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July 13, 2001
Editorials
Compounding a tragedy
Discriminatory state and city pension policies treat Tampa police Officer Lois Marrero, who was killed in the line of duty, like a second-class citizen.
Tighten global arms restrictions
The United Nations on Monday convened its conference on illicit small arms trafficking with the goal of tightening global restrictions on the sales of machine guns, rocket launchers, grenades and other small weapons used in guerilla conflicts around the world. An international accord backed by the United States, the world's biggest weaponsmaker, could go a long way toward curbing the illicit trade in lethal weapons. Regrettably, the Bush administration expressed concern that the U.N. draft declarations could infringe on Americans' constitutional right to bear arms.
Investor first, taxpayer second
It's one thing for property owners to miss a tax deadline when they find themselves in a financial bind. But delaying tax payments as an investment strategy is something else, especially for an elected official. Now we learn that St. Petersburg City Council member Virginia Littrell was an investor first and a taxpayer second. Littrell, who is no hardship case, until Thursday (the day it hit the news) owed $1,840 in delinquent property taxes on her St. Petersburg home assessed at $90,100, and she says she hadn't paid them until then because her money was tied up in investments.
Letters
Officer's partner should get her pension benefit
Re: Too much was said, letter, July 11.
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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