In the Public Interest

It was a simple idea with long arms and legs. It came to eighth grade teacher, Randy Wright in Ashland, Virginia during a night time dream. He related it to his students who agreed to take it forward as part of their civics class. They took the concept in early 1998 to their members of…

The horrific Republicans had another two weeks of victories over the hapless Democrats. After seven Republican and seven Democratic Senators forged the compromise that averted a showdown against the filibuster, the Republicans moved the confirmation of the worst nominees for the federal circuit courts of appeals which the Democrats had vigorously opposed before they were…

One of my favorite publications–one that you may never have heard about–is the Co-op America Quarterly: Economic Actions for a Just Planet. The current issue is devoted to “The Promise of the Solar Future.” Co-op America brings together buyers and sellers who want products and services that are environmentally benign and made by companies and…

Veteran Car and Driver Magazine editor, Brock Yates, used to lead the notorious Cannonball race across the U.S. non-stop wildly violating every speed limit with his competing buddies. In the Sixties, he would take out after my championing safer, more fuel-efficient and less polluting cars as undermining the auto industry through federal regulatory standards. Mind…

As President George W. Bush rushes around the country frantically trying to find acceptance of his exaggerated, deceptive and sometimes deliberately inaccurate (note his use of the word “bankrupt” ) plan for a social insecurity system, the pundits and the polls say he is not gaining traction. A large majority still opposes his proposals for…

An astonishing message came forth on May 12, 2005 from ABC News political unit’s The Note. I shall quote verbatim from Mark Halperin and his associate editors: “We say with all the genuine apolitical and non-partisan human concern that we can muster that the death and carnage in Iraqis truly staggering. But we are sort…

With U.S. union membership down to only 8% of the workers in the corporate sector – the lowest in 90 years – a clash of unions is underway within the AFL-CIO over the future direction of organized labor. The unions challenging the leadership of President John J. Sweeney – the Service Employees International Union (SEIU),…

Will just one regular White House reporter let out a scream after yet another managed Bush news conference? Not literally, of course. But substantively to protest this recurrent orchestrated theater between the President, his coaches and the reporters, that results in one giant ditto hour of what Bush has been saying every day on his…

You would think that Bush-Cheney would be sensitive to avoiding the weakening of democracy in our country while going around the world with Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice, hectoring other countries about their anti-democratic practices. After all, the moral authority to admonish comes from the power of example. Instead brazen hypocrisy prevails. Bush and Cheney…

Question — have you ever heard of Maurice Hilleman? If your answer is No or Who?, join about 99 percent of the American people. He passed away this month in Philadelphia at the age of 85. Here is what the front page New York Times article said about his medical career: Dr. Maurice R. Hilleman…