Cops will be cops--Washington, D.C., cops have been using their patrol car computers to exchange e-mail messages laced with racist, sexist, and homophobic themes. The chief, who vowed to fire everyone he caught, said he looked into the matter after learning the same thing was going on in other police departments. He said a sampling of the mail being circulated was "truly shocking."

Union, anyone?--Competing with traditional French producers, farm operators in the Catskill region of New York, are marketing the gourmet duck liver called foie gras. They ensure a maximum size, rich-tasting liver by force-feeding the ducks three times a day for 30 days and then marketing them for slaughter. One farm, Hudson Valley, employs 80 feeders, mainly Mexican émigrés. (Wait there is more.)

Anti-stress program--At the Hudson Valley farm, the workers feed nearly 30,000 ducks three times daily with funnel-type tubes. They're required to work 30 days in a row at $6 an hour. Some haven't had a full day off in years. It's hard work and workers complain conditions are worse than for the ducks. How do the operators explain these near-medieval conditions? They say the ducks get used to one feeder and suffer stress--and smaller leaner livers--if others feed them.

A caring system--A United Kingdom nursing committee confirmed that elderly patients in government-operated hospitals experience hunger and thirst and are denied privacy and independence. The report came on the heels a disclosure that "Do not resuscitate" notices were appended to the charts of elderly patients without the authorization of the patients or their families.

Including hub stop in Duluth?--Given the insatiable greed of airline operators and consequent steady deterioration in safety and service, we had a nervous reaction to the news that scientists are near completion of a plane that is expected to fly 5,000 miles an hour--30 minutes from New York to L.A. Nor were we reassured by the plan to initially use it for cargo and the military.

Big-time petty larceny--The use of electronic ticketless flight reservations is obviously a savings for the airlines. For the passengers too? Hardly. American Airlines has begun what's likely to be the pattern. Those who still need or want paper tickets will pay a surcharge of $10 each.

But body-and-fender folks love them--"Pickups and sports-utility trucks might look tough, but seven models that recently were crashed into poles for low-speed bumper tests proved to be cream puffs."--News item.

It figures--The Bush budget includes shrinking the staff that's supposed to probe stock market fraud. Associated Press notes that the cutback comes at a moment when market gyrations are conducive to more fraud.  
 
 
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