BY HARRY RING
Getting subversive - A nationwide poll found that 80 percent of people in the United States think there's something "seriously wrong" with health care and an equal percentage point to the profit motive as responsible for the deteriorating quality of care.

`KKK gives racism bad namé - Responding to protest, Maryland motor vehicle officials are recalling custom license plates sporting the Confederate battle flag. A leader of Sons of Confederate Veterans, which got the plates issued two years ago, said they couldn't help it if the Ku Klux Klan also uses the flag.

The priorities principle - In December, E. coli food bacteria killed 16 people in Scotland. Now Britain's top expert in the field warns that the failure of the government and food industry to take effective measures means new outbreaks are inevitable. Officials have talked of steps to reduce the risk. But, as one news report put it: "The food industry lobby is likely to resist any recommendations with cost implications."

Civilized - Johnson & Johnson and Boehringer Mannheim, rivals in the lucrative marketing of blood-sugar monitors, have settled their corporate spying suits against each other.

And it's not the end yet -"Employee morale in the 1990s has been in free fall. Most employees now feel less proud to work for their companies than at the beginning of the decade." - British survey on the impact of downsizing.

Like, for instance - Ford's Halewood plant in Britain once employed 14,000 workers. That shrank to 4,500 and, in early January, the ax was whetted for another 1,500.

The jailhouse phone too? -Call the Kingsville, Texas courthouse and expect to be greeted with "heaven-o" instead of the customary "hello."

County commissioners voted for the change after the alert initiator of the measure pointed out, "I see hell in hello. It's disguised by the o, but once you see it, it will slap you in the face."

Couldn't pick a better spot -In Canada, overcrowding in the Chilliwack courthouse forced a judge, prosecution and defense lawyers, cops and court staff to consider jury selection in a community center's men's toilet. Sniffed the prosecutor: "When you start holding hearings in a bathroom I fear it may diminish the respect of the justice system...."

Sensitive ruling - A federal judge set aside a $1 million fine he had imposed on Prudential Insurance for destroying documents sought by plaintiffs in a class-action fraud suit. The judge said the documents hadn't been destroyed as a result of official policy, but conceded it did suggest a lack of sensitivity. He said he couldn't fine folks for being insensitive.  
 
 
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