Publisher's Notes

• PRICE INCREASE: Effective August 17, REASON's prices will be increased. Our new subscription rate will be $15 per year. The new cover price will be $1.25 for regular issues, $2.00 for the Book Review issue, and $3.50 for the Financial issue. We dislike having to increase our prices, but our costs continue to increase and we are not yet operating in the black. Present subscribers may renew their subscriptions early in order to take advantage of the present special renewal rates ($11 for one year, $20 for two, and $27 for three), but such orders must be received prior to August 17, 1976. Gift subscriptions may also be obtained at the special rate of $11 for a year's subscription, if your order reaches us by August 17, 1976. Please add $1.50 per year for each subscription to be sent outside the U. S. We'll send a gift card in your name to each person on your list.

• NEW ADDRESS: REASON has a new mailing address. Effective immediately, all correspondence and subscription orders should be sent to REASON, P.O. Box 40105, Santa Barbara, CA 93103.

• EDITORS' ACTIVITIES: Here is an update on some recent activities of REASON's three principal editors.

Robert Poole, Jr. was recently elected treasurer of the Association for Rational Environmental Alternatives (AREA), the national organization dealing with urban and environmental issues from a nongovernmental perspective. He continues to give presentations on the private enterprise Rural/Metro Fire Dept., Inc., most recently to several regional meetings of the meetings of the California Libertarian Party and to a local Rotary Club luncheon. Poole has just been selected as coordinator for the Santa Barbara County Juvenile Justice Task Force, whose job is to develop a master plan for juvenile justice in the county. He is also working as part of a consulting team studying the correctional system requirements for Alameda County, California over the next 25 years. In addition, he has written a book on reducing the cost of local government, to be published this summer by Reason Press, under the sponsorship of the National Taxpayers Union.

Editor Manuel S. Klausner is chairman of the Libertarian Law Council (LLC), which meets bimonthly in Los Angeles, and he has been active on several LLC projects including presenting a statement to the California State Bar and Los Angeles County Bar Association concerning a proposed pilot program on lawyer advertising, and assisting the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws in a suit challenging the constitutionality of California's marijuana laws. Klausner recently debated a leading spokesman from the United Physicians of California on the medical malpractice crisis before the LLC, and he has spoken on the malpractice insurance issue before regional meetings of the Libertarian Party. Klausner's piece "What's 'Ethical' in Banning Lawyers from Advertising?" was published as a lead feature in the April 16 issue of the Metropolitan News, a daily legal newspaper in Los Angeles.

Senior Editor Tibor R. Machan has recently presented papers before numerous organizations, including the World Congress of Philosophy of Law and Political Philosophy in St. Louis; the International Congress in Logic, Methodology, and the Philosophy of Science in London, Ontario, Canada; a conference on F.A. Hayek at the University of San Francisco; a conference on Regulation at Hillsdale College's Center for Constructive Alternatives; Pepperdine University's Forum of the Business, Education and Media; and the Charles S. Peirce Congress in Amsterdam, Holland. Machan has also spoken before various groups, including the California Libertarian Party Convention and the Libertarian Alternative in San Diego. Machan has recently published articles in more than 10 publications, including "Ayn Rand: A Contemporary Heretic?" in The Occasional Review, Fall 1975; a review of Nozick's Anarchy, State and Utopia in the fall 1975 issue of Modern Age; and "The Debate on Planning" in the June 11 issue of National Review. Machan is also giving a bimonthly seminar in philosophy and political theory in Santa Clara, CA.

• FALSE CLAIMS: A first-year law student, Alan Hollander, filed suit recently under the century-old False Claims Act against Rep. William Clay (D., Mo.). The suit alleges that Clay on "numerous" occasions submitted "ficticious" travel vouchers seeking reimbursement for trips he couldn't have made. The suit was filed after a Wall Street Journal story named Clay and other House members as filing false travel claims. A citizen filing under the statute is entitled to retain from 10 to 25 percent of any recovery (depending on whether the Justice Dept. joins the suit), and Clay could be required to pay double damages plus a $2,000 penalty for each false claim. The False Claims Act appears to be a potent weapon for libertarians. Politicians, beware!