Hey, rest of the country that isn’t California! This is how you do it: California legislators went ahead and approved a sweeping bill on Monday that is basically a homeowner bill of rights, including ending abusive practices by mortgage lenders while at the same time helping homeowners evade the abyss of foreclosure. California ain’t kidding around. [More]
Government Policy
California Goes Gangbusters Against Abusive Lending, Passes Sweeping Foreclosure-Protection Law
By 7.3.12
Maker Of OxyContin Believes Children Are The Future (For Extending Its Patent)
By 7.3.12
The company that makes OxyContin has a good thing going, with lots of free PR from shows like Intervention and Justified and no exact generic equivalent to undercut its market share. But there are dark clouds on the horizon for the OxyContin brand, as its patent is set to expire in April. Now, in a ploy to extend that patent, the Oxy folks are going through the motions of pretending they actually care whether or not children can take the drug safely. [More]
Don’t Try To Sell Your Target Gift Card For Cash Inside The Store
By 7.3.12
When Heather tried to sell her son’s old crib, she learned that it had been recalled and contacted the retailer, Target, to find out how to get a refund. She was told that if she brought the crib to a Target store, she would receive a refund on the spot. What she wasn’t told is that the refund would be in the form of a Target gift card. With the nearest store an hour away, she doesn’t visit regularly and has no use for a gift card. She’s on a tight budget and has more use for cash. She tried to find a fellow customer to buy it from her until store management asked her to stop. From their point of view, she brought in a recalled item without understanding Target’s policies, and was soliciting customers inside the store, attempting to sell her gift card for cash. [More]
The IRS Just Can’t Keep Up With All These Potentially Fraudulent Tax Returns
By 7.2.12
If you’re one of the two million people who filed a potentially fraudulent tax return last year, well, you’re causing the Internal Revenue Service to have a really rough time. That number is a sharp increase, up 72% from the previous year, and it’s giving the IRS a huge headache as it struggles to keep up. [More]
Florida, Other States Opting Out Of Medicaid Expansion Four Years Before They Are Expected To Pay A Dime
By 7.2.12
Even though the expansion of Medicaid to cover several million more low-income Americans isn’t slated to begin until January 2014 — and even though states aren’t scheduled to begin contributing anything to the expansion until 2016 — some states have already declared their intention to not take part in the program. [More]
GlaxoSmithKline Pleads Guilty & Will Pay U.S. $3 Billion To Resolve Fraud Allegations
By 7.2.12
In the largest health care fraud settlement in U.S. history, prescription drug giant GlaxoSmithKline is set to plead guilty and pay $3 billion to the U.S. government. The settlement will resolve federal criminal and civil inquiries about things ranging from the company’s illegal promotion of some of its products to its failure to report safety data and alleged false price reporting. [More]
Study: Nearly Half Of Consumers Fooled By “Up To” Claims In Advertisements
By 6.29.12
When you see an ad that promises to save you “up to 30%,” do you assume that means that you will see a savings of 30%? You’re reading Consumerist, so you’re probably thinking “Duh, of course not.” But a new study shows that a large number of consumers are not discerning between conditional “up to” promises and unconditional performance statements. [More]
TSA Firings Continue With Termination Of 8 Air Marshals Suspected Of Boozing While Training
By 6.29.12
On the heels of yesterday’s news that the Transportation Security Administration would be firing eight security screeners for allegedly sleeping while on duty in Newark, it seems the agency is doing a thorough housecleaning job with the termination of eight U.S. Air Marshals. Investigators say they were drinking alcohol on a training day. [More]
Congress Doubles Up, Extends Student Loan Subsidies While Funding Transportation Programs
By 6.29.12
As we mentioned the other day, the clock was ticking on Congress to agree on an extension to subsidies that would keep interest rates from doubling on federal Stafford student loans, and that this agreement would likely be tied to a bill recertifying lawmakers’ authority to spend money on federal transport initiatives. Well, with a vote of 373-52 in Congress and 74-19 in the Senate, that bundle of legislation is now headed to the White House. [More]
DMV Errors Force Drivers To Hit Road Without Registrations
By 6.29.12
Someone needs to have a chat with the IT person for the California Dept. of Motor Vehicles. Since February, the DMV has had to issue at least 16 public apologies regarding technical difficulties. And for the last week, many drivers have been unable to renew their registrations on the DMV website, forcing people to either go without using their cars or to hit the road illegally in unregistered vehicles. [More]
FCC Tells Comcast It Had Better Get To Marketing That Standalone Broadband Service
By 6.28.12
The Federal Communications Commission has slapped Comcast with a $800,000 fine for not doing its part to market its standalone broadband Internet service. It was supposed to do just that as part of the conditions of its merger with NBC Universal last year. [More]
How Will The Supreme Court’s Medicaid Decision Affect You?
By 6.28.12
While supporters of the Affordable Care Act have spent the day reveling in this morning’s Supreme Court ruling and its detractors have vowed that they will continue to fight the law through legislative means — there is also a third group of people who think that moving to Canada would somehow teach America a lesson about a national health care law — what’s been left out of most of the discussion are the ramifications of the Supremes’ ruling against the portion of the bill that penalizes states that don’t contribute to Medicaid expansion. [More]
California Lawmakers Move Forward With Homeowner Bill of Rights
By 6.28.12
California is one of the many states hit in the gut by the collapse of the housing market, with at least a million homes already lost to foreclosure and about half as many struggling homeowners simultaneously trying to stave off foreclosure while jumping through hoop after hoop in the hopes of getting a mortgage modification. Yesterday, pending legislation that could help these homeowners came one step closer to being a reality. [More]
8 TSA Security Screeners Fired For Allegedly Sleeping On The Job At Newark Airport
By 6.28.12
The Transportation Security Administration has fired eight security screeners working at Newark Liberty International Airport, accusing them of sleeping while on the job and other violations. The workers were nabbed as part of an ongoing investigation of security operations at the airport. [More]
Say Goodbye To The Student Loan Grace Period
By 6.28.12
Though it looks like federal lawmakers will finally come to an 11th-hour deal to keep interest rates on federal Stafford student loans from doubling, certain programs that student borrowers have benefited from will be going by the wayside come July 1. [More]
Boehner: Congress Oh-So Close To Extending Lower Student Loan Interest Rates
By 6.27.12
The clock is ticking on the June 30 deadline for Congress to agree on a way to extend subsidies for federal Stafford student loans that would keep the interest rates from doubling to 6.8%. Now Speaker of the House John Boehner has said lawmakers are tantalizingly close to coming to an accord on the matter. [More]
Big Businesses Admit Being Really Bad At Math… When It Comes To How Much A CEO Earns
By 6.27.12
In March, a group of two dozen lawmakers prodded the Securities & Exchange Commission to finally get around to enforcing Section 953(b) of the 2010 Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, which requires publicly traded companies to disclose the ration between CEO pay and the median pay for the rest of their employees. Now that the SEC is prepping to release those rules, these companies are suddenly claiming a lack of basic math skills. [More]
Houston Passes $5/Person Strip Club Fee
By 6.27.12
Life is about to get slightly more expensive for strip club patrons in Houston. The city council in the Texas town have voted 14-1 to pass a $5-per-customer fee on strip clubs. [More]
