Florida

After a German tourist was murdered in Miami and before a British tourist was murdered near Tallahassee, the Miami Herald editorialized, "Fighting crime against visitors is only a partial answer to the problem . . . . We must also stop the daily savagery against each other." A Herald columnist wrote, "We should be less concerned about how others view us and more concerned about how we view ourselves." Sure, but precisely because the victims were visitors, no recent crime story has so highlighted the direct link between crime and a community's overall well being.

North Carolina resembled Florida in 2007. Both were picked to win from the jump, suffered a few stumbles and showed an almost casual ability to flip the switch and vanquish lesser teams in the tournament. (For more, go to baltimoresun.com/toydept)

Back in May, we reported on a 47-year-old attorney and magician who ran an entertainment company in Baltimore County, was charged with flying to Florida to have sex with a 14-year-old boy. The Essex man, Howard Scott Kalin, ran Funhouse Entertainment on York Road in Lutherville, and was known for making balloon animals for children. Police said that he met the boy over the Internet. The only problem was that the "boy" was an undercover police detective with theLake County Sheriff's Office cybercrime division.

Florida police used dragnet tactics last week in their search for the slayers of a British tourist. This has touched off a debate along the familiar individual rights versus community rights line. What is interesting is that even though all the suspects rounded up and questioned were black, the fault line on the debate has not been a strictly racial one. A black junior high school principal in Jefferson County, where the police effort was conducted, said: "We're concerned about the protections of rights of individuals.

We have heard the lyrics of the rap group 2 Live Crew's album, "As Nasty as They Wanna Be," and they are indeed disgusting, appalling and, yes, even obscene. But obscene or not, we reject the idea that anyone, anywhere, should be prosecuted and convicted for writing songs, singing songs, selling records -- or doing anything else that falls within the ambit of the freedom to speak or perform.This week in Florida, a record store owner was convicted, and faces a jail term, for selling 2 Live Crew's records.

Lawton Chiles, who is old enough to know better, says he can't wait to get to work each morning. That means his idea of fun is to be governor of Florida, where America's most pressing problems are present in particularly concentrated forms.Mr. Chiles, 64, is a Democrat in a state not even George Bush could lose for the Republicans in 1992. It is a state where between 1978 and 1992 a million more Republicans than Democrats registered. It is of all the large states, the state with the highest percentage of Republicans in its congressional delegation.

ORLANDO, Fla. - With the Florida Democratic Party meeting here over the weekend to showcase a host of 2004 presidential hopefuls, there was news from Washington to reassure them that the election fiasco of 2000, which centered on this state, will be avoided. By a vote of 99-1, the Senate had just passed a five-year, $3.5 billion election reform bill designed to help states correct the faulty voting machinery and other flaws in the process that contributed to the November 2000 confusion that put George W. Bush in the White House over Al Gore.

WASHINGTON -- Viewed on your television screen from a safe distance, Tallahassee looks like a loony bin. If you think the events of the past four weeks have been odd, consider the possible alternatives now being offered. One moment we are watching the attempt by supporters of Vice President Al Gore to convince a county judge that she should throw out 15,000 absentee ballots because they were handled improperly by local Republicans. The result presumably would be to move Mr. Gore into a lead over Gov. George W. Bush of Texas, who has been certified as the winner of Florida's 25 electoral votes.

Fort Lauderdale, Florida. -- I am in southern Florida, where the talk is all of murder. This is where 10 tourists have been killed in recent months. The results of that kill rate are registered at the gun stores. Business has never been so good. New gun stores are opening at a record rate. They, too, are ''making a killing.''With what result? Consider the case of Ed Connors, from the Fort Lauderdale area.Last week, two robbers came up to his car. One reached through the window for the car keys.

DEERFIELD BEACH, Fla. -- -- Hillary Rodham Clinton turned up here last week at one of her favorite political venues -- Century Village, a community of some 12,000 elderly Americans, more than 9,000 of whom are registered Democrats.As candidate Bill Clinton's wife, the first lady came here four years ago just before election day and then again, with the president, as part of their kickoff for their health-care reform campaign in 1993. She is so popular here the community's medical center has been named for her.There were all the trappings of big-league politics -- 2,500 people waving Clinton-Gore signs and chanting ''four more years'' for a half-dozen television camera crews.