Statewide Reports -August 18-24, 2002

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

8/24/02

• DCF: Regier authored earlier article condoning "the rod"
  TALLAHASSEE — Criticism of the state's new child welfare agency chief escalated Friday over his Bible-based views on women's roles in the family and spanking children. Jerry Regier was criticized by some women, including a Republican legislator, and Democrats for an article he wrote 14 years ago that condones "manly" discipline of children and says men have authority over their wives....
• DCF: Excerpts from the 1988 Jerry Regier article "The Not-So-Disposable Family"
  The following is excerpts from a 1988 article "The Not- So-Disposable Family" in Pastoral Renewal magazine authored by Jerry Regier, secretary of the state's Department of Children and Families....
• Protesters pick at past of DCF chief
  Democrats and women's groups continue their assault on Jerry Regier's views, as expressed in a 1988 article....
• Fretting about views when we need results
  .... He believes in spanking children. He does not believe in beating them until they are black and blue. And he doesn't see his personal beliefs as state policy....
• Regier's critics get new material-- Newly discovered writings by Gov. Jeb Bush's choice to head the state's child-welfare agency raised more questions Friday about whether Jerry Regier would impose his conservative Christian values on public policy.-- 
  The swirling controversy prompted Bush to issue his strongest defense yet of the 57-year-old Oklahoman, calling critics intolerant and guilty of "soft bigotry" against people of faith.-- 
  But a copy of a prologue to Values & Public Policy that Regier wrote in 1988 and obtained Friday by the Orlando Sentinel, argued that values are of critical importance in forming public policy.-- 
  "Policy-makers in the public arena as well as scholars in the research arena are products of the values they have formed over the years," Regier wrote. "These values reflect the political, educational, religious and cultural presuppositions which they have accepted as fact."...
• Bush: DCF chief's critics use `double standard'
  Gov. Jeb Bush charged Friday that critics of his new state child welfare chief -- a fundamentalist Christian who advocates corporal punishment -- are displaying ''bigotry'' and a ''double standard'' against people of faith....
• Regier's revelation: Another reason to pass on DCF nominee
  Florida's child-protection system is in a scandalous state of disarray and dysfunction. The last thing the state needs is a man who thinks the challenges facing this state can be solved with wedding gowns and birch rods. ...
• State attorney: DCF broke law
  Tarquez Woodson fit the profile of a child at risk and shoudn't have been left with his parents....
  • Controversial program espoused by Regier
  • Bush defends DCF nominee
  • Lawmaker criticizes reports defending DCF
• Task force to seek missing DCF kids
  A statewide task force aims to find the more than 400 children missing from the Department of Children and Families by Nov. 1, officials said yesterday after launching the program....
• Money would help school the poor
  Public schools face special challenges in educating poor, minority students. The population often comes to school with problems typical of a home-life mired in poverty, and are simply less prepared to learn than their rich, suburban counterparts. You would think these added troubles would translate into additional resources, but a new education funding study indicates just the opposite. In a majority of states, school districts charged with teaching low-income students are actually given less money per student, in some cases thousands of dollars less....
• Bush goes on offensive against Democratic underdog
  TALLAHASSEE — After a summer of refusing to talk about his Democratic opponents, Gov. Jeb Bush is attacking a potential opponent considered the underdog to Janet Reno in the Democratic gubernatorial race. Although Tampa lawyer Bill McBride has lagged behind the former U.S. attorney general in most polls, Bush is suddenly preoccupied with the prospect of having to face the Vietnam war veteran in November....
• Republicans continue swinging at McBride
  Lt. Gov. Frank Brogan reaches back more than a decade to criticize Bill McBride's law firm management....
• Brogan: McBride cut workers' benefits - The Bush campaign's attack also came at some peril, because Brogan was forced to defend the administration's own record of privatizing state services, eliminating hundreds of low-wage jobs during the past three years to save money. ... 
  Health-insurance premium increases for state workers this year cut into the 2.5 percent pay raises granted by Bush and the Republican-led Legislature. Bush drew criticism earlier for pushing a $262 million corporate income-tax cut even as state Medicaid benefits were trimmed. ...
  Brogan insisted there's "a vast difference between making public-policy decisions about how to streamline government, make it more efficient, more effective, and to plow that money back into improved services, versus making similar kinds of decisions so that money can be utilized to increase pay packages for some of the wealthiest members of the law firm." ...
• McBride's law-firm record attacked
  By Jim Ash, Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
  Lt. Gov. Frank Brogan accuses the Democratic gubernatorial candidate of placing the brunt of cuts on lower-level staff at Holland & Knight in 1989....
• Democrats pump cash into McBride
  Bill McBride is making a name for himself statewide with a financial boost...
• Let Dyer, Warner run to succeed Butterworth
  Palm Beach Post Editorial
  For all the attention the governor's campaign will receive, this race could have equally serious long-term ramifications....
• Voting reform in idle
  Palm Beach Post Editorial
  If only Florida's elections were run like Fox's 'American Idol' voting . . .
• Judge sets trial date if case can't be resolved
  TALLAHASSEE — The attorney handling the suit attempting to get Mary Barley off the Democratic primary ballot for agriculture commissioner said Friday that his client would drop the case immediately if she swears she signed her filing papers. If not, a Leon County judge will hear the case against the Islamorada developer and environmentalist next Friday....
• Barley best choice in state race
  Having Mary L. Barley's name on the Sept. 10 primary ballot for state agriculture commissioner is a pleasant surprise for Florida Democrats. ...
• Candidate must face questions about oath
  TALLAHASSEE -- Environmentalist Mary L. Barley will have to answer questions about the loyalty oath submitted with her paperwork when she became a Democratic candidate for state agriculture commissioner....
• South Florida Senate race full of nasty allegations
  TALLAHASSEE — The Democratic primary for a South Florida Senate seat has turned into a nasty affair, with accusations of money offered to get candidates to drop out, talk of bad business practices and a complaint about use of the "race card." Five Democrats are vying for District 39 covering southern Miami-Dade County, the Keys and a rural swath of Hendry, Collier, Broward and Palm Beach Counties....
• Judge delays start of voting suit as parties work to reach settlement
  MIAMI — A judge postponed the start of a civil trial over the 2000 election Friday to give attorneys for civil rights groups, the state and two Florida counties more time to reach a settlement. U.S. District Judge Alan Gold gave the parties until Tuesday morning to decide whether to settle the case and avoid trial, which was scheduled to begin Wednesday....
• Environmentalists Are Right To Seek Ditching Of Errant Law --
  A coalition of Florida environmental groups is seeking to overturn a state law that curtails citizens' ability to contest government decisions.
  The challenge is being made on technical grounds. The groups rightly say the law violates the Florida Constitution's single-subject rule, which states that two or more unrelated subjects can't be in one law.
  The slippery effort to muffle citizens' legal voice was tagged onto an Everglades restoration bill in the closing hours of the Legislature.
  This was typical of the bullying tactics of Sen. Jim King, who was determined to pass the measure. The Jacksonville Republican is scheduled to become the next Senate president. ...
• Beach access hidden, difficult
  PONTE VEDRA BEACH -- Charlotte Kolb has lived near Ponte Vedra Beach all her life. But enjoying the sand, sun and sea hasn't always been easy....
• Orange candidates: Take shot at managed growth
  Here are the facts of life in Orange County: Schools are crowded, roads are jammed and new subdivisions are replacing wildlife habitat at a breakneck pace....
• Hood rejects homeless plan
  Orlando Mayor Glenda Hood on Friday killed two controversial proposals that aimed to make downtown Orlando safer and friendlier to the arts.-- Hood had instructed the Orlando Police Department to create a cadre of "safety ambassadors" to patrol downtown. These citizens would have let police know via walkie-talkies if they saw homeless people lying on the sidewalk or others breaking the law. -- 
  Hood said she will table the idea until after her forum on homelessness at the Expo Center in early October. She said she is not interested in resurrecting it unless there is strong community demand.... 
• Bahrain Refuses To Take Al- Najjar
  Mazen Al-Najjar became a man without a country Friday, realizing what he once described as one of his worst fears. ...
• Health officials investigate salmonella outbreak at Disney
  ORLANDO — A salmonella outbreak at Walt Disney World sickened as many as 141 people, including visitors attending an athletic competition for organ- transplant recipients, health officials said Friday. Eighteen cases were confirmed by laboratory tests. However, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta estimates that 141 people from 32 states who attended the U.S. Transplant Games in late June may have gotten sick. ...
• Panhandle town getting $1 police cars, with advertising
  SPRINGFIELD — This Florida Panhandle town is getting new police cars for only $1 each, but there's a catch. The cars will be festooned with corporate sponsorship logos similar to those on race cars. City commissioners voted 4-0 Thursday to accept the deal with Charlotte, N.C.-based Government Acquisitions. ...
• Rare flower blooms in Florida
   Central American passionflower,
  
  

• Tampa federal Judge sides with Polk in school uniform challenge
  LAKELAND — There's nothing unconstitutional about requiring students to wear uniforms to public schools, a federal judge said in tossing out a lawsuit challenging Polk County's school dress code. The challenge was brought by more than 500 parents who opposed the district's 1999 order that students from kindergarten through eighth grade wear uniforms.
• Guest commentary: Academic freedom?
  John K. Wilson, who never worried about academic freedom in the universities when it was conservatives who were silenced, is now very afraid because, he believes, opponents of the war on terror are singled out for oppression. Well, the more recruits for liberty the better, no matter how late they decide to join the party.
• Guest editorial: Poor defendants, poor lawyers
  It is no secret that rich and poor defendants have vastly different experiences in the criminal justice system. What continues to shock, however, is just how raw a deal the poorest defendants get. A series of articles in The New York Times last year told of one New York lawyer who represented 1,600 poor clients at once.
• Guest editorial: A lesson about trade hypocrisy
  President Bush, who has talked a better free-trade game than maybe any U.S. president in either recent or not-so-recent history, lost virtually all his credibility on the issue when he raised tariffs to as high as 30 percent on imported steel.
• Guest editorial: Examining how the towers collapsed
  The Bush administration kicked off a vital two-year investigation this week of the factors that caused the World Trade Center towers to collapse last Sept. 11. It is a necessary follow-up to the initial six-month inquiry into the structural collapse, which was hobbled by a lack of resources and legal authority.
• Will corporate powder keg ignite a populist explosion?
  ...Traditionally, declaring class warfare has been an ineffective political strategy in America -- are you listening, Al Gore? Most Americans, rather than resenting the wealthy, aspire to one day share their lofty status. It's why this country's ever- widening division into two nations has had such little effect on Washington.--- 
  But Americans also have a deeply ingrained sense of fairness. The scandalous CEOs have pushed us too far -- and finally are reaping the whirlwind of public fury...
• FBI corruption costs more than credibility
  By George McEvoy, Palm Beach Post Columnist
  How do you compensate a man who spent 30 years in a federal prison for something he did not do? Especially when a judge has determined that the FBI knew all along that the man was innocent

8/23/02

• Boaters, fishermen asked to watch for terrorist activity
  Boaters can expect to see Operation On Guard signs, with the toll-free number, along the waterways from Key West to Fort Pierce and other parts of the state.  .... Boaters are asked to keep an eye out for: “suspicious persons conducting unusual activities; suspicious persons photographing/ making sketches; suspicious person loitering for extended periods; suspicious persons renting watercraft; unknown vendors attempting to sell/deliver merchandise; unknown persons asking detailed questions.”-- 
  Without an explanation of what a “suspicious person” is, Simon thinks it could lead to racial profiling.
• Regier authored earlier article condoning "the rod"
  The new head of Florida's child welfare system was the sole author of an article 14 years ago that condoned "manly" discipline called for in the Bible and said women should work at home, a newspaper reported Friday.-- 
  Jerry Regier argued for a restoration of family values based on "biblical norms" in the 1988 article, which is similar to one written a year later that Regier distanced himself from last week.
• Earlier Regier article had same message
  Florida's new child welfare chief, who denied last week writing a controversial 1989 essay that condoned spanking even if it produces bruises or welts, wrote another article for a magazine that encouraged the use of ''manly'' discipline, and quoted from the Bible: ``Smite him with the rod.''
  • Excerpt from Regier's 1988 article, 'The Not-So- Disposable Family'
• Bad things appear after you type nominee's name in Google
  It was supposed to send a message. The former head of the Department of Children and Families steps down after one embarrassment too many and the governor demonstrates decisiveness by hiring a replacement within 48 hours. 
• Regier's record skimpy on child-welfare work
  He isn't the reformer Florida crisis requires.
• Outgoing DCF chief honored by group
  Outgoing Department of Children & Families Secretary Kathleen Kearney said Thursday she would advise her successor, Jerry Regier, to "get a lot of rest" and keep an open mind.
• Civil rights groups, state negotiating settlement in voting suit
  MIAMI — A coalition of civil rights groups is negotiating with the state and Hillsborough and Orange counties in an attempt to settle a lawsuit over the disputed 2000 election before it goes to trial next week. The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and four other civil rights groups said Thursday that they have been negotiating with government attorneys.
• Palestinian professor deported for alleged ties to terrorism
  TAMPA — A Palestinian professor was deported to an undisclosed Middle Eastern country Thursday, one day after the university he formerly taught at filed a lawsuit seeking to fire his brother-in-law because it believes he has ties to terrorism. Mazen Al-Najjar left the country at 9 a.m., ending his seven-year legal battle to remain in the United States, according to his attorney, Joe Hohenstein.
• Al-Najjar in limbo as he heads to Bahrain
  Bahrain says it will not let the ex-USF instructor who had been jailed on secret evidence stay. He received a visa for "ordinary people" who want to visit.
• Al-Arian vows to fight lawsuit
  The USF professor denies alleged ties to terrorists and will seek a move to federal court.
• USF professor's relative deported -- TAMPA -- A Palestinian professor was deported to an undisclosed Middle Eastern country Thursday, one day after the university he formerly taught at filed a lawsuit seeking to fire his brother-in-law because it thinks he has ties to terrorism.... Al-Najjar is the brother-in-law of USF computer-science Professor Sami Al-Arian. USF President Judy Genshaft announced Wednesday that she intends to fire Al- Arian because of his alleged ties to terrorism. The school filed a lawsuit Wednesday that includes the termination letter university officials will send to Al- Arian if the courts rule that firing him would not violate his constitutional rights.
• Sharon postpones Florida visit
  MIAMI — Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has postponed his scheduled trip to Florida next month, but that decision has nothing to do with Democratic charges the visit's aim was to help Gov. Jeb Bush's re- election bid, a consulate spokesman said Thursday. Sharon was to visit Florida on Sept. 9, the day before a primary election for the Democratic candidate for governor.
• Sharon aborts Beach rally plans
  Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has canceled his September trip to Miami Beach, avoiding the scorn of Democrats who accused him of meddling in the Florida governor's race.
• Bush: State doing more business with minority firms
  TAMPA — State spending with minority- owned businesses increased 24 percent in the past year, and Gov. Jeb Bush said it's further evidence that his One Florida initiatives are working. The state spent $682 million with certified minority- owned businesses in the fiscal year ending June 30, up from $549 million the previous year, according to Bush's office.

• Photo by: COLIN HACKLEY

  Bush, GOP On McBride's Tail To Bill Him As Tricky, Vague TALLAHASSEE - Having selected his running mate, Gov. Jeb Bush is trying to choose his opponent. Bush, who faces no opposition for the Republican gubernatorial nomination, is attacking Tampa lawyer Bill McBride with increasingly aggressive TV ads and publicity stunts in a move designed to help former U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno. ...

• Protestor steals spotlight from McBride
  Bill McBride was briefly upstaged by a Gov. Jeb Bush supporter in a yellow duck suit.
• McBride says GOP 'nervous'
  Democrat Bill McBride said Thursday that Gov. Jeb Bush and the Florida Republican Party "are getting nervous" about him overtaking Janet Reno next month.
• Bush agrees to 3 debates with Democratic opponent
  ORLANDO -- Gov. Jeb Bush has agreed to participate in three debates with his to-be-determined Democratic challenger, his campaign said Thursday.
• Grand jury to probe DCF role in custody dispute
  OKEECHOBEE — A grand jury will investigate whether state child welfare workers urged a boy to lie that his father sexually abused him, prosecutors said. Okeechobee County grand jurors will investigate that and several other complaints brought by Dennis Gaffney.
• Backlog case closed, and boy died
  Child welfare workers hurried investigations of Tarquez Woodson's abusive home, where he later died.
• The flip side of 'Motor Voter Act' isn't so pretty
  I've been known to rail against the Republicans on occasion. Today, it's the Democrats' turn.
• State universities struggle with enrollment boom
  ORLANDO — At the University of Central Florida, the road to enlightenment is often gridlocked. "Going across the street takes you 40 minutes," said engineering student Carlo Rivera, who lives at the Knight's Krossing residence hall complex next to UCF. "It's crazy."
• Living-wage advocates add moral focus ... "We're the richest country in the world, and this is one of the richest communities. No one should live in poverty," said the Rev. Fred Morris, a leader of the local living-wage movement and director of the Florida Council of Churches. The fact that hundreds of employees working under contract for Orange earn wages that, for a family of four, place them under the federal poverty line "is immoral," Morris said.
• Editorial: Immokalee
  A fledgling community cleanup project in Immokalee goes by the clever name of Weed and Seed. First we weed out the bad element, namely crime, then we sow the seeds of good — law and order, safe streets and community pride. Some residents say the initial crackdown by sheriff's deputies, making drug and prostitution arrests, is too harsh.
• Rookie's mistake blew transformer
  With the flick of the wrong switch, an unsupervised power-plant apprentice melted down a $584,410 transformer, Lake Worth investigators say.
• Lake Okeechobee bottom plants recovering
  WEST PALM BEACH — Bottom plants that nurture fish are sprouting again in Lake Okeechobee, providing more evidence that the lake is recovering from ecological damage caused by high water before the 2000-01 drought. Scientists at the South Florida Water Management District found 43,000 acres of shrimp grass, eel grass, pepper grass, hydrilla and other bottom-growing plants last month in a survey of 368 spots along the lake's fringes.
• Guest commentary: An answer to wildfires
  As the 2002 fire season turns into one of the worst ever — with no prospect of matters improving soon — it is easy to wonder whether there is any solution to the fire crisis confronting the nation's public lands. Fortunately, there is. It is called "restoration forestry" — but to understand it, we will have to do away with some misconceptions.
• Guest editorial: Global court — A fresh reason to be for it
  If ever you doubt the sense in creating an International Criminal Court, think about this: What is the world to do when soldiers on the "right side" seem to have done something awful? Who can be trusted to seek justice? It happens, of course. In fact, new U.N. findings suggest it may have happened last year in Afghanistan.
• The president's slipping grip
  The Economist magazine -- which endorsed George W. Bush for president, and which stands almost alone among the European quality papers as a consistent friend to the United States -- headlined a recent article: "The Disappearing Presidency." Someone might want to boil those three words down to a length suitable for the president's attention span and stick it under his nose.
• We go solo against Iraq at our peril
  Here we are playing hawks and doves again on the matter on Iraq - war or no war? - with particularly peppy exchanges from our more excitable brethren on the right concerning "appeasement" and lack of patriotism on the part of anyone who isn't ready to nuke Baghdad now. Bubba and Joe Bob have a question: "Why don't we git Oh-sama Bin first?"

8/22/02

• Choices reveal the real Bush --A former state senator from Tampa, Grant was the sponsor of a bill that would have allowed the posting of the Ten Commandments in public schools and other public facilities.-- 
  Grant once attacked the University of South Florida for allowing Olympic gold medalist Greg Louganis onto its campus to speak. Why? Because Louganis is gay and his presentation, according to Grant, ``represents moral decadence and is an embarrassment to the university community.''-- 
  During his tenure in the Legislature, Grant wiped out state funding for a Tampa public radio station because he found its programming personally offensive. He even wanted to outlaw nude sunbathing.-- 
  On Monday, Jeb Bush appointed Grant to the Commission on Ethics.-- 
  And folks think Bush doesn't have a sense of humor....
• Democrats raise eyebrow at Sharon's upcoming visit to Florida
  MIAMI — State Democrats denounced Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's upcoming visit to Florida as a ploy to boost Republican support among Jewish voters one day before a crucial primary. Florida Democratic Party Chairman Bob Poe said Wednesday the visit appears to be an attempt by Sharon to gain favor with President Bush by helping his younger brother, Gov. Jeb Bush, in his campaign for re-election.
• Mary Barley shakes up race in agriculture
  Having Mary Barley run for state agricultural secretary is akin to having Phyllis Schlafly run for madam of the whorehouse.... Don't be fooled by the words Consumer Services in the title. The primary purpose of this agency is to promote, defend, subsidize and generally kowtow to the agricultural industry. ... If a Mediterranean fruit fly shows up in a trap, the Agriculture Department will send planes at taxpayer expense to dive-bomb cities with the pesticide malathion. If a health official complains because people are getting sick, the Agriculture Department will get those concerns erased from the report. That happened in 1999. ... Barley actually proposes that the whims of agriculture be balanced against the needs of the state for clean water, property rights and even public health.-- 
  For this, agriculture is branding her an extremist seeking the office to carry out a personal vendetta.-- 
  And all she really is suggesting is that they pay their own way and clean up their own pollution.
• Judge will rule on whether to take Democrat off ballot
  It's been pitched as the ideological matchup of the decade: environmentalist Mary Barley, champion of the Everglades, taking on rancher and Republican incumbent Charlie Bronson for the post of state agriculture commissioner.
• Patrols may report homeless
  Orlando is considering creating a cadre of civilian "safety ambassadors" to patrol downtown. They would let police officers know via walkie-talkies if they see homeless people lying on the sidewalk or others breaking the law.
• DCF chief: 'I'm here to stay'
  The new secretary answers his critics and vows to find missing children and run an open agency.
• DCF chief: `I plan to stay'
  Gov. Jeb Bush's nominee to head Florida's child-welfare agency stood defiantly Wednesday in front of his new offices, pledging that he would not heed Democrats' demands to step aside.
• New child welfare secretary: Missing children top priority
  TALLAHASSEE — The newly appointed child welfare secretary said Wednesday that finding missing children will be his first priority when he takes over the agency next month. Jerry Regier spent the day meeting with Department of Children & Families staff before meeting with Florida Department of Law Enforcement Commissioner Tim Moore to discuss tracking missing children.
• DCF head warms to faith groups
  The new child welfare secretary supported a character program with ties to a fundamentalist preacher.
• TALLAHASSEE: Altered time sheets lead to four arrests
  Four employees of the state Department of Education have been arrested by police for allegedly falsifying time sheets, said Scott Hunt, spokesman for the Tallahassee Police Department. Hunt said the department was notified in July that a DOE audit discovered several employees had been altering their time sheets. According to DOE officials, it appeared that the time sheets were being altered before they were sent to the payroll office - but after they were signed by supervisors. The employees either...
• Court hears arguments over Florida's death sentencing law
  TALLAHASSEE — With a dozen relatives of murder victims watching, the state Supreme Court grappled Wednesday with the question of whether Florida's death sentencing law violates defendants' right to a trial by jury. If the answer is yes, the sentences of 372 death row inmates could be invalidated.
• Victims' kin: Keep death penalty
  High court arguments to ditch death verdicts are met with pained outcries from murder victims' relatives.
• Election 2002: McBride criticizes Bush's school grading system
  MIAMI — Democratic gubernatorial candidate Bill McBride denounced Gov. Jeb Bush's system of grading public schools Wednesday, calling it a system of "phony accountability" that hurts children. McBride joined a group of teachers and administrators in front of Miami Edison High School, which received a failing grade on the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test last spring.
• Miami election officials rushing to teach voters touchscreen
  MIAMI — Without enough money to hold a mock election, Miami-Dade County elections officials bought newspaper ads to teach residents about the new touchscreen voting machines before next month's primary. A quarter-page ad appeared this week in The Miami Herald and El Nuevo Herald, its Spanish language counterpart, instructing voters how to operate the machines.
• Candidate for attorney general proposes medical crimes office
  Maddox targets prescription drug sales
• A state telecom referee in wrong role as player
  Palm Beach Post Editorial
  PSC chairwoman lobbies on behalf of BellSouth.
• Lightning strike kills farmworker
  Friends, co-workers blame Manley Farms for not allowing employees to take shelter from thunderstorm-- 
  Friends and co-workers say Uriel Hilario-Gonzalez would be alive this morning if his employers at Manley Farms had let him and the crew he was working with take shelter from an afternoon thunderstorm Wednesday. The 35- year-old father of two died after being struck by lightning in a field along Bonita Beach Road east of Bonita Springs. He was hit shortly before 3 p.m. during a thunderstorm that deluged parts of Bonita Springs for several hours. Manley Farms employees told Lee County Sheriff's Office investigators that Gonzalez died while running toward a vehicle to escape the storm along with other workers in the field
• Canker found on Cape Coral tree inspected twice
  Agriculture inspectors have found citrus canker on a residential grapefruit tree in the Gulf Coast city of Cape Coral, making Lee County the 14th in the state to be hit by the disease.
• Escambia corruption trial moving to Okaloosa
  PENSACOLA — The trial of a real estate agent charged with bribing one or more Escambia County commissioners is being moved to Okaloosa County in part because of extensive media coverage of the case. A judge Tuesday agreed to the change of venue sought by Joe Elliott, who sold the commissioners a former soccer complex for $3.9 million and a defunct car dealership for $2.3 million.
• USF President: Palestinian prof has terrorist ties, should be fired
  TAMPA — University of South Florida officials accused a tenured Palestinian professor of having terrorist ties and filed a lawsuit Wednesday asking a court to determine whether firing him would violate his free speech rights. The university filed a complaint for "declaratory relief" asking the courts to enter a judgment that its plan to fire computer science professor Sami Al-Arian would not violate his constitutional rights, USF President Judy Genshaft said at a campus news conference.
• Genshaft's inaction is louder than words
  For months we've waited for Judy Genshaft to act, and she finally has.
• USF sues for right to fire professor
  USF says it can prove that professor Sami Al-Arian has ties to terrorists and asks the court to determine whether firing him would violate his constitutional rights.
• USF's Dramatic Move Spawns Legal Debate
  TAMPA - The University of South Florida's overhauled case against Sami Al-Arian is a desperate act that puts the school in a clumsy position of proving a professor aided terrorists, his attorney said Wednesday. ...
• Lawsuit raises stakes for opponents
  TAMPA -- In moving the dispute with Sami Al-Arian into civil court, USF president Judy Genshaft has set up a possible legal dilemma for the suspended computer science professor.
• Activist’s Hispanic media award irks gay rights groups in Miami-Dade - With a critical vote on whether Miami-Dade County should keep its anti-discrimination protections for gay men and lesbians a few weeks away, the leader of an effort to repeal the law is the subject of a controversy involving Hispanic media figures and gay rights groups.
• Editorial: Stadium Naples case
  One person in the Stadium Naples case has been conspicuous by his absence from the list of key figures subjected to full investigation. That is Joe D'Alessandro, who led the first investigation that found no criminal wrongdoing in 1998 and later arrested two former Collier County commissioners only after evidence was placed in his lap in full public view.
• Guest editorial: New threats to clean water
  The environmental community and the Bush administration are at odds again, this time over proposed changes in a key part of the Clean Water Act. The changes would give states greater leeway in deciding which waterways need to be cleaned and how rapidly to do the job.
• Bush unveils wildfires plan
  The president is proposing that more logging in forests would help prevent wildfires.
• Guest commentary: Hey, we could lose in Iraq
  Can you believe it? We might soon launch an all-out war, and all with a minimum of national debate. Supersonic fighters taking off, missile launchers turning their turrets, soldiers shipping out. And preparing the battlefield with massive quantities of weapons and water, ammo and anesthetics, food and fuel . . . and body bags.
• Molly Ivins: 'Why don't we git Oh-sama Bin first?'
  AUSTIN, Texas — Here we are playing hawks and doves again on the matter on Iraq — war or no war? — with particularly peppy exchanges from our more excitable brethren on the right concerning "appeasement" and lack of patriotism on the part of anyone who isn't ready to nuke Baghdad now. Bubba and Joe Bob have a question: "Why don't we git Oh- sama Bin first?"
• Guest editorial: Sharing the evidence on Iraq
  The Bush administration has floated a succession of possible justifications for war with Iraq — Saddam Hussein's purported links with international terrorism, Baghdad's membership in a worldwide "axis of evil," Iraq's efforts to develop nuclear weapons. Few firm facts have been offered in support of any of these claims, but there have been frequent allusions to secret intelligence information that officials are unwilling to make public.
• Maureen Dowd: Coup de Crawford
  WASHINGTON — The plotters are meeting down at the Ponderosa Wednesday. They waited to huddle in Crawford until the flower child Colin Powell had gone up to the Hamptons, ensconced with the white-wine- swilling toffs scorned by the president.
• Bush's plan the wrong one for Mr. and Mrs. America
  President Bush's ballyhooed economic forum was all hype and no hope. Instead of a serious discussion of the nation's economic situation, it was a pep rally - a staged event with a tired-out script.
• Guest editorial: Judicial hypocrisy
  The Supreme Court's conservative justices say they practice judicial restraint and accuse their liberal colleagues of activism. But a conservative federal judge has just written a blistering book arguing that the court's conservatives are actually engaged in a huge power grab, under the banner of respect for the states, that seriously erodes the rights of ordinary Americans.
• Guest editorial: Extremely good news
  Democratic Rep. Cynthia McKinney has been perhaps the most extreme member of the House of Representatives, and so it is extremely gratifying that she has lost a Georgia primary with just 42 percent of the vote compared to the 58 percent garnered by her opponent.

8/21/02

• Top level worker placed on leave
  A memo urging a closer audit of a former Pinellas contractor brings swift suspension..... Her memo calls on the county to do a detailed audit of how Lockheed Martin IMS handled welfare clients during its short-lived welfare services contract with the county. The company terminated the contract last year and the county is being sued by Lockheed.
• Expert says Palm Beach's new voting machines are flawed
  WEST PALM BEACH — An elections systems expert hired by a man who lost a city election inspected Palm Beach County's new voting machines Tuesday and pronounced them flawed. Rebecca Mercuri, a computer science professor at Bryn Mawr College in Pennsylvania, tried out one machine and pored over accuracy test results from a March election in Boca Raton..... Mercuri says the machines should provide paper receipts so voters can be sure their ballots are cast. LePore said receipts invite even more trouble and would need to be carefully stored and hand-counted if questions arise about an election.
• Touch-screen error exposed
  If the names of two candidates are selected, a third name can be registered. 
• Screaming evidence
  Last week, the Florida Home Builders Association paid the Florida Elections Commission a $40,000 fine to settle claims that builders' groups in Central Florida laundered campaign contributions to help developer- friendly...
• Redistricting Brings New Primary Colors
  TALLAHASSEE - To state lawmakers, you're blue or you're red. Nothing else matters.  ... But the abstract game of lassoing blue and red neighborhoods becomes reality Sept. 10, when voters might realize for the first time that the lawmakers they've grown used to have been yanked away in the name of political gain ... The results are largely in: Most elections this year are afterthoughts as heavily red or blue districts leave little realistic chance for the other party.  ... ``It's very disappointing,'' she said. ``We're the voters. We know who we've voted for in the past and who we feel we can trust. But it's the state Legislature that did all the redistricting. We had nothing to say about it.'' 
• Attorney general, governor say Harris' actions were valid
  TALLAHASSEE — The actions taken by former Florida Secretary of State Katherine Harris in the days before she resigned were legally proper, lawyers for Gov. Jeb Bush and Attorney General Bob Butterworth said Tuesday. 
• Harris' 'de facto' acts cleared
  The secretary of state's actions after she disqualified herself and before she was replaced were legal.
• Question persists: Did she sign oath?-- 
  An elections clerk raises additional questions about paperwork filed on behalf of a statewide candidate.
• Judge OKs ballot measure on tax exemption panel
  TALLAHASSEE — A ballot question that would set up a special legislative panel to review, and possibly eliminate, any of the myriad of sales tax exemptions can go before voters Nov. 5, a judge ruled Tuesday. Lawyers for a group of businesses that oppose the measure had challenged it, arguing it was misleading to voters.
• Court to consider constitutionality of death sentencing law
  TALLAHASSEE — Attorneys for two condemned inmates will attack Florida's death penalty law Wednesday before the state Supreme Court, which will later issue decisions that could affect all 372 inmates on the state's death row.
• Condemned men: Sentences not valid  TALLAHASSEE -- Two death-row inmates today will ask the state Supreme Court to throw out Florida's death-penalty law, arguing that it violates a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that gives juries the sole authority to impose a death sentence.-- 
  Since the high-court decision on June 24, Florida executions have been put on hold, and capital murder trials have come to a near-standstill. Meanwhile, the fate of 372 inmates sentenced to death could hinge on what the Florida court does next.
• A lack of credibility
  If DCF wants to restore credibility, it needs to be far more open.
• DCF pick has Bush campaign on guard
  Political advisers are watching to determine whether Jerry Regier's appointment is harming the governor's reelection campaign.
• To save kids, help the caseworkers
  Nearly five years ago, while campaigning for Florida governor, Jeb Bush called a news conference to talk about the plight of Florida's abused and neglected children.
• GOP can't win many friends with this man-- Florida Republican leaders could have done much better than Edison Misla Aldarondo when choosing a poster child for their campaign to lure Hispanic voters. -- Manuel Noriega, perhaps?-- Misla Aldarondo, former speaker of Puerto Rico's House of Representatives, was charged last week with drugging and raping a 17-year-old girl in his home.
• McBride says Bush re-election effort 'desperate' with TV ads
  COCONUT CREEK — Democratic gubernatorial candidate Bill McBride said he was buoyed Tuesday by a new blitz of state Republican Party advertising targeting him this week, calling it a sign of desperation by Gov. Jeb Bush's re-election campaign
• McBride ad strikes back at Bush
  The Democratic candidate's counterattack is against a spot criticizing how he ran his law firm.
• McBride counters Republican ad
  Democratic gubernatorial candidate Bill McBride sought to turn a negative Republican Party advertisement to his advantage Tuesday, quickly countering with his own ad in which he says Gov. Jeb Bush has singled him out for attack ``because he knows I'd be the toughest Democrat to beat.''
• Public vs. private on beach access
  PONTE VEDRA BEACH -- About 150 people gathered last night to talk about beach access -- or the lack of, depending on who you ask.
  At last night's meeting, some Ponte Vedra Boulevard residents said they have adequate access and don't want parking allowed on the street to encourage people from outside the area to come to the beach.-- 
  But others who don't live in Ponte Vedra Beach said they'd like beach access increased because they have just as much right to enjoy the beach as those who can afford to live on it.
• Environmental groups sue to stop expansion of mining-- 
  The Army Corps of Engineers ignored years of warnings and criticism — and four federal laws — in approving rock mining permits across 5,000 acres of sensitive Everglades wetlands, claims a federal lawsuit filed Tuesday. Three environmental groups filed the suit in U.S. District Court for the Washington, D.C., circuit in an attempt to have those permits revoked.
• Environmentalists sue Army engineers to stop expansion of mining in Everglades
  WASHINGTON — Three environmental groups sued the Army Corps of Engineers on Tuesday to overturn a decision that would allow continued limestone mining in 5,409 acres of the Florida Everglades for the next 10 years. Environmentalists say the permits endanger drinking water and harm a $7.8 billion federal effort to revive the expansive wetlands area.
• Groups try to halt Everglades mining
  A lawsuit says the work will destroy water flow and drive out endangered wood storks.
• Army Corps sued over Glades mining
  Two federal agencies have turned a blind eye to a billion-dollar rock-mining industry that is degrading the Everglades' ecosystem and South Florida's water supply, according to a lawsuit filed Tuesday by three national environmental groups.
• Giant grasshoppers again plaguing central Florida
  ORLANDO — An agricultural plague has descended on central Florida this summer. Four-inch-long grasshoppers, immune to conventional pesticides once they're grown and too toxic to be eaten by natural predators, are swelling in numbers due to a dry winter and a return to normal rainfall this summer.
• State removes obstacle to restoration of Broward beaches - State wildlife officials lifted their objections Tuesday to Broward County's beach restoration project after deciding the work will not damage the feeding area of young sea turtles as much as they first thought.
• Prosecutor wants jail for convicted Escambia commissioner
  PENSACOLA — A prosecutor wants suspended Escambia County Commissioner Terry Smith sentenced to 60 days in jail for violating Florida's open-government "sunshine" law. Smith was convicted last month on two counts. He was accused of having illegal private conversations about public business with another suspended commissioner, former Florida Senate President W.D. Childers.
• Critics complain nursing homes spending money on political ads
  TALLAHASSEE — A nursing home industry group has pumped more than $150,000 into ads for state legislative candidates this year — money that critics say could be better spent on caring for patients.
• 4th gay rights law foe charged with fraud in signature drive - ... Busse was charged with illegally using her commission as a notary to notarize her own signature. The charge, a third- degree felony, carries a possible prison sentence of five years.-- 
  Busse's arrest follows three others last week, including that of Anthony Verdugo, the head of the county's Christian Coalition. Assistant Polk County State Attorney John Aguero filed formal charges Monday against Verdugo, 40, Ralph Patterson, 76, and a 17-year-old the South Florida Sun-Sentinel is not identifying because he is a juvenile.
• Mica urges state to ban semis from interstate's rush hours
  ORLANDO — In an effort improve highway safety. U.S. Rep. John Mica wants the state to ban tractor-trailers from Interstates 4 and 95 during rush hours.
• State OKs an Allstate homeowner rate raise - Florida homeowners insured by Allstate Insurance Co. will see their premiums rise an average of 15.7 percent starting in November, though most Central Florida policies will increase less than that.
• Decision on Al-Arian due today
  If USF fires him, he will be among only a handful of tenured professors in the nation dismissed each year.
• USF Redefines Al- Arian Case
  TAMPA - The University of South Florida today will change its plans for firing Professor Sami Al- Arian in two significant ways, formally accusing him of terrorist ties and asking a court whether its case would violate his right to free speech.  ..
• Kindergarten test: Cautious use of standardized assessment
  The first day of kindergarten is always rough for somebody. Sometimes it's the howling 5-year-olds who can't be dislodged from their deathgrip around a parent's knee. Sometimes it's Mom or Dad getting misty-eyed as their child races into the classroom with nary a backward glance. 
• Papp recommended to lead state's four-year colleges
  ORLANDO — Daniel S. Papp, a senior vice chancellor in Georgia's postsecondary education system, is a state panel's choice to lead Florida's four-year universities. A review team from the Florida Division of Colleges & Universities chose Papp over two other candidates after the finalists were interviewed Tuesday.
• Bush selects FAMU trustees
  Gov. Jeb Bush on Tuesday appointed two business executives to the Florida A&M University board of trustees.
• State signs deal to privatize state personnel work
  TALLAHASSEE — The state Department of Management Services said Tuesday it signed a seven-year $280 million contract with Convergys Corp. to run some of the state's personnel work.
• Guest editorial: An education on welfare
  The opposition of the Bush administration to proposed education changes in a Senate welfare reform bill is surprisingly shortsighted. The White House is determined to make the sweeping 1996 welfare law even tougher by lessening any leeway used by states to match programs with particular needs — including higher education. That's unfortunate because the case-by-case strategy is working."Some people could spend their entire five years ... on welfare going to college," sniped Mr. Bush. "Now that's not my idea of helping people become independent, and it's certainly not my view of understanding the importance of work."-- 
  Critics might contend a man who was born to wealth, and whose own work ethic has provided ample fodder for discussion, simply doesn't understand the struggle of the extremely poor to improve their lot.
• The un-slap heard 'round the world
  'You know, some days I get so frustrated I just want to go up to the closest black person and say, 'You can't understand this, it's a white thing,' and then slap him, just for my mental health."
• 'In this nation of laws ... we have a police state in the making'
  We are fighting a war against terrorism to defend American values of truth, liberty and justice. That's how President George W. Bush sold this war to us after the horror of Sept. 11.
• Paul Krugman: The real thing
  Don't tell, maybe they won't ask. That was the message of a July memo from an official at the Department of Veterans Affairs, posted by Joshua Marshall at talkingpointsmemo.com. Citing "conservative OMB budget guidance" for spending on veterans' health care, the memo instructed subordinates to "ensure that no marketing activities to enroll new veterans occur within your networks." Veterans are entitled to medical care; but the administration hopes that some of them don't know that, and that it can save money by leaving them ignorant.
• Bush to Propose Easing Logging Rule-- 
  Keywords: timber industry, federal rules, environmental appeals

8/20/02

• Ex-technology chief back in court:
  Roy Cales, the state's former technology chief who quit last year after being charged with felony theft and forgery, was back in a courtroom Monday. His attorney, Stephen Dobson, asked Circuit Judge Tom Bateman to toss out a piece of evidence that prosecutors say links Cales to the crime. Cales is accused of using a forged letter to secure a loan from Farmers and Merchants Bank in 1996, three years before taking the state job. He has pleaded not guilty. Dobson argued that the letter is an unclear photocopy and that the original cannot be found, but he also said there's "no proof that (Cales) authored, prepared or signed" the document. The state's evidence rules prefer original documents. Bateman is expected to rule by Wednesday.
• Regier 'crisis' falters when facts known
  The attacks against Jeb Bush's choice to head the state's child-welfare department, Jerry Regier, show what you get by mixing an incomplete news story and nasty politics.
• DCF chief still under fire
  By S.V. Date, Palm Beach Post Capital Bureau
  Bush's spokeswoman said Jerry Regier's decision to cut ties to a Christian group is what's important.
• Saga of DCF: Bush should cut his losses
  Gov. Jeb Bush must heal himself when it comes to the self-inflicted political wound he incurred in naming Jerry Regier secretary of Florida's Department of Children & Families. He's the latest in a long line of administrators named by governors of both parties and over many years to take on a thankless and nearly impossible job: helping ensure the fundamental safety and welfare of Florida's aged, helpless and very young.
• Regier in for tough time by Senate
  The man picked by Gov. Jeb Bush to head Florida's child welfare agency will face a thorough grilling by a skeptical Senate as questions persist about his evangelical Christian beliefs, the incoming Senate president said Monday.
• Bush adds three members to DCF panel
  TALLAHASSEE — Gov. Jeb Bush appointed three new members Monday to a panel studying problems at the state's child welfare agency in an effort to add diversity to the group. H.T. Smith, a lawyer and an advocate in Miami's black community; Nestor Rodriguez, executive director of Voices For Children Foundation, Inc.; and foster parent Juli Millsap from Miami-Dade County were added to the Blue Ribbon Panel on Child Protection.
• DCF officials say Panhandle free of mishandled cases
  PENSACOLA — Problems with missing children and mishandled cases that have plagued the Department of Children & Families in South Florida have not materialized at the opposite end of the state, agency officials say. The department's District 1, based in Pensacola, is responsible for four Florida Panhandle counties: Escambia, Santa Rosa, Okaloosa and Walton.
• DCF starts using new equipment to track children
  MIAMI — Florida's Department of Children & Families is using new machines to help identify and track children under its care. The 19 suitcase-sized machines scan and digitize fingerprints and photos, plus record children's personal information. The machines are currently in use in Miami-Dade and Monroe counties.
• Endangered credibility: Florida, U.S.too slow with sea cow protections
  If manatees were vengeful creatures, Gov. Bush and President Bush would have to watch their backs. 
• New contract to privatize personnel duties
  In the biggest privatization move of Gov. Jeb Bush's administration, the state signed a seven-year contract Monday for Convergys Corp. to take over personnel functions.
• Whistleblower filed federal lawsuit
  TALLAHASSEE — A state personnel director sued Florida in federal court Monday alleging she was the victim of gender discrimination and suffered in a work environment hostile to women. Debby Minot has been director of human resources for the Florida state Board of Administration since 1999. She has been on paid leave since April.
• Suit accuses officials of harassing women
  The lawsuit also alleges unfair pay for women at the state Board of Administration.
• Minot speaks out against state agency in lawsuit
  The ousted personnel chief of Florida's pension-investment agency said in a federal lawsuit Monday that a "good old boy network" permitted discrimination against women and sexual harassment in her office.
• Jeb should lead, not intimidate
  Beat amendment with pledge to lower class sizes.
• Election 2002: McBride ads hit airwaves in South Fla., Reno makes I-4 push
  MIAMI — Democratic gubernatorial hopefuls Bill McBride and Janet Reno sought support outside of their home bases Monday, looking to boost their campaigns three weeks before the primary. McBride, a Tampa lawyer, became the first Democrat to be featured in a series of television advertisements in South Florida, a move calculated to raise his name recognition in voter-rich Broward and Miami-Dade counties. The 30-second spots, paid for by the Florida Education Association's Quality Public Education Corp., touts McBride's background as the former managing partner of the state's largest law firm and discusses his endorsement by the union.
• Election 2002: Tampa Tribune endorses McBride, citing education proposals
  TAMPA — The Tampa Tribune has endorsed gubernatorial candidate Bill McBride for the Democratic primary, saying the attorney and ex-Marine is a proven leader who will focus on state issues. The paper was the first in the state to endorse a gubernatorial candidate. The Tampa attorney faces former U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno and state Sen. Daryl Jones of Miami in the Sept. 10 Democratic primary. The Democrats want to oust Republican Gov. Jeb Bush in November.
• GOP turns tough ad on McBride
  Bill McBride may be trailing well behind Janet Reno in the Democratic gubernatorial primary, but the state Republican Party isn't taking him for granted.
• GOP goes on attack against McBride -- TALLAHASSEE -- The Republican Party, airing the roughest TV ad of the governor's race, is attacking Democrat Bill McBride as a "reckless" corporate lawyer playing tricks with campaign-finance laws.
• GOP airs ads to slow surging McBride
  By Brian E. Crowley, Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
  Fearing that Bill McBride could slip past Janet Reno, the Florida GOP began airing a hard-hitting new ad.
• Republicans target McBride in ad attack
  The state Republican Party began an unusual political tactic Monday when it sought to influence Democratic voters by airing a television attack ad that singles out Bill McBride.
• Reno takes her campaign to the pivotal I-4 corridor
  The Democrat makes her pitch, without specifics, for health care, smaller class sizes, teacher pay, and fiscal responsibility.
• Double standard for Democrats about churches
  For years, Gov. Jeb Bush has captured the hearts of conservative, church-going people. That's no secret.
• Gay vote gains more importance due to ballot
  As Florida's gubernatorial race hurtles toward the Democratic primary in September and candidates scramble to shore up support among traditionally Democratic constituents, gay and lesbian voters are emerging as a key group to woo.
• City Quietly Watches County's Public Access TV Debate
  TAMPA - Mayor Dick Greco and the Tampa City Council say programming on public access television is a problem. ...
• Imprisoned unfairly in the land of the free
  These are not good days for asking people to look at the bigger picture. Since Sept. 11, we have been shaped by the narrow lenses of our fears. We see enemies everywhere.
• Palestinian held in Tampa secret evidence case to be deported - A Palestinian imprisoned twice for immigration violations and suspected terrorists ties will be released this week from a federal prison and deported to a country in the Middle East, his attorneys said Monday.-- 
  Mazen Al-Najjar, 45, has been held since November on a deportation order for overstaying his visa, which was issued 20 years ago.-- 
  Al-Najjar, who has never been charged with a crime, has been held in solitary confinement at the federal prison in Coleman in central Florida since November 2001.
• Ex-official: Al-Arian had roots in jihad
  TAMPA -- A former senior CIA counterterrorism official who has spoken in support of Sami Al-Arian said in a recent court deposition that the controversial University of South Florida professor helped create the Palestinian Islamic Jihad.
• Around the state
  Former state Sen. Grant named to ethics panel
• Twenty cities say new state law violates constitution
  TALLAHASSEE — Twenty Florida cities sued the state Monday over a law that forces them to pay workers' compensation benefits to police or firefighters who suffer from hypertension or heart disease even if their medical condition is unrelated to their jobs. The Florida League of Cities pointed to a claim from a 37- year-old firefighter who suffered a heart attack five minutes after having sex with his wife as something cities shouldn't have to pay for. The suit targets wording in the law that presumes the injury or impairment would have been suffered in the line of duty.
• Health officials report meningitis outbreak in Lee-- 
  In an office decorated with family photos and cluttered with medical books, the rise of a dangerous and often deadly bacteria is being tracked, pin by pin, on two cardboard maps. The office belongs to Dr. Judith Hartner, director of the Lee County Health Department. The maps, leaning against a bookcase, are of Fort Myers and are covered with blue-headed pins — each one a confirmed case of bacterial meningitis.
• Armstrong recommended to lead Florida community colleges
  ORLANDO — J. David Armstrong Jr., interim director of the Florida Community College System, is a state panel's choice to get the job permanently. A review team from the Division of Community Colleges chose Armstrong over two other candidates after the finalists were interviewed Monday.
• Ex-stockbroker pleads no contest to swindling clients-- 
  A former stockbroker- turned-informant pleaded no contest Monday to ripping off his customers at Prudential Securities of more than $650,000. The broker, Michael Lara, has said he stole from his clients to discredit himself because he feared testifying against his former mob- linked employer, A.S. Goldmen & Co.
• Power in numbers
  When other corporate overseers fail to do their jobs, the officials who control huge pension funds can work together to bring pressure for needed reforms.
• Will the corporate powder keg ignite a populist explosion?
  When I logged on to AOL to check my e-mail last week, I was more than a little surprised to find myself confronted not with one of those annoying pop- up ads for a cheap subscription to Teen People but with the faces of three smiling men. The caption read: "The Greediest Execs of All: They made billions as investors lost big."
• Elvis hype was way overblown
  All the hoopla about Elvis Presley last week seems to me to have been largely wrongheaded because too many things were mixed up. Presley was an important cultural figure, but he was not an artist; he was an entertainer
• Bout with malaria provides new outlook on life
  Catching a life-threatening disease can be a life-changing experience. A month ago, I felt bad. That's the best way I can say it. I was at my father's wedding in New Jersey - he's 82 and a very hot ticket! - and something, I wasn't sure what, was wrong with me.
• Guest editorial: Mission creep in Colombia
  With about as much finesse as a county fair shell-game operator, the Bush administration last week took the occasion of Congress' summer recess to change the rationale for U.S. policy in Colombia. What had been an intervention targeted at drug traffickers was transformed into full-bore U.S. support for new Colombian President Alvaro Uribe's aggressive approach to that country's 38-year-old civil war.
• Guest editorial: Oily diplomacy
  The Bush administration, promiscuously invoking the war against terrorism, is using its influence inappropriately to assist an American oil company that has been sued for misconduct overseas. The intervention reinforces the impression that the administration is too cozy with the oil industry.
• Guest editorial: Taming the untouchable corps
  There are not many issues that the liberal Tom Daschle of South Dakota and the conservative Robert Smith of New Hampshire agree on. But when Congress reconvenes, these two senators, along with the campaign finance mavericks John McCain and Russell Feingold, are determined to challenge the self-interest of many of their colleagues by instituting a top-to- bottom overhaul of the Army Corps of Engineers.
• Claim of secrecy invalid on decision about Iraq
  President Bush has no monopoly on intelligence.
• Anti-Saddam dissidents take over Iraqi Embassy in Berlin
  BERLIN -- A new Iraqi dissident group said it occupied the Iraqi Embassy in Berlin on Tuesday and called for the overthrow of the country's leader, Saddam Hussein. Police moved in force to the embassy and sealed off the street around it.

8/19/02

• Leader of Christian group contradicts new DCF chief
  MIAMI -- The new head of the state's child welfare agency severed his ties with a Christian group several years after it issued a paper that promotes spanking and demeans women, the group's president said.-- 
  ...Regier, who is listed on the paper's cover page as co- chairman of the group, said in a statement Friday that he severed his ties with the organization about a year after the paper was published because of the group's extreme interpretations of the Bible.--- 
  But Jay Grimstead, president of the Coalition on Revival, told the Miami Herald for a Sunday story that Regier left the group sometime around 1994 or 1995, politely declining to take part in another project because he had taken a high- level government job in Oklahoma.-- "He told me in a friendly letter that he was now working for the government, and from my recollection, that it was best for him to disassociate himself from the group. He expressed concern as to how others would view his involvement in such a group," ...
• Team Bush takes a tumble with new appointee
  The usually smooth political machine of Gov. Jeb Bush has stumbled a few times in the past, but this is a doozy of a pratfall.
• Panhandle child neglect coverup?
  Department of Children and Families secretary Kathleen Kearney, who abruptly resigned last week, was criticized, and rightly so, for resisting outside review and cultivating an atmosphere intimidating to potential whistleblowers. But would DCF really go so far as to mislabel the cause of a child's death in order to avoid having to answer for failures in its investigation? Floridians deserve an answer in a disturbing case from the Panhandle -- and some assurance that what looks and smells like a coverup isn't.
• DCF keeps identities of missing children secret - Any of the more than 500 children missing from Florida's child-protection system could be living next door or down the street, but there would be no way for you to know.-- The Department of Children & Families contends that confidentiality, intended to protect the identity of abused and neglected children, also applies when they are missing. The agency has repeatedly denied requests to identify children missing from its care.--- 
  That means the state loses a valuable tool in finding children: help from the public. Photos of missing children on billboards and postcards often generate tips that lead to the recovery of youngsters, but DCF doesn't use those methods.
• Differences in Reno, McBride emerging
  Janet Reno, alone except for her driver, parks her small red pickup in front of the Windsor senior apartment complex on Beach Street. 
• 7 add color to race for governor
  Some drive to campaign stops in old jalopies, most speak to sparse crowds and one has a really weird campaign slogan: "Vote Vermin."
• Tact, honesty are key when changing jobs
  After the elections, there will be a lot of people changing jobs in state agencies. Some of them already know it. If your boss is not running again, because of term limits or abolition of an office, chances are you've already made some plans.
• Al-Najjar finds a home abroad
  An unidentified country will accept the former USF professor after he gains travel documents from the Palestinian Authority.
• The homebuilders case
  The prosecutor's office is rightly probing possible criminal violations.
• 93 students make up inaugural class for FAMU law school
  Florida A&M University's law school is back in business after a 34-year hiatus. Sixty-two full-time and 31 part-time students start classes next week. Although the students reflect a diverse population, for many there is a common bond. Like Robert Fields, many are there to rekindle a dream deferred....
• Kindergarten students to be tested for learning readiness
  Starting this year, more than 200,000 children in public kindergarten will be assessed in a statewide test to determine their readiness to learn. No students will be bumped or held back because of the new assessment, which some educators are calling the "baby FCAT" after the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test given to students in grades three through 10....
• Voucher advocate takes top post
  A Tampa businessman is named president of Children First America, a school choice group....
• Around the State
  Florida judo team subdues carjacker in California...
• Window for hackers -- Armed with a $75 wireless Internet card and a $50 antenna, he can break into computer networks in businesses, schools, even peoples' houses. As wireless computer networks slowly spread across the country, he says, hacking is getting easier and easier.
• Casselberry moves closer to buying out Florida Power -- Casselberry is closing in on becoming possibly the first Florida city in generations to buy out a power company's assets. ... 
  Supporters say buying out Florida Power would free the city from the whims of an investor-owned monopoly and possibly cut electric bills
• 10 years after Hurricane Andrew
  Ten years ago, Hurricane Andrew ravaged South Miami- Dade and reshaped all of South Florida. It killed at least 40 people, altered hundreds of thousands of lives and accelerated the development of Southwest Broward.
• Hurricane evacuation procedures evaluated
  The one area of hurricane response that remains under continued debate is evacuation of threatened areas. During Hurricane Andrew, South Florida residents clogged I-95 as they attempted to flee, causing massive traffic jams. The same thing occurred in 1999 during Hurricane Floyd - for a storm that wound up only lightly touching Florida.
• Sugar's bow comes early
  Cane growers dumping less pollution in Everglades, but still too much.
• Wild birds fall prey to West Nile virus
  They die unseen in great numbers throughout the nation's woods and forests. Some die on farms as helpless owners watch in grief. The onslaught of West Nile virus is taking a terrible toll on the nation's animals — especially its birds. Biologists and veterinarians, worried about the impacts on humans and animals, are searching for clues that could eventually help protect and treat both....
• Medical records could be even safer  ...  the Bush administration abandoned what patients' rights and consumer groups consider the heart of medical privacy - - that health-care providers obtain written consent before disclosing patients' personal information. Instead, a doctor or hospital need only "notify" a patient of his or her rights and make "a good-faith effort to obtain a written acknowledgement."
• Fighting the wrong budget war Like some of America's biggest corporations, the U.S. government has been forced to revise its ledger recently. The results, which show that the 10-year $5.6 trillion surplus foreseen two years ago has mostly disappeared, have propelled President Bush into a budgetary conversion. He is suddenly a scourge of wasteful federal spending. Indeed, he refused last week to spend a minuscule $5 billion appropriated by Congress for a grab bag of "emergency" items, angering lawmakers from both parties. "If Congress will not show spending restraint, I will enforce spending restraint," he said Saturday....These battles will be resolved in due course. The sums are not vast or consequential for the economy. The underlying strangeness of the fight is that Bush does not want to talk about the main reason for looming deficits: the tax cuts of last year. The administration's own budget numbers make clear that nearly 40 percent of the disappearing surplus is a result of the multiyear tax cut, with the remainder evaporating because of the economic downturn, increased spending and some accounting changes....
• Texas executes a foreigner
  An international treaty, signed and ratified by the United States, guarantees everyone arrested by a foreign government the right to seek help from the consular post of his own country. Yet Javier Suarez Medina, a Mexican national who killed an undercover policeman during a drug deal in 1988, was never told of this right — even though, Mexican officials say, he was carrying a green card. The officials say Mexico's consular office was repeatedly told that Suarez was not Mexican....
• Junior gets a spanking - 
  Tissue issues between the two Bush presidents spilled into public view on Thursday when that most faithful family retainer, Brent Scowcroft, wrote a jaw- dropping op-ed piece in The Wall Street Journal headlined "Don't Attack Saddam."...
• More in GOP warn about Iraq attack -- WASHINGTON -- President Bush on Sunday heard more cautionary words from within his own Republican Party about possible military action against Iraq, even as a presidential spokesman predicted that Americans and U.S. allies would support any U.S.-led drive to topple Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein.
• Bush folk singing a warlike tune
  All we are saying is give peace a... what? -- 
  "Give it a rest," is what Vice President Dick Cheney and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld seem to be saying. "We are marching on Baghdad."...
  The lads got President Bush to decree that Iraq needs a "regime change" -- which means "Saddam dead or alive." They are working on how to do it. And that's not all. Last week, the duo spoke to a group of émigré Iraqis, each of whom dreams of being the first dictator of Free Iraq, and said the United States insists on a democratic government to succeed Saddam.
  Imagine that.
  Is the man in the Oval Office an imposter? The George Bush the Younger who campaigned against Al Gore didn't decide who shall rule and who shall die. He walked humbly in his world. Asked, in the second debate in Winston-Salem, how he would "project us around the world," he replied:
  "I don't think they ought to look at us with envy. It really depends on how our nation conducts itself in foreign policy. If we're an arrogant nation, they'll view us that way, but if we're a humble nation, they'll respect us."... ...
• Wacko in Waco: The brunch Bushians drink the Kool-Aid
  At the behest of their charismatic leader, the cult members
  gathered in Waco, a hot, dusty town on the flat featureless central Texas plain. They had been summoned to hear an endless series of droning sermons from the leader himself and his fellow fanatics.
• Thomas L. Friedman: Fog of war
  A remarkable news article from Gaza appeared in The Washington Post last week, and it deserved more attention than it got. The article reported that for the past month, the 12 main Palestinian factions had been holding secret talks to determine the "ground rules for their uprising against Israel, trying to agree on such fundamental issues as why they are fighting, what they need to end the conflict and whether suicide bombings are a legitimate weapon."...

8/18/02

• Regier: I just want to do job
  Gov. Bush's nominee to run DCF said he'll help youths, not push a religious agenda. -- "One reporter said to me, 'This agency has spit out administrators for 25 years. Why would anyone want this job?' " Regier said. "My answer is that I believe I can provide some leadership and direction. I want to have the opportunity to work with Floridians, show them who I really am, and solve this crisis."
• DCF: Child welfare appointee in Florida already facing trouble
  MIAMI — Gov. Jeb Bush's appointee to head Florida's troubled child welfare agency is not even on the job yet and already the appointee, a former Oklahoma social services administrator and founder of a conservative Christian group, has come under fire. The latest controversy at the agency, the Florida Department of Children and Families, involves a 1989 religious essay which carries the name of Bush's appointee, Jerry Regier, on its cover.
• DCF: Jackson, Democrats blast Bush's pick to head DCF
  WEST PALM BEACH — The Rev. Jesse Jackson and other Democrats blasted Gov. Jeb Bush's nominee for child welfare chief Saturday, saying he should be fired for his ties to a paper that promotes spanking and demeans women. The Democrats, who called for state officials to search for a replacement for Jerry Regier, said Bush's actions bring another embarrassment to the troubled Department of Children & Families.
• Jackson blasts Bush's DCF pick
  By Brian E. Crowley, Palm Beach Post Political Editor
  The Rev. Jesse Jackson, speaking in West Palm Beach, calls the governor a 'captive of the Christian right.'
• Regier's record in Okla. is put under spotlight
  When Gov. Jeb Bush appointed a Broward judge with a passion for reform to overhaul his badly damaged child welfare agency, he promised to repair a system he said other politicians had left in shambles.
• Design test for students, not politics
  By Randy Schultz, Palm Beach Post Editorial Page Editor
  The Republicans in Tallahassee who dictate education policy should take advice from a Republican in Palm Beach County.
• Turn out state resources so ex-felons can vote
  Palm Beach Post Editorial
  Clemency backlogged as deadline approaches.
• Rights monitors to keep watch at state polls
  Voters and workers won't be the only people at Florida's polls during the Sept. 10 primary election, the first test of the state's new election system.
• Gubernatorial campaign a trail blazer
  The state senator has broken down many barriers, but his plans for change look unlikely to make him Florida's first black governor.
• Defining the issues
  Often on common ground, the Democratic candidates for governor diverge on taxes, guns.
• McBride's giving Reno a run until the end
  Even the relatively modest amount of TV commercial time the Florida Education Association bought for McBride appears to have made a big difference . . 
• McBride battles for recognition factor
  By Christine Evans, Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
  To challenge Gov. Bush, he must beat Janet Reno
• McBride Vows To Catch Up --TAMPA - Heading into the final three weeks before the Democratic primary for governor, Bill McBride says he has the momentum to overtake Janet Reno and become the challenger to Gov. Jeb Bush.
  Maybe. But does he have the time?
• Holy endorsement -- what price for churches in politics? 
  Last week, the Hispanic Christian Churches Association of Central Florida endorsed Republican Gov. Jeb Bush's re-election campaign. Last fall, the Republican Party of Florida contributed $10,000 to the same Hispanic Christian Churches Association.
• Times recommends: For attorney general
  State Sen. Buddy Dyer stands apart from his strong competition in the Democratic primary; for Republicans, Sen. Locke Burt seems the best prepared of the GOP contenders.
• McKay: King plans to change Senate staff
  INSIDE POLITICS Sen. Jim King won't take over the Senate for another three months, but he's already shaking up Senate staff. Last week, Senate President John McKay, who is retiring from the Legislature, let a handful of employees in the chamber's budget office know that King, R-Jacksonville, plans to replace them when he becomes president in mid-November, assuming he wins re-election.
• Sales-tax debaters hit below the belt
  Things got so out of hand at the first public debate on the proposed school sales tax that the moderator cut off speakers, killed microphones and banged her gavel in hopes of getting control.
• How many dominoes might fall?
  When a judge chopped down Florida's school- voucher program earlier this month using a 19th century provision in the state Constitution, officials suddenly grew nervous about what else those words could topple.
• Appeals court strikes down Tampa's juvenile curfew law
  TAMPA — A state appeals court has ruled that Tampa's juvenile curfew law is unconstitutional, reversing its earlier decision upholding the seldom-used law. The 2nd District Court of Appeal said Friday that the 1996 ordinance is too broad and puts innocent youngsters at risk of being charged.
• Tampa professor accused of terrorist ties awaits firing decision
  TAMPA — A pending decision over whether to fire a tenured Palestinian professor with alleged terrorist ties has put officials at the University of South Florida in the middle of free-speech advocates and anti- terrorism hardliners. Computer science professor Sami Al-Arian has been on paid leave since he made an appearance on a national television show shortly after Sept. 11. School officials initially said he was put on leave for his own safety, but now say his return would be disruptive to the campus. USF President Judy Genshaft's final decision is due sometime before fall semester classes begin Aug. 26. Either way, it will likely be controversial.
• Judge prods officials to report on manatees
  DAYTONA BEACH -- A judge ordered federal officials to list waterways where manatees are in danger in Florida and report on how these areas are being turned into emergency protection zones.
• Editorial Reply: Criticism of environmental agencies missed the mark
  Your newspaper's commitment to reporting on issues pertaining to threats to marine resources of Southwest Florida and the Keys is appreciated. However, The Ocean Conservancy must disagree with your conclusion that state and federal environmental agencies have shown a "lack of concern or even acquiescence" in the face of algae blooms, coral loss and last winter's blackwater event.
• Health advisories plague shores
  Sunscreen? Check. Cooler? Check. Beach towels? Check. And if you plan to swim at Shell Point or Mashes Sands in Wakulla County, you should also check the Florida Department of Health Web site.
• State tests I-4 evacuation plan
  In six hours, authorities can turn Interstate 4 into a one-way route. The plan works in practice, but some say it's impractical in a storm.
• Lawsuits, insurers pinch doctors on malpractice
  By Phil Galewitz, Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
  Rising premiums are forcing some physicians to stop performing high-risk procedures, quit, or go without insurance.
• Shower is top suspect in illness
  Go to your bathroom and unscrew the shower head, says Dr. David Ashkin, who is about to impart a most unwelcome piece of information.
• Washington Today: Emerging GOP tactic is to blame Clinton for all economic woes
  WASHINGTON — Blame everything on Bill Clinton. That's the long pass Republicans are throwing as the clock ticks toward the midterm congressional elections influenced by the sagging economy and corporate accounting scandals. "There's no question our economy has been challenged by a recession that was beginning when we took office," Bush told his Texas economic forum last week. He repeated the message as he took to the road to campaign for Republicans.
• Window for universal health care wasted
  TALLAHASSEE -- Bill Clinton's sex scandal will become a minor footnote in history, as did Thomas Jefferson's, Warren Harding's and Franklin Roosevelt's. Their fame -- or in one case, infamy -- owes to greater things. So will Clinton's. Clinton will be credited for showing that budget deficits can be turned into surplus. But that accomplishment, so casually erased by his successor, is dwarfed by Clinton's failure to establish a universal health care system.
• Sen. Feingold on campaign to hold Ashcroft to constitutional standards
  Russell Feingold was the lone Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee to vote in favor of confirming John Ashcroft as attorney general. In addition to feeling strongly that a president has the right to choose his cabinet, the Wisconsin liberal was comforted by Ashcroft's commitment to address the problem of racial profiling -- one of Feingold's areas of prime concern.
• Arab-American community reclaims rights - DEARBORN, Mich. -- The honed butcher knife in Munif Mawri's strong hands appears to cut through a thick lamb shoulder with even greater force as he reviews the degradations visited upon his family and friends in recent months.-- 
  "A lot of our people were unfairly singled out. You didn't see hundreds of white people grabbed off the streets and asked if they were accomplices of Timothy McVeigh after the Oklahoma bombings," the 23-year-old pharmacy student says as he carves lamb chops at the Southend grocery that his father, Nasser, has owned for three decades.
• U.S. a police state in the making-- We are fighting a war against terrorism to defend American values of truth, liberty and justice. That's how President George W. Bush sold this war to us after the horror of Sept. 11.-- 
  In those first days after The Reckoning, as a shocked nation grieved, the president held back tears and his lips quivered as he hung up the phone after check on recovery efforts in New York. "I'm a good guy," he said, and we believed him.-- 
  Americans of all creeds and backgrounds stood shoulder to shoulder. We had good and right on our side -- and yet some of us had healthy doubts about this war against enemies unknown.-- 
  As much as I lauded Bush, I wrote a few days after the attack that I feared this war on terrorism could turn into a war against the very rights that America's Founding Fathers fought to secure against tyranny. Now, almost a year later, my fears have proven to be a painful reality.
• U.S. Knew Iraq Used Gas In Iran War
  WASHINGTON - A covert U.S. program during the Reagan administration provided Iraq with critical battle planning assistance when U.S. intelligence agencies knew that Iraqi commanders would employ chemical weapons in waging ...

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