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February 16, 2002
Editorials
Curb antibiotic use in all meat
Three poultry industry giants recently announced plans to curb the practice of feeding antibiotics to healthy chickens and eliminate some drugs altogether. That is good news, but their counterparts in the meat and dairy business have been even slower to respond to public and scientific opinion. Beef and dairy farmers should heed doctors' persistent warnings that overuse of antibiotics in animals contributes to the growing problem of human drug resistance. And the federal government should develop a plan to keep all farmers honest on this important public health issue.
Effluent forever
When Gov. Jeb Bush signed a $3-billion, 10-year extension of the state's popular conservation land-buying program in 1999, he beamed: "Florida Forever will continue Florida's role as a national leader in preserving and protecting our precious natural resources for the enjoyment of future generations." He said nothing about sewage effluent pipes. However, that's what some House members are now trying to buy with Florida Forever money.
The death lottery
A national study on the death penalty shows that death sentences are issued -- and overturned -- with unusual frequency in Pinellas and Hillsborough counties.
Letters
Feeney's plans for Bright Futures make good sense
Re: Feeney's bright idea, editorial, Feb. 11.
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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