Blog

The Georgia Power Project

April 29, 1974
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WASHINGTON–What runs on $6,500 a year and makes the powerful Georgia Power Company squirm and fret? It’s the Georgia Power Project (GPP) – a citizens’ group composed of a young lawyer, an applied mathematician and an organizer together with twelve reliable volunteers knowledgeable about the mysterious ways of a utility’s financing and consumer gouging. The…

How to Beat City Hall

April 22, 1974
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WASHINGTON– If you believe “you can’t fight city hall” look into the activities of two citizen groups who disagree. Citizens Action Program (CAP) needs no introduction in Chicago. At age four it’s a household phrase in the Windy City. Since 1970 this group of citizen organizations, supported with the tiny dollar contributions of several thousand…

Genuine Freedom of Information

April 15, 1974
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WASHINGTON–Both the media and citizens have an important stake in a Senate bill that comes to grips with the no-fault government and the bureaucratic arrogance it breeds to perpetuate government secrecy in 67ashington. It is S.2543 which by tightening up the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) of 1966 and making that law more usable by…

Reaching Out for Information

April 1, 1974
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Lynn Sutcliffe was troubled. The former Princeton football player and present counsel to the Senate Subcommittee on Surface Transportation, wondered who was going to represent users and passengers during the planning process to reorganize rail services in the midwest and northeast regions of the United States. Backed by subcommittee chairman Vance Hartke, Democrat from Indiana,…

The New Student Activism

March 25, 1974
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WASHINGTON–To many members of the New York State Legislature, the image of the college student these days is not associated with the current streaking fad. Rather it is connected with an in vestigation of each legislator by students and their full time lawyers and other professional staff called the New York Public Interest Research Group…

The Watergate Consumer Packages

March 18, 1974
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WASHINGTON–Watergate-mired Richard Nixon is all but willing to sell the White House to big business to maintain the support of the large corporations. Earlier this month his operatives moved to make cancer, respiratory diseases and other pollution sicknesses hostage to his Watergate troubles. Over the strong objections of Environmental Protection Administrator, Russell E. Train, Mr.…

A Cashless Society

March 11, 1974
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Washington–Stuart Speiser is a New York aviation lawyer who wants to abolish paper money. He believes that a cashless society would dramatically reduce much crime and corruption or at least make it easily detectable by law enforcement agencies. Coins and tokens would remain in circulation. A payment card system, keyed to bank accounts, would replace…

Coping With Consumer Shortage

March 4, 1974
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WASHINGTON–In the midst of an economy plagued by monopolies, cartels, zooming prices and shortages, no one in Washington is asking what will happen if there starts to be a consumer shortage. They say it can’t happen here, not in the good old USA. Why American consumers will keep buying and buying lust to relieve their…

Deflating the Airbag

February 25, 1974
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WASHINGTON—Former Secretary of Transportation, John Volpe, was fighting back tears when he told some of his associates in late 1972 that Mr. Nixon wanted him to leave. One of the reasons for his unanticipated exit was his strong support of the air bag and experimental safety vehicle programs in the auto safety agency. Volpe’s stand…

Breaking the Energy Monopolies

February 24, 1974
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WASHINGTON–Among the flurry of legislative proposals in Congress on the energy problem, one stands out as a constructive and lasting solution to the monopolistic grip that the giant oil companies have on the nation, small businesses and consumers. S. 2506 and H.R. 11648 are bills filed by Senator Adlai Stevenson and Cong. John Moss to…