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Editorial
The remaining questions
President Bush has begun a dialogue on Iraq with Congress and the United Nations, but vital questions about the White House's war plans still haven't been answered.

Editorial
Challenging sitting judges
Both of the incumbent Hillsborough County judges challenged in the Sept. 10 primary kept their seats. There was no reason Judge Cheryl Thomas should have lost her job. Judge Eric Myers made mistakes as a prosecutor, but his record on the bench warranted another term. Their victories are noteworthy because most voters usually know little about judicial candidates. The candidates are barred by ethics rules from speaking about much. Though the best candidates won, the outcome shouldn't discourage talented lawyers from challenging sitting judges.

Letters
Florida should have a unified election system
Again Florida is the laughing stock of the nation as the state that can't vote straight.

 

Columns today
Mary Jo Melone
The sharp focus of a 50th birthday
Once upon a time in my life -- the easy, irresponsible college years -- I believed nobody would graduate after my class, of '74. We were the brightest, we were the ultimate, and best of all, we were 21.

Elijah Gosier
Beneath the bullying, another victim
I could tell by the lateness of the call that he had given it a lot of thought.

Ernest Hooper
Campaign an oddity, recycling for games
When it comes to campaign signs, I'm accustomed to seeing words like vote, elect, choose and re-elect. "Don't elect" is as uncommon as ribs without barbecue sauce, but that's what I saw at the corner of Martin Luther King Jr. and Kingsway on Sunday.

Jan Glidewell
Pragmatic Zephyrhills just grins and bears it
If you can say one thing for Zephyrhills, it is that it is a community whose residents are in touch with economic reality.

John Romano
Offense remains a work in progress
TAMPA -- It was not the time to quibble.

 

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.