News In Brief

Hello! I'm ... miracle tire

At one time or another, we've all run across a name so - well - unusual that we're glad it isn't ours. But in Honduras, apparently, this is such a problem that the National Electoral Tribunal is proposing legislation to stamp it out. Parents would be barred from giving children "extravagant or offensive" names - like Llanta de Milagro (Miracle Tire), which at least one Honduran goes by. Moreover, kids with "gross," "insulting," or "absurd" appellations could even sue mom and dad.

TRY TO GET AROUND THIS

A shopping cart is taken from a US store every 90 seconds, retail industry statistics show. But some merchants are fighting back with a high-tech deterrent. Three Fry's Food & Drug stores in Arizona have installed an underground sensing system, which locks the wheels if an attempt is made to take a cart off the premises. "We're testing it to see how the customers react," says a company official. Presumably, would-be cart-takers aren't thrilled.

What young US workers see for their retirement years

More than ever, Americans hope to be retired even before they reach 65, results of a recent study show. Among Generation Xers, in fact, 55 percent of respondents told "Second Wind: Workers, Retirement, and Social Security," a survey of 1,005 workers conducted by Rutgers University's Heldrich Center for Workforce Development, they wish to stop working full time by age 50. But that doesn't mean most of them plan to loaf. The choices (by percentage) for spending retirement, according to respondents to the survey:

I'd like to work part time just to stay busy 42%

I'd start my own business 19%

I'd volunteer my time 11%

I'd work part time because I want the money 10%

I don't intend to work at all 10%

- US Newswire

(c) Copyright 2000. The Christian Science Publishing Society