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Consumer Protection

Michelle Obama, take spent hens off the menu!

Since 2007, kids have been served 13.6 million pounds of chicken in school lunches that's so low-quality it would otherwise have become compost or dog food. This is chicken KFC refuses to serve.

Known as "spent hen" meat, the poultry industry has been using their influence to peddle this meat to the national school lunch program.  

I think it's time we appealed to our country's most powerful advocate for child nutrition. As first lady Michelle Obama frequently points out: Our kids need, and deserve, better.

Letter

Dear First Lady Michelle Obama,

I know you would agree that kids deserve safe, healthy food.

Since 2007, kids have been served 13.6 million pounds of chicken in school lunches that's so low-quality it would otherwise have become compost or dog food. This is chicken KFC refuses to serve.

Please use your influence as a champion on child health issues to take this chicken, known as spent hen chicken, off the menu, and tell the USDA that they should adopt science-based safety standards for all high-risk food served in schools. Our children deserve better.

Sincerely,

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Tax Subsidy Transparency and Accountability

Are you a business person who benefits from tax credits or other tax preferences intended to promote economic development?

We’d like to know what you think of them.

OSPIRG is proposing to make tax subsidies more transparent and accountable so that every taxpayer will be able to see how well they are working. And if they are not working, we can see that more clearly and find a way to improve them or redirect those resources to something that does. But we need to understand the real life experiences that businesses have with these tax subsidies to ensure we craft the best proposal possible.

Tell us what you think of programs like Oregon’s Enterprise Zones, the BETC, the Strategic Investment Program and any other economic development incentive you’re familiar with.

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Please thank Sens. Merkley and Wyden for standing up to Wall Street

Please tell both of Oregon's senators: "Awesome! Thanks for fighting for strong Wall Street reform!"

Wall Street reform finally passed the U.S. Senate -- and Sens. Merkley and Wyden stood up and defeated every proposal to weaken reform.

Even better, they voted to strengthen reform.

Please send both of them a quick e-mail thanking them for standing up for us!

Letter
Dear Sens. Merkley and Wyden,

Thank you for your votes in favor of strengthening Wall Street reform and against proposals to weaken it. Thank you for your leadership to protect consumers from deceptive banking practices -- including secret deals that force borrowers to take on unnecessarily expensive loans. You are a hero for Main Street!
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Come thank Sen. Merkley for standing up to Wall Street

Please come out to a town hall meeting in Portland this Saturday to thank Sen. Merkley for standing up to Wall Street.

DATE:  Saturday, June 5th, 2010

TIME:  11:20 a.m.

PLACE: Parkrose High School Student Center
12003 NE Shaver St.
Portland, Oregon 97220

Fill out the form below to let us know you're coming.

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Tell our senators to make food safer

Each year, about 76 million Americans get sick from the food they eat. Each year 5,000 people die from foodborne illness.  Recently, 380 million eggs with a high risk of salmonella were only recalled months after people started getting sick.

The FDA Food Safety Modernization Act (S. 510) will give the FDA the authority to recall unsafe food; to inspect food processing facilities; and to require imported foods to meet the same standards as food produced in the U.S.

S. 510 passed the House of Representatives in July 2009, but the Senate has not yet brought it to a vote.

Sign the petition below to urge our senators to support the FDA Food Safety Modernization Act (S. 510).

 

Letter

Dear Senators,

It took months before Wright County Eggs recalled their eggs, even as Americans were getting sick. That's because the FDA can't actually require food companies to recall salmonella-tainted food, regardless of the threat to public health.

Recalling salmonella-tainted eggs -- or any unsafe food -- shouldn't be voluntary. When you go back to Washington, D.C. in September, please pass the FDA Food Safety Modernization Act, S. 510.

Sincerely,
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Oregon State Public Interest Research Group
1536 SE 11th Ave., Suite A, Portland, OR 97214
Phone: (503) 231-4181