claimed there were new and compelling allegations of abuse or neglect that the state Department of Children and Families had to investigate.

documents released by DCF Friday reveal few fresh allegations that Schiavo was abused or neglected. Investigators wrote that there were "no indicators" of abuse in any of the cases.

the only allegation in the batch not heard before: A March 7 complaint that accused a nursing assistant at Schiavo's Pinellas Park hospice of using an "air freshener substance" in her bath water in July, which caused a rash. DCF investigators learned the substance was an aromatherapy oil that the assistant placed in a spray bottle, not in Schiavo's bath.

Another complaint, made on March 8, said Schiavo was moaning because she was in pain from recent dental work. But other complaints allege that Schiavo received no dental work for years.

Some people called to complain that the blinds in Schiavo's room weren't open wide enough.

Agents of the Florida Department of Law Enforcement [who] told police in Pinellas Park, the small town where Schiavo lies at Hospice House Woodside, on Thursday that they were on the way to take her to a hospital to resume her feeding.

For a brief period, local police, who have officers at the hospice to keep protesters out, prepared for what sources called "a showdown."

In the end, the squad from the FDLE and the Department of Children & Families backed down, apparently concerned about confronting local police outside the hospice.

"We told them that unless they had the judge with them when they came, they were not going to get in," said a source with the local police.

Timothy Goldfarb, chief executive officer of Shands HealthCare, the second-largest Medicaid provider in the state, opened Bush's news conference and spoke glowingly of the efforts by legislators and the governor to fix the broken Medicaid system.

But when asked afterward whether he thought the plan would actually work, Goldfarb said: "I'm not sure that it can." ...

Goldfarb declined to elaborate about his concern, instead choosing to commend the slow implementation process that will give the health-care community and the legislature years of study before the reforms go statewide.

Bush had the worst legislative session of his tenure this spring. Among a host of rebukes, the GOP-led Senate refused to expand vouchers into yet another program, as Bush wanted.

But a loss in court wouldn't necessarily hurt Bush in a future run for the presidency — at least in the GOP primaries where conservative candidates have tended to do better in recent decades.

He can claim credit for pushing through the nation's first statewide voucher program, as well as leading Florida to having the largest number of vouchers in the nation.

Bush has said repeatedly that he is not running for president in 2008 but has declined to speculate about 2012 or thereafter.

In 2002, the U.S. Supreme Court, ruling in an Ohio case, said vouchers going to religious schools did not violate the U.S. Constitution because tax dollars were not going directly to the schools. The money, the court ruled, went to the parents, who then decided where to send their children. There was an indirect benefit to the religious schools, but not a direct one.

But Florida's constitution, with the Blaine Amendment, goes further than the U.S. Constitution. It reads: "No revenue of the state shall ever be taken from the public treasury directly or indirectly in aid of any church, sect or religious denomination or in aid of any sectarian institution."

"The language is very plain and clear that no money should go to religious organizations directly or indirectly," said Elliot Mincberg, a spokesman for People for the American Way, which is co-counsel for plaintiffs in the Florida case. "The court ought to decide, as lower courts have, that Florida's constitution goes further than the federal constitution and that the value of the separation of church and state should remain."

Attorneys who are representing the state and parents whose children are using vouchers see things differently.

BellSouth's plan to feature state legislators in public service TV ads collapsed Thursday when the state Ethics Commission decided the ads would violate limits on gifts from lobbyists.

"Payola for the political class," said Ethics Commission member Peter Antonacci. "This is just a terrible, terrible idea."

Sen. Bill Nelson, fortunately, is fighting the ruse. But Sen. Mel Martinez's commitment is less reliable. He appeared ineffectual, if not deceptive, when he announced he had obtained guarantees against drilling off Florida in exchange for supporting the administration's plan to drill in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. In truth, those protections already existed. So far, Martinez seems more interested in pleasing the administration than serving his state.

For the past week - what would normally be considered a fairly slow post-session news week - we've gotten at least one news release a day each from Attorney General Charlie Crist and Chief Financial Officer Tom Gallagher.

Most of the faxed, hand-delivered or e-mailed statements take bold stands on such issues as protecting worshippers in their places of worship, banning oil drilling in the Gulf of Mexico and helping homeowners prevent uninsured losses during hurricanes.

Gallagher's state-paid staff fired off a news release to tell us what he said there. Gallagher noted, "Just like any parent in this state, my first priority is the safety of my family."

Stay tuned for more I'm-a parent-and-Crist-is-not quotes coming from the Gallagher camp as the campaign heats up. Gallagher added in his press release that anything the state can provide "to protect my wife and child" is welcome - another way to accentuate the difference between himself and the bachelor Crist.

Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla., expressed concern Thursday that Gov. Jeb Bush appears to be backsliding on a promise made in 2001 to protect Florida waters up to 285 miles off the coast of Tampa Bay.

Bush said Wednesday that he hopes to extend the state's protection into federal waters about 100 miles off the coast, according to the Associated Press.

"If you promise to protect up to 100 miles off the coast, that means the oil companies get the other 185 miles," said Dan McLaughlin, spokesman for Nelson's office.

Due to a communications glitch, the governor's office initially sent out word that the governor had signed the bill, which prompted Attorney General and gubernatorial candidate Charlie Crist to quickly send out a press release praising its passage and the strong message it sent to would-be looters.

Crist had not responded to the news that Bush had, in fact, vetoed the bill. A spokesperson said his feelings on the bill's intent had not changed, although she didn't know if Crist agreed with Bush's reasons for the veto. "He still supports the concept," said JoAnn Carrin.

As familiar as the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test is to 1.7 million schoolchildren, important aspects of the test remain cloaked in obscurity and secrecy.

Last month, we reported here about Jeb Bush's courtroom efforts to crush the life of an abused, poverty-stricken 6-year-old girl in his gubernatorial satrapy of Florida. Later, against all odds, a jury of ordinary citizens thwarted the dynast's brutal will. But as befits a scion of the ruling family, Bush is now brushing aside this interference from the rabble and pressing ahead with his plans to strip the little girl of all public assistance.

People we [Fox 13] talked to outside the courthouse in Pinellas County were surprised by the lack of accountability [of judges] and so was Governor Jeb Bush.

Doug Smith: Judges have unlimited vacation. Do you think that's a good idea?

Governor Jeb Bush: No, I don't. ...

Doug Smith: You get four weeks off.

Governor Bush: I don't get four weeks off.

Doug Smith: You don't take four weeks, but you get it.

Governor Bush: That's right. Four weeks is ridiculous as far as I'm concerned. I hope our judges don't take more than four weeks. ...

"Maybe at this time it would be prudent for us to request each of the districts and circuits to provide the legislature with an annual report on leave taken for vacation time." State Senator Victor Crist said.

Governor Jeb Bush agreed and told us, "The judiciary should work just as hard as the legislature and the executive branches. We all should work hard as public servants."

The judiciary should work just as hard as the legislature and the executive branches.

Once upon a time, a rich and powerful father gathered his four young sons and urged them to become rich and powerful, too. Take risks. Push yourselves. Influence others, he ordered in a bold voice.

Then he whispered, "And if you muck things up, a fairy godfather will always appear to make things better."

Those may not have been the precise words spoken, but this is no tall tale. It's the business model adopted long ago by George and Barbara Bush to propel sons George W., Jeb, Marvin and Neil into the high ranks of industry and, at least for two boys, politics.

What's intriguing is that, time and again, all four brothers have chosen to use a remarkably similar two-step business model.

STEP 1: Leverage the Bush family name and a small personal investment into really big money, always provided by others.

STEP 2: If any deal goes sour, exit early with personal fortune intact. Or rely on a bailout from one of Dad's fairy godfathers: some of the thousands of wealthy Republican fundraisers and longtime supporters of former President Bush.

A federal judge says Florida has continued to allow phosphorous-laden water to flow into a wildlife refuge.

In an unprecedented ruling, a Miami federal judge on Wednesday found state and federal government agencies have violated a court-approved agreement requiring lower pollution levels by the end of 2006 as part of the $8 billion Everglades cleanup.

South Florida water managers have repeatedly violated their pledges to clean up the Everglades, a federal judge ruled Wednesday.

The decision by U.S. District Judge Federico Moreno is at least a symbolic slap at the state's water managers, environmental leaders and Gov. Jeb Bush, who have proclaimed the Everglades their top ecological priority.

Environmental advocates embraced the deal Wednesday, but the enthusiasm was tempered becaused the protection extends only to state waters. Escalating oil costs are increasing congressional pressure to expand domestic drilling in federal waters.

Last month, U.S. Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-La., unveiled a proposal to redraw federal water maps so oil-rig-friendly Louisiana's seaward boundary is moved east to encompass 3-million acres of submerged lands off Florida's Panhandle. [See "Martinez, Big Oil's Guy In Florida".]

The state has enjoyed a presidential moratorium against any new drilling leases since 1995. But there still are nearly 100 in federal waters off Florida's shore.

"Twelve million is a small price to pay to guarantee there will be no drilling within state waters forever," said Mark Ferrulo, director of Florida Public Interest Research Group. "But I hope it doesn't create a false sense of security. We have 99 active (federal) leases off the Florida coast that could mean oil rigs just beyond state waters, within 11 miles."

The abortion opponents who surrounded Gov. Jeb Bush as he signed the "Women's Health and Safety Act" on Tuesday were evidence enough of the political motivations at play. Abortion clinic regulations, after all, have been struck down in the past by courts that found them to be a backdoor attempt at shutting clinics altogether.

Mischievous intent, though, doesn't always lead to bad law.

Stephanie Grutman, executive director of Planned Parenthood of Florida, said at least half of Florida's 65 clinics provide first- and second-trimester abortions, making them subject to the increased regulation.

"We're going to have to wait and see what impact whatever rules AHCA creates have on clinics," Grutman said. "But [officials] don't seem to be motivated by need as much as by ideology." ...

Vicki Saporta, president of the National Abortion Federation, which represents abortion providers, said Florida is among 34 states that now have what critics call "TRAP" laws, "targeted regulation of abortion providers."

"These are politically motivated, plain and simple," Saporta said.

Like squirrels hoarding acorns, during the recent session our state legislators foraged for extra cash in the funds set aside to manage and protect Florida's precious environmental lands. They carried away about $600 million intended to maintain natural lands, staff parks and preserve water supplies.

That's nothing new, of course. In good times and bad, lawmakers annually raid the accounts dedicated to protecting the environment. Every year, they find a need more pressing than sparing open acres from the bulldozer or staffing state parks.

But this time, they made it permanent. In two years, 90 percent of new money intended to help the environment and build affordable housing will go instead into the general pot for other things.

Florida Gov. Jeb Bush would be "awfully good" in the job of president, but the timing isn't right, his father and former President George H.W. Bush told CNN Tuesday.

Asked if he would want Jeb to run, Bush said, "Someday I would, yes."

In Miami-Dade County, expensive new touch-screen equipment has failed to restore voter confidence, primarily because of its inability to produce a paper record of each vote. This is the primary reason why the Miami-Dade County Commission should view favorably a recommendation by Supervisor of Elections Lester Sola to switch to optical-scan equipment.

Mr. Sola's analysis concludes that scanning equipment would be easier to use and would create an auditable paper record, two big pluses compared to electronic voting. County Manager George Burgess has received Mr. Sola's report and, after reviewing it, will make a recommendation to the commission.

he is determined to make abortions safer for women who terminate their pregnancies ...

Tougher standards for second-trimester abortions could force some clinics to close, opponents of the new law say.

Finding themselves short of qualified staff, Florida growers, gardeners and builders said they would welcome efforts to boost the labor market with workers from overseas as proposed in an ambitious immigration bill unveiled last month.

A judge has thrown out a lawsuit challenging the way Gov. Jeb Bush runs the state university system.

Circuit Judge Russell Cole dismissed the suit filed by Floridians for Constitutional Integrity but said the group, which includes a former Florida House speaker and a former university president, could rework the lawsuit and refile it within 45 days.

The lawsuit, filed in December in Tallahassee, said Bush and the Republican-controlled Legislature are running Florida universities in violation of Amendment 11 of the Florida Constitution.

The amendment, passed by voters in 2002, gave the Board of Governors authority over Florida's public universities.

Will FPL do better this year? FPL says it will. The public will have to take FPL's word for it.

It could have been different. Senate Bill 526, sponsored by Sen. Ron Klein, D-Delray Beach, called for a broad, public review of power distribution. It passed the Senate, but the House version died in committee. The Public Service Commission exists to set rates and establish service territories but has no power to scrutinize FPL's claims of hurricane preparedness. That is up to the company.

the perfect 2008 Republican candidate for you. He would be a governor, because recent history demonstrates the nearly insuperable advantage governors (Carter, Reagan, Clinton and Bush the Younger) have when it comes to running for president.

He would be from a populous state, because his success there statewide might win him 10 percent of the electoral-college votes he would need on Election Day.

He would have to be acceptable to social conservatives with resolute stands on social issues like abortion, because the Bush victory in 2004 demonstrated the importance of being able to bring evangelical churchgoers to the polls. But in manner and style he should be easygoing, in order to undercut the ability of Democrats and the mainstream media to paint him as a crazed extremist.

He should have particular appeal to Hispanics, because (again) the Bush 2004 victory was built in part on pulling Hispanic voters away from the Democratic Party. And he should probably have Southern credentials, because the GOP has to be able to rely on the votes of the solid South to prevail in the Electoral College.

Bush now downplays what had been the key element of his education reform plan.

For more than a decade, Jeb Bush has portrayed vouchers as a linchpin in an education revolution that would save Florida's schoolchildren from lackluster public schools. That legacy may not last past his final year in office. ...

"The voucher element is a small part of a broad strategy to create a climate for rising student achievement," Bush said.

That's a shift from years of Bush's evangelical zeal for vouchers.

Mel Martinez, who sits on the energy committee, unsuccessfully challenged Mrs. Landrieu's proposal. He did, however, vote in favor of the larger energy bill, which included the provision.

That raises an obvious question: If Mr. Martinez really opposes drilling operations off Florida's shores, as do most Floridians, why would he vote in favor of something that would encourage just the opposite?

Even Mr. Martinez acknowledged in a news release that he expects even more egregious offshore-drilling amendments to be introduced when the full Senate takes up the energy bill. How will he vote then?

Hypocrisy and trickery are nothing new to Congress or the Bush administration. And Florida's other senator, Republican Mel Martinez, has made it even easier to pull off this chicanery. Martinez says he cut a deal with Norton to keep oil rigs 100 miles off Florida in exchange for his vote to drill in the arctic. Tract 181 lies beyond the 100-mile line, so Martinez saved nothing except his reputation for being an easy dupe for the Bush administration.

Incredibly, the Sunshine State continues to keep the public in the dark.

The questions and answers to the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test remain a big secret. No wonder so many teachers, parents and students are frustrated.

Republicans say U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson will be one of their leading targets for elimination when he's up for reelection next year.

Yet, 18 months from the election, not a single Republican has stepped forward to challenge the freshman Democrat. The leading reason? U.S. Rep. Katherine Harris.

Republicans have even suggested Bush, who can't run for reelection as governor in 2006 because of term limits, and retired Army Gen. Tommy Franks, a part-time Tampa resident. Both have rejected such entreaties.

Then there are Florida House Speaker Allan Bense and U.S. Rep. Mark Foley, neither of whom have run statewide before but could have easy access to campaign cash. A spokesman for Bense didn't rule him out. Foley, who was a leading candidate for an open Senate seat in 2004 before bowing out to tend to an ailing father, suggested he's interested -- if the party wants him.

The Rev. O'Neal Dozier, pastor of the Worldwide Christian Center in Pompano Beach and a Republican, said Rice's decision to huddle with the pastors gave them a "mandate" to craft Africa policy.

Rod Smith, a former prosecutor with a courtroom swagger and a passing resemblance to Tommy Lee Jones, is standing in a lot of different living rooms these days trying to introduce himself to Florida Democrats.

"I'm a Baptist and I'm a Democrat. I'm sure I'm an imperfect example of both. But I'm not switching from neither," Smith quipped to 100 Democrats gathered in former Attorney General Bob Butterworth's living room in Hollywood.

"This race is going to be about who can win the whole state of Florida," he said, urging the crowd of mostly South Florida liberals to consider the importance of winning more rural Florida votes. "Throughout my life I have been able to convince the working families that the fight of the Democratic Party is the fight for their families. If we do that, we'll win again."

"He's very charismatic. And it's time the Democrats nominate somebody who's going to represent the mainstream," said Barney Bishop, president of Associated Industries of Florida. "He's a very strong general election candidate. His challenge is going to be getting past the left wing voters in the Democratic primary."

When we use the CPI to determine graduation rates in our five focus states, we find that North Carolina’s graduation rate is 64.6%, Florida’s is 57.4%, Mississippi’s is 60.7%, Louisiana’s is 66.4%, and Georgia’s is 57.6%; all significantly lower than the officially reported rates. ["The CPI method is based on the combined average success of groups of students moving from ninth grade to tenth grade, from tenth grade to the eleventh grade, from eleventh grade to twelfth grade, and from twelfth grade to graduation, at the district and state level. This method allows comparisons across years, districts, and states. It is very useful for determining which subgroups experience the greatest difficulty graduating from high school and whether progress in improving high school completion rates is being achieved."]

The last time Florida had U.S. senators from both parties, Republican Connie Mack and Democrat Bob Graham worked closely and cooperatively in nominating and confirming Floridians to the federal bench. We should soon see how well that tradition holds with Mel Martinez and Bill Nelson.

Members of Florida's Federal Judicial Nominating Commission, which recommends judicial candidates, recently received a letter signed by Gov. Jeb Bush and the two senior members of the state congressional delegation, Reps. C.W. "Bill" Young and Clay Shaw.

The letter informed them that Martinez would soon "reconstitute" the commission, for which Nelson used to have a say in appointing members. Commission members are supposed to direct all suggestions and questions to Martinez's state policy director, Nilda Pedrosa (formerly of the State Department and a leader of the Miami chapter of the conservative Federalist Society) or state director Matthew Hunter (formerly one of Karl Rove's top aides).

My Republican friends ask: Were you in favor of this back when the Democrats were in charge? Yes. Besides, my Republican friends tell me that they win elections not because of rigged districts, but because voters like their conservative message better. So they have nothing to fear.

Democrat, Republican, I don't care. What I do care about is fixing it so that Florida legislators can't vote to pollute the environment, abolish the state university system, gut insurance coverage, do favors for donors, double everybody's phone bill, and then come home and sail to automatic re-election - and then, worst of all, claim it's some kind of seal of approval.