Consumerist: bureaucracy

Florida Judges Tosses Out Thousands Of Bogus Toll Fines

Ben Popken — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 10:00:07 EDT

A Florida judge tossed out thousands of Orlando-Orange County Expressway Authority and Florida Turnpike Authority toll violation citations for people getting tickets for no apparent reason because their toll transponders malfunctioned. Citizens were subjected to a "bureaucratic morass" when they tried to sort out the bogus tickets, made all the worse because their accounts were on auto-debit. [Orlando Sentinel]

FDA Is So Underfunded It Can't Protect Consumers

Chris Walters — Mon, 03 Dec 2007 10:40:45 EST

Today, an advisory panel to the FDA will present its findings developed over the past year. The result is "a scathing review of the state of the FDA" that says it's "so underfunded and understaffed that it's putting U.S. consumers at risk in terms of food and drug safety."

The report describes what it calls a "plethora of inadequacies," including:

inadequate inspections of manufacturers, noting that foodmakers, for example, are inspected about once every 10 years.
A "badly broken" food-import system and food supply "that grows riskier each year."
A depleted FDA staff, which is about the same size as it was 15 years ago despite huge growth in agency responsibilities.
A workforce with a "dearth" of scientists who understand emerging technologies.
An "obsolete" information-technology system, with handwritten inspectors' reports and "piles and piles" of paper documents that are in warehouses with no backup, including clinical trial data.

The panel says the problem stems from "chronic underfunding" of the FDA, even though its responsibilities continue to expand—for example, it now regulates 80% of the nation's food supply, but only receives about a third of our food-safety budget. (The rest goes to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.)

"These people were horrified by what they found," [said William Hubbard, a former FDA associate commissioner]. While the subcommittee was supposed to look ahead to where the FDA needs to be, Hubbard says it came away concluding that "it cannot even do its job now."

"Report: FDA so underfunded, consumers are put at risk" [USA Today]
(Photo: Getty)

Renew Your Passports Now, Because 2008 Could Be Worse

Chris Walters — Mon, 22 Oct 2007 12:09:34 EDT

Despite all the much-publicized delays with passport applications this year, the government has announced that they'll still be unprepared for the onslaught of applications come 2008, so if you know you'll need a new/renewed passport you should apply now during the slow season. In January, the land and sea portion of the new passport law goes into effect, requiring everyone who travels to Canada, Mexico, or the Caribbean to show proof of citizenship.

The passport requirement for air travel was implemented last January, although the rules were loosened at the end of summer due to gross incompetence—er, "unusually high application volume"—so that you could travel with a receipt for your new passport. That expired at the end of September, and there's no word whether the Department of Homeland Security will make any similar exceptions next year for sea and land travel.

A passport isn't required for U.S. territories, so if you really want to travel and don't have a passport, try planning your next vacation in American Samoa, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, Puerto Rico, Swains Island, or the U.S. Virgin Islands.

"Second Wave of Passport Anxiety Likely" [Fodor's]

RELATED
Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative [Department of Homeland Security]
(Photo: Getty)

Liquor Store Refuses To Sell Booze To Man Who May Be 12 or 74, Who Can Say?

Chris Walters — Thu, 27 Sep 2007 06:29:10 EDT

A shop in England refused to sell two bottles of wine to a white-haired, balding grandfather—you know, the kind with wrinkles on his face—because he balked when the cashier asked him to prove he was over 21. The man, being ornery in that way that old folks just naturally embrace, refused: "I felt like saying 'What do I look like? Are you a fool?'"

What particularly upset him was that the store manager refused to intervene—instead, he took the wine away. "He picks up the wine and, in the manner of a child taking home his ball, says 'Well, we won't serve you'. ...I applaud any efforts to stop kids being served and standing on street corners getting drunk. But this was just totally stupid."

A spokesperson for the liquor store offered a "them's the rules" explanation which sounds like it was pulled from the script for "Idiocracy" (emphasis is ours):

We take our responsibility with regard to selling alcohol very seriously and all our stores operate the Task 21 scheme, which addresses the difficulties our staff face in being able to determine if a customer is legally old enough to buy alcohol. To further limit any element of doubt staff at the West Kirby store are required to ask anyone buying alcohol to confirm that they are over 21.

That spokesperson totally has a point. We've seen enough Scooby Doos to know how well a good rubber mask can fool even veteran mystery solvers. In fact, maybe from now on, store clerks should be required to try to pull your mask off your face if you don't show ID. And what about children with progeria? If you didn't have this policy, they could totally get away with some hooch. Criminals are everywhere.

Look, we sympathize with the man, and we're not mocking the cashier either, who probably agrees that it's overkill but isn't in a position to argue. But blind bureaucracy like this makes the whole human race look stupid. We suspect the store manager is much closer to 21 than the grandfather or the cashier.

"Man, 72, refused alcohol over age" [BBC News via Behind the Counter, because we couldn't resist]
(Photo: Getty)