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Editorial: Of Puritans and pints
St. Petersburg City Council member John Bryan thinks the city's prohibition on the sale of alcohol before 1 p.m. on Sundays is archaic. The origin of such regulations, called "blue laws," dates back to 17th century New England when the Puritans placed people in the stocks and whipped them on the public square for breaking rules on the Sabbath. St. Petersburg's ordinance is decades old.

Editorial: Indefensible detainment
In the chaos of battle, it is easy for innocent people to be captured as the enemy, particularly in a place such as Afghanistan, where Taliban and al-Qaida members blended in with the local population. But the Bush administration, in establishing a detention camp at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, has made no provision for correcting such errors.

Editorial: Fighting the sludge
The bill that would allow learning-disabled students who could not pass the FCAT to graduate is a good start, but it has a long way to go when it comes to helping struggling third-graders.

Letters: FDA is reduced to threatening U.S. drug consumers
Re: Crackdown threatened on cheaper medicines, March 13.

 

Columns today
Robert Trigaux: Oh, what fashion lemmings we've become, author says
When Michelle K. Lee graduated six years ago from the University of South Florida, she dreamed of becoming a fashion editor at Vogue magazine in New York.

John Romano: All heart, but no roar
TAMPA -- Let's get a few things straight. It's not like Auburn came in with no reputation whatsoever.

Gary Shelton: Losing is getting old
TAMPA -- In the end, they went down without firing a shot. If you remember nothing else about these Florida Gators, remember that.

Susan Taylor Martin: Exiles yearn for Hussein's doom
AMMAN, Jordan -- In Iraq, Jamal Albostani wrote books. They were works of fiction that clearly were also indictments of Saddam Hussein's regime.

 

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.