uSideCar Launching Medical Marijuana Delivery Service In San Franciscor

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  (DEARTH !)

  Call it whatever you want, but SideCar probably won’t be calling its new medical marijuana delivery service in California the “Uber” of pot delivery. In a bid to compete against its rivals in the ride-sharing business as well as take advantage of state marijuana laws, SideCar is launching its service in San Francisco to bring medicinal weed from dispensaries to patients.

  The ride-hailing app already ferries food, groceries and other packages in many cities including Los Angeles, Seattle, Los Angeles, San Diego, Chicago, Boston and Brooklyn, and now it’s promising it can bring up to an ounce of weed to customers (though not in the same car as the other stuff), the company announced today.

  The marijuana will come from local dispensaries and will arrive within an hour of ordering, with drivers carrying as many as four orders at a time using a “safe lock box during transit” for the drugs, the company says. It’s unclear what the delivery charge will be for customers, but drivers will receive 80% of that.

  “SideCar is able to power the on-demand economy, and medical marijuana is an example of all kinds of products we can deliver,” SideCar CEO Sunil Paul told CNET. “The motivation is also that it’s high profile.”

  And then there’s the fact that it could give the company a leg up on its rivals, who have more cash and are more widely known. Despite the fact that Saul sees Uber trying to be Amazon, SideCar can hold its own in the business, he says.

  “In this new world of on-demand services, SideCar wants to be FedEx, and we think we’re very well positioned to grab that position.”

  So the company doesn’t run afoul of California law — not to mention the fact that it’s still illegal to grow, carry or sell marijuana federally — SideCar is working with a company called Meadow Care that runs a website for medical marijuana patients to order from its network of licensed, local dispensaries.

  SideCar says its drivers, who are also medical marijuana patients licensed to carry medicine, will “always verify that the patient who ordered the medicine is the same person who receives the delivery.”

  The weed delivery business is limited to San Francisco for now, though there are other companies out there trying to woo customers with such services in both California and other states where it’s legal in varying degrees. That includes Uber, which partnered with a pot shop in Colorado, CNET notes.

  SideCar rolls out medical marijuana delivery in SF [CNET]

  
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by Mary Beth Quirk via Consumerist

uFTC: ‘Clinically Proven’ Menopause And Weight Loss Supplement Helps With Neitherr

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• American consumers have spent $65 million on Amberen, a supplement meant to ease the symptoms of menopause and perimenopause. These symptoms can include hot flashes, insomnia, irritability, and weight gain. Did Amberen help with these symptoms, as promised? No, the Federal Trade Commission says: it mostly helped to lighten customers’ bank accounts, and has filed a complaint against the company that sells it.

  While it’s harder to quantify changes like “fewer hot flashes” and “less irritable,” one promise that the maker of Amberen makes is easy to quantify: weight loss. Either someone who uses the product loses weight or she doesn’t, and Amberen promised effortless weight loss. The FTC quotes one ad where a female announcer tells potential customers, “Amberen restores hormonal balance naturally, so the weight can just fall right off. Even that stubborn belly fat.” There is no magical blend of substances, natural or not, that can simply “melt” adipose tissue, a message that the FTC keeps trying to get through the American public’s heads.

  One of the things it promised to do––help users lose weight––is pretty easy to track:
  “Lunada marketed Amberen to women over 40 as ‘clinically proven’ to cause weight loss,” the head of the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection said in a statement. “But their own studies didn’t support those claims. The best way to lose weight is still diet and exercise.” How disappointing.

  Here’s a sample Amberen ad, which gives an overview of how menopause happens, and promises that Amberen can help.

  It focuses more on shriveling ovaries than on weight gain, but the solution is always Amberen. In fact, the company claimed in another ad that their product is “the ONLY product on the market today clinically proven to cause sustained weight loss for women over 40.” The problem? Those clinical studies, performed in Russia more than ten years ago, didn’t show any weight loss among Amberen users at all.

  As of this writing, Amberen’s website is still live.

  

  
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by Laura Northrup via Consumerist

uLa-Z-Boy Recalls 2,600 Recliners Because The Goal Is To Lean Back, Not Tip Forwardr

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  The 39P PowerReclineXRw Loveseats with Console. Check La-Z-Boy.com for photos of other loveseats and chairs included in the recall.

  Along with the ease and comfort of a lazing person implied in the La-Z-Boy name comes the expectation that such relaxation will come in the form of reclining backward, and not tipping forward out of one’s seat. That’s why the company is recalling 2,600 recliners after reports from some dealers of tippy furniture that could cause someone to fall and potentially get hurt.

  La-Z-Boy Inc. has recalled furniture sold from January 2015 through March 2015, including loveseats and recliners, after five reports from dealers who said that the Wall Saver Power Reclining Furniture pieces could tip forward when in a reclined position.

  No injuries have been reported in connection to the recalled furniture, which includes three versions of PowerReclineXRw: P16 (a single-seat recliner), 32P (loveseat recliner) and 39P (loveseat with middle console), all in a variety of fabrics and leather products.

  The furniture’s back and leg rest are raised and lowered electronically by pressing buttons built into the furniture’s side or on an optional attached controller.

  To find your furniture’s series and style numbers, check the white label stapled to the front rail behind the leg rest or the underside of the leg rest. The first three characters of the number will be P16, 32P or 39P, followed by the style number. Recalled recliners are listed on both CPSC.gov and the La-Z-Boy’s recall announcement.

  
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by Mary Beth Quirk via Consumerist

uPrices For Eggs, Turkey Meat Starting To Rise As Bird Flu Outbreak Continuesr

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  (PepOmint)

  We’ve heard warnings that Thanksgiving turkey supplies could suffer a hit this season amid a severe outbreak of avian flu in the Midwest that began in April, and now it appears consumers will begin to see effects in their wallets. The prices for eggs and turkey meat are going up as more chickens and turkeys fall to the disease.

  As the flu has hopped from flock to flock in Iowa, Wisconsin and Minnesota, farmers have been forced to kill large numbers of birds to try and contain its spread.

  That’s led to wholesalers and grocery stores rushing to stock up on eggs, while the cost of a carton of large eggs in the Midwest has risen almost 17% from $1.19 to $1.39 a dozen since just mid-April, at the start of the outbreak, reports the Associated Press.

  Turkey prices are also up a bit, after 5.6 million birds nationwide have died since the outbreak started: the price of fresh boneless and skinless tom breast meat, the sort used in deli meat, is up 10% to $3.37 a pound, the U.S. Department of Agriculture said. Frozen hens in the 8- to 16-pound range, those often used for home roasting, were up about 3% to $1.06 a pound.

  So far more than 26 million Iowa chickens have died, most of which lay eggs for food use. That amounts to 8% of all the laying hens in the country, which would mean hens laying more than 500 million table eggs a month (instead of eggs used to make processed foods). Before the outbreak spread, Iowa chickens laid 1.4 billion table eggs in March.

  There’s some bright news, however, despite new outbreaks in Minnesota’s turkey producing farms and earlier reports of a possible shortage — market experts are now saying that Thanksgiving will arrive with plenty of turkeys on hand, thanks to cold storage stocks and the number of hens still on farms.

  “Anybody who wants a Thanksgiving turkey is going to be able to get one,” Tom Elam, an agricultural economist and poultry industry consultant told the AP. “They may have to pay a little more for it but we’re not going to have national stock-outs for Thanksgiving turkeys, yet.”

  Egg, Turkey Meat Prices Begin to Rise as Bird Flu Spreads [Associated Press]

  
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by Mary Beth Quirk via Consumerist

uBolt Bus Explodes, Engulfed In Flames Near Bostonr

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• You may be familiar with Bolt Bus: they’re a discount line that provides direct service between cities in the Northeast and on the West Coast. Some passengers traveling from Nw York to Boston were fortunate to escape their vehicle before it was engulfed in flames about fifteen minutes outside of Boston.

  While the bus fire and its aftermath had a serious effect on traffic yesterday, no one on board was injured. One passenger explained to TV station WCVB that someone in a regular passenger vehicle alerted the driver that there was smoke coming from the back of the bus, and the passengers escaped quickly. Which was good: the fire spread throughout the bus, causing an audible explosion when the windows of the vehicle blew off.

  This was not the first sign of trouble for the bus: it had already broken down for a few hours in Connecticut earlier in the trip, and then resumed its trip just in time to explode and block all traffic on I-90 during rush hour. How rude.

  Bus bursts into flames on Massachusetts Turnpike [WCVB]

  
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by Laura Northrup via Consumerist

uVerizon, Sprint To Pay $158 Million To Settle Wireless Bill-Cramming Allegationsr

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  (Mike Mozart)
  

  Several months after AT&T and T-Mobile reached multimillion-dollar settlements with federal regulators to close the books on allegations of bill-cramming — illegal, unauthorized third-party charges for services like premium text message subscriptions — both Sprint and Verizon have also decided to pay the regulatory piper. Combined, the two wireless companies will pay $158 million to settle cramming claims with the FCC and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

  Verizon’s portion of the penalty pie will be $90 million; $70 million of that will go to redress for wronged customers. Sprint will pay $68 million, with $50 million going back to consumers.

  Both companies allegedly made hundreds of millions of dollars in commissions by allowing third-party services to charge for unauthorized subscription services at monthly rates ranging from $0.99 to $14. For each of these monthly charges, Verizon earned at least 30%, while Sprint’s commission was around 35%.

  This practice occurred at all of the major wireless companies for years, even as consumers complained to their service providers and regulators about the unauthorized charges.

  Some customers who complained were denied refunds, but the FCC says that the wireless providers were unable to demonstrate that the customer had ever authorized these charges.

  In addition to the financial penalties, Sprint and Verizon have agreed to other conditions, including:
  • no longer offer commercial third-party PSMS charges
  • obtain informed consent from customers prior to allowing third-party charges
  • clearly and conspicuously identify third-party charges on bills
  • offer a free service for customers to block all third-party charges
  • regularly report to the FCC on compliance and refunds to customers

  “For too long, consumers have been charged on their phone bills for things they did not buy,” said FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler in a statement.

  “Sprint and Verizon had flawed billing systems that allowed merchants to add unauthorized charges to wireless customer bills,” said CFPB Director Richard Cordray. “Consumers bore the brunt of those charges and ended up paying millions of dollars while the companies reaped profits.”

  
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by Chris Morran via Consumerist

uElon Musk Denies Ever Scolding Employee Over Missing A Work Event To Witness Child’s Birthr

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• The news cycle was abuzz yesterday with quotes from a new book about Tesla CEO and founder Elon Musk, particularly one from an anonymous employee who said he’d been chastised for missing a work event in order to be present at the birth of his child. Musk fired back on Twitter today, denying he ever said any such thing.

  The Washington Post and other media outlets reported on author Ashlee Vance’s book, Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX and the Quest for a Fantastic Future, including one particular email an employee said he’d received from Musk after missing something major at work when his kid was born:

  According to the book, the email from Musk read: “That is no excuse. I am extremely disappointed. You need to figure out where your priorities are. We’re changing the world and changing history, and you either commit or you don’t.”

  Musk took issue with that excerpt as well as claiming that he’d never called himself a samurai, another tidbit included in WaPo’s round-up.

  Of 22 Quotes from http://t.co/VA2KQ03NNR, 2 need correcting: 1. I strongly support pregnancy leave 2. I've never called myself a samurai

  — Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 12, 2015

  It is total BS & hurtful to claim that I told a guy to miss his child's birth just to attend a company meeting. I would never do that.

  — Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 12, 2015

  The controversy has echoes of Tim Armstrong at AOL in 2014, who found himself backtracking on changes to the company’s benefits plan that he’d blamed on two workers who’d had “distressed babies.”

  
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by Mary Beth Quirk via Consumerist