In the Public Interest

Augusta, Maine — Looking at the Maine Summer Institute is to see how a tradition enriching our society’s civic tradition can get started. About fifteen civic leaders — from as far away as Britain, Argentina and Brazil — come together for a week of discussions, meetings with state officials and members of the public. This…

It started in such a small way in 1978. Paul Perdue wrote a check out to his electric company in San Francisco. Unbeknownst to him, another check made out to him that he had deposited in his own account to provide funds for paying the utility bill had bounced. So in turn his check bounced.…

DETROIT—Who lost Saturn? The recriminations have started among the politicians in the Motor State. What more could Michigan have offered General Motors to locate its new plant here instead of rural Spring Hill, Tennessee, a town of 1,000 people some 30 miles from Nashville. The City of Flint offered General Motors a tax subsidy plus…

Why do so many state laws make it so difficult and costly for independent and minor party candidates to get on the ballot? The official reason for such restrictions is that voters must be protected from frivolous candidates. The real reasons are: the Republican and Democratic Parties. They want to monopolize ballot access to the…

This week it was a multistate recall of watermelons con­taminated with the pesticide aldicarb sulfoxide in southern California. Grocers in California, Alaska, Oregon and Washington were warned by health officials not to sell these watermelons. So far, about 100 persons in these states and Canada have fallen sick, suffering tremors, muscle cramps, nausea, vomiting or…

Sometime this month, General Motors assures us, a decision will be announced regarding the location of the Saturn small car factory. For hundreds of local, state and other booster groups, the 7-month period of frantic bidding and anxiety will be replaced by a deep disappointment — except, that is, for the town and state that…

More Americans tell pollsters that they receive their news primarily from television than from newspapers. Since the hijacking of the TWA plane on June 14, viewers have been receiving very little news about anything else. This raises the question of what standards network television news shows should apply to their coverage of a dramatic event.…

Billions of dollars are at stake every year, but the Cola Wars surely tell us more than that about grown men and susceptible imbibers. The latest battle commanding headlines is over the new Coke concocted from a reformulation of the super­secret Coke formula long concealed inside an Atlanta bank vault. The momentous question is: will…

An unreported, unique event occurred last week in Washington that illustrates. once again how corporate-indentured is much of the media and how absurd is Senator Jesse Helms’ claim that the media is too liberal. At a ceremony held in a prominent Washington hotel, with the media invited, 8 national consumer and health organizations, led by…

Washington, DC — The reasons why dictatorships will never have the economic growth of democracies are sometimes unconventional. A long line of lobbyists’ aides waiting outside the place, where the government was selling its $16 volume containing Fleagan’s tax proposals last month, was followed by a longer line of lobbyists waiting to get inside the…