In the Public Interest

No less than the Wall Street Journal called it a “radical tactic.” Manville corporation, a financially strong building materials giant, is seeking to escape liability in thousands of asbestos disease cases by filing under Chapter 11 of the federal bankruptcy law. It did so voluntarily, saying that “nothing is wrong with our business (which) will…

Once again, Vice President George Bush is led by the White House’s Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to perpetrate a cruel hoax on the American people. He announces to a crowd of reporters how the administration is saving the public and businesses billions of dollars by scrapping or weakening health and safety standards. Pliant…

A mid-level Reagan administration official could scarcely contain his joy after the president’s victory for a tax increase. “The New Right is finished in this administration,” he declared, noting other defeats and indifference endured by that faction recently. The Reaganites now think they have a solid position in Middle America. But coming up fast over…

It was not your typical political candidate’s radio advertisement. But then it was not your typical candidate. The ad started with a professional auctioneer auctioning off a U.S. Senate seat. Then the candidate, 31-year-old Tom Ryan of St. Louis, says, “Wait a minute. It is time to take democracy off the auction block.” He asked…

WASHINGTON, D.C.–On July 15, 1982, with wars overseas and deep recession and unemployment at home, President Ronald Reagan met with his Cabinet to decide whether to curb the compensation rights of corporate victims in America. On the table was a proposal to federalize the various state laws that apply to conflicts between injured people and…

When Ronald Reagan was asking for your vote in 1980, he did not tell you that, if elected, he would put more powdered bone in your hot dogs, sausages, bologna and assorted luncheon meats. But he did say he would get the government off the meat industry’s back. In 1982 that assurance means that consumers…

The ad came over the Buffalo television station touting a nuclear plant called Nine Mile Pt. 2, which is nearing completion. The message was upbeat and false. Thoughindirectly paid for by the utility’s consumers, the ad managed to ignore some facts about this monument to technological disaster. First, the Nine Mile Pt. 2 nuclear plant…

Five teen-agers derailed a train at Fair Lawn, N.J., a few days ago. The train’s engineer was killed. When reporters asked residents why these youths did this, the summary of responses added up to one word: boredom. “If you got no money,” said one 17-year-old, “this is what you have to do—you hang out by…

A congressional showdown is coming this summer over the Reagan-backed Clinch River Breeder Reactor plant that conservative taxpayer groups have dubbed a “technological dinosaur.” Inside Congress a coalition of Republicans. and Democrats, led by Rep. Claudine Schneider, R-R.I., is pushing to cut off taxpayer funds for this 10-year-old project, which has already cost $1 billion…

It was the largest demonstration in New York City history. The cause also was large–nuclear arms control. Nearly a million people–young and elderly, students and union members, a mixture of ethnic and racial groups from many states and foreign countries–marched from the United Nations to the great lawn of Central Park to hear speakers and…