In the Public Interest

Peter Barnes is what one could call a consumer-side, entrepreneur. In 1903 he helped start a socially responsible money market fund by the name of Working Assets — to provide an “easy way for people to make an impact with the money they save.” In 1986 he launched the Working Assets VISA Card — “an…

Last week enough U.S. Senators beat back a 400 page energy bill loaded with goodies for its chief backers — the oil, coal and nuclear industries. The opponents of this legislation, many of whom favor a basic program fostering energy efficiency and renewable energy in place of more fossil fuels and more radioactive fuels, surprised…

In November 1989 after House Speaker Torn Foley (D-WA) and his ally, Rep. Bob Michel (R- L) locked arms to ram through the House of Representatives a $35,000 pay raise for each legislator, plus another leap in the lawmakers` pensions, I called Mr. Foley on the telephone. Given both his squashing of public committee hearings…

The nomination of Clarence Thomas for the Supreme Court of the United States served as a multiple personality test for the United States Senate as well as for the nominee and his adversaries. For the U.S. Senate, the question is: what’s the rush? Why rush the nomination for a life-time position on the highest court…

Earlier this Spring I wrote a column on the overselling of office computer equipment and the underinforming of their negative characteristics. The PCs, their attachments and endlessly “new” software, produce more than carpal tunnel syndrome and eye fatigue. Increasingly they are producing questions as to what the conventional office workplace is getting for these spiraling…

It takes up very little office space but it is generating lots of newspaper space around the country. The soggy saga of the House of Representatives special bank for members is spilling its mischievous entrails gradually and embarrassingly about another abuse of Washington privilege. Each day more disclosures seep out about which member and which…

A forerunner of the impact which forthcoming international business agreements called GATT & NAFTA will have on our nation’s sovereignty came down recently in the form of a GATT panel decision regarding dolphins. The GATT panel, composed of three trade specialists from Hungary, Switzerland, Uruguay, ruled in favor of Mexico who challenged a U.S. law…

You’ll never guess who spoke the following words: “Every day, all over the country, people lose their homes or apartments when the law says they should keep them, and people can’t feed their children when the law says they should be able to feed them. People don’t know the rights they have; even if they…

Next month, the autobiography of Maggie Kuhn, founder of the Gray Panthers, comes to the bookstores. She gave her life the title “No Stone Unturned” and, verily, her grasp of the many dimensions of necessary change for a better society reflects that comprehensiveness. There has never been anyone quite like Maggie Kuhn in American history.…

Congress makes sure that it outfits itself with the best of most things. With nearly 25,000 staff aides and 535 members of the national legislature, there are gleaming new office buildings, latest office equipment, recreational gyms, cafeterias, and plush, “snap your fingers” services. Wallowing in its perks, Congress cannot even put on a show of…