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Blog Post | Solid Waste

Microsoft corrects course on Right to Repair | Aaron Colonnese

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Blog Post | Consumer Protection

How I started my estate and end-of-life planning | Mike Litt

Until recently, I did not have estate and end-of-life planning in mind, but it was the natural next step in my quest to be a responsible adult, with a nudge from the existential threat of the COVID-19 pandemic.

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News Release | US PIRG Education Fund | Consumer Tips

Onions identified as cause of nationwide Salmonella outbreak

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said Wednesday evening that a nationwide Salmonella outbreak stems at least in part from whole onions imported from Chihuahua, Mexico, and distributed in this country by ProSource Inc.

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Blog Post | Consumer Protection

Resources I used to prepare my advance directive | Mike Litt

Advance directives are legal instructions that include a living will (different from a regular will) and a health care proxy. In them, you state what treatments you do or don’t want at the end of your life and who you want making health care decisions for you if you can’t. 

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Blog Post | Antibiotics

It's time for McDonald's to keep its promise and help save our antibiotics | Aaron Colonnese

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News Release | US PIRG Education Fund | Consumer Tips

Onions identified as cause of nationwide Salmonella outbreak

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said Wednesday evening that a nationwide Salmonella outbreak stems at least in part from whole onions imported from Chihuahua, Mexico, and distributed in this country by ProSource Inc.

> Keep Reading
News Release | US PIRG Education Fund | Consumer Tips

Consumer guide: tips to help consumers avoid cars damaged by flood water

The current shortage of used cars on the market -- and correlated increased prices -- could make consumers more desperate and vulnerable to falling for a bad deal.

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News Release | U.S. PIRG | Consumer Protection

Statement: A true consumer’s champ clears hurdle to serve as CFPB director

Rohit Chopra will be the new director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB). By a vote of 50-48 on Thursday, the Senate confirmed that the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) commissioner will take on the top position at the CFPB. 

Mike Litt, U.S. PIRG’s consumer campaign director, issued the following statement.

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News Release | U.S. PIRG Education Fund | Antibiotics

PIRG Education Fund urges McDonald’s to meet commitment to reduce antibiotic use in beef supply

 PIRG Education Fund is calling on McDonald’s, the single largest purchaser of beef in the United States, to fulfill its commitment to reduce antibiotic use in its beef supply chain. 

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Result | Democracy

Delivering one million petitions to President Obama on dark money

U.S. PIRG joined a broad coalition to deliver one million petitions from Americans, including U.S. PIRG members and supporters, calling on President Obama to shine a light on dark money, or secret political spending.

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Result | Consumer Protection

30 years of toy safety

For the past thirty years, our sister organization U.S. PIRG Education Fund has taken a close look at the safety of toys sold in stores. Their reports have led to more than 150 regulatory actions. In November 2015, they released our 30th annual Trouble in Toyland report.

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Result | Democracy

Giving more Americans a greater voice in our elections

In our democracy, the size of your wallet shouldn’t determine the volume of your voice. In 2015, we helped win reforms in Maine and Seattle to ensure that more Americans have a greater say in our elections. Seattle’s Initiative-122 empowers small donors with “democracy vouchers” that can be donated to local candidates and lowers the cap on contributions. In Maine, the state’s Clean Elections Act was improved by strengthening campaign finance disclosure laws and offering qualifying candidates increased public funding.

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Result | Public Health

Convincing McDonald’s and Subway to protect public health

In 2015, bolstered by the support of more than 100,000 members and supporters, we convinced both McDonald’s and Subway to take action to protect public health. In March, just two days after we delivered more than 30,000 petitions to McDonald’s headquarters, the company announced that they would stop serving chicken raised on medically-important antibiotics. And in October, after more than 100,000 called on the chain to take action, Subway announced a similar policy for all the meat they serve.

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Result | Higher Ed

Protecting students from unfair bank fees

We helped win protections for students from unfair fees associated with campus bank accounts. The new rules, released by the U.S. Department of Education, ban some of the worst and most predatory fees that students encounter from banks.

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Report | U.S. PIRG Education Fund | Consumer Tips

Make the ringing stop

Research by PIRG Education Fund shows that among 49 of the largest phone companies nationwide (those that can serve 1 million or more), only 16 have reported to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) that they have completely implemented anti-robocall technology. What does this mean? It means the industry isn’t doing nearly as much as hoped to fight the crime that for years has caused so much heartache and aggravation among consumers nationwide.

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Report | US PIRG Education Fund | Antibiotics

Chain Reaction VI

The Chain Reaction VI report and scorecard ranks America’s top restaurant chains on their policies relating to antibiotic use in their beef supply chains. 

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Report | U.S. PIRG Education Fund

Looking Inward

We surveyed nearly 1,000 personal care products from 26 popular cosmetics companies and scored them on ingredient safety and disclosure. The major takeaway: most companies need to do a lot more to inform their customers about what ingredients are in their products.

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Report | U.S. PIRG Education Fund

Warranties in the Void II

An updated survey of warranties from 43 companies finding all tell customers they void warranties for independent repair. The continued problem of warranties wearing thin underscores the need for action on Right to Repair.

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Report | US PIRG Education Fund | COVID-19

Nursing home safety during COVID: Staff shortages

For most of last year, more than 200,000 people at any given time were in nursing homes that themselves acknowledged they were suffering from staff shortages.

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Blog Post | Solid Waste

Microsoft corrects course on Right to Repair | Aaron Colonnese

> Keep Reading
Blog Post | Consumer Protection

How I started my estate and end-of-life planning | Mike Litt

Until recently, I did not have estate and end-of-life planning in mind, but it was the natural next step in my quest to be a responsible adult, with a nudge from the existential threat of the COVID-19 pandemic.

> Keep Reading
Blog Post | Consumer Protection

Resources I used to prepare my advance directive | Mike Litt

Advance directives are legal instructions that include a living will (different from a regular will) and a health care proxy. In them, you state what treatments you do or don’t want at the end of your life and who you want making health care decisions for you if you can’t. 

> Keep Reading
Blog Post | Antibiotics

It's time for McDonald's to keep its promise and help save our antibiotics | Aaron Colonnese

> Keep Reading
Blog Post | Consumer Tips

How to spot fake online reviews | Hannah Rhodes

With the overwhelming number of reviews found both on website listings and social media, we pulled together the best tips to spot fake reviews when shopping online.

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Blog Post

House Oversight Committee finds Juul targeting kids

Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi got right to the point as he opened a House committee's first hearing on the role of Juul in the teen vaping epidemic.

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Blog Post | Antibiotics

Taco Bell the latest chain to reduce antibiotics in its meat supply

You might know Taco Bell for silly ads asking you to "think outside the bun." But the company is getting serious about at least one thing: reducing the overuse of antibiotics.

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Blog Post | Public Health

Amazon: Take responsibility for unsafe products

Most of us expect that the products we buy in stores are safe to use. It turns out that's not always the case with Amazon. 

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Blog Post

Rather than require warning labels for Roundup, Trump administration moves to prohibit them

Does the public have a right to know that researchers for the World Health Organization say the widely used herbicide Roundup is a probable carcinogen?

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Blog Post | Consumer Protection

In the wake of the Capital One data breach, Ed Mierzwinski and Adam Garber explain how to protect your credit

Were you affected by the Capital One breach, one of the largest thefts of data from any bank to date?

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Pages

Blog Post

Microsoft corrects course on Right to Repair

Blog Post

How I started my estate and end-of-life planning

Until recently, I did not have estate and end-of-life planning in mind, but it was the natural next step in my quest to be a responsible adult, with a nudge from the existential threat of the COVID-19 pandemic.

News Release | US PIRG Education Fund

Onions identified as cause of nationwide Salmonella outbreak

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said Wednesday evening that a nationwide Salmonella outbreak stems at least in part from whole onions imported from Chihuahua, Mexico, and distributed in this country by ProSource Inc.

Blog Post

Resources I used to prepare my advance directive

Advance directives are legal instructions that include a living will (different from a regular will) and a health care proxy. In them, you state what treatments you do or don’t want at the end of your life and who you want making health care decisions for you if you can’t. 

News Release | U.S. PIRG

STATEMENT: U.S. PIRG applauds HHS proposed rules on arbitration guidelines in No Surprises Act

Solid Waste

Microsoft corrects course on Right to Repair

Tech giant Microsoft is finally listening to the thousands of Americans who want the right to repair their stuff. The company has announced a commitment to research the benefits of making repair tools and documentation available beyond its authorized repair network, and to then act on those findings by the end of 2022.

 

Antibiotics

It's time for McDonald's to keep its promise and help save our antibiotics

Back in 2018, PIRG helped convince McDonald's to make a plan for cutting down on the overuse of medically important antibiotics (a practice that makes antibiotic-resistant diseases more common) in its beef supply chain. McDonald's said it would set reduction targets by the end of 2020 — but the fast food giant still has yet to follow through.

 

Solid Waste

Trash in America

The United States produces too much waste. Find out more about what’s in our trash, where it goes — and what we should do with it.

 

Public Health

Somehow, asbestos is still legally allowed in products in the U.S. This bill would change that.

PIRG is urging Congress to pass the Alan Reinstein Ban Asbestos Now Act of 2021, a bipartisan bill that would prohibit the manufacturing, processing or distribution of asbestos and any products that contain it.

 
  • STOP THE OVERUSE OF ANTIBIOTICS
    The World Health Organization has identified antibiotic resistance as one of the top 10 global health threats. That's why reducing antibiotic overuse in food production is so important.
    TAKE ACTION
  • How safe is our food?
    Nationwide recalls ranging from romaine lettuce to millions of pounds of beef to Ritz and Goldfish crackers underscore that there’s a growing public health crisis we need to address.
    Find out
  • WATCH OUT FOR UNSAFE TOYS
    Our “Trouble in Toyland” report found boron in slime, choking hazards without the proper warning labels, “connected” toys that pose a privacy risk and more.
    GET THE FACTS
  • HOW IS THIS EVEN POSSIBLE?
    One year after Equifax announced the worst data breach in history, a U.S. House committee has recommended weakening data breach laws. Tell Congress to protect Americans, not Equifax.
    TAKE ACTION

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