A company under investigation by the state over how it won a multimillion-dollar technology contract has been rehired for another year.

During the newly awarded one-year contracts, the office will assess whether to launch a new bid process or to return it to a state-run enterprise ... .

This Legislature in recent years has voted in favor of polluting the aquifer, weakening public schools and doubling telephone rates on consumers. It has debated how many arms and legs you have to lose on the job before you are considered "catastrophically" disabled. (Hint: They wanted it to be more than one.) It has discussed taking away insurance coverage for mammograms, and from kids with cleft palates.

The people of Florida are bursting with frustration at a Legislature that does not represent their philosophy. Increasingly, they are turning to their power of petition drive to demand that Florida act like a real state. The Legislature's answer: a proposed crackdown on petitions.

No. Customer satisfaction does not explain the Imperial Legislature. Incumbents do not have to worry, because they cannot be defeated. And a Legislature that does not have to fear re-election is a Legislature that is not answerable to the citizens for bad public policy.

U.S. Sugar's mill near Pahokee was the top releaser of cancer-causing air pollution in Florida in 2002 and No. 5 in the nation, according to an environmental group's analysis of federal data.

Cities and counties have no authority to monitor the special taxing districts fueling Florida's suburban homebuilding boom. ...

In the past five years, the number of districts has surged from 94 to 295 in the state, tripling the number of people who are governed by private developers.

a little preview of the Florida Democratic Party's worst nightmare. It's the sort of thing we might see in 2006 as Sen. Bill Nelson, the party's sole survivor in statewide office, is one of at least six Democrats being targeted for defeat by the White House.

Florida ranked 47th among the 50 states and the District of Columbia in spending in 2001-02, the latest year in which data is available allowing national comparisons.

Adjusted for regional cost differences, Florida spent just under $6,500 per student — more than $1,200 short of the national average.

Education Week gave Florida a grade of A in the area of standards and accountability. Eleven other states earned an A in this area.

The publication gave Florida Cs for its efforts to improve teacher quality and for school climate, which includes measures ranging from absenteeism to physical conflicts to classroom and school size.

Last year, Florida earned an A in standards and accountability, a C plus in teacher quality, a C in school climate and a D plus in school spending.

Education Commissioner John Winn said Florida got its best mark in the most important area.

"Florida again ranks at the very top in standards and accountability, which we've always believed has been the basis for the remarkable student improvement that we've got in Florida," Winn said. "If you don't have standards from which teachers can rely on to guide teaching and instruction, then you're lost."

On the subject of Florida's low ranking in per-pupil spending, Winn said: "It's more about how you use your money than it is about the total amount of money."

A jury awarded $250,000 to the father of Ciara Floyd, 3. She was beaten to death by her mother's boyfriend.

Citizens Property Insurance, the state-created insurer that provides hurricane coverage to Floridians who can't get other coverage, acknowledged Wednesday that its response to last year's storms has been slow.

Republican Bev Kilmer, who gave up a safe legislative seat for a long-shot congressional race that helped President Bush win Florida's key electoral votes, has landed a $42,000-a-year policy-making job with the Department of Education.

Kilmer was elected to the Florida House from Gadsden County in 1998, representing a conservative Panhandle district that was heavily Democratic. She could have run for a fourth term last year but opted to challenge U.S. Rep. Allen Boyd, D-Monticello, in a long-shot bid for Congress.

Boyd won with about 62 percent of the vote, but Kilmer's heated and well-financed campaign - which featured fund-raising appearances by House Speaker Dennis Hastert of Illinois and first lady Laura Bush - increased voter turnout in the 2nd Congressional District by about 99,000 over the 2000 election. Although she had little chance of unseating the noncontroversial incumbent, Kilmer carried the GOP strongholds of Walton and Okaloosa counties and split Bay County with Boyd, who kept his distance from the national Democratic ticket.

The combination of energized Republican turnout for Kilmer and conservative Democratic support for Boyd was a political windfall for Bush, who carried Florida by about 381,000 votes.

A sexual harassment scandal prompted Gov. Jeb Bush to fire the head of the agency for elder services.

Bush fired White after at least three women employees alleged he asked them for oral sex.

White took over the troubled agency after Gema Hernandez, a Democrat and an outspoken critic of how contracts were handled, was forced out by Bush in 2002 [more specifically, as Bill Cotterell reminds us, "she was forced out because she ran afoul of politically well-connected companies that do business with senior-service agencies".]

A Republican from Ohio who was a prominent figure in Florida's hurricane recovery efforts, White was criticized by agency employees and others, including Hernandez, for not being aggressive enough in protecting the state's nearly 3 million elders.

Details of the harassment allegations were not revealed. Citing an exemption to state public records law, the governor's office said the complaints would not be released.

Faraj, the governor's communications director, said additional details will not be released to protect the victims. She said details of the investigation were not written down and that state public records law does not require the release of records when an alleged victim chooses not to make a complaint of employment discrimination.

Along with $15 million annually for an Alzheimer's center at the University of South Florida, named for the father of then-House Speaker Johnnie Byrd, R-Plant City, the chiropractic school was among the latest favors last year to fellow lawmakers. Earlier came two redundant law schools, and the unneeded medical school at former House Speaker John Thrasher's alma mater, again FSU, expensive favors from a Legislature used to practicing politics as higher education.