St. Petersburg Times Online: Opinion

Editorial
Economist's candor will be missed
The indispensable employee in any state capital is the one whose duty is to tell the governor and the Legislature what they don't want to hear. In Florida, that role has been filled, faithfully and fearlessly for 16 years, by a good-humored economist (yes, there is at least one) named Ed Montanaro. His resignation as director of the Legislature's Office of Economic and Demographic Research is the worst news to come out of Tallahassee this summer.

Editorial
Greco goes to Cuba
The Tampa mayor's trip was a practical effort to position his city to take advantage of trade with the island nation after the trade embargo is lifted.

Letters
Teacher salaries don't add up to hourly pay
Re: Teacher pay not so bad, letter, July 26.

Columns today
Mary Jo Melone
She just keeps on keeping on
Say this about Julianne Holt: She's a survivor.

John Romano
Rays buoyed by trades that didn't happen
ST. PETERSBURG -- You are a fan of the worst team in baseball.

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.