I'm James Milan, and this is Talk of the Town. Welcome. Today, we are going to be talking about a subject that is very serious here in Massachusetts and nationwide, very familiar, I think, to all of our audience as well, and that is substance use disorder. It's current manifestations and what can be done about it, including myths about addiction, et cetera. And to do that with me, I have. He doesn't see himself as an expert, but I do. Will Lakatur is joining me. Hi, Will. James, nice to see you. Thanks. Thanks for being here. Will is the Director of Community Outreach for Brightview, Massachusetts. And Brightview runs in a number of states, outpatient addiction treatment centers. And so Will spends his professional life in this space. And we want to tap into his knowledge and talk extensively and in some depth about what the current situation is. So again, I thank you for being here. Well, thank you for having me. Can you start us off by just actually at the most basic level? Why not start there? I think most of our audience is already going to be able to supply an answer of their own to this. But what is addiction? It's a disease.  It's like having heart disease. You don't choose to have heart disease. You don't choose to be an addict. And it's something that can be treated with medication. And I actually want to start before we start talking about the services that Brightview and other such companies provide and also what the general issues are here in Massachusetts. I'd actually would like to start with the things that people think that aren't accurate and that aren't true about addiction and treatment for addiction, et cetera. So what are some myths that you're probably very familiar with that you can share with us? It's a great question, James. Some of the factors in the society is people can cut cold turkey on it. And that's not the case. If people don't get the proper treatment on it, it can be deadly. And people that have addiction, we need to treat these people that have addiction like they have normal disease, heart disease, diabetes. You treat them with passion and empathy. And given the resources to help, because if they're not getting those type of resources, they may not want to go to treatment and they may start using more drugs more because they're not feeling ostracized, they're feeling excluded from society. If we educate society on helping people in the community and the resources that are available to people that need to get addiction recovery, that's the big thing right there is just helping them. Yeah, I mean I think what you're speaking to there is like this stigma, which we're all very familiar with, right, which makes us think collectively about such people who are in need of treatment for substance use disorder, we may think of them as, oh, they got themselves into that situation, they should get themselves out, or, oh, that poor person too bad for him or her, again, not really seeing people in those situations with compassion and the sense that, oh, you know, there but for the grace of God, blah, blah, blah, but instead it's really, we are excluding them in a sense as a society, it's part of what I think you are both combating against and trying to educate around. Yeah, if we educate the community, you know, like we're working with a lot of local police departments and providing resources to them as far as some of our partners so that we're able to help people get help at our centers and also our competitors because, as you and I were talking earlier, this is an area where we're not competing in, so we're here to help people and we want to utilize, if we can't help someone here, we want to get them help right away because a day could go by and they're not getting help, that could be deadly and we can't just put someone on a waiting list for three weeks, we need to help them right away and that's where Brightview offers patients to come in, walk in during the week and that's something that we take great pride in trying to find and help them and find the resources right then and there and we customize and a lot of other people do it too as far as our patient services is we try to customize what we're doing for the patient to help them as far as what's going on in their life. Right, because every patient, as we know, is different and I do want to just kind of follow up on something you were just saying again, kind of delineate the many ways in which the work that you're doing and the space in which you're doing it is just fundamentally different from what we think about as businesses competing against each other. This is not somebody walking into your car dealership and you want to make sure they buy that car from you and not from the guy down the street because you've just said it yourself. This problem is too big, it's a societal problem. You are now putting yourselves on the front lines of something that we all have an interest in but you guys can and are actually doing something about. So in order for that to happen, you need to, I assume, work in conjunction with other people providing or other businesses providing similar services and also with other kind of, I was almost tempted to start saying kind of social welfare services which most people don't see a police department as but here in Arlington we have a recent history going back at least 10 years if not more of a police really seeing themselves as tackling this problem especially the problem of opioid addiction in a way that does not stigmatize, that does not try and criminalize behavior that as you said is more around health and around disease and around treatment of disease and not again incarceration or some other form of isolating those people who are suffering instead seeing themselves as being among the providers of recovery services in a sense. Do you guys work actually with the Arlington police department? Yes, we have. We work and we just actually had some representatives over to our center over in Mass Ave a week or so ago actually last week on the 15th and we've met with the chief of police as well too and they're awesome to work with. They really want to help within the community and also set an example here in Massachusetts as far as some of the things that they're doing as far as addiction and recovery towards getting for the addiction and we provide services back to them as well too. We're not just here to help their patients get outpatient services for recovery for their addiction but we also want to help them as far as transportation to the facility whether they need a job, food, some of the essentials for everyday life and we have a resource or referral network that we utilize a lot of services that we want to actually expand and give to our partners that we work with as well. Whether it's the police department or if it's a hospital it could be you know the parole officer. We're trying to make people's lives better and one step is starting with treating the addiction. And again you see yourselves as part of a network of different services to again address this issue which has so many different facets to it not simply the physical addiction component that you guys really deal with you know very directly. Let's take a step back for a second if you don't mind and talk about like what the overall situation is like at the moment here in Massachusetts which I assume you as the director for community outreach for the state in general you're probably aware of like what are the things that are most troubling most concerning for us as a population in this space of just substance abuse let's say. What are the drugs that are most worrisome at the moment? What are the kinds of things that what are what are we seeing here? Great question there's you know there's obviously the opioids is a major major problem and there's also the fentanyl and then it's now also now the trunk that is actually now found in the fentanyl as far as a horse tranquilizer and that's a major concern because the Narcan can't really can't help on that and it's really alarming in many ways. Obviously there's alcohol there's cocaine there's all these other drugs that are out there that is major problems here in massachusetts and throughout the country but at the same point there's other drugs as well too that can cause addiction sleeping pills depression you know attention deficit type of medication these are what we're seeing out there and it's the issue is not going away anytime soon we're here just to try to help people recover and live a better life and deal with a lot of the the issues that they're dealing with as far as their addiction and it's it's concerning and it's growing and I know the government and the state has done an awful lot as far as putting resources back into helping people we work a lot with a lot of hospitals state of massachusetts has set up these community behavioral health centers that we're working with to help patients instead of going to emergency room for addiction in overdoses they're going now they're trying to push them towards the community behavioral health centers and we're working with a lot of these centers to help people get off of their addiction. You know you were in what you were just saying you mentioned tranq and this is horse tranquilizer I guess that must be being cut into you know fentanyl which itself is also cut into other substances and then you mentioned that that a big problem with that is that it is resistant or Narcan is not effective in that situation let's just remind folks what Narcan is well not if someone overdoses on on an opioid Narcan is administrated and helps save their life that's the big thing we're trying to teach more and more people to how to be able to have to administrate a Narcan and at the same point have them available police departments need to have these hospitals have them as well too so it's it saves a lot of people lives when they're overdosed you know I as I was preparing for this interview and doing some reading to do so I was surprised because I don't see it on display or something like that to hear that Narcan is available in most pharmacies and at CVS etc did you know that I didn't yeah I really I assume that that is true I have not yet done the you know the the personal investigation of walking into our local Walgreens or whatever but if that's the case then I assume that one of the things that you guys are trying to to make sure that people understand and educate and encourage people to do is carrying Narcan with them right you know again just because they may know somebody who might need it or they may not know somebody who turns out to need it right and they happen to be in the area I assume it Narcan does work that well right yes yeah and it's and it's the only game in town I think in that way is that right right but it doesn't it doesn't help on the tranquilizer right and that's a concern yeah that sounds it yeah that's a that's a big concern right so one of the things I was wondering is you were mentioning before and we should make it clear I made the analogy to a car dealership and to the fact that this is a societal problem and that's a very big difference but the other thing that we should talk about and you did allude to the fact that Bright View allows for walk-ins is the fact that when somebody needs your services when somebody is in crisis in this particular way they need help right right then correct right we can't afford as a society or a community for them to have to wait for a week two weeks three weeks which is so often the case so how does it work when somebody you know walks in your door had just kind of walk us through what happens at that point great question is if a person walks in before three o'clock five days a week Monday through Friday they will go through an intake process they'll go through some clinical and medical and then they'll be seen by a provider there's a little some paperwork that has to be done and then the next day they do some follow-up as far as setting up appointments other services that they may need to have and they they actually we actually set up a treatment plan customized towards that particular person so that it's no one plan is the same because everyone's life has got different demands and you know having an outpatient service like this a lot of people don't have time to go away for a month for their addiction it's you know this gives them an opportunity to continue their life with their family their job and also on their way to recovery so we feel very proud of what we're doing over Brightview as far as having people come in because if someone is that day they want to get service and they can't see someone the next day they may change their mind we feel that that day they show up we're going to walk them with open arms give them resources to help them not just on our patient services for for their recovery but other areas that we can help them case managers group therapy and a lot of other resources that we have as far as working with our patients one of the things that that I wonder about is whether you know I I tend to think of people in need of these services and in crisis and how easy or hard it is for them to recognize that for themselves how often when you get somebody walking in like we were just talking about is that person has that person made that decision for him or herself and how often is it that somebody else is escorting them there you know to again to in recognition that this is what needs to happen you're gonna see both both sides of it there's obviously there's some patients coming in because they're court ordered and when they have to do that we're trying to help that person because they've been in and out of the court system quite a bit so obviously they're coming in with court order a lot of other people come in based on just they've had enough they just want to they want to get help and when we move forward other people coming in just because they've gotten out of the emergency room and they've been given a bridge script now they need to they need to take the next step to helping them get recovery and do you find that it's just it's different to work with people depending let me put it this way how important is is the the patient's attitude towards his or her recovery in the in the chances for success of that recovery in other words if you've got somebody kind of dragged in there either by court order or by a concerned family member or friend or something like that is that already automatically starting with a with a with a heavier lift for you and for the patient yes and no i think what it comes down to is how we how we go about us we're going to treat that person as a person and treat the addiction as a disease and by doing that we might make them feel welcome and that we're here to support them and here to help them they may have relapses as you go along but we're not going to turn them away we're going to continue to work with them so if we show empathy and compassion to them they don't feel like they're just pushed off to the side like sometimes society can do with this particular disease you know we just got to battle through that and work with them and and that's one of the big things about what we're doing here at Brightview as far as helping people you're going to have some people push back but when they're ready they know that hey we were there for them and you know i feel very comfortable going back and and trying it again because sometimes their mindset may not be right then right that at that particular time maybe if they go home maybe they think a little bit more hey that person was really trying to help me out i mean it was a little too hot in that person you know what i want to go back how do you do you guys have any opportunity to know what happens when somebody's course of treatment is done with you so in other words like you said you're part of a network of different service providers to help uh and and you are yourselves trying to facilitate uh other services for your for a patient so that he or she again is not left a ground with just you know just having gone through this recovery process and then they're thrown back in without the same supports that they didn't have uh earlier so how much are you able to see what happens or know what happens after a patient leaves well like i said the the treatment program for a patient is customized towards their needs and what they're dealing with and the provider that works with the patient sets that plan and there's a course of how we go about it you know the m at the medication is for the for addiction treatment is a program that helps the patient wean off of their addiction and that's an area that really helps the patient because it does prove results 90 days does make a difference and we've seen major results as far as reduction is as far as a lot of different things and one of the areas that it's right here is you know we've seen a decrease in substance abuse uh 70 percent with by doing that so you mean in the in the patients that have come through your doors 70 percent reduction in substance abuse when they when they stand when they stay on the m at program that's a big that's a big thing the other area is a 50 percent decrease in alcohol consumption 77 70 percent decrease in time spent in jail 50 percent decrease in unemployment 60 decrease in an arrest so the by working getting on the program with the m at and working with the provider it's a step there may be some of the abscess you can't control that but we're we're continually trying to get them and the patient to move forward in and how they go about it is is a process so as they move continually get better and better and better they're weaned off of the medication treatment and then all of a sudden they're able to go back and so patient stops coming in we get worried we're going to we're going to follow up with that patient we're not going to just let them go away so and we work with our partners as far as that as well too yeah and uh the I I know that you you have uh reminded us a couple of times for sure so I don't want you to think that I wasn't listening I know that you that each patient's course through your particular you know your particular facilities is a customized course but is there like a an amount of time that you know is necessary for you know most people to to be able to commit to coming to those sessions over a course of time in order to in order to ensure the best chances for success um can somebody so in other words do you have a again customized as it is is it like a three week program is it anything from three weeks to you know long time or is it just really different for every single person different for everyone like I said the 90 days that's a real big part right there the night first 90 days makes a major difference some patients have longer periods because it depends on the the the addiction they have towards a particular one could be an opioid which is going to take longer there's a whole process that we go through on that so it's just not one particular customized you know one day a week or or three months and you're done it could take longer and I and I think one thing is it's it's always there you're always recovering from your addiction and you always have to have that support and then it goes into other facets of the support you have whether it's working with group sessions working with other people a lot of people that you know are in the industry that are actually helping a lot of people with recovery are former addicts themselves and that's so they know the language they they know what they're dealt with and because they've been there and that's that also helps the person that's trying to get recovery I wonder if you could share any wisdom you have about the I assume that part of the the treatment that people are receiving in these in these situations is around giving them tools to be able to go back out either after the course of treatment in general or whenever they're not in the facility and they're at home and in their lives etc tools and supports that they can carry around with them I I wondered if if that is the case if you could give us examples of of you know some of that kind of thing are you talking like for a job specific or no but more like just like so when the person is in your facility I assume that they're meeting with I don't know their like well maybe I should reframe it and just ask you when somebody is on it is in the course of treatment what would visit to the facility look like you know standard okay I've got a I'm I'm going there today what what what what would that look like who are they talking to what are they what are they talking about what I understand now what it comes down to is after they do their first initial intake going through the medical and the clinical and they meet with the physician the next day they come in they set their plan so an everyday situation coming in they'll be greeted at the front door by our our staff at there and then they may have to wait in the waiting room for a little bit but then they will meet with the provider whether it's a therapist or a doctor or whatever is going on that particular session they have closed closed doors it's all privacy sometimes you could be telehealth too because right now with the the the shortage of of medical professionals and therapists and so forth it's just not here in massachusetts it's nationwide so we'll utilize our other providers that could be down in hyenas or or lol and even though the appointments in in Arlington so they're not going to not have an appointment they'll always have that opportunity to see someone whether it's face to face or through telehealth and that's in that basically you were saying could be a therapist it could be a physician it just kind of depends on what is going on with that particular patient what clear clearly what their needs are and how to address those and is these are outpatient treatment clinics does that mean that that really it might be just as a visit it's it's not necessarily a daily visit that's required for any length of time or anything like that it really just works with you work with every patient's individual schedules correct so it could be coming in most of the time it's once a week depends on what how often the provider wants to see that particular patient but again we have we have 12 centers throughout the state in 80 throughout the country and we only utilize the telehealth for the professional the providers here in massachusetts so we're lucky on that aspect so if we're someone's out particular day but we usually have the patients always seeing the same person all the time so this continuity and consistency yeah i would assume that's really important right piece of things you were talking about how there is a shortage as i think most people are aware of that there's a real shortage and on the healthcare professional side and that you guys then need to make use of telehealth in order to make up for that among other things which makes sense the but that makes me wonder what are the challenges that's clearly a big challenge right just having enough providers and being able to access enough providers any other challenges that are really glaring or that you could that you'd want our audience to know about in in tackling this really difficult therapist is a big one right now we can't find enough therapists there's a shortage there's a lot a lot of people that are dealing with a lot of issues right now for a lot of different things it could be addiction it could be depression it could be a lot of different things for that have happened over the last million years with the covid it's affected a lot of people adults and young children and the therapist is an area that is the shortest here in massachusetts and throughout like you said the country so that's probably there could be a little bit of a wait time in some areas uh depends on the center that we have but by and large we're trying to see our patients right away because they need to they need to be seen not not tomorrow today and i know that Brightview itself has been in business for about eight years now and i'm wondering whether you see you know whether that's long enough for you to get a sense of things are getting better things are getting worse what what lies in front of us it's not going it's not going away time soon it's going to be unfortunately it's going to be here for a long time and we're continually educating people about the addiction the disease you know and we if we treat the disease like any other disease we can help people recover and obviously you know the opioids is the situation there is a major issue and we help you know people get off of the opioids it's going to help a lot of other things too okay you know our time has already you know come you know it's coming to a conclusion it goes very fast all the time when we're talking here but i wanted to ask you if there's anything else that you just you want to make sure that people in that our audience understands that we hadn't haven't yet mentioned or that we didn't cover sufficiently like i said at Brightview we treat people as people we treat the addiction as a disease and we're here with open arms to help them all out walk in we're going to get them seen and we're going to help them live a better life great and you know we want to remind people that Brightview is of course one of a number of different providers of this sort and we've asked you here to to speak to the general situation we really appreciate you doing such appreciate it james i have been speaking to Will Lakutur who is as we mentioned before the director for community outreach for Brightview, Massachusetts all 12 facilities 12 right and we really do appreciate Will taking the time to come and join us and educate us we appreciate your time as well this has been talk of the town i'm james melanne we'll see you next time


6 B, it is the law and through this proceeding, I hope to get input from stakeholders about how to best work within the law to maximize consumer protection and education efforts. We have several staff members present in the event. There are questions in the opening round with us are. Uh, Austin Schlich, general counsel, most I am sure assistant general counsel, Amy Colvin attorney Alberta mills, CPS, secretary and Jason, the executive director. We'll begin with questions for the staff. There are any commissioner will have 5 minutes for questions after questions are complete. I would like to skew staff and move to consideration of the drafts up. And I'll notice a proposed rulemaking to update 6, uh, 16 CFR part 1, 1, 0, 1. Again, I remind everyone that it's perfectly appropriate to voice for personal opinions on legal issues. It's not appropriate to discuss in public session, a legal advice given to us by the office of general counsel legal advice must remain confidential. So, at this point in time, I'm going to turn to see if there are questions for the staff. I don't have any questions, um, commissioner Feldman. I don't have any questions. I'd love to thank our general counsel and miss Colvin for the work in the presentations leading up to this. Thank you. Thank you, commissioner Trump. I have none and commissioner Boyle. I don't have any questions either. Thank you, Mr. share having heard no questions, staff and skews to move to listening mode. And we will begin consideration of the package that's before us before putting the matter as proposed by staff to vote. I will now entertain any motions from commissioners to amend the proposal. I myself don't have any amendments going in order seniority to ensure Feldman. Do you have any amendments? Thank you. Mr chairman today, I am offering an amendment that that would add 2 additional questions for for public comment. Should we move to the amendment before I begin discussion? So, I would ask you to describe remember for up to 3 minutes and then a conclusion I'll ask for a second. And then go to round the question from the members. So recognize you can describe it for 3 minutes. Happy to do so. So public input is a critical part of our decision making process. And traditionally, it's been the practice of the commission to allow commissioners to offer individual questions for comment so that we can create a robust record on which to proceed. Specifically, I'm seeking public comment on how the commission should evaluate sources, the sources of information. That it would make available under the proposed rule. We have an obligation to ensure that the information that we're sharing is accurate, not misleading. At the same time, the proposed rule could put the commission in a position of making determinations about the credibility, reliability and integrity of individual outlets or stories or authors. So, I'm seeking comment on the best practices to do that. The proposed rule that the SNPR that's in front of us today would would also allow the commission some additional flexibility to publish information from safer products dot gov. I'm seeking under this amendment public comment on whether we could go even further about releasing this information periodically, for example, on a weekly or monthly basis. I'm curious whether periodic or routine sharing of safer products dot gov information could be a more neutral way to disseminate this information. And at the same time, provide the commission an opportunity to be even more transparent with the American public about the data that we've collected under this website. I'd be happy to answer any questions from my colleagues about the amendment. And if there aren't on I'd request that the chair proceed to a vote. Thank you, commissioner. Is there a second to the amendment? I will second it and second it will not consider move to consideration commissioners felt felons amendments commissioners will ask any questions or make comments with respect to each amendment. And then we can come back to you commissioner felon at the end for a final comments each commission will have 5 minutes per round and you have multiple rounds necessary. So, let me start and say, you know, I want to thank my colleague commissioner felon for engaging on this item. Um, the supplemental notice is an opportunity to hear from stakeholders on any and all issues related to the proposed rule. And as such, I'm generally supportive of efforts to tee up issues or comment. I appreciate you working with an amendment to oppose them in an open manner. And I look forward to reviewing the responses that we receive. Commissioner, can you have questions or comments? I don't thank you commissioner boiled to questions or comments. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I don't have any questions, but I will say that I definitely appreciate commissioner filaments effort to prompt comments on the few specific issues. But in general, I do prefer to keep the broadest scope possible for the issues that we consider. I'm looking forward to receiving robust and comprehensive comments on all the issues before us. And I am concerned that adding the specific questions will. Unintentionally limit the comments we receive on all the issues before us. And so, as I say, I appreciate the effort and I know commissioner felon has set forth the issues he's concerned about. And I expect commenters will comment on those issues and I look forward to those and all the other comments that we receive. And but for those reasons, I don't want to unintentionally limit the breath of the comments we might receive. And so, I'll have to oppose the amendment. Thank you. Thank you, commissioner commissioner felon. Did you have any final thoughts? I don't having heard no further questions comments on commissioner felons amendments will move to vote on the amendments. Uh, commissioner felon. How do you vote? I vote yes, Mr. Trumka. How do you vote? No, commissioner boil. How do you vote? I vote no. And I vote yes, so the yeses are 2, the noes are 2, the amendment commissioner felon is not adopted. Um, did you have any other amendments? I don't Mr. Chairman. Thank you. Commissioner Trump. Do you have any amendments? No, thank you. Mission boil. Do you have any amendments? No, I don't. Thanks. Hearing no additional amendments, I move to approve the staff's draft. Supplemental notice of proposed rule making and to direct publication the same in the federal register. Is there a second? I second. Thank you. Um, we have a second. We can move to a vote commissioner felon. And how do you vote? I vote yes. Mr. Trumka, how do you vote? No, Mr. Boil. How do you vote? I vote yes. And I vote yes as well. So the yeses are 3 and the nose are 1, the motion to approve the staff's draft supplemental notice of proposed rule making to updates 16 CFR part 1, 1, 1, 1 passes. The notice of proposed rule making has been approved and shall be published in the federal register. This point time, we're going to move to 10 minutes per commissioner for any closing remarks. I'm going to start myself with just a few comments. I think today the is taken a big step towards improving our rules implementing section 6 B and this is long overdue. We really should put consumers first in all the work we do, including the learning the public to hazardous products so that consumers can make informed decisions through this process. I hope to align our rules with the statutory limitations. The CPSC and update our rules to be consistent with the current practices in the world. We are now living in I strongly urge the public to comment on this proposal. I want to thank my fellow commissioners for the support and look forward to reviewing everyone's comments that we receive. By taking reasonable steps to prioritize safety interests of American people or protect corporations. The commission satisfies mandate to protect the public against unreasonable risks of death injury caused by dangerous products. That I'm going to turn to my fellow commissioners commissioner Feldman. Do you have a statement? I do, Mr chairman. Thank you. And I want to again offer my thanks to agency staff and in particular, our office of general counsel for all the work that went into today's decisional. Despite the narrative that section 6 B of our statute is a quote, unquote gag order. It just isn't I do believe that this section and our regulations governing public disclosure of agency information. I have been misinterpreted and misapplied over the year section 6 B allows CPSC to share information with American consumers in a manner that's fair and accurate and timely. It's not a gag order nor does it require CPSC to receive permission from a company before sharing critical safety information. In fact, CPSC routinely shares information over a company's objections. These are called unilaterals and the commission frequently issues them. Mr chairman, I have 2 articles that I'd like to share with my colleagues. The 1st is by a gentleman named Matthew Cohen, an attorney who notes that the commission has been recently incredibly active in publishing unilateral pressure leases since May of. 2022, the commission's issued at least 7 of these unilaterals. I'd also like to read from an op ed from our former assistant general counsel and the former head of our office of compliance. Alan Schoen, Mr Schoen writes that 6 B isn't a gag order and that CPSC has all the necessary tools to overcome concerns about 6 B's limits on the release of public information to address a product that presents a risk. Of to the public of health and safety, he writes that it's in debt is it's quote disingenuous. On the part of the critics of section 6 B to claim that 6 B prevents the commission from acting quickly to warn the public about a product hazard. Mr chairman, I'd like to request consent that that we enter these 2 articles into the record today. We're considering additional flexibility under our statute to share even more with American consumers are public information. Sharing must provide consumers with timely actionable information about safety. And at the same time, our processes must ensure accuracy and fairness to preserve credibility and protect safety. So it's my hope that a final rule here strikes the appropriate balance between these 2 objectives. And while I do have some concerns about the rule as proposed, I'm voting today to publish the SNPR so we can receive public comment and create a record that's going to inform our next steps. Mr chairman colleagues. Thank you very much. I have no further comments. Thank you, commissioner, commissioner Trump. Do you have a statement? Thank you. We work for the American consumer. When we know about a dangerous product, we should be able to warn them. I think every American deserves that they deserve the opportunity to protect themselves and to keep their families safe. Congress put up a giant hurdle to transparency when they saddled us with the gag room. Is anti consumer and it was wrong, but this agency also willingly raised the hurdle even higher for itself starting in 1983 when it passed a regulation tacking on additional burdens that impeded us from informing consumers things well and well above and beyond the gag. Because I believe the consumers should be armed with information so they can protect themselves. I view our duty is very clear. We need to strip away all burdens to information sharing that are not clearly imposed by law. That's what I expected this SNPR to do and I'm disappointed that it doesn't voted. No, because I don't support the direction this proposal takes. It fails to advance consumer protection and it fails to improve our ability to communicate important safety information to the public as rapidly and completely as the statute allows. It doesn't live up to the pro consumer transparency approach that I think it needs to almost a decade ago in 2014. This agency published an NPR that while very modest. Was good on just 1 thing it had clear language allowing the commission to comment on information that was already public. And let's be clear the gag rule applies to disclosures and information that's already public cannot by definition be a disclosure. Now the agency walks backwards from the decade old NPR. Today's proposed SNPR ads ambiguous language that could impose new constraints on our ability to characterize accurate and already public information. The proposal would open new doors for outside interest to try to censor our speech and hide safety information from consumers. I find that wholly unacceptable. This proposal also fails to provide meaningful examples of how we could use our full authority to quickly warn the public of danger. Once any notification will manufacture and waiting around for comment is not practicable. Our statute anticipates that we will warn the public immediately when risks are serious enough and imminent enough connecting public health and safety to the concept of practicality. But our 1983 regulations narrowed that exclusion and this proposal leaves the old system largely intact. To protect the public, we must be able to communicate candidly about risks. And while the gag rule places serious constraints on CPSC, the statute itself allows many exclusions where we just willing to embrace them. My grave is concerned with this SNPR is that it fails to allow a crack of daylight to pass to our biggest statutory exclusion. A unanimous Supreme Court led by Chief Justice Brankwist clarified in 1980 that the purpose of corporate pre clearance under the gag rule is to protect manufacturers reputations from our disclosure of sensitive private information. That we gather under our vast statutory information gathering powers information we come across in different ways. For example, information we generate through our own research on products or information that we gather from public sources. Was never intended to go through the gag rule and the elaborate corporate censorship process. This SNPR would read an entire clause out of the statute. It avoids giving substance to the main exclusion under 6 B. Be subject to the statute. The information must be obtained under the information gathering powers of the act. Or be disclosed to the public in connection with that information specifically obtained under the information gathering powers of the act. On balance this SNPR missed an opportunity rather than open critical safety information to the sunlight. This SNPR would draw a new maze through the darkness. I can't think of any practical examples where this proposal will allow us to share new important information with the public or increase the speed at which we share it. It's amazed to know where hear the role of consumer commenters though becomes very important. I expect you to urge us to correct the shortfalls of this SNPR to tell us how we can best get you as much information as the law allows. When you do that, I'm confident that our final rule will take a significantly different approach. And at the final rule stage, we really need to think about how we can get the most information to consumers as quickly as possible. Where the gag rule stops us, so be it. There's no room for us to stop ourselves from doing the right thing. The old consumers more than that. I hope the commission can reach the consensus with consumer commenters on an approach that protects consumers to the maximum extent allowed under the statute. Thank you. Thank you, commissioner. Commissioner Boyle. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I also want to thank staff from for the work they put into this package. Thank you for all of your hard work with more than a dozen years of service at CPSC under my belt. I can say I'm very familiar with the role that section 6 B plays in the agency's work. And to that end, I certainly can vouch for how hard staff works to meet both the spirit and the letter of the law in terms of not publicly disclosing information protected by statute. And I know that will continue to be the case going forward regardless of any changes the commission makes to the regulation. As the agency looks to align our rules with the statutes language and purpose, though, I do hope we don't lose sight of the forest for the trees. Our mission is to protect consumers providing consumers with the information they need to avoid harm and make informed choices should be the overarching goal. Not only for CPSC, but also for those who make and sell consumer products. So, it's in that vein that as the commission takes a fresh look at it, 6 B regulations, I call on industry also to take a fresh look at their responsibility to provide the public timely and actionable information about potentially dangerous products. Section 6 may allow companies to keep certain information confidential by am asking them to consider a different question. Should they be disclosing information that can help consumers avoid harm, even if the law allows them not to do so for me, the answer is, of course, yes. What counts is our common commitment to safety and surely that should take precedence over parsing the requirements of section 6 B meaningful reform beyond what this NPR proposes will require statutory changes. But in the meantime, I look forward to receiving comments on the proposal and invite consumers in particular to make your voices heard. Thank you. Mr. Chair. Thank you, commissioner. Thank you again to all the commissioners for engaging and thanks to the staff, especially general counsel's office for the work on this item. And with that, this concludes today's decisional meeting of the consumer product safety commission.


Good afternoon, everybody. I'm Tommy O'Brien, coming to you live from TFNN Headquarters in St. Petersburg, Florida, Friday afternoon as we approach that closing bell, checking in on the markets in a pretty muted day after quite a day yesterday. Right now, S&P is flat, trading $3,085. We get the Dow Jones negative by just $33, trading $27,642. NASDAQ positive in the green up 18 points at $84,52. Gold contract, negative $3 at $14,6280. Notes and bonds a pretty calm day after quite a day of lower price and higher yield yesterday. The 10-year positive 1 tick at $128,148. The 30-year negative 3 ticks at $156,188. And the dollar index right now up 247 ticks at $98,390. We'll start things off. Let's go jump over to the charts. We'll start it off with the Dow, currently trading $27,607. And we're getting some muted action today, and I'll jump back to the headline of the day. And there is your headline. So yesterday it was trade optimism. Today a little bit of trade doubt. As Trump sowing doubt on trade talks with pushback on tariff on wind, that headline, they'd like to have a rollback. I haven't agreed to anything. China would like to get somehow of a rollback, excuse me. Not a complete rollback, because they know I won't do it. So that coming out at, you can see the news at about 10 a.m., markets though, pretty muted reaction to that. Currently $27,609 on the Dow. Nasdaq 100 just made session highs in the last few minutes, currently trading $82,240. S&P 500 approaching session highs as well. You see the negative reaction to that Trump quote early in the day. Just did about at 10 a.m., currently trading $3,085. Now back above that level, crude oil, quite a bid, crude from 10 o'clock at $55,866. Trades all the way up to a high of $57,366, just under that level right now. There's your gold contract with a little bit of volatility as well. Actually made it to $14,577. Now trading at $14,622. And the euro trading $110,20. As we get some dollar strength and euro weakness today. In terms of what else you have happening across the market, big day for Disney yesterday, gains after results after analysts look ahead to streaming, beat almost across the border and the numbers, also had some announcements to the details of their streaming service beginning next week. And to jump over to Disney shares, quite a reaction on their earnings last night, all the way up to $14,184 early this morning. But Disney, give it back, some of those gains still up relatively well on the session.


Hey there, my name is Allison welcome to the tiny herd where we talk about everyday pet care for guinea pigs rabbits and other small pets Today's video is going to be part three in a series I am doing on how to make fleece cage liners for your guinea pig cages This is a five-part series. So if you missed the first two parts of this, they will be linked down below I highly recommend checking those out. So you are up to speed on where we are But in today's video, we are going to be cutting out all of the pieces that we need To make our liners. So we're gonna talk about what exactly we're going to make in this series I'm gonna show you guys how I make patterns for everything how I cut everything out and we're gonna get everything ready for sewing So let's go ahead and get started. All right So I'm gonna take you guys over to my cutting table here in a second and show you the patterns that I have cut out For making liners, but first let's talk about what we're actually going to be making during this series So what I'm going to be focusing on in this series is making an actual set of liners not beds and cozies I might do some future tutorials on that, but I really want to focus on the basics in this video So what I'm gonna be showing you guys how to make is cage liners for the bottom of your cage So for our purposes, I have two by five cages So I will be making two two by three liners for each cage I personally don't like to make liners bigger than two by four I just think it starts being really difficult and bulky harder to wash So I'm going to be making two liners for each one of my cages So I'm gonna be making six liners total all of them two by three size and then on top of that I'm going to be making some two by two square pads I'll be making some one by one pads to go under water bottles and under Tunnels and houses and that sort of thing and then I will be making some one by two pads as well So this will make a little bit more sense I think when I show you guys the patterns, but let's go ahead over to my cutting table and I'll show you guys Exactly what we're gonna cut out All right guys So we are over here at my cutting table and I have some patterns to show you guys so again I am making two by three liners for my cages so that they overlap for my two by five Cages so this is the pattern that I used to cut out my liners It is 35 by 48 inches and that gives me Enough room to cover the floor and then some extra so when you are deciding what size You need for your cage liners measure the length and the width of your cage Figure out how many inches that is and then I usually add like five to six inches onto that To account for the seam allowance for sewing it and then that also allows for some shrinkage in the wash That way I know that my the floor of my cage is always going to be covered I don't have to worry about it shrinking so much that it doesn't cover my cage So for my two by threes, I do make them 35 inches by 48 inches And then I do have a couple of other patterns here So I have a 12 inch by 12 inch square and I use this for making Cubes or my smaller pads, so I'm gonna show you guys how to make smaller pads using this and then I have one That is 20 inches by 30 inches This is what I use to make what I call my one by two pads.  So I am just basically Spreading this out moving it around to cut out my liners I will mention that I Said when I first bought my fleece when I took you guys to Joanne's with me that I bought five yards I don't really know what I was thinking because five yards is not near enough to cover all Three of my cages when they are two by fives if you have one Cage set that you are making that is a two by four or two by five Then five yards would be plenty to get you liners pads and cozies But I am trying to make liners smaller pads Some smaller liners beds cozies cubes all those different things out of this one type of Fleece and I did not buy near enough So in this video, I'm not going to be cutting out every single thing that I said I was going to be but I'm cutting enough out to be able to show you guys how to sew this stuff And I will be buying more fleece so that I can finish out my cage sets But I just wanted to mention that it will probably look like I don't have near enough fleece And that is because I don't all right. So like I mentioned, I didn't have near enough fleece So what I ended up getting cut out of the beef fleece was four two by three liners one two by two liner Two one by two liners, and then I did get five 12 inch pads cut out of this and then actually with the remnants I was able to cut out a lot of different pieces for different cozies that I won't be showing you guys in this series But I really did end up getting as much as I possibly could out of this fleece And then I did order more so that is what I ended up being able to cut out Which is plenty for me to teach you guys how to do this But like I said, I will be ordering more fleece to finish out the entire cage set Next up. I am cutting out the liners that I need to be the backside of the two by three cage liners I am doing in the beef fleece I mentioned before that I like to do a pattern on the front and back of my actual cage liners for the floor of my cages This just saves space because I don't really use solid colored liners And I don't want to have a bunch of liners that have a solid color on the back since they take up so much space So you just will see me cut out the two by three liners here to go with the bee cage set Once I'm done with the two prints. I am moving on to the solid color fabric I am using this for the backside of the smaller pads and then also for cozies So in this video, you'll see me cut out the 30 by 30 for the two by two pad And then I also cut out a couple of the one by twos and some of the 12 inch squares Since I realized I didn't have enough fleece My goal was to make sure that I cut out the pieces that I needed to sew some liners and the smaller pads So that I could actually show you guys how to do this stuff for this series So you'll definitely get to learn how to make all of these things I am just not going to be able to make everything that I needed for my entire cage set But we will make it work and like I said, I ordered more fleece So I'm just going to go ahead and cut out all of these solid color and then we will move on to the U-Haul Last but not least I am cutting out the U-Haul pad So these don't come in yardage like fleece does it just comes as one pad So I have to buy multiple of these to make my cage set, especially this cage set with all of the cages So from this one pad, I ended up getting two two by three liners And then I did a two by two and then a couple of one by twos and some 12 inch pads So I obviously had to have more than one of these for this entire cage set But I did get everything cut out that I needed to show you guys how to make liners So that is what I am cutting out here guys. So here is where we are in the process So for this series, I'm focusing on making the bee print set But as I mentioned, I like to put a print on either side of my big liners that are on the floor of my cage So I did go ahead and cut out my ocean print as well Just so that I had it cut out because this will go on the back of the big two by three liners of the bee print And then between the two of these prints, I'm using this blue color as the solid on the back of my smaller pads and my cozies So like I mentioned, I realized that I did not buy near enough fleece for this particular set that I'm trying to do Again, if you were trying to just do one cage worth one two by five Cage worth of fleece the five yards that I bought would be perfectly fine But for making three cages Extra small pads cozies all of that five yards was not near enough for three cages So I just wanted to mention that this is what I was able to get out of the fleece that I bought So I have ordered more fleece ordered more you haul and this is where we are So in the next video, I will show you guys how I set this all up for Sewing and we will get sewing our liners. All right guys. So we have all of our pieces cut out So I'm gonna go ahead and end today's video here Make sure you are subscribed so you don't miss the rest of the series And again, I will link the first couple videos down below if you missed those But we have all of our pieces cut out The next step is going to be actually laying out and sewing our liners So if you guys enjoyed this video and found it helpful make sure to give it a thumbs up That really helps out my channel if you have any questions or comments Leave them down below and I will get back to you as soon as I can But thank you guys all so much for watching and I will see you in the next one. Bye