Minorities

If you strike out in baseball, throw gutter balls in bowling or miss your shot in basketball, tennis, golf or virtually any other sport, life goes on. But when it comes to swimming, "inability to perform the basics of the sport could mean the difference between life and death," says Lee Pitts, a Fort Myers, Fla., bank vice president and former competitive swimmer who has devoted much of his 35 years to helping eliminate an alarming racial gap between blacks and whites in their ability to swim.

A former sheriff's deputy, reviving long-festering allegations of corruption and racism at the department, testified Wednesday that her training officer repeatedly altered, destroyed and even fabricated evidence in a pattern of harassment against Latinos and blacks. The testimony came in a tense courtroom showdown between two officers who once shared a squad car, and it led the judge to issue a stinging attack on defendant Jeffrey L.

In a setback for Los Angeles, New York and other major cities, the Supreme Court said Wednesday that federal officials need not adjust the 1990 census to make up for an apparent undercount of blacks and other minorities. Two years ago, a federal appeals court in New York said that the government violated the Constitution's equal-treatment guarantee by using census figures that "disproportionately undercount" the poor and minorities.

Saying the film industry is hiding behind a "cloak of creativity" to deny access to ethnic actors and crew members, the Rev. Jesse Jackson said Friday in Encino that he will picket KABC Channel 7 on Monday night when the station airs the Academy Awards ceremony. Jackson made the statement after a meeting with representatives from Walt Disney Co., Sony Inc.

The ban on the use of race and gender as factors in admissions decisions at the University of California will be postponed for one year, until 1998, under a change announced by the UC president's office Tuesday. UC officials called the change a "reinterpretation" of the ban on affirmative action in admissions that was approved by the Board of Regents in July and was slated to take effect Jan. 1, 1997.

Even as the University of California Board of Regents rejoiced at their newly minted truce with President Richard Atkinson, one crucial question remained unresolved: Who runs the university? Both those regents who support Atkinson and those who had called for a review of his performance tried to claim victory Tuesday.

Gov. Pete Wilson announced late Monday that the University of California Board of Regents has canceled a scheduled confrontation with UC President Richard Atkinson over his decision to delay its ban on affirmative action in admissions. The cancellation of Wednesday's special meeting of the regents came after Wilson and the entire board received letters from Atkinson reaffirming his commitment to implement the board's policy.

There are many elements to the retailing comeback being posted by Sears, Roebuck & Co., and one of them is represented by the size 6 women's dress. Until recently, the Sears store in Westminster wasn't having much luck selling clothes to the community's huge Asian population. Then the store's Asian sales associates advised the manager that advertising was not enough.

There are many elements to the retailing comeback being posted by Sears, Roebuck & Co., and one of them is represented by the size 6 women's dress. Until recently, the Sears store in Westminster wasn't having much luck selling clothes to the community's sizable Asian population. Then the store's Asian sales associates advised the manager that advertising was not enough.

California's chances of winning an extra seat in Congress and a slightly greater share of federal funds because of a census readjustment looked dim Wednesday after arguments in the Supreme Court. The justices were highly skeptical of pleas on behalf of New York City, Los Angeles and Chicago that their 1990 census totals should be revised to make up for a probable undercount of blacks and Latinos. The Constitution calls for "an actual enumeration. . . .