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Government Policy

Media Consolidation Is Bad For Everyone

By consumeristcarey 11.4.07

Bill Moyers produced an excellent segment on media consolidation and its disproportionate impact on minorities. African Americans and Hispanics account for over a quarter of the population, but own just 33 of the nation’s 1,350 television stations, and only 6% of radio stations. According to Melody Spann-Cooper, owner of Chicago’s only black-owned radio station:

Radio has moved from being in the business of empowering and educating people to Wall Street, to making money. And that’s not the big corporate conglomerates, you know, that’s not their fault. They were allowed to do this.

credit cards

Safeway DVD Kiosk Comes With Credit Card Skimming Device

By consumeristcarey 11.4.07

Crafty identity thieves attached a credit card skimming device to a DVD kiosk at a Colorado Safeway. The 2-inch skimming device was discovered only after a customer asked a Safeway employee for help after his card wouldn’t scan.

recalls

Cargill Recalls 1 Million Pounds Of Tainted Beef

By consumeristcarey 11.3.07 — Updated: 4.18.13

Agribusiness monster Cargill is recalling 1 million pounds of beef that may be contaminated with E. coli. The potentially tainted meat was butchered between October 8 and October 11 at the “Cargill Meat Solutions” slaughterhouse in Wyalusing, PA. According to Cargill, there have been no reports of illness. After the jump, the long list of recalled products.

crackdowns

China Revokes 750 Export Licenses, Orders 690 Toy Factories To Renovate

By consumeristcarey 11.3.07

Worried that the whole tainted export thing might further poison their image, China this week revoked the export licenses of 750 toy factories citing quality control problems. The move came just as the Senate Commerce Committee passed the CPSC Reform Act, which would strengthen domestic toy safety standards and impose penalties of up to $100 million on companies that sell dangerous toys.

Despite the announcement of the license suspensions, Chinese regulators said 99 percent of toy exports in southern Guangdong Province, near Hong Kong, met quality standards.

lawsuits

The Great Coffee Can Patent War, Starring Kraft and Procter & Gamble

By consumeristcarey 11.3.07

If you drink Folgers or Maxwell House, the coffee can on your shelf is the subject of a patent war between Kraft and Procter & Gamble. Both are accusing the other of stealing the innovative technology used to contain your precious morning fuel in a resealable plastic can that can “withstand the pressure changes that occur between the factory and the consumer’s home.”

fda

FDA: Glow In The Dark Shrimp "Not A Food Safety Issue"

By consumeristcarey 11.3.07

Seattle shoppers want to know why the FDA won’t investigate bioluminescent shrimp appearing at local Thriftways and Quality Food Centers.

web

Many Consumers Are Unclear What "Online Tracking" Even Means

By cwalters 11.3.07

A study released this week (just in time for the FTC’s online advertising workshop) shows that a huge percentage of Americans don’t grasp just how intensively their online habits are tracked, analyzed, and used to serve ads back to them. Almost 55% of respondents “falsely assumed that a company’s privacy polices prohibited it from sharing their addresses and purchases with affiliated companies,” and almost 40% “falsely believed that a company’s privacy policy prohibits it from using information to analyze an individuals’ activities online.”

california

IRS Warns Consumers Of "California Wildfire" Phishing Scam

By Meg Marco 11.2.07

The IRS is warning consumers of a new email scam going around posing as the IRS and soliciting donations for the California wildfire victims.

totinos

Video Clip: More Coverage Of The Great Frozen Pizza Recall Of 2007

By Meg Marco 11.2.07

How will we survive? On Tombstone alone? The horror!

debt

Zombie Debt: How Credit Card Companies Illegally Reanimate Your Old Debt

By Meg Marco 11.2.07

In what BusinessWeek calls “financial Night of the Living Dead” credit card companies are refusing to stop reporting legally discharged debt to credit reporting agencies—illegally forcing consumers to pay debts that they no longer owe in order to get approved for mortgages.

totinos

USDA Recalls Totino's, Jeno's Delicious E. Coli Flavored Pizzas

By Meg Marco 11.2.07

Yesterday the USDA recalled several types of both Totino’s and Jeno’s meat pizzas because they are tainted with e. coli. E. coli bacteria is not destroyed by freezing, so you’ll want to avoid eating these pizzas. The USDA considers this a Class I recall, which is defined as “a health hazard situation where there is a reasonable probability that the use of the product will cause serious, adverse health consequences or death.”

ethics

CPSC Head's Travel Paid For By Industry Groups

By consumerist.com 11.2.07

CPSC head Nancy Nord took scores of trips paid for lobbyists representing companies under her regulatory scope, Washington Post reports. The trips include $11,000 in “gift travel” to China, paid for by a fireworks company. The Toy Industry Association paid for her train ticket, hotel, meals, and parking ticket to attend their toy convention in New York. Federal agencies are barred from taking gifts from industry groups with pending matters before them, but other top agencies are more strict about accepting gifts from companies under their domain. By some sort of magical coincidence, the travel records disclosure come at time Nord is facing calls for her resignation for disagreeing with the new changes and expansions Congress is considering for the CPSC.

fcc

Consumer Groups Ask FCC To Ban Comcast From Blocking Any Peer-To-Peer Activity

By cwalters 11.2.07

Advocacy groups and legal scholars filed a network neutrality complaint with the FCC today against Comcast, asking the government to issue a temporary injunction against the cable company that forces it to “stop degrading any applications. Upon deciding the merits, the Commission should issue a permanent injunction ending Comcast’s discrimination.” More importantly, the complaint asks the FCC to classify any blocking of peer-to-peer file sharing as a violation of the agency’s Internet Policy Statement, “four principles issued in 2005 that are supposed to ‘guarantee consumers competition among providers and access to all content, applications and services.'”

dell

UPDATE: DHL Laptop Thieves Busted After Reader Complaint

By Meg Marco 11.1.07

Sue, whose Dell laptops were stolen by dirty, dirty DHL thieves writes in to update us.

safety

CPSC Chair Rebuffs Calls For Resignation

By consumerist.com 11.1.07

Despite Democrats clamoring for her resignation, CPSC chair Nancy Nord says she’s staying put. Nord is a shill-bag. She couldn’t answer direct questions from Congress. She couldn’t even say “yes” when they asked her if the CPSC needed more money. Toss all the bums out and get some new ones in quick.

recalls

By consumerist.com 11.1.07

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Totino’s and Jeno’s pepperoni and sausage frozen pizzas (E. coli), Ribbit Board Games (lead), Toys R’ Us Elite Operations Toys (lead), “Galaxy Warriors” Toy Figures (lead), Limited Too Pearl-like Bead Attachments sold with Girl’s Gift Sets (lead), Hickory Barbecue Sauce Packed Under Various Private Labels (undeclared anchovies).

meds

FDA: Consumers Are Buying Expensive Foreign Drugs Instead Of $4 Generics At Home

By Meg Marco 11.1.07

Everyone knows that people buy Viagra over the internet, but the FDA says that people are buying commonly prescribed drugs with cheap generic equivalents from foreign pharmacies.

cable

Comcast Calls FCC Decision To Ban Apartment Cable Deals "A Blow" To Consumers

By Meg Marco 11.1.07

The FCC approved a rule banning apartment building cable deals today, and Comcast is all mad about it.

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