In the Public Interest

For years I have wondered why progressive businesses do not have their own voice in Washington. The voice of business in the nation’s capital is the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the National Association of Manufacturers and other broad-gauged trade associations with narrow track, knee jerk reactions. In more than a few communications with companies that…

Early on the morning of June 1 in a Washington, D.C. hospital, our country lost a great man to cancer. Philip Stern, crusader for campaign finance reform, prolific author on everything from taxes to insurance and donor to all manners of causes–struggling citizen groups and young crusaders–was not widely known to the American people. But…

For a dozen years at least, the boosters of privatization of government services have had a corner on many business magazines and newspapers. Conservative, corporate-funded groups such as the Heritage Foundation pour out reports, usually authored by staffer, Stuart Butler, purporting to prove the inherent superiority of privatizing everything from fire fighting to collecting taxpayer…

The state government of Connecticut, led by Governor Lowell Weicker, Jr. has launched a $6 million advertising campaign to plead “mea culpa” to business and beg its indulgence that from now on Connecticut will be pro-business and not anti-business. To back up its humble-pie stance in newspaper and television ads in the state and around…

Jay Leno has replaced Johnny Carson on the Tonight Show. He means to put his own stamp on the new “Jay Leno Show.” One idea he came up with, according to the Wall St. Journal, is to have him and his sidekick, Ed Hall, do live commercials. This is something Carson almost never did. But…

The desperate letters from people on prescription drugs keep coming — to members of Congress to consumer groups to anyone who may listen. The message is the same — “do something about the skyrocketing price of drugs.” A woman writes that a drug named Depakene, which is a anti-convulsant she continually needs to survive, cost…

A thousand politicians and business leaders deplored the violent uprisings in south-central Los Angeles and then proceeded to recognize that new, smarter initiatives are needed to deal with 50% youth unemployment, crime, drugs, poverty, dilapidated housing, hunger and inadequate public services in the nation’s inner cities. From the inner cities comes the cry — “yes,…

The Harvard Law School wars have erupted again — this time over what was a repulsive parody by Harvard Law Review editors of a deceased feminist scholars last article. But the parody was just the latest fire to light a dry tinderbox of resentment between differing schools of legal thought and time periods. One school…

Drs. talk about Drs. and some of them have been telling me that too many of their colleagues are immune to the findings of medical science and continue to harm their patients. The talking (and often writing) Drs. obviously believe that their colleagues are practicing bad medicine and that neither the profession’s internal policing of…

This month Congress has the option of siding with consumers or the cable industry. Legislation sponsored by Rep. Edward Markey (D-MA), would require local governments to certify a local consumer group comprised of cable viewers. This group would help fight high cable rates and poor service on behalf of cable subscribers, who are currently under-represented…