uSamsung Debuts Fridge With A Larger Screen Than Most Laptops, Washing Machine With Forgotten Sock Doorr

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• Remember the refrigerators of your youth? Far from sleek, shiny, or Internet-connected, they were at least magnetic, which meant they doubled as the home’s bulletin board for reminders, calendars, and shopping lists. Now that everything is stainless steel, Samsung thinks it has a substitution for those old fridge magnets, by way of a 21.5″ touchscreen on the front of its newest refrigerators.

  With a touchscreen that’s larger than most of your average laptops, Samsung’s Family Hub fridge isn’t just a place’s not just a spot for calendars, to-do lists and notes you might’ve slapped on the fridge with the magnets Great Aunt Sally always brings you from her cruises, but includes three built-in cameras that take photos from inside the fridge every time it’s closed. A companion app will also alert users when they’re running low on things like eggs, milk, or whathaveyou.

  

  Which, for people who might forget to check what they’re out of before going to the store, or maybe just want to think about what they’re going to eat before they actually make the move to go get it, could be a handy thing.

  Or, if you’re the type that doesn’t actually want to go anywhere to buy groceries, Samsung has partnered with MasterCard for a new “grocery shopping experience” that lets you order food online from either Fresh Direct or Rite Aid, for now, with plans to expand with MyWeb Grocer in the future.

  All items end up in one common cart no matter which grocer you use, so shoppers can check out all at once. The fridge accepts all U.S. credit and debit cards, though of course, noted Betty DeVita, chief commercial officer of MasterCard Labs during today’s presentation at the Consumer Electronics Show, MasterCard would love it if you use one of their cards.

  On top of those food bells and whistles, there’s also a built-in speaker for playing music that includes Bluetooth so you can play it on other connected speakers in your home, and a TV mirroring capability so you can see what everyone in the living room is watching on the Samsung Smart TV while you’re cooking.

  Elsewhere in the world of smart appliances, Samsung introduced a new feature for its front-loading washing machines called AddWash, which, aptly enough, allows users to add something to the washing machine that they’ve forgot by pressing a button. I’m calling it a sock door, because that’s what it is — you left a sock out of the load, and cannot bear to complete the rest of the load knowing that its mate will be clean while it, alas, is not.

  And lest you’re worried your child might decide they also need to get into the wash after it’s started going, the feature comes with a child lock.

  
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by Mary Beth Quirk via Consumerist

uNew Dish DVR Lets You Record Up To 16 Shows At Once, Watch 4 Channels Simultaneously In HDr

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• Do you feel the need to watch everything on TV all at once? Then Dish might be the TV provider for you. The satellite company is coming out with a new DVR that features 16 different tuners for people who just can’t get enough TV.

  According to Dish, the Hopper 3 — the latest DVR in Dish’s Sling-powered Hopper series — is seven times more powerful than its current DVR, resulting in a faster and improved interface.

  It can also be connected to up to six different “Joey” receivers around your house, meaning a total of seven TV sets can be pulling from the same DVR at the same time.

  That’s one of the reasons that the Hopper 3 has the 16 tuners. If each of those TVs has an owner who wants to record something, it never hurts to have a ridiculous number of tuners.

  The other big reason for the 16 tuners is a feature that Dish informally dubs “sports bar mode,” which allows users to view up to four programs simultaneously on the same screen.

  Where this multi-channel viewing option is a big deal is on 4K ultra-HD sets. The Hopper 3 supports 4K video, which is four times the resolution of current HD TVs. So when you split your 4K screen into four smaller screens, each one will still be showing in full HD.

  

  Speaking of 4K video, Dish is upgrading the Netflix app on the Hopper 3 so that it can access the streaming service’s 4K content. Some of those videos will be broadcast via satellite; some will stream over the Internet.

  As an adjunct to the Hopper 3, Dish will also be releasing a small device called the Hopper Go. It’s a portable device that lets you carry around up to 100 hours of recorded content for playing anywhere, even in places where there is no Internet connection.

  The Go creates its own WiFi cloud that can be accessed by up to five devices simultaneously. So if your whole family is taking a long train ride, you can each wirelessly stream recorded content to your phones and computers without using anyone else’s WiFi or a cellular connection.

  The Hopper 3 is coming out this month. Dish says that eligible new and current customer won’t have to pay an upgrade but it will cost you $15/month.

  The Go is coming later in the spring, says Dish. It will sell for a one-time charge of $99.

  

  
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by Chris Morran via Consumerist

uAdvances In Candy Technology Mean More Edible Conversation Heartsr

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• Never underestimate human ingenuity. It was just a few short years ago that if you wanted to eat conversation hearts, your only choice was to crunch or suck on some chalky, hard candies. Today, there are even more alternatives available for people who enjoy word-laden sweets, and the latest is conversation kisses from Hershey.

  

  Really, the maker of a candy called “kisses” should have thought of this decades ago, but people who like to communicate using candy have it now, and that’s what’s important.

  Last year, Brach’s introduced conversation jelly beans and gummy hearts, which was an amazing way to diversify Valentine’s Day candy offerings while also extending the jelly bean season. (That’s not to imply that that jelly beans aren’t on stores shelves in January to begin with, but these are seasonal.)

  Last year, red velvet was the Unofficial Flavor of Valentine’s Day. This year, it’s strawberry shortcake. So far, the flavor has showed up in M&Ms, Dove Promises, and Oreos will probably be next. If not, someone over at Nabisco is probably running to the flavor lab right now to plan for 2017.

  I’ve always associated strawberry shortcake with early summer, when strawberries are in season where I live, but what do I know?

  
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by Laura Northrup via Consumerist

uTwo Payday Lenders Agree To Pay $4.4M In Fines, Release Borrowers From $68M In Loans, Feesr

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  Federal regulators continued an ongoing crackdown on deceptive payday loan players by reaching a multimillion-dollar agreement with two lenders to settle accusations they illegally charged consumers with undisclosed and inflated fees. 

  The Federal Trade Commission today announced that Red Cedar Services Inc. and SFS Inc. — operating as 500 Fast Cash and One Click Cash — would each pay $2.2 million and waive a total $68 million in customer fees to settle a years-long investigation into the operation.

  The settlement with Red Cedar and SFS stems from the FTC’s April 2012 complaint against a multi-company payday loan scheme.

  According to that complaint, SFS, Red Cedar and other lenders — including AMG Services and MNE Services –engaged in a plethora of deceptive tactics in order to entice borrowers to take out payday loans.

  Among the deceptive practices employed, the companies misrepresented how much loans would cost customers.

  For example, a contract used by Red Cedar, AMG Services and MNE Services (both of which previously settled FTC charges) stated that a $300 loans would cost $390 to repay. However, in reality, the companies charged consumers $975.

  Red Cedar and SFS also allegedly failed to accurately disclose annual percentage rates and other loan terms, and made preauthorized debits from consumers’ bank accounts a condition of the loans.

  Under the final court orders, Red Cedar [PDF] and SFS [PDF] are prohibited from misrepresenting the terms of any loan product, including the payment schedule and interest rate, the total amount the consumer will owe, annual percentage rates or finance charges, and any other material facts.

  Tuesday’s settlement makes the FTC’s case against Red Cedar, SFS, AMG Services, MNE Services, and other entities the agency’s largest recovered related to deceptive payday lending.

  In all, the FTC has collected $25.5 million in fines and required the operators to waive $353 million in debt.

  
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by Ashlee Kieler via Consumerist

uMonopoly Games Omit Star Wars’ Lead Female, Relocate Des Moines To Ohio Inr

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• 
  It’s not a good week for Hasbro’s long-running (and apparently inexhaustible) Monopoly franchise. First, the company has to explain why its new Star Wars-themed game leaves out the new film’s female lead character, and now comes news that Hasbro has decided that Iowa’s capital city is actually located hundreds of miles away in Ohio.

  The Monopoly Star Wars game includes four characters from fictional galaxy far, far away: Two good guys and two bad guys. And we do mean “guys” — all four of the characters are dudes. No Leia from the original trilogy, no Padmé from the prequels, and no Rey from the new series.

  In response to fan’s concerns about Hasbro and Disney pushing only the male stars of the series, the company told EW.com yesterday that Rey was left out to avoid [spoiler alert for the one person who hasn’t seen the movie but felt compelled to read this story anyway] “revealing a key plot line that she takes on Kylo Ren and joins the Rebel Alliance.”

  Um. I don’t think anyone watching even the very first trailers were of the mind that Rey was not going to be a Rebel. But given how mad some people were about the fact that early photos of Rey’s action figure showed her [spoiler alert #2… seriously, just go see the movie or stop reading stories about it] brandishing a lightsaber, maybe there’s something to keeping this rather obvious plot point a secret.

  While we don’t fully understand Hasbro’s decision to omit a buttkicking female character from its Monopoly game, we do understand that Des Moines is a city in Iowa… not Ohio.

  KCCI-TV in, where else, Des Moines reports that the Monopoly: Here & Now game describes the Iowa capital as full of “Fairs and farmers’ markets, miles of trails,” and even mentions the city’s world-famous cow sculpture made from butter.

  All of that seems reasonable enough, except for the part about Des Moines being located in a time zone (and around 600 miles) away in Ohio.

  “I’m used to people pronouncing Des Moines incorrectly, but it’s not often you hear them placing the city in the wrong state,” an anonymous Iowan who may or may not also be a Consumerist staffer explains. “Does the Ohio state fair even have deep fried butter on the menu?”

  
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by Chris Morran via Consumerist

uAirline Temporarily Bans Checked Bags To Prevent Jets From Running Out Of Fuelr

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  Checked bags are often heavier and larger than carry-ons, which is one of the reasons why many airlines now charge travelers for the luxury of having their luggage stowed in the cargo hold. But one airline is telling some long-haul passengers to not check their bags because of safety concerns.

  In an alert on its website, Malaysia Airlines advised passengers flying from Kuala Lumpur to Paris and Amsterdam today and tomorrow that they should try to not fly with checked bags.

  The concern is that the extra weight, combined with unusually strong headwinds and longer flightpaths, could put the carrier’s planes at risk for running low on fuel before they reach their destinations.

  Bloomberg reports that even carry-on bags are being limited to one piece weighing no more than 15 pounds. Travelers who do check luggage will have to wait for it to eventually arrive at their destination via other means.

  Affected passengers are being the given the option of rebooking travel at a slightly later date. If they can neither reschedule nor fly without checked bags, the airline is offering to let them cancel their reservations and apply the value of that ticket toward the purchase of a new ticket at some point within one year of whenever that original ticket was first issued.

  In 2014, two Malaysia Airlines flights tragically never made it to their destinations. Flight MH370 disappeared over the South China Sea en route to Beijing in March 2014. Four months later, flight MH17 was shot down over Ukraine.

  In Sept. 2014, the carrier had to apologize for its misguided “bucket list” promotion that many thought was in bad taste, given these two incidents that killed hundreds and left no survivors.

  [via Bloomberg]

  
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by Chris Morran via Consumerist

uJPMorgan Chase Fined $48 Million For Failing To Comply With Robosigning Settlementr

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  Years after being hit with billions in penalties, and after being told by federal regulators to stop screwing up the foreclosure and mortgage adjustment process by providing borrowers and courts with inaccurate and unchecked information, some banks continue to pay for the fact that they didn’t quite learn their lesson.

  Back in 2010, regulators learned that the nation’s largest mortgage servicers — including JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, and Wells Fargo — were using so-called “robosigners” to expedite foreclosures on the growing number of houses with delinquent mortgages. These untrained employees had no understanding of the documents they were supposed to be reviewing, and merely rubber-stamped them regardless of their accuracy.

  As a result, both homeowners and courts received information that banks swore was true, but which didn’t always stand up to scrutiny.

  In 2011, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency brought enforcement actions against several of these servicers, including Chase [PDF], directing them to put an end to these practices and to bolster protections for borrowers.

  Two years later, the OCC reached a deal with these banks [PDF] that resulted in a settlement worth a total of $9.3 billion ($3.6 billion in cash payments, plus $5.7 billion in other assistance — loan modifications and forgiveness of deficiency judgments — to borrowers).

  Yet this wasn’t enough for Chase to hit the brakes on its bad behavior.

  In a consent order [PDF] released this morning, the OCC alleges that, between Dec. 2011 and Nov. 2013, Chase filed thousands of problematic documents with bankruptcy courts.

  These include:
  • 460 inaccurate Payment Change Notices (PCNs) that did not provide the borrower with the correct payment change amount or the correct date that the new payment change would go into effect;

  • 4,380 PCNs bearing the signature of bank employees who no longer worked for Chase at the time the PCNs were filed;

  • 2,285 PCNs signed by Chase employees who no longer worked in the bank’s bankruptcy department at the time they were filed.

  The OCC says that such practices are unsafe and unsound, and violate the earlier agreements made by Chase, which now must fork over $48 million, even though it neither admits nor denies the allegations made by the government.

  
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by Chris Morran via Consumerist

uTwitter May Finally Be Getting Rid Of 140-Character Limit On Tweetsr

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  Even if you’re not a Twitter user, you’re likely familiar with the restriction that limits the expression of every thought, comment, and desire to a mere 140 characters. But once again Twitter is mulling over the idea of making Tweets a lot longer — though your actual feed wouldn’t look much different.
  

  Re/code reports that Twitter’s “Beyond 140” program aims to up the character count from 140 to 10,000 at some point in the first quarter of 2016.

  While this gives the user a vast slate on which to Tweet, don’t expect to start seeing novella-length updates clogging your Twitter feed.

  Instead, it would only show the first 140 characters in the timeline with a button to reveal the rest of the content.

  Sources close to Twitter tell Re/code that the new product is currently being tested within the company, but features and a timeline for the launch aren’t set in stone.

  A 10,000-character limit isn’t a new idea for Twitter, the company previously expanded its direct message feature to include a 10,000-character limit.

  In September, rumors started swirling that Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey had decided to revisit the idea of increased character counts in order to boost the platform’s user base.

  Twitter Considering 10,000-Character Limit for Tweets [Re/code]

  
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by Ashlee Kieler via Consumerist

uMan Accused Of Meat Theft Shoves Steak Down Pants, Beer Cans Up Shirtr

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  The Internet puts stories from news outlets all over the world at our fingertips, which leads to one inevitable question: why do people steal meat by stuffing it down their pants so often? It’s a crime that has suddenly increased in some areas, and people commit crimes against meat out of either hunger or desperation for cash. The latest alleged meat thief was making a nice meal out of a package of steaks, two 24-ounce beers, and a package of cream cheese.

  This happened at a Food Lion store in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, at 9:30 on Sunday morning. According to the police, two men entered the store, and employees spotted one of them picking up the package of steaks and putting it down his pants. He wandered to the dairy department to grab the cream cheese, then picked up two beers, shoving all of these items up his shirt.

  The man with meat down his pants and refrigerated goods up his shirt joined his companion, who was actually buying some items, in the checkout line, and they headed for the door together. That’s when the cops showed up, ruining the steak party and preventing the theft.

  The 45-year-old alleged thief was arrested: it was his first recorded incident of shoplifting.

  
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by Laura Northrup via Consumerist

uMonster Unveils New Headphones, Declares Return Of Boombox, Teases Partnership With Bentleyr

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  After taking a break from his high-energy emceeing duties at CES 2015, Monster CEO Noel Lee (and his blinged-out Segway) returned to the CES International stage this morning to declare that “Monster is back in the game,” with the company re-entering the gaming world and announcing some sort of partnership with luxury carmaker Bentley.

  Lee opined from the podium that Monster wants to reinvent retail and is in the industry to be a platform for creativity, collaboration, and innovation.

  He highlighted a slew of new devices that were born from partnerships – new and old – with celebrities and other tech and sports companies that will debut in 2016.

  While Lee quickly announced that the most valuable collaboration in 2016 would be with Bentley, he wasn’t able to elaborate on just what the two companies have cooking until tomorrow.

  Instead, he provided updates on collaborations with Shaquille O’Neal, Super Bowl-winning quarterback Drew Brees, and soccer legend Cristiano Ronaldo.

  In furthering its partnership with Ronaldo, the company will introduce RoC by Monster wireless headphones and a new wireless BackFloat speaker — not to be confused with the speaker shilled by Shaq last year.

  An up close look at @Cristiano's ROC by Monster Backfloat, a floating wireless speaker! #MonsterCES @_bethanygordon http://pic.twitter.com/xf8DR5Rp3Q

  — Monster (@MonsterProducts) January 5, 2016

  It wasn’t just celebrities that Monster innovated with for its 2016 lineup. Lee also announced a new line of Monster and Adidas headphones, noting that consumers deserve better than the white earbuds that come with their phones.

  As for new product announcements, Lee energetically unveiled what he called “the return of the Boombox,” with the Monster Blaster. The $399 boombox has an integrated subwoofer, but Lee promises it “doesn’t use D cells.”

  The return of the Boombox!! Say hello to the #MonsterBlaster! #MonsterCES http://pic.twitter.com/AOalTSgUG6

  — Monster (@MonsterProducts) January 5, 2016

  Additionally, the company’s new foray into the gaming world will include two hands-free gaming headsets in partnership with Fatal1ty Gaming Gear.

  Also in the headphone arena, Lee announced “the world’s first smart headphone” MonsterElements, “inspired by Nature, Powered by Monster.” The Bluetooth, over-ear headphones come in rose gold, white, silver, black, and other finishes.

  Introducing #MonsterElements, inspired by Nature, Powered by Monster. The world's first smart headphone! http://pic.twitter.com/RA8TIvAPo7

  — Monster (@MonsterProducts) January 5, 2016

  Lee promised that Monster wasn’t done with its new product releases, that the company’s booth on the CES floor would feature more celebrity visits and unveilings.

  
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by Ashlee Kieler via Consumerist

uFord Plans To Triple Its Autonomous Vehicle Fleetr

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  Less than a month after Ford said it would take an autonomous, driverless vehicle prototype for a few spins on the West Coast, the carmaker revealed plans to accelerate its foray into cars of the future by tripling its fleet of self-driving cars.

  According to Ford’s announcement at CES International in Las Vegas, the company will increase its existing fleet of self-driving Fusion Hybrid cars to 30, up from existing number of 10. While that might be a molecule in a drop in the bucket, Ford claims it would be the largest fleet of autonomous vehicles operated by any carmaker.

  The car manufacturer plans to test the cars in California, Arizona, and Michigan this year.

  “I predict that 2016 will be a revolutionary year for the auto industry,” Ford chief executive Mark Fields said at the press event. “We are completely rethinking how we approach the business, with one foot in today and one foot in tomorrow.”

  
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by Ashlee Kieler via Consumerist

uFitbit Announces New “Smart Fitness Watch,” Still Not A Smart Watchr

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• Fitbit isn’t a watch company: they’re a fitness tracker company. They’re sticking to this concept, even as smartwatches that can track your steps, flights of stairs climbed, and heart rate as well as let you read your e-mail have hit the market, and some people are actually buying them. Today, Fitbit announced its newest product: an even more watch-like fitness tracker called the Blaze.

  Do not let its appearance fool you. This is not a smartwatch, even if the main tracker unit does look a bit like an Apple Watch with the corners lopped off. Yes, that is a color touchscreen, and the company plans to offer a variety of interchangeable bands, but they really don’t want to get into the watch business.

  “One of the problems with general-purpose smartwatches is that no one’s really figured out why a consumer would want to wear one of these devices,” Fitbit co-founder and CEO James Park said last year at CES, the annual festival of consumer gadgetry in Las Vegas. This year, the company launched the Blaze at the same exposition, but at least their watch with a color touchscreen does have a purpose: in addition to tracking steps, heart rate, flights or hills climbed, and sleep, the device also provides access to professionally-designed workouts on FitStar.

  While the swappable bands are good news to critics of the company’s Force tracker bands, which some customers reacted to badly, they aren’t cheap. A metal band and frame for the Blaze costs $130, which puts the price up near that of a standard Apple Watch. Yet we all may be better off focusing on fitness and not checking our e-mail sometimes. Maybe.

  
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by Laura Northrup via Consumerist

uVolkswagen Reportedly Having Trouble Finding “Defeat Device” Fixr

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  Just a day after the Department of Justice filed a potential multibillion-dollar civil lawsuit against Volkswagen for installing so-called “defeat devices” in vehicles to skirt federal emissions standards, a new report says that the German automaker has run into difficulties finding a fix for the nearly 500,000 affected “clean diesel” cars in the U.S. 

  Reuters, citing unnamed VW sources, reports that the car company is struggling to agree with U.S. authorities on a remedy to ensure that affected vehicles meet emission standards during testing and regular road use.

  According to the source, coming up with a proposed fix for the issue has been more difficult than expected because it involves creating new components, which would then require testing.

  Officials with VW, including chief executive Matthias Mueller, are expected to meet next week with the California Air Resources Board (CARB) and the Environmental Protection Agency — the agencies which revealed VW’s defeat devices in September.

  The VW source says that while the company has run into trouble creating a fix for the emissions cheating vehicles, it’s still hopeful to meet a mid-January deadline to have a plan in place.

  VW and officials for the EPA and CARB previously met in late November to discuss potential remedy plans for the vehicles.

  The carmaker submitted an initial proposal at the time, and the EPA said it would review that plan. However, it’s unclear if that same plan will be discussed in upcoming meetings, or if the agencies are seeking a new remedy.

  Volkswagen struggling to agree fix for U.S. test cheating cars: source [Reuters]

  
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by Ashlee Kieler via Consumerist

uLG Refrigerator Has Door That Becomes Transparent When You Knock On Itr

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• Most of LG’s Tuesday morning was given over to ooh-and-ah displays of its big, beautiful, super-thin (as skinny as 2.5mm), Ultra-HD OLED TVs, but we’ve all seen really large, expensive TV sets displaying vibrant images. The company’s more novel innovations were shown off during the tail-end of the event, when LG showed off its new line of premium appliances.

  For instance, there was the LG Signature washing machine that does away with the standard panel of buttons and dials and puts all the controls on the glass window.

  

  

  And not only does this machine retain the in-the-pedestal mini-washer that LG introduced at last year’s CES, this version is also a combination washer/dryer. According to LG, the machine’s drying function requires half the electricity of a traditional electric clothes dryer.

  Another cool idea with this washer: push-to-open. So if your arms are full of laundry — or maybe you’re talking on your phone and trying to load the washer at the same time — you can just push the door in and it will open; no having to put anything down to pull the handle.

  Speaking of easy-open, the new LG Signature fridge features two interesting innovations. The first is a floor-level sensor that allows people to use their feet to tell the refrigerator to open the door. LG claims that a nosy pet won’t trigger the sensor, but we’ll believe that when we see it.

  

  Then finally there’s the fridge door with a panel that turns transparent and lights up when you knock on it. Want to see if there’s milk, or if the butter is running low? Just knock and — assuming what you’re looking for is visible through that panel — you’ll know without having to open it.

  The fridge also comes with an interior clad in stainless steel, which doesn’t just look rad, but which LG claims will better moderate the inside temperature.

  
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by Chris Morran via Consumerist

uLumosity Ordered To Quit Claiming Their Games Make Users Smarter, Prevent Dementiar

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• Improving every day at a casual mobile or computer game might make you feel like you’ve accomplished something, but does it make you smarter? It’s possible, but if recent ads from Lumosity made you wonder how a company can legally claim that playing a simple game can help stave off Alzheimer’s disease or dementia, well, they can’t. The Federal Trade Commission must pay $2 million to customers and a $50 million judgement to the FTC, though the latter has been suspended because the company doesn’t have that kind of money.

  You’ve probably seen or heard ads for Lumosity, which promised to provide a workout for your brain in just a few minutes a day of playing fun games on your computer, phone, or tablet. They advertised on TV, radio, podcasts, and bought ads on Google that popped up when users looked for information about various brain diseases.

  In addition to refunds and the the potential $50 million penalty, here’s what Lumosity has to do to avoid further wrath from the FTC and possibly the Food and Drug Administration:

  1. Lumosity is no longer allowed to make claims that using their games improves cognitive ability to increase performance or helps stave off damage from phyiscal, age-related, or psychological illnesses that can affect thinking and memory, such as Alzheimer’s disease, Turner syndrome, or post-traumatic stress disorder.

  2. The company can only make claims based on scientific research when it’s performed by qualified professionals and is completely randomized, blinded, and independent from the company itself.

  3. Lumosity and its representatives can’t call their product or a similar one “clinically proven.”

  4. If Lumosity’s claims about improved thinking and memory are true, that would make their game a drug, and subject to approval and regulation by the Food and Drug Administration.

  5. User testimonials are great, but Lumosity solicited testimonials through a contest offering prizes like a lifetime subscription to the service, or a trip to San Francisco.

  If you subscribe to the service, you should receive a notice soon telling you how to end your auto-renewing subscription if you have one, and also letting you know about this settlement once it’s finalized.

  FEDERAL TRADE COMMISSION v. LUMOS LABS, INC [Proposed Final Judgement] (via Courthouse News)

  
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by Laura Northrup via Consumerist

uWhat You Need To Know Before You Take A Sleeping Pillr

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  When you’re having a hard time getting a good night’s sleep, you might reach for the pill bottle for a simple, chemical solution. And you’re not alone — according to a new survey from our colleagues at Consumer Reports, more than one-third of adults who complained of sleep problems at least once per week said they had used an over-the-counter or prescription sleep drug in the previous year.

  And why not? The Food and Drug Administration has approved these drugs to treat sleep problems, which means the agency has determined that their benefits outweigh the risks.

  “But those benefits aren’t as great as many people assume, and the drugs have important harms,” said Lisa Schwartz, M.D., a drug-safety expert at Dartmouth College’s Geisel School of Medicine, who has worked with Consumer Reports Best Buy Drugs on investigating sleeping-pill effectiveness and safety.

  As part of a deep dive into the problems we have sleeping, the Consumer Reports survey found that around half the folks who take sleep aids use the drugs in potentially harmful ways — by taking them more often than they should or for longer than recommended, or mixing them with other drugs or supplements.

  In general, sleeping pills should be reserved for short-term insomnia—such as that caused by jet lag, anxiety after the death of a family member, or job loss—says Watson at the AASM. For those limited situations, CR experts recommend following these precautions, which apply to prescription and over-the-counter sleep drugs:

  • Tell your doctor about all of the medications you take, including supplements. Many common drugs, such as certain antibiotics and antidepressants, can interact dangerously with sleep drugs.
  • Take the drugs only if you have time for at least 7 or 8 hours of sleep. Even if you’ve had that much sleep, don’t drive if you feel drowsy.
  • Do not take an extra dose if you wake up in the middle of the night.
  • Never mix sleeping pills with alcohol, recreational drugs, or other sleep drugs or supplements, including over-the-counter nighttime pain relievers and antihistamines, such as Benadryl Allergy, that contain the sedative diphenhydramine.
  • Start with the lowest recommended dose, especially until you know how the drug affects you.
  • Be cautious about frequent use. Taking sleep drugs regularly can breed dependence and raise the risk of adverse effects.

  You should also know what’s what before you take whatever happens to be in your medicine cabinet:

  Benzos: These drugs swam into the public awareness around the 1960s when diazepam (Valium) — part of a class of drugs known as benzodiazepines — was prescribed for restless housewives. Other benzodiazepines — estazolam, flurazepam (Dalmane), and temazepam (Restoril) are approved sleep aids, but they can still breed dependence and trigger side effects such as confusion and grogginess.

  “Z” Drugs: Doctors hoped these meds — eszopiclone (Lunesta), zaleplon (Sonata), and zolpidem (Ambien) — wouldn’t cause troublesome next-day drowsiness. But the FDA says they are prone to that, too, and linked to rare, though frightening, behaviors such as sleep driving and sleep eating.

  Belsomra: This is the first in a new class of sleep drugs to target orexin, a brain chemical linked to wakefulness and appetite. But it doesn’t seem to work better than older drugs, and it can trigger worrisome side effects, such as “sleep paralysis,” in which you are awake but unable to move.

  Trazodone: This medication is commonly prescribed for sleep — even though it’s approved by the FDA only for depression. Consumer Reports’ experts say not to take the drug for sleep unless you also suffer from depression.

  Over-the-counter: Sleep drugs you can buy without a prescription aren’t much safer than Rx drugs. In fact it’s easy to high doses of them because their active ingredients — the antihistamines diphenydramine and doxylamine — aren’t only in OTC sleep products such as Sominex and ZzzQuil. They’re also in nighttime pain relievers such as Advil PM and Tylenol PM, as well as allergy meds such as Benadryl.

  Why Americans Can’t Sleep [Consumer Reports]

  
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by consumerist.com via Consumerist

uMan Claims Burger King Sandwich Was Covered In Antsr

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• It wasn’t a dead mouse or a dishrag, but a Pittsburgh Burger King customer claims to have found something just as disgusting on his burger: ants.
  

  WPXI reports that the man purchased the burger for his girlfriend’s son at a local Burger King recently, and after handing the sandwich to the boy he discovered the unwanted tagalongs.

  “He opened it up and said, ‘Mom I don’t want this, there are bugs in it.’ I said, ‘No, there’s no bugs in there.’ Then I saw the ants crawling on the bottom bun and I took it right back,” the man says.

  The customers returned the sandwich to Burger King and the restaurant refunded their money and offered to make a new order. The man says he refused.

  A manager for the local Burger King denies that the insects came from the store, noting that the franchise pays for monthly inspections, which have come back clean.

  Still, the local health department is investigating the incident. An official for the department tells WPXI that the investigation could take five days and then they will decide if an inspection is warranted.

  A rep for the Burger King’s corporate office says that food quality is a top priority for all of its fast food restaurants.

  “We have spoken with the franchisee that owns and operates this restaurant, and he has assured us that they practice all local health department and brand food quality procedures and prescribe monthly preventative care with a reputable national provider,” the rep tells WPXI. “Most recent documentation shows a pest-free restaurant as of 12.29.15. The guest immediately had his money refunded and the franchisee is currently having the restaurant re-inspected.”

  South Side Burger King customer claims burger was crawling with ants [WPXI]

  
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by Ashlee Kieler via Consumerist

uNew York Program Will Pay For Two Years Of Recent Graduates’ Student Loansr

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• 

  For many recent graduates, repaying their education debt obligations can be a struggle. For some in New York, that struggle just got a little less cumbersome thanks to a recently launched student loan forgiveness program that aims to help the debtors land on their feet after graduation.

  CNN Money reports that the state’s Get On Your Feet program, first proposed last year, will pay up to two years of student loan bills for eligible residents who have encountered trouble paying down their debt.

  Recent grads are eligible for the program if they earn less than $50,000 a year, graduate from a college or university located in New York after Dec. 2014, and currently live in the state.

  Additionally, grads must already be enrolled in the federal government’s income-based Pay As Your Earn (PAYE) program. That program allows borrowers to pay 10% a year of their discretionary income in monthly installments.

  Once enrolled in Get On Your Feet, the state will pay the difference between what the federal government covers under PAYE and the remaining loan payment.

  The state program will only cover the cost of residents’ monthly bill on federal loans. Private loans are not eligible under Get On Your Feet.

  “Ensuring students are able pay for college and not saddled with debt is critical for both their individual success and the continued economic growth of New York State,” New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said.

  The governor’s office estimates that 7,100 recent graduates will take advantage of the program, which went live Dec. 31.

  By 2020, the office expects 24,000 New York graduates to enroll in the program, resulting in an estimated total debt forgiveness tab of $41.7 million.

  CNN points out that New York’s program is the first to offer student loan forgiveness based on income, but that at least 35 other states have similar programs that take into consideration a debtor’s work or where they live.

  In the past, some cities have used debt forgiveness as a tool to keep young adults in their areas. In 2014, Niagara Falls offered to repay a of recent graduates’ student loans in exchange for living in the city for two years.

  New York will pay your student loan bills for two years [CNN Money]

  
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by Ashlee Kieler via Consumerist

uEFF Test Shows That T-Mobile “Optimization” Of YouTube, Other Video Really Is Just Connection Throttlingr

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• 
  We’ve had a bit of a high-tech tiff going on for the past few weeks between YouTube and T-Mobile. First, YouTube accused T-Mobile of unfairly degrading their video. T-Mobile replied nuh-uh, everything is simply optimized for mobile and the world is great. So who’s right?

  Well, that’s what the EFF set out to test.

  The tech rights advocacy group decided to find out exactly what T-Mobile’s system does to a video, and whether it’s fair to call it throttling or not. They took a scientific approach, using a T-Mobile phone with Binge On enabled, in the same place, on the same network, and at the same time of day. They tested video streaming against three other kinds of downloads and measured the connection speeds for each.

  What the EFF found is that T-Mobile’s “mobile optimization” of video does indeed apply universally, and not to consumers’ benefit:
  

  The first result of our test confirms that when Binge On is enabled, T-Mobile throttles all HTML5 video streams to around 1.5Mps, even when the phone is capable of downloading at higher speeds, and regardless of whether or not the video provider enrolled in Binge On.

  Netflix is a Binge On partner, so someone who uses the Netflix app on their phone with Binge On enabled could expect to see the lower-data stream. However, YouTube is not a Binge On partner — and yet video viewed through the website, not even the app, was also being affected.

  The drop in quality, meanwhile, is neither small nor unlikely to be noticed. For comparison, that 1.5 Mbps stream speed is about a tenth of what most modern smartphones are usually going to reach on most networks — average download speeds of 10-15 Mbps or higher are common nationwide.

  But it gets worse. The EFF continues:
  

  This is the case whether the video is being streamed or being downloaded — which means that T-Mobile is artificially reducing the download speeds of customers with Binge On enabled, even if they’re downloading the video to watch later. It also means that videos are being throttled even if they’re being watched or downloaded to another device via a tethered connection.

  That means it’s not just the Binge On partners, or streaming video, that are subject to the file “optimization” T-Mobile claims to offer. It applies to any video content you stream or download, from any site or service, as long as you have Binge On enabled.

  As the EFF concludes, that ends up having the exact opposite effect from the “optimization” that T-Mo promises. If the video in question is in high definition and the server sending it doesn’t have a way to adapt to the throttled T-Mobile device receiving it, the result is stuttering, uneven streaming — about as far from “optimized” as you can get.

  The EFF asked T-Mobile to verify their findings, and the company confirmed that “they don’t do any actual optimizations of video streams other than reducing the bandwidth allocated to them.”

  In the end, the EFF concludes, there’s basically no term for it other than “throttling.” It’s not “optimization,” because nothing actually gets better. It’s not “downgrading,” because there’s no change in the absence of other network traffic. It’s just a straight-up cap.

  But how does that fly with regards to net neutrality?

  The FCC’s Open Internet Rule, which went into effect in June, 2015, specifically states as one of its three bright-line rules that ISPs, “shall not impair or degrade lawful Internet traffic on the basis of Internet content, application, or service.” As far as the EFF is concerned, T-Mobile’s choice to degrade all video content is in flagrant violation of that rule.

  The FCC, however, gets to be the final arbiter of that. The commission is already slated to meet with T-Mobile sometime this month about their Binge One plan; it seems likely that this newest wrinkle is likely to come up. From there, the FCC’s next action is anyone’s guess.

  EFF Confirms: T-Mobile’s Binge On Optimization is Just Throttling, Applies Indiscriminately to All Video [Electronic Frontier Foundation]

  
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by Kate Cox via Consumerist

uSpirit Airlines Replaces Loudmouth CEO Ben Baldanzar

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• 
  For the last decade, Ben Baldanza has been the outspoken, often crass leader of Spirit Airlines, the bottom-dollar carrier that was easily the most complained-about airline in the U.S., but which Big Ben declared was the country’s “most consumer-friendly” carrier. It looks like Spirit has fallen out of love with Baldanza, who has stepped down from his gig as CEO.

  The airline announced this morning that, effective immediately, it was installing board member Robert L. Fornaro as President and CEO. If Fornaro’s name sounds familiar, it’s because he was the CEO of AirTran when that discount carrier was purchased by Southwest.

  Baldanza, known more for bizarre marketing moves like releasing survey results showing that people hate his airline, was rather subdued in his explanation for his exit.

  “Following the tremendous growth and success of Spirit over the last 10 years, the Board and I have concluded that this is the right time to implement an orderly succession plan,” explained Benny B. “Bob is the right choice to lead the Company through its next phase of growth.”

  While Baldanza may be talking up all the longterm success of Spirit during his tenure, the Florida-based airline’s stock is now only about half of what it was when it peaked in Dec. 2014. This is due in no small part to larger airlines cutting their prices to compete during the last year.

  Lest you think that this change in leadership could signal a shift in direction for Spirit, Fornaro says the airline’s focus will remain on “delivering a customer-friendly product and providing the lowest total price to the places we fly.”

  
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by Chris Morran via Consumerist

uBlack Angus Burgers Sold At Walmart May Contain Pieces Of Woodr

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• 
  Do you have any boxes of Walmart house brand Black Angus beef burgers with Vidalia onions lurking in your freezer? If so, time to check labels: almost 90,000 pounds of that specific burger type (about 44,784 boxes) has been recalled because there may be “extraneous wood materials” in the meat.

  While the U.S. Department of Agriculture recall notice simply says that the burgers were distributed “to retail stores nationwide,” Sam’s Choice is a Walmart exclusive brand, which of course refers to late Walmart founder and mega-mart patriarch Sam Walton.

  No consumers have reported finding pieces of wood in their burgers to the USDA yet. The company that packaged the patties, Huisken Meat Company in Minnesota, found the wooden contaminant during production, and has recalled all burgers made between November 19 and December 5.

  What should consumers look for when checking their freezers? Here’s what the box will look like (yes, we edited the version that you see at the top of this page):

  

  Recalled boxes will have use-by dates of 5/17/2016, 5/29/2016, and 6/6/2016. For reference, the USDA inspection site number is 394A.

  Customers should bring the products back to the store for a refund or throw them away. If you have any questions about products in your home or about the recall in general, call the Huisken Meat Company’s customer service manager at (618) 857-4011.

  Huisken Meat Company Recalls Beef Products Due To Possible Foreign Matter Contamination [USDA]

  
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by Laura Northrup via Consumerist

uBurger King Introduces 5-Item Value Meal For $4r

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• 
  In an effort to attract new customers and bring old ones back, fast-food restaurants are bringing back value menus. Don’t call them dollar menus, though, even when the items do cost a dollar each. Or, in the case of a new value meal deal from Burger King, 80¢ each.

  Franchisees historically haven’t been fans of dollar menus. Burger King franchisees actually sued the company when the chain sold double cheeseburgers for $1. Now chains are bringing back the value meals, but finding different ways to package them, including charging $1 (or less) per item, but forcing customers to buy more items.

  The newcomer announced today is Burger King. In their 5 for $4 promotion, they include a bacon cheeseburger, small fries, chicken nuggets, beverage, and a chocolate chip cookie. The company hasn’t yet announced when the promotion will end.

  Wendy’s: The 4 for $4 meal deal consists of a Junior Bacon Cheeseburger, chicken nuggets, fries, and a drink.

  Pizza Hut: This should really be called a “2 for $10” menu, since you must order two items for the price to be $5. Items range from four Pepsi-brand beverages to one pizza.

  McDonald’s: The McDouble menu charges $1 each for its items, but you have to buy two. Choices include the McDouble, the McChicken, small fries, or mozzarella sticks.

  Burger King heats up the fast food cheap deal war with McDonald’s, Wendy’s [USA Today]

  
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by Laura Northrup via Consumerist