Capitalism at its finest--The Cooper Tire and Rubber company is being sued by two boys paralyzed in a 1998 car wreck. Their parents were killed. The boys accuse the company of instructing employees to destroy records confirming the tires were defective.

A former quality engineering technician testified that she and a co-worker burned a vanload of records but had not been explicitly told to do so. A supervisor told her "a good employee would make sure they weren’t there."

It figures--"More than 18,000 working-age adults died prematurely in 2000 because they lacked health insurance, according to a report by the Institute of Medicine.... Contrary to the popular view that people needing emergency medical care are treated equally regardless of their insurance status...even uninsured auto-accident victims and heart-attack patients received fewer hospital services and were more likely to die than patients with insurance."--News item

P.S.--The known number of U.S. people without health insurance is put at 40 million, and growing.

Read it and rebel--In Philadelphia, 298 former prison inmates are suing the city for having been used as guinea pigs in medical experiments. The case is on hold while an appeals courts considers throwing the case out on grounds that the statute of limitations had expired. One of the defendants is Dow Chemical which, in the Vietnam war, provided the U.S. warmakers with the napalm--the jellied gasoline that burned men, women, and children alive.

Read it and retch--Commenting on the Philadelphia prisoners case, a Dow spokesman said the suit was the result of "applying what was common practice in the 1960s to 2002 eyes."

How’s he doing in England?--A U.S. company has marketed dolls of Osama bin Laden, George Bush, and British Labour prime minister Anthony Blair. According to the Times of London, in the first six weeks the Bush and bin Laden doll sold well. Blair? Zero. Meanwhile, the U.S. feds are pondering if the depiction of Bush (somewhat bewildered) violates strict guidelines of how the presidential persona is portrayed.

Relax kid, relax--"Milwaukee, Wi.-- Girls as young as eight are learning to cope with the frenetic pace of 21st Century life as they earn a ‘Stress Less’ badge to sport on their Girl Scout lapels. Anna Reardon 12, whose days are packed with sports, music, and school, said she practices breathing techniques, time management, and journal writing."

"Trenton, N.J.--About 70 percent of the 20,300 school buses in New Jersey failed inspections in the past year, transportation officials said.... Forty percent had mechanical problems so serious they had to be taken out of service for repairs."--News item.  
 
 
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