In the Public Interest

Two people have been in the news recently. One seems always in the News — Donald Trump. The other is rarely in the News — Marjory Stoneman Douglas. Their relative newsworthiness tells us something about the media’s judgment about what interests the citizenry and what role models are presented to the younger generation. All Marjory…

The irrepressible human spirit rose to new heights on the steep slopes of Colorado above U.S. highway 40 during the World Disabled Ski Championships last month. There skiers from all over the world, including various arms and leg amputees; paralyzed and blind skiers and athletics with such disorders as multiple sclerosis and cerebral palsy, compete…

It was a sunny day on Capitol Hill, but inside the House hearing room there was little sunshine being reflected off the five commissioners of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC). Under questioning by a searching Congressman, Ed Markey (Dem. Mass.), NRC Chairman, Kenneth Carr, could care less. Hiding behind an exaggerated claim that, because of…

A 20 page pamphlet by Harry Kelber of the Trade Union Leadership Institute in New York is circulating throughout the labor movement as if it were an underground dispatch. Clearly titled “Why Unions Are in Trouble… And What They Can Do About It,” it is a polite but scathing indictment of a movement that has…

When sellers have dreams of riches, beware of schemes that look like glitches. What is emerging from the complaints of consumers who write to us is that small rip-offs amount to big business because they are applied to large numbers of customers. What is also clear is that most consumers do not know they are…

Outside and inside the cloistered negotiating rooms of the U.S. Senate, a furious struggle is going on over the kind of clean air law which will protect the health of the American people for the next decade. On one side are the public health and environmental groups, and on the other side are the polluters…

It was one of those newspaper stories about a fire that riveted one’s attention. “A mother and father died in a fire early yesterday morning in Brooklyn as they desperately squeezed their four children under a window gate!” reported the New York Times. While press attention focused on billionaire, Donald Trump, his real estate wealth…

The more than twenty year struggle by consumer groups for mandatory federal fish inspection may be reaching a climax this year in Congress. Both consumer groups and the fishing industry agree that federal inspection is inevitable, but they disagree on what kind. The former want mandatory inspection of both processing plants and boats, including unannounced…

FairTest is one of those small citizen groups with a big mission. Working out of their small Cambridge, Massachusetts offices, FairTest has forged a large coalition of education, parent and civil rights organizations which is calling on President Bush and the fifty state Governors to “stop relying on standardized multiple-choice tests to measure educational goals.”…

Parents are on a collision course with corporations over what can be described as the “sensuality ladder.” The underlying question is: who is bringing up the children of America? Ask Lynda Beams who launched a drive in Dallas to have shows like “Geraldo” played in time slots when children’s TV viewing is more likely to…