Editorials
Legislative failure
Though the GOP promised to clean up the process after taking over five years ago, it's as bad as ever.

Choosing health over profits
Gov. Jeb Bush made the right decision when he said the state should stop producing treated wood that contains arsenic. He spoke after a story by Times staff writer Julie Hauserman revealed that playgrounds made of wood saturated with chromated copper arsenate, or CCA, leaches arsenic, which can be ingested or even absorbed through the skin. Children are particularly at risk, and continued exposure to even small amounts of arsenic is linked to cancer of the skin and internal organs.

Tax giveaway still a bad idea
State lawmakers want another crack at what Floridians have already rejected -- giving tax breaks to private companies that make their money on public land. The deal is bad economics and unfair in principle, just as it was in 1998, when voters opposed such a giveaway in 55 of the state's 67 counties.

Letters
Details of slaughterhouses enrage
Re: "They die piece by piece", April 22.

Bill Maxwell
Faulty logic for art that offends
As an opinion writer and a writing teacher, I worry about the state of logic in public debate. I am particularly worried when powerful opinion leaders argue fallaciously. Some of the worst cases of illogical thinking occur when politics, race, religion and art collide.

Robyn E. Blumner
Civics program on chopping block
Would you know how a prohibition on ex post facto laws enforces our separation of powers; the difference between procedural and substantive due process; or why evidence obtained during an illegal police search should be excluded from trial?

Tim Nickens
Hope springs eternal for state Democrats in next year's governor's race
TALLAHASSEE -- It's hard to turn around without bumping into a Democrat who wants to be mentioned as a possible candidate for governor.

Martin Dyckman
Tom Feeney's dictatorship
TALLAHASSEE -- At this writing, the House and Senate are still behind schedule for a budget deal. Their leaders quarrelled long over how many state jobs to cut. The Senate tried to limit the toll to mostly unfilled positions. House Speaker Tom "Chainsaw" Feeney insisted on drawing real blood.

Philip Gailey
Shiny shoes with big feet walk heavily in the halls of the Capitol
TALLAHASSEE -- When the subject is the Florida Legislature, I gladly defer to my esteemed editorial colleague Martin Dyckman, who probably knows more about state politics and government than anyone in Florida. So I will stay in the shallow end of the opinion pool, sorting out my impressions from a two-day visit to the state capital.

Diane Roberts
Florida copies the mistakes Alabama is trying to fix
To hear Republican leaders talk, once the state gives the governor vastly expanded power over education and the legal system, development and business will flourish, schools and colleges will excel, and ordinary citizens will be fuller participants in democracy. But what the state of Florida might really turn into is not Utopia -- it's Alabama.