News In Brief

MONEY-MAKING OPPORTUNITY Ken Lanauze owns a small hilltop that folks are competing to rent - for a lot of cash - even though they only want it for a few hours. At least one offer for more than $250,000 is in hand, but he's "holding out for a better deal." Why? Because Lanauze's property is on Pitt Island, which, scientists say, should see the first rays of sunlight of the year 2000. The island is 500 miles southeast of New Zealand in the South Pacific. The bidders are TV networks such as CNN, which want the most advantageous spot for their cameras to record the happening - assuming it doesn't rain.

SPRAY PAINT WASN'T AVAILABLE Vandals already have defaced Seattle's new downtown baseball stadium, but you'd have to be way up in the air to see what they did. Using pieces of insulation stuffed in cracks in the roof, they spelled out Will, Sal, and Jeff. Three roofers on the project just happened to have those names. Their punishment: a reprimand. No damage to the structure.

States boasting most jobs in high-technology sector

The US added about 1 million high-tech jobs from 1993 to 1997, for a total of 4.8 million, according to a report released last week by the American Electronics Association. California had more of the positions than any other state. However, in 1997 Washington State - home to Microsoft, Amazon.com, and other success stories - had the highest average annual wage for high-tech workers - $81,375. California came in second with $62,771; the US average was $53,145. The high-technology top 10, based on the number of these jobs reported by each of the states and the District of Columbia in 1997:

1. California 784,151

2. Texas 375,933

3. New York 320,410

4. Illinois 207,201

5. Massachusetts 205,901

6. Florida 193,559

7. New Jersey 179,528

8. Pennsylvania 159,952

9. Virginia 154,712

10. Georgia 132,524