Oh what fun it is to write as gov'ment has its way!
"JEB BUSH WE HAVE HEARD ON HIGH ..."

The governor's real issue
Palm Beach Post Editorial
Reporting by The Post, not paper's 'conduct.'

Penelas rebuffed on drug efforts
Miami-Dade Mayor Alex Penelas is seeking to galvanize a statewide crusade to purchase low-cost prescription drugs from Canada, but Florida's chief executive said on Wednesday that he wants no part of it.
Gov. Jeb Bush rejected as risky and ill-advised Penelas' notion that the state should seek a federal waiver allowing it to import drugs from Canada as a way to reduce the high cost of prescription medication for public employees and retirees.

Phone Companies Reach Out To Touch Your Wallet
Some people - like you, you ungrateful moocher - simply don't understand how lucky they are.
Fortunately, thanks to those dedicated watchdogs on the Florida Public Service Commission, soon you'll be able to pay more for your telephone usage.

Gov. Bush dedicates nation's first faith-based prison

Audit questions company's ties with prison industries system

Is Jeb's promise a vow?
Potential politics of the marriage initiative.

Why state vouchers discriminate
Private-school students spared FCAT penalties.

Florida threatens 50 private schools with loss of voucher funds
The state announced Tuesday it will pull about $1.2 million in voucher funding next year from 50 private schools, including 16 in South Florida, if those schools don't comply with a new online application by mid-January.
Fifty more vouchers schools put on probation

Education board head rips audits of voucher programs
The chairman of Florida's Board of Education criticizes audits of the programs by Chief Financial Officer Tom Gallagher.

Charter school salaries draw state scrutiny

Close sprawl loophole
Ag Reserve land swap undercuts the voters.

Panhandle airport land-use change to raise St. Joe's taxes

New election supervisor chosen for Seminole County

Dozen academics and staffers fired at Univ. of Miami think tank

Judge rules Limbaugh medical records to remain sealed for now 12/25
Judge: Prosecutors can examine Limbaugh medical records 12/24

Everyone ends up being a pawn in this kind of legal wrangling
Len Stamos has owned Beach Cyclist Sports Center in St. Pete Beach for nine years. A couple of Saturdays ago, a guy came into his shop and asked to test ride a $300 mountain bike...

Media helped to keep 'the secret'
All but public knew of Thurmond's daughter.

Molly Ivins: A few good reads for the holidays
AUSTIN, Texas — My fellow procrastinators, never let it be said that we do not think about Christmas shopping. Actually doing anything about it is such a radical step we can safely put it off for a few more days. But I feel contemplation counts almost as much as the actual gift. Hence, the annual Christmas roundup of good books. We have plenty of time to decide which one goes to whom — that's the hard part — then a simple One Stop at the local bookstore, and we're all done.

Easing of air pollution rule blocked
Bush's contentious changes were to go into effect this week.

Researchers: Soot in snow has role in global warming
Soot causes snow to absorb more sunlight and reflect less heat back into space, scientists find.

12/21-19/03

Judge: I saw police commit felonies
A judge presiding over the cases of free trade protesters said in court that he saw ''no less than 20 felonies committed by police officers'' during the November demonstrations, adding to a chorus of complaints about police conduct.
Miami judge questions police action at free trade demonstrations

Ex-felons seeking voting rights get trial
A federal appellate court grants more than 600,000 former felons in Florida a federal trial to challenge the state's ban on the restoration of their voting rights.
A federal appellate court ruled Friday that Florida's 135-year-old ban on ex-felons' voting rights could be racially discriminatory, and ordered a Miami trial for hundreds of thousands of former convicts seeking to restore those rights.
The 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta said the state must prove the 1968 Legislature did not discriminate against blacks when it slightly amended a post-Civil War law barring ex-felons from voting.

Don't allow fiasco to happen again
The electronic voting machines are better than dimpled chads but need back-up.

A bad connection
Basic residential phone service will increase in cost by record proportions, affecting most the Florida consumers who can least afford it, for no good reason.
It's official: Florida residents are at the mercy of the phone companies. A decision by the Public Service Commission this week will allow record increases in the cost of residential phone service - in some areas up to 90 percent higher rates over three years. The only hope left for consumers is an appeal promised by Attorney General Charlie Crist and the Office of Public Counsel.
Last hope to stop phone-rate gouge
Florida's regulators failed their bosses.
Extra costs in phone bill add up to $$$
State regulators approved a juicy rate hike for phone companies last week, promising that it will lure more competition to Florida and reduce costs for the average consumer.

Use the Net on runaway legislators
Let's create a test program for a 'virtual Legislature.'

The spirit of public service
I wonder how long it's been since someone in the Florida Legislature quoted Thomas Paine's "The Rights of Man." Ages ago, when public service seemed to have a more noble bearing than it does today, I'd sit in the press box listening to debates about leadership and ethics.

Lax Fla. rules imperil workers, advocates say
Becoming a farmworker contractor in Florida is decidedly easier than it is in California.

High court: State needs 84 new trial judges

State puts effort to add guardrails on fast track
The state has hastened its plan to add median guardrails to the Florida turnpike north of Fort Pierce.
Florida turnpike officials said late Friday that they would spend $30 million to $40 million during the next 18 months for 156 miles of new median guardrails to cut down on the string of ''crossover'' fatal accidents.

Legislature plays fast and loose with the people's voucher money
The trouble with liberal Democrats is they don't know a thing about how to handle tax dollars responsibly.
No, ma'am. A Democrat politician gets some fool idea in his head for a new government program, and rushes right out to throw the public's money at it.
Even if that money gets wasted, or stolen, it doesn't matter. They don't like audits, or accounting, or any of that stuff. If their buddies get rich, that's just fine.
Yep, liberal Democrats can't be trusted with our money.
Except ... except for one little thing.
That is exactly how the supposedly "conservative" Republicans who control the Florida Legislature have behaved when it comes to school vouchers.
Vouchers beyond repair
Palm Beach Post Editorial
Even Horne's fixes have to be fixed.

Enrollment grew by 60,000 in public schools this year

More DCF stonewalling
Silencing critics, not correcting problems.

Shortages in South Florida raise fears elsewhere
As an Army officer stationed in the Sahara Desert in Sudan in the 1980s, Steve Monsees dreamed of water - and retiring to a Florida lakefront home.
Water officials looking at desalination as alternative
In a state nearly surrounded by seawater, desalination would seem to be an answer to any future water worries. Desalination is the process of converting salt water into fresh water. There are 2,542 seawater desalination plants producing 6.9 billion gallons of fresh water per day, according to the International Desalination Association.

Environmentalists start e-mail effort
A new environmental group aided by officials from the former Clinton Administration has launched a Florida-focused e-mail campaign to publicize its view that President Bush has undermined clean air protections.

A reprieve for the Keys
Court saves archipelago from overdevelopment.

Residents of trailer parks feel pressured to get out
For six months, residents at a Keys mobile-home park have fought a developer's plan to build luxury town houses. Similar battles are being waged statewide, but nowhere as fiercely as in the Keys.
A waste container the size of a bus sits like a giant urn outside Doris Carden's mobile home, brimming with this community's ashes: twisted metal and rubble from trailers lost to the wrecker's maw.

In Florida, smoking ban blamed for decline at bars, restaurants

Audit: Oliphant left Broward elections office with large deficit

Corporate reimbursement of political donations results in $168,000 in fines

DUI killer buys way out of longer sentence
For $100,000, five years in prison becomes two.

Excellence in blathering
New view of prosecutors from Limbaugh the target.

Cheney: Three-time loser?
High court should reject executive privilege claim.

Bush administration shows stunning hypocrisy in Iraq
Well! I am certainly glad to see that we are telling off the French, Germans and Russians. I couldn't agree more with the Bush administration that those treacherous, undependable countries should be punished for their past cooperation with Saddam by being shut out of the $18.6 billion in Iraqi reconstruction contracts. No contracts for quislings!

12/18-16/03

Bay County voters to have say on airport (reports AP)
(but the referendum is scheduled after the fact - St Joe's stock up $1.72 on the news and CEO Rummell's shares scores him $1.7million - see press release here

Let's see: Higher phone bills mean consumers win, right? Right
 So, the phone companies won on Tuesday. Biiiiiig surprise.
They wrote their own law in the first place. Then they used raw power to ram that law through the Legislature.
On Tuesday, they completed the slam-dunk. They used that law to win massive rate increases for residential customers from the state Public Service Commission.
In the end, there was not much drama to it. The PSC vote was 5-to-zip.
Stick 'em up!...
An unjustified increase
Attorney General Crist is standing up for consumers in his appeal of phone rates.
A bad call
Phone rate hike is troubling
When Gov. Jeb Bush and the Legislature opened the door for local phone rate hikes, they claimed that doing so would create a more competitive market and, ultimately, long-distance savings for Florida residents. But they left it up to the Public Service Commission to decide whether BellSouth, Sprint and Verizon could be trusted to facilitate lower long-distance bills in exchange for a controversial $355 million telephone-rate increase.
State regulators approve local phone rate increases

'Miami Model' of FTAA security is lightning rod
Richard Trumka is not someone you want as an enemy. A third-generation coal miner, Trumka was born in a small Pennsylvania coal town. While working the mines he went to law school at night and later led an upstart campaign to take over the mineworkers union. While president, he waged two bitter strikes against the state's largest coal operators.
Today, as secretary-treasurer of the national AFL-CIO, the 54-year-old Trumka is one of the most powerful men in organized labor and has made it his personal mission to settle the score with Miami city leaders and its police force for what happened during the Free Trade Area of the Americas summit last month...

Scripps outlines its business plan to state
By S.V. Date, Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
The Scripps Research Institute presents a state board with a schedule of money it expects from the state and expenditures it plans to make.

Judge postpones an initial hearing on Schiavo law

Newspaper's reporters turned away from interview with governor
TALLAHASSEE — Three Palm Beach Post reporters were turned away Wednesday from a year-end interview with Gov. Jeb Bush because his office said the newspaper's bureau chief has treated staff members inappropriately.
Gov. Bush snubs newspaper in annual interview

DCF chief tells workers to stop speaking to lawmaker
Jerry Regier orders his staff to stop speaking to state Rep. Susan Bucher, who he felt was rude.

Exercise More Fiscal Oversight
You'd think that before spending $100 million a year to send almost 25,000 students off to private schools under Florida's three school voucher programs, state officials would make sure there was adequate fiscal oversight over those programs. You'd be wrong, though. And you shouldn't be happy about it.
School voucher probation list delayed
A list of 100 private schools were put on probation for breaking the law was not released after scholarship funding organizations said it was inaccurate.
State cuts off vouchers from 100 schools
 FORT LAUDERDALE - Another 100 private schools have been suspended from Florida's voucher programs because they failed to meet Monday's deadline for complying with new state requirements.
The schools join 21 others already cut off from receiving state voucher money. About 1,700 students have been using state voucher money to attend those schools. That amounts to about 7 percent of the voucher students statewide.
State confirms failures by Horne on vouchers
Palm Beach Post Editorial
To put it bluntly, the commissioner lied.

State debt nears its target cap
 TALLAHASSEE - Florida's debt continued to rise in 2003, leaving the state little room to borrow money needed for the huge costs for smaller classes and the bullet train voters have demanded.
Still, the economy is showing signs of recovery, Florida's credit rating is healthy, and the state has $1.6-billion tucked away for emergencies, Gov. Jeb Bush and the Cabinet were told Tuesday.
The latest snapshot of Florida's debt was presented to Florida's top officials by Ben Watkins, director of the Division of Bond Finance. His report could be a new weapon for Bush in his efforts to repeal the class size and train initiatives from the state Constitution.

Bush reiterates class size problems
The governor says the money going to build classrooms could have increased teacher pay.
TALLAHASSEE - Gov. Jeb Bush said Wednesday his next budget will upset some Florida school districts that failed to reduce class sizes as required by a voter-approved constitutional amendment he opposed.
Governor targets amendment
Bush may use petition to get class size on ballot
Gov. Jeb Bush said Wednesday that if the 2004 Legislature again refuses to help him kill the state's constitutionally imposed limit on class sizes in public schools, he might turn to a public-petition campaign.
Bush working on options to repeal class size amendment

Board warns of school funding shifts
FORT LAUDERDALE - The Florida Board of Education finds itself in the uncomfortable position of enforcing the constitutional requirement to reduce class sizes while hoping it is repealed.
Enforcing the amendment's requirements could mean shifting up to $41-million from school districts' general accounts into construction. That shift would be a burden to those districts, which are counting on using that money for other expenses.
Districts may face penalties for failing to meet class size limits

Bush frets over pre-kindergarten cost
Implementing a constitutional requirement won't be easy, he tells governors and experts.
Most districts met first-year requirements of class size

Tiny charges bear weight of more cuts in programs
... These are not good days at PARC. These are not good times for agencies across the state that care for the developmentally disabled, period....
Can state's spare gold pull needy from cold?

Rail backers undaunted by governor's criticisms
The High Speed Rail Authority says it is still determined to bring a bullet train to the state.
Byrd cool to idea of repealing high speed rail

Growth may hinge on water
ALTAMONTE SPRINGS -- For the first time in Florida, the approval of new development could be tied to the availability of drinking water, under growth guidelines state planners proposed Wednesday for the Wekiva River basin.
Under a Department of Community Affairs recommendation, local governments in a 300,000-acre "study area," mostly west of the Wekiva River, would have to show that they have enough water before they could approve new subdivisions or businesses in rural areas.
Water in Wakulla to be bottled?
Couple looking to sell groundwater to distributor
A proposed water-pumping operation within two miles of Wakulla Springs State Park is raising concerns about water transfers, jobs and the effects on Wakulla Springs.

Medicaid fraud costs taxpayers millions
Fraud in Medicaid's system for dispensing prescription drugs to the poor costs taxpayers tens of millions of dollars a year in South Florida, according to a new statewide grand jury report, which urges tougher penalties for cheaters, including booting out patients who sell their medicines on the black market.

Jeb Bush: President won't tout Martinez
The governor says the White House has promised to stay neutral on GOP rivals for Bob Graham's Senate seat.
Martinez wasn't `handpicked' for Florida U.S. Senate race, president maintains
Tallahassee · Gov. Jeb Bush said Wednesday that former federal housing secretary Mel Martinez is not the "handpicked candidate" of the Bush White House in Florida's hotly contested Republican primary for U.S. Senate.
Bush said he has had a couple of conversations with his brother, President George W. Bush, and several exchanges with White House political strategist Karl Rove on Martinez.
Ex-senator from N.H. will compete for Graham's seat

Key West orders photos and fingerprints of homeless
KEY WEST -- An order to start taking photographs and fingerprints of homeless people sleeping on public land has civil liberties groups claiming rights will be violated.
The executive order signed by City Manager Julio Avael _ bypassing a city commission vote _ is part of an ongoing attempt to keep homeless people away from tourist-frequented areas owned by the city.

Orange County passes ordinance protecting gays from discrimination

Employee sues after dismissal over drug test
Analyst Roderick H. Wenzel says the Department of Juvenile Justice had no right to force him to take a mandatory drug test, then to fire him for refusing.
After the state Department of Juvenile Justice began an agency-wide program of random drug tests, one man just said no. He says it cost him his job, and now he is taking the department to court.
Juvenile Justice sued by former employee
A veteran state employee sued the Department of Juvenile Justice on Wednesday for firing him when he refused to submit to random drug testing.
Fired Department of Juvenile Justice worker sues over drug test

Block this power grab
First step to putting houses on sugar fields.

Georgia theme park poised to acquire Cypress Gardens

Environmentalists criticize EPA proposal on mercury
Power companies could keep polluting if they buy credits from clean operators.

Louisiana's Sen. Breaux won't seek reelection
He's one of five southern Democrats who won't be running for new Senate terms in 2004.

Federal jury indicts former Illinois governor
Former Illinois Gov. George Ryan, nominated this year for the Nobel Peace Prize, is accused of multiple crimes.

President Hillary? I just don't get it
The lines of people eager to see her snake around the block in virtually any city she visits on her tour. Like a rock star, she sells out any venue she sets her sights on. At the top of her game, she's treated like royalty.

Molly Ivins: Way to tell off the French, Germans and Russians!
LOS ANGELES — Well! I am certainly glad to see that we are telling off the French, Germans and Russians. I couldn't agree more with the Bush administration that those treacherous, undependable countries should be punished for their past cooperation with Saddam by being shut out of the $18.6 billion in Iraqi reconstruction contracts. No contracts for quislings! Someone's got to uphold standards of morality and purity, and who better than us? As the president so often reminds us...

Molly Ivins: Consider these options as holiday gifts
LOS ANGELES, Calif. — For those of us who are in a bit of lather about the state of the union these days — and who hate to shop anyway — the holidays offer a swell opportunity to help save the country and the earth, while getting rid of our entire shopping list at the same time. We can knock off our entire Christmas or Hanukkah gift lists without ever going near a mall.
The perfect answer, of course, is to give money to a worthy cause in the name of your friends and loved ones. ...

Bush Overruled on 'Dirty Bomb' Suspect
president needs congress to declare a US citizen an "enemy combatant"

A question of access
The Supreme Court has agreed to answer this question: Does the Bush administration work for the American people or exist to front for the oil and gas industry? Vice President Dick Cheney, who headed a task force that wrote the administration's energy policy, showed contempt for the democratic process by meeting almost exclusively with industry executives, by driving discussions underground and then by waging a battle in court to keep these records secret. How the nation protects and expands its energy supply is a compelling public concern, even if Cheney thinks it's none of the public's business
High court to hear Cheney secrecy case
By The Los Angeles Times
A shield of privacy would protect Vice President Dick Cheney and other Bush advisers when the discuss official business.

12/15-13/03

Accessible polls
Counties falling short of aid for disabled voters
Disabled voters should find polling places easier to get into come Election Day 2004. But they may not find it any easier to vote once they're there.

Restoring rights difficult for felons
Another world lies just a block or two behind the lush lawns and stately plantation homes from Jefferson County's tobacco-growing days. It's marked by ramshackle houses and dirt yards where skinny yellow hound dogs with lolling tongues seek shade under dusty, battered cars and pickups.

Columnist finds root of evil: Redistricting
A sure sign you've become a crank is when you find one thing seems to explain everything under the sun.
Lately, I find myself becoming a crank of a particularly rarified kind. I've become a redistricting crank.

Drug Florida uses in executions at the center of court fights

Voucher oversight . . .
The Florida Board of Education's refusal to apply even minimal housekeeping principles to its prize voucher experiment does not deserve a passing grade.
Keep pressure on vouchers
The state CFO is taking right step to audit controversial voucher programs.
Florida voucher reprimand takes on political prisoners
No longer is it merely 'alarmist' Democrats complaining about vouchers. Now, a likely GOP candidate for governor is involved.

Put bullet train repeal on November '04 ballot
Governor right that it would be boondoggle.

Chiles' legacy traipses through our memories
 The walking senator lives on.
Friday marked five years since the death of Lawton Chiles, whose heart gave out while he was exercising. He was 68 and just a few weeks short of finishing his second term.

Third Byrd appointee quits state panel
Thomas M. Fiorentino is third appointee of House Speaker Johnnie Byrd to quit state committees.

Lawyer: Newspaper will pay for harming businessman

Arab Americans organize to influence local, state elections

Seeking common ground
Environmentalists, developers at odds over wetlands formula Lee Kissick can walk onto a spot of bone-dry ground, pick up a handful of heavy soil, peer at a few plants and tree roots and tell you whether the area was once a thriving wetland.

Greenpeace challenges prosecution in mahogany protest

Old gas leaks fuel new worries
Contaminated drinking wells in Old Palm City are posing health risks, officials acknowledge.

Rush's drug use has Palm Beach in tizzy
The talk show host's problems garner him sympathy from some neighbors and disdain among others in the wealthy community.
State officials create prescription drug abuse task force

Mayor supports Canadian drug buys
Miami-Dade County Mayor Alex Penelas is proposing to buy Canadian drugs for employees in the county's health plan and use the savings to subsidize drug costs of low-income senior citizens.

Health care comes before Medicare
Medicare "reform" will bring no relief because Congress and President Bush left the patient on the operating table.

End America's denial of farm labor reality
It may be fashionable to describe America's migrant farmworkers as an invisible population. But Floridians know better.
Support grows for immigrant bills
Two pending bills offer legal status and some workplace protections.

White House Watch: AARP now taking aim at Social Security
WASHINGTON — William "Bill" Novelli, architect of passage of the controversial Medicare prescription drug coverage just signed into law by President Bush, strode fearlessly into a room of reporters and said that Social Security will be next.
Oh, dear.
Novelli, a public-relations whiz who helped refine the art of lobbying, in 2000 became head of AARP, which purports to represent the interests of 35 million Americans in Washington. If AARP hadn't endorsed Bush's Medicare plan, many in Congress think it wouldn't have passed.

12/12-8/03

Graham files bill to require paper records from voting machines
--Voting machines need a paper trail
This week marks the third anniversary of Bush vs. Gore, the U.S. Supreme Court decision that halted the Florida ballot recount. The 36-day impasse exposed the cracks in the state's electoral infrastructure.

Democrats seek independent body to map political boundaries

`A lot of name-calling about my donations'
Many other wealthy Americans and I are contributing millions of dollars to grass-roots organizations engaged in the 2004 presidential election. We are deeply concerned with the direction in which the Bush administration is taking the United States and the world.
(George Soros)

Bill would bar write-ins from closing primaries
The bill backed by two Palm Beach County lawmakers would require approval by legislators and voters.

Lawton's legacy
Programs for kids keep Chiles alive
Fifteen miles from the Capitol, beneath a gray granite slab marked only by his name and the dates 1930-1998, is the grave of Lawton Chiles.

Tom Lee to lead state Senate
...Senate Republicans picked Sen. Tom Lee, R-Brandon, to lead that body for two years beginning in the fall of 2004.
Lee publicly criticized Gov. Jeb Bush during this year's medical malpractice debate and has accused him of putting a happy face on what Lee calls a dire financial picture for the state. Bush even flew to Brandon to try to patch things up this summer.
House Speaker Byrd hits appointment slump
House Speaker Johnnie Byrd has had a few problems lately with some of his political appointments.

Republicans-only legislative parley galls Democrats
 TALLAHASSEE - A planned legislative retreat this week sparked trouble in the Senate on Tuesday when Democrats realized they were not invited.
The policy forum is for Republicans only.
House Speaker Johnnie Byrd, R-Plant City, proposed the forum to Senate President Jim King, R-Jacksonville, who agreed. ...

Bill would block environmental cleanup suits for bullet pollution

Lawmakers want hard road for initiatives
TALLAHASSEE - Florida lawmakers on Monday began looking for ways to make it more difficult to pass citizen initiatives.

Sprint, Verizon offer deal
The companies say they will support a program that helps poor people get phone service if the state OKs a rate hike.
Proposed rate increases for three local phone companies

Court upholds state, county growth management in Keys

Audit: Voucher oversight lax
An investigation by Florida's chief financial officer lays the disorganization of two pioneering programs at the governor's door.
Voucher audit triggers crime probes
Reviews of state voucher programs by Florida's chief financial officer has resulted in 'active criminal investigations.'
School voucher control assailed in audit
The state has failed to hold school voucher providers accountable, an audit of the program finds, and the lax oversight has led to criminal investigations.
The state's chief financial officer issued a blistering report Thursday that criticized Gov. Jeb Bush's highly touted school voucher program for lacking basic accountability measures that might have prevented criminal activity.
Gallagher urges better oversight of school voucher programs
Most disabled children using vouchers don't get special classes

Criticism mounts over Regier's prayer proposal
Since joining the Department of Children & Families, Secretary Jerry Regier has tried centralizing his administration, shifting management to private companies and developing a ''character-building'' course for harried social workers.

Costs stifle nursing schools
Community colleges turn away thousands of nursing students each year, despite a statewide shortage.

FAMU finds misplaced $3 million
2001-02 account was not updated to next fiscal year
Florida A&M University financial employees have recovered $3 million in construction money that had been lost in accounting oversights.
FAMU's good news
Locating missing funds a victory
Florida A&M University cleared a major hurdle this week with the news that it recovered $3 million in previously missing construction money. Accounting oversights were to blame: The money hadn't been transferred from a 2001-02 account to the next fiscal year.

Supreme Court suspends law license of former social services chief
TALLAHASSEE · Kathleen Ann Kearney, the former Broward County judge who served as Gov. Jeb Bush's top social services administrator for almost four years, has lost her law license for 91 days for refusing to answer a complaint filed during her divorce proceedings.

Reporter testifies in defense of story
A reporter defends an article that Anderson Columbia's founder, Joe Anderson Jr., alleges cast him in a false light by implying he murdered his wife.
Former Bush aide disputes paver in Pensacola newspaper trial

Pensacola cocaine trafficking bust nets some prominent names

No restoration of trust
The water district and an Everglades contract.

State launching studies on patient safety at Florida hospitals

Not a political crime
Limbaugh investigation deals with state problem.

Judge: Al-Arian search warrant documents accidentally destroyed

Sea turtles strandings in Florida reach new high

Molly Ivins: Help your contributors and fry your enemies
AUSTIN, Texas — I can't tell whether this administration is flaunting its cynicism, its contempt for science or its conviction that when in power you help your contributors and fry your enemies. Although how millions of small children and unborn fetuses came to be enemies of Bush & Co. is beyond my political or theological understanding. We are talking about the rollback announced last week in regulating mercury pollution. Except, of course, it wasn't announced as a rollback, it was announced as a great step forward.

Fading memories of the gulag
Alexander Solzhenitsyn is Russia's greatest living author and a Nobel laureate so it was altogether fitting that Russian President Vladimir Putin congratulated the writer on his 85th birthday. "For several generations of citizens of our country, you were an indisputable moral authority, an example of devoted and selfless service to the people and the fatherland," Putin said in a statement.
William Safire: The end of democracy
WASHINGTON — By taking over the mass media and seizing the political opposition's source of funds, Vladimir Putin and his KGB cohort have brought back one-party rule to Russia.

Democracy gets boost with campaign reform
Justices affirm that money isn't speech.

U.S. throws Iraq tantrum
Making rebuilding safe for price-gouging.

Fine print reveals real costs of Medicare prescription-drug plan
President Bush signed this largest expansion of the giant entitlement program into law with much fanfare, even though it won't come into effect until 2006, at the halfway mark of his second and final term if he wins re-election next year. It is probably a good thing that there is some time between his signature and implementation, because what you see now is most likely not going to be what you actually get
Sign now, pay later
President Bush signed the Medicare prescription drug bill into law Monday, calling it "the greatest advance in health care coverage for America's seniors since the founding of Medicare." As details of the law emerge, however, that grandiose claim may not ring true with most Medicare recipients.
Santa stuffs stockings with debt, high costs
 Daddy! Daddy! Tell us a Christmas story!"
"All right, children. Settle down and I'll tell you about how Santa brought all the grandmothers and granddaddys the gift of Medicare prescription drug coverage."
AARP moving to center, resisting ties to one party, leader says
Elderly voters typically favor Democrats, but the group is taking a more centrist stance, leader says.  (See Killing Medicare for more on AARP's cave in...)

Panels strain to find insurance solutions
Most of the 2.3 billion Floridians without health insurance work for small businesses.

The forgotten poor
If you're hungry with little or no money for a meal, you're not alone. In fact, you're part of a growing group of Americans living on the edge, scraping the bottom of the barrel.

12/7-4/03

Democrats welcome candidates to Florida
The hopefuls take shots at Bush and feed off lingering anger over the 2000 election debacle.
Democrats unsure if they should revisit vote dispute
Delegates to the state's Democratic convention disagree over whether to emphasize the 2000 election during the 2004 campaign.
Florida Democratic activists remain angry over the 2000 election, but as they heard from the party's major presidential candidates this weekend, a brewing rift emerged over how to approach the 2004 campaign: Fume over the past or move on?
Democrats: `Re-Defeat' Bush In 2004
ORLANDO - Outrage over what was repeatedly called the ``stolen'' 2000 election and the economic and foreign policies of President Bush were constant themes Saturday as five Democratic candidates for president addressed what some said was the largest Florida Democratic convention in memory. ...
Election 2004: Party convention evokes memories of 2000 recount
Election 2004: Democratic leaders say that in 2004 White House race they will avenge Florida loss

Florida won't require printouts of touch-screen votes
Election reformers ponder California's paper-trail edict, a potentially precedent-setting victory to foes of paperless electronic voting.
How secure will votes be?
Lack of a paper trail in 2004 election concerns some
When playwright Tom Stoppard said "It's not the voting that's democracy; it's the counting," he had no idea how his words would resonate in Florida and across the nation almost three decades later.
No excuse
Voter database should be completed
Much has changed since the disputed 2000 presidential election that made Florida the butt of late-night talk show jokes and raised serious questions about the integrity of elections here and throughout the country.
Democrats to try touchscreen voting machines with paper ballot

Florida regulators set to consider record phone rate hike
...In the first test of what that change will mean for everyday consumers, the state's three largest local phone companies are asking regulators to let them increase basic rates by up to nearly $7 a month -- the largest increase ever.
Firms haven't made case for phone-rate increase
Reject giveaway that Legislature approved.

Florida first in U.S. to dedicate prison to faith-based program
But critics say the governor's plan, slated for the entire Lawtey Correctional Institution in rural Bradford County, violates the separation of church and state.
Ashcroft touts religion-based social services (Florida implications)

To be or not to be?
 That is the question House Speaker Johnnie Byrd and his attorneys are having trouble answering about a supposedly "nonexistent" computer system
For those keeping score, the decision by House Speaker Johnnie Byrd to fire a computer firm hired by his predecessor has now cost Florida taxpayers more than the original contract itself. Hayes Computer Systems contract: $2.9-million. Byrd's open wallet to attorneys and companies that, without competitive bid, took over: $3.1-million....

Martinez preparing to leave Cabinet for Senate run, sources say

The Texas mess
Even if you believe in miracles, you probably don't expect to find them in public education, where the real success stories usually involve hard work and slow progress. Yet a lot of people bought into the "Texas miracle" - a tale in which old-fashioned classroom accountability and a back-to-basics curriculum produced supposedly dazzling academic gains, especially among that state's minority students.

School boards give overwhelming support to class-size amendment

Schools' Internet access in jeopardy
Bidding slip-up leaves federal funding in question
Money that helps the state provide Internet access to public schools, community colleges and universities is in limbo. Florida's request for about $7 million to help pay for a statewide educational computer network has been denied by federal authorities for the second time. But the state does expect to be able to run the network for the rest of the school year.

Low-cost health care offered
Plan available for low-income residents
Pay only $35 to $50 a month for health benefits? A state-approved pilot program is selling limited health coverage at these bargain-basement prices.

Bush ready to fight rail plan
The governor sends a memo to lawmakers decrying high-speed rail's effects on road projects and soliciting their help in killing it.

A wise voice pierces bitter chaos of the Schiavo case
 It is not usually Jay Wolfson's job to play Solomon. He is a professor of public health and medicine at USF as well as a lawyer who teaches at Stetson University College of Law.
But a judge called on him to take a look at the miserable, bitter saga of Terri Schiavo.
That's where the Solomon part comes in. Wolfson delivered a report Tuesday, the day before Schiavo's 40th birthday, that awarded some victories to both sides.
Public backs right to die, poll says
Gov. Jeb Bush and Florida Republicans reignited a national debate on the right to die when they ordered a feeding tube reinserted into a brain-damaged woman, but the majority of the state's voters believe the politicians got it wrong, according to a new poll.
A living will to disinherit politicians
Now a state senator has introduced a bill that would require Floridians to leave written instructions if they don't want to be artificially kept alive by feeding tubes or other medical devices.

GUN CONTROL: Legislators' attempt to block police from ownership records absurd
If you're a prosecutor or a police officer in Florida, here are some names to remember: Juan-Carlos Planas of Westchester; Carl Domino of Jupiter; Ken Sorensen of Key Largo; Mark Mahon, John Quinones and Mike Davis of Jacksonville; Curtis Richardson and Lorraine Ausley of Tallahassee; Don Davis of Naples; Dennis Ross of Lakeland; Jeffrey Kottkamp of Cape Coral; Kevin Ambler of Lutz; and Gaton Catens of Miami.

UF Board approves contract of incoming president (how much??)

State university presidents look at higher tuition, fees
The board that oversees Florida's public universities hear proposals that all spell one thing for students: higher tuition and fees, if adopted.

University of Florida to open major butterfly research center

FAMU chief in state's crosshairs
Education officials say Fred Gainous must find answers for the school's financial woes - or else.
FAMU's president criticized, defended amid financial crisis
Despite strong public criticism of his leadership abilities, Florida A&M University President Fred Gainous continues to press forward with overhauling the state's only public historically black university.

Still harvesting shame
The captives who shaped early Florida were freed, but slave labor always has seen to it that Americans have cheap vegetables and orange juice.

Clash erupts over higher ed powers
TALLAHASSEE - As chairman of Florida State University's governing board, John Thrasher thinks his group has the responsibility to set budgets and search for a president.
And that's exactly what he told the Board of Governors, the new panel that oversees the state's 11 universities, in a letter questioning its authority over the FSU trustees.
The Board of Governors, added to the state Constitution last year, adamantly disagrees.
The conflict may set up a legal showdown between the two boards. It may even lead to an outright refusal by FSU to obey the Board of Governors.

Newspaper: Informant judge complains corruption probe abandoned

Water managers consider no-bid contract
An $1.5 million contract would see whether private interests, some with ties to the Bushes, could operate a reservoir cheaper.

The wrong man
We can't imagine a clearer ethical conflict: One of the biggest shippers at the Tampa port wants to sit on the port authority's governing board. Gov. Jeb Bush, who will make the appointment, should name someone who would have an easier time separating his own business affairs from the port's broader public mission.

Station aims to give voice to migrant workers
Migrant workers in Immokalee prepare to launch a community radio station that would carry news shows in indigenous languages such as Zapotec and Quiche.
IMMOKALEE In an effort to give a voice to migrant workers, dozens of radio techies from around the country descended on the farming town of Immokalee over the weekend to build a community radio station.

Union criticizes Disney's proposal to lay off banquet workers

Limbaugh allegedly 'doctor shopped' for pills
Criminal charges could arise from search warrants of physicians who prescribed painkiller.

Instant expertise
The recent effort to reform Medicare and add a complex prescription drug benefit was controversial enough, considering that a few congressional Republicans wrote the legislation in private. Now we find out that the nation's top Medicare official, Thomas Scully, helped draft the bill and is now seeking a position with businesses that will likely profit from the new rules.

Former EPA chief helps group formed to attack Bush on environment

Rules change accompanies forest fire law
As Bush signs a bill to ease forest thinning, he removes a safeguard for endangered species.

Analysis: Bush decision puts steel in WTO's backbone

White House seeks 'Kennedy moment' to boost Bush
President Bush's aides are considering a new lunar exploration program and other unifying national goals like a campaign to promote longevity or fight childhood illness or hunger, as they sift ideas for a fresh agenda for the final year of his term.

Selective civil liberties
The Bush administration claims that, as part of a president's wartime powers, any person may be labeled an enemy combatant and held incommunicado and without charge for the duration of hostilities....

'Dirty bomb' warheads disappear
At least 38 Alazan warheads have been modified to carry radioactive material.

12/3-1/03

Bush stays firm on Schiavo
Despite a court-appointed guardian reporting Terri Schiavo has little chance of recovering, Gov. Jeb Bush says her feeding tube will remain.
Guardian says Schiavo not likely to improve, wants to stay on case

AFL-CIO asks for probe of practices at FTAA in Miami
The AFL-CIO asked Wednesday for federal and state investigations into police conduct at the protests outside the Free Trade Area of the Americas meeting last month.

Universities Want Tuition Blank Check
TAMPA - Some of Florida's largest public universities are pushing a plan that would allow them to raise tuition and fees as high as they want in return for their promise to improve the education they give students. ...

Tax taboos
Senate President Jim King has already sent out the word that there won't be serious consideration of tax reform in the next legislative session. His finance and tax committee chairman, Skip Campbell, resigned from the panel last month, brooding that his support of changes in the corporate income tax wouldn't get a serious hearing in the Legislature.

Court hears arguments over slot machines in South Florida

New trial sought in '94 killings
Pablo Ibar was convicted and sentenced to death in a 1994 Miramar triple-murder. Ibar's attorney is asking the Florida Supreme Court to grant his client a new trial.
The masked killers walk from body to body to body, shooting each tied-up victim. One of the murderers, his work done, removes his disguise, unaware he is being recorded by a hidden camera.

Fill in the blanks
An appeals court has now determined that Florida parents don't have a right to see where their students are going wrong on standardized tests, but Gov. Jeb Bush shouldn't be so eager to gloat. His win comes at the expense of students who are being held back without really knowing why.

Pass DNA bill to help prosecution, defense
More money, more testing, more justice.

Earnhardt photos stay private

Reno endorses Castor to succeed Graham
Janet Reno cited the former education commissioners advocacy of education and the environment.
Reno endorses Castor in race
During visit, Miami-Dade mayor defends handling of FTAA protests
Former U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno endorsed Betty Castor for the U.S. Senate on Monday, calling the former education commissioner the Democratic Party's best bet for improving schools and protecting the environment in Florida.

Hungry bears descend on Panhandle communities

Commissioners won't sell Everglades Airpark property
The county-owned Everglades Airpark property will not be sold to a developer, much to the delight of Everglades City residents who passionately argued on Tuesday for the county to keep the airport open. The Collier County Commission made this decision after listening to residents describe how much of a valued asset the airport is to that community's economy and for possible emergency evacuations.

EPA considers loosening rule on mercury cleanup
The agency had been working for three years to meet a Dec. 15 deadline.

Drug benefit more like a noose
'Reform' designed to end Medicare program.

Fla. Democrats targeting part of new Medicare bill
They say they'll introduce legislation to allow Medicare to negotiate directly with drug manufacturers for lower prices.

Climate change 'entering the unknown'
Two of the nation's top climate scientists say there's no longer any doubt that human activities are changing the Earth's atmosphere and its climate, and that our children and grandchildren will inherit the consequences.

Court divided on religious tuition aid
By The Washington Post
The decision in the church-state case, expected by July, could impact school voucher programs.

High court to rule on overseas arrests
The administration wants a ruling that the U.S. can enter another country without permission and seize criminals.

That sinking feeling
The much-criticized tanker deal between the Air Force and the Boeing Co. is now further burdened by firings and a resignation at the aerospace firm.

Molly Ivins: Even children could do a better job than Congress
AUSTIN, Texas -- Call them -- irresponsible ... Call them -- unreliable ... Throw in -- undependable, too ... Yes, it's undeniably true -- the Congress of the United States makes Bart Simpson look like Averell Harriman.
The grownups have left the building. Good grief, what a horror show. ...

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