Last week’s FDA Center for Tobacco Compliance (CTP) webinar for tobacco retailers provided an overview of a new document that CTP began sending to retailers in July 2012. The document, known as a Compliance Check Inspection Notification, informs tobacco retailers that they might be receiving a violation notice in the future. Compliance Check Inspection Notifications…
Don’t discount the healthcare discussion anytime soon. Long after the November elections, the pains of health-care costs are likely to continue. A recent report by Institute of Medicine has revealed that the U.S. healthcare system “squanders $750 billion a year—roughly 30 cents of every medical dollar—through unneeded care, byzantine paperwork, fraud, and other waste,” writes…
The federal government is sending less produce, meat, and dairy products to food banks and pantries, which is impacting their ability to meet demand, USA Today reports. “It’s not playing out too good for us; I’m running out of food,” said Peggy Taylor, who runs the pantry at the One Accord Baptist Church in Martinsville,…
Indiana retailers can expect a formal notice and warning from state and local officials that continued synthetic drug sales could cost them their business, according to the State Attorney General Office. Beginning last week, Indiana retailers caught selling the fake drugs known as bath salts and spice will face penalties that include the loss of…
The USDA’s Economic Research Service has identified more than 6,500 food desert tracts in the U.S. based on 2000 CENSUS and 2006 data on locations of supermarkets, supercenters, and large grocery stores, reports The Food Institute. USDA examined the socioeconomic and demographic characteristics of these tracts to see how they differ from other census tracts…
The FDA’s Center for Tobacco Compliance (CTP) has updated its compliance check enforcement activity of retailers selling tobacco, revealing a sharp increase in the number of compliance checks. Analysis of the CTP data by the We Card Program, which uses publicly available data at fda.gov, shows the 2012 totals and rates through August 31 are…
More than 30 members of the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) are concerned that a proposed SNAP fraud prevention solution will have “unintended consequences.” In a letter to House and Senate leadership, along with the chairmen and ranking members of both the Senate and House Agriculture committees, the CBC took issue with a Farm Bill provision…
Plan now to attend the FMI/National Grocers Association (N.G.A.) inaugural Retail Food Safety Forum in Cincinnati on November 5 – 6, 2012. Through interactive learning, peer discussions, and idea exchanges, you will take away actionable resources to improve your company’s food safety program. The Retail Food Safety Forum courses are designed to offer comprehensive education…
In a letter sent to House and Senate leaders last week, NACS and a group of associations representing retailers of all sizes across all segments of the merchant community highlighted the reasons behind the growing opposition to a proposed settlement of a long-standing antitrust lawsuit filed by merchants against Visa, MasterCard and the nation’s largest…
In a comprehensive report on how financial regulatory reform affects community banks and credit unions, the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) found that these financial institutions have benefitted since the reform of debit swipe fees went into effect on October 1, 2011. Banks with less than $10 billion in assets are exempt from debit swipe…