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Date	Fairness.com Resource	Read it at:
Mar 15, 2013	JPMorgan Executives Face Withering Questions at Senate Hearing QUOTE: ...[Senator] Levin and a handful of colleagues questioned current and former executives about the bank’s risk management, oversight policies and pricing methods. The lawmakers took aim at JPMorgan for misleading investors and regulators about the disastrous bet, building off a scathing, 300-page Congressional report...	New York Times
Mar 01, 2013	Will the “Six Strikes” Copyright Alert System Hurt Consumers And Small Businesses? QUOTE: On Monday, the Copyright Alert System, or “Six Strikes”, went into affect across the five biggest ISPs in the U.S. The system hopes to catch those pirating content over P2P networks, and send them a notice detailing their infringement. The hope is that those who are caught will start using legal alternatives. To better understand the CAS, we have to look at what the Center for Copyright Information is doing with it. First, there are three tiers to the CAS that consumers should be aware of with each tier having two levels within it. The three tiers are as follows – educational alerts, acknowledgement alerts and mitigation measures.	WebProNews
Feb 28, 2013	Breuer Reflects on Prosecutions That Were, and Weren’t QUOTE: The 54-year-old prosecutor, with a Rolodex as thick as his Queens dialect, will leave the Justice Department on Friday, emboldened after mounting recent cases against banking giants. But Mr. Breuer, the department’s criminal division chief, also leaves somewhat bruised, having taken criticism for not throwing Wall Street executives behind bars after the financial crisis.	New York Times
Jan 25, 2013	Court Rejects Obama Move to Fill Posts QUOTE: In a ruling that called into question nearly two centuries of presidential “recess” appointments that bypass the Senate confirmation process, a federal appeals court ruled on Friday that President Obama violated the Constitution when he installed three officials on the National Labor Relations Board a year ago.	New York Times
Jan 04, 2013	On Google, F.T.C. Set Rules of War Over Patents QUOTE: The [FTC's Google-Ed.] action by no means spells the end of the smartphone patent wars, a global conflict in which major corporations including Apple, Samsung and Google have spent billions amassing patent portfolios and then suing and countersuing one another in courts around the world. But legal experts say Google’s settlement with the F.T.C. signals progress in clarifying the rules of engagement in high-tech patent battles, and thus could ease them.	New York Times
Jan 04, 2013	Secret and Lies of the Bailout:The federal rescue of Wall Street didn’t fix the economy – it created a permanent bailout state based on a Ponzi-like confidence scheme. And the worst may be yet to come QUOTE: Not only did [the 2009 banking system bailout--Ed.] prevent another Great Depression, we've been told, but the money has all been paid back, and the government even made a profit. No harm, no foul – right? Wrong. It was all a lie – one of the biggest and most elaborate falsehoods ever sold to the American people. We were told that the taxpayer was stepping in – only temporarily, mind you – to prop up the economy and save the world from financial catastrophe. What we actually ended up doing was the exact opposite: committing American taxpayers to permanent, blind support of an ungovernable, unregulatable, hyperconcentrated new financial system that exacerbates the greed and inequality that caused the crash, and forces Wall Street banks like Goldman Sachs and Citigroup to increase risk rather than reduce it. The result is one of those deals where one wrong decision early on blossoms into a lush nightmare of unintended consequences.	Rolling Stone
Jan 03, 2013	Was The FTC Too Easy On Google? Too Hard? FTC will not take action on search practices QUOTE: the FTC finally made an announcement regarding its investigation of Google for alleged anticompetitive conduct. The investigation is now closed. The Commission will not be pursing antitrust litigation, and Google escaped without fines, and will make some minor voluntary changes regarding its search business.... Google has agreed to change some of the business practices to resolve the FTC’s concerns including those related to patents and what the FTC alls its “misuse of patent protection to prevent competition.”	WebProNews
Dec 18, 2012	F.T.C. Opens an Inquiry Into Data Brokers QUOTE: as consumers conduct more of their personal and commercial lives online, that type of data collection has been steadily increasing, fueled by new online surveillance techniques and more sophisticated analytics. Some companies, for example, have compiled several thousand different pieces of information on a majority of adults in the United States. Regulators say they are concerned that such comprehensive data collection could be used to profile, score or segment consumers, with the potential to unfairly limit the kinds of financial, insurance, health, education or other marketing offers certain consumers receive.	New York Times
Nov 29, 2012	Guardianship case in McLean illustrates lack of regulation for those caring for the elderly QUOTE: raised questions among elder-care advocates and legislators about how a small number of paid guardians — both lawyers and non-lawyer professionals — are treating the aging and how states oversee the process.	Washington Post
Nov 15, 2012	Wal-Mart Inquiry Reflects Alarm on Corruption QUOTE: Wal-Mart on Thursday reported that its investigation into violations of a federal antibribery law had extended beyond Mexico to China, India and Brazil, some of the retailer’s most important international markets. The disclosure, made in a regulatory filing, suggests Wal-Mart has uncovered evidence into potential violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act...	New York Times
Aug 14, 2012	A Giant Hospital Chain Is Blazing a Profit Trail QUOTE: HCA’s emergence as a powerful leader in the hospital industry is all the more remarkable because only a decade ago the company was badly shaken by a wide-ranging Medicare fraud investigation that it eventually settled for more than $1.7 billion. Among the secrets to HCA’s success: It figured out how to get more revenue from private insurance companies, patients and Medicare by billing much more aggressively for its services than ever before; it found ways to reduce emergency room overcrowding and expenses; and it experimented with new ways to reduce the cost of its medical staff, a move that sometimes led to conflicts with doctors and nurses over concerns about patient care.	New York Times
Jul 21, 2012	Into the Bailout Buzz Saw (Fair Game) QUOTE: Thus the collision course was set between Mr. Barofsky and a crew of complacent, bank-friendly Treasury officials. He soon discovered that the department’s natural stance of marching in lock step with the banks meant that he had to question its policies and programs repeatedly to ensure that taxpayers weren’t at risk for fraud and abuse.	New York Times
Jul 18, 2012	Capital One to pay $210 million in fines, consumer refunds QUOTE: Cardholders who enrolled in a payment protection or credit monitoring product -- or who tried to cancel one of these products but were persuaded by a call center representative to keep it -- on or after August 1, 2010, will be refunded the money they paid for the product, as well as any finance charges, over-the-limit fees or interest paid....The latest action marks the first enforcement for the bureau since it began regulating credit cards, mortgages and consumer reporting agencies as part of the Dodd-Frank regulatory reform last year.	CNN/Money Magazine
Jul 14, 2012	35 Questions Mitt Romney Must Answer About Bain Capital Before The Issue Can Go Away QUOTE: In times of crisis, a strong candidate will come up with answers that satisfy the basic questions surround the controversy and will make people want to move on to another subject. Romney, however, could not seem to come up with basic messages that resolved the controversies. Many of his answers seemed evasive or overly legalistic. The biggest problem for Romney is that all of his interviews have only increased the questions that political observers, voters and the media have regarding he subject of Bain Capital.	Forbes
Jul 14, 2012	This global financial fraud and its gatekeepers: The media's 'bad apple' thesis no longer works. We're seeing systemic corruption in banking – and systemic collusion QUOTE: The notion that the entire global financial system is riddled with systemic fraud – and that key players in the gatekeeper roles, both in finance and in government, including regulatory bodies, know it and choose to quietly sustain this reality – is one that would have only recently seemed like the frenzied hypothesis of tinhat-wearers, but this week's headlines make such a conclusion, sadly, inevitable.	Guardian Unlimited
Jul 05, 2012	Chesapeake Energy Cheat Sheet: What’s Been Uncovered So Far QUOTE: Reuters took aim at [Chesapeake]’s flamboyant chief executive, Aubrey McClendon, in a series of articles, prompting his ouster as company chairman (he remains CEO) last month...The company was rocked anew last week when the news agency disclosed a series of email exchanges in which McClendon and other Chesapeake executives appeared to collude with officials at EnCana Corp., Canada’s largest natural gas company, to suppress the price of land leases in Michigan.	ProPublica
Jun 19, 2012	Online credit card complaint database to debut QUOTE: A new online database...created by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, will begin by posting grievances against credit card companies...."Disclosing every complaint, without any indication of the veracity of the complaint, is inherently misleading," wrote Fred R. Becker Jr., president of the National Association of Federal Credit Unions.	CNN/Money Magazine
Jun 13, 2012	Owners May Not Be Covered When Hackers Wipe Out A Business Bank Account QUOTE: Computer security specialists say these crimes, called “corporate account takeovers,” have become increasingly common...most banks do not take responsibility for unauthorized debits from business accounts. Unless the owners have fraud insurance, they must shoulder the losses alone.	New York Times
Apr 26, 2012	Not just Wal-Mart: Dozens of U.S. companies face bribery charges QUOTE: Deere, Disney, Hewlett-Packard, Qualcom and many others are also under investigation for violations of the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.	CNN (Cable News Network)
Mar 19, 2012	At Heart of Health Law Clash, a 1942 Case of a Farmer’s Wheat QUOTE: Mr. Filburn sued to overturn a 1938 federal law that told him how much wheat he could grow on his family farm and made him pay a penalty for every extra bushel. The 1942 decision against him, Wickard v. Filburn, is the basis for the Supreme Court’s modern understanding of the scope of federal power.	New York Times
Feb 15, 2012	FCC set to impose new limits on automated telemarketing calls QUOTE: Under the new rules, telemarketers would have to get permission in writing before placing an automated call to a consumer. Currently, companies that have an established business relationship with a particular consumer can call them without permission.	CNN (Cable News Network)
Feb 08, 2012	States Negotiate $26 Billion Deal for Homeowners QUOTE: After months of painstaking talks, government authorities and five of the nation’s biggest banks have agreed to a $26 billion settlement that could provide relief to nearly two million current and former American homeowners harmed by the bursting of the housing bubble, state and federal officials said. It is part of a broad national settlement aimed at halting the housing market’s downward slide and holding the banks accountable for foreclosure abuses.	New York Times
Jan 30, 2012	Treasury Investigates Freddie Mac Investment QUOTE: The Treasury Department is investigating a report that Freddie Mac, the mortgage giant, bet against homeowners’ ability to refinance their loans even as it was making it more difficult for them to do so...	New York Times
Jan 30, 2012	F.T.C. Fines a Collector of Debt $2.5 Million QUOTE: The Federal Trade Commission signaled on Monday that it would continue to crack down on debt collectors who harass consumers for money they may not even be legally obligated to pay...Asset Acceptance, one of the nation’s largest debt collection companies, had agreed to pay a $2.5 million civil penalty to settle charges that the company deceived consumers when trying to collect old debts.	New York Times
Dec 16, 2011	Crippling the Right to Organize (Op-Ed) QUOTE: three decades of Republican resistance to the board — an unwillingness to recognize the fundamental right of workers to band together, if they wish, to seek better pay and working conditions. But Mr. Obama is also partly to blame; in trying to install partisan stalwarts on the board, as his predecessors did, he is all but guaranteeing that the impasse will continue.	New York Times
Nov 25, 2011	In Commodities World, Safe and Secure Sometimes Isn’t QUOTE: regulators suspect that MF Global did not keep its clients’ money separate in its chaotic waning days, using some customers’ money, they believe, to meet its own obligations. And if the firm violated the rule requiring segregated accounts, investors say they are now concerned about the viability of commodities trading as it has been conducted in the United States for more than a century.	New York Times
Oct 07, 2011	Checking Account Wars, Behind the Scenes (Your Money) QUOTE: So the big banks make you pay, and the most aggressive of the little institutions want to pay you.... Even when nearly everyone had free checking several years ago, however, there were all sorts of questionable activities going on behind the scenes to pay for it.	New York Times
Oct 06, 2011	Fired IT workers fight back against H-1B visa abuse: Hindi-only meetings and mass firings of experienced U.S. workers for cheaper foreign labor just as tech job demands grow QUOTE: Skilled IT workers in the United States are fired and replaced with low-paid overseas employees and holders of H-1B visas....the story of Molina is a bit different than the usual outsourcing horror stories we hear all too often. Workers at Molina are fighting back with a lawsuit...	InfoWorld
Oct 06, 2011	Charging for Debit Cards Is Robbery QUOTE: When Bank of America told its customers recently that it would start charging them $5 a month to use debit cards, it argued that it was forced to make that change because of regulations that altered the economics of the cards....But the banks’ simplistic statements are merely an attempt to rationalize and obfuscate one of the largest illegal transfers of wealth from consumers to banks in American history.	New York Times
Sep 09, 2011	Pipeline Spills Put Safeguards Under Scrutiny QUOTE: The little-known federal agency charged with monitoring the system and enforcing safety measures — the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration — is chronically short of inspectors and lacks the resources needed to hire more, leaving too much of the regulatory control in the hands of pipeline operators themselves...	New York Times
Sep 02, 2011	Obama Administration Abandons Stricter Air-Quality Rules QUOTE: President Obama abandoned a contentious new air pollution rule on Friday, buoying business interests that had lobbied heavily against it, angering environmentalists who called the move a betrayal and unnerving his own top environmental regulators.	New York Times
Sep 02, 2011	Federal Regulators Sue Big Banks Over Mortgages QUOTE: A bruising legal fight pitting the country’s most powerful banks against the full force of the United States government began Friday, as federal regulators filed suits against 17 financial institutions that sold the mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac nearly $200 billion in mortgage-backed securities that later soured.	New York Times
Sep 01, 2011	Age bias in IT: Should you sue? Age discrimination lawsuits aren't easy to endure, but they can be won. Here's what you need to know. QUOTE: Age discrimination complaints are on the rise....A 2009 U.S. Supreme Court decision, Gross v. FBL Financial Services, raised the bar for age discrimination cases, saying that plaintiffs, and not the companies being sued, bear the burden of proving a dismissal or reassignment of duties was due to age and not some other factor.	Computerworld
Aug 31, 2011	Improving Fairness in Flight Delays QUOTE: For fliers, the RBS-EP proposal would help those whose flights would have been given unfair assignments based on the current approach: based upon a new metric for defining fairness, they would receive earlier (and therefore more advantageous) departure slots.	Harvard Business Review (HBR)
Aug 24, 2011	America’s Sweatshop Diplomacy (Op-Ed) QUOTE: the J-1 visa Summer Work Study program, which allows foreign students to work in the United States for a few months, is meant to promote “lasting and meaningful relationships” between the students and Americans....Hershey’s business strategy is a microcosm of the downsizing and subcontracting that so many American companies have pursued during the past few decades in search of ever cheaper labor.	New York Times
Aug 19, 2011	Antibacterial Chemical Raises Safety Issues QUOTE: a battle over the active ingredient in Dial Complete and many other antibacterial soaps, a chemical known as triclosan...Several studies have shown that triclosan may alter hormone regulation in laboratory animals or cause antibiotic resistance...F.D.A. has already said that soap with triclosan is no more effective than washing with ordinary soap and water, a finding that manufacturers dispute.	New York Times
Jul 28, 2011	Useless Studies, Real Harm (Op-Ed) QUOTE: In an age of for-profit clinical research, this is the new face of scandal. Pharmaceutical companies promote their drugs with pseudo-studies that have little if any scientific merit, and patients naïvely sign up, unaware of the ways in which they are being used.	New York Times
Jul 25, 2011	A Bonanza for Airlines as Taxes End QUOTE: the agency no longer had the authority to impose the various federal taxes that airlines add to the price of each ticket. So as of 12:01 a.m. Saturday, the federal government began losing an estimated $25 million a day in tax revenue. But did airlines simply pass on this savings to customers? No, they did not.	New York Times
Jul 15, 2011	After Long Battle, Safer Cribs QUOTE: The Consumer Product Safety Commission has issued new regulations for cribs that the authorities say are the toughest in the world....some manufacturers had not had all of their cribs certified by testing laboratories, frustrating some retailers who have been stuck with cribs that they are not permitted to sell.	New York Times
Jul 13, 2011	Amazon Takes On California QUOTE: Amazon said this week that it would push a voter initiative in California that could eliminate sales tax for virtual sellers with only a modest physical presence in the state. Its move instantly escalated the company’s long-running battle with many states over collecting sales tax, taking the question directly to voters. And it has sharply intensified its dispute with physical retailers like Wal-Mart Stores and Target, which have vowed to fight the measure.	New York Times
Jul 13, 2011	As Immigration Audits Increase, Some Employers Pay a High Price QUOTE: While the administration of George W. Bush focused on headline-making raids that resulted in arrests of immigrant workers, the Obama administration has gone after employers with ICE’s I-9 audits on the theory that employers who hire unauthorized workers create the demand that drives most illegal immigration....The upshot of the more aggressive enforcement is that even employers who have followed the rules can be devastated by an audit that compels them to fire valuable, long-time employees.	New York Times
Jul 11, 2011	Obama Administration Rolls Out Standards for Health Insurance Marketplaces QUOTE: The regulations issued Monday, which provide a fair amount of latitude to states, were welcomed by consumer groups, patient advocates and some business lobbyists. But they may not satisfy liberals who argue that the exchanges should tightly regulate insurance and contract with selected health plans that offer the best deals. And they may not satisfy conservatives...	New York Times
Jul 07, 2011	How Bright Promise in Cancer Testing Fell Apart QUOTE: as patients and their doctors try to make critical decisions about serious illnesses, they may be getting worthless information that is based on bad science. The scientific world is concerned enough that two prominent groups, the National Cancer Institute and the Institute of Medicine, have begun examining the Duke case; they hope to find new ways to evaluate claims based on emerging and complex analyses of patterns of genes and other molecules.	New York Times
Jul 04, 2011	Think Inside the Box QUOTE: Bombarded with pharmaceutical ads listing what seems like every conceivable side effect, American consumers might think they are already getting too much information. But they — and their doctors — are not getting what arguably matters most: independent, plain-English facts about the medication. Fortunately, there is a simple model for getting such information across.	New York Times
Jun 30, 2011	Local Laws Fighting Fat Under Siege QUOTE: Several state legislatures are passing laws that prohibit municipalities and other local governments from adopting regulations aimed at curbing rising obesity and improving public health, such as requiring restaurants to provide nutritional information on menus or to eliminate trans fats from the foods they serve.	New York Times
Jun 29, 2011	Mine Owners Misled Inspectors, Investigators Say QUOTE: Federal investigators said Wednesday that Massey Energy, the owner of the West Virginia mine where 29 men were killed in an explosion last year, misled government inspectors by keeping accounts of hazardous conditions out of official record books where inspectors would see them.	New York Times
Jun 29, 2011	The Fear of a Toxic Rerun QUOTE: A $230 million refinery being built here in an effort to break China’s global chokehold on rare earth metals is plagued by environmentally hazardous construction and design problems, according to internal memos and current and former engineers on the project. The plant, which would be the world’s biggest refinery for rare earths — metals crucial to the manufacture of a wide range of technologies including smartphones, smart bombs and hybrid cars — has also become the target of protesters who fear that the plant will leak radioactive and toxic materials into the water table.	New York Times
Jun 26, 2011	U.S. Plans Stealth Survey on Access to Doctors QUOTE: Alarmed by a shortage of primary care doctors, Obama administration officials are recruiting a team of “mystery shoppers” to pose as patients, call doctors’ offices and request appointments to see how difficult it is for people to get care when they need it....In response to the drumbeat of criticism, a federal health official said doctors need not worry because the data would be kept confidential.	New York Times
Jun 25, 2011	In Medicine, New Isn’t Always Improved QUOTE: the promise of innovation can also prove a trap, a situation now playing out with dire consequences for possibly tens of thousands of people who received artificial hips intended to let them remain active. The implants, known as metal-on-metal hips, were regarded by device makers and surgeons as a major advance over previous designs that used both metal and plastic. Now federal regulators and medical researchers are scrambling to determine how many implant recipients have been injured by the devices, which can shed dangerous metallic debris through wear.	New York Times
Jun 23, 2011	High Court sides with generic drug makers in narrow ruling QUOTE: The justices in a 5-4 ruling said generic drug companies do not share the same level of responsibility as makers of brand-name equivalents, to update their warning labels when significant new risks emerge.	CNN (Cable News Network)

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