In the Public Interest

Why is the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) mounting an attack on pastas, cereals and salad dressings, among other products? Instead of spending taxpayer money on more pressing and worthy issues, on October 9, 2001, the DEA issued rulings which effectively ban hemp foods. Industrial hemp is the non-drug cousin of marijuana. Food is currently the…

President Bush is putting a big stake in the newly-formed office of Homeland Security under the leadership of former Pennsylvania Governor Tom Ridge. The rationale behind the formation of the office is a belief that the coordination of the disparate agencies with responsibility for security will provide the nation with a more effective and focused…

Members of Congress are continuing to play hide and seek with their legislative records. Only two Congressmen–Republican Representatives Christopher Shays of Connecticut and Frank Wolf of Virginia–have placed their voting records on the Internet in a searchable format easily accessible to citizens. Not a single U. S. Senator has been willing to use the Internet…

U.S. corporations aren’t even subtle about it. Waving a flag and carrying a big shovel, corporate interests are scooping up government benefits and taxpayer money in an unprecedented fashion while the public is preoccupied with the September 11 attacks and the war in Afghanistan. Shamelessly, the Bush Administration and Congress have taken advantage of the…

U. S. corporations aren’t even subtle about it. Waving a flag and carrying a big shovel, corporate interests are scooping up government benefits and taxpayer money in an unprecedented fashion while the public is preoccupied with the September 11 attacks and the war in Afghanistan. Shamelessly, the Bush Administration and Congress have taken advantage of…

Corporations and their political friends have long promoted the idea that private enterprises could operate basic government services more efficiently and at less cost than government itself. Everything from schools to mass transit systems has been targeted by “government for profit” campaigns. Today, many state and local governments rue the day that they fell for…

Nuclear power plants came on the scene in the post World War II era with lots of official enthusiasm and a shortage of concern about safety. But much of that early excitement about the future of nuclear power faded after the accidents at Three Mile Island in Pennsylvania in 1979 and Chernobyl in 1986 and…

This autumn, Major League Baseball has a unique opportunity to display to the American public and its sports fans that there is still reason to call baseball its national pastime. The occasion has nothing to do with the extraordinary record-breaking team and individual accomplishments of this season. Nor does it involve celebrating the completion of…

Insurance companies — fresh from their lobbying victories in the last Congress — are back on Capitol Hill with their hands out again. Under legislation circulated by the insurance industry’s favorite Senator — Chris Dodd of Connecticut –taxpayers, not the insurance companies, in the future would be required to pay major insurance claims arising out…

The September 11 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon are changing the way Americans think about a lot of things. One critically important area of this rethinking must involve our national transportation system — how we move people safely and efficiently across this vast nation. In the aftermath of the hijacking of…