SUNDAY FLORIDA EDITORIAL ROUNDUP

I didn't get to do this last week because, as you may know, I didn't have an online connection. It's only a dial-up setup now, so it takes a bit longer, but here we are again to check out what the editorial writers across the Sunshine State are thinking about on this first Sunday in December. The holiday season may be on their minds, but it apparantly does not show up in their opinions today...

Starting at the Daytona Beach News-Journal, which believes that "New horizions deserve a closer look" as NASA prepares --- pending White House approval --- to launch an unmanned mission next month to Pluto.

As the Legislature prepares for it's special session this week to approve Governor Bush's plan to begin turning over Medicaid to private health management companies in Broward and Duval counties, the St. Petersburg Times says there are other issues that should be addressed, such as writing slot machine rules for Broward County, requiring lobbyists to disclose their fees, and compensating Wilton Dedge, who spent 22 years in prision for a crime he did not commit. As for the Medicaid experiment, the opinion is that the Legislature should not expand the idea without considerable evaluation and further approval.

The Tallahassee Democrat says that special sessions should only deal with issues that cannot wait until the regular session which begins in March, but that the Medicaid reform issue is one that cannot wait.

The Lakeland Ledger editorial deals with the Florida Department of Transportation's removing several major road projects statewide from their plan, citing funding issues. The Ledger calls on the Legislature to either redirect existing money to needed transportation projects, or raise the gasoline tax which was but ten cents a gallon last year.

The Legislature is also on the minds of the editorial team at Florida Today in Melbourne, accusing the Republican leadership --- specifically Senator Daniel Webster (R - Winter Garden) and Representative David Simmons (R - Longwood), who are leading the effort --- of using an effort asking voters to "clean up" the state Constitution as "a bald-faced end run around the will of the people, in service to special-interest fat cats who lavish donations on those who do their bidding." After all, legislators cannot touch the Constitution, but by the electorate approving changing constitutional amendments into laws the body can then change them to fit their will.

The Sarasota Herald Tribune joins in the debate over the use of Tasers by law enforcement officers, saying that police and the public need to know more about the potential health effects on those who the weapon are used on.

Today's Orlando Sentinel opinion is that state and local officials should form a regional land buying authority with appropriate taxing ability to take enviromentially sensitive lands away from the threat of the area's rapid development and preserve natrual buffers around urban areas.

And enviromential issues --- specifically, the condition of Lake Okeechobee and the complexity of solving the problems related to it --- is addressed by the Fort Myers News Press editorial as officials from nine counties will meet this week. It notes that finding answers will be difficult because of the different concerns between coastal counties and those surrounding the lake who depend on sugar farming for much of their economy.

The future of the Social Security programme is the subject of today's editorial in the Tampa Tribune. It slams members of Congress of both parties for refusing to face the realities that the upcoming shortfall of funding demands immediate attention, since they have spent the trust fund intended for Social Security on other issues.

A New York case of a teacher at a Catholic-affiliated school who was fired for becoming pregnant and informing officials there that she had no intention of marrying the father gets noticed in the South Florida Sun Sentinel. Her complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission is being championed by the ACLU, and the Sun Sentinel believes that the organization should drop it's challenge, as it notes that the teacher clearly violated her contract requiring her to uphold Church teachings as well as her teacher personnel handbook which spelled out what was required.

The Palm Beach Post offers criticism of the West Palm Beach city commission for it's apparant unconcern regarding the City Center project as estimates of the cost to the public continue to climb.

Plans to close some schools and redraw boundries in the Escambia County School District will be, undoubtably, emotional and controvisial. The Pensacola News Journal notes that decisions to be made won't be easy, but that school board members have to consider the interests of the district as a whole.

The Miami Herald today calls on the Florida Department of Children and Families to release the $8 million needed to fully fund the Independent Living programme in Dade and Monroe counties, which helps young adults who have aged out of the state's foster care system.