Cuba, 90 miles and a world away—FLORIDA—“Monroe County is ready to open a safe zone for homeless people in the Florida Keys this month [when hurricanes hit]. But county officials say the facility on Stock Island next to a jail doesn’t have enough space. The center offers sleeping space for up to 130 people. About 800 of the county’s 17,000 homeless stay in nearby Key West.”—News item.

The proud society—A University of Pittsburgh study found that nearly half the city’s Black households have no vehicles. And it may be added, damn little public transportation.

Serving the public—Enron, the record-breaking energy swindlers, got a lot of media with the tapes of foul-mouthed employees chortling about ripping off “those poor grandmothers.” But media coverage was scant on the fact that, along with Enron, the Justice Department tried to prevent release of the tapes.

A corporate character—Now a convicted felon girding for an 18-month term, Andrew Wiederhorn headed a currently extinct high-risk loan company based in Portland, Oregon. Wiederhorn pleaded guilty on two counts. He admitted paying bribes to a chap in a company that loaned him regularly needed cash. And, also, he confirmed filing a phony income tax return. Wiederhorn was also ordered to repay an ill-gotten $2 million, plus a $25,000 fine.

Happily, a subsidiary he had created said it would pay his salary while in the slammer, as well as a leave-of-absence check to pay the $2 million restitution and the $25,000 fine.

Out of our league—If our cat got lost, we’d certainly do whatever we could to find her. But we couldn’t match a family in posh Beverly Hills.

In a classified ad for the return of their cat they offered a $3,000 reward.

Quick, call la migra—In Nevada’s Lake Tahoe Basin, there’s been a practice of shipping “marauding” bears out of the area, leaving them in spots 100 miles or more away. Over five years, eight were deported. But, a study found, within a week each was back in Tahoe.  
 
 
Front page (for this issue) | Home | Text-version home