In the Public Interest

Consumer groups have always had difficulty with two of the major health abuses rampaging through the country–alcoholism and tobacco smoking. The reason for such difficulty is not the absence of neither reckless corporate promoters nor the dearth ofevidence for the harm that these substances cause millions of people. The reason is the phenomenon of addiction.…

During a visit to the House of Representatives recently, towering Paul Volcker, chairman of the Federal Reserve Board, confided to a Congressman his opinion that the US Banks’ interest rates and rescheduling fees on their loans to third world countries were outlandishly high. A mile away at the US Chamber of Commerce building near the…

The Reagan Administration says billions of your annual tax dollars are needed to repair the deteriorating interstate highway system, yet its Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) is sitting on a proven method to build or repair highways that last longer at a much cheaper cost. Available for over ten years, the technique is called “prestressed concrete”…

There are not many people in their Eighties who travel to dozens of colleges every year to give three- to four—hour lectures to enthralled students about the future of the World. Quite possibly, until he passed away this month, Buckminster Fuller, age 87, was _the only such person. Bucky Fuller, as everyone called him, was…

Everybody knows that judges take long summer vacations. This has not kept Chief Justice Warren E. Burger and several of his Supreme Court Associate Justices from complaining about the expansion of litigation in the federal courts. They have devoted long speeches to this overloading of the judiciary. While they take note of the need to…

In a surprise decision, the conservative Supreme Court of the United States has delivered a stern rebuke to Ronald Reagan’s October 1981 revocation of the auto crash protection standard. The Justices called the revocation “arbitrary and capricious” and an unlawful exercise of authority under the motor vehicle safety law. They ordered the Reagan Administration (through…

The recent news from Australia was not the uneventful visit to Washington by the new Prime Minister, Robert Hawke. The real news came out of the performances of Cliff Young, age 61, and Ben Loveland, age 42 months. To use the word “amazing” would be to engage in understatement. Let’s see if you agree. Cliff…

Want to feel optimistic and have economics, technology, democracy and self-determination on your side? Well, in the area of energy supplies, physicist Amory Lovins, can demonstrate that the USA has already started to move from depletable or nonrenewable energy (oil, gas, coal, nuclear) to sustainable or renewable energy sources (hydro, wood and other plant materials,…

Thirteen years ago, six young women, just out of high school. completed an investigation of nursing home conditions for our Center. Working both in these institutions and in Washington interviewing officials and perusing inspection reports, they documented horrid situations in all too many nursing homes–major fire disasters, fatal food contaminations, drug experimentations without real consent,…

Like an alert puppet on a golden string, Washington lawyer Lloyd Cutler was at the Supreme Court recently arguing on behalf of his client, the Motor Vehicle Manufacturers Association, that the Court should approve the Reagan Administration’s revocation of the crucial crash protection standard in October 1981. The Carter Administration issued this life-saving standard in…