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The Key to Recycling is Markets

August 20, 1989
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If you amassed all the waste dumps, kindly called “landfills,” in the U.S.A. and totaled the acreage, they would cover an area larger than Rhode Island. Most are full or filling up rapidly; new land fills are very difficult to get passed environmental requirements and community opposition. So the Big Word for the Nineties will…

Indoor Pollution

August 15, 1989
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A letter came in the other day that filled five pages of single-spaced type under the heading of “Bad Chemistry.” The author made an interesting and infrequently made observation; namely that the marketplace response to our negative reaction to indoor pollutants has been to provide people with all types of deodorant chemicals — some hidden…

Mark Fowler, FCC

August 5, 1989
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Probably the most damaging appointment Ronald Reagan ever made to his callous, deficit-ridden government was one Mark Fowler, Chairman of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). Fowler stayed in office for almost seven years and left a wreckage of public trust behind, flouting the Federal Communications Act of 1934 all the way. Fowler’s philosophy was that…

Autofacts/Credit Union

August 1, 1989
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Ask an auto dealer these days about the Autofacts Program and Remar Sutton and you’ll likely see a flush of indignation. Remar is the vocal author of “Don’t Get Taken Every Time,” a best selling paperback about the ways and means of customer fleecing by many auto dealers. Now he has joined forces with the…

A Third Party?

July 25, 1989
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Years ago during one of our family’s dinner table conversations about politics, I said “what this country needs is a real third party.” My father replied: “I’d settle for a real second party.” I recalled this exchange the other day while reading about the combination of Republicans and Democrats supporting President Bush’s capital gains tax…

When Fish Gets Fishy, We Need Inspections

July 19, 1989
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It was a newspaper cartoon that sellers of fish are not likely to forget. A housewife with a cart is looking at the fish counter in a supermarket. Different rows of fish are labeled “regular unleaded,” “premium unleaded” and “high octane.” Yes, the time for mandatory fish inspection is long over­due. All these reports about…

Who’s Bringing Up America’s Children?

July 18, 1989
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Let’s say there was a debate topic entitled “Who’s bringing up America’s children -­parents or corporations?” Would the debater supporting the proposition that business is influencing children more than are parents have all that difficult a case to argue? Doubtful. Here is a quick and incomplete tour. Start out with infant formula hucksters who have…

Airbags – Kathleen Sullivan

July 11, 1989
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Kathleen Sullivan called today and her voice did not have the normal timbre that millions of television viewers are accustomed to when they watch the CBS morning news. She was speaking from a hospital in Idaho where her mother and stepfather were resting comfortably from injuries received when their car went into a ravine. “I’ve…

Fish Inspection

July 3, 1989
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It was a cartoon that sellers of fish are not likely to forget. A housewife with a cart is looking at the fish counter in a supermarket. Different rows of fish are labeled “regular unleaded,” “premium unleaded” and “high octane.” Yes, the time for mandatory fish inspection is long overdue. All these reports about contaminated…

Dangers of Cruelty to Animals

June 26, 1989
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Millions of Americans, who do not subscribe to the entire agenda of the Animal Rights movement, are becoming more sensitive to the avoidable practices that inflict massive cruelty to animals. Research laboratories and commercial companies are beginning to concede their excess. Avon Products announced last week that it was moving to cease animal testing for…