No, this isn’t a hoax like yesterday’s McRibbles reports. McDonald’s, in cooperation with the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, has announced a voluntary recall of their Shrek Forever After Collectible Drinking Glasses because of a risk of exposure to cadmium. [More]
Government Policy
BP Could Be On The Hook For Billions For Violating Clean Water Act
On Thursday BP checked its mail and got a love letter from its not-so-secret admirer, the Center for Biological Diversity, notifying the spill-a-riffic British oil giant that it would be sued under the Clean Water Act. [More]
Kellogg's Ordered To Stop Saying Its Cereals Make You Healthier
For the second time in a year, Kellogg Company has been called to the principal’s office at the Federal Trade Commission and slapped on the wrist for misleading customers into thinking its cereal products offer unproven health benefits. [More]
Airlines May Be Forced To Treat You Like A Person
Earlier this week, we got word that the Department of Transportation was considering requiring airlines to offer more cash to passengers that get bumped from flights. Turns out those rumors were true, and were just one piece of a package of changes proposed by the DOT. If the new regulations go into effect, airlines would be required to play straight about baggage fees and fare prices, would have to allow no-penalty cancellations within 24 hours of ticket purchases, and would have to add new contingency plans for long tarmac delays. [More]
Ohio Cops Can Guesstimate Your Speed To Ticket You
Ohio cops have been granted superpowers by the state’s supreme court, which has ruled that officers needn’t bother with such needless trivialities as radar guns. A visual estimate of speed is all that’s necessary to give a driver a ticket, the court decided in a 5-1 vote. [More]
Congress Considers Federal Anti-Slapp Law To Protect Consumers From Angry Businesses
The New York Times has an article about Justin Kurtz, the college student who angered the owner of T&J Towing by creating a Facebook page about the company and who is now fighting a $750k defamation lawsuit. That sort of lawsuit–the kind meant to intimidate an opponent into silence–is called a “strategic lawsuit against public participation,” or Slapp. Now two Representatives are sponsoring a bill that would create a federal anti-Slapp law to protect consumers from vengeful businesses. [More]
FCC Seeking Volunteers For Test Of Residential Broadband Speeds
Among the chief complaints we get from readers about their broadband providers is that the lightning-fast speeds advertised by the ISP are far from the reality of what they’re getting through their modem. So in an effort to parse truth from lip service, the FCC is about to begin a nationwide test of residential broadband speeds — and they want your help. [More]
High-Volume Sellers On eBay, Craigslist Can Look Forward To New Tax Form For 2011
If you tend to move a lot of merchandise on eBay or Craigslist, you should know that the IRS wants a share of those earnings. If in 2011 you sell more than $20,000 worth of goods and have more than 200 transactions, then come early 2012 you’ll receive a shiny new flavor of 1099 form called a 1099-K, and you’ll have to pay up. If you’re an infrequent seller, where your eBay or Craigslist transactions more closely resemble a garage sale than a virtual storefront (and especially if you sell items at a loss), you probably don’t have to worry. [More]
PediaCare Pulled From Stores, Victim Of Latest Tylenol Recall
Blacksmith Brands bought the PediaCare line of children’s cough and cold medicines from Johnson & Johnson last November. Unfortunately, the company hadn’t switched production over to a different facility, so last Friday it had to recall nearly 100,000 bottles that are guilty by association. There have been no complaints so far about the products, but when your manufacturer is under investigation by the FDA’s criminal division you tend to want to play it safe. [More]
Hurt Locker Producer Sues "Moron" Downloaders
Nicolas Chartier, the movie producer who was banned from the Oscars for sending nastygrams about Avatar, and more recently, told a critic, “you’re a moron who believes stealing is right. I hope your family and your kids end up in jail,” is nothing if not consistent. Chartier has made good on his earlier threat to sue people who downloaded copies of The Hurt Locker, by filing a suit against 5,000 anonymous downloaders in Washington, D.C. [More]
I Like Smelling Farts, Chinese Drywall Distributor Tells Court
Do you like farts? Documents and depositions unearthed by ProPublica and the Sarasota Harold-Tribune show exchanges between homebuilder WCI Communities and drywall distributor Banner that reveal the sulfur-emitting drywall problem was known as far back as 2006, and yet customers and authorities were not notified. In one deposition, a Banner executive refuses to admit that sulfur-stinking drywall might bother others, seeing as he himself, on certain occasions, enjoys the sweet aroma of another man’s butt gas: [More]
Tylenol Recall Factory Was Staffed With Undertrained Temps
The manufacturing plant that has been the cause of Johnson & Johnson’s latest in a string of recalls has already been described as dirty and poorly maintained. It turns out that it was also staffed with temps and contract employees who weren’t properly trained, according to tax records and an FDA inspection report filed earlier this year. [More]
What iPhone Owners Complain About When They Complain To The FCC & FTC
Lastmonth, InformationWeek filed a Freedom of Information request with the FCC and the FTC for complaints made about the iPhone in the past year. Although the breakdown of complaints is interesting, what I found most striking was that in a nation of over 11 million iPhone owners, less than 600 complaints were filed in the past 14 months*, and some of those were for other Apple products. If you have a legitimate grievance with a company, you might have a much better chance of being heard by the FCC or FTC than you think. [More]
Sleeping Passenger Left On Plane Wakes Up, Sues United
The woman United left sleeping on the plane for four hours after touchdown in Philadelphia is suing the airline, AIRwise reports, citing the Detroit Free Press. [More]
Hospital Cleared After Patient Catches Cancer From Kidney Transplant
A NY hospital has been cleared in a lawsuit after a kidney transplant patient developed cancer and died after receiving an organ from someone who had the disease but had not yet been diagnosed. [More]
Union Organizing California Weed Workers
You know an industry has hit the big time when labor unions decide it’s time to organize the workers. So, it looks like California’s medical marijuana workers are about to reach new highs now that the United Food and Commercial Workers Local 5 in San Jose has begun organizing local pot purveyors. Here’s the big question, though: How long before they start showing up to picket non-union shops with a giant inflatable bong? [More]