In the Public Interest

The broken promises from the GATT and NAFTA trade agreements that Washington approved are beginning to bore holes in the pockets of American consumers and workers. Some prices of medicines will go up an estimated $6 billion according to a study by scholars at the University of Minnesota. They arrived at this figure by calculating…

Ask yourself, do you know anyone in American history who, after retiring at age sixty five, proceeded to organize a national movement that helped greatly to change public attitudes on matters of importance? Only one person comes to mind — Maggie Kuhn, founder of the Gray Panthers, who passed away on April 22 at the…

Senator Robert Byrd has been exceptionally busy of late defending the United States Constitution, especially those sections on the prerogatives of Congress vis-à-vis the Executive Branch. Strange as it may seem, there are very few Senators or Representatives who take strong and enduring stands to defend our Constitution against hairbrain, impulsive legislation. In the past…

The computerization of patients record and other health care information is spreading through cyberspace and raising serious questions of what rights of privacy can be invoked by people treated by doctors and hospitals. There is no proprietary right under federal law to your health records and the states offer a patchwork of laws and no…

When Members of Congress return from their spring break they will begin deliberations on legislation designed to limit the rights of judges and juries to punish corporate and individual wrongdoers. The attacks on the powers of judges and juries have no foundation. There is no evidence that judges and juries are out of control. There…

There are many humane, compassion physicians in this country the American Medical Association and its state affiliates are giving bad name. Behaving like a large mob out of control, the AMA is in a frenzy to get the U.S. Senate to shove it to Americans victimized by bad doctors. No matter how serious the human…

It looks like the American people are getting wise to what the Newt Gingrich Gang in Congress are up to well before the supposedly knowledgeable Washington pundits and columnists. The polls are turning sharply against Gingrich’s extremist and corporatist Contract with America because people sense that lots of economic, health, safety, environmental and access to…

For over thirty years our criticisms of the auto industry’s aversion to engineering known safety systems in their vehicles was coupled with positive recommendations for simple corrections that would save lives and dollars. From time to time, a reporter or editor would ask why we do not praise the auto companies when they do good?…

Speaker Newt Gingrich and his allies in Congress have given new meaning to the saying “form over substance.” As they debate the various “contract” provisions some members of Congress are moving toward making laws based on little more than myths. The “deliberations” aimed at undermining our civil justice system demonstrate how little some of our…

“Curiosity” decided one recent day to leave her place in the “Cs” and traipse through the dictionary to see what words were rising rapidly in usage. First, though, she secured a software program that displayed a bright light over those words currently receiving heavily and growing use. One of the brightest lights she saw on…