A family of four flying from Hawaii to Los Angeles last week say they were forced to leave an overbooked Delta Air Lines flight after they refused to give up the seat their toddler son was sitting in — a seat his father had paid for — and put him on their laps instead. [More]
Government Policy
Family Says They Were Kicked Off Overbooked Delta Flight After Dispute Over Toddler’s Seat
By 5.4.17
House To Vote On Obamacare Repeal That Could Leave Americans With Pre-Existing Conditions Without Coverage
By 5.3.17
UPDATE: Both the Washington Post and the Wall Street Journal are now reporting that the House is indeed planning to vote on the repeal measure Thursday. [More]
The NSA Collected 151 Million Phone Records In 2016
By 5.3.17
The National Security Agency (NSA) became a target for ire after the public learned in 2013 that it had been scooping up millions of Americans’ phone records without warrants or disclosure, and holding on to all of them. A change in the law in 2015 significantly changed the way and volume in which the NSA is legally authorized to scoop up data… but the net it casts is still pretty broad, pulling in 151 million phone records last year. [More]
Santa Fe Residents Vote Down $.02 Per Ounce Sugary Beverage Tax
By 5.3.17
Santa Fe residents have rejected a city proposal that would have added a $.02 per ounce tax to all sugar-sweetened beverages in the city, ending a heated battle between opposing organizations that spent at least $163 per voter trying to win people to their side. [More]
Some Restaurant Chains Putting Calorie Counts On Menus, Even Though They Don’t Have To
By 5.3.17
Even though the Food and Drug Administration has once again decided to delay enforcement of a new rule requiring restaurant chains and others to include calorie information on their menus, some companies have decided to just go ahead with displaying this information. [More]
FDA Quietly Delays Stricter Rules On E-Cigarettes, Cigars
By 5.3.17
The Food and Drug Administration has handed a temporary victory to e-cigarette and cigar companies, quietly deciding to delay enforcement on some recently finalized rules that impose stricter oversight on these tobacco and nicotine products. [More]
Congress Asks Airline Industry To Explain Why It “Hates The American People”
By 5.2.17 — Updated: 5.9.17
While no one was forcibly dragged out of room 2167 of the Rayburn Office Building during this morning’s Congressional hearing on the airline industry, lawmakers from both sides of the aisle appeared to be united (but not United) in their distaste for byzantine booking systems, lack of options, and the billions of dollars in add-on fees collected by carriers. [More]
Your Organic Milk May Not Be As Pure As You Think
By 5.2.17
Organic milk sometimes costs twice as much as the rest of the milk you’ll find in the supermarket dairy aisle, but you get what you pay for, right? A new report about one of the largest suppliers of store-brand organic milk casts some doubts on the standards of some products. [More]
FDA Delays Rule Requiring Calorie Count On Menus Yet Again
By 5.2.17
Three years after the Food and Drug Administration finalized a new rule requiring calorie counts on the menus of many restaurants, the agency has decided to delay the implementation of that rule for the third time — giving chain eateries, vending machine owners, and others extra time to comply. [More]
Some Schools Shame Students When Their Parents Can’t Pay For Lunch
By 5.1.17
Shaming a debtor may be an effective — and potentially illegal or unethical — way of getting them to pay up, but should children who have no control over their family finances be publicly shamed if it gets their parents to pay their outstanding school lunch bills? [More]
Supreme Court Says Cities Can Sue Banks Over Fair Housing Violations
By 5.1.17 — Updated: 5.9.17
The U.S. Supreme Court ruled this morning that cities are allowed to sue banks for alleged violations of the Fair Housing Act if the city is able to show that it was harmed by a bank’s discriminatory actions. [More]
Homeowners Nationwide Complain About Home Depot’s Lazy Lead Paint Removal
By 5.1.17
The Home Depot’s lead paint removal business is currently the subject of a federal criminal investigation, with homeowners around the country complaining that high-priced contractors hired through the retailer used unsafe practices that endangered lives. [More]
4 Misleading Things ISPs And The FCC Need To Stop Claiming About Net Neutrality
By 4.28.17 — Updated: 5.10.17
Net neutrality is a handy name for a pretty simple principle: the idea that the company providing your internet access should deliver you the online content of your choosing, when you choose it, without interfering. And since 2015, it’s been the law of the land. Now we stand to lose it once again — but the arguments that industry and some regulators are making against it are disingenuous at best, and a pack of lies at worst. [More]
It’s Disturbingly Easy To Reroute Someone Else’s Mail
By 4.28.17
The U.S. Postal Service has made the process of changing your address when you move super easy and convenient, by just filling out a form online and paying $1. Maybe that’s not so good, though: The process is so easy that an identity thief can redirect your mall to their address by just filling out a form online and paying $1. [More]
Here’s The Timeline For The Likely Death Of Net Neutrality
By 4.27.17 — Updated: 5.10.17
New FCC Chair Ajit Pai vowed to kill off net neutrality if he could before he ever got the job, and yesterday he made good on his word, introducing a plan to roll back the reclassification of broadband as a vital piece of infrastructure and remove the FCC’s authority to insist on an internet where companies like Comcast, Verizon, Charter, and AT&T don’t have any say in where you go or what you do online. [More]
New Home Depot Data Leak Exposes Gap In Consumer Privacy Protection
By 4.27.17 — Updated: 4.28.17
Recently, Consumerist received an anonymous tip pointing to an internet address that hosted digital images of bathtubs, garage doors, kitchen countertops, contractors at work on various projects, and customers picking out and paying for products in a home-center store. The site also hosted 13 Excel spreadsheets of customer records, including the full names, phone numbers, mailing addresses and email addresses of approximately 8,000 people, as well as other information chronicling the apparent installation complaints of each customer. [More]
New Law Would Ban Airlines From Bumping Passengers Involuntarily
By 4.26.17 — Updated: 5.9.17
United Airlines’ decision to forcibly remove a paying passenger to make room for an airline employee has led to increased pressure for carriers to change their policies. A new piece of legislation wants to stop make it illegal for airlines to bump a passenger without their permission. [More]
FCC Chair Ajit Pai Reveals His Plan To Kill Net Neutrality
By 4.26.17 — Updated: 5.10.17
You can say this much for new FCC Chair Ajit Pai: He keeps his word. Unfortunately for people who believe that internet service providers should not be allowed to determine what sites you visit, Pai’s key promise has been to kill net neutrality. Today, Pai pulled back the curtain on his plan to undo all recent efforts to regulate broadband. [More]
