SUNDAY FLORIDA EDITORIAL ROUNDUP

I begin this look at the Sunshine State's opinion pages here at home, where the Lakeland Ledger laments the expected half-trillion dollar federal budget deficit, especially in the wake of the Hurricane Katrina disaster.

In the state capitol, the Tallahassee Democrat calls for enhansing the Bright Futures scholarship programme to aid hard working high school students whose families are on the lower end of the income scale.

On the fourth anniversary of the terrorist attacks on America, do our people feel any safer? The Miami Herald believes most Americans would give a resounding "NO", and says that few will until we restore our image as a champion of international cooperation and a beacon of freedom and individual rights.

In Jacksonville, the Florida Times-Union seeks to answer the concerns that critics bring forth against reopening Cecil Field as a military base. It is an option being floated in the midsts of concerns about residential growth near Naval Air Station Oceana near Virginia Beach, Virginia becoming too much of a safety concern for pilots and residents.

As I type this, I'm jealous that it's 64 degrees in Pensacola. That said, the editorial in the Pensacola News Journal notes that the disaster in New Orleans could foreshadow a similar event in Pensacola, just without the flood. It calls for the Main Street sewage treatment plant to be moved and for citizens, government, and the local utility authority to come together and make it happen.

The St. Petersburg Times opinion this morning deals with U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice nominee John Roberts. It has previously urged Senate Judiciary Committee members to question Roberts closely on states' rights and executive power issues, but now also calls on members to explore his thinking on individual and civil rights considering the change of his nomination to that of Chief Justice.

Florida Today says that there's plenty of blame to go around as to what happened in the wake of Hurricane Katrina for local, state, and federal authorities, but saves it's harshest criticism for FEMA. It calls for an independent commission modeled after the one that investigated what went wrong after 9/11, for FEMA director Michael Brown AND Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff to be fired, and for FEMA to be returned to it's previous status as a seperate, cabinet-level department.

Today's editorial in the Orlando Sentinel reminds us of New York City's recovery following the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center four years ago today, and that the Gulf Coast can do the same with visionary leadership and concerted effort.

The Tampa Tribune also laments the lack of plausible planning for a catastrophe the size or severity of Katrina, and asks several questions from which lessons could and should be learned from the experiences of 9/11 and Katrina. The Daytona Beach News Journal editorial opins along the same lines.

The Palm Beach Post keeps to a local issue today, offering it's opinion that the state should not provide fast-track permitting to a new development at Vavrus Ranch in western Palm Beach County for 9,000 homes and some businesses. It cites that the project does not meet the criteria for such treatment, that it would "create jobs, offer high wages, and diverisfy the state's economy".

On another local issue, the Naples Daily News sadly agrees that Collier County Sheriff Don Hunter is correct in admitting that his office's DRILL Academy for juvenile delinquents was not working after ten years and in closing it at the end of this year.

The South Florida Sun Sentinel addresses an issue of religion and public safety coming in conflict, and says that Sultaana Freeman, a Muslim who challenged Florida's law requiring a full-face photograph on drivers licenses unless she could wear a veil, should obey the law and that public safety concerns must take priority. BTW: The Smoking Gun notes that following her conversion to Islam in 1997, Ms. Freeman (formerly Sandra Keller) was arrested in Illinois for battering a foster child and pleaded guilty on a charge of felony aggreviated battery in the case two years later and sentenced to 18 months probation.

The Fort Myers News-Press editorial follows up on a special report in today's edition, applauding and referring to as "heroes" a Cape Coral couple who rescued a 13 year old Guatemalan girl and her baby from human traffickers at great risk to themselves. It took a year and a half for three people to be arrested and charged with human trafficking in the case.

And the Sarasota Herald-Tribune suggests that when developer Syd Kitson appears this week before Charlotte and Lee County commissioners to describe his proposal for developing part of the Babcock Ranch property, cautious consideration should be the rule.