It takes us about 20 minutes to get there. [Yes, it has a Starbucks - actually two!] Walking the perimeter takes over a half hour and is my exercise for the day. We purchased a book on how to get the most out of our iPad, and a few other books, because the Waldenbooks was having a everything-must-go closing sale. Now that we joined the library, we aren’t purchasing so many books. Home for supper and stayed awake during the entire speech of President Obama at the Tuscon memorial. Good job.
　
FL WEATHER: High 56, low tonight of 31! But everything is relative! By Mon. it will be 75! Florida is the only state without snow. From yesterday’s paper : “Every other state, however, including Hawaii, had some snow cover today, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. (There were about seven inches of snow atop Mauna Kea, a dormant volcano and Hawaii’s highest point.) All told, 69.4 percent of the contiguous U.S. is covered by snow as of today.”
　
FL NEWS: Cuts in education funding are likely:
The Florida Senate President signaled Wednesday that education could face big cuts to patch the holes in the state’s budget. He said policymakers would be passing a budget this spring without any new tax increases, which means they would have to make dramatic cuts to health care and education to make the math work. Gov. Rick Scott wants to follow through on his campaign pledge of cutting taxes by $2 billion in his first year in office, but the governor will have to offset them with spending cuts. Scott has proposed to cut school property taxes by $1.4 billion and make up the millage reduction with more state dollars. He also promised to start phasing out Florida's corporate income tax, which could cost another $700 million this year. The Senate president said education could be particularly hard-hit in next year's budget, saying it may be impossible to make up for about $1.2 billion in expiring federal stimulus dollars that are financing core classroom programs.