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Blog Post | Transportation

All Americans Deserve Clean Air to Breathe, On Earth Day and Every Day | Sean Doyle

U.S. DOT asks if we should measure global warming pollution from transportation.

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News Release | MASSPIRG EDUCATION FUND | Consumer Protection

Framework for VW Settlement Announced

Statement by Deirdre Cummings, Consumer Program Director at MASSPIRG Education Fund, on today’s announced VW settlement.

Seven months after news of Volkswagen’s emission scandal broke, we're glad to hear that there is a 'framework' for a settlement in the cases related to VW's 567,000 fraudulently marketed, illegally polluting cars. This framework appears to include all of the elements that a deal should include, but the devil will be in the details.  

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News Release | U.S.PIRG Education Fund | Consumer Protection, Make VW Pay, Transportation

Framework for VW Settlement Announced

Statement by Mike Litt, Consumer Program Advocate at U.S. PIRG Education Fund, on todays announced VW settlement. For more details on what a strong settlement agreement ought to look like, please see the open letter that we released earlier this week with other consumer and environmental groups.

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News Release | U.S.PIRG Education Fund | Consumer Protection, Make VW Pay

Leading Groups Send Criteria for Evaluating VW Settlement

Four leading consumer, environmental, and public health organizations wrote an open letter in advance of the April 21st deadline set by U.S. District Judge Charles R. Breyer for a proposal that deals with Volkswagen’s emission scandal.

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News Release | MASSPIRG | Food

Taco Bell Moves Away From Chicken Raised on Medically Important Antibiotics

Taco Bell just announced that it will no longer serve chicken raised on medically important antibiotics in U.S. locations starting in 2017. The announcement comes amid widespread consumer demand and concern from the medical community over the overuse of antibiotics on livestock and poultry. Taco Bell’s announcement will put significant market pressure on the meat industry to stop overusing antibiotics and should set an example for its sister brands KFC and Pizza Hut to follow. 

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News Release | MASSPIRG Education Fund | Transportation

Keeping On Track -- Progress of Funding and Reforming Transportation in Massachusetts

Progress report shows good amount of transportation finance law has been implemented in first seven months but the amount of funding still insufficient to meet all of state's transportation needs.

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Media Hit | Consumer Protection, Food

Students to Stop and Shop: Label GMO Food

Consumers call on Stop and Shop to label GMO food.

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News Release | MASSPIRG EDUCATION FUND | Consumer Protection, Food

Consumers Call on Stop and Shop to Label GMOs, On Anniversary of Whole Foods Labeling Commitment

Consumer and health and food safety advocates launched a campaign calling on Stop and Shop to label its store-brand products for ingredients derived from genetically modified organisms (GMOs), on the one year anniversary of Whole Foods’ announcement that it will adopt labeling for all products in its stores.

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News Release | MASSPIRG EDUCATION FUND | Consumer Protection

Mistaken Identity Tops Debt Collection Complaints

Massachusetts Consumers Getting Relief through the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s Public Consumer Complaints Database

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Report | Center for Insurance Research | Consumer Protection

The Limitations of a Competitive Auto Insurance Market

Auto insurance markets are atypical. To illistrate this, it is helpful to compare the market for auto insurance with the market for refrigerators. The market for refridgerators is an excellent example of an efficient market. The auto insurance market, in sharp contrast, is a very inefficient one, at least from the consumer’s perspective, and is unlike most markets . .

 

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Report | Consumer Protection

Trouble in Toyland

Toys are safer than ever before, thanks to decades of work by product safety advocates and parents and the leadership of Congress, state legislatures and the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC). Nevertheless, as parents venture into crowded malls and browse for the perfect toy on the Internet this holiday season, they should remain vigilant about often hidden hazards posed by toys on store shelves.

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Report | Health Care

Paying the Price

Millions of uninsured and underinsured Americans struggle to afford the medicines they need, even forgoing medically necessary drugs when prices are out of reach. When discussing the high cost of prescription drugs, politicians often focus on the financial burden carried by senior citizens.

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Report | Consumer Protection, Democracy

The Failure Of Cable Deregulation

The Telecommunications Act of 1996 restructured the entire telecommunications industry and left virtually all cable subscribers without protection from unrestricted rate hikes.

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Report | Financial Reform

Who's Watching The Watchdogs?

Conflicts of interest and lack of independent funding have doomed both the national and state level accounting oversight systems in the United States. The state accounting boards and the network of overlapping, mostly self-regulatory federal accounting overseers act as classic regulators, serving management instead of serving investors and taxpayers.

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  • 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 and more fast food chains are going antibiotic-free, but if we want to protect our lifesaving medicines, we need all big chains to do their part.
    Learn More
  • 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
  • NO CAR? NO PROBLEM.
    Technology is making it ever easier to live a full and engaged life without owning a car. We ranked 70 large U.S. cities on just how easy it is. How did your city do?
    GET THE REPORT

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