Your state’s department of motor vehicles already knows what make and model of car you own, and sends you registration documents every few years that you have to open. Safety advocates have suggested including information about important vehicle recalls in vehicle registrations to make sure more people know about recalls and comply. In an experimental program, Maryland will start sending these notices to vehicle owners. [More]
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UPDATE: Ocean City Now Says Police Will Be Alerted To Women Sunbathing Topless
By 6.9.17
UPDATE: The leadership of Ocean City, MD, has clarified in a public statement that not only are the town’s beaches not topless, but that women who sunbathe without covering up may face legal trouble. [More]
Comcast Decides To Not Charge Early Termination Fees To Flood-Ravaged Stores
By 8.5.16
Flood waters recently tore through Ellicott City, MD, forcing some businesses to close up shop. One store says Comcast tried to rub salt in this fresh wound by demanding it pay hundreds of dollars to cancel service it can no longer use. [More]
Three States Accuse Volkswagen Of Committing Fraud
By 7.19.16
When Volkswagen admitted to rigging millions of supposedly “clean diesel” vehicles to cheat on emissions tests, the carmaker claimed that only a few engineers knew these “defeat devices” were in place. However, new lawsuits filed by three states allege that VW execs knew of the chicanery, and that the car company was committing fraud for nearly a decade. [More]
Walmart Doesn’t Know The Difference Between Maryland And Massachusetts
By 4.4.16
It looks like someone at Walmart is due for a geography lesson, or could at least use a refresher on how to pull up a map of the United States on the internet, after a sharp-eyed Twitter denizen pointed out that the chain is selling University of Maryland T-shirts bearing an image of the state of Massachusetts. [More]
10 Things We Learned About The Structured Settlement Purchase Industry
By 8.28.15
Report after report finds that payday lenders, auto title loan firms and pension advance operations unfairly target vulnerable consumers with high fees and questionable terms, but a new investigative piece from The Washington Post shows that are some lesser-known, but very lucrative players offering quick cash to vulnerable consumers: structured settlement purchasing companies. [More]
Study: 38% Of Crab Cakes Tested At Maryland, D.C. Restaurants Don’t Contain The Local Crab Listed On Menus
By 4.1.15
What you see on the menu might not necessarily be what you get, which is especially disappointing if you’re into locally sourced, fresh ingredients. Conservation group Oceana released a new study that said after checking crab cakes at restaurants along the Eastern sea board that were supposed to be Chesapeake Bay blue crab, many of them contained imported impostors instead. [More]
Wells Fargo, Chase To Pay $35.7M For Allowing Illegal Mortgage Kickbacks
By 1.22.15
Federal law prohibits giving or receiving kickbacks in exchange for a referral of business related to a real-estate-settlement service, but for four years a now-defunct title company in Maryland provide cash, marketing materials and consumer information in exchange for referrals. And now the banks have agreed to pay more than $35 million — including $11.1 million in redress to affected consumers — for their sins. [More]
Safeway Employee Convinces Shoppers To Not Fall For $4K Scam
By 9.26.14
If you work at a store and some customers come in trying to put thousands of dollars on prepaid debit cards, you’d probably get the sense that something is amiss. The question is: Do you do anything about it or just help them put the money on the card and hope they aren’t being scammed? [More]
Driver-Licenses.org Is Not Where You Renew Your Driver License
By 3.28.14
Here’s the thing with modern Web browsers: they cater to our innate laziness by making the address bar dual-use. You can type a URL in, or you can type a search term. If you do that while trying to renew your driver’s license online, you may run into trouble. [More]
McDonald’s Says Dunkin’ Donuts Menu Is Too Similar, Sues To Block Nearby Store
By 2.25.14
While fast food burger joints have battled over turf and market share for decades, it’s always seemed like Dunkin’ Donuts and McDonald’s were able to live in relative peace since their core products were very different. But a new lawsuit filed by McDonald’s now claims that Dunkin’ and the Golden Arches are so similar that a Maryland mall operator should be stopped from leasing space to the donut chain. [More]
Garbage Truck Driver Wakes Family, Saves Them From House Fire
By 9.26.13
Maybe we shouldn’t complain when a garbage truck wakes us up in the wee hours of the morning. A Maryland family has an early-morning recycling run to thank for their safety after the driver noticed smoke coming from the roof. He stopped to wake the family up, pounding on doors and windows to alert them to the fire and get them out of the house. [More]
Pizza Hut Driver Claims He Was Demoted For Using Fiberglass Tent Pole To Fight Off Attackers
By 12.31.12
Life can be dangerous for pizza delivery drivers, who are often carrying cash and food and rarely have anyone to protect them. Now a Pizza Hut employee in Maryland says he’s been pulled off deliveries because he used a tent pole to defend himself against a group of attackers. [More]
Legislator: Traffic Camera Manufacturers Should Be Fined For Each Error
By 12.11.12
As we’ve seen in previous stories, cameras intended to catch speeders and red-light violators are not perfect, and now a state lawmaker in Maryland believes that the makers of these devices need to be held financially accountable for each instance in which a driver is incorrectly ticketed. [More]
Man Sues Firing Range Over "Ladies' Day" Promotion
By 8.22.12
The notion of a “ladies drink free” night at a bar or club is certainly not unheard of, but a man in Maryland says a local firing range is breaking the law by hosting days where females — and only females — are allowed to shoot without having to pay. [More]
Progressive Provides More Details On Controversial Lawsuit
By 8.16.12
Earlier this week, the brother of a woman killed in a car crash made headlines around the world by claiming that his sister’s insurance company, Progressive, had actually come to the legal defense of the driver accused of causing the fatal accident. Since then, the insurance company has stated that it was not defending the other driver, but only defending itself in the lawsuit — a distinction the brother found wanting. Today, the insurer says it has reached a settlement with the family and is attempting to clarify matters further by explaining why its lawyers ended up on the other side of courtroom. [More]
RadioShack Employee Uses Receipt To Tell Customer She's An "Ugly Itch" From "Ghettohood, USA"
By 3.13.12
A Maryland RadioShack employee truly went above and beyond the call of bad customer service yesterday when he decided it was perfectly cool to get creative with a customer’s receipt to let her know she’s an “ugly itch” from “ghettohood, usa,” which is apparently in “tattoville, Maryland.” [More]
Couple Spends Five Years In $1.2 Mansion Without Ever Making Mortgage Payment
By 3.5.12
It now takes an average of 634 to foreclose on a home in Maryland, but one couple has managed to live large in their 4,900 square-foot abode on the Potomac River for nearly three times as long — all without ever having made a single mortgage payment. [More]
