In the Public Interest

Ask an auto dealer these days about the Autofacts Program and Remar Sutton and you’ll likely see a flush of indignation. Remar is the vocal author of “Don’t Get Taken Every Time,” a best selling paperback about the ways and means of customer fleecing by many auto dealers. Now he has joined forces with the…

Years ago during one of our family’s dinner table conversations about politics, I said “what this country needs is a real third party.” My father replied: “I’d settle for a real second party.” I recalled this exchange the other day while reading about the combination of Republicans and Democrats supporting President Bush’s capital gains tax…

It was a newspaper 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…

Let’s say there was a debate topic entitled “Who’s bringing up America’s children -­parents or corporations?” Would the debater supporting the proposition that business is influencing children more than are parents have all that difficult a case to argue? Doubtful. Here is a quick and incomplete tour. Start out with infant formula hucksters who have…

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…