12/14/02

Kissinger Quits As Chairman of 9/11 Panel 

Kissinger goodbye
The former secretary of state's departure gives the independent commission investigating the Sept. 11 attacks a chance to bolster its credibility.
The Kissinger dodge
The White House and Henry Kissinger have a choice. Either Kissinger can continue to run his consulting business and keep the names of his clients secret, or he can take charge of the investigation into the government's handling of terrorism before Sept. 11 and sever his business ties. (earlier article)

Lawmaker files bill to re-vote class size issue 
TALLAHASSEE — A state senator filed a bill Friday seeking to ask voters next year to repeal the class size cap they passed in November. 
Sen. Anna Cowin, R-Leesburg, filed the bill (SB 134) calling for a special election next year asking voters to approve a repeal of the measure that caps the number of students assigned to each public school teacher. ... 
Damien Filer, a spokesman for the Coalition to Reduce Class Size, which got the measure on the ballot, said Cowin's attempt to undo it rather than come up with a way to make it work was disappointing. 
"It's ironic that we had to go to a citizen initiative process to address this problem because the Legislature refused to address it," Filer said. "Here's a legislator whose response is to try and undo the will of the people."

Let voters express will through instant runoffs
Palm Beach Post Editorial
State's election reforms make change possible. 

Oliphant axes top assistant Cantrell
Supervisor of Elections Miriam Oliphant has dismissed a top employee, raising questions about whether she violated a contract that gives Deputy Supervisor Joe Cotter broad authority over personnel matters. 

Lobbyists form group to improve their image
The Florida Association of Professional Lobbyists will guide new members on ethical behavior.

Maddox gaining support to become Democratic Party chair
TALLAHASSEE — Florida Democrats who were quarreling after their disastrous showing in the November election are regrouping around Tallahassee Mayor Scott Maddox to lead them. Maddox, a young, energetic politician with a gift for public speaking, is campaigning to replace Party Chairman Bob Poe, who announced plans this week to step down early next month. Maddox is increasingly winning over party leaders and is viewed as the front-runner. "He's impressed a lot of people with his energy level, his level of interest in rebuilding the party," said Senate Minority Leader Ron Klein of Boca Raton.

Democrats retreat into secrecy, obscurity
Since Republicans took over the Legislature in 1996, Democrats have had trouble learning how to be a minority. (Republicans haven't done all that well at being a majority either -- but that's a story for another day.)

Web site: Graham for president?
WASHINGTON -- Two years ago, Florida Sen. Bob Graham was often mentioned as a possible candidate for vice president. Now there's talk he might run for the top job.

Scolding closes a judicial career
Cynthia Holloway faces the state Supreme Court and receives a public reprimand. She is retiring from the bench.

Parents angry that teacher told students there's no Santa
CORAL SPRINGS — Much to the dismay of some parents, officials at an elementary school will not discipline a substitute teacher who told kindergartners that there is no Santa Claus. The teacher, Fabiola Mehu-Pelissier, was reading a holiday storybook to students at Forest Hills Elementary School on Tuesday when the group began discussing the existence of Santa Claus, school board spokesman Kirk Engelhard said. 

Lott loses respect while Justice Thomas gains respect
Republicans everywhere should be grateful this week for Clarence Thomas. After the Trent Lott debacle erupted, somebody, and it turned out to be the quiet justice known for rocking silently in his chair, had to remind his party that this is the 21st century.

Bush and Associates Want Chavez Ousted by Jan. 1 2003 Because of Law Changes that Will Bar their Exploitation of the Country
No wonder such a push is being made by Bush and pals to oust Hugo Chavez! On Jan 1, two major laws will make life much less cushy for the corporate robber barons pillaging the Venezuelan land. The Land Law will make easy speculation by real estate moguls much harder. But the Hydrocarbon Law is what Bush fears most. This law will dismantle "the meta-State of the petroleum business PdVSA, the corrupt oil group that controls the economic life of the country and that is an integral part of the 'New World Energy Order' of George Bush," writes Hans Dietrich. "Today, only 20 percent of the income of this mega-company goes to the State. Eighty percent goes to 'operating costs' that enrich secret accounts of the beneficiaries of this economic cancer. The power of this petroleum 'steal-ocracy' has become propped up progressively during recent decades."
U.S. urges early vote on Chávez tenure
The White House on Friday exhorted President Hugo Chávez to move Venezuela toward early elections or face a possible eruption of violence, sharply increasing pressure on the former paratroop commander to accept the key demand of opponents. 

Cheney wins, nation loses
Palm Beach Post Editorial
Other judges will have to get at energy records. 

Bill of Rights and other 'radical nonsense'
By George McEvoy, Palm Beach Post Columnist
Would the Bill of Rights pass in today's world? Probably not. 

12/13/02

Janet Rehnquist's Office Investigated for Possibly Destroying Documents
"The General Accounting Office (GAO) began an investigation in October into charges that she has mismanaged the office [of the HHS Inspector General]. Among the allegations: that she forced out a number of senior career staff members, improperly kept a gun in her office and ran up questionable travel bills. She is also under fire for delaying an audit of a Florida pension fund at the request of a top aide to Governor Jeb Bush. Now, sources tell TIME, GAO investigators have discovered that documents potentially important to the inquiry have been shredded. The investigators are focusing on the possible destruction of notes, e-mails and memos written by top officials in Rehnquist's office. Rehnquist has denied that anything of significance was shredded, but the discovery prompted Rehnquist's general counsel to pen a Thanksgiving-week e-mail urging HHS staff to stop shredding."...

Capitol Tax-And-Spend Liberals Cloaked As Republicans
Certainly Florida's budget crisis is a daunting one that will dominate the 2003 Legislature. But it speaks to the phony hypocrisy of the political process as well. 
You'll recall that during the gubernatorial campaign, Democrat Bill McBride was smeared by the Bush camp repeatedly as a classic ``tax- and-spend liberal'' who would raise all manner of taxes - possibly including a state income tax - if he and his fellow anarchists were allowed to set foot in the governor's mansion. 
Well, look who's talking about a state income tax now: Republicans, most notably Senate President Jim King and the state's most powerful pro-business lobbyist, Jon Shebel, president of Associated Industries of Florida. 

Backward choice in Hawkes
No other governor since Claude R. Kirk Jr., more than 30 years ago, has had or even sought the opportunity that Jeb Bush now possesses to manipulate Florida's courts. The Legislature has allowed him to name all the members of the judicial nominating commissions, a power previously shared with the Florida Bar and with the commissions themselves. Evidence is now in on what a mistake that was. Exhibit A: the appointment this week of Paul Hawkes to the 1st District Court of Appeal.

Judge Myers' Unsupportable Ruling 
Steve Andrews, an investigative reporter for WFLA, News Channel 8, is known for his aggressive and persistent reporting, a style some reluctant witnesses equate to ambush. 
But attempts to reach his subjects and speak with them, especially when they refuse to return his telephone calls, are the mark of a good newsman. Seeking comment is part of the job. It's not stalking.
Hillsborough County Judge Eric Myers, however, doesn't share that view, and the other day he ordered Andrews to stay at least 300 feet away from one of his latest subjects, a cook twice arrested in 2001 for driving under the influence. Andrews used Minh Ben Ross, 30, as an example of how another Hillsborough County judge, Elvin Martinez, has a reputation for going easy on defendants in drunken-driving cases. ...

For Kimberly Godwin, abuse goes on
Kimberly Godwin's story is enough to make you weep. The state's handling of it is enough to make you scream.
The 31-year-old woman is profoundly retarded, with the mind of an 18-month-old. When she was 10, the state recommended that she be placed in a licensed group home in Fort Pierce. In 1991, however, her parents learned that she had been raped by the 16-year-old son of the home's owner and was three months' pregnant. This year, the Legislature passed a claims bill awarding $7.6 million for the state's negligence, but when her family will see any of it is problematic.

Byrd to push bill to help seniors find drug discounts
TALLAHASSEE — While the money may not be available to expand programs that help seniors pay for prescription drugs, the state should at least help them find discounts that drug companies already offer, House Speaker Johnnie Byrd said Thursday. Byrd said the House next year will take up a measure that would create a one-stop application process for seniors to take advantage of the programs different drug makers offer that provide free or discounted medicine to low-income elderly...
Drug coverage won't expand
Florida House leaders signaled Thursday that they will not consider expanding prescription drug coverage for low-income seniors next year but proposed helping market existing programs run by drug companies....

Bronson appoints food security officer 
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. -- A retired army food safety and animal disease prevention expert was named Friday Florida's first bio and food security preparedness chief.
Joanne M. Brown was named to the post by Agriculture Secretary Charles Bronson, who said that in the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, the state needs one person focused on assuring the safety of the state's food supply....
About 36,000 pounds of chicken recalled for possible contamination 
USDA recalls sausage made in Tampa 

Former secretary of state signs myriad copies of her new book
With smiles and hugs for scores of admirers, Katherine Harris returned Thursday to the scene of the presidential standoff that made her a political superstar to autograph her book about dealing with hard times...

Flawless elections going to cost state
Now that Florida has finally run an election right, county officials must spend a lot of time and money to prevent another embarrassing breakdown at the polls, Secretary of State Jim Smith said Thursday...

Regier hopes to fill vacancies by early January
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. - Florida Department of Children & Families Secretary Jerry Regier said Thursday he plans to fill the agency's newly vacated leadership posts by early next month.
Regier has told eight top officials they will be replaced, continuing top-level changes as part of the latest fallout in the case of 5-year-old Rilya Wilson and other missteps by the state's child welfare agency.
The department now has vacancies for seven of its 14 district administrator positions. Its chief financial officer and assistant secretary of operations also have left this year...

DCF shortfall shuts out disabled
By Kathleen Chapman, Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Thousands of mentally disabled Floridians will be kept waiting for homes, services and help with tasks...

Broward's foster care in 'chaos,' report says
Long before the Rilya Wilson case brought national attention to Florida's troubled foster care system, Broward County's foster care network was viewed as a dysfunctional mess. That fact was reinforced Thursday when a Broward County grand jury issued a blistering report describing a system in ``ongoing chaos.'' ...

USF's Genshaft to get lucrative five-year deal
As the university president celebrates signing the popular football coach, she's negotiating her own long-term contract that guarantees her $1.5-million plus perks.

Many kids may repeat 3rd grade
A third of Miami-Dade County's third-graders could be held back at the end of the school year, the result of a new state law barring their promotion if they score in the lowest tier of a state reading test. ...

Struhs a possible successor
Florida Department of Environmental Protection Secretary David Struhs was rumored in 2000 to be among President Bush's prospects to lead the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency...

Attorney General-elect Crist makes staff appointments
TALLAHASSSEE — Attorney General-elect Charlie Crist named a Fort Lauderdale lawyer his deputy attorney general Thursday. George LeMieux will serve as chief of staff as well as deputy attorney general for Crist...

Despite jeering crowd, council 
approves new project near 'Loop'
Over the pleas of a booing crowd, the Volusia County Council approved a development near Ormond Beach that critics said Thursday would be another slash in the "the Loop." 

SCOFLA: High court gives nursing home lawsuit green light
TALLAHASSEE — People who sue nursing homes don't have to comply with the tougher restrictions imposed by state law on medical malpractice lawsuits, the Florida Supreme Court ruled Thursday. The decision allows the widow of an elderly man who died in a St. Petersburg nursing home in April 1998 to sue...

Bush restores rights of FBI agent jailed in Ruby Ridge probe
TALLAHASSEE — Gov. Jeb Bush and the Clemency Board restored the civil rights Thursday of the FBI agent convicted of destroying records while investigating the agency's role in the deadly 1992 shootout at Ruby Ridge, Idaho. E. Michael Kahoe, a former head of the FBI's violent crime and major offenders section, pleaded guilty in 1997 to obstruction of justice for ordering the destruction of an FBI report into the 1992 fatal shooting at the cabin of white separatist Randall Weaver...

Without a place to call their own 
As the Southwest Florida community grows, homeless shelters are getting jampacked ...

Officer Resigns, 2nd Punished For Messages
LAKELAND - One Lakeland police officer was disciplined and another resigned after allegations they exchanged computer messages derogatory to the chief and dispatchers. Former Sgt. Monty Mathis and Officer William Knobloch, both of the traffic division, were caught exchanging messages that referred to the police chief and several dispatchers as ``clueless'' ...

Cops probe betting reports
Officials at Tallahassee's major universities confirmed Thursday that state and local authorities are looking into several unrelated reports of on-campus gambling, including one involving former Florida State quarterback Adrian McPherson...

With narrow stalls banned, pregnant pigs face slaughter 
On Election Day, Florida voted to give pigs some breathing room. Now farmers say voters are about to learn a lesson in unintended consequences: Those little piggies are going to market...

State moves to seize tribe's wetland tract
State water managers and the Miccosukee Tribe, locked in a dispute over land for a huge Everglades restoration reservoir, drew a line in the muck Thursday, potentially setting up a messy and important legal battle...

Researchers hopeful for strong endangered whale breeding year
DAYTONA BEACH — Coming off a year in which right-whale births were documented in record numbers off the Florida coast, researchers are hopeful for another strong breeding season by the nearly extinct species. December is usually the time when right whales begin their annual migration from the northern Atlantic coast to the warmer waters off the Florida coast, from Jacksonville to Fort Pierce...

Religious groups to compete for federal cash, contracts
By Chuck Lindell, Palm Beach Post Washington Bureau
President Bush ordered all federal agencies Thursday to let religious charities compete for federal money and contracts....

Power charge ruling outrages California's governor
By Bob Keefe, Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
A federal regulatory judge's decision could leave the state and its utilities actually owing power companies...

'Local control': Translation: Gentlemen, start your chainsaws
Somewhere in the White House there must be a to-do list of goals and accomplishments that sums up the Bush administration's environmental record in two short years. Relax pollution emission standards on industry? Check. Scrap plans to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from power plants? Check. Incinerate the Kyoto Protocol? Check. Drill for oil in protected lands? Stay tuned. The rebuff on drilling in Alaska's Arctic refuge was the Democratic-controlled Senate's doing, and the Democratic Senate is history. 

Kissinger as fact finder: Is this a joke?
Good grief. I turn my back for 10 minutes, and they bring back the old War Criminal.
Two generations of Americans have come to adulthood since Henry Kissinger last held political power, so I need to explain that War Criminal is not an affectionate sobriquet: The man is, in fact, a war criminal - wanted for questioning in Chile, Argentina and France (concerning French citizens who disappeared in Chile). He cannot travel to Britain, Brazil and many other countries because they cannot guarantee his immunity from legal proceedings... 

Four in 10 speak with conviction: No war
About 55 percent of Americans support a ground invasion of Iraq, according to a current poll. Only 39 percent oppose one.
About 55 percent of Americans support a ground invasion of Iraq, according to a current poll. Only 39 percent oppose one. 
One way of looking at that support is that it is a decisive majority. 
Another way is that if support dips a few points, and opposition jumps a few points, the universe is a lot different. 
Even now, with four in 10 Americans saying no, it's not as though the existing opposition is a lunatic fringe. 
Yet the traditional U.S. media (big newspapers, TV networks, news magazines) have been slow to explore the depth and breadth of antiwar sentiment in America. Antiwar efforts have been downplayed while reporters focus on the prospect of bang-bang. ...

From superpower to hyperpower
By Dan Moffett, Palm Beach Post Columnist
Europeans try to fathom President Bush's obsession with war on Iraq. 

More news coming...

12/12/02

Bush supports DCF overhaul, others question volume of change
TALLAHASSEE — The extensive shake-up in leadership at the Department of Children & Families, part of Secretary Jerry Regier's vision for restoring confidence in the embattled child-welfare agency, is raising questions about its ability to function effectively with a vacuum of experienced managers. Gov. Jeb Bush said Wednesday he supports the massive overhaul by Regier, who took control of the agency in August as it reeled from criticism over the disappearance of a 5-year-old Miami girl from foster care, but others were concerned that the number of changes may have gone too far...

Child abuse might spike amid shake-up
By Kathleen Chapman, Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Resignations of experienced DCF officials come just as families are stressed by holidays, child advocates warn. ..

Governor and Cabinet told state is pushing debt ceiling
TALLAHASSEE — The state is pushing its debt ceiling and has little borrowing capacity for the next five years, Gov. Jeb Bush and the Cabinet were told Wednesday. Ben Watkins, director of the state's Division of Bond Finance, said the state is expected to exceed next year the 6 percent debt ratio that it has set as a target limit. The debt ratio is the percentage of the state's annual revenues that it must pay to service its debt. An absolute cap of 7 percent debt ratio is set by law, but the state has set the lower 6 percent figure as its target...

University presidents see big pay jumps, alarming critics
JACKSONVILLE — University of Florida President Charles Young received a $93,200 pay raise Wednesday, causing critics to say the state's universities are engaged in a "our president's salary is bigger than your president's" contest. The pay hike, granted by trustees meeting in Gainesville, boosts Young's base pay to $350,000, an increase of 36.2 percent...

Students will pay more, colleges won't get more
Palm Beach Post Editorial
Half-reforms for state's university system. ..

College plans bachelor's degrees
Miami-Dade Community College will start enrolling prospective teachers in its first bachelor's degree courses next fall, the college said Tuesday. 
MDCC's accreditors agreed Tuesday to let the college offer bachelor's degrees in secondary and special education, according to MDCC officials. The Florida Board of Education signed off last spring...

Governor and Cabinet hold last meeting before downsizing
TALLAHASSEE — Gov. Jeb Bush and the six members of the Cabinet held their final meeting with little fanfare Wednesday before a new, trimmed down panel takes over next year. The Cabinet will be reduced from six members to three in January. The offices of secretary of state and education commissioner will become appointed positions and the offices of comptroller and treasurer-insurance commissioner will be combined in a single chief financial officer. "This is the end of one era and the beginning of another," Bush said before the meeting. The new Cabinet will consist of the attorney general, the agriculture commissioner and the chief financial officer...

Wedding bell blues: Marriage 'reform' a license to meddle
Let's start where we can all agree: Communities benefit from strong families.
But what is a family? One mother, one father, 2.3 children and a dog named Spot? What's healthy? A mom who stays home baking cookies, a dad who's home every night by five, children who always eat their spinach without complaint? 
Defining the perfect family in terms of demographics is a ludicrous exercise. But not nearly as futile as a government-sanctioned embrace of the Ward and June Cleaver fantasy. ...

Maddox Ready For Party's Top Job
TALLAHASSEE - Two years ago at the annual Springtime Tallahassee parade, the man now expected to become the next leader of the beaten and bedraggled Florida Democratic Party demonstrated an unusual skill that may come in handy for the chores awaiting him. ...

Leon County commissioner, acquitted of fraud, reinstated by Bush
TALLAHASSEE — Gov. Jeb Bush reinstated Leon County Commissioner Rudy Maloy on Wednesday following Maloy's acquittal last week on misdemeanor charges of expense account fraud. But Bush said he reinstated Maloy reluctantly because of allegations of sexual misconduct that arose before the investigation into charges that Maloy billed his employer, the state Department of Transportation, and the Florida Association of Counties for the same mileage. He had been suspended since May 2001...

Florida seeking restrictions on laying cables near coral reef
MIAMI — The state is trying to toughen restrictions on undersea telecommunications cables amid mounting evidence, underscored by a recent study, that they can damage coral reefs and its fragile ecosystem. Florida's Cabinet on Wednesday approved a preliminary request by the state Department of Environmental Protection to channel future cables away from sensitive corals and through five designated gaps in the reefs. The proposed changes come on the heels of a study by an environmental watchdog group that found the swaying motion of the fiber optic cables have damaged the coral, which requires hundreds of years to regenerate itself...

Endangered butterfly gets instant protection
The state's chief wildlife officer has issued an emergency endangered-species protection order for the Miami Blue, a tiny butterfly confined to a single island in the Florida Keys.
Down to as few as 20 to 50 adults, the Miami Blue was given immediate help because it couldn't afford to wait for an endangered-species petition to work its way through the lengthy approval process, state officials said. ...

Corps misses deadline on Everglades rules
By Larry Lipman, Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
A corps official says the delay will improve the plan for the $8.4 billion Everglades restoration project...

Groups join to preserve lands along 'Loop'
Residents here fighting development of 400 homes around the headwaters of Bulow Creek have joined with Ormond Beach residents who oppose development near the scenic drive known as "The Loop" in northern Volusia County. ...

Fired Lilly workers claim mailings had corporate backing
MIAMI — Three fired Eli Lilly & Co. employees filed a defamation lawsuit against the drug maker Wednesday, claiming they lost their jobs to cover up a management push to revive Prozac sales. Lilly has apologized, denied authorizing the program and disciplined eight workers in July after investigating unsolicited mailing of the antidepressant drug to people in South Florida...

Six Miami airport bag handlers charged with stealing from bags
MIAMI — Six baggage handlers at Miami's airport were arrested Wednesday on federal charges they broke into the bags of British Airways passengers and stole personal belongings. Valuables stolen included jewelry, personal electronics and other items. U.S. Attorney's Office spokeswoman Jacqueline Becerra said she could not immediately provide an estimate of the total value of the stolen belongings and did not know if any had been retrieved...

Snow job: Bush turns Treasury Department into PR firm
Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill's freewheeling opinionating in an administration of ideological goose-steppers didn't help him. But President Bush fired O'Neill above all because Bush had to at least give the appearance of being concerned about an economy with an unemployment rate at an eight-year high and a net loss of 1.5 million jobs since he took office. 
Bush can't be blamed for an economic climate that had been souring before he became president. But he can be blamed for having done very little to the economy since other than cutting taxes and promising to cut them some more. That may be good electoral politics. It is also bad economics at a time when the nation faces the impending bills of a promised prescription drug benefit plan for the elderly and the bills coming due for a $37 billion increase in the military budget and $37 billion to run the new Department of Homeland Security. But the Bush White House isn't about sound economics. It is about salesmanship. ...

Molly Ivins: New Bush financial team has me just giddy
AUSTIN, Texas — Gosh, I'm feeling ever so much better about the economy with the new Bush team on the job. William H. Donaldson to head the Securities and Exchange Commission: just the man to take on the Establishment! Founder of the Wall Street investment firm Donaldson, Lufkin and Jenrette, former chairman of the New York Stock Exchange and former chairman of insurance giant Aetna. A veritable Ralph Nader...

12/11/02

Class-size impact not so bad, board told
A voter-approved cap on class sizes that Gov. Jeb Bush warned would cost taxpayers $27 billion and bankrupt the government may not cost nearly that much, Bush's top education official said Tuesday...

Tuition hikes to aid class-size cut
State education leaders warned voters before this year's election that approving the constitutional amendment to shrink class sizes would hurt financially...

Agency firings rankle workers
... 65 Department of Education employees who lost their jobs that day. Many are still reeling from the shock. More than a dozen employees, their friends and family have told the Tallahassee Democrat the firings were handled in a cold manner.
The forced resignations are part of a top-to-bottom overhaul of the department, mandated in part by voters who, in 1998, overwhelmingly pushed for a new Department of Education overseen by the governor instead of an elected education commissioner.
Education Secretary Jim Horne said he had no problem with how they were handled...

Six top officials ousted in shake-up at DCF
TALLAHASSEE — The second in command and five other top officials at the Department of Children & Families were ousted Tuesday in the biggest shake-up since the case of a missing Miami girl exposed problems at the state's child welfare agency.
Gov. Jeb Bush had asked for the resignations of the agency's top managers after his election to a second term. The six resignations were accepted Tuesday by Jerry Regier, who took control of the beleaguered agency in August as criticism mounted over the Rilya Wilson case. The 5-year-old girl's disappearance from foster care went unnoticed for more than a year by DCF caseworkers. She hasn't been found....

Agency Adds Shredding of Documents to Inquiry
By ROBERT PEAR (NYT) 
Investigators are looking into the shredding and destruction of documents in the office of Jante Rehnquist, the inspector general of the Department of Health and Human Services.

Horne recommends $1.1 billion for class size, students
TALLAHASSEE — Florida needs to boost spending on public schools by $1.1 billion to pay for smaller classes and more students, Education Secretary Jim Horne told the Florida Board of Education on Tuesday. Horne also recommended increasing tuition for students at Florida's public universities by 7.5 percent statewide and allowing each university to raise tuition an additional 5 percent.

Lowering Class Sizes Gulps Half Of Budget
TALLAHASSEE - The tough budget battles that many predict could bring the Florida Legislature to a standstill in the spring already are taking shape. The Florida Board of Education decided Tuesday that public schools will need a combined increase in state and local spending next year of $1.12 billion to accommodate anticipated growth in ...

Tuition could leap
Tuition at state universities could rise as much as 12.5 percent next year.

County Council TV: Volusia council should broadcast its meetings
News-Journal editorial--  Twenty-three years old and counting, C-Span is by now synonymous with gavel-to-gavel coverage of government in action. What C-Span does nationally, thousands of public-access channels do for state, county and city governments locally. 
It's not expensive. Past the initial investment in equipment, it's a matter of taping and sending the tapes to the cable company for rebroadcast. By law, cable companies must make room on their channel line-up for government access. 

U.S. to repay Florida for vote reforms
The state will receive enough for its new voting machines, worker training and access for the disabled.

Smith urges more authority for office
By George Bennett, Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
The Florida secretary of state's suggestion of having election supervisors submit reports is met coolly.

House leaders set for coming Legislature
TALLAHASSEE — House Speaker Johnnie Byrd on Tuesday named a cadre of young, relatively new lawmakers to key leadership positions and committee chairmanships in a House depleted of veterans by term limits. Rep. Bruce Kyle, a Fort Myers Republican elected in 1998, will be one of the most powerful lawmakers as appropriations chairman, a key position because of its holder's sway over what gets in and what stays out of the budget.

House Democrats huddle on strategy
Outnumbered 3-1, they meet privately on how to have an impact in the coming session.

Fla. congressional election shows money's power
By Larry Lipman, Palm Beach Post Washington Bureau
In most cases, the candidate who spent the most won the congressional seat. 

Bush: I'll support GOP's convention-site choice
As some of Florida's leading politicos eagerly lobby the White House to woo the 2004 Republican National Convention to the state, the Floridian best-equipped to bend the president's ear concedes he's a bit conflicted.

Med students' lawyer: No more questions
Attorneys representing the three men who were detained as terror suspects on Interstate 75 have rejected a request from Collier County Sheriff Don Hunter that the medical students agree to further questioning. 

Central Florida black bears' hair barely there
OCALA NATIONAL FOREST — More than half of the black bears living in the forest around the Marion County community of Lynne are suffering from a unique type of mange that causes their hair to fall out. It is the only area in the country where biologists say they have seen a relatively large number of bears with the affliction.

Approval sought for more development near 'the Loop'
A proposal to convert 82 acres of open pasture into a new housing development near the Flagler County border has drawn fire from nearby residents, fresh off their battle in trying to save "the Loop." 

Tim-berrrrrrrrr!
Vying for the use of our national forests are Americans seeking recreation, animal species struggling to survive and loggers seeking profit on public land. When the Bush administration recently announced its proposed new rules for managing the 155 national forests and 20 grasslands in 44 states, the plan quickly won praise from the timber industry. That should be a clue as to which of the competing interests the new proposal favors.

Bush's Choice To Lead SEC Gets Broad Support
WASHINGTON - President Bush turned to Wall Street on Tuesday and selected William H. Donaldson, a former head of the New York Stock Exchange, founder of a successful brokerage firm and longtime friend of the Bush family, to be the next chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission. ...

Cruise ship with sick passengers abandons visit to St. Maarten
PHILIPSBURG, St. Maarten — A cruise ship sailing out of Florida with 200 sick passengers onboard gave up a St. Maarten visit Tuesday after being held hours at docking, the cruise line said. The incident came a day after four people working in St. Lucia's tourism industry reported stomach illness, after meeting visitors from British-based P&O Cruise's Oceana, when it docked there Sunday.

A piece of pi
Researchers at the Information Technology Center of Tokyo University announced a stunning feat of infinitesimal proportions: The calculation of pi to 1.24 trillion places. Pi is the powerful and unending number that describes the ratio of a circle's circumference to its diameter. It is usually rounded to 3.14 for convenience.

Some Tentative First Steps Toward Universal Health Care
By MILT FREUDENHEIM (NYT) 
Worried that the growing number of uninsured patients will undermine the health care system, insurance executives are pressing for steps toward universal care.

Lott criticized for remark on Thurmond
By Scott Shephard, Palm Beach Post Washington Bureau
Civil rights leader Jesse Jackson calls on Trent Lott to step down as Senate majority leader.
Lott apologizes, again
Palm Beach Post Editorial
But by this time, it's clear what he means. 

12/10/02

Plan to curtail calls to DCF is criticized 
In an attempt to ease the strain on an overburdened Department of Children & Families, incoming Secretary Jerry Regier has proposed reducing the number of calls accepted by the agency's child-abuse hot line...

Some state workers turn to union-- Career Service moves prompt vote
A group of state employees who lost Career Service protection under Gov. Jeb Bush's Service First plan has voted overwhelmingly for union representation.
The leader of the union seeking to represent the 2,730 Selected Exempt Service workers sees the move as a backlash against Service First. But the state's labor lawyer says negotiating with them does not diminish the ability of department chiefs to reassign, promote or fire the non-Career Service employees...

Employees' voices crucial in this column
It's been about 10 years since I've written about how to get information into this column, to make it a little more useful for state employees...

Broward elections supervisor sets deadlines to control spending
FORT LAUDERDALE — The Broward County elections supervisor, under pressure following the botched September primary for governor, has promised to tighten spending and revamp procedures for awarding contracts by early next year in response to criticism from auditors that her office was mismanaged. Miriam Oliphant had faced a Monday deadline set by Gov. Jeb Bush for submitting a cost-cutting plan to the state after an audit found that she had overspent her budget in fiscal year 2002 by nearly $1 million. The audit, released last month, came amid complaints that Oliphant had mishandled the primary elections...

Panel suggests finding help for volunteer poll workers
ORLANDO — Using county employees and volunteers from local businesses to help staff polling places is one of several ideas approved Monday by a panel appointed by the governor to help reform the state's election system. The panel, which was created by Gov. Jeb Bush in response to problems that marred the 2000 presidential election and the state primary for governor in September, made the suggestion as a way to combat concerns that incompetence by some poll workers resulted in some snafus that left the primary in limbo for a week...

Howard Troxler: If voters haven't called for 'marriage reform,' why bring it up?
The biggest all-Republican fight I ever saw was at one of the party's national conventions, where Republicans from around the nation were hammering out the party platform. (Platforms, of course, must always be "hammered out")...

State Should Not Cripple Prepaid College Program -- Florida ranks 45th among the states in awarding bachelor's degrees, a dreary number that clouds the state's future economic outlook. 
Census figures show that college graduates' lifetime earnings are about twice those of high school graduates. Advanced degree holders earn even more. So Florida leaders who want the state to prosper have good cause to promote college education...

Report revives teacher pay controversy
Designing a plan that ties teachers' pay to performance creates a host of difficulties a state panel concludes...

McKay's voucher results
Education officials need to monitor the McKay Scholarship Program more closely to determine whether it is actually working...

University presidents say they want more control
ORLANDO — Florida's public university presidents want to be able to raise tuition, fearing some funds for higher education will be diverted to pay for smaller classes in public schools. State universities likely will have to increase tuition 5 percent to 10 percent beginning in the fall 2003 term, University of Central Florida President John Hitt said Monday at a meeting of the State University Presidents Association...

Land deal has FAU official under fire
Wealthy developer and chairman of the Florida Atlantic University Board of Trustees John Temple leases 73 acres of land at the university's main Boca Raton campus, an arrangement that has created growing concern among his fellow board members...

Sunshine laws
The good news is that Sunshine Laws were on the agenda for a seminar of new school board members from all over Florida, sponsored by their own information-sharing and lobbying organization. All four of Collier's newly elected members attended at least part of the orientation sessions last week in Tampa...

Supreme Court won't consider free-speech rights of advertising dentists
WASHINGTON — A divided Supreme Court declined Monday to jump into another free-speech dispute, this time over advertising restrictions Florida put on dentists who want to promote their specialties. Justices Clarence Thomas and Ruth Bader Ginsburg said they were troubled by Florida's law. They said the court should clarify how far states can go in limiting ads of lawyers, doctors and other professionals. But none of the other justices joined them and at least four must agree before the court will hear a case. ..

Bridge may be up for sale in Panhandle
GULF BREEZE — Want to buy a bridge? The Santa Rosa Bay Bridge Authority may have the span for you - the Garcon Point Bridge over Pensacola Bay that links the Santa Rosa County communities of Gulf Breeze and Milton. It's nearly new and hardly used...

Water managers may buy rock pits
By Robert P. King, Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
For the price of $139 million, the mines would hold water that will help speed the Everglades restoration plan, officials say. ..

Power-plant closures a threat to manatees
It has become a familiar rite of the Florida winter: As the mercury drops, manatees take refuge at the state's springs and power plants. Vulnerable to the cold, the endangered sea cows seek warm water, from both natural and artificial sources...

Rollback on forest law
The Bush administration's anti-environmental agenda has been gathering steam since the November elections. First it weakened rules governing industrial air pollution. Then it proposed a major revision in the rules governing management of the national forests. The revision could undermine protections for fish and wildlife...

A gold watch and no doctor
Add to the growing ranks of uninsured Americans those who have spent a career at a company that no longer provides them health care in retirement. ...

Molly Ivins: The cynicism of this insult is just flabbergasting
AUSTIN, Texas — Good grief. I turn my back for 10 minutes, and they bring back the old War Criminal. Two generations of Americans have come to adulthood since Henry Kissinger last held political power, so I need to explain that War Criminal is not an affectionate sobriquet: The man is, in fact, a war criminal — wanted for questioning in Chile, Argentina and France (concerning French citizens who disappeared in Chile)...

Judge Dismisses Lawsuit Against Vice President Cheney's Energy Task Force Over Separation of Powers  Bush appointed judge makes decision

Bush taps Snow as Treasury chief
CSX Corp. chairman John W. Snow nominated to replace Paul O'Neill...

2/8/02

A strong hand
Governor Jeb Bush approaches his second term in a powerful position to change policy and fill key posts...

Bush inner circle to change
Gov. Jeb Bush's landslide reelection and renewed talk of a family dynasty have secured his stature as the country's most powerful governor and a potential future president...

The New Pork Choppers
Florida voters have been acting of late like the Iowa farmers who were advised in the 1890s to "raise less corn and more hell." We may not raise much corn here, but we have been raising a fair crop of hell. I am referring to the ballot initiatives we voted for last month despite -- or more likely because of -- the prospect that several of them would make the governor and the bosses of the Legislature hold their breath and turn blue...

Whose vote counts?
When larger numbers of black and Hispanic voters didn't bother to vote in the November election, Florida Democrats began fretting about their party's failure to address the needs of core constituencies. ...

State Budget Woes Set Up Tax Increase Showdown
TALLAHASSEE - Zealous tax cutting and the pricey wish lists voters handed lawmakers have dug a $4 billion budget hole. At that depth, Florida's comparatively good economic fortunes are unlikely to fill it. ...

Brogan to FAU? It's an old story.
By Randy Schultz, Palm Beach Post Editor of the Editorial Page
It's hard to take politics out of choosing university presidents. ...

Antismoking rules face tough going in Capitol
Approved overwhelmingly by voters, Florida's tough new antismoking amendment is now facing its harshest critic: the Florida Legislature....

State: EPA overestimates number of polluted sites in Florida
A Web site that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency created to provide information on companies' cleanup records has overestimated the number of polluted sites in Florida, state officials said. Enforcement and Compliance History Online, or ECHO, lists 117 "major" facilities in Florida as being in violation of federal pollution laws governing water, air and hazardous waste...

Ex-cop's mission: Seeking justice
Finding evidence for 1964 murder case won't be easy 
For 38 years, former Jacksonville police detective Lee Cody has been on a mission, complaining to all who'd listen -- and many who wouldn't -- about what he calls the injustice done to Johnnie Mae Chappell and her family.
Reporters, governors and federal judges all have heard Cody's allegations that police covered up the black woman's slaying by a carload of white men near New Kings Road in March 1964...

Perfect film locale: Florida's roadways?
If you're a visitor to South Florida, you've undoubtedly noticed that some very busy roads are being closed to the public during peak driving hours...

Creatures along the Highway: State moves to restrict harvest of land crabs -- In a state known for its wildlife diversity, locals know they can expect to see anything from alligators resting in their garages to black bears rummaging through their trash cans.

Demonstrators unite in a triple-prong protest
Four-year-old Luis Benitez stood along Biscayne Boulevard holding a giant tomato sign. Scrawled in Spanish: We Want Justice.
His father, Ramiro Benitez, explained why they decided to join the more than 300 protesters in front of the Taco Bell on Biscayne Boulevard and Northeast 79th Street Saturday evening.
Every day, Ramiro Benitez wakes up at 5 a.m. and stands on a street corner, hoping a contractor will choose him to pick crops for the day. He receives about 50 cents for every red iron bucket he fills with tomatoes. He shares a trailer home with five people.
''If we ever get a regular salary, I want my son to know why,'' Benitez said. ``The struggle is more for him than me.''...

UM students tune into a '60s time warp
The students sang along to Woody Guthrie's This Land is Your Land. As the cool jazz riffs of Quincy Jones and Miles Davis filled the auditorium, they snapped their fingers and tapped their toes. 
When the band played Twist and Shout, the kids jumped up, waved their arms and danced in the aisles. It could have been 1965, but it wasn't.
It was Tuesday night at the University of Miami, where nearly 200 students and guests packed the Cosford Cinema auditorium to enjoy the finale of "The Sixties," a course about that turbulent decade taught by professors who lived the times they were teaching. ...

Police: Rilya's caregiver changed story after test
MIAMI -- After being told she failed a polygraph test, one of Rilya Wilson's caregivers said she did not know exactly when the missing girl was taken from her home, a police memo revealed...

Prosecutors: Trial against suspended Escambia official will go on
Prosecutors said they will proceed with the trial against suspended Escambia County Commissioner W.D. Childers despite the acquittal of a real estate salesman accused of bribing him. The trial of salesman Joe Elliot had been seen as a preview of the state's case against Childers...

Analysis: Documents show parties often mixed fund-raising and policy
WASHINGTON — Internal documents from the Republican and Democratic parties released Friday show that party officials repeatedly discussed policy matters — and proposals that contributors wanted to see enacted as legislation — in obtaining political donations. The documents were made public as part of a lawsuit challenging a sweeping new campaign-finance law. ...

President Bush's housecleaning
With the presidential election now less than two years away, George W. Bush started honing his team on Friday for the coming campaign. He did so by dismissing his top two economic advisers, Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill and Lawrence Lindsey, a White House aide. Given Bush's fear of following his father into early retirement because of a weak economy, the shake-up may also be prelude to a new raft of ambitious but ill-advised economic stimulus proposals. ...

The new GOP patronage
Palm Beach Post Editorial
President Bush has said he plans over time to shed 850,000 federal workers by contracting with private companies for the work. ...

Homeland security bill gives drug giant a free pass
Quick, somebody call Sherlock Holmes. Or at least the Hardy Boys. There's a Washington mystery that needs solving. Everyone in D.C., it seems, is utterly baffled as to how an ugly little provision shielding pharmaceutical behemoth Eli Lilly from billions in lawsuits filed by the parents of autistic children made its way, in the 12th hour, into the homeland security bill...

Still lagging on global warming
President Bush's secretary of commerce, Donald Evans, told more than 1,000 scientists, economists and other experts attending a conference on global warming last week that their task was to "jump-start" Bush's new five-year program of research into the causes of global warming and possible responses. Evans is just a bit behind the times. What needs jump-starting is not research but policy. ..

Knowledge Of World Lags 
Young Americans have a shockingly poor level of knowledge about their own world, sometimes unable to locate their home country on a global map...

Equal rights for gays
The Supreme Court agreed last week to hear a challenge to Texas' "Homosexual Conduct" law, which makes gay sex illegal, even when it is consensual and done in private. The case could be the vehicle for the Supreme Court to overturn one of the worst rulings in its history, its 1986 decision in Bowers v. Hardwick, which upheld the criminal convictions of two Georgia men for having gay sex in a private home. ..

Serbia's Voters Fail at Second Attempt to Elect President Due to Low Turnout, Independent Observers Say 
... only 45%, if we needed 50% like Serbia we'd never elect anyone....

12/7/02

Parties promised favors 
Political party officials and the donors they solicit have routinely linked big contributions to government business, from merger approvals to meetings with top officials, according to previously sealed court documents that offer a window into the business of fund raising in Washington.
"As you recall in our conversation some weeks ago, you agreed to upgrade your Team 100 membership to the Regent program ($250,000) when the merger was approved," Republican Party fund-raiser Mel Sembler wrote in 2000 to the chief of the now-bankrupt Global Crossing telecommunications company, which had already given $100,000.
"Thankfully this has now been approved, so I am taking the liberty of enclosing an invoice for the additional upgrade," Sembler added in one of dozens of fund-raising memos the political parties turned over to a court hearing the first legal challenge of the nation's new campaign finance law....

Election fixes pose challenge
Election officials across the nation are bracing for major challenges implementing the next series of voting reforms, even though they expect the 2004 election will run better than those of the past two years.
Florida needs to develop uniform rules for early voting and give residents greater assurances that their votes are counted when cast on ATM-style voting machines, according to experts speaking at a national conference on election reform Friday in Fort Lauderdale. Also, elections officials will be hard-pressed to better train poll workers and implement a new federal law requiring that better voter registration rolls be compiled statewide.

Everglades project foe gets key post
The only senator to vote against the Everglades restoration project takes over next month as chairman of the committee responsible for the River of Grass. And that has environmentalists alarmed.
Sen. James Inhofe, R-Okla., who will head the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee ...

Katherine Harris joining U.S. House leadership
Florida's controversial former secretary of state is among a handful of newcomers tapped for the role. WASHINGTON -- Florida freshman lawmakers Katherine Harris and Tom Feeney are on the rise.Harris, a Republican from Sarasota, and Feeney, a Republican from Oviedo, were both named this week to be assistant House majority whips when the new Congress convenes next month.The appointments were announced by House Majority Whip-elect Roy Blunt, R-Mo. Blunt has not released all the names of his whip organization, but usually there are only 10 or 12 freshmen among the 50 to 60 whips...

Panel finalizing wording on Bright Futures recommendations
TALLAHASSEE — The state should keep its commitments on Bright Futures scholarships intact for present high school students, an advisory council proposing broad changes to the state's higher education system agreed Friday. About 25,000 students received Bright Futures scholarships last year. Each scholarship is worth about $3,000 — a significant cost picked up by an already cash-strapped Legislature. "The Legislature is going to be hard-pressed to look ninth graders and 10th graders in the eye and say, by the way, we're pulling it out from under you," Education Secretary Jim Horne said. "They are the ones who have to make that call." ...

Thinking about prepaid tuition? Decide quickly
A proposal to boost state tuition could mean that Jan. 31 will be the last date to enroll...

Judge: One parent can examine the FCAT
A Leon County judge on Friday ordered the state to lift the veil on the FCAT, but only for one parent and only under strict conditions -- he cannot take notes and cannot disclose test questions or answers to anyone...

Universities not political? You've got a lot to learn
Some folks are worried about the politicization of Florida's state university system...

The good-ol'-boy system
Our position: Florida universities can do better than naming politicians as presidents...

Yet more state agency chiefs are leaving
Also reorganizing, Jim Horne removes 65 top education officials -- 
Roughly one-third of Florida's top agency officials are leaving in an unprecedented re-election reorganization engineered by Gov. Jeb Bush.
The resignations Friday of Department of Management Services Secretary Cynthia Henderson and Department of Business and Professional Regulation Secretary Kim Binkley-Seyer bring the number of agency heads not returning for Bush's second term to six. Ten other top officials, if approved by the Senate, will return to their old jobs when the new four-year term starts Jan. 7.
One of the agency heads who will be returning, Education Secretary Jim Horne, plans to do some housecleaning of his own. He announced the resignations or firings of 65 division heads and other top education officials who "didn't fit with what we're doing." ...

Bush team loses two controversial officials
TALLAHASSEE -- Gov. Jeb Bush continued to revamp state government Friday, announcing the departure of two controversial agency heads and the reappointment of several others...

Bush losing 2 more agency directors
The agency secretary whose frequent tangles with controversy prompted speculation that she wouldn't survive Gov. Jeb Bush's first term has told the Republican governor she won't stick around for his second....

Henderson's Stormy Run In State Government To End --TALLAHASSEE - Cynthia Henderson, a land-use lawyer from Tampa whose four-year stint at the helm of two state agencies has been marked by accomplishment and controversy, will leave Gov. Jeb Bush's administration before his second term begins. (includes a look back on her time in state government)

Documents of Rilya's caregivers show pattern of deceit
MIAMI — Rilya Wilson's caregivers maintained a healthy bank account and ran up bills from mail-order catalogs while simultaneously collecting public assistance, documents released Friday showed. Prosecutors released more than 2,600 pages of pre-trial documents outlining their investigation of Geralyn and Pamela Graham, who had cared for the little girl missing nearly two years. The women are charged with stealing more than $14,000 in state welfare checks before and after Rilya's disappearance...
Records: Caregiver hit Rilya with switch before she disappeared 

South Florida reservists ready to move out
They officially went on alert more than two months ago, but the members of the Army Reserve's 724th Military Police Battalion in Fort Lauderdale already were preparing themselves for an overseas trip. 

Tourist capital grapples with homeless question
ORLANDO, Fla. - Stephen Davis spends his daytime hours in a downtown library scanning the Internet and reading books.
Nights are trickier for the 41-year-old homeless man since the city council passed an ordinance last summer prohibiting people from sitting or lying on downtown sidewalks. Violators face a $500 fine and 60 days in jail.
"There is an underlying current to harass and hunt the homeless," said Davis, a former taxi driver who started living on the streets last June. "The city ... needs to stop criminalizing the homeless."
The sidewalk ordinance was only the latest measure passed in recent years targeting the homeless in this city that makes its living from hospitality and tourism. It provoked an outcry from the homeless and their advocates...

Changing prison culture
That Florida State Prison inmate Frank Valdes was beaten to death in his cell was a symptom of the disease, but state Corrections Secretary Michael Moore never seemed to understand that. Yes, he fired the guards responsible and put video cameras in that prison wing to record other "cell extractions." But the stain remains and so does the poisonous culture of violence....

Editorial: Government in the Sunshine
When two elected officials from the same governmental body discuss public business, that has to take place in public. It's the law in Florida, proud host of some of the most progressive, public-interest Sunshine Laws in the world. The goal is for the public that pays for and is served by elected officials to know how public policy takes shape and why decisions are reached. ...

Nearly 196,000 not counted in Florida in 2000 census
Nearly 196,000 Florida residents were not counted in the 2000 census, according government estimates released Friday that also showed black and Hispanic children were disproportionately missed. Nationwide, about 1.1 million kids were missed by the census — about half of those black and Hispanic...

Dealing away green: Pull back and pause over Bulow Creek
The Ginn Development Co. wants to buy 2,000 acres surrounding the headwaters of Bulow Creek in Flagler County, donate 1,000 acres to the county as conservation land, and build 400 million-dollar homes and a golf course on the remaining 1,000. Ginn is all but set to buy the land. 

Guarding coast can be thankless
The Coastie wanted me to know he isn't a bad guy. For weeks he'd been reading newspaper stories about desperate Haitians being picked up at sea and taken back to the hopelessness of their native island by him and his colleagues in the Coast Guard. The articles were starting to get to him. Of course, the faces of those being returned weighed on him even more....

Cheating federal workers
It is hard to say what's most callous: President Bush's beneath-the-radar decision to award large cash bonuses to his top political appointees; his very public announcement to reduce pay raises for the rest of the federal workforce; or that he tried to use our "national emergency" since Sept. 11 to justify both actions. ...

Cheney Should Be Candid About Secret Energy Meetings
I t is regrettable that Vice President Dick Cheney continues to stonewall about the development of the administration's proposed national energy policy. 
Judicial decisions - so far - have made clear that the American public deserves an honest accounting of the formation of a policy that would provide billions of dollars in subsidies to energy companies. But the vice president refuses to cooperate. 
Last week a federal judge again rejected the administration's claim that the information is confidential. In a 36-page ruling, Judge Emmet G. Sullivan of the Federal District Court of the District of Columbia ordered the administration to turn over documents about the policy. The documents are being sought by Judicial Watch, a nonpartisan government watchdog group that pursued a number of cases against President Bill Clinton, and the Sierra Club. 
In a separate case, the General Accounting Office, the nonpartisan investigating arm of Congress, is asking for the names of energy industry executives who met with Cheney on energy matters. ...

12/6/02

Two more state agency heads resign
Two more state agency heads announced their resignations today, bringing to six the number of major department chiefs that will step down as Gov. Jeb Bush prepares for his second term. Department of Business & Professional Regulation Secretary Kim Binkley-Seyer and Department of Management Services Secretary Cynthia Henderson will both resign, according to Bush's transition team. Corrections Secretary Michael Moore, Lottery Secretary David Griffin, Transportation Secretary Tom Barry and Community Affairs Secretary Steve previously submitted their resignations. Bush's first action after being re-elected was to appoint a transition team, a move unusual for an incumbent. He said he wanted new faces and new ideas for his second term. ...

Insider ready to leave Bush administration
The governor's 35-year-old deputy chief of staff plans to depart on Inauguration Day. TALLAHASSEE -- Brian Yablonski, one of Gov. Jeb Bush's longest-serving assistants, will soon join the parade of administration officials leaving before the governor's second term begins. 
The 35-year-old deputy chief of staff, Bush's former think tank colleague and conservative compatriot, plans to leave on Inauguration Day, Jan. 7. Yablonski and his wife, Kim, have two preschool age children. 
"I don't see government service as a career. It's more of a cause," Yablonski said. "I may end up a capitalist and practice what we preach here." 
Several state agency heads have resigned, but Yablonski is the first high-ranking Bush staffer to depart during this transition period. He was one of the young ideologues who arrived with Bush in early 1999, raring to shake up the status quo in the Capitol. ...

Right to vote was stolen
Imagine a thief who steals your property, and then steals more of it to pay the high-priced lawyers who get him acquitted. No, this isn't about some scruffy cutpurse whose liberty depends on an overworked public defender. It describes, only somewhat loosely, the sleek, prosperous Republican majorities of the Florida Legislature, who spent $7-million of the taxpayers' money successfully defending the greatest political theft in Florida history.
What they stole was your right to vote. That most precious of liberties, which young Americans even now are being trained to defend with their lives on the far side of the world, is meaningless unless it can be exercised in the context of competitive choices. The sordid intent of this year's legislative and congressional redistricting schemes was to decide the elections before they were held. And how it succeeded: With all 160 legislative seats on the ballot, about half were effectively unopposed and no more than 14 saw close competition either in the primaries or the general election. With 25 congressional seats at stake, the mapmakers contrived to secure both new ones for the GOP; only one of the other races was even marginally close, and as intended the Republicans purged Democrat Karen Thurman. The rigging was cynical, bold and transparent, and it is to the eternal shame of the judiciary that the thieves got away with it. ...

Don't hurt the prepaid tuition plan, but reconsider Bright Futures
Sandy D'Alemberte, the departing president of Florida State University, asked me to make a little mental chart. 
He labeled the left side of the chart "Tuition." The bottom was labeled, "State Support," which means tax dollars.
"Some states have low tuition, but high state support," D'Alemberte explained. "There's North Carolina, for example.
"Some states have high tuition and low state support, like Pennsylvania. "Some states have both high tuition and high support, like Michigan. "And then there are some states with both low tuition, and low state support." 
Like ... guess who? 
Florida is among the cheapskates of the states when it comes to higher education. ...

Bush: Give districts flexibility in cutting class sizes - TAMPA, Fla. - Gov. Jeb Bush told Florida public school officials Friday that flexibility will be one of the keys to the state and school districts being able to comply with the new class-size mandate.
In a speech to the Florida Public Schools Conference, Bush offered his "guiding principles" for implementing the amendment, which won by 52 percent of the vote Nov. 5. Bush was an outspoken opponent of the measure, saying it would lead to tax hikes and cuts to other programs.
"I didn't think it was the right thing to do, but now the people have spoken and we have a duty to develop strategies to implement Amendment 9," Bush said....

Gulf Power donates $1 million for Panhandle vouchers
PENSACOLA, Fla. - Gulf Power Co. has donated $1 million for corporate scholarships, or vouchers, that will be used to send poor children to private and charter schools in the Florida Panhandle.
In exchange, the Pensacola-based utility will get a credit against corporate taxes it owes the state under the program enacted earlier this year and championed by Gov. Jeb Bush....

State Democratic Party leader to resign
By Brian Crowley, Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Continuing to lose support of Democratic Party leaders, Bob Poe said Thursday that he will soon resign as state chairman.
Poe, whose term ends in 2004, has been under increasing pressure to step down after the demoralizing shellacking Democrats took in the November election...

Florida Power Corp., union reach tentative agreement
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. Florida Power Corp. and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers have reached a tentative agreement on a three-year contract for nearly half of the company's 4,500 workers...

Fanning vaccine fears
The recent backroom political maneuver that gave Eli Lilly protection against lawsuits for damage allegedly caused by a mercury-containing preservative in vaccines was not only an abuse of congressional process. Its more pernicious effect was to fan fears about the safety of vaccines and the ingredients used to protect them from dangerous contamination. ...

Jose Padilla's rights
Back last May, the U.S. government arrested an American citizen in Chicago, said he was an enemy combatant, eventually stuck him in a naval brig, and has since seemed to assume that that is that — the guy can just stay put with no due process whatsoever. Hold on, says a federal judge....

Treasury Sec. Paul O'Neill resigns
President Bush revamped his economic team today as Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill and economic adviser Larry Lindsey resigned at the request of the White House amid growing concern about the ailing economy....

Unemployment Rate Unexpectedly Surges to 6.0 Percent in November, The Highest Level in Nine Years 

Health benefits company closing service center
Humana Inc. announced that it is closing its Jacksonville service center and laying off 450 local employees. ...
1,000 Tyson, Humana jobs cut 

Harris named assistant majority whip in Congress 
SARASOTA, Fla. Katherine Harris, newly elected to Congress, has been selected as an assistant majority whip in the House....

Bush leaves SEC posse critically short of riders
Palm Beach Post Editorial
All-Iraq-all-the-time blunts corporate reform. Having raised $140 million-plus this year, President Bush hit the road again this week to preach that giving to Republicans is a smart investment. Given the shabby state in which he left the system that regulates financial markets, the GOP looks safer than stocks and bonds...

Feds say traffickers used life insurance policies to launder $80 million
MIAMI -- Colombian drug cartels conceived an elaborate scheme that converted more than $80 million in cocaine profits to clean cash by moving money through life insurance policies, authorities said. ...

Anti-Americanism: A world survey raises issues and mirrors
The day after Sept. 11, 2001, a French national newspaper ran a banner headline that read, "We Are All Americans." Before the attacks the headline would have been unimaginable anywhere in Europe. It would have been a sacrilege in France, where anti-Americanism has been a national pastime since existentialism went the way of Brigitte Bardot's movie career. But there it was, a return to sympathies last felt during the years of the Marshall Plan, when American generosity rebuilt Europe's cities and self-confidence. ...

12/4-5/02

Bush to encourage marriage reform - TALLAHASSEE, Fla.- Gov. Jeb Bush said his goal to strengthen families during his second term includes marriage reform as a way to combat the state's high divorce rate.
"Strengthening families may mean looking at our divorce rate, which is over 60 percent," Bush said.
But Bush offers few specifics, so just what should be done and how is still a question.
House Speaker Johnnie Byrd is critical of Florida's no-fault divorce law and believes the Legislature should look at the problem, but Bush said marriage needs to be addressed before couples wed and he does not want to make it more difficult for couples to get divorced.
Bush said any reform should ensure that "the institution of marriage is held up high as something that is so important that when people make that decision they understand the responsibilities."...

State challenges FCAT ruling
As parents across Florida begin demanding to see the standardized-test booklets and answer sheets used by the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test, the state Department of Education is challenging a court ruling that made the tests public...

Prison-system chief resigns
The controversial leader of Florida's prison system said Wednesday he will not return for 
Gov. Jeb Bush's second term. Department of Corrections Secretary Michael W. Moore submitted his letter of resignation to the governor, effective Jan. 7, marking the third agency chief to step down this week and the fourth overall...

State prisons chief Moore resigns
TALLAHASSEE — State prisons chief Michael Moore resigned Wednesday, ending a tenure marked by the switch to lethal injection and the beating death of an inmate that brought video cameras behind bars. The Department of Corrections secretary said he wanted to pursue other interests, which he did not specify, after 34 years in the prison system. He will leave his post Jan. 7. He presided over the change from electrocution to lethal injection as the state's method of execution, a change spurred by the bloody execution of an inmate in 1999...

Corrections boss steps aside
Michael Moore was often under fire, most notably in the 1999 death of an inmate who clashed with prison guards. ... In addition to Moore, the governor has accepted resignations from Transportation Secretary Tom Barry, Department of Community Affairs Secretary Steve Siebert and Lottery Secretary David Griffin. ..

FSU job candidates whittled to five
Florida State University's presidential search advisory committee Wednesday endorsed search consultant Bill Funk's recommendation of five candidates to interview next week...

Former Ohio State president, UCLA law dean in final five at FSU
TALLAHASSEE — A consultant Wednesday recommended five people, including former Florida House Speaker T.K. Wetherell, as finalists for the presidential vacancy at Florida State University. The school's board of trustees would like to make a decision by Dec. 25 because President Talbot "Sandy" D'Alemberte would like to leave by the end of the year...

Faculty panel expresses concern
The Florida State University Faculty Senate is concerned that the chairman of the 
presidential search committee - John Thrasher - had a business relationship with one of the top candidates - T.K. Wetherell.

Tuition Plans Draw Fire
TAMPA - Just as Jim Horne expected, a storm of public reaction began brewing Wednesday to proposals that could undercut the way many Florida families pay for a university education. Horne, the state education secretary, had delayed the proposals until after last month's election to avoid the sort of political thunder unwelcome to his boss, Gov. Jeb Bush. ...

Tuition proposals have many concerned
Many parents wonder if their prepaid college tuition deals will still be honored, while others race to get in should the program is eliminated...

Trustee's leases at FAU raise concern  Developer John Temple pays about 10 percent of market value for 73 acres on campus. ...

Add some accountability to state voucher program
Palm Beach Post Editorial
See that private schools don't waste public money. Florida must find billions of dollars to pay for lower class size. So when the state finds out that an experimental program is wasting thousands of dollars -- and could waste millions when the program expands -- taxpayers should expect education officials to respond with something more than a shrug.
But a shrug is all the state offered when Post reporter Kimberly Miller uncovered the fact that Wood Montessori Academy in Palm Beach Gardens, which is receiving thousands in state voucher payments, does not have the required accreditation and is performing so badly that six of 15 Palm Beach County voucher students have bolted from the school...

Elders group outlines goals
AARP Florida urges legislature to live up to campaign goals.
TALLAHASSEE — AARP Florida urged the Legislature on Wednesday to live up to 2002 campaign rhetoric and make sure people have access to affordable prescription drugs. "The people who needed prescription drugs before the fifth of November still need them after the fifth of November," said Bentley Lipscomb, state director for AARP Florida...

Bob Poe says he will remain Democratic chairman — for now
TALLAHASSEE — Florida Democratic Party Chairman Bob Poe, under pressure to resign since the party's dismal showing on Election Day, will remain at his post — at least for now. Poe met with several Democratic senators Wednesday and said he agreed to lead the party through a transition in structure. But he acknowledged that he could step down at some point before his term expires in December 2004...

Democrats' leader to ease out
The party's trouncing in the election has led to mounting pressure on the state chairman...

Shakeup looms in shaken party
The man who presided over the Florida Democratic Party's most devastating election losses in modern times told leading elected officials Wednesday that he would resign from his post...

Dredging suspected to have caused coral reef damage
LIGHTHOUSE POINT — The dredging of Hillsboro Inlet is suspected to have caused extensive damage to coral reefs, sea fans, sponges and other marine life, environmental officials said. The damage was discovered in recent weeks by recreational divers, who videotaped the area and gave those tapes to state and Broward County officials...

Escambia commissioner says he assumed Childers offered bribe
SHALIMAR — A suspended Escambia County commissioner testified Wednesday that he assumed fellow board member W.D. Childers offered him a bribe by jotting "100,000/100,000" on a piece of paper although he never explained the notation. Willie Junior said he believed Childers, a former Florida Senate president, meant he would get $100,000. He testified at the trial of real estate salesman Joe Elliott on charges of bribing both commissioners to sell a defunct Pensacola soccer complex to the county for $3.9 million...

Plan to pipe natural gas to Florida from Bahamas denounced
DANIA BEACH — Plans made by an international power company to build a 95-mile steel undersea pipeline, which would move natural gas from the Bahamas to South Florida, were denounced at a public meeting. AES Corp. bought a manmade Bahamian island, Ocean Cay, last year and announced plans to build a $1.3 billion complex of power and natural gas plants. The island is located about 50 miles east of Miami...

State wants citrus canker law declared constitutional
WEST PALM BEACH — The state Department of Agriculture asked an appellate court Wednesday to reverse a judge's ruling that Florida's citrus canker law is unconstitutional and cannot be enforced. A three-judge panel at the 4th District Court of Appeal fired questions at attorneys for homeowners, local governments and the state throughout the 75-minute hearing...

Tampa woman evicted because of son's drug crimes gets new trial
TAMPA — A public housing resident who recently lost a court fight to stop her eviction because of her son's drug crimes will get a new trial because a juror slept through much of the testimony, a judge ruled. The Tampa Housing Authority has been trying to oust Connie Burton since her son was arrested in April 1999 and charged with selling marijuana to an undercover police officer in Robles Park...

Unwanted, skinheads shift concert location
DAYTONA BEACH -- A violent white supremacist group has apparently shifted a weekend concert of hate-filled music, Hammerfest 2002, from Daytona Beach to an undisclosed site in Jacksonville...

Stomach virus hits 117 on another cruise ship
MIAMI -- Another cruise ship that sailed from Fort Lauderdale to the Caribbean has reported 117 cases of gastrointestinal illness. 
The Centers for Disease Control said Wednesday that 114 of 1,859 passengers and three of 868 crew members aboard P&O Cruises of London's Oceana, which departed Port Everglades on Nov. 29, have contracted a stomach virus. ..

Newspaper: Public sometimes not welcome on public beaches - SARASOTA, Fla. - Beaches that have benefited from taxpayer dollars are often off-limits to the public, angering watchdog groups who say refurbished beaches should be available to everyone.
Taxpayers have purchased at least $1.69 billion worth of sand for the nation's beaches in the past decade, and at least another $5.49 billion already has been committed to future dredge-and-fill work at the shore.
By law, there should be public access to renourished shorelines that have received taxpayer assistance. But some beach towns, often rich enclaves, find ways to keep the public off their beaches by making the shore hard to access or not providing parking, the Sarasota Herald-Tribune reported...

The 'rights' of the few don't do right by manatees
Go figure this one: We give pigs constitutional protections in Florida, but when it comes to the manatee, we start talking like we're about to be overrun by Bolsheviks...

Shop Canada for drugs - in Delray
Discount Drugs of Canada's store allows customers to sign up for cheaper prescription drugs. ... Buying prescription drugs from Canada is illegal, although the U.S. Food and Drug Administration says it doesn't enforce the law against individuals who buy drugs for personal use...

U.S. popularity declining worldwide
By BOB DEANS, Palm Beach Post Washington Bureau
U.S. popularity has plunged amid perceptions that it's running roughshod over other nations, a report concludes. ...

GOP's Tammany Hall: Bush administration brings back patronage
One of the unfortunate legacies of the cold war, courtesy of President Truman, was the loyalty oath. It was mandatory for all government workers. Truman's reasoning was that on-the-record loyalty would scare off many of those communists trying to take over the country while giving the government leverage to punish workers who performed in un-American ways. 
The loyalty oath is back, dressed as a dollar sign. The Bush administration has approved giving cash bonuses of up to $25,000 each to the almost 2,000 political appointees in the federal work force. Many of the 1.7 million civil servants on the federal payroll receive bonuses, but bonuses to political appointees were banned during the Clinton administration because of the way they were used as favors in the first Bush administration. ...

12/3/02

Computer controls are hard to swallow
... The next wave of security measures in personal computing includes features that few users would accept on their own. But you might have no choice. 
The new measures travel under different names. Microsoft's technology is named "Palladium," and the company hopes to persuade the nation's largest chipmakers to incorporate it into personal computers. Intel plans a similar security feature it's calling "La Grande." Both are part of what is known as "trusted computing" -- a concept promising protection against hackers and other criminals, but with the potential to turn against consumers. 
Under the concept, computers would include a hardware-based digital security and encryption system that allowed communication with "trusted" programs, files and systems, while locking others out. This technology could help block viruses and keep unauthorized users from breaking into your hard drive from remote locations. 
But the same technology could keep you from visiting "unauthorized" Web sites. You also wouldn't be able to control which remote computers would be "trustworthy." 
One of the first and most immediate targets will be popular online file-sharing networks, the current target of legal battles. The new technology has the potential to make court battles moot -- your new computer simply wouldn't be able to play unauthorized music and video clips. ...

Bush: Progress made on finding missing children
TALLAHASSEE — A task force ordered to find each of hundreds of children missing from state custody reached its deadline Monday having found most of them, Gov. Jeb Bush said. Bush ordered the Florida Department of Law Enforcement and the Department of Children & Families in August to work together to find 393 children missing from state care. Most were runaways or had been taken by a noncustodial relative. "A whole lot of progress has been made," Bush said. "On a short term basis, a majority of the children were found."...

State to dismantle elite unit for protecting children from abuse
Child welfare officials plan today to dismantle an elite investigative unit -- originally hailed as the ultimate safety net for kids -- following an internal investigation into the case of a Riviera Beach toddler who suffered severe burns.
As one of his first acts as the Palm Beach County Department of Children & Families district administrator, David May created the backlog unit in January 2001 as the linchpin of his plan to heal an agency constantly criticized as unable to protect vulnerable children...

Support of class caps may haunt state teachers union
Florida's teachers union went to war this year against Gov. Jeb Bush, pouring nearly $3 million into a campaign to oust the provoucher Republican and install its handpicked replacement...

Orange deputies to get smallpox shots
The Orange County Sheriff's Office will become the first law-
enforcement agency in the nation to vaccinate its deputies and their adult family members against smallpox, officials said Monday.
Sheriff Kevin Beary's agency has agreed to participate in a program that not only will protect the deputies but produce a treatment for the thousands of people who would get sick from the vaccine if mass inoculations were ordered to fend off a terrorist attack....

Recalled: Scuba diving equipment that could leak air
WASHINGTON -- A California company is recalling about 24,700 
pieces of scuba diving equipment that could leak air, possibly causing divers to drown.
Oceanic USA, of San Leandro, has received six reports of air leaks, along with either noise or vibration, from their Oceanic CDX first stage regulators, according to the Consumer Product Safety Commission. No injuries have been reported.
CDX regulators included in the recall have serial numbers 9200001 through 9205622, 9800013 through 9801711, 0200001 through 0213294, 0D0001 through 0D3046, and 9D0001 through 9D3273. They were sold with second stage regulators: Alpha 7, Delta 3, Gamma 2 and Zeta...

Execution on hold to allow DNA tests
Gov. Jeb Bush postponed an execution Monday with just one hour to spare, saying he would let experts try a new type of DNA testing on some quarter- century-old evidence...

Hastings to seek U.S. Senate seat if Graham leaves
MIAMI — U.S. Rep. Alcee Hastings plans to run for the U.S. Senate in 2004 if Sen. Bob Graham decides not to seek re-election, the congressman's spokesman said Monday. Hastings, D-Miramar, would only run if Graham chooses not to pursue a fourth term in office. Graham, a Democrat, is expected to make his decision by January or February...

Miami elections supervisor resigns following botched primary
MIAMI — Miami-Dade County's veteran elections supervisor, who was heavily criticized for botching the September primary, announced his resignation Monday. Elections supervisor David Leahy said in a letter to County Manager Steve Shiver that he will remain in his job until his successor is hired...
Miami-Dade's elections chief calls it quits
David C. Leahy, the low-key bureaucrat hired two decades ago to run Miami-Dade's elections department, announced his resignation Monday amid mounting criticism of botched elections under his watch...
Shiver should be next to go
``You're wrong about David Leahy!'' Joe Geller, former chairman of the Democratic Party in Miami-Dade County, started chiding me after we ran into each other at a restaurant last week. Geller's comments were perfectly genial. Nevertheless, he was insistent...

Maddox begins campaign for state party post
Leon County Democratic Party activists chose Tallahassee Mayor Scott Maddox as their chairman Monday night in an effort to topple the state party leadership...
WHAT IS THE LEON COUNTY DEMOCRATIC EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE?
It has about 125 members, mostly precinct committeemen and committeewomen, serving four-year terms. The number varies, depending on the number of local elected officials and people moving away...

DCF interim director has had long road to Miami
Thirty-five years ago, Chelly Schembera was a young state caseworker at Florida's largest psychiatric hospital. For a few thousand dollars a year, she helped shepherd thousands of mentally ill patients -- many of whom had been needlessly committed -- through the overcrowded facility...

State employees recognized for taxpayers' savings
State employees are honored today at the annual Davis Productivity Awards luncheon, spotlighting extra effort and smart thinking that saved taxpayers $321 million this year. Lt. Gov. Frank Brogan is the featured speaker. For the full story, see tomorrow's edition of the Tallahassee Democrat and Tallahassee Democrat Online...

Orlando passes ordinance protecting gays from discrimination
ORLANDO — Gays, lesbians and bisexuals were added to the city's anti-discrimination protection law Monday on a 4-3 vote by the City Council. The measure added "sexual orientation" to the list of classes already protected by the city, including race, national origin, religion, gender, disability, age and marital status...

Settlement's tangles being untied
The attorney for a developmentally disabled Liberty County woman who was raped and tortured while in a state group home asked a judge Monday to force state officials to begin paying a $7.6 million settlement to her family...

End-of-life care-- Patients, families need to understand options-- 
Studies on medical needs and services are a dime a dozen. There are so many, driven by so many agendas, that they are easy to tune out. One, though, stands out. It is by Last Acts, a national coalition of health and aging groups, and assesses end- of-life care. The report gives Florida health-care providers good marks for living wills, pain management and hospi