Orange juice concentrate — the frozen food staple routinely gobbed out in breakfast pitchers — now makes up the bulk of Florida's citrus industry. It's even traded as a commodity on the New York Board of Trade. But before it becomes a twinkle in the eye of an ambitious futures trader, the oranges themselves must first hazard the Sunshine State's sometimes unpredictable winters. And, of late, they haven't been all balmy and mild. A late December and early January cold snap saw temperatures in south and central Florida drop from shirt-sleeve weather to sub-freezing. Those crucial ... Read More
Socialist, Hell — Make Him a Full-Bore Commie
November 18, 2008 • By • Leave a Comment
Democrats toppled Republicans in 20 U.S. House races across the country on Nov. 4, but they struck out in what may now be the GOP’s most entrenched urban stronghold: South Florida’s Cuban electorate. Conditions seemed auspicious for Democrats to oust any or all of the Miami area’s three Republican House members — Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (18th Congressional District), Lincoln Diaz-Balart (21st) and Mario Diaz-Balart (25th). All are Cuban Americans, all dogmatic adherents to the 47-year-old U.S. trade embargo on Cuba, all among George W. Bush’s most devoted loyalists and therefore ... Read More
Everglades Rescue Deal Recut to Save Money, Jobs
November 12, 2008 • By • Leave a Comment
Florida Gov. Charlie Crist announced a tweaked version Wednesday of the state's blockbuster plan — first unveiled earlier this summer — to buy up 181,000 acres of land from U.S. Sugar to revitalize the ailing Everglades. The deal, in its final negotiations, is now tabbed at $1.34 billion, down from the original $1.75 billion projected. The state now plans to buy only U.S. Sugar's real estate in South Florida and not the company's assets, such as the office buildings, railroad line, equipment and citrus processing plant that effectively trim $410 million off the agreement for ... Read More
Deal Recalls Big, Bold Roots of Conservation
July 31, 2008 • By • Leave a Comment
In part 1 of this three-part series, we examined the impossibility of truly restoring any habitat to pre-human condition. Part 2 looked at the political and engineering jockeying required to mount the restoration. U.S. Sugar was in a bind last year, caught between debilitating regulation and several bad hurricane seasons, when the company sent a couple of lobbyists to visit the governor. The meeting — following a recent environmental court victory restricting back-pumping of farm runoff into Lake Okeechobee — was the latest in a long history of ear-tugging among the private industry, ... Read More
Mapping the Everglades’ Varied Landscapes
July 30, 2008 • By • Leave a Comment
Part 2 of a three-part series. In part 1, we examined the impossibility of truly restoring any habitat to pre-human condition. And in part 3, the buyout of U.S. Sugar provides a different kind of restoration — to a time when big and bold was the hallmark of conservation. Well before the state of Florida came up with the U.S. Sugar solution to the Everglades, engineers and conservationists in the area had been working on another answer, a complicated, controversial and pricey 30-year map called the Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan. It was approved by Congress in 2000 as part of ... Read More
Restoration: You Can’t Get There From Here
July 29, 2008 • By • Leave a Comment
First of three parts. In part 2, we look at the political and engineering jockeying required to mount the restoration. And in part 3, the buyout of U.S. Sugar provides a different kind of restoration — to a time when big and bold was the hallmark of conservation. The accompanying introductions and activist reaction were equally expansive last month when the state of Florida announced plans to buy out U.S. Sugar, an 80-year-old industry camped on 187,000 acres of South Florida real estate needed to help restore the Everglades. Gov. Charlie Crist called the $1.75 billion acquisition ... Read More
