Donald Cohen's blog

President Obama on climate change warns about businesses crying wolf

June 25, 2013 - 10:46pm

President Obama announced his climate change action agenda on Tuesday, June 25   Here's an excerpt from his remarks as reminds us of the history of business interests crying wolf every time we passed laws to make us safer, healthier and more secure.  And, he points out, "every time they've been wrong."

How a Shadow Drug Industry Tries to Avoid Regulation

April 16, 2013 - 8:47am

Last year an outbreak of meningitis killed 53 people in 20 states and sickened more than 720 nationwide. As many as 14,000 patients may have been exposed to the deadly drug.

Employers say they take care of their employees. Not always.

March 15, 2013 - 6:15pm

Business lobbies typically argue that laws are unnecessary since business people would never do the things that the laws attack.  Business leaders are responsible people and wouldn’t endanger workers, pollute, or steal.  And self-correcting markets wouldn’t allow that kind of behavior to survive. 

Consider the Source: 100 years of Broken Record Opposition to the Minimum Wage

March 9, 2013 - 5:42pm

In her Congressional testimony from 1959, Eleanor Roosevelt noted the repetitive quality of objections raised by minimum wage opponents over the previous five decades. More than 50 years later, it appears that nothing has changed.

Chamber of Commerce Was Wrong About Family and Medical Leave Law

February 4, 2013 - 12:13pm

In February 2005, Patti Phillips sat by her daughter's bedside during the weeks before Stephanie Phillips died of bone cancer. Patti was able to be at her daughter's side the day she died because of the federal law that allows millions of Americans to take family leave without risking their jobs. "You want to be there with your child…. and you don't want to worry about your job," said Phillips, 49, an inventory specialist at Coca-Cola in Atlanta. "The law gives you peace of mind."

Cities take lead on raising minimum wage

November 1, 2012 - 12:49pm

The U.S. economy has turned a corner. The national unemployment rate hit a post-recession low of 7.8% in September. Rising consumer confidence, increasing home prices and other leading economic indicators confirm the trend.

Behind the Meningitis Outbreak: Pharmacies fought FDA regulation

October 19, 2012 - 5:16pm

Fifteen people have died and several hundred infected in an outbreak of meningitis contracted from contaminated spinal steroid injections.  The numbers are growing and so is awareness of the growth of a little known corner of the pharmaceutical industry, called compounding pharmacies, which is responsible for the tragedy.  "We're nowhere near the end of this problem," Dr.

Corporate America's seven basic lies to prevent health and safety safeguards

August 28, 2012 - 9:24pm

As the GOP assembles in Tampa, the Business Roundtable is joining the corporate chorus complaining about the "burden" and "uncertainty" of government action to remove toxic air pollution, stop climate change, stem the dramatic increase of workplace repetitive stress injuries like carpal tunnel and give consumers information about calories in our Big Macs and human rights abuses built into our iPhones.

Another life-saving law

August 15, 2012 - 1:30pm

On May 12, 1998, Danny Keysar, a 16 1/2 months-old toddler, was strangled at his licensed childcare facility in Chicago neighborhood.    Danny was killed by a defective children’s product -- a mesh portable crib or play yard -- the Playskool Travel-Lite–where he napped in the afternoons at his childcare home.

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