In the Public Interest

A chance encounter with a major Canadian financier aboard an AMTRAK train chugging its way through a heavy snowstorm to Washington can lead to candid conversation. The financier was appalled at the imprudent loan practices of the large American and Canadian banks. “They’re acting as unrestrained as some of their major debtors,” he observed, adding…

Do women’s consumer dollars buy less value in the marketplace than do men’s dollars? In all too many instances, the answer is still “yes.” Our inquiry into this persistent discrimination against women assembled cases which many women unfortunately can relate to from their own experience: A federal judge’s wife says that she never brings in…

It did not start with the Super Bowl and it has not ended with the Super Bowl. What the Redskins are doing to Washington, DC’s residents is becoming a sociological phenomenon. Of course, all the ingredients for regular hoopla were there. At the start of the season almost no one expected the Washington Redskins’ football…

Recent speeches by Ronald Reagan and Democratic politicians have brought Americans a sample of their thoughts about “getting this country moving again.” Big business executives also weighed in with their “Bipartisan Appeal To Resolve the Budget Crisis,” led by five former Secretaries of the Treasury and Peter G. Peterson, former Secretary of Commerce. My attention…

The dentist was distraught and it was not about cavities. This dentist was part owner in several oil wells in western Pennsylvania and the mixed-in natural gas was being flared off–just burned away. Even though his wells were very close to gas pipelines, there were no willing buyers for this gas. The gas was for…

If only the two scenes could be seen side by side. On one side would be pictures of badly injured men, women and children trying to have their day in court against heavily organized manufacturers charged with making or selling hazardous autos, drugs, power presses, chemicals, power lawnmowers and a myriad of other misconstructed products.…

Drew Lewis, the Secretary of Transportation has submitted his letter of resignation to President Ronald Reagan after serving 23 months. In that period he has wrecked more havoc on the Depart­ment’s crucial safety responsibilities and programs than all of his predecessors combined back to 1968. In early 1981, after being in office less than a…

Lobbyists for Common Cause, the citizens group, suffered from an uncommon pause of common sense when they stood outside the House of Representatives on December 14th urging the legislators to raise their own pay by $9138 a year. “Sycophantic”, declared an advocate for a citizen group opposing the salary hike. Another opponent argued that the…

The fastest growing industry in the United States is the production of victims. The factories are along the banks of the Potomac and part of the Reagan Administration, In 1983 Reaganism seems determined to accelerate the size of the underclass and the defenseless. Take as exhibit one, the following statement: “The November rise in the…

At 11 a.m. on Thursday, February 15, 1979, the fiveCommissioners of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) heard a presentation from NRC engineer Demetrios L. Basdekas that must have chilled them into numbing inaction. At least that is the charitable view. For had the NRC been less secretive and more forthright, the nuclear superhawks inside and…