Back in the day, slaughterhouses were the ones grabbing the attention when it came to health concerns and the need for inspectors from the U.S. Department of Agriculture on a regular basis to ensure food was safe. Now, the Food and Drug Administration checks in on most of what we eat — and they only inspect plants around once a decade, says one report. [More]
Government Policy
Watch Out For Tax Scams Pushing False Stimulus Credits
By 3.5.12
The Internal Revenue Service issued a warning for a tax preparation fraud involving phony credits based on stimulus packages. Hucksters are apparently targeting the elderly and tricking them into taking tax credits geared toward college students. [More]
Doctor Accused Of Murder For Prescriptions That Led To Overdoses
By 3.5.12
The Los Angeles District Attorney revealed that a California doctor faces murder charges for allegedly pushing unneeded prescription drugs to patients, three of whom died of overdoses in 2009. She also faces 21 felony counts of writing fraudulent, purposeless prescriptions. Authorities says she prescribed tens of thousands of unneeded prescriptions to various patients, including methadone, Xanax, oxycodone to patients. [More]
FCC Wants To Know If It Sometimes Might Be Okay To Jam Cellphones In Interest Of Public Safety
By 3.2.12
Chief among the reasons given by the Federal Communications Commission for outlawing the practice of using signal-jamming devices for cellphones is public safety. With 70% of 911 calls now made on wireless devices, the FCC has argued that deliberately blocking cell signals could put people at risk. That being said, the agency is now willing to hear from people who think it might occasionally be in the public interest to jam wireless signals. [More]
Listening To Michael Douglas Could Mean Missing Out On A Reward
By 3.1.12
If money is your motivation in reporting insider trading, some experts are saying don’t go right to the FBI, even if Michael Douglas urges you to. The actor appears in a recent FBI public service announcement referencing his character from Wall Street, Gordon Gekko, targeting financial fraud. [More]
Judge: Graphic Cigarette Warning Labels Violate Right To Free Speech
By 2.29.12
Remember those graphic, sometimes gory, cigarette warning labels the FDA came up with? Well, a U.S. District Judge has sided with the tobacco companies and ruled that the warnings violate cigarette-makers’ right to free speech. [More]
No More Refund Anticipation Loans After This Tax Season
By 2.29.12
We’ve been warning people for years to steer clear of the “refund anticipation loans” that get you your tax refund ASAP but at the cost of usurious interest rates and fees. And between growing consumer awareness that RALs are a bad deal and the bigger banks dropping out of the business, only one bank has been backing the loans — and that’s all about to end. [More]
NHTSA Postpones Rearview Camera Requirement For New Vehicles
By 2.29.12
A rule that would require all new automobiles to include a rearview back-up camera by 2014 has been postponed by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. It was expected that the new regulation would have been announced today, but instead, the agency said they need to look into the matter more before finalizing it. [More]
Doctor Accused Of Billing Medicare $375 Million For Nonexistent Treatments
By 2.29.12
It’s one thing to sneak a few hundred — or even a few thousand — dollars under the federal government’s radar. But how in the world did a Texas doctor allegedly manage to bilk the feds out of almost $375 million in bogus Medicare claims in only five years? [More]
TSA Agents Leave Post, Figure Metal Detector Can Monitor Itself
By 2.29.12
Some things are just fine if you leave them unattended for less than a minute. Like, an apple, or a cat, or even a hammer. But a metal detector at an airport security checkpoint? Nope, you shouldn’t leave that alone when people are walking through it. Tell that to the TSA agents at the Sacramento International Airport. [More]
SEC Wants To Ask Big Banks About Mortgage Investments
By 2.29.12
The Securities and Exchange Commission isn’t done sorting through the mortgage mess, and has launched inquiries with Wells Fargo and Goldman Sachs over mortgage-backed securities they peddled to investors. [More]
FDA Adds Diabetes & Memory Loss Warnings To Statins
By 2.28.12
Widely used cholesterol-lowering statin drugs like Lipitor (atorvastatin), Crestor (rosuvastatin), Zocor (simvastatin), Simcor (simvastatin/niacin extended-release), Vytorin (simvastatin/ezetimibe) and many others will now have additional warnings on their packaging, according to an announcement from the Food & Drug Administration. [More]
ID Theft, Debt Collection Top FTC's List Of Consumer Complaints
By 2.28.12
Consumers filed more than 1.8 million complaints with the Federal Trade Commission last year. And for the 12th year in a row, identity theft accounted for the biggest slice of the complaint pie. [More]
Farmers Fail At Suing Monsanto Before Monsanto Sues Them
By 2.27.12
Seed industry titan Monsanto is infamous for its patent infringement lawsuits against farmers for allegedly using its proprietary seeds without paying. Defendants often claim that Monsanto seeds are so prevalent that crops can’t help but become contaminated. And some farmers say they have stopped growing certain crops out of fear that they may someday be sued. [More]
FTC Pulls Plug On Sites That Made $359 Million On Bogus "Free" Offers
By 2.24.12
If you’re a Consumerist reader, you’re probably the type of online shopper that would be wary of a website promising a “free trial” period. But every year, millions of Americans think they’re getting something for nothing — only to end up much poorer because they didn’t read the fine print. [More]
Anxious To Get Your Tax Refund? IRS Says 'Go Get Another Job'
By 2.24.12
Emily is a law student, and she spent last summer doing lawyer-type work and earning lawyer-type money. She mistakenly set up her withholding as if she were earning that much money year-round, though, so the government owes her a pretty sweet refund now that she’s returned to the poor, ascetic life of a student. She even filed her taxes super early so she can get that money back. Only the IRS has flagged her for extra-special review, delaying her refund, and no one she can get in touch with seems to care. “You should just get another job,” one helpful representative told her. [More]
Beware Of Identity Thieves Filing Fraudulent Tax Returns To Steal Your Refund
By 2.23.12
So you finally drag yourself to your desk/computer/accountant and get your taxes done. Good job. Now wouldn’t it just totally stink if you found out someone had already filed a tax return using your information, and that they’d snagged whatever refund you had coming to you? Yes, it would, which is why the Internal Revenue Service is warning people of just such a scam. [More]
