News In Brief

HE THINKS IT'S ALL WET New Minnesota Gov. Jesse Ventura, known as "The Body" in his pro wrestling career, now would rather be called "The Mind" because of his ambitious legislative goals. But he may be fighting a losing battle - at least as far as lawmakers elsewhere are concerned. Take the New Mexico Senate, which has passed a tongue-in-cheek resolution proposing a match between Ventura and Republican Gov. Gary Johnson. If Johnson should win, it says, Minnesota would transfer all of its famous 10,000 lakes to chronically dry New Mexico. If Johnson lost, Minnesota would get 10,000 New Mexico sand dunes. Johnson is an accomplished athlete in his own right, but - at 165 pounds - he's far smaller than the former heavyweight grappler. Anyway, Ventura sees no merit in the idea. Sniffed his press aide: "Surely [they have] something more important to do than promote wrestling matches."

A call for more details on the potential Y2K problems

Americans are eager to know more about how they may be affected by potential computer problems at the start of 2000 - and the more they know, the less they worry, a new survey indicates. "People with the greatest amount of information on the year 2000 [issues] were the least likely to worry about the problem," says Lawrence McGill, director of research at the Freedom Forum's Media Studies Center in New York. Half of all US adults polled said they had seen or heard "a great deal" about the so-called Y2K problems. Some of the most significant findings of Freedom Forum's recent poll:

Expect Y2K problems to cause major difficulty for them personally 13%

"Very seriously" considering withdrawing money from bank: 13%

Think building shelters, stockpiling food, withdrawing money would be "overreaction": 70%

Think some of these actions may be appropriate: 25%

Unable to describe in general what Y2K problem is: over 50%

Want much more data on how institutions are handling the problem: 66%

- Reuters