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February 14, 2002
Editorials
Arsenic-treated wood ban limited
The nationwide ban announced Tuesday on arsenic-treated wood is a limited victory for American consumers. Wood spiked with the poison will be banned from many uses after 2003, but the loopholes still leave health risks intact for children who use playgrounds and other recreational facilities.
A dangerous moneymaker
A House committee approved a bill, 11 to 3, that would allow advertising on public school buses. It is a colossally bad idea that could jeopardize the lives of schoolchildren.
Bolstering Colombian democracy
President Bush's proposal to deepen U.S. military involvement in Colombia's civil war at least forces an honest debate over U.S. policy. Until now, the American intervention in Colombia has been characterized as an effort to eradicate drugs, not the leftist rebels who have been battling the government for years. Bush's proposal to have American forces train and equip Colombian government troops who guard a U.S.-operated oil pipeline reveals the administration's broader interests.
Letters
Let Enron spark a call for fiscal responsibility
I am perplexed! Our senators and congressmen are outraged at the mismanagement of Enron?
Perspective
Taking jobs, alienating customers
For weeks Americans have been told that the outsourcing of high-tech jobs is good for our economy. So said Greg Mankiw, chairman of the White House Council of Economic Advisers in a recent report signed by President Bush. So, too, writes Thomas Friedman of the New York Times in articles praising the rise of call centers in India used for everything from making airline reservations and reading medical X-ray films to providing tech support for American computer firms.
Philip Gailey: Democrats fall off campaign finance reform wagon
Well, what do you know. Soft money is back, and it's making hypocrites of all those Democrats who fervently championed the McCain-Feingold campaign reform law, not to mention those Republicans who objected to the law's restrictions on issue advocacy.
Bill Maxwell: Who is for the farm worker?
Florida Gov. Jeb Bush is touting legislation to improve the lives of Florida's 300,000-plus farm workers, who endure institutional and systemic injustices each day in our fields and groves and their personal lives.
Robyn E. Blumner: For some defendants, an American gulag
In Bernard Malamud's masterpiece The Fixer, inmate Yakov Bok was subjected to psychological torture in a Soviet gulag through the humiliations of constant shackling and repeated strip searches.
© Copyright 2001 St. Petersburg Times. All rights reserved.
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