Report: power plant emissions make Florida air among the worst

Is there a water crisis?
DEP doesn't expect shortage
"Crisis"? What water crisis? The Florida Council of 100 suggests that Florida is facing a future of water shortages - a "looming crisis" in the words of one council member.

Districts seek solutions to water woes.
Florida needs more water by 2020, and the state's water-management districts say they are helping local utilities find it. The Northwest Florida Water Management District has identified Santa Rosa, Okaloosa and Walton counties together as the only area facing water-supply problems through 2020.

President: Brother made 'right decision' in reinserting tube

Husband's lawyers challenge 'Terri's Law'
 CLEARWATER -- A hastily passed state law that gave Gov. Jeb Bush the authority to keep a severely brain-damaged woman alive is unconstitutional and should be overturned, attorneys for the woman's husband said in a filing Wednesday

Scripted in haste
Scripps bill is missing oversight
It will be years before Floridians know if it was brilliant to spend $310 million in federal economic-stimulus money on just one entity. Or whether it was folly to use the whole pot for bringing Scripps Research Institute to Palm Beach County instead of sharing the wealth with other economic engines, such as our research universities.
**Some opt for baseball over legislative vote
**Can Florida become a high-tech state?
**Gov. Bush meets with FDA over proposed Scripps biotech lab

Report: State loses more than $1 billion a year in tax loopholes

Credibility on the line
Florida consumers' final hope for winning relief in an upcoming telephone rate case is a fair hearing from the state's Public Service Commission. The five-member commission will decide if an unprecedented 30- to 90-percent residential rate hike requested by Verizon, BellSouth and Sprint is justified. Yet recent revelations about the cozy relationship between PSC commissioners and the three phone companies raise serious doubts about the fairness of that process.
PSC Party Merits Scrutiny
The partying by the Public Service Commission at a conference, reportedly paid for at least in part by an industry it is supposed to regulate, deserves scrutiny. Very thorough scrutiny.

Judge disallows computer firm's claim against Byrd
A claim that the House speaker wanted a hidden site in a computer system to track "political IOUs" cannot be raised at trial.
If Byrd flies north, would the mischief go with him?
 In a perverse way, you've got to admire House Speaker Johnnie Byrd.
He really doesn't care what anyone thinks.
Call him ambitious. Call him scheming. Accuse him of operating out of nothing but unbridled self-interest.
The names are water off a duck's back, if Byrd is the duck.

Former state representative owes thousands in fines

Improve, Or Risk Suspension
Unless Miriam Oliphant complies with official calls for her to upgrade her dismal performance and adopt major reforms in the supervisor of elections office by Nov. 10, Gov. Jeb Bush should suspend her.
**Broward elections supervisor denies critical report
**Time's up
Now is the time to remove the Broward County elections chief.

City to host free trade talks Nov. 16-21
As the U.S. and other nations in the Free Trade Area of the Americas prepare for another round of meetings, South Florida - and those who will come to Miami to support or protest the free trading bloc - is gearing up. Business and political groups will lobby to make Miami the FTAA headquarters. Police are setting up tough security to keep protests from getting out of hand. And those who will protest are rallying support on the Internet around the world.

Millions in aid for Florida shrimpers tied up in Tallahassee

State waiting for Convergys to get it right
The Department of Management Services remains serenely confident about the outsourcing of state personnel systems. But until Convergys shows it can get the state payroll and employee benefits just right, Secretary Bill Simon said, DMS is not making any payments on the company's $290 million contract. Since May Day, when the first phase of the Convergys contract kicked in, the state was supposed to be paying an average of $3.5 million a month - which would be about $21 million by now.

Miami port refuses Greenpeace ship; says it poses security risk

Group: State has failed to warn about polluted fish in St. Johns

We Can't Have A Straw Vote! Somebody Might Lose!
From a purely mercenary political point of view, it is probably appropriate the nine Democratic presidential candidates are about as excited at the prospect of a Florida straw poll as Jeb Bush pondering Columba's monthly Nieman Marcus bill.

Bullet train panel chooses Disney-backed route

Florida-to-Georgia shift among nation's biggest, census finds

Cuba policy will change
Senate joins House to remove travel ban.

Unfair tax treatment
Nabor Industries, a large well-drilling and marine-transport company, is trying to play Congress and the American people for suckers. Although Nabor operates out of Houston, it moved its headquarters to a Bermuda mail drop for tax purposes. Thanks to loopholes in American tax law, Nabor was able to cut its U.S. taxes by 80 percent, giving it an unfair advantage over its taxpaying competitors and denying the nation needed revenue at a time of record deficits.

Bush stuck on pre-war
News conference creates more confusion.

Molly Ivins: Spin doctoring at its finest
AUSTIN, Texas -- There is something faintly risible about the American habit of thinking we can fix problems through better public relations. We seem to think a positive mental attitude and high approval ratings can solve anything from shingles to famine. Global warming? Spin that puppy right out of existence. Economy bad? Send the treasury secretary out to predict the creation of 200,000 new jobs a month -- that'll make everybody feel better.

10/26-24/03

Miami FTAA protest plan wins initial approval--
Miami commissioners support limiting protests at upcoming trade summit
MIAMI -- Imagine the Goombay Festival without stilt walkers. The King Mango Strut Parade without floats. Or even a child's birthday party without water balloons.
That's what could happen in Miami under the newest version of a controversial ordinance originally designed to give police sweeping powers to arrest demonstrators during free-trade meetings next month...
Miami's bid for trade headquarters puts image on the line
For decades, Miami has touted itself as the capital of Latin America. Now city leaders finally see a chance to make the title official - or, they fear, officially misplaced.

Options eyed for high insurance costs
Maine, California provide models for universal coverage
Sandy Thompson, owner of Artistic Flowers, has more on her mind than selling roses. Costs of HMO coverage for herself and her 13 employees increased 30 to 50 percent this year, depending on the worker's age and gender.

Court upholds law that makes firing state workers easier--

State salaries, job statistics looking better
It's always risky to start drawing conclusions from statistics. Based solely on the numbers, after all, more people die in hospitals than in movie theaters. So statistically speaking, this would seem to suggest that if you start having chest pains, you ought to be rushed to the nearest cinema.

Paper company selling Panhandle land for development (International Paper Co)

Florida's $369-million secret?
Critics say Scripps Research Institute will have wide discretion in what it reveals as it spends taxpayers' money.
TALLAHASSEE - Florida taxpayers could have a hard time keeping track of how their money will be spent to bring the world's largest private research center to Florida. Legislation to spend $369-million in tax money on a Florida branch of the Scripps Research Institute gives the company broad discretion in what it discloses, open government advocates say.Democrats initially opposed exemptions to the public records law, but wound up supporting them in exchange for millions of dollars in pet projects. The money was later killed, but the exemptions stand...
Florida finds cash for Scripps
Wrangling ends with Legislature approving $369-million to bring biomedical firm to Palm Beach.
TALLAHASSEE - Florida lawmakers late Thursday voted to spend $369-million of taxpayer money to lure the world's largest private research center to open a branch in Palm Beach County.
Scripps Research Institute Q&A---
Tough questions remain about the Scripps Research Institute's vision for Palm Beach County
In the afterglow of a whirlwind courtship that included the promise of more than $500 million from Florida taxpayers, officials of The Scripps Research Institute found a field of dreams in a remote orange grove in north-central Palm Beach County.
Session ends without fund Bush wanted for economic development

Loophole Inc.: A special report on Florida's corporate income tax
The state loses more than $1-billion a year in exceptions to its corporate income tax. Ninety-eight percent of businesses pay nothing.
Enacted in the '70s, outdated over time
Tied to the IRS code, the state's corporate tax base took a hit each time it went along with new federal laws.
Low taxes: Is that the formula for job growth?
Do low corporate taxes spur investment and jobs? Or do they simply reward the wealthy while increasing the tax burden on people who can least afford to pay?

Democrats use records bill to gain leverage
Members in the House got voucher money transferred to public schools, but the Senate kills $50-million for projects. TALLAHASSEE - House Democrats enjoyed a rare legislative victory Thursday that was as thrilling for them as it was fleeting. Outnumbered 2 to 1, the 39 House Democrats are used to being ignored. But they got the full attention of Republican leaders when they used a rule regarding public records exemptions to shift $38-million in school voucher money to public schools.

State not rushing to link databases to interstate anti-terrorism program

Why I said no to Bush's $87-billion by Bob Graham
President Bush's $87-billion supplemental appropriations request for the occupation and rebuilding of Iraq and Afghanistan forces us to consider significant domestic questions, but also forces us to ask the fundamental question of what is required for an honorable completion of our responsibilities in Iraq and an expeditious exit....

$5 increase in monthly premium for KidCare questioned

Lower FCAT standards a reelection ploy
When parents sought break, state said no.

South Florida Water Management district jobs at risk in makeover of department
Dissatisfied with their image in the media, South Florida water managers are dramatically revamping their Public Information Department in way that could cost some employees their jobs.

Politics turns a tragedy into cruel charade
Schiavo law should be overturned In an act of callous political opportunism, Gov. Jeb Bush last week basically kicked down the door of a hospice and forced a feeding tube down poor Terri Schiavo's throat.
Battle over Terri Schiavo strikes chord for thousands of families
... Those working with the terminally ill or incapacitated say that what has happened to Terri Schiavo should send a message to everyone: Draft the most detailed, advanced medical directives possible. And talk to your family about them, if you want to ensure they'll be followed....
Schiavo case becoming moral, legal landmark
Arguments over removing the comatose woman's feeding tube have raised the biggest possible issues of morality, medicine and law.
Bush takes courts off life support
At least Terri Schiavo never will be aware of how far the state's political leadership went to exploit her tragedy.
ACLU to enter Pinellas court fight on brain-damaged woman
Gov. Bush has history of activism on right to life issue
Lieberman backs Bush's brother in case of comatose woman

Fishermen request state health investigation into skin infections

State rescinds citrus canker quarantines in Martin, Hendry counties
Florida's Department of Agriculture on Thursday declared citrus canker eradicated from parts of Martin and Hendry counties even as agency officials reported more diseased trees in Palm Beach County.
Why is the state's anti-citrus canker program showing vastly different results in neighboring counties?

Judge certifies tenants' class-action suit against landlord

Don't Add Paper Backup Ballots
Any vote counting system -- touch-screen computers, optically-scanned hand-marked paper ballots, punch cards or levered voting machines -- is subject to error, malfunction or fraud. Officials should strive for maximum accuracy and security.
Report: Broward elections supervisor unprepared for elections

Glitch at Broward Clerk of Courts left many on wanted list
The Broward Clerk of Courts office has scrambled to correct a procedural error that left hundreds of people with arrest warrants for years after their charges had been dismissed.

Bacterial outbreak in Volusia puzzles health experts
DAYTONA BEACH -- Gary Hill first noticed a small pimple on his leg a few weeks ago. In time, the sore multiplied, and some of the itchy bumps grew as large as a half-dollar coin.

Presidential candidate Kucinich addresses health care union

Wackenhut denies Venezuelan employees are CIA agents

Analysis: Report shows hard times ahead for state budgets

Senate votes to end restrictions on travel to Cuba

How Bush can win war of words
President needs his own media empire.

Molly Ivins: What happened to the weapons of mass destruction?
SEATTLE -- What a gully-washer. What a frog-strangler. You ain't seen rain until you've seen record rain in Seattle. My wetness awareness has shot up thanks to this town. But next day, the sun came out -- and you could hardly tell the deluge had occurred.
And so it is in our public life -- the finger of fate writes, and having writ, moves on, leaving today's horrendous scandal back there with the snows of yesteryear, while we all focus on The Latest.
But there is one deception that will not go away. What happened to the weapons of mass destruction? "The intolerable reality is that they blatantly twisted intelligence information to fit preconceived policies," said Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif. "They lied to promote public relations, from the Jessica Lynch ordeal to the president's campaign landing on the USS Abraham Lincoln --- and about what war would cost our country." ..

Prewar nuclear claims against Iraq still unproven
So far, evidence suggests the administration was well off target in its claims of an Iraqi atomic weapons program.

D.C. antiwar protesters demand troops come home
Thousands march near the White House against the Bush administration's Iraq policy.

.... more news coming

10/23-20/03

Miami preparing for free trade meeting, thousands of protesters

House speaker silent on computer suit
Johnnie Byrd's lawyer moves to have him spared a deposition in the case involving Hayes Computer Systems.
TALLAHASSEE - House Speaker Johnnie Byrd does not want to be forced to answer questions in a $3-million lawsuit against the House over a computer system....

Some Doubt Scripps Biotech Deal in Florida Would Create Projected Jobs
If Florida and Palm Beach County decide to ante up more than $450 million to entice the Scripps Research Institute to establish a research center in the state, they will be doing it for one reason only: jobs.
Gov. Jeb Bush and other supporters of the project contend that Scripps' commitment to hire 545 people in seven years will create more than 50,000 jobs over 15 years.
But that projection has begun to invite at least some skepticism.
http://www.uspoliticstoday.com/picture.php?img=uspol_20031022_2.gif - Oh, be serious! This would be an investment in Florida's future! What could fully funding public schools possibly do for the state?
Lawmakers seeing Scripps' deal not so starry-eyed
Legislators are taking a closer look at the proposed $310 million Scripps Florida deal, and many are not liking what they see.
Secrecy of Scripps plan irritates Palm Beach County commissioners
While a $310 million incentive package for The Scripps Research Institute appears to be speeding through the Legislature in Tallahassee, three Palm Beach County commissioners said they were snubbed during the secretive process that lured the biotech giant here.
Gov. Bush's $310 million Scripps deal riles Black Caucus
TALLAHASSEE -- Black state legislators led an angry revolt Wednesday against Gov. Jeb Bush's proposal to spend millions of dollars to lure a biotech institute to Florida, capping off a topsy-turvy day of horse trading and racial politics.

Analysis refutes some figures
Bush assures lawmakers
Governor fields questions about Scripps project
In an unprecedented question-and-answer sales pitch to lawmakers who seemed already sold on his $310 million biotech deal, Gov. Jeb Bush said Monday that Florida has nothing to lose - and a worldwide reputation for scientific advancement to gain - in this week's special legislative session.
Money maybe, but not free rein
Gov. Jeb Bush may soon be able to tap economic development money - with oversight.
Bush 'mega' economic development pot proposal hobbled, passage looks slim

Bush orders feeding tube to be reinserted
Years after court battles began and six days after Terri Schiavo's feeding tube was removed, the Legislature and Gov. Jeb Bush stepped in and ordered that it be reinserted.
Gov. Jeb Bush ordered a feeding tube reattached to a brain-damaged woman Tuesday after lawmakers granted him the unprecedented power to defy a court ruling.
Governor of Florida Orders Woman Fed in Right-to-Die Case
Doctors call recovery one-in-million chance
The odds are against Terri Schiavo ever recovering from a persistent vegetative state in which her reflexes rather than her intellect control her movements.
One in a million -- or less. Those are the odds doctors place on Terri Schiavo emerging from what most medical experts say is a persistent vegetative state that has enveloped the 39-year-old woman for more than a decade.
Doctors say suffering unlikely for brain-damaged Florida woman
Lieberman backs Jeb Bush in Fla. case
Right-to-life movement celebrates victories while abortion-rights groups worry
Attorney for husband of brain-damaged woman outraged at Jeb Bush

Brown-Waite Presses Senate President King To Hold Water Hearings In Citrus, Marion and Levy Counties
WASHINGTON—U.S. Congresswoman Ginny Brown-Waite, in recent letters to Senate President Jim King and Florida Senate Natural Resources Committee Chairman Al Lawson, has urged the two lawmakers to hold public water hearings in Citrus, Marion and Levy Counties, which, as some of Florida’s most water-rich areas, have the greatest potential to be affected by the Council of 100’s recent recommendation to again allow water transfers from water-heavy to water-needy areas around the state.

AARP takes on phone rate plan

Senate slams how vouchers are managed
Reports blame a lack of rules for allowing 'unstable' schools to take advantage of taxpayers' money.
Voucher 'reforms' can't conceal problems
Horne still fixated on indefensible programs.

Smaller classes, at a lower cost
How governor can look helpful, not 'devious.'

Governor's statistics about public schools create skeptics
If one believes the statistical data coming out of the Florida Department of Education, the educational initiatives of Gov. Jeb Bush are working. They are impressive, yet they leave me unimpressed...

Standards issue as school grades rise
Rules say math and reading standards must rise, but Education Commissioner Jim Horne wants a delay.
Board of Education considers pre-K, raising testing standards

Budget committees direct unclaimed jackpot to colleges
Public college tuition leaps 14%, private 6%
College tuition skyrocketed during the past year, the New York-based College Board reports.

Rehab hospitals oppose rule change, warn it would limit access for some
They say the Medicare revision would slash the number of Medicare patients they could treat.

10/19-16/03

EPA water quality expert for Lee, Collier loses job
In 2001, amid growing worries that development was destroying too much of Southwest Florida's vital wetlands, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency brought in Bruce Boler and gave him the task of safeguarding the area's water quality. While other EPA scientists review entire states, Boler was assigned to scrutinize wetlands permits in just two fast-growing counties — Lee and Collier. His job was to enforce the federal Clean Water Act and ensure that developments were not polluting protected waterways. Less than three years later, Boler has lost his job.
The spineless EPA

Environmentalists raise concerns about Lake Okeechobee releases

Judge blocks Atlanta water deal
Florida: Water sources still need protection
North Georgia's efforts to get more water have hit a snag. A federal judge in Alabama on Wednesday issued an order blocking an agreement that would have allowed Atlanta-area cities to take more water from the Apalachicola-Chattahoochee-Flint river system.

Seven schools being tested for toxins
A student's research on her Pensacola-area middle school, which is near two toxic waste sites, leads to her mother's questions and DEP action.

Governor chastises rivals
In an e-mail, Bush accuses potential gubernatorial candidates of pursuing campaigns -- what he calls a 'distraction' from his brother's reelection efforts.
Gov. Jeb Bush secured his reelection nearly a year ago, but now he's asking GOP donors and activists not to commit to the Republicans angling to succeed him -- calling the early jockeying for his job a distraction from his brother's reelection campaign.
Read the letter from Jeb Bush to Republican fundraisers ...
Governor wants Florida GOP focusing on brother, not 2006 ...
Florida tops list of President Bush's biggest fund-raisers ...

Gov. Bush's hatchet woman will help plug California's huge budget hole
TALLAHASSEE -- Most Floridians don't know Donna Arduin, but they have her to thank for their lower taxes, smaller state government and balanced budget.
She's the budgetary hatchet woman who has, during nearly five years as Gov. Jeb Bush's budget director, worked behind thescenes voraciously promoting tax cuts while slashing spending and jobs. Republicans love her, Democrats at least admire her skill.
But now she's on loan to California, where newly-elected Arnold Schwarzenegger needs that kind of help. As he prepares to become governor, California is looking at a gaping $10 billion hole in a nearly $100 billion budget. Over the next several weeks, Arduin will use paid vacation leave from Florida to help audit California's books and ferret out waste.

Lawmakers prepare for Scripps session
Gov. Bush to Senate: Other states would pay $310 million for Scripps ...

Bush, leaders formally apply for Miami to be FTAA's host site

Voucher flaws and fixes are revealed
State Education Commissioner Jim Horne spells out problems with one voucher program and proposes remedies.
Horne unveils wish list of changes to corporate voucher program
Whistle-blower suggested 'new' voucher reforms first
Many of the proposed reforms announced Thursday were first thought of more than a year ago -- by a state worker who since has been relegated to a do-nothing job.

Cut off voucher money to all religious schools
It puts Florida in an impossible position.

State vows to tighten leash on charter schools

Lawsuit: Byrd wanted private system in House computer network

Byrd names an ally to high speed rail panel
TALLAHASSEE - House Speaker Johnnie Byrd has appointed Tampa lawyer Steve Burton, one of his closest political allies, to a seat on the Florida High Speed Rail Authority.

Drug seller sued over distributing phony pills
LARGO - Serving as an example of an alarming trend, a unit of Largo drug wholesaler DrugMax Inc. is being sued, accused of distributing counterfeit doses of the popular cholesterol drug Lipitor.
DrugMax denies the allegations, saying the batch of phony Lipitor tablets apparently originated somewhere else in the supply chain.
Nevertheless, the suit, filed in U.S. District Court in New York, underscores a growing concern that fake pills are making their way to consumers, in part because medication often passes through multiple distributors before it is sold.

A Cuba Garden party
Bush acts for votes, not in country's interest.

Power check
Instead of giving the president and attorney general even greater authority under the Patriot Act, Congress should hold them accountable for the power they're already abusing.

Molly Ivins: The Great Liberal Backlash of 2003
AUSTIN, Texas — I'm a card-carrying member of The Great Liberal Backlash of 2003, one of the half-dozen or so writers now schlepping around the country promoting books that do not speak kindly of Our Leader's record. As a group, we are making satisfying inroads on the best-seller lists, a merciful switch from the garboid right-wing cow-flops that have appeared there lately.
Our points of view vary, our modes of attack differ — some of us are funny and some somber — but it continues to amaze me that there is so little overlap in what we have written. What's wrong with this administration is not a short list.
Nevertheless, we are, one and all, being dismissed by right-wing media, with its unmistakable lockstep precision....

10/15-14/03

Water-use plan faces opposition
A proposal that would make it easier to move water from rural North Florida to the state's urban south comes under fire at a hearing in Boca Raton.
The problem isn't too little water, it's too many people. That was one of the big messages delivered Tuesday as state lawmakers sought public reaction to a plan from a powerful business group that sees the solution to South Florida's water worries in the deep underground reserves of the rural north

Questions raised about Florida public counsel candidates

Palm Beach jumps on Scripps deal quickly
In just an hour, the county pledges $60-million more to the biomedical deal than was expected. But concerns remain.
Palm Beach County approves $200 million in bonds to lure biotech firm
Central Florida groups on board
Central Florida civic leaders say they'll support plans to lure Scripps Research Institute into the state.
Governor's idea lured biotech giant
Florida Gov. Jeb Bush came up with the idea that the Scripps Research Institute should establish another biomedical-research center, then offered the California-based institute hundreds of millions of dollars to put the new center in his state.
Scripps, Florida lawmakers detail plans for biotech center
Scripps executive foresees a changing Florida
The Scripps Institute is ready to recruit scientists and establish its Florida laboratories in Palm Beach County as soon as state lawmakers put up $310 million in economic-development funding in a special legislative session next week.

School officials wary of charter firms
A pair of related companies have applied to run 19 charter schools in Florida. The size of the request has stirred concerns among educators.

Private juvenile justice can have a public cost
Consider the Florida Institute for Girls.

Name all contributors
Legislators have been able to get around identifying some political contributors.

Boyd abandons Senate bid
U.S. Rep. Allen Boyd of Monticello leaves the field of five Democrats waiting to see if Bob Graham vacates his Senate seat.
As U.S. Sen. Bob Graham takes his time pondering whether he will seek reelection next year, one of the Democrats hoping to replace him said Tuesday he just couldn't afford to wait any longer for Graham's answer.

Columnist misrepresented Nelson's stand on Medicare bill
Re. "Why did Nelson support a bill that hurts retirees?" (My View, Oct. 9). Writer Earl Dobert should try to get his facts straight. He wrote that I support legislation that will hurt retirees because I voted for a preliminary version of a Medicare prescription drug bill.

Elections officials worry about Broward
State inquiry called to see if the county's elections office remains troubled.

Contract to improve Florida child support collections signed

Kids may lose insurance at 5
Children now enrolled in KidCare, the state's subsidized-insurance program for children, may be forced onto its growing waiting list.

Health insurance task force members differ on ways to fill needs

Longtime child welfare employee fired from Miami supervisor post

Farm workers' continued plight
They work day after day in the withering Florida sun to bring fresh fruits and vegetables to America's table. Their thanks is benign neglect at best and exploitation at worst. The plight of Florida's farm workers has never really captured the concern of politicians. If it had, growers would no longer be allowed to charge farm workers absurdly high rents to stay in squalid company-owned trailers or shacks, and they wouldn't still be paying tomato pickers 40 cents for every 32-pound bucket - the same rate as 30 years ago.

USF president ousts med school dean over political fund raising

Musings on the pastime of politics with blinders
...I could hear it in the voices, the tenor of the sentences. My experience with this column, and these responses, is typical of the way we Americans conduct our politics these days. Balls fly from either hard left or hard right. Too many of us have lost all sense of the middle. We're past the stage of speaking in normal tones. We're into shouting now....

The truth about lawyers
In Martin Scorsese's remake of the film "Cape Fear," Max Cady, a psychopath who spent years in prison for brutally raping a teenaged girl, discovers that Sam Bowden, his lawyer, withheld crucial evidence that could have acquitted Cady, because Bowden was so disgusted by his client's crime.

Big money for Bush gallops in from Florida
Collect more than $200,000 for the president and you're a Ranger. This state has more than any other.

Molly Ivins: Let's pay attention before it all gets out of control
AUSTIN, Texas — Holy smoke! I know hellzapoppin' with the news here lately, but let's try keeping our eye on the shell with the pea under it. Fascinating as all this inside-D.C. stuff is about Rummy and Cheney, and who leaked the CIA agent's name, there's some major stuff being buried in the business section.
The manipulation of mutual funds — nice, safe, comfortable old mutual funds — is a story heating up nicely. In addition, if you are following the trial of Frank Quattrone in the nasty case of manipulating high-tech IPOs, you already have been whomperjawed over the goings on.
Add The New York Times Sunday account of how states and municipalities have been talked into bond issues...

10/13-11/03

An outrageous snub
There is a reason few legislators stepped forward Friday to explain why Charlie Beck did not make the short list to become the state's top utility consumer advocate. Beck has made a career of taking on utility companies. This must be exactly what their front men in the Legislature don't want - a public counsel who sides with the people when utilities want to raise their rates. Excluding him as a finalist is an outrage, and lawmakers - those having any sense of integrity - should insist he be reconsidered for the job.

Biomedical opportunity
Gov. Bush must ensure the excitement over luring Scripps Research Institute to Florida doesn't override prudence in doing so.
Deal reaction: Sounds great, tell us more
Lawmakers generally favor Gov. Bush's plan to lure a research institute to Florida.
TALLAHASSEE - As Gov. Jeb Bush toured Palm Beach County on Friday touting his plan to lure one of the world's largest research companies to Florida, lawmakers began raising questions about a deal that would cost state taxpayers $310-million.
Senate leaders wondered if they can get all their questions answered in time for the Oct. 20-24 special session called by Bush.
What Scripps can mean, what state must do
Give details on money, make commitment last.
Lawmakers: Little time to learn about proposed biotech deal

State-DCA merger will come in 2005
Gov. Jeb Bush often admits to being impatient with the complexities of state government, wishing he could make overnight changes in the structure and operation of agencies that he thinks could work better.

State's next insurance crisis: health
A vicious spiral of skyrocketing premiums and decreases in coverage has grabbed lawmakers' attention.
Questions and answers on health insurance
Facts and figures on Florida's health insurance crisis and what might be done about it.

Keeping insurance out of reach
Appearances do matter, but Gov. Jeb Bush's staff seems to have been blind to them when it scheduled the time and place for the first public meeting of his task force on affordable health insurance. It was inserted into the program of an industry-oriented insurance symposium being held at the Biltmore in Coral Gables, one of Florida's most opulent hotels, for which a $200 admission fee was being charged. Private citizens who weren't insurance executives could get the fee waived, but nobody connected with the symposium, which was sponsored by the Office of Insurance Regulation, went out of the way to tell them and they had to pursue the fine print to figure it out.

What's the plan?
Gov. Jeb Bush has acknowledged that Florida's education system desperately needs "stable funding," but has offered no ideas for a source.

Increasing vouchers to religious schools stirs debate
By Kimberly Miller and S.V. Date, Palm Beach Post Staff Writers
Rising use of Florida vouchers to religious schools stirs the debate on tax money aiding churches.

Universities reach outside of academia for new leaders

List of uninsured kids grows after KidCare is frozen

Limbaugh admits painkiller addiction
The radio-show host also told listeners he would be entering rehab following the broadcast.

Historically black beach disappears with integration

Black vet: Blocked by bias
A Vietnam War veteran says he was prevented from joining the American Legion Everglades Post 20 because he is black. Willie Alexander, 51, applied for membership in early June, hoping his 21 years of military service would pay off with an active social scene. Post commanders told him they would consider his application at their next meeting. First, they told him they forgot. Then he said they forgot again. Finally, he gave up and got his $30 application fee back.

How Bob Graham's campaign unraveled
Strategy disagreements, political 'strangers' and ultimately a lack of money derailed his presidential bid.

Drilling plan revival possible
Members of the Collier family say they are considering expanding their Big Cypress oil exploration business.
A federal investigation that has stalled an Everglades buyout has a rich Florida pioneer family thinking about reviving plans for exploratory oil and gas drilling on some of the nation's most sensitive land.

Safety pays off big
Benefits from cleaner air far outweigh the costs.

West Nile's Florida paradox
Floridians rarely get West Nile, so weather, spraying, air conditioning or mosquitoes' tastes must be the reason.

State considers extended dumping of Piney Point water

Retirees fear insurance cuts if Medicare bill passes
Some predict that about 4 million retirees with employer-sponsored health coverage would lose it.

Florida owes California its gratitude
'Gov. Schwarzenegger' is worse than `Florida chads' ''Well, now it's official,'' David Letterman told his audience the other night. ``Florida is no longer the dumbest state in the union.''

Antiwar coalition lobbies senators against current Iraq policy

Over a barrel in Iraq
White House oversold potential oil revenue.

This typical mom also worked as a spy
Friends had no idea Valerie Wilson was with the CIA.

The Red Cross speaks up
The International Committee of the Red Cross is usually a pretty tight-lipped group. The Swiss-based humanitarian organization has been visiting captured combatants of international conflicts since 1915 in order to evaluate the sufficiency of their confinement. It has rarely made its criticisms public.

10/10-8/03

DEEP TROUBLE:THE GULF IN PERIL - RUNNING AMOK:
Agencies fail to protect rivers and wetlands as they finesse promise of the Clean Water Act.
Turkey Creek runs through the town of North Gulfport, a predominantly black community in coastal Mississippi where Rose Johnson has lived her whole life. A long time ago, she was baptized in the creek. Nobody does that anymore. "It's too filthy," the 57-year-old grandmother said. Pollution in Turkey Creek turned Johnson into an environmental activist...

Edison Schools buyout links Florida to a loser
Pension fund trustees should 'interfere.'

Top aide to education chief resigns
Larry Wood, who caused a stir when he received a $42,000 pay raise, will leave next month.

Faith-based services raise new questions
The proposals are steeped in feel-good language such as "strengthening Florida's families," taking advantage of "faith-based organizations" and offering "charitable choice."

Critics decry insurance meeting's fancy digs
A task force's first meeting was free and public. But it was held within a pricey symposium at a high-dollar hotel.
TALLAHASSEE - A governor's task force studying how to make health insurance more affordable held its first public meeting recently during an insurance symposium at an opulent Miami hotel that cost $200 to attend.
The audience was dominated by insurance interests, and no consumer advocates are on the task force, appointed by the governor in August to recommend changes in state law...

Sea of voices urge no water rerouting
At a public hearing on the Council of 100's report, a lone supporter from Pinellas is heard.
LAKELAND - Farmers, politicians and utility executives turned out Wednesday to argue against several proposed changes in the way Florida's water supply is divvied up.
In the first of five public hearings, about 100 people crowded into Lakeland City Hall to tell five state senators what they thought about a report recently unveiled by the Council of 100, a group of business leaders who advise Gov. Jeb Bush. (more...)

State adds 329 acres to Everglades park
Florida is helping the federal government's 14-year effort to expand Everglades National Park.

State high court hears arguments on canker cuttings

Huge incentives lure research group to Fla.
The deal brokered by Gov. Jeb Bush to entice the Scripps Research Institute to expand is expected to cost taxpayers at least $400-million.
For $310 million, as many as 50,000 new jobs
Bringing the Scripps Research Institute to Palm Beach County could create as many as 50,000 jobs over the next 15 years, the state says.
Research facility boon for the state
Bush sets special session to establish development fund
Gov. Jeb Bush said Thursday he is calling a special legislative session Oct. 20 to set up a $500 million economic-development fund to attract high-tech jobs to Florida - starting with a mammoth biomedical laboratory in Palm Beach County.
FAU, top biotech group to team
Scripps Research Institute could create a science magnet.
Giant biotech deal set
Gov. Bush likens Scripps Research Institute's Palm Beach County move to Walt Disney deciding on Orlando. 
 Bush woos major biotech firm
Florida's governor has asked lawmakers to spend $310 million to help bring a California biomed research center to South Florida.
Gov. Jeb Bush asked the state Thursday to spend $310 million to lure a branch of the largest biomedical research center in the United States to Palm Beach County, arguing the investment will create thousands of high-paying jobs and position Florida as a hot spot for the biotech industry.
(see more...)

No bid, and no sense
State may give money to alleged drug smuggler.

Public lacks a partner
Legislators, lobbyists hide their intentions.

Farm workers displaced, then forgotten
On June 30, 1998, the St. Johns River Water Management District and the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Natural Resources Conservation Service shut down the muck farms on Lake Apopka's shores. This action was taken to clean up the lake, which had become a pea-green broth as a result of more than 50 years of vegetable farming.

ACLU: DCF policy change boosts gay adoption argument

Florida high court hears debate in taxation of gambling ships

Klayman calls 'wet-foot, dry-foot' policy unconstitutional

James Machen selected University of Florida president

Donated clothing went overseas, not to poor, police say
The massive red bins, located at hundreds of shopping centers throughout Florida, made donating convenient.

Molly Ivins: Great Scriptwriter in the Sky going a little heavy on the irony
AUSTIN, Texas — Not that any of us is in a position to criticize the Great Scriptwriter in the Sky, but don't you think She's been going a little heavy on the irony lately?

Questions arise over Bush panel
Some wonder if the creation of a committee on a transition to democracy in Cuba is just a public relations ploy for the president.
White House plans to create a Presidential Cuba Transition Commission at a ceremony today have skeptics wondering whether the Bush administration is really ratcheting up its pressures on the island to change or is simply trying to quell Cuban-American criticisms in the run-up to presidential elections.
Bush seeks ideas for Cuba regime change

10/7-4/03

Democrats want redistricting panel
A lawmaker pushes a proposed ballot initiative to have a bipartisan panel redraw legislative boundaries.

Task force leader defends water shifts
Water management officials are wary of plans for a statewide panel to oversee diversion from areas of plenty to high development locales.
TAMPA - Facing a skeptical crowd of water managers Friday, the head of a business group studying the state's water supply defended a proposal to create a statewide commission that could route water from rural counties to booming areas.

Payoff for Pfizer, not for state
'Innovative' deal is less than it appears.

Rival wins bid to run Florida Lottery
After a lengthy fight, Rhode Island-based GTECH gets a 10-year lottery contract.
TALLAHASSEE - One of the most lucrative and bitterly contested contracts in state government is changing hands after 15 years.
The Florida Lottery has chosen GTECH Corp. of West Greenwich, R.I., to design and run online games for up to 10 years beginning in 2005. The contract is worth up to $25-million each year, company spokesman Bob Vincent said.

Bleeding our schools
It looks like the Legislature's enrollment projections for this year were substantially off the mark, leaving schools to educate even more students with less money.
As students throughout Florida begin a new year, they return in many counties to schools that have laid off teacher aides and administrators and guidance counselors. Other districts have reduced instructional time or eliminated music or sports or after-school tutoring. Students may find fewer course offerings. Teachers may have gotten little or no pay raise.

Make diplomas count
Florida high school students should go four years.

Byrd picks BlackBerry for House e-mail
The speaker unveils plans to offer one of the hand-held devices to each member at taxpayer expense.
TALLAHASSEE - House Speaker Johnnie Byrd has come up with another way to modernize political communication at taxpayer expense: hand-held e-mail devices for all 120 House members.

Jeb can do better at doing better
Bush leaves education and economy stagnant.

Bush continues push to bring free trade headquarters to Miami

Regier seeks extra $200-million to run DCF
He says the agency's improvements in dealing with a backlog of cases require more funds.
TALLAHASSEE - Jerry Regier marked his first year at the helm of Florida's child welfare agency Wednesday by announcing that he needs an extra $200-million next year to continue what he considers a successful effort to reduce a backlog of cases.

Bush choice may topple Gallagher's ambitions
Three years ago when it appeared that Florida Republicans were facing a bloody primary for the U.S. Senate seat vacated by Connie Mack, Gov. Jeb Bush and GOP chairman Al Cardenas leaned on Tom Gallagher to get out of the race.

Graham ends bid for Oval Office
Hurt by a late start and difficulty raising finances, Florida Sen. Bob Graham ended his bid for the White House.
Graham drops bid to become president
One of Florida's most successful politicians ends his White House race, the first to leave a field of 10 Democrats.
U.S. Sen. Bob Graham, who tried to mold his opposition to President Bush's handling of terrorism and the Iraq war into a viable bid for the White House, abandoned the campaign late Monday after months of struggling to gain traction in a crowded Democratic primary field.

Foley's exit leaves Senate field in flux
Fellow Republicans support his family decision but wonder how to proceed.
TALLAHASSEE - The abrupt withdrawal of U.S. Rep. Mark Foley from Florida's U.S. Senate race shocked the political world Friday and created a wide-open race for the Republican nomination for Bob Graham's seat.

Conservative groups laud GOP
Republican lawmakers score high on Christian Coalition's report card
Almost two-thirds of the Republicans in the House, including Speaker Johnnie Byrd and Big Bend Rep. Bev Kilmer, scored perfect marks on the Christian Coalition of Florida's annual report card.

Retired FDLE chief Moore joins lobbying group
TALLAHASSEE - Former Florida Department of Law Enforcement Commissioner James "Tim" Moore has joined a well-connected Republican lobbying firm that includes former House Speaker John Thrasher.
Southern Strategy Group announced Thursday that Moore is its newest partner. Other partners include Paul Bradshaw, husband of Sally Bradshaw, former chief of staff for Gov. Jeb Bush.

High court hears citrus canker debate
Supreme Court Judges mixed constitutional concerns with practical questions during oral arguments on a South Florida lawsuit over the state's destruction of thousands of citrus trees in its quest to stamp out canker.
Florida Supreme Court to hear arguments on canker cuttings

New judge to put Everglades disputes on fast track

16 whooping cranes to make flight to Florida Wednesday

Tiny town wins battle with St. Joe's plans
A judge orders elections that will give Carrabelle a say in development.
TALLAHASSEE - When the giant St. Joe Co. announced plans to develop vast stretches of coastline between here and Pensacola, a tiny band of citizens sprang into action.
They demanded a say in how the region grows. This week, a judge gave them a victory.
Citizens started circulating petitions two years in the tiny town of Carrabelle, ground zero in St. Joe's development plans. Their goal: a public referendum whenever the city extends water and sewer services outside city limits for new development.

Woodpecker's status lowered
The downgraded status may foreshadow a battle in November over the manatee.
PENSACOLA BEACH - For a small bird, the red-cockaded woodpecker is causing an uproar.
Despite objections from woodpecker experts and environmental activists, a sharply divided state Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission voted Wednesday to ease protection for the bird.

Most muck farm workers still waiting for promised help

Everglades deal under microscope
The investigative arm of the U.S. Department of the Interior has begun an inquiry into the Bush administration's $120 million buyout of oil rights in the western Everglades.

Florida guardsmen getting grief over Iraq marriages

DCF office building blamed for illnesses
Employees at a Department of Children & Families office say the workplace has been making them sick.
Allegations that a Department of Children & Families office building in Florida City made at least 13 employees sick in the past two years has plunged the department, its employees and the landlord into a dispute over who is responsible.
Symptoms -- headaches, rashes, coughs -- began surfacing among employees in 2001, causing DCF supervisors to send the sick employees to a worker's compensation doctor. Two were granted transfers because they no longer wanted to work in the building.

Treating a symptom
The Bush administration has written new rules for a 17-year-old law that sought to curb the dumping of patients instead of addressing the bigger issue of why so many are still uninsured.
Seventeen years after Congress told hospital emergency rooms they must open their doors to patients with no money, the Bush administration has written new rules that more narrowly define the responsibility. But the regulatory changes, which take effect in November, tend mainly to raise a question posed by the law itself:
Why is it that a prosperous nation has no other way to care for 40-million people who are without basic medical insurance?
Lack of health care drives the poor to the ER

Congressmen call on America to withdraw from `useless' U.N.
The United Nations is a failure and America should withdraw its membership or taxpayer-funded support until the U.N. more closely mirrors American interests, two Central Florida Republican congressman said Monday.
"The U.N. is useless," said U.S. Rep. Tom Feeney, R-Oviedo, who joined fellow U.S. Rep. Dave Weldon, R-Palm Bay, in mostly berating the global aid and peacekeeping body. "It's more useless than it's ever been."

Molly Ivins: Anyone see a reason for having invaded Iraq?
NEW YORK, N.Y. — Much as I hate to interrupt what is apparently a deeply felt triumphalism on the American right, now that it's over, does anyone see any reason for our having invaded Iraq? I realize that's what we all kept trying to figure out before the invasion, but don't you think it should at least be visible in hindsight? Good thing we won the war, because the peace sure looks like a quagmire.

Our hard-line policy punishes the innocent
Tough U.S. policy punishes the poorest A vigilante gang known as the Cannibal Army has been burning government buildings in Haiti.

10/3-1/03

Deep Trouble: the Gulf in Peril
Disappearing sea grass meadows signal trouble for Gulf of Mexico estuaries.
SPECIAL REPORT — Miles off the Big Bend of North Florida, where the Gulf of Mexico slope runs shallow, a boat can float for an hour with vast meadows of sea grass waving beneath it the whole time. Those are the lucky blades. In most places around the Gulf, sea grasses are dying.

Council of 100
The rumblings were correct. A Florida business group is following through with plans to privatize drinking water supplies. Though the Council of 100 says it is planning ahead for growth and trying to avert water wars among Florida's supplier and consumer regions, the agenda boils down to seizing a public resource.

Hope springs eternal
Protect our 'gems' by not diverting water
Who can argue with the decision Tuesday to create protection zones around state-owned freshwater springs and their tributaries? The action by Gov. Jeb Bush and the Cabinet is responsible environmental stewardship of our springs, which one champion called "national gems and treasures."

Miami braces for crush of free-trade protesters
The city wants to temporarily ban gas masks and bulletproof vests so demonstrators can't ward off police.

Bill McBride in fair condition after suffering cardiac arrest

Company mum on Panhandle oil exploration but no immediate plans

Officials downplay danger of radioactive water in Pensacola

St. Marks refuge to expand
Purchase will add 2,560 acres
The Nature Conservancy has bitten off a chunk of St. Joe Co. land in Wakulla County for an addition to the St. Marks National Wildlife Refuge.

State adds safeguards for springs
Protective area created around 'national gems'
Gov. Jeb Bush and the Florida Cabinet approved a rule Tuesday declaring a protective area the size of a football field around most of Florida's freshwater springs and their trickling tributaries.

DEP says Coronet violating groundwater standards

Public work, private gain
Revolving door becomes very merry-go-round. For whom do the public servants toil? Good question.

Schools firm buyout derided as bailout
A state official says the planned buy by Florida's retirement fund is about investing, not politics.

Bush: Unclaimed $50 million jackpot should be used for school

Lawyer asks judge to lift stay in Florida voucher case

GOP lawmaker blasts 'faltering commitment' to education

Community college leaders tell Gov. Bush they need more money

Trick fundraising
Through "committees of continuous existence," Florida lawmakers can skirt the ban on leadership funds and accept secret and unlimited special-interest money.
After Tom Gustafson raised $1.6-million to entice fellow House members to pick him as speaker in 1988, lawmakers were sufficiently embarrassed that they banned "leadership funds." What they couldn't outlaw, though, was audacity and self-indulgence, both of which factor into the latest form of political slush funds in Florida.

State agencies ask for budget boosters
Money needed for criminal justice, children's services
The price tag on keeping Floridians safe may go up - with state agencies asking for substantial investments in building prisons and protecting children and families.

2 lawmakers decline to disclose
Contrary to the governor's wishes, the GOP House members wish to protect secret donors.
TALLAHASSEE - One day after Gov. Jeb Bush called on state lawmakers to reveal all big money donations to fundraising groups they control, two Republican House members refused.
Rep. Donna Clarke of Sarasota and Rep. Stan Mayfield of Vero Beach said they won't disclose the names and occupations of donors despite criticism from the top Republican officeholder in the state.
Bush assails secret funds
Governor pushes for finance reform
Gov. Jeb Bush said legislators with secret slush funds should have to disclose donors and expenditures but said liberal organizations also do a lot of "political money laundering" for their causes.
Bush wants names put with political millions

Bense elected as next speaker
Both parties hail lawmaker's abilities
Rep. Allan Bense, elected only five years ago, on Tuesday was officially designated by fellow GOP lawmakers to become the next speaker of the Florida House in November 2004.
Speaker Bense
He brings a welcome change of style
The most encouraging aspect of Rep. Allan Bense's designation as incoming House speaker is that it will begin to minimize the rigid leadership of Speaker Johnnie Byrd.

Gov. Bush ridicules Dean
Florida's governor labels Vermont's ex-governor a presidential candidate for 'hot, angry people that aren't rational.'
Gov. Jeb Bush unleashed a river of ridicule Wednesday at the expense of former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean, the Democratic front-runner in the race to challenge Bush's presidential brother next year for the White House

FDLE's new leader emphasizes ethics
Bay County Sheriff Guy Tunnell formally took over Florida's top law-enforcement agency Tuesday with a pledge to follow a self-imposed code of ethics assuring fair treatment of employees and proper handling of criminal suspects.
Guy Tunnell sworn in as new FDLE commissioner

DCF needs its watchdog
Palm Beach Post Editorial Writer
Statewide Advocacy Council needs cooperation to do its job; lately, that's been a problem.

Survey: State DOT money languishing in accounts

Extension policy hits hardest among Florida Guard troops

Authorities confirm Limbaugh drug investigation
Authorities in Palm Beach County are investigating a former housekeeper's claim that radio talk personality Rush Limbaugh purchased thousands of highly addictive painkillers through the black market, law enforcement sources confirmed.
Drug questions rise as Limbaugh resigns from ESPN

Immigrants get ankle bracelets instead of jail

Illegally 'parked' funds
The Pentagon showed incredible contempt for Congress by trying to hide $20-million from legislative scrutiny. Such monetary shell-games might be routine at places with the morals of Enron, but they are forbidden by law in government for a reason. Public funds are supposed to be spent for the purpose they were appropriated, and Congress, where some powerful members rightly feel duped, should find out where the money went and who was involved in the deception. It should also explore whether the Defense Department stashes money secretly on a larger scale.

White House denies leaking CIA operative's identity
Republicans step up efforts to paint the agent's husband, who has criticized Bush, as politically motivated.

GOP, lobbyists writing new energy legislation, Democrats contend
Republican leaders say they are consulting with Democrats and deny that lobbyists are actively involved.

Molly Ivins: Taking a look at the Democrats' field
NEW YORK, N.Y. — For Democrats only: I think our field is shaping up quite nicely. Several of our candidates are starting to look promising indeed. Of course, only a political junkie would have sat through the entire two-hour debate, and the fact that there are 10 of them works against any one standing out. If the field isn't winnowed down soon, they might want to consider dividing themselves into two groups for a debate so we get more than these unsatisfactory soundbites.

Agency says it'll enforce call rule
With the Federal Trade Commission stymied by the courts, the Federal Communications Commission steps in.

Fund set up to watch California vote
Democrats says they want to ensure there'll be 'No More Floridas!'

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