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November 26, 2001
Letters
Politicians should quit rationalizing Florida's failures
Re: Florida's status? It's how you look at it, Nov. 18.
Editorials
Abuse in foster care
An increase in foster care abuse calls for a better pool of foster parents, more support for those who do an exemplary job and better family programs that prevent foster care.
Region's progress in desal plant
The final permit, expected any day, for Tampa Bay Water's first seawater desalination plant marks the end of one journey and the start of another. On the positive side, Pinellas, Hillsborough and Pasco counties are closer to having a new drinking water source that is more environmentally sound for the region than the practice of groundwater pumping. That is progress. Yet, at the same time, desal poses risks of its own that must be addressed with vigilance.
Coordinated health system needed
The Sept. 11 attacks focused attention on the vulnerable state of America's public health system. As the nation beefs up its defenses against a biological or chemical attack, it should develop an early-warning system that could double in the fight against the everyday threat of chronic diseases. A program before Congress could do just that.
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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