SUNDAY FLORIDA EDITORIAL ROUNDUP

Starting here at home, the Lakeland Ledger editorial deals with the continuing problems at the Polk County Opportunity Council, whose board of directors attempted to correct a violation of the Government in the Sunshine Law by "undoing" it. PCOC is a mess, to say the least.

The Daytona Beach News-Journal celebrates the reclamation of Manatee Island as part of a downtown renewal project.

Today's Orlando Sentinel favours a couple of changes in the presidential primary system as recommended by a bipartisan commission headed by former President Jimmy Carter and former Secretary of State James Baker. Those changes call for a compressed, rotating schedule of regional primaries and a requirment of voters to show government photo IDs at the polls.

The Sarasota Herald Tribune salutes the efforts of two Charlotte County doctors who have begun preliminary discussions with the Department of Juvenile Justice to convert one or two state owned buildings at the former G. Pierce Wood Memorial Hospital near Arcadia into a regional shelter for the disabled.

Today's editorial in the Tampa Tribune calls on Hillsborough County Commissioners to approve the recommendations of it's Health Care Advisory Board on improving the county's indigent care system, saying the plan offered guidance for the commission to provide a fiscal responsibility to taxpayers while also achieving it's moral obligation to help those most in need.

Up in Jacksonville, the Florida Times-Union laments the proposal of Mayor John Peyton to give unprecented control over plans and funds for a new criminal courts building to Chief Judge Donald Moran and City Council President Kevin Hyde. The editorial notes that Peyton has never granted new veto powers to other bodies and should not begin now.

The new "Stand Your Ground" law, which went into effect Saturday and allows individuals feeling threatened with great bodily harm to shoot an attacker without threat of civil or criminal penalties, is being slammed in Florida Today as harebrained and reckless.

This morning's Fort Myers News-Press calls for Florida lawmakers to relax their opposition to natrual gas drilling off our coast, but says the confusion on how far offshore needs to be clarified. And the Tallahassee Democrat, saying it's only a question of when drilling will be allowed, notes that Florida should lead the campaign for renewable energy sources.

Congress' attempt to gut the Endangered Species Act is the subject of today's editorial in the Gainesville Sun, which hopes that cooler heads will prevail when it is debated in the U.S. Senate.

The Miami Herald opinion today is that tax surpluses resulting from the current real estate boom allows local governments a breather, allowing them to play catch-up. But they need to be 1) cautious of legislators' attempts to shift more cost of services to local governments, and 2), insure that the surplus is used wisely now...it won't last.

The Naples Daily News questions the timing for the Florida Department of Transportation's plan to raise tolls on Interstate 75 along "Alligator Alley", and wonders what FDOT is doing with the tolls it already collects there.

The Ocala Star-Banner cites reasons why a proposal to increase school impact fees for new construction should be approved, and calls on officials and the public to keep in mind the realities of what Marion County's schools need now.

While the Federal Emergency Management Agency is preparing for 2006, the Palm Beach Post says it should remember to pay dozens of Florida counties, municipalities, and school districts for damage from last year's four hurricanes.

The Pensacola News Journal has addressed this issue before as recently as a couple of weeks ago, but it again notes that time is of the essense in replacing the Main Street Wastewater Treatment Plant...especially considering it's location in a flood plain.

Mixed signals when it comes to class sizes is the concern of the editorial in today's South Florida Sun Sentinel. It says the class size amendment passed last year was a mistake that belongs in statutory law, not the Constitution, but school districts who are ignoring the guidelines should not be punished as long as they are coping with the mixed signals coming from Tallahassee.