Hearing the emergency alert warning tones blaring from your television typically makes you take immediate notice (and immediately hit the Mute button). So when a broadcaster allows a commercial or program to air similar sounds without an actual emergency occurring, they could be on the receiving end of a pretty big fine from federal regulators. [More]
Government Policy
Regulators Scrutinizing 2013 Ford Truck Recall After Receiving 30 Additional Complaints
By 1.21.15
A week after the new head of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration warned automakers and consumers that the agency would take an aggressive approach to vehicle safety, the regulator announced it is revisiting the 2013 recall of several Ford pickup trucks, opening the possibility of increasing the recall scope from 3,000 to nearly 200,000 trucks. [More]
Beware Of Unprepared, Unscrupulous Tax Preparers
By 1.20.15
While one might assume that it requires a modicum of tax expertise and perhaps some sort of certification to be a paid tax preparer, the sad fact is that most states have little to no standards for selling tax preparation services, meaning that once again millions of Americans are being put at risk when seeking help with their tax returns. [More]
Congress Lines Up FCC Commissioners-Turned-Lobbyists For Hearing To Say Why Congress’s Bad Net Neutrality Proposal Is Great
By 1.16.15
Depending on your point of view, Congress has been either promising or threatening to come up with a legislative solution to net neutrality, which would do an end-run around the current FCC debate. As of this afternoon, the first draft of the bill is out and the first hearings are on the schedule. So how does it look for fans of an open internet? [More]
Regulators Investigating Jeep, Nissan SUVs After Receiving Fire, Airbag Complaints
By 1.16.15
Having your car fill with smoke while driving down the road or finding that the airbags don’t deploy properly during an accident are most definitely causes for concern. That’s why the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has opened investigations into thousands of Jeep Cherokees and Nissan Rogues. [More]
IRS Free File Program Open To Qualifying Taxpayers Starting Today
By 1.16.15
While the Internal Revenue Service won’t be accepting electronically filed tax returns until Jan. 20, the agency’s Free File program is open starting today for those taxpayers who make an adjusted gross income of $60,000 or less. The Free File site features free access to federal tax preparation and e-filing software from 14 different tax-prep companies, and offers helpful links to help guide taxpayers through the process. [IRS.gov Free File] [More]
Online Payday Lending Companies To Pay $21 Million To Settle Deception Charges, Must Waive $285M In Loans
By 1.16.15
It’s no secret that payday lending companies charge high interest rates and a butt-load of fees for their small dollar, short-term loans. Payday lending companies break federal laws by not being upfront about the often highly inflated fees they charge. The FTC today jumped in to block two online payday lending companies from preying on consumers with the highest fine ever levied against a payday lender. [More]
Surprise: Sprint Tells FCC That Title II Is Just Fine By Them
By 1.16.15
Ever since the (current) net neutrality fight got started a year ago, the battle lines have been pretty predictable: the companies that sell you access to data don’t really want stronger regulations, and groups that sell things that need you to have access to someone else’s data plan do. But in a surprise move this week, Sprint just broke ranks with the AT&Ts and Verizons of the mobile world to tell the FCC that actually, they’re cool with Title II regulation. [More]
Southwest Fined $1.6M For Lengthy Tarmac Delays
By 1.15.15
Southwest Airlines is once again feeling the ire of federal regulators, as the Department of Transportation on Thursday imposed a $1.6 million fine against the airline for forcing passengers to stay on planes for hours at Chicago’s Midway airport in January 2014. [More]
Why Dish’s Sling TV Is A Factor In Pending Comcast/Time Warner Cable Merger
By 1.15.15
Later this month, Dish will finally launch its much-awaited Sling TV streaming service that gives subscribers live online access to a dozen cable channels. And even though Sling has yet to go live, it’s already being factored into the pending mega-merger between Comcast and Time Warner Cable. [More]
Verizon Investors Worried Company’s Anti-Neutrality Stance Could Backfire
By 1.15.15
Since 2010, when the FCC introduced its first go at net neutrality rules, Verizon has led the charge to gut the regulations. And Big V ultimately succeeded in early 2014, when a federal appeals court ruled that the FCC didn’t have the statutory authority to enact such strict guidelines. And now that the FCC is taking another stab at neutrality, Verizon is once again dangling the threat of legal action, even though it claims the proposed new rules won’t hurt its business. But what may hurt Verizon’s bottom line, say the company’s investors, is its reputation as a neutrality foe. [More]
What Recall Woes? GM Sold Record 9.92M Vehicles In 2014
By 1.15.15
Back in June, General Motors hit the mark where it had officially recalled more cars during the 2014 recallapalooza than it had sold in the United States during the past seven years. While that comparison was startling and put the sheer enormity of the company’s many recalls into perspective, it apparently wasn’t something the company or consumers worried about, as a new report points out that the company still managed to sell a record number of vehicles last year. [More]
Organic Ground Beef Sold At Wegmans Stores Recalled Due To Plastic Fragments
By 1.14.15
There are many things that are very delicious alongside ground beef when mashed into a hamburger patty or loafed into a meatloaf, but plastic shards are not one of those things. Customers of Northeastern grocery chain Wegmans have reported finding “small malleable plastic pieces” in their packages of organic ground beef. [More]
Lawmakers Claim Congress Better At FCC’s Job Than FCC Is, Plan To Introduce Net Neutrality Proposal
By 1.14.15
Large swaths of Congress are not pleased with the FCC’s moves towards regulating net neutrality, and they got even less pleased after the President threw his weight behind Title II and the FCC started to move in that direction. With the FCC set to vote in February, time for Congress to stick its oar in is running out. So now, in addition to the proposed bill that would bar the FCC outright from using Title II, there will soon be proposed new legislation afoot that seeks to do the FCC’s job for it, without letting the FCC in at all. [More]
Proposed Scorecard Could Help Protect Students From Dangerous Banking Products
By 1.14.15
For the past several years, federal agencies, lawmakers and consumer advocates have shared their displeasure with the rather cozy relationship between the financial industry and higher education institutions and set out to protect consumers from the often shady deals made between the two groups. Now the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is setting out to protect students by creating a scorecard that would help ensure colleges have all the pertinent details when it comes to partnering with financial institutions that offer checking and prepaid accounts to students. [More]
White House Calls For More Municipal Broadband Networks, Urges FCC To Override State Laws Blocking Them
By 1.14.15
The White House is on a tear with major internet issues this winter. After two other speeches this week in which the President called for stronger consumer data protections and stronger cybersecurity laws, today President Obama will deliver remarks in Iowa singing the praises of municipal broadband and asking the FCC to do away with the laws that block them. [More]
More Than Half Of All Taxpayer Calls To The IRS Could Go Unanswered This Year
By 1.14.15
Seeking tax preparation help from the Internal Revenue Service this year might be a futile test of patience, as the agency’s taxpayer advocate predicts services for taxpayers are likely to drop to the worst levels in more than a decade. [More]
IKEA Recalls 169,000 Crib Mattresses After Reports Infants Became Trapped Between Mattress And Crib
By 1.14.15
When parents put their child to bed they likely have a reasonable expectation that their kiddo will sleep comfortably and safely. Hundreds of thousands of customers who own certain IKEA crib mattresses might not sleep so soundly, however, after the company issued a recall following reports that the product poses a hazard to infants. [More]
