BY HARRY RING
Blue-chip choice - The target of a big-time Medicare fraud probe, Columbia Healthcare, the world's biggest hospital chain, has unloaded 65 of its 309 hospitals and is buying back company stock to prop up the price. Also, they're planning to change the name of the company.

Going bananas? - ABC television will paste 15 million promotion stickers on bananas. The company that drummed up the idea said it's becoming increasingly difficult to impact consumers and the banana labels should "cut through the clutter."

Pronto! - Metropolitan Community College in Omaha, Nebraska, dropped a course on "Supervising Hispanic Workers." Including some rudimentary Spanish, the four-hour how-to course was offered to a string of Burger Kings in Nebraska and Iowa. It was scored by a local Spanish-language paper as reinforcing racist stereotypes and suggesting Latinos were not qualified to be managers.

Must be faulty research -Medical researchers in Britain studied 1,726 adults in England, Scotland, and Wales and found that unemployment and poverty often lead to anxiety and depression.

But not to worry - Several airlines - American, Continental, Delta, TWA, USAir - spray passenger planes with insecticides. Considering the economy practice of recycling cabin air, it's a hazard for passengers and especially for the crew. Why the spraying? Strictly PR. It's not seemly for a passenger to see a roach scurry by.

No downsizing there - The CIA is conducting its biggest recruitment drive ever. Officials said its ranks have been shrunken by scandals, budget cuts and a high turnover rate since the demise of the cold war.

Britain's finest - Scotland Yard fired 44 corrupt or "bad" [?] cops last year, double the previous year's number. Nine more quit or retired while under investigation and 13 split before hearings got under way.

Love those cops - Blacks and Latinos bear the brunt of cop brutality, Human Rights Watch said in a report on 14 cities. "Police officers," the report said, "engage in unjustified shootings, severe beatings, fatal chokings and unnecessarily [?!] rough physical treatment."  
 
 
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