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CONSUMER News:
20080509
-
 Consumers
-  Food
-  Safety
-  Humans
-  Health
-  Law
-  Politics
-  Animals
-  Agriculture
-  Business
-  Kan
-  US
-  Japan
- "Government
asks court to block wider testing for mad cow." ...
"The [Republican President] Bush administration on Friday urged a federal
appeals court to stop meatpackers from testing all their animals for mad
cow disease, but a skeptical judge questioned whether the government has
that authority." ... "The government seeks to reverse a lower court ruling
that allowed Arkansas City, Kan.[Kansas]-based Creekstone Farms Premium
Beef to conduct more comprehensive testing to satisfy demand from overseas
customers in Japan and elsewhere." ... "Less than 1 percent of slaughtered
cows are currently tested for the disease under Agriculture Department
guidelines. The agency argues that more widespread testing does not guarantee
food safety and could result in a false positive that scares consumers."
... "Mad cow disease, or bovine spongiform encephalopathy, can be fatal
to humans who eat tainted beef. Three cases of mad cow disease have been
discovered in the U.S. [United States] since 2003." -By
Sam Hananel -AP
via -SFGate.com
20080507
-
Secret
-
 Government
-  Intelligence
-  Terrorism
- Politics
- Illegal
-  Surveillance
-  Investigation
-  Internet
- Archive
-  Library
-  Electronic
- Civil
Liberties - Brewster_Kahle
- Censorship
- San
Francisco -  California
-  Student
- Health
- Consumer
-  Telephone
- Electronic
- Data
- National
Security Letter - "FBI
Targets Internet Archive With Secret 'National Security Letter', Loses."
... "The Internet Archive, a project to create a digital library of the
web for posterity, successfully fought a secret government Patriot Act
order for records about one of its patrons and won the right to make the
order public, civil liberties groups announced Wednesday morning." ...
"On November 26, 2007, the FBI [Federal Bureau of Investigation] served
a controversial National
Security Letter (.pdf) on the Internet
Archive's founder Brewster Kahle, asking for records about one of the
library's registered users, asking for the user's name, address and activity
on the site." ... "The Electronic Frontier Foundation, the Internet Archive's
lawyers, fought the NSL [National Security Letter], challenging its constitutionality
in a December 14 complaint
(.pdf) to a federal court in San Francisco [California]. The FBI agreed
on April 21 to withdraw the letter and unseal the court case, making some
of the documents available to the public." ... "The Patriot Act greatly
expanded the reach of NSLs, which are subpoenas for documents such as billing
records and telephone records that the FBI can issue in terrorism investigations
without a judge's approval. Nearly all NSLs come with gag orders forbidding
the recipient from ever speaking of the subpoena, except to a lawyer."
... "Brewster Kahle called the gag order "horrendous," saying he couldn't
talk about the case with his board members, wife or staff, but said that
his stand was part of a time-honored tradition of librarians protecting
the rights of their patrons." ... ""This is an unqualified success that
will help other recipients understand that you can push back on these,"
Kahle said in a conference call with reporters Wednesday morning." ...
"Though FBI guidelines on using NSLs warned of overusing them, two Congressionally
ordered audits revealed that the FBI had issued hundreds of illegal requests
for student health records, telephone records and credit reports. The reports
also found that the FBI had issued hundreds of thousands of NSLs since
2001, but failed to track their use. In a letter to Congress last week,
the FBI admitted it can only estimate how many NSLs it has issued." -By
Ryan Singel -Wired
20080502
-
 Hillary
Clinton -  John
McCain -  Gas
- Politics
- Consumer
- Memorial
Day - Labor_Day
-  New
York - 2008
Election
- "Clinton,
McCain Push Gas Tax Break Economists Panned (Update1)."
... "[2008 Election Democratic Presidential Candidate] Hillary Clinton
and [2008 Election Republican Presidential Candidate] John McCain are both
pushing a ``gas-tax holiday'' to give consumers an 18.4- cent-a-gallon
price break. Clinton says the plan will take excess profits from oil companies.
McCain says it will help families buy school supplies." ... "Economists
have a different take: They say the oil companies may end up the biggest
beneficiaries, while the aid to families wouldn't be enough to buy a $35
backpack." ... "The trouble with the plan, they say, is that oil prices
are rising because of low supplies, and companies will continue to charge
the average $3.60 a gallon and just pocket the money that would have gone
to federal taxes." ... "``That's $10 billion, and it's going into the pockets
of oil refiners,'' said Leonard Burman of the Tax Policy Center in Washington.
``The last time I checked, they didn't need it.''" ... "Ethan Harris, chief
U.S. [United States] economist at Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc., said families
would save only about $18 a month. Burman estimated the total savings from
Memorial Day to Labor Day at $28." ... "New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg
said the proposal was ``about the dumbest thing I've heard in a long time
from an economic point of view.''" -By Alison Fitzgerald
-Bloomberg
20080430
-
Clinton
- McCain
-
 Obama
- Infrastructure
-  Auto
- Transportation
-  North
Carolina - 2008
Election - Oil
- Companies
- Politics
- "Clinton-McCain
gas tax holiday slammed as bad idea." ... "The [gas]
tax is used to fund the Highway Trust Fund that builds and maintains roads
and bridges." ... "Economists said that since refineries cannot increase
their supply of gasoline in the space of a few summer months, lower prices
will just boost demand and the benefits will flow to oil companies, not
consumers." ... ""You are just going to push up the price of gas by almost
the size of the tax cut," said Eric Toder, a senior fellow at the Urban-Brookings
Tax Policy Center in Washington." ... "[2008 Election Democratic Presidential
Candidate Barack] Obama criticized the plan as pure politics and said the
only way to lower the price of gas is to use less oil." ... ""It would
last for three months and it would save you on average half a tank of gas,
$25 to $30. That's what Senator Clinton and Senator McCain are proposing
to deal with the gas crisis," he said on Tuesday in Winston-Salem, North
Carolina." ... ""This isn't an idea designed to get you through the summer,
it's an idea designed to get them through an election."" (1, 2,
3)
-By Alister Bull with contributions by Bill Trott
-Reuters
20080429
-
McCain
- Clinton
- Obama
- Transportation
- Infrastructure
- Federal
- Money
-
 Arizona
- New
York
-  Illinois
- 2008
Election - Labor_Day
- Memorial
Day - Consumer
- Car
- Gas
- Politics
- "What
a gas: Candidates seem far less presidential when
they talk about 'gas tax holidays' rather than the nation's ongoing needs."
... "[2008 Election Republican Presidential Candidate and Arizona Senator]
Sen. John McCain's idea to give Americans a summer holiday from federal
gas taxes is about as weighty as a Barbie Dream Car, yet he can't stop
driving it into the ground." ... "Neither can [2008 Election Democratic
Presidential Candidate and New York Senator] Sen. Hillary Clinton. The
two presidential contenders can't resist the chance to pander to voters
and, as a bonus, paint [2008 Election Democratic Presidential Candidate
and Illinois Senator] Sen. Barack Obama as an elitist. By doing so, they're
missing an opportunity to show leadership on some major long-term challenges
-- such as updating the nation's crowded roads and aging bridges." ...
"In a speech on April 15, McCain proposed that the federal government suspend
the 18.4-cent-per-gallon gas tax and the 24.4-cent-per-gallon diesel tax
between Memorial Day and Labor Day. ... "McCain's idea is problematic on
several levels. First, it would begin and end several months before the
next president takes office, so it's more of a thought balloon than a plan.
Second, the tax relief would save the typical American family only about
$40 per car, while also siphoning $10 billion from the cash-strapped federal
highway fund." ... "What's more, leading economists say the tax break would
do little to lower the prices at the pump. More likely, the slightly lower
prices would lead to higher demand, which would push the prices back up,
allowing oil companies to make more money while federal tax coffers go
hungry." ... "This is an election-year sop, not a plan for the future."
-Oregonian
20080425
-
Consumer
- Opinion
-
 History
- Fuel
-  Employment
-  Houses
- Cars
-  Michigan
- "U.S.
Economy: Sentiment Weakens More Than Anticipated (Update3)."
... "U.S. [United States] consumer confidence
fell more than forecast in April to a 26-year low as record fuel prices
and rising unemployment threatened to reduce spending." ... "The Reuters/University
of Michigan sentiment index decreased to 62.6, from 69.5 the previous month.
The measure was down from a preliminary estimate of 63.2 issued on April
11." ... "Consumers are growing increasingly anxious because the economy
has lost almost a quarter million jobs so far this year, gasoline is up
17 percent and property
values have fallen. Sales of houses and cars have declined as a result,
contributing to a slowdown that may bring an end to the six-year expansion."
... "The index of consumer expectations
for six months from now, which more closely projects the direction of consumer
spending, dropped to 53.3 from 60.1 last month." ... "The economy lost
80,000 jobs in March, the most in five years, following a 76,000 drop in
payrolls in each of the prior two months, according to figures from the
Labor Department." ... "The average price of regular unleaded gasoline
rose to a record $3.58 a gallon yesterday, according to data from AAA [American
Automobile Association]." ... "Cars and light trucks sold at an average
15.2 million annual pace in the first three months of the year, the fewest
since the third quarter of 1998." -By Bob Willis
-Bloomberg
20080422
-
Consumer
- Real
Estate - History
- "Regulator
fears wave of bank failures." ... "US bank failures
could rise above "historical norms" as a weakening economy puts pressure
on badly underwritten loans, particularly in commercial real estate, according
to a bank regulator." ... "In an interview with the Financial Times, John
Dugan, who oversees about 1,700 national banks as comptroller of the currency,
said the growing problems for lenders follow a period of almost four years
in which no institution regulated by his agency had failed." ... "Mr Dugan's
Office of the Comptroller of the Currency is particularly worried about
lending by smaller banks to commercial real estate developers for condominiums
and other projects. More than a third of smaller community banks have made
commercial property loans that exceed 300 per cent of their capital, the
OCC [Office of the Comptroller of the Currency] says. By comparison, in
1987, when hundreds of banks failed amid a commercial property collapse,
such banks had commercial property loans equal to 175 per cent of their
capital." (1, 2)
-By Daniel
Pimlott, Krishna
Guha and Joanna
Chung -FT.com
20080417
-
-
-
 Media
- Politics
- Corporate
-  Network
- 2008
Election - 
-
- 
- 
- Torture
-
- Human
Rights -
- Consumer
-
- 
- Safety
-
-
-
- Death
Penalty - "Okay,
Now I'm Bitter." [Mary Mapes on what
DISNEY/ABC didn't cover in the 2008 Election Democratic Presidential
Candidate debate in Pennsylvania with Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama]
... "In Iraq, we've seen a rebound in suicide bombings and gotten the disquieting
information that Iraqi soldiers have been fleeing the battlefield in frightening
numbers." ... "Americans learned that detailed discussions of torture techniques
had been held in the [Republican President] White House -- our White House
-- and President Bush revealed that he knew this and approved." ... "[Home]
Foreclosure rates have spiked to frightening levels." ... "U.S. [United
States] shoppers were told that food prices in this country are rising
at a higher pace than at any time in the past 17 years." ... "The airline
industry floundered through dreadful days of groundings, amidst safety
concerns, economic ailments and passenger anger." ... "Oil prices are setting
new records almost every day and $4 a gallon gas is coming soon to a service
station near you." ... "The anguish over China's human rights record and
its handling of Tibet turned the Olympic torch relay into a cross between
Spain's Running of the Bulls and 3rd grade keep-away." ... "[2008 Election
Republican Presidential Candidate] John McCain, acting like a mean old
man trying to chase those pesky voters off his lawn, refused to endorse
a new GI bill that would help those currently serving our country get a
college education." ... "The Supreme Court issued a fractured opinion on
the death penalty that for the first time in years raises the real possibility
of a national debate on the value and morality of the ultimate punishment."
... "And we are in the middle of what is clearly the most important, most
consequential election of my lifetime -- and I'm no spring chicken." ...
"Instead, I sat in front of my TV open-mouthed, listening to a hodgepodge
of juvenile questions about flag jewelry, the possibility of a "dream"
ticket, elderly radicals, Charlie Gibson's personal tax concerns and ministers
who emote too much. What, no time for a question about Cindy McCain's purloined
pork chop recipe?" -By Mary Mapes
-HuffingtonPost.com
20080415
-
Consumer
- Economy
-
 Nevada
- California
-  Florida
- "Foreclosures
jump 57 percent in last 12 months." ... "Home foreclosure
filings surged 57 percent in the 12 month-period ended in March and bank
repossessions soared 129 percent from a year ago, as homeowners struggled
to make mortgage payments, real estate data firm RealtyTrac said on Tuesday."
... "For the month of March, foreclosure filings, default notices, auction
sale notices and bank repossessions rose 5 percent, led by Nevada, California
and Florida, RealtyTrac said." ... "The rise in March to filings on a total
of 234,685 properties followed a 4 percent decline in February, RealtyTrac
reported." ... "RealtyTrac said the peak has yet to be reached." (1, 2,
3)
-By Lynn Adler with contributions by Leslie Adler
-Reuters
20080414
-
Consumer
- Money
- History
- Poor
-
 Families
- Agriculture
- "Food
Costs Rising Fastest in 17 Years." ... "The U.S.
[United States] is wrestling with the worst food inflation in 17 years,
and analysts expect new data due on Wednesday to show it's getting worse.
That's putting the squeeze on poor families and forcing bakeries, bagel
shops and delis to explain price increases to their customers." ... "U.S.
food prices rose 4 percent in 2007, compared with an average 2.5 percent
annual rise for the last 15 years, according to the U.S. Department of
Agriculture. And the agency says 2008 could be worse, with a rise of as
much as 4.5 percent." ... "Eggs cost 25 percent more in February than they
did a year ago, according to the USDA [United States Department of Agriculture].
Milk and other dairy products jumped 13 percent, chicken and other poultry
nearly 7 percent." -By Ellen Simon
-AP via -SFGate.com
20080409
-
Families
- Jobs
- Consumer
- Economic
- History
-
 Accounting
- "For
Many, a Boom That Wasn’t." ... "The bigger problem
is that the now-finished boom was, for most Americans, nothing of the sort.
In 2000, at the end of the previous economic expansion, the median American
family made about $61,000, according to the Census Bureau’s inflation-adjusted
numbers. In 2007, in what looks to have been the final year of the most
recent expansion, the median family, amazingly, seems to have made less
— about $60,500." ... "This has never happened before, at least not for
as long as the government has been keeping records. In every other expansion
since World War II, the buying power of most American families grew while
the economy did. You can think of this as the most basic test of an economy’s
health: does it produce ever-rising living standards for its citizens?"
... "“We have had expansions before where the bottom end didn’t do well,”
said Lawrence F. Katz, a Harvard economist who studies the job market.
“But we’ve never had an expansion in which the middle of income distribution
had no wage growth.”" ... "But the larger point is still crucial: the modern
American economy distributes the fruits of its growth to a relatively narrow
slice of the population." -By David
Leonhardt -NYTimes
20080401
-
Federal
- Law
- Enforcement
- Politics
- Consumer
- Homeowners
- "A
to-do over plan's to-dos: Push to revamp financial
industry regulation sets up a battle between [Republican President] Bush
and Congress." ... "[Republican President Bush's] Treasury Secretary Henry
Paulson's blueprint for regulatory reform, officially unveiled Monday,
set the stage for a major confrontation with Congress by offering no relief
for troubled homeowners and advocating what in many cases was less, not
more, federal supervision of the nation's troubled financial system." ...
"Paulson proposed the broadest restructuring of federal regulatory institutions
in three-quarters of a century with a call to merge organizations and redraw
lines of authority that in some cases went back to the Great Depression.
But the plan would put off for years, if not indefinitely, any attempt
to create detailed new regulations for the streamlined new system to enforce."
... "As a result, even if eventually adopted, the new scheme would do little
to protect against a repetition of the current crisis or something very
much like it, the Treasury secretary acknowledged." ... "The limited nature
of the proposals, contained in a 218-page document titled "Blueprint for
a Modernized Financial Regulatory Structure," also drew immediate, if measured,
fire from Democrats." ... ""It was regulators' mindless belief that the
market is always right that made them deaf to warnings that the subprime
market was trouble," complained Barbara Roper, investor protection director
for the Consumer Federation of America." ... ""Until you change that attitude
and the reluctance to regulate, consumers and investors aren't going to
see any benefit. There is absolutely nothing for consumers and investors"
in the plan, at least for the foreseeable future." -By
Peter G. Gosselin -ChicagoTribune
20080331
-
Food
- Agriculture
- Plant
-
 Land
- History
- Ethanol
- Companies
- Animal
- Consumers
- "Corn
forecast suggests rise in food prices is ahead."
... "U.S. [United States] farmers plan to cut back corn planting and boost
soybean production, a shift that could send ripples from the farm belt
to your grocery bills." ... "The U.S. Department of Agriculture on Monday
released its prospective plantings report. The report, which came amid
surging grain prices, bore news that affects grain farmers, livestock producers,
ethanol companies, food processors and, ultimately, consumers." ... "Corn
plantings are expected to fall 8 percent this year, to 86 million acres,
according to the Department of Agriculture. Last year farmers planted a
post-World War II record of nearly 94 million acres of corn to meet burgeoning
demand for ethanol, which is expected to soon absorb about 30 percent of
domestic corn production." ... "“Last year many soybean growers switched
from soybeans to corn as ethanol expansion strongly increased the demand
for corn,” the Department of Agriculture said." ... "This year, though,
many of the 86,000 farmers surveyed for the report said they were shifting
production back toward soybeans, which had surged in price. Soybean planting
is expected to increase 18 percent this year, to almost 75 million acres."
... "Corn is trading near its record-high price of $5.70 a bushel, more
than double the price of two years ago. Soybeans are hovering around $12
a bushel, nearly double last year’s level." (1, 2)
-By Victoria Sizemore Long
-KansasCity.com
20080330
-
John
McCain
-
 Edwards
- Consumer
- Laws
- Politics
- Arizona
-  Women
- 2008
Election - "McCain's
health plan fails her test: Neither Elizabeth Edwards,
whose cancer is incurable, nor the presumptive Republican presidential
nominee would be covered by his policy, she asserts." ... "Elizabeth Edwards,
the wife of former [2008 Election] Democratic presidential contender John
Edwards, said she and [2008 Election Republican Presidential Candidate]
John McCain have one thing in common: "Neither one of us would be covered
by his health policy."" ... "Edwards lodged her criticism of the presumptive
Republican presidential nominee's proposal Saturday at the annual meeting
of the Assn. [Association] of Health Care Journalists." ... "Under McCain's
plan, insurance companies "wouldn't have to cover preexisting conditions
like melanoma and breast cancer," she said." ... "McCain has been treated
for melanoma, the most serious type of skin malignancy. Edwards in 2004
was diagnosed with breast cancer, and announced a year ago that it had
returned and spread into her bones, meaning it no longer could be cured."
... "His [McCain's health] plan would make it difficult for people with
preexisting conditions, but who aren't covered by a government- or job-sponsored
plan, to buy individual coverage, Edwards said." ... "Cancer survivors
are routinely denied insurance when they try to purchase it as individuals,
health experts say." ... "Edwards also criticized McCain's proposal because
it would allow companies to sell health insurance across state lines."
... ""... Edwards said the plan would allow insurers to move their headquarters
to states in which consumer protection laws are weak." -By
Rong-Gong Lin II -LAtimes
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Water
- 
Drugs
- 
Environmental
- 
Science
- 
New
Jersey - 
Ky
- "Sex
Hormones, Mood Stabilizers Found In Drinking Water Of 41 M Americans."
... "A vast array of pharmaceuticals _ including antibiotics, anti-convulsants,
mood stabilizers and sex hormones _ have been found in the drinking water
supplies of at least 41 million Americans, an Associated
Press investigation shows." ... "To be sure, the concentrations of
these pharmaceuticals are tiny, measured in quantities of parts per billion
or trillion, far below the levels of a medical dose. Also, utilities insist
their water is safe." ... "But the presence of so many prescription drugs
_ and over-the-counter medicines like acetaminophen and ibuprofen _ in
so much of our drinking water is heightening worries among scientists of
long-term consequences to human health." ... "In the course of a five-month
inquiry, the AP discovered that drugs have been detected in the drinking
water supplies of 24 major metropolitan areas _ from Southern California
to Northern New Jersey, from Detroit [Michigan] to Louisville, Ky. [Kentucky.]"
... "How do the drugs get into the water?" ... "People take pills. Their
bodies absorb some of the medication, but the rest of it passes through
and is flushed down the toilet. The wastewater is treated before it is
discharged into reservoirs, rivers or lakes. Then, some of the water is
cleansed again at drinking water treatment plants and piped to consumers.
But most treatments do not remove all drug residue." ... "And while researchers
do not yet understand the exact risks from decades of persistent exposure
to random combinations of low levels of pharmaceuticals, recent studies
_ which have gone virtually unnoticed by the general public _ have found
alarming effects on human cells and wildlife." ... "The federal government
doesn't require any testing and hasn't set safety limits for drugs in water."
... "The AP's investigation also indicates that watersheds, the natural
sources of most of the nation's water supply, also are contaminated." ...
"Even users of bottled water and home filtration systems don't necessarily
avoid exposure. Bottlers, some of which simply repackage tap water, do
not typically treat or test for pharmaceuticals, according to the industry's
main trade group. The same goes for the makers of home filtration systems."
... "Pharmaceuticals also permeate aquifers deep underground, source of
40 percent of the nation's water supply." -By Jeff
Donn, Martha Mendoza, and Justin Pritchard
-AssociatedPress via -HuffingtonPost.com
Vt
- "More
FBI Privacy Violations Confirmed." ... "The FBI [Federal
Bureau of Investigation] acknowledged it improperly accessed Americans'
telephone records, credit reports and Internet traffic in 2006, the fourth
straight year of privacy abuses resulting from investigations aimed at
tracking terrorists and spies." ... "Testifying at a Senate Judiciary Committee
hearing, [FBI Director Robert] Mueller raised the issue of the FBI's controversial
use of so-called national security letters [NSLs] in reference to an upcoming
report on the topic by the Justice Department's inspector general." ...
"An audit by the inspector general last year found the FBI demanded personal
records without official authorization or otherwise collected more data
than allowed in dozens of cases between 2003 and 2005. Additionally, last
year's audit found that the FBI had underreported to Congress how many
national security letters were requested by more than 4,600." ... "National
security letters, as outlined in the USA Patriot Act, are administrative
subpoenas used in suspected terrorism and espionage cases. They allow the
FBI to require telephone companies, Internet service providers, banks,
credit bureaus and other businesses to produce highly personal records
about their customers or subscribers without a judge's approval." ... "Speaking
before the FBI chief, [Vermont Democratic Senator and] Senate Judiciary
Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt. [Democratic-Vermont], urged Mueller to be
more vigilant in correcting what he called "widespread illegal and improper
use of national security letters."" ... ""Everybody wants to stop terrorists.
But we also, though, as Americans, we believe in our privacy rights and
we want those protected," Leahy said. "There has to be a better chain of
command for this. You cannot just have an FBI agent who decides he'd like
to obtain Americans' records, bank records or anything else and do it just
because they want to."" -By Lara Jakes Jordan
-AP via -SFGate.com
