lowercase u before string in "python for windows"

[davidj411]

why does this occur when using the python windows extensions? all
string are prefixed by a lowercase "u".
is there a newsgroup explicitly for python windows extensions?

example of output below.

SMBIOSBIOSVersion:u'A16'
SMBIOSMajorVersion:2
SMBIOSMinorVersion:3
SMBIOSPresent:True
SoftwareElementID:u'Phoenix ROM BIOS PLUS Version 1.10 A16'
SoftwareElementState:3
Status:u'OK'
TargetOperatingSystem:0


here is a snippet of the code:

    if objItem.Status != None:
        print "Status:" + ` objItem.Status`
    if objItem.TargetOperatingSystem != None:
        print "TargetOperatingSystem:" + `
objItem.TargetOperatingSystem`
    if objItem.Version != None:
        print "Version:" + ` objItem.Version`