Notes

– The SEC apparently didn't appreciate our January cover story on their attempts at censorship of financial newsletters. Our Washington office received an angry call from an SEC bureaucrat demanding copies of the issue. But since then there's been nary a peep out of the agency. Meanwhile, the Newsletter Association of America has distributed the issue to every member of Congress, NAA vice-president Glen Parker told REASON that "everybody in the industry is delighted with your coverage of the First Amendment." Financial writer L.T. Patterson tells us that several people have sent copies of the issue to Sen. Alphonse D'Amato (R'"N.Y.), who has expressed some concern over the SEC's activities. Patterson has also distributed copies to the board members of the International Association of Financial Planners.

– One of the Reason Foundation's long-standing interests has been privatization of public services. In January we garnered some additional visibility for the idea, thanks to the Washington-based Heritage Foundation, which released a Backgrounder called "Municipal Services: The Privatization Option," which I wrote for them under contract. A summary of the piece was published in a number of newspapers. We have also received some nice plugs for our work on privatization in a recent John Chamberlain column and a new booklet by John Diebold, Private Enterprise and Public Policy. Copies of this excellent booklet are available to people with a serious interest in the subject. Write (on your company letterhead) to the Diebold Institute for Public Policy, 475 Park Ave. South, New York, NY 10016.

– There's a whole slew of new reprintings of REASON articles to report. The California Senate's Committee on Agriculture and Water Resources has reprinted Kelly Ross's "Vanishing Farmland" (Mar. 1982) in a report on California farmland. The US Department of Education is reprinting Sam Blumenfeld's "The Victims of 'Dick and Jane'" (Oct.) in its American Education magazine. That article will also be included in the 1983 Dushkin Publishing volume, Annual Editions: Education for use in college courses.

Speaking of classrooms, the Florida-based Social Issues Resources Series, which distributes loose-leaf volumes on 32 topics to nearly half the nation's high school classrooms each year, is reprinting two more REASON articles: "Free Lance Transit" by Gabriel Roth and "Lettuce and Sex" by Hugh Macaulay (Sept.). At the newspaper level, the Orange County Register has reprinted Bruce Clayton's August 1982 cover story, "Don't Plan to Die," and several papers reprinted Gaines Smith's "Have Yourself a Commercial Little Christmas" (Jan.).

– We regret that on page 27 of the March issue, we published the wrong photograph over the caption "Grants Pass Rural's Bertha Miller." Mrs. Miller is shown in the picture on the left below; the woman on the right, whose picture we mistakenly published, is the owner of a service station and store where Phil Turnbull's Valley Fire Service successfully fought a fire.

– Do you know of a college or university library that would welcome a donated subscription to REASON? If so, please let us know, because we have a donor who would be glad to provide such subscriptions. Drop a note to Madelyn Romaszewski at our Santa Barbara address.

– I'm very pleased to announce the 15th Anniversary Banquet for REASON magazine. This gala, $150-a-plate affair will take place at the Beverly Hilton in Los Angeles the evening of May 19. Honored guests will include John Hospers, Robert LeFevre, Arthur Laffer, Council of Economic Advisers member William Niskanen, and other notables, plus the whole REASON crew. You won't want to miss this one. Seating is limited, and tickets are available on a first-come, first-served basis.