Whenever the Legislature convenes a new session, there is anticipation about what will be accomplished. Just as predictably when the session ends, there is disappointment about what was left undone. The 2008 Legislature was no different. Lawmakers faced the daunting task of setting state priorities amid a sinking economy, a $5 billion revenue shortfall and a bruising housing market.
REJECT UDB MOVE Will the majority of Miami-Dade County commissioners ever get it? Will they realize that they are elected stewards of the county's natural resources, meaning they should conserve those resources? On Tuesday, commissioners overrode County Mayor Carlos Alvarez's veto of two projects slated to be built outside the Urban Development Boundary. This was the last chance for commissioners to get in sync with residents for whom new development means more traffic, crowded schools and police...
The U.S. immigration system has too little oversight and too much impunity. Nowhere is this more evident than in cases where people have died while in U.S. immigration custody. Secrecy is one of the worst aspects of the immigration-detention system. It explains why little is known about medical abuses and deaths in Immigration and Customs En forcement jails and prisons.
The political crisis in Bolivia worsened last weekend when voters in the country's wealthiest region defied President Evo Morales and the violence led by pro-Morales thugs to vote overwhelmingly for autonomy from the central government. This is a clear setback for Mr. Morales, who has waged a nonstop campaign of vilification against opponents who don't go along with his plans for a radical transformation of the country. With Bolivia rapidly dissolving into warring camps, Mr. Morales is running out...
At first, the world held its breath to see if the military junta ruling Myanmar was going to bow to the realities of the tragedy that struck there Saturday and ask for outside help -- or just sit tight and remain isolated behind its iron veil, ignoring the immense suffering of its people in the wake of Cyclone Nargis.
This makes no sense, no sense at all. The increasingly successful Tri-Rail commuter service is on the verge of being sidetracked for lack of a dedicated funding (blame the Legislature) and a threat by Palm Beach County to cut its train appropriation by almost half next year.
U.S. workers were the losers when the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act recently died in the Senate. The measure would have restored a common-sense deadline al lowing employees to sue for pay discrimination whenever they become aware of it. The bill was named for a woman who lost her discrimination claim last year when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that she had not filed her lawsuit in time.
Ask anyone with a credit card about the abusive practices of lenders and you're likely to hear a torrent of complaints about unfair late fees, inexplicable interest-rate increases, misleading terms, confusing rules and much more. Last week, the Federal Reserve Board finally took steps to crack down on the credit-card industry, but banks signaled immediately that they're going to put up a fight. The Fed must hold its ground. Consumers need a break now more than ever.
There are at least two approaches the United States can take to help end the global food crisis. We can send food aid directly to the world's starving populations. Or, we can send cash and enough other support to help poor countries buy the local foods they need and develop the ability to help themselves.
As a practical matter, it is impossible for this or any other newspaper to set the record straight every time the Cuban government tells a whopper. Orchestrating lies is the specialty of police states. Anyone who has ever listened to Radio Havana or watched a Cuban TV ''news'' program knows that Cuban leaders lie to their own people and lie to the outside world. They even lie to each other. But sometimes the lie is so blatant, so malign, so far removed from the painful reality of life in Cuba that...
The marches and demonstrations around the country last week by immigration-reform advocates are a useful, even necessary, reminder that this issue remains at the top of the agenda of the nation's unfinished business. The collapse of the effort to enact comprehensive reform last year was a major disappointment, but that failure didn't make the problem go away. On the contrary, it makes the search for a reasonable solution all the more urgent.
CAMPUS SHOOTING It is a sign of our violent times in a linked-up world. A man with a gun fires off two shots at an early-morning party in Boca Raton and sets in motion a series of events that result in a 12-hour shutdown of Florida Atlantic University. In the end, no one was seriously injured, police took a suspect into custody, and FAU learned valuable lessons about its ability to handle a life-threatening emergency. It gets passing grades -- May 2.
The U.S. House did exactly the right thing last week by approving legislation to block new Medicaid rules that will have devastating consequences. The rules will cut critical services to the nation's neediest children and disabled people. This appears to be a backdoor way of cutting Medicaid benefits and expenses without Congressional approval.
The case of the $10-million congressional appropriation for a road in Florida that mysteriously found its way into a transportation funding bill gets curiouser and curiouser. Nearly three years after the bill was enacted, Rep. Don Young, R-Alaska, has finally been shamed into explaining his role in the process, but his speech on the floor of the House this week was a self-serving, exculpatory declaration that raises more questions than it answers.
It is a sign of our violent times in a linked-up world. A man with a gun fires off two shots at an early-morning party in Boca Raton and sets in motion a series of events that result in a 12-hour shutdown of Florida Atlantic University. In the end, no one was seriously injured, police took a suspect into custody, and FAU learned valuable lessons about its ability to handle a life-threatening emergency. It gets passing grades.
