SCHIAVO The fight over the life of a comatose woman took a dramatic twist when a hospital began rehydrating her on orders from Gov. Jeb Bush -- a development experts say raises legal issues that could complicate the case even further.
Terri Schiavo, whose feeding tube was removed last week, began receiving liquids intravenously Tuesday after lawmakers rushed to pass a bill designed to save her life. A judge later rejected a request by her husband to overturn Bush's order.
Observers wondered whether the Legislature and the governor overstepped constitutional boundaries by ramming through legislation that overruled the courts.
"It presents a new legal issue that I've never heard of," said former Florida Supreme Court Justice Stephen Grimes.
Former Attorney General Bob Butterworth said the upcoming legal wrangling "could be fairly historic."
SCRIPPS -In an unusual joint session of the Florida Legislature, Gov. Jeb Bush and the president of Scripps Research Institute gave state lawmakers a heavy sales pitch Monday about the biomedical giant's high-priced expansion to Florida.
But it didn't take long for the special session to come crashing back to Earth amid a flurry of questions about the deal quietly crafted by the Republican governor. . . . Lawmakers complained that Bush was still trying to pull together critical details of the Scripps' deal just hours before he wanted it approved. . . . The Republican-led Senate, backed by House and Senate Democrats, has challenged Bush's promise that Scripps' arrival will create 6,500 jobs and generate about $1.65 billion in new income for Floridians during the next 15 years.
Scripps, which is not required to offer any up-front money for its move, has said state funding will help it hire 545 research scientists to staff the Florida division.
In the meantime, the Legislature is doing precisely what "Jeb!" wants it to do:
The push to make a deal with the Scripps Research Institute to channel $310 million of federal economic-stimulus funds into a biomedical-research facility in Palm Beach County shows no signs of slowing up.
House and Senate commerce committees Tuesday unanimously approved legislation creating a nine-member Scripps Florida Funding Corporation. The governor, House speaker and Senate president each will appoint three members, who will become the oversight body of the Scripps deal, responsible for writing the contract and approving the disbursement of funds.
The legislation is expected to be voted on Thursday by both chambers, but negotiations are ongoing on how to measure Scripps' performance, what it will pay back to state coffers, and how long it will be prohibited from moving its Florida operations to another state. "Committees OK Scripps board".
The Daytona Beach News Journal urges caution:
The state Legislature can't afford to fling money into a void with no guarantees. Even if the state weren't flat broke -- and it is -- taxpayers deserve better.
That's why lawmakers should say no to Gov. Jeb Bush's request for a $190 million "megafund" for unspecified economic-development incentives, and why it should proceed with caution on a plan to pay $310 million to bring a biomedical research institute to the state. "Florida's caution".
LOOKING FOR A CHURCH?The vote by the 800,000-member denomination is aimed at increasing pressure on the fast food chain to force its tomato suppliers to negotiate increased wages and improved working conditions for their workers. "Christian Church joins Taco Bell boycott over Florida tomato workers".
WHY ISN'T THE MEDIA ISN'T SCREAMING FROM THE ROOFTOPS ABOUT THIS - When he announced that Florida state budget director Donna Arduin was going to be analyzing California's budget crisis, Gov.-elect Arnold Schwarzenegger thanked Florida Gov. Jeb Bush for donating her services.
Actually, he should have thanked Florida's taxpayers. They're the ones who will be paying for Bush's thoughtful donation.
According to Florida Today, a newspaper based in Melbourne, Arduin will be on paid leave from Florida while tending to California's finances. She said she expected to finish her work by January, when the new budget must be submitted.
Florida Today said Arduin is paid $122,981 per year by the state of Florida, and she may be in California for several months. She is expected to return to Tallahassee for this week's special legislative session, in which Bush wants to appropriate a half-billion dollars to bankroll a private biomedical research facility and other economic-development efforts.
Friday, Bush's office referred questions about Arduin's compensation to a California Republican Party official working in Schwarzenegger's transition office. That official didn't know who was paying her. "Jeb's gift to Arnold".
GOOD NEWS - The new option for high school students to graduate after three years' worth of course credits is largely being ignored at high schools. "'Fast track' gets slowed down"
Education Commissioner Jim Horne claimed last week that "there is no doubt" that vouchers given to private schools "have added to the quality of education in Florida." That's quite a leap for a voucher system spoiled by financial corruption, devoid of state oversight and lacking academic standards.
Mr. Horne indulged in his wishful thinking while announcing "reforms" necessitated by the endless voucher failures uncovered this year by The Post and others. Corporate tax-credit vouchers have fallen so far short of the promises their ideologically motivated creators made that parents have been shunning them. Instead of a projected increase to 25,000 students from 15,000, the number declined. The Legislature, anticipating the increase that never came, had increased voucher money to $88 million from $50 million last year.
Even a more established and justifiable program -- McKay scholarships for disabled students -- has suffered abuse under Mr. Horne's inept leadership. . . . Even the bare reforms Mr. Horne espouses will do little good, given his proven inability and/or unwillingness to enforce the few rules in effect. Ending voucher programs that drain money and attention from public schools is the only meaningful reform.