In the Public Interest

Auto repair fraud, gouges or shoddiness are ei­ther number one or very near the top of most con­sumer complaint surveys in this country. Billions of dollars every year are fleeced from motorists, according to the Department of Transportation. Now comes a lawsuit brought jointly by the San Francisco District Attorney and the Califor­nia Department of…

The airlines are swooping down on Congress to grab four billion more dollars from airline passengers. Behind this latest chapter of corporate pressure politics is a tale of corporate socialism so bold as to set, if successful, the stage for many similar inflationary congressional raids on consumers. It is a simple story of business greed.…

After 13 months as Assistant Secretary of Agriculture, Carol Tucker Foreman is about to make several major decisions affecting consumers who eat meat and poultry. She is under heavy pressure by industry to make anti-consumer rulings. But as former head of the Consumer Federation of America, Ms. Foreman is generating different expectations within consumer groups.…

At first glance it looked like a constructive display of judicial creativity. Within a few days of one another, two federal district court judges imposed a program of compulsory charity on two corporations found guilty of breaking criminal laws. In Oregon, Judge Otto Skopil ordered a sportswear firm, White Stag, to make restitution for customs…

Richard Peach was outraged. He bought a car relying on the fuel economy figures generated by the environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The car did not come close to performing as the Mileage Guide indicated it would. John Pennington was also upset. He realized that the EPA mileage ratings were estimates. But when he received nearly…

Noise, the polls tell us, is increasingly getting on peoples’ nerves in cities and towns. The clamor in downtown Washington needs no exag­geration. People have been known to move away to quieter parts of the city. Recently, the added noise at construction sites has led some sonic vic­tims in office buildings to look for other…

If you are a cash customer, why should you pay the same price for a product or service as a credit card customer? In order to subsidize the credit card industry is one answer. But the astute consumer answer is that you should pay less. All legal obstacles to your paying less for cash purchases…

“It is now possible to mass-produce and market foods with extra flavor, extra nutrients, extra purity, at less cost with less energy, with societal and ecological benefits as well.” These words were written by Gwynn Garnett, a working Virginia farmer with a remarkable background. After growing up on a Wyoming ranch, he worked in agriculture…

Congress is about to decide how much more to permit the oil and gas barons to take out of the consumers’ and taxpayer hide. The struggle on Capitol Hill is not over the gouges; it is over whether the gouges will be big or super big. What is remarkable about this nar­row focus by our…

George J. Schultz is a hard-working young San Diego lawyer who wants to drive your meat prices down. He believes that bribery of meat inspectors, deliberate misgrading of meat and payoffs within the $38-billion meat industry are costing consumers and ranchers huge amounts of money every year. Prosecutions and admissions arising out of lawsuits and…