In the Public Interest

The news from the Third World is so often dominated by reports of wars, revolts and famines that Americans can easily come to the conclusion that little else of note goes on there. But in the midst of the poverty and anguish of millions of human beings, there are strivings within a sprouting consumer movement.…

Washington, DC — I had occasion recently to cast an absentee-ballot. The town, where my vote had to he sent, left very little time for obtaining the application, returning the form, receiving the ballot and sending it back by the late Saturday election day deadline. Express mail service was in order. Which one to choose?…

On Capitol Hill when one thinks of the word “indefatigable” one thinks of Rep. Claude Pepper who, at 87 years of age, presents a mixture of strategic energy and perpetual motion on behalf of elderly Americans. As chairman of the House Select Committee on Aging, he holds shocking hearings and releases hardhitting reports on the…

The burgeoning pay of corporate chiefs is making news these days -­as on the cover of Business Week and page one of the Wall Street Journal. The news is not just the huge, record spiral of executive compensation but the contrast of these annual riches with their workers and what is happening with the economy…

Nature tends to boomerang on its abusers and the oceans are no exception to this historic principle. For decades humans have been pouring their wastes into coastal waters directly and through run-offs. And recently, the ozone depletion trend due to CFCs and other gases in the stratosphere is making usually calm scientists alarmed over the…

“American schools are going test-crazy,” writes the New York Times education editor, Edward B. Fiske. He elaborates: “The scores emerging from those sheets full of X’s and penciled-in circles are increasingly being used to promote and hold back students, hire and fire teachers, award diplomas, evaluate curriculums, and dole out money to schools and colleges…

Oftentimes, putting two and two together is obvious but never done. Putting the hundreds of billions of dollars of the taxpayers’ purchasing power together with the achievement of innovative national goals has been often obvious, but rarely does this potent combination of government procurement connect with the stimulation of better products and services. Government agencies…

A smug, corporate-indentured Congress continues to misread the looming backlash by community groups and citizens against the gross indifference their legislators are displaying toward critical environmental health risks. In the past month, for example, Senators have refused to end a filibuster against a vote on a simple bill to establish a medical warning notification by…

Inside the offices of the Heritage Foundation–the non­profit policy advocate for the Reagan Administration, a handful of zealots are in constant touch with the Office of Management and Budget (OMB). Their mission: privatize a large array of governmental services and assets. The Heritage list was reflected in the recent report of the President’s Commission on…

Goodbye Firestone. The Japanese tire giant, Bridgestone, has offered to buy the venerable U.S. company for $88 a share. This is considered a hefty price by John Nevin, Firestone Chairman, who supports the sale of his company and who, along with other large shareholders, will become much richer as a result. But will America become…