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With the rapid expansion of federal spending responding to the perceived national security requirements after 9/11, passenger railroad supporters looked forward to a tripleheader. First passenger railroad service would have to be upgraded and expanded to facilitate mass population evacuations from cities during attack emergencies. Second, by embarking on a “national defense” passenger rail program,…
Here is a counter-intuitive story for you. Why don’t organized corporate interests challenge damage or risks to their clear economic interests? Think about oil prices for big consumers, not just your pocketbook. Airlines are groaning, limiting flights, and laying off employees because of the skyrocketing price for aviation fuel. Executives in that industry say that…
A philanthropist for all seasons, Stewart R. Mott was about the most versatile, imaginative philanthropist of his time. He threw himself into projects and was a pioneer in many fields well before the large foundations. Citizen oversight of the vast wasteful military budget is a case in point. Our country and world are lessened with…
Move over Las Vegas. The big time gamblers are on Wall Street and they are gambling with your money, your pensions, and your livelihoods. Unlike Las Vegas casinos, these big investment banks, commercial banks and stock brokerage houses are supposed to have a fiduciary relationship with your money. They are supposed to be trustees for…
You are sixteen. You can legally work, drive a motor vehicle and with parental consent get married in most states. Why can’t you legally vote? Good question, and one that supporters for dropping the voting age from eighteen to sixteen will be asking politicians more and more. Much has been made of the youth vote…
What factors are causing the zooming price of crude oil, gasoline and heating products? What is going to be done about it? Don’t rely on the White House—with Bush and Cheney marinated in oil—or the Congress—which has hearings that grill oil executives who know that nothing is going to happen on Capitol Hill either. Last…
Mountain View, California — An invitation to visit Google’s headquarters and meet some of the people who made this ten year old giant that is giving Microsoft the nervies has to start with wonder. The “campus” keeps spreading with the growth of Google into more and more fields, even though advertising revenue still comprises over…
Dear President Bush, You and your White House have been sitting on the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) since your arrival in January 2001, thus assuring the giant auto companies that NHTSA-toothless under President Bill Clinton and previous administrations– continues morphing even further away from the technology-forcing, life- saving regulatory agency it is supposed…
This is the grim story of a cancer patient, Lisa Kelly, and the famous, well endowed, non-profit M.D. Anderson Cancer Center of the University of Texas. Barbara Martinez, a reporter for the Wall St. Journal, related the billing hurdles that Mrs. Kelly has been confronting since late 2006 in a shocking front-page story on April…
Where is Harry Chapin when you need him? The popular folk singer (Cat’s in the Cradle), who lost his life in an auto crash 27 years ago, was an indefatigable force of nature against hunger—in this country and around the world. To hear Harry speak out against the scourge of hunger in a world of…