Deregulate!

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“Anti-aging is probably the most popular and lasting promise of any sort of skin care brand or injectable,” said Jessica DeFino, a beauty writer and author of The Unpublishable, a newsletter focused on the darker sides of the beauty industry. “Youth is the ultimate goal, and obviously very convenient for the industry, because it’s an impossible goal.” Dermatologists say that a lot of this stuff is a scam anyway and doesn’t work. Many companies fail to back up their claims of reversing the forward march of time, and some products wind up irritating the skin and making it more vulnerable to the elements, not less. But even for the products that actually make a difference, whether it be a sunscreen to try to slow skin damage or retinol to try to reduce some wrinkles, there’s really a limited amount they can accomplish. Marketers know some consumers will spend a lot of money hoping they’ll do anything, and they’ll do so for years.

Anti-aging creams and how the skin care industry makes you a customer for life - Vox

• Deregulate and you get predatory capitalism selling hopium or worse.
  

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Three judges appointed by former President Donald Trump handed down an astonishing decision on Wednesday, effectively holding that the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the federal agency charged with protecting consumers from a wide range of predatory activity by lenders and other financial services, is unconstitutional and must be stripped of its authority.

The decision by the conservative United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit relies on a novel reading of an obscure provision of the Constitution, and is entirely at odds with a Supreme Court decision that rejects the Fifth Circuit’s reading of that provision. This is not unusual behavior from the Fifth Circuit, which often reads the Constitution in novel and unexpected ways that benefit political conservatives and the Republican Party.
Indeed, Judge Cory Wilson admits in the court’s new opinion in Community Financial Services v. CFPB that “every court to consider” the arguments presented in this case has deemed the CFPB to be “constitutionally sound.

Should the three Trump judges’ decision stand, it would effectively neutralize much of the federal government’s ability to fight financial fraud — although that outcome probably is not likely given that the Fifth Circuit’s decision is such an outlier. As Wilson explains, the CFPB assumed enforcement authority “over 18 federal statutes” when it was formed nearly a dozen years ago, and these statutes “cover everything from credit cards and car payments to mortgages and student loans.”

Meanwhile, the agency also enforces a “sweeping new proscription on ‘any unfair, deceptive, or abusive act or practice’ by certain participants in the consumer-finance industry.” All of these consumer protections could evaporate if the Fifth Circuit’s decision earns the favor of the Supreme Court.

America’s Trumpiest court just declared an entire federal agency unconstitutional

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In leaked audio heard by the Guardian, a manager for one of the US’s largest rail companies can be heard explaining to a former carman that they should stop tagging railcars for broken bearings. The manager says doing so delays other cargo. Here’s the real reason the EPA doesn’t want to test for toxins in East Palestine  The disclosure comes as federal agencies investigate the derailment in East Palestine, Ohio. A wheel-bearing failure was cited as the cause of the crash in a preliminary report released by the National Transportation Safety Board. In late 2016, Stephanie Griffin, a former Union Pacific carman, went to her manager with concerns that she was getting pushback for tagging – or reporting for repair – railcars. Her manager told her it was OK to skip inspections. Griffin asked if the manager could put that in writing. “That’s weird,” said the manager. “We have 56 other people who are not bad-ordering stuff out there. You’re definitely not going to get in trouble for it.”

Leaked audio reveals US rail workers were told to skip inspections as Ohio crash incites scrutiny to industry | Ohio train derailment | The Guardian

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The Tories’ failure to tackle raw sewage dumping has been laid bare by figures showing Therese Coffey had almost 1,000 spills in her own constituency last year alone. Ms Coffey is one of seven Conservatives to have run the department since 2015 - including Liz Truss, Michael Gove, Andrea Leadsom and George Eustice - whose constituencies saw more than 15,000 spills in total in 2022. Her Suffolk Coastal constituency was hit by 982 raw sewage spills in the year, according to analysis by the Liberal Democrats. The finding follows calls for her to resign this week after figures showed there were more than 300,000 sewage spills around the UK in 2022. Ms Coffey was accused of a “complete abdication of duty” after claiming she could not end the scandal of raw sewage dumping “overnight”. But the figures revealed how a succession of Tory environment ministers since 2015 have failed to get to grips with the issue, leading to their own constituencies being blighted by sewage dumping..

Raw sewage being dumped in environment secretary Therese Coffey’s own constituency

• Privatization has brought a combination of escalating sewage spills, sky-high remuneration of management and share buybacks.
  

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More than 100 types of common consumer products contain at least one, and often multiple, chemicals linked to cancer or reproductive and developmental problems, according to research published Tuesday in the journal Environmental Science & Technology. Many of the chemicals were found in personal care products, including nail polish, shampoo, lotion and soap. Cleaning products, particularly all-purpose cleaners, laundry detergent and dish soap, also contained numerous chemicals. The largest group of products were those that might be used in workplace settings, such as factories or construction sites, and included adhesives, degreasers, lubricants and sealants..

Common Consumer Products Contain Toxic Chemicals, Study Shows

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Experts said the decision would sharply undercut the agency’s authority to protect millions of acres of wetlands under the Clean Water Act, leaving them subject to pollution without penalty... The decision was a second major blow to the E.P.A.’s authority and to the power of administrative agencies generally. Last year, the court limited the E.P.A.’s power to address climate change under the Clean Air Act.

Supreme Court Limits EPA’s Power to Address Water Pollution