Robert N. Lynch Speaks
The Roman Catholic Bishop of the Diocese of St. Petersburg has outlined principles for priesthood and wants the Church to do what it can to heal souls and move forward.

Editorial
Pondering punishment
The death penalty doesn't have to be repealed, but it does have to be reformed if Florida is to stop wasting time, money and, worst of all, lives.

Editorial
Does he or doesn't he?
Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown. And if you're the chancellor of Germany, you're uneasy about your hair, too.

Letters
A common-sense approach to growth
Dan DeWitt's May 12 article, Policing of growth appears to lose teeth, celebrates the filing of lawsuits as the best way to promote growth management. His primary sources are lawyers who make a living by filing lawsuits over land-use decisions. No wonder they dislike an administration that tries to work with Florida's communities before we resort to costly litigation.

Adam Smith
Lampooning shows Reno is vulnerable for big government ways
MIAMI -- Janet Reno has boogied on Saturday Night Live and chatted with Jay Leno. Her most striking pop culture TV appearance, though, may have been a couple years ago on the raunchy cartoon South Park.

Martin Dyckman
Lobbies are no longer bowing out of legislative fights
TALLAHASSEE -- An epic battle has begun for control of the Legislature, but not in the usual sense of whether the Republicans will retain their majorities. That, they are certain to do. The real struggle has to do with which of the GOP factions will dominate, especially in the Senate, and what it may owe to Associated Industries of Florida and other lobbies that weigh into the fight.

Bill Maxwell
A friendship that withstood test of racism
I am one of those African-American men who can sincerely say that he has had a true white friend. I will call him Paul (not his real name) because many of his relatives are still alive and my column is published in newspapers some relatives may likely read.

Robyn E. Blumner
Community standards sword rather than shield
A reader once sent me a letter he had received when trying to order an adult video by mail. The letter was from the distributor, who wrote that the order could not be filled in Florida because the community standards were too strict. He could go to jail for sending it.