Notes

РQuite a few REASON articles are continuing to have an impact. Reader William Udy sent last December's expos̩, "Infant Formula: WHO Mixes It Up," to J.R. Crumley, Bishop of the Lutheran Church in America. Bishop Crumley replied, "I have read [the article] very carefully and I find its argument quite convincing. I have always felt that there were enough unanswered questions about the infant formula controversy that I have been particularly glad the Lutheran Church in America has never officially become a part of the boycott."

Dina Rasor's April cover story on military testing has spawned articles in Washington Monthly (May) and Human Events (May 22), with another scheduled for National Journal this summer. Sen. David Pryor has introduced legislation, inspired by the article, to establish an independent operational testing director in the Defense Department; hearings were scheduled before the Senate Government Affairs Committee in July. And Rep. Robert Garcia (D'"N.Y.) wrote me to say that his bill on military waste (HR 6229) "was inspired by an article in your magazine by Dina Rasor."

Our June issue has led to radio interviews for four of the authors'"Eric Brodin, Doug Casey, Adrian Day, and John Doherty on WIS in Columbia, South Carolina. And a condensed version of William Tucker's cover story on the Peripheral Canal has appeared in a number of California newspapers, among them the San Francisco Chronicle and the Long Beach Press Telegram.

– The idea that ailing bridges could be privatized, aired in our Trends column in May, has caught the eye of Entrepreneur magazine. Its June issue (pp. 47′"48) assesses the pros and cons of taking over bridges as an entrepreneurial venture and offers sage advice on how to get started in this "clever investment."

– The last few months have been busy ones for me. In May I took part in two conferences, one at the Shavano Institute in Colorado (where I spoke on deregulation and privatization) and the other a joint effort of the Cato Institute and the Political Economy Research Institute, on the new federalism and urban opportunities (where I commented on two papers dealing with land-use controls). June was especially hectic. I gave a lecture on privatization of public services at Northwood Institute in Midland, Michigan; gave a breakfast talk on deregulation at the Arizona Economic Forum meeting in Flagstaff; made several appearances on behalf of the Oklahoma Libertarian Party in Tulsa; and took part in a panel discussion put on by the American Society of Local Officials at the annual convention of the American Legislative Exchange Council in Chattanooga. By contrast, July was a breeze'"just one engagement, taking part in a panel on economic education at the Western Economic Association convention in Los Angeles.

Senior Fellow Tibor Machan, meanwhile, has opened the fourth annual Reason Foundation summer research seminar here in Santa Barbara. The initial event was a four-day conference on the summer seminar's theme, culture and the free society. A dozen scholars are spending their summer in residence with us here, working on books and journal articles related to this theme.

– The Foundation's book, Instead of Regulation, continues to attract notice. Reviews continue to appear, including in the Freeman (Feb.), Policy Digest (Apr.), Regulation (Mar./Apr.), and Choice (Apr.), and the book was selected by the Conservative book club as a July feature.

– About a year and a half ago, senior editor Manny Klausner, who is a practicing attorney, worked with then-San Diego city councilman Fred Schnaubelt to draft a ballot initiative aimed at deterring local governments from economically destructive land-use regulation. Called the Just Compensation Initiative, it would have defined any regulatory action that significantly reduced the market value of a piece of property to be a "taking" within the meaning of the Fourth Amendment, therefore requiring compensation. Plans to qualify the measure for the California ballot never materialized, for several reasons. We were therefore surprised to see the idea reemerge, during the recent primary election, as a campaign plank of Republican gubernatorial candidate George Deukmejian, the state attorney general. Since Deukmejian won the primary, the idea stands a chance of becoming state policy, should he win the November election.