понедельник, 6 июля 2015 г.

uFord Recalls More Than 400,000 Vehicles Because They Should Turn Off At Some Pointr


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  • When you’re done driving your vehicle, it’s best to, you know, turn it off. But that’s apparently not always possible with more than 400,000 new Ford models.

    The car maker announced over the weekend that it would recall 433,000 model year 2015 Focus, C-MAX and Escape vehicles because of an issue with the body control module.

    Ford says that the issue can cause the engine to continue to run even after turning the ignition key to the “off” position and removing the key; or after pressing the engine start/stop button located on the dash.

    The company is unaware of any accidents or injuries related to the recall.

    Of the recalled vehicles, 374,781 in the United States, 52,180 in Canada and 5,135 in Mexico.

    Owners of affected vehicles will be contacted by the company and dealers will update the body control module software.

    Ford Issues Safety Compliance Recall In North America [Ford]



ribbi
  • by Ashlee Kieler
  • via Consumerist


четверг, 2 июля 2015 г.

uDollar Tree, Family Dollar Will Sell Off 330 Stores To Get Merger Approvalr


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  • A year after the sordid dollar store love triangle began and nearly seven months after Family Dollar chose Dollar Tree to have and to hold for a mere $9.2 billion, the merger process appears to be almost over with federal regulators officially asking the new couple to ditch 330 stores.

    The Federal Trade Commission announced today that discount retailers Dollar Tree and Family Dollar have agreed to sell 330 Family Dollar stores to settle charges that their proposed merger was likely anticompetitive.

    Under the settlement, the stores on the chopping block will be sold to private equity firm Sycamore Partners within 150 days of the closing of the acquisition.

    According to the FTC’s complaint [PDF], the original merger proposition was problematic because Dollar Tree and Family Dollar compete “head-to-head in terms of price, product assortment, and quality, as well as location and customer service in local markets nationwide.”

    “Dollar stores offer convenience and value by providing a broad assortment of general merchandise at discounted prices in stores close to where consumers live or work,” said Debbie Feinstein, Director of the FTC’s Bureau of Competition. “This settlement will ensure that consumers will continue to benefit from competition among their local dollar stores.”

    Had the two companies not agreed to the settlement, the FTC says the acquisition would have eliminated direct competition between Dollar Tree and Family Dollar. And increase the likelihood that “Dollar Tree will unilaterally exercise market power.”

    Earmarking 330 stores for divestiture isn’t exactly a surprise. Back in April, it was reported that the FTC was considering putting 340 stores on the sales block.

    FTC Requires Dollar Tree and Family Dollar to Divest 330 Stores as Condition of Merger [Federal Trade Commission]



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  • by Ashlee Kieler
  • via Consumerist


uNYC Mailman Accused Of Stealing More Than $1M In Tax Refunds In Years-Long Schemer


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  • Is there some kind of greedy bug sweeping through the New York City mail system? Okay, probably not, but for the second time in two months a postal employee has been charged by federal prosecutors with taking part in a scheme to pad their own pockets. The most recent case involves a mail carrier who allegedly stole more than $1 million in tax refunds.

    The Associated Press reports that a 36-year-old Brooklyn man was charged with conspiracy and theft of government funds for his part in “delivering” bogus tax refunds to himself.

    According to investigators, the mail carrier and his accomplices would file false tax returns using Social Security numbers for Puerto Rico residents they believed were unlikely to file on their own. These returns used addresses along the postal employee’s delivery route in the Bronx, allowing him to easily intercept the refund check

    He and his fellow fraudsters would then deposit the checks into their own bank accounts.

    “As a taxpayer and a United States Postal Service employee, I find the allegations against the defendant disturbing,” Philip Bartlett, Inspector-in-Charge of the New York office of the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, tells USA Today. “I have little tolerance for those who would use their position of trust to facilitate criminal activity, as is alleged in this investigation.”

    Last month, three postal workers were arrested and accused of allegedly rigging the postal service’s “Operation Santa” program that provides gifts to underprivileged children. A U.S. Postal Service agent says that the three employees worked their scheme between November 2013 and January 2014, writing fake letters to rake in gifts, and even allegedly replaced underprivileged kids’ addresses with their own to get the gifts delivered directly.

    Feds: NYC Mailman’s Scheme Delivers $1M in Bogus Tax Refunds [The Associated Press]
    Mailman charged with stealing $1M in IRS refunds [USA Today]



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  • by Ashlee Kieler
  • via Consumerist


uSan Francisco Creates New Office To Regulate Airbnb, Other Short-Term Rentalsr


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  • The city of San Francisco and Airbnb have a somewhat contentious relationship, most recently involving tens of millions of dollars in back-taxes the short-term rental company agreed to pay the city earlier this year. Now, to ensure things continue to go smoothly for renters and rentees of services like Airbnb, the city has created a new office for the sole purpose of enforcing rules regarding vacation and short-term rentals.

    The San Francisco Chronicle reports that the city created the Office of Short Term Rental Administration and Enforcement to streamline host registrations and investigate violators of city rental laws.

    An advisor to Mayor Ed Lee says that the new office is the first of its kind for cities in the U.S.

    Under San Francisco law, those who list their homes as short-term rentals must be a permanent resident and register their intent with the city. Unit rentals are then limited to 90 days per year.

    Only about 700 hosts have registered with the city so far, representing just a small segment of the more than 5,000 San Francisco listings on Airbnb, the Chronicle reports.

    An official with the city’s zoning commission says enforcement can be difficult at times.

    “All code requirements impose certain challenges,” Scott Sanchez, a zoning administrator, said. “We’re focusing on complaints about the bad actors who are clearly in violation of the code, taking multiple units out of the city’s housing stock.”

    And that’s where the new office comes into play. The six-person department will first focus on outreach to encourage compliance among rental owners.

    “The more we outreach, hopefully we will have less violators,” city administrator Naomi Kelly tells the Chronicle. “This will allow (the city) to be laser-focused on going after enforcement and bad actors.”

    In another attempt to encourage compliance, the city plans to make required business licenses available online. The office will also start allowing hosts to complete their in-person interview portion of the process as a walk-in instead of scheduling the appointment in advance.

    Airbnb applauded the city’s new approach to enforcement of short-term regulations, saying the city is finally “making the short-term rental permit process simple and frictionless for our many middle-class hosts.”

    While the new office aims to provide the city with better oversight of the growing vacation and short-term rental industry, some groups continue to push for tighter regulations to curb the services.

    S.F. to create city office to enforce Airbnb law [San Francisco Chronicle]



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  • by Ashlee Kieler
  • via Consumerist


uWashington Woman Is First U.S. Measles Death In More Than A Decader


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  • Last year’s measles outbreak was dubbed the worst in the U.S. in 14 years, with 288 cases of the potentially deadly infection popping up in 18 states, but no one died. Similarly, the more recent measles cases at Disneyland and in Las Vegas raised awareness of the disease’s return but left everyone involved alive. Now health officials in Washington state are saying the pneumonia death of a woman there is believed the be the first measles-related fatality in the U.S. in a dozen years.

    According to the Washington State Dept. of Health, the woman had visited a medical facility in Clallam County in the northwest region of the state this spring at the same time as another person who was later found to be contagious for measles. She is the sixth person in the county to be diagnosed with measles this year, and the 11th in the entire state.

    The victim’s measles, which didn’t present common symptoms like rash, went untreated and the disease was not known to be involved her death until it was discovered at autopsy. The DOH says she had other health conditions and had been on medications that contributed to a suppressed immune system.

    “This tragic situation illustrates the importance of immunizing as many people as possible to provide a high level of community protection against measles,” reads the statement from the DOH, noting that those with compromised immune systems are often unable to be vaccinated against the disease, and even if they can “they may not have a good immune response when exposed to disease; they may be especially vulnerable to disease outbreaks.”



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  • by Chris Morran
  • via Consumerist


uAmazon Will Reportedly Pay Self-Published E-Book Authors $.006 Per Page Readr


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  • Last month, Amazon revealed it planned to begin a new payment system that entailed paying some authors per page read instead of per book purchased. Today, we know a little more about those impending payments, including the dollar value that Amazon intends to associate with each turn of the page.

    The Guardian, citing an email from Amazon to authors, reports that the new payment system could pay some self-published authors just $0.006 per page read.

    The company says in the email that customers read nearly 1.9 billion pages from books listed through Amazon’s Kindle Owners Lending Library and the Kindle Unlimited service last month. The company said that it expects to pay authors self-publishing through those services at least $11 million for June, July and August.

    According to the Guardian, that means the payments received by authors could be as little as $0.006 per page read, estimating that if an author publishes a 220-page book each page would have to be read by every person who downloads the book in order for the writer to make the $1.30 they get under the previous pay-per-download payment system.

    A literary editor tells the Guardian that the new system hasn’t exactly been welcomed with open arms by authors. She says six of her clients have already left the services, citing an estimated 60% to 80% reduction in royalties.

    “A lot of self-published romance authors are disabled, stay-at-home mums, or even a few returned veterans who work in the field because a regular job just isn’t something they can handle,” the editor says. “People are shedding a lot of tears over this.”

    Amazon set to pay self-published authors as little as $0.006 per page read [The Guardian]



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  • by Ashlee Kieler
  • via Consumerist


uIndiegogo Campaign To Bail Out Greece Has Raised $1.65 Million… Only $1.77 Trillion To Gor


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  • greekbailoutWith Greece facing such a dire debt crisis that it recently shut down the country’s banking system in order to keep money from flooding out across its borders, it’s going to take a massive effort to get the country back on solid financial footing. And in this day and age of crowdfunding, why not try to raise a couple of trillion dollars online?

    That’s the tactic being taken by a 29-year-old London man who started an Indiegogo campaign to raise €1.6 trillion ($1.77 trillion) in order to help out the cash-strapped people of Greece.

    “All this dithering over Greece is getting boring. European ministers flexing their muscles and posturing over whether they can help the Greek people [or] not,” reads the campaign. “The European Union is home to 503 million people, if we all just chip in a few Euro then we can get Greece sorted and hopefully get them back on track soon. Easy.”

    True, if you could get 503 million folks to each contribute about $3.55, you’d have the full amount of the campaign. That’s not going to happen, but enough people have pitched in to bring the total up to €1.492 million ($1.65 million). Of course, that’s not even a full percentage of the amount needed for the campaign to succeed, so the Indiegogo “funded” meter still stands at 0%.

    The campaign organizer, who says this isn’t a joke and claims to have no particular interest in Greek politics, is using a few reward tiers to for contributors:

    Pledge €3 and get a postcard sent from Greece of Alex Tsipras, the Greek Prime Minister. We’ll get them made and posted in Greece and give a boost to some local printers and post offices.

    Pledge €6 and get a greek Feta and Olive salad

    Pledge €10 and get a small bottle of Ouzo sent to you

    Pledge €25 and get a bottle of Greek wine

    “So come on, order a Feta and Olive salad,” urges the campaign, “maybe wash it down with an Ouzo or glass of Assyrtiko greek wine and let’s sort this shit out.”

    Because this bailout attempt is a “Fixed Funding” Indiegogo campaign, any pledged money will be refunded to contributors in the event that it doesn’t reach the full level of funding. Given that the campaign still needs to raise more than 99% of its goal within the next five days, refunds seem to be the likely turnout.



ribbi
  • by Chris Morran
  • via Consumerist