Major US corporations avoid as much as $100 billion a year in federal taxes by hiding profits in foreign countries. According to a US PIRG report Tax Shell Game: The Taxpayer Cost of Offshore Corporate Tax Havens, released at the event, this loophole results in over $4.49 billion in additional tax burden for taxpayers here in New Jersey.

The year 2007 was called the year of the recall. But in 2008, recalls are up, according to Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) data. Already, as these data show, more toys and children’s products have been recalled in the first half of this year than in the first half of last year, a supposed “100-year-flood” period. Yet the remedial CPSC reform legislation passed overwhelmingly by both the House and Senate in response to that 2007 recall wave has yet to become law. It is stalled in conference committee, where both the toy and chemical industries seek to block, weaken or delay some of its most critical reforms. This report explains why Congress needs to enact a strong final law that includes all of these key uncompleted reforms-- a new toy standard that requires mandatory safety testing for toys, a ban on toxic phthalates and whistleblower protections -- while rejecting industry’s eleventh-hour demands to add new and unprecedented limits on state authority to enforce and enact product safety laws.

NJPIRG released its 22nd Annual Trouble In Toyland Report. The report documents the continued presence of unsafe toys on toy store shelves, this holiday season. Despite the number of recalls this year, toxic and unsafe toys continue to be a hazard to children. The report details some of the toys and has tips for parents and solutions for lawmakers to make toys safe for children.

The provision of electricity service has long been recognized as a natural monopoly. Integrated utility companies have historically held complete control over defined service territories, and in the absence of regulation, these companies would possess unmitigated power to dictate energy prices and terms of service to their customers. Thus, government oversight has been essential to protecting the public interest in affordable, safe and reliable electricity generation and service.

On February 4, 2005, Chicagobased Exelon Corporation requested formal permission from New Jersey regulators to acquire Public Service Enterprise Group (PSEG), the last remaining New Jersey-based energy company that hasn’t been taken over by a large out-of-state corporation.