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John
Edwards
- 
Barack
Obama
- 
Hillary
Clinton
- 
Iowa
- 
Manufacturing
- 
Jobs
- 
Family
- 
Health-Care
- 
Environment
- Human
Rights - 
US
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China
- 
Corporations
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Iraq
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Military
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Indiana
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Idaho
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Illinois
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Homes
- Consumers
- 2008
Election - "Behind
the Edwards Surge: Right Message at the Right Time."
... "To a far greater extent than [2008 Election Democratic Presidential
Candidates Barack] Obama or [Hillary] Clinton, [John] Edwards has struck
at the heart of issues that should matter most in the race to replace not
just [Republican President] George W. Bush, but the Bush agenda of corporate
giveaways, job-crushing free trade deals, war profiteering in Iraq, and
subprime mortgage profiteering in Indiana, Idaho, Illinois and, yes, Iowa."
... "Edwards summed up his increasingly aggressive and powerful anti-corporate
themes with a declaration: "What makes America America is at stake: jobs,
the middle class, health care, preserving the environment in the world
for future generations."" ... ""But all those things are at risk. And why
are they at risk? Because of corporate power and corporate greed in Washington,
D.C. And we have to take them on. You can't make a deal with them. You
can't hope that they're going to go away. You have to actually be willing
to fight. And I want every caucus-goer to know I've been fighting these
people and winning my entire life. And if we do this together, rise up
together, we can actually make absolutely certain, starting here in Iowa,
that we make this country better than we left it."" ... "Edwards got to
know workers in Iowa. He stood with them in their struggles." ... "Turning
a broad question about human rights toward the specific issue of trade
policy, the former senator said that human rights, human needs and human
values "should be central to our trade policy."" ... ""But," he added,
"if you look at what's happened with American trade policy, look at what
America got: Big corporations made a lot of money, are continuing to make
a lot of money in China. But what did America get in return? We got millions
of dangerous Chinese toys. We lost millions of jobs." ... ""And right here
in Iowa, the Maytag plant in Newton [Iowa] closed. A guy named Doug Bishop,
who I got to know very well, had worked in that plant, and his family had
worked in that plant literally for generations. And his job is now gone.
The same thing, by the way, happened in the plant that my father worked
in when I was growing up. It is so important that we stop allowing these
corporate powers and corporate profits to run America's policy, whether
it's trade policy, how we engage with China. This is not good for America.
It's not good for American jobs. And it's not good for working people in
this country."" ... "That's an issue Edwards has taken far, far more seriously
than his opponents in what is now a three-way race in Iowa. And that seriousness
has benefitted the former senator." -By John Nichols
-TheNation
Consumer
- Money
- 
History
- "U.S.
Home Prices Fell 6.1% in October, Index Shows (Update2)."
... "Home prices in 20 U.S. metropolitan areas fell in October by the most
in at least six years, a private survey showed today." ... "Property values
fell 6.1 percent from October 2006, more than forecast, after dropping
4.9 percent in September, according to the S&P/Case-Shiller home-price
index. The decrease was the biggest since the group started keeping year-over-year
records in 2001. The index has fallen every month this year." ... "Prices
will probably remain under pressure as the jump in foreclosures puts even
more homes on the market just as stricter lending rules make it harder
for buyers to find financing. Declining values make it harder for owners
to tap home equity for extra cash, posing a risk to consumer spending."
-By Joe Richter and Courtney Schlisserman
-Bloomberg
Fed
- Money
- 
Politics
- 
Investigate
- 
Law
- History
- 
People's
- Homes
- Consumer- 
California
- 
New
York
- 
Wyo
- "Fed
Shrugged as Subprime Crisis Spread." ... "Until the
boom in subprime mortgages turned into a national nightmare this summer,
the few people who tried to warn federal banking officials might as well
have been talking to themselves." ... "Edward M. Gramlich, a Federal Reserve
governor who died in September, warned nearly seven years ago that a fast-growing
new breed of lenders was luring many people into risky mortgages they could
not afford." ... "But when Mr. Gramlich privately urged Fed examiners to
investigate mortgage lenders affiliated with national banks, he was rebuffed
by Alan Greenspan, the Fed chairman." ... "In 2001, a senior Treasury official,
Sheila C. Bair, tried to persuade subprime lenders to adopt a code of “best
practices” and to let outside monitors verify their compliance. None of
the lenders would agree to the monitors, and many rejected the code itself.
Even those who did adopt those practices, Ms. Bair recalled recently, soon
let them slip." ... "And leaders of a housing advocacy group in California,
meeting with Mr. Greenspan in 2004, warned that deception was increasing
and unscrupulous practices were spreading." ... "John C. Gamboa and Robert
L. Gnaizda of the Greenlining Institute implored Mr. Greenspan to use his
bully pulpit and press for a voluntary code of conduct." ... "“He never
gave us a good reason, but he didn’t want to do it,” Mr. Gnaizda said last
week. “He just wasn’t interested.”" ... "“The Federal Reserve could have
stopped this problem dead in its tracks,” said Martin Eakes, chief executive
of the center [Center for Responsible Lending]. “If the Fed had done its
job, we would not have had the abusive lending and we would not have a
[home] foreclosure crisis in virtually every community across America.”"
... "Mr. Greenspan and other Fed officials repeatedly dismissed warnings
about a speculative bubble in housing prices. In December 2004, the New
York Fed issued a report bluntly declaring that “no bubble exists.” Mr.
Greenspan predicted several times — incorrectly, it turned out — that housing
declines would be local but almost certainly not nationwide." ... " “Why
are the most risky loan products sold to the least sophisticated borrowers?”
Mr. Gramlich asked in a speech he prepared last August for the Fed’s symposium
in Jackson Hole, Wyo[Wyoming]. “The question answers itself — the least
sophisticated borrowers are probably duped into taking these products.”"
(1, 2,
3)
-By Edmund L. Andrews with contributions by Gretchen
Morgenson -NYTimes
Secret
- 
Surveillance
- 
Terrorism
- Crime
- 
Telecommunications
- Companies
- Government
- Legislation
- Politics
- 
Intelligence
- 
Drug
- Consumer
- Wireless
- 
Technology
- United
States - 
Global
- 
Space
- 
Colorado
- 
New
Jersey - "Wider
Spying Fuels Aid Plan for Telecom Industry." ...
"For months, the [Republican President] Bush administration has waged a
high-profile campaign, including personal lobbying by President Bush and
closed-door briefings by top officials, to persuade Congress to pass legislation
protecting companies from lawsuits for aiding the National Security Agency’s
warrantless eavesdropping program." ... "But the battle is really about
something much bigger. At stake is the federal government’s extensive but
uneasy partnership with industry to conduct a wide range of secret surveillance
operations in fighting terrorism and crime." ... "The N.S.A.’s reliance
on telecommunications companies is broader and deeper than ever before,
according to government and industry officials, yet that alliance is strained
by legal worries and the fear of public exposure." ... "To detect narcotics
trafficking, for example, the government has been collecting the phone
records of thousands of Americans and others inside the United States who
call people in Latin America, according to several government officials
who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the program remains classified.
But in 2004, one major phone carrier balked at turning over its customers’
records. Worried about possible privacy violations or public relations
problems, company executives declined to help the operation, which has
not been previously disclosed." ... "In a separate N.S.A. [National Security
Agency] project, executives at a Denver [Colorado] phone carrier, Qwest,
refused in early 2001 to give the agency access to their most localized
communications switches, which primarily carry domestic calls, according
to people aware of the request, which has not been previously reported.
They say the arrangement could have permitted neighborhood-by-neighborhood
surveillance of phone traffic without a court order, which alarmed them."
... "The federal government’s reliance on private industry has been driven
by changes in technology. Two decades ago, telephone calls and other communications
traveled mostly through the air, relayed along microwave towers or bounced
off satellites. The N.S.A. could vacuum up phone, fax and data traffic
merely by erecting its own satellite dishes. But the fiber optics revolution
has sent more and more international communications by land and undersea
cable, forcing the agency to seek company cooperation to get access." ...
"[An ATT engineer is claiming in a lawsuit that as early as February 2001,]
“What he saw,” said Bruce Afran, a New Jersey lawyer representing the plaintiffs
along with Carl Mayer, “was decisive evidence that within two weeks of
taking office, the [Republican] Bush administration was planning a comprehensive
effort of spying on Americans’ phone usage.”" (1,
2)
-By Eric Lichtblau, James Risen, and Scott Shane
-NYTimes
Consumer
- Health
- Safety
- 
Food
- Agriculture
- Country
- Peoples
- Labor
- Law
- Money
- Politics
- Language
- 
West
Virginia - "Democrats
Use Fine Print to Stymie Bush's Deregulation Agenda."
... "It is a single sentence, on page 147 of the annual appropriations
bill funding the [Republican President Bush] White House, listed under
the title ``Additional General Provisions.''" ... "The 18-word clause eliminates
the money to pay for political appointees in each federal agency whose
jobs are to approve any new regulations. By cutting the money for the positions,
Congress would effectively repeal President George W. Bush's 11-month old
initiative." ... "Democrats, writing the budget for the first time since
Bush took office, are using their power over the purse to thwart Bush's
campaign to loosen federal regulations. Lawmakers have added fine print
to must-pass appropriations bills that sets new policy goals and increases
funding for regulators such as the Occupational Safety and Health Administration
and the Consumer Product Safety Commission." ... "``It is critically important
when we are facing beef recalls, toy recalls, mine collapses and workplace
infringements that Congress provide the necessary resources to the relevant
agencies for them to do the jobs they are required to do,'' said Senate
Appropriations Committee Chairman Robert Byrd, 90, a West Virginia Democrat."
... "Lawmakers also want agencies to file periodic reports to Congress
charting their progress toward a host of Democratic policy goals, such
as developing workplace ergonomic guidelines for a dozen industries, requiring
country-of-origin labels on meat products and regulating a flavoring chemical
that has been linked to lung disease." -By Brian Faler
-Bloomberg
Noteworthy
- Housing
- Consumers
- Employed
- People
- 
Fla
- "Foreclosure
gridlock threatens economy: Millions 'in limbo' face
possible default as adjustable mortgages reset." ... "Like a lot of Americans,
Anne Violette is having trouble with her mortgage." ... "Violette, a self-employed
photographer, moved to Delray Beach, Fla. [Florida], in 2004 and bought
a home with a 30-year fixed-rate loan. A year later, she said, a friend
in the mortgage industry sold her on the idea of refinancing with an adjustable-rate
mortgage that saved her hundreds of dollars a month." ... "Violette said
her problems began when she learned that the rate on her loan could nearly
double, despite assurances that it would not rise more than a half-percent
a year for the first three years. Eventually her monthly payments rose
by $900, and she was unable to keep up. She began making calls to the lender,
moving from one department to another, to see if she could work out a payment
plan." ... "“They say, 'I’m sorry, but we can’t restructure your loan until
you’re caught up,'” she said. “But I keep saying, ‘I can never be caught
up until you restructure my loan.'”" ... "After more phone calls, Violette
found a bank representative who agreed to help modify her mortgage. That
was in August. The bank had her house appraised, but then she got a letter
from another bank saying they had taken over her loan. In October, she
called the first bank to find out where things stood and learned that the
title company she used when she bought the house is out of business and
that her loan is "in limbo," she said." ... "As consumers watch home prices
slump and their equity melt away, some economists fear the housing recession
could spill over to the broader economy." ... "25Over the next four years,
some $1.5 trillion in mortgages are scheduled to reset, according to an
analysis by Credit Suisse." (1, 2,
3,
4)
-By John W. Schoen -MSNBC
Business
- Government
- Politics
- 2008
Election - Family
- Health
- Safety
- Environment
- 
Air
- 
Water
- 
Soil
- Labor
- Animal
- Farmers
- 
Energy
- Transportation
- 
Automakers
- Consumer
- History
- "Business
Lobby Presses Agenda Before ’08 Vote." ... "Business
lobbyists, nervously anticipating Democratic gains in next year’s elections,
are racing to secure final approval for a wide range of health, safety,
labor and economic rules, in the belief that they can get better deals
from the [Republican President] Bush administration than from its successor."
... "Hoping to lock in policies backed by a pro-business administration,
poultry farmers are seeking an exemption for the smelly fumes produced
by tons of chicken manure. Businesses are lobbying the Bush administration
to roll back rules that let employees take time off for family needs and
medical problems. And electric power companies are pushing the government
to relax pollution-control requirements." ... "The Federal Register typically
grows fat with regulations churned out in the final weeks of any administration.
But the push for such rules has become unusually intense because of the
possibility that Democrats in 2009 may consolidate control of the White
House, the Senate and the House of Representatives for the first time in
14 years." ... "At the Transportation Department, trucking companies are
trying to get final approval for a rule increasing the maximum number of
hours commercial truck drivers can work. And automakers are trying to persuade
officials to set new standards for the strength of car roofs — standards
far less stringent than what consumer advocates say is needed to protect
riders in a rollover." ... "At the Interior Department, coal companies
are lobbying for a regulation that would allow them to dump rock and dirt
from mountaintop mining operations into nearby streams and valleys." ...
"Some of the biggest battles now involve rules affecting the quality of
air, water and soil." (1, 2)
-By Robert Pear -NYTimes
Rudolph
W Giuliani
- 
John
McCain
- 
Fred
Thompson
- Money
- Politics
- Consumer
- New
York
- 
Arizona
- 
Tennessee
- 2008
Election - "A
gap in GOP candidates' healthcare proposals: Giuliani,
McCain and Thompson are offering plans to help the uninsured -- but their
aversion to regulations would mean that many of their fellow cancer survivors
would be left out." ... "When [2008 Election Republican Presidential Candidate]
Rudolph W. Giuliani was diagnosed with prostate cancer in the spring of
2000, one thing he did not have to worry about was a lack of medical insurance."
... "Today, the former New York mayor joins two other cancer survivors
in seeking the [2008 Election] Republican presidential nomination: Arizona
[Senator] Sen. John McCain has been treated for melanoma, the most serious
type of skin malignancy, and former Tennessee [Senator] Sen. Fred Thompson
had lymphoma, a cancer of the immune system." ... "All three have offered
proposals with the stated aim of helping the 47 million people in the U.S.
who have no health insurance, including those with preexisting medical
conditions." ... "But under the plans all three have put forward, cancer
survivors such as themselves could not be sure of getting coverage -- especially
if they were not already covered by a government or job-related plan and
had to seek insurance as individuals." ... ""Unless it's in a state that
has very strong consumer protections, they would likely be denied coverage,"
said economist Paul Fronstin of the Employee Benefit Research Institute,
who has reviewed the candidates' proposals. "People with preexisting conditions
would not be able to get coverage or would not be able to afford it.""
(1, 2)
-By Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar
-LAtimes
Secret
- 
Women
- Health
- Money
- People
- 
Accounting
- Consumer
- Law
- "Health
insurer tied bonuses to dropping sick policyholders."
... "One of the [California] state's largest health insurers set goals
and paid bonuses based in part on how many individual policyholders were
dropped and how much money was saved." ... "Woodland Hills [California]-based
Health Net Inc. avoided paying $35.5 million in medical expenses by rescinding
about 1,600 policies between 2000 and 2006. During that period, it paid
its senior analyst in charge of cancellations more than $20,000 in bonuses
based in part on her meeting or exceeding annual targets for revoking policies,
documents disclosed Thursday showed." ... "The revelation that the health
plan had cancellation goals and bonuses comes amid a storm of controversy
over the industry-wide but long-hidden practice of rescinding coverage
after expensive medical treatments have been authorized." ... "These cancellations
have been the recent focus of intense scrutiny by lawmakers, state regulators
and consumer advocates. Although these "rescissions" are only a small portion
of the companies' overall business, they typically leave sick patients
with crushing medical bills and no way to obtain needed treatment." ...
"The bonuses were disclosed at an arbitration hearing in a lawsuit brought
by Patsy Bates, a Gardena [California] hairdresser whose coverage was rescinded
by Health Net in the middle of chemotherapy treatments for breast cancer."
... "Health Net had sought to keep the documents secret even after it was
forced to produce them for the hearing, arguing that they contained proprietary
information and could embarrass the company." (1, 2)
-By Lisa Girion -LAtimes
Children
- Safety
- Science
- US
- 
Australia
- 
Canada
- China
- Manufacture
- Industry
- 
Christmas
- "'Date
rape' drug scare in popular toy: Chinese-made craft
beads pulled from shelves in U.S. and Australia." ... "A toy that has been
hyped on top-10 lists for the Christmas season has been pulled from the
shelves in North America and Australia after scientists found it contains
a chemical that converts into a powerful "date rape" drug when ingested."
... "Two children in the U.S. and three in Australia were hospitalized
after swallowing the Chinese-made craft beads, called Aqua Dots in the
U.S. and Bindeez in Australia." ... "Aqua Dots, distributed by Toronto[Canada]-based
Spin Master Toys, appeared on many toy experts' list of must-have holiday
toys." ... "Scientists say a chemical coating on the beads, when ingested,
metabolizes into the so-called date rape drug gamma hydroxy butyrate. The
compound -- made from common and easily available ingredients -- can induce
unconsciousness, seizures, drowsiness, coma and death." ... "The toys'
manufacturer, Australia-based Moose Enterprises, said Bindeez and Aqua
Dots are made at the same factory in Shenzhen in China's southern Guangdong
province." -AP
via -SeattlePI
Nancy
Nord
- Children
- Safety
- Politics
- Government
- Consumer
- Law
- Enforcement
- Manufacturer
- Travel
- Money
- China
- 
Spain
- US
- San
Francisco - California
- New
Orleans - 
Louisiana
- 
SC
- "Industries
Paid for Top Regulators' Travel: Two Heads of Product
Safety Agency Accepted Trips From Manufacturer Groups." ... "The chief
of
the Consumer Product Safety Commission and her predecessor have taken dozens
of trips at the expense of the toy, appliance and children's furniture
industries and others they regulate, according to internal records obtained
by The Washington Post. Some of the trips were sponsored by lobbying groups
and lawyers representing the makers of products linked to consumer hazards."
... "The records document nearly 30 trips since 2002 by the agency's acting
chairman, Nancy Nord, and the previous chairman, Hal Stratton, that were
paid for in full or in part by trade associations or manufacturers of products
ranging from space heaters to disinfectants. The airfares, hotels and meals
totaled nearly $60,000, and the destinations included China, Spain, San
Francisco [California], New Orleans [Louisiana] and a golf resort on Hilton
Head Island, S.C. [South Carolina.]" ... "Consumer groups and lawmakers
intensified their criticism of the CPSC this summer after several highly
publicized recalls of Chinese-made toys that contained hazardous levels
of lead. Critics have long charged that the agency has become too close
to regulated industries, opting for "voluntary" standards and repeatedly
choosing not to take legal action against businesses that refuse to recall
dangerous products." ... "Government-wide travel regulations state that
officials from agencies such as the CPSC should not accept money for travel
from nonfederal sources if the payments "would cause a reasonable person
. . . to question the integrity of agency programs or operations."" ...
""This is a blatant violation of the ethics code," said Craig Holman, an
expert on governmental ethics law for the nonprofit consumer advocacy group
Public Citizen." ... "The records show that Nord and Stratton repeatedly
accepted gift travel for events from industries subject to CPSC enforcement."
(1, 2,
3)
-By Elizabeth Williamson
-WashingtonPost
Nancy
Nord
- US
- China
- Manufacturers
- Children
- Safety
- Politics
- Government
- Consumer
- Law
- Enforcement
- Illinois
- "Toy
risk isn't a game." ... "Worried about all those
potentially hazardous toys coming in from China? Here's how worried your
Consumer Product Safety Commission in Washington, D.C., is: It has only
one full-time employee testing toys." ... "That ridiculous number is apparently
OK with the agency's acting chairwoman Nancy Nord, who has riled legislators
and consumer groups by campaigning against a Senate bill that would increase
the consumer agency's federal funding so it can rebuild the agency's dramatically
downsized staff." ... "Heads are rolling in China over bad toys, bad food,
bad medicine and bad tires (admittedly, the crackdowns are more about protecting
exports than protecting consumers). But even as consumer worries escalate
in this country following the recall of more than 20 million toys this
year, Nord prefers a hands-off approach to keep manufacturers happy. For
her, the consumer protection reform act --unanimously approved by a Senate
committee yesterday -- is "unnecessary."" ... ""It's appalling that as
someone who works with parents who have lost children, she would turn down
added resources or powers to protect children," Nancy Cowles, executive
director of Kids in Danger, a Chicago[Illinois]-based group, told us. "What's
needed is an aggressive protector of consumer rights.""
-SunTimes.com
Nancy
A Nord
- Children
- Safety
- Consumer
- Law
- Enforcement
- US
- China
- Manufacturing
- Business
- 
Halloween
- California
- "US
House speaker wants product safety chief to go."
... "The top Democrat in the U.S. House of Representatives called on Tuesday
for the nation's chief product safety regulator to resign, following a
wave of recalls this year of millions of lead-tainted toys made in China."
... "As the [Republican President] White House and business groups criticized
legislation meant to beef up safety oversight, House Speaker [California
Democratic Representative] Nancy Pelosi and other Democrats urged the ouster
of Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) Acting Chairman Nancy Nord."
... "The safety agency, criticized at a September hearing for having just
one employee testing toys, has come under intense scrutiny amid the flurry
of recalls." ... "In early October alone, recalls ranged from Cub Scout
badges to play blocks and Halloween candy buckets." ... ""Any commission
chair who ... says we don't need any more authority or any more resources
to do our job does not understand the gravity of the situation," Pelosi
said." (1, 2,
3)
-By Kevin Drawbaugh and Diane Bartz with contributions
by Julie Vorman -Reuters
Nancy
A Nord
- Children
- Safety
- Politics
- Manufacturing
- Industry
- Consumer
- Law
- Enforcement
- Government
- "Strengthening
of Consumer Agency Opposed by Its Boss." ... "The
top official for consumer product safety has asked Congress in recent days
to reject legislation that would strengthen the agency that polices thousands
of consumer goods, from toys to tools." ... "On the eve of an important
Senate committee meeting to consider the legislation, Nancy A. Nord, the
acting chairman of the Consumer Product Safety Commission, has asked lawmakers
in two letters not to approve the bulk of legislation that would increase
the agency’s authority, double its budget and sharply increase its dwindling
staff." ... "Ms. Nord opposes provisions that would increase the maximum
penalties for safety violations and make it easier for the government to
make public reports of faulty products, protect industry whistleblowers
and prosecute executives of companies that willfully violate laws." ...
"The measure is an effort to buttress an agency that has been under siege
because of a raft of tainted and dangerous products manufactured both domestically
and abroad. In the last two months alone, more than 13 million toys have
been recalled after tests indicated lead levels of almost 200 times the
safety ceiling." ... "Ms. Nord’s opposition to key elements of the legislation
is consistent with the broadly deregulatory approach of the [Republican
President] Bush administration." ... "She opposed making it easier to bring
criminal prosecutions of companies that knowingly sell defective products
and also criticized a measure that would make it easier for the commission
to publicly disclose reports of faulty products." -By
Stephen Labaton -NYTimes
Noteworthy
- Kids- Environmental
- Safety
- Human
- Industrial
- Science
- Politics
- Consumer
- Manufacturer
- Law
- History
- "Tests
reveal high chemical levels in kids' bodies." ...
"Michelle Hammond and Jeremiah Holland were intrigued when a friend at
the Oakland Tribune asked them and their two young children to take part
in a cutting-edge study to measure the industrial chemicals in their bodies."
... ""In the beginning, I wasn't worried at all; I was fascinated," Hammond,
37, recalled." ... "But that fascination soon changed to fear, as tests
revealed that their children -- Rowan, then 18 months, and Mikaela, then
5 -- had chemical exposure levels up to seven times those of their parents."
... ""[Rowan's] been on this planet for 18 months, and he's loaded with
a chemical I've never heard of," Holland, 37, said. "He had two to three
times the level of flame retardants in his body that's been known to cause
thyroid dysfunction in lab rats."" ... "The technology to test for these
flame retardants -- known as polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) --
and other industrial chemicals is less than 10 years old." ... "Environmentalists
call it "body burden" testing, an allusion to the chemical "burden," or
legacy of toxins, running through our bloodstream. Scientists refer to
this testing as "biomonitoring."" ... "Most Americans haven't heard of
body burden testing, but it's a hot topic among environmentalists and public
health experts who warn that the industrial chemicals we come into contact
with every day are accumulating in our bodies and endangering our health
in ways we have yet to understand." ... ""We are the humans in a dangerous
and unnatural experiment in the United States, and I think it's unconscionable,"
said Dr. Leo Trasande, assistant director of the Center for Children's
Health and the Environment at the Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York
City." ... "Trasande says that industrial toxins could be leading to more
childhood disease and disorders." ... ""We are in an epidemic of environmentally
mediated disease among American children today," he said. "Rates of asthma,
childhood cancers,
birth defects and developmental disorders have exponentially increased,
and it can't be explained by changes in the human genome. So what has changed?
All the chemicals we're being exposed to."" ... "The Environmental Protection
Agency does not require chemical manufacturers to conduct human toxicity
studies before approving their chemicals for use in the market." -By
Jordana Miller -CNN
Drug
- Money
- Sales
- Politics
- 
Elderly
- Consumer
- Health
- Law
- Audits
- 
Michigan
- "Medicare
Audits Show Problems in Private Plans." ... "Tens
of thousands of Medicare recipients have been victims of deceptive sales
tactics and had claims improperly denied by private insurers that run the
system’s huge new drug benefit program and offer other private insurance
options encouraged by the [Republican President] Bush administration, a
review of scores of federal audits has found." ... "The problems, described
in 91 audit reports reviewed by The New York Times, include the improper
termination of coverage for people with H.I.V. and AIDS, huge backlogs
of claims and complaints, and a failure to answer telephone calls from
consumers, doctors and drugstores." ... "Since March, Medicare has imposed
fines of more than $770,000 on 11 companies for marketing violations and
failure to provide timely notice to beneficiaries about changes in costs
and benefits." ... "The companies include three of the largest participants
in the Medicare market, UnitedHealth, Humana and WellPoint." ... "The audits
document widespread violations of patients’ rights and consumer protection
standards. Some violations could directly affect the health of patients
— for example, by delaying access to urgently needed medications." ...
"Representative Bart Stupak, a Michigan Democrat who is chairman of the
investigations subcommittee of the House Energy and Commerce Committee,
said he had “verified countless stories of deceptive sales practices by
insurance agents who prey upon the elderly and disabled to sell them expensive
and inappropriate private Medicare plans.”" (1, 2)
-By Robert Pear -NYTimes
China
- Made
- Corp
- US
- Children
- Health
- Safety
- Law
- History
- Politics
- Ill
- "600,000
toys join recall list: China-made knights, Thomas
train pieces, jewelry contain lead." ... "In a year already notable for
a record number of lead-based recalls, the Consumer Product Safety Commission
announced seven separate recalls Wednesday of Chinese-manufactured toys
and children's jewelry for containing unlawful levels of lead, including
200,000 more of the Thomas & Friends wooden railway toys sold by a
Chicago-area [Illinois] company." ... "The seven recalls, totaling more
than 600,000 units, bring the total lead-based recalls in 2007 to 50 --
more than double the most recalls in any single previous year in the agency's
history." ... "Oak Brook-based [Illinois] RC2 Corp. said it was recalling
five additional railway toys -- two vehicles and three accessories -- due
to excessive levels of lead in the paint. The company recalled 1.5 million
railway toys in June." ... "Congressional committees have held hearings
in recent weeks on the influx of lead-tainted toys and children's products.
Earlier this month, [Illinois Democratic Senator] Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.)
said, "More than 25 million Chinese-manufactured toys have been recalled
this summer alone. That is a staggering number and an indictment of our
toy safety system."" -By Maurice Possley
-ChicagoTribune
Secret
- Phone
- 
E-Mail
- Surveillance
- Company
- Consumer
- Lawsuit
- Politics
- Terrorism
- Government
- Intelligence
- San
Francisco - California
- "Case
Dismissed? The secret lobbying campaign your phone
company doesn't want you to know about." ... "The nation’s biggest telecommunications
companies, working closely with the [Republican President Bush] White House,
have mounted a secretive lobbying campaign to get Congress to quickly approve
a measure wiping out all private lawsuits against them for assisting the
U.S. intelligence community’s warrantless surveillance programs." ... "The
campaign—which involves some of Washington's most prominent lobbying and
law firms—has taken on new urgency in recent weeks because of fears that
a U.S. appellate court in San Francisco [California] is poised to rule
that the lawsuits should be allowed to proceed." ... "If that happens,
the telecom companies say, they may be forced to terminate their cooperation
with the U.S. intelligence community—or risk potentially crippling damage
awards for allegedly turning over personal information about their customers
to the government without a judicial warrant." ... "But critics say the
language proposed by the White House—drafted in close cooperation with
the industry officials—is so extraordinarily broad that it would provide
retroactive immunity for all past telecom actions related to the surveillance
program. Its practical effect, they argue, would be to shut down any independent
judicial or state inquires into how the companies have assisted the government
in eavesdropping on the telephone calls and e-mails of U.S. residents in
the aftermath of the September 11 terror attacks." ... "Among those coordinating
the industry’s effort are two well-connected capital players who both worked
for President George H.W. Bush: Verizon general counsel William Barr, who
served as attorney general under 41, and AT&T senior executive vice
president James Cicconi, who was the elder Bush's deputy chief of staff."
... "Working with them are a battery of major D.C. lobbyists and lawyers
who are providing "strategic advice" to the companies on the issue, according
to sources familiar with the campaign who asked not to be identified talking
about it. Among the players, these sources said: powerhouse Republican
lobbyists Charlie Black and Wayne Berman (who represent AT&T and Verizon,
respectively), former GOP senator and U.S. ambassador to Germany Dan Coats
(a lawyer at King & Spaulding who is representing Sprint), former Democratic
Party strategist and one-time assistant secretary of State Tom Donilon
(who represents Verizon), former deputy attorney general Jamie Gorelick
(whose law firm also represents Verizon) and Brad Berenson, a former assistant
White House counsel under President George W. Bush who now represents AT&T."
(1,
2,
3)
-By Michael Isikoff and Mark Hosenball
-MSNBC /Newsweek
US
- Government
- Consumer
- Safety
- Legislation
- Money
- China
- Products
- Children- Ill
- 
Ark
- 
Hawaii
- "Senators
Criticize Consumer Safety Agency After Spate of Toy Recalls."
... "Spurred by recent recalls of [childrens] toys from China, senators
are calling for a boost in funding for the Consumer Product Safety Commission
to help the agency deal with a flood of imports." ... "[Illinois Democratic
Senator] Richard J. Durbin, D-Ill., chairman of the Financial Services
Appropriations Subcommittee, said at a hearing Wednesday that the agency
charged with protecting consumers “has been neglected and underfunded for
years.”" ... "Lawmakers and witnesses criticized the state of the Consumer
Product Safety Commission (CPSC), detailing budget and staff cuts that
have come as imports have increased drastically. The concerns went beyond
[Republican President Bush] White House budget decisions to the agency’s
leadership." ... "“I would like to see people at that agency take a much
more aggressive view of protecting consumers, and I have been disappointed,”
Durbin said after the hearing." ... "[Arkansas Democratic Senator] Mark
Pryor, D-Ark., announced that he and [Hawaii Democratic Senator] Daniel
K. Inouye, D-Hawaii, chairman of the Commerce, Science and Transportation
Committee, introduced legislation (S 2045) Wednesday to revamp the agency
and increase its funding." ... "Pryor chairs that panel’s Consumer Affairs,
Insurance, and Automotive Safety Subcommittee, which has jurisdiction over
the agency." -By Victoria McGrane
-CQ.com
Oil
- Consumer
- Money
- 
Alaska
- "Oil
hits record over $80 on tight supply." ... "Crude
oil prices vaulted to a record high $80 a barrel on Wednesday as dealers
focused on tight inventories in top consumer the United States ahead of
peak winter demand." ... "A rash of fires at BP's oil fields in Alaska's
North Slope added to the record run, though BP said the accidents had minimal
impact to production that was already being curtailed by routine maintenance."
... "Adjusted for inflation, prices are still below the $90-a-barrel peaks
of the Iranian Revolution in 1979 and the start of the Iran-Iraq war the
following year." (1, 2)
-By Richard Valdmanis with contributions by Matthew
Robinson in New York and Jane Merriman -Reuters
Secret
- Federal
- Health
- Safety
- Consumer
- Law
- Politics
- Food
- Drug
- Traffic
- Manufacturers
- Companies
- "Stealth
Rules War Pits Lawyers Versus Companies." ... "Official
Washington loves the word ``stealth.'' It connotes intrigue and secrecy,
making the term well understood in a capital where spies and invisible
fighter jets aren't all that's sneaking around." ... "At least that's how
the nation's trial lawyers view the [Republican President] Bush administration's
increasing use of federal health and safety regulations as a line of defense
for manufacturers trying to fend off multimillion-dollar liability claims
from consumers in state courts." ... "The fine print of a 2006 U.S. Food
and Drug Administration rule on prescription labeling that preempts, or
overrides, state laws is proving to be a powerful weapon in the courtroom
at a time when Merck & Co. is fighting thousands of lawsuits from consumers
claiming they were harmed by its drug Vioxx." ... "Since 2005, federal
agencies, including the Consumer Product Safety Commission, the National
Highway Traffic Safety Administration and the Department of Homeland Security
have issued more than a dozen rules that stress the primacy of federal
law." ... "Plaintiff attorneys, who have been watching the trend with alarm,
say eliminating the option of suing a company at the state level will result
in weaker federal regulations, more cost to the government for consumers'
medical bills, and a usurping of congressional authority." ... "The Senate
Judiciary Committee has scheduled a hearing for tomorrow: ``Regulatory
Preemption: Are Federal Agencies Usurping Congressional and State Authority?''"
-By Cindy Skrzycki -Bloomberg
Safety
- Politics
- US
- Chinese
- Industrial
- Consumer
- Goods
- People
- Food
- Pets
- "Import
safety panel prefers prevention over border checks."
... "A panel appointed by [Republican] President Bush to review the safety
of imported goods proposed Monday that the U.S. revamp its system to focus
more on prevention rather than trying to catch unsafe goods with border
inspections." ... "The panel of officials from 12 government departments
and agencies was formed in July after a rash of recalls involving Chinese-made
goods, including toothpaste containing antifreeze and pet food contaminated
with an industrial chemical that reportedly led to the deaths of hundreds
of cats and dogs." ... "The Food and Drug Administration, which regulates
most imported foods, inspects less than 1% of incoming food shipments."
-By Julie Schmit and David Jackson
-USATODAY
US
- China
- Made
- Business
- Children
- Health
- Safety
- Brain
- 
Learning
- Consumer
- Food
- Environmental
- Pet
- "Mattel
Recalls 848,000 Barbie, Other Toys With Lead (Update3)."
... "Mattel Inc., the world's largest toymaker, recalled about 848,000
Chinese-made Barbie and Fisher-Price products whose paint may contain excessive
levels of lead, its third in the past five weeks." ... "The 11 affected
toys include Barbie kitchen, living room and other furniture items as well
as Fisher-Price preschool Geo Trax Locomotive toys and Bongo Band drums.
No injuries have been reported, Mattel said today." ... "Mattel has recalled
21 million Chinese-made products since the beginning of August. U.S. officials
have raised alarm about tainted products from China including seafood containing
harmful drugs, toothpaste with an ingredient found in antifreeze and pet
food containing a chemical used to make plastic." ... "About 65 percent
of Mattel toys are made in China." ... "Lead may be toxic if ingested by
children and can cause brain damage, behavior and learning problems and
slowed growth, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency."
-By Heather Burke -Bloomberg
Consumer
- Housing
- History
- California
- Illinois
- 
Minnesota
- 
Texas
- "Drop
Foreseen in Median Price of U.S. Homes." ... "The
median price of American homes is expected to fall this year for the first
time since federal housing agencies began keeping statistics in 1950."
... "Economists say the decline, which could be foreshadowed in a widely
followed government price index to be released this week, will probably
be modest — from 1 percent to 2 percent — but could continue in 2008 and
2009. Rather than being limited to the once-booming Northeast and California,
price declines are also occurring in cities like Chicago [Illinois], Minneapolis
[Minnesota] and Houston [Texas], where the increases of the last decade
were modest by comparison." ... "The reversal is particularly striking
because many government officials and housing-industry executives had said
that a nationwide decline would never happen, even though prices had fallen
in some coastal areas as recently as the early 1990s." ... "While the housing
slump has already rattled financial markets, it has so far had only a modest
effect on consumer spending and economic growth. But forecasters now believe
that its impact will lead to a slowdown over the next year or two." ...
"Unless the real estate downturn is much worse than economists are expecting,
the declines will not come close to erasing the increases of the last decade."
(1, 2)
-By David Leonhardt and Vikas Bajaj
-NYTimes
US
- China
- Manufacturer
- Industry
- Children
- Brain
- Safety
- Government
- Police
- Consumer
- Environmental
- Law
- Politics- History
- "Efforts
to crack down on lead paint thwarted by China, Bush Administration."
... "The [Republican President] Bush administration and China have both
undermined efforts to tighten rules designed to ensure that lead paint
isn't used in toys, bibs, jewelry and other children’s products." ... "Both
have fought efforts to better police imported toys from China." ... "Lead
paint is toxic when ingested by children and can cause brain damage or
death. It’s been mostly banned in the United States since the late 1970s,
but is permitted in the coating of toys, providing it amounts to less than
six parts per million." ... "The Bush administration has hindered regulation
on two fronts, consumer advocates say. It stalled efforts to press for
greater inspections of imported children’s products, and it altered the
focus of the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC), moving it from
aggressive protection of consumers to a more manufacturer-friendly approach."
... "“The overall philosophy is regulations are bad and they are too large
a cost for industry, and the market will take care of it,” said Rick Melberth,
director of regulatory policy at OMBWatch, a government watchdog group
formed in 1983. “That’s been the philosophy of the Bush administration.”"
... "Today, more than 80 percent of all U.S. toys are now made in China
and few of them get inspected." ... "But as recently as last December,
the Sierra Club sued the Bush administration after the Environmental Protection
Agency rebuffed a petition to require health and safety studies for companies
that use lead in children’s products." -By
Kevin
G. Hall -McClatchyDC.com
Kid
- Safe
- Health
- Consumer
- Manufacturers
- 
Mo
- 
Vt
- 
Me
- US
- China
- "U.S.-Made
Toys Benefit From China’s Troubles." ... "Whittle
Shortline Railroad, a company in Louisiana, Mo. [Missouri], that makes
wooden trains and trucks, posted a banner on its Web site several weeks
ago: “100 percent kid-safe,” it read, “with lead-free paints.” Mike Whitworth,
the company’s owner, said the recent recalls of Chinese-made toys found
to contain lead in their paint has been good for his business. Very good."
... "With about 80 percent of the toys sold in the United States manufactured
in China, the relatively few manufacturers of American-made toys who remain
have relied to some extent on snob appeal and survived mostly by emphasizing
the quality of their products — even if they cost more money." ... "But
some are now pointing to another competitive advantage: you can count on
them to be lead free." ... "“It’s created a lot of buzz,” said Mike Rainville,
owner of Maple Landmark toys in Middlebury, Vt. [Vermont], who said his
company had experienced a “nudge” in sales." ... "Sue Dennison, co-owner
of Roy Toy, which is based in East Machias, Me. [Maine], said orders were
up about 25 percent over the last several weeks." -By
Andrew Martin -NYTimes
US
- China
- Manufacturing
- Market
- Baby
- Safety
- Environmental
- Science
- Consumer
- WalMart
- Calif
- "Some
Baby Bibs Said to Contain Levels of Lead." ... "Certain
vinyl baby bibs sold at Toys “R” Us stores appear to be contaminated with
lead, laboratory tests have shown, making the inexpensive bibs another
example of a made-in-China product that may be a health hazard to children."
... "The vinyl bibs, which feature illustrations of baseball bats and soccer
balls and Disney’s Winnie the Pooh characters, are sold for less than $5
each under store brand labels, including Especially for Baby and Koala
Baby." ... "Tests this summer, financed by the Center for Environmental
Health of Oakland, Calif. [California], found lead as high as three times
the level allowed in paint in several styles of the bibs purchased from
both Toys “R” Us and Babies “R” Us stores in California." ... "“These bibs
are exposing children to lead in an unnecessary way,” said Caroline Cox,
research director at the Center for Environmental Health, a nonprofit agency
that for the last decade has been testing consumer products for lead, in
an effort to remove them from the market." ... "The bibs were imported
for Toys “R” Us by Hamco Baby Products, the same company that made the
bibs for Wal-Mart." ... "Toys “R” Us and Babies “R” Us are jointly controlled
by Kohlberg Kravis Roberts, Bain Capital and Vornado Realty Trust. Hamco
is a unit of Crown Crafts." -By Eric Lipton
-NYTimes
Food
- Gasoline
- Job
- Consumer
- Politics
- "Prices
for key foods are rising sharply." ... "The Labor
Department's most recent inflation data showed that U.S. food prices rose
by 4.2 percent for the 12 months ending in July, but a deeper look at the
numbers reveals that the price of milk, eggs and other essentials in the
American diet are actually rising by double digits." ... "Already stung
by a two-year rise in gasoline prices, American consumers now face sharply
higher prices for foods they can't do without. This little-known fact may
go a long way to explaining why, despite healthy job statistics, Americans
remain glum about the economy." ... "Meeting with economic writers last
week, President Bush dismissed several polls that show Americans are down
on the economy. He expressed surprise that inflation is one of the stated
concerns." ... ""They cite inflation?" Bush asked, adding that, "I happen
to believe the war has clouded a lot of people's sense of optimism."" ...
"But the inflation numbers reveal the extent to which lower- and middle-income
Americans are being pinched." ... "The Bureau of Labor Statistics said
in its July inflation report that egg prices are 33.7 percent higher than
they were in July 2006. Over the same period, according to the department's
consumer price index, whole milk was up 21.1 percent; fresh chicken 8.4
percent; navel oranges 13.6 percent; apples 8.7 percent. Dried beans were
up 11.5 percent, and white bread just missed double-digit growth, rising
by 8.8 percent." -By Kevin
G. Hall -McClatchyDC.com
Consumer
- 
Internet
- Business
- "Ask.com
on the Upswing." ... "The [American Consumer Satisfaction
Index] jump is a credit to Ask’s June makeover, arguably the most far reaching
effort by a major search engine to depart from the “ten blue links,” the
traditional way of displaying search results. Since then, Ask has been
displaying results in three panes that include traditional results, as
well as links to videos, blogs and other types of content, and ways for
searchers to narrow or expand their queries." ... "Indeed, no one is about
to overtake Google, even though its own satisfaction index slipped three
points in the past year. Of every 100 Internet search queries in the United
States, roughly 50 take place on Google, another 25 on Yahoo, 13 on Microsoft,
5 on Ask.com, 4 on AOL and the rest on an assortment of smaller Web services,
according to comScore." -By Miguel Helft
-NYTimes
China
- Global
- Business
- Canada
- US
- Calif
- Children
- Safety
- Consumer
- "More
than 18 million Mattel toys on recall globally."
... "Mattel Inc. announced more problems with its Chinese-made products
Tuesday, recalling nearly 18.7 million toys around the globe because of
dangers associated with small magnets or lead paint." ... "The announcement,
which covers about 18.2 magnetic toys and another 436,000 made with lead
paint, comes less than two weeks after the toymaker recalled nearly one
million Chinese-made toys sold in the U.S. because of excessive amounts
of lead in the paint." ... "Nearly one million toys have been recalled
in Canada, Mattel said in statement released Tuesday. They include about
890,000 magnetic toys such as Polly Pocket dolls and Batman action figures,
and 32,800 Sarge die-cast cars that contain lead paint." ... "In an interview
with CBC from the company's headquarters in El Segundo, Calif. [California],
Mattel's executive vice-president Bryan Stockton did not rule out the possibility
of more recalls." ... "In the United States, nearly nine million toys were
included in Tuesday's recall, officials from the U.S. Consumer Product
Safety Commission said at a news conference in Washington [DC]." ... "If
more than one magnet is swallowed, they can attach to each other and cause
intestinal perforation, infection or blockage, which can be fatal." ...
"While Stockton said Mattel is now testing every single batch of toys made,
in China and elsewhere, the company will continue manufacturing goods in
the Asian country. " -CBC.ca
US
- China
- New
Jersey - Company
- Manufacturer
- Transportation
- Vehicles
- Safety
- "Importer
Recalls 255,000 Chinese Light-Truck Tires." ... "Foreign
Tire Sales, a New Jersey importer, said yesterday that it would recall
about 255,000 light-truck tires made to order by a Chinese company." ...
"The tires are steel-belted radial models sold under the brand names Westlake,
Compass and YKS. They were produced from 2004 to 2006 for pickup trucks,
sport utility vehicles and vans, Foreign Tire said. The company has reported
two deaths in a rollover accident involving the tires." ... "[The Chinese
manufacturer,] Hangzhou Zhongce said it was cooperating with the National
Highway Traffic Safety Administration, which enforces federal motor vehicle
safety standards." -Bloomberg
via -NYTimes
US
- China
- Children
- Brain
- Health
- Safety
- Consumer
- Law
- Government
- 
North
Carolina - 2008
Election - John
Edwards
- "Edwards
calls for tougher scrutiny of imported toys." ...
"[2008 election Democratic] U.S. presidential candidate John Edwards on
Friday called for tougher scrutiny of imported toys in the wake of a huge
recall of lead-tainted toys from China." ... "The former North Carolina
senator said the government should take steps to crack down on "unsafe
trade," citing the recall on Wednesday of 1.5 million Chinese-made Fisher-Price
toys." ... ""The recall of Fisher-Price toys highlights the need for smarter,
safer trade and consumer protection policies in this country," Edwards
said in a statement." ... "Specifically, Edwards raised the idea of stricter
penalties for safety violations and possible independent testing of imported
toys. He also called for changes at the Consumer Product Safety Commission
that he said were needed to put the federal agency "back on the side of
consumers ..."" ... "Lead paint has been linked to health problems in children,
including brain damage." -By Peter Kaplan
-Reuters via -WashingtonPost
Chinese
- Manufacturer
- Worldwide
- United
States - Company
- Children
- Safety
- Consumer
- "Fisher-Price
recalls almost 1 million toys." ... "Toy-maker Fisher-Price
is recalling nearly 1 million toys — including the popular Big Bird, Elmo,
Dora and Diego characters — because their paint contains excessive amounts
of lead." ... "The worldwide recall being announced Thursday involves 83
types of plastic preschool toys made by a Chinese vendor and sold in the
United States between May and August. A total of 967,000 toys are affected."
... "It is the latest in a wave of recalls that has heightened global concern
about the safety of Chinese-made products." ... "The recall is the largest
for Fisher-Price and parent company Mattel Inc. since 1998, when Fisher-Price
had to yank about 10 million Power Wheels from toy stores."
-CBC.ca
Noteworthy
- Wireless
- 
Radio
- History
- 
Electronic
- Tech
- Human
- Animals
- 
WalMart
- Business
- Consumer
- Civil
Liberties - Politics
- "Microchips
in humans: High-tech helpers or Big Brother surveillance?"
... "City Watcher.com, a provider of surveillance equipment, attracted
little notice itself -- until a year ago, when two of its employees had
glass-encapsulated microchips with miniature antennas embedded in their
forearms." ... "The "chipping" of two workers with RFIDs -- radio frequency
identification tags as long as two grains of rice, as thick as a toothpick
-- was merely a way of restricting access to vaults that held sensitive
data and images for police departments, a layer of security beyond key
cards and clearance codes, the company said." ... "But the news that Americans
had, for the first time, been injected with electronic identifiers to perform
their jobs fired up a debate over the proliferation of ever-more-precise
tracking technologies and their ability to erode privacy in the digital
age." ... "Thirty years ago, the first electronic tags were fixed to the
ears of cattle, to permit ranchers to track a herd's reproductive and eating
habits. In the 1990s, millions of chips were implanted in livestock, fish,
pets, even racehorses." ... "Microchips are now fixed to car windshields
as toll-paying devices, on "contactless" payment cards (Chase's "Blink,"
or MasterCard's "PayPass"). They're embedded in Michelin tires, library
books, passports and, unbeknownst to many consumers, on a host of individual
items at Wal-Mart and Best Buy." ... ""We're really on the verge of creating
a surveillance society in America, where every movement, every action --
some would even claim, our very thoughts -- will be tracked, monitored,
recorded and correlated," says Barry Steinhardt, director of the Technology
and Liberty Program at the American Civil Liberties Union in Washington
D.C." -AP
via -CNN
WATCH
- 
Rick
Berman - Corporate
- Lawyer
- Marketing
- 
Psychology
- Politics
- Food
- 
Safety
- Consumer
- Health
- Science
- Government
- Enforcement
- People
- Unions
- 
Animals
WATCH
"Meet Dr. Evil [Rick Berman]: Companies pay him to fight animal
rights, healthy food, unions, even Mothers Against Drunk Driving. But lobbyist
Rick Berman says he's just taking the other side. Morley Safer reports."
-60
Minutes
Global
- Food
- Safety
- US
- Canada
- China
- Colorado
- Animal
- Agriculture
- Industry
- Consumer
- Government
- Law
- Enforcement
- Money
- Politics
- "Some
hunger for food labels: After recalls, shoppers want
to know the origins of globalized groceries." ... "Take a look at the meal
you put on the table tonight, and you'll likely be looking at an international
effort. The steak may have come from a cow raised in Colorado, while the
carrots were grown in Canada and the apple juice imported from China."
... "Many consumers consider the globalization of the food chain a good
thing; you can get any food you want any time of the year. But several
recent recalls of tainted food have some shoppers questioning exactly where
their food comes from and how safe it is." ... "Figuring out where the
food on grocery store shelves comes from isn't always easy." ... "Country-of-origin
labels -- telling shoppers the country in which a product was grown, caught
or raised -- would do that but right now they're required only on seafood.
Labels for meat, produce and peanuts won't start until September 2008."
... "America's food safety problem is complicated but starts with this:
We are importing more food and the government agencies charged with keeping
food safe don't have enough funding or resources, said Chris Waldrop, director
of the food policy institute for the Consumer Federation of America." ...
"Country-of-origin labeling for meat and produce was supposed to take effect
three years ago. But lobbyists, primarily for the beef industry, enlisted
the help of congressional Republicans to delay the change. Trade associations
are still fighting it." (1, 2)
-By Sue Stock -NewsObserver.com
Housing
- Construction
- Consumer
- Politics
- "US
mortgage crisis could cost lenders $100bn, says Fed chief."
... "· Once top-rated bonds slashed to junk status · Default
rates among low earners rising rapidly." ... "Losses from the sub-prime
mortgage crisis in the United States could reach $100bn (£50bn),
the US Federal Reserve warned yesterday." ... "Giving evidence to the Senate,
the Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke stressed that there would be
a hefty cost of clearing up the bad debts resulting from the downturn in
the US property market." ... ""The credit losses associated with subprime
have come to light and they are fairly significant. Some estimates are
in the order of between $50bn and $100bn of losses associated with sub-prime
credit products," Mr Bernanke told a Senate banking committee hearing."
... "Figures out earlier this week showed no let-up in the decline in the
US housing market, where rising interest rates have pricked the real estate
bubble of two years ago. Construction activity has declined as builders
seek to rid themselves of unsold properties while default rates among low-income
borrowers have been rising rapidly." ... "In a second day of testimony
to Congress on the health of the economy, the Fed chairman said the central
bank would seek to prevent a recurrence of the questionable lending practices
used by financial companies to persuade those on low incomes to take out
home loans." -Guardian.co.uk
US
- Country
- Animal
- Farm
- Food
- Industry
- Politics
- Consumer
- Safety
- "Labeling
Fight Put Off As Farm Bill Markup Proceeds." ...
"Advocates of labeling [food by country-of-origin], which was mandated
by the 2002 farm law, were bracing for a Republican amendment to the new
farm bill (HR 2419) that would have weakened the requirement." ... "Since
the 2002 law was enacted, congressional Republicans, backed by the meatpacking
industry, have delayed implementation of the labeling mandate."
-CQ.com
Consumer
- Business
- Politics
- History
- "Justices
End 96-Year-Old Ban on Price Floors." ... "Striking
down an antitrust rule nearly a century old, the Supreme Court ruled today
that it is no longer automatically unlawful for manufacturers and distributors
to agree on setting minimum retail prices." ... "But in his dissent, portions
of which he read from the bench, Justice Stephen G. Breyer said there was
no compelling reason to overturn a century’s worth of Supreme Court decisions
that had affirmed the prohibition on resale maintenance agreements." ...
"“The only safe predictions to make about today’s decision are that it
will likely raise the price of goods at retail and that it will create
considerable legal turbulence as lower courts seek to develop workable
principles,” he wrote. “I do not believe that the majority has shown new
or changed conditions sufficient to warrant overruling a decision of such
long standing.”" ... "During the period from 1937 to 1975 when Congress
allowed the states to adopt laws that permitted retail price fixing, economists
estimated that such agreements covered about 10 percent of consumer good
purchases. In today’s dollars, Justice Breyer estimated that the agreements
translate to a higher annual average bill for a family of four of roughly
$750 to $1,000." -By Stephen Labaton
-NYTimes
Government
- Radio
- Phone
- 
Patent
- Tech
- Drug
- Laws
- Consumer
- Politics
- "UPDATE:
New Bush Aide Has Extensive Corporate Lobbying Ties."
... "The line between lobbying the federal government and running it just
got blurrier." ... "A new high-ranking adviser to President George W. Bush
will enter the White House with recent lobbying ties to dozens of companies
seeking the federal government's help on everything from proposed acquisitions
to patent disputes." ... "Ed Gillespie, named Wednesday as the next White
House counselor, is a partner in Quinn Gillespie & Associates LLC,
a lobbying firm whose clients include: Sirius Satellite Radio (SIRI), which
needs antitrust approval to acquire a rival; Qualcomm (QCOM), which wants
Bush to veto a federal agency's ban on imported cell phones made with its
chips; and the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, a
trade group trying to limit drug industry regulation." ... "Consumer advocates
lamented Bush's decision to put Gillespie in his inner circle, fearing
that the interests of average citizens would be trumped by those of corporate
America." -AP
via -CNN
2008
Election - Consumer
- Money
- Law
- Ariz
- Identity
Thieve - Ad
- "An
awkward ad by Fred Thompson: He promotes the firm
of a man once accused of deceiving consumers." ... "Possible [2008 election]
presidential candidate Fred D. Thompson is lending his voice to radio commercials
for a company that says it fights identity thieves and that was co-founded
by a man accused of taking money from consumer bank accounts without permission."
... "The one-minute commercials are airing across the country on behalf
of Tempe, Ariz.-based LifeLock Inc., which said nearly 200,000 customers
pay about $10 a month for services that include placing fraud alerts on
their credit files." ... "LifeLock was co-founded in 2005 by Robert J.
Maynard Jr., whom the Federal Trade Commission accused in 1996 of deceiving
consumers with advertisements that suggested his credit-repair company
could remove records of bankruptcies and delinquent payments." ... "The
FTC also alleged that Maynard and another executive at National Credit
Foundation Inc. collected checking-account data from its customers for
"verification" when the real purpose was to make unauthorized withdrawals
from those accounts." (1, 2)
-By Joseph Menn -LAtimes
Health- Science
- Consumer
- Food
- Drug
- Safety
- Terrorism
- Emergencies
- Lawmakers
- Politics
- Animal
- Pets
- 
Pennsylvania- Colorado
- Michigan
- Calif
- 
Kan
- 
Mass
- "FDA
plan to close field labs draws fire." ... "A Food
and Drug Administration plan to close seven of 13 field laboratories has
angered some lawmakers, government workers and safety advocates, who fear
the move will chase away skilled veteran employees and hurt the FDA's ability
to respond to public health emergencies." ... "The FDA's field labs inspect
and analyze food, drugs, animal medications and feeds, medical devices
and other health products." ... "The labs check for compliance with federal
guidelines, protect consumers from unsafe, ineffective and mislabeled products,
and help investigate public health threats such as product tampering, bio-terrorism,
food-borne illnesses and contaminated blood supplies." ... "Several of
the facilities helped investigate the recent pet food scare and E. coli
and salmonella outbreaks in spinach and peanut butter. On the heels of
these crises, the proposed lab closings have been met with strong suspicion."
... "Over the next several years, the FDA wants to close labs in Philadelphia
[Pennsylvania]; Denver [Colorado]; Detroit [Michigan]; Alameda, Calif.
[California]; Lenexa, Kan.; San Juan, Puerto Rico; and Winchester, Mass
[Massachusetts]. Those operations and an estimated 250 employees would
then be moved to five multi-purpose "mega-labs" that could handle all types
of FDA testing." ... "But some fear that fewer labs would delay the testing
of food, biological medical products or drugs in the event of a public
health emergency." -By Tony Pugh
-McClatchy via
-RealCities
Consumer
- Health
- Safety
- Enforcement
- Money
- Politics
- Government
- Legislation
- 
Georgia
- California
- Mich
- "FDA
Was Aware of Dangers To Food: Outbreaks Were Not
Preventable, Officials Say." ... "The Food and Drug Administration has
known for years about contamination problems at a Georgia peanut butter
plant and on California spinach farms that led to disease outbreaks that
killed three people, sickened hundreds, and forced one of the biggest product
recalls in U.S. history, documents and interviews show." ... "Overwhelmed
by huge growth in the number of food processors and imports, however, the
agency took only limited steps to address the problems and relied on producers
to police themselves, according to agency documents." ... "Congressional
critics and consumer advocates said both episodes show that the agency
is incapable of adequately protecting the safety of the food supply." ...
""This administration does not like regulation, this administration does
not like spending money, and it has a hostility toward government. The
poisonous result is that a program like the FDA is going to suffer at every
turn of the road," said [Michigan Democratic Representative] Rep. John
D. Dingell (D-Mich.), chairman of the full House committee. Dingell is
considering introducing legislation to boost the agency's accountability,
regulatory authority and budget." (1, 2)
-By Elizabeth Williamson
-WashingtonPost
Earth_Day
- Environmental
- Science
- Consumer
- US
- Iraq
- Terrorism
- Fuel
- Earth
- 
Climate
- Ocean
- "Seeing
the Green in Earth Day: Businesses big and small
are learning that not only does environmental friendliness feel good, it
can turn a profit, too." ... "[Andrea] Wilson is the Prius-driving, tree-hugging,
vegan owner of Green Earth Office Supply, a purveyor of such items as clipboards
and three-ring binders fashioned from defective circuit boards, cafeteria
utensils made of biodegradable vegetable-based plastics, and, of course,
100 percent recycled paper goods. As fuel costs soar, environmentalists
like Wilson say, America's consumer culture will downshift and clean energy
sources will be developed." ... "Already, Wilson can see the great awakening
in her sales. Thirteen mostly lean years after the former corporate accountant
launched Green Earth from her home in the Santa Cruz Mountains, sales are
soaring -up 250 percent last quarter compared with the first quarter of
2006, and on pace to bust the $1 million-a-year mark for the first time."
... "The sentiment surrounding this year's Earth Day is palpably different,
say "green" entrepreneurs like Wilson and others working to bridge the
cross-purposes of profits and environmental protection. Concern over man-made
causes of climate change, pollution and the degradation of oceans are driving
factors, they say, while terrorism and the Iraq war grimly underscore the
pitfalls of an economy based on fossil fuels." ... "No longer just a feel-good
niche or a marketing angle, the clean-and-green movement now includes corporate
leaders targeting environment-minded consumers and renewable energy sources."
... "But [Eco Design Resources, store manager Scott] Farmer and Wilson
say consumers should be wary of companies and products that indulge in
"greenwashing." The phrase, a play on whitewashing, refers to environmental
claims rooted more in salesmanship than science. Many companies and many
products, they say, make exaggerated claims about their ecological virtues."
-By Scott Duke -MercuryNews
Newspaper- 
TV
- Consumer
- Internet
- Ads
- Illinois
- Sports
- "Tribune
takes Zell's $8.2B buyout offer." ... "Tribune Co.
spent six months searching for the best way to boost its lagging stock
price." ... "In the end, the solution was barely a mile from the media
company's Gothic headquarters on the Chicago River [Chicago, Illinois]."
... "After a board meeting that lasted until almost midnight, Tribune announced
Monday morning that it would go private, selling itself for $8.2 billion,
excluding debt, to Chicago real estate mogul Sam Zell." ... "Zell, who
earned a reputation for reviving undervalued properties, is now charged
with turning around the fortunes of the nation's second-largest newspaper
company, which like much of the industry is losing readers and advertisers
to the Internet." ... "Among his first acts? Sell the storied Chicago Cubs
baseball team and use the proceeds to pay down debt." ... "Opponents of
media consolidation predicted a staunch fight with regulators in Washington,
especially regarding Tribune's cross-ownership of TV stations and newspapers
in the same media market." -By Ashley M. Heher with
contributions by Dave Carpenter and Wiley Hall -AP
via -BusinessWeek
Consumer
- Database
- Hackers
- Corporate
- Computer
- Net
- Crime
- "TJX
discloses largest data theft: 45.7M customers." ...
"The theft of millions of customer credit and debit card numbers from the
parent of T.J. Maxx, Marshalls and other retail chains underscores the
rising sophistication of cybercriminals." ... "TJX said late Wednesday
that hackers swiped account numbers for 45.7 million customers over a two-year
period — the biggest publicly disclosed data theft." ... "One way hackers
break into corporate databases is by infecting laptops used by employees
and suppliers who are permitted access to the company's intranet via a
virtual private network, or VPN." -By Byron Acohido
and Jon Swartz -USATODAY
Food
- Business
- Law
- GOV
- Science
- Consumer
- Politics
- "Outbreaks
Reveal Food Safety Net's Holes: Produce Growers Balk
At Calls for Regulation." ... "First it was spinach. Then tomatoes. Now
possibly green onions." ... "Over the past three months, fresh produce
has been the culprit in one episode of food-borne illness after another,
the latest an E. coli outbreak that appears to be linked to green onions
served at Taco Bell restaurants in the Northeast. More than 60 people have
been sickened in that outbreak." ... "The patchwork of federal and state
regulations that is supposed to ensure food safety has become less effective
as the nation's produce supply has grown increasingly industrial. Three
months after the spinach scare, there is no agreement on what should be
done to reduce health risks from the nation's fruits and vegetables even
as each episode of illness has heightened a sense of urgency." ... "The
number of produce-related outbreaks of food-borne illness has increased
from about 40 in 1999 to 86 in 2004, according to the Center for Science
in the Public Interest. Americans are now more likely to get sick from
eating contaminated produce than from any other food item, the center said."
(1, 2,
3)
-By Annys Shin -WashingtonPost
Richard
Shelby - Corporate
- Crime
- Government
- Law
- Politics
- Digital
- Technology
- Online
- Consumer
- California
- 
Alabama
Money
- Consumer
- History
- "Exxon
Mobile posts $10.49B profit." ... "Oil industry behemoth
Exxon Mobil Corp. said Thursday its third-quarter earnings rose to $10.49
billion, the second-largest quarterly profit ever recorded by a publicly
traded U.S. company." ... "The report comes as high crude prices this year
have fueled record profits in the oil industry, triggering an outcry from
consumers who were being asked to pay about $3 a gallon for gasoline in
early August." ... "The largest quarterly profit ever was Exxon Mobil's
$10.71 billion profit in the fourth quarter of 2005." ... "They may beat
that next quarter, said Howard Silverblatt Standard & Poor's Senior
Index Analyst. "Then in all likelihood they will be at that $40 billion
mark for the year." That would put the company on track for the highest
annual profit ever by a U.S. company. Exxon Mobil holds that record with
a 2005 profit of $36.1 billion." -By Steve Quinn
-AP via -DenverPost.com
Entertainment
- Business
- Technology
- Consumer
- Database
- Parents
& Children - "Disney's
Finger Scan Upgrade Raises Privacy Concerns." ...
"An upgrade on Disney's finger scanning technology implemented to prevent
ticket fraud or resale is raising concerns from privacy advocates, according
to Local 6 News." ... "For years, Walt Disney World has been reading the
shape of visitors' fingers on its property. Now, the upgraded controversial
finger scanning machines scan fingerprint information." ... ""Privacy advocates
worry that Disney is getting too much of your personal information and
their concern is where that information goes after it is scanned," Local
6 reporter Jessica D'Onofrio said." -Local6.com
TV
- Telecom
- Marketing
- Industry
- Media
- Consumer
- 
Wisconsin
- "FCC
questions TV stations on 'fake news'." ... "The Federal
Communications Commission has mailed letters to the owners of 77 television
stations inquiring about their use of video news releases, a type of programming
critics refer to as "fake news."" ... "The probe was sparked by a study
of newsroom use of material provided by public relations firms. The study,
entitled "Fake TV News: Widespread and Undisclosed," was compiled by the
Center for Media and Democracy, a Wisconsin-based non-profit organization
that monitors the public relations industry." ... "When stations air video
news releases, they are required to disclose to viewers "the nature, source
and sponsorship of the material that they are viewing," according to the
FCC." -AP
via -USATODAY
Richard
Berman - Corporate
- Marketing
- Politics
- Consumer
- Health
- Food
- Safety
- Science
- Government
- Labor
- Law
World
- Oil
- Consumers
- "UPDATE
2-Exxon Mobil profit tops $10 bln on soaring prices."
... "Exxon Mobil Corp. (XOM.N: Quote,
Profile,
Research),
the world's largest public oil company, on Thursday reported quarterly
profit surged 35 percent to top $10 billion, driven by yet another quarter
of sharply higher oil prices." ... "Revenue jumped 12 percent to $99.03
billion, from $88.57 billion a year earlier." ... "The company's latest
results are sure to reignite calls for windfall profit taxes on Big Oil
companies, who have come under attack over the past year for posting record
profits as consumers struggle with soaring gasoline prices."
-Reuters
Noteworthy
- Secret
- US
- 
Belgium
- International
- Financial
- Consumer
- Civil
Liberties - Free
Speech - Media
- Government
- Terrorism
- Law
Enforcement - Intelligence
- Politics
- "What
the Government Knows: While an overseas program to
track bank records has unleashed a political storm, the domestic Patriot
Act has already made a wealth of financial data available to U.S. law enforcement
agencies." ... "Over the last four years, U.S. law enforcement agencies
have gained access to over 28,000 financial records inside the United States
under a little known provision of the USA Patriot Act that parallels the
secret international bank data program disclosed by news organizations
last week, Treasury Department records show." ... "The disclosure of the
overseas program-under which Treasury Department officials have tapped
into the records of a vast Belgian-based international financial database
called Swift (Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunications)-has
kicked up a storm of controversy. Some critics have decried the program
as another example of the administration's invasion of privacy in the name
of the war on terror. At the same time, President Bush today condemned
as "disgraceful" the disclosure of the operation, which intended to help
the government track overseas money movements of suspected terrorists.
"For people to leak that program, and for a newspaper to publish it, does
great harm to the United States of America," Bush told reporters in Washington."
... "But the international program is only one part of a much broader,
if little publicized, Treasury Department effort to probe suspect financial
records-including thousands of bank accounts, wire transfers and other
transactions involving individuals, companies and nonprofit organizations
inside the United States." ... "Although it has received little attention,
the Patriot Act program has produced a wealth of previously unavailable
financial data that has been shared with U.S. law enforcement agencies-without
any notice to the account holders who are being investigated. Since the
fall of 2002, when the program began, U.S. Financial Crimes Enforcement
Network (FINCEN)-an arm of the Treasury Department-has directed searches
of 4,397 "subjects of interest" and received reports back on 28,463 accounts
and financial transactions, according to recent Treasury records." (1,
2)
-By Michael Isikoff -MSNBC/Newsweek
Phone
- Companies
- Consumer
- Government
- Intelligence
- Law
- Law
Enforcement
- "AT&T
revises privacy policy, says owns customer data."
... "AT&T Inc. said on Wednesday it was revising its privacy policy,
explaining to customers that it owns their phone records and can hand them
over to law enforcers if necessary." ... "The changes take effect on Friday
and come at a time when AT&T and other phone companies face lawsuits
claiming they aided a U.S. government domestic spying program by giving
the National Security Agency call records of millions of customers without
their permission." -Reuters
via -ABCNEWS.com
Government
- Military
- Computer
- Database- Identity
Theft - People
- Homes
- Education
- Consumer
- "Data
on 2.2M Active Troops Stolen From VA: Pentagon Says
Data on About 2.2 Million Active-Duty Troops Among Material Stolen From
VA Employee." ... "Nearly all active-duty military, Guard and Reserve members
about 2.2 million total may be at risk for identity theft because their
personal information was among those stolen from a Veterans Affairs employee
last month." ... "In a new disclosure Tuesday, VA Secretary Jim Nicholson
said the agency was mistaken when it said over the weekend that up to 50,000
Navy and National Guard personnel were among the 26.5 million veterans
whose names, birthdates and Social Security numbers were stolen on May
3." ... "The number is actually much higher because the VA realized it
had records on file for most active-duty personnel because they are eligible
to receive VA benefits such as GI Bill educational assistance and the home
loan guarantee program." (1, 2)
-Hope Yen -AP
via -ABCNEWS.com
Housing
- Consumer
- "Apartment
rents expected to rise 5%." ... "Rents are rising
faster than they have in six years." ... "Apartment rents are expected
to increase 5.3% this year — about double last year's increase — the National
Association of Realtors says. That's the highest jump since 2000, when
the Internet boom created lots of jobs for young adults out of college.
In April, rising rents were largely to blame for a sharp jump in consumer
inflation." -By Noelle Knox
-USATODAY
Police
- Military
- Identity
Theft - Hacking
- Electronic
- Consumer
- "Personal
Data on Veterans Is Stolen: Burglary Leaves Millions
at Risk Of Identity Theft." ... "As many as 26.5 million veterans were
placed at risk of identity theft after an intruder stole an electronic
data file this month containing their names, birth dates and Social Security
numbers from the home of a Department of Veterans Affairs employee, Secretary
Jim Nicholson said yesterday." ... "A career data analyst, who was not
authorized to take the information home, has been put on administrative
leave pending the outcome of investigations by the FBI, local police and
the VA inspector general, Nicholson said. He would not identify the employee
by name or title." ... "The theft represents the biggest unauthorized disclosure
ever of Social Security data, and it could make affected veterans vulnerable
to credit card fraud if the burglars realize the value of the data, one
expert said." ... "Although publicly revealing the incident may alert the
thieves to the value of the data, Nicholson said VA officials decided that
veterans needed to know to monitor their credit scores and credit card
and bank statements." (1,
2)
-By Christopher Lee and Steve Vogel
-WashingtonPost
Parents
& Teens - College
- Money
- Politics
- Consumer
- Labor
- "Despite
Pledge, Taxes Increase for Teenagers." ... "The $69
billion tax cut bill that President Bush signed this week tripled tax rates
for teenagers with college savings funds, despite Mr. Bush's 1999 pledge
to veto any tax increase." ... "Under the new law, teenagers age 14 to
17 with investment income will now be taxed at the same rate as their parents,
not at their own rates. Long-term capital gains and dividends that had
been taxed at 5 percent will now be taxed at 15 percent. Interest that
had been taxed at 10 percent will now be taxed at as much as 35 percent."
... "Mr. Bush pledged in 1999 to veto any bill that raised taxes." -By
David Cay Johnston -NYTimes
Food
- Health
- Animals
- Business
- "As
'organic' goes mainstream, will standards suffer?
Advocates are cheered by the growing appeal of organic foods. But shoppers,
confused by labels, don't always get what they think they paid for." ...
"In February, a Consumer Reports article examined which organic foods offered
the most benefit. With certain fruits and vegetables - including apples,
peppers, cherries, peaches, and potatoes - the likelihood of pesticide
residue is much higher, it concluded, so buying organic makes a big difference.
Produce which showed little difference between organic and conventional
kinds included asparagus, bananas, broccoli, and onions." ... "The United
States Department of Agriculture (USDA) issued standards for organic products
in 2000, although some critics question how strictly they're applied. But
the market for organic food is anything but simple. Many organic producers
never bother to go through the process of becoming certified, while other
producers use labels such as "free-range" or "natural" that conjure up
bucolic images but may mean very little." ... ""People use certain terms
loosely, and consumers are fooled," says Joe DePippo, president of FreeBird,
which produces antibiotic-free organic chicken raised on small family farms.
"Consumers associate free-range with organic, and rightfully so, but there's
some market for free-range that's not organic. And to just think that you
can have chickens running free all over the field - it's just not practical.""
-By Amanda Paulson -CSMonitor
Government
- Terrorism
- Intelligence
- Electronic
- Communications
- Companies
- Consumers
- Privacy
- Politics
- "FCC
chief calls for probe of phone cos.." ... "The Federal
Communications Commission, which regulates the telephone industry, should
open an investigation into whether the nation's phone companies broke the
law by turning over millions of calling records to the government, an FCC
commissioner says." ... "The National Security Agency has been collecting
records of calls made in the U.S. by ordinary Americans as part of its
anti-terrorism efforts, according to USA Today. The newspaper story followed
reports that the NSA has been conducting eavesdropping on the electronic
communications of suspected al-Qaida members and their contacts in the
U.S. without warrants." ... ""There is no doubt that protecting the security
of the American people is our government's No. 1 responsibility," Commissioner
Michael J. Copps, a Democrat, said in a statement Monday. "But in a digital
age where collecting, distributing and manipulating consumers' personal
information is as easy as a click of a button, the privacy of our citizens
must still matter."" -By Douglass K. Daniel
-AP via -MercuryNews
Secret
- Government
- Terrorism
-Telephone Business
- Consumer
- Privacy
- Law
- Politics
- Massachusetts
- Illinois
- "NSA
Collected Phone Records in U.S., Lott Says (Update1)."
... "The U.S. National Security Agency has obtained the phone records of
millions of Americans in an effort to stop terrorists, a Senate Intelligence
Committee member confirmed." ... "When the program began, AT&T, whose
chief executive officer was C. Michael Armstrong, agreed to provide the
information, as did BellSouth, run by Duane Ackerman, and Verizon, headed
by Ivan Seidenberg. SBC Communications Inc., whose CEO was Edward Whitacre,
also complied with the request, USA Today said." ... "SBC has acquired
AT&T and taken its name. Whitacre is the CEO of the company, which
also has agreed to buy BellSouth." ... "Also in Congress, Representative
Edward Markey of Massachusetts questioned whether intelligence officials
are hindering passage of a bill requiring telephone companies to do more
to protect their customers' privacy. House Republican leaders canceled
a vote last week on the measure, which seeks to prevent the fraudulent
acquisition and sale of consumers' phone records." ... "``I am concerned
about reports that some intelligence agency or interest had a hand in the
bill's disappearance,'' Markey, senior Democrat on the House Commerce subcommittee
on telecommunications, said today in a letter to House Speaker Dennis Hastert,
an Illinois Republican." -By Robert Schmidt in Nicholas
Johnston -Bloomberg
Secret
- Health
- Consumer
- Drug
- Industry
- Legislation
- E-Mail
- Bill
Frist - Tennessee
- "Vaccine
makers helped write Frist-backed shield law: E-mails
reveal private meetings." ... "Vaccine industry officials helped shape
legislation behind the scenes that Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist secretly
amended into a bill to shield them from lawsuits, according to e-mails
obtained by a public advocacy group." ... "E-mails and documents written
by a trade group for the vaccine-makers show the organization met privately
with Frist's staff and the White House about measures that would give the
industry protection from lawsuits filed by people hurt by the vaccines."
... "The communications were made public in a report released this week
by the group Public Citizen. Its study follows a February story in The
Tennessean that Frist, along with House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill.,
ordered the vaccine liability language inserted in a defense spending bill
in December without debate and in violation of usual Senate practice."
... "The group, called the Biotechnology Industry Organization, wanted
such language in the bill, the e-mails reflect." -By
Bill Theobald -Tennessean
Telecommunications
- Business
- Law
- Consumer
- Internet
- Television
- "Panel
Vote Shows Rift Over `Net Neutrality': A House committee
rejects a bid to ban extra charges for faster, more reliable delivery of
data." ... "A fight in a House committee about online tolls offered a preview
Wednesday of the larger battle brewing over the future of the Internet
as Congress overhauls telecommunications rules for the first time in a
decade." ... "Despite lobbying from online giants such as Google Inc. and
Yahoo Inc., the House Energy and Commerce Committee rejected an amendment
that would prohibit the owners of Internet networks from charging extra
for preferential treatment of data." ... "Uncertainty over so-called Internet
neutrality threatens to derail broader efforts to update the Telecommunications
Act of 1996, which governs phones and cable television as well as Internet
access." -By Jim Puzzanghera
-LAtimes
Telecom
- Business
- Law
- Consumer
- Internet
- Massachusetts
- Texas
- "Democrats
lose House vote on Net neutrality: A hotly contested
Democratic bid to enshrine extensive Net neutrality regulations in the
law books failed Wednesday in the U.S. House of Representatives." ... "By
a 34-22 vote, members of the House Energy and Commerce Committee rejected
a Democratic-backed Net neutrality amendment [by Massachusetts Rep. Ed
Markey] that also enjoyed support from Internet and software companies
including Microsoft, Amazon.com and Google." ... "Rep. Joe Barton, a Texas
Republican and committee chairman, pressured his fellow GOP members to
vote against Markey's amendment--even going so far as to remind them that
he opposed it and to call in wayward colleagues who had strayed out into
the hallway." ... "Because the committee has a GOP majority, Markey's amendment
never had a chance of passing unless some Republicans could be convinced
to defect from the party line." ... "Democrats could try again to amend
the bill on the House floor, but that tactic only works if the Republican
leadership agrees to permit it, which seems unlikely at this point." (1,
2)
-By Declan McCullagh -CNET
/News
Consumer- Internet
- Telecommunications
- Companies
- Law
- Massachusetts
- Microsoft
- Intel
- "Net
Neutrality Debate Heats Up: As a House committee
gears up to vote on whether to require the FCC to enforce the notion of
equal Internet access for all parties, the blogosphere is weighing in."
... "Congress continued to debate network neutrality Wednesday as a group
opposing companies' push for tiered access gained momentum." ... "At the
same time, the SavetheInternet.com
Coalition announced that more than 250,000 people signed their petition
calling for protection of net neutrality. The coalition, which joins libertarians
and gun owners with liberal and business groups, gathered the signatures
supporting Massachusetts Democrat Rep. Ed
Markey's amendment in less than a week." ... ""Both sides of the political
blogosphere have galvanized behind this political issue – with nearly 500
blogs linking to www.SavetheInternet.com within days," SavetheInternet.com
announced." ... "The AARP, Consumers Union, Consumer Federation of America,
Free Press, the U.S. Public Interest Research Group, MoveOn.org, Gun Owners
of America, MySpace.com and Vint Cerf are among those claiming that the
Internet's level playing field is threatened." ... "Meanwhile, opposition
continued to grow this week as dontmesswiththenet.com
launched, while Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer, Google CEO Eric Schmidt, Intel
President and CEO Paul Otellini and IAC/InternActiveCorp. Chairman and
CEO joined the fight. They sent a letter to several representatives stating
that net neutrality has supported innovation and empowered people and must
be protected." -By K.C. Jones -InformationWeek
US
- World
- Oil
- Consumer
- Texas
- "For
Leading Exxon to Its Riches, $144,573 a Day." ...
"For 13 years as chairman and chief executive, Lee R. Raymond propelled
Exxon, the successor to John D. Rockefeller's Standard Oil Trust, to the
pinnacle of the oil world." ... "Under Mr. Raymond, the company's market
value increased fourfold to $375 billion, overtaking BP as the largest
oil company and General Electric as the largest American corporation. Net
income soared from $4.8 billion in 1992 to last year's record-setting $36.13
billion." ... "For his efforts, Mr. Raymond, who retired in December, was
compensated more than $686 million from 1993 to 2005, according to an analysis
done for The New York Times by Brian Foley, an independent compensation
consultant. That is $144,573 for each day he spent leading Exxon's "God
pod," as the executive suite at the company's headquarters in Irving, Tex.,
is known." ... "Shareholder advocates point to what they describe as stealth
compensation arranged for Mr. Raymond but not disclosed in proxy filings.
Consumer groups complain that while last year's rise in global oil prices
left many consumers feeling less prosperous, oil executives have become
a lot richer from the higher prices. And some corporate governance experts
argue that much of Mr. Raymond's pay came from easy profits generated by
skyrocketing oil prices." (1, 2)
-By Jad Mouawad -NYTimes
Consumer
- Working
- Families
- Money
- History
- "Fewer
families can afford a home." ... "Nearly 70% of Americans
own their homes, a record high, but the rate of homeownership for working
families with children is lower than in 1978, according to a study being
released Wednesday by the Center for Housing Policy." ... "The surprising
trend is being driven by a combination of factors: soaring housing costs
that have overshot wage increases, higher health care bills and a rise
in the number of single parents." ... "Minority working families have struggled
the most. Their homeownership rate has stagnated at 45%, far below white
families (71%) as of 2003, the last year for which figures are available."
-By Noelle Knox -USATODAY
Identity
Theft - Government
- Business
- Accountants
- Database
- Marketers
- Consumer
- Law
- Ill.
- "IRS
plans to allow preparers to sell data: Critics said
the proposed regulation could lead to a loss of privacy for clients." ...
"The IRS is quietly moving to loosen the once-inviolable privacy of federal
income-tax returns. If it succeeds, accountants and other tax-return preparers
will be able to sell information from individual returns - or even entire
returns - to marketers and data brokers." ... "The change is raising alarm
among consumer and privacy-rights advocates." ... "Criticism also came
from U.S. Sen. Barack Obama (D., Ill.). In a letter last Tuesday to IRS
Commissioner Mark Everson, Obama warned that once in the hands of third
parties, tax information could be resold and handled under even looser
rules than the IRS sets, increasing consumers' vulnerability to identity
theft and other risks." ... ""There is no more sensitive information than
a taxpayer's return, and the IRS's proposal to allow these returns to be
sold to third-party marketers and database brokers is deeply troubling,"
Obama wrote." -By Jeff Gelles
-Philly.com
Montana
- Consumer
- Market
- Politics
- California
- "Deregulation
Has Stung Montanans: The state went from having some
of the lowest electricity rates to among the highest in the region. Efforts
to undo the effects face hurdles." ... "Almost a decade after the utility
deregulation fad swept through Montana, state is learning the hard way
it isn't easy to rebuild the broken pieces of a stable, publicly regulated
utility once it's gone." ... "California got all the headlines for its
post-deregulation fiasco in 2000-01 that was topped by energy market manipulation,
but it's Montana that some point to as the poster child for deregulation
gone awry. Montana was seen as the only low-cost energy state talked into
deregulation." ... "Along the way, Montana went from having some of the
lowest electricity prices in the country to having among the highest in
the region." (1, 2)
-By Matt Gouras -AP
via -LAtimes
Business
- CA
- "Out
of the retail rat race: Consumer group doesn't buy
notion that new is better." ... "About 50 teachers, engineers, executives
and other professionals in the [California] Bay Area have made a vow to
not buy anything new in 2006 -- except food, health and safety items and
underwear." ... ""We're people for whom recycling is no longer enough,"
said one of the members of the fledgling movement, John Perry, who works
in marketing at a high-tech company. "We're trying to get off the first-market
consumerism grid, because consumer culture is destroying the world."" ...
"They call themselves the Compact. They have a blog, a Yahoo group and
monthly meetings to reaffirm their commitment to the rule, which is to
never buy anything new." -By Carolyn Jones
-SFGate.com
Intel
- Computer
- Marketing
- History
- Consumer
- Entertainment
- CA
- 
NV
- "Intel
Drops Logo After 37 Years; Seeks to Take Image Beyond PCs."
... "Intel Corp., whose marketing made its computer chips a household name,
is changing its logo for the first time in 37 years." ... "The dropped
``e'' in Intel will be shed in favor of a swoop around the company's name
with the tag line ``Leap Ahead.'' The ``Intel Inside'' phrase, a fixture
since 1991, will be dropped, Santa Clara, California-based Intel said yesterday."
... "Intel's image change, to coincide with next week's Consumer Electronics
Show in Las Vegas [Nevada], is part of an effort by new Chief Executive
Officer Paul Otellini to push Intel into home entertainment. The company,
whose processors run more than 80 percent of personal computers, is trying
to gain a foothold in the consumer market to counter slowing growth in
PC chips." -By Ian King
-Bloomberg
Hackers
- 
Music
- Entertainment
- Computer
- Business
- Technology
- Consumer
- Privacy
- "Sony
BMG tentatively settles CD software suits." ... "Sony
BMG Music Entertainment has reached a tentative settlement with consumers
who filed a class action lawsuit over the music company's copy-protection
software on CDs, court papers show." ... "Consumers complained that the
technology -- known as XCP -- violated their rights by potentially leaving
computers vulnerable to hackers and allowing the company to track listening
habits." -Reuters
Christmas
- Consumer
- "Last-minute
shoppers flock to stores on Christmas Eve." ... "Shoppers
— some holding out for the best deals, others just not inspired to shop
earlier — headed for the nation's malls and stores for last-minute gifts
and gift cards on Saturday, the day before Christmas." ... "With shoppers
delaying their holiday shopping even longer than last year, merchants are
depending even more on the final hours before Christmas and post-holiday
business to salvage the season. The exceptions have been online shopping,
sellers of consumer electronics, and luxury stores, which have continued
to generate strong gains." ... "The good news this year, analysts said,
is that many retailers haven't reacted with a frenzy of bargains beyond
what was in their strategy, recognizing that there is a second shopping
season after Dec. 25." -By Anne D'Innocenzio
with contributions by Brian Witte -AP
via -StarTribune
Consumer
- Food
- Health
- "Labels
on food to list allergens more plainly: New federal
law intended to help consumers find ingredients that could sicken them."
... "A federal law effective Jan. 1 requires food labels to list ingredients
made from proteins derived from any of the eight major allergenic foods:
milk, eggs, fish, crustaceans, wheat, tree nuts, soybeans and peanuts.
The Food and Drug Administration says they account for 90 percent of all
food allergies." -AP
via -HoustonChronicle.com
Government
- Military
- Intelligence
- Total
Information Awareness
- Secrecy
- Consumer
- Telecommunications
-Databases
- Privacy
- Law
-West-Virginia
- Dick
Cheney - Terrorism
- "Bush,
Democrats swap charges over his approval of wiretaps."
... "The top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, Sen. Jay Rockefeller
of West Virginia, released a letter he wrote to Vice President Dick Cheney
on July 17, 2003, the day he learned of the surveillance in a meeting with
Cheney, three other lawmakers and the heads of the CIA and NSA. Rockefeller
expressed deep misgivings and said the program reminded him of Total Information
Awareness, a controversial Pentagon effort to mine credit-card data, cellphone
calls and even bank withdrawals to spot terrorist activity." ... ""These
concerns were never addressed, and I was prohibited from sharing my views
with my colleagues" by secrecy laws, Rockefeller said Monday. He accused
the president and his aides of "repeatedly misrepresenting the facts" in
recent days and demanded a "full investigation into the legal and operational
aspects of the program" now that the program has come to light." -By
Todd J. Gillman -DallasNews.com
via -SeattleTimes.NWsource
Alaska
- Gas
- Business
- Consumer
- "Alaska
sues BP, Exxon Mobil over natural gas: State claims
oil giants conspired to keep prices high." ... "An antitrust lawsuit filed
against Exxon Mobil Corp. and BP PLC claims the two oil giants are restricting
the nation's supply of natural gas and keeping prices at record highs."
... "The lawsuit, filed Monday in U.S. District Court in Fairbanks, says
the two companies acted together to eliminate competition for the exploration,
development and marketing of natural gas from Alaska's North Slope to U.S.
markets." ... ""The only reason for them to collusively not to sell is
to try to continue the scarcity that has driven natural gas prices to historic
highs," said David Boies, the attorney for the Alaska Gasline Port Authority,
which filed the lawsuit." (1, 2)
-AP via -MSNBC
Music
- Entertainment
- Business
- Secret
- Privacy
- Computer
- Web
- Hacking
- "New
security flaw vexes Sony BMG piracy battle: Expert
says patch makes problem worse." ... "Sony BMG Music Entertainment has
acknowledged a new security problem affecting nearly 6 million of its CDs,
and a Princeton University computer expert said yesterday that a patch
the company designed to fix the problem may only make things worse." ...
"The problems for the company began last month, when computer programmer
Matt Russinovich found that Sony BMG was shipping many of its music discs
with a program called XCP." ... "XCP was designed to limit the number of
times a user could copy the tunes on the disc, and to ensure that these
copies could not be played on other computers. But the software also concealed
itself on users' computers and was extremely difficult to remove. In addition,
XCP secretly sent information about users' listening habits over the Internet
to Sony BMG." -By Hiawatha Bray-Boston/Globe
Illinois
- Web
- Business
- Consumer
- "Lawsuit:
AOL cheats customers with illegal billing." ... "A
lawsuit seeking to potentially cover hundreds of thousands of America Online
subscribers accuses the Time Warner (TWX)
unit of illegally billing customers by creating secondary accounts for
them without their consent." ... "The lawsuit, filed last month in [Illinois']
St. Clair County Circuit Court on behalf of 10 AOL customers in six states
says the company confused and deceived customers about the charges, stalled
them from canceling unauthorized accounts and refused to return questioned
fees." -AP
via -USATODAY
Samuel
Alito
- Employee- Consumer
- Business
- Civil
Righs - Politics
- "Alito
wary of individual rights: Review's portrait of judge:
A non-partisan conservative who steadily backs authority." ... "During
his 15 years on the federal bench, Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito Jr.
has worked quietly but resolutely to weave a conservative legal agenda
into the fabric of the nation's laws." ... "A Knight Ridder review of Alito's
311 published opinions on the 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals -- each now
part of federal case law used to establish legal precedent and set public
policy -- found a clear pattern. Although Alito's opinions are rarely written
with obvious ideology, he has seldom sided with a criminal defendant, a
foreign national facing deportation, an employee alleging discrimination
or a consumer suing a large business." ... "A review of Alito's work on
dozens of cases that raised important social issues found that he rarely
supports individual-rights claims." -By Stephen Henderson
-KnightRidder via -MercuryNews
US
- Australia
- Canada
- 
New
Zealand - 
Britain
- 
Germany
- Consumer
- Money
- "U.S.
Health Care Costs Big Money: Survey Says Americans
Pay More, Get Disorganized Care." ... "Americans pay more when they get
sick than people in other Western nations and receive more confused, error-prone
treatment, according to the largest survey to compare U.S. health care
with other nations." ... "The survey of nearly 7,000 sick adults in the
United States, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Britain and Germany found
Americans were the most likely to pay at least $1,000 in out-of-pocket
expenses. More than half went without needed care because of cost, the
survey found, and more than a third endured mistakes and disorganized care
when they did get treated." ... "While patients in every nation sometimes
run into obstacles to getting care and face deficiencies in treatment,
the United States stood out for having the highest error rates, most disorganized
care and highest costs, the survey found." -By Rob
Stein-WashingtonPost
US
- 
Switzerland
- Global
- Drug
- Consumer
- "Flu
drug shipments to U.S. suspended." ... "Amid worries
about bird flu, demand for a flu medicine is so extreme that the drug's
maker has stopped shipping it to private U.S. suppliers just as consumers
fret over whether they should try to stock up on the drug." ... "Tamiflu,
a prescription drug designed to treat regular flu, is running scarce because
of worries the bird flu in Asia might morph into a contagious human flu
that circles the globe." ... "Tamiflu's maker, Roche Holding AG in Switzerland,
said Thursday it was temporarily suspending U.S. shipment because of increased
global demand. Company officials have previously said they are limiting
supplies to pharmacies to thwart hoarding." ... "But there are signs that
is happening." -By Lindsey Tanner
-AP via-Miami/Herald
Austria
- Switzerland
- US
- Halloween- Consumer
- "Some
Europeans Aren't Fans of Halloween: Halloween Is
Getting More Popular Across Europe, but Some Disparage the U.S.-Style Commercialism."
... "It's almost Halloween and all those ghosts, goblins, tricks and treats
are giving Hans Kohler the creeps." ... "So the mayor of Rankweil [Austria],
a town near the border with Switzerland, has launched a one-man campaign
disparaging Halloween as a "bad American habit" and urging families to
skip it this year." ... ""It's an American custom that's got nothing to
do with our culture," Kohler wrote in letters sent out to households. By
midweek, the mayors of eight neighboring villages had thrown their support
behind the boycott. So had local police, annoyed with the annual Oct. 31
uptick in vandalism and mischief." (1, 2)
-With contributions by Marta Falconi, Tommy Grandell,
Jenn Wiant, and Matthias Armborst -APvia
-ABCNEWS.com
GOV
- Consumer
- Terrorism
- "RFID
Chips To Travel in U.S. Passports: U.S. passports
issued after October 2006 will contain embedded radio frequency identification
chips that carry the holder's personal data and digital photo. Terrorism
and ID theft fears drive most consumer objections." ... "The passports
will have 64 kilobyte RFID chip to permit adequate storage room in case
additional data, or fingerprints or iris scan biometric technology is added
in the future." ... "Consumer opposition for implanting RFID chips in passports
has grown during the past year as fear that identity thieves could steal
personal information embedded in the chip within the passport. The State
Department this year received 2,335 comments on the project, and 98.5 percent
were negative, mostly focusing on security and privacy concerns, and concerns
about being identified by terrorists as a U.S. citizen." -By
Laurie Sullivan -InformationWeek
Consumer
- Science
- "Findings
burst antibacterial soap bubble: FDA advisers say
use of regular cleaning products is just as effective." ... "Those popular
antibacterial washes are no more effective in preventing disease than a
good scrubbing with ordinary soap and water." ... "That's the conclusion
of federal health advisers, who warned manufacturers they would have to
prove their products are better if they expect to continue making such
claims to the public." ... "Panelists also said soaps that use synthetic
chemicals — as do many products which claim to eliminate 99 percent of
germs they encounter — could contribute to the growth of bacteria resistant
to antibiotics." -By John J. Lumpkin
-AP via -HoustonChronicle.com
Home
- Energy
- "As
winter approaches, home heating prices start to rise."
... "Those who have natural gas heating their homes could see a roughly
15 percent rise in costs, while those with electric heat might see a three
percent increase. But oil customers are facing the worst potential hit,
with costs expected to rise up to 40 percent." ... "Nationwide, about 30
million households qualify for the federal heat assistance program, but
there's only enough money for about 5 million households."
-AP via -OregonLive.com
Halloween
- Parents
- Consumer
- Entertainment
- Fashion
- "Kids
treat themselves to multiple costumes." ... "Halloween
used to carry with it predictable statistics: One costume plus one plastic
jack-o'-lantern equaled 100 pieces of candy." ... "But Halloween is a multiple-event
holiday now, requiring multiple costumes: Bare-armed garb for a sunny day
of marching, cozy outfits to ward off autumn's evening chill. Heroes and
princesses for daytime events, hooligans and witches for spooky nighttime
activities. Elaborate ensembles for school functions, less-fussy ones for
trick-or-treating, when sidewalk stumbles are a risk." -By
Olivia Barker and Jenny Clevstrom -USATODAY
Halloween
- Consumer
- Parents
- "Halloween
scares up adults' dough." ... "Here's something scary:
Halloween is continuing to grow as a treat more for adults than for kids."
... "This year, Americans will shell out $3.3 billion on Halloween-related
merchandise, according to a study from the National Retail Federation and
BIGresearch. At a time when some areas of retail spending are tepid, that's
a healthy 5.4% rise over 2004. Continuing to drive the growth: adults treating
themselves to outrageous get-ups, elaborate home décor, expensive
Halloween night festivities — even creative pet costumes." ... "Parents
continue to shell out for kids' costumes and trick-or-treat candy, but
as that market (and growth in the number of kids) levels off, more companies
are working to scare up adult sales[.]" -By Laura
Petrecca -USATODAY
Halloween
- Consumer
- Entertainment
- Fashion
- "Halloween's
a treat for everyone this year." ... "It's a scary
proposition, but adults are having as much fun at Halloween as kids. Skulls
and bats and jack-o'-lanterns sprout at office cubicles, and inflatable
ghosts and pumpkins decorate lawns and porches. Halloween has grown into
the second most decorated holiday, right behind Christmas." ... "Despite
the holiday's pagan roots, the trappings of Halloween "have spread grass-roots
fashion" throughout the national culture, says Pamela Danziger, a marketing
consultant and author of "Why People Buy Things They Don't Need."" ...
"A survey commissioned by the National Retail Federation found that 53
percent of all consumers plan to buy a Halloween costume this year, spending
an average of $31.88 each." -By Nanine Alexander
-OregonLive.com
Hurricane
Katrina - Law
- "Bankrupt
In Biloxi." ... "Hurricane Katrina has left some
people deep in debt. Now, as CBS News correspondent Bill Whitaker
reports, a new law on bankruptcy is about to make it harder to get out
of debt." ... "It was signed into law last spring to make it harder for
Americans to erase their debts." ... "But for Katrina victims, it could
feel like a double whammy." ... "Why? Because the new law requires reams
of detailed records: checkbooks, birth certificates and documents that
may have been destroyed."
-CBSNews
Hurricane
Katrina - Flood
- Cars
- Business
- "Damaged
cars could end up being resold." ... "One of the
enduring images from Hurricane Katrina is of cars, trucks, even school
buses submerged up to their roofs in slimy, oily floodwaters." ... "Consumers
are being warned to watch out for flood-damaged cars ending up on the used
car market, but insurance experts working in the area say the cars are
so far gone that it will be hard for scam artists to hide the flood damage."
-By Sharon Silke Carty
-USATODAY
Consumer
- "Fed
stays the course: Hikes rates another quarter point."
... "Federal Reserve policymakers decided Tuesday to keep raising interest
rates rather than pause to assess the effect of Hurricane Katrina on the
economy." ... "The Fed, aiming to keep inflation contained by tapping the
brakes on economic expansion, boosted its target for the federal funds
rate another quarter point, to 3.75%." ... "The federal funds rate, what
banks charge each other for overnight loans, is a key short-term interest
rate that influences the prime rate that commercial banks use as the base
rate for a large number of business and consumer loans."
-AP -USATODAY
Telecom
- Consumer
-
- "Verizon
allowed customers to access others' usage records."
... "Verizon Wireless customers who signed up for online billing services
were able to peek at some details of others' accounts due to a Web site
programming error that was caught by a customer and fixed this week, a
company spokesman said." -AP
via -USATODAY
- Telecommunications
-
-
- "FCC
frees DSL providers from regulations: Firms no longer
have to lease lines to their competitors." ... "The Federal Communications
Commission ruled Friday that Internet DSL providers like SBC will no longer
be required to lease high-speed lines to independent rivals." ... "Phone
companies like SBC have been required to lease wholesale access to their
high-speed lines to competing Internet providers, which number about 4,
000 nationwide. On Friday, the FCC ruled that DSL providers were in the
business of information services and not bound by the higher regulatory
requirements placed on telecommunications companies." -By
Ryan Kim -SFGate.com
- Telecommunications
-
-
- "FCC:
Phone giants may charge rivals more for line access:
Bells win freedom from Net rate rules." ... "The Federal Communications
Commission voted 4-0 Friday to scrap regulations that forced phone companies
to let competitors rent space at discounted rates on networks that deliver
high-speed Internet service." ... "The vote means SBC Communications Inc.
and other Baby Bells can raise the price they charge competitors such as
EarthLink Inc. That change may help phone companies challenge the cable
providers that dominate the $15.6 billion market for high-speed Web access."
-Bloomberg
-
- Consumer
- "MasterCard
Says Breach Exposes 40 Mln Cards to Fraud (Update4)."
... "Visa International Inc. and MasterCard International Inc., the biggest
credit-card brands, said the FBI is investigating a security breach that
began in 2004 and exposed 40 million cards to fraud in what may be the
largest such case on record." ... "MasterCard said an ``unauthorized person,''
who wasn't identified, gained access to payment card data through a third
party processor." -By George Stein -Bloomberg
Homes
- Consumer
- "Home
Depot First-Quarter Profit Rises on Home Installations."
... "Home Depot Inc., the world's largest home-improvement retailer, said
first-quarter earnings rose because of increased appliance sales and home
installation services." ... "Chief Executive Officer Robert Nardelli is
expanding installations of kitchens and decks while adding new washers
and refrigerators to protect sales from faster growing No. 2 Lowe's Cos.
Earnings gains this year may slow as higher gasoline prices and rising
mortgage rates curb consumer spending on homes." ... "Both Home Depot and
Lowe's have benefited from a strong housing market, with existing home
sales setting a record last year, according to the National Association
of Realtors." -By Steve Matthews
-Bloomberg
Massachusetts
-
- EMail
-
- "Massachusetts
fires legal broadside at spam gang." ... "Massachusetts
Attorney General Tom Reilly obtained an emergency court order on Wednesday
shutting down dozens of websites allegedly operated by a sophisticated
ring of Boston area spammers. The group [of seven] are allegedly behind
millions of unsolicited, deceptive email messages touting unapproved counterfeit
drugs, pirated software, and pornography that have plagued email users
for months." ... "The suit accuses the unmagnificent seven of violations
of Massachusetts' Consumer Protection Act and the Federal CAN-SPAM Act
and seeks the imposition of a permanent injunction and unspecified damages
against the defendants."-By John Leyden
-TheRegister.co.uk
-
-
- 
- Consumer
- Telecom
- Civil
Liberties - "Court
Blocks TV Anti-Piracy Technology Rules." ... "A federal
appeals court handed a major setback to Hollywood and the networks today
when it struck down an anti-piracy regulation that required computer and
television makers to use new technology making it difficult for consumers
to copy and distribute digital programs." ... "The unanimous ruling by
the three-judge panel in an important intellectual property case was a
stinging rebuke to the Federal Communications Commission and a big victory
for libraries, consumer groups and civil liberties organizations. They
had maintained that the regulation, known as the "broadcast flag rule,"
would stifle innovation in technology and make it more difficult for consumers
and users of library services to legitimately circulate material." -By
Stephen Labaton -NYTimes
- Autos
- "GM
to recall 2 million-plus vehicles." ... "General
Motors, at a time when it's in dire need of good news, said Monday that
it will recall more than 2 million vehicles, including some of its most
popular cars and trucks." ... "Of the overall total, about 1.5 million
full-size sport utility vehicles and pickup trucks mostly sold in the United
States, are being called back to the shop to fix the seat belt positioning
in the rear seats." -By Shawn Langlois
-MarketWatch
- "Americans Pay Off
Credit Card Debt! This is not science fiction. It's
really happening." ... "The credit card industry presumes, based on happy
experience, that Americans will borrow more money each quarter to support
their spending habits, regardless of the direction of interest rates, and
that enough consumers will be happy simply to pay off just enough debt
to allow them to borrow more. But last quarter MBNA, to its apparent shock,
found that "results were further impacted by unexpectedly high payment
volumes from U.S. credit card customers," and that "the payment volumes
were particularly higher on accounts with higher interest rates."" ...
"In other words, customers didn't respond to rising rates by continuing
to pay the minimum and going deeper into debt; they paid down the principal
more rapidly than expected." -By Daniel Gross
-Slate
- Telecom-
"Verizon
offering 'naked' DSL in Northeast." ... "Verizon
Communications said Monday that some customers who already subscribe to
its phone and high-speed Internet service can drop their local calling
plans but still keep their speedy Web connection."
-AP via -Boston/Globe
- Hacking
- Consumer
- "LexisNexis
Says Data Breach May Affect 310,000 People." ...
"The LexisNexis Group, a leading compiler of legal and consumer information,
said today that the security breach at its data brokering unit appeared
to be about 10 times larger than it originally reported, affecting 310,000
people in the United States." ... "Personal details, including Social Security
numbers, drivers license information and addresses of those people may
have been stolen by data thieves through a subsidiary, LexisNexis said."
-By Heather Timmons -NYTimes
Hacking
- Consumer
- "Concerns
over ID theft mount: LexisNexis breach widens; GM
credit accounts at risk." ... "Identity theft concerns mounted yesterday
as LexisNexis said a security breach at one of its subsidiaries may have
been 10 times more severe than an earlier estimate, and GM MasterCard rushed
to replace the credit cards of customers affected by a breach at an unidentified
national retailer." ... "GM MasterCard sent letters to customers late last
week telling them that ''a national retailer's computer system has had
a security breach and your credit card account number may be among those
that were compromised." A copy of the letter was provided to the Globe
by one local GM MasterCard customer." -By Bruce Mohl
-Boston/Globe
-
-
-
- Virginia
- "Man
gets nine years for spamming: A man has been sentenced
to nine years in jail by a Virginia judge for sending millions of junk
emails, or "spamming"." ... "Jeremy Jaynes, 30, is the first person in
the US to get a prison term in a spam case. He is said to have been the
world's eighth most prolific spammer." ... "By selling sham products and
services advertised in his messages, he earned up to $750,000 (£398,000)
per month." ... "Jaynes has appealed, and the court has put off the start
of his prison term because the new law raises questions." ... "Under Virginia
law, sending bulk email using fake addresses is a crime."-BBC
/News
-
-
-
- Telecommunications
- "Cable
Modem Case Heads to the Supreme Court: Court will
examine whether broadband cable networks must be open to competing ISPs."
... "A group of ISPs this week will ask the U.S. Supreme Court to require
broadband cable providers to share their networks with competitors, just
as incumbent U.S. telecommunications carriers were required to share their
DSL networks during the past five years." ... "U.S. broadband customers
would have more choices of providers, and the new competition could drive
down prices if the Supreme Court rejects a U.S. Federal Communications
Commission attempt to classify cable modem service as an unregulated information
service, say the ISPs pushing for cable-sharing rules." -By
Grant Gross -IDG.net
via -PCWorld.com
-
-
-
- Telecommunications
- "FCC
unplugs states' rules on 'naked' DSL: update A deeply
divided Federal Communications Commission suspended on Friday state rules
forcing phone providers to offer "naked" DSL, in the commission's first
serious look at the controversial issue. " ... "The ruling kicks off an
investigation into naked DSL--selling broadband access by digital subscriber
line without attaching it to other services, such as a local phone line."
... "Proponents of the state rules say naked DSL keeps the Bells in check,
promotes competition and holds broadband prices under control. BellSouth
said the market is better served by not letting states set up a confusing
maze of regulatory regimes." ... "Aside from users of naked DSL services,
an FCC decision would also affect "cord-cutters," a group of about 20 million
U.S. residents who don't have local phone lines and go solo instead with
their cell phones. As a result of the FCC ruling, cord-cutters may have
to buy a local phone line to get DSL." -By Ben Charny
-CNET
/News
-
-
- OPINION
- Telecommunications
- "Man
Sells Device That Blocks Fox News: 'Fox Blocker'
Is a Tiny Piece of Silver That Blocks the News Channel From Television."
... "It's not that Sam Kimery objects to the views expressed on Fox News.
The creator of the "Fox Blocker" contends the channel is not news at all."
... "Formerly a registered Republican, even a precinct captain, Kimery
became an independent in the 1990s when he said the state party stopped
taking input from its everyday members." ... "Kimery now contends Fox News'
top-level management dictates a conservative journalistic bias, that inaccuracies
are never retracted, and what winds up on the air is more opinion than
news. "I might as well be reading tabloids out of the grocery store," he
says. "Anything to get a rise out of the viewer and to reinforce certain
retrograde notions."" (1, 2)
-By Emily Fredrix -AP
via -ABCNEWS.com
-
- Telecommunications
- "Phishing
by phone--VoIP raises security concerns." ... "Some
Internet phone services let scam artists make it appear that they're calling
from another phone number--a useful trick that enables them to drain credit
accounts and pose as banks or other trusted authorities, online fraud experts
say." ... "The emerging scams underline the lower level of security protecting
voice over Internet Protocol, or VoIP, the Internet-calling standard that
has upended the telecommunications industry over the past several years."
... "Internet worms that snarl online networks can render VoIP lines unusable,
and experts at AT&T say VoIP conversations can be monitored or altered
by outsiders." -Reuters
via -CNET
/News
- "Congress
votes for class-action curbs; Bush's okay seen as formality."
... "The measure, which passed the House of Representatives in a 279-149
vote, would shift most class-action lawsuits from state to federal courts
-- which historically have been less friendly to such cases." ... "But
opponents said overworked federal courts won't take many consumer, environmental
and civil rights cases filed under state laws, making it harder for ordinary
citizens to hold big firms to account." -Reuters
via -GlobeAndMail
California
- Consumer
- Company
- Computer
- Database
- Net
- Hackers
- "Big
ID Theft in California." ... "A company that collects
consumer data warned thousands of Californians that hackers penetrated
the company's computer network and may have stolen credit reports, Social
Security numbers and other sensitive information." ... "ChoicePoint Inc.,
which sells such data to government agencies and a variety of companies,
acknowledged Tuesday that several hackers broke into its computer database
and purloined data from as many as 35,000 Californians."
-Wired
- 
-
-
- "UK
court to review EU flight delay rule: Airline trade
association IATA asked Britain's High Court to review pending EU rules
that would force carriers to reimburse passengers for delays, even if caused
by security measures or snowstorms." ... "The rules set a baseline of between
two and four hours for permissible delays, depending on the length of journey,
with anything above that forcing carriers to reimburse passengers."-Reuters
via -CNN
-
-
- "Pushing
the limits of 'public use'." ... "Rene Corie installs
drapes in Florida mansions. Her husband, David, builds the mansions' gates."
... "Eight years ago, the working-class couple finally found some waterfront
real estate they could afford: a two-bedroom house for $70,000 in Riviera
Beach, a poor town near the wealthy enclaves of Palm Beach and Jupiter."
... "But Riviera Beach now wants to bulldoze the Cories' home and 2,200
others to make way for one of the nation's grandest redevelopment plans:
a collection of high-rise condos, bigger homes and upscale shops. The city
plans to use eminent domain — its power to confiscate private property
for projects that benefit the public — to take the homes of 5,100 people
if the residents do not agree to move." -By Dennis
Cauchon -USATODAY
-
- -
"Calpers
files lawsuit against NYSE." ... "The largest U.S.
public pension fund is taking the unprecedented step of suing the New York
Stock Exchange, alleging the embattled exchange condoned fraudulent practices
by specialist trading firms that cost investors at least $155-million (U.S.)."
... "The California Public Employees Retirement System (Calpers), which
has assets of $148-billion (U.S.), filed the suit in U.S. court yesterday,
and is asking other investors to join it in a class action." -By
Shawn McCarthy -GlobeAndMail
-
- "It's
not called 'Can' Spam for nothing." ... "After six
years of wrangling over legislative ways to stop spam, Congress was still
faced with a fundamental choice: Give consumers control over the growing
flood of unwanted spam e-mail that fills their in-boxes, or give in to
the powerful advertising and marketing industries who want to be the ones
filling consumer in-boxes." ... "In the end, consumers lost." ... "The
Can-Spam Act, signed
into law Tuesday, is being touted as relief for the millions of consumers
beset with unwanted e-mail. But careful readers will notice that the law
is not called the "Can't-Spam" Act. There's a good reason: The law is little
more than an instructional guide for how to keep pumping out millions of
e-mails per hour while avoiding legal liability." -By
Ray Everett-Church -CNET/News
-
- "House
Approves Antispam Bill: First nationwide antispam
law expected by year's end." ... "Lawmakers are one step closer to enacting
the first nationwide antispam law. The House of Representatives on Saturday
overwhelmingly approved a bill that would fine spammers who violate restrictions
on unsolicited commercial e-mail." ... "The Controlling the Assault of
Non-Solicited Pornography and Marketing (CAN-SPAM) Act was approved by
a vote of 392-5. The move follows the U.S. Senate's approval
of its version of the CAN-SPAM Act in October with a 97-0 vote." -By
Rita Chang and Laura Rohde -IDG.net
via -PCWorld.com
-
-
- -
- "The
Wal-Mart You Don't Know: The giant retailer's low
prices often come with a high cost. Wal-Mart's relentless pressure can
crush companies it does business with and force them to send jobs overseas.
Are we shopping our way to the unemployment line?" ... "The retailer has
a clear policy for suppliers: On basic products that don't change, the
price Wal-Mart will pay, and will charge shoppers, must drop year after
year. But what almost no one outside the world of Wal-Mart and its 21,000
suppliers knows is the high cost of those low prices. Wal-Mart has the
power to squeeze profit-killing concessions from vendors. To survive in
the face of its pricing demands, makers of everything from bras to bicycles
to blue jeans have had to lay off employees and close U.S. plants in favor
of outsourcing products from overseas." ... "Of course, U.S. companies
have been moving jobs offshore for decades, long before Wal-Mart was a
retailing power. But there is no question that the chain is helping accelerate
the loss of American jobs to low-wage countries such as China. Wal-Mart,
which in the late 1980s and early 1990s trumpeted its claim to "Buy American,"
has doubled its imports from China in the past five years alone, buying
some $12 billion in merchandise in 2002. That's nearly 10% of all Chinese
exports to the United States." -By Charles Fishman
200312Issue
77 -FastCompany.com
- "Government
allows telephone customers to transfer numbers from home to cell phones."
... "Federal regulators approved rules Monday making it easier for consumers
to go totally wireless by allowing them to transfer their home number to
their cell phone." ... "These rules, which come on top of plans to allow
people to keep their cell number when they change wireless companies, are
aimed at boosting competition in the telecommunications industry." -By
Jonathan D. Salant -AP
via -SFGate.com
-
- "Senate
votes unanimously for do-not-spam list: A registry
would block unwanted e-mail solicitation." ... "The Senate voted unanimously
Wednesday to · build on the new do-not- call registry's success
by adopting a plan for a national do-not-spam list to block the tidal wave
of e-mail solicitations for everything from get-rich schemes to pornography
that threatens to engulf the Internet." ... "But the effort faces an uncertain
future in the House and the marketing industry pledged to fight the creation
of an anti-spam registry -- even if it is technically feasible." -By
Edward Epstein -SFGate.com
- "Appeals
Court OKs Do Not Call Registry: Federal Appeals
Court OKs Do Not Call Registry Pending Court Challenge." ... "The 10th
U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals blocked U.S. District Judge Edward Nottingham's
order barring the FTC from enforcing the law."
-AP via -ABCNEWS.com
-
-
-
- "Judge:
Millions of CD buyers owed money: A judge has
approved a settlement agreement in a music antitrust lawsuit that will
result in more than 3.5 million consumers receiving nearly $13 each." ...
"The lawsuit, signed by the attorneys general of 43 states and territories
and consolidated in Portland in October 2000, accused major record labels
and large music retailers facing competition from discounters like Target
and Wal-Mart of conspiring to set minimum music prices." ... "The defendants
-- Sony Music Entertainment, EMI Music Distribution, Warner-Elektra-Atlantic
Corp., Universal Music Group and Bertelsmann Music Group, and retailers
Tower Records, Musicland Stores and Transworld Entertainment -- deny any
wrongdoing. Attorneys representing the companies declined to testify in
court." -AP
via -CNN
-
- "Mob
Eyed in Internet Sex Fraud Case: The Mob Is
Behind a Massive Internet Sex Fraud Case, Federal Prosecutors Say." ...
"The $230 million Internet fraud scheme believed to be the largest ever
prosecuted produced a series of recent arrests of alleged members and associates
of the Gambino organized crime family in New York and Florida." ... "According
to documents filed in federal court in New York, the Gambinos' foray into
the lucrative world of Internet porn began in 1996 when the defendants
opened an adult entertainment business based in Manhattan." ... "The sites
offered "free tours" for anyone who presented credit card information as
proof of age, promising in a message, "Your card will not be billed." But
thousands of consumers in the United States, Europe and Asia were still
charged recurring monthly rates of $90 before they realized they had been
cheated, prosecutors said." -AP
via -ABCNEWS.com
-
-
-
- "Privacy
Activist Takes on Delta." ... "Bill Scannell, organizer
of the successful Boycott Adobe campaign launched when Russian programmer
Dmitry Sklyarov was arrested
in the summer of 2001, is now calling for a boycott
on Delta." ... "At issue is Delta's test run this month of CAPPS II,
the Computer Assisted Passenger Prescreening System. CAPPS II would require
background checks on all airline passengers when they book a ticket, including
checking credit reports, banking and criminal records." ... "Scannell also
raises the issue of ruined credit ratings as a side effect of CAPPS II
screening." ... ""Every time a credit report is run on you, it hurts your
credit rating," Scannell said. "Frequent fliers will not only have a nice
thick Delta dossier, but a damaged credit history to boot." ... "According
to a January Federal Register notice containing some details of the program,
CAPPS II will store information about those deemed a yellow- or red-level
threat for up to 50 years." (1,
2)
-By By Michelle Delio
-Wired -Privacy
Matters
-
-
- "Energy
report claims vast cheating of state: Evidence
to feds cites $7.5 billion in overcharges." ... "A report to be delivered
to federal energy regulators Monday will provide new and extensive evidence
backing up claims that a wide range of power companies manipulated California's
energy markets and reaped at least $7. 5 billion in unfair profits, sources
told The Chronicle." ... "Compiled by a team of California lawyers who
have had unprecedented access to internal company records for the last
three months, the report will show that power traders used Enron-style
manipulation strategies to gouge the state during the energy crisis." -By
Mark Martin and Christian Berthelsen -SFGate.com
-
-
- "Price
gouging: Oil strike, threat of war with Iraq
push gas prices to more than $2 in California." ... "Political instability
in Venezuela and the prospect of war in Iraq are triggering price hikes
that normally don't kick in until the peak driving season. And experts
warn prices could shoot up even more as the political situations and the
weather heat up." ... "The average retail price for a gallon of regular
unleaded, $1.66, has risen 22 cents since the beginning of the year."
-AP via -WCFCourier.com
-
- "Hacker
gains access to 5.6 million Visa, MasterCard numbers."
... "An "unauthorized intruder" gained access to about 8 million credit
card account numbers -- including Visa, MasterCard and American Express
-- by breaching the security of a company that processes transactions for
merchants, the card companies said Tuesday." -By Eileen
Alt Powell -AP
via -StarTribune
-
-
- Microsoft
News - "Lawsuit
challenges Microsoft licensing: A California
woman sues Microsoft, Symantec and others, claiming the companies misled
consumers by requiring them to consent to licensing agreements they haven't
read." ... "Specifically, the suit, which was brought by Cathy Baker, claims
that Microsoft, Symantec, CompUSA, Best Buy and other unnamed retailers
don't allow people to read "shrink wrap" licenses--agreements printed inside
the box or incorporated into the software itself--before they buy a product."
-By Lisa M. Bowman -CNET
/News via -BusinessWeek
-
-
- Microsoft
News - "Woman
sues software makers over licensing terms." ... "[Plaintiff
Cathy] Baker bought the Windows XP Home edition upgrade and Norton Antivirus
software at a CompUSA store in San Rafael last month for her first home
computer. When she opened and began to install the software, she was asked
to agree electronically to licensing terms that she found unacceptable.
When she tried to return the software, the store refused to take it back
because the package had been opened, Baker said in the complaint." -By
Kristi Heim -MercuryNews
via -SiliconValley
OPINION
- "Jack
Whittaker Caps The Year Of The Scam." ... "... Whitaker,
the West Virginia man who won "$314.9 million" in the Powerball lottery
on Christmas day, is now most known for his participation in a long-running,
ever growing scam: the state lotteries." ... "First, the jackpot is not
$314.9 million--that's what it would be if paid out over 30 years. Whittaker
opted for a single lump sum payment of $170.5 million. That number gets
reported, too, but it seems to get buried." ... "State lotteries are a
sucker bet. They typically return about 55% of the money wagered. That's
much less than a casino or a racetrack. The various lotteries admit it,
but it's reported much less often than stories about winners, a staple
on the local news. No one ever publicizes the millions of losers, but they're
out there. You have to be in it to lose it." -By Dan
Ackman -Forbes
- Eliot
Spitzer -
- OPINION
- "[New
York states Attorney General Eliot] Spitzer: Man Of The Year - Savior of
Capitalism?" ... "Using a New York state law, he
obtained some explosive internal emails from Merrill Lynch and secured
a $100m fine. This pushed a complacent Securities and Exchange Commission
into action, and finally yesterday Spitzer got the reward for his pursuit."
... "As part of the agreement forged with the Stock Exchange [full
details], the ten leading brokerages must pay $900 million in retrospective
relief, $450m to fund "independent" research and $85 million to "investor
education". The brokerages, including Solomon Smith and Barney, CSFB, Lehman,
Morgan Stanley and UBS Warburg, will not be allowed to reward CEOs with
IPO offerings, and must operate at arms length from no less than independent
analysts on each offering. (Since the brokers are still paying these independent
analysts' fees, it's hard to see how this cure will be truly effective.)"
... "But for the Bronx-born Spitzer, his legend is assured as a pugilist
populist attorney straight from central casting. He's taken on the mob,
the music pigopolists (for CD price fixing), low-paying employers, and
is currently suing President Bush for gutting the clean air act." -By
Andrew Orlowski -TheRegister.co.uk
OPINION
-
-
-
- TIA:
Total Information Awareness
- "Snooping
in All the Wrong Places: Not only would the
Administration's plan to centralize every American's records destroy privacy,
the security payoff would be minimal." ... "The 2002 elections proved one
thing: The promise of security wins votes. The GOP campaigned on a pledge
to make the country safer, and it brought home one of the biggest midterm
victories in decades. That huge win may have emboldened the Bush Administration
to ignore widespread criticism of the Defense Dept.'s $240 million effort
to develop a Total Information Awareness system (TIA)." ... "The outrage
over TIA doesn't seem to have reached the President's ear, but it should.
It's not too late for him to realize the folly of such a plan. Funded by
the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), the project would
combine every American's bank records, tax filings, driver's license information,
credit-card purchases, medical data, and phone and e-mail records into
one giant centralized database. This would then be combed through for evidence
of suspicious activity." -By Jane Black
-BusinessWeek/Daily
- "eBay
hit by credit card scam." ... "The world's largest
online auction site eBay has been targeted by fraudsters using a shadow
site to steal credit card details from its 55 million customers." ... "The
scam involved sending e-mails to customers asking them to log on to a Florida-based
website - ebayupdates.com - and re-submit their financial details." -By
Stefan Armbruster-BBC/News
Eliot
Spitzer - - OPINION
- "Eliot
Spitzer vs. the Chicago Boys: Corporate crooks,
dirty air, pricey drugs -- they're all the doing of the University of Chicago's
free-marketeers, says N.Y.'s Attorney General." ... "As a voice of laissez-faire
economics, the University of Chicago has shaped much of the dialogue over
market regulation in recent years, starting with Ronald Reagan's Administration
in 1980. Free markets, the theory goes, will correct most excesses by making
it impossible for those guilty of bad behavior to survive. "They've said
that intervention by...government is wrong," Spitzer said. "But they haven't
taken into account that markets can have structural flaws."" ... "For example,
environmental polluters are not being punished by the market, he charged,
and that means all of society pays the price for pollution. Relying on
the market to fairly price prescription drugs has also failed, he insisted,
since some severely ill people rely so much on one particular drug that
they will pay anything to get it." -By Heather Timmons
-BusinessWeek/Daily
OPINION
-
-
- "Digital
Robber Barons?" ... "... the wide-open, competitive
world of the dial-up Internet depended on the very government regulation
so many Internet enthusiasts decried. Local phone service is a natural
monopoly, and in an unregulated world local phone monopolies would probably
insist that you use their dial-up service. The reason you have a choice
is that they are required to act as common carriers, allowing independent
service providers to use their lines." ... "Last March the F.C.C. used
linguistic trickery — defining cable Internet access as an "information
service" rather than as telecommunications — to exempt cable companies
from the requirement to act as common carriers. The commission will probably
make a similar ruling on DSL service, which runs over lines owned by your
local phone company. The result will be a system in which most families
and businesses will have no more choice about how to reach cyberspace than
a typical 19th-century farmer had about which railroad would carry his
grain." -By Paul Krugman
-NYTimes via -Google-News
-
-
- "High schools
give it up for Pentagon: Law requires giving
recruiters access to juniors, seniors." ... "A little-noticed provision
in a new federal education law is requiring high schools to hand over to
military recruiters some key information about their juniors and seniors:
name, address and phone number." ... "The No Child Left Behind law, signed
last January, pumps billions into education but also gives military recruiters
access to the names, addresses and phone numbers of students in 22,000
schools. The law also says that schools must give the military the same
access to their campuses that businesses and college recruiters enjoy."
... "Students and parents who oppose the law can keep their information
from being turned over to the military, but they must sign and return an
“opt-out” form." -By Ken Maguire
-AP via -MSNBC
- "Buy,
Use, Dispose: A Spike in Disposable Products
Has Environmentalists Worried." ... "Scrub the floor, toss out the rag.
Use up your minutes, toss out the phone. Watch a movie, throw away the
DVD." ... "In a nation that places a high value on convenience, this is
all possible or will soon be possible for consumers willing to pay a little
more for products designed for one-time use. And the list is growing."
... ""The business model of the high-tech industry depends on us to continue
to buy, consume and throw away," he [executive director of Californians
Against Waste, Mark Murray] says. "That's the problem, they're not designing
these things to last, they're designing them to use and throw out."" -By
Amanda Onion -ABCNEWS.com
-
- "Fraud
fears still hamper online sales." ... "The number
of Britons doing Christmas shopping online is expected to soar this year
but the government says fear of fraud is still preventing sales reaching
their potential levels." ... "The government is keen to encourage more
net shopping, with Consumer Minister Melanie Johnson telling shoppers that
online retail can be safe if they follow a few simple rules." ... "She
is advising consumers to use websites they know or that have been recommended,
obtain suppliers' telephone numbers or postal addresses and keep copies
of order forms or e-mails."-BBC/News
- "Big
Cable's Package-Pricing Ploy: Consumers could
be saving money by selecting their premium channels a la carte,
but don't expect to hear it from your cable outfit." ... "... a federal
rule took effect in early October, 2002, that could let savvy cable customers
cut their monthly bills in half." ... "The rule, a provision of the 1992
Cable Act, says cable operators can no longer require subscribers to buy
multitier packages of programming to get pay-per-view events and premium
channels, such as as HBO, Starz, and Showtime."
-BusinessWeek
OPINION
- "House
GOP bill protects bad doctors, HMOs and nursing homes from accountability;
patients lose crucial rights." ... "Just 5 percent
of American doctors are responsible for half the malpractice in the United
States, according to a new analysis of federal data by the consumer group
Public Citizen." ... "The analysis was released as the U.S. House of Representatives
is scheduled to consider legislation that would make it more difficult
for injured patients to hold their doctors accountable for negligence."
-Citizen.org
OPINION
[PDF] - "Administration's
Broadband Policy Would Strangle ISPs, Destroy Competitive Internet Marketplace."
-ConsumerFed.org