If you’re like many other humans on this planet, winter’s shorter days may get you feeling a bit down from lack of sunlight. But some folks in the state are on a mission to reclaim one hour of daylight, with a campaign to get Massachusetts to leave the Eastern Time Zone. [More]
massachusetts
Santander Bank To Pay $26M Over Subprime Auto Loan Practices
By 3.29.17 — Updated: 5.10.17
One of the nation’s largest providers of automobile financing, Santander Bank, has agreed to pay $26 million to end a two-state investigation into the financial institution’s alleged violation of state consumer protection laws related to its auto loan underwriting practices. [More]
Xerox Pays $2.4M To Settle Allegations It Overcharged Student Loan Borrowers
By 11.23.16
Xerox does a lot more than make huge copy machines for your office. For more than a year, the company’s student loan servicing division has been under state and federal investigation for allegations that it violated debt collection laws and overcharged borrowers. Now Xerox has agreed to pay $2.4 million to close the book on one such investigation in Massachusetts. [More]
Massachusetts Will Tax Uber & Lyft, Give Some Of The Money To Taxis
By 8.22.16
Uber or Lyft will soon be supporting their biggest rivals in the Old Bay State, thanks to a newly signed law regulating the ride-hailing industry. In all, Massachusetts will tack on a $.20/ride fee for these newer companies, with the revenue being divided up between the state, cities, and the taxi industry. [More]
Uber Driver Arrested, Accused Of Raping 16-Year-Old Passenger
By 8.11.16
Uber says that it puts all new drivers through checks of their criminal and driving history, and none of what happened in a Boston suburb should have taken place. The prosecutor in Malden, MA says that a local driver had a long and sometimes violent criminal history, and he is accused of tracking down, offering extra rides to, and raping a 16-year-old passenger earlier this summer. [More]
Panera Restaurant Shut Down Due To High Carbon Monoxide Levels
By 7.29.16
When you hear about a restaurant being shut down for a health hazard, you might assume that it’s because of an outbreak of illness, or because someone barfed. A Panera restaurant in Seekonk, MA closed down today to protect everyone after a carbon monoxide leak in the restaurant made 18 customers sick. [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]
Inspectors In Massachusetts Combing Gas Stations, Other Card Readers For Skimmers
By 3.4.16
Look out when you’re on the road: police and state standards agencies have noticed a scary trend near highways in New England. Bluetooth card skimmers are appearing on gas pumps and ATMs in New England, slurping up customers’ payment data and beaming it to thieves who may be sitting just around the corner. [More]
Sears Holdings Plans At Least 4 More Kmart Store Closures In May
By 3.2.16
After a tough year of losing half a billion dollars less than they did in 2014, Sears Holdings, parent company of Sears and Kmart, announced plans to close about 50 stores in the coming months. What the company no longer does is send out big announcements with lists of stores slated for closure, instead submitting local closings to local news outlets. That’s cool, but we’re a national news outlet that likes to pay attention to national trends, so we compiled a list for anyone who is interested. [More]
Your Cable Company Will Not Ask You To Make Your Payment At A Gas Station
By 12.30.15
Some scams are so outrageously stupid, we have a hard time believing anyone falls for them. But scammers would pull these obvious tricks if they didn’t work at least some of the time. [More]
Small Massachusetts Town Offers Gigabit Internet For $75/Month
By 12.15.15
As Comcast rolls out its superfast 2 gigabit fiber service for $300/month — not to mention upwards of $1,000 in startup costs — yet another municipally owned broadband service is offering similar service for less money. [More]
Massachusetts Proposes New Regulations For DraftKings, FanDuel
By 11.19.15
While New York and Nevada have joined the ranks of states barring residents from playing daily fantasy sports sites DraftKings and Fan Duel, DraftKings’ home state of Massachusetts is demonstrating more flexibility, proposing new regulations that would still allow the sites to operate in the state. [More]
13 Mayors (And One Almost-Mayor) Ask Verizon To Stop Dragging Its Feet On FiOS
By 10.5.15
Earlier this year, Verizon made clear what many industry watchers had known for years — that it was reaching the end of its first major buildout phase of Verizon FiOS service and that the company was going to focus on getting customers onto that network. But more than a dozen mayors, including the presumed future mayor of Comcast’s home city, have written the company to ask that it bring much-needed competition to their markets. [More]
Mass. AG, Lawmakers Call For More Assistance For Former Corinthian College Students
By 9.2.15
Ever since for-profit education chain Corinthian Colleges Inc. closed its Everest University, WyoTech and Heald College campuses, leaving tens of thousands of students with millions of dollars in loans, consumers advocates, legislators and others have urged the Department of Education to relieve former students of their debt burdens. Those calls for help continued on Tuesday with renewed pressure from Massachusetts Attorney General Marua Healey and Sen. Elizabeth Warren calling on the Dept. to rid victims of the defunct for-profit college of unsustainable loan payments. [More]
Two For-Profit Schools Must Pay Students $2.3M Over Unfair Practices
By 7.31.15
Hundreds of former students at Kaplan Career Institute and Lincoln Technical Institute in Massachusetts will receive redress from the for-profit colleges after the schools settled charges they engaged in unfair practices with the state’s Attorney General’s office. [More]
Massachusetts Man Selling Snow From His Front Yard Because Why Not?
By 2.24.15
Mother Nature has created plenty of headaches for snow-weary residents of Massachusetts, but one man is turning Gaia’s frozen bounty into an opportunity to make a few bucks off those warmer states. He’s selling the snow from his front yard for $89 for six pounds, shipping it to sunnier climes. Taking snow lemons and making snow lemonade, right? [More]
Another City Wants To Stop Comcast From Taking Over Cable Service
By 10.16.14
Weeks after city leaders in Lexington, KY, made it clear that they are not pleased about the promise of being passed around like a hot potato from Time Warner Cable to Comcast to Charter, the City Council of Worcester, MA, is also laying out the unwelcome mat for Comcast. [More]
