Attorney General Charlie Crist should know better. As the state's chief law enforcement officer he has a responsibility to keep his electioneering for governor out of his office's legal judgments. But Crist has sought to make political hay out of the highly charged debate over press access to the evidentiary photos in the Carlie Brucia murder case. Acting on a plea by Brucia's family, Crist tried mightily to seal those photos. While his actions were emotionally appealing, they were not legally sound.

Wal-Mart has apologized to a black man who was accused of trying to pass a bad check as he was buying thousands of dollars in holiday gift cards for his company's employees.

Employees of a Wal-Mart Supercenter called deputies last week to apprehend Reginald Pitts after he handed over a $13,600 check to pay for 520 gift cards that were to be given to employees at GAF Materials Corp., a roofing materials manufacturer where Pitts is a human resources manager.

The company, which had $1.6 billion in revenue last year, had been spending about $50,000 a year on Wal-Mart gift cards and never had a problem when it sent another employee -- a white, female administrator who according to The St. Petersburg Times was on vacation that day -- to pick them up.

"I keep going over and over the incident in my mind," Pitts told The St. Petersburg Times. "I cannot come up with any possible reason why I was treated like this except that I am black."

[W]hile Bush and Republican legislators have boasted about cutting taxes in Tallahassee, they have strapped a hefty education bill on the backs of homeowners across the state.

What's more, the growing reliance on local property taxes to pay for a state responsibility adds a disquieting element to the school-funding equation.

A first-year biology text under consideration for Broward and Miami-Dade public schools is sparking debate over the role of religious faith in science class.

A biology and society unit in Biology: The Dynamics of Life includes a short passage about the belief that a supreme being created life on Earth.

The book brings to South Florida the national debate over intelligent design, which has become more than a skirmish in the national culture war. Intelligent design is the belief that life and the universe are too complex to have been created without direction from an intelligent being. The idea calls into question the scientific theory of evolution.

Harris, a Sarasota Republican running for U.S. Senate, said this week that she sent letters making the offer to employees of MZM Inc. after some said anonymously that they were pressured to give money, which would violate federal campaign finance laws. MZM is being investigated for its role in a housing deal with former Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham, R-Calif.

Harris, who sits on the House Homeland Security Committee, got $10,000 from the MZM political action committee and another $40,000 from MZM employees, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, which tracks campaign money.

"I sent them letters - if they felt any pressure to please let me know," she said. "No one wrote me."

Government lawyers released Federal Emergency Management Agency documents Friday - including memos sent to the White House - that they had tried to keep secret for more than a year.

Although portions of the documents were removed, they show that FEMA decided early on to give Florida a significant increase in the usual reimbursement costs of a disaster.

The documents also showed that the agency was mobilizing for the disaster and allocating money to Florida before the first of four deadly hurricanes struck the state on Aug. 13, 2004. ...

Also released Friday were details of contracts with two companies that hire, train and deploy housing inspectors that collect data for FEMA after disasters. The two contracts, for $150 million each, were awarded in 2001 to Partnership for Response and Recovery and Parsons Brinckerhoff.

Palm Beach County school officials decided not to use a controversial state-approved biology textbook that includes a passage acknowledging the religious belief that "the complex structures and processes of life could not have formed without some guiding intelligence." They'll use one of three other approved books instead.

which regulates rates for phone and electric service, is an industry-friendly board plagued by ethical conflicts.

Utility executives and lobbyists have wined and dined regulators, received private meetings before public hearings, recruited commissioners with fat contracts and even dated members of the board.

It wasn't supposed to be this way. In 1978, the Legislature tried to minimize the industry's influence by making the Public Service Commission a five-member appointed board no longer subject to elections and the contributions they require.

Instead, the reform has created a board that has become too cozy with industry and provides little oversight or accountability.

For years, consumers and local elected officials alike have questioned the hardiness of Florida's power grid. And for good reason.

In some communities, the lights flicker at whim. When a major storm hits, as happened last year in Central Florida and this year in South Florida, power outages can last for weeks. And all the while, power bills keep getting bigger and bigger. What gives?

Florida's Public Service Commission, which regulates investor-owned utilities in the state, is about to find out. Commission members agreed this week to examine whether utilities are adequately prepared to handle hurricanes and other major weather events. It's about time.

Extended power outages are more than a mere inconvenience. They can hobble entire economies.

Orlando lawyer Bill Sublette has been named the new chairman of No Casinos Inc., an anti-gambling political committee.

Sublette, a former Republican state legislator, will succeed state Rep. Randy Johnson, R-Celebration, who has led No Casinos' anti-slot machine effort for more than a year but resigned because he's now a candidate for state chief financial officer.

"I don't want to see Florida become Las Vegas," Sublette said Thursday. "From an economic perspective, I believe Florida has made its mark as a family tourist destination. And I don't think gambling tourism is what we want to become known for."

Sublette said he plans to be in Tallahassee next week, when state lawmakers will convene a five-day special session held in part to set the rules for voter-approved slot machines in Broward County.

Gov. Jeb Bush and Republican legislative leaders are putting on hold a plan to ask voters to reconsider allowing Las Vegas-style slot machines in Broward County.

The GOP leaders still support a strategy crafted by gambling foes to ask voters in November 2006 to repeal the 2004 citizen initiative authorizing slot machines at Broward's pari-mutuel sites.

But rather than trying to persuade the Legislature during next week's special session to approve a repeal plan that would put the issue back on the ballot, Republican officials say it's better to hold off on that debate until spring.

Bush, Senate President Tom Lee and House Speaker Allan Bense say they have an obligation to first implement the slots mandate. And they will try to take on that task, they insist, when legislators meet in Tallahassee for next week's five-day special session

is not a big, bloated, unresponsive government. The Annual Workforce Report used to run two little lists of the bottom 10 states, in terms of state personnel costs per citizen and ratio of state employees to total population. Florida ranked 48th in one and 50th in the other - I forget which, because Bush quit compiling those statistics, which didn't support the Republican credo that government is always bloated.

Bense, Rubio and Sansom say putting a trap door under every agency would focus the attention of department heads and legislators on constant improvement.

But it would also be a bonanza for lobbyists, who could slip little provisos into reauthorization bills. If, say, the homebuilders or insurance agents or beer distributors didn't like some enforcement action taken by agencies, their lobbyists could get legislators to redraw the timetable and re-review those agencies every year.