Consumers Union, the nonprofit publisher of Consumer Reports,and the Organic Consumers Association (OCA), today filed a petitionwith the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) requesting action on thewidespread and blatantly deceptive labeling practices of several“organic” personal care brands that do not comply with the NationalOrganic Program (NOP). For a copy of the complaint click here.
SenateDemocratic leaders should conduct an up or down vote on the creation ofan independent Consumer Financial Protection Agency on the Senatefloor, the co-directors of the Campaign for America’s Future saidFriday.
Amnesty International calledon President Obama today to quickly establish an Office of Maternal Healthto lead government action to reduce soaring pregnancy-related complicationsand maternal deaths nationwide. The human rights organization saidthe government must take immediate steps to stop the loss of two to threewomen every day and reduce the risk of complications that now affect one-thirdof all pregnant women - 1.7 million women a year.
The US government should train members of Indonesia's elite specialforces only if Indonesia takes sufficient steps toward accountabilityand reform to deter future abuses, Human Rights Watch said in twoletters released today.
Ahead of President Barack Obama's anticipated late-March trip toIndonesia, US officials have suggested that the Defense Department isseeking to provide training to members of Indonesia's special forces(Komando Pasukan Khusus, or Kopassus), an abusive force that includesindividuals implicated in serious human rights violations.
Wednesday, Vice President Joe Biden said: "I condemn the decision by the government of Israel to advance planning for new housing units in East Jerusalem." He also stated that the U.S. will hold Israel "accountable for any statements or actions that inflame tensions or prejudice the outcome of talks."
Yesterday,the Senate passed a bill (H.R. 4213) that would retroactively extendmany harmful subsidies for polluting corporations if it becomes law.
TheSenate bill differs significantly from a similar bill that passed theHouse of Representatives late last year in that the Senate versionwould extend tax breaks for liquid coal, refined coal, bioelectricityand other dirty energy. President Barack Obama has joined with the G20group of major industrialized countries in calling for an end to suchpolluter giveaways.
National Gay and Lesbian Task Force Action Fund ExecutiveDirector Rea Carey today called on federal lawmakers to amend the FairHousing Act to ban discrimination against lesbian, gay, bisexual andtransgender (LGBT) people.
Georgia took an important step today toward ensuring more reliable and predictable clean water supplies for today's communities and future generations. The senate unanimously passed the Georgia Water Stewardship Bill, and the house passed the bill 166-5.
The international medical humanitarian organization Doctors WithoutBorders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) today strongly objected to arecent statement by NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen, inwhich he implied that nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) should bethe "soft power" component to military strategy.
In conflict areas, MSF never works alongside, or partners with, anymilitary strategy. The organization's complete independence andneutrality is what helps negotiate access to populations in need ofemergency medical assistance.
TheEnvironmental Protection Agency (EPA) has agreed to consider how states canaddress ocean acidification under the Clean Water Act. The settlement respondsto a lawsuit brought by the Center for Biological Diversity that challengedEPA's failure to recognize the impacts of acidification on coastal waters offthe state of Washington. The suit, brought under the CleanWater Act, was the first to address ocean acidification.
The Coca-Cola company has continued tooperate its bottling plant in Kala Dera in Jaipur, India even as the areahas been declared a drought area last summer and the groundwater levelsare falling sharply - leaving the largely agrarian community withseverely restricted access to water.
Nobel Prize-winning economists and scientists will deliver a letterto the U.S. Senate today, urging lawmakers to require immediate cuts inglobal warming emissions. The letter was signed by more than 2,000prominent U.S.economists and climate scientists, including eight Nobel laureates, 32National Academy of Sciences members, 11 MacArthur "genius award"winners, and three National Medal of Science recipients.
TheSenate Judiciary Committee today voted to approve a bill that wouldmake much-needed changes to current cocaine sentencing laws. The bill,the Fair Sentencing Act, was introduced in its original form by SenatorRichard Durbin (D-IL) to completely eliminate the discriminatory 100 to1 disparity between crack and powder cocaine sentencing under federallaw. However, a compromise was reached with Republican committeemembers that does not completely eliminate the sentencing disparity butreduces it to a 20-1 ratio.
TheAmerican Civil Liberties Union today asked a federal court to order thegovernment to stop suppressing key information about the hundreds ofprisoners at Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan.
Ignoring calls from numerous critics, the New York Timesrefuses to own up to mistakes in the paper's coverage of the now-famousright-wing videotapes attacking the community organizing group ACORN.Instead, the paper's public editor, Clark Hoyt, is relying on an absurdsemantic justification in order to claim the paper does not need toprint any corrections.
"We welcome the WoodruffCounty, Arkansas court finding that German corporation Bayer CropScience‘intentionally' contaminated US rice supplies. We applaud the decisionrequiring the company to pay Lennie Joe Kyle, the farmer who suffered losseswhen his rice was contaminated with Bayer's genetically modified (GM) product,a total of US$1.3 million. This amount includes the first punitive damages forloss of future earnings ever awarded against Bayer."
Moments ago, the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee unanimously passed a bill that would reduce the sentencing disparity between federal crack and powder cocaine offenses.
The bipartisan vote to approve an amended version of Senator Richard Durbin's (D-Ill.) bill, S. 1789, acknowledging that disparate sentencing policies enacted for federal crack cocaine offenses in 1986 have had a negative impact on the nation's criminal justice system.
Medical humanitarian organization Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) is deeply concerned by the rapidly worsening situation in the isolated area of Hauts Plateaux in the region of Uvira, South Kivu, in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Thousands of civilians are trapped by conflict that has been raging in the area since the beginning of February 2010 between the Congolese army (FARDC), FDLR rebels and various armed groups.
Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER)
The federal culture of secrecy is alive and well despite pledges ofa new government transparency. Agencies are still bitterly resistingrequests and lawsuits for release of internal records under the Freedomof Information Act (FOIA), according to documents released today byPublic Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER).
With numerous states facing significant budget shortages, legislators and voters across the country this month have been giving overwhelming support to measures that would reduce the penalty for possession of small amounts of marijuana to a civil fine.
Yesterday in New Hampshire, the state House voted 214-137 to pass H.B. 1653, a bill that would reduce the penalty for possession of up to a quarter-ounce of marijuana with a civil fine of up to $200.
