Consumerist
-
mpaa
Free Muni WiFi Back After MPAA Shut It Down For 1 Download
Coshocton, OH has its free muni WiFi back up, less than a week after it was shut down by MPAA actions over a single illegal movie download.
[Coshocton Tribune] (Thanks to Laurie!) (Photo: tbower)
-
shopping
Fake Lottery Winner Enrages Burlington Coat Factory Shoppers
Earlier this week, a lottery winner pulled up her stretch Hummer in front of a Burlington Coat Factory store near Columbus, Ohio. In an Oprah-esque share of largesse, she promised to buy every shopper in the store $500 worth of merchandise. But she turned out to be no fairy godmother. She wasn't even a real lottery winner. When customers discovered the lie, they took their frustration out on the store, trashing it. More » -
not free
Ohio Public Utilities Commission Delays Potentially Evil Expensive Light Bulb Program
The Ohio Public Utilities Commission has announced that they are asking FirstEnergy, the utlility company that was going to force its customers to pay $10.80 per light bulb as part of an energy-saving program, to delay the implementation of said program until they can figure out what the %#$& was going on. More » -
not free
FirstEnergy Forces Light Bulbs On Customers For $10.80 Each
Hey, who doesn't like to get free stuff from the power company? So it's awfully nice of Ohio utility FirstEnergy to deliver compact fluorescent bulbs to their customers' homes. Except for the part where the bulbs aren't free, and customers are being forced to pay nearly five times the retail price of the bulbs. More » -
pet stores
Petland Employees Drowned Rabbits, Posted Photos on Facebook
We've written about pet store chain Petland before, due to their documented use of puppy mills and snarky response to groups that protested said use of puppy mills. Now PETA claims to have found photos on a Petland employee's Facebook page that show her grinning while holding up the wet, lifeless bodies of two rabbits she had just drowned. More » -
temps
Minister For Hire Walks Out On Wedding
If you're in Ohio and hire Gillian Kresila to officiate your wedding, you'd better not disobey her no-alcohol rule or you'll be sorry. Kresila discovered that the 23-year-old bride, Erin Kuhns, had toasted her magic day with a glass of wine, and she walked out on the wedding a few minutes before it was scheduled to start. More » -
libraries
Live In Ohio? Your Library May Soon Close
Here at Consumerist, we love libraries. They're like some weird, old-school version of Netflix, but with books! And free! That makes them one of the most cost-effective sources of entertainment and reference material around. Unfortunately, Ohio may gut the funding on this public resource if the proposed state budget goes through. More » -
government at work
Toledo TIckets Residents For Parking In Their Own Driveways
I live in a city, but in a house with a driveway, which makes me extraordinarily blessed in the parking department. Not so much if I lived in Toledo, Ohio, though.PoliceThe mayor's office thereareis handing out tickets to people for parking in their own driveways. More » -
-
verizon
Verizon Willing To Let 62-Year-Old Man Die Unless Cops Pay $20 Of His Overdue Bill
Ohio police are pissed with Verizon after the company refused to help them find a missing 62-year-old man unless they paidhis overdue $20$20 of his overdue cellphone bill. More » -
housing
Top 10 Most And Least Affordable Cities
The National Association of Home Builders and Wells Fargo have put together an index of the most and least affordable metro areas. The index was created by calculating what percentage of a city's residents making the median income can afford a house in that city. More »
10:26 AM on Fri Feb 20 2009
By Meg Marco
30,291 views, 195 commentsMost discussed JanetCarol: Nothing in the DC Metro / Fairfax County VA made the least affordable?!?!?!? I'm shocked. more »
-
economy
The Mess DHL Left Behind When It Pulled Out Of The US
When DHL ended domestic shipping and laid off 9,500 people back in November, 60 Minutes says it was losing $6 million a day. Now the people of Wilmington, Ohio are cleaning up the mess that DHL left and are wondering what's next. More » -
heroic rescues
Comcast Installer Dangles From Water Tower For 1.5 Hours Before Rescue
You thought you were having a bad day? Meet Chris. He was installing some equipment for Comcast (by way of a subcontractor) on a water tower in Payne, Ohio. His rigging broke and left him dangling by his safety harness for over an hour. More » -
recession watch
America's 10 Fastest Dying Towns
Here's a bleak list from Forbes — America's 10 Fastest-Dying Towns. Many of the towns have something in common — manufacturing jobs moving overseas or to cheaper, more rural, areas. More » -
pay day lending
Ohio Continues To Punch Pay Day Lenders In The Face
Check 'N Go, a pay day lender, is closing 36 of its 71 stores in Ohio after voters failed to repeal a law that stopped them from charging asinine interest rates. More » -
bad consumer
Seinfeldian: Some Consumers Really Do Drive Their Cans And Bottles To Michigan
Remember that episode of Seinfeld where Kramer and Newman attempted to drive a mail truck full of cans and bottles to Michigan in order to profit from the $0.10 bottle deposit? Well, apparently, people really do this. And it's no fun for Michigan. More » -
cable wars
NBC Stations Will Ditch Time Warner Cable Unless They See Some Cash
Cable companies compensate most of the channels they offer, sharing a portion of the money they get from subscribers with the individual stations— but apparently Time Warner Cable doesn't share the wealth with broadcast networks —- and Austin, TX NBC affiliate KXAN is having none of it. They want some money! More » -
payday loans
Ohio Payday Lenders Lie, Bribe The Homeless In Attempt To Overturn Usury Limits
Ohio payday lenders, still smarting from their punch in the face, are turning to lies and deceit to qualify a ballot initiative that would overturn the state's recently approved usury limits. The industry's petition gatherers are telling people that the initiative would "lower interest rates," even though it would raise the maximum allowable APR from 28% to an astounding 391%. They're also giving dollars to illiterate homeless people who sign the petition. More » -
bpa
FDA Declares Bisphenol A Safe
Bisphenol A, or BPA, is the chemical used in various plastic bottles and can linings that Canada recently banned, consumers in Arkansas, California, and Ohio have filed lawsuits over, and Playtex and Nalgene have stopped using. The fear is that it's toxic—studies on animals in Canada have shown that it's damaging, and some tests in the U.S. suggest it's harmful to humans as well. Critics of the anti-BPA movement point out that the human studies rely on super high dosages that never occur in real life, and that making safety decisions based on the general public's fears isn't exactly scientific.
Now—right before California decides whether to ban BPA in children's products—the FDA has revisited its earlier studies and reaffirmed that "the trace amounts of bisphenol A that leach out of food containers are not a threat to infants or adults." More »
ohio
New York, 4:54 PM
Sun Nov 22
7 posts in the last 24 hours
Tip Your Editors:
tips@consumerist.com
tipline: 347-42C-ON95
Co-Managing Editor:
Ben Popken
Email | AIM | Twitter
Co-Managing Editor:
Meghann Marco
Email | Twitter
Senior Editor:
Chris Walters
Email | Twitter
Weekend Editor:
Laura Northrup
Email | AIM | Twitter
Associate Editor:
Alex Chasick | Email
Associate Editor:
Phil Villarreal
Email
