In the Public Interest

One of the most refreshing books to cross my desk in years is “The Kid’s Guide to Social Action” by a Utah elementary school teacher, Barbara- A. Lewis. She is a sixth grade teacher in Jackson Elementary School in Salt Lake City. Her students mobilized to clean up a toxic waste dump three blocks from.…

There is a small ray of significant promise coming from the little known but bustling world of business between companies that buy and sell from one another. Some buyers are beginning to press their suppliers toward “corporate responsibility” as consumer and environmental groups would define that term. It has been a conventional practice for companies…

The Donahue show was promoted with the intriguing billing: “Plastic Surgeons Turn Old Wives into New Women.” The guests were three plastic surgeons and their prime operating exhibits — their wives. In -the ensuing hour there were revealed the shapes and firmness of the future cosmetic woman! Even Phil was taken aback. Looking at the…

Once in a while during my routine scanning of numerous trade magazines each month, there is a gem glowing from the morass of pages. Such a clearly candid article appeared in the Feb. 18, 1991 issue of Computer World by Dennis E. Noonan. He said what probably has been percolating in the mind of many…

There are those times when large farces meet great performances. One of those unique events occurred a few days ago at Sothebys, the New York City auction house. A 1910 Honus Wagner baseball card in multicolor, mint condition was auctioned for a record $451,000. For those of you who collected baseball cards years ago, put…

Once in a while a government official delivers a speech which says something and helps ever so slightly to give value to all those travels on the taxpayer’s tab. Attorney General Dick Thornburgh journeyed to New Orleans recently to address an environmental law enforcement conference of prosecutors. Taking off on the theme of the Blue…

“Safety Should be Our First Priority. The Auto Industry Has Dragged Its Feet Long Enough.” “In the early Eighties, the American car industry made a mockery of ‘Made in America.- “We believe a car engineered for safety is a car engineered for quality.” Who wrote the above words Consumer Advocates? Government Safety Regulators? None other…

There is a troubling triangle taking repeated shape in American Presidential politics that should give thinking people pause. From the murky miasma of many neglected domestic problems and tragedies in our country there emerges the Commander in Chief. He throws the spotlight on a foreign demon from the White House’s mass media pulpit. Day after…

Lo, the poor taxpayers. They think their tax money is often being wasted or stolen. But they can study the uses of their tax monies by the federal government for a year and they would not exhaust the myriad, complex ways in which their tax dollars are not only wasted and stolen but turned directly…

When cancer took the life of Jean Camper Cahn last month at age 55, none of he network TV evening news programs took note. For she was neither a well‑known actress, athlete or politician. She was only one of the most tireless fighters for social justice, one of the most effective democratic institution‑builders and one…