In the Public Interest

The slash and burn approach of the 104th Congress has produced a long list of foolish, counter productive and, often, dangerous cuts in the federal budget. But, few top the irresponsibility of the budget cutters who have applied a blunt meat axe to the General Accounting Office (GAO), the only full-time non-partisan watchdog over waste…

Remember when the energy crisis was page one material and every politician had to take a position regarding this national urgency. Not any more. You hardly hear anyone in public life mention the issue. Certainly Clinton and Dole are not campaigning on any proposals. Well, except for gasoline lines, the reasons for the nation’s concerns…

The feisty British Safety Council (BSC) is not like its counterpart, the corporate-cowed National Safety Council in this country. There is and has been one reason for the difference — a World War II veteran by the name of James Tye. The focused Tye, the flamboyant Tye, the indefatigable Tye built, ran and inspired the…

Frosty Troy and his wife Helen B. Troy are the editor and publisher of the Oklahoma Observer– a long-time progressive, twice monthly newspaper that speaks the conscience and interest of the people against big business and their political toadies. Beyond matters relating to Oklahoma, this paper has about the best collection of progressive writing and…

The atomic power industries in Japan and the United States are drawing the Indonesian government into a radioactive trap. They are offering to sell Indonesia nuclear reactors from Westinghouse and Mitsubishi. Taking the lethal bait thus far, the Jakarta regime plans to build twelve reactors by the year 2015. Here they go again! There has…

Former citizen activist, Miles S. Rapoport, now Connecticut’s elected Secretary of the State, has produced an innovation worth the attention of all other government officials and people running for office. It is called “Report on the State of Democracy in Connecticut.” (available free from the Secretary of State, 210 Capitol Avenue, Hartford, CT 06106). In…

In September of 1993, Wesley J. Smith and I wrote a book titled Collision Course: The Truth About Airline Safety We made a large number of recommendations based on official crash investigations, technical specialists inside and outside the industry whom we interviewed and the many insights of pilots, maintenance workers and flight attendants. All their…

Joe Belth is at it again. One of the most brilliant critics of the insurance industry, this retired Indiana University Professor, has devoted the July 1996 issue of his newsletter “The Insurance Forum” to urging insurance companies to stop investing in the tobacco industry. In typical rigorous fashion, Professor Belth reports that 33 life-health companies…

For a newspaper that published several long articles on the downsizing of America, the New York Times missed an important story a few days ago in Cleveland. For a new labor leader who pledged $35 million to help elect Democrats this fall, John Sweeney of the AFL-CIO missed a great opportunity a few days ago…

A runaway profit motive tends to feed on itself. Corporate milk (infant formula), complete with beguiling promotions, replaces mother’s milk. The drug companies see an opening. They sell mothers a drug to suppress natural lactation. The drug has undesirable side effects which may lead to another ailment requiring another drug. Helped by professional psychotherapists, drug…