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First Read: Tuesday, February 25, 2014

The Jacksonville Retirement Reform Task Force, teacher scores, and Rick Scott are in the headlines today.Welcome to WJCT First Read, your daily weekday morning round-up of stories from the First Coast, around Florida, and across the country. We'll also preview some of WJCT's upcoming news programming.

Jax pension panel recommends letting voters decide between tax hike options: At a meeting yesterday, the Jacksonville Retirement Reform Task Force recommended the city increase taxes to help offset the nearly $1.7 billion unfunded liability owed to the Police and Fire Pension Fund, and to let voters decide what kind of tax hike they would prefer. (WJCT)

Mayor Brown's office responds following pension poll results: Mayoral spokesman David DeCamp sent an email decrying the phrasing of a question asked by UNF pollsters that resulted in data showing nearly two-thirds of those polled are opposed to Mayor Alvin Brown's pension reform plan involving JEA. (WJCT)

Florida Times-Union wins legal fight to release teacher scores: The Florida Department of Education released hundreds of thousands of teacher scores after the Florida Times-Union won a major legal victory in a year-long battle over their release. (WJCT)

Times-Union reporter Topher Sanders will be on First Coast Connect this morning to discuss the teacher scores and the fight for their release.

Feds incident Mandarin bank manager in embezzlement scheme: Christopher Boston, vice-president of a Mandarin Fifth Third Bank, allegedly embezzled more than $10.5 million from customers and the bank itself according to a federal indictment. (News4Jax)

Gov. Scott talks flood insurance with President Obama: In a meeting with President Barack Obama yesterday, Florida Governor Rick Scott said heurged the president to halt flood insurance hikes. (Sarasota Herald-Tribune)

Parents of Jordan Davis plan to campaign against Stand Your Ground: The parents of Jordan Davis plan to campaign to reform the state’s controversial Stand Your Ground self-defense law. (The Raw Story)

Florida Gators move into No. 1 spot in AP poll: Florida is the new No. 1 in The Associated Press poll, the Gators' first time on top of the rankings since they repeated as national champions in 2007. (ESPN)

You can get all the latest headlines online at WJCTNews.org, on our Facebook page, and on Twitter @WJCTJax. You can follow Patrick Donges on Twitter at @patrickhdonges.

Patrick Donges served as WJCT's Digital Content Editor from August 2013 - August 2014.