Bill Maxwell
Program offers safe refuge for at-risk scholars
In Gaza city, student guide, Ismael, warned about asking certain questions about Gazan society.

Robyn E. Blumner
Government protecting us to death
"Life is a sexually transmitted terminal disease," declared bestselling author Peter McWilliams in his libertarian romp Ain't Nobody's Business If You Do: The Absurdity of Consensual Crimes in a Free Society. His point was that virtually every choice in life carries a risk and, eventually, we're all going to die. So why is the government allowed to determine that some personal choices, such as drug use and prostitution, are so risky that people who engage in them can be jailed?

Editorials
A reserve is right for Tortugas
The healthiest coral reefs in Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary surround Dry Tortugas National Park, 70 watery miles from Key West. Yet even those reefs are under siege.

Good point, poor choice of words
Ronda Storms has a knack for shifting her mouth into overdrive before her brain gets in gear. The Hillsborough County commissioner did it again Wednesday, when she launched into a gratuitous treatise on the reasons minority lawyers are so scarce in Florida. Storms embarrassed this community with her insensitive choice of words -- even though her argument that a new law school in Tampa won't solve the problem is well-founded.

Incomplete grades
The marked improvement in school grades is heartening, but we should keep in mind what the governor's grading plan can and cannot do.

Letters
Stay-at-home moms deserve benefits
Re: Gore tries to lure mothers with plenty of goodies, June 25.

Martin Dyckman
Remembering a life of honor
TALLAHASSEE -- Old soldiers never die, they just fade away . . . So went the old soldiers' song that Douglas MacArthur wrote into his farewell address to Congress.