|
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. Same is true for
some of the others although the time frame varies.
3/15/02
 | This
is a test: Will we stand up to oppose nuclear weapons?
The month began with a blast from the past: Richard Nixon talking on
tape to Henry Kissinger. The president was goading the secretary of
state to expand his wartime horizons: "I'd rather use the nuclear
bomb. ... Does that bother you? I just want you to think big, Henry,
for Christ's sake." |
| House
passes tax breaks
The bill, which serves up $200-million in tax breaks to businesses in
the coming year, surprised the Senate. |
| U.S.
fraud suit targets ex-partner of Jeb Bush
The Justice Department says a water pump company fraudulently helped
Nigeria obtain $74-million in taxpayer-backed loans. |
| Better
Late Than Never
It's easy to second-guess. And in the case of the
Florida Retirement System's embarrassing losses on Enron Corp. stock,
it's especially easy to do so. |
| Auditor
indicted in Enron collapse
Prosecutors say the Andersen accounting firm obstructed justice by
destroying "literally tons" of Enron-related documents. |
| Fallout
from Andersen charges
What is Andersen accused of? |
| Lots
of blame for everyone in child abuse case fiasco
In case you missed it, the state of Florida just had to fire the
private outfit that was handling a huge backlog of child abuse cases. |
| `Sunshine'
Is The Best Policy
It didn't take long for state lawmakers to turn
"Sunshine Sunday" into "Stormy Monday" and give
supporters of open government the blues. |
| The
legislature in brief
Today is the 53rd day of the 60-day session. |
| Mitchell
plan moves tax reform ahead
To his credit, John McKay has made tax reform the centerpiece of his
Senate presidency, knowing that it would be met with stiff resistance.
And it surely has been. |
| Court
keeps slot machines off the ballot
A bid to get the Legislature to approve video lottery terminals at the
state's 31 licensed racetracks and jai alai frontons also collapses. |
| Senate
budget looking more like House's
But some major differences remain, and tension between the chambers
may make compromises difficult. |
| Senators
wrap up budget plan
The Senate put the finishing touches on its proposed budget Thursday,
including a 2.5-percent pay raise for state employees and the
elimination of a plan to do away with almost $1 billion in sales tax
exemptions. |
| Budget
showdown looms
The Senate moved closer Thursday to a spending
showdown with the House after fine-tuning a $48.8 billion budget that
uses new state dollars to help boost public schools by $1.15 billion. |
| APALACHICOLA
An environmental group's report says two water bodies in the Big Bend
would be dropped from a cleanup list for some pollutants under a
proposed state rule. The Florida Public Interest Research Group says
Apalachicola Bay would be dropped for coliform bacteria even though
oyster reefs there have been closed temporarily in recent years
because of coliform. The Ochlockonee River would be dropped for
mercury because fish contamination data was not collected within the
past seven years, PIRG said. Environmentalists... |
| PUCKER
UP
Lawmakers and environmentalists praised a bill that would allow the
state to issue up to $100 million in bonds annually to pay for its
share of the Everglades' restoration. The event, featuring a
2-year-old alligator named Elvis, was held two days after the House
passed a bill (HB 813) that would give lawmakers an option to pay for
the state's share of the restoration if they don't have money
available in the budget. "This is not just a South Florida issue,
this is an issue for the entire state... |
| Florida's
population may surpass New York's
If you think Florida is crowded now, just wait. By 2030, the Sunshine
State will be crammed with almost 25 million people, according to
projections released this week by the University of Florida's Bureau
of Economic and Business Research. That's 1.5 million more people than
demographers had predicted before the 2000 Census. |
| Developer's
recent hot streak carries over into IPO market
Florida luxury condo developer Al Hoffman's on quite a roll....And WCI
wants lots of money in the coming years to leverage what Hoffman
believes will be an accelerating high-end real estate boom in Florida
fueled by boomers buying second homes and early retirement condos.--
That's the same economic scenario other yuppie-market Florida
developers, especially St. Joe Co. with its focus on expensive
beachfront projects on its extensive Panhandle land holdings, think
will keep them flush and getting richer for at least the next decade. |
| Touch-screen
vote test shows need to improve
One idea would be to keep the precincts open longer. |
| Black
concerns justified - The rally by African-American protesters
around certain issues this week cannot be ignored by Miami-Dade County
officials. |
| ACLU
wants end to adoption ban
Touting support from talk-show host Rosie O'Donnell and thousands of
Floridians, opponents of the state's ban on adoptions by gays and
lesbians called on Gov. Jeb Bush and lawmakers Thursday to repeal the
law. |
| Lawmaker
angers AIDS activists
A state lawmaker argued Thursday against diverting money from senior
center construction projects for people with Alzheimer's disease to
service programs for people with AIDS. |
| Fired
firm handling child-abuse cases had big surplus - A nonprofit
company hired to reduce the state's backlog of open child-abuse
reports ended last year with a $447,668 surplus -- money a Florida
senator is demanding be returned to the state.-- The Florida Task
Force for the Protection of Abused and Neglected Children also billed
taxpayers $488,593 for travel expenses last year, according to a state
financial disclosure statement obtained by The Herald. |
| Investigators
clear Orlando of coverup
Finding no evidence of a crime at Orlando City Hall,
state investigators on Thursday formally closed an investigation
related to claims that the city ignored potentially fatal health
problems among firefighters. |
| Terrorism
shield takes on new hue
And you thought the government wasn't doing anything. ...I prided
myself in getting all the way through 1984 without writing the words
Orwell or Orwellian and without finding hints of the advent of
Orwell's nightmare in everything from supermarket checkout technology
to caller ID.-- But now I'm not so sure. |
| Billboard
bullies
Our position: State lawmakers want to prevent
communities from fighting blight. |
| Senate
redistricting plan faces hurdle
By S.V. Date, Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
A Broward lawmaker could upend a map favorable to Palm Beach County. |
| Parents,
staff fault 2 schools with vouchers
They complain students don't get the services they require. |
| Schools
complain of inflation pain
Many Florida districts said expenses are eating up
the billions in new state money. |
| Gov.
Bush to allow widespread cutting of citrus trees
State legislators made their decision in the bitter fight over citrus
canker legislation Thursday, sending the governor a bill that gives
state agriculture officials power to resume the destruction of citrus
trees in South Florida. |
| Canker
searching given approval
Canker cops seeking sick citrus trees may use a search warrant under a
bill heading to the governor's desk for approval |
| Legislature
approves cutting trees for canker fight
In an effort to end what agricultural experts call the ''incredible
spread'' of citrus canker, Florida lawmakers Thursday overwhelmingly
approved a measure giving the Department of Agriculture blanket
search-and-destroy powers in its hunt for diseased trees. |
| Federal
cleanups delayed for years at two polluted sites in S. Florida |
| Legislature
may undercut Palm Beach's move against exotic plants |
| ATHEIST
tag wins reprieve
The brouhaha over the tag has provoked the agency to form a committee
to review all potentially banned tags. |
| Y-H8-A-PL8?
Before they made a quick about-face, officials at the license plate
office in Tallahassee had put atheism on a par with racial epithets
and dirty words. |
| Asylum
seekers may get driver's licenses for two years |
| Desalination
plant buyout gathers steam
Several Tampa Bay Water officials support finishing the plant on their
own. Developers insist they can get the job done. |
| FPL
power bills to be cut 7 percent under deal
By Deborah Circelli, Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Florida Power & Light Co. customers may be saving more than $5 a
month on their electricity bills. |
| Spring
breakers choose cheap
The shaky economy and increased flying jitters might
be what brought students back to Daytona Beach. |
| A
drug addiction Hall-of-Famer
Darryl Strawberry and the limits of treatment. |
| Sex
offender who fled in copter fails to get escape charges dropped |
| Nothing
'prudent' about planning nuclear attacks
Expressing opinions other than those of the government is not popular
at this time. Your articles, At what point would United States use
nuclear arms? (March 11) and Report calls for smaller nuclear weapons
(March 10) have "nuked" my resolve. |
| Leaf
blowers? I curse them
Leaf blowers. They may be the best indicator of
everything that is wrong in our society today. Leaf blowers, those
noisy, smelly gadgets used by homeowners and yard-service people,
would win, hands down, any contest to identify the flaws in our
culture that bring about serious breakdowns in our society. |
| Senate
panel deals Bush first major political blow
By Scott Shepard, Palm Beach Post Washington Bureau
Democrats reject the nomination of Charles Pickering to a federal
appeals court bench. |
| Court:
Church liable in abuse cases
Striking at churches' key argument against being held legally
accountable for sexual abuse by clergy, Florida's highest court on
Thursday in separate opinions rejected claims by two South Florida
dioceses that the First Amendment protects them from responsibility
for misconduct by priests. |
3/14/02
| Advocates
for disabled blast DCF
The centerpiece of Gov. Jeb Bush's social services agenda -- a program
that allows tens of thousands of disabled Floridians to live at home
rather than in large institutions -- is in tatters, threatening a
four-year-old legal settlement, advocates claim. |
| Will
Of People: Stay At Home
"The will of the people" was heard loud
and clear in municipal elections Tuesday in 13 cities and one
unincorporated area: And the will of nearly nine out of 10 registered
voters was to stay home. |
| Senator's
end run puts halt on McKay tax idea
The Senate president posed an alternate tax plan, but another senator
trumped it with a more business-friendly version. |
| McKay
offers a new take on taxes
Senate President John McKay dropped his bid Wednesday
for an overhaul of Florida's tax system, instead shopping around a
more modest plan that still faces a tough sell as the Legislature
lurches toward next week's scheduled adjournment. |
| McKay
turns to a fallback tax plan
Battered by business groups and facing a split among fellow senators,
state Senate President John McKay has abandoned his bid for a grand
sales tax overhaul in favor of a more modest plan. |
| Sales
tax reform not dead yet
A pair of dueling proposals for tax reform surfaced in the Senate on
Wednesday as lawmakers scramble to get some sort of overhaul passed
before the session ends next week. |
| Dangerous
spending
State lawmakers are using gimmicks to increase their
own popularity. With the blessing of a re-election-minded Gov. Jeb
Bush, state lawmakers are skipping merrily down a potential path of
financial ruination for Florida. |
| New
sales tax plan meets old resistance
By S.V. Dáte and Mary Ellen Klas, Palm Beach Post Capital Bureau
Sen. John McKay's idea of reviewing exemptions gets no boost in the
House or from Gov. Bush. |
| .
. . meddling that hurts
Legislators are doing harm in heaping late changes
on the education structure. |
| Retiree
files complaint against Feeney
By S.V. Dáte, Palm Beach Post Capital Bureau
The House speaker is accused of violating a law prohibiting the use of
a public employee's working hours for campaign purposes. |
| Speaker
Feeney's Cell Phone Ploy-- ... by using his legislative gatekeeper
to collect funds from lobbyists, Feeney raised questions about his
judgment. To follow this dubious decision with a phone stunt designed
to keep the public in the dark about what his staff members are up to
rightly triggers concern about Feeney's ethics. |
| 'ATHEIST'
plate raises a holy ruckus
After getting complaints, the state decides a Florida man's license
plate is objectionable and yanks it. |
| Bill's
goal: more jurors, fewer felons
The Senate has passed the measure, which would expand criminal checks
and update addresses. |
| Senate
voting flurry chips at open records law
In a frantic rush, senators sign off on 14 exemptions to the state's
Sunshine Law. |
| Sunset
Monday
In an arrogant assault on Florida's sunshine laws, a state Senate
committee hastily approved 14 exceptions to the public's right to
information. |
| Sunshine'
Is The Best Policy
It didn't take long for state lawmakers to turn
"Sunshine Sunday" into "Stormy Monday" and give
supporters of open government the blues. |
| Fears
raised over access to documents
The House on Wednesday passed a measure to keep teachers' identities
secret in some cases, two days after a Senate panel endorsed a slew of
new exemptions to Florida's public record laws. |
| Campaign
concerns hang up phone rate-hike bill
By Mary Ellen Klas, Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Gov. Jeb Bush warned legislators that a positive vote on the bill
could be used in negative campaign ads. |
| Cartridge
problem casts pall on Palm Beach County's new voting machines |
| Big
Problem: Human Error
Palm Beach County voters and election workers
understandably may think they're jinxed. Once again, human and voting
machine problems caused an Election Day foulup. |
| Senators
angle for approval of slot machines |
| Senate
passes its bill for chief financial officer
Despite a bill that easily cleared the Senate on Wednesday, a law
creating a top financial watchdog remains far from certain this
session, as a very different version is favored by the House. |
| Senate
OKs bill to root out canker
The state would be free to resume cutting down canker-infected citrus
trees in South Florida yards under a bill passed by the Senate on
Wednesday. |
| Tallahassee
Ticker |
| Legislature
in brief
Today is the 52nd day of the 60-day session. |
| Unkind
cuts for county remain
Palm Beach Post Editorial
Just a single local representative is assured in redistricting. |
| DCF:
Home visits lagged
The Florida Department of Children & Families
said Wednesday that caseworkers violated agency policy by failing to
check monthly on two children who say they were sexually abused in a
Lake Mary foster home. |
| Voyeur
Dorm's court victory
We hope Tampa's political opportunists learned a lesson from wasting
all that time and public money to harass the nude broadcast service
called Voyeur Dorm. Last month, the U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear
the city's appeal of a lower court ruling that upheld Voyeur Dorm's
right to operate. |
| Orange
population heads for 1 million |
| Water-sharing
pact doesn't limit use
Florida and Georgia officials said Wednesday that proposals for
sharing water from the Apalachicola River system don't set water-use
limits for growing Atlanta. |
| Charter
school faces criticism
School Board members will consider today whether to
close Cyber High's Orange campus. |
| Ex-official
accused of job misuse
A former state official who was fired during his
probe of Lakeside Alternatives has been accused by the community
mental health center and his former employer of misusing his job for
personal gain. |
| New
fuel standards defeated
The Senate on Wednesday defeated an effort to
increase fuel-efficiency standards. |
| Black
History Month makes sure we don't just 'Get over it!'
Re: Suzanne Fields' March 1 column, "Cultivating a resentment of
the past in our youth." I can appreciate the trauma experienced
by the 4-year-old, mentioned by Fields, when he first heard a story
about a father, who was a slave, being sold and taken from his family.
His reaction - he suddenly wanted to be white - seems to be an issue
of age appropriateness; he was too young to understand that story.
|
3/13/02
| McKay
backs off tax reform
The move, after weeks of devotion, follows news of an unexpected
economic rebound. |
| Behind
the tree
The Legislature is using a cost-shifting gimmick employed by Congress
to keep its members from having to pay taxes. It's called passing the
buck. |
| Senate
committee keeps up the push for more secrecy
A weekend campaign by newspapers to highlight
Florida's open government laws did little to deter state lawmakers
from pushing along more legislation to close records and meetings to
the public. |
| Bills
to restrict public access gaining ground |
| The
assault goes on
Our position: Legislators have come up with yet more
ways to hide information. |
| Voters
can learn from watchdog's utility bite
You might recall that there has been an attempt in this year's
Legislature to raise your local telephone rates. I am happy to report
that the scheme seems to be in trouble. |
| State
closer to suing over Enron stock loss
TALLAHASSEE -- The trustees of Florida's pension fund moved a step
closer Tuesday toward suing a money management company responsible for
more than $300 million in losses on Enron stock. |
| State
moves to sue over losses |
| Pension
Fund's Enron Gamble Didn't Pay Off
TALLAHASSEE - There were plenty of losers when
Enron Corp. collapsed late last year, but Florida was among the
biggest. ... |
| STATE
WORKERS
A bill that would allow state employees to take up to six hours of
university or community college courses for free per term on a
space-available basis passed the Senate Education Committee on
Tuesday. The measure (SB 1356) reinstates a program that the
Legislature eliminated last year in favor of a little-used tuition
voucher program. |
| Tallahassee
Ticker |
| Changes
made in bill on growth
A bill to keep people from suing to block building projects simply
because they oppose any development was approved by a Senate committee
Tuesday after changes addressing environmentalists' concerns. |
| House
passes sales tax holiday
The idea of letting back-to-school shoppers buy clothing without
paying sales tax was both condemned as "a hoax" and praised
as real tax relief for working families Monday in a vigorous House
debate. |
| This
won't raise teacher salaries
One of the less-than-brilliant ideas making legislative rounds is that
cutting school board member salaries will motivate them to pay
teachers more. |
| Reno
ends truck tour, not doubts on chances
The Democratic establishment remains unconvinced of her ability to
defeat Gov. Jeb Bush. |
| Frankel
bids farewell to Florida House
By Mary Ellen Klas, Palm Beach Post Capital Bureau
Rep. Lois Frankel is retiring because of term limits after 14 years in
the House. |
| Pieces
missing in abuse records
A task force hired to reduce a backlog is forced to reinvestigate
cases after finding documents missing. |
| Bill
to ban cloning worries some lawmakers
The House passed the bill Tuesday, but some say it could hamper
treatments such as in vitro fertilization. |
| House
agrees to ban human cloning
Amid fears that scientists are on the brink of creating people in the
laboratory, the House on Tuesday approved a bill to ban human cloning,
despite worries that it will make outlaws of medical researchers
engaged in therapeutic cloning for diseases like Parkinson's and
Alzheimer's. |
| Bush's
education nominee approved
The Senate committee splits along party lines in okaying Phil Handy as
chairman of the state Board of Education. |
| Senate
committee confirms Handy nomination after month delay
The Senate Education Committee confirmed Board of Education Chairman
Phil Handy's appointment with a 7-6 vote Tuesday, a month after he was
first interviewed by members. ... The vote to confirm was on party
lines with all Democrats opposed. |
| Plan
Tips Charter Control To State
TAMPA - Florida's charter school experiments
could change dramatically under a legislative plan to give the state,
not school districts, final say over opening the schools. ... |
| FDLE's
report sheds little light on bank tower crash
The report affirms much of what was thought about teenager Charles
Bishop's fatal flight. |
| New
machines sail through election
Clearwater's city election Tuesday had a winner that wasn't a
candidate: Pinellas County's new voting machine system. |
| Forgotten
promise of election help
Assurances of state and federal help with the cost of replacing
Florida's faulty punch-card voting machines have evaporated quicker
than the lead in the 2000 presidential contest. The Legislature had
promised $16-million this year, but when the House revealed its budget
recently, it contained no money for voting machines or other election
improvements. Meanwhile, in the U.S. Senate, a bill that would pay
states $6,000 per precinct to update their voting machines has been
hung up on a partisan political disagreement. |
| Broward
jagged in Senate remap |
| New
voting map leaves candidate out of area
Miami Republican Rep. Carlos Lacasa, who wants to move up to the state
Senate, has already raised $98,150 to challenge a fellow Miami
Republican, Sen. Alex Diaz de la Portilla, for his seat. |
| Strawberry
in trouble again
The former Yankee is charged with violating probation and jailed after
his ouster for breaking a rule at a treatment center. |
| Taking
away college
By not allowing learning disabled children to use devices to help them
show their knowledge, they might fail the tests that would take away
their chance to get into college. |
| SFCC
relocates controversial art
Still, some critics want the artwork completely removed from the
campus. |
| Columbia
crew lands safely back on Earth
Space shuttle Columbia and its crew of seven returned to Earth in
triumph Tuesday after giving the Hubble Space Telescope awesome new
ability to see practically to the edge of the universe. |
| Real
reasons to reject Pickering
The nomination of Charles Pickering Sr. to the 5th U.S. Circuit Court
of Appeals is the first major test of President Bush's attempt to put
his mark on the federal judiciary. Liberal groups are fiercely
opposing Pickering's nomination, citing his personal opposition to
abortion and putting an ugly spin on his civil rights record. Some
critics have tried to cast him as an unreconstructed segregationist.
Pickering doesn't deserve this kind of smear, but neither does he
deserve a seat on a federal appeals court. |
3/12/02
| Kill
payoff to polluters that cuts out the public
A bill that essentially would remove protections against harmful
development that the state put in place more than 30 years ago goes to
the Senate Natural Resources Committee today, facing the deserved
opposition of every environmental group in Florida. |
| Two
Florida politicos, two different kinds of tread wear
Lawton Chiles and Janet Reno each sought people where the rubber --
and shoe leather -- meet the road. |
| Protesters
scolded for citrus problems- TALLAHASSEE · Gov. Jeb Bush said
Monday that South Florida homeowners and local governments who have
filed legal challenges to the citrus canker eradication program are to
blame for allowing the disease to spread. |
| Bush
explores Alliance lawsuit- TALLAHASSEE · State officials are
expected to move closer today to a lawsuit against the money
management company whose ill-timed Enron stock purchases cost the
state pension fund nearly $300 million. |
| Governor
to consider suing Enron funds manager
Gov. Jeb Bush signaled Monday that he will seek today to launch a
lawsuit against the money management firm largely responsible for the
Florida public pension fund's $329 million loss on Enron stocks and
bonds. |
| House
passes sales tax holiday
The idea of letting back-to-school shoppers buy clothing without
paying sales tax was both condemned as "a hoax" and praised
as real tax relief for working families Monday in a vigorous House
debate. |
| Senate
panel OKs public records bills
A Senate committee approved 15 bills Monday that would create
exemptions to the state's open records laws, including a measure that
would keep doctors' adverse incident reports sealed during state
investigations. |
| Federal
bill may cut state funds
A federal economic stimulus package signed by President Bush this past
weekend could bite a good chunk out of the new revenue Florida
lawmakers have to build the state budget. |
| U.S.
representatives lobby over districts
Florida's U.S representatives take time to register their concerns
about redistricting. |
| U.S.
funds for fast train tied to state stake
U.S. House members want Legislature's assurances it is committed to
the project. |
| Polls
open today in 6 Pinellas communities
Some Pinellas voters will get a jump on others by using the new touch
screen devices. |
| Orange
Bowl Parade canceled
The Orange Bowl Parade's organizing committee voted 120-1 Monday to
kill the 65-year-old South Florida tradition, saying it had become a
money-loser. |
| Lawmakers:
Spend new cash all in one place
With Friday's news that state revenues are unexpectedly healthier by
$644 million, lawmakers have a second chance to spend the money
wisely. That is, to use all of these new and recurring revenues on
education. |
| A
watchdog for the people
Miss Cleo, Bob Butterworth is on the line. You should have been
expecting his call. |
| Addicted
to slots
Some Tallahassee lawmakers are making another push to legalize slot
machines, rationalizing them as an easier source of revenue than new
taxes. |
| In
spring, a folkie's fancy turns to a festival
I don't care what the astronomers and meteorologists say -- spring has
sprung. |
| Police:
Foster home filthy
At one point four years ago, Marie Jasmin housed as
many as 11 foster care children, so many that two of her own three
kids slept in walk-in closets, state Department of Children &
Families records released Monday reveal. |
| Senate
set to reveal district maps
By S.V. Date, Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Palm Beach County would get three seats based in the county. |
| Growers,
environmentalists clash on plants ban
By J. Christopher Hain, Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Opposing arguments were presented Monday to officials considering
banning 106 aggressive plants. |
| Convenience
costs us privacy
Ever feel as if someone is looking over your shoulder? I've got news:
You may be more right than you've imagined. I used to feel as if I
could move around without much notice. Now I get the feeling that
everything I do is on somebody's radar, from the time I get up to the
time I go to bed.
|
3/11/02
| Allowing
them to meet in secret is akin to tyranny
I am a child of the South but I envy New Hampshire for its state
motto: Live Free or Die. You have to admit, that is not a namby-pamby
motto. |
| Editorial:
Family Matters
Having an overachieving sibling can be one of the great psychic
burdens of modern life, so it is easy to work up a certain amount of
sympathy for Neil Bush. The 47-year-old Bush brother, whose
involvement in a savings and loan crash in Colorado was an
embarrassment during his father's administration, has reinvented
himself as founder of a company that sells educational software. He is
currently marketing an online eighth-grade history curriculum to
schools in five states, including Florida, where his brother Jeb is
governor, and Texas, the home of his brother the president. |
| Horse
manure and Cheney Test
When Dick Cheney turned 35, his pals in the White
House threw a party at which -- surprise! -- I popped out of a cake.
Times have changed. Now he's 60, vice president, and the symbol of
official inaccessability. Surprising him today might be a capital
offense. |
| Privatization
isn't always better, cheaper
The jobs of hundreds of state employees working in personnel are on an
invisible "bargain sheet" for the horse-trading phase of the
legislative homestretch. |
| Legislature
fuels fear, confusion
There are two truths about access to public
records: |
| Backroom
dealers
Campaign contributions are another reason to
strengthen lobbying laws. |
| Taco
Bell executives to meet with workers, coalition leaders today--
LOS ANGELES — The clash between the wealth of a fast-food giant and
the poverty of Immokalee farmworkers has led to a strained
relationship that may cost the company millions in profits, supporters
of the Taco Bell boycott tour say.-- Students and farmworkers
performed skits Sunday at the University of California Los Angeles
depicting a behind-the-scenes look at what goes into a hard day of
tomato-picking labor and why Americans from coast to coast should stop
eating at Taco Bell. |
| Energy
efficiency, renewable sources will benefit Floridians
A federal judge recently ordered the Department of Energy (DOE) to
release thousands of records on Vice President Cheney's energy task
force - made up of oil, coal and nuclear industry executives - whose
resulting plan, perhaps not surprisingly, is dirty, dangerous and
doesn't deliver for consumers. |
| Lawmaker's
bill on wages shortchanges communities |
| Santa
Rosa juvenile costs rise as crime levels off
The cost to prosecute children in Santa Rosa County is going up.
Over the last three years, operating the juvenile court has jumped
from $60,000 to $360,000. At the same time, the county cost to
subsidize the court system has nearly tripled. |
| Group:
Water-sharing proposal flawed
An Eastpoint-based environmental group is fighting Florida's proposal
for sharing water from the Apalachicola River. |
| Deceptive
lending bills spark fight
As consumer groups urge the Legislature to strictly regulate predatory
lending, the financial industry fights to protect the business. |
| Hearing
officers biased, some say
State employees who decide whether to lift license suspensions in
driving under the influence cases have been drawing stinging criticism
from Jacksonville judges for not appearing impartial. |
| Seized
Miami bank gave millions in suspect loans
Miami's Hamilton Bank made some $80 million in questionable loans and
was awash in several billion dollars in suspicious funds before
federal regulators seized the bank recently. |
| Seeking
care, he opts to be jailed
A Citrus man's only defense against schizophrenia is being jailed, but
his case points to a bigger issue. |
| Reno
addresses health issues
The Democratic candidate for governor, on a 15-day driving campaign
tour, visits Palm Beach County. |
| Keep
injured workers' rights, benefits intact
They're being penalized for abuses of employers, insurers. |
| Give
Foley his district
House plan would harm area counties. |
| How
the touch-system voting machines work |
| Billboard
bullying
Faced with legal threats from the industry, the Pinellas County
Commission is preparing to capitulate to billboard blight. |
| El
Niño could ease Florida's wildfire conditions this year |
| Rural
advocates win point in debate on urban sprawl
There was a time, not that long ago, when Jim and
Joanne Logue would head out in their small boat to the middle of Lake
Jesup at night, cut the engine, lie back and take in the wonder of a
star-filled sky. |
| For-profit
college aid gets a look
College financial aid that Florida gives to students
at such nonprofit, private colleges as Rollins College might start
flowing to students at colleges run by for-profit companies. |
| Don't
shell out for peanut farmers
While the Bush administration is talking about tightening up welfare
for the poor, Congress is busy expanding welfare for rich farmers. The
latest windfall proposal in the 2002 Farm Bill would favor peanut
farmers with more than $4-billion in redundant subsidy payments. As
usual, this bailout by taxpayers would help the large agribusinesses
that need it least rather than the family farmers it claims to
protect. |
| Editorial:
Advice And Dissent
The White House has thrown its weight behind an effort to save the
nomination of Charles Pickering to a federal appeals court. Sen. Orrin
Hatch denounced opposition to Pickering as a "lynching" last
week, and he forced the postponement of a Judiciary Committee decision
when the nomination appeared doomed to go down on a party-line vote.
Perhaps Hatch and other conservative Republicans worry that if
Pickering is rejected, President Bush will be forced to reconsider his
strategy of using seats on federal courts as a sop to the right wing.
We can only hope that would be so. |
3/10/02
| No
room in Jeb's skybox for Florida's students
Governor in denial about state's finances. |
| Looking
for some honesty on taxes
TALLAHASSEE -- If you own real estate, Gov. Jeb Bush may be raising
your taxes this year. To paraphrase Walter Mondale, Bush won't tell
you. I just did. |
| Bush
hooked on reading model
But critics say the methods are so regimented that teachers simply
imitate a script instead of tailoring instructions to individual
students. |
| Enron
tarnished money manager's golden touch
For nearly two decades, money manager Alfred Harrison's stock picks
for the 650,000 government retirees in Florida's pension fund were the
right ones. |
| Florida
lost if politicians draw maps
By Randy Schultz, The Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
The politics should start after the congressional lines are drawn, not
before. |
| GOP
relying on state's redistricting
With only nine states left to redraw their congressional maps,
national Republicans are looking to Florida to give the GOP as many as
four new seats to help the party maintain its razor-thin edge in the
House of Representatives. |
| Your
right to know could be eclipsed
State lawmakers are pushing to restrict public access to government
information routinely used by average citizens, businesses and
watchdog groups. Articles in Sunday's Sentinel that rely on
information available through the state's so-called Sunshine Laws or
the federal Freedom of Information Act appear
with a sunshine logo. |
| Public
records under attack
Citing potential terrorist threats to domestic security, a surge in
identity theft and the increasing use of the Internet, state
legislators have launched an unprecedented attempt to shield public
records from prying eyes. |
| Assaults
on sunshine
Tallahassee lawmakers are being even more brazen than usual in trying
to create unjustifiable new exceptions to Florida's open-government
laws. |
| For
open government
State lawmakers are attacking Florida's open-record laws with a
vengeance. Three proposals are especially disturbing: One would bar
public access to reports about extraordinary medical mistakes; another
would ban access to information about public-utility customers; yet
another harkens to the days when public-contract negotiations were
conducted in secret. |
| Philip Gailey
Public
needs to speak out for open government
People keep moving to Florida, and too many of the newcomers don't
know -- or care -- about the state's
"Government-in-the-Sunshine" laws. That may be one reason
why Florida legislators year after year keep chipping away at these
laws that require, with carefully drawn exceptions, open meetings and
open records. This issue doesn't seem to have the kind of organized
constituency that lawmakers pay attention to. Editorial writers can
scream their heads off, but until there is a public outcry that can be
heard from Key West to Tallahassee, the forces of darkness will keep
drawing the shades on open government in Florida. |
| Clouds
hover over Florida's famed sunshine
Most people like the idea of public records, at least in the abstract.
In 1992, 81 percent of voters passed the Sunshine Amendment,
constitutionally protecting Florida's open government laws. |
| Voter's
guide to a smooth poll experience
By George Bennett, Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Some procedures have not changed with the new system. |
| Voting
system faces first key test
The candidates aren't the only ones whose political futures are on the
line in Tuesday's elections. |
| Reno
is a master at evading questions
The first time I encountered The Glare, I realized Janet Reno was no
ordinary interview. |
| Reno
has a tougher challenge ahead than Democrats admit
When Janet Reno worked at the Capitol in the 1970s, there was a
popular poster that said, "To be considered equal to a man, a
woman must be twice as smart and work three times as hard ...
fortunately, this is not difficult." |
| Blacks
are searching for path to governor
When Homer Hartage welcomed the leading Democratic
candidate for governor to his office last week, the Orange County
commissioner made the black community's interests perfectly clear. |
| Internet
filters shouldn't bring religious bias to schools
It's a partnership as natural as Adam and Eve: Organizations devoted
to promoting conservative religious beliefs are linking up with
Internet filtering software to sculpt the world of cyberspace into a
Christian-friendly environment. |
| Save
manatees, boaters
Crossroads slowdown would protect both. |
| Airport
firm feeds Dade's political machine
Miami-Dade politicians and lobbyists regularly asked the company
managing Miami International Airport's massive expansion to contribute
to a raft of political campaigns and pet charities, funneling money to
causes of little or no benefit to the airport and its passengers. |
| Lawmakers
try to address worsening nurse shortage
It's a quiet afternoon in the maternity ward of University Community
Hospital, but that doesn't make for an easy day for... |
| Wrong
things considered
Ted Koppel's Nightline may not be the only casualty of the David
Letterman-izing of the airwaves. |
| White
House clamps down on access - WASHINGTON -- The Bush
administration is enforcing the toughest public-records lockdown in
decades, activists on both sides of the political spectrum say |
3/9/02
|
