Editorials
The chamber's unlikely activists
Tampa politics have shifted so far to the right that the Chamber of Commerce has become one of the most progressive forces in town. That's right: the chamber, the Tampa business club headed most recently by former Republican Gov. Bob Martinez. It was the chamber that crafted a tax bailout for Tampa General Hospital, the chamber that rallied tax support for roads and indigent health care and the chamber that called for spending on the arts, parks and public housing.
FDA's weaknesses
Until the interim appointment of Dr. Lester Crawford last week, the Food and Drug Administration had been waiting for a leader since President Bush took office. Meanwhile, the agency responsible for regulating products that account for one-fourth of the nation's economy has drawn increasing criticism for failing to safeguard our food and pharmaceutical supplies.
Chance to be neighborly
The cities of Pinellas County, which often battle over competing interests, should take the opportunity to work together in an upcoming assembly.
Letters
Bubba's acquittal gives approval to atrocious stunt
It was with disbelief and outrage that I read of the acquittal of 98 Rock DJ Bubba the Love Sponge Clem in the animal cruelty case involving him, his producer and two listeners. How, I thought, could judge and jurors let this action of unspeakable abuse be dismissed so quickly and without the slightest regard for future ramifications this atrocity could incur?
Columns today
Mary Jo Melone
The Rev. Graham's absence of good grace
When I was a kid, you barely looked straight at the parish priest. You kept your gaze down, out of what your parents said was respect but what tasted to you like fear.
Ernest Hooper
Spirit of Ybor warms Capitol cockles
TALLAHASSEE -- The only hot things about Ybor City Day in Tallahassee Monday were the flamenco dancers and the bean soup.
Elijah Gosier
Protecting innocence isn’t child’s play
On the same day last week that a dozen or so police officers escorted roughly a hundred deputized vigilantes into a St. Petersburg neighborhood to yell slogans at a bunch of children and accuse them of selling drugs, the media were up in arms because sheriff's deputies had handcuffed a 15-year-old girl who was babysitting in a house where the burglar alarm went off.
