California moves forward on GM food labeling

Attempts to provide clear and honest labeling have failed in many states and with the federal government, but California is always going to be different. The state is large enough to have a national impact if it succeeds so this will be an issue to follow. In a country where so many politicians love to brag about American's having so many consumer choices, it should be an easy win.

If it weren't for the high cost of political campaigns, maybe it would be an easier win. Unfortunately that's not the case so the anti-consumer choice campaign has many deep pockets supporting the un-American campaign.

Thanks to a highly successful petition campaign, California voters will be able to choose whether or not to clear mark food labels so consumers know what they are eating. How is that anything but fair for everyone? Bloomberg:

A petition was signed by 971,126 people, 75 percent more than the minimum needed for a statewide vote concurrent with the Nov. 6 general election, the Oakland-based California Right to Know campaign said today in a statement. State certification of the signatures followed by approval from 50 percent of voters would make the proposal law.

“The right to know is as American as apple pie,” Gary Ruskin, an Oakland-based manager for the campaign, said in an April 30 interview. “Monsanto and some other chemical and agricultural biotech companies are desperate to keep the public in the dark about what is really in their food.”

The California movement is mobilizing consumer unease over modified ingredients, which are found in about 80 percent of processed foods in the U.S. according to the Grocery Manufacturers Association. The campaign is the best chance for biotech labeling in the U.S. after the failure of similar bills in 19 states and the rejection of a petition to the Food and Drug Administration last month, Ruskin said.

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The return of mad cow in the US?

Let's hope this is an isolated incident and nothing more. Besides the obvious health impact, this is likely to have a negative impact on US beef exports not to mention a slow down in the US.

Clifford, the government's chief veterinary officer at the agriculture department, had quickly called his counterparts in Mexico and Canada, the first and second-largest buyers of U.S. beef, to tell them about a California cow found to have an "atypical" type of the brain-wasting disease. Having taken up his post in May 2004, just six months after the first U.S. case of Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy was discovered, he knows that sharing information quickly during the next 24 hours -- and in the weeks ahead -- will be vital for reassuring consumers, both domestic and foreign. "It's critically important for the trust and continuing of the trade between those countries," Clifford said in an interview, trying to pre-empt concerns about the nation's herd that could send the multi-billion U.S. industry into another tailspin.

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FDA proposes "voluntary" reductions of antibiotics for animals

Rx photo via
Shutterstock

Because "demanding" such a reasonable request would sound too socialist?

When cows were first given antibiotics decades ago, consumers were told it would never have an impact on humans. We now know that the drugs such as antibiotics and steroids given to animals do impact humans. That's why there's a problem with some antibiotics no longer working on humans, and why an increasing number of young girls have breasts far before their time.

Kindly asking industry to do the right thing is weak, and ignores the real world problems (it also ignores the fact that the administration asked Wall Street to do the right thing and how did that work out for them?). But hey, it's not socialist and the administration wants to avoid that tag at all costs.

The Food and Drug Administration called on drug companies Wednesday to help limit the use of antibiotics in farm animals, a decades-old practice that scientists say has contributed to a surge in dangerous, drug-resistant bacteria.

Antibiotic drugs like penicillin are routinely mixed with animal feed and water to help livestock, pigs and chickens put on weight and stay healthy in crowded barns. Scientists have warned that such use leads to the growth of antibiotic-resistant germs that can be passed on to humans.

The FDA has struggled for decades with how to tackle the problem because the powerful agriculture industry argues the drugs are a key part of modern meat production.

Joe reports on AMERICAblog Gay that rather than require federal contractors not discriminate against gays, the administration is simply going to "urge" them not to discriminate. Good luck with that. Read the rest of this post...

US cellphone carriers agree to disable stolen phones

Remember when the US used to be the leader rather than the follower? Permanently shutting down cell phones that have been stolen - in ordert to make them useless, and thus not worth stealing - has been the practice in Europe and Australia already but the US mobile carriers are never keen to do much of anything that might benefit their customers. Why? Because they rarely have to thanks to a bought Congress. It's almost a miracle that anything like this has even happened.

Overdue, but thanks to Senator Schumer for this one.

U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer said in a statement late Monday that major cellphone carriers and the Federal Communications Commission have agreed to set up a database of identification numbers that are unique to each phone.

Using the list, cellular carriers will be able to permanently disable a phone once it's been reported stolen. Until now, U.S. carriers have only been disabling so-called "SIM" cards, which can be swapped in and out. That's enabled a black market to exist for stolen phones.

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Voluntary labeling for Pink Slime?

The Obama administration has had it's positive moments for food safety, but between sending the USDA Undersecretary to a Pink Slime/GOP photo op and now only allowing voluntary labeling of Pink Slime, I have to wonder. Shouldn't consumers have the right to know if the food they are purchasing is Pink Slime? Let the Republican Pink Slime businesses invest their own money in marketing the product and winning over consumers if it's such a great product, but let consumers know what they are purchasing.

Forget about "allowing" and make this mandatory.

As consumers clamor for more transparency about the beef product dubbed “pink slime,” federal agriculture officials have agreed to allow several meat producers to list the stuff on package labels.

That means grocery shoppers soon could know whether some packages of ground beef contain the ammonia-treated meat that has been at the heart of a controversy that has shuttered plants, scuttled jobs and sparked uproar over the contents of the nation’s hamburgers.

Dirk Fillpot, a spokesman for the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s food safety branch, said Tuesday he could not identify the firms that sought labeling changes, or even say how many were involved. He only confirmed that the agency has received voluntary requests from beef firms to change their labels to indicate it contains lean finely textured beef, or LFTB.

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Sen. Collins calls for new, independent health study for TSA porno-scanners

Life has been pretty easy at the TSA so far. Despite easy ways to beat the scanners, leaving creepy notes in luggage of a woman traveling with a sex toy and turning the porno-scanners into a peep show, nobody in Washington has bothered to call out the TSA much. Give credit to Senator Collins for calling their bluff this time. She requested a new health study and the TSA responded with an old study. ProPublica:

A new report from the inspector general of the Department of Homeland Security is likely to fan rather than extinguish the debate over the safety of X-ray body scanners deployed at airports across the country.

Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, and other lawmakers have called on the Transportation Security Administration to conduct a new, independent health study. No such tests were carried out for the report, which instead relied on previous radiation tests, most of which have been available on TSA’s website.

But the 28-page report also notes that not all TSA screeners have completed required radiation safety training. Inspectors found inconsistencies in how the machines are calibrated to ensure radiation safety and image quality. And the TSA made more than 3,500 maintenance calls in the first year the scanners were deployed, meaning that, on average, each machine needed service more than once a month.

Once again, everyone wants travelers to be safe, but that also includes safety from technology that has reportedly had issues. The training and maintenance of the porno-scanners has been inconsistent, so getting it right is not bad for anyone. Read the rest of this post...

GOP lines up to support Wall Street over Main Street, again

Some things will never change. The Democrats have been no strangers to helping Wall Street (Obama continues to rake in more money from Wall Street than all of the GOP candidates combines) but on this occasion, it's the GOP who is blocking efforts to help out the middle class. If Obama really wants his candidate for consumer protection, he's going to have to make this a public fight. He failed to support Elizabeth Warren so this time, he needs to find a way to make it work.

Can the Republicans ever do anything besides say "no" to everything? LA Times:

This isn't about making the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau more accountable. It's about holding the president's nominee hostage until Republicans can deliver a more business-friendly regulator to their deep-pocketed corporate backers.

The agency is charged with protecting consumers from rapacious credit card companies, mortgage lenders, payday loan firms and other businesses that aren't always known for their consumer-friendly ways.

Creation of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau was fought every step of the way by banks and other financial services firms, which argued that a new industry overseer was unnecessary, despite the fact that unscrupulous lending practices drove the global economy to the brink of ruin and fostered the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression.

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Aussie mobile carriers have simple code to shut stolen phones

So besides being good for the business of selling new phones, why don't US mobile operators do the same? Doesn't this make sense for consumers? It's time to start showing some respect for consumers again. Consumers carry the US economy, but they continue to be treated like low grade dog food for the corporate world.

But American phone companies aren't doing that. When asked why, representatives from Sprint, Verizon and AT&T instead touted their apps to locate a lost phone or wipe out a SIM card. But that's not the issue. Petty thieves ditch the SIM card immediately. That doesn't shut down the phone.

Australia uses something akin to a serial number, basically a 15-digit fingerprint found on every phone. That number is transmitted every time the phone is used. A database crosschecks the number and blocks service to anyone who uses a stolen phone. The service is free to cellular customers.

When American carriers are asked why they don't do the same, there is a lot of huffing and puffing and hand waving, but none of it is very convincing. Frankly, the carriers don't gain anything from putting in this service, and actually add customers if someone signs up a stolen phone with them. As for the phone companies, every stolen phone is a potential new sale.

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It’s easy to steal your ATM pin, and easy to stop it - why won’t US banks fix it?

The image is of an ATM skimmer. This is a device that a fraudster sticks onto an ATM machine that captures the magnetic stripe data and pin code typed in. The data is then used to create bogus cards that are sold to petty criminals.


Skimmers come in all shapes and sizes, Brian Krebs (who I took this photo from) has a whole gallery you can check out.

Now before going any further, I should point out that banking security is my main business, or rather was before the crash. Chances are that sometime today you will use a security system I had a part in designing.

I lost interest in banking security after the crash because security is all about risk management and the crash proved that the banks were doing a lousy job at managing the risks they were meant to understand. According to estimates based on my conversations with bank security staff and information from financial reports etc., Internet related fraud costs US banks approximately $1 billion a year of which about a quarter is actual losses and the rest is the cost of dealing with the fraud. A billion dollars sounds a lot of money because it is a lot of money. But the banks managed to blow over a trillion dollars because it turned out they had been mismanaging the risk of mortgage lending for decades.

Technology exists that could make ATM skimming impossible. There is a little chip embedded in the card that implements a cryptographic protocol which allows the card to prove that it is genuine without revealing the secret key used to generate the proof. The banks in France have been using this technology for twenty years and recently the same technology was deployed throughout Europe to secure credit card payments (Chip and PIN).

There are several reasons that US banks have not followed the European's lead. But the biggest difference is the lack of government leadership in the US. The Bush administration was as uninterested in the actual business of governing as the banks were in banking. The US has 10,000 banks. The costs and benefits of deploying Chip and PIN would fall on different banks. Without strong government leadership it only takes one bank to scream 'anti-trust' to collapse an industry-wide initiative.

The result of US government inaction is that organized crime is currently stealing a quarter billion dollars from US banks who pass that cost (plus markup) onto consumers. It also means that anyone with a US bank account is finding it increasingly difficult to use a credit card outside the US.

PS There's another result.  US credit cards are increasingly not accepted abroad - they simply don't work.  I've had my card refused by a hospital emergency room (that was fun) among other places. Read the rest of this post...

Obama: consumer protection 'held hostage' by GOP

A more combative attitude would have been better during the Elizabeth Warren days but it doesn't hurt that Obama is fighting for something now. Everyone knows that the Republicans are soft on Wall Street abuse so more Democrats should be pressuring the GOP on this issue.

The White House charged on Thursday that the nomination of President Barack Obama's choice to head a new consumer financial protection agency was being "held hostage" by Republicans as it sought to tap into public anger at Wall Street excess.

Trying to ratchet up pressure on Republicans who have blocked Richard Cordray's Senate confirmation, administration officials insisted Americans would be denied full safeguards against abusive business practices until he is in place as director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

Obama and his aides have struck an increasingly populist tone as he steps up his 2012 re-election campaign against the backdrop of protests against corporate greed and economic inequality that began weeks ago in New York and have spread to other cities.

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Bank of America Web Site down, coincidence or hacked?

Nobody seems to know why the Bank of America Web Site has been down. Was it due to hackers irate at the new $5 debit card fee or is the timing of the outage merely coincidence?

From a security point of view it does not actually matter. If the site it down, it is down. For a major commerce site to suffer an unscheduled outage of this type is a major embarrassment no matter what the cause. That your Web sites are down because you did not plan enough capacity or redundancy does not make it OK.

As a security specialist, I have worked in the payments sector from time to time. The effort by the Fed to reduce the fees charged by banks to merchants was completely justified in my view. The charges that are made through the debit card network should carry absolutely no credit risk for the bank and the fraud risk is entirely the fault of the banks for their bad choice of security technology. Neither risk is sufficient to justify even the 22 cent per transaction fee that will be allowed after the Fed mandated cut. The 44 cents charged is utterly ludicrous.

The Chip and Pin system deployed in Europe and many other parts of the world has practically eliminated card present fraud at a cost of about $1 per card issued plus some infrastructure. There are technical flaws in the particular scheme deployed that I would prefer to see fixed, but it has proved more than sufficient to dramatically reduce fraud.

My email inbox is currently stuffed with mendacious emails on this topic from K-Street lobbyists and their astroturf fronts. Like many a campaign hatched on K-Street it seems to be more about furthering the interests of the lobbyists than their clients. The Republican shills running this campaign will win kudos in their party hierarchy and be rewarded with invitations to prestigious functions, but if they had an ounce of honesty they would have told their client that the effort is futile and will only damage them.

The change in the interchange fee only applies to banks with over $10B in assets. Thus it is unlikely that the smaller banks will be charging fees and the probability that BofA will actually follow through and charge the fee is practically nil. Read the rest of this post...

Cosmetics adverts in UK stopped because of airbrushing

The airbrushing in advertising has become so ridiculous that pancake makeup looks natural compared to them. There's nothing wrong with seeing people age or seeing real people. False advertising is false advertising.

L'Oréal has been forced to pull ad campaigns featuring Pretty Woman star Julia Roberts and supermodel Christy Turlington, after the advertising watchdog upheld complaints by Liberal Democrat MP Jo Swinson that the images were overly airbrushed.

Swinson, who has waged a long-running campaign against "overly perfected and unrealistic images" of women in adverts, lodged complaints with the Advertising Standards Authority about the magazine campaigns for L'Oréal-owned brands Lancôme and Maybelline. The ASA ruled that both ads breached the advertising standards code for exaggeration and being misleading and banned them from future publication.

L'Oréal's two-page ad featuring Roberts, who is the face of Lancôme, promoted a foundation called Teint Miracle, which it claims creates a "natural light" that emanates from beautiful skin. It was shot by renowned fashion photographer Mario Testino. The ad for Maybelline featured Turlington promoting a foundation called The Eraser, which is claimed to be an "anti-ageing" product. In the ad, parts of Turlington's face are shown covered by the foundation while other parts are not, in order to show the effects of the product.

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Verizon refuses to provide itemized bill until forced by judge

So besides outrageously expensive services that are years behind other countries around the world, they're also a bunch of jerks. But we knew that already. It's thanks to their deep connections in Congress that they can get away with such behavior.

A woman, who called Verizon to try to find out about the $4.19 she was being charged for six local calls, was told by Verizon reps that the only way it would provide her an itemized bill was to get a lawyer and have the lawyer get a subpoena to force Verizon to disclose the information.

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Sony hacked again

Maybe Sony should start thinking about security for their customers.

Sony has been hit by a second massive data breach, hackers claim, another potential embarrassment for a company that is struggling to restore its image following the loss of millions of credit card numbers through its PlayStation Network.

The hackers, who call themselves LulzSec, said they pulled off what they described as an elementary attack to highlight Sony's "disgraceful" security.

"Every bit of data we took wasn't encrypted. Sony stored over 1,000,000 passwords of its customers in plaintext, which means it's just a matter of taking it," LulzSec said in a statement. "They were asking for it."

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Cell phones to be listed as carcinogenic alongside DDT?

Let's see what the cell phone industry lobbyists have to say about this.

An international panel of experts says cellphones are possibly carcinogenic to humans after reviewing details from dozens of published studies.

The statement was issued in Lyon, France, on Tuesday by the International Agency for Research on Cancer after a weeklong meeting of experts. They reviewed possible links between cancer and the type of electromagnetic radiation found in cellphones, microwaves and radar.

The agency is the cancer arm of the World Health Organization and the assessment now goes to WHO and national health agencies for possible guidance on cellphone use.

The group classified cellphones in category 2B, meaning they are possibly carcinogenic to humans. Other substances in that category include the pesticide DDT and gasoline engine exhaust.

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Sony admits personal data for another 25 million was lost

Personal responsibility somehow is always limited to individuals. Why do politicians demand responsibility from people - usually those most in need - but the corporations get a pass? This is yet another headache (possibly much worse) for consumers but at least this time the shafting has not been done by the banks. The Guardian:

The crisis at Sony deepened on Tuesday as it admitted that an extra 25 million customers who played games on its Sony Online Entertainment (SOE) PC games network have had their personal details stolen – and that they were taken before the theft of 77 million peoples' details on the PlayStation Network (PSN).

The electronics giant said the names, addresses, emails, birth dates, phone numbers and other information from PC games customers were stolen from its servers as well as an "outdated database" from 2007 which contained details of around 23,400 people outside the US. That includes 10,700 direct debit records for customers in Austria, Germany, the Netherlands and Spain, Sony said.

The dataset was stolen on 16 and 17 April, before the PSN break-in, which occurred from 17 to 19 April. Sony said that it had not previously thought that the data was copied by the hackers who broke into its systems.

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Do Republicans want Americans to die in airline crashes?

Call me crazy but I would rather have a rested pilot instead of a tired one. Maybe there's a grass roots movement screaming for less airline safety but then again, maybe it's the same old corporate boot-licking by the GOP. Bloomberg

:A U.S. rule to require more rest for airline pilots may stall under a proposal adopted by the House, according to cockpit crews, lawmakers and other plan opponents.

The 215-209 vote today in Washington requires that the Federal Aviation Administration, before issuing any rules, consider alternatives, differing industry segments and adverse effects on the economy. The provision was added to legislation that will fund the FAA for four years, which the House also approved, 223-196.

The proposal will ensure rules “are not overly burdensome” and “based on the best available science,” Representative Bill Shuster, the Pennsylvania Republican who wrote the plan, said yesterday on the House floor.

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The war on Elizabeth Warren

Elizabeth Warren, Special Advisor for the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, recently testified before Congress (pdf), and the Republicans went after her in force. (Why is she the Special Advisor and not Director? It's complicated; or not.)

Here's Paul Krugman on the subject of Warren's recent testimony:

Last week, at a House hearing on financial institutions and consumer credit, Republicans lined up to grill and attack Elizabeth Warren, the law professor and bankruptcy expert who is in charge of setting up the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Ostensibly, they believed that Ms. Warren had overstepped her legal authority by helping state attorneys general put together a proposed settlement with mortgage servicers, which are charged with a number of abuses.

But the accusations made no sense. Since when is it illegal for a federal official to talk with state officials, giving them the benefit of her expertise? Anyway, everyone knew that the real purpose of the attack on Ms. Warren was to ensure that neither she nor anyone with similar views ends up actually protecting consumers. ... For people like Ms. Warren — people who warned that we were heading for a debt crisis before it happened — threaten, by their very existence, attempts by conservatives to sustain their antiregulation dogma. Such people must therefore be demonized, using whatever tools are at hand.

Note that Krugman says "conservative dogma," not "Republican dogma." Well done.

This Republican questioning is not just a shot across Warren's bow, but across Obama's as well, since at some point the people's Fierce Advocate will have to appoint a Director for the Bureau.

So what about Obama? After heaping much praise on Ms. Warren, Krugman says this:

The interesting question now is whether the Obama administration will see the war on Elizabeth Warren for what it is: a second chance to change public perceptions.

In retrospect, the financial crisis of 2008 was a missed opportunity. Yes, the White House succeeded in passing significant new financial regulation. But for whatever reason, it failed to change the terms of debate: bankers and the disaster they wrought have faded from view, and Republicans are back to denouncing the evils of regulation[.] ... By the sheer craziness of their attacks on Ms. Warren, however, Republicans are offering the administration a perfect opportunity to revive the debate over financial reform, not to mention highlighting exactly who’s really in Wall Street’s pocket these days. And that’s an opportunity the White House should welcome.

To which economist Simon Johnson adds:

The next big political battle in Washington – after the budget debate is declared “over” – will likely feature the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, in particular the fight to determine whether Elizabeth Warren can become as the agency’s first official head. ... But before you set aside time in the early summer for potentially gripping television from Capitol Hill, Ms. Warren has to get past Secretary Geithner.

If anything, Mr. Geithner at this stage is more pro-banking lobby than even [House Republican chair of the House Financial Services Committee, Spencer] Bachus. During the Dodd-Frank reform debate, Mr. Geithner would frequently argue that “capital, capital, capital” was all we really needed to fix the financial system. ...

President Obama missed his best opportunity to reform the financial system when advisers – including Mr. Geithner – recommended that he defer to the top 13 bankers in March 2009. His team further punted when they failed to push for real change in spring and summer 2010, when the financial legislation was before the Senate. Mr. Geithner and his people were instrumental in defeating the Brown-Kaufman Amendment[.] ... Will Mr. Geithner go for the trifecta?

It seems Mr. Krugman is hopeful that suggesting a course of action to the president might create a good result. It seems that Mr. Johnson is less so. I agree with Johnson.

So I suggest a course of action to you: (1) Pre-emptively remind Mr. Election Coming Up, ahead of her nomination or hearings, that his support for her might strongly influence your support of him. (2) Watch to see if Warren is nominated. (3) If she is, watch to see if she is supported.

And by "his support for her" I mean not just "his success at nominating her" — I mean the President actually pulling out all the stops and trying this time to win the battle, instead of relying on that pesky but ever-popular "I kind of sort of half-heartedly tried at the last minute but they just wouldn't let me." Because as Chris in Paris has already noted, that ship sailed long ago.

A polite letter addressed to the White House might be the best route; pen-and-ink beats electrons, for the obvious reason.

GP Read the rest of this post...

Barney Frank calls out Obama on Elizabeth Warren

Are people actually still debating whether Obama has the stomach for a fight of any kind? That ship sailed long ago. In fact, it never left dock. The Hill:

President Obama may not be willing to endure the ideological battle that would result from nominating Elizabeth Warren to head the new consumer protection agency, a top Democrat said Monday.

Rep. Barney Frank (Mass.), who co-authored the law creating the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, said that if she were nominated, Warren might not be confirmed to head the agency. While Frank argued that's a fight worth having, he cautioned that the president might disagree.

"I think the president is too unwilling to make the kind of fights that don't necessarily win. And I'm not sure she couldn't be [confirmed]," he said on MSNBC's "Morning Joe" program.

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Apple sued for passing consumer details to advertisers via Apps

When is enough enough for Apple?

Apple Inc., making of the iPhone and iPad, was accused in a lawsuit of allowing applications for those devices to transmit users’ personal information to advertising networks without customers’ consent.

The complaint, which seeks class action, or group, status, was filed on Dec. 23 in federal court in San Jose, California. The suit claims Cupertino, California-based Apple’s iPhones and iPads are encoded with identifying devices that allow advertising networks to track what applications users download, how frequently they’re used and for how long.

“Some apps are also selling additional information to ad networks, including users’ location, age, gender, income, ethnicity, sexual orientation and political views,” according to the suit.

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