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Blog Post | Transportation

To Drive or Not to Drive? Changing Transportation Habits in a Car-Centric Country | Matt Casale

Here's a guest post from our friend Meryl Compton at Frontier Group. Meryl writes about the challenges of deciding whether or not to ditch a car in a car-centric country.

> Keep Reading
News Release | U.S. PIRG | Consumer Protection

Tomorrow's National Free Credit Freeze Law

Our press release about the national free credit freeze law that goes into effect tomorrow. It includes tips about credit freezes and other steps consumers can take to protect themselves from different types of identity theft and fraud. 

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Blog Post | Health Care

Yes Doctor, But How Much Will It Cost? Potential Benefits of Health Care Price Transparency | Elizabeth Ridlington

Here are two things you probably don’t know about colonoscopies. First, they’re one of the most commonly performed screening exams. Millions of us get colonoscopies each year, but we don’t like to talk about it. Second, you probably don’t know how much a colonoscopy costs, even if you are a patient who has scheduled an exam. That’s because colonoscopies are like most health care services: patients don’t know the cost in advance of receiving care.

> Keep Reading
News Release | U.S. PIRG | Consumer Protection

People impacted by Hurricane Florence face scams, price gouging and other consumer abuses; U.S. PIRG offers tip sheet to help

As people throughout the Carolinas and Virginia start to recover and rebuild after Hurricane Florence, they face a number of scams and challenges, from price gouging to collecting insurance to safety for their pets and themselves. In an online tip sheet, U.S. PIRG is sharing information and expertise that will help readers, listeners and viewers better understand and protect themselves from those who may prey on them.

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Blog Post | Financial Reform

Ten Years After Lehman, Lessons of Financial Collapse Ignored, Not Forgotten | Ed Mierzwinski

Ten years ago this weekend the collapse of investment bank Lehman Brothers marked the massive financial collapse of 2008. Millions of Americans lost homes, jobs and trillions of dollars in retirement savings. Today, the financial collapse hasn't been forgotten, it's being ignored by Congress and Wall Street.

> Keep Reading

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News Release | U.S. PIRG | Consumer Protection

Tomorrow's National Free Credit Freeze Law

Our press release about the national free credit freeze law that goes into effect tomorrow. It includes tips about credit freezes and other steps consumers can take to protect themselves from different types of identity theft and fraud. 

> Keep Reading
News Release | U.S. PIRG | Consumer Protection

People impacted by Hurricane Florence face scams, price gouging and other consumer abuses; U.S. PIRG offers tip sheet to help

As people throughout the Carolinas and Virginia start to recover and rebuild after Hurricane Florence, they face a number of scams and challenges, from price gouging to collecting insurance to safety for their pets and themselves. In an online tip sheet, U.S. PIRG is sharing information and expertise that will help readers, listeners and viewers better understand and protect themselves from those who may prey on them.

> Keep Reading
News Release | U.S. PIRG | Public Health, Consumer Protection

Consumer Group Faults Exemptions for Second Recall of Compounded Drug in 2018

After a second major recall of all sterile compounded drugs manufactured by an "outsourcing facility", U.S. PIRG calls on the Food and Drug Administration to close loopholes that exempt these operations from safe manufacturing requirements.

> Keep Reading
News Release | U.S. PIRG

Hurricane Florence data, resources and interview opportunities

As Hurricane Florence bears down on the Southeastern U.S. coast, The Public Interest Network (which includes U.S. PIRG, Environment America, Environment Georgia, Environment North Carolina and Frontier Group, among other organizations) is sharing information that will help your readers and viewers contextualize what's going on with regard to major environmental and health concerns.

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News Release | Solid Waste

Despite battery fire risks, manufacturers withhold critical product information

As more and more of the products in our lives get equipped with batteries and electronics, our waste facilities struggle to safely dispose of this waste. Lithium-ion batteries cause most waste facility fires, including 65 percent of California's waste facility fires in 2017. It is critically important that people don’t just throw items with batteries into the trash or recycling. But even when consumers do the right thing, and send their electronic junk to a specialized waste facility, some devices are so difficult to disassemble that they still pose fire risks. 

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Result | Democracy

With Unanimous Bipartisan Vote, Automatic Voter Registration Bill Passes Massachusetts Senate

With a unanimous, bipartisan vote of 38-0, the Massachusetts Senate today passed Automatic Voter Registration. The AVR legislation would establish a system for eligible citizens to automatically register to vote when they interact with a state agency like the Registry of Motor Vehicles or MassHealth. Approximately 680,000 eligible Massachusetts voters are currently not registered to vote. 

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Result | Transportation

66 Mayors Sign Letter to U.S. DOT Urging Action to Reduce Carbon Emissions from Transportation

By 2050, nearly 70 percent of the world’s population will live in cities. While strong urban centers provide many important benefits, cities also face unique challenges. Despite accounting for just 2 percent of landmass, cities produce 70 percent of the world’s CO2 emissions. This sad reality jeopardizes the health of urban residents and the health of our planet. That's why today, U.S. PIRG is proud to announce the support of 66 mayors, representing an estimated combined total 6.4 million people, in calling on the United States Department of Transportation to move forward with new rules that could require localities to track, measure, and take steps to reduce carbon emissions from transportation sources.  

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Result | Democracy

Delivering one million petitions to President Obama on dark money

U.S. PIRG joined a broad coalition to deliver one million petitions from Americans, including U.S. PIRG members and supporters, calling on President Obama to shine a light on dark money, or secret political spending.

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Result | Consumer Protection

30 years of toy safety

For the past thirty years, our sister organization U.S. PIRG Education Fund has taken a close look at the safety of toys sold in stores. Their reports have led to more than 150 regulatory actions. In November 2015, they released our 30th annual Trouble in Toyland report.

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Result | Democracy

Giving more Americans a greater voice in our elections

In our democracy, the size of your wallet shouldn’t determine the volume of your voice. In 2015, we helped win reforms in Maine and Seattle to ensure that more Americans have a greater say in our elections. Seattle’s Initiative-122 empowers small donors with “democracy vouchers” that can be donated to local candidates and lowers the cap on contributions. In Maine, the state’s Clean Elections Act was improved by strengthening campaign finance disclosure laws and offering qualifying candidates increased public funding.

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

Equifax Breach: One Year Later

A year ago tomorrow, Equifax announced that hackers had breached its system and accessed the data of nearly 150 million U.S. consumers. To mark the anniversary of that notorious announcement, we are releasing a report containing suggestions on how state and federal authorities and consumers can safeguard personal information.

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Report | U.S. PIRG Education Fund | Public Health

Safer School Supplies: Shopping Guide

With this Safer School Supplies: Shopping Guide, parents, teachers, and students can make more informed decisions while shopping for school supplies this Back to School season. We want to give parents and teachers the option to choose school supplies that do not contain toxic chemicals. This Shopping Guide should serve as a handy tool for finding products free of several types of toxic chemicals.

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Report | U.S. PIRG Education Fund

Trouble in the Air

People across America regularly breathe unhealthy air that increases their risk of premature death, asthma attacks and other adverse health impacts.

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Report | U.S. PIRG Education Fund | Transportation

Highway Boondoggles 4

America's infrastructure is in rough shape. Many of our roads, bridges, and transit systems are aging and in need of repair. Yet, year after year, state and local governments propose billions of dollars' worth of new and expanded highways that do little to reduce congestion or address real transportation challenges, while diverting scarce funding from repairs and 21st century priorities. This report profiles nine highway projects that epitomize the need for a fresh approach to transportation spending.

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Report | U.S. PIRG Education Fund | Financial Reform

Debt Collectors

Report: Our latest report based on the CFPB's public Consumer Complaint database reviews the most-complained about debt collectors. Funny, a new CFPB complaint "snapshot" does not. The report comes as the CFPB's acting director threatens to make the database non-public. If the CFPB both shuts down the public database and continues to issue industry-friendly reports that don’t give out any real information, the public and marketplace harm is even greater.

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Blog Post | Transportation

To Drive or Not to Drive? Changing Transportation Habits in a Car-Centric Country | Matt Casale

Here's a guest post from our friend Meryl Compton at Frontier Group. Meryl writes about the challenges of deciding whether or not to ditch a car in a car-centric country.

> Keep Reading
Blog Post | Health Care

Yes Doctor, But How Much Will It Cost? Potential Benefits of Health Care Price Transparency | Elizabeth Ridlington

Here are two things you probably don’t know about colonoscopies. First, they’re one of the most commonly performed screening exams. Millions of us get colonoscopies each year, but we don’t like to talk about it. Second, you probably don’t know how much a colonoscopy costs, even if you are a patient who has scheduled an exam. That’s because colonoscopies are like most health care services: patients don’t know the cost in advance of receiving care.

> Keep Reading
Blog Post | Financial Reform

Ten Years After Lehman, Lessons of Financial Collapse Ignored, Not Forgotten | Ed Mierzwinski

Ten years ago this weekend the collapse of investment bank Lehman Brothers marked the massive financial collapse of 2008. Millions of Americans lost homes, jobs and trillions of dollars in retirement savings. Today, the financial collapse hasn't been forgotten, it's being ignored by Congress and Wall Street.

> Keep Reading
Blog Post | Financial Reform

Latest Trojan Horse Data Breach Bill (HR6743-Luetkemeyer) Could Be Called "Equifax Protection Act" | Ed Mierzwinski

On Thursday, 13 September, the House Financial Services Committee is to consider the latest in a long series of data security and data breach bills that Congress takes up at the request of the banks. These Trojan Horse bills come riding in with few, if any, protections riding in the saddle, but massive elimination of stronger state laws hidden in the belly of the beasts. The proposal, HR6743, the Consumer Information Notification Requirement Act (Luetkemeyer (MO)), might also be called the “Equifax Protection Act.”

> Keep Reading
Blog Post | Health Care, Solid Waste

Right to Repair is a simple way to cut health care costs | Nathan Proctor

Cost containment is is a critical first step in addressing the deep faults in our health care system - it's hard to image fixing problems of access if we continue to be charged $15 for a Tylenol pill or $1,000 for a toothbrush. It turns out that overpriced equipment repair helps add to those inflated costs.

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  • How Is This Even Possible?
    One year after Equifax announced the worst data breach in history, a U.S. House committee has recommended weakening data breach laws. Tell Congress to protect Americans, not Equifax.
    TAKE ACTION
  • TELL MCDONALD’S: HOLD THE ANTIBIOTICS
    It’s time the country’s most iconic burger chain stopped serving beef and pork raised on our life-saving medicines.
    TAKE ACTION
  • Tell L’Oréal: Make It Toxic-Free
    Products we use on our bodies shouldn’t contain toxic ingredients that put our health at risk. Tell L’Oréal: It’s time to make toxic-free products.
    TAKE ACTION
  • JOIN THE CALL FOR CLEANER BUSES
    All-electric buses are here, and they’re cleaner, healthier and often cheaper in the long run. Tell your governor to invest in clean, all-electric buses.
    TAKE ACTION

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