Ann Powers is NPR Music's critic and correspondent. She writes for NPR's music news blog, The Record, and she can be heard on NPR's newsmagazines and music programs.
New York is the latest, and largest, state to consider charging product-makers to dispose of their packaging. But lawmakers are clashing over how much to involve industry in creating a new system.
A bill known as the PACT Act, which will lend health care services and disability benefits to veterans exposed to toxic substances, looks likely to become law next month.
