Many payday loans have confusing terms and questionable fees that end up costing the borrower a lot more than they’d planned on when they took out the short-term loan. But it’s mind-boggling how one predatory lender managed to squeeze money from borrowers through an automatic opt-in renewal program that turns a $300 loan into $975 worth of payments in only a few months. [More]
Government Policy
GM Is Super Sorry It Sent Recall Notices To Families Of Crash Victims
By 6.4.14
By this point, most owners of recalled General Motors vehicles don’t need a notice from the car maker to know their ignition switches need work. One group of people who definitely don’t need reminding of this fact are the families of those who died in crashes tied to the ignition defect. [More]
NSA Chief Defends Legality Of Facial Recognition Program
By 6.3.14
As you’ve probably heard, it was recently revealed that the National Security Agency has been scouring online images and using facial-recognition technology to track suspected terrorists, giving rise to justifiable concerns that the NSA has records of your every selfie, headshot, portrait, and drunken mugging. But the agency’s head is now attempting to do some damage control by saying that everything his people do is on the up-and-up. [More]
FDA Launches New Public Database Tracking Which Drugs Do Not Play Nicely With Other Drugs
By 6.3.14
Medicinal drugs can be beneficial, even lifesaving — but not, always, in combination with each other. Putting two and two together in the human body can cause a million different unexpected, unintended, downright harmful side effects. Until now, those “adverse interactions” have been difficult to research, sort through, and track. But today, the FDA is launching a new initiative designed to let members of the public have access to, and make sense of, all the data. [More]
Feds Say Bogus Debt-Relief Operation Just Left Consumers Deeper In Debt
By 6.3.14
Being elbows-deep in debt is a scary thing, so when a service tells you that you can “become debt free and enjoy financial independence” and that it can reduce how much you owe by “70 to 80 percent on average including all fees,” it might be tempting to give it a shot. But don’t be shocked when you end up scammed out of whatever money you have. [More]
Report: 74 Deaths May Be Tied To GM Ignition Defect
By 6.3.14
While General Motors has admitted that an ignition switch defect in Chevy Cobalts, Saturn Ions and other vehicles has been tied to 13 deaths, others have indicated that the number could be significantly higher than that. A new report from Reuters claims to have found at least 74 fatalities that may be related to the defective switches. [More]
The FCC Comments Site Might Be Broken, But You Can Still E-Mail
By 6.2.14
As we mentioned this morning, Last Week Tonight host John Oliver made a hilariously profane, impassioned plea for Americans to just give a damn and do something about the FCC’s pending net neutrality (aka “cable company f*ckery”) rules. It seems his call didn’t fall on deaf ears, as the FCC’s commenting system appears to be completely overwhelmed and inaccessible to most people. But that doesn’t mean you can’t still e-mail the Commission. [More]
FCC May Redefine “High Speed” Internet To Mean Actual High Speeds
By 6.2.14
When we say “broadband internet,” we think that means “fast connections.” But as far as the actual regulations are concerned, that’s not necessarily true. To the FCC, “broadband” means anything with download speeds higher than 3 Mbps. Sure, that’s literally a hundred times faster than a 1993 dial-up connection — but as we move more and more into an all-online, all-streaming future, it’s just not enough. And so the FCC is considering changing the definition to match reality. [More]
NHTSA Investigating Why Jeep Airbags Continue To Deploy On Their Own
By 6.2.14
When a car manufacturer initiates a recall and provides a remedy for the issue, you assume that fix is going to stick. But that may not be the case for the 2012 airbag-related recall of two Jeep models, as federal regulators are investigating why Chrysler’s fix has not eliminated the problem. [More]
John Oliver Suggests Renaming “Net Neutrality” To “Cable Company F*ckery”
By 6.2.14
In spite of the fact that the current debate over net neutrality is one of the most important issues facing America right now, it’s not easy to get people to give a damn about the topic because it involves incredibly dull, complicated regulatory minutiae. Perhaps this calls for a rebranding. [More]
Makers Of d-Con Rat Poison Agree To Pull 12 Potentially Dangerous Products
By 6.2.14
For years, makers of mouse and rat poisons in the U.S. have been phasing out in-home rodenticides that use toxic pellets without a so-called “bait station” to contain them, allowing to pellets to scatter around a house, making their way into the mouths of curious kids. In fact, only one company has balked at pulling these potentially dangerous products from shelves; unfortunately, that company is the nation’s largest maker of rat poison. [More]
Suspended GM Engineer “Forgot” He Had Bad Ignition Switch Fixed In 2006
By 5.30.14
Last year, the General Motors engineer who quietly signed off on a fix to an ignition problem that has resulted in at least 13 deaths claimed in a deposition that he had no knowledge of making this incredibly important improvement. But after Congressional investigators have turned up all sorts of evidence showing that he did indeed give the okay for this fix, the engineer reportedly says he simply forgot about it. [More]
Yes, The TSA’s Airport Security Screening Rules Still Apply To Travelers Who Are Mad About Missing Flights
By 5.30.14
Listen, I know it feels like the sun and moon revolve around your head and the entire fate of humanity lies in your hands. But that’s not reality, and even if you’re late for your flight, you still have to go through the annoyance of security checkpoints at the airport, just like the rest of us. Otherwise, the entire airport terminal might just get locked down and that’s just a rude inconvenience for other travelers. [More]
Car Recallapalooza Continues As Ford Recalls 1.39 Million Vehicles
By 5.29.14
When we saw that Ford announced a recall of 1.39 million cars and sport-utility vehicles, we had to check back in the archives. Hadn’t we just posted about a Ford recall? Yes, it was only earlier this month that 692,000 vehicles were recalled because their airbags might not deploy. This latest batch mainly involves power steering failure in SUVs. [More]
Netflix CEO Says Comcast Is Coming For “The Whole Internet”
By 5.29.14
Netflix CEO Reed Hastings delivered some pointed thoughts about Comcast’s play for national broadband dominance and the world of net neutrality while speaking at a conference in California this morning. [More]
FTC: Shady Collection Practices Cost California Auto Lender $5.5 Million
By 5.29.14
If you can’t collect the nice way, then don’t collect at all. In this case, a national subprime auto lender caught using unsavory tactics to collect and service consumer loans must pay $5.5 million and change its ways to settle Federal Trade Commission charges. [More]
May Food And Supplement Recall Roundup: Not So Dairy-Free
By 5.28.14
In our May Recall Roundup for food, supplements, and even a few over-the-counter drugs, there’s dairy in the dairy-free pancakes, Salmonella in the chili powder, and always a few precription drugs hiding in the “supplements.” [More]
Verizon FiOS Gets Benefits Of Being A Public Utility Without The Regulations
By 5.28.14
As you probably know, Verizon was the company behind the lawsuit that gutted the FCC’s net neutrality rules. The telecom titan successfully argued that the FCC lacked the authority to regulate broadband providers like Verizon FiOS. What was lost in this discussion is the fact that all the while Verizon was saying FiOS should not face the same level of regulation placed on landline phone service, it was enjoying all the perks of being associated with a public utility. [More]
