Keeping up with the news
This week hasn’t been only about celebrating Joan Claybrook’s incredible legacy. There’s been plenty of work calling out the pharmaceutical industry, advocating against forced arbitration and acting as a government watchdog. Check out these highlights of Public Citizen’s recent news coverage.
An AP story picked up by the New York Times advises consumers to look out for the snake oil salesmen looking to take advantage of your swine flu fears. Public Citizen’s acting director Dr. Sidney Wolfe, weighs in. Dr. Wolfe also had a thing or two to say in a Bloombern News story about Eli Lilli and Co. selling a drug (Zyprexa) for seniors with dementia even though it had no evidence it would help.
National Public Radio produced an excellent piece on forced arbitration. The piece highlights the harrowing story of Jamie Leigh Jones (video here) who was brutally raped while working as a Halliburton contractor in Iraq but remains unable to hold the company accountable. David Arkush, director of Public Citizen’s Congress Watch division, discusses the issue.
Craig Holman, legislative representative for Public Citizen’s Congress Watch division, discusses the need for more rigorous government ethics reform in a Washington Independent piece about conflicts of interest in military funding, noting “that the difference between the limits on congressional travel and those affecting executive branch officials represents ‘a gaping chasm.'”