The flood of cash flowing into Republican Party and (to a much lesser extent) Democratic Party coffers from Big Sugar, the telecommunications industry, the doctor, lawyer and hospital lobbies and other special interests exert a pervasive influence on what might loosely be called public policy making in the Florida Legislature.
It is no point of honor […]

BY LLOYD DUNKELBERGER AND GARY FINEOUT
SUN TALLAHASSEE BUREAU
ALLAHASSEE - The 2003 session of the Florida Legislature collapsed Tuesday, as lawmakers quit work on their $53 billion budget and threatened to leave most other major issues unresolved.
The blowup came when Senate President Jim King, R-Jacksonville, announced shortly after 5 p.m. that the Senate was halting its […]

Patrick Wintour in Moscow
Wednesday April 30, 2003
The Guardian
Tony Blair’s first public attempt to heal the diplomatic wounds of the Iraq war suffered a humiliating rebuff yesterday when Vladimir Putin, the Russian president, refused to lift UN sanctions and mocked the possibility that weapons of mass destruction existed in Iraq.
Mr Putin also clashed with […]

TALLAHASSEE -Florida lawmakers are pushing legislation to ban counties from telling private contractors how much they can pay their employees, a move that Miami-Dade County officials fear would make it more difficult to hire and retain workers for some of the most sensitive positions at Miami International Airport.
The legislation, already approved by the Senate, would […]

The Supreme Court vs. The American People
Jamin Raskin is a professor of constitutional law at American University. His latest book, Overruling Democracy: The Supreme Court vs. The American People, contends the current court is one of the most activist courts in U.S. history and should not be exempt from criticism by either candidates […]

WASHINGTON (CNN) — Sen. Bob Graham, D-Florida, campaigning for the Democratic presidential nomination, Sunday accused President Bush of being “reckless and irresponsible” with the economy and mistaken in his efforts to halt terrorism around the world.
On the economy, Bush is “fundamentally wrong” to propose more tax cuts that disproportionately help the richest Americans, Graham […]

ORLANDO, Fla. (Reuters) - Florida Gov. Jeb Bush thanked the National Rifle Association on Saturday for helping elect his brother president of the United States in 2000.
Bush, the keynote speaker at the gun lobby’s annual convention, noted that 48 percent of the voters in the 2000 presidential race were gun owners, based on exit polls.
NRA […]

But a Times-Union review of malpractice cases since 1999 casts a different and more complex picture.
The analysis of the state’s database indicates there doesn’t appear to be a “crisis” in terms of rising lawsuits, frivolous claims or excessive number of high payouts above $250,000 — “runaway verdicts” as Bush calls them.
Rather, the Florida Department of […]

North Korea on Thursday warned it would deal “merciless deadly blows” to US troops in the event of war, as talks were underway in Beijing to defuse a crisis over its nuclear ambitions.
The warning came from Kim Il-Chol, minister of the People’s Armed Forces, during a ceremony to mark the 71st anniversary of the army’s […]

PARIS - It is

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