Sock it to `em - The garment workers union, UNITE, took Chipman-Union, a Georgia sock-maker for Adidas, to court for harassing and firing workers organizing into the union. The company put supervisor Jerry Lunceford on the stand to swear that he never victimized workers for union activity. But, instead, he tearfully testified the opposite was true. He said he lied in an affidavit to save his job.
Hurts his trigger finger - "The younger generation, they have no respect for the police. It's almost like we're enemies. It makes me feel bad." - Jessie Washington, a San Francisco cop who shot William Hankston in the back of the head while arresting him. Washington says his gun went off accidentally.
Ride `em cowboy - It was the ultimate free-market saga, Russia's Northern Fleet owed a state electric company $4.5 million, so the company shut off the power to one of its nuclear submarine bases. (One reactor overheated when its cooling system shut down.) Power was restored when armed sailors showed up at two power company stations.
Get your own army - "The fact that military people can come to our premises and dictate their terms at gunpoint causes great indignation and anxiety. They still have to pay for electricity....We have to settle this one way or the other."-Spokesperson for the Kolenergo electric company in Russia.
Could become a pattern - "American employers, boosting their efficiency with layoffs, hiring freezes and new technology, this spring posted their biggest gain in productivity in nine years. But figures ...also showed that the improved business performance failed to translate into significant increases for American workers, continuing a two- decade trend of stagnant wages."-News item.
If that doesn't work, try canceling it - According to Bulgarian TV, some 1,500 people, hyped by mediums, gathered at an airport to await the spaceship arrival of extraterrestrials who would help the country pay its $12.9 billion debt.
Academic give and take - The cost of going to college increased 6 percent this year, double the inflation rate. Meanwhile the presidents of six private colleges pocketed more than $400,000 last year, and 19 others racked up more than $300,000. Boston University pres John Silber, an understandably vociferous partisan of free enterprise, led with wages and benefits totaling $564,020.
And if he came without pants? - In Columbia, South Carolina, a judge refused to permit a woman lawyer to plead a case because she was wearing pants. Declared the judge: "If a man were to come to my court without a tie, I'd ask him to put on a tie."
Thought for the week - "Hanford is an ecological jewel. To date, we have found two new plants and seven new insects -mostly bees and leaf-hoppers." - Biologist Curt Soper, enthusing about previously unknown life forms at the Hanford Nuclear Reservation, the defunct nuke weapons plant which left a large legacy of plutonium pollution.