Category Archives: Press Releases and Editorials
SB 147 Fact Sheet – The Consumer Choice Fire Protection Act
Halogenated fire retardants have been linked to endocrine disruption, neurological and developmental impairments, cancer, reduced IQ, learning disabilities such as attention deficit disorder and hyperactivity, infertility, and a host of other health disorders. Read More ›
CFC’s Zack Kaldveer Provides Comments to the PUC on Privacy and the Smart Grid
by Zack Kaldveer, Consumer Federation of California, California Progress Report
Personal privacy issues routinely arise when data collected is harmless in isolation, but becomes a threat when combined with other data, or examined by a third party for patterns. In other words, what are the potential “unintended consequences” of such an electrical system? And more importantly, what must we do to ensure that those unintended consequences are never realized? Read More ›
CFC’s June 2010 Election Recap: Endorsed Candidates Win Big, Ballot Measures Mixed
Consumers Beat Back Big Business on Props 16 and 17′ The taste of victory is sweet, especially when it overcomes $62 million of the worst kind of deceitful campaigning. Two arrogant corporations received the humiliations they richly deserved when voters turned down Proposition 16 and 17 yesterday. … Read More ›
PG&E Customers Killed Prop 16
by Richard Holober, CFC Executive Director, California Progress Report
PG&E spent $46 million of its ratepayer dollars on Prop 16 to make sure our electric rates remain high, without asking the consent of its ratepayers. Read More ›
“Health Reform: The Year Of The Schlemiels”, By the CFC’s Richard Holober
by Richard Holober, Consumer Federation of California, California Progress Report
Bungling Democrats should acknowledge they lost the fight for the support of the people on health care reform. The sooner they flee this field of battle, and move on to issues that re-connect them with the mood of America, the better their chances to salvage the mid-term elections. Read More ›
The Politics of Fear and “Whole-Body-Imaging”, By CFC’s Zack Kaldveer
by Zack Kaldveer, Consumer Federation of California, California Progress Report
Before we…willfully give up our civil liberties and freedoms, support wars on countries that did nothing to us, and sign off on wasting HUGE amounts of money on ineffectual security systems, consider this: Your chances of getting hit by lightning in one year is 500,000 to 1 while the odds you’ll be killed by a terrorist on a plane over 10 years is 10 million to 1. Read More ›
Senate Bill Proclaims Health Care Is Not a Right; It’s a Business Where the Customer Gets Fleeced
by Richard Holober, Consumer Federation of California, California Progress Report
Wall Street knows a gold mine when it sees one, and it likes what it saw in the Senate health care bill. Health insurance company stocks soared to an 18 month high the day the Democrats reached the magic 60 votes needed for passage of its overhaul bill. Read More ›
Steinberg Stands With SRO Tenants Against AT&T
It was the first time that all three major consumer rights groups in the state (TURN, UCAN and Consumer Federation of California) worked together to oppose a CPUC Commissioner. Read More ›
Schwarzenegger Receives Failing Grade from Consumer Rights Organization
“We are disappointed that the Governor sided with big business interests and against consumers on the majority of bills that reached his desk. The Governor turned a deaf ear to California consumers on key food safety, automobile insurance and financial privacy proposals.”
Schwarzenegger Receives Failing Grade from Consumer Rights Organization
by Richard Holober, Executive Director, Consumer Federation of California, California Progress Report
Governor Schwarzenegger’s final verdict on a host of critical consumer protection bills this past weekend left consumer advocates disappointed. Of the 14 bills identified by the Consumer Federation of California (CFC) as most important, in only six instances did the Governor take the side of the consumer. Read More ›
Rebate ads’ small type stirs big fight
Richard Holober, president of the Consumer Federation of California, said the current process allows manufacturers to make discount promises they won’t have to keep because many shoppers simply dump the rebate applications. Read More ›
Driving Without a Net: State offers uninsured motorists inexpensive options – but few sign up
by By Eve Mitchell, Business Writer, Oakland Tribune
CALIFORNIA is a land of motorists, but more than 3.4 million people are driving illegally by not carrying auto insurance, despite a state program that offers insurance for under $400 a year…”The numbers are a little disappointing. We know there is a need there,” said Sandra Chapin, program director for the Consumer Federation of California. Read More ›
Two more insurers will offer rate cuts
Add 21st Century and Safeco to the growing list of insurance companies that are reducing their rates for California consumers. “The industry has finally come to the recognition that this is the law,” said Richard Holober, executive director of the Consumer Federation of California. Read More ›