St. Petersburg Times Online: Opinion

Editorials
Scare tactics won't fly
In trying to gain support for Albert Whitted Airport, St. Petersburg City Council member James Bennett tries to portray Albert Whitted Airport as a tool against terrorism.

Defend democracy in Venezuela
Two days in prison during an aborted coup against him probably won't be enough to make a changed man of Venezuela's president, Hugo Chavez. He returned to the presidential palace Sunday a humbled demagogue, but it would be naive to believe the master manipulator is eager to end the turbulence that has surrounded his three-year rule. Chavez has a new lease, but the popular support will fade if he fails to repair relationships across the spectrum of Venezuelan society.

Letters
Cigarette tax boost would hurt the less affluent
Re: McBride's trifecta, editorial, April 16.

Columns today
John Romano
Loss means trouble for Magic's postseason
ORLANDO -- The hour is early and the room is sweating. With the heat dialed in at 100 degrees, Doc Rivers is living his own metaphor.

Tampa Uncuffed
Child-proof locks corral a burglar
They are the bane of toddlers and the key to parental peace of mind -- child-proof locks that prevent a car door from being opened from the inside, lest a rambunctious wee one tumble out. Or in this case, a thief.

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.