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NEWS ABOUT: AstroTurf

Insurer Urges Employees to Protest Health Care Reform

UnitedHealth Group lays down AstroTurf

(Newser) - UnitedHealth Group, the nation’s second-biggest health insurance firm, has been encouraging employees to attend events protesting health-care reform, Talking Points Memo reports. In a clear-cut example of “Astroturf”—fake grassroots action—a memo to employees urges them to call an “advocacy specialist” who can provide talking... More »

'Racial Anxiety' Fuels Town Hall Protesters

(Newser) - The mob-like scenes at recent town halls are "something new and ugly," writes Paul Krugman, who notes that 2005's protests against Social Security privatization never saw baying crowds and congressmen hanged in effigy. The New York Times columnist is unconvinced that the mobs are in the pay... More »

Turf-Makers Sued Over Lead

As fake grass ages, toxin levels 20 times legal limit

(Newser) - California has sued three top turf-makers, claiming they are deliberately hiding the fact that their products contain lead, the Los Angeles Times reports. State law requires labeling of products containing the metal, which gives a "natural" green color to fake grass. Lead can cause cancer, birth defects, and damage... More »

Celebs Face Off in Green Arms Race

Bill Nye, Ed Begley compete for smallest carbon footprint in Calif. neighborhood

(Newser) - It could only happen in California—a pair of celebrity neighbors, actor Ed Begley Jr. and "Science Guy" Bill Nye, are involved in a contest of environmental one-upsmanship, the AP reports. Since Nye moved onto Begley’s block in Studio City 2 years ago, the two have been competing... More »

Site's Grass Roots Planted in Right-Wing 'AstroTurf'

Backed by big names, money, AngryRenter.com poses as underdog foe of mortgage fix

(Newser) - AngryRenter.com might look “underdoggy and grass-rootsy, with a heavy dose of aw-shucks innocence,” the Wall Street Journal reports, but the anti-mortgage bailout website is actually the work of publisher Steve Forbes, former House majority leader Dick Armey and other Republican bigwigs. It’s a paragon of “... More »

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