SUNDAY FLORIDA EDITORIAL ROUNDUP

Better late than never...eh? Laundry, breakfast, and the other mundane responsibilities of life pushed this post back somewhat today, but now that we're here, we'll proceed...

We start in South Florida, where the Miami Herald says that the Medicaid reform plan should be looked at closely in order to insure that our state's most vulnerable citizens are protected. Governor Bush is expected to ask the Legislature to approve the nation's most sweeping reform programme for Medicaid during an upcoming special session.

National security is on the minds of the editorial writers up the road at the South Florida Sun Sentinel, who urges the executive and legislative branches of the federal government to cooperate more effectively in meeting the challenge of improving our defenses against terrorism at home.

Traffic fatalities in Orange County, combined with a fewer number of Florida Highway Patrol troopers, are the subject of today's editorial in the Orlando Sentinel, who calls for more officers to help stem this disturbing tide.

Here in Polk County, the Lakeland Ledger notes the failure of referendums in California and Ohio to form independent committies which would redraw congressional and legislative district boundries. The editorial urges that the current effort in Florida should continue, but to assure the voters that the motive is good government and not changing the party in power.

The St. Petersburg Times encourages a look into how race and class figure into our criminal justice system in the wake of the comparatively leniant sentencing of former Tampa teacher Jennifer Porter for a hit-and-run incident in which two African-American children were killed last year. Her punishment of house arrest, probation, and community service angered many in the black community of Pinellas County who felt Ms. Porter got a break as she was white.

The state's "Government In The Sunshine" law is the subject of today's editorial in the Florida Times-Union of Jacksonville, which went to court to force police in Jacksonville Beach to release the name of an officer involved in a shooting incident. It reminds public officials and agencies to learn --- and abide by --- the law.

Across North Florida, the Tallahassee Democrat is concerned with the long-term neglect that the Big Bend area's natrual assets have received in the midst of sharp growth, and that celebration and reflection is in order after approval of a plan to clean up and restore what is now Cascades Park in the state capitol.

The Pensacola News Journal says today that thanks should go to Florida's senators and congressional representatives who have fought for a ban on drilling less than 100 miles off our coasts. But the decision against including a drilling comprimise which was in an upcoming deficit reduction bill was but one round in an ongoing battle to protect the Sunshine State's coastlines.

Today's editorial in the Sarasota Herald Tribune concerns the arts. While artists and officials in Sarasota continue to debate the merits of setting up clown statues around town, the editorial compares that with what's happening in nearby Bradenton. There, plans are moving forward to exhibit six foot tall brightly lighted fiberglass geckos in the city's Village of the Arts and downtown for three months before they are auctioned off to benefit the Artists Guild of Manatee's programmes for area students.

In the wake of a Cocoa teacher who also served as an after-school tutor being charged with molesting young students in April, the Titusville-based Florida Today calls on the Brevard County School Board to fast track changes in policy to protect students from this type of abuse.

The area's fast growth is on the minds of the editorial board at the Daytona Beach News-Journal, which says that cooperation between the Volusia County and it's 16 municipalities is essential to control how the area is to continue growing.

Instead of it's own editorial, the Fort Myers News Press is featuring two guest op-ed pieces regarding the pending purchase of 74,000 acres of Babcock Ranch by the state for preservation. Kitson & Partners CEO Syd Kitson takes the position in favour. St. Petersburg-based attorney Thomas W. Reese, representing Lee County's Responsible Growth Management Coalition, writes against the proposal.

Florida Power & Light is the focus of the opinion in today's Naples Daily News, urging the state's largest electric utility to put more of it's infastructure underground and take other action --- including being more open with it's customers --- in the aftermath of this year's hurricanes.

With a mutual aid agreement now in the works between the fire departments of Ocala and Marion County, proponents of consolidating city and county government services a la Miami-Dade and Jacksonville-Duval see an opening to do the same there. The Ocala Star Banner says it is an idea worth discussing further.

Just up the road, the Gainesville Sun decries the look of University Avenue and 13th Street near the University of Florida, and calls on city commissioners to approve staff and consultant recommendations for the ambitious University Corners project to launch an incentive plan to improve what they call the University's front door.

The Palm Beach Post says that the new Medicaid drug benefit programme isn't good medicine, but people now have to make a choice.

The Tampa Tribune doesn't have it's own editorial today; just several individual op-ed pieces.

Make it a great Sunday.