Though you might know that not all breakfast syrups are created equal the folks who produce maple syrup say it isn’t clear that some “maple” flavored food products don’t contain the real thing, despite their labels. [More]
Government Policy
Regulators Urged To Recall Every Vehicle Equipped With A Takata Airbag, But The Data Isn’t There Yet
By 2.17.16
A day after General Motors recalled nearly 200,000 of its previously discontinued Saturn and Saab vehicles as part of the ongoing Takata airbag defect debacle, federal regulators hinted that a complete recall of all vehicles with any airbag by the Japanese parts maker could happen, eventually. [More]
Essendant Agrees To Buy Commercial Business From Staples And Office Depot If FTC Approves Merger
By 2.17.16
Staples and Office Depot want to merge and form one mega-chain of office supply stores that you mostly visit to drop off UPS packages. The Federal Trade Commission doesn’t approve of this union, because both sell supplies and serve as wholesalers to smaller office suppliers. The companies announced late yesterday that they’ve reached an agreement with Essendant, a smaller national supplier, to take over some of that business if the merger goes through. [More]
GM Adds Another 200,000 Saab And Saturn Vehicles To Takata Airbag Recall
By 2.16.16
General Motors has discontinued and sold its Saturn and Saab brands, respectively, but announced today that cars from both brands that date as far back as 2003 contain potentially explosive parts from Japanese part-maker Takata. The recall announced today includes a total of 180,000 vehicles in the United States and 20,000 in Canada. [More]
Regulators Close Probe Into Kia Airbag System That Fails To Detect Children In The Front Seat
By 2.15.16
Five months after federal regulators opened a probe into airbag mats that fail to detect when a child is present in the front seat of certain Kia sedans, the agency announced it would close the investigation without seeking a recall of the affected vehicles. [More]
Volkswagen Begrudgingly Complied With Regulators’ Request For Takata Airbag Recall
By 2.12.16
Earlier this week, Volkswagen announced the recall of 840,000 Audi and VW-branded vehicles equipped with shrapnel-shooting Takata airbags. But according to documents recently posted by regulators, the already embattled carmaker resisted the safety initiative. [More]
House Passes Bill Weakening Rules For Menu Calorie Counts In Restaurants
By 2.12.16
Hey, remember how the Food and Drug Administration gave restaurants a yearlong extension on the deadline for getting their act together regarding calorie counts on menus nationwide? They were supposed to get their acts together and post that information on menus nationwide by December of this year. Now, though, a new bill passed in the House of Representatives seeks to change that before eateries are forced to comply. Which wouldn’t be for another few years. [More]
Senators: No More Federal Funding To For-Profit Colleges That Strip Students Of Legal Rights
By 2.12.16
If your college breaks the law, you should be able to pursue a legal action in court. But following the lead of banks, wireless providers, and cable companies some for-profit colleges have been stripping students of their legal rights and forcing them into arbitration. These schools should not receive federal funding, says one group of lawmakers. [More]
Bank-Backed Lawmakers Accuse CFPB Of Hurting Consumers By Trying To Regulate Payday Loans
By 2.11.16
It’s never a good sign for the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau when it’s called to testify at a Congressional subcommittee hearing subtitled “The CFPB’s Assault on Access to Credit and Trampling of State and Tribal Sovereignty.” And so it should come as little surprise that bank-backed members of the House Financial Services Committee is trying to paint the agency’s efforts to rein in predatory lending as an attack on the very people the CFPB is trying to protect. [More]
Credit Card Processor For Work-At-Home Scam Companies Settles FTC Charges
By 2.11.16
When you respond to an ad promising untold wealth if you start an at-home business, someone in a call center will contact you and try to extract your credit or debit card number. There needs to be a credit card processing company involved to run that transaction, though, and the company that did so for the Tax Club work-at-home scam operation has now settled up with the Federal Trade Commission for its role in the scam. [More]
Why Do New Starbucks Drinks Have ‘Chocolatey’ Chips, Not Chocolate?
By 2.10.16
Starbucks introduced a new lineup of seasonal drinks this week, which are chocolate-flavored for Valentine’s Day. Sounds romantic. Yet reader Kelly noticed something when reading a news article about them: the drinks were described as containing “chocolatey chips,” but why not chocolate chips? What makes the chips not chocolate? [More]
Comcast-Connected “Grassroots” Effort Claims Set-Top Box Competition Will Harm Diversity
By 2.10.16
With the FCC prepping to vote on new rules that aim to break up cable companies’ monopolies on set-top boxes, the pay-TV industry is fighting back with an astroturfing campaign that tries to make the case that having more choices in set-top boxes will somehow harm diversity in TV programming. [More]
Regulators: Google’s Computers Can Be Considered Drivers In Autonomous Vehicles
By 2.10.16
Just a month after federal regulators took steps to ease restrictions for self-driving cars, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has let one tech company know that its artificial intelligence system could be considered an actual driver under federal law. [More]
DOT: Average U.S. Airfare At Lowest Price Since 2010
By 2.10.16
It’s not often that we get to use the word “cheap” along with “airfare,” but that’s the case today, after the U.S. Department of Transportation released its quarterly numbers, showing that the average price for an airline ticket in the third quarter of 2015 was the lowest it’s been in six years. [More]
ID Thieves Attack IRS Website Using 460,000 Stolen Social Security Numbers
By 2.10.16
One of the worst things an identity thief can do with a stolen Social Security number is use it to then claim that person’s tax refunds. The Internal Revenue Service has revealed that ID thieves recently tried to attack IRS.gov in an effort to cash in on 460,000 stolen SSNs. [More]
UPDATE: VW, Audi & BMW Specify Vehicles Affected By Latest Takata Recall; Mercedes-Benz Recalls 840K Cars
By 2.10.16
UPDATE: Hours after announcing its first recall related to Takata’s shrapnel-shooting airbags, Volkswagen and Audi revealed just which cars were affected by the defect. [More]
GM Recalls 473K Trucks, SUVs Because Brake Pedals Shouldn’t Fail
By 2.9.16
Most of us take for granted that our car’s brake pedal will work properly when we go to use it. But for the owners of some General Motors trucks and SUVs, that may not be the case. [More]
Did Net Neutrality Kill Broadband Investment Like Comcast, AT&T, Verizon Said It Would?
By 2.9.16
Last year, when the FCC was preparing to vote on the new Open Internet Order (aka “net neutrality”) and its reclassification of broadband Internet as a vital utility, virtually the entire telecom and cable industry claimed this change would ruin investment and slow innovation. But a look at the year-end financial figures for the biggest naysayers casts a lot of doubt on these dire predictions. [More]
