Statewide Reports - May 1-15,2002

NOTE - 
If the link to the on-line articles has changed, search the paper's archive section by date and title - Palm Beach Post links are only good for the day posted, and there is a fee to access archived articles. 

5/15/02

• Hands off the Preservation 2000 funds
  Mercifully, our GOP-led Legislature has left Tallahassee. Although I realize that name-calling is a terrible logical fallacy, I must say that Florida's state senators and representatives act like a bunch of uncaring hacks.
• All this artifice
  The budget finally approved in Tallahassee reverses the damage done by earlier cuts, but it engages in accounting tricks to justify a corporate tax cut.
• 'Business as usual'
  Priority Number One for this just concluded special session, was to deliver up a yet another special interest tax break; another party favor for the soft-money sultans.
• Whitewash job: Budget glosses over school funding realities
  Pretend -- just for a minute -- that you're a cashier in a paint store.
• Lawmakers determined to protect pet projects
  State lawmakers, angry over Gov. Jeb Bush's three-year record of vetoing nearly $1 billion in local projects, have sent him a budget that could give the governor far less power to ax the so-called ``turkeys.''
• Nursing homes to get $27 million more in aid
  TALLAHASSEE -- A year after passing a massive plan to fix the troubled nursing-home industry, Florida lawmakers this week agreed to spend an extra $26.9 million next year to help nursing homes afford insurance.
• FSU receives $50 million extra
  Tough times may have forced state lawmakers to scuttle a popular sales tax holiday this year and raise tuition for college students, but it didn't stop them from spending millions more on pet construction projects at several state universities.
• Out of Dodge after an ugly day
  They cut the budget in October, drew new political districts in March and granted tax breaks in May. So when the Legislature's fourth special session ended Monday, there was no ceremony, no hankie drop, no celebration. Everyone just wanted to go home.
• Bush torn over Everglades bill
  Should he sign or veto the crucial funding measure -- which also restricts challenges to development projects on environmental grounds?
• Fla. senators decry move by president
  Frustrated at the White House's decision to ''set aside'' the nominees submitted by local selection panels for two top federal appointments in South Florida, Florida's two U.S. senators wrote a letter of protest Monday asking the president to stop ``ignoring local input.''
• DCF says it never knew Rilya caretaker's aliases
  But the agency had access to a list of Geralyn Graham's fake names before sending the child to live with her.
• Missing girl: Graham's name, aliases in DCF files before Rilya placement
  MIAMI — Florida's child-welfare agency has said it didn't know Rilya Wilson's caretaker used numerous aliases before the 5-year-old girl was placed in her home. The youngster has been missing for 16 months. But Geralyn Graham's bogus names were contained in a court subpoena served on the Department of Children & Families records as part of a personal-injury lawsuit involving Graham, according to court records reviewed by The Associated Press.
• Missing girl: Child advocates suing state say missing girl case sign of widespread problems
  TALLAHASSEE — Child welfare advocates who are suing the state over its foster care program say they've gathered evidence showing that the Rilya Wilson case is just one of many in which state case workers failed to regularly visit children.
• Students' state test results due today - Educators across Florida could find out today how students performed on the notorious test that helps determine a school's grade, reputation and funding. But don't expect all the answers. The scores of the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test are only part of the equation that determines a school's grade. Weeks will pass before all the other factors are calculated and the state knows how many, if any, schools are eligible for vouchers.
• Bush campaign stop miffs school officials
  Hillsborough school officials are miffed that an elementary became a campaign stop.
• Governor's campaign goes to school catering to migrant families
  ORLANDO — Gov. Jeb Bush didn't waste any time hitting the campaign trail Tuesday in his first chance at politicking since a combative and protracted legislative session ended earlier this week. Bush hosted a town hall meeting at an Orlando high school, met with political and business leaders from Orlando's Puerto Rican community for lunch and chatted with students in Spanish at an elementary school near Tampa.
• Misleading spin
  The governor's campaign hype does a disservice to public education.
• SFCC President Jackson Sasser breaks good news to staff
  With an additional $2.3 million in the bank from the Florida Legislature, Santa Fe Community College President Jackson Sasser recommended Tuesday that college employees receive raises of at least 2.5 percent this year.
• Another 2-year school offers 4-year degrees
  Miami-Dade Community College joins St. Petersburg College in offering baccalaureate degrees.
• Education Board OKs bachelor's degrees at Miami-Dade
  TALLAHASSEE — The Florida Board of Education gave Miami-Dade Community College the nod Tuesday to start issuing four-year degrees in education. The board also gave permission for Chipola Junior College in the Panhandle town of Marianna and Edison Community College in Fort Myers to negotiate arrangements with state universities to begin issuing some four-year degrees.
• State Board approves ECC/FGCU joint degree plans
  TALLAHASSEE — Calling it a model for the state and the nation, Florida's State Board of Education on Tuesday signed off on a long-sought agreement between two local educational institutions to launch one of the first joint baccalaureate programs linking community colleges to the state university system.
• Deadline passes; ex-USF teacher still jailed
  His attorneys say the government has no legal right to hold Mazen Al-Najjar longer than six months.
• Attorneys for jailed Palestinian try new bid for his freedom
  TAMPA — Attorneys for a jailed Palestinian academic once accused of supporting terrorists launched a new bid Tuesday to free him, asking a judge to declare his imprisonment unconstitutional. Mazen Al-Najjar has been in a federal prison for six months awaiting deportation. No country will take him, and his attorneys are arguing in new filings to the U.S. District Court in Miami that his continued confinement is illegal.
• Home insurers seek rate hikes of more than 20 percent
  The two largest insurers in the state want double-digit rate increases for homeowners insurance.
• New Escambia commissioners to get ethics training
  PENSACOLA — A workshop on ethics and Florida's open-government law is one of the first things on the agenda for appointees who will replace four indicted and suspended Escambia County commissioners. The Florida Association of Counties will hold the workshop Friday afternoon, just three hours after the new commissioners, appointed by Gov. Jeb Bush, are sworn in.
• Tech office undermines Bush & Co.
  The governor was definitely green when his head was turned by a computer wizard on his 1998 campaign staff, a man who fixed his laptop and talked his way into a whopper of a new job: chief information officer for the State Technology Office.
• State tech office blasted in audit, accused of breaking law
  TALLAHASSEE — The new state technology office paid for work with no proof it was completed and contracted outside firms for expensive jobs with only oral agreements, an audit released Tuesday in draft form shows. The technology office also shifted some work to a quasi-private company that may have broken the law, the audit by state Comptroller Bob Milligan's office also showed.
• Amnesty International wants U.S. to investigate inmate's death
  JACKSONVILLE — Amnesty International said Tuesday that it is deeply disturbed that charges have been dropped against five corrections officers charged in the 1999 killing of Florida death row inmate Frank Valdes. The human rights organization is calling on the Justice Department to make every effort to bring those responsible to justice.
• State's waterways cleanup gets OK
  A judge has cleared the way for the state to work with communities to implement a sweeping variety of actions to clean up polluted lakes, streams and rivers.
• Hendry County's canker eradication program cut in half
  TALLAHASSEE — The state program that cuts down uninfected citrus trees to prevent the spread of canker has been reduced by 50 percent in Hendry County, Florida Agriculture Commissioner Charles H. Bronson said Tuesday. The announcement comes after state-run surveys determined there were no canker-infected trees within a nine-mile region of the Big Cypress Seminole area.
• No bite on no-fishing zones
  Biscayne National Park's managers started making their case this week to begin regulating fishing in one of Florida's most used and abused bodies of water.
• Submerged-Land Owner Making Waves
  ST. PETERSBURG - A real estate speculator who bought a community lake for $1,000 and began fencing it off when homeowners didn't pay his $30,000-per-lot asking price has also purchased underwater land in Boca Ciega Bay ...
• Who has rights to submerged lands?
  A man who fenced off lakeside residents' view also bought an underwater stretch behind 61 Pinellas homes that lies beneath docks.
• Who really belongs here? Well, let's count up their points
  I got an e-mail recently from a person living in France who said that while she never lived in Florida, she did ride out a hurricane in Key West and that should count for something by way of Florida experience.
• Lawsuit alleging false billing filed against AT&T Broadband
  JACKSONVILLE — Attorneys have filed a lawsuit for about 1 million AT&T Broadband cable customers in Florida, alleging the company charged subscribers for services that were not provided, among other complaints. The lawsuit seeking class-action status was filed Monday, five days after Attorney General Bob Butterworth announced a full-scale investigation into the cable provider's billing practices in Jacksonville.
• Judge's order tells why she decided to go easy on teen driver
  A local judge said she went easy on a Tallahassee teen who crashed into and killed two people partly because the boy was an "inexperienced driver" and "did not appreciate the criminal nature of the conduct...."
• Harder on welfare recipients
  Congressional Republicans have taken George Bush's plan to extend welfare-reform and made it marginally better. The major welfare-reform reauthorization bill, which the House is expected to vote on today, does offer a bit more cushion for welfare recipients, and flexibility for the states, than Bush had proposed. But it still contains the same basic flaw of the administration's plan: It raises the bar for mothers and the states without providing the resources they need to reach it.
• Analysis: Political aide Rove adds foreign policy to portfolio
  WASHINGTON — Karl Rove, President Bush's top political adviser, is expanding his White House portfolio by inserting himself into the debate over how to deal with the Middle East, trade, terrorism, Latin America and other foreign policy matters, according to outside advisers and administration officials, including some who are rankled by his growing involvement. Rove's influence beyond domestic affairs has developed gradually and is hard to measure.
• Guest editorial: An ominous reversal on gun rights
  Using a footnote in a set of Supreme Court briefs, Attorney General John Ashcroft announced a radical shift last week in six decades of government policy toward the rights of Americans to own guns. Burying the change in fine print cannot disguise the ominous implications for law enforcement or Ashcroft's betrayal of his public duty.
• Molly Ivins: The disappearing women of Juarez
  EL PASO, Texas — This is one of those stories, like drought, that happens quietly over a long period, so no one quite notices how horrible it is ... except those directly affected. Those who pay attention to the Texas-Mexican border have known for years now about the murder of women in Juarez.

5/14/02

• $204 million shifted from environment
  Legislators skim from environmental programs to balance the state's $50.4 billion budget.... "It basically takes money that could be used to preserve our environment and uses it to pay for the tax cut," said Eric Draper, a lobbyist for Audubon of Florida.
• State Technology Office broke law, audit finds
  TALLAHASSEE -- The state agency responsible for spending $763-million on new information technology illegally solicited money from businesses with state contracts, failed to adequately account for expenditures and may have paid for services that were not received, an audit has found.
• Comptroller blasts tech agency
  An agency created to oversee Florida's approximately half-a-billion dollars a year in technology purchases has mismanaged money to the point of breaking the law, according to the state's top financial watchdog.
• Deal reinforces cynicism
  It's no wonder that state employees believe the Republican-led Legislature and Gov. Jeb Bush don't have their best interests at heart when a dormant plan on outsourcing is revived amid the horse-trading of budget negotiations.
• Price tags for ballot initiatives go to Bush
  Some of the proposed constitutional amendments on the November ballot will carry a price tag and others will not, under a bill the House sent to the governor with a 75-39 vote Monday.
• Gov. Bush urged to veto bill
  Some of the state's largest environmental groups are at odds over whether Gov. Jeb Bush should sign an Everglades funding bill. The Sierra Club's Florida chapter and more than 90 groups are urging the governor to veto HB 813 because it also would limit public challenges to state-permitting decisions.
• Budget goes down to the wire, again
  The Legislature finally decides on a spending plan on the last day of a second special session.
• All things come to an end
  The Florida Legislature wrapped up its two-week special session Monday, sending a $50.4 billion budget to the governor, adopting a $262 million tax break for corporations but passing on reinstating the $30 million sales tax holiday for shoppers.
• Lawmakers pass $50 billion budget
  State lawmakers passed a $50 billion budget for the next fiscal year Monday that gives corporations a $265 million tax break, university students a 5 percent tuition hike and public schools a 6 percent per-student increase. The vote in the Senate was 25-11 following a 81-35 vote in the House. The bill now goes to Gov. Jeb Bush, who will have 15 days once it arrives on his desk to veto individual spending items.
• Legislature stops dealing, passes $50 billion budget
  A four-month struggle to finish a budget and other tasks ended Monday for the state Legislature when it passed a $50.4 billion spending plan.
• Florida adds funds for pupils but drops tax holiday
  Florida's Legislature put aside months of acrimony Monday to finally approve a state budget that provides a 6 percent boost in spending for each public school student but does not include, for the first time in five years, a sales tax holiday for shoppers.
• Session closes with smiles - TALLAHASSEE · It took a regular session and two special sessions stretching over five months, but the Florida Legislature on Monday put the finishing touches on this year's work by finally passing a $50 billion state budget and a $262 million corporate tax break sought by Gov. Jeb Bush.
• Budget gives Bush a boost
  Republicans in the Legislature handed Gov. Jeb Bush a billion-dollar boost to his re-election chances Monday, passing a $50.4 billion state budget with the goods he needs to campaign as the education governor.
• Education spending up only slightly
  Schools will get $194 per student more than what was left after December, a Post analysis shows.
• On the campaign trail, Bush talks up education spending - TALLAHASSEE -- Gov. Jeb Bush, brandishing a freshly minted state budget with $1 billion in new money for public schools, will campaign through schoolhouses in Orlando and Tampa today.-- 
  This will be the Republican governor's first chance to tout a hard-fought $50 billion state budget that offers a boost for education - the central theme of his re-election campaign.
• Transfers, charters, magnets may foster Escambia segregation
  PENSACOLA — Transfers for hardship and academic reasons, the growth of charter and magnet schools and opposition to changing attendance boundaries may be contributing to racial segregation in Escambia County schools. Those findings emerged from a study of school attendance patterns by the Pensacola News Journal that the newspaper reported on in Sunday editions.
• The 'smoking gun'
  Last week, "smoking gun" documents were found showing that Enron manipulated energy prices during California's energy crisis. These developments don't bode well for energy deregulation in Florida.
• State reviews proposed water use increase on ranch near Orlando
  ORLANDO — A water management district is reviewing its proposal to let a central Florida ranch quadruple its water use, which environmentalists fear could lead to overdevelopment and dry out the area's wetlands. The St. Johns River Water Management District last month proposed to raise the daily water limit for Deseret Ranch from about 6 million gallons to 25 million gallons. That would be more than a quarter of what Orlando's customers use.
• Smoke-free initiative becomes ballot item
  The proposed amendment would ban smoking inside restaurants and in all other enclosed workplaces.
• Indoor workplace smoking ban on the Florida November ballot
  TALLAHASSEE — Florida voters will get the chance to decide in November whether to change the state constitution to ban smoking at most indoor workplaces, including restaurants. Elections officials said Monday that it has verified more than 492,000 of the 600,000-plus petition signatures submitted by Smoke-Free for Health, the proposed amendment's sponsoring coalition. That's about 3,500 more verified signatures than necessary.
• More troubling DCF questions
  Why does the state of Florida leave children in the care of unsuitable people?
• Child agency loses appeal
  As a panel of community leaders continued on Monday to look for ways to improve Florida's troubled child welfare system, the Department of Children & Families lost an important court battle that may alter the balance of power between the agency and judges who oversee foster children.
• Investigators seeking new leads in missing girl case
  MIAMI — Police combed through mounds of documents and searched for new clues Monday in the case of a 5-year-old girl who vanished 16 months ago. Police said a segment featuring Rilya Wilson's case on Fox's "America's Most Wanted" on Saturday failed to generate many new developments to help them locate the chubby-cheeked child missing since January 2001.
• Head of DCF in legal battle with ex-husband over unpaid debt
  MIAMI — Kathleen Kearney, the embattled secretary of the Florida Department of Children & Families, has been accused of charging thousands of dollars in credit-card debt in her ex-husband's name. Peter Magrino filed court papers in Palm Beach County in March accusing Kearney of continuing to use Discover and Marshall Field's credit cards in his name after the couple's 1995 divorce.
• A CASE FOR JUSTICE
  In the name of justice, the U.S. Department of Justice must take up the gauntlet presented by the acquittal and dismissal of charges against eight prison guards in the beating death of Death Row inmate Frank Valdes.
• Not so public
  Orlando elected officials have made a mockery of open meetings.
• Miami-Dade voting measure dies in Senate TALLAHASSEE · The Florida Senate on Monday refused to decide this year whether Miami-Dade voters should be allowed to reorganize their government in 2003.-- 
  The measure was pushed by most Miami-Dade legislators but opposed by Sen. Alex Diaz de la Portilla, R-Miami, and was the subject of heavy lobbying by both sides over the past several days.
• FAU to increase new president's salary as hunt for candidates continues - Florida Atlantic University trustees hope increasing the university president's salary will help them find a good replacement for outgoing President Anthony Catanese.-- 
  Catanese, who on June 30 is leaving FAU for Melbourne's Florida Institute of Technology, made $191,500. ... A salary boost wasn't possible before this year, Lombardo said, because the now-defunct Board of Regents, which once governed education statewide, controlled salaries.
• Suit seeks class-action status for cable users
  A lawsuit seeking class-action status on behalf of approximately 1 million AT&T Broadband cable customers in Florida was filed yesterday in state court.
• View for sale: $30,000
  New owner of a lake fences it off when homeowners wouldn't pay.
• Florida researchers: Tar, plastic plague baby sea turtles
  PORT CANAVERAL — Up to a third of the dead baby sea turtles collected off Brevard County beaches in the past decade had tar, plastic or both in their mouths or stomachs, according to a state biologist. "We find about half have tar and almost 100 percent have plastic in their stomachs," said Blair Witherington of the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. "Some of them have almost nothing but plastic."
• Mosquito control officials discuss federal subpoena over fenthion use
  Meeting for the first time since they were served a federal grand jury subpoena over fenthion use, Collier Mosquito Control District commissioners Monday tried to understand their role in a situation that has become national environmental news. Used for more than 30 years in Collier County, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service officials allege the chemical might be linked to the deaths of shore birds on Marco Island's Tigertail Beach.
• Nelson urges president to fund Superfund
  CLERMONT — Using the crumbling shell of a former chemical plant as a backdrop, U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson urged the Bush administration Monday to adequately fund the Superfund program for cleaning up polluted industrial sites. Florida ranks sixth in the nation in the number of Superfund sites with 51, including the former Tower Chemical Co. plant in Lake County, about a dozen miles west of Orlando, which Nelson toured Monday. The Superfund program was created two decades ago to pay for the cleanup of toxic sites and was funded through a tax on companies that produce pollutants. The tax expired in 1995.
• Nelson pledges to press for water filters
  U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson inspected Tower Chemical Co. in south Lake County on Monday and said he would pressure the federal government to provide water filters to families that live near the Superfund site.
• Drag racing becomes a crime under bill signed by Bush
  TALLAHASSEE — Off-track drag racing will become a crime under a bill Gov. Jeb Bush signed into law Monday. Drag racers could face fines, jail time and loss of their licenses for a year under the bill, which takes effect Oct. 1. The measure (CS HB 1225) had passed the House and Senate unanimously during the regular legislative session earlier this year.
• Carter contradicts Bush, says no evidence of Cuban terrorism
  HAVANA · Standing a few feet from Fidel Castro at a key biomedical facility, former President Jimmy Carter strongly contradicted the Bush administration on Monday, saying that during intense briefings with U.S. intelligence officials recently he was told there was no evidence Cuba was engaged in terrorist activities or transferring dangerous technology to enemies of the United States.
• Elian case figure asks Ashcroft to investigate INS
  MIAMI — One of the central figures in the Elian Gonzalez case is asking U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft to investigate whether high-ranking INS officials ordered internal documents on the case destroyed. Armando Gutierrez, former spokesman for Elian's Miami relatives, submitted his request — a letter addressed to Ashcroft — to a local U.S. attorney's office Monday.
• Children lose, Bush wins at U.N.
  In the end, the rest of the world gave in to President Bush's little ideological sulk, to keep him from once again stopping the world so the United States could get off.
  
  

5/13/02

• Raids on fund nettle faithful
  State lawmakers dip into Preservation 2000 money to cover holes in the budget, angering investors who had parks in mind.
• Critics say DCA's policy changing landscape of Florida
  ST. PETERSBURG — Critics of the state department that oversees development say the landscape of Florida is changing because of the agency's failure to stem urban sprawl. The Department of Community Affairs has lost staff and budget in the last few years — and huge developments have taken root far from urban centers.
• Voters need to crash parties' party- In the bad old days -- the middle of the last century -- party bosses decided who would run in elections. The bosses usually were Democrats and held some elective office.-- We, the irate voters, fixed that. We made the parties select candidates in primary elections. Primaries previously had been a quaint tradition in odd states like Wisconsin.-- The improvement is that these days, party bosses decide who can run in primary elections.
• Lawmakers ready for final vote on $50 billion budget
  TALLAHASSEE — All that's left for state lawmakers to do in the special session on the budget is vote. Differences in the Senate and House proposals were worked out by negotiators last week and a $50 billion compromise landed on legislators' desks Friday. That triggered the 72-hour waiting period required by the Florida Constitution before the final vote Monday.
• Battle lines drawn at end of session
  As leaders gear up for a final showdown, the legislature is set to pass a $49 billion budget.
• Budget shorts Florida -- and leaves big bill
  Shell game puts off choices past election.
• Reduced to whispers: Florida's budget got worse as protest dwindled
  In old melodramas, there often came a point where the heroine, menaced again and again by the assorted forces of darkness, could no longer scream. She was simply too exhausted.
• Budget winds up as a draw for employees
  The Florida Legislature is poised to approve a state budget today and end its special session, finishing a tediously important process that began Jan. 22.
• Gov. Jeb Bush plays a better teacher on TV
  TALLAHASSEE -- You'll have seen the campaign ad by now. There's a beautifully furnished, American-flagged, not remotely overcrowded classroom full of rosy-cheeked, well-fed children. There's Gov. Jeb Bush: beautifully coiffed, rosy-cheeked and well-fed himself, calling on various Norman Rockwellesque tykes as they thrust their small hands in the air, eager to learn. And he is eager to help them learn: Indeed, the ad implies he is singlehandedly leading Florida to the sunny uplands of enlightenment and economic growth usually associated with states that actually spend money on educating their young.
• Bill O'Reilly: Silence of the lambs
  Here's the question of the day: Why do Americans keep electing wimps to powerful positions? Why do we do this? For every Rudy Giuliani there are 10 Gary Condits — weasels with whom you'd never share a foxhole in battle. Let's get specific... (rants about Ted Kennedy) ...then there's Jeb Bush. As a candidate for governor of Florida in 1998, he vowed to protect the state's unwanted children and reform Department of Children and Families, which was a mess under Democratic Gov. Lawton Chiles. Bush was elected and doubled that agency's budget. Unfortunately, much of the new money went to buy computers that didn't work. Meantime, a 4-year-old girl in foster care named Rilya Wilson went missing. But her state caseworker, Deborah Muskelly, did not inform anyone about that, and a judge says she lied about the status of the child. Fifteen months have passed. Little Rilya is still missing.
  Our pal Jeb has appointed a "committee" to find out what happened. But the press wants to talk with Ms. Muskelly. The State of Florida, however, will not produce her, and Gov. Bush will not say where she is. Why? Because the case is under investigation, he says. So what? There's no law or policy that says Bush can't tell everybody where this Muskelly person is and what she's saying. Perhaps that information could help in finding Rilya. But no, Bush is mum. Instead of taking a hands-on interest in finding out what the hell happened to a defenseless 4-year-old, he has formed a "committee." What a guy.
  Are you getting the picture here? We are a nation that continues to elect people who are so cowardly and self-interested that they won't even extend themselves for abused children. Where is the outrage over pedophilia and the disappearance of a 4-year-old under state supervision? Kennedy and Bush should be on every news program in sight. They should be raising holy hell. But that is way too risky. It might come back to hurt them politically.
  I have had it with gutless politicians who don't have enough moral fiber to lead the charge to protect American kids. These guys have big names and big bucks. What they don't have is grit and a sense of moral outrage. In the face of rampant pedophilia and the loss of an innocent child — we get "committees" and "private" thoughts. Well here's a public thought directed at Ted and Jeb, and all our elected officials: You people better start standing up and looking out for the weakest among us — because someday the American people are going to wake up and clean house.
• Politicians' solution to child-welfare crisis: Create study panels -  ... Task force conclusions have a familiar theme: Caseloads of investigators and foster workers are too high; abuse prevention and early childhood development efforts are too scarce. -- 
  But to the dismay of many people who worked on the panels, their most serious, fundamental and expensive recommendations went unanswered while public officials grasped at trite, less-expensive solutions.
• Low state grades might spur closure of schools, some fear-- Student exodus from 'F' sites can lead to cutbacks in staffs, funds
• When good drugs are prescribed for bad reasons
  The Florida House is expected to vote today on two bills aimed at reversing the epidemic-like rise in overdose deaths caused from misusing prescription drugs.
• Make Office Nonpartisan
  Elections Supervisor Theresa LePore has renewed her call to make her office nonpartisan. She should get an enthusiastic yes answer.
• Make Office Nonpartisan
  Broward County's Charter Review Commission ran into a storm of controversy when it tried to...
• Refinery contests cleanup
  The St. Marks Refinery Inc. is firing back at the state, claiming that the Department of Environmental Protection is illegally trying to force it to clean up old contamination at the closed plant on the St. Marks River.
• State may curb water usage
  Water conservation in Florida, which now largely amounts to letting suburban lawns turn brown, may become more costly, complicated and controversial.
• 'Marketing' of water draws fire
  Whether it goes by the title ''market principles,'' ''water marketing'' or ''free market,'' when it comes to how Florida doles out its water, it still smacks of ''privatization'' to some environmentalists.
• Cold front to send fire smoke this way
  Hold your breath, Jacksonville and south coastal Georgia.
• Lake Okeechobee comes alive
  Resuscitated by drought after years of abnormally high water levels, Florida's largest lake is on the mend.
• A new pecking order - Starting today, it will be a crime to feed wild animals, including the often demanding sandhill cranes.
• Deport him or let him out
  Tuesday will mark six months since former University of South Florida teacher Mazen Al-Najjar was imprisoned pending his deportation. It is time for the Immigration and Naturalization Service to deport him or let him out of prison. As the U.S. Supreme Court recognized last year, indefinite detention of stateless illegal aliens is not an acceptable option under the Constitution.
• Report: Florida leads nation in hotel loan delinquencies
  KISSIMMEE — There are no outward signs of turmoil at the Orlando Hyatt hotel. The tile floors are polished, the bellhops' white uniforms are freshly pressed and the ficus trees and bromeliad plants in the spacious foyer are well-maintained. But the owners of the 919-room hotel late last month filed for bankruptcy to avoid a public auction of the property after they defaulted on their loan to LaSalle Bank National Association of Chicago.
• 7 growth plan changes proposed
  Seven proposed changes to Collier County's growth plan are headed to commissioners on Tuesday, including a new category of land use called "research and technology park." Six of the seven growth plan amendments to be considered at the regular commission meeting are developer-initiated for specific pieces of property they want reclassified as commercial. The research and technology park classification would allow a mix of businesses with green space and housing units and that could be used by employees.
• Betsy Hart: Surprising news about anti-depressants
  Years ago, I experienced a sleeping problem. At bedtime I would easily nod off, only to wake up inexplicably in the middle of night, sometimes for hours. I finally mentioned the matter to my doctor who reminded me, correctly, that this was occurring right around the time of year when my mother had died. Still, she explained, the sleep problems were a sign of depression.
• FOR HEALTHCARE PRIVACY
  When patients discuss their medical condition with a hospital, clinic or doctor, they do so with the understanding that the information will assist in their treatment. Few patients would imagine that such a confidential discussion might be a portal into their private lives for a universe of people, including bosses, insurance companies, marketers, researchers or the government.
• Guest editorial: Return to deficitland
  Everyone knew the government's record of four straight budget surpluses would come to an end this fiscal year, the one that ends Sept. 30. What nobody knew for sure, especially after Sept. 11, was how bad the damage would be. We have an answer of sorts from the Congressional Budget Office: it will be real bad.
• Ralph Nader: To speak to a human - oh, forget it
  Getting your telephone call returned by a seller these days is like the weather - everyone complains about it, but nobody seems able to do anything about it. The domination of business callees is increasing rapidly over frustrated consumer callers.

5/12/02

• Gate open to growth, critics say
  As the state agency given oversight of local growth planning decreases in staff and budget, huge developments take root far from city centers. - ... 
  Shortly after Bush took office, his new DCA secretary, Steve Seibert, wrote a report that advocated reducing the state's role in local planning.--
  A bill to accomplish that was introduced in the Legislature in 2000. Though it failed, most of its aims have been accomplished by cutting the department's funding and by generally encouraging it to go easy on regulation, Reese and others said.- 
  Last year the DCA wrote an internal memo stating its intention to cut in half the number of plan reviews. ...
  • (see DCA, Katy)
• Lofty missions can collide with profit line-- Florida's never had a governor more committed to privatization than Jeb Bush. Under his leadership, the state has looked at contracting out everything from public education to voter qualification.--  That appeals to many people, who sincerely believe that government would be much better off if it were run like a business. It's a very short leap from "like a business" to "by a business" -- but one that spans a deep and dangerous pit.
• Prospective public to private transitions - list and summary of some of the state's "outsourcing" projects - personnel, updating voter roles, professional licensing and regulation, control of the state's water supply, state park reservations, private prisons, prison health care, vocational rehabilitation, child abuse investigation
• Tallahassee snookers
  Sneak-attack techniques are being used to add questionable provisions into legislation. Lawmakers should take the time to undo the mischief.
• Vote on budget wraps up session
  Last Thursday, before flying off to Orlando to begin his congressional campaign in earnest, House Speaker Tom Feeney chided reporters for not writing enough about how much the Legislature has accomplished in the last two weeks.
• Governor to kick off campaign
  For the first time, Jeb Bush will be running on his record as well as his campaign promises.
• Ex-felons seek voting rights - ...The ACLU has been hosting workshops throughout the state since the 2000 election, when the group received a private grant to start the workshops. The ACLU also has filed a class action lawsuit challenging how the state informs ex-felons of the clemency procedure and processes the applications. Last year the state's clemency board reported a 12,000 case backlog.
• House speaker pays up bill for property taxes
  INSIDE POLITICS House Speaker Tom Feeney has now paid his taxes, thanks to a reminder from an unusual source. The Oviedo Republican, who is running for one of the newly created congressional seats, learned he was delinquent on a property tax bill when the information showed up on a Web site.
• Reviews haven't halted child care crises
  Florida's troubled child welfare agency has been amply studied; no fewer than 11 special panels have been convened in 15 years. Legislators, too, have periodically taken aim at the agency. They've bulked it up and slimmed it down, centralized and decentralized through four governorships -- two Republican, two Democrat.
• DCF POLICIES NOT WORKING
  In the bureaucratic panic to find little Rilya Wilson, the real issues behind her disappearance have gotten lost: Are the Department of Children & Families' child-protection policies the right ones? Is the DCF putting its resources in the right places? Is the leadership right for the agency?
• Tallahassee: The state's bad parent
  The sad numbers still rise, and the governor and DCF director say lamely that you can't expect perfection.
• How to save 'nobody's children'
  Learn from success stories and commit to reforming Florida's systems.
• Child Advocates See Many Floridas
  WASHINGTON - Florida's system for safeguarding children - the same system that lost track of 5-year-old Rilya Wilson 16 months ago - is among the nation's most expensive, overburdened and neglectful, child welfare experts and advocates say.
• Tough ex-judge now defends DCF
  Kathleen Kearney, head of the beleaguered social services agency, says she will not resign despite pressure over a missing child.
• DCF chief feeling the heat
  As a judge, Kathleen Kearney criticized Florida's child protection. Now she's on the defensive.
• Retiring comptroller shows the way to inspire loyalty is to reciprocate it
  TALLAHASSEE -- Jeb Bush has spent a lot of money on children's services and his fact-finding commission will likely encourage him to spend more. But I doubt that money alone, or any organizational flaw, fully explains why the agency that was supposed to protect kids still couldn't even keep track of them.
• A child's 'yes' can reduce a sentence
  A child's consent to a sex act cannot be used as an adult's defense but can be used to push for a lighter sentence.
• 'Smart money' is on winners
  That's the strategy for past donors to the Florida Democratic Party, who are keeping their wallets shut until a sure bet emerges.
• Be Judges, Not Politicians
  For many months, Florida candidates for offices ranging from governor to state legislator to School Board member have been unofficially campaigning for political offices. Now, some of them must begin making it official.
• Coastal growth clogs hurricane evacuation plans - TALLAHASSEE - On a September morning in 1999 a storm 600 miles across, obviously bigger than the whole of Florida in TV radar images, was lurking off the state's Atlantic coast.-- In a bunker in Tallahassee, emergency officials watched carefully, dreading a westward turn that would have brought it ashore. It looked like the storm of a lifetime to many along Florida's shoreline. -- And they got out of the way, heeding calls to evacuate in droves, streaming inland and north toward Georgia, fleeing Hurricane Floyd.-- But for many, there was nowhere to go.
• Knowledge jobs and 'gazelles': It's a new day
  Tallahassee's never been more motivated to reinvent its economy. With state government jobs on the chopping block, the private sector and local governments are pumped to join forces and take advantage of our community's distinctive yet underused assets. (see Razing Tallahassee)
• Marketing company inflated MIA bills
  A politically influential company hired to promote Miami International Airport in Europe fraudulently inflated its bills to the county by submitting bogus invoices for advertising costs, The Herald has found.
• Covering drugs and the future
  After years of empty promises, Congress has rolled out two Medicare prescription plans, one from House Republicans and the other from Democratic Sens. Bob Graham of Florida and Zell Miller of Georgia. The Democratic plan provides for retirees' real needs, while the Republican proposal contains a gap in coverage that would fall short of protecting many beneficiaries. Neither party, however, has come up with a plan to put Medicare on a strong financial footing, and any expanded coverage will move up the day of reckoning.
• History's illiterates lack key perspective
  Stories that ask the rhetorical question, "How did our kids get dumb as rocks?" are a staple of educational journalism. The latest installment is the results of history tests given by the National Assessment of Education Progress.

5/11/02

• Budget to privatize 800 jobs
  Without public discussion, Florida lawmakers late Thursday night slipped language into the $50.4 billion state budget outsourcing about 800 human resources positions.
• No sales tax holiday
  The Florida Legislature plans to end the back-to-school sales tax break in a budget that raises tuition and spends more on security.
• State budget comes in at $50.4 billion
  Leaders steer bigger shares of project money to their districts.
• Personal Projects Hit State Budget
  TALLAHASSEE - How does a member of the Florida Legislature slip a $1 million hometown project into the state budget on the last day of negotiations? ...
• State budget plan includes millions for SPC
  St. Petersburg College would get about $10-million to expand its Tarpon Springs campus if the proposed budget is approved.
• Panel restores SFCC funds
  A House committee voted April 30 to give $300,000 that SFCC expected to another college.
• Local projects benefit from Byrd's role in House
  The state budget still contains funds for an Alzheimer's research center and the cancer center.
• Deal steers $16 million to S. Florida transit-- TALLAHASSEE · Some $16 million in new transit projects for South Florida was approved in a late flurry of deal-making Thursday, as legislators raced to complete a state budget of nearly $50 billion.
• Planned budget is windfall for water projects
  More than $50 million for water projects is poised to flow to South Florida from the state Capitol next year once state lawmakers approve the state budget as expected Monday.
• Florida Legislature
  Southwest Florida's top three priorities for the 2002 Legislature were roads, ethics and redistricting. We aimed for: a fair return of state taxes to keep up with growth, especially on Interstate 75; the closing of loopholes for slippery politicians' gifts and conflicts of interest; and reapportionment that protects our clout and sense of community. Let's see.
• McBride praised inside, booed outside conference - KISSIMMEE -- About 200 private-school students, parents and educators gathered outside a hotel Friday to protest a proposal by Democratic governor's candidate Bill McBride to end corporate funding of school vouchers.-- 
  The young protesters, many clad in their school uniforms or T-shirts, waved signs that read, "Save Our Scholarships" or "Let my mommy choose my school" outside the Hyatt Hotel and Resort on U.S. Highway 192.-- 
  Protesters could not enter the hotel, where more than 1,400 public-school teachers cheered McBride as he stumped before the Florida Education Association, the state's biggest teachers union.
• President plans visit to Florida - TALLAHASSEE -- President Bush will return to Florida for the centennial celebration of Cuban Independence Day and to campaign for his brother, Gov. Jeb Bush.-- 
  The president's trip to Miami on May 20 will represent his ninth official journey to Florida since his inauguration in January 2001.-
  It will not be the last this year, as Florida Republicans gear up for an election season in which they expect to spend $30 million on winning the president's brother a second term.
• The McKays tread a fine line in arena of conflict
  Senate President John McKay doesn't like it when anyone writes about his wife, Michelle.
• Florida House speaker late to pay two years' property taxes
  SANFORD — Florida House Speaker Tom Feeney, a key architect of Florida's estimated $50 billion budget, was late paying his property tax bills two years in a row, according to tax collector records. The Republican from Oviedo owns a home in the city's Carillon subdivision assessed at $171,746. He paid $2,952.11 on Thursday, more than a month after the March 31 deadline.
• Speaker of Florida's House pays taxes late on own house
  Florida House Speaker Tom Feeney was late paying his 2000 and 2001 property tax bills in Seminole County, according to tax collector records.
• Gov. Bush and his cronies are taking the low road
  Florida voters are stupid. Gov. Jeb Bush and Republican legislative leaders must think so.  ... That's certainly the message they are sending by pushing a law that would require that proposed constitutional amendments carry a price tag outlining what implementing the amendment would cost.-- On the surface, the price-tag requirement makes sense, but in reality it's a case of the governor and his cronies taking the low road for political gain.-- Despite rhetoric to the contrary, the law is aimed directly at a proposed constitutional amendment that would require smaller class sizes in the public schools.- The last thing Bush wants is for his "I'm the education governor" re-election campaign to get bogged down in serious debate about overcrowded classrooms.
• Delay provision on costs for amendments
  Does it make sense to require ballot language for proposed state constitutional amendments to include cost estimates? Absolutely. Is it appropriate to apply this requirement to proposed amendments now in the pipeline? Absolutely not.
• DNA proves Precious Doe is not Rilya
  Searching for leads, police say the girl's last caregivers were deceptive on a polygraph test. DCF officials say better monitoring is coming.
• Missing girl's caretaker unfairly portrayed, lawyer says
  MIAMI — Police were politically motivated when they publicly announced that the caregivers of missing Rilya Wilson failed a polygraph test, a lawyer for the women said Saturday. Miami-Dade County Police Director Carlos Alvarez said Friday that Geralyn Graham and her sister, Pamela Graham, both gave deceptive responses in a polygraph test administered last week, though he would not disclose the questions.
• DCF workers tracking kids
  Florida child welfare supervisors began the extraordinary task yesterday of visiting every child in state care and documenting their visits with photographs.
• Missing: How could a little girl go missing for 15 months, and no one notice?
  MIAMI — When Rilya Wilson was born on Sept. 29, 1996, the name she got was an acronym made up by her mother and some friends. R-I-L-Y-A: "Remember I love you always." And yet by the time her disappearance was discovered last month, she was under state supervision and had had three "mothers" in as many years. Somehow, the people charged with watching over Rilya failed her, and she was gone, leaving this shaken city to ponder how fragile and tenuous children's lives can be.
• Judge: DCF lost track of runaway
  Relatives and officials say the agency appeared to do little after a 12-year-old girl ran away from state foster care.
• Judge declares agency in contempt for false information
  Four days after she accused officials of the Department of Children & Families of ''hiding'' details of the disappearance of 5-year-old Rilya Wilson, Circuit Judge Cindy Lederman held the troubled agency in contempt of court for giving false information about other foster children in another case.
• DCF accused of neglecting the elderly
  A man found at home covered by roaches typifies the neglect, an advocacy group says.
• DCF head accused by ex of bilking him
  The furor enveloping Kathleen Kearney's embattled state child welfare agency spilled over into a more personal issue Friday: An accusation by her ex-husband that she racked up thousands of dollars in credit card debt in his name.
• Juvenile supervisor accused of sexual contact with girls
  TALLAHASSEE — A supervisor at an institution for juvenile offenders has been charged with eight felony counts that involve having sexual contact with girls in his custody. Investigators said three girls at Sawmill Academy reported having sex with Kenneth Keith and that he solicited sex or made plans to have relations with girls on four other occasions.
• Guards won't face charges in inmate's death
  After the February acquittal of three guards, the state drops its case against five other guards.
• State drops case against prison guards
  Three years after Death Row inmate Frank Valdes was beaten to death in an X-Wing cell, state prosecutors decided Friday to drop charges against five prison guards awaiting trial, following the acquittal of three other corrections officers in the same case in February.
• State drops efforts in inmate’s death
  Prosecutors drop charges in the Frank Valdes beating death; federal charges are possible.
• Man shot on I-10 identified
  The Florida Department of Law Enforcement has identified Genie McMeans, of Alpine, Ala., as the man killed by a state trooper Thursday.
  • Traffic stop turns deadly
    A rookie Florida Highway Patrol trooper shot and killed a man during a traffic stop on Interstate 10 in Leon County, according to an FHP spokesman.
• Despite ongoing recession in Florida, the state funds harsher marijuana laws
  Most Floridians know we are in a recession now.-- 
  What most Floridians aren't aware of is that, even during this economic downturn, our Legislature continues to spend tax dollars enforcing what many of us consider to be misguided marijuana policies.
• Investigation: Escambia scandal produces strange political bedfellows
  PENSACOLA — The adage about politics making strange bedfellows rings true in Escambia County's political corruption scandal. Former U.S. Rep. Joe Scarborough, R-Pensacola, is publisher emeritus of a weekly newspaper, The Independent Florida Sun, that was an early and persistent critic of the county commissioners. Scarborough, who still writes a column for the newspaper, also is a member of a law firm headed by Childers' lawyer, Fred Levin.
• Bush taps 4 new leaders
• Bush names 4 to fill posts of indicted commissioners -- TALLAHASSEE · The governor had suspended four of Escambia County's five commissioners after they were indicted by a grand jury, and the remaining commissioner maintains that the county courthouse is haunted.
• Investigation: Lack of debate stirred suspicion of Escambia commissioners
  PENSACOLA — Community activist Gail Fournier gave up speaking on issues before Escambia County commissioners in November convinced they already knew how they were going to vote, often by the same 3-2 split. "They were so pat," Fournier said. "It was ding, ding, ding — no questions asked." What Fournier suspected, other citizens serving as jurors may confirm.
• NAACP protests commission pick
  Some members of the black community criticized the Tallahassee City Commission on Friday for choosing a white person to replace Charles Billings, saying it ignored blacks' wishes to see one of their own on the five-member board.
• Habitat must be protected
  It is only natural that in a volatile world we still find solace in those things that seem unchanging. The Wakulla River meanders from the depths of the springs to its juncture with the St. Marks and its inevitable destiny, the Gulf of Mexico.
• Manatees and mankind: a delicate mix
  Learn how to be a wildlife watcher. I cringed when I saw the headline on Andy Lindstrom's April 21 article about manatees: "Touch, but don't hug."-- I am in charge of education for the state's manatee program and I would like to encourage people to, "Look, but don't touch."
• Boca Raton asking Broward judge to stop anti-canker crews
  FORT LAUDERDALE — Lawyers from Boca Raton have asked a Broward County judge to stop the state from resuming to cut down healthy citrus trees as part of the state's anti-canker program.
• State set to resume cutting citrus - More than 4,000 Palm Beach County citrus tree owners received an unwelcome notice from the Department of Agriculture this week, announcing plans to cut down healthy trees the state claims have been exposed to citrus canker.
• Official backs MDCC teacher degrees - State Education Secretary Jim Horne, in a recommendation to the Florida Board of Education, said South Florida's growth and the need for minority teachers persuaded him to endorse MDCC's bid to offer bachelor's degrees in exceptional student and secondary education.
• Feds to research anthrax at AMI building in Boca Raton
  BOCA RATON — Government scientists studying anthrax plan to conduct field work in the American Media Inc. building where spores were found last fall. The U.S. Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry is planning to send a team of doctors, environmental scientists and computer modeling experts to the building, spokeswoman Kathy Skipper said Friday.
• Hospice of Naples
  In less than a month Collier County loses a trusted asset for the terminally ill who had few other places to turn. Hospice of Naples is closing its six-bed Hospice House to make way for a 16-bed facility for short-term stays and an outpatient pain clinic.
• Wally the gator’s untimely end divides Volusia residents-  ... last month's "harvesting" of Wally -- the only one in Stone Island this year -- has added fuel to a long-simmering debate in this upscale community just north of Lake Monroe about when alligators should be done away with.
• A predatory plan?
  The government should investigate whether Enron engaged in a scheme to manipulate California's energy market in ways that unfairly inflated the company's profits.
• The price of gas
  An investigation by the U.S. Senate suggests the current high gas prices are being fueled by oil companies manipulating supplies and stifling competition.
• Why let facts get in the way of a good theory?
  An old joke: A farmer hears suspicious noises in his henhouse. "Who's there?" he calls out. "Nobody here but us chickens," replies the thief. Satisfied, the farmer goes back to bed. That about sums up the behavior of federal regulators during California's electricity crisis.
• Federal agency ignored Calif. power schemes
  As far back as 1999, California officials and utilities operators were giving regulators details of energy market manipulation.
• Return to deficitland
  Everyone knew the government's record of four straight budget surpluses would come to an end this fiscal year, the one that ends Sept. 30. What nobody knew for sure, especially after Sept. 11, was how bad the damage would be. We have an answer of sorts from the Congressional Budget Office: it will be real bad.
• Disabled students' history scores low
  Ninety percent of special education high school seniors failed national tests in American history last year.
• Sweatshops under the American flag
  Last month a court in American Samoa ordered a garment factory to pay $3.5 million to 270 workers from China and Vietnam. The court described workers cheated of wages, beaten and deprived of food, something that should never have occurred anywhere, much less on American territory. But while the exploitation in the Daewoosa factory was egregious, it is not isolated.
• Europe's new fascists
  The Thirties are coming round again in Europe. Fascists are flourishing politically in France and Italy, and now comes the murder of Pim Fortuyn, a populist politician who might have done well enough in the forthcoming Dutch elections to hold the balance of power in that country's parliament. But it is the widespread Jew-baiting that best reveals that Europeans are evidently incapable of learning from their history.

5/10/02

• DCF's computer savior has bad tracking record -- TALLAHASSEE -- Gov. Jeb Bush is touting a new computer system being developed to track abused and neglected children as the savior of the much-criticized state agency entrusted to care for them.-- 
  But after nearly a decade of trying, the multimillion-dollar HomeSafeNet computer system, which might have helped the state detect that 5-year-old Rilya Wilson of Miami was missing, is $200 million over budget, years behind schedule and far from finished.-- 
  What's worse, a recent state audit found that converting current records to the new computer system has caused "gaps in data" that's needed to track children in the meantime.
• Governor's DCF figures don't tell whole story-- TALLAHASSEE - In the debate over the disappearance of Rilya Wilson, Gov. Jeb Bush has said repeatedly that Florida's vulnerable children are better off now that his administration has cut the workloads of the state's front-line protection workers.-- Bush told reporters this week that the average number of children assigned to each worker is 21, down from ''hundreds'' before he took office.-- But the governor made no distinction between foster-care workers, who supervise children like Rilya once they are in state custody, and the ''protective investigators,'' who examine the thousands of suspected abuse cases called into Florida's hot line each year.
• Dredging up the truth
  Gov. Bush and his critics should rise above political calculations and focus on a full and fair investigation of the state's child-protection system.
• Missing girl's case shapes inquiry on DCF
  Several state officials and advocates appearing before a House panel refer to "systemic" problems at the agency.
• DCF can't say why abuse cases backlogged
  A department official told a House oversight committee that an old filing system is part of the reason.
• Judge refuses to release girl's child-welfare file
  MIAMI — A judge refused to immediately open the state child-welfare agency's file on a missing 5-year-old girl Thursday but promised to make it public the day the police investigation into her disappearance ends. Circuit Judge Cindy Lederman left open the possibility of releasing some records requested by news media on Rilya Wilson after personally reviewing them. But she said, "I think I am precluded under the law because there's an active criminal investigation." Attorneys for Miami-Dade police presented an affidavit from the lead detective in Rilya's disappearance, who wrote that the investigation "will be seriously compromised" by releasing the Department of Children & Families file.
• House committee examining problems of child welfare system
  TALLAHASSEE — The chairwoman of a House committee set up to examine problems at the Department of Children & Families said the state is sitting on a "bombshell" after hearing about the agency's problems Thursday. The committee, formed about four weeks before it was revealed that the department had lost 5-year-old Rilya Wilson, heard from department officials and a state auditor about an enormous backlog of child abuse investigations, a substantial increase in hot line calls and an antiquated filing system that makes it more difficult to track abuse cases. "I'm trying to get to why and how did we get to this point," said committee Chairwoman Sandy Murman, R-Tampa. "We're sitting on another potential bombshell."
• Child Care Agency's Failures `Systemic'-- TALLAHASSEE - A state watchdog agency has been sounding the alarm for years over what it describes as ``systemic problems'' within Florida's child welfare system.-- A key analyst with the Office of Program Policy Analysis and Government Accountability told state lawmakers Thursday that the safety and well-being of needy Floridians of all ages is at risk.
• State task force digs into DCF controversy
  The head of a special investigative task force said Thursday the state's child-welfare agency is always "sitting on another potential bombshell."
• Lawmakers take on final horse-trading on budget
  TALLAHASSEE — The Legislature's top two budget-writers worked out differences on health care and state employee pay Thursday as the final horse-trading on a $50 billion spending plan for the upcoming fiscal year wound down. Sen. Lisa Carlton, R-Osprey, and Rep. Carlos Lacasa, R-Miami, agreed that a program providing health care to some 18,000 people with catastrophic illnesses will continue unchanged through April at a cost of $97 million.
• State budget nearly finished
  In an almost final $49 billion state budget deal hammered out Thursday, state lawmakers agreed to maintain health coverage for some 25,000 desperately ill Floridians who don't have health insurance but make too much money to qualify for Medicaid, surprising healthcare advocates statewide.
• State budget bickering appears ended
  But several issues are still unresolved as lawmakers head home for the weekend.
• Legislature sews up budget
  Legislative budget leaders Thursday wrapped up four days of bartering on the $49 billion state budget, agreeing to provide a small pay raise for state employees and preserve a program that pays the medical bills of those with catastrophic illnesses.
• Security spending bolstered
  Florida lawmakers will give a dramatic boost to the state's domestic security efforts, earmarking nearly $100 million in the next year to buy everything from machines to X-ray incoming freight trucks to special suits to protect police officers from exposure to chemical weapons.
• How high will they go? They don't know
  Student reactions are mixed and school officials are still deciding what to do about the Florida Legislature's plans to raise tuition at state universities and community colleges this fall.
• 'Regents amendment' has high court review
  TALLAHASSEE -- Supreme Court justices peppered a lawyer with questions Thursday about why a plan to restore a separate governing board for the state university system should not be on the November ballot.
• High court hears oral arguments over Graham's amendment
  TALLAHASSEE — An initiative by U.S. Sen. Bob Graham that would change the management of Florida's public universities deals with only one subject and should be allowed on November's ballot, an attorney for the campaign argued Thursday. But a lawyer for opponents told the state Supreme Court that the proposed constitutional amendment is far too sweeping and fundamental a change to go on the ballot.
• It's UF, not One Florida
  Black admissions up due to recruitment.- Gov. Bush's team wasted no time claiming credit for improved African-American admissions numbers at the state's higher-education flagship, the University of Florida. "What One Florida detractors anticipated did not happen," crowed John Winn, the Florida Board of Education's deputy secretary. Actually, it did.... ... UF also increased its number of scholarships to students from largely black high schools, Dr. Colburn said. It is part of UF President Charles Young's conviction that "the educational environment is significantly advanced by having a diverse student body." To say that is one thing; to provide the resources that make the words meaningful is another. Gov. Bush has not given the public schools enough resources, though he claims otherwise. The rush to sing false praises for One Florida underscores that his motivation for creating it was political, not educational.
• Senate District 27 pushes the line
  Somewhat to his surprise, Frank Mann, a former House member and senator from Fort Myers, is running for the Florida Senate again. The surprise is that the Supreme Court upheld the redistricting plan that created the seat he hopes to win.
• Political ads are pleasant, reassuring fiction
  We'll never know what kind of governor Barry Kutun might have been, but he sure could cross Apalachee Parkway. Making a TV commercial in his 1986 run for governor, the former Miami legislator strode back and forth in front of the Old Capitol for a sweaty hour - coat on and tie knotted, collar open and coat slung over his shoulder. Then they filmed him bursting out of the big doors and racing down the steps, surrounded by aides, or charging up those steps alone on some vital mission. Nobody remembers...
• State to probe AT&T's billing
  Florida Attorney General Bob Butterworth has decided to launch a full-scale investigation into allegations of deceptive and unfair trade practices by AT&T Broadband in Jacksonville.   
• Editorial: Water management
  Lee County officials are seeking additional home rule with water management. They want more return on tax investments poured into a sprawling water district, based in West Palm Beach, that extends from South and Southwest Florida to the Orlando area. Collier County has its own taxing subdistrict of the larger South Florida
• Bivens Arm water levels dropping
  Gainesville - The water level of Bivens Arm has been falling since an apartment complex stopped pumping it discarded cooling water in April.
• State-federal dispute could delay toxic cleanup in Pensacola
  PENSACOLA — Differences between state and federal environmental officials could further delay the cleanup of a toxic waste site that forced the relocation of about 360 families. The Florida Department of Environmental Protection wants a higher level of cleanup for dioxin and other toxic chemicals than the federal Environmental Protection Agency has been willing to pay for through its Superfund program.
• Search ends for jets' seven crew members
  The U.S. Coast Guard called off its search Thursday for seven crew members aboard two Navy jets that crashed into the Gulf of Mexico south of Pensacola.
• Five infected in hepatitis A outbreak in Brevard
  SUNTREE — Brevard County health investigators were trying to determine Thursday the source of an outbreak of hepatitis A that caused five people to become sick last month. The outbreak occurred among workers at the Children's Advocacy Center in Suntree. Two workers were hospitalized, three others became sick and up to 20 workers and other people who came into contact with the infected workers received immune globulin shots.
• Lifeguards subjects in $6 million study of effects of red tide
  SARASOTA — Marine scientists have launched a $6 million study to determine if red tide is responsible for respiratory problems, turning to lifeguards as their subjects. During red tide outbreaks, people often report upper respiratory problems, including coughing, itchy and tearing eyes, runny nose, headache and shortness of breath. People with known respiratory problems are often advised to avoid beach areas during the outbreaks.
• INS plan worries state leaders
  Restricting tourists' stays for national security is causing an outcry.
• Graham urged to support bill aimed at power-plant pollution - Environmental groups gathered Thursday morning near the power plant at Port Everglades to pressure U.S. Sen. Bob Graham to support a bill to reduce air pollution from power plants.- 
  Known as the Clean Power Act, the bill would force older plants to reduce emissions of sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxide, mercury and carbon dioxide.- The issue of power plant pollution has become an important battleground between environmentalists and the Bush Administration, which is pushing a competing proposal that would allow greater emissions and use market forces to reduce pollution.
• Former Hooters waitress settles toy Yoda lawsuit
  PANAMA CITY — A former waitress has settled a lawsuit against Hooters, which she said promised to award her a new Toyota but instead gave her a toy Yoda. An attorney for Jodee Berry said Wednesday that he could not immediately disclose the settlement's details. "She's satisfied with it," said the attorney, David Noll. He did say that Berry can now go to a local car dealership and "pick out whatever type of Toyota she wants."
• Divers ask, 'Is this the sunken Commodore?'
  For more than a century, a wooden steamship has rested on the ocean floor in Windex-blue waters holding a treasure chest of artifacts and untold stories.
• News that fails to amaze
  We seem to be having a hail of news that fails to amaze. Israel has been attacked by another suicide bomber. Ariel Sharon, so memorably described by President Bush as "a man of peace," had to rush home to continue his policy of tit-for-tat, which he has so brilliantly demonstrated does not work.
• Bob Herbert: More guns for everyone!
  Let's see. What America needs is more guns in the hands of more people, right? That would almost certainly be the result of a new and potentially tragic initiative by John Ashcroft's Justice Department. In a reversal of federal policy that has stood for more than 60 years, the department told the Supreme Court this week that individual Americans have a constitutional right to own guns.
• Dan K. Thomasson: John Ashcroft — A man for the olden days
  WASHINGTON — It isn't easy being the nation's chief law enforcement officer in the new millennium, particularly if one's heart and mind are somewhere between the 18th and 19th centuries. Attorney General John Ashcroft, however, seems determined to make the best of it; the strenuous task of dealing with the terrifying results of zealotry is aided by his rare understanding of that affliction. It takes one to know one is the applicable cliche here.
• Feeding at the trough -- The farm bill is a huge piece of pork that deserves a presidential veto.
• A LOST OPPORTUNITY
  The Bush administration this week squandered an opportunity to shape a just, effective world court to deal with the worst crimes against humanity when it formally renounced participation in the new International Criminal Court.
• FUND PELL COLLEGE GRANTS
  A college education, for decades, has provided the firm foundation on which stable families, stronger communities and innovation have been built. This was the wise thinking behind the GI Bill. With government-paid tuition, thousands upon thousands of World War II veterans propelled themselves into the middle class and beyond.
• Seniors still stuck on U.S. history
  Scores on American history tests rose for fourth- and eighth-graders, but stagnated for 12th-graders.

5/9/02

• Democrats fault Bush's handling of Rilya case
  After a week of muted political response to the disappearance a 5-year-old foster child, Florida Democrats and their leading gubernatorial candidate flayed Republican Gov. Jeb Bush's response and called for the ouster of the head of state child protective services.
• Bush: Account for every child
  The governor says the DCF will verify all children under state care as officials wrangle over how well the agency is doing its job.
• DCF says it can't publicly discuss Rilya's case
  MIAMI — Leaders of a state agency criticized for losing track of a 5-year-old girl declined Wednesday to offer specifics to a panel formed to investigate the department's work, citing confidentiality laws and the criminal investigation. Department of Children & Families chief Kathleen Kearney said members of the panel would have to examine records about young Rilya Wilson in private because of the sensitive nature of the case and requests from police not to interfere with the investigation. "I would like nothing better than to have the records open to the media but I am also incredibly mindful of the confidentiality and that we have a missing child," Kearney said.
• Stop protecting system that fails state's children
  Fire the DCF secretary and top managers, then change the attitude.
• The DCF mess
   More things can be done right now to protect child welfare.
• Welfare agency failed on many levels, panel told
  Leaders of Florida's child welfare agency criticized for losing track of 5-year-old Rilya Wilson acknowledged Wednesday -- in the first meeting of a panel investigating what went wrong -- that the department mishandled the case on levels well beyond the child's caseworker and supervisor.
• DCF: Data `Not Available'
  TAMPA - Want to know how many children were found to be abused or neglected in Florida during the last half of 2001? Or how many cases state workers were averaging then? ...
  (also at http://www.wfla.com/MGA53QC101D.html )
• Reno calls for independent monitor, new head of state system
  ST. PETERSBURG — Democratic gubernatorial hopeful Janet Reno called for an independent monitor and a new head for Florida's troubled child welfare agency Wednesday, saying Gov. Jeb Bush's response to the disappearance of a 5-year-old girl has been inadequate. In her sharpest attack on Bush's handling of the disappearance of Rilya Wilson yet, Reno said the governor's appointment of a blue-ribbon panel to study the child protection system in Miami-Dade County falls short of what is needed.
• DCF tells mom son drowned at foster home
   Bonnie Turner answered the phone Wednesday and learned her little boy was dead.
• State keeps day care shut down - KISSIMMEE -- An in-home day-care center remained closed Wednesday after being shut down for housing children in a garage under the supervision of an 11-year-old girl, officials said.
• Senate OKs bill making child welfare record fraud a felony
  TALLAHASSEE — The disappearance of Rilya Wilson may have shocked the public and politicians, but the case isn't isolated, lawmakers said Wednesday as they voted to make it a crime for state workers to falsify records. A unanimous vote in the state Senate sent the legislation to the House, which passed a similar version of the bill (HB 71-E) last week.
• Florida budget deal expected today
  Some thorny issues remain and some cuts have created tension, but accord is expected.
• Lawmakers struggle over final budget details
  TALLAHASSEE — The job of reaching a compromise on a $50 billion budget passed Wednesday to the Legislature's top two budget writers. Joint House-Senate committees charged with negotiating compromises are now done, and the remaining differences are in the hands of a few legislative leaders. The differences include how to divvy up $90 million in road projects, whether to spend $3 million on financial aid for students at for-profit colleges or on need-based aid for students at public universities and about $34 million worth of disagreements in the area of health care and social services.
• A tax plan in search of a candidate
  In case you haven't noticed, there's a governor's race in Florida.
• John McKay's presents
  Our position: Legislators shouldn't take away education construction dollars to help McKay.
• Tuition at universities may go up
  Florida university students were handed a 5 percent tuition increase Wednesday by House and Senate budget negotiators working to put the finishing touches on the state's $49.7 billion budget.
• Senate okays ballot price tags
  The governor and some lawmakers want prices affixed to citizen-led ballot initiatives.
• Fixed hand in public initiatives
  ... Bush is rushing a bill through the Legislature to require a price tag on proposed changes to the state constitution. ... So why is Bush pushing legislators to do by law today what voters may do by constitutional amendment in November? The answer is, to assure the outcome he wants. The Republican Bush can frequently control the Republican Legislature. He cannot, however, control Florida's independent-minded voters.
• Beach limits lobbyists on fees
  Miami Beach passed a package of new laws Wednesday to limit the influence of lobbyists, becoming the first city in the state to require that lobbyists disclose how much they are being paid.
• Florida Senates scuttles plan for tougher anti-corruption law - TALLAHASSEE · For three years, Gov. Jeb Bush has lobbied to put more teeth in state laws dealing with corrupt public officials.-- 
  But his efforts to make it easier to jail elected officials and their top staff for such offenses as bid rigging, influence peddling, bribery and misuse of public office have been repeatedly rejected by the Florida Senate, most recently when it blocked efforts to address the issue in this week's special legislative session.
• Escambia corruption scandal revives charter movement
  PENSACOLA — A corruption scandal that resulted in the arrests of four of Escambia County's five commissioners has revived a movement for charter government. A charter is a home-rule constitution that lets a county create its own governmental structure rather than follow the format established by the state, which includes boards with only five commissioners.
• Showdown on Dade's political reins
  State Rep. Carlos Lacasa's controversial bill to force Miami-Dade's scandal-ridden county government to reorganize got a hearing on the state Senate floor Wednesday, two months after his arch rival, Sen. Alex Diaz de la Portilla, successfully blocked his efforts there.
• PSC approved $8 average rate increase for Gulf Power
  Gulf Power Co. customers in Florida will pay an average of about $8 more per month for electric service starting in June.
• Burn bans credited for blaze-free days
  Firefighters are giving a lot of credit to burning bans for a relatively quiet day or two in North Central Florida.
• State's health plan will cover the pill
  A state employee health plan that covers Viagra also will pay for birth control pills, thanks to the fine print slipped into the proposed budget by two South Florida legislators.
• Florida nonprofits unite to seek larger policy voice
  TALLAHASSEE — A charitable network designed to work more closely with government to help form public policy was announced Wednesday by leaders of seven of Florida's largest nonprofit foundations. "The voices of those performing the services ought to be heard by the people providing them," said Hodding Carter III, president of the Miami-based John S. and James L. Knight Foundation.
• A fulfilled promise
  Eight years ago, Florida Comptroller Bob Milligan set out to change the relationship politicians had with financial institutions, and now that his job is done, he's retiring.
• Two Navy training jets crash in Gulf of Mexico off Pensacola
  PENSACOLA — Two Navy jets with seven people aboard crashed into the Gulf of Mexico about 40 miles south of Pensacola during a training mission Wednesday, Coast Guard and Navy officials said. There were no immediate reports of deaths or injuries or indications whether the jets collided, said Cathy Whitney, a spokeswoman at Pensacola Naval Air Station where the planes were based.
• Navy planes crash in Gulf; 7 missing
• High Speed Rail Authority orders three ridership studies
  ORLANDO — The potential usage of bullet trains spanning central Florida will be examined in detail by two evaluations commissioned Wednesday by the Florida High Speed Rail Authority. The in-depth ridership studies will cover demand for a proposed rail line connecting St. Petersburg and Orlando, with stops in Tampa and Lakeland. That would be the first leg of a passenger rail network authorized by Florida voters in November 2000.
• Leadership is not imitation of the bad
  The Bush administration's decision to renounce the treaty creating a permanent international criminal court has been met with howls of indignation. "The administration is putting itself on the wrong side of history," says Kenneth Roth, executive director of Human Rights Watch. Sen. Russ Feingold (D-Wis.) apocalyptically warns that the White House's actions "actually call into question our country's credibility in all multilateral endeavors."
• More Enron mischief
  The people who ran Enron always insisted that the company had nothing to do with the California energy crisis. The crisis, which peaked in the winter of 2000-2001, was variously attributed by them and their friends in Washington to California's environmental regulations, to shortages of natural gas and
• Death Penalty Moratorium Issued in Maryland
   

5/8/02

• Party chairmen debate privatization
  The state Democratic and Republican Party chairmen disagreed sharply - and predictably - Tuesday about Gov. Jeb Bush's efforts to privatize government services.
• Florida sues investment manager who put pension funds in Enron
  TALLAHASSEE — The agency that oversees Florida's pension fund sued an investment manager Tuesday to recoup losses from an ill-timed move into Enron's plunging stock. Alliance Capital Management, one of about 70 contract firms hired to invest parts of the state's $100 billion retirement pool, cost the fund more than $300 million by investing in the energy giant as the company was spiraling toward bankruptcy late last year.
• State sues firm for 'reckless' Enron buys
  The state filed suit for more than $300 million against a New York investment firm Tuesday, accusing the company of ignoring "red flags" and pouring Florida's pension money into Enron's plummeting stock.
• Investment agency won't hire chief during whistleblower probe
  TALLAHASSEE — Gov. Jeb Bush and other trustees of the agency that invests state money put its search for a new director on hold Tuesday because of a whistleblower complaint against the top prospect. Bush, Comptroller Bob Milligan and Treasurer Tom Gallagher oversee the state Board of Administration, which invests large pools of state money, from Florida's pension fund to the $11.3 billion settlement the state won from the tobacco industry.
• Lawmakers struggle over final budget details
  TALLAHASSEE — State lawmakers struggled Tuesday over the fine print of a $50 billion spending plan for the fiscal year that starts in July. The broad outlines of a budget deal were largely worked out before Gov. Jeb Bush scheduled the 15-day special session: Senate consideration of a $262 million tax break for corporations, House agreement to spend $100 million more on health care and social services, a 6 percent per-student increase for public schools.
• Assaulted inmate wins $40,000 award
  A federal jury in Tallahassee on Tuesday awarded a state prisoner $40,000 in damages after finding that a correctional officer was negligent when the man was sexually assaulted. Richard Kemner was being held in the Wakulla Correctional Institution in 1998 on a burglary conviction - his first offense, court records show. He complained to Capt. Reba Hemphill that he was being sexually harassed by other inmates and asked to be moved. Hemphill did nothing, Kemner's suit contended, and he later was raped...
• Panel to examine DCF fiasco
  A select commission today begins a fast-track inquiry into how a state agency could lose a little girl.
• Defenders Of Children Show Impatience With Gov. Bush
  TALLAHASSEE - Child advocates wondered Tuesday how much more evidence Gov. Jeb Bush needs before concluding the state's system of protecting abused and neglected children is in disarray. ...
• Child abuse scandals cry out for us all to truly care
  This current scandal over the state's mishandling of child abuse cases, the latest in a long series of scandals, tempts some of us toward simple answers.
• Newspapers seek state agency records on Rilya
  MIAMI — Three Florida newspapers want the state child-protection agency to open its files on the missing 5-year-old girl who wasn't seen for 16 months while under state supervision. A hearing has been set Thursday before Rilya Wilson's juvenile judge on the records requests by the South Florida Sun-Sentinel, Orlando Sentinel and The Tampa Tribune.
• Criminal charges unlikely in disappearance of Rilya
   Despite calls for a criminal investigation, it’s unlikely that anyone from the state Department of Children & Families will go to jail as a result of the disappearance of 5-year-old Rilya Wilson, say legal experts who represent children in the state’s care.
• Rilya's supervisor was paid but absent
  On at least 22 days when she was supposed to visit Rilya Wilson or other children under her supervision, the child welfare caseworker assigned to the now-missing youngster was at another job as a substitute teacher.
• Bill advances in bid to make falsifying child-welfare records a felony - TALLAHASSEE · A Senate panel on Tuesday endorsed a plan to stiffen the penalty for falsifying records in child-welfare cases, promising the new law would cover all state workers, including top administrators who order or condone altering documents.
• Senate panel approves price tag for citizen initiatives
  TALLAHASSEE — A Senate panel voted 8-2 Tuesday to add a price tag to citizen initiatives on the ballot this November, with supporters saying it's important voters know how much proposals will cost taxpayers. A measure to reduce class size in Florida over several years will be one of those proposed constitutional amendments that will be slapped with a price tag if its supporters collect enough signatures in the next couple of months.
• Smaller classes could cost $12-billion
  Backers of the proposal say the number is just an estimate, and if the ballot carries a price tag, it could be different.
• More money on way to UCF
  House and Senate negotiators agreed Tuesday on an extra $9 million in funding for the University of Central Florida and three other universities but remained stuck over details of a tuition increase and how to dole out $91 million in road funds.
• Democrats to focus on two top races
  The party probably won't push candidates for agriculture commissioner or chief financial officer, its leader hints.
• 'West Wing' TV president to stump for Reno in Florida
  No word yet on whether President Clinton will come to Florida to stump for his old attorney general, but Janet Reno may have found the next best thing: a pretend president.
• Florida party chairmen discuss campaign goals; knock opponents
  TALLAHASSEE — State Democratic Party Chairman Bob Poe conceded Tuesday the party may not compete for some Cabinet offices in November's election to concentrate on defeating Gov. Jeb Bush. Short on cash, Democrats don't want to dilute what they consider a chance at knocking off Bush and keeping the attorney general's seat held by Democrat Bob Butterworth since 1987.
• Bush signs bill to raise prison terms in law enforcement deaths
  GAINESVILLE — Maximum prison sentences will be doubled for those convicted of killing police or emergency officials under a bill signed by Gov. Jeb Bush. The Officer Scott Baird Act, named for a Gainesville police officer killed last year, was signed Monday by Bush and only applies to officials killed in the line of duty.
• Sport agent Black sentenced to five years in prison
  GAINESVILLE — Sports agent William "Tank" Black was sentenced to five years in federal prison Tuesday for swindling up to $12 million from professional athletes he represented. Black, 45, was convicted of defrauding Jacksonville Jaguars running back Fred Taylor, New York Giants receiver Ike Hilliard, former player Robert Brooks and others.
• Al-Najjar due court review
  ST. PETERSBURG -- In less than a week, Mazen Al-Najjar, a longtime Tampa resident suspected of ties to terrorists, could gain his freedom.
• Lawyer says if Childers broke 'sunshine' law it was no crime
  PENSACOLA — If suspended Escambia County Commissioner W.D. Childers broke Florida's open-government "sunshine" law, he did it unknowingly and that's no crime, his lawyer said Tuesday. Attorney Fred Levin also said Childers, a former Florida Senate president, was the victim of an effort by Pensacola's "country club set" to use the courts to get rid of the commissioners.
• DISCLOSE LOBBYISTS' FEES
  Miami Beach commissioners gave initial approval last month to a proposal that would require lobbyists and their clients to disclose fees and other terms of their contracts with the city.
• Debt just tip of woes at Cyber High -- Cyber High Charter School's Orange County campus cannot pay its bills, account for equipment purchased with taxpayer money or detail teacher qualifications or student grades, according to an audit released Tuesday.... 
  But despite its shaky finances, Cyber High continued to pay consulting and other fees to the brother-in-law of the school's director, auditors found. 
• Visa plan could clip snowbirds
  Proposed visa restrictions aimed at terrorists could endanger Florida's international tourists.
• Wishes of a Web site unseen
  Cerabino: Palm Beach Gardens High’s domain name was sold and turned into a porn site.
• New water high on yuck, low on yum
  Tampa-In a most unscientific taste test, new water treated with a chlorine-ammonia mix doesn't exactly make a splash.
• Keep state's wild river from dying of thirst
  Protection overdue for the Loxahatchee.
• Speak up to protect Boyd Hill Nature Park
  A black racer crosses my path. A gopher tortoise nibbles grass near its burrow. A hawk floats on a wind current. Butterflies bob and weave among flower petals. An otter dives beneath a sheet of vegetation. I am in the woods enjoying raw nature, in the middle of St. Petersburg, in Boyd Hill Nature Park.
• Cabinet puts canoe-filled lake off limits to deadhead logging
  TALLAHASSEE — A lake near Gainesville where archaeologists found Indian canoes from as far back as 5,000 years ago will be off limits to the harvesting of timber from its depths. Citing the importance of the ancient site, Gov. Jeb Bush and the Cabinet unanimously decided Tuesday to keep so-called "deadhead loggers" from pulling old logs from Newnan's Lake, also known as Lake Pithlachocco.
• Students tracked in UF rabies alert
  University of Florida workers are calling all over the state looking for six or seven students from one dormitory who may have had contact with a dead and possibly rabid raccoon on campus last week.
• Wildfires close state park
  Stephen Foster State Park was closed yesterday as three wildfires burned thousands of acres of the Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge.
• Naples Municipal Airport
  It appears so straightforward. Measure areas where noise is worst at the end of Naples Municipal Airport's runways, and draw lines around their boundaries. Then make the properties inside the lines advise future buyers that the airport is nearby or make them install noise-muffling insulation. The aim is peaceful co-existence.
• Dangerous electricity pollution (courtesy of our ecology president)
  American Electric Power, one of the country's largest generators of electricity and one of its worst polluters, has come up with a novel way to solve a problem at its coal-fired plant near Cheshire, Ohio. Emissions from the plant wrap the town in a haze of sulfuric acid and rain down milky droplets, soot, white specks and other irritants on the population of 221, according to the Columbus Dispatch. Sulfur compounds are five times higher than the level that can trigger an asthma attack, and the town's residents have complained of burning eyes, headaches and white-colored burns on their lips and tongues.
• The administration's secret list
  Through a slip-up, an arm of Congress got possession of a list of people swept up in the post-Sept. 11 dragnet and held in secret by the Justice Department ever since. Under what was described as intense pressure from the Bush administration, the General Accounting Office returned the list without allowing members of Congress to see it.
• Molly Ivins: Women and choices
  AUSTIN, Texas — In 1901, a Henry T. Finch, writing in The Independent, reported: "Women's participation in political life would involve the domestic calamity of a deserted home and the loss of the womanly qualities for which refined men adore women and marry them. ... Doctors tell us, too, that thousands of children would be harmed or killed before birth by the injurious effect of untimely political excitement on their mothers."
• The rights of dead animals
  The Bush administration's obsession with secrecy is well known but now it seems to have permeated the government to a bizarre extent. According to The Washington Post, the capital's National Zoo refused to give one of its reporters the autopsy records on the death of a popular giraffe because it would violate the dead giraffe's right to privacy and the confidentiality of the veterinarian-animal relationship.
• Enron board members: We did nothing wrong - WASHINGTON -- Senators on Tuesday took turns scolding Enron Corp. directors, whom they accused of being blind and dumb to all warning signs as the company slid into disaster.- 
  The directors' response: It wasn't our fault.
• Don't silence the sounds of freedom on Internet radio
  Last year, I discovered that I didn't have to listen to the mindless corporate radio stations we have here in Tallahassee. On the Internet, there were thousands of radio stations that didn't endlessly broadcast Creed and Britney Spears, but offered an infinite variety of genres and artists from all over the world.
• Republicans' new TV show designed to woo Hispanics-- The Republican National Committee, hoping to sell President Bush's agenda to the nation's fastest-growing minority, will broadcast its own Spanish-language news-style television show in several select markets, including Miami-Fort Lauderdale.
  Democrats are deriding the 30-minute Republican-run "news-magazine" as an infomercial, and Republicans readily concede that some of the first news covered may involve a Democrat-run Senate balking at Bush's nomination of a Hispanic judge.
  

5/7/02

• Still broken
  After decades of child deaths and state studies, another task force is formed on child abuse cases.
• Child-care worker told court 5-year-old was fine after her disappearance
  MIAMI — The handling of the case of a missing 5-year-old was "absolutely despicable," and a child welfare worker repeatedly claimed the girl was fine, a judge said Monday. Nearly two months after Rilya Wilson was last seen in January 2001, caseworker Deborah Muskelly told Circuit Judge Cindy Lederman that the child was in day care, the judge said. In a report submitted Aug. 31, 2001, Muskelly said Rilya's custodian was addressing her needs, the juvenile court judge said. "Aside from everything else, she misrepresented the child's well-being to this court," Lederman said.
• Judge berates child agency
  Days after she learned a caseworker had ''misled'' her for more than a year about the safety of a child who disappeared while in the state's care, Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Cindy Lederman issued a stern command Monday to the Department of Children & Families: ``Nothing else will be hidden from this court.''
• One little lost girl, one huge bureaucratic mess
  Three feet tall. Forty pounds. No wonder Rilya Wilson got lost. She's way too small for a place as big and crowded as Florida. There are 16 million people here, mostly grown-ups busy with their own lives and their own grown-up problems.
• Governor forms panel to study child-welfare agency
  Facing mounting criticism of his administration's response to the disappearance of a 5-year-old girl in state custody, Gov. Jeb Bush on Monday named a special commission to investigate the performance of the state's child-welfare system in Miami-Dade County.
• Governor-appointed panel to examine DCF
  TALLAHASSEE — Former Miami Herald Publisher David Lawrence will chair a governor-appointed panel formed to examine problems with the Department of Children and Families. Lawrence is president of The Early Childhood Initiative Foundation and chair for the Florida Partnership for School Readiness board. He retired as the Herald publisher in 1998.
• Cheap, quick fixes cost some kids their lives
  Fifteen months went by before state officials discovered that a child supposedly under their supervision was missing from her grandmother's house. It took the agency six days to tell police about its discovery. Officials seemed more concerned about the bad press the missing child's case would generate for the department than the child's safety.
• In speech to teachers, Bush preaches schools
  But many are politely skeptical, especially after he supported another corporate tax break.
• Education sticker shock panicking Tallahassee
  Trying to discredit class-size amendment.
• No freedom from meddling pols
  Schools in Florida can't declare independence.
• Drug database hurts privacy
  Florida lawmakers are about to sacrifice more of our medical privacy in the name of better drug law enforcement. The trade-off isn't worth it.
• Bid to make Dade clean up its act may delay state budget's approval
  Rep. Carlos Lacasa's bid to force Miami-Dade's county government to reorganize in the wake of criminal and political scandals could play havoc with the Legislature's plans for wrapping up a $49 billion state budget by Monday.
• Lawmakers negotiate budget differences
  TALLAHASSEE — Even when the broad outlines of a budget deal are settled, there can be a lot of details to negotiate when you're talking about $50 billion. That's the job lawmakers turned their attention to Monday as the second week of the 15-day special session began, hammering out differences in education, health care and social service spending. "We're closer together then I've ever seen on a first go-around," Sen. Don Sullivan, a St. Petersburg Republican and the top education budget-writer in the Senate, said as a joint Senate-House committee went over school spending.
• Legislators' pet projects part of hide, wait game - TALLAHASSEE - In these final days of state budget talks, the Capitol is not resonating with high-minded policy debates about education, healthcare and criminal justice.-- Instead, in hallways and private offices, lawmakers are jostling over millions of dollars for local projects that are often dear to their hearts and key to their reelections.
• Roads, colleges hold up budget
  Road-building and university funding emerged Monday as the main obstacles to lawmakers completing a $49.7 billion state budget and ending their two-week special session.
• Senators blast for-profit college scholarship proprosal
  TALLAHASSEE -- A proposed $3 million scholarship program for students at Florida's private, for-profit colleges was decried Monday by some state senators, who called it yet another Republican attempt to divert public money into private businesses.
• Financial oversight plan draws praise, criticism ... State legislators discussed creating a powerful state financial czar to combine the elected jobs of the current state comptroller and state insurance commissioner. But a compromise approved Friday will put much of the power in the hands of two new appointed officials and give a new elected "chief financial officer" only a limited role in an effort to limit influence from large campaign contributions....
• Rising numbers of uninsured strain S. Florida 's health-care system
  The medical safety net that treats indigent and uninsured people is starting to strain under the weight of increasing numbers of people without coverage.
• Bill would allow pared-down health coverage
  A new program would allow health insurers to offer a policy stripped of state requirements.... The legislature last week passed a bill that allows the sale of health insurance policies stripped of the 51 state-mandated benefits to those who are uninsured and making less than 200 percent of the poverty level -- $35,300 for a family of four. The pilot program will be offered in Indian River County and three yet-to-be-determined areas with large numbers of uninsured. ...Medical groups and patient advocates fear such bare-bones policies could hurt residents because they won't cover important medical services. But the insurance industry argues a more limited and affordable policy is better than nothing at all.
• A disappointing retirement
  Florida Comptroller Bob Milligan set a great example for other politicians.
• Proposed canker regulation favors state over counties
  A proposed law could give citrus canker eradication crews the authority to flout local ''tree canopy'' ordinances when the state issues an emergency order, be it for citrus canker or hurricane response.
• Water switch prompts calls
  The utility extends use of chloramine to Pasco and Pinellas.
• Spawning fish die along Apalachicola
  Thousands of spawning fish have died in drying pools along the Apalachicola River in the past two weeks after river levels rapidly dropped.
• Ombudsman's misfortune
  Giving the ombudsman for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency more independence doesn't mean taking away his authority, staff and budget.
• Priming the gas pump
  The unrefined reality: Market manipulation.
• Greed, fraud and apologies: Corporate America's new bottom line
  Every day the morning paper brings a fresh example of the flotsam bubbling to the surface following the collision of corporate greed and post-Enron reality: golden-boy executives forced to walk the plank, formerly high-flying companies "restating" fraudulently inflated earnings, internal e-mails exposing the depths to which Wall Street firms have sunk to boost their bottom lines.
• Supporting the war on drugs supports terrorists-- In recent months, the United States government spent $10 million of our tax dollars for its latest anti-drug campaign. Its new pitch: If you buy illegal drugs, you're supporting terrorists, because terrorists are intimately involved in the production, sale and distribution of drugs.-- Guess what? I agree. People who buy illegal drugs do support terrorists. But here's what the government leaves out: By making drugs illegal, the government is supporting terrorists even more.

5/6/02

• Rilya haunts Bush's promise
  One week after taking office, Gov. Jeb Bush made a surprise appearance in a Broward County courtroom to stave off a lawsuit against Florida's child welfare agency. He promised to accomplish what no previous governor had managed to do: fix the troubled department.
• For 6 days, DCF combed system for missing girl
  Then the agency called the police, after searching DCF records and planning how to handle the media, e-mails show.
• Agency knew about girl's disappearance for 6 days, memos show
  Florida's Department of Children and Families waited six days to tell police that it lost track of a 5-year-old girl under the state's care, according to internal memos obtained by The Miami Herald. E-mails exchanged between caseworkers and the department's administrators in Tallahassee revealed that the agency instead used an internal procedure to try to locate Rilya Wilson, the newspaper reported Sunday.
• District Plans Must Not Stand
  Republicans in Florida's Legislature burst into applause Friday when told the state Supreme Court upheld their redistricting plans, which most Democratic lawmakers opposed. Republicans should instead hang their heads in shame.
• THE COST OF DEMOCRACY AT THE FLORIDA LEGISLATURE
  The Legislature, however, is jumping the gun on voters' chance to weigh in on the cost analyses because the state Supreme Court just approved the wording for state Sen. Kendrick Meek's proposed amendment to limit public-school classroom sizes. It also would require the state, not local school districts, to pay for the mandate, and that means it would be up to the Legislature to find the funding.
• Milligan says he's out of CFO race
  Comptroller Bob Milligan said Sunday he will drop his bid for chief financial officer but doesn't plan to run for Congress. "I didn't come into this thing to be a career politician," Milligan said. "If I did that, I'd be becoming a career politician."
• State workers should brace for the bump
  Passing a pay raise for state employees is just about the last thing Florida legislators want to do this week. It's not that they hate state employees; it's more like indifference. That's why lawmakers leave employee raises for last in their budget negotiations, in case they find something - anything - they like better.
• No More Haven For Debtors
  Florida urgently needs to shed its image as a deadbeats' haven. Lax rules let wealthy debtors move here and shield millions in assets in ritzy mansions, while dodging creditors by declaring bankruptcy.
• Obsession for secrecy
  Legislators are at it again in trying to close public records to the public.
• Lesson from Escambia
  The Escambia County scandal shows the value of banning secrecy.
• TECO Loses $300 Million In Enron's Fall
  WASHINGTON - The deceptive business practices and financial collapse of disgraced energy giant Enron have had far-reaching effects on Tampa- ...
• Officials, developers await ruling on 'impaired' waters
  A rule proposed by the state's Department of Environmental Protection is aimed at monitoring water quality and finding ways to reduce pollutant loads. Whether the impaired water bodies rule will be implemented is yet to be seen. The proposed regulation is now under the review of a hearing officer in Tallahassee who will choose between DEP or those who challenged the impaired bodies list and the science behind it. A decision was expected by both sides in March.
• Lost Jewels
  Within a decade, area lakes and wetlands could be drying up.
• A place to swim The owners of Otter Springs, which discharges into the Suwannee River in Gilchrist County, have applied for a permit from the Suwannee River Water Management District to withdraw up to nearly a million gallons of water a day for offsite bottling. John Moran/The Gainesville Sun
• Pinellas To Get Taste Of New Water Treatment
  CLEARWATER - Starting today, water in Pinellas County might taste and smell a bit different. Experts say the new chloramine- disinfected water is good for you - deadly for fish in aquariums but safer for humans than chlorine. ...
• Andrew might get new category
  New wind-speed estimates suggest the 1992 storm should be a rare Category 5 hurricane.
• Researchers build a database of scars to try to save manatees... Cross-referenced and cataloged by computer, the ever-growing slide collection forms the Manatee Photo ID database, one of the most extensive portraits compiled of any marine mammal species.
• Reno: Gays, lesbians should be able to adopt
  The Democratic gubernatorial hopeful also favors extending hate crime law protections to homosexual victims.
• A great day, but only if we don't have to pay more
  A cast of civic and political leaders in St. Petersburg announced an intricate scheme on Friday to rearrange a block or so of the city's downtown. They congratulated each other and declared it to be "a great day for St. Petersburg."
• Polk County suffers through outbreak of hepatitis A
  For more than six decades, John's Restaurant was an institution in this quaint rural town, drawing generations of steady customers with its good food and friendly atmosphere. Then in February, a 29-year-old woman died of liver failure after eating a meal of chicken wings and cheese fries from John's.
• Burying valleys, poisoning streams
  Late Friday afternoon, the Bush administration approved a change in federal regulations that will henceforth legalize the environmentally destructive practice of dumping mining wastes in valleys, streams and wetlands. The rule change is aimed primarily at allowing mining companies in West Virginia and other parts of Appalachia to continue to use a ruthlessly efficient form of coal mining known as mountaintop removal.
• New era in war crimes justice
  In the aftermath of World War II and the Nuremberg tribunal, the idea arose of creating a permanent international criminal court that could try the most heinous international criminals. The plan foundered during 50 years of superpower rivalry. The end of the Cold War and an explosion of ethnic brutality led to ad hoc tribunals for Rwanda and Yugoslavia. But there was no mechanism for trying Idi Amin or Saddam Hussein or others who evade their nations' justice.
• Public colleges, broken promises
  The United States set out nearly 30 years ago to ensure that Americans who qualified academically would not be turned away from college for financial reasons. The bedrock of the program was a dual system: state legislatures subsidized public universities to keep tuition low, while the poorest students could get federal Pell Grants that largely covered the remaining costs. Within a few years of setting that goal, the attempt to secure the broadest possible access to college seemed secure. Since then, spiraling tuition and declining support for poor and working-class students have combined to roll back one of the more farsighted policies of the 20th century.
  

5/5/02

• Jeb rewrites the script to get ending he wants
  In the real world, spending for public schools barely will have increased in real dollars since the governor took office in 1999, despite his claims to the contrary.
• Lawmakers try to iron out wrinkles in two differing budgets
  TALLAHASSEE — With a contentious corporate tax break and the basic spending amount for local schools agreed upon, the Legislature goes into the second week of a special session close to finishing the budget for the coming fiscal year. The budget was left undone in the regular legislative session that ended in March, and Gov. Jeb Bush had to call lawmakers back to complete the nearly $50 billion spending plan.
• Corruption law goes nowhere
  For three years, Gov. Jeb Bush has lobbied to put more teeth in state laws dealing with corrupt public officials.
• Voting receipts: Yes or no?
  Critics of an election paper trail say such a backup system would compromise ballot secrecy.
• Painful reminders
  Scars from run-ins with boat propellers are now being used to track and identify Florida's manatees.
• Blowfish poisonings rattle science world
  First, they felt a tingling in their lips and tongues. Then it spread to their faces, arms and legs. They were drowsy and nauseated. One of them had to be put on a ventilator for days.
• Agency waited 6 days to tell police of Rilya
  Child welfare administrators knew at least as early as April 19 that a 5-year-old child entrusted to their care was missing, and had been gone from her grandmother's house for 15 months, according to internal e-mails obtained by The Herald.
• Missing girl's caregiver has history of crime
  MIAMI -- A statewide background check of a caregiver did not show her criminal record when a girl now missing for 16 months was placed in her care, the head of Florida's child welfare agency said Saturday.
• Unprotected children
  The disappearance of a 5-year-old girl from state care is not an aberration, and casts a pall over an already-reeling child-protection agency.
• DCF chief to require extra visits to homes - MIAMI -- Every child in the state's child-welfare system will receive a visit from agency supervisors and managers who, unlike caseworkers, are not required to maintain regular contact with those children, the agency's top official said Saturday in an effort to stem escalating criticism sparked by the case of a missing 5-year-old girl.
• Tough choices for voters in November
  TALLAHASSEE -- There may be some tough choices on the ballot this November, and I'm talking not about the candidates but about ballot questions. None of the circulating initiatives has enough verified signatures yet, but it's not too soon to be thinking about how to vote in the event they do. So far, only three amendments are actually on the ballot, all proposed by the Legislature.
• Growth management
  No letup in sight. That is the word on growth from the latest batch of data from the U.S. Census. From April 2000 through July 2001, the rate of population expansion in Collier and Lee counties continued to rank among the highest in Florida and the entire nation.
• Wither the springs
  Raindrops that fell on Florida during the times of the Egyptian pharaohs, the Trojan War and the founding of Rome only now are gushing forth from the mouths of the state's springs.
• Not all law enforcement agencies want INS duties
  Slashed budgets and a lack of manpower preclude some law enforcement agencies from taking on the added role of immigration agents, officials say. Some contend additional powers come with more work and responsibility for police agencies. Others say increasing responsibilities for officers may lead to civil rights violations.
• Public records are tougher to view since Sept. 11
  ORLANDO — When it comes to viewing public records since Sept. 11, the pendulum has swung from a presumption of access to tougher standards over which federal and state records can be released, lawyers and journalists said Saturday. At the same time, the U.S. government is demanding more information of its citizens by making it easier to authorize wiretaps and suggesting that in some cases confidentiality between an attorney and client can be breached, said Freedom Forum advocate Paul McMasters.
• ACLU begins campaign dealing with post-Sept. 11 civil liberties
  MIAMI — The American Civil Liberties Union launched a public service announcement campaign Saturday meant to spark public debate over the erosion of civil liberties and the government's treatment of immigrants since Sept. 11. The ACLU has sent out 1,500 copies of the announcements to media across the nation, said National ACLU Executive Director Anthony Romero.
• Blacks: Jeb will pay for 2000
  Getting a Bush out of the Governor's Mansion will make up for a Bush in the White House, they say.
• Teacher delivers 'unsettling' speech
  Ivy League professor and author Cornel West raises thorny questions about race as part of the Carter G. Woodson Lecture Series.
• Washington Today: Bush's foreign policy reflects once-scorned Clinton themes
  WASHINGTON — President Bush's foreign policy is looking more and more like the Clinton administration programs he once scorned: increased involvement in Mideast peacekeeping, overtures to Russia, lengthy deployment of U.S. forces abroad and "nation building." Analysts and administration officials suggest the Sept. 11 attacks and the surge in Mideast violence have given the Bush White House little choice but to practice what it hasn't always preached.

5/4/02

• Jobless Surge Raises Concern
  The unemployment rate surged last month to 6 percent, its highest level in almost eight years, the government said Friday in a sign many companies are too worried about the economy to begin hiring again. ...
• Judge pushes mediation to resolve voter lawsuit
  MIAMI — A federal judge stressed the need Friday to pursue closed-door mediation to try to settle a lawsuit over disenfranchised voters in Florida's 2000 presidential election. "I'm putting a priority on mediation here and I want it done," U.S. District Judge Alan Gold told attorneys for the state, counties, the NAACP and four other civil rights group. "I'm a little impatient with you for not moving faster on that."
• Residents: State citrus canker program based on 'junk science'
  FORT LAUDERDALE — The state program that removes uninfected citrus trees to prevent the spread of canker is based on faulty science and should be stopped, attorneys for South Florida home owners, counties and cities argued Friday. Attorney Mal Misuraca told Circuit Court Judge Leonard Fleet that the state agriculture department cannot prove it's policy of cutting down all citrus trees within 1,900 feet of a canker-infested tree will stop the disease's spread.
• Finale nears in clash over canker; judge to issue ruling on May 24
  Is the state's campaign to rid the state of citrus canker by cutting down backyard citrus trees based on ''junk science'' or valid scientific analysis? (see more on citrus canker)
• Court backs GOP-drawn district maps
  The Florida Supreme Court Friday upheld new Republican-drawn political boundaries for the state's legislative districts, ruling it has no authority to determine whether the maps discriminate against minorities and unfairly punish Democrats.
• Court okays state legislative districts map
  The Supreme Court says the districts pass the applicable tests. Map foes vow to continue the battle.
• Florida Supreme Court approves legislative redistricting plan
  TALLAHASSEE — The Florida Supreme Court unanimously upheld Friday new state legislative lines drawn by the Republican-led Legislature and opposed by Democrats, who'd said they were politically based. The court said because the bill (HJR 1987) meets state and federal constitutional requirements, such as "one person, one vote" and compact districts, it must defer to the legislators' decision.
• Court OKs Florida district maps
  The Florida Supreme Court has upheld new maps redrawing state House and Senate legislative districts.
• Justices let new districts stand
• Supreme Court upholds redistricting
  The Florida Supreme Court refused to second-guess the Legislature's motives Friday in redrawing political boundaries of the House and Senate.
• Legislature approves 18 new judges TALLAHASSEE · A months-long deadlock over how many new judges Florida needs -- and how to get them on the bench -- was finally broken Friday when the Legislature agreed to authorize 18 new jurists, half to be elected and half to be appointed by Gov. Jeb Bush.-- 
  Leaders of the Republican-dominated House and Senate said the goal was to ensure that Republicans are selected for the bench through the appointment process, even though the judiciary is officially nonpartisan.
• 2 houses finally agree on new financial officer
  Unanimous votes in the House and Senate end feuding and clear the way for one GOP candidate to seek the job.
• House passes compromise on state financial officer post
  TALLAHASSEE — The responsibilities now held by the state comptroller and treasurer/insurance commissioner would be divided in creating the state's new chief financial officer under a measure the House passed Friday. The chief financial officer post is part of a Cabinet reorganization voters passed in a 1998 constitutional amendment. The House passed the measure (HB 3-E) 110-0. It still must be passed in the Senate.
• Legislature passes compromise on state financial officer post
  TALLAHASSEE — After three years of trying, the Florida Legislature has created a job description for the new chief financial officer. And just in time since voters will make their choice in November on who they want in the job, which combines the current posts of state comptroller and treasurer/insurance commissioner.
• Senate cuts business $262M deal
  A fiercely debated $262 million corporate income tax break, described by Republicans as a boon to Florida's economy and Democrats as a blow to the budget, cleared the Senate Friday.
• Senate approves corporate tax break
  TALLAHASSEE -- The Florida Senate passed a controversial corporate tax break Friday, paving the way for final negotiations on the state's $49-billion budget.
• Senate passes corporate income tax cut
  TALLAHASSSEE — The state Senate narrowly passed a corporate tax change Friday that supporters say will help the economy rebound while opponents argued it will shortchange schools. The measure will let companies accelerate their write-offs for the cost of new equipment, giving them an incentive to make new investments.
• Environmental spending key difference in House, Senate budgets
  TALLAHASSEE — The state Senate passed a $49.3 billion budget for the coming fiscal year Friday, but a major difference on environmental spending remained between its plan and one drafted by the House. Still, the House and Senate moved much closer together Friday with Senate passage of a tax change that will allow businesses to speed up their tax deductions for buying new equipment.
• Senate version of budget passes at $49.7 billion
  The Senate approves a $262 million corporate tax break. The House will consider it next week.
• Health care bill goes to governor
  The Legislature sent a bill to Gov. Jeb Bush Friday that helps some low-income people get health insurance while raising premiums as much as 50 percent for nearly 100,000 self-employed Floridians.
• House passes health care measure, sends to governor
  TALLAHASSEE — A wide-ranging health care bill that included a likely insurance hike for the self-employed and some heavily lobbied changes in medical referral rules was passed by the House on Friday and sent to Gov. Jeb Bush. The measure passed 80-28. It cleared the Senate a day earlier.
• Governor sharpens tone in case of missing girl- TALLAHASSEE - As criticism intensifies over his administration's handling of the Rilya Wilson case, Gov. Jeb Bush on Friday made his most pointed comments yet regarding possible repercussions for the state's child welfare agency.
• Frustration extends to another family agency
  The Family Continuity Program was supposed to relieve the Department of Children and Families, but it has drawn complaints.
• Case of missing girl the latest setback for state agency
  MIAMI — The bungled case of 5-year-old girl Rilya Wilson, who vanished 15 months ago and no one noticed until last month, is the latest example of a child getting lost in the bureaucratic maze of Florida's child welfare system. With investigators now treating the case as a possible homicide, lawmakers and child protection advocates are grappling with a simple question: how could a little girl supposedly under the care of the state go unnoticed for more than a year?
• Kansas City investigators say good chance Precious Doe is Rilya
  MIAMI — A missing 5-year-old Miami girl has many similarities to a beheaded child found in Missouri, according to investigators there who say there is a good chance that they are one and the same. "The approximate ages are very close, the height, weight and body frame are very similar and the facial features are very similar," Kansas City Police Capt. Randy Hopkins said Friday.
• Rilya's mother admits lapses, scolds agency
• Ask Tough Questions
  The Florida Department of Children & Families has misplaced a 5-year-old girl who was supposed to be under the care of the state social services agency. Given the department's longstanding systemic problems is anyone really surprised?
• A career in dark, brought to light
  TALLAHASSEE -- His official portrait hangs prominently in the Senate chamber with other former Senate presidents, as if he's still watching over the proceedings below.
• Cuts spare staffers closest to students
  Pinellas eliminates 51 district-level positions and 94 custodial jobs to balance the budget.
• Letters to our legislators from St Pete times readers
• Democrats need agenda
  Political calculations worsen the party's problems.
• Bush appoints Cancio to succeed Alonso
  MIAMI — Gov. Jeb Bush on Friday appointed the president of a concrete company to succeed suspended Miami-Dade County Commissioner Miriam Alonso. Jose "Pepe" Cancio, 62, was named to the open seat created by the suspension of Alonso, who was charged along with her husband and a staff member with grand theft for allegedly misusing campaign funds.
• 13-year-old faces felony charges for using fake $1 bill
  PENSACOLA — A 13-year-old boy faces felony charges for allegedly buying two soft drinks with a fake $1 bill at his school this week. The teen was arrested Thursday and accused of using a computer-printed bill at a Brown Barge Middle School fund-raiser earlier this week, said Pensacola police Lt. Chip Simmons.
• Animal sanctuary
  The Sanctuary at Naples is aptly named. It would be a 50-acre refuge for domestic animals as small as dogs and cats and as big as horses to get supervised care and roam in their assigned areas — free of the threat of euthanasia encountered at shelters with limited resources.
• Plan for sparrow opposed in Glades
  The latest federal proposal to protect a rare little bird known as the Cape Sable seaside sparrow was released Friday, and it offered one big breakthrough:
• Don't inhale in Yellowstone
  The career employees at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency presumably know air pollution when they see and breathe it. So it's no surprise that an EPA report recommends that snowmobiles be banned from Yellowstone National Park and its neighbor, Grand Teton. What will be interesting to watch is the response to the report from the environmental cowboys who inhabit the political ranks in the Bush White House.
• Window of ignorance on the budget deficit
  The latest budget news is worse than even the most dour pessimists had thought possible. But the unfolding fiscal disaster hasn't yet penetrated the public's consciousness — and the administration is trying to exploit that window of ignorance. In fiscal 2000 the federal budget was in surplus by $236 billion. This
• Is the income tax inevitable?
  Americans have come to believe that the IRS and the income tax are inevitable parts of our lives. After all, most everyone alive today has lived his entire life under federal income taxation. It wasn't always that way.
• What is democracy anyway?
  If there was a form of government that produced autocrats who sponsored terrorism, stole millions of dollars while impoverishing their citizens, shredded public education and health, permitted child bondage, tortured dissidents and tolerated pogroms against minorities, then we would all condemn it. Except that in South Asia such a system is called democracy. That's what makes this week's election in Pakistan so fascinating.

5/3/02

• Cherishing a free press
  Corrupt, brutal and dictatorial leaders everywhere have reason to fear an informed public, which is why journalists around the world are repressed with such ferocity. Today is World Press Freedom Day, a day we mark by remembering the courageous efforts of our colleagues abroad who face jail, beatings and even death for simply doing their jobs. Last year, 37 journalists were killed for doing their job, eight of them covering the war in Afghanistan last November, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists.
• Frontier justice
  What the new president of Santa Fe Community College is now experiencing at the hands of the Florida Legislature is old fashioned frontier justice; which is to say, a quick and dirty lynching.
• Legislature passes 1,800-page school code rewrite
  TALLAHASSEE — State lawmakers passed a bill to streamline and update the mammoth Florida school code Thursday, a task they failed to accomplish during either the regular session or an earlier special session. The legislation — believed to be the biggest measure ever considered in the Florida Legislature at nearly 1,800 pages — went to Gov. Jeb Bush, who planned to sign it. Bush said Florida now had a "governance structure" that would make the state "the model and the envy for the rest of the country." Under the changes made in the last two years by the governor and Republican-led Legislature, Florida has a "K-20" education system with one board responsible for state oversight of education from kindergarten through post-graduate studies.
• School code rewrite gets nod
  The state House signs off on a sweeping school code rewrite with a 76-39 vote.
• Legislators rewrite, pass education bill
  In a year of political bickering and ego matches in the Florida Legislature, the state's Republican leaders took a step Thursday toward saving face.
• Massive overhaul of school laws passes
  Four weeks after causing a meltdown in the Florida Legislature, an extensive rewrite of the state's education laws passed the House on Thursday and is on its way to the governor's desk.
• UF gains power in new code
  Florida lawmakers approved a sweeping rewrite of the state's education laws on Thursday that grants broad new powers to the University of Florida and the 10 other state universities.
• Health bill fosters ill will in House
  The Senate president's wife lobbies for a portion of the measure that breezes through the Senate and is up for a House vote today.
• Senate approves health care bill
  TALLAHASSEE — A possible insurance rate hike for the self-employed, an Alzheimer's research center and an effort to provide coverage for the uninsured poor are all part of a broad health care bill passed Thursday by the Senate. The measure, passed unanimously, headed to the House, which debated the measure later Thursday, but wasn't expected to take a vote until Friday at the earliest.
• Senate passes bill to tighten controls on prescribed drugs
  TALLAHASSEE — The Florida Senate passed a bill Thursday aimed at cracking down on the misuse of powerful prescription drugs such as OxyContin. The measure (CSSB 28-E) creates a computerized database to record the sale of some controlled substances and requires doctors and dentists to complete a one-hour course on prescribing drugs. It now goes to the House.
• Tax cut, budget win OK in House
  The Republican-dominated Florida House adopted a nearly $50 billion state budget Thursday after beating back Democratic attempts to derail a proposed $262 million corporate tax break. Democrats wanted to channel that money into reducing class size or boosting teacher salaries.
• House okays budget; will Senate?
  Senate Republicans say they have exactly the 21 votes required to pass a similar spending plan.
• Corporate tax break vote looks close
  As many as four Republican senators appear ready to vote against the plan Gov. Bush wants.
• No time for tax break
  Even when the economy is humming, it's debatable whether corporate tax breaks are an economic stimulus. In an uncertain economy, and with public education in great need, a $262 million break for Florida corporations is foolhardy.
• House passes $49 billion budget
  TALLAHASSEE — A $49.7 billion budget proposal cleared the House, which turned back every Democratic effort to spend $262 million on schools or unemployment benefits rather than a corporate tax break. The 78-39 vote Thursday sent the bill to the Senate, which planned to consider its $49.3 billion bill Friday.
• Bribery, secret meetings detailed in Escambia indictments
  PENSACOLA — Details of bribery, shakedowns and secret meetings are emerging from indictments against four suspended Escambia County commissioners and two real estate brokers. Gov. Jeb Bush suspended the commissioners, including former Florida Senate President W.D. Childers, Wednesday less than 24 hours after they surrendered at the county jail when grand jury indictments were unsealed. All are free on bail.
• Escambia County reels but pushes ahead
• Lawmakers blame boss of DCF for failures - TALLAHASSEE -- Lawmakers on Thursday questioned the leadership ability of the head of Florida's child-protection agency as anger mounted about the disappearance of a 5-year-old Miami girl who was in state care.-- 
  Sen. Debbie Wasserman Schultz said Kathleen Kearney, head of the Department of Children & Families, did not have control of the agency, nor had she cleaned it up, as she was appointed to do.
• Who's watching the children
  A succession of troubling reports begs the question as the head of the Department of Children and Families apologizes for a Miami girl's case.
• A child is lost
  Two years ago, an advocacy group, the National Coalition for Child Protection, said "There is probably no place in the United States where it is worse to be a foster child than the State of Florida." It's easy to see why.
• Critics blame 'total breakdown' in case of missing Miami girl
   The state agency responsible for keeping watch over a 5-year-old Miami girl had multiple opportunities to discover the child was missing during the past 15 months.
• Mother: Missing girl's caretaker is not related
  The mother of a girl who has allegedly been missing unnoticed for 15 months said Thursday that the woman who was caring for her child is not really the girl's grandmother.
• Bill may settle tiff over regulator's job
  A compromise on the structure of the state's chief financial officer post promises to end a legislative deadlock.
• Howard Troxler - Q. What's going on? A. Good question
  Selected questions and answers about the news:
  ... Q. Here's a question about the fight in our Legislature over a new elected "chief financial officer." Would it be too cynical to believe that the real fight was over just how much campaign money he can extort from the banks and insurance companies that he regulates? ...
• REGULATORY REALITIES
  At long last Florida lawmakers appear poised to insulate the regulation of insurance, banking and securities industries from the direct control of elected officials who depend on campaign contributions. That's good news for good governance -- but only if the tenuous compromise forged last week is put into law.
• Bullying ballots: Whose price tag on constitutional amendments?
  It is too easy to amend the Florida constitution. A majority of legislators can vote to submit any given initiative to a popular referendum. And any citizen's initiative can be submitted should it gather 489,000 signatures (the required number this year). The state Supreme Court reviews the wording of every referendum initiated by citizens to make sure that it is clear enough and focused on a single issue. Beyond that, it's up to voters. A simple majority does it.
• Attorney: Wrong man in prison for deputy's slaying
  A man serving a life sentence in the 1990 killing of a Broward County sheriff's deputy is innocent and deserves judicial review that could set him free, his attorneys said in court documents filed Thursday.
• Last stand for foes of state's canker fight
  Closing arguments are expected today in the South Florida canker fight waging in Broward Circuit Judge J. Leonard Fleet's courtroom.
• Is it safe to drink the water?
  Tampa Bay Water scientist Chris Owen has heard all kinds of questions about what will happen next week to Pinellas and Pasco water.
• Duval removed from water deal
  A government-lead group seeking to buy Florida Water agreed yesterday to remove the utility's Duval County service area from the massive deal.
• Rain deficit creates conditions comparable to '98
  A hot, dry west wind has ushered in the most dangerous month of the year for wildfires and area firefighters are on high alert.
• Group planning protest of Ocala forest bombing range decision
  OCALA — The Florida Coalition for Peace and Justice said it plans to appeal a decision by the U.S. Forest Service to let the Navy use its Ocala National Forest bombing range for another 20 years. Carol Moseley, state coordinator, said Thursday the coalition is concerned about the Navy's environmental impact statement on continued use of the Pinecastle range.
• Weather weirds out area radio waves
  'Tropospheric ducting' forced Tri-Rail to slow trains, created fake rainfall on radar and overlapped radio transmissions.
• Lots of chopping before land can be reborn
  The Lake Apopka lakeshore smelled like toasted broom straw Thursday, with chopped weeds and brush stacked in rows under a withering sun.
• In defense of casual Fridays, casual springs, casual decades
  It's Friday, so I'm dressed informally.
• Girls' real dad now their legal dad
  A man overcomes the odds in the custody case of two of his daughters born before his wife divorced her previous husband.
• No drivers' licenses for illegals
  Democratic state Rep. Bob Henriquez of Tampa says the tighter procedures adopted by the state driver's license bureau Sept. 11 are disadvantaging Hispanics in his district, particularly undocumented workers. He says the state might want to consider providing a special driver's license to people here illegally. Come again?
• Tribe's plan leaves casino foes in a Hard Rock place
  Two empire-building businesses -- one foreign, one native -- signaled Thursday they are partnered to expand aggressively near Tampa and elsewhere in Florida.
• Collier selects touchscreen voting system to replace punchcard ballots
  Inside an East Naples warehouse, 15 people hunch over a long table with touch-screen voting machines in front of them. A few feet away sit stack upon stack of the machines — 1,200 of them to be precise. Each must be tested to make sure they are functioning properly, including the multiple security measures for accurate vote tabulation.
• 3rd-graders won't move on
  Thousands of Florida children who can't read will be forced to repeat the third grade.
• FGCU, Edison say they've reached accord on bachelor's degrees
  The baccalaureate wars may be over. Southwest Florida's two schools of higher learning — Florida Gulf Coast University and Edison Community College — say they've found a way they can both offer regional students the bachelor's degrees they want. In a move that surprised education circles from Naples to Tallahassee, Edison President Kenneth Walker on Thursday waved a white flag at FGCU President William Merwin, offering to let the university confer two baccalaureate, or bachelor's, degrees Edison has pending for approval.
• National changes incubate in California
  November's most significant election results could well be the fate of two expected referenda in California that could lead to changes nationally in how government does business.
• Florida researcher: Chinese plant may have been first flower
  WASHINGTON — The ancestor of all the grains, fruits and blossoms of the modern world may have been a fragile water plant that lived in a Chinese lake 125 million years ago. The plant, called Archaefructus sinensis for "ancient fruit from China," is of a species never before seen and carries the clear characteristics of the most primitive of flowering plants, said David Dilcher of the Florida Museum of Natural History and the University of Florida.
• Source of citywide Jacksonville power failure discovered
  JACKSONVILLE — A malfunction of a lightning protection device caused this week's 12-hour, citywide power failure that knocked out electricity to 350,000 JEA customers, officials said Thursday. JEA Managing Director Walt Bussells told The Florida Times-Union that the failure of the lightning protection equipment caused a transmission line in the city's northwest to shutdown. That alone would not have caused a blackout, he said.
• Satellite Beach veteran nearly evicted for $6.34 plumbing bill
  SATELLITE BEACH — A $6.34 plumbing bill nearly cost a World War II veteran the roof over his head. Before an alert friend noticed, James Provensano, 81, was almost evicted from his subsidized apartment because he neglected to pay for repairs.
• Standard Rises For Federal ID Theft Cases
  TAMPA - Identity theft is becoming so common that the U.S. Secret Service, the agency responsible for investigating the crime, won't even look into a Bay area case unless a victim's losses total more than $10,000. ...
• Dan K. Thomasson: White House news manipulation
  WASHINGTON — Lyndon Johnson so hated premature disclosure of his plans that he was known to cancel ambassadorial nominations and once publicly castigated a powerful Senate chairman from his own party for revealing his decision to increase the troop commitment in Vietnam....The current administration is no different, it seems. Actually, when it comes to running an information-tight operation with heavy penalties for those who violate the code of silence and even those whose reporting is considered unfavorable, President Bush and his top aides may be among the most aggressive in recent history.
• William Safire: The intrusion explosion
  WASHINGTON — Forget all about old-fashioned consumer surveys or even focus groups. The hot new technique in exploring your buying decision is called "observational research" or "retail ethnography." This buying-spying uses hidden surveillance cameras, two-way mirrors and microphones concealed under counters.
• Homeland security office under pressure
  The White House is said to be considering setting up a separate agency for the office.
• Karen Hughes can't spin her departure as progress for women
  I've got to hand it to Karen Hughes. I always knew that she was good at her job. I just didn't know she was this good. Talk about spin control. The way she's handled her resignation over the past week is enough to win the 5-foot-10 woman with size 12 shoes a role as prima ballerina.

5/2/02

• Loads of lobbyists at Capitol
  Florida has more than twice the national average of lobbyists, a fact that should come as no surprise to anyone roaming the Capitol during the special session this week.
• Surprise: Lobbyists run the show
  At a recent news conference in Washington, the Center for Public Integrity released an admirable study showing that lobbyists really run state legislatures. A team of 49 researchers, writers and editors worked for nearly five years on the 50-state study, titled "Capitol Offenders - How private interests govern our states."
• Governing Florida by junta
  Like generals choosing a battle plan and lining up the troops, Gov. Jeb Bush and the GOP leaders of the state House and Senate have decided among themselves how to balance Florida's budget and run its vast school system.
• GOP senators seek corporate tax package
  The majority leader predicts the controversial measure will pass today. Democrats call it a $262-million giveaway.
• Legislature: Legislators told corporate tax break would boost economy
  TALLAHASSEE — Representatives of many of Florida's biggest companies walked the Capitol halls Wednesday, mustering support for a corporate tax break they say could boost the economy and attract new businesses. Business leaders are pressing lawmakers to pass the measure, which would allow companies to write off the cost of new equipment faster, rather than over several years. That effectively provides a state tax discount for new investments made after last Sept. 11. The proposed tax change would mirror the federal economic stimulus plan already passed by Congress, which allows similar sped-up deductions on federal taxes.
• Bush rallies business for tax break
  With just a vote or two to spare in the state Senate in favor of a corporate income tax break, and with the success of a special session depending on its passage, Gov. Jeb Bush summoned 17 business leaders to the state Capitol on Wednesday as his private lobbying corps.
• Democrats chide Bush over corporate tax cut - ..."It's unconscionable for the governor and Legislature to find hundreds of millions of dollars for more tax breaks for a few when Florida's education and health and human services system desperately need adequate funding for millions of Floridians," said McBride, who accused Bush of promoting "upside-down policies."
• Senate iffy on giving tax break
  With an agreement on most of next year's budget, today's vote by the Florida Senate on a proposed $262 million tax break for corporations may prove to be the flash point for the special session.
• States balking at stimulus plan
  A growing number of states are balking at the government's new economic stimulus plan, saying it will cost them billions of dollars in business taxes that they desperately need.
• Legislature: Lawmakers ready budget plans for floor
  TALLAHASSEE — State lawmakers are going to have to reach a compromise on hearing aids and eyeglasses for the poor as they negotiate a consensus budget proposal for the fiscal year that starts in two months. That's one of the differences between the spending plans advancing in the House and Senate. Another is whether four of the state's 11 public universities should get a one-time boost of $25 million to make up for being shortchanged in the past. The Senate Appropriations Committee approved its $49 billion plan Wednesday, a day after the House Fiscal Appropriations Council approved its plan.
• Legislators move to seal more records
  Florida lawmakers are again moving to make more government information secret.
• Lawmakers agree on banking, insurance
  Legislators reached agreement Wednesday on a proposal that creates the new post of chief financial officer.
• Each side adds twist to voting map fight
  Republicans announce they've already sent the map for a legal review. Meanwhile, Democrats win a legal maneuver.
• Bush, GOP sidestep attorney general - ... The decision to rush the political maps to the Justice Department perplexed Attorney General Bob Butterworth and his attorneys, who questioned whether it is legal for anyone but them to forward the maps and hundreds of accompanying documents for federal review.
• GOP leaders file voting maps
  Accusing the state's Democratic attorney general of political stonewalling, Gov. Jeb Bush and the Republican-led Legislature have sent the state's new legislative and congressional maps to the federal government for review, bypassing the state's chief legal officer.
• Democrats can challenge new map
  Democrats hoping to invalidate a Republican-friendly congressional map can attack it in state and federal court.
• Bush, Legislature submit congressional plan to feds
  TALLAHASSEE — Legislative leaders and Gov. Jeb Bush sent the state's new congressional plan to the U.S. Justice Department on Wednesday, circumventing the normal procedure that calls for the attorney general to send it. The Republican leaders apparently didn't want Democratic Attorney General Bob Butterworth to review a plan they say is fair and impartial.
• Holland & Knight layoffs provide fodder for McBride's opponents
  ORLANDO — Democratic gubernatorial candidate Bill McBride has touted his record as a former leader of the state's largest law firm as evidence that he's capable of running a large business successfully. But some political opponents say Holland & Knight's decision this week to lay off dozens of lawyers may test that claim.
• McBride foes harp on law firm's layoffs
  Gov. Bush's campaign is quick to link the firm's problems to the Democrat's 'leadership skills.'
• Deal lets Bush pick 9 judges
  The House-Senate agreement lets voters elect nine others.
• Legislators offer compromise on how judges will be selected
  Of the proposed 18 new judgeships aimed at easing burdened courtrooms, half would be chosen by the voters and half by Gov. Jeb Bush under a compromise aimed at appeasing legislators split over whether judges should be elected or appointed.
• Bush wants price tags on amendments
  Skeptics say the proposal is the governor's effort to stop an amendment to lower class size.
• Big bad boom: Pro-polluter provision should doom bill - ...Floridians have the right to challenge their government when it makes these kinds of bad decisions. This bill wouldn't take that right away, but it would make it much more difficult to exercise. Before they could even go to court, groups would have to prove that they had a "right" to challenge the decision -- as if clean air and water aren't rights that everyone in Florida shares. It also makes it harder for the challengers to introduce new scientific evidence of the potential for damage.
• The median Florida household also saw tuition increases outpacing any additional family income
  The median Florida household also saw tuition increases outpacing any additional family income. Tuition at public two-year institutions increased 24 percent over the past decade, while the median family income rose only 8 percent, according to The National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education's study. State appropriations rose 40 percent - to $6,077 per student - and state financial aid increased 116 percent - to $516 per student.
• County vote on Lake Lafayette merits review
  In essentially giving away the store Tuesday to the developers of Fallschase, Leon County commissioners not only undermined the negotiations between their own attorney and Fallschase, but also opened the door wider to harming an already endangered lake.
• Bush suspends four Escambia officials
  The Panhandle officials were snared in a scandal that includes charges of bribery, racketeering, and other criminal allegations.
• Indictments bring end to Escambia County's business as usual - On the morning after the darkest day in the history of Escambia County government, the commission lay in shambles. The upheaval came in the form of nine indictments returned by a special grand jury, painting a picture that embodies every stereotype of government corruption:
• Scandal shakes Escambia
  Gov. Jeb Bush suspended four Escambia County commissioners following their arrests.
• Database would monitor drug use
  The governor supports a plan to track transactions between patients, doctors and pharmacies. Privacy advocates, however, are concerned.
• Lawmakers to revisit law to help protect kids
  "Abysmal" casework on a Miami girl prompts the expansion of a special session to address abuse files.
• 5-year-old Miami girl vanishes from welfare system
  MIAMI — Child welfare officials acknowledged Wednesday that a 5-year-old girl whose relatives thought she was in state care vanished more than a year ago and no one noticed until last week. Rilya Wilson's description matched that of a beheaded girl found in Kansas City, Mo., but police there said Wednesday that handprints from the two did not match.
• Missing Child's Records Falsified
  TALLAHASSEE - The state's embattled child welfare agency came under withering scrutiny Wednesday as investigators in Florida and Missouri tried to match a decapitated child found in Kansas City to a missing 5-year-old from Miami. ...
• Bill signed by Bush will allow Lottery to boost prizes
  TALLAHASSEE — The Florida Lottery will be able to boost scratch-off game prizes in an effort to increase the amount of money going to education under a bill signed Wednesday by Gov. Jeb Bush. Lottery officials believe if payouts are higher, ticket sales will increase, raising the money going to schools. They get 38 percent of lottery earnings.
• Jeb's One Florida Program Is A Winner For Minorities - T he hard numbers continue to show that despite all protests, Gov. Jeb Bush's One Florida plan is notably helping minorities.
• Study: State's arthritis rate high
  Florida's first survey of arthritis sufferers revealed that more than 30 percent of the adult population has the disease, state Health Secretary John Agwunobi said Wednesday.
• Feds: Traces of contaminant found in central Florida aquifer
  ORLANDO — Central Florida's main source of drinking water contains traces of a potentially toxic chemical leaking from a former Superfund cleanup site. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has confirmed that a pesticide-related chemical has seeped into the ground below the abandoned Tower Chemical Co. plant in southern Lake County.
• Corps halts 150 water projects
  By Robert P. King, Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
  But the suspensions won't affect South Florida projects, including the Everglades restoration.
• Farmworkers call Sept. 11 changes unfair
  Protesters flooded the parking lot of the Farmworker Association of Florida Thursday night.
• Jacksonville-area horse has West Nile Virus
  JACKSONVILLE — A horse in Duval County has contracted West Nile Virus, state agriculture officials said Wednesday. Lab tests confirmed the virus about two weeks after the 5-year-old mare first displayed symptoms of the disease, state Agriculture Commissioner Charles Bronson said in a news release.
• EPA airs concerns about second major runway at Lauderdale airport - Federal and state environmental agencies have raised new objections to plans for a second major runway at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport and want more done to limit noise and pollution.
• Workers uncover possible Native American bones under A1A in Pompano - ...After a full day of digging and shifting, deputies and historic conservationists found human remains, most likely of a Native American, buried deep beneath the seaside road, said Chris Eck of the Broward County Historic Commission.
• Navy announces plans to increase Florida training
  TALLAHASSEE — The Navy, facing the loss of a major facility in Puerto Rico, Wednesday announced plans to increase Florida training facilities, including a $39.3 million improvement to Key West Naval Air Station. Adm. Robert J. Natter, commander in chief of the U.S. Atlantic Fleet, outlined the plans in a letter to Gov. Jeb Bush, who welcomed them.
• One of three UWF president finalists bows out
  PENSACOLA — One of three finalists for the University of West Florida's presidency has withdrawn. Loren Crabtree, vice president and provost at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville, wrote that he had agonized over his decision, but he did not give a reason, in an e-mail to West Florida's Board of Trustees.
• Santa Fe faces art backlash
  Some Alachua County lawmakers say the state Legislature is trying to punish Santa Fe Community College for hosting a controversial art exhibit this spring by taking away money that would have helped the school pay off a $1.6 million loan.
• Several hundred customers lose power Wednesday
  JACKSONVILLE — Several hundred JEA customers lost power Wednesday morning for about 90 minutes as a result of a fault on an underground power cable. Bruce Dugan, a spokesman for JEA, the city's utility company, said the power failure occurred at about 8:30 a.m. EDT and affected customers in the Deerwood area. Businesses affected included Merrill Lynch. The power was restored by about 10 a.m.
• Drought dries up farmers' profits
  In a green sea of knee-high corn, water squirts from a giant sprinkler on an irrigation system three football fields long. Under blue skies with fleeting clouds, rainbows form in the mist.
• 2 canker-infected trees found in GG - About 300 citrus trees will be chopped down in Golden Gate beginning next week.
  Jack Neitzke is fuming. Just when Neitzke thought he could say canker had been licked in Golden Gate, surveyors have uncovered two infected trees. And, it appears to be the fault of a resident who violated quarantine rules by planting new citrus trees in his yard. "I just can't believe that they would do it to their neighbors and to the citrus industry," said Neitzke, who is heading up an effort to wipe out canker in Southwest Florida. More than 170 property owners in the area are set to lose their citrus trees and there's no longer a chance of having the quarantine on planting citrus trees lifted in Golden Gate this year — or even next.
• Marine deaths in Indian River Lagoon a concern
  Something strange is going on in this diverse marine life birthing ground. Scientists see a growing number of mysterious deaths and diseases among creatures that live in the marshes, sea grass beds and tidal pools of the Indian River Lagoon.
• Cancer pills readied for nuke disaster
  Pills would be given to residents near Florida’s three nuclear power plants if radiation leaks.
• Mental health insurance parity is long overdue
  Between one-fourth and one-fifth of American adults suffer from mental illnesses in any given year. About half of them report that this interferes with their routine daily functioning.
  

5/1/02

• Four Escambia commissioners are indicted
  Four of the five Escambia County commissioners were booked into their hometown jail Tuesday night after a grand jury indicted them in connection with questionable land deals.
• 4 commissioners charged in Escambia County-- A special state grand jury returned nine indictments Tuesday, including 27 criminal charges against four Escambia County commissioners.
• McKay leaning against $262 million corporate tax break
  TALLAHASSEE — Support for a $262 million tax break for Florida businesses remained lukewarm Tuesday in the state Senate as a House panel worked on a budget plan for next year. Senate President John McKay said he's leaning against the measure, which is supported by the House and Gov. Jeb Bush. But McKay, R-Bradenton, said he won't lobby against the tax break.
• The hole legislators are digging
  When the Florida Legislature finally enacts a budget, members might want to mark the occasion by wearing hard hats to symbolize the huge hole into which they're digging themselves. Some $1.3-billion in proposed spending is to be financed by what lawmakers call "nonrecurring" revenue -- unspent appropriations, idle trust funds and other available cash balances. Senate Majority Leader Jim King candidly compares it to "paying off your Visa with your Mastercard." Eating your seed corn would be another apt analogy.
• Fiscally irresponsible
  It's always been a fundamental budget principle that it's irresponsible to spend nonrecurring funds on recurring programs. But the Legislature apparently has jettisoned that principle for the expedient of completing work on the budget and going home to campaign in the fall elections.
• Transfer may hang up budget
  Seeding oysters and providing money to fight wildfires may seem to have nothing to do with purchasing threatened swamps and forests, but then you don't write the state budget.
• Needless budget cuts would hurt state's poor
  Lawmakers must balance the budget, but not on the backs of the poor.
• Graham wants boost for education
  U.S. Sen. Bob Graham said Tuesday the Republican-run Legislature has not matched its education rhetoric with money for better schools.
• Special session hits new snags
  A $262 million corporate tax break and including class-size reduction costs on the November ballot threaten the session.
• Gov. Bush Lobbies Hard For Tax Break
  TALLAHASSEE - Promising it will give Florida's economy a needed boost, Gov. Jeb Bush launched an all-out push Tuesday to drum up broader support for a corporate tax break he says will benefit all Floridians. ...
• School code bill finally okayed
  TALLAHASSEE -- The Senate easily passed a massive bill Tuesday updating state education laws, less than a month after failing to pass the measure during a special session.
• Senate passes schools code
  Crossing one item off a vexing to-do list for its second special session this month, the Florida Senate on Tuesday passed a revamped state education code that excludes inflammatory proposals allowing some religious activities and guns on school grounds.
• Legislature: Senate passes school code with no fuss, no muss
  TALLAHASSEE — The state Senate passed a massive bill reorganizing the Florida school code with little fuss or muss Tuesday, a step the chamber has balked at doing twice this year. After stripping the legislation of two controversial provisions involving student's religious and gun rights, the Senate sent the measure to the House on a 27-7 vote.
• Democrats decry timing of Bush proposal
  They say the governor is trying to derail an amendment to reduce class sizes.
• Educators say state is trying to freeze out their criticism -- Gov. Jeb Bush's initiative to improve reading education will air proposed rules for reading teachers today, but many of the state's top reading experts will be unable to attend the meetings.-- 
  The Just Read, Florida! series of six regional workshops, including one at Stetson University's Celebration campus, is drawing criticism because the timing conflicts with the year's biggest international convention for reading specialists, which takes place in San Francisco this week. -- 
  Richard Allington, professor of elementary and secondary education at the University of Florida, said the state Department of Education is trying to avoid public criticism from reading professionals by scheduling the public hearings when most will be gone. He requested a rescheduling, but the department declined.
• Assurances needed
  Voters deserve checks and balances on school-construction money
• Senate panel approves chief financial officer compromise
  TALLAHASSEE — A compromise designed to rekindle legislative interest in passing an elusive Cabinet reorganization measure received approval Tuesday from a Senate panel. A new job description for the state chief financial officer, created by voters in a 1998 constitutional amendment, has the support of not only Gov. Jeb Bush, but Comptroller Bob Milligan and Treasurer Tom Gallagher, whose jobs will be merged.
• Senate panel OKs compromise on chief financial officer
  Hoping to stave off a bitter Republican primary in September, state House and Senate leaders on Tuesday brokered a deal over who would regulate the state's banks and insurance firms next year, when the state treasurer's and comptroller's jobs are combined into a single chief financial officer post.
• Bush gets emotional at drug summit
  The mention of the drug problems in his own family chokes him up.
• Tearful Bush grateful for support
  At a drug summit, the governor thanks those who stood by his family during his daughter's arrest.
• Tearful Bush cites efforts at 'drug summit'
  Fighting back tears for his daughter's drug addiction, Gov. Jeb Bush said Tuesday that Florida is closing in on his goal of cutting drug and alcohol abuse by half.
• Officials defend juvenile system of 'tough love'
  For Teresa Smith's teen-age daughter, Florida's "tough love" approach to preventing juvenile crime worked wonders.
• Bush enters dispute over regulating banks, insurance
  TALLAHASSEE -- Gov. Jeb Bush on Tuesday stepped into a legislative battle over regulating the state's banking and insurance industries in an effort to reach a compromise that has eluded legislators for three years.
• Largest law firm in Florida cutting back
  Holland & Knight, Florida's largest law firm, laid off 60 partners and 170 staff members Tuesday in what was termed an extensive restructuring.
• A 'price' on ballot items is more than we can afford
  In the election of 2000, Florida voters overwhelmingly approved a high-speed rail system. The idea got on the ballot by a citizen petition. The ballot did not give voters the slightest idea of the potential cost.
• McLain to run against Feeney
  Daryl McLain said Tuesday he plans to challenge state House Speaker Tom Feeney for a new Central Florida congressional seat.
• Republicans start sifting for '04 convention - ...Republicans have invited three cities in Florida to apply: Miami, Orlando and Tampa. Orlando authorities have not decided about applying but expressed skepticism about providing the needed convention space at this short notice -- short by convention-planning standards like Orange County's, already booking for 2026.
• Mystery chemical seeps into aquifer - A mystery contamination from one of the nation's oldest Superfund pollution sites is leaking into Central Florida's primary source of drinking water, federal authorities said.
• County receives an 'F' for dirty air
  Alachua County is one of 11 Florida counties with air dirty enough to get a failing grade in a new pollution report from the American Lung Association.
• JEA launches probe into system collapse
  Thousands of Northeast Floridians boiled their drinking water as JEA customers recovered yesterday from a 12-hour power failure, and JEA engineers sought to shed light on what caused the grueling breakdown.
• AN INEXCUSABLE LOSS
  It is unconscionable that responsible adults could completely lose track of a 5-year-old child. Yet that outrageous circumstance is the appalling fate that has befallen little Rilya Wilson. Miami-Dade police and officials at the Department of Children & Families acknowledged this week that the girl has been missing for 15 months, the victim of miscues and mistakes by those responsible for her care.
• Suspect played part of big shot - Cesar Antonio Mena, being held on a murder charge in the death of an 18-year-old Miami student, offered at least two Orlando teens the chance to make up to $1,000 to join him on weekend "missions" to South Florida, several youths said Tuesday.
• Medical care van to treat homeless
  The van will run daily throughout the county, from rural Hillsborough encampments to city streets.
• Mixed feelings greet guard change
  The transition from a military to police presence at TIA is met with unease from some officers and passengers.
• Delray Beach is looking terror-free
  Frank Cerabino makes the rounds with the All-America City’s Homefront Security squad.
• Students to recite parts of Declaration of Independence
  TALLAHASSEE — Florida students will recite a portion of the Declaration of Independence daily during the last week of September, under a bill signed Tuesday by Gov. Jeb Bush. Under the new law, the importance of the Declaration of Independence will be a topic in social studies classes during "Celebrate Freedom Week."
• Immokalee farmworkers to take boycott campaign to Kentucky
  A farmworker campaign that some say is a crusade to stop sweatshop-like conditions in the fields is taking laborers and their supporters to Kentucky this month. Coalition of Immokalee Workers and church leaders will protest May 16 at Tricon Global Restaurants headquarters in Louisville to make their voices heard by the company's movers and shakers.
• South Florida judge rules against Wisconsin insurance company
  WEST PALM BEACH — A circuit judge has ruled that a Wisconsin-based health insurance company was liable for unfairly raising premiums for some of its Florida clients. American Medical Security Group, of Green Bay, Wis., now faces a jury trial in July to determine the amount it must pay for damages.
• Environmentalists, residents clash over Broward beach restoration-- Coastal residents concerned about beach erosion clashed Tuesday night with environmentalists wanting to protect coral reefs over Broward County's $45 million project to widen the shoreline.
• Norton left her audience hungry
  Interior secretary missed an opportunity.
• Exiting agency head: Wildlife is thriving
  The outgoing chief of Florida's fish and wildlife agency says the future for wild critters looks good in spite of the Sunshine State's rapid population growth.
• Sea turtle nesting season begins
  They don't ask for much. Just an ocean or two — and some sand in the warmth of the Florida sun so they can propagate their progeny. But the 500 or so sea turtles expected to crawl onto area beaches for this year's nesting season have to battle a lot of obstacles to accomplish that. An early nester barely missed a beach-widening project last week. She laid her eggs immediately after the last load of sand was dumped. Stricter codes are in place to make sure humans prevent as many obstacles and dangers as possible. All beach projects, including the widening one, had to be completed before the first day of the nesting season
• Turtle season opens amid long-time battles
  Cars, lights and controversy cloud today's start of the sea turtle nesting season, with a long-standing battle between environmentalists and county officials heating up.
• Food poisoning rising in schools
  Reported outbreaks increased by 10 percent a year during the 1990s, the congressional report says.
• Administration's reliance on a 4-year-old's thinking
  Sometimes I forget how truly simpleminded the Bushies can be. The front-page of The New York Times reports, "The Bush administration seems to accept and even relish John Ashcroft's role as lightning rod on difficult criminal justice issues." Since the attorney general has so amply demonstrated his clueless incompetence, it may seem difficult to plumb why it should be so.
• Ruling Helps Limit Growth
  A new U.S. Supreme Court decision is a victory for common sense and reasonable growth management rules. It's a defeat for land speculators, property rights zealots and legal nit-pickers.
  

 (Top)   (Home)