Several states, including Minnesota, Iowa and Florida, are considering legislation that would make it a felony for activists and journalists to carry out undercover investigations of agribusiness operations, punishable by up to 30 years in prison. Kansas and Montana already have similar laws in place.
Cancer Research UK Launches New Anti-Tobacco Industry “Death Repackaged” Campaign
Using internal documents that the United Kingdom government forced the tobacco industry to make public, Cancer Research UK has launched a “Death Repackaged” campaign to urge people not to be taken in by the marketing ploys of tobacco companies that try to make low tar and mild cigarettes appear less harmful or healthier than others.
New Technologies for Targeted Advertising
Ad Age reports that more people are watching television than ever before and that estimated expenditures on TV commercials this year will top $60 billion.
Yet, advertisers have been slow to adopt new technologies that would allow TV ads to target viewers as precisely as Internet ads. In another recent story, the New York Times reports that food companies are increasingly using internet games and contests to target food ads at children, often circumventing their own voluntary guidelines on advertising to children in the process.
CVS Agrees to Pay State and Feds $17 Million for Overbilling Medicaid
CVS has agreed to pay the federal and state governments more than $17 million to settle claims that the nationwide retail pharmacy chain overcharged Medicaid, according to a CNN report.
CVS was charged with submitting inflated prescription claims in 10 states — California, Florida, Indiana, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Hampshire, Nevada, Rhode Island, Alabama and Minnesota. A CVS whistleblower pharmacist in Minnesota first brought the case forward.
On Tax Day, New Reports on Unfair Taxes and Corporate Tax Evaders
The Philadelphia Inquirer published a story on America’s two-class tax system as part of its ongoing series on taxes.
Reporters Barlett and Steele wrote, “During the 1950s…corporations paid 49 percent of their profits in taxes. Last year, it was about half that rate, a decidedly more modest 26 percent. In 2010, corporate tax collections totaled $191 billion – down 8 percent from $207 billion as recently as 2000. Perhaps a more telling yardstick, corporate tax revenue in 2009 came to just 1 percent of gross domestic product – the lowest collection level since 1936, or three-quarters of a century ago. In 2010, it edged up to a puny 1.3 percent – the second-lowest since 1940.”
Meanwhile, Pay Up Now, a Chicago group that promotes boycotts of corporations that pay little or no federal income tax, published a chart showing Pre-Tax Income and Federal Tax for 100 U.S. Corporations from 2008-10. Some of their findings:
- From 2008-2010 Coca-Cola made $2.1 billion and paid $8 million in taxes at a rate of 0%. In 2010 Coca-Cola made $746 million and also paid $8 million in taxes, 1% of their total income.
- Bunge Ltd., a global agribusiness, made almost $5 billion from 2008-2010, and paid $103 million in taxes, a rate of 2%. In 2010 Bunge Ltd’s income was at $3 billion, and they paid $33 million in taxes, 1% of their total income.
- Merck & Co. made $26.8 billion in profits from 2008-2010 and paid $1.3 billion in taxes at a rate of 5%. In 2010 the company made $1.6 billion and paid $399 million in taxes, 24% of their total income.
- Altria Group, the tobacco company, made $15.3 billion in profits from 2008-2010 and paid $4.4 billion in taxes, a rate of 29%. In 2010, the company made $5.7 billion and paid 1.4 billion, 25% of their total income.
Buying Silence: Big Soda Takes a Page from Big Tobacco
CHW Contributing writer Michele Simon describes how the American Beverage Association (the lobbying arm of soft drink companies) has donated $10 million to the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia in a move she interprets as an effort by the soda industry to buy credibility in the face of renewed calls for taxes on sugar-sweetened beverages.
Snoop Dogg Targets Black Youth for BLAST, a Colt 45 Malt Liquor
In a now familiar script, Pabst Brewing Company hired the rapper Snoop Dogg to promote Blast, which Pabst describes as “a premium malt beverage with natural fruit flavors and a kick that is uniquely Colt 45.”
Blast is 12 percent alcohol by volume, more than twice most major beer brands, and is sold in 23.5-ounce cans. One can at the suggested retail price of $2.49 provides the equivalent alcohol intake of more than four 12-ounce bottles of beer. Snoop Dogg promotes Blast in a YouTube Video that manages to be offensive to women, African-Americans and young people, and in comments on Facebook and Twitter, leading a marketing campaign designed to bypass industry guidelines that restrict alcohol advertising to young people. In response, the Marin Institute, an alcohol policy and advocacy group, has launched Petition Pabst: Stop Targeting Youth, Give Snoop the Boot.
Center for Science in the Public Interest calls for Food Day on October 24th
In a column in the Huffington Post, Michael Jacobsen, Executive Director of the Center for Science in the Public Interest, calls for “a huge grassroots mobilization for changing what Americans eat – and what the food industry produces – for the better.” Food Day, to be celebrated on October 24, 2011, calls for action on five key priorities:
• Reducing diet-related disease by promoting healthy foods
• Supporting sustainable farms and stopping subsidizing agribusiness
• Expanding access to food and alleviating hunger
• Reforming factory farms to protect animals and the environment
• Curbing junk-food marketing to kids
DOT Inspector General Finds Foxes Make Ethical Hen House Guards
At the request of Senators John D. Rockefeller and Mark Pryor, the Inspector General of the US Department of Transportation reviewed whether former National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) officials employed or under contract with automakers are in a position to exert undue influence on NHTSA’s safety defect investigations. The Inspector General found 63 auto industry and NHSTA officials had switched sides since 1984 and 23 auto industry officials took jobs directly involving the investigation of safety defects. However, the IG found “no evidence suggesting undue influence or pressure on NHTSA’s employees conducting safety defect investigations.”
Coalition to Stop Gun Violence Urges Cities to Use Market Power to Pressure Gun Industry
The Coalition to Stop Gun Violence has released a report, Utilizing the “Buyer Power” Strategy to Reform the Gun Industry, that urges municipal officials to utilize their buying power as mass-purchasers of firearms for police forces to pressure gun manufacturers to modify how they make and distribute guns.
Corporations and Health Watch 