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The fastest growing industry in the United States is the production of victims. The factories are along the banks of the Potomac and part of the Reagan Administration, In 1983 Reaganism seems determined to accelerate the size of the underclass and the defenseless. Take as exhibit one, the following statement:“The November rise in the unemployment…

At 11 a.m. on Thursday, February 15, 1979, the fiveCommissioners of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) heard a presentation from NRC engineer Demetrios L. Basdekas that must have chilled them into numbing inaction. At least that is the charitable view. For had the NRC been less secretive and more forthright, the nuclear superhawks inside and…

FOR THE PAST 20 years, Stanley Weiss built up a prosperous mineral processing company. But today he has his mind on another subject and is asking: What are business executives doing about the specter of nuclear war? His answer: virtually nothing. Like you and me. Weiss reads the newspapers. He knows about the anti-nuclear arms…

ON NOV. 2, Sen. William Prox­mire, 11-Wis., won re-election to his fifth term in the U.S. Senate. His entire campaign expense was less than $150. That’s right, less than $150. And he won by 64.5 percent of the vole cast. Other senatorial incumbents were spending one to three or more million dollars on their campaigns.…

POLITICAL ANALYSTS were having difficulty reading any trends or Meaning into the results of the 1982 congressional elections. Vague­ness of commentary was the order of the day. Bill Moyers saw the election as reflecting the pragmatism of the voters. George Will called the voters’ reaction a continent-wide shrug. The Democrats did make sizable gains in…

MORE THAN ONE General Motors executive is having difficulty these days thinking about GM diesels without also wondering about Diane Halferty and her Seattle-based group “Consumers Against General Motors” (CAGM). The giant auto company has taken out newspaper ads in 16 Northwest cities and sent four of its officials to negotiate with Halferty’s group, which…

The unemployment level, it is widely agreed, is a major issue in the imminent midterm congressional elections. Yet recent press reports conclude that unemployed workers are expected to stay away from the polls in record numbers. What difference do elections make to their plight, many of those interviewed asked. Political analysts tell us that the…

In his race for the U. S. Senate seat from heavily Democratic Connecticut, Congressman Toby Moffett is losing his political nerve to his political ambition. Ironically, however, what should be an easy win for Moffett in an election year trending markedly against Reagan and Republicans is, instead, a close race against Republican Sen. Lowell Weicker.…

For almost the entire first half of the 19th century, a Bostonian by the name of John Chapman took it upon himself to plant apple seeds in wilderness areas, especially in Ohio and Indiana. He became widely known as Johnny Appleseed. Tens of thousands of trees made up his environmental legacy. But Appleseed’s lasting example…

It started with William Agee, chairman of the Bendix corporation, and a large pile of Bendix cash. Rather than invest in new or better products for consumers, Agee decided to take over the aerospace company, Martin Marietta. Martin Marietta objected to its being acquired, in part because company officials did not believe Bendix knew anything…