jikTaco Bell Shoving Aside Waffle Taco In Favor Of New Biscuit Tacode

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Make no mistake — when it comes to the fight to get into your belly, it is a veritable breakfast battleground out there right now among fast food chains. The latest to fall in battle is reportedly Taco Bell’s waffle taco, which was once the flag bearer of the chain’s breakfast efforts. The company is pushing the waffle taco off its morning throne and replacing it with a biscuit taco that it tested in the fall of 2014.

Because putting the word “taco” after a string of other ingredients apparently makes something a taco, Taco Bell is reportedly shucking aside its first try at the morning meal, according to the Associated Press, which says it’s “ditching” the waffle taco (we’ve reached out to Taco Bell to confirm whether the waffle taco is going bye-bye or simply making room for a new friend on the menu, as the press release doesn’t contain that information).

The new biscuit tacos are arriving at participating locations on Thursday, featuring various meant options on a biscuit: sausage, egg and cheese; bacon, egg and cheese; crispy chicken with country gravy and crispy chicken with a new jalapeno honey sauce.

This isn’t your average coup, either — it’s a “defection” from a certain fast food breakfast competitor that isn’t mentioned by name, but one might guess rhymes with “ShhMcMoonald’s.”

Taco Bell says the move is aimed at “encouraging people to escape the same round breakfast sandwich by defecting to the next generation of breakfast at Taco Bell.”

As such, the chain is also launching an anti-Egg McMuffin campaign calling the breakfast items out as boring and meant for uncool conformists. The posters for a place called “Routine Public” have things like a demonic clown holding a McMuffin-like item with the words, “Routine Rules.” Scary much?

In the same vein as its campaign using real Ronald McDonalds professing their love for Taco Bell (which was also timed to the launch of the new breakfast menu), new TV ads will have “defectors” saying things like, “I admit I used to be a McDonald’s fan.”

Could it be that the waffle taco simply wasn’t up to snuff, despite all the ballyhoo at its launch last year? Perhaps. According to the AP, shortly after it debuted, Taco Bell Chief Marketing Officer Chris Brandt noted that “some of the things on our menu might run out of gas.”

Why not just call it the bisco? That’s a lot easier to say than biscuit taco, if you ask me.

Taco Bell’s waffle taco is dead; biscuit taco to replace [Associated Press]

by Mary Beth Quirk via Consumerist

jikRadioShack Bankruptcy Auction Continues: Unsecured Creditors May Not Get Muchde

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(Nicholas Eckhart)

Today is day 2 of the RadioShack bankruptcy auction. While selling the assets of a company that was once worth billions of dollars that still has thousands of stores isn’t a simple endeavor, the proceedings are going even slower than anticipated because other creditors object to the current high bid from Standard General.

Why would anyone have a problem with a bid that’s $20 million higher than other offers for the RadioShack brand and its leases, when the company owes them money? Standard General is a hedge fund that lent Radio Shack tens of millions of dollars in its time of need, and is now using that debt as currency in its auction bid. That’s not illegal, but junior creditors find it rather sketchy.

Just like people, companies have secured and unsecured creditors. A secured debt would be a home mortgage or a car loan: there is something for your creditors to take away if you stop making payments. An unsecured line of credit is more like a credit card. Unsecured debts have higher interest rates to compensate for the risk that these creditors will be sent to the end of the line if a company files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy and sells its parts to the highest bidders to pay off creditors.

Standard General’s bid is the highest, but may not reflect the actual market for the smoldering remains of RadioShack because they plan to pay with money that RadioShack already owes them rather than cash. The next highest bidders are liquidators, who would do exactly what it sounds like: sell store inventory and fixtures for whatever money they can get.

RadioShack Auction Held Up on Standard General’s Loan Terms [Wall Street Journal]

by Laura Northrup via Consumerist

jikAmerican Airlines Will Start Folding US Airways Frequent-Flier Accounts Into AAdvantage Programde

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(benh57)

If you’ve got US Airways frequent-flier points amassed in your account, be prepared for them to magically change into American Airlines AAdvantage points this weekend. American says it’ll start transferring the points between accounts as it continues to integrate the two carriers.

The airlines merged in December 2013 and have been working on becoming one ever since then. But the airline says travelers won’t have to take anything into their own hands during the switch.

“American is trying to make it so customers don’t need to do anything,” Suzanne Rubin, the American Airlines executive in charge of the loyalty program told the Chicago Tribune.

The move begins Thursday when American will freeze US Airways Dividend Miles accounts and placing them in read-only mode. Then Saturday, the airline will begin the transfer of mileage balances and other information into new AAdvantage accounts for each traveler.

The process will involve moving some 200 billion frequent-flier miles in 150 million transactions, and may not be fully completed until the first few days of April.

Some fliers may have already connected their two accounts, if they have them — and about half of frequent fliers have already done that, according to American. Those who haven’t linked their accounts already will end up with a new AAdvantage account and can later merge the two.

What if you’ve already booked upcoming travel using Dividend Miles? The reservation will be updated with a new AAdvantage number and American says it will make sure those miles are pushed into the correct elite benefits category.

US Airways frequent-flier accounts to be folded into American Airlines [Chicago Tribune]

by Mary Beth Quirk via Consumerist

jikNo Surprise Here. Telecom Industry Sues To Block Net Neutrality Rulesde

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(Consumerist)

A little more than a week after the FCC released the full text of its recently passed Open Internet (aka net neutrality) rule, the telecom industry has done exactly what you’d expect, by filing lawsuits to block the Commission from enforcing the order.

Unlike the Verizon-led lawsuit that ultimately gutted the 2010 neutrality rule, neither of the two lawsuits filed today in federal courts in Washington, D.C., and New Orleans, have household brand names as plaintiffs — unless you’re a big follower of telecom trade groups or happen to live in the area of Texas immediately southeast of San Antonio.

The first lawsuit [PDF] — technically a petition for review — was filed by the United States Telecom Association (USTelecom), a D.C.-based trade organization which includes executives from AT&T, Verizon, CenturyLink, and Frontier on its board of directors.

It labels the order “arbitrary, capricious, and an abuse of discretion within the meaning of the Administrative Procedure Act,” the federal law guiding the creation of new regulations.

The petition itself does not provide specific details on exactly how the neutrality rules allegedly violate “the Constitution, the Communications Act of 1934, as amended, and FCC regulations promulgated thereunder,” but explains the petition was filed now in order to get in under the wire before the 10-day appeal window closed (more on that below).

USTelecom is asking the court to review the order, determine it unlawful, enjoin the FCC from enforcing it, and set it aside.

“We do not believe the Federal Communications Commission’s move to utility-style regulation invoking Title II authority is legally sustainable,” said USTelecom President Walter McCormick said in a statement that provides no actual information. “Therefore, we are filing a petition to protect our procedural rights in challenging the recently adopted open Internet order.”

The second petition [PDF] was filed by Texas-based Alamo Broadband Inc., a company that most U.S. consumers have likely never heard of.

Like the USTelecom suit, it declares that the neutrality rules are arbitrary and capricious. Unlike that first petition, the Alamo filing puts a more individual face on the impact of the neutrality order, explaining that the FCC overstepped its authority and that Alamo is “aggrieved by the order.”

So why did these two parties file suits and not AT&T, Verizon, or even the more prominent industry trade groups like the National Cable & Telecommunications Association and CTIA-The Wireless Association?

It’s likely a matter of timing. The clock doesn’t generally start ticking on that 10-day appeal window until after an order is made final. These petitions contend that the “declaratory ruling” sections of the rule were finalized on March 12 when the FCC published the full text of the order on its site.

However, others argue that the rule isn’t actually made final until after it’s published in the Federal Register. The neutrality rule has yet to be published so, if you accept this latter point of view, the 10-day clock has not started.

“We believe that the petitions for review filed today are premature and subject to dismissal,” reads a statement from an FCC rep.

If the FCC does successfully have these petitions dismissed because of timing issues, then the bigger trade organizations will still have time to file their inevitable lawsuits.

Of course, if Verizon hadn’t sued to block the 2010 neutrality rules, the FCC wouldn’t have needed to reclassify broadband to increase its regulatory authority in the first place.

by Chris Morran via Consumerist

jikRadioShack Buyer Plans To Donate Art And Company Archivesde

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(Phillip Pessar)

You probably don’t normally associate the phrases “valuable art collection” and “RadioShack,” but the headquarters building that opened just ten years ago has some lovely artwork, valued at $500,000 but possibly worth more at auction. Standard General, the presumed winner of the auction for the RadioShack brand and many of its stores, plans to donate these artworks and the corporate archives to local corporate institutions.

For the benefit of future readers who may not remember RadioShack, it was a retailer that pushed extended warranty plans and sometimes sold mobile phones and electronics. The company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy last month after years of slow, terrible decline.

As historically important as the prototype of the TRS-80 might be, it will be interesting to see where these artifacts end up. The Fort Worth Star-Telegram found this information buried deep in the rules of the auction, but Standard General didn’t take the idea as far as identifying where each piece of its history would go. Corporate archives and papers are a valuable resource to researchers, and could end up in the hands of a local library, university, or museum. Check out the painting on display in the photo accompanying the Star-Telegram’s article, though: how many of the pieces depict RadioShack stores and products? Would that make them more or less valuable once the company ceases to exist?

Hedge fund pledges to donate RadioShack art to local institutions [Fort Worth Star-Telegram]

by Laura Northrup via Consumerist

jikGM Ignition Recall Death Toll Rises To 74de

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(paul bica)

Not even a year ago, General Motors was hesitant to confirm that 13 deaths had been tied to a long-ignored ignition switch defect in the Chevy Cobalt, Saturn Ion and other vehicles. Now the carmaker is acknowledging that many times that number of people were killed as a result of their negligence, with the latest death toll rising to 74.

That’s up from 67 approved death claims only a week ago, reports the Detroit News.

Additionally, the GM ignition switch compensation fund approved 13 new injury claims, bringing that total up to 126.

If a victim or victim’s family receives an offer from the compensation fund, they are not obligated to accept it. However, accepting the offer bars them from further legal action against GM.

The amounts appear to be satisfactory to most claimants. According to the fund, around 80% of the extended offers have already been accepted, with only around 4% of offers being rejected. About 2/3 of approved-and-accepted claims have already been paid out.

There are still more than 1,300 claims under review, though only 95 of them involve fatalities.

Between the flood of last-minute filings on the Jan. 31 deadline and claims that require further documentation to complete the review, the compensation fund expects that it will be near summer before its job is done.

GM has not put a maximum on what it will pay to victims of the ignition defect, though the company’s top-end estimate for total payouts is around $600 million.

by Chris Morran via Consumerist

jikMLB’s Official Bat And Official Glove Now From Same Company With Sale Of Louisville Sluggerde

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(Freaktography)

Things are getting a bit more close-knit in the baseball equipment world, as the makers of Louisville Slugger bats have sold the business to Wilson Sporting Goods. That means that both Major League Baseball’s official bat as well as its official glove will be made by the same company.

Louisville Slugger’s parent company Hillerich & Bradsby sold the 131-year-old batmakers to Amer Sports, which owns Wilson, reports Bloomberg Business. Wilson makes the MLB’s official glove, while Rawlings is the producer of the league’s baseballs.

Though it’s unknown how much the deal is worth, a person familiar with the matter told Bloomberg that it was likely going to happen for under $100 million.

Hillerich & Bradsby will continue to manufacture the wood bats for Wilson, with an exclusive deal to produce them at its Louisville factory.

“Louisville Slugger will enrich our company significantly, enhance our baseball and softball product offering at all levels of the game, and ensure we are delivering only the best performance products to athletes of every age,” Mike Dowse, president of Wilson, said in a statement.

According to Hillerich & Bradsby, 60% of MLB players use the Louisville Slugger, with more than 100 million bats sold.

In 2009, a Montana jury found that Hillerich & Bradsby should put warning labels on its aluminum bats after an 18-year-old player was killed by a line drive in a 2003 game.

Louisville Slugger Is Sold to Amer Sports Oyj’s Wilson Brand [Bloomberg Business]

by Mary Beth Quirk via Consumerist