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Blog Post | Consumer Tips

Credit freeze -- A free and fast way to help safeguard your finances | Grace Brombach

My first-hand, step-by-step guide to freezing your credit reports.

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News Release | Consumer Tips, Consumer Protection

A week's worth of help and tips during Consumer Protection Week

Being a consumer is a tough job. Really tough. During National Consumer Protection Week, which runs through March 6, the U.S. PIRG Education Fund staff is offering a daily dose of tips and advice to help you navigate life’s biggest consumer challenges.

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News Release | CALPIRG Education Fund | Consumer Tips, Solid Waste

New Report Shows What Californians Tried to Fix in 2020, and the Barriers They Still Face

CALPIRG released a new report Thursday, “What are Californians Fixing?” which compiles data from the popular repair instruction website iFixit.com about what items people in California were fixing the most in 2020. The report also takes a closer look at the broader repair ecosystem, including barriers that make it harder than it should be to perform basic repairs and how the COVID-19 pandemic affected the things we were fixing.

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Report | CALPIRG Education Fund | Consumer Tips, Solid Waste

What are Californians Fixing?

Here in California, we want to fix our stuff – even during the COVID‑19 pandemic.
As people try to stay at home as much as possible, it’s more important than ever that our home appliances and devices are working. From kitchen appliances to laptops, gaming systems and televisions, our tech helps us stay home, stay safe, and stay sane.

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Blog Post

Mounting evidence: Asbestos in talc-based makeup (again) | Gina Werdel

Once again, product testing demonstrates that the risk of asbestos contamination in talc-based cosmetic products is simply too high to accept.

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News Release | CALPIRG | Democracy

Every California voter to Receive a Mail-in Ballot this November

Governor Newsom’s Executive Order today expanding mail-in ballots to every registered voter is a no brainer for safe, secure elections in November. 

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News Release | CALPIRG | COVID-19

Health pros call for transparent, central coordination from Trump administration

CALPIRG along with U.S.PIRG, the federation of State PIRGs, Get Us PPE, Doctors for America, Physicians for Social Responsibility and several other health groups, along with nearly 300 medical professionals, including over a hundred from California, sent a letter to the Trump Administration on Friday calling for central coordination of the medical supply chain and comprehensive testing infrastructure. More than two months into the coronavirus (COVID-19) crisis, health professionals say they still lack adequate personal protective equipment (PPE) to keep them safe.

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News Release | U.S. PIRG Education Fund | Consumer Protection

Americans need stronger consumer protections during COVID-19 crisis

U.S. PIRG Education Fund has released a report with the Student Borrower Protection Center and Consumer Action. The report makes recommendations to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) to upgrade its consumer complaint tool, including the public consumer complaint database, so COVID19-related complaints can be handled more quickly and tracked better.

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News Release | U.S. PIRG Education Fund | COVID-19

Statement: SBA data breach puts business owners at risk of ID theft and other fraud

The Small Business Administration (SBA) announced Tuesday that the personal information of nearly 8,000 business owners applying for federal disaster loans had been exposed. The breach affects applicants to the Economic Injury Disaster Loan program (EIDL), and may have included names, Social Security numbers, addresses, birth dates, email addresses, phone numbers, citizenship statuses and insurance information.

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News Release | CALPIRG Students | Solid Waste

University of California, Berkeley, leads the way with country’s strongest single-use plastic ban

BERKELEY, Calif. — The University of California, Berkeley has committed to eliminating all non-essential single-use plastic with viable alternatives by 2030. CALPIRG's student chapter on campus played a significant role in advocating for the new policy. 

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Report | CALPIRG Education Fund | Public Health

Get the Lead Out

Our children need safe drinking water – especially at school where they go to learn and play each day.  Unfortunately, lead is contaminating drinking water at schools and pre-schools across the country.  As our report shows, states including California are so far failing to make the grade when it comes to keeping lead out of drinking water at school. 

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Report | CALPIRG Education Fund | Transportation

From Deceit to Transformation

A new report from CALPIRG Education finds that $381.3 from the Volkswagen (VW) settlement is headed to California to help clean up the state’s transportation system and recommends using the funds to purchase electric vehicle fast charging stations for the state’s highways along with an aggressive expansion of all-electric transit buses to replace aging, dirty, diesel buses.

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Report | CALPIRG Education Fund | Financial Reform

Big Banks, Big Overdraft Fees

Overdraft fees are a major source of consumer pain, since they are borne disproportionately by Americans with few financial resources. Through the first three quarters of 2016, 626 large banks reported collecting $8.4 billion in revenue from overdraft and NSF fees, an increase of 3.6 percent over the same period in 2015. American consumers should look to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), which has already enforced overdraft regulations and returned millions of dollars to consumers, to take new action to prevent unfair overdraft fees.

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Report | CALPIRG Education Fund | Consumer Protection

Trouble in Toyland

For over 30 years, U.S. PIRG Education Fund has conducted an annual survey of toy safety, which has led to over 150 recalls and other regulatory actions over the years, and has helped educate the public and policymakers on the need for continued action to protect the health and wellbeing of children. Toys are safer than ever before, thanks to decades of work by product safety advocates, parents, the leadership of Congress, state legislatures, and the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC).

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Report | CALPIRG Education Fund | Democracy

Path to the Polls

Starting in the fall of 2016, 16- and 17-year-olds in California will be allowed to “preregister” to vote, ensuring that they are listed on the voter rolls the moment they turn 18. Voter preregistration provides California with an opportunity to improve young voter participation, but state and local officials must take proactive steps in order to make preregistration a success.

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Blog Post | Consumer Tips, COVID-19, Public Health

20 Questions to Ask Your Nursing Home during COVID | Teresa Murray

Whether you have a loved one currently in a nursing home or rehabilitation facility, or whether you’re shopping for one, you should arm yourself with a list of questions to gauge how safe the environment is. Here’s a guide to those questions, and the answers you should expect.

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Blog Post

California is uncovering secret ingredients in cosmetics

The FDA allows cosmetic companies to hide toxic fragrance ingredients from consumers. But this fall, California passed a landmark bill to change this.

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Blog Post | Consumer Tips, COVID-19

Planning to vote in person? Consider taking a bag of supplies to help you survive long lines | Teresa Murray

With Election Day coming up, here's a tip guide for what to do before you go to vote, what to take with you and how to stay safe while you’re at your polling place.

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Blog Post | Consumer Tips, COVID-19

Why can I still buy toxic hand sanitizer? | Teresa Murray

The FDA doesn’t have the authority to stop retailers from selling dangerous over-the-counter products such as toxic hand sanitizer. Our safety system is broken, and we need to fix it. 

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Blog Post | Consumer Tips, COVID-19

Tenant protections from eviction and utility cutoffs vary by state | Jacob van Cleef

The CDC implemented the eviction freeze on Sept. 4 to reduce the number of people on the streets who could get infected with and spread the COVID-19 virus. Landlords and other groups filed lawsuits attempting to strike down the halt on evictions, so the future of the policy remains uncertain.

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Blog Post

Man lost $124,000 in Amazon scam. Here are 10 ways to keep it from happening to you

In light of some of these newer cons, here is actionable information to help you avoid the aggravation, time and financial losses that come with sophisticated scams.

News Release | CALPIRG Education Fund

New report unveils utilities’ playbook to stall rooftop solar in California

Special interest groups across the country are working to stall the growth of rooftop solar, according to a new report released Thursday by CALPIRG Education Fund and Environment California Research & Policy Center. 

News Release | CALPIRG Education Fund

Statement: CALPIRG Education Fund and Environment California Research & Policy Center call on policymakers to save rooftop solar

CALPIRG Education Fund and Environment California Research & Policy Center joined clean energy advocates, environmentalists, solar consumers and faith leaders in calling on state decision makers to defend rooftop solar.

Blog Post

Meet the New State Director

I'm excited to be getting started as CALPIRG's new State Director. Here's why I'm motivated more than ever to do this work.

News Release | US PIRG

Statement: Beech-Nut to stop selling some rice cereal over arsenic concerns

Beech-Nut will stop selling all single grain rice cereal after Alaska state officials discovered high arsenic levels during routing sampling, the U.S. Food & Drug Administration (FDA) said in a statement released Tuesday.

  • COVID-19 CONSUMER TIPS
    Avoid online scams, protect your credit and more. We have assembled a set of consumer tips and guides, and will add more in the days to come.
    OUR TIPS
  • THE FIX IS IN
    Our survey shows that independent shops are struggling to access parts, service information and repair software which is necessary to fix phones — which manufacturers won’t let these independent shops have.
    OUR REPORT
  • FOOD RECALL FAILURE
    Will your supermarket warn you about hazardous food? Our survey grades 26 of the largest grocery stores in the country to determine the efficacy of their policies and practices notifying consumers about food recalls.
    OUR REPORT
  • CHAIN REACTION V
    The overuse of antibiotics contributes to antibiotic-resistant bacteria, which can cause life-threatening infections in people. Our report ranks restaurant chains on their policies relating to antibiotic use in their beef supply chains.
    SEE THE GRADES

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