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Blog Post | Consumer Tips, COVID-19

Online shopping tips: Don't let last-minute desperation make you careless | Jacob van Cleef

Here's some advice to help keep your information and wallet safe

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Blog Post | Consumer Tips

Gift Guide: How to avoid toxics in beauty products | Gina Werdel

Gifting beauty products to family and friends this holiday season? Here's a guide to purchasing safer beauty products.

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News Release | US PIRG | Consumer Tips, COVID-19

Money for nothing: Paying the same car insurance while driving less during the pandemic

While COVID-19 is causing financial difficulties for tens of millions of Americans, auto insurers nationwide have made tens of billions of dollars in profit because consumers have driven significantly less during the pandemic.

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Blog Post | Consumer Tips, COVID-19

Did your auto insurance company refund you enough for driving less this year? | Jacob van Cleef

State-by-state analysis shows companies financially benefited from fewer claims but barely compensated customers

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Blog Post | Solid Waste

16 ways to have a zero waste holiday in 2020 | Haley Clinton

With many cancelling annual gatherings, this is the year to think of ways to have a more sustainable, zero waste holiday season. Here are some ideas:

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News Release | US PIRG Education Fund | Consumer Protection

FTC settles first case against VoIP provider for allowing illegal robocalls

This FTC settlement must be a wake-up call to phone service providers so they do more to protect consumers. If not, the FTC must be vigilant in going after companies that enable the immoral practice of preying on consumers. And the FCC should require providers to block spoofed calls that we all know are scams.

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

Consumer complaints about COVID-19 fraud pass 200,000

Consumer complaints to the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) related to the coronavirus exceeded 200,000 on Thursday, Sept. 17, with a total of more than $140 million in fraud losses. This release summarizes actions by 15 federal agencies to stop fraud related to Covid-19 and offers consumer tips to report fraud and protect themselves against scams.

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News Release

Ruth Bader Ginsburg

A resolute dedication to democratic ideals coupled with the wisdom to recognize how and when to see the task through to completion: Advocates for all causes would do well to emulate the qualities that made Justice Ginsburg a truly historic figure. We offer our condolences to her children and grandchildren. The country she worked so hard to improve will miss her.

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News Release | U.S. PIRG

John Lewis, 1940-2020

John Lewis was an American hero.

Most people knew him as a champion of civil rights, whether as a young man marching for freedom on the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma in 1965 or serving as the “conscience of the Congress” for the past 33 years. Yet John Lewis was also a dependable ally on public interest issues, a tenacious advocate of voting reform and open government, consumer protection and a healthy environment.

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

Consumer advice: Ask for help with your bills before an emergency

This coming Monday, June 1, will mark the third full month that bills are due since COVID-19 was declared a national state of emergency in March. To help Americans manage their finances, U.S. PIRG Education Fund has published an updated guide with tips on what to do about paying bills during the crisis.

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Report | U.S. PIRG Education Fund | Transportation

Paying for Electric Buses

Most of America’s school and transit buses run on diesel, a highly-polluting fuel, but there is a better option. All-electric buses are here, and they’re cleaner, healthier and save money for transit agencies, school districts and bus contractors to run in the long-term. 

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Report | U.S. PIRG Education Fund

A Citizen's Guide to Reducing Energy Waste

The future is here—but we’re living in the past.

Clean energy from the sun and wind can provide for our energy needs without the global consequences of pollution, yet we’re still producing and consuming virtually all of our energy in ways that do lasting damage to our environment, our health and our climate. To make matters worse, much of the dirty energy we produce goes to waste.

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Report | MontPIRG Education Fund | Public Health

Safer School Supplies: Shopping Guide

With this Safer School Supplies: Shopping Guide, parents, teachers, and students can make more informed decisions while shopping for school supplies this Back to School season. We want to give parents and teachers the option to choose school supplies that do not contain toxic chemicals. This Shopping Guide should serve as a handy tool for finding products free of several types of toxic chemicals.

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Report | U.S. PIRG Education Fund | Transportation

Highway Boondoggles 4

America's infrastructure is in rough shape. Many of our roads, bridges, and transit systems are aging and in need of repair. Yet, year after year, state and local governments propose billions of dollars' worth of new and expanded highways that do little to reduce congestion or address real transportation challenges, while diverting scarce funding from repairs and 21st century priorities. This report profiles nine highway projects that epitomize the need for a fresh approach to transportation spending.

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Report | U.S. PIRG Education Fund | Financial Reform

Debt Collectors

Report: Our latest report based on the CFPB's public Consumer Complaint database reviews the most-complained about debt collectors. Funny, a new CFPB complaint "snapshot" does not. The report comes as the CFPB's acting director threatens to make the database non-public. If the CFPB both shuts down the public database and continues to issue industry-friendly reports that don’t give out any real information, the public and marketplace harm is even greater.

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Blog Post | Consumer Tips, COVID-19

COVID-19 vaccines, tests and treatments are peddled in new scams | Teresa Murray

Con-artists are preying on people's fear of infection or desperation for money

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Blog Post | Public Health

Nursing homes across the country still need more PPE | Teresa Murray

It’s unconscionable that some of our most vulnerable populations and their caregivers are being put in such danger during a global pandemic. But it doesn’t have to be this way — not if our country acts right now to ramp up production and distribution of PPE to where it’s needed most.

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Blog Post | Transportation

Nader's "Unsafe At Any Speed" 55th Anniversary! | Ed Mierzwinski

Today, on the 55th anniversary of Ralph Nader's landmark "Unsafe at Any Speed," about the built-in dangers of 1960s cars, as exemplified by the General Motors Corvair, his colleagues led by Joan Claybrook have published a new report: "Safer Vehicles and Highways: 4.2 million U.S. Lives Spared Since 1966." The report makes recommendations to President-elect Joe Biden about how to revitalize and strengthen the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, which Claybrook ran during the Jimmy Carter administration.

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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 | Gina Werdel

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

U.S. PIRG endorses bipartisan bill to end hunger on college campuses

A bipartisan consensus is forming around at least one issue: battling hunger among college students.

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Blog Post

Right to Repair campaign pushes Apple to make some initial changes

Apple is starting to get the message: Growing numbers of consumers are done putting up with stuff they can't repair.

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Blog Post

PIRG calls for improvements in food recall system after CDC reports yet another E. coli outbreak

Here we go again: In April, another illness outbreak was tied to contaminated food, this time sickening over 170 people in Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Illinois, Kentucky, Minnesota, Ohio, Tennessee and Virginia.

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Blog Post

After U.S. PIRG Education Fund report, Wells Fargo eliminates some student debit card fees

After MontPIRG reported on problems in its debit card practices, Wells Fargo took steps to eliminate some "surprise" fees on student cards.

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Blog Post

We're calling on Wendy's to 'Hold the Antibiotics' from its beef supply chain

How can the country's third-largest burger chain help save the cornerstone of modern medicine? By buying only beef raised without the routine use of antibiotics.

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Pages

Blog Post

Nursing homes still don’t have enough masks, gowns and other PPE

Shortages improved during the fall but worsened in December

News Release | US PIRG

Nursing homes still don’t have enough masks, gowns, other PPE

A new analysis by the U.S. PIRG Education Fund and Frontier Group found that 8 percent of nursing homes nationwide had a critical shortage of surgical-grade N95 masks, as of Dec. 27. And 4 to 6 percent of homes reported shortages in at least one other category of PPE.

News Release | U.S. PIRG

Statement: CFPB Director Kathy Kraninger resigns

Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Director Kathy Kraninger submitted her resignation Wednesday soon after the inauguration of new President Joe Biden. Resignation opens seat for President Biden’s new nominee Rohit Chopra.

News Release | U.S. PIRG

Statement: COVID-19 deaths reach another grim milestone: 400,000

The number of U.S. deaths attributed to the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic surpassed 400,000 on Tuesday, according to Johns Hopkins University.

News Release | U.S. PIRG

Statement: USPIRG applauds Biden nominees Chopra to head CFPB and Gensler to chair SEC

President-elect Joe Biden announced Monday that he intends to nominate Rohit Chopra as Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) director and Gary Gensler as chair of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Financial Reform

Congressional override finally bans anonymous shell companies

From terrorist financing to Medicare fraud, anonymous shell companies have shielded the identities of wrongdoers and served as financial getaway cars for hiding dirty money. But in a historic override of a presidential veto, Congress has outlawed anonymous shell companies in the United States.

 

Health Care

Bipartisan bill to stop surprise medical billing becomes law

Americans will now be protected from surprise medical bills sent by out-of-network providers thanks to a new bipartisan law prohibiting "balance billing," where providers charge patients the difference between their fees and the maximum allowed by the patient's insurance.

 

Consumer Protection

General Motors recalls 7 million vehicles with exploding Takata airbags

The automaker announced it will recall 7 million large pickup trucks and SUVs built with potentially explosive Takata airbags, which have forced the recall of tens of millions of vehicles in the last 12 years and killed 18 people.

 

Consumer Tips

'Fixed for the Holidays' guide helps consumers save on refurbished electronics

Looking for a phone, laptop or tablet this holiday season? U.S. PIRG's guide gives consumers the scoop on refurbished electronics for Black Friday prices.

 
  • 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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