BY HARRY RING
Buy the best - General Motors is recalling 35,000 Cadillac
Sevilles because of an electrical short problem that could
cause fires even with the engine off and the ignition key
removed. GM strongly urged that they not be parked in
enclosed areas, like garages.
Sheer coincidence - The American Civil Liberties Union published a study of four Ohio cities - Akron, Toledo, Dayton, and Columbus - found that motorists who are Black get twice as many traffic tickets as other drivers. Police officials were dubious of the findings. Inquired one: "Is this a professor with an agenda?"
Be well - With HMOs steadily trimming the amount of care provided, the hardest hit are those who need treatment for mental illnesses and drug addiction. One study shows that from 1988 to 1997, the amount spent to provide general care was cut back 7.4 percent. For those with mental health or drug problems it was cut 54.1 percent
Kind of a memorial - The Army shipped 2,200 tons of radioactive material to a Safety-Kleen waste dump in central California. The depository sits atop ground water that is recycled for drinking. The poisonous debris is the cement and wood of a facility used to process uranium for the two atom bombs dropped on Japan in WWII.
Big-time petty crooks - Exide, the world's largest auto battery maker, will pay the state of Florida $2.75 million to halt a probe of its sale of used and defective batteries. It promised not to do it any more and to establish a corporate ethics program. Exide stock went up $1.69 a share.
Nothing like a border - "In a report from a village on the Austrian-Hungarian border on what has changed since the fall of the Iron Curtain, a Hungarian customs agent told the Suddeutsche Zeitung [a German daily], `What has changed? Actually nothing. We used to watch like crazy to make sure no one went over. Now the Austrians do it.' " -news item.
Really? - Explore, a tour agency, specializes in customized African safaris. Spend your days in the bush and nights in deluxe hotels. A five-day tour is up to $6,000 a person. An Explore staffer says, "Mostly we cater to high-end clientele."
Ask Argentina or the Irish -"We are not at war. In order to be at war, it would require a formal declaration by at least one side and probably both. Legally, there have been no wars since 1945." - A United Kingdom foreign office spokesperson, correcting Labour prime minister Anthony Blair who slipped and called the assault on Yugoslavia a war.