uCharleston Uber Driver Accused Of Kidnapping, Raper

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• A Charleston, S.C. Uber driver has been charged with kidnapping and forcible rape, after a female passenger accused him of demanding sexual favors as payment for her trip. She told police he then sexually assaulted her and kicked her out of the vehicle.

  According to the arrest affidavit, via The Post and Courier, the driver picked up the woman and a male friend on Sunday night, and drove the man to his home in downtown Charleston. Though the woman got out of the car at that point as well, she was drunk and decided she didn’t want to walk home in the dark, so she asked the Uber driver if he could drop her off a few blocks away.

  He started to drive — but not to her home, the police said. When she realized the car wasn’t headed in the right direction, she says he told her she’d have to pay with sexual favors. She says she offered him money, and asked repeatedly to be let out of the car, but that he yelled at her and demanded sex.

  She told the police he then stopped the vehicle off the highway and attacked and sexually assaulted her. The arrest documents say he kicked her out of the vehicle afterwards, and that she was hit by a car when she ran onto the road to get help.

  Charleston police responded to the scene, at which point she identified her alleged attacker. She was taken to a nearby hospital for treatment.

  The suspect was arrested on Monday evening and admitted to offering the woman a ride when she was “too drunk,” and that he pulled off the road, kissed her, performed oral sex on her and then kicked her out.

  An Uber spokeswoman said Tuesday that the driver in question was removed from the company’s platform, and that Uber is assisting authorities.

  “Our hearts go out to the victim and her family as we investigate this incident,” she said.

  Though Uber has become a popular alternative to traditional taxi services, this isn’t the first time the company has come under fire for not doing enough to ensure the safety of its passengers.

  Earlier this month, Uber admitted that it’d failed to follow procedure when hiring a driver accused of rape in Dallas.

  In other incidents, female passengers have reported being harassed and groped, held hostage, and physically assaulted by drivers.

  Women aren’t alone in these kinds of allegations, either: In Chicago, a driver has been accused of sexually assaulting and choking a male passenger. Following multiple incidents of driver malfeasance in that city, Chicago Uber users will eventually have access to a “panic button” feature in their mobile app.

  School teacher working as Uber driver accused of kidnapping, sexually assaulting woman [The Post and Courier]

  
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by Mary Beth Quirk via Consumerist

uMan Charged With Operating American Dream Scheme Sentenced To Jail, Must Refund $6.4Mr

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  (Brian Turner)

  A man who helped perpetrate a scam that promised consumers they could obtain the “American Dream” by selling coffee and greeting cards at retail establishments across the country will spend 70 months in jail and must repay $6.4 million to victims.

  The Department of Justice announced today that it has closed yet another chapter in a scheme – operated in Costa Rica – that defrauded thousands of Americans through a series of fraudulent business opportunities.

  A U.S. District Court in southern Florida sentenced John White, aka Gregory Garrett, on charges of conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud for his part in an operation that fraudulently induced Americans to buy business opportunities in USA Beverages Inc., Twin Peaks Gourmet Coffee Inc., Cards-R-Us Inc., Premier Cards Inc. and The Coffee Man Inc.

  According to the Justice Department, from 2005 to 2008 the man and at least 11 other co-conspirators sold business opportunities to individuals for $10,000 and up, claiming the businesses would allow purchasers to sell coffee or greeting cards from display racks located at other retail establishments.

  Each of the businesses operated for several months and after one company closed, the next opened.

  The conspiracy used various means to make it appear to potential purchasers that the businesses were located in the U.S., including using bank accounts, office space and other services in the Southern District of Florida and elsewhere. However, in reality, the conspirators operated out of call centers in Costa Rica.

  As part of his plea, White admitted that he and his co-conspirators made numerous false statements to potential purchasers of the business opportunities, including that purchasers likely would earn substantial profits; that prior purchasers of the business opportunities were earning substantial profits; that purchasers would sell a guaranteed minimum amount of merchandise, such as greeting cards and beverages; and that the business opportunity worked with locators familiar with the potential purchaser’s area who would secure or had already secured high-traffic locations for the potential purchaser’s merchandise stands.

  Additionally, purchasers were falsely told that the profits of the companies were based in part on the profits of the business opportunity purchasers. The Justice Department alleges that these statements created the false impression that the companies had a stake in the purchasers’ success and in finding good locations for the stands, when that wasn’t the case.

  “This international and domestic investigation shows the Postal Inspection Service’s resolve to protect Americans from business opportunity scams,” Postal Inspector in Charge Ronald Verrochio of the U.S. Postal Inspection Service (USPIS) Miami Division, said in a statement.

  U.S. Citizen Sentenced In Connection With Costa Rica-Based Business Opportunity Fraud Ventures [Department of Justice]

  
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by Ashlee Kieler via Consumerist

uColorado’s Pot Edibles Might Come Stamped With A Red THC Stop Signr

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  (Brett Levin Photography)

  Stop, in the name of not accidentally getting stoned and losing your mind a la Maureen Dowd: In order to keep Colorado residents from mistaking marijuana edibles for non-drug laced food, the state might slap stickers with red stop signs with the letters THC on them to warn folks before they ingest. The stop signs would also be stamped on the food itself.

  Colorado and other states with legal recreational marijuana have been working on the question of how to designate edible products that contain pot from those that don’t, so your grandma/grandkid/next-door neighbor who drops by doesn’t accidentally get dosed with drugs.

  A group called Smart Colorado made the stop sign proposal as the state is finalizing its rules on making pot-infused products more distinct, reports CBS Denver.

  “The public and are children have had no way of differentiating between candy soda and food that has marijuana and one that doesn’t,” a Smart Colorado spokeswoman said.

  The state needs to have a new law in place by 2016 that will require all marijuana edibles to be recognizable as such even after they leave the package. That idea is getting some pushback in the newly legal industry.

  “As a manufacturer we are happy to comply with something as simple as a stamp on a pill or a candy, something that makes sense. However, there are products that it doesn’t,” said one edible manufacturer who’s part of the team tasked with vetting the pot labeling possibilities. Soda, for example, is not easy to stamp, as it’s you know, a liquid.

  The stop sign idea won’t be final until it clears a public hearing in August, ahead of the law’s implementation in January 2016.

  Red Stop Sign Could Mark Pot Edibles In Colorado [CBS Denver]

  
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by Mary Beth Quirk via Consumerist

uWheaties Is Making (Non-Cereal Flavored) Beerr

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• Wheaties: The Beer Of Champions? That could very well be a slogan you hear soon, as General Mills announced today that it’s getting into the beer game with a craft beer it’s calling HefeWheaties.

  The new limited-edition Hefeweizen beer is the result of a partnership between Wheaties and Minnesota-based craft brewer Fulton, General Mills announced in a blog post.

  But have no fear beer lovers, Wheaties cereal isn’t actually in the new beverage — though of course, plain old wheat
  is a very important ingredient in Hefeweizen-style beer, which is brewed with over 50% malted wheat.

  “We were intrigued from the get-go on this idea for many reasons, including that we’re both Minneapolis companies, and that the beer and the cereal both started from the same place in terms of raw ingredients and the same city,” Ryan Petz, president and co-founder of Fulton said in the blog post.

  The name for the new beverage was also a perfect fit, according to companies.

  “We had been sampling a number of Hefeweizens, so we had been discussing with the Wheaties team what we liked,” says Petz. “Someone on the team said HefeWheaties, and it kind of sprung out from there.”

  HefeWheaties is the brainchild of employees of Fulton and General Mills, who just so happen to be friends outside of work.

  Wheaties social media account manager Tony Libera chatted about the possibility of a partnership for the brand with a friend who handles sales for Fulton.

  The plans quickly turned into a beautiful, sudsy relationship from there, the companies say.

  HefeWheaties will be sold in four-packs and 16-ounce tallboy cans starting on Aug. 26. Unfortunately, if you want to score a taste of the beer, you’ll have to make a special trip to the Twin Cities, as the company has no plans to make the beverage available outside of Minnesota.

  Fulton will also host several special events featuring HefeWheaties.

  “We’ll see how people react to it,” says Petz. “If it’s something everybody loves, we’ll obviously consider doing it again in a bigger and more widely distributed way in the future.”

  [via AdAge]

  
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by Ashlee Kieler via Consumerist

uTruckloads Of Blue Bell Ice Cream Heading To Storesr

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  (kusine)
  

  Stay strong, Americans in southern states: it might be almost the end of summer, but your frozen dessert salvation may be soon at hand. The Blue Bell ice cream plant in Sylacauga, Alabama, which was never officially linked to any cases of listeriosis, began producing test batches in July and gained approval to distribute their products last week.

  What they haven’t revealed yet is which retailers those trucks are headed for, probably to avoid ice cream-crazed mobs descending on them while waving giant spoons. The company also hasn’t announced which flavors were part of the early batches, but a health official in Alabama told a local news outlet that flavors that were part of the test were only “homemade vanilla” and Dutch chocolate.

  Our trucks are on the road again… And yes, they are filled with Blue Bell Ice Cream! https://t.co/0rtUMeQnCO

  — Blue Bell Ice Cream (@ILoveBlueBell) August 11, 2015

  Blue Bell: Trucks on the road again [WFAA]

  
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by Laura Northrup via Consumerist

uFTC Expected To Clarify Its Power To Police Unfair Competitionr

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  (afagen)

  From time to time, the Federal Trade Commission is known to take on companies it believes create an environment of unfair competition. Over the years, some have seen the agency’s actions to be a bit arbitrary and wide-ranging. But that could soon change as officials are expected to unveil a policy statement this week specifying how it pursues antitrust cases.

  Reuters reports that FTC Chairwoman Edith Ramirez is expected to unveil the agency’s first attempt to clarify part of a law that gave the division the power to pursue businesses for “unfair methods of competition.”

  The clarification of Section 5 of the Federal Trade Commission Act would likely help to quell debate on what conduct is prohibited and how companies can know the FTC’s enforcement policies.

  Legislators have often called for more details on what constitutes unfair competition under the FTC clause.

  The FTC currently uses the provision of the Act to pursue conduct not covered by other federal antitrust laws. In the past, Reuters reports, the agency used Section 5 in legal settlements with Intel Corp and Google. In both of those cases, the companies agreed to change business practices to resolve allegations of unfair competition.

  Antitrust experts have expressed concern in recent years that the FTC hadn’t been using the clause to its full extent.

  “It’s going to force the FTC to be a bit more deliberate in what sort of enforcement actions it’s going to bring,” an antitrust lawyer tells Reuters of the new policy.

  U.S. FTC expected to unveil policy on unfair competition enforcement [Reuters]

  
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by Ashlee Kieler via Consumerist

uBrewery Worker Declares His Feelings About Tom Brady On The Bottom Of 20,000 Cans Of Beerr

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• If you’ve had a can of Sun King beer recently, you might’ve been holding a vessel bearing one man’s personal feelings on New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady, and never have known it. That man is named Biscuit, he works on the brewery’s canning line, and he thinks “TOM BRADY SUX,” according to the “Born on” date on the bottom of more than 20,000 cans of beer.

  Sun King Brewery is in Indianapolis, the home of the Colts, where its beer is sold at Lucas Oil Stadium. Though the brewery isn’t taking credit for the anti-Brady stance, it’s still on board with football loyalty.

  A SKB employee had fun w the canning date coder. While we don't condoned the message we understand his Colts passion http://t.co/ADuZpvpd85

  — Sun King Brewing (@SunKingBrewing) August 11, 2015

  The canning shenanigans (shecanigans?) date back to May 13, in the midst of the DeflateGate controversy that had everyone buzzing, notes the Indy Star.

  “It was a prank by Biscuit,” Sun King co-owner Clay Robinson told the Indy Star of the cans of Wee Mac Scottish Ale that came off the line with the Brady message. “It wasn’t an idea we came up with at all. Every day, we change the thing on the bottom of our cans. One of the guys running the canning lines had to come up with something. Biscuit is his name. So Biscuit put ‘Tom Brady Sux.'”

  Biscuit is still employed by Sun King, but now he has to submit a list of sayings he’s going to stamp on the cans each week.

  If you’re a fan of the Colts, or Sun King, or even Tom Brady, you might be out of luck trying to get your own can, as that batch’s shelf life is nearing its end.

  “I assume most were consumed and recycled without anyone noticing,” Robinson said.

  *Thanks for the tip, Chuck!

  How ‘Tom Brady Sux’ ended up on Sun King beer cans [Indy Star]

  
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by Mary Beth Quirk via Consumerist