Tampa Bay Times from St. Petersburg, Florida • 38

2 Tuesday, June 23, 2009 St. Petersburg Times PAN PAS OPINION tampabay.comopinion Guest column I Rao Musunuru motif wg tiraoiiiniBnft for eGonontyi I can talk about matters of the heart for any length of time. When it comes to the economy, I am totally confused and frustrated. Like most of the country, I am trying to 1 understand. As I understand it (perhaps oversimplified): The United States got into deep financial trouble mostly because people have spent these the same experts (irrespective of their political affiliation and in spite of their good intentions) who got us here in the first place? Hopefully, the timely infusion of new blood is going to resuscitate the ailing economy.

Also hopefully, the treatment is not going to be worse than the disease. As with any other ailment, whether we like it or not, behavior change is going to be the key component of treatment and recovery. Of course, helping one another is always an essential ingredient of any prescription, especially when tiroes are tough. Dr. Rao Musunuru is a cardiologist practicing at Regional Medjcal Center Bayonet Point.

by paying utility bills for a few months, extending unemployment benefits for a few more months, aiding home buyers, paving roads, buying buses, etc Where are the new permanent jobs going to come from after all of our outsourcing? What are we producing? What did we learn? How are we getting better? What happened to harsh punishments for perpetrators of fraud? Where are the regulations and restrictions to curb and curtail excessive greed? We seem to be concentrating on getting some extra fuel for the economy bus to go forward a few miles, while not fixing the serious problems with the engine and the transmission. Without sincere hard work and serious sacrifice from all the parties involved the public and the politicians, employers and the employees, companies and the unions alike I do not understand how we are going to get this stalling bus going again this time. I used to think that a million dollars is a lot of money and a billion is a big deal. I am beginning to learn that a trillion became trivial. I am also beginning to learn new meanings and new applications to many words like "toxic" and "stress test" I am still trying to understand.

The optimist in me is hoping that all these experts cannot be wrong and we are going to do just fine without needing to change our behavior. But then, the realist in me cannot help but wonder aren't To have more real money unlike some of the imaginary money of the stock market that we keep gaining and mostly losing the government has to print it, we have to produce more or we need to borrow. Right now, it seems like we are going to borrow more. Which means somebody down the road has to pay it back. If we cannot or do not, the people or the countries that lend us the money will find themselves in the same sinking boat I consider myself, for the most part, an optimist.

I expect and accept natural and man-made cycles of good and bad and up and down. I always thought, once things got worse, people would realize that they were doing the wrong things and they would straighten up their act and things would get better. In the past, people and countries seem to have gotten out of financial troubles mostly by producing more. This time, we seem to be trying to get out of trouble mostly by spending more. That is what we have to do on a short-term basis to enjoy the long-term success, experts say.

We took things for granted too long. Prosperity is like having good health. We abuse it until we lose it. We do not appreciate it as long as we have it Over the years, greed replaced need, complacence replaced creativity and competition, exploitation replaced exploration and inertia replaced innovation. The federal government seems to be helping people, like it should, on a temporary basis Musunuru money they did not have and have no means to pay it back (called bad credit).

The solution, according to the experts, seems to be the government spending more money that it does not have (called stimulus or recovery). Pasco Times tampabay.com for more news I I I I rWonruu MEMORIAL GARDENS. TESTIMONY continued from 1 Honor son's life, 4 1 fueled fights between strangers that result in a death are rare, thus impossible to foresee and prepare for. Gregg McCrary, a former FBI agent, said the shopping center was not an area known for violent crime only for late-night nuisances and that restaurant employees responded appropriately when the fight broke out "The only people that called for an ambulance was McDonald's," McCrary said Responsibility for the death, he said, lies with the men who decided to fight "They're the ones who made the choice," he said. "They made lots of qhoices along the way to either engage or disengage." 'Like I'm dead inside' But the focus shifted Monday Early I SPASCO Learning I Coalition 4 who tried for many years before finally having a child, said they're done celebrating holidays now.

They escape somewhere and try to distract themselves while other people get together with family. Wayne Makowski, who coached his son in youth sports and had high hopes for his 91-mph fastball, said he still washes Anthony's clothes and returns them to his closet, thinking he might come home. The Makowskis' real estate business, where young Anthony used to wear a badge that said "Boss," folded after his death. "I was at the top of my career, and when this happened it was like the rug got pulled from under me," Cathy Makowski said, crying. "It's like I'm dead inside." When Anthony died, Cathy Makowski said she bought side-by-side grave sites.

One for her son, one for herself: 1 did not think I would survive." The Makowskis are seeking more than $15,000 in damages, and the defense has argued the couple is going after the busi- -nesses with the deep pock-; ets instead of the other man involved in the fight But Cathy Makowski toldi jurors Monday that this case isn't about the money. "We have been wronged," she -said. "If we should prevail, this money cannot be spent on us. I would have to do something to honor my son's memory' She said that might involve setting up an organization or foundation to help other fami- lies, although she didn't provide specifics. "That is the only way I can bring some honor to his memory, to help others, to reach out to people mat are abandoned by the system," she said.

Testimony will continue today, and the case is expected to go to jurors later this week. HLKNANOv A good great future! from such legal arguments to the life that was lost and the damage left in the wake. Cathy and Wayne Makowski, Important Service Change Announcement Beginning June 29, the Early Learning Coalition of Pasco and Hernando Counties, Inc. will directly provide ALL services for School Readiness and Voluntary Pre-Kindergarten. On that date, the Coalition will open eligibility enrollment offices in New Port Richey, Dade City and Brooksville.

His brand of justice was colorful Maybe you think it's all exagger ated. Maybe you don't quitebuythe idea that life in Hernando County was so much rowdier just a few decades ago, so much more enter taining. Then you hear about former Circuit Judge LRHuff-stetler who served from 1973 to 1988 and New Port Richey Office Hours: Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday 8:00 AM PM Tuesday 7:30 AM 6:00 PM Address: 7334 Little Road, Suite 102 New Port Richey, FL 34654 Phone: 727-569-1004 Brooksville Office Hours: Monday-Friday 8:00 AM PM (Additional hours by appointment) Address: 26 S. Brooksville Avenue Brooksville, FL 34601 Phone: 352-574-5068 Dade City Office Hours: Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday 8:00 AM PM Tuesday 7:30 AM 6:00 PM Address: 15000 US HWY 301 Dade City, FL 33523 Phone: 352-834-0052 DAN diedFridayafter DEWITT years of fighting ddewitt cancer. sptimes.com You hear that Huflstetleronce the courtroom.

When he called the lawyers to the bench to tell them he was dying for a smoke, they looked down to see, jutting from the sleeve of the judge's robe, a hand of bone holding an unlit cigarette. You hear how, back in Hernando, he sometimes wouldn't wait for a break, but would swivel his high-backed chair to the courtroom "and all you'd see is this thin column of smoke rising to the ceiling," said former County Judge Peyton Hyslop. You hear how he once invited a few friends to his boat to help determine over drinks whether a stack of films were, as prosecutors claimed, pornographic. "And a few of them were," said Brooksville lawyer Chip Harp. You hear how he carried one pistol in his boot one in his trousers and, when court was in session, laid one on the bench.

You hear how he might commute to work by way of a Harley-Davidson motorcycle, a Corvette or a van customized with the slogan "have gavel will travel," and how the security system he installed was so oppressive (though not much different from the one there now), critics called the courthouse "Fort Huflstetler." You hear how he wore burgun sailed his boat to St Petersburg af dy, peach or white (reserved for imposing sentences of death or life 5 in prison) and required the bailiffs and clerks to wear the same "We did look really nice up there, everybody color coordi-; nated," said retired clerk Dessa i Samons. You hear all this and, yes, you finally believe that life here was, i in every sense of the word, more colorful. But then you also have to wonder whether you really want to live in a county lawyers had to seriously think about where they Would dive if gunfire broke out in the court- room. And you have to remem- ber that Huffstetler's use of his power wasn't all lighthearted. For example, he once threat- ened to jail county commissioners for contempt of court if they didn't find money for his security system.

(They didn't, and he ended up paying for it out of his own office's budget) So, yes, we're probably better off with our current crop of seii- ous, sober, conventional judges. The public seems to demand it So do appeals court judges. The colored robes, the general flamboyance "would be hard to replicate in today's Brown said. "It would, however, be fun." Early Learning Coalition ter granting a change of venue for a murder trial, that he had a Her Childcare Program! is nando Sheriff's Office patrol car assigned for his use, and that nearly every evening, used it to stop for a supply of booze "So you had this green-and- white Sheriff's Office patrol car going through a liquor store drive-through in the middle of St Pete," said Brooksville lawyer Jimmy Brown. School Readiness This program pays a portion of the child care costs for qualified low to moderate income families so they may seek or maintain employment to support their families.

FREE Voluntary Pre-Kindergarten High quality pre-kindergarten increases a child's chances of succeeding in school and learning more as adults. All children living in Florida who turn 4-years old by Sept. 1st are eligible for VPK. "Then all the lawyers would meet on the fan tail of the boat and have a few cocktails. It was a change-of-venue Huflstetler style" You hear how, at the same trial, he commandeered a skeleton in ACCESS continued from 1 Fcr more information about these programs or now facilities, please visit the Coalition website at Early Learning Coalition opens three sites New Port Richey's Youth and Family Alternatives.

Unlike YEA, CDS did not have an office in East Pasco, home to migrant workers More jobs. and many of the county's neediest residents. The agency did have a staffer available part time to handle appointments. for the families of Pasco and Hernando counties," he said. "At the same time, all funds saved will be spent on children and families." Farrelly said he didn't realize until he moved to the area just how great the distance is between east and west Pasco.

"It's quite a haul," he said. "And, I have my car. A lot of the people we serve rely on public transpor- 1 tatioa" in 2008. With board approval, he gradually consolidated services in-house and ended the arrangement with CDS. He says the move will save the coalition $500,000 a year, which will go toward the needs of children and families.

"This final step in the transition process to in-house services will assure a consistent level of care and high-quality services t2n.2ESay.CCni momter' More places. More wovv To place an ad call toll-free: i The situation was unaccept ttmpabay.monsltr.com able to Jim Farrelly, a retired New 877-32 1 -7355 Jersey educator who took over as the coalition's executive director Monsif tr Monstw looo and the TrumpMaums are tradtmarhf of Monster Orfomiai inc 4-.