In the Public Interest

It has been said that if an earthquake ever struck Washington, D.C., one building would not move — the headquarters of the AFL-CIO labor federation near the White House. The implication of this satiric comment is that the AFL-CIO has been so moribund that nothing could shake it. Well, a shakening is coming from the…

Those Americans who built this country’s large cities decades ago would scarcely believe what their stricken legacies have become today in the hands of contemporary political and business leaders. One third of Detroit’s population of one million live in poverty. The unemployment rate is officially at fifteen percent. While the General Motors’ headquarters building still…

“Why is the Senate Banking Committee rushing to mark up the huge securities fraud bill (S.240) in a one day meeting before the Memorial Day Congressional recess?”, I asked a Senate aide. “Because of Courtney Ward’s departure,” he replied. Courtney Ward, I was informed, is leaving the Committee staff of Senator Christopher Dodd (D-CT) to…

Hucksters, barkers, hawkers unite. In your relentless quest for new surfaces for your advertisements, could you imagine these places? Air Force One flies all over the world — consider using the side of the president’s plane to advertise Timex watches. How about a billboard on the Washington Monument featuring the newest new detergent? Haven’t we…

With the best-seller, Hot Zone and the current movie Outbreak as background, the real outbreak of the Ebola virus is in Kikwit, a city of 600,000 in Zaire. Already dozens have perished from what physicians describe as tissue failure, organ failure, and suffocation with blood flowing from ears, eyes, mouth and other orifices. This lethal…

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…