Probe shows it's time to update Sunshine Law

Whatever ignominious fate awaits Beverley Gallagher in criminal court, she ought to be fondly remembered as the creator of an irrefutable argument for strengthening open-records laws.

Turning blind eye to rising sea levels dangerous

Fear and foreboding hung over beaches and harbors and coastal communities last week as a certain place digested the inevitability of rising sea levels.

Online petition affecting death penalty decision

GoPetition.com summons voices out of the Internet void for any number of disparate causes.

Save Polaroid film (29,602 online signatures). Ban smoking in Ontario Apartments (good for one signature). Keep the Cleveland Browns in Cleveland (All seven Cleveland fans signed.) More pickles on McDonald's cheeseburgers (seven.) And the Quixotic ``I want to go out with WWE diva Mickie Laree James.'' Good for a single lonely signature.

Broward challenging Palm Beach for `Corruption County' title

Corruption County is taking heroic steps to repair an unscrupulous government-for-sale business model.

Lawmakers trapped by love, hate for gambling

Contradiction has colored Florida gambling policy since the 1940s, when scores of South Florida casinos openly flouted state law.

Affirmative action still works for some

Only two out of this fall's first year class of 128 med students are black -- a shocking reminder that the University of Florida College of Medicine has discarded the last remnants of affirmative action.

No surprise NCAA wanted hearing secret

Cheating? Our jocks hardly cheated, Florida State President T.K. Wetherell told the NCAA star chamber.

PSC has dark history of failure in scandals

This time, at least, no canaries died.

Four birds, necks broken, had been dumped at the doorway of a lawyer entangled in the scandal so outrageous it was supposed to put an end to abuses by Florida's utilities and their minions on the Public Service Commission.

Florida a leader in putting kids in jail for life

The latest measure of Florida's medieval mind set comes in at 77.

Juxtapose that number against the 109 juveniles in all of the United States who have been consigned to prison until death for crimes not involving murder or attempted murder.

Foster kids, prescriptions -- finally alarm

Gabriel Myers finally matters.

Too late for him -- the foster kid we addled with anti-depressants and anti-psychotics without quite knowing the effects drug cocktails might have on a 7-year-old.

Did power broker sabotage special favors?

Alan Mendelsohn was only trying to intercept the unsavory influence money that undermines good government. Then the feds took him down.

Blood center not out of place in scandal

Amid all the unsavory connections unearthed by the sting that snared a Broward County School Board member, a weirdly incongruent entity kept popping up.

Broward procurement needs policing

The rot begins with a hinky little passage deep in the Broward County Code.

The language, however bureaucratic, makes interesting reading for anyone wondering how local government came to be a subsidiary of political bag men.

Exploiting Sports Prodigies Now is ESPN

You might think of them as quaint symbols of traditional Americana: kids playing the game for their school, classmates, parents, coaches, their town, even for the old codgers who misremember their own exploits on those playing fields.

Legal `pay to play' allows money to beat out good policy

The inference hung over the public hearing like a banner. The banner said ``Pay To Play.''

The presumption that the Broward County Commission was kowtowing to a favorite lobbyist and campaign-money monger clearly rankled Josephus Eggelletion.

Corruption charges not shocking

The process seemed purposefully obtuse.

Construction bids were bundled and submitted as imprecise estimates, based on obscure criteria, to be negotiated (and massaged and inflated) long after contracts were let.

Complaints portray trio as veteran crooks

Something about that description of Beverly Gallagher slouching out of a Plantation restaurant with a plastic doggie bag stuffed with leftover food and a $2,000 kickback.

Despite the cost, lobbying is Meek, weak and bleak

One Meek is elected to represent Miami-Dade citizens in Congress. Yet the county commission feels compelled to spend taxpayer money to hire yet another Meek as a congressional lobbyist.

PSC `chitchat' offers miserable sense of déja vu

We've been here before. And before that. Until the very mention of the Public Service Commission ignites a miserable sense of déja` vu.