http://www.miamiherald.com/opinion/editorials/index.html http://media.miamiherald.com/images/logos/rss_sitelogo.gif http://www.miamiherald.com/opinion/editorials/index.html 140 25 News, sports and entertainment from MiamiHerald.com en-us Copyright 2008 MiamiHerald.com Editorials 60 Wed, 14 May 2008 05:05:23 EDT http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss McClatchy Interactive's PubSys miamifeedback@miamiherald.com http://www.miamiherald.com/opinion/editorials/story/532330.html http://www.miamiherald.com/opinion/editorials/story/532330.html Wed, 14 May 2008 03:01 EDT It is nearly impossible to imagine the enormity of the disaster that struck China on Monday when an earthquake estimated at a magnitude 7.8 shook the Earth to its core. One can only begin to sense the scale of the disaster by its ghastly toll on human life -- estimated at more than 9,000 and rising -- and its merciless destruction of schools, houses, factories, apartment blocks. Jolts were felt as far away as Bangkok, Thailand, which is 1,243 miles southwest of the earthquake's epicenter in China's... http://www.miamiherald.com/opinion/editorials/story/532327.html http://www.miamiherald.com/opinion/editorials/story/532327.html Wed, 14 May 2008 03:01 EDT On the 60th anniversary of the creation of the State of Israel, the most remarkable fact about the country remains its very existence. From the start, Israel has never known a second of real peace. As Israeli President Shimon Peres noted in a recent interview, ''We have had to face seven wars, outgunned, outmanned, outnumbered. And we won them all. But we never gave up the search for peace.'' Today, the search for peace goes on, as it must, but prospects are dimmer than usual and the peril inexorably... http://www.miamiherald.com/opinion/editorials/story/530760.html http://www.miamiherald.com/opinion/editorials/story/530760.html Tue, 13 May 2008 03:01 EDT In 1940, during the Battle of Britain, Prime Minister Winston Churchill celebrated the daring crews of the Royal Air Force with stirring words: ''Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few.'' Today, something similar could be said about the men and women wearing the uniform of the United States in Iraq and Afghanistan. Never have so few U.S. soldiers been asked to sacrifice so much while so little was asked of the rest of us. http://www.miamiherald.com/opinion/editorials/story/530766.html http://www.miamiherald.com/opinion/editorials/story/530766.html Tue, 13 May 2008 03:01 EDT In lifting an injunction banning three rock mining permits in Northwest Miami-Dade County and remanding the case back to U.S. District Judge William Hoeveler for reconsideration, an appellate panel left the door open for the judge to review and strengthen his decision. A three-judge panel of the U.S. 11th Circuit Court of Appeals found that Judge Hoeveler didn't show proper deference to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' decisions to issue more rock-mining permits in a case pitting rock miners against... http://www.miamiherald.com/opinion/editorials/story/529585.html http://www.miamiherald.com/opinion/editorials/story/529585.html Mon, 12 May 2008 03:01 EDT The decision by a jury in Brazil last week to acquit an Amazon rancher who was found guilty in an earlier trial of ordering the murder of American nun Dorothy Stang represents a stunning reversal of justice. The 2005 murder of Sister Dorothy, an environmental activist, has been seen as a test of Brazil's judicial system and its willingness to confront the culture of impunity that surrounds powerful landholders in rural areas. Brazil's public is outraged. It should be. http://www.miamiherald.com/opinion/editorials/story/529586.html http://www.miamiherald.com/opinion/editorials/story/529586.html Mon, 12 May 2008 03:01 EDT For several years, this Editorial Board has advocated replacing two sections of the Tamiami Trail in Everglades National Park with up to 11 miles of a skyway bridge to increase sheet flow, particularly to the Northeast Shark River Slough area. Most recently we urged the U.S. Corps of Engineers to rethink its latest plan to build a single mile-long bridge, make some road modifications and raise the water level in a canal north of the Trail to increase flow. http://www.miamiherald.com/opinion/editorials/story/527366.html http://www.miamiherald.com/opinion/editorials/story/527366.html Sun, 11 May 2008 03:01 EDT For more than a half century, the U.S. Supreme Court interpreted voting law in a way that encouraged voting and access to the polls. But no longer. The court's recent ruling in an Indiana voter-identification case reversed the modern court's role as a champion of voting rights. Instead, the conservative-majority court has swung to the other side. This court is doing what states once did: making it more difficult for citizens to participate in their democracy. http://www.miamiherald.com/opinion/editorials/story/527367.html http://www.miamiherald.com/opinion/editorials/story/527367.html Sun, 11 May 2008 03:01 EDT LAWMAKERS GO HOME Whenever the Legislature convenes a new session, there is anticipation about what will be accomplished. Just as predictably when the session ends, there is disappointment about what was left undone. The 2008 Legislature was no different. Lawmakers faced the daunting task of setting state priorities amid a sinking economy, a $5 billion revenue shortfall and a bruising housing market. Not surprisingly, lawmakers left Tallahassee last week with a decidedly mixed record -- May 9. http://www.miamiherald.com/opinion/editorials/story/528022.html http://www.miamiherald.com/opinion/editorials/story/528022.html Sat, 10 May 2008 03:01 EDT Ask residents why they live in Pembroke Pines, and a good many will answer, ''The charter schools, of course.'' The city's seven schools have perennial waiting lists. Their graduation rate is near 90 percent, while the Broward County School District's rate is 66 percent. http://www.miamiherald.com/opinion/editorials/story/526612.html http://www.miamiherald.com/opinion/editorials/story/526612.html Fri, 09 May 2008 03:01 EDT Whenever the Legislature convenes a new session, there is anticipation about what will be accomplished. Just as predictably when the session ends, there is disappointment about what was left undone. The 2008 Legislature was no different. Lawmakers faced the daunting task of setting state priorities amid a sinking economy, a $5 billion revenue shortfall and a bruising housing market. http://www.miamiherald.com/opinion/editorials/story/526611.html http://www.miamiherald.com/opinion/editorials/story/526611.html Fri, 09 May 2008 03:01 EDT REJECT UDB MOVE Will the majority of Miami-Dade County commissioners ever get it? Will they realize that they are elected stewards of the county's natural resources, meaning they should conserve those resources? On Tuesday, commissioners overrode County Mayor Carlos Alvarez's veto of two projects slated to be built outside the Urban Development Boundary. This was the last chance for commissioners to get in sync with residents for whom new development means more traffic, crowded schools and police... http://www.miamiherald.com/opinion/editorials/story/525318.html http://www.miamiherald.com/opinion/editorials/story/525318.html Thu, 08 May 2008 03:01 EDT The U.S. immigration system has too little oversight and too much impunity. Nowhere is this more evident than in cases where people have died while in U.S. immigration custody. Secrecy is one of the worst aspects of the immigration-detention system. It explains why little is known about medical abuses and deaths in Immigration and Customs En forcement jails and prisons. http://www.miamiherald.com/opinion/editorials/story/525319.html http://www.miamiherald.com/opinion/editorials/story/525319.html Thu, 08 May 2008 03:01 EDT The political crisis in Bolivia worsened last weekend when voters in the country's wealthiest region defied President Evo Morales and the violence led by pro-Morales thugs to vote overwhelmingly for autonomy from the central government. This is a clear setback for Mr. Morales, who has waged a nonstop campaign of vilification against opponents who don't go along with his plans for a radical transformation of the country. With Bolivia rapidly dissolving into warring camps, Mr. Morales is running out... http://www.miamiherald.com/opinion/editorials/story/523903.html http://www.miamiherald.com/opinion/editorials/story/523903.html Wed, 07 May 2008 03:01 EDT At first, the world held its breath to see if the military junta ruling Myanmar was going to bow to the realities of the tragedy that struck there Saturday and ask for outside help -- or just sit tight and remain isolated behind its iron veil, ignoring the immense suffering of its people in the wake of Cyclone Nargis. http://www.miamiherald.com/opinion/editorials/story/523906.html http://www.miamiherald.com/opinion/editorials/story/523906.html Wed, 07 May 2008 03:01 EDT This makes no sense, no sense at all. The increasingly successful Tri-Rail commuter service is on the verge of being sidetracked for lack of a dedicated funding (blame the Legislature) and a threat by Palm Beach County to cut its train appropriation by almost half next year.