oJury Orders Chrysler To Pay $150M After Jeep Fire Kills Four-Year-Oldw

4 4 4 4

• 
  
  
  

  (Lisa Pisa)
  

  
  
  
  Two years after Chrysler reluctantly recalled millions of Jeeps that could catch fire after being rear-ended the company has been ordered to pay $150 million to the family of a four-year-old boy who was killed in one of hundreds of related accidents.
  

  The Associated Press reports that a jury in Georgia handed down the verdict after ruling that Chrysler acted with reckless disregard for human life by selling the family a 1999 Jeep with a gas tank mounted behind the rear axle.

  
  

  In this specific instance, the Jeep the boy was riding in was hit from behind by a pickup truck in March 2012. The accident caused a fuel leak which led to the jeep catching fire, killing the boy.

  
  

  The family’s attorney argued that the fire was a direct result of the gas tank’s poor position.

  
  

  According to the lawsuit, Chrysler placed the gas tank in a “crush zone” behind the rear axle and knew the location was dangerous.

  
  

  For nearly three years, Chrysler has maintained that the millions of Jeeps do not have a safety defect. However, safety documents show that the issue has resulted in nearly 75 deaths.

  
  

  During the summer of 2013, the car manufacturer and National Highway Traffic Safety Administration agreed to a remedy for the issue that involved equipping vehicles with a trailer hitch that could reduce the risk of fires.

  
  

  Officials with Chrysler have said dealers would inspect the recalled Jeeps to determine if there was a need to install the trailer hitch assemblies.

  
  

  Some have questioned whether the addition of the hitch will indeed suffice to reduce the risk of fire. Even Chrysler’s own report on the fix said the hitch would only “incrementally improve the performance in certain types of low-speed impacts.”

  
  

  NHTSA tested the hitch fix and determined that “the risk of fuel tank ruptures and fires in lower to medium-speed rear-end crashes will be successfully reduced by the remedy.” However, the agency did not test what would happen in collisions at speeds greater than 43 mph.

  
  

  Despite finding a compromise to fix the vehicles, Chrysler reported last summer that only about 8.6% of the 1.56 million Jeeps involved in the recall have been fixed.

  
  

  Critics of the hitch plan say that Jeep passengers have survived high-speed crashes but died in resulting fires.

  
  

  The initial recall involved some 2.7 million Jeeps, but Chrysler says that, given the age of some of these vehicles (the Grand Cherokee recall included model years as far back as 1993), only about 1.6 million remain on the road.

  
  

  Jury orders Chrysler to pay $150M in fire death of 4-year-old Georgia boy [The Associated Press]

  
  


• 
  

wow

by Ashlee Kieler via Consumerist

oWoman Suing Spirit Airlines Over Husband’s Death Claims Flight Attendants Weren’t Trained Properlyw

4 4 4 4

• 
  
  
  

  (afagen)

  
  
  
  A woman whose husband died after having a medical crisis onboard a Spirit Airlines flight has filed a lawsuit against the airline and two of its flight attendants, claiming the airline was negligent in its training of staff.
  

  The 41-year-old man was on a Spirit Airlines flight from Las Vegas to Chicago in April 2013 when he became unresponsive, according to the suit filed by his wife, reports the Chicago Tribune. The Chicago Fire Department said at the time that he’d gone into cardiac arrest.

  
  

  At the time, the lawsuit alleges that the two flight attendants were unaware of where to find the medical equipment on the plane.

  
  

  “Spirit had a duty to ensure that its flight crew, including but not limited to its flight attendants were adequately and appropriately trained to address medical emergencies that might arise on board,” the lawsuit said.

  
  

  Although his fellow passengers tried to resuscitate the man during the flight, he died later that day, the lawsuit says. It was determined that he died from hypertensive cardiovascular disease.

  
  

  Spirit didn’t provide a comment on the lawsuit to the Chicago Tribune. We reached out for comment as well and will update the story if we hear back.

  
  

  Wife sues Spirit Airlines, 2 flight attendants in Chicago man’s death [Chicago Tribune]

  
  


• 
  

wow

by Mary Beth Quirk via Consumerist

oEscaped Pig Snaps At Customers While Blocking Burger King Drive-Thruw

4 4 4 4

• 
  
  
  

  (Jeepers Media)

  
  
  
  This just in: Word of fast food restaurant’s use of bacon has apparently spread beyond the human realm to the farm, where the news apparently prompted one pig to escape his confines and head for Burger King to disrupt mankind’s quest for animal products.
  

  Customer at a Burger King in Pennsylvania found the drive-thru blocked by a menacing pig, reports WTAE.com, who was running loose outside the joint after slipping away from a nearby farm.

  
  

  Those seeking to grab some grub were deterred by the rampaging pig in the parking lot this morning, who reportedly bit one customer. State police say she refused treatment.

  
  

  Despite his snap, he really wasn’t that scary, one worker admits.

  
  

  “I watched it happen right here. It was crazy.The pig was really friendly. She was like, ‘Hey!’ And the pig just kind of walked up to her and bit her right on the foot,” the employee explains.

  
  

  He adds that he tried to feed it bacon in some kind of cruel joke, but his manager told him not to.

  
  

  As the reports of the porcine visitor spread, customers started showing up just to see him trotting around. He was eventually corralled and reunited with his owners, leaving behind his snout prints on the bottom of a glass door.

  
  

  That’ll do, pig. That’ll do.

  
  

  Previously in cranky animals: Stressed Out Badger Prevents Staff And Guests From Entering, Leaving Luxury Hotel
  
  Pig running loose outside Burger King creates stir [WTAE.com]

  
  


• 
  

wow

by Mary Beth Quirk via Consumerist

oCourt Rules That Hulu Didn’t Know It Was Sharing Personal User Info With Facebookw

4 4 4 4

• 
  

  Earlier this week, a federal court in California dismissed a nearly 4-year-old class-action lawsuit against Hulu that alleged the streaming video service illegally shared personal user information with Facebook.

  
  

  The original complaint [PDF], filed in July 2011, accused Hulu of violating the federal Video Privacy Protection Act (VPPA), which was created to prevent video rental and sales companies from “knowingly” disclosing customers’ “personally identifiable information” to any third party without consent.

  
  

  “As Plaintiffs… viewed video content on Hulu’s website, Hulu transmitted their viewing choices to a number of third parties,” including Facebook, market research firm Scorecard Research, online ad networks DoubleClick and Quantserve, and Google Analytics.

  
  

  “In the case of Facebook, Hulu included Plaintiffs and Class Members’ Facebook IDs, connecting the video content information to Facebook’s personally identifiable user registration information,” the complaint contends, arguing that these users reasonably expected that Hulu would not disclose their video choices to third parties, and that these users did not authorize any third-party disclosures.

  
  

  But Hulu maintained that it wasn’t deliberately or actively sharing this information with Facebook. Rather, this information was (until June 2012) being transmitted via the Facebook “Like” button.

  
  

  “If the Hulu user had logged into Facebook using certain settings within the previous four weeks, the Like button would cause a “c_user” cookie to be sent to Facebook,” writes the court in its order [PDF] dismissing the lawsuit.

  
  

  So even if the Hulu user didn’t click the Like button, its mere presence on the Hulu page would send the user’s Facebook ID (in a numerical format that Facebook could understand) along with the URL and other info for the video being watched on that page.

  
  

  “Hulu did not send Facebook the Hulu User ID or the Hulu user’s name,” writes the judge.

  
  

  In considering whether to grant Hulu’s motion for a summary dismissal, the court asks whether the plaintiffs met the two conditions to demonstrate a violation of the VPPA.

  
  

  First, Hulu would have to have knowingly transmitted this data.

  
  

  “[T]he term ‘knowingly’ connotes actual knowledge,” writes the court. “It is not enough, as the plaintiffs suggest, that a disclosure be merely ‘voluntary’ in the minimal sense of the defendant‘s being ‘aware of what he or she is doing and… not act[ing] because of some mistake or accident.'”

  
  

  In the court’s opinion, merely being the transmitter of the code doesn’t necessarily imply a conscious sharing of personal information.

  
  

  The second standard for applying the VPPA is three-pronged, requiring that Hulu knowingly disclosed “1) a consumer‘s identity; 2) the identity of ‘specific video materials'; and 3) the fact that the person identified ‘requested or obtained’ that material.”

  
  

  “The point of the VPPA, after all, is not so much to ban the disclosure of user or video data,” explains the judge, “it is to ban the disclosure of information connecting a certain user to certain videos.”

  
  

  The court held that the data transmitted via the Facebook like button is not the same as a video store clerk handing a reporter a list containing customer’s name and their recent rentals.

  
  

  “The user‘s identity and that of the video material were transmitted separately (albeit simultaneously),” reads the order, explaining that Hulu’s sending of this information is not “connecting” the user to the content. “Hulu did not disclose information that “identifie[d] a person as having requested or obtained specific video materials.”

  
  

  This connection between the videos and the user would have to be done on the receiving end, contends the court: “This means that, even if both elements were sent to Facebook, they did not necessarily disclose a user ‘as having requested or obtained specific video materials’ unless Facebook combined the two pieces of information.”

  
  

  “In terms of this case, if Hulu did not actually know that Facebook might “read’ the c_user cookie and video title together… then there cannot be a VPPA violation,” concludes the judge.

  
  

  Speaking to The Recorder, the lawyer representing the plaintiffs in this case says an appeal is in the works.

  
  

  “We think the order of the lower court would undermine fundamental statutory privacy rights if allowed to stand,” explained the attorney for the plaintiffs.

  
  

  [via Ars Technica]

  
  


• 
  

wow

by Chris Morran via Consumerist

oPortland Bans Insecticide Blamed For Decline In Honey Bee Populationw

4 4 4 4

• 
  
  
  

  (Theodore Scott)

  
  
  
  Out of concern for a depletion in the number of honey bees in recent years, the city of Portland, OR has approved a ban on the use of an insecticide that conservationists say is to blame for killing off the honeymakers, despite protests from some local farmers.
  

  The Portland City Commission voted unanimously to suspend use of products containing neonicotinoids, effective immediately, reports Reuters. This makes the eighth U.S municipality to outlaw the insecticides as activists make the case that it’s the reason bees and other pollinating insects have been dying off.

  
  

  Portland Commissioner Amanda Fritz’s quest to get the measure approved as a public health issue was successful on Wednesday, meaning neonicotinoids can’t be used in city parks, streets and gardens.

  
  

  “I think we’re doing another good thing for the city of Portland, Oregon … and maybe the entire world,” Fritz said.

  
  

  But opponents of the ban like Oregonians for Food and Shelter, a coalition of farmers, foresters and others who use the insecticides say some scientific research has refuted other findings that honey bees have been severely harmed by the pesticides.

  
  

  “Farmers have a huge investment in honey bees but they also need insecticides to protect their crops from destructive pests,” said the group’s policy director, Scott Dahlman, in calling the decision one based on “fear and ideology” rather than sound science about bees and other pollinators.

  
  

  Hopping on board the anti-neonicotinoid train is the federal Fish and Wildlife Service, which will ban the substance at national wildlife refuges by next January. The agency found that the insecticide was not preferred because it could be broadly distributed and potentially affect “a broad spectrum of non-target species.”

  
  

  Portland bans insecticide to protect declining honey bees [Reuters]

  
  


• 
  

wow

by Mary Beth Quirk via Consumerist

oAd Man Responsible For Creating The Pillsbury Doughboy Dies At 89w

4 4 4 4

• 
  
  
  

  (stevendepolo)

  
  
  
  The man who created the Pillsbury Doughboy — otherwise known as Poppin’ Fresh — has headed to that great bakery in the sky at the age of 89. Rudolph R. Perz was a Chicago ad man who developed the legendary giggling spokesboy while working at Leo Burnett in 1965. His tee-heeing legacy still lives on in commercials today. [Chicago Tribune]


• 
  

wow

by Mary Beth Quirk via Consumerist

oNew MLB Commissioner Hopes For In-Market Streaming Of Games This Seasonw

4 4 4 4

• 
  

  As demonstrated by the ongoing SportsNet L.A. debacle in Los Angeles, the shift of most in-market Major League Baseball games from broadcast TV to basic cable has resulted in lots of local fans being unable to watch their favorite teams. And this divide is likely going to expand as younger consumers cut the cable cord or choose to never get cable TV to begin with. New MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred says that reaching these fans is a high priority of his.

  
  

  MLB has a successful streaming service with MLB.tv, but users are limited to viewing out-of-market live games. If you want to watch the stream for your local team, you’ll have to wait until 90 minutes after the game has concluded.

  
  

  Thus, a without access to their local cable regional sports network has no way of seeing a game as it happens even if they pay for MLB.tv or an add-on cable package like MLB Extra Innings. Here in Philadelphia, this group of blacked-out fans includes not just those without cable, but all DirecTV and Dish customers.

  
  

  In a new interview with the Wall Street Journal, Manfred now says that he’s focusing on how to resolve the issue of in-market streaming.

  
  

  “[T]he better part of my workday today was consumed by the topic of in-market streaming,” Manfred tells the Journal. “It is particularly complicated in the context of a media market that is changing so quickly, but I do believe we will get a solution on in-market streaming in the relatively near future.”

  
  

  When asked if “relatively near future” could mean sometime this year, Manfred answered, “I hope so. I’d like to believe there will be games streamed at some point this year.”

  
  

  Unfortunately, it’s not clear if this means that people without cable packages will be able to access these streams, or if the streaming might require some sort of authentication to show that you are a subscriber to some specific pay-TV package.

  
  

  The ultimate goal would be for any local fan to have some way to access the live streams (without having to spoof your DNS or use a VPN to get around MLB.tv’s blackout system).

  
  

  After all, there’s no reason that an MLB.tv subscriber shouldn’t get access to local games. Perhaps if MLB.tv didn’t insist on editing out the local network’s advertising in place of its own ads, the regional sports networks would be more amenable to in-market streaming.

  
  

  And anyone who’s watched MLB.tv knows that most ad breaks contain few to no ads, so it’s not like the streaming service would be giving up some sort of revenue goldmine by just showing the full local TV feed with ads.

  
  


• 
  

wow

by Chris Morran via Consumerist