Don Addis Editorial Cartoons E-mail a letter to the editor

Editorial: The road to health
A federal agency's report on the Stauffer Chemical property provides some helpful information on possible health hazards for former workers and those who live near the site.

Editorial: A cleaner burn
The Bush administration scored a victory for public health with its proposal to clean up dirty diesel engines. The new rules, unveiled Tuesday by Christie Whitman, the chief of the Environmental Protection Agency, would force so-called "non-road" engines -- tractors, generators and the like -- to burn cleaner fuel and emit less soot. The administration was right to be aggressive about a cleanup that could save thousands of lives.

Editorial: Uncommon valor
The word "hero" is tossed around so casually these days that it has almost lost its meaning. Then comes the story of Army Sgt. Paul Smith, who reminds us what a real hero is. The 33-year-old soldier from Tampa was killed April 4 after valiantly fending off an Iraqi assault on his command post.

Letters: Government deserves to get less of our money
After I paid my money to the IRS this week, I finally have had it! Anyone who thinks we do not need a tax cut is an idiot. The amount of money wasted in Washington should be considered criminal. Punish success is the theme.

 

Columns today
Jan Glidewell: Boyfriend's just right for her, wrong for a column
"But you never write about him," she said.

Howard Troxler: When cuts hurt trial courts, we all feel pain
Florida's trial courts, overall, do a pretty good job.

Ernest Hooper: West Tampa uncovering its hidden beauty
Rick Caldevilla was renovating his Caldeco Mechanical Services storefront office in West Tampa when he made an interesting discovery.

 

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.