Mark Reback

One of Google's most persistent critics called on the House Energy and Commerce Committee Thursday to hold a hearing into the firm's Wi-Fi data collection controversy, citing a discrepancy in a Google official's testimony on the matter during a Senate hearing in June.

Two weeks after the Federal Trade Commission closed its investigation of online search giant Google's Street View mapping project without taking action, another government agency is picking up where the FTC left off. 

From CNNMoney:

The Federal Communications Commission is investigating whether Google broke the law by collecting personal information from Internet users while gathering data for its Street View mapping technology.

Health insurance industry efforts to lobby for weaker federal regulations should be strongly resisted, a consumer advocacy group warned this week.

Ardent Google critic Consumer Watchdog has called on Congress to hold hearings on a major privacy breach by the Internet search engine giant, and insists that CEO Eric Schmidt should come to Washington to testify.

The group says Congress should get involved even though the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is already investigating. 

'People aren't getting the care they need because they have to pay more out of pocket,' says the president of Consumer Watchdog.

It's a good time to be a health insurer.

The following editorial was published on Sunday, November 7, 2010 in the Los Angeles Times:

As Whitman's loss proved, campaign spending can be a double-edged sword.

HARTFORD, CT -- Just days after a consumer advocacy group called for Connecticut Insurance Commissioner Thomas R. Sullivan to step down for approving large premium rate increases since passage of the federal health care reform law, Sullivan notified Gov. Jodi M. Rell that he will resign from the post Nov. 12.

State seems at a loss to keep companies from closing plans, which drives up premiums

Nicholas Peppler, Fort Wayne, was healthy and only 23 years old, but he appeared to be in the beginning of a death spiral.

A health insurance death spiral, that is.

The Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield policy he had purchased was being closed to new enrollees in 2009, a common practice that critics say drives up costs and forces people into the ranks of the uninsured.