From the moment that Tide and others unleashed brightly colored, shiny, borderline adorable detergent pods on consumers, little kids have been licking, eating, and playing with them, which is a bad thing. And while some manufacturers have already begun shifting away from easy-open clear packaging, Costco puts its Kirkland Signature pods in a container that looks remarkably like the packaging it uses for food products and is easier to open. [More]
Government Policy
Costco’s Animal Crackers Container Is More Secure Than The Store’s Poisonous Detergent Pods
By 8.6.13
Fewer Than Half Of Federal Student Loans Currently Being Repaid
By 8.5.13
It’s scary enough to think that the federal government has around $1 trillion in student loan money out there waiting to be repaid. More frightening is the fact that not even half that amount is currently being paid back. [More]
E. Coli-Laden Beef Traced To Bi-Lo And Winn-Dixie Stores
By 8.5.13
Last week, we shared the massive 25-ton ground beef recall out of the National Beef Packing Company in Kansas. There haven’t been any illnesses reported yet: the germs were found during routine testing. Still, it’s good to know which retailers that contaminated meat went to, in case you happen to have picked some up. [More]
Salads Sold At Red Lobster & Olive Garden Linked To Cyclospora Outbreaks In Two States
By 8.5.13
Taking some of the guess-work out of figuring out why your stomach may currently be turned inside out, the Food and Drug Administration has confirmed that salads linked to a cyclospora outbreak that’s sickened at least 400 people have been tied to four restaurants in Iowa and Nebraska, including Olive Garden and Red Lobster. [More]
FDA Links Acetaminophen To Nasty, Possibly Fatal Skin Reactions (But Try Not To Freak Out)
By 8.2.13
Because no weekend can get started without news of a possible scary drug interaction, the FDA has issued a consumer alert warning that, in extremely rare cases, use of the popular over-the-counter painkiller acetaminophen (used in Tylenol and many others) can cause “rare but serious skin reactions,” including three serious skin diseases with symptoms like rash, blisters and widespread damage to the surface of skin. Yuck. [More]
FDA Sets Rules For Gluten-Free Food Labels
By 8.2.13
In recent years much has been made of gluten — people with celiac disease can’t eat it and others simply want to keep their diets free of it. But until now, there hasn’t been any official word from on high regarding how to actually define what makes a gluten-free food. The Food and Drug Administration is changing that with a final rule on what characteristics a food must have in order to be really and truly gluten-free. [More]
25 Tons Of E. Coli Contaminated Ground Beef Recalled
By 8.2.13
National Beef Packing Company is recalling a 25 tons of ground beef that may be contaminated with E. coli O157:H7. No, we didn’t forget that we already ran this story in mid-June: this is a second and entirely different recall that’s twice as large. [More]
Ford Agrees To Pay $17.35 Million To Settle Allegations It Was Slow To Issue 2012 SUV Recall
By 8.1.13
Ford is ponying up some big bucks to settle government allegations that the company putzed around and delayed the recall of almost half a million SUVs last year. The price tag to make it all go away: $17.35 million, the top penalty regulators can impose against automakers.
[More]
$11 Million Penalty Apparently Wasn’t Enough To Stop Scammy Telemarketers
By 8.1.13
Back in 2007-8, the Federal Trade Commission shut down a sketchy telemarketing company called Suntasia Marketing, Inc., for defrauding consumers and charging their bank accounts without consent programs they never enrolled in, like memberships in discount buyer’s and travel clubs. Two of the defendants behind the scam were hit with $11 million settlements and barred from getting involved in these sorts of shenanigans in the future, but that apparently wasn’t sufficient penalty to set them on a righteous path. [More]
‘Winning In The Cash Flow Business’ Scammers Banned From Polluting Airwaves With Infomercials
By 7.31.13
Do you need money? Everybody does, am I right? But not everyone has time to become a Wall Street lawyer. That’s why you need a simple, 3-step system to guide you through the process of making millions from the comfort of your own home. Unfortunately, you won’t be hearing about that system from Russ “Winning in the Cash Flow Business” Dalbey or his wife Catherine, as they have been banned from stinking up your late-night TV watching with any of their infomercials. [More]
TSA Misconduct Cases On The Rise; Agency Not Following Up On All Complaints
By 7.30.13
In theory, the Transportation Security Administration is supposed to be a last line of defense against terrorists and other folks who want to do bad things on airplanes. With so many lives on the line, employee misconduct of any kind can’t really be tolerated, but the last few years have seen an increase in bad behavior by TSA staffers. [More]
Are Prepaid Cards Improving Or Are They Still A Confusing Mess Of Hidden Fees?
By 7.30.13
First, the good news: Our wiser, elder siblings at Consumer Reports have ranked the best and worst prepaid cards for the very first time, and it seems many cards have lower fees and act a lot like traditional bank accounts. But now for the bad news: Fee information can still be tricky to find and many cards don’t come with the guarantees you can get with a regular debit card. [More]
FDA Finally Realizes Maybe It’s Time To Do A Better Job Of Improving The Safety Of Imported Foods
By 7.26.13
Perhaps your kitchen is only stocked with locally sourced organic food, but around 15% of what Americans eat — including half the fresh fruit, one-fifth of fresh veggies and 80% of fish — comes from around 150 different countries. So, finally getting around to implementing changes mandated by the 2011 Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA), the Food and Drug Administration has proposed a couple rules aimed at beefing up controls on imported edibles. [More]
Where Public High School Costs $600, Including A Mandatory Chromebook
By 7.26.13
It’s not unusual to see public schools that charge students for extracurriculars or sports, but we were surprised to see this bill from an Illinois school district where it costs $586 to enroll in tenth grade, including $300 for a Chromebook. [More]
Because Of A Typo And A Parking Scofflaw, I Can’t Go To Washington D.C. Anymore
By 7.25.13
Reader Cliff doesn’t have $17,000 worth of erroneous toll violations like the motorist whose story we shared yesterday, but he does have a lot of parking tickets, and they aren’t his. [More]
No, The Consumer Products Safety Commission Does Not Have A SWAT Team
By 7.24.13
An important correction in the Wall Street Journal earlier this week: “The Consumer Products Safety Commission does not have a SWAT team. An earlier version of this article incorrectly said that it does.” So that’s good. Or maybe sort of disappointing. The context was an excerpt from an upcoming book about the recent trend of unlikely government agencies using Special Weapons and Tactics (SWAT) teams. Like the Department of Education, or NASA. [Wall Street Journal] (Thanks, Greg!) [More]
Nearly 1-In-5 Funeral Homes Found Violating Consumer Protection Rules
By 7.24.13
In 1984, the Federal Trade Commission enacted the Funeral Rule, a set of consumer protection guidelines for U.S. funeral home operators covering everything from pricing transparency to casket-handling fees. And every year, FTC investigators go undercover to spot-check the funeral home industry to see if folks are abiding by the rules. According to the latest report, a significant number of them are not. [More]
Man Sentenced To 8.3 To 25 Years For Scamming Customer Out Of $5 Million Lottery Ticket
By 7.23.13
At the time he won a $5 million lottery jackpot on a scratchoff ticket, a Syracuse, N.Y. man says that he was buying a lot of lottery tickets and also using crack. He claims that the store owner’s sons took the ticket and held on to it for six years. Now one of the sons has been convicted and sentenced to 8 1/3 to 25 years in prison for criminal possession of stolen property. [More]
