THE WHITE HOUSE

Friends, Earlier today, the President highlighted new efforts to promote smart gun technology. For the first time, the Department of Justice is releasing a detailed description of the minimal technical requirements that law enforcement agencies expect from smart gun technology, which will help make sure that any smart gun technology available to law enforcement agencies is safe and reliable. Read President Obama’s Facebook post below, and learn more from a Department of Justice blog post here. Thank you for your continued efforts in making sure that our children and communities are safe from gun violence. “This week, as we continue to look for common ground on keeping our children and communities safe from gun violence, I wanted to share a letter from a woman in Poplar Bluff, Missouri. Sharron wrote to me in January, after I had announced a series of commonsense steps designed to reduce senseless gun violence in our country. One of those steps was boosting the development of gun safety technology – the kind of innovation that would reduce accidental deaths, the use of stolen guns in criminal activities, and other tragic shootings. It’s the kind of research and development that can lead to advances that can protect our kids consistent with the Second Amendment. Sharron is a Republican and a gun owner. And like the vast majority of the American people, including the vast majority of gun owners, she recognizes the importance of addressing the epidemic of gun violence in our country — which we can do through advances in technology. In the greatest, most technologically advanced nation on Earth, we should be using all the tools we have to keep people safe. We make sure children can’t open a bottle of aspirin – why wouldn’t we make sure that they can’t pull a trigger on a gun? That’s why today, I am proud to announce that the Department of Justice is releasing, for the first time, a detailed description of the minimum technical requirements that law enforcement agencies expect from smart gun technology. This will help make sure that any smart gun technology made available to law enforcement agencies is safe and reliable — and it’s a critical step toward jumpstarting the development of smart gun technology. A group of experts led by DOJ’s National Institute of Justice worked closely with law enforcement officers, firearms manufacturers, innovators, and other stakeholders across the country — as well as other experts from the Department of Justice, the Department of Homeland Security, and the Department of Defense – to develop these specifications. They’re not mandating that anyone buy or make guns with advanced safety technology – but these specifications chart a path forward for making that an option in the marketplace. As I’ve said before, we will never be able to stop every act of violence. But if we can take even one action, that saves even one life, we have an obligation to try. If we care about our kids and our country, we can find the courage to come together and take sensible actions to tackle our epidemic of gun violence. If we do, we’ll build a safer and stronger country that’s worthy of the memories of those we’ve lost and the lives we can still save.” — Bess Evans Senior Associate Director The White House | Office of Public Engagement

By CAP Action War Room

Let’s Be Clear: Trump Has No Plan For Working Families

On the last night of the Republican convention, Ivanka Trump introduced her father as leader on issues facing working women, including equal pay and child care—a Donald Trump that is utterly unrecognizable to anyone paying attention this cycle. Let’s be clear: Trump has a well-documented history of disparaging women, no public policy proposals for equal pay or child care, and a running mate, Gov. Mike Pence who has voted against equal pay legislation time and time again (not to mention enabling discrimination against women in the LGBT community). Here are just a few examples of Trump’s real positions:

• Trump’s campaign will not engage with women’s increased workforce participation in a meaningful way. To her credit, Ivanka made great points about the way the workforce has changed over the last few decades, actually citing CAP expert Sarah Jane Glynn’sanalysis that a growing share of American households have female breadwinners or co-breadwinners. But there is no evidence that Trump’s campaign intends to provide a comprehensive policy platform to address what working families need to have a shot at economic prosperity, including equal pay, child care, paid family and medical leave, paid sick leave, fair wages, and access to reproductive health care. In stark contrast to Ivanka’s claims about her father, Campaign Manager Paul Manafort argued earlier the same day that women will vote for Trump because they are worried about their husband’s paychecks supporting their lifestyles.
• Trump has no plan for equal pay, and his running mate is a strident opponent of equal pay legislation. Ivanka’s speech stated that Trump would “fight for equal pay for equal work,” but when asked about equal pay, Trump has dismissed the issue, saying women would make the same if they simply “do as good a job” as men in spite of overwhelming data showing that a lack of skills is not the cause of overall differencesin men and women’s pay. Indiana Gov. Mike Pence, who offers the campaigns only legislative record, consistently voted against vital equal pay legislation in Congress, including the Lily Ledbetter Fair Pay Act and the Paycheck Fairness Act. The gender pay gap is multifaceted, and we need a variety of policies in place to ensure pay transparency, protect workers who request pay information, research pay disparities along racial and ethnic lines, and target enforcement efforts—but Trump’s plan is just to tell women to work harder in a broken system.
• Ivanka’s claim that Trump pays female employees fairly is dubious at best. Ivanka said that Trump pays his employees fairly—but as ThinkProgress pointed out— salaries for the Trump Organization are not available publically and his campaign pays women much less than men. Publically available data on the Trump campaign’s salaries demonstrates that men are paid 35 percent more than women, and at least one staffer has filed a gender discrimination complaint for being paid half the amount of men with the same title.
• Trump’s campaign has shown zero interest in increasing access to high-quality, affordable child care. When asked about his child care plan, Trump has deflected the question, saying “It’s a big subject darling,” or said that private companies could opt just provide it on-site“with some blocks and swings”—instead of any federal policy. Perhaps needless to say, counting on private companies to voluntarily add on a child care center is a far cry from what working families need. Trump’s ideas offer nothing to the working families struggling to afford high-quality care—as child care costs continue to go up, and the cost of center-based care for an infant and a 4-year-old currently exceeds rent in every state. Additionally, Mike Pence has said that “day-care kids get the short end of the emotional stick” when mothers are in the workforce In contrast, presumptive Democratic Nominee Hillary Clinton offers a detailed step-by-step policy agenda to address quality, affordability, and access to child care, in addition to expanding pre-k to every 4-year-old in America.
• Trump has a well-documented history of disparaging women, especially working women. Ivanka claimed her father supports working mothers at the Trump Organization, but Trump’s own words and actions attest otherwise. When lawyer Elizabeth Beck explained needing to take a break to pump breastmilk for her 3-month-old-daughter, Trump stormed out of the room saying “you’re disgusting.” As famously pointed out by Megyn Kelly on the debate stage, Donald Trump has called women “fat pigs,” “dogs,” “slobs,” and “disgusting animals.” In response, Trump said she had “blood coming out of her wherever” and has since called her “sick” and “crazy” on twitter.

BOTTOM LINE: Trump’s campaign doesn’t have a plan for working families. Working families need comprehensive national solutions to pay equity and child care— which the campaign either lacks or outright opposes— but in order to ensure that working families have a fair shot at financial stability, families also need access to paid family and medical leave, paid sick days, a fair minimum wage, fair scheduling, and access to reproductive health care.

love & happiness … always

It’s Diabetes Awareness Month. As the number of people diagnosed with diabetes continues to grow, illegally marketed products promising to prevent, treat, and even cure diabetes are flooding the marketplace.   The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has advised consumers not to use such products—for many reasons. For example, they may contain harmful ingredients or may improperly be marketed as over-the-counter (OTC) products when they should be marketed as prescription products.
Read the Consumer Update to learn more.

House of Flavors, Inc., of Ludington, Mich., is voluntarily recalling a limited, affected portion of its Ashby’s Sterling Peanut Butter landslide Ice Cream. The product was made with peanut butter cookie dough, purchased from Aspen Hills, Inc., which has expanded its recall due to potential contamination with Listeria monocytogenes.

Cedar Crest Specialties, Inc. is recalling Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough, Monster Cookie and Pirate’s Bounty ice cream flavors, bearing the following Product Name, Product Code Dates, and container sizes:

 

Updated information is now available. A list of retail consignees has been posted for recall 106-2016, Schnuck Markets Inc. Recalls Ready-To-Eat Chicken Breast Products That May Be Undercooked (Nov 12, 2016).Schnuck Markets Inc. Recalls Ready-To-Eat Chicken Breast Products That May Be Undercooked Schnuck Markets Inc., O’Fallon, Mo. establishment, is recalling approximately 62 pounds of ready-to-eat grilled chicken products due to undercooking, resulting in the potential survival of bacterial pathogens in the products.

Chicago, IL – Weight Watchers Smart Ones Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Sundae frozen desserts is voluntarily being recalled due to possible Listeria monocytogenes contamination from Aspen Hills, Inc. Cookie Dough Pieces.

SHRI SHIVA Foods Inc. is recalling MTR Sambar Powder, Net Quantity: 200 g (LOT NO# 15J27C, MFD.27.10.15) because it may be contaminated with Salmonella, with Salmonella, an organism which can cause serious and sometimes fatal infections in young children, frail or elderly people, and others with weakened immune systems. Healthy persons infected with Salmonella often experience fever, diarrhea (which may be bloody), nausea,vomiting and abdominal pain

Chocolate Shoppe Ice Cream Company, Inc. of Madison, WI is recalling select ice cream products, because they were made with a chocolate chip cookie dough ingredient supplied by Aspen Hills, Inc., which has the potential to be contaminated with Listeria monocytogenes.

Ton Shen Health of Chicago, IL, is recalling its Life Rising brand “Side Head Regulator TT” Tablets because they have tested positive for elevated levels of lead for children under the age of 18. Lead is a naturally occurring element which can affect multiple body systems and is particularly harmful to young children.

Agave Dream of Palos Verdes Peninsula, CA is recalling all vanilla, chocolate, cappuccino, chocolate chip and lavender ice creams packaged in pint sized containers, because it has the potential to be contaminated with Listeria monocytogenes, an organism which can cause serious and sometimes fatal infections in young children, frail or elderly people, and others with weakened immune systems. Although healthy individuals may suffer only short-term symptoms such as high fever, severe headache, stiffness, nausea, abdominal pain and diarrhea, Listeria infection can cause miscarriages and stillbirths among pregnant women.

Water Lilies Food Inc. Recalls Egg Roll Product Due To Misbranding and Undeclared Allergens Water Lilies Food Inc., an Astonia, N.Y. establishment, is recalling approximately 1,710 pounds of egg roll product due to misbranding and an undeclared allergen. The product contains shrimp, a known allergen, which is not declared on the product label. Additionally, this item was mislabeled as pork egg rolls, when in fact, shrimp egg rolls were packaged.

Flavor Trade, LLC. Recalls Beef Products Produced Without Benefit of InspectionFlavor Trade, LLC., a Kansas City, Mo. establishment, is recalling approximately 741 pounds of beef jerky products that were produced without the benefit of federal inspection and used the USDA mark of inspection without authorization.  (This release is being reissued as an expansion of the Nov. 3, 2016 recall to include additional products and production dates.)

Cochlear Implants: A Different Kind of ‘Hearing’

 

McDonough, Georgia, Love My Tru Body McDonough, GA is voluntarily recalling all of Skinny Bee Diet 500 mg MFD: 03.07.2106 EXP: 03.06.2018 distributed March 23 – April 28, 2016 to the consumer level after FDA laboratory testing found Skinny Bee Diet to contain sibutramine, desmethylsibutramine, and/phenolphthalein.

ISB Food Group, LLC of Los Angeles, California is recalling Nancy’s Fancy Butterscotch Budino Gelato and Nancy’s Fancy Peanut Butter with Crunchy Peanuts Gelato with expiration dates of March 18, 2017, because they were produced in a co-packing facility that has the potential to be contaminated with Listeria monocytogenes, an organism which can cause serious and sometimes fatal infections in young children, frail or elderly people, and others with weakened immune systems. Although healthy individuals may suffer only short-term symptoms such as high fever, severe headache, stiffness, nausea, abdominal pain and diarrhea, Listeria infection can cause miscarriages and stillbirths among pregnant women

 

Los Angeles, CA – ISB Food Group, LLC is recalling L.A. Creamery Honeycomb ice cream and L.A. Creamery Salted Caramel ice cream with expiration dates of March 18, 2017, because they were produced in a co-packing facility that has the potential to be contaminated with Listeria monocytogenes, an organism which can cause serious and sometimes fatal infections in young children, frail or elderly people, and others with weakened immune systems.

 

Klement’s Sausage Company, Inc. Recalls Beef and Sausage Products Due To Possible Foreign Matter ContaminationKlement’s Sausage Company, Inc., a Milwaukee, Wis. establishment, is recalling approximately 1,689 pounds of beef and pork snack stick products that may be contaminated with extraneous materials.

McDonough, Georgia, Love My Tru Body McDonough, GA is voluntarily recalling all of Skinny Bee Diet 500 mg MFD: 03.07.2106 EXP: 03.06.2018 distributed March 23 – April 28, 2016 to the consumer level after FDA laboratory testing found Skinny Bee Diet to contain sibutramine, desmethylsibutramine, and/phenolphthalein.