Category Archives: Uncategorized

Public Citizen report on the benefits of a financial transaction tax

Our country had a financial transaction tax for half a century, the report recounts, but it was repealed in 1965 even though it wasn't hindering growth. Reinstating such a tax would slow down the type of quick-trading speculation that caused the 2010 "flash crash" and it would have provided $22 billion in revenue per year […]

Cops called on reporter who came to interview interstate oil commission

Read here the surprising story of a blogger who showed up at the Interstate Oil and Gas Compact Commission (IOGCC), having let the Commission know he was coming, to conduct an interview regarding the IOGCC's position on climate change. The only interview he got was with the police, as the result of a 9-1-1 call.

What Exxon knew about global warming and when it knew it

Read this fascinating investigative report from the L.A. Times, documenting the dissonance between Exxon's public position on global warming and its private studies undertaken to maintain competitiveness in a world they assumed would be warming. The upshot: As [an internal] team was closely studying the impact of climate change on the company’s operations, Exxon and […]

Center for Science in the Public Interest sues FDA over inaction on salt

Represented by Public Citizen, CSPI filed suit yesterday in federal court in DC to compel action by FDA on CSPI's citizen petition to reduce the alarming amount of salt to which U.S. consumers are exposed. The petition has been pending for 10 years, and FDA's foot-dragging dates back far longer, explains CSPI in its press […]

“Senate Democratic Inquiry Targets Banks, Wall Street Settlements”

The Wall Street Journal reports: A powerful Democratic senator has launched an inquiry into bank misconduct, asking top financial institutions to turn over information about the settlements they have entered into with federal agencies over the past decade. Sherrod Brown of Ohio, the top Democrat on the Senate Banking Committee, asked banks in a letter […]