My View, from Fox 13's John Wilson

Just because Charlie Crist is governor, can he create a law all by himself?  No.

But can he sign an agreement with the Seminole Indians by himself without the Legislature's approval? Maybe.

The state Supreme Court has now agreed to take the case and decide and they will do it next month. 

Gov. Crist did what he should have done and here's why.  The feds gave him 60 days to produce an agreement with the Seminole Indians for expanded gambling rights in four Florida casinos they now operate, including the Hard Rock in Tampa, or the feds were going to give them that authority anyway and Florida would have gotten nothing -- no money and no  authority to regulate it.

The deal Gov. Crist signed guarantees the state at least $100 million a year from gambling proceeds for 25 years, and no other dog track or racetrack will be able to expand their games.

Hawaii and Utah are the only two states without gambling, which includes lotteries.  Indian tribes run casinos now in 28 states, and several states with sagging revenues like Florida may expand gambling operations to find more revenue. 

The state of Connecticut, which has already done it, is taking in $430 million this year from Indian casinos.  Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has just approved a similar deal for California with four Indian tribes that promises that state billions.

Gambling is not a particularly good thing, but neither is alcohol and speeding.  And if the state gets a chance to regulate it and it can generate so much money, then it would have been criminal for the governor not to do it.

The Republican speaker of the house, Marc Rubio from Miami, is suing the governor in an attempt to get the Legislature back in this game which they have lost for years.  And that's OK; the constitution does not explicitly give the governor that power.  But it doesn't say he can't do it, either.  And it would not mean more casinos and expanded gambling anywhere else but in those four casinos.

Worst case scenario, the Legislature wins their lawsuit, stops the governor, and the courts void the agreement.

The next step, the feds allow expanded gambling anyway with no taxation or state regulation, and Florida, stressing for money, is forced to get into the video lottery business and casinos start popping up all over the place.

What brought this to a boil was a referendum that passed in Broward County three years ago, approving local option slot machines.  The federal rule is, if a state allows expanded casino games, the same right must be given to Indian tribes.

Billions of dollars are riding on this decision and who controls it.  I vote for the governor because the Legislature has not been able to do anything about it for more than a decade since the Indians started bingo games. 

That's My View.

The first votes for president are just a few weeks away and talk of religion and faith are now driving debate and discussion.

The former governor of Arkansas and former Baptist preacher, Mike Hucakabee, is looking more and more like a real Republican contender and he may even win Iowa.  He's leading the polls right now after last week's debate.

Mitt Romney focused on his own Mormon faith this week. It is risky for 'em to talk about faith and Huckabee outright refused to do it when asked what he thought of Romney's faith.  He said no president should question another's faith.  Huckabee scored some points with that.

Critics pointed out in 1961 that John Kennedy was a Catholic and the United States never had a Catholic president before -- which really was a silly argument then that's even more silly today.  Kennedy went on to beat Richard Nixon by a narrow margin, became the first Catholic president of the United States, and that was the end of that subject.
 
We have to cut through the fog of campaign warfare because candidates will say things just to get attention and to get elected, which somehow excuses them from saying things they later regret or things they really didn't mean and later just forgot.

Rudolph Giuliani is carrying some baggage, but does have the most experience of any of them dealing directly with terrorism.  But Giuliani has to explain his relationship with a former business partner who was indicted, his own recordkeeping when he was mayor, and security expenses for visiting a girlfriend who became his third wife.

And Hillary Clinton will have some explaining to do, too, because the National Archives is dragging its feet to release papers containing notes between her and Pres. Clinton, which could very well explain the role she may have played in major policy decisions.

So, here are two leading contenders for president both facing controversies about secrecy and disclosures -- the very thing that Pres. Bush has been criticized for.

A president should say what he means and mean what he says, which some believe is the worst failure of the presidency of George Bush.

And now here is that very same issue of honesty facing Hillary Clinton and Rudolph Giuliani in particular, and it could boost the campaign of the former Baptist preacher from Arkansas, Mike Huckabee, who as of this moment, has no controversies hanging over him except perhaps for the release, of a convicted rapist who killed someone, when he was governor. 

But this dash to the white house has a long way to go.  Polls don't mean much at this point.  Republicans have to decide not only who would make the best president, but which one would be the best candidate to take on Hillary Clinton because she is leading in all national polls.

The governor's popularity wave may have hit a big speed bump this week when he did something no other governor has done.  He agreed to let the Seminole Indians have Vegas-style gambling in their casinos, except for roulette wheels and similar table games.

So, are we in for all the reported problems of higher divorce rates, high bankruptcy, crime, suicide, and gambling addiction?  Far-right conservatives will be livid but Gov. Crist says he had no choice because the feds were going to do it anyway -- give 'em permission to spin, deal, and roll like Vegas.  And most important of all, by getting in on this now, the state could hit a jackpot of at least $100 million ever year as part of the take.

But this could be the sharpest divide yet between our new governor and the conservative base of the Florida Legislature, including Ronda Storms and Attorney General Bill McCollum, who say he can't do this.  They contend that the Legislature will have the final word.

The Indians already have the broad legal authority, but it's a good bet this will go to court and the state legislature could sue the governor.  As for all the vices associated with gambling, new academic studies have looked at the socio-economic effects in 8 cities, including Las Vegas -- where it's been for 70 years -- along with Memphis, St. Louis, and Peoria. 

They came up with this: more work needs to be done to prove a connection to all those bad things because many other factors in the community come into play.

There seemed to be more personal bankruptcies, but in Biloxi, personal bankruptcies have gone down since the casinos.

Bottom line, it depends on the community, jobs, and tourism which can outweigh the negative impact.  But crime does go up, which means we'll need more cops.

FOX 13's news anchors spent part of their time this week in schools helping teachers get their kids focused on possible careers.  This is where when we balance the potential evil with potential good that comes with money for schools and teachers.  And if the governor can get 95 percent of those millions from gambling for education, then we should do it and make sure this time that lawmakers don't siphon off the money for other things, which they did with the lottery.  And then we make sure we have enough cops to help police it.

Here's the money problem.  The state of Florida is facing massive billion-dollar deficits for the next two years.  We must find other sources of revenue without raising taxes.  Better pay for teachers may not make better teachers but it will give our schools more money to keep good teachers who are on the frontlines of tomorrow.

The impact teachers have on the lives of our children is enormous, and if they really are going to be our leaders of tomorrow, teachers need help.

That's My View.

Some officious bureaucrat in the political quagmire we call Washington made an incredible mistake this week that instantly turned 25 million veterans against the U.S. government.  They were steaming, threatening civil disobedience to the point of being arrested.

The veterans said they would not stop reciting a very moving narrative that veterans groups have been using for years for military funerals.  They do it when the flag is folded. 

There are 13 folds, and every fold carries a powerful description and references things we should be thinking about: Heart, country, life and faith -- and it covers both Jewish and Christian soldiers. An atheist would only have to request silence while the flag is folded.  So what's the problem?

The National Cemetery Association, acting on a letter from the VA that started with a complaint to the White House, ordered veterans to stop saying anything during the flag folding, like the regular U.S. military does here.

Vets were outraged and flooded Washington with 200,000 e-mails and phone calls, and it was all knee-jerk because the complaint was about a typo.
There was only one complaint, it was sent to White House, which sent it on to the VA, which sent it to the National Cemetery Association.  And by the time it got there, it was nothing like the original complaint.

What they all failed to explain is, exactly what the complaint was not.  It was about a typo on a printed flyer, passed out by a veterans group in Riverside, California at a funeral.

VA director Steve Muro tried to clarify the complaint to the National Cemetery Association and told them handouts should not be circulated anymore.  And to clarify, Muro said the only time 'The Meaning of Each Fold' is authorized is when next of kin arranges for military honors and requests the reading.

The first mistake was made by White House staff or lawyers by not making it clear exactly what the complaint was really about.  And here's what they all missed.
Someone wrote that there is a gross error in a handout, which says the 11th fold "glorifies the gods Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob."  Of course, it should have read "the god of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob."

And there is another fold for Christian soldiers.  It ends with "In God we trust." 

Political correctness kicked in and the National Cemetery Association said just ban all the readings about the folds.  They finally came to their senses and told the veterans to keep on doing what  they were doing.

Families can have any text recited, or none.  Some nameless, bureaucratic zealot who couldn't wait to make it political caused this debacle and is nowhere to be found.

They picked the wrong group to mess with here because nobody has given more to this country than the vets and their families. 

That's My View.

Why do so many people have a problem with the boot camp verdict?  

I would bet the defense attorneys were even surprised, that the jury acquitted everybody -- not guilty on all counts for the death of 14-year-old Martin Anderson, a juvenile offender.

Do we need another trial?

The hardest thing to reconcile here is the video tape of all those heavy-set guards flailing a young boy who was obviously no threat to them.  You know we never got an official cause of death?  What about sickle cell trait, the blood disorder he had?  Why didn't his pediatrician diagnose that?

Guards say if they had known that he had this condition he would not have been admitted to the camp.  But sickle cell trait is not a fatal condition. 

What they did, hitting his arms and legs and stuffing ammonia into his nose, is exactly how boot camp guards were trained to handle kids who often fake distress in get-tough situations.

Boot camps are generally a good alternative to prison for young offenders, teaching them discipline they didn't get elsewhere. 
 
A defense expert said Martin Anderson was already dying of his 'blood disorder' before this violent encounter with guards, but a prosecution medical examiner said he was suffocated because guards covered his mouth when they stuffed his nose with ammonia. If they had let him breathe, he might still be alive.
 
The state has already paid the family $5-million.  It's ridiculous to say white juries can't be fair but where the blacks on this jury?  Bay County is 11 percent black.

Two of the guards were black, and I would have liked to have seen at least one black person on that jury.  But many refused to be on it and those who did had already formed opinions and had to be stricken.

Prosecutors from Tampa had their hands full.  They offered manslaughter, child neglect or culpable negligence and got nothing.

I think it was culpable negligence by the guard who covered his mouth while they were stuffing ammonia up his nose.  He couldn't breathe.  I also think the nurse who did nothing is culpable.  She was the professional there and should have stopped it, but she said on the stand that she never heard of sickle cell trait.  And the boy's pediatrician never diagnosed it.

And the sheriff of Bay County, Frank McKeithen, sat directly behind the guards in full view of the jury.  And that boot camp was started by Guy Tunell, the former head of the FDLE.

Prosecutors tried to get the trial moved somewhere else but couldn't.  I think we need another trial somewhere else -- a federal trial.

The guards didn't murder this teenager, but he is dead because of them and justice has not been served there.  Martin Anderson had no advocate when he needed one the most.

That's My View.

Did you know that when a crime is committed, there is a growing reluctance by witnesses to tell police who did it?
 
Websites are spouting the venom non-stop everyday: stop snitching, which is an irresponsible street code that is outrageous because it protects killers who keep on killing.

We have a murder case in Tampa, six months old now, where a popular Jefferson High School football star was shot after a fracas with another teenager who apparently stole stereo equipment out of his car.

Police say two men were seen getting out of a late-model silver Chrysler Sebring, with dark tinted windows.  Cedric 'C.J.' Mills was one of the most popular kids at Jefferson High, everybody liked him.

Well, not everybody.

C.J.'s distraught grandmother says she hoped conscience and kindness of heart would have prompted somebody to come forward by now.  But someone is hiding behind this outrageous code that makes him or her almost as bad as the killer who used a gun to deal with anger or jealousy.

In New Jersey, prosecutors refused to file murder charges in one case there because they knew witnesses would be killed.  Six murder witnesses have been killed this year in Denver, and before Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans had the highest rate of murder witnesses killed in the nation.
 
A killer is free in Tampa because of an uncivilized street code that actually goes back to slavery, when one slave would escape and others would be expected not to tell, or 'snitch.'  The term changed later when criminals acting as informants would blame innocent people for what they did -- that is snitching.

This is a pitiful commentary about the utter disregard for one precious human life, a twisted street code that is protecting a killer and a young man who was murdered right in front of his home.

Since conscience and kindness of heart hasn't worked to find his killer, maybe greed will.  A $10,000 reward that's being offered by the Jaycees in Tampa might motivate that person who saw it or knows someone who saw it.  Police say several people were there

C.J.'s picture and reward information now appear on many city benches in Tampa.  The killer probably stole his white cell phone, along with a medallion he had around his neck.  

This ridiculous street code is nothing more than a vicious irresponsible principle that protects killers and insults all of us.

C.J. deserves more respect, and so do his relatives, friends, and his neighborhood where he grew up and dreamed of playing football for the University of Miami and the NFL.  But now we add his name to the list young men, particularly black men, who have been cut down in the prime of their lives.  And somebody knows who did it.

That's My View.

Two real problems are hitting us between the eyes this week.  Both are just insane and involve parents and children run amuck at both ends of the financial spectrum.
 
The first is Britney Spears, the 25-year-old wonder who never grew up and just lost custody of her two children, ages 1 and 2. 

She was born in Mississippi, raised in Louisiana, and became the eighth best-selling recording artist in the history of American music.  And because of her endorsements for Elizabeth Arden, a video game, a doll, and royalties from music videos and millions of albums, this 25-year-old now earns more than $700,000 a month right now for doing nothing.  Those numbers were disclosed in the custody fight.

But, you know, if her name weren't Britney Spears, we wouldn't be talking about it because this is symptomatic of a national problem of absentee or neglectful parents, men and women.  It's epidemic.

She refused to get a psychological evaluation, refused to submit to random drug testing, and refused to get a California driver's license.  The judge has ordered her not to drive with her children and she was caught on tape doing that.  And she missed a hearing this week where the judge was going to spell out that if she sees her children, a court-approved observer must be in the room.
 
Who would have thought that a back-up dancer who couldn't get his own life straightened out would win custody, but that does not mean Kevin Federline will make a better parent. This whole story is a tragedy in the works.  Did she have no real friends who could tell her the truth about herself?

And the same could be said of a 15-year-old in Polk County who told friends she was gonna run away with a boy she met on the internet.  Only that boy turned out to be a man old enough to be her father, a convicted armed robber and sex offender.
 
She sneaked out of her home, out through a window to be with him.  She didn't even know she was being kidnapped, but thankfully was recovered, at a Wal-Mart 400 miles away and 33 hours later.

Friends knew she was gonna do it and told no one who could do something about it.

Unchecked access to the internet is like climbing into a cage with poisonous snakes.  It's like an unsecured loaded gun in the house and many kids are just not capable of understanding what this is about.  That's why we call them children.

Software can monitor it but parents have to tell them about predators who are waiting for them to be children.  The internet is addictive -- I heard about one 5-year-old who would rather play a game on the internet than eat ice cream -- but it can be a deadly obsession and has to be supervised by an adult.

That's My View.

O.J. Simpson is once again doing what he seems to know best -- he's got our attention again. 

This time, he will have to answer to the state of Nevada for some serious felony charges in connection with a very bizarre armed robbery.  His legal team will hack into these charges (and the thugs he was with) like a buzz saw, and if there is any sense of legal 'payback' in this, they will find it and convince the jury that he not only didn't know about the gun but was there to recover some personal things that belonged to his mother.

Many people don't even remember him now as one of the most famous running backs of all time.  His coach at USC called him the greatest player who ever lived.

His murder trial lasted nine months and he paid his dream-team lawyers $4 million.  That was before FOX had a real network then, but we carried every day of the trial here on WTVT.  That was more than a decade ago.

Since then, he's paid back thousands for stealing cable TV, written a book about how he could have killed his wife and Ron Goldman, gotten thrown out of a restaurant, and was forced to sell his prized Heisman Trophy.

I met O.J. Simpson in 1979, his final year in the NFL, he was playing for San Francisco and was in St. Louis to play the Cardinals.

I was driving my family around Busch Stadium there before the game and saw him just walking along the sidewalk, alone.  I stopped the car, said hello, and he came over to the car, stuck his hand inside and spoke to our boys -- Mark, Paul, and Patrick -- shook their hands, exchanged small talk, and signed an autograph.  My wife remembers he was wearing gloves.

At that moment, O.J. Simpson was the greatest football player ever.  But how the mighty fall from grace -- CEOs of big companies, politicians, religious leaders, even judges, lawyers, prosecutors, entertainers, and even an astronaut.  Kids looking for heroes have to look very hard these days, don't they?  

The media loves celebrities because it gets viewers and readers.  But no profession is exempt, even journalism.  I know three television news anchors who went to prison for committing crimes, and the first chapter in freshman psychology, comes to mind: we are all products of our environment, our families, our friends (or people we think are friends) and where we grow up and how we learn to be an adult.

The media loves comeback stories and heroes, but the media also loves a good story, and when they fall from grace it's an even bigger story.

But take no joy in watching O. J Simpson stumble through life now, we all played a part in it because of our fascination with fame.  There are much more important things for us to be talking about. 

That's My View.

One of the most asked questions I get lately is: Don't you get tired of telling us about the ugly things that people do to each other?

The answer is of course, yes.  But we do what we have to do, even when it involves people we know.  I knew John Bryan.

How can John Bryan go from being one of the best city councilmen who ever served at City Hall in St. Pete, to a monster?  He was a strong supporter of CASA, the Center Against Spouse Abuse.  He was such an outgoing and genuinely pleasant guy, who had a dark side, an ugly secret: he sexually abused his children, then killed himself when his sordid private life became public.

The public officials he worked with in St. Pete, including the mayor, did the best they could.
 
He probably cajoled his children; I just can't imagine him threatening anyone.  He could have said, "This is our little secret" or told his adopted daughter -- who is now an adult -- "who would believe you?"

And how tortured is his wife now -- whom some will blame for not stopping it?  How could she not know it?  And the one who did know, the adopted daughter, now 38, who became a nanny for them.  Why didn't she come forward?

Maybe she did.  Maybe she called DCF.  That would have brought the police in.  It takes someone willing to say, "Yes, it happened to me and he did it." 

The whole family will need counseling, there will be an inclination to focus on the children, but Mrs. Bryan may need the most of it.  She is probably in real torment now

We don't really know what demons anyone faces.  The media would certainly have been one for him after it became public.  And he would have wound up in jail, behind bars instead of living in his beautiful home and serving as chairman of the St. Pete City Council.

Ironically, the center against spouse abuse in St. Pete counted on John Bryan for help and a vote at budget time.  He was one of the center's most active supporters.

Linda Osmanson, the head of CASA, said it's hard to find any sympathies for this man now.  It points out the frustrating nature of abuse, which she said happens much more often than anyone knows.

About a third of all relationships are abusive, and no matter how much we want the victims to come forward and tell police or some authority about being raped by a relative, no one knows about the fear and shame unless you have been a victim yourself.

This is about power and whoever has it, usually wins.  That's why we didn't know about it until John Bryan's power at home finally collapsed when someone turned him in.

That's My View.    

The horrible car wreck that almost killed Hulk Hogan's son and a friend (who is still in critical condition) is a tragic reminder of what can happen to a car that goes out of control.

You know, we wait for wrecks in NASCAR races.  But those drivers are the best in the world, driving the most protected cars in the world, surrounded by metal tubing and tight straps.  And when they hit something, they're going over 170 miles an hour but they usually walk away from it.

Buddy Baker, who used to be called 'Leadfoot' when he was racing, told me once that he was scared to death to get out on the highway.  He said driving with professionals is about the safest job there is -- but not on the street.  

And there are many more amateurs out there now.  Americans are driving faster than ever, driving more powerful cars than ever.  High-performance shops where they soup up cars are popular places, along with drag strips where people can legally do it.

But driving for ordinary Americans has become the most dangerous thing we do.  More dangerous than flying in a plane, working in a coal mine, or walking in the streets of Baghdad when you consider more than 45,000 people were killed last year in car wrecks.  Our fancy cars are really weapons that can kill, injure and maim for life.

A little reminder tonight.  Here's why you should keep one car length between you and the next car for every 10 miles an hour of speed (at 60 miles an hour that's six full car lengths).  But tell that to the guy who's on your bumper, right?  He's tailgating -- and the other one who just darted in front of you.

That is reckless driving.

Do this: Take the weight of a car, say 4,000 pounds, and multiply it times speed, say 80 miles an hour.  And that car will crash into something with the force of 320,000 pounds.  That's 160 tons.

Reckless driving costs us billions and not just in damages, but insurance which can cost four times more for speeders who get tickets than people who don't.  And when insurance companies find out about those tickets -- and they will -- the rates for the rest of your insurance can also go up.  That is called 'actuarial science', using math to assess risk.

A ticket for 90 miles an hour or 15 miles above any speed limit gets you designated an extreme speeder.

A biker killed himself a couple of weeks ago on the Howard Frankland Bridge, 27 years old.  He was going in excess of 100. They usually race late at night in packs. 

There are a few things we can actually control in our lives.  Age or gender are not among them, but we can slow down and save lives -- your own and the people you love.  And just a little courtesy on the road will go a long way.

That's My View.

My View this week, something John Couey said to another inmate when he was first arrested: That the media was blowing the kidnapping, rape, and murder of Jessica Lunsford out of proportion because, he said, it happens all the time.

Let's correct that now.  It does not happen all the time, in fact, it happened to 46 children in 1999.

The bad news is, that number has since more than doubled.  But even so, such tragic events are considered rare.

But it did lead me to the media's role.  We report a lot of stories about abused children, tortured by their own relatives or live-in boyfriends.

Doctors described John Couey as paranoid, delusional, and borderline retarded with an IQ of 78 -- which, by the way, was the same as that of the most graceful boxer who ever stepped into the ring, Muhammad Ali.

About 25 percent of the population of this country falls into that category.

When we put our kids down to sleep at night, at home we should be able to tell them they are say safe, but that's not always true.

John Couey kidnapped Jessica Lunsford right out of her room and even convinced her to go with him. She was nine; he was 46 then and looked much older.  He told her he would take her to her father.

So many news reports of child abuse and abductions, could -- if you'll stretch this a bit with me -- could have the unintended effect of causing a 78-IQ or less to get a distorted picture of how often it really does happen.  I think Couey was just trying to minimize what he had done but we never know who is watching, or what they may be inclined to do because of what we say or how we say it. 

Consider this: and it's no excuse, but John Couey kidnapped Jessica Lunsford after a lot of media coverage about the kidnapping of another little girl, 11-year-old Carlie Brucia, which we saw on videotape over and over again for months on every media outlet. We cannot forget those images at the car wash parking lot.

But news coverage has also helped make our children safer.

'Megan's Law' in California tells us where predators live.  'Amber alerts' came from Texas and get the word of kidnappings out quickly.  And here in Florida, we have three laws that make it tougher on pedophiles: 'Adam's Law,' 'Carlie's Law,' and now 'Jessica's Law,' the toughest of them all.

Among other things, it requires a 25-year prison sentence for certain crimes against children.
 
These laws named for children came at a high price and we should never forget  there are more John Coueys out there.  Couey has now joined, another one -- Joe Smith -- on death row at the state prison in Starke.  He's the one who kidnapped and murdered Carlie Brucia in Sarasota, just one year before.

That's My View.

Why is a musical about a fantasy experience in high school so popular?

Everybody knows that real high schools have problems with drugs, sex, bullying, and peer pressure.  I watched 'High School Musical' the other night because I have grandchildren who love it.  I don't normally do movie reviews but this one is different.  

The target audience for this movie is Disney's prime age group that we call 'tweens -- kids under 14 -- and we should not be too quick to tell 'em this movie is not real.  Because these kids are at a wonderful age of innocence that many of us would like to hold on to or go back to.

But professional critics are ripping into this show and all its variations because it's missing what's wrong in many high schools.  There is no rap in this musical, the lyrics are clever and the dance routines are harmless, without being vulgar or suggestive.  And everybody gets along and the only sexual tension is a sweet kiss.  But it's more than just a kids movie.

Disney is using masterful marketing techniques to reach this target audience that is said to be worth $59-billion.  And it drew one of the largest audiences ever on television when it was on the Disney Channel last week. 

It's Disney's Harry Potter, and it's just a musical.  But what is the most popular show on TV now that kids and adults are watching?  American Idol.

This so-called tween age group is the age of innocence just before reality begins to set in.  We can only hope our schools are giving them enough fundamentals to deal that reality.

High school graduation rates are horrendous in many schools -- about 60% here -- and teen obesity is a critical issue.

One fundamental, missing for years that can help with that, is finally coming back thanks to new state laws here in Florida, Texas, and a few other states.  And besides fitness, this is the one that teaches kids more about how to get along than almost any other class I can name, other than playing in a band, being in play, singing in a chorus, or even  taking a dance lesson where everybody has to work together and learn to work together.
 
Welcome back phys-ed, which Gov. Crist pushed through the Legislature.  But we're hearing already that some principals are trying to get around the phys-ed requirement to concentrate more on FCAT preparation.

Phys-ed is like High School Musical without the music.  It demands participation, interaction, and performance without insulting anybody.  Which brings back a word we don't hear much anymore -- wholesome.

So, welcome back phys-ed and a high school musical that is not about what's wrong but what's right, and we could use more of that.

That's My View.

My View starts off with a family that needs to be re-united. 

Richard Paey, a husband and a father, is in prison because he needs pain killers.  And he's been there three and a half years, convicted as a drug dealer who didn't sell drugs to anybody.

His wife, Linda, and their three children are at the end of the road because the courts have rejected their appeals.  They are trying to get the case before the state clemency board and hope Gov. Charlie Crist will do the right thing and give them the chance to start over. 

His tearful family went before clemency staff, asking for a hearing and his children who spoke are not embarrassed their father is in prison because they know he is innocent.

He got 25 years because the prosecutor convinced a jury that nobody could be using as many painkillers as he was.  But he was because of a painful back injury.  He also has multiple sclerosis.

There was no evidence, no undercover buys that would prove he was actually selling drugs.

This man in the wheelchair is no threat to society and needs to be home with his family.

Now, why such a fuss over those two USF students arrested in South Carolina?  Were they arrested because they are Muslim?

No, they were arrested because of what they were carrying and where they were when they were stopped for speeding -- not because they are Muslim.  But because they are Muslim, law enforcement is gonna be cautious. 

It should come as no surprise that Muslim students who carry anything that explodes near a federal installation will be considered suspicious, especially when they were carrying extra gasoline, a chemical and plastic pipe that could be used to make a crude weapon.

They were stopped six miles from the very place where al Qaeda suspect José Padilla was being kept as a combatant and where tons of weapons and ordinance are stored for the U.S. Navy.

It may be just 'wrong place, wrong time' for the wrong people, but no one should fault law enforcement for being careful.  We are at war with Muslim extremism and moderate Muslims should be speaking up more against those radical Muslims who are hi-jacking their religion.

I am sorry for the families.  I know it's taking a toll, but so is the war on terrorism.

We all hope this will turn out to be nothing, just two college kids from a vastly different culture doing something unpredictable in America that college kids sometimes do.

Remember a year ago, two other USF Muslim students rode a Hillsborough County school bus to a school and that alerted homeland security, thanks to some students with cell phones.

Because of 9/11, Muslim extremism, and terrorist wannabees, we live in a different country now.
9/11 happened because we were not suspicious enough. We have decided not to let anything like that happen again and renew that commitment every day because memories can be short.

That's My View.

Recent cutbacks in property taxes here in Florida are forcing some serious budget cuts.  Arts programs, theatres and museums  were among the first to be considered non-essential.

Really?

My View this week is about our mental health, what sometimes we call the quality of life.
We have three great performing arts centers here in Tampa Bay, four including Sarasota, where we can escape and enter a magical world that can inspire you, encourage you, make you think, laugh and cry or fall in love all over again.

Broadway shows, like ballet and symphony orchestras are the very top of the performing art.

We may be 1,136 miles away from the most famous street in the world, but it starts in every city, county, and community in America that puts on plays, has a chorus, or a school band.

There is a unique summer theatrical camp here in Tampa, not supported by tax money, that has been flourishing.  It's for talented students from everywhere.  If they can pass the audition and pay more than $3,000, they get three weeks with some of Broadway's elite, like Tony winner Ben Vereen, the late Gwen Verdon, and Neil Patrick Harris, along with top-notch dancers, voice teachers, and composers.

It's called the Broadway Theatre Project.  It began 17 years ago.  These students go six days a week, from 8 a.m. to 11 p.m., with rehearsals much like real Broadway, where they would perform eight times a week.

My son Patrick has been on Broadway and in the movies since he left BTP as one of those first students and he comes back often for master classes.  

Musical theatre is one of the hardest programs to get into at any college or university because there are so few openings and three disciplines are involved: Acting, singing and dancing.  And BTP helps open that door, too as many of them go on to big Broadway shows.

The star of all that jazz , Ann Reinking, started it and has since turned it over to another stage veteran, Debra McWaters, the former USF dance instructor who's put musicals on all over the world.

Debra will soon direct and choreograph a new Frank Wildhorn musical that BTP students sampled during their final show at the Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center.

TBPAC will help produce "Alice" -- from Alice in Wonderland -- and thus the Broadway Theatre Project in Tampa finds itself not only launching tomorrow's talent but launching a real Broadway show that  was written by one of Broadway's most successful composers who is often called 'America's Andrew Lloyd Webber.'

With budget cutbacks, Broadway is even more important now to these performing arts centers, it pays the bills and Broadway could be as close as the nearest piano.

That's My View.