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   Vol.65/No.26            July 9, 2001 
 
 
The Great Society
 
BY HARRY RING  
'Water's fine'; an open border's better--In a two week period this spring, 18 people died trying to make their way from Mexico across an area of the Arizona desert. Now Pima County supervisor Raul Grijalva is trying to win financing for water and toilet stations in the trafficked area.

Dig this--"People who work for the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) have a unique window on the world. They see, greet, and help people from all over the globe."--Newspaper hiring ad.

'Sorry about that'--"The University of Iowa has issued a formal apology for an experiment 30 years ago that used psychological pressure to turn orphans into stutterers. The experiment was designed by Wendell Johnson, a speech expert for whom the university's speech and hearing clinic is named. Several of the children suffered lasting damage"--News item.

Not easy being a star--Elton John unloaded 20 cars from his collection at a London auction. The cars fetched a total of $2.75 million. The rock star said he simply didn't have time to drive.

Taking still easy--Senator Robert Torricelli, the New Jersey Democrat who has "strangle Cuba" high on his agenda, is off to a well-oiled start in his bid for reelection. His first campaign fund-raiser brought in more than $675,000. In his 1996 successful bid for the Senate, he raised a reported total of $9 million plus. So far, seven people have pleaded guilty to making illegal contributions to his initial war chest. The senator has yet to be charged.

Shouldn't breathe in short pants?--At a middle school in Devon, England, three students were expelled and about 80 others suspended for conducting a sit-in for the right to wear shorts in hot weather.

Oh well, that's different--"Pressure of work, not bigotry, may be to blame for police racism and the targeting of ethnic minorities, research from Staffordshire University has found. It said officers stopped Blacks and Asians because they had to meet targets and police culture suggested they would get results."--The Times, London.

That should keep him in groceries--Webvan, the tottering internet grocery chain, is paying its former top dog, George Shaheen, an annual retirement benefit of $375,000 for life. He's 56 years old. Meanwhile, 885 employees were fired. No mention of pensions.  
 
 
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