FEATURED STORIES
By Anne C. Mulkern
Tar balls started washing up on the sand this week in Seaside, Fla., a wealthy hamlet between Pensacola and Panama City where Dave Rauschkolb owns three waterfront restaurants and near where he lives, fishes and surfs.
By Craig Pittman
Related: Even relief wells are a dicey proposition to stanch oil spill
Related editorial: Lessons for Tampa Bay from Pensacola beaches
Beaches cleaner a day after onslaught of oil
Miami Herald
Related: Storm threat could mean worse gusher
Hypocrisy and stimulus are latest buzzwords of Scott-McCollum battle
St. Petersburg Times/Miamik Herald Tallahassee Bureau
BEST OF THE BLOGS
By Beach Blogger
For decades we have marveled at the unmitigated gall of tourism promoters who seek to sacrifice public education to their lust for profits.
By Gimleteye
In The New York Times, Jeb Bush offers a rare glimpse of what we have been missing since the former governor of Florida-- and putative lynchpin of the Karl Rove/Grover Norquist wing of the GOP-- left office.
By Peter Schorsch
State Senator Dan Gelber (D-Miami Beach) and State Representatives Keith Fitzgerald (D-Sarasota) and Rick Kriseman (D-St. Petersburg) today sent a letter to Governor Charlie Crist urging him to convene the legislature in a summer special session to address the complex challenges from the BP oil spill.
FLORIDA POLITICS
By Kevin Bouffard
Related: Crist Blames Tardy Citrus Commission Appointments On Lack of Applicants
Crist makes ceremonial stop, signs bill to aid condo owners
Palm Beach Post
Judge again rejects Sansom's motion to dismiss charges
St. Petersburg Times
Tea partyers clash, accuse each of other of intimidation
Orlando Sentinel
Private versus public in the social network age
Highlands Today
POLITICAL RACES
By Cooper Levey-Baker
Attorney General Bill McCollum thumped Republican primary opponent Rick Scott the other day with an ad accusing the former health care executive of "profiting from abortions," and now Scott is defending his pro-life bona fides.
By Jim Saunders
With Florida facing major questions about how to tame Medicaid costs and reduce the number of uninsured residents, the state's gubernatorial candidates likely will have to offer answers during a televised debate in October.
By Joy-Ann Reid
Hours after their truly nasty debate in Palm Beach, I asked the Kendrick Meek and Jeff Greene campaigns if their candidate would endorse the other, should their own candidacy fall short on Aug. 24. A spokesman for Greene said, ``Jeff is a Democrat and will support the Democratic nominee.''
By Tristram Korten
When the polls are averaged, Florida is coming up undecided in almost all seats for Congress and governor.
BALLOT INITIATIVES
By Lesley Blackner
More often than not, growth management doesn't work in Florida, even though a law requiring it has been on the books for 25 years.
By Mark Lane
When the candidate qualifying deadline ended last week, your correspondent, like many political junkies, hit the spreadsheets.
ENVIRONMENT AND ENERGY
By Steve Newborn
As oil continues to coat beaches along the Gulf of Mexico, a new study paints a grim outlook for the sugary sands to return to their pristine condition soon.
By Jim Waymer
While researchers scoop up endangered sea turtles coated in oil in the Gulf, a scientist warns that this summer's fragile turtle hatchings could choke on tiny tar balls as they feed off the Space Coast.
By Christine Stapleton and Dara Kam
The suicide of an Alabama charter boat captain on Wednesday came as waves of trauma washed over fishermen and their families throughout the Gulf Coast.
By Deirdre Macnab
The invasion of Normandy by Allied forces took planning, collaboration and sacrifice.
By Thomas Becnel
Chris and Lindsey Stockmann got lucky. The St. Louis couple were married at the beach on Tuesday -- the day before BP's Gulf oil spill blackened the local shoreline.
By Dinah Voyles Pulver
Florida wildlife officials want the U.S. Secretary of Commerce to delay approval of a proposed new rule that prohibits bottom fishing in thousands of miles of the Atlantic Ocean off the state's coast.
By Bruce Ritchie
A divided state panel on Thursday refused to set aside $2 million towards a Citrus County conservation purchase that had been tucked deep inside the new state budget.
LGBT
By Jennifer Chrisler
This month we celebrate Gay Pride. But I'd like to suggest that we take this opportunity to celebrate gay parent pride.
By Mitch Perry
If Attorney General Bill McCollum is able to escape the Rick Scott onslaught and face Alex Sink in the fall, he'll have to answer to Sink on a number of issues.
EDUCATION
By Hannah Sampson and Kathleen McGrory
Related: Florida seeking $3 million for late FCAT scores
JOBS, BUDGET, AND ECONOMY
By Brendan Farrington
This was the year, Alicia Hollis and her fellow real estate agents thought. After a nasty batch of hurricanes and the bursting of the housing bubble, this was the year that condo sales along the Florida Panhandle's brilliant white beaches were going to rebound.
By Jennifer Gollan
Once they were considered a sacred perk for public sector employees.
