12 - The Michigan Daily - Wednesday, March 29, 1995
p e
French
city adds
dialect to
street signs
STRASBOURG, France (AP) -
Strasbourg has put a regional lan-
guage on street signs, after overcom-
ing some local opposition to using the
Alsatian dialect.
Fifty signs in French and Alsatian
were put up this month in central
Strasbourg, and officials said 50 more
will be added each year in the Rhine
city bordering Germany.
The sign for Place de la Cathedrale
now also carries the name
"Muenschterplatz," the quai des
Baterlies "Schifflitstade" and the rue
de la Douane the "Kaufhusgass."
While French is still the official
language, Alsatian, a derivative of
German, is widely spoken in the
Alsace region. Some older residents
objected to the new signs with names
resembling those used during the two
German occupations of the region in
the past century.
After long discouraging regional
languages, the French government has
increasingly accepted their use in re-
cent years.
Bilingual signs have also been put.
up in the Alsatian town of Colmar as
well as in Brittany, the Basque region
and in southern France near the Span-
ish Mediterranean border, where
Occitan is spoken.
Police arrest
Mafia boss
PALERMO, Sicily (AP) - After
15 years on the run from police and
mob hitmen, ex-Mafia boss Michele
Micalizzi is back in custody, authori-
ties said yesterday.
Police tracked the 46-year-old Si-
cilian clan leader to a villa in Taormina
and arrested him Saturday, but news
of the arrest was not made public until
yesterday.
Micalizzi, who was last seen in pub-
lic in 1980, was a target in an internal
feud between factions of the Corleone-
based crime family. Micalizzi and his
brother narrowly escaped a mob am-
bush in 1982 in Palermo.
Supreme Court
divided over drug
tests for athletes
0
AP PHOTO
Big Boy gets a booboo
This Big Boy statue was cut into seven pieces March 17, then dumped off at several Toledo, Ohio, Big Boy rest-
aurants. Eight men admitted yesterday to stealing the 300-pound statue and dismembering him with a hacksaw.
e o a i
Definig minorities 1stpriority
In afirm-Iati'veV action discussion
Los Angeles Times
WASHINGTON - Who is a mi-
nority?
Today, in an era of affirmative
action, when the answer to that ques-
tion can have an impact on college
admissions, jobs, promotions and
government contracts, just who
should be counted has become an
emotion-charged issue.
In this vast and polychromatic
nation, the simple question of who is
a minority has never had a simple
answer. Definitions of what groups
make up the minority - and who
holds power as part of the majority -
have shifted over time.
When affirmative action pro-
grams began in the mid-1960s, im-
migration was low, the population
was nearly all white and, in most
parts of the country, Blacks were the
only minority group - most of them
with much lower incomes than the
average white.
But now, the nation has changed
dramatically: There are high levels of
immigration, several major racial groups
and an expansive minority middle class.
News Analysis
Those changes have heightened
and complicated the affirmative ac-
tion debate. The population of Asian
Americans has gone from roughly 1
million in the 1960s to at least 8.5
million. The Latino population grew
from 3.5 million to roughly 23 mil-
lion. Racial and ethnic groups offi-
cially counted as "minorities" make
up roughly a third of the U.S. popula-
tion - up from just more than 10
percent three decades ago.
Since women are included in most
such programs, "when you add it all
up, about two-thirds of the American
population is eligible" for one form of
affirmative action or another, said
Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan (D-
N.Y.).
"That's a lot of minority. And I
think what began as an effort to redress
the legitimate concerns and needs of
African Americans has expanded to
other things entirely unexpected."
Even the Black population has
changed. Once, almost every Black
American was descended from Ameri-
can slaves. But in New York City, for
example, roughly 25 percent of Blacks
are immigrants or the children of im-
migrants - mostly from Africa and
the Caribbean, says Harvard sociol-
ogy Prof. Mary Waters.
How did the current definitions of
"minority" arise?
In the beginning, it was not much
of an issue and received little debate,
according to historians and officials
involved in the early policy-making.
The focus was on the plight of Black
Americans. But aware of longstanding
discrimination against Puerto Ricans
in northeastern cities, Mexican Ameri-
cans in the Southwest and Chinese
and Japanese - primarily in Califor-
nia - lawmakers also sought to pro-
tect those groups.
In the early 1960s, federal officials
established four categories for equal
opportunity programs - "Negroes,
Spanish-surnamed, Oriental and In-
dian." With adjustments to reflect
changing fashions in language, those
groups remain the basic categories for
most affirmative action programs.
The programs vary widely. Set-
WASHINGTON (AP) - A lively
debate about students' privacy rights
and the war on drugs seemed to leave
the Supreme Court deeply divided
yesterday over mandatory drug tests
in public schools.
In a case closely watched by edu-
cators nationwide, an Oregon school
district and the Clinton administra-
tion urged the justices to allow such
tests for all student-athletes in schools
where drug use is deemed a problem.
But a teen-ager's lawyer said his
client wrongly was barred from his
junior high football team for refusing
to undergo urinalysis because such
tests amount to unreasonable searches.
"This is being compelled by the
government. They're watching you
do it. They're taking your urine.
They're testing it to see what secrets
are therein," Portland lawyer Thomas
Christ contended.
The court's decision, expected by
late June, could deal with student-ath-
letes only. But, depending on how
broadly the justices rule, the decision
conceivably could affect all schoolchil-
dren-even those in elementary school.
Justice Department lawyer Rich-
ard Seamon, when pressed on the
scope of his argument, said, "It is not
our position that drug-testing of all
students would be invalid under all
circumstances."
, From the courtroom audience, 15-
year-old James Acton watched silently.
James was a star seventh-grader at
Washington Grade School in the small
logging town of Vernonia in 1991
when he was confronted by the drug-
test requirement.
Vernonia officials since 1989 had
used drug tests for all student-athletes
because they suspected some of being
leaders in an "out-of-control" drug
culture.
The Actons sued, and eventually
the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals
struck down the drug-testing policy.
James, now a sophomore at Vernonia
High School, joined his school's bas-
ketball team after the school district
was forced to make drug-testing vol-
untary.
Court rules that
compames can
trademark colors
Los Angeles Times
WASHINGTON- A company
can trademark a "color, pure and
simple" if the shade identifies the
product brand in the public's mind,
the Supreme Court said yesterday.
The 9-0 ruling is a victory for
the makers of leading brand-name
products. It means, for example,
that companies such as Owens-
Corning can market its pink Fiber-
glass insulation exclusively, while
Nutrasweet can seek similar trade-
mark protection for its pale blue
packets of artificial sweetener.
At the same time, the decision is
a setback for store brand products
that often imitate the basic look,
including the color, of the leading
brands. For example, Pepto-Bismol
is the recognized brand of liquid
medicine for an upset stomach, but
its store-brand competitors have
copied its distinctive pink hue.
"Color alone, at least some-
times, can meet the basic legal re-
quirements for use as a trademark.
It can act as a symbol that distin-
guishes a firm's goods and identi-
fies their source," Justice Stephen
G. Breyer wrote for the court.
But he stressed that the color
may not be simple and "functional."
A maker of orange juice could not
patent an orange shade for its car-
tons, nor could a manufacturer of
fire extinguishers seek exclusive
use of bright red. These shades
identify the basic product, but they
do not conjure up a distinct brand
In the past, the U.S. Patent and
Trademark Office has authorized
trademarks for a particular shape,
such as the Coca-Cola bottle, a par-
ticular sound, such as NBC's three
chimes, and even a particular scent
used on a brand of sewing thread.
0
PAID ADVERTISEMENT
DENVER COLORADO
Numerous Opportunities Exist for Michigan Professionals
Colorado's employment picture
continues to remain bright for the
first quarter of 1995. On February
28th, the 4.9 billion dollar Denver
International Airport opened. This
facility is ready to handle the large
migration of career professionals
taking advantage of the state's vast
opportunities.
The current jobless rate of
3.3% is the lowest Colorado has
seen in two decades. This rate is
2.1 % lower than the national aver-
age. The Denver Metropolitan area
has more available positions than the
state's professional residents can fill.
The state is looking to offset this
imbalance by attracting Michigan
professionals to the Denver, Boulder
and Colorado Springs communities.
Currently, 200 of
Colorado's Fortune 500 Companies
are seeking to increase the size of
their staffs. These expanding com-
panies are especially in need of indi-
boasts, "Clearly our economy is
strong". The state's economic
growth has also been felt in the res-
taurant and retail sectors. Both sec-
tors have posted large increases in
both revenue and employment.
State officials throughout
Colorado are encouraging the rapid
growth spurt and embracing the
career minded residents who have
adopted Colorado as their new
home.
OTI and the state of Colorado
are committed to attracting and develop-
ing the most talented professionals who
are dedicated to excellence, integrity
and innovation.
Through our efforts and state-
of-the-art research, we have compiled a
detailed list of 200 leading companies
with a demand for solutions regarding
their continuous staffing needs. OTI can
provide those in the job market career
specifications including job descrip-
tions, growth areas and advancement
opportunities.
The professional population of
Michigan has been targeted by OTI due
to the state's large number of unsatisfied
professionals finding themselves with-
out career fulfillment or growth poten-
tial.
College students are also
needed to fill a wide variety of exciting
summer internships.
OTI is uniquely qualified to
help our clients through all phases of
their orwmer trnitinnQ OTT'Q exP~fri-
OUR PRINCIPLE
RESOURCE IS
OUR PEOPLE
At Objective Technologies
Inc. (OTI), our mission is to provide
industry leadership by delivering
high quality services and products to
our clients.
As a nationally recognized
organization specializing in eco-
nomic trends across the nation, OTI
E
I