Blog

Everyone wants health care reform. And every special interest, from the American Medical Association to the drug industry to the big insurance companies, is telling the White House and Congress what it wants. Whatever the health plan becomes, consumers must also be participants, not just “recipients” in the restructuring of the health care delivery system…

Two notable areas were not mentioned in President Clinton’s address to the Congress on his health insurance plan. The first area dealt with the largest source of non­addictive fatalities in the nation–medical and hospital malpractice. Extrapolating from the Harvard study of hospitals in New York state, at least 80,000 people lose their lives in hospitals…

Richard Whittle of the Dallas Morning News knows more than ever the meaning of the old journalistic adage that in the U.S. “news flows west, not east.” On Sunday, July 25, 1993, the Dallas newspaper broke a very long page one story by Whittle on Senator Phil Gramm’s extraordinary uses of campaign finance and taxpayer…

All over the country, controversies are raging over what to do with solid waste trash. The three alternatives are (1) dump it in landfills; (2) incinerate it; and (3) recycle it. A growing movement behind recycling is registering gains with more and more local and state governments. Paper makes up 40% of the what is…

After we released our report last week entitled “A Citizen’s Guide to Congressional Pay and Perks,” a caller on a radio talk show said: “With all these huge budget deficits and scandals, what’s the big deal about a few millions of dollars of Congressional nest-feathering? Sounds like a lot of much ado about peanuts to…

In large cities, keeping a community intact most often means the absence of crime. In small towns, what makes a community is the presence of neighbors. Such is the difference these days in the expectation levels of beleaguered city dwellers as compared with residents of small towns and villages. I am reminded of this distinction…

Here it comes! The Mexico-Washington-Wall St. propaganda juggernaut to push through Congress the North American free trade agreement (NAFTA) has hit the road. First come the op-ed columns by such revolving door lobbyists as Carla Hills (who negotiates the agreement as a Bush official, then heads a rich consulting firm representing foreign and domestic companies…

Ever notice that the local television news has become a local street crime news program, along with the prolonged weather report and sports. In city after city, inner city crime on the streets dominates the television stations’ endless appetite for violence, sex and addiction. But high up in the office building towering over the cities…

What is it that the whiskered tern — a 12 inch bird -­possesses that Congress does not have? Watch Appeal! We, the citizen watchers of Congress in Washington, D.C., can only shake our heads in awe at the pulling power of this little bird. Last month this gray and white feathered bird was seen at…

Those of you who have read about fraud, greed and mismanagement of many S&Ls, banks, insurance companies, brokerage firms and other hybrid financial institutions might have shared my amazement at recent hearings by the Senate Securities Subcommittee. The Subcommittee was not at all focused on strengthening the corporate criminal laws and reducing the legal roadblocks…