Blumner: Graduates: Vote (and use sunscreen)

“Wear sunscreen" was the advice to of Chicago Tribune columnist Mary Schmich to the class of '97. She also told new graduates to sing, floss, remember compliments and "don't be reckless with other people's hearts." It was good advice, charmingly told.

But this is not the commencement address I would give to the class of '13. They are graduating into a less carefree world. For them, a college degree is not a guaranteed ticket to upward mobility or even, for that matter, middle-class stability. Premature aging from overexposure to the sun may be the least of their worries....

Blumner: Innocent and poor? Tough luck

Retired U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor is rethinking the mess the court made by taking Bush vs. Gore. But she shouldn't stop there. While she's at it, O'Connor should reflect on what has happened since her disastrous 1984 decision in Strickland vs. Washington. O'Connor's majority opinion eroded the right to counsel by making it incredibly difficult for defendants to show that their court-appointed attorneys were ineffective. Since then, attorneys completely unprepared for trial and even those who have slept in court have passed the low, malleable bar her opinion set....

Blumner: Cheer the Boston cameras, but do you want Big Brother watching all?

"It was terribly dangerous to let your thoughts wander when you were in any public place or within range of a telescreen. The smallest thing could give you away. A nervous tic, an unconscious look of anxiety, a habit of muttering to yourself — anything that carried with it the suggestion of abnormality, of having something to hide. In any case, to wear an improper expression on your face (to look incredulous when a victory was announced, for example) was itself a punishable offense. There was even a word for it in Newspeak: facecrime, it was called." ...

Blumner: The shame of hedge fund masterminds

From the "nice work if you can get it" desk, the New York Times business section offered this headline the other day: "Pay Stretching to 10 Figures." No, this isn't about innovators being paid for their smart and indispensable products, a la Steve Jobs. It is a story of hedge fund managers, the tin-pot potentates of the financial world.

They are America's top-dog moneymakers, pulling in more than movie stars, top athletes, even banking CEOs. They tend to shun the spotlight, and for good reason. An average family would have to work for 18 years and 146 days to make what an average hedge fund manager makes in one hour. We must all look like barbarians at the gate to them....

Blumner: Corporations shun tax duty

Most tax avoiders continue in same vein

Of the 30 U.S. companies that paid no net federal income tax on U.S. profits from 2008 through 2010, 26 remained in that category over the 2008-11 period.

Federal income tax rates on U.S. profits, 2008-11

Pepco Holdings –39.5%

General Electric –18.9%

PG&E Corp. –18.4%

Wisconsin Energy –13.2%...

Blumner: Refreshing to hear these real debates

Americans of a certain age will remember the three-minute mini-debates at the end of CBS's 60 Minutes when two venerable journalists, the liberal Shana Alexander and the conservative James J. Kilpatrick, politely duked it out over divisive issues. Saturday Night Live famously spoofed their argy-bargy with Dan Aykroyd's "Jane, you ignorant slut" smackdown of Jane Curtin, a line that lives on to this day....

Blumner: Gitmo and the rule of law

Twenty-eight or more of the remaining 166 inmates at Guantanamo are on a hunger strike. They have lost hope that President Barack Obama will fulfill his promise to close the prison camp, now 11 years old, and end their legal limbo. At least 86 of these captives were approved for release years ago, and still they wait.

What to do about the detention camp at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, is a tragic puzzle with no clear solution. Like the war of adventurism in Iraq and a domestic economy in free fall, President George W. Bush left behind this towering mess for Obama to clean up....

Blumner: The wages of capitalism

First, a quick walk through some American history that might surprise you.

In 1927, a congressman from New York explained to his colleagues why the country needed a law guaranteeing that federal contractors pay their workers local prevailing wages when constructing public works projects.

Describing what happened when an Alabama firm won the bidding to build a federal hospital in his district, Rep. Robert Bacon complained that the contractor "brought some thousand nonunion laborers from Alabama into Long Island, N.Y. … These unfortunate men were huddled in shacks living under most wretched conditions and being paid wages far below the standard."...

Column: Making small money bigger

Here are some things we know are true:

1) The economic struggles of average working people are not being addressed by the country's political system.

2) Politicians have to spend an inordinate amount of time angling for campaign dollars, and when donors and lobbyists hand over big checks, big favors are expected in return.

3) These issues are related....

On Medicaid, take the money and fund

You have to give it up to Gov. Rick Scott for coming around on Medicaid expansion. I never thought it would happen. Yet now Scott is one of eight Republican governors to announce their intention to support it, with Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey being the latest. How refreshing to see such fierce opposition give way to reasoned acceptance. These politicians know a good deal even if their tea party base doesn't....

Rubio's stale school plan

Sen. Marco Rubio has so much star power at the moment his teeth seem to gleam when he smiles. With his Cuban-American heritage and youthful visage Rubio was the natural choice to deliver the Republican response to President Barack Obama's State of the Union speech. But his performance illustrates a point that Republicans don't seem to get: A new face doesn't improve bankrupt ideas.

One of those ideas is the undermining of public schools. Under the guise of helping lower-income parents, Rubio is offering the Educational Opportunities Act to move students from public to private schools, most of which are church-affiliated, at taxpayer expense. To get around church-state separation problems his plan would give taxpayers dollar-for-dollar federal tax credits for "donating" money to designated scholarship funds that would pay for private school education. Some would call that money laundering....

A minimum wage that beats poverty

"I grew up hearing over and over, to the point of tedium, that 'hard work' was the secret of success. … No one ever said that you could work hard — harder even than you ever thought possible — and still find yourself sinking ever deeper into poverty and debt."

Barbara Ehrenreich, Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America....

Businesses, turn left if you want mass transit, vibrant cities

When you're a bigwig of industry, perched up high above the hoi polloi, maybe you really do think that the laws of politics, economics and even gravity are suspended, or are at least twisted, to your benefit.

That's the only conclusion I can draw from years of listening to business-oriented groups meeting with the Tampa Bay Times editorial board with the same conflicting agenda: demands for lower taxes and fewer government protections for workers, consumers and the environment while calling for a more educated workforce, modern infrastructure and cities that attract the creative class....