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COUNTERING DECEPTIVE CREDIT CARD MARKETING —WISPIRG’s Bruce Speight (right) appeared with Sen. Herb Kohl on the campus of UW-La Crosse to educate students about deceptive credit card marketing. |
WISPIRG Joins With Sen. Kohl To Educate Students
On October 9, WISPIRG joined Sen. Herb Kohl on the UW-La Crosse campus to call attention to the growing problem of credit card debt among college students and the unfair marketing practices of credit card companies on campuses.
On campus, credit card companies aggressively market to college students with freebies and teasers, while hiding abusive terms and conditions that pile on debt. 80 percent of all college graduates carry credit card debt when they graduate, with average amounts of credit card debt topping $3,000. Saddled with this debt, recent graduates face tremendous financial obstacles as they start their careers.
Following on the heels of this event, WISPIRG, along with the WISPIRG campus chapters, launched the Truth About Credit campaign, aimed at working with Wisconsin campuses to adopt guidelines to control credit card marketing on campus. WISPIRG student volunteers will run a credit card “counter-marketing” table for FEESA—our mock credit card campaign—on campuses. Dressed like credit card vendors, with polo shirts and visors emblazoned with our FEESA logo, volunteers will solicit students to support our credit card marketing principles. In exchange, signers will receive an educational booklet on abusive credit card terms and a lollipop that says “Don’t Be a Sucker.”
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Forgiving Fraud And Failure In Federal Contracts
On October 3rd, WISPIRG released “Forgiving Fraud and Failure: Profiles in Federal Contracting,” a new report documenting companies with immediate past histories of shoddy work and fraudulent practices that have still received billions of dollars in federal contracts.
The report highlighted nine representative examples of new, often no-bid contracts that were granted to companies with recent records of questionable performance. In each of the cases profiled, companies received new contracts during or shortly after having negotiated settlements in cases of poor performance. In several instances, contracts were actually awarded with less competition after problems surfaced than before.
Federal contracting cost taxpayers $422 billion last year, according to the report. Purchases ranged from goods and services for the Iraq war to hurricane relief efforts along the Gulf Coast. Contracting has become the fastest growing portion of federal discretionary spending.The report recommends taking immediate steps to establish accountability in the contracting process including: increasing disclosure of contract information; increasing competition; and strengthening the rules to screen bad actors.
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WISPIRG Backs Airline Passenger Coalition
After several airlines stranded passengers on runways without food, water or access to bathrooms for hours on end in the past year, the affected passengers didn’t just get mad—they organized. The Coalition for Airline Passengers’ Bill of Rights now includes 17,000 members of the flying public.WISPIRG has joined the coalition and backed legislation to establish an Airline Passengers’ Bill of Rights. So far, bills have been introduced into Congress, but the airline industry is pushing to make sure they don’t come up for a vote. The law would require airlines to notify passengers within 10 minutes of any known diversion, delay or cancellation.
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WISPIRG-Backed Bill Would Ease Election Day Woes
The 2000 election put all of us on warning: flaws in our elections open the door to partisan manipulation of election results, disenfranchisement of large portions of the population, and uncertain results—all of which undermine faith in our democracy.
Last year, the U.S. Senate Rules Committee held a hearing on the WISPIRG-backed Ballot Integrity Act of 2007. Among the items that the Ballot Integrity Act would provide: equitable distribution of voting machines, standards for provisional ballots and for purging voters from the rolls, and funding for training Election-Day poll workers.
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