In the Public Interest

In just one day of their coverage, the television networks have paid more attention to Michael Jackson, Lorena Babbitt, Tonya Harding and O.J. Simpson than they have to the proposed World Trade Organization (WTO). The WTO you ask? What’s that? Oh, “that” is a big boring international trade and investment agreement between over 100 countries…

The date was June 29, 1994. The scene was the large Senate anteroom where the lobbyists mill around, meeting with themselves and cloistering with Senators who come from the Senate floor during the debate on a pending bill. The struggle was over S.687, the Jay Rockefeller-sponsored bill to restrict the rights of people, wrongfully injured…

Marlo Mahne from Florida has sent some U.S. Senators materials they would rather not see. Her letter to Senator Jay Rockefeller in mid-June was occasioned by the current Senate debate on S. 687 — a bill to federally regulate state juries and state judges in cases involving human harm from defective products. Ms. Mahne correctly…

During the days when the fledgling cable industry wanted to look good before Congress, it took to Brian Lamb’s great idea that we know as C-SPAN. For Americans who want their Congressional debates and hearings unvarnished and unedited, C-SPAN became almost a daily diet. People like Phil Donahue take C-SPAN as a daily tonic; they…

This is a celebration of the life of one engineer, a friend, Fred Lang, who lost his struggle against cancer last week in Florida. Engineers rarely receive much attention. By temperament, they are withdrawn; by profession they are often hidden behind their corporate or government employers. But Fred Lang was different. He was up front,…

The growing grip of corporate lawyer, Lloyd Cutler, volunteering as the in-White House counsel to President Clinton, continues to scar both the public interest and the proper separation of Clinton from commerce. Although he is still the active founding partner of the Washington law firm bearing his name (Wilmer, Cutler and Pickering) and is still…

Look how far your health insurance policy payments have gone. First they paid, according to seventeen state Insurance Commissioners, for the “Harry and Louise” television ads that tore into President Clinton’s health care proposals before Congress. These state regulators issued a press statement on March 16, 1994 that “urged insurance companies to pay for political…

Suppose a friend owes you $20 and sends you a check for that amount in the mail. You take the check and deposit it in your bank and it bounces due to your friend’s innocent overdraft. Some banks will charge YOU as much as $20 for being the innocent victim. Regardless of whether the check…

Tobacco industry executives are reeling from a series of embarrassing appearances before Congress regarding the health effects of smoking and because of disclosures in the media about the nicotine content of cigarettes. Now comes the consumer and corporate accountability organization, INFACT, and its Tobacco Industry Campaign. One of INFACT’s main goals is to compel the…

New Yorkers have known for some time that they pay about the highest electricity prices in the country. Big Apple residents can now know one of the reasons why: Consolidated Edison (Con Ed), the monopoly electric company servicing the area, is the most profitable utility in the nation. This conclusion is based on a study…