Despite objections from businesses, the Securities and Exchange Commission has passed a new rule that will allow whistleblowers to get up to 30% of any money the SEC recovers based on their tips. The rule also exempts whistleblowers from having to reveal their findings to the companies they’re reporting before going to the government. [More]
Government Policy
TSA Could Ban Flights From Texas If State Passes Anti-Patdown Law
By 5.25.11
A showdown is in the works over an anti-patdown law, which the Texas House of Representatives recently approved by a unanimous vote. The government warns that passage of the law could cause the TSA to “cancel any flight” where it couldn’t ensure passenger safety. Texas legislators say the rule is needed because existing laws “let government employees fondle innocent women, children and men.”
New Fuel-Economy Stickers Actually Display Car's Fuel Economy
By 5.25.11
The U.S. Department of Transportation and Environmental Protection Agency have rolled out the biggest redesign of the car window stickers that display a vehicle’s estimated fuel efficiency since the labels were introduced. The new stickers, designed to be easier to read and to provide more information about fuel savings and costs, will be required for all 2013 cars. [More]
USDA: You Can Eat Pink Pork Without Getting Sick
By 5.25.11
If you’ve been cooking pork chops until they’re dry and leathery in the name of safety, stop now! The U.S. Department of Agriculture has revised its pork-cooking guidelines, saying it’s OK to cook the other white meat to 145 degrees, and that the previous 160 degree recommendation was “probably overkill.” [More]
How To Quiet Your Neighbor's Loud Birds If You're Quentin Tarantino
By 5.25.11
Neighborly disputes are universal, even for high-powered Hollywood writer-directors. Quentin Tarantino and True Blood maestro Alan Ball got into a tiff involving Ball’s allegedly loud exotic birds. Tarantino said the birds’ “blood-curdling screams” impeded his ability to work at home, and Ball promised to build a sound-proof aviary and keep the birds inside until construction was finished. Apparently, at some point after the agreement, the birds were still repeatedly left outside for several hours, and Tarantino sued. [More]
Businesses Don't Like Plan That Would Reward Whistleblowers
By 5.25.11
The Securities and Exchange Commission is considering a proposal that would pay out rewards to employees who turn in their companies for wrongdoing, and businesses aren’t so happy about having bounties placed on their heads. [More]
House Committee Battles Elizabeth Warren Over Consumer Protection Bureau
By 5.24.11
At a hearing held by the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform today, the committee’s GOP leadership debated Elizabeth Warren, the White House’s pick to run the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. As the committee argued that new regulations are required to keep the watchdog agency from having “unchecked discretion” over financial matters, Warren responded that such efforts serve to “undermine the consumer bureau before it even begins its work of protecting American families.” [More]
Judge Denies DirectBuy Settlement For Being Too Paltry
By 5.23.11
A judge has given the thumbs down to a proposed settlement in the class-action lawsuit against DirectBuy over its pricing practices. The settlement would have been free memberships to DirectBuy, worth $3,000, to around 800,000 class members. In other words, they were getting sued for being a bad deal and having a problem with their prices, and their make-good is a free pass so you can come in and keep paying those same prices. [More]
Don't Even Think Of Smoking In New York Parks And Beaches
By 5.23.11
New York City, a pioneer at smoking bans in restaurants, bars and workplaces, has extended its policies to the outside world, with a new law that makes smoking in city parks, beaches or public plazas a crime punishable by a $50 fine. [More]
Amex Settles Case Alleging They Advertised BOGO, But Charged Double
By 5.23.11
How’s this for a bad deal? American Express Publishing Corp. had an offer for a “free” airline ticket when you bought a companion ticket and a subscription to Skyguide magazine. But a lawsuit brought by five Californian counties says that when consumers went to the website to buy their ticket, they were often charged double what the ticket would have cost them if they bought the ticket straight from the airline. Get it? [More]
Undercover NASA Agent Busts Woman For Allegedly Trying To Sell Possibly Phony Moon Rock
By 5.23.11
If you are so bold as to try to hock a moon rock, you’d do best not to try to sell your wares to an undercover agent from NASA. [More]
Utah Makes Scrooge McDuck Money Bins A Possibility
By 5.23.11
Those who dream of constructing giant towers filled with gold and silver coins in which to swim, and doing so with the knowledge that their coins are as good as cash, may want to look at moving to Utah. The state has pushed through legislation that makes gold and silver coins legal currency. [More]
FTC Chairman Jon Leibowitz On Oreck's "Flu Reducing" Vacuum And Other Bad Ads
By 5.20.11
The FTC is in charge of keeping an eye on spurious claims from TV product ads — so ABC News sat down with FTC Chairman and friend-of-the-blog Jon Leibowtiz to discuss what manufacturers are, and are not, allowed to claim in their ads, as well as the hurdles the FTC faces in enforcing truth-in-advertising rules. Case in point, Oreck recently settled with the FTC over a vacuum that claimed to prevent the flu. [More]
Comcast Pulls $18,000 Donation Over Tweet About FCC Commissioner Turned Kabletown Flunky
By 5.20.11
Comcast is apparently very unhappy with the fact that it was eliminated in the Final Four of this year’s Worst Company in America contest. First, it goes and makes the ethically questionable move of hiring a still-active FCC commissioner, and now comes a report that the Kabletown Krew have pulled $18,000 in funding to a non-profit organization all because of a Tweet about that commissioner’s hiring. [More]
Mom Sues Four Loko For Teen's Death
By 5.20.11
The parents of a teen who died after drinking two Four Lokos and running onto a highway have sued the beverage maker, reports the Chicago Tribune. The lawsuit claims the manufacturer was “careless and negligent” in making a caffeinated alcoholic drink that “desensitizes users to the symptoms of intoxication and increases the potential for alcohol-related harm.” [More]
Bill Aims To Stop People From Using 401(K) As A Piggy Bank
By 5.19.11
A recent study found that a record number of people (around 28%) with 401(k) retirement funds had loans (averaging $7,860) outstanding on them in 2010, meaning that these same folks will not have as much money set aside when it does come time to retire. That’s why a pair of Senators have introduced legislation that would make it more difficult for people to tap their 401(k)s. [More]
TSA Forgets To Tell Police It's Running A Bomb Test, Hilarity Ensues
By 5.19.11
One of the keys to running a successful test of a TSA agent’s ability to detect a bomb in a traveler’s suitcase is to give the heads-up to the authorities that a drill is being run. That way, when — or rather if — the screener finds the device in question, their call to the police won’t have the cops drawing their guns in the middle of an airport. [More]
California Law Would Allow Raids Of Suspected Piracy Facilities Without Warrants
By 5.19.11
If anti-piracy California legislation becomes law, authorities will be able to enter facilities suspected of pirating movie and music discs and seize equipment without first receiving warrants. [More]
