BY HARRY RING
He must have buried it - At last report, Bobby Whipple was in critical condition. Miami-area cops pumped 23 bullets into Whipple, who suffers brain damage, because he looked "irate" and had his hand in a sock which, they said, appeared to contain a gun. The police said they're still searching for the gun.

Poison for profit - For years, farm workers in California have protested the heavy use of poisonous pesticides as a menace to workers and consumers. Now a study shows that from 1991- 95 the use of carcinogenic chemicals increased 129 percent. The heaviest dosage was found in the strawberry fields, target of a major United Farm Workers organizing drive.

`Power' fable - The Wall Street Journal did a feature on plants where workers are assertedly "empowered" as "team members," which is mainly working faster and policing one another. Mused one worker: "They say there are no bosses here. But if you screw up, you find one pretty fast." When doing locker inspection, another nonenthusiast refuses to report the less tidy. He states: "I say to myself: I'm empowered and I ain't doing this."

Puzzle: Why don't bosses like unions? - "Overall, the hourly wages of union workers are 30 percent higher than those of nonunion workers, and their fringe benefits are typically worth two to four times as much." - New York Times, August 31, 1997.

The `master races' - Like Sweden and Norway, the governments of Denmark, Finland, Estonia, and at least one Swiss canton borrowed a leaf from Nazi Germany in conducting forced sterilization of ethnic and other social "undesirables." And it's now charged that Austria continues the practice.

..meanwhile - The Japanese government has refused to compensate or apologize to more than 18,000 disabled women who were forcibly sterilized. An official said the sterilizations were legal under a statute on the books from 1948- 96.

It figures - A survey showed that British rail travelers pay the highest fares in the world. The report said that there's been a 12 percent rise since privatization began.

Landlord Heaven - For the second year in a row, New York took the prize as the state where rents, measured in relation to income, are the highest in the country. By federal standards, no less, about half the people can't afford the rent they're paying.

Liberal inquisition - The Vatican is relaxing procedural rules in trials of theologians and priests suspected of heresy. The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, will permit those facing the inquisitor to have a "trusted adviser" at the hearing.

The move came in the wake of protests over excommunication of a Sri Lankan priest. He had refused to sign a declaration that all the Apostles were males, therefore, no female priests.  
 
 
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