The owners of a strip club in New York state have spent the last half decade arguing that they do not owe $125,000 in sales tax on cover charges and lap dances because the dirty dances fall under the tax exempt category of “dramatic or musical art performance.” Alas, the NY State Supreme Court Appellate Division disagrees. [More]
Government Policy
Procter & Gamble Agrees To Settle Lawsuit Over Pampers Dry Max Diapers
By 6.10.11
Last spring, the internet was lit up with reports that Pampers Dry Max diapers cause rashes, burns, sores, and boils on the babies who wear them. And though at least one study could find no link between the nappies and the babies’ blemishes, Pampers parent company Procter & Gamble has agreed to settle a class-action suit involving the product. [More]
Washington State High Court: Employers Can Fire Medical Pot Users
By 6.10.11
Although the state of Washington is known to be fairly lenient to marijuana users, and especially those who use the drug for medical purposes, smokers in the state still put themselves at some risk. The state Supreme Court ruled that employers may fire workers who take medical marijuana, even if they only use the drug at home and don’t show ill effects from it on the job. [More]
Tennessee Bans Posting Of Pics That Cause Emotional Distress
By 6.10.11
It’s a good thing for the internet that Tennessee lawmakers are around to learn it how to behave. After lawmakers threw down a regulation barring people from sharing passwords for services such as Netflix, the state made famous by Arrested Development (the band, not the show) has created a law that bans the posting of images that cause emotional distress. [More]
Elizabeth Warren: Mortgage Forms Should Be Comprehensible To Normal Human Beings
By 6.9.11
At yesterday’s White House Personal Finance Online Summit, Elizabeth Warren, Special Advisor to the Secretary of the Treasury on the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, went into details about the still-nascent agency’s “Know Before You Owe” project and how the CFPB is working to simplify the documents that consumers are shown when shopping for a mortgage. [More]
Get Cash In LA Fitness Class Action Settlement
By 6.9.11
Gyms are notorious for not letting people get out of their membership contract and making it difficult to cancel. Now a settlement has been proposed in the class action lawsuit against LA Fitness for making customers pay a fee to end their contracts before the contract term was up. [More]
Senate Votes To Continue With Debit Card Swipe Fee Slash
By 6.8.11
The Senate narrowly voted earlier today to defeat a measure to delay new rules that significantly decrease swipe fees, the amount of money banks charge retailers every time a debit card is used. [More]
Agents For Dept. Of Education Kick In Door, Handcuff Woman's Husband For Six Hours
By 6.8.11
UPDATE: A Department of Education reps tells Animal New York that the search warrant, in spite of what was reported by local TV outlets (see video below) was for a criminal investigation and not in regards to a defaulted student loan. [More]
Pennsylvanians Still Paying Tax To Rebuild Town Flooded In 1936
By 6.7.11
It’s been 122 years since Johnstown, PA, was nearly wiped off the face of the planet by a flood that killed more than 2,000 people. And it’s been 75 years since even more damage was done to the down by the St. Patrick’s Day flood of 1936, spurring the commonwealth to enact a tax on alcohol sales to help rebuild the town. Luckily, that tax was only needed for a few years, so it’s obviously long since been repealed… right? [More]
Man Gets $10 In Eclipse Gum Class Action Settlement
By 6.6.11
Last August we told you how you could get ten bucks in an Eclipse gum class action settlement over how they claimed to kill germs, and reader Tom writes in to say he just got his Hamilton in the mail. Cash money in the bank! [More]
German Sprouts Not Deadly E.coli Culprit, Initial Tests Show
By 6.6.11
German sprouts are not the cause of the deadly e.coli outbreak that has killed 22 and sickened over 2,000, according to initial tests of samples from a farm that a German agriculture minister had earlier named as the epicenter. The retraction is only the latest in a series of confusing finger-pointings and “cucumber slurs,” and has left European consumers afraid to eat a salad. [More]
Determined Camper Opens Closed Campground Without Permission
By 6.6.11
A Michigan camp site that was officially shut down in 2009 has been revived, apparently due to the work of a Robin Hood-like camping enthusiast who has done a bunch of work for free. Officials from the Michigan Department of Natural Resources are not amused, and are hoping to identify the person responsible. [More]
Woman Leaves Entire $300K Inheritance To Doomsday Prophet's Family Radio
By 6.6.11
Remember how the world didn’t end on May 21? Unfortunately for the loved ones of one woman who passed away May 2, in addition to the loss of a family member, they also found out she’d left most of her estate to Family Radio, the group driving those Doomsday buses around and predicting The Rapture. [More]
Florida Will Screen Welfare Recipients For Drug Use
By 6.6.11
Florida has passed legislation that would force welfare recipients to undergo drug tests before they’re able to receive aid. The law, set to go into effect July 1, would make applicants to the federal Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program pay for the tests upfront, but ensures they will be reimbursed if they pass. [More]
FTC Sues People Behind "Winning In The Cash Flow Business" Infomercial
By 6.3.11
For the last decade, the late-night TV airwaves have been home to a series of infomercials hawking a get rich quick system called “Winning in the Cash Flow Business,” in which some guy named Russell Dalbey explains over and over again how easy it is to make money by finding, brokering, and earning commissions on seller-financed promissory notes. Now, the FTC and the attorney general of Colorado are calling Dalbey’s bluff, suing him and his partners for allegedly defrauding an awful lot of insomniacs. [More]
"Super-Toxic" E.Coli Strain Kills 18 In Europe
By 6.3.11
A virulent strain of antibiotic-resistant E.coli has left 18 dead in Europe, left over 1,800 sick, and touched off a continent-wide scare against all produce, suspected to be the source of the infection. [More]
"Nutrition Plate" Replaces "Food Pyramid"
By 6.2.11
It was announced this morning that the much-derided USDA “food pyramid” has gone the way of the Pharaohs and will be replaced by a simpler “nutrition plate” that for the first time emphasizes vegetables over all other food groups. [More]
If For-Profit Colleges Want Federal Student Aid, They Have To Prove Graduates Can Get Jobs
By 6.2.11
A 2010 GAO studied showed that federal aid to students at for-profit colleges had tripled over a five-year period from $8 billion to $24 billion and now accounts for 23% of the total aid given out, even though enrollment at for-profit schools only accounts for 8% of college students. Meanwhile, studies continue to show that an inordinately small number of students at these schools ever graduates. In an effort to cut back on the number of people left with mammoth amounts of student loan debt they can’t pay back, the U.S. Dept. of Education has issued a new edict: Show us your college actually prepares students for gainful employment or risk losing out on that lovely loan money. [More]
