It was just last week that we wrote about how this year will probably be better than last year for U.S. taxpayers with questions or problems. Yet looking forward to the next decade or so, changes in how the IRS provides support will mean leaving some Americans behind. [More]
Government Policy
Father Claims 10-Year-Old Daughter Experienced “Uncomfortable” Two-Minute TSA Pat-Down
By 1.6.16
While it’s normal for travelers to undergo additional screening procedures from the Transportation Security Administration when there could be something amiss, the father of a 10-year-old girl says she was made uncomfortable by a two-minute pat-down after she left a juice pouch in her carry-on. [More]
Two Payday Lenders Agree To Pay $4.4M In Fines, Release Borrowers From $68M In Loans, Fees
By 1.5.16
Federal regulators continued an ongoing crackdown on deceptive payday loan players by reaching a multimillion-dollar agreement with two lenders to settle accusations they illegally charged consumers with undisclosed and inflated fees. [More]
Volkswagen Reportedly Having Trouble Finding “Defeat Device” Fix
By 1.5.16
Just a day after the Department of Justice filed a potential multibillion-dollar civil lawsuit against Volkswagen for installing so-called “defeat devices” in vehicles to skirt federal emissions standards, a new report says that the German automaker has run into difficulties finding a fix for the nearly 500,000 affected “clean diesel” cars in the U.S. [More]
Lumosity Ordered To Quit Claiming Their Games Make Users Smarter, Prevent Dementia
By 1.5.16
Improving every day at a casual mobile or computer game might make you feel like you’ve accomplished something, but does it make you smarter? It’s possible, but if recent ads from Lumosity made you wonder how a company can legally claim that playing a simple game can help stave off Alzheimer’s disease or dementia, well, they can’t. As a result, Lumosity must pay $2 million to customers. There is also a court-ordered $50 million penalty involved, but that has been suspended because Lumosity doesn’t have the money to pay it. [More]
Test Claims To Show T-Mobile’s YouTube “Optimization” Is Just Connection Throttling
By 1.5.16
We’ve had a bit of a high-tech tiff going on for the past few weeks between YouTube and T-Mobile. First, YouTube accused T-Mobile of unfairly degrading their video. T-Mobile replied nuh-uh, everything is simply optimized for mobile and the world is great. So who’s right? [More]
Black Angus Burgers Sold At Walmart May Contain Pieces Of Wood
By 1.5.16
Do you have any boxes of Walmart house brand Black Angus beef burgers with Vidalia onions lurking in your freezer? If so, time to check labels: almost 90,000 pounds of that specific burger type (about 44,784 boxes) has been recalled because there may be “extraneous wood materials” in the meat. [More]
U.S. Files Civil Lawsuit Against Volkswagen Over Emissions Scandal
By 1.4.16
It may be a new year, but that doesn’t mean Volkswagen can wash its hands of the ongoing diesel emissions scandal affecting 11 million vehicles. Today, the U.S. Dept. of Justice filed a civil lawsuit against the carmaker over its use of “defeat devices” to cheat on emissions tests.
Some GM SUV Owners Say Their Vehicles Are Making Them Sick
By 12.31.15
From time to time you might feel a bit nauseated while driving (or riding) from point A to point B, and that’s pretty normal. But it appears that some General Motors SUV owners are having a bit more than just a little bout of carsickness while trolling around in their vehicles. [More]
Take Your Christmas Tree Down Before It Burns Your $#&^! House Down
By 12.30.15
In the weeks leading up to Dec. 25, you were probably pretty good about keeping your Christmas tree watered, hoping to maintain the lush greenness you paid for. But now that you’re in that post-Yule, pre-New Year’s limbo and just haven’t gotten around to ditching the tree on your neighbor’s curb, you might have forgotten to add water to that doomed tree. If so, you could be risking a disastrous and potentially deadly fire. [More]
FCC: Cable Internet Is Getting Faster, But DSL & Satellite Still Likely To Miss The Mark
By 12.30.15
The FCC’s job — well, one of the FCC’s jobs — is to make sure that everyone has access to decent broadband connections. You can’t understand what you can’t measure, though, so as part of that, the commission has to measure just how broadband is holding up. They issue a report, called Measuring Broadband America, roughly once a year to share their findings. The new one, the fifth, has just been released and while there’s still a lot of room for improvement, on the whole it seems to be a high note on which to end the year. [More]
T-Mobile Denies “Throttling” YouTube, Says Video Is “Mobile Optimized”
By 12.30.15
Right before Christmas, YouTube publicly called out T-Mobile’s Binge On streaming program for allegedly slowing down all video content, potentially in violation of new federal “net neutrality” rules. Now T-Mobile counters YouTube’s argument by claiming that it’s just trying to provide users with speeds that are appropriate for use on mobile networks. [More]
Musician Files $150M Lawsuit Against Spotify For Royalties
By 12.29.15
To make a song available on a streaming service like Spotify or Apple Music, the services negotiate with record labels and representatives of songwriters. David Lowery is a musician (best known for the bands Cracker and Camper Van Beethoven), a professor, and an activist for artists’ rights in the new music economy, and his latest effort is a class action lawsuit against Spotify for mechanical royalties. [More]
Regulators Stop Alleged Office Supply Scam That Targeted Charitable Organizations, Small Businesses
By 12.29.15
We’ve said it a thousand times: scammers are the worst, and those that take advantage of organizations trying to do good in the world are the lowest of the low. Such was allegedly the case for Liberty Supply Co., which federal regulators have accused of running an office supply scam that targeted charitable organizations and small businesses. [More]
Macy’s Recalls 121,000 Martha Stewart-Brand Frying Pans For Shooting Metal Discs At Cooks
By 12.29.15
When cooking a meal on the stove, there’s always the possibility that a little bit of grease or oil will splatter on you. Something you probably aren’t prepared for, though, is the chance that a piece of the pan will shoot off, burning your arm, face, or other body part. [More]
TSA Stepping Up Random Security Screenings For Airport Workers
By 12.29.15
There’s a good chance you’ve been waiting (patiently) in the airport security line, preparing to take off your shoes, your belt, remove your laptop, and place everything on the belt, only to see an airport employee breezily walk through the side gate with a quick flick of their badge. That scenario will likely be less and less frequent around the country as the Transportation Security Administration plans to increase random checks of airport and airline employees. [More]
