uMore Animal Shelters Holding Black (Fur) Friday Adoption Promotionsr

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  One of our favorite Black Friday trends that’s been spreading across the country is the animal shelter doorbuster: that is, busting adoptable animals out from behind animal shelter doors and into new and loving homes. The promos use the idea of “Black Friday” to push pets with black and white fur to create super-cuddly sale events where adoption fees are waived.

  This year, the event even has a corporate sponsor: accessories and apparel seller Zappos is sponsoring adoption fees at Best Friends Animal Society shelters and other affiliated shelters and rescues across the country.

  

  Here’s a selection of promos you’ll find across the country

  Bonnie Hays Small Animal Shelter, Hillsboro, OR: $10 adoption fees on all cats that are black or black and white.
  BrightSide Animal Center, Redmond, OR: They’re calling it a “cuddlebuster” special, with 50% off all cats and dogs with black or mostly-black fur.
  Clark County Humane Society, Neillsville, WI: No adoption fees on any cats or dogs through Monday, November 30. Sponsored by Zappos.
  HumaneCNY, Liverpool, NY: Adoption fees waived Friday and Saturday for cats and dogs over 1 year old.
  Idaho Humane Society, Boise, ID:
  Humane Society of Broward County, Fort Lauderdale, FL: Opening an hour early; adoptions will be free for some pets during that “doorbuster” hour. Half off regular price for the rest of the day.
  Jacksonville Humane Society, Beach Boulevard, FL: No adoption fees Friday through Saturday; other fees like dog licenses may apply.
  SBK Animal Shelter, Blountville and Kingsport, TN: $20 off adoption fees on black cats and dogs.
  Williamson County Regional Animal Shelter, Georgetown, TX: No adoption fees on any cats or dogs through Monday, November 30. Sponsored by Zappos.

  
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by Laura Northrup via Consumerist

u6 Thanksgiving Movies You Can Stream Instead Of Talking To Your In-Lawsr

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  So your mother-in-law is asking you again, whether she’ll ever be a grandmother. Your options include feigning a disaster in another room, straight up ignoring her or claiming you have to go to the bathroom, again. Or, you could turn on a Thanksgiving-themed movie and have everyone gather round, shut up and watch it together.

  Thanksgiving movies might not be as abundant as Christmas flicks, but there are still some holiday-related titles streaming on Netflix you can use as an excuse for not talking to anyone for a few hours.

  1. Planes, Trains and Automobiles (1987): You’ve got your John Candy, you’ve got your Steve Martin, it’s set in 1987 and there’s perhaps no more perfect turkey day flick than this pre-bromantic comedy road-trip romp. How are these two total strangers who are NOTHING alike going to make it home from New York City to Chicago in time for Thanksgiving when their flight gets canceled? The spoiler alert is in the movie’s title.

  2. Dutch (1991): Ed O’Neill has a new girlfriend and is not about to muck up the holidays for her. So of course he volunteers to pick up her kid (a young, pre-Empire Records Ethan Embry) from boarding school. He’s a brat straight out of hell and their trip home for Thanksgiving is accordingly awful.

  3. American Son (2008): If you’re in the mood for a drama, this flick involves a 19-year-old marine who finds out that he’s deploying to Iraq earlier than planned. He goes home to tell his family the news over a traditionally dysfunctional Thanksgiving meal, and hilarity does not ensue.

  4. The Last Waltz (1978): For you music lovers, this Martin Scorcese flick features the final concert by The Band, which was staged at San Francisco’s Winterland arena on Thanksgiving Day 1976. No turkeys involved.

  5. Addams Family Values (1993): You can watch the first Addams Family movie beforehand if you feel like it, but the sequel is the one with the Thanksgiving theme. Wednesday Addams leads a retelling of the First Thanksgiving where the Native Americans win in a way only Christina Ricci in white makeup and a dark wig can do it.

  6. Rocky (1976): What do you mean this isn’t a movie about Thanksgiving? Fine, it’s not, but there’s another one of those fantastic family meal scenes that makes us all feel like we’re in this together.

  
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by Mary Beth Quirk via Consumerist

uWhich Stores Are Open On Thanksgiving And Black Friday, And When?r

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  There are two reasons why you might want to know which stores are open or closed on Thanksgiving Day this year: you want to go shopping, or you want to know which stores to boycott (or at least vaguely scorn) because they choose to open on the holiday. Whatever you’re interested in doing, here are the hours during which you can stop by the store and do it.

  We’ve mostly left off stores that tend to be part of enclosed malls; they will generally follow the lead of the mall management and/or the larger anchor stores. Check with your local store or the chain website to make sure you have the correct hours, since it may vary according to the open hours of the mall or your local laws.

  If you live in one of the states where being open for business on Thanksgiving Day is actually illegal, any Thanksgiving hours on this page don’t apply. You can run for the border accordingly, though.

  Barnes & Noble: Closed on Thanksgiving Day. Open 7 AM to 11 PM on Friday.
  Belk: Opening 6 PM on Thanksgiving Day, and will stay open overnight until 10 PM on Friday.
  Bed, Bath and Beyond: Closed on Thanksgiving Day. Open 6 PM to 9 PM on Friday.
  Best Buy: Opening at 5 PM Thanksgiving Day; closed from 1 AM to 8 AM on Friday morning, then open until 10 PM.
  Costco: Closed on Thanksgiving Day. Open 9 AM to 8:30 PM on Friday.
  Dick’s Sporting Goods: Open 6 PM Thanksgiving Day to 2 AM Friday. Reopening at 5 AM on Friday, closing at 10 PM.
  Family Dollar: Open 7 AM to 7 PM Thanksgiving Day. Open regular hours on Friday.
  GameStop: Closed Thanksgiving Day. Open 5 AM on Friday.
  JCPenney: Open 3 PM Thanksgiving Day, and will stay open until 10 PM on Friday.
  Kmart: Open 6 AM Thanksgiving Day until 10 PM on Friday.
  Kohl’s: Open 6 PM Thanksgiving Day, closing at midnight. Open 8 AM to midnight on Friday.
  Lowe’s: Closed Thanksgiving Day. Open 5 AM on Friday.
  Macy’s: Opening at 6 PM on Thanksgiving Day, and will stay open overnight until 10 PM on Friday, though closing times will vary by location.
  Meijer: Deals start at 6 AM in stores that are open 24 hours.
  Old Navy: Opening 4 PM Thanksgiving Day, and will stay open overnight until 12 AM on Saturday. That’s longer than Toys ‘R’ Us, but not as long as Kmart. These hours may vary by mall, so check before heading over at 3 AM.
  Sears: Opening at 6 PM on Thanksgiving Day, closing at midnight. Reopening from 6 AM to 9 PM on Friday.
  Staples: Closed Thanksgiving Day. Open at 6 AM on Friday.
  Target: Opening at 6 PM on Thanksgiving Day, and will stay open overnight until 11 PM or midnight on Friday.
  Toys/Babies ‘R’ Us: Opening at 5 PM on Thanksgiving Day; stores will keep their doors open until 11 PM on Friday.
  Walmart: Most stores will already be open, but the Black Friday event starts at 6 PM on Thanksgiving Day.

  Thanks to DealNews for some of this information: they have a comprehensive list of Thanksgiving and Black Friday opening times.

  Did you find this post useful? We’re a non-profit and don’t accept advertising from any retailers! You can get more stories like this in our twice weekly ad-free newsletter! Click here to sign up.

  
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by Laura Northrup via Consumerist

uDell Helpfully Installs Yet Another Gaping Security Hole On Some Laptopsr

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  That big fat “Superfish”-style security hole in Dell laptops that we told you about yesterday? Turns out, it’s not alone. There’s another basically just like it on Dell laptops, too. ZDNet has instructions for how to remove these troublesome certificates from your laptop if it has them. [ZDNet]
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by Kate Cox via Consumerist

uNew Hire At FCC May Indicate More Protection For Consumers’ Privacy Down The Roadr

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• Government agencies are basically giant businesses: they hire new people all the time, and it’s very rarely news when they do. Occasionally, though, the match of person and position may hint at big news for consumers, as one recent hire at the FCC just did.

  The new guy is named Jonathan Mayer, as the Washington Post reports, and his new gig might signal a big shift at the FCC toward protecting consumer privacy.

  Mayer’s new job is to be the top technology guy working on investigations into consumer protection issues relating to security and privacy, the WaPo explains. Perhaps it doesn’t sound like that should be a big deal, but until now issues like data breaches, hacks, and other privacy issues have more-or-less been handled entirely by a different agency, the FTC.

  But as everything commercial moves increasingly to an all-digital space, the line between the FTC’s and FCC’s jurisdiction has gotten a little blurry in the middle. Hiring Mayer may signal that the FCC intends to step it up in the consumer privacy arena, at least as it relates to phone, TV, or internet service. And frankly, they probably have to: as a side-effect of this year’s net neutrality rule, internet services are now classified as common carriers… which are exempt from certain regulation by the FTC.

  Mayer is not the sort one typically expects to find in a regulatory leadership position. For one thing, he’s still in his late twenties, so he doesn’t have the decades of experience one usually hears about.

  In the years he has been working, though, he’s been busy in a very high-profile way. He spotted the privacy violation in Safari browsers that led to Google having to cough up $22.5 million to the FTC in 2012. He also helped develop the do not track standard for web browsers (that the FCC recently declined to enforce).

  Most recently, earlier this year he found and announced that the tracking supercookie on Verizon phones could be accessed by third parties, despite what Verizon said. The FCC has since started an investigation into those trackers.

  With this hire, the FCC could soon get tougher on privacy and security [Washington Post]

  
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by Kate Cox via Consumerist

uJamaican Lottery Scammer Sentenced To U.S. Prisonr

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  The fraudulent lottery industry is huge in Jamaica, extracting hundreds of millions of dollars from the pockets of victims, who are mostly in the U.S. and mostly elderly. For the first time, someone involved in the industry has been tried and sentenced in a federal court in this country for selling lists of leads to current and aspiring scammers.

  The fallout in the lives of scam victims is devastating. Once on the hook, victims send thousands of dollars in the hope of receiving millions back, but in the end all they get are a barrage of phone calls demanding more money. Some victims have committed suicide.

  Scammers contact their victims through the mail or over the phone, and they obtain the mailing lists that they use from specialized services. That’s the business that the 26-year-old Jamaican who was tried in North Dakota was in: he was a former scammer who went into the lead list business instead. He sold lists to hundreds of other scammers

  The federal government found 80 victims who were on this seller’s lead lists, and their losses totaled $5.5 million U.S. Attorney Christopher C. Myers called the victims willing to tell their stories publicly “heroes,” since exposing scams is the only way to hold the people behind them accountable. “Until recently, these scammers operated with impunity,” Mysers said in a statement. “We are helping to find them and hold them accountable for their crimes.”

  There are no legitimate lotteries that you can win without entering, or that require you to send money to claim prizes.

  
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by Laura Northrup via Consumerist

uHOA Decides Not To Sue Man Over Controversial Christmas Display With Hundreds Of Lights, Live Camelr

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  The Christmas show will go on this year at the home of one Washington man who takes a next-level approach to the holiday: his local homeowner’s association has decided it won’t sue him over his display, which in the past included hundreds of lights, a live camel, carolers and of course, Santa Claus.

  The HOA and a local law firm told the Spokane, WA homeowner after his first event in 2014 that the light show went against clauses in his home agreement including noise levels, excessive brightness and nuisance, reports KREM-2.

  On Oct. 26, the board sent the man a letter threatening to sue if he put on his Christmas light show for the second year, and gave him 10 days to respond before legal action was taken. The clock ticked onward and past that deadline, and no lawsuit had been filed.

  The vice president of the HOA board said Tuesday that the group wouldn’t be suing, noting that they hadn’t been opposed to the decorations. Instead, they had a beef with the extra traffic and noise the event would bring to the area.

  “I’m really pleased to hear that they’re moving beyond this threat of litigation. I think the reason is obvious. That is that I never violated any rules,” the homeowner told the new station. He added that last year’s event was also fundraiser, allowing him to donate hundreds of dollars to local children’s charities.

  HOA backs down from lawsuit over Hayden Christmas lights [KREM-2]

  
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by Mary Beth Quirk via Consumerist