The state of Washington and the City of Seattle filed separate lawsuits today against Purdue Pharma, maker of controversial opioid pain medication OxyContin, alleging that the drug company lied to doctors, regulators, and the public about the efficacy and safety of a drug that many place at the center of the ongoing opioid epidemic. [More]
Government Policy
Child Makes Adorable Case In Favor Of Toys ‘R’ Us
By 9.27.17
The filings in bankruptcy cases, especially large and complex ones, tend to be long and not terribly exciting reading. You can find important bits of information like store closing lists and gift card policies, but what one doesn’t expect to find among thousands of pages of legal forms is a handwritten letter from a child defending a chain retailer with 866 stores. [More]
GOP Leadership Says There Will Be No Senate Vote On Latest Obamacare Repeal Bill
By 9.26.17
Facing implacable opposition and a Sept. 30 deadline to pass a bill to repeal and replace large chunks of the Affordable Care Act, the Republican leadership in the Senate has decided not to vote on a measure that seemed destined to come up short of passage. [More]
Budget Office: Obamacare Repeal Bill Will Leave Millions Without Quality Health Insurance
By 9.25.17
As expected, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office has released a preliminary analysis of the Senate Republicans’ latest bill to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act, and while the CBO did not have the time to provide the in-depth projections about how the legislation would affect insurance coverage, it does indicate that millions of additional Americans will be without quality health insurance if the bill passes. [More]
The 5 Best Parts From John Oliver’s Report On Corporate Mergers
By 9.25.17
You don’t have to read the business pages to know that recent decades have resulted in massive corporate consolidation. Whether it’s air travel, wireless service, internet, banking, or eyeglasses, a number of industries have enjoyed such merger mania that only a few national competitors remain. [More]
Senate Leadership Tries To Sweeten Obamacare Replacement Bill To Gain Support
By 9.25.17
The surprise hit show of the summer, “No, Seriously, What The Heck Is Going On With Congress And Healthcare, Though?” is back for the fall season. And in our latest episode, Republican leadership in the Senate is making last-minute changes to the latest Affordable Care Act replacement bill in a targeted effort to win over reluctant GOP lawmakers before their Sept. 30 deadline. [More]
Latest Obamacare Repeal Bill Would Gut Medicaid For Dozens Of States; Opposition Rising Inside Senate
By 9.22.17
The last-ditch proposal to effectively repeal the Affordable Care Act remains deeply unpopular, even while Senate Republicans try to rally the votes to make it happen. And in the midst of all that politicking, a new federal analysis shows that several of the states whose Senators’ votes leadership is trying to curry could be badly hurt by the bill. [More]
More Regular Hotels Discover The Joy Of Charging ‘Resort Fees’ For Normal Amenities
By 9.22.17
Travelers don’t necessarily expect to see resort fees, or extra expenses added to their bills for things that other hotels include in the bill, when staying at a hotel. It turns out, however, that this is an increasingly common practice. It lets hotels advertise lower rates and impose fees when guests get there. [More]
App That Promised To Pay Users For Fitness Trapped Some On Erroneous Payment Treadmill
By 9.22.17
The mobile app GymPact, later known as Pact, was a tool that gave users a financial incentive to exercise, eat fruits and vegetables, and to log what they ate. Only the Federal Trade Commission claims that Pact users were charged when they weren’t supposed to be, and some lost hundreds of dollars in a negative-option mess that they couldn’t cancel. [More]
CPSC Inches Closer To Possible Ban On New And Potentially Dangerous Flame Retardants
By 9.21.17 — Updated: 9.22.17
Flame retardants in our furniture, clothing, and electronics seem like a positive thing, right? Generally, no one wants their home or their clothes — or their kids’ clothes — to catch fire. Yet the Consumer Product Safety Commission had safety in mind when it voted yesterday to start rulemaking that could outlaw a new type of flame retardants from use on certain products. [More]
Everyone Hates Newest Obamacare Repeal Bill; Senate Plans Vote Next Week Anyway
By 9.21.17
After a politically chaotic summer where their first attempt met a dramatic late-night demise, Republican members of the Senate are mounting one last effort to repeal the Affordable Care Act. Basically every major stakeholder in the country has announced its opposition to the new bill, but the Senate is racing to squeeze in a vote before a hard deadline at the end of the month just the same. [More]
Senate Plans Meaningless Hearing On Obamacare Repeal Bill
By 9.19.17
One of the reasons that the effort to repeal the Affordable Care Act met a dramatic late-night demise in July was the criticism that GOP lawmakers held no actual hearings on this matter that could directly impact many millions of Americans. As Republican senators look to make one last try at repeal before their clock runs out, legislators are finally holding their first, but ultimately pointless, public hearing on healthcare. [More]
In Wake Of Equifax Hack, New York Wants Assurances From Experian, TransUnion
By 9.19.17
The Equifax data breach compromised personal information for some 143 million Americans, but there are still two other major credit bureaus — Experian and TransUnion — whose digital vaults are filled with the same sensitive info. New York’s top prosecutor is now asking these companies to explain how they won’t be the next source of a massive consumer data leak. [More]
Young Living Sentenced For Harvesting Essential Oils From Endangered Plants
By 9.19.17
Essential oils come from exotic plants all over the world, but do the companies selling these oils have the proper permits to import and sell the products made from them? The company Young Living has been sentenced for importing rosewood oil and spikenard oil without permission, and must pay $760,000 for importing the products without permits. [More]
Senate May Vote On Latest Obamacare Repeal Bill Without Knowing How Many People It Will Affect
By 9.19.17
Lawmakers on Capitol Hill have only a short window of time to vote on the latest Republican legislation to gut and replace the Affordable Care Act, and if the GOP is going to push forward with a vote on this bill they will likely have to do so without having an idea of how many Americans will be affected, or what impact it might have on insurance rates. [More]
California ISP Privacy Bill Stalls Out After Heavy Pushback From Industry
By 9.18.17 — Updated: 9.19.17
There is no federal-level law protecting your private web data from your internet-providing company anymore, and there likely won’t be a replacement anytime soon. So some states are trying to take matters into their own hands. But the latest, last-ditch effort in the tech capital of the U.S. has failed, after strong pushback from the very companies it would regulate. [More]
Sen. Elizabeth Warren Introduces Bill That Would Make Credit Freezes Free
By 9.15.17
In the wake of the the massive Equifax customer data breach, many consumers are wondering: Why, exactly, should we be paying the credit bureaus for credit freezes or monitoring when it was one of them that just lost all our personal data? Two U.S. Senators are wondering that, too, and have now introduced a bill to fix it. [More]
Senate Republicans Making One Last Effort To Take Down Obamacare
By 9.15.17
Yes, again: After spending the spring and summer trying and failing to repeal the Affordable Care Act, Republicans in the Senate have come up with one last Hail-Mary bill to take down the ACA and revamp American healthcare. [More]
