CALPIRG 2015 Legislative Priorities
When consumers are cheated or the voices of ordinary citizens are drowned out by special interest lobbyists, CALPIRG speaks up and takes action. Attached is a list of the issues that CALPIRG is...
View ArticleFollowing the Money 2015: How the 50 States Rate in Providing Online Access...
Accountability and public scrutiny are necessary to ensure that the public can trust that state funds are spent as well as possible. This report, our sixth annual evaluation of state transparency...
View ArticleWho Pays For Roads?
Many Americans believe that drivers pay the full cost of the roads they use through gas taxes and other user fees. That has never been true, and it is less true now than at any other point in modern...
View ArticleCarMax’s Sales Practices Endanger Lives in California
This report finds that CarMax, the nation’s largest retailer of used cars, is selling many unsafe, unrepaired, recalled vehicles in California that are hazardous not only to the people who buy CarMax...
View ArticleOffshore Shell Games 2015
U.S.-based multinational corporations are allowed to play by a different set of rules than small and domestic businesses or individuals when it comes to the tax code. Rather than paying their full...
View ArticleWhy You Should Get Security Freezes Before Your Information is Stolen
Credit monitoring and other services that are usually offered to data breach victims and other concerned consumers do nothing to prevent identity theft; they only detect certain types of fraud after it...
View ArticleBuying Guide: Meat Raised Without Antibiotics
The World Health Organization, Center for Disease Control and Prevention, and experts across the globe warn that antibiotic resistance is a serious and growing threat to public health. What can you do...
View ArticleTrouble in Toyland
For 30 years, CALPIRG Education Fund has conducted an annual survey of toy safety, which has led to over 150 recalls and other regulatory actions over the years, and has helped educate the public and...
View ArticleSettling for a Lack of Accountability?
When large companies harm the public through fraud, financial scams, chemical spills, dangerous products or other misdeeds, they almost never just pay a fine or penalty, as ordinary people would....
View ArticleHighway Boondoggles 2
The second in our series of reports on wasteful highway projects, Highway Boondoggles 2 looks at 12 highway projects across the country that reflect a particularly troublesome mix of skewed...
View ArticleThe Innovative Transportation Index
This report reviews the availability of 11 technology-enabled transportation services – including online ridesourcing, carsharing, ridesharing, taxi hailing, static and real-time transit information,...
View ArticleCALPIRG 2016 Legislative Priorities
As the California state legislature begins to consider new bills on myriad issues, CALPIRG lays out our policy priorities for 2016.
View ArticleCalifornia Health Insurance Rate Review: the First Five Years
In this brief, CALPIRG examines the implementation of rate review in California, and the results it has achieved for consumers and small employers across the state. Our analysis includes posted rate...
View ArticleFollowing the Money 2016
State governments spend hundreds of billions of dollars each year through contracts for goods and services, subsidies to encourage economic development, and other expenditures. Public accountability...
View ArticleGetting Personal with Chemicals
We should be able to trust that the products we buy are safe — especially the ones our families use every day, directly on our bodies. However, we looked into common ingredients in popular personal...
View ArticlePredatory Loans & Predatory Loan Complaints
This is the seventh in a series of reports that review complaints to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. In this report, we explore consumer complaints about predatory loans, categorized in the...
View ArticlePath to the Polls
Starting in the fall of 2016, 16- and 17-year-olds in California will be allowed to “preregister” to vote, ensuring that they are listed on the voter rolls the moment they turn 18. Voter...
View ArticleTrouble in Toyland
For over 30 years, U.S. PIRG Education Fund has conducted an annual survey of toy safety, which has led to over 150 recalls and other regulatory actions over the years, and has helped educate the...
View ArticleBig Banks, Big Overdraft Fees
Overdraft fees are a major source of consumer pain, since they are borne disproportionately by Americans with few financial resources. Through the first three quarters of 2016, 626 large banks reported...
View ArticleFrom Deceit to Transformation
A new report from CALPIRG Education finds that $381.3 from the Volkswagen (VW) settlement is headed to California to help clean up the state’s transportation system and recommends using the funds to...
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