In our book, Toxic Sludge Is Good For You, we reported on the U.S. government's disastrous PR campaign to build public support in Nevada for a high-level nuclear waste dump at Yucca Mountain. Now two workers at the Yucca Mountain Project to dispose of high-level nuclear waste say they were fired or transferred after raising concerns about the project's safety.

"Edelman PR Worldwide and Dittus Communications have been tapped to spearhead PR and lobbying for the American Council for Fitness and Nutrition, a coalition of top food and beverage groups seeking to counter charges that the industry is at fault for a swelling obesity problem in the U.S.," O'Dwyer's PR Daily writes. "Formed earlier this year, the Council stresses that both physical activity and a proper diet are needed for a healthy lifestyle.

"After the bubble burst, the [New York Stock Exchange] regulators decided that it was not nice for an analyst to tout a stock without mentioning that he owned the stock or that his employer was the company's investment banker. So they ruled that such conflicts had to be disclosed. Fair enough. But to whom? Many investors learn analysts' opinions not from reading brokerage reports but from news media reports. So the Big Board said that the firms had to make sure that broadcasters who quoted the analysts had to pass on the disclosure.