Editor's Notes

– Our investigative story on Love Canal has generated considerable interest. Among the first to call was CBS Evening News, whose coverage, unfortunately, was delayed by the ongoing hostage release. Science News did a good write-up in its January 17 issue, and Fortune is working on a story on the piece. The Zodiac News Service report on it led to radio interviews with author Eric Zuesse in Buffalo, Grand Rapids, and New York (thus far). Because of the interest in the story, we have made reprints, complete with four-color cover. Single copies are available for $1.00; quantities from 10 to 100 are 75¢ each, while supplies last.

– Several other REASON articles have also been in demand. December's interview with economist Thomas Sowell was reprinted in The Register of Orange County, California. That, in turn, led to a reprint request from the Gastonia Gazette in Sowell's North Carolina birthplace. Sam Blumenfeld's "Self-Help Schooling in South Boston" (Nov.) has been the object of several reprint requests, most recently from ERC Publishing in Vancouver. And the Social Issues Resources Series is reprinting two more REASON articles for high school use: Michael Monson's "The Dirty Little Secret Behind Our Drug Laws" (Nov.) and Sylvia Sanders's "Data Privacy: What Washington Doesn't Want You to Know" (Jan.).

– REASON contributors have landed several top jobs in the Reagan administration. Murray Weidenbaum (Oct. 1976) has been appointed head of the Council of Economic Advisors. Supply-side economist Paul Craig Roberts, whom we first published in August 1973, is now assistant secretary for economic policy in the Treasury Department. Long-time contributor John McClaughry is a senior policy advisor on the White House staff, while Doug Bandow, whom we discovered last year, has landed a job on Martin Anderson's White House domestic policy staff. It pleases me to see such sensible people in high places, and it's nice to know that REASON helped to give their ideas visibility.

– Readers of last September's cover story on the separatist revolt in the New Hebrides may be amused to learn that all the Americans mentioned in that story as being in sympathy with the rebel cause'"including some who have never been near the South Pacific'"have been declared "prohibited immigrants" by the socialist government of what is now called Vanuatu. Included on the list also are 110 French citizens'"many long-time residents and property owners'"who have been expelled, several Australian journalists, and everyone whose name ever appeared in any literature of the Phoenix Foundation (including your editor, who was once on its board). But the Vanuatu police aren't as clever as they think. Their list excludes at least one political operative we know of, who presumably remains at liberty to visit Bali Ha'i.

– Even our letters to the editor are making news these days. Subscriber Robert Dugger's January letter describing a citizens' group effort to disincorporate the tiny new city of Apache Junction, Arizona, caught the eye of Bob Lissit, one of the producers of NBC Magazine. Within days, a camera crew and reporters were on the scene; as a result, on Friday, January 16, millions of viewers saw a 12-minute segment on Apache Junction. Talk about the power of the press!

– As predicted in our January cover story on data privacy, the Public Cryptography Study Group has given the National Security Agency what it wants: a recommendation that research on secret codes be screened by the NSA before publication. At a meeting on February 6, the nine-member study group became the first academic group ever to propose a system that could lead to a government agency's prior restraint of publication. Although authors and journals would be allowed to ignore NSA requests for changes, the study group calls this voluntary system "experimental."

– The Reason Foundation is moving up. In February we moved into new quarters at 1018 Garden Street. The new place gives us 50 percent more space, including a library/conference room. Also in February we added a full-time business manager, Madelyn Romaszewski. Madelyn comes to us from Connecticut, where she managed direct-mail operations for Save the Children Federation. She will put her considerable skills to use upgrading our subscription fulfillment operations and developing a bookstore and newsstand distribution program. Over the next two years we'll be adding to our staff as expansion plans proceed. (Circulation this month has passed 20,000!)