WEEKEND RECAP - A lot of posts over the weekend. Three stories were particularly notable, starting with the news released Friday (to minimize coverage) that:
-- Florida was one of only five states to experience both a decrease in household income and an increase in families in poverty from 2001 to 2002, the U.S. Census Bureau reported Friday. . . .The state's income declined at almost twice the national rate. "State has more poor, less income".
Florida saw a significant increase in its poverty rate and a decrease in median income, both of which may be due to the state's dependence on tourism, a University of Florida economist said Friday. "Florida reports a significant increase in poverty".
-- There was a must read piece about the mysterious Florida Council of 100 in the Tallahassee Democrat over the weekend: "Council may get scrutiny".
-- Also of interest was an editorial in the Sarasota Herald Tribune about the way developers think (after all "Jeb!" allegedly had a job as a "developer" before he deigned to run for Gov). In the article, "The Art of Ego Management," written by a real estate developer, we learn that they are : they are "ambitious egomaniacs" who are "unable to accept their limitations and are the last ones to realize when they have failed", and exhibit "persistence and denial" leading to "financial trouble", all the while surrounding themselves with "'yes' men rather than advisers who will help their boss by speaking the truth". Sounds dead on to us.
"SECRET CONTRIBUTIONS" -Florida legislators struggle to find enough money to pay for the state's needs while secretly filling up their own campaign coffers by taking advantage of a loophole in a decades-old law, several newspapers reported Sunday. "Loophole lets legislators take secret contributions".
PROMISES, PROMISES -The state government had pledged to match major contributions to state schools, but has fallen $105 million behind. "Universities' match funds lost in limbo".
PHONE RATES GOING UP, AND PUBLIC GETS TO SPEAK; BUT NO ONE WILL LISTEN - The public gets to speak out this week on local phone rates. Under a new state law, Verizon, Sprint and BellSouth are seeking increases of 30 to 90 percent over two years in local basic rates in exchange for corresponding cuts in access fees they charge long-distance carriers for instate calls. The law doesn't specify how those reductions will translate into savings for residential customers. "What's your call on local phone rates?"
OFF TOPIC - The alleged editorial board in Jax (some of the reporters and columnists are OK) embarasses itself yet again by publishing what appears to be an RNC blast fax as an "editorial", including the old GOPer calling the "Democratic" Party the "Democrat" Party. 5:48 AM
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