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S.3143 Consumer and Shareholder Protection Association Act of 2002 (Introduced in Senate) October 17, 2002 Mr. WELLSTONE introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation A BILL To provide for the establishment of the Consumer and Shareholder Protection Association, and for other purposes. Be it…

Corporate scandals, the threat of war in the Middle East and a sagging stock market are squeezing the flow of funds from foundations and other charitable donors across the nation. As a result, many worthwhile non-profit enterprises that depend on the generosity of these donors for survival are facing perilous times. One of these organizations…

Dear Senator: Even as veteran observers of the Congressional appropriations process, we are shocked, and outraged, by the provision in the Defense Appropriations bill that would have the Air Force lease Boeing 767s at a price dramatically higher than the cost of direct purchase. We are writing to urge you to take to the floor…

Richard A. Grasso, chairman and chief executive officer of the New York Stock Exchange and his merry band of traders must believe that Robin Hood had it all wrong. Grasso and company want to take from the working families, small business people and the other taxpayers of New York and give to the wealthy investors…

STEP BACK FOR a moment and contemplate what corporate hucksters are doing to American childhood. Bypassing the parents, these companies brazenly market directly to children, starting at age two. These marketeers (with the advice of the child psychologists on their payroll) wrap these youngsters in a commercial cocoon for an average of 30 hours a…

Privacy is high on the list of rights Americans cherish. Now, the right to our privacy — like many of those rights we take for granted — is at risk. Federal agencies, led by the Federal Reserve Board, have proposed a “Know Your Customer” regulation that would require banks to monitor their customers’ accounts, presumably…

Social Security places government in one of its noblest roles: as an institution that offers a bedrock financial guarantee to all members of society that they need not fear the financial consequences of growing old or disabled. That’s quite the opposite of the U.S. government’s all too familiar role as a provider of corporate welfare,…

Desperately seeking to find an issue that puts President Clinton on the defensive, Senator Robert Dole wants to repeal the 4.3-cent-a-gallon gasoline tax that was enacted in 1993. Desperately determined never to let his Republican opponent outflank him from the right, Mr. Clinton is willing to go along — kinda that is. This is what…

Did you ever wonder whether there are any constitutional limitations on the use of your tax dollars, other than to observe the separation of church and state? Well, President Clinton just brazenly decided that even Congress is not needed in applying $20 billion of your dollars to bailout the corrupt Mexican government, its billionaire oligarchs…

It would have been folk singer, Harry Chapin’s forty fifth birthday on December 7, 1987. But a tragic car-truck collision on the Long Island Expressway in 1981 ended this young artist -­citizen’s supercharged drive to end the specter of Hunger on Earth. Chapin’s legacy is growing rapidly and the reasons are not obscure. Among artists,…