In the Public Interest

Sanford Weill, CEO of Citigroup, the giant multi-national financial conglomerate, took home the fattest compensation package among the nation’s corporate executives last year, $224.4 million. Weill may be the “poster child” for executive compensation excesses, but boards of directors of other major corporations have not been timid about dipping into their company’s treasuries to shower…

Is Mad Cow Disease just a European phenomena or is it something that should trigger a significant upgrading of U. S. public health efforts? It is true that so far, the U. S. has escaped the epidemic and its human counterpart, variant Cruetzfeldt-Jacob Disease (CJD). But is this the result of vigilance by our public…

Emboldened by a complacent Congress and regulators who serve as little more than industry cheerleaders, banks continue to pile more fees on consumers. The latest evidence of the fee gouging comes from a nationwide survey conducted by the U. S. Public Interest Research Group which found that surcharges imposed on automated teller machines (ATMs) have…

Columnists and commentators who view themselves as Democratic Party supporters are in an uproar over George W. Bush signing the Congressional repeal of the ergonomics rule. This OSHA regulation is designed to urge and press employers to reduce repetitive stress injuries such as carpal tunnel syndrome. There are over one and a half million such…

When a new Administration comes to Washington, the media devotes a lot of resources to coverage of appointees to Cabinet-level positions. The American public quickly gets a pretty good idea about who theseofficials are, what they have done and what they might do as key members of an incoming Administration. Unfortunately, this same media scrutiny…

Sometimes, you can’t tell the Washington players by the color of their jerseys. For decades, the Republicans have laid claim to the title as the “tough on crime” party. Now, a report issued by the Justice Policy Institute finds it’s not the Republicans, but the Democrats’ recently departed President Clinton who has title to what…

Grover G. Norquist, chairman of the Reagan Legacy Project, is a man with a rapid mission. He and his colleagues want to place the former president’s name on one location after another, while the ailing Gipper is still alive and accorded public sympathy for his condition. For once Reagan passes, he joins other deceased Presidents…

Congress is in a twitter about the Internet. Bills are pouring into the legislative hopper regarding issues of privacy, taxation of sales, wiring schools to the information highway, identity theft, spammers sending unsolicited e-mail advertisements and online gambling. Last month, the Council for Excellence in Government released a plan for “achieving full electronic government in…

As a state dominated by the oil and gas industry and other large corporations, Texas has generated little excitement about government reforms. That’s changing, and much of the credit goes to the bright light that a public interest group, Texans for Public Justice (TPJ), has focused on the state’s judiciary, legislature and the governor’s office.…

There can be no vibrant American democracy without a vibrant labor union movement. Unions enable working people to band together to enliven our modest political democracy and they are by far the most important institution working to infuse at least a modicum of the nation’s democratic values into the economic sphere. Whatever their limitations and…