jikAllegedly Armed Intruder Chooses The Wrong Wrestling-Themed Restaurant To Mess Withde

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(via ABC News)

When presented with a list of businesses that you might not want to mess with, one that has a wrestling theme and is run by a former WWE star and her husband would probably be right at the top of that list. Nonetheless, police say an armed man got into a tussle at a Chicago wrestling-themed restaurant, and let’s just say he was not successful.

Surveillance video caught the action at The Circled Square restaurant, which is owned by the ex-WWE star who wrestled under the name Victoria, reports ABC News.

A server said a man was acting a bit weird in the restaurant, and she’d asked if he was okay. Instead of replying, he’d apparently walked into the women’s bathroom. The owner’s husband and co-owner of the place bumped into him as he was leaving the restroom, with the suspect then walking toward the kitchen.

“He said some guys with guns were chasing him, and I thought, ‘If guys with guns were really chasing you, then you shouldn’t be out front,’” the co-owner said. “I escorted him back to the kitchen and he was immediately combative with me.”

That’s when he allegedly tried to reach for a gun inside his pants, so the husband says he simply picked him up to have a civicl discussion with him about the decisions he was making.

“I said, ‘Hey, I’m going to put you back down, but if you’re going for a weapon, we’re going to have a problem,” he says.

On the video he then carries suspect into a corner of the kitchen and heard “metal on metal” when he pushed him against the sink, confirming his suspicions that the man was armed.

The chef called the police, and after holding the man down for a few minutes, his captor instructed the chef to take the hidden gun. A few moments later in the video, he’s seen wrestling the suspect onto the floor. Though the suspect was acting up, saying he didn’t want to go to prison, he wasn’t going anywhere, says the husband.

“There was an obvious size difference,” he added. “He wouldn’t be in my weight class. He’d be in my sister’s weight class.”

Police arrived and arrested the suspect, charging him with multiple felony and misdemeanor charges including aggravated assault, the use of a deadly weapon, possession of a controlled substance, battery and not having proper firearm owner identification, Chicago police told ABC News.

Husband of Ex-WWE Star ‘Victoria’ Takes Down Allegedly Armed Intruder in Their Restaurant [ABC News]

by Mary Beth Quirk via Consumerist

jikGoogle Expands “Safe Browsing” App To Warn Users About Sites Riddled With Unwanted Softwarede

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First of all, we’d like to offer a belated Happy Birthday to the World Wide Web, which turned 26 yesterday. You’re closer to 30 than 20 now, so your hangovers will only get worse. Second, to honor that milestone, Google announced updates to its Safe Browsing technology, including a warning when users are about to visit a site chockfull of unwanted software.

The newest developments in its free Safe Browsing system has Google feeding security information into a broader browsing application that now works in Safari and Firefox browsers as well as Google’s own Chrome, reports the Associated Press (Microsoft’s Internet Explorer uses its own system called SmartScreen Filter).

When there’s a risk that a user is about to enter a site distributing unwanted software — the kind that can change your browser’s settings and set loose a slew of pop-up ads or redirect users to sites they didn’t want to visit — a big red warning will pop up letting users know what they could be getting into. The company has started to identify ads that target users with unwanted software as well.

Google says in a blog post that it’s adding information about sites with such unwanted software to its Safe Browsing API, “allowing developers to better protect their users as well.”

Google’s safe browsing system targets ‘unwanted software’ [Associated Press]

by Mary Beth Quirk via Consumerist

jikConsumerist Friday Flickr Findsde

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Here are eight of the best photos that readers added to the Consumerist Flickr Pool in the last week, picked for usability in a Consumerist post or for just plain neatness.

(Jason Cook)

(Rick Drew)

(Bjarne Winkler)

(Trish P.)

(吉姆 Jim Hofman)

(Janet Ulliott)

(Josh)

(Jason Cook)

Want to see your pictures on our site? Our Flickr Pool is the place where Consumerist readers upload photos for possible use in future Consumerist posts. Just be a registered Flickr user, go here, and click “Join Group?” up on the top right. Choose your best photos, then click “send to group” on the individual images you want to add to the pool.

by Laura Northrup via Consumerist

jikStarbucks Will Offer Cold-Brew Coffee, In Limited Quantitiesde

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(Ko Fujimura)

Dedicated iced coffee drinkers and dedicated snobs will tell you that the flavor of cold-brewed coffee is superior to coffee that has been brewed the regular way and cooled down. You’ll soon be able to try Starbucks’ version of the drink in certain regions of the country, but only if you get there early enough.

Because Starbucks didn’t want to fill up its freezers with coffee ice cubes to be combined with hot milk, they’ve put together a special cold-brewing blend of beans that will chill for 20 hours before being served. This long prep time means that each store that serves cold-brewed coffee will only have one batch per day, enough to make about 40 “grande” cups of the beverage.

Cold-brewed coffee is known for being less bitter, but also with a stronger flavor and more caffeine. That makes sense, given the 20 hours of brewing. Some people prefer to dilute it with water. However, Starbucks told media outlets that their blend will only have a few milligrams more caffeine than their typical iced brewed coffee.

Starbucks Goes All In, Introduces Trendy Cold-Brew Coffee [Eater]

by Laura Northrup via Consumerist

jikPoll: Most People Will Use Tax Refunds To Pay Down Debt, Build Savingsde

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(frankieleon)

Are you expecting a tax refund this year? While making changes to how much tax you have withheld from your paychecks during the rest of the year can get you slightly larger checks all year long, most people keep things as they are and enjoy receiving a windfall at the beginning of the year. What do they do with that refund, though?

Rather than treating their tax refunds like a true windfall and doing something fun with it, most people polled by the finance site Bankrate.com say that they plan to use their tax refunds constructively, to pay down debt or put the money away in savings.

Still, financial planners think that we’re all not seeing the big picture. The average taxpayer gets a $3,000 refund. “That’s $250 a month you could have used throughout the year for saving or spending,” a New York-based financial planner explained to Bankrate. Instead, people are lending that money tax-free to the federal government. That isn’t especially useful for anyone.

Since we insist on receiving these refunds, what do we use them for? 34% of people say that they plan to put their refund toward debt. 30% say that they’re going to invest or save the money. 26% plan to use it for necessities, and 3% say that they plan to do something fun with it.

Are they telling the truth? Maybe that depends on how you define “necessity.”

Do you want a big tax refund or bigger paycheck? [BankRate]

by Laura Northrup via Consumerist

jikFTC Chair Edith Ramirez Talks Privacy, Data Securityde

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You may now be able to change your thermostat from another continent, your fridge might know when you need to buy more eggs, and your connected TV recommends shows and movies. But is your data being used for things other than keeping your house warm, your eggs in stock, and your kids entertained — and, just as importantly — is it secure?

These were the questions put to Federal Trade Commission Chair Edith Ramirez today at the Consumer Federation of America’s Consumer Assembly in D.C.

Speaking with Ed Mierzwinski of the U.S. Public Interest Research Group, Ramirez explained that data collection is an “incredibly important area” for the FTC.

“We want to make sure that as consumers increasingly use mobile devices, that the same consumer protections apply,” she explained. “These devices can provide a lot of benefit to consumers but the challenge is that they’re also collecting a lot of info about us.”

Even if you buy a device that only ostensibly collects data for a specific, known purpose, Ramirez said you’re opening the door to that data being used for “unexpected purposes.”

“The information could be sold to a third-party data broker who might sell that info to someone else,” she clarified. She gave the hypothetical example of a device that collects info about the user eats.

“Maybe it gets back to my insurance company that I’m not eating the healthiest of foods,” suggested Ramirez. “How does that impact my coverage?”

The Chair acknowledged that we’re still in the early days of web-connected devices and many of the companies making the most interesting products in this category are new and may not have the experience or understanding to deploy proper security for the data they collect.

Additionally, said Ramirez, because so many of these devices are small in size and low in price, there are concerns about the amount of security one can build in.

“You have to put privacy-based thinking at the forefront of your product,” she advised to manufacturers and developers. “You need to think about data minimization. Do you really need it? How long do you need to keep it?”

While the FTC doesn’t introduce legislation, Ramirez said there are three important factors that any effective data security bill would need to include.

First, companies must be required to be transparent about their data practices. How is it used, how is it going to be shared, will it be resold?

Second, because companies can obscure transparency efforts by disclosing too much information or using language that is too complicated or technical, the privacy polices would need to be clear and understandable.

“Most policies we see now are opaque and unintelligible,” said the Chair

Finally, consumers need to have control over their collected data, especially sensitive information like geolocation info and anything related to personal health.

“Consumers ought to be required to opt-in to sharing this information,” said Ramirez.

The Chair ended her brief talk with a few comments on the insidious problem of so-called “native advertising,” better known as sponsored content or advertorials — or as she described it, “content that is seemingly neutral but which is not at all independent.”

“The old principles continue to apply, regardless of the new media,” cautioned Ramirez. “If you’re advertising something you need to be clear that it’s advertising, that there’s some sponsor behind it… The information being conveyed needs to be truthful and clear and conspicuous.”

by Chris Morran via Consumerist

jikStudy: Raising Legal Age To Buy Cigarettes To 21 Would Result In Fewer Smokersde

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(MarteaDesignCo)

By this point everyone can agree that smoking is harmful to your health, and yet there are still new smokers starting up the habit year after year. A new study from the Institute of Medicine says that swell in numbers could be curbed by raising the legal age to buy cigarettes to 21.

Though the Food and Drug Administration doesn’t have the power to raise the minimum age nationwide above 18, 2009’s Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act directed FDA to convene a panel of experts to conduct a study on the public health implications of raising the minimum age to purchase tobacco products.

At FDA’s request, the Institute of Medicine convened a committee with that purpose in 2013, the group says in its new study [PDF] titled “Public Health Implications of Raising the Minimum Age of Legal Access to Tobacco Products.”

The IOM found that the age smokers start using tobacco is critical, saying that among adults who become daily smokers, about 90% of them report using cigarettes for the first time before turning 19. Almost all say they used cigarettes before 26.

The committee studied scientific literature on smoking to see how changing the age of minimum legal access — or MLA — to 19, 21 or 25 would impact smoking rates.

It found that at 19, smoking prevalence would drop by 3% by the year 2100; at 21 there would be a 12% decrease; and at 25 there would be a 16% person decrease.

The purpose of the report was not to make a recommendation, but the committee concluded overall that increasing the MLA for tobacco products “will likely prevent or delay initiation of tobacco use by adolescents and young adults,” noting that the age group most impacted will be those between 15 and 17.

Though the FDA can’t raise the MLA nationwide, states and cities can set a higher minimum age for their communities, the IO points out. Alabama, Alaska, New Jersey, and Utah have set the minimum age to 19, and New York City and several other localities have raised it to 21.

by Mary Beth Quirk via Consumerist