Create a national fund for national emergencies

There are natural disasters, and there are national disasters. Hurricane Katrina is a natural national disaster, and Congress should acknowledge the distinction.

After Hurricane Andrew struck Miami-Dade County in 1992, Florida created the Hurricane Catastrophe Fund. Insurance companies, which pay into the fund, can tap it when their claims from a storm exceed a certain amount. The idea is to guard against insurers going bankrupt, as 10 did after Andrew, and thus keep the private market as competitive as possible while the effects of a major hurricane sort themselves out. The state-run fund has not only assets but the power to issue bonds. This year, the Legislature made it easier to use the fund when multiple storms strike the state in one season.

For more than a decade, this newspaper has urged Congress to do the same thing on the federal level and include all manner of perils. It is unrealistic, for example, to think that the California insurance system alone could cover losses if a major earthquake struck downtown Los Angeles or San Francisco. It is unrealistic to think that the Louisiana insurance system and the federal flood program can cover losses in New Orleans if water in the city keeps rising. It is unrealistic to think that the Washington state insurance system could cover losses if a tsunami rolled into Seattle.

Writing in The Post six years ago, U.S. Rep. Mark Foley, R-Jupiter, noted that the United States is one of just a few industrialized countries that do not allow insurers "to plan ahead for catastrophic disasters -- whether they are hurricanes in the East or mega-earthquakes on the West Coast." Florida's senior senator, Democrat Bill Nelson, would be a perfect advocate for such legislation since he once served as Florida's insurance commissioner.

Not surprisingly, however, members of Congress from landlocked states don't like the idea of their companies -- meaning their constituents and policyholders -- paying into a fund that might help only a few states. One response is that after Sept. 11, 2001, terrorism has joined the list of perils. Would the Nebraska insurance system realistically be able to handle all losses from a radioactive attack on Omaha?

Another response is that geography and politics create all manner of imbalances in the federal government. Floridians might not be happy that the Defense Department will keep wasting money by housing at Ellsworth Air Force in South Dakota B-1 bombers that could be based in Texas. But Ellsworth is that state's second-largest employer, and South Dakota's congressional delegation fought successfully to keep it open. How much did it cost Florida when Sen. Robert Byrd made sure that the FBI and other agencies put information-gathering facilities in West Virginia to modernize that state's economy?

Katrina has left Mississippi and Louisiana devastated, and not just along the coast. Alabama and Florida took hits. There may be extensive damage to the north before the storm has churned itself out. It could be the country's costliest disaster, and preparing for the next one is a national priority.

Don't tap oil reserve yet

Even if gas prices hit $3 per gallon after Katrina, President Bush should not tap the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. The immediate problem will not be a shortage of oil; it will be a shortage of ways to get oil to Gulf coast refineries and turn that oil into gasoline.

On Tuesday, President Bush reportedly was thinking about releasing some of the oil from the reserve. At this point, it's a bad idea, as it was a bad idea in March 2004, when oil was at $35 a barrel -- about half what the price is now -- and Americans were complaining. It was a bad idea in 2002, when a strike stopped oil production in Venezuela. And it was a bad idea in September 2000, when President Clinton did release oil from the reserve to lower winter heating bills as Al Gore was running for president.

More than 600 million barrels are stored in salt domes along the Gulf of Mexico. The reserve is part of the energy network centered in Louisiana and affected by Katrina. It provides about one-fourth of national supply. The reserve can hold up to 727 million barrels. America's diet is about 20 million per day.

The reserve exists for use during a supply emergency, such as the 1973 Arab oil embargo that led Congress to create the reserve. Long-term, more helpful would be a stable Iraq, where sabotage does not disrupt oil exports, and faster reconstruction of the country's petroleum system. Also, Mr. Bush could get serious about increasing fuel efficiency of the American car and truck fleet.

As damage assessments come in, the case for taking oil from the reserve may be more persuasive. It should happen only if there is a post-Katrina supply emergency.

Airport relief, halfway

During their meeting with Stuart city commissioners on Saturday, Martin County commissioners almost got it right.

They voted to accept a $2.3 million Federal Aviation Administration grant to buy homes harmed by airport noise and jet fumes in Stuart's 18th Street neighborhood. Those who have suffered since the county allowed a 460-foot runway extension without considering its impact on those homes deserve relief.

But then commissioners voted 3-2 not to talk about removing the runway extension or moving the "crash zone" to Martin County Airport property. Commissioners Lee Weberman, Michael DiTerlizzi and Doug Smith, who also vote consistently for fewer controls on growth, opposed the discussion.

The meeting revealed several airport concerns. Stuart commissioners want the properties the county buys to be converted to green space and preserved, and several Stuart residents worried that the lots might invite blight to the neighborhood after homes are demolished. Witham Airport Action Majority, an activist group that opposes airport growth, complains that Stuart wasn't consulted when the county applied for the federal money to buy the houses.

WAAM spokesmen also said that because the county can't change the residential zoning on property it buys in Stuart, the county can't meet terms of the grant. The group has asked the FAA to rescind its offer. The county needs to be certain that accepting the grant will not prohibit it from removing homes and leaving lots vacant as parks or that the FAA can't require airport-related buildings on lots.

Several speakers also asked about the liability both the city and county could face from an accident if the 18th Street neighborhood remains in the "crash zone," also known as the runway protection zone. That's a reasonable concern the county still has not addressed. The FAA warned the county not to include either the residential neighborhood or the YMCA soccer fields in an area so close to the end of the runway extension. A recent WAAM report alleges that a map that did not show the homes fooled both the FAA and county commissioners, who approved the extension in 1998. That was not the fault of this commission, but it does raise questions about the county's -- and thus, taxpayers' -- liability if a plane goes down in the crash zone.

Also, airport Director Michael Moon, who was on the county staff when the commission voted to extend the runway, won't answer questions about it. Now, Martin's commission majority won't even discuss the matter. Residents -- and Stuart commissioners concerned about the city's liability --should demand that they do so.

Riviera's key decisions

Riviera Beach Councilman Edward Rodgers likens his city to a pretty girl with problems that all the fellas think they can deal with if they can just get a date. Last week, four major developer teams told the city that they'd really like a long-term, mutually beneficial relationship, and have plenty of money to help finance it. "They feel they can polish us up and make us into something nice," Councilman Rodgers said, "and I believe them."

On Sept. 14, he and his four council colleagues, serving as the Community Redevelopment Agency board, will select one of the suitors and become chaperones for the multibillion-dollar waterfront redevelopment that is supposed to define Riviera Beach for the rest of the century. The CRA members will choose among Riviera Beach Waterfront Developers, Republic Properties, Cypress Realty and Viking Inlet Harbor Properties, which spent up to $1 million each preparing their bids.

All of the bidders bring attributes and expertise. But the bigger issue for Riviera Beach has been its own team. The CRA board members will have to be properly informed before they make the "master developer" selection. Similarly, the city must be prepared for subsequent contract negotiations. Beyond all the pretty pictures, all the promises of affordable housing for displaced residents, of new jobs and training opportunities with preferences for residents and existing business, of a balanced, mixed-use approach extending benefits to the broader community, Councilman Rodgers is correct that "nobody on the dais is any competition for any of those developers."

Just as any marriage can bring questionable new relations, the board already must examine questionable new relationships. CRA engineering consultant Kimley-Horn thought up the idea of moving U.S. 1 west to produce more valuable property, but the firm is listed as a "potential consultant" for the Waterfront Developers team. While the CRA and developer will be partners, that's like the same divorce lawyer trying to represent a husband and wife. Among other potential conflicts, the Viking team said it will pick up the costs of the CRA's project managers, PSA Constructors, as part of their proposal.

It must be noted again that as Riviera Beach prepares for this major step that has been envisioned since 1999, residents are correctly calling for a state audit of the city's finances to help institute better accountability. The chairwoman of the CRA board has insisted that even though the agency has spent $7 million with nothing to show for it, the CRA is solvent. With that in mind, the CRA board members must make sure that they and the city are armed with as much hired expertise as the developers for the crucial decisions that lie ahead.

No good choice for U.S. in Iraq constitution vote

Should Americans hope that Iraqis approve their proposed constitution or reject it? As with so much else concerning Iraq, it's hard realistically to expect a good outcome. If Iraqis ratify the constitution, it will pave the way for an Islamic state allied with Iran. A rejection would delay any hope of establishing sufficient political stability for U.S. troops to begin leaving.

Last week, President Bush was so worried about the draft document that he called Abdul Aziz Hakim, a Shiite leader, to lobby on behalf of changes sought by the Sunni minority. Over the president's objections, Shiites and Kurds gave up on reaching consensus with Sunni delegates and forced the constitution onto an Oct. 15 national ballot. It was strange enough to find the U.S. president lobbying on behalf of Saddam Hussein's favored Sunnis, whose fringes are believed to be the force behind the insurgency. It was even stranger when, after being rebuffed by the Shiites and Kurds, President Bush on Sunday praised the constitution he had been lobbying against.

So now, presumably, the Bush administration will work hard for passage, even though the constitution would set up a supreme court that could be dominated by clerics empowered to interpret the constitution according to their version of Islamic law. Did Mr. Bush really go to war to enable the birth of a nation in which Islamic clerics have more influence than they did under Saddam Hussein? Neither does the constitution guarantee equal rights to women, who could find themselves subject to religious law in matters of marriage and divorce. The administration no longer can pose as a champion of women's rights in Islamic societies.

The constitution, if approved, decentralizes government in a way that could hasten Iraq's breakup into a Kurdish state in the north and a Shiite state friendly to "axis of evil" Iran in the south. Sunnis hold a majority in four of Iraq's 18 provinces. If they can muster a two-thirds majority against the constitution in three provinces -- as Sunni leaders vow to do -- the document will be rejected, and the process will start all over again. While that might present an opportunity to produce a better constitution and to bring Sunnis more legitimately into the drafting phase, it is unlikely that radical elements would step back from the insurgency.

If Iraqis approve the constitution, they will elect a new government in December. If not, there is no telling when a permanent government can take office. Is it better to have a flawed constitution that provides an excuse for the U.S. to get out of Iraq, or to face a longer, deadlier occupation in the hope of a better Iraqi government far in the future? Those options are typical of the bad choices President Bush has created with his decision to invade.

The immigration answer

When it comes to immigration reform, people on all sides of the issue can come to the debate with legitimate arguments.

Vigilante groups along the Southwest border are right that the flow of illegals into the United States is out of control, and the government has failed to stanch it. The governors of New Mexico and Arizona were right to declare states of emergency. New Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff is right when he pledges to make border control a priority. Intelligence agencies have reason to worry about terrorists sneaking into the country from Mexico.

U.S. business leaders are right when they argue that the economy is dependent on a reliable flow of foreign labor that will fill the menial jobs Americans don't want. Illegal immigrants aren't exaggerating when they say there is virtually a limitless supply of employers who want them to come and work. Officials in cities and towns such as Jupiter and Lake Worth are correct when they say that the federal government's inaction has forced them to deal with problems that Washington should have prevented.

President Bush and many members of Congress also are right when they argue that the nation needs to develop a guest-worker plan that would allow immigrants to cross legally, enter a government-run system and fill vacant jobs. Mr. Bush -- and Sens. John McCain, R-Ariz., and Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., who are backing the idea in Congress -- are correct when they say that an effective guest-worker plan can enhance national security, cracking down on drug smugglers and helping Mr. Chertoff's agency monitor who's here. Supporters are right when they argue that border control and a guest-worker plan will complement each other.

As usual, politics is an obstacle to reform. President Bush hopes to put forth the many missing details to his guest-worker plan soon, but he has no chance of satisfying both business leaders and conservative Republicans who are opposed to residency incentives for immigrants, let alone anything resembling amnesty. The McCain-Kennedy bill has the right balance of incentives and requirements. It would offer guest workers three-year visas and the chance for green cards after six years, but also require them to register, go through background checks, and pay back taxes and a $2,000 fine. Creating a legal path and a registry would place immigrant workers into two groups: those who play by the rules and those who don't. Mr. Chertoff can target his resources on the latter, instead of trying to sort out the undefined, underground mess that currently exists.

The president and the two senators are close enough that compromise is possible. That would be right for the country.

Glades water plant $5 million closer

The 30,000 people living around polluted Lake Okeechobee could not afford to build a water treatment plant when bidders in April said it would cost at least $25 million. They still cannot afford to build the Lake Region Water Treatment Plant now that new bids came in last week $5 million cheaper.

But the savings demonstrate that the county is being prudent in its efforts to provide safe drinking water to Belle Glade, Pahokee, South Bay and surrounding areas. That should matter to taxpayers -- and, especially, to the South Florida Water Management District.

Palm Beach County water utility officials were forced to tweak the design and other requirements for the plant after state lawmakers agreed to spend just $200,000 -- instead of the requested $2.5 million. Belle Glade also recently refinanced a $9.6 million water and sewer bond, to save $360,000 a year in interest payments. The costs of the water plant are so great -- at least $44 million, including land, wells, pipelines and construction -- that the savings look better than they feel. Would 20 percent off a Lamborgini matter much if you couldn't afford a Yugo?

If the average taxpayer does not recognize the savings, the water district should. It has pledged $5.1 million toward the plant. It also is considering how to spend $60 million -- half of that from the state -- on "alternative water supply programs." The Belle Glade water plant, district spokesman Randy Smith said, is "a primary candidate for funding of this type," but it won't be the only project among the district's 16 counties vying for money when applications close Friday.

The county has been serious about cutting costs. The water district can prove that it is equally committed to building the plant.

Martin miracle worker?

Ideally, the new Martin County administrator will be a diplomat who can do the impossible: take direction from a board of commissioners that often is bitterly divided.

In fact, Commissioner Sarah Heard asked each of the four candidates how they would handle situations in which residents want one thing and the board majority wants something different. Commissioner Heard and Commissioner Susan Valliere often are the two minority votes, particularly on issues that call for tighter controls on growth.

To their credit, the candidates for county administrator were able to identify growth as the major issue in Martin. The candidates are: Charles Saddler, former administrator in Jefferson County, Wash., and a finalist for Wellington city manager in 1996; Duncan Ballantyne, city manager in Concord, N.H., since 1996; Pamela Brangaccio, former assistant city manager in West Palm Beach, city manager in Safety Harbor and county manager in Bay County; and Edwin Smith, city manager in Chiefland in Suwannee County. All appear experienced and competent. On Saturday, as Martin and Stuart commissioners met together, the candidates had a taste of contentious airport issues, spiced with some shouting from residents unhappy with county decisions.

The four want to fill the vacancy left by Russ Blackburn, who served eight years until he was ousted in an out-of-the-sunshine deal among commissioners. He left with a package of $235,200, nearly twice his normal salary. Mr. Blackburn had tried to fire airport Director Michael Moon, only to be overruled by a commission majority that not only kept Mr. Moon but gave him an 18 percent raise. The commissioners, who decide today, should choose someone whose good advice they are willing to take.

Give returning Iraq vets better health-care deal

Soaring demand for health care at veterans' clinics and hospitals forced Congress to come up with $1.5 billion last month to cover a deficit that the Bush administration had insisted would not exist.

Not only does it exist, it is spreading across the country. U.S. Rep. Alcee Hastings, D-Miramar, held a town hall meeting last week in West Palm Beach and heard from dozens of vets who experienced problems at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Riviera Beach. The complaints echo those from other VA hospitals and come down to a disparity in numbers: The number of veterans seeking care is exceeding the government's ability to deliver it. Vets complained about long waits to see doctors, canceled appointments and delays in receiving treatment.

Neither Rep. Hastings nor most veterans blame the VA center or its employees on the front lines, however. The blame belongs with the Bush administration, which apparently wanted Americans to believe that the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan would not send thousands of wounded and ailing soldiers into the VA system. Rep. Hastings asks the right question: Why is the administration cutting taxes while it is waging war and shortchanging the people who served the nation? VA Secretary Jim Nicholson has tried to convince Congress he can meet the demand for health care by moving money from one account to another, but the agency's shell games only create hardship for vets and postpone the day of reckoning.

The myth of painless war is especially insidious when it comes to post-traumatic stress disorder, which too often goes undiagnosed and untreated. A recent Army study of veterans returning from Iraq suggests that as many as 240,000 could suffer from some degree of PTSD. The nature of guerrilla warfare -- fighting an unknown, ubiquitous enemy, with attacks possible any time and anyplace -- creates stress beyond even traditional battlefield combat. Veterans return home with psychological scars from ambushes that inflicted horrific injuries on fellow soldiers. The VA center in Riviera Beach has made PTSD treatment a priority and has assembled a special team to care for more than 1,200 vets who suffer the disorder. But resources stretch only so far.

Rep. Hastings has seen enough now to believe that "things are going to get worse before they get better." He says he's working with local VA administrators to improve care and plans another town hall meeting to assess progress. But until Congress and the White House decide to acknowledge the true cost of war and pay it, veterans who seek care will face more long lines and frustration.

Soaring demand for health care at veterans' clinics and hospitals forced Congress to come up with $1.5 billion last month to cover a deficit that the Bush administration had insisted would not exist.

Not only does it exist, it is spreading across the country. U.S. Rep. Alcee Hastings, D-Miramar, held a town hall meeting last week in West Palm Beach and heard from dozens of vets who experienced problems at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Riviera Beach. The complaints echo those from other VA hospitals and come down to a disparity in numbers: The number of veterans seeking care is exceeding the government's ability to deliver it. Vets complained about long waits to see doctors, canceled appointments and delays in receiving treatment.

Neither Rep. Hastings nor most veterans blame the VA center or its employees on the front lines, however. The blame belongs with the Bush administration, which apparently wanted Americans to believe that the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan would not send thousands of wounded and ailing soldiers into the VA system. Rep. Hastings asks the right question: Why is the administration cutting taxes while it is waging war and shortchanging the people who served the nation? VA Secretary Jim Nicholson has tried to convince Congress he can meet the demand for health care by moving money from one account to another, but the agency's shell games only create hardship for vets and postpone the day of reckoning.

The myth of painless war is especially insidious when it comes to Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, which too often goes undiagnosed and untreated. A recent U.S. Army study of veterans returning from Iraq suggests that as many as 240,000 could suffer from some degree of PTSD. The nature of guerrilla warfare -- fighting an unknown, ubiquitous enemy, with attacks possible any time and anyplace -- creates stress beyond even traditional battlefield combat. Veterans return home with psychological scars from ambushes that inflicted horrific injuries on fellow soldiers. The VA center in Riviera Beach has made PTSD treatment a priority and has assembled a special team to care for more than 1,200 vets who suffer the disorder. But resources stretch only so far.

Rep. Hastings has seen enough now to believe that "things are going to get worse before they get better." He says he's working with local VA administrators to improve care and plans another town hall meeting to assess progress. But until Congress and the White House decide to acknowledge the true cost of war and pay it, veterans who seek care will face more long lines and frustration.

What universities need

By hiring Debra Austin as Florida A&M University's new provost, FAMU President Castell Bryant has created an opening for a university system chancellor. That was Ms. Austin's previous job, and there is no bigger decision on the horizon for the Board of Governors.

Recognizing that, board Chairwoman Carolyn Roberts has appointed a committee to search for the system's next chief executive. Peter S. Rummell of Jacksonville, CEO of the St. Joe Co., joins Ms. Roberts on the search committee and serves as chairman; on Thursday, he convened an initial conference call to "start our process of mining candidates." The panel includes the board's vice chairman, John Dasburg of Miami, Fort Lauderdale physician Zachariah Zachariah, lawyers Ava Parker of Jacksonville and Sheila McDevitt of Tampa and Florida International University professor Martha Pelaez. Their capabilities are secondary to such questions as what the board will look for and, more important, what Florida needs.

Here's another chance for the board to rectify some of the damage done when Gov. Bush abolished the independent system-wide governance that the former Board of Regents long fought the Legislature to provide. Voters did their part in 2002 by empowering a new Board of Governors with constitutional authority to operate the system. But while that board has been finding its way, all the high-minded talk of a higher-tier higher-education system hasn't stemmed influential lawmakers' parochial interests. So there can be no better declaration by the board than a chancellor choice who can guide fulfillment of the system's best vision.

That will require a hybrid of the politically connected Charlie Reed, who left to run California's state university system, and academics-minded Adam Herbert. Their and Ms. Austin's successor will need to do more than balance the interests of the governor-appointed Board of Governors and governor-appointed university boards of trustees. Of greater concern than whether in-state academic credentials trump a national search are the relations with the Legislature that ever are on Ms. Roberts' mind.

The individual boards of trustees have been proud of the fact that they pay their presidents more -- a lot more, in some cases -- than when the regents were in charge. Similarly, the Board of Governors talked first about how much it might take to hire a top-flight chancellor. A better approach would be to pick a man or woman who finally can persuade the Legislature to give the universities a lot more. That chancellor would deserve a very impressive salary.

Faith is not a theory

President Bush said this month that public schools should teach evolution and intelligent design "so people can understand what the debate is about." Last week, Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., chimed in: "I think in a pluralistic society that is the fairest way to go about education and training people for the future."

Actually, in America's pluralistic society, the "fairest" -- and constitutional -- approach to public education is to leave religion to churches, synagogues, mosques and families. And to "understand what the debate is about," the debaters must be more honest.

Intelligent design presumes a higher power -- a more intelligent force -- is responsible for the way humans, plants and animals have evolved over time. That belief, as opposed to theory, is a matter of faith. But honesty about faith might as well be an f-word among certain religious conservatives: forbidden.

Instead, the debate becomes one about language, not substance. Just as women's reproductive rights are countered by talk of a culture of life, and embryonic stem-cell research drowns in the fearful shout of cloning, creationism is cloaked in intelligent design.

Sen. Frist's position on intelligent design perhaps is rooted in the reaction of religious conservatives to his position last month on embryonic stem-cell research. Supporting intelligent design may be the bone the expected presidential candidate is tossing to placate potential voters.

Intelligent design attempts to reconcile the religious inconsistency some Christian conservatives see with Darwin's scientific theory of evolution -- to try to make teachings about existence consistent with their faith. But religion, appropriately, long has dealt with the inexplicable and that which finds no easy solution in science. There is no good reason to change that approach.

Secular semantics is no good hiding place for scripture. Neither is a public school.

Conduct a better probe into McCarty's donations

The Florida Commission on Ethics correctly has acknowledged that asking Palm Beach County employees to dig up dirt on one of their bosses isn't the most reliable way to conduct an ethics investigation. So the investigators will try again in the case of County Commissioner Mary McCarty.

To show that state regulators take ethics violations as seriously as the public expects such conduct to be taken, the ethics commission needs to conduct a thorough, on-scene review of the records outlined in a July 2004 Palm Beach Post story about improper gifts delivered by developers to Commissioner McCarty. The Post described $22,500 in gifts in excess of the $100 legal limit. The gifts came from lobbyists and developers who had business before the commission.

A year later, however, the ethics staff could substantiate only what Commissioner McCarty would admit to -- $3,750 in violations -- and was preparing to give her just a light fine. After a Post editorial Aug. 12 pointed out the inadequacies of that approach, commission Executive Director Bonnie Williams admitted her agency's shortcomings: "We thought we had everything, but what we are afraid of is there are some things in the county records they weren't able to locate." By "they," she means county employees. If the commission would conduct the research itself, the commission probably would have more to show for its time.

It's not as if the investigators lack clues. In the case of developer Ned Siegel, Commissioner McCarty admitted wrongdoing and returned a $1,000 check from one of his companies. But she kept two additional checks for $3,000 each from two other companies headed by Mr. Siegel. While associates of home builder Kenco Communities wrote nine checks totaling $4,500, the commission couldn't find a Dec. 9, 2002, zoning vote documented by The Post because it was submitted under the name of the project, The Oaks of Boca Raton, not the developer. Florida Crystals gave four checks totaling $1,000 on Oct. 3, 2003, the same day the sugar grower hired two lobbyists for land development matters that were approved the following year. Does that meet the state's definition of lobbying? The commission's probe didn't address the question.

Commissioner McCarty met the allegations with atypical aplomb last year, vowing to return the illegal gifts that she had received to repay legal bills related to an elections law violation. When it came time to strike a deal on the ethics charge, though, Commmissioner McCarty relied on the state's shoddy investigation, copped a lesser plea and thought she was done. By reopening the investigation and doing it right this time, the state can show that unethical behavior by an elected official will not be so casually dismissed.

Corps served the public by rejecting Harmony

Col. Robert Carpenter, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' chief engineer in Florida, was correct to reject a permit developers need to build Harmony Ranch, a controversial subdivision proposed west of Hobe Sound.

The corps denied Harmony's request to fill drainage ditches for the 212-home community because it would require construction on land needed for the federal Indian River Lagoon Restoration Plan. The plan is the first Everglades restoration project; after years of delay, it is awaiting approval from the U.S. Senate in the Water Resources Development Act of 2005.

Almost 40 percent of the proposed 4,573-acre Harmony subdivision -- 1,800 acres -- is within an area set aside for the restoration plan. The plan calls for using about 17,000 acres of pasture south of the St. Lucie Canal for restoring natural marshes. Last week, Col. Carpenter sent Harmony Ranch developer Tom Kenny, a former Martin County commissioner, a letter telling him that building homes in the area proposed for the project is "contrary to the public interest."

The colonel pointed out that the land historically has been a wetland area and that restoring it will help both the Indian River Lagoon and the Everglades. The board of the South Florida Water Management District, which presumably also knew that, had approved a permit for Harmony Ranch.

Mr. Kenny originally wanted to cluster 886 homes on land outside the urban services boundary west of Interstate 95, four times the number of homes permitted on the property under the county's growth plan. In April 2003, the county commission turned down his proposal.

Then, Mr. Kenny changed his plans for the subdivision, suggesting 212 homes on 20-acre ranchettes, a design that would have included the 1,800 acres earmarked for restoration. He asked the county to approve that plan in July, saying that he was waiting for one minor permit from the corps of engineers. All of the commissioners except Michael DiTerlizzi wanted to wait to approve Mr. Kenny's project until he had all the permits in hand. Obviously, that turned out to be the correct decision.

The water district was too willing to issue a permit for development on lands the Indian River Lagoon plan already had identified as prime property needed for the restoration. At the time, Lisa Interlandi, a lawyer for the Environmental & Land Use Law Center at Nova Southeastern University, criticized the district for letting development interfere with restoration goals. Decisions that make the land needed for restoration projects unavailable -- particularly when land is not easily available "elsewhere," as the district suggested -- send the wrong message. Col. Carpenter got it right when he denied the Harmony Ranch permit.

Suing to save the rivers

Frustrated by years of too much talk and too little action, environmental groups and one area government decided last week that lawsuits may be the only long-term solution to years of devastating water problems.

Environmentalists are worried about the disappearing habitat of the endangered Everglades snail kite. Thousands of residents on both coasts are worried about the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the South Florida Water Management District dumping polluted water from Lake Okeechobee into the St. Lucie and Caloosahatchee rivers, now plagued with sick fish and blankets of neon-green algae, some of it toxic. The algae also are in the West Palm Beach Canal.

On Monday, the Florida Wildlife Federation and the National Wildlife Federation filed a federal lawsuit in Washington, arguing that the corps and the district, which manage the lake, should keep it lower to create a healthier environment for the snail kite and other wildlife. The groups suggest smaller releases all year instead of massive dumps like those now killing the estuaries on both coasts.

On Tuesday, the Martin County Commission voted 4-1 to tell the water district that the county will sue over the discharges to the St. Lucie River. The county will seek help from the Rivers Coalition, a group of business owners, Realtors, environmental and civic groups. County Attorney Steve Fry warned that a lawsuit could be expensive and difficult, with an uncertain outcome. But Commissioner Sarah Heard called it "imperative" and said taxpayers are demanding clean water and will support any action needed to get it. Commissioner Michael DiTerlizzi said representatives of other governments -- Port St. Lucie, St. Lucie County and Lee County -- have told him they'll support Martin's actions.

Commissioners are reflecting concerns of residents who are angry that nothing has changed despite petitions, complaints, lost businesses, damage to fisheries and wildlife, plus new concerns about effects of toxic algae on human health. There is precedent. It took a lawsuit to start action on Everglades cleanup. In 1988, then-U.S. Attorney Dexter Lehtinen sued the state for letting polluted water flow onto federal land in Everglades National Park. A 1991 settlement set deadlines for the state to remove phosphorus from the water so it doesn't harm the Everglades, and the 1994 Everglades Forever Act provided the money for the cleanup plan. As Mr. Lehtinen has noted, judicial oversight helps make agencies comply with cleanup requirements.

Talk has had little effect on water managers' poor choices and bad decisions in managing the lake. Lawsuits are a last resort but may be the only recourse left to force agencies to keep their promises.

Jupiter laboring well

The effort to control migrant, often illegal labor in Jupiter extends appropriately to ensuring that rental homes don't become overstuffed with laborers.

Such properties have been criticized for harming neighborhoods because of the renters' unruly behavior, along with the overflowing garbage and junked cars. Some residents portray Jupiter as being overly welcoming to the migrants, particularly those who entered the country illegally. Plans for a center to keep laborers from lining up on Center Street to await employers are prompting threats of lawsuits.

The labor center, however, is a way to protect residents who fear the pre-dawn crowds near their homes, and it can provide an orderly way to conduct a transaction that, however controversial, has become a key part of the South Florida economy. But the town also knows that it must protect older neighborhoods from the abuses that come when landlords allow too many laborers in an apartment.

Neighbors expect this protection. Landlords dispute it. A lawsuit filed by John White argues that Jupiter violated his tenants' constitutional rights with a "pre-dawn raid." Code enforcement officers, however, noted that most of the residents went to work before dawn. They arrived early to get a true count of the building's inhabitants and, following standard procedure, received permission to enter. Among the agents' findings: 14 of the 30 apartments were uninhabitable.

Those are the kinds of issues a court can decide. But the town can't be intimidated by lawsuits from doing what is best for residents. That means establishing the labor center to control pre-dawn hiring. And it means enforcing town codes despite uncooperative landlords.

Heed storm warnings, not line on storm track

Last August, Hurricane Charley suddenly intensified, veered from its Tampa Bay-bound path and smashed into Punta Gorda. That wobble intensified the National Hurricane Center's debate over eliminating the "skinny line" that bisects its Cone of Error.

On Thursday, Katrina wobbled south, which may have caught many in Miami-Dade and Monroe counties off guard. Does the skinny line create a false sense of security for those it doesn't touch?

It shouldn't. There were hurricane warnings from Vero Beach to Florida City. Graphics of the predicted path caution that "NHC forecast tracks of the center can be in error" and "it is also important to realize tropical cyclones are not a point." The skinny line, which represents the consensus projected path, is useful information. But Floridians have to read it as a package with the error cone. Storms such as Charley and Katrina teach that lesson painfully.

Being nervous about storms is healthy, so it made sense for Martin and St. Lucie counties, clobbered last year by Frances and Jeanne, to close school even though landfall nearer Fort Lauderdale seemed more likely. Palm Beach County also closed a half-day on Thursday and all day Friday. It would have been safer and wiser to close all day Thursday -- half days are a waste -- and leave the decision about Friday until later. By late Thursday afternoon, it was clear that schools could have been in session on Friday.

Storm intensity, like the path, is uncertain. The Saffir-Simpson wind scale does not tell the whole story. Even a Category 1 storm like Katrina can dump devastating rain and spin off destructive gusts. Forecasters struggle to compensate for the wind-scale's shortcomings. And politicians and other officials still struggle to compensate for policy shortcomings laid bare last year.

Cities in Palm Beach and the Treasure Coast seem to have been better prepared, though this wasn't a true test. Spotty gasoline shortages indicate that Gov. Bush should keep jawboning suppliers and distributors to meet emergency demands. It's too early to assess the performances of Florida Power & Light and the Federal Emergency Management Agency. FEMA has experience paying claims in Miami-Dade County. This time, the claims actually will be legitimate.

Insurance reform also is unfinished business. Katrina is predicted to strengthen significantly and could hit the Panhandle. What will that do to rates and availability? No matter where storms hit, their Insurance Impact Cone covers the entire state.

• To contribute to the Florida Hurricane Relief Fund, visit www.flahurricanefund.org or call (800) 825-3786.

Citizens isn't working

If it wasn't clear before last week that Hurricane Summer affected almost everyone in Florida, it is now.

Citizens Property Insurance Corp., the public-private, state-run insurer of last resort, announced that all Floridians who have homeowner policies will pay to bail out the carrier -- even those who aren't Citizens policyholders. Like a hurricane nearing the coast, arrival of this news was inevitable. Intensity was the only question.

The number will be $68 for every $1,000 in premiums. That will be on top of the regular premium. The money will fill a $516 million hole in Citizens' books after the company paid out claims from 2004. Because so many private insurers have dumped policies, only State Farm has more policies than Citizens.

The Legislature has done little in the past year to help homeowners with their insurance. The Legislature refused to allocate any of the roughly $2 billion in unexpected sales-tax revenue to the Citizens bailout. The Legislature would not let Citizens offer lower rates in areas private insurers have abandoned. Naturally, the insurance industry that won't write policies doesn't want the consumers it abandoned to get the slightest break.

Ideally, Citizens wouldn't exist. It is the revised version of a high-risk pool that went into effect after Hurricane Andrew in 1992. The more policies it has, the more the private market has failed. Since everyone in Florida who has insurance now understands that, maybe the thought finally will catch on in the Legislature.

Be more open on FCAT

Next month, the Florida Department of Education for the first time will release actual questions and answers for the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test. Fittingly, this supposed milestone mostly is academic.

The FCAT is a high-stakes test for schools, which pass or fail under state and federal grading systems depending on the results. In recent years, the FCAT also has become a high-stakes test for individual students. Third-graders must pass the FCAT to be promoted to fourth grade, and seniors can't get a diploma if they haven't been able to pass the 10th-grade FCAT.

Parents sued the state seeking access to individual test results, but they lost. The request made sense; testing companies have made mistakes, and as testing becomes widespread, the likelihood of errors increases. In addition, some parts of the test, such as essay answers, can be subjective, and testing companies might not be able to hire enough trained people to produce reliable results.

Florida said that releasing individual tests each year would cost millions because FCAT questions no longer could be recycled. But as questions are retired, Florida now will make them available online and in printed form. Being able to look at sample questions and answers will be minimally useful for students and parents curious about the FCAT. Students and parents who suspect that their individual FCAT scores are wrong will just have to keep living with their suspicions.

A win for tribe and team

It doesn't pay to get too upset over any decision the NCAA makes -- just be patient, wait awhile, and it's sure to reverse itself.

Florida State University sports fans found that out this week when the NCAA announced that it was changing its mind and removing FSU from the list of universities facing bans for their "hostile and abusive" use of Indian nicknames. The Seminoles still can be the Seminoles.

Three weeks ago, the NCAA announced it was banning FSU and 17 other schools with Indian mascots from participating in post-season competition unless they covered their logos and removed references to their nicknames. The ruling also prohibited the schools from hosting post-season events. The NCAA withered under a furious counterattack by FSU, however. University President T.K. Wetherell threatened legal action, which always gets the NCAA's attention, but perhaps more compelling was the case made by the Seminole Tribe of Florida. The tribe says it likes its relationship with FSU and benefits from merchandise royalties, national exposure and scholarships. The NCAA found itself in the awkward position of trying to identify a victim where there wasn't any.

After further review, the NCAA said it considers FSU's relationship with the Seminoles to be "unique" -- a description the school and the tribe both embrace. While the NCAA has a responsibility to promote sensitivity and prevent exploitation, it also has to listen to the people it's trying to protect. College athletics has enough problems without creating them for sanctimonious crusades.

Gaza withdrawal gives both sides an opening

For Israel, the encouraging news is that the worst didn't happen during evacuation of all 21 settlements in the Gaza Strip and four in the West Bank.

The violence didn't reach the level that military commanders had prepared for, though soldiers had to endure settlers spraying acid, paint and kerosene at them. The fact that they didn't overreact is a testament to their training and their belief in the mission. Though some ultra-Orthodox rabbis had called for mass resistance, many settlers left on their own. Some of those who resisted the most were not Gaza residents. The policy that a majority of the country supported was carried out, and Israel emerged with its secular democracy in place.

Still, the last month has been a time of great national stress, and the natural inclination in Israel will be to pause. An editorial in the Haaretz newspaper said, "We all deserve to rest, to relax somewhat," but added, "without forgetting that in the big battle over the identity of the state, this is only a lull." Indeed, among Palestinians in Gaza, anticipation is building. It will be up to the United States to press both sides in different ways so that the Gaza withdrawal leads to more than just the Gaza withdrawal.

With Israel gone, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas needs to establish a foothold in Gaza. A recent assessment of his security forces concluded that he still has not consolidated the many factions that existed under Yasser Arafat. If he is not successful, Hamas will become the stronger entity in Gaza. With Palestinian legislative elections set for January, Mr. Abbas will have to show voters that he can exploit the opportunity that Israel's withdrawal permits.

The suspicion is that Mr. Sharon left Gaza unilaterally to establish a precedent that will allow him to do so in the West Bank -- after using Israel's security fence to claim territory that should be part of final-stage negotiations. One indicator will be whether lots of Gaza settlers are moved to within Israel or to the occupied territory. In the short term, the United States should prod Mr. Sharon to dismantle the West Bank settlement outposts.

Whatever the motives of Mr. Sharon -- who faces election next year -- there could be helpful momentum in the Israel-Palestinian conflict for the first time in almost five years. The Palestinians have been given a chance to build the state they want, and Israel has reaffirmed its own traditional identity.

More Taser questions

Those who may be uncooperative enough that law-enforcement officers might think about using a Taser had better not be under the influence of illegal drugs and expect to live to tell about it.

A Post study has demonstrated, if not cause and effect, a link between the 50,000-volt dart-firing stun guns and drug-influenced suspects' deaths. Of Florida's nation-leading 27 of 132 fatalities following shocks from a police Taser, at least 20 people were found to have had heart-damaging amphetamines or cocaine in their systems.

More study of the stun-guns' effect is a must, given that at least 17 of the people who died in Taser-associated fatalities also had heart or mental ailments. For now, the involuntary muscle contractions and temporary paralysis that the Taser inflicts leave in question Taser International's claim that the weapon doesn't affect the heart and is "generally safe." In contrast, a Chicago medical examiner last month became the nation's first to cite Taser shocks as the primary cause of a death. Other medical examiners have cited the weapon as a contributing factor in at least three deaths in Florida and elsewhere.

Better Taser-use policies, too, are a must. At least 17 of Florida's fatalities involved multiple shocks. But The Post also found that at least one in four of 1,000 Taser uses by local agencies over four years was on someone who posed no apparent threat. The problems prompted Palm Beach County police chiefs to move quickly to establish countywide Taser-use guidelines. Boca Raton Police Chief Andrew Scott, who led the committee that crafted the local guidelines, makes sense in saying that the Florida Department of Law Enforcement and the state's Criminal Justice Standards and Training Commission should draw up those statewide standards.

Chief Scott agrees that there "is going to be a need for additional medical study and research, particularly when drugs are on board." There's also a need to resolve questions of whether Taser International misled law enforcement, overstating safety claims and ignoring known concerns. While the Securities and Exchange Commission looks into those questions, the improved professional training and standards should apply. Those questions also are out there for civilians to whom the manufacturer now is marketing the Taser.

Change suspension policy

An out-of-school suspension is a warning to the student and parents that the district won't tolerate the behavior that triggered the punishment. Drug use and violence are two examples of actions that lead to suspension. But even those should not, in all cases, incur an academic "death penalty."

The district's job, even for those it suspends, is to make the students successful academically. Children who misbehave and get bad grades and get discouraged and drop out are a bigger problem for society than kids who misbehave but shape up and graduate. A suspension policy the Palm Beach County School Board is considering would increase the number of students who fall into the dropout category.

Under the policy, suspended students would not be able to get a grade higher than 59, which is an F, on homework and classwork, such as quizzes and chapter tests, missed during their suspension. In almost all cases, teachers should grade work based on content. It makes sense to reduce a student's grade when work is turned in late -- whether that student is suspended or not. But it isn't fair -- or wise -- to adopt a policy that sets an F as the highest possible grade.

The proposed policy, which was on Wednesday's agenda but has been postponed, makes some allowances. Suspended students could make up, with no penalty, major tests such as end-of-semester exams. Students could complete projects such as term papers. In addition, teachers could offer suspended students extra-credit work.

If an academic penalty remains in place, however, it would be better to give all returning suspended students the chance to improve their grades through extra work. Rather than discourage students, such a policy would encourage the correct behavior. The district should be particularly reluctant to increase penalties for suspended students because, as district spokesman Nat Harrington concedes, suspensions "do appear to disproportionately affect black and Hispanic students.... It would appear that minorities act out more often or act out more frequently in ways that are punishable by suspension or that whites are not punished equally for the same infraction."

Mr. Harrington says giving F's on missed classwork is intended to "scare straight" the students who would misbehave and get suspended. But there's too much potential for it to backfire. When the policy comes up for consideration, it should be academically sound and not subject to bias.

Sham Iraq constitution will not 'honor sacrifice'

As more Americans wonder whether Cindy Sheehan is correct that the best way out of Iraq is to leave, President Bush reiterates, as he did in his most recent radio address, that the country "must finish the task that our troops have given their lives for and honor their sacrifice by completing their mission."

The president's problem, strategically and politically, is that "their mission" has changed again and again. In fact, their original mission -- to keep Iraq from using its stockpiled weapons of mass destruction -- was "completed" by default. The president's first fallback, which he continues to hide behind, was that the Iraq invasion was a necessary response to 9/11. Wrong again. In fact, his invasion has turned Iraq into a recruiting and training ground for terrorists.

The last-resort mission President Bush has declared is "advancing the cause of liberty in a troubled region." But to have any chance of accomplishing that restated mission, Iraq's constitution -- twice postponed -- must embody the ideals the Bush administration has been advocating. The draft hastily submitted Monday and facing a new deadline today does not do so, regardless of the administration's claims to the contrary.

Women need bedrock equal rights in matters of marriage, divorce, inheritance and child custody. This constitution doesn't grant that; in many cases, clerics would make the decisions. Promises to protect women in a later "bill of rights" can't be trusted. If the Bush administration uses passage of an incomplete constitution as an excuse to withdraw before next year's congressional elections, the promised women's rights probably never will be provided and other flaws probably never will be fixed. Hardly a way to "honor their sacrifice."

The constitution also does not guard against creation of a fundamentalist Islamic state. Rather than build the foundation for a stable Iraq, the proposed document sets up an independent Shiite state likely to be under control of Islamists allied with Iran. Another autonomous state in the north would be dominated by Kurds whose goal is to break away and form an independent Kurdistan. Counting on their autonomy and eventual independence, the Kurds would not be a brake on Islamic rule in the south.

An overriding Bush administration goal has been to give the Sunni minority a stake in the future government of Iraq as an alternative to continued participation in the insurgency. That hasn't happened. There are enough Kurdish and Shiite votes for the interim parliament to pass any constitution it wants. But Sunnis may have the votes to block its adoption in October's national election. If that happens, or if Sunnis overwhelmingly oppose the constitution and it passes regardless, seeds for a total breakup into three states have been planted.

To a nation seeking answers, President Bush offers platitudes that have dried out from being reheated so often. If he disagrees that American troops should leave, when will he offer evidence that their continued sacrifice is worth it?

Vioxx ruling: Merck liable; FDA, too

What do drug-makers know about the risks of their products? When did they learn it? Did they tell doctors and patients about it?

Answers to those questions promise to influence outcomes of thousands more lawsuits against Merck & Co. over its painkiller Vioxx, just as they persuaded a Texas jury last week to issue a $253 million verdict against the company in the death of a 59-year-old who suffered heart problems after taking the drug now known to increase the risk of heart attacks.

As jurors pore over Merck's internal e-mails and investors eye the verdicts, more congressional leaders need to pay attention to the warning from Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa: "The Food and Drug Administration was also negligent in the Vioxx case." The finance committee chairman has proposed legislation to set up an independent drug safety office within the FDA. "Those running the nation's public safety agency," he said after last week's verdict, "dismissed the concerns of their own scientists and kept the public in the dark about emerging problems with Vioxx."

Such a belief about Merck helped seal the verdict, a juror confirmed after learning of a February 1997 e-mail that cited a Merck scientist's "great concern" over the possibility of increased heart risk: "That told me they knew cardiovascular events were possible on this drug, but they failed to tell us about it." Merck had said it learned of the risk only soon before it pulled Vioxx off the market in September.

Distrust of the FDA and pharmaceutical companies is not new. But the FDA's recent efforts to restore credibility would gain more traction if decision-making did not continue to tilt toward those making drugs instead of those taking them. The FDA's belated warnings about the possibility of an increased suicide risk among children taking antidepressants is one example.

Drug companies also must act more responsibly. Medication marketed directly to patients must include prominent -- and comprehensible -- warnings about risks. As one juror in the Texas case said: "Give us in layman's terms what the drug can do to us." Assuring credibility requires disclosure of unfavorable, not just promising, clinical trial results, and a transparency about financial backing and scientists' loyalties.

In attempting to balance the risks and benefits of medication, the FDA must consider that a drug-approval process that is too long and expensive could delay for patients the benefit of lifesaving and life-enhancing aid -- chronic-pain patients will believe that the risk is worth the relief -- and a process that is too lax could lead to unnecessary deaths. The FDA's challenge remains proving that it can balance public safety and private gain.

Who would Jesus whack?

The Rev. Pat Robertson's suggestion Monday that the United States kill a foreign head of state would have come as a surprise only to those who haven't kept up with the loony televangelist.

Think back to some of his greatest hits. The Rev. Robertson predicted that hurricanes would devastate Disney World because the theme park was holding "gay days." After the 9/11 attacks, the Rev. Robertson expressed approval of the Rev. Jerry Falwell's theory that "the gays and the lesbians" were partially to blame for what the terrorists did in New York and Washington. In May, the Rev. Robertson called "activist judges" more of a threat to the country than "a few bearded terrorists who fly into buildings."

So it was hardly a reach for the founder of the Christian Coalition to say on his 700 Club that the U.S. ought to assassinate Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez. His country has the largest known oil reserves outside the Middle East, he's a friend of Fidel Castro, he sticks his thumb in our eye all the time. What Would Jesus Do? Take him out, the Rev. Robertson advises. "It's a whole lot cheaper than starting a war. And I don't think any oil shipments would stop."

Surprise? No. Nor is it surprising that the forces of the right-wing morality police were silent or unavailable. The Christian Coalition, the Family Research Council and the Traditional Values Coalition saved their anger for those opposing Supreme Court nominee John Roberts. Even Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, while disagreeing, said, "Private citizens say all kinds of things all the time."

But this private citizen meets with the president. Is it because this private citizen can deliver some votes? No surprise there.

Nothing useful in clash between Greene, police

Palm Beach County Commissioner Addie Greene should not have advised young black men "to run and find the biggest crowd of people" if stopped by police. Angry over a grand jury's decision a week ago to not indict a white Delray Beach officer who in February fatally shot a black teenager, the lone African-American on the seven-member county commission offered that advice because: "If he doesn't, he will be killed."

Commissioner Greene was unpersuasive in her next-day clarification -- in which she indicated that she should have warned only about "some" officers -- and her earnest but belated apology during a news conference Monday was ineffective after she denied her initial comments and claimed that reporters had taken them out of context.

If Commissioner Greene damaged her credibility, however, so did the police union. Dozens of law-enforcement officers, most of them white men wearing "Addie Must Resign" T-shirts, stared down Commissioner Greene at the news conference, chanting "Resign. Resign. Resign," and confronting her supporters. John Kazanjian, executive vice president of the Palm Beach County Police Benevolent Association, referred to Commissioner Greene and other African-Americans as "you people." Another officer yelled: "You hate white people, that's the bottom line" -- a generalization as inflammatory as what Commissioner Greene needed to recant. An NAACP leader replied: "You kill black children."

Such unchecked and counterproductive emotion -- from blacks and whites -- has distracted attention from the issue that the shooting of Jerrod Miller raised: relations between minorities and police. It will take more responsible community leaders than were on display Monday to address that issue.

It is easy -- far too easy, sometimes -- to throw around accusations of racism. It is much harder to deal with the racial problems that persist despite four decades of Americans from all backgrounds working to overcome three centuries of government-sanctioned discrimination. Commissioner Greene said Palm Beach County residents are "living in the days of the Alabama, Mississippi and Georgia lynchings." She's wrong. But it is unrealistic for those who did not have to fear for their safety during those terrible times to dismiss the perspective of those who did.

The community deserves better from its elected officials and its police than the community saw Monday. The community's challenge is to deal with race in a way that does not collapse into racism.

FPL intervention powers candidate Crist for 2006

If the Public Service Commission approves the proposed settlement with Florida Power & Light, the utility's customers will know one thing: There will be no increase in the company's basic rate until after the 2006 election for governor.

The timing matters because groups that had opposed FPL's request for another $430 million a year credit the settlement to Florida Attorney General Charlie Crist. His office intervened 18 days before hearings were to begin Monday. Mr. Crist is running for governor next year, and while the settlement would delay any basic-rate increase until January 2007, what happens after that is less certain.

Terms of the settlement call for FPL not to raise the basic rate, which finances the cost of producing and delivering electricity and makes up 44 percent of the average monthly bill, between January 2006 and December 2009. But there are exceptions. FPL can ask for a basic-rate increase if the company's after-tax profit falls below 10 percent over a 12-month period. FPL also can ask to raise the basic rate when a new generating plant is approved or begins operating, and the utility plans to start operating a Miami-Dade plant early in 2007. FPL also will seek approval soon for two plants in Palm Beach County and another in St. Lucie.

Nor does the settlement affect the $3.49 monthly fuel-price surcharge that FPL got in November or the request for a second fuel surcharge that the utility expects to file next month. Customers also will keep paying the monthly hurricane-repair surcharge that has been in effect for most of the year, though the amount will drop slightly next month to $1.68. FPL, though, will continue to return any excess profits to customers under the existing rate agreement.

So it's much too early to tell how much this settlement, worked out over last weekend with Solicitor General Christopher Kise leading the effort for Mr. Crist's office, will benefit customers. Just a few weeks ago, for example, the Office of Public Counsel had advocated a nearly $700 million cut in the basic rate. In essence, this settlement still allows FPL to ask for what it wanted, but the utility must do so in stages, rather than at one time.

The settlement makes Gov. Bush's looming appointments of three PSC commissioners all the more important. And the settlement allows candidate Charlie Crist to say that he stopped a rate increase for FPL customers.

Stop the new predators

On Tuesday, several St. Lucie County businessmen pledged money for a sad purpose: Shipping the body of a husband and father home to Guatemala for burial.

Julio Reyes Paxtore, 32, was beaten to death Friday night in Fort Pierce by at least three and perhaps as many as five robbers whom witnesses described as black youths aged 12 to 18. Mr. Paxtore is the second man killed in Fort Pierce this year during a robbery in which police believe that he was targeted because of his ethnicity. Fort Pierce is not the only community, however, where teen gangs have targeted Guatemalans and other immigrants. On the streets of West Palm Beach and Lake Worth and in neighborhoods of Stuart, Port Salerno, Indiantown and Hobe Sound, gangs call the practice "Guat-bashing."

The victims are Guatemalans and other Central American men who don't speak English, usually are illegal immigrants who carry large amounts of cash. Since they don't have proper identification to deal with banks and fear police because of their illegal immigration status, they become easy targets.

On Feb. 9, Adan Beltran, 23, was killed after several teens tried to rob him behind Azteca Mexican Store in Fort Pierce. One fired a gun after Mr. Beltran, who was from Mexico and worked at the store, told them that they should be in school instead of harassing him. One of the five charged in the Beltran case was supposed to have been sentenced for his role in a series of beatings and robberies in Martin County's Golden Gate neighborhood. The teen had been released from juvenile detention on a technicality when he joined the group accused of killing Mr. Beltran.

The latest victim had ridden his bike to a gas station in Fort Pierce, where he bought a phone card to call his family in Guatemala. After speaking several minutes on a pay phone, he was chased by the assailants and beaten to death. Police are seeking witnesses and information about Mr. Paxtore's death.

Palm Beach and Treasure Coast communities have responded with education programs and banking lessons. Police in some areas have provided extra surveillance. But the problems facing illegal immigrants in South Florida communities obviously have not been solved. Law enforcement must find ways to keep those who live in the shadows because of inaction in Washington from being murdered.

Riviera owes a response

Riviera Beach residents have found something on which they can agree -- even if their city council and administration can't.

Too long ignored financial accountability questions have prompted a citizens coalition to request that the state's auditor general "immediately investigate the fiscal affairs and operations" of the city and its Community Redevelopment Agency. The need was inevitable for a CRA that today will hear multimillion-dollar proposals from master developers who want to redo the downtown waterfront and oversee citywide redevelopment. Yet the Citizens' Coalition of Riviera Beach had to go over the heads of the council members who also serve as the CRA board. The coalition's call for state scrutiny now is supported by state Reps. Carl Domino, R-Jupiter, and Priscilla Taylor, D-West Palm Beach, state Sen. Jeff Atwater, R-North Palm Beach, and Palm Beach County Commissioners Addie Greene and Karen Marcus, each of whom represents part of the city. Only state Sen. Mandy Dawson, D-Fort Lauderdale, refused to support the audit request after being asked.

The multiracial, bipartisan, mainland-and-Singer Island coalition unites redevelopment supporters Mayor Michael Brown and Councilman Edward Rodgers with longtime redevelopment opponents such as Martha Babson and Jacquie Loriol. The local chapter of the national housing rights group ACORN is on board. So are the longtime fiscal-accountability watchdogs of the Singer Island Civic Association.

The need for outside review was apparent long before a council-appointed Financial Review Advisory Committee concluded in January that the CRA was a year away from a "state of financial emergency." Long before the claims and counterclaims by what appear to have been grossly overpaid consultants. Long before the retired Judge Rodgers' inability to get even a simple accounting of his summer swimming scholarship fund at the city-owned water park prompted his recent memo saying he was forced to "believe the allegations of fiscal irresponsibility of which the (recreation department) has been accused."

His CRA colleagues, meanwhile, plan to overrule residents and let Marriott develop high-rise towers on the public beach at Singer Island's Ocean Mall. Riviera can regain the high road to revitalization only with an independent assessment of the town's finances.

Disparity in health care becomes a deadly issue

The diagnosis did not get better with the second opinion. Or the third.

African-Americans, according to three studies published in Thursday's New England Journal of Medicine, still get poorer health care than whites -- fewer heart and back surgeries, fewer hip or knee replacements, fewer expensive treatments, fewer tests. Women are less likely than men to get good care, and, the researchers found, black women get the worst care of all.

"We have known for 20 years that we have a problem in our health-care system -- that blacks and whites do not receive equal care," said Dr. Ashish Jha of the Harvard School of Public Health. He led one of the studies. "We had hoped that all the attention paid to this topic would result in some improvement. What we found is that we have not made much progress."

The Harvard Medical School study of 1.5 million Medicare patients in nearly 200 different managed-care plans provided the most optimism, showing that since Congress in 1997 required managed-care plans to start tracking quality, care has improved overall for both blacks and whites. Blacks were as likely as whites, for example, to receive aspirin and certain drugs for heart disease, blood-sugar tests and eye exams for diabetics. But "the more invasive the procedure was," said a doctor who led a separate Emory University study, "the more difference we found." In fact, the gap widened for diabetic blacks who were unable to control their blood sugar and heart patients who were unable to lower their cholesterol. Black heart patients were less likely to get basic diagnostic tests, drugs or artery-opening procedures, such as angioplasties.

The three most recent studies are reminiscent of a 2002 report by the Institute of Medicine, which found widespread racial disparities in treating heart disease, prostate cancer, emergencies and HIV/AIDS, even when blacks' income and insurance were the same as whites. The reasons have not been studied as much as the reality has been documented, but the racial gaps have been blamed on economic and cultural differences, particularly on blacks having less access to insurance, hospitals and specialists. There also remains a level of distrust that is fueled by such decisions as the Bush administration's scrubbing of a study last year that confirmed "pervasive" racial disparities in health care.

Blacks are diagnosed less and die more. Unfortunately, that is no longer opinion. It's fact.

Witham should accept FAA money, then shorten runway extension

Martin County has the opportunity to have it both ways today when commissioners consider whether to accept a $2.4 million Federal Aviation Administration grant to buy nine homes in the "crash zone" close to a Witham Field runway.

Commissioners should take the money and buy the homes most affected by extension of the runway close to the 18th Street neighborhood, which has been so devastated by jet noise and fumes. Then the commission should shorten the runway, which would provide relief for others -- not only in that neighborhood but throughout the area west of the airport.

Witham Airport Action Majority opposes accepting any FAA money, contending that the county made the bad decision to lengthen the runway on its own, without FAA approval, and that the county should pay to buy the homes in the runway's path. But the FAA's willingness to provide money for the buyout shows that it recognizes the problem. Homeowners are running out of options. Martin County Circuit Judge Robert Makemson recently ruled against 20 airport neighbors who wanted the county to reimburse them for property values they claim have dropped because their land is near the runway.

More than nine homes in the neighborhood are affected by proximity to the runway. Closing the $500,000, 460-foot asphalt strip that the county added to the runway would provide relief for a wide area. A WAAM report released recently charges that the runway was extended illegally, because the runway protection zone -- also known as the "crash zone" -- was extended illegally. The report also claims that airport managers fooled county commissioners and FAA officials by including a map that did not show homes in the 18th Street neighborhood closest to the runway.

Airport Director Michael Moon, who was on the county staff when the extension was being planned, did not return a Post reporter's repeated phone calls to discuss the WAAM report. He asked for written questions but would not even confirm that he had received them. While Mr. Moon may be unresponsive because of the lawsuit, he is the county's institutional memory on airport expansion. He should be available to answer questions. Anything else makes it appear that the county has something to hide.

Unless Mr. Moon has reasons not yet revealed, the county should take the FAA money -- and then bulldoze the runway extension.

Give parents of disabled students a fair chance

It always has been hard for parents of disabled students to believe that they are on firm ground when asking the Palm Beach County School District to include their children in programs and classrooms with students who are not disabled. The district's new plan, to be discussed Wednesday, doesn't provide much better footing.

"Inclusion," as education bureaucrats call it, is as difficult as issues get. It costs money; it requires enlightened principals, trained teachers and aides; and its inevitable judgment calls can pit passionate, well-intentioned people against one another. For example, a parent might think that a daughter with Down syndrome would benefit more socially and academically from attending regular classes. District officials might think that she would have more success in a separate class. Parents of other students might wonder how including a disabled student would affect the pace of the class. The only way to handle this -- as the district points out -- is case-by-case.

Yet one set of well-intentioned people -- parents of disabled students -- has been at a disadvantage. The district, with its experts, rules, paperwork, etc., has too much power to wear parents down. If nothing else, any plan to move more disabled students into regular classrooms needs to even that imbalance of power. But it doesn't. The district, according to "talking points" about the plan, "believes in inclusive education where and when it leads to improved student achievement." The district, however, "does not believe that you can establish a quota system for inclusion as each student is different."

Such sentiments are fine but terminally generic. The district can't establish a quota for including students, but that doesn't mean numbers are irrelevant. The district can and should have hard goals for the number of schools whose administrators have been trained; it's just 35 out of 170. With more trained and open-minded administrators, parents are more likely to find allies.

The most important leveling factor could be money. The district's current plan doesn't allocate any for more teachers or aides. A principal who knows that money is available is far more likely to improve inclusion than one who would have to cut something else to get it.

Parents of the disabled can't have a guarantee that they will get their way. In some cases of disagreement, the district will be right. But parents need better odds.

Wellington the latest to have a FEMA problem.

Cities and counties in Florida hoping that the Federal Emergency Management Agency will reimburse them for millions of dollars spent cleaning up after last year's hurricanes might as well be last-minute shoppers trying to stock up on storm supplies: After a long wait, there's no guarantee that they'll get what they need.

Because of FEMA's poor management, more local governments planning budgets for the fiscal year that starts Oct. 1 might be tempted to do what Wellington and the Palm Beach County Solid Waste Authority have proposed -- levy a one-time surcharge. Taxpayers, however, should not have to pay twice for the same service.

Wellington council members are expected to vote tonight on a proposed "hurricane recovery fee," which could be as much as $115 per home and would cover a $2.1 million gap between what the village spent on hurricane cleanup and what FEMA is expected to repay. Half of the gap is for debris pickup expenses on private roads, including more than 19,000 cubic yards in the Greenview Cove and Palm Beach Polo and Country Club communities.

About 185,000 homeowners in unincorporated Palm Beach County may face a $50 curbside pickup fee, after the Solid Waste Authority depleted its $9.5 million reserve cleaning up after Frances and Jeanne. The authority is paying nearly $3,000 in interest daily on a $50 million loan. The first of three FEMA checks totalling $30.2 million to Palm Beach County is allegedly imminent. With FEMA, only seeing is believing.

Other communities are postponing or setting aside less money for long-term projects (Royal Palm Beach), relying on lower reserves (Palm Beach Gardens) and -- as with Martin County, which is still tallying about $36 million in reimbursement requests -- simply hoping for the best. FEMA's wrongheaded policy on debris pickup penalizes local governments for doing what was prudent: Clearing the streets as quickly as possible after the storms. Like bullets fired in a drive-by shooting, debris in a hurricane has random aim. Tree stumps and twisted metal from a gated community are no less dangerous than debris on a public street.

If Wellington and the solid waste authority collect the storm fee, taxpayers at least should be reimbursed when FEMA reimburses the agency. It is the job of the state's congressional delegation to make sure that it's "when" and not "if."

Ask FPL why ratepayers should subsidize growth

When hearings begin today on Florida Power & Light's latest rate request, the utility's customers will know that the odds are against them.

The five-member Public Service Commission, which will rule on the request, has been disinclined to ask FPL some of the questions customers have had. When FPL recently got most of what it wanted for hurricane repairs, the commissioners did not press the utility on whether some of the damage could have been prevented with better maintenance. And while the commissioners did cut FPL's storm surcharge slightly, the company still got nearly $500 million.

But the request before the commission today raises a new set of questions. FPL is asking for an increase in the "base rate," which makes up about 44 percent of the average monthly bill and covers the cost of producing and delivering power. FPL wants to charge customers another $3 to $4 per month, beginning in January. Unlike the fuel-price surcharge the Public Service Commission granted FPL in November -- the company may ask for another --and the storm surcharge, FPL now wants customers essentially to subsidize the company $430 million for the cost of new customers.

During much of the 1990s, FPL tried to avoid building new generating plants. The company's management thought deregulation was coming. The Enron scam in California killed that idea, and FPL management now stresses the need to build plants -- including two in western Palm Beach County and another in western St. Lucie County. FPL also points out that average electricity use is up 30 percent from 20 years ago.

Lined up against FPL are the Florida Retail Federation, AARP, Common Cause and, belatedly, Florida Attorney General Charlie Crist. While FPL has not had a basic rate increase in two decades, Retail Federation President Rick McAllister has pointed out in letters to state newspapers that the company's base-rate revenues nearly have doubled during that time because of population growth and higher electricity consumption.

The Office of Public Counsel, which represents consumers in utility matters, will ask the PSC for a lower basic rate. For once, the Public Service Commission should discuss how much cost an investor-owned regulated monopoly can pass on to customers to guarantee returns to shareholders. That's what a commission that took the word public seriously would do.

Border cries out again

The governors of Arizona and New Mexico declared states of emergency last week. There was no natural disaster, epidemic or terrorist attack -- just more indifference from the federal government.

Janet Napolitano and Bill Richardson said the flow of illegal immigrants from Mexico demands extraordinary measures, and the states can't wait for Washington to do something. Gov. Napolitano's declaration freed up $1.5 million in state disaster money to assist local governments. Gov. Richardson sent $1.75 million in emergency money to cash-strapped border counties. They will use the money to hire more police to turn back migrant workers and drug smugglers. Both governors are inundated with complaints about stolen vehicles, property damage and trespassing.

The federal government's approach to immigration surely qualifies as a disaster. The numbers are staggering. Since October, the Border Patrol says its agents have arrested more than 510,000 people trying to cross just in Arizona. How many made it into the United States is anyone's guess. So is how many died in the desert. The governors hope to curb the growing ranks of vigilante groups policing the border without training and with dubious agendas. Help from Congress or the Bush administration remains an unkept promise.

President Bush says he will push this fall for a guest-worker plan that would allow millions of undocumented immigrants to hold jobs legally in the U.S., then return to their homelands. But the president's proposal falls short of that offered by Sens. John McCain, R-Ariz., and Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., who do a better job striking the right balance and offering immigrants attainable incentives to play by the rules. Their proposal requires migrants who entered the country illegally to pay back taxes and fines, then work for six years before applying for legal residence.

Until Congress acts, the federal government has little to offer. The Department of Homeland Security announced last week that it would air a series of public service announcements on Mexican television. The ads will talk about the dangers of suffocation when children are smuggled in the trunks of cars and the perils of crossing the desert in the heat of summer.

Last year, Mr. Bush said he would hire 2,000 agents to shore up border security. Only several hundred have been hired. Govs. Napolitano and Richardson know that TV commercials and Washington promises won't solve their states' problems.

Charters' mess is state's

Florida has been a big proponent of charter schools. Now, the state needs to be bigger proponent of charter-school accountability.

The Palm Beach County School District is dealing with financial and academic problems at some of the county's charter schools. An audit committee just recommended that the district hire staff to more closely examine charter schools' books. The district also closed two charter schools as the new year began.

Those schools, Delray Boynton Academy and Riviera Beach Academy, earned consecutive F's based on FCAT scores. State policy required the district to close them. But as Superintendent Art Johnson pointed out, the district has no authority over the schools' curriculum or personnel. The school board objected to being cast as the villain, but it had no choice after the state threatened to withhold millions of dollars from the district. The decision still will cost Palm Beach County, which now has to fend off lawsuits from the two schools.

Timing couldn't be worse. Charter operators kept operating even after they were ordered to close. With the students in limbo, the state's appeal putters along. A new system that settles such issues well before school starts is needed.

Districts also have had to assume more financial oversight as charters have run into problems across the state. Again, the responsibility comes without sufficient financial authority. This should be a state issue. But the Legislature refused to pass reforms requiring that the board overseeing each charter school have at least one financial expert. Lawmakers also wouldn't outlaw board member conflicts of interest, even though the need is demonstrated by TerraNova Academy Charter School in West Palm Beach, which went into debt and closed in debt last year after paying its principal, Leo Cardona, $36,000 in a lease agreement he arranged. Miami-Dade County, apparently unaware of that history, then granted Mr. Cardona a charter.

Charters are booming. Port St. Lucie and other cities have talked about starting them. Districts don't have the time, authority or resources to sort out competent charters from incompetent ones. The state should take responsibility for the pet projects it created.

If state wants degrees, make the degrees count

Just last year, Florida's 28 community colleges were turning away students for lack of state financing. This year, their enrollment is flat, but the Legislature still is failing to pay for student growth at the 11 state universities. Yet with the state adequately financing neither, the Board of Education is pushing the universities' traditional four-year bachelor's degrees onto the two-year community colleges.

Six community colleges have established four-year degree programs since the board began letting them do so in 2001. The latest step last week was the requirement of board approval for new programs' curricula and the requirement of demonstrated need. That those previously were not requirements suggests still another education-on-the-cheap gimmick. So does the fact that there was no board discussion of financing the new plan or discussion of a plan.

More work-force bachelor's degrees targeted for community colleges could be OK. But university presidents such as Florida Atlantic's Frank Brogan are correct to question the mission creep. FAU's well-established partnerships with Palm Beach Community College and Indian River Community College, for example, are working to let students earn four-year degrees on the two-year campuses. That well-planned, cost-effective approach helps explain why neither of those two-year schools has been distracted with trying to offer four-year degrees that it cannot afford.

Mr. Brogan also is correct that any four-year program should come under the oversight of the state Board of Governors, which voters created in a 2002 constitutional amendment and gave authority to operate the university system, rather than the Board of Education, which is responsible for the community colleges and K-12 schools. But, as usual, the Board of Governors has had little to say about the usurping of its oversight. The chairman readily acknowledges that her board still is finding its way, and a citizens lawsuit is aimed at reminding the board of its marching orders, even as the Legislature keeps angling for sovereignty.

This hodgepodge approach will do anything but generate financing for the top-drawer higher education system officials claim to want to see. Instead, a miserly Legislature prefers to bestow largess on pet or ideological projects. The result is political combat for influence rather than the kind of academic discussion the state needs.

Both boards are on the Higher Education Access Task Force, created this summer to help bring about the "seamless" K-20 system promised by the governor and Legislature. Comprehensive planning should top the task force's recommendations for next year's legislative session rather than blurring the two- and four-year colleges' roles.

Hold back sprawl wave

Under the guise of preserving rural character, Palm Beach County commissioners will vote Monday on a plan that does just the opposite.

If the plan passes, critics no longer will be able to blame the transformation to suburbia of The Acreage and Loxahatchee solely on the county's pursuit of The Scripps Research Institute. They would have to add the commission's inability to reject demands from a single developer, GL Homes. The Broward County builder persuaded commissioners to chip away at rules proposed to govern development of 53,000 acres west of Royal Palm Beach. Last April, on first reading, commissioners approved a plan that would give large landowners nearly 10 times their current density, raising doubt that the already traffic-jammed area ever can widen enough roads to emerge from the mess.

Planners initially believed commissioners' declared desire to retain the area's rural character. In a $600,000 study, they proposed that owners of big sites -- GL owns a 4,930-acre citrus grove -- set aside 70 percent of their land as open space. Even at 50 percent, as suggested last year by commission Chairman Tony Masilotti, the preserves would have helped contain urban sprawl. The area's rural lifestyle, which is important to many residents, would have been retained. For GL, the trade-off would have been ample: Right now, it has almost no development rights.

Acting through Commissioner Masilotti, GL pushed for and received, in an April commission vote, the right to count buffers and landscaping as open space. The decision lets GL surround its huge property and main roads with landscape berms, as developers often do, and count it toward the 50 percent set-aside, which developers in rural areas should not be able to do. The result is a ridiculous map showing open space as chickenpox-like dots.

As a trade-off for reducing the open space from 70 percent to 50 percent, Commissioner Masilotti promised, developers would donate thousands of acres to the public. In a letter Tuesday, GL offered 300 acres for a flowway and 200 acres for a park. To meet a requirement that half the open space must be public, GL counts "landscape buffers" and "water views along open spaces with pedestrian trails."

A provision to be considered for the first time Monday would allow GL to build its most conventional and least rural product -- zero-lot line homes -- on land next to the sugar fields of the vast Everglades Agricultural Area. For 10 years, nearby residents have struggled to have the county's plan reflect their desires. That plan now offers only hollow promises to "protect the rural character" and "retain and enhance important rural values." On Monday, the commission will reveal whose desires matter more: those of most residents or GL Homes.

When 'pass' means 'fail'

Grading systems should be logical. Being rational isn't such a bad idea, either. The collision between Gov. Bush's A+ grading system and the federal No Child Left Behind scheme continues to produce an illogical, irrational pile of wreckage.

The problem, as critics have noted often, is that both grading systems are based on Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test scores, but they come to ridiculously different conclusions. Sixty-two percent of state schools flunked or, more politely, "failed to make adequate yearly progress" under NCLB. But 37 percent of those "failing" schools did well enough to earn an A or B under Gov. Bush's rules. Talk about whiplash.

High-poverty schools that fail under NCLB can be required to take very expensive remedial steps, including hiring tutors and busing students to "better" schools. Gov. Bush and Florida Education Commissioner John Winn tried to paper over the silliness by inventing a new name -- "provisional" adequate progress -- and by asking the U.S. Department of Education to waive sanctions against A and B schools that flunk NCLB. Instead, the feds offered to let some, but not all, schools and students avoid penalties. Last week, Mr. Winn correctly rejected that strange offer.

Just a few bad scores can trigger failure under NCLB. Identifying such problems is good -- particularly if they are affecting a particular group of students -- but why "fail" the whole school? Meanwhile, Gov. Bush's grades ignore such basics as history courses and foreign language. Palm Beach Superintendent Art Johnson says, "It's always going to be a problem unless the two systems are aligned." Aligned, yes. But each also needs to be improved.

Don't sell out the public when selling off Mecca

The effort to bring The Scripps Research Institute to Palm Beach County has been developer-driven from the start. Now, commissioners would cement that mistake by selling the 1,920-acre site to developers. There's no problem with seeking bids to find out what the land is worth, but commissioners are letting profits subvert the goal of economic transformation.

Not that it's so easy to argue that commissioners are competent to do the development themselves. Even on their best behavior, the commissioners' political calculations top development concerns. At their worst, they are petty and vindictive. If they sell, the public still will count on this group that has allowed the Browardization of much of Palm Beach County to restrain a developer's impulse for a quick return. The chosen developer must be in for the long haul, not the quick buck.

Commissioners allowed secret negotiations by a few select negotiators to lead them to the wrong site. It's no coincidence that the commission agreed to seek out private developers after Lennar Homes consultant Greg Fagan, who was instrumental in steering Scripps to the remote Mecca Farms grove, publicly suggested the step. One factor -- to ensure secrecy for potential tenants -- exposes an interest in limiting public scrutiny, not a good idea when the public is providing the seed money. The best argument for selling: It shifts the risk from the county to the private sector, while possibly covering the county's $60 million land investment, its $140 million commitment to Scripps and the cost of internal roads, landscaping and drainage lakes.

The key is that the commission aim high. Commission Chairman Tony Masilotti went off Tuesday on the need for a broad approach in requesting proposals from developers. He couldn't be more wrong. The county needs to narrow the request so developers know what's expected of them. It's the county's opportunity to require that bid teams include major national developers with experience in research laboratories. It's a chance to give extra points for meeting the county's design standards, including assuring a significant public space modeled on the National Mall in Washington; establishing a 247-acre flowway to move water to the Loxahatchee River; and building a "village," not another suburban office park. The county can meet one of its most pressing needs by dictating that developers finance lab space for start-up companies. Finally, the request is where the county can let builders know that this is not an opportunity to turn quick profits with gated communities for commuters. Many of the site's 2,000 homes must be priced for graduate students, clerical workers and visiting professors.

It's a seller's market. Not only are land values rising rapidly but the commission already has agreed to zoning that converts the remote grove to a downtown. That's like taking an otherwise ordinary football and getting it signed by Dan Marino and Don Shula. If the bids don't meet expectations, commissioners don't have to sell. In short, commissioners have no reason to demand anything less than the best. It's not strictly about money. The project's quality will help determine whether biotech companies will come, which is, after all, the main idea.

Phishing for jail time

The 2004 Can Spam Act that Congress rushed to pass has failed to keep computer inboxes from overflowing with unsolicited electronic mail that wastes time and money, spoils efficiency and spreads viruses. Because the real objective was to supercede California's and other states' toothy penalties that were about to take effect, the law's impact was to tell purveyors how they can spam. Florida followed with its own law whose $500 civil fine hasn't proved a deterrent.

Fortunately, the scammers who have forced users to delete thousands of bulk e-mail solicitations soon may have to stop hitting the "send" button. The Slam Spam bill that state Rep. Ari Porth, D-Coral Springs, is filing in the House and Sen. Dave Aronberg, D-Greenacres, is filing in the Senate would add criminal penalties of up to five years in prison to the existing state law.

It's child's play for spammers to transmit 10,000 false or misleading commercial e-mail messages in a 24-hour period. Or to e-mail 100,000 recipients in any 30-day period, or 1 million in a year. It's also a simple matter to generate $1,000 in revenue from a spam solicitation, or $50,000 in total revenue from messages to any electronic service provider or subscriber, or to use minors to assist. Exceeding those parameters would evoke a third-degree felony under the legislation that would take effect next July.

In contrast, under the opt-out requirement of the federal law, responding with a request to be removed from spam lists too often has resulted in more of it from solicitors happy to know they got someone's attention. Complaints simply prompt spammers to change e-dresses and continue sending, while unwary victims are taken in by phony "phishing" solicitations.

Sen. Aronberg said he learned while serving as an assistant state attorney general "that civil penalties only go so far. The only thing that dissuades fraudulent activity is criminal penalties -- jail time." The legislation contains the proper caveats. It specifically states that legitimate businesses and computer service providers are not the target, rather such unfair and deceptive trade practices as misleading or come-on subject lines.

With most of the world's junk e-mail originating in Palm Beach County, which he called "ground zero" for spam, Sen. Aronberg is correct that that's not a distinction we want. The Legislature has a responsibility to take substantive action rather than wait for Congress to make spammers log off.

Deficit miserable. Yay!

Republicans want to throw a party because the federal budget deficit for this year may be only $331 billion. Sorry, but it's not time to send home the party-poopers.

Last week, the Congressional Budget Office lowered its estimate for the 2004-2005 deficit by $81 billion. The White House celebrated, but for the country it's more like a temporary improvement from the fiscally horrible to the fiscally miserable. The Concord Coalition, which apparently is home to some of the last Republicans in Washington who believe in fiscal conservatism, calculated that under prevailing tax and spending conditions, deficits would total $5.7 trillion over the next 10 years. "Current fiscal policy," the group's director said, "remains unsustainable."

Contrary to what the Bush administration and GOP leaders in Congress claimed, the tax cuts of 2001 and 2003 don't explain the lower number. In fact, the expiration last year of a business tax cut may have produced as much as $50 billion in unanticipated revenue this year. And as the liberal Center for Budget and Policy Priorities points out, any new federal revenue for 2004-05 would compare well to recent history because revenues fell so much in 2001, 2002 and 2003. The organization points out that federal revenue represents the smallest share of the economy since 1959.

Anti-government ideologues, of course, would like that share to hit zero. And everyone would like a tax cut. But Washington's policies over the past five years have left the nation weaker, not stronger, dependent on the kindness of central bankers in Asia. Meanwhile, President Bush just signed a budget-busting transportation bill. Washington parties on.

In Jerrod Miller case, system failed the public

There was no good way that the Jerrod Miller story could have ended. But his story ended the worst way -- inconclusively.

Much of the blame for that must go to Palm Beach County State Attorney Barry Krischer. Stressing the need for openness, he asked for a public inquest into the Feb. 26 shooting death of the 16-year-old by Delray Beach police officer Darren Cogoni. After the inquest, at which officer Cogoni did not testify, County Judge Debra Moses Stephens found probable cause for a charge of manslaughter. Then Mr. Krischer's office criticized some of Judge Stephens' actions and took the case to a grand jury, which works in secret and did hear testimony from officer Cogoni. On Wednesday, the grand jury declined to indict officer Cogoni.

So Jerrod Miller's family and the rest of the public heard witness after witness at the inquest failing to confirm officer Cogoni's story that he fired because he thought the teen's car was heading toward students gathered for a Saturday night dance at the Delray Full Service Center. Jerrod Miller's family and the rest of the public did not hear directly from officer Cogoni. Only his videotaped statement was played at the inquest. Even given the reluctance of grand juries to indict police officers, the family's frustration is understandable.

Certain aspects of this case made a clear ending especially important. Though there is no evidence that the shooting was racially motivated, race has been a factor because the victim was African-American and the officer is white. The historic tension between minorities and mostly white police departments raised issues in Delray Beach that the city will continue to sort out. Another factor was that Mr. Krischer and officer Cogoni's attorney, Scott Richardson, once defended police officers together. Mr. Richardson also represented Mr. Krischer in a 1986 case when Mr. Krischer was in private practice.

Thursday's release of the voluminous Florida Department of Law Enforcement investigation may offer the public more details. Still more information may come from a civil lawsuit Jerrod Miller's family has filed against the city. If there is a settlement, however, the public may learn little that is new. There also is no guarantee that Darren Cogoni would take the stand.

After the grand jury's decision, Delray Beach correctly fired officer Cogoni. As this newspaper has noted, an indictment or criminal charge is not the only grounds for determining that someone is unfit to be a police officer. Mr. Krischer has pointed out that he teaches aspiring officers not to fire at moving vehicles. It is true that if an uncle had not given car keys to an unlicensed driver and that if he had not driven off, Jerrod Miller would be alive. It also seems true that officer Cogoni at best acted recklessly. Losing one's job is not losing one's life.

Ideally, the system would have resolved this emotional case, even if the result didn't please everyone. Unfortunately, the outcome came closer to confirming suspicions than to dispelling them.

Still cleaning up after FEMA

Federal Emergency Management Agency Director Michael Brown insists that FEMA's response to Florida's four hurricanes will stand as a model for future disaster relief operations. He must mean a model for what not to do.

Evidence of FEMA ineptitude continues to turn up. Florida medical examiners have asked the agency to explain why it paid funeral expenses for dozens of people whose deaths appear not to have been hurricane-related. FEMA counted 306 storm-related deaths last year, but the medical examiners' commission found only 135.

According to a report last week in the Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel, FEMA approved 319 hurricane funeral claims for $1.3 million -- including payments for deaths that occurred months after the storms or out of state. Apparently, FEMA must have believed that some people died from watching hurricane coverage on television. The agency wrote a check for a Palm Beach Gardens man who was recovering from heart surgery and died two days before Frances hit.

Mr. Brown has tried to convince Congress that his agency needs "tweaking," not major reform, but it wasn't until Wednesday that Rep. Clay Shaw, R-Fort Lauderdale, told Palm Beach County that he expects FEMA finally to begin sending $30.2 million in reimbursement for debris pickup. The Solid Waste Authority had imposed a $50 fee to make up the difference. Martin County officials still are trying to figure out how to complete the paperwork for about $35.6 million in requests.

Three of the most useful reform proposals have come from Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla., and congressional conferees should keep them in the homeland security spending bill. Sen. Nelson's amendments would set new uniform guidelines for local governments on what hurricane debris removal would be eligible for federal reimbursements, prohibit FEMA claims inspectors from entering into contracts to buy items from people whose damage they inspect and require FEMA to report to Congress on what changes the agency has made in response to an inspector general's report critical of its payments to people who suffered minimal or no hurricane damage.

Responding to natural disasters is a difficult assignment that always will be subject to second-guessing and dissatisfaction. But by any objective measure, FEMA's performance has been unacceptable.

Warning in the water

This month, Martin County's environmental health director said, "It's just good common sense to avoid algae blooms." Bob Washam aimed his warning at individuals concerned about blue-green algae in the St. Lucie River. With new reports that the algae there and in the West Palm Beach Canal have turned toxic, it's appropriate to make sure that public officials whose policies can affect algae growth also do all they can to avoid algae blooms.

Even algae that isn't toxic can kill fish by depleting oxygen in the water. When toxins develop in the algae, they can cause symptoms similar to hay fever or, in extreme cases, cause liver failure. Health officials admit that they don't sufficiently understand the risks. But when the algae showed up earlier this summer, officials seemed less intent on protecting the public and the waterways and more eager to downplay any threats. State and county agencies were slow to test for toxicity and investigate possible sources of pollutants that might have added to the algae blooms.

There are even bigger policy issues involved, the most important among them being the vast amount of water dumped for flood-control reasons from Lake Okeechobee along the canals and out the St. Lucie estuary. The fresh water taints brackish breeding grounds. It's worse this year because the hurricanes of 2004 dredged up pollutants, including phosphorus that feeds the algae. Obviously, weather is hard to predict, but the South Florida Water Management District ignored requests to dump water earlier, which could have prevented the massive, damaging releases of the past few weeks.

Government must react more quickly and thoroughly when waterways turn green with algae. Algae might make people sick. The appearance of algae, especially in toxic form, is evidence that the environment already is.

Take eyes off Floridians in national ID debate

We clearly are past the point of no return when Dave Kearns, a Silicon Valley consultant, wonders online in Network World which identity management conference he should attend. If it's November in New York, it must be Digital ID World, which bills itself as "the premier identity technology conference." The first European Personal Digital Identity Summit takes place in London the following week, as Costa Rica University hosts the first Annual Digital Identity and Human Rights Symposium with virtualrights.org, "a project toward a set of human rights anticipating a Global Information Society."

We hope those meetings help stem the potential loss of privacy inherent in proposals such as the "digital birth certificate." As The Post reported, in the latest twist on the national ID debate, defense contractor Northrop Grumman is proposing that Florida combine biometric identifiers such as fingerprint and iris scan with a person's name, birthplace and date, and assign the virtual IDs from birth. In theory, law enforcement could verify identities, while private information would remain confidential unless a person authorizes otherwise. The focus is identity rather than anti-terrorism security, the problems as inevitable as the march of technology.

In their pitch Friday to a technology board in hope of winning a state contract, Grumman and others hope to get ahead of the Real ID Act. The law President Bush recently signed established a national standard under which driver licenses will become virtual national ID cards linked to a state and federal database. Those inevitably will be linked with other databases, so what other personal info will get bound up in the data? That's why Congress was wrong to pass what amounted to a backdoor national ID without any debate on the real issue. In addition to the privacy issues, how can 50 state IDs amount to something that will work nationally?

Beyond the policy questions is that Grumman provided no estimate for a program that could become a costly boondoggle. Despite all the security promises, there are huge technical concerns. The claim that in a single step identity theft will become impossible serves only the contractor, and is just a theory until the next cracking of a code by a hacker, or some human lapse or computer malfunction. Given all the confusion, the board should recommend against experimenting on 16 million Floridians. First identify as many bugs as possible with a few smaller trials.

Check on nurseries, too, for pesticide violations

According to the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, the state's nurseries violate federal pesticide regulations more than farm fields and other agricultural sites.

Last year, inspectors found 46 percent of the nurseries they inspected in violation of one or more pesticide law, compared with 33 percent of the state's fruit and vegetable farms. The Farmworker Association of Florida filed 123 complaints with the state this year, and most of them were at nurseries, not farms. Nurseries have grown exponentially -- the state has at least 4,161 -- because of the population and construction boom. The demand for plants to landscape new housing and commercial developments has drawn more than 35,000 people into jobs at nurseries.

Many nursery employees are new immigrants from Mexico and Central America, and the conditions in which they work are often more conducive to pesticide exposure than those in the fields. Nursery workers tend to spray pesticides in confined areas without maintaining safe buffer zones. Because of the rapid growth, too many employers have not taken the time to give employees adequate training. Language barriers are always a problem. Some workers, often undocumented, live in substandard housing on nursery property and are exposed to the pesticides they spray 24 hours a day. Farmworker advocates believe that the training and conditions on farms are generally better than at many nurseries, though the distinction is dubious.

A series of reports in The Post has shown that despite rising numbers of complaints from workers with symptoms of toxic exposure, the state remains indifferent to effective regulation of the industry. At any one time, only about 20 inspectors are on the job and trying to monitor the state's thousands of agriculture operations. Victims seeking compensation from civil courts have a hard time proving their cases because of the difficulty collecting evidence and linking illness to exposure. Many victims won't complain for fear of losing their jobs or other retaliation from employers. People without legal immigration status are reluctant to come forward.

Without stronger state regulation to prevent abuses, workers have no protection other than that which employers decide to give them. Hardworking people who are helping Florida's economy deserve better from the Legislature.

DCF goes cheap, again

The Florida Department of Children and Families calls it equity. But there's nothing fair about a new policy that takes state-paid attorneys from abused, neglected or abandoned children who need legal representation in hearings to declare them dependent on the state, to terminate their parents' rights or to reunify them with their families.

Nearly two months after the policy that robs children in some DCF districts in the name of helping others elsewhere took effect, officials claim that they do not know how each district is affected. "Currently, we are in a transition period," DCF Communications Director Zoraya Suarez said, "however, we anticipate that the reallocation of attorneys and paraprofessionals will result in a reduction of caseloads for the districts that are significantly higher than the state average."

Although state officials in Tallahassee claim ignorance of their own policy, the district that includes Martin and St. Lucie counties has been expecting three additional attorneys and a paralegal. It now has eight attorneys and 1,276 cases. But Palm Beach County's Child Welfare Legal Services department expects to lose half of its staff. Ms. Suarez uses snide semantics to explain the loss of 13 attorneys and paralegals in Palm Beach County: "This is not a cut but a reallocation of vacant positions and resources."

DCF already has dumped one crucial position onto Child and Family Connections, the private agency hired to handle foster-care in Palm Beach County. The agency is seeking a "diligent search staff person," responsible for trying to find a child's birth parents to determine whether they are interested in raising their child or whether the state should try to terminate parental rights. Without a diligent search for the birth parents, children get stuck in foster care.

Martin and St. Lucie are among the DCF districts that need more lawyers to reduce what a Florida Bar review called "impossibly high caseloads" -- but not at the expense of Palm Beach County and others that are relying on local taxpayers and private benefactors to improve the system. Last year, Palm Beach's DCF office used a grant to hire "3.5 private attorneys" to catch up on court orders and reduce the caseloads to an average of 99 per lawyer.

The policy that aims to resolve the shortage of lawyers in some districts by taking lawyers from other districts will re-create backlogs in districts that have struggled to erase them. In language DCF understands: That's not fixing the problem, just reallocating it.

Restated Iraq mission: A credible constitution

Now, it's time for Arm-Twisting, the sequel.

In the past few weeks before Monday's deadline, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad all pressured Iraq's interim government to produce a constitution. The one-week delay they got instead is a disappointment but not a disaster.

For public consumption, Dr. Rice said, "This is an Iraqi process, not an American process." Let's hope the administration is less diplomatic in private with Iraqi negotiators. If it is an "Iraqi process," there is considerable U.S. investment in it, including hundreds of billions of dollars spent -- in many cases misspent, as auditors are reporting -- and nearly 2,000 troops lost along with almost 14,000 wounded. Whether that investment has been worth it will depend, in large part, on the substance of Iraq's constitution. Because so much rides on them, those details should be included in the constitution presented to Iraqi voters for ratification.

The disagreements that forced Monday's delay were over serious subjects. Decided the wrong way, they could make a travesty of the administration's restated mission -- after the failure to find weapons of mass destruction -- to establish a liberal democracy in Iraq. Delegates could not agree on the role of Islam. Some want Islamic law to be Iraq's sole source of justice. Some insist that laws governing women's rights -- including marriage, divorce and inheritance -- should be limited to those allowed by her family's religion. Another faction insists that a council of Shiite ayatollahs should be granted independence from the Iraqi government, which would be powerless to interfere with the council's decrees.

Equally serious disagreements involve the rights of Kurds in three northern provinces to secede from Iraq and a proposal by the Shiite majority to form a superstate of nine provinces in the south, where Shiites dominate. Turkey, a NATO member and U.S. ally that has been battling Kurdish separatists, would have a fit if Iraq essentially approved an independent Kurdistan. And there is little doubt that a powerful Shiite entity would form an alliance with Iran; those ties have started to grow. Such a federal division would hand most oil wealth to Kurds and Shiites and leave the minority Sunnis, whom Saddam Hussein favored, without land or resources, creating conditions for civil war.

Faced with possible embarrassment, the Bush administration might prefer a say-nothing constitution that leaves major decisions until after a substantial number of U.S. troops can come home ahead of next year's U.S. congressional elections. That would be a cop-out. There is no guarantee that Iraqis won't alter their constitution after U.S. troops leave. But if they at least begin with a credible document, the U.S. can apply pressure -- continued flow of reconstruction money, for example -- to encourage Iraq to stick with it.

It's an Iraqi process, but it's an American project. The constitution offers the last chance to salvage something from the mistaken decision to invade.

New Opera Place libretto

West Palm Beach planners opposed the Opera Place condominium project from the outset. They argued that the 26-story project, at Quadrille Boulevard and Lakeview Avenue, would be out of context with the buildings nearby, which are capped at 15 or 20 stories.

But BAP Development of Miami won over Mayor Lois Frankel and city commissioners by offering an attractive incentive. Willy Bermello, BAP's president and CEO, promised to build a $9 million theater on the bottom floors for Florida Stage, which was looking to move from Manalapan. Mr. Bermello said the city could buy that part of the building at a discounted price of about $6 million, then lease it and some of the parking to the theater troupe. Supporters said the theater could have an economic impact of $90 million over its first 10 years of operation. The promise of the theater trumped objections about height; the building would be the tallest built downtown since the master plan was adopted in 1996.

Last week, though, Florida Stage said that it was backing out of the deal. Louis Tyrrell, the troupe's founder and producing director, said construction costs had risen to about $13 million, and the project no longer was feasible. Mayor Frankel said her administration would find a replacement. Mr. Bermello said he is committed to lining up a new tenant within 30 days; if one cannot be found, he is willing to build the theater, own it and then keep looking for an operator for as long as it takes to find one.

But the city can't afford to chart its future with just good intentions. Commissioners would not have approved the 26-story plan without Florida Stage's inclusion. Since the theater has pulled out, it's curtains for the approval. Mr. Bermello and the city should start over and deal with realities, not promises. Commissioners also should be wary of replacing Florida Stage with a lesser substitute. An art gallery or a small theatrical company wouldn't do. The city made a trade-off -- added height for economic impact and cultural amenity -- and shouldn't sell itself short.

Mayor Frankel saw the project as an opportunity to redefine height limits downtown and challenge the relevance of the master plan. If Opera Place got 26 stories, the city could sell its tent site for more stories and more money, too. CityPlace developers asked for extra height after seeing Opera Place's request approved. Without Florida Stage, commissioners have no justification to allow a precedent to be built.

Enlarging Delray's menu

Restaurants have revived downtown Delray Beach. But can Atlantic Avenue live on restaurants alone? Delray Beach is right to ask.

The community redevelopment agency has hired consultant Blount Hunter to advise the city on how to attract more retail businesses. Mr. Hunter's study will assess the commercial balance along all of Atlantic Avenue and present recommendations. That study will go to the city commission, which will hold public discussion. Downtown business groups and Chamber of Commerce recruiters also are involved. The process may take a year.

In an interview, Mr. Hunter said his impression is that downtown Delray, about 15 years after the city's resurgence began, has become restaurant-heavy. "Of course, everything is relative," he said. "In this case, I think things are just a little bit out of whack." In looking at the area's vital signs, he notes that the sales-per-square-foot numbers for restaurants are "not what I would like." One potential problem is that customers will want to do more than dine out or go to a club.

CRA Director Diane Colonna says the agency wants to focus more on certain sections than on all of downtown. "We're looking at whether there should be more of a mix on a few blocks," she said. A good example is the stretch between Swinton Avenue and Second Avenue. "There isn't much else except restaurants." And while there are offices along Atlantic, Ms. Colonna points out that they don't draw people the way retailers do. She heard complaints when the old Huber's drugstore closed and was replaced by a bank, and people also tell her that they would like a gourmet grocer and a shoe store.

But can a built-up downtown with higher rents attract businesses in the era of big-box suburban retailers who like open land and lower rents? Mr. Hunter acknowledges that Delray Beach is "swimming upstream." He suggests, though, that the city could create a loan fund to assist business owners. He and Ms. Colonna say the city could make changes in parking regulations. Ms. Colonna says the city could restrict new offices in some places or offer the old library site, city-owned, to a business.

Correctly, no one is talking about a moratorium on restaurants. "They have been a good first step," Mr. Hunter says, "but retailers need far more reason to locate in an area." The success of those restaurants has given Delray Beach advantages. Trying to expand the downtown's appeal is the next logical step.

End Wellington's parking restrictions

In the year and a half since Wellington passed an unrealistically strict parking ordinance, more than 3,650 people have been warned or ticketed for parking in swales, on the street or across sidewalks. The "radical shift," as a sheriff's criminal justice planner called it, is obvious when you consider that in 2003, before the new law, just 276 tickets were issued. It is time for the village council to revise the rules.

Large families are especially penalized. Short on garage and driveway space but not on drivers, some parents are suspected of rotating cars, racking up warnings before being forced to pay an actual $25 citation. The problem is acute in new subdivisions, such as Olympia, that have small lots and large homes. "I get calls from people," Councilman and Olympia resident Carmine Priore told The Post, "desperate calls, saying 'I'm going to have a party,' or 'I've got some family visiting.' The ordinance just doesn't work well."

A majority of the five council members have said that they're willing to revisit the rules, which took effect in October 2003. The village justified the rules because of a need for improved safety and drainage: When cars block sidewalks, kids are forced into the streets. Children can dart out from behind cars parked in the streets. Car tires can damage swales.

The village tries to defend the 24-hour ban on swale parking by saying that there is an exemption for temporary events such as parties and most people get warnings. But tickets still have gone out. And the all-day, all-night ban on a car straddling a sidewalk in front of a home is more impractical. When it will rain is less predictable than when children will play outside. If the parking ordinance truly was motivated by safety and not aesthetics, the village could suspend enforcement of the sidewalk-straddling and on-street parking late at night -- from nightfall to 7 a.m., for example, when children can be expected to be inside.

A nighttime exception would help countless current residents who bought homes in a family-friendly village that allows, if not encourages, tightly packed subdivisions with little yard or driveway space. The village may consider density restrictions for new developments, but should allow ample public vetting of any proposed rules.

Ideally, the council would eliminate these parking restrictions. The council at least should revise the ordinance to better accommodate those with more vehicles than vacant space.

Pump up conservation

How high's the gas price, Mama?

Almost three bucks high and rising.

How high's the gas price, Papa?

Almost three bucks high and rising.

In the past couple of weeks, the cost of a fill-up may have temporarily displaced real estate as the main topic of South Florida water-cooler and backyard-barbecue conversations. Statewide, gasoline prices are up 20 cents in just a month. The average price of unleaded is nearly 33 percent higher than a year ago. And as with the heat, there's no relief in sight.

So it was confusing and frustrating for Americans last week to see President Bush sign an energy bill that even he and other supporters acknowledge won't do much to lower fuel costs. One reason is that the bill will do almost nothing to promote energy conservation. And now, the Bush administration seems prepared to do even less.

According to The New York Times, the White House wants to exempt Hummers and other supersized sport-utility vehicles from higher fuel economy regulations. The federal government is preparing new standards for the light-truck category into which these vehicles fall. American automakers have a monopoly on this perhaps declining market, which foreign competitors have not entered.

At the same time, roughly 44 percent of America's daily oil consumption goes for gasoline. Any sensible approach to energy would include a phased-in but strong increase in vehicle fuel mileage. This would be true even if gas prices begin to come down after the summer travel rush and the by-now predictable refinery problems. It's the only idea we got left that'll float.

Bush's answers on Iraq aren't those he's giving

Cindy Sheehan wants answers from President Bush about why he sent her son and so many others to fight and die in Iraq. The president has refused to meet with Ms. Sheehan at her camp outside his ranch. But Ms. Sheehan is getting answers all the same.

As comments by White House officials in Sunday's Washington Post reinforce, President Bush sent troops to Iraq based on miscalculations and unrealistic expectations. Even as Mr. Bush insisted last week that despite Ms. Sheehan's protest he needs to remain steadfast, his administration has been retreating from its goals in Iraq.

Administration planners didn't expect an insurgency. When a vicious one developed anyway, Mr. Bush vowed to defeat it before turning security over to an all-Iraqi army. Now, as one official told the Post: "We've said we won't leave a day before it's necessary. But necessary... for them or for us? When we finally depart, it will probably be for us." Promises to give Iraq's new democracy a solid economic base also have eroded. "We're nowhere near that," said Wayne White, former head of the State Department's Iraq intelligence team. "State industries, electricity are all below what they were before we got there." With oil production below goals -- and below output before the U.S. invasion -- the myth that Iraq could pay for its own reconstruction has been exposed.

But potentially the most serious retreat involves Iraq's political future. With no weapons to justify his decision to invade, President Bush claimed that Iraq could be the democratic cornerstone on which the rest of the region could build. That would require a constitution that protects women's rights, allows for religious freedom and diversity outside strict Islam and avoids civil war by settling the nation's ethnic and territorial differences.

It is no surprise that Iraqis have struggled to write their constitution. The surprise, as U.S. commanders continue to talk of a substantial American withdrawal next year, is the growing likelihood that any constitution will do, if it provides cover for U.S. departure. Mr. White, now at the Middle East Institute, told the Post that "getting out is going to be a more important consideration than the original goals were. They were unrealistic."

With August already the deadliest month in Iraq for members of the Reserve and National Guard, more mothers and fathers will be asking questions of President Bush. His goal is to avoid answering them. That, too, is unrealistic.

Keep land for boat ramp

Palm Beach County commissioners have taken the wind out of Riviera Beach yacht builder John Staluppi's sails. He wants to complete a deal to buy waterfront land from the county. After years of ineptitude -- or political manipulation -- the county is pursuing the better option of keeping the land for a public boat ramp.

That's been the county's goal since it bought the property in 1996. But in 1999, Mr. Staluppi hired former County Administrator John Sansbury to help buy the site. Due to county bumbling -- or egregious wrongdoing -- the county's appraisal valued the land as if it could not accommodate ramps or docks. In 2002, Mr. Staluppi paid $1.45 million for 3 acres with the right to buy the remaining 3.7 acres. He was the only bidder. Another prospective buyer didn't get paperwork in time to bid. Riviera Beach still expected a public boat ramp.

Mr. Staluppi has amassed land around his business in the Riviera Beach redevelopment area. He has been a contributor to commission campaigns dating to 1988, when he spent more than $25,000 in a failed effort to oust Commissioner Karen Marcus. Late last year, Commissioner Mary McCarty, at Mr. Staluppi's request, suggested that the time to sell the rest of the land for $3 million had arrived. In 2003, Mr. Staluppi donated $2,500 to Commissioner McCarty to help her with legal bills. (Investigators somehow determined that the contribution didn't violate any ethics rules.) After the land deal received coverage in The Palm Beach Post, however, commissioners balked. They couldn't be viewed as unloading prime waterfront land -- offering the fastest, closest path to the Atlantic -- less than a year after voters approved a $50 million bond issue to help preserve more public waterfront access. So today, commissioners will consider leasing the property to Mr. Staluppi for $9,000 a month, a temporary step to make money off his use of the land for boat storage.

While the county seeks a boat-ramp permit, commissioners need to set a deadline. Over nearly 10 years, the county has done more to ensure that Mr. Staluppi controls this land than the public. If the public truly comes first, the county will make the boat ramp, not John Staluppi, the priority.

Raise builders' impact fees

Today, the Palm Beach County Commission will consider raising by 18 percent the fees the county charges builders. The increase makes sense because that money helps build parks, schools, libraries and roads. Those growth-related costs are rising along with the rest of South Florida construction.

The so-called "impact fees" are reviewed every two years. Consultant James Nicholas, a University of Florida professor, calculated the need to raise the fee for homes with 1,400 to 1,999 square feet to $10,030 from $8,520, which will be the state's third-highest, behind Osceola and Collier counties. The fee for the increasingly popular larger homes, up to 3,600 square feet, will rise 17 percent to $11,368.

Home builders will complain that the fee is another blow to affordable housing. But more than half of new homes in Palm Beach County sell for more than $500,000. An increase of $1,600 won't drive those buyers away. Martin County just raised impact fees significantly. Finding ways to build less costly homes may include subsidizing those fees. But it's only fair that new homeowners in Florida help meet the rising cost of growth.

Deny this rigged raise

The goodbye tour for Palm Beach County's tourism chief continues today with another attempt to give him a huge bonus that would jack up his pay before retirement. County commissioners have been skeptical. Lacking a recommendation from the usually compliant Tourist Development Council, they have ample reason to say no.

The proposal is for Warren "Mac" McLaughlin to get a $26,000 bonus that would lift his pay to $182,000, with a chance in October for another boost to $192,000. That's suspiciously close to the first proposal of $203,000, withdrawn after The Post revealed it in February.

At 71, Mr. McLaughlin has defenders within the industry and has worked for the county for decades. But he's trying to make up too much ground too quickly. His board convened a salary review that left out nearby locales such as Broward County, where the tourism chief makes less, before concluding that Mr. McLaughlin is underpaid. Mr. McLaughlin served on a three-member "project team" that worked closely with the consultants.

Mr. McLaughlin already receives a $12,000 bonus. When he finally says goodbye, he won't have been underpaid.

Able Danger could taint Sept. 11 probe, report

Americans might have learned more than a year ago about a secret program dubbed Able Danger. That we only now are hearing about it calls into question the ability -- or perhaps the willingness -- of official Washington to find and fix what went wrong with U.S. intelligence before the 9/11 attacks.

Curt Weldon, a Republican congressman from Pennsylvania, is demanding information about what look like two terrible lapses. First, a secret military operation known as Able Danger might have identified Mohamed Atta and three other hijackers as a threat at least a year before the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. Atta, an Al-Qaeda operative who spent some time in Palm Beach County, was the plot ringleader. But the military allegedly refused to notify the FBI of what it knew.

Second, a military officer told staff members for the 9/11 Commission about Able Danger, but the panel -- which was supposed to provide a definitive investigation -- did not include any reference to Able Danger in the report it released just over a year ago.

Able Danger has the potential to be the most heartbreaking of the missed opportunities to avert 9/11, topping FBI headquarters' refusal just before 9/11 to grant pleas from field agents to investigate Zacarias Moussaoui's strange behavior at a Minneapolis flight school.

Able Danger also has the potential to be embarrassing. Blame would not fall solely on the Bush administration -- the chronology is confused, and Atta might have been identified during the Clinton administration -- but it is worth noting that the 9/11 Commission's report came in an election year and that the commission's staff director, Philip Zelikow, previously had been an adviser to Condoleezza Rice.

Members of the now-disbanded commission last week downplayed the information's reliability and importance and cited the chronological inconsistencies as an excuse for ignoring Able Danger. Former commission chairman Thomas Kean and vice chairman Lee Hamilton said that a military official who made the claim had no documentation. But there are questions about possible destruction of documents. The Bush administration opposed the 9/11 Commission and probably won't be inclined to revive anything like it. If official Washington refuses to get to the bottom of Able Danger, the effect could be to enable danger.

Say no to Vavrus traffic

If Palm Beach County commissioners sell for $2 million their votes to allow the massive development proposed for the Vavrus Ranch in Palm Beach Gardens, they're selling the public short.

Yet, that's what County Administrator Bob Weisman is recommending when he says the county should take a $2 million payout that depends on commissioners granting exemptions from traffic rules. The money would come from the Economic Development Research Institute, a not-for-profit set up by the county-financed Business Development Board.

The EDRI has a contract to buy part of the Vavrus ranch for $51 million. It immediately will sell the land to home builders Lennar and Centex for $102 million, a whopping $51 million profit, but only if the land can be developed. One hurdle to a development likely to produce hundreds of millions in sales: the county's refusal to grant exemptions for the expected traffic onslaught. Without the exemptions, there's no development, and without development, there's no $51 million windfall.

The county refused last year to grant the exemptions, expressing misgivings over the intensity of the proposed Vavrus project and fear that it would compete for customers with the county's biotech development on the neighboring Mecca Farms. Mr. Weisman, the county's representative on the EDRI board, said the money is not a payoff but a gesture of the EDRI's desire to work with the county. Without the county's help, the EDRI knows it gets nothing. The effort also can be viewed as a divide-and-conquer strategy. First, EDRI must win over the county; later, it must persuade Palm Beach Gardens, which controls the site's zoning.

The $2 million is meant to cover interest costs on a $13 million loan to build a second temporary building for The Scripps Research Institute. Florida Atlantic University will repay $12 million and own the building. The county has pledged to pay $1 million plus interest. So the county would be taking money to pay for development where it belongs -- at FAU's Abacoa campus in Jupiter -- in exchange for giving up its rights to stop development where it doesn't belong -- at the Vavrus Ranch. How is that a good deal for the taxpayers?

The county needs to weigh the traffic exemption on its merits. Some commissioners already recognize that the EDRI's windfall is due to the county's $400 million commitment to Scripps, not the EDRI's business acumen. As such, $2 million is selling the county about $49 million short.

OK morning-after pill

Because the Bush administration repeatedly has blocked emergency contraception from being sold over the counter, lawmakers in individual states are seeking their own Plan B. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration's decision on access to the morning-after pill will determine whether more states need to follow the lead of Massachusetts and New York.

With enough votes to overturn Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney's veto, that legislature last month approved a bill that would require hospitals to offer emergency contraception to rape victims and allow some pharmacists to dispense the pill without a prescription. Despite bipartisan support, New York Gov. George Pataki also vetoed his legislature's bill, which would have allowed a nurse or pharmacist to dispense the pill without a prescription. Neither state measure would have been necessary if the FDA had followed the recommendations of two of its own advisory panels, which in December voted in favor of the emergency contraception pill being sold over the counter.

The safety of the pill, which prevents pregnancy within 72 hours of unprotected sex, is not in question. In addition to the advisory panels, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists and other major health groups all support wider access to the pill.

The delay is typically ideological. The administration proclaims a desire to reduce the number of abortions while blocking efforts, such as Plan B -- the brand name for the only FDA-approved emergency contraceptive -- that would reduce the need for abortions. Similarly, the Bush administration butted in on the Supreme Court this month, submitting a brief that supports a New Hampshire law that requires pregnant girls to notify their parents 48 hours before an abortion. There is no exception for girls whose health is at risk.

The emergency contraception is not routine contraception. Nor is it an abortifacent. The availability of contraception does not increase teen promiscuity. It helps prevent unwanted pregnancies -- which those on either side of the abortion-rights debate should agree is the fundamental issue.

Abortions will cease when unwanted pregnancies cease. If the Bush administration is committed to reducing the number of abortions, it will stop blocking easier access to Plan B.

Bring in state to verify that 'We are not broke'

Riviera Beach has been such a politically insular city for so long that city council members don't perceive how it resonates when they utter such wisdom as: "Yes, we have spent $7 million and don't have a cotton-pickin' thing to show for it. But we are not broke."

The fact that developers continue lining up rather than running away, despite gems such as that one from council chairwoman Liz Wade, shows why the state must step in to protect Riviera's long-disadvantaged residents before tens of millions more dollars are frittered away in the name of the city's multibillion-dollar redevelopment plan.

The Community Redevelopment Agency, which Ms. Wade also chairs, has $7 million in loans due this year yet not enough money to repay them. That belies the fresh start Riviera got in 1999 with a new council, which also serves as the CRA board, led by retired Judge Edward Rodgers, Donald Wilson and Mayor Michael Brown.

After years of political dysfunction, the city had come back to credibility. But no one, including Ms. Wade, who also was elected then, has provided the leadership to reform Riviera's business practices. Today, it's back to petty politics; the CRA board recently voted Mayor Brown and his criticisms off the dais, a seat he is suing to regain.

A real crime would be choice properties plucked and money frittered away as residents continue to suffer. Yet official arrogance, incompetence and indifference continue to fuel speculation that the city is for sale to the right developer with the right money who greases the right palms to get the right waterfront plums. With Judge Rodgers the only remaining voice of sanity on the CRA, the original aim of redevelopment to improve residents' lives no longer is clear.

Letting Marriott build multi-tower high-rises at the Ocean Mall on Singer Island, for example, is inconsistent with city and regional planning, and with the officials' oft-stated promises never to give away the public beach.

The revitalization plan should continue to be the subject of debate. But it seems viable only with the proper oversight to right the financial ship. Riviera officials have managed to unite redevelopment advocates and eminent-domain activists in a coalition that agrees only on 1) everyone being treated fairly in the plan that some estimates say could displace thousands, and 2) a subpoena-powered state look at the city's finances.

City officials prefer to ignore them and look ahead to Tuesday's discussion of developers' proposals for the downtown waterfront portion of the CRA. Judge Rodgers is correct that the state intervention only can help. The fact that his colleagues so oppose it shows how much it's needed.

Protect waterfront access in Stuart, Martin County

Stuart's decision to choose associates of Miami Dolphins owner Wayne Huizenga to develop a marina on city property southwest of the Roosevelt Bridge could be a good one. But the city and Mr. Huizenga's group will have to agree to make public access to the waterfront the project's No. 1 priority.

Mr. Huizenga did an excellent job with plans for the Rybovich Spencer boatyard in a residential section of West Palm Beach. The makeover not only includes the 220 condos, restaurant and marine stores that will be moneymakers but also expands the public docks and adds a public promenade.

Stuart and Martin County need to pay attention to protecting the public's waterfront rights as Mr. Huizenga and his corporations take over more and more of the Treasure Coast. Mr. Huizenga now has major landholdings in Port St. Lucie and waterfront property in Jensen Beach and Stuart. Last week, a firm headed by Mr. Huizenga's son bought out Vought Aircraft Industries to become the major tenant at Witham Field, Martin County's airport.

The city's selection of Mr. Huizenga's group to develop the Stuart marina, on the site of the former Rayz Restaurant at the foot of the bridge, is the start of a long process. The preliminary proposal includes a marina with more than 100 slips, a small amphitheater, one building for a restaurant and retail shops, and possibly a second building with more shops.

But Stuart City Manager Dave Collier accurately pinpoints the problems with making a place truly open to the public. Public should not mean, for example, that docks and restaurants are open only to those who can afford the price. Stuart commissioners also have expressed a desire to make the restaurant open to casually dressed diners rather than an expensive eatery with valet parking, catering only to the rich.

"It is public land," Commissioner Mary Hutchinson said, "so we have to work on keeping it open to the public. One of my goals is to keep a vista, a green space so you still can see the river from the sidewalk... it has to be a place everybody can go."

That's the right spirit for negotiating an agreement with the developers. Stuart also could work with Martin County for more ideas on protection. Martin officials are developing plans to protect existing marinas and land zoned for commercial waterfront use with a "no net loss" policy. If marina land converts to residential use (usually condominiums), the developer must provide comparable waterfront land nearby to replace the lost marina.

While the growth boom continues, Martin County and Stuart must be extra vigilant in protecting the public's waterfront rights.

Pull back, leap forward

Today marks the end of Tisha B'Av, the three-week period in Judaism to mourn for all the tragedies that have befallen the Jewish people. In most years, Tisha B'Av speaks most emotionally to the destruction of the first and second temples. This year, some misguided Israelis will add what begins Monday to the other tragedies.

That would be Israel's evacuation from the Gaza Strip, land it has occupied since defeating Egypt, Syria and Jordan in the 1967 war. If that week was a moment of truth for the country, so is this week -- if in a different and ironic way.

For decades, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon built and expanded Gaza and West Bank settlements, saying that the policy was in the national interest. In December 2003, however, Mr. Sharon proposed that Israel leave all 21 settlements in Gaza and four in the West Bank because doing so would be in the national interest. On Monday and Tuesday, the Israeli army will help any of the roughly 8,500 Gaza settlers -- living among 1.3 million Palestinians -- who willingly leave their homes to be resettled in Israel. Starting Wednesday, remaining settlers will be evicted.

Analysts correctly have described this as a gauge of Israel's soul. Since it became a nation in 1948, Israel has been a Jewish state with a secular government. The strongest opponents of withdrawal from Gaza -- and, at some point, from larger settlements in the West Bank -- are ultra-Orthodox Jews who believe that the occupied land comes from God. If they block the withdrawal that a majority of Israelis support, it will suggest that the democracy is in danger of becoming a theocracy.

Withdrawal is the national preoccupation. One Internet game allows players to be Mr. Sharon on a bulldozer, faced with Gaza children blocking the road. They wear the protesters' orange -- to symbolize Gaza's citrus groves -- and can be dispersed with clubs or kicks. Former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Mr. Sharon's political rival in the Likud Party, resigned as finance minister last week and called on the country to "stop this evil." This month, a Jewish terrorist murdered four Israeli Arabs on a bus, probably hoping that the attack would disrupt withdrawal. There is serious talk of civil war.

Many factors will determine whether evacuation succeeds. Israelis must confront what may be violent settlers. Palestinians must establish security and not allow Gaza to become a haven for terrorists. Egypt, which borders southern Gaza, must stop terrorists from shipping arms to Gaza. Other nations and groups such as the World Bank must help the Palestinians develop Gaza. The hope is that Israel's retreat will become an advance toward peace, and an occasion not to mourn but to celebrate.

Last guy in line pays

For the second time in less than a year, Florida Power & Light will ask for a rate increase because of higher oil and natural gas prices. FPL wants to pass on those added costs to its customers.

In November, the state Public Service Commission allowed FPL to add $3.49 to the average monthly bill. At the time, a barrel of oil was going for between $45 and $50. Last week, the price bounced around $65. FPL hasn't determined what this number will be, but the utility guesses at a proposed increase of between 12 percent and 16 percent. FPL wants to pass on more fuel costs to customers.

Last month, FPL got permission to pass on $441.9 million in storm recovery costs to customers. In eight days, FPL will ask the Public Service Commission to let it pass on to customers $430 million a year of the cost from growth. This year, the Legislature allowed BellSouth to pass on to customers repair costs from future hurricanes.

Insurance companies have been raising premiums, passing on what they say are costs from the 2004 hurricanes. Last week, Nationwide became the latest company to announce that it would write no new homeowner policies. Restricting access is another way for an insurer to pass on costs to customers.

Then there's the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which is refusing to reimburse some counties and cities for the cost of removing hurricane debris from gated communities. If FEMA prevails, government may have to pass some of those costs to customers, also known as taxpayers.

FPL, BellSouth and the insurers are publicly traded companies with the means to raise money. Wages in Florida remain below the national average. Customers can't raise the extra money. Customers are getting a lousy deal. Pass it on.

Post sex offender data online to clarify individual risk

Florida's free, online Sex Offender/Predator Registry is helpful for residents, especially parents who want to know whether someone who violated a minor is in their neighborhood. Changes planned by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement will make the site more useful, and the Legislature can improve it even more by expanding the amount of information posted.

As The Post reported Monday, an adult who groped an adult at a clothing-optional musical festival is treated the same on the registry as an adult who raped a 12-year-old boy 50 times or more in two months. The Web site does not give nearly all of the details the FDLE has, including: the age and gender of the victim, the date and place of the conviction, the offender's occupation and employer. Sexual offenders also must note tattoos or other identifying marks when they register with the FDLE or local sheriff's office within 48 hours of being released from prison or changing addresses.

Such details would help both parents and non-pedophiliac, job-seeking offenders. The FDLE plans to add the date and county of conviction, the court case number and either a link to the clerk of court's Web site or a phone number and address. The agency also will list the number of the statute that governs the offender's particular crime and a link that allows people to read the legal definition of the crime.

Rather than bog citizens down with legalese, the site should post a summary of the crime. That information is available from individual clerks. Obviously, the paperwork required to handle the nearly 35,000 sex offenders and predators registered in this state is burdensome. But the task should not be too cumbersome to overcome. The recent addition of a neighborhood search system that identifies any registered offenders or predators within a 5-mile radius of a particular address indicates the potential.

Florida was the first to post offenders on a Web site in 1997, and last month was among the first 20 states listed on the Justice Department's new national public registry (www.nsopr.gov). A disclaimer is noted by FDLE at http://www3.fdle.state.fl.us/sopu/: "This information is made available to assist interested persons in forming their own risk assessments based on the offender's personal circumstances and conviction history."

To make informed "risk assessments," Floridians need more information.

Limited options on Iran

When the world is playing bad cop/good cop with a country that probably is rushing to build a nuclear bomb, there comes a time when at least one of the cops has to start making progress. With Iran, it's starting to look as if only the bomb-builder is making progress.

Part of the problem is that Iran, the bomb-builder, knows that the bad cop -- that would be the United States -- can't play the heavy to the hilt. Bogged down battling the insurgency in Iraq, the Bush administration doesn't have a lot of military options. That probably accounts for decidedly mixed messages. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld last week said Iraqi insurgents were getting deadly materials from Iran. He stopped short of saying Iran's government was behind the shipments but blamed Tehran for failing to stop them.

Iran shrugged, and so in fact did many in the Iraqi government whose new Shiite leaders have close ties to Iran. If Mr. Rumsfeld thought his warning might make Iran think twice about resuming operations at a uranium enrichment plant, he was mistaken.

President Bush, who has declared Iran part of the Axis of Evil, said Iran had made a mistake but also said it was good news that new Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad had indicated he still was open to talks. But how good can the news be if the goal was to keep Iran from reopening the plant and if there is no timeline for talks?

Europeans have been similarly wishy-washy. France, Germany and Britain thought they were close to a deal to provide Iran economic and technical help to develop a nuclear energy program that is verifiably peaceful. And there were threats of calling on the United Nations to impose sanctions. But even after Iran broke the international monitoring seals at its Isfahan plant, the International Atomic Energy Agency merely expressed "serious concern" and gave Iran until Sept. 3 to think about things.

Most likely, Iran simply is intent on building its bomb. Recent examples, set by Pakistan and India, indicate that a successful nuclear program results in exactly the international clout Iran seeks. The same logic is driving North Korea, to the extent that country's leader is governed by logic.

A recent U.S. assessment concluded Iran is 10 years away from developing nuclear weapons technology. Perhaps. But Iran clearly isn't afraid of the bad cop today and will be even less afraid if it ever achieves its goal.

Stop FAMU obstruction

The faculty union hardly was sounding alarms about the urgent financial-accountability problems at Florida A&M University before interim President Castell Bryant was brought in to fix them. So the union president should do more to be part of the solution than join in browbeating Dr. Bryant.

Dr. Bryant didn't stop at the 41 employees fired and 24 referred for criminal investigation in June after a payroll audit uncovered "ghost" employees getting paid for doing no work and nearly 300 others receiving two or more checks. But another dozen who were laid off actually were fired, said union President William Tucker, for being nonteaching faculty who often earned more than assistant professors. He threatened to file an unfair labor practice complaint citing a contract clause requiring that the union be notified 30 days before a person is going to be laid off. Dr. Bryant's view, he said, is that during the years FAMU's financial woes were brewing, people were given salaries out of proportion with what they do. But is that, he questions, "the fault of the person who got the salary?"

It's the same what's-in-it-for-me mentality that got a million-dollar donor of a chair at FAMU's law school that very chair at a $100,000-plus salary while doing no noticeable work. It's how former football coach Billy Joe had the gumption to sue over being fired, only to have Dr. Bryant's action justified, again, days later when an NCAA investigation cited the program for rampant violations. It's consistent with the faculty union chief going ballistic last week because he and other professors weren't consulted before Dr. Bryant lured Debra Austin, chancellor of the state university system, to serve as FAMU's provost and vice president for academic affairs and be first in line to be the permanent successor.

The good news, meanwhile, is that Dr. Bryant appears to have the support of FAMU's trustees and lay Rattlers all over Florida who say her shake-up is way overdue. They, at least, recognize that she is an interim CEO performing the unique duty of correcting what audits and investigations finally are documenting at the prestigious, historically African-American university. She repeatedly has stated she is not a candidate for the permanent job, but she should be allowed to do her job. There has been no indication that Dr. Bryant has anything other than FAMU's best interest in mind. Can her naysayers say the same?

McCarty devalues ethics in trying to beat the rap

When confronted a year ago, County Commissioner Mary McCarty acknowledged her mistake in taking $22,500 in gifts of more than $100 from developers with business before the commission. She argued that she didn't know she was breaking state law, and vowed to repay the money.

At the end of a yearlong ethics probe, Commissioner McCarty has subverted her stated good intentions with technicalities. The developers and lobbyists who gave her the money weren't technically developers and lobbyists, her lawyer argued -- successfully. In a report that goes to the Commission on Ethics next month, the state accepted Commissioner McCarty's contention that she took only $3,750 illegally, money she has repaid.

Dismissed from the report is $4,500 -- in nine $500 checks -- linked to home builder Kenco Ltd. As reported by The Post more than a year ago, Kenco received a controversial zoning approval in December 2002, 10 months before delivering the checks. The state couldn't find those records. Ignored was the $2,500 gift from Riviera Beach developer John Staluppi three months after Commissioner McCarty cast a vote that benefited Mr. Staluppi's property. She remains an advocate for Mr. Staluppi, whose effort to lease waterfront land from the county is up for a vote next week.

Commissioner McCarty never should have turned to developers to help her out of legal troubles caused by bad judgment and ambition. After the 2000 election, she agreed to head a committee that aimed to oust three Florida Supreme Court justices who issued rulings that Republicans didn't like. When that committee violated election law, Commissioner McCarty spent $50,000 on attorneys to defend herself. Rather than pay her bill, she passed it on to those who appear before her. Commissioner McCarty says she personally solicited no contributions -- the state ethics probe agreed -- but her legal defense woes were publicized on a Republican Party Web site. Did she seek the party's help? The investigator doesn't answer that question. Although forewarned about the $100 limit by her attorney, Commissioner McCarty ignored it.

Commissioner McCarty is not in the clear. The Commission on Ethics can insist on stiff penalties. State Attorney Barry Krischer needs to take the matter before a criminal grand jury, as he promised to do, so the state's less-than-thorough probe can get a full airing. At some point, Commissioner McCarty deserves the same technical scrutiny she regularly dishes out.

A death raises questions

Family, friends, co-workers and the community gave a Martin County fire chief a firefighter's funeral last week, a send-off recognizing his 18 years in the department. But questions surround the death of Fire Rescue Battalion Chief Charles "Chip" O'Hara, 37, who died in an off-duty boating accident on the Intracoastal Waterway. His personal watercraft collided with a ski boat driven by another firefighter and friend, Walter Rothe.

Accounts of witnesses in a preliminary state report indicated that horseplay on the water between the two may have been a factor in the crash. The ski boat hit Chief O'Hara after he cut in front of it, throwing him into the water, where the boat propeller inflicted severe cuts on his leg. According to the medical examiner, the injury apparently caused his death.

Investigators found empty beer cans and bottles on Mr. Rothe's 21-foot Checkmate boat. Lab results on blood samples to determine whether either man had alcohol in his system won't be available for several weeks. Mr. Rothe's driver license is suspended because of a 2004 conviction for driving under the influence. Mr. Rothe also was convicted of DUI in 1998 and entered a plea agreement to careless driving and leaving the scene of an accident in 2000, according to court records.

While no license is required to drive a boat, however, Mr. Rothe can drive a firetruck with a provisional license he was granted for work purposes. Under state law, he can't drive an ambulance for three years after the 2004 DUI conviction. Each case of an employee with a DUI conviction is evaluated individually, according to Steve Wolfberg, Martin's emergency services director. Because Mr. Rothe had an excellent performance record with the department, he was given a second chance.

While it is too soon to draw conclusions about the accident, it is the correct time to question the emergency services policies regarding employees with DUI convictions. For example, just how many employees with DUI convictions are driving Martin firetrucks? Shouldn't the policy take public safety into account? How useful is a fire-rescue employee who can't drive an ambulance? Are others overworked to fill the gap left by the employee with a restricted license?

The department should review its policies regarding employees who have received a DUI conviction. It should be cause for suspension or dismissal, not a reduction in work. Further, allowing an employee with restricted driving privileges to drive a public vehicle seems risky.

As algae blooms in river, so does agency evasion

Patches of algae, fed by nutrients stirred up by last summer's hurricanes, appeared in Lake Okeechobee three months ago. By the end of June, algae showed up in the St. Lucie River. On June 28, the Florida Department of Environmental Protection was "keeping an eye on" the river's algae blooms.

The same day, the South Florida Water Management District increased discharges from the lake into the river, and soon algae blanketed the river's South Fork. Mark Perry, director of the Florida Oceanographic Society, worried that the algae might be toxic and sent a sample to the state to be tested on July 12. Four days later, discharges doubled, health officials warned people to stay out of the river, and blue-green algae were everywhere.

On Aug. 1, state biologists said they would study river algae for toxicity "in the next few weeks." By Aug. 5, they knew lake algae were toxic and Mr. Perry's sample was not. On Wednesday, when algae appeared in a canal beside the water district's West Palm Beach headquarters, the state promised to find out if it's toxic -- by next week. Algae can turn toxic in stagnant water, which is why it should be tested in several areas more than once.

Water district officials have dismissed citizen concerns, and reacted angrily Wednesday to suggestions from Richard Harvey, who directs the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency office in West Palm Beach, that the same algae could create problems in reservoirs the district plans to build to hold excess lake water. The reservoirs are vital to Everglades restoration.

DEP, the water district and the Martin County Health Department not only have failed to do adequate testing but have been callous. DEP waited three months to test any algae. DEP never took samples from the lake and the river at several sites -- even after scientists found toxins in lake samples. Mr. Perry provided the only river sample the agency has tested. Water district officials repeat unfounded assurances that the algae aren't a problem; without tests, they can't know. The Martin Health Department's only action has been to post warnings.

The algae can produce poisons that cause problems ranging from skin irritation to liver failure. The agencies charged with protecting the public seem more worried about protecting their image.

Motorcyle madness: Require proper insurance if helmets aren't required.

A simple experiment: Put on a helmet. Hit yourself in the head with a hammer. Take off the helmet. Hit yourself in the head with a hammer. Which hurts more?

It is one thing for motorcycle riders to argue that state legislators are not their nannies and should not make them wear a helmet. It is another thing for them to argue -- as many do -- that helmets do not make riding significantly safer. A recent National Highway Traffic Safety Administration study showed an 81 percent increase in motorcycle deaths since Florida repealed its helmet law in 2000. Predictably, James Reichenbach, president of American Bikers Aimed Toward Education, blew it off, blaming the increase on an increase in ridership.

Ridership is a factor, but a second just-released study by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety found that after Gov. Bush signed the no-helmet law, the death rate per 1,000 motorcycle crashes grew from 30.8 to 38.8. Increased ridership might explain an increase in deaths. It doesn't explain an increase in the death rate.

Not that numbers or common sense matter to motorcycle riders who abhor helmets. Neither, when the no-helmet law passed, did they matter to lawmakers or Gov. Bush. They were too caught up in the bogus "personal freedom" argument. In the name of public safety, lawmakers restrict personal freedom all the time. In particular, personal freedom has had little to do with what's allowed on the highway. Speed limits, air bags, DUI laws all restrict what motorists can do.

There's also the big issue of personal responsibility. Lawmakers required helmetless riders to carry a mere $10,000 in health insurance. The federal study put the average cost of treating a head injury at $45,602. In many cases, taxpayers and emergency rooms make up the difference. Overall, the cost for hospitals to treat head injuries rose from $21 million to $50 million in the 30 months after the no-helmet law went into effect.

Gov. Bush and the Legislature should require all motorcycle riders to wear helmets. But if they don't think preventing fatal or incapacitating injuries is the state's responsibility, they at least should require riders to carry sufficient insurance. Not only do many motorcycle riders shunning helmets want to hit themselves in the head with a hammer, they expect everyone else to pick up the medical bills.

FAU the perfect home for Spielberg's Holocaust archives

Florida Atlantic University serves an area that hosts a large and growing Jewish community. FAU President Frank Brogan is the former head of a state task force on Holocaust education. The state requires that all students in kindergarten through 12th grade study the Holocaust.

Still, landing the world's largest video collection of Holocaust survivor testimonies is one of the bigger catches ever at FAU. Compliments of filmmaker Steven Spielberg, the massive archive will feature about 4,500 videotaped testimonies, many from South Florida residents. The project will benefit historians, students and teachers. But it is fitting that the general public also will be able to view the archive and search its detailed database for thousands of topics.

The initiative to protect this significant visual history is a great addition to what already has been happening at FAU. In 1995, the university launched its Judaic Studies Program. Today, FAU boasts the largest-and-still-growing Yiddish collection in the Southeast. Yiddish once was the vernacular of 90 percent of the world's Eastern European, or Ashkenazi, Jews, and FAU joined other venues as repositories for irreplaceable books, photographs and other treasures before the history is lost or forgotten. The collection will ensure that the literature is accessible even to new generations of non-Yiddish speakers who may not know the origin of such words as klutz and mishmash.

FAU now has the opportunity not only to protect but also provide high-speed access to the entire Shoah Visual History Foundation Archive of 52,000 testimonies of survivors, rescuers and other witnesses to the Holocaust. Mr. Spielberg founded the Shoah project in 1994, after researching his Academy Award-winning film Schindler's List and documenting the lives of as many Holocaust survivors as possible. But the archive could be viewed in its entirety only at the foundation's California headquarters. FAU becomes the first affiliated site where the entire archive can be viewed via the Florida LambdaRail high-speed computer network, which can accommodate giant video files.

Supporters of the archive, which university officials said should be in place in about a year, were correct that the survivors' invaluable testimonies belong in a teaching institution. They're also correct that it's a privilege for FAU and a coup for a state that has mandated the teaching of African-American and Holocaust history.

Doctors' meddling unhealthy for contracts

For some people in Florida, it's hard enough to see a doctor. Now, the Florida Medical Association wants to make it harder for people to see a lawyer when doctors make a mistake.

Last year, the venue for the years-old medical malpractice insurance fight between the state's physicians and lawyers was the voting precinct. Two constitutional amendments -- one from the medical association and one from the Academy of Florida Trial Lawyers -- attempted to have voters solve the malpractice dispute that the Legislature has inadequately refereed. The constitution is the worst venue, but both sides have plenty of money, and voters approved both amendments.

The doctors don't like Amendment 7, which requires that patients be able to see all records of all "adverse incidents" involving doctors and hospitals, or Amendment 8, which requires that any physician found guilty of three acts of malpractice lose his or her license to practice in Florida. And the doctors were ready to campaign against a lawyer-backed amendment that didn't make the ballot. It would have required physicians to "charge the same fee for the same health-care service, procedure or treatment."

Yet the medical association wants to determine how much clients will pay their attorneys. A third amendment, Amendment 3, changed the fee schedule for medical malpractice cases. Under state Supreme Court rules, lawyers had been eligible for 40 percent of the first $1 million from a settlement or jury award. Amendment 3 dropped that to 25 percent of the first $250,000 and 10 percent of anything over $250,000. A $400,000 fee is thus lowered to $137,500.

The trial lawyers argue correctly that adherence to the new rate would make many cases too expensive to take, given all the work that goes into malpractice litigation. So most malpractice lawyers are asking clients to waive the new schedule. That would seem to be a voluntary, private agreement, but the FMA wants the Supreme Court to enforce the new fee schedule. The justices will hear the case in the fall.

As usual, the medical association is being hypocritical. It argues that the lawyers want to undermine the voters' will, but the FMA got the Legislature to water down the rules for implementing Amendment 7 and to not write any rules for Amendment 8. The Legislature also declined to write rules for Amendment 3 because it involves private contracts. Neither side is virtuous in this fight, but at the moment, the medical association is farther from virtue than the trial bar.

Crist on the bandwagon, late

Charlie Crist announced his official irritation with gasoline prices in April 2004, when drivers were paying about $1.80 a gallon. The next month, he began issuing subpoenas to oil company executives. Two months ago, with motorists paying about $2.25 a gallon, Florida's attorney general delivered the news that his investigation had found no evidence of oil price manipulation. The average price statewide is now about $2.35 per gallon.

We bring this up to quiet any enthusiasm Floridians might have now that Mr. Crist has announced his intention to oppose Florida Power & Light's third rate request in less than a year. This one, which goes before the Public Service Commission on Aug. 22, would allow the utility to raise the basic rate. It makes up about 40 percent of the average monthly bill, and it hasn't been raised in two decades. Basically, FPL wants customers to help pay the cost of FPL having more customers in its fast-growing, 34-county service area. The increase would average $3 to $4 per month and raise $30 million a year.

For the seriously engaged, this issue has been on the horizon for months. Mr. Crist had every chance to get engaged himself. Not until last week, however, did he announce that his office would intervene, and only because AARP and the Florida Retail Federation had asked. Public Counsel Harold McLean, who represents consumers before the Public Service Commission, calculates that FPL actually should cut rates by nearly $700 million. Mr. Crist said only that he wants to "keep this rate increase from going into effect."

It's a pattern. Two years ago, consumer groups opposed to the proposed record local phone-rate increase asked Mr. Crist to help them fight it in the Legislature. The attorney general responded that he would "monitor" the bill. Once it had become law, written in a way that made the increase almost impossible to deny, Mr. Crist jumped in. He did not prevent the PSC from approving it, or the Florida Supreme Court from upholding it.

But Mr. Crist wants to ride his record into the Governor's Mansion, so he must appear to be standing up for consumers. The question is why it takes him so long to stand up.

Looking for new words, but missing new policy

The Bush administration never has cared whether its words match the facts. "Weapons of mass destruction" -- like the words that sought to link Saddam Hussein to 9/11 -- described things that did not exist. The White House substituted new words when President Bush needed new justifications.

Recently, however, the administration's efforts to change the subject by changing the words has not worked. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and others suddenly stopped talking about a "global war on terror" and claimed instead to be involved in "a global struggle against violent extremism." Interesting substitution. Would Gen. Sherman have said, "Struggle is hell"? Would movie fans have been eager to see Struggle of the Worlds? Would we consider our parents and grandparents the Greatest Generation if they had won World Struggle II?

Why the sudden exercise in creative phraseology? Any president who talks about a shooting war involving the United States is expected to get on with winning it decisively. It was a war when the U.S. took on the Taliban in Afghanistan just months after 9/11, and it was a war when U.S. troops rolled so easily across Iraq in the spring of 2003. But while Afghanistan clearly was part of a "global war on terror," Iraq wasn't -- although President Bush continued to insist that it was. In a tragic but foreseeable twist, the war in Iraq has become a generator of and magnet for the terrorism the president has promised to defeat. After the fact, the "war on terror" and the war on Iraqi insurgents have become inseparable.

While the terrorists have come to Iraq, however, victory has not. The rallying power of "war on terrorism," which President Bush used to win reelection in 2004, has faded as more Americans -- now about 60 percent -- have lost confidence in his handling of the shooting war in Iraq. There haven't been enough U.S. and "coalition" troops to make the real war go away. There certainly haven't been enough Iraqi troops. So Mr. Rumsfeld and others, including national security adviser Stephen Hadley (Iraq is "more than just a military war on terror") and Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Richard Myers ("If you call it a war, then you think of people in uniform as being the solution") joined the effort to make the war go away with words.

If there's no war, it doesn't have to be won. The United States can't pull troops out of Iraq next year -- in time for midterm elections -- if there's a war on, especially if it's part of a larger "war." But if it's just a struggle, then Iraqis, even if they're not completely trained, should be able to carry on without us.

Semantics didn't work. Poll numbers kept dropping. So last week, President Bush insisted again that the country faces a "war on terror." Since terror is a tactic, one analyst said, that's like declaring war on flanking maneuvers. Good comparison. Mr. Bush is trying to outflank rising sentiment that invading Iraq did not make Americans safer from terrorism.

Let FSU be Seminoles

The organization that sets ethical standards for college athletics is picking the wrong fight in banning schools with Indian mascots from competing in postseason events.

With its ruling last week, the National Collegiate Athletics Association assumes that all Native Americans consider the use of their names "hostile and abusive" and want the practice stopped. Try telling that to the Seminole Tribe of Florida, which for a half-century has had an amicable and profitable relationship with Florida State University. In June, the tribal council endorsed FSU's use of the Seminoles' name. The tribe gets royalties from merchandise sales, and the deal includes scholarships and courses on Seminole history. The tribe consults with the university to ensure that FSU portrays the image in a respectful manner and avoids stereotypes. FSU has promised to reflect the "indomitable spirit" of the Seminoles, and the tribe has been satisfied. What problem is the NCAA trying to correct?

Some Native Americans correctly will take offense at some sports mascots, particularly those in the pros -- the use of Redskins by Washington's football franchise and the distorted caricature of Chief Wahoo by baseball's Cleveland Indians. Eighteen colleges have Indian mascots; besides Florida State, three others are used at major universities: the Illinois Fighting Illini, the Utah Utes and the Central Michigan Chippewas. While none of the three has encountered significant opposition, Southeastern Oklahoma State's use of Savages certainly deserves it.

The NCAA should consider a case-by-case review of mascots instead of a sanctimonious stand with a blanket decree. At Florida State, the potential loss of postseason revenues will hurt the Seminole Tribe that the NCAA claims it's trying to protect. Times change, and so do sensitivities.

Eighty years ago, some immigrants were offended when Notre Dame decided to call itself the Fighting Irish. Now, Irish-Americans would be offended if the name changed. The NCAA has real problems to solve -- among them low graduation rates, drug abuse and athletes' criminal conduct -- and has no reason to start telling all Native Americans what should offend them.

John H. Johnson served presidents, and his people

Understanding African-Americans' need for their well-rounded news and the entrepreneurial potential of that market was the unsurpassed vision of the Johnson Publishing Co.'s pioneering founder. The accomplishments of "the world's largest African-American owned and operated publishing company" are magnified by the fact that crime news was all most white-owned media carried about blacks in the Jim Crow world of 1942, when he established his Negro Digest.

But John H. Johnson, who died Monday at 87, never lost focus on portraying all the dynamics of the black American experience. By the time his newsy Jet weekly magazine debuted in 1951, the family-oriented Ebony magazine that he and his wife, Eunice, had established in 1945 was surging to its 12 million-monthly readership. The magazines have chronicled black accomplishment and progress in every endeavor. Meanwhile, Mr. Johnson's marketing savvy took him from giving people what they need to selling them what they want. The Ebony Fashion Fair is the world's largest traveling fashion show, with its Fashion Fair Cosmetics tops worldwide in makeup and skin care for women of color.

It took Mr. Johnson years of perseverance to attract any of the major advertisers that now covet black business. Yet he established a multimillion-dollar empire and a brand trusted worldwide while serving presidents and family and dignifying his people. His 11-story Michigan Avenue corporate home was the first building constructed in Chicago's Loop by an African-American man since Jean Baptiste Pointe DuSable built his log cabin along the Chicago River in 1722.

The industry giant stayed focused during the civil rights and black power movements, and unlike too many recent exploiters never descended into misogyny to sell. His legacy lives in the company's CEO, daughter Linda Johnson Rice, and his example that linked the advocacy of Frederick Douglass with business acumen and inspired countless others. For more than 60 years, Mr. Johnson proved that he was a race man in all the best senses.

State moving too slowly to repay the unrepayable

A year ago this Friday, Wilton Dedge walked out of prison after the state stole 22 years from him. Luis Diaz can understand the feeling.

Last week, the onetime fry cook from Miami-Dade County was released after 26 years in wrongful custody. Like Wilton Dedge, Mr. Diaz had been sent to prison for rape. Like Wilton Dedge, Mr. Diaz obtained his freedom through DNA testing and the perseverance of public-interest lawyers. And like Wilton Dedge, Mr. Diaz faces a huge battle to receive compensation for what the state of Florida took.

It is hardly a secret that the state's justice system can make mistakes in a big way. Florida leads the nation in exonerations from Death Row. The Legislature had a chance this year to address such tragedies. A bill that would have provided compensation of up to $5 million for wrongful incarceration sailed through the Senate. The legislation had strict standards, requiring a finding of "actual innocence" to make someone eligible. Even with Wilton Dedge's case as fresh and overwhelming evidence, however, House leaders wouldn't even bring up the bill for a vote. Also, the House version would have capped compensation at $200,000.

To seek compensation, of course, the person has to be cleared. That requires evidence. In Mr. Diaz's case, only two semen samples remained in 2003 from victims of the so-called Bird Road Rapist. The DNA from the samples matched, but the match was not to Mr. Diaz. Until Friday, the state was moving toward a deadline of Oct. 1, after which prosecutors would not have had to preserve evidence that could be subject to DNA testing. The Legislature could have extended the deadline, but, again, refused to err on the side of justice. So Gov. Bush signed an executive order that will require preservation of evidence in relevant cases.

Unfortunately, the governor's order cannot accomplish the related function of extending the same Oct. 1 deadline by which defendants can petition for DNA testing. The Legislature needs to address that issue, along with compensation. The next chance could come if there is a special session on slot machines.

Rather than wait for an unresponsive Legislature, Wilton Dedge is suing the state to recover nearly $5 million in lost wages, money his parents spent for his defense -- they raided their retirement fund, among other things -- and payment for his Innocence Project attorneys. He contends that wrongful incarceration amounted to a "taking," a legal argument usually reserved for cases when government seizes, or makes decisions involving, property. Whether in the courts or the Legislature, Wilton Dedge deserves to win. So does Luis Diaz.

Reject stealth attempt to open western Martin

The Martin County Commission has two items on today's agenda that commissioners could best deal with by doing nothing.

The first is a little-noticed proposal to change Martin's growth plan to ease rules for extending water and sewer lines to rural areas. The change would allow water and sewer service anywhere within the county's secondary urban services area, with the commission's consent. It is one of those details that often escape public notice. The county draws a line -- the urban services boundary -- beyond which it won't provide utility service. A second line defines the secondary urban services district, an area of about 10,000 acres between urban and agricultural areas. Water and sewer services are not provided in the secondary area. The prohibition blocks most development.

The commission has made some exceptions to the rule and extended water and sewer to that secondary district -- but only if the land is within 660 feet of the primary urban services district, the area where the highest-density development is allowed. The change commissioners consider today, and which the county staff recommends, would allow the connection no matter how far the property is from the primary urban area. As Martin County Conservation Alliance Chairwoman Donna Melzer notes in a letter to the commission, the change "creates destructive loopholes" and would allow the commission to bypass the growth plan rules with a simple vote.

The change could effectively eliminate the urban services boundary, whose purpose is to contain urban growth within a specific area. If the county extends water and sewer service to rural areas, the rural areas become urban. Increased numbers of homes are allowed where, in essence, they were prohibited before by lack of services. Soon, the growth boundary no longer exists.

The second item the commission can skip? Hiring a consultant to make plans for Martin's agricultural lands. The consultants vying for the job want $300,000 and $500,000 respectively, for an eight-month study. The growth plan allows 20-acre ranchettes on the land, a solution that has held off sprawl development for two decades. The commission should ensure that former Commissioner Mary Dawson, who owns land in western Martin, is not part of the project. Membership in her Friends of Martin County is heavily weighted toward developers, landowners and others who could profit from changes to rules on western lands.

Both the growth plan amendment and the rural lands study are back-door attempts to grease the way for more growth. Neither is a way to make public policy.

Masilotti's malpractice

How does the health department benefit the 1.2 million residents of Palm Beach County? Since County Commission Chairman Tony Masilotti showed that he is ignorant on this subject, let us count the ways -- alphabetically:

• Anthrax. AIDS -- nearly 2,500 patients. Air quality.

• Body piercing parlors. Biomedical waste. Beach water sampling.

• Clinics -- more than 300,000 patient services.

• Disease-tracking. Dental care. Death records.

• Encephalitis. Flu. Food-borne illnesses. Family planning. Gonorrhea. Healthy Start/Healthy Families. Hepatitis. Inspections of private schools, adult living homes, drug treatment facilities.

• Jobs -- more than 1,000. Kidney disease. Lead poisoning. Lyme disease.

• Mosquito-borne diseases. Nutrition services. Nurses. Overseas-travel immunizations.

• Prevention. Rabies. Restaurants.

• Sexually transmitted diseases. Swimming pools. Septic tanks.

• Tuberculosis. Teen pregnancy.

• Uninsured residents. Vaccines -- more than 74,000. Water quality. West Nile virus.

In refusing to pay a $6.8 million shortfall in construction money for a new health department administration building, Commissioner Masilotti said during a July 6 budget workshop: "I work for the residents in Palm Beach County. They're the ones paying the bill for the state to own a building on state property that they will get no return on."

More than 150 employees had to be moved after hurricanes caused flooding or leaking in the four buildings. Commissioner Masilotti also ignores the fact that his western district stands to lose the most if, as he suggested, the health-care district, instead of the county commission, has to replace the asbestos-laden, roach-infested administration building. The health-care district already is paying $9.5 million toward the building, and any more could take money from the district's proposed $21 million investment in replacing the only hospital serving Glades residents.

If the county commission does not approve the money by Oct. 1, the cost to taxpayers only will grow. The health department could lose the site and the design plans; employees probably would have to move to rented space (a 2003 study found none suitable); and the valuable downtown land the buildings now sit on would remain unavailable for private, taxable redevelopment. A $7 million, one-year jump in costs deserves a critical look. But the value of the county's health department is not in question.

Jennings: News, not melodrama

Friends say Peter Jennings was always sensitive about dropping out of high school to pursue a career in broadcast journalism.

Though he lacked formal education, he became a distinguished scholar in the affairs of an often dangerous world. Mr. Jennings, died from lung cancer Sunday at 67, and most Americans will remember him as the anchorman who was the face of ABC News. Some may not recall that it was his remarkable record of work as a foreign correspondent that gave him the credibility to report to the nation five nights a week for 22 years.

He was in Berlin during the 1960s when the Wall was going up, and he was there again in 1989 when it came down. He established the first U.S. television news bureau in the Arab world as bureau chief in Beirut. He was in Gdansk, Poland, as the Solidarity labor movement overthrew the communist government. He was in Munich in 1972 and covered the tragic Summer Olympics when terrorists took Israeli athletes hostage and murdered them. He reported from Vietnam, Red Square and all 50 states.

Mr. Jennings' stylish demeanor never detracted from substance. Perhaps his finest work came after the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon. He was on the air for 60 hours and handled the most difficult assignment with aplomb, guiding Americans through the turbulent days without slipping into melodrama or speculation. Mr. Jennings didn't pretend to know something he didn't. He provided context without dispensing irrelevance. All those years of work in the field taught him how to strike the right balance between restraint and poignancy. Viewers knew they were in good hands. His colleagues at ABC and throughout the industry knew they had someone to emulate.

Though he dropped out of school, Mr. Jennings stayed a student for the rest of his life. The most important lesson he absorbed was how to sit in the anchor's chair and remain a newsman.

Planning, calm crucial to stretch fuel in storm

Gov. Bush is jawboning gasoline suppliers and Florida residents in an attempt to keep both on the right side of the fine line that separates preparation and desperation. To be successful, he and other officials will have to follow through with more detailed plans to carry out some of his good suggestions.

Because gasoline comes into Florida on barges, storms that churn up the ocean and close port facilities interrupt the supply just when demand peaks. The practical solution is to stockpile fuel or contract for a dedicated supply, which many municipalities, hospitals and other entities already are doing in response to last year's storms.

One problem is that individuals will be doing the same to feed the vastly greater number of generators waiting in garages. But most won't stockpile in earnest until a storm approaches, which is the same time people are topping off their tanks and/or filling up to evacuate -- all of which exacerbates shortages. Gov. Bush says generator owners "need a three-day supply, not a month." Given last year's extended power failures, utilities will have to build a better record before Gov. Bush can sell that advice.

Gov. Bush also is right that most people must plan to ride out storms at home or in shelters nearby. Even if gasoline were plentiful, traffic in a mass evacuation from South Florida easily could become unmanageable. Given the trauma from last year's storms, he and local disaster officials have to say it early and often to prevent a stampede when the warning cone -- aka the cone of death -- swallows Florida's urban areas.

Of course, for most people, gasoline is a matter of comfort, not a matter of life and death. Having sufficient fuel to run generators even has a downside, in that so many people will be operating the machines without sufficient experience to keep from killing or injuring themselves with the fumes.

Stockpiling fuel and learning to position supplies close to potential disaster areas as storms approach are the most immediate practical solutions. Gov. Bush has floated the idea of a pipeline for Florida. Pipelines always raise serious environmental issues. It's nothing to rush into, and, in fact, even if a pipeline were the preferred solution, it would take years to approve, plan and build. A pipeline isn't something Florida desperately needs, particularly when there are quicker and better ways to be prepared.

Give Keys state protection

On Tuesday, Gov. Bush and his Cabinet have a chance to slow the rate of growth and increase protections for land and water in Florida's beautiful Keys. They should make that choice -- for all the residents and tourists who have loved swimming, diving, fishing, snorkeling and boating in Keys waters and exploring what remains of the islands' natural areas.

The Keys' coral reef, third largest in the world, has more than 6,000 species of marine life, including dolphins, manatees, sea turtles and tropical fish. Small Key deer, unique to the island chain, and other endangered species live in the few remaining undeveloped areas. A favorite getaway for Palm Beach County and Treasure Coast residents, these Florida islands are a national treasure.

But badly managed growth threatens the Keys, home to more than 80,000 residents and host to 3 million visitors each year. Designated an area of critical state concern, the Keys have problems that could have been helped by letting the state supervise local decisions. The state has proved unwilling to enforce measures that could stave off more development and protect the habitat that remains.

The $6 million Florida Keys Carrrying Capacity Study showed overdevelopment's toll: waters contaminated by sewage, frequent beach closings, failure to preserve habitats wildlife needs to survive. Monroe County has reneged on promises of habitat protection and wastewater treatment financing -- and the state has allowed it.

Four environmental groups have appealed to the state to make Monroe County keep its promises, but the state repeatedly has backed off and let the county increase permits allowing development, repeal habitat protection requirements and disregard the state's own Carrying Capacity Study.

On Tuesday, Gov. Bush and the Cabinet will decide whether to agree with state staff members who recommend, once again, letting Monroe County have its way with unbridled growth and inadequate environmental protection. Or, Florida's top officials can side with those asking the state to acknowledge the problems, uphold its own rules and make the county keep its promises. It's an easy choice: Save paradise.

Paint this crime serious

No more Normel?

At least until a copycat criminal surfaces, everyone can celebrate the arrests last week of the vandals who sheriff's deputies believe tag their work "Normel."

Anyone driving through Palm Beach County probably has noticed the graffiti spray-painted and etched on public and private property -- bridges, signs, walls and construction equipment -- causing an estimated $1.2 million in damages in the past five years.

The vandals forced transportation planners to get innovative with "no-climb" fences and poles and a waxy coating for bridges and walls that can be pressure-washed clean.

Sheriff's deputies have set up a graffiti hot line at 688-4CPU and unveiled a roving "Graffiti Buster" pickup truck. Officers stalked 22-year-old Eric Goertz of Palm Beach Gardens for about 19 hours a day for five weeks. Goertz was charged with eight felonies and 22 misdemeanors, and faces up to 15 years on a felony burglary charge and five years for each of seven criminal mischief charges. Four others also were arrested.

With serious penalties for vandals who claim to be artists, maybe things will get back to normal.

Still room for forgiveness

A few weeks ago, three years after a teen driver killed two girls in a tragic auto accident, the parents of one of the victims took courageous steps to help the community begin to heal.

Tim and Beth Stone, the parents of 14-year-old Sarah Stone, one of the girls who died, reached out to the family of the driver who killed her. But they failed to convince a jury that parents who hosted a teen party where alcohol was available also were responsible for their daughter's death. Stephen Brom-strup, 16, who caused the fatal crash, drank beer at a party hosted by John and Barbara O'Brien before the accident.

Now, the O'Briens have asked a judge to make the Stones pay $184,492 in legal fees and $16,350 in court costs. The Stones' lawyer, Guy Rubin of Stuart, said the Stones sued on behalf of their daughter's estate, which has no money, so the O'Briens' claims cannot be paid.

Mr. and Mrs. Stone have made peace with Bromstrup and his grieving parents, setting a powerful example. The O'Briens convinced a jury they were blameless. Since no money is available, their request for fees seems pointless. To follow the example, they should let it go.

Make Taser use safer by adopting better rules

As the stun guns have come into much wider use, it was inevitable that police would need to refine guidelines for officers equipped with Tasers. Police chiefs in Palm Beach County, learning from experience, have recommended a good set of rules.

Initially, police may have assumed Tasers have virtually no permanent effect even when used repeatedly on the same person. It is safer to assume, as the guidelines suggest, that repeated shocks can cause breathing difficulty. The manufacturer, in a recent bulletin, admits as much. There is no prohibition on repeated shocks, but the caution should cut down on unnecessary use -- which can occur in the heat of a struggle -- by reminding officers to check the suspect's breathing and condition. It often will be possible, as the chiefs note, to quickly subdue the Tasered individual after just one shock.

"Some officers are hitting a suspect repeatedly, and the suspect may not be able to recover," said Boca Raton Police Chief Andrew Scott, who led the committee that proposed the Taser guidelines.

Tasers often are used on suspects high on drugs. For that reason alone, the suggestion that officers call paramedics, if possible, whenever they use a Taser could end up saving lives. In fact, paramedics are at least as likely to be necessary to treat symptoms of overdose as complications from a Taser shock. Although two Palm Beach County men have died recently after being Tasered multiple times, the Taser is not believed to be the cause of death.

Other rules proposed by the committee of the Law Enforcement Planning Council are equally a matter of common sense, yet are necessary for what is a relatively new device. For example, officers should not use a Taser on someone who appears to be 12 or younger. At the other end of the spectrum, elderly and disabled people should give the officer pause. Pregnant women are another special category. Again, using Tasers on such individuals is not prohibited. If a child or elderly person poses a threat to himself or others, the Taser often will remain a better choice than options such as attempting to wrestle a combative person to the ground. Guidelines, used correctly, will preserve Tasers for such situations while helping to prevent abuses that could lead to pressure to take the devices away from officers.

The full Law Enforcement Planning Council, made up of 32 police chiefs and representatives from various state and federal agencies, will be asked in September to endorse the Taser recommendations. Some officials, such as Chief Scott and Sheriff Ric Bradshaw, already plan to implement the rules and retrain officers on Taser use.

Rather than react defensively to Taser deaths, Palm Beach County chiefs are reacting responsibly. The new guidelines, once adopted, will help officers on the front lines and better protect the public -- even those whose behavior earns them a shock.

Lannon has bold plan to boost St. Lucie schools

The St. Lucie County School District has begun an ambitious program to transform the entire system, from academics and buildings to how students are assigned to schools. Superintendent Michael Lannon recently revealed an academic plan, aimed at improving Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test scores and boosting the district's grade from a "C" to a "B" by next year. He wants the county to rank in the state's top 13 school districts within three years. The Port St. Lucie City Council's interest in starting its own charter schools surely helped push the district to improve test scores and teaching methods, though Mr. Lannon has been working on this overhaul for more than a year.

Other changes are in the works. In September, the district will ask taxpayers to renew a half-cent sales tax for construction. A bond issue and increased fees for developers are possibilities next year, to begin raising an estimated $2 billion for new schools needed as thousands of new residents with children flood the county. The district also is working on changes to its "choice" plan that determines which schools children attend. The plan, hailed as a national model when it started in 1991, was supposed to integrate schools while letting parents choose where to enroll children. But the area's rapid growth has turned it into a mass transit system that has parents, particularly in predominantly white Port St. Lucie, angry about long bus rides. Parent surveys are complete; a new program should be in place in 2006.

The teachers union, administrators and the school board are working together on Mr. Lannon's new academic plan. Some changes are simple: Teach items critical to passing FCAT before the test is given. Standardize lessons so a student moving from one school to another will be on about the same page. Students will take tests every nine weeks; those who aren't making the grade will get special help dictated by customized computer software. Experts will provide master lesson plans to help teachers. Schools that have more students on free and reduced-price lunches, an indicator of poverty and lower test scores, will get more help.

Reading is key to the academic redo. The district examined all reading books and methods and chose the best. Rather than any school using six to eight texts and methods, School Board Chairman Judi Miller said, each must use one or two exactly as prescribed. Reading programs target not only elementary schools, where success rates are high, but also middle and high schools, where officials want older students to get the help they need to read.

Tailored specifically to St. Lucie schools' needs, the academic program seems to be what is needed to get the district on track for the boom-time growth it faces. All eyes will be on Mr. Lannon's bold plan. When the residents see the academic plan and a new choice plan working, they are more likely to OK the sales tax, and then to consider bonds and impact fees to meet future needs.

Do pre-K post-mortem

No one expected the launch of a statewide, voluntary prekindergarten program to be problem-free. Nothing involving 150,000 4-year-olds could be.

But as public school districts, private child development centers and state early learning officials focus on implementing what the Legislature gave them, lawmakers should be asking: How do we make this the "high-quality" program voters said they wanted?

It's convenient and diplomatic to blame the hurricanes for the Legislature's December special session to iron out pre-K details, but the truth is lawmakers had three years to plan since voters approved universal pre-K. Because the Legislature allotted roughly $2,500 per child only last spring, several private day-care centers did not agree to offer pre-K until this summer. In addition, many public school districts were shut out because the state unfairly linked their approvals to whether the districts met -- and will continue to meet in future years -- class-size requirements in other grades. When those districts signed on, they were required to give poor students priority, but a lack of information to parents confused matters.

In many areas, there were waiting lists, and preregistration that, unbeknownst to parents, required more work before enrollment. As a result, the Early Learning Office of the Agency for Workforce Innovation has set up a 30-person call center in Tallahassee to remind parents and providers to follow up. Late last week, Palm Beach County was registering and enrolling about 600 children a day.

There are ever-changing levels of capacity. As of late last week, about 92,000 children were registered or enrolled for about 112,000 seats. But if the other 55,000 eligible 4-year-olds enroll, there won't be enough space.

With parents and local centers' input, early-learning coalitions undoubtedly will be able to fix the logistical problems next year. The Legislature should continue to work on the quality of the program.

Lawmakers could start by reinstating the TEACH scholarship program that would help teachers earn at least a child development credential. They also could step up qualifications, making the hope that pre-K teachers will hold a bachelor's degree within 10 years a requirement sooner. Curriculum standards should be reviewed, ensuring sufficient attention to literacy and other skills. And the state should pay for more than 540 hours of instruction, which leaves most centers offering a three-hour program with parents making up the difference for day-care costs.

Preschoolers aren't the only ones who should learn from this year's experiment. Time will prove they also won't be the only ones to benefit from the state's investment.

Harris' colorful theories

Maybe Katherine Harris has been the object of so many conspiracy theories that she now believes she has to create her own.

Last year, at a rally for President Bush in her Gulf Coast congressional district, Rep. Harris told the audience that the Bush administration had prevented "more than 100" terrorist attacks against the United States since Sept. 11, 2001. Rep. Harris learned this startling information, she said, from documents that were "classified... obviously not classified to me... but things I can't go into details about." Among those thwarted attacks, according to Rep. Harris, was an attempt to blow up the power grid of Carmel, Ind., an Indianapolis suburb of about 40,000. Carmel's mayor, Rep. Harris explained, had told her about a man "of Middle Eastern heritage" who had been found with explosives.

In fact, there had been no such plot. In fact, a spokesman said the mayor hadn't talked with Rep. Harris. "Maybe I said too much," said the woman who opens her Senate campaign this week.

The latest plot exposed by the vainglorious Rep. Harris concerns, appropriately, herself. Last week, she told an interviewer that newspapers had doctored photographs of her during the recount controversy. "Computer-enhanced" and "colorized" pictures exaggerated her makeup. It was "painful."

So which newspapers turned the former secretary of state into Cruella De Vil? She couldn't name one. Of course not. Normally, we'd ask Rep. Harris to put up or shut up, but maybe the fact that the state Republican Party tried to find a challenger will persuade her that sometimes it's better just to shut up.

Secrecy of Mecca deals can make public nervous

Between the state and Palm Beach County, taxpayers are contributing more than $600 million to lure and build a regional biotech industry anchored by The Scripps Research Institute. The magnitude of that investment explains why it is so important that government keep details of development at the Mecca Farms site as public as possible.

Concern is magnified by the fact that the deal that brought Scripps to Palm Beach County was marred by secret negotiations on where Scripps would be built and who might profit from the choice of a site. Given that history, it is especially important that the county -- which owns the Mecca site -- operate in the public interest, which means acting in the open.

In 2003, the Business Development Board, which gets a substantial part of its budget from the county, secretly negotiated to put Scripps at Mecca Farms. At the same time, the board arranged for its spinoff entity to collect $51 million if private developers could build at the adjoining Vavrus Ranch. Mecca Farms, like Vavrus, raises major environmental concerns, and the deal reeks of an attempt to force development into areas where it would not be allowed were it not for the prestige of Scripps. Lawsuits continue to threaten the county's ability to build at Mecca.

County commissioners instructed staff to propose plans for selling the property, and the staff will present options at the commission's Aug. 16 meeting. Developers might be able to bid on the 930-acre first phase or on 1,820 acres -- the entire site, except the 100-acre campus reserved for Scripps. The commission also might decide to seek bidders from private firms for smaller parcels, called "pods."

Shannon LaRocque, Scripps program manager for Palm Beach County, said: "Most of these companies want to remain anonymous. These companies, if they're publicly traded, have boards to report to, and it can affect their stock." Several companies, including the Burnham Institute of La Jolla, Calif., and the Hospital for Special Surgery of New York, have asked about sites. But Ms. LaRocque says public discussion must come before any sale.

Ms. LaRocque said confidentiality was an issue but not the overriding motive. The county has to sell the property, she said, and it is not practical to sell it off lot-by-lot. She stressed that developers have to fulfill the county's goals, or they will not be allowed to proceed. "It is not the intent," she said, "to sell the property so someone could come in and build 9,000 homes."

That's good to hear. Because of the original deal, the county and developers are starting with a deficit of public trust. It is understandable that some negotiations must be private. Before any deal, though, the public needs to know who is buying the public's land.

Steroids weaken baseball

What happens to Rafael Palmeiro matters less than what happens to the sport he betrayed, the sport that for nearly a decade sacrificed its soul to become chemically enhanced entertainment.

Five months ago, the Baltimore Orioles first baseman testified before Congress and said emphatically: "I have never used steroids. Period. I don't know how to say it any more clearly than that." On Monday, having been caught violating Major League Baseball's anti-steroid policy, Mr. Palmeiro said, "I have never intentionally used steroids. Never. Ever. Period." We don't know how to say it more clearly than this: Forget the period. Much about the past 10 years in baseball is a question mark.

Mr. Palmeiro just became just the fourth player to get 3,000 hits and 500 home runs. As fans know, numbers define greatness in baseball more than in any other team sport. There's 56: Joe DiMaggio's consecutive-game hit streak. There's 501: Cy Young's record for pitching wins. There's 755: Hank Aaron's career home-run record.

And until the mid-1990s, other numbers had been benchmarks for decades. Most notably, 50 or more home runs in a season was a rare accomplishment. Between 1920 -- when baseball introduced the livelier ball -- and 1995, it happened just 18 times, and only 10 players did it. Between 1995 and 2002, it happened 18 more times, and 12 players did it. Three players topped Roger Maris' record of 61. Barry Bonds raised the mark to 73 and threatened to surpass Mr. Aaron's 755.

Fairly or not, every one of those smashball seasons is under a cloud because management and labor looked the other way while players used steroids to bulk up and swing for the long ball. It was a mutually agreed upon deal with the devil, made with the idea of boosting attendance, and it took congressional hearings to produce the first anti-steroid policy that had any bite. Mr. Palmeiro looked like one of the good guys when he testified. Now, there is a debate about whether the man with otherwise unquestioned Hall of Fame statistics should share space in Cooperstown, N.Y., with those whose numbers don't come with such an asterisk.

Not since 2002, when rumors of rampant steroid use began turning into investigations -- one focusing on Mr. Bonds -- has a player hit 50 home runs. It probably won't happen this year, either. At last weekend's Hall of Fame inductions, Ryne Sanderg violated protocol during his speech by indirectly criticizing steroid users and praising an ex-teammate for excelling "the natural way." It was yet another warning to a game that sold itself out to put some meaning back into the numbers. Otherwise, there is no meaning in the game.

Storm frustration lingers

According to the Florida Office of Insurance Regulation, here is what has happened -- as of June -- since last summer:

• Insurance companies have settled 95.5 percent of the claims from Hurricane Charley.

• Insurance companies have settled 95.1 percent of the claims from Hurricane Frances.

• Insurance companies have settled 95.4 percent of the claims from Hurricane Ivan.

• Insurance companies have settled 95.6 percent of the claims from Hurricane Jeanne.

Don't tell any of it to Karen and Jeff Michlowitz, Wellington residents whom The Post profiled last Saturday. Theirs is among that 4.9 percent of claims from Frances that haven't been settled. Far from it. With the one-year anniversary of Charley just a week away, the Michlowitzes and State Farm remain $10,000 apart after a battle that has pitted the couple against the State Farm bureaucracy.

All along, the Michlowitzes have insisted that their roof needed to be replaced. State Farm kept arguing that repair would be enough. But Wellington told the couple that only a new roof would satisfy the village's code requirements. Finally, State Farm agreed to replace the roof -- acknowledging that the tiles aren't made anymore -- but the company's check was for $10,000 less than the Michlowitzes' estimate.

The insurance industry likes to use big numbers -- 1.66 million claims filed, $21.7 billion paid out -- to measure the carriers' response. But those missing percentages represent thousands of stressed Floridians whose claims probably have been held up by small, silly disputes that carriers could have resolved long ago. If the industry comes back to the Legislature again next year asking for help, lawmakers ought to call the Michlowitzes and see whether they are satisfied.

Outsiders can't subsidize the state's universities

Florida has lost one more gimmick from the state's attempt to not pay for higher education.

The phony windfall from out-of-state tuition is yielding the latest of diminishing returns from the disinvestment in Florida's public universities. For a decade, the Legislature has inflated tuition for graduate and nonresident students to subsidize below-market in-state tuition. That's how no-new-taxes legislators paid for tax cuts while appropriating an inadequate portion of what the 11 universities needed for new students and faculty. Legislators even had billions in extra revenue this year that they could have invested in higher education but didn't.

Obviously, Florida's tuition-bailout trick couldn't continue indefinitely. Yet as The Post reported, despite what by last year was the highest nonresident tuition in the nation, the Legislature has kept counting on the mirage of its usual out-of-state enrollment growth. But nonresident costs have skyrocketed to five times those of residents -- $15,540 in undergraduate tuition and fees for a full year's course load, vs. $3,111 in in-state costs -- and students have become astute enough to go elsewhere.

An $18.6 million drop in expected revenue is the result of 13 percent fewer out-of-state students enrolling in 2004-05. University presidents have asked that in the 2006 session, the Florida Board of Governors asks the Legislature to make up the difference. Even that wouldn't address the unfinanced 8 percent growth from in-state students, whose tuition is eighth-lowest. The national average is $4,545. Nor would it address the tuition implications for the Bright Futures Scholarship Program, financed by the Florida Lottery, or Florida's Prepaid College Plan. Those, too, are issues demanding attention from a Legislature that has provided none.

Instead, despite voters' 2002 creation by constitutional amendment of the Board of Governors to "operate, regulate, control and be fully responsible for the management of the whole university system," legislators this year reserved for themselves the right to set resident and undergraduate student tuition and fees. The legislators basically defined the Board of Governors' role as limited to approving new programs. Ending the lawmakers' overreach may require a lawsuit. Fortunately, one filed by a citizens group, the Floridians for Constitutional Integrity, is pending.

For now, the beneficent Legislature at least has bestowed upon universities the power to set graduate and out-of-state tuition. But it needs to go down, not up. That gimmick has cost the state enough.

The wrong safety lock

What is more important than the war in Iraq? The National Rifle Association has Congress so intimidated that the Senate dropped consideration of a $491 billion defense-spending bill to bring up a measure immunizing gun manufacturers and dealers from lawsuits.

The Republican leadership jumped the NRA's pet bill to the top of the agenda -- rewarding the gun lobby for its support in 2004. But Democrats shared in the pandering, with 14 of them helping to pass the measure 65-31. Florida Sens. Bill Nelson, a Democrat, and Mel Martinez, a Republican, both voted for the bill. And if states want to hold gun makers to a higher standard? However much the GOP claims to protect states' rights, it holds the NRA's power in higher regard.

Supporters claimed to be heading off "frivolous" lawsuits. But such a ban would have stopped victims of D.C. sniper John Malvo from suing the Washington state dealer who kept such bad records that he didn't know the rifle had been stolen and couldn't account for 200 other firearms. The dealer agreed to pay more than $2 million.

There has been no glut of lawsuits. Courts can sort out which have merit. (In June, a Florida appeals court overturned a $1.2 million verdict against the distributor of the gun used to kill teacher Barry Grunow.) If the House passes a similar law and President Bush signs it, however, there will be no consequences for dealers who shirk record-keeping or carelessly sell weapons to criminals, terrorists or straw buyers. But making America safer wasn't the goal. Making politicians safe from the NRA was.

Having conquered Congress, the NRA is branching out. It has urged members to boycott ConocoPhillips because the energy firm is suing to overturn an Oklahoma law that says residents can keep guns in vehicles parked in company parking lots. The company correctly points out that workplace shootings can occur after an angry employee retrieves a firearm from his car. The longer it takes a discharged worker to get to a weapon, the more time there is to cool down and avoid a murderous mistake.

The extent to which the Second Amendment limits government's power to regulate firearms is a matter of debate. There should be no debate, however, over the right of private property owners to ban firearms from their own property.

Pozo's guilt was based on facts, not the worries of jurors

Evidence convicted Carlos Pozo. The only question is how much time he should do for his crime.

This especially sad case began on Nov. 5, 2003. The then-17-year-old junior at William T. Dwyer High School in Palm Beach Gardens lost control of his car, which smashed into a tree in the PGA National development. The collision killed Pozo's passenger and classmate, 16-year-old Kaitlin Kazanjian, the daughter of a Palm Beach County sheriff's sergeant. It happened just before 10 a.m. They had been skipping school.

Five weeks ago, a tearful jury found Pozo guilty of vehicular homicide. The tears came because it seemed like a close call, as can happen when trying to distinguish between careless driving, which is not a criminal offense, and reckless driving. According to the Palm Beach County State Attorney's office, speed alone is not grounds for a criminal charge. Pozo was sober. But prosecutors noted that he had been driving at least 74 mph on a residential street where the speed limit is 35 mph. It was raining. There were people in the area. He was fiddling with the CD changer. The impact literally tore the car apart. And after the crash, Pozo asked friends to lie for him.

Then last Thursday, The Post reported that juror Peggy Lloyd had sent a letter to the judge, Richard Wennet. In it, she suggested that potential intimidation by sheriff's employees had influenced deliberations. Uniformed officers had attended the trial, and the juror said she and at least one other had wondered whether acquittal would result in deputies essentially stalking members of the jury. "I remain upset about how this verdict was met," Ms. Lloyd wrote to Judge Wennet, "and am questioning my own decision." A day later, Judge Wennet postponed sentencing for Pozo, who faces between nine and 15 years.

It is hardly surprising, given who Ms. Kazanjian's father is, that sheriff's employees attended the trial and have written Judge Wennet to ask that he impose the maximum sentence. When an officer is on trial, uniforms pack the courtroom. The letter could become part of an appeal, especially since Judge Wennet did not show it to Pozo's attorneys, as other judges have done in similar instances. On Tuesday, Judge Wennet denied the defense's motion to question the jurors.

Given the emotion of this case, it also is not surprising that the dynamic in the jury room was testier than usual. Yet as Ms. Lloyd acknowledged, she wrote more to influence the sentence, not to revisit the verdict. Her comments, though, should have no bearing on what Judge Wennet does. And if Ms. Lloyd's letter leads to a new trial -- as we do not think it should -- the evidence won't change. Kaitlin Kazanjian is dead because Carlos Pozo was tragically reckless.

This time for IRA, is it peace?

Before there was an Al-Qaeda, the Irish Republican Army was committing acts of terrorism, promoting hatred between religions and waging an underground war against the British government.

More than 3,600 Catholics and Protestants have been killed since 1969, many of them neither soldiers nor zealots but citizens caught in the cross-fires. Eight years ago, the IRA agreed in principle to lay down its arms. But only last week did the group announce its intention to actually do so and call an end to the sectarian violence. British Prime Minister Tony Blair called it a "step of unparalleled magnitude." Pope Benedict XVI said it was "beautiful news which contrasts with the sorrowful business" of the past three-plus decades.

Irish Prime Minister Bertie Ahern, however, sounded the note of caution the world needed to hear. He said the announcement means nothing unless "the IRA's words are borne out by verified actions." The disarmament was supposed to occur after an agreement seven years ago, after all, and evidence of the IRA's criminal behavior persists. In January, IRA members stabbed to death a Catholic man in a barroom dispute over his loyalty. Investigators also believe that the IRA was behind last year's $50 million robbery of a Belfast bank. Mr. Blair also spoke of the many "false dawns and dashed hopes" that have pointed to a peace that never came.

Skeptics found encouragement in the quick response of the British government, which began dismantling military posts in Northern Ireland hours after the peace declaration. The British army has about 12,000 soldiers stationed there, down from about 20,000 eight years ago. Gerry Adams, leader of the IRA political arm Sinn Fein, said the withdrawal sets the stage for the next important step -- finding a workable formula for Protestant-Catholic power sharing in the government. To craft one will take face-to-face talks between Sinn Fein and Ian Paisley's pro-Britain Democratic Unionist Party, a difficult achievement in itself.

The IRA's decision to "dump arms" was based largely on the pragmatic calculation that there was more to be gained through diplomacy than combat. It took 36 years of bloodshed for these terrorists to change their minds.

Iraq hits home in Ohio

United States forces have been conducting operations in western Iraq, near the Syrian border, to close an infiltration route for foreign fighters and to clear the region of insurgents so Iraqi forces can assume responsibility for security there. The deaths of at least 21 Marines in a matter of days are a jolting reminder of the obstacles the U.S. still must overcome, nearly 2 1/2 years after invading, before the Bush administration can proceed with troop reductions that officials have begun to hint are coming next spring.

Fourteen Marines and an interpreter died Wednesday when a large bomb destroyed their amphibious vehicle. It was lightly armored -- again raising questions about preparation and supplies -- but the blast was so strong that more armor might not have helped. The attack continues the insurgents' trend toward more sophisticated, lethal attacks. On Monday, six Marines from the same Ohio-based unit died in an ambush, and another died in a suicide bombing.

Political progress is supposed to pay off, eventually, in lower levels of violence. But for now, commanders predict, there will be increased attacks as Iraqis work toward writing and adopting a constitution ahead of general elections tentatively scheduled for the end of this year.

Insurgent attacks are at about 70 a day, near the all-time high. As striking as the lack of progress on security is the lack of progress in restoring services. A poll completed in March and posted on the Brookings Institution's Web site ranks security as only the fifth most pressing concern for Iraqis. Inadequate electricity is No. 1, followed by unemployment, lack of health care and crime. In July, electricity was available an average of about 13 hours a day, the highest point this year but still down from the peak of 16 hours in March 2004. Oil production was 2.15 million barrels a day, compared with prewar production of 2.5 million. And 2.5 million is the new goal, a cut from the previous goal of between 2.8 million and 3 million barrels per day.

With so few Americans directly affected by what happens in Iraq, it can be easy for the rest of the U.S. not to appreciate or to forget how dangerous Iraq remains. Political progress has been the steadiest, but there's a limit to how far politics can move forward if security and economics don't catch up.

New slogan at NASA: Confusion is an option

NASA desperately needed a successful shuttle mission to restore confidence in the nation's space program, but the series of problems with Discovery and the agency's clumsy handling of them are inspiring more uncertainty than confidence.

Confusion over launch protocols signaled the bumpy ride ahead. A fuel sensor failed, and engineers spent two weeks studying the glitch but were unable to find out why it happened. Launch rules call for all sensors to be working properly, but NASA decided to approve an exception and dismissed the problem as minor. The public was left wondering which was more extreme -- the rule or the decision to ignore it.

Not long after last week's liftoff, a chunk of insulation foam flew off the main fuel tank, a malfunction similar to the one that caused the Columbia tragedy in February 2003. NASA couldn't fix the one thing it absolutely had to. The agency's administrators compounded the failure by announcing that all shuttles were grounded but then reversed themselves a day later. Again, the nation was left wondering which decision was right.

NASA Administrator Michael Griffin tried to allay fears by calling Discovery "the cleanest bird" the agency had seen and said meticulous inspections had turned up nothing to worry about. That analysis didn't last the weekend. NASA found fabric dangling from Discovery's heat shield, and after engineers debated the severity of the problem, the agency ordered an unprecedented spacewalk today to try to repair the damage. As it turns out, the bird wasn't so clean.

The new problems that have caught flight engineers off guard are further evidence of 30-year-old technology that may have outlived its life span. The shuttle is supposed to make 18 more flights to finish construction of the international space station by 2010, a dubious prospect given the obstacles encountered during the last week.

NASA deserves credit for being so transparent with the public during what is the most scrutinized space mission in history. Administrators have amplified damage, however, with their confusing statements and reversals. NASA is better off saying nothing or admitting that it doesn't know, rather than making comments that have to be retracted the next day. Floridians have a stake in the agency's future because of the thousands of jobs throughout the state that depend on the space program.

The movie Apollo 13 showed how the old NASA could make a success out of failure. Even then, however, NASA was near the end of moon missions. The shuttle replaced that spacecraft and that mission. If there is to be another overarching mission, NASA really must start sounding as though the agency knows what it is talking about.

Pal-Mar off-limits for a reason

Palm Beach County commissioners are correct to notify recent buyers of northern county swampland that they may never be able to develop their property.

The commission last week decided to send warning letters to more than 120 people who have purchased land for $40,000 an acre in Pal-Mar, a 22,000-acre swamp that straddles the Palm Beach-Martin County line. The land is under water most of the year, has few roads and no drainage, and is considered environmentally sensitive. Both Palm Beach and Martin have resisted ambitious plans to develop the swamp, and governments now own about 18,000 acres in Pal-Mar.

Governments bought the land because it serves a public purpose more important than new rooftops. It captures and holds water to recharge underground supplies and provides wildlife habitat at little cost to the public. Some experts noted after last summer's hurricanes that water storage on Pal-Mar lands saved both counties from flooding.

The letters will include a five-page report listing all the obstacles to developing the land, which is east of the Beeline Highway and north of Indiantown Road. Palm Beach Commissioner Karen Marcus, whose district includes Pal-Mar, said the county doesn't want "folks knocking on our door saying, 'Why didn't somebody tell us this?'" She asked for a formal study of land regulations for the area after buyers began asking the county for guidance on developing the land. Eight pieces of land near the Beeline Highway and Indiantown Road meet some county building requirements, but owners would have difficulty getting state and federal environmental permits that would allow them to build.

Two landowners, Palm Beach Heights Landowners Coalition and Win Win Technologies, have sold most of the Pal-Mar properties the county is worried about. Recent sales were as high as $40,000 an acre, more than four or five times what the land sold for last year. Florida's Department of Business and Professional Regulation is investigating whether the firms were registered properly to sell land.

A Landowners Coalition official disagrees with the county and believes the land could be developed -- a notion the county letters can help dispel. The land is not suitable for development, a point governments have made clear by spending millions to preserve it.

Stick to townhome plan for Binks golf course

Nearly two years of protracted negotiations led to a consensus about redevelopment of the Binks Forest Golf Course. Wellington officials and Binks Forest residents do not have to let that hard-fought resolution unravel simply because Peninsula Bank has terminated its contract with developer Frank Leo.

It's been nine months since the village council approved a land-use change allowing Mr. Leo to build 90 townhomes on the course's driving range. More than three-fourths of the Binks Forest homeowners whom the village surveyed supported the $19 million plan to buy the course and renovate it and the clubhouse before the townhomes could be occupied. But the Sarasota-based bank, which has owned the course since foreclosing on it in 2002, alerted the village last month that it had ended its contract with Mr. Leo. Peninsula's executive vice president has said the bank plans to continue the renovation.

Opportunistic opponents, who represent a minority of Binks Forest's nearly 600 homeowners, may view the contract change as a last-ditch chance to overturn the townhome development. The good news is that the bank -- or a new buyer -- won't have to repeat the long process of seeking a land-use change, which precedes a series of zoning and site-plan hearings. "The approvals," Village Manager Charlie Lynn said, "go with the land, not with the owner. This doesn't mean that it's changed and you can go out and build condos now."

Nor should Peninsula use the cover of ongoing negotiations to continue to ignore code violations. After Binks' bankruptcy, the village maintained the property. But it's not the village's responsibility to maintain private property. In the three years since the course has been lying fallow, the bank has amassed more than $54,000 in fines for boarded-up windows on the clubhouse. The fines had no bite; bank officials expected that the clubhouse would be torn down, and the village did not press the bank to pay.

Nothing about Binks' on-again, off-again restoration has come quickly. But this latest phase can unfold more smoothly. By correcting the code problems and submitting a plan to preserve the golf course and build only the pre-approved number of townhomes, the bank won't annoy skeptical homeowners. The fewer the needless delays, the quicker the progress toward restored property values.

Open markets, not land

The most amusing comment in the debate over the Caribbean Free Trade Agreement came from Robert Coker, vice-president of Clewiston-based U.S. Sugar: "We were used as political pawns."

For more than four decades, American sugar cane and beet companies have influenced farm policy far beyond their relatively small numbers. Through loan guarantees and import quotas, they have enjoyed usually stable prices on the American consumer's tab. For more than 30 years, Florida cane growers polluted the Everglades without having to pay for the damage. They accomplished all that through one of Washington's most impressive lobbying efforts. Their presence in Tallahassee is just as strong. Two years ago, they got the Legislature to delay the Everglades cleanup deadline by 10 years.

Yet when CAFTA threatened to increase sugar imports by 1 percent, the growers acted like Halloween trick-or-treaters who came to the door expecting the usual candy bar and instead got a toothbrush. They complained that since so many countries have sugar programs, sugar cannot be negotiated bilaterally -- as was the case with CAFTA. In fact, they just weren't used to losing, which is what happened last week when the House approved CAFTA 217-215. The Senate passed it on June 30, and President Bush signed it Tuesday.

Fifteen Democrats were brave enough to vote for CAFTA, believing that the United States will benefit overall from lower trade barriers. The countries -- Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Nicaragua and Honduras -- are in a region where the U.S. wants to encourage democracy, and the hope is that greater access to the U.S. market will benefit Central Americans. Adding the Dominican Republic, where sugar is a major crop, is what annoyed U.S. cane growers.

Roughly 500,000 acres in the Everglades Agricultural Area are in sugar cane. The biggest growth issue facing South Florida is whether a large portion of that land will become residential development. Sugar farmers may use CAFTA to argue for development approval, but state and local governments should reject any such argument. Otherwise, South Florida taxpayers will be the political pawns.

Frist's change of heart: New issue, new realities

Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., let so-called "pro-life" politics overtake his physician training when he intervened in the Terri Schiavo tragedy, challenging by video-viewing the diagnosis of doctors who actually had examined Ms. Schiavo. But last week, in announcing a political about-face to support expanded federal financing of embryonic stem-cell research, the heart transplant surgeon took a principled pro-life position.

As an expected candidate for president in 2008, Sen. Frist's flip-flop undoubtedly was as calculated as his Schiavo meddling. This time, though, his comments made sense. He acknowledged, for example, that "embryonic stem cells uniquely hold specific promise for some therapies and potential cures that adult stem cells cannot provide." In discussing how his position on stem cells is consistent with his faith, he said: "It isn't just a matter of faith. It's a fact of science."

He also cited shortcomings of the president's stem-cell policy, which Sen. Frist supported in 2001. Only 22 of the 78 embryonic stem-cell lines believed available for federal financing are eligible. And "unexpectedly after several generations," he said, they "are starting to become less stable and less replicative than initially thought (they are acquiring and losing chromosomes, losing the normal karyotype and potentially losing growth control). They also were grown on mouse feeder cells, which we have learned since, probably will limit their future potential for clinical therapy in humans (e.g., potential of viral contamination)." Said Sen. Frist: "The limitations put in place in 2001 will, over time, slow our ability to bring potential new treatments for certain diseases."

President Bush still ignores that fact. The House voted in May to expand embryonic stem-cell research, but the margin of 238-194 was 52 votes short of the two-thirds' majority to override the president's threatened veto. Veto-proof approval in the Senate requires 67 votes. The Stem Cell Research Enhancement Act would enable access to an estimated 400,000 embryos that have been discarded in fertility clinics or are otherwise slated to be destroyed. Other measures purport alternatives to embryonic stem-cell research, but they do not hold as much potential and they pose their own ethical controversies.

The willingness among members of this administration and Congress to 1) support science over ideology and 2) adapt to changing circumstances is far too rare. Sen. Frist acknowledged that "it's time for a modified policy -- the right policy for this moment in time." Americans would be better off if President Bush and more lawmakers got a similar dose of courage -- whatever the motive.

Back door for Bolton

By insisting that only John Bolton could promote American credibility at the United Nations, President Bush has undercut American credibility at the United Nations.

After dropping the hint last week, the president used a recess appointment Monday to make Mr. Bolton our ambassador to the U.N. Most Democrats and some Republicans correctly had blocked a Senate vote based on Mr. Bolton's record of ignoring facts to promote his own ideology. In his current job as undersecretary of state for arms control, for example, Mr. Bolton charged in a speech three years ago that Cuba was developing a biological weapons program. In fact, Mr. Bolton had been told otherwise, but he wanted to detract from Jimmy Carter's upcoming trip to Cuba.

So to the United Nations, where the Bush administration was so famously wrong about Iraq's weapons program, the U.S. will send a man who in 2003 tried to give Congress a misleading version of the threat from Syria and who this year overstated his own department's evaluation of Iran's nuclear ambitions. This will not happen because John Bolton, in Mr. Bush's words, "is the right man for the job." It will happen because Condoleezza Rice, who as secretary of state has returned to the pragmatic idealism that has been the basis of U.S. foreign policy, doesn't want raving ideologues undermining her as they undermined Colin Powell. And it will happen because President Bush mistakes Mr. Bolton's bureaucratic bullying and anti-U.N. rhetoric for real diplomatic skill and toughness.

The need for U.N. reform is obvious. In June, a United States Institute of Peace task force led by former House Speaker Newt Gingrich and former Senate Majority Leader George Mitchell issued a report that contained many good recommendations. Among other things, the group urged new initiatives to stop the genocide in the Darfur region of Sudan, abolition of the laughable Human Rights Commission -- Sudan is a member -- and creation of a Human Rights Council composed of democratic nations, and establishment of an oversight board to "prevent another scandal like oil-for-food."

Mr. Bush had lots of credible choices if he wanted an ambassador who believes in the U.N. but isn't a patsy. Daniel Moynihan showed plenty of toughness in 1975 when he voted against the despicable resolution that equated Zionism with racism. Instead, the president abused the recess appointment process to pick someone who makes his "facts" fit his theory. After what happened with Iraq, it will all seem very familiar.

FAU's stadium obsession

With its latest attempt to build a domed, on-campus football stadium, Florida Atlantic University is moving the goalposts.

At one point, the plan had been that the team would generate lots of public enthusiasm, which would lead to lots of private donations. But last year, FAU couldn't draw even enough fans to meet the minimum requirements for the National Collegiate Athletic Association's top division, I-A. So now FAU is considering a different sort of project that would provide a home on the Boca Raton campus for the team's 2007 season opener.

The idea is to have a developer finance, build and operate the facility and receive nearly all the revenue beyond school-related events. Coach Howard Schnellenberger says the proposed complex could include retail shops, a parking garage, student housing and a hotel. President Frank Brogan envisions the "Athletic Innovation Village." But the last private-sector "innovation" at FAU gives reason to be cautious about this one.

That would be the University Commons shopping center, which is on Glades Road just west of the entrance to the main campus. FAU had told Boca Raton that the land would be home to married student housing. Then the university turned the site, which it owned, into a popular, revenue-producing shopping center that has made the Glades and Interstate 95 intersection a traffic bottleneck.

A stadium "village" would produce more traffic at more peak-hour times than a stadium. It also would represent another shift in plans just after the city and FAU made peace over University Commons. Also, the plan for a link from I-95 onto the campus, to relieve some of the congestion caused just by the daily flow of students onto the campus, remains a good but unfinanced idea.

Despite claims to the contrary, FAU seems overly caught up in going after what Athletic Director Craig Angelos called "the prestige of having the stadium on your campus." FAU's priority is the prestige of the overall campus, not the supposed prestige of a stadium.

Little help for nation in final energy bill

Last week, Congress produced its first energy bill in 14 years. For oil and gas companies, electric utilities and the coal industry, which received $14.5 billion in tax breaks and other incentives, it was worth the wait -- particularly for the oil industry, which has seen per-barrel prices rise from $22 to more than $60 since President Bush took office. The rest of the country will have to wait for something better.

The legislation falls far short of meeting the nation's 21st century energy needs. It does nothing that will lower gas prices at the pump. It won't ease the nation's reliance on foreign oil. It doesn't require utilities to use more renewable fuels, such as wind and solar energy, to produce electricity. It offers only voluntary provisions for industries to reduce greenhouse gases, a major cause of global warming. It doesn't mandate improvements in fuel efficiency for motor vehicles.

Tax breaks, royalties and loan guarantees for already-flush energy companies can't do much to inspire the average American to consider individual conservation measures. The 1,762-page bill provides more than $500 million over a decade for research into drilling in very deep areas of the Gulf of Mexico and gives loan guarantees for new nuclear reactors, as well as "risk insurance" for nuclear firms seeking permits or regulatory approval. Both the House and Senate rejected stronger -- and energy-saving -- average fuel economy standards for cars and trucks, even turning down a small 5-mile-per-gallon increase that would have gone into effect over a five-year period.

The bill does at least offer tax credits for people who buy gas-electric hybrid cars. It also extends daylight savings time by a month. The bill allocates $10 million -- subject to Congress actually appropriating the money -- to promote riding bicycles to work. It requires utilities to meet federal reliability standards for the electricity grid, a measure aimed at avoiding future power blackouts.

The United States imports 58 percent of the oil it consumes, according to a Washington Post story last week, and predictions are that the nation will import 68 percent of consumption by 2025. The energy bill does next to nothing to change that disturbing trend. It's just one more Texas-sized smackeroo on the cheeks of the oil companies -- as if they needed any more loving attention from this administration.

Energy bill a threat to Florida

While the energy bill preserves the moratorium on oil drilling off Florida's coasts, the last-minute attempts by President Bush's aides to redraw state boundaries to allow drilling kept senators busy pushing for revisions.

In the end, the boundaries escaped change -- for now. Interior Secretary Gale Norton, according to The Tampa Tribune, said last week she has the authority to redraw the lines, which means more problems lie ahead. Another administration plan to open the eastern Gulf to drilling also may be in the works if oil industry lobbyists succeed in amending a September budget bill. That tactic restricts opposition and limits debate, because a budget bill can't be filibustered and needs only a simple majority of 51 votes to pass. Republicans used a similar method this year to open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to drilling.

While beaches are safe from an immediate threat, neither Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson nor Republican Sen. Mel Martinez was able to kill a comprehensive inventory of oil in gas reserves in national waters, including Florida's, in the energy bill. Many believe that it will be a first step toward drilling once moratoriums expire, starting in 2007.

Sen. Nelson's spokesman, Dan McLaughlin, said earlier inventories showed only a small amount of oil in the Gulf of Mexico -- not enough to make a significant difference in U.S. consumption, but enough to mean profits for oil companies. The amount is not enough to offset the risks of offshore drilling, with the possibility of spills from rigs or tankers fouling state beaches. Gov. Bush has supported a 100-mile buffer zone around the state's coastline, but Mr. McLaughlin has criticized the governor's plan as a "sellout" that would open the eastern Gulf of Mexico to drilling and still would put beaches at risk.

The inventory raises other concerns, because the seismic testing it would use could threaten Florida marine life. The testing devices send intense shock waves into the sea floor, sending sound into the water that can injure dolphins and whales. They use complex sonar systems to navigate. The seismic technique gives scientists a three-dimensional picture of what lies beneath the ocean bottom, but the sound waves also may harm fish.

The Navy'2s underwater sonar tests have killed dolphins and whales, so it is reasonable to conclude that seismic testing could have devastating effects on wildlife in the Gulf. The energy bill leaves the state exposed and in play.

Support state TB hospital

Record increases for cases of tuberculosis, hepatitis and other contagious diseases in Palm Beach County underscore the need for the state health department's planned respiratory care facility in Lantana.

As The Post detailed last week, TB is making an unexpected and unhappy comeback, due largely to the spread of HIV. Palm Beach County has the third-highest HIV/AIDS infection rate in the state, and nearly a third of those who recently contracted TB also are HIV-positive.

Tourism and a large immigrant population also are factors, creating such a demand for medical services that the health department plans to hire 23 new epidemiology employees over the next three years. Just in the past year, the number of TB cases in the county has increased 14 percent to 99. Cases of Hepatitis B -- spread by blood or body fluids, often through intravenous drug use or unprotected sex with an infected person -- are up 22 percent.

Replacing the 55-year-old A.G. Holley State Hospital with a research-based complex will help draw and retain needed specialists and improve methods to treat drug-resistant strains of TB and other diseases. Turf wars initially marred planning for the Florida Institute of Public Health, with Lantana officials wanting -- and needing -- to reap tax revenue from more commercial venues on the state-owned property and hoping to finally divest the town of the drab building that houses the nation's longest-operating TB hospital.

State Rep. Mary Brandenburg, D-West Palm Beach, had questioned the need for the hospital, but -- particularly in South Florida -- it's obvious. The statistics prove that it's safer for patients and for the community when the health department is a leader in helping to control the spread of airborne and other easily transmitted diseases. The hospital would continue to treat patients from beyond Palm Beach County.

After several public meetings and work by an active advisory council, residents and town and state officials are moving forward toward the same goal. Land-use options are available on the Web at http://advanceplanning.jacobs.com/fiph/. The Florida Highway Patrol's plans to move off the site and the Department of Motor Vehicles' willingness are encouraging. The next town meeting is Aug. 12. By the end of the year, the state hopes to have a master plan for the 145-acre site off Lantana Road, east of Interstate 95.

During next spring's legislative session, lawmakers should meet the momentum -- with money for a replacement hospital.