Print

Email story

Comment

Letter to the editor

Your letters

Your opinions on Business news

By Times Staff
Published July 22, 2007

Adventures in divahood July 19

Picture of little girl was appalling

When I picked up the business section and saw the picture of the 8-year old, I was horrified. Why would you put such a picture in the paper and why would her parents allow it? Such a beautiful little girl in such a pose. I was appalled at this picture. We have a beautiful 8-year-old granddaughter and her parents would never have allowed a picture of this sort. What were you thinking?

Peggy Hansford, Largo

What were their mothers thinking?

What a disgrace! Young girls being portrayed as Britney Spears look-a-likes. How could any responsible mothers allow their "children" to be portrayed in such a disgraceful setting? And $465 for a birthday party? Shame!

John George, Palm Harbor

Citizens reaches out July 17

Attending forum can't help the problem

The Citizens Property Insurance Co. official's comments "that most policyholders don't have any serious problems" is very misleading. Issues in an open forum of this kind are never well attended. For an official of any organization to assume few numbers in attendance means few or no problems, he or she needs a reality check.

We have problems with Citizens. Their rates are too d--- high. To be at this meeting would have solved nothing. The so-called insurance rate established by the new "Peoples' Governor" and the elected Legislature made a further mess of a big problem.

Donald Kreis, Largo

Milk hits $4. Here's why July 16

Higher milk prices simply supply and demand

This article states that corn being converted to make ethanol has caused an increase in demand for corn, and a subsequent increase in the price of corn, which is used for to feed the cows, only increases the cost of the milk, not its price.

The increase in price of milk on the supermarket shelf is caused by supply and demand. Just like oil, the demand for milk has increased. And it can be expected that with the increase in the price of milk, we can expect that the many different foods such as bread and cheese related to milk will also go up.

It's the same excuse given for higher and higher gasoline prices. The milk and related companies should soon be reporting greater and greater profits, just like the oil companies. And like the oil situation, the government will do nothing about it. And the individual can't do anything to stem the squeeze being put on the American people.

V. Paradis, Seminole

No easy fixes for Medicare, column July 15

Time for a change in health care system

Kathy Kristof singles out Medicare when it is health care that should be the subject. For decades, the thrust has always been to address elder care or child care or employee care or uninsured care. Business has reached the point where it can not fund health care for all. A new car purchased today may have several thousand dollars added because of health care. Have we not reached the point where we can address the total subject of health care? And is this not the appropriate action that must be taken?

We are at the point where we have 47-million people without health insurance, of which more than a third have family incomes over $40,000. Over half of all personal bankruptcies are caused by illness or medical debts. States alone are unable to effect changes required to cover their citizens yet control costs. And Medicare is not perfect. Have we now reached the point where a single-payer system with emphasis on preventive care becomes justifiable?

Health care is the only facet where technology, instead of lowering costs, has actually increased costs. We are now at the tipping point where, left unchecked, we can actually see that it will become possible when the entire GDP will be consumed by health care. As a civilized society we can no longer condone, much less afford, a system that allows an insurance company CEO to be given $1.6-billion in stock options in addition to his $8-million salary. How many claims were denied in order to pay for this immoral compensation? Time for a change? You bet your life it is!

Austin R. Curry, Tampa

Executive director, Elder Care Advocacy of Florida

Contract delivery by the Postal Service

Contract delivery must be limited

On July 15, you published a letter from the postmaster of Tampa. Nancy Fryrear defends the practice of contracting out mail delivery. It must be pointed out that Ms. Fryrear's opinion differs from that of Dale Goff, president of the National Association of Postmasters of the United States. Mr. Goff, in his testimony to Congress, testified it is unwise and reckless to contract out your core product, the mail delivery network.

Ms. Fryrear claims contract negotiation rhetoric when disputing union claims that security measures are not in place for contract delivery services. If Ms. Fryrear will not believe a local union official, how about the president of the National Association of Postal Supervisors? Ted Keating, in a letter to Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, expresses his belief that contracting out of mail delivery service raises significant questions about the ability of the Postal Service to prevent, investigate and prosecute mail theft, mail fraud and other illegal uses of the mail.

Postmaster Fryrear writes that contract delivery accounts for a very small percentage of all postal service deliveries. This may be true, but locally, the Postal Service is attempting to contract out as much new territory as it possibly can. As a union steward for the National Rural Letter Carriers Association, I can testify that contracting out of delivery service has recently increased exponentially

Sen. Harkin's Mail Delivery Protection Act of 2007 would limit the practice of contracting out mail delivery. This legislation is supported by both carrier unions and all three organizations representing USPS managers. Perhaps Ms. Fryrear should ask her management staff their opinion of contract delivery service.

Penny Connell, Plant City

The wheels on the bus ... don't go fast enough, column July 15

Building rapid transit just too expensive

Welcome to St. Petersburg, Ms. Kim. Sorry, as you point out in your column, we haven't figured out how to get you to Tampa International Airport for $2.25.

The truth is that every American city with an effective citywide "rapid transit system" benefited from developing its basic infrastructure during a time of historically cheap steel, land procurement and labor costs a century or more ago. Flash forward to 2007 and steel, land and labor have made the costs of rapid transit systems prohibitively expensive. As you point out, many cities with up-and-running systems can't even afford to maintain the systems they have.

Tampa Bay is no different than Jacksonville, Orlando, Phoenix, Las Vegas or any number of other "new" cities with explosive growth. A small group continually whines about the need for rapid transit. The vast majority (who in spite of being forced to pay for the entire project, would virtually never use the hypothesized rapid transit system) continues to drive from place to place generally happy with the status quo.

So why can't you get to the airport for a couple of bucks? Because it would cost a couple of billion dollars and those of us who own homes here really don't want to pay for it.

Mark Nichter, St. Petersburg

A business animal July 14

It feels bad to have your name misspelled

Was just wondering if Mr. Killmar had brought a new species with him to Lowry Park. I'm sure I'm not the only one to notice the misnamed animal he was standing with. I just hope the okapi wasn't insulted. We all know how awful it is to have our name mispronounced, or misspelled. You should hear some of the hits the name Taylor has taken. Oh well, maybe it's better than being ignored.

Gene Taylor, Pinellas Park

About the iPhone

Sure looks like Apple's running AT&T

The iPhone is remarkable. It is easier to use than any other phone on the market. That is not my gripe. My gripe is that I have an AT&T/Cingular contract and have had one with them for about eight years. I called to find out how much my bill would go up if I purchased an iPhone and add it to my bill. I get a discounted rate for being in the military on both my line and my wife's line.

They said that I would have to add another $20 of service with no discount available and I would lose the discount that I receive.

Something just does not add up here. Since when does Apple run AT&T?

Jason E. Bauer, Palm Harbor

Florida enters warming deals July 13

We all must take care of our Earth

On Gov. Charlie Crist's partnership with Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, R-Calif., Minister Matthias Machnig of Germany and Dr. John Ashton of the United Kingdom on mitigating greenhouse gas emissions:

It's so interesting that Gov. Crist created a world forum to implement laws that have been on the Florida books for years - but had no funding. And there still is no funding.

But at the same time, Gov. Crist's initiatives are very impressive (speaking as someone involved in this issue for many years) because the governor has brought Florida before the eyes of the world, and we will be held accountable. These initiatives are long overdue.

As Gov. Schwarzenegger said: This is not a Republican Earth, this is not a Democratic Earth, this is our Earth, and we all must take care of it.

Robert Farmer, St. Augustine, President, Concept Communiques and Third Planet

[Last modified July 20, 2007, 22:36:31]