The fire season has barely started, but the costs of wildfires in Florida are already soaring. Few homes have been destroyed so far, but with more dry weather likely, more will probably go up in flames before the summer rains start. Given that the disastrous fires of 1998 didn’t get cranking until June, 2007 is likely to go down as the costliest fire season on record.
Durham police report that the lacrosse players presented neither a special nor unique case.
The recent firing of eight U.S. attorneys illustrates the fine line between politics and policy in our democracy. Whether the Bush administration did anything wrong depends on which side of the line its conduct fell. Because the evidence indicates the possibility of political manipulation of the prosecutorial function, Congress must persist in ferreting out the truth.
BOTH the House of Representatives and the Senate have recently passed bills raising the minimum wage. The Senate bill includes tax breaks for businesses, based on the following logic: While a minimum wage increase is popular, the resulting higher labor costs will translate into fewer jobs, more expensive products or both. The solution, the senators concluded, was to subsidize companies that hire disadvantaged workers, in order to reimburse them for these higher wage costs.
Last time the public was tuned in, the Justice Department was vigorously prosecuting corporate giants such as Enron for massive frauds committed during the waning days of the stock bubble. Assisted by the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, government lawyers were racking up victories in the battle against white-collar crime. One recent highlight was the October sentencing of former Enron chief executive Jeffrey Skilling to 24 years in prison.
Evidence for human-caused climate change is now so compelling that policy makers are unlikely to ignore it.
Floridians don’t always agree on things. Remember the presidential election of 2000? That’s why a recent survey showing Florida citizens’ overwhelming support for medical and health research is so striking.
Despite ominous predictions that this hurricane season would rival last year’s onslaught of killer storms, the season ended quietly on Nov. 30. The lessons of Hurricane Katrina, however, require us to plan for what lies ahead. Unfortunately, Congress has failed to enact comprehensive catastrophe legislation to prepare for and respond to the worst Mother Nature has to offer.
For 47 years Fidel Castro has ruled Cuba. For 44 years through 10 U.S. administrations, Washington has pursued a diplomatic and economic embargo of Cuba designed to force Castro from office. For at least 40 years, critics have argued that U.S. policy is a failure. While the 80-year-old Cuban dictator may return to power, his end is in sight — and it is time to rethink our Cuba policy. What should U.S. policy be toward a post-Castro Cuba?
As NASA prepares for the scheduled blastoff of the shuttle Discovery today, there’s little doubt that Cape Canaveral is the best place to launch space vehicles in the United States and perhaps the world.