They don't do windows? - For a cleaner United Airlines, employees on business or pleasure trips have been invited to pitch in. Like, "When you use the lavatories, wipe wash basins and mirror if necessary. Please pick up any towels on the floor."
The sane society - Processing has begun of 35 million gallons of radioactive sludge - some 30 percent of the contaminated soil and ground water at former nuclear weapons sites. The deadly stuff will be converted into glass-like form and stored in steel canisters. If the South Carolina processing plant functions perfectly 24 hours a day, the arduous processing will take 32 years. During that time they hope to solve the problem of a permanent storage site.
Where did this guy come from? - It was a column by David Boldt in the Philadelphia Inquirer and, at first, we thought it was satire. Not so. To reduce the tension in the immigration debate, Boldt suggests, "Immigrants... should have, at most, restricted access to welfare....Advocates of bilingualism should be rounded up and, where possible, deported.... Latinos should rethink their status as a `protected' minority. They were not brought here in chains; nor were their lands stolen by palefaces."
And now it will be leaner and meaner - Brazil's Malha Oeste rail line, better know as the "train of death," has been sold to Chemical Bank and the holding company, the Noel Group. On an average of every three days, the line has an accident serious enough to halt service. Of its 88 locomotives, 35 are out of service, awaiting repairs.
It's fate is sealed - The Toronto Globe and Mail reports that at the recent gathering in Switzerland of top corporate execs and government figures, speakers warned that, "Capitalism is doomed unless it develops a heart."
A scandal - Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan is perplexed, vexed and distressed. Despite a record-size police force, arrests have dropped by 100,000 in the past five years. Cops offer an explanation. What with the fallout from the Rodney King beating of five years ago, they think twice about complaints, law suits, and criminal prosecutions.
Tough situation - In California's Yolo County, officials are fuming they may go bust after being forced to settle a sexual harassment suit against Judge James Stevens for $666,000. Meanwhile the abusive judge continues to pocket $107,390 a year, and the county pays his legal fees.
Meanwhile... - Neil Solomon, Maryland's former state health secretary, had his medical license revoked after admitting to having sex with at least eight patients. Three former patients sued, but a judge permitted Solomon to declare bankruptcy. After legal fees, the women will wind up with about $16,000 each, paid out over a five year period. Solomon has assets of $2 million.
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