Consumer News & Alerts

Tundra Crumbles Even Toyota is having problems with its trucks. The new Tundra pickup didn't get the coveted five-star rating after the latest frontal crash tests. The company says it will fix the problem fast.

Gas Price Spike Slows It's certainly not going down but the price of gas isn't going up quite as quickly as it had been. The nationwide average price is up just three cents.

RAT POISON FELLS U.S. CATS & DOGS
While federal investigators fiddled, New York officials found Aminopterin in the pet food that has been killing dogs and cats throughout America. The toxin is used to kill rats in some countries but not permitted to be used for rodent control in the United States. So how did it get into pet food manufactured by Menu Foods and sold under a dizzying variety of brand names? The President and CEO of Menu Foods, Paul Henderson, says bluntly he doesn't know but insisted there's no reason to think it's the result of illegal tampering.

Some reports indicated the poison may have been used on wheat imported from China. The Food and Drug Administration has been focusing its investigation on wheat gluten in the pet food. Although Menu Foods is a Canadian company, the pet food is manufactured in two large U.S. plants -- in Emporia, Kansas and Pennsauken, New Jersey.

Could other pet food be contaminated? Henderson says no but some consumers aren't so sure. They say their pets became ill after eating pet food not included in the recall.

Hold the Presses Our Lisa Wade McCormick is on assignment in Emporia, Kansas, checking out the Menu Foods plant there. Her report is due late Sunday night. We can't hold our newsletter any longer, so check back with us Monday for the latest on the pet food situation.

More food safety news ...

• Final Verdict on E. Coli Outbreak: None Federal and state investigators have closed the book on an inconclusive investigation. Although they pinpointed the general area where the contamination occurred, they weren't able to identify the exact means by which E. coli got onto fresh spinach.

• FDA Repeats Mineral Water Warning Bottled mineral water from Armenia may contain toxic levels of arsenic, the feds warn. The suspect bottles were sold under a number of brand names.

SAFETY AGENCY NEEDS A RECALL
As the peanut butter and pet food disasters illustrate, the world is a dangerous place. Globalization brings exotic poisons -- and dangerous toys and household products -- to a store near you. Charged with protecting American consumers from hazardous products is the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission. Unfortunately, it's been downgraded, disregarded and treated disdainfully by the Bush Administration, which seems unable to comprehend the notion that government is charged with protecting its citizens from real as well as theoretical risks. It's hard to understand how a pro-business attitude translates into a willful disregard for the safety of children but the current tax-suckers have achieved just that. Congress is holding hearings but, sadly, lacks the authority to compel action.

BLINDED BY THE BUZZ
Drug companies are more than willing to give sales a little boost through whatever means are at hand. A common practice is to build a "buzz" around an off-label use of a drug approved for other purposes. So it was that many doctors were persuaded to write prescriptions for Actimmune for desperate patients suffering from pulmonary fibrosis. Unfortunately, new tests find the drug ineffective against the deadly disease, meaning that patients wasted precious time and money on a medication that did them no good.

Dr. Payola There are many ways drug companies "persuade" doctors to prescribe their drugs, including junkets, gifts and money. Two states have enacted laws to make such transactions public but a new study finds the laws ineffective. The FDA, meanwhile, in a long-overdue move, is tightening its rules to bar members of its advisory committees from having a financial interest in the drugs and devices being reviewed.

GOOD NEWS, BAD NEWS
• Chinese restaurants: Yes, they serve a lot of seafood and vegetables ... but also lots of sodium and calories, a consumer group finds.

• Cigarettes: Quit smoking now and in ten years or so, your arteries will be nearly as flexible as if you'd never smoked ... but R.J. Renolds' latest trick is enticing young women to start smoking through its Camel No. 9 promotion, a consumer group charges. Cigarettes are more harmful to women than to men, you know.

New Openness about Colorectal Cancer Seniors are more willing to discuss the second leading cause of cancer death these days, Fred Cicetti reports in this week's Healthy Geezer column.

NO EASY CURE FOR CREDIT CARD BLUES
"An Inconvenient Truth" was getting everyone's attention a year or so ago, with its warnings of global climate change, rising seas and so forth. This year the film that's making theater audiences shudder with horror is "Maxed Out" and it's about -- what else? -- the horrible situation so many Americans face: high credit card debt, sky-high interest rates, over-the-top fees and stagnant personal income. What to do? Well, there's no easy answer but our Fred Yager has put together a list of steps you can take to get control of the monster that's threatening to eat you out of house and home.

More personal finance notes ...

• New York Sues Student Loan Lender Education Finance Partners used kickbacks to entice major universities to steer students its way, state charges.

• People's Choice Files Chapter 11 Another subprime lender collapses.

• Massachusetts Readies Subprime Prosecutions State considers new regulations to protect borrowers and threatens to prosecute past offenders.

• Advance Fee Scammers Move Into Real Estate Tried and true scam adapts to the for-sale-by-owner market.

DATA TRAVEL FAST
One of the platitudes always dispensed after a data loss or breach is that there's no evidence the thieves wanted the data. Sure, it was that $934 laptop they were after. But that argument won't wash with the massive theft of data from TJX Corp. Authorities say the data was used by thieves to make $8 million in purchases from Wal-Mart stores in Florida. The thieves encoded the data on "clone" credit cards, then used the clone cards to purchase gift cards from Wal-Mart and Sam's Club stores throughout the Sunshine State.

Underground Economy In fact, identity theft and data breaches are supporting a massive underground economy as cybercriminals take a much more professional approach to their "business," a new study finds.

HARDLY NEUTRAL
The Federal Communications Commission has made little secret of its willingness to let AT&T and other big-money interests turn the Internet into a latter-day long-distance network, doing away with the troublesome and -- to some -- mildly socialistic concept of "network neutrality." But under fire from consumers and feeling the heat as the political season heats up, the agency is opening an inquiry into the question.

More telecom news ...

• Vonage Class Action Internet phone provider Vonage promises a "30-Day Free Trial" and a "Money-Back Guarantee" but a California class action charges that these and other promises are, in a word, false.

• Feds Agree To Rethink Internet Radio Royalties Web broadcasters and NPR say royalty fee increase threatenes their existence.

• Reception Poor at Senate Sirius-XM Hearing Senators find it hard to take seriously the claim that one satellite station is more competitive than two.

SAFETY RECALLS

SCAMS & OUTRAGES

• Online Love Scam Indian man living in U.S. swindled out of $45,000.

• Wind Turbine Massachusetts sues contractor for alleged misrepresentation and failure to install systems as promised.

• Canadian Fraudsters Boiler room operators promoted non-existent advance-fee credit cards.