BY HARRY RING
`Peacekeeper' - The Air Force declared Northrop Grumann's B-2 stealth bomber combat ready and said it's buying 21 of them for $45 billion. They have a range of 11,000 miles with a single aerial refueling and carry up to 20 conventional or nuclear bombs.

Accidents will happen - A Japanese nuke plant 70 miles from Tokyo was hit by two fires and an explosion last month. Experts said that 37 workers were exposed to radiation but did not suffer "Immediate" harm - assuming, they judiciously added, that data provided by the government nuclear agency was correct.

... meanwhile - London's Financial Times reported that "senior officials" at the Japanese nuke plant "played golf during and after the accident "They felt "it would be wrong" to cancel the game on the day they had reserved the golf course.

A truly great society - Philip Fox, 71 and alone with his dog, suffered a heart attack and found himself in the San Diego area Scripps Memorial Hospital. Candice Batze, a technician, befriended him, even taking care of his dog. Several days after Fox's discharge, she met him in the hospital lobby, hungry. She got him some bread, crackers, jelly and milk. She was fired for theft.

National security? - A report to the British government warned that slaughterhouse practices were putting consumers at increased risk of infection from E. coli, the bacteria that recently killed 20 people in Scotland. The report said slaughterhouses routinely accepted animals whose hides or fleeces were contaminated with bacteria-bearing feces and urged a national standard defining "unacceptable contamination" of animals destined for slaughter. The report was suppressed for a year.

That's that - That suppressed report also said that instead of washing contaminated areas of animals, which spreads bacteria, workers should cut away dirty parts. "However," explained the Times of London, "the process is labor-intensive and would not be popular in an industry with tiny [?] profit margins.

Cogent - Paul Robinson, head of the agency through which Lockheed Martin manages the U.S. nuclear stockpile, worries that undue reductions in the size of the stockpile may compel the Pentagon to aim its missiles at large civilian centers rather than pinpointing a greater number of military targets. He apparently was too upset to explain the result of zeroing in on a "military target" like the Kremlin, situated in a huge metropolitan area.

See, they're catching up - In Santiago, Chile, cops stopped 49 drivers for using cellular phones while driving. They found that a third were talking into fake phones.

Time is money - In England, rail unionist disclosed that a woman killed by a train was left lying on the track nearly four hours. Up to 20 train drivers were ordered to take their trains over the body. Great Eastern line officials said the order was given out of consideration for passengers, not concern about paying late arrival penalties.  
 
 
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