LOTTERY SCAM -Education is worse off in Florida since the lottery began.
Education got almost 61 percent of Florida's general revenue in 1986-87, the year the voters approved the lottery. Today, it is getting only 53 percent.
The lottery provided the Legislature an excuse to take away from education. While lottery dollars came in the front door, the Legislature took away dollars out the back door.
Besides the loss of budget share, the Florida Lottery has a secondary bad effect - it has added to voter reluctance to support other ways of increasing school funding.
There is a widespread voter misperception that the lottery has somehow "solved" education in Florida.
Just the opposite. Lottery dollars represent only a small fraction of Florida's total school budget. But you wouldn't know it from the lottery's own advertising, which relentlessly talks about how much ticket sales "help education." Read "Don't be fooled, lottery is not helping education as it proclaims".
IGNORING THE CONSTITUTION -Many legal experts believe a law quickly passed by Florida lawmakers and signed by Gov. Jeb Bush to help keep a brain-damaged woman alive will be found unconstitutional.
But the argument over constitutionality isn't one that carries much weight in the Capitol halls, where the Republican governor and GOP-led Legislature who have sworn to uphold the Florida Constitution often pay scant attention to it.
The battle over Terri Schiavo's life is only the latest example, albeit one of the most blatant, of the executive and legislative branches of government ignoring the fact that the courts have separate powers.
''Ignore is too weak a word,'' said University of Pittsburgh law professor Alan Meisel. He said the Schiavo case was more an example of ``Going out of their way to flout the existence of the courts.'' "Case blurs lines of power".
TALLAHASSEE HOT THIS WEEK -A year before Election Day, Tallahassee is in for a busy week of political activity. "Political activities abound this week".
HE'LL COME AROUND -Florida's citrus and sugar industries aim to leverage the state's key role in President Bush's reelection bid as they shield themselves from a free trade pact Bush favors. "Sugar, citrus at odds with Bush".
GRAHAM - Even close friends and political allies don't know whether Sen. Bob Graham will run for reelection or hang it up. He'll reveal his intentions today. "Run or retire? Graham will tell plans today".