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News Release | CALPIRG Education Fund | Tax

Report: California Could Recover Nearly $2.8 Billion Lost to Corporate Tax Loopholes

Sacramento -- Every year, corporations use complicated schemes to shift U.S. earnings to subsidiaries in offshore tax havens which helps them dodge both state and federal taxes. Reforms to end tax dodging in California would reduce revenue loss by nearly $2.8 billion, according to a new report called “A Simple Fix for a $17 Billion Loophole,” released today by CALPIRG Education Fund. 

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Report | CALPIRG Education Fund | Tax

A Simple Fix for a $17 Billion Loophole

Every year, corporations use complicated schemes to shift U.S. earnings to subsidiaries in offshore tax havens—countries with minimal or no taxes—in order to reduce their state and federal income tax liability by billions of dollars. Meanwhile, smaller, wholly-domestic U.S. businesses cannot game the system in the same way. The result is that large multinational businesses compete on an uneven playing field, avoiding taxes that their small competitors must pay. Innovation in the marketplace is replaced by innovation in the tax code.

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

Fiat Chrysler Settlement Fails to Protect Consumers

While we are glad that Fiat Chrysler is paying something for damaging the health of Americans and deceiving customers, this settlement does not go far enough. It neither ensures these violations of the public trust won’t happen again nor makes consumers whole.

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News Release | CALPIRG Education Fund | Antibiotics

McDonald’s Takes Step to Protect Public Health, Commits to Reduce Medically Important Antibiotic Use in Beef Supply

Today, McDonald’s released a new policy to restrict medically important antibiotic use in its beef supply chain. The company will monitor antibiotic use in its top ten beef sourcing markets and set reduction targets for medically important antibiotic use by the end of 2020. Principles in the policy include restricting the routine use of the drugs to prevent disease, a practice that the World Health Organization recommends ending because it breeds antibiotic resistant bacteria. As the largest beef purchaser in the United States, McDonald’s new commitment could spark an industry-wide change to help keep antibiotics effective.

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News Release | U.S. PIRG Education Fund | Public Health

New car seats made without toxic flame-retardant chemicals

Car seats are supposed to keep our youngest children safe. But though they may protect infants and toddlers during accidents, car seats have a history of containing toxic flame-retardant chemicals.

That’s finally changing.

Today, a coalition of groups including U.S. PIRG Education Fund and the Ecology Center’s “Healthy Stuff” program released test results on car seats in a new report, Hidden Hazards:Flame Retardants and PFAS in Children’s Car Seats. The authors collaborated with researchers from Indiana University and the University of Notre Dame.

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News Release | CALPIRG Education Fund | Public Health

Lead Found In Water in Half of San Francisco Unified District Schools

Today CALPIRG Education Fund released an analysis of San Francisco lead testing results from the last school year in a new interactive map, finding that half of San Francisco Unified district schools found some lead in the drinking water. “Given that even low levels of lead exposure can cause irreversible loss of IQ, San Francisco Unified School District should take action to get the lead out wherever it is getting into drinking water,” said Laura Deehan, Public Health Advocate with CALPIRG Education Fund.  

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News Release | U.S. PIRG | Consumer Protection

U.S. PIRG response to reports of Facebook security breach

Facebook announced today that earlier this week, "attackers exploited a vulnerability in Facebook’s code that impacted “View As”, a feature that lets people see what their own profile looks like to someone else. This allowed them to steal Facebook access tokens which they could then use to take over people’s accounts."

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News Release | CALPIRG Education Fund | Public Health

Lead in School Drinking Water a Pervasive Problem

With a new school year in full swing, CALPIRG Education Fund today released its 2018 “Get the Lead Out: Back to School Toolkit” to help parents, teachers, and administrators get the lead out of schools’ drinking water.

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Media Hit

Gaps in California law requiring schools to test for lead could leave children at risk

No action is required at hundreds of schools across California where tests found lead in drinking water at levels at or under 15 parts per billion. Public health advocates, including the American Academy of Pediatrics and the consumer group CALPIRG, say no amount of lead is safe and have pushed for lead limits to be lowered to 1 part per billion. 

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News Release | CALPIRG Education Fund | Consumer Protection

CALPIRG Recommends Credit Freezes, Now Free for All By Law

Starting today, a new federal law eliminates fees for getting and removing credit freezes across the country at the three nationwide credit bureaus on September 21st. The consumer advocacy group CALPIRG Education Fund recommends getting credit freezes, not the similar locks offered by the bureaus, to prevent new account identity theft.

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Report | CALPIRG Education Fund | Budget

Following the Money 2015: How the 50 States Rate in Providing Online Access to Government Spending Data

Accountability and public scrutiny are necessary to ensure that the public can trust that state funds are spent as well as possible. This report, our sixth annual evaluation of state transparency websites, finds that states continue to make progress toward comprehensive, one-stop, one-click transparency and accountability for state government spending. Over the past year, many states have launched new and improved websites to better open the books on public spending, or have adopted new practices to further expand citizens’ access to critical spending information.

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Report | CALPIRG Education Fund | Transportation

The Innovative Transportation Index

This report reviews the availability of 11 technology-enabled transportation services – including online ridesourcing, carsharing, ridesharing, taxi hailing, static and real-time transit information, multi-modal apps, and virtual transit ticketing – in 70 U.S. cities. It finds that residents of 19 cities, with a combined population of nearly 28 million people, have access to eight or more of these services, with other cities catching up rapidly.

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Report | CALPIRG Education Fund | Health Care

Health Insurance Rate Watch: Comments on the Anthem Blue Cross Life and Health Insurance Company Proposal

Anthem Blue Cross Life and Health Insurance Company has proposed increasing rates on April 1, 2015 for nearly170,000 people who obtain their health insurance through 28 grandfathered plans offered by Anthem. CALPIRG Education Fund's Health Insurance Rate Watch project reviewed Anthem’s filing documents and found that Anthem failed to provide adequate justification for its proposed rate increase. 

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Report | CALPIRG Education Fund | Health Care

Health Insurance Rate Watch: Comments on Blue Shield Rate Filing

Blue Shield has proposed rate increases as high as 9.7 percent for policyholders in its “grandfathered” health insurance plans, those that were established before the Affordable Care Act was signed into law, affecting 40,070 Californians currently covered under the plans. CALPIRG Education Fund's Health Insurance Rate Watch project reviewed Blue Shield's rate filing and raised a number of questions and concerns to the California Department of Insurance. 

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Report | CALPIRG Education Fund | Consumer Protection

Trouble in Toyland 2014

Among the toys surveyed this year, we found numerous choking hazards and five toys with concentrations of toxics exceeding federal standards. In addition to reporting on potentially hazardous products found in stores in 2014, this installment of the report describes the potential hazards in toys and children’s products.

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Blog Post | Consumer Protection

Citing Safety Concerns, Buckyballs maker to stop selling magnetic toys | Jon Fox

Maker magnetic Buckyballs announces that it will stop selling dangerous product.

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Blog Post | Consumer Protection

CFPB says 1 in 5 credit scores sold to consumers have "meaningful" differences from scores lenders use | Ed Mierzwinski

CFPB has confirmed what consumer advocates have been saying all along - credit scores heavily marketed to consumers aren't the same as those used by lenders.

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Blog Post | Consumer Protection

Parties Take a Stand for an Open Internet In 2012 | Jon Fox

There is at least one issue that both parties seem to agree on during this election cycle – that the Internet should remain free and open.

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Blog Post | Consumer Protection

California AG Launches New Privacy Enforcement and Protection Unit | Jon Fox

CALPIRG applauds the creation of the Privacy Enforcement and Protection Unit in the Department of Justice.

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Blog Post | Consumer Protection

FTC Offers Consumers Tips on Unwanted Robocalls | Jon Fox

FTC Offers Consumers Tips on How to Respond to Unwanted Robocalls + Helpful Video.

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News Release | U.S. PIRG Education Fund

Deadly infant products sold after recalls at T.J. Maxx, Marshalls, HomeGoods

The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) announced today that discount stores T.J. Maxx, Marshalls and HomeGoods sold 19 different recalled products to consumers between 2014 and 2019. In the case of five products, the stores’ parent company TJX initiated the recall. The products included the Rock ‘N Play and Kids II inclined infant sleepers, which are responsible for a number of fatalities, rattles that can break and pose a choking hazard, and electronics that overheat or explode.

News Release | CALPIRG Education Fund

Trouble in Toyland demonstrates how to protect kids from unsafe toys still for sale

Hundreds of thousands of children go to the emergency room every year because of toy-related injuries. To help ensure kids’ safety, CALPIRG Education Fund is releasing its 34th-annual Trouble in Toyland report, which identifies dangerous products still for sale in 2019 and provides tips for parents and gift-givers. 

News Release | U.S. PIRG Education Fund

New study outlines issues, case studies and remedies for U.S. recycling across the country

Recycling challenges vary across the country, but, overall, states are failing to both reduce unnecessary waste and adjust to a changing recycling landscape, according to a new study from U.S. PIRG Education Fund and Environment America Research & Policy Center.

News Release | U.S. PIRG

CDC estimates at least 35,000 die from drug-resistant infections annually

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released its new Antibiotic Resistance Threats in the United States report, which estimates at least 35,000 Americans die annually from infections that antibiotics can no longer effectively treat.

News Release | U.S. PIRG Education Fund

Nestle cookie dough recalled, may contain pieces of rubber

  • Trouble In Toyland
    Our report highlights the toys that have been recently recalled, explains the hazards they pose, and shines a spotlight on those that may still be available for sale online.
    Get the tips
  • Why are health experts alarmed?
    More than 93% of doctors are concerned about the overuse of antibiotics on factory farms, yet factory farms still use up to 70% of all antibiotics sold in the U.S.
    Learn why
  • Reclaim our democracy
    Our democracy is based on the principle of one person, one vote, but our research shows the increasing dominance of big money in our elections.
    Get The Facts
  • PROTECT YOURSELF
    We've created consumer tips to help protect you from unfair bank fees, identity theft, loan rip-offs and more.
    Get The Tips

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