Governor optimistic a budget compromise can be reached
Gov. Jeb Bush acknowledged Saturday that there are big differences between the Senate and House versions of the budget headed for discussion in both chambers but insisted there is enough room for a compromise. Bush spoke Saturday night to the NASDAQ Leadership Summit at the exclusive Indian Creek Country Club on Miami Beach. Afterward, he briefly addressed the budget.

Bush, Jennings to go on malpractice road show
TALLAHASSEE — Gov. Jeb Bush and Lt. Gov. Toni Jennings will go on the road next week to meet with health care workers and try to rally support for limits on lawsuit damages in medical malpractice cases.
Bush plans to visit Miami and Jacksonville Monday, while Jennings will make appearances the same day in Orlando, Brandon and Pensacola, a spokeswoman for Bush said Friday
Doctors, lawyers draw line on malpractice cap
The proposal of a $250,000 cap also has put the Florida House and Senate at odds.

Florida's program of corporate tax-credit vouchers is way too secret.
Corporate tax dollars send more than 15,000 low-income kids in Florida to private and parochial schools. And the state hasn't a clue what's happening to those kids.
http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/opinion/orl-edped292a032903mar29,0,7053725.story?coll=orl%2Dopinion%2Dheadlines

Lessons in voting from the French
TALLAHASSEE -- As Florida politicians argue about what to do with the runoff primary, it would be instructive for them to keep French President Jacques Chirac in mind.

Set standards for capital cases
If defendants in capital cases were always provided with effective attorneys during their initial trials, a substantial amount of postconviction legal wrangling could be avoided. The years spent appealing death sentences often focus on the paltry and faulty defense put on by the accused's lawyer. But the question of what is constitutionally required for an adequate defense remains murky.

Driven by Byrd, House may end up in the ditch
The Florida House of Representatives is becoming an island that talks only to itself.

Legislature: House panel approves its budget plan  TALLAHASSEE — A House panel Friday approved a budget that has money for teacher pay raises and tax cuts but would also let universities raise tuition and scale back on Bright Futures scholarships.
The Appropriations Committee voted 16-12 for the budget bill along party lines a day after a competing budget proposal won unanimous approval in the Senate Appropriations Committee.

Flaws riddle state's trauma system
Many counties have no unit for treating badly injured patients.

College tuition at stake
Jorge Rivera Jr.'s family is so dedicated to his college education that it moved from Fort Lauderdale to Orlando to save money by having him live and eat at home.

Battle flares over workplace smoking ban
Like thousands of other restaurant managers across Florida, David Ferguson isn't sure what will happen at the Tallahassee bar and restaurant he manages if his customers can't smoke there. But he's preparing for some restrictions if not a total ban on smoking at Cafe Cabernet, a nightspot popular with lawmakers, lobbyists and singles.

Panhandle bribery case against Childers rests on shaky witness
The bribery and money laundering case against suspended Escambia County Commissioner W.D. Childers, once one of Florida's most powerful state lawmakers, will rest heavily on a witness whose credibility has been attacked even by prosecutors. The trial is set to start Monday with jury selection in Crestview, a small city about 40 miles northeast of Pensacola in the Florida Panhandle. It was moved because the case has received heavy media coverage in the Pensacola area.

Wetlands wait for better days
Protection is dependent on district funding
Isolated wetlands and other property in Northwest Florida don't receive as much protection from development as they do in the rest of the state.

Florida National Guardsman dies of heart attack at Texas base
ST. AUGUSTINE — A 55-year-old Florida Army National Guardsman who died of a heart attack at a Texas base had received a smallpox vaccination as part of his mobilization, the Florida Guard said Friday.
Sgt. 1st Class Lloyd S. Clements, of Deland, died Wednesday night after having a heart attack earlier that day while unloading crates on a firing range at the Army's Fort Bliss, said Jon Myatt, Florida National Guard spokesman.

Sarandon calls cancellation of St. Petersburg event "disturbing"  ST. PETERSBURG — Actress Susan Sarandon said Friday she was disturbed by a charity's decision to cancel her appearance at a fund-raising event because of complaints about her opposition to the Iraq war.
The United Way of Tampa Bay was to feature the 56-year-old Academy Award winner as keynote speaker at an April 11 women's leadership event designed to inspire volunteerism in the community.
But organizers this week scrapped the $75-a-plate event after the charity got three dozen complaints about her selection as a speaker because of her anti-war views.
United Way decision speaks ill of bay area
Sometimes I wonder what kind of community Tampa Bay is: Are we tolerant or are we not?

Inside the First Amendment: To export religious-liberty values, let's practice them at home
A Muslim family's van is destroyed near Chicago, a Muslim teenager is badly beaten in California, a mosque is attacked in Illinois — and the list lengthens daily with new reports of harassment and violence across the nation. This rise in hate crimes against Muslims in the United States would be big news in ordinary times. But with war raging in Iraq — and terrorist alerts at home — these are far from ordinary times.

Maureen Dowd: 'It's not that easy to conquer a country, is it?'
WASHINGTON — We're shocked that the enemy forces don't observe the rules of war. We're shocked that it's hard to tell civilians from combatants, and friends from foes. Adversaries use guerrilla tactics; they are irregulars; they take advantage of the hostile local weather and terrain; they refuse to stay in uniform. Golly, as our secretary of war likes to say, it's unfair.

Paul Krugman: Delusions of power
They considered themselves tough-minded realists and regarded doubters as fuzzy-minded whiners. They silenced those who questioned their premises, even though the skeptics included many of the government's own analysts. They were supremely confident — and yet with shocking speed everything they had said was proved awesomely wrong.
No, I'm not talking about the war; I'm talking about the energy task force that Dick Cheney led back in 2001. Yet there are some disturbing parallels. Right now, pundits are wondering how Cheney — who confidently predicted that our soldiers would be "greeted as liberators" — could have been so mistaken. But a devastating new report on the California energy crisis reminds us that Cheney has been equally confident, and equally wrong, about other issues.

Rules of war apply to us, too
It is hard to view the recent images of American POWs being paraded around in front of television cameras by the Iraqi military. But, as disturbing as that is, it is also hard to listen to the president and defense secretary denounce the pictures as a violation of the Geneva Convention. George Bush and Donald Rumsfeld need to look in the mirror before they start waving the 1949 Convention around crying foul. It is they who relegated this exceptional body of international law to the status of a paper airplane.
Preaching, not practice on POWs
By Dan Moffett, Palm Beach Post Editorial Writer
Guantanamo undercuts U.S. lectures in Iraq.

Freedom means nothing without dissent
The war in Iraq is bringing out the best in American fighting men and women in harm's way. It's also bringing out the worst in some Americans on opposing sides of the war. The public dialogue is getting as ugly and rancorous as the U.N. Security Council debate over whether to go to war. First, we turned on the French, pouring their wine down the toilet and boycotting anything French (thank goodness French poodles have been spared). Now we're turning on each other, smashing Dixie Chicks CDs and lashing out at antiwar Hollywood actors.

Blogs over Baghdad, or: Where is Salam Pax?
There are, according to people who keep track of such things, 111,000 personal journals or "Web logs" on the Internet. One of them operates out of Baghdad.

3/26-28/03

Bush aims to inspire troops, public
TAMPA -- With coalition forces pressing toward the most dangerous phase of the week-old war in Iraq, President Bush came to MacDill Air Force Base on Wednesday to offer reassurance and tamp down expectations for a quick and easy victory.
Presidential rally sparks emotions
TAMPA -- As President Bush thanked the troops, their families and the country for wartime sacrifices, Jennifer Light stood amid the people packed into Hangar Three with one thought on her mind.
You can't control all of it
TAMPA -- During President Bush's visit to MacDill Air Force Base on Wednesday, the White House tried to choreograph his every move.
No chance to make it home
HAKAMAH, Jordan -- In military parlance, it's "collateral damage." 
In diplomatic language, "a regrettable accident." 
But to one Jordanian family, it was nothing less than a war crime: Their eldest son blown apart by an allied missile because he was on the wrong road at the wrong time. 
"I hope the Americans and British will end this war," said Eman Batayneh. In the mosque up the hill, the body of her son, Sufian, lay in a rough wooden coffin awaiting burial after Thursday evening prayers. 
Anti-war protesters denounce president during MacDill visit 
TAMPA — About 150 demonstrators denounced President Bush during his visit at MacDill Air Force Base Wednesday, accusing the administration of plunging the nation into an unwarranted conflict. 
"George Bush, you can't run, you can't hide, we charge you with genocide," the group chanted along Tampa's downtown waterfront district. As cars passed by, some motorists honked their horns in support or shouted curses of opposition. 

Protesting on the fringe and from the heart
Joe Bohren wasn't like the others. He didn't shout slogans. He didn't pace back and forth. He stood silently Wednesday on Bayshore Boulevard sidewalk with a slight smile on his face and a large American flag in his hands. 
His silence and the flag led me to think that Bohren had maneuvered himself behind the enemy lines of protesters to aggravate them. He had no tattoo, no pierced nose. From his looks, he could have been grandfather to half the people lined up on the sidewalk. 
I guessed wrong. Bohren was once a lieutenant colonel in the Air Force and an intelligence officer in Vietnam. He is retired now, and is firmly against the war in Iraq. 
"We used to say we had to destroy the village to save it," Bohren, 70, said of his Vietnam days. "Now we say we have to tear up Iraq to save it." 
Yes, history repeats itself. 

Kill 'em all?
A sad sight in Tallahassee: prowar demonstrators clad in T-shirts saying, "Kill 'em all and let God sort 'em out."

A disturbing Cuban roundup
Our position: Cuba's arrest of dissidents is an outrage that deserves strong rebuke.
Hundreds arrested at 'die-in'
NEW YORK -- About 215 protesters were arrested Thursday after they lay down on Manhattan's Fifth Avenue, blocking traffic in the latest of a series of demonstrations against the war.
Most of those arrested at the "die-in" face charges of disorderly conduct and obstructing governmental administration, police said.

 Gov. Bush derides renewal of ERA debate
He calls it 'a retro subject'
A national coalition of women's groups is hoping to make Florida a key battleground to renew the Equal Rights Amendment struggle, but Gov. Jeb Bush on Wednesday made it clear he has no interest in helping. 
Bush: ERA is as dated as bell-bottoms
Gov. Jeb Bush said Wednesday renewing the Equal Rights Amendment debate would be like "wearing bell-bottoms" or recycling other "retro" relics of the 1970s.
Legislature: Margolis says Bush remarks off base on ERA
TALLAHASSEE — Gov. Jeb Bush was criticized Thursday by women's groups for remarks he made describing the Equal Rights Amendment as a "retro subject ... like going back to wearing bell bottoms." Sen. Gwen Margolis, D-Miami Beach, who has filed a bill (SB 1166) seeking ratification of the language in the amendment, and Rep. Arthenia Joyner, D-Tampa, sent the governor a letter Thursday to protest his response to a question.

House plan privatizes hospital in Macclenny
Nearly 1,180 jobs at the Northeast Florida State Hospital in Macclenny could be affected by a state House budget proposal that would turn over the state-run facility to a private contractor. 

Cabinet appoints insurance regulator 
TALLAHASSEE — Kevin McCarty was named Tuesday to head the state's new Office of Insurance Regulation that was created in the reorganization of the Cabinet. 
Gov. Jeb Bush and the Cabinet unanimously approved the appointment of McCarty, who will be responsible for regulating insurance companies, including licensing, rates and solvency. 

King wants to protect `soft money'
Despite a popular new federal law that strictly limits big corporate political contributions, a leading Florida Republican is pushing for a change that would safeguard the use of ''soft money'' in state elections.
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/state/5499391.htm
Senate chief likes slush funds of yesteryear
Senate President Jim King wants to bring back the "leadership funds" that Florida legislative bosses used to use for rewarding their political allies with campaign cash from lobbyists.

Unconscionable cuts
The struggle for a responsible budget continues as three moderate Republican senators join the Democratic chorus against President Bush's proposed tax cuts.

Higher tolls proposed to help patch state budget gap
Motorists would see tolls rise on the Skyway and several local expressways under a proposal approved by a Senate committee.

Aid for ill, needy at risk in state budget fight
TALLAHASSEE -- Children, the elderly, the frail and the sick have become pawns in the raging budget battle between the House and the Senate.
As legislative leaders gird for a major clash over state spending -- and whether there is enough revenue to handle state needs -- the groups without the high-powered lobbying teams stand to lose the most in the growing battle of wills.
"They're the most vulnerable people, and they're trapped," said Edith Lederberg, executive director of the Broward Area Agency on Aging. "Legislators ask me what we want to do, and I tell them, `Don't take money; put more money in.' But that's not what they want to hear."

State to resume canker cutting
The angry growl of chain saws, along with the growl of angry residents, could ring out in Palm Beach County soon after about 2,250 homeowners received notices that the state would resume cutting healthy residential trees in its controversial plan to stamp out citrus canker.
The tree removal notices left this week at doorways in various Boca Raton neighborhoods, sections of West Palm Beach and in two unincorporated areas west of Lantana and Lake Worthtarget citrus trees within 1,900 feet of infected trees.
Among trees in danger: The stately, 26-foot tall grapefruit tree that shades the Boca Raton home of Robert Powers. At least 45 years old, "it's the biggest grapefruit tree that I or anyone who has ever been here has ever seen," said Powers, a contractor who remembers the tree as good-sized when he bought his home in the Boca Raton Square section in 1976.

Tallahassee Ticker
MICCOSUKEES STATE LAW ENFORCERS COULD BE BARRED Florida law enforcement officers may lose the right to arrest or prosecute any individual who commits a crime on the Miccosukee Indian Tribe reservation under a bill that was approved by its final committee in the Senate on Wednesday.

State agencies would lose lobbyists
TALLAHASSEE -- Rep. Gaston Cantens wants to eliminate the jobs of most state employees who lobby for their agencies.

House would snuff most smoking ban exemptions
Its bill would not allow smoking in stand-alone bars, something voters said was okay.

Legislature: Doctors lobby for malpractice insurance relief
TALLAHASSEE — There was definitely a doctor in the House Thursday. There were several more in the Senate. Sending their loudest message yet about what might happen without relief from high malpractice insurance rates, thousands of doctors went to the Capitol to urge lawmakers to do something about their premiums. Doctors say their premiums are ballooning out of control because of out-of-control lawsuits and settlements. They're pushing the Senate to advance a measure already passed by the House that would cap some damages in malpractice cases.

Bush, Jennings plan a push to support malpractice limits
Gov. Jeb Bush and his new lieutenant governor, Toni Jennings, are planning a statewide campaign-style swing to push a struggling quest by doctors and insurers to limit malpractice awards to injured patients.

Legislature: Committee votes to repeal high-speed rail amendment
TALLAHASSEE — Concerned about the cost of a high-speed rail system, the House Transportation Committee voted Wednesday to make Floridians vote on repealing a constitutional amendment that requires the state to build the network. The committee voted 12-7 in favor of a resolution that would put a constitutional amendment on the ballot in 2004 allowing voters to decide if they want to repeal the amendment requiring construction of a rail system connecting the state's five largest population centers.

Legislature: County officials say state is passing the buck
TALLAHASSEE — County commissioners from across Florida accused state leaders Wednesday of passing the buck for essential government services and called Florida's tax system broken. "Don't claim to be living within your means when you're living within our means," Osceola County Commissioner Chuck Dunnick said at a news conference attended by several dozen commissioners from around Florida. House Speaker Johnnie Byrd, R-Plant City, has frequently said the state must "live within its means" in tough times and not take more money from families and businesses.

New-home impact fee revamp advances
By George Bennett, Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
A Senate panel OKs bill to replace developer fees with a tax on all real estate transactions. 

Legislature set to relax rules for two hospitals
Critics say the proposal benefits a GOP donor. One of the hospitals didn't request the move.
DIGEST: Law would require reports on water
Democratic House members joined environmentalists Wednesday to promote a bill that would require the state Department of Environmental Protection to issue reports every six months with statistics on water being pumped in and out of underground storage wells. Rep. Dan Gelber, D-Miami Beach, said the information the state now provides on aquifer storage and recovery wells is difficult to understand. "This is all simply about providing people with information," said Gelber, who sponsored the bill (HB...

Counties say state shifting service costs onto them
County leaders from throughout Florida lashed out at Gov. Jeb Bush's spending plan and the House budget proposal on Wednesday, saying the live-within-your-means mantra repeated by Republican leadership is really a shell game that shifts taxes from the state to counties.
Democrats, commissioners criticize whittled budget
House and Senate Democrats claim the state's bare-bones budget is essentially a tax hike for local governments, and they were joined in that complaint Wednesday by some of the county commissioners who are lobbying lawmakers.

Leaders decry ease of initiatives
King, Byrd want tighter rules for ballot mandates
The Legislature's presiding officers said Wednesday the high cost of new constitutional amendments will force legislators to make it more difficult for citizens to place mandates on the ballot by petition.

UF trustee resigns, cites open meetings law
GAINESVILLE — University of Florida Trustee Louise Courtelis is resigning from the university's governing board, citing the constraints of Florida's open meetings law. Courtelis, 71, recently sent a letter to Gov. Jeb Bush saying that Florida's Government in the Sunshine Law won't permit her to speak privately with fellow trustees.

United Way board member resigns in protest
The Times' Marty Petty cites United Way's decision to cancel a women's leadership event with Susan Sarandon.
The Divided Way
The United Way of Tampa Bay has pulled off the rare trick of offending just about everybody.
Charity calls off event with Sarandon
The United Way says her anti-war views made her speaking engagement "divisive" and brought complaints.

Regier: DCF workers save lives daily
The head of the Department of Children & Families lamented Tuesday that no one notices how social workers save about 30,000 children a year, but that "we get clobbered" when a child protective services employee makes a mistake and "we lose one."

Ruling lets judges order DCF to care for mentally ill inmates 
WEST PALM BEACH -- Judges can order the Department of Children & Families to take care of mentally ill inmates, even if the agency doesn't have enough money, an appeals court has ruled.
The decision by the Fourth District Court of Appeal on Wednesday reverses a previous ruling in the case of five Broward County inmates who had to wait behind bars for a bed to open up at one of the state's forensic hospitals. The hospitals treat inmates who are deemed too mentally ill to stand trial.

Right to counsel is guaranteed, not always fulfilled
One of the most important Supreme Court decisions of the 20th century, Gideon v. Wainwright, is now 40 years old. On March 18, 1963, it became the law of the land that every person had the right to counsel in felony cases. The case has an interesting Florida history.

Justices suspend ex-legislator
The Florida Supreme Court has suspended former state Rep. Steven Effman from practicing law for 91 days after finding that he had sex with three divorce clients numerous times in violation of the rules governing lawyers. 

Lawyers, insurance lobbyists clash over no-fault insurance reform

Oliphant plan for HQ hits a bump
After remodeling office, she seeks a new location
A proposal by Broward Elections Supervisor Miriam Oliphant to move into a new headquarters has run afoul of some county leaders, who say they weren't informed of the plan and question how much it will cost an agency already plagued by budget overruns. 

FSU, UF to suggest budget deal
Schools want contract to stabilize funding
Florida State University and the University of Florida are working on a plan to shield their institutions from the annual grab for state money each year.

Schools' PR blitz to cost $700,000
TALLAHASSEE -- Broward County can't afford summer school, and Palm Beach teachers buy their own classroom supplies, but the state education department is spending nearly $700,000 to spread good news about its efforts.
Secretary Jim Horne has hired a Disney marketing executive for the newly created post of deputy commissioner of education for communications. The goal is to repair the image of a department criticized by parents, educators, business leaders, even the governor himself.

Search committee releases first candidates names
GAINESVILLE — The committee searching for a new University of Florida president has nine candidates, but wants more. The list is expected to grow as the position is advertised in academic publications around the nation. The campaign was approved Wednesday.

Commissioner Horne's kingdom Series: EDITORIALS 
St. Petersburg Times; St. Petersburg, Fla.; Mar 27, 2003; 
Debra Austin enjoys an impressive reputation on the campuses of Florida State University, where she serves as vice president for institutional effectiveness, and Tallahassee Community College, which she left last year after being passed over for the presidency. She has the academic credentials and the administrative experience to achieve success as the next chancellor of colleges and universities in Florida, and she deserves the support of the educators she will lead. 
That said, the manner in which Austin was selected mocks the very institution she is supposed to lead. Education Commissioner Jim Horne can take credit for that. 
Horne and his boss, Gov. Jeb Bush, refuse to accept that voters decided in November to restore a university structure Bush had precipitously dismantled. 
The Constitution now calls for a separate, appointed Board of Governors, much like the old Board of Regents, to "operate, regulate, control, and be fully responsible for the management of the whole university system." No single job of that board is more important than the selection of a chancellor. Yet board members, all appointed by Bush, have obediently ceded their authority in that regard. 
Horne, in turn, didn't consult them, didn't seek a vote of confirmation, and made his choice without benefit of any of the academic search and advisory groups that typically are used in other states. He told the Tallahassee Democrat he looked mainly for "chemistry, seeing if there is compatibility with me." Compatibility with Horne? Is she to serve as his secretary? ...
"The whole purpose of the constitutional amendment was to enable the university system to have an independent governance system for the benefit of the universities," says Robin Gibson, the attorney who drafted the amendment. "That was all debated during the course of the election process leading to a vote. And the voters decided. It could not be more plain." 

DOE faces whistleblower suit
Three women fired by the Department of Education filed a "whistleblower" suit against the agency Thursday, saying they lost their jobs for reporting mismanagement in the Office of Student Financial Assistance.

DOE mustn't repeat mistake of firings past
The ominous news just keeps coming for state workers. After callously dismissing 65 employees in December, the Department of Education is looking to privatize the bureau that processes college loans. A final decision hasn't been made, but the plan could eliminate 174 jobs - making it one of the largest outsourcing deals during Gov. Jeb Bush's tenure.

Blurred vision: Education proposals are insults to Floridians 
When voters passed three constitutional amendments on education last fall, they did so in spite of intensive efforts to defeat them. 

Higher ed is taking unjust hit
Given how hard Gov. Jeb Bush and the Legislature twisted the constitution to give higher education boards of trustees more power, it is surprising how willing they are to let their new system wither.

20 candidates for UNF president
Jacksonville Mayor John Delaney is among a pack of 20 candidates vying to become the next president of the University of North Florida. 

Another fight brews over Rodman reservoir
TALLAHASSEE — The long-standing dispute over restoration of the Ocklawaha River was renewed Wednesday when a House subcommittee approved a bill establishing a state park around the Rodman reservoir in northeast Florida. In defiance of Gov. Jeb Bush's plan to remove the George Kirkpatrick Dam and drain the lake it created, the bill (HB 697) forbids any changes to the Putnam County reservoir without legislative approval.

County to buy land around historic black fort near St. Augustine
ST. AUGUSTINE — St. Johns County commissioners have agreed to buy 16 acres adjacent to the site of Fort Mose, home of the first free black settlement in North America. The Trust for Public Land, a national nonprofit organization that helps protect land, initially will buy the two pieces of property on each side of Fort Mose, a national historic landmark, about a mile north of St. Augustine.

Pensacola voters reject park-auditorium project
PENSACOLA — City voters soundly rejected a $40 million waterfront park and auditorium project during a mail-in referendum forced by opponents who say it is too costly and that other needs are more pressing. The vote Tuesday marked the first time in Pensacola's history that the City Council has been rebuffed through a citizen initiative. It came less than five months after all nine council members were re-elected without opposition.

Preserve manatee budget
Palm Beach Post Editorial
As the courts help out, legislators back away.

Glades task force criticized by GAO
The task force steering Everglades restoration is not adequately managing scientific efforts driving that work, resulting in gaps in understanding that could hinder the massive project's success, a government report said Wednesday.
Despite problems, the federal General Accounting Office report said scientific understanding of how to improve water flows through the marsh -- flows detrimentally altered by drainage -- has improved over time. 

Health officials investigate link between 2nd death and smallpox vaccine
TAMPA -- Federal officials are investigating a possible link between the death of a St. Petersburg health worker and a smallpox vaccination she received earlier this month.
Virginia Jorgensen, 57, had a heart attack last week and died Wednesday, two days after her life support machine was turned off, said her husband, Robert Jorgensen.

U.S. conveniently forgets its own tyranny
I addressed a peace rally last month in Seattle, and I tried to use humor, irony and satire to poke holes in President Bush's flimsy case for war. My remarks brought me insults: moronic, starry-eyed, absurd, banal, a contradictory boob - and those were all from one journalist.

Guest editorial: Keeping hoary secrets
As it likes to do, the Bush White House waited until early evening to quietly leave a controversial decision on the stump. This one concerns government secrecy — this White House is notoriously in favor of more of it. President Bush issued an executive order, amending a 1995 order by President Clinton that automatically declassifies most government documents after 25 years.

Guest editorial: Stock exchange follies
One of the stated purposes of the war in Iraq is to bring freedom to the Iraqi people — including, presumably, freedom of speech and freedom of the press. To underscore that message, the Pentagon made sure that reporters from al-Jazeera, the hugely influential Arab network, were included among all the other correspondents traveling with the U.S. military.

Guest editorial: The Senate's moment of sanity
It surely is no coincidence that President Bush's opening $75 billion price tag on the Iraq invasion arrived on Capitol Hill on Tuesday just as Senate moderates finally mustered the gumption to dig in their heels and slice his latest tax-cut plan in half. The revolt by a few key Republicans served notice that their limits of embarrassment had been reached.

Bob Herbert: Casualties at home
WASHINGTON — On Tuesday, as President Bush was asking Congress for the first installment of the hundreds of billions of dollars needed to finance the war in Iraq and its aftermath, the students and teachers at a high school within walking distance of the White House were struggling through their daily routine in a building that has no cafeteria, no gymnasium, no student lockers, not even a fully reliable source of electricity.

Martin Schram: Now it's shock and chatter
Awe, then shock. A nation seduced by visions of yet another antiseptic video game in which the good guys high-teched their way to a bloodless battle victories — depicted with flashing lights darting across a blue-green screen — was first awed by what seemed to be yet another war of the same. Then it got a shocking lesson via the reality TV of war. War, it turns out, is still hell.

Maureen Dowd: Take down Saddam TV
WASHINGTON — Rummy was grumpy. TV generals and Pentagon reporters were poking at his war plan, wondering if he had enough troops and armor on the ground to take Baghdad and protect the rear of his advancing infantry. "It's a good plan," the war czar insisted with a grimace, adding that battle is "a tough business."

Paul Krugman: Channels of influence 
By and large, recent pro-war rallies haven't drawn nearly as many people as antiwar rallies, but they have certainly been vehement. 
One of the most striking took place after Natalie Maines, lead singer for the Dixie Chicks, criticized President Bush: A crowd gathered in Louisiana to watch a 33,000-pound tractor smash a collection of Dixie Chicks CDs, tapes and other paraphernalia. To those familiar with 20th-century European history it seemed eerily reminiscent of ... But as Sinclair Lewis said, it can't happen here. 
Who has been organizing those pro-war rallies? The answer, it turns out, is that they are being promoted by key players in the radio industry — with close links to the Bush administration.

Jury rejects federal death penalty in Tampa man's killing
MIAMI — A jury unanimously rejected an attempt to impose the first federal death penalty in Florida, but the judge harshly condemned the defendant Wednesday and called his life sentence lenient. Jose Denis showed no emotion and didn't look at his relieved relatives during the hearing. He already had been sentenced to 40 years in prison for two related drug counts in the shooting death of a Tampa security consultant at a Hialeah motel.

3/25/03

Hands off the trust funds
Gov. Jeb Bush and the Legislature have been using a shell game to balance the state budget by raiding trust funds. This irresponsible use of one-time money to cover ongoing expenses isn't just an inconvenience to lawmakers. It is a budgetary time bomb that is already setting off fire works close to home, as Democrat reporter Bruce Ritchie revealed.

Fiscal Finagling in Tallahassee 
Brace yourself! Those "live-within-your-means" admonishments coming out of Tallahassee are about to cost us a pretty penny.

Cabinet orders negotiations for Miccosukee Everglades land 
TALLAHASSEE -- Gov. Jeb Bush and the Cabinet ordered the Department of Environmental Protection to try to negotiate a land swap with the Miccosukee Indian tribe Tuesday instead of seizing their Everglades property through condemnation.

Legislature: House panel approves class size bill with vouchers
TALLAHASSEE — School boards would be able to use vouchers to lower class sizes under a bill a House panel appproved Monday along party lines. The legislation (HB 703) also would create a voucher program for kindergarten and double the size of a $50 million tax credit program that gives businesses a credit for donations they make to scholarships for poor children.

Austin named state's higher education chancellor
TALLAHASSEE — A Florida State University administrator was selected Monday to become the state's new college and universities chancellor. Debra Austin, an assistant vice president for academic affairs at Florida State and 25-year veteran of higher education, was named to the post by Education Secretary Jim Horne. She takes office after Daniel S. Papp, a senior vice chancellor of the University System of Georgia, backed out of the job in December.

House may dim Bright Futures
The state is suggesting income restrictions on the popular college scholarship program.

Sharp scholarship cuts proposed
GOP shows displeasure with Bright Futures' largess
Most high school seniors banking on a Bright Futures scholarship to attend college this fall would not qualify if their family makes more than $75,000 annually under a preliminary budget plan state House leaders unveiled Monday.

Textbook-buying system might be revamped
A House committee wants to cut $50-million from next year's $227-million instructional materials budget.

Patriotic disguise
Under cover of patriotism: another attack on Florida's public schools.

State slips in academia, university presidents say
Lagging funding gives the state a bad image and sours prospective hires, they tell Gov. Bush.

Bush discusses budget cuts, security with university presidents
TAMPA — Proposed cuts to higher-education funding could damage the state's academic reputation and make it harder to attract top faculty members and students, university presidents warned Gov. Jeb Bush on Monday. The governor was told that cutting deep into the higher-education budget to help deal with the state's budget shortfall sends the wrong message and makes it more difficult to compete with other states for the best and brightest professors and students.

Budgets 'sending a message'
Deciphering what those messages are remains tough
With the release of the House budget Monday, advocates for children, education, the poor and the elderly pored over documents, trying to determine which of the three proposals - the governor's, the Senate's or the House's - provides the most money for their particular interest area.

Legislature: Senate panel moves lottery bill
TALLAHASSEE — A Senate panel voted Monday to allow video lottery terminals at horse tracks, dog tracks and jai-alai frontons in hopes of raising an estimated $1.5 billion as the Legislature looks at slashing scores of programs. Similar legislation is already languishing in the House and may not go much further on the Senate side since Gov. Jeb Bush and House Speaker Johnnie Byrd have shown little interest in the proposal. Both say they don't want to expand gambling in the state.

Library leaders battle Bush book plan
TALLAHASSEE -- Plans to break up the century-old Florida State Library would not only destroy a key resource for state lawmakers and researchers, it would cripple a statewide network that provides books and videos for summer reading programs for kids, training for librarians and other help, a state library group said Monday.

House, Senate budgets disagree on library plan
By George Bennett, Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Members of the Florida Library Association lobby legislators to keep the state library in Tallahassee.

'Weeding' of State Library's books suggested
Librarians from across Florida urged legislators Monday to allow a little "weeding" of unneeded books, rather than uprooting the State Library from Tallahassee as Gov. Jeb Bush has proposed in his budget.

Cities fear possible loss of immunity from suits
Several South Florida cities, including Miami Beach and Hialeah, are protesting legislation they say will wipe out their protection against some zoning lawsuits and cost taxpayers millions of dollars in an already tight budget year.

Ignoring the will of the people
Our position: Lawmakers still don't understand that Floridians want open government.

No respect for voters
Palm Beach Post Editorial
A bill is in the works that would allow lawmakers to ignore voters' changes to the state constitution. 
From a Legislature that specializes in bad ideas comes another.
State Rep. Randy Johnson, R-Celebration, wants lawmakers to be able to ignore the state constitution when voters change it in a way that lawmakers don't like. His conceit would be funny if four lawmakers hadn't already agreed, and if it didn't set words to the music of the governor and House speaker.

Spend $2 for less traffic
Palm Beach Post Editorial
GOP lawmakers resist regional transit authority. 

Palm Beach school board bans gay discrimination
WEST PALM BEACH — Gay students received new protections Monday when the Palm Beach County School Board voted to ban discrimination and harassment based on a student's sexual orientation. The board voted 5-2 to pass the measure, which was before the board for the third time in the past 12 years. About 100 people filled the boardroom, and most of them voiced support for the measure. Teacher Clarence Brooks said students deserved the protection.

E-mails tell how agency failed
The Herald has obtained e-mails detailing Chuck Lanza's frustration before his removal last week as director of the Office of Emergency Management.

Survey shows youth drug use down
TALLAHASSEE — Fewer Florida teenagers are drinking and smoking and the use of most hard drugs also has gone down among students, according to a survey on youth drug use released Monday. But more middle school students reported recently using cocaine and methamphetamines compared to the year before and overall use of heroin increased slightly, according to the survey of sixth- through 12th-graders released by the state Office of Drug Control.

Groups promote cycling to work
FORT LAUDERDALE -- Environmentalists and bicyclists have teamed up to urge South Florida commuters to abandon their cars and trucks this week and pedal to and from work, if possible.
Members of the nonprofit group Cycle Mobility and South Florida Commuter Services are asking people to bike to work every day this week in order to save money,savegasoline and keep fit.

Web site helps protect business, residents against cyber attacks
TALLAHASSEE — Law enforcement officials said a new Web site created through a state and private partnership will help protect businesses and residents against cyber attacks. The Secure Florida site will give people information on how to protect their computer systems while also allowing them to register for alerts about viruses or other potential cyber attacks, Florida Department of Law Enforcement Commissioner Tim Moore said Monday.

Al-Arian's bid to get out of jail faces new hurdle
Federal immigration officials want to keep him in custody, even if a magistrate grants him bail.

Al-Arian peaceful, friends testify
Ex-professor's bond request weighed
STEVE NESIUS/AP TAMPA -- Fired Palestinian professor Sami Al-Arian is a peaceful man who opposed the killing of innocent civilians and is not the terrorist kingpin the government contends, two friends testified at his bond hearing Monday.

President coming to Florida -- again
Of the hundreds of military bases that could have offered a picturesque, patriotic backdrop for President Bush to rally support for the war against Iraq, he has chosen one in Florida -- again. 

Guest editorial: Richard Perle's conflict
As chairman of the Defense Policy Board, Richard Perle has been an influential architect of the Bush administration's Iraq policy and war plans. At the same time, it turns out, he has signed on to represent a major telecommunications company that has a strong financial interest in lobbying the Defense Department. This is a conflict pure and simple, and Perle should immediately drop one of his two roles.

Molly Ivins: Keep an eye on the back pages of newspapers
AUSTIN, Texas — There was Donald Rumsfeld on Sunday morning repeatedly warning the Iraqis that prisoners of war are protected by the Geneva Convention and showing pictures of POWs is wrong. That would be the same Donald Rumsfeld who refused to classify the POWs at Gitmo in Cuba as POWs, instead calling them "detainees" and "military combatants."

Morton Kondracke: 'Compassion' is out the window in GOP budgets
The stock market took a favorable bump as war with Iraq became a virtual certainty, but the war's effects on the economy are likely to be negative, with the main burden borne by those least able to absorb it. President Bush refuses to tell Congress how much he expects the war to cost, the Republican Congress refuses to make an estimate on its own and yet the GOP wants to push ahead with $1.4 trillion in tax cuts skewed toward upper-income citizens, including an immediate $726 billion economic growth package.

Bush asks for war money
NEW: President Bush is asking Congress for $74.7 billion for six months of combat.

3/22-24/03

Conflict with Iraq: Questions of war's legality dog U.S. 
Was it legal for the United States to invade Iraq? The question may seem moot with U.S. forces marching on Baghdad, but President Bush's order to attack put future dealings with friends and foes worldwide on the line. ...

GOP attacks on war critics are disturbing, simply put
This is an awesome moment in time, but no time for silence.
This is a time for honoring the courage and faith of the soldiers whom the United States has deployed in Iraq, but no time to quash the questioning of the leaders who deployed them.
What are they fighting for, if not for the preservation of our own freedom? If Russian President Vladimir Putin can find air time condemning the American assault on Saddam Hussein as a "big political mistake," certainly we must have time for our own critics.
Yet the Republican Party rose in one great and orchestrated expression of blast-faxed outrage when U.S. Sen. Tom Daschle, the Senate minority leader, dared to speak out just hours before President Bush delivered his ultimatum to Saddam...

The protest movement’s important voice — even now 
...Deriding protestors would be as empty-headed as deriding flag-waving war enthusiasts. If this is still the democracy that promises to bring its like to the people of Iraq, both sides have a role to play, both sides are owed respect, and both must influence the outcome of the peace, when and should it come...

Painful reality: Tax cuts bleed Florida budget dry 
Sometimes the truth hurts.
Florida lawmakers, already struggling to repair a $347 million hole in the state budget, certainly felt the sting from a report released last week by Florida TaxWatch. For the last 24 years, the research group has focused relentlessly on the bottom line -- agitating for lower taxes, better accountability and increased efficiency.
Overall, TaxWatch's priorities march with those of Republican leaders. But in identifying $2.8 billion in potential savings and elimination of special-interest tax breaks, the group is marching right across the toes of House leaders and Gov. Jeb Bush. The report highlights several areas the state has long ignored -- like the need to stop overweight trucks from overloading Florida's roads, and improving the state's ability to collect from contractors who overbill or under-perform...

Budget woes may rattle Service First
How would you feel if your boss changed the rules without consulting you, then reneged on a big part of the deal? A lot of state employees will be asking each other something like that, as shock waves from the pending state budget ripple through their agencies in the next fiscal year or two. The state's fiscal crisis makes it highly unlikely that the promise of Service First - higher pay, career advancement, "shared savings" - will amount to much for most employees...

Fate of the State Library rests with the Legislature
Gov. Jeb Bush suggests that his constituency reconsider its support for the class-size and bullet-train amendments to the constitution "with all the information in hand." Many of his constituents would be pleased if he would reconsider his ill-advised initiative to wreck the state's research library now that he has "all the information at hand."...

Let public keep control over the public's water
Palm Beach Post Editorial
A bad bill making its way through the Florida House would jeopardize Everglades restoration and lead to a a terrible idea -- private ownership of the state's public water supply.
Rep. Baxter Troutman, R-Winter Haven, admits that developers wrote the main parts of House Bill 1005. According to published reports, Mr. Troutman, a grandson of citrus magnate Ben Hill Griffin Jr. and a cousin of Katherine Harris, asked lobbyists to explain it to a House committee last week. That's bad, but it still isn't as bad as the bill...

Legislators are ignoring voters as they shred Sunshine law 
Pity the poor Florida voter. Never have we been so consistently misunderstood, misinterpreted and just plain maligned.
Elected leaders think we didn't know what we were doing when we voted to stop shoehorning students into public school classrooms. They believe, too, that we were befuddled when we demanded the state build a high-speed train.
Now some lawmakers are sure we didn't mean it when we required them to get 107 legislative votes before they shut us out of public meetings and records.
As the leaders of the Florida House see it, they need the approval of two-thirds of their members only when new proposals to hide government actions are proposed. To renew the more than 850 instances in which lawmakers have already decided the public should not be privileged to watch government, requires only a simple majority.
So they say.
But that's not what the millions of Floridians who voted to change the constitution to make it harder to close records and meetings said. We said any time lawmakers believe it's more important to hide government work than to open it, at least two thirds of all legislators have to agree. Any time...

Guest commentary: Florida's trial court system in danger 
By HARRY LEE ANSTEAD, Special to the Daily News 
Your local courts need your help to maintain their existing level of service. 
In 1998, you the voters of Florida approved a constitutional amendment transferring responsibility for a substantial part of state trial court costs from local county budgets in the Naples area to the state budget in Tallahassee. The amendment insures that the quality of justice in Florida does not depend upon whether you live in a property-poor county or a property-rich county, and provides for uniform state funding for a unified state trial court system. 
The deadline for implementing this sweeping change is now only a year away on July 1, 2004. The first phase of implementation will occur in the ongoing legislative session, so the future of Florida's trial courts is now at stake. And so are the services these courts provide to you, the people of Florida. 
These changes can have a serious impact on your local courts in at least three major ways they affect your everyday lives....

DOE eyes trimming work force
Bureau that processes loans may be privatized, affecting 174 jobs
The Florida Department of Education wants to privatize the jobs of 174 workers in a bureau that earns $8 million to $10 million a year for the state by processing college loans...

Challenges For New Chief 
Let's hope the nominee picked to run Florida's Department of Transportation, José Abreu, finds ways to get us in and out of traffic faster...

Doctors: Health care in crisis
If you have a medical emergency Thursday, you'll have no problem getting help. If it's not urgent, however, you may have to go to the Capitol to see your doctor...


Legislature: King, Byrd blast each other's budget plans 
TALLAHASSEE — The $52 billion budget proposal released Friday by the state Senate was immediately criticized by its own sponsors as well as House Speaker Johnnie Byrd. 
But there was a key difference to the criticism.
Senate President Jim King thinks the budget shows the state must do more for its children, elderly and needy while Byrd called the proposal a scare tactic for higher taxes.
"A society like ours ought to be able to do more than this budget does," he said. ...

Likely cost of trimming class size plunges
Lawmakers, Bush differ on amount
Three weeks after Gov. Jeb Bush called on state lawmakers to ask voters to repeal the ''expensive'' class-size cap passed in November, legislators are predicting it won't cost the state nearly as much as the governor thinks. ...

GOP legislators want to cut back on lottery-funded scholarships
Black and Hispanic students would suffer the worst financial setbacks under a GOP-backed House proposal to raise eligibility requirements for a popular lottery-funded scholarship program.
Faced with a budget crunch and fast-growing student numbers, the House is pushing a bill that would raise exam requirements to narrow the pool of scholarship applicants and ease spending. ...

Legislature: Affect of war on state budget uncertain 
TALLAHASSEE — Even before the war against Iraq began, state economists were already predicting it would take a toll on Florida's budget and shrank their estimate of next year's tax revenue.
Now some hope the reality of war will do less harm to the Florida economy — which is the foundation of the state budget — than uncertainty about a potential war...

Lawmakers unite over war
TALLAHASSEE -- Patriotism is coloring politics in Florida's first wartime legislative session since Vietnam.
Lawmakers in the state House and Senate are battling over a red-ink budget, a bruised medical-insurance system and divisive constitutional amendments. But they all bled true blue last week as America went to war.
"With people dying across the ocean, it's time for us to be together," said Rep. Dan Gelber, D-Miami Beach, whose chamber unanimously passed a resolution supporting U.S. troops in Iraq.
On Friday, members of the House passed a measure tentatively providing $10 million in private-school vouchers to the children of veterans and service men and women. These "school scholarships" would be funded through tax credits to corporations...

Invoking war to ease rules
The Senate Environment and Public Works Committee has begun a campaign it calls, portentously, "Operation End Extremism." The purpose is to expose "the increasing burden U.S. soldiers face on military training bases because of irrational enforcement of environmental laws." The whole thing might be dismissed as another ideological stunt from the committee's reactionary chairman, James Inhofe of Oklahoma, were it not for the fact that the Pentagon is trying to do the same thing. With White House backing, the Defense Department has asked Congress to approve a program it calls the "Readiness and Range Preservation Initiative," which would broadly exempt military bases and some operations from environmental regulation...

To ensure majority rule, switch to instant runoff
Palm Beach Post Editorial
Elections supervisors led by LePore want to ditch the second primary...

Decision could alter some DUI convictions
Florida's DUI-manslaughter law is under a legal attack that, if successful, could reduce prison sentences significantly for anyone serving time for killing more than one person in a drunken-driving crash...

Funding woes stall cleanup at St. Marks Refinery
The state has halted cleanup work at the St. Marks Refinery and about 1,500 contaminated sites around Florida because the trust fund set up to pay the bills has run out of money...l

Gov. Bush requests federal assistance for shrimpers 
TALLAHASSEE — Gov. Jeb Bush has requested federal help for the state's shrimp, clam and crab fishing industries, hammered by freezes over the past winter. 
Bush asked the White House to declare the series of freezes from November 2002 to February 2003 a major disaster. That would let the state receive programs and funds under the Stafford Act. 
"I have determined this incident is of such severity and magnitude that effective response is beyond the capabilities of the state and the affected local governments," Bush said in the letter. ...

Migrant workers push for reforms
FORT LAUDERDALE -- His bosses couldn't wait for the pesticides to dry, so they asked Mario Chavez to unload the pine trees still dripping with chemicals.
Within days, he started feeling queasy. Days later, he had a stroke and fell into a 26-day coma. A migrant farmworker from El Salvador, Chavez said he was robbed of his health by working in South Florida's plant nurseries.
"All they're interested in is selling plants. They don't care about people's lives," said Chavez, who is struggling to pay the apartment rent in Homestead and send money to his family since he fell ill in November...

Expert: Dry spring could trigger spread of West Nile virus
South Florida's unusually dry spring could trigger a "dangerous" increased spread of West Nile virus this year, a top mosquito expert said. A lack of rain forces birds and mosquitoes into the few wet areas that remain, increasing contact between birds, which carry the deadly virus, and mosquitoes, which spread it, said Dr. Jonathan Day, a professor of medical entomology at the Florida Medical Entomological Lab in Vero Beach.

Syphilis on the rise in Miami-Dade, Broward counties
Syphilis is spreading so quickly in Broward and Miami-Dade counties, primarily among gay and bisexual men, that it is reaching epidemic proportions, health officials warned. From 2001 to 2002, the number of new syphilis cases in Broward County rose 88 percent. Eleven new cases are reported in the county each month, compared to 1998 when 13 cases were reported in the entire year...

Foley can't make case
Palm Beach Post Editorial
GOP, not Democrats, blocks Hispanic jurists. ...

Paul Krugman: Who lost the U.S. budget? 
The Onion describes itself as "America's finest news source," and it's not an idle boast. On Jan. 18, 2001, the satirical weekly bore the headline "Bush: Our long national nightmare of peace and prosperity is finally over," followed by this mock quotation: "We must squander our nation's hard-won budget surplus on tax breaks for the wealthiest 15 percent. And, on the foreign front, we must find an enemy and defeat it." ...

Stop the world; Bush wants off
By Tom Blackburn, Palm Beach Post Editorial Writer
From the White House to the anti-global street...

For Arabs, a cruel echo of history
To Washington and London, last week's attack against Iraq is part of a historical process to promote Arab peace, liberty and democracy. To most Arabs, it is a cruel reappearance of demons that have haunted them for centuries...

May we learn from our mistakes
Don't you hate when war starts in springtime? We are now united in desperately hoping that the war will be both easy and short. The most depressing thing about this war is that we are going into it with the support of the majority of public opinion in exactly two countries, the United States and Israel - and that is indeed a miserable failure of diplomacy, as Sen. Daschle put it...

Will we ever really know if Hussein is dead?
As this is being written, we still don't know whether Saddam Hussein is dead or alive. Early Thursday morning in Baghdad, the United States fired Tomahawk cruise missiles and bunker-buster bombs at a house where the Iraqi president and his military leaders were supposedly hunkered in a strategy meeting...

3/21/03

Conflict with Iraq: Military-filled Panhandle mostly supports war, troops
FORT WALTON BEACH — A retired Army reservist would join the fight against Iraq if he could, but an Air Force veteran once deployed to Saudi Arabia is glad she is out of the military and the war. Many people interviewed Thursday in the Florida Panhandle supported the attack on Iraq, but some were opposed even in a region crammed with military installations such as nearby Hurlburt Field and Eglin Air Force Base. Both have deployed troops and aircraft to the combat zone.
Protesters try to rally dissent
LOCAL PROTESTS: At FSU, demonstrators clash and protesters march on the Capitol. Smaller demonstrations take place at other campuses. 
Divisions over the war in Iraq played out Thursday on Florida's college campuses, including a dramatic clash at Florida State University, where 1,500 students walked out of class. 
Police on the Tallahassee campus had to separate some demonstrators as they shouted nose-to-nose, but no one was arrested. 
Most of the demonstrators were antiwar. But a small group of people who support the U.S.-led effort showed up wearing red, white and blue T-shirts that said: "Kill 'em all and let God sort 'em out" on the back, and "I support the war on Iraq" on the front. 
Tempers flared when a prowar demonstrator defaced a peace sign that antiwar organizers had set up on the green. 
About 600 of the protesters later marched several blocks to Florida's Capitol, where they held an antiwar rally outside while state lawmakers wrestled with the state budget inside. 
Other demonstrations on Florida campuses were smaller. Some schools are on spring break, and others are in the middle of exam week. 
Emotional voices can be heard on both sides of war issue
War protesters could hardly hear themselves chanting at Orange Avenue and Colonial Drive during Thursday evening's rush hour. Some drivers honked their horns and flashed peace signs, while others made obscene gestures.
Across Florida, rallies and vigils attracted those on both sides of the war issue.
Many world leaders condemn U.S. attack
BRUSSELS, Belgium -- Much of the world Thursday condemned the start of war against Iraq, as numerous governments said the U.S.-led assault wasn't justified, and hundreds of thousands of demonstrators protested in front of heavily fortified American embassies shouting slogans criticizing President Bush.

FCAT failures
The required student test isn't readable and flunks spelling.
Florida puts the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test on a pedestal. State leaders so trust the test that they give it great power over the fortunes of students, schools and school districts.
That trust appears to be misplaced.

Gov. Bush says Florida economy will remain strong
WEST PALM BEACH — Gov. Jeb Bush told business leaders from around the nation that Florida's economy has remained resilient during the economic downturn, keeping unemployment rates steady and creating more than 100,000 new jobs in the past year. Bush touted $6 billion in tax cuts over the last four years and a decrease in government bureaucracy, with an 11 percent reduction in workers.

Senate's budget plan sends a message
In effect, if the governor wanted something, the Senate cut it. If he wanted a cut, they funded it. House leaders' plan is more moderate.

Legislature: Panel votes for proposal to give lawmakers more say
TALLAHASSEE — A House panel Thursday approved a proposal that would let state lawmakers ignore changes that people make to the state constitution by petition drive. Lawmakers could also disregard changes voters have already made to the state constitution, such as the class-size reduction ballot measure approved just four months ago. But the legislative proposal has a long way to go. Since it would change the right of people to change the state constitution by citizen initiative, it would have to be approved by voters.

Developers win early round on water bill
By Jim Ash, Palm Beach Post Capital Bureau
A House panel passes a bill that would remove regulators' ability to deny permits to environmentally harmful projects.

Legislature: Senate panel rejects lawsuit caps
TALLAHASSEE — A Senate panel rejected a measure to cap damages in medical malpractice cases Thursday, seriously jeopardizing doctors' efforts to get relief from skyrocketing insurance costs. Doctors say their soaring insurance premiums are threatening patient care — forcing doctors to stop performing some procedures or stop providing care altogether. Insurance companies blame rising lawsuit losses for the premium increases.

Capitol offenses
As it went to the House floor, the malpractice bill was more about protecting Florida doctors than about protecting their patients. As it will go to the Senate, the imbalance is even greater. In debate, members voted to keep a quirk in present law that forbids adult children to sue doctors or hospitals for the deaths of their parents. This devalues the lives of many elderly people.

Legislature: Utilities could hide personal data
Today is the 18th day of the 60-day session.

House bill would allow legislators to ignore voters
While voting yes on the bill, some lawmakers called it an arrogant measure that treats citizens like children.

Appeals court says Stiltsville can stay standing for now
MIAMI — A federal appeals court Wednesday dismissed environmentalists' requests that the National Park Service either open to the public or tear down seven private houses propped up on stilts in Biscayne Bay, saying it lacked jurisdiction. 

Federal judge orders continuation of manatee protection 
The Interior Department must continue creating new protections for the Florida manatee, including slow speed zones in the Caloosahatchee River, a federal judge has ruled. 
Last year, 95 manatees were killed by boats in Florida waters, a record in the state, and that is one reason environmental groups, led by Florida's Save the Manatee Club, have pursued federal help. The Interior Department is in the process of designating new slow-speed zones for Florida waterways, including the Caloosahatchee, and manatee sanctuaries. 

State to resume cutting down citrus trees to contain canker 
WEST PALM BEACH — State crews will begin chopping down healthy trees that have been exposed to citrus canker within the next few weeks, hoping to stave off future outbreaks before the rainy season hits South Florida and hastens the spread of the disease. 
Agriculture spokesman Mark Fagan said the state is resuming its eradication efforts now that the Fourth District Court of Appeal overruled a tree-cutting ban imposed by a circuit judge in Fort Lauderdale. 

Phosphate nightmare
The mountain of phosphate waste near Port Manatee poses an imminent threat and must be drained as soon as possible. Unfortunately, the Gulf of Mexico will serve as the sewer.

Legislature: Senate passes class size plan 
TALLAHASSEE — The Senate unanimously passed a bill Wednesday to lower class sizes. Lawmakers called the legislation a responsible and common sense plan to implement the will of voters. 
But the bill, which defines what "average" class size means and sets deadlines for school districts, faces several hurdles. 

Key spending ideas unveiled
Looking to blunt rising criticism, state House budget writers Thursday agreed to pour millions of dollars into health-care programs for severely ill Floridians, while restoring a program for troubled teenagers that looked bound for the chopping block.

Tax vouchers trigger rush
Low-income families are flocking to Florida's latest school-voucher program, which sends children to private schools with corporate tax dollars.

Residents sue small town for adding protections for sexual orientation 
MONTVERDE — Three residents of this tiny Lake County community sued the town Wednesday to get sexual orientation removed as a protected category from the town's newly-revised charter. 
The lawsuit filed in Lake County Circuit Court asks that the town's new charter be rescinded. Montverde, located 22 miles northwest of Orlando, has fewer than 1,000 residents. 

State says it's not selling motorists' information 
TALLAHASSEE — It's either a hoax or just a bad rumor that caught fire, but it's been driving officials at the Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles buggy over the past several days. 
They say they are not selling personal information on motorists despite an e-mail sent to Floridians claiming a "new law" allows the state to sell such information. 

Prof didn't talk about violence
NEW: Colleagues, family members of fired university professor said he is a peaceful man

Ready for the peace?
Now that U.S. strikes against Iraq have begun, we should get rid of one canard immediately, and that's the notion that criticism of the Bush administration and opposition to this invasion imply in some sense a lack of support or concern for the men and women who are under arms. The names of too many of my friends are recorded on the wall of the Vietnam Memorial for me to tolerate that kind of nonsense. 

Heads in the sand
The biggest wartime secret fiercely kept by the White House seems to be the estimated dollar cost to the nation's taxpayers of invading, pacifying and rebuilding Iraq, from first shot to last. Congress is now flailing through a budget debate without this vital chunk of information on the public books. 

Molly Ivins: It's going to be the peace from hell
Don't you hate when war starts in springtime? We are now united in desperately hoping that the war will be both easy and short. The most depressing thing about this war is that we are going into it with the support of the majority of public opinion in exactly two countries, the United States and Israel and that is indeed a miserable failure of diplomacy, as Sen. Daschle put it.

3/17-20/03

Bush: U.S. Launches Strike Against Iraq

Forced reunions
Foreigners jam the roads out of Baghdad, and few have anything nice to say about the United States 

Senate rejects drilling in Alaska refuge 
The Senate today rejected oil drilling in an Alaska wildlife refuge, handing the Bush administration a defeat on one of its top energy priorities.

Service First: still unsold 
Regardless of what one thinks about Gov. Jeb Bush's Service First state personnel plan, a survey makes clear that many of the employees it affects remain a coalition of the unconvinced.

Where's the beef in tech office plan? 
Privatization is almost always cast as a vehicle for more efficiency and cost savings. While that's sometimes the case, an outsourcing plan for the State Technology Office is alarmingly vast yet far too short on details about benefits and consequences.

Company pushes airport, but some think it's pushy 
A kingfisher lands on a fallen log along Crooked Creek in western Bay County. And if The St. Joe Co. and local airport officials have their way, Boeing 737s and other narrow-bodied jets will be landing a few miles away.

Affordable housing a concern 
Affordable housing is being forgotten in the rush to develop the Panhandle, says Jaimie Ross, affordable housing director for 1000 Friends of Florida.

Computer model provides look at cost of growth 
The St. Joe Co. stands accused of asking taxpayers to shoulder the cost of the growth that it wants to bring to the Florida Panhandle.

Appeals court hears arguments over constitutionality of vouchers
TALLAHASSEE — The church-state debate aired Tuesday in an appeals court, the latest development in the nearly 4-year-old legal fight over Florida's original voucher law. A Tallahassee trial judge last August ruled the law violated a provision of the Florida Constitution that bans the use of public money "in aid of any church, sect, or religious denomination or in aid of any sectarian institution." The state appealed that decision to the 1st District Court of Appeal. A three-judge panel heard oral arguments Tuesday and will rule at its discretion. ...

Charters approved despite rejection
It was the first time the board used its power to overturn a school board's decision and force a district to work with a charter. 
The votes troubled state board member Bill Proctor, who asked about accountability. 
"Now who is accountable: the state or the district?" he wondered aloud. ...

Republicans propose redirecting Bush's 'school recognition' funds 
Four years after Gov. Jeb Bush pushed through his plan to pay cash to schools whose students perform well on the FCAT, Republican legislators unveiled plans Tuesday to scuttle the practice next year and spend the money elsewhere.
Scholarship eligibility could become tougher 
Eligibility requirements for one of the Bright Futures scholarships would become tougher under a bill approved this week by a House committee.

Prepaid tuition staying afloat amid threats 
Participants double in three-month period
Threats to Florida's wildly popular prepaid college tuition program appear to be fading, but not before the alarm bells prompted twice as many new registrations this year than the year before. 

Conflict with Iraq: Graham says 'all Americans must come together'
WASHINGTON — Sen. Bob Graham was one of just three Floridians in Congress to vote against the resolution authorizing the president to use force in Iraq. But he knows now, at the brink of war, is not the right time to continue pushing his case. "At a time like this, all Americans must come together to support our commander in chief and our men and women in uniform,'' the Miami Lakes Democrat said. 
Democrats aim sharp barbs at Foley
By Brian E. Crowley, Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
The GOP congressman has been critical of Sen. Bob Graham. 

Muslim communities dread next few weeks
As the Department of Homeland Security ratcheted up the terror alert this week, a Muslim civil-rights group warned Muslims, Arab-Americans and anyone "perceived to be Middle Eastern" to prepare for another kind of attack -- hate crimes.
For Muslim and Arab-American communities nationwide, the impending war with Iraq and the increased terror threat has only raised the fear of a backlash. It's a worry many Muslims have felt since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

Look this gift horse in mouth 
Our position: GOP congressional committee's ploy to fund raise by offering an honor is off base.
Beware of Washington, D.C., politicos offering honors. The calls may be as bogus as those e-mails from Nigeria promising big bucks.
Like telemarketers trying to hook the unsuspecting, the National Republican Congressional Committee is calling folks around the country, telling them they've won a major honor, such as "Businessman of the Year." Then the NRCC tells them they're expected to give $5,000 to the Republican Party.

Federal judge approves manatee protection agreement
A federal judge, convinced a public comment period would be a better forum for the objections of Florida marine industry groups, approved an agreement Tuesday reached by the Interior Department and environmental groups to protect the endangered manatee. 

Scientists breed captive Miami Blue butterflies
BAHIA HONDA -- Offering hope for a species on the edge of extinction, scientists said Tuesday they have created the first captive-bred population of Miami Blue butterflies.
Biologists at the University of Florida produced a male and a female butterfly last Friday from eggs collected at Bahia Honda State Park in the Lower Keys, the site of the only known population of the endangered butterflies. They hope the two butterflies will form the beginning of a captive colony as insurance against extinction and a source of recruits for new wild populations.

Forty years after landmark Gideon ruling, it's still trumpeted
PANAMA CITY — The U.S. Supreme Court issued one of its most historic decisions 40 years ago Tuesday by ordering a new trial for Clarence Gideon, a drifter convicted of burglary in this Florida Panhandle city without benefit of a lawyer. Since then, it has been the law of the land that criminal defendants are entitled to a lawyer even if they cannot afford one.

Democracy in the Senate; no such luck in the House
TALLAHASSEE -- This is a tale not of two cities but of two houses that might as well be in two different worlds. They are the two houses of the Florida Legislature.

Legislature: Administering of anesthesia an issue
TALLAHASSEE — Nurses who administer anesthesia during surgery are trying to halt a measure allowing non-nurses called anesthesiologist assistants to administer anesthesia. Nurse anesthetists argue that the anesthesiologist assistants aren't as highly trained and could pose a safety risk to patients. Anesthesiologist assistants would have to be directly supervised under two bills filed in the Legislature. 

Legislature: House, Senate at odds over smoking ban
TALLAHASSEE — House and Senate members are miles apart on how to implement a constitutional amendment voters passed overwhelmingly in November to ban smoking in most indoor workplaces. Approved by more than 70 percent of voters, the constitutional amendment bans smoking in most indoor workplaces, including restaurants. 

Legislature: Legislators start scaling back on class-size pricetag
TALLAHASSEE — Estimates of the cost of reducing class size dropped Tuesday in the Legislature. A plan to spend $464 million next year to start implementing the ballot measure voters approved four months ago was presented in the Senate Education Appropriations Committee. That's significantly lower than the $628 million Gov. Jeb Bush used in his recommended budget, based on estimates of state ecconomists last summer.
Strategy to cap classes diverges
As legislators struggle with how to carry out a voter mandate to reduce class size, the House and Senate appear to be on wildly different tracks.
Class size sets course for House, Senate
By Jim Ash and S.V. Date, Palm Beach Post Capital Bureau
Lawmakers advance competing education plans that set the House and Senate on a collision course. 

Legislature: More help for unemployed mulled by lawmakers
TALLAHASSEE — Out-of-work Floridians would find it easier to qualify for unemployment and would get more money every week under a measure unanimously approved by a Senate committee. The sponsor, Sen. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, said the measure was needed to help laid-off workers in the slumping economy. 

Legislature: Video lottery bill dies in House committee
TALLAHASSEE — A bill to allow video lottery machines at jai-alai frontons, dog tracks and horse tracks in hopes of raising $1 billion in tax revenue was killed by a House committee Tuesday...
Slot-machine proposal killed
By S.V. Dáte, Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Speaker Johnnie Byrd went the extra distance to help kill a proposal that would have OK'd slot machines. 

House panel backs faith-based office
By Mary Ellen Klas, Palm Beach Post Capital Bureau
The committee approves legislation to spend $700,000 to create an office for faith-based initiatives. 

Orange County residents request stays from canker cutting
ORLANDO — Workers from the Florida Department of Agriculture on Tuesday began cutting down 1,002 citrus trees located near other trees infected with citrus canker. By early afternoon, 46 trees had been destroyed in two neighborhoods. Tree-cutting in a third Orange County neighborhood, Bay Hill, was postponed until next week because it was hosting the nationally televised Bay Hill Invitational golf tournament this week. 
Citrus cutting planned in South Florida 
Foes to seek stay of trees' 'execution'
Nearly a year after a Broward County judge halted much of the state's contentious Citrus Canker Eradication Program, the chain saws will resume in South Florida early next month.

Close vote allows some billboards to remain till '42
The County Commission decides to settle its case with Clear Channel, Pinellas County's' biggest purveyor of billboards.

Candlelight vigils, peace rallies held across Florida 
TAMPA — Hundreds of Floridians attended candlelight vigils and joined rallies across the state to urge for peace as the likelihood of war against Iraq grew stronger. 
More than 100 people raised candles and sang songs including "Let There Be Peace On Earth" and "We Shall Overcome" at the Tampa demonstration, one of many organized Sunday by The Win Without War coalition and the National Council of Churches, which includes Archbishop Desmond Tutu. 

Legislature: Forcing lower insurance rates to be part of malpractice debate
TALLAHASSEE — House Republican leaders seeking a way to curb doctors' soaring malpractice insurance rates signaled Monday that they are considering a required rollback of those rates, something the insurance industry has vigorously fought. 
The main thrust of a medical malpractice bill the House is scheduled to take up Wednesday is a $250,000 limit on jury awards, which the insurance industry says is the primary reason malpractice rates are so high.

Florida newspapers rally in support of open government 
TALLAHASSEE — Newspapers across Florida rallied in support of the state's open-government laws Sunday with a barrage of editorials, news stories and cartoons. 

Redefining 'harmful'
The U.S. Department of Agriculture is supposed to protect American consumers from tainted meat. Instead, it appears to be more interested in protecting irresponsible meat processing companies.

Bankruptcy in 2026 predicted for Medicare
By Larry Lipman, Palm Beach Post Washington Bureau
Trustees project that Social Security will stay solvent longer than once projected while Medicare's outlook has dimmed 

Ex-U.N. ambassador laments Bush effort
By Eliot Kleinberg, Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Richard Holbrooke says though Hussein must go he laments Bush's diplomatic failure on the issue. 

Powell: 45 nations back U.S.-led attack on Iraq
WASHINGTON -- As the United States moved closer to war with Iraq, Secretary of State Colin Powell said Tuesday that 30 nations have declared varying levels of support and 15 others have given their backing privately.

Paul Krugman: Things to come
Of course we'll win on the battlefield, probably with ease. I'm not a military expert, but I can do the numbers: The most recent U.S. military budget was $400 billion, while Iraq spent only $1.4 billion. What frightens me is the aftermath — and I'm not just talking about the problems of postwar occupation. I'm worried about what will happen beyond Iraq — in the world at large, and here at home. 

3/14-16/03

Antiwar rallies around state draw hundreds
ORLANDO — Hundreds of antiwar protesters rallied across the state Saturday in a seemingly last-ditch effort to stop the impending war in Iraq. But with battle looking more like an inevitability, both attendance and enthusiasm failed to meet expectations at gatherings in Orlando, Miami, Melbourne and Tampa, despite the efforts of a coalition of anti-war groups from around the state. 

Firm's hand in development, politics
There's more to The St. Joe Co. than meets the eye. The company isn't just in the business of building homes and shopping centers. It has made growth its business and has become the focus of debate about northwest Florida's future. First in a three-part series. With photographs.
Panhandle reshaping
St. Joe Co. brings growth, worries The St. Joe Co. wants to make the Florida Panhandle the next hot place to work, live and vacation. And that will help make the company millions of dollars.

Tech office up for grabs
Company may take over state facility
A private company may be allowed to tend to its own clients from the state's central computer facility - and eventually be given the multimillion-dollar operation - under a plan being considered to save the state money on computer support.
The State Technology Office had tentatively accepted just such a deal from BearingPoint Inc. but suddenly withdrew it Friday amid protests from four losing bidders. State Technology Office spokeswoman Carla Gaskin said the state is just delaying, not killing, the deal. (This company is the very same KPMG frequently mentioned in the State Technology Office Audit re: contract innomalities)

Legislature: Economists calculate new revenue forecasts
TALLAHASSEE — Struggling to predict the impact of war on tourism and other economic activity, state analysts Friday lowered their estimate of how much money Florida will collect next year.
Economists cut $321 million from their previous forecast of tax collections that help pay for schools, health care and a myriad of government services. Their last forecast in November showed an increase of $800 million. 
Legislature: Senate says state won't have much new money
TALLAHASSEE — The state will have even less money next year than expected, the Senate's top budget writer said Thursday, warning that lawmakers will have to cut programs, increase revenues or do both.
But Senate President Jim King told senators he's seen "absolutely no interest" from House Speaker Johnnie Byrd or Gov. Jeb Bush to raise taxes or fees. 

Legislature: The day in Tallahassee

Public records: Florida newspapers, broadcasters unite over public records bills
TALLAHASSEE — Florida's daily newspapers will publish articles and editorials on Sunday reminding citizens of the state's strong public records laws at a time lawmakers are proposing an increasing number of exemptions. Spearheaded by the Florida Society of Newspaper Editors and the Tallahassee-based First Amendment Foundation, 35 papers will participate in the "Sunshine Sunday" initiative, which began last year to stress the importance of maintaining an open government.

Public records: Florida still has wealth of public records
JACKSONVILLE — Is a neighbor a sexual predator or a criminal on probation? Is the day care center down the street licensed? Has the doctor assigned to care for a relative been sued for malpractice? Information on those subjects and scores of others are available on the Internet despite some tightening of public information by state lawmakers following the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

State seeks permit to dump polluted water in Gulf of Mexico
TALLAHASSEE — State officials are seeking an emergency federal permit to dump millions of gallons of polluted water from a bankrupt phosphate plant into the Gulf of Mexico. The state inherited the wastewater problem when Mulberry Phosphate went bankrupt two years ago, giving the Department of Environmental Protection just 48 hours notice before abandoning its plants at Port Manatee and in Mulberry. 

DOC announces new zero tolerance policy
TALLAHASSEE — A new zero tolerance policy for criminals breaking the rules of their house arrest has been announced by Corrections Secretary James Crosby.
"If you commit a violation, you will be reported to the courts," Crosby said.
Previously, house-arrest officers often ignored "technical" violations, especially if the offender didn't break any laws. As of two weeks ago, that stopped, Crosby said. 

Small town values privacy, solitude over pavement, malls
MUSE — You are HERE, as the little pointers on the mall maps say. And that small concrete building with the sign that says Mac's Country Store would be Muse's equivalent of a mall. In fact, that's just what owner Don McCardel told the man from the governor's office who kept driving up and down Loblolly Bay Road, taking pictures and looking puzzled, until he finally stopped in the store and asked: "Where is Muse?" "You're standing in downtown Muse right now," McCardel sa