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To: John Hunt who wrote (35305)	6/13/1999 6:46:00 PM
From: longtom	Respond to of 116753

I was in a convenience store in Kansas City today and the clerk was telling her coworker that she could go to work at McDonalds for 10.50 per hour on weekends. Is this a tight labor market or what? Commodities moving up, Asia recovering, and labor tighter than the nuts on a new bridge. It's only a matter of time. That damn timing thing again!

To: John Hunt who wrote (35305)	6/13/1999 8:45:00 PM
From: goldsnow	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 116753

Say what? :) Bank of Japan Seen Buying Dollars for Yen--bankers (This is a headline-only alert, although it will likely be followed by an article soon) If trader continue to dump US Treasuries-BOJ is on its own

To: John Hunt who wrote (35305)	6/14/1999 5:35:00 AM
From: Alex	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 116753

OT. Ah, the Swiss. Let the good times roll................... Swiss voters endorse heroin distribution, reject paid maternity leave Copyright © 1999 Nando Media Copyright © 1999 Associated Press By CLARE NULLIS GENEVA (June 13, 1999 5:20 p.m. EDT nandotimes.com) - Turning their backs on a promise made to women more than 50 years ago, Swiss voters on Sunday threw out government plans to introduce paid maternity leave. In a separate vote, they also endorsed state distribution of heroin to hardened addicts. Mothers with infants wept as results of the maternity benefit vote filtered through. The final tally was just 39 percent in favor and 61 percent against. "We're in total despair," said women's rights activist Christiane Brunner. "We worked years for this. What can we do now?" The concept of maternity leave was introduced in the Swiss constitution in 1945, but there were no concrete provisions on the level of pay. The proposal would have given working women 14 weeks of maternity leave at 80 percent of their salary, bringing Switzerland into line with minimum European standards. It also would have given a lump payment up to the equivalent of $2,680 to women with low incomes. The resounding rejection was a surprise as polls had predicted a close call. It reinforced an image of Switzerland as a chauvinistic stronghold, where women only got the right to vote in 1971 and even later at the local level. The outcome was also a snub for Switzerland's first female president, Ruth Dreifuss, who waged a personal crusade to end the system in which women are banned from working for two months after childbirth but aren't guaranteed any wages. Parliament last year agreed on the proposed maternity benefit, costing the equivalent of $333 million per year. But opponents collected enough signatures to force a referendum. Employers and conservative parties argued the new law was costly and an unnecessary bureaucratic addition given that most firms have provisions to cover childbirth. The drug vote outcome puts on a firm legal footing medically supervised distribution of heroin to about 1,500 heroin addicts who have repeatedly failed in efforts to kick their habit or switch to less damaging substitutes. Voters already approved the outline heroin program two years ago, but opponents collected enough signatures for a new referendum. Results from the four-year-old Swiss drug program - the world's first such project - show it has been successful in reducing crime and misery associated with narcotics dependency.