Editor's Notes

– INVESTIGATIVE JOURNALISM. This month's cover story on federal grants and the United Farm Workers union represents REASON's most ambitious venture to date in investigative reporting. The result of six months of research, the article was made public at a Washington press conference featuring author Patty Newman and editor Robert Poole. A number of lawmakers have expressed interest in calling for a congressional investigation, based on the article's revelations of misuse of federal grants.

This article is the first project of the Reason Foundation's new Investigative Journalism Fund. It's a special fund aimed at providing the kind of money necessary to support the detailed research inherent in investigative reporting. Unfortunately, most such journalism these days is carried out by reporters who are not conversant with the ideals and values of a free society; many are openly collectivist in their values. Our Journalism Fund provides an alternative to nihilistic muckraking. We have a long list of research topics and a roster of competent young journalists available to pursue them. Needless to say, contributions to the Reason Foundation to support this project are invited.

– ADDITIONS. We are pleased to announce three important additions to the ranks of the Reason Foundation.

Our fifth and newest trustee is M. Bruce Johnson, professor of economics at the University of California at Santa Barbara. Besides being president-elect of the Western Economics Association, Prof. Johnson is an advisor to World Research, Inc., and has been director of research for the University of Miami's Law and Economics Center. He is editor of LEC's The Attack on Corporate America (McGraw-Hill, 1978).

Joining the Foundation's Advisory Board is William E. Simon, former US Secretary of the Treasury and author of the best-selling book A Time for Truth. Mr. Simon currently serves as president of the John M. Olin Foundation, is a consultant to Booz, Allen and Hamilton, and serves on the boards of a number of corporations.

Also joining the Advisory Board is Prof. F.A. Hayek, 1974 Nobel laureate in economics. Hayek, best known for his1944 classic The Road to Serfdom, is the author of numerous books and essays on social, political, and economic aspects of the free society. Still writing and lecturing at age 80, he recently completed the third volume of his Law, Legislation and Liberty.

– RADIO MESSAGES. Two free-market-oriented think tanks are producing public affairs commentaries for radio broadcasting. The older of the two comes from the Cato Institute (1700 Montgomery St., San Francisco, CA 94111). Called "Byline," it features two-minute commentaries by figures like Nicholas von Hoffman, Dom Armentano, William Proxmire, and Howard Jarvis. The series is being sent free of charge to 140 radio stations across the country. The second series is "Midnight Economist" and features economist William R. Allen of UCLA and the International Institute for Economic Research. It is heard nightly on KBIG-FM in Los Angeles and is syndicated by the Public Affairs Broadcast Group (Box 48911, Los Angeles, CA 90048) for stations across the country.

– LIST RENTAL POLICY. Yes, Virginia, we do rent our mailing list. For those concerned about privacy and "junk mail," a few words of explanation are in order. First of all, we never'"never'"sell our mailing list to anyone else. What we do is rent it, to carefully selected mailers, for one-time use'"which means they can affix the labels to their envelopes and send them off, not copy the list and add it to their own. (There are safeguards to detect cheating.)

Why do we rent the list? For the same reasons that we sell advertising space in REASON'"as a source of income'"and secondarily, to provide readers with access to possibly useful or interesting information. If none of this convinces you that we're doing right, there's one final out: you can request that your name not be included among those we rent out. Our computer can arrange this by changing a single digit in your address code. So if you really don't want to get all those messages in your mailbox, just drop us a note (being sure to enclose your present mailing label).