This week's Washington Post story about the new assertiveness by federal agencies in charge of consumer protection had a decidedly Minnesota flavor. The Consumer Product Safety Commission shut down 200 swimming pools after an inspection sweep last month, enforcing a law passed after 6-year-old Abigail Taylor was mortally wounded by a dangerous pool drain in St. Louis Park in 2007 . The story also noted the Food and Drug Administration 's crackdown on Cheerios , that American breakfast icon made by Golden Valley-based General Mills. The marketing campaign touting the benefits to Cheerio-eaters' hearts and cholesterol levels went too far for the FDA's taste , leading the agency to threaten to regulate the breakfast O's as a drug if the company didn't stop, the Post reported. The cholesterol claim is gone.
While the FDA began looking into Cheerios before Obama's election, several lawyers who represent food and drugmakers said they think the agency under Bush would never have taken action against General Mills.
It's all part of a greater scheme:
The new regulators display a passion for rules and a belief that government must protect the public from dangers lurking at home and on the job -- one more way the new White House is reworking the relationship between government and business.
Isuspect this will mean more business for Whistleblower, both from consumers and workers emboldened to speak out, and those who think the government crackdown goes too far.