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Study gives Florida C-plus for reading, math test standards.
Sun-Sentinel, 13 May 2008
TALLAHASSEE - Florida rated a C-plus for difficulty on reading and math tests used to meet requirements of the federal No Child Left Behind Act last year, a study released Monday showed.
Florida's score was good enough for a 12th-place tie in the national study by Stanford University's Hoover Institution, a well-funded conservative think tank. The report rated proficiency standards for fourth- and eighth-grade tests for what the federal government calls the Nation's Report Card, which compares achievement levels among states.
No Child Left Behind requires all students to be proficient in math and reading by 2014, but lets each state set its own standards for measuring annual progress. State education officials had no immediate comment on the study.
>> Read more...
HBO Recounts The 2000 Election.
Tampa Bay Online, 12 May 2008
It's not a horror movie, although it is Hollywood spin. But to many Floridians, HBO's homage to the 2000 presidential vote-counting debacle will be a cringe-inducing look back at democracy in action in their home state - and it might prompt questions on whether, in this election year, it could happen again.
The flick, debuting May 25, is billed as a behind-the-scenes ride inside the controversial recount that landed George W. Bush in the White House over Al Gore.
The movie opens with voters on Election Day 2000 confused about which hole to punch because of the ballot's two-page "butterfly" design. The plot, mixing fact with fiction, winds through 36 days of drama, ending with the Supreme Court stopping the recount.
Editor's Note -- Is HBO a glutton for punishment or merely a bad business decision maker? Dead horses don't fetch much beyond glue fixins.
>> Read more...
Cuban judo athlete reported missing.
Miami Herald, 12 May 2008
One of the four Cuban women who won gold medals at the Pan American Judo Championships last week in Miami left the contingent sometime Sunday afternoon, according to Team USA President Jose Rodriguez.
Yurisel Laborde, a gold-medal winner at the Pan American Championships and a gold-medal favorite in the Beijing Olympics this summer, left the Cuban delegation and her whereabouts were not publicly known, according to a judo official.
It's unclear if she will rejoin teammates who are scheduled to fly back to Havana on Monday afternoon.
Editor's Note -- Update: Cuban athlete still missing as her team heads home. The Cuban judo team left Miami without a star performer who is in hiding and believed to be preparing to request political asylum. One wonders how long it will take for Cuban refugees to cheer their adopted country: Fans cheer for Cuba on final day.
>> Read more...
Florida's budget woes could worsen next year.
Tallahassee Democrat, 12 May 2008
Forced to cut state spending by more than $4 billion, legislators called this the worst budget year ever.
But as they assemble for the new term next fall, they may look back on their just-concluded 2008 session as the good old days.
As lawmakers were passing the pared-down $66.2 billion state spending plan that kicks in July 1 and packing up to go home early this month, the House and Senate got more dismal numbers. Revenue collections for March, the most recent month with complete data, fell $54 million short of expectations and the sales tax — the mainstay of the state treasury — was the biggest loser.
>> Read more...
GOP leaders renew efforts to get Hispanic votes.
Orlando Sentinel, 11 May 2008
ORLANDO - Hispanic voters will play a crucial role in determining the next president and will be a key to which party will be in power well beyond November, Republican leaders said Saturday at a state party conference.
"We are going to be more important than ever. The Hispanic vote of this nation is going to be more energized, it's going to be more numerous and it's going to be more important than ever before," U.S. Sen. Mel Martinez said.
While last year's debate over an immigration bill that eventually failed might have hurt Republicans with Hispanic voters, Martinez, R-Fla., pointed out that likely Republican presidential nominee Sen. John McCain supported the measure providing illegal immigrants a path to citizenship.
>> Read more...
Bill lifts state growers' hopes.
Sarasota Herald-Tribune, 11 May 2008
WASHINGTON — For decades, Florida citrus growers, strawberry farmers and other specialty crop producers had little interest in the farm bill that Congress passes every five years.
As long as growers of the big five subsidy crops -- corn, wheat, cotton, rice and soybeans -- did not receive subsidies for growing fruits and vegetables, specialty crop growers stayed quiet on perennial agriculture legislation.
Now fruit and vegetable farmers from Maine blueberry growers to California wine grape growers have plenty to cheer: $2.5 billion for specialty crop research and promotion and school nutrition programs. The money is part of the five-year $300 billion farm bill that congressional negotiators finished last Thursday and could face House and Senate votes as early as this week.
Editor's Note -- Florida farmers have taken the bite of the apple. They are now wards of the state.
>> Read more...
Treasure All Ours, Spain Says.
Tampa Bay Online, 9 May 2008
TAMPA - Spain claims it has evidence that the sunken treasure recovered last year by Tampa-based Odyssey Marine Exploration was taken from a 19th century Spanish warship without consent of the Spanish government, according to papers filed Thursday in U.S. District Court in Tampa.
Spain said the sunken treasure, 17 tons of colonial-era coins worth an estimated $500 million, was taken from the Nuestra Senora de las Mercedes, a Spanish warship sunk by the British navy south of Portugal in 1804. The Spanish government demanded that the treasure be returned to Spain.
Odyssey, a publicly held deep-sea exploration and salvage company, announced in May 2007 that it had recovered 500,000 gold and silver coins from an undisclosed location in the Atlantic Ocean and flew the treasure to Tampa, saying at the time it didn't know the identity of the sunken ship.
Editor's Note -- Spain is busy killing the recovery of historical artifacts. This will ensure future recovery ventures will be lawyer laden.
>> Read more...
Obama backs Florida's role in convention.
Miami Herald7, 9 May 2008
WASHINGTON -- Barack Obama says Florida's delegation will be at the national Democratic Party's convention this summer, ''happy, with their party hats on,'' two uncommitted Florida superdelegates said Thursday.
But with the Democratic presidential nomination undecided, the details remain muddled: Rep. Tim Mahoney, a Palm Beach Gardens Democrat, said Obama is leery of seating the delegation in a way that reflects the state's unsanctioned primary.
''He understands it's important that the Florida delegates get seated and he's committed to doing that,'' said Mahoney, among the uncommitted superdelegates who were courted by Obama Thursday. ``At the same time he's concerned that the primary wasn't reflective of how well he could have done.''
Editor's Note -- It's a hoot to see the Dims kissing up to Florida for the disasterous DNC ruling not to include Florida in the primaries.
>> Read more...
Myanmar refugees in Duval get good news.
Jacksonville Times-Union, 8 May 2008
The good news for Jacksonville resident Jadan Bawmwang is that his mother, who rode out last weekend's killer storm in Myanmar, is OK. The bad news is that she and his other relatives and friends must endure deplorable conditions for months to come, or even longer.
Bawmwang reached his mother by phone Tuesday, when she described living without electricity and fresh water. Food prices have tripled in the past few days.
"She was saying it was kind of chaos," said Bawmwang, a cigarmaker who came to the United States in 2001.
He is one of up to 1,000 refugees from Myanmar who live in Northeast Florida, according to Elaine Carson, affiliate director of the Jacksonville office of World Relief, a refugee resettlement agency.
Editor's Note -- Ambulance chaser Al Gore is blaming the Myanamar disaster on global warming -- oddly enough: Al Gore Calls Myanmar Cyclone a 'Consequence' of Global Warming.
Also: Catastrophe in Burma. A cyclone's devastation is compounded by a criminal regime.
>> Read more...
Cut! Filming in Florida just got less attractive.
Miami Herald, 8 May 2008
Without $25 million in production subsidies, Florida will find it tough to lure movies and TV shows to shoot here.
A golden age of South Florida moviemaking is upon us, but experts don't expect it to last much longer. In fact, they give it about seven more weeks.
That's when dramatic cuts to Florida's film subsidies take effect, hollowing out a $25 million fund credited with making 2008 a banner year for both production work and celebrity sightings.
Editor's Note -- Perhaps starving the legislators of lucky bucks is a good idea. Boondoggles will fall.
>> Read more...
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