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April 20, 2001
Editorials
Drilling in the Gulf
President Bush is sending a message to his brother by the Interior Secretary's decision to drill for oil off the coast of Alabama, still off Florida's coast.
A steady start for Mayor Baker
In announcing his top staff Thursday, St. Petersburg Mayor Rick Baker laid the administrative foundation for his oft-stated political priorities: solid city services, neighborhood improvement and economic development in the black community. His choices also spoke to the tone he said he would set for his administration, one of vigor and stability.
Judge's bad judgment
Just four months ago, Florida Secretary of State Katherine Harris was the defendant before Circuit Judge N. Sanders Sauls of Tallahassee in one of the biggest cases that any court will ever hear. His ruling that she didn't have to recount Florida presidential ballots was a big break for George W. Bush, who ultimately won the state's 25 electoral votes after the U.S. Supreme Court intervened and stopped the recount of disputed ballots.
Letters
There's logic in the plan for aquifer injection
Based upon the editorials and letters that I have seen in your paper regarding the Aquifer Storage and Recovery bill, emotionalism and ignorance reign supreme on this issue. As I have read, the Legislature wants to inject surface water down into undrinkable aquifers so the water can be withdrawn, treated and used during drought periods. If the water from these currently undrinkable aquifers is ever to be consumed, it will need to be treated, so adding more undrinkable water to them poses no harm that I can discern.
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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