Don Addis Editorial Cartoons E-mail a letter to the editor

October 10, 2000

Times recommends...
Gallagher for treasurer
For reasons that now seem quaint, Florida's elected treasurer, a member of that odd collective constitutional entity known as the governor and Cabinet, is also the insurance commissioner and state fire marshal. As far as most voters are concerned, it's the added-on job that counts. Few have more than a passing interest in how the state manages its money, but everyone is at the mercy of the insurance industry. As that industry is accustomed to having its way with the Legislature, it is vital that the commissioner, at least, be someone who puts the public first and has the sense, skills, courage and independence to serve them capably.

Editorials
Shielding the truth
There should be an investigation to determine whether there was any attempt to shield Harry Lee Coe by withholding public records.

Letters
Forget choice, let's make all schools better
Re: School "choice" plan in Pinellas County.  

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.