University of Florida News

Evidence for human-caused climate change is now so compelling that policy makers are unlikely to ignore it.

Floridians don’t always agree on things. Remember the presidential election of 2000? That’s why a recent survey showing Florida citizens’ overwhelming support for medical and health research is so striking.

Despite ominous predictions that this hurricane season would rival last year’s onslaught of killer storms, the season ended quietly on Nov. 30. The lessons of Hurricane Katrina, however, require us to plan for what lies ahead. Unfortunately, Congress has failed to enact comprehensive catastrophe legislation to prepare for and respond to the worst Mother Nature has to offer.

For 47 years Fidel Castro has ruled Cuba. For 44 years through 10 U.S. administrations, Washington has pursued a diplomatic and economic embargo of Cuba designed to force Castro from office. For at least 40 years, critics have argued that U.S. policy is a failure. While the 80-year-old Cuban dictator may return to power, his end is in sight — and it is time to rethink our Cuba policy. What should U.S. policy be toward a post-Castro Cuba?

As NASA prepares for the scheduled blastoff of the shuttle Discovery today, there’s little doubt that Cape Canaveral is the best place to launch space vehicles in the United States and perhaps the world.

As threatening as bird flu and terrorism may seem, the biggest cause of human suffering today is something that rarely appears in national newscasts or front-page headlines: water problems.

Mark Twain wrote, ”There are three types of lies: lies, damn lies and statistics.” But I’ll take statistics any day over the lies and damn lies being peddled by the special interests in Tallahassee.

From fire ants to Formosan termites to water-sopping Melaleuca trees, hundreds of invasive plants and animals threaten Florida’s economy, agriculture and environment.

Sometimes the line separating idiom from idiocy is a thin one. Such is the case with Jeb Bush’s latest accusations that Common Cause has been squirreling away its donors in its laudable effort to reform Florida’s unfairly gerrymandered legislative and congressional districts.

“Casino Jack” Abramoff is sullying the good schmooze. Nobody denies that schmoozing is at the heart of lobbying. But the term has acquired a bad rap, and this latest ethics debacle is a nail in the coffin for what used to denote something positive.