In the Public Interest

After cutting their deals and indenturing their treasuries to corporate interests between past elections which they have won several Presidential candidates are lobbing some catchall primary-time populism to the voters in the upcoming primaries. Give the folks some corporate bear meat, their advisers say; it fleshes out that “send ’em a message” urge against the…

The tide of public frustration and indignation over rising auto insurance rates appears unabated. Consumers cannot refuse to buy; auto insurance is a necessity and, in most states, is compulsory. The problems are threefold: inadequate regulation, inadequate compe­tition and inadequate comparative price information and voice for motorists. Presently, state regulation of the insurance industry is…

Out in California where many trends across the country get started, the large agribusiness growers and big supermarket chains have spotted one that has them worried. Raley’s, a small grocery chain with 57 stores in central California, has teamed up with Stan Rhodes and his NutriClean firm to test increasing numbers of fruits for hazardous…

Preston Tisch, a near billionaire, wanted to take some time off from wealth accumulation to perform some public service. In mid-1986 he became the Postmaster General and a few days ago he announced his resignation to return to the family business in New York. Before Mr. Tisch leaves Washington, however, he will have done something,…

Lee Thomas, the administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) should be worried these days. Appointed to the post by Reagan to continue the agency’s rehabilitation after the regulatory corruption and abdication by Reagan’s first EPA chief, Ann Gorsuch, he seems helpless to stop a major slide from mediocrity to abject surrender to the polluters.…

The stench of a political tyrant is spreading beyond the state legislature in Columbus, Ohio, these days. But then, House Speaker, Vernal G. Riffe Jr., hasn’t cared how he smells for nearly two decades; he only cares how he rules. Riffe owns an insurance agency in the small southern Ohio town of New Boston. But…

Lloyd Cutler and Ronald Reagan are at it again. Cutler is the Washington lawyer representing Honda’s drive to keep the danger­ously unstable all-terrain vehicle in the hands of 12-year-olds. Rea­gan is just as persisting in his re­fusal to regulate Honda and three other Japanese ATV manufactur­ers who dominate 99 percent of the market in this…

Gene Patterson, publisher of the St. Petersburg Times (FL), was in Washington recently to deliver a formal lecture on the media. Patterson, a long-time advocate of civil rights and generally liberal causes, was an enigma that evening. He was critical of the press for becoming more superficial (moving towards a kind of headline service ala…

In case you are not current with the latest definitions, “Poison” is now a Christian Dior fragrance. The firm is spending over $7 million to introduce this perfume which sells for a mere $65 an ounce. In magazines, perfumed pages advertising Poison come at readers. On television, the ads convey this new meaning to an…

Let’s try some facts on food on your inclination toward correction action: — There is no mandatory federal inspection and testing of fish and shellfish, unlike the inspection of meat and poultry plants. — The Natural Resources Defense Council, a respected environmental organization, comprehensively tested green coffee beans imported into this country. The Council found…