Pass federal shield law to reverse harmful trend

Congress may offer politically motivated "protection" to the American flag. A better idea would be to offer real protection to American journalism.

Most states, including Florida, offer some form of shield law that protects reporters from having to turn over notes and reveal names of confidential sources. The federal government, however, offers no such protection. Until this year, news organizations had not pressed the issue because judges and prosecutors had interpreted a 1972 Supreme Court decision as meaning that such a privilege existed. Based on recent events, though, Congress needs to enact such a privilege.

This month, a judge jailed New York Times reporter Judith Miller after she refused to say who told her the identity of an undercover CIA officer. Four other reporters face contempt charges for not turning over notes related to a civil lawsuit filed by a scientist who worked at the Los Alamos Nuclear Laboratory. In Ms. Miller's case, the Supreme Court declined to intervene. The federal appeals court for the District of Columbia upheld the other contempt citations.

These developments continue the wrong-way shift that began in August 2003, when Judge Richard Posner of the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals wrote an opinion ordering a reporter to give up taped interviews. Judge Posner dismissed what had happened since 1972 and ruled that reporters had no privilege. Two years earlier, the Bush Justice Department had pressed contempt charges against a Texas freelance writer who spent 168 days in jail for refusing to testify before a grand jury about interviews from her investigation of a murder. In 2004 alone, nearly a dozen reporters in three federal jurisdictions were jailed or threatened with jail.

So this month, the American Society of Newspaper Editors endorsed legislation that would create reporter privilege at the federal level. The National Newspaper Association also supports S. 340, sponsored by Sen. Richard Lugar, R-Ind., and H.R. 581, sponsored by Rep. Mike Pence, R-Ind. As the NNA notes, the bills are based on what for 30 years had been Justice Department policy -- to not compel reporters to reveal sources. Yet the Justice Department sent no representative to a recent hearing on the Free Flow of Information Act.

News organizations are not seeking absolute privilege. There would be an exception for information related to an imminent security threat. But like many state laws, the bills in Congress would require that any information a reporter might have be relevant, not be obtainable from any other source and be of compelling interest.

The Free Flow of Information act has bipartisan support, as it should. Reporters prefer that sources talk on the record, but some can't or won't. Fewer will talk at all if they fear being exposed. If that happens, the public will lose, and so will democracy. That prospect should upset every flag-waving American.

Match words with money

When state lawmakers profess commitment to clean water for residents around Lake Okeechobee, they really mean that they're committed to the idea. That's the easy part. As County Commission Chairman Tony Masilotti told The Post recently: "When do you decide quality drinking water isn't the priority? I don't think that ever happens." A financial commitment is the one that matters.

By not setting aside enough money to help pay for the now-$50 million Lake Region Water Treatment Plant, the state has demonstrated that safe drinking water for the 30,000 residents of Belle Glade, South Bay, Pahokee and surrounding unincorporated areas is not a priority. County commissioners plan to spend $5 million on the plant in the budget year starting Oct. 1. They sought $2.5 million from the state but got only $200,000.

The Legislature did pass a growth management law that, among other things, puts the South Florida Water Management District in charge of $30 million in state money for "alternative water supply programs." The district will match the money with $30 million. But the water treatment plant is not the only project in the 16-county district that will be eligible for money. Cities and counties can apply for regional projects that make saltwater and brackish water potable, store rainwater for use in the dry season and treat sewage water for use on lawns. The water district has allotted $3 million toward the plant and plans to earmark another $1.5 million in the upcoming budget year. Executive Director Carol Wehle recently reiterated the district's commitment to the project but could not say how much the district ultimately would spend.

Because of increased construction costs and the specialized work involved, the projected cost to build the plant is now three times as much as when public commitment was proclaimed five years ago, after a Palm Beach Post analysis showed high levels of cancer-causing chemicals in the water. The state's failure to back up its commitment with cash also has left the cities, already seeking federal and state grants, more uncertain of how they'll meet their part of the cost-sharing formula. "It's Tallahassee and Washington that created the condition of Lake Okeechobee," Pahokee Mayor J.P. Sasser told The Post, "and I think they need to step up and work to get all the cities around the lake off the lake as a source of drinking water."

Year after year, the Lake Region Water Treatment Plant tops the list of local legislative priorities. If the state is as "committed" to this "priority" as the politicians claim, where's the money?

Close runway extension

A few weeks ago, a citizens group opposed to airport expansion released a report alleging that managers of Witham Field tricked the Federal Aviation Administration into approving the lengthening of a runway seven years ago.

The project added 460 feet to Runway 12/30 at Witham, now known as Martin County Airport. The runway's protection area -- also known as the "crash zone" -- encompasses a neighborhood of dozens of homes, which the FAA prefers remain vacant. But the maps submitted to the FAA, and the maps county commissioners used as they approved the runway extension, showed neither the neighborhood nor the homes in it. So the county commission and the FAA, lacking adequate information, were duped into approving the runway, contends David Shore, president of Witham Airport Action Majority. Mr. Shore prepared a report detailing the situation.

A spokeswoman said the FAA does allow exceptions, including residential development, in crash zones. Still, the FAA wrote the county at the time, urging Martin not to allow YMCA soccer fields inside the crash zone. The fields are beside the neighborhood, which is directly across from the runway. And the FAA approved the runway extension with a faulty map that shows no homes in the crash zone.

The FAA now says it "has no evidence" that the runway isn't safe, but, with the faulty map showing no homes in the crash zone, agency officials did not have accurate information when they permitted the extension. Commission Chairman Lee Weberman admits that the county and FAA may have made "a poor decision." He's correct. People in that 30-year-old neighborhood off Palm Beach Road where no homes were shown on the map have a legitimate complaint against both the county and the FAA. The county is waiting for an FAA grant to buy out homes in the neighborhood that wasn't on the map or provide heavy-duty insulation to protect families from jet noise.

Unless new information comes to light, the county commission and the FAA in 1998 condemned a neighborhood that neither was aware would be affected. Now federal and local taxpayers will pay to buy out residents and insulate homes. A better -- and cheaper -- solution? Close the runway extension. Since the county paid to build it, without FAA money, the county can close it. Doing so would bring immediate relief to the neighborhood. Some larger jets won't be able to use the airport. So be it. The commission and the FAA made decisions based on inaccurate information. The errors are correctable.

Day-labor model: Jupiter

Cities trying to deal with rising numbers of day laborers seeking employers on street corners will learn what works and what doesn't from Jupiter and Lake Worth.

In Jupiter, town officials are collaborating with business owners and immigrant groups on plans to open a Neighborhood Resource Center in September. It will provide a place for employers to hire and to help clear the crowds of laborers who gather on Center Street most mornings. Two not-for-profit groups, Corn Maya and Catholic Charities, will run the center and also offer social services such as legal aid referrals, English classes and Head Start programs. The town has made a deal to buy the LifeSong Community Church as part of a town hall expansion, and part of the facility will house the center.

If Jupiter's plan is progressive, Lake Worth's is haphazard. Complaints this year about laborers congregating at downtown intersections prompted police to post signs threatening employers with fines for hiring undocumented immigrants. The new plan is to direct workers and employers to meet each other at the city's shuffleboard courts. But the courts area is too small to handle up to 300 laborers who line Lake Avenue on some days. Not many of them are showing up there anyway. Mayor Marc Drautz says that while the city is looking for a better solution, it will post signs telling workers where they should go.

While both cities acknowledge that day workers contribute to the local economy and are essential to many businesses, Jupiter has been willing to make an investment; Lake Worth has not. Jupiter soon will have a center and clear streets while Lake Worth will have more signs. Cities in South Florida will be studying the contrast.

Black enrollment decline a knock on Bush policy

Florida officials want to withhold judgment on preliminary data that show the number of African-American freshmen admitted to the state university system for the fall has dropped by 1,400 from three years ago. The silence about the nearly 11 percent projected decrease in black freshmen enrollment is odd, because this usually is when Gov. Bush begins leaping through verbal hoops to justify the contradictions of his One Florida plan to "transcend" affirmative action.

Gov. Bush promised the exact opposite effect on black enrollment, of course, with his 1999 initiative to outlaw race as a consideration in university admissions. His only substitute was guaranteed admission to a state university for high school seniors graduating in the top 20 percent of their classes. In other words, he "helped" the 20 percent already most assured of admission. In 2001, Gov. Bush promised that 400 additional minority students would go to college under the Talented 20 provision of the education-reform fantasy he was overselling. Between 2000 and 2004, however, the final statewide enrollment numbers of black freshmen increased by 370 students, from 12,340 to 12,710.

There is excellent news in the preliminary numbers that show Hispanic freshmen increased by 20 percent over the same period. Gov. Bush will tout that improvement, but the Hispanic student increase is at least as attributable to the growth of the largest minority population in Florida.

Despite Florida's ever-increasing population, meanwhile, African-American numbers haven't kept pace with the rest of the university system's population. When black student enrollment stayed flat, Gov. Bush shifted to declaring success by claiming credit for it not plummeting. Blaming economic factors and increasing academic standards, as Florida Atlantic University President Frank Brogan did last week, is another dodge. The key economic factor, higher tuition costs, has been controlled by Gov. Bush and the Legislature. Their lack of need-based scholarships is consistent with the idea of diverting scholarship money, as FAU did, to fill its athletic program's budget holes.

"Relentless media criticism cannot obscure the fact that One Florida is working better than its critics ever imagined," Gov. Bush insisted in 2002, responding to the numbers, which showed then that minorities were losing ground. Board of Governors Chairwoman Carolyn Roberts is correct that a real discussion of the numbers requires the real numbers, due in September. That also was true in the past when, without them, Gov. Bush was spinning One Florida.

Sheriff's boot camp gets reprieve; now, make it permanent

State Rep. Joe Negron saved Martin County's boot camp for troubled teens on Thursday, just days before Sheriff Robert Crowder planned to shut it down for lack of money. Rep. Negron, R-Stuart, who is running for state attorney general, made a deal with the Florida Department of Juvenile Justice and Gov. Bush to put an additional $340,000 into the program. Martin's Juvenile Offender Training Center, which helps young men from Palm Beach County and the Treasure Coast, has the best record in the state for graduates who stay out of trouble.

Rep. Negron deserves credit for finding the money at the last minute after the state budget appeared to be closed to late requests. He found it after a story, an editorial and a column in The Post about Sheriff Crowder's problem revealed the need. For the future, the sheriff and the legislative delegation could work on improving communications. The sheriff said he thought that money had been set aside for the project when he visited legislators in Tallahassee in the spring, but he learned while driving back to Martin County that it had been withdrawn. The sheriff now understands the importance of monitoring legislative action more closely. Legislators must put this program at the top of their priority lists.

The sheriff deserves credit for not giving up and for refusing to ask counties to pay for a program that is the state's responsibility. The boot camp includes a combination treatment plan of "shock incarceration," in which the young men, called "cadets," live in a facility at the jail for four months. The next four months, they receive counseling, education and mentoring. Churches and an on-site Boy Scout troop provide support. The last four months, cadets no longer live at the facility, but check in daily. The program began, Sheriff Crowder said, when he and other sheriffs saw that the state provided no programs for youths the courts considered delinquents.

Martin's program has had a success rate ranging from 73 percent to 81 percent over the past five years. Sheriff Crowder has struggled each year to get state money to keep the juvenile center going.

The state should follow this latest dramatic "save" with a commitment to keep the program in business. It shows that helping troubled youths, rather than just warehousing them, can pay off in saved lives and lower crime rates.

VA cemetery issues solvable

An eight-year campaign to open a veterans cemetery in South Florida has one more obstacle to overcome. U.S. Rep. Alcee Hastings, D-Miramar, has called for another environmental review to assess the cemetery's impact on the 312-acre site west of Boynton Beach.

Veterans groups thought the government had all remaining issues settled when the South Florida Water Management District unanimously approved an environmental permit this month. But environmentalist Rosa Durando's appeal prompted Rep. Hastings to ask Department of Veterans Affairs Secretary Jim Nicholson for a delay. Richard Walesky, director of Palm Beach County Environmental Resources Management, believes Ms. Durando's concerns are legitimate and acknowledged to Rep. Hastings that the VA chose the worst of four possible sites to put its cemetery. Something farther from the Everglades would have made more sense, but finding and then affording those tracts isn't easy.

The prickliest issue between the government and environmentalists about the $23 million project concerns how much sensitive land is actually there. The government thinks there are no more than 131 acres, but environmentalists contend the real number is about 300. Both sides agree there are 73 acres of wetlands that need protection. The VA and Army Corps of Engineers negotiated for months over how to offset the loss of habitat of protected species such as the Eastern indigo snake, wood stork and gopher tortoise. The agencies worked out a mitigation strategy that offsets damage on the site with credits for buying preservation land elsewhere. The VA agreed to leave at least 50 acres untouched to create a sanctuary for the tortoise and other wildlife.

Cemeteries are preferable to housing or commercial use when it comes to building in sensitive areas. No doubt, the site is well-located to serve veterans. Close to a half-million vets live within 80 miles of the property, and the nearest veterans cemetery is in Bushnell, 250 miles to the northwest. The VA says the site can accommodate 110,000 burials over the next 50 years.

The government should take a last look at environmentalists' concerns and follow through on commitments to preserve as much of the property as possible. But the cemetery's scheduled opening in mid-2006 is already two years late, and veterans deserve the project they were promised.

Base an Iraq withdrawal on progress, not politics

The escalating Iraq insurgency is proof that Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld doesn't always get what he wants or expects. It would be good if he gets what he asked for during this week's surprise visit to Iraq.

Reflecting the Bush administration's concern that Iraq's interim government might not draft and adopt a constitution on time, Mr. Rumsfeld said, "They're simply going to have to make the compromises necessary and get on with it." He wasn't the only U.S. official applying needed pressure. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad told Iraqis that the constitution needed to protect the rights of women -- an early version did not -- and also must not set up a collection of essentially independent states.

Far from a tradition of compromise, the main groups negotiating a constitution have a history of murderous conflict. Saddam Hussein favored the minority Sunni Arabs and oppressed the Shiite majority, now in political control. Kurds set up what essentially is an independent state under U.S. protection after the first Gulf War. They want the constitution to protect that independence, and have refused to disband their peshmerga militia.

Overcoming that history at all will be difficult. Resolving those differences by Aug. 15 -- the deadline for producing a draft of the constitution -- more so. Producing a draft that doesn't embarrass the Bush administration adds even more complexity. If Iraq develops into an extremist Islamic state, Americans would conclude that the invasion had not been worth it.

If the administration's lofty, revised goal is democracy for the formerly oppressed, the political goal clearly is pushing Iraq far enough forward along the democracy timeline for the U.S. to start withdrawing our 138,000 troops, without appearing to abandon our commitments, before the November 2006 elections. Army Gen. George Casey, traveling with Mr. Rumsfeld, predicted a "fairly substantial withdrawal" next spring if -- emphasis on if -- the political process is relatively on schedule and Iraq's security forces become better able to control the insurgency.

Although the Bush administration insists that Americans and Iraqis are holding their own against insurgents -- limiting attacks to about 65 per day -- assaults aimed at disrupting political progress have become more sophisticated. Two Sunni Arabs involved in writing the constitution were assassinated. Top diplomats from Egypt and Algeria have been kidnapped and killed. Insurgents have killed at least eight U.S. soldiers in the past week.

An Army intelligence officer told The New York Times: "We are capturing or killing a lot of insurgents. But they're being replaced quicker than we can interdict their operations." If that continues and the constitution falters, Americans can expect not a "fairly substantial withdrawal" of troops but a fairly substantial problem.

Push online public access

After a year's study, the Florida Supreme Court-appointed Committee on Privacy and Court Records supposedly had agreed on the sensible recommendation that the same public documents that are available at the courthouse also should be available online. That's no great revelation in the Internet age. For the Supreme Court, the question remains how to move beyond its 2003 moratorium on posting any documents other than dockets, orders or others at the discretion of chief judges.

The Supreme Court will have to wait longer for the committee guidance that was due July 5, however, because members such as Judge Jacqueline Griffin of the 5th District Court in Daytona Beach are objecting to the principle of electronic access, calling it a "misguided goal." The proposed drafting of appropriate rules for posting the records is not enough for Judge Griffin and others whom she called "the gang of five" on the 18-member panel of judges, court clerks and attorneys. But if a permanent moratorium is the gang's objective, why bother to have served on the panel?

Whether records are obtained online or over the courthouse counter, a legitimate concern of judges and clerks is keeping out such personal information as Social Security and bank account numbers, divorce-case allegations, medical records or trade secrets. That's at least as much a concern of the public whose online access to non-private information would be denied. The clerks have a case in saying that their duty is to maintain, not edit the records. But their push to make attorneys and self-represented litigants responsible for identifying exempt personal information, and thus protecting it from disclosure, isn't the full solution. More difficult to accept is judges' gripes, because they get to limit what records are available to whom, and what is included in them. Questionable info can go online only at the judges' discretion.

The committee worked a year for a consensus that amid the competing interests may not be found. But the objections of Judge Griffin's gang cannot be allowed to delay the committee's report indefinitely. The committee should include the dissent with its recommendations and let the Supreme Court move on to make the policy decisions. It always has been the case with the Internet that information that ideally would not be available online still gets there. The committee's job is to tell the court how to prevent that without ignoring the Internet.

Explore space, not risk

In Bill Cosby's classic routine, it's hilarious when the patient on the operating table hears the doctor say, "Oops." It's not funny when NASA says "Oops" while there's a shuttle in space.

The space agency suspended flights Wednesday after studying pictures of insulation breaking away from the main fuel tank during Tuesday's launch. Two and a half years ago, debris that broke off at launch hit Columbia's wing, damaging tiles that caused the shuttle to disintegrate during reentry, killing the seven astronauts aboard. After that tragedy, NASA redesigned many shuttle elements and overhauled safety policies. Large breakaway debris was the one structural flaw NASA absolutely needed to fix. William W. Parsons, manager of the shuttle program, admitted: "We decided it was safe to fly as is. Obviously, we were wrong."

Fortunately, the large piece that spooked NASA did not hit the shuttle Discovery. And because of the Columbia disaster, NASA understands the importance of inspecting the orbiter for damage and developed procedures for doing so. In fact, if not for the extensive system of cameras installed after Columbia, NASA might not have noted the debris during Discovery's launch. Is it that NASA never appreciated the danger before, or is it that NASA is hyperventilating now?

Assume the former, if safety is the prime concern. There is, of course, a simple way to remove risk to astronauts as the overriding factor and refocus on exploring space. Unmanned spaceflight is cheaper and safer. And given the shuttles' age and the uncertain success of any further redesign, an unmanned program makes more sense. Continued manned spaceflight would require trillions of dollars and years or decades to design and produce new, safe vehicles.

Unmanned rockets have much more immediate potential. And if someone says, "Oops," it's a machine that's lost, not a life.

Krischer passing buck by going to grand jury

Four months ago, Barry Krischer said the most important aspect of the Jerrod Miller case was openness. Now, the Palm Beach County state attorney wants the key decision to be made in secret. He was right then, and he's wrong now.

The case has been emotional from the moment on Feb. 26 when Delray Beach police officer Darren Cogoni, who is white, shot the 16-year-old African-American in the back of the head. Mr. Miller, who did not have a license, had driven to the Delray Beach Full Service Center for a dance that Saturday night. Police stopped the car in the parking lot, the teenager drove off erratically, and officer Cogoni fired from behind, saying he acted to protect boys and girls who were in the vehicle's path.

Because of all the strong community reaction, Mr. Krischer made the unusual but proper decision to hold a coroner's inquest -- a public hearing before a judge who would issue a nonbinding recommendation on whether probable cause exists for criminal charges. Mr. Krischer did not have to make that request. He could have taken the case directly to the grand jury, which is not a public forum, or his office could have decided whether or not to file charges.

After the April inquest -- during which no witness confirmed officer Cogoni's contention that children had been in danger -- Palm Beach County Judge Debra Moses Stephens found probable cause to support a charge of manslaughter. On Tuesday, however, Mr. Krischer said he still would take the case to a grand jury because the Florida Department of Law Enforcement investigation did not recommend a criminal charge.

Mr. Miller's relatives expressed everything from skepticism to anger about all the official buck-passing. An FDLE official, for example, said the agency doesn't offer recommendations; it just gathers facts. Mr. Krischer disputed that on Wednesday, saying FDLE has made recommendations to his office after investigations, as a sheriff's office will do after investigating a case for another agency. Mr. Krischer also complained that Judge Stephens, over his office's objections, allowed into the record what he believes was "hearsay and inadmissible evidence." But Mr. Krischer wanted the inquest. Nor will his office release the FDLE report -- eight binders of information -- until after the grand jury rules.

The key question, however, is why Mr. Krischer is going to the grand jury. He acknowledged that he could decide, "but I don't think I should substitute my judgment for the community's." He pointed out that he has gone to a grand jury five times in police shooting cases, and that his office lost at trial on one such case that was filed directly. In none of those cases, though, was there a public inquest.

Mr. Krischer now says the purpose of the inquest was to "calm the community." If so, he is running the risk of doing the opposite. Clearly, Jerrod Miller's relatives believe that the state attorney is using the grand jury for political cover and blaming Judge Stephens if no indictment comes back. Mr. Krischer denies both allegations. Still, there is nothing his office doesn't know about the Jerrod Miller case. If he thinks that there is evidence -- after a process that he started -- to support a criminal conviction, he doesn't need the grand jury to make that decision for him.

Smile - you're safer

Within hours of the failed bombing attempts in London last week, police were studying photos of the four terrorists and had made progress learning their identities. After raids Wednesday, one suspect is in custody.

It is unlikely that law-enforcement authorities in the United States could have moved as swiftly after a similar attack. British police have a significant advantage: surveillance cameras. The London transportation system has about 6,000 in stations and on trains and buses. London is probably the most electronically surveilled city in the world. An estimated 4.2 million closed-circuit television cameras across the country may catch the average Briton in the line of sight about 300 times a day. Besides their obvious value in investigating the attacks, policy say, the cameras have helped to reduce crime.

Even after 9/11, efforts to increase electronic surveillance in the U.S. have stalled over complaints that cameras are an invasion of privacy. But what reasonable expectation of privacy should people have in public places? Train stations and bus terminals hardly qualify as harbors of privacy. The rising popularity of cellphones with cameras shows that Americans aren't camera-shy. Why allow mass-transit passengers to carry cameras but deny them to police? People have no qualms about appearing on camera while using an ATM or entering a convenience store, so why should public venues be different?

Opponents argue that cameras have little value in preventing crime, but this view underestimates their possibilities. The four images of the suspects from the botched bombings are valuable leads for London police as they investigate connections with terrorist cells. Capturing the four bombers certainly would prevent them from committing other crimes. Also, terrorists who know surveillance cameras are watching may alter their behavior and tactics in ways that make them more vulnerable and less efficient. We know that cameras deter common criminals; they may deter some terrorists, too, or at least make their attacks more difficult to execute.

South Florida commuters who use Tri-Rail soon will see cameras in their train cars. Tri-Rail plans to use part of an $800,000 grant from the Department of Homeland Security to install a surveillance system by the end of the year. Passengers will be able to control what's transmitted by sounding an alarm that triggers the cameras to isolate on specific areas of the car. Commuter trains and buses can't screen passengers the way airlines and airports do. Cameras -- along with plans to add more guards, retrain employees and use bomb-sniffing dogs -- will improve security.

Civil libertarians who complain that surveillance cameras diminish individual freedom have got it exactly wrong. In reality, cameras protect freedom by helping to ensure that law-abiding people can live their lives as they choose.

Parents made right point about report cards

Educators want to give Palm Beach County parents more comprehensive information about how elementary school students are doing. Parents want that information to be in a form they understand and to note superior work.

The plan elementary principals first endorsed wasn't going to meet those goals, and they were right to pull it back this week for revision. Principals had wanted to drop A-F grades in favor of a 3-2-1 ranking on a variety of skills such as "Understands the common features of literary forms" in language arts and "Understands patterns, relations and functions" in math. Those skills are ranked on current report cards, but many parents don't know what to make of them. Parents also dislike the fact that the best mark -- 3 -- simply means that the student is working at least at grade level. For those parents, a top grade of "good enough" isn't good enough.

For now, report cards will keep letter grades and the 3-2-1 rankings. Next, the school district should provide easier to understand information about the skills on which students are graded. That improvement is more important than the eventual fate of letter grades. Above all, parents need to understand what report cards report.

Make room in Florida for affordable housing

This year, the Legislature made repairs from a summer of storm damage a priority. Next year, a priority will have to be repairs from years of housing-bubble damage.

As figures released Monday showed, the nonsensical and ultimately unsustainable rise in home prices continues. Florida's median existing-home price went up nearly one-third in the past year, to $248,700. In the Treasure Coast, the price is $260,700, an increase of 38 percent. And in Palm Beach County, the price is up to $406,800. That's a 30 percent jump on top of what no one could believe a year ago.

The pace is no different statewide, although prices elsewhere may seem very appealing to home buyers in this area. Used homes in the Tampa Bay area are at $248,700, an increase of 31 percent. In Orlando, the median price went up to $240,000; that's 37 percent higher than in 2004. Even Panama City, at the eastern edge of what has been known as the "Redneck Riviera," saw an increase of 50 percent.

Factors driving the statewide boom have been low interest rates, the low dollar -- which has made Florida real estate attractive for Western Europeans -- and demand from Baby Boomers moving from the Northeast and Midwest with cash from selling their homes. There's a chance that prices will start rising more sanely. Interest rates have been ticking up, and the euro has lost some value to the dollar. Even if the state is lucky and the market cools rather than bursts, however, prices probably will remain high enough to keep home-buying out of reach for many workers. The traditional 20 percent down payment would translate to $80,000 in Palm Beach County and $52,000 in the Treasure Coast.

Local governments have been little help, addicted to increasing property-tax revenue and unwilling to extract from developers any trade-off for housing that teachers, police officers and service employees could afford. Too many governments acquiesce in the conversion of apartments to condos, closing out one more option and further squeezing the rental market. The Legislature's only action has been to keep raiding the very successful Affordable Housing Trust Fund, which has helped thousands of Floridians afford down payments.

More and more business groups, however, realize that they can't recruit talent if employees can't find a place to live. The Greater Boca Raton Chamber of Commerce, for example, has raised the issue. And any practical solution lies in some kind of partnership between private industry and government. Builders and lenders understand markets and financing. With Florida's median wage still relatively low, there must be affordable housing for employees or the state will suffer. One danger is that many people already are overextended. Lenders are lowering loan standards to dangerous levels, and in March, the state's foreclosure rate was reported to be twice the national average.

The answer is not to abandon growth management and open up every part of the state for development. The answer is to create a new housing supply for a market that the boom has left behind. Last year, the Legislature created a special committee on insurance to prepare a list of topics for the session. The affordable-housing crisis deserves the same sort of attention.

More pre-K revenge

Florida is so committed to education that the state is shutting down a scholarship program that trains teachers.

It is just the latest of several "cost-saving" decisions that have undercut the voter-mandated pre-kindergarten program that starts next month. As of June 30, the Teacher Education and Compensation Helps scholarship, which has awarded nearly 18,000 scholarships to Florida educators since 1998, was closed to new applicants. The 3,600 people now using the scholarships toward gaining a child development associate credential or certification as a child-care center director will be able to continue.

A spokesman for the Florida Agency for Workforce Innovation said the state wants to reevaluate its $3 million investment. More likely, there is unhappiness with the Children's Forum in Tallahassee, which administers the scholarship. The group has been justifiably critical of Florida's weak, minimum-standard efforts to enact pre-K on the cheap.

Blocking access to teacher-training programs is counterintuitive; this state always needs more teachers to keep up with fast growth and high turnover, and a recent Yale University study found that preschoolers nationwide are expelled at a rate more than three times the rate for K-12 students, underscoring the need for better training. Punishing the Children's Forum for speaking out in favor of children punishes the state's children and, ultimately, the state.

No bailout of Broward

Palm Beach County decided correctly last week that Broward County must help to solve the traffic problem it has caused.

The county's Metropolitan Planning Organization, which sets transportation priorities, voted to seek cooperation from Broward on a plan that would widen State Road 7 in both counties to eight lanes. The idea is to relieve traffic in the crowded southwestern suburbs of Palm Beach and the crowded northwestern suburbs of Broward counties. The problem, though, begins in Broward, which two decades ago approved the Sawgrass Expressway as a means of opening up that part of the county to sprawl development. Now, Broward complains that it's too hard for drivers in that area to go north.

Broward's long-standing answer has been to extend the Sawgrass along University Drive, a terrible idea that would take a major road along the edge of the Loxahatchee Wildlife Refuge. Broward County argues that any other option would offer short-term relief at best, but Palm Beach County is not obligated to bail out Broward from its decision to encourage overdevelopment in the wrong place. The obligation is on Broward to work toward the least-bad option.

Martin's non-starter tax

Martin County commissioners earn an A for reading the public mood on their plan for a $186,200 referendum-by-mail asking voters to OK a six-year, 1-cent sales tax. The mood boiled down to "No way."

The commission majority -- Lee Weberman, Michael DiTerlizzi and Doug Smith -- wanted the tax to pay for roads, fire and rescue equipment and conservation lands. They were especially hopeful that sales-tax money could be presented as matching money to win state help for the proposed $160 million Indian Street Bridge. Federal interest in supplying money for the bridge, which would link Palm City with Indian Street, has cooled.

Many Martin voters are annoyed that this commission has ignored or altered county rules that require development to pay for itself and changed standards to allow more development when roads can't support it. In addition, huge increases in Martin property values have put more money in county coffers. People were talking about the new sales tax in supermarket checkout lines, at chamber of commerce meetings and in coffee shops. In a rare moment of agreement for Martin residents, the shared sentiment was: No.

Second opinion on HOVs

In dealing with the Soviet Union, Ronald Reagan said his policy was "trust, but verify." In dealing with the Florida Department of Transportation on Interstate 95, Palm Beach County commissioners are right to skip the "trust" part.

The DOT was all set to increase the hours for High Occupancy Vehicle (HOV) lanes, starting July 1. Intervention by state Sen. Ron Klein, D-Delray Beach, got the DOT to delay its plan to require that at least two people be in vehicles using the carpool lanes between 6 a.m. and 10 a.m. and between 3 p.m. and 7 p.m. Currently, the hours are 7 a.m. to 9 a.m. and 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. And last week, Commission Chairman Tony Masilotti said he wants Palm Beach County to conduct its own study and not rely on the DOT's information to justify the change.

The issue affects more than one county. When widening of I-95 is complete, HOV lanes will run from Boca Raton to Jupiter, and the interstate carries lots of commuters from Martin and St. Lucie counties to jobs in Palm Beach. The state says it has numbers to back up the idea that HOV lanes increase carpooling, but given the DOT's recent history of ignoring what local governments think, there is no reason yet to trust those numbers.

State-federal collision giving schools whiplash

State and federal governments are telling school districts to improve reading scores. But when it comes to grading, they're not on the same page.

Last week, for example, Palm Beach County school officials learned that the district faces penalties -- including potential takeover by private operators -- if it again flunks under the federal No Child Left Behind Act. The district has failed to make "adequate yearly progress" -- the NCLB standard -- three years in a row.

Horrible, right? But then Gov. Bush and state Education Commissioner John Winn announced that Palm Beach County was one of 15 districts statewide to earn an A during the 2004-05 school year. Fantastic, right?

There are other odd examples. Martin County also earned an A from Tallahassee. In fact, it had the highest grade in the state. But did Martin make adequate yearly progress under NCLB? It did not. Neither did the St. Lucie County School District, which got a C from the state. On the other hand, Broward County was one of only two districts, out of 67, to pass under the federal standard, but it received only a B from the state. The clashing grades seem even stranger because both are based primarily on math and reading scores from the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test.

How can a district make an A and an F on the same results? NCLB supposedly requires districts to pay more attention to minorities and disadvantaged students who traditionally have done poorly. A district can't pass if even one of those groups is "left behind." But that rule has been manipulated. More individual schools in Florida passed under NCLB this year because the U.S. Department of Education let the state set lower standards for some groups. Another head-scratching fact, though, is that the state gave A grades to schools in part because of progress among lower-performing students.

Conflicting grades would be just another example of government gobbledygook if it weren't for looming NCLB penalties that could force districts to transport students to new schools, provide tutors, fire teachers or even dissolve the school board. It's impossible to justify that expense and disruption for a district that the state says is doing A work. Shouldn't the feds at least be on the same page as the state before they throw the book at a school district?

Argument loses wind

It didn't happen after Ivan, but it may happen after Arlene and Dennis -- an end to the break on building codes in the Panhandle.

In most of Florida, the line to which homes and businesses must be able to withstand 120-mph winds is several miles inland from the coast. In Palm Beach, Martin and St. Lucie, the standard applies to virtually the entire county. But for the state's 12 westernmost counties, from Franklin through Escambia, the 120-mile code extends just 1 mile. The Legislature passed the exception as a favor to a state senator and local home builders, who wanted to keep housing costs down. And, they said, the bigger threat was storm surge.

During this year's legislative session, House Speaker Allan Bense, R-Panama City, blocked any attempt to end the exception. This week, however, Rep. Bense said the Legislature at least should discuss the issue, which matters not just to those who live in Rep. Bense's district and the rest of the Panhandle. As we saw last summer, hurricane damage anywhere in Florida can mean higher rates for all policyholders, and the old rules about inland areas being less vulnerable to wind damage no longer apply.

Tim Reinhold, vice president for engineering of the Tampa-based Institute for Business and Home Safety, says Panhandle builders contend that "a shelf of cold water" just offshore in the Gulf of Mexico will reduce storm intensity. Indeed, Ivan and Dennis weakened before making landfall. But as Mr. Reinhold notes, there could have been other factors. Having studied hurricanes for 25 years, he points out that other factors lined up in 1969 to produce Camille, a Category 5 storm that struck Mississippi. In Charley's wake, he says, 30 percent of homes beyond the 120-mph zone had "at least one broken window."

This issue pits two of Florida's most powerful industries -- insurance and home building. Insurers, obviously, favor tougher codes that tend to minimize losses and cut the amount that they pay in claims. Home builders, who bear the cost of those codes, tend to resist. In this case, however, what benefits the insurers tends to benefit more Floridians. Reducing damage can reduce increases in premiums.

Studies will give the Legislature more information to work from during the 2006 session. With any luck, there will be no more real-life tests. The hurricanes that have come calling in the Panhandle have made their point.

Rocky time in Wellington

For a village that prides itself on being family-friendly, Wellington has made some dangerously shortsighted decisions about four new soccer fields at Village Park.

So anxious to complete four of the 12 soccer fields in the 93-acre recreation complex, Wellington made "the business decision," as Village Engineer Gary Clough told The Post last week, to allow workers last year to place sod over debris, instead of excavate it or cover it with thick layers of clean dirt. Just five months after the fields were opened, some of those rocks, branches, metal cans, pipes and wires have damaged equipment used to aerate the fields and, parents fear, could surface during play. "There was a rush on the fields," Mr. Clough said, "and we did make a business decision. We didn't have time to wait."

To spare a child a preventable injury and to save itself from needless liability, the village should ensure that the fields are safe. Although village officials initially discounted a former contractor who quit after finding "a little bit of everything" while preparing the soil for grass, even the village's own records include pictures, taken by village supervisors, of rocks bigger than tennis balls, wooden stumps and other debris on the former unregulated dumping ground.

Expedience is no excuse for potentially endangering residents. In 2000, Martin County commissioners and the Federal Aviation Administration approved new YMCA soccer fields within the airport's Runway Protection Zone, a euphemism for "crash zone." The county required the YMCA to provide $5 million in liability insurance and prohibit spectators and grandstands from the western end of the field, using it only "as a last resort."

Similarly, Wellington has chosen the easiest route, not necessarily the best solution. After the debris damaged village equipment, the turf foreman in March recommended to his supervisors that the village remove the sod, add a foot of clean topsoil and relay the sod. Rather than remove the debris and reconstruct the $185,000 Bermuda grass fields, the village bought a new machine for aerating and plans to inspect the fields more often.

"We're confident," Parks and Recreation Director Jim Barnes said, "that we won't have a problem." He had better hope that the path of least resistance does not prove to pose the greatest risk -- for children and for taxpayers.

Block the latest attempt to open state for drilling

A White House plan that would give control over drilling in Florida waters to Louisiana, Alabama and oil companies threatened late last week to make its way into the federal energy bill, which could go to a vote in the Senate as early as Tuesday. The plan would be terrible for this state.

The proposal would lift offshore oil drilling bans in two areas of the Gulf of Mexico. It would allow oil companies to put the state's west coast beaches at risk to extract about 2 billion barrels of oil -- three months' worth of U.S. consumption. On Friday, Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla., urged members of a House-Senate conference committee preparing the energy bill to oppose the plan, which was revealed in an e-mail from a White House official listing what President Bush wants in the final bill.

The plan is similar to one proposed in June by Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-La.. It would redraw state boundaries in the gulf to give Louisiana control over Florida waters in the Eastern Planning Area. That extends from the Florida-Alabama line south to a point parallel with the southern tip of Florida. Changing state boundaries would erase bans on oil drilling in Florida waters that extend to 2012 in some areas.

Interior Secretary Gale Norton had outlined a similar plan to Sen. Mel Martinez, R-Fla. The Landrieu plan was dropped after Sen. Nelson's filibuster, which won a pledge from Senate leaders not to allow drilling off Florida's coast. The president's plan seeks to circumvent that promise, Nelson aide Dan McLaughlin said, and some senators may be reneging on their public commitment to protect the state's coastline. The proposal also would allow drilling in the Bristol Bay region of Alaska.

The White House end run could "blow up" the energy bill, Mr. McLaughlin said. Sen. Nelson has told Sen. Pete Domenici, R-New Mexico, and others that if they break promises to honor a ban against drilling, he will try to block passage of the final bill. Senators from other coastal states, including California, North and South Carolina and Michigan, which has blocked drilling in the Great Lakes, could join Sen. Nelson. The pressure then would be on Sen. Martinez, who once agreed with Ms. Norton's plans, then backed Sen. Nelson to defend Florida's coasts.

Gov. Bush had supported a ban on drilling 100 miles off Florida's entire coastline. His decision, however, gave Sen. Landrieu's proposal room to grow, since the governor's design would not affect the waters she hopes Louisiana will control. Unlike in Florida, oil is a major industry in Louisiana, which hasn't objected to offshore drilling.

According to the White House e-mail, President Bush's plan would bring the oil companies about $680 million in nine years. For Florida, where tourism still drives the state's economy, the risk of damage to beaches from drilling or tanker mishaps remains unacceptable.

Security on the ground

Terrorist attacks on mass transit systems in London and Madrid have provided a grim warning about the potential vulnerability of Americans who commute daily on subways, trains and buses. Congress and the Department of Homeland Security, however, seemed to have missed the message.

Days after the London bombings that left 56 dead, the Senate rejected a plan to spend $1.2 billion on mass-transit security measures and instead voted 96-1 to approve spending $100 million -- which was even $50 million less than the House had approved. In paying to secure mass-transit, Congress is content to tithe.

Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff doesn't think the federal government should have much of a role in protecting trains and buses. He said his office must focus on preventing airline hijackings, biological attacks and other catastrophic threats that could inflict mass casualties. "A bomb in a subway car may kill 30 people," he says, while hijacked commercial airliners killed 3,000. The government has spent $18 billion on aviation security and $350 million on mass-transit security since 9/11; ridership on trains and buses is 16 times greater than on airplanes.

The disparity in numbers leaves most of the burden for securing metropolitan systems with cities and states. New York City commuters went to the subways last week and watched their police conduct random searches of bags and purses. Increased police presence was evident at bus and train stations throughout the country. Federal grants are available to pay for some of the added security, but local governments are left largely on their own to assess what's needed and figure out how to pay for it. The fact that the nation has no comprehensive approach to mass-transit security isn't something that will deter terrorists from ignoring one of their favorite targets.

The government can't throw money at every threat as was the inclination in the weeks after 9/11. But the government can be smarter about the way it spends. The $31.9 billion homeland security budget is paid out in a formula that is based on minimum grants for all states, instead of identifying high-risk states that need extra help. The idea that Wyoming and New York are treated equally defies logic.

Congress should base its security spending on an assessment of vulnerabilities and not politicize it with pork-barrel protections of unlikely targets. Local governments are not blameless when it comes to getting the dollars where they belong. Too much federal aid has gone to pay bills and services -- such as basic equipment for police and firefighters -- that have little or nothing to do with terrorism defenses. Too much of the federal aid still hasn't trickled down from state capitals to local communities.

The nation still hasn't learned how to take a calculated approach to anti-terrorism that makes hard choices without deference to politics or emotion. This could turn out to be one of the worst threats of all.

Tempus fugetaboutit

Forget "Spring Forward, Fall Back." Congress has a plan to add four weeks to daylight saving time by starting it the second Sunday in March and ending it the first Sunday in November. But that would be "Winter Forward, Fall Back," which isn't a great memory device.

The extension is in the conference version of the energy bill, apparently in lieu of more effective measures to reduce reliance on oil, such as requiring automakers to improve fleet mileage. Rep. Edward Markey, D-Mass., leading proponent of the extension, maintains that daylight saving time "just brings a smile to everybody's faces." Parents of kids waiting in the dark at bus stops after Congress passes "Winter Forward" might not agree. But if the parents are frowning, who can see them?

Other groups oppose the change, the Los Angeles Times reports. The Air Transport Association, for example, complains that it would disrupt worldwide travel schedules. Religious groups that say sunrise prayers will be pushed too close to when workers have to punch the time clock.

VCRs and home computers could pose problems as well. Most switch back and forth between standard and daylight time automatically. But they're hard-wired with the old schedule, and lots of people still are flummoxed if they have to adjust such devices. Congress might want to consider the potential for outrage when millions of Americans mess up their taping of Desperate Housewives on that first Sunday. And to accomplish all that reprogramming, a lot of folks will have to burn a lot of midnight oil.

Back stem-cell campaign to undo governor's harm

No Florida law prohibits stem-cell research. But because Gov. Bush came out against stem-cell research at the worst possible moment, during an international biotech convention, there is an effort to change the state constitution to allow stem-cell research.

It's no coincidence that the leader of this campaign is a Democrat from Palm Beach County -- Commissioner Burt Aaronson. The county will suffer if its investment in The Scripps Research Institute doesn't pay off. For the governor to tell biotech researchers to forget about a promising field of research before the first plot of land can be sold does not help the county.

Is politics a factor? Could be. Democrats want to put stem-cell research's potential to cure devastating diseases on the same ballot as the 2006 governor's race. That could force the two leading Republican candidates to address the issue in the primary, when they will appeal to religious conservatives who oppose stem-cell research. The amendment push also could drive Democrats to the polls.

Last month in Philadelphia, Gov. Bush told the BIO 2005 convention, "I think taking a life to create a life is a huge contradiction morally." President Bush restricted federal spending for stem-cell research in 2001. While the House passed a bill in May that would expand research, the Senate version is stalled. As states rush to compete with California, where voters agreed to spend $3 billion on stem-cell research, Florida can't find itself left out, particularly if federal money begins to flow. Ideally, stem-cell research would not be in the state constitution, but the governor has left no other choice.

Though Scripps said it has no plans to use stem cells in Palm Beach County, the topic kindles scientific curiosity. A session during Scripps' scientific conference planned for November at The Breakers in Palm Beach is titled "Stem Cell and Gene Therapy" and includes the author of Cell Therapy for Diabetes: The Promise of Stem Cells. Scripps also is recruiting to Palm Beach County its California neighbor The Burnham Institute, which is known for its cancer and stem-cell research. Burnham's president, John Reed, sits on the governing board of California's $3 billion stem-cell fund.

In California, the eight-page amendment did not limit spending to stem-cell research but opened it up for "other scientific and medical research and technologies," as The San Francisco Chronicle reported. Florida voters have less reason to worry because constitutional amendments have to focus on a single subject and are limited to 75 words. But the same concerns exist. If stem-cell research is blocked, what could the money be used for? And how much money are initiative supporters willing to seek?

Commissioner Aaronson said last week that he expects to have ballot language in two months. Then he must collect 611,000 signatures, survive legal tests to get on the ballot and win voter approval. It's all because the governor who brought Scripps wants to strangle Scripps' potential in the cradle.

Save Martin 'boot camp'

An outstanding program with a record of helping troubled juveniles is about to die because the state failed to provide the money to keep the program operating.

During the past five years, between 73 percent and 81 percent of the Martin County Juvenile Offender Training Center's graduates have stayed out of trouble after completing the three-part program. The training center, operated on the grounds of the Martin County Jail, this year served 12 youths from Martin, 32 from Palm Beach and 18 from St. Lucie, Indian River and Okeechobee counties combined.

The program starts with a "shock incarceration" boot camp, then emphasizes education and self-esteem. Cadets, as they are called, spend the first four months in in-custody treatment at the jail facility, then continue with four more months of education, job training and work experience. The last four months, they check in each day but don't stay at the facility. The program enlists local ministers to help cadets reestablish a life in the community and includes the only Boy Scout troop in a juvenile detention facility. Martin County Sheriff Robert Crowder said churches and Scouts provide a support group that can keep a youth from "returning to his punk friends selling drugs on the corner."

He and other Florida sheriffs began providing programs for juvenile delinquents because the state, which is supposed to provide the programs, wasn't doing it. Getting money from the state has been a chronic problem, Sheriff Crowder said, and the program has kept going "only through creativity, ingenuity and a commitment to the kids." As The Post reported last week, the facility came close to closing in 1997 and 2001 and now is $336,883 short of what it needs to operate for another year. "The Department of Juvenile Justice points fingers at the Legislature, and the Legisture points to the governor," Sheriff Crowder said. "Our programs have proved their merit. It's very frustrating."

The Martin program follows a predictable but still annoying pattern: The Legislature creates a need for services, then dumps the cost of the services onto the counties. This year, for example, the Legislature refused to pay operating expenses at juvenile detention centers, even though the people who run those facilities are state employees. So the counties will have to pay.

Martin's legislators were working Friday to persuade the state to come up with money for the Martin training center. Unless that happens, on Aug. 1 Sheriff Crowder will begin dismantling a program that actually helps juvenile offenders instead of just warehousing them.

Deception. Porn. Profit

Blood and gore. Nudity. Strong language. Strong sexual content. Use of Drugs.

Nothing in the Entertainment Software Ratings Board's description of Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas suggests that the video game is appropriate for children. Nor was it even before players discovered an embedded but easily accessible, pornographic "mini-game." So the ratings board acted correctly last week in making a rare decision to change the game's rating from Mature (for players 17 and older) to Adults Only.

Parents -- and the Federal Trade Commission -- now have good reason to question the validity of the 'Mature' rating. With more than 21 million copies sold since 2001, and only three versions of the 11-part Grand Theft Auto series rated suitable for teens, the games' Mature ratings have failed.

In March, Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y., Joe Lieberman, D-Conn., Sam Brownback, R-Kan., and Rick Santorum, R-Pa., reintroduced legislation to study the effects of media on children. Sen. Clinton also wants retailers banned from selling violent and sexually explicit video games to minors, facing a $5,000 penalty if they do. As in 2003, when Rockstar Games claimed that the company was blameless for racist scenes in Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, a spokesman for the game's developer also disowned responsibility for the sex scenes in San Andreas.

"The fact remains," as Sen. Clinton said, "that the company gamed the ratings system." Rockstar has proven, once again, that it can't be trusted to play by the rules.

Security key ingredient for Iraq's constitution

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and other U.S. diplomats pressured Iraq's interim government into giving Sunni Arabs a larger role in writing the new constitution. The importance of protecting Sunnis who agreed to take part should have been evident.

Yet on Tuesday, gunmen killed Mejbil Issa and Dhamin Hussein al-Obeidi while they were driving in downtown Baghdad. Failure to protect two such obvious targets almost is beyond belief. Other Sunnis participating in drafting the constitution pulled out of negotiations until, they said, the majority Shiites could provide adequate protection.

The stakes hardly could be higher. A draft is supposed to be finished Aug. 1 and voted on by the interim legislature on Aug. 15 and by the public in October. The new constitution is the key to providing stability and preventing civil war among the Sunnis, Shiites and Kurds. Sunnis, though a minority, were favored under Saddam Hussein's regime. Kurds, with U.S. protection, established an independent region in the north and will insist that the new constitution continue that autonomy.

Assassination of the two Sunni delegates is only one reason for pessimism about the pace of improvement in Iraqi security. A Pentagon assessment says that half of Iraq's police battalions are so new that they're incapable of conducting operations, and the other half can operate only with help from U.S. troops. Capabilities of Iraq's military battalions also are not encouraging. Of 107 military and paramilitary battalions, The New York Times reports, only three "are able to plan, execute and sustain independent counterinsurgency operations."

The White House continues to be upbeat, noting that Iraqi troop strength has reached 171,500, which exceeds the roughly 160,000 coalition troops. Competence is more important than numbers, however, and significant numbers of American soldiers can't come home -- without abandoning Iraq -- until Iraqi troops can provide security to the permanent government that, if the constitution ever is approved, could be elected as soon as December.

One more impediment to writing an acceptable constitution emerged this week when a working draft proposed depriving women of most rights. Marriage, divorce and inheritance would be governed by whatever religion a woman's family practiced. In many cases, that would be the strict Islamic law, Shariah, that gives women virtually no control over their lives. The draft also would drop a highly touted requirement that women hold 25 percent of the seats in the legislature.

The Bush administration has made much of the improvement in women's rights. If enacted, the proposed restrictions -- which would deny a woman the right to choose her own husband -- would grant women far fewer rights than they exercised freely under Saddam Hussein. It is essential, once again, for U.S. diplomats to lean on the government America's invasion helped to create.

End wait for west Boynton hospital

At its best, the state process that regulates new hospitals helps prevent unnecessary, duplicative medical services and unreasonable costs. At its worst, it allows profit-driven interests to supersede patient needs. Such is the case with Bethesda Memorial Medical Center's planned expansion west of Boynton Beach, stalled -- yet again -- by competing hospitals.

In June, the state Agency for Health Care Administration approved Bethesda's plan to build an 80-bed hospital near Florida's Turnpike and Boynton Beach Boulevard. It was the same decision the agency rendered in 2003. Both times, AHCA considered updated facts on an old problem: traffic delays, long waits at existing emergency rooms and a financial burden for poor and uninsured patients at Bethesda, the not-for-profit, south county "safety net" hospital.

After a challenge by JFK Medical Center in Atlantis, Wellington Regional Medical Center and Delray Medical Center, the original approval was overturned. The latest victory for the thousands of homeowners who supported the hospital's expansion also may be short-lived. The three hospitals met Friday's deadline to challenge last month's AHCA ruling, blocking through litigation their competitor from serving patients who live in the growing suburban area.

AHCA's extensive certificate-of-need process has evolved over the past 32 years, but it has not found a way to efficiently handle appeals. Hamstrung for nearly two decades by opponents' appeals, Boca Raton Community Hospital and Martin Memorial Medical Center in Stuart resorted to and this year got legislative relief to allow their heart-surgery programs.

With JFK, Wellington Regional and Delray continually challenging Bethesda's expansion plans, the Boynton Beach hospital may have no choice but to similarly seek political aid. With the support of homeowner groups, Bethesda should have no trouble getting help from one of several state legislators who, during Bethesda's application process, wrote letters to AHCA in favor of the expansion.

Ideally, the regulatory process would focus on patients and hospitals, not politics. But if AHCA cannot fix the problem by policy, the agency should not be surprised if residents seek a remedy by politics.

Finishing off WorldCom

Yes, he's 63. But his fraud cost 20,000 jobs and $600 million in pension fund losses. So did Bernie Ebbers deserve what may be a life sentence? You bet.

Ebbers made $45 million just in salary during the 1990s as CEO of WorldCom, but to hear him tell it, he didn't deserve all that money. His defense was that he had no idea what was happening at the company he had built from something tiny into something huge. Someone else cooked the books. The jury listened instead to former chief financial officer Scott Sullivan, who during his 30 hours of testimony described how he and Ebbers hid losses and faked profits until 2002, when WorldCom became the country's largest bankruptcy.

As with Tyco, which had headquarters in Boca Raton, this corporate fraud had a link to Palm Beach County. Sullivan, who commuted back and forth from Mississippi, had been building a 19,000-square-foot home west of Boca Raton. It was supposed to have everything, including a fur vault.

Enron was the subject of a movie, but WorldCom had the bigger impact on business reform. The company's collapse led to a ban on corporate lending to CEOs and much stricter -- some say needlessly onerous -- auditing standards. The Sarbanes-Oxley bill that made these and other changes law passed Congress less than a week after WorldCom went under.

Despite Richard (HealthSouth) Scrushy's acquittal, the white-collar conviction list is growing: the Rigases, father and son, who looted Adelphia; Tyco's L. Dennis Kozlowski; and Ebbers, who last week got 25 years. The trial of ex-Enron CEO Ken Lay is set to begin in January. It all comes too late for those who lost their livelihoods and their retirement savings, but it may prevent other abuses by showing aspiring con men that they will do hard time regardless of the color of their collar.Finishing off WorldCom

Yes, he's 63. But his fraud cost 20,000 jobs and $600 million in pension fund losses. So did Bernie Ebbers deserve what may be a life sentence? You bet.

Ebbers made $45 million just in salary during the 1990s as CEO of WorldCom, but to hear him tell it, he didn't deserve all that money. His defense was that he had no idea what was happening at the company he had built from something tiny into something huge. Someone else cooked the books. The jury listened instead to former chief financial officer Scott Sullivan, who during his 30 hours of testimony described how he and Ebbers hid losses and faked profits until 2002, when WorldCom became the country's largest bankruptcy.

As with Tyco, which had headquarters in Boca Raton, this corporate fraud had a link to Palm Beach County. Sullivan, who commuted back and forth from Mississippi, had been building a 19,000-square-foot home west of Boca Raton. It was supposed to have everything, including a fur vault.

Enron was the subject of a movie, but WorldCom had the bigger impact on business reform. The company's collapse led to a ban on corporate lending to CEOs and much stricter -- some say needlessly onerous -- auditing standards. The Sarbanes-Oxley bill that made these and other changes law passed Congress less than a week after WorldCom went under.

Despite Richard (HealthSouth) Scrushy's acquittal, the white-collar conviction list is growing: the Rigases, father and son, who looted Adelphia; Tyco's L. Dennis Kozlowski; and Ebbers, who last week got 25 years. The trial of ex-Enron CEO Ken Lay is set to begin in January. It all comes too late for those who lost their livelihoods and their retirement savings, but it may prevent other abuses by showing aspiring con men that they will do hard time regardless of the color of their collar.

To help river, help lake, and that means money

While Treasure Coast residents struggle to cope with the latest destructive discharges from Lake Okeechobee, the resulting algae bloom on waterways and tons of silt pouring into the St. Lucie estuary, news from Washington and the South Florida Water District offers hope of preventing future environmental calamities.

First, the U.S. House of Representatives, with assistance from Rep. Mark Foley, R-Jupiter, has approved a massive Water Resources Development Act that includes $1.2 billion for the Indian River Lagoon restoration plan. The first Everglades restoration project, it would store excess water in natural areas and clean it in filter marshes, as well as clean up a half-century's worth of muck that now fouls river bottoms. Residents can help by contacting senators and urging them to approve legislation that also contains the Indian River Lagoon money. Storing and cleaning excess water ultimately helps save the rivers as well as the Everglades.

On the state level, South Florida Water Management District officials said this week that 10,000 acres the district owns north of Lake Okeechobee will be used to store and clean water before it enters the lake. The Legislature provided $25 million this year to get started, and the district hopes for another $125 million over the next three years. With district contributions added, a total of $200 million could be spent to clean up lake water. The projects would include a reservoir, two water treatment areas and $50 million for forward pumps. The pumps would be north and south of lake to ensure that water is available for farms and ranches when the lake is low.

The water district also plans to build a reservoir to hold excess lake water in Martin County near the St. Lucie locks as part of its "Acceler8" program to finish the Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Project faster. But information presented at a recent meeting of the Water Resources Advisory Committee indicates that the reservoir, scheduled for completion in five years, would reduce discharges to the St. Lucie and Caloosahatchee estuaries by only about 10 percent. The planned larger reservoir on the Talisman property south of the lake could provide much more relief later.

In addition, the water district and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers may keep the lake lower next spring. That would help the vital marsh grasses and keep room to hold waters from hurricanes and summer rains.

All these are hopeful possibilities, but they are years and plenty of politicking away from becoming reality. Meanwhile, the district and corps need to share accurate information with the public and determine ways to better manage the lake under what can be difficult conditions. Until Congress and the Legislature come up with the money to create places to put all the excess water, the district will have to decide what to do with that water.

Reform legal, but stalled

The Federal Election Commission is supposed to enforce campaign laws, but the two major political parties have turned it into a loophole machine.

A federal appeals court last week repudiated the FEC's latest attempts to keep big money in federal campaigns. The judges ordered the FEC to rewrite "rules" the commissioners enacted to "enforce" the McCain-Feingold reforms that Congress passed in 2002.

The quotation marks are required because the FEC's obvious purpose was to prevent McCain-Feingold reforms from taking effect before the 2004 elections. For example, the 2002 law says party officials and candidates can't raise "soft money," which is the unregulated cash, raised in huge chunks from special interests, that ostensibly was used for party-building activities. In reality, loopholes allowed parties to funnel huge amounts of soft money to individual candidates.

To close that loophole, the new law said candidates "may not solicit, receive or direct to another person a contribution, donation or transfer of funds" aside from the regulated "hard money" contributions allowed to each federal candidate. But the FEC's rule said candidates and officials would violate the law only if they specifically asked for a contribution. The appeals court agreed with two congressmen who sued the FEC, charging that, "Under the regulation, a senator who told a group of party donors that 'it's important for our state party to receive at least $100,000 from each of you in this election'--with or without an accompanying wink -- would not have 'asked' under the commission's regulations."

The FEC, which crafted other rules with similar built-in flaws, argued that the congressmen, Christopher Shays, R-Conn., and Martin Meehan, D-Mass., had no standing to sue. The court, however, said that as candidates, the two had a direct interest in fair elections and thus were entitled to ask the court to enforce the law, which they cosponsored in the House.

Republicans and Democrats, who appoint an equal number of members to the six-person FEC, have consistently chosen commissioners eager to keep money flowing. The appeals court ruling is a stopgap. Overall, there's little chance that the FEC has the will to be effective. The real solution is an enforcement agency independent of the parties. But Congress would have to create it, and the desire for reform has become another casualty of a polarized nation's capital.

FAU's $500 million hire

To prevent any loss of the momentum gained during her too-brief tenure, Florida Atlantic University should quickly find a talented replacement for Ann Paton.

The vice president of university advancement is leaving for a similar job at Barry University. She deserves credit for rebuilding public trust in the fund-raising department after President Frank Brogan began work in February 2003. Ms. Paton, who had directed special development programs for medical schools at Dartmouth and Brown, was one of several key early hires by Mr. Brogan in January 2004.

One sign of the progress is that FAU no longer is looking back at the Corvette scandal that ensnared the fund-raising FAU Foundation and Ms. Paton's predecessor, Carla Coleman. She pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor for falsifying records regarding $42,000 in foundation donations that went to purchase a going-away Corvette for former President Anthony Catanese. As the next executive director, Ms. Paton undoubtedly wasn't happy seeing the foundation used as a multimillion-dollar piggy bank for the athletics department, where money that should have gone to scholarships has bailed out the university's attempt to field a Division I-A football team.

Ms. Paton is taking a similar job at Miami-Dade County-based Barry, whose public broadcasting stations FAU tried unsuccessfully to purchase. The revamped polices and expanded fund-raising staff, however, and the $500 million money-raising campaign FAU came into the year eyeing, attest to the rebuilt foundation's improved reputation during Ms. Paton's tenure. Filling in temporarily will be Chief Operating Officer Lawrence F. Davenport, another of the key early hires, who also has good fund-raising experience. Rather than have him spread too thin, however, the emphasis should be on quickly finding Ms. Paton's successor.

Impeccable credentials - and a quiet record

On Tuesday morning, the story was Karl Rove. By Wednesday morning, the story was John Roberts. When it comes to politics, President Bush can correctly claim Mission Accomplished.

Exit the rumpled and beleaguered White House bully, and the poll showing that only 25 percent of Americans believe that the Bush administration is cooperating fully with the special prosecutor. Enter the polished, credentialed Judge Roberts, whom the Senate confirmed unanimously in 2003 to a seat on the second-most influential court in the land, the District of Columbia Court of Appeals.

The choice of Judge Roberts to replace Justice Sandra Day O'Connor allows the White House to focus on the man, not the record. And aside from the fact that he would be the 105th white man among the 109 justices in the court's history — so much for all the talk about diversity — what's not to like about Judge Roberts?

He worked in a steel mill to help pay for his education. He blew through Harvard College in three years. He was a whiz at Harvard Law School. He has argued 39 cases before the high court and won 25. Though he's a Republican partisan through and through — to the point of giving legal advice to Gov. Bush during the 2000 recount, when the governor said he was playing a hands-off role — Democrats like and respect him for his collegiality and his intellect. His neighbors say he's a down-to-earth guy who mows his lawn and loves his family. It will be hard for Democrats to oppose Ward Cleaver.

But who is Judge Roberts? The Senate Judiciary Committee will need to find out. During his first confirmation hearing, he noted that Roe vs. Wade is the "settled law of the land." So does Judge Roberts believe that the Supreme Court can overturn "settled law"? On the D.C. Circuit, he upheld the arrest and handcuffing of a 12-year-old girl for eating a french fry in a Washington subway station. His opinion seemed to indicate that he considered the "zero-tolerance" policy against eating in stations stupid, and the application in this case more stupid, but that the law itself was constitutional. Is that what he thought? And why did he concur in a recent ruling that allows the government to try a suspected terrorist at Guantanamo Bay without due process?

For all the emotion over abortion, the wider issue is where Judge Roberts stands on the balance of power between the federal government and the states. Some of President Bush's deep-pocket donors want the high court to roll back nearly 70 years of federal laws covering consumer safety, rights for workers and the disabled, and environmental preservation. While regulations should have their own limits and can be abused, most Americans do not support a return — under the guise of "states' rights" — to a time when the federal government had just a cameo role in protecting the rights of citizens.

Judge Roberts' record has left no scorched earth and few footprints. The Senate's mission is to determine whether he is a conservative or an ideologue.

Shorting out customers

This is your Florida Public Service Commission at work:

On Tuesday, the commission ruled that Florida Power & Light can charge customers an average of $1.68 a month for three years to pay some of the utility's repair costs from the 2004 hurricane season. FPL had wanted to charge $2.09. After the unanimous ruling, Commissioner Rudy Bradley said that while customers had indicated their wish for "a reliable source of energy, they also want the company financially positioned that the reliable service can be restored as quickly as possible."

Well, yeah. But most customers wondered why they should pay $441.9 million to replenish the reserves of a company whose parent company's stock is doing so well. And isn't prompt restoration of service part of FPL's normal business?

A good Public Service Commission would have asked harder questions about FPL's rate agreement, and whether it allows the company too much freedom to bill customers for expenses that may not be theirs. A good Public Service Commission would not have seemed so satisfied about sticking customers with nearly a half-billion-dollar tab just because it could have been almost $100 million higher. This Public Service Commission will be back at work in a few weeks, when FPL asks for another rate increase to cover the cost of... having more customers.

A win for the manatees

Once again, a federal judge has protected Florida's endangered manatees, rejecting a challenge from marine contractors who complain that federal manatee protection rules make getting dock permits too difficult.

Contractors argued that the Marine Mammal Protection Act should not apply to residential docks built on inland waterways, but U.S. District Judge James Moody disagreed. The federal policy, he ruled in Tampa last week, intends to protect marine mammals from "all man-made threats in the areas that make up their habitat... without any limitations based on geography." Contractors also did not want to provide protective measures, such as slow speed zones, signs and enforcement, in areas where docks would be built.

Another federal judge championed manatees in 2003, when the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service stalled in designating protection areas for the slow-moving sea cows, threatening to hold Interior Secretary Gale Norton in contempt for the agency's delay. Judge Moody's ruling will help to preserve not just manatees but all marine mammals in Florida, a spokeswoman for the Save the Manatee Club said, because it validates Congress' intent to protect them throughout their habitat. The state consistently has sided with boating groups. Fortunately, the federal courts seem to take manatee protection seriously.

Try 'SPBCDV' in a jingle

The Palm Beach County Commission should be suffering namer's remorse by now. But there's still time to fix it.

On Tuesday, commissioners voted 4-2 to discard all 50 staff suggestions for naming the biotechnology research park to be built at Mecca Farms. Their choice instead: Scripps Palm Beach County Discovery Village. So its acronym would be SPBCDV. That rolls right off the tongue.

The idea here is to invent a name that will help market the research park that commissioners hope will spring up around Scripps. If commissioners had named Coca-Cola, the song would be: "I'd like to buy the world a sweet, brown carbonated liquid and keep it company."

Commissioners could hire a professional naming company such as Namelab, which came up with Acura, Autozone and Olive Garden. They could hold a naming contest when school starts. Today's kids are bombarded with enough marketing — iPod, Go-GURT — to know a good, slick name when they see one. Scripps Palm Beach County Discovery Village isn't one.

If commissioners aren't convinced, try this test: Put SPBCDV in a jingle. "You deserve a scientific breakthrough today, so get up and get away, to SPBCDV." If commissioners don't see the need to start over, there's no reason to expect their marketing to be any better than their naming.

Serious farm checks for serious protection

Florida farmers lead the nation in pesticide use per acre, yet the state employs only 40 inspectors to monitor compliance with regulations and investigate complaints on 40,000 farms and nurseries.

One look at those numbers makes clear that Florida isn't serious about protecting farmworkers and the public from misuse of potentially dangerous chemicals. The 40 inspectors who work for the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services have other assignments -- a range of duties that includes water pollution monitoring, animal feed inspections for mad cow disease and mosquito control -- so pesticide checks become a part-time job. Thousands of sites go years without getting a visit from a state regulatory official. According to the Environmental Protection Agency, Florida has failed to meet federal worker protection goals for the past two years.

In April, The Post reported the tragic discovery of severe birth-defect cases involving three young children born to migrant families who worked the same fields in Immokalee, northeast of Naples. State health officials are trying to determine if pesticide poisoning was responsible. A Post reporter and photographer recently accompanied an agriculture department inspector on assignment in Hillsborough County, and the deficiencies in the state's regulatory program were quickly apparent. The tree farm the inspector visited hadn't been checked for five years, said the owner, who admitted that he had advance notice of the inspection.

Surprise inspections would do more to deter misuse of pesticides. But a regulatory program that runs at five-year intervals is meaningless to begin with. The state needs many more inspectors -- more than triple the number to compare favorably with states that have effective programs, such as California -- and stiffer penalties. The state should tighten restrictions on labor contractors, middlemen who often operate outside the rules. It will also take better cooperation from everyone involved. Doctors, in particular, have to accept more responsibility for reporting suspected cases of pesticide illness to the state.

Above all, government has to reclaim the role of public protector that it has abdicated to the agriculture industry. Begin by acknowledging that the Department of Agriculture can't both promote farming and regulate it. Without leadership in Tallahassee, farmworkers and consumers alike will be vulnerable to misuse of toxic chemicals.

Church - and neighbor

Christ Fellowship started 21 years ago as a Bible study group in a Palm Beach Gardens home. Today, it's the largest congregation in the city, with satellite campuses in Wellington and at CityPlace in downtown West Palm Beach.

Gardens council members have dealt cautiously with this growth. While it makes sense to encourage the development of a spiritual center, the city must keep the church's expansion from harming its neighbors. Even though the church is on busy Northlake Boulevard west of Military Trail, it abuts two neighborhoods. Three years after an expansion request failed because the church did not reveal detailed plans for 20 acres it owned east of its 20-acre campus, a more promising plan has emerged. Council discussions begin tonight.

Christ Fellowship wants to more than double its existing site by adding 11 50-seat classrooms and a gymnasium with a café, video games, plasma TVs, pool tables, basketball courts and a rock-climbing wall, according to the church's Web site. Of concern to neighbors are traffic and noise. The plan calls for 1,200 new parking places, a new entrance, heavy landscaping and a wider perimeter drive to keep traffic from backing up on Northlake. To assure that trees can grow tall as a buffer along Northlake, the city wants power lines buried.

City staff correctly recommends rejecting several requests from the church to expand the number of people it can draw to services by adding more than 500 seats to the 1,750-seat sanctuary or piping the service to adjoining buildings. A request to eliminate a cap of six occasions for special services led to a recommendation to reduce the number to three. No access will be allowed to an additional 6 acres the church owns to the east. That land is outside city limits.

The church was approved before its rapid growth became apparent. Since then, Palm Beach Gardens has limited churches in residential areas to 1,000 seats. Christ Fellowship argues that the inability to add seats forces overflow crowds to stand. Increasing sanctuary capacity, though, could trigger a review under the new law and result in fewer seats.

Many congregants are expected at tonight's meeting. After years of hard feelings, the standoff over Christ Fellowship could end if the church and the city work to achieve the same goal: a growing church contributing to a community's success without disrupting neighborhoods on the church's borders.

Why Rove is like Iraq

When President Bush raised the bar for firing Karl Rove, he dropped his administration's standard for ethical conduct.

A year ago, Mr. Bush agreed that he would fire anybody involved in leaking CIA officer Valerie Plame's identity. On Tuesday, he said he would fire anybody convicted of a crime. He flip-flopped after the revelation that Mr. Rove was involved in the leak to smear a critic of the premise for invading Iraq. So was Lewis "Scooter" Libby, Vice President Dick Cheney's chief of staff.

The changing standard is not out of character for an administration that covers its mistakes by retroactively altering its reasons for going to war. Douglas Feith, a top policy adviser to Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and one of the key voices encouraging war with Iraq, said last week that when building its case for invasion the administration should have said less about Saddam Hussein's weapons of mass destruction -- not a hard call, since there weren't any -- and more about Hussein's attempts to acquire such weapons. The problem with Mr. Feith's back-filling is that attempts to acquire weapons wouldn't have justified the invasion. Inspections and monitoring would have worked, just as they had done after the first Gulf War.

In fact, President Bush did claim that Hussein was trying to rebuild his nuclear program. Including that claim in his 2003 State of the Union address led to the Rove leak. In a July 6, 2003, New York Times article, former Ambassador Joseph Wilson revealed that several months before President Bush's speech, the CIA sent him to Niger to investigate claims that Hussein had tried to buy "yellowcake" uranium there and found no truth to the allegations.

Mr. Rove and others tried to portray the former charge d'affaires in Baghdad as an amateur sent on a pleasure junket as a favor to his wife, Valerie Plame. In fact, Mr. Wilson was proven right. Documents that purported to prove a nuclear deal proved to be forgeries, and administration officials admitted that the claim should have been deleted from Mr. Bush's speech.

Only when caught in the most embarrassing misstatements did the White House admit that it should have had higher standards for the intelligence used to justify the war. How much more embarrassment must Karl Rove cause before Mr. Bush admits that he needs higher standards for advisers?

Chiefs see the urgency for policy on Taser use

Last week, police chiefs in Palm Beach County endorsed a proposed law requiring specific policies for Taser use. The latest Taser-related death underscores the urgency.

Early Sunday, Michael Leon Crutchfield became Florida's nation-leading 24th such fatality since 1999. The 40-year-old Riviera Beach man died outside an assisted living facility in downtown West Palm Beach after a police officer shot him with the 50,000-volt electric stun gun. Police said he had forced his way into the facility, yelled that someone was trying to kill him, attacked residents and tossed furniture before being chased outside. There, he struggled with police, was Tasered, struggled to get up, was shot at least once more and fell to the ground. He died after paramedics arrived.

It was the first Taser-related death in West Palm Beach. Tasers undoubtedly can help officers defuse potentially lethal situations. Crutchfield had a record of arrests and charges, including theft, loitering, resisting arrest and possession of narcotics. But he was unarmed, outside the facility and surrounded by officers. Aside from the very important consideration of potential injury to the officers, the result from the supposedly non-lethal stun gun's use hardly was an improvement over bullets.

Critics again have reason to claim that law-enforcement officers are taking the easiest but not always best route for subduing rowdy suspects, and that their new tool means that some officers who are deficient in physical-force techniques may not bother to develop them. The need for tighter policies and better training was shown in The Post's recent reporting on the stun-guns' use by police departments from Boca Raton to Fort Pierce since 2001. Among other things, the review showed that 25 percent of suspects Tasered were not armed or posing any immediate threat to anyone, including themselves.

The police chiefs are developing a unified policy for Palm Beach County's 37 police agencies, motivated in part by potential liability over the myriad and often conflicting standards for the stun guns' use. Like that policy, the proposed legislation will be deficient if it doesn't also recognize that the health ramifications demand much more study. But the police agencies correctly are moving ahead rather than wait for the Legislature to define the issue for them. They recognize that Tasers don't always produce the results they do on TV.

Martin tax revenue up - and the tax rate, too?

The Martin County Commission, not content with revenue from a big boost in real-estate values countywide, still may decide to increase property taxes to pay for everything in its proposed $399.9 million 2005-06 budget.

That would be in addition to moving ahead with the commissioners' $186,200 vote-by-mail plan to hike the sales tax by a penny for six years to pay for roads, fire and rescue equipment, parks and conservation land.

They've got to be kidding. Soaring property values are bringing in an extra $22.5 million for next year. If they can't cut that big budget during workshops that start next week, they plan to increase taxes from $8.16 for every $1,000 of taxable property value to $8.53. For the owner of $250,000 house with a $25,000 homestead exemption, that would be an increase of about $150 in county taxes, assuming that the home's assessed value goes up 3 percent, the maximum allowed under the state's Save Our Homes cap. This doesn't include school and other special district taxes.

With the 14.8 percent increase from rising assessments, the county can't make a case for increasing property taxes. Instead, commissioners should be looking at ways to lower taxes. Many residents see for the first time the penalties they pay when a commission majority is committed to greatly easing the way for developers. Rather than try to make growth pay for itself, that majority -- Chairman Lee Weberman and Doug Smith and Michael DiTerlizzi -- have changed rules to allow more growth, for example, than local roads can support. So roads need to be widened, and new roads must be built to accommodate new residents.

Both an increase in property taxes and the proposed penny sales tax would put the burden where it doesn't belong: On the backs of people who live in Martin County. Instead, developers should pay, through impact fees, land donations, roads and other concessions, for more of the transportation, schools, fire-rescue and other needs of new residents.

Contrary to what this commission majority and some of its supporters have said, Martin never was a no-growth county. The difference was that growth was controlled. Newer policies have removed growth controls, which can lead to uncontrolled budgets. Commissioners need to chop about $6 million to keep the tax rate from going up. Then they need to consider what their policies are costing the county.

Push Scripps, not sprawl

The county pledged that it would not let the decision to build The Scripps Research Institute on a rural citrus grove change plans for the land around it. On Wednesday, commissioners have a chance to make good on that promise.

The coming of Scripps is not a strong enough justification to give a Northlake Boulevard landowner a 10-fold density increase from nine homes to 97. Even though the 97-acre property is outside the Palm Beach Gardens city limits, the increase could provide justification for similar giveaways when the 4,000-plus-acre Vavrus Ranch seeks increases. Palm Beach Gardens, which blocked a similar request from a 60-acre landowner on Northlake, refused to take a strong stand on this proposal, even though the decision will affect the city.

The property, carved years ago from Vavrus, hugs the ranch's southeast corner just west of the Palm Beach Gardens golf course and Menorah Gardens cemetery. While county staff recommended against the proposal, the county's land planning agency voted 6-4 in favor, with one supporter citing the lack of opposition from Palm Beach Gardens as the deciding factor.

Commissioners, however, cannot let the proposal's hollow arguments set precedent for much bigger properties. For instance, the landowner claims that the widening of Northlake Boulevard justifies more density, even though the road is being widened to meet existing needs -- plus Scripps, not new proposals. Additionally, the landowner relies on an obscure formula to argue that housing demand for Scripps-related employees can't be met without the project, ignoring the huge numbers of existing houses in the area.

Applications such as this test the county's Scripps-at-Mecca argument. The county said Scripps would not be sprawl because it would be a self-sustained community, even though Scripps is farther west and more remote. The county also argued that its land-use rules were worth changing for Scripps' potential economic gains. This proposal doesn't have the same allure.

Instead, the proposal would set a bad precedent already reflected in the broad density increase granted in the so-called "sector" that includes large undeveloped tracts west of Royal Palm Beach. That plan, which comes up for a final vote in August, grants one home on every 1.25 acres. County commissioners can stick to their own plan by refusing this landowner.

FPL: Whose bill is it?

Two big events loom for Florida Power & Light. Today, the Public Service Commission considers the utility's request to bill customers $533 million for hurricane recovery costs. On Friday, FPL's parent company releases second-quarter earnings. The timing is coincidental, but the events are related.

Commissioners must balance the interest of FPL's customers against the interest of FPL Group shareholders. The Office of Public Counsel, which represents consumers before the Public Service Commission, and the Florida Retail Federation, which represents some of the biggest power users, argue that shareholders who have done well over the last five years should contribute more disaster-linked costs in the form of reduced dividends. The company spent nearly $1 billion after Charley, Frances and Jeanne, and wanted the Public Service Commission to approve $356 million before adding about $180 million. The PSC staff recommends that the utility get $441.9 million.

In fact, customers have been paying since February -- an average $2.09 monthly surcharge. The PSC allowed FPL to impose the increase on the grounds that the company needed to start rebuilding its reserves before hurricane season. If the commission gives FPL less overall, the surcharge might stay, but the company would impose it for less than the requested three years. Or the PSC could order that the utility send refunds, including interest.

Opponents claim that FPL scrimped on maintenance and could cover its storm costs from what it charges in the basic rate, which makes up about half of the monthly bill. One of the most controversial decisions will be whether the PSC gives the utility $33.8 million for lost revenues during July, August and September of last year. FPL did not ask for it, and the PSC staff has issued what seem to be conflicting recommendations.

By law, FPL can recover what it can prove are "prudently incurred" costs. In other words, customers are not supposed to pay twice, and they are not supposed to pay for damage that FPL could have prevented. FPL, of course, controls most of the information related to its grid and the damage reports. That means FPL's number serves as the starting point, as does FPL's analysis. Last summer was extraordinary, but FPL Group blamed profit problems in the first three months of this year on mild weather. The commission's bottom line is different from the company's.

Arson-heightened threat justifies buffer at clinic

Governments must move cautiously with an eye on constitutional rights when considering laws that restrict access or speech in public places.

Still, there is ample precedent for setting some limits on freedoms when events or situations justify it. Police enforce curfews after natural disasters to protect the public and speed recovery efforts. Public airports confine solicitors to specific areas to allow travelers to get where they're going without interference. Panhandlers may be banned from soliciting at certain dangerous intersections to prevent accidents and injuries. All legal restrictions have to meet a threshold of necessity that serves the public good.

That threshold of necessity was met recently at a West Palm Beach abortion clinic that is seeking a buffer-zone ordinance to keep protesters away from the property. A suspicious fire damaged the Presidential Women's Center on July 4, closing Palm Beach County's only remaining abortion provider. Last year, another arson fire closed down an abortion clinic in Lake Worth. Mona Reis, owner of the West Palm Beach center, says protesters have become more aggressive in recent years and has asked the city commission to approve a 30-foot buffer zone to prevent them from interfering with patients and those accompanying them. Drivers turning into the clinic parking lot often have been stopped or harassed by a few protesters walking on the sidewalk or in the street.

The buffer zone will do nothing to stop an arsonist who strikes in the night. But the recent attack suggests that someone is willing to turn to violence to shut down the clinic, and the city can't risk doing nothing to thwart another attack that could be against people the next time. Off-duty police hired by the clinic to provide security say the restricted area would give them the few extra seconds that could be critical to turning back an attacker. Pensacola passed a buffer zone law for abortion clinics a decade ago after two doctors and an escort were murdered.

Worries that writing a new law will draw anti-abortion extremists from across the nation to West Palm Beach no longer are relevant. The arson already has put the city in the national news, and it appears at least one extremist is already here. Commissioners have to give police the tools they need to preserve safe access to health care, and the city needs to respond aggressively to domestic terrorism.

Anti-abortion activists are certain to sue the city if it passes an ordinance, but the city also could be sued by the other side if it fails to protect people seeking legal services. Commissioners and legal staff must keep the focus of the ordinance as narrow as possible and not infringe on the rights of peaceful protesters. More frequent police patrols around the clinic, especially during peak demonstration times, would also help. The clinic should seek injunctions against unruly protesters -- the few that cause most of the problems -- and the city also should consider rewriting its noise ordinance to make it more enforceable.

Laws that restrict access in public areas always should be a last resort. Because of a violent act, it has come to that in West Palm Beach.

Loans are Gouging 101

Despite the serious reservations of its financial-aid director, the University of Nebraska at Lincoln last fall joined other institutions in profiting from their students' school loan indebtedness. The university simply had to stop providing federal loans directly to students, and instead enter into so-called school-as-lender deals with a private company such as the National Education Loan Network (Nelnet). Universities then get a cut of the billions in interest the commercial loaners tack on for providing what already are federally backed loans.

Instead, Congress and President Bush should stop allowing the companies and their affiliate lenders to get 9.5 percent returns on loans for which the prevailing rate is 3.5 percent. As The Chronicle of Higher Education reports, it wasn't that Nebraska officials were unhappy with direct lending, the federal program in which the U.S. Education Department provides loans to students through their colleges. But the schools are finding it hard to say no. So they promise that the extra money they get from gouging their students will go to more financial aid to benefit students.

The money at stake shows why the lenders are pushing so hard: Between 1992-93 and 2003-4, the total amount borrowed annually to pay for college rose from $19.8 billion to $50.5 billion, according to the American Council on Education. The number of loans made each year increased from 4.8 million to 10.8 million.

How is it that companies such as Nelnet can keep gobbling huge profits with so little risk by lending students government-backed money? The Clinton administration created direct lending in 1993 precisely to let students borrow directly from the government. The Republican leadership has insisted on competition with school-as-lender loans so private lenders can continue to profit. Republican majority lawmakers have stacked the deck by contributing more no-tax ideology than money -- cutting back on need-based aid to college students, for example, while double-digit tuition increases are becoming more common and Pell Grants are becoming harder to get.

Only a dozen colleges have dropped direct lending for school-as-lender riches. But thousands more students will be dropped if other schools do. That's sure to happen if the loans, which now are limited to graduate and professional students, successfully are targeted to undergraduates. Instead, Congress should enact the pending bipartisan Student Aid Reward Act to let colleges keep half of the money saved through direct loans and eliminate all the disingenuous arguments.

Making scary rides safe

If anyone needs proof that theme parks are intent on making rides as scary as possible, take the plunge on Busch Gardens' SheiKra roller coaster.

It's 200 feet, straight down.

Obviously, somebody needs to make sure the engineering on such rides is solid. The Florida Department of Agriculture checks the traveling rides at fairs. Major theme parks, such as Disney World, do their own tests and inspections. Their record is good, which isn't surprising since nobody has more interest in making sure they're safe than the theme parks themselves.

Nobody, that is, except the people who ride the likes of SheiKra. There have been calls for federal oversight after a 4-year-old died after riding Disney's Mission: Space and a 16-year-old suffered heart failure after riding the Tower of Terror. So far, there's no indication either ride malfunctioned.

As long as the ride operators are doing their job, the most important safety factor is the good sense of adult riders and, for kids, their parents. People who aren't healthy enough to ride shouldn't. Extreme rides can trigger illnesses unknown to individuals, but the risk it might happen isn't unknown.

Coasters feel like they're out of control. They're not, if approached with the proper professional and personal responsibility.

Update growth plans for growing number of storms

As Hurricane Dennis bore down on the Panhandle, federal officials prepared 4.5 million ready-to-eat meals. They lined up 300 trucks of water, 350 trucks of ice and 200 generators.

When a hurricane approaches, Floridians expect their tax dollars to work to reduce suffering from the potential devastation of what is becoming an all-too common summertime event.

After four decades of infrequent threats, hurricanes seem to be churning as often as summer rains. The long layoff provoked a false sense of comfort, encouraging Florida's runaway growth at an advantageous moment in history. Air conditioning and economic growth made Florida one of the country's great destinations. Now, when hurricanes approach, government serves the people, no matter how many there are. As more people move in, hurricanes promise more risk to human life and damage to human structures. The cost of survival grows.

In the package of laws that greet developers to Palm Beach County and the Treasure Coast, there are requirements for traffic, parks, libraries, garbage and sewage, but nowhere are there limits designed to offset the awful effects of an Andrew. Schools are retrofitted to serve as shelters, but who pays the cost of the thousands of meals needed to serve the residents of that new 2,000-home subdivision? What the hurricanes of the past year have shown is that growth has a cost beyond the concerns of traffic jams and garbage pickup.

Governments routinely pay to help flood victims who go back to homes that never should have been allowed in the first place. The Florida Keys, a geographically unique area, takes hurricanes into consideration when determining whether new homes can be built. Growth limits there are based on the number of people who can be evacuated before a hurricane strikes. But no developer is asked to set money aside to feed powerless survivors after a major blow.

The Panhandle dodges statewide hurricane building codes out of the obviously mistaken claim that the Big One could never happen there. People keep coming as if news of a Florida hurricane is no more off-putting than a Denver blizzard. Even damage to nearly a third of the state's 8 million homes last year doesn't deter the migration. A University of Florida study showed that could change if the hurricane onslaught carries over several seasons.

Developers certainly don't want to bring up hurricanes when newcomers are shopping for a home. But government could. Planning needs to consider hurricane evacuation, shelters, power delivery and aid response. At some point, the carrying capacity of the state of Florida rides on the whims of a storm.

Update growth plans for growing number of storms

As Hurricane Dennis bore down on the Panhandle, federal officials prepared 4.5 million ready-to-eat meals. They lined up 300 trucks of water, 350 trucks of ice and 200 generators.

When a hurricane approaches, Floridians expect their tax dollars to work to reduce suffering from the potential devastation of what is becoming an all-too common summertime event.

After four decades of infrequent threats, hurricanes seem to be churning as often as summer rains. The long layoff provoked a false sense of comfort, encouraging Florida's runaway growth at an advantageous moment in history. Air conditioning and economic growth made Florida one of the country's great destinations. Now, when hurricanes approach, government serves the people, no matter how many there are. As more people move in, hurricanes promise more risk to human life and damage to human structures. The cost of survival grows.

In the package of laws that greet developers to Palm Beach County and the Treasure Coast, there are requirements for traffic, parks, libraries, garbage and sewage, but nowhere are there limits designed to offset the awful effects of an Andrew. Schools are retrofitted to serve as shelters, but who pays the cost of the thousands of meals needed to serve the residents of that new 2,000-home subdivision? What the hurricanes of the past year have shown is that growth has a cost beyond the concerns of traffic jams and garbage pickup.

Governments routinely pay to help flood victims who go back to homes that never should have been allowed in the first place. The Florida Keys, a geographically unique area, takes hurricanes into consideration when determining whether new homes can be built. Growth limits there are based on the number of people who can be evacuated before a hurricane strikes. But no developer is asked to set money aside to feed powerless survivors after a major blow.

The Panhandle dodges statewide hurricane building codes out of the obviously mistaken claim that the Big One could never happen there. People keep coming as if news of a Florida hurricane is no more off-putting than a Denver blizzard. Even damage to nearly a third of the state's 8 million homes last year doesn't deter the migration. A University of Florida study showed that could change if the hurricane onslaught carries over several seasons.

Developers certainly don't want to bring up hurricanes when newcomers are shopping for a home. But government could. Planning needs to consider hurricane evacuation, shelters, power delivery and aid response. At some point, the carrying capacity of the state of Florida rides on the whims of a storm.

Banner Lake residents need written guarantees

On Tuesday, Martin County commissioners should postpone approving plans to build a $25 million private middle school and high school beside the historic Banner Lake community in Hobe Sound. The Local Planning Agency has given St. Michael's Independent School's plans a green light, but commissioners should assure that residents of predominantly African-American Banner Lake have adequate protection -- in writing -- from a development that, literally, is in their back yards.

Developers of wealthy Jupiter Island built some of the first homes in Banner Lake for servants of island residents in the 1920s. The late Joseph Reed, father of environmentalist Nathaniel Reed, even started a school to train young women from the community to serve as maids. Islanders have maintained a close, if paternalistic, connection to the community, which now includes 350 homes. A Reed family company sold St. Michael's the 137 acres for the private school.

School Headmaster Jim Cantwell, a former Peace Corps volunteer, met with a dozen residents a year ago but made no formal agreements. He said he is open to the idea of "a limited number of scholarships" for Banner Lake children and said St. Michael's may provide students to tutor children at public schools. Banner Lake and St. Michael's students might share a playground. He would invite students from other schools and people from Banner Lake and Hobe Sound to attend some school events. Banner Lake residents might use the tennis courts, which are close to the community's cemetery, and the school could provide landscaping to shield areas of the school from homes virtually next door. He won't say whether St. Michael's will build a wall or a fence between the school and Banner Lake, which residents oppose.

Mr. Cantwell seems sincere, but his promises aren't binding. Residents seem accepting of the school -- "It's better than a prison," one said -- but don't believe it will share tennis courts or the school playground. They are worried about other problems, such as a school maintenance building with outside storage facing several homes; through traffic coming in on Florida, Lantana and Comus streets; and changes that could extend dead-end streets to school grounds, increasing neighborhood traffic.

They also are concerned that existing homes will be too close to the school's planned sports concession area, restrooms and locker rooms. They don't want sewage lift stations and water supply for the school and future development placed too close to existing homes.

The school seems willing to be a good neighbor, but county commissioners should delay approval until the good intentions are guaranteed in writing.

Grade so parents get it

The Palm Beach County School District may start issuing report cards that would make it impossible to detect schoolchildren from the fictional Lake Woebegon. Nothing "above average" would register on report cards that would use the numbers 3, 2 and 1 to replace the traditional range of A to F.

With the system already approved for elementary schools starting next month, there's talk of expanding it to middle schools. That would be a mistake. The district should not make middle school report cards more like elementary school report cards. Middle school is the bridge to high school, where letter grades linked to a grade-point average are the norm and form the starting place of a college application.

In the new system, 3 would be the highest possible mark and would indicate that the student is on grade level. A mark of 2 would mean that the child is less than a year behind, and a 1 would indicate a student whose academic accomplishments were at least a year behind the state-defined grade level.

In general, the change pits teachers and administrators, who say the new system is more precise, against parents, who say it's just the opposite. Give parents the edge in this disagreement. They know what an A means, and they know what an F means. The range between the letter grades also is important. Parents know to pay extra attention, for example, to a child who goes from a B-plus to a B-minus. The 3-2-1 system doesn't capture those gradations for most parents.

The district, of course, says the system does. That's because within each broad topic, such as language arts, teachers also will be assigning number levels for included skills such as: "Uses the reading process effectively." In fact, since 2002, elementary school report cards have included the teacher's 3-2-1 ranking in those areas in addition to the traditional A-B-C grades. The proposal to drop the letter grades stems from concern that sometimes students making A's and B's nevertheless are performing below grade level.

That concern is understandable. The answer, however, lies not in doing away with letter grades but in basing letter grades on performance. In other words, it means doing away with grade inflation.

The main complaint from parents, however, is that the 3-2-1 system by itself has no way to recognize achievement above grade level. If that sounds like a complaint from pushy parents, does the district want to encourage overachievement or underachievement? Some school board members have suggested adding a number 4. But that solution simply would make the number grades more like letter grades so parents could understand them. Why not do what's simpler? For elementary schools, keep the letter grades and the number grades.

A stem-cell distraction

Senators preparing to vote on whether to expand embryonic stem-cell research should not be distracted by ideologically driven alternatives that are not as scientifically promising.

Last-minute legislation drafted by Senate Republican Leader Bill Frist and other GOP leaders would spend federal money studying animals in unproven attempts to find new ways to develop human embryonic stem cells. To satisfy the ideological ban on destroying embryos, it also would encourage biopsies of embryos, though the risky procedure is unlikely to produce adequate stem cells. Another alternative, also discussed in a May 2005 report by the President's Council on Bioethics, would create for research purposes only a deliberately flawed embryo -- say, without the potential to develop a brain or other necessary organ. Most of the "high-risk options," council member Dr. Michael Gazzaniga wrote, "only have an outside chance of success and raise their own complex set of ethical questions. Of primary concern: This effort is a diversion from the simple task at hand, which is to move forward with the established laboratory techniques, that are already grounded on a clear ethical basis, for studying embryonic stem-cell research... "

The eleventh-hour legislation, and several related proposals, should be considered individually, if at all, and not instead of the Stem Cell Research Enhancement Act, S. 471. Sponsored by Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, and Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., who suffers from Hodgkin's disease, S. 471 would provide federal financing of studies on stem-cell lines from embryos that otherwise would be destroyed by fertility clinics. There are an estimated 400,000 such embryos.

Expanding embryonic stem-cell research truly would be promoting "a culture of life."

State has much to learn from F-graded charters

For a couple of F-graded schools, Riviera Beach Academy and Delray Boynton Academy sure are doing a lot of educating.

Both charter schools have earned an F two years in a row under Florida's FCAT-based school grading system. State rules require them to be shut, but on Wednesday, the Palm Beach County School Board unanimously refused. "If the state wants to close them," said Chairman Tom Lynch, "it's the state's responsibility."

Officials and parents are proud of the education the schools provide and say the grading system unfairly ignores the fact that they are making progress with some of the toughest children to handle and teach. For all our reservations about charter schools, however, we are particularly impressed with the lessons these two teach Florida's lawmakers and education bureaucrats.

For years under Gov. Bush's various voucher programs, the state's line has been that most private voucher schools don't need to give the FCAT because parent satisfaction is enough. Charter schools, just like voucher schools, are supposed to provide choice. How could the state Board of Education -- all of whose members Gov. Bush appointed -- now turn around and close these two schools, which are pleasing parents, just because of FCAT scores?

As the board was refusing to do the state's dirty work, Debra Robinson was the most pointed in her criticism of the grading system: "I think the school grades are bogus information; they're manipulated data." Dr. Robinson also emphasized the important point that state and federal education policies more and more try to hide or hand off the children whom schools such as these two charters accept.

She's clearly right. The state just got federal permission to count the test scores of fewer struggling children under the misnamed No Child Left Behind Act. And under Gov. Bush's corporate voucher scheme, children from low-performing schools can disappear into private schools that can take the state-provided subsidy but don't have to prove that they're teaching students at all.

The state still could close the schools in August. If it happens, expect tortured explanations that won't be pretty but, in a sad way, will be educational.

Iraq: Political retreat?

President Bush won't announce a timetable for pulling American troops from Iraq. That doesn't mean there isn't one.

Yet another leaked British memo says the administration is eager to make a "bold reduction" next year, despite concern by U.S. commanders. What could make the administration withdraw troops faster than military planners would like? Perhaps it's optimism that Iraq's political progress soon will result in election of a stable democratic government. Perhaps the administration believes its own claims that training of Iraqi security forces is going better than anyone else thinks. Or perhaps the prospects for elections in Iraq are not as central to the administration's thinking as the prospects that a years-longer Iraq entanglement could hurt Republicans in the November 2006 elections.

The Bush administration has provided ever-shifting justifications for the war itself, so it is reasonable to question President Bush's motivation for a withdrawal. He is right to be wary of a specific timetable. But by laying out specific goals, he could give Americans some idea when U.S. troops will be out and reassure the public that withdrawal isn't scheduled according to a domestic political timetable.

Those goals would include Iraqi political progress, development of the security force and measures of physical and economic reconstruction. That Iraqis must draft and adopt a constitution, followed by national elections, is a given. Gauging the capabilities of Iraqi recruits isn't so easy -- particularly if the administration is trying to fudge it -- though the number trained and equipped is the basic measure. The number of insurgent attacks also is telling. Horrific bombings like the one Wednesday that targeted Iraqi children receiving candy from U.S. troops should cost the insurgency local support. Fewer attacks would indicate that corner has been turned as well as improved police work.

Rebuilding also is crucial. The administration should set targets for providing reliable electricity, water and other necessities. The ability to pump and ship oil is key -- since revenue was supposed to pay for reconstruction -- as is collecting on the pledges by our allies for Iraqi development. If the Bush administration sets and meets reasonable goals, there will be no doubt that withdrawal results from improved conditions in Iraq. If not, the goal of withdrawal will be to avoid declining GOP conditions in Congress.

Keep focus on Scripps

The Scripps Research Institute has been caught in petty political feuds and overt power plays too often in its brief time in Palm Beach County to be shocked by Tuesday's commission discussion of its second temporary building. The county needs to remember that Scripps is not a chip in an endless card game.

The latest hand dealt with how to pay for a second building at Florida Atlantic University's Jupiter campus, needed so Scripps can continue to hire scientists while its permanent campus is built at Mecca Farms. County commissioners correctly asked FAU to pay $13 million, instead of $11 million. The justification is that after Scripps leaves, the building belongs to FAU. Even though the state school will have to spend $3 million to convert lab space into classrooms, it benefits from the unanticipated boost to its science program.

The county, which committed $2 million to the first Jupiter building, would absorb about $2 million in borrowing costs, and FAU would begin repaying the money in 2009. County Commissioner Burt Aaronson slipped a wild card into the debate, demanding that FAU give the county 3 acres for a library west of Boca Raton. The land is part of 21 vacant acres the county gave to FAU for a television tower in 1963. FAU never built the TV tower and couldn't build anything else because the county retained the property's excavation rights.

While FAU has agreed to give the county 3 acres, it wants control of the remaining land. The county insisted on restrictions to avoid a repeat of a shopping center FAU's foundation opened in 2001 near the university's Glades Road campus. At this point in Tuesday's discussion, Scripps' second building looked like a forgotten card. The county made this offer: FAU pays $13 million for the Scripps building, gives the county 3 acres for the library and agrees to strict limits over the remainder of its land. FAU architect Bob Friedman agreed to everything except the money. On Wednesday, FAU upped its offer by $1 million to $12 million, and the county accepted.

Neither FAU nor the county is without blame. FAU is throwing money at an inappropriate effort to field a Division I football power rather than concentrating on its core mission while the county has again dragged a provincial dispute into a question of countywide significance.

Commissioner Aaronson can claim victory for getting an extra million from FAU while resolving a dilemma in his district. But commissioners need to remember that the public's priority is Scripps, science and jobs. Scripps didn't come to Palm Beach County to play games.

Arrests may be nearer, but cooperation isn't

When it comes to solving many of the worst crimes, police are only as good as the cooperation they receive from the community.

West Palm Beach police have worked overtime during the past year to solve a spate of shootings in the city's north end that has killed more than a dozen men -- all of them African-American and all but one under 30. Detectives blame most of the killings on retaliatory attacks between two loosely knit gangs, the Knotty Heads and the Ace Clique. Most hostilities have grown from personal insults, rather than drug-related territorial disputes, authorities say, and use of automatic weapons has escalated. Despite assistance of federal and state agencies, police have made only a few arrests. West Palm Beach Detective Don Iman says knowing what happened is one thing, but making a case that will stand up in court is quite another. "Ninety percent of the homicides we have already solved," he told The Post. "We just can't make arrests because we don't have cooperation."

Street criminals who witness shootings won't talk to police because they prefer to take revenge themselves. Victims who survive drive-by shootings seldom cooperate. Neighbors and family members who know something often are too afraid to come forward, even with guarantees of anonymity. Police can promise assistance but realistically can do only so much to protect witnesses, most of whom have no choice but to live in the same neighborhoods with the people they have incriminated. Many potential witnesses stay silent rather than risk the consequences.

Still, some courageous citizens have been willing to help. Last month, tipsters called Crime Stoppers and gave police information to solve the killing of a suspected Knotty Head member in an alley near Sapodilla Avenue. In February, a man turned in his half-brother in the killings of two men. Police Chief Delsa Bush says some of the shootings have links to Riviera Beach. On Wednesday, a mother in that city identified her son as the shooter in a gang-related killing, saying she had other children at home and didn't want them to become the next victims of retaliation. Police owe her all the protection they can give.

The West Palm Beach killings have been personal and targeted. But they have inflicted pain throughout the city and turned neighborhoods into battlegrounds. When families and police work together, the violence will subside.

Controlling Gaza Strip to control withdrawal

Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon wasn't wrong Wednesday when he closed the Gaza Strip to Israelis who don't live there. If anything, the closing came too late.

Opponents of the government's plan to withdraw have been entering Gaza for weeks, with the hope of stopping -- through violent resistance, if need be -- what some call the "ethnic cleansing" of roughly 7,500 Jewish settlers from land that Israel has occupied since 1967. As next month's withdrawal got closer, more protesters would have joined those living in empty buildings. On Monday, they had planned to stage a massive march. Opponents already had staged demonstrations within Israel that included the blocking of roads at rush hour.

In fact, Israel is acting decades late. For years, successive governments have indulged settlers, prolonging the idea that the country would continue to subsidize their lifestyle and pay for their security among 1 million Palestinians. That attitude postponed the day of reckoning that came last year when Mr. Sharon proposed that Israel leave Gaza. He has been accused of trying to distract attention from a family bribery scandal and of planning to use the departure as a way to keep more land in the West Bank. Whatever the motivation, Israel will be better off out of Gaza, just as Israel is better off out of Lebanon, a unilateral departure that occurred in 2000 under Prime Minister Ehud Barak.

Closing Gaza also will make it harder for suicide bombers to carry out an attack that might disrupt the withdrawal. A bomber from the West Bank breached Israeli security this week and killed five people in Netanya. Just as Mr. Sharon faces the challenge of his long career in the withdrawal, Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas must use his security forces between now and the withdrawal to stop potential terrorists.

Most Israelis favor withdrawal from Gaza, but the issue is very emotional. One question is whether many members of the Israeli Defense Forces will refuse to evacuate the settlers. IDF Chief of Staff Dan Halutz called the soldiers' job in Gaza a "national mission." Opponents dispute that term because there was no national referendum.

Israel wants $2.2 billion from the United States to help pay for the withdrawal. The money makes sense only if Gaza settlers go to land within Israel and withdrawal is not part of some West Bank land grab. The U.S. government also indulged those settlers far too long.

Finally, fair fare fight?

It's hard to compete in the taxi business when a single company holds a monopoly. For 15 years, Yellow Cab's control over Palm Beach International Airport has made it the only company that could meet the airport's needs. At least that's what the Palm Beach County Commission decided in 1995 and 2000, when it extended Yellow Cab's contract without bidding.

Smaller cab companies that vie for riders on city streets are not likely to be competitive unless they can build a fleet with the help of the 80,000 annual fares at the airport. But they can't build up that business because access to the airport belongs exclusively to Yellow Cab, as it has since the 1950s. Nonetheless, the county is giving other cabbies a chance to take over by opening the contract to bidding before it expires Sept. 30.

Unfortunately, the county gave these small companies just four weeks to produce bids, which were due today. Even a large company, such as Southern Shuttle Services, could find it difficult to put together a package that quickly. Five years ago, Southern Shuttle sued the county over Yellow Cab's automatic contract extension. After Southern Shuttle obtained a favorable ruling, Yellow Cab enticed Southern Shuttle to drop the suit by giving Southern Shuttle exclusive rights to provide long-distance limo rides from the airport.

The importance of the ruling cannot be overlooked. At a time when the county faced an FBI investigation of its no-bid contract extension for airport concessions, Circuit Judge Peter Blanc ordered the county to find a way to cancel the cab company's contract and put it out to bid. The settlement relieved the county of that obligation. Now, the county needs to do more than just meet the letter of the law by seeking bids. The county must assure all cab companies, big and small, an opportunity to bid. Yellow Cab has been paying $200,000 a year for its exclusive right to greet travelers within the airport concourse and deliver them a cab in moments. Bidding -- and the airport's continued growth -- could force them to pay more.

County officials say Yellow Cab's track record explains its dominance. One company, they say, is easier to control than many. An exclusive contract with the best company benefits travelers and the county, which wants to keep tourists happy. But competitive bidding will test Yellow Cab's reputation. The county needs to encourage, not discourage, such a test.

Bad decisions on lake again punish the St. Lucie River

The algae bloom is new this time, and fishing guides who ordinarily work the St. Lucie River already are avoiding it. They schedule trips from Indian River boat ramps, where anglers don't have to step over floating green slime to climb aboard.

Seven gates are open wide, allowing brown water to cascade from a canal that connects Lake Okeechobee to the St. Lucie. The plume of dirty water, fed by local runoff from farms and cities and especially the increasing discharges from the lake, pours out the St. Lucie Inlet near Stuart. The dark water makes swimming dicey at nearby beaches and may drift as far south as some beaches in Jupiter.

The South Florida Water Management District and the Army Corps of Engineers, which jointly manage Lake Okeechobee, have been upfront about what is happening. The lake level is at 16.57 feet after a rainy June and first half of July. The lake suffered terribly after 2004's hurricanes, which stirred up polluted muck from the bottom and left it suspended in the water. The dirty water cut sunlight to underwater grasses, which began to die. The grasses provide food, habitat and breeding grounds for many of the lake's game fish.

Water managers, however, made the situation worse by failing to lower the lake during the winter and early spring, which they did last year. Doing so this year would have allowed the grasses to regenerate. Instead, the lake entered hurricane season at 14.7 feet, higher than the 12.5 feet that environmental officials recommend. State Sen. Ken Pruitt, R-Port St. Lucie, and other area legislators also urged water managers to lower the lake early. Apparently, district and corps officials listened to sugar farmers and grove owners who want the lake kept high in case of drought.

Discharging the nutrient-laden lake water, loaded with algae-feeding animal waste and other farm runoff, in addition to the stirred-up muck from last summer, caused the algae bloom in the St. Lucie River. In the summer heat, the oxygen-depleting algae could lead to fish kills.

With the lake at 16.57 feet, and an active hurricane season under way, the coastal estuaries can't escape. Water managers said Wednesday that they are increasing the discharges but won't even be specific about how much. The St. Lucie on the east and the Caloosahatchee River, which carries heavier discharges west to the Gulf of Mexico and may be causing red tide, are taking the hits for water managers' bad choices.

The water district and corps have tried to counter the agencies' image as lake- and river-killers with better public relations when they fail to lower the lake or increase the deluge of dirty water into the rivers. Only better management will produce a better image.

Rove's defense crumbles

Defenders of White House hatchet man Karl Rove -- the ones who will comment -- compulsively repeat that "there is no evidence he committed a crime." In fact, there is no conclusive evidence. Yet.

There is abundant evidence, however, that Mr. Rove was part of a White House attempt to smear former Ambassador Joseph Wilson for correctly revealing in a July 6, 2003, New York Times article that President Bush in his State of the Union address that year had hyped claims that Saddam Hussein tried to buy nuclear material in Africa.

Let's review the bottom line. President Bush was recklessly wrong about Iraq's weapons of mass destruction. His recklessness led the United States into a lingering war that could have been avoided. Mr. Rove's primary job has been to protect Mr. Bush from paying any political price for that recklessness. At Mr. Rove's direction, the White House has used any means to divert criticism. Now, the White House and Republicans are using any means to divert blame for Mr. Rove's actions concerning Mr. Wilson.

E-mails obtained by Newsweek reveal that Mr. Rove told Time reporter Matthew Cooper not to trust Mr. Wilson's printed account of his own investigative trip to Niger for the CIA in February 2002 because he'd been sent only as a favor to his wife, who was a CIA officer. The nepotism implication was supposed to undermine Mr. Wilson's credibility. On July 17, 2003, Mr. Cooper wrote an online article that identified Mr. Wilson's wife as CIA officer Valerie Plame. Robert Novak had named Ms. Plame in a July 14 column. If Mr. Rove didn't name Ms. Plame, he pointed Mr. Cooper in her direction.

President Bush now must deal with his promise to fire anyone involved in leaking a CIA officer's identity. In 2003, White House spokesman Scott McClellan twice said that Mr. Rove had denied involvement. By this week, faced with the truth, Mr. McClellan repeatedly refused to say whether the president would keep his promise. The line -- which President Bush adopted Wednesday -- is that the White House won't comment on the investigation by special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald.

But the questions aren't about the investigation. They're about whether President Bush will live up to the standards he set. In talking points, Republicans offer semantic contortions to defend Mr. Rove. "He tried to discourage a reporter from writing a story that was false," one claims. They deserve the same respect accorded to President Clinton's infamous "it depends on what the meaning of the word is is." A criminal charge would be hard to prove; Mr. Fitzgerald would have to show that someone knew Ms. Plame was undercover and intentionally outed her. The case of Karl Rove's recklessness, however, seems open and shut.

The right FPL question

Since last summer, Florida Power & Light customers have wondered whether inattention to maintenance worsened hurricane-related power failures. Finally, someone official is wondering.

As The Post reported Wednesday, an audit by the Public Service Commission staff contends that from 1999 through 2004, FPL trimmed too few trees and inspected too few poles. The issue is a constant concern, but timing makes it even bigger. Next week, the Public Service Commission will consider FPL's request to impose a three-year surcharge, averaging $2.09 per month, so that the utility can raise $533 million toward its costs for hurricane repairs and cleanup. If inadequate maintenance led to some of those costs, customers should not have to pay.

FPL disputes the audit's findings, saying that its service was more reliable than the national average of private utilities. But the question for the Public Service Commission is whether FPL's system was as prepared as possible for hurricanes, which can be damaging but also can be anticipated. It also is worth noting that in 1998, the Public Service Commission said that FPL's "service quality" had declined from 1992 through 1996 "by virtually every measure examined."

The storm-cost surcharge is just one of four increases that FPL's 4.3 million customers might face. In November, the PSC approved an extra $3.49 per month because of higher fuel prices, and FPL said in April that it could seek another fuel-cost surcharge. In August, the utility will ask for an increase in the basic rate, which makes up roughly half of the average monthly bill. Meanwhile, FPL Group's stock price keeps rising. How much should customers pay so shareholders can keep doing fine?

Today's mission: Launch; and tomorrow's . . . ?

NASA has 2.5 million parts and seven human beings to worry about today for the scheduled launch at Cape Canaveral of Discovery that will put the shuttle back in space and help move the nation beyond the Columbia tragedy.

At 21, Discovery is the oldest ship in the fleet and the last in a generation of exploration vehicles. The shuttles, built to last 10 years or 100 missions, will be retired in 2010, long past what the engineers who designed them expected. Were it not for the International Space Station, it would be difficult to justify keeping the three remaining orbiters flying. But the United States has made commitments to 15 other nations to complete work on the $100 billion station, and only the shuttle can transport the cargo to do it. NASA believes that it will take at least 18 shuttle missions to finish the job, which means a busy schedule at the Kennedy Space Center the next five years, beginning with the liftoff this afternoon or later in the week if thunderstorms pose a problem.

And after that? The nation faces decisions about how best to carry on exploration. A week ago, NASA scored a major victory when its Deep Impact probe exploded into the Tempel 1 comet, a perfect bull's-eye collision after a 268 million-mile, 173-day journey. In the 2 1/2 years since the shuttle has been grounded, two Mars Explorer robots have sent back volumes of information about the planet. The success of unmanned missions restarts the debate over whether human beings are essential to exploration or just essential to the public relations needed to sell Americans on supporting extremely expensive and risky ventures. There is an emotional attachment to manned missions that robots can't duplicate. But there is also a deadly price to pay when things go wrong.

NASA has spent more than $1 billion to improve the shuttle's equipment and procedures. A redesigned fuel tank and dozens of new sensors and cameras make another wing catastrophe less likely. Engineers have looked, with mixed success, for ways to allow astronauts to make repairs. One of the sobering lessons from Columbia was that even if the crew had detected the fatal damage that occurred during launch, they could not have fixed it. The group appointed to study the Feb. 1, 2003, breakup of Columbia as it returned to Earth made 15 recommendations for fixing the agency's "broken safety culture"; NASA has satisfied 12. The other three are strengthening the wing panels, eliminating potential debris and developing proven repair techniques. Astronauts still have limited capability to determine their fate.

The space shuttle is the most complicated and expensive dinosaur the world has seen. The next generation, the Crew Exploration Vehicle, is scheduled to be ready by 2014 and take humans back to the moon -- perhaps even onward to Mars. NASA builds its future one mission at a time, however, and nothing matters more to the exploration of space than Discovery's safe departure and return.

Get state help to count Riviera Beach's money

Why do Riviera Beach residents need state help to right their ship? The community redevelopment agency was $6 million in the red last year, has $7 million in loans due this year yet not enough money to repay them, and has up to $2 million in fees disputed by consultants that the agency may rehire.

For the second consecutive year, the CRA's auditors report that the agency is in a "deteriorating financial condition," which itself should trigger state intervention. That report came as the city council was declining to audit the recreation department, whose water park had $200,000 in operating losses while paying no state sales taxes on thousands of dollars in admission fees and concession sales.

Riviera residents were overdue to take charge. But not in the way of nearly a decade ago when two rogue police officers plotted a takeover secretly with two city councilwomen. This time, a loose-knit association of residents and civic leaders wants the Florida auditor general to "immediately investigate the fiscal affairs and operations of the city," including the CRA.

The Citizens' Coalition of Riviera Beach includes mainland homeowners, Singer Island retirees, property rights activists and Mayor Michael Brown, who is correct that there are "supposed to be easy answers to questions when public dollars are spent."

State Rep. Carl Domino, R-Jupiter, has stepped to the front to present the broad coalition's request to the state's Joint Legislative Auditing Committee. But the rest of the legislative delegation should join him. Meanwhile, the coalition smartly has hired attorney and former state lawmaker Tom Warner, who has worked in the Florida Attorney General's Office and says that office should be looking, if only to clear the air. In fact, the state already should have come forward with its subpoena power.

Riviera Beach had cleaned up its politics and regained some credibility, but the city foundered recently in the uncharted territory of its billion-dollar redevelopment plan. That has let redevelopment bog down and reinforced old perceptions that the city is incapable of self-government. Which is why city officials should lead the way in seeking a hard and independent look at city spending. If, instead, their priority continues to be giving away to developers the city's public beach, that new wave of young council candidates such as Mayor Brown promoted in the last election will keep looking better and better.

A decision for Highland

The latest proposal to end the long dispute over the Hoffman property in Highland Beach may have a little better chance than the last proposal.

Developer Richard Siemens again has downsized in his attempt to build on the 7-acre site, which is south of town hall. First, he wanted to build three condominium towers with 137 units. Last year, he tried for two towers -- 162 feet and 142 feet -- with 98 units, but the five-member town commission unanimously voted it down. This time, Mr. Siemens is proposing one 14-story tower with 44 units.

Problem is, Highland Beach rules limit construction of such "towers" to 42 units and 35 feet. Complicating matters is that Mr. Siemens is suing the city. He claims that his property should be covered by rules that applied to the adjacent Toscana condo, which consists of three 18-story towers. Commissioners will meet in executive session -- discussion of lawsuits is exempt from open-meetings laws -- on July 26 to discuss the offer.

At one point, Mr. Siemens' seven acres and the 17 acres of Toscana were one property, owned by Camille Hoffman. The first project planned for the Toscana site was called Hidden Harbor. In 1975, the town gave the Hidden Harbor developers 10 years to complete the project. In 1980, the mayor extended the deadline to 1990. In 1985, the commission nullified that extension, claiming that the mayor had acted beyond his authority.

That dispute also led to a lawsuit, which Highland Beach lost. At that point, the town faced a $31.5 million judgment. (The 3,500-resident town's budget is about $7 million.) Eventually, the judgment was reduced to $5.5 million, and the town agreed to a waiver that allowed what had been renamed Toscana to be the size that it is. Given the old boundaries, a judge and jury would have to decide whether the density and height waiver that applied to Toscana also applies to the rest of the Hoffman property.

Obviously, Highland Beach knows what can happen if government plays fast and loose with decisions on building. This time, however, there seems to be no such recklessness. Mr. Siemens has come far from his first offer, but commissioners also recall how strong the opposition was just a year ago to two large towers. Compromise will be better than the risk of another trial. Commissioners will need to assess the risk to Highland Beach, then sound out residents to determine whether they think Mr. Siemens' new offer is good enough.

Off-base in The Acreage

Residents of The Acreage received an unpleasant dose of reality last week with the release of a proposed $10.6 million 2005-06 operating budget, a 40 percent increase over the current year.

While the district board tries to tame anticipated traffic from The Scripps Research Institute, it is fighting a costly battle with the county over the future of water service to the rapidly growing area. That legal fight produces the budget's most alarming figure: an extra $500,000 in legal and engineering fees. Some of those charges will pay lawyers for work done during the current year. That's just an estimate, however, because the Atlanta firm of Hunton & Williams has yet to bill the district for an April trial.

More alarming is that the Indian Trail Improvement District Board majority is following the lead of Chairman Christopher Karch, a water engineer whose behavior raises questions about his decision-making. This month, Mr. Karch was Tasered in his own back yard after he refused to identify himself to a sheriff's deputy, unbuttoned his shirt and charged the deputy, who was responding to a silent burglar alarm. In April, after a judge denied an injunction to stop the county from running water lines through The Acreage, Mr. Karch personally tried to block the work by confronting a contractor, who described Mr. Karch as "very unreasonable" and "screaming at the top of his lungs."

Mr. Karch was instrumental in the departure of Indian Trail Administrator Ed Oppel, who wanted the district to accept a county offer that would have paid the district up to 15 percent of future water sales. Mr. Karch pushed to hire the Atlanta lawyers, whose ultimate cost is not known, to fight for the district's right to provide water, a goal that may be beyond the district's reach.

The district's humble origins overseeing drainage for a rural area focused on pulling together enough money to pave a few dirt roads every year. Now that the district is home to more than 30,000 residents, there is a justified concern about traffic bleeding through neighborhoods from Scripps. As a result, the district budgeted $131,000 to close roads and bridge culverts. Residents who still rely on wells and septic tanks probably care less about which government provides utility service than they do about how much they will pay and whether they can drink the stuff that flows from the tap. Under Mr. Karch, the reality is that Indian Trail's budget is not reflecting the proper priorities for most Acreage residents.

Before tax, higher fees

The Martin County Commission put the cart before the horse again on Tuesday by finalizing plans to ask voters for a six-year, 1-cent sales-tax increase -- before commissioners even have considered an increase in impact fees charged on new homes and businesses.

Last week, the Local Planning Agency recommended increasing the fees. If the commission does so, Martin's will be among the state's highest. The fees are one-time charges assessed on new construction to help the county pay for roads, libraries, fire stations and other public needs that growth generates.

The commission hopes to use the bulk of the proposed sales-tax money for road improvements. Instead, commissioners should increase impact fees to help cover new road projects. Part of the county's land-use plan dictates that growth must pay for itself. Last year, Martin collected about $12.5 million in impact fees, and commission approval of the proposed increase would add about $7 million. The higher fee schedules suggest, for one example, that a new home between 1,101 and 2,300 square feet would face a one-time charge of $7,284, up from the current $5,010. Businesses would pay higher fees.

Questions about the new fee schedule came chiefly from a developer who serves on the Local Planning Agency and a spokesman for the local marine industry, who asked whether marinas should be assessed high charges for roads and law enforcement. A lone LPA member, Ed Fielding, suggested that impact fees may need to be higher across the board; his was the only vote opposing the fee schedule sent to the commission.

While commissioners who oppose growth management frequently accuse previous commissions of not building enough roads to accommodate growth, the commission majority has changed standards and rules to allow more development without upgrading levels of service on local roads. They're counting on crowded streets to push voters to pay for improvements via the proposed sales tax.

A better idea would be for commissioners to take an honest look at the impact fees the LPA has recommended -- and consider raising them even higher if that is what is needed to pay for road improvements and other growth-related costs. Martin County until recently had kept tight controls on growth. Commissioners can regain that control by assuring that existing residents aren't required to pay for the roads, schools and other services new residents need.

Sex is worse than cancer?

A vaccine that would prevent more than 10,000 new diagnoses of cancer in the state and more than 3,700 deaths each year should be blocked because it will encourage more teens to have sex.

Reread that sentence all you want. The logic won't get any clearer. That's because the "reasoning" doesn't make sense. Yet such ideological illogic is behind Gov. Bush's veto of $30,000 for a task force that would have studied the treatment and prevention (including two vaccines in clinical trials) of cervical cancer in Florida -- a disease that is the second-leading cause of cancer death among women worldwide.

Florida ranks fourth in the number of new cervical cancer cases annually, according to a resolution the Legislature passed in April, naming January 2006 "Cervical Cancer Awareness Month." Pass a resolution? That's easy. Spend some money in the hope of eradicating a disease that often emaciates victims before killing a third of them? That takes standing up to a vocal minority that tries to turn every sex-related, public health issue into a shame-based, moral issue.

How does sex fit in with cervical cancer? The human papilloma virus is a sexually transmitted disease that can lead to cervical cancer. Never mind that most women with HPV don't get cervical cancer, or that most women -- at least 80 percent of sexually active women, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention -- develop HPV in their lifetimes. Or didn't the governor read the feel-good resolution's description of HPV as "a virus commonly found in healthy women and only rarely resulting in cancer"? Why should it matter, anyway?

Legislation dealing with science should include this warning: Too much illogical ideology about sex is hazardous to the public's health.

Aces for phone firms from 2003's rigged deck

Phone companies got their money's worth two years ago from lobbyists who wrote a bill to enact Florida's largest local rate increase. It has passed the Legislature, the governor, the Public Service Commission and, as of last week, the Florida Supreme Court. There now is nothing to stop the companies from getting their money.

Not that the court had much wiggle room. The companies had to show only that the nearly $350 million increase, filed just after the bill became law, complied with the legislation and was "supported by competent, substantial evidence." Obviously, it complied with the legislation; that was the point. BellSouth, Sprint and Verizon spent $5 million on campaign donations during the election cycle that produced the 2003 Legislature. After this round of increases, the companies can raise rates 20 percent more each year without having to ask the PSC, which supposedly still regulates utilities.

The second condition -- "substantial evidence" -- was a little harder. The companies contended that since they would decrease the fees they charge other carriers to use their long-distance lines, consumers would save as much or more than the extra $3.14 to $6.86 they would be paying, and that competition would bring more services. But while the increases were specified, the savings were not. Also, the savings would be spread much more unevenly than the increases, with most going to businesses that use lots of in-state long-distance. Residents use more out-of-state long-distance.

Again, though, the legislation didn't demand specifics. The PSC and the companies had only to show that competition could result. A parade of industry witnesses agreed. No surprise. The legislation had been written to presume that savings would come from increases. The fact that a 2004 federal court ruling exempts BellSouth, Sprint and Verizon from having to lower those access fees and thus produce the competition didn't seem to bother the Supreme Court.

In his concurring opinion, Justice R. Fred Lewis noted that the PSC is supposed to encourage competition while encouraging the most affordable phone services. Because it demands an increase, the legislation places the commission in a contradictory position. The Legislature, Justice Lewis wrote, should resolve this conflict. Given what happened in 2003, the state's consumers will need to hire their own lobbyists.

A place called Srebrenica

Because the United Nations disastrously failed a decade ago in Srebrenica, there was a memorial service on Monday.

Ten years ago this week, the killing began in the mining town in east Bosnia. It would become Europe's worst act of genocide since World War II. Bosnian Serb soldiers massacred 8,000 mostly men and boys in Srebrenica, supposedly a U.N.-protected "safe zone" for Muslim refugees, just before the Bosnian civil war ended in 1995. The rampage was typical of the ethnic cleansing that then-Yugoslavian President Slobodan Milosevic had directed for four years after the breakup of the former Yugoslavia.

NATO intervention and the U.S.-led Dayton accords forced the Serbs to end the killing. But that was only after Dutch so-called peacekeepers in Srebrenica stood by and let the genocide happen. The timid Dutch enablers reported people being killed outside the Dutch base where terrified civilians had sought refuge, yet forcibly expelled thousands to their executioners. President Clinton also had refused to send American soldiers.

Over the weekend, thousands of people lined the streets of Sarajevo, capital of Bosnia and Herzegovina, for a funeral procession of tractor-trailer trucks transporting more than 600 bodies to a memorial site. But along with the ongoing pacification effort, which now includes U.S. peacekeepers, bitterness still rules in Bosnia. It will continue to do so long after Srebrenica massacre masterminds Ratko Mladic and Radovan Karadzic are brought to justice, as they must be. Like Milosevic, they have been indicted for genocide at the U.N. war crimes tribunal court in The Hague.

That won't change the fact that neither the Serb nor the Croat members of Bosnian's multiethnic presidency joined the Muslim member to pay respects. Or that survivors and Dutch attorneys are gathering evidence to prosecute the U.N. officers in charge for failing to stop the killings. Or that Bosnian Serbs lamented being blamed for war crimes and pointed at Muslims for last week's bombings in London.

In 1994, hundreds of thousands were murdered in Rwanda. What President Bush and other leaders call genocide continues in Darfur, Sudan. Civilized societies cannot legislate hearts and minds. Individual nations cannot prevent every atrocity. Civilized nations, however, must find ways to save innocent human beings from slaughter.

The wrong job offer

An ex-judge got a break from the system four years ago. He doesn't deserve another.

After the Judicial Qualifications Commission -- noting 20 separate incidents -- charged him with sexual harassment, then-Palm Beach County Circuit Judge Howard Berman cut a deal. Rather than face a trial that could have resulted in his removal from the bench, he retired, and thus kept his state pension. That was in September 2001.

Now State Attorney Barry Krischer, as The Post reported, has offered Mr. Berman a job as one of three prosecutors in Belle Glade. Mr. Berman was an assistant state attorney for eight years before being named a judge in 1986. The offer was a mistake.

Mr. Krischer says of his longtime friend, Mr. Berman: "He has paid his dues. He's definitely chastened. His spirit has been broken." Mr. Krischer stresses the urgency of adding staff -- "We're drowning in Belle Glade" -- and finding an experienced prosecutor. And what would happen if any woman made an allegation? "He's out the door. He knows it and I know it."

Nothing about Mr. Berman's departure, however, suggests that Mr. Krischer should use his public office as a halfway house. In his resignation statement, Mr. Berman did not apologize. He said he would not fight the charges because there was "no way that true justice can prevail." More likely, the fact that two more women had made allegations persuaded him to take the deal. According to the JQC charges, Mr. Berman had told one woman that he would "bury her" if she went to the Judicial Qualifications Commission.

Also, it was revealed after Mr. Berman's resignation that the state attorney's office had known even before Mr. Krischer took office in 1993 that the former judge "had a reputation." Female prosecutors were not assigned to his courtroom. No charges had been filed because no woman would come forward, likely out of fear that she might suffer more than the judge.

So Mr. Krischer's comment that "all the people who were involved are no longer here" is a terrible defense of the offer to Mr. Berman. All the accusers were in the court system. Mr. Berman abused his public office in a fundamental way, and there is no assurance that he wouldn't do it again. Mr. Krischer already gave Theresa LePore a temp job so she could get a bigger pension. The public is paying him to run the state attorney's office, not a welfare office.

Answer city hall critics with some new candor

West Palm Beach Mayor Lois Frankel insists that she is committed -- no matter what -- to building a city hall and library on the D&D Centre block downtown, and she dismisses all critics as political enemies. But people who ask legitimate questions shouldn't receive such a cavalier brush-off, and the biggest obstacles the mayor faces to pulling off the ambitious project are a lack of candor about its cost and the radical overhaul from what was originally proposed.

Two years ago, Mayor Frankel sold the public and the city commission on a $50 million deal, with as much as 45 percent for commercial use to help offset the cost and justify the city's spending more than $18 million to buy one of downtown's most expensive parcels. Estimates are now $100 million, and no significant commercial component is planned. The mayor says the public will have to wait until the end of September for developers to calculate what the cost will be.

Last week, Peter Armato, the city's new Downtown Development Authority executive director, told commissioners that the project needs to have significant commercial use to be successful and to comply with the downtown master plan that requires retail business on Clematis Street ground floors. The consequences of losing an entire block to municipal facilities with nothing to draw shoppers and diners threatens the long-term economic viability of an already troubled district. The actual building costs of a city hall, library and photo museum may be the same no matter what piece of land they're put on. But packing them onto this site and creating an economic dead zone has damage potential that isn't calculated, either.

Mayor Frankel has argued that when her administration surveyed residents, respondents said they wanted an all-public complex. But the surveys never asked people if they were willing to spend any amount to get it, and whether the city had better places to spend its new millions from development. The mayor points out that some of the estimated cost increase is the result of higher construction prices in general. Her argument would be more persuasive if the concept of the project hadn't changed. A bigger reason for the $100 million is that this is a new project. Complicating things is that the architect is a close friend of the mayor.

Mayor Frankel says she is building a public realm and "the city hall's going to cost what it costs." That wasn't the deal commissioners agreed to. The mayor knows better. The city deserves better.

First, police problems, then hire Boynton chief

Apparently, Boynton Beach City Manager Kurt Bressner didn't think Police Chief Marshall Gage would be part of the solution for the department. Given the chief's reaction to recent problems, Mr. Bressner was correct last week to ask for and receive his resignation.

In addition to chronic staff vacancies, incidents over the past several months suggested lax management. First was the disclosure that nearly 100 uniformed department employees had been taking vacation without recording it. An audit determined that Boynton Beach could have wasted almost $90,000, since the employees would have been paid for the time they were gone. One sergeant was fired, and two officers resigned. The abuse, especially the breadth of it, was bad enough. Worse, it became public not because of department controls but because of a tip.

Then last month came the revelation that an employee had been stealing money from the evidence room. Investigators say it happened over three years and amounted to about $60,000. The theft, which turned up when detectives needed evidence that wasn't there, affected more than 100 cases.

Though Chief Gage responded when he became aware of the problems, he and city leaders clearly differed on what those problems revealed. Mayor Jerry Taylor wanted Mr. Bressner to hire an outside consultant to review the workings of the police department. The mayor made a similar recommendation last year. "If we had done that," he said, "we might not have had these problems, or at least we might have discovered them earlier." Chief Gage seemed to think that these had been isolated incidents. "As long we keep hiring humans," he said, "we're going to have problems."

That wasn't the chief's only mistake. He had indicated that he wanted to retire but had given no date. Then early last week, he announced that he might stay for another two years. Or maybe one. That amounted to putting his own interests ahead of the city's.

Chief Gage's departure doesn't diminish the need for an outside review, and that study should take place before the city hires a replacement. Mayor Taylor notes that such a review usually determines one of three things: "Management is screwed up, things are all right but could be better, or there's no need to do anything." It will be shocking if the report doesn't come with some recommendations, and it will be better for Boynton Beach that a new chief is responsible for making the changes.

Last chance for agency in charge of foster care

Considering the problems that the private agency running the Treasure Coast's foster care programs has had, last week's resignation of the group's executive director was not surprising.

Both caseworkers and foster families have been unhappy with not-for-profit United For Families, which began taking over what had been Florida Department of Children and Families operations in 2003. The agency serves families in DCF District 15, which includes Martin, St. Lucie, Okeechobee and Indian River counties.

The resignation of director Larry Wilms followed an emergency meeting of the UFF board of directors. An April review by the state inspector general's office found "significant" problems with the agency's performance. As The Post has reported, caseworkers have resigned and the number of foster families has dropped in each county but Martin. Caseworkers complain that the nonprofit has added layers of bureaucracy that make their work more difficult and make getting help for families -- such as treatment for a parent with substance-abuse problems -- impossible in some cases. Foster families say the high turnover of caseworkers has caused communication problems, that basic services have been cut and that the agency hasn't treated them with respect.

UFF, like other community-based care agencies statewide, was organized to oversee other organizations handling foster care, case management and adoption services for families, in response to the Legislature's 1998 decision to privatize foster care. The transition to 23 community-based agencies has been difficult. Palm Beach County's has recruited more foster parents but has had problems with caseworker turnover and the reporting of missing children and "serious incidents." A Pinellas County agency failed last year.

Foster families greeted news of Mr. Wilms' departure with hope that the relationship between foster parents and the agency will improve. The UFF board should take time to select his successor, and should ask the state's opinion before making a final choice. The Treasure Coast needs a strong leader to unite the foster families, the staff and the community. The goal of privatizing these services to children and families is to do a better job than the state. Even with an extra $3 million in the budget for the Treasure Coast agency, that hasn't happened. If UFF can't get it right this time, the state should come back and take over.

Using family to duck duty

Children in the state's custody because their parents abused or abandoned them deserve equal access to services that help them become self-sufficient adults. But the Florida Department of Children and Families, as Palm Beach County Circuit Judge Edward Fine said, once again is trying "to manipulate away (its) responsibility."

It is well-documented that after poorly preparing children in its custody for adulthood, the state abandons most of them at 18. This year, the Legislature set out to stifle them even more, but then restored cuts to the federal Road to Independence scholarship, a monthly stipend earned by good grades in college or vocational school.

But as The Post detailed last week, not all who deserve the stipend get it. Like the young adults featured in the articles -- Jessica Ward and "T.R." -- those who, with DCF's blessing and oversight, live with relatives, friends or others, are not eligible. The federal Chafee Act -- which DCF readily blames and, in the case of T.R., went to court behind -- does not allow it. In hiding behind the letter of the law, DCF is violating the spirit of the law.

When the state takes custody of a child, DCF requires caseworkers to first seek shelter among willing relatives, friends, neighbors or others who know the child. Foster care is a last resort. One reason is that the child does not have to adjust to a stranger. The ulterior reason is that it's cheaper. If a child is with a relative and not a foster parent when he turns 18, the state doesn't have to pay certain benefits.

The state can't have it both ways. After requiring that a child first go to any available relatives or friends, DCF then uses that placement as the excuse for dumping the child at age 18. The Community Alliance of Palm Beach County, a group of public officials and civic leaders, plans to lobby legislators to change the relevant laws and policies, or create a fund to pay for those not covered by federal law. Child advocates also are beginning to consider a class-action lawsuit on behalf of the dozens of T.R.s in Palm Beach County and the hundreds more throughout the state.

Lawmakers and DCF shouldn't let it come to that. It doesn't matter whether the child is in a foster home or a family member's home. The child is the state's responsibility, which means that the Legislature and DCF officials have to accept that responsibility, not dodge it.

The last Schiavo myth?

Gov. Bush could not resist tossing one more scrap of red meat to conspiracy theorists and giving Michael Schiavo one last kick.

After Dr. Jon Thogmartin's autopsy report showed that Gov. Bush, President Bush, Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, House Majority Leader Tom DeLay and others had been wrong about Terri Schiavo's condition, the governor refused to accept the truth gracefully. Instead, he recruited Pinellas-Pasco State Attorney Bernie McCabe to see if he could charge Mr. Schiavo with a crime. Variations in Mr. Schiavo's recollection of when he called 911 after his wife's collapse were his excuse, though minor confusion in such a long, draining case isn't surprising.

Last week, Mr. McCabe informed Gov. Bush that he found "no 'facts' or 'evidence' that indicate a criminal act or agency" killed Ms. Schiavo. Facts and evidence never swayed Gov. Bush before. But the governor seems satisfied that he has exploited Ms. Schiavo as much as possible. He didn't apologize, of course. But he said he would drop the matter. With his belated permission, perhaps Ms. Schiavo can rest in peace.

Hospitals with heart

Eight Palm Beach County hospitals showed how charity and good business practice can be mutually beneficial when they donated $210,000 to the Caridad Clinic that serves migrant farmworkers.

The clinic west of Boynton Beach treats hundreds of indigent patients each year. Caridad keeps injured and ailing workers from going to hospital emergency rooms. The preventive care that Caridad provides promotes good health and keeps minor illnesses from becoming major.

The hospitals -- JFK, Palms West, Columbia, West Boca, Delray, Good Samaritan, Bethesda and Boca Raton -- appreciate the Caridad for problems they don't see and bills they don't have to write off. The clinic estimates that it saves area hospitals $5 million each year.

Caridad development director Maria Puente-Duany said the donation will help pay operating costs, pharmaceutical bills and other expenses. Besides gratitude for their largess, the hospitals should receive encouragement to keep the donations coming.

Domestic violence falls if crime taken seriously

Palm Beach County has found a way to reduce domestic violence. Other counties can copy it, and Palm Beach still has chances to make a good system better.

It takes time, and it takes commitment and resources. In the early '90s, then-Gov. Lawton Chiles called attention to the problem. He formed a task force that began dispensing grant money from Washington. Change caught on in several places, but particularly in Palm Beach County. It came down to taking seriously a crime that the system too often had dismissed.

State Attorney Barry Krischer began training police officers and formed a special team of prosecutors. The county created one domestic violence court, then a second. First-time, misdemeanor defendants can enter 26 weeks of counseling, followed by probation. If they complete it, charges are dropped. Since many women worry about loss of income if a man goes to jail, the idea is to get victims to cooperate and to rehabilitate abusers when possible. Second-time offenders don't get the option. Third-timers are charged with felonies.

Other counties have such specialty courts. Other counties offer counseling to victims. What sets Palm Beach County apart is the systemwide effort and cooperation -- the sheriff's office also has a separate unit -- and the counseling for all children younger than 12 in a home where domestic violence occurs. Even as other federal money for intervention programs has stopped, these grants have continued. Mr. Krischer's point from the start has been that such counseling can keep children from becoming inured to violence and growing up to commit their own violence.

Is it working? Last Sunday, The Post reported that reports of domestic abuse have dropped every year since 1998. The drop for 2004, according to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, was 6.6 percent -- double the statewide figure. Among large counties, Palm Beach is the safest when it comes to domestic violence.

Yet those encouraging numbers are no reason to back off. Last week, Mr. Krischer e-mailed Chief Judge Kathleen Kroll, asking that she reconsider her decision to eliminate one of the domestic violence courts. He noted that such a move would make it harder to counsel victims. "Any dismantling," Mr. Krischer said, "will be a definite move backward... " Going to one court, he said, would be "a mistake."

In addition, the county does not have a way to monitor the private programs to which offenders are referred. It would be very helpful, for example, to know which offenders are not charged again after completing a program and probation and which ones are. After all of the cooperation of the past few years, it would be frustrating to see this key component left out because of bureaucratic indecision. Mr. Krischer would like the county's Criminal Justice Commission to discuss it Monday.

The campaign against domestic violence is the sort of work that some legislators believe is not part of the court system's "core functions." The results in Palm Beach County show why it must be.

Ramp up access to water

When Wayne Huizenga invests $100 million in a waterfront project and elects to keep docks open to the public, there must be money in it. There's certainly a need.

Growth's pressure on boat ramps, docks and storage facilities in Palm Beach County and the Treasure Coast is driving weekend boaters to despair, as The Post reported last week. As condominium developers cordon the waterfront into private enclaves, the allure of sea and sun becomes more out of reach for the rest of the public.

That's why Mr. Huizenga's plan for the Rybovich Spencer boatyard in a residential section of West Palm Beach holds such promise. The plan calls for 220 condos, an upscale restaurant and marine stores. But it expands the yard's public docks and adds a public promenade. The willingness to engage the public argues for a similar mix at the Sailfish Marina on Singer Island. Proposals to level the marina for condos last year prompted Palm Beach County commissioners to obtain voter support for a $50 million bond issue. The money is available to keep Sailfish -- and other waterfront spaces -- public. But it's not enough.

The number of registered boats is rising -- by 11 percent in four years in Palm Beach County and 27 percent on the Treasure Coast -- while the number of dock slips, launch points and parking places stays flat or declines. A 2002 report predicted Palm Beach County would have 57,800 registered boats in 2020, a rise of 34 percent over 2004. To attack the problem, the county is adding "ready docks," where boats can be tied while owners get trailers, speeding the end-of-the-day crunch. A $16 million plan aims to add 100 parking places a year for five years and new launch spots near the county's four ocean inlets. Oceanfront demand could prove a boon to the communities on Lake Okeechobee if they can take advantage with attractive accommodations for weekend boaters seeking to avoid the crowds.

On the Treasure Coast, Martin County is pursuing a "no net loss" policy that would require public docks displaced by private development to be replaced elsewhere. The policy only works for the public if quality sites near the ocean are replaced by equally good sites, not distant access to inland canals.

The demand for oceanfront points to the folly of those who preach the area's unlimited potential for growth. The oceanfront, one of the most powerful reasons for coming to Florida, looks a lot less enticing when there's no way to get to it.7

Another brand of terror

The torching last week of the only West Palm Beach clinic that provides abortions was meant to terrorize those providing and receiving a legal medical procedure. Investigators should treat the crime as the domestic terrorism it is.

Monday night's fire at the 25-year-old Presidential Women's Center is the second at a Palm Beach County women's clinic in as many years and part of a growing national threat to women's reproductive rights. In the past 15 years, anti-abortion zealots have used violence -- arson, acid, pipe bombs and shootings -- in 24 attacks in Florida that have killed, injured and aimed to intimidate. In the face of such extremists, Presidential owner Mona Reis remains committed to reopening and providing safe access to the clinic.

Ms. Reis is seeking a city-sanctioned buffer zone that would keep protesters 30 feet from the clinic. Such a barrier would not have prevented the overnight arson, and even supporters acknowledge the threat of drawing, as one city commissioner put it, "every lunatic around the country." But police must do all they can to preserve safe access to health care.

Despite abortion opponents' claims, protests have not caused the declining abortion rate in the United States over the past two decades. In fact, research shows, the stigma is a leading reason why abortions are delayed until the riskier second trimester. There are fewer abortions because there are fewer unintended pregnancies, largely thanks to more and better use of contraceptives -- ironically, also often opposed by abortion opponents.

Abortion is legal in the United States. Terrorism by arson is not.

Pay teachers on merit - but not on the FCAT

Gov. Bush's misuse of the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test makes it hard to give his administration the benefit of the doubt as it tries to develop a meaningful system of merit pay for teachers that includes FCAT scores.

Six years ago, the governor insisted on making the FCAT the biggest factor in school grades, even though the test wasn't given to most students and didn't cover most subjects. The test is more comprehensive, but still doesn't cover history, geography, art, foreign languages and other electives. Further, students in kindergarten through second grade and in 11th and 12th grades don't take the FCAT.

That hasn't stopped Gov. Bush and his appointees at the Education Department and on the Board of Education from pushing the FCAT as a pillar of teacher evaluation. "FCAT is the most robust data we have," Board of Education Chairman Phil Handy told The Miami Herald. Being the "most robust," however, doesn't make it adequate.

On the other side, teachers unions' longstanding hostility toward merit pay also makes it difficult to give them the benefit of the doubt. Gov. Bush and state education officials are, in general, correct to press school districts and teachers to find a way to pay more to teachers who do a better job.

Defining and measuring "a better job" is the hard part. Using raw FCAT scores clearly isn't the best measure. Children of affluent families usually score higher. Teachers shouldn't be rewarded just because their students come with built-in advantages. Such a system would tempt good teachers to leave struggling schools. It would make good sense, however, to reward teachers for going to a poorly performing school in the first place and then for gains their students make afterward. Palm Beach County is considering such a system.

Teachers are correct that administrators sometimes can be unfair, but -- as in other jobs -- the boss's evaluation should have some weight in merit pay. The biggest problem with merit pay in Florida is that teacher salaries are below the national average to begin with. If Gov. Bush and his appointees set up a system that requires teachers to jump through stupid hoops just to fight over a few crumbs of bonuses, the state will find it hard to recruit sufficient talented teachers.

Gov. Bush offered to increase teacher pay above the national average, but only as a failed ruse to kill the class-size amendment. If he brought a real pay increase to the table and agreed to keep the FCAT in perspective, he would remove much of the doubt about his intentions. And to reduce doubt about their motives, teachers unions would have to agree that a significant pay increase justified a significant increase in accountability.

Winning the 'other war'

President Bush says he has a workable plan to bring stability and democracy to Iraq so U.S. troops can come home. This would be a good time for his administration to review whether it has a workable plan to accomplish the same goals in Afghanistan.

The president frequently holds out Afghanistan as an example of success. Frequently and, as news from that region indicates, prematurely. At least 54 Americans have died in Afghanistan this year, compared with 52 in all of 2004. The toll includes 16 special operations troops killed near the Afghan-Pakistani border when insurgents shot down their helicopter. The dead were part of a team dispatched to rescue four Navy SEALs who had been carrying out a reconnaissance mission. One has been rescued, one is missing and two SEALs are confirmed dead. It was the highest U.S. combat toll of the war.

The insurgents operate in extensive areas outside of government control. In April, Lt. Gen. David Barno -- senior U.S. commander at the time -- declared that Afghan insurgents were a "small, hard-core remnant of the Taliban" who soon would be neutered. Instead of entering its "last throes," however, the Afghan insurgency has stepped up attacks on U.S. troops and civilians, showing a disturbing preference for the Iraq model of ambush by improvised explosive device.

Another sign of increasing trouble is President Hamid Karzai's rare and blunt criticism of recent U.S. air raids that mistakenly killed about 17 civilians. President Karzai enjoys firm American support, but support among his own people is shaky and could get worse if such incidents continue. Certainly, his authority is limited outside the capital of Kabul and depends on U.S. aid and the 18,000 U.S. forces who remain in Afghanistan, along with approximately 8,000 NATO troops.

Afghanistan harbored Osama bin Laden before 9/11, and he might be in that country or nearby lawless regions of Pakistan. President Bush and the United Nations properly targeted Afghanistan after the attacks, defeated the Taliban and helped Afghanistan establish a rudimentary democracy. The mistake was in shifting resources and attention to Iraq, which was not involved in the 9/11 attacks. Although catching bin Laden no longer is Mr. Bush's priority, Thursday's London attacks provide some reason to reconsider that downgrade.

There is speculation that the number of U.S. troops in Afghanistan will increase as this fall's scheduled elections approach. Ramping up might be a necessary part of a plan to stabilize Afghanistan. A plan is clearly necessary.

Help with Scripps lab

Palm Beach County commissioners are right to finance a second lab building for The Scripps Research Institute, but they need to insist on full repayment from the building's eventual owner, Florida Atlantic University.

There's no question that the building will help Scripps succeed. It doubles the amount of lab space so that Scripps, which has 120 employees, can keep hiring. More scientists mean more spinoff businesses, which will bring more jobs -- at least that was the pitch that led Palm Beach County to pledge $300 million-plus to lure Scripps.

A second building also buys time if legal rulings stall construction at the Mecca Farms site. Once Scripps moves to Mecca and abandons its FAU labs, FAU can occupy the building, giving it an advantage in recruiting scientists and students. Extra space could be made available to private companies that can't build their own labs, a glaring void in the county's nascent biotech capability.

But how is it Palm Beach County's responsibility to help pay for such a building? Unlike the first building, needed to get Scripps started while it awaited a permanent campus, the county is under no obligation to build this one. The county is willing to finance the work, however, since FAU can't come up with its first payment until 2009. But FAU, not the county, is going to own the building. The university has agreed to pay $11 million of the $13 million cost, assuming the county contributes $2 million, as it did for the first building. But if this building is so important to hold Scripps while the site Gov. Bush sought is prepared, then the state should pay for it.

This will not be the last time commissioners are asked to put up even more money to assure a payoff from their investment in Scripps. Tough decisions on incentives to draw spinoffs will be made tougher by the certainty that some of those companies will fail. This proposal is made easier by the knowledge that the building will benefit a state university and the county will get its money back.

New city, same enemy: Terrorism's deadly mark

With sections of their city looking like Baghdad, Londoners might not agree this morning that Iraq is the central front in the war on terror.

In fact, the front line of the campaign against Islamic terrorism shifts constantly. In March 2004, it was Madrid. As President Bush said last week, other fronts have been "Istanbul, Jakarta, Casablanca, Riyadh, Bali and elsewhere." Whatever the scale, whatever the location, the horror is the same. The world sympathizes with the victims' families and the British people. We feel confident in blaming Al-Qaeda or a related group for this carnage, since the trademarks are familiar: bombs in public places, designed to kill or injure as many as possible. The toll of Thursday's attacks was 37 dead and 700 wounded.

Reaction from Prime Minister Tony Blair, President Bush and other heads of state who had gathered in Scotland for the G-8 summit also was familiar. Mr. Blair called the bombings "barbaric," as they were. Mr. Bush said our nation and others "will not yield" to terrorism, as we must not. To effectively fight Islamic terrorism, however, democratic nations in general and the United States in particular must understand and acknowledge why Islamic terrorists strike.

Last week, Mr. Bush again cast Al-Qaeda and its cohorts as "a totalitarian ideology that hates freedom" -- in other words, they hate us because of what we are. In fact, as many analysts have pointed out, the issue is U.S. policies in the Islamic world. Some of the rallying points for terrorist groups are the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the U.S. role in the Mideast, American support for repressive Arab governments, President George H.W. Bush's decision to base troops in Saudi Arabia and remove Iraq from Kuwait, and President George W. Bush's decision to invade Iraq.

One can agree or disagree with American policies. The key point is that Islamic terrorists attack less because of what the U.S. and other democratic nations are, and more because of what we do. So when the United States acts, it must be with good reason, and it must be effective. Thursday's bombings were tied to the summit, which brought political leaders who have supported Mr. Bush on Iraq, and is being held in the United Kingdom, America's strongest ally against Iraq in 1991 and today. Al-Qaeda cannot achieve what it wants militarily, so it resorts to terrorism, in hopes that fear will cause people to demand that their leaders change the policies. Our determination cannot be in doubt. Methods, though, should be open to constant review.

That's because military action alone cannot defeat terrorism. Mr. Bush has mocked the idea of treating terrorism as a "law-enforcement problem," yet he is retooling the FBI to act as a domestic police force. Success will come by dismantling and cutting off money for terrorist groups, killing or arresting those who would harm innocent civilians and finding political solutions to the crises that become recruiting tools for Al-Qaeda.

Keep sweeping at FAMU

That noise at Florida A&M University seems to be coming only from some all-too-comfortable Rattlers whose cash-feathered dens interim President Castell Bryant has disturbed. For her part, Dr. Bryant is quietly doing the housecleaning she was brought in to perform. University and state officials should make sure that Dr. Bryant has all the detergent she needs.

The only good news so far is the housecleaning itself. It has turned up the million-dollar donor of a chair at FAMU's law school who then endowed the position to himself at a $100,000-plus salary while doing no noticeable work. The payroll audit that uncovered that outrage also identified the 41 employees who were fired last week and 24 who were referred for criminal investigation. When Dr. Bryant required them to pick up their paychecks in person, it became clear that some were "ghost" employees getting paid for doing no work. Others had full-time jobs and homes in different cities yet were collecting a FAMU paycheck. An estimated 286 employees were found to be receiving two or more checks.

Trustees hardly can question the interim president's moves after learning that the university has spent $51 million more than budgeted yet paid staff $19 million less in salaries than it should have. The spending and hiring freezes Dr. Bryant enacted hurt but were necessary. So were the athletic department cuts that made trustees such as R.B. Holmes "very uncomfortable," since they eliminated men's and women's swimming and diving, men's tennis and men's golf. The other 14 sports were cut by 16 percent overall, and scholarships were reduced by $1.7 million.

All along, Dr. Bryant has kept the correct focus, dismissing, for example, any idea of merging FAMU with a community college, university or other institution. She has played no favorites, contrary to the approach that led to this financial meltdown. It's difficult to think that former Presidents Frederick Humphries and Fred Gainous didn't do a lot of going along to get along when, according to The Orlando Sentinel, they are still on the payroll at the six-figure salaries typical of the golden parachutes prevalent at state universities.

Such sweetheart deals also show the degree to which the state also failed FAMU. Any suggestions that Dr. Bryant should slow down only echo the excuse-making and foot-dragging that impeded past efforts to address the kinds of problems she continues to uncover.

Jailbird, not stool pigeon

Before she went to jail Wednesday, New York Times reporter Judith Miller told U.S. District Judge Thomas Hogan that "a promise of confidentiality, once made, must be respected or the journalist will lose all credibility and the public will, in the end, suffer." Ms. Miller kept her pledge, but special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald is making sure that the public will suffer anyway.

Viewed strictly as a matter of law, it is possible to understand why Ms. Miller is behind bars. Jail is the price she pays for doing her job. Viewed as a test of justice, however, her incarceration fails utterly. Unlike two other reporters who remain free, Ms. Miller did not publish the name of former undercover CIA officer Valerie Plame. Neither, apparently, does Ms. Miller have information Mr. Fitzgerald cannot get from other sources.

In fact, it is likely that Robert Novak already revealed to Mr. Fitzgerald his source(s) for the column two years ago that outed Ms. Plame. If Mr. Novak hasn't rolled over but doesn't face jail, favoritism toward the reporter who may have helped the White House expose Ms. Plame's identity -- a possible felony -- to get back at her husband's criticism of the Bush administration is the only explanation.

In any case, Mr. Fitzgerald also will get what he needs from Time magazine, which unfortunately agreed to turn over its reporter's notes, and from reporter Matthew Cooper, whose source on Wednesday gave him permission to talk to the grand jury.

Jailing Ms. Miller, who despite what some have charged is not claiming to be above the law, serves no public purpose. It doesn't help Mr. Fitzgerald uncover whoever revealed Ms. Plame's identity. It doesn't punish a reporter who revealed the name; it punishes a reporter who refused to be used for political payback. Jailing Ms. Miller squelches the free press. That's not a public purpose, but it might be the Bush administration's purpose.

Progress possible on child abuse if police keep helping

It took the foreseeable neglect and tragic suffocation of 9-year-old Michael Bernard four years ago to create new rules to more sensibly, thoroughly and effectively handle child-abuse investigations in Palm Beach County. It will take continued oversight by a grand jury to ensure that law-enforcement officers follow the rules.

Most of the county's police departments have accepted the protocol implemented Nov. 1, 2002, more than a year after Michael, whose father had been arrested 37 times and whose home had been visited by police 15 times in the last year of his life, was left alone for 17 hours and found trapped face-down on a plastic screen around his bed. The new rules require both a law-enforcement officer and a child-abuse investigator to investigate an abuse or neglect call; to classify the call as a priority -- which, the grand jury noted, "serves as a reminder that law enforcement has a purpose other than standing by while the protective investigator conducts an investigation into whether the child is safe or at risk of future harm"; to share information; and to develop a countywide database to track child abusers and victims.

But a grand jury that spent five months reviewing the system and released its report last week found that some police departments -- including those in some of the county's largest cities, where most child-abuse calls are reported -- had not trained their officers, did not have access to the database, were not sharing information with child-welfare investigators and were not responding to the calls within the 30-minute goal. As the grand jury noted, "One untrained law-enforcement officer in Palm Beach County may put a child at risk, and this is unacceptable." Although training is comprehensive and easily accessible -- offered in all parts of the county, at individual agencies and on computer disk -- "only a minimal amount of information regarding the protocol" is taught to aspiring officers at the Criminal Justice Academy at Palm Beach Community College.

As child-welfare and law-enforcement officials attempt to improve compliance in Palm Beach County, other agencies statewide are eyeing the change as a "best practices approach" to handling child-abuse and neglect allegations. As with so many other issues, strong civic involvement has enabled Palm Beach to show counties elsewhere in Florida what can be done. Credit the Community Alliance -- a group of public officials and private citizens who advocate on behalf of children -- for the common-sense method that, as the grand jury noted, "challenged traditional concepts of 'my role' vs. 'your role' and fostered an acceptance of joint responsibility for the children of Palm Beach County." Michael Bernard's case showed why law-enforcement officers must not shun that responsibility.

Martin sales-tax plan not in public's interest

Martin County commissioners should either drop plans to ask voters to approve a six-year, one-cent sales tax or increase the amount to be spent on conservation land.

The commission is expected to finish the wording for the "mail ballot" at its Tuesday meeting. The ballot will be sent to all registered voters Nov. 1 for this special vote-at-home election, expected to cost almost $200,000. The commission also is expected to spend money to convince voters that they should approve the increase.

Ideally, the commission would make the sales tax for conservation land only -- which the county's own survey showed that most voters favor -- and forget the other proposed uses. At the very least, commissioners should change the amounts allocated for each purpose -- now set at: 60 percent for fire-rescue equipment and road projects such as the Indian Street Bridge, the Western Palm City Corridor and Green River Parkway; 30 percent for conservation land; and 10 percent for parks, preservation of the Leach Mansion at Indian Riverside Park and the Golden Gate Building. If the tax money must be divided, a better split would be 70 percent for conservation land and 30 percent for everything else.

The commission majority -- Michael DiTerlizzi, Doug Smith and Lee Weberman-- must accept the blame for failing to make developers pay a fair share of the costs for roads, and for making other changes that have overburdened Martin's roads. "We're not collecting enough impact fees," Commissioner Sarah Heard said. The county commission also threw away old standards for service on area roads, and doesn't count Stuart traffic along with the county's in figuring road needs. Asking existing residents to pay for the commission majority's failures is unfair -- particularly when the roads and bridges the sales tax would pay for will ease the way for even more development.

In addition, many voters are puzzled that the commission can't budget for fire-rescue equipment, road projects, parks and Commissioner Smith's pet project to restore the Leach Mansion. After all, Martin's taxable property values increased 14.8 percent last year, which puts the county's total taxable value at $17.7 billion -- and that's after taking into account $326 million in hurricane damage. Until the commission majority does a better job of managing county taxpayers' money, it seems self-defeating to give the commission more of it.

Peanut Island: From eyesore to jewel

Peanut Island, for decades little more than a neglected dredging outpost at the mouth of the Intracoastal Waterway, today is one of the county's most enticing parks. The public can stroll along its walkways, pitch tents in its campgrounds and snorkel in its lagoon even as the island's original function as a repository for dredged ocean-bottom silt remains viable.

After $30 million worth of earth-moving, native tree restoration and construction of public-pleasing amenities, the new Peanut Island opens today with the deserved excitement that comes from a job well done. Palm Beach County, the Army Corps of Engineers and the Florida Inland Navigation District worked together to make the 79-acre island in the Intracoastal Waterway off Riviera Beach more than a gathering point for weekend boaters. Now, boaters have a reason to go ashore.

Among the most exciting additions are three granite jetties to protect a 1.3-acre snorkeling reef, where lifeguards will be on duty while revelers investigate the rock-strewn bottom of a newly dug lagoon. Two Seminole Indian chickee huts line the lagoon, with two more to come. The Australian pines, an exotic species, have been replaced by natives, including coconut and sabal palms. Floating docks let up to 15 boats tie up at a new tidal lagoon next to a boardwalk.

Among the most significant accomplishments was transporting a mountain of dredged sand from the island's interior 11 miles south to create Snook Island, a 100-acre chain of mangroves on the western shore of the Intracoastal Waterway north of the Lake Worth bridge. The giant pit left behind will meet the area's dredging needs for 50 years. The biggest disappointment is the failure to wrest from the Palm Beach Maritime Museum a lease for the restored Coast Guard station and bomb shelter built in the 1960s for President Kennedy. Negotiations between the museum and the Port of Palm Beach, which owns the property, are in the courts.

Last summer, county commissioners visiting the island learned that the project would be open early and on budget. Then came the hurricanes, $500,000 in damage and a three-month delay. "It set us back," said Jose Garcia of the Army Corps of Engineers, which oversaw the work and contributed $5 million. But nothing stopped the work to transform an eyesore into a public jewel. With a people-friendly Peanut Island, the South Florida tradition of weekend water excursions is assured a prominent place in the 21st century.

No pesticides on kids

Congress can approve pesticide testing on humans as soon as lawmakers volunteer their families as subjects for the research.

Last week, the Senate voted to block the Environmental Protection Agency from intentionally exposing people to pesticides to determine whether the government should allow their use. The rejection of human testing wasn't as surprising as the fact that 37 senators actually voted the other way. How many of them are ready to have their children get the first spray?

This is a good question for Sen. Mel Martinez, R-Fla., who was one of the 37 to support human testing. Sen. Martinez, according to his spokesman, believes the provision was "too broad" and that the EPA should have the same ability to test pesticides on people that the Food and Drug Administration has to test prescription drugs. He apparently ignores the rather compelling difference that pesticides are poisons meant to kill and prescription drugs are meant to heal.

A more plausible explanation is that Sen. Martinez was intent on pleasing the White House and the chemical industry. Sens. Bill Nelson, D-Fla., and Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., sponsored the legislation that prevents the government from compromising moral and ethical standards. The Clinton administration declared a moratorium on human testing seven years ago, but President Bush has resurrected its use. Sen. Nelson rightly was disgusted by the way the EPA found its subjects in Jacksonville. The agency targeted low-income and minority areas and offered cash prizes and T-shirts to children who were willing to participate.

The EPA is writing new rules that could validate testing even on infants and pregnant women. Turning newborns into human guinea pigs is behavior for totalitarian regimes and hardly consistent with an administration that purports to have cornered the market on the value of each human life.

FAU trustees fumbled by subsidizing football

To their credit, some Florida Atlantic University students didn't go for the fake last week when university trustees raised athletic fees. The students, at least, recognize that FAU barely can afford a football program, much less the upgrade to NCAA Division I that has the athletic department owing the university $2 million.

Despite university officials' end-run rhetoric, the increase means that a full-load student will pay about $400 per semester in health, parking, student government and athletic fees. There's little question of whether the play was to benefit football or students when the $2 increase per credit hour makes FAU's athletic fee the highest among the state's 11 public universities. The trustees and President Frank Brogan inherited the fantasy of a money-making and image-enhancing football program. But school officials knew in January that because of weak ticket sales and fund-raising, the athletic department owed more than $6.25 million in no-interest loans to the university's foundation. Rather than ratchet down the overhyped football program, with its increased travel, equipment and personnel costs, Mr. Brogan arranged $4.25 million in loan forgiveness, a bailout using money that should have gone to academic scholarships.

Officials at the Boca Raton-based university telegraphed their priorities again last week with the promise of free bus transportation to all home games from each FAU campus, and by adding free tickets for students' children to the students' already free tickets. Students from the Broward, Jupiter and Treasure Coast campuses, however, said they not only don't attend the games, but that more money should be dedicated to improving academics, facilities and classes at the satellite campuses. To show how much the trustees valued academics over athletics, the football relief fund was approved 8-1, with only Student Government President Dan Wilson dissenting.

The trustees' move undercuts FAU's criticism of the Legislature for not financing FAU's enrollment growth. It's difficult to make such an argument when $236,668 to revive FAU's marching band is a new item in FAU's 2005-06 budget and is there only because of football. FAU's band director the says that there will "be a chill" among fans when the music starts up before a game. The chilling thought, however, is that FAU's trustees seem to value football more than academics.

From piracy to profit

Everyone knew that the original Napster computer program existed to let people steal copyrighted material. The once-celebrated file "sharing" service with the devilish logo lost a lawsuit claiming copyright infringement and has gone legit, reinvented as a subscription service. Today's new-and-improved Napster and its pay-per-tune counterparts were the winners in last week's Supreme Court decision that said, in the words of Justice David Souter, you are liable if you design or distribute technology "with the objective of promoting its use to infringe copyright."

By focusing on intent rather than outlawing the technology, the court provided some guidance for those who want to be guided. Ruling unanimously against Grokster and StreamCast, "peer-to-peer" software clones of the original Napster, the court correctly left alone a defining 1984 Sony ruling. That court recognized that VCRs potentially could be used to tape copyrighted television programs for profit, but said the technology should not be outlawed because it was fairer to let VCR owners tape programs for more convenient viewing.

While there's no guarantee that the next-generation Napsters will think in terms of copyright-respecting innovation, the court has distinguished between legitimate file trading and computer-to-computer theft of an artist's work. Still, the ambiguity of the intent standard leaves a huge gray area that's likely to be a fun zone only for lawyers. Innocent, small-fry entrepreneurs who can't afford counsel will be at the mercy of big-pocket industry giants' attempts to hold them liable for not doing enough to prevent third parties' distribution of copyrighted material. Potential innovators must be wondering what reasonable steps to take to protect their business model from the entertainment cartel.

There's also no guarantee that, rather than file more digital-piracy lawsuits, the music and motion-picture industries finally will focus on how to make money through effective and infinitely lucrative online delivery of music and, increasingly, videos. The 12-year-old in an Upper West Side Manhattan housing project who not long ago was sued for allegedly sharing more than 1,000 copyrighted songs was a convenient target. The Napsters and iTunes of the world, however, and now the Supreme Court, have sent a loud hint that rather than pay attorneys, the industry should focus on innovation that makes... a profit.

No, Canada, for drugs

Washington's solution to America's drug-price headache has been to take a couple of Canadian prescriptions and call us in the morning. Canadian officials last week warned again that this country will have to find a better answer.

"Canada cannot be the drugstore for the United States of America," the health minister said. Canada -- with prescriptions 30 percent cheaper -- fears a shortage, either because too much medicine will flow south or because pharmaceutical companies will pinch off supplies to Canada. Some cities, states and members of Congress have tried to make reimportation easier. But proposed laws in Canada, such as a requirement that a Canadian doctor examine the patient in person, could make those efforts meaningless.

Medicaid faces a crisis. Private health premiums have jumped, and many people aren't covered or are undercovered. A new Medicare drug benefit starting next year is complicated and expensive. Medicine from Canada always was a stop-gap at best. Congress faces tough economics and tough drug-industry lobbying. It's the next day, and that headache is coming back.

HOV plan out of fast lane

The Florida Department of Transportation has a deserved reputation for being less sensitive to outside criticism than the IRS. This time, however, the agency seems willing to take a second look at a controversial decision.

Last month, the DOT announced that on July 1 hours for the High Occupancy Vehicle lanes on Interstate 95 would expand an hour earlier and later, in effect from 6 a.m. to 10 a.m. and from 3 p.m. to 7 p.m. The agency claimed that the change would help move traffic better as the work hours of more commuters changed. Naturally, the DOT didn't ask the public.

State Sen. Ron Klein, D-Delray Beach, asked for further review, and the DOT held off. Supposedly, there will be public hearings. Supposedly, the DOT will have to show that rush-hour lanes for vehicles with two or more passengers, motorcycles (huh?) and hybrid cars a) increase carpooling and b) make driving safer. Supposedly, DOT will explain why drivers who paid for all of the road can't use all of it.

HOV lanes could run throughout Palm Beach, Broward and Miami-Dade counties. Before then, let's see whether HOV lanes actually work.

Governor wants to spend without anyone watching

Gov. Bush is interested in accountability only when it does not to apply to him or to private companies being paid by state taxpayers.

Despite bipartisan, nearly unanimous support from legislators, Gov. Bush last week vetoed Senate Bill 1494, which would have made it harder to waste $2 billion a year on technology contracts with no proven savings but numerous proven failures to deliver "on time, on task or on budget."

Despite bipartisan, nearly unanimous support from legislators, Gov. Bush last week vetoed Senate Bill 1146, which would have required fairness and competition to replace the improprieties and cronyism found in many of the 138 "outsourced projects" the state financed between January 1999 -- when the governor took office -- and June 2004.

Despite bipartisan, nearly unanimous support from legislators, Gov. Bush last week vetoed Senate Bill 2146, which would have required the Legislature to create a three-year budget plan, rather than perpetuate the shortsighted year-to-year budget process that often is driven mostly by politics.

Last summer, the Florida Department of Children and Families secretary quit after an inspector general found that he and some of his executives had accepted favors and steered contracts to lobbyists and friends. In October, the State Technology Office canceled a $173 million contract with Bearing Point Inc. and Accenture, large donors to the Republican Party of Florida, amid a criminal investigation by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement and a critical review by the Legislature's auditor general.

Another private company, Convergys Corp., is being paid $350 million in a nine-year contract (that mysteriously grew from $262 million over seven years) to handle the state's personnel services. But the company has missed or delayed paychecks to workers, caused employees to be dropped from health insurance plans because Convergys did not pay increased premiums, erroneously deducted too much from paychecks for benefits and otherwise provided unacceptable service.

Sen. Nancy Argenziano, R-Crystal River, who chairs the Senate Government Oversight and Productivity Committee, wants the Legislature to override the veto. Senate President Tom Lee, R-Brandon, vowed to "be back at the drawing board next year." If there's a special session on slot machines, the Legislature won't have to wait.

Insure advocacy for public

Florida Power & Light says the company needs about $430 million more next year from customers to keep up with the cost of doing business. FPL wants $122 million on top of that in 2007. The Office of Public Counsel, however, says the utility is overcharging customers by nearly $680 million.

The two sides will argue out that slight disagreement during hearings this year before the Florida Public Service Commission. Whatever happens, consumers at least will know that someone was armed with information and advocating for them. Compare that situation with what happens when an insurance company asks for a rate increase, such as Allstate seeking an average 29 percent hike in premiums.

There is an Office of Insurance Regulation, which will review the request. After Allstate announced its demand, the OIR did fuss. And Allstate did say later that the increase would be phased in. But there is no insurance counterpart to the Office of Public Counsel, which the Legislature created specifically to be the consumers' representative before the utility-regulating Public Service Commission.

The OPC has a staff of just 16 people, four of them lawyers. But over the past three decades, since the Legislature created it, the office has been a dog chewing on the pant leg of electric and phone companies. Last year, Public Counsel Harold McLean, one of the lawyers, went before the PSC to argue against the largest local phone rate increase in state history.

The OPC's mission is to make a utility prove that it needs an increase and, if the case isn't there, to persuade the Public Service Commission to reduce or deny it. The OPC can bring its own expert witnesses, as it did to challenge FPL's latest latest request. "That office," wrote the Florida Supreme Court, "was created with the realization that the citizens of the state cannot adequately represent themselves in utility matters, and that the rate-setting function of the Commission is best performed when those who will pay utility rates are represented in an adversary proceeding by counsel at least as skilled as counsel for the utility company."

Similarly, citizens can't adequately represent themselves against insurers. This year, the Legislature could have created an Office of Public Counsel for insurance. Any legislator wanting to balance things more toward the consumer and thus score points with voters in an election year will sponsor the legislation in 2006.

Team Whitewash reports

The lack of urgency in the U.S. Air Force Academy's report on its "religious climate" explains how obvious acts of religious bias and intolerance have gone unchecked.

Cadets were encouraged to pray for and proselytize those who did not worship. A senior Air Force leader who led cadets in a "Jesus Rocks!" cheer at a voluntary Christian retreat continued to do so later among cadets of mixed faiths. Bible verses were appended to e-mail messages that Air Force administrators sent to cadets. The football coach hung a "Team Jesus" banner in the locker room. Kosher meals were not always available for Jewish cadets during religious observances. An atheist described being placed in "Heathen Flight," the nickname for the group of cadets who were escorted back to their rooms because they chose not to attend an evening service.

The 100-page, June 22 report documents dozens of complaints, including concerns by a visiting Yale Divinity School professor of "stridently Evangelical themes," but denies any "overt religious discrimination." The report downplays the acts as though the "roughly 13 people" who reported them over four years were just a handful of overly sensitive -- instead of justly offended -- cadets, recent graduates, faculty and staff. The report attempts to distinguish between "a perception of intolerance" and actual intolerance. Those who complained perceived intolerance because they received intolerance.

The offensive expressions, as the report described, were merely from the "well-intentioned" who suffer simply from a "lack of awareness that their position as instructors and government officials made these expressions inappropriate in a particular setting." The religious bias, like the much-documented gender bias, will continue as long as Air Force officials excuse it.

Training programs started late last year. A few incidents of religious slurs and other disparaging acts are being investigated. Investigators said surveys and interviews with cadets "indicate the environment has improved over the last two years." A team that visited the Colorado Springs, Colo., campus in December "validated that there was evidence of some inter-religious insensitivity/intolerance among cadets," the report said, "... but that the intolerance did not appear to rise to the level of 'rampant discrimination' or a 'crisis.' " The report's attempts to minimize the disrespect confirm otherwise.

Gesture by one mother speaks to all war dead

According to the Census Bureau, Americans will eat about 150 million hot dogs on this Fourth of July. We will spend nearly $165 million on fireworks. Many of us will fly American flags, on which we spend $5.2 million each year.

The most important number, however, is 1,743, which is how many American soldiers have been killed in Iraq. Despite all the coverage of the war, despite all the talk in Washington and elsewhere, there is a sense among some of the families that the rest of the country doesn't understand their pain and loss. One reason HBO could broadcast Last Letters Home eight months ago on Veterans Day was that family members were willing to participate, hard as it was, in hopes of raising awareness.

One Palm Beach County mother is about to do her part. Hope Veverka lost her son, Army Pfc. Brandon R. Sapp, last August in Najaf. He was riding in a Bradley Fighting Vehicle when it hit an IED -- improvised explosive device. Pfc. Sapp was 21, a graduate of Santaluces High School, a young man who wanted to go into law enforcement after the Army.

Ms. Veverka appears on the front page of today's Post. This morning in Lake Lytal Park, she will unveil a monument to the county's Iraq war dead. Though it directly honors one group of fallen soldiers, it indirectly honors all those from across the country who have been killed since March 2003. A map inside today's first section shows the hometowns of all the troops who have lost their lives in Iraq and in the increasingly overlooked but ongoing and difficult struggle for control of Afghanistan.

Why do we choose today for such coverage? Ms. Veverka's tribute is one reason. Another is to remind readers that there are names, places, families and stories behind every casualty statistic from both countries. Still another, of course, is what happened on this day 229 years ago. The independence that those 56 men proclaimed in Philadelphia was not given; it had to be earned. Those who died then to earn it began a chain of sacrifice that continues with the men and women whose names we publish today.

Not since Vietnam have so many American soldiers been in combat for so long. A story last week reported that the rate of divorce among military families has doubled in the last two years, as longer deployments strain relationships. Not since Vietnam has the country been so divided on a military action.

Unlike during Vietnam, though, there is near-universal good feeling toward the troops. Perhaps more Americans understand that soldiers don't start wars; they fight them. In phone calls, letters and e-mails, they speak fondly of home and their wish to get back. Americans must hope that return comes soon for all of the nearly 160,000 troops in Iraq and Afghanistan. As Hope Veverka knows, it won't have come soon enough for some.

Care-less homecoming for vets

Not only has the Bush administration failed to ensure adequate care for soldiers returning from Iraq and Afghanistan, Congress and veterans can't even get straight answers about what's gone wrong.

Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., last week tried questioning Veterans Affairs Secretary Jim Nicholson about the hole in his budget. She wanted to know why his agency needs an emergency appropriation of $1.5 billion to cover a medical care deficit this year, and why it will need another $1 billion to pay for coverage in the 2006 budget year. "Do you have a problem?" Sen. Murray asked. "We certainly don't have a crisis," Mr. Nicholson answered. Semantic chicanery is the last thing vets with health problems need to hear.

For months, Sen. Murray and her Democratic colleagues had warned the White House that it hadn't set aside enough money to cover the costs of treating the wars' wounded. For months, the White House and Republicans insisted that there was plenty. The truth came out last month when Mr. Nicholson, former chairman of the Republican National Committee, had to transfer money from other accounts -- maintenance, building and equipment -- just to keep health services running. He admitted that the agency had vastly underestimated the number of personnel returning from combat who would seek treatment.

Democrats were angry because the administration had ignored them, Republicans were angry because the administration had double-crossed them, and veterans were angry because once again the people who had sacrificed came home and found themselves left to sacrifice more. On Wednesday, the Senate voted 96-0 to give the VA the money it needs. The next order of business for Congress is making sure that veterans don't get shorted again. Especially at the White House and the VA, "Support our troops" should be more than words on a bumper sticker.

Slow move online OK for most court records

A Florida Supreme Court-appointed panel has reaffirmed, correctly, that public records should be available to the public online. Despite the oft-competing interests of the judges, court clerks, attorneys and professors on the panel, the Committee on Privacy and Court Records also agreed that releasing "large volumes of court records electronically cannot be responsibly achieved at this time."

That the committee reached a responsible conclusion can be seen in the alarming spate of identity theft, fueled in part by breaches of confidential-information security among data collectors, in the year the panel worked. Its recommendations underscore the significance of what the high court ultimately decides for how best to manage Internet access in a state whose constitution and Government-in-the-Sunshine Laws guarantee the right to inspect or copy any public record, including court records.

The committee understandably couldn't resolve all the problems with which it wrestled. The suggestion to better manage the 1,029 statutory exemptions to the state's open-records laws is key. Some of those exemptions, such as keeping Social Security numbers and similar personal data out of public records, are needed. Others are simply legislators' paeans to contributors and lobbying groups. Worse is having to wade through them all while trying to provide easy access to documents that court clerks are supposed to file, maintain and make available, but not edit. The exemptions are a real problem because they create a need to look at the records before the public can.

"The good news is the exemptions; the bad, we've got a thousand of them," said Jonathan Kaney, an open-government lawyer who served on the panel. "It's nearly impossible to integrate instant Internet access with a thousand exemptions." The panel's suggestions include a thorough review, and the drafting of cogent rules appropriate for court records, medical records, etc., before the state forces the Internet into the mix.

If that takes another year, fine. The recommendations should not go the way of another reform effort, in the late 1980s, to develop statewide standards and a way to measure them -- the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test, or FCAT -- which was co-opted by newly elected Gov. Bush to promote school vouchers. The court must make more public access, not less, its

Teamwork on Scripps best way to lure spinoffs

As Wednesday's conference in West Palm Beach showed, delivering on the promise of biotech in Palm Beach County depends on collaboration.

Collaboration has to start with the people closest to assuring success of the county and state's $600 million-plus investment in bringing The Scripps Research Institute to Mecca Farms. The efforts of county commissioners, county consultants and staff, and the Business Development Board, which hosted the conference, must be coordinated. Teamwork needs to extend beyond county lines south to Miami and north to Port St. Lucie. And the collaborative mind-set must reach to Tallahassee. The state gave $310 million for Scripps that came from the federal government, but the Legislature may have to provide additional subsidies to reach Gov. Bush's goal of a transformed Florida economy.

The conference pointed to the conflict between the industry model, which pits communities against one another in a subsidy-rich environment, and Palm Beach County's approach, which is to pay whatever it costs to land Scripps and expect spin-offs to emerge. Despite the industry's pleas, it's not clear yet that Palm Beach County -- or even the state -- is responsible for paying to ease the critical shortage of laboratory space. One biotech entrepreneur, Rhys Williams, said his firm recently received a $100,000 grant but can't find lab space to take advantage of it. Before the county throws more money at biotech, businesses thirsting for a piece of Scripps need to step forward.

The county's approach will fail, however, if the various groups with a role to play allow bickering and self-interest to block collaboration. Marketing Mecca Farms requires clearly defined roles. Key groups have agreed on an approach that filters prospective tenants through the county and its exclusive broker, CB Richard Ellis. The Business Development Board will continue to show sites anywhere in the county to prospective tenants, steering those who pick Mecca to the county. Enterprise Florida, the state's marketing arm, has to work within that system.

The role of profit -- CB Richard Ellis gets a 6 percent commission on land sales -- past ties -- the business board gave birth to a not-for-profit that gains a $51 million windfall if the neighboring Vavrus Ranch develops -- and the county's desire for a return on its investment cannot overwhelm the spirit of collaboration evident Wednesday. As the county's Scripps project manager, Shannon LaRocque, said: "It's not just about us. If we believe it is about us, it will fail."

Another necessary biotech component -- universities -- remains ill-defined nearly two years after the Scripps announcement. Gov. Bush cast more doubt on that effort at a national convention in Philadelphia when he declared opposition to a consortium, echoing the University of Florida's position. That's not to say that universities should have no presence, just that "it shouldn't be done by government," the governor said. In fact, an organized university presence requires government involvement.

The governor did more damage when he announced his stubborn objection to stem-cell research, an ideological bias that indicates his willingness to meddle in the work of scientists. The county can't be blamed if the governor's comments steer researchers to other states, such as California, which is investing $3 billion in stem-cell research. Getting the most out of Scripps means creating incentives for biotech, not disincentives.

Bills don't slip oil's grip

The Senate Energy Bill that passed last week 85-12 is better than the House bill, but it doesn't rate rave reviews.

With oil prices topping $60 a barrel, the bill does little to address the underlying causes of high energy prices and the nation's dependence on foreign oil. It authorizes an inventory of oil and gas resources in coastal waters that could lead to drilling off Florida's shores, a potential disaster for tourism. And it does nothing to address global warming, though senators said in a nonbinding "sense of the Senate" resolution they like the idea of mandatory controls of the industry-generated gases that contribute to the problem. Nice words, and many hope this first official recognition of global warming by some Republicans will translate into positive legislation in the future.

There are a few bright spots in the Senate's $16 billion bill, which still would have to survive a conference with House representatives and endure meddling from the White House. It offers tax incentives for conservation, alternative fuels and renewable energy sources, requires use of 8 billion gallons of ethanol annually in gasoline by 2012, and guarantees loans for developing clean coal, new reactors, and technology to reduce harmful emissions from industrial smokestacks. It would offer tax breaks to consumers who buy energy-efficient appliances or hybrid automobiles or build homes that use less energy. It calls for mandatory reliability standards for electricity grids rather than the voluntary standards now in place and offers tax incentives for companies to improve grids.

The $8 billion House bill gives almost all tax breaks to electric utilities and traditional fossil-fuel producers, requires use of less ethanol and doesn't offer loan guarantees. It offers $2 billion for research into ultra-deep water drilling and approves oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, which the Senate approved earlier in a separate bill.

Florida's Sen. Bill Nelson voted against the energy bill because it doesn't require automakers to produce cars and SUVs with better gas mileage, the surest way to cut consumption. And it doesn't address global warming. He also opposed the oil inventory. "Given the few resources out there (in the Gulf of Mexico) and the incredible risk to the state," Nelson spokesman Dan McLaughlin said, "it just isn't worth it." Given the cost and the failure to address crucial energy issues, neither is the energy bill.

Buy in to gun buyback

Gun buyback programs do little to deter the worst criminals from spreading violence because people willing to surrender weapons to police aren't the people who commit the worst crimes.

Yet buyback programs do reduce the number of guns, and each one removed eliminates the chance that someone will use it. The programs also have symbolic value and show communities that government and law enforcement care about reducing violent crime. Buybacks themselves won't solve the larger problem, but they can be one piece of the larger solution.

West Palm Beach hopes that's the case. In response to a spate of recent shooting deaths in the northwest neighborhoods, the city will hold a one-day buyback, called Operation Cease Fire, on Saturday, July 9, from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. at two sites: The Salvation Army, 600 N. Rosemary Ave., and the Urban League of Palm Beach County, 1700 N. Australian Ave.

The city will trade Target gift certificates -- $200 for assault weapons, $100 for handguns, $75 for rifles -- for each weapon turned in and promises anonymity.

Since last June, 15 people, all of them black and all of them under 30, have been shot and killed in the city. Police have complained about a lack of cooperation from the community in solving the crimes. On Saturday, the community and police have a chance to work together to make the streets a little safer.