In the Public Interest

They had come from Cincinnati, Ohio to support a rally of savings and loans depositors at the Maryland state capitol in Annapolis earlier this month. The depositors were victims of corrupt practices by the millionaires in charge of these failed banks. The crowd demanded their money back while the indecisive state government was still trying…

The bad cultural rap against garlic, a worthy flavoring food steeped in history, pungent odor and medicinal qualities, is beginning to diminish. It is about time! When you think about garlic, you think about bad breath — at least most people do. Anthony Burgess, a garlic fan, writes that “it is essentially a flavoring suitable…

This year Reagan’s “privatization” dogmas will be in the news. For a long time Reagan has wanted to sell off much of the federal lands out west; he would like to see prisons owned and run by private corporations. Last month the Reaganites proposed to sell the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) to private business. None…

General Electric will get much bigger next year, riot by selling more and better products and services, but by buying profitable RCA — which includes the Television network NBC — for $6.28 billion. Anonymous RCA executives were reported by the Wall Street Journal to be “shocked and disappointed by the agreement, negotiated with seemingly astonishing…

Every year about 120,000 children experience toy-related injuries severe enough for hospital treatment. And every December, the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) in Washington is accused of turning its back on dangerous toys that maim children. The principal accusers are the Americans for Democratic Action and Edward M. Swartz, a Boston trial lawyer and child…

Less than an hour’s drive south of Nashville, Tenn., around the town of Columbia and the hamlet of Spring Hill, the euphoria that greeted GM’s Saturn plant announcement this summer is giving way to the reality of Saturn’s demands on these communities. GM, as usual, is playing hardball. The giant auto company is determined to…

Nashville, Tennessee — Less than an hour’s drive south, around the town of Columbia and the hamlet of Spring Hill, the euphoria which greeted GM’s Saturn plant announcement this summer is giving way to the reality of Saturn’s demands on these communities. GM, as usual, is playing hardball. The giant auto company is determined to…

Winsted, CT — The origins; of the Winsted Memorial Hospital began with a $250 bequest by young Adelyn H. Howard who died an invalid in July 1898. Last month, a growing number of citizens concluded that this health institution, serving a town of 10,000 people and surrounding hamlets, made a decision that marked the beginning…

The ever-widening embrace of the credit card is Convenience. Every day on the nation’s television screens and in newspapers and magazines, the credit card is promoted and the message is Convenience in many directions. “Charge It” is the password of the computerized economy on its wax toward making money little more than an electric pulse…

Prompted by the twentieth anniversary this month of Unsafe At Any Speed, I looked back at one of our country’s more preventable daily tragedies and saw very considerable progress. In 1945, there were 47,000 fatalities on the roads which amounted to 5.3 deaths per 100 million miles of vehicle travel. In 1984 with a far…