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June 2003 << Home >> August 2003

July 31, 2003	15 Preguntas al Comprar un Teléfono Celular Los teléfonos inalámbricos y sus planes de pago varían constantemente y los contratos de servicio pueden ser difíciles de leer y comparar. La Unión de Consumidores aconseja que considere estas preguntas al buscar el mejor plan para usted.
July 30, 2003	Senate Energy Bill Would Harm Electricity Consumers Statement of CU's Adam Goldberg on the Senate's failure to protect consumers from Enron-style meltdowns in the energy bill.
July 29, 2003	CU Statement Regarding Mercury in Fish and Seafood Edward Groth, Senior Scientist at CU presents a statement at the FDA/EPA "Stakeholders Meeting" regarding federal dietary advice on methyl mercury in fish and seafood.
	CU Letter to the Senate Urging Support of Media Ownership Bills Letter to the Senate Urging Support for the FCC Media Ownership bills (S. 1046 and S.J. Res. 17). Also, attached are Wall Street Journal articles detailing some of the illogical results of the FCC’s recent decision on media ownership rules.
July 28, 2003	CU Urges CPSC to Ban Baby Bath Seats CU testified before the Consumer Product Safety Comm. urging it to take baby bath seats – responsible for 104 deaths since 1983 – off the market. CPSC staff are recommending that instead of banning the bath seats, a mandatory safety standard be put in place. CU believes the standard is inadequate to protect children from these inherently dangerous products.
July 25, 2003	Congress Should Help Consumers Pay Fair Prices For Prescription Drugs In voting for legislation that would make it legal for U.S. consumers to reimport lower priced drugs from Canada and Europe, Congress has opened the door to an option that could provide consumers with short-term relief from over-priced prescription drugs.
	Write Congress Now - Stop Media Giants From Gobbling Up More Local Media! By a vote of 400 to 21, the U.S. House of Representatives has voted to block new Federal Communications Commission regulations allowing media conglomerates to get even bigger. Now the Senate has to do the same. Keep the pressure on - write your Senators and Representative today; let them know you want to stop the big media power grab!
July 24, 2003	CU Urges Congress to Strengthen the Federal Credit Reporting Law Consumers Union is calling on Congress to strengthen the Federal Credit Reporting Act, a critically important law that fails to adequately protect consumers from identity theft and inaccurate credit reports.
	Consumers Union Urges California Public Utilities Commission To End "Cell Hell" For Consumers Statement of Janee Briesemeister, Consumers Union Senior Policy Analyst, on California Telecommunications Consumer Bill of Rights.
	CU: Manipulation of the Energy Markets Should Be Illegal Surprisingly, Enron-style manipulation of the energy market is not illegal under the Federal Power Act. CU is urging the U.S. Senate to make it illegal when it considers energy legislation this week.
July 23, 2003	House Votes 400-21 for Bill to Rollback Media Ownership Rules The House of Representatives voted 400-21 for an appropriations bill that includes language restoring limits on the number of broadcast television stations that media giants may own.
July 22, 2003	New Health Care Foundation Created in West Virginia Residents and health advocates applauded the creation and proposed funding for a new hospital conversion foundation in Logan, West Virginia. Organizing documents for the Logan Healthcare Foundation were filed marking the first step for the Foundation to fulfill its mission of improving the health status and access to care for the residents in the area surrounding Logan General Hospital.
	6.3 Million Texans May Be In For An Unpleasant Surprise Texas consumers may be in for a rude awakening when they start renewing their health insurance policies next January, as a result of mandated health benefits that were wiped out by the legislature this year.
July 21, 2003	Report: FCC Media Ownership Analysis Fundamentally Flawed A study by the Consumer Federation of America and Consumers Union finds the Federal Communications Commission has intentionally distorted its market analysis to allow more media consolidation
July 18, 2003	CU Unveils Enhanced Interactive Web Site CU today unveiled its enhanced, interactive advocacy web site. The site allows consumers to get involved in policy debates that shape the marketplace through its Take Action Center. Issues include health care, food safety, telecommunications, financial services, and product safety.
	Letter to the USDA Regarding Increased Testing for Mad Cow CU writes about the actions that the USDA should take in response to the discovery of a BSE case in Canada on May 20.
July 17, 2003	Congress Should Rein In Prescription Drug Costs Consumers Union testifies before Congress about how spiraling drug costs would keep Medicare beneficiaries out-of-pocket costs high. Find out what Congress should do to improve the legislation passed in June.
	Medicare prescription drug benefit: importance of curbing growth of prescription drug expenditures Whether your preferred method of providing Medicare prescription drug coverage is to expand the role of the private marketplace or to rely on an expanded governmental role, lower growth of expenditures make it is far easier to design a decent benefit. The rapid growth in prescription drug expenditures, combined with a modest Medicare prescription drug benefit, create a troubling reality for Medicare beneficiaries.
	CU Testifies Curbing Drug Costs is Key to Medicare Success Gail Shearer, Director, Health Policy Analysis at Consumers Union, testifies before the House Committee on Government Reform on the importance of including strong provisions to curb prescription drug costs as part of Medicare legislation.
July 16, 2003	California Enacts Law To Curb Auto Lending Mark-Ups On July 15, California Governor Gray Davis signed into law a new measure that will help deter auto dealers from charging hidden, excessive interest rates on loans that can add thousands of dollars to the cost of an auto purchase.
	Proposed Changes to Fair Credit Reporting Act Do Not Go Far Enough to Protect Consumers The House Committee on Financial Services marked up H.R. 2622, the 'Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act of 2003.' Even as currently amended, the bill does not go far enough to protect consumers from identity theft, and it may not substantially improve the accuracy of consumers' vital personal financial information.
	House Committee Soundly Rejects FCC’s Weakening Of Media Ownership Rules In a big victory for grassroots efforts against media giantism, the House Appropriations Committee has voted to overturn the FCC’s effort to weaken media ownership rules.
July 15, 2003	Consumer Groups Urge Congress to Roll Back FCC Media Deregulation Fifty-five national and state organizations called upon Congress to support legislation that would rollback the Federal Communications Commission's recent deregulation of the nation's media markets.
July 14, 2003	Bill Capping Hospital Rates For Uninsured Gains Momentum in California California legislation aimed at helping the uninsured obtain needed health care without facing financial ruin won the support of a key legislative committee earlier this month.
July 11, 2003	CU Praises New California Homeowners Insurance Protections Consumers Union applauded California Insurance Commissioner John Garamendi for taking steps to protect homeowners from abusive insurance industry practices and urged other states to adopt similar rules.
	Congress should reject privatization of Medicare and enact prescription drug legislation that benefits consumers The House and the Senate will soon begin negotitations to reconcile the Medicare prescription drug bills passed in June. Find out which provisions should be kept and which should be rejected -- and learn how the skimpy benefits in both bills will shortchange consumers.
	Write Congress Now! Stop Medicare Privatization; Enact A Real Prescription Drug Benefit! Congress is working on a Medicare prescription drug bill. Find out more about what the skimpy benefits they’re considering mean for you and let your Senators and Representative know that you want a real prescription drug benefit, without privatizing Medicare.
July 09, 2003	CU Testimony Regarding RID-SPAM Act CU testimony before the House Judiciary and the House Energy Committee detailing the problem of SPAM. Every time we open up our email inboxes we are confronted with exactly how bad things have gotten.
	Consumer Reports Conducts Test to Bring the Truth about Irradiated Meat CR bought more than 500 packages of meat in 60 cities for the largest retail test of its kind to check claims made by meat retailers about irradiated meats.
	Consumer Reports Shows You How to Stop Spam from Stalking You The battle between those who send unsolicited e-mail advertisements, commonly known as spam, and those blocking them has become an arms race. On one side are hordes of spammers finding ways to penetrate consumers' inboxes. On the losing side are Internet providers with industrial-strength spam-blocking software, organizations that blacklist spammers, and consumers armed with retail spam-blocking programs.
July 08, 2003	Opposition Motion to the Patients First Act of 2003 The full Senate is scheduled to vote on this motion July 9. There have been no Senate hearings on S. 11 or on previous Senate medical malpractice bills introduced this Congress. CU believes it is wrong for the Senate to move to the floor an issue as complex as medical malpractice without the benefit of hearings in which all sides of the issue can be aired.
	CU: FCC Report Shows Cable Rates Skyrocketing Gene Kimmelman, Senior Director of Public Policy and Advocacy at CU, said the following in response to the annual report on cable industry prices issued today by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC).
July 07, 2003	Irradiated Foods Consumers Union believes that irradiated food should be properly labeled as such and that labels such as "cold pasteurized" are misleading to consumers. Read more about how Congress directed the FDA to come up with alternative labeling and ways you can contact the proper agencies.
July 02, 2003	CU Reaction to FCC Report and Order on Media Ownership Statement by Gene Kimmelman of the Washington, DC office expressing disappointment with the FCC's final report on media ownership.
	Study: Payday Lenders Continue to Ignore State Laws Related To Fees and Protections Consumers Union issued the attached survey and news release on the current status of payday lenders in Texas. The survey shows that payday lenders continue to ignore rules capping fees and setting conditions on loan renewals.
July 01, 2003	CA Assembly Health Committee OKs Ephedra Ban A proposed California ban on the sale of dietary supplements containing ephedra cleared a critical hurdle on July 1 when it was approved by the Assembly Health Committee.
	Comments before the FCC Regarding News Corp/DirecTV Merger CU and Consumer Federation of America have concerns about News Corporation/Fox Entertainment Group proposal to purchase controlling stake in Hughes Electronics Corporation/DirecTV.
	300,000 Signatures Collected for CA Consumer Privacy Measure While efforts to win financial privacy protections have been stymied in the state legislature, the campaign to qualify a reform measure for the state ballot is picking up steam.
	CU Hails UN Standards on Genetically Engineered Food Consumers Union hailed the adoption earlier of three sets of standards regarding safety of genetically modified (GM) food by the Codex Alimentarius Commission, the UN food standards agency which is meeting in Rome this week.

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