Homers -- What's going right

DEDICATED OFFICER: Mike Palumbo was sworn in as a Cedar Rapids police reserve officer on Jan. 1, 1999. He retired Friday after working an average of 500 hours a year in the Patrol Division. We're impressed and grateful. Reserve officers must meet many requirements similar to those of full-time officers. They have arrest powers and are expected to ride with full time officers on a regular basis. They do all that for pay of $1 a year while also working full time in another field.

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JUSTICE: While most of the $240 million awarded last week by a federal jury to the 32 men with mental disabilities who worked for peanuts for Henry's Turkey Service while living in squalid conditions in Atalissa will likely never be collected, the decision is a strong warning to employers who would discriminate against and abuse those who are least able to defend themselves.

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TESTIFIES: We salute Jan Thomas, widow of Aplington-Parkersburg coach Ed Thomas, gunned down by a former student with a history of mental illness, for testifying before Congress that federal medical privacy laws sometimes prevent agencies from protecting victims

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