Around the state

State doesn't fight appeal of adoption law

WEST PALM BEACH -- The state did not show up Thursday to defend a new law that requires mothers to reveal their sexual histories in newspaper ads before they give up a child for adoption.

Attorneys for six mothers who are challenging the law made arguments before the 4th District Court of Appeal. They argued that the law unconstitutionally violates the privacy of mothers and fathers, who are guaranteed confidentiality by state statute.

A spokeswoman for the Attorney General's Office said the decision not to defend the law was made in December, before Attorney General Charlie Crist took over.

The law, which makes no exception for rape victims or minors, requires the mother in adoption proceedings to give her name, age and description, along with descriptions of any men who could have fathered the child, in an advertisement. The ad must run once a week for four weeks in a newspaper in any city where the child was thought to be conceived.

Lawmakers passed the bill last year to protect the rights of men who might otherwise be unaware they are fathers of children in adoption cases.

"It may have been a good concept in theory, but in reality, it's intrusive," said Amy Hickman, an attorney representing the American Academy of Adoption Attorneys, after court arguments.

Democratic state Sen. Walter "Skip" Campbell, D-Tamarac, who sponsored the bill, acknowledges that it had unintended consequences. He is working to change it and establish a confidential registry that allows men who believe they could have fathered a child to come forward and be notified if a woman they named as a partner put a baby up for adoption.

State proposes standard for water in Everglades

HOLLYWOOD, Fla. -- Florida has proposed a new standard to measure water quality across the Everglades, but only "time will tell" when that goal will be met, the state's top environmental official said Thursday.

The state hopes to eventually limit to 10 parts per billion the level of phosphorous in water discharged into all parts of the Everglades, Environmental Protection Secretary David Struhs said. That limit is roughly the same as for drinking water.

About 90 percent of the Everglades' 2.4-million acres already meet the standard, Struhs said.

Phosphorous is used in fertilizers, which enter the Everglades watershed from surrounding farms and suburbs.

The state has a Dec. 31, 2006 deadline to make improvements that should lower phosphorous levels in discharge water to meet the standard. But there is no guarantee that those changes will be enough, Struhs said. "Time will tell at what point we will regularly and consistently meet that discharge limit."

New UF chief should be an academic, panel says

GAINESVILLE -- The University of Florida's next president should be an academic who understands politics, is a good fundraiser and can work with all aspects of the university and the public.

Those were some of the criteria outlined Thursday as the presidential search committee held its first meeting to find a successor to Charles Young, who has asked to step down as soon as a new president is named.

"Only God and a couple of people will fit these criteria," said Manny Fernandez, chairman of the 17-member committee.

The search is the second launched at the state's flagship university since John Lombardi stepped down in November 1999.

After Lombardi left, the school named Young interim president. All six presidential candidates withdrew in 2000 and school officials asked Young, who had retired as chancellor at UCLA after nearly 30 years, to stay.

Fernandez does not expect the next UF president to be a politician, like the new leaders of Florida State University in Tallahassee and Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton. Florida State hired former House Speaker T.K. Wetherell, while Florida Atlantic gave its top job to Lt. Gov. Frank Brogan.

Most likely, the next UF president will have an academic background associated with research universities, Fernandez said.

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