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Analyzed by the most soulful of poets and adored tenderly by the most perfunctory of scientists, flowers have resounded through the ages as emblems of beauty, sex, and love -- the ideal token of affection for a sweetie or loved one. Yet the modern commercial flower and the $40 billion a year industry behind it have a sinister side that might just change the way you say "be mine" this Valentine's Day.

Walk into any supermarket and you'll find products that satisfy not only your taste buds but your values, too. Fair Trade coffee and chocolate, organic apples and free-range eggs are becoming mainstream thanks to the demands of socially and environmentally responsible shoppers. But what about those flowers in buckets near the cash register? Where did those come from? Under what conditions were they grown?

By Martin Weil

The Rev. Robert Drinan, 86, the Roman Catholic priest who played a unique and historic role in American public life as a lawyer, law school teacher, opponent of war and advocate of human rights and as a congressman who recommended the impeachment of President Richard M. Nixon, died Jan. 28 at Sibley Memorial Hospital.

WASHINGTON - A bipartisan group of senators introduced legislation Tuesday aimed at preventing American companies from profiting from the use of foreign sweatshops and other unfair labor practices abroad.

Sen. Lindsey Graham, a South Carolina Republican, joined four Democrats and independent Sen. Bernard Sanders of Vermont in sponsoring a bill that would allow U.S. firms to sue competitors that they believe are selling imported products made in overseas sweatshops.