Heartfelt finale incongruent with plot

• In a legislative session riddled with retribution, special interests set the stage for "Let's Make a Deal." Tim Nickens
• Legislators say goodbyes, shed tears and leave us to wonder what's gone wrong. Martin Dyckman

Editorials
Maintain Miranda
The warning against self-incrimination has worked well for 34 years. The Supreme Court should not undo this ruling that helps to protect Americans' constitutional rights.

Zimbabwe's power struggle
The peaceable citizens of Zimbabwe must feel as though they are trapped in an Orwellian nightmare from which they cannot awake.

Letters
Blacks have cause to be wary of police
Just as I was beginning to feel that columnist Bill Maxwell had regained his inborn knowledge of the black experience, he loosed a tirade of criticism against African-Americans.

Philip Gailey
Al Gore? Is that all you've got?
BOSTON -- I have a hunch that the Boston Tea Party may have had more to do with sore bottoms and aching backs than revolutionary fervor. Old South Church is where the idea for the tea party was hatched. The seating inside the church is a labyrinth of hard, straight-back benches facing all directions. To sit on these benches for an hour or more is to understand why those Colonial rebels were in a bad mood when they left the church and headed to Boston Harbor to dump tons of British tea into the water.

Robyn E. Blumner
Ah, to be one of the few, the proud -- the sports fans
Some say people are divided by gender, religion, racial and ethnic differences. But the real fault line lies elsewhere.

Bill Maxwell
Lebanese and Israelis both suffer on border
Lebanese Hezbollah guerrillas fired more than 30 Katyusha rockets into northern Israel Thursday, killing one Israeli soldier and wounding as many as 28 civilians. Israel has retaliated with warplanes.

Books
Cyberia
HELP FOR PARENTS: Yes, the Internet can be a scary place for children and their parents. It also can be "a place of infinite wonders and unparalleled learning opportunities," says Parry Aftab's in The Parent's Guide to Protecting Your Children in Cyberspace ($12.95, McGraw-Hill).