Happy Thanksgiving 

Tallahassee breaks out pinkie rings
The Florida Lottery is extending Seasons Greetings. How nice. Nothing like some holiday cheer from your friendly state-run numbers game to make everyone feel warm and fuzzy.
I don't know whether it was better when gangsters ran the numbers rackets, but it sure was more honest. The game never pretended to be more than it was: a way for working people to get lucky and maybe get enough for a new car. Nobody tried to dress it up as community service. And the operators didn't send Christmas cards. ... The Florida Lottery, the taxpayer-run department sending out those holiday greetings, wants to separate as many poor people from their money as possible, so politicians can avoid asking middle- and upper-class people and businesses to pay for education. Lotto, Cash 3, Play 4, Fantasy 5, Mega Money, take your pick. The poorer you are, the more you spend. The poorer you are, the less you get back. If that isn't a racket, I don't know what is...

The unexplained audit
Last spring, an aide to Gov. Bush, brother of the president, called Janet Rehnquist, daughter of the Supreme Court chief justice, at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and asked her to delay an audit of Florida's pension fund...

Pension fund conflict: Request for audit delay looks suspicious
Gov. Jeb Bush's office is saying that politics is not the reason he asked Janet Rehnquist -- the daughter of U.S. Chief Justice William Rehnquist -- to delay a federal audit of the state's retirement fund. 
That, however, dodges the crux of criticism -- which is that it was improper for the governor or any member of his staff to the make the request at all. The office of inspector general for Health and Human Services held by Rehnquist, is a watchdog agency designed to guard against waste, abuse and fraud in Medicare, Medicaid and other social programs. Audits are supposed to be delayed only for reasons such as illnesses, computer breakdowns or conflicting investigations. ...

GOP's strategy flips Florida politics
In the debate and fallout after last month's election results, one key factor for the Republicans' remarkable gains has been overlooked -- their success in redrawing the new boundaries for legislative and congressional districts...

Bush holds list of nominees for state Supreme Court
One is the first judge to preside over the conviction of a doctor in an Oxycontin death case. Another is a textbook author who also represented Death Row inmates. A third was featured in an HBO documentary, and the fourth is an ex-cab driver...

Byrd's Proposed Reforms Merit Strong Support
Incoming state House Speaker Johnnie Byrd is backing two reforms that would improve government and clean up politics.
One measure would allow Floridians to vote on a constitutional amendment requiring purchasers of political advertisements to file reports with the state. ... The Plant City Republican also is seeking another amendment that would require bills to ``cool off'' for 48 hours before being approved by the House or Senate. During that time, no amendments could be added...

State DCF 'finds' missing children but doesn't help them
Gov. Jeb Bush's administration ends a three- month initiative Monday, which officials already have already described as successful, to locate almost 400 runaways and children abducted by their parents or other relatives from state care...

Choking the Glades
Environmentalists fear pollution controls that would stem the spread of cattails will be weakened...

Deltona Corp.'s quest to go private fuels SEC complaint 
It sounded too good to be true. For $10 down and $10 a month, working folks across middle America could own a slice of Florida paradise. That was the promise of the Deltona Corp. 40 years ago, when the brothers Mackle laid the groundwork for much of the explosive growth which has since consumed the Sunshine State...

Access denied
SARASOTA - Taxpayers have spent millions of dollars putting sand on eroded Florida shores, but often it's nearly impossible for those who paid for the sand to stick their toes in it. Laws require public access to ``renourished'' shorelines. But some beach communities deny access to ``their'' new beaches through government loopholes, creative thinking, or simply by not providing parking. ...

Mogul's dream for university: `To get people to heaven'
Men with money and hopes of making more have always brought their dreams to Florida. Here, where land and fools long have been abundant, the dreamers often maneuver by stealth, befriending well-placed locals, surveying plat maps, securing their site. Then, in grand fashion, they announce to the public a fantastic future for some remote and mucky tract...

Spotlight on growth
DCA chief Steve Seibert is leaving the Jeb Bush administration. The governor's choice of a replacement will reveal much about the future of growth management in Florida...

Florida Panhandle not just for summer any more
Sometimes known as the Emerald Coast, Miracle Strip or Redneck Riveria -- a term never found in tourism brochures -- the Panhandle boasts uncrowded sugar-white beaches and clear blue-green waters. ... "The Panhandle area as a whole is a bargain over what it costs to vacation elsewhere in Florida," said Ed Schroeder, vice president for tourism development with the Pensacola Chamber of Commerce. ...

Let the euphemisms go begging
TALLAHASSEE -- John Leo, the U.S. News & World Report columnist, poked fun recently at the American penchant for such euphemisms and "upscale name changes" as the current campaign to recast the Florida Panhandle as "Florida's Great Northwest." The reason, he wrote, is that "some residents think their area's name leaves the impression that panhandling is the major local activity." ...

Fear and knowing in Immokalee
Tired of the abuse some farm workers face at the hands of immigrant- labor traffickers, one group has decided to fight back...

Sometimes, local politics are so funny you want to cry
The cowboy humorist Will Rogers said, "I don't make jokes — I just watch the government and report the facts." On the other hand, when someone in an election rally crowd yelled to President Truman, "Give 'em hell, Harry!" Truman answered, "I don't give them hell. I just tell the truth and they think it's hell."
Well, sometimes when you watch your government in action, you don't whether to laugh or to cry out in pain.
Take the matter of impact fees, for example...

Florida culture reflected in eight-part music documentary
TALLAHASSEE — More than 100 Florida folk musicians performing in styles from Jamaican reggae to bluegrass gospel are featured in a radio documentary made available to stations around the country. The state's Division of Historical Resources has compiled the eight-part "Music from the Sunshine State," a sampling of Florida's cultural music. The first part will be made available to radio stations starting Monday...

Workers disinfect virus-laden Disney cruise ship -- again
ORLANDO -- A Disney cruise liner marred by a second outbreak of a flu-like virus returned to port Saturday, and workers once again began disinfecting the ship after 218 people aboard became ill during its latest voyage...

A ruling in need of reconsideration
The Tallahassee-based 1st District Court of Appeal has done a disservice to gay and lesbian parents who have children from a former marriage. In the divorce case of Robert Hall vs. Traci (Hall) Beauchamp, the court upheld a lower court's ruling that effectively prohibits Hall, a gay father of two daughters, from having his life partner remain in their home overnight on the nights he has his children...

Republican Party is very accommodating to rich tax avoiders
When Leona Helmsley famously said "only the little people pay taxes," she wasn't kidding. The snooty remark may have helped bring down the hotel queen in 1989 but the attitude still pervades corporate boardrooms and country clubs. Taxes are among the top things rich people try to avoid -- along with paternity suits and having it publicly disclosed that their executive compensation includes a lifetime supply of peeled grapes...

What in the world do we know?
One has to wonder how today's young adults will make their way in the world, when they don't have a clue where the rest of the world is. 
In a geography quiz sponsored by the National Geographic Society and given to more than 3,000 adults age 18 to 24 years old in nine countries, Americans displayed an embarrassing ignorance. Out of 56 questions -- the same given to each of the nine countries participating -- test-takers from the United States averaged 23 correct answers. The score gave the United States a grade of D and put us second to last in the ranking, just inching past Mexico. ...

Why no Muslim outrage about Nigeria?
As we in the Western world struggle to comprehend Islamic fanaticism, along comes a boob named Mamuda Aliyu Shinkafi. He is deputy governor of Kamfara, a largely Muslim state in northern Nigeria. Last Monday he decreed that true Islamic believers should rush out and kill a writer named Isioma Daniel. She writes about fashion, which is usually not the most dangerous job in journalism. Her death-deserving offense was to pen a column suggesting that the Prophet Mohammed would approve of the Miss World...

U.S. crafts separate legal web for terror -- WASHINGTON -- The Bush administration is developing a parallel legal system in which terrorism suspects -- U.S. citizens and noncitizens alike -- may be investigated, jailed, interrogated, tried and punished without legal protections guaranteed by the ordinary system, lawyers inside and outside the government say.
The elements of this new system are already familiar from President Bush's orders and his aides' policy statements and legal briefs: indefinite military detention for those designated "enemy combatants," liberal use of "material witness" warrants, counterintelligence-style wiretaps and searches led by law- enforcement officials, and, for noncitizens, trial by military commissions or deportation after strictly closed hearings.... ...
Probably the most hotly disputed element of the administration's approach is its claim that the president alone can designate individuals, including American citizens, as enemy combatants, who can be detained with no access to lawyers or family members unless and until the president determines, in effect, that hostilities between the United States and that individual have ended.

Pentagon database worries privacy advocates
By Bob Keefe, Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
The Pentagon's proposed storehouse would analyze everyone's personal data for terrorism clues.

Shades of an Orwellian nightmare
Reading the newspapers anymore is eerily reminiscent of all those bad novels warning of the advent of fascism in America. "It Can't Happen Here" by Sinclair Lewis was a bad book, and the genre shades off into right-wing paranoia about black helicopters, including the memorably awful "Turner Diaries." ...

Wealth gap is problem at home
Inequalities are growing across the globe. Rich countries are getting richer, poor countries are getting poorer. The trend is echoed within countries, too: More wealth is going to fewer people, leaving many lagging or far behind. ...

11/27/02

11/26/02

Pension fund audit delayed after governor's office call
WASHINGTON — At the request of Gov. Jeb Bush's office, the inspector general of the Health and Human Services Department ordered delays in a federal audit of Florida's pension fund that ensured the review wouldn't be completed before Bush won re-election, officials say. The delays by Janet Rehnquist, daughter of Chief Justice William Rehnquist, are now being investigated by Congress.

Investigator's role in delay of state audit is questioned
Congressional investigators are looking into whether federal Inspector General Janet Rehnquist, daughter of U.S. Supreme Court Justice William Rehnquist, went out of her way to help Jeb Bush win reelection in Florida.

Bush names Rodriguez general counsel
TALLAHASSEE — Gov. Jeb Bush appointed a Miami attorney to be his top lawyer Monday. Raquel A. Rodriguez will start Dec. 9, replacing Charles Canady, who was named by Bush to be a judge on the 2nd District Court of Appeal.

Gov. Bush names Miamian his general counsel
Gov. Jeb Bush has chosen as his next general counsel a Miami lawyer who helped secure the White House for his brother during the 2000 Florida recount.

Election coalition calls for Miami-Dade citizen oversight panel
MIAMI — Civil rights and watchdog groups called Monday for a civilian panel to supervise Miami-Dade County's elections and said citizens should also replace county employees as poll workers.

Civilians should run, oversee Dade elections, group says
Miami-Dade County should return to staffing voting polls with volunteers rather than government employees, end police involvement in running elections and appoint an advisory panel to oversee the Elections Department, a community coalition said Monday.

Elections office purge continues
Elections Supervisor Miriam Oliphant gave no reason for the dismissal. A second employee has been ousted from her job with Broward Supervisor of Elections Miriam Oliphant's office as a result of the Nov. 15 audit of Oliphant's spending and office management.

Oliphant fires purchasing agent who did business with son's firm - FORT LAUDERDALE · An elections office employee who did business with a company owned by her son was fired on Monday by Elections Supervisor Miriam Oliphant.
June Lewis was among a group of employees who received double- digit raises while others saw their salaries stay the same or diminish.
Lewis was purchasing agent when the office contracted with a company owned by her son, a violation of state nepotism laws.

Unused ad reveals governor's true feelings
This is the campaign ad Florida voters never saw: Gov. Jeb Bush, doubled over in apparent pain, unleashing a loud gagging sound as he pretends to choke.
Seriously. The video exists, and it made its way into a rough Bush campaign spot that -- unfortunately for those of us who view political ads as the highest form of entertainment -- was never aired.
The striking image of our state's highest elected official booming, ''Uuugggghhhhhh,'' and then following it up with an exasperated, ''It's like -- God,'' was nearly placed in an ad in the final weeks of the campaign to illustrate exactly how the governor really felt about his Democratic rival, Bill McBride....

Pathetic excuses from Democrats' clueless chief-- The scorecard speaks for itself: 1 win, 14 losses.
That's Bob Poe's record since he became the Florida Democratic Party chairman. Since Poe took the helm in March 2000, Democrats have lost the White House, the governor's mansion, three U.S. House seats, two Cabinet posts, one state Senate seat and six Florida House seats. Overall, Democrats have lost 20 state House seats since 1996.

Maddox eyes top party post -Tallahassee Mayor Scott Maddox began his bid for the Florida Democratic Party chairmanship Monday night, promising to rebuild his once- dominant party into something more than "Republican-lite."

AP launches Florida capital video service
TALLAHASSEE — The Associated Press will add state capital video to its Florida state news services with the launch of APTN Florida Dec. 1. The service, operating from AP's Tallahassee bureau, will field two crews and will provide Florida stations state government material for their newscasts.

Miami Herald, WFOR-TV form partnership
MIAMI — The Miami Herald and WFOR-TV are planning to form a partnership to share news, personnel, online content, office space and promotional efforts, the newspaper and television station said. The alliance between the Miami-based companies takes effect Dec. 2.

Beleaguered prison company gets a stay
State officials Monday gave Corrections Corporation of America another month and a half to fix employee hiring problems at the Gadsden Correctional Institution.

Plan would double tuition--  Florida's public universities should nearly double their tuition rates in the next decade to pay for expansion and improvements, according to a plan emerging in Tallahassee.-- 
Boosting the state's tuition and fees by 10 percent a year in the next decade would move Florida from among the cheapest average tuitions in the nation -- $2,600 a year -- to the national average, according to proposals surfacing in an advisory group formed to find ways to get more Floridians into college...

No easy answers, so no easy fix
Like it or not, Florida is about to become the leader in school vouchers.
People running the state will say they just can't think of any other way to lower class size enough to comply with the just-approved constitutional provision. So it's time for Floridians to think about how the voucher system should work.

Money lacking for rape centers
Other states fund such centers, but Florida relies mostly on scarce federal money. Advocates are pushing for help.

New voluntary court system helps mentally ill inmates get their lives back on track -- In Florida, mental health courts have cropped up in Sarasota, Osceola, Lee and Alachua counties. Palm Beach and Orange counties are seeking funding to start courts and Okaloosa County is launching one in January.
Law enforcement officials estimate the court has saved the Broward jail system at least a million dollars a year.
The goal is to stop mentally ill defendants arrested on misdemeanors such as disorderly conduct, loitering, petty theft and public drinking from rotating in and out of jail and get treatment for them. In its five years of operation, the court has offered help to hundreds of offenders who otherwise would have been in jail, records show.

Masked man tells bankers about identity theft
A convict in disguise spoke during a conference about how his organization stole $15-million to $20-million in jewelry, cars, houses and TVs.

Resist pressure to bend on Everglades protection
Palm Beach Post Editorial
Sugar growers are seeking higher pollution limits. - With the election over, Florida's sugar-cane industry predictably has wasted no time in pushing the state to change rules and delay enforcement of a strict limit on the amount of pollution allowed in the Everglades. In addition, some South Florida Water Management District board members are questioning the science behind the tough standard, even though the district's own scientists, who have studied the matter for decades, support it.
The Everglades ecosystem can tolerate only tiny amounts -- six to eight parts per billion -- of phosphorus, the main ingredient in fertilizer and the pollutant that most damages the Everglades. For decades, water carrying far higher amounts entered the Everglades, harming natural vegetation and wildlife. In 1994, to settle a federal lawsuit, the Legislature passed the Everglades Forever Act, which mandated a two-phase cleanup. The first has reduced phosphorus levels to no more than 50 parts per billion. To allow recovery, scientists say the limit in the second phase should be no more than 10 parts per billion.

Tighter phosphorous limits: Science, not self-interest must drive Everglades restoration
The 20-year restoration of the Everglades is barely under way and forces that helped turn the River of Grass into one of the world's biggest cesspools are already pressing the state to set weaker restrictions on phosphorous pollution. 

Red tide warning for Martin, St. Lucie and Indian River counties -- 
STUART, Fla.-- Health officials issued a red tide advisory on Monday for
beaches in Martin, St. Lucie and Indian River counties. ... 
Red tide is a toxic algae that kills fish and can cause respiratory problems in humans. People who consume infected shellfish also can suffer tingling in their mouths and fingers, loss of coordination, hot and cold flashes and diarrhea....

Keep swamp green
Sentinel position: Lake County should reject two projects harmful to the sensitive Green Swamp.

Disney, Holland-America ships hit by flu-like illness
At least 25 passengers on the Disney cruise ship Magic have contracted a flu-like illness this week, just days after the ship was scrubbed for hours because scores of people fell sick on an earlier trip.

Bay Area Cruise Ships Pass CDC Check
TAMPA - Roughly 800 passengers last week were sickened by stomach viruses on Florida-based cruise lines, but health and academic experts say U.S.-bound ships are as clean as ever and outbreaks are occurring less frequently. ...

Rural environment: A vision for its survival-- I am requesting the following to come together: The city of Apopka, Orange County, the Department of Community Affairs, the Department of Environmental Protection, the Department of Transportation, the St. Johns Water Management District, the East Central Florida Regional Planning Council, the Orlando-Orange County Expressway Authority, Metroplan Orlando, along with representatives from local land and homeowner associations and environmental groups.-- 
We are in need of a partnership to create and adopt a growth-management strategy for northwest Orange County: a comprehensive plan that would preserve our rural and agricultural lands, protect our aquifer-recharge areas and prevent the spread of urban sprawl.

'Mount Dioxin' cover wearing out after 10 years in Pensacola
PENSACOLA — Health officials, local government leaders and community activists are worried that strong winds could blow away contaminated soil because plastic sheeting covering "Mount Dioxin" is wearing out.

Flying enemies unleashed on fire ants
A venture between Florida and U.S. scientists deploys flies that inject the ants with eggs that become killer larvae.

Dry summer, wet fall spell trouble for Panhandle farmers
JAY — A dry early summer and wet fall have spelled ruin for many Florida Panhandle farmers. Crops, mainly cotton and peanuts, that survived near- drought conditions now are flooded or cannot be picked because heavy harvesting machines get stuck in the mud.

First Thanksgiving occurred in St. Augustine, researcher says
ST. AUGUSTINE, Fla. - Michael Gannon says he is known in Massachusetts as "the Grinch who stole Thanksgiving" after declaring it was the Spanish and not the Pilgrims who first celebrated Thanksgiving in the New World.
Gannon, a University of Florida history professor, said the first Thanksgiving in a permanent settlement occurred on Sept. 8, 1565, in St. Augustine. Pedro Menendez de Aviles and 800 Spanish settlers, celebrated a Mass of Thanksgiving and invited the native Seloy tribe who occupied the site, he said.
"It was the first community act of religion and Thanksgiving in the first permanent European settlement in the land," Gannon wrote in his 1965 book, "The Cross in the Sand." The Pilgrims did not have their first Thanksgiving meal until 1621, 56 years after the Spanish....

This test does not meet the test
WASHINGTON — In its revised edition of the dreaded SATs, the Educational Testing Service might consider a new section that deals with high finance and how to turn a handsome profit out of what is supposed to be a nonprofit, tax-exempt corporation.

Shut up about Iraq
There is criticism aplenty of the American media — much of it justified, some not. But here's a new condemnation from a certified, credentialed member of the media herself: The media spend too much time hyping, promoting and glorifying the prospect of war with Iraq.

Saudi Arabia tied to 'Axis of Oil'
Under increased pressure to criticize the Saudi royal family for its alleged ties to al- Qaida terrorists, President Bush today made a public statement in which he identified Saudi Arabia as part of an "Axis of Oil."

Health checkup
The last time people in high places in Washington seriously weighed the system of health care in the United States there were 37 million uninsured Americans. Today there are 41 million-plus. Among other things, that sad kind of "progress" was in the forefront of the National Academy of Sciences' thinking when it urged the Bush administration to test some possible solutions to the crisis in the nation's health care system.

President Unwise To Relax Key Provision Of Clean Air Act
Air pollution causes problems in addition to filthy air. Emissions from power plants directly affect people's health, especially among the young and the elderly.
It can cause breathing problems, respiratory ailments and even death, so there is cause to be concerned about President Bush's intent to relax a key provision of the Clean Air Act.
The president plans to eliminate the ``new source review'' rule, which requires power plants to install modern pollution control devices when undergoing major renovations. He believes the rule discourages utilities from repairing and modernizing facilities. Industry officials say there are simple affordable steps, short of installing all new pollution control devices, that would dramatically clean the air.
But the administration and the industry ignore the fact that the Clean Air Act allows plants to avoid installing new equipment if plant operators pledge not to increase pollution when undertaking renovations. An expanding plant can avoid the review if its owner promises pollution levels will rise no higher than the highest pollution emissions reached by the facility in the past five years. This is hardly a burdensome requirement.

Greenhouse gasfest: Pollution rules scrub conservative instinct
The latest international conference on climate change ended earlier this month with an unexpectedly permissive result: Poorer and developing nations will not have to curb their greenhouse gas emissions in the years ahead. The priority is on economic development, reducing poverty and adapting to a warmer climate. Emission reductions by way of expensive clean air technologies can wait. 

Tide finally turning against SUVs
Once again, America is a nation divided. I'm not talking about the irreparable, brother- against-brother split between those who think the bachelor should have proposed to Brooke instead of Helene. I'm talking about a contentious clash that is just beginning to rage. Call it the SUV war.

Bush signs bill to protect insurance industry in future terror attacks
President Bush said legislation he signed today to shield the insurance industry from catastrophic costs of future terror attacks is vital to the war on terror and to the nation's economic security.

Secrecy: the nation's favored fraud
If there is any doubt at all that the terrorists have won - that they have managed with a single day's freakish hits to revamp the most open society on earth into an emerging police state where suspicion and secrecy are the twin watch-towers of government and cowering and conforming the prevailing instincts of an allegedly free press or an even more alleged political opposition - then last week's creation of the Department of Homeland Security should put all such doubts to rest.

We Can't Ignore Economic Strife
Speaking to a gathering of chambers of commerce in Coral Gables one year ago, a high- ranking official of the International Monetary Fund was asked whether Argentina would avoid a financial collapse. The official said he was optimistic that would be the case, despite the mounting financial difficulties besetting the South American country. Sadly, that was not the case. In the past year, Argentina has defaulted on its $130 billion foreign debt, kicked out four presidents, suffered through violent and deadly riots and sunk deeper into a recession that is entering its fifth year...

11/25/02

Early voting wins at polls
The new freedom's popularity surprises officials, and despite concerns over cost and tradition, more voters likely will try it...

Thousands of DUI cases threatened in Florida by appeals court ruling - Thousands of driving-under-the-influence cases statewide that hinge on the results of urine tests are in jeopardy of being tossed out of court.
Recently the 2nd District Court of Appeal in Lakeland ruled that urine tests should not be used as evidence because there is not enough regulation to ensure their validity. The ruling, the first of its kind in the state, left county prosecutors scrambling to salvage cases of people charged with driving erratically because of drugs in their system...

Development threatens natural Florida in the Ormond Loop-- ...Once again, we are poised to destroy a place of beauty, a place that gives this community character. And once that job is done and the bulldozers are hauled away, we will again sit back and wonder why people don't want to come here. Why is it we need to hold disruptive, noisy and expensive special events to entice tourists to visit? ...

State to consider new data on SW Florida pollution
Environmental groups are reporting progress in changing the way the state Department of Environmental Protection measures pollution in Southwest Florida waters. Their efforts have focused on adding rivers, lakes and bays to the state's list of polluted waters. Waters on the list would be subject to new pollution control rules...

Chefs unite to save oceans, foil overfishing
Chef John Liebman will gladly cook delicious mahi-mahi or rainbow trout, but ask him to put swordfish on his menu and you'll get a firm "No." ...

Protecting manatees carries big pricetag in southwest Florida
Protecting manatees by halting construction of new boat docks, marinas and ramps in southwest Florida could cause the region to lose nearly 1,000 jobs in five years, a federal agency estimated...

We are not masters, we are partners in evolution
The dog Harry, a mixture of yellow Labrador and German shepherd, loves us with all of his being. He hangs his head when we leave. He wags all over and cries in a great joy-fit when we return. To all those he knows, he is a sweet and good-hearted puppy; when a stranger knocks on the front door he hurls himself against it with a terrifying bang and explodes in barks with fangs bared...

Florida officials devise plan for administering emergency smallpox shots - ST. PETERSBURG · Vaccinating most of Florida's 16.4 million residents against smallpox in 10 days would require 320 sites operating 16 hours a day, each staffed by more than 200 people, state health officials said. - 
That's the size of the challenge facing public health officials, who have until next Sunday to submit a smallpox vaccination plan to the federal government...

Bold state experiments should test national solutions
During the winter of 2000 a flu epidemic overwhelmed North America, and patients overwhelmed emergency rooms in the United States and Canada. The Washington Post and the New York Times headed north and concluded that Canada's overcrowded ERs were proof that single-payer universal health care doesn't work. ...

Airline opens a path to Cuba
The service allows travelers to leave from Tampa Bay instead of Miami...

More hard-hit investors find their way to an attorney
The stock market sob stories keep rolling into Chris Vernon's law office. He keeps a box of tissue in the large conference room where he meets with clients. Losing money in the market by itself isn't reason to call a lawyer. But Vernon, of the firm Treiser, Collins & Vernon, brings claims on behalf of investors — many of them elderly — who were coached by their stockbrokers into buying unsuitable investments...

Objection overruled
Palm Beach Post Editorial
In GOP terms, "bipartisan" means "getting what we want." ...

Talk is expensive when it comes to Bill Moyers
It is considered bad form in the world of broadcast journalism to criticize one's peers. It rarely happens, and when it does, the person lobbing the grenade often finds his foxhole quickly abandoned. And so it is with some trepidation that I take on the legendary Bill Moyers, now toiling at the tax-subsidized Public Broadcasting System (PBS)...

Soft-money suspicions
It doesn't get much more disheartening than this. Even though the campaign finance reform law is less than three weeks old, the air in Washington is already thick with charges that the two main political parties are seeking creative ways to get around it. The purpose of the law is to stop the huge flow of special- interest donations, known as soft money, from corporations, unions and wealthy individuals to candidates for federal office...

Bush to sign homeland security bill
The Department of Homeland Security, being created today with the stroke of President Bush's pen, will suffer through the normal ``growing pains'' and will not be fully operational for at least a year, the White House said...

Iran-Contra players return to power
WASHINGTON -- When Rear Adm. John Poindexter, President Ronald Reagan's national security adviser, was asked in 1987 why he failed to tell Congress about covert U.S. support of the Nicaraguan rebels, he replied: "I simply did not want any outside interference."...

Bush Government "Out of Control"
By Chuck Baldwin, Disrtbuted by The Republican 
Back in August, columnist Paul Craig Roberts asked the question, "Is a vote for Republicans a vote for a police state?" The answer seems to be a resounding yes! The Bush administration seems determined to turn our country into the most elaborate and sophisticated police state ever devised. ...

11/24/02

State Democrats meet to discuss party's future
ORLANDO — State Democratic leaders met privately Saturday to discuss what led to the party's losses during this month's election, but many Democrats blame the top officials for the dismal performance. Calls for the resignation of state party Chairman Bob Poe continued during the 4½-hour meeting as the Democrats confronted their worst showing at the state's polls in modern history. Since Poe took over as the state's top Democrat in March 2000, the party has failed to regain the governor's mansion, lost three seats in Florida's delegation to the U.S. House, two state cabinet positions and one state Senate seat.

Democrats questioning their leaders
Florida's feuding and finger-pointing Democratic Party leaders gathered Saturday to begin rebuilding from this month's devastating election losses -- and then feuded and finger-pointed some more.

Party chief fights for job
Angry Democrats are organizing to oust the state chairman because of the party's election losses.-- ORLANDO -- To save his job, Florida Democratic Party Chairman Bob Poe made a costly concession Saturday: He offered to give up his six-figure salary. -- 
Poe, still bearing the brunt of criticism for the Democrats' drubbing on Election Day, says he's willing to forfeit his $100,000-a-year salary, partly to take ammunition away from critics who claim he's in it for the money

Disheartened Democrats meet; accomplish nothing
Only a handful of the 53 state House and Senate members showed up.

Term limits turn loose the rookies
Term limits exacerbate the problem of a few people deciding all the important issues each year.

Martin Dyckman: What's wrong with no-fault insurance
TALLAHASSEE -- A budget crisis. The class size amendment. Medical malpractice. Nursing homes. Worker's compensation. Slot machines for the racetracks. As if there weren't already enough incendiary issues to make wise legislators envy the people they defeated, Jim King lit another huge bonfire during his first speech as Senate president
"The Senate will examine fraud in the Personal Injury Protection insurance market and will work diligently to clean this problem up, or if necessary, eliminate it altogether," he said.
Though only the lobbyists seemed to take notice, that was nothing less than a threat to repeal Florida's entire no-fault auto insurance law. Only a general tax increase could affect more people.

Limit on class sizes gives boost to state's gaming lobby
Floridians who thought they were voting for better schools earlier this month also may have handed the powerful gambling industry the Florida foothold it has spent years and millions of dollars seeking.

Florida's miserable graduation rate
Florida's public high school graduation rate for the class of 2000 was the lowest in the nation, according to a report released Thursday by the Manhattan Institute. Only 55 percent of the students who should have graduated during the 1999-2000 school year actually received their regular high school diploma.

Colleges' open doors could shut
Valencia and others are growing much faster than their state funding.

Scrutinize charter school - Seminole County must be careful that charter schools are up to snuff.
Even as the Seminole County school district continues to wrangle with the operators of a defunct charter school, another charter-school group with a shaky track record is knocking on its door.
The Richard Milburn Academy, whose parent company runs charter schools around the nation for dropouts and at-risk teens, will ask Seminole's School Board to approve its application Dec. 17. Milburn's applications were accepted in Volusia and Brevard counties.

United Way needs to clear the air
No one would deny the good work done by the United Way, particularly in how it focuses on local needs. But the charitable organization's accounting practices have been questioned and it would be wise for United Way officials to clear the air as quickly as possible.

First of whooping crane flock makes it to Florida
A historic effort to re-establish a migratory whooping crane population in North America came full-circle last week when trackers confirmed that one bird had completed the first north-south migration cycle without human help.

Stop burying proposal for gas pipeline to state
Palm Beach Post Editorial
The many questions start with the company itself.

Charlotte County looses bid to block new phosphate mine
PORT CHARLOTTE — Charlotte County's arguments against more phosphate mining in the Peace River Basin were rejected Friday by a state arbiter. The ruling grants IMC Phosphates a permit to mine 2,800 acres in East Manatee County. The order by Steve Seibert, secretary of the Department of Community Affairs, didn't stray far from a March ruling by an administrative law judge that sided strongly with IMC and state environmental regulators.

SET A HIGH STANDARD
Next month, a little-known state authority could decide an issue that's vital to the future health of the Everglades. The state Environmental Regulatory Commission, an appointed body, will hear the Florida Department of Environmental Protection's recommendation to set the standard for phosphorous in water flowing into the Everglades at 10 parts per billion by Jan. 1, 2007.

Groups worried about Bush 'onslaught' against environment
The shift was illustrated Friday when the EPA announced it would change a Clean Air Act regulation.

AiO founder faces fraud charges
Company accused of scamming investors out of millions.
ADAM wasn't created in a day. ADAM is a machine that has been years in the making, a superhuman designed to make ordering a pizza, a sub or a burger by phone less of a hassle. Until last year, some Collier County residents thought he'd make them rich. But the Naples company that created ADAM has fallen apart like the corners of a burnt sandwich, leaving hundreds of investors with only crumbs.

Only a handful of vets will get justice -- and that's a shame
They've established a "beachhead," preparing for more battles ahead. Not the Marines heading to the Persian Gulf, but America's heartbroken, brow-beaten, taken-for- granted disabled veterans who spent 20 years or more of their lives defending America and have gotten little more than lip service for their sacrifice.

Bush weighing making tax-cut proposals more palatable to Democrats
WASHINGTON — President Bush is poised to move quickly on tax cuts for individuals and businesses once the new GOP-led Congress convenes in January, seeking to spur the economy and take advantage of recent electoral gains. His advisers, however, are divided on whether to propose modest relief that mainly aids lower- and middle-income taxpayers, or pursue more ambitious reductions — and run into a likely Democratic roadblock in the Senate.

Really 'Big Brother'
Given its potential to invade the privacy of everyone, the Total Information Awareness program should be shut down before it starts.

A letdown - Congress this session left undone too much important work.
The lame-duck 107th Congress limped across the finish line Friday when the House gave final approval to the new Department of Homeland Security. But apart from actions related to the war on terrorism, the past year in Congress was notable for what members failed to accomplish.
Representatives and senators went home without fulfilling what is arguably their first responsibility -- completing work on the federal budget for the year that began Oct. 1. Members passed only two of 13 required spending bills.

11/23/02

Agency chiefs enjoyed the ride with Bush
Turns out our governor is a pretty popular guy, at least among the agency heads whose resignations he asked for last week. Along with tendering those resignations, folks had a lot of nice things to say about Gov. Jeb Bush. Many spoke of traveling, of being on the governor's "journey." They lauded the governor's "vision" and thanked him for the opportunity. (11/22/02)

State Democrats demanding change
The Florida Democratic Party couldn't sink much lower when Bob Poe took over as chairman in March 2000. But it has. Republican Jeb Bush soundly beat Bill McBride to become the first in his party to be re-elected governor. Voters filled all three Cabinet seats with Republicans. The GOP increased its overwhelming majority in the House and Senate and picked up three seats in Congress.

Democrats meet, assigning blame, seeking answers
By Brian E. Crowley, Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Democrats gather in Orlando wondering who they are, where they should go, and who should lead them.

Forman wants to be chairman
Many Democrats have called for the resignation of Florida Democratic Party Chairman Bob Poe after the party's Election Day humiliation. Among them is Broward Clerk of Courts Howard Forman, who wants the job for himself.

The up-and-comers
By Brian E. Crowley, Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
A look at the Democrats' and Republicans' hot young faces in Florida.

Monitor: Miami-Dade election successful, but expensive
The independent monitors Miami-Dade County hired to assess its performance in this month's election say although the polls were well run, the process cost double what it normally does.

Voters' initiatives got the better of Republicans
TALLAHASSEE -- The most important lesson of the election wasn't that the Republicans won it so hugely. Indeed, to hear some of them afterward, you'd think that they had lost. In one sense, they had. -- Their discontent owed to two of the five initiatives that voters had approved: Amendment 9, mandating smaller classes in public schools, and Amendment 11, which establishes a Board of Governors for the university system to replace the Board of Regents that the Legislature scrapped last year as part of its "seamless" educational overhaul

For better legislators, just add state history lesson
The 30 newly elected members of the state House spent two days in boot camp this week, at seminars ranging from workplace harassment to press relations.

Politicians aim to lead two state universities

Jennifer Sergent: Republicans ready to rebuke report attacking Florida's public university admission policy
Internal strife continues to roil within the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, and Florida again provides the fodder. The commission's four Republicans are preparing a rebuke of a staff report released this week that concluded Florida's public university admission policy hasn't increased the diversity of its student bodies as intended.

Class limits no reason to fret, advocate says
Kendrick Meek says the class size amendment isn't as complicated as some politicians claim.

No new gambling
Instead of adding new gambling, Florida should find better ways to generate tax money and reinforce laws over the gambling that's currently unregulated.

State child support payments go online
Florida residents now have a more modern way to make their child support payments. Like many other bills, they can now pay it online.

DCF threatens to cancel contract of private care agency
State officials have threatened to cancel a contract with a private agency managing child welfare services in Volusia and Flagler counties unless it corrects mismanagement and staff problems.

Coalition wants legislators to enact malpractice reform
The health care industry in Florida is getting its act together. A coalition of 50 health care and business groups around the state have joined forces to form a lobbying group, The Coalition to Heal Health Care in Florida, to push for legislative reform of the state's medical malpractice laws.

Health reform, piece by piece
The National Academy of Sciences has confirmed what most citizens already know: The nation's health care system is confronting a crisis. The cost of private health insurance is surging upward by more than 12 percent a year even as patients are required to pay more out of pocket and are receiving fewer benefits. More than 41 million Americans lack health insurance. These and other disturbing trends have only been getting worse, with no clear solution in sight.

Law causes nursing home claims to tumble
Despite that, insurance rates remain high and some in the Legislature and the industry want more legal protections.

Florida Power Corp. settles age discrimination lawsuit
ST. PETERSBURG — Florida Power Corp. has reached a settlement with more than 100 former employees who had sued the company for age discrimination. Neither side would disclose the settlement amount, which was reached with the help of a mediator.

INS rounds up 39 South Florida immigrant convicts for deportation
MIAMI — Dozens of immigrants who have been convicted of crimes in the United States were arrested for deportation during a 10-day sweep, immigration officials said Friday. The 39 immigrants were found guilty of crimes ranging from drug trafficking to strong-armed robbery and served time in U.S. prisons. After their release, immigration judges ruled they should be deported.

Port security in dry dock
Palm Beach Post Editorial
Sen. Bob Graham will try again next year for money.

Special Forces soldiers return home
More than 100 Special Forces soldiers from the Florida Army National Guard returned this week from 10 months in Afghanistan. They were given a formal welcome Friday by Maj. Gen. Douglas Burnett, adjutant general of Florida's Army National Guard.

Researchers find serious damage to coral
Researchers who spent weeks surveying where a container ship's anchor sliced through a section of the world's third-largest barrier reef said Friday that at least 1,000 coral heads and fragments were overturned in the incident off the Dry Tortugas last month.

Cooler weather sends manatees into lagoon-- Now that cooler weather has swept through Florida, endangered manatees can be seen in the Indian River Lagoon, the St. Lucie River and other tributaries throughout the area until the end of March.

Erosion washing away wildlife refuge in Indian River
PELICAN ISLAND, Fla. - The nation's first wildlife refuge is sinking. The tiny mangrove island has whittled to half its size 30 years ago.
As the Pelican Island National Wildlife Refuge approaches its centennial, the federal government is planning to spend millions of dollars to save the battered pelican getaway.

Many Keys residents told to boil water after pipe rupture
KEY LARGO — Most of the Florida Keys were placed under a boil-water advisory Friday after a waterline broke in the upper keys. The fresh water flow was cut off about 1 p.m. Friday when a 36-inch main line ruptured north of Tavernier. The break caused water to bubble about 8 inches out of the ground and sent water flow up to three inches deep across U.S. 1.

County denies application for temporary nudist campground
DAYTONA BEACH — A Daytona Beach couple who have previously turned part of the property into a clothing- optional campground during the city's annual Bike Week and Biketoberfest were denied a permit to hold similar events in the future. Eddie and Suzy Colosimo had asked the Volusia County Council for permission to continue the annual tradition, but were denied by a 6-1 vote Thursday.

Judge backs Dwyer win
MIAMI -- In the case of the purloined high school football playoff game, the judge decided he could not block that kick.
William T. Dwyer's winning field goal with two seconds left against Miami- Edison was upheld Friday morning by order of Miami-Dade Circuit Court Judge Gerald Hubbart. Dwyer got the green light to play its regularly scheduled regional semifinal game against Pompano-Ely hours later. The Panthers were shut out 23-0.

The carving knives are already at work on Pelosi
Isn't it nice to have a woman around the House? It's barely a week since Nancy Pelosi became minority leader and there's already been a regime change of metaphors. Out with sports; in with food.-- ... "You know the story. It's like the Thanksgiving turkey," she said. "You bring it out, you get this great honor, everybody oohs and ahs ... and then they begin to carve you up."

EPA relaxes air pollution rules
The move permits polluters to upgrade emissions systems without installing the cleanest, most-modern technology.

11/22/02

Backward representation
Only in the loosest sense could it be said that Florida's 160 state legislators "won" the seats for which they will take their oaths of office today in ceremonies at Tallahassee. Most got them essentially for the asking; effective competition was the exception, not the rule. Only 14 primary or general election contests could reasonably be called close.

Democrats mutiny against state leader - TALLAHASSEE -- Florida Democrats, fed up with humiliating election-year losses and struggling to become relevant again, are in open revolt against their leader.- 
Party Chairman Bob Poe says he's not quitting and has called a closed-door meeting of Democratic leaders Saturday to talk about rebuilding the party. But across the state, legislators, labor leaders and grass roots activists say Poe must go.

Byrd weighs in on video gaming at tracks
TALLAHASSEE -- House Speaker Johnnie Byrd says he doesn't think video lottery games at horse and dog tracks are the best option for raising money to help the state get through its current financial crisis.- 
But he's willing to consider it, Byrd said in a statement released Thursday. 
Senate President Jim King suggested the approximately $1- billion that could be raised by permitting video lottery terminals to be installed at parimutuel facilities around the state might be a way to help come up with enough money to lower classroom sizes and meet other financial needs. 
Byrd issued the statment after an Orlando Sentinel editorial criticized legislative leaders and Gov. Jeb Bush for indicating they will consider the gambling proposal. 
"I do not support the expansion of gambling in Florida," Byrd said in a written statement released late Thursday. "I believe that we should build a better Florida based on the strengths of people and not their weaknesses." 

Florida Web site to help community planners
TALLAHASSEE — The Department of Community Affairs announced Thursday that it has a Web site to help communities comply with a new growth management law that requires planners to consider schools and water supplies when approving projects.

Condemned death row inmates appeal to U.S. Supreme Court
TALLAHASSEE — Two death row inmates set for execution next month have appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court, asking it to find Florida's death sentencing law invalid as it did Arizona's law in June. Amos Lee King is to be executed at 6 p.m. Dec. 2 and Linroy Bottoson four days later.

Justice for Death Row
Gov. George Ryan of Illinois, whose state has a bad record of sentencing innocent people to death, declared a moratorium on executions a few years back. Now, in his final months in office, he is considering commuting the sentences of everyone on death row. His willingness to do so may have been tested last month by televised hearings that underscored the horror of the crimes for which these inmates were sentenced. But despite the bad publicity, Ryan should do the right thing, and commute all the sentences to life in prison.

Illnesses blamed on Florida waters
The state leads the nation in reporting disease outbreaks linked to pools and drinking water, a CDC study finds.

Florida rises two ranks in salaries for its teachers
WASHINGTON -- Public school teachers in California earned the most last year and those in South Dakota the least, the nation's largest teachers union reported Thursday.

USF board mulls raise for Genshaft
A consultant says the current pay is "way, way" below market. She could get around $50,000.

Next president of FAU could be state's highest- paid
BOCA RATON — The next president of Florida Atlantic University will receive a compensation package worth significantly more than the school's former chief, and perhaps one that would be the best given to any campus president statewide.

Board OKs D'Alemberte's deal
When Florida State University President Sandy D'Alemberte steps down next year, he'll still be working as a tenured law professor or an employee of the FSU Foundation.-- Under a presidential departure pay package approved by the FSU board of trustees Thursday, D'Alemberte's annual salary will be cut 10 percent to $228,687. He also will receive clerical support plus $25,000 for expenses and will take a 12-month sabbatical within the next three years. --- Several trustees said they wanted to give D'Alemberte more, but the outgoing president wouldn't hear of it.
"He has been selfless and more than humble in what he asked for...almost to the point of working against his own interests," Uhlfelder told trustees.... ...
D'Alemberte's post-presidency package is similar to those given to other public university presidents who stepped down....

Sometimes, pressin' flesh better than hittin' books
The departing president of Florida State University, Talbot "Sandy" D'Alemberte, is a distinguished man, a former president of the American Bar Association. He is retiring amid high praise as one of the school's best leaders.

Antiterrorism memo jolts USF
Some faculty decry a mandate that students from five countries be fingerprinted and photographed.

Sharpton leads downtown Miami march for Haitians
MIAMI — The Rev. Al Sharpton led more than 200 protesters across downtown Thursday to call for the release of Haitian migrants who remain in federal detention since wading ashore nearly a month ago. Sharpton and the crowd chanted "No Justice, No Peace," as they carried signs and marched about 30 minutes across downtown to the Torch of Freedom on Biscayne Bay.

The Fox News presidential adviser
Politicos who morph into journalists do themselves and their new profession no favor if they fail to shed their partisan habits. Roger Ailes, the vinegary chairman of Fox News, shows no sign of understanding that. Not long after Sept. 11, we learn from Bob Woodward's new book, "Bush at War," Ailes advised President Bush how to cope with the aftermath of the terrorist attacks.

A blow to freedom
In its first ruling, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court of Review has reinforced surveillance of Americans through the Patriot Act.--
In the ongoing war on terrorism, freedom took another sucker punch on Monday. A secret appeals court opened the door for increased surveillance of Americans.-- The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court of Review made the ruling -- a first. Until this year it hadn't been called upon to hear a single appeal since its establishment in 1978

William Safire: Victory in the Baltics
WASHINGTON — Hang around across the street from the hotel at noon in Riga, my Latvian contact told me that day in 1989, when opposition to Soviet rule could land a dissident in jail. Someone from the Popular Front will find you. An intense young woman with cropped hair and smoldering eyes introduced herself as Sarmite. It was her job to guide foreign journalists to Latvians plotting a return to independence.

11/21/02

Study: Florida streets worst for pedestrian safety
Orlando's streets present more dangers to pedestrians than 
walkers face in any other American city, according to a study conducted by the Surface Transportation Policy Project.
The study, released Wednesday, ranked five Florida metropolitan areas among the nation's worst six cities for pedestrians, and also found that a stretch of road through Tampa has been the site of the most pedestrian fatalities during the past year.
After Orlando, the Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater area was the nation's second-worst for pedestrian safety, followed by the West Palm Beach-Boca Raton area.
The Memphis, Tenn. area ranked fourth-worst, followed by Jacksonville and Miami-Fort Lauderdale.
Florida dominates the list because of its problem with suburban sprawl, said Michelle Ernst, a senior analyst at the Surface Transportation Policy Project....

Schools fear inflexible initiative
...In any event, he and Lt. Gov. Frank Brogan avoided discussion of how much the initiative would cost and how to pay for it. In the recent election, Bush attacked Democratic challenger Bill McBride for not saying how he would pay for it, but now he and Brogan say such questions are premature.
"Until you define this thing, the (cost and revenue source) are impossible to determine," Brogan said...

Class size confusion may need Supreme Court look
TALLAHASSEE -- The Florida Supreme Court could be called in to help state officials answer some questions about the class size caps voters approved this month...

Details on the class-size provision-- The class-size amendment approved by 52 percent of the voters on Election Day imposes caps on the number of students assigned to every public school teacher starting in 2010.
The cap is 18 for pre-kindergarten through third grade, 22 for fourth through eighth grade and 25 for ninth through 12 grade.
Starting next year, the provision requires the state to provide money to school districts to lower the average class size by two students each year. But the provision does not say whether that average is a state average, a district average, a school average - - or something else...

Bad gamble
Sentinel position: State leaders are irresponsible even to consider gambling. The will of Florida voters seems to confound Gov. Jeb Bush and the state's top two legislative leaders. So maybe the three need a little history refresher to set the record straight.
In November, voters directed the three to reduce public-school class sizes. And three times -- in 1978, 1986 and 1994 -- voters rejected attempts to legalize casino gambling in the state.
No mystery there. Florida voters want smaller classes. They don't want gambling parlors.
State leaders just don't get it ...

FAU chief may be state's highest paid
The next president's pay and benefits could top $500,000, more than at any other state university.

New degree of risk
Floridians have much more college financing flexibility with the new College
Investment Plan, which was added this week to the state's Prepaid College Plan. But investors in the new plan should fully understand the differences.
Both are tax-free, so-called 529 college savings plans, which the Florida Prepaid College Board manages. The most notable distinction is that the state guarantees the prepaid tuition plan, while the investment plan carries no guarantee from any government agency or financial institution.

Florida's rate of graduations worst in U.S.
Florida's high-school graduation rate ranks dead last in the nation, according to a conservative research group challenging the state's increasingly rosy figures.

Disputed study ranks Florida last in graduation rates
A study released Thursday claims Florida had the lowest high school graduation rate in the country in 2000, but the Florida Board of Education disputes those numbers.
The study, conducted by the Manhattan Institute for Policy Research, estimated that 55 percent of Florida's high schoolers who should have graduated in 2000 actually earned diplomas that year, well below the national average of 69 percent.
"It certainly does paint a disturbing picture of Florida education," said Marcus Winters, a researcher for the institute which has an office in Davie.
State education figures claim Florida's graduation rate in 2000 was 62 percent, and climbed to 68 percent in 2002....

Study: Just 55% graduate in state
Florida ranked dead last in a new national study of high school graduation rates compiled by a conservative think tank that in the past has praised Gov. Jeb Bush's education overhaul.

Bush plans three-day inaugural celebration
Gov. Jeb Bush's inaugural celebration will include three events in Miami and Tallahassee, leading up the actual swearing-in on Jan. 7, a spokesman said.
The celebration begins with a barbecue in Miami on Jan. 5, a black-tie-or-jeans ball in Tallahassee on Jan. 6, and a prayer breakfast preceding the inaugural on Jan. 7, Bush spokesman Todd Harris said Wednesday...

Accused firm cleared of false-report charges
MIAMI — A nonprofit agency hired two years ago to help relieve Florida's Department of Children & Families with a 50,000-case backlog has been cleared of allegations that it falsified records pertaining to some of those cases...

Public TV Brouhaha Cost Hits $140,000
TAMPA - Attorneys for Hillsborough County have used the equivalent of $140,000 to fight a lawsuit filed by Speak Up Tampa Bay to restore public funding of the local public access TV channel. ...

Lawmakers to consider monetary caps in malpractice cases
TALLAHASSEE — Gov. Jeb Bush said Wednesday that a looming crisis in medical malpractice is driving doctors out of state and is tied with dealing with classroom size as the No. 1 problem facing the state...

Broward Democrats told to let minorities, youth become leaders

Lawsuit against professor to stay in federal court
TAMPA — The lawsuit filed against a tenured computer engineering professor the University of South Florida is trying to fire for alleged terrorist ties will stay in federal court. Lawyers for USF had asked U.S. District Judge Susan Bucklew to send the lawsuit the university brought against Sami Al-Arian back to state court, where the case was originally filed...

Stockbroker using Uncle Sam's medical marijuana for 20 years
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. - ... A stock broker, Rosenfeld deals with millions of dollars while smoking up to 12 joints daily - marijuana he gets from the federal government to treat a rare bone ailment.--
"It has made my life much easier to live and kept my condition in check," Rosenfeld said Wednesday, 20 years to the day he received his first marijuana shipment from the government under a program which today has only six other members.
Rosenfeld, 49, suffers from two rare conditions which cause tumors to grow on his long bones. They cause severe muscle spasms, internal bleeding and unbearable pain. He would be unable to walk at any time because his muscles would give out.
He spent more than 15 years taking prescription drugs, including morphine. But they couldn't prevent late night spasms and the constant pain which made his life a nightmare.  ...
He says he hasn't had a new tumor since (1992) and plays softball once a week, though he uses a designated runner. He gets 11 ounces of marijuana, rolled in cigarettes, delivered monthly to a local pharmacy, and he only pays courier costs. Marijuana is now his only medicine...

Snowmobile damage
In winter, nearly 1,700 snowmobiles roar into Yellowstone National Park on the typical weekend day, filling the air with noxious fumes and a dreadful racket. The carbon monoxide pollution is so bad that fresh air has to be pumped into offices to protect park employees' health. As for noise, winter visitors to Old Faithful will hear the drone of snowmobiles 95 percent of the time. The traffic disrupts wildlife patterns as well, putting further strain on the delicate balance between human and environmental needs....

Ashcroft: Terrorist alerts will continue
TAMPA — Attorney General John Ashcroft said Wednesday that the government will continue to issue nonspecific alerts about possible terrorist attacks because the public is better off having sketchy details than none at all. Ashcroft, on a three-city swing through the South to meet with regional Anti-Terrorism Task Force members, said relaying whatever information the government gets regarding possible attacks is the best way to keep the public and local law enforcement alert...

A security story with a twist
The Department of Homeland Security started out as a gleam in the eyes of Democrats and was originally pooh-poohed by the Bush administration, which then saw the department was inevitable, changed its mind and introduced a major twist. It's that twist — essentially the discarding of efficiency-encumbering civil service rules — that gives the administration a chance of actually making the new department into something that just might work someday...

Special-interest security mars homeland security
GOP taints creation of anti-terror department. The bill to create a Department of Homeland Security has as much pork as a truck-stop breakfast and does more in the short term for special interests than for the nation.
Among the many bad additions that House Republican leaders made before the bill reached the Senate is the after-the-fact cancellation of lawsuits by families suing a vaccine maker for past negligence. The plaintiffs will have to lay out their money to show that the provision is unconstitutional. But Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., and new House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, R-Texas, believed that repaying the pharmaceutical lobby was more important then national security. In the same spirit of patriotism, they allowed companies that evade taxes by locating themselves in foreign countries to contract with the new department....

Molly Ivins: It's gettin' downright creepy out there
Readin' the newspapers anymore is eerily reminiscent of all those bad novels warning of the advent of fascism in America. "It Can't Happen Here" by Sinclair Lewis was a bad book, and the genre shades off into right-wing paranoia about black helicopters, including the memorably awful "Turner Diaries." I don't use the f-word myself — in fact, for years, I've made fun of liberals who hear the approach of jackbooted fascism around every corner. But to quote a real authority on the subject, "Fascism should more properly be called corporatism, since it is the merger of state and corporate power." — Benito Mussolini...

Dangerous wiretap ruling-- Sentinel position: The appeals court ruling on secret searches flies in the face of the Fourth Amendment. In giving federal authorities more power to use wiretaps and other kinds of secret searches, an appeals court didn't just knock down the wall between intelligence gathering and criminal prosecutions. It also punched a hole in the Constitution

Homeland reorganization: Secrecy and unaccountability won't improve security
Pending the imminent signature of President Bush, the Department of Homeland Security is now a fact. 

Terror grows in our own back yard -- When Rigoberta Menchu Tum, outspoken human- rights advocate, won the Nobel Peace Prize a decade ago, Latin America was poised to embrace democracy. Not just in Menchu's Guatemala but throughout the hemisphere.... ... "We are at the point of returning to the past," Menchu said Tuesday while speaking to the Amnesty International chapter in Orlando. Menchu focused her comments mostly on her native Guatemala, but the evidence is all around us that true democracy is losing out in the region and that the extremes of the left and the right are strangling progress.

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