Tag Archives: Chris Meyer

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It was just chicken salad…


Policy and Action from Consumer Reports

It won’t be easy. But we can do this.Our antibiotics must work when your family needs them. And that means taking on some of the biggest power players in the marketplace. Your tax-deductible, year-end donation will help us take the fight to them.

Donate Now!

At 15, Sam was on the top of the world. He pitched varsity baseball as a freshman, sprouted three inches in the off-season. Pro scouts even came calling.

Then he ate a chicken caesar salad that changed his life.

Within three days Sam was headed to the emergency room doubled over in a diaper. Sickened with antibiotic-resistant bacteria common to chicken, he was bleeding and wasting away. Drug after drug was tried. Each failed. His parents were frantic. A month later when his infection was finally under control, Sam lost 30 pounds and couldn’t jog without wheezing. His pitching career was over.

This is our reality – a strapping Midwestern teen taken down by a ‘superbug’ in his chicken salad. The rapid rise in antibiotic-resistant bacteria is so serious, the CDC warns that unless we act soon, it may be too late. Which is why we need your help now to get the attention of those who can fix this.

Your $10 tax-deductible donation will go directly to getting politicians and industry to face up to our antibiotic crisis!

We’re up against some of the biggest power players in the marketplace – the giant industrial meat producers. They already use 80 percent of antibiotics sold, and want to keep feeding them to food animals so they’ll grow bigger and survive cramped, filthy conditions. Last week’s FDA move to voluntarily re-label animal antibiotics is expected to have only a small impact on overall use.

This overuse is spawning drug-resistant bacteria that make their way into our food and the environment. At least 23,000 Americans die each year. So we’re unleashing consumer power to stop this unnecessary use.

We’re pressuring Congress and health officials to take emergency action to stop antibiotic overuse in food production. We’re pushing a leading national grocery chain – Trader Joe’s – to lead the marketplace and stop selling antibiotic-raised meat. We’re testing supermarket meat at Consumer Reports labs to discover how widespread a problem it is.

We must do more to solve this. Can you help crank up the pressure in 2014 with your $10 year-end gift?

Drug-resistant bacteria robbed Sam of his baseball career, but through great effort he recovered and went on to play college football. Yet no child should have to go through this. You’ve stood with us throughout this important fight, and we need your help to see it through. For kids like Sam. For kids like yours and mine.

Sincerely, Chris Meyer, Consumers Union Policy and Action from Consumer Reports

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Top 3: Elizabeth Smart, “Lazy” Millennials,and Benghazi


ELIZABETH SMART SPEAKS OUT AGAINST ABSTINENCE ED

THE BIG BENGHAZI DEBUNK

WHY TIME PUT A WOMAN ON THIS COVER
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There’s a reason industry doesn’t love us


Policy and Action from Consumer Reports

Consumer Reports tests your food for serious risks like antibiotic-resistant superbugs on meat, and pushes industry to change. Your donation this week helps us do more of this work, and your tax-deductible gift is matched, increasing your impact!

We’re getting under their skin.

Consumer Reports latest investigation — supermarket ground turkey, and how birds that can be routinely fed antibiotics have more drug-resistant superbugs on their meat — made industry nervous, and made Congress pay attention.

We deluged Congress with more than a quarter-million messages demanding restrictions on antibiotics in food animals. We stood up to industry when they tried to debunk our findings. And we ran a full-page ad in Trader Joe’s hometown newspaper asking the grocer to lead the way and stop selling meat raised on drugs.

Now we need your help to do more! Every $10 you donate this week will be matched with another $5 to help us do more groundbreaking food testing.

Help us reach our goal with your tax-deductible donation. Whatever you can give this week will go further and get results!

As an independent nonprofit, we take no money from industry or government, and have no agenda other than your family’s health. With 80 percent of antibiotics sold in the U.S. used by beef, pork and poultry producers so animals can tolerate filthy, crowded conditions, we’re at real risk of losing the effectiveness of our antibiotics.

Your tax-deductible gift will help to research legitimate dangers like drug-resistant superbugs in your family’s food. It will help us push hard to stop these unnecessary risks to your health.

Now, a generous donor has agreed to help us raise more money for research if we can show consumers like you care!Your support today counts more than ever before.

Give your $10 tax-deductible donation, and we’ll get another $5 to do even more work.

If you can’t donate, we understand. But please forward this to friends and family so they can get involved with this important consumer movement. And thank you again for all your support!

Chris Meyer, Consumers Union
Policy and Action from Consumer Reports

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This is it


National Women's Law Center
Congress Needs to Stop Drastic Budget Cuts and Protect Critical Investments in Our Nation’s Future
                Please take 2 minutes to flood the inboxes of your Members of Congress.
Take Action

This is it!
Starting this Friday, draconian federal budget cuts (a.k.a. “sequestration”) are set to go into effect. These cuts mean that fewer low-income women and children will receive the supports they need from programs like Head Start and the Child Care and Development Block Grant as well as education, family planning, job training programs, and more. And thousands of teachers, nurses, counselors and others who provide these services will lose their jobs.
These cuts would be devastating. But Congress can stop them. That’s why we need your help to push back and push back hard.
Take Action: Tell your Members of Congress to STOP “SEQUESTRATION.” Tell them to protect critical investments in our families and our future — and make the richest two percent and big corporations pay their fair share of taxes.
Need a reality check? Here’s what we are looking at if the budget cuts go into effect:

  • 70,000 children losing places in Head Start and Early Head Start
  • 30,000 children losing child care assistance
  • 600,000 children and mothers losing nutritious food and other services to keep them healthy
  • 5,000,000 fewer low-income families receiving prenatal health care and other services that help decrease infant mortality and improve maternal health
  • 112,190 fewer victims of domestic violence receiving services
  • 750,000 Americans losing their jobs

And this is just the tip of the iceberg. Many more programs that women and families depend on would be cut, including food safety inspections and research into life-saving medical treatments. These are not just statistics — they represent real people whose lives that will suffer because of these cuts.
It doesn’t have to be this way. Congress can stop these senseless cuts — and replace them with a balanced approach to deficit reduction that includes raising revenues by closing tax loopholes and helping our economy grow by making smart investments in our future.
Can you help us flood the inboxes of your Members of Congress? They need to know that you expect them to stop the cuts to vital services!
Thanks for all your help!
Sincerely,
Joan Entmacher Joan Entmacher Vice President, Family Economic Security National Women’s Law Center    Helen Blank Helen Blank Director of Child Care and Early Learning National Women’s Law Center    

P.S. Are you looking for state-by-state information on the impact of the sequester? You’re in luck! Check out the newly released data from the Obama Administration.
P.P.S. Do you like buttons? Show your support for a fair and balanced budget for women and families by sharing our latest virtual button on Facebook.
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H.J. Res. 118 & S.388


cbocloud

from: the Congressional Budget Office

H.J. Res. 118, a joint resolution providing for congressional disapproval under chapter 8 of title 5, United States Code, of the rule submitted by the Office of Family Assistance of the Administration for Children and Families of the Department of Health

On September 17, 2012, CBO transmitted a cost estimate for House Joint Resolution 118. In response to Congressional questions we are providing the following additional explanation of the basis of that cost estimate.

S. 388, the American Family Economic Protection Act of 2013

As introduced in the Senate on February 26, 2013

S. 388 would eliminate the automatic spending reductions scheduled to occur under current law for 2013 and would partially eliminate the reductions scheduled for 2014. The bill also would eliminate direct payments to certain agricultural producers, provide funding for agricultural disaster assistance, and exempt from sequestration all mandatory funding provided for the Department of Agriculture.