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July 24, 2000

Editorials
Diamonds, dollars and blood
Diamonds may be cemented in our mind as the sparkle of love, but in many parts of Africa they are the spark of war.

Catch them on camera
Once again, our area has been identified as an especially hazardous place for pedestrians and drivers. This time, it's motorists who run red lights. A study released Thursday indicated red light running resulted in 7.6 deaths for every 100,000 St. Petersburg residents between 1992-1998, one of the highest rates in the nation.

A middle way
Sen. William Roth's proposal for Medicare drug coverage stakes out ground between those of Democrats and other Republicans. It is a worthy compromise.

Letters
Use of budget surplus should be key election issue
The federal budget surplus keeps getting bigger each time it's re-estimated. This election is about a key turning point in the history of the United States. It is about who benefits from the surplus, and the answer to that question will shape the character of America for the next 50 years.  

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.