Complain about a product or service

Consumer News & Alerts

November 5, 2007

By Martin H. Bosworth
ConsumerAffairs.com

REPORT URGES CONGRESS TO ACT ON FOOD SAFETY
As recalls of tainted food pile up, a new report by the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) is urging Congress to enact comprehensive reforms of the nation's food safety service, including expanding inspection and enforcement powers, reorganizing the budgets to give money to the right agencies, and enacting mandated performance standards for domestic and imported foods alike. While Congress rushes to introduce new legislation to respond to consumer anger, CSPI is urging that any new laws have the breadth necessary to address all the issues facing America's food industries.

More food safety news...

• Cargill Recalls 1 Million Pounds of Ground Beef It's Cargill's second big recall in less than a month.

• Totino's, Jeno's Pepperoni Pizzas Recalled E. coli contamination possible.

EBAY: WHERE RECALLED ITEMS LIVE FOREVER
Even after the hullaballoo of a major product recall, with all the calls for reform and promises by a company to clean up its act, dangerous and unsafe products still find their way into homes, thanks in part to online auction and reseller sites such as eBay. Truman Lewis picked six random items from ConsumerAffairs.com's recalls pages and quickly found all of them still available for sale on eBay--a bit of oversight that could be easily remedied with some simple database checking.

This week's recalls...

INDUSTRY PAID FOR SAFETY CHIEF'S TRIPS
It's been a bad week for acting Consumer Product Safety Commission chair Nancy Nord. Voices in Congress are calling on her to resign for her opposition to efforts to strengthen her own agency's budget, and now came revelations that both Nord and her predecessor Hal Stratton made dozens of trips fully paid for by industries the CPSC is supposed to regulate. Public Citizen's Joan Claybrook joined the chorus of voices calling for Nord to step aside, while members of Congress pledged to introduce legislation prohibiting paid-for junkets in the future.

GAS PRICES BREAK $3 MARK IN 14 STATES
Even without refineries being crippled by hurricanes or shutdowns, oil prices are still at $90 a barrel and climbing, and gas is breaking the $3 barrier again, with no signs of letting up as the holiday season hits its stride. Automotive editor Joe Benton has the lowdown on where gas is most and least expensive across the country this week.

This week's automotive news...

• Crown Vic Disappears from Ford Dealer Lots Ford will continue to sell in bulk to police, cab fleets.

• Chrysler Drops Four Models, Cuts Jobs Two new hybrid SUVs in the pipeline.

• Next Generation Prius to Stick with Nickel-Hydride Power Lithium-ion batteries still not ready to hit the road.

• Zipcar and Flexcar to Merge Two car-sharing companies will combine their fleets.

• Honda Plans Prius-like Hybrid Wedge-shaped car will be a hybrid-only model.

FED CUTS INTEREST RATES AGAIN
In an effort to stem the bleeding of the housing slump into the larger economy, the Fed voted to cut interest rates to 4.5 percent this week. It was done in the hope that lower interest rates might spur consumers to borrow more and businesses to lend more in turn, but with the housing market showing no signs of recovery and the economy dragging in its wake, will even the most drastic rate cut be of any use?

More economic news...

• Mortgage Rates Near Six-Month Low But many consumers may have trouble qualifying.

• Consumer Energy Costs Skyrocketing Poll shows strong support for Congressional action.

• Santa's Feeling Pinched This Year Consumers say they'll shop later, many will spend less.

• Home Prices Sink Deeper Twenty areas report lowest annual returns ever.

MANHUNT 2: TOO MUCH ULTRA-VIOLENCE?
Video games have been pushing the shock envelope for years now, delivering enough sex, violence, blood and gore to keep teenage boys happy and parents in a tizzy--but has Rockstar Games' "Manhunt 2" finally crossed over the line of good taste? Joseph Enoch played the game and found its ultra-graphic depictions of brutality too much to stomach at some points, and definitely not appropriate for kids. Read Joe's article carefully before letting your kids convince you to buy this game for them.

VERIZON OVERRIDES WEB SEARCHES WITH ITS OWN RESULTS
Subscribers to Verizon's FiOS service have been finding that mistyped Web addresses take them to Verizon's own sponsored search page-- even if they use Google as their search engine. While Verizon claims its "Advanced Web Search" feature is designed to help users, others fear it's designed chiefly to make money off the ads placed on its search site, and may be a harbinger of an Internet without net neutrality.

More technology and Internet news...

• FCC Set to Outlaw Exclusive Cable Deals Telecoms win; landlords, cable companies lose.

• Canada Launches Recalls Web Site First effort to list all Canadian recalls in one place.

MAYO CLINIC SEES NEW HOPE IN BREAST CANCER DRUG
Researchers at the Mayo Clinic have found that a drug used to combat lung and brain cancers may also show promise in retarding the spread of breast cancer as well. 2ME2 (aka Panzem) has demonstrated potential in clinical trials to cause cancer cells to self-destruct before they can spread, although researchers from the Mayo Clinic and the National Institutes of Health caution that formal clinical trials for breast cancer and much more research is needed before any official claims can be made.

This week's health news...

• Motion Sickness Affects Some but Not Others Little is known about the genetic basis of motion sickness. Some get it, some don't.

• Kids’ Cough Medicine Recalled Over Dosing Issue Robitussin, Dimetapp caps may not give proper dosage.

• FDA Finds Problems with Online Drugs Consumers often bypassing physicians, study indicates.

• Can Acupuncture Help Knee Pain? The answer may surprise you.

• Italian Restaurants Serve Up the Fat Survey of chain restaurants finds vast quantities of fat, calories.

• Doctors Over-Prescribing Colonoscopies, Study Finds Repeat tests being ordered more often than necessary.

• Cancer Patients Skipping Flu and Pneumonia Shots Study finds life-saving shots too often overlooked.

Miscellaneous scams, & outrages...

• Ticket Brokers Pony Up Hannah Montana Tickets Missouri suit nets free tickets for needy kids.

• New York Sues WaMu and its Appraisers Companies conspired to inflate appraisals, suit charges.

• Email Scam Spoofs FTC Bogus email claims to be from FTC's 'Fraud Department.'

• Weight-Loss Schemes Top Feds' Scam List 30 million U.S. fraud complaints last year.

• New Jersey Wants Banks to Help Fight Phishing Scams Sexual predators not the only menace lurking on the Web.

HOUSEKEEPING ITEMS

• Spanish stories We've been remiss in providing links to the Spanish version of our news stories and recall notices, so we've started adding links as soon as a Spanish version is ready, usually the same day the English version appears. Watch for the links--right next to the date--and tell your Spanish-speaking friends about them.

• Your email If you have a consumeraffairs.org email, you now have your very own log-in page -- /email/. The log-in space in our top navigation bar will disappear later this week, freeing up that space for other uses.

Back to the top |