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Editorial: Illusory insurance
A bill pending in the Legislature would force out-of-state associations to play by Florida's rules and keep them from inflating health insurance premiums that were initially affordable.

Editorial: Prayer bill has a bitter flavor
A budget that's a disaster in progress. Old, worsening quarrels over medical malpractice, worker's compensation and nursing homes. Class size. High-speed rail. With so much already in dispute, why are some Florida legislators picking another needless fight over school prayer?

Editorial: Fund the front line of defense
Tom Ridge sits atop the organizational chart, but the states and localities -- not the federal government -- form the front line of homeland defense. Whether patrolling outside U.S. ports, staffing biohazard teams or providing security at public places and events, the government's ability to respond in a timely manner hinges on preparedness at the local level. Washington needs to provide the help it promised for this massive effort.

Letters: Black wealth ought to do more for community
A month for more than just rhetoric (Feb. 26) by Bill Maxwell is one of those columns that I could not ignore. After I thought awful and disgusting things for his slamming the Rev. Rep. Frank Peterman, he goes and brings great critical attention to an issue so profoundly true that I marveled at its simple challenge.

 

Columns today
Howard Troxler: Resist that inclination to resegregate our schools
They say that the first run of Pinellas County schools' new choice system has been a "success."

Robert Trigaux: Boomers next on the menu for state's appetite for retirees
Let's say you are one of 50 diners in a busy restaurant. Each time the waiter brings five meals out of the kitchen, you get one of them. The other four meals are fought over by the other 49 diners.

John Romano: Is this good thing good enough?
TAMPA -- It's probably just a tweak. An annoyance, no more.

David Adams: 'Narcoterrorism' needs attention
Radical Islamic groups appear to be raising money through drug and arms trafficking.

 

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.