If you bought a used car from a dealership that proudly claims to put each vehicle through “125-point” or “172-point” inspections, you might assume that your vehicle is safe to drive and that it isn’t under recall for a potentially deadly defect. However, a number of big names in used cars — including CarMax and General Motors — have recently entered into settlements with federal regulators that could allow used car dealers to continue marketing their vehicles as safe even while they may have unrepaired defects. [More]
Quality & Safety
Settlements Allow Auto Dealers To Continue Selling Unrepaired Recalled Vehicles As “Safe”
By 12.16.16
House ‘Freedom Caucus’ Asks Trump To Undo 232 Rules On Net Neutrality, Tobacco, Nursing Homes & Ceiling Fans
By 12.15.16
What’s on your wish list this holiday season? For the few dozen members of the House of Representatives Freedom Caucus, the hope to see President-elect Donald Trump undo or revise more than 200 federal rules involving everything from tobacco to food labels to ceiling fans to your constitutional right to bring a lawsuit against your credit card company. [More]
USDA Asks Meat, Dairy Companies To Replace Confusing Expiration & Sell-By Labels With “Best If Used By” Date
By 12.14.16 — Updated: 2.15.17
Though almost every food item you buy at the supermarket has some sort of expiration date — under the headers of “Sell By,” “Use By,” “Use Before,” “Best Before,” among others — printed on the packaging, the truth is date labels are largely voluntary and determined by the food producers. If handled properly, most foods are perfectly safe to eat after whatever date is on the label, but stores and consumers throw away an inordinate amount of food every year simply because that date has passed. In an effort to reduce food waste, the federal government is hoping to encourage meat and dairy producers to all use the same phrase: “Best If Used By.” [More]
Comcast Apologizes For Tech Crew Whose Truck May Have Caused Multiple Accidents
By 12.14.16
Earlier today, we told you about the Comcast tech crew in Indiana that was recorded showing an apparent disregard for the many drivers who ran off the road or collided while trying to get around a Comcast repair truck parked in the street. Now, Comcast HQ is issuing an “our bad” and promising to use this latest PR debacle as a teachable situation for its employees to prevent future incidents. [More]
UPDATED: Comcast Workers Don’t Seem To Care That Their Truck May Have Caused Half-Dozen Accidents
By 12.14.16
[This story has been updated with a statement from Comcast]
Perhaps the most-common complaint we hear about Comcast repair crews is their absence: just getting one to come can sometimes be a challenge. But when there is actually a repair crew in your neighborhood, you would expect them to, y’know, maybe care if their presence causes a half-dozen car accidents. And yet, video appears to show a Comcast crew in Indiana acting with indifference to the vehicular chaos apparently triggered by their presence. [More]
Restaurant Made Hundreds Of Customers Sick On Thanksgiving Day
By 12.14.16
Hundreds of Thanksgiving diners at a restaurant in western New York apparently got a little something special with their holiday meal that made them all sick when they should have been enjoying the extended weekend. [More]
ConAgra Subsidiary Sentenced For Distributing Contaminated Peanut Butter 10 Years Ago
By 12.13.16
The Great Peanut Butter Recall of 2007 affected peanut butter sold under the Peter Pan and Great Value brands. The company pleaded guilty to criminal charges of the introduction into interstate commerce of adulterated food, and has finally been sentenced. As announced last year, it must pay an $8 million fine and forfeit more than $3 million in assets. [More]
Cuisinart Recalls 8.3 Million Food Processor Blades Dating Back To 1996
By 12.13.16
When using the whirling blades of a food processor to prepare a meal, you assume that the common kitchen appliance is not going to put shards of its steel blades in your food, causing you pain and injury. Yet Cuisinart has recalled 8.3 million food processors in the United States and Canada that pose a risk of exactly that kind of problem. [More]
Macaroni And Cheese Cups Sold At Walmart, Aldi, Rite Aid Recalled For Possible Salmonella Contamination
By 12.12.16 — Updated: 12.16.16
Remember those pancake and waffle mixes recalled for possible Salmonella contamination? They were just the first items in a wave of recalls related to the shutdown of a production facility in Virginia. The most prominent so far has been the recall of macaroni and cheese packages sold under the store brand names of Walmart, Aldi, and Rite Aid. [More]
Police: Fake Dentist Made House Calls To Pull Teeth, Provide Dentures
By 12.12.16
Listen: if the dentist says he doesn’t mind dropping by your house to pull a few teeth, you might want to double check and make sure he’s a real dentist before you open wide. [More]
FDA Warns 4 Tobacco Makers To Stop Selling Flavored Cigarettes Labeled As Cigars
By 12.12.16
If you want to sell an illegal product, simply slapping on a different label won’t magically make it legal. That’s why the Food and Drug Administration is ordering four tobacco manufacturers to stop selling flavored cigarettes labeled as “little cigars” or “cigars.” [More]
We Have Sugar To Thank For The American Tobacco Industry
By 12.9.16
If you’ve ever tried to give up eating sugar, you know that the sweet stuff has a strong hold on our brains. What you may not realize, though, is that sugar’s addictive and delicious power also is part of another common addiction that we’ve perfected and exported: tobacco. [More]
Regulators Speeding Up Takata Recall, Update List Of Affected Vehicles
By 12.9.16
When federal regulators took over the messy Takata airbag recall in May 2015, they provided a timeline in which carmakers were to have shrapnel-shooting safety devices replaced. With more than 42 million vehicles having potentially dangerous airbags in their dashboards and steering wheels, the campaign was bound to take some time. But it’s not progressing enough, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, as it moves to speed up the process by providing a replacement schedule and more complete list of affected vehicles. [More]
Publix And Stonewall Kitchen Recall Pancake And Waffle Mixes Over Potential Salmonella
By 12.9.16 — Updated: 12.28.16
Pancakes and waffles with a fruit flavor are fun and delicious, but what isn’t fun and delicious is when your breakfast comes with a side of Salmonella. Salmonella. Two companies — supermarket chain Publix, and Stonewall Kitchen — have discovered that the milk in their mixes tested positive for the pathogen, and are recalling the products recalling their products as a precaution. None of the finished products have tested positive for Salmonella, and the companies say there are no reported illnesses. [More]
Samsung Software Update Will Deliberately ‘Brick’ Remaining Galaxy Note 7 Phones
By 12.9.16
If you’re one of the few folks still using a recalled, potentially dangerous Samsung Galaxy Note 7, you need to find a replacement soon, as Samsung’s next software update for the Note 7 will render it useless. [More]
More Ocho Rios Curry Powder Recalled For Possible Lead Contamination
By 12.8.16
A few months ago, some lead-contaminated turmeric turned up in a wide variety of retailers, and also in batches of curry powder from Oriental Packing Company sold under a variety of brands. Now the potentially contaminated turmeric has turned up in more curry powder, this batch all sold under the Ocho-Rios and Oriental brands. [More]
Surgeon General: E-Cigarette Use By Young Consumers Is A “Major Public Health Threat”
By 12.8.16
Months after the Food & Drug Administration finalized rules that treat e-cigarettes like traditional cigarettes and cigars, including banning the sale to minors, a new report from the U.S. Surgeon General suggests the regulations may be too little too late, as use of the alternative tobacco products has skyrocketed among younger consumers, posing a public health threat. [More]
Playground Slide Recalled After Kids’ Fingers Amputated
By 12.7.16
Park slides can provide immeasurable joy for children (and some adults). And aside from scorching your bare legs on a slide that has been sitting out in the sun, they aren’t supposed to result in any pain. Yet some playground slides are being recalled after two children lost their fingers. [More]
