Students receive hundreds of credit card offers each year. And credit card companies continue to use food, giveaways and fast pitches to tempt students to sign up for credit cards on campus, often without the blessing of school officials, according to our analysis. Our research, which resulted in hundreds of media hits and favorable editorial coverage in The New York Times late last year, indicates that college is beginning to seem like a pass/fail class in financial literacy.

NHPIRG’s Higher Education Program Director Chris Lindstrom testified in Congress and worked to educate students, college administrators and legislators about the dangers of these bait-and-switch deals. So far, six states have restricted the on-campus marketing of credit cards at public colleges.

According to NHPIRG Public Health Advocate Liz Hitchcock, “a deliberate or accidental release of toxic chemicals at a chemical facility could kill or seriously injure thousands of Americans.”

That’s the basic argument for Congress to pass the Chemical Facility Anti-Terrorism Act, which calls for the use of safer alternatives to dangerous chemicals used in plants and factories across the country.

As a result of NHPIRG’s campaign, the bill has gained the important support of Homeland Security Chairman Gene Green (Texas), who worked with our coalition last year to organize a congressional briefing moderated by Hitchcock. Entering the new Congress, the list of local, state and national groups supporting the bill has grown to more than 50. NHPIRG worked with the Center for American Progress on a new report focused on the ability of facilities to incorporate safer alternatives and processes.

As the Obama administration makes plans to address the nation’s health care crisis, our staff and experts are describing a set of principles for health care reform and pointing to state-level progress that helps lay the foundation for federal progress.

“Any health plan introduced by the Obama administration should rein in out-of-control costs, ensure fairness in coverage, and focus on prevention,” said Larry McNeely, NHPIRG’s health care advocate.

Nearby in Massachusetts, Gov. Deval Patrick signed a measure backed by our partners at MASSPIRG that will reduce the cost of medicine by curbing aggressive and inappropriate marketing tactics on the part of prescription drug companies. In Oregon, PIRG staff helped develop a plan that would cut health care costs by $5.4 billion by using the state’s purchasing power to negotiate better deals on prescription drugs and by cutting administrative overhead.