Restore rights for 30,000, and move on from there
Palm Beach Post Editorial
Deal proposed for some of Florida's ex-felons.

Protesters hope to repeat One Florida Capitol clash
A key organizer of a demonstration three years ago that brought national civil-rights leaders and thousands of blacks to Florida's Capitol announced Tuesday a repeat performance next March, just in time for the presidential primary and the opening of the state's 2004 legislative session.

Lake Worth suburbs put under malaria alert
LAKE WORTH — Health officials declared a malaria alert Tuesday in suburbs of Lake Worth, and were calling all 38,000 households to recommend protection against mosquitoes. Two local men were diagnosed with malaria Saturday, triggering the Palm Beach County Health Department to issue the alert.

Flowers Foods recalls bread that may contain metal
THOMASVILLE, Ga. — Baked goods manufacturer Flowers Foods Inc. said Wednesday it is recalling roughly 150,000 loaves of bread, hot dog buns and breadsticks because they may contain pieces of metal. The voluntary recall affects 19 types of bread sold by the Thomasville-based company, ranging from Broad Street Bakery Garlic Breadsticks to Winn Dixie Raisin Bread.

Enrollment begins for self-employed insurance program
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. - Self-employed Floridians can get guaranteed health insurance under a once-a-year, one-month enrollment period that starts Friday.
The August open enrollment period was established by the 2000 Legislature and requires insurance companies and health maintenance organizations to offer health coverage to the self-employed without regard to health status.
While self-employed people can't be refused coverage during the one-month open enrollment period, companies are required to offer only basic plans.

DCF chief criticized for campaign job
A Republican running for the state Senate in Oklahoma has tapped a high-profile Floridian to serve as her campaign chairman -- the head of this state's troubled child-welfare agency.

Facing criticism, DCF chief gives up role in Oklahoma campaign
Facing strong criticism, including barbed comments from his boss, Gov. Jeb Bush, Department of Children & Families Secretary Jerry Regier announced Thursday morning he will no longer lead an Oklahoma political campaign.

Senators request rules governing corporate voucher program
TALLAHASSEE — Two Senate Democrats have filed a public records request with state Education Commissioner Jim Horne for a copy of the rules that govern an $88 million corporate voucher program. Sens. Ron Klein, D-Delray Beach, and Dave Aronberg, D-Greenacres, aren't sure the state Department of Education actually has those administrative rules, which are required by the 2-year-old statute.

Voucher program secrecy assailed
Tax benefits go to corporations
The state's largest school voucher program funnels millions of tax dollars to private schools, but faces increasing criticism because it has little public accountability.

Get it straight
Florida doesn't even seem to know which schools accept vouchers.

ACLU to offer libraries warnings about privacy
MIAMI - Next to the usual "Please be quiet" and "No food in library" signs, Florida library patrons soon may see a more troubling message: Big Brother could be watching what you read.

Bush cancels special session on medical malpractice
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. - Gov. Jeb Bush canceled a special session for next week to address the rising cost of medical malpractice insurance, saying lawmakers haven't agreed on how to limit some lawsuit damages in such cases.

1,000 doctors provide affidavits
Health-care problem 'no doubt is real'
Dr. Karen Krueger, a Tallahassee internist for 23 years, says, "I'm a dinosaur. I like to get to know my patients. I like to know everything about them and hear all their problems."

U.S. panel will review hanging ruled a suicide
WEST PALM BEACH - The U.S. Commission on Civil Rights said Wednesday it will review the hanging of a Belle Glade black man because of lingering suspicions that he was lynched.

Pure hypocrisy from all sides
The 1951 Chevy truck chugged along on a pontoon of floating steel drums over the Florida Strait for more than a day. It was the most ingenious plan ever hatched by Cubans desperate to leave the communist-ruled island.

Retailers try to compensate with discounts
No tax holiday means sales Labor Day, Thanksgiving and Christmas are still on. But forget that summer sales-tax holiday - it's not happening this year.

Raising hard questions in shadow of phosphate
Elaine Edenfield objects when people compare her to Erin Brockovich, whose crusade against corporate-sponsored pollution inspired a movie starring Julia Roberts.

Committee chairman sees dredging's effects
A key Republican congressman from Ohio on Wednesday glimpsed "Sand Mountain" along the Apalachicola River as part of a tour of the effects of dredging.

Gators' media guide has crocodile on cover
GAINESVILLE — What a croc! A large crocodile — and not the school's namesake Alligator mascot — is featured on the cover of the University of Florida's 2003 football media guide. A photo of Florida coach Ron Zook leading the team onto the field is superimposed over the olive green crocodile.

Molly Ivins: Even in politics, no one gets to lie that bad
AUSTIN, Texas — Oh great, now we have a bunch of Texas Democrats hiding out in Albuquerque (which is very difficult to spell), and I'm here holding the bag, trying to explain what this particular spate of lunacy in our state is all about. Spare me, Lord.

Molly Ivins: 9-11 report reconfirms the obvious
AUSTIN, Texas — The congressional report by the committees on intelligence about 9-11 partially made public last week reminds me of the recent investigation into the crash of the Columbia shuttle — months of effort to reconfirm the obvious.

p

7/28-26/03

Editorial: Insurers deserve some blame for malpractice mess
(St.Pete Times) is doing its readers an injustice by printing Gov. Bush's letters to the editor as if he is just another man with an opinion. He is acting as nothing more than a lobbyist for the insurance industry, with more than enough opportunity to push his agenda without mucking up the opinion page.

Legislature's legacy
TALLAHASSEE -- Gov. Jeb Bush's aggressive arm-twisting of Senate Republicans has created an enormous, if not unprecedented, rift in the state's Republican Party.
And after more than five months of surprisingly public bickering over what to do about doctors' rising medical-malpractice insurance costs, GOP leaders face the prospect of spending the rest of the year trying to heal the fractures.

Can you spare med-mal compromise?
This may be remembered as the summer of tough love.

Swear in all witnesses before the Legislature
Palm Beach Post Editorial
Malpractice hearings got down to facts, not hype.

Budget outlook for next year has some worried
Florida's economy is growing and revenue is up. The state's got nearly $1 billion coming from the federal government. But many still expect lawmakers to face a tough challenge in writing a balanced budget next spring. "We're going to start off in the hole the first day," said Paul Ledford, senior vice president for public policy with the Florida Chamber of Commerce. That's because of the way lawmakers patched together the current $53 billion budget, which took effect July 1.

Southern veterans fear services will be cut at some VA hospitals
Every Thursday, Hoyt Holland drives a busload of fellow elderly war veterans from Moultrie, Ga., to Lake City, Fla., where they fill prescriptions, get routine checkups and volunteer at a crowded veterans hospital. Holland was stunned to learn recently that Lake City is one of 18 facilities — many in the Southeast — on a draft list of hospitals that could be dramatically scaled back in a cost-cutting move.

Rumors of lynching reveal racial divide in Southern town
Not long after family members found the body of Feraris "Ray" Golden dangling from a schefflera tree outside his grandmother's home, ugly suspicions surfaced. Relatives said Golden couldn't have committed suicide as police concluded; they said his hands were tied behind his back. Friends said Golden, who is black, was dating a white policeman's daughter.

Was it suicide or murder?
By Marc Caputo, Rochelle Brenner and William M. Hartnett, Palm Beach Post Staff Writers
In Belle Glade, the split in opinion about a recent hanging reflects the town's racial divide.

Gambling foes may soon be unmasked
Back in April when some legislators wanted to install video lottery terminals that operate like slot machines at horse and dog tracks and jai alai frontons, a mysterious little committee opposed the measure. They began by sending advertisements to Floridians in some Senate districts.

Cargill Fertilizer seeking phosphate mine in Hardee County
BOWLING GREEN — Cargill Fertilizer Inc. has asked permission to mine phosphate from a 12,000-acre site near the Peace River in central Florida.
The company submitted preliminary plans to Hardee County earlier this month seeking permission to mine the site, known as the South Fort Meade Expansion, along the Polk-Hardee county line.

I was wrong -- but for all the right reasons
Michael Burdick, the hoaxer made infamous for his naked-women-paintball Bambi-hunting "business," is a philosopher. He believes in free speech, free will, a free America and . . . free publicity.

A logic steeped in cruelty
There is cruelty in the argument by Republican leaders in the U.S. House that the working poor don't deserve a tax rebate 25-million other families will soon be getting. Parents who earn minimum wage don't make enough to pay income taxes so they haven't earned a tax break, the House leaders' argument goes. The logic is so simplistic . . . and so heartless.

So much left to know
Declassified sections of a 9/11 report fall short of total disclosure on the role of Saudi Arabia and our government's own mistakes.

Truth on Iraq -- bring it on!
Odai and Qusai Hussein are dead. Somehow that's supposed to make those Americans questioning the lack of WMDs, the now refuted "evidence" about uranium sales to Iraq and other reasons the Bush administration gave to get into a pre-emptive war to shut up. Or move to an Iraqi dessert, shrivel and die....

Martin Schram: Questions that should be asked
Every day, there is news that makes it painfully clear that events overseas are spinning dangerously out of the control of President Bush and his best and brightest.
Yet, every day, the news media's best and brightest are also falling down on their job — their responsibility to the public — to shed light on what really went wrong, what is being done to fix it, and what is the real extent of the sacrifice Americans will ultimately have to make. ...

7/25-22/03

Investigators say possibility exists tainted drugs still in system
MIAMI — Patients battling AIDS and cancer face a small risk of getting counterfeit drugs at their local pharmacies despite efforts by state investigators to safeguard supplies while they pursue wholesalers who are peddling bogus medications.
Concerns about the safety of the drug supply surfaced after prosecutors announced Monday that a grand jury had indicted 19 people on charges of watering down or selling fake prescription drugs to businesses that supplied corner drug stores and retail chains. The drugs were often prescribed for AIDS and cancer patients.

Bush signs elections bill, runoff again eliminated for 2004
Gov. Jeb Bush signed an elections bill Thursday that puts Florida in line to receive millions of federal dollars to update antiquated voting equipment and suspends the state's traditional primary runoff for 2004.
State, civil rights groups reach agreement on felon voting case

Regier's report card is mixed
DCF makes gains; some goals lag
One year into his tenure at the helm of Florida's perennially troubled social service agency, Jerry Regier has made some progress in reforming a child welfare system that he declared was governed by poor ''philosophy'' and beset by ``bad management.'' Internal DCF report | PDF version

End vouchers or start tracking them
Palm Beach Post Editorial
Program is slush fund with no accountability.

Charter schools: Who's accountable?
The most recent FCAT data reinforce earlier findings that charter schools in Florida are not living up to the performance claims made by their supporters. And they are not being held accountable for this low performance.

Struhs swims against the truth
By Sally Swartz, Palm Beach Post Editorial Writer
In the real world, less Everglades protection.

Ag chief appeals canker ruling, resumes cutting
Five days after a Broward judge demanded the state do more tests before it cut down trees suspected of being infected with citrus canker, Florida Agriculture Commissioner Charles Bronson appealed the decision Wednesday and blamed one of his legal adversaries, the Broward County Commission, for the spread of the disease.
State appeals order halting citrus canker eradication program
TALLAHASSEE — The state Wednesday appealed a judge's order that halted its cutting of South Florida backyard citrus trees to eradicate citrus canker. Agriculture Secretary Charles Bronson asked the 4th District Court of Appeal to overturn a ruling by Broward Circuit Judge Leonard Fleet. The judge last week blocked the cutting of trees infected and exposed to canker because of questions about how the state tests for the disease and measures the distance between trees.

Florida activist Kunst first to request protest permit for G-8
SAVANNAH, Ga. — A longtime Florida activist, who ran as a fringe candidate for governor in his home state last year, on Monday became the first person to seek a permit to protest at next summer's G-8 summit in southeastern Georgia.
President Bush last week picked Sea Island, a posh resort island about 60 miles south of Savannah, to host next June's summit of leaders of eight of the world's most power nations.
Bob Kunst, president of the Oral Majority, sent e-mail to Glynn County Police Chief Bob Pittman saying he want to bring protesters to call for an investigation of Bush's razor-thin 2000 presidential election in Florida, as well as issues including the case Bush made for war in Iraq.

Georgia, Alabama, Florida governors sign understanding agreement
TALLAHASSEE — The governors of Florida, Georgia and Alabama signed a memorandum of understanding on Tuesday regarding the sharing of water from the Apalachicola, Chattahoochee and Flint rivers.
Governors reach 'milestone' in river talks
Negotiations for water-sharing agreement extended
Closer, but no agreement yet. That's how representatives of Alabama, Florida and Georgia on Monday described the talks on sharing water from the Apalachicola-Chattahoochee-Flint river system.

How about we sue for political malpractice?
As someone who enjoys watching politicians self-destruct, I can't wait to see the Legislature overdose on medical malpractice next month.

Governor, key senator meet to mend fences in malpractice debate
TAMPA — Gov. Jeb Bush offered an olive branch to a key senator in the medical malpractice debate Tuesday, meeting for two hours in an attempt to mend political fences and reach a consensus on the divisive issue.
Bush and Sen. Tom Lee, the senate's chief negotiator on medical malpractice reform, met for two hours at a small Tampa airport behind closed doors. The men emerged, saying they had a greater understanding of each other's position on malpractice reform and pledging to be true to their Republican Party.
No deal was struck and Lee said both sides are continuing to draft proposals in hopes of finding a measure on which both can agree. The two said it was also important for them to meet because with Lee on track to become Senate president in 2004, the two need to learn to work together.

Bush: Special session ends without malpractice agreement
TALLAHASSEE — A second special session aimed at cutting doctors' malpractice insurance rates ended Monday without an agreement, leaving lawmakers to try to tackle the issue again next month. Gov. Jeb Bush said he'd call the Legislature back Aug. 5 to try and resolve what he says is a crisis affecting every Floridian's access to health care.
Session ends without malpractice caps
By Jim Ash, Palm Beach Post Capital Bureau
Gov. Jeb Bush says another special session on medical malpractice begins Aug. 5

Network refuses to air Democrats' ad attacking Bush, Byrd
TALLAHASSEE — A cable news network refused to run two state Democratic Party ads that attack Gov. Jeb Bush and House Speaker Johnnie Byrd, saying they are inflammatory and there were concerns about their accuracy. The ads accuse Bush of using strong-arm tactics to push through a medical malpractice bill and House Speaker Johnnie Byrd of using the issue to raise campaign money.
Network refuses Democrats' ad
In one commercial, a pink piggy bank floats over a floor debate in the Florida House. In the second, set in sinister black-and-white, a man in a trench coat stands in front of the Capitol and jabs a finger into another man's chest as he makes his point.

Former Bush campaign aides join Byrd's U.S. Senate bid
TALLAHASSEE — House Speaker Johnnie Byrd said Monday he's chosen two of Gov. Jeb Bush's former campaign aides to help him in his bid to win the Republican nomination for the U.S. Senate. Karen Unger, who managed Bush's 2002 re-election effort, and Todd Harris, the campaign's spokesman, will advise Byrd on strategy and the media while also helping structure the campaign organization.
Byrd to curtail hefty contributions
Florida House Speaker Johnnie Byrd, who has been aggressively soliciting big political contributions from corporations and lobbyists involved in the ongoing fight over medical malpractice insurance, said Monday he would no longer engage in such fundraising.

Colleges feel effect of pay cap
ORLANDO - A new law capping the amount of state money that can be paid to university presidents is now in effect, even if the presidents have long-term contracts, university officials were told Wednesday.

Rise in black unemployment rate is a national emergency
The unemployment rate for blacks surged to 11.8 percent last month. This increase is a full percentage point higher than the previous month - one of the biggest jumps in the last two decades.

Red tide flares on southwest Florida coast
ST. PETERSBURG — A red tide bloom has killed fish and annoyed beachgoers along the southwest Florida coast this week. Red tide is a foul-smelling, microscopic algae that emits a toxin that interferes with breathing in fish and sea mammals. The toxin also becomes airborne and causes respiratory irritation in humans.

State OKs mold damage cap
By Jeff Ostrowski, Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Insurers say the caps on damage from mold can prevent homeowner rate hikes.

Ex-FAU chief: Top aide gave car gift green light
By Lona O'Connor, Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Former Florida Atlantic University President Anthony Catanese laid blame squarely at the feet of his longtime lieutenant, Carla Coleman.

FPL probes propriety of bonus for non-merger
By Ted Jackson, Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Then-CEO James Broadhoad initiated the Entergy deal, scuttled it -- and walked away with $22.7 million.

President of Tallahassee bankers group jailed on theft charges
TALLAHASSEE — A woman recently elected as president of the local bankers' association was charged with stealing money from her own bank. Officials said Carol M. Miles, 36, president of Mortgage Bankers Association and a mortgage loan official at Capital City Bank, was charged Monday with 99 counts of fraud. She's alleged to have embezzled nearly $25,000 from the bank.

Analysis: House vote to overturn FCC ruling poses challenge to commission's chairman
WASHINGTON — The vote in the House on Wednesday to derail media ownership rules was a setback for Michael K. Powell, the chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, who was guided by the laws, rather than the politics, constraining media conglomerates. Powell became chairman in 2001 with a broad mandate to deregulate, bolstered by a number of court rulings that had backed industry challenges to telecommunications and media regulation.
William Safire: Bush backing Big Media power grab would be mistake
WASHINGTON — On the domestic front, President Bush is backing into a buzz saw. The sleeper issue is media giantism. People are beginning to grasp and resent the attempt by the Federal Communications Commission to allow the Four Horsemen of Big Media — Viacom (CBS, UPN), Disney (ABC), Murdoch's News Corp. (Fox) and GE (NBC) — to gobble up every independent station in sight.

Guest editorial: Rethinking the Patriot Act
In the rush to do something, do anything after 9/11, Congress passed, with some misgivings, the USA Patriot Act giving the federal government sweeping new powers of search and surveillance. Since then, the Justice Department has been notably reticent to congressional inquiries about its administration of the act.

Bonnie Erbe: Jilting the military
It is finally starting to unravel for the president — the unmerited devotion military families lavish on him, that is. The only question is why has it taken so long? Last week's expose by ABC News of troop discontent was the penultimate wrinkle in what should have been a long string of signs to military families they would be gored by this presidency, not molly-coddled as promised.

Bush warns Iran, Syria
The Washington Post
Nations that help terrorists 'will be held accountable,' the president warns.

Eglin AFB to lose 183 military and civilian jobs
EGLIN AIR FORCE BASE — Force structure changes announced Wednesday by the Air Force to meet President Bush's budgetary goals will eliminate 183 military and civilian jobs at this Florida Panhandle base. Eglin will actually lose 71 military and 155 civilian positions, but will gain 16 military and 27 different civilian jobs, base officials said in a news release.

Molly Ivins: Alaska — the Other Great State
 ANCHORAGE, Alaska — Many and varied are the wonders, the splendors and the peculiarities of the Other Great State. The funniest thing said by Alaskans is, "Gonna be another scorcher" (means "could get into the 70s"). One of the oddest things about Alaska is the complete disconnect between its politics and its reality.

7/21-18/03

Cheney's Energy Task Force Documents Included Map of Iraqi Oilfields
"Documents turned over by the Commerce Department, under court order as a result of Judicial Watch's Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit concerning the activities of the Cheney Energy Task Force, contain a map of Iraqi oilfields, pipelines, refineries and terminals, as well as 2 charts detailing Iraqi oil and gas projects, and 'Foreign Suitors for Iraqi Oilfield Contracts.' The documents, which are dated March 2001, are available on the Internet at: www.JudicialWatch.org. The Saudi Arabian and United Arab Emirates (UAE) documents likewise feature a map of each country's oilfields, pipelines, refineries and tanker terminals. There are supporting charts with details of the major oil and gas development projects in each country that provide information on the projects, costs, capacity, oil company and status or completion date. Judicial Watch has been seeking these documents under FOIA since April 19, 2001." Now repeat after Bush: "It Was NOT About Oil! It Was NOT About Oil!"

Currents deadly for Fla. tourists
Officials in the Panhandle are coming under fire after 18 people drown in four months. Critics say more lifeguards are urgently needed.

Governors to meet for river-system talks
With a meeting scheduled Monday in Columbus, Ga., Florida and Georgia officials remained apart last week on a key issue in the talks over sharing water from the Apalachicola-Chattahoochee-Flint river system.

Archaeology is not for sale
If the Bush administration in Washington follows through with a plan now being considered, the archaeological services through the National Park Service would be privatized.

Florida Muslims say discrimination is rising statewide
DAVIE — Discrimination and harassment against Muslims has steadily risen statewide since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, a national Islamic advocacy group said Friday.
The Florida chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations said reports of anti-Muslim incidents in Florida nearly doubled in 2002 and have continued to climb this year.

Measure gives Congress control of restoration funds
WASHINGTON — Southwest Florida's two congressmen have struck a deal with House appropriators that would place the onus on Congress, not four federal agencies, to decide whether to continue sending money to Florida for Everglades restoration.

The road to St. Joe's
Imagine proposing a road that would cost taxpayers $3-million, bisect a state forest and a state park, sever a biking trail built by local residents and disrupt at least a dozen wetlands. And by the way, the road would provide a shortcut for traffic on busy U.S. 98 in the Panhandle to a county road presicely at the spot where St. Joe Co. is building its new 499-home development WaterSound Beach.

Lobbyists' aid may give Byrd wings in race
The flock of Democratic and Republican candidates eyeing U.S. Sen. Bob Graham's seat each have some base of support, whether it's regional, ethnic, ideological or even gender.
But House Speaker Johnnie Byrd's embryonic campaign -- launched last week -- seems rooted primarily in his office on the fourth floor of Florida's Capitol.
Early signs are that Byrd's Washington bid will rely heavily on lobbyists doing business with the state Legislature, combined with a steady flow of e-mails and press releases generated by his communications office.

'Don Jeb' makes legislators an offer they can't refuse
Early morning sunlight spills into the master bedroom as the Republican state senator stirs underneath his satin sheets. Waking from his slumber, he discovers a gruesome sight: a horse's head, severed and lying next to him. He cries out in terror, "Governor, please forgive me! I will never go against the family again!"

Bush working malpractice reform from California fundraising trip
TALLAHASSEE — While Gov. Jeb Bush and the Senate try to move closer in what's become a tense and unfriendly stalemate over medical malpractice, the governor moved very far away Friday.
Bush went to California on a political trip at the request of his brother, President Bush. But the governor said he was continuing to talk to lawmakers about a measure to check the soaring cost of doctors' malpractice insurance, although an agreement still eluded them Friday.
Bush says a malpractice fix is the most pressing issue facing the state.
Although prospects for a quick solution to what has already dragged out several weeks seemed slim, Bush rejected any suggestion that his trip was hindering any effort to reach an end to the impasse.

Bush keeps finger on the button of discord
We are really having fun now.

Lawmakers like oath's effect
Lobbyists' sworn testimony during malpractice hearings differs from prior claims.

Senate lowers its offer
The Legislature's second special session on medical malpractice skidded to a halt Thursday, with Gov. Jeb Bush now intent on bringing lawmakers back in August for yet another try at settling the issue that has dogged them for months.

Bush considering proposal aimed at ending malpractice logjam
TALLAHASSEE — A proposal described as the best the Senate could do on capping some lawsuit damages to help doctors burdened by soaring malpractice insurance costs is a promising step in the right direction, but likely not far enough to suit Gov. Jeb Bush. Lt. Gov. Toni Jennings said Thursday that the latest proposal from the Senate shows a good faith effort to bridge a gap over how to give insurance companies a certainty of lower payouts, but said after an initial look at the outlines of the proposal that "their numbers probably aren't where we need to be."

Bush shows many faces in ongoing malpractice tiff
As he holds firm on a $250,000 cap, the governor finds his personality colliding with GOP legislators.

Republican feuding continues
'Even though he's in my party, he is not King Jeb the First'
Gov. Jeb Bush's aggressive arm-twisting in the Senate appears to have badly damaged political relations that were already severely strained long before the special session on medical malpractice.

Bush's civil war
Gov. Bush has been spoiled by his success. Now, through his refusal to compromise, he wages a civil war that threatens his own party's viability.

Schools get an A, and still lose
By Elisa Cramer, Palm Beach Post Editorial Writer
Caught between the Bush brothers.

Private school with ties to alleged terrorist gets state money
TAMPA — Senate Democrats urged Gov. Jeb Bush on Thursday to cut off payment to a school co-founded by a professor accused of being the North American leader of a worldwide terrorist organization. The school received $350,000 last year through a state program that pays private school tuition for some students.

Corporate voucher plan more sham than success
Palm Beach Post Editorial
Money went to school run by terror suspects.

State voucher programs under scrutiny
By Kimberly Miller, Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Lawmakers from both parties question the programs' accountability and effectiveness.

Voucher exemption part of state's tradition
By Jim Ash, Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Other pro-business tax programs save corporations even more money in state taxes.

Advocacy group: Agency doesn't respond to report on deaths
More than a year after a report revealed 66 severely disabled people in private care facilities died as a result of negligent care, the state's social services agency has not responded to it, sparking criticism from an advocacy group which conducted the study. The report by a federally-funded group was released in March 2002 and pointed out that 66 of 173 deaths of severely disabled people in private care facilities across Florida were the result of negligent care in facilities licensed by the Department of Children & Families.

DCF: Image over kids
Palm Beach Post Editorial
Message more politics than child protection.

Judge halts tree-cutting for canker in 3 counties
FORT LAUDERDALE -- A judge has ordered the state to stop cutting citrus trees in Broward, Miami-Dade and Palm Beach counties, ruling that the state's method for determining which trees should be cut under the program to fight citrus canker is "patently at odds" with state law.

Airport mystery: How did gun get into teddy bear?
ORLANDO - A Transportation Security Administration worker noticed what looked like the outline of a handgun when a 9-year-old boy's brown teddy bear passed through the X-ray machine last week at Orlando International Airport.

Playboy story pokes fun at Disney's Celebration
The Disney-planned community of Celebration is used to getting knocked for what some see as its fastidious rules on details such as what color curtains homeowners can use. But a story in the latest edition of Playboy that pokes fun at the central Florida area has rankled some residents.

Choose Life funds lack distributor
By Rani Gupta, Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Religious groups are the only ones willing to disburse the money but that raises concerns.

Commission consider changes on manatee safe zones
TALLAHASSEE — The Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission is considering rule changes that manatee lovers fear would provide additional high-speed boating lanes that threaten the mammals. The panel heard heated debate Thursday about the proposed changes to the Manatee Sanctuary Act.


Court rules landowners can sue over development limitations
MIAMI — An appeals court has ruled that property owners can sue if they believe they are victims of "inordinately burdensome" building restrictions, a decision which could impact high-rise development throughout Florida. The 3rd District Court of Appeals overturned a 1999 circuit court decision Wednesday which had prevented property owners from suing the city of Miami Beach.


Gephardt, Kucinich, Lieberman apologize to NAACP for skipping convention
MIAMI BEACH — Three Democrats apologized to the NAACP convention Thursday for skipping a presidential forum earlier in the week as the candidates sought to mend fences with the nation's oldest civil rights group. NAACP leaders had lambasted the three — Joe Lieberman, Dick Gephardt and Dennis Kucinich — as "persona non grata" for failing to show for Monday's session. Determined to repair the political damage, the three changed their campaign schedules to offer their contrition to the convention delegates.

It gets worse
The administration has no valid argument to defend the budget deficit.

President Bush's uranium lie is a radioactive canard
Poor Karl Rove. He spends close to two years meticulously staging photo ops and carefully crafting sound bites to create the image of President Bush as a take-charge, man-the-controls, land-the-jet-on-the-deck-of-the-aircraft carrier, "Bring 'em on" kind of leader. But now the latest revelations about the Misstatement of the Union fiasco are threatening to bring back the old notion of W as a bumbling, detached figurehead-in-chief.

Another Bush Iraq claim lacked CIA approval
By Dana Milbank, The Washington Post
The president twice said Iraq could launch a biological or chemical attack in 45 minutes.

Candidate Bush touts war on terror
By Ken Herman, Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
President Bush told supporters Friday that the nation's war on terror is an ongoing success story.

Going home, to red ink and blues
Across the nation, state and local leaders have been forced to slash more than $100 billion in spending, laying off thousands of employees, cutting off health insurance for roughly 1 million people and lowering America's standard of living. Washington not only is aloof from the pain out here in real America, but is making matters worse.

7/17-16/03

Put cap on malpractice propaganda
Palm Beach Post Editorial
Under oath, 'frivolous lawsuit' myth collapses.

Gov. Bush extends malpractice special session through Monday
TALLAHASSEE — Gov. Jeb Bush extended a special legislative session on medical malpractice insurance until 7 p.m. Monday, saying he was confident that Senate and House negotiators could reach a compromise on limiting some lawsuit damages.

Malpractice insurance session extended
By Jim Ash, Palm Beach Post Capital Bureau
Allegations of political sabotage worry GOP operatives about open warfare in the party's ranks.

Lawmakers see jump in worth
The economy might be in a downturn, but things are looking up for the two top legislative leaders and most Big Bend lawmakers. Both Senate President Jim King and House Speaker Johnnie Byrd reported double-digit percentage increases in their net worth in annual financial-disclosure reports filed with the Commission on Ethics by the July 1 deadline.

Legislators' hearts set on San Francisco
TALLAHASSEE -- It's been no "Summer of Love" at the state Capitol, and now the ongoing battle about medical malpractice may have dashed many lawmakers' plans to attend a big San Francisco conference at taxpayer expense.
But some House members still have their hearts set on heading to the City by the Bay.
Gov. Jeb Bush decided Wednesday to extend this week's special session through Monday, complicating the plans of 50 House members and nine staffers scheduled to attend the annual meeting of the National Conference of State Legislatures. The five-day event is scheduled to begin Monday in the California city, and many lawmakers hold nonrefundable round-trip airline tickets on flights leaving this weekend.

E-mail savvy governor finds himself on cyberbattlefield
TALLAHASSEE - E-mail is usually Jeb Bush's ally, his link to a vast dot-com constituency. Lately, it has been the Florida governor's biggest enemy.

Bush muscles senators for deal
As the governor extends the special session, he tries to squeeze Republicans who disagree with his medical malpractice cap.

Mario Diaz-Balart introduces group to tackle government waste
WASHINGTON — In the Florida Legislature, Mario Diaz-Balart was known as "The Slasher" for his 1995 order to cut state agencies' spending by 25 percent. The congressman is hoping to continue that legacy in Washington. On Wednesday he introduced a group, which he co-founded, aimed at tackling waste, fraud and abuse in government agencies. "We need to let the people know that this federal government is just wasting a lot of people's money," said Diaz-Balart.

Graham to call for tax increase for wealthy
Candidate's plan includes 'millionaire's bracket'
Even as Sen. Bob Graham runs for president as a centrist from the ''electable wing'' of the Democratic Party, he plans to call today for a tax increase that he says will help turn the economy around.

Three Democrats who missed NAACP forum to be there Thursday
WASHINGTON — Three days after each was labeled "persona non grata" by the president of the NAACP, three Democratic White House candidates will address the group in an effort to make amends for missing its presidential forum. Aides to Connecticut Sen. Joe Lieberman, Missouri Rep. Dick Gephardt and Ohio Rep. Dennis Kucinich said they would travel to Miami Beach to address the NAACP convention Thursday. NAACP leaders had lambasted the three when they didn't make it to the convention's presidential forum Monday.

Gov. Bush signs workers compensation legislation into law
...During a bill signing ceremony, Bush had said the new law should reduce the soaring costs of workers compensation insurance by limiting attorney fees and raising the penalties for fraud....
Employers buy the insurance to compensate workers for the on-the-job injuries. Florida has among the highest premiums and lowest benefits in the nation.
The insurance industry estimates that the law could reduce rates by at least 12 percent. Bush said it would also increase partial disability payments.
"In the end, Floridians will benefit," Bush said at the ceremony in front of a half-constructed house in St. Cloud. Workers compensation costs in the construction industry, which has the highest rates, would receive an estimated 16 percent reduction.
But Democratic lawmakers said the law will hurt Floridians by restricting total disability payments to those who can't work because of catastrophic injuries, such as the loss of a limb, or those who are unable to find a sedentary job within 50 miles of their home.
"It is a totally unfair bill written by insurance companies to benefit insurance companies," said Rep. Stacy Ritter, D-Coral Springs.

Byrd's preening has a purpose
The Florida Legislature is into its fourth session in four months, and House Speaker Johnnie Byrd couldn't be happier. Where other lawmakers may see controversy and contention, he sees dollar signs.

State privatization chairwoman faces ethics complaint
PANAMA CITY — A union for police and correctional officers has filed an ethics complaint against the head of a panel that oversees state contracts with private prison companies.
The Florida Police Benevolent Association said Monday that its complaint accuses Carol Atkinson, chairwoman of the Florida Correctional Privatization Commission, of taking a trip paid for by a company that operates the Bay County Jail while she was a county commissioner in February 2000.

Cast-out tobacco ruling is appealed
A Florida appeals court has been asked to reconsider its ruling tossing out a $145 billion punitive-damage award against Big Tobacco because a panel of judges committed "judicial plagiarism," copyingtobacco lawyers' arguments into their written opinion, according to court papers.

Officials decry sewage spills
Pinellas has suffered through five sewage spills this month. Four have spewed sewage into the Intracoastal Waterway.

Revisionist Iraq history from White House
Palm Beach Post Editorial
Nuclear threat was critical to case for war.

A liberal dose of common sense: Truth is best for this nation
By George McGovern |
In 1972, my campaign for president was buried in a landslide. I lost everywhere except Massachusetts and the District of Columbia. Richard Nixon was re-elected with more than 60 percent of the vote.


 

7/15-14/03

Bush vetoes Rodman Dam bill, eliminates some airport inspections
TALLAHASSEE — A bill that would have made it more difficult to tear down a dam and restore the Ocklawaha River in Putnam County was vetoed Monday by Gov. Jeb Bush. Bush also signed a bill that creates a council to review airport security while signing another that will eliminate state inspections at about 600 private airports.

Bush boosts power of state road builders
Cities are hoping the Legislature will reconsider a bill Gov. Jeb Bush signed Monday that allows the state Department of Transportation to ignore local rules when building state roads.

Testimony shows insurance crisis differently
By Jim Ash, Palm Beach Post Capital Bureau
A Senate panel's move to put key players in the insurance crisis under oath is paying dividends.

Senate declares testimony a win
More doctors are licensed in Florida than five years ago, and applications to practice medicine in the state are up. Hospital emergency rooms or trauma centers are not closing in Florida because of rising medical-malpractice premiums.

Senate panel grills expert about rise in malpractice rates
Skeptical Senate leaders quizzed healthcare and insurance executives on Monday about the cause of rising medical malpractice insurance rates, as negotiators continued to work on ending weeks of wrangling over how to lower insurance costs for Florida doctors.

Senators still have basic queries in yearlong malpractice fight
TALLAHASSEE — Legislative debate on the cost of medical malpractice insurance has gone on for nearly a year, but a skeptical Senate still has some basic questions: Are doctors leaving Florida in large numbers? Are big lawsuits driving up rates? What might make premiums go down?

Panel sharpens malpractice queries
Senators swear in lobbyists, lawyers and executives as they continue plowing through the malpractice morass.

Caps battle puts crisis of the rich above all
In Tallahassee, the battle over medical malpractice has been cast as the fight of the century, with Jeb Bush drawing blood from members of his own party.

Insurer: No need for rate reform
TALLAHASSEE -- The head of the state's largest insurer for physicians defended sharp increases in medical-malpractice insurance rates and told a Senate committee Monday that his company doesn't need legislative reforms to remain profitable.
During the first day of a testy state Senate hearing, Bob White, the president of First Professional Insurance Co., said his company won't falter if a cap on malpractice victims' pain and suffering fails to become law this year. In fact, White said, Florida is the most profitable state for FPIC Insurance Group, First Professional's parent company.

Medicaid costs alarm state officials
By Jim Ash, Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
It is estimated that by 2015 Medicaid costs could equal today's entire budget.

Horne defends voucher program
TALLAHASSEE — An internal report found no proof to allegations that a state worker altered public records concerning a tax-credit program for businesses that fund scholarships for poor students, Education Commissioner Jim Horne said Monday. Horne also defended state oversight of the $88 million program, which he said was working well and was popular with parents.

Report: State fails to audit spending on private schools
TALLAHASSEE — Millions of dollars diverted from Florida's budget to pay tuition to private schools had no government oversight despite a state law that requires annual audits, a newspaper reported Sunday.
For the most part, the state doesn't know which private schools are accepting scholarships, how the student is doing academically or what curriculum is being taught, The Palm Beach Post reported.

Education secrets
Allegations of document falsification and a general lack of accountability regarding the corporate tax credit school voucher plan call the Department of Education's credibility into question.

House speaker Byrd: Opening exploratory committee for Senate run
TALLAHASSEE — Republican House Speaker Johnnie Byrd said Monday he's opening an exploratory committee to run for the U.S. Senate seat held by Sen. Bob Graham. Byrd, who is from Plant City, has one more year as speaker. He has said in the past that he wanted to stay focused on that job, but said Monday in an interview with The Associated Press that most of the Legislature's top priorities this year were taken care of.

Donors ante up $120,000 for Byrd
Lobbyists and businesses send checks to the House speaker, who says he will run for U.S. Senate next year.

Candidates agreement to limit confrontations falls apart
MIAMI BEACH — Sens. John Kerry and John Edwards changed their minds and decided to appear with other Democratic presidential candidates at the NAACP's presidential forum Monday. Kerry's aides said the Massachusetts senator initially refused to take part in the forum to honor a verbal agreement quietly reached with three of his rivals — Edwards of North Carolina, Rep. Dick Gephardt of Missouri and Sen. Joe Lieberman of Connecticut.

Candidate forum no-shows anger NAACP
By Marc Caputo, Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Six presidential hopefuls stumped at the NAACP conference, as organizers highlighted absence of those who didn't attend. (see Kucinich response)

Bond urges affirmative action policies at NAACP convention
MIAMI BEACH — NAACP executive director Julian Bond urged states that have abandoned affirmative action policies for higher education to "come back into the Union" Sunday while criticizing President Bush and his brother, Gov. Jeb Bush, for challenging race-conscious university admissions policies.

NAACP members express concern over Democratic presidential race
MIAMI BEACH — For more than two decades, the Rev. Carl Fitchette has sized up Democratic candidates from his Philadelphia church. But now he worries that the party is headed in the wrong direction. "I think the Democratic Party has lost its footing," Fitchette said Monday at the NAACP's annual convention. "It's moved to the middle and because of that it has lost its distinctiveness. "You can't tell many of your Democratic candidates — in fact, most of them I have heard are saying the same things George Bush is saying."

Give Everglades guardian
Palm Beach Post Editorial
Washington must do what state didn't.

Frankel draws right line on money to gated areas.
Palm Beach Post Editorial
Beyond flood control, there is no public benefit.

Graham's criticism of Bush misses the count
MIAMI BEACH — Democratic presidential candidate Bob Graham, in sharply criticizing President Bush's veracity about Iraq's weapons programs, got a bit confused about the number of letters in the word "deceit." Graham, who participated in a candidate's forum at the NAACP convention, was asked if the president lied to the American people when he said in his State of the Union address that Iraq had been trying to buy uranium in Africa to develop nuclear weapons — a claim the White House has acknowledged should not have been included.

Come clean, Mr. President
Whether President Bush lied about Iraq having sought uranium from Africa to make a nuclear device or simply had bad information about this and other supposed evidence that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction is immaterial.

Molly Ivins: It's Vietnam all over again, Rumsfeld
AUSTIN, Texas — I opposed the war in Iraq because I thought it would lead to the peace from hell, but I'd rather not see my prediction come true and I don't think we have much time left to avert it. That the occupation is not going well is apparent to everyone but Donald Rumsfeld. If this thing turns into Vietnam simply because that man is too vain and arrogant to admit that Gen. Eric Shinseki was right when he said we would need "several hundred thousand soldiers" over there, I hope Rumsfeld rots in a hell worse than the one he's making.

7/13-10/03

State park stands in road's way
The state's largest private landowner, the St. Joe Co., is lobbying for a new road that could benefit its beachfront development in Walton County.
There's a big hitch, though: It would slice through a state park and a state forest.
"We try to discourage that," said David Core, forest management bureau chief for the state Division of Forestry.
The road would stretch nearly 3 miles through Point Washington State Forest and Deer Lake State Park. It would funnel traffic from busy U.S. 98 through environmentally sensitive land inhabited by gopher tortoises, white-topped pitcher plants and the world's largest population of a rare plant called Curtiss' sandgrass.

Florida Supreme Court strikes down parental notice abortion law
A Florida law requiring the notification of parents at least 48 hours before minors under the age of 18 can obtain abortions violates privacy rights guaranteed by the Florida Constitution, the state Supreme Court ruled Thursday in Tallahassee.
The justices voted 5-1 to strike the law, which was passed in 1999 but never enforced pending resolution of the constitutional challenge. The high court reversed a decision of the 1st District Court of Appeal that had upheld the law.

Education staffers told to clam up
By S.V. Date, Palm Beach Post Capital Bureau
The employees aren't to speak to legislators, legislative staff or governor's office staff about a voucher probe.
Official: State altered voucher school records
By S.V. Date, Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
An Education Department official says records were altered, and he was told to keep quiet about it.
Voucher groups' answer: Who's asking?
By S.V. Date, Palm Beach Post Capital Bureau
Organizations that distribute corporate voucher money aren't required to report. Corporate voucher system unchecked
By Kimberly Miller, Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Seventeen months after funding started, no audits have been filed with the state.

FCAT protest gains support of local churches
Churches across Florida and the Big Bend joined Miami Bishop Victor T. Curry's boycott of the state's theme parks Wednesday to protest the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test.

Tax fairness? Get real
U.S. reps. Ric Keller and Tom Feeney say it's a matter of fairness. They want Floridians to be able to deduct their sales-tax burden on their federal-income tax form, just as taxpayers in 42 other states are now able to deduct their state-income tax burden from their federal tax bill.
Hey, everybody likes a tax break. But the fairness argument doesn't wash.

Policing prosecutors
Prosecutorial misconduct is more widespread than the numbers indicate, but it's nearly impossible to police lawyers who would sacrifice justice for convictions.

Democratic presidential candidates to speak at NAACP convention
Some of the Democratic presidential candidates will give a nod to the importance of black voters by speaking at the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People's annual convention, which starts Sunday in Miami.
Former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean, Sens. Bob Graham of Florida and John Kerry of Massachusetts, former Illinois Sen. Carol Moseley Braun and Al Sharpton have all agreed to appear Monday at a candidates' forum, NAACP officials said.
Missing Democrats an 'affront' to NAACP
The NAACP's top leadership lashed out Saturday at several of the major Democratic candidates for president, calling their intention to skip Monday's candidate forum an ''affront'' to the nation's oldest civil rights organization.

Senate proposal adds funds back to budget
Legislation was filed in the Florida Senate on Wednesday to restore more than $300 million in cuts to the $53.5 billion state budget that went into effect July 1.

FPL Energy opens largest wind farm east of Mississippi River
THOMAS, W.Va. — Like sleek steel sentinels, the turbines line the ridge of Backbone Mountain as far as the eye can see, prompting passers-by to stop and gawk. About 200 people did just that Wednesday as they gathered on the ridge under gray skies and appropriately high winds for the dedication of the largest windmill farm east of the Mississippi River.

Senate passes malpractice bill, trying to bridge gap with House
TALLAHASSEE — The Senate passed a measure Friday limiting some types of lawsuit damages in an effort to check the rising cost of doctors' malpractice insurance. The bill now goes to the House, which has already passed a bill calling for lower limits.
House floats compromise malpractice proposal
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — House leaders proposed a compromise plan Wednesday to lower malpractice insurance rates that would let victims of medical mistakes and their family members collect up to $1 million for noneconomic damages like pain and suffering. The measure, expected to be taken up by the House in special session Thursday, brings the House a bit closer to the Senate on the idea of limiting lawsuit damages as the primary way to lower doctors' insurance costs and avoid an exodus of physicians from the state.
Aggravated condition
Add to Tallahassee's troubles with medical malpractice a governor who seems more intent on dictating policy and bullying legislators than solving the crisis.
Legislators might want to cap sessions
By S.V. Dáte and Jim Ash, Palm Beach Post Capitol Bureau
Even though the House might budge on malpractice caps, but the Senate wants more information.
Senators hammer governor on doctor liability
Gov. Jeb Bush on Wednesday endorsed a $1 million cap on medical malpractice awards in an effort to end a bitter fight with the Senate Republicans over how to curtail rising insurance rates for the state's doctors.

Blogs breaking logjam of journalism
If not for blogs, Howell Raines might still be editor of The New York Times; Trent Lott might still be majority leader of the U.S. Senate. And we might never have learned the name of "whatshername," Blue-Dress Girl, Lewinsky.

Kennedy and Guthrie: Folklorists for justice
LAKE BELUTHAHATCHEE — This is a place of great and interesting noises, where the leaves rustle under the crunch of anonymous steps, where the wooden pathway creaks and the frogs hum and sometimes the water whooshes, and it all stirs together to sound something like a vintage window fan. Such a symphony is only made more complex by the rattle of the door, too aged and fragile to deliver a hearty slam. There, in the shadow of the door, stands Stetson Kennedy, writer, activist, environmentalist, reporter and agitator.

Palm Beach election lawsuit granted class action status
WEST PALM BEACH — A lawsuit filed against Palm Beach County's election chief has been granted class action status, a victory for some 30,000 sight-impaired voters. The lawsuit alleges Elections Supervisor Theresa LePore did not distribute Sequoia audio voting machines to the polls during the 2002 general election because she thought it would slow the process down.
Ballot display explains Palm Beach's infamous election mistake
WEST PALM BEACH — Six-year-olds Brian Davin and Michael Franco ran their eyes down the ballot of names: George Bush and Al Gore on the left, Pat Buchanan on the right. They studied the holes between the list, clasped their fists together around a stylus and punched — right where they intended. Unlike so many voters before them who stepped up to the Butterfly Ballot — a relic of the bungled 2000 election — the boys successfully (and quickly) endorsed Bush, the candidate of their choice.

Boca residents protest latest canker tree-cutting
BOCA RATON — Some residents organized a peaceful protest Friday as workers began cutting backyard citrus trees that could be exposed to canker, a bacterial disease that blemishes fruit, weakens trees and threatens the state's billion-dollar citrus industry.
About 20 residents showed their opposition to the state's canker eradication program. One wore a sign, saying, "Citrus Eradication Program is Residential Agricultural Genocide."

South Florida's sprawl quickly nearing limit
Western cities near build-out
South Florida's sprawl is fast approaching its limit. New population figures being released today by the U.S. Census Bureau show a few cities -- Weston and Miramar -- among the nation's fastest in adding new residents, growing by 25 percent between 2000 and 2002.

Cost of drugs outpace inflation
By Larry Lipman, Palm Beach Post Washington Bureau
The price of the most commonly prescribed drugs used by the elderly rose three times the rate of inflation.

CIA takes hit for Bush allegation
By Bob Deans, Palm Beach Post-Cox News Service
But agency Director George Tenet says it warned intelligence was shaky that claimed Iraq sought uranium from Africa.
CIA sought to block uranium report
The Washington Post
In September, U.S. officials considered British intelligence on a Niger-Iraq deal inaccurate.

Pre-war assertions false; what about the postwar?
Palm Beach Post Editorial
Administration, nation need more credibility.

Pentagon's spy program straight out of '1984'
By George McEvoy, Palm Beach Post Columnist
System easily could be adapted for civilian use.

 

7/9-8/03

Missing Florida children on rise despite DCF, FDLE efforts
TALLAHASSEE — The number of children missing from state care has grown significantly since Gov. Jeb Bush declared success after a three-month effort to find children and said reforms made would address the problem. Bush announced that Operation SafeKids helped find hundreds of missing children and that the state was better prepared to track children who wind up missing from state care.

Be it wrong or right, Bush is always right. Always
You may not disagree with Gov. Jeb Bush.

State regulators vote on Everglades rule
TALLAHASSEE — A state commission voted unanimously Tuesday on technical rules for how to measure phosphorous in the Everglades, a key part of overseeing the cleanup of the massive ecosystem required by a 1992 court agreement. The Environmental Regulation Commission finished up more than a year of work on a rule essentially spelling out how much of the nutrient is an acceptable amount in the Everglades and how to measure it.

Everglades phosphorus levels set
By Jim Ash, Palm Beach Post Capital Bureau
The rules for figuring the pollution levels draws immediate criticism.

Glades water quality plan backed
EPA sees conflict with part of rule
A state panel Tuesday signed off on a plan to determine where farm and suburban runoff is poisoning the Everglades, a complex and instantly controversial rule that leavens its tough pollution standard with complicated loopholes.

Next UF president may get big payday
A salary study of other schools finds the university may have to pay up to $900,000 in salary and perks to attract a new leader.

Cuts mean hard time for prisons
Funding woes to disrupt employees, inmates
Grappling with a $21 million budget cut, Florida's prison system faces a major upheaval affecting the jobs of hundreds of state employees and rehabilitation for thousands of inmates.... DOC spokesman Sterling Ivey said 339 positions were eliminated by the budget cuts, including 43 vacancies and 13 jobs of people who retired. He said 58 "transition specialist" jobs were eliminated, along with 124 clerical posts and 157 in programs such as education, chaplaincy and support services.

Boycott threatened over FCAT
Black leaders on Monday threatened a boycott of the state's tourism industry unless Gov. Jeb Bush does more to help thousands of third-graders and high school seniors who failed the state's high-stakes test.
In a letter, state Sen. Gary Siplin, D-Orlando, asked the governor to have lawmakers consider reforms that would help the more than 43,000 third-graders and 12,000 seniors who struggled on the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test.

Broward judge gives canker eradication opponents partial victory
FORT LAUDERDALE — Opponents of Florida's citrus canker eradication program won a partial victory Monday when a judge ordered the state to tighten its requirements for cutting down citrus trees. Broward Circuit Judge J. Leonard Fleet told the state Department of Agriculture to measure precisely from each infected citrus tree in cutting down those within 1,900 feet.
State tree-cutting crews dealt legal setbacks
The canker eradication chain saws will remain silent while state officials regroup and react to two legal setbacks. Broward Circuit Judge Leonard Fleet ordered the Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services on Monday to change the way it measures the 1,900-foot zone surrounding a diseased tree within which all citrus trees must be destroyed.

Panhandle airport critics seeking rehearing on referendum denial
Associated Press
PANAMA CITY, Fla. - The Panhandle Citizens Coalition has asked a judge to reconsider his denial of a referendum on a proposed new airport.
The group made its rehearing request Monday. Circuit Judge Glenn Hess on June 26 had refused to order the city to hold the referendum because he believes it would be a "useless act."
The Panama City-Bay County Airport Authority plans to relocate its present facility to a new site on 4,000 acres donated by the St. Joe Co., Florida's largest private land owner. The site is surrounded by St. Joe-owned property that the Jacksonville-based company plans to develop.

Death row legal agency going through another change
TALLAHASSEE — Florida has had more inmates removed from death row than any other state. Some say that's because the state lawyers who file appeals for condemned killers do a good job. But the state closed one of its three death row legal offices last week. And the other two are lucky lawmakers left them in business. Gov. Jeb Bush proposed privatizing all three offices earlier this year. The Legislature agreed to close the northern office, based in Tallahassee, starting July 1 to determine if hiring private attorneys for death row inmates saves the state money.
Death row case lawyers ponder effect of change
Will turning over some appeals to private lawyers save money? And will it help or hurt the quality of inmates' representation?

Lawmakers: special session unlikely to solve malpractice crisis
TALLAHASSEE — Preparing to start a second special session on medical malpractice insurance costs, a few lawmakers are starting to worry that returning to the Capitol without a clear solution costs taxpayers too much and looks bad to voters. It's a long way to the 2004 elections, but testy legislators are starting to throw blame around, with a special session set to start Wednesday amid fairly broad expectation that the House and Senate won't resolve core differences in their proposals to lower doctors' insurance costs.
Senators set to subpoena insurers
By Mary Ellen Klas, Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Senate leaders are striking back against Gov. Jeb Bush with a threat to put the powerful insurance industry, and perhaps even the governor, under oath.
Bush blasts Senate over malpractice stalling
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. - Gov. Jeb Bush has issued a stinging rebuke to fellow Republicans in the state Senate for disagreeing with him over how to lower medical malpractice insurance costs and also criticized lawyers who represent malpractice victims for blocking his proposals.
Put politics aside
Our position: Facts and rational compromise are needed to resolve the malpractice crisis.
Gov. Jeb Bush clearly has a problem with trial lawyers. They didn't back his brother's presidential campaign. They funneled money to his Democratic opponent in the last gubernatorial election. And they generally don't share Mr. Bush's conservative ideology.
A bigger man would shrug that off as politics. By their very nature, special-interest groups exist to advance their own agendas. And very often, that doesn't square with the mandate of elected officials to act in the public's best interest.
Mr. Bush, though, appears bent on exacting political revenge from the trial lawyers -- holding hostage access to quality medical care for millions of Floridians in the process. In recent weeks, Mr. Bush has excoriated trial lawyers for opposing his plan to impose a $250,000 cap on pain and suffering awards for victims of medical malpractice. He's so angry, in fact, that he'd rather plan six more legislative overtime sessions than negotiate an equitable solution.
Get over it, governor...

The Legislature needs a constitutional makeover
If the 2003 Florida Legislature ever leaves town for good this year, we should sit back and soberly (I use that word in its best known connotation) assess what can be done to preclude future wastes of time and money. Taxpayer, money, of course.

Filtering Babel insults adults for its presumption of prudery
In "The Library of Babel," one of his many great short stories, Jorge Luis Borges pictures a library as an infinite universe where every possible combination of the alphabet is collected in books. Along with endless volumes of gibberish, every book that has ever been written and every book that ever will be is somewhere on a shelf. Gibberish aside, Borges was imagining every librarian's dream. (He was once the director of the Buenos Aires National Library in Argentina.) Thanks to cyberspace, digital archives and Google, something resembling "The Library of Babel" is here. It only takes an internet connection to Babel on.
What Borges never imagined before he died in 1986 is that no sooner would the infinite library be possible than it would be whittled back to provincial and archaic scale. An ossifying majority of the Supreme Court has just decided that it was not only permissible for public libraries to filter internet access, but required of them to do so. Deciding for individuals what is and what isn't moral is one of those government disorders Americans have trouble sedating. Like Puritans wracked by "the haunting fear that someone, somewhere, may be happy" (as H.L. Mencken put it), government tends toward the same fears that someone, somewhere, may glance a dirty picture on the government's dime. But the problem is not nearly so shallow, nor limited to government's obsessions.

Miners deserve more
The federal government is kidding itself if it thinks a $435,000 fine against Jim Walter Resources for a coal mine explosion that took 13 lives will get the industry's attention. If anything, the fine, which amounts to $33,000 for each lost life, is a vivid reminder of how poorly the nation protects the most vulnerable members of an essential workforce. The government's fine and Walter's response add to an already sad chapter.

The fortunes of 400
Tax cuts as social engineering -- for the rich
The notion that government should interfere on behalf of the poor had its heyday between the New Deal and the Great Society. The notion was then derided as "social engineering" and lost favor. Yet the government has been interfering on behalf of the rich since the early 1980s, about the same time when the war on poverty was scrapped. The latest report on the 400 richest taxpayers shows how successful that interference has been -- and will continue to be in the foreseeable future as the tax code increasingly favors the rich.

Mexico's lesson for Bush
They showed up with their machetes and paraded a burro around a town square near Mexico's capital. The farmers planned to vote for their candidate Sunday: a real, live donkey.

Faked papers thicken fog around Iraq war
To the growing list of mysteries involving Iraq - Where is Saddam Hussein? Where are the weapons of mass destruction? What really happened to Jessica Lynch? - comes this:
Who tried to frame "Gorgeous George"?
Known for his dapper wardrobe, George Galloway represents a district of Glasgow, Scotland, in Britain's House of Commons. For years, he was the sharpest critic of Anglo-American policy toward Iraq.


 

7/7-1/03

Florida trying to deal with potential ecological disaster
PINEY POINT — The state this week will try to clean up the Piney Point fertilizer plant, spraying millions of gallons of wastewater into the Gulf of Mexico to try to avert what one state regulator calls "one of the biggest environmental threats in Florida history." State officials knew in 1995 that the owner, Mulberry Corp., was struggling and if it went under, the state would be stuck with hundreds of millions of gallons of acidic wastewater in gypsum stacks on the edge of Tampa Bay.
A $140-million mess
That's the bill Florida is stuck with because the state didn't follow its own rules in dealing with wastewater cleanup problems at the fertilizer plant.

Shrinking slice of old Florida
Change washes into Goodland, a picturesque fishing village of 400. Property values are climbing as luxury developments edge closer, and a way of life is slipping away. Some want to protect its charm; others, to sell it.

Try some democracy, pass it along
By Stebbins Jefferson, Palm Beach Post Columnist
Not just for special interests, the powerful.

Think independently on Independence Day
Palm Beach Post Editorial
Criticism doesn't undermine the nation.

Forced patriotism invites the unpatriot
Main Entry: pa·tri·ot·ism
Function: noun
love for or devotion to one's country
It's that time of year when we try to quantify our patriotism. Flags are out, barbecue pits fired up, and Gallup has the numbers.
Americans are hand-over-heart patriotic. Seventy percent responded to a June Gallup poll that they are "extremely proud" to be American and another 20 percent are "very proud." That just leaves 10 percent who are less than proud, and John Ashcroft will not be releasing their names. ...

No quick fix for loss of talent to retirement
A lot of familiar faces are beginning to disappear from state offices and school classrooms around Florida. Longtime workers and teachers are retiring in the first round of a program the Legislature created to encourage senior employees to make way for the next generation.

No service to public
No one is served well when DCF makes it more difficult to get facts.
The Department of Children & Families isn't the first agency in Gov. Jeb Bush's administration to revamp the way it releases information to the public.

King: Malpractice insurance still divisive; hint of possible deal
TALLAHASSEE — Senate President Jim King said Wednesday that senators are still far from agreeing with Gov. Jeb Bush on how to lower the cost of doctors' malpractice insurance, but hinted at a possible compromise.
President urges solution to Florida's medical malpractice issue
MIAMI — President Bush challenged the Florida Legislature on Monday to resolve the medical malpractice insurance issue, telling senior citizens at a Little Havana community center that rising premiums and frivolous lawsuits against doctors make their medicine more expensive.
The president, in Florida to raise $3 million for his re-election, threw support behind his brother, Gov. Jeb Bush, who argues that doctors are leaving the state because they can't afford high malpractice insurance premiums caused by high-priced lawsuits.

Editorial: A family decision
Republicans in Tallahassee never stop boasting about an agenda they say promotes families and "more personal freedom." Then they halt Medicaid coverage for circumcision - a surgical procedure that the nation's most respected medical professionals say should be a decision left to families and their doctors.

25 inmates exonerated from Florida Death Row
 RAIFORD — Juan Melendez' long nightmare ended in January 2002 when he walked off death row after 17 years. The same scene was repeated earlier this year when the state freed Rudolph Holton after 14 years on death row. The two men are among 24 people released from Florida's death row since 1972. Another death row inmate was exonerated months after he died while awaiting execution. "God only knows how many people they've killed were innocent," said Melendez, who now travels the country speaking against the death penalty.
Doubts surround Florida's use of the death penalty
Florida has freed more inmates from death row than any other state — a fact death penalty opponents and supporters use to fuel their arguments over whether the state is providing condemned prisoners adequate safeguards or killing innocent people.
Death penalty supporters, including Gov. Jeb Bush, say the 24 inmates freed from death row since 1975 shows the system works and executions in Florida will continue. Opponents believe it's a sign the state could be killing innocent people.

Try tea party to toss FCAT over the side
By Randy Schultz, Palm Beach Post Editor of the Editorial Page
Declare independence for Florida's public schools from the tyranny of the FCAT.

How many legislators could pass the FCAT?
Nothing is more frustrating to Florida parents than the idea that politicians are the ones deciding what it takes for a student to be properly educated.

Identify all F schools
Palm Beach Post Editorial
Those taking vouchers shouldn't get a pass.

State stops cutting canker-infected citrus trees again
FORT LAUDERDALE — The state's tree-cutting program designed to eliminate citrus canker has been halted again. But the hiatus might be short-lived.
The Florida Department of Agriculture has stopped chopping down infected trees, pending a court hearing Monday, spokesman Mark Fagan said.
The decision comes less than two weeks after the Department of Agriculture got approval to resume cutting canker-infected and exposed trees in Broward County without owners' permission. It also comes less than a week after a judge agreed to end a six-week pause in involuntary cutting in Palm Beach County.

State behind in matching college gifts
The state has given universities $365 million for scholarships, professorships and other programs since 1979.
ST. PETERSBURG — Florida's 11 public universities are losing private donations because the state's budget crunch is preventing the Legislature from matching those gifts.
Florida law requires the state to match private donations above a certain amount. The backlog in matches for about 500 donations — totaling $100 million — is holding up scholarships, research programs and construction projects, trustees and university officials say. And those figures do not include millions more owed to the state's 28 community colleges.

University official arrested for giving Corvette to ex-president
WEST PALM BEACH — A former administrator at Florida Atlantic University was arrested Monday on charges she arranged for the school's outgoing president to receive a $42,000 gift to buy a Corvette.
Carla Coleman, who led FAU's fund-raising foundation, turned herself in at the Palm Beach County jail and was charged with felony official misconduct, said Florida Department of Law Enforcement agent Mike Driscoll. She was being held on $3,000 bail.

DCF computerized tracking system crashes during first week of use
MIAMI — A $230 million computerized system touted as the way Florida's Department of Children & Families c