Editorials
Open higher education meetings
With no Board of Regents around to coordinate higher education issues and referee disputes among Florida's state universities, it makes sense for the presidents of these institutions and the chairs of their new trustee boards to want to communicate with each other regularly. But our education leaders should not take the state's restructuring of higher education governance as a green light to move from the sunshine into the shadows. From tuition increases to curriculum and staffing issues, the concerns of university presidents and trustees affect statewide policy, and the public should be invited into those discussions and meetings.

Moving toward reform
Shays-Meehan isn't perfect, but the Enron scandal helped shame enough lawmakers into supporting the effort to limit soft money's corrupting influence.

Letters
Holding students back just hurts them
Re: Johnny can't read? Then Johnny can't pass, Feb. 10.

Philip Gailey
What would make police union and its members happy?
When I moved to St. Petersburg more than 10 years ago, the downtown was wearing the grim face of recession, and tensions between the Police Department and the African-American community were approaching the breaking point. In recent years, the downtown has been transformed into a vibrant center of shops, restaurants, museums and residential housing just blocks from a magnificent waterfront.

Martin Dyckman
The sad goings-on in Tallahassee
TALLAHASSEE -- Taping what she didn't know would be her last commentary on Florida Public Radio's Capitol Report, my friend and former colleague Diane Roberts opened thusly: "Like dogs returning to a marked tree, the Legislature has come back to Tallahassee." After some colorful details, sparing not even the governor, she concluded:

Bill Maxwell
Shimon Peres: A beacon of light
Alonso Quijano, dignified and gentle, was a haggard, rustic gentleman who lived in the region called La Mancha. His mental faculties were so damaged from his obsession with tales of chivalry that he fancied himself anointed to correct the wrongs of the entire known world. Alonso changed his name to Don Quixote de la Mancha and traveled the land battling windmills he mistook for wicked giants.

Robyn E. Blumner
Ashcroft thinks himself a philosopher king
As more than a casual observer of Attorney General John Ashcroft since he took office a year ago, I believe the man fancies himself the embodiment of Plato's Philosopher King. Ashcroft sees himself as blessed with the insight to know better than anyone what is best for society and therefore believes it appropriate to bestow upon himself absolute power.