Notes For Saturday, December 07, 2002

All Quiet On The Media Front: We'll scan tomorrows editorial pages for mention of the incipient Bush scandals we have been discussing in these pages, particularly the following:

- Bush lobbied for a terrorist;
- Bush's Enron connection (State investment in Enron as it tanked/Enron exec contributions to Bush's campaign);
- Gambling was one of Bush's 'devious' plans" to upend the class size amendment;;
- Bush improperly asked the feds to delay auditing Florida's Retirement System until after the election";
- Bush misstated the state of the Florida economy, which is now in crisis
- Bush claims he did not know the plane he had been using in the campaign was owned by a crook"; and
- Bush failed to report airplane flights properly as in kind contribution (the matter is presumably before the FEC).

We don't expect to see much coverage of these issues tomorrow, if ever.

To help fill in the gap, we are working on developing separate pages on this website for each of these issues - otherwise the stories will evanesce into the ether. Pleae e-mail us if you have any ideas or suggestions in this regard. 8:52 AM [Go to current Florida Politics site (no popup ads)]

Gee, I Wonder Why The State's Coffers Are Empty? "Gulf Power Co. has donated $1 million for corporate scholarships, or vouchers, that will be used to send poor children to private and charter schools in the Panhandle. In exchange, the Pensacola-based utility will get a credit against corporate taxes it owes the state under the program enacted earlier this year and championed by Gov. Jeb Bush." ["Utility donates $1 million for vouchers in Panhandle". Article.]


8:44 AM [Go to current Florida Politics site (no popup ads)]

Brewing Controversy: Writers to the St Pete Times express their outrage over Bush's suggested cutbacks in higher education funding. 8:21 AM [Go to current Florida Politics site (no popup ads)]

More On Henderson Leaving: "Henderson's stormy run in State government to end" [Tampa Tribune.] "Bush team loses two controversial officials". [St Pete Times.] Henderson carried the water for Bush on the "Service First" initiative - Bush's legislative effort to strip already weak civil service protections from State employees, and move towards "merit" pay as the mode of compensation. The legislation for the most was passed by the Republican controlled Legislature. It has been largely meaningless (civil service - or more accurately career service - protection was horrible even before Service First passed), but has infuriated AFSCME, the largest State employees union. 8:15 AM [Go to current Florida Politics site (no popup ads)]