SUNDAY FLORIDA EDITORIAL ROUNDUP

Starting at home this week, the Lakeland Ledger weighs in on the situation in New Orleans by saying that the lessons of Baghdad immediately after Saddam Hussein's ouster are not being heeded by officials, both state and federal.

The Tampa Tribune calls for Congress to create a National Disaster Fund, expanding on an idea pushed on a regional basis by then-Insurance Commissioner (now U.S. Senator) Bill Nelson nine years ago and advanced by Congressman Mark Foley (R - Jupiter) the last four years.

Across the bay, the St. Petersburg Times notes that new K-12 Education Chancellor Cheri Yecke brings some impressive credentials to the job, but she should ditch the trait that got her fired in Minnesota: her knack for heavy handed, partisan politics. (NOTE: Yecke dropped her candidacy for Congress in Minnesota to take the Florida job, thus the bio from her campaign site).

The editorial in the Orlando Sentinel today is a reminder that if nothing is done to help bring down the growing federal budget deficit, the perils could be great for our future generations.

Up I-4, the Daytona Beach News-Journal calls for local officials to aggressively recruit businesses with higher wage, long term jobs to offer, and lobby for changes in state law and business practices to help lower wage workers achieve stability in housing and health care.

In Jacksonville, the Florida Times-Union opinion today calls on Jacksonville-Duval County officials to change their "backward" regulations on planned use development to actively include more departments and public comment before decisions are made.

On the other side of the Panhandle, the Pensacola News Journal says that local officials fighting with the federal Enviromential Protection Agency over the Escambia Treating Company Superfund site may very well be an excerise in futility.

The Tallahassee Democrat editorial today makes note of Capitol Health Plan's effort to begin offering health-case premium subsidies to a number of small business, low-income workers in four area counties.

Getting back to Katrina, the Palm Beach Post calls on the Bush Administration to "Guard THIS Nation", saying that not only has the government let down victims of the hurricane by it's slow response, but our military resources --- especially our National Guard ---are spread too thin by being in places it does not belong.

This morning's Gainesville Sun editorial makes note in the wake of Katrina that State Senator J.D. Alexander (R - Lake Wales) has filed a bill which would allow voters to change the state constitution to protect the Florida Hurricane Catastrophe Fund (a/k/a the "Cat Fund") from politicians wanting to raid the pot for various other projects.

Although we've been through several hurricanes in recent years, none have made a direct hit on any of Florida's major population centres the way Katrina did, and are we ready for such a sceanario? That's the question the editorial in today's South Florida Sun Sentinel asks.

As Congress returns from it's summer break, the Miami Herald calls on lawmakers to focus on what Americans need without sliding into partisan bickering.

And as NASA has some impressive ideas on it's next generation of rockets to replace the space shuttle, but the cost could be steep in large layoffs over the next decade at Kennedy Space Centre. Florida Today says the space agency has to get the job done...right and on budget.

This morning's Naples Daily News opinion focuses on Collier County Community Development Division Director Joe Schmidt, who it says can't be blamed for having his staff do their jobs thoroughly.