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October 23, 2001
Editorials
Special session caution
The Florida Legislature should remain prudent when deciding on budget and civil matters during the governor's short special session.
Don't weaken environmental laws
Even pro-business Republicans on the Hillsborough County Commission can't go along with a plan by state Rep. Rob Wallace. The Carrollwood Republican wants to weaken Hillsborough's Environmental Protection Commission by limiting the board's ability to fine and punish polluters. Wallace complains the penalties are heavy and punitive. That's what they're supposed to be. Lowering them, as Wallace wants to do, would only open the door to more pollution and red tape.
Letters
Accountability that counts is to students' parents
I took great exception to the Times' position that trusting parents to make education decisions for their children is tantamount to attempting "to hand out tax money in ways that lack all accountability" (An educational fraud, Oct. 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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