FLORIDA DIGEST April 21, 2007

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To: Ray's List Subscribers,

Thank you for your patience while we have been offline during the past several weeks. We needed to catch up on a backlog of work. We're still not "caught up" but we will try to send Ray's List most days.

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The Miami Herald

http://www.miamiherald.com/569/v-print/story/81829.html

Posted on Fri, Apr. 20, 2007
Plan to take tax savings with you is revived
BY MARY ELLEN KLAS

For Erik Bjorkman of Doral, the decision by a House council Friday tobreathe new life into a bill to allow homeowners to take their property-taxsavings with them when they move ``is huge.''

The House Policy and Budget Committee voted 29-1 to give homeowners likeBjorkman the freedom to buy a new principal home without being suffocated bya spike in his tax bill. The solution: Let him and others in his situationapply his accumulated savings from the Save Our Homes Act to his new taxbill.

A similar so-called ''portability'' bill has already passed the Senate andwill be pivotal to the negotiations over property-tax reform that beginbetween the House and Senate next week.

Bjorkman and his wife are selling their home after nine years and have acontract to buy a larger home near Pinecrest, despite the annual tax hike ofmore than $5,000, he said. Now the 40-year-old finance executive forAutoNation in Fort Lauderdale is counting on the Legislature to put aconstitutional amendment on the November ballot -- and voters to approve it.

''It's the same situation you find over and over,'' he said. 'For the lastseveral years, we could move but didn't, because we would be getting 5percent more house and paying 50 percent more in taxes. This year I said,`We can't sit here forever.' ''



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The St. Petersburg Times

http://www.sptimes.com/2007/04/21/news_pf/Business/Florida_continues_to_.shtml

Florida continues to add jobs
Construction falters and Florida is no longer No. 1 in job creation.

By CHRISTINA REXRODE
Published April 21, 2007

Just as Coca-Cola Enterprises this week said it will hire another 200 peoplein Brandon, Home Depot laid off about 10 people in its Tampa At-HomeServices unit ecause of declining sales of windows, roofing and sidingwork.

Jobs come and go, but new federal and state numbers released Friday showFlorida in the month of March continued to add new jobs -- 16,400 statewide.Even though the state's pace of job growth is slowing, Florida still addedmore jobs last month than any other state but California.

Not all industries fared well. For example, the bottom finally fell out forFlorida's construction workers.

After months of tepid job creation, construction employment moved intonegative territory in March. The sector lost 3,000 jobs over the year,according to data released Friday by the state Agency for Workforcennovation. That's a decline of 0.5 percent -- and quite a different tunefrom the construction industry's peak September 2005 performance, when itadded jobs at a rate of 14.3 percent.

It's the first time the construction industry has lost jobs on an annualbasis since July 2002.



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The Miami Herald

http://www.miamiherald.com/277/v-print/story/80634.html

Posted on Sat, Apr. 21, 2007
PROTECTION VS. PRIVACY: Colleges caught between guarding the rights of oneand securing the safety of all

By FRED TASKER, JANE STANCILL AND LESLEY CLARK

It seemed like everyone who knew Cho Seung-Hui at Virginia Tech witnessedhis odd, disturbing behavior -- professors, classmates, roommates and twowomen he stalked.

Now, the question is, with all the warning signs, should the university haveacted more aggressively to deal with the troubled student? Could somethinghave been done to prevent Monday's massacre?

At some universities, programs are in place to catch such behavior early.The University of Miami, for example, set up a faculty-run StudentAssessment Committee 10 years ago. It handles about 20 cases per year,requiring the most troubled students to get counseling or withdraw from theuniversity.

''Occasionally, we have taken that action,'' says Patricia Whitley, Ph.D.psychologist and vice president of student affairs at UM.

But she couldn't guarantee the committee would have prevented a tragedy likeVirginia Tech's. University officials say they're caught between federalprivacy and disability laws that limit their options when working with atroubled student and the fear of lawsuits from removing a student -- orfailing to remove one.



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Sun-Sentinel.com

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/palmbeach/sfl-pwaterresults21apr21,0,6340272,print.story?coll=sfla-news-palm

Restrictions on water have little impact

Reductions appear far below 15% goal
By Andy Reid
South Florida Sun-Sentinel
April 21, 2007

Water restrictions triggered by one of the worst droughts in history haven'tresulted in dramatic drops in the amount of water the public has consumed, aSouth Florida Sun-Sentinel review of utility pumping records shows.

A sampling of water providers in Broward and Palm Beach counties shows mostfalling well short of an overall 15 percent reduction goal the South FloridaWater Management District proposed to achieve by imposing water restrictionson March 22.

Comparing daily water totals during a three-week period before restrictionswith a three-week period after restrictions, Broward County's waterdepartment saw a 7 percent reduction in the water it provides customers.Palm Beach County's water utilities department saw a 3 percent reductionduring the same time periods.

People ignoring the new watering rules, lax enforcement by localgovernments, and homeowners and businesses watering more than usual on thedays they are allowed were among reasons cited for the limited drop in dailywater use.

"I can't say people are unaware of this, I just don't think they care," saidParkland resident Gail Platt, who said she sees plenty of illegal wateringon morning walks through her neighborhood but has trouble gettingauthorities to respond.


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MiamiHerald.com

http://www.miamiherald.com/569/v-print/story/81833.html

Posted on Sat, Apr. 21, 2007
Scientists: Climate clock is ticking in South Florida
BY GEORGIA TASKER

Pine trees, coral reefs, tourism and our drinking water supply are under thegun of climate change.

The warming of the planet means Florida, with 1,200 miles of heavilypopulated and vulnerable coastline, is feeling real-time effects that areforeshadowing bigger consequences:

. Sea levels are rising twice as fast as once predicted, eroding shorelines.

. Higher temperatures are shifting tropical conditions farther north.

. Oceans are more acidic.

. Seas are hotter.



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Are you ready South Florida?

Because We Are!!!!!

The 19th Annual AIDS Walk Miami benefiting Care Resource kicks off from theMiami Beach Botanical Gardens, 2000 Convention Center Drive, precisely at9:00 am this coming Sunday morning, April 22.

All participants should be there by 8:00 am to get registered or checked inand get their commemorative AIDS Walk Miami T-Shirt before heading out.

There is still time to register and collect donations, just click here
Http://www.aidswalkmiami.org now for information and look for a special AIDSWalk Miami report on NBC Channel 6 and on Telemundo this coming Saturdaymorning.

AS OF TODAY, INTERNET DONATIONS HAVE TOPPED $160,000


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