The Florida Elections Commission approved settlements Thursday with a Fort Lauderdale legislator, a former Oakland Park city commissioner and a group that pushed the 2004 amendment that repealed a constitutional requirement to build a bullet train across Florida.

The commission also formally agreed to a proposal to drop all charges against Bill McBride, the Democratic nominee for governor who lost to Gov. Jeb Bush in 2002, as well as a political action group affiliated with the Florida Education Association that bankrolled TV ads that touted McBride. The Republican Party of Florida had asserted the ads amounted to an illegal contribution.

Democrat Jim Davis is tied with Republican Tom Gallagher in a hypothetical match-up for Election 2006. Both Davis and Gallagher earn 40% of the vote.

When Davis is matched against Charley [sic] Crist, he leads the Republican 41% to 38%. In January, Rasmussen Reports will begin polling on the Republican Primary between Crist and Gallagher.

November 15, 2005--Florida Senator Bill Nelson (D) leads Republican Congresswoman Katherine Harris by 17 percentage points in his bid for re-election.

The latest Rasmussen Reports survey finds Nelson attracting 53% of the vote while Harris earns just 36%. Nelson, a Democrat in a “Red State,” was long considered a potentially vulnerable incumbent for the 2006 cycle.

Just 67% of Republicans say they would vote for Harris at this time. Eighty-one percent (81%) of Democrats are for Nelson. Nelson leads by 19 points among women and by 14 points among men.

Fifty-two percent (52%) of Florida voters have a favorable opinion of Nelson while 23% hold an unfavorable view. For Harris, the numbers are 37% favorable and 42% unfavorable.

Hurricane season may be ending but Florida's beaches are still vulnerable to a different threat. Gov. Jeb Bush and a handful of malleable representatives in Congress were ready last week to shrink the state's buffer against offshore oil rigs. They were foiled in a dramatic turnaround when protectors of the coast prevailed - at least for a while. Now that bipartisan group needs to get ready to fight off the next attempt.

Rep. Jim Davis, D-Tampa, and a coalition of House Republicans and Democrats helped defeat a budget bill that would have opened the eastern Gulf of Mexico off Florida and the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska to drilling. Their victory proved that Bush and Rep. Connie Mack, R-Naples, capitulated too quickly.

A growing majority of Florida voters disapprove of the job President Bush is doing, a poll shows.

Most also say they wouldn't likely vote for his brother, Gov. Jeb Bush, if he seeks the presidency in 2008.

This additional money is not precisely fun money and needs to be handled with extreme caution, since it can never be counted on to recur year after year.

This year, for example, the extra billions arrived courtesy of an exceptionally strong real-estate market, which caused a hearty boost in documentary stamp taxes and intangibles taxes on mortgages. But booms don't last forever; even in Florida, they come and go.

Likewise sales tax revenues have also shot up, but largely because of massive reconstruction efforts following the hurricanes this year and last. We cannot hope for another windfall of this origin.

"It's purely a business decision. Ninety percent of those I do business with are Republicans," he said. "Opportunities that have come to my [construction] firm have been brought by Republicans."

- SPT: "Gov. Jeb Bush hailed an increase in Florida's high school graduation rate as evidence of progress Wednesday, but a Democratic lawmaker called it 'spin' to hide a last-place ranking among the 50 states." "Florida high school graduation statistics hailed and deplored".

- SS: "State: County's high school graduate rate inching up".

- NDN: No mention of GOoPer "spin" or Florida's last place ranking, but the piece does refer to a "U.S. government-run National Center for Education Statistics" (NCES) report, noting that "the NCES report hardly vindicated Florida's education leaders. The results put Florida's graduation rate in 2003-04 — the most recent data available — among the lowest nationwide, 41st among 50 states and Washington, D.C." "Collier's graduation rate continues upward climb".

- DBNJ: "Gov. Jeb Bush touted the new state statistics Wednesday in Tallahassee as evidence Florida students are performing better than ever, but that claim drew immediate criticism from a leading Democratic lawmaker who denounced it as 'spin.'" "State claims graduation rates on the rise".

- NP: "Lee County graduation rates drop to '99 levels".

- MH: "Those numbers, released Wednesday by the Florida Department of Education, include students who receive general equivalency diplomas and special-education diplomas, which some critics say inflate Florida's numbers unfairly. 'In a level playing field, Florida has the worst graduation rate,' said Rep. Dan Gelber, D-Miami Beach. 'It was horrible when last year and this year we were ranked dead last for the first time in history.'" "Graduation rate up in Broward, down in Dade".

- TD: "Legislative Democrats immediately accused Gov. Jeb Bush and Education Commissioner John Winn of trying to 'spin' the data, which sharply contradicted a study two weeks ago that ranked Florida last in the nation in graduation rates." "Bush, DOE assert high-school grad rates on the rise".

The state just projected a $3.2 billion windfall in sales-tax receipts. Peeling off just a small portion of that money to boost the Florida Highway Patrol's manpower would be an excellent investment to save lives.

From the Herald-Tribune: "You want people to perceive you're running a brilliant campaign and everything's grand," GOP consultant Rick Wilson told our Tallahassee bureau yesterday. "Obviously that's not the impression people are getting."

From Roll Call, a Washington D.C. newspaper: "She's in trouble," said David Johnson, a GOP consultant. He added that her poll numbers among Republicans are starting to slide now. "That shows she's beginning to bleed among Republicans."

From The Miami Herald: ''The bottom line is, Katherine Harris's support is so low that she is down to just about the bottom of what you'd expect a Republican to get in Florida,'' said Clay Richards, the assistant director for the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute.

Democrat U.S. Rep. Jim Davis of Tampa appears to have gained ground and is in a dead heat with both Crist and Gallagher if the general election were held today.

Jeb Bush's office claimed for the past two weeks that it did not possess a proposal to restructure the McKay voucher program, when in fact Bush's top education aide had solicited the proposal in late September and received it from the Department of Revenue days later.

Asked why [Bush spokeswoman Alia] Faraj would say that [Bush's Deputy Chief of Staff Patricia] Levesque had told her there was no such proposal when Levesque had solicited one and received it via e-mail on Oct. 5, Levesque declined to answer and referred the question to Faraj.

The first civil rights case to reach the Supreme Court under new Chief Justice John Roberts has ended deplorably. Although the court did not formally uphold Florida's lifetime voting ban on former felons, its refusal to hear the appeal of Johnson vs. Bush has the same effect for the foreseeable future. It is disheartening that even among the six liberal and moderate justices there were not the four votes to grant review or so much as one dissent.

With an estimated 600,000 people denied the vote no matter how fully they paid their debts to society or how honorably they have lived thereafter, the Florida situation is the nation's largest and most indefensible denial of civil rights since a Congress aroused by Alabama's brutality to demonstrators at the Selma bridge passed the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

It is disingenuous for Gov. Jeb Bush to assert that he and the Pardon Board have a "fair process" for granting dispensations. If it were fair in fact as well as fancy, there would not be some 9,600 people still on the waiting list and they would not have to spend so many years there. The much greater scandal is the many tens of thousands who never apply because they do not know that they can or have heard that it is futile. Where 14 states once maintained lifetime bans, there are now only Florida, Kentucky and Virginia.

Economists cited several reasons for a continued surge of cash flowing into state coffers, including Florida's red-hot real estate market, the rebuilding that will follow another year's worth of hurricanes, and even more taxes earned off higher insurance premiums that are rising in the wake of the storms.

"It's indicative of the great business climate and the stability that we've produced here," Lt. Gov. Toni Jennings said. "Even with the hurricanes this year, we've continued to have positive job growth."

56 percent of Florida Democrats are undecided on who should get their party's nomination, with 25 percent backing U.S. Rep. Jim Davis and 15 percent backing State Sen. Rod Smith.

Among Republicans, 38 percent pick Chief Financial Officer Tom Gallagher, while 36 percent pick State Attorney General Charlie Crist, a tie, with 24 percent undecided.

In possible general election matchups:
Davis gets 40 percent to 39 percent for Crist, a statistical tie;
Davis gets 41 percent to 38 percent for Gallagher;
Crist beats Smith 41 - 36 percent;
Gallagher beats Smith 41 - 36 percent.

The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday upheld Florida's system of denying voting rights to felons -- a practice condemned by civil-liberties groups for falling heavily on blacks and affecting more than 600,000 people even after their sentences were served.

The top court declined to hear Johnson v. Bush, leaving intact a lower-court ruling that Florida's system does not violate the U.S. Constitution or the 1965 Voting Rights Act. ...

But civil libertarians said the law affects blacks disproportionately and is one of the most restrictive in the nation.

"It's very disappointing the Supreme Court refused to hear the case of 613,000 citizens of Florida who have fully served their criminal sentences and are still denied their right to vote," said Catherine Weiss of the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University and the lead attorney in the case. "Their stories are heartbreaking."

"We have a good system that works," said Alia Faraj, spokeswoman for Gov. Jeb Bush. "Anybody who decides to commit a crime risks losing their civil rights."

[T]he appointment this week of Dennis Yecke as the deputy secretary of professional regulation in the Department of Business and Professional Regulation has a few tongues wagging. Yecke, now making $107,000 a year, is the husband of Cheri Yecke, who was named Florida's K-12 chancellor in August at a salary of $152,000.

A spokesman for Gov. Jeb Bush, however, said there was no pressure to hire Dennis Yecke from that office, and in fact, once Bush appoints a secretary of an agency, he leaves the hiring decisions alone. The spokesman defended the hiring anyway, saying Dennis Yecke seemed very qualified for the position.

In the six months since the Legislature ended its annual session, many low-income Floridians faced utility and insurance rate increases. They endured two hurricanes (on top of last year's record season). Their housing and medical costs are at an all-time high. Floridians need help.

And what does the Legislature, called back into special session by Gov. Jeb Bush, have for them?

Slot machines and restrictions on health care.

Next year, the state is scheduled for a routine review of science standards, and House Education Chairman Dennis Baxley calls it "a healthy time to have discussions of that nature." Education commissioner John Winn has refused to discuss the possibilities, other than to release a cryptic statement suggesting current standards "were written in a way that is neither inclusive nor exclusive to any one theory of human origin." Winn's new K-12 chancellor, Cheri Yecke, says she brings no agenda to change the curriculum but told a reporter she believes "God created heavens and the earth."

These are not encouraging signs. Eight decades after the Scopes "monkey" trial, Christian conservatives are still pushing to treat religion as though it were a competing scientific theory. A federal judge is expected to rule soon on a Dover, Pa., school policy that requires instruction in intelligent design. But Dover voters didn't wait for his ruling. In Tuesday's elections, they gave the boot to eight of the nine School Board members who want intelligent design taught in ninth-grade science classes.

Meanwhile, the Kansas State Education Board has decided that science no longer need limit itself to natural explanations. The educator in charge of Florida K-12 schools says she believes in creationism. President Bush says that "both sides ought to be properly taught." And some Florida science teachers are apparently doing so already.

"The fact that you've got 40-percent turnover tells me that 60 percent can't find another job," said Smith. The Gainesville Democrat, a former state attorney whose district includes the University of Florida and state prisons, realized how that might sound - and added that "dedication" also is another reason that people stay in the relatively low-paying, high-stress jobs of guarding young thugs.

and Republican legislative leaders tried to defeat the class-size amendment in 2002, the public didn't trust their scare tactics. A new study designed to pave the way for repeal of the amendment next year does nothing to improve that trust.

The study by the Council for Education Policy, which shills for Gov. Bush, says smaller classes will hurt education because the state will have to hire unqualified teachers for all those new classes. Yet the state has given away billions in tax "relief" to the wealthiest residents.

We can't afford educating kids, but we can afford cutting checks to millionaires in beachfront mansions.

Jeb Bush would beat on his thumb with a ball-peen hammer before raising taxes to reduce classroom crowding. But he is fine with raising taxes to subsidize investors who flip beachfront condos.

Bush says shrinking class sizes would "blot out the sun."

When a Category 4 or 5 hurricane hits Miami-Dade, Citizens Property will be a nuclear winter. ...

What do you think they'll say about the mastermind behind all this -- gubernatorial candidate Tom Gallagher.

While billing customers for hurricane cleanup and netting record profits, Florida Power & Light scrimped on tree-trimming, pole inspections and other basic maintenance -- leaving South Florida's power grid more vulnerable to widespread blackouts.

Florida's largest utility company slashed operating and maintenance costs per customer by 32 percent between 1991 and 2001. In the past three years, the company shaved about 4.5 percent more from those costs, company records show.

FPL insists that its cost-cutting -- which has helped stock prices soar in recent years -- has not pinched the reliability of its service.

Yet when Hurricane Wilma swept the region three weeks ago, its winds plunging 3.2 million FPL customers into darkness, overgrown trees and rotting poles played a crucial role in the record-setting outage, utility workers say.

20 out-of-state utility workers interviewed by The Herald in Miami-Dade and Broward counties say they were not surprised by the damage because overgrown trees were dangerously close to power lines and some utility poles were so rotted they were easily pierced by a screwdriver.

"We have the greatest governor in the history of Florida," Crist said. "And the greatest governor in the country."

For decades the state's governors and legislative leaders have avidly encouraged reckless coastal growth, beholden as they've been to mega-developers, road builders, banks and others getting rich from cramming more people into Florida.

Now our lawmakers sit around, scrounging for somebody to blame for the havoc caused by Hurricane Wilma. What boneheads. ...

I love the comments from Sen. Alex Díaz de la Portilla of Miami and Sen. Paula Dockery of Lakeland. They say Floridians need to take more personal responsibility for hurricane preparation.

Are you slackers listening? Next time a tropical storm is brewing, rush out and buy your 72 hours worth of food, ice and D batteries. You'll be just fine after the storm hits.