The text of the is out — finally — and it's "worse than we thought," according to a Public Citizen analysis. Among the lowlights, according to Public Citizen, are "New Rights for Fossil Fuel Corporations to Challenge Climate Protections"; "Constraints on Food Safety Provisions"; "Opportunities for Drug Firms to Contest Medicine Purchasing and Pricing Decisions"; and expansion of the […]
Author Archives: Scott Michelman
We've flagged before the issue of whether the Obamacare mandate that employers provide contraceptive coverage raises religious liberty problems even if an opt-out is available. The Supreme Court announced today it will decide the issue in seven consolidated cases.
The Post reports: In the first such case against a U.S. cable company, federal regulators are slapping Cox Communications with a $595,000 fine after Cox allowed hackers from Lizard Squad to penetrate its systems and steal private customer information. By posing as an IT administrator and tricking a couple of Cox employees into giving up […]
Released last month, new Tesla software includes (the NYT reports) a semiautonomous feature that allows hands-free, pedal-free driving on the highway under certain conditions. The car will even change lanes autonomously at the driver’s request (by hitting the turn signal) and uses sensors to scan the road in all directions and adjust the throttle, steering and […]
For anyone seeking to understand the interwoven problems with for-profit schools — misleading advertising, taking advantage of federal government loans, and trapping students in spirals of debt — James Surowiecki's column in the Nov. 2 New Yorker provides a great synopsis. Surowiecki explains: Dependence on student loans was not incidental to the for-profit boom—it was […]
Today, Public Citizen client Jen Palmer told the U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Technology the story of her ordeal involving KlearGear.com's attempt to fine her family $3,500 and subsequent reporting of a phony debt to ruin the Palmers' credit based on a non-disparagement clause. You'll recall we succeeded in fixing the credit problems […]
It's been a good week for high-profile media attention to some of the most important issues facing consumers. First, as we've noted in several posts over the past few days, the NYT published a three-part deep dive on the abuses of forced arbitration. And this week's episode of CBS's "The Good Wife" featured a for-profit […]
The New York Times headline "Metrojet Rules Out Technical Failure or Human Error for Crash in Sinai Peninsula" captures the gist of the article about the latest announcement from the Russian airline company whose plane crashed in Egypt over the weekend but doesn't flag the most important lesson for safety regulators. Notwithstanding the company's position, […]
We told you yesterday about a story documenting the source of many regulatory delays: OIRA. OIRA is a component of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB). OMB now says (in a draft report) that regulations are cost-effective and produce billions of dollars in net benefits. As the Coalition for Sensible Safeguards (of which Public […]
In an illuminating piece today entitled "How a small White House agency stalls life-saving regulations," Reuters explains how regulatory delay — chiefly on the part of the White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs — costs lives. The examples cited, including worker-safety, environmental protection, and auto-safety rules, are poignant and powerful. (One example highlighted […]