In the Public Interest

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…

The other day I received a letter from Douglas E. Patty, chairman of the Board of the Heritage Bank in Irvine, California, complaining of a double standard in the banking industry. For the ten largest banks, declares Mr. Patty, such as the Bank of America, Citicorp, Chase Manhattan, Manufacturers Hanover, are allowed to have over…

London, England — “Lead-Free At Last!” shouted the headline of the Campaign for Lead-free Air’s (CLEAR) newspaper. The government of Margaret Thatcher announced on April 18th in the House of Commons its decision to eliminate lead from gasoline. Although it is not clear here when that decision will be implemented, the very fact of the…

When Chairman Roger Smith convenes the annual General Motors shareholders meeting on May 20th in Detroit, it is not likely that Jay Johnson will be on his mind. But Jay Johnson’s April 6th letter to Mr. Smith represents a problem that should be on the shareholders minds. GM’s quality control is in deep trouble with…

James Watt is Ronald Reagan’s Secretary of Interior and David Brinkley thinks he is the Administration’s leading fool. I think it is more accurate to say that he is the Reaganites’ leading decoy. For riot only does he take the heat off Mr. Reagan for what are clearly the President’s own anti-environmental and public land…

Unless millions of residential telephone users organize, their monthly basic telephone bill will skyrocket like a Roman candle, except that it will keep going skyward. From Los Angeles to Boston, these hikes will quadruple or quintuple by 1986-7 from what you are now paying. A few days ago, readers of the Washington Post learned about…

Santa Monica, Calif. — On April 12, 1983, a municipal election in Santa Monica, California, is attracting uncommon interest from powerful real estate and other corporate interests both near and far from that oceanside community of over 100,000 people. Fundamentally, what is at issue is whether the city is going to be run by its…