In the Public Interest

Four years ago, gasoline was $1.36 a gallon on average. This past January, gasoline prices were 72 cents lower than they are today at over $3.00 per gallon. Production and refining costs since those time periods have not increased by much. Who’s raking it in? The oil-producing nations, for one, and the ExxonMobils of the…

British Kings used to be described with an epithet after their name, as with Richard-the Lion Hearted. Events on the warring grounds of the Middle East—from Iraq to Palestine to Lebanon — that Bush, by his aggressive choice is mired in — warrant him being called “George-the War Criminal” or “George-the Patron Saint of Elected…

July 17, 2006 Dear President Bush: You have been a weak president, despite your strutting and barking, when it comes to doing the right things for the American people within the Constitution and its rule of law. This trait is now in bold relief over the Israeli government’s escalating war crimes pulverizing the defenseless people…

Whatever led to the metastasis of corporate demons inside the brain of the Democratic Party over the last thirty years, it has paid off the business establishment. The cost of freezing the minimum wage has deprived millions of working Americans of trillions of dollars for their necessities of life. A few Democrats, most prominently Senator…

You have noticed, to be sure, how our nation’s politics gravitates to the binary position year after year. Webster’s dictionary defines “binary” as “something made of two things or parts.” So, parties, politicians and voters are overwhelmingly either characterized as conservative—right wing or liberal-left wing. I’ve never thought the binary approach was very useful; it…

Who would have thought when the Dixie Chicks were selling more than 10 million copies each of “Wide Open Spaces” (1998) and “Fly” (1999) that they would become the most controversial band in America? Even more improbable was the likelihood that three young women would have the strength of character and personality to stand their…

South Central Farm, Los Angeles—The showdown is likely here this week over the preservation of this nation’s largest urban farm worked by 350 families for 13 years to feed themselves and their neighbors a dazzling variety of organic produce. Will the Sheriff of Los Angeles County move on this 14 acre farm with dozens of…

As the Little League season gets into full swing for millions of young baseball and softball players across the country, their health and safety on the playing field will significantly benefit from an addition in the Little League rules this year — a requirement for breakaway bases. Rule 1.06 of the 2006 Little League Baseball…

In a recent column I wrote about police interrogation tactics that lead a surprising number of people to confess to crimes they didn’t commit. It turns out that corporate America has followed suit. Many large corporations take a “loss prevention” approach that utilizes training manuals modeled after the leading police manuals — using the very…

Al Lord is thinking about building his own private golf course. Not bad for an ex-corporate socialist. The former CEO of Sallie Mae is worth about a quarter of a billion dollars, running a company that Uncle Sam virtually guarantees against any losses while it makes enormous profits in the college student loan business. In…