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March 22, 2001
Editorials
Police work for Scientology
Pinellas-Pasco Circuit Judge Thomas Penick, who has the unenviable task of refereeing sidewalk skirmishes between the Church of Scientology and anti-Scientology protesters in Clearwater, recently pointed to an arrangement that allows off-duty Clearwater cops to work for Scientology and noted, "They are coming very dangerously close to becoming a private security force for the Church of Scientology."
Newspaper caved
Under pressure, the Orlando Sentinel agreed to limited access to autopsy photos of Dale Earnhardt, despite its legal right and obligation to protect the public's interest.
Letters
Respect the property rights of billboard owners
Your March 15 editorial, The billboard boosters, needs correcting. The proposed legislation does not prohibit local governments from regulating billboards or even from having them removed. It does not require local government to pay $400,000 per sign. The legislation simply requires that if local government is going to take private property for "public good," the owner of that property be paid the fair market value for the property taken.
Martin Dyckman
When Republicans make all the rules
TALLAHASSEE -- The House of Representatives spent a great deal of money on a computer and video technology system that was to be used, among other things, for visual presentations during debate.
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.
© Copyright 2001 St. Petersburg Times. All rights reserved.
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