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Blog Post | Consumer Tips, COVID-19, Consumer Protection

Choosing the best way to pay: Cash, credit cards, debit cards, P2P, checks or online payments | Teresa Murray

Here’s a guide to your rights depending on how you pay

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Blog Post | Consumer Tips, COVID-19, Transportation

Riding a bus, subway or rideshare? Here’s a look at safety measures adopted to combat COVID-19 | Jacob van Cleef

From mask mandates to capacity limits, the largest public transit systems and ride share companies have new procedures

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Blog Post | Consumer Tips, COVID-19, Consumer Protection

Six questions to ask before allowing a contractor into your home during the COVID-19 pandemic | Jacob van Cleef

Being proactive and demanding can help keep you and your family safe

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Blog Post | Consumer Tips, COVID-19, Higher Ed

Safe Travel Information for College Students and Parents

As parents and students make trips across the country to return to college, you are probably wondering how to do so safely during the COVID-19 pandemic. This guide will outline some of the safer options.

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Blog Post | Consumer Tips, COVID-19, Higher Ed

Tips on what to pack for college during the COVID-19 pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic presents a whole new situation for college students. This guide outlines items that students should pack when they return to campus.

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News Release | Public Health, Consumer Protection

L'Oréal: Pledge to Be Toxic-Free

Today, MASSPIRG Education Fund, Campaign for Safe Cosmetics (a project of Breast Cancer Prevention Partners (BCPP)), and Safer Chemicals Healthy Families delivered more than 150,000 petition signatures calling on the multinational cosmetic giant L’Oréal USA to eliminate cancer causing chemicals and to disclose its secret “fragrance” chemicals. 

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Media Hit | Public Health, Consumer Protection

High lead levels found in water at hundreds of schools

Hundreds of Massachusetts schools found to have lead in drinking water.

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News Release | MASSPIRG | Consumer Protection

Latest CFPB Complaints Report Shows 316% Increase in Student Loan Servicing Complaints for Massachusetts Students

United States House of Representatives Financial Services Chairman Jeb Hensarling (TX) will hold a Wednesday hearing on his so-called Financial Choice Act 2.0.  The bill leaves Massachusetts consumers and our economy even more vulnerable to Wall Street's recklessness than before the '08 crisis by taking aim at all of the 2010 Dodd-Frank Act’s protections caused by unfair bank practices abetted by regulatory failures.

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News Release | MASSPIRG | Consumer Protection

New report from leading consumer group shows millions are victims of aggressive tactics from medical debt collectors

MASSPIRG, released the ninth in a series of reports that review complaints to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB).  The latest report explores consumer complaints about medical debt, a major source of problems for consumers, since medical debt items on credit reports are often wrong or about the wrong consumer.  The report also demonstrates the need to defend the CFPB from partisan and special interest attacks.

 

 

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Media Hit | Transportation

MA transportation system is falling behind

Massachusetts transportation infastructure in need of significant repair and investment.

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Report | Consumer Protection

CVS: Takes a Licking and Keeps on Overcharging

Analysis of new state data shows that CVS is the still the most penalized retailer in the Commonwealth when it comes to violating state pricing law – and gets caught for illegal overcharges more than its main national competitors, Walgreens and Rite Aid.

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Report | MASSPIRG | Budget, Financial Reform, Tax

Tax Shell Game

Many of the largest corporations in our country hide profits made in the United States in offshore shell companies and sham headquarters in order to avoid paying billions in federal taxes.

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Report | Transportation

Private Roads, Public Costs

A growing number of states are considering arrangements in which a private operator provides an up-front payoff or builds a new road in return for decades of escalating toll receipts. The report assesses these deals and identifies a number of problems.

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Report | Health Care

Health Care in Crisis

Our health care system is in crisis. Without swift action, that crisis could threaten every Massachusetts family’s health and finances.

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Report | Transportation

Economic Stimulus or Simply More Misguided Spending?

The economic recovery package will present an opportunity to advance widely recognized, new transportation priorities for the 21st century. It will be up to Congress, the Obama Administration, and the states to make sure that happens. So far, however, too many of the states are off to a troubling start.

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Blog Post | Transportation

PIRG's Phineas Baxandall to speak at the Harvard Kennedy School | Kirstie Pecci

“Transportation and the New Generation: Is the Driving Boom Over?" 

Wed, Nov 20 4:30-6:00pm Taubman 401 (HKS)

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Blog Post | Budget, Financial Reform, Tax

You're Invited to "We're not Broke" | Deirdre Cummings

MASSPIRG Invites you to a special screening of the new movie We're Not Broke
Thursday, Oct. 18  -  6:30 PM - Harvard Kennedy School
Wiener Auditorium, Ground Floor of the Taubman Building, 79 JFK Street, Cambridge

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News Release | MASSPIRG Education Fund

Report: Airlines’ refund policies, scheduling problems irk flyers

MASSPIRG Education Fund finds flyers’ complaints increased by 460 percent from February 2020 to August 2021.

Report | MASSPIRG Education Fund

Not First Class: Flyer complaints soar as airlines cancel flights, deny refunds, ruin plans

Analysis of more than 200,000 complaints shows which airlines and airports do best and worst.

News Release | MASSPIRG Education Fund

Virtual forum to discuss how to communicate about COVID-19 vaccines and overcome misinformation

News Release | MASSPIRG Education Fund

New holiday cooking safety guide offers tips on how to avoid unhealthy air pollution from gas stoves

BOSTON -- The holiday season often entails spending a lot of hours in the kitchen cooking. As millions of Americans prepare holiday meals to share with their families, a new guide from PIRG’s research partner PIRG Education Fund offers tips on how to minimize unhealthy air pollution from cooking with gas in your home. Without proper precautions, too much exposure to a gas stove can lead to an unnecessary and invisible health risk, since gas stoves can cause elevated levels of indoor pollution that would exceed legal limits for outdoor air.

News Release | U.S. PIRG Education Fund

Medical professionals urge McDonald’s to reduce antibiotic use in its beef supply chain

More than 125 medical professionals organized by the U.S. PIRG Education Fund sent a letter to McDonald’s Thursday urging the company to meet its 2018 commitment to reduce antibiotic use in its beef supply chain. The coalition delivered the letter at the start of World Antibiotic Awareness Week to stress the urgency of taking action to stop overusing our life-saving medicines in agriculture. Otherwise, the drugs may no longer heal sick people. 

  • 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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MASSPIRG Education Fund is part of The Public Interest Network, which operates and supports organizations committed to a shared vision of a better world and a strategic approach to social change.