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The 180 million Americans with health insurance got a victory last month when the U. S. Senate adopted a long-sought set of rights for patients. The legislation establishes federal standards for private health insurance, including that provided through Health Maintenance Organizations (HMOs), and allows patients to sue in federal and state courts to enforce their…

California often serves as the nation’s laboratory for new public policy initiatives. Some of the initiatives have been disasters. This is particularly true in the area of regulation where California has bounced from pro-consumer initiatives to “free-market” solutions favored by the state’s corporate powers. In 1996, California’s Republican Governor Pete Wilson led a successful bi-partisan…

The Fourth Amendment to the U. S. Constitution spells out the right of citizens to be “secure in their persons, houses, papers and effects against unreasonable searches…” by their government. When that amendment was ratified in 1791, no one imagined that it would be corporations, not governments, which would use their vast power to invade…

If there is truly an energy crisis, why have so many of the nation’s refineries been shut down in recent years? Since 1985, a total of 98 refineries have been taken off line. Fifty of these, with a crude capacity of 1,360,614 B/SD (barrels per stream day) were closed in the last decade. The closures…

Increasingly, America’s working families are questioning how well their interests and needs are being represented by the Democratic and Republican parties. And a lot of union members aren’t meekly accepting the apathy of the major parties. They are demanding action-and taking action on their own. One of the most creative and effective vehicles for change…

Senator Jim Jeffords’s party switch changed the Senate’s power structure dramatically, but what hasn’t changed in Washington is the increasing erosion of the public’s right to know and the diminishing ability of citizens to have an impact on Congressional actions. In the reform atmosphere prevailing in the aftermath of the Watergate scandals, Congress adopted a…

Economic policy is taking on a surreal appearance in Washington. President Bush has gambled everything on a massive tax cut based on the quicksand of long-term projections of yetto- be-achieved budget surpluses. A bi-partisan majority in the Congress has enthusiastically endorsed the President’s philosophy of “tax cuts cure all” with the Democratic opposition chipping away…

“We can either give you coal or we can give you wind.” So spoke first Native American, Robert Gough, Rosebud Tribal Attorney. So hopes Winona LaDuke, whose work with the Indigenous Women’s Network and Indigenous Environmental Network, has informed and galvanized awareness and action here and around the world. Ms. LaDuke sees a transformation of…

The Children’s Defense Fund (CDF) has long run on the motto – “Leave No Child Behind.” But that phrase was given much higher visibility as the slogan of the presidential campaign of George W. Bush, who as governor left more than a few children behind in Texas. CDF was not pleased with the appropriation of…

Is the cure worse than the disease? An old cliche perhaps, but it seems a particularly apt question in the current debate over food irradiation. Irradiation may appear to many as a miracle means of swiftly removing bacteria from food supplies, but underneath the hype lie major questions about the economic, health and social costs…