The Recall Roundup for December is not very merry, especially if you’re in the market for electronic devices. Here’s a collection of appliances and devices that could cause overheating and discomfort or actual property damage. [More]
Government Policy
Pennies Are Still Useless, And Nickels Cost Eight Cents To Make
By 12.15.14
Printing and minting money is one of the privileges that government has. In theory, this is a privilege because the face value of coins is more than they cost to make. The problem is that while we still have one-cent and five-cent coins here in the United States, those coins are worth less than they were decades ago when they were designed. Minting new ones costs taxpayers money. [More]
Report: Americans Are Poorer Since The Recession Ended, Wealth Inequality Continues To Increase
By 12.12.14
While it could be debated to no end whether or not the Great Recession is over, a new report points out that consumers are still worth less money than they were before the bottom fell out of the economy. [More]
Washington State Issues Emergency Shellfish Recall After Illness Reported
By 12.12.14
Consuming raw seafood is always a gamble, and for a dozen people it turned out to be an unsuccessful wager. And so, Washington state health officials are ordering an emergency harvest closure and recall of shellfish shipped throughout the country. [More]
Chrysler Expands Takata Airbag Recall By Nearly 209,000 Vehicles In Five Additional States, U.S. Territories
By 12.12.14
Hot off the heels of several automakers heeding regulators’ suggestion to initiate nationwide recalls of vehicles with Takata-produced airbags that may spew shrapnel at passengers upon deployment, Chrysler is following suit – kind of. [More]
FTC Takes Action Against Auto Dealers For Violating Order Prohibiting Deceptive Advertising
By 12.12.14
Here’s the thing, if the Federal Trade Commission tells you not to deceive consumers with your ads or you’ll have to pay a hefty fine, they mean it. That’s the case for two auto dealerships that allegedly violated FTC orders put in place in 2012. [More]
CFPB Takes Action Against Two Alleged Student Debt Relief Scams
By 12.11.14
Student loan borrowers have enough to worry about, so they shouldn’t have to deal with being hounded by so-called debt relief companies promising to provide consumers with repayment benefits that actually come free of charge with federal loans. Today, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau took action to put a stop to two such relief scams that reaped millions of dollars from thousands of consumers. [More]
Consumer Advocates Shine Spotlight On Too-Common Credit Reporting Errors
By 12.11.14
By now we know that credit reporting agencies are notoriously difficult to work with when it comes to fixing errors on one’s credit report. While legislators and consumers groups have long called upon credit reporting agencies to provide better service to disputing customers, little has been done to actually affect change. Now, advocates with Consumers Union are putting the spotlight on how devastating these errors can be for consumers. [More]
Verizon: New Net Neutrality Rules Won’t Actually Hurt Our Network Investment At All (But We’ll Still Sue)
By 12.11.14
All of the big ISPs have been full of bluster about the FCC’s pending new net neutrality rules, but none more so than Verizon. Verizon is the company that sued in the first place to get the 2010 rule overturned, and they are the company that has been most aggressive with promises to sue again when the FCC actually comes up with a rule. Their main argument has been that strong regulation will damage their ability to invest in their networks — but it seems even Verizon’s own top executives don’t fall for that nonsense. [More]
New Requirement Aims To Curb Inaccurately Reported Medical Debt
By 12.11.14
Medical bills account for nearly half of all collections notices on consumers’ credit reports, affecting more than 43 million Americans. Meanwhile, it’s been shown that medical billing is fraught with errors and many consumers sent to collections for these debts are penalized too harshly. A new federal requirement hopes to reduce this overly negative impact of medical debt on credit reports. [More]
Del Monte Recalls Fruit Snack Packs Potentially Contaminated With Listeria
By 12.10.14
Sure, we feel like we’re doing something righteous and healthy when we buy a package of cut fresh fruit for a snack instead of cookies or a candy bar, but there are times when choosing fresh fruit can come back to bite you. That’s the case for some Del Monte fruit snacks sold in grocery and convenience stores. [More]
Supreme Court: Amazon Warehouse Workers Shouldn’t Be Paid For Security Screening Time
By 12.9.14
Two months ago, the U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments in the case of Integrity Staffing Solutions v. Busk et al., concerning the question of whether employees at a warehouse–an Amazon distribution center, in this case–should be paid for the time that they spend waiting for security checks when they leave work. The Supremes issued a unanimous decision earlier than expected, and they say that security checks should not be considered part of the job at a distribution center. [More]
December Food And Supplement Recall Roundup – Diet Drugs Are Not Bee Pollen
By 12.9.14
In our December recall roundup, bodybuilding supplements contain steroids, caramel-filled chocolate bites have peanut butter in them, and fungus-contaminated probiotic powder had a horrible, tragic result. Also, maybe people should reconsider this whole thing where we buy commercial bean sprouts. [More]
FDA: Idaho Knew About Chobani Mold Issue Before Yogurts Started Exploding
By 12.8.14
Last year, fungal contamination in yogurt made in Chobani’s new plant in Idaho led to problems with their products distributed nationwide. These problems ranged from “this yogurt tastes funny” to in-fridge explosions to dozens of illnesses that consumers attributed to the yogurt. Now, the Idaho plant’s local newspaper has learned that the state government may have known about the mold contamination long before any yogurts were pulled from stores. [More]
FCC Releases Massive Study On Mobile Phone Theft, Asks Wireless Companies To Start Making Changes
By 12.5.14
Smartphones are amazingly convenient: tiny little hand-sized computers that make it easy to organize our lives on the go. They’re also amazingly good targets for theft: tiny, portable, expensive, and full of personal information. Mobile device theft is on the rise, just as mobile devices are, and the FCC has been trying to find ways to protect consumers when their devices get yanked from their hands. [More]
Traveler Arrested For Allegedly Slamming Bag Into Elderly TSA Agent During Carry-On Dispute
By 12.3.14
Listen, we’re all looking for a little wiggle room when it comes to increasingly more cramped commercial flights, but when airport workers tell you something isn’t gonna fit as a carry-on, that is not the time to turn up the rage. Logan Airport officials say a man was arrested yesterday at a security checkpoint after allegedly slamming his too-large-to-carry-on backpack into a 74-year-old Transportation Security Administration agent. [More]
New Coalition Steps Up To Fight “Mega Comcast” Merger As FCC Restarts Review Clock
By 12.3.14
It’s the plot of a certain kind of action movie or video game that we’ve all seen and played a thousand times: the big bad robot/alien/lizard comes crashing into town and the only thing that will stop it is when an unlikely band of allies group up and save the world. If politics and business are a game, as so many participants seem to think, then now they are apparently one of that genre, as an unlikely band of allies is now grouping together under one banner to fight the Comcast/Time Warner Cable mega-merger. [More]
Govt. Report Criticizes Cable Companies For Cashing In On Data Caps
By 12.2.14
A growing number of cable companies are implementing data caps (sorry — “data thresholds”), which put limits on how much data a subscriber could use before facing penalties ranging from warning messages to throttled speeds to overage fees. A new report from the federal Government Accountability Office says that lack of competition in the broadband market could result in these caps being implemented with no one benefiting other than cable companies’ bottom lines. [More]
