Consumer Advocates Continue to Push Funeral Homes on Price Transparency
Many funeral homes don't post prices for their services online, making it difficult for consumers to comparison shop.
Consumer Protection
Writer: Hillel Aron
Recent Stories
Toll Continues to Mount for Pedestrians and Bicyclists, the Victims in One in Five Traffic Deaths
While walking and bicycling have been promoted as ways to get healthy exercise while reducing traffic congestion, air pollution and carbon emissions, the death toll for pedestrians and cyclists has risen sharply. Pedestrian and bicyclist deaths are now about 20 percent of all U.S. traffic fatalities.
Consumer Protection
Serious Concerns Raised Over FDA’s Capacity to Inspect Overseas Drug Makers
With the U.S. increasingly dependent on foreign manufacturers for prescription and generic drugs, the Food and Drug Administration's problem-plagued efforts to inspect overseas plants are under growing scrutiny.
Environment
Dirty Air and the Human Brain: Does Pollution Poison the Mind?
Air pollution is known to be a serious health risk – a cause of asthma, heart disease, stroke, lung cancer and a factor, according to the World Health Organization, in an estimated seven million deaths worldwide every year. A growing body of research suggests air pollution may also be harming our brains. In recent years, new areas of study have opened up into how air pollution might affect our minds and the way we think and feel. Epidemiologists and neuroscientists have found evidence linking long-term exposure
Environment
Frustrated Advocates Increasingly Turn to the Courts to Fight Climate Change
A rising tide of climate-related lawsuits across the U.S. could represent an important new front in the fight to limit harm from a warming planet, and force energy companies to foot the bill for measures to address it. But against the staunch opposition of energy producers and federal agencies also targeted in some of the suits, it's uncertain how much impact the litigation will have.
Warning Wire
Is the National Rifle Association a Foreign Asset?
An 18-month probe by Democrats on the Senate Finance Committee produced a report, provocatively titled: "The NRA and Russia: How a Tax-Exempt Organization Became a Foreign Asset." It accuses NRA officers, board members and donors of helping to facilitate Russia's illegal influence campaign during the 2016 presidential race.
Environment
Even at Legal Levels, Contaminants Found in Tap Water Are a Cancer Risk
A recent study found that contaminants in tap water could cause 100,000 cases of cancer over the course of 70 years.
Labor
Lawsuit Takes Aim at Sheltered Workshops, Where Disabled Workers Make Far Less than Minimum Wage
An 81-year-old labor law allows certain companies to pay disabled workers less than minimum wage. Some make pennies an hour.
Consumer Protection
There’s Been an Uptick in the Use of the Crackpot Cure, Miracle Mineral Solution
People are still taking Miracle Mineral Solution, a toxic chemical compound that purports to cure everything from cancer to autism.
Consumer Protection
Alcohol Causes Cancer. Should There Be a Warning Label on Bottles and Cans?
There's a broad scientific consensus that alcohol is a carcinogen. Now some advocates want alcoholic beverages to come with cancer warning labels.