by Steve Gardner On March 31, another federal court rejected another a motion to dismiss another “natural” claims lawsuit. Download here: Langan v J&J. The first paragraph of the opinion does at least as good a job as I could of summarizing the case: This case is about the use of the word “natural” on […]
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A new public safety tool is now available: an online database of state worker health and safety requirements in the 25 states with a federally-approved occupational safety and health enforcement agency. The database was created by Public Citizen and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s Public Health Law Research program. You can access the database on […]
As the New York Times reported earlier this month, The Bank of New York Mellon will pay $714 million to settle accusations that it cheated government pension funds and other investors for more than a decade, federal and state authorities announced on Thursday. It is part of a deal requiring the bank to dismiss some […]
From an EarthJustice press release issued this morning: Today, a broad coalition of health, firefighter, consumer and science groups filed a petition asking the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) to ban four categories of consumer products—children’s products, furniture, mattresses and the casings around electronics—if they contain any flame retardant in the chemical class known as […]
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau yesterday announced that has initiated enforcement action against a nationwide debt collector National Corrective Group and its chief executive officer for using deceptive threats of criminal prosecution and jail time to intimidate consumers into paying debts for bounced checks. The company also misled consumers into believing that they must enroll in […]
Two editorials yesterday about the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau proposal to regulate payday lenders. (Our post about the proposal, with a link to it, is here.) A New York Times editorial gives strong support for the proposed rule: The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau took the most important step in its brief four-year history this week when […]
The Hill reports that on a party-line vote, "[t]he Senate Budget Committee added an amendment to the GOP budget that would subject the agency’s budget to the congressional appropriations process. Currently, the CFPB receives its funding directly from the Federal Reserve, and bureau advocates argue that giving appropriators control would allow Republicans to starve the […]
Seeking to help consumers avoid becoming trapped in a cycle of debt, the CFPB announced today that it is considering new rules that would require payday lenders to take steps to make sure that borrowers can repay their loans. The Bureau's press release explains the problem: For consumers living paycheck to paycheck, the short timeframe […]
Two weeks ago, we flagged an NPR piece about the dangers of transporting oil by rail. Very glad to see that we're not the only ones concerned. Today, Sen. Maria Cantwell of Washington will introduce federal legislation to prevent oil train disasters. From the Public Citizen release on the bill: The U.S. Department of Transportation […]
Commentator Nicholas Kristof has never been a fan of unions, but in this New York Times op-ed, he explains, he’s changed his mind about them. Why? In Kristof’s words: I’m as appalled as anyone by silly work rules and $400,000 [salaries for] stagehands [at Carnegie Hall], or teachers’ unions shielding the incompetent. But unions also […]