In the Public Interest

It is understandable why some long-time supporters of automatic safety systems in passenger automobiles heaved a sigh of relief when Secretary of Transportation Brock Adams announced his decision to require such higher safety standards starting with some 1982 model cars. The battle over passive safety systems, exemplified by the air bag, has been dragging on…

At a recent Cabinet meeting, President Carter declared that he wanted his administration to speak with one voice on stopping work at the Clinch River Breeder Reactor Project in Tennessee. With mounting op­position in Congress by a well-oiled, pro-Clinch River lobby, Carter em­phasized his strong desire to win this struggle. Why did Carter have to…

The Washington taxi driver dropped off his rider and quit early. He couldn’t take the air pollution in this city where vehicle density per square mile is the highest in the United States. Mid-June in Washington brought the air pollu­tion index to a high of 130 which is described as “very unhealthy” by the region’s…

An ill wind is sweeping through Con­gress these days. It is a mood of confu­sion, frustration, indifference, timidity and the usual ‘ presence of political venality. This is a Congress out of control, even from itself. It is bound by no substan­tive leadership or program, despite a solid Democratic majority. Its fitful slogans and zigs…

“GREED,” screams the lurid headline on the cover of this month’s Sport magazine, “Look What It’s Done To Our Games.” “It’s consumer fraud,” exclaims an obviously upset sportswriter in recounting a spate of what he considered to be tricky maneuvers in the industry of professional sports. Is it time for the millions of sports fans…

Tens. — Barbara Walters is not to be corning to interview J. W. Bradley, Neil McBride or John Williams in this Appalachian hill town anytime soon. Nor is any national political candidate about to lead a train of TV cameras to show the proper concern for the wave after wave of strip mined mountains and.…

General Motors has lost its best unpaid lobbyist. ‘He is Leonard Woodcock who retired this month as head of the United Auto Workers (UAW). For several years Woodcock was there whenever GM and the other Michigan auto compa­nies needed him. He defended their enormous price increases, fought incessantly before Con­gress against necessary air pollution standards,…

Among the thousands of lawyers who have heard Professor Thomas F. Lambert Jr. speak, there are few who do not vividly remember his factual and oratorical eloquence in defense of the legal rights of consumers and workers injured be­cause of hazardous products and equipment. Lambert, an editor of trial lawyers publications at 20 Garden St.,…

Like a brooding cloud over Capitol Hill, the Congressional pay increase issue just won’t blow away. The spectacle of Senators and Representatives raising their already generous salaries and bene­fits another $12,000 (to $57,500) by not voting earlier this year is fraught with images of over­reaching and hypocrisy. In its quantitative clarity, the pay increase, together…

Food Day, April 21, 1977, has come and gone. Sponsored by the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI), this annual event is involving increasing numbers of Americans who want to learn about food, nutrition, health and safety, and what the food industry does to them. A latter-day Ambrose Bierce could probably define civilization…