Settle recount debate before recount debacle
Questions for Florida: Paper trail, security.

Council may get scrutiny
Group has a role in possible water battle
Who are those guys? The Florida Council of 100, the people who want North Florida's water for South Florida's economic and population growth, is an elite group of business executives that has advised governors for more than 40 years. When big-business lobbyists work on legislators for changes in taxation, state employment, transportation, education or development laws, they can roll out the Council of 100's impressive array of top corporate CEOs to seal the deal, if necessary.

Activists finish the first day of Freedom Ride
The Immigrant Workers Freedom bus from Miami arrived in Orlando on Saturday on its first day of a cross-country trip after a stop in Immokalee to bring attention to the plight of migrant farmers.

Poverty grows; income drops
Florida is one of just five states with both a poverty rate jump and a household income drop.
Florida reports significant increase in poverty

Richardson prods Bush for public-school money
State Rep. Curtis Richardson told Gov. Jeb Bush on Friday that if the state can afford tax breaks to lure new industry business to Florida, the Legislature ought to dip into reserves for more public-school funding.

Legislators return, seek lobbyists' cash support
State House members return to the Capitol on Monday for committee hearings, but mostly they'll be on the hunt for campaign cash.

Lawmakers secretly raise big bucks
They set up special committees and unnamed members pour in the dough. And, under state law, it's all legal.

IRS wants the details, and some aren't complying
TALLAHASSEE - The state doesn't want to know who writes big checks to obscure committees that help fuel legislators' political ambitions.

So Charlie Crist has backbone after all
Our own Charlie Crist deserves an apology.
From us, from everyone who called him a lightweight and suggested he was all form and no substance.
As attorney general, Crist seems to be coming into his own.

What does Horne do for public?
His priority is supposed to be public schools and students. His actions suggest he has his priorities reversed.

Virtual-voucher mix-up may cost $565,000
The education head says he'll find money for ineligible kindergartners and first-graders, but critics wonder where.

State wrong to close off the community colleges
Statewide, about 35,000 students turned away.

Council created by Legislature cries foul on records access

Judge sets first Everglades hearing
The federal judge newly assigned to a landmark Everglades pollution case will hold his first hearing Oct. 6 -- including arguments about appointing an overseer for the state's $1 billion-plus cleanup.

Hoeveler will be remembered as Glades hero
Hoeveler always will be Glades hero For those who've fought so long to save what remains of the Everglades, it's tempting to see a dark conspiracy in the surprising and abrupt removal of U.S. District Judge William Hoeveler from Case No. 88-1886.

No drilling in the gulf
Senate energy bill would undermine offshore ban.

Deer, islands facing mean season
High waters again threaten deer populations and tree islands in the Everglades, a problem the Miccosukee Tribe has long battled.
Deer, tree islands facing mean season as water rises The water lilies float everywhere, so many it looks like white cotton blooming on the vast green plain of the Everglades.

Citrus canker reappears in Cape Coral, state to cut exposed trees

State: UF is source of groundwater contamination

Gulf Breeze suing Pensacola utility authority for $4 million

Clean-air gains trump costs, study finds
A new White House study concludes environmental regulations are well worth the costs they impose.

Zealous Ashcroft's deal with the devil
No more plea-copping for sinners . . . er, criminals.

9/26-23/03

Statewide water board proposed
The possibility of a piping water to from rural North Florida to populated South Florida took a step closer to reality today with recommendations from a business group with close ties to Gov. Jeb Bush.
Developers tout water plan as environmental protection
But a coalition of environmental groups contend a task force's proposal is a "manifesto for destruction."
Group wants to begin debate on future of Florida water management 9/26
FLORIDA COUNCIL OF 100 TASK-FORCE MEMBERS 9/26

Broward County Commissioners consider replacing voting system

Bush unfazed by falling car rental taxes, Orlando hotel closings 9/26

Investing in irony
With a chunk of its employee pension fund, Florida is about to buy the nation's most financially imperiled private education management company.
Teacher money may run private schools
A New York money management firm whose sole client is Florida's public employee pension fund is the primary bidder in a move to buy out Edison Schools Inc.
The pension fund for Florida's public school teachers may soon become the majority shareholder in the nation's largest for-profit school operator, under an investment plan that has prompted criticism from public school advocates but received accolades from market analysts. 9/26
State pension fund invests in controversial for-profit school company 9/26

A chance to fight the rate hikes
Florida phone companies have no excuse for pushing a massive residential rate hike that apparently violates a new law. After all, phone company lobbyists wrote the law, which was obediently passed by the Legislature and signed by the governor earlier this year.

Sunshine State becoming paradise spoiled
During the last 30 days, I drove throughout Florida in a rental car. I drove from St. Petersburg to Miami; from Miami to Daytona Beach; from Daytona Beach to Jacksonville; from Jacksonville to Tallahassee; from Tallahassee to Pensacola; from Pensacola to Gainesville; from Gainesville back to St. Petersburg.
Although I was researching the continuing viability of the state's four Historically Black Colleges and Universities, I was struck by the proliferation of urban sprawl in nearly every county.
The Sunshine State, one of the nation's treasures, is fast becoming the Asphalt State. What we are doing to our paradise is criminal and, well, stupid...

Judge in Glades case removed
Comments to the media showed bias, the ruling says. That ends 15 years of him overseeing Everglades restoration.
For 15 years, one federal judge oversaw the cleanup of the Everglades. He pored over documents, listened to legal arguments, sifted through scientific studies. He even toured the River of Grass by airboat.
But on Tuesday U.S. District Judge William Hoeveler was removed from the Everglades case, not for misbehaving in court or making outrageous rulings.
South Florida's chief judge removed him for talking to reporters.
Hoeveler's comments this spring blasting Gov. Jeb Bush, the Legislature, the sugar industry and the South Florida Water Management District "demonstrate an objective doubt as to Judge Hoeveler's continued impartiality," wrote Chief Judge William Zloch.
Activists: Glades cleanup will go on
MIAMI -- Environmentalists predicted Wednesday that the veteran judge ousted from the Everglades pollution case set such high standards for the cleanup that the restoration will go on fine without him.
A sour taste
Big Sugar's success in judge-shopping is a big loss for the Everglades.
With Hoeveler off case, protect Everglades
Palm Beach Post Editorial
New federal judge should name a special master.
Big Sugar wins bid to oust U.S. judge on Everglades case

Activists protest Miami decision to postpone vote on trade talk demonstrations
A small group of civic activists rallied outside Miami City Hall Thursday, upset with the city commission's decision to defer a vote on protest regulations for November's international trade talks.

Greed and insider shenanigans are killing America's jobs
Three years of tax cuts and 2.7 million in job losses later, we're told there's "good" news. America's productivity is soaring and the stock market is rebounding, if tenuously.

Lobbyists key to Byrd campaign
House Speaker Johnnie Byrd is hitting them up for money in hopes of keeping his U.S. Senate campaign viable.

Democrats say Horne should go 9/26

Horne makes own rules; public schools suffer
His arrogance could cost the state $1 million.

Officials blast early graduation plan
The Board of Governors, fearing students may not be prepared for college, wants the Legislature to reconsider.
Board of Governors calls for overhaul of early graduation 9/26

State suspects voucher foundation broke law
Education officials ask for an investigation after the group can't account for $400,000 in voucher money.
Suspecting criminal activity in the disappearance of $400,000 in school voucher money, Education Commissioner Jim Horne has asked the Florida Department of Law Enforcement to investigate an Ocala foundation.
Bankruptcy papers reveal link between school, foundation - 9/26
Horne asks FDLE to investigate Ocala foundation

State launches criminal probe of vouchers
State law enforcement is investigating an organization that may not have dispensed tax credit money properly.
State investigating K-8 virtual school contracts

Voucher bargain may cost taxpayers
Two Internet schools gave 'virtual school' vouchers to children who didn't come from public schools. 9/26
Study finds state could lose money on virtual schools
The loss could come if children who are home-schooled at their parents' expense started receiving virtual-school vouchers.9/26

Official: Class size law futile
TALLAHASSEE - Education Commissioner Jim Horne said Wednesday that the state can't meet the voter-approved mandate to reduce class sizes in Florida.
"The class-size amendment will never be implemented," Horne said at a meeting of the Board of Governors, which oversees higher education in Florida.
Horne said he isn't planning to defy the law. He said he is simply describing reality...

Educators decry high number of truant students

Vendors voice worries
Small firms worry they will be shut out of state tech contracts
So many small businesses were concerned about the state's move to streamline its procurement policies, they had to be moved to a bigger room.9/26

DCF losing welfare chief, Regier ally
Central Florida's child-welfare services chief abruptly announced his resignation Wednesday, after serving just 10 months as DCF Secretary Jerry Regier's hand-picked administrator.

Deal with Pfizer renewed

Civilian land near MacDill could be put off-limits

Public utilities watchdog to keep eye on phone rates
Former public counsel Jack Shreve is leaving retirement to monitor rate hikes proposed by telephone companies.
Crist hires Shreve for consumer protection post

Group to members: Observe do-not-call list
Largest telemarketing industry group says it wants members to abide by the controversial list.
Judge blocks no-call registry
But the House and Senate have scheduled a vote today to ratify the FTC plan, which would reverse the ruling.

Florida do-not-call list continues despite ruling

Slaying prompts Sarasota newspaper to reject gun ads

N.Y. state election officials open free-ride probe

Offshore drilling foes rallying against energy bill draft

Cypress Gardens will be purchased by conservation firm

Environmental groups intend to sue over dairy manure disposal 9/26

Desal company's search for a new partner fails
Tampa Bay Water canceled a special meeting scheduled for today because the company building its desalination plant failed to find a new partner to help finish the $110-million facility.
Tiny mussels fouling Tampa Bay desalination plant

Complaint: Worker ordered to turn of air conditioning at Krome

Venezuela's Chavez demands U.S. crack down on alleged 'terrorists',  training in US to kill him

Law thwarts crime, terror, Ashcroft says
While visiting Florida, the U.S. Attorney General trumpets the act's success, but critics say it violates civil liberties.
In the midst of Democratic assaults on the U.S.A. Patriot Act, U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft promoted the law Wednesday in Florida, saying it has helped the nation win the war on crime and terrorism.

Ashcroft's edict
The attorney general's order for U.S. attorneys to seek maximum penalties and limit plea bargains threatens to undermine prosecutors and overload the justice system.

Union leader urges fight against Bush

Molly Ivins: Bush's America has invented a new word — greeed
SEATTLE — Life rolls on in George W. Bush's America, forcing us to invent a new word — greeed, with three E's in the middle — to cover cases like that of Richard A. Grasso, who recently resigned as chairman and CEO of the New York Stock Exchange

Molly Ivins: Some Americans think George W. Bush is a terrible president
AUSTIN, Texas — Among the more amusing cluckings from the right lately is their appalled discovery that quite a few Americans actually think George W. Bush is a terrible president. Robert Novak is quoted as saying in all his 44 years of covering politics, he has never seen anything like the detestation of Bush. Charles Krauthammer managed to write an entire essay on the topic of "Bush haters" in Time magazine.

9/22-15/03

PSC told to dismiss phone rate hikes
Public Service Commission lawyers agree with consumer groups and the Office of Public Counsel that the petitions are seriously flawed.
PSC: Hold cranky calls
The public gets to sound off, and the phone company gets to raise rates. That's how the legislation works.
PSC staff: Proposed phone rate hike may be illegal - 9/20
PSC schedules public hearing on phone rate increases - 9/18

AIF gives high marks to 2003 legislature
The Florida Legislature always has been a pretty pro-business bunch, but the new rankings by Associated Industries of Florida show that our lawmakers are even more sympathetic to employers than in the recent past.

35,000 lost opportunities
Community college, the "minimum foundation" of higher education in Florida, is no longer guaranteed.
Community colleges see reduced rolls
State funding can't keep up with burgeoning enrollment, so thousands are turned away. Minorities and poor students are likely to be the hardest hit.
About 35,000 community college students shut out

FCAT proves frustrating for some students
After spending most of their lives in school, some high-school seniors had to put college or job plans on hold. Many seniors who weren't able to graduate because they failed the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test are now studying in FCAT review courses or opting to pursue General Educational Development diplomas. Their next opportunity to retake the test will be in October.
Free the FCAT
Parents should be able to see the test
The state has always told parents "no" when they wanted to see the contents of the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test that has so much riding on it for students and schools alike.

Fast track to nowhere
The law passed this year that lets Florida students graduate after only three years of high school is more likely to leave them behind than give them a head start.

Track the money
It takes more than faith to ensure financial accountability in the voucher program.

Scholarship vouchers dominated by two men
Between them, John Kirtley and Pat Heffernan control 99.4 percent of the vouchers handed out under the state corporate tax credit program.

Corporate voucher enrollment, donations drop off
A number of reasons are offered for the decline, but they don't add up, critics say.

CFO auditors looking at state's voucher program

UF Foundation administrator accused of taking $700,000

Florida buys Cessna to replace oldest of three state planes - $5.3 million jet

Audit criticizes state technology office for business practices

Stop the flow of bad water ideas
Recently, an elite business group (Council of 100) made known its intentions to convince the Legislature and Gov. Bush to radically alter Florida water law so that limited drinking water supplies in Central and South Florida don't impede future growth and development there. A different perspective, which puts people and the environment first, is the preferred approach if we want to maintain the environment and quality of life now and in the future. Here's why. (see also Bad Idea for Florida's Water Supply)

U.S. regulators looking at water policies in Escambia County Keywords: DEP, radium

State proposes new rules for phosphate plant cleanups

Mining rejected to spare wetlands
The state says a plan to reclaim wetlands with a large marsh is inadequate. The decision could jeopardize other phosphate mines.
In a ruling that could alter the way phosphate mining companies do business in Florida, the state's top environmental regulator on Monday rejected a mining permit for a Manatee County project because the plans did not call for fully restoring the wetlands that would be destroyed.

DEP chief rules in Charlotte's favor in phosphate mining case

Rising health costs a concern
Number of uninsured increasing in Florida
Cynthia Brown is one of more than 2.8 million Floridians with no health insurance. This nurse technician and her mechanic husband are on the job every day, but neither has health coverage at work. Of their two school-age daughters, one is disabled and on Medicaid; the other is on a waiting list for state-subsidized KidCare insurance.

Criminal negligence
Florida's Department of Juvenile Justice has become a system that runs on neglect and deadly indifference toward troubled youth.

New lawmakers raise money from industries they oversee

Citrus Department defends itself against audit

More than 150 government workers in state face corruption counts - kickbacks on cleaning products

Education board studies impact of the Sunshine Law
There's an advisory wing of state government up in Tallahassee known as CEPRI.
It's an independent citizen board, which was recruited by the State Legislature in 2001 to be part of the Education Reorganization Act. CEPRI stands for Council for Education Policy, Research and Improvement.

Officials revise ratings for some state schools
FORT MYERS - Dozens of Florida schools notified last month that they passed academic muster under the new federal No Child Left Behind law now are being told they did not.

Horne asks board to lobby for class size repeal 9/17

$6-billion contract fuels battle
A team of Florida defense contractors led by Raytheon Co. of St. Petersburg is battling with a California group for a contract worth more than $6-billion to provide the next generation of mobile satellite communication for the U.S. military.
State lawmakers who have been briefed on the project say Gov. Jeb Bush might call a special legislative session next month so Florida can offer a package of financial incentives similar to California's. Bush would say only that a special session might be needed because of "opportunities to create high-wage jobs for Floridians."

Investors left with big loss, big doubt
Prominent Floridians blame a trusted FSU booster for an investment plan that collapsed. Now the state is investigating.

Roadside distraction?
Cypress Gardens is the latest tourist attraction bailed out by the state. But many ask if it is money well spent.

Court: Man harassed by city after noting ADA violations can sue

Diocese resists decision to confirm gay bishop
The Episcopal Diocese of Central Florida voted Saturday to repudiate a decision by the denomination's national convention to confirm a gay man as bishop.

FDLE: No credible evidence hanging was anything but suicide

Attorney: Bankrupt Florida Philharmonic plans to sell most assets

More desal delays
Tampa Bay Water did not play a big enough role in getting its desalination plant up and running. Now it needs to assure an already uncertain public the project is back on track.

Feds deny separate endangered listing for north Florida turtles

Lykes' land deal with state hits snag
TALLAHASSEE - Taxpayers deserve a better deal to protect 24,000 acres of South Florida wilderness, Gov. Jeb Bush and the chief financial officer told the state's top environmental regulator Thursday.

Invasive cogon grass may surpass kudzu as Southern plant scourge

Protecting drug company profits
As Congress casts about to create a prescription drug benefit for Medicare recipients, it is ignoring a successful program already run by the federal government. The Department of Veterans Affairs found a way to buy drugs at substantially reduced costs and make them available to millions of veterans for just $7 a month for each prescription. The VA program compares favorably to congressional legislation that would leave retirees with a huge gap in coverage and cost many of them thousands of dollars each year.
Yet Congress has no intention of copying the VA drug program. That's because the pharmaceutical industry, which makes most of its profits off older Americans, has influenced the outcome of Medicare drug legislation by spending tens of millions of dollars on political campaigns.

Feds probe tribe's casino profit
FORT LAUDERDALE -- A federal grand jury is investigating whether the Seminole tribe failed to pay millions of dollars in taxes on its gambling windfall, and three regulatory agencies are examining the costly construction contract for its casino.

President Batlle: Uruguay supports Miami as home to FTAA

What monkeys can teach humans about making America fairer
Give a capuchin monkey a cucumber slice, and she will eagerly trade a small pebble for it. But when a second monkey, in an adjoining cage, receives a more-desirable grape for the same pebble, it changes everything. The first monkey will then reject her cucumber, and sometimes throw it out of the cage. Monkeys rarely refuse food, but in this case they appear to be pursuing an even higher value than eating: fairness.

Tell me who's playing class warfare
Three years of tax cuts and 2.7 million in job losses later, we're told there's "good" news. America's productivity is soaring and the stock market is rebounding, if tenuously.

Molly Ivins: Bush's rank chutzpah on the environment
AUSTIN, Texas — The administration is now in The Full Ostrich on Iraq: Dick Cheney put on a fabulous performance last Sunday on "Meet the Press," in which he insisted everything in Iraq is trickety-boo, right as rain and cheery bye. I haven't heard anyone lie with such gravitas since Henry Kissinger was in office. But for the complete black-is-white, up-is-down, peace-is-war mode, you have to check out this administration on the environment.
Molly Ivins: Government is NOT the enemy

Paul Krugman: Exploiting the atrocity
In my first column after 9/11, I mentioned something everyone with contacts on Capitol Hill already knew: That just days after the event, the exploitation of the atrocity for partisan political gain had already begun.
In response, I received a torrent of outraged mail...
The press has become a lot less shy about pointing out the administration's exploitation of 9/11, partly because that exploitation has become so crushingly obvious...

Another Washington coverup
It wasn't exactly Tiananmen Square but the intention was the same - to close down dissent and maintain order.
Last year, hundreds of people were arrested by Washington, D.C., police in a preemptive strike to sweep antiglobalization and antiwar protesters off the streets during meetings of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank. Since then, it has become clear that a big chunk of those arrests was unlawful and unconstitutional. Many of those taken into custody were mere bystanders, others were peaceful protesters who had a right to congregate. But an internal affairs report that reportedly outlines these abuses is being kept from the public by district Mayor Anthony Williams and police Chief Charles Ramsey.
First the impropriety, then the coverup, it is an old story in Washington.

Weapons of mass obfuscation
Bush education plan also based on a myth.

Bush goes AWOL when soldiers need care
Full of praise in public, he's also cutting benefits.

9/14-8/03

Hurricane Isabel returns to Category 5 strength in Atlantic

Escambia officials resisted effort to clean radioactive water

Trace levels of contamination found in central Florida aquifer

State, military interests converge on flight path
Plan to conserve Panhandle land pleases many
The military pilots zooming in at more than 400 mph from the Gulf of Mexico are moving too fast to see the black bears, Chapman's rhododendron and tropical waxweed west of Apalachicola.

AARP seeking to intervene in phone rate hike request

Generous Jeb ducks the check
Money for his bonuses, but not for the basics.

Jeb's management style: a mess
...Bush's style of management appears to be that if he didn't know you from the past, if you're not a friend of a friend, a well-connected campaign contributor, or, this above all, if you don't come out of the world of business and promise to rush back to it before you're tainted by government, then you aren't on his radar. You're not respected or rewarded with raises and you're certainly not encouraged to get any big ideas...

One Florida's real total
Unimpressive change in minority enrollment.

Horne report card shows mostly failures
For $231,000 a year, what is Florida getting?
The list of mistakes by Florida Education Commissioner Jim Horne keeps growing toward career-ending proportions. Incompetence and ideological blindness have dominated the list. The new entry is unethical behavior...

Best 'fix'? Kill vouchers
Tax-credit program is filled with contradictions.

Operator of school that closed started another, took vouchers
Barbara Funches' Empowering Young Minds Academy closed on June 25, 2001 because of financial mismanagement. On June 28, 2001, Funches registered as Beyond the Basics Academy and eventually received corporate vouchers.

Florida Lawmaker: Unclaimed millions should go to schools

Find better uses for unclaimed lottery money

Florida High court: Personal e-mails on city computer not public

Mixed results for foster care reform
The report's researchers say it is too early to tell if DCF's effort is helping abused and neglected children.

Report evaluates DCF's privatization of child welfare services

Experts: Care 'falls far short'
Too little training among group-home operators and lax licensing requirements mean Florida's most severely developmentally disabled residents often aren't getting the care they need, experts say.

October special session likely off
Senate President Jim King has said he doesn't see a need to hold a special session to consider an amendment requiring parental notification of a minor girl's abortion.

King: Fear clouds hanging probe
Justified or not, Belle Glade residents are afraid to talk, Martin Luther King III says.

King meets with family over black man's hanging in Belle Glade

Duel continues on eve of malpractice law
Each of the politically powerful interest groups plans to finance a costly constitutional amendment campaign.

Health care industry ask judges to dismiss class-action suit

College governors consider changes to improve performances

Election 2004: Jeb's job could affect brother George's presidential run

Silly ideas: Your inbox and Byrd are full of them
With House Speaker Johnnie Byrd using Florida's databases of auto tags, state employees and anything else he can get his hands on, and now that he's intercepting the e-mails of individual House members to build his own mailing lists, pretty soon all of our e-mailboxes might look like this: ...
Wrongheaded Johnnie Byrd
The Florida House speaker seems to be putting politics ahead of reason.

Glitch sends House Speaker's e-mail to wrong recipients

Former White House press secretary, Ari Fleischer, speaks at UF

Presidential visit: Protesters gather at Fort Lauderdale to criticize Bush ...

Inmates sue Florida saying guards tortured them with pepper spray

Judge moves to keep evidence in Al-Arian terror case from public

Poorer nations rip World Trade Organization
Some believe wealthy countries are reneging on a commitment to reduce subsidies that push down world market prices.

WTO drafts proposal for major cuts in farming subsidies

Washington Today: Bush deficit stance fueling new GOP concerns

Dizzying Dive to Red Ink Poses Stark Choices for Washington
WASHINGTON, Sept. 13 - When President Bush informed the nation last Sunday night that remaining in Iraq next year will cost another $87 billion, many of those who will actually pay that bill were unable to watch. They had already been put to bed by their parents...

Americans resist $87 billion for efforts in Iraq, poll finds
However, there is continued strong backing for Bush's decision to go to war and public support for staying there.

No more money for Iraq without lots more details
This time, have a real debate in Congress.

New powers? Not unless the feds get old ones right
Paul Perez, the U.S. attorney for the middle part of Florida, recently urged us all to support the so-called "Patriot Act," the antiterror law rushed through Congress after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks....

Molly Ivins: I ain't gonna take it anymore
AUSTIN, Texas — Sigh. You write an article advocating what you think would be useful, constructive suggestions about Iraq, and you get an avalanche of right-wing reaction about "failuremongers" and "nattering nabobs of negativism."...
Great, anybody who opposed this war in the first place was accused of lack of patriotism, and now anybody who points out that it's not going well is guilty of defeatism. If you raise your hand and ask where the weapons of mass destruction we were told were the reason for this war are, you're instructed to just Get Over It.
Well, I ain't gonna take it anymore. I am not shutting up for Bill O'Reilly or anyone else. I opposed our unprovoked, unnecessary invasion of Iraq on the grounds that it would be a short, easy war followed by the peace from hell. I predicted every terrorist in the Middle East would be drawn to Iraq like a magnet. I was right, and I'm not going to apologize for it. ...

100 U.S. House members sign offshore drilling letter

Sugar-coated credibility
The Bush administration has appointed some people whose objectivity is questionable to its advisory boards, including the committee formed to update our dietary guidelines.
One White House appointee ...

Bush laboring on jobs
'Six-point plan' is reprise of non-solutions.

Money is not speech
It's access, no matter what opponents claimed.

Inside the First Amendment: Icing free speech

Restraint still the responsible thing
The power to coarsen and cheapen the public discourse remains in the hands of the news media.

Telemarketers getting, not making, calls after Dave Barry column

9/7-3/03

 The age of counter-enlightenment
One highly regarded Florida administrator who has worked amid Capitol politics for years, joked -sort of, and very quietly - that Florida is now in the age of counter-enlightenment.

Dept. of Education investigating FCAT discrimination complaints
... against disabled students, following 13 complaints ...

Education: Can logging on and chat rooms replace high school hallways?
on-line courses = face to face classrooms???
Education: Most classrooms far exceed caps imposed by class size limits
2/3 Florida public classrooms over caps...
Education: Schools tackle class size limits with roaming teachers, more
Education: Three years and out — Florida allows high schoolers to forgo senior year

Horne lobbied for 2 schools while senator
State Education Secretary Jim Horne's former accounting firm performed audits and lobbied for two troubled charter schools.
Horne a man on a mission
The beleaguered secretary of education believes he can fix the voucher system and improve schools.

Public access: Here's the rest of the story
"News delayed is news denied." and yet this is still not all of the story...

GAO: Florida medical insurance crisis may be exaggerated
General Accounting Office reports doctor's claims, that high insurance rates are responsible for limiting access to healthcare, are unsubstantiated

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.

Byrd wants House members to have hand-held e-mail
Speaker Byrd wants to spend tax dollars so every House Rep can have a pocket digital device to send/receive emails.

In Fla., it's Jeb's judiciary
TALLAHASSEE - If the Brothers Bush were to be asked which has the better job these days, George might say that Jeb does.
It's not just that Iraq hasn't turned out to be quite the romp that Big Brother expected. The president has got to be envying how easy it is for the governor to pack appeals courts with ideologically compatible appointees...

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.

Former FDLE commissioner joins lobbying firm
Tim Moore joins Southern Strategy Group

DCF's Regier spends first year fighting child abuse, critics

Regier dabbles in DCF
His real priority is conservative ideology.

Election 2004: Foley drops out of Republican race for Senate seat

President schedules fund-raising visit to two Florida cities
Jacksonville - Tuesday, then Ft. Lauderdale

Ashcroft cites use of Patriot Act against South Florida professor
Ashcroft was in Tampa Friday touting the Patriot Act - protestors outside - part of his month-long attempt to massage public opinion

Court upholds state ban on Medicaid-funded abortions

Law could stifle services
 Five years ago, voters agreed to shift responsibility of the court system to the state.

Insurer wins victory on mold coverage
Insurers won another battle against fuzzy fungi this week when regulators said the state's largest home insurer could strip mold coverage from its base policies.

Audit: $3.5 million of Miami-Dade teachers union money misused
Ex-president Tornillo linked to $2.5 million and other union officials to the rest.

New road takes toll on wilderness
Life springs up along Orange County's northern edge as families move into a new gated subdivision a half-mile from the Econlockhatchee River.

Expert on Kissimmee River gets demoted
WEST PALM BEACH -- A high-ranking but outspoken river scientist this week was demoted and reassigned to another project by the South Florida Water Management District after publicly expressing concerns about delays in the Kissimmee River restoration.

Judge dismisses challenge to state's feral cat removal plan

State biologists to relocate endangered female whooping crane

Protection level lowered for Florida's red-cockaded woodpeckers
State dropped level from "threatened" to "species of special concern" but it remains federally "endangered"

More jobs disappear
About 93,000 American jobs evaporated in August, the seventh consecutive month of losses and the single fastest deterioration since March, the U.S. Labor Department said Friday.

State considers land switch
Property at SouthWood at issue
With the size of its work force shrinking rather than increasing, the state of Florida has withdrawn a request for city approval to expand the Capital Circle Office Center.

For some, indentured misery is a way of life
`They're not worth killing anyhow.'' With those compassionate words, North Florida farmer Thomas R. Lee summed up his view of many of the laborers who sweat and toil in his potato plant.

Senators rip Bush on environment
By Adam Jones, Palm Beach Post-Cox News Service
Four senators, including Bill Nelson of Florida, call President Bush's environmental policies a "vicious and unprecedented attack on the environment."

Bush appeals court nominee bows out
Miguel Estrada's confirmation was blocked by Democrats in the Senate, the president says.

Democrats gloat over Estrada -- what nerve!
He exited, stage right, with class. Miguel Estrada, President Bush's nominee to a powerful federal appeals court viewed as the springboard to the U.S. Supreme Court, had put his life on hold for almost two years.

Hispanic vote up for grabs
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. -- The rising voice of Hispanic voters will play a powerful but unpredictable role in the 2004 presidential election.
This once was a vote upon which Democrats could depend. Now, Democratic candidates must court the vote -- competing with suitors who have proven adept at this, the Bush brothers.

Fla. senior groups press Congress on drug bills
By Larry Lipman and Andrew Mollison, Palm Beach Post-Cox News Service
AARP says fix the problems with the bills, while the Alliance for Retired Americans says scrap both bills and start again after the 2004 election.

Molly Ivins: The missing weapons of mass destruction
AUSTIN, Texas — At the beginning of the summer, several of us who are not exactly upbeat about our prospects in Iraq urged the administration to Do Something before it was too late — like, by the end of the summer.

70% of Americans still believe Hussein-Sept. 11 link
That majority believes that, even though the Bush administration and congressional investigators say they have no evidence of it.

Energy 'tsunami' led to line failures before blackout
Seconds before the Aug. 14 collapse of power grids in the Northeast, a tidal wave of electric energy swept along high-voltage lines

At least NYSE is honest
Enron, WorldCom justice still dragging.

NFL kickoff ads called Capitol offense
Critics say the National Mall and other Washington sites are no place to hawk products and may set a precedent.

9/2-1/03

High court may hear water fight
Tri-state river talks end without agreement
The tri-state talks on sharing water from the Apalachicola-Chattahoochee-Flint river system are over - and the years-long struggle may be headed for the U.S. Supreme Court.

Economy healthy when job pulse rises
Most Americans depend on work and wages, not the stock market, to get by.

State considering options for new plane

Tight times at K-20
Florida flunks Responsibility 101
Florida universities, community colleges and public schools are feeling such pressure to absorb increasing enrollments without break-even state funding that some lawmakers are asking for October's special session to address the problem.

Marlette, Tallahassee Democrat

Saunders to lead petition drive to eliminate class size amendment

Fewer students seek tax credit vouchers
A school voucher program dependent on corporate dollars shrinks instead of growing as expected.
Where's the money?
New protective measures announced last week are a good start, but it's time to get serious about accountability when it comes to voucher dollars.

Politicians' farming interests lead to drought of laws for workers
In Florida, politics and produce are intertwined. Agricultural interests have poured at least $35 million into state and federal political campaigns in Florida since 1996, powerful proof of the industry's ties with decision-makers.

Memo to jurors: Accept no gifts from defendants
A true news item: Prosecutors in Miami say that three of the 12 jurors in the 1996 trial of drug kingpins Willy Falcon and Sal Magluta took bribes from the smugglers in exchange for a vote of acquittal. The U.S. Department of Justice says that it's the first time in history that one-fourth of a federal jury panel has been corrupted.

Fringe embraces 'martyr'
The man who did more damage to the anti-abortion cause than anybody in history is at peace with himself. Paul Hill, sitting on Florida's Death Row, says he's glad that he murdered an abortion doctor and would do it again.

Potential for tragedy
After a two-year break, sparked by the reckless killing of an American missionary and her infant daughter, the U.S. government has resumed its support for Colombia's policy of shooting down suspected drug planes. The barbarity of conspiring with foreign military officers to act as judge, jury and executioner is as indefensible now - legally, morally and practically - as it was when Peru, with U.S. assistance, shot Veronica Bowers and her 7-month-old daughter, Charity, from the sky.

Get a new Patriot Act
Both parties take second look at post-9/11 law.

Maureen Dowd: The jihad all-stars

Paul Krugman: An expensive war, after all

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