Statewide Reports -July 14-22, 2002

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

7/22/02

• Congressmen spent nearly $100,000 on lobbyists
  With political careers on the line, several Florida members of Congress spent thousands on Tallahassee lobbyists as state legislators drew new congressional districts. "It was money well spent," said U.S. Rep. Adam Putnam, R-Bartow, whose district continues to include the central Florida ranchland that serves as his political base.
• The new reward for good work? No work
  ... Gov. Jeb Bush's enthusiasm for Service First is evident in a letter he sent to each of about 39,000 state employees who earned performance bonuses last month. Bush has said all along that streamlining personnel systems will ultimately make state government more efficient - and, yes, smaller.-- Nobody ever said employing people was an end, in itself, for state government.-- But for employees such as Elaine Coup, the big picture is a little hard to keep in mind. Bush's letter congratulating her on her bonus coincided with one saying she'd lost her job in the Department of Business and Professional Regulation.
• Restore whistleblower's job
  It takes guts to see something going wrong at work, and speak up about it.-- That's why Florida has a tough law meant to protect state employee "whistleblowers" from being fired when they speak out. It's troubling to see state agencies fighting to strip them of that shield.--- Mavis Georgalis was a manager at the state Department of Transportation until April 1. That day, she says, she was pushed by DOT officials into signing a letter of resignation. That happened, she says, because she and another worker filed complaints about the performance of DOT contractor Yang Enterprises. The department has since admitted that some of Yang's invoices were "questionable."
• Where has all the money gone? Retirement cash vanishes from 401(k)s
  For many American workers, 401(k) plans are their sole retirement money after Social Security and their introduction to investing in the stock market.-- 
  Most companies have abandoned traditional pension plans, which guaranteed employees a set monthly income at retirement. Instead, they encourage employees to save for retirement in tax-deferred accounts that became popular in 1980s and 1990s while matching a portion of the employees' savings.-- 
  But it means the responsibility -- and risk -- for retirement investing shifted from the companies to the individual, which means potential for losing one's entire investment portfolio.-- About 35 million people, or a third of all workers, participate in these retirement plans, with new groups, such as government workers, joining every day. Last month, Florida began to allow 600,000 local, county and state government workers to opt out of the state pension system and manage their retirement savings through an individual account.
• Cut Exorbitant Filing Fees - ...... Florida voters in 2000 passed a vital election reform. It lets independent and minor-party candidates qualify the same way as Democrats or Republicans, by paying the filing fee or submitting the same, smaller number of voter signatures.-
  ...But Florida lawmakers and voters still must make another key reform: Sharply reducing extreme qualifying fees, a huge obstacle. ...Florida has America's highest filing fees, equal to 6 percent of an official's annual salary for candidates with party labels, 4 percent for independents. Most states charge only 1 percent or 2 percent, some only $50.
• After mock election, new voting machines continue to be criticized
  The votes are in: Tiger Woods is America's best sports star, apple pie is the nation's favorite dessert, and the embarrassment over the 2000 election debacle won't end anytime soon.
• Spin Patrol
  Democrats nudge reluctant Butterworth on CFO race
• Reno makes candidacy official today
  Janet Reno, 64 and a day, will formally qualify as a candidate for governor today, leading a walk of state workers to the Capitol to file papers and stake her claim to a campaign many Democrats warned her against waging.
• Reno campaign machinery seems to be getting in gear - After months of struggling to raise money and build a political machine to rival Republican Gov. Jeb Bush, Reno's campaign has finally discovered a formula that capitalizes on the candidate's quirkiness and populist appeal.
• Reno gives Bush ads bad review - 
  Ad: ``So how is Jeb Bush doing on crime? Ask the criminals. Early release is gone. Felons now serve at least 85 percent of their sentences. Gun crime, down 24 percent, 10-20-Life worked. Drug use is down 31 percent since 1998, while funding for treatment and prevention is up 58 percent.''
  Reno: Reno points out that the requirement that felons serve 85 percent of their sentence took effect Oct. 1, 1995, three years before Bush became governor. She also claims firearm crime has increased since 1997, and that the state's murder, rape and robbery rates have inched up since 1999.
  Ad:''With Jeb Bush, leadership means results,'' the ad says. ``450,000 new jobs, the second-highest job growth in the country, the lowest crime rate in 29 years, the lowest tax burden on Floridians in a decade and a passionate commitment to education. Under Jeb Bush, education funding has increased by $3 billion. Gov. Jeb Bush. Listening, leading, making the difference for Florida.''
  Reno: Reno provides figures from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics that show unemployment claims in Florida are up by about 14 percent since 1999, and the unemployment rate is up from 4 percent in 1999 to about 5.1 percent today. She says Bush signed a $150 million tax cut for the wealthy last summer, slicing into social programs and education. Also, increases in education funding have been meager, she says, amounting to $10 per student over three years
• Democrats put GOP on grill over corporate fraud malaise
  State party members hope to use public irritation over corporate fraud as a campaign issue this fall.
• Florida counselor fired by DCF for not arranging child visits
  A longtime state foster-care counselor was fired after she admitted leaving an 8-year-old boy with an Indiana relative for four years without making sure child welfare workers visited him. Louise Taggart was fired July 8 by the Department of Children & Families. She is appealing her firing through a state grievance process, according to her union representative.
• FCAT rule hurts disabled students
  The Port Orange student fears he won't graduate unless the test is read to him.
• Plans put on hold for state rail expansion
  When it came to the future of passenger rail in Florida, Amtrak was supposed to lead the way. There were plans to expand its existing service, adding a twice-daily Jacksonville-to-Miami run down the Atlantic coast. Following in the tracks of rail pioneer Henry Flagler, it would serve travelers along the East Coast for the first time in 34 years.
• New rules may snag grouper catch
  New regulations would cut by 45 percent the amount of red grouper that commercial fishermen can take from the Gulf of Mexico.
• Red tide hits Pinellas County beaches
  Hundreds of dead fish washed ashore beaches in Pinellas County, killed by low levels of red tide off Sand Key and Indian Rocks Beach.
• Red Tide's toll on fish counted by the ton
• Butterworth closes gate on demand for services
  Palm Beach Post Editorial
  Private communities can't spend public money.
• Visions of future development collide on sunny Treasure Island
  The Gulf of Mexico is especially blue and vibrant on Sunset Beach, at the southern end of Treasure Island, one of the string of barrier islands along the Pinellas County coast. ... The people of Treasure Island, as in Madeira Beach to the north, St. Pete Beach to the south and many other waterfront communities, are wrestling with what their future should look like. From the perspective of a sunny, idle afternoon on the beach, one cheers for things not to change at all. But they always do; the only question is how.
• Growth Dilemma Plagues County
  TAMPA - During the past few years, Hillsborough County officials shrank the county's urban-service area, retooled the comprehensive growth plan and tried to use community planning to reach out to neighborhoods.
• Dredging up a pool of dissent -- But to the residents at the neighboring Marina at Tarpon Springs condominiums, it is pretty, full of life and worth preserving. They oppose a developer's plan to fill in the pool to create enough dry land for new stores at the northwest corner of Meres Boulevard and Alt. U.S. 19 N.-- "We're opposed to this, because, you know, enough is enough," condo association president Carol Petropoulos said last week.
• Florida's Great Northwest: more than a brand 
  "Like the ballplayer getting booed by opposing fans, just getting noticed is an important sign of success - at least that's the way those of us at "Florida's Great Northwest" regard the recent attention being directed our way.
  ...Most importantly, "Florida's Great Northwest" is more than a brand. It's also the story of a region pulling together for a common goal. Instead of competition among neighboring communities, civic and business leaders across the region are working together to make this part of Florida a place where businesses and people will demand to be. In health care, education, infrastructure and every area important to quality living, Florida's Great Northwest is about teamwork to achieve greatness.
  Some may poke fun, but the people in these 16 counties will laugh last. Above all else, Florida's Great Northwest is about the future. It's about unlocking the natural assets of the region and tapping the energy of its people. It's about taking a great but underappreciated part of Florida and making it a place that conjures magical images whenever you say the name." (see great northwest)
• How to cut traffic jams (Palm Beach County)
  Don't let G.L. Homes game the system. ... G.L. Homes wants to build a development in the Ag Reserve that would not be allowed under current rules. How to "solve" the problem? G.L. wants the county to look at the project as if it were three smaller developments instead of one big one. A legal quirk places fewer requirements on smaller projects. The county should say no because the move is a ruse, because it would increase traffic jams and because bending the rules would encourage developers to drive up the price of Ag Reserve land that voters said in 1999 they want to buy and preserve.
• Water cleanup rolls on
  The state would set pollution limits for Lake Lafayette but not for the Ochlockonee River or Lake Jackson under a draft cleanup list that has been circulated for public comment.
• Editorial: Turtle nests need our help
  It's always sensible to leave sea turtle nests alone. When you see the staked and yellow-taped birthing areas on local shorelines, stay clear while the eggs incubate.
• Guest editorial: It's time we treat, not incarcerate, mental illness
  Mental illness is a stigma insurance companies need to face now, if for no other reason than for its cost- effectiveness.
• Guest editorial: The AOL Time Warner shuffle
  When President Bush declared on Monday that the nation was waking up with a hangover after the economic boom of the last decade, he could not have known how much more pain was on the way. By week's end the stock market had plunged a further 7 percent, reaching lows it had not seen since 1998. One of the week's biggest losers was AOL Time Warner, a company whose stock has been in virtual free fall all year. In an attempt to turn around its own flagging fortunes, AOL Time Warner announced a major management shake-up, designed to take the company in a new direction and undo the damage of a merger that now stands as one of the biggest blunders in corporate history.
• Pretending race doesn't matter won't make America better
  Ward Connerly again. As if a year that has given us corporate criminality, pedophile priests and a new Adam Sandler movie were not already odious enough, now the notorious University of California regent is back in the headlines. For those who don't know, Connerly is the black - and he would probably disavow that characterization - activist who spearheaded the successful 1996 drive to end affirmative action in Golden State government and universities.
• The silent privatizers
  Supporters of privatizing Social Security are quiet these days, but they'll re-emerge when they think people have forgotten the current bear market
• Cheney may be turning into a political liability
  WASHINGTON -- Dick Cheney is not your ordinary vice president.
• Federal work force growing again
  By Julia Malone, Palm Beach Post Washington Bureau
  After declining during the 1990s, the number of government workers started rising even before Sept. 11.
• The spy next door
  Mad at your neighbor? Turn him in. - "The last thing we want," explained Homeland Security Director Tom Ridge, "is Americans spying on Americans." Who are you going to believe -- Tom Ridge or your own lying eyes?...
• Ridge: Consider Using Military To Enforce Law Domestically-- WASHINGTON - Homeland Security Director Tom Ridge said Sunday that the threat of terrorism may force government planners to consider using the military for domestic law enforcement, now largely prohibited by federal law.-- President Bush has called on Congress to thoroughly review the law banning the Army, Navy, Air Force and Marines from participating in arrests, searches, seizure of evidence and other police activity on U.S. soil. The Coast Guard and National Guard troops under control of state governors are excluded from the Reconstruction-era law, known as the ``Posse Comitatus Act.''
• No fingerprints
  In what was described as a "procedural vote" on Thursday, House members effectively blocked the introduction of any amendments that might have forced them to vote on whether to kill their raises.
  Let's see now: The federal surplus has evaporated, and the deficit is approaching $165 billion. The nation is at "war" with terrorism. The stock market is in free fall. Americans think the economy is going nowhere but down. And the business pages are filled with news of corporate layoffs and belt-tightening.-- Yup, must be time for another congressional pay raise.

7/20-21/02

• State's charter schools can't be marketing tools
  St. Joe Company calls in the favors.
  Charter schools are supposed to innovate education. St. Joe Co. wants to use charter schools to innovate real-estate marketing. In yet another example of a corporation using insider government contacts to make a buck, St. Joe Co. -- still better known as St. Joe Paper -- wants to build charter schools to serve developments the company plans to build on vast holdings in the Panhandle
• Lobbying is give and receive
  With their political futures on the line, several Florida members of Congress steered thousands of dollars in campaign contributions to lobbyists and Republican state lawmakers who played pivotal roles in drawing new congressional district maps.
• Bush Campaign Ads Tout Achievements That Predate Term - Two new campaign commercials by the Florida Republican Party tout the record of Gov. Jeb Bush, using verifiable government statistics for the claims, but some are selectively chosen, and some give him credit for policies and trends that predate his election.
• Voters not on ballot
  Palm Beach Post Editorial
  Film shows why a trial run was needed.
• New voting machines won't let Palm Beach forget 2000 election
• Loophole helps Libertarian Party get on the ballot
  Mitch Covington doesn't consider himself a political junkie and, until a couple months ago, never considered running for office. While he agreed with many of the views of Libertarians, the Tallahassee paleontologist didn't even attend local party meetings.
• More debates are needed to help voters
  A question for Florida voters: With the Sept. 10 Democratic gubernatorial primary just over seven weeks away, do you know where the candidates are on the issues you care about?
• Despite the debate debate, face-offs still matter
  Every two years there's a debate about debates with debatable results.
• Florida's kids still wait for a good guy to stand up
  I wrote the other day that Gov. Jeb Bush hadn't done much for the Department of Children and Families. ... "The chief issue is -- and has always been -- the same," they wrote. "Florida's child welfare system is overburdened, overwhelmed, understaffed and underfunded. It always has been. And it always will be until the citizens of Florida and their elected representatives, give deserved priority to Florida's dependent children and families."
• DCF computer system behind schedule, over budget - TALLAHASSEE -- A state computer system (dubbed HomeSafeNet) that will track abused and neglected children is years behind schedule in part because of federal requirements, high turnover of project managers, and trouble finding anyone to develop the system, a preliminary state audit concludes.-- 
  The part of the system that already is operating is not as effective as it should be, in part because of a lack of computer skills and resistance by workers who are supposed to use it, the audit said.-- 
  The Legislature has criticized the Florida Department of Children & Families for the expected cost of the project -- $230 million, compared with an initial estimate of $32 million -- and 11 years to implement it fully.
• Fired DCF worker's job history reflects flaws
  The counselor has a long history of paperwork problems, although some say the workload is impossible.
• Who's the next AG?
  It's the state's lawyer. The people's lawyer. Voters must decide what kind of person they want to represent them for next attorney general. And Bob Butterworth has created a hard act to follow.
• Dyer To Fight Corporate Misconduct
  TALLAHASSEE - Democratic candidate for attorney general Buddy Dyer is turning his attention to corporate corruption.
• Preserving rural life is activist's goal - SAMSULA -- Wanting a house nestled among pines and palmettos, Michele Moen moved to this rural community less than a year ago. Already, she sees her way of life under attack, and she is fighting back.-- 
  She has raised her voice in protest against everything from a proposal to extend Elkcam Boulevard in Deltona to a new economic development plan for Volusia County.
• Tobacco-drive money goes up in smoke - Ever wonder why a pack of cigarettes costs so much? Look at spending by Florida's short-lived Committee for Responsible Solutions, and you might get an idea.-- Florida prides itself as the Sunshine State, but its ballot-disclosure laws get only a mid-level grade from a national group studying the issue.-- 
  The Ballot Initiative Strategy Center Foundation gives Florida a C on how easy it is for voters to track online contributions to the rising number of proposed constitutional amendments.-- 
  There are 24 ballot-initiative states, and 17 earned D's or F's in the report released last week. Only four get A's or B's -- Washington, California, Massachusetts and Illinois. "In these states, you can click on the name of a political action committee, and it will be linked to the ballot initiative that it supports," said Galen Nelson, foundation director. "Florida's disclosure just isn't that clear."
• WorldCom woes could disrupt Florida's state government
  TALLAHASSEE — With the bankruptcy of WorldCom appearing imminent, Florida government's technology officials are working to avoid a shutdown of long-distance data, voice and Internet lines. "My main concern is that we have a continuity of services," state Chief Information Officer Kim Bahrami told the Tallahassee Democrat on Friday.
• Investor ally? Foley's account doesn't add up
  He'll need good auditors to hide his prodigious political debt.As companies across the country are "restating" their finances to please investors, politicians across the spectrum are "restating" their positions on corporate reform to please their own investors, also known as voters. Case in point: U.S. Rep. Mark Foley, R-West Palm Beach.
• Gephardt energizes Democrats to rout Bush
  The House leader tells state party activists that corporate scandals trace to 1980s deregulation.
• Democrats vow to defeat Jeb Bush this fall
  In the crunch of a critical election year, Democrats vowed Saturday to defeat incumbent Republican Gov. Jeb Bush and deal a blow to his brother's re-election campaign in two years.
• Democrats pointing to issues to beat Bush in November
  TALLAHASSEE — With Election Day less than four months away, Florida Democrats are grabbing onto issues they hope can help them beat incumbent Republican Gov. Jeb Bush, but polls show they've got a steep climb ahead. Democratic activists point to a series of events they believe could keep President George W. Bush's younger brother from becoming the first Republican to win re-election as governor in Florida. They are not letting up on their criticism of the state's child welfare system under the governor.
• Battle lines clear for Reno, McBride
  FORT LAUDERDALE -- As Murray Hirsh drove through the massive Century Village condominium complex in suburban Pembroke Pines yesterday, he lamented the 2000 presidential election.
• Democrats plot to take back Florida
  At a gala, party leaders say their cash disadvantage is offset by their upper hand on the issues over the GOP.
• Democrats may skip two major races
  Two years after Al Gore almost grabbed the U.S. presidency thanks to Florida voters, the state's Democrats may end up as no-shows in two of four statewide races.
• Democrats buzz for Butterworth at annual rally-- ''I think I owe it to my friends to at least consider something,'' said Butterworth, who has served the maximum eight two-year terms as attorney general. He has until Friday, the deadline to qualify for state races, to decide.
• 6 Florida congressmen retain seats unopposed
• Reno campaign gets a lift on South Beach
  MIAMI — American politicians have popped up in some strange places: Nixon in China. The Clintons in Chappaqua. Now, Reno in South Beach. Janet Reno, that is, the pickup-driving, sensible-pump-wearing former U.S. attorney general who is running for governor of Florida. Reno drew about 2,200 people Friday night to Level, one of the hottest night spots in the neon-lit oceanside club district.
• Reno says she's got momentum 
  Celebrating her 64th birthday, Janet Reno says she can overcome the fundraising set backs.
• Reno gives Bush ads bad review
  A new round of paid political advertisements touting Gov. Jeb Bush's record as a crime fighter and economy builder are making their way around the state as the race for governor of Florida heats up.
• Teachers vs. Jeb -- who will learn a lesson come November? - You won't find a couple of political players with more irreconcilable differences than Florida's governor and Florida's largest teachers union.
• Redrawn districts give GOP an edge
  With congressional races in South Florida officially under way, the redrawing of voting districts by the GOP-controlled Legislature last spring is making Republicans the heavy favorites even in the most competitive races.
• No Lapdog to Special Interests
  The story should bring a smile and a chuckle to Florida voters, weary of the usual dead-serious news stories about candidates, political campaigns and elections. In a Sarasota-area U.S. House race, Florida Secretary of State Katherine Harris faces an unusual write-in opponent -- Percy the dog.
• One Bush isn't just the other's keeper
  Maybe Gov. Jeb Bush should tell his older brother, the president, to button his lip and forget about trying to make the stock market better.
• Jury: Second Escambia official guilty of breaking open-government law
  PENSACOLA — A jury Saturday found a second suspended Escambia County commissioner guilty of violating Florida's open-government "sunshine" law by discussing public business in private on two occasions. Terry Smith, who stood and shook his head slightly as the verdict was read, was accused of breaking the law through two conversations with another suspended commissioner, former Florida Senate President W.D. Childers, last year.
• Pensacola activist files campaign complaint against homebuilders
  TALLAHASSEE — A Pensacola activist has filed campaign law violation complaints against the Florida Home Builders Association, 16 of its local associations and the Republican Party of Florida. Tom Garner accused both the state association and the state GOP on Friday of a "campaign contribution laundering scheme" that circumvented the state's $500 contribution limit.
• Judge Allows Agencies To Keep Money From Plates-- MIAMI - A federal judge ruled against abortion rights activists Monday who had tried to stop the distribution of fees from state license plates bearing the slogan ``Choose Life.''
• Malpractice war calls for academic task force
  TALLAHASSEE -- What Florida needs least, but is least likely to escape, is another malpractice war between doctors and trial lawyers. The rhetorical guns are already thundering. Arsenals are beginning to swell with money, the root of all political evil. This is good news only for politicians on the take and for the campaign advertising industry.
• Confusing school grades
  An administrative blunder points out, once again, the basic problems with the governor's school-grading system.
• FDA, state to look into procedures at St. Pete blood bank
  ST. PETERSBURG — Federal and state authorities are investigating how two people became infected with HIV after receiving tainted transfusions from the Tampa Bay area's primary blood bank. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration will look into Florida Blood Services' procedures, including the handling and testing of blood.
• Hospital infections are killing patients-- Many deaths from infection are easily preventable, but soaring infection rates have been exacerbated by hospital budget cutbacks in infection control staffs and housekeeping services, the newspaper found.-- 
  The problem has grown so severe that deaths linked to hospital germs represent the fourth leading cause of mortality among Americans, behind heart disease, cancer and strokes, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Infections connected to hospital-based germs kill more people annually than auto accidents, fires and drowning combined.
• Hormone study symbol of research lag
  Now they tell us. Women have been here before. Standing in front of their medicine cabinets, eyeing a prescription bottle with fear and alarm.
• No More Soda Pop For The YMCA - Good for the Tampa YMCA. It is eliminating soft drinks from its recreational centers. That's a smart move for the nonprofit organization that promotes exercise and good health.-- As the Tribune's Susan H. Thompson reported, the soft drinks are full of sugar and calories. The U.S. Department of Agriculture recommends an individual consume no more than 10 teaspoons of added sugar consumption in a daily 2,000-calorie diet. Yet a 12-ounce can of soda contains about 140 calories and 10 teaspoons of sugar. Moreover, researchers have found that odds of obesity increase 1.6 times for every additional soft drink a child or teen drinks.
• FDLE says no cases in danger after Orlando analyst resigned
  ORLANDO — The actions of a Florida Department of Law Enforcement analyst who quit after he was caught switching DNA samples and altering data had no effect on evidence in criminal cases, the agency said. John Fitzpatrick admitted Feb. 1 to doctoring the results of a test designed to check the quality of his work and his Orlando lab's ability to analyze DNA.
• Florida death row inmates push their views on Internet
  JACKSONVILLE — Amos King, facing execution for the 1977 stabbing death of a woman, tells visitors to his Web site that he was wrongly accused. "I'm innocent of the charges I'm on death row for. I'm the victim of a frame-up," King writes. It's a familiar theme. Several dozen Florida death row inmates have Web pages where they proclaim their innocence and plead for money and letters. Although some sites are created by friends and relatives, such as the site originally set up for Gainesville student killer Danny Rolling by his former girlfriend, many of them are supported by people in other countries who oppose capital punishment.
• Whooping cranes catch Lucky break
  The first whooping crane to be born in the wild in the United States in recent times is stretching its wings in Central Florida.
• Florida's catch o' the day not mercury-free
  When Mike Thompson found an outdated brochure listing fish with high mercury levels in Florida, the old-time angler became worried about potential dangers of local fish he catches and eats.
• Red Tide leaves beaches stinky
  Residents hoping to cool off get an olfactory surprise -- dead fish washing up from Pass-a-Grille to Belleair Beach.
• What is there to say about dying?
  Plenty, and living wills are just the start.
• Spare me the eternal company of frozen geniuses
  Emergency codicil to the Last Will and Testament of Carl Hiaasen: I,being of relatively sound mind and body, hereby declare that I do not under any circumstances wish to be frozen like a fudgesicle after my death.
• President doesn't have absolute military authority over Americans
  No citizen shall be imprisoned or otherwise detained by the United States except pursuant to an Act of Congress.
• Phil Lewis: In freedom of the press, U.S. not No. 1
  Last week in the Sunday Perspective section, we published a report on how free the press is in different parts of the world. Freedom House, the non-profit foundation that has been compiling such reports for two decades, noted that overall the press is enjoying for freedom around the globe. To compile the 2002 survey and reach that conclusion, Freedom House did a country-by-country report card.
• Washington Today: Bush's financial squad gets critical reviews
  WASHINGTON — At a time of economic uncertainty and stock market distress, President Bush's economic team seems to get little respect — on Wall Street, Main Street or Capitol Hill. His administration is drawing increasing midterm election fire from Democrats for its perceived chumminess with big business. The first U.S. president with an MBA degree, ex-Texas oilman Bush has appointed more former chief executive officers to top jobs than any president since Dwight Eisenhower.

7/19/02

• Opinion: Enclaves can't use taxes
   Florida Attorney General Bob Butterworth says public money can't be used to pay for the upkeep of private developments, rebutting a mounting political movement to steer tax dollars into Palm Beach County's gated communities.
• Jeb Should Carefully Target Spending Of Toll Dollars - T hanks to a new law passed by the Legislature and approved by Gov. Jeb Bush, state officials can now take toll revenue from congested urban areas and use it to build roads in rural areas that are aimed solely at encouraging development.-- 
  The law could well be a disaster - unless Gov. Bush establishes strict policies to guard against abuse.--
  Environmentalists rightly claim the measure is a recipe for sprawl. But it also is a recipe for wasting limited transportation dollars. Under the new law, money generated from turnpikes in congested urban areas could be used to promote growth and enrich land speculators in the hinterlands, rather than relieve existing gridlock or meet the needs of areas where growth is already occurring.
• Audit program puts honor system to test
  With accounting scandals grabbing headlines and Congress haggling over new laws to make companies act more responsibly, it's no wonder that some business ethicists are looking askance at a pilot program in Florida that lets private CPAs do the people's work.
• Judge rejects felons' voting rights suit
  A U.S. judge dismisses the challenge to Florida's method for restoring rights of felons.
• Felons lose bid to alter vote ban
  A group suing the state on behalf of about 620,000 felons lost a bid Thursday to overturn Florida's 134-year-old lifetime voting ban against convicts.
• Katherine Harris: No regrets over role in Florida results
  SAN ANTONIO - Florida Secretary of State Katherine Harris told a small crowd of Republican loyalists that in her bid for a seat in Congress she expects to be targeted by the national Democratic Party. .... She's still serving as secretary of state, but is the Republican nominee for Congress. ... "We didn't have a constitutional crisis or a threat to democracy in Florida - we had a close election," Harris said.
• Child welfare chief says he's concerned about Florida kids
  MOBILE, Ala. — One child placed into custody in Alabama was unaccounted for by Florida officials, and another received intensive treatment in a psychiatric ward without their knowledge. Alabama Department of Human Resources Commissioner Bill Fuller said in a news release Wednesday that 11 children placed in Alabama in foster homes or up for adoption were located at Florida's request.
• Group OK's plan for DCF aid
  Republican state lawmakers lashed out in frustration Thursday at the highly publicized failures of the Department of Children & Families, nearly scuttling a $2 million emergency plan to help Miami-Dade and four Central Florida counties cope with a backlog of child abuse investigations.
• Lawmakers approve fund shift to decrease DCF backlog
  TALLAHASSEE — A panel of state lawmakers approved shifting $2 million into child-abuse investigations Thursday in an effort to whittle down the backlog of cases. The money, which is coming from another area of the Department of Children & Families budget, would be used primarily in the state's southern and central portions.
• Caseworkers to shift into backlogged DCF districts
  Employees from all over the state will be loaned to Miami-Dade and Orange counties to help stem the crisis there.
• Many DCF Job Vacancies Have Strings Attached
• Politicians demand overhaul for DCF - TALLAHASSEE - Even as Gov. Jeb Bush defends the work being done at the state's child welfare agency, a mounting chorus of both Republican and Democratic politicians are calling for sweeping changes at the Department of Children & Families.
• AG candidate offers reform plan for DCF
  Gov. Jeb Bush and the head of the Department of Children & Families got some support Thursday from an unlikely source - one of the Democrats running for the state's top legal job.
• Forums help kids' issues get heard
  "Who's for kids ... and who's kidding?" This is the motto that guides the Florida Children's Campaign. It's also what the campaign intends to find out with its annual candidate connection program.
• Governor's campaign cup running over
  Democratic candidates increase fund-raising as Gov. Bush backs off to avoid Democrats' getting public money.
• GOP asks television station to remove McBride ads
  ORLANDO — The Republican Party of Florida asked television stations Thursday to stop running an ad featuring Democratic gubernatorial candidate Bill McBride, claiming it violates election laws. The 30-second spot, which began airing Wednesday, introduces McBride and talks about his education plans.
• GOP: Teachers' McBride ad illegal
  The Florida Republican Party Thursday accused the state's teachers union of paying for an illegal ad for gubernatorial candidate Bill McBride and asked television stations to stop running it.
• GOP protests McBride ad
  A teachers union ad for Democrat Bill McBride that began running this week is illegal, Republicans say.
• Ad gets McBride attention from GOP
  The Florida teachers' union is putting its money and clout behind the longshot candidacy of Democratic gubernatorial hopeful Bill McBride.
• Reno outlines plan to lower drug costs for seniors
  While Congress continued to flail away at including a prescription benefit in Medicare, Democratic gubernatorial hopeful Janet Reno on Thursday proposed a state program to discount pharmaceuticals for seniors
• Reno vows to lower drug prices, attacks pro-Jeb ad
  Courting Florida's influential elderly vote, Democratic gubernatorial candidate Janet Reno unveiled a plan Thursday to lower the price of prescription drugs by pushing pharmaceutical companies to give the state massive rebates.
• Tonight's Reno dance party a hot ticket
  The host of the South Beach event says Reno might not be the only celebrity there.
• Gubernatorial candidate decries exclusion from Democrats' TV debate - Tampa · State Sen. Daryl Jones said his exclusion from an Aug. 27 gubernatorial debate between former Attorney General Janet Reno and lawyer Bill McBride "defies logic."
• Open Door To All Candidates
  At their best, televised debates between major political candidates hold the promise of fulfilling various important functions ... ... But a single debate, without all the official candidates invited, falls far short of being at its best.
• Charade is over
  Putting price tags on constitutional changes demands fairness.
• Elections supervisors decide against challenging death amendment
  TALLAHASSEE — The state's elections supervisors decided Thursday against filing suit to yank a proposal that would put the death penalty into the state constitution off November's ballot. The Florida State Association of Supervisors of Elections said its members are still worried Amendment 1 — "Excessive Punishments" — will confuse voters, but the group's executive committee decided a lawsuit was not the best solution.
• Jury acquits Miami state senator of campaign finance violations - MIAMI -- A jury has acquitted state Sen. Alex Diaz de la Portilla of 216 counts of violating campaign finance laws after less than two hours of deliberations.
• Attorney general race may grow
  Consumer advocate Walter Dartland says he's drumming up support.
• Lab worker puts cases in doubt
  FDLE analyst in Orlando altered a test case, casting suspicion on all his findings.
• Bush's daughter to be released from jail today
  Gov. Jeb Bush's only daughter is set to be released from the Orange County Jail before her court appearance today, roughly two days after she was sent there for violating her drug-treatment plan.
• Park in bobcat attack may reopen today - The park where two people were attacked by a rabid bobcat was still closed Thursday but was expected to reopen today, an official with the reserve said.
• SCORE ONE FOR MANATEES
  The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has no plausible excuse for delay in establishing the manatee sanctuaries in Florida that it agreed to in a legal settlement, a federal judge decided the other day. The judge ordered the agency to get busy with putting the protected areas into effect. Good.
• No further delays:Foot-dragging increases Florida manatees' peril
  It was a hand-smack of the highest order: A federal judge ordering the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to explain -- immediately, please, why it hadn't done more to protect Florida's manatees.
• Amtrak's woes leave passenger service on east coast in limbo
  ORLANDO — When it came to the future of passenger rail in Florida, Amtrak was supposed to lead the way. There were plans to expand from its existing service, adding a twice-daily Jacksonville-to-Miami run down the Atlantic coast.
• FSU to sue smart-card firm
  Florida State University continues to press CyberMark Inc. for more than $1 million it thinks the company owes FSU after it stopped servicing the university's multiple-use ID card.
• Escambia official's credibility questioned at 'sunshine' trial
  PENSACOLA — Testimony that convicted suspended Escambia County Commissioner W.D. Childers, a former Florida Senate president, of violating the state's open-government "sunshine" law came under new scrutiny Thursday. The testimony came from Escambia Supervisor of Elections Bonnie Jones
• The Economic Questions Of Recycling - ... ... As The New York Times noted, ``In truth, most of the glass and plastic we virtuously sorted was not being recycled anyway. Lacking markets, the city found it cheaper to toss them in with regular trash and ship it all to landfills. So the program was as pointless as it was expensive.''
• Recycling renewal
  Although recycling hasn't exactly been a hot topic of national debate in recent years, millions of unreclaimed bottles and cans represent an enormous waste of resources, energy and money.
• Editorial: Collier corruption
  Gifts and favors from lobbyists to government officials. That's the way it was. And that's the way it still is, with the disclosure of $2.7 million in Collier County utilities contracts since last June going to the firm of a lobbyist who befriended sewage department staff members with NASCAR tickets and baskets of steaks.
• Age Bias Trials Begin
  ST. PETERSBURG - Bill Hoover was 56 and facing a grim job market. ``I probably put out 600 resumes. I'd go and have what I call great interviews, but then nothing would happen,'' said ...
• Ex-Jacksonville nursing home owner wins $20 million from state
  JACKSONVILLE — A former nursing home operator won a $20 million judgment against the state Thursday after a jury found the Florida Agency for Health Care Administration illegally confiscated his 180-bed facility. Jack Carter sued the state after it placed Southlake Nursing and Rehabilitation Center into receivership because of unpaid bills and missing Medicaid payment records.
• Defense compares clients accused of torture to great presidents
  WEST PALM BEACH — The attorney for two Salvadoran generals accused of ignoring a "reign of terror on unarmed civilians" 20 years ago in El Salvador compared his clients Thursday to Thomas Jefferson and John Adams. After four weeks of testimony about brutality and massacres, the jury began deliberations Thursday on whether to hold Gens. Carlos Eugenio Vides Casanova and Jose Guillermo Garcia accountable for the torture of a church worker, doctor and professor, who later fled their country in fear.
• There's no business like doggie business
  The official party line these days, no matter what the Dow Jones Industrial Average says, is that the economy is in good shape, unless you work for or own stock in one of those companies where phantom bookkeeping left all of the stockholders and most of the employees holding a very large bag.
• Wall Street's binge, our hangover
  Here's the TV image I intend to freeze-frame for my "Summer of '02" album: an earnest George Bush assuring an Alabama audience that "our economy is fundamentally strong" while the streamer below him follows the stock m arket down the graph and into the tank.
• Rumors of war
  Members of Congress are slowly beginning to awaken to the fact that they have an obligation to be something more than passive bystanders as the executive branch prepares for a possible conflict with Iraq.

7/18/02

• Exactly who is derelict at his job, Gov. Bush?
  Robert Mistretta makes this chilling prediction:If you open the file of any child who has come to the attention of the Department of Children and Families, you will find something wrong, something that the investigator hasn't done, for the cold, simple reason that she or he has too much to do. And whatever that something is, it will be enough to get the worker fired.-
  Mistretta supervised the last DCF worker who had the case of Alfredo Montes, the 2-year-old Polk County boy allegedly killed by an acquaintance of his mother because he had soiled his pants.--
  The governor, that know-it-all, called Mistretta derelict. But when Mistretta tells his story, a sharply different picture emerges that the governor might find inconvenient but also instructive.
• Vacancies at Florida's child-welfare agency swell to 750 amid scandals - LAKELAND -- Vacancies in the state's child welfare agency have increased by 50 percent in the last two months, as the department has been scrutinized for the death of one child and the disappearance of another.
• State weighs spending for Dade
  The backlog of unresolved child-abuse investigations in Miami-Dade and four Central Florida counties has become so severe that a legislative panel is expected to approve today spending $2 million for investigative ''SWAT teams'' to cope with the problem.
• Spot check
  Editor's note: To help voters evaluate political ads, Times reporters review and analyze content.
• More debates, not fewer
  One Reno-McBride meeting isn't enough.
• Let Jones into debate
  Daryl Jones doesn't have the name recognition of Janet Reno or even Bill McBride, and his poll numbers are miniscule by comparison. Nevertheless, the state senator from Miami should be included in the Forum Club's Democratic debate in Palm Beach next month.
• Partying on South Beach: some tips for Republicans
  Maybe Gov. Jeb Bush is so far ahead that his re-election campaign staffers figure it can't hurt if they boogie on down to "Janet Reno's Dance Party" tomorrow night on South Beach.
• Both sides of gay rights issue brace for a bitter battle in Miami-Dade -Miami-Dade County’s bid to host the 2004 Democratic national convention has focused national attention on the battle over the county’s human rights amendment and jump-started what is expected to be a divisive battle for public opinion.
• When good dogs go bad
  Tallahassee authorities have made it official: Dogs are ineligible to run for Congress. The decision came as bad news for Percy, a black-and-white collie mix, and his keeper, Wayne Genthner of Sarasota, who had hoped to take on Republican Secretary of State Katherine Harris for the House seat being left open by the retirement of U.S. Rep. Dan Miller, R-Bradenton.
• Elections supervisors don't like death amendment
  TALLAHASSEE — Florida's elections supervisors don't like a proposed constitutional amendment putting the death penalty back into the state constitution — and may try to get it off the ballot. Voters overwhelmingly approved the provision in 1998 but nearly two years later the state Supreme Court yanked the measure out of the Florida Constitution, ruling the ballot summary didn't clearly tell people what they were voting on.
• Ruling Makes A Vital Point
  It's not enough to do the right thing; you also have to do it in the right way.It's not enough to do the right thing; you also have to do it in the right way.-- 
  That's the strong and appropriate message a Tallahassee judge sent to state lawmakers. He blocked their well-intentioned effort to put estimated costs of implementing two controversial state constitutional amendments on the ballot, saying lawmakers overstepped their authority.
• Bush denies making pledge
  Gov. Jeb Bush's spokeswoman said there was a "total misunderstanding" if Rudy Maloy's supporters thought Bush would reinstate the suspended Leon County commissioner.
• Jeb Bush's daughter jailed after prescription pills found
  Authorities say Noelle Bush was discovered with the pills while she was in a court-ordered drug treatment program. She is sentenced to three days in jail.
• Bush daughter jailed — found with pills at drug center
  TALLAHASSEE — Gov. Jeb Bush's 24-year-old daughter Noelle was jailed Wednesday for having a prescription drug while in a treatment facility, violating a court-ordered drug treatment plan. Judge Reginald Whitehead sentenced Noelle Bush to three days behind bars in Orlando for contempt of court.
• Local center caught Bush's eye long ago-- The Central Florida program that Noelle Bush sought for drug treatment is well-known to Gov. Jeb Bush and his family
• When it comes to pot, there's a reason Britain is great -- The British took a big leap forward recently, announcing a plan to downgrade marijuana's status as an illegal drug.....
  With this latest move, Britain is finally getting more in step with the rest of Western Europe, where only a handful of Scandinavian countries still treat marijuana smoking as a crime. In Spain, Portugal, Belgium and the Netherlands, they don't arrest marijuana users; in Spain and Portugal, not even hard-drug use is a crime....
  And because Blair cozies up to George W. Bush on most things, maybe he could whisper in the president's ear that we have one of the most senseless drug policies in the world.-- 
  In 2000, the last year for which the FBI has crime statistics, 743,000 people were arrested for marijuana offenses, 88 percent of them for simple possession. Before Rudolph Giuliani became mayor, fewer than 800 marijuana arrests were being made in New York City each year. After his crackdown on so-called quality-of-life crimes, the number skyrocketed to 52,000...
• Florida Medicaid plan drops thousands of elderly, disabled - ...As of this month, Stratos and as many as 5,500 other elderly and disabled Floridians fell victim to a change in Medicaid eligibility, enacted by Florida lawmakers in a 2001 special budget session to save up to $63.3 million in the state's nearly $10 billion Medicaid budget. ... "Right now, there's nothing we can do for her," Paula McAuley, a senior analyst supervisor at the Agency for Health Care Administration who oversees the Medicaid recipients, said of Stratos.-- 
  "We are satisfied that there are places for everyone [who lost coverage] to go," Bush spokeswoman Jill Bratina said, when asked whether the rule change would be reversed.
• Medicaid changes prompt class-action lawsuit
  Sarah Stratos' life is in turmoil, all because of $11 a month. On July 1, a lower eligibility rate for state Medicaid benefits went into effect in Florida, and Stratos, an 88-year-old Daytona Beach widow, is now without coverage.
• Healthcare company pays $29 million to settle allegations
  HIALEAH — Tenet Healthcare Corp. has finalized a $29 million settlement with the U.S. government over allegations that one of its affiliates made false Medicare claims. A government investigation found that Tenet-owned Palmetto General Hospital in Hialeah made false, fraudulent and misleading statements in its submissions to Medicare from 1994 to 1997 to inflate the amount of money it received from the government.
• Man sues jail's health care provider -"There is a financial incentive not to do their job," Rush said, "and that's what happened here."
• Doctors drop malpractice insurance
  Two doctors have stopped delivering babies due to the cost of malpractice insurance.
• Doctors, lawyers fight, but insurers to blame
  Malpractice 'crisis' is state's latest issue.
• Maddox: State needs medical investigator
  Florida is not doing enough to protect seniors and minorities from medical crimes, says Tallahassee Mayor Scott Maddox, a candidate for attorney general.
• Maddox proposes medical crime unit
  The attorney general candidate's new agency would pursue everything from drug overpricing to substandard care.
• Editorial: Conservancy keeps vigil on ill-sited condo project
  Plans have been rattling around Collier County government offices for a year to erect high-rise condos next to one of the area's most cherished nature preserves, Rookery Bay. Vigilance by the Conservancy of Southwest Florida is a natural, especially since the ecological organization runs a public wildlife attraction nearby.
• Second Escambia commissioner being tried on 'sunshine' charges
  PENSACOLA — Jury selection began Wednesday for the trial of a second suspended Escambia County commissioner on charges of violating the state's open-government "sunshine" law. Terry Smith faces two misdemeanor counts of discussing public business in private with another commissioner, W.D. Childers, a former Florida Senate president.
• Backroom dealers
  Commissioners Hartage, Hoenstine and Sindler ought to be ashamed. ... (they) voted against strengthening a county law that would have made public most private meetings between elected officials and lobbyists representing special interests. And if campaign contributions are any indication, they've been handsomely rewarded for their stance.-- ...
  Together, the three have received a staggering $65,000 from registered lobbyists and their clientele to finance their re-election bids, campaign documents show.-- ...
  Taxpayers finance government. And taxpayers should hold at least as much sway as deep-pocketed special interests in deciding how their hard-earned money is spent.
• Four staffers to receive pay cuts - County wastewater staff receive pay cuts for accepting gifts, meals from contractor's lobbyist Collier County's wastewater director and three of his underlings received pay cuts Wednesday as discipline for accepting hundreds of dollars in free gifts and meals from the lobbyist of a contractor paid more than $2.7 million by the county. Despite the county's zero gifts law instituted in the wake of a series of public corruption scandals, top administrators aren't taking information uncovered in their internal investigation to state prosecutors tasked with enforcing the county's local ethics law.
• Pompano lobbyists face scrutiny as development heats up - Pompano Beach is on the cusp of major change. Developers have proposed three massive projects for the beach area that would significantly alter the city's character and, according to detractors, ruin its charm and ambiance. As the commission debates whether to allow these projects to go forward, McGinn wants to make sure lobbyists don't gain control.-- 
  McGinn has asked the city manager's office to study other government agencies to learn how lobbyists are monitored in hopes that Pompano Beach can adopt some of their ideas. Commissioners are expected to discuss proposed new rules this fall.
• Daytona Beach commission extinguishes fire-tax plan
  They lined up one after another Wednesday and persuaded a majority of the City Commission to burn down plans for a new tax on fire services. Commissioners rejected the tax on a 7-0 vote in the face of opposition from an overflow crowd of more than 200.
• Developer's man-made wetlands riddled with problems in Miramar-- Miramar· It began as an IOU for wildlife -- a 55-acre developer-built wetland offering refuge to birds and fish.
  But after years of effort, only half of the man-made marsh inside the 933-acre Monarch Lakes development has turned into the aquatic wildlife habitat that had been promised.
• No tax listings for little tracts
  Pinellas' appraiser says little land slivers won't get parcel numbers and won't be fodder for land speculators.
• Operation Paycheck runs out of money
  Operation Paycheck, the program designed to help laid-off workers after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, ran out of money this week, but state officials scrambled Tuesday to find other funds to aid people who want job training.
• Springs shelves insurance proposal for retiring commissioners - CORAL SPRINGS · A contentious debate over health insurance benefits for retiring commissioners ended abruptly this week when the commission voted to drop the issue.
• Avoiding tax hike will sting, Horne warns - CLEARWATER -- Staving off a 4.5 percent tax rate increase proposed for next year would require some painful service cuts, according to City Manager Bill Horne.... But the list -- which would sacrifice, among other programs, the Martin Luther King Center, the Beach Library, Sunday hours at Countryside Library and $100,000 for the homeless -- drew little support Wednesday from commissioners.
• County officials scramble to avert shelter shortage
  Available facilities would hold less than half the 125,000 people who might seek shelter in a Category 5 hurricane.
• Editorial: Affordable housing
  The city of Bonita Springs earns high marks for working on the shortage of housing in the price range of service industry workers without having them crammed like sardines into slums. Most officials realize that by doing nothing, the problem will get worse before it gets better.
• Catfish traps become shallow graves
   A team of state wildlife biologists circled Lake Apopka's shoreline on airboats Wednesday to fish out dozens of abandoned commercial fishing traps poking up in shallow waters.
• Search for canker in Orange grows by mile in all directions - State officials are expanding their search for citrus canker one mile in all directions from the edge of the danger zone that surrounds three properties with diseased trees.-- 
  Six cankerous trees were discovered in the three Orange County yards in the past couple of weeks, and state agriculture inspectors already were examining all citrus trees within the required 1,900 feet of the diseased ones.-- 
  All those trees, even the apparently healthy ones, will be destroyed.
• Qwest pays $3.25M for 'slamming' The company switched Florida customers'
  long-distance carriers without permission.
• INS watching wife of ex-USF teacher
  She is required to apply for entry to another country and to check in with the INS monthly.
• Electroshock torture described - MIAMI -- A former prisoner at a Cuban mental hospital testified Wednesday that accused torturer Eriberto Mederos applied electroshock therapy to his genitals in the early 1970s after the prisoner was locked up for conspiring against the government.... Mederos has been identified by former Mazorra prisoners as "The Nurse," who they say tortured political prisoners. Mederos was granted U.S. citizenship in 1993 despite published reports of the alleged torture at Mazorra and after he was interviewed by FBI and immigration agents.
• Salvadorans show wounds during trial
   
• Balint Vazsonyi: The end of sanity?
  Bill O'Reilly's one-hour broadcast on the Fox News Channel customarily covers a number of topics. Last Wednesday, July 10, three of them induced enough depression to occasion the alarmist title. The first of these concerned a new entrance requirement by the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. All incoming freshmen have to read a book about the Koran.
• Coffee, aspirin are no remedy for this hangover
  Leave it to President Bush, an admitted party animal in his heyday, to liken the financial markets' plunge of late to a "hangover" that surely will pass. Investor markets are suffering from an "economic binge" of a decade of corporate excesses, Bush says.... 
  Many Americans feel betrayed. This is the same man who campaigned on the need to bring "integrity" and "trust" to the White House, who has said there's no room for moral relativism, yet he has the gall to excuse corporate accounting practices as not always "black and white." When it comes to business practices, Bush turns to the grays of relativism.
  Sorry, Mr. President, ...
• RELEASE FAMILY-PLANNING FUNDS
  President Bush is ignoring the facts -- to the detriment of poor women in impoverished countries. He wants to cut $34 million slated for the United Nations Population Fund's family-planning program. Abortion opponents have told him that this program funds forced abortions in China. Mr. Bush opposes abortion.
• Guest editorial: The good, the bad and the scary
  The 88-page homeland security strategy released by the Bush administration this week is good, bad and scary, the scary part being the justification for the document and the nine months it took to put it together. There's a danger of killings on a horrendous scale, the document says, and this danger will never go away.
• Attorneys general criticize Bush on global warming- BOSTON - Democratic attorneys general from 11 states accused the Bush administration Wednesday of ignoring global warming and favoring energy policies that will boost greenhouse gas emissions.
• Maureen Dowd: Swastikas for sweeps
  PASADENA, Calif. — We've had Hitler the hippie grooving in the movie "The Producers." We've had Gay Hitler shimmying on "Saturday Night Live." We've had everyone from Charlie Chaplin to Alec Guinness to Anthony Hopkins goose-stepping across the screen as Adolf the Fruitcake.

7/17/02

• Once again, politicians are meddling busybodies
  It is unfair for the government of Florida to try to thwart citizen petitions by making up its own "price tag" for what the idea would cost, and putting it on the ballot.
• SummerCamp vote delayed
  SummerCamp may not get approved this summer. The Franklin County Commission on Tuesday delayed approval of The St. Joe Co.'s proposed development near St. Teresa to address the state's objections to the project. (see Great Northwest)
• Expert: Palm Beach's new voting machines have problems
  WEST PALM BEACH — The voting machines that replaced butterfly ballots and hanging chads are checked by an "Enron-style of auditing" and don't provide voters any assurance that their votes are being cast, an expert testified Tuesday. Rebecca Mercuri, a computer science professor at Bryn Mawr College in Pennsylvania, said questions remain about the $14 million machines Palm Beach County purchased to improve its voting system because they are designed to audit themselves.
• A four-legged run for Congress
  A Sarasota man tries to register his dog to run against Katherine Harris. That idea won't hunt, officials say.
• Ballot won't be going to the dogs
  TALLAHASSEE - Percy barked. Percy wagged his tail. He even got lots of people in the state elections office to pet him.-- But this blatant attempt to win over humans just didn't do its job. Florida elections officials on Tuesday refused to let the black-and-white mixed-breed dog become a write-in candidate for Congress.-- Percy, sporting a red, white and blue bow around his neck, was sitting next to his owner, Wayne Genthner, when he got the bad news: No dogs allowed. That means that Secretary of State Katherine Harris, who oversees the state elections office, and five other candidates will get to run their race for Florida's 13th Congressional district without a hound on their trail.
• More debates would benefit all
  Democratic gubernatorial candidate Janet Reno has grudgingly agreed to participate in one -- and only one -- debate prior to the Sept. 10 party primary. One debate is better than nothing, but it won't offer Democratic voters, along with curious independents and Republicans, the full opportunity they deserve to judge which candidate is best qualified to challenge Gov. Jeb Bush in November.
• Jones aims to be in debate next month
  State Sen. Daryl Jones said Tuesday he will go to the Janet Reno-Bill McBride debate next month and urge that his campaign for governor be included in the forum.
• Spot check
  Editor's Note: To help voters evaluate political ads, Times reporters review and analyze content.
• McBride ads to start airing
  The ads will show the life story of Bill McBride, who hopes to catch Janet Reno by Sept. 10.
• McBride-for-governor ads take to Florida's airwaves- 
• Reno stops by Lawtey and Starke
  In Bradford County, Democratic candidate for governor Janet Reno drew applause when she spoke of career service protection for state employees, including those who work in the prison system.
• Bush hears from citizens on death penalty, DCF
  LAKE CITY — Gov. Jeb Bush defended his position on capital punishment and denied accusations of an anti-death penalty group Tuesday that he was using "victims' pain for political gain." Bush and Lt. Gov. Frank Brogan held individual five-minute meetings with about 75 area residents at Lake City Community College in this north Florida city.
• Gov. Bush holds open office hours
  In Lake City, Gov. Jeb Bush said he did not anticipate a state bail-out to re-open the state's Sports Hall of Fame, which has run out of money.
• Elections chiefs call amendment flawed - TALLAHASSEE - Florida's elections supervisors, Democrat and Republican alike, say that a death penalty constitutional amendment placed on the ballot by legislators is so flawed that it will cause confusion for voters, long waits on election days and will require counties to spend thousands more than they have budgeted.
• Big caseloads can burden new child welfare workers
  Observers say DCF employees with little experience can become buried in an avalanche of potentially life-or-death cases.
• 2 fired DCF supervisors say they're just scapegoats - ... Mizell said the case points to a deep problem with overworked and overwhelmed caseworkers in the DCF.- "It's horrible," Mizell said. "The answer is not firing people.-- "Somebody in Tallahassee has to say, "OK, we have a problem.' It's not just the supervisors. It's not just the caseworkers. There's a problem."
• DCF Worker Calls Firing Unfair
  LAKELAND - A child welfare supervisor fired over the handling of a toddler found slain last week said Tuesday that she is being held to a higher standard than the agency typically requires. ...
• Ocala abortion doctor's conviction reversed - ATLANTA - A federal appeals court overturned the attempted extortion conviction of an abortion doctor Tuesday, saying his lawsuit against Marion County was insufficient grounds to say he was illegally trying to obtain money.-- The 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals threw out last year's attempted extortion, mail fraud and conspiracy convictions of Dr. James Scott Pendergraft IV and a business associate, Michael Spielvogel.
• Diaz de la Portilla's campaign violations trial opens in Miami
  MIAMI — A trial that could affect State Sen. Alex Diaz de la Portilla's political future began Tuesday on misdemeanor charges that he filed false campaign reports that hid thousands of dollars of contributions and expenditures. Prosecutor Wayne Holmes told jurors during opening statements that during Diaz de la Portilla's successful special election campaign three years ago, the candidate originally reported he had spent $72,000, but later filed an amended report showing he actually spent $220,000.
• Bush refuses to reinstate Maloy
  Gov. Jeb Bush will not reinstate suspended Leon County Commissioner Rudy Maloy, despite an appellate court decision Tuesday in his favor, the governor's spokeswoman said.
• Lawyers, doctors ready for turf war
  Amid talk of limiting malpractice suits, lawyers counter with a bid to strip doctors of their licenses.
• Doctors in politics
  In an effort to defend their interests in malpractice insurance, doctors say they need political campaign contributions to make themselves heard to lawmakers.
• Health-care cure: Single-payer option offers best hope
  America's health-care system is sick, and getting worse. ... 
  ... ... There's got to be a better way, and there is. Switching to a single-payer system could save hundreds of billions of dollars nationwide. 
• INS tries but can't detain Brevard man - An unexpected maneuver Tuesday by the Immigration and Naturalization Service in federal court in Orlando was slapped down quickly for violating the agreed-upon release of a Syrian-born businessman.
• How little Florida pays its teachers
  If we measure teacher salaries against comparable positions in other fields, we learn that teachers will never get rich by plying their trade. Some states pay teachers relatively well, while others that pay poorly have trouble recruiting and retaining teachers, according to the American Federation of Teachers' most recent state-by-state teacher salary survey released Tuesday.
• Discipline training sought for teachers
  A $547,000 pilot project would help return control over classrooms to teachers.
• Failed schools to receive more money
  The 68 Florida schools that received failing grades this year will receive extra money in the coming school year for academic improvements, including $9.5 million in federal funding for high-poverty schools, state officials said Tuesday.
• Board backs $50-million Pepsi deal
  TAMPA -- School Board members Tuesday night authorized administrators to finish negotiating a $50-million contract with Pepsi that would give the soft-drink giant exclusive access to Hillsborough schoolchildren.
• Schools face racial dilemma
  Two schools have too many black students, so officials are revoking most special attendance permits, even for teachers' children.
• Event conscious
  Owed money from two festivals and feeling heat from another, St. Petersburg looks to protect its interests.
• TV compromise not enough for Storms
  As a public access settlement advances, the commissioner continues to lob in complaints.
• Public Access Pact Will Keep Viewers Of Mature Shows Up Late - TAMPA - Hillsborough County lawyers and Speak Up Tampa Bay have agreed on a new operating agreement for the public access channel that officials hope will restrict controversial adult material to late-night spots.--``We have done what we could to help address their concerns,'' said Greg Koss, Speak Up's executive director.-- But the changes aren't enough for county Commissioner Rhonda Storms, who still wants to break the group's contract and find a new outfit to run the station.
• Tent city comes down at FSU
  After 114 days - most of them in the sweltering heat - Florida State University Students Against Sweatshops ended its vigil at Landis Green late Tuesday.
• FSU protesters, officials reach deal
  TALLAHASSEE -- Florida State University officials have cracked down on a protest by students who have lived in tents for 115 days on a campus square, and the protest is expected to end soon as a result of a compromise reached Tuesday.
• Editorial: Stadium Naples
  Once again, the special prosecutor in the Stadium Naples criminal corruption case has delivered. This time the judge, Lauren Miller, egged on by defense counsel, pressed Michael Von Zamft for pre-trial details of how money curried private favor from former public officials. Even times and dates were demanded.
• Bobcat did have rabies, tests find
  Health officials said the bobcat that injured two people on Sunday was rabid after test results from its head came back positive late Tuesday afternoon.
• Water Use Restrictions Follow Herbicide Treatments-- TURKEY CREEK - The Southwest Florida Water Management District are treating Medard Reservoir with the herbicide Reward this week in an effort to rid the area of water hyacinths and water lettuce.-- Several water restrictions will be in place during and after the spraying, and the treatment area is being posted with warning signs.-- The spraying is expected to continue through Thursday, if weather conditions allow.-- Among the restrictions are no livestock watering for one day and a two- day prohibition on drinking water out of the reservoir.
• NASA spies on the atmosphere
  Huddled in the shadows of five planes outfitted with sophisticated electronics, some of the world's leading experts on global climate change can barely contain their excitement.
• Analysis: Even Greenspan sees market has limits
  NEW YORK — Even Alan Greenspan acknowledges that the market has limits as a self-policing mechanism. A believer in a free market's ability to fix its own problems as participants act in their own self-interest, the Federal Reserve chairman amended that position Tuesday when he said something recently broke down when it came to accounting.
• TIPS program draws criticism
  Millions of Americans would be asked to watch for suspicious activity and report it.-- WASHINGTON -- Millions of Americans -- from utility workers to ship captains -- would be asked to watch for suspicious activity and report it to the government under a program being organized by the Justice Department.--
  Operation TIPS -- Terrorism Information and Prevention System -- drew prompt criticism from civil rights advocates, forcing government officials to deny that it would result in Americans spying on each other.-- "The last thing we want is Americans spying on Americans," Homeland Security chief Tom Ridge said in an interview with radio reporters. "That's just not what the president is all about, and not what the TIPS program is all about." -- ... Justice plans to begin the project in August in 10 cities, to be selected. Participants will be able to report anything unusual to a toll-free phone number.
• U.S. FAILS LATIN AMERICA - Despite President Bush's early pledges, hopes that the United States would become a closer partner with Latin America haven't panned out. Blame the war against terror and corporate scandals. But blame Mr. Bush, too.
• Alarming AIDS statistics largely ignored by black America
  Who cares that the scourge of AIDS is decimating black America? When is the last time you heard Al Sharpton call a press conference to denounce black apathy to the AIDS crisis or Julian Bond challenge black churches to reach out to gays?
• Analysis: Stock options still a big reform hurdle
  NEW YORK — Accounting oversight and corporate governance reform is now rumbling toward legislative reality. But the regulatory revolution will be incomplete unless public companies treat the stock options they issue employees as an expense like other types of compensation.
• Guest editorial: Putting rail back on track
  In a sense, Amtrak's most adamant critics are right. The United States cannot afford to continue like this, cutting its national railroad a check for one hundred million dollars here, a quarter-billion there, merely enabling it to hobble along, from one funding crisis to the next. The nation should be looking at the big picture, investing in an efficient network of passenger rail as a cost-effective means of meeting pressing national transportation needs. This is the crucial, if seemingly odd, point often lost on both sides of the Washington debate over Amtrak's future — the issue is larger than trains.
• Paul Campos: They got old and cold
  "Hope I die before I get old," sang Roger Daltrey in the classic Who anthem "My Generation," 35 summers ago. Only one of the original band's members — the endearingly lunatic drummer Keith Moon — actually managed to pull off that particular feat. When bassist John Entwistle died a couple of weeks ago, he was, like the rest of the baby boom generation's leading edge, pushing 60.
• Salvadoran generals defend records
  The former minister of defense says he tried to prevent human rights abuses.
• Change Rule On Interpreters
  One reason medical costs are so high, and climb-ing higher all the time, is that the United States is becoming a country where just about everyone wants just about everything -- and imagines a constitutional right to it -- and politicians looking for votes are eager to accommodate, regardless of cost.

7/16/02

• State accused of stealing Web site idea - Computer consultant files suit against MyFlorida.com
  When Brent Gregory poured his life savings into starting a Florida information site on the Internet http://www.stateofflorida.com/  , he never thought his toughest competitor would be Gov. Jeb Bush.
• Judge blocks rule on cost estimates for ballot issues - TALLAHASSEE -- A trial judge Monday blocked the state from putting price tags on two controversial constitutional amendments that may be headed for the November ballot -- a cap on public-school class size and a universal pre-kindergarten program.- 
  Circuit Judge P. Kevin Davey of Leon County said the Legislature overstepped its authority by ordering that an economic analysis be attached to only a few of the citizen-initiated amendments that voters could decide this fall.- 
  The state was expected to immediately appeal the ruling.- The price-tag requirement was adopted in May, only days after the Florida Supreme Court ruled that the class-size amendment could go on the ballot. The Legislature's Republican leadership opposes the proposal, which would limit class size to 18 students in kindergarten through third grade, 22 students in fourth through eighth grade and 25 students in high school.
• Judge bars cost appraisal for state petitions
  In a big win for a pair of Miami Democrats pushing two controversial statewide education initiatives for the November ballot, a trial judge on Monday blocked enforcement of a new state law that would add a state-estimated price tag to the ballot measures.
• Doctors hope cash can move legislation
  An unusually blunt fundraising letter states a desire that $10,000 donations will get the attention of top lawmakers. The doctors plan to discuss medical malpractice legislation with two legislative leaders, bearing gifts for the GOP....The letter sent to other Marion County doctors last week describes plans to discuss medical malpractice legislation next month with two powerful legislative leaders, incoming Senate President Jim King of Jacksonville and incoming House Speaker Johnnie Byrd of Plant City.... "We are asking that you make a contribution to the Republican Party of Florida (There is no limit) and send this to us as soon as possible. ... We have been directed to bring at least $10,000 to each of these events and we can do this if everyone helps."
• Malpractice crisis? What malpractice crisis?
  Thursday's "My Word" column, "A malpractice crisis driving our doctors away," was based purely on anecdotal arguments and lacked any factual or empirical support.
• Advocates hit road to stop Medicare cuts
  Health care advocates are on the road gathering signatures in an effort to stop a looming 10-percent cut in Medicare reimbursements to nursing homes.
• State senator to push for study on helping people on ventilators - State legislators, when they learned Florida nursing homes were becoming so reluctant to take people on life-supporting breathing machines that some patients had to go to centers as far as Maryland, ordered health regulators to start studying the problem and develop a "focused system of care."-- 
  That was two years ago, when House Bill 2329 became law. Nothing was ever done.
• Change Rule On Interpreters
  One reason medical costs are so high, and climb-ing higher all the time, is that the United States is becoming a country where just about everyone wants just about everything -- and imagines a constitutional right to it -- and politicians looking for votes are eager to accommodate, regardless of cost.
• Fired pair: DCF scapegoating
  Two supervisors in the Alfredo Montes case say they're being fired because of pressure from higher up.
• 2nd DCF Supervisor Fired
  WINTER HAVEN - As authorities announced Monday that a second supervisor who monitored the welfare of 2-year-old Alfredo Montes was fired, Robert Mistretta, the first supervisor ousted, said he is a political scapegoat. ...
• Head of DCF criticized for agency mismanagement in abuse death
  TAMPA — The abuse death of a 2-year-old boy has put Florida's child welfare system under the microscope again for its mismanagement of cases and has some calling for the removal of the state's top child welfare official. State Rep. Frederica Wilson, D-Miami, said she will ask Gov. Jeb Bush on Wednesday to seat a grand jury to investigate the Department of Children & Families, including its handling of the case of Alfredo Montes, who police say was killed July 1 by a baby sitter for soiling his pants.
• Alfredo was failed by many
  In his two short years on earth, Alfredo Montez was failed by just about every adult he knew. He was failed by his 21-year-old mother, who allegedly abused drugs and whose last act of motherhood was dropping her toddler off with a convicted child abuser. Alfredo was failed by the Auburndale couple now in Utah custody for beating him to death for the fatal sin of soiling his pants. And, if the state's accounts are true, he was most definitely failed by the Department of Children and Families caseworker who falsified key reports to cover up her own investigative inadequacies.
• What's not to believe?
  The Department of Children & Families has worn out its excuses.
• Schools Poised For $50M Pepsi Deal - ....Hillsborough is poised to join hundreds of school districts nationwide that have signed such contracts with beverage vendors, choosing to bolster a public budget despite concerns about handing a private marketer a captive audience of youngsters
• 34 schools in region challenge grades
   With the hope of receiving higher marks and additional money, 34 Northeast Florida schools appealed the grades they received from the state.
• Brunt of school transfers Duval's
  As the first day of schools approaches, some Duval County principals find themselves short on teachers.
• Reno agrees to Democratic debate, just once
  Opponents within the party say the front-runner will cheat voters of ample time to compare them before the primary.
• McBride, Reno agree to August 27 debate
  WEST PALM BEACH — Democratic gubernatorial candidate Janet Reno accepted an invitation Monday to participate in a debate against her primary opponent, Tampa attorney Bill McBride. The Aug. 27 debate is scheduled at the Forum Club of the Palm Beaches and is being sponsored by NBC affiliate WPTV, which will carry the debate live and offer it to other NBC stations throughout Florida.
• Reno picks county for debate
  Janet Reno agrees to only one debate with Bill McBride before the Democratic gubernatorial primary.
• Union's TV ads to tout McBride
  The Florida Education Association will present the life of the Tampa lawyer to various state television markets.
• Teachers' union plans McBride television blitz - The 30-second spot, sponsored by the Florida Education Association, will signal the debut of television advertising in a concentrated summer campaign for the Democratic Party's nomination scheduled to be decided Sept. 10.
• Teachers funding McBride TV ads
  The Florida teachers' union will hit the airwaves starting Wednesday with a TV spot extolling the gubernatorial candidacy of attorney Bill McBride.
• Feeney continues lead in election money race - TALLAHASSEE -- Just days after his Republican primary opponent withdrew, House Speaker Tom Feeney reported Monday that he raised $272,000 this spring in his bid to win a new Central Florida congressional seat.-- 
  Feeney, who helped draw the boundaries for the new District 24 seat, has collected $784,228 since the campaign began in the winter.
• LEGISLATOR SAYS GOODBYE
  Broward County is losing a state legislator who was highly effective on behalf of children and social services. Advocates for these generally orphaned issues certainly will miss state Sen. Debbie Sanderson.
• Early entries begin political races
  TALLAHASSEE -- U.S. Rep. Ander Crenshaw, a Jacksonville Republican whose new congressional district extends into eastern Leon County, was the first candidate to qualify Monday as Florida's 2002 political campaign formally began.
• Qualifying period begins for congressional candidates
  TALLAHASSEE — Several of Florida's congressional members qualified Monday to defend redrawn seats on the first day of a week-long period during which candidates must present money or signatures to get on the ballot. Incumbent U.S. Reps. Ander Crenshaw, Cliff Stearns, John Mica, Ric Keller, Bill Young, Jim Davis, Adam Putnam, Porter Goss, Mark Foley, Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, Peter Deutsch, Lincoln Diaz-Balart, Clay Shaw and Alcee Hastings all filed papers and either paid a $9,000 fee or submitted about 2,100 signatures to get on the ballot.
• Republican qualifies first for elections
  U.S. Rep. Ander Crenshaw, a Jacksonville Republican whose new congressional district extends into eastern Leon County, was the first to qualify Monday as Florida's 2002 political campaign formally began.
• Florida, Georgia, Alabama extend water-sharing talks - ATLANTA -- Florida, Georgia and Alabama agreed Monday to another extension of their deadline for a water-sharing plan, saying a study on the water available didn't consider the ongoing drought in some areas.- 
  Negotiations on a formula for sharing the Apalachicola-Chattahoochee-Flint River system have been delayed at least 12 times.- 
  Georgia and Alabama want water for growth, while Florida's interests lie mainly in protecting fish and oysters in the Apalachicola River and bay. Alabama and Florida argue that Georgia takes too much water from rivers flowing into its neighbor states.
• Counties protest river talks
  Four of the six Florida counties along the Apalachicola River are siding with an environmental group in accusing the state of negotiating a water-sharing agreement in secret with Georgia and Alabama.
• Feedback Sought On Water Protection
  TAMPA - Let the howling begin. State regulators are seeking public comment on a proposal that will determine the future of many of the state's lakes, ... The last time that happened - shortly after David Struhs took over the Florida Department of Environmental Protection - agency officials beat a hasty retreat after 30 days of vigorous public outcry.- 
  That plan, floated in the summer of 1999, sought to unceremoniously drop more than 200 creeks, lakes, rivers and bays from a federal list of 712 polluted Florida waterways that were subject to special protection under the Clean Water Act.- 
  The new plan scraps more than 600 water bodies....
• Guiding The Army Corps Of Engineers...The Corps now is far more conscientious. But further reforms are needed. Politicians interested only in quick fixes and impressing constituents continue to pressure the Corps to undertake massive projects.-- Congress is considering legislation that would guard against ventures that would do more harm than good. Eric Draper, director of policy for the Audubon of Florida, recently testified before the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee and offered some sound counsel. He urged approval of legislation that would require:...
• Judge grants more time to protect manatees
  The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service now has until July 23 to submit a new timetable.
• Judge extends timetable for protecting endangered manatees
  WASHINGTON — A federal judge granted the Bush administration another week to propose a new timetable for protecting endangered manatees from boaters off the coast of Florida. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, facing a Monday deadline, said it learned over the weekend that it now has until July 23 to submit a new timetable to U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan.
• Dangerous bobcat attack brings out the jokesters - ...Still, health and wildlife officials stressed that bobcat attacks -- especially ones by rabid cats -- are rare in Florida.-- 
  There was only one rabid bobcat found in the state last year.
• Recent birth raises the Paynes Prairie bison population to 9
  Ralphy, the only male bison at Paynes Prairie Preserve State Park, has found Miss Right. And with her, the two horned, shaggy creatures have started a family with the recent birth of a male bison to offset the park's dwindling bison population.
• Palm Beach County may modify ban on melaleuca, Australian pine trees - Hoping to assuage angry homeowners, Palm Beach County may stop requiring many of them to remove two of the area's most prevalent pest trees: melaleuca and Australian pine.-- 
  Environmental administrators are proposing the change, which county commissioners are likely to deliberate at the end of August. It would represent not only a departure from a decade-old policy, but a turnaround from plans this spring to expand efforts to rout invasive plants.
• State inspecting two dozen S. Florida bridges following collapse-- Alarmed by Sunday's unexpected collapse of a drawbridge tender's house in downtown Miami, state inspectors set out Monday to look for structural flaws in almost two dozen drawbridges stretching from the Keys to Jupiter.-- 
  Officials said it was too soon to decide whether to mount a special effort to inspect drawbridges statewide but the two South Florida district offices of the Florida Department of Transportation went ahead with inspections regardless to be on the safe side.
• Judge tells jury rules in death penalty
  In a ruling that mirrors the new confusion over Florida's death penalty law, a trial judge here told prospective jurors Monday that if they convict John Huggins of murder, they will decide whether he is condemned to death or gets life in prison.
• Probe Inmate Abuse Charges
  Aileen Wuornos is an unlikely and unlikable "poster child" for the cause of prison inmates' right not to be abused by prison guards.
• INS commissioner tours prison where Haitian women held
  MIAMI — A top federal official's tour of the prison where 30 Haitian women refugees have languished since December left local leaders frustrated Monday in their campaign to end the asylum seekers' incarceration. Immigration and Naturalization Service Commissioner James Ziglar visited the Turner Guilford Knight Center, a maximum-security prison that has housed the refugees since their boat ran aground in early December.
• DUAL STANDARDS AT INS
  The Immigration and Naturalization Service says that its unequal treatment of Haitian asylum seekers is legitimate. Yet, yesterday in Miami INS Commissioner James Ziglar behaved as if the agency had something to hide. Ziglar toured a Miami-Dade maximum-security jail where the discriminatory policy has been applied to Haitian women, many locked up more than seven months.
• 'Quarters' renters face eviction - SPRING HILL -- A deadline came and went Monday with little action from the families who live in the ramshackle "quarters" on Lenox Court who were told to move out to make way for a new investment project.
• Downtown is set to go wireless in the fall
  Starting this fall, Gainesville residents will be able to surf the Web from a downtown restaurant or read their e-mail from a park bench in the Community Plaza - for free.-- Alachua County government soon will begin a six-month pilot project that would provide free wireless Internet access for computer users downtown - a plan that county officials say will give the city a head start on the next major innovation in Internet use.
• A youth pill? Or a deal with the devil?
  Although she is many years dead, I have never felt closer to my mother than now. I remember her vividly at 50, complaining about the symptoms of menopause. I remember thinking how old she was.
• Law professor sues Times Publishing, columnist
  Gary Minda accuses the newspaper and Bill Maxwell of defaming him. The Times' attorney says the column in question was mostly opinion.
• Orlando quadriplegic sues strip club over wheelchair access
  WEST PALM BEACH — A quadriplegic has sued a strip club, charging that it violates the Americans with Disabilities Act because the lap dance room does not have wheelchair access. Edward Law, of Orlando, sued the Wildside Adult Sports Cabaret last month after visiting the West Palm Beach club on May 9 and June 14.
• Abortion rights groups lose challenge to license plate fee use
  MIAMI — A federal judge ruled against abortion rights activists Monday who had tried to stop the distribution of fees from state license plates bearing the slogan "Choose Life." U.S. District Judge K. Michael Moore denied the abortion rights groups' request to ban distribution of the money, saying the groups lacked sufficient evidence to back their claims.
• Dan K. Thomasson: In Texas, nothing went on upstairs
  WASHINGTON — Just when you think you're living in an enlightened age, someone comes along to jolt you back to reality. Take Texas, for instance, where the thinking of some state officials seems not to have made it to the 21st century. In fact, their ideas about modern education might even be considered a bit rusty for the last half of the 20th century.
• Guest editorial: No exemption for Homeland Security
  The Bush administration is no friend of freedom of information and no friend at all of the Freedom of Information Act, the law that allows the public to discover what its government is up to. Attorney General John Ashcroft has all but urged federal agencies not to comply with freedom of information requests.
• Department of secrecy: Homeland security's attack on information
  In two successive days in October, the U.S. House and Senate passed the USA Patriot Act with 84 percent and 99 percent support respectively. Six weeks had passed since the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon not enough time to examine an enormous bill that has since been revealed to restrict more liberties than it protects. But Congress was anxious to respond to the attacks in a meaningful way. Resolve replaced deliberation.
• Molly Ivins: Does anybody really know what Bush did at Harken?
  AUSTIN, Texas — If the American public is not by now completely confused about what George W. Bush did or did not do at Harken Energy Corp., it's sure not because us media folks got the story straight. I haven't seen us get this tangled up in the facts since the last time we tried to explain global warming.
• Paul Krugman: Steps to wealth
  Why are George W. Bush's business dealings relevant? Given that his aides tout his "character," the public deserves to know that he became wealthy entirely through patronage and connections. But more important, those dealings foreshadow many characteristics of his administration, such as its obsession with secrecy and its intermingling of public policy with private interest.
• Mad dog, yes, but also watchdog
  By Jac Wilder VerSteeg, Palm Beach Post Editorial Writer
  Judicial Watch chews on Cheney's cuffs.
• As the ink gets redder, the tax cuts look sillier
  Palm Beach Post Editorial
  White House budget projections unrealistic.
• Can corporate America be reformed?
  With corporate crime finally starting to register on pollsters' seismographs, official Washington is suddenly high on corporate punishment. The Big House is all the rage, with politicians on both sides of the aisle dancin' to the jailhouse rock.
• Reforming corporate America
  Both Democrats and Republicans have a room they don't want company to see. Democrats try to hide the malcontent left that's forever demanding "change" in American life. The closer it gets to Election Day, the less their national candidates want to see media images of militant blacks, militant gays, militant anybody.
• Faith-based capitalism's plunge into the market abyss
  Five years ago Bill Clinton announced that he was ending welfare as we knew it. Last week George W. Bush could have commemorated the occasion in his Wall Street speech by proposing to end capitalism as we know it the brand of capitalism that's wrecking more lives and families than welfare ever did, the brand whose cheats have been more obscene, more numerous and more criminal than "welfare queens" ever were, the brand that turned corporate directors into crooked dealers and shareholders into their willing addicts so long as the fix was in.
• Bush releases Homeland Security plan
  President Bush submitted to Congress today the nation's first-ever comprehensive strategy for confronting terrorism within U.S. borders, calling the protection of America "our most urgent national priority."
• Greenspan gives upbeat assessment of economy
  Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan told Congress today the economy is on the road to full recovery but will keep feeling the effects of last year's recession. Corporate executives should be held accountable to accurately state the financial condition of their companies, he said.
• Diplomat: Generals didn't know of atrocities
  A former U.S. ambassador to El Salvador testified on behalf of two former Salvadoran generals.

7/15/02

• Spin patrol
  Bush dismisses McBride, takes a few shots at Reno-- ...Democrat Bill McBride, who polls show is still an unknown to half of Florida's voters, isn't worth talking about, Bush suggested.... As for Reno's suggestion that she better understands Florida because she's a native, Bush said: "This is ludicrous to suggest that you have to be born in Florida to love Florida. I'm a Floridian by choice. I think I understand the state better than my opponents."
• Better schools or marketing tools?
  The St. Joe Co. wants to build charter schools, tax-free, in its communities.-- The St. Joe Co. of Jacksonville, the largest private landowner in the state, and its Arvida subsidiary are forging new alliances with state education officials at a time when the company is beginning to develop 1 million lush acres of Florida Panhandle.-- A proposed public-private partnership between Florida State University and St. Joe would have used the school's tax-exempt status to secure low-interest government loans for charter school construction.-- ..."Forget vouchers, they found a way to get taxpayers to pay for their whole school," said Tony Welch, a spokesman for the state teachers union.
• A vote for the obvious
  Palm Beach Post Editorial
  Unless organizers of the petition drive have drastically underestimated their results, Floridians will vote this fall on another education-related constitutional amendment that would force Gov. Bush and state lawmakers to match their rhetoric with money.
• Innocents lost: Florida's bungling leaves children in peril
  There are probably some Jessicas in the group of 1,841 children. A few Tylers. A Brittany or two. There are rebellious, angry teenagers. Wide-eyed toddlers. Maybe even a few sets of twins. And one little girl named Rilya.
• Race for new office devoid of Democrats
  No one has stepped forward to challenge Republican Tom Gallagher in his bid to become Florida's chief financial officer.
• Crossing senators spells end of career
  Ever since Ronald Reagan was president, Debby Sanderson has been a loyal Republican state lawmaker, one of the few from Broward County.
• Harris leads pack in contributions
   
• New congressional districts have incumbents scurrying to meet voters -- TALLAHASSEE · Like most incumbents, Democrat Peter Deutsch hasn't had to worry much about re-election to Congress. A familiar face in the suburban sprawl of South Florida, Deutsch hasn't faced a serious challenger in at least six years, and it seems he won't have a major opponent this fall.-- 
  But redistricting has radically changed the shape of congressional districts, and many South Florida political veterans such as Deutsch are having to introduce themselves to new voters in new political terrain -- even though the new maps almost guarantee victories for most South Florida incumbents, including Democrats.
• Rep. Brown calls for increased involvement in political process
  U.S. Rep. Corrine Brown issued a call to arms Sunday that what happened in the 2000 presidential election ³should never happen again.²
• Campaigns set in motion
  Some have been running since the polls closed nearly two years ago. Others are all revved up with nowhere to run, waiting until the last possible moment for an "open" legislative seat or judicial job they can jump into.
• Pick Leaders With Care ....This week, qualifying time is only for U.S. House candidates for nine local congressional districts. Next Monday begins the five-day qualifying time for other state and local candidates. They include the governor, attorney general, chief financial officer, agriculture commissioner, state senators and representatives, School Board members, county commissioners, some city commissioners and one new local judge. Other judge candidates filed in May.
• Elections put workers on shaky ground
  An election year is always a difficult time for state employees. Legally, they can't be required to make campaign contributions or "volunteer" in a campaign their boss or his or her party is conducting. In the legislative branch, a lot of employees take leave - or quit - to help a member they genuinely admire or just want to keep around for their own security.
• More and more parents opt for home-schooling, Census study finds
   Home-schoolers quietly nosed out charter-school students as the largest single group in the school-choice movement, according to a new study from the U.S. Census
• Clouding Sunshine: Autopsy ruling misses bigger issues
  Florida's tradition of open records could suffer a crippling blow if Friday's appellate-court decision in the Earnhardt autopsy photos case is allowed to stand.
• State short on faculty to teach new nurses
  In Florida, labor statistics indicate the demand for nurses over the next decade will increase by 29.3 percent, which means 36,000 more nurses will be needed. What is less well known is that nursing schools nationwide are hurting for faculty to teach the next generation of nurses.
• In quest for extra power, electric utilities appear monopolistic
  The way it used to work in Florida was, your electric company would decide that it needed a new power plant. It got permission from the state. It built the plant. You, the customer, paid for it.
• Hemingway Days to celebrate "The Old Man and the Sea"
  Living here in the 1930s, Ernest Hemingway regularly went marlin fishing in the Gulf Stream off the Florida Keys. Those adventures led him to write the classic novel "The Old Man and the Sea." The 50th anniversary of the book's publication will be celebrated during the Hemingway Days festival, an annual event that begins Wednesday and runs through July 21, the 103rd anniversary of the author's birth.
• Bobcat attacks on nature trail
  Hiker, park ranger wounded before the animal, thought to be rabid, was killed.
• For once, drugmakers may not prevail
  WASHINGTON -- The prescription drug industry does not suffer many political losses, particularly in Washington.
• Guest editorial: Challenging the accepted wisdom
  These have not been good times for established medical practices. In realms as disparate as breast cancer, menopause, arthritis and weight control, the prevailing orthodoxy finds itself under attack. For the past several months a controversy has raged over whether mammograms to detect tiny tumors in the breast have any proven value in reducing breast cancer mortality. Last week a federal study of hormone pills to treat postmenopausal women for a wide range of ailments was terminated when prolonged use of the pills was found to do more harm than good. A day or so later researchers reported that a popular operation for arthritis of the knee worked no better than a sham procedure that left patients thinking they had received treatment when in fact they had not.
• Guest editorial: Mexico's quest for justice
  Meticulously typed notes on millions of index cards are confirming Mexicans' worst suspicions about their nation's recent past. The cards, part of secret archives opened this year by President Vicente Fox, reveal that during the 1960s and '70s Mexico's ostensibly democratic government waged a "dirty war" against leftist student activists, peasant organizers and other dissenters, one as ruthless as those prosecuted by South America's military dictatorships.
• Bush's plan to fight corporate scandal won't do the job
  Well, President Bush made his big speech on corporate reform Tuesday, and the stock market went down by 178 points. As predicted, Bush proposed stiffer penalties for bad apples, evildoers and perpetrators of "malfee-ance." Unfortunately, that won't fix the system.

7/14/02

• Bullet train opponents will miss filing deadline
   Short about 420,000 signatures, a grass-roots group pushing for a November referendum on the voter-approved bullet train will miss Monday’s deadline to file petitions with the Supervisor of Elections.
• New Law Softens Funding Requirements For Projects - TALLAHASSEE - The Suncoast Parkway ends abruptly just south of the Hernando- Citrus county line in sand hills dotted with scrub pine and palmetto.
  Tangled hammocks hide scrub jays, indigo snakes and gopher tortoises. This is the real Florida, environmentalists say, wild and open. They want it to stay that way.
  Developers and community leaders, on the other hand, look across the same horizon and see cheap land and opportunity. They want the Florida Department of Transportation to extend the toll road north through rural Citrus County.
  To do that, the department's Turnpike District must demonstrate there's enough demand to justify construction. That task might have proved difficult until the Florida Legislature intervened this spring.
• Road Builders Providing Political Funds - TALLAHASSEE - When the Legislature passed a 147-page transportation bill this year, it did so with huge majorities in both houses.
  t's not hard to understand why lawmakers liked the bill. Road building interests are political players with deep pockets. Either directly or through political action committees, they pump millions of dollars into campaign coffers.
  Take, for example, the Florida Transportation Builders, a political action committee representing construction, mining, asphalt and concrete companies. The PAC has collected $1.27 million since 1996 and passed out $210,000 to candidates and political parties during that time.
• Deciding County Growth Debated
  TAMPA - Some want to re-examine which organization should decide where and how development occurs: the 10-member appointed Hillsborough Planning Commission or the county's Department of Planning and Growth Management. 
• Harris raises more than $2-million
  The GOP candidate for a U.S. House seat collects far more campaign funds than her rivals.
• Bush recount troops land plum D.C. jobs
  John Bolton, undersecretary of state for arms control, caused a stir in May by accusing the Cuban government of transferring bioweapons technology to rogue nations. Nineteen months ago, he caused a different stir -- bursting into a Tallahassee library on behalf of the Bush-Cheney campaign to stop a recount of Miami-Dade County ballots.
• Palm Beach County tests touchscreen voting machines
  WEST PALM BEACH — Hoping to avoid a repeat of the 2000 election debacle, Palm Beach County tested the county's new touchscreen machines in a mock election Saturday. In an effort to test the county's 3,100 new touchscreen machines, 3,810 residents voted at malls and supermarkets across the county.
• 3,800 turn out for mock election
  Voters in the county's mock election seemed pleased with new touch-screen technology
• Bush staffers to resign to campaign for Congress
  Friday will be the last day on the job for two of Gov. Jeb Bush's department heads, who are expected to run for Congress in North Florida.-- Tom McGurk, head of the Agency for Workforce Innovation, is challenging three-term U.S. Rep. Allen Boyd, D-Monticello, in the redrawn 2nd congressional district. And Jennifer Carroll says she's "thinking strongly" about a rematch with Congresswoman Corrine Brown of Jacksonville - so strongly that she's quit her job.
• 'Thirst for power' tarnishes Childers' legacy
  It may be the most spectacular crash of a political career in West Florida's history. For years, W.D. Childers was the most powerful man in the state Senate and the iron-fisted monarch of Florida's westernmost county. Today, already convicted of a misdemeanor, he is staring down the barrel of a bribery indictment, fingered by a fellow Escambia County commissioner who has already pleaded guilty.
• Princes of politics have a lot in common
  The Bushes aren't the only dynasty making big political waves in Florida.-- U.S. Rep. Carrie Meek, that Democratic icon who spent 23 years in Congress and the state Legislature, announced her pending retirement amid tears and hugs at an African-American church in her hometown of Miami. Her timing, just two weeks before candidates must qualify to run for the district, was choreographed to hand her seat to her anointed successor: her son, state Sen. Kendrick Meek.
• Reno stumps for votes before American Legion convention
  KISSIMMEE — Janet Reno spoke before members of the nation's largest veterans' organization Saturday, delivering a gubernatorial campaign message heavy on social services for veterans and seniors. "I approach this as a person who feels she has an obligation to deliver services to veterans, through the state Department of Veteran's Affairs, that is user-friendly and effective as possible," Reno said at the American Legion's annual state convention.
• Reno more, maybe less, than image
  Whatever you think about Janet Reno as a candidate for governor, don't think of her as a Bill Clinton stooge.
• Democrats' headquarters for sale
  The Florida Democratic Party is close to closing a $350,000 deal to sell the historic Towle House and hopes to move closer to the Capitol.
• Business scandals fire up politics
  Democrats are moving to turn the battle over corporate governance to their advantage.
• Judges who reveal bias on a case should be disqualified
  TALLAHASSEE -- The Christian Coalition and other ax-carrying interest groups in Florida are rejoicing over a U.S. Supreme Court decision, in a Minnesota case, that said judicial candidates can't be stopped from talking about such controversial issues as abortion and gun control. The majority opinion did not overturn a separate rule which, like one in Florida, bars candidates from saying how they would decide cases. But as the dissenters said -- with much the better argument -- that is a distinction without a difference.
• Death penalty law's future uncertain -- Florida executions have been on hold for half a year because of an appeal by an Arizona Death Row inmate challenging the constitutionality of that state's capital punishment law.-- The moratorium is sure to continue for at least a few more months and may last the better part of a year.
• Florida's capital sentencing law
• New districts split neighborhoods
  Charlie Hollis Sr. appreciates his Golden Gate neighborhood and the quiet of residential streets miles from Collier County's crowded coast. Hollis, a 43-year-old automotive technician, knows his neighbors. The modest home he shares with his 24-year-old son, Charlie Jr., is sandwiched between the households of two Hispanic families. Across the street is an Asian-American family. Farther down the block in either direction live black families. It is a mostly blue-collar community of pickup trucks, big trees and curbless streets.  New district map
• How is a parent to choose?
  It's like taking a multiple-choice test where all the answer choices are "A'. In their choice brochures, many schools sound alike.
• States face rising health care costs
  The nation's governors opened their summer meeting Saturday with an eye toward shoring up faltering state economies by taking aim at their biggest budget albatross: the mounting cost of health care.
• Health care debt continues to grow for City of Fort Lauderdale - FORT LAUDERDALE · The failed health insurance program has plunged the city $7.5 million in debt, and that number is growing.
• Women's quest for tenure is a struggle
  For generations, professors seeking tenure at universities have been evaluated on three factors: teaching, research and service to the institution.
• Neither hate nor rain deter rally
  About 100 gather to denounce the beating of a couple leaving a gay pride event last weekend.
• Victims Return To Attack Site, Rally For Gay Rights
  TAMPA - In the past, they had endured taunting but never physical threats. Now, one has a bruised face, another broken blood vessels in an eye. The third required four stitches to close a cut on his lower lip. And they are standing up for their rights. ...The three men attacked last week in the Channelside parking garage after a gay PrideFest party returned to the scene of the attack Saturday. But this time they came for a rally to censure gay bashing. Sonny Gonzales, his partner, Stephen Hair, and their friend Scott Boswell stood in front of more than 200 people who showed up for the event despite rainy weather.
• Get the priorities straight
  Palm Beach Post Editorial
  It remains indefensible to deny children awaiting adoption a chance at a stable and loving home because the parents are homosexual.
• Lax laws, loose guns
  Floridians can keep unsecured firearms -- a target for thieves, who often use them to kill.
• Abuse calls concerning slain toddler began 2 years ago
  LAKELAND — The first call to the abuse hot line came Aug. 28, 2000. The caller said 2½-year-old Rheyna and 10-month-old Alfredo Montez didn't have enough to eat and that their mother, Jeanna Lynn Swallows, constantly had parties and did drugs. The investigator assigned to the case at the time, Shannon Kersey, wrote that she was unable to locate the family.
• Neighborhoods hurt by too many rentals
  When Glen Smerage moved into a house near Forest Ridge more than 20 years ago, he thought he'd picked the perfect location: a quiet, single-family neighborhood within biking distance of his job at the University of Florida.
• Victims of church investment scam unlikely to recover losses
  TAMPA — People who lost money in a $488 million investment scam run by the Greater Ministries International Church can expect to get back only pennies on the dollar, according to a church trustee's report. Trustee Kevin O'Halloran said Tampa-based Greater Ministries has few assets to help repay thousands of victims — many of whom lost their homes and life savings.
• Tellers help uncover new credit-card scam
  Tellers over at Tallahassee State Bank on North Monroe Street found what may be the newest twist on credit-card scams last week. They opened the bank's automated teller machine and found three cards trapped inside - three retail-store gift-certificate cards, that is.
• Nigerian Scam Still Fleecing The Unwary - The latest statistics from her organization shows the number of Nigerian money offer Internet scams jumped 900 percent from 2000 to 2001. The average amount lost per scam nearly doubled - from $3,000 to $5,957 - and at least one victim lost $3 million.
• Manatee rules crimp Super Bowl plans
  U.S. wildlife officials delay waterfront development along the St. Johns River because of manatee deaths.
• Endangered loggerhead's nest plundered for eggs - Biologists with the Clearwater Marine Aquarium welcomed 108 new loggerhead turtles into the world late last week, but said Tuesday that more than 100 eggs were stolen from a second beach nest.-- During a patrol early Monday, aquarium biologist Glenn Harman discovered that someone had moved the stakes protecting a nest on the south end of Indian Rocks Beach. A flag identifying the nest also had been moved, he said.
• Corporation offering to help sea turtles
  Gainesville - ....But, no matter how unlikely it would be for a sea turtle to be found on NW 13th Street, that's where thousands of people have sent their contributions or financial requests to help save the huge creatures from extinction.- The nonprofit Caribbean Conservation Corp. was formed in 1959, about three years after University of Florida biology professor Archie Carr published his book "The Windward Road." Carr's concern was finding a way to save green sea turtles. Some of the first people to read Carr's book formed a loose organization known as the Brotherhood of the Green Turtle.
• Behemoths at beach are height of absurdity Treasure Island's proposed land development regulations are the biggest land grab since the Oklahoma Land Rush. The problem for Treasure Island's residents? The city government appears to be working for the "Sooners," that is, the developers who stand to profit at the expense of the residents.
• Park evokes image of Eden on summer day
  Nestled among the acres of bald cypress and live oak trees at the southern end of the picturesque Suwannee River is a pleasant respite from the hot summer days.
• New EPA official meets critics -- TARPON SPRINGS -- The usually soft-spoken Heather Malinowksi had a blunt message for the new ombudsman for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, who was in town Saturday to meet residents near the Stauffer Superfund site.-- "You've stepped into a situation where you don't belong," said Malinowski, secretary of a local watchdog group.-- Mary M. "Peggy" Boyer was named acting ombudsman after Robert Martin resigned the position when his job was transferred to the EPA's office of the inspector general. Martin contended the move was designed to silence him for exposing weaknesses in EPA cleanup plans in Tarpon Springs and other Superfund sites around the country.
• Medicare drug markup: 10,000%
  You might think Medicare gets a good deal on chemotherapy drugs, but it often pays as much as 100 times what the drugs cost.-- Doctors who pay only $7.75 for a single dose of Vincasar, for example, are reimbursed at a rate of $700 under Medicare. The government covers $560, and the Medicare patient pays $140.
• Patients as pocketbooks
  The state's investigation of Eckerd Corp. shows the extent to which personal medical information has become a valuable commodity for drug manufacturers.
• When faith rules over reasoned judgment, we've adopted the Saudi way
  When the Pledge of Allegiance ruling was announced and then the tumult to follow, I had just left Saudi Arabia, a place where religion infuses every aspect of life.
• Overkill in the name of security
  Some elements of the Bush administration's proposed department for homeland defense are being hacked at by members of Congress protecting their turf, but there's one part of the administration's draft bill they should all set their axes upon: the section that would keep damaging industry records and reports from public eyes.
• Freedom of the Press
  Freedom House, a non-profit organization based in Washington D.C., monitors freedom throughout the world. For the past 23 years, Freedom House has done a survey of how free the press is around the globe. The following is taken from the 2002 survey. It has been edited for space. The full text is available at www.freedomhouse.org .
• Maureen Dowd: Rub-a-dub in the hot tub
  WASHINGTON — Dick and Rummy are in the Jacuzzi at Camp David. The two masters of the Bush universe have had a lousy week. And now, with the white cast on Rummy's hand buoyed by bubbles, they just want to sip scotch on the rocks and review the knocks. They are keeping one eye on the Kid, who's been jogging circles around Aspen Lodge for the past nine hours.
• AIDS: THE OTHER GLOBAL THREAT
  A menace that has killed 20 million people and threatens 40 million more with sure death is at least as much a global peril as international terrorism.

 (Top)   (State News)  (Previous Week)  (Home)