In the Public Interest

How Utilities Evade Nuclear Disaster Responsibility

Ever hear of the Price-Anderson Act? For the past 30 years, this act has been the atomic power industry’s price for building 100 nuclear plants throughout the United States. Congress and three presidents gave into the nuclear power lobby and renewed this act every 10 years to give sharply limited liabili­ty to your electric com­pany…

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Donald Trump — Real Estate Sleaze

Donald J. Trump is a very rich real estate developer in New York City. One of his buildings, Trump Towers, is over sixty stories of luxury apartments about which he once quipped: “The rents are so high that Americans can’t afford to live there.” There is another side to Donald Trump’s real estate ventures. They…

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Bork Supreme Court Justice

If you are a person who has never come close to a law book or a courthouse, does Judge Robert H. Bork have news for you–IF he is confirmed by the Senate this year to become a Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court. Because whether or not you have ever used the legal system, a…

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Passing of the Fairness Doctrine

Impasse! Congress has overwhelmingly passed the “Fairness in Broadcasting Act of 1987.” The Act, which codifies the longstanding Fairness Doctrine, has been vetoed by President Reagan. The Fairness Doctrine requires television and radio stations to cover controversial issues of public importance and to cover those issues fairly by airing conflicting views. It has given citizen…

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Reagan: Would You Have Expected?

When you listened to Ronald Reagan’s campaign speeches in 1980, did you ever think he would argue again and again that veterans dying of cancer could not sue the government and its military contractors who misled them about radiation dangers when they were soldiers brought to observe atomic bomb tests? Did you ever believe that…

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Maynard Sutton – Poet

I met him on a plane out of Sacramento heading south–an elderly gentleman with eyes that signalled intelligence. He held out his hand in greeting and approval. “I’m a bit of a poet,” he said, and before I could buckle my seat belt, he began a recitation of smooth cadence: “Oh what a gut ache…

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Patriotism Isn’t Flag Waving

Around the dinner table in the New Eng­land town where I grew up, our parents would observe at just the proper time in our political discussions that loving our country meant working hard to make it more lovable. The flag. they would add, could take care of itself. This advice did not keep their children…

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Beating Lou Gehrig’s Record

The one professional sports record that I admired the most was alsothe one that I never believed would be broken. Starting when he replacedWally Pipp at first base for the Yankees in 1925, Lou Gehrig played 2,130consecutive games. Until he was felled, by what is now colloquially calledLou Gehrig’s disease in medical circles, the slugging…

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Airline Complaints

“Consumers have become fed up with the poor quality of air transportation,” and there is “no doubt that the criticism of the industry is well deserved.” Who said that? American Airlines did, in a petition filed with the Department of Transportation asking for rules to give airline passengers better information about various segments of air…

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Coop America

It is described by its producers as “A Catalog that Pictures a World of Your Dreams.” The promotion continues: “Imagine a world where people come together across lines of class, race, and gender. Health food, affordable housing and economic justice exists for everyone; work is more than a job; childcare is close by; and cooperation…

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