Preventing food waste is good, but not to the point of dumpster-diving for deer brains at a wild game butcher. The former owners of a Chinese restaurant in Pennsylvania are accused of dealing in illegal deer meat, at least some of which came from the trash at butchers that process deer for hunters. [More]
pennsylvania
Verizon FiOS Customers Say They Were Tricked Into Paying For Unnecessary Set-Top Boxes
By 4.12.17 — Updated: 5.9.17
If you’ve got Verizon FiOS and you’re paying fees each month for multiple cable boxes, you may be wasting a lot of money. The pay-TV provider has an app that will give you live access to FiOS on your TV through a number of devices that are less expensive than a leased set-top box. Is it deceptive for Verizon to let its customers continue paying for leased boxes without advising them of cheaper options? [More]
Ride-Hailing Services Are Legal And Regulated In Philadelphia: Now What?
By 11.4.16
Ride-hailing apps, or transportation network companies (TNCs), have been in sort of a legal gray area in Philadelphia, but as of today, hailing a ride will be completely legal. Earlier today, the governor of Pennsylvania signed legislation that regulates the services. Like all laws, it’s imperfect, and stakeholders including taxi drivers and people with disabilities have complaints about it. [More]
Professional Pooper Scooper Accused Of Impersonating Secret Service Agent To Score Hotel Discount
By 10.27.16 — Updated: 10.31.16
A Pennsylvania man who reportedly runs a business picking up dog droppings has apparently stepped into a major mess of his own making. According to federal prosecutors, he used forged documents to pretend to be a Secret Service agent to score a discount hotel room and then to try to get out of a traffic violation. [More]
Union Chief: Verizon Will Discipline, Possibly Fire, Techs Who Repair Copper Phone Lines
By 10.4.16
As Americans continue to ditch wireline phone service in favor of wireless, and as wired voice lines are increasingly moving to fiberoptic networks or lines operated by cable companies, the telecom workers unions and some consumer advocacy groups have accused Verizon of allowing its old network to fall into disrepair. Recently, the head of a union representing thousands of Verizon employees testified that techs can get into trouble and possibly lose their jobs if they actually try to repair damaged copper lines. [More]
Hershey, PA Residents Worried About Changes If Company Sells To Mondelez
By 8.16.16
Company towns are a remote memory for most Americans: areas where most residents worked at a factory, mill, mine, or brewery have gone away, moving out of state or overseas along with the employers themselves. One of the last remaining classic company towns is Hershey, PA, where the company still has its factory. The company that created the town of Hershey and its surrounding businesses and institutions turned down an unsolicited takeover offer from Mondelez, the owner of Nabisco and Cadbury. [More]
Pennsylvania Finally Putting An End To Weird Wine Laws
By 6.9.16
After nearly a century of having some of the strangest restrictions on the sale of beer, wine, and booze in the country, Pennsylvania’s rules on alcohol sales are about to get slightly less byzantine. [More]
Former Comcast Installers Say Contractor Erased Negative Reports, Conspired With Cable Company
By 6.6.16
Two former Comcast installation subcontractors are accusing the cable giant of using the promise of more work to trick them into spending more money on equipment, people, and real estate — all for the benefit of two larger subcontractors who were allegedly allowed to manipulate and erase negative service reports from customers. [More]
Uber Fined $11.4 Million For Operating Without Proper Authority
By 4.21.16
When Uber launched its Pennsylvania operations in 2014, it did so without approval of the state regulatory agency that oversees most taxi services. Two years later, the ridesharing service is being hit with a $11.365 million civil penalty by the state. [More]
Pennsylvania Man Charged With Racketeering For $688M Payday Loan Operation
By 4.7.16
A Pennsylvania man, known for helping to usher in the payday loan movement, has been charged with racketeering for his alleged part in a scheme that bilked more than $688 million from consumers and defrauded 1,400 others from a million-dollar settlement. [More]
10 Years After Verdict, Walmart Must Pay $151 Million To Employees Who Worked Off The Clock
By 4.4.16
A case that has been trickling through the state and federal court system for nearly 15 years came to an abrupt ending this morning, with the U.S. Supreme Court refusing to hear Walmart’s appeal of a 2006 verdict ordering the company to pay $151 million to Pennsylvania employees who worked off the clock. [More]
Multi-Tasking Shoplifting Suspect Left 11-Year Old He Was Watching Behind At Walmart
By 3.25.16
There simply aren’t enough hours in the day to get everything done that you need to, right? Maybe that’s why a man who was keeping an eye on an acquaintance’s 11-year-old brought the boy with him to a Pennsylvania Walmart to pick up some tools. Police say that he walked out of the store without paying for the tools, leaving the boy behind. [More]
Pennsylvania Investigating State Of Verizon’s Landline Service
By 2.23.16
Verizon is once again being accused of neglecting its copper-wire landline network. Following complaints from workers of damaged, sagging lines and unsafe utility poles, the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission has announced it will be looking into whether or not the telecom giant’s actions put employees and the public at risk. [More]
Selling “Silence Of The Lambs” Killer’s House Not As Easy As You’d Think
By 1.12.16
As we saw with the prolonged attempt to sell Cameron’s house from Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, having your property featured in a famous movie is no guarantee that it will be snatched up at a good price. Just ask the owners of the Pennsylvania home used in the Oscar-winning horror film Silence of the Lambs. [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]
When Attempting To Shoplift From Walmart, Be Careful To Not Stab Yourself
By 9.16.15
As always, we do not in any way condone shoplifting. Not just because it drives up retail prices for the rest of us, or causes stores to resort to overzealous security measures, or because it wastes the time and resources of police who probably have more important crimes to investigate. It can also land you in the hospital with a self-inflicted shoplifting-related wound. [More]
Pennsylvania Man Charged With Racketeering Related To Massive Payday Loan Scheme
By 6.24.15
A life of stealing started with the snatching of a candy bar and transformed into an illegal multi-million dollar online payday lending scheme that allegedly defrauded thousands of people. At least that’s what federal prosecutors say led to charges against a Pennsylvania man recently. [More]
Forcing McDonald’s Workers To Accept Wages On Debit Cards Not Okay In PA, Says Judge
By 6.2.15
Two years ago, a Pennsylvania woman sued her former employers at McDonald’s because they forced her and other workers to accept their wages on fee-laden prepaid debit cards. Though the fast food franchisee, who runs 16 McDonald’s, later changed this policy, the lawsuit continued to move forward, and last week a judge ruled against the franchisee’s claims that the debit card requirement was completely legal. [More]
