Common Cause Magazine articles from March 22 1996

Common Cause Magazine archives from March 22 1996

Virginia is for givers.(Trigon Blue Cross Blue Shield; political and public relations behavior)(No Sacred Cows)
March 22, 1996... The wrongfully accused often ask, "Where do I go to get back my reputation?" Maybe they should go to Virginia, where they might not have lost it in the first place. Take Trigon, Virginia's Blue Cross Blue Shield health insurance firm. Trigon's...

Energy on tour.(Energy Sec. Hazel O'Leary's excesssive world travel)(No Sacred Cows)
March 22, 1996... Energy Secretary Hazel O'Leary may have provided Democrats and Republicans with an example of unnecessary government spending they can actually agree on: T-shirts featuring a globe encircled by the words "O'Leary's World Tour." According to...

Free speech, costly campaigns.(Indiana state politics virtually unregulated)(No Sacred Cows)
March 22, 1996... With press coverage of special-interest politics on the rise, what's a politician to do when confronted with a damaging expose? Indiana state Sen. Harold "Potch" Wheeler (R) decided to hit back. In January he introduced a bill that would have...

Medicaid fare-ness.(unpaid Medicaid transportation vouchers)(No Sacred Cows)
March 22, 1996... James MaCauley keeps $1,200 worth of Medicaid vouchers in a briefcase in the trunk of his taxicab. He's been waiting since November for the District of Columbia to pay him for the vouchers. The stack represents the hundreds of times MaCauley has...

The high-court high life.(lavish US district court conference/junkets)(No Sacred Cows)
March 22, 1996... The Hotel Del Coronado sits on a peninsula just off San Diego, attached by a narrow strip of land called the "Silver Strand." It's a hotel compound where 14 presidents have stayed and where Frank Baum wrote part of the "Wizard of Oz" series....

Gone with the wind?(escalation of prices of literary and historical memoirs)(No Sacred Cows)
March 22, 1996... One day in 1948, long before he achieved literary fame, Norman Mailer was summoned by a knock on his apartment door. He opened it to a stranger who reportedly said, "Mr. Mailer, I'm the librarian from Yale, and we'd love to have the manuscript...

1996 Common Cause Public Service Achievement Awards.
March 22, 1996... Each year Common Cause honors a group of individuals "who by force of imagination, initiative and perseverance have made an outstanding contribution to the public interest in the areas of government performance and integrity." Each of this...

Polluters talk shop.(American Petroleum Institute (API) lobbying strategy memo)(Transcript)
March 22, 1996... Industry representatives and lobbyists had unprecedented access to Republican House members and staffers last year, actually writing large parts of bills that would have done away with many food, health and safety regulations, prohibited new...

The country club: how an elite group of corporations, unions and super-rich individuals is financing the political parties, shaping the political agenda and reaping great rewards with huge soft money contributions.(Cover Story)
March 22, 1996... How an elite group of corporations, unions and super-rich individuals is financing the political parties, shaping the political agenda and reaping great rewards with huge soft money contributions. Swanee Hunt is a member. So are Daniel Abraham,...

CC pushes for action on campaign reform bills.(Common Cause; campaign finance restrictions)(includes related notice of headquarters move to 1250 Connecticut Ave NW)(Cover Story)
March 22, 1996... Common Cause's nationwide grassroots campaign to press for action on S. 1219 and H.R. 2566, the first bipartisan and bicameral campaign finance reform bills, has helped push the fight for reform into the national spotlight. In the Senate, S....

Fighting for the health of democracy: reform battle heats up.(campaign finance)
March 22, 1996... As the election year heats up, daily news reports show why our fight to clean up the corrupt campaign financing system is so central to the health of our democracy: $100,000 soft money contributions, nightly lobbyist fundraisers held by...