Like a gambler betting on a hunch, Florida voters and lawmakers have expanded legalized gambling throughout the state without much certainty about its effects on crime, bankruptcy, suicide and addiction.
2008 OLYMPICS | COMMENTARY
Time to clear the air: That's not smog hovering over Beijing, swallowing entire office buildings like a mighty python. It's just ''a funny mist,'' says the city's environmental chief, who insists that the Chinese government has eliminated air pollution in the capital. And he's right: By moving its monitoring stations as far as 40 miles from the city center, Beijing's air-quality reports read like Irving Berlin lyrics: Blue skies, smilin' at me. Nothin' but blue skies do I see . . .
Only someone with a tenuous grasp on reality and a poor knowledge of history and the world could have looked into the flinty eyes of a onetime colonel in the Soviet KGB and ``found him very straightforward and trustworthy.''
A few words about the search for America. Meaning not the piece of land bounded by Atlantic and Pacific but, rather, the one that exists as a fixed point in the communal psyche, the one that registers true north on our shared moral compass. It is the America where Beaver Cleaver lived, the America of manicured lawns and neat three-bedroom homes bordered by fences made of white pickets. It is the monochromatic America where dad worked and mom kept house and the family went to church together every...
The global economy is a runaway train that is slowing, but not quickly enough. That is what the extraordinary run-up in prices for oil, metals and food is screaming at us. The spectacular and historic global economic boom of the past six years is about to hit a wall. Unfortunately, no one, certainly not in Asia or the United States, seems willing to bite the bullet and help engineer the necessary coordinated retreat to sustained sub-trend growth, which is necessary so that new commodity supplies...
A crucial argument about the best way to combat global warming comes down to two alternatives that may seem deceptively simple: Force utilities to make a certain percentage of electricity from renewable resources, such as solar and wind.
MIAMI HERALD OMBUDSMAN
In a major move for the two When readers recently recommended overwhelmingly that a slimmed down Miami Herald should reposition itself with more local news, many of them pointed to the Neighbors sections.
First James Cameron died and now they've closed his museum. If it had to happen, I'm glad it happened in that order, glad Cameron did not live to see them padlock the institution to which he dedicated his life. I met Cameron in 1994 when I went to Milwaukee to interview him about his book,
EGYPT
In this small Nile River farming village, Maha Mohammed has started to doubt whether she should circumcise her two daughters. A year ago, she had few qualms about female genital mutilation, the practice of cutting a girl's clitoris and sometimes other genitalia. She herself was cut two decades ago, and she fears her daughters will not find husbands otherwise.
Cuba's July 26th anniversary has always been an occasion for the glorification of Fidel Castro and the revolutionary process he initiated in 1953 at Santiago's Moncada garrison. This year at Moncada, as last year in Camagüey, Raúl Castro spoke in his brother's place, hewing to many of the themes that for decades have been standard for the event.
`What is it about George W. Bush that makes you want to serve him?'' I have gone forward and back for awhile now trying to figure out where today's rant should begin, but I find that I cannot get past that question. It was posed by Monica Goodling, an aide to then Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, to job seekers at the Department of
Politics and the Olympics were intertwined long before Beijing was awarded the 2008 Summer Olympics. 1906, ATHENS Irish long jumper Peter O'Connor, who was forced to compete under Great Britain's flag because Ireland didn't have its own Olympic committee, protested after winning the silver medal. During his award ceremony, guarded by teammates and American friends, he climbed the flagpole in the middle of the field and waved the Irish flag.
NORTHWESTERN HIGH GRADUATION
Deirdre Anderson wasn't sure she wanted to go to Northwestern High's graduation. She wasn't sure she wanted to revisit her pain. At the last minute, however, she changed her mind. She walked into the Jackie Gleason Theater on June 11, smiling, with her daughters and grandchild at her side.
OVERTOWN
When she hears gunshots, Eleanor Wilson gets on the phone. She calls each one of her family members. She doesn't stop until everyone responds.
VIOLENCE CLAIMING YOUNG BLACKS
In a small Miami-Dade courtroom, Arleen White stared at the man who killed her 15-year-old son, Anthony, and spoke of her pain -- and her gratitude to God:
MIAMI HERALD OMBUDSMAN
One of the most treacherous stories for The Miami Herald to cover is Israel, not because of the wars and terrorism there, but because of the passions among readers here.
Martin Luther King's final campaign in Memphis was a march into a violent maelstrom of hatred and righteous defiance. Share your thoughts below on our coverage of the anniversary of the assassination and see what other readers are saying.
All bets are off in the Republican presidential primary. Frontrunners become underdogs, longshots become contenders, and the winner at the end of the race may come down to the candidate with the best timing.
Mike Huckabee would later write about that day in 1996 as his ``crucible moment.'' Jim Guy Tucker, the Democratic governor of Arkansas and a newly convicted felon, was reneging on his earlier pledge to resign. His I'm-staying-after-all phone call came as Huckabee, a Republican and then lieutenant governor, was rehearsing the speech he had planned for later that day, when he expected to become the state's chief executive.
He spoke out against putting dope dealers in federal prison, opposed a bill to crack down on child pornography and voted against the Iraq War. Then Ron Paul announced that he was running for president -- as a Republican.
