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News Release | U.S. PIRG | Solid Waste

After Apple Slows Phones, Interest In Repair Spikes

A new survey released today by U.S. PIRG, “,” found a surge in consumer demand for phone repair following the revelation that Apple was slowing phones with older batteries. “Rechare Repair” identifies the barriers to battery replacement and phone repair that add to long repair delays for consumers.

News Release | U.S.PIRG | Financial Reform

Statement on Equifax’s Lock & Alert Product Announcement

Our statement on the today's launch by Equifax of Lock & Alert, a service that will let consumers lock and unlock their Equifax credit reports indefinitely for free to stop new account identity theft. This service, similar to state mandated credit freezes, only blocks access to Equifax credit reports, not credit reports at the other two bureaus, Experian and TransUnion. U.S. PIRG's advice: Blocking access to your credit reports at all three national credit bureaus remains the best action consumers can take after the Equifax breach, whether they were affected by it or not.

News Release | U.S. PIRG | Financial Reform

Statement of U.S. PIRG On Court Ruling Upholding Constitutionality of CFPB Leadership Structure

Here is our statement on today's decision by the full D.C. Circuit, U.S. Court of Appeals, upholding the constitutionality of the Consumer Bureau's single-director structure. We had filed an amicus (friend-of-the-court) brief in support of that position. The decision is a big victory for consumers.

News Post | Solid Waste

The Most Important R-word | Alex Truelove

Most of us have encountered the three Rs of being green, complete with the eminent symbol of three green arrows forming a triangle. Perform a quick online search and you’ll see all kinds of fact sheets and infographics detailing how the mantra “reduce, reuse, recycle” conserves natural resources, landfill space, and energy. Most of these accounts imply that the three R’s are created equal. In other words, recycling is just as good as reusing or reducing, so long as you’re not throwing stuff away. But wait, that’s not true! The three R’s appear in a particular order for a reason, to show hierarchical preference.

News Release | Tax, Transportation

U.S. PIRG Response to 2018 State of the Union Address

President Donald Trump’s first State of the Union address touched on a lot of topics crucial to the American way of life. Unfortunately, he omitted many of the most important topics facing our country today: consumer protection, threats to food safety and threats to our democracy. And on the important issues he did discuss, such as infrastructure and the economy, he offered 20th century solutions to 21st century problems.

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News Release | U.S. PIRG Education Fund | Public Health

ARKANSAS STATE PLANT BOARD VOTES TO PROTECT FARMERS FROM DICAMBA DRIFT

The Arkansas State Plant Board voted today to ban the pesticide dicamba for the 2018 planting season. The decision was based on advice from a task force composed of scientists, farmers and other experts. Arkansas came to the decision after a year of record crop losses caused by dicamba — during 2017, the state received more pesticide complaints than it ever has in one year.

News Release | U.S. PIRG Education Fund | Public Health

High Levels of Lead Found in Fidget Spinners

U.S. PIRG Education Fund found fidget spinners with high levels of lead for sale at Target stores across the country. Parents and consumers need to know about these lead-laden toys, especially because we alerted Target and the toy’s distributor, Bulls i Toy, to our findings, but they refused to address the problem. The toxic fidget spinners are still available both in toy aisles at Target stores and on its website. Incredibly, Target and Bulls i Toy defend their inaction by pointing to the Consumer Product Safety Commission’s (CPSC) declaration that fidget spinners are NOT technically “children’s products” subject to legal limits for lead.

News Release | U.S. PIRG | Public Health

World Health Organization Urges Meat Industry To Cut Routine Antibiotic Use

The World Health Organization’s new guidelines on antibiotic use in the meat industry couldn’t come sooner. At least 2 million Americans become ill each year due to antibiotic-resistant infections and 23,000 die. The guidelines make clear that the agriculture sector needs to stop using antibiotics for growth promotion and disease prevention in healthy animals.

News Release | U.S. PIRG | Tax

Latest Offshore Tax Haven Leaks Suggest Need to Reassess Republican Tax Plan

The latest leak of 13.4 million documents from an offshore law firm exposes the tax avoidance gimmicks used by multinational corporations to avoid taxes in the U.S. The “Paradise Papers” were released today by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ), the group that was also responsible for the “Panama Papers” investigation in 2016. The leaked documents include information on the offshore tax planning schemes used by multinational companies to lower their tax liability.

U.S. PIRG tax and budget advocate Michelle Surka made the following statement on the leaks:

News Release | US PIRG | Tax

U.S. PIRG Statement on House Tax Bill

Below is a statement from U.S. PIRG Program Advocate Michelle Surka on the proposed House tax bill's impacts on our debt:

“The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, introduced this morning in the House, is an exercise in fiscal recklessness, exploding the budget deficit while failing to close the biggest tax loopholes and relying on gimmicks to obscure the impact on the national debt. Rather than make prudent trade-offs to achieve the President's promised tax cuts, this bill twists itself into knots attempting to distract from the bottom line: it will add trillions to our deficit."

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Report | U.S. PIRG Education Fund | Consumer Protection

Trouble in Toyland 2014

Among the toys surveyed this year, we found numerous choking hazards and five toys with concentrations of toxics exceeding federal standards. In addition to reporting on potentially hazardous products found in stores in 2014, this installment of the report describes the potential hazards in toys and children’s products.

Report | U.S. PIRG Education Fund and Demos | Democracy

The Dominance of Big Money in the 2014 Congressional Elections

In 2014, large donors accounted for the vast majority of all individual federal election contributions this cycle, just as they have in previous elections. Seven of every 10 individual contribution dollars to the federal candidates, parties, PACs and Super PACs that were active in the 2013-2014 election cycle came from donors who gave $200 or more. Candidates alone got 84 percent of their individual contributions from large donors.

Report | U.S. PIRG and Consumers Union | Public Health

Prescription For Change

Our September 2014 survey of physicians paints a grim picture of the growing problem of antibiotic-resistant infections. The overwhelming majority of surveyed doctors reported that one or more of their patients had been diagnosed with a presumed or confirmed case of a multi-drug resistant bacterial infection in the past twelve months. They also expressed concern about the use of antibiotics in livestock production facilities on healthy animals in order to promote growth and prevent disease.

Report | U.S. PIRG Education Fund | Democracy

Big Money Dominates in Congressional Primaries

Our analysis of fund-raising data from 2014’s congressional primaries examines the way these dynamics are playing out state by state across the country. While some states show markedly more inequity than others, the picture painted by the data is of a primary money race where large donors carry more weight than ordinary Americans. Nationwide, just under two-thirds of all candidate contributions came from the largest donors (those giving over $1,000). And fewer than 5,500 large donors matched the primary contributions coming from at least 440,000 donors nationwide.

Report | U.S. PIRG Education Fund | Transportation

Millennials in Motion

Millennials are less car-focused than older Americans and previous generations of young people, and their transportation behaviors continue to change in ways that reduce driving. Now is the time for the nation’s transportation policies to acknowledge, accommodate and support Millennials’ demands for a greater array of transportation choices.

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News Post | Food

Shrinking the Dead Zone, Reducing Fertilizer Use | Bill Wenzel

Last week, scientists predicted that this year’s hypoxic zone in the Gulf of Mexico will be the 3rd largest since monitoring began 32 years ago. The “dead zone” will cover about 8,185 square miles — an area roughly the size of New Jersey.

News Post | Financial Reform

US Treasury Report A Gift To Wall Street, A Threat To CFPB and Everyone Else | Ed Mierzwinski

Last week, the U.S. Treasury Department came out with a report mandated by a Presidential executive order. As feared, the report is a Wall Street wish list, with a few crumbs thrown to small banks. The CFPB and investor protections are left in ruins.

News Post | Public Health, Consumer Protection

Slow and Steady Progress Getting Toxic Chemicals out of Soaps, Shampoos, and More | Dev Gowda

In the past year, we’ve seen a lot of progress. Consumers are at the forefront of making that happen, and I’m proud that we’ve been able to harness consumer preferences and push several companies to do better. Here’s what’s happened over the past year.

News Post | Democracy

Disenfranchised voters deserve action | Sean Doyle

At least 26,000 voters in Pennsylvania were disenfranchised, through no fault of their own, before the last election due to problems processing their voter registration applications. What happened?

News Post | Financial Reform

“Wrong Choice” Act on House Floor Today Harms CFPB’s Protection of Servicemembers and Veterans | Ed Mierzwinski

UPDATED: Added House Floor Letter Opposing HR 10, Wrong Choice Act, Link:

Yesterday we released a report showing how the CFPB works to protect servicemembers, veterans and their families from financial predators that “line up outside our military bases like bears on a trout stream.” Today the House begins floor debate on the so-called Financial Choice Act. This Wrong Choice Act, incredibly, turns the CFPB into an unrecognizable husk incapable of protecting anyone, including servicemembers.

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STAND UP FOR BEES THIS EARTH DAY

Bees pollinate 70 percent of the world’s crops. Protect bees and the health of our planet by telling your governor to ban bee-killing pesticides.
TELL CONGRESS TO STAND UP FOR CONSUMERS

The House is considering a bill that benefits credit bureaus at the expense of average consumers and servicemembers. Tell Congress to oppose it.
STOP THE OVERUSE OF ANTIBIOTICS ON FARMS

Antibiotics are often given to animals that aren’t even sick, and are given without a duration limit. Tell Congress: Protect our life-saving medicines.
ASBESTOS FOUND IN CHILDREN’S MAKEUP

Some makeup sold by Claire’s retail stores is contaminated with asbestos. Tell your representatives: Kids’ makeup shouldn’t contain toxic chemicals.

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DEFEND THE CFPB

Tell your senators to oppose the “Financial CHOICE Act,” which would gut Wall Street reforms and destroy the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau as we know it.

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