In the Public Interest

THE LOCAL ARTICLES describing the life of George L. Sherwood, who passed away at age 82 on July 28, were accurate and kind but could not do justice to this remarkable resident of Winchester, Conn., for his profound contributions to local democracy. The civic fiber of local communities has always relied on a small number…

The virtual-reality marketplace of the Internet is booming with sales. Transactions between businesses are in the tens of billions a year. And retail revenues are also in the billions already. Economic forecasters are predicting that the first annual trillion dollars of sales will be reached in two or three years. If more and more people…

For years, consumer activists have asked Al Gore to reverse the U.S. policy of punishing developing country governments that tried to make essential medicines more affordable for sick people. And Gore ignored the calls. Matters suddenly changed on June 16 when a small group of AIDS activists began clamoring and demonstrating at events by Vice…

It’s a dream media world for Ralf Hotchkiss. When he travels around the United States, television crews meet and follow him. Hordes of reporters attend his events and press conferences. He is on the special invitation lists for the White House, Park Avenue and Beverly Hills extravaganzas, including the Academy Awards Gala and Presidential Inaugurations.…

Ever wonder why radio generally has become so canned, flat and insipid, bereft of local news, and stuffed with commercials, mercantile values, and the same old, tired junk? Not to mention the downright offensiveness of Howard Stern and the other shock jocks? First, for years, more than 90 percent of all radio time is composed…

The first-ever Congressional hearings critical of corporate welfare the hundreds of billions of dollars given annually in subsidies, bailouts, giveaways, tax escapes, etc. were held June 30th by House Budget Committee Chairman John Kasich (R-Ohio). And most of the major media organizations did not show up. But C-SPAN did and relayed a remarkable array of…

It happens week after week in the nation’s capitol and often goes unnoticed by the media. After suffering a family tragedy, due to a preventable act of corporate negligence a group of Americans find one another in their grief and travel to Washington, hold a press conference with a supportive safety group, and visit their…

The last hours of a state legislative session is a paradise for avaricious corporate interest groups. This is the time when they can sneak through, without public debate or even public notice, some of the most craven laws against consumer or small-taxpayer interests ever enacted. Among the lobbies that ply this just-before-midnight stealth strategy is…

On June 9, Connecticut became another state in a long list of victims of the real estate industry. On this last day of the session, in the last hours, the Senate passed House Bill 6981 by suspending its normal rules and tacking this anti-consumer legislation on to another bill as an amendment. The bill’s sneaky…

The Senate Commerce Committee recently held a hearing to consider a new bill that is designed to replace state auto insurance laws with a no-fault system backed by a coalition of insurance companies led by State Farm. The bill, S.B. 837, can be simply explained this way: Consumers would give up their right to compensation…