|
April 30, 2001
Editorials
A safer place
Florida's crime rate continues to drop -- but credit a strong economy and a decline in drug violence, not the "tough on crime" laws passed by the Legislature.
Avoiding another messy fight
Three imprinted bricks bearing messages that could offend some Scientologists will be among those used to pave a public alley in downtown Clearwater, thanks to an eleventh-hour decision by a citizens group. It was the right decision.
Long-term care funding crunch
Lawmakers headed to Tallahassee this year vowing to take a comprehensive look at long-term care in Florida. With fresh findings from a task force created last year, they were expected to make changes in three broad areas -- to improve nursing-home quality, relieve liability pressures and place more priority on home- and community-based care for the infirmed elderly. But with the session almost over, lawmakers have spent a lot of time on the first two areas and precious little on the third. When, exactly, do they plan to get serious about finding and funding alternatives to nursing homes?
Letters
Public education needs help, but is not a failure
Re: Kids learn more wrong than right, by Gregory Kane, April 21.
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.
|
