In the Public Interest

Last month a reporter called to ask what book in 1990 would I recommend to his audience as part of an “end of the gear” article he was writing. After some reflection I called him back and gave him a list to choose from which make for good and diverse reading. Here are the titles:…

There are four puzzling questions surrounding the Persian Gulf crisis and possible hostilities which neither President Bush nor his associates have addressed. First, for the first time in modern American history, many former Secretaries of Defense (James Schlesinger, Caspar Weinberger, Harold Brown, Robert McNamara), former Secretaries of State (Cyrus Vance, William Rogers, Edmund Muskie, Dean…

A combination of a recession in advertising revenue, more competition for the advertising dollar due to more stations, and weak-kneed television station managers is producing censorship and, sometimes, dismissals of television consumer reporters around the country. The champion tv censors continue to be local auto dealers. Back, in 1968, the Miami Valley Auto Dealers Association…

With all the scientists, modern detection instruments and obligations by corporations and their friendly gov­ernment agencies to find out, it is remarkable how long simple measurements of widespread hazards take to make. It took a graduate student in the early Seventies to discover mercury contamination in fish from the Great Lakes. It took a chance…

The consumer and environmental movements are increasingly going international. As giant multinational corporations and their brand names sell the same pesticides, pharmaceuticals, motor vehicles, junk foods and other products in dozens of countries, the consumer focus on what is responsible behavior for manufacturers and sellers takes on an international character. Likewise, workers and community groups…

President George Bush is giving his multimillionaire vice president, Dan Quayle, a big Christmas present — a $46,000 a year pay increase. Bush brought Quayle’s pay to $161,000 a year plus many benefits and perks in the process of signing an executive order implementing legislation raising the salaries of some 10,000 upper level officials and…

Imagine a governing scheme which even its proponents admit would limit the ability of federal, state and local governments to regulate consumer safety and environmental matters. Imagine that while its advocates claim it would dramatically improve the economy, they allow Congress only 90 days to vote up or down on its hundreds of dense pages…

Sarah McClendon turned eighty in November. To most Americans who watch the television news, she is known as the reporter who asks Presidents the most pointed, down to earth questions at White House press conferences. To her colleagues and to Washington’s bureaucrats and politicians, she is much more than this impression of directness. She is…

This is an open letter to Postmaster General Anthony Frank: Dear Mr. Frank: Soon after you took office, you indicated that the Post Offices around the country could be used to increase voter registration. Although you have not persisted with this sensible suggestion, which remains an idea, you do need to focus on the ability…

The principle that power will prevail over law until the law generates the citizen power to prevail over the special interests’ power came true in California’s recent election where four progressive referenda were defeated by the voters. Four initiatives (or referenda) to advance the environment, preserve virgin forests, reform campaign finance and place a tax…