Statewide Reports-August 16-31/01

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. Same is true for some of the others although the time frame varies.

8/30/01

• Doctors join suit against HMOs
  In their fight against managed-care insurance providers, Florida doctors are reaching for a legal tool more commonly used to prosecute drug kingpins - RICO, the federal Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act.

• Few report health problems from spraying
  Marilyn Cox-Deaton saw little "poofs" of insecticide hanging in the air last week after a state DC-3 sprayed Dibrom over her neighborhood to combat mosquitoes.

• State rewards schools for improvements
  Florida schools that earned an A last year or earned a better grade than the previous year got a reward Wednesday: $100 for each student.

• Schools pocket rewards from Bush
  Though some call it a mere photo op, 842 Florida schools make the grade and receive $76-million.

• Details emerge in aide's death 
  A police report reinforces the finding that Lori Klausutis' death was accidental.

• No foul play in aide's death
  FORT WALTON BEACH - A hairline skull fracture suffered by an aide to U.S. Rep. Joe Scarborough is consistent with an accidental fall, not homicide, says a doctor who performed an autopsy.

• Sharpton says he sees racism in South Florida
  MIAMI BEACH - The Rev. Al Sharpton on Wednesday criticized the government and police in South Florida, saying he sees a pattern of racial bias causing blacks to be treated as second-class citizens.

• Gov. Bush: 'I told you so'
  Bush says Georgia ruling shows value of One Florida
  TAMPA - Two days after a federal appeals court struck down Georgia's race-based admissions policy for universities, Gov. Jeb Bush said Wednesday his One Florida plan has saved the state from chaos.

• 'One Florida' averted chaos, Bush insists
  A federal court struck down affirmative action at the University of Georgia. There but for his plan, the governor says, goes Florida.

• Scientists link red tide to dust from Sahara
  USF study ties cloud to toxic algae bloom
  PENSACOLA - Clouds of iron-rich dust from the Sahara Desert that blow thousands of miles across the Atlantic Ocean may trigger blooms of toxic algae known as red tide in the Gulf of Mexico, scientists said Wednesday.

• Political standard of truth is abysmal
  As part of the orientation process for new members every two years, the Florida Legislature has a media panel discussion, with four or five reporters imparting tips on how to get along with the press.

• DEP chief seeks change in way companies are given permits
  ST. PETE BEACH -- In a move likely to spark a major legislative battle, the state's top environmental regulator announced Wednesday that he wants to use the track record of companies in deciding whether to give them new permits.

• Ozone levels send bay area residents looking for shelter
  Weather conditions keep the stifling smog parked over the bay area. Asthma sufferers and others are forced to avoid it.

• Book ban hinders rehabilitation
  The shortsighted policy of barring juvenile offenders from reading in their cells serves neither the juveniles nor the state.

• A lame excuse
  As House majority leader, Mike Fasano should be aware of what's happening to bills in the final hours of the session.

• A landmark worth dumping
  Question: What is Interior Secretary Gale Norton's idea of a national historic landmark? Punch line: A garbage dump!

• Activists testify that Lauderdale government riddled with racism -MIAMI BEACH · City employees and civil rights activists took complaints against Fort Lauderdale City Hall to a wider audience on Wednesday, when they testified before an advisory arm of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights.

• Listen Up! Action Overdue
  The voters spoke loudly and clearly when they approved a constitutional amendment that requires polluters to help clean up the Florida Everglades. It's about time state lawmakers remove the cotton from their collective ears and enact the appropriate legislation to make the polluter-pay mandate a reality.

• Gator in tree may be threat - PORT ST. JOHN -- Airboat operators carrying tourists along the St. Johns River on Wednesday encountered a sight that's not part of the usual tour -- a 10-foot alligator hanging from a palm tree and dressed in the green jacket of a state wildlife officer

• Papers want autopsy law struck down - The Orlando Sentinel and its sister paper in Fort Lauderdale asked a judge Wednesday to declare unconstitutional the new state law exempting autopsy photos from Florida’s public records law.

• Democrats are fired up about electionsNational Democratic leaders are vowing to pour money and resources into winning the governor's races in Florida and Texas next year -- a prelude in their campaign to undermine a George W. Bush re-election bid in 2004
  

8/29/01

• Famed lawyer joins DNA fray
  State, Bar spar over scope of rules
  Famed death row and O.J. Simpson attorney Barry Scheck made a surprise appearance before the Florida Supreme Court on Tuesday to plead the case of inmates as attorneys for the state and the state Bar battled over DNA rules.

• State buys limerock mine near Ichetucknee Springs
  The sparkling Ichetucknee River was the subject of both a protest at the Capitol and a state land purchase Tuesday.

• State to buy second mine site to protect river - Some question the $10-million cost of 302 acres bought to protect the Ichetucknee from mining.

• Peterson criticizes education reforms
  ORLANDO - Democratic gubernatorial candidate Pete Peterson said Tuesday that, if elected, he would reverse the education reforms implemented by the state's Republicans because they promote standardized testing at the expense of creativity.

• Floor plans for all kinds of tomfoolery
  Who can keep track of every twist of the scandal in Tampa involving a city housing official, the employee whom he dated and promoted, and the companies that got city business and did construction or other services for those two personally?

• High level of ozone triggers warnings - ...Call it ozone soup.- and on Tuesday, weather watchers from Hillsborough, Pinellas, Sarasota and Manatee counties declared the soup thick enough to encourage people with respiratory problems -- particularly the elderly and children -- to stay inside.

• Senator: Race not an issue in bid to unseat Bush
  The black Senate minority leader says what people hear is his exciting vision for Florida.

• More students than ever sweating over SAT- College presidents in Florida and around the nation might be arguing for the de-emphasis on SAT scores, but more students than ever are taking the college admissions test.

• Prisons study finds no signs of biasTALLAHASSEE -- State corrections officials have found no evidence of widespread racial discrimination against guards at several Florida prisons they spent four months investigating.

• Bush: Budget cuts, tax increases not needed= -- Florida has adequate financial reserves and won't be forced into dramatic budget cuts or tax increases, Gov. Jeb Bush says.

• Make polluters pay, high court urged- In 1996, voters passed an Everglades cleanup amendment that the Legislature has never enforced. Now there's a lawsuit.

• What surplus?
  President Bush calls it "incredibly positive news," but most Americans probably are alarmed to learn that the federal budget surplus has disappeared.

• Activists seek hearing on costs of Glades cleanup - Environmental activists who convinced Florida voters five years ago to amend the state Constitution to make polluters pay to clean up the Everglades turned to the state's high court Tuesday to enforce the amendment

• Florida `budget crisis' looms, Democrats say - Democrats used a news conference to assail Bush for his tax cuts, saying the governor was ``in denial'' over the cumulative effect of three years of tax cuts and a looming ``budget crisis.''

• Textbook shortage hits Palm Beach schools, leaving some students struggling - Textbooks have become a precious commodity in the Palm Beach County School District.
  In classrooms across the county, some students have no textbook to take home. Others must share textbooks with a classmate for now and may wait weeks to get one of their own.

• Gov. Bush says state has 'ample reserves' to deal with cash shortages - TALLAHASSEE · Responding to increased pressure from Democrats, Gov. Jeb Bush said on Tuesday that the state has "ample reserves" to cover any cash-flow problems caused by the cooling economy, and ruled out any need for a special legislative session.
  "We have options available. I don't see a need to make any basic cuts in services."

• Supreme Court asked to expand DNA tests for prisoners who maintain innocence - TALLAHASSEE · Florida's top court on Tuesday was urged to expand the intent of a new DNA testing law to give more prison inmates the chance to prove their innocence

• Don't make taxpayers foot the bill for farmers' pollution, lawsuit says - TALLAHASSEE · Florida voters passed a constitutional amendment in 1996 requiring that polluters of Florida's Everglades be made to pay the cleanup tab.
  But, in reality, millions of nonpolluting taxpayers from Orlando to Key West are illegally shouldering about one-third of the $800 million cost, the Florida Supreme Court was told on Tuesday

• Law to oversee HMOs falls flat
  In 1996, the Florida Legislature passed a law creating statewide citizen committees to investigate patient complaints against their HMOs. Five years later, the program is barely working -- with only four of the 11 special "ombudsman" committees operating in 15 of 67 counties.

• Magic eludes Disney World
  The decline in visitors to Walt Disney World is so persistent that Central Florida's flagship attraction could feel pain well into next summer. 

• Income, race affect SAT
  Poor kids and minorities continue to score much lower on the SAT college entrance exam than their white, wealthier classmates in Florida and across the nation. 

• Toxic algae off gulf coast killing fish -NAPLES -- Tens of thousands of fish are dead, killed by a swath of red tide just offshore along part of southwest Florida's gulf coast, and officials in the region are waiting to see where the toxic algae bloom will drift next.

• Mosquito plan OK'd for county
  A $48,000 eradication effort comes in response to worries about West Nile virus and Eastern equine encephalitis. 

• The five candidates each offer SFCC distinct qualities
  The Santa Fe Community College Board of Trustees may have a time choosing who will become the school's next president.

8/28/01

• Law school numbers hold steady
  FSU's minority enrollment unaffected by One Florida
  Florida State University's law school saw no slip in its percentage of minority students, Dean Don Weidner said Monday. The first day of class Monday drew 215 new students, 23.7 percent of whom are minorities, Weidner said. That's the same percentage of minority students the law school reported last fall.

• Democrats cry budget crisis
  State may be short $500M-plus
  Two months into the state's budget year, Democrats see a financial crisis looming. On Monday, they said lawmakers may have to call a special session to fix it.

• '10-20-Life' not unconstitutional
  Court: Sentencing discretion unaffected
  An appeals court ruled Monday that Gov. Jeb Bush's "10-20-Life" law does not unconstitutionally infringe on authority of judges and prosecutors to decide a criminal's punishment.

• Bush gives grants to state military bases
  Governor says he wants to prevent closings
  TYNDALL AIR FORCE BASE - Gov. Jeb Bush met privately with installation commanders from around the state Monday, then announced $2.6 million in grants designed primarily to strengthen Florida's military bases against closings.

• Oral Majority activist to run
  A Miami Beach activist Monday declared his candidacy for governor, joining a crowded field of Democrats who want to take on Republican Gov. Jeb Bush. But Bob Kunst said his campaign stands out because he is the only one focused on the Florida presidential election, which he accuses Bush of helping to steal for his brother.

• Let's have a Fox-CNN ideological smackdown
  You know what I wish? That good old unblushingly liberal Ted Turner were still in charge at CNN, and that he and Fox News' flat-out conservative Roger Ailes would go at it head-to-head in all-news cable.

• Social Security won't go untouched 
  New figures say $9 billion needed to make ends meet
  WASHINGTON - The sour economy and President Bush's tax cut will force the government to tap $9 billion in Social Security reserves this year, congressional analysts concluded in a report Monday, igniting a bitter political fight over the dwindling surplus.

• 'All-out war' in Mideast? 
  Tanks enter village; leader killed
  JERUSALEM - Israeli tanks rolled into a Palestinian village on the southern fringes of Jerusalem early today in an effort to halt persistent Palestinian gunfire on a nearby Israeli neighborhood. At least one Palestinian was killed.

• Pilotless plane missing in Iraq
  It may have crashed or been shot down
  WASHINGTON - A pilotless U.S. reconnaissance plane failed to return from a mission over southern Iraq on Monday. U.S. officials did not dispute Iraq's claim that it shot down the plane.

• Astrology school gains accreditation 
  SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. - The stars were favorably aligned this month for the Astrological Institute, says founder Joyce Jensen, whose students learn to write horoscopes and give advice about the future. The modest school in suburban Phoenix won accreditation from a federally recognized body, in what's thought to be a first for a school of astrology. Now the institute can seek approval from the U.S. Education Department for its students to get federal grants and loans.

• Times announces three key staff changes 
  Jeanne Grinstead, a veteran journalist with 18 years' experience at the St. Petersburg Times, has been named a deputy managing editor.

• Hearing begins on safety of desal plant 
  A judge will hear technical and legal arguments about the plant proposed for the Big Bend area.

• UF settlement softens Medicare liability During much of the 1990s, federal prosecutors threatened to slam the University of Florida medical school with tens of millions of dollars in penalties for what they said were deliberate Medicare overbillings.

• Retirement amendment adds up for politicians The amendment, tacked on to a bill sponsored by state Rep. Mike Fasano, R-New Port Richey, will allow some veteran sheriffs, public defenders, county commissioners and other local officials to collect retirement pay and seek re-election to their six-figure-salary jobs.

• Aide found dead had said she felt ill A congressional aide in Fort Walton Beach told people she was feeling ill the day before she was found dead, according to a police report.

• Democrats call for action on budget gap  Legislative leaders divide by party over whether to call a special session or whether to rescind tax breaks.

• Least, lowest and last? 
  Real leadership will be required to prevent Tallahassee's looming budget crisis from doingfurther damage to the state's essential services.

• Budget shortfall blamed on Bush 
  State Democratic leaders Monday intensified their attack on Gov. Jeb Bush, blaming the bulk of the state's money woes on $1.6 billion in tax cuts handed out mostly to wealthier citizens and corporations since he took office.

• On trip through South, manners pave 2-way street of gentility 
  When did it happen? It started quietly and then gained momentum -- slights of courtesy, absence of manners so pervasive that one day I was used to it. Sure, I remember different times, more courteous people, but that was in the past, like Nehi Grape drink and milk delivered at the door.

• Editorial, August 28, 2001 The Florida Department of Children & Families had its chance to cooperate with child advocates and run a viable foster-care program in Broward County. Those efforts apparently have failed, and now the two sides are back in their all-too familiar roles of adversaries.

• Sugar executive misusing lake 
  Malcolm "Bubba" Wade Jr., senior vice president of U.S. Sugar Corp., has a production schedule of three-quarters of a million tons of raw sugar to harvest. In other places that experience drought, crops fail. But Mr. Wade has Lake O from which to irrigate his yield. And the environment-friendly Audubon Society has the gall to deny agricultural runoff be back-pumped into his source of water, vital to nourish sugar cane, which is planted in late fall and cultivated eight months later. For, if winter and spring skies are moisture-less, as long as the Department of Environmental Protection is in "Bubba's" back pocket, Lake O bails him out.

• Gov. Bush's tax cuts blamed for state money woes TALLAHASSEE -- State Democratic leaders Monday intensified their attack on Gov. Jeb Bush, blaming the state's money woes chiefly on the $1.6 billion in tax cuts handed out mostly to wealthier citizens and corporations since he took office.

• Governor race hinges on Reno decision There are six prominent candidates seeking to challenge Jeb Bush for governor, but Democratic leaders say the race depends on one Democrat who hasn't announced whether she'll run -- Janet Reno.

• Giant waves could endanger Fla. coast someday The giant waves called tsunamis, long known as a danger in the Pacific Ocean, may also pose a danger to the U.S. East Coast.-
  While stressing that there is no indication it could happen soon, a pair of scientists is warning that a slumbering volcano on the island of La Palma, off the coast of Africa, could one day give way in a massive landslide, sending waves up to 70 feet high crashing into Florida and other coastal states.

• Everglades `polluter pays' concept is endangered TALLAHASSEE -- In 1996, nearly two-thirds of Florida's voters endorsed a constitutional amendment to force polluters to pick up the tab to clean up Florida's fabled River of Grass.--But five years later, the revolutionary ``polluter pays'' provision is nothing more than words in the state Constitution, and homeowners in the Everglades watershed -- from Orlando to Key West -- continue to pay most of the costs that environmentalists say Big Sugar should bear.

• Palm Beach voting chief under attack A Democratic state representative from Palm Beach County is calling for a criminal investigation of county Election Supervisor Theresa LePore, whose ``butterfly ballot'' and malfunctioning voting machines might have swung the presidential election to George W. Bush.

• Workers face heftier costs for insurance Health insurance premiums are expected to surge at double-digit rates again next year - and some Pensacola area employers are already feeling the sticker shock. -- Spurred by increased costs for drugs, hospital care and doctors, health insurers are seeking premium increases next year of 13 percent, 20 percent, even 50 percent - the highest in a decade.

• Task force gets ready to take on ozone issue By now we all know that the Escambia/Santa Rosa area has an ozone problem. Few disagree that if not corrected soon, we will pay a steep price

• School cuts to affect parents MANATEE - Parents likely will be asked to put more of their money where their children are, if schools' proposals to cut nearly $150,000 from their combined budgets are approved.

• Feds Seek Prison For Democratic Operative That Stole Bush's Debate Tape -- Federal prosecutors have asked for up to a year in prison time for the office worker who admitted stealing George W. Bush's Presidential debate materials, mailing them to the Al Gore campaign and then lying about it to a grand jury.

• New DNA testing law faces scrutiny
  The Florida Supreme Court will hear an emergency petition this week about rules for DNA testing, just one month before a new law goes into effect allowing those who feel wrongly convicted to seek the test.

• Bill Cotterell: No worry that they'll deplete voucher fund
  When the Legislature overhauled the free-tuition program for state employees attending Florida colleges and universities, everybody said it would result in far fewer people being able to take advantage of the benefit.

• FCAT debate in session
  As school starts, sides argue value of the testing
  MIAMI - Students and critics call it nerve-racking, high-stakes and one-size-fits-all. Some lawmakers argue it's crucial to the state's future, a way to bring more accountability to public education.

• It's the tale of the uncurious president
  Gather 'round little ones. It's story time. Today's is a scary one.

• Graham is referee in battle between secrets and leaks
  The senator, chairman of the committee that will consider a bill to punish government workers who share confidential information with the media, is working for a compromise.

• Spray may imperil monarch butterfly
  Officials say aerial spraying to eradicate mosquitoes with the West Nile virus will only minimally disrupt their migration.

• Exxon and Condit prove that honesty is the best PR
  Good public relations is an art, and pleasing to watch. Bad public relations is insulting and makes things worse. There is a lot more bad PR in the world than good.

• Legislative inaction allows Everglades polluters to escape paying for cleanup - Five years ago, Florida voters overwhelmingly approved a constitutional amendment that declared sugar growers and other farmers "primarily responsible" for the cost of cleaning up their Everglades pollution.- 
  But the Florida Legislature has done nothing to implement the so-called "polluters pay" mandate passed in 1996, despite being advised in 1997 by the state Supreme Court that it had to step in to carry out Florida voters' will.

• Conservation Is Key To Changes
  Gov. Jeb Bush has put a kinder and gentler spin on the state's emerging energy policy with his recent announcement of new initiatives to save energy. To quote a memorable tune from Mary Poppins, "A spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down."

• Oil-drilling fight is far from over
  Now that Republican Gov. Jeb Bush and Democrat Sen. Bob Graham have joined together in opposition to offshore drilling near Pensacola Beach, the next steps should be to prevent production on the Destin Dome and to seek a permanent ban on drilling in Florida's coastal waters.
  It's encouraging that Bush pledged support for parts of federal legislation Graham introduced last year, but the governor stopped short of endorsing the entire bill, which includes a ban on all drilling off Florida's outer continental shelf.
  Graham was correct when he said that best way to keep oil rigs off the Florida coast is to get rid of the leases held by oil companies.

• Paul Krugman: That sinking feeling
  Administration officials haven't yet admitted that they will break their promise to protect the Social Security surplus, but their allies in the media and the think tanks are already preparing the fallback position — that everything is OK as long as the federal budget as a whole is in surplus. Let me pretend for a moment that the truth matters, and point out that real conservatives, who respect the lessons of the past, would disagree with the proposition that balancing the budget is enough. Why? Because the Social Security "lockbox" is the modern equivalent of a time-honored institution, the "sinking fund."

8/26/01

• Publicity machine in full swing - As Gov. Jeb Bush gears up for what will probably be the most expensive and nationally noticed re-election campaign in Florida history, he has one thing none of his opponents can match. - He's got the job and, like all his predecessors, he's making the most of it.

• Storm watchers keep eyes on 'Hebert Box'
  MIAMI - It's the heart of the hurricane season and here's a tip for the faint of heart: If you want an early and generally reliable indication of whether a storm in the Atlantic is destined to bang on your front door as a major hurricane, keep an eye on the Hebert Box.

• Former DCF investigator charged with stealing
  DELAND - A former state Department of Children and Families investigator has been charged with stealing thousands of dollars from an elderly woman he was supposed to be helping. Thomas Mistretta, 45, was in charge of investigating cases of self-neglect and elderly abuse for the DCF. But a DCF and State Attorney's Office probe concluded he swindled 86-year-old Marion Wright out of more than $21,000 between March 27 and July 2.

• Felons work to get rights restored - More than 100 felons attend a workshop at an Ybor City church to begin the process.

• Reform and reality - Welfare rolls plummet over five years, but former recipients struggle with low-paying jobs and could fall victim to a withering economy.

• Residents want Bush to interveneSOUTH PASADENA -- Dismissed by the State Attorney's Office and the State Ethics Commission, the complaints of three South Pasadena couples now are headed to a higher power.

• The grudging advocates
  Some of the leaders of Florida's reorganized public education system seem hostile to the students and educators they should be representing.

• Agribusiness over families
  Congress is in the midst of writing a comprehensive farm bill that covers everything from hog farming to food stamps. When it comes to the demands of agribusiness and the needs of struggling families, guess which group has our lawmakers' ear.

• Hunters, ecologists battle over land use in Big Cypress National PreserveA land fight has broken out in the Everglades, as hunters, homeowners and environmentalists stake claims on two wilderness areas that are crucial to the endangered Florida panther.

• Decision deals blow to windstorm pool Keyword:  insurance pool

• Menace lurks hidden in lakes - Dangerous amounts of toxic algae -- one sample showed 354 times the level considered safe -- infest popular Central Florida lakes where people spend weekends swimming, fishing and skiing. - Twenty of the 23 lakes tested in a joint investigation by the Orlando Sentinel and Central Florida News 13 turned up enough of the toxic algae to cause vomiting, bloody diarrhea, trouble breathing, skin rashes, mouth ulcers, blisters and eye irritations in people who play in the water.

• Trouble in paradise - With redistricting and a governor's race already sending off sparks, Senate President John McKay is poised to launch some real political fireworks this fall -- pushing ahead with plans for a sweeping overhaul of Florida's tax system.

8/25/01

• Bush ally a winner on state contract
  TALLAHASSEE - Gov. Jeb Bush's effort to trim state jobs and hand work over to private companies could be a moneymaker for his former campaign manager...The state is poised to award a multimillion-dollar contract to a national company that plans to use the law firm of J.M. ''Mac'' Stipanovich to assist it in recovering money that may be owed to the state

• Budget gap distresses legislators
  As Republicans move to stem the shortfall, Democrats criticize the policy of slashing state taxes. ..."Tax cuts are good for the budget," Bush wrote. 

• Jeb's voodoo economics
  With Florida facing a budgetary bind after three years of celebrated tax breaks, Gov. Jeb Bush has offered what amounts to so much economic malarkey Not only do the $1.6-billion in recurring annual tax breaks bear no blame for the impending shortfall, says the governor, but they are in fact solely responsible for generating $3.4-billion in new state tax receipts over the period.

• State budget cut could leave S. Florida schools struggling - Florida school districts have begun planning for a potential 3 percent cut in state money for the current school year.

• Smith hints at special budget session
  State Sen. Rod Smith, D-Alachua, said that a special session of the Florida Legislature may be called because of projected funding shortfalls.

• Judge throws out growers' complaints
  MIAMI - Claims by growers that they were victims of racketeering by the DuPont Co. when they settled crop damage claims were discarded by a federal judge Friday in a major legal victory for the chemical maker.

• Regent to lead UWF trustees
  PENSACOLA - Collier Merrill, a member of the now-defunct Board of Regents, has been elected chairman of the new University of West Florida Board of Trustees. The trustees unanimously elected Merrill, president of a Pensacola investment company, as chairman and Eddie Phillips, a Shalimar consultant, as vice chairman at their first meeting Thursday. Phillips also is a member of the university's advisory board and the Okaloosa-Walton Community College's foundation board. 

• Sweet boondoggle - This fall, a coalition of consumer groups, environmentalists and food manufacturers are gearing up for another attempt to end, or at least phase out, the sugar subsidy.

• River boondoggle - U.S. senator Bob Graham has indicated that he will once again try to stop the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' maintenance of the 9-foot channel that runs the length of the Apalachicola river.

• Convicted rapist faces castration
  ORLANDO - A former school janitor convicted of raping a teacher in a classroom received a 20-year prison sentence Friday and was ordered to undergo chemical castration. Neftali Camacho was ordered to take a drug that lowers testosterone levels in his body when he finishes his prison sentence. The conviction was Camacho's first sex offense.

• Seeing both sides; working the middle
  Sometimes I'm a wild-eyed liberal, pink around the gills and spouting Communist doctrine....

• West Nile's arrival in Keys confounds health officials
  A Sarasota woman contracts the virus while on vacation, leaving experts wondering how it skipped down so far south.

• No teeth in new shark-dive rules
  Some want hand-feeding of sharks stopped, but proposed state rules would be voluntary.

• Sharks cause closure of New Smyrna Beach - NEW SMYRNA BEACH -- A one-mile stretch of New Smyrna Beach will be closed this weekend after a helicopter survey Friday showed dozens of sharks swimming off the coast. - Eight people in the last week have been bit by sharks while surfing or swimming at New Smyrna Beach.

• Natural gas pipeline stirs safety fearsA top official at Port Everglades raised concerns Friday about Enron Corp.’s proposed natural gas pipeline from the Bahamas to Fort Lauderdale.

• Legislators join fight for control of elder affairs - She says they are misusing government money meant to purchase in-home help for sick and frail seniors to pump up executive salaries and build nonprofit empires.

• Prosecutor's son escapes 2nd DUI arrest minus jailtime
  The son of a longtime Naples prosecutor received a no-jailtime plea deal in his second-offense DUI arrest after the case was kept within the State Attorney's Office. Instead...

• U.S.: Credit card numbers stolen at eatery
  By Chris Barker, Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
  A restaurant worker installed scanners that electronically pilfered credit card numbers with each meal transaction, according to a U.S. Secret Service fraud investigation. More than $31,000 in...

• Speaking Out: Politics, education not a perfect match
  -- by E.T. York - What each university believes to be good for itself is not necessarily what is good for Florida as a whole. But Florida as a whole does not matter any more.

8/24/01

• Capitol Corner: Many states, many budget shortfalls
  If misery enjoys company, last week's National Conference of State Legislatures annual meeting in San Antonio must have been a real lovefest.

• Bush attacks drug treatment ballot initiative
  ORLANDO - A proposed ballot initiative that would require courts to offer treatment to certain drug offenders came under attack by Gov. Jeb Bush on Thursday. The initiative, called "Right to Treatment and Rehabilitation for Nonviolent Drug Offenders," would force judges to grant treatment or rehabilitation to anyone charged with simple possession of drugs or drug paraphernalia.

• Paper: Harris wanted to pay operative
  Secretary of State Katherine Harris wanted the state to pay $12,000 to a GOP operative who she has said was a volunteer working out of her office during the election recount, a newspaper reported Thursday.

• Harris note raises questions
  The secretary of state mentions pay for a volunteer, according to a letter.

• Report: NAFTA hurts farms
  Florida's farmers and ranchers have been hurt by seven years of the North American Free Trade Agreement, which has led to a surge in Mexican imports and lower crop prices, according to a report issued by a consumer group.

• Report: NAFTA hurts Florida farms  Florida's farmers and ranchers have been hurt by seven years of the North American Free Trade Agreement, which has led to a surge in Mexican imports and lower crop prices, according to a report issued by a consumer group. Public Citizen, a nonprofit group founded by Ralph Nader, said in its report released Wednesday that the state's farmers would be further devastated if free trade is expanded across the Americas under a proposal by President Bush.

• Military Pork Inc. is booming in Florida
  A decade after the Cold War ended, Florida taxpayers go right on paying for military boondoggles. Thanks to Military Pork Inc., billions of your tax dollars are wasted each year on weapons and bases the Pentagon doesn't need or even want.

• Horse farmers brace for West Nile
  As the disease creeps south, horse owners take extensive measures to protect their animals while they wait for a promised vaccine.

• Encephalitis alert covers nearly half of Florida counties  
  

• They want to nudge us as we try to vote
  The words "literacy test" hold a bitter memory for an older generation. Until the mid 1960s, several states used literacy tests, poll taxes and other devices to keep black citizens from voting.

• Serving time, building faith
  A new faith-based dorm strives to strengthen young inmates' morals.

• Protesters oppose free trade legislation -....  Thursday, armed with placards, a podium and a media-savvy leader, they were urging Davis, a Democrat, to vote against a bill that would facilitate free trade agreements. His vote in September is crucial to sinking legislation to expand the North American Free Trade Agreement, said rally organizer Mike Dolan of the California-based organization Public Citizen.

• Classified silencing
  The secrets act would give the government a new way to hide incompetence and illegal activity in the name of protecting national security.

• Prosecutors want public corruption probe expanded
  Special prosecutors and the Florida Department of Law Enforcement plan to ask the governor to expand the reach of the Stadium Naples public corruption probe, prosecutors said in court Thursday.

• Bush Moving Ahead With Plans to Abandon Arms Treaty

• Bizarre appointments from the Bush team -
  AUSTIN, Texas — More bizarre appointments by the Bush administration. This problem is reaching tidal wave proportions. It's not so much a matter of setting the fox to guard the chicken coop as it is letting the raccoons loose in the henhouse.

• Mistake allows 1,045 Broward students who failed to be promoted
  A week before the first day of school, a testing company's error led more than 1,000 Broward elementary schoolchildren to be told -- incorrectly -- they had passed two tests essential for promotion.

• Jobless claims at 9-year high, prompting fears worst isn't over
  The number of laid-off American workers collecting unemployment insurance is near levels last seen in the aftermath of the 1991 recession -- leading economists to venture that the worst is not over yet.

• State does $1 million study for Universal
  Drivers could end up footing most of a $90 million bill to build a toll road to help Universal Orlando develop its next major expansion.

• Everglades cleanup deadline in doubt
  By Robert P. King, Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
  The state's Everglades cleanup will probably miss its 2006 deadline unless it uses expensive chemicals that could pose unknown risks to the environment, a state regulator said Thursday.
  
  

8/23/01

• Bugs' death from above begins
  Plane starts spraying; some residents take cover
  A twin-engine DC-3 cargo plane took to the skies Wednesday night to spray insecticide over Leon County in hopes of killing disease-carrying mosquitoes.

• Budget passed, Education Board must develop its strategic plan
  TAMPA - Florida's new Board of Education formally passed its first milestone Wednesday in the push to reform public education, but no sooner was it done with a history-making budget plan than it faced the next big question. "Where do we go from here?" board members asked, repeatedly.

• Board tackles school code - TAMPA -- Less than two months into its existence, Florida's new Board of Education already has proposed an education budget and is learning to choose its battles carefully.

• State's new education board approves $12.7 billion budget - They have a budget. Now all they need is a plan.
  The new state board charged with managing the state's public education system on Wednesday unanimously approved a 2002-03 budget proposal of $12.7 billion. The board decided to hire a consultant to help set priorities for state funding that will drive future spending plans and school reforms.

• Gubernatorial candidate McBride preaches party unity
  ORLANDO - With the possibility of a bruising primary looming in the future, Democratic gubernatorial candidate Bill McBride preached party unity at a fund-raiser Wednesday night. McBride is one of four Democrats who have announced they wish to unseat Republican Gov. Jeb Bush. But McBride - a Tampa lawyer who is the only candidate without political experience - offered assurances he wouldn't pursue election at the expense of a fellow Democrat.

• Post-election security for Harris cost $50,000
  Florida's Department of State has spent almost $50,000 protecting Kath- erine Harris since last year's election. Agents for the Florida Department of Law Enforcement began guarding Harris on Nov. 15, 2000, after aides say she received threats during last year's election crisis and continued round-the-clock security for her off and on until Feb. 6.

• Media can't expect to break the law and get away with it
  Editors and reporters around the country are very rightly worried about a free-lance writer who is in federal custody in Texas for refusing to identify confidential sources or to give prosecutors tape recordings of interviews she did for book about a murder case.

• Jesse Helms' legacy is today's politicking
  Whenever a North Carolinian is out in the world meeting people, the polite small talk is usually about the state's beautiful mountains, or its awe-inspiring Outer Banks, or maybe college basketball.

• Infected bird found in Pasco
  The discovery is the farthest south the West Nile virus has been found, but is not a surprise to health officials.

• Records missing in LaBrake case
  Employees in Tampa's construction records section are stumped as to why the paper trail for a home built by city official Steve LaBrake has disappeared.

• Politico's company wants 'virtual charter school' - William J. Bennett('s) ...company is talking to Florida education officials about setting up a "virtual charter school" that would offer curriculum through the Internet to home-schooled children.

• Crist draws fire from 2 key Democrats - -- State Education Commissioner Charlie Crist, a Republican candidate for attorney general, came under fire on two Democratic fronts Wednesday.- Attorney General Bob Butterworth rejected Crist's claim that it is illegal for unions on government property, including schools, to collect dues that may be used for political activities

• Social Security cut on table
  Future Social Security benefits might have to be cut to shore up the federal retirement system, the leader of a presidential panel said Wednesday.

• Drug amendment has foes - SANFORD -- A proposed state constitutional amendment that would give nonviolent drug users the option of treatment over jail is dangerous and misleading, local and state law-enforcement officials warned Wednesday

• Kingmakers' Aren't Needed - To Democratic optimists, having seven or eight major Democratic candidates running for Florida governor next year is an abundance of riches. The candidates include a congressman, a mayor, a former U.S. ambassador who was once also a congressman, two state legislators, a high-powered lawyer and possibly a former U.S. attorney general.

• Beware if big storms cross crucial areaIt's the heart of the hurricane season -- Tropical Storm Dean suddenly spun to life Wednesday in the Atlantic Ocean -- and here's a tip for the faint of heart: If you want an early and generally reliable indication of whether a storm in the Atlantic is destined to bang on your front door as a major hurricane, keep an eye on the Hebert Box.

• Florida Gov. Jeb Bush to visit Puerto Rico for fund-raising event
  SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico — Florida Gov. Jeb Bush will visit Puerto Rico on Friday for a fund-raising event, campaign officials said Wednesday. Campaign manager Karen Unger said she could not give any more information because it is considered part of campaign strategy. Bush will not make any public appearances in the U.S. Caribbean territory.

• Senate Democratic leader calls for investigation of Crist
  TALLAHASSEE — The state Senate minority leader Wednesday called for an investigation of Education Commissioner Charlie Crist over allegations of campaign and hiring misconduct. State Sen. Tom Rossin, D-Royal Palm Beach, also asked Gov. Jeb Bush to justify the expense of paying Florida's two state education leaders.
  

8/22/01

• Cotterell's analysis: mostly fluff, little substance
  To paraphrase his own title, Bill Cotterell's Aug. 16 column (“In politics, style often beats substance") is full of fluff and contains no substance.

• Once nailed to the door, now shuffled out of sight - Howard Troxler
  One of the great protesters of all time was a German guy named Martin Luther. Back in the 1500s, he got fed up with the excesses of the Catholic Church. Luther wrote and circulated a list of 95 points of debate. According to legend, he posted his "Ninety-Five Theses" right smack on the door of the church at Wittenberg University.

• Giant 'ad' touts 'benefits' of teaching
  Union says schools need more money
  "Wanted: Teachers and support personnel for Florida public schools. Below average salary, overcrowded classrooms, benefits reduced annually. Apply to Gov. Jeb Bush at (850) 488-4441." It's not the sort of classified ad Bush would use to promote the state's public schools. But there's a vastly larger-than-life version of it just down Monroe Street from the Governor's Mansion, courtesy of the state teachers' union.

• Union starts billboard attack on Bush
  The teachers group says Gov. Jeb Bush is to blame for low salaries and crowded classrooms.

• Charter school firm to expand
  MIAMI - Boosted by increased demand for better-performing public schools, more individualized attention for students and smaller class sizes, Charter Schools USA has big expansion plans.

• First K-20 plan to be approved
  TAMPA - The newly formed Florida Board of Education is set to approve the state's first ever coordinated spending plan from kindergarten to graduate school Tuesday, recommending a $12.7 billion budget that bolsters school spending but also raises university tuition.

• Sorry, Charlie: Anti-union plan doesn't cut it
  Regardless of whether one thinks that teacher unions are a detrimental drag on reform or a constructive, enlightened voice for public education, a blatant anti-union effort by Education Commissioner Charlie Crist can't be justified.

• UF braces for record number of students
  More than 46,000 are expected to strain housing and parking this fall.

• Guarding Harris has cost $50,000
  Since the election, state taxpayers have paid for FDLE agents to guard Katherine Harris on trips abroad and in Washington.

• `Big sugar' gears up to defend subsidy - ...The program costs consumers of sugar, from families to food businesses, $800 million to $1.9 billion a year, according to a detailed report by the General Accounting Office issued last year. And last fall, when sugar prices plummeted, U.S. producers forfeited $430 million of raw sugar to the government rather than pay back federal loans in cash, a tab picked up by taxpayers.

• Sugar growers, farmers want to pour more pollution into Everglades - In a battle forming over the amount of phosphorus that will be allowed in the Everglades, the sugar industry is expected to push for permission to pour perhaps twice as much of the pollutant into the `Glades as scientists say is found in its pristine areas

• Law is a process of drawing distinctions Molly Ivins:
  AUSTIN, Texas — OK, let's try this again, Texans. We now have one of the highest execution rates in the entire world. Here are the numbers according to Amnesty International and some math: In 2000, four countries around the world accounted for 88 percent of all the executions — the United States, Iran, China and Saudi Arabia.

• Edtiorial: Minority drain at UF needs attention at top
  The Palm Beach Post
  Gov. Bush is in denial about one of the most disappointing but predictable results of his move to eliminate affirmative action in Florida: the expected decline by half in African-American freshman enrollment at...

8/21/01

• Feds question Election Reform Act
  Three areas give cause for discrimination concerns
  The federal government has approved 70 components of Florida's massive Election Reform Act but kicked back eight other sections because they might be discriminatory.

• Florida election reform on hold
  The Justice Department won't let parts of the law take effect until it's sure the changes won't hurt minority voters.

• Peterson now in race for governor
  He says he's encouraged by voters' response
  Former ambassador Pete Peterson said Monday he is "in this race" for governor, a month after filing papers to explore a bid to challenge Gov. Jeb Bush.

• Gov. Bush pushes plan for energy conservation
  "We are committed to restructuring energy as a business and not a utility," Bush said.

• Governor embraces conservation
  Sensing that energy issues could light up the 2002 governor's race, Gov. Jeb Bush on Monday outlined a new energy-conservation policy for state government and hinted that he would revive the fight to deregulate Florida's electric industry.

• Class-size measure has unlikely enemies
  A petition drive to limit classroom size in Florida's schools is nearing a crucial stage and could have enough signatures to get the necessary review by the state Supreme Court as early as next month.

• Books off limits in youths' cells
  Reading is encouraged, but not in offenders' cells because officials fear books may become weapons and tools for vandals.

• Group wants manatee off endangered list
  The fishing group opposes new waterway restrictions and questions whether the manatee is endangered.

• Bats, birds no use in mosquito battle
  As West Nile looms, experts say to focus on standing water when battling mosquitoes.

• Threatening teachers
  Education Commissioner Charlie Crist and GOP lawmakers are backing off a sneaky effort to destroy the teachers' union, but the threat hasn't disappeared.

• Drawing a line on copyright
  The battle over Napster, the formerly free music-swapping Web site, added the word "copyright" to every junior high-schooler's vocabulary. But what they might not have understood is just how far copyright law has now gone in keeping vast quantities of creative material out of the public domain. A lawsuit that has so far failed to put a limit on the excesses of current copyright law should be given a hearing by the U.S. Supreme Court.

• Bird-death mystery slow to unravel - ...In the meantimecity has suspended the use of diazinon in all city parks, where the pesticide has long been used to control ants, mole crickets and other lawn insects. Workers applied the poison Wednesday and Friday as part of a regular treatment schedule.== 
  Under pressure from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the makers of diazinon last year agreed to stop distribution by 2004. Federal regulators think the common pesticide -- sold under trade names such as Ortho, Spectracide, Real-Kill and No-Pest -- could have a negative impact on the health of children.

• No more hands off - The child's death was more than an unspeakable tragedy. It pointed out glaring deficiencies in state oversight of safety standards for many religious-based day-care centers.

• Jeb Bush, Hispanic firms: He speaks their language
  Florida's governor was there to campaign for re-election. Lightning and thunder crackled over Central Florida, but not even a storm watch could prevent Gov. Jeb Bush from coming to Orlando Saturday to hobnob with Florida's top Hispanic business people.

• Wanted: Thirteen signatures
  Just before the House left for a month-long recess, the Shays-Meehan campaign-reform bill was in committee. In four days, supporters had gathered 205 of the needed 218 signatures to bring it to a floor vote.

• Latin Grammys leaving Miami for L.A.
  Despite last-minute intervention by Miami-Dade Mayor Alex Penelas, right, fears of Cuban exile protests prompt award organizers to pull the show from AmericanAirlines Arena.
  

8/20/01

• He's Pete Peterson, candidate for governor
  The ex-POW has a lot going for him, but to win his party's nomination, he'll need more people to know his name.

• Justices say 'nay' when general law gets specific
  The term "shaggy dog story" refers to a long, drawn-out and somewhat pointless tale, usually for the purpose of delivering a really bad punch line. This is a shaggy-horse story. It was 11 years in the making, and the original point is now moot. Still, it is a useful reminder of the way things work.

• State may allow TECO to burn suspect coal - DEP is drafting changes to the company's emissions permit that could allow hundreds of tons of leftover coal to be burned at the plant each day. The 1,825-megawatt facility is one of the state's largest polluters, and TECO is under a federal consent decree to sharply reduce the emissions from Big Bend, as well as its Gannon plant.

• Bill Cotterell: Computers do it cheaper, better, faster
  Back when the idea of machines replacing people was still joked about, a folk group did a comic update of the ballad of John Henry, the railroad worker who "died with a hammer in my hand" in a hopeless race with the steam drill.

• A jump from a bridge, a new view of life
  'As I got closer to the bottom, I had the feeling this was a bad idea' - ST. PETERSBURG - Hanns Jones' life was a shambles. He thought he had no reason to live.

• Editorial: Say it ain't so, Joe Camel - Because of deceitful decisions by state legislatures and tobacco companies, the quarter-trillion-dollar tobacco settlement is turning into a hypocritical sham. Tobacco companies still sell cigarettes to children, and states divert settlement money to tax cuts and budget turkeys.

• Editorial: History and other junk
  In a 3-2 vote that seems less about historic preservation than politics, the Lake Park Commission has moved to make its historic sites more vulnerable to demolition. Commissioners Jeannine Longtin, Chuck Balius and Bill Otterson voted...

• Skeeters driving you batty? Try bats
  Florida is filled with modern weapons in an all-out war against mosquitoes. Planes and choppers spew chemicals, foggers roll down residential streets, bug zappers sizzle on the porch

• Elder Affairs secretary under fire from lawmakers TALLAHASSEE - Angry lawmakers are considering ways to rein in Elder Affairs Secretary Gema Hernandez, accusing her of overstepping bounds and throwing into chaos services to the state's senior citizens.

• New board of education secretary warns universities of lean times - Warning of lean times ahead, Florida's education chief wants college students to pay an extra $42 a semester next year, university presidents to tighten their belts and faculty and staff to forego raises- Jim Horne, the newly appointed secretary of the state Board of Education, said Friday the latest estimates of the budget surplus are substantially lower than the $1.3 billion that was originally forecast. Horne said the new estimate is closer to $800 million.

8/19/01

• Canker project’s foes win, for now - The Department of Agriculture announced on Saturday that it’s backing down from plans to resume cutting citrus trees for at least the next few months, a day after a state appellate court again delayed the canker eradication program.

• State to lift FCAT's shroud of secrecy
  Florida officials want questions and answers to be available, perhaps a few weeks after the assessment test is given.

• The Lost Patrol
  Over the past two decades, for reasons big and small, the leaders of the Florida Highway Patrol have lost control of their officers and have lost sight of their mission.

  • Troopers' after-hours work can be a liability
    On Jan. 27, 1997, two days after Frederick Schnell's 42nd birthday, he and his wife, Elizabeth, headed to Disney World to celebrate. They got an early start, just after 7 a.m.

  • Slow investigations torment those in grief
    They occupy the desolate inner-circle of a sorrowful society.

  • The good majority
    Despite agency failings, most highway patrol officers perform their duties consistently and well.

• The election shows the way we play the game
  A guy was standing a few steps from me near the gate. We were in the waiting room for a Tampa plane bound for Tallahassee, early in the morning last Nov. 13, when the presidential election was still a seesaw in motion.

• Sunshine Network's popular show has abrupt ending in politics
  TALLAHASSEE -- For six years, Robert Kerrigan, a Pensacola trial lawyer, spent freely of his money to produce and star on a statewide consumer call-in show, Law Talk Live, on the Sunshine cable network. By accounts, it was very popular. -- But then Kerrigan began attacking Gov. Jeb Bush, the Legislature and other Republican targets. He's no longer on the network, and the choice wasn't his....(his website is www.lawtalklive.com)

• Tips on limiting exposure to insecticide
  Officials say spraying is safe, but groups suggest taking precautions
  Just what should people do to protect themselves from insecticide exposure during upcoming aerial spraying? It depends on whom you ask. The federal Environmental Protection Agency has said that the insecticide Dibrom that's being sprayed from a DC-3 does not pose unreasonable risks to people or the environment.

• Film to replay election drama
  If you went to Hollywood to pitch a screenplay about an incredibly close presidential election that comes down to a hotly disputed dead heat in the state where one candidate's brother just happens to be governor, you probably couldn't get past the studio security guards.

• Veterans warned of scams
  FORT LAUDERDALE - Veterans should be careful when dealing with companies that offer to buy their military disability benefits or pensions for a lump sum, federal officials are warning. While the transactions are legal, such companies offer as little as 30 cents on the dollar, and the deals are sometimes the equivalent of taking out a loan with 40-percent annual interest or more, the U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs said. It calls such offers "financial scams."

• Balancing access and privacy in a high-tech world
  While a few modern-day Luddites suggest that phenomenal advances in technology have done more harm than good for humanity - a preposterous notion - it is true that our progress has far outpaced the legal and ethical responses to the challenges that high-technology poses. The responsible path, as Gov. Jeb Bush acknowledged last week, is to proceed with caution.  

• Wanted: officials who inspire us to be less cynical, smarter
  One of the complaints about politics today and also one of its most popular features is the way we voters dwell on the horse race. We figure the odds based on looks, demeanor, 10-second ideas, intensity, the fire in the belly, and that elusive something I call the collision course with fate.

• Minority students talk of feeling conspicuous at UFShe had heard the numbers before, but freshman orientation was the first time she understood what it meant to be one of the few black students at the state’s premier public university.

• Oil, gas giants anticipate vast benefits from Bush policy
  The big oil and gas companies that spent almost $2 million to help President Bush get elected last year are pouring millions more into an advertising campaign this summer to help sell his energy policy in Congress.

• Brothers of the Same Mind speak out in Liberty CityThis is an organization dedicated to doing some real work in the community," said Max Rameau, a leader with the group...  the group has spoken out on a wide range of issues, including job opportunities in the inner city and the restoration of voting rights for ex-offenders, Thomas said.

• School coach becomes 2nd encephalitis victim - Dunnellon High School baseball coach ...has been hospitalized at North Florida Regional Hospital in Gainesville since Aug. 5, the Citrus County Chronicle reported. Acting state epidemiologist Dr. Steven Wiersma said the victim was infected in Levy County.

• Professor raises not top priority
  Jim Horne's new spending plan doesn't ask for faculty salary boosts.

• Poison becomes prime suspect in Eola bird deaths -Whatever killed scores of birds at Lake Eola Park on Friday is looking less like the scary West Nile virus that has been fatal to people from New York to Georgia and more like a case of poisoning 

• The rising global heat - A decade ago, the idea of global warming was largely theoretical. Maybe not any longer. A United Nations panel reports hard evidence that our planet is hotter. By next century, it may not be unrealistic to imagine a sea level so high that waves lap at the base of the Gulf Breeze sign pointing the way to what once was Pensacola Beach.

• Missile Defense Contract Awarded

• Government needs more compassion, Bush says  

• Guest editorial: No greens need apply
  While Congress and the country have been debating high-profile environmental issues, like whether to drill for oil in the Arctic, President Bush has been quietly filling key sub-Cabinet posts with conservative activists and industry lobbyists who have spent their careers criticizing the laws they are now sworn to uphold.

• Little Fiefdoms = TAMPA - Adina Dyer wants to put up a gate at Westover, privatizing her middle-class subdivision in the Tampa Palms area of New Tampa. ... Home to an estimated 8 million Americans - the majority in Florida, Texas and California - gated communities are spreading. But critics say they promote social isolation and civic fragmentation.

• The real hurricane season begins now
  By Eliot Kleinberg, Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
  More than half of all hurricanes have occurred in a six-week period that starts now. Welcome to the real hurricane season. While the season runs from June 1 to Nov. 30, and hurricanes have formed in...

• Editorial: Two scoops of audacity -The Palm Beach Post
  The acronym is DROP, which is appropriate, because Florida taxpayers' jaws must drop when they hear about it. Several years ago, in an attempt to encourage early retirement among...

• Dáte: Mole in Harris' office a case for le Carré, Smiley
  By S.V. Dáte, Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
  TALLAHASSEE -- Somewhere within the highest ranks of Florida Secretary of State Katherine Harris' office, there is a Democratic spy, an agent provocateur. There has to be. How else to...

8/18/01

• Report says courthouses contaminated
  While cities cope with air problems, Tallahassee's courthouse fares well TAMPA - Six federal courthouses in Central Florida are contaminated with mold, other fungi and exhaust fumes, leaving workers with high rates of illnesses and breathing problems, a report released Friday said.

• Horne: No dipping into tuition raise
  Florida Education Secretary Jim Horne told university presidents Friday he would not try to divert a proposed 5-percent tuition increase from their budgets and urged them to work together on policy issues.

• 10 YEARS OF TUITION COSTS

• Appeals court blocks destruction of trees
  FORT LAUDERDALE - An appellate court ruled Friday that the state cannot destroy 200,000 South Florida citrus trees for at least 10 days to give opponents time to prepare an extensive challenge to the citrus canker eradication program.

• Graham, Bush discuss permanent drilling ban --- A compromise announced last month in Washington is supposed to ensure that oil and gas rigs will stay at least 100 miles off the Panhandle coast. -- Now, Sen. Bob Graham wants to take the ban even further. -- The Democratic senator and GOP Gov. Jeb Bush met Friday morning to discuss Graham's proposal to replace an existing moratorium on oil and gas rigs with a permanent ban.

• Florida okays touch screen voting system The Florida Division of Elections certified the iVotronic this week, making it the first of what could be several touch screen systems available to the 41 counties that, under state law, must replace their voting equipment by September 2002.

• Crist's curious contract - The state education commissioner has political connections to a firm he awarded a computer contract -- at a price $100,000 above the lowest bidder's.

• Dying birds rain on Eola
  Birds fell dead from the trees and sky around downtown Orlando’s Lake Eola Park Friday, stunning residents out for an evening stroll and leaving officials struggling to find an explanation.

• How clean is your lake?
  Our position: Information about inland waterways should be at consumers' fingertips.

• Revisit death penalty
  Our position: Gov. Bush should create a panel on the death penalty and delay executions.

• Civil Rights commission PR expenditures questioned The U.S. Commission on Civil Rights has paid $135,000 to a private public-relations firm since last year to improve its image as it has come under fire for a number of controversial reports, including those critical of the New York City Police Department and the Florida voting process.

• Mining foes: Process will scar Peace River
  BRADENTON - Peace River levels remained the center of attention Friday in a hearing over phosphate mining plans for eastern Manatee County.
  

8/17/01

• High court ousts Manatee judge -... "to allow someone who has committed such misconduct during a campaign ... to then serve the term of the judgeship obtained by such means clearly sends the wrong message to future candidates; that is, the end justifies the means and, thus, all is fair so long as the candidate wins."

• Official's Affidavit Untrue, Groups Say
  Clean-water groups say state environmental chief David Struhs did not tell the truth in a sworn affidavit in order to distance himself from a controversial policy that would permit continued pollution to flow into state ...

• Aerial spraying approaches
  Plan for Leon stirs concern and criticism
  Aerial spraying of insecticide to combat mosquitoes that carry West Nile virus and other dangerous diseases could begin in Leon County as early as Wednesday.

• Groups decry spraying
  Environmental groups in the Northeast released a report this month that sharply criticized the use of insecticides in fighting the West Nile virus. The nonprofit Toxics Action Center, which has offices in Connecticut, Maine and Massachusetts, teamed up with the Maine Environmental Policy Institute to write the report "Overkill: Why Pesticide Spraying for West Nile Virus May Cause More Harm Than Good."

• Touch screens get thumbs up from state
  Voting equipment vendor OK'd; others wait for approval
  Florida ushered in a new era of voting Thursday with the certification of the state's first touch-screen equipment.

• Touch screens win Katherine Harris' vote of approval
  Clearing the way for a new era of voting technology, Secretary of State Katherine Harris on Thursday approved the first touch-screen computers for use at polling places statewide.

• Capitol Corner: State worker mad about GOP spam
  It's a fact of life. If you have an e-mail address, you're going to get unsolicited advice. But when it comes to state-owned mailboxes, enough is enough, says Chris Muire, a research coordinator for the Florida State University College of Education whose last day on the job is today.

• Forestry Division wants to improve - Report issued on huge forest fires - The three-week forest fire that charred 61,000 acres of woodlands in Dixie and Lafayette counties was made much worse by a combination of weather, communication and preparation problems in the Mallory Swamp and Koon Pond areas last May.

• Groups try mending effects of river dredging
  Wounds from more than 50 years of Apalachicola River dredging may be healed through a combination of political pressure and work begun by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

• Motions denied in election lawsuit
  MIAMI - A federal judge has denied motions seeking a quick resolution to a lawsuit filed by civil rights groups who contend black voters were disenfranchised in last November's election.

• Jews protest theme park's use of scrolls
  ORLANDO - A plan to open a museum of biblical antiquities at the religious theme park Holy Land Experience has some Jewish leaders angry that sacred scrolls are being used as a lure for tourists.

• Governor pulls in $1 million for 2002
  MIAMI - Gov. Jeb Bush met with more than 100 of his top fund-raisers - many of them business lobbyists - at a Miami hotel Thursday as he began to fill his re-election campaign kitty.

• Payroll-deduction debate may threaten lottery money
  Florida's schools could lose millions of dollars in lottery money if teachers don't prove that union dues deducted from their paychecks aren't used for political purposes.

• Crist, Teacher Unions Clash Over Dues Deduction Ruling
  TALLAHASSEE - State Education Commissioner Charlie Crist is threatening to withhold state funding from school districts that deduct union dues, earmarked for political campaigns, from teachers' paychecks. ...

• A truly free press requires a responsible government - When the government is able to determine who's a "legitimate" journalist and who isn't, we're on a very slippery slope. Unlike, say, doctors and lawyers, journalists in this country aren't licensed, so it's irrelevant that Leggett wasn't on any news organization's payroll. What matters is that she was performing the function of a reporter.

• Worker files grievance over LaBrake
  TAMPA -- A city worker claims he was forced from his job by Steve LaBrake after refusing to waive a $300 late fee for a non-profit group now linked to a criminal investigation of LaBrake.

• Public-record stonewalling
  Florida Department of Children and Families Secretary Kathleen Kearney has frequently promised that the department would be more open and accountable. If she means it, she'll end the agency's exorbitant fees for information.

• State's new voting guidelines illegal, suit charges - A voter rights group filed suit in federal court against state and Monroe County officials Wednesday, claiming that some parts of Florida's vaunted election system reforms could discourage minorities and poor people from casting ballots

• No one kept tabs on tribe's expenses -Maybe we're to blame. A little press scrutiny might had stanched this mess back when it was a minor embarrassment, before financial chaos and scandal and an FBI investigation consumed the Seminoles.

• Orlando jobless picture worsens -Central Florida got a clear signal Thursday that it is feeling the effects of the months-old national economic downturn: Local unemployment jumped to its highest level in four years.

• Firestone rejected 90-cent-a-tire safety strip - -- Bridgestone/Firestone Inc. knew that tires with a 90-cent nylon layer would be up to five times less likely to fail than those without the caps.

• County might opt out of civil service   Escambia County commissioners want to pursue opting out of the civil service board system by October

• Elder affairs chief investigates senior services - TALLAHASSEE - Florida's chief of elder affairs, under pressure to cut government spending, is trying to wrest control of senior citizen services provided by community agencies, accusing them of mismanagement and in some cases, outright fraud.

• Graham: Pahandle bases vital - PANAMA CITY- U.S. Sen. Bob Graham says he would support another round of base closings and believes Florida Panhandle installations would survive because they fill vital military needs

• Stricter tree laws are working well
  The saying that good things come to those who wait applies to Escambia County residents and officials who fought and won the battle for a stronger tree ordinance.- Now that it has been approved, the results indicate that the new tree ordinance is working quite well. - The tougher restrictions limit clear-cutting to areas zoned or taxed for agricultural use, and all areas must leave at least 10 trees per acre that are 6 inches in diameter or larger.

• Greenhouse gas pollution kills many, report says
  Nation Cleaning up the pollution could help immediately. WASHINGTON - More people are being killed by pollution from cars, trucks and other sources than by traffic crashes, researchers estimate in a report that says cleaning up would prolong the lives of thousands of people.

• Survey: One in 14 has asthma - ATLANTA - Nearly 15 million American adults - about one in every 14 - suffer from asthma, according to the government's first state-by-state survey of the respiratory disorder.

• Americans worry that Bush vacations too much - 
  WASHINGTON — News that by month's end President Bush will have spent more than four out of every 10 days of his presidency en route to or on vacation proves — once again — that his hero is former President Reagan. Reagan spent one full year of his eight-year presidency on vacation at his ranch in Santa Barbara, Calif.

• Blind faith in free trade  AUSTIN, Texas — The Mexican truck debate is a pip because it reveals so much about globalization and its attendant problems. I have a dog in this fight: I live nestled on the shores of I-35, the main route north from Mexico, and spend a lot of time driving up and down it. To say that NAFTA trucks are already a problem is like calling a dwarf short. Driving south from Waco Tuesday night, I counted over 300 of them stacked up in one traffic jam.

• Fruit Fungus Has Woman Fighting To Salvage EyeShe had the same fungal eye infection that is a common job hazard for migrant farmworkers, said Tampa ophthalmologist Steven Maskin, who treats several migrant workers each year for the disease.
  

8/16/01

• United Way leader to head state park system
  Wendy Mays Spencer, a Tallahassee United Way executive who has no work experience in parks, was named Wednesday to lead Florida's state park system.

• Graham keeps his eye on gubernatorial race
  Florida's senior Democrat says he's no "king-maker," but he thinks Gov. Jeb Bush is vulnerable, and he's talked to several of those considering running for the state's top job. 

• Minimal hurricane may be forming
  MIAMI - A new tropical depression formed Wednesday in the distant Atlantic, and forecasters said it could grow into a minimal hurricane by Saturday as it rolls through the Lesser Antilles along the rim of the Caribbean.

• Voter rights group sues over election reform
  MIAMI - A Florida voter rights group sued state officials Wednesday, warning that parts of an election reform law could return the state to its "Jim Crow" past.

• Bush cranks up the campaign cash machine - Gov. Jeb Bush's campaign for a second term will take a significant step forward today as dozens of supporters and fundraisers meet in Miami for an invitation-only strategy session featuring a direct pitch for hard money.

• Gov. Bush to host $10,000-a-head parley
  By Brian E. Crowley, Palm Beach Post Political Editor
  Getting in to see Gov. Jeb Bush at the Miami Airport Hilton today is more expensive than a front-row seat at a Madonna concert. Material Girl -- $250. (Scalper's price rumored as high as...)

• Make this boondoggle a bridge to nowhere - A few years ago, some bigshots decided that there ought to be a toll bridge from Port St. Lucie to Hutchinson Island and its popular beaches. No bridge was needed there, but it would handsomely affect real-estate prospects. Politicians cheered.

• Voter responsibility list hurts minorities, suit says
  By George Bennett, Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
  MIAMI -- A new law that requires the posting of a list of voter responsibilities at all Florida polling places amounts to an illegal "literacy test" that would discourage many minorities from...

• Proposal: Farms instead of sprawl
  By Bob Dart, Palm Beach Post Washington Bureau
  A bipartisan group of lawmakers from the cities and suburbs wants the federal government to help farmers stay in business rather than selling their land to developers. The House coalition has proposed...

• Jeaga were traders who salvaged shipwrecks
  By Alexandra Navarro Clifton, Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
  Five hundred years ago, a village of hundreds of native people thrived in what is now downtown Riviera Beach. The Jeaga people salvaged European shipwrecks off what is now Palm Beach County...

• Editorial: Commissioner Freeload
  The Palm Beach Post
  He's the state's full-time education commissioner (wink, wink), but Charlie Crist's real job is his campaign to become Florida's attorney general next year. Resigning from his education post might...

• The patronage game
  Charlie Crist, Florida's education commissioner, announced he would give a computer contract to a company that, along with its president, each contributed $500 to his attorney general campaign.

• Stand firm on rural land - Our position: Seminole County shouldn't give a second thought to easing development restrictions.

• Top-down school reform: Will it be Florida's folly?
  Rabid dogs. Foreign invaders. Alcohol abuse. Illegal immigration. Potholes. Cancer. Neighborhood crime. An inscrutable God.

• Country Must Help Itself First
  It isn't yet time to cry for Argentina.

• Angry Graham vows push to restore regents = TALLAHASSEE -- Describing himself as ''mad as hell,'' U.S. Sen. Bob Graham said he's committed to getting a citizens initiative passed in 2002 that would restore the Board of Regents.

• Minorities score lower on FCAT
  Department of Education show that minorities in Florida and Alachua County scored lower than their white counterparts.

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