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August 14, 2000

Editorials
Rice for sheriff
The Pinellas sheriff's department that Everett Rice inherited 12 years ago was stained by cronyism, financial irregularities and a disturbing pattern of officer brutality. It was the subject of investigations by the FBI, the U.S. attorney, the state attorney, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, grand juries and the U.S. Department of Labor.

Facility needs state control
The place is out of control, said a just-released report about the Sago Palm Academy, the 350-bed juvenile offender facility in western Palm Beach County. Consultants hired by the state say guards abused the teen inmates, shackling one to a bed for 14 hours and using a choke hold on another. At other times, supervision was nearly completely lacking and young people were left idle for long periods without schooling.

Letters
Let's strive for civility in the political arena
Re: Sheriff's race forum turns ugly, Aug. 10.  

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.