Corporations

Op-Ed

The Teenager Who Changed My Life

by Wendell Potter — December 15, 2011 - 5:39pm
  • Topics: Corporations, Ethics, Health

    • It was four years ago today that I received a phone call from a Los Angeles TV reporter that would change my life, although I certainly didn't realize it at the time.

    The reporter said she had been told that CIGNA, the big health insurer I worked for back then, was refusing to pay for a liver transplant for a 17-year-old girl, even though her doctors at UCLA believed it would save her life and her family's policy covered transplants.

    I didn't pay much attention to the call at first, because as chief spokesman for the company, I had received many calls over the years from reporters seeking comment about benefit denials. We took them seriously, but usually didn't have to do more than tell the inquiring reporters we couldn't comment substantively because of patient confidentiality restrictions. If pressed, we'd email a statement to the reporter briefly noting that we covered procedures deemed medically necessary and that patients and their doctors could appeal a denial if they disagreed with a coverage decision.

    Op-Ed

    JPMorgan Chase Greedwashes Reputation with "American Giving Awards"

    by Anne Landman — December 15, 2011 - 4:34pm
  • Topics: BanksterUSA, Corporations, Economy, Ethics

    • As the New York Times media reporter, Brian Stelter, noted on Saturday, December 9, NBC agreed to broadcast a two-hour television show fully funded and sponsored by JPMorgan Chase called the "American Giving Awards." The program showcased solely recipients of charitable donations from Chase, featured commercials for Chase and reminded viewers constantly throughout the broadcast that the entire event was "presented by Chase."

    News

    Sludge Industry Reveals "Resource Recovery" Spin

    by Rebekah Wilce — December 15, 2011 - 12:23pm
  • Topics: Sludge, Corporations, Public Relations

    • The Water Environment Federation (WEF), the sewage sludge industry trade group that invented the Orwellian PR euphemism "biosolids" for toxic sludge in 1991, is now "rebranding" sewage treatment plants as "water resource recovery facilities." The PR spin conveniently glosses over the toxic sewage sludge removed from the water and then heated and dumped on land for crops and grazing as "fertilizer" or misleadingly called "compost." The toxins in sludge can then bioaccumulate in the meat and dairy we eat and be taken up by the food plants that feed us.

    News

    Color of Change Targets ALEC Corporations

    by Brendan Fischer — December 15, 2011 - 9:29am
  • Topics: Activism, ALEC Exposed, Election 2012, Corporations, Election Protection, Race / Ethnic Issues

    • Color of Change has launched a campaign encouraging corporations that rely on business from African-Americans to stop funding the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), which promotes voter ID legislation that suppresses the black vote.

    News

    Federal Court Strikes Down Wisconsin Fair Election Law

    by Brendan Fischer — December 14, 2011 - 9:44am
  • Topics: Election 2012, Corporations, Democracy, Election Protection, Politics

    • A federal appellate court has used the U.S. Supreme Court's Citizens United v. F.E.C. decision to strike down a Wisconsin law limiting how much a person can donate to "independent expenditure" political groups.

    Op-Ed

    Will "Obamacare" Force Americans to Buy Junk Health Insurance in 2014?

    by Wendell Potter — December 12, 2011 - 1:29pm
  • Topics: Corporations, Ethics, Health

    • The money that patients' rights advocates have to spend trying to convince the Obama administration that Americans should have decent health care benefits pales in comparison to the boatloads of cash insurers and their corporate allies have on hand to do largely the opposite. But at least the advocates are now in the game.

    Last week a broad coalition of patient-focused groups launched its "I Am Essential" campaign in an effort to make sure that when all of us have to buy health insurance in 2014, we will be getting good value.

    News

    Denial and Delay Winning the Day in Durban

    by Sara Jerving — December 9, 2011 - 1:00pm
  • Topics: Global Warming, Corporations, Environment

    • Amid difficult United Nation climate talks this week in Durban, lead climate change denier -- U.S. Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-Oklahoma) -- sent a patronizing video message to delegates in South Africa celebrating what he called the "complete collapse" of the movement to fight climate change.

    His message comes as delegates work night and day in a last-ditch effort to produce a legally-binding deal to restrict the damage already underway due to the rise of carbon content in the atmosphere. United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon said earlier in the week that a new international climate pact might be "beyond our reach" given the "great economic troubles" many countries are experiencing.

    News

    Kids Eating Rat Poison Is an "Acceptable Risk" for ALEC

    by Brendan Fischer — December 6, 2011 - 9:06am
  • Topics: ALEC Exposed, Corporations, Environment, Health, Politics

    • An American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) member is defying Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) rules limiting the sale of rat poisons that pose dangers to children and the ecosystem. ALEC representatives say that kids eating rat poison is an "acceptable risk" that does not justify government intervention in the market.

    Op-Ed

    Insurers Use PR Playbook to Keep Us in the Dark About Health Insurance

    by Wendell Potter — December 5, 2011 - 1:08pm
  • Topics: Corporations, Ethics, Health

    • If you wonder why the health insurance industry has to set up front groups and secretly funnel cash to industry-funded coalitions to influence public policy, take a look at the most recent results of the Kaiser Family Foundation's (KFF) monthly Health Tracking Poll.

    In its November poll, KFF added a few new survey questions to find out exactly which parts of the Affordable Care Act/Obamacare are the most popular and which are the least popular. Insurers were no doubt annoyed to see that the provision of the law they want most -- the requirement that all of us will have to buy coverage from them if we're not eligible for a public program like Medicare -- continues to be the single most hated part of the law. More than 60 percent of Americans have an unfavorable opinion of that mandate.

    Robosigner Tries to Burnish its Image

    by Anne Landman — December 4, 2011 - 10:03pm

    Lender Processing Services, Inc. (LPS) of Jacksonville, Florida -- one of the most notorious processors of fraudulent home foreclosure documents in the country --  has donated 1,000 tickets for a professional football game between the Jacksonville Jaguars and the San Diego Chargers to Jacksonville Area USO. After the 2008 economic bust, LPS subsidiary DocX churned out huge numbers of fraudulent foreclosure documents for the country's biggest banks, including Wells Fargo, HSBC, Deutsche Bank, Citibank, U.S. Bank and Bank of America, which resulted in countless Americans being wrongfully thrown out of their homes. DocX hired boiler rooms full of people, some of whom were high school students, and paid them $10 an hour to fraudulently robosign the name "Linda Green" onto hundreds of thousands of foreclosure documents, and then hired notary publics to falsely notarize the fake signatures. "Linda Green" was later found to be listed as vice president of over 20 banks and multiple "Linda Greens" were featured in a 60 Minutes investigation. LPS denies responsibility for the massive fraud, preferring instead to let two DocX employees take the fall for the entire debacle. On November 28, 2011, Tracy Lawrence, a Las Vegas notary public who had agreed to testify against the two DocX employees, was found dead in her home on the day she was to testify. LPS says the ticket donation is a "perfect way for us to help the courageous members of our armed forces enjoy some much-needed relaxation and to show our continued support for the Jacksonville Jaguars and our city."

    Main Source: 
    4-Traders.com, December 2, 2011
    Syndicate content