What’s wrong with Arif’s water meter? He and his fiancée use a modest amount of water, but the local water authority claims that the two of them are somehow using 200 gallons per day. If this seems like it should be a straightforward problem to fix…well, you’ve never had to deal with a local water authority. [More]
Government Policy
Police Raid Spencer Gifts, Confiscate 'Sex-Related' Products
By 11.11.10
We hadn’t been in a Spencer Gifts (aka Spencer’s) since Color Me Badd was lighting up the charts, but our memories of the mall-based stores are of goofy bachelor party gag gifts and posters of bikini-clad women. The authorities in Rapid City, SD, believe the store is an unlicensed “adult-oriented business” and on Monday the police seized boxes containing around 2,000 “sex-related” products. [More]
Woman Says She Was Cuffed And Booted From Airport For Questioning Body Scanners
By 11.11.10
Meg McLain claims that the TSA ripped up her US Airways plane ticket and called police who restrained her in a chair, cuffed her, and escorted her out of the airport after she opted out of the backscatter can. Her radio interview describing the incident is at 390,000 hits and growing, and the TSA has posted CCTV of the incident on their blog. [More]
Rocking Horses And Hobby Horses Want To Strangle Our Children
By 11.11.10
Yesterday was a dark one for the toy horse business, as two separate companies issued recalls because their rocking and hobby horses (aka “horse head on a stick”) apparently pose strangulation hazards. [More]
Nintendo Wants To Trademark "It's On Like Donkey Kong"
By 11.10.10
Even though people have been using the phrase “It’s on like Donkey Kong” for two decades, Nintendo has just gotten around to filing a request with the Patent and Trademark office to slap a little “TM” on those words. [More]
FDA Proposes More Graphic Warning Labels For Cigarettes
By 11.10.10
In an effort to convince cigarette smokers to quit — and to stop potential smokers from picking up a pack — the FDA’s Dept. of Health and Human Services has proposed a series of larger, more graphic warnings for cigarette packs and advertising. [More]
FDA Says CT Scans Need To Be Safer
By 11.10.10
Acting to make the administration of CT scans safer, the Food and Drug Administration released documents that urged better training for those who administer tests as well as warnings for patients about the radiation levels to which the tests expose them. [More]
FDIC Seizes 4 More Banks
By 11.9.10
The FDIC seized four more banks on Friday. That brings the total number for 2010 to 143, the most in a year since the S&L fiasco back in the 80’s. Here’s who went down: [More]
Government Spends Millions Helping Domino's & Taco Bell Serve More Cheese
By 11.8.10
The NYT has an investigative piece on the $140 million a year organization called “Dairy Management.” It recently teamed up with Domino’s to develop a new line of pizzas with 40 percent more cheese, and proceeded to devise and pay for a $12 million marketing campaign, says the Times. Who is this organization? Well, it’s a “marketing creation” of the US Department of Agriculture. [More]
288,000 Eggs Recalled For Possible Salmonella Taint
By 11.8.10
The year of the rotten (or rather, infected) egg isn’t over yet. The Cal-Maine Foods company has announced a recall after learning that around 24,000 dozen eggs that it processed and repackaged had originally come from a facility that tested positive for salmonella. [More]
United Airlines: Sorry Grampa Can't Come To The Gate
By 11.8.10
Reader Alanna says United Airlines told her the TSA wouldn’t let her husband escort their grandkids to the gate because there was a limit on the number of gate passes available. She asked the TSA and they told her they had no such policy. Alanna wants us to know she thinks United is “unbelievably mean.” [More]
Fed Clamps Down On Credit Card Loopholes
By 11.5.10
To shut down “fee harvesters” and other crafty tricks credit cards cooked up to escape the CARD act, the Federal Reserve has proposed three ways to tighten and clarify the rules. [More]
Cheese Sold At Costco Linked To E. Coli Outbreak
By 11.5.10
Costco might be a good place to stock up on eyeglasses, but the FDA says that the warehouse store has been selling and sampling some cheese that could make you sick. [More]
Jury Slaps File Sharer With $1.5 Million Penalty Over 24 Songs
By 11.4.10
The third time was not the charm for Jamie Thomas-Rasset, who has spent the last several years wrapped up legal wranglings with the Recording Industry Association of America over 24 songs she downloaded through Kazaa back when people still used Kazaa. The latest development — a jury in her third trial has found her liable for $1.5 million ($62,500/song) in damages to Capitol Records. [More]
FDA Issues Recall For Duro Extend Capsules For Containing Ingredient That Might Actually Work
By 11.4.10
It’s one thing to market a pill for “male enhancement” that doesn’t work; it’s another to market one that might and not tell customers about the ingredient that could be causing it to work. Just ask the folks behind those Duro Extend Capsules For Men, who have issued a recall after the FDA found they contain Sulfoaidenafil, an analogue of sildenafil, the active ingredient in Viagra. [More]
Lawsuit: Apple's New Operating System Intentionally Slowed Older iPhones
By 11.4.10
Some iPhone owners say Apple’s iOS 4 tossed some sand in the gears of their older iPhones, and at least one angry customer thinks it was all part of Apple’s plan to make iPhone owners sour on their devices and upgrade to the iPhone 4. [More]
Dodgers Forget They Left Brooklyn In 1957, File Complaint Against Brooklyn Burger Over Logo
By 11.3.10
Fifty-three years ago, the Dodgers told the borough of Brooklyn to shove it up its nose with a rubber hose and lit out for the warmer climes of Los Angeles. Now they’ve returned — well, at least their lawyers have — to file a trademark infringement complaint against a local burger company for daring to use a similar font and the word “Brooklyn.” [More]
Fed Announces It Will Buy $600B In Treasuries
By 11.3.10
Today the Fed announces it will buy back $600 billion in Treasuries, a nuanced effort that aims to stimulate the economy by lowering interest rates. [More]
