St. Petersburg Times Online: Opinion

Editorial: Programs of USF distinction
If a university grows along with its students, then the gangly youth on Bayboro Harbor is maturing quickly. The University of South Florida St. Petersburg has identified four "programs of distinction" for expansion, marking another milestone in the campus' life.

Editorial: Pharmaceutical kickbacks
A doctor's choice of prescription drug for a patient should be weighed against many factors, one of which should not be financial reward from the pharmaceutical company.

Letters: Krewe's bullying a sign of times for Gasparilla
Re: Ye Clueless Krewe, editorial, Dec. 27.

Columns today
Howard Troxler: 2002, Part 2: Fish that fight back and other, assorted oddities
The Tampa Bay Area Year In Review, Part II:

Gary Shelton: Johnson's health determines fate
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. -- For the Bucs, the finest play of the night came late, far away from the crowd and the cameras.

John Romano: Gimme five!
TALK OF THE TOWN

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.