Consumerist
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tainted
FDA Believes Heparin Contamination Was Intentional
The New York Times reports that the FDA is now working under the assumption that the deadly contamination of heparin was intentional. In her prepared testimony before a congressional subcommittee, Janet Woodcock, director of the FDA's Center for Drug Evaluation said,FDA's working hypothesis is that this was intentional contamination, but this has not been proven.
More details, inside... More » -
Whoops
Disney Upset About Risque Hannah Montana Pics, Underaged Girls On Their Billboards In China
So Disney is all upset over some slightly saucy photographs of 15-year-old Hannah Montana star Miley Cyrus, but it seems in their haste to toss out accusations (Disney spokeswoman Patti McTeague told the New York Times that "a situation was created to deliberately manipulate a 15-year-old in order to sell magazines"), the company neglected to consider the appropriateness of using obviously under-aged girls on their underwear billboards in China. More » -
bad company
Dunkin' Donuts Suing Its Own Small Franchisees Out Of Existence
If your favorite Dunkin' Donuts shop is an individually-owned franchise and not part of a large group of stores, don't grow too attached to it, warns Cindy Gluck, a DD owner in Brooklyn. She claims DD corporate waits patiently for smaller franchisees to make any mistake at all, then strong-arms them out of business at a huge financial loss. The sheer number of lawsuits DD has aimed at small-time owners recently indicates that something unusual is going on:Dunkin' Donuts has sued other franchise owners 154 times since 2006. Over the same stretch of time, McDonald's was involved in five lawsuits. And Subway, a company that has four times the number of locations as Dunkin' Donuts, sued its franchises 12 times.
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File Sharing
Arizona Judge Rejects RIAA's "Shared Directory = Piracy" Argument
Although it won't affect other cases, the RIAA was handed a small smackdown this week when a U.S. district judge rejected their request for a summary judgement, and ruled that putting song files in a shared directory was not enough proof that infringement had occurred. More » -
Most Popular Stories
- Thank You For Contacting Comcast Live Chat Support. My Name Is Lethel. (8,196 views, 49 comments)
- 10 Things You May Not Know About The People Who Make Your Coffee (8,005 views, 48 comments)
- Stingy Ben And Jerry's Manager Cuts Off Free Cone Supply, Ruining "Free Cone Day" (7,528 views, 73 comments)
- What Will You Do With Your Economic Stimulus Check? (95 comments, 2,931 views)
- CenterPoint Energy Thinks Your Fish Tank Is A Meth Lab, So Police Kick In Your Door (76 comments, 6,075 views)
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Ouch
American Airlines Is Losing $3.3 Million A Day
Every day, American Airlines gets up in the morning, looks in the mirror, thinks about the $3.3 million dollars it lost yesterday, brushes its teeth and gets ready to lose another $3.3 million. Fortune says the hemorrhaging began in January, and while red ink is no stranger to the airline industry, they're running out of things to cut. More » -
ID Theft
Fake Credit Card Reader Found At California Grocery Store Linked To Thefts
A small California grocery store chain and its customers have fallen prey to some tech savvy ID thieves, says KPIX in San Francisco. A card reader was secretly replaced with a unit that skimmed card numbers at the Los Gatos Lunardi's — an increasing common scam that targets stores and gas stations where customers can swipe their own credit cards. The theft was discovered when the grocery store called to report that one of their readers had been switched. More » -
Pr
Circuit City Denies Its In-Home TV Calibration Is A Total Scam
Speaking on behalf of Circuit City in regards to our post, "Circuit City's In-Home TV Calibration Is A Total Scam", Mike Vallebuona of New Media Strategies (a company that protects its clients from "online attacks, rumors and misinformation") send us the following pulsating pile of drivel: More » -
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As predicted, the Feds cut interest rates a quarter of a point to 2%. [NYT]
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Verizon
Reader Uses Being Nice To Quickly Escapes Verizon Without Early Termination Fee
Mason used the increase in monthly administrative charges to escape his Verizon cellphone contract without early termination fee, but unlike others, had very little trouble. The secret seems to be being nice! Wow, are we still doing that? Yes, we are, and it works wonders: More » -
Paranoia
CenterPoint Energy Thinks Your Fish Tank Is A Meth Lab, So Police Kick In Your Door
You'd think between the reactionary CenterPoint Energy subcontractor who smelled vinegar and got worried, the police officer who asked for a search warrant, and the new-to-the-bench judge who signed the warrant, someone would have stopped to say, "Wait, what exactly did you smell? Something vinegary, huh? Yeah, that's not a meth lab." (After all, we were able to find two decent descriptions of what a meth lab smells like in less than a minute.) Instead, a 54-year-old former nurse and her 49-year-old husband were handcuffed and told to sit in their living room and not speak to each other while the warrant was executed. More » -
Loans
Ohio Proposes Punching Payday Lending Industry In The Face
The Columbus Dispatch says that Ohio lawmakers are getting inexplicably tough on payday lenders. Have people finally had enough?Stunning both the payday-lending industry and consumer advocates, House Financial Institutions Chairman Rep. Christopher R. Widener, R-Springfield, made major changes yesterday to a plan he introduced last week that did not lower the current 391 percent rate.
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Food
10 Things You May Not Know About The People Who Make Your Coffee
The Chicago Red Eye has a list of 10 things you may not know about the men and women who make your lattes and whatnot. This one is gross, but important:Just because their finger is black doesn't mean it's dirty.
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returns and exchanges
Target's Super Secret Return Policy
Consumer Reports tells us that Target's strict "No receipt, No return" policy has an "unadvertised" loophole — you can return items of less than $20 for store credit. The catch? You can only do this twice a year. More » -
Rebates
What Will You Do With Your Economic Stimulus Check?
The first of the economic stimulus rebate checks were planned to be distributed this week and it seems as if it's created a bit of a feeding frenzy. Retailers such as Kroger and Sears are offering financial bonuses while Wal-mart is offering free check cashing and a few price breaks on food items. Of course you could take advantage of offers like these, but what should you do with your rebate? Well, luckily, there's plenty of advice to give you food for thought. Newsweek suggests the following: More » -
unpleasant
Big Lots Fire Truck Comes With Free (Used) Crack Pipe
Reader Patricia says she bought a fire truck for her son for Easter, and while she was unwrapping the toy — out fell a used crack pipe. She contacted the store and they brushed her off, promising that someone would get back to her... but no one ever did. Now she's come to us for a little recognition that crack pipes aren't supposed to be included with children's toys.
Here's her story:
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Porn
Charter Cable Gives Free Porn To The Mentally Handicapped
Consumerist Forums reader "1gunit" discovered free porn while channel surfing on his new HDTV. It began when a strange program appeared that started to automatically fast forward itself through what was some presumably boring dialogue. When the program began to play at normal speed, "1gunit" realized he was watching someone else's "On Demand" porn. How did this happen? His letter, inside... More » -
Economy
We're Not In A Recession!
At least by one standard, we're not in a recession: the economy grew .6% in the first quarter. While the numbers are far from awesome, a recession is classically defined as a contraction of GDP, and that didn't happen. However, with gas and food and pizza slice prices rising, it's not to say that we couldn't be heading towards one.
Economy limps ahead at a 0.6 percent pace in first quarter, better pace than expected [AP] (Thanks to Bladefist!)
New York, 9:04 PM
Wed Nov 11
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