The state of Illinois has filed a lawsuit against payday lender Check Into Cash, but not for its short-term lending practices. Instead, the company is accused of exploiting its low-wage employees by forcing them to sign non-compete agreements that restrict their ability to find jobs elsewhere. [More]
ILLINOIS
Illinois Lawmakers Propose Bill Legalizing Recreational Marijuana
By 3.23.17 — Updated: 5.10.17
Medical marijuana is already legal in Illinois, and newly introduced legislation hopes to add the Land of Lincoln to the small but growing list of states allowing the sale and use of recreational pot.
[More]
Company Behind “Smart” Vibrator To Pay $3.75M In Settlement
By 3.14.17 — Updated: 5.10.17
The makers of an internet-connected sex toy who were accused of violating users’ privacy have agreed to pay $3.75 million to settle a federal lawsuit. [More]
Illegal Debt Collectors Prey On Victims’ Doubts To Collect Money They Don’t Owe
By 2.10.17
For years, Consumerist has written about unscrupulous debt collectors that have attempted — sometimes successfully — to collect thousands of dollars from consumers who don’t actually owe a debt. This type of scheme is apparently alive and well in Illinois, where investigators say the ploy is one of the most popular for alleged con artists preying on residents, prompting the state’s Attorney General to file suit against at least one such operation. [More]
Student Loan Giant Navient Sued By CFPB & Two States Over Alleged Illegal Practices
By 1.18.17
Eighteen months after Sallie Mae spin-off Navient revealed that its wholly-owned subsidiary Navient Solutions Inc could one day be on the receiving end of a federal lawsuit related to its student loans servicing practices, the day has come to pass. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, along with two states, filed lawsuits against the nation’s largest student loan company for allegedly cheating borrowers out of repayment rights. [More]
Dairy Queen Pulls Franchise From Owner Who Addressed Family With Racial Slurs
By 1.10.17
It’s unusual to see a crowd of people toting signs and celebrating that a local restaurant has closed. The people outside the Dairy Queen in Zion, IL, had originally planned a protest urging people to boycott after the franchisee reportedly called at a customer and her children by a racial slur, but Dairy Queen pulled his franchise and the restaurant closed in the interim. [More]
Company Behind “Smart” Vibrator To Settle Claims It Violated Users’ Privacy
By 12.8.16 — Updated: 12.11.16
From phones to children’s toys and speakers, just about everything can become a “smart” device today. Even vibrators. And just like all of the other devices, sex toys can also violate your privacy. That’s the crux of a soon-to-be settled lawsuit. [More]
More Amazon Drivers Accuse Company Of Not Paying Required Overtime Wages
By 11.2.16
As Amazon shifts more of its logistics workload away from traditional parcel services like FedEx and UPS and toward contractors who deliver orders in Amazon’s name, the e-commerce giant continues to face legal challenges over the way those contracted workers are being treated. The latest example comes out of Illinois, where former delivery drivers are accusing Amazon of not paying them required overtime wages. [More]
Illinois, California End Some Business With Wells Fargo — At Least For Now
By 10.3.16
The fallout from the Wells Fargo fake account fiasco continues to pile up, with state officials in both California and Illinois announcing they would stop doing business with the bank for the time-being. [More]
Today In Hacks: Opera Sync, Voter Databases
By 8.29.16
If it’s a day that ends in Y, someone who shouldn’t have access to a system is trying to get access to that system. Unfortunately, today there’s news in the air of two big successes for the bad guys. One has hit 1.7 million web browser users; the other, at least 200,000 registered voters. [More]
Illinois Rakes In More License Plate Renewal Fees Than Usual After Failing To Mail Reminders
By 6.24.16
Some Illinois residents are a bit ticked off right now, after the state reaped $5.24 million more this year than it did in 2015 from license plate renewal fees. That’s a lot of money — were people just really distracted or forgetful this year? Not quite. An impasse on the state budget meant officials didn’t have the cash to mail reminders out to drivers. [More]
53-Year Kmart Employee Was There When Store Opened, Will Help Close It Down
By 6.13.16
In 1963, a young man working at a Walgreens in Illinois heard that a new discount chain called Kmart was opening a new store and looking for employees. He earned $1 per hour, and the shiny new store would pay $1.25, so he applied for a job. He began work in the maintenance department on May 15, 1963, was there when the store opened, and plans to stick around until the store’s last day of business on July 24. [More]
Is Facebook Trying To Scuttle Facial-Recognition Lawsuit By Changing Illinois Law?
By 5.27.16
Earlier this month, a federal court gave the go-ahead to a lawsuit alleging that Facebook’s photo-scanning, facial-recognition feature violated Illinois state law. Having lost that legal battle, it looks like Facebook may be trying to get out of the lawsuit by simply changing that Illinois law. [More]
Illinois Could Be Next State To Do Away With “Pink Tax” On Feminine Hygiene Products
By 3.10.16
Just a week after five New York women filed a lawsuit against the state’s Department of Taxation and Finance for tacking on sales tax to tampons, Illinois lawmakers have advanced a bill that would exempt feminine hygiene and incontinence products from state sales tax. [More]
Illinois Attorney General Says DraftKings, FanDuel Are Illegal Gambling Sites
By 12.23.15
While daily fantasy sports (DFS) sites DraftKings and FanDuel are hanging on to their hundreds of thousands of paying New York state customers by a legal thread, the high-profile operations are coming under scrutiny in the Central time zone, with the Illinois attorney general opining that DFS sites constitute illegal gambling under state law. [More]
AT&T Expands High-Speed Fiber Network, Still Overcharges In Areas Without Competition
By 11.9.15
Remember how AT&T made its grand case for the DirecTV merger? All that revenue from the 20-plus million DirecTV subscribers would help AT&T build out a high-speed broadband network that competes with the local cable monopolies. And so far that’s been true with the continued expansion of AT&T’s GigaPower service… except when those established cable monopolies don’t match GigaPower’s top speeds, customers are still paying top dollar. [More]
The Pumpkin Harvest Is Over And The Shortage Is Real
By 10.9.15
You might think that lots of rain would be good news for agricultural products, but it doesn’t really work that way, This year, high rainfall in Illinois, the area where most of our pie pumpkins are grown, means that pumpkin harvests are way, way down, and we might have to limit ourselves to only one slice of pie this Thanksgiving. [More]
Comcast Now Offering Cheap Internet To Some Community College Students
By 9.16.15
Comcast, whose NBC network cancelled a beloved sitcom about a community college in Colorado, is apparently trying to atone for that sin by expanding its more affordable Internet Essentials program to cover some community college students in that state (and also in Illinois). [More]
