It’s easy to make fun of Hot Pockets. Over the years, we’ve laughed at the dough-encased food-like objects when they’ve been recalled for containing plastic and meat considered “unfit for human consumption,” when Nestle tried to sell young foodies on the products, and even when they were declared a separate food group. Things are not well at Nestle, which is Hot Pocket HQ, right now. [More]
government
FCC Fines T-Mobile $819,000 For Selling Phones That Don’t Work With Hearing Aids
By 8.28.14
Let’s point out something very, very obvious: within reason, everyone should have the right to communicate over the phone, even if they live with some form of hearing loss. For that reason, the Federal Communications Commission requires mobile phone carriers to sell a certain number of handsets that work with hearing aids. The agency says that T-Mobile failed to do this, and has fined them $819,000. [More]
$18 Million WIC And Food Stamps Fraud Scheme Used Pretend Grocery Stores
By 6.12.14
WIC (Women, Infants, and Children) and SNAP (Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program) are both federally-funded, state-administered programs with the simple goal of preventing Americans from going hungry. In Georgia, 54 people have been indicted for setting up pretend grocery stores that defrauded the programs of millions of dollars. [More]
Do You Prefer Food Truck Sandwiches With Or Without Ethnic Slurs?
By 8.28.13
Is it okay to welcome a business with a potentially offensive name to a public space or to government property? That’s the question at the center of a dispute between an upstate New York food truck and the state government. The truck is called The Wandering Dago. Is that an offensive term in 21st-century America? [More]
How Payday Lenders Fought To Stay Legal In Missouri
By 8.2.13
The state of Missouri has about one payday or car-title lender for every 4,100 residents. The interest rate on short-term loans has an average APR of 455% statewide, when the national average is a still-horrific 391%. When a coalition of churches, unions, and community groups tried to cut the maximum interest rate to 36%, the effort failed miserably. Here’s why. [More]
DOT Fines Delta $750,000 For Breaking Rules On Passenger-Bumping
By 6.27.13
Delta isn’t great about letting passengers volunteer to be bumped off an oversold flight instead of just bumping them by force. The company just doesn’t have enough CEOs to go around and offer seats to people who need to get home. Don’t take our word for it: the U.S. Department of Transportation gave them a public reprimand and ordered the airline to pay a penalty of $750,000. [More]
Why Non-Dairy Creamer Has Dairy In It
By 6.4.13 — Updated: 5.16.16
“I spotted this confused creamer at breakfast,” Jake wrote in an e-mail to Consumerist. “Glad I’m not lactose intolerant.” While it’s labeled “non-dairy,” it also has a milk allergy warning. How does that work? [More]
Don’t Pay $100 Or More For A Certified Copy Of Your Deed: That’s Not A Thing
By 5.21.13
Are you a property owner? If someone sends you a solicitation or a bill asking for money in exchange for a copy of your deed, throw it away. That isn’t a thing. [More]
Should Group Fitness Classes Stay Out Of Public Parks?
By 4.24.13
Boot camp-style fitness classes that meet outdoors in parks are a much more fun way to exercise than staring at your own sweaty face in a mirror. Do they affect life in the park enough that cities should require them to get permission before setting up shop and pay fees? The city of Santa Monica, California thinks “maybe,” and is considering such a policy. [More]
When Flying, Maybe Leave Your Grenade-Shaped Lighter At Home
By 4.18.13
You might find your novelty weapon-shaped cigarette lighter hilarious and totally innocent, but do you know who doesn’t agree with you? The Transportation Safety Administration. This didn’t occur to a passenger changing planes in Miami on his way to Haiti from Boston, and an entire concourse at Miami International Airport got shut down briefly this morning when the TSA noticed a grenade-shaped object in his carry-on. [More]
Filing Your Taxes Can Be Stressful, But At Least You Aren’t Using MS-DOS
By 4.15.13
It was pretty exciting for our household back in 1992 when Tax Dad got his first home office computer, and was able to use a primitive version of TurboTax to prepare his clients’ returns, instead of using a typewriter. In these days of Web filing, tax software from 1991 looks positively antiquated. [More]
Intuit (TurboTax) Spends Millions To Keep Us From Filing Taxes Quickly And For Free
By 3.27.13
Here’s something to keep in mind as you wait in line at 11:30 PM on April 15th: filing your taxes could be so, so much easier. Bills have been put before Congress that would let taxpayers choose to have the Internal Revenue Service calculate their taxes due for them, and send them a bill or cut a refund check accordingly. Only there are companies lobbying to keep things exactly as they are. The biggest spenders aren’t accounting firms, or even Big Tax Cat. It’s Intuit, the maker of popular tax-filing program TurboTax. The company has spent more than $11 million lobbying to keep tax returns around forever. [More]
Massachusetts DOT Pulls 9 Violent Arcade Video Games From State Rest Stops
By 1.15.13
It’s been a month of change since the Dec. 14 shootings at Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown, Conn., where 20 children and six adults were killed by a gunman. The alleged gunman also reportedly played video games, some of which are violent. That association with violence and guns has many in the government worried, including the Massachusetts Department of Transportation, which has subsequently pulled nine video games from the state’s rest area plazas. [More]
State Says Restaurant’s Church Bulletin Discount On Sundays Isn’t Discriminatory, But Needs Work
By 12.3.12
Is a promotion offering discounts to customers who bring in a “current church bulletin” discriminatory or unfair to people who aren’t religious? One Pennyslvania restaurant won’t remove or re-word their 10% off promotion for churchgoers, saying that it’s helped business on Sundays. It has, but it also got the attention of the Freedom From Religion Foundation. [More]
Lawyer Who Took Out Annuities On The Dying Pleads Guilty 1 Week Into Trial
By 11.19.12 — Updated: 3.4.13
Depending on your point of view, Joseph Caramadre of Cranston, R.I. is either an opportunist who scammed the terminally ill, or a great philanthropist who found a win-win loophole and made last few months of the dying easier and more comfortable. The federal prosecutors who charged him with wire and mail fraud leaned toward the former. [More]
I Just Want The Government To Take My Money Already
By 10.24.12
At a time of fiscal crisis for governments everywhere, Adam has sort of an unusual problem. He wants his state government to take his money. He says that he paid his taxes on time, back in April, and they’ve come after him for penalties and interest because they seem to keep losing the checks that he sent them. Yes, checks, multiple. [More]
Use The Clock And Google Voice To Actually Reach The IRS
By 8.8.12
Sure, it’s not peak IRS season right now, but there is quite a variety of reasons that you might have to deal with the ever-present government agency anyway. Tax Cat is out of the office, vacationing at his offshore kitty condo in the Cayman Islands, so it’s up to reader Christopher, a tax preparer, to serve us up with handy tax advice. See, sometimes you have to call the IRS. You can’t avoid it. But so does everyone else in the country. What Christopher figured out is that the IRS call center doesn’t have fixed hours like most. Its open hours depend on what time zone you live in. His solution? Use a Google Voice number to fudge what time zone he’s in, and call late in the evening when the business day is done for most of the continental U.S. [More]
Skechers To Pay $40 Million In Refunds Because Putting On Shoes Is Not A Workout
By 5.16.12
News flash: you can’t work out by not working out. As we predicted in November, the Federal Trade Commission has settled with shoemaker Skechers over claims that their rounded-bottom Shape-Up shoes helped wearers to tone their lower-body muscles and lose weight. These claims were all over ads and promotional material for the shoes, including an ad that aired during the 2011 Super Bowl. [More]
