Coming Friday on the editorial/op-ed pages

Between cooking eggs (or trying to) on the pavement and slurping down ice cream in the middle of the newsroom, we've put together two pages worth the price of admission for Friday. I promise; no lie.

-- On the editorial page, The Star is offering its take on the Minnesota bridge collapse -- a clear sign of what happpens when the upkeep of our nation's infrastructure is ignored. And don't miss the accompanying chart that explains how our state's infrastructure measures up. We're also opining on the need for coal-mine safety, considering parts of our state are heavily invested in the mining industry.
-- Pastor James Evans, one of our syndicated columnists, takes a look at hate-crime legislation and the church.

-- On the op-ed page, my column examines a critical back-to-school issue for parents -- the importance of parental involvement. We also have an interesting story on the legacy-to-be of Alabama's-own Condi Rice and a collection of national editorials on the tainted, or not-so-tainted, home-run record of Barry Bonds.