DEP chief will join company he helped
Florida's environment boss had struck a deal to benefit International Paper. Now he'll be on the payroll.
Florida's environment chief resigns to take job with logging company
Florida's top environmental officer resigned Wednesday to accept a job running environmental affairs for a company that cuts down trees for paper and wood products, International Paper.
State agency chief resigns his post
David Struhs, who has led Florida's Department of Environmental Protection since 1999, says he is leaving his job to join International Paper, a firm his agency regulated.
Florida's environmental chief said Wednesday that he is leaving his job to work for International Paper, a company his agency regulates for its pollution of Perdido Bay.
DEP secretary resigns
Struhs to be paper executive
Proclaiming Florida's land and water cleaner than he found them five years ago, Department of Environmental Protection Secretary David Struhs resigned Wednesday to become an executive for the world's largest paper company.
Head of Florida DEP resigns

Avoid perception of conflict
Last year the pharmaceutical industry had 675 Washington lobbyists -- 140 more than there are members of Congress. Now the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers Association, which employs many of those lobbyists, has decided it wants to hire one of the most powerful members of Congress as its new president.

Republican mainstay steps off party stage
How could the most Republican of all Republicans step aside when his party controls everything?...

Lower income but fewer layoffs
While Florida workers are less likely to get that dreaded pink slip than in other states, they also make less money - a problem one state agency hopes to remedy through a five-year plan to diversify the state's economy...
...Florida added 97,300 jobs from November 2002 to November 2003, and the state's unemployment rates stands at 4.7 percent.
Yet Florida's per capita income - considered by the Florida Chamber of Commerce as "the single most basic measure of a region's economic development" - has fallen over the past decade from almost 3 percent above the national average to nearly 5 percent below.

Senate president says he's not for fetal guardian law

King wants testing in voucher schools
Senate president pushes measures for accountability
Children attending private schools on the taxpayers' dime could be required to take standardized tests like their public-school counterparts, under a proposal broached Tuesday by Senate President Jim King.

Protect the constitution and state's voters
Legislative leaders missing the larger point.

Florida getting extra election money from Congress
Florida will receive $85.8 million in federal election aid this year as part of the omnibus spending bill approved by Congress last week.

Ohio congressman calls for support of red tide research
An Ohio congressman with deep Florida roots could come to the rescue of cash-strapped red tide researchers. Like the legions of Midwesterners who call Southwest Florida home for at least part of the winter, Dave Hobson can't stand the throat-scratching, eye-watering, fish-killing algae bloom.

Federal appeals court supports Florida's ban on gay adoptions
A federal appeals court upheld Florida's ban on gay adoptions -- the nation's only such law -- ruling Wednesday that the issue should be decided by state legislators and not in the courts.
Florida gay adoption ban upheld
The 11th Circuit court turned down a challenge to the 1977 law filed by four gay men seeking to adopt children they are raising.
Ban on adoptions by gays upheld by U.S. appeals court
Even though Florida is the only state to prohibit gay adoptions, appellate judges say they have no right to overrule the state Legislature.
A federal appeals court Wednesday upheld a Florida law that bars gay men and women from adopting children, maintaining Florida's distinction as the only state that bans any gay person from adopting.
Gay men lose challenge to Florida gay adoption ban

KidCare won't get a special session
A Democratic-led effort to pressure legislators to call a special session to eliminate the KidCare waiting list has failed. Secretary of State Glenda Hood, who e-mailed a yes-or-no poll on the special session to all 160 state lawmakers, announced on Tuesday the three-fifths majority of support in each chamber to trigger the special session did not occur.
Democrats can't force special session on health insurance

Governor echoes president about health care
As his brother did last week, Gov. Jeb Bush says he wants to lower costs and streamline programs for better service.
Bush unveils health care initiative

Healthy Kids funding sought
TALLAHASSEE - Facing intense political pressure from Democrats, Gov. Jeb Bush on Wednesday said he will ask lawmakers for $30-million to reduce a massive waiting list for a popular children's health insurance program.
The announcement came one week after Bush released his state budget proposal that he said would reduce the 100,000-child waiting list by only 10,500.
Caring for kids
Kids may not vote, but they do have a certain persuasive power when it comes to politics. The 100,000 children waiting for health insurance under the state's KidCare program proved an irresistible force.
Advocates praise move to add money to Florida KidCare insurance

Several agencies defying DCF's November rate cuts
Flaws in the Medicaid billing system have so far prevented DCF from enforcing its own cuts, officials say.

Placing value on learning will save our kids
I spend much of my time worrying about the plight of average African-American children...

System Must Repair Itself
It's shocking to think there may be people working for the state of Florida who have a callous disregard for the well-being and even the lives of children in their custody. Yet if a grand jury is to be believed, that is the sad state of affairs at the Department of Juvenile Justice, and particularly at the Miami-Dade County Regional Detention Center.

Too many foster kids reabused, report says
A new state report slams Florida's child welfare programs for failing to properly protect children and train caseworkers, even though the system already is undergoing a massive redesign.

Two Florida legal organizations blast prosecutors in Limbaugh case
The Florida Attorney General's Office and Florida Bar deny backing the release of records revealing plea negotiations in the talk show host's case.
Attorney general questions release of Limbaugh letters

Invalidity of state's Medicaid fraud law is upheld
A state appeals court has upheld a Miami-Dade circuit judge's ruling that a Florida Medicaid fraud law is unconstitutional because it is more restrictive than a similar federal law.
Court finds state Medicaid fraud law unconstitutional

State tells Broward to end citrus tree replacement program
State agriculture officials have ordered Broward County to end its $2 million program to provide free trees to residents who lost trees in the controversial citrus canker eradication effort.

State signs off on deal to save Cypress Gardens

What's behind the federal deficit
A Republican plan to starve the government.

President Bush's call for job training is a cruel joke
For those who follow employment policy, it was no surprise that President Bush's State of the Union address called for more job training as the solution to unemployment. For 20 years, every jobs crisis - whether inner-city poverty, jobs lost due to the North American Free Trade Agreement or loggers put out of work by the spotted owl - has been met with calls for retraining.

Klayman says Castro has biochemical weapons in Cuba

Bush's immigrant proposal draws lukewarm support, poll finds
President Bush's proposal to give temporary legal status to millions of undocumented workers has drawn lukewarm support among Hispanics, the group likely to be most affected by any changes in immigration law, according to a national poll.

Global trends suggest U.S. is a bit cocky
...Like blue-collar jobs before them, white-collar jobs are heading rapidly overseas to lower-cost countries. China is on a fast track to overtake the U.S. economy. The few new jobs created by the U.S. economy pay less and less at the very time that the U.S. deficit is soaring, endangering the American middle class and a way of life....

1/27-22/04

3 most-populous counties push for ballot paper trail
Palm Beach, Broward and Miami-Dade county commissioners agree that paper printouts are the only way to instill public confidence in touch-screen ballots.
Paper-trail hearing set for Feb. 6
U.S. Rep. Robert Wexler, D-Delray Beach, claims in a Jan. 16 suit that touch-screen voting machines are illegal.
Vote-printout case sped up
A Palm Beach Circuit judge agreed Monday to speed up a lawsuit in a case that could have far-reaching effects for Florida voters worried about the security of their ballot.

Political operators get the message too late
Where was Tallahassee when phone hike passed?

Governor seeks law to allow guardians for the unborn
Rebuffed in the courts, Gov. Bush says he'll ask lawmakers for a bill allowing the naming of guardians for the fetuses of women who can't make health decisions.
Gov. Jeb Bush will ask lawmakers to do what Florida courts repeatedly have said he can't: allow the appointment of guardians for fetuses -- at least in certain cases.
Jeb Bush wants legislation to allow guardians for fetuses

Bush, lawmakers want to lift veil off hidden funds
Gov. Jeb Bush and some lawmakers agree it's time to shed light on political donations that go into secret slush funds.

Bush: Funding for fuel cells
The governor's budget proposal seeks $15-million for research into clean-burning hydrogen.

On-the-job politicking
Why community colleges scored in Jeb's budget.

Budget deception to set wrong priorities
The governor's priority is another tax cut.

Unemployment tax to go up in April

Retiring Graham offers challenges for Everglades restoration

The cost of 'trust, don't verify'
How bigger government can protect taxpayers.

FPL must face the heat
The $62.4 million in bonuses that eight executives got for not pulling off a merger is downright Enron-like.

Enron-like education
Voucher 'entrepreneurs' are scamming Florida.
State probes Tallahassee school about possible voucher forgery

Legislature: Democrats seek special session for KidCare money

OPPAGA should not be ignored
When archaeologists dig up relics of Florida civilization thousands of years from now, they'll probably figure out what the mouse ears were for and how the Capitol got shaped like that, but one riddle is sure to keep them baffled.
Why would the Legislature create an independent agency of expert examiners who give good advice, and then utterly ignore their recommendations? In fact, without waiting for the long view of history, there's probably a good master's thesis or Ph.D. dissertation to be done on the Office of Program Policy Analysis and Government Accountability.

Older eyes take stock of new test
The new requirement for 80-and-older drivers is reasonable, agree several lining up to fulfill it. It affects more than 700,000.

FCAT-type college test just doesn't go far enough
The idea of requiring Florida's public university students to take a standardized test,
akin to the FCAT in the public schools, is fantastic.
We can call it the UCAT, with the U standing for either "university" or Steve Uhlfelder, the member of the state Board of Governors who is pushing it.
Enough, already
Florida university Board of Governors member Steven Uhlfelder, a faithful disciple of standardized testing, just won't give up. He wants some kind of test, for at least some students, at some point in their careers, so he can say the state is holding universities accountable.
Isn't it time for his colleagues to tell him to move on?
Colleges may get FCAT-like test
A standardized test is one idea Florida's Board of Governors suggests to evaluate the progress of the state's university students.

Status quo ante
To the great relief of everyone involved in Florida's judicial system, Gov. Bush's suggested budget for the courts is enough to hold things together.

Nothing special about 'special' tags any longer
A few years ago, it was semi-cool to put a specialty license tag on your car. Save the manatees. Protect the panther. Remember the Challenger astronauts.

Prosecutors smearing Limbaugh, lawyer says
The legal team for the national radio talk-show host accuses the Palm Beach County state attorney of going too far in releasing details of plea negotiations in the prescription-abuse case.
Lawyer: Prosecutors smearing Limbaugh Rush Limbaugh's attorney mounted an offensive Monday, accusing Palm Beach County prosecutors of smear tactics and likening his client to any ordinary American with chronic pain.
Defense lashes out at Limbaugh prosecutor
-- Prosecutors decline Rush Limbaugh's plea offer
-- Pain drug unleashes emotional testimony
Opposing sides clashed Monday in an emotionally charged hearing called by state senators looking into problems of overprescribing of OxyContin and other drugs.

Past of 'patriot' who made terrorist database draws scrutiny

Matrix repositioned
A federally funded database designed by a Florida company has the potential to invade personal privacy in the name of antiterrorism.

Origin of species
A food labeling law that was to tell U.S. consumers where their groceries come from has been quietly delayed in Congress, just when it's needed most.

 Sure cure for health care
TALLAHASSEE - President Bush didn't say a word about the moon or Mars during his State of the Union address. He did talk about health insurance. It must have been the polls that brought him back to earth. Listen closely, and you'll hear every candidate addressing the issue. Trouble is, the ones who are speaking most sensibly are either out of the race or were never really in it.
Nothing short of universal coverage will work.
Where he stands
Domestic programs usually are the most progressive part of any president's State of the Union agenda, regardless of political affiliation or party. Government assistance to people in need and the use of government resources to address social ills are the kinds of expenditures that typically appeal to Democrats and liberal voters. But not President Bush's list. The president is pushing a set of fiercely ideological domestic priorities that play to his right-wing base. Nearly every initiative came with a twist that made it unpalatable to the other side of the aisle, which is why so many Democrats sat on their hands.
Fighting words
In this year's State of the Union address, President Bush made no compelling case that he spoke the truth about Iraq last year. Nor did he apologize.
Weasel-wording to justify war
President sounded like the lawyers he criticizes.
What he didn't say
President Bush spent half of his State of the Union speech on a domestic agenda that was more important for what wasn't said. The president acknowledged the key problem (and his greatest vulnerability as expressed in public opinion polls): Too few Americans have jobs and health insurance. Yet his solutions were timid and conveniently ignored the fact that a growing budget deficit limits the government's ability to act.

Deficit predicted to hit $477 billion for '04
The government is on pace for a $2.4 trillion debt over the next decade, the Congressional Budget Office said Monday.

Molly Ivins: Ain't democracy grand?
AUSTIN, Texas — Love those Iowa results. Nothing better than a huge political scrum where the front-runner stumbles, the guy everyone wrote off for dead six weeks ago comes roaring back, an unknown emerges, an old war-horse drops out — a wonderful scenario. Let's hear it for upset, confusion and the conventional wisdom with egg on its face. A banana cream pie right in the kisser for everyone who pretends they know how a political race will turn out. Happy days. Ain't democracy grand?

1/21-20/04

Water battle goes before federal court
A dispute over water usage from Georgia's Lake Lanier will go before federal court today with Florida and Alabama arguing that Atlanta's attempts to use more water would choke off downstream states.

Gov. Bush '05 budget cuts taxes, ups tuition
Higher sales tax collections and a freeze in Medicaid payments fund bigger spending and smaller taxes.
-Governor outlines budget proposal
Bush downplays his proposed tax cuts, instead touting his plan to increase spending for public schools, state universities, and other areas.
-Governor loosens state's purse strings
DO-IT-ALL PLAN CALLS FOR TAX CUTS, INCREASED SPENDING, BUT DEMOCRATS CRITICIZE SOCIAL SERVICES SHORTFALL
In contrast to this years stingy state spending, Gov. Jeb Bush proposed a budget Tuesday that can almost do it all in Florida: cut taxes, increase spending and provide his brother a welcome atmosphere in which to campaign for a second White House term.
-Budget eases the pain of past higher ed cuts
TALLAHASSEE - Gov. Jeb Bush's proposed state budget has higher education officials smiling, but public school officials aren't as pleased.
-Plan would raise college funding, tuition
Gov. Bush's proposal to increase public college funding is praised by university presidents, but students would be asked to pay more for an education.
Florida undergraduates at the state's 11 public universities would face another 7.5 percent tuition increase in Gov. Jeb Bush's proposed 2004-2005 budget -- piled atop the 8.5 percent increase they were hit with last year.
-$55.4 billion ambition
Efficient government still a goal
Coming off an unusually tight year that sent acrimonious lawmakers into overtime to craft a budget, Gov. Jeb Bush on Tuesday unveiled an ambitious $55.4 billion budget proposal that cuts taxes and increases funding for education and economic development.
-Insurance may change for state workers
State employees could save on monthly health insurance premiums by taking a risk on paying higher co-payments and deductibles if they get sick, under the budget proposal Gov. Jeb Bush outlined Tuesday.
-HEALTH-PLAN CHANGES
In his 2005 budget proposal, Gov. Bush included changes in the design of state employee health plans. Here are monthly payments under the governor's plan.
-Bush strives to trim health costs
TALLAHASSEE - To increase education spending and provide another round of tax cuts, Gov Jeb Bush wants to rein in the spiraling costs of health care for the poor.
-Budget proposal takes ax to taxes
TALLAHASSEE - Gov. Jeb Bush will send the Legislature an election-year budget proposal today that will feature more tax breaks, including another tax cut for affluent investors.
-A disappointing blueprint
Gov. Jeb Bush disappointed Tuesday, presenting a lean $55.4 billion budget proposal for the coming year that all but perpetuates the status quo in how he believes the state should spend taxpayer dollars.
-Gov. Bush proposes tax cut for wealthy, $1 billion more to schools
TALLAHASSEE -- Gov. Jeb Bush unveiled a $55.4 billion state spending plan on Tuesday that cuts taxes for Florida's wealthiest residents and businesses while hitting students with higher tuition costs and leaving thousands of children and elderly on waiting lists for state services.
-More prison beds, troopers, judges called for despite lower crime rate
-Gov. Bush proposes $55.4 billion budget for 2004-05
-Bush: return sales tax holiday and phase out stock and bond tax

Governor's e-budget site

Witness: Detained kids in jeopardy
In some of the most dramatic testimony in months, lawmakers are told by a former juvenile detention officer that some bosses overlook staff improprieties, such as sleeping or using drugs.
A former juvenile detention officer from Daytona Beach Tuesday told lawmakers investigating Florida's juvenile justice program that children at risk of killing themselves routinely were left in harm's way as officers slept through their shifts.

Democrats seek special session for KidCare funds

Senate task force proposes McKay voucher reforms
Among its recommendations: Don't let home schooling consultants benefit from vouchers.

State Senate may appoint special master to review suspension of Oliphant
TALLAHASSEE -- The appointment of a special master to advise state senators on whether to confirm Gov. Jeb Bush's suspension of Miriam Oliphant as Broward County's election supervisor is the least controversial of several awkward options before him, Senate President Jim King said Tuesday.

Florida's faith-based prison is a dangerous idea
Gov. Jeb Bush's pronouncement that Florida will open the nation's first "faith-based" prison is a terrible idea that is unethical, probably unconstitutional and may even lead to favoritism of fundamentalist Christian inmates.

Officer absent at first FTAA protester trial; charges dropped

Treating the problem
More than half of all Florida parents accused of abusing or neglecting their children are hooked on drugs or alcohol. Yet only a handful ever receive treatment, and even fewer complete it. State leaders need to get serious about giving substance-abusing parents real help in kicking their habits. Until they do, Florida won't reduce the incidence of child abuse in a sustained way.

Parks service announces acting superintendent for Everglades Park

Florida wetlands reveal a bird's-eye view of birds
Bird season is reaching its peak in the Everglades and other wetlands from Naples to Lake Okeechobee.
Find some water in the Everglades, particularly shallow water, and you'll probably find birds. Lots of birds. Bird season is just hitting its peak in the Everglades and wetlands from Naples to Lake Okeechobee. So is the chance for easy viewing.

High Standards Help Florida
The Second U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals last week ruled that President Bush couldn't weaken federal air conditioner and heat pump standards. The administration's loss is a win for Florida's residents.

Iowa result buoys Fla. Democrats for primary
By Brian E. Crowley, Palm Beach Post Political Editor
Florida Democrats eager for a presidential primary fight on March 9 got a dash of hope when Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry won the Iowa caucuses.

Candidates Criticize Bush, Tout Ideas
-Full text of President Bush's speech

9/11 is low on White House priority list
Commission needs time, gets stonewalling.

Duck-blind justice
If judges are supposed to avoid even the appearance of bias, then U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia can't possibly defend his recent choice of duck-hunting buddies.

1/19-17/03

Behind the Bush protest
Many white Americans have dismissed black demonstrations against President Bush's wreath-laying trek to Martin Luther King's grave site in Atlanta as nonsense and an insult to the nation's leader.
Take lesson from King - not a piece from him
Following the teaching beats exploitation.

Congressman sues, wants voting machines to create paper printouts

Flawed legislative election highlights weakness in Florida's reform law
The recent legislative race in Broward and Palm Beach counties exposed a flaw in the state election reform law that could cast uncertainty over the upcoming presidential primary and raise the same constitutional concerns at the heart of the 2000 recount debacle.
State election officials are leaving it up to each county to decide whether they print out images of each ballot from their touch-screen voting machines during a recount of a close election. They say election law is unclear about what is required and that they cannot clear it up until after the March primary.

Secret policing
The decision to allow federal arrests without due process is an assault on freedoms worth fighting for.
The U.S. Supreme Court this week gave the federal government the green light to detain people in this country without disclosing their identities, their whereabouts or the charges against them. Secret arrests might sound like the kind of thing that goes on in Zimbabwe or Cuba, but the Bush administration's insistence that the Bill of Rights can be ignored in pursuit of terror suspects now has the approval of the highest court. It is a chilling turn of the page in the war on terrorism.
Court secrecy at new level with appeal of Sept. 11-related case

Case galvanizes opponents of U.S. secrecy
The Supreme Court will consider a South Florida immigrant's challenge to government secrecy about his detention in the war on terrorism.
An act of secrecy by a Miami judge last year, ''super-sealing'' a lawsuit by a South Florida man detained after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks so that no trace of his case appeared in any public record, has had the opposite of the intended effect.

Dispute over water usage has Florida, Alabama lining up against growing Atlanta

Newspaper lawyers say verdict could chill investigative reporting

State workers' union setting high goals
Well, there's nothing like aiming high. The American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees is negotiating with the state for employee wages, benefits and working conditions. "Negotiating" might not be the right word for what AFSCME does every year, as it implies that the other side listens and is amenable to some give-and-take.

DCF's faulty budgeting caused scare
Fix payment system for developmentally disabled.

Leaps of faith
Hire and help persons with disabilities
In Florida, only 58 percent of our more than 2 million citizens with disabilities are employed. The discouraging news is that 81 percent of these adults would like to be employed, according to a study commissioned by the Able Trust, which is also known as the Governor's Alliance for the Employment of Citizens with Disabilities.

Taxwatch: There are lots of ways the state could stretch budget

State budget looks rosier to governor
While still recovering from a nationwide economic slump, Florida shares newfound optimism with other states that this year's budget will indeed be better.

Money for college
A scheme to make legislators look good by guaranteeing Florida's prepaid tuition program ignores the ongoing crisis in education funding.

Six feet down at Turlington
Given that education board chairman Phil Handy last month dismissed potential fraud and criminality in the school voucher program as "hiccups," Florida lawmakers might not want to hold their breath for signs of deference. But one would think that a state agency asking for a quick $8.7-million to pay for its mistakes would not be so eager to engage the people who write the checks.

State eyeing drug bargains
Up to $25 million a year saved
Talk about a pharmacy bill: The state of Florida spends more than $2 billion a year on prescription drugs. It isn't listed as a separate line-item in Florida's budget. Yet the state reaches deep into taxpayers' pockets to pay for prescription drugs to protect the health of its low-income, uninsured citizens, its prisoners and its employees and retirees.

Constitution under attack!
 TALLAHASSEE - A quick quiz: What is the greatest danger to Florida? (a) Terrorism. (b) Flooding from global warming. (c) The Legislature. (d) Voter initiatives.
If you answered (a), (b) or (c) you were wrong. Or so would say the Florida Chamber of Commerce, which regards voter initiatives as "the No. 1 threat to Florida's future."

Harris' speech just one ring in bicoastal news circus
 It could only happen to Katherine Harris.
Just at the moment she stood before cameras Friday to announce her political plans, Michael Jackson, wearing a similar hairdo, left a California courtroom.

Red planet means trail of red ink
Politicians who appeal to imagination for political gain should do so carefully. Promoting fantasies is cynicism Americans don't need.

Dangerous indifference to failed weapons case
Bush dismisses evidence of needless Iraq invasion.

O'Neill attack team like a mob hit squad
Bush's defenders aim just at the knees, not the head.

(more news coming...)