In the Public Interest

Kathleen Sullivan called today and her voice did not have the normal timbre that millions of television viewers are accustomed to when they watch the CBS morning news. She was speaking from a hospital in Idaho where her mother and stepfather were resting comfortably from injuries received when their car went into a ravine. “I’ve…

It was a cartoon that sellers of fish are not likely to forget. A housewife with a cart is looking at the fish counter in a supermarket. Different rows of fish are labeled “regular unleaded,” “premium unleaded” and “high octane.” Yes, the time for mandatory fish inspection is long overdue. All these reports about contaminated…

Millions of Americans, who do not subscribe to the entire agenda of the Animal Rights movement, are becoming more sensitive to the avoidable practices that inflict massive cruelty to animals. Research laboratories and commercial companies are beginning to concede their excess. Avon Products announced last week that it was moving to cease animal testing for…

His name was I.F Stone and his was the power of example for two generations of journalists. As a 14 year old in the year 1921, he could wait no longer and started his own publication. At college he could not wait to graduate and went into daily journalism. When newspaper after newspaper failed his…

The other day I received a telephone message from a young lawyer who is working on a research project for us in California. “I don’t have ready access to a computer anymore, so writing my report will be delayed.” Earlier, she was informed that I did not care how she produced her 100 page report…

Tom Foley (D-WA) is the new House Speaker, replacing Jim Wright who resigned in the wake of charges by the House of Representatives Ethics Committee. Foley’s first move is to handle the $300 billion bailout legislation for the crooked Savings and Loan (5&L) mess. Far from being a new broom, Foley’s new regime appears to…

It is college graduation time and the alums are streaming back to their reunions where nostalgia and University stroking reign. Many of these reunions — especially the 25th, 30th and 35th — are elaborate festivities preceded by months of preparation between University officials and class leaders. A major objective is to amass the largest possible…

Well it finally happened — a state insurance commissioner finally stood up and spoke out — albeit in a private letter to Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman, Senator Joseph Biden. Delaware Insurance Commissioner, David Levinson, wrote to urge that Biden defend the civil racketeering laws which authorize insurance commissioners to bring triple-damage lawsuits against defrauders of…

This week Exxon holds its annual shareholders meeting in New Jersey. The meeting’s focus will not be on sales projections. Both outside and inside the hotel, the emphasis will be on the giant Alaskan oil spill by the Exxon Valdez tanker in late March. The demonstrations outside the Hotel, and the shareholders and proxy holders…

Euphemisms usually go with duplicity and the House Banking Committee deliberations on the giant Savings and Loan bailout provoked this combination repeatedly. Each time a Committee member proposed a modest consumer protection measure to slightly balance off the placing of this $300 billion thirty year bailout on the banks of consumers, a minion of the…