|
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.
5/15/02
 | Hands
off the Preservation 2000 funds
Mercifully, our GOP-led Legislature has left Tallahassee. Although I
realize that name-calling is a terrible logical fallacy, I must say
that Florida's state senators and representatives act like a bunch of
uncaring hacks. |
| All
this artifice
The budget finally approved in Tallahassee reverses the damage done by
earlier cuts, but it engages in accounting tricks to justify a
corporate tax cut. |
| 'Business
as usual'
Priority Number One for this just concluded special session, was to
deliver up a yet another special interest tax break; another party
favor for the soft-money sultans. |
| Whitewash
job: Budget glosses over school funding realities
Pretend -- just for a minute -- that you're a cashier in a paint
store. |
| Lawmakers
determined to protect pet projects
State lawmakers, angry over Gov. Jeb Bush's three-year record of
vetoing nearly $1 billion in local projects, have sent him a budget
that could give the governor far less power to ax the so-called
``turkeys.'' |
| Nursing
homes to get $27 million more in aid
TALLAHASSEE -- A year after passing a massive plan to fix the
troubled nursing-home industry, Florida lawmakers this week agreed to
spend an extra $26.9 million next year to help nursing homes afford
insurance. |
| FSU
receives $50 million extra
Tough times may have forced state lawmakers to scuttle a popular sales
tax holiday this year and raise tuition for college students, but it
didn't stop them from spending millions more on pet construction
projects at several state universities. |
| Out
of Dodge after an ugly day
They cut the budget in October, drew new political districts in March
and granted tax breaks in May. So when the Legislature's fourth
special session ended Monday, there was no ceremony, no hankie drop,
no celebration. Everyone just wanted to go home. |
| Bush
torn over Everglades bill
Should he sign or veto the crucial funding measure -- which also
restricts challenges to development projects on environmental grounds? |
| Fla.
senators decry move by president
Frustrated at the White House's decision to ''set aside'' the nominees
submitted by local selection panels for two top federal appointments
in South Florida, Florida's two U.S. senators wrote a letter of
protest Monday asking the president to stop ``ignoring local input.'' |
| DCF
says it never knew Rilya caretaker's aliases
But the agency had access to a list of Geralyn Graham's fake names
before sending the child to live with her. |
| Missing
girl: Graham's name, aliases in DCF files before Rilya placement
MIAMI Florida's child-welfare agency has said it didn't know Rilya
Wilson's caretaker used numerous aliases before the 5-year-old girl
was placed in her home. The youngster has been missing for 16 months.
But Geralyn Graham's bogus names were contained in a court subpoena
served on the Department of Children & Families records as part of
a personal-injury lawsuit involving Graham, according to court records
reviewed by The Associated Press. |
| Missing
girl: Child advocates suing state say missing girl case sign of
widespread problems
TALLAHASSEE Child welfare advocates who are suing the state over
its foster care program say they've gathered evidence showing that the
Rilya Wilson case is just one of many in which state case workers
failed to regularly visit children. |
| Students'
state test results due today - Educators across Florida could find
out today how students performed on the notorious test that helps
determine a school's grade, reputation and funding. But don't expect
all the answers. The scores of the Florida Comprehensive Assessment
Test are only part of the equation that determines a school's grade.
Weeks will pass before all the other factors are calculated and the
state knows how many, if any, schools are eligible for vouchers. |
| Bush
campaign stop miffs school officials
Hillsborough school officials are miffed that an elementary became a
campaign stop. |
| Governor's
campaign goes to school catering to migrant families
ORLANDO Gov. Jeb Bush didn't waste any time hitting the campaign
trail Tuesday in his first chance at politicking since a combative and
protracted legislative session ended earlier this week. Bush hosted a
town hall meeting at an Orlando high school, met with political and
business leaders from Orlando's Puerto Rican community for lunch and
chatted with students in Spanish at an elementary school near Tampa. |
| Misleading
spin
The governor's campaign hype does a disservice to
public education. |
| SFCC
President Jackson Sasser breaks good news to staff
With an additional $2.3 million in the bank from the Florida
Legislature, Santa Fe Community College President Jackson Sasser
recommended Tuesday that college employees receive raises of at least
2.5 percent this year. |
| Another
2-year school offers 4-year degrees
Miami-Dade Community College joins St. Petersburg College in offering
baccalaureate degrees. |
| Education
Board OKs bachelor's degrees at Miami-Dade
TALLAHASSEE The Florida Board of Education gave Miami-Dade
Community College the nod Tuesday to start issuing four-year degrees
in education. The board also gave permission for Chipola Junior
College in the Panhandle town of Marianna and Edison Community College
in Fort Myers to negotiate arrangements with state universities to
begin issuing some four-year degrees. |
| State
Board approves ECC/FGCU joint degree plans
TALLAHASSEE Calling it a model for the state and the nation,
Florida's State Board of Education on Tuesday signed off on a
long-sought agreement between two local educational institutions to
launch one of the first joint baccalaureate programs linking community
colleges to the state university system. |
| Deadline
passes; ex-USF teacher still jailed
His attorneys say the government has no legal right to hold Mazen Al-Najjar
longer than six months. |
| Attorneys
for jailed Palestinian try new bid for his freedom
TAMPA Attorneys for a jailed Palestinian academic once accused of
supporting terrorists launched a new bid Tuesday to free him, asking a
judge to declare his imprisonment unconstitutional. Mazen Al-Najjar
has been in a federal prison for six months awaiting deportation. No
country will take him, and his attorneys are arguing in new filings to
the U.S. District Court in Miami that his continued confinement is
illegal. |
| Home
insurers seek rate hikes of more than 20 percent
The two largest insurers in the state want double-digit rate increases
for homeowners insurance. |
| New
Escambia commissioners to get ethics training
PENSACOLA A workshop on ethics and Florida's open-government law
is one of the first things on the agenda for appointees who will
replace four indicted and suspended Escambia County commissioners. The
Florida Association of Counties will hold the workshop Friday
afternoon, just three hours after the new commissioners, appointed by
Gov. Jeb Bush, are sworn in. |
| Tech
office undermines Bush & Co.
The governor was definitely green when his head was turned by a
computer wizard on his 1998 campaign staff, a man who fixed his laptop
and talked his way into a whopper of a new job: chief information
officer for the State Technology Office. |
| State
tech office blasted in audit, accused of breaking law
TALLAHASSEE The new state technology office paid for work with no
proof it was completed and contracted outside firms for expensive jobs
with only oral agreements, an audit released Tuesday in draft form
shows. The technology office also shifted some work to a quasi-private
company that may have broken the law, the audit by state Comptroller
Bob Milligan's office also showed. |
| Amnesty
International wants U.S. to investigate inmate's death
JACKSONVILLE Amnesty International said Tuesday that it is deeply
disturbed that charges have been dropped against five corrections
officers charged in the 1999 killing of Florida death row inmate Frank
Valdes. The human rights organization is calling on the Justice
Department to make every effort to bring those responsible to justice. |
| State's
waterways cleanup gets OK
A judge has cleared the way for the state to work with communities to
implement a sweeping variety of actions to clean up polluted lakes,
streams and rivers. |
| Hendry
County's canker eradication program cut in half
TALLAHASSEE The state program that cuts down uninfected citrus
trees to prevent the spread of canker has been reduced by 50 percent
in Hendry County, Florida Agriculture Commissioner Charles H. Bronson
said Tuesday. The announcement comes after state-run surveys
determined there were no canker-infected trees within a nine-mile
region of the Big Cypress Seminole area. |
| No
bite on no-fishing zones
Biscayne National Park's managers started making their case this week
to begin regulating fishing in one of Florida's most used and abused
bodies of water. |
| Submerged-Land
Owner Making Waves
ST. PETERSBURG - A real estate speculator who
bought a community lake for $1,000 and began fencing it off when
homeowners didn't pay his $30,000-per-lot asking price has also
purchased underwater land in Boca Ciega Bay ... |
| Who
has rights to submerged lands?
A man who fenced off lakeside residents' view also bought an
underwater stretch behind 61 Pinellas homes that lies beneath docks. |
| Who
really belongs here? Well, let's count up their points
I got an e-mail recently from a person living in France who said that
while she never lived in Florida, she did ride out a hurricane in Key
West and that should count for something by way of Florida experience. |
| Lawsuit
alleging false billing filed against AT&T Broadband
JACKSONVILLE Attorneys have filed a lawsuit for about 1 million
AT&T Broadband cable customers in Florida, alleging the company
charged subscribers for services that were not provided, among other
complaints. The lawsuit seeking class-action status was filed Monday,
five days after Attorney General Bob Butterworth announced a
full-scale investigation into the cable provider's billing practices
in Jacksonville. |
| Judge's
order tells why she decided to go easy on teen driver
A local judge said she went easy on a Tallahassee teen who crashed
into and killed two people partly because the boy was an
"inexperienced driver" and "did not appreciate the
criminal nature of the conduct...." |
| Harder
on welfare recipients
Congressional Republicans have taken George Bush's plan to extend
welfare-reform and made it marginally better. The major welfare-reform
reauthorization bill, which the House is expected to vote on today,
does offer a bit more cushion for welfare recipients, and flexibility
for the states, than Bush had proposed. But it still contains the same
basic flaw of the administration's plan: It raises the bar for mothers
and the states without providing the resources they need to reach it. |
| Analysis:
Political aide Rove adds foreign policy to portfolio
WASHINGTON Karl Rove, President Bush's top political adviser, is
expanding his White House portfolio by inserting himself into the
debate over how to deal with the Middle East, trade, terrorism, Latin
America and other foreign policy matters, according to outside
advisers and administration officials, including some who are rankled
by his growing involvement. Rove's influence beyond domestic affairs
has developed gradually and is hard to measure. |
| Guest
editorial: An ominous reversal on gun rights
Using a footnote in a set of Supreme Court briefs, Attorney General
John Ashcroft announced a radical shift last week in six decades of
government policy toward the rights of Americans to own guns. Burying
the change in fine print cannot disguise the ominous implications for
law enforcement or Ashcroft's betrayal of his public duty. |
| Molly
Ivins: The disappearing women of Juarez
EL PASO, Texas This is one of those stories, like drought, that
happens quietly over a long period, so no one quite notices how
horrible it is ... except those directly affected. Those who pay
attention to the Texas-Mexican border have known for years now about
the murder of women in Juarez. |
5/14/02
| $204
million shifted from environment
Legislators skim from environmental programs to balance the state's
$50.4 billion budget.... "It basically takes money that could be
used to preserve our environment and uses it to pay for the tax
cut," said Eric Draper, a lobbyist for Audubon of Florida. |
| State
Technology Office broke law, audit finds
TALLAHASSEE -- The state agency responsible for spending $763-million
on new information technology illegally solicited money from
businesses with state contracts, failed to adequately account for
expenditures and may have paid for services that were not received, an
audit has found. |
| Comptroller
blasts tech agency
An agency created to oversee Florida's approximately half-a-billion
dollars a year in technology purchases has mismanaged money to the
point of breaking the law, according to the state's top financial
watchdog. |
| Deal
reinforces cynicism
It's no wonder that state employees believe the Republican-led
Legislature and Gov. Jeb Bush don't have their best interests at heart
when a dormant plan on outsourcing is revived amid the horse-trading
of budget negotiations. |
| Price
tags for ballot initiatives go to Bush
Some of the proposed constitutional amendments on the November ballot
will carry a price tag and others will not, under a bill the House
sent to the governor with a 75-39 vote Monday. |
| Gov.
Bush urged to veto bill
Some of the state's largest environmental groups are at odds over
whether Gov. Jeb Bush should sign an Everglades funding bill. The
Sierra Club's Florida chapter and more than 90 groups are urging the
governor to veto HB 813 because it also would limit public challenges
to state-permitting decisions. |
| Budget
goes down to the wire, again
The Legislature finally decides on a spending plan on the last day of
a second special session. |
| All
things come to an end
The Florida Legislature wrapped up its two-week special session
Monday, sending a $50.4 billion budget to the governor, adopting a
$262 million tax break for corporations but passing on reinstating the
$30 million sales tax holiday for shoppers. |
| Lawmakers
pass $50 billion budget
State lawmakers passed a $50 billion budget for the next fiscal year
Monday that gives corporations a $265 million tax break, university
students a 5 percent tuition hike and public schools a 6 percent
per-student increase. The vote in the Senate was 25-11 following a
81-35 vote in the House. The bill now goes to Gov. Jeb Bush, who will
have 15 days once it arrives on his desk to veto individual spending
items. |
| Legislature
stops dealing, passes $50 billion budget
A four-month struggle to finish a budget and other tasks ended Monday
for the state Legislature when it passed a $50.4 billion spending
plan. |
| Florida
adds funds for pupils but drops tax holiday
Florida's Legislature put aside months of acrimony Monday to finally
approve a state budget that provides a 6 percent boost in spending for
each public school student but does not include, for the first time in
five years, a sales tax holiday for shoppers. |
| Session
closes with smiles - TALLAHASSEE · It took a regular session and
two special sessions stretching over five months, but the Florida
Legislature on Monday put the finishing touches on this year's work by
finally passing a $50 billion state budget and a $262 million
corporate tax break sought by Gov. Jeb Bush. |
| Budget
gives Bush a boost
Republicans in the Legislature handed Gov. Jeb Bush a
billion-dollar boost to his re-election chances Monday, passing a
$50.4 billion state budget with the goods he needs to campaign as the
education governor. |
| Education
spending up only slightly
Schools will get $194 per student more than what was left after
December, a Post analysis shows. |
| On
the campaign trail, Bush talks up education spending - TALLAHASSEE
-- Gov. Jeb Bush, brandishing a freshly minted state budget with $1
billion in new money for public schools, will campaign through
schoolhouses in Orlando and Tampa today.--
This will be the Republican governor's first chance to tout a
hard-fought $50 billion state budget that offers a boost for education
- the central theme of his re-election campaign. |
| Transfers,
charters, magnets may foster Escambia segregation
PENSACOLA Transfers for hardship and academic reasons, the growth
of charter and magnet schools and opposition to changing attendance
boundaries may be contributing to racial segregation in Escambia
County schools. Those findings emerged from a study of school
attendance patterns by the Pensacola News Journal that the newspaper
reported on in Sunday editions. |
| The
'smoking gun'
Last week, "smoking gun" documents were found showing that
Enron manipulated energy prices during California's energy crisis.
These developments don't bode well for energy deregulation in Florida. |
| State
reviews proposed water use increase on ranch near Orlando
ORLANDO A water management district is reviewing its proposal to
let a central Florida ranch quadruple its water use, which
environmentalists fear could lead to overdevelopment and dry out the
area's wetlands. The St. Johns River Water Management District last
month proposed to raise the daily water limit for Deseret Ranch from
about 6 million gallons to 25 million gallons. That would be more than
a quarter of what Orlando's customers use. |
| Smoke-free
initiative becomes ballot item
The proposed amendment would ban smoking inside restaurants and in all
other enclosed workplaces. |
| Indoor
workplace smoking ban on the Florida November ballot
TALLAHASSEE Florida voters will get the chance to decide in
November whether to change the state constitution to ban smoking at
most indoor workplaces, including restaurants. Elections officials
said Monday that it has verified more than 492,000 of the 600,000-plus
petition signatures submitted by Smoke-Free for Health, the proposed
amendment's sponsoring coalition. That's about 3,500 more verified
signatures than necessary. |
| More
troubling DCF questions
Why does the state of Florida leave children in the
care of unsuitable people? |
| Child
agency loses appeal
As a panel of community leaders continued on Monday to look for ways
to improve Florida's troubled child welfare system, the Department of
Children & Families lost an important court battle that may alter
the balance of power between the agency and judges who oversee foster
children. |
| Investigators
seeking new leads in missing girl case
MIAMI Police combed through mounds of documents and searched for
new clues Monday in the case of a 5-year-old girl who vanished 16
months ago. Police said a segment featuring Rilya Wilson's case on
Fox's "America's Most Wanted" on Saturday failed to generate
many new developments to help them locate the chubby-cheeked child
missing since January 2001. |
| Head
of DCF in legal battle with ex-husband over unpaid debt
MIAMI Kathleen Kearney, the embattled secretary of the Florida
Department of Children & Families, has been accused of charging
thousands of dollars in credit-card debt in her ex-husband's name.
Peter Magrino filed court papers in Palm Beach County in March
accusing Kearney of continuing to use Discover and Marshall Field's
credit cards in his name after the couple's 1995 divorce. |
| A
CASE FOR JUSTICE
In the name of justice, the U.S. Department of Justice must take up
the gauntlet presented by the acquittal and dismissal of charges
against eight prison guards in the beating death of Death Row inmate
Frank Valdes. |
| Not
so public
Orlando elected officials have made a mockery of open
meetings. |
| Miami-Dade
voting measure dies in Senate TALLAHASSEE · The Florida Senate on
Monday refused to decide this year whether Miami-Dade voters should be
allowed to reorganize their government in 2003.--
The measure was pushed by most Miami-Dade legislators but opposed by
Sen. Alex Diaz de la Portilla, R-Miami, and was the subject of heavy
lobbying by both sides over the past several days. |
| FAU
to increase new president's salary as hunt for candidates continues
- Florida Atlantic University trustees hope increasing the university
president's salary will help them find a good replacement for outgoing
President Anthony Catanese.--
Catanese, who on June 30 is leaving FAU for Melbourne's Florida
Institute of Technology, made $191,500. ... A salary boost wasn't
possible before this year, Lombardo said, because the now-defunct
Board of Regents, which once governed education statewide, controlled
salaries. |
| Suit
seeks class-action status for cable users
A lawsuit seeking class-action status on behalf of approximately 1
million AT&T Broadband cable customers in Florida was filed
yesterday in state court. |
| View
for sale: $30,000
New owner of a lake fences it off when homeowners wouldn't pay. |
| Florida
researchers: Tar, plastic plague baby sea turtles
PORT CANAVERAL Up to a third of the dead baby sea turtles
collected off Brevard County beaches in the past decade had tar,
plastic or both in their mouths or stomachs, according to a state
biologist. "We find about half have tar and almost 100 percent
have plastic in their stomachs," said Blair Witherington of the
Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. "Some of them
have almost nothing but plastic." |
| Mosquito
control officials discuss federal subpoena over fenthion use
Meeting for the first time since they were served a federal grand
jury subpoena over fenthion use, Collier Mosquito Control District
commissioners Monday tried to understand their role in a situation
that has become national environmental news. Used for more than 30
years in Collier County, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service officials
allege the chemical might be linked to the deaths of shore birds on
Marco Island's Tigertail Beach. |
| Nelson
urges president to fund Superfund
CLERMONT Using the crumbling shell of a former chemical plant as a
backdrop, U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson urged the Bush administration Monday
to adequately fund the Superfund program for cleaning up polluted
industrial sites. Florida ranks sixth in the nation in the number of
Superfund sites with 51, including the former Tower Chemical Co. plant
in Lake County, about a dozen miles west of Orlando, which Nelson
toured Monday. The Superfund program was created two decades ago to
pay for the cleanup of toxic sites and was funded through a tax on
companies that produce pollutants. The tax expired in 1995. |
| Nelson
pledges to press for water filters
U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson inspected Tower Chemical Co. in
south Lake County on Monday and said he would pressure the federal
government to provide water filters to families that live near the
Superfund site. |
| Drag
racing becomes a crime under bill signed by Bush
TALLAHASSEE Off-track drag racing will become a crime under a bill
Gov. Jeb Bush signed into law Monday. Drag racers could face fines,
jail time and loss of their licenses for a year under the bill, which
takes effect Oct. 1. The measure (CS HB 1225) had passed the House and
Senate unanimously during the regular legislative session earlier this
year. |
| Carter
contradicts Bush, says no evidence of Cuban terrorism
HAVANA · Standing a few feet from Fidel Castro at a key biomedical
facility, former President Jimmy Carter strongly contradicted the Bush
administration on Monday, saying that during intense briefings with
U.S. intelligence officials recently he was told there was no evidence
Cuba was engaged in terrorist activities or transferring dangerous
technology to enemies of the United States. |
| Elian
case figure asks Ashcroft to investigate INS
MIAMI One of the central figures in the Elian Gonzalez case is
asking U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft to investigate whether
high-ranking INS officials ordered internal documents on the case
destroyed. Armando Gutierrez, former spokesman for Elian's Miami
relatives, submitted his request a letter addressed to Ashcroft
to a local U.S. attorney's office Monday. |
| Children
lose, Bush wins at U.N.
In the end, the rest of the world gave in to
President Bush's little ideological sulk, to keep him from once again
stopping the world so the United States could get off.
|
5/13/02
| Raids
on fund nettle faithful
State lawmakers dip into Preservation 2000 money to cover holes in the
budget, angering investors who had parks in mind. |
| Critics
say DCA's policy changing landscape of Florida
ST. PETERSBURG Critics of the state department that oversees
development say the landscape of Florida is changing because of the
agency's failure to stem urban sprawl. The Department of Community
Affairs has lost staff and budget in the last few years and huge
developments have taken root far from urban centers. |
| Voters
need to crash parties' party- In the bad old days -- the middle of
the last century -- party bosses decided who would run in elections.
The bosses usually were Democrats and held some elective office.-- We,
the irate voters, fixed that. We made the parties select candidates in
primary elections. Primaries previously had been a quaint tradition in
odd states like Wisconsin.-- The improvement is that these days, party
bosses decide who can run in primary elections. |
| Lawmakers
ready for final vote on $50 billion budget
TALLAHASSEE All that's left for state lawmakers to do in the
special session on the budget is vote. Differences in the Senate and
House proposals were worked out by negotiators last week and a $50
billion compromise landed on legislators' desks Friday. That triggered
the 72-hour waiting period required by the Florida Constitution before
the final vote Monday. |
| Battle
lines drawn at end of session
As leaders gear up for a final showdown, the legislature is set to
pass a $49 billion budget. |
| Budget
shorts Florida -- and leaves big bill
Shell game puts off choices past election. |
| Reduced
to whispers: Florida's budget got worse as protest dwindled
In old melodramas, there often came a point where the heroine, menaced
again and again by the assorted forces of darkness, could no longer
scream. She was simply too exhausted. |
| Budget
winds up as a draw for employees
The Florida Legislature is poised to approve a state budget today and
end its special session, finishing a tediously important process that
began Jan. 22. |
| Gov.
Jeb Bush plays a better teacher on TV
TALLAHASSEE -- You'll have seen the campaign ad by now. There's a
beautifully furnished, American-flagged, not remotely overcrowded
classroom full of rosy-cheeked, well-fed children. There's Gov. Jeb
Bush: beautifully coiffed, rosy-cheeked and well-fed himself, calling
on various Norman Rockwellesque tykes as they thrust their small hands
in the air, eager to learn. And he is eager to help them learn:
Indeed, the ad implies he is singlehandedly leading Florida to the
sunny uplands of enlightenment and economic growth usually associated
with states that actually spend money on educating their young. |
| Bill
O'Reilly: Silence of the lambs
Here's the question of the day: Why do Americans keep electing wimps
to powerful positions? Why do we do this? For every Rudy Giuliani
there are 10 Gary Condits weasels with whom you'd never share a
foxhole in battle. Let's get specific... (rants about Ted Kennedy)
...then there's Jeb Bush. As a candidate for governor of Florida in
1998, he vowed to protect the state's unwanted children and reform
Department of Children and Families, which was a mess under Democratic
Gov. Lawton Chiles. Bush was elected and doubled that agency's budget.
Unfortunately, much of the new money went to buy computers that didn't
work. Meantime, a 4-year-old girl in foster care named Rilya Wilson
went missing. But her state caseworker, Deborah Muskelly, did not
inform anyone about that, and a judge says she lied about the status
of the child. Fifteen months have passed. Little Rilya is still
missing.
Our pal Jeb has appointed a "committee" to find out what
happened. But the press wants to talk with Ms. Muskelly. The State of
Florida, however, will not produce her, and Gov. Bush will not say
where she is. Why? Because the case is under investigation, he says.
So what? There's no law or policy that says Bush can't tell everybody
where this Muskelly person is and what she's saying. Perhaps that
information could help in finding Rilya. But no, Bush is mum. Instead
of taking a hands-on interest in finding out what the hell happened to
a defenseless 4-year-old, he has formed a "committee." What
a guy.
Are you getting the picture here? We are a nation that continues to
elect people who are so cowardly and self-interested that they won't
even extend themselves for abused children. Where is the outrage over
pedophilia and the disappearance of a 4-year-old under state
supervision? Kennedy and Bush should be on every news program in
sight. They should be raising holy hell. But that is way too risky. It
might come back to hurt them politically.
I have had it with gutless politicians who don't have enough moral
fiber to lead the charge to protect American kids. These guys have big
names and big bucks. What they don't have is grit and a sense of moral
outrage. In the face of rampant pedophilia and the loss of an innocent
child we get "committees" and "private"
thoughts. Well here's a public thought directed at Ted and Jeb, and
all our elected officials: You people better start standing up and
looking out for the weakest among us because someday the American
people are going to wake up and clean house. |
| Politicians'
solution to child-welfare crisis: Create study panels - ...
Task force conclusions have a familiar theme: Caseloads of
investigators and foster workers are too high; abuse prevention and
early childhood development efforts are too scarce. --
But to the dismay of many people who worked on the panels, their most
serious, fundamental and expensive recommendations went unanswered
while public officials grasped at trite, less-expensive solutions. |
| Low
state grades might spur closure of schools, some fear-- Student
exodus from 'F' sites can lead to cutbacks in staffs, funds |
| When
good drugs are prescribed for bad reasons
The Florida House is expected to vote today on two bills aimed at
reversing the epidemic-like rise in overdose deaths caused from
misusing prescription drugs. |
| Make
Office Nonpartisan
Elections Supervisor Theresa LePore has renewed her
call to make her office nonpartisan. She should get an enthusiastic
yes answer. |
| Make
Office Nonpartisan
Broward County's Charter Review Commission ran into
a storm of controversy when it tried to... |
| Refinery
contests cleanup
The St. Marks Refinery Inc. is firing back at the state, claiming that
the Department of Environmental Protection is illegally trying to
force it to clean up old contamination at the closed plant on the St.
Marks River. |
| State
may curb water usage
Water conservation in Florida, which now largely amounts to letting
suburban lawns turn brown, may become more costly, complicated and
controversial. |
| 'Marketing'
of water draws fire
Whether it goes by the title ''market principles,'' ''water
marketing'' or ''free market,'' when it comes to how Florida doles out
its water, it still smacks of ''privatization'' to some
environmentalists. |
| Cold
front to send fire smoke this way
Hold your breath, Jacksonville and south coastal Georgia. |
| Lake
Okeechobee comes alive
Resuscitated by drought after years of abnormally high water levels,
Florida's largest lake is on the mend. |
| A
new pecking order - Starting today, it will be a crime to feed
wild animals, including the often demanding sandhill cranes. |
| Deport
him or let him out
Tuesday will mark six months since former University of South Florida
teacher Mazen Al-Najjar was imprisoned pending his deportation. It is
time for the Immigration and Naturalization Service to deport him or
let him out of prison. As the U.S. Supreme Court recognized last year,
indefinite detention of stateless illegal aliens is not an acceptable
option under the Constitution. |
| Report:
Florida leads nation in hotel loan delinquencies
KISSIMMEE There are no outward signs of turmoil at the Orlando
Hyatt hotel. The tile floors are polished, the bellhops' white
uniforms are freshly pressed and the ficus trees and bromeliad plants
in the spacious foyer are well-maintained. But the owners of the
919-room hotel late last month filed for bankruptcy to avoid a public
auction of the property after they defaulted on their loan to LaSalle
Bank National Association of Chicago. |
| 7
growth plan changes proposed
Seven proposed changes to Collier County's growth plan are headed to
commissioners on Tuesday, including a new category of land use called
"research and technology park." Six of the seven growth plan
amendments to be considered at the regular commission meeting are
developer-initiated for specific pieces of property they want
reclassified as commercial. The research and technology park
classification would allow a mix of businesses with green space and
housing units and that could be used by employees. |
| Betsy
Hart: Surprising news about anti-depressants
Years ago, I experienced a sleeping problem. At bedtime I would easily
nod off, only to wake up inexplicably in the middle of night,
sometimes for hours. I finally mentioned the matter to my doctor who
reminded me, correctly, that this was occurring right around the time
of year when my mother had died. Still, she explained, the sleep
problems were a sign of depression. |
| FOR
HEALTHCARE PRIVACY
When patients discuss their medical condition with a hospital, clinic
or doctor, they do so with the understanding that the information will
assist in their treatment. Few patients would imagine that such a
confidential discussion might be a portal into their private lives for
a universe of people, including bosses, insurance companies,
marketers, researchers or the government. |
| Guest
editorial: Return to deficitland
Everyone knew the government's record of four straight budget
surpluses would come to an end this fiscal year, the one that ends
Sept. 30. What nobody knew for sure, especially after Sept. 11, was
how bad the damage would be. We have an answer of sorts from the
Congressional Budget Office: it will be real bad. |
| Ralph Nader: To
speak to a human - oh, forget it
Getting your telephone call returned by a seller these days is like
the weather - everyone complains about it, but nobody seems able to do
anything about it. The domination of business callees is increasing
rapidly over frustrated consumer callers. |
5/12/02
| Gate
open to growth, critics say
As the state agency given oversight of local growth planning decreases
in staff and budget, huge developments take root far from city
centers. - ...
Shortly after Bush took office, his new DCA secretary, Steve Seibert,
wrote a report that advocated reducing the state's role in local
planning.--
A bill to accomplish that was introduced in the Legislature in 2000.
Though it failed, most of its aims have been accomplished by cutting
the department's funding and by generally encouraging it to go easy on
regulation, Reese and others said.-
Last year the DCA wrote an internal memo stating its intention to cut
in half the number of plan reviews. ...
|
| Lofty
missions can collide with profit line-- Florida's never had a
governor more committed to privatization than Jeb Bush. Under his
leadership, the state has looked at contracting out everything from
public education to voter qualification.-- That appeals to many
people, who sincerely believe that government would be much better off
if it were run like a business. It's a very short leap from "like
a business" to "by a business" -- but one that spans a
deep and dangerous pit. |
| Prospective
public to private transitions - list and summary of some of the
state's "outsourcing" projects - personnel, updating voter
roles, professional licensing and regulation, control of the state's
water supply, state park reservations, private prisons, prison health
care, vocational rehabilitation, child abuse investigation |
| Tallahassee
snookers
Sneak-attack techniques are being used to add questionable provisions
into legislation. Lawmakers should take the time to undo the mischief. |
| Vote
on budget wraps up session
Last Thursday, before flying off to Orlando to begin his congressional
campaign in earnest, House Speaker Tom Feeney chided reporters for not
writing enough about how much the Legislature has accomplished in the
last two weeks. |
| Governor
to kick off campaign
For the first time, Jeb Bush will be running on his record as well as
his campaign promises. |
| Ex-felons
seek voting rights - ...The ACLU has been hosting workshops
throughout the state since the 2000 election, when the group received
a private grant to start the workshops. The ACLU also has filed a
class action lawsuit challenging how the state informs ex-felons of
the clemency procedure and processes the applications. Last year the
state's clemency board reported a 12,000 case backlog. |
| House
speaker pays up bill for property taxes
INSIDE POLITICS House Speaker Tom Feeney has now paid his taxes,
thanks to a reminder from an unusual source. The Oviedo Republican,
who is running for one of the newly created congressional seats,
learned he was delinquent on a property tax bill when the information
showed up on a Web site. |
| Reviews
haven't halted child care crises
Florida's troubled child welfare agency has been amply studied; no
fewer than 11 special panels have been convened in 15 years.
Legislators, too, have periodically taken aim at the agency. They've
bulked it up and slimmed it down, centralized and decentralized
through four governorships -- two Republican, two Democrat. |
| DCF
POLICIES NOT WORKING
In the bureaucratic panic to find little Rilya Wilson, the real issues
behind her disappearance have gotten lost: Are the Department of
Children & Families' child-protection policies the right ones? Is
the DCF putting its resources in the right places? Is the leadership
right for the agency? |
| Tallahassee:
The state's bad parent
The sad numbers still rise, and the governor and DCF director say
lamely that you can't expect perfection. |
| How
to save 'nobody's children'
Learn from success stories and commit to reforming Florida's systems. |
| Child
Advocates See Many Floridas
WASHINGTON - Florida's system for safeguarding children - the same
system that lost track of 5-year-old Rilya Wilson 16 months ago - is
among the nation's most expensive, overburdened and neglectful, child
welfare experts and advocates say. |
| Tough
ex-judge now defends DCF
Kathleen Kearney, head of the beleaguered social services agency, says
she will not resign despite pressure over a missing child. |
| DCF
chief feeling the heat
As a judge, Kathleen Kearney criticized Florida's child protection.
Now she's on the defensive. |
| Retiring
comptroller shows the way to inspire loyalty is to reciprocate it
TALLAHASSEE -- Jeb Bush has spent a lot of money on children's
services and his fact-finding commission will likely encourage him to
spend more. But I doubt that money alone, or any organizational flaw,
fully explains why the agency that was supposed to protect kids still
couldn't even keep track of them. |
| A
child's 'yes' can reduce a sentence
A child's consent to a sex act cannot be used as an adult's defense
but can be used to push for a lighter sentence. |
| 'Smart
money' is on winners
That's the strategy for past donors to the Florida Democratic Party,
who are keeping their wallets shut until a sure bet emerges. |
| Be
Judges, Not Politicians
For many months, Florida candidates for offices
ranging from governor to state legislator to School Board member have
been unofficially campaigning for political offices. Now, some of them
must begin making it official. |
| Coastal
growth clogs hurricane evacuation plans - TALLAHASSEE
- On a September morning in 1999 a storm 600 miles across,
obviously bigger than the whole of Florida in TV radar images, was
lurking off the state's Atlantic coast.-- In a bunker in Tallahassee,
emergency officials watched carefully, dreading a westward turn that
would have brought it ashore. It looked like the storm of a lifetime
to many along Florida's shoreline. -- And they got out of the way,
heeding calls to evacuate in droves, streaming inland and north toward
Georgia, fleeing Hurricane Floyd.-- But for many, there was nowhere to
go. |
| Knowledge
jobs and 'gazelles': It's a new day
Tallahassee's never been more motivated to reinvent its economy. With
state government jobs on the chopping block, the private sector and
local governments are pumped to join forces and take advantage of our
community's distinctive yet underused assets. (see
Razing Tallahassee) |
| Marketing
company inflated MIA bills
A politically influential company hired to promote Miami International
Airport in Europe fraudulently inflated its bills to the county by
submitting bogus invoices for advertising costs, The Herald has found. |
| Covering
drugs and the future
After years of empty promises, Congress has rolled out two Medicare
prescription plans, one from House Republicans and the other from
Democratic Sens. Bob Graham of Florida and Zell Miller of Georgia. The
Democratic plan provides for retirees' real needs, while the
Republican proposal contains a gap in coverage that would fall short
of protecting many beneficiaries. Neither party, however, has come up
with a plan to put Medicare on a strong financial footing, and any
expanded coverage will move up the day of reckoning. |
| History's
illiterates lack key perspective
Stories that ask the rhetorical question, "How did our kids get
dumb as rocks?" are a staple of educational journalism. The
latest installment is the results of history tests given by the
National Assessment of Education Progress. |
5/11/02
| Budget
to privatize 800 jobs
Without public discussion, Florida lawmakers late Thursday night
slipped language into the $50.4 billion state budget outsourcing about
800 human resources positions. |
| No
sales tax holiday
The Florida Legislature plans to end the back-to-school sales tax
break in a budget that raises tuition and spends more on security. |
| State
budget comes in at $50.4 billion
Leaders steer bigger shares of project money to their districts. |
| Personal
Projects Hit State Budget
TALLAHASSEE - How does a member of the Florida
Legislature slip a $1 million hometown project into the state budget
on the last day of negotiations? ... |
| State
budget plan includes millions for SPC
St. Petersburg College would get about $10-million to expand its
Tarpon Springs campus if the proposed budget is approved. |
| Panel
restores SFCC funds
A House committee voted April 30 to give $300,000 that SFCC expected
to another college. |
| Local
projects benefit from Byrd's role in House
The state budget still contains funds for an Alzheimer's research
center and the cancer center. |
| Deal
steers $16 million to S. Florida transit-- TALLAHASSEE · Some $16
million in new transit projects for South Florida was approved in a
late flurry of deal-making Thursday, as legislators raced to complete
a state budget of nearly $50 billion. |
| Planned
budget is windfall for water projects
More than $50 million for water projects is poised to flow to South
Florida from the state Capitol next year once state lawmakers approve
the state budget as expected Monday. |
| Florida
Legislature
Southwest Florida's top three priorities for the 2002 Legislature were
roads, ethics and redistricting. We aimed for: a fair return of state
taxes to keep up with growth, especially on Interstate 75; the closing
of loopholes for slippery politicians' gifts and conflicts of
interest; and reapportionment that protects our clout and sense of
community. Let's see. |
| McBride
praised inside, booed outside conference - KISSIMMEE -- About 200
private-school students, parents and educators gathered outside a
hotel Friday to protest a proposal by Democratic governor's candidate
Bill McBride to end corporate funding of school vouchers.--
The young protesters, many clad in their school uniforms or T-shirts,
waved signs that read, "Save Our Scholarships" or "Let
my mommy choose my school" outside the Hyatt Hotel and Resort on
U.S. Highway 192.--
Protesters could not enter the hotel, where more than 1,400
public-school teachers cheered McBride as he stumped before the
Florida Education Association, the state's biggest teachers union. |
| President
plans visit to Florida - TALLAHASSEE -- President Bush will return
to Florida for the centennial celebration of Cuban Independence Day
and to campaign for his brother, Gov. Jeb Bush.--
The president's trip to Miami on May 20 will represent his ninth
official journey to Florida since his inauguration in January 2001.-
It will not be the last this year, as Florida Republicans gear up for
an election season in which they expect to spend $30 million on
winning the president's brother a second term. |
| The
McKays tread a fine line in arena of conflict
Senate President John McKay doesn't like it when anyone writes about
his wife, Michelle. |
| Florida
House speaker late to pay two years' property taxes
SANFORD Florida House Speaker Tom Feeney, a key architect of
Florida's estimated $50 billion budget, was late paying his property
tax bills two years in a row, according to tax collector records. The
Republican from Oviedo owns a home in the city's Carillon subdivision
assessed at $171,746. He paid $2,952.11 on Thursday, more than a month
after the March 31 deadline. |
| Speaker
of Florida's House pays taxes late on own house
Florida House Speaker Tom Feeney was late paying his
2000 and 2001 property tax bills in Seminole County, according to tax
collector records. |
| Gov.
Bush and his cronies are taking the low road
Florida voters are stupid. Gov. Jeb Bush and Republican legislative
leaders must think so. ... That's certainly the message they are
sending by pushing a law that would require that proposed
constitutional amendments carry a price tag outlining what
implementing the amendment would cost.-- On the surface, the price-tag
requirement makes sense, but in reality it's a case of the governor
and his cronies taking the low road for political gain.-- Despite
rhetoric to the contrary, the law is aimed directly at a proposed
constitutional amendment that would require smaller class sizes in the
public schools.- The last thing Bush wants is for his "I'm the
education governor" re-election campaign to get bogged down in
serious debate about overcrowded classrooms. |
| Delay
provision on costs for amendments
Does it make sense to require ballot language for proposed state
constitutional amendments to include cost estimates? Absolutely. Is it
appropriate to apply this requirement to proposed amendments now in
the pipeline? Absolutely not. |
| DNA
proves Precious Doe is not Rilya
Searching for leads, police say the girl's last caregivers were
deceptive on a polygraph test. DCF officials say better monitoring is
coming. |
| Missing
girl's caretaker unfairly portrayed, lawyer says
MIAMI Police were politically motivated when they publicly
announced that the caregivers of missing Rilya Wilson failed a
polygraph test, a lawyer for the women said Saturday. Miami-Dade
County Police Director Carlos Alvarez said Friday that Geralyn Graham
and her sister, Pamela Graham, both gave deceptive responses in a
polygraph test administered last week, though he would not disclose
the questions. |
| DCF
workers tracking kids
Florida child welfare supervisors began the extraordinary task
yesterday of visiting every child in state care and documenting their
visits with photographs. |
| Missing:
How could a little girl go missing for 15 months, and no one notice?
MIAMI When Rilya Wilson was born on Sept. 29, 1996, the name she
got was an acronym made up by her mother and some friends. R-I-L-Y-A:
"Remember I love you always." And yet by the time her
disappearance was discovered last month, she was under state
supervision and had had three "mothers" in as many years.
Somehow, the people charged with watching over Rilya failed her, and
she was gone, leaving this shaken city to ponder how fragile and
tenuous children's lives can be. |
| Judge:
DCF lost track of runaway
Relatives and officials say the agency appeared to do little after a
12-year-old girl ran away from state foster care. |
| Judge
declares agency in contempt for false information
Four days after she accused officials of the Department of Children
& Families of ''hiding'' details of the disappearance of
5-year-old Rilya Wilson, Circuit Judge Cindy Lederman held the
troubled agency in contempt of court for giving false information
about other foster children in another case. |
| DCF
accused of neglecting the elderly
A man found at home covered by roaches typifies the neglect, an
advocacy group says. |
| DCF
head accused by ex of bilking him
The furor enveloping Kathleen Kearney's embattled state child welfare
agency spilled over into a more personal issue Friday: An accusation
by her ex-husband that she racked up thousands of dollars in credit
card debt in his name. |
| Juvenile
supervisor accused of sexual contact with girls
TALLAHASSEE A supervisor at an institution for juvenile offenders
has been charged with eight felony counts that involve having sexual
contact with girls in his custody. Investigators said three girls at
Sawmill Academy reported having sex with Kenneth Keith and that he
solicited sex or made plans to have relations with girls on four other
occasions. |
| Guards
won't face charges in inmate's death
After the February acquittal of three guards, the state drops its case
against five other guards. |
| State
drops case against prison guards
Three years after Death Row inmate Frank Valdes was beaten to death in
an X-Wing cell, state prosecutors decided Friday to drop charges
against five prison guards awaiting trial, following the acquittal of
three other corrections officers in the same case in February. |
| State
drops efforts in inmates death
Prosecutors drop charges in the Frank Valdes beating death; federal
charges are possible. |
| Man
shot on I-10 identified
The Florida Department of Law Enforcement has identified Genie McMeans,
of Alpine, Ala., as the man killed by a state trooper Thursday.
 | Traffic
stop turns deadly
A rookie Florida Highway Patrol trooper shot and killed a man
during a traffic stop on Interstate 10 in Leon County, according
to an FHP spokesman. |
|
| Despite
ongoing recession in Florida, the state funds harsher marijuana laws
Most Floridians know we are in a recession now.--
What most Floridians aren't aware of is that, even during this
economic downturn, our Legislature continues to spend tax dollars
enforcing what many of us consider to be misguided marijuana policies. |
| Investigation:
Escambia scandal produces strange political bedfellows
PENSACOLA The adage about politics making strange bedfellows rings
true in Escambia County's political corruption scandal. Former U.S.
Rep. Joe Scarborough, R-Pensacola, is publisher emeritus of a weekly
newspaper, The Independent Florida Sun, that was an early and
persistent critic of the county commissioners. Scarborough, who still
writes a column for the newspaper, also is a member of a law firm
headed by Childers' lawyer, Fred Levin. |
| Bush
taps 4 new leaders |
| Bush
names 4 to fill posts of indicted commissioners -- TALLAHASSEE ·
The governor had suspended four of Escambia County's five
commissioners after they were indicted by a grand jury, and the
remaining commissioner maintains that the county courthouse is
haunted. |
| Investigation:
Lack of debate stirred suspicion of Escambia commissioners
PENSACOLA Community activist Gail Fournier gave up speaking on
issues before Escambia County commissioners in November convinced they
already knew how they were going to vote, often by the same 3-2 split.
"They were so pat," Fournier said. "It was ding, ding,
d | |
