#publicdisclosure

[ivygorgon]

An open letter to the U.S. Congress

Pass the Price Gouging Prevention Act (S. 3803 / H.R. 7390

1,047 so far! Help us get to 2,000 signers!

Of all the responses to the economic upheavals of the pandemic, price gouging has got to be one of the most egregious. This is when prices go up, or continue to stay high, not due to market pressures or other economic factors, but only because the seller, renter, or provider wants to increase their already excessive profits.

Some CEOs have even bragged to their shareholders about how much their profit-making pricing strategies exceed their inflationary increases in production costs.

To fight back against what they call “greedflation,” Senator Elizabeth Warren and Rep. Jan Schakowsky have reintroduced their Price Gouging Prevention Act (S. 3803 / H.R. 7390) and are now seeking co-sponsors for the bills.

As your constituent, I would like to urge you to co-sponsor and pass this bill. It has several important features: It will prohibit price gouging on a nationwide basis; it will take aim at companies that have taken advantage of the pandemic to jack up prices unnecessarily and keep them up; it will focus on companies whose executives brag to shareholders about increasing prices faster than inflationary costs; it will require public disclosure of companies’ costs and pricing strategies, and it will increase the FTC’s funding to enforce these conditions.

Thank you for considering co-sponsoring the Price Gouging Prevention Act.

▶ Created on March 20 by Jess Craven · 847 signers in the past 7 days

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[usnewsper-politics]

Secret Donations and Powerful Connections: How Money Influences Politics #campaignfinance #campaignfinancelaws #charitablecauses #darkmoney #electedofficials #Epsteinsconnections #influenceofmoneyinpolitics #integrityofelections #jeffreyepstein #politicalaccountability #politicaldonations #publicdisclosure #returnofdonations #sexualabuseallegations #shadowyfundingsources #shellcompanies #transparencyinpolitics #vivekramaswamy #wealthydonors

[osintelligence]

https://bit.ly/44XmYgL - 👀 A legal battle is unfolding in Chula Vista, California, where local publisher Arturo Castañares is challenging the police department's refusal to disclose drone surveillance footage. This suit illuminates the wider national debate on access to public records and surveillance technology used by law enforcement. #PublicRecords #SurveillanceTechnology 🚁 Chula Vista has been at the forefront of incorporating drones into local policing, being the first American city authorized by the FAA to launch surveillance devices from anywhere within its borders. The surveillance videos generated by the drones have sparked the current legal dispute. #DroneSurveillance #PoliceTech ⚖️ Last month, a Superior Court judge sided with the city, declaring drone footage as investigatory material, and therefore exempt from public disclosure under the California Public Records Act. The case is now pending before a California appellate court. #LegalDebate #PublicDisclosure 📹 Supporters of the city's stance argue that the drone surveillance provides crucial support to police operations, enhancing public safety. However, open-government groups and First Amendment advocates fear this ruling undermines public access to important law enforcement practices and potentially expands police power. #PublicSafety #OpenGovernment 🎓 Dean Nelson, director of the journalism program at Point Loma Nazarene University, expressed concern over the trial court ruling, stressing the need for public access to drone footage to ensure police accountability. He raised the question of how laws adapt to new technology. #PoliceAccountability #TechnologyAndLaw 💡 Arturo Castañares and his attorney, Cory Briggs, have a history of challenging local governments for withholding documents. Briggs compared drone surveillance to police license plate readers, the data from which was ruled non-exempt from public release by the California Supreme Court in 2017. #PublicAccess #LawPrecedents 🔍 The case brings to light the need for clear policies around the release of surveillance footage. This need is exemplified by San Diego Police Department's lack of a detailed policy on releasing body camera video, leading to confusion among the public and the city council. #PolicyMaking #Transparency 📆 The appeals court's ruling on the immediate reversal of the Superior Court decision is yet to be announced. The city has been asked to submit a response to the appeal.

[mariebenz]

Patients' Trust in Physicians Following Public Disclosure of Industry Payments

MedicalResearch.com Interview with:

Dr. Kanter Genevieve P. Kanter, PhD Assistant Professor (Research) of Medicine Medical Ethics and Health Policy University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine Philadelphia, PA  19104-6021 MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Response: Physicians frequently have financial relationships with pharmaceutical and medical device firms, but only recently has information on these financial ties been made available to the public. The Open Payments program, created by the Physician Payment Sunshine Act, has made this industry payments information available through a public website since 2014. Because transparent institutions are believed to engender greater public trust, public disclosure of industry payments could increase public trust in the medical profession, which may have been weakened by physicians' relationships with industry. On the other hand, Open Payments may have decreased public trust because of the focus of media reporting on physicians receiving the largest sums of money. We sought to investigate how Open Payments and the public disclosure of industry payments affected public trust in physicians and in the medical profession. We compared changes in trust among patients who lived in states where payments information had, by state statute, previously been made available, to changes in trust among patients who lived in states where this information became newly available through Open Payments.  MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings? Response: We found that patients' trust in their own physicians declined following the nationwide public disclosure of industry payments. We also found that public disclosure was associated with a decline in patients' trust in the medical profession. This decline in trust was not caused by some patients' knowing that their doctors had received industry payments; we know, from a previous study, that very few patients know whether their own physicians have actually received payments. Instead what seems to be happening is that patients are indirectly hearing about industry payments (say, through media reporting) and this may have led to diminished trust. Because many doctors do not receive industry payments, an important unintended consequence of Open Payments is that doctors who do not receive industry payments are painted with the same broad brush as those who do. MedicalResearch.com: What should readers take away from your report?  Response: Although transparency is desirable in its own right, how information about industry payments get disseminated to the public is also very important. Because of the negative spillover effects onto physicians who do not receive payments, providers who do not receive industry payments should take greater initiative to inform current and prospective patients of their pharma-free status. Journalists and researchers, in their use of Open Payments data and reporting about industry payments, should take greater care and use more nuance in presenting their findings.  MedicalResearch.com: What recommendations do you have for future research as a result of this work? Response: Although transparency initiatives are potentially useful, the passive information dissemination that often follows these initiatives can have unintended consequences on patients and providers. More research should be done on how to enhance public disclosure and transparency while minimizing unintended negative effects.  Any disclosures? This study was supported by the Greenwall Foundation, which funds bioethics research. Citation: Kanter GP, Carpenter D, Lehmann L, et al Effect of the public disclosure of industry payments information on patients: results from a population-based natural experiment BMJ Open 2019;9:e024020. doi: 10.1136/bmjopen-2018-024020 The information on MedicalResearch.com is provided for educational purposes only, and is in no way intended to diagnose, cure, or treat any medical or other condition. Always seek the advice of your physician or other qualified health and ask your doctor any questions you may have regarding a medical condition. In addition to all other limitations and disclaimers in this agreement, service provider and its third party providers disclaim any liability or loss in connection with the content provided on this website.   Read the full article

[sactoe916]

Getting #comfy... #FISAgate #releasethememos #timesup #fulldisclosure #publicdisclosure #downshegoes

[nicwn]

This is my #ZeroDay #PublicDisclosure of a security vulnerability impacting 4+ Million of @zoom_us's users who have the Zoom Client installed on Mac. Zoom had 90-days + two weeks to resolve this #vulnerability and failed to do so.https://t.co/hvsoS79bos

— Jonathan Leitschuh (@JLLeitschuh) July 8, 2019

via Twitter https://twitter.com/nicwn July 09, 2019 at 04:18PM

[usnewsper-politics]

Secret Donations and Powerful Connections: How Money Influences Politics #campaignfinance #campaignfinancelaws #charitablecauses #darkmoney #electedofficials #Epsteinsconnections #influenceofmoneyinpolitics #integrityofelections #jeffreyepstein #politicalaccountability #politicaldonations #publicdisclosure #returnofdonations #sexualabuseallegations #shadowyfundingsources #shellcompanies #transparencyinpolitics #vivekramaswamy #wealthydonors