The Food and Drug Administration is moving to pull ProAmatine, a blood pressure medication that’s been available for 14 years and racked up a quarter billion in sales, because the manufacturer hasn’t submitted a follow-up study that proves the drug is effective. [More]
Government Policy
Airport Security Supervisor Pleads Guilty To Stealing $20K Worth Of Stuff From Luggage
By 8.17.10
It’s bad enough that airlines are charging exorbitant fees for checked luggage; travelers shouldn’t also have to worry about sticky-fingered airport employees swiping stuff from their suitcases. [More]
Don't Confuse Medical Discount Plans With Health Insurance
By 8.17.10
If you don’t have health insurance, you might hear about a medical discount plan and think that it’s an affordable alternative, but be careful. Some of the plans being sold don’t lower your health care costs at all, and in some cases can even increase them. That’s why the the FTC and 24 states have recently filed a total of 54 lawsuits against companies selling medical discount plans to people who don’t have health insurance. [More]
California Says Some Bouncy Castles Have Too Much Lead In Them
By 8.17.10
California’s Attorney General, Jerry Brown, has filed a lawsuit that claims too many inflatable structures used at kids’ parties come with high levels of lead in the vinyl–“sometimes dozens of times the federal limit,” reports the New York Times. One of the defendants said the lawsuit was a “witch hunt,” and warned that it would have a chilling effect on what the Times calls the “bounce-house industry.” [More]
Acai Berry Company Temporarily Shut Down By FTC Over Billing Practices
By 8.17.10
Last summer, Central Coast Nutraceuticals settled a deceptive practices charge from Arizona’s Attorney General by promising to pay $1.4 million in fines. Now the company, which peddles acai berry and colon cleansing products, has been forced to temporarily stop selling or marketing its wonder products completely under an injunction obtained yesterday by the FTC. [More]
Pastor Hugs It Out With Protesting Strippers
By 8.16.10
You may remember last week’s story of a church in Ohio that was being protested by bikini-clad strippers fed up with being hassled by the pastor and his flock. The tense standoff is now showing signs of detente, with the pastor agreeing to meet with the owner of the strip club. [More]
Court Says California Mall Can't Ban Customers From Talking To Each Other
By 8.16.10
The Westfield Galleria in Roseville, California takes the comfort of its patrons seriously–so seriously, in fact, that it wants them to shut up and focus on shopping, or else ask for permission first if they want to talk about any topic that’s not mall related. Last week, the state’s 3rd District Court of Appeal found that the rule violated the state’s constitution, so now mall shoppers can gab as much as they want to each other. [More]
Woman Says Donald Duck Groped Her
By 8.16.10
Did Disney’s eternally overreacting duck mascot put the moves on a woman visiting Epcot Center a couple of years ago? That’s what the woman claims happened; in her lawsuit, she says a park employee dressed as Donald Duck grabbed her breast and molested her, “then made gestures making a joke indicating he had done something wrong.” She’s asking for $50,000. [More]
Dell Accused Of Cutting And Pasting Text, Withholding Emails, In Defective 11.8 Million PCs Suit
By 8.13.10
Dell is accused of providing altered and incomplete emails from among its top execs, the latest turn in a lawsuit that alleges the computer maker of selling and then covering up 11.8 defective PCs. [More]
Libertyville, IL, Thinks Your Tattoos Lack Moral Fiber
By 8.13.10
The village board of Libertyville, IL, hears about tattoo parlors and apparently envisions seedy, run-down places that stay open all hours of the night to service beer-swigging bikers and their leather-clad lady friends. And in order to keep this stereotype from being shattered, they recently changed their zoning laws to smash one businessman’s dream. [More]
Lowe's Proposes To Settle Sulfur-Spewing Drywall Claims With Piddly Gift Cards
By 8.12.10
Lowe’s is proposing to settle in the tainted drywall class action lawsuit with gift cards. The gift cards will be $50, $250, or $2000. Never mind those who entire homes, way of life, and most of their possessions and electronics ruined or contaminated by the sulfur-emitting drywall. Here, how about a discount on a new showerhead? [More]
Should Kids Under 2 Be Required To Have Their Own Seats On A Plane?
By 8.12.10
Children under 2 years of age are currently allowed to travel in planes on the lap of an adult. However, it’s a practice the National Transportation Safety Board hopes the FAA will put an end to. [More]
Illinois Sort Of Ends Pre-Employment Credit Checks, But Not Really
By 8.12.10
Some experts claim that there’s no connection between poor credit history and poor job performance. That doesn’t stop employers from evaluating applicants based on their credit reports. The governor of Illinois signed a law this week prohibiting employers from hiring on the basis of credit checks…but there are some pretty big exceptions. [More]
Gas Company Wants $0.00 Or They'll Send Me To A Collection Agency
By 8.11.10
Avi recently went to his mailbox and found a notice from Philadelphia Gas Works warning him that he was going to have his account referred to a collection agency if he didn’t pay the $0 past due balance on his bill. [More]
Government Program Replaces Mutilated Cash
By 8.11.10
Just because your dog mistakes a $100 bill for a chew toy, it doesn’t mean you’re out the cash. You can just take what’s left of your mangled paper and send it to the U.S. Bureau of Engraving and Printing’s Mutilated Currency Division, which will issue you a check for the amount you otherwise would have lost. [More]
Banks Told To Target Financially Unsavvy For Overdraft Reup
By 8.10.10
Consulting firms are telling banks to hone in on the financially precarious to sign back up for costly overdraft protection that will only further erode their bank account. Here are some quotes from their strategies: [More]
Town That Outlaws Pinball Shuts Down Arcade
By 8.10.10
As if it’s not tough enough for an arcade to make a go of it in 2010, the owner of Beacon, NY’s Retro Arcade Museum has to battle town laws that ban pinball. After a year and a half in business, officials shut down the pinball palace. [More]
FTC Shuts Down Domain Name Scammers
By 8.10.10
The FTC says a Toronto-based company called Internet Listing Service scammed thousands of U.S. consumers and small businesses by mailing invoices to them demanding payment for unnecessary domain registration services. The company was given a suspended judgment of over $4 million, based on “the total amount of consumer injury” caused, but in reality the people behind the scam have been ordered to pay $10,000 because that’s all the money they have left. [More]
