regulation

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Angry Over Regulation, Spirit Institutes Snarky Fee

'Unintended Consequence' fee intended to chide transportation department

(Newser) - Spirit Airlines is angry over a new Department of Transportation rule—and it's making sure customers know it, by slapping a $2 "Department of Transportation Unintended Consequence Fee" on all tickets. The new rule, which went into effect last week, requires airlines to give customers a full refund,...

US Nuclear Regulators Routinely Weaken Rules
US Nuclear Regulators Routinely Weaken Rules
Investigation
Jun 20, 2011 1:23 PM CDT

US Nuclear Regulators Routinely Weaken Rules

Changing standards keep ancient reactors running, despite wear and tear

(Newser) - US regulators are helping the nuclear power industry keep its aging plants in line with safety requirements by repeatedly loosening those requirements, according to a year-long AP investigation . The AP found thousands of problems—from cracking tubes to failed cables to leaking valves—all of which made the plants less...

Regulators Want to Put Ronald Out to Pasture

FTC trying to end marketing of junk food to kids

(Newser) - The Federal Trade Commission has proposed a new set of food advertising guidelines that could leave Ronald McDonald hanging out with Joe Camel in the unemployment line. The new guidelines aim to stop companies from marketing products that are high in sugar, fat, or salt to children, forbidding everything from...

E-Cigarettes: FDA Says It Will Regulate Smokeless Smokes
 FDA to Regulate E-Cigs 
Apr 25, 2011 6:14 PM CDT

FDA to Regulate E-Cigs

But just as tobacco products, not 'drug-delivery devices'

(Newser) - The FDA is getting in on the e-cigarette action, announcing today that it will regulate the smokeless smokes the same way it does other tobacco products. That's actually good news for e-cig purveyors, reports the AP, as they bypass tougher regulations they would have faced if labeled a drug-delivery...

Obama Delays New Environmental Regulations

Activists furious over economic move

(Newser) - The Obama administration is delaying the implementation of new regulations on smog and toxic industrial boiler emissions, leaving in place policies enacted by George W. Bush. The EPA says it will now need until July 2011 to consider the smog rules, so that it can analyze further scientific and health...

Study: Gulf's Carcinogen Levels Explode 40-Fold

Meanwhile, Obama administration issues new drilling safety rules

(Newser) - Researchers have detected a 40-fold increase in potentially cancer-causing polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons off the coast of Louisiana’s Grande Isle. The study is especially scary because it only measured PAHs that could seep through a biological membrane, the Huffington Post explains. “This is a measure of what would enter...

FDA Restricts Diabetes Drug Over Heart Risk

But regulators stop short of an outright ban on Avandia

(Newser) - The FDA today put severe restrictions on Avandia, GlaxoSmithKline’s embattled diabetes drug, but stopped short of banning it outright. The once-popular drug will now only be available only as a last resort to type 2 diabetes patients who can’t control their glucose levels with any other medication, the...

County Closes 7-Year-Old's Lemonade Stand

Inspectors give her lemons, say she needed $120 license

(Newser) - Ah, the plight of a small business owner, always bullied by unfair government regulation. Take it from 7-year-old Julie Murphy. Inspired by a cartoon show, Murphy decided to set up a lemonade stand at a monthly art fair in Northeast Portland. People were drinking down the 50-cent cups of Kool-Aid...

To Fight Fat, Make Junk Food as Taboo as Tobacco

US must get a handle on public health crisis

(Newser) - A widespread vice has a negative effect on Americans' health, and it's up to the government to do something about it. That approach worked for tobacco, David Lazarus writes for the LA Times , and it can work for obesity, too. "The answer seems obvious," he argues. "If...

BP Rig Registered With Tiny Pacific Nation to Skirt US Oversight

Classified a ship, Deepwater Horizon evaded stiffer US safety standards

(Newser) - Turns out it wasn’t America’s job to inspect or set safety standards for the ill-fated Deepwater Horizon rig. That responsibility fell to the Marshall Islands—a tiny, impoverished cluster of atolls in the Pacific Ocean. Why? Because oil rigs are classified as ships, the Los Angeles Times explains,...

Feds Let Big Oil Fill Out Own Inspection Forms

Regulators also took gifts, openly hustled for oil company jobs

(Newser) - Minerals and Management Service regulators accepted gifts from the oil companies they were supposed to be watching over, and allowed those companies to fill out their own inspection reports, according to a damning report from the inspector general, which found sweeping misconduct at the agency from 2005 to 2007. One...

Who Regulates Big Oil? Big Oil

Investigation finds gaps in oversight, safety measures

(Newser) - Over the past decade, the federal agency tasked with monitoring offshore oil drillers has gradually ceded control to the industry itself, finds the Wall Street Journal . The Minerals Management Service doesn't actually write rules, but rather sets "broad goals" for drillers, an approach that is taking heat post-Gulf spill....

Court Smacks Down FCC in Net Neutrality Case

Agency had no standing to regulate Comcast, 3-judge panel rules

(Newser) - A federal court today said the FCC does not have the power to force Internet service providers to treat all traffic equally. The ruling, in a closely watched case concerning Comcast's ban on BitTorrent, is a blow to the Obama administration’s crusade for net neutrality. But the FCC failed...

US May Require Brake Override Systems

Obama administration 'looking at it,' LaHood says

(Newser) - The Obama administration is considering ordering automakers to install brake override systems in their new cars, Ray LaHood told the Senate Commerce Committee today. “We’re looking at it,” the transportation secretary said, in a hearing on the runaway Toyota problem. “We think it is a good...

Ex-Regulators Hired by Toyota Staved Off Recalls

Former NHTSA officials helped end four probes into accelerators

(Newser) - Two former employees of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration helped Toyota end at least four investigations into issues with its accelerators, according to court and government documents. Toyota’s VP of regulatory affairs, Christopher Tinto, and one of his subordinates, Christopher Santucci, came to the automaker directly from the...

Just Call These New Rules 'The Lloyd Blankfein Act'

Part of Obama's proposed regulations are aimed at Goldman and its CEO

(Newser) - One part of the new financial regulations proposed by President Obama today could be called the "Lloyd Blankfein Act" because it's aimed squarely at Goldman Sachs and its "unrepentant CEO," writes Daniel Gross. The proposal would prevent banks from taking FDIC-insured deposits and then doing "funky...

States Beg EPA to Delay Emission Rules

Regulators say they can't afford to enforce new standards

(Newser) - State regulators are pleading with the Obama administration to hold off on new rules curbing industrial greenhouse gas emissions, fretting that they're too costly for tapped-out budgets. Regulators from Kansas, Pennsylvania, Florida, California, and South Carolina have all chimed in, with varying levels of urgency, the Wall Street Journal reports....

Banks Screw Customers in Regulatory Pout
Banks Screw Customers in Regulatory Pout
OPINION
Jan 6, 2010 9:18 AM CST

Banks Screw Customers in Regulatory Pout

Fees soar in revenge for tougher rules in the works in Congress

(Newser) - With a slew of new regulations headed their way, banks are jacking up their fees and credit card rates, in a blatant attempt to squeeze every last penny out of their customers. They say they’re just trying to recoup the money these new consumer protections will cost them. For...

Health Care Bill a Bloated Mess
 Health Care Bill a Bloated Mess 
Charles Krauthammer
Nov 27, 2009 10:56 AM CST

Health Care Bill a Bloated Mess

Two-thousand page monster is 'irredeemable'

(Newser) - The Senate heath care reform bill is an “irredeemable” mess that would create “an overregulated, overbureaucratized system of surpassing arbitrariness and inefficiency,” rails Charles Krauthammer. The problem with our system is that it’s complicated and inefficient, and therefore expensive. But the 2,074-page Senate bill would...

Financial Reform: How to Prevent Another Greenspan
Financial Reform: How to Prevent Another Greenspan
Thomas Frank
Nov 11, 2009 9:44 AM CST

Financial Reform: How to Prevent Another Greenspan

Reform plans may hand regulation over to fervent deregulators

(Newser) - There's a lot riding on reform of the financial industry, but the administration's plans to overhaul financial regulation carries the seeds of its own destruction, writes Thomas Frank. Taking oversight away from the present confusing array of agencies and making the Federal Reserve One Big Regulator means that when the...

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