Common Cause Magazine articles from March 1995

Common Cause Magazine archives from March 1995

Paying the piper. (Philip Morris Inc.'s effort to block the smoking restrictions in New York, New York)
March 22, 1995... For the scores of New York City-based cultural groups that accept grants from Philip Morris, the world's largest cigarette company, the bill came due last year. Faced with the prospect of stringent smoking restrictions in the nation's largest...

Nothing personal. (Federal Election Commission's imposed ban on the use of political campaign contributions for candidates' personal expenses)
March 22, 1995... One federal official charges the government $6,200 for a seven-month lease on a Jeep Cherokee in Mississippi. Another runs up a $156,729 bill leasing two Lincoln Town Cars - "campaign" vehicles financed by his campaign committee. In the first...

The anti-crime business. (private security products and services)
March 22, 1995... While Congress debated the provisions of a $30-billion crime bill last summer and congressional candidates worked last fall to outdo one another with their tough-on-crime talk, the cash registers of America were ringing. Even now, as members of...

Food stamp fallout. (passing the food stamp program from federal to state and local governments)
March 22, 1995... Why turning at least one federal program over to the states may not be such a great idea. The Bananna Tree fruit and vegetable market in Brooklyn posted hours from nine in the morning till nine at night, but for months it stood virtually empty...

A citizen for all seasons. (consumer advocate Esther Peterson)
March 22, 1995... Still going strong at 88, consumer advocate Esther Peterson encourages the dispirited to "get off their fannies and do something" about the state of American democracy. On the wall there hangs a framed envelope, a symbol of a different time, a...

The inhalers. (cigarette industry's campaign contributions)(includes related article) (Cover Story)
March 22, 1995... Lined up like so many naughty schoolboys sent to the principal's office for making spitballs, the seven suited tobacco executives stood at attention, raised their right hands and swore to tell the truth about cigarettes. Later, while seated at...

Where the action is. (cities, towns and counties imposing anti-tobacco regulations)
March 22, 1995... For all the formidable power of the tobacco lobby at the national level, some 46 million American smokers are finding it harder and harder to light up in their own hometowns. And while congressional tobacco-control efforts usually go up in smoke,...

Prime time politics. (influence of the motion picture industry and the religious right movement on Congressional decisions regarding media violence)
March 22, 1995... Hollywood, the religious right and Congress fight for top billing in the debate over media violence. The scene cuts to a kitchen knife, a semi-automatic machine gun, a fist, a car, a handgun, an exploding head or an electronic mercenary. Some...

CC pressures new Congress to change the system. (Common Cause)
March 22, 1995... Common Cause moved into action in the opening days of the 104th Congress. Campaign finance reform measures that would ban members of Congress from accepting gifts from lobbyists were tabled in January, but ongoing efforts in both the House and...

Working for voters' rights.
March 22, 1995... The battlelines on the motor-voter law, which allows citizens to register to vote when applying for or renewing a driver's drawn when the U.S. Justice Department sued four states for not complying with the law. Common Cause state organizations in...