A new track to follow: Katrina/Rita money

Hurricane victims keeled over in the Houston heat Wednesday while FEMA, once again caught off-guard, kept them waiting in line. It's so much cooler to be a Bush administration insider who can shove to the front of the line for the $200 billion Congress may provide in disaster aid.

As in Iraq, Halliburton -- which Vice President Cheney once ran -- is one of the most aggressive. The Washington Post reports that Halliburton, which already is benefiting from a $500 million contract to remove debris, sponsored a Katrina Reconstruction Summit hosted by Sen. Mel Martinez, R-Fla., to explore "opportunities for private-sector involvement."

Iraq is a model -- but of what not to do. There, Halliburton is accused of rampant overbilling and of poor work on such crucial projects as restoring Iraq's oil industry, for which the company has received more than $10 billion as part of a five-year, no-bid contract. Oversight of U.S. spending in Iraq has been dismal to nonexistent. Billions of dollars are unaccounted for.

The Bush administration might be incapable of doing things any other way. The New York Times reported that 80 percent of the first $1.5 billion in aid after Hurricane Katrina was awarded with little or no competition. AshBritt, a Pompano Beach company, got a $568 million debris removal contract. AshBritt is a client of the lobbying firm for which Haley Barbour, Mississippi's governor and a former chairman of the Republican National Committee, used to work.

The Bush administration swears that it will carefully audit spending. But it's as well prepared to do that as FEMA was to provide timely hurricane relief. In the emergency bill to provide the first $60 billion in hurricane aid, Congress expanded the administration's ability to award no-bid contracts. That came at the request of the administration's chief procurement official, David Safavian. Mr. Safavian since has resigned after being indicted for lying to investigators about his ties to also-indicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff, a great friend of also-indicted Rep. Tom DeLay, R-Texas.

Mr. Safavian got his job overseeing $300 billion in annual government spending because of his ties to Mr. Abramoff and anti-tax Bush ally Grover Norquist. According to Time magazine, experts consider Mr. Safavian one of the least qualified procurement officials ever appointed. That makes him at least as qualified as former FEMA Director Michael Brown.

While profit motivates many pursuing easy Katrina and Rita money, ideology motivates others. As The Post reported Wednesday, the administration is pushing a plan to spend $488 million for private-school vouchers. The plan should alarm anyone familiar with Florida's voucher programs, which dole out $140 million a year with little academic or financial accountability.

After 9/11, the Bush administration and Homeland Security Department rushed to spend money on equipment and programs that boosted contractors' bottom lines more than they boosted national security. Those profiting in Iraq have faced even less scrutiny. Until Congress starts watching the money, hurricane victims will keep feeling the heat while well-connected profiteers have it made in the shade.

Election hand count? Hands off

Supervisor of Elections Arthur Anderson prides himself on being open-minded. He listens. He floats trial balloons. He hands issues to a committee. At some point, presumably, he makes a decision.

Some ideas, however, are so bad that they don't deserve that much debate. Hand-counting of ballots and mail-only elections are distractions from the issues Dr. Anderson needs to resolve. Elected on his promise to provide a paper trail, Dr. Anderson is examining all possibilities. Frustrated by the state's failure to certify printers for the county's touch-screen voting machines, Dr. Anderson must decide soon if he should pay for 500 more machines, minus printers, to keep up with growth, or change systems.

The alternative is optical-scan ballots that are subjected to machine review for errors before voters leave the polls. Such a move would require another shift for poll workers and voters still smarting from the butterfly ballot, plus the expense of new machines. Both approaches have been proven more accurate than the discredited punch-card ballots banned after 2000. Both rely on electronic devices to count votes.

Dr. Anderson can lead a serious debate over the better approach without subjecting it to the demands of hand-count zealots. There is no reason to believe that humans can count ballots more accurately than machines. The more ballots to be counted, the more likely it is that successive hand counts would fail to deliver the same result. One hand count, two hand counts, three -- how many times would election workers have to go through the ridiculous procedure before their disputed tallies make the 2000 presidential election look well-run?

Going to mail-only voting, which is the only way to vote in Oregon but is not allowed under Florida law, would introduce an element of error not possible with touch screens or optical-scan ballots. Mail voting is absentee voting, and that's where voters make the most mistakes. In 2004, the rate of voters skipping the presidential race in Palm Beach County was twice as high for absentee voters as for touch-screen voters.

Dr. Anderson is looking more decisive by setting up a system that will deliver precinct results by Internet on election night and require candidate campaign reports to be posted online. He can help his committee keep its focus by being equally forceful concerning hand counts and all-mail elections. Pop these trial balloons.

Martin commission should block rush to go west

Martin County has a growth plan that protects rural lands from overdevelopment. The plan establishes an urban services boundary, inside which the county provides the public services that homes and businesses need, such as water and sewer. Services aren't offered beyond the boundary line.

The growth plan also provides for keeping 200,000 acres of western lands rural. It allows ranchettes -- parcels of one unit per 20 acres -- on these lands, as opposed to the denser developments that surrounding counties allow. Martin's plan limits population by limiting what can be built. Keeping the ranchettes would add fewer than 10,000 units; changing it to just one unit per acre could allow as many as 200,000 units and add 480,000 people.

Most Martin residents have been happy with their plan, but the county commission majority, which wants to ease the way for more growth, has other ideas. This month, Commissioners Michael DiTerlizzi, Lee Weberman and Doug Smith voted to pay a consultant $528,000 to study the area and make recommendations for developing the county's rural lands. The commission majority originally planned to choose a committee of residents to make recommendations but scrapped that idea as too controversial and hired the Glatting Jackson planning firm to do the job.

The pro-growth majority has claimed that the 20-acre ranchettes would clog roads, crowd schools and require increased police and fire protection. But by numbers alone, that argument makes no sense. The ranchettes would mean fewer people, and fewer people need fewer services. In addition, the Glatting Jackson contract calls for little public input, so residents will have to keep an eye out for the schedule of hearings during the eight-month study. Commissioner Sarah Heard, who with Susan Valliere opposed hiring the consultant, tried last week to get the majority to protect lands needed for the Indian River Lagoon Restoration Plan, the first phase of Everglades restoration. She was unsuccessful.

The Martin County Conservation Alliance, which includes individuals and representatives of 20 environmental groups, has a Web site at www.savemartincounty.org with information on the county's growth plan. The commission majority's push for more growth on rural lands is not what residents want. Now, they must pay a consultant half a million bucks to tell them why they should want it.

Bush gets energy religion

On Monday, President Bush urged Americans to conserve gasoline. Then he went for the seventh time to Texas and Louisiana for post-storm photo ops. Some would call that what Mr. Bush cautioned against: "nonessential travel."

But don't accuse the president of not setting a good example: His motorcade dropped a few cars and mingled staff and guests into the same van. Consider that "ride-sharing," or "carpooling." Go ahead and call it "public transportation." After all, the public was paying.

It's the little things. How else to explain President Bush's small-minded ideas on conserving energy? How else to justify the hypocrisy of the president preaching energy conservation while practicing excessive consumption? At the president's urging, Congress passed an energy bill that gives profitable energy companies tax breaks, as motorists pay more and more at the pump. Congress and the White House's lack of concern for fuel efficiency and alternative energy has increased the country's dependence on foreign oil. Now, Congress is willing to sacrifice the environment to allow for drilling of a tiny supply of U.S.-produced oil.

And even as scientists warn that global warming is inviting more intense hurricanes, the Bush administration shows no concern for reducing the greenhouse gas emissions that affect climate changes and, if unchecked, will cause sea levels to rise.

Like a weatherman advising people to wear coats in the snow, President Bush mastered the obvious in his advice. But the president at least was consistent. He showed, again, that he's less committed to saving fuel than saving face.

A new national park? Don't have to look far

It really shouldn't have taken a $360,000 study to recognize the hidden prize in the vast government-owned land preserves that straddle Palm Beach and Martin counties. But the array of lands tied together by hiking, biking, canoeing and equestrian trails achieves the scale of a national park, as consultants for Palm Beach County pointed out last week.

Tabbed the Northeast Everglades Natural Area, or NENA, the area takes land managed by various government agencies, from Jonathan Dickinson State Park to the J.W. Corbett Wildlife Management Area to the Loxahatchee Slough, and gives them for the first time a single identity. It says land managers should work together to avoid duplication and to assure that trails continue from one place to the next, so equestrians don't find themselves surprised by horse bans and bikers can travel from the Atlantic coastal ridge to the Lake Okeechobee rim. It identifies demand for off-road bicycling. It gives tourists another reason to visit Palm Beach County and the Treasure Coast. But most of all, it shows taxpayers, by inviting them to experience the beauty of a pine forest, a meandering river or an unblemished dune, that the hundreds of millions of dollars they have spent on preserving land is worthwhile.

The Palm Beach County public needs little convincing. It voted twice in the 1990s for tax increases to borrow $150 million for land preservation. Still, the county's holdings are a small part of the 146,000 acres in NENA. The study, which Palm Beach County and the county's Metropolitan Planning Organization paid for, includes an ambitious outline of $780 million in additional land buys.

Government, though, must not overrun lands that must be saved for future generations. Most visitors stick to trails near parking lots, giving managers control over crowds. The lands are open now, anyway, but few people know it. Consultants recommend marketing that tells people how they can go from one area to the next, how they can tour the lands by car and where to find nature centers and trailheads.

That doesn't imply that more roads need to cut through natural areas. Past lapses diminish what will be left. Palm Beach County is extending State Road 7 through the Pond Cypress Natural Area and may push PGA Boulevard through the Loxahatchee Slough, while Port St. Lucie may sacrifice natural, preserved areas to build the West Virginia Drive bridge.

NENA reminds politicians that nature is valuable. It says that all the money taxpayers poured into preserving land means something. It establishes for the area a unique identity, which future generations will revere. Combined, these rugged and beautiful areas can make Palm Beach County and the Treasure Coast as special to tourists as any theme park.

Suspend Chief Scott

Boca Raton Police Chief Andrew Scott wouldn't believe his story if he heard it from a suspect.

The chief says he did nothing improper by ordering the release of developer Gregory Talbott, whom police had arrested near midnight Friday. According to the incident report and the off-duty officer who was working security, Mr. Talbott was harassing customers at the Luna Pazza restaurant in downtown Boca. When the manager asked the officer to remove him, Mr. Talbott refused to leave and warned of retaliation from Chief Scott because "I know Andy." Before police subdued him, Mr. Talbott swung at the manager, spat at the manager and police, and struck his wife and threw her against a car.

One of the five charges was domestic battery. With any domestic violence charge, state law requires that police take the person to the county jail, and the accused must face a judge before being released. Instead, Chief Scott went to the police holding cell early Saturday -- having been called by Mr. Talbott's wife and a lawyer -- and sprung Mr. Talbott. He must appear in court at some point.

The police union accuses Chief Scott of abusing his authority, and the chief's defense fails on its two key points. The chief said Mr. Talbott's health -- he suffered injuries to his face when he resisted, and he wears a pacemaker -- might have been jeopardized during a trip to the jail. But in a letter to City Manager Leif Ahnell, Chief Scott notes that Mr. Talbott had been "cleared from the hospital regarding his injuries." And would the chief show similar concern for the average person charged with so many crimes? Chief Scott also sees a "distinction between domestic battery and domestic violence," which requires that appearance before a judge. In fact, as prosecutors note, there is no distinction. The law applies to any alleged domestic violence, from battery to murder, no matter where the incident takes place.

In his letter, Chief Scott says he supports the arrest of Mr. Talbott and claims that subordinates agreed with the decision to release the developer. The union contends that the chief overruled those subordinates. That is just one of the many disputes between the chief and the union regarding treatment of Mr. Talbott and shows why Mr. Ahnell correctly has asked the Florida Department of Law Enforcement to investigate.

Given the circumstances, however, Mr. Ahnell should suspend Chief Scott with pay during the investigation. Unlike those times when FDLE comes in to conduct an outside investigation, this incident involves not the action of an individual officer but the conduct of the chief himself. If he intervened just to help a friend, Chief Scott damaged the whole department's credibility. Someone else should run that department until all the questions get sorted out.

Higher fees necessary

Impact fees, one-time charges levied on new development, don't pay all the costs of growth. But they help city and county governments pay for the roads and public buildings, police and fire protection, parks and libraries that residents of new homes need. School districts charge separate fees on new homes to help pay for the schools that a growing population needs.

Port St. Lucie has decided to levy impact fees separate from St. Lucie County's, and Stuart is considering increased fees separate from Martin County's. While builders and developers aren't pleased with the idea of adding even more to new-home prices, the cities have no more choice than the counties. Growth raises the cost of public services, and governments must bill newcomers who need services for some of those expenses.

Port St. Lucie has wrangled for months with St. Lucie County over fees. Under an agreement that expires Friday, a fee of about $2,900 was split between the city and county. Port St. Lucie decided that it no longer will collect the joint fee and, starting Saturday, will impose its own $2,712 fee. The county will levy a separate fee of $2,852.

Stuart this week received a recommendation from a Maryland consulting firm that suggests that the city start charging three new impact fees -- $1,588 for roads, $615 for parks and $228 for public buildings. Added to the current fees, the proposed new impact fee for the city would be $3,655.

Martin County officials revised their impact fees in August, increasing charges for single-family homes by about 40 percent. The fees range from $4,506 for smaller homes to $7,194 for homes larger than 2,300 square feet. The county last increased its fees by about 15 percent in 2003.

The St. Lucie County School District raised impact fees in June by 62 percent, to $4,956 per single family home. Martin schools charge $946 for small homes and up to $1,516 for larger houses. Martin has hired a consultant to update the school district's fees.

Palm Beach County increased impact fees for homes in unincorporated areas from $936 to $1,795, so that buyers will pay from $7,456 to $12,409 in total fees, depending on the size of the home. Individual municipalities could add more to that figure. But the Palm Beach County total is close to the $12,365 that new fees would add to a Stuart home in Martin. It's slightly higher than the $10,520 for a Port St. Lucie home in St. Lucie County.

The growth boom in the three counties shows few signs of slowing down. Builders grumble about rapidly increasing fees, complaining that they add to home prices without creating substantial income for the governments that collect them. But those same builders profit from growth, and impact fees are the best way at this time to ease the costs that come from that growth.

Nailing 'The Hammer'

In Washington, the Republican Senate majority leader is under investigation for possible insider stock trading. A former Bush White House official has been arrested during the investigation of a big GOP lobbyist. President Bush's top political adviser could face charges related to the illegal release of a CIA officer's identity. And now House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, R-Texas, is under criminal indictment for an election law violation.

Three years ago, the odious Rep. DeLay wanted to increase the number of Republican congressmen from Texas. Problem was, district lines were set, based on the 2000 Census. So Rep. DeLay funneled money to state legislature candidates in 2002 and got a GOP majority. Then the legislature drew new lines, even though states aren't supposed to do so until the next census. Republicans gained six House seats in the 2004 election.

The indictment charges Rep. DeLay and two others with using corporate money in that 2002 election, which would violate Texas law. Allegedly, money went to a political action committee that Rep. DeLay created, then to the Republican National Committee, and then to the candidates. Rep. DeLay, of course, calls the indictment "blatant political partisanship," something he knows a lot about. Rep. DeLay, known as "The Hammer," has threatened lobbyists, and their interests, who give to Democrats. He has ordered lobbying firms not to hire Democrats. Pay him and his party, and he will play.

When the GOP won control of the House in 1994 and Rep. DeLay began to build power, Republicans said they would be different from the Democrats. They are. They're even more corrupt.

A better storm response: Fix FEMA, not politics

Brownie, you still don't get it.

The man who was to hurricane relief what Paul Bremer was to Iraq reconstruction appeared before Congress on Tuesday and reminded everyone why he was such a terrible choice to -- and, boy, do we use this next word loosely -- run the Federal Emergency Management Agency. "I know what I'm doing," said Michael Brown, who three days after Katrina said he didn't know there were people stranded at the New Orleans convention center. "I get it when it comes to emergency management," said the man who couldn't get the federal response geared up until four days after Katrina hit.

Mr. Brown spoke to the sham House committee that Republican leaders created not to objectively investigate what went wrong before and after Katrina but to place most blame on the Democratic governor of Louisiana and the Democratic mayor of New Orleans. An independent commission, like the one that investigated 9/11, probably would find failures at all levels and produce a report that could help government at all levels better prepare for and better respond to natural disasters and terrorist attacks. But President "It must be doubly devastating on the ground" Bush, who hired Mr. Brown, doesn't want that. Unless the GOP places the national interest first, this week's show is all Americans will get.

And what they got was Michael Brown passing the buck the way Dan Marino used to pass a football. Though he has resigned from FEMA, Mr. Brown is spending two weeks as an agency consultant, earning his pay by trying to protect the Bush administration. "My biggest mistake," Mr. Brown said, "was in not recognizing by Saturday (two days before Katrina made landfall) that Louisiana was dysfunctional." He regretted having to make things political, but he couldn't help it that things had gone so much better in the Republican-run states of Mississippi, Alabama and Florida. And for gosh sakes, think how hard it was to respond to a disaster "the size of Great Britain."

Most Democrats boycotted the hearings, but Rep. William Jefferson, D-La., noted an important fact. The Department of Homeland Security, to which FEMA belongs, imagines this national planning scenario for a big hurricane:

Local police and fire are victims of the storm and can't coordinate the immediate response. Local and state capabilities for treating casualties are overwhelmed. Private industry and charitable groups can help, but not on a wide scale. Therefore, the federal government -- led by the agency Mr. Brown mismanaged for two years -- must respond quickly and effectively. After Katrina, FEMA did neither.

Katrina exposed problems that threaten national security, not to mention problems that Republicans believe could hurt the party in the 2006 elections. The White House and Congress will decide which problems become the priority. Right now, they're doing a heck of a job worrying about the politics.

A Solitron solution?

Last year, the Environmental Protection Agency committed to a cleanup of cancer-causing chemicals contaminating Riviera Beach's drinking water. Last month, the EPA announced its proposed remedy for the toxic plume beneath the former Honeywell and Solitron manufacturing site a mile west of the city's Blue Heron Boulevard water plant. City consultants are checking to see whether the $4 million plan meets the expectations expressed during last year's discussions with EPA. But progress on the Superfund site's years-overdue cleanup is encouraging.

The proposed fix starts with extraction of water laden with the highest concentration of the chemicals. That water is north of the property and 100 to 150 feet below the surface in the aquifer that runs as deep as 250 feet. Many contaminants can't degrade because they're below ground, says Pam Scully, the project manager. So the treated water would be infused with oxygen and reinjected into the aquifer. That would cause remaining contaminants, such as vinyl chloride, the worst and most persistent, to degrade faster. Oxygen strips the chlorine that makes vinyl chloride toxic, rendering it to ethene, "something that is not harmful."

The extracted water would be treated with air-stripping equipment similar to what the city found itself forced to use to ensure residents a safe drinking supply -- at taxpayers' expense, Mayor Michael Brown repeatedly noted. The cost of the new equipment? "The show is definitely on us right now," said Ms. Scully, adding that the EPA still is considering its enforcement options with the manufacturers whose operations brought the problem. "The intent," she said, "is to make sure it absolutely does not come out of taxpayers' money."

The EPA promises that upon completion of the project, the groundwater will meet residents' cleanup goals. Riviera Beach can't relax even after there is a signed agreement, however, given bureaucratic problems that could emerge. There's still the Trans Circuits site cleanup in nearby Lake Park, for example, which the EPA says is on a separate track, even while the agency acknowledges that volatile plumes there also affected Riviera. But if the plan comes together, city officials should be prepared to thank EPA for its follow-through, the manufacturers for being responsible and the legislative delegation in Washington for helping to produce a solution.

Use tutors, not transfers

The federal No Child Left Behind Act often conflicts with common sense. For example, many schools that earn an A under Florida's FCAT-based grading system flunk under the NCLB guidelines. But NCLB also has at least one common-sense solution that deserves more emphasis: tutoring.

Schools that fail under NCLB three years in a row must offer free tutoring. Because of the three-year requirement, tutoring has been slow to become a major issue. Last year in Palm Beach County, for example, only 1,800 students were eligible, and 500 signed up for it.

This year, 11,000 are eligible in Palm Beach County. Tutoring is not much of an issue in Martin, which is much smaller, has relatively few poor students and has had more success with NCLB. In St. Lucie County, 9,057 students are eligible for tutoring or transfer to a better-performing school. Fifty-four have signed up for tutoring, but because those programs have not been finalized, it's not clear how many students will take part this year.

Nationwide, however, only about 10 percent of eligible students have taken advantage of free tutoring. As The Post reported this month, part of the problem is that parents are unfamiliar with the program or are unable to take their children to tutoring sessions. Another problem is that tutoring is expensive. Palm Beach County pays up to $1,256 per student for tutoring and has set aside $3 million. But that would not be enough to tutor all eligible students, so the district will ration tutoring, providing services first to students with the lowest test scores and fewest financial resources.

Both parents and school districts could do better. Tutoring makes more sense than paying to send students to different schools and, in many cases, makes more sense than providing smaller class size for all students. The program is too new and too little used to fully evaluate. Making greater use of tutoring and measuring its success should be an NCLB priority.

Lawmaker's oil fantasy a nightmare for Florida

If a California congressman gets his way, the moratorium on offshore oil drilling in Florida could be removed instantly. Republican Richard Pombo wants to add language to both a House budget bill and an energy bill that would erase federal restraints on coastal drilling nationwide. The additions to either bill would be an underhanded way to make bad policy without public debate.

Rep. Pombo's language would declare, with no scientific basis, that U.S. policy is that no environmental harm can be caused by exploration, drilling and production of gas that is 25 miles from the coast or oil that is 50 miles from the shore. The recent push has been to allow drilling at 100 to 125 miles off Florida's coasts, almost 300 miles closer to Florida than current laws permit -- already too close for comfort in case of spills or breaks in pipelines. Rep. Pombo's proposal would put all the state's beaches in harm's way.

The Florida delegation for years has stuck together and has been successful in fighting off attempts to allow oil drilling close to shore. But repeated attempts by the White House to change the rules, via Interior Secretary Gale Norton and others, have split the delegation, giving Rep. Pombo, chairman of the House Resources Committee, a chance to push his agenda. Reps. Mike Bilirakis, R-Tarpon Springs, Cliff Stearns, R-Ocala and Jeff Miller, R-Chumuckla, signed on to the White House plan. Rep. Mark Foley, R-Jupiter, who briefly supported the idea, now opposes it. Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson has led the fight to keep oil rigs far from beaches. Florida's other senator, Republican Mel Martinez, who was bamboozled by Ms. Norton's plans in March, since has opposed allowing drilling closer to shore.

Rep. Pombo may be pushing his bolder plans to make drilling 100-125 miles offshore seem like a pleasant compromise. But giving up two-thirds of the eastern Gulf, along with dropping today's moratorium that extends to 2012, should be nonnegotiable. Floridians who might not be familiar with Rep. Pombo's environmental record should know that in his spare time, he has devised changes that would gut the Endangered Species Act. Incentives for states and localities to use royalties from drilling to restore coastal damage are missing, and states are penalized for using federal moratoriums to block offshore oil and gas leasing. Oil companies get a pass on doing environmental assessments on such potentially devastating practices as seismic surveys, which can harm dolphins, whales and other marine life.

Rep. Pombo's proposals wouldn't drive down gas prices or result in recovery of enough oil to cover the cost to Florida's tourist economy. Legislators should band together again and block this latest attempt to let oil companies dictate public policy.

Immigration choice as bad as FEMA's Brown

The Bush administration should have learned enough from Mike Brown's downfall about the consequences of putting political hacks in critical positions. Yet, only days after Mr. Brown's forced departure as FEMA director, the administration was asking Congress to approve another unqualified candidate for an important job.

Julie Myers, 36, is the White House nominee to head Immigration and Customs Enforcement, but when she appeared before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, it quickly became clear that there's virtually nothing on her résumé that qualifies her -- no significant experience in customs, immigration or hands-on law-enforcement work. Sen. George Voinovich, R-Ohio, was so disturbed that he called on the administration and Ms. Myers to explain themselves. Her answer was that she would "seek to work with those who are knowledgeable in this area, who know more than I do." That list would include about everyone in the agency.

Ms. Myers has held a number of low- to mid-level management jobs in the departments of Commerce, Justice and Treasury, but nothing that adequately prepares her to manage 20,000 ICE employees and a $4 billion budget. The agency is central to Homeland Security's mission. ICE is responsible for preventing terrorists from getting into the country and also must intercept arms and drug smugglers. Ms. Myers currently works as a special assistant who deals with personnel matters for President Bush. Perhaps she can claim that the White House hired no terrorist on her watch.

What Ms. Myers definitely can claim is good connections. Her husband is chief of staff for Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff, and she is the niece of Air Force Gen. Richard Myers, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. She also has worked for former special prosecutor Ken Starr and helped build the impeachment case against President Clinton and the prosecution of Susan McDougal, assignments that endear her to the conservative wing of the Republican Party. As far as credentials go, Ms. Myers' best offerings are nepotism and political subversion.

The top spot at ICE is no place for on-the-job training. Incompetence in directing the nation's anti-terrorist defenses could have disastrous consequences and put lives in jeopardy. The last thing Americans need is another Brownie.

Lacking hope and help

Anthony McCray "never stopped being depressed" after he was stomped and beaten unconscious by other teens in May 2004. That's how his mother, Amanda Gamble, described him Friday, the day after her 15-year-old son killed himself by lying on train tracks near his home. The tragedy is made more piercing by the failures of the criminal justice system and the lack of victims' services for Anthony and his family after the brutal beating at a party in a West Palm Beach park.

Ms. Gamble likened her son, who was an eighth-grader at Conniston Middle School when he was attacked, to "a normal 3-year-old." Yet, she said, he was released from Columbia Hospital's mental health unit with only antidepressants, rejected by an after-school club because of a sibling's juvenile record and unaided by the Florida Department of Children and Families.

After hearing of Anthony's suicide, Linda Ortiz, the mother of the boys convicted of beating Anthony, was callous: "Where was the mom?" The question is better asked of Ms. Ortiz. According to the arrest report, her 12-year-old son was holding Anthony's hands behind his back while her then-17-year-old son beat Anthony. Where was Ms. Ortiz when Anthony fell limp to the ground and her sons kicked and stomped on his head and neck until, finally, a girl pushed the older one away? Where was Ms. Ortiz when, according to court records, another son, then 16 and arrested on a charge of affray, was arranging the fight? Ms. Ortiz, herself, was charged with obstruction for trying to hide her sons when police came to her home to arrest them.

Prosecutors dropped the felony charge against Angel Ortiz, now 19, because a key witness failed to show after being threatened. Ortiz was found guilty of aggravated battery but sentenced as a juvenile, to just two years in a youthful offenders prison and four years' probation. Ortiz' younger brother, Noel, was sentenced in March to a few months in a juvenile prison.

Anthony McCray's family now may be wondering whether they ever will stop being depressed. Recovery from this heartache will require greater support than Anthony received.

Rita confirms Katrina's warning: Send in the feds

The federal government responded better to Rita than Katrina. Credit all that nasty "blame-gaming" and "finger-pointing."

This time, President Bush declared Rita an "incident of national significance" two days before the storm made landfall. That declaration allows the highest federal participation. Two days after Katrina, the president was issuing only platitudes from Washington. Not until four days after the storm struck did federal troops begin to arrive in meaningful numbers.

With Rita, 5,000 soldiers were in place as the hurricane neared the coast. Almost 30,000 National Guard troops were ready. Search-and-rescue operations were being prepared, and the priority was the public, not the president. Mr. Bush had hoped to get a photo op Friday at the staging area in San Antonio, but the White House canceled the trip when it became clear that Mr. Bush's presence would be a distraction. He settled for a photo op from Northern Command in Colorado, where he tried to look hands-on after being so hands-off in the aftermath of Katrina.

But whatever the damage from Rita, this storm also posed far less of a test. Katrina was not only a stronger storm; it was much larger. Even with the faster and larger deployment of troops this time, some local officials complained that they couldn't get soldiers to maintain order in small towns that had no power, water or sewage.

Deciding what to do with the Federal Emergency Management Agency is an immediate post-storm priority. The needs of FEMA and the vast Homeland Security Department overlap in some cases, but the department's emphasis on terrorism had left FEMA overlooked until the hours after Katrina. It may work better if Congress again makes it independent.

So as the Gulf Coast cleans up again and the energy industry assesses damage to refineries and rigs, there is much for the federal government to assess. It is clear that when large natural disasters threaten, federal participation is necessary to help with evacuation and prepare for the aftermath. Some evacuees from Houston were walking along the highway and using the swales for toilets.

The government had advance warning for Katrina and Rita. That won't happen for an earthquake or a terrorist attack. Washington now has been warned that the system needs a lot of work.

Approve clinic buffer

Tonight, West Palm Beach should give final approval to an ordinance that would create buffer zones around health-care facilities.

The Presidential Women's Center requested the law to keep anti-abortion protesters away from the property. The commission's approval would require protesters to stay 20 feet from the clinic, and all other health-care facilities. The ordinance also would ban "amplified sound" or "unnecessary noise" within 100 feet of buildings used for health-care services.

The city had to move forward with the buffer ordinance after an apparent arson fire in July temporarily closed Presidential, Palm Beach County's only remaining abortion provider. Last year, another arson fire closed down a Lake Worth abortion clinic. While the buffer zone won't stop an arsonist from striking in the middle of the night, it will give police who provide security at the clinic the few extra seconds they say they need to turn back an attacker. After the two fires, the city would be negligent if it didn't act to protect property, and more important, people.

Broadening the ordinance to apply to all health-care facilities does more to insulate the city from legal challenges than to remedy real problems. City attorneys can argue that the law isn't aimed specifically at anti-abortion protesters but is a general attempt to enhance security for all health-care providers. Supporters of the buffer believe such a restriction it would have been useful in maintaining order during the Terri Schiavo case, when demonstrators on opposing sides gathered outside a Pinellas Park hospice and shouted their opinions. Abortion-rights opponents claim that the buffer will infringe on their constitutional right to free speech and inhibit their ability, as they characterize it, to "counsel" women. But 20 feet is well within the reach of conversation and is less restrictive than the 30-foot zone called for in the original draft of the ordinance. The right to free speech has limits that are there to protect other rights. Protesters at the clinic will be able to get their message out.

West Palm Beach came to this reluctantly, knowing that it could provoke a legal fight. At this point, though, commissioners have no choice but to vote for the buffer zone ordinance.

The wrong cost-cutting

The largest HMO in Palm Beach County and the Treasure Coast has told pediatricians that a tetanus, diphtheria and whooping cough vaccine is not worth the $22.04 per dose they pay. Under a contract change this summer, Blue Cross/Blue Shield's Health Options reimburses private doctors just $12 per shot. They also reimburse $10 less than what doctors pay for pneumococcal vaccines and about $6.81 less for chicken pox immunizations. Health Options' refusal to adequately reimburse physicians could cost the public in dollars and in health.

As The Post reported Wednesday, Palm Beach Children's Associates of West Palm Beach recently alerted its patients of the HMO's "poor and shortsighted cost containment measure." Dr. Conrad Wynne, president of Children's Associates, says his group will provide the state-required immunizations for children to attend school but has urged parents to contact their benefits coordinators to press Health Options to change. "Children's vaccines are important. It's preventive care. It saves lives. It prevents disease," Dr. Wynne said. "It doesn't make sense to ask a provider to do preventive care and then undercut them."

If other physicians start turning away patients because of underpricing by insurers, thousands of children could end up turning to the health department for necessary vaccines. "I think the private sector will continue to immunize 75 percent of the population," said Dr. Alina Alonso, the assistant health department director and chief of epidemiology. Let's hope so; the health department already has ordered its pediatric flu vaccines based on last year's use.

Florida's Department of Financial Services, which takes calls from consumers, had not received any complaints as of Friday and has no plans to intervene. "That becomes really a contractual issue between the physician or physician group and the HMO," said Sharon Binnun of the Office of Insurance Regulation. "As long as that HMO is covering those shots, we don't have the ability to tell the HMO what price they have to pay the physicians."

In his Web site greeting at www.fldfs.com, Insurance Commissioner Kevin McCarty boasts of "consumer protections being a top priority." As Florida prepares to put thousands of Medicaid patients in the hands of private HMOs and other managed-care networks, the state cannot afford to ignore this fundamental dispute over the value of preventive medicine. It is more than a contractual issue; it's a matter of public health.

Give state every chance to tame monster storm

Katrina taught lessons that emergency workers used to prepare for Rita, and both storms send warnings for Palm Beach County and the Treasure Coast if a monster hurricane hits here.

Last summer's mean season put Floridians ahead of the curve this year. Slow responses from the Federal Emergency Management Agency and state officials alerted local governments to stockpile food, water and generators and to arrange care for those with special needs. Florida is prepared to convert Florida's Turnpike to one-way, northbound between Fort Pierce and Orlando to ease mass evacuations, a solution Texas could have used sooner to get people out of the Houston area faster in advance of Rita.

But The Post's look last Sunday at a worst-case scenario storm, including a Lake Okeechobee dike breach and a coastal storm surge that floods barrier islands and inland neighborhoods, shows the need for more planning.

For example, a breach of the leaky dike could flood surrounding communities with up to 5 feet of water in 24 hours, endangering 40,000 people. Palm Beach and Martin counties are working on emergency plans but still have no tested means of moving the 24 percent of the lakeside population who have no cars. Planners hope for a best-case scenario when they need to prepare for the worst. There's no plan for telling people in languages other than English that they must leave. An Army Corps of Engineers report admits that residents would receive only a "limited" warning of an imminent breach.

An 18-foot storm surge from a Category 4 or 5 storm could flood 71,000 Palm Beach homes and condos, leaving 107,000 homeless. In Martin, 40,500 could be without homes; in St. Lucie, the figure is 18,500. Neighborhoods near canals and waterways could flood quickly; the post-World War II drainage system could be overwhelmed, overflowing or collapsing dikes. Floodwaters could mix with sewage, as happened in New Orleans.

Last summer's hurricanes alerted Florida; this year's Gulf Coast storms sounded a second alarm. Predictions of a new cycle of powerful hurricanes, perhaps for two decades or longer, appear to be accurate. Protections built after the last monster-storm cycle are aging and were not designed to protect the increased population.

While newer homes, built to improved standards after Hurricane Andrew, fared better in last year's storms, many still suffered water damage. And nine out of 10 South Florida homes were built before the tougher building codes took effect. The state should further tighten codes. The state also should study, recommend and eventually require retrofit measures that would make older homes and businesses safer. Thinking about the monster can be scary. Not planning for it is scarier.

Keep helping charities

A year ago, United Way of St. Lucie County Director Karen Knapp had to start asking people for money. This was after Frances and Jeanne had trashed the county. This was after Ms. Knapp had lost her home to the storms. "We didn't meet our goal," Ms. Knapp recalled, "but we raised more than we had the year before."

For United Way organizations, August and September hurricanes that hit anywhere don't just mean extra needs. Their timing stinks. United Way annual campaigns begin in late September and early October; in fact, St. Lucie's begins Monday. All charities are proud that their donors respond quickly when natural disasters strike locally or elsewhere. United Way of Palm Beach County, for example, has sent nearly $200,000 to the Katrina Relief Fund. Martin County has adopted Jackson County, Mississippi. But those same charities again want to remind donors that the day-to-day work remains.

"We still need to run the programs that are helping people in our community," Ms. Knapp said. "We train our volunteers so they can explain that." Like last year, though, it's not a normal time. In 2004, some donors in St. Lucie and Martin counties had become victims. This year, noted United Way of Palm Beach County board Chairman Howard Bregman, the community also is caring for New Orleaneans whom Katrina displaced.

Charitable demands on the Gulf Coast will be long-term. So are the local ones that have become more pressing, with government making poverty a low priority. Given the soul-searching that came after the images from New Orleans, government may shift back a little. More likely, private charities will have to do just as much. That can happen if all those generous donors remind themselves that Katrina and Rita have not shifted the work; they have added to it.

Get out vote, not ID

Reforming America's election system could mean finding ways to get the many voting-age-but-nonvoting citizens to the polls. It could focus on making sure that every vote cast is counted. Five years after Bush vs. Gore, that isn't a certainty.

Instead, the Commission on Federal Election Reform headed by former President Jimmy Carter and former Secretary of State James Baker has confused its mission by backing an over-the-top measure that would keep people from voting. The commission's proposal to require photo identification for all voters is overkill that would undermine the many reasonable suggestions in the report, "Building Confidence in U.S. Elections."

With the attention focused on voter IDs, Congress is even more likely to believe that the inadequate Help America Vote Act of 2002 is sufficient and less likely to embrace the commission's good ideas. The best one takes aim at Florida, one of the very few states that do not automatically restore felons' rights after their release from prison. The commission correctly points out that such laws have a disproportionate impact on minorities and discourage felons' reintegration into society.

The commission reluctantly embraces a paper trail for electronic voting, pointing out that only about a third of voters in printer-equipped Nevada precincts bothered to review paper ballots but concluding "it is still better than having no paper backup at all." Only the most jaded partisan could argue with the commission's push to depoliticize those who monitor elections. In 2000, Secretary of State Katherine Harris co-chaired the Bush-Cheney Florida campaign, then oversaw certification of vote totals. Attorney General Bob Butterworth was state chairman for the Gore-Lieberman campaign. The commission also has a good idea for widening participation in the increasingly front-end-loaded presidential primary: Create four regional primaries.

The commission's fatal flaw is its unnecessary requirement for photo IDs. Justified to counter fraud, the measure fails because it doesn't tighten rules for absentee voting, which is far more susceptible to fraud. Justified to enhance confidence, the measure fails because it is biased against those most likely not to carry driver's licenses -- minorities, the poor, the elderly and the infirm. Justified to bring a single national standard to a jumbled statewide approach, it fails because it is exclusive, not inclusive.

The commission gave scant attention to same-day registration, early voting and other alternatives to Tuesdays as the national Election Day. Those are changes that could bring more people to the polls. Instead, it aimed to resolve a problem that doesn't exist. As a result, real problems will persist.

Riviera's choice is good; now nail down specifics

There's a lot to like in the Viking group's proposal for remaking Riviera Beach. What's not to like should be locked out, and the advertised benefits locked in, during the contract negotiations that have begun with the city's "master developer."

Viking's proposed International Harbor in Riviera Beach is a natural fit that uses the waterfront and Riviera's marine-based economy for a unique redevelopment. Viking's yacht-building operations already employ 130 people. In agreeing with the move of U.S. 1 one block west to produce more valuable waterfront property surrounding a man-made lagoon, Viking's vision is consistent with the Community Redevelopment Agency's.

The first tests are Viking's pledge of $130 million and promise that it is "not looking for the city to finance any part of the redevelopment." Viking also promised a $40 million advance, to be repaid from future CRA revenue, $1.5 million for hiring 10 new police officers and financing for three new community centers. Confirming the financial elements is only a part of the scrutiny necessary from city council members sitting as the CRA board, guided by CRA staff and consultants. Here are some others:

• Since anyone can build homes and offices, the social and community-development concerns top the list. The contract must detail the plan and schedule for moving low-income residents to new affordable housing. Despite the Viking group's claim of never resorting to eminent domain, even market-value buyout numbers could halt the project. The agreement must spell out how Viking's established apprenticeship and job-creation plan translates to permanent jobs.

• How realistic is Viking's claim that it will be done in eight years if either the U.S. 1 move or the lagoon is held up for years or doesn't happen? At the meeting during which Viking was selected, a redevelopment opponent claimed that deed restrictions prohibit the existing Bicentennial Park from becoming part of the lagoon. Viking wants to redevelop and own new slips at the existing city marina, which CRA Chairwoman Elizabeth Wade said is a non-starter. And how will Viking incorporate one of its three competitors, Cypress Realty, which owns 15 waterfront acres?

• Viking's commitment to the CRA's proposed aquarium doesn't ensure the public donations to get it built. What's the backup plan? How myriad variables affect the redevelopment financing, and what are the fallback options, must be part of the development agreement's fine print. What residents want to see 20 or 30 years from now starts now. Given its natural assets, Riviera can't go wrong, right? Wrong. The deal's the thing. The agreement between city and developer can have some flexibility, but there can be no doubt about the goals.

One issue, underwhelmed

Lord help us. The Pledge of Allegiance is back in the court system.

Michael Newdow, an atheist who preaches with the fervor of a circuit rider, made it to the Supreme Court in 2004 when he tried to keep a California school district from requiring his daughter to recite the pledge. He claimed that the phrase "under God" turns the pledge into state-sponsored religion. The justices tossed his 2002 appeals-court victory on a technicality: He had no standing, because he didn't have primary custody of his daughter.

So Mr. Newdow, an emergency room doctor who has a law degree, found two like-minded parents with children in the district and sued again. Last week, a federal judge in California excluded Mr. Newdow from the lawsuit -- again, no standing -- but ruled for the other plaintiffs. For now, three California school districts can't make students say the pledge. Cue the predictable outrage. Said Randy Thomasson, president of Campaign for Children and Families, "The lower courts striking down the pledge again is like a dog returning to its vomit."

Actually, "under God" got into the pledge 51 years ago for political reasons. President Eisenhower put it there, to distinguish the United States from the godless Soviet Union. The Cold War is over, but the sentiment persists. Mr. Newdow may be acting for atheists, but talk-show hosts and groups such as Mr. Thomasson's benefit most. They use Mr. Newdow to pump up ratings and raise money.

Judge or no judge, Mr. Newdow's daughter and all other students are free not to say "under God" or even not to say the pledge with their classmates. Other, more important First Amendment cases compete for the courts' time. Mr. Newdow may have a case, but not a compelling issue.

New/old on North Korea

Think of North Korea as a surly teenager -- with nuclear weapons. When the potential is that explosive, "Clean up your room" is so much harder to negotiate.

This week, Pyongyang signed an agreement to scrap its nuclear programs, the international version of cleaning its room, in exchange for energy assistance and a promise from the United States not to attack North Korea. It was a breakthrough, for about a day.

As soon as the Bush administration announced the accord, North Korea "clarified" that it would divest itself of nuclear weapons and programs as soon as the U.S. and other signatories to the deal -- China, Japan, South Korea and Russia -- provided light-water reactors to produce electricity. The teenager thus demanded an increased allowance before tossing out the objectionable junk.

That development might have disappointed Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and chief U.S. negotiator Christopher Hill, but it's safe to say that it didn't surprise them. Dr. Rice said the agreement didn't guarantee light-water reactors ever and that verifiable North Korean disarmament is the first step in any deal. Mr. Hill speculated that North Korea was posturing.

And it's likely that both already have contacted Chinese diplomats -- thought to have the most influence over their Stalinist neighbor -- to keep the pressure on North Korea until six-party talks are scheduled to resume in November. Who knows whether those talks will go on or what North Korea will be demanding by that time?

With U.S. forces and money sinking into Iraq, diplomacy is the Bush administration's only tool. The administration also is eating a little crow because for so long it scoffed at negotiating with North Korea as something the Clinton administration had tried and failed at. In fact, in 1994, Mr. Clinton negotiated a freeze on North Korean nuclear development in exchange for energy assistance and light-water reactors. Sound familiar?

North Korea didn't keep its promise. But the need to proceed secretly slowed development, and the truth came out before the reactors were completed. So the 1994 deal wasn't a failure. The Bush administration, to its credit, learned the importance of verifying North Korea's claims before providing any reward. The Bush team's mistake, however, was to waste so many years thinking that it could ignore North Korea and get its way simply by talking tough.

The new agreement -- or sort of agreement -- isn't a breakthrough. It might turn into one. But if the Bush administration had started sooner, the North Korea problem might be more cleaned up by now.

Lack of specifics hurts plan for Treasure Coast

The work took 37 people 18 months to complete, but the Committee for a Sustainable Treasure Coast is expected to approve its final report -- a book of guidelines for good growth -- today in Stuart. State Sen. Ken Pruitt, R-Port St. Lucie, said the plan exceeds "all my expectations." He exchanged plaques with chairwoman Melissa Meeker and gave committee members copies of Good to Great, a business improvement book, at a final workshop this week.

Sen. Pruitt organized the committee, which includes representatives from Martin, St. Lucie and Indian River counties, to address regional growth issues. In spring 2004, the senator became worried after watching the Port St. Lucie City Council annex 9,500 acres for developments that will add 60,000 residents to the region.

But the final report does little to address that problem beyond noting that cities and counties should try to coordinate regional plans. Since Port St. Lucie's growing impact on its neighbors sparked the committee's birth, some had hoped for clearer guidelines to sober up growth-drunk cities. Sen. Pruitt said the report was not designed to command or control the city and county governments that he hopes will use it. "We're trying to change behavior to where they will be better neighbors," he said. He said he's not considering any legislation to put enforcement "teeth" behind the report, and won't try to change state annexation laws.

The report endorses the Everglades and Indian River Lagoon restoration plans, suggests keeping Lake Okeechobee's water level lower and asks state, federal and local agencies to work together for cleaner water. It offers opinions on what to do with rural lands, including some controversial plans such as clustering intense pockets of development. But the suggestions are not a mandate; each county is free to accept or reject the ideas. As St. Lucie County Commissioner Doug Coward noted, his county approves the idea of rural villages; Martin County doesn't. "There's not one answer," he said. "We expect this to be a guiding document, not a regulatory document."

The report suggests that school boards from each county should work together and recognizes regional planning already in place for colleges. The committee endorses a regional trauma center as the population grows, and recognizes the need for affordable housing.

The ideas aren't new, and there's no plan to make Treasure Coast governments pay attention to them, though the group wants to perpetuate itself.

It began as a good idea, but without specifics on how to make the players follow it, this bland plan seems destined to collect dust on government shelves.

Give Frist ethics checkup

For years, Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., maintained that it was not a conflict of interest for him to take a leading role in health-care legislation that could affect the value of his family's stock in Hospital Corporation of America. In June, Sen. Frist changed his mind. Did he see the light, or did he see something else?

Ideally, Sen. Frist wouldn't have seen anything, since his stock, and that owned by his wife and daughter, was in a blind trust. But the peculiar rules of that particular blind trust allowed Sen. Frist to direct the trustee to sell all of his family's shares in HCA, which the trustee did on June 13. The stock hit its peak price on June 22, and by July 8, all the Frist family shares had been sold. On July 13, HCA -- which Sen. Frist's father founded, and of which his brother is chairman emeritus -- announced that the company would miss second-quarter earnings projections because of lagging admissions. HCA's stock price fell nearly 15 percent. In the two months before the announcement, HCA executives sold 574,882 shares worth nearly $20 million.

As John C. Coffee, an authority on securities law at Columbia University, remarked to The New York Times, "Good fortune, isn't it?"

Sen. Frist portrays himself as the aggrieved party because his critics demanded that he sell, then criticized him when he did so. But it isn't the sale; it's the timing, coupled with the senator's inability to explain how he happened to get ethical just in time to save a bundle.

The Securities and Exchange Commission won't say whether it will investigate. Of course, it should. The trust wasn't blind, and the SEC shouldn't be, either.

Celebrate. Then hope.

Groundbreaking for The Scripps Research Institute will take place today at the rural, isolated citrus grove where Palm Beach County chose to build the centerpiece of Florida's venture into biotech. It would have been more appropriate to stage the ground-breaking in a courtroom.

For all of Scripps' promise, there is a discouraging and needless subplot to today's festivities. If Scripps was strictly science, more than two years after Gov. Bush lured the institute with $310 million, there wouldn't be protesters plotting to upstage the groundbreaking and lawsuits waiting to be heard in federal and state court.

Scripps holds the potential to transform Palm Beach County and the region, perhaps converting it into a research center on a par with North Carolina's Research Triangle Park or well-established centers in Boston, San Diego and San Francisco. The day could have been one of unfettered praise for Gov. Bush and Scripps President Richard Lerner. Instead, they stand before a divided public, the moment emblematic of the split. Images of Gov. Bush and Dr. Lerner at Mecca Farms will appear on closed-circuit television in a room full of dignitaries at the PGA Resort, nearly 15 miles away. Mecca Farms is too far out and the existing road network too ill-suited to host the crowd. What if it rains?

Palm Beach County has committed to turning that former orange grove into a jobs center to rival downtown West Palm Beach, replacing dirt roads with boulevards and thus threatening the neighborhoods and wetlands around Mecca. When all costs are considered, the county is putting $500 million on the line, to go with the state's money. Gov. Bush argued for Mecca because, he said, it offered the size needed to deliver spinoff businesses he expects Scripps to draw. To environmentalists, neighbors and this newspaper, it appeared more like an old-fashioned Florida land grab, relying on a single attraction to continue westward sprawl.

The lawsuits that begin Monday with a federal case in Miami present a dangerous challenge to the governor's vision. They could have been avoided if he and some business leaders had substituted their preferred site for an equally powerful biotech center next to Interstate 95 and the Abacoa project in Jupiter. Abacoa is a community awaiting a jobs center. Mecca is a jobs center awaiting a community.

Builders stand ready to deliver community -- the homes and stores planned to complement biotech labs -- even as Scripps stands ready to deliver great science. To his credit, Dr. Lerner has promised to remain in Palm Beach County even if courts rule against Mecca Farms. He never wanted to be in a fight over growth in Florida. Because Mecca Farms remains the choice, he is.

To pay for Katrina/Rita, use the dieters' method

How can Congress help the Gulf Coast after Katrina and Rita? First, find the money without making the nation's books even worse. Then, watch the money -- for a change.

Gulf Coast relief will be the second massive project the Bush White House has taken on. This week, the General Accountability Office reported just how ineptly the administration has handled the first, namely Afghanistan, Iraq and the anti-terrorism campaign. "Neither (the Department of Defense) nor Congress can reliably know how much the war is costing and details of how appropriated funds are being spent," the GAO told Congress. Those "appropriated funds" amount to $191 billion, doled out between Sept. 11, 2001, and May of this year.

If the public can't follow the money, the public can see what the money bought. Afghanistan is trending up a little after last week's elections, and would be in better shape if President Bush hadn't invaded Iraq, where the far more massive investment -- and we're just talking money -- has brought nothing of what the president predicted. Four years after Hurricane Summer for the Gulf Coast, you'd want progress to be more apparent.

Success, though, will come only if President Bush and those who run Congress devote the country's resources to pressing problems, not ideological campaigns. Even now, with Mr. Bush throwing around a figure of $200 billion just for Katrina, he refuses to consider tax increases. His claim that spending cuts can produce the money is laughable. He just signed a pork-laden transportation bill. The Congressional Budget Office reports that federal spending as a share of gross domestic product is up from 18.4 percent to 20.2 percent since Mr. Bush took office. At the same time, federal tax revenue as a share of GDP is down from 20.9 percent to 17.5 percent, having been as low as 16.3 percent. Those, by the way, are pre-Katrina/Rita figures.

Gold prices are at 18-year highs. That reflects worry about the nation's basic fiscal health. To start hurricane relief without cutting spending or raising taxes would expose the country even more to the whims of foreign investors, who already hold $2 trillion of the federal debt. Following their government's bad example, Americans are saving almost nothing.

There are good, if politically unappealing, ideas out there. Congress could rescind from $25 billion to $30 billion worth of lawmakers' wasteful special projects. Congress could delay the Medicare drug benefit, to start in January. Congress could stop talking about any new tax breaks -- beyond those for storm victims -- and pare some of the income tax cuts, along with the reductions for dividends and capital gains. Congress could delay the Mars program.

Acts of man left the nation financially vulnerable. Recent acts of God demand better acts of man.

Make FEMA aim higher

FEMA has been taking a lot of knocks, but the agency has a history of giving more than 100 percent.

After last year's hurricanes were implicated in 135 deaths statewide, for example, FEMA approved death benefits in 316 cases. So 234 percent of deceased victims got benefits. Though Frances hit more than 100 miles from Miami-Dade County, FEMA paid $31 million to "storm victims" -- $31 million more than the 0 percent of FEMA's budget that should have been spent there.

Perhaps to achieve cosmic balance, the Federal Emergency Management Agency has contrived to pay many legitimate claimants less than 100 percent of what is due to them. Florida counties spent $700 million to clean up and recover after Charley, Frances, Ivan and Jeanne, but FEMA has decided that only $420 million is eligible for reimbursement. And the agency has paid out only $280 million. Tardy payments force counties to borrow, raising their costs even more.

Martin County sought $35.6 million, of which FEMA approved $30 million but has delivered only $16.5 million. St. Lucie sought $121 million, of which FEMA allowed just $16.3 million and has paid a mere $12.2 million. Palm Beach County asked for $76 million, is due $50 million, according to FEMA, but has received just $27.4 million.

It's hard to say whether the percentage approved or the percentage delivered is more pitiful. Will Katrina's victims -- and any from Rita -- get jumped ahead of the line? Or can they simply expect the same sort of delays? FEMA spokeswoman Frances Marine said the agency has set a goal of paying 90 percent of Florida's approved expenses by Oct. 15. It's more than a year after the storms, and 90 percent is the best FEMA can do? Anything less than 100 percent is 100 percent unacceptable.

A way to move runway

It's one more study, but this one could make a difference for the unhappy neighbors of Witham Field.

Federal Aviation Administration representatives, meeting with Martin County officials in Orlando on Tuesday, said they will ask the county to consider alternatives for moving the "crash zone" at the end of a controversial runway. The area, also known as the "runway protection zone," extends 1,000 feet beyond the end of the runway and encompasses the 18th Street neighborhood in Stuart, northwest of the airport. Since the county approved the runway extension in 1998, residents have made persistent, justifiable complaints about low-flying aircraft, jet noise and fumes.

Documents recently made public in a Witham Airport Action Majority report indicate that the county commission approved the runway extension based on incorrect maps that did not show the presence of homes in the crash zone. Former County Commissioner Donna Melzer has admitted that her vote approving the extension, based on inadequate information provided by the county staff and Airport Director Mike Moon, was a mistake.

The current county commission majority has refused to address the issue, even after meeting with Stuart commissioners, though the Stuart commission later asked the county to remove the 460-foot runway extension. FAA officials asked Martin County to study the problem and propose solutions, interim County Administrator Dan Hudson said after Tuesday's meeting. That may be the first hopeful news for the airport's neighbors. After years of complaining by residents, the FAA has recognized that they have a legitimate gripe, even if the county commission majority hasn't. The FAA recently heard from U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla., urging the agency to consider moving the crash zone, and has received e-mails from residents that also may have had an effect. As Commissioner Susan Valliere points out, the FAA seems more concerned about public opinion than public safety.

The agency and the county should have addressed the safety issue before the runway was extended. After years of protests and an expensive plan to use a $2.3 million FAA grant to buy or insulate homes in the neighborhood, the county in its study must consider what remains the cheapest and most effective remedy: Bulldoze the runway extension. That would solve the problem and provide the neighborhood the peace it deserves.

Right roust at the jail

It took 20 months, $15.6 million, the deaths of several inmates after receiving questionable care and an epidemic staph infection for former Sheriff Ed Bieluch finally to replace the private medical provider at the Palm Beach County Jail. To the benefit of jail and court employees, lawyers, contractors, inmates and the public, current Sheriff Ric Bradshaw is not as indifferent or incompetent with the new company.

Just 10 months into its two-year, $20 million contract, Correctional Medical Services Inc. has been warned that Sheriff Bradshaw will not tolerate cost overruns and poor service. The sheriff invited a competing company to tour the jail last week and offer an "assessment." CMS had been told to expect an external auditor, not a competitor. But the unusual, if sneaky, tactic was effective. As Sheriff Bradshaw said, "We got their attention."

CMS, low bidder last summer to replace Prison Health Services, contracted to spend $900,000 for care of inmates needing treatment at a hospital or clinic. Already, that cost has reached $3.3 million. Prescription-drug costs also are over CMS' budget. Not surprisingly, CMS blamed its predecessor for higher-than-budgeted expenses. "Quite frankly," a CMS spokesman said, "there were a number of cases left by the previous provider that needed to be addressed."

There are other remnants of Prison Health Services' poor performance. Just last week, a circuit judge ruled that Rosanne Bilello could sue Prison Health Services, a former jail doctor employed by the company and the sheriff's office for punitive damages in the 2003 death of her husband, Patrick Bilello. Ms. Bilello says that while her husband was an inmate at the jail, he begged for medical treatment, but Prison Health Services ignored him. Other inmates had complained that PHS denied medications to patients, particularly drugs for psychiatric care. In one case, a county judge released a schizophrenic inmate after learning that PHS had failed to give him any medicine.

So Sheriff Bradshaw is correct to not wait for things to get worse with CMS. Sheriff Bieluch hired CMS with more emphasis on cost than quality, refusing even to consider a bid by a Wellington-based team of doctors who missed the deadline by a mere seven minutes. Notably, he hired CMS just months beforeleaving office. Sheriff Bradshaw's attention to a new prospective bidder should remind CMS that the incumbent is replaceable.

Put Roberts on court; key choice is next one

John Roberts once represented the Boy Scouts, and he deserves a Merit Badge for sitting through his confirmation hearings last week. Republicans and Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee postured, pontificated and talked past Judge Roberts, trivializing what one senator called the "job interview" to be chief justice of the United States. Though Judge Roberts wouldn't be our choice, he gave the Senate no clear reason to reject him.

Some Democrats may vote no because the White House didn't release all of Judge Roberts' writings from his years as deputy solicitor general in the Bush 41 White House. They've got the best point. If Judge Roberts is as wonderful as President Bush says, what's there to hide? Some Democrats may vote no because Judge Roberts didn't answer some questions directly. They don't have a good point. Clinton appointees Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Stephen Breyer were evasive during their hearings. And Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., will vote no for the worst reason: George Bush won the 2004 election.

Sen. Reid might have a good point if he were deciding based on Judge Roberts' early writings on civil rights, privacy and federalism. Instead, Sen. Reid said presidents are "not entitled to much deference" regarding their choices for the high court. He wouldn't feel that way if President John Kerry were choosing, and he won't feel that way if he's in the Senate when the next Democrat is in the White House. The Constitution requires confirmation to block the unqualified and the unacceptable. With the Judiciary Committee scheduled to vote today, there is nothing to indicate that Judge Roberts is either.

Despite senators' best efforts to obscure them, several points emerged during the hearings. Judge Roberts acknowledged that issues he commented upon so smugly as a government lawyer look different when he has to rule on them. Judge Roberts acknowledged a constitutional right to privacy, even if he did not specify whether it applies to women and their reproductive systems. He agreed that Roe vs. Wade and the 2003 ruling that struck down an outdated Texas sodomy statute are "settled" law, even if he implied that the court can overturn "settled" decisions.

Just two years ago, the Senate unanimously confirmed Judge Roberts to the District of Columbia Circuit Court of Appeals, the second-most important court in the country. Though this vote is to make Judge Roberts chief justice, not enough has changed since 2003 to make a persuasive case against him. Since Judge Roberts clerked for and admired Chief Justice William Rehnquist, this choice does not have the same potential impact as the next one: the replacement for swing vote Justice Sandra Day O'Connor.

That is the important fight for Democrats, since President Bush could use the pick to force on the country an ideologically conservative court that would roll back important citizen protections. Confirming Judge Roberts would give the Democrats the moral authority they may need soon to make the right point about Supreme Court justices for the right reason.

Keep 'new' FAU like old

The Florida Atlantic University trustees' goal of making the Boca Raton campus more like a traditional university begs the question whether the trustees intend to change FAU's commuter-school mission. Fortunately, Chairwoman Sherry Plymale promises that there will be no fewer options for those she calls FAU's "place-bound" students: the mostly part-timers with family and/or job "whose situation is determined by where they live."

"We have not changed our mission," said Ms. Plymale. She cited the need "to do more needs analysis for the programming in our different campuses, and at a more sophisticated level." FAU must continue to ensure, for example, that the Treasure Coast campus in Port St. Lucie offers degree programs most needed by that community. "But as we continue to develop the Boca campus," she said, "we will also look at making that model a traditional campus atmosphere."

The consensus for focusing 24-hour-a-day life at the main campus rather than FAU's other six came out of last week's board discussion of short- and long-term goals, part of a plan in its final stages. "But the whole traditional model comes up from the students, the need and desire for that," Ms. Plymale said. "In a lot of ways, we're on our way in Boca." While this newspaper believes that FAU's costly move to Division I-A football is the wrong priority, she believes that an on-campus team can build community.

"We recognize we're going to be a commuter school forever that provides great access," says President Frank Brogan. And Ms. Plymale is correct that the balance "between the traditional campus and making sure we are serving students at our distributive-model partner campuses is the real balance to be struck. They're never going to be equal, but they need to be equitable." No time frame has been discussed. No one has calculated the cost of creating the more traditional atmosphere. Any change, however, cannot come at nontraditional students' expense.

Disturber of the peace

Simon Wiesenthal spent every waking minute making sure that other people couldn't sleep.

For nearly six decades, Mr. Wiesenthal devoted his life to finding Nazi war criminals and bringing them to justice. His work grew out of his own suffering. Though he and his wife survived the concentration camps, they lost 89 members of their families. At the Mauthausen camp in Austria, the 6-foot Mr. Wiesenthal was down to 99 pounds when the Allies arrived in May 1945.

Many nations and organizations pursue tens of thousands of surviving Nazis who committed Holocaust atrocities. Mr. Wiesenthal, who died Monday at 96, worked out of his four-person Jewish Documentation Center in Vienna. But as American Jewish Committee President David Harris said, "As much as any one person can personify this cause, he did. He tried to establish the principle that even those who weren't caught couldn't have a comfortable night's sleep."

Abraham Foxman, president of the Anti-Defamation League of B'nai B'rith and a survivor himself, stressed how Mr. Wiesenthal made the world pay attention to something that many people wanted to leave "under an avalanche of denial. Germany didn't want to deal with it. The United States didn't want to deal with it. So many people saw these ex-Nazis as older, looking like grandfathers. People said, 'Why bring this up now, after all this time? It was politically expedient not to face the problem. Without him, we wouldn't be where we are."

Today, the U.S. Justice Department operates a special office for hunting the Nazi criminals. Over the years, the notorious Adolph Eichmann -- who set up the mechanism to carry out the Final Solution -- and many others have been arrested. They include the man who arrested Anne Frank in Amsterdam. Mr. Wiesenthal's work was instrumental in the capture of Eichmann, who had been living in Argentina. Israel executed him in 1962, and the publicity brought attention to Mr. Wiesenthal and his work.

Rabbi Marvin Hier, who founded the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Los Angeles, told The Associated Press that Mr. Wiesenthal became "the conscience of the Holocaust." Certainly, someone should be. The Holocaust remains history's most heinous crime, and many of those who were complicit have died or will die without facing a jury. But Mr. Wiesenthal dedicated his life to making sure that the world never forgets what those criminals did. He has earned the rest that he courageously denied them.

Change Lunsford Act to focus on right targets

A "glitch bill" fixes flaws that become evident after a law takes effect. One thing has become evident quickly about the Jessica Lunsford Act: It has glitches.

The Legislature passed the law in May, naming it for the 9-year-old Citrus County girl whom John Couey, a convicted sex offender, confessed to kidnapping and killing. Couey once worked as a construction worker at Jessica's school.

In addition to creating tougher penalties for sex offenders, the law requires fingerprinting and background checks on anyone who could come into contact with students at a school. The logistics of fingerprinting tens of thousands of people before the Sept. 1 deadline proved impossible. Adding to the problem, there has been confusion about who must be fingerprinted.

As The Post reported Tuesday, Palm Beach County School District officials didn't know whether they could release children into the custody of social workers who had passed separate screenings. It's also uncertain whether the law covers speakers, such as Holocaust survivors. Principals are worried that volunteers will get the message that they're not wanted on campus.

The law has at least one more major glitch. There is no clear roster of offenses for which people are supposed to be barred from campuses. People who have a record that indicates "moral turpitude" are not to be allowed on school property, but each district is supposed to define "moral turpitude" on its own. The law obviously intends to keep out sex offenders, but what about drug offenses or domestic violence?

Compliance also has been a headache for contractors, who are supposed to make sure that workers are fingerprinted, and for districts that were unsure whether they needed to shut down construction projects until everybody had been checked. They were very sure, however, that contractors would pass on to them the cost of conducting the checks, which cost between $60 and $90.

Last week, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement said it would set up a database of everyone who has been screened. Some counties, such as St. Lucie and Martin, already had been sharing information. All that will reduce the expense and hassle of duplicate testing. Still, only the Legislature can more clearly define who must pass a background check and exactly which crimes are grounds for banishment from school grounds.

Both House Speaker Allan Bense, R-Panama City, and Senate President Tom Lee, R-Brandon, have called for fixing the glitches. They can fix the obvious problems if the Legislature has a special session this year to deal with slot-machine rules or other issues. Lawmakers can take a more in-depth look in the regular spring session, by which time the glitches should be even better understood and a law to do good can be made to do no harm.

Getting Katrina money from Medicare recipients

The best part of Congress' ill-gotten Medicare "reform" passed in 2003 was that the disabled and the poorest seniors of the 42 million covered eventually could pay less for prescription drugs. Eventually was supposed to arrive in January. But some House Republicans, who want to preserve tax cuts for the wealthy indefinitely, figure the disabled and the elderly can sacrifice at least another year -- for the hurricane victims, of course.

Already eyeing cuts in Medicaid to help pay for post-Katrina cleanup and restoration, Republicans now see a $40 billion "savings" in delaying the Medicare drug benefit for a year. Beneficiaries not only would not get a promised discount next year, but, as the Bush administration announced last week, they will face a 13 percent increase in Medicare premiums.

Unequal sacrifice for unequal gain is not a new expectation of President Bush's administration or this Republican-led Congress. Most Americans were not asked to sacrifice so that America could rebuild Baghdad. But the poorest Americans are being asked to sacrifice so that America can rebuild its own New Orleans.

Any delay in Medicare reform should be to truly reform the system for the benefit of those taking prescription drugs, not those making them. For starters, Congress -- which, at the pharmaceutical companies' bidding, banned price-bargaining and importation of cheaper drugs from Canada or elsewhere -- should allow the federal government to negotiate for lower drug prices.

In the face of an overflowing deficit, Republicans who treated the Medicare reform bill as sacred when Democrats challenged it as too benevolent to pharmaceutical companies cannot now credibly claim sticker shock. The Bush administration first pegged the price at $400 billion over 10 years. A Medicare accountant was forbidden from telling the then-truer $534 billion estimate until after the bill passed. The president then proclaimed a $724 billion cap, which was later surpassed by "new" data that estimated a $1.2 trillion bill.

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services has spent millions promoting the drug benefit, urging seniors to start signing up Nov. 1. But the federal government's loss is less politically influential than the pharmaceutical industry. Drug companies, which stand to gain billions from the "reform," could prove to be the backstabbing friends seniors rely on to ensure the benefit takes effect in January as promised.

Last week, as President Bush announced his plan to rebuild New Orleans "higher and better," he offered a "pledge of the American people": "We will do what it takes." This time, will "we" include any sacrifice from the wealthy?

Insurance at a premium

With the devastation of New Orleans and the Mississippi Gulf Coast, and with hurricanes threatening Florida shores, the last thing residents need is uncertainty about the state's insurance company of last resort.

The board of the public-private Citizens Property Insurance Corp. on Friday delayed a massive rate increase because board members knew too little about the complicated projections. A week earlier, Citizens' No. 2 official, Chief Operating Officer R. Paul Hulsebusch, resigned after a lawsuit accused him of accepting a $28,000 motorcycle as a bribe. A St. Petersburg Times report Sunday said Mr. Hulsebusch and two Citizens financial officers had been under scrutiny just a month ago for opening a private insurance business together. The two underlings were forced to resign. They started the private business -- without Mr. Hulsebusch -- but remained on the Citizens payroll as consultants. Florida Chief Financial Officer Tom Gallagher has launched a criminal investigation.

Those troubling events have to make Citizens' customers uncomfortable with paying even more for what is statutorily designed to be the highest-cost insurance provider in the state. Under a new method of calculating premiums, Citizens had proposed an average 37 percent statewide rate increase -- 32.5 percent in coastal portions of Palm Beach County and 14.5 percent in the rest of the county. The increases would affect about 300,000 Citizens policyholders, but not the company's wind-only customers. Board members said they couldn't vote on it Friday, pushing it back to November, because it was the first they knew of it. More likely, they knew better than to sock customers with a huge rate increase amid the revelations about Mr. Hulsebusch.

Citizens tacked a 6.8 percent increase on every Floridians' homeowners insurance policy -- whether it was sold by Citizens or not -- to make up a $516 million deficit left from last year's hurricanes. As hurricanes continue to stir anxiety, Citizens is failing its primary function of delivering peace of mind. State legislators can't wait for this latest scandal to blow over. Citizens had trouble delivering claims last year, is having trouble paying its bills this year and its top officers seem to care more about themselves than the public. For legislators, the task of insurance reform cannot wait.

Rita a test for FEMA

FEMA has to do better. We're just sorry that FEMA has to do better so soon.

Rita, forecast to become a major hurricane, has the potential to hit the United States twice -- just like Katrina. The Federal Emergency Management Agency messed up so spectacularly after Katrina struck Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama that people forget FEMA also made bad decisions after the first strike in South Florida. Saying the damage in Broward and Miami-Dade counties was too slight, FEMA refused to approve individual assistance. That was identical to the faulty reasoning FEMA demonstrated in 2003, when it denied aid to victims of a Riviera Beach tornado. As Congress explores FEMA reform, fixing that kind of injustice is just one issue.

The longer-term forecast takes a strengthening Rita into the Gulf of Mexico, with ultimate landfall anywhere from Mexico up the coast to Texas or even into Louisiana. So there might be a tendency, once again, for FEMA to look past whatever impact the storm has on Florida.

The bright side, if you can call it that, is that the Bush administration will do everything possible to improve on its Katrina response. It also helps that the acting FEMA director, R. David Paulison, is a former Miami-Dade fire chief. And, even more important than his local ties, Mr. Paulison actually has emergency management experience.

As first Ophelia and now Rita show, the administration and Senate won't have to rely on Mr. Paulison's résumé when deciding whether he should be permanent chief. Although he is stepping in suddenly, Mr. Paulison has been FEMA's head of preparedness, so judging him on current performance is fair. Plus, in this record-setting year, there are several more weeks of historically high hurricane activity. So, unfortunately, if FEMA performs better after Rita, as we hope it will, the agency likely will have the opportunity to prove that wasn't a fluke.

New rules must restrict police shooting into cars

For the second time this year, a local police officer has fatally shot a teenager who defied orders to stop driving a car. Consider it the worst kind of reminder to police chiefs that their officers need better training in the use of force.

On Sept. 9, Palm Springs officer Douglas Rua shot 18-year-old Marc Ariot, who was suspected of trying to cash bad checks at a bank drive-through. The Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office still is investigating, but a witness told deputies that officer Rua was not in the path of the car Mr. Ariot was driving when he began firing. According to the witness, the officer pulled out his gun after jumping out of the car's path. A bullet hole in the driver's side window -- as opposed to the windshield -- indicates that the officer was not in front of the car and at risk of being run over.

There are too many similarities to the Feb. 26 shooting death by then-Delray Beach officer Darren Cogoni of 16-year-old Jerrod Miller to ignore. Both victims were unarmed, teenage African-American males. Both officers were white males in their 20s with limited on-the-job experience. Witnesses in both incidents told investigators no one was in danger of being run over.

Arguably, if Palm Springs' use-of-force policy had been followed, the shooting would not have occurred. It says, in part: "Shots at moving vehicles or from moving police vehicles are generally ineffective and are not to be fired unless absolutely necessary in defense of life."

Police chiefs are correct to begin reviewing their policies and considering a uniform countywide guideline. The sheriff's revised policy could be used as a model. Effective Aug. 12, "firing a weapon at a moving vehicle is prohibited," the sheriff's policy states, unless the suspect is threatening "deadly force by means other than the vehicle" and "all other reasonable and available means of defense have been exhausted (including moving out of the path of the vehicle) and the safety of innocent persons would not be unduly jeopardized... " The policy also says deputies "threatened by an oncoming vehicle shall move out of its path instead of discharging a firearm at it or any of its occupants" and "shall not intentionally stand and/or step into the path of a vehicle, creating circumstances where the use of deadly force becomes necessary." Officer Rua had walked in front of the car while it was stopped at the drive-through window. He fired two shots in the busy shopping plaza, and a passenger -- later questioned by police and released -- was inside the vehicle.

The bad practice of shooting at a moving car warrants a good policy and even better training.

Gimmicks over quality

Florida's constitution requires the state to provide a "high-quality" public education, but just being in the document won't make it happen. That job belongs to Gov. Bush and the Legislature. The Constitutional Accountability Commission says they're not doing it.

The bipartisan committee, created by the Florida School Boards Association and co-chaired by former Attorney General Bob Butterworth and former Comptroller Bob Milligan, said Florida's per-pupil spending and low teacher pay help account for a sub-par graduation rate and poor national rankings. Florida ranks 48th in per-pupil spending, 30th in teacher pay and 48th in graduation rates. Even with improving marks on some standardized tests, Florida's scores are 33rd in the country.

Gov. Bush's spokesman insisted that "Florida's education system is right on track. Under the governor, funding for public schools has increased by $6.1 billion and Florida students are reading and performing math at higher levels than ever before." Although Gov. Bush and the Legislature have provided more money, they haven't kept pace with student growth and inflation coupled with the voter-approved requirement to lower the number of students in each class. Paying for smaller classes also is something the constitution requires the state to do, but the Legislature hasn't done it.

The problem remains that Gov. Bush's education policy is gimmick-driven. He and the Legislature have created a plethora of voucher programs and eased the way for creation of record numbers of charter schools, but they have refused to require those programs to meet the same standards required of regular public schools.

And gimmicks keep coming. Rep. Adam Hasner, R-Delray Beach, is pushing a measure that would require school districts to spend at least 65 percent of their budgets "in the classroom" and pitches it as a way to add $1 billion to benefit students without having to raise taxes.

Not only is there no way to prove 65 percent is a magic number, there's no good way to define which money goes "into the classroom." A teacher's salary does, of course. But doesn't the salary of a human resources worker, who keeps the teachers happy, also have classroom effect? On the other hand, Rep. Hasner hopes to put his measure in the constitution, so maybe, like other educational mandates, it wouldn't matter.

Let Pal-Mar board die

It's not often a water control district chooses its own demise over developing the land. For the Pal-Mar Water Control District, there's no sacrifice involved. The district, which straddles the Palm Beach-Martin County border, is better off if it no longer exists.

Speculators have been selling lots in the Pal-Mar swamp for $40,000 to buyers who ignorantly believed they were getting a bargain on land near the future home of The Scripps Research Institute. Buyers figured they could build on an acre even though the area lacks roads, drainage and development rights. For starters, lots must be at least 20 acres. Led by Robert Berman, owner of 1,000 acres and president of a coalition claiming to represent thousands of landowners, the speculators expected to use the Pal-Mar Water Control District to carve up the wetlands.

Two of the district's largest landowners, controlling two of the five seats on the district's board, have no intention of letting that happen. Palm Beach and Martin counties have been buying property, with other government agencies, to let the land continue to act as a natural sponge during heavy rains, recharging underground sources and helping the populated coast to prosper. The government owns 18,000 acres out of 22,000 and would like to buy the rest.

Prices, however, are getting out of government reach. If private landowners are going to bid up Florida swampland, they need to know the prospects for development are dim. To get that across, the governments sent out information packets. And they're expected to press for the district's dissolution at the Sept. 28 board meeting.

Mr. Berman came to the last meeting with petitions from landowners demanding the right to build. One way to do that would be to take the counties off the board by removing their land from the district. The public is better served by the board's demise.

Dissolution, however, requires legislative action. That invites meddling from a legislature less likely to care about local wetlands and more likely to be influenced by Mr. Berman's lobbyists. The state needs to listen to the local managers who know better than to let development kill the swamp. To save the wetlands, the Pal-Mar Water Control District has to die.

Drop in black enrollment shows One Florida a flop

It will be instructive to see, if he runs for president, how Gov. Bush finesses the African-American student-enrollment debacle wrought by his One Florida initiative. Last week offered a glimpse. The governor issued a news release touting record enrollment in Florida's 11 public universities. The more than 281,000 students are a 3 percent increase over last year. Hispanic students increased by 6 percent. Yet black freshmen enrollment decreased by 1.6 percent to the lowest level since the governor took office in 1999.

This isn't a start-up problem. One Florida has been official policy for five years. Gov. Bush's executive order banning the consideration of race as a recruiting and admissions criterion should be hitting its stride. His Talented 20 substitute guarantees a spot at a state university for what he correctly calls "the best and the brightest of all ethnic and socioeconomic backgrounds" from among high school seniors. Identifying the pool of students likely to need help the least, of course, was easy. One Florida, however, is hurting the students who most need the affirmative action that the governor's controversial dictate has barred the universities from giving.

Those potential collegians are more likely to have attended budget-slashed schools, and less likely to have two parents at home. They are more likely to need a job while struggling just to earn a high school diploma, and at higher risk for inclusion in the pool with strong potential for incarceration in their future. As the beacon dims for becoming college graduates expected to earn more than $2 million on average in their lifetime, they appear, despite Gov. Bush's lip service, less likely to be among the 86.5 percent increase in college freshmen that state officials say they expect in the next decade.

The highlight of Gov. Bush's excuses of past years was that the minority student drop was not as precipitous as some had predicted. This time, his news release did not even mention One Florida. But so far, the race-neutral measures the universities have scrambled to implement haven't stemmed the black enrollment plunge that some critics said was inevitable. The governor might point to the more than 1,000 fewer students at historically black Florida A&M University, where an interim president is cleaning up past mismanagement. That doesn't explain the percentage decline at six other schools in the rapidly growing university system. The Hispanic student growth, for example, is more a testament to Florida International University in Miami, which half the state's Hispanic student population attends.

Rather than identify the students who need help and make sure they get it, Gov. Bush continues to rationalize and lapse into "education governor"-speak. The objective of his initiative, after all, was to head off Ward Connerly's anti-affirmative action ballot proposal, which could have brought out more voters and derailed his brother's 2000 presidential push. One hardly can blame the governor for selectively touting the enrollment numbers rather than acknowledging their indictment of One Florida. Given the state's record growth, however, claiming credit for more students is like taking credit for the sunshine.

Put off bankruptcy law

It makes no sense for the government to subject victims of Hurricane Katrina to a new bankruptcy law that makes credit-card debt harder to erase and puts added burdens on people struggling to cover medical bills.

Some members of Congress are proposing a waiver to exempt the hurricane victims from the rules that go into effect Oct. 17. That would be an expression of fairness for people trying to put their lives back together. Congress could be fair to the entire country by repealing the misguided bill that the banks and credit card companies couldn't have written better themselves. The changes make it harder for Americans to declare bankruptcy under Chapter 7, which limits the amount of repayments and allows debtors with severe financial problems to escape debts. Now, only people who earn less than their state's median income will be allowed to seek Chapter 7 protection; others will have to seek relief under Chapter 13, which requires reorganization and repayment.

Bankruptcy filings have surged to record numbers in recent months as consumers have rushed to take advantage of the more forgiving law while they still can. Added to the surge are thousands of victims along the Gulf Coast who have lost homes, businesses and their jobs. They are in no position to hire bankruptcy lawyers and assemble the paperwork needed to make their cases before the October deadline. Congressional Democrats and consumer advocates are proposing an extension of at least a year, an accommodation that is only reasonable given the personal devastation left in the storm's wake.

Most families that declare bankruptcy do so because of illness or loss of employment, often both. Credit-card companies' claims that gamblers and millionaire deadbeats are abusing the system have not held up under objective research. Studies have found that single mothers, minorities, the elderly and low-income people most often seek protection. If that sounds like the people who were left stranded at the New Orleans Superdome, they are.

Congress didn't close loopholes that allow wealthy families to keep mansions and other assets when they file for bankruptcy. The least lawmakers can do now is to stop the clock that's running on Katrina's victims and allow them a reasonable chance to respond to creditors.

DCF not driven enough

It was an idiotic policy to begin with. The family safety director of the Florida Department of Children and Families last week ordered child welfare workers to visit children in state care less frequently -- once every three months, instead of once a month -- in order to save gas.

Given the choice to save money or to save vulnerable children's lives, this state too often has made the wrong pick. The result? Low salaries for child-abuse investigators. Poor training. Inexcusable tragedies such as the deaths of 2-year-old Joshua Saccone and 4-year-old Dylan Cassone, and the near-fatal beating of now-6-year-old Marissa Amora -- all despite DCF's involvement.

Perhaps DCF officials in Tallahassee need a refresher course -- in politics and priorities. Enforcement of the policy requiring monthly visits has been closely monitored since 2002, when DCF discovered -- more than a year too late -- that 5-year-old Rilya Wilson had disappeared from her Miami foster home. If DCF officials in Tallahassee have forgotten Rilya Wilson (who never was found and is presumed dead), it's encouraging to know that local caseworkers and managers have not. Even before Gov. Bush correctly halted the misguided, revised policy, many districts -- including the Treasure Coast and Palm Beach County -- were ignoring it.

The "emergency operating policy," rescinded after The Miami Herald questioned it, was established "to address the fuel and energy crisis created as the result of Hurricane Katrina's impact on the state of Florida." With policies written for cost and convenience, not concern for children, it's no wonder Florida continues to have a child welfare crisis.

Don't experiment with aid to Katrina victims

Its incompetent leader is history, but the Federal Emergency Management Agency has many challenges to overcome before it wins the nation's confidence. Though President Bush has taken responsibility for the government's pathetic response to Hurricane Katrina, his actions so far do little to shore up public confidence that he plans real change.

President Bush, who speaks to the nation tonight, could show he's getting serious by naming an independent commission, not a Republican-dominated whitewash team, to find out what went wrong. He also should back a national disaster plan.

Gulf Coast residents need FEMA's help cutting through post-storm red tape, from dealing with conflicting insurance claims to ensuring that insurance remains affordable there and in Florida.

Whether regular victims are a priority is in question. FEMA already has ignored the normal bidding process to give hundreds of millions of dollars in cleanup work to major corporations, including subsidiaries of Halliburton. President Bush also has moved to suspend a Depression-era law that requires federal contractors to pay prevailing local construction wages. That indicates that the president is listening to advisers who see Katrina as a laboratory for such things as school vouchers and even more generous tax breaks for businesses. Allowing big corporations to profit on the backs of workers, many of whom already have lost everything, simply is unconscionable.

More encouragingly, new acting FEMA Director R. David Paulison is a disaster-management pro, with a 30-year background that includes being chief of Miami-Dade's Fire-Rescue Department. But his widely derided recommendation after 9/11 that Americans stock up on plastic sheeting and duct tape to prepare for a terrorist attack underscores the need for the Senate to schedule a confirmation hearing, something former Director Michael Brown escaped when FEMA was folded into the Department of Homeland Security. Mr. Paulison doesn't even have to wait to begin a thorough housecleaning to remove political appointees with no disaster planning experience.

FEMA's slow response to last year's storms left Treasure Coast and Palm Beach County governments determined to become more self-sufficient. They have stockpiled food, water, generators and other supplies. No matter what improvements might come for FEMA, other hurricane-prone areas would be wise to follow their example.

FEMA's missteps show that the feds, even with advance warning, couldn't cope with the aftermath of a storm -- and the pretense that the government is ready for another terrorist attack has been shattered.

Work for better jobs

Florida's unemployment rate fell to 3.8 percent in July, matching a 29-year low and ranking well below the national jobless rate of 5 percent.

Workers who want work can find it in Florida, but most of them have to be willing to work for low pay, forget about health insurance and worry about staying alive. While the state has a large quantity of jobs, the quality of them remains poor. Pay and benefits fall well below the national averages, and the huge service, construction and agriculture industries still rely on minimum-wage immigrant labor, much of it seasonal.

According to the U.S. Department of Labor, Florida ranks 47th in percentage of residents with health coverage, 40th in the number of workers eligible for unemployment benefits and 49th in pension coverage. The state trails only California in the number of workers who died on the job last year, and the number of employees without workers compensation insurance is shamefully high.

Immigrant laborers, most of them undocumented, satisfy Florida's needs for menial labor and drag down wages and benefits overall. Immigrants often are willing to do the most dangerous jobs without proper training and despite language barriers, contributing to the state's high on-the-job accident rate.

Employers use foreign labor to keep costs down and give consumers lower prices, but the savings are illusory and the bill gets passed on to the state's taxpayers. Society pays to provide health care and social services for immigrant workers and their children. Employers still don't pay their fair share for the cheap labor that sustains them.

The state took a commendable step toward enhancing the quality of the workforce by investing $310 million to bring The Scripps Research Institute to Palm Beach County. The biotech industry over time should create high-paying jobs that will help diversify the state's opportunities and reduce its reliance on tourism. Palm Beach County needs the change. Though the county's unemployment rate was down to 4.5 percent in July, the number of high-paying jobs actually has decreased by 0.2 percent during the past two years. Continued investment in education is essential to raise the standard of employment, particularly as biotech takes root here.

While Florida ranks No. 1 in job growth among the 10 largest states, the jobs it's growing fastest are still those that most Floridians don't want and won't take.

One 'joy ride' too many

Authorities have not been sure how to deal with kids who steal cars. Is it a rite-of-passage prank that deserves a slap on the wrist or a serious indication that the youth has embarked on a lifelong pattern of crime?

The juvenile justice system has leaned toward giving youths a break. That makes sense, because saddling a teen with a criminal record can become a self-fulfilling prophecy. The problem was that youths, as well as adults, were getting break after break. In recent years, the system has adopted a less lenient attitude, and that's appropriate.

Palm Beach County State Attorney Barry Krischer's office last week charged Ranard Gilbert, 16, as an adult in the death of Nakea Black. Ms. Black, 22, died Aug. 22 when a stolen truck allegedly driven by Gilbert ran a red light and hit the car in which she was a passenger. The crash also killed her unborn son. Among seven counts Gilbert faces are two counts of vehicular homicide. State records show that Gilbert and one of his passengers, Cassius Worthy, 17, had been arrested for auto theft before.

Mike Edmondson, spokesman for Mr. Krischer, says the office has zeroed in on repeat offenders, winning the authority to charge them as adults once they're over age 14. "We really target these guys," he says. Assistant State Attorney Darren Shull notes that first offenders might not really be first offenders. "There's no telling how many cars they've stolen before they get caught."

The trend toward charging minors as adults has been overdone. The key in repeated auto thefts, however, is that the offenders already have shown themselves unaffected by punishments the juvenile justice system hands out. Auto theft has been treated as a property crime, and most cases don't end violently. But Ms. Black's death shows the inherent danger to human life and justifies treating "joy riding" as a serious offense.

Top-flight teams line up to transform Riviera Beach

Monday's court ruling means that Mayor Michael Brown, long the face if not the architect of Riviera Beach redevelopment, will return to the dais today when his Community Redevelopment Agency colleagues choose a "master developer" to usher in decades of overdue revitalization. Although he will have plenty to say, CRA and city council Chairwoman Elizabeth Wade, who led the move to bar the ceremonial mayor, says, "He can sit on the ceiling if he wants to," but "he still doesn't have a vote."

There's no more telling example of the need for city officials to move beyond personalities and deliver a process that benefits Riviera residents. A sign of the gold-mine potential of Riviera's waterfront is the four major development teams lined up. Riviera Beach Waterfront Developers, Republic Properties, Cypress Realty and Viking Inlet Harbor Properties spent up to $1 million each preparing bids. A sign of the work to be done, however, is that neither CRA officials nor developers knew last week how the selection would be made.

Each team can point to a history of success while downplaying the kinds of problems naturally associated with such huge programs. So the CRA board must remember that it is in charge through issues as complex and varied as eminent-domain takings, the affordable new homes promised for Riviera's low-income population, whether U.S. 1 gets moved and a lagoon built, how practical it is and how much the developer will be responsible for a privately financed aquarium, and whether the proposed working waterfront gets replaced with luxury homes.

That makes contract negotiations with the chosen developer key to the follow-through on this politically charged project. There's a cautionary corollary on nearby Singer Island, where the CRA chose reputable Marriott to redevelop the Ocean Mall, then proceeded to endorse its widely hated project. Despite all the pledges, what would keep Viking, for example, from building a yachting community of high-rises to the water's edge, off-limits to the wider community? Cypress offers the clear advantages of a known team of demonstrated diversity not cobbled together for convenience, plus the millions in needed financing and its experience as the developer of Abacoa in nearby Jupiter. Cypress' commitment to renovating homes rather than displacement, however, may be the most honest about the original plan's shortcomings but also departs furthest from the CRA's vision.

It's unrealistic to expect the CRA board's lay people to have a full grasp of such a huge program. But nothing is more crucial than choosing a developer capable of keeping the money flowing to assure that the redevelopment moves seamlessly ahead. The potential for cherry-picking if the project stalls is why the CRA's accountants should have pored over the numbers. Residents have been calling for a state audit of the city's and CRA's finances, showing the need to enter the negotiations with financial credibility and accountability. Today is the biggest test yet of whether the CRA board proves to be sound policy-makers who choose the best expertise and make sure it works.

Mistaken detentions can cause backlash in Iraq

In Iraq, it has been difficult to tell the good news from the bad news. "Mission accomplished" is the most obvious rushed judgment on progress in the war. But the difficulty extends to daily activities against insurgents.

The United States recently reported that troops entered the insurgent stronghold of Tal Afar and captured more than 400 suspected militants. How could there be any downside to that? There isn't, if the detainees really are insurgents. But as Post reporter Larry Kaplow reported Sunday from Baghdad, innocent Iraqis often are taken into custody during the constant sweeps by U.S. troops, and though about half are freed quickly, many of them remain in prison for months before authorities determine they should be freed.

From March 2003 through early last month, The Post reported, 42,228 Iraqis had been detained, and 12,184 remained in custody. While some might argue that it is better to be safe than sorry when conducting a dragnet, arresting a large number of innocent people creates enormous ill will that feeds the insurgency U.S. and Iraqi troops are trying to defuse.

Some of the mistaken arrests point to a fundamental lack of knowledge about Iraq. For example, troops detained one man after finding in his house a poster that depicted a beheaded man. He was not released until months later when Iraqis reviewing the case recognized the poster as a common tribute to a Shiite hero who had been beheaded in the seventh century. In another case, troops mistakenly believed a newspaper in one man's possession was a tribute to Saddam Hussein, when in fact it was a gossip tabloid about the fallen regime.

Mistaken arrests also are the result of faulty intelligence, some of it intentionally skewed by informants. In addition, some detainees simply are in the wrong place at the wrong time and are caught up in sweeps.

The military says it is trying to improve training to reduce the number of innocent people arrested and to more quickly free those held in error. In the meantime, there is the continued risk that roundups of "insurgents" will create a backlash. The best solution, of course, is to train and equip Iraqi troops to patrol their own country. Progress toward that goal has been slow, but the administration expects it to accelerate if Iraqis approve the new constitution next month. In other words, good news might be coming. But as has been the case so far, it's too soon to be sure.

Officer Pun had gift for redeeming lives

The teenagers have different names but similar stories: Some were more interested in loitering than learning, more likely to sell drugs than to succeed, able but addicted to alcohol. Their arrest records could help explain their poor academic records. They had, as they saw it, two paths -- jail or death. Until Johnny Pun.

In 14 years on the Delray Beach police force, officer Jean-Albert Pun saw potential in the troubled and the troublemakers. After four years of planning, Mr. Pun opened the Youth Enrichment Vocational Program in Delray Beach on Aug. 14, 2002. In previous years, he had driven Delray students to a similar program in Hollywood. "They were on the streets all day and getting into trouble," officer Pun told The Post of his students in 2002. "We'd arrest them, but eventually they get back out and start up all over again. We needed a solution other than jail. We needed to prevent the crimes from happening."

The free automotive vocational school gave students a chance to earn a GED. Officer Pun solicited donations and recruited guest speakers, including some celebrities. The students also received free checkups and counseling.

Born in New York but raised in Haiti, officer Pun often was called by other departments to translate Creole and to help educate officials and Haitian residents about each others' cultures. The 37-year-old officer was killed Saturday morning when the motorcycle he was driving collided with a pickup truck.

Officer Pun summed up his investment in young people this way: "We're looking for people who say, 'I want to change my life.' " Thanks to him, countless teens did.

Bush fixes one disaster by forcing out Brown

When he quit on Monday, Federal Emergency Management Agency Director Mike Brown said it was "in the best interest of the agency and best interest of the president." Most of all, though he didn't say it, his departure was in the best interest of the nation.

President Bush might have thought "Brownie" was doing a "heck of a job," but few others did. Mr. Brown already had been sent back to Washington in disgrace after the botched federal response to Katrina. President Bush, on another high-profile make-up trip to New Orleans, claimed Monday that he had been so busy staying on top of the situation that he didn't know much about Mr. Brown's fate. "Maybe you know something I don't know," Mr. Bush said. "I've been working." Obviously, "Brownie" couldn't disappear fast enough for the White House.

Appointing a competent replacement is the best way to make Mr. Brown's failures start to fade. Reports on Monday named R. David Paulison, who was Miami-Dade County's fire chief during Hurricane Andrew, as a probable successor. Mr. Paulison, head of FEMA's emergency preparedness force, seems to have the kind of experience that Mr. Brown and so many other FEMA officials lacked.

Still, his credentials and track record at FEMA need to be carefully examined. That would be in marked contrast to the way President Bush selected Mr. Brown. The president didn't know much or care much about Mr. Brown's emergency-management qualifications -- or lack of them -- when he made him FEMA director. Mr. Brown's "qualifications" consisted of personal and political ties to Bush supporters, a fact that has been painfully obvious to Floridians since last year's onslaught of storms. Even as cities and Palm Beach, Martin and St. Lucie counties waited for reimbursement -- which still hasn't come -- FEMA rushed payments for fraudulent claims in Miami-Dade County, which wasn't hit. FEMA also paid to bury scores of people who couldn't have been killed by the storms.

The FEMA mess has prompted U.S. Rep. Mark Foley, R-Jupiter, to file legislation to remove the agency from the Department of Homeland Security, where it landed after 9/11. The idea is to cut bureaucratic strings that, allegedly, slowed FEMA's response. It's fine to have a debate over FEMA's structure. But, as in debates over reform of the CIA, FBI or NASA, the people who run an agency are more important to its success than whatever organizational chart they work under.

Sticking with his "don't blame me" theme, President Bush said Monday, "There will be plenty of time to figure out what went right and what went wrong." Hiring Mr. Brown in the first place was something that went wrong.

Don't burden budget with inflexible formula

When certain business and Republican leaders challenged Palm Beach County commissioners Thursday to slash the county's $1 billion budget, they were seeking cuts for the sake of making cuts. Arbitrary cuts are as bad as arbitrary spending, and commissioners should avoid both.

It's not as if there are no problems left to solve. Growth, enthusiastically cheered by many of the people demanding cuts, strains transportation systems. Construction workers who build the homes -- along with teachers who serve the students and police officers to protect the new residents -- can attest that the affordable housing shortage isn't solved. People in the Glades still are waiting for a new, safe water plant. The goal, at budget time, is for the county to assure that all its priorities are met, not just the priorities for people living in gated communities.

The push is prompted not by spending scandals but by a national movement to inflict on local and state officials an arbitrary tax-cutting formula called TABOR, for Taxpayers Bill of Rights. It ties property-tax growth to percentage increases in population and inflation.

The demand comes as rising property values deliver more money to the county without a higher tax rate. While commissioners have been talking about a slight decrease in the tax rate, which could save as much as $18 million, business and party leaders want more severe cuts. Even though cutting the budget in good times appeals to some, the rigid TABOR formula would block increases when times are not as good.

The challengers didn't offer a clear idea of what they would like to see removed from the budget. They probably didn't anticipate the commission's willingness to cut items of importance to the business community, such as the $1 million contract for the Business Development Board to be considered today. The business board, correctly taken to task over mistrust stemming from its effort to recruit The Scripps Research Institute, has yet to regain the county's trust.

Other cuts on a list prepared by county staff include slicing $3 million from the sheriff's office, $5 million from regional transportation, $8.6 million from a long-awaited countywide communications upgrade, and $1.4 million from a south county building for the property appraiser.

To meet TABOR's arbitrary cutoff, smaller cuts are suggested for parks and cultural attractions. Would the business community prefer to see fewer roads widened or cuts in Lake Worth's Head Start program?

Commissioners need to proceed cautiously. It isn't good policy to spend a windfall just because you've got it. Neither is it good policy to make cuts just because some business and political figures are fond of grandstanding.

Longer runway a mistake

A politician who admits a mistake and apologizes for it is rare. Last week, former Martin County Commissioner Donna Melzer apologized for her 1998 vote to extend a main runway at Witham Field, saying the county's staff didn't tell commissioners about the danger to homes near the airport. Now she is calling for the current commission to remove the runway extension because the previous commission and the public were not given "critical" information.

The voices asking today's commissioners to reconsider the actions of commissioners no longer in office are growing louder. The Stuart City Commission last night was expected to consider a resolution asking Martin commissioners to rescind their approval of the 460-foot runway extension and remove it. The Witham Airport Action Majority, an airport watchdog group that formed after airport noise and fumes made homeowners near the runway extension miserable, also wants the extension bulldozed.

So far, the Martin commission has refused to address the issue of removing the extension, even after a joint meeting with Stuart commissioners that drew more than 100 disgruntled airport neighbors.

Ms. Melzer's admission prompted another 1998 commissioner, Janet Gettig, to admit that she, too, felt deceived by county staff information "filled with half-truths." Commissioners weren't alerted to dozens of homes in the "crash zone" that would be affected by the runway extension, near the northwest corner of Witham Field, also known as Martin County Airport.

County and Federal Aviation Administration documents researched by activist Lynne Pine and Ms. Melzer, along with records of the meeting where the 1998 commission voted to approve the runway extension, indicate the maps and information presented to the public and the commission showed no homes in the 18th Street neighborhood that is included in the runway protection zone or "crash zone." In fact, dozens of homes in that neighborhood have been so adversely affected by jet noise, low-flying aircraft and fumes that the county and the FAA have launched a $2.3 million program to buy out and insulate homes.

Martin County Commissioners Susan Valliere and Sarah Heard have said they are willing to consider removing the runway extension, but the commission majority -- Lee Weberman, Michael DiTerlizzi and Doug Smith -- oppose the effort. Commission Chairman Weberman said he thought that the county would have to compensate airport businesses that might lose money if the runway is shortened. Instead, he should think about ending the suffering of airport neighbors and the huge savings to taxpayers who won't have to buy the affected homes.

Yes to stem-cell research

Palm Beach County commissioners have committed a minimum of $300 million in public money to lure Scripps Florida as the anchor that will make this area a biotech center. To protect and enhance that investment, commissioners today should endorse a constitutional amendment endorsing stem-cell research in Florida.

Ideally, such an amendment would not be necessary. But recently, President Bush, Gov. Bush, Congress and the Florida Legislature all have made clear that they will let ideology interfere with science and medicine. The Terri Schiavo case is the most blatant example. But the most harmful could be the hostility toward publicly financed embryonic stem-cell research.

Gov. Bush, like his brother, has declared that research involving human embryonic stem cells is "taking a life to save a life." In fact, in almost all cases such research makes use of tissue that otherwise would be unused or discarded. The goal is treatment to cure or prevent serious genetic diseases and to provide therapies to repair nerve damage.

Scripps itself does not do embryonic stem-cell research. But other companies will want to pursue the promise of stem cells, and Palm Beach County should be eager to recruit them. Compare Gov. Bush's attitude with that of California, where voters approved spending $3 billion on stem-cell research. To demonstrate that they are on the side of unfettered scientific research, commissioners should endorse Commissioner Burt Aaronson's push for an amendment to the state constitution.

Stem-cell research has the potential to be of tremendous benefit, and Palm Beach County has the potential to host leading companies in the field. Commissioners will decide whether to play politics or fulfill that potential.

Find out Roberts' views on privacy, federalism

There is more that the country needs to know about Judge John G. Roberts Jr. and his view of the law before the Senate votes on his nomination to be chief justice of the United States.

Senate Judiciary Committee hearings begin today, having been postponed because of Hurricane Katrina. If confirmed at 50, Judge Roberts still could be on the court before the rebuilding of New Orleans is complete. So thorough questioning is proper. If Judge Roberts is what the White House insists that he is -- a well-qualified but not extreme conservative -- his answers will reflect that.

Obviously, Judge Roberts will face many questions about his views on abortion. The issue behind that issue, though, is one of the most important of the hearings. In legalizing abortion 32 years ago, the Supreme Court declared that Americans have a constitutional right to privacy, even if the Constitution does not specify such a right. Similar thinking caused the court in 2003 to strike down a Texas sodomy law in a case involving two homosexual men. Judge Roberts should have to explain his views on privacy and the law, especially as it relates to the balance between individual rights and national security.

Another broad topic is federalism, the relationship between the national government and the state governments. Under the late Chief Justice William Rehnquist, the court repeatedly has sided with states in challenges to key portions of federal law. Judge Roberts' writings indicate that he also favors unrealistically strict limits on federal power, especially in the area of civil rights. As a government lawyer, for example, Judge Roberts wanted courts to move cautiously when deciding cases of alleged discrimination. He seems to favor restrictions on how strongly the government can impose environmental standards. He needs to explain his views on this subject.

Finally, the senators should ask Judge Roberts how far he believes courts can go in overturning "settled" law, the term he used to describe Roe vs. Wade during his hearings two years ago when President Bush put him on the District of Columbia Circuit Court of Appeals. His legal philosophy may be that of a traditional conservative who believes court rulings should be narrow whenever possible. That would separate him from an ideological conservative such as Justice Antonin Scalia. None of these questions would require Judge Roberts to comment on a case he might hear.

Most of what we know about Judge Roberts to this point is from what he has written. We look forward to knowing the rest of it, and to hearing what the judge thinks of what he has written.

No help for abused kids

Here's one problem with the Florida Department of Children and Families' 117-page plan to cut child-abuse rates in half within five years: It describes its four goals and 61 objectives like this -- "By June 30, 2010, universal measures of resiliency (for communities, families and children) will be a mandatory component of all primary prevention programs." "By Dec. 31, 2006, 100% of community prevention plans will require demonstrated, active collaboration processes... "

Here's another: It is a waste of time, energy and money.

For DCF officials in Tallahassee, "Florida's State Plan for the Prevention of Child Abuse, Abandonment, and Neglect: July 2005 through June 2010" represents a statewide accomplishment, the culmination of months of preparing an "active and multidisciplinary planning document," as the overview states. Now, the plan released late last month says, the real work begins: development of... an implementation plan. Enough already.

Less than 5 percent of DCF's 2005-06 budget is devoted to child-abuse prevention and intervention, yet the plan boasts "a focus on primary prevention." The jargon-laden plan has a deadline so distant that no one in charge now has to worry about being held accountable. The plan relies on well-known facts dumped into a downloadable package full of childlike graphics and friendly, multihued faces. Yes, drug abuse by a parent, domestic violence, bad housing, inadequate supervision, poor prenatal care, low birth weights, high numbers of school suspensions, poor reading skills, poor health care and drug and alcohol use put children at risk of entering the child welfare system. So, what is the state going to do about that?

In 2002, Florida was among the three states with the highest "child maltreatment" rates. Only slightly more than half of the 254,856 investigations of child abuse or neglect were completed. More than 100,000 kids are abused, abandoned or neglected in Florida every year. More than 4,000 of them are re-abused within six months. What is the state going to do about that?

Tune in to the "implementation plan" of the five-year "plan for prevention" for the answer.

Can Hillcrest deal work?

The county bought the 86-acre Hillcrest neighborhood in West Palm Beach and removed the homes because of airport noise. Neighbors were offered a golf course that never came. Now, there's a promising new proposal to build ballfields for Palm Beach Atlantic University. It would be a good deal for the university, and it would allow the county to unload a burden. But the deal depends on winning over the city and neighbors.

Neighbors who didn't want an industrial park bordering their homes west of Parker Avenue, east of Interstate 95 and south of Belvedere Road are unsure of what to make of a proposal that has undergone little public scrutiny. Palm Beach International Airport bought the land for $33 million in a massive buyout of 363 properties in the flight path. Most of the area has been vacant since the early 1990s. A $3.7 million deal to bring a golf course, signed in 2000, died last year when Interstate 95 widening delayed a developer's plans.

On Tuesday, county commissioners will discuss plans to sell the land to the university, which wants a 200-seat baseball stadium for its NCAA Division II team. The county has appraised the land for recreational uses at up to $3.5 million, far below its value as an industrial park. PBAU's desire for a ballfield near its downtown West Palm Beach campus dates to 1992, when it considered the city's Howard Park. Later, it tried to link up with plans for a downtown Baltimore Orioles spring training stadium. Until the fields are ready, PBAU plans to play at the former King's Academy, now owned by the county.

The university is offering to make the complex, which would include baseball, soccer and softball fields as well as tennis courts, available to city residents. University President David W. Clark said PBAU would pay for a public walking trail and limit the complex to a single entrance. It would provide 24-hour security and extensive lighting, he said, adding, "We'll turn this into a high-quality recreational facility." While traffic has been a problem on some parts of Parker Avenue, baseball is likely to draw fewer cars than an industrial park.

West Palm Beach retains a role in deciding what happens because it owns the old residential streets that criss-cross the site. The city's first priority is to protect the needs of neighbors who have suffered long enough living next to what once was a viable neighborhood.

Indian Street debacle

In the five years since they won a majority on the Martin County Commission, three members have been fixated on building the Indian Street Bridge. Never mind that the bridge is not crucial to solving congestion on Martin roads. Never mind that the same majority has changed rules to allow more growth despite the traffic problems it brings. Never mind that the three have not asked developers to pay a fair share of growth costs.

They are correct that a second bridge linking Palm City and Stuart may be needed -- someday. They could have sought a better route, farther north and away from preserve land that bridge traffic noise will spoil for hikers, boaters and fishermen. But Michael DiTerlizzi, Lee Weberman and Doug Smith are determined to build the $162 million span so that it will link 36th Street in Palm City with Indian Street across the St. Lucie River.

Commissioners considered a sales tax to help pay for the bridge and other road improvements but dropped it when residents and even business owners objected. Last week, the three won a fourth ally in Commissioner Susan Valliere and voted to borrow up to $40 million for 20 years to advance the bridge and other road projects.

So far, the federal government has offered $5.8 million toward the bridge via a highway and mass transit bill, and Martin hopes to get money from the state to match what the county intends to borrow. With $24.5 million of the $40 million set aside for the bridge, the county would add other money for a total of about $47 million that it hopes the state will match. The county would repay the money with gas taxes and impact fees on new construction, tying up an estimated $3.2 million a year, or about half the money it generates for road projects.

Commissioner Sarah Heard, who opposed putting the county in debt to build a bridge she considers a state responsibility, said the county should have secured the state's money first, before bonding for or borrowing the matching money. "It is childish to assume we will get the (state) money," she said. The county is abandoning its pay-as-you-go policy, she adds, and the policy that growth must pay for itself. Commissioner Heard is correct. In just a few years, Martin has changed from enforcing tough growth rules to borrowing money for a bridge and roads to allow more growth. Borrowing to build the bridge is a bad plan.

Mass coastal evacuation may work only in theory

State transportation officials met in June to fine-tune a plan for evacuating hundreds of thousands of South Floridians by turning a large portion of Florida's Turnpike into a one-way northbound route.

Known as Contra-Flow, the plan is similar to that used to evacuate New Orleans before Hurricane Katrina. It would take the threat of an approaching Category 4 or 5 hurricane and a direct order from the governor to reroute turnpike traffic from Fort Pierce to Orlando. Tow trucks and emergency vehicles would be stationed along the way to help motorists.

Chris Warren, the turnpike's deputy executive director, estimates that it would take about 29 hours to evacuate 171,000 vehicles, most of them from Palm Beach, Martin, Broward and Miami-Dade counties. Emergency managers concede that this is a plan of last resort, and that even with Contra-Flow, it would be difficult to move enough people fast enough. "We can't evacuate our way from a hurricane anymore," says Gov. Bush. "The state is too big now."

Besides the problem of sheer numbers, planners have to figure out where to tell evacuees to go. The fickle nature of recent hurricanes indicates that even the best planning does not ensure that evacuees could find safe haven. Last year, Hurricane Charley was believed to be on a track toward Tampa Bay when it surprised forecasters and veered east at Punta Gorda. People fleeing Tampa to the south ran the risk of evacuating their way into the teeth of the storm.

Plans for using buses to evacuate residents out of the region are more theoretical than precisely developed. Palm Beach County, for example, is prepared to use Palm Tran buses, school buses and sheriff's office prisoner buses to transport "vulnerable populations" -- such as elderly and special-needs residents from the coast, or the homeless -- to inland shelters. But sending them off as part of a mass Contra-Flow exodus to the north would require some improvisation.

After Hurricane Frances damaged the St. Lucie County Civic Center, emergency managers preparing for Hurricane Jeanne used 34 Palm Tran buses to transport special-needs evacuees to shelter at the A.G. Holley State Hospital in Lantana. Most counties' emergency plans prohibit running buses in winds greater than 40 mph because of stability concerns. The decision to use buses for evacuation has to come well before the storm's arrival; the order could come, and the storm could go elsewhere.

The state actually developed the Contra-Flow plan after Hurricane Andrew in 1992 but did not release the details to the public. Last year's quartet of hurricanes made the case for educating people about how a major evacuation might work. The issue has come into sharper focus with the examination into whether New Orleans could have gotten more people out of the city. Exactly how well mass evacuation would work here remains less of a certainty than an open question the state hopes it never has to answer.

A dim light comes on

A good thing happened last week for Florida consumers. A lousy member of the Public Service Commission, which regulates power and phone rates, learned that he won't get another term. Oddly, though, his anti-consumer record didn't seem to be the main problem.

Gov. Bush put former state legislator Rudy Bradley on the commission three years ago, in return for political favors that the former Democrat did for the governor and the Republican Party. He has a been a faithful servant of the private utilities, approving every rate increase while enjoying the $128,825 annual salary and the perks of the office. Most ingloriously, he read into the record a statement written by Verizon as if the words were his own. Verizon then used Mr. Bradley's "comment" to justify its position.

There is one vacancy on the five-member PSC. Plus, Mr. Bradley's and the seat of Braulio Baez, who is not seeking reappointment, expire in January. When the nominating council that screens PSC applicants met in July, it made Mr. Bradley a finalist along with 17 others -- six for each opening. But last week, the Legislature's new Committee on Public Commission Oversight met in Tampa to trim the list to nine. Mr. Bradley did not make that cut.

It's always encouraging when incompetence costs a public official his job, but incompetence didn't seem to be the deciding factor. Mr. Bradley also faces ethics complaints, including a sexual harassment charge, and these issues worried the nine legislators on the committee. Admittedly, it wasn't reassuring that Mr. Bradley thought his attendance at utility-sponsored conferences and dinners with Florida Power & Light executives weren't problems. Nor would we want to ignore harassment charges. But even with a clean record, Mr. Bradley was an unqualified candidate, having long ago chosen the more comfortable side in the utility-consumer balance.

So you wonder about those nine finalists, who include lots of people with links to key state officials. The governor will choose the three commissioners. Since those appointees will decide several FPL rate-increase requests, consumers must hope that the governor doesn't choose more Rudy Bradleys.

No fast track for Vavrus

The state allowed fast-track permitting for The Scripps Research Institute at Mecca Farms because of the project's promise to produce high-paying jobs and change the regional economy. A proposal to build 9,000 homes and some businesses on the neighboring Vavrus Ranch can make no such claim. It does not deserve to be put on a similar fast track for approval.

The state agency that makes sure other agencies respond quickly to projects that "create jobs, offer high wages and diversify the state's economy" is the Office of Tourism, Trade and Economic Development. Tourism, trade and economic development would not gain by massive home building. But that is the main impetus for construction at the 4,700-acre Vavrus Ranch, just east of Mecca, in western Palm Beach Gardens.

When business leaders portrayed development of about half of Vavrus -- then under the guidance of Palm Beach Gardens -- as an opportunity to build a massive biotech presence, the tourism office allowed the project to undergo expedited review. But the planning stopped, the city dropped out and the entire site is now under the control of home builders Lennar and Centex. The companies claim that expedited permitting should apply to all 4,700 acres, even though the original decision concerned just 1,700 acres.

The developers are further complicating matters by proposing a hybrid approach. Their plan would undergo standard reviews, but they would get faster permitting from the South Florida Water Management District and similar agencies. Additionally, the builders are anticipating failure by demanding that lawsuits be granted an abbreviated schedule. That gives opponents less time to prepare.

The home builders held meetings in June to invite public participation. If they really want to build something the public will support, they will stop trying to undermine the system and abide by rules that all but the most exceptional projects are required to follow. And this is not an exceptional project.

Improve plan to handle a break in Lake O dike

A break in the dike around Lake Okeechobee isn't likely, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers insists, but emergency planners in Palm Beach and Martin counties are correct to look at "What if?" contingencies. Planners also should invite Okeechobee, Glades and Hendry county officials and representatives of Belle Glade, South Bay, Clewiston and other communities to talk about what's needed to keep the 40,000 lakeside residents safe.

The corps inspects the 143-mile Herbert Hoover dike every three months when the lake is at 14.5 feet, every day when it's at 17.5 feet, and two days before an impending hurricane. Palm Beach County has an emergency plan that identifies the problems of coping with a breach in the dike, but doesn't include solutions. For example, emergency workers would have to tell farmworkers and their families in Spanish, Creole and English about impending floods and may have to provide buses to get them to higher ground. Palm Beach County Public Safety Director Paul Milelli said the county probably would rely on sugar growers to move their workers out of harm's way. "Our plan," he said, "isn't as fleshed out as it could be." He and Martin Emergency Management Director Keith Holman, updating their county plans together, should invite the other affected governments.

The hope is that any leak in the dike would be slow, providing 24 to 48 hours for the corps and the South Florida Water Management District to alert lakeside residents and for emergency workers to send buses to move those without transportation to shelters. But a 1998 corps report warns that flooding could be severe and warning time would be limited, adding: "The potential for human suffering and loss of life is significant." If the dike developed a leak during a hurricane, Mr. Milelli notes, "we wouldn't know it anyway." Evacuating residents near weakened areas of the dike should be a priority before a hurricane.

While corps spokesmen reassure the public that the Lake Okeechobee dike is safe, some remember a 1979 break in the dike surrounding a reservoir at a Florida Power & Light Co. power plant in Indiantown. That dike, similar in construction to the lake's, broke in the early morning hours on Halloween, derailing a freight train, stranding residents on rooftops and drowning cattle. The break spread 20 billion gallons of water over 60 square miles and did $20 million in property damage. Engineers had inspected the dike the day it broke.

The corps begins work this month to shore up a section of the dike, part of ongoing maintenance that will continue for decades. Water managers also are keeping the lake somewhat lower than before, though it could fill quickly during and after a hurricane. The corps wants to lower the lake even more, and has begun a bureaucratic process, which last time took six years, to do that. While Lake Okeechobee's situation differs from the problems in New Orleans that Hurricane Katrina caused, emergency officials recognize the potential for trouble. Planning could minimize it.

A break for I-95 drivers

Interstate 95 commuters could not have been happy to read in The Post that it will be several more years before all of the highway in Palm Beach County is widened to 10 lanes. But many must have been happy to hear that they won't face one more potential daily irritation.

Last month, the Florida Department of Transportation canceled plans for doubling the hours of the High Occupancy Vehicle lanes. The lanes are being added as each newly widened stretch opens. Currently, only vehicles with two or more occupants can use the lanes between 7 a.m. and 9 a.m. and between 4 p.m. and 6 p.m. Monday through Friday. The idea is to encourage carpooling, and the DOT wanted to extend the two-person rule for an hour on either side of the morning and afternoon rush hour.

Supposedly, state studies showed that changing work hours were causing the HOV lanes to draw more traffic earlier and later. State Sen. Ron Klein, D-Delray Beach, was skeptical. He asked the DOT to review those studies to see whether they applied in Palm Beach County, which has a job hub in West Palm Beach but where overall traffic flow is more balanced than in Broward or Miami-Dade counties. Sure enough, the DOT first postponed the new rules, which were to have taken effect July 1, then dropped the idea, at least for the time being.

We would agree with DOT engineers who maintained even before Katrina caused another big spike that higher gas prices will force more commuters to carpool. The state can't widen I-95 to more than 10 lanes, and Palm Beach County will grow by several hundred thousand more people. In addition, jobs in Palm Beach will draw more and more people who live in Martin and St. Lucie, especially if The Scripps Research Institute creates a new biotechnology industry.

So local traffic planners and the state should begin now to craft a system that will allow people who live near each other and work in the same area but not necessarily at the same business to find carpool partners. Studies of Palm Beach County traffic as the widening progresses can determine whether longer HOV hours make sense.

It hasn't been fun to drive through a construction zone for the past five years, and it won't be fun for the next four or five. But as the opening of each portion shows, the work is necessary, and DOT has kept things moving about as well as drivers could expect. Keeping the HOV lanes on their normal schedule is the right decision until all the work is done.

Time for mall makeover

Palm Beach County's first shopping mall could become a discount-shopper's dream with big-box tenants or outlet stores. Done well, the "major redevelopment initiative" that Simon Property Group plans to announce this fall for its Palm Beach Mall stands to benefit patrons and nearby property owners in West Palm Beach.

From its early days of housing a supermarket and a Jordan Marsh department store, the mall at Palm Beach Lakes Boulevard and Interstate 95 has survived 38 years of changing demographics and demands. But despite aesthetic and security renovations and new tenants, the mall hasn't thrived since an after-hours robbery and shooting in the food court in 1999. Newer shopping centers in Palm Beach Gardens and Wellington also stole loyal Palm Beach Mall customers, and the loss of large, popular tenants such as Lord & Taylor and Old Navy have hurt. The result? As one kiosk manager said: "A lot of the stores here look like a flea market."

So, turning the mall's 1 million square feet of leasable space into an outdoor shopping center with solid tenants such as Target and Marshalls would be ideal -- so long as the developer plans properly for traffic and ensures that architectural innovation dresses up any big-box stores. Such a makeover also would not hurt nearby CityPlace or plazas along Okeechobee Boulevard.

Simon also could convert the property into an appealing outlet mall. Last year, the Indianapolis-based company bought Chelsea Property Group, which owns, develops and manages Premium Outlet centers in the United States and Asia.

The Palm Beach Mall was one of the Southeast's first indoor shopping centers; it is due for the right transformation.

Delray's police board

After deciding what kind of police review board to create, Delray Beach took the best action: The city didn't create one.

Instead, the city commission this week approved a police advisory board. The impetus for such a citizen panel started after the Feb. 26 shooting of 16-year-old Jerrod Miller by police officer Darren Cogoni. Based on what other cities have done, Delray Beach had several options. What the commission approved came as a recommendation from the Mayor's Advisory Committee on R.A.C.E. Relations.

A police "review" board can have vast scope, including the power to issue subpoenas and investigate complaints against officers. Review boards, however, do not always reduce the number of citizens' complaints against a department. Run badly, they can mount harassment campaigns against officers. Most important, such a board can be justified only if a department has compiled a long record of abuses against minorities. Though the shooting of Mr. Miller was wrenching for the community, there is no indication of systemic problems.

So the advisory board will be a "conduit for the community to address their issues and community problems through a cooperative effort to review community needs and concerns, expectations and responses relative to police services and community policing." It will have 13 members from various community organizations who will serve two- and three-year staggered terms at the start. Then, all terms will last two years. First appointments will be made by the R.A.C.E. committee. Afterward, the city commission will make them. Minority participation will be stressed.

Dialogue is what Delray needs. The advisory board can supply it.

Indian Trail board can't do administrator's job

The Indian Trail Improvement District board has such little faith in its staff that boarde members want to put themselves where they don't belong -- in charge of day-to-day activities.

The board, hopelessly split 3-2 on most issues, has a hard enough time determining policy. What makes board members believe the 50-employee, million-dollar district needs to be governed by a five-headed monster?

Yet that appears to be what the board has in mind to replace office manager Fran Holden, an underpaid, underqualified replacement for Ed Oppel, who left his job as district administrator in February. Under a proposal floated Wednesday, the new position would be called "district manager," but the new manager would not be in charge. The manager would be an equal to other department heads and all would answer to the five board members.

The nice thing about a strong administrator is that he or she can absorb the political heat, freeing employees to focus on their jobs. This board is hardly the place to experiment with untested innovations. Meetings are characterized by harsh and petty exchanges. On Wednesday, board member Carol Francis banged on the table because she had been interrupted. When member Christopher Karch asked her to stop, she refused "because you won't shut up." The district finance director was reprimanded for explaining the budget to reporters after board member Penny Riccio disputed the figures.

Intrusive daily control by this board would cause more employees to flee and leave more Acreage residents in the lurch. This board, more than most, needs to put a professional in charge.

Wetlands protect shore

Katrina showed what can happen when huge tracts of natural wetlands are filled in, built over and otherwise destroyed. Martin County saw the value of its own preserved wetlands last summer, when they soaked up the excess water from Hurricanes Frances and Jeanne and saved the area from more serious flooding. So it is doubly puzzling that the Martin County Commission majority voted this week to relax the county's waterfront setback rules.

Commissioners Lee Weberman, Michael DiTerlizzi and Doug Smith, who consistently vote to ease the way for uncontrolled growth, decided to allow homes, restaurants, pools and other structures closer to shorelines.

Commissioners Sarah Heard and Susan Valliere were against the change, which allows buildings to be placed 20 feet instead of 75 feet from man-made waterways such as canals. The change also cuts the distance from "hardened" shorelines, such as sea walls, from 50 to 25 feet. Homeowners can cut distances even more, to 15 feet from a hardened shore, if county officials waive the rule for a "hardship" building.

The county's setback rules for decades have protected waterfront property and also served as a model because they were even stricter than state rules. The Martin County Conservation Alliance joined Commissioners Heard and Valliere in opposing the change. "Every scientist in the world," Commissioner Heard said, "is decrying the loss of protecting wetlands now."

Protecting wetlands helps keep Martin an oasis in the desert of South Florida overdevelopment. In the wake of what happened on the Gulf Coast, dropping those protections is irresponsible.

Determine why soldiers weren't deployed earlier

New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin says his city turned a corner toward recovery from Hurricane Katrina when Army Lt. Gen. Russel Honore arrived last Friday along with thousands of active-duty troops.

By the time the weekend was over, soldiers from the 82nd Airborne Division from North Carolina, the 1st Cavalry Division from Texas and Marines from the Marine Expeditionary Forces in California and North Carolina had evacuated the Superdome and convention center, removed patients trapped in flooded hospitals, rehabilitated the airport and rescued hundreds of residents from their homes. The impact of the active-duty troops makes it clear that much suffering in New Orleans could have been averted had those forces been deployed sooner. Why did it take nearly five days for the cavalry to arrive?

The first response of FEMA and the governors of Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama was to muster National Guard units from across the region. The large numbers of Guard members serving in Iraq -- more than 7,000 from Louisiana and Mississippi alone -- depleted the nearest available forces and vital equipment such as generators and high-wheeled vehicles. Emergency managers had to deal with an unprecedented disaster by patching together units of citizen soldiers with various capabilities and few working relationships with each other. When the active-duty troops finally arrived, they brought cohesive units that overnight could deliver the whole package: helicopters, trucks, fuel, field hospitals and kitchens, communication networks and established lines of command and control. More than 17,000 active-duty troops have been deployed throughout the Gulf Coast, and their contributions have drawn universal and deserved praise.

Part of the hesitance to call in the Army stems from misunderstanding of the 1878 law called Posse Comitatus ("power of the county") which bars active-duty military from taking on law-enforcement activities within the United States. The law was intended to prohibit U.S. troops from supervising elections in the former Confederate states but has evolved into a needless impediment to federal-state cooperation.

In fact, presidents can waive the law during emergencies -- President Clinton did after the Oklahoma City bombing; the first President Bush sent in the Army after Hurricane Andrew; President Nixon used federal troops to replace striking postal workers in 1970 -- and Congress revised it to allow the military to help the Coast Guard with drug interdiction. Congress also amended it after 9/11 so troops could guard borders against terrorists. Since active-duty troops deployed for Katrina had humanitarian relief assignments, not law enforcement like police and the National Guard, the law doesn't apply anyway.

With a brief telephone conversation, President Bush and the governors could have brought federal troops in immediately after the hurricane passed to save many lives. Americans need to know why they did not, so it doesn't happen again.

A Supreme compromise

As it turns out, President Bush in essence will replace Supreme Court Chief Justice William Rehnquist with William Rehnquist. So Democrats should make sure that in essence, the president replaces Justice Sandra Day O'Connor with Sandra Day O'Connor.

Judge John Roberts, whom the president has nominated to be chief justice, goes before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Monday. Before then, the White House should release all remaining documents related to Judge Roberts' time as a government lawyer. Unless there is something surprising in them, the Senate almost certainly will confirm Judge Roberts. As a former clerk for and admirer of the late chief justice, Judge Roberts would be expected to bring the same philosophy and thus may not dramatically change the balance on the court.

Replacing Justice O'Connor with an ideological conservative like Antonin Scalia or Clarence Thomas, however, would shift that balance in a big way. Some of President Bush's most conservative supporters are demanding that he create such a shift by choosing, say, Judge Michael Luttig of the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, but nothing indicates that the country agrees. The president's narrow victory in November reinforces that view. His approval ratings already are at their lowest point, and two-thirds of those polled this week by the Pew Research Center said that the president could have moved faster on hurricane relief.

So there is a compromise that could benefit Mr. Bush and Senate Democrats. The Democrats should insist, ideally in a private meeting, that the president nominate a centrist woman like Justice O'Connor. They should insist that it not be someone like Janice Rogers Brown, whom Mr. Bush just put on the appeals court for the District of Columbia and who believes that the country started going wrong back in 1937 when the high court began signing off on New Deal legislation.

For Democrats, the deal would be that Judge Roberts and the nominee to replace Justice O'Connor undergo the expected thorough questioning, but that there will be no filibuster. Democrats would gain because the court would remain as unchanged as possible, even if no one can predict how individuals will come to rule. Mr. Bush would gain because the country would see that he doesn't want to try to ram a controversial choice through the Senate when things are going badly in Iraq and Congress is dealing with the aftermath of Katrina. It would be a draw in the national interest.

Florida's toughest fine doesn't protect migrants

What fine should an employer pay when nine people die because he violated a federal law?

The U.S. Department of Labor decided that George Pantuso should pay the maximum. That was the right decision. Unfortunately, the maximum is only $37,000.

Mr. Pantuso, who owns Circle H Citrus in Fort Pierce, was cited for failing to provide safe transportation for migrant farmworkers after his company's 15-passenger van packed with 19 people overturned on Interstate 95 last year, killing nine. His fine also takes into account another violation that occurred only 16 days after the fatal accident. A Florida Highway Patrol trooper stopped another 15-seat Circle H van and found 18 workers inside.

Mr. Pantuso's record would be unacceptable for any grower. But it is particularly disgusting because of the position he holds as a member of the Florida Citrus Commission. Gov. Bush appointed him last year, and the governor should tell him to step down for setting an example no one in the industry should follow. Mr. Pantuso shows no inclination to reform. The second violation after the deadly crash proves that, and so does his lengthy appeal of the government's fine that he grudgingly agreed to pay only last month.

The federal Migrant and Seasonal Agricultural Worker Protection Act does little to protect workers because the penalties are insignificant. The $37,000 fine for one of the worst traffic accidents in state history sends a message that employers needn't worry about compliance, and that migrant workers don't count for much. Mr. Pantuso got off easy, and still he protested. So much for deterrence. Federal and state regulators must hold employers accountable and offer real protections for workers who are easily exploited -- and killed.

Use Katrina's example to change energy policy

Sen. Pete Domenici, R-N.M., chairman of the Energy and Natural Resources Committee, said, "There are growing concerns that oil companies are making too much in profits at the expense of consumers." What he means, as Congress strives to look busy after Katrina, is that there is growing concern that the public sees Republicans who run Washington as accomplices in price-gouging by oil companies.

Even as gasoline prices rose by nearly 50 percent over the past year, Congress never gave itself or agencies such as the Federal Trade Commission the power to investigate the price structure of gasoline, heating oil, diesel fuel and natural gas. Instead, in the last energy bill, Congress gave energy companies -- already rolling in record profits -- a series of tax breaks while doing little to steer Americans away from the nation's growing dependence on oil, especially foreign oil.

Rather than promote conservation, Congress has focused on increasing U.S. production, which under the best of circumstances is an inadequate policy. Not only are Congress and the White House willing to risk environmental damage by allowing companies to drill in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, they continue to propose plans to increase oil drilling in the Gulf of Mexico closer to Florida's west coast. Given the disruption Katrina caused to oil production, refining and shipping, it is unwise to further concentrate energy dependence in the Gulf. Also, it never has made sense to risk a spill, caused by storm or accident, near Florida's tourist-magnet beaches.

The solution to U.S. vulnerability to fuel shortages from storms, runaway prices and declining oil reserves lies in long-range policy decisions about conservation, price gouging and alternative fuels. Some short-term solutions -- such as temporarily dropping red tape to increase the flow of foreign gasoline -- make sense. But it would not make sense to permanently drop environmental rules requiring refiners to alter gasoline blends to reduce emissions.

Reducing gasoline taxes, which is one of the most discussed short-term fixes, would be one of the most foolish. In Florida, Democrats want Gov. Bush to suspend state taxes, which probably would require legislative approval. "That is very good news for Floridians," Gov. Bush sniped, "because rhetorically (Democrats) have been opposed to tax cuts over the last seven years." The governor's response is as political as the Democrats' demand. His tax cuts mostly benefit Florida's wealthiest residents; a gas tax cut at least would be more equitable.

Nevertheless, gasoline taxes pay for necessary transportation improvements, and it would be a bad idea to encourage gasoline consumption at a time when supply could be a problem. Instead, keep pressure on Congress to stop being accomplices and start creating a sensible energy policy.

Bush all game, no blame

President Bush, who didn't respond soon enough after Hurricane Katrina, wants to investigate why President Bush didn't respond soon enough after Hurricane Katrina.

Yes, the same president who hammed it up with a country singer last Tuesday, managed only a flyover on Wednesday and didn't visit the stricken area until Friday wasted little time this week in deciding that he would take charge of figuring out what went wrong. This week, though, the political waters are the ones rising, and that kind of emergency always gets the White House focused. The president says he doesn't want to point fingers. That's because so many fingers are pointing at him. Those who work for the president who says it isn't the time to play politics are playing politics by blaming the conveniently Democratic governor of Louisiana and mayor of New Orleans, while not blaming the inconveniently Republican governor of Mississippi for failing to evacuate all coastal residents of his state.

Doctors should not practice on themselves, lawyers should not represent themselves and, as history shows, presidents should not investigate themselves. A congressional investigation of the failures before and after Katrina struck would be proper. So would an outside probe, similar to the 9/11 commission, led by experts in disaster preparedness and response. Neither would need former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, despite the calls for his presence. That was a different tragedy, in a different city under different circumstances.

The White House fought creation of the 9/11 commission and offered only grudging cooperation. Then it blocked out portions of the congressional 9/11 report. The Bush administration is quick to place blame. As usual, it's now moving quickly to escape it.

Let needs set the budget

The call for a Taxpayers Bill of Rights, or TABOR, goes out tonight in Palm Beach County. The name, however, is misleading. TABOR would not give taxpayers any benefits. It would lock them in to smaller government, fewer services and less control, no matter the economic circumstances or the needs of a county that will grow at least by another 50 percent.

The public elects county commissioners to make decisions about budgeting and taxes. If the commissioners choose wasteful spending, voters can choose new commissioners. If the Republican Party, which is pushing TABOR, thinks the system that operates under a GOP majority isn't working, it would be helpful for critics to serve on the audit committee that reviews the $1 billion operating budget.

But the goal in this case is not to flush waste. It is to tie commissioners to arbitrary formulas. The local party's pitch grows out of a national movement, in place in Colorado since 1992, to limit tax growth to the percentage increase in population plus the percentage increase in inflation. This year, the GOP group points out, that percentage is 5.2 in Palm Beach County, not the 17 percent increase the county is anticipating from rising property values. The group proposes capping an $84 million increase in property taxes at $26 million. That could mean eliminating important court functions that the state has refused to pay for. It would leave the county less prepared for hurricanes. It also could slow the county's efforts to keep up with growth, which the TABOR formula does not adequately capture.

Additionally, capping increases in good times leads to excessive government shrinkage in bad times. That's the case in Colorado, where the Republican governor who championed TABOR, Bill Owens, is now asking voters to suspend it for five years so the state can reclaim $3.7 billion that under TABOR would have to be forfeited. For doing his duty, Gov. Owens angered the right wing of the Republican Party. As The New York Times reported, former House Majority Leader Dick Armey went to Colorado and accused the governor of drinking "backslider's wine."

The county's Republican Party, having received the wrongheaded support of the Economic Council of Palm Beach County, is advertising for a huge turnout at tonight's budget hearing. The ranters will try to make a case for cutting the budget and asking voters in November 2006 to inscribe TABOR in the county charter. Presumably, however, even the four Republican commissioners know better than to leave county government to the fickleness of economic circumstance and the selfish demands of the party's fringe.

Cooper picks right fight

Last week, two Treasure Coast governments demonstrated the wrong way and the right way to deal with the public impact from development and how to pay for it.

In Martin County, Centex Homes rejected the county's request that it donate 10 acres for parks in a 630-home project Centex plans in Indiantown. The development, to be on 199 acres known as the Gibb Parcel, is the first of three major projects Centex plans to build in the western Martin community.

Don Cuozzo of the Houston-Cuozzo planning firm told the Development Review Committee: "There's just no way we can do it." A Centex official complained that the development is "right next door to a huge park so it doesn't make sense." Both griped that requiring more contributions would drive up the cost of housing in Indiantown. The Development Review Committee approved the project anyway, provided Centex contributes to roads and resolves other minor issues. The Local Planning Agency and county commission must approve before construction begins.

Centex will be Indiantown's major developer, with 1,800 homes planned for an 804-acre area to be reviewed as a Development of Regional Impact and another 431 houses on 162 acres known as Owens Grove. A county staff team is devising formulas for developer contributions, but letting the firm slide on providing parkland would set a terrible precedent. It would give Centex and others reason to duck donating land and money for roads, schools, public safety and other facilities that buyers of the company's homes will need.

In contrast, Port St. Lucie City Manager Don Cooper last week stopped work on a Sam's Club and a Wal-Mart Supercenter at Gatlin and Rosser boulevards in Port St. Lucie because the developer refused to widen roads or install traffic signals near the stores. With expectations that the complex will draw 17,000 cars daily, Mr. Cooper asked planning and zoning board members to delay approval for at least two months. Because rush-hour backups at Gatlin and Interstate 95 already are a problem, Mr. Cooper wants all nearby commercial landowners to share the costs of wider off-ramps at Gatlin, along with a traffic light and other improvements along Gatlin and Rosser.

Mr. Cooper said the traffic the two stores will generate could turn Gatlin's intersections into parking lots if no improvements are made. The Port St. Lucie manager is a tough negotiator. He did not hesitate to ask the city's planning and zoning board members to delay approval of the site plan so city taxpayers would not be "subsidizing the world's largest corporation." Martin County could learn from his take-charge example.

Start on Katrina relief by firing FEMA's Brown

Before he began working for the Federal Emergency Management Agency, Michael Brown spent a decade enforcing rules for the International Arabian Horse Association. And people wonder why FEMA did so poorly last year in Florida and last week on the Gulf Coast. Along with the rebuilding of that region must come the rebuilding of FEMA, and that must begin with the firing of Michael Brown.

How incompetent is Mr. Brown? Last Thursday, he said FEMA hadn't known that people were stranded at the New Orleans convention center, even though CNN had had the story on the air Wednesday. We know Mr. Bush doesn't read newspapers, but can't someone watch TV every now and then? This, though, is what happens when you put an unqualified political appointee into an important job and keep him there.

Mr. Brown got to FEMA not because he knew anything about disaster relief. He was a friend of Joe Allbaugh, who with Karl Rove and Karen Hughes formed the troika that ran President Bush's 2000 campaign. Mr. Bush put Mr. Allbaugh, who also had no relevant experience, in charge of FEMA, and Mr. Allbaugh hired Mr. Brown as general counsel. In March 2003, Mr. Allbaugh formed a consulting company to help clients "evaluate and take advantage of business opportunities in the Middle East following the conclusion of the U.S.-led war in Iraq." President Bush then let Mr. Brown start running FEMA.

Florida's Hurricane Summer should have shown the White House that Mr. Brown is incompetent. FEMA paid victims who weren't victims and has stalled on payments to places where Frances and Jeanne really did strike. Supply drop-offs were scheduled, then canceled without notice. Reimbursement rules were confusing and remain so. And yet, President Bush stuck with Mr. Brown. Like so many members of the administration, Mr. Brown is incompetent but loyal, devoted to protecting the image of George W. Bush. Last week, Mr. Brown lied that FEMA had not known that levees around New Orleans could give way if a major hurricane struck. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff, Mr. Brown's boss, put out the same lie. When the pressure mounts, the Bush administration runs from the truth.

To keep Mr. Brown on the job would signal that the White House, despite the president's vow Tuesday to "help this great part of the country rebuild," isn't serious about making the Gulf Coast as whole as possible. As New Yorkers know, follow-up is an issue with this administration, national tragedy notwithstanding. After 9/11, President Bush pledged all sorts of help to the city, only to fall short on his financial commitments. Rebuilding the Gulf Coast will involve more work than rebuilding Lower Manhattan.

So when President Bush decides who will lead such a huge effort, a good starting point would be to pick someone competent -- which means no one who has been involved with Iraq. Mr. Bush's war already has drained money that was to have gone for levee work in New Orleans and National Guard soldiers from Louisiana and Mississippi who could have responded sooner. And the White House stuffed the Coalition Provisional Authority in Baghdad with political hacks who were no more qualified than Michael Brown. In a Chicago Tribune story, diplomat Peter Galbraith, who advised the Kurds, called such appointees "ideologues without international experience who see the world through blinders. I don't think the Iraq venture was doomed to fail. If we had had qualified people with time to plan and a coherent strategy, the situation... would certainly be better."

And the Gulf Coast is not Baghdad. The Bush administration will have to do a lot better. Residents will expect electricity to be on 24 hours a day, not 12. Residents will expect public services to work well. Americans will expect that the massive amounts of money will be spent properly, not swallowed by private, well-connected contractors that leave behind no finished projects. One figure mentioned Monday was $50 billion. That's 10 months in Iraq.

Nothing good can happen if Michael Brown has any role. Firing him, however, is important for reasons that go beyond the Gulf Coast. There will be other disasters that demand effective responses. Mr. Brown has shown that he cannot deliver. Is President Bush, who put Mr. Brown in the position to do so much damage, the only American who can't see that?

Americans' generosity knows no bounds

If there is hope following the wretchedness wrought by Hurricane Katrina, we can see it in the selfless efforts of Americans near and far who were thinking about ways to help the victims even when the federal government was not.

The front page of Tuesday's Post showed the generosity of Frank Stronach, chairman of Magna Entertainment, who opened 208 dormitories Monday at his Palms Meadows Thoroughbred Training Center west of Boynton Beach. Rallied by the Coalition of Boynton West Residential Associations, retirees showed up to make beds, serve food and cold drinks, carry bags and distribute calling cards.

Clergy throughout Palm Beach County and their congregations gathered Tuesday night at New Bethel Missionary Baptist Church in Riviera Beach to pray for and raise money for victims. The Urban League of Palm Beach County is accepting batteries, flashlights, baby wipes, toys, first-aid supplies, bleach, soap and toiletries at its office in West Palm Beach and at Congress Middle School in Boynton Beach. United Way workers are sorting and distributing clothing, canned goods and other necessities left at drop-off sites.

In Martin and St. Lucie counties, where too many residents still are recovering from Frances and Jeanne, the Red Cross is taking in families from the Gulf Coast. The Martin County Sheriff's Office and the Sewall's Point and Stuart police departments are among the state's 348 local law-enforcement officers who have been dispatched to help. Martin County School Board Chairwoman Sue Hershey is organizing a countywide "adoption" of Jackson County, Miss. Jackson would provide a wish list for the county, cities and local organizations to fill. Other cities and counties could follow her model.

Homeowner associations, individuals and charities have loaded caravans with water, hygiene products and other provisions for shipment to Mississippi, Louisiana and Alabama. Individuals have offered their homes and rental properties, covering rent and utility bills -- for relatives and strangers. Others have offered airboats and airplanes. Psychologists have offered to counsel devastated parents and children. Schools are preparing to accommodate displaced students.

Gov. Bush has ordered the largest state-to-state assistance in Florida's history, committing $67.8 million and 3,758 people, including health officials, bridge inspectors, National Guardsmen and animal response team members. The state's tally includes 5.5 million gallons of water, 4 million pounds of ice, 3,688 cases of baby food, 1,200 cases of baby juice. The governor also moved more quickly than many parts of the federal government.

For each publicized effort, there are countless anonymous acts of kindness -- and good ideas that should not be hampered by bureaucracy. What if, one person asked via e-mail, municipalities around the country, big and small, each sent five to 10 city buses to New Orleans? What if merchants, grocers, Realtors and restaurateurs donated a portion of their profits for the next two months? What if employers provided free job training and physicians offered free medical services? What if civic groups "adopted" a family for six months?

Floridians can blame the four hurricanes of 2004 for the post-Katrina refrain: "That could have been us." But credit that empathy -- and simple humanity and compassion -- for an unprecedented level of generosity. The outpouring will prove restorative as much for its practical aid as its promise.

Congress' new agenda: Relief on a grand scale

Though President Bush now has nominated Judge John G. Roberts Jr. to be chief justice of the Supreme Court, the Senate was correct to delay confirmation hearings. The court won't convene for another four weeks. The suffering along the Gulf Coast is more than a week old and counting.

For Congress, which returns today, the challenge is to match the urgency and generosity of private citizens who took action while so much of the national leadership seemed annoyed that Hurricane Katrina had disrupted the Labor Day weekend. Steve Bartkiw, an Ocean Ridge resident, loaded a truck with supplies and drove until he reached survivors in Mississippi. This was Friday, four days after Katrina made landfall. The people had seen no one from any government. "They asked me who I was with," Mr. Bartkiw said. "I said, 'I'm with me.' " He's going back this week with a semi.

As after 9/11, the nation is horrified and ready to help. But though Katrina did not produce the collective fear of the terrorist attacks, the effects in some ways are far more profound. Katrina has displaced hundreds of thousands of Americans, many of them poor, sick and elderly. It will be many weeks before assessments can determine which parts of New Orleans are salvageable. The swath of destruction is roughly 100 miles long. Mississippi and especially Louisiana will be hurting financially for years. Then there is the psychological damage, here and abroad, from seeing Americans begging for help and the government incapable of sending it.

Former President Clinton, who with former President George H.W. Bush will lead the same sort of fund-raising campaign they began after the Asian tsunami, suggested Monday that Congress may need to create a "Katrina Commission." It could be modeled on the 9/11 commission. That's one early issue, but there are others. Among them:

• Why was the response to Katrina so slow? How can it be made faster next time?

• Should the Federal Emergency Management Agency be moved out of the Department of Homeland Security? U.S. Rep. Mark Foley, R-Jupiter, warned after last summer that FEMA was getting lost in the massive DHS bureaucracy.

• Should the nation compile a list of key flood-control projects, such as the energy network in Louisiana and the Hoover Dike around Lake Okeechobee, and assign those projects the money that might have shored up the New Orleans levees to have withstood Katrina?

• Since the National Guard response was slow because so many troops and equipment are in Iraq, does the Army need to add two divisions? Sen. John Kerry proposed that during the presidential campaign.

• Should Congress create a national catastrophe fund for such wide-scale disasters?

That long-term examination must begin as soon as Congress can assign the work. One hopes the Bush administration will be more cooperative than it was with the 9/11 commission. The immediate need is to find housing, work, health care and schools for the evacuees. The government flubbed the first response to Katrina. The nation expects much better -- and soon.

A longer school tax?

Last year, the school district persuaded voters to approve a half-cent sales-tax increase to raise $560 million over six years for construction. Less than a year later, Superintendent Art Johnson says the district may need to extend the tax.

"There is not a reason why we can't go back to the public," he told the school board last month. Dr. Johnson is right, so far. And one of his most important jobs over the next five years is to make sure that the district's construction efforts don't create a reason why the school board can't go back to the public.

Construction plans are ambitious. The district will build, rebuild or renovate more than 100 schools. In any program that extensive, there are bound to be overruns and mistakes -- as well as opportunities for the district to save money through innovation. The recent record has been good. The referendum's expression of public trust increased pressure to maintain that record at the same time as new factors make it harder to build schools on budget and on time.

The price of concrete, steel and other basic construction commodities is increasing rapidly as other markets, such as China, compete for scarce resources. No doubt the rebuilding in Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and the Panhandle after Hurricane Katrina only will make matters more challenging. Storm reconstruction also will increase competition for crews and equipment to do the work.

The rising cost of land is another factor. For example, the district just found that it has been outbid for land it needs to keep its promise to expand Boca Raton High School. Acquiring that land, perhaps through eminent domain, could increase the $4 million cost by another million or more.

The public and business leaders, who played a key role in passing the sales tax increase, understand that some rising costs will be beyond the district's control. They also understand that unexpected growth in some areas could require alterations to the plan. The district, however, doesn't have a blank check to increase costs. Student growth this year was less than expected. And "bonus" taxes from rising property values will give the district an estimated $143 million extra over the next five years.

If the district thinks that it might need to come back to the public to reauthorize the sales-tax increase in five years, it will have to show that its construction track record provides every reason to do so.

Apologize, fix, prevent

While some owners of 10,000 Stuart properties may be annoyed when they receive higher tax notices this week, Martin County Property Appraiser Laurel Kelly was quick to catch her office's error. Rare for a public official, she also admitted the mistake, apologized for it and promptly corrected it.

Ms. Kelly failed to include charges for Stuart's new police and fire complex on the notices. The city caught the mistake after Stuart Manager David Collier realized that his tax notice didn't mention the bonds to pay for the proposed $8.5 million complex. The new buildings will be constructed on the site of the existing fire and police stations on Martin Luther King Boulevard and are scheduled for completion by next August.

The corrected bills will list the 30-year tax-exempt bonds voters approved in August 2004 to pay for the new buildings. That will add about $40 to bills for residents in single-family homes and $21 for condominium residents.

"It's something we overlooked in the checking process," Ms. Kelly said. Her office is evaluating that process in hopes of avoiding future mistakes. Last year, her office had to send out more than 2,000 revised notices because a computer mistake overvalued homes and condos that have homestead exemptions.

Ms. Kelly takes responsibility for the mistakes. Since her office this year had the Herculean task of surveying all county taxpayers to calculate the damages from last summer's two hurricanes, Ms. Kelly had a lot to check. After surveys were mailed out, her office had to review each of 23,640 responses.

She set up a hurricane damage team. While appraisers couldn't physically inspect all damages, Ms. Kelly's team examined a sample population, inspecting damages ranging from severe to minor, then applied the findings to the rest of the population. Homeowners suffered $280 million in property damage, and businesses reported $62.7 million. Ms. Kelly's office sent out notices in the past few weeks showing reductions in individual tax bills that reflect the damage costs.

Ms. Kelly does not use this extra work for her office as an excuse for the errors that prompted this week's flurry of amended tax notices. "Mistakes happen," she said, "but we take each one seriously, and the attitude is 'OK, what are you going to do about it?' " For a public official, her "apologize, correct and prevent" plan shows refreshing honesty and humility.

Disable future danger

Leaders of the 9/11 commission have tried to dismiss allegations about a secret program code-named Able Danger. Not so fast.

No disrespect to commission Chairman Thomas Kean and Vice Chairman Lee Hamilton, but in the year since releasing their report, they have emphasized the importance of following up. Tracking whether agencies and Congress adopt the commission's suggested reforms is one form of follow-up. Making sure that the public learns of information that came to light after publication is just as important.

Rep. Curt Weldon, R-Pa., says that Able Danger, a top-secret project that sifted through electronic data in search of spy and terrorist activity, identified 9/11 ringleader Mohamed Atta a year before the attacks. According to Rep. Weldon, military lawyers blocked Able Danger members from telling the FBI.

Two military officers, Army Lt. Col. Anthony Shaffer and Navy Capt. Scott Phillpott, now have backed Rep. Weldon's claim, as has a former defense contractor, James Smith. Rep. Weldon says the Able Danger team created a chart containing Atta's name and picture. The Pentagon says it can't find the chart but admits that some Able Danger documents have been destroyed. The Pentagon also admitted Thursday that it had identified several more people who recalled seeing the chart.

The 9/11 commission's report doesn't deal with Able Danger, even though Lt. Col. Shaffer and Capt. Phillpott say they mentioned it to commission staff members. Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., as chairman of the judiciary committee, correctly has demanded more information from the FBI and others and will hold hearings on Sept. 14.

It would be profoundly embarrassing if the Pentagon had identified Atta before 9/11. But avoiding embarrassment is not a defensible goal. Avoiding future intelligence lapses is.

Take raises for Congress off their autopilot status

Very few Americans, on this Labor Day 2005, can just sit back and watch the guaranteed pay raises roll in. There is one group, however that is thus blessed.

Without having an up-or-down vote, without having a debate, without having a job review, members of Congress are assured that their paychecks will grow fatter. As the Roll Call Report Syndicate explains, "On Jan. 1, for each of the past six years, House members and senators have seen their pay rise by sums ranging from $3,400 to $4,900. A seventh consecutive increase will push rank-and-file congressional salaries from today's $162,100 to $165,200 in January 2006."

We recognize that members of Congress have a tough job, and most work very hard. But the same is true of millions of Americans who now fret that their jobs will be moved overseas or outsourced to the lowest-bidding non-union shop. More have seen their pensions fall away or must accept work that offers no health benefits. The blue-collar job that once provided a middle-class living is an endangered species.

The Bush administration is bullish on the economy. But as the government reported last week, America's poverty rate rose in 2004 from 12.5 percent to 12.7 percent, meaning that 1.1 million additional Americans fell below the poverty line, bringing the total to 37 million. Meanwhile, the number without health insurance increased by 800,000, to 45.8 million. That's an increase from 41.2 million when President Bush took office in 2001. Median household income also fell last year, down $93 to $44,389.

Anti-poverty programs, such as Medicaid and Medicare, do help to mitigate the plight of some who are at the bottom of the economic system. But budget pressures are forcing Congress and the states to make or consider cuts, particularly in Medicaid. Even as Congress makes those cuts, however, the Republican majority is determined to extend tax cuts worth $70 billion over five years. By and large, President Bush's tax cuts have benefited the wealthiest Americans.

The poverty rate is an imperfect measure. Most economists think it understates poverty, particularly in urban areas. But there is agreement that hourly workers are falling behind. Meanwhile, of the five most affluent counties in America, three are in the Washington, D.C., area.

Congress, which rigged the rules to make its pay raises automatic, should unrig them. Public approval of Congress, as measured in a Washington Post-ABC poll, doesn't seem to justify an autopilot increase. Only 37 percent of the respondents said they thought Congress was doing a good job, the lowest mark in eight years. If members deserve a raise, they should explain why in debate and go on record in a roll-call vote. Surely, as they return to the Capitol after Labor Day, that isn't too much work to expect of them.

A break for I-95 drivers

Interstate 95 commuters could not have been happy to read in The Post that it will be several more years before all of the highway in Palm Beach County is widened to 10 lanes. But many must have been happy to hear that they won't face one more potential daily irritation.

Last month, the Florida Department of Transportation canceled plans for doubling the hours of the High Occupancy Vehicle lanes. The lanes are being added as each newly widened stretch opens. Currently, only vehicles with two or more occupants can use the lanes between 7 a.m. and 9 a.m. and between 4 p.m. and 6 p.m. Monday through Friday. The idea is to encourage carpooling, and the DOT wanted to extend the two-person rule for an hour on either side of the morning and afternoon rush hour.

Supposedly, state studies showed that changing work hours were causing the HOV lanes to draw more traffic earlier and later. State Sen. Ron Klein, D-Delray Beach, was skeptical. He asked the DOT to review those studies to see whether they applied in Palm Beach County, which has a job hub in West Palm Beach but where overall traffic flow is more balanced than in Broward or Miami-Dade counties. Sure enough, the DOT first postponed the new rules, which were to have taken effect July 1, then dropped the idea, at least for the time being.

We would agree with DOT engineers who maintained even before Katrina caused another big spike that higher gas prices will force more commuters to carpool. The state can't widen I-95 to more than 10 lanes, and Palm Beach County will grow by several hundred thousand more people. In addition, jobs in Palm Beach will draw more and more people who live in Martin and St. Lucie, especially if The Scripps Research Institute creates a new biotechnology industry.

So local traffic planners and the state should begin now to craft a system that will allow people who live near each other and work in the same area but not necessarily at the same business to find carpool partners. Studies of Palm Beach County traffic as the widening progresses can determine whether longer HOV hours make sense.

It hasn't been fun to drive through a construction zone for the past five years, and it won't be fun for the next four or five. But as the opening of each portion shows, the work is necessary, and DOT has kept things moving about as well as drivers could expect. Keeping the HOV lanes on their normal schedule is the right decision until all the work is done.

The morning-after con

Health and Human Services Secretary Michael Leavitt promised a decision by last Thursday on whether emergency contraception could be sold without a prescription to women 17 or older. In exchange for the overdue ruling, Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y., and Patty Murray, D-Wash., let proceed a Senate vote on Lester Crawford's nomination to be Food and Drug Administration commissioner. But last week, Dr. Crawford reneged, resorting to the administration's own Plan B when its ideology contradicts science: death by delay.

Offering a lame excuse for indefinitely deferring a decision on the morning-after pill, Dr. Crawford cited "many difficult and novel policy and regulatory issues." But after two years of stalling, the issues should have obvious practical solutions: If FDA officials are worried about how to keep the pill from girls 16 and younger, for example, the easy response is to require identification before purchase.

But the Bush administration never has been serious about finding ways to allow Barr Laboratories' Plan B pill to be available over the counter, despite endorsements by FDA advisory committees, staff and officials. Even Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, characterized the Plan B feud as not "a pharmaceutical issue as much as it's a social issue." So the FDA will open a 60-day public comment period. And after that... ? Mr. Leavitt defended the evasion with semantics: "Sometimes action isn't always yes and no. Sometimes it requires additional thought."

The obvious influence of abortion politics on the delay led the director of the FDA's office of women's health to resign in protest. "This is a way to prevent unwanted pregnancy and thereby prevent abortion," Dr. Susan F. Wood told The New York Times. "This should be something that we should all agree on." The delay hinders efforts to reduce abortions and further damages the FDA's credibility.

Think of New Orleans: Shore up Hoover Dike

New Orleans flooded after the failure of a levee system that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers built in 1927 and has been patching ever since. Lake Okeechobee is contained by a 1928 dike the corps has been patching ever since -- and soon will start patching again.

The lake is 30 miles inland and wouldn't get the worst hurricane winds, said Col. Robert Carpenter, the corps' chief engineer in Florida. If the lake is low enough, he adds, the 143-mile Herbert Hoover Dike that surrounds it could contain a wind-driven storm surge. His words are meant to reassure. But the differing stories that corps spokesmen and reports tell about the safety of the dike, which stands between the lake and 40,000 Floridians, do not.

The dike leaks. Built after the 1928 hurricane and storm surge that killed 2,500 people, much of the dike was built over sawgrass, muck, sand, gravel and a levee that settlers made in the 1900s. "Standards are different now," Col. Carpenter said. The corps built, added height and extended the dike between 1930 and the 1970s and inspects it more often when lake levels are high.

A July story in The Post, however, noted earlier corps reports that said the dike poses an "unacceptable risk" to public safety, contrary to Col. Carpenter's reassurances. The dike needed $6 million in repairs after last summer's storms, when Hurricane Jeanne caused water along the north shore to slosh above 25 feet. Lake levels rose 5 1/2 feet in a few months.

Speaking last week to the Martin County Commission, Col. Carpenter said the corps this year will start $16.5 million in repairs on a 25-mile stretch of the dike. The dike engineer's estimate, however, is that the first project, covering only 4.6 miles south and east of Port Mayaca, is expected to cost up to $25 million and take two years. Repairs to the entire dike, which will be done in 25-mile segments and could cost as much as $234 million, will come as Congress provides the money -- something that didn't happen for the New Orleans levee.

If inspectors found a big leak or a breach of the Hoover Dike seemed imminent, an engineer said, the corps' only plan would be to tell local emergency officials to evacuate people. Repair materials such as sand and gravel have been placed around the lake. Clearly, the corps needs a better plan.

For now, the corps' best safety measure is keeping the lake low enough to ensure that the dike, which ranges in height from 32 to 46 feet above sea level, is not stressed. In the 1990s, the dike sprung leaks when the water was more than 18 feet above sea level. In 2003, the corps was plugging leaks when the lake was at 15.5 feet. Last week, the lake was at 15.7 feet.

Col. Carpenter has begun changing the lake level schedule, and he should speed it up; the last change took six years. The corps also should update emergency plans and decide on one story, which seems to be: The dike could be safer; they're working on it.

Guard THIS nation

For months, the Bush administration dismissed critics who worried that the Iraq War had stretched the U.S. military perilously thin and depleted National Guard and Army Reserve units to a level that threatened their ability to respond to domestic emergencies.

The federal government's response to Hurricane Katrina has proved the critics right. The anarchy in New Orleans and the lethargic relief efforts are evidence of the Pentagon's reduced ability to help and protect Americans in crisis. The governors of Louisiana and Mississippi have had to wait for National Guard troops to arrive from 15 other states, instead of mobilizing their own units. Specialists such as military police and engineers are lacking.

The two states each have more than 3,000 Guard members on active duty in Iraq, close to 40 percent of their capacity. Those units could have provided faster response and local knowledge to expedite relief efforts. Also missing in action was the Guard's equipment. Helicopters, Humvees and large high-wheeled trucks that could have carried New Orleans residents to safety are 7,000 miles away in Iraq.

Many of the Guard and Reserve members who have made it to the disaster have been forced into action after completing tours of duty in Iraq, so they bring their fatigue with them. The Pentagon promised governors that at least half their Guard units would remain at home for the duration of the Iraq War, but the Pentagon didn't make guarantees about preparedness of those units. Guard and Reserve forces make up 40 percent of the troops deployed in Iraq. Most of them joined to perform a domestic service, not fight on the front lines of an elective war.

Besides letting down Americans in their time of need, the Bush administration risks inflicting permanent damage on the military. Not only are U.S. troops stretched too thin, their brave service is diverted to places they don't belong.

Free up biotech money

When is a biotech business not a small business?

When it gets a majority of its money from venture capital firms.

That answer, from a 2003 court ruling, limits financing for creative approaches to curing disease. As The Post reported last month, Ixion, a 10-employee biotech firm near the University of Florida that is seeking a treatment for diabetes, went from receiving honors for its use of a $5 million Small Business Innovation Research grant to no longer qualifying. Ixion missed the new cutoff because 52 percent of its capital came from Swedish venture capitalists.

While some would argue that well-capitalized firms don't need the extra government help, there are many reasons why they do. For one, those are just the type of firms that have the most chance of success because they have stable financing. With the cost of bringing a drug to market reaching $1 billion, every dollar counts, and only the best-financed startups can succeed.

Additionally, the federal grants -- totaling $2 billion in 2003 -- encourage creative approaches that venture capitalist firms often find too risky to finance. "That's how you do the cool science -- the stretchy stuff that venture capitalists don't want their money pegged to," Polly Murphy, a vice president with The Scripps Research Institute, told The Post. That puts the federal government in the crucial role of financing research to unlock the secrets of the human body.

Another consequence, intended or not, is to weaken the best-prepared biotech companies while penalizing those that turn to foreign sources for capital. The ruling limits the grants to companies with up to 500 workers, owned by "individual" U.S. investors. Venture firms no longer qualify as "individuals." The biotech grants differ from typical Small Business Administration grants because they pay for research, not product development. Such a tight reading of the law hinders the neediest researchers.

Since the decision came not from a rule-making body but from a court, Congress must act to fix the problem. Bills sponsored by U.S. Rep. Sam Graves, R-Mo., and Sen. Kit Bond, R-Mo., would do that. The needs of the biotech industry are special because of the high cost of bringing cures to market. The best system relies on money from venture capitalists and federal grants. Innovation counts on it.

McCarty choice stunts growth panel's integrity

Gov. Bush named Palm Beach County Commissioner Mary McCarty to a panel charged with shaping Florida's growth. It ranks among his worst decisions.

During her nearly 15 years in office, Commissioner McCarty consistently has opposed reasonable growth management. She fought a proposal to tie school construction to home building, commenting caustically that parents disliked school crowding only because it meant that their children might be going "to brunch and not to lunch." She routinely expresses disdain for planning, complaining that taxpayers have preserved too much land. Commissioner McCarty championed the decision to put The Scripps Research Institute on the rural Mecca Farms site. She dismissed alternative locations and put together a delicate coalition to deliver the site the governor wanted.

Then there are Commissioner McCarty's ethics problems. After the 2000 election, she became involved in a short-lived, unsuccessful campaign to oust three Florida Supreme Court justices who had issued some rulings against candidate George Bush. Her role led to an election law violation, which she escaped with a $2,000 fine, down from a recommended $450,000. To cover her legal bills, she violated ethics laws by accepting illegal contributions from developers with business before the commission. A yearlong ethics probe is ongoing.

Those in Palm Beach County know how unhelpful Commissioner McCarty has been in a group setting, such as the Criminal Justice Commission. She also has a well-deserved reputation as someone who can't keep her mouth shut. During negotiations with The Scripps Research Institute, she referred to Scripps President Richard Lerner as "arrogant and elitist." She called fellow Republican commissioner Tony Masilotti "scum" when he ran in 1998 and hurled accusations at him last year after he questioned her votes for firms with ties to her husband's bond underwriting firm. She bragged about how her well-orchestrated political attacks against Commissioner Burt Aaronson were designed to give him a heart attack.

But given the first 10 appointments to the 15-member Century Commission for a Sustainable Florida, Commissioner McCarty will fit right in. There's a former aide to Gov. Bush, a lobbyist, a representative of the state's largest landowner and a Brooksville real estate agent named Gary Schraut. Of Mr. Schraut, a political opponent told The St. Petersburg Times, "If you take one person who has been most responsible for (pushing) uncontrolled growth and manipulating growth management, the name that comes to mind is Gary Schraut." In Palm Beach County, the name is Mary McCarty.

So what are Commissioner McCarty's qualifications? Unresolved ethics violations, political allegiance to developers -- especially those who are key Republican donors -- impatience with growth management and delivering Mecca for Gov. Bush. Those qualifications may be good enough for the governor, but they aren't for the public.

A watertight promise?

Palm Beach County allowed farmers to violate the county's permit not once but twice to drain water from the Mecca Farms citrus grove, where farming coexists with construction of a downtown-sized biotech campus for The Scripps Research Institute. It is unsettling to have questions raised about that commitment at this early stage.

More worrisome is that the county did little to deal with flooding at the neighboring J.W. Corbett Wildlife Management Area until The Post reported on the problem a week ago. The county has argued that development -- even on the scale imagined for Scripps -- would have less impact on the area's environment than citrus operations. With the formal groundbreaking set for Sept. 23, this hardly is the time to raise concerns about that promise.

So it's encouraging to see the county's response this week to the complaints. The county initially agreed that a gate that should not have been open had been open, allowing too much water into the C-18 Canal, which backed up into the Corbett area. But the flooding seemed to continue after the gate was closed. Upon further review, the county found that the problem is in the canal itself. If that's true, the water district will isolate and remove the blockage in coming weeks.

Aside from damage to campgrounds and roads, the flooding threatens the habitat of the federally endangered red-cockaded woodpecker, exactly the wrong message for the public to be hearing as the county argues in court that Scripps will not harm the environment. While the county initially placed the blame on farmers who lease the land -- from the county -- the county seems to be working now to resolve the issue. It's not easy to build a biotech village on the edge of a vast federal preserve. Even if the county didn't cause the problem, it is responsible for making sure that no one else does.

Under the county's Scripps plan, the citrus growers eventually will be gone and Mecca's discharge will be controlled through a system of lakes. Until then, the county has to remain vigilant in its role as landlord. Even if commissioners decide to sell Mecca to developers, the county retains responsibility for making sure that those initial promises to safeguard the environment are kept.

Castration not an answer for sex offenders

Eight years ago, Florida became one of the first states to authorize castration as legal punishment for habitual sex offenders. The Legislature passed a loophole-ridden bill, and Gov. Chiles let it become law without his signature.

Most judges wisely have refrained from handing down the sentence. For example, the law requires expert medical testimony to certify that someone is an "appropriate candidate" for chemical or physical castration, yet that term is nebulous. Lawmakers gave the Department of Corrections, which is supposed to provide the injections, no instructions about how to administer or pay for them. The drug specified -- medroxyprogesterone, a synthetic form of the female hormone progesterone marketed as Depo-Provera -- has not been approved for castration by the Food and Drug Administration.

How well the drug works in preventing sexual offenders from offending remains speculative. Legislators were too busy congratulating themselves for getting tough against predators to notice the legal mess they created.

Palm Beach County Circuit Judge Jack Cook ignored the deficiencies in the law and ordered castration Thursday for Phu Tran, a 34-year-old sex offender serving a 20-year sentence for assaulting two women. Judge Cook sentenced Tran to receive the injections for five years, beginning with completion of his sentence at age 54. Tran became the first offender to be sentenced to castration in the county and the 16th in the state.

Judge Cook's decision for five years of injections is arbitrary, and he offered little to explain it. Why not three years? Why not 10? The ruling is as vague as the law itself. The better way to punish offenders is with prison time, sentences the state understands.

Sexual assaults are crimes of power and control. Curbing sexual desire is a secondary matter with dubious consequences and outcomes. Judge Cook made history, but for exactly what

Gulf Coast faces crisis; does Washington care?

Maybe Congress would be back in session by now if there had been a calamitous natural disaster in Iraq. After all, that's where we're spending $5 billion a month on a war that hasn't made this country safer and hasn't brought the Iraqis electricity to go with their freedom.

No, this was just an unprecedented emergency right here in the United States, so why should all of these well-paid public servants get back to Washington from another of their recesses any sooner than their scheduled return on Tuesday? It wasn't as if there were thousands of lives at stake in one of America's best-known cities. It wasn't as if Congress needed to start thinking about a response to the worst natural disaster in a century. It wasn't as if the nation's energy supply system faced disruption.

Pardon the sarcasm, but where was the urgency? Even President Bush, who did come back to the capital a couple of days early, seemed less impassioned Wednesday when talking about the need for hurricane relief than he does when defending his invasion of Iraq. He called the scene "devastating." He listed the amount of ice and water that was on the way. But there was no energy and no passion in his remarks. Those who live where Katrina struck would not have thought that the president appreciated their plight. He said recovery would "take years." Do tell. And how does Mr. Bush intend for the government to start that recovery?

Senate leaders said they sure would get down to the serious work -- on Tuesday. Those who live until then will be so pleased. "I will closely monitor the relief effort," Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., said on Wednesday, adding, "I encourage all Americans to keep the hurricane victims in their thoughts and prayers." Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said, "We must not waste any time in giving these families the resources they need." In the meantime, anarchy will continue in New Orleans.

Congress plans to approve $10 billion in emergency spending for FEMA by the weekend. It will take so much more to help the Gulf Coast. Let's hear no complaints. Just the money we can't account for in Iraq would make a nice start toward rebuilding Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida. And it might be nice for the president and Congress to jawbone our beloved allies into chipping in some money.

Katrina revealed how unprepared the nation remains to deal with anticipated disasters, let alone those that might be the work of terrorists. The Federal Emergency Management Agency acknowledged that it could have been more ready for a storm that had grown into a threat. New Orleans police found themselves unable to talk with each other. There was inadequate planning for repairing levees, despite years of talk.

It didn't take terrorists to empty New Orleans. It took nature, along with failure to make the city's and the region's defense against hurricanes as strong as it could be. Washington has no defense for its own tepid reaction to the crisis.

New police chief can instill a needed new attitude in Jupiter

The Jupiter police chief who greeted news of his own 30-day suspension with the flippant, "It's most unfortunate, but I'll be working on my golf game, attending spring training games and working on my tan," is gone. But the damage he did remains. Now, though, Jupiter has a chance to rebuild the police force.

A recent department survey reflected poorly on Chief Richard Westgate's 19-year reign. More than half of the officers who responded said department policies and procedures had not been followed, and they could not describe morale as high. Officers complained about intimidation, favoritism in promotions and the need for a change in management.

Chief Westgate's forced retirement offers the opportunity for Town Manager Andy Lukasik to inject a new attitude into a department that hasn't been the same since a 1999 Florida Department of Law Enforcement investigation led to Chief Westgate's suspension. The investigation focused on reports that Chief Westgate ordered officers to ignore drunken-driving violations by town officials and, years earlier, had encouraged the torching of homeless camps. His deputy chief, Stan Hermanski, once accused of threatening a fellow officer, took early retirement.

Last week, Mr. Lukasik interviewed seven candidates for the job. On Wednesday, he chose Frank Kitzerow, the Portsmouth, Va., chief who led the investigation into the Washington-area snipers, over deputy chiefs from Tallahassee and Coral Springs, among others. The new chief, who will be paid $105,000, must be prepared to work with migrant laborers, who will be asked to give up their pre-dawn ritual of waiting for employers on residential streets and move to a town-financed labor center -- next door to the police department. That will require responsive officers following procedure, not a police force dragged down by bad morale.

Boynton looked within for police chief

Credit Boynton Beach City Manager Kurt Bressner for thinking boldly in July and for thinking smartly in August.

When Police Chief Marshall Gage made clear that after nine years on the job he wanted to retire on his own timetable, not the city's, Mr. Bressner correctly forced a decision, and Chief Gage was out. Given the recent problems in the department -- missing evidence, abuse of vacation time, persistent turnover --and complaints from city commissioners that the chief ignored their constituents' issues, Boynton Beach deserved more than a police chief who would be a long-term lame duck.

As is typical with cities when a key position opens up, Boynton Beach had planned to conduct a nationwide search for a replacement. Mr. Bressner chose Assistant Chief Matt Immler to baby-sit things. But the longer he baby-sat, the more Mr. Immler impressed the community. Chief Gage may have been well-intentioned, but he was standoffish; Mr. Immler gets out of his office and talks with the beat cops. He returns the commissioners' phone calls. He listens to the neighborhoods and responds. So today, Mr. Bressner will give him the job permanently.

Actually, Mr. Immler, who had retired from Baltimore's police department, was the product of a nationwide search in 1999. Since he has a law degree, it's easy to see why Boynton Beach wanted to hire him for what then was a new position. Beyond his academic qualifications, however, Mr. Immler has shown flexibility and a willingness to deploy officers based on need. Since the city is conducting a review of the department, Mr. Immler seems able to make any changes that the study might recommend.

Judging by the comments that appeared this week in The Post, Mr. Immler has persuaded just about everyone that he can do the job. So Mr. Bressner was right to give him the chance.

Port St. Lucie right to demand sewer hookup from Sandpiper Bay

Port St. Lucie City Council members did the right thing this week when they voted, finally, to make Sandpiper Bay residents replace aging septic tanks with municipal sewers.

Residents protested the $3,877 fee the city will charge, a cost that will be three to four times higher than other Port St. Lucie residents have paid for sewer service. City officials blame higher prices on Sandpiper Bay's oversized lots, overall increased material and construction costs and the small size of the district, which has just 1,100 landowners. Residents already have city water. Costs have risen slightly since 2003, the last time the city council considered requiring residents to hook up. Postponing the inevitable only would have boosted the expenses even higher.

Port St. Lucie has sent Sandpiper Bay mixed messages during the past decade. While other portions of the city were required to hook up to municipal sewers, Sandpiper Bay and two other high-income communities were spared because of the higher costs. Both Vikings Lookout and Bay St. Lucie residents, however, petitioned the city for municipal water, agreeing to respective costs of $6,449 and $15,418.

The city bowed to Sandpiper Bay's protests two years ago, a decision that left some residents in the lurch when they had to pay to replace their aging septic systems. Both Sandpiper Bay homes and septic systems are old, and many lots are close enough to waterways to pose pollution threats.

Port St. Lucie offers landowners a small discount if they pay before Sept. 30. Those who choose to pay on property tax bills can pay $330 a year or $6,593 for principal and interest over 20 years. Sandpiper Bay residents have had the benefit of a 10-year postponement, a break other city residents didn't have.

Even Councilman Jack Kelly, a Sandpiper Bay resident who once opposed the mandatory hookups, agrees. It's time.

Despite problems, state must get records online

The not-so-funny things that happened during its yearlong study only highlighted the need for a Florida Supreme Court committee's recommendations on how to balance privacy concerns with electronic access to public documents.

During that year, security breaches among commercial data gatherers underscored identity theft concerns. So among its 24 recommendations, the Committee on Privacy and Court Records wants state and federal lawmakers to regulate and penalize commercial data gatherers to protect citizen privacy.

If that seems somewhat off-mission for the panel, members of the public concerned about the government-in-the-sunshine guaranteed by the Florida Constitution can be reassured. As one of its 24 recommendations, the committee reaffirmed, correctly, that the same public documents that are available at the courthouse also should be made available online. How that gets to happen, however, remains a Supreme Court decision. The panel's 11-4 majority, including Palm Beach County Circuit Judge Edward Fine, correctly cautioned that releasing "large volumes of court records electronically cannot be responsibly achieved at this time."

Also instructive for the court, however, should be the minority report the committee was right to include. In the view of the dissenters -- Fifth District Court of Appeal Judge Jacqueline Griffin, Miami-Dade County Circuit Judge Judith Kreeger, 12th Judicial Circuit Court Administrator Walt Smith and Tallahassee lawyer Kristin Adamson -- the committee was divided into those "who concluded that the burdens of posting court records on the Internet substantially outweighed the benefits of doing so," and "those who concluded that the technology was either so desirable or inevitable that the burdens had to be overcome or endured."

The dissenters at least gave the majority credit for acknowledging that Internet publication of court records "is technologically, legally and practically impossible at present." For the Supreme Court, the question remains how to get beyond its 2003 moratorium on posting any documents other than dockets, orders or others at the discretion of chief judges. Keeping exempt information out of online records remains a legitimate concern. But the dissenters are mistaken in saying that developing procedures and drafting appropriate rules for posting the records is a "misguided goal."

What state needed then is just a start for Gulf Coast

If you were here after Hurricane Andrew in 1992, you remember the plea from Miami-Dade County's emergency operations director: "Where the hell is the cavalry?" On America's Gulf Coast, the cavalry is just the beginning.

How extraordinary must the relief effort be? The governors of Florida and Texas are talking about making room for all the people in Louisiana and Mississippi who may not be able to return for weeks to what does or does not remain of their homes. Buses are taking people who can't stay in New Orleans' Superdome to Houston's Astrodome. Texas Gov. Rick Perry spoke Wednesday of letting Louisiana students attend Texas schools. For a long time. When Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff outlined Washington's reponse to an "incident of national significance," five other Cabinet-level departments were represented at the news conference.

Cruise ships may serve as homes for the displaced. There's the private sector. Navy ships are bringing supplies. There's the military. Former Congressman Harry Johnston of West Palm Beach suggested Wednesday that the Bush administration seek advice from the United Nations' High Commission on Refugees. Mr. Johnston saw the agency's impressive work after other disasters. He has a point. So there would be the international participation.

For all of the destruction between New Orleans and Mobile, Ala., these are the times that can bring out the best in Americans. There have been reports this week, for example, of Panhandle Floridians who suffered damage last month from Hurricane Dennis leaving their repair work to join faith-based groups feeding the victims of Katrina. Louisiana native and political consultant James Carville is raising money for the ravaged Gulf Coast the way Presidents Bush 41 and Clinton have done for tsunami-ravaged Asia. Americans rallied to help New Yorkers after 9/11, and the same sort of campaign is necessary now.

What can Floridians do? Give what you can to the relief agencies. We of all people know what wonderful, necessary work these organizations do. We saw it a year ago. What Florida needed then, the Gulf Coast needs now -- and far more of it.

Floridians also can cooperate with the utilities that are asking customers to reduce their use of energy. As Florida Power & Light President Armando Olivera said, his company gets 90 percent of its natural gas from the area that Katrina struck. So turn up the thermostat, use heavy appliances at off-peak times and turn off computers when they aren't in use. And with gas supplies problematic, cut back on driving. Be sensible about filling up. There are enough worries about anarchy taking over in New Orleans. Let's not have things get crazy here.

The scope of this natural disaster may be unprecedented. So it demands an unprecedented response, from Washington and from every American. Just the cavalry won't be enough.

How to contribute:

American Red Cross

(800) HELP-NOW

www.redcross.org

Salvation Army

(800) SAL-ARMY

www.salvationarmyusa.org

Catholic Charities

(800) 919-9338

www.catholiccharitiesusa.org

National Voluntary Organizations

Active in Disaster

www.nvoad.org

A more perfect union

If the Palm Beach County Police Benevolent Association were more interested in stemming a racial feud than stirring a political one, its rally today in West Palm Beach would have nothing to do with County Commissioner Addie Greene and everything to do with the sentiment she badly expressed two weeks ago.

Instead, union members plan to revive Commissioner Greene's irresponsible advice that young black men who are pulled over by police "run and find the biggest crowd of people." The protest has great potential to mimic last week's shouting match between mostly white officers and African-American community leaders during a news conference Commissioner Greene called to clarify her remarks.

"We know she's not going to resign," said PBA Executive Vice President John Kazanjian, a sheriff's sergeant. "I would just like her to just apologize to us." Oh, and, he added, to make it known to "any public official of any ethnicity that that's not going to be tolerated."

While members of the union attempt to bully public officials into submission, responsible law enforcement officials at least are talking about how they actually can improve race relations. Ignoring the tit-for-tat grandstanding, those leaders will have to more forcefully move the message from one of emotion and ego to something sustaining and meaningful. "We're going to need a professional facilitator, preferably of color, that can balance both the pro and con," Boca Raton Police Chief Andrew Scott said of his desire to have ongoing talks between officers and residents. Chief Scott's idea -- to try to stave off the kinds of race riots of prior decades that he witnessed in Miami-Dade County -- will be presented today to the Criminal Justice Commission's Law Enforcement Planning Council.

Sheriff Ric Bradshaw does not think that "we are anywhere near that (flash)point" but believes it "would be healthy to set up a forum" that addresses the entire criminal justice system. State Rep. Priscilla Taylor, D-West Palm Beach, has been discussing the issue quietly with ministers and said, "The community really wants a dialogue with the police departments."

Ultimately, Sgt. Kazanjian said, the union wants a law that would require driver education courses to include an hour spent with a law-enforcement officer, learning what to do in a traffic stop. "That's not being taught," Sgt. Kazanjian said. No, the union is too busy trying to teach Addie Greene a lesson.

Iraq's terror syndrome

Wednesday's deadly stampede in Iraq is a tragic measure of terrorist success.

As thousands of people crossed a Baghdad bridge on their way to a Shiite shrine, someone warned of a suicide bomber. The crowd panicked. Hundreds were crushed to death. A bridge railing gave way, and more people jumped or fell into the Tigris River, where many drowned. As the death toll passed 700 -- with many of the victims women and children -- Iraq saw its deadliest day since the war began.

There was reason for nervousness. Similar religious processions have come under attack, most likely from Sunni rivals. Pilgrims that day had undergone a mortar attack that killed seven. National Public Radio reported that some Shiites also had been poisoned when they accepted gifts of food along the route.

The stampede comes amid fears of more sectarian violence as Iraqis prepare to vote on a constitution that Shiites favor and Sunnis oppose. The White House is sending more troops as the Oct. 15 election approaches. The insurgency relies on hit-and-run and ambush. U.S. soldiers can try to keep insurgents from taking over the streets. It is harder, as Wednesday's stampede shows, to prevent the terrorists from taking over Iraqi minds.