THE TRIBUNE'S VIEW
Smoking ordinance
By HENRY J. WATERS III, Publisher, Columbia Daily Tribune
The Boone County/Columbia Board of Health has sent a draft ordinance to the Columbia City Council outlawing smoking in most "public" places, including bars, restaurants and bowling alleys. The council will decide whether to pass the ordinance or put it up for a citywide vote or ignore it.

OPEN COLUMN
Lay’s donation to UM can fund many worthy projects
Editor, the Tribune: Earlier, the Tribune reported that some professors on the University of Missouri-Columbia campus questioned the suitability of keeping a donation from Ken Lay after the Enron bankruptcy.

OPEN COLUMN
Taxpayers take all the risks for unsafe nuclear power
Editor, the Tribune: We in the Missourians for Safe Energy are working to discourage our power company from building a second nuclear reactor in Callaway County for the following reasons:

OPEN COLUMN
English as national language must be paired with help
Editor, the Tribune: I read with interest the Tribune’s View of the current legislation passing through the U.S. Senate declaring English as a national language. As an English as a Second Language teacher, I have some strong views on this.

Dixie Chicks are a profile in courage
By LEONARD PITTS Jr.
They could have just shut up.

Flag amendment undercuts Bill of Rights
By NAT HENTOFF
As of this writing, Congress is on the edge - between Flag Day, June 14, and the end of the month - of passing the first constitutional amendment to our glorious Bill of Rights (ratified in 1791), which is unmatched anywhere in the world in its guarantees of fundamental personal liberties against the government. The Flag Desecration Amendment (SJR 12) authorizes Congress to prohibit any "physical desecration" of the American flag - thereby carving out an exception to the First Amendment, from which all our liberties flow.

STAY IN TOUCH
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