BY HARRY RING
But not to worry - Environmental scientists report that a new species of plant and three new species of insects were found during inspection of the grounds at the government's Hanford nuke reservation in Washington.

No time payments on sewing machine? - The Clothing Connection, a $4.25-an-hour Santa Ana, California, garment shop is charged with making some 500 sewing workers pay $126.75 a month for scissors, needles, bobbins and other sewing tools. The company said it was an antitheft measure.

Crime to be poor - The California Supreme Court upheld a Santa Ana ordinance which provides for up to six months in jail for using a sleeping bag or blanket on public property. Santa Ana is the seat of Orange County, which has up to 15,000 homeless people, with some 975 beds available to them.

Déja vu - "The law, in its majestic equality, forbids the rich as well as the poor to sleep under bridges, to beg in the streets, and to steal bread." - 19th century writer Anatole France.

The silver lining - Not everyone at the Tyson chicken company works for starvation wages. Last year, chairman Don Tyson collected $723,756 just for travel and entertainment expenses.

The company also leased his fishing boat for $60,000 and some of his farm property for $759,000.

Advises bloodsuckers to suck less - U.S. Labor Secretary Robert Reich said that since 1978 almost all of the increase in family income has gone to the richest fifth of the U.S. population. He urged business to help narrow the rich-poor gap which, he warned, "threatens to tear our society apart."

Nobody even thinks about it - A Quebec school administrator concedes university tuition hikes could be a problem. But, he assures, "studies have shown that a student's decision to go to university is so fundamental a thing that it is not influenced too much by the level of fees."

For aspiring mercenaries? - Starbucks and Pepsi will test- market Mazagram, a carbonated coffee drink. It's named after a beverage that was popular with members of the French Foreign Legion in Algeria - until a popular liberation war drove them out.

Robe not included - BackSaver Products says orders have been rolling in for its $1,000 Executive BackChair since it was reported that it's the chair in which Judge Lance Ito presides at the O.J. Simpson trial.

Cancel that guilt trip - If you're coping with the problems attendant on having more money than you know what to do with, subscribe to More than Money.

It offers tips for handling the "feelings of isolation, confusion and lack of self-worth" that may come with too big a bundle.  
 
 
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