SUNDAY FLORIDA EDITORIAL ROUNDUP

We begin this morning here at home, as the Lakeland Ledger notes that a federal district judge --- appointed by the late Ronald Reagan, the conservative patron saint --- has struck down a World War II-era state law requiring public school students to recite the Pledge of Allegience. However, there are state and local politicians such as State Senators Ken Pruitt (R - Port St. Lucie) and Mike Fasano (R - New Port Richey) that can't let go of the idea of insisting that students recite a statement they may not believe.

While there are those who believe that new Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson, Jr. should be a better cheerleader for President Bush's economic policies, the Tampa Tribune disagrees, saying he should be looking five to ten years into the future with unfunded promises and growing debt looming ahead.

Tampa has put in a bid to host the 2008 Republican National Convention, but the Tampa Bay Convention and Visitors Bureau has refused requests under the state's Government In The Sunshine Law to release details of the bid. The St. Petersburg Times is concerned that with the city facing at least $13 million in costs for a public event, in public facilities at public cost, and thus the bid should not be hidden from the public who will be paying the bill.

Across the state along I-4, the Orlando Sentinel opinion today is that Florida urgently needs an evacuation plan for the approximately 40,000 residents of the Lake Okeechobee area after the Army Corps of Engineers shot down a concern by the South Florida Water Management District that the 140 mile Herbert Hoover Dike surrounding the lake stands a one-in-six chance of breeching this or any year. The report also highlights the disparity of emergency management services in the counties surrounding Okeechobee. Click here for access to the SFWMD fact sheet, with a link to the total report; both are .pdf documents.

An $81 million plan to reform high schools across Broward County in preparing students to graduate for college or work is direly needed, according to Florida Today, and today's editorial includes some hard facts to show why.

And while on the subject of education, the Daytona Beach News Journal editorial page concern is bridging the achievement gap among young people, and suggests that schools increase support for low-achieving students and make closing that gap a priority, noting the Volusia County Schools' plan an example. But the opinion does state that schools alone cannot close the gap, and three researchers share their opinions as to how.

The Sarasota Herald Tribune is seeking help from readers regarding questions to include for a questionaire to be sent to candidates seeking congressional, state, local, and legislative offices, as well as possibly any debates it would sponsor. Deadline for submissions is June 25 and can be sent to politics@heraldtribune.com. In addition to your question for candidates (please include the office), submissions must include your name, address, and phone number.

Today's editorial in the Ocala Star-Banner reaffirms the strength in the Ocala/Marion County housing market even as this week Fannie Mae's Chief Economist David Berson told a gathering there that the housing boom has peaked. The opinion today is that local government should invest now for the future when the local economy will certainly cool off; for instance, being a more aggressive partner in seeking prime industrial sites for incoming businesses and fast-tracking infastructure improvements and expansion.

The Gainesville Sun today urges Governor Bush to veto House Bill 1417, which would allow for-profit hospices to directly compete with the well established non-profit hospices across Florida. The editorial questions if the for-profit entities would or could provide the same quality and motivation that the volunteers and caretakers now doing it out of love and respect for fellow human beings facing the end of life are providing instead of simply worrying about the bottom line.

Up in Jacksonville, the Florida Times-Union is concerned about the health of the St. John's River, which has apparantly slipped because of Northeast Florida's rapid growth. It notes that current enviromential standards, stricter than a proposal from the state Department of Enviromential Protection, need to be maintained, and that monitoring of the river needs to be upgraded with more monitoring sites and made more transparent.

The Tallahassee Democrat editorial deals with global warming and how Florida has a unique place to provide leadership in this area. It notes that Governor Bush and Attorney General/gubernatorial candidate Charlie Crist met last week with two noted climate scientists from Georgia Tech and were told that Florida faces more of a threat than any other state and most nations. The editorial suggests several ideas that, providing our elected officials have the political will, can help crisis management later.

Today's opinion in the Naples Daily News is that while area taxable values are up significantly and some big numbers will be bandied about as government entities begin considering factoring them into upcoming budgets, officials should not simply reap in the windfall and put reserve money away for next year, but collect what they need...nothing more, nothing less.

The Palm Beach Post lauds what it calls the biggest payoff yet to the Scripps Research Institute's Florida venture: Cell biologist Dr. John Cleveland, a scientist from St. Jude Childrens Research Centre in Memphis, says he is ready to take cancer research to the next level. He needs Scripps' Florida robot, purchased with a state grant, but would not accept Scripps' job offer until state and local officials and the Scripps board accepted Jupiter as the SRI Florida home, done last month. The editorial says this latest endeavour shows that officials were onto something embracing Scripps and a huge costs and a bit of aggrevation.

In Fort Lauderdale, the South Florida Sun Sentinel reminds us why former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan remained so mum about monetary policy. New Fed chief Ben Bernanke's loose lips to reporter Maria Bartiromo of cable financial channel CNBC about the Fed's latest interest rate increase recently caused tumult in the financial markets. The Sun Sentinel says that the Fed chairman is better off seen in public, not heard. One note: Greenspan knew better; he has been married to NBC Chief Foreign Affairs Correspondent Andrea Mitchell for nearly nine years.

Today's Miami Herald opinion is that the Miami-Dade County off-duty police programme, which provides police services to businesses at-cost by off-duty officers, needs to be cleaned up following an county inspector general's audit. It showed that the president of the local police union not only receives a full sergeant's salary ($77,800) from the city for doing union work, but that the union also pays him a bonus from the off-duty programme...although he has done no work on the programme or provided the proper paperwork for reimbursment.

A mouse has caused a stalemate on Perdido Key in the Panhandle between those working to preserve the rodent, which has been listed as an endangered species, and businesses wishing to develop the island has all but frozen projects on Escambia County's barrier beaches. The Pensacola News Journal is concerned over this battle, and suggests it needs to be resolved soon.

Make it a great Sunday! As for me, I'm getting over a nasty cold, and my effort over the past few days which had caused overmedicating with a nasty combination of BC Powder, Nyquil, and Hall's cough drops.