criticized the media for repeating the oft-used phrase suggesting a grand jury "would indict a ham sandwich" if requested by a prosecutor. Grand jurors said they took their obligation "very seriously" and used their own judgment.

to force prosecutors to release the instructions given to the grand jurors for their deliberations. Dyer said [Republican prosecutor] King's interpretation of the state election law was wrong, so grand jurors relied on flawed information when issuing their indictments.

"The state prosecutor incorrectly instructed the grand jury on what the law is. This indictment is flawed, their interpretation and the manner in which they instructed the grand jury was flawed, and we think we'll win this on that basis," Dyer said.

[Chief Judge] Perry said he didn't have jurisdiction to rule on Dyer's request because the case has been assigned to a judge from a different judicial circuit to avoid a conflict of interest.

After Democrats threatened the job of the acting head of the EPA, the agency dropped a pesticide study planned for children in Florida. ...

Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., had joined with Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla., to demand the study's cancellation before confirming Johnson's nomination by President Bush.

"I am very pleased that Mr. Johnson has recognized the gross error in judgment the EPA made when they concocted this immoral program to test pesticides on children,'' Boxer said.

"The CHEERS program was a reprehensible idea that never should have made it out of the boardroom, and I am just happy that it was stopped before any children were put in harm's way," Boxer said, adding that she would continue to oppose any testing of toxins on humans.

Environmentalists such as Mike Casey, a spokesman for the advocacy- and research-oriented Environmental Working Group, applauded the end of what he called ``a completely corrupt idea.''

A Florida Republican strategist, who asked not to be named, said, "It's just so familiar. It's never his fault."

Sen. Mel Martinez is off to a disgraceful start as Florida's junior senator, most recently playing an instrumental role in politicizing the last tragic days of Terri Schiavo's life.

On Wednesday night he confirmed that his office was responsible for producing the infamous March 18 "talking points" memo that discussed the political advantage the Schiavo legal battle provided Republicans. ...

Martinez claims ignorance of the whole thing, an excuse we've heard before when his staffers attack. He says he never read the memorandum he pulled from his jacket pocket and handed Iowa Sen. Tom Harkin. He said he thought the memo explained his reasons for sponsoring the law giving federal courts the authority to review the Schiavo case. ...

Martinez expects the citizens of this state to believe he knew nothing of the memo's contents. Why should we? He has shown a breathtaking pattern of disingenuousness. ...

He owes Floridians an apology, too, for allowing so public a wedge to be driven between our two senators.

More important, he needs to begin taking responsibility for his office and quit imitating Sgt. Schultz from the old "Hogan's Heroes" television show: "I know no-thing!"

It's time for know-nothing Mel to hold himself accountable.

his advertisements against Betty Castor during the election suggested she was a terrorist sympathizer, which is blatantly false.

And just a few weeks ago, he voted to support oil exploration in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, saying that in return he had received a promise from the Bush administration to extend a moratorium on drilling off the Florida coast from 2007 until 2012. He failed to mention that the moratorium was already in place.

Reacting to reports Gov. Jeb Bush's push to privatize government services has faltered, the Florida Senate unanimously approved three bills Thursday aimed at exerting more legislative control over private contracts.

"This is not the first time (Sen. Martinez) has engaged in this kind of activity," [Phil Singer, communications director for the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee] said, adding that "the first time it's an accident, the second time it's a coincidence, the third time it's a pattern. This is the third time where Sen. Martinez seems to pass the buck to someone on his staff and say, 'It's not me, it's not me.'"

The campaign ads were bitterly divisive, even by the standards of a bare-knuckle primary, accusing the opponent of then Republican senatorial hopeful Mel Martinez of playing to the ``radical homosexual lobby.''

Martinez blamed the ads on "young Turks" in his campaign and apologized to his GOP rival. Weeks later Martinez found himself again blaming a staff member after a press release from his campaign likened U.S. immigration agents to ''armed thugs'' for seizing Elián González from his Miami home in 2000.

Now, for the third time, Martinez finds himself under fire -- and blaming an aide for the conflagration. This time, Martinez said he has accepted the resignation of a staff member in his Senate office for penning the now-infamous political memo that suggested Republicans in Washington could use the plight of brain-damaged Terri Schiavo to bash Democrats, singling out Martinez's fellow Florida senator, Democrat Bill Nelson.

Paid lobbyists would have to disclose their earnings and expenditures and couldn't serve on some boards -- including those at universities -- under measures passed unanimously Thursday by the Senate.

One bill (SB 2646) would require lobbyists to report the dollars they spend wining and dining legislators while doing business with the Legislature and the money they're paid to represent their interests. A separate measure (SB 1858) would prohibit paid lobbyists from serving on the Board of Governors or on individual university boards of trustees.

Despite grumbling from some counties' election officials, Florida lawmakers are moving ahead with proposals to give state officials more control over elections.

The Republican-controlled Legislature also is moving ahead with a lengthy list of election changes, including one measure that critics say would silence anyone who disagrees with how the state carries out election laws.

In an effort to defuse some of the criticism, Gov. Jeb Bush and top officials in the Department of State have backed away from a proposal that would have allowed the state to fine county election supervisors who refuse to go along with the secretary of state.

said Thursday that anybody who would write a memo weighing the political implications of the Schiavo situation showed a "striking" lack of understanding of politics.

approved slot machines in existing pari-mutuel facilities without knowing the fine-print details. Consequently, members of the Florida House of Representatives think they have carte blanche to reinterpret the intent of the voters in drafting implementing legislation.

They don't. While legally the House may be on solid ground, it has launched the type of repugnant assault on the democratic process that undermines public confidence in government.

The strategy memo outlining how Republicans could gain political capital by intervening in the Terri Schiavo case was written by Florida Sen. Mel Martinez's legal counsel, who abruptly left his job Wednesday.

Martinez, a freshman senator from Orlando who was the leading sponsor of the Schiavo bill that Congress passed in an extraordinary session on Palm Sunday, said he earlier had been assured by aides that his office had nothing to do with producing the memo that created a furor on Capitol Hill.

"This is not a document that would have been approved in this office for circulation under any circumstances," Martinez said Wednesday night. "The person responsible for drafting and circulating this document has tendered their resignation, and I have accepted it. This type of behavior and sentiment will not be tolerated in my office.

Bush did not mention any programs that Martinez created or administered during the three years he was parked at the Department of Housing and Urban Development. That was entirely appropriate, since Martinez didn't do anything worth remembering.

'Cause you can look right through me,
Walk right by me
And never know I'm there …

Another complaint of potential election-law violations, similar to the allegations that led to suspended Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer's indictment last month, is headed to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement -- this time focused on Orange County Mayor Rich Crotty.

A retired airline employee asked the Orange County Sheriff's Office on Tuesday to examine Crotty's role in the Mobility 20/20 campaign, the unsuccessful 2003 referendum to raise Orange County's sales tax by a half-cent to pay for transportation improvements.

Belle Isle resident Charlie Klein, 70, wants investigators to probe $11,500 in payments that Mobility 20/20 made to political consultant Ezzie Thomas. Thomas is the man at the center of the charges against Dyer. Prosecutors say Dyer's campaign paid him to collect absentee ballots, a practice prohibited by state law.

A Sheriff's Office spokesman said the agency would forward Klein's statement to FDLE, which investigated Dyer's case.

Crotty called the complaint "political garbage."

After all, Rich Crotty (father of the infamous pudgy kid who was falling asleep during a Dubya speech), was originally appointed to his position as Orange County Chairman by "Jeb!", and most importantly is a huge Bush family financial supporter [a Bush pioneer level contributor].

The grand jury in any circuit shall, upon the request of any candidate or qualified voter, make a special investigation when it convenes during a campaign preceding any election day to determine whether there is any violation of the provisions of this code, and shall return indictments when sufficient ground is found.

Bush, a convert to Roman Catholicism, told reporters earlier Tuesday in Tallahassee that "I actually was prepared to delay the execution out of courtesy for and respect for the pope's passing." But he also said he has a duty to state law and has sympathy for the victims.

Nearly 40 percent of Florida lawmakers with school-age children send their kids to private schools, a rate four times as high as that for parents statewide, a St. Petersburg Times survey has found.

The rate climbs to 60 percent for lawmakers on education committees that make key decisions about K-12 policy and funding.

Profits went up for a prison contractor when the state Department of Corrections raised the monthly spending limit for state inmates, but the state didn't get any more money out of it.

"Obviously, it looked like a pretty sweetheart deal to me," state Rep. Susan Bucher, D-Royal Palm Beach. She is a member of the Joint Legislative Auditing Committee, which is looking into the no-bid contract awarded to Keefe Commissary Services following a review by the state auditor general. ...

The Keefe contract has been amended three times in ways that "may increase DOC costs related to canteen operations" without a cost analysis or "other written justification," the auditor general report found.

Baxley said the bill will protect the rights of conservative Florida college students, some of whom testified Tuesday about prejudices they say they fell victim to at the hands of liberal professors.

"I find it humorous that we are pretending our universities are not bastions of liberal thought," said Baxley, who is the chairman of the House Education committee. "Conservative students have to go underground or face retribution."

In introducing the workshop, Baxley cited several other examples from around the nation, including an anecdote that [conservative activist David] Horowitz used in a column about a University of Northern Colorado student getting an F on an essay after she refused to write about "why George Bush is a war criminal."

But Horowitz admitted last month on his Web site that the anecdote was untrue, although he did not correct Baxley Tuesday.

In 2001, Horowitz also caused a stir when he attempted to run an ad titled "Ten reasons why reparations for slavery is a bad idea for blacks — and racist too" in newspapers, many on college campuses.

The University of Florida and Florida State University were among many student papers nationwide that refused to sell Horowitz space for the ad, which said reparations totaling trillions of dollars have already been paid to blacks through welfare and racial preferences.

Gov. Jeb Bush, when later asked about Baxley's bill, called Horowitz a "fighter for freedom."

Attorney General Charlie Crist has issued an advisory opinion that slot machines can't be installed without regulation approved by the Legislature, despite some arguments that the constitutional amendment allowing slot machines was self-executing.

Florida Gov. Jeb Bush said Tuesday he intends to sign a bill that would allow people who feel threatened on the street, in a bar, at a ball game — or just about anywhere — to "meet force with force" to defend themselves without fear of being prosecuted.

Having moved through the legislature like a rifle shot, the NRA-backed bill, which some say will create a Wild West, shoot-first mentality in Florida, could end up being the first substantive bill signed into law this session.

That unchecked momentum stems in part, Democrats acknowledge, from their losses in the 2004 election and their perceptions about why they lost.

The measure (SB 436) not only garnered every Republican vote in both chambers but also had the support of all 14 Senate Democrats and 13 of 36 House Democrats. It passed 94-20 in the House, with three Republicans and three Democrats not voting.

"Even voters who are hurt by Republican economic policies vote Republican because they don't trust us on cultural wedge issues like gun control and religion," said Sen. Dave Aronberg, D-Greenacres. "The voters stop listening to us and they don't even get to our economic issues. So we're trying to show that, if you are a gun owner, you are a Democrat too."

“The Bush brothers have both been good to some groups that have been called cults,” says Rick Ross of CultNews.com. “Governor Bush has recognized Scientology while his brother in the White House has actually appointed a follower of Reverend Moon [David Caprara] to dole out tax payer money through the so-called faith-based initiative. Seems to me like the fox guarding the henhouse.”

The Florida Legislature wants you to think it cares about the little guy. (When you stop laughing, please continue reading.) But its actions continually belie that notion.

Florida legislators are rushing like oranges off the back of a tailgate to make it easier for farmers to produce not crops, but buildings. ...

County governments are rightly alarmed at such an extreme infringement on their powers to control and direct development. It's hard to think of a measure that would do more to encourage sprawling, low-density cities. The cost of providing urban services over a vast geographic area would burden existing taxpayers.

And that's to say nothing of the toll such a move would take on the environment. When every farmer can sell his property to the highest bidder envisioning the most profitable use of the land, the state's natural resources will be taxed beyond their capabilities. Wildlife will dwindle. And before you can say 2025, every scrap of rural charm and agricultural life will disappear.

"Should we just make taxes voluntary? At what point do you reduce taxes and have economic stimulus but no government?"

The number of anti-Semitic hate crimes in Florida increased again last year, according to a study released Monday by the Jewish Anti-Defamation League.

Florida regulators are poised this month to settle the $1 billion question -- who pays for post-hurricane repairs to Florida Power & Light Co.'s grid?

The utility says insurance will cover a little more than 10 percent of the $999 million bill. Ratepayers have already paid for $345 million worth of fixes via a customer-supplied storm reserve fund. That leaves $533 million, which FPL wants the Public Service Commission to bill consumers as well.

If the PSC agrees, it would cost customers plenty, and establish a troubling public policy principle.

when do investors in a regulated monopoly get to reap hundreds of millions of dollars in profits without risk?

A Florida law that could be a national model for how to keep tainted and counterfeit drugs from reaching customers is at risk of being weakened by the state Legislature.

Under pressure from pharmacy owners and powerful retail lobbyists, legislators are considering bills that would delay indefinitely the implementation of a new system for tracking all medicines from manufacturer to consumer.

Florida's legislators are used to the first month of the annual session being hectic and intense, a grueling pace as they pack a year's worth of legislation into the 60-day session. They're not used to it being as emotionally draining as it has been this year.

Florida there is a curious psychic toll, a sense of emerging from an alternate universe where gripping sagas blot out the beloved sun.

while Florida still has a smaller population - not only than California but New York and Texas, too - its rapidly changing demographics and politics, combined with the fact that it is still so young, make for a potent mix.

many ethnic, age and class groups coexisting in ever more crowded communities. Nearly 1,000 people move to Florida each day, and the churning mix of blacks, Hispanics, retirees from other states, urban liberals, suburban moderates and conservative-leaning rural residents make for a volatile place with deep divisions and conflicting priorities.

What will thrust Florida back into the international spotlight?

Florida has the best quality of life in the nation.

Lynn, a retired educator, is a Republican state senator from Ormond Beach who for the past 11 years has held some of the Legislature's most influential education posts. She led House negotiations in 1999 for Gov. Jeb Bush's major education reform plan, was House education chairwoman, served on the Education Reform and Accountability Commission, and is now the Senate's education chairwoman.

So here is what Lynn said Monday by way of explaining why the Legislature should ask voters to raise starting pay for teachers: "I'd like to see teachers get an increase in salary as fast as they can. They need it, it's long overdue."

The extent to which her remark indicts her own leadership is apparently lost on Lynn. Then again, she is being asked to parrot a political line the governor is advancing in his own attempt to outsmart voters. Bush wants to repeal a 2002 amendment that requires schools to limit class sizes, so he's offering higher teacher salaries in what amounts to constitutional barter.

Neither Lynn nor the governor needs voters to require them to do right by teachers. They already have that authority in the budget. Instead of increasing teacher pay, though, they have spent the past five years handing out $10.7-billion in tax breaks mostly to people and businesses that can afford to live without them.

In the never-ending Jeb-for-president speculation game, the governor's White House prospects dipped and climbed amid the Terri Schiavo controversy. Many observers felt he solidified his social conservative credentials. "A prime contender in what is shaping up as a fight to represent a conservative wing that has proved increasingly dominant," a New York Times political writer dubbed him.

Former Republican strategist Dick Morris had a decidedly different take: "Gov. Jeb Bush better look for a new line of work. The right is mad at him for not standing in the hospice door. The center is furious at his butting in where most Americans, and Floridians, feel he has no right to be," Morris wrote in The Hill last week. "By taking a doctrinaire position and then backing off it, Jeb Bush has shown us that he would charge where others would tread with caution. Too bad. We might have needed him to stop Hillary."

Asked last week whether Republican U.S. Rep. Katherine Harris could unseat U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson, national Republican Party Chairman Ken Mehlman praised Harris effusively - but didn't say yes.

Mehlman's response, when asked the question in an interview with the [Tampa] Tribune:

"I don't know. I think it's very early in the process. I think Katherine Harris is a great public servant. I think she's somebody who's got star quality, she's smart, she has been a very effective legislator, she's got a great ability to raise resources, and I like her a lot personally."

Some Republicans worry that Harris' controversial role as Florida secretary of state in the disputed 2000 election would make it hard for her to win a statewide race against Nelson, a Democrat running for re-election next year.

The "star quality Mehlman referred to, however, makes it likely she'd win a GOP primary.

the Army Corps of Engineers, according to a memo from Gary Hardesty, the corps' Everglades manager in Washington, hasn't "built a single project during the first five years.... We've missed every milestone."