uSenators Call For Recall Of All Vehicles With Takata Airbagsr

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  Because it could take some time for federal investigators to determine the cause of a ruptured Takata airbag in a Volkswagen — a carmaker that hadn’t been part of any earlier exploding, shrapnel-shooting airbag recalls — some lawmakers are calling for a recall of all vehicles equipped with airbags made by Takata.

  Sen. Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut and Sen. Ed Markey of Massachusetts jointly sent a letter to the auto parts maker today requesting it issue a voluntarily recall of all vehicles with Takata airbags until the underlying cause of the forceful explosions can be determined.

  “As new reports surface of explosions in the latest models of Takata airbags, we write to express our deep concern over the obfuscation and delay that your company has engaged in while searching for a root cause of these defects,” the senators wrote. “In light of the most recent incident, which did not occur in one of the regions originally designated as ‘high humidity,’ and which involved a 2015 vehicle not currently subject to recall, we urge you to voluntarily recall all vehicles containing Takata airbags.”

  The senators push for the wide-ranging recall comes days after the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration announced it was investigating a June 2015 rupture of a Takata airbag in a 2015 Volkswagen Tiguan in Missouri.

  Volkswagen – which had not been included in the May recall of nearly 33 million vehicles with Takata airbags – notified regulators of the rupture of an airbag inflator on July 15.

  NHTSA sent orders to VW and Takata this week requiring the companies to provide all information that could help identify a cause for the June incident, which doesn’t fit the previous pattern of airbag ruptures linked to Takata safety devices.

  For the most part, the previous ruptures have often occurred in older vehicles and in areas of high humidity, such as Florida, Puerto Rico, U.S. Virgin Islands, Hawaii, Texas, Louisiana, Georgia, South Carolina, Alabama and Mississippi.

  In addition to requesting the recall of all vehicles with the company’s airbags, the senators also asked the auto parts maker to release updates on data related to testing of the potentially defective safety devices.

  The senators say that the fact that Takata – and regulators – have yet to determine the root cause for the exploding airbags is should be enough evidence that all vehicles with the company’s safety devices should be recalled.

  “Takata’s defective airbags have already caused at least eight deaths and more than one-hundred injuries in the United States – numbers that may increase as further cases come to light – and it is essential for your company to do all it can to identify and address the cause of this problem,” the senators tell Takata.

  
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by Ashlee Kieler via Consumerist

uEasyJet Passenger Shot With Stun Gun During Carry-On Bag Dispute Involving His “Man Purse”r

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  (Juan Rodriguez – PMI/LEPA)

  There are many arguments one might have about a “man purse,” but most don’t end with police intervention: a traveler defending his right to carry the bag on a recent EasyJet flight found himself on the painful end of a stun gun when he allegedly got abusive and refused to leave the plane.

  An EasyJet flight that was heading to Belfast from London’s Gatwick Airport on Thursday ended up taking off two hours late because of a dispute between a passenger and airline staff over the number of bags he was allowed to bring on board, reports NBC News.

  The Guardian says he apparently wanted to bring two bags on board, which goes against EasyJet’s policy of allowing one piece of “hand baggage” per passenger. Witnesses say he argued with the staff at the gate, but was allowed to board.

  Once he was on the plane, passengers say he continued to act up in the back of the aircraft. Police said they were called after “reports of a passenger who was becoming increasingly abusive following a dispute over luggage.”

  Another passenger told NBC News that police approached the raging man calmly and asked him to step off the flight, but he” started shouting and demanding why his ‘man purse’ had caused a problem.”

  He was reportedly told he’d be Tasered if he didn’t cooperate, with the eyewitness saying he’d been “very loud and aggressive by this point.”

  Police confirmed that the man was then shot with a stun gun and arrested on suspicion of breaching the peace. All passengers and crew had to deplane as well and go through police interviews as witnesses. The flight took off two and half hours later, and landed safely in Belfast.

  “EasyJet’s cabin crew are highly trained to assess and evaluate all situations and to act quickly and appropriately to ensure that the safety of the flight and other passengers is not compromised at any time,” a spokesperson for the airline told the Guardian. Whilst such incidents are rare we take them very seriously, do not tolerate abusive or threatening behaviour on board and always push for prosecution. The safety and wellbeing of passengers and crew is always easyJet’s priority.”

  EasyJet Passenger Tasered After Dispute Over Carry-On ‘Man Purse’ [NBC News]
  Man Tasered on easyJet flight after reports of luggage dispute [The Guardian]

  
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by Mary Beth Quirk via Consumerist

uFlorida Says Skim Milk Is “Imitation Milk Product” Unless You Add Vitaminsr

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  (Mike Mozart)

  Is “skim milk” just the same as “whole milk” with the cream skimmed off? Not according to the state of Florida, where producers of skim milk must either add vitamins to their product or be forced to carry the stigma of it being categorized as an “imitation milk product.”

  This disagreement is at the heart of a lawsuit [PDF] filed last year in federal court by Ocheesee Creamery against the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Affairs.

  The dispute actually goes back to 2012, when the state notified the creamery, whose pasteurized skim milk included no additional ingredients, that if it didn’t start putting vitamins into the final product that it would have to be labeled as “Non-Grade ‘A’ Milk Product, Natural Milk Vitamins Removed.”

  In the complaint, which alleges violation of the business’s First Amendment rights, the creamery says it “refuses to inject its skim milk with any additives, and it likewise refuses to confuse and mislead its customers by mislabeling its safe, all-natural, pure skim milk.”

  According to Florida state law, “imitation milk products” are those foods that have the “physical characteristics, such as taste, flavor, body, texture, or appearance, of milk,” but do not fall within the state’s definition of “milk products” because they are “nutritionally inferior to the product imitated.”

  The state contends that some vitamins and nutrients are removed when the cream is skimmed off of whole milk, and so skim milk must re-introduce those items to be nutritionally equal to milk.

  The AP reports that, in court this week for motions on summary judgment, a lawyer for the state argued that consumers expect whole milk and skim milk to have the same nutritional value.

  “Ocheessee’s product is imitating — literally imitating — skim milk,” the attorney explained.

  But the judge seemed to question the logic of this way of thinking, pointing out that — by its very nature — skim milk is expected to be different than whole milk.

  “You know something’s been removed in order to make it skim milk,” noted the judge, who also appeared to take issue with the state’s application of the “imitation” label.

  “It’s hard to call this imitation milk. It came right out of the cow,” said the judge. “Anyone who reads imitation skim milk would think it didn’t come out of a cow.”

  The creamery’s attorney pointed out that when the creamery’s current owners purchased the business six years ago, they were told this product had to be labeled as “skim milk” because of its fat content, which makes sense.

  “The creamery sold its skim milk for three years without anyone being confused or harmed,” said the lawyer.

  It’s in the judge’s hands to decide on whether to grant summary judgment now on this case or move forward toward a planned November trial.

  We could only find this relevant Simpson clip dubbed into Spanish, but you get the idea:
  

  
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by Chris Morran via Consumerist

uNational Epidemic Of People Shoving Meat Down Pants Is Not Close To Stoppingr

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  (Danny Ngan)

  As we prepared to share yet another news story about someone shoving beef down their pants, we got the heartening news: Consumerist is not alone in our fixation on the meat pants dance. It’s part of a nationwide trend due to increasing beef prices, which is also the reason why cattle rustling is on the rise.

  “The more these stories get in the news, the more idiots get the idea,” the barbecue editor of Texas Monthly warns, because of course Texas Monthly has a barbecue editor. None of our readers are idiots, though, right? Thought so.

  Before we started tracking the phenomenon, there was a mini-crime wave in Austin, Texas where people would stuff brisket down their pants, exit stores, and sell the brisket to unsuspecting barbecue restaurant owners. Once the establishments were caught by the police in what was called “Operation Meat Locker,” and they closed down.

  Beef prices aren’t rising quite as much as they have for the last few years, so meat theft isn’t as popular a crime as it once was. Now news reports are back to just random people who want meat that they can’t afford or just don’t feel like paying for.

  Today’s report, for example, comes from Casper, Wyoming, where a man was accused of running out of an Albertson’s grocery store with a large package of beef down his pajama pants. Police caught up with him and found no meat in his pants, but there were ribeye steaks in a nearby garbage container. The man confessed and claimed that he ran off with the steaks because he was hungry and couldn’t afford them.

  Dispatch: Beef burglar and jewel thief apprehended by law enforcement
  A Brief History of Black Market Brisket [Texas Monthly]
  ‘Brisket Bandit’ illustrates system’s inability to stop repeat offenders [Houston Chronicle]

  
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by Laura Northrup via Consumerist

uStudy My Taste Buds Agree With Says Women Love Pizza More Than Men Dor

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  (Furgus)

  Listen. I know this might hurt to acknowledge, but you men just need to face facts: You will never love pizza as much as I do. I mean as much as women do. It’s a fact, well, at least according to one study that took on the very important question of who is the most devoted to that divine combination of cheese, bread and sauce.

  A recent study from Smart Flour Foods and something called the Center for Generational Kinetics looked at surveys filled out by 1,004 adults. These folks were identified as the 35% of Americans dubbed “pizza lovers” by the groups, defined as people who order pizza from restaurants or buy frozen pies every month.

  The numbers back up what I can feel deep in my heart and singing through my taste buds every time I take a bite: 63% of all pizza lovers are women.

  The study also found more things that are useful to the interests of groups doing the research, noting that 60% of those surveyed try to avoid products with synthetic hormones, high fructose corn syrup, trans fat, and artificial preservatives. Smart Flour Foods happens to make gluten-free pizza crusts, among other things and therefore has a vested interest in the results of any pizza research.

  And everyone knows that companies drool over anything that gets them in with the “M” crowd, so the study points out that 41% of pizza lovers are from that prized group of consumers known as the millennial.

  It’s worth pointing out as well that the study defined millennial as anyone born since 1977, whereas most usually designate that group as being born in the early 1980s.

  Is this perfect and complete science? Probably not. And honestly, I’m okay with men liking pizza just as much as women do, because pizza is all about love.

  But really, who doesn’t like pizza? That’s the question.

  Previously: Study: Ordering Pizza Online Adds Up When It Comes To Calories And Cash

  (H/T Thrillist)

  
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by Mary Beth Quirk via Consumerist

uTarget CEO: “Unacceptable” That Its Stores Have Empty Shelvesr

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  (Nicholas Eckhart)

  Target is trying to compete with Walmart on prices, and with Amazon on both price and delivery times. In all that confusion of fighting battles on different fronts, the retailer has had trouble doing one really important thing: keep its stores’ shelves stocked. And that, says Target CEO Brian Cornell, is not cool.

  During Target’s quarterly earnings call on Wednesday, Cornell talked about the retailer’s “incredibly complex supply chain” that was developed for the pre-Internet business model that had products going from manufacturers to warehouses to store shelves.

  But the CEO acknowledged that this linear way of thinking about the supply chain is now “outdated” with the intrusion of e-commerce. Target is now having to ship things directly from warehouses to Target.com shoppers, meaning some items never make their way to retail store shelves.

  “Frankly, as a result, some retail fundamentals have started to suffer,” explained Cornell. “Specifically, in-stocks in our stores have been unacceptable so far this year. Our guests deserve better.”

  Target’s John Mulligan, who is already the retailer’s Chief Financial Officer (and who acted as interim CEO before Cornell’s hiring), is being tasked with sorting out the supply chain issues under his new gig as Chief Operating Officer.

  Mulligan told analysts that he’s investigating short- and longterm solutions to the issue so that Target.com can continue to grow without leaving Target’s retail shoppers from staring at bare shelves and wondering when their favorite store turned into Walmart.

  Target CEO says store’s stocking problems are “unacceptable” [Star Tribune]

  
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by Chris Morran via Consumerist

uAirplane Door Panel Falls From Sky, Nearly Makes Hole-In-One On Golf Courser

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  (Eric Spiegel)

  When playing a round of golf you might hear the occasional “FORE!” as a warning to watch out for a ball flying through the air. What you don’t expect is for the object hurtling though the sky toward the green to be a piece of metal once attached to an airplane.

  But that’s exactly what came crashing down on a golf course in North Carolina on Wednesday morning, ABC News reports.

  A group of golfers in Mount Holly, NC, say they got quite the surprise when a door panel from an aircraft crashed on to the green during an early morning round.

  “A golfer called the Federal Aviation Administration and reported that the panel fell,” the agency said in a statement.

  The FAA says the 15-inch panel, which landed on the Green Meadows Golf Course around 8:20 a.m., dislodged from American Airlines flight 1910 around 8:20 a.m. Wednesday.

  The flight, which was traveling from Dallas-Fort Worth, was on its approach to Charlotte-Douglas Airport when the panel apparently came loose, falling to the golf course below.

  Door from a plane landing in Charlotte falls yards away from golfers in Mount Holly. http://pic.twitter.com/GiU5Ht4dMO

  — Ken (@kenlemonWSOC9) August 19, 2015

  No injuries were reported – either on the course or on the aircraft, which landed safely.

  FAA officials say they are investigating the incident.

  Door From American Airlines Plane Lands on Golf Course [ABC News]

  
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by Ashlee Kieler via Consumerist