Current Events in August 2014

Pending home sales bounced back in July from their June decline and are now up for 4 of the last 5 months.

The National Association of Realtors (NRA) says its Pending Home Sales Index (PHSI) climbed 3.3% to 105.9 last month from 102.5 in June, but is still 2.1% below its year-ago level (108.2).

The index, a forward-looking indicator based on contract signings, is at its highest level since August 2013 (107.1) and is above 100 -- considered an average level of contract activity -- for the third consecutive month.

NAR Chief Economist Lawrence Yun credits favorable housing conditions. “Interest rates are lower than they were a year ago, price growth continues to moderate and total housing inventory is at its highest level since August 2012,” he said. “The increase in the number of new and existing homes for sale is creating less competition and is giving prospective buyers more time to review their options before submitting an offer.”

Yun also notes that “steady job additions to the economy are helping family finances and giving them added confidence to enter the market.”

Most regions post healthy gains

• The PHSI in the Northeast jumped 6.2% to 89.2 in July, and is 8.3% above a year ago.
• Pending home sales in the South increased 4.2% to an index of 119.0, and but remains 1.0% below a year ago.
• The index in the West rose 4.0% in to 99.5, but is still 6.0% percent below July 2013.
• In the Midwest -- the only exception -- the index dipped 0.4% to 104.6 in July, and is 6.4% below July 2013.

The forecast

Yun expects existing-homes sales to be down 2.1%t this year to 4.98 million, compared with 5.09 million sales of existing homes in 2013.

The national median existing-home price is projected to grow between 5% to 6% this year, with the increase slowing to 4% to 5% next year.

TNUVA USA of Fairfield, N.J., is recalling approximately 8,316 pounds of Mom’s Chicken Extra Thin Cutlets.

The product may be contaminated with Listeria monocytogenes.

There are no reports of illnesses associated with consumption of these products

The following recalled product was produced on August 18, 2013, and shipped to the company’s distributor in New Jersey:

• 28.8-oz. (1.8 lb.) bags containing “MOM’S CHICKEN EXTRA THIN CUTLETS, THIN-CUT BREADED CUTLET SHAPED CHICKEN BREAST PATTIES.”

Bags bear the Israeli establishment number “209” within the Israeli mark of inspection. The product’s expiration date is February 18, 2015, and bears the following UPC number on the packaging: 843426005866.

Consumers with questions regarding the recall may contact customer service at 1-844- GOTNUVA (1-844-468-6882).

General Motors is recalling 22 model year 2015 Chevrolet Suburban, Suburban LTZ, Tahoe, Tahoe LTZ, GMC Yukon, and Yukon XL Denali vehicles manufactured on May 13, 2014.

The vehicles were assembled with a roof rail air bags (RRAB) that were not reinforced at the points were the bags contact the hardware used to attach the roof carrier. During deployment, the RRAB may be punctured or torn by the roof carrier hardware, reducing its performance and increasing the risk of occupant injury in the event of a crash.

GM will notify owners, and dealers will replace the roof carrier attaching hardware, free of charge. The recall is expected to begin in early September 2014.

Owners may contact GM customer service at 1-800-222-1020 (Chevrolet) or 1-800-462-8782 (GMC). GM's number for this recall is 14359.

A New York University (NYU) professor's study of hotel fees has gotten a lot of attention this week. Bjorn Hanson, clinical professor at the NYU School of Professional Studies, reported what a lot of travelers already know – hotels have gotten into the fee game.

Just like airlines, Hanson says hotels have begun to charge a fee for things that were once considered part of the nightly room rate. By Hanson's tally, the hotel industry collected $2.1 billion in fees and surcharges last year and is on track to surpass that this year.

Travelers now face routine fees like resort or amenity fees, early departure fees, early reservation cancellation fees, and sometimes even a charge for an in-room safe, even if it isn't used. One hotel charges $75 for receiving a Federal Express or UPS delivery at the front desk.

Why not just charge what it costs?

Though hotels have always tacked on fees for things like restocking the mini-bar, the airline industry is generally credited with laying on the fees in order to stay profitable. But if hotels and airlines just raised rates and fares to reflect the market value, the fees wouldn't be necessary.

Consider an air fare that cost $250 in 1978, when the industry was still regulated. Just adjusting for inflation, that fare should be $913.54 today. But it isn't. At the most, it might be $500. By adding fees, the airline gets it closer to the inflation adjusted number.

Hanson says there are a number of reasons airlines and hotels don't just charge the real price.

“Most guests are highly rate sensitive - $2.00 causes a shift in market share,” he told ConsumerAffairs. “Room revenue is subject to municipal occupancy tax, fees and surcharges are not. Most guests do not like to be charged for services or amenities they do not consume.”

Economist Joel Naroff, of Naroff Economic Advisors in Holland, Pa., agrees that the travel industry would much rather offer a low fare or rate, then regain the revenue through fees. A lot fewer consumers are going to book a $900 fare, even though they may end up paying close to that when all is said and done.

“Doesn’t matter what the bottom line is, for advertising purposes, it is the top line,” Naroff told ConsumerAffairs. “That is why the government made the airlines add in taxes to their posted prices, not simply post the airlines price.”

Promoting transparency

In May the Department of Transportation (DOT) published proposed new rule making to increase transparency of airline fees. It would require that airlines and ticket agents disclose at all points of sale the fee information for basic ancillary services such as a passenger’s first checked bag, second checked bag, carry-on item and advance seat selection.

Still, the airlines will continue to advertise fares that seem low and hotels will offer what might appear to be bargains on an overnight stay. And while Spirit Airlines is often accused of being over-the-top when it comes to fees, the airline defends its practice as giving consumers who don't need any extra services a very low fare. The fact that its planes are usually full might indicate there are plenty of consumers who agree with it.

So consumers must carefully read between the lines when considering what airline to fly and what hotel to book. It's more work for you because Naroff says hotels and airlines are highly unlikely to just give you a single price.

“Remember, it is not what you pay but what you think you are paying that matters to people selling goods,” he said. “Once they have you, they then can make you pay through the nose, but they need to get you there first!”

The new California law mandating a “kill switch” option on all smartphones made or sold in the state is intended to cut down on smartphone theft, by giving owners the option to remotely disable, or “kill,” their phones. The idea, of course, is that thieves will be less likely to steal phones which they know will soon be rendered useless.

But privacy and civil-liberty advocates worry the kill switch mandate could lead to more nefarious outcomes: instead of phone owners killing their phones to render them useless to thieves, hackers could kill the phones remotely, whether as a prank or, more ominously, to prevent an intended victim from calling 911. There's even greater concern that the police or other government-backed authority might use the kill switch to shut down protests, or prevent protesters from having any contact with the outside world.

The California bill, SB 962, says in part: “Any request by a government agency to interrupt communications service utilizing a technological solution required by this section is subject to Section 7908 of the Public Utilities Code.”

And what does that mean? Last June, shortly after SB 962 was first proposed, the Electronic Freedom Foundation (EFF) sent a letter opposing it on two grounds, which it described as “'lock in' and legitimizing a technical means.”

The EFF said that “Lock in describes when a particular technology is frozen in place due to a technological mandate, so other technologies — perhaps better technologies — have no chance of competing.” In other words, perhaps the mandate for this particular kill-switch phone-security measure might discourage the development of other, better security measures.

BART protests

But EFF's more serious concern is the “potential for abuse. We were especially concerned with giving government actors any more ability to shut off cell phones after wireless service was shut off during the 2011 BART protests.”

In 2011, after learning that people in the San Francisco area planned to protest the then-most-recent fatal police shooting, the Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) police shut down underground cell phone service, intending to halt the protest. An attorney for the ACLU said at the time “All over the world, people are using mobile devices to protest oppressive regimes, and governments are shutting down cell phone towers and the Internet to stop them … It's outrageous that in San Francisco, BART is doing the same thing.”

In response to the shutdown, California passed Public Utilities Code § 7908 which, according to the EFF, “took great steps to prevent law enforcement from cutting off communications services, though it sunsets [expires] at the end of this decade. PUC § 7908, however, also legitimized a legal process for law enforcement to interrupt communications. SB 962, by mandating kill switches in every phone, would legitimize a technical means.”

EFF had hoped that, at the very least, if the kill switch mandate became law, it would explicitly limit this power to the phone's rightful owner. But this did not happen.

Hanni Fakhoury, an EFF attorney, discussed other scenarios in an interview with Wired, saying that the kill switch mandate “invites a lot of mischief. You can imagine a domestic violence situation or a stalking context where someone kills [a victim's] phone and prevents them from calling the police or reporting abuse. It will not be a surprise when you see it being used this way.”

Insurance experts at the Consumer Federation of America say consumers need to be more aggressive in ensuring they're getting the lowest possible price from their car insurance company.

J. Robert Hunter, Director of Insurance at CFA and former Texas Insurance Commissioner, says it's never been more important to shop around for insurance.

“You may have been with your auto insurance company for many years. You may even receive a loyalty discount of five or ten percent on your bill. You have filed few or even no claims during your years with the insurer. You are a great customer and it may seem that there’s no reason to complain about your auto insurance," Hunter said, warning that it's just such customers who are targeted by rate increases.

“Watch out! Your insurer may be increasing your premium by far more than your loyalty discount, precisely because you have been so loyal. Even if you have a perfect driving record, many insurance companies are raising rates on people just like you – people who do not shop around," he said. "Newly revealed insurance practices show that reasons you might be vulnerable to price increases are such things as staying with one insurer for many years, never calling the company with complaints or simply buying your insurance through an agent rather than online.”

Are you being PO-ed?

The name insurers use for such practice is “Price Optimization,” referred to as “PO.”

The industry uses personal consumer data and statistical models to measure how likely each customer is to shop around and how much of a price increase he or she will tolerate, Hunter said. After determining what economists call the “price elasticity of demand,” insurers push up premiums based on how unlikely it is that a customer will shop around for a better price, even if the driver has never caused an accident or been issued a ticket.

Many insurance companies, including about half of the larger ones, raise a driver’s premium if they conclude that the driver is not likely to leave their company, the CFA reported. This means millions of drivers are possibly being charged a premium that is higher than the amount considered appropriate and fair for their risk profile.

What should a consumer do?

The best defense against being PO-ed is to shop around, according to Hunter. 

“Even before the advent of price optimization it was very important to shop for insurance since prices vary so widely. But now, to avoid being POed, shopping is critical,” Hunter said.

Hunter said consumers should also call their state’s Insurance Commissioner and tell her or him to stop insurance companies from using this Price Optimization scheme to unfairly raise rates on customers.

American Airlines and Orbitz are at it again. Just as it did three years ago, American has pulled its flights from Orbitz and says it will remove US Airways listings next week.

It's all part of an attempt to reach a new contract, something American officials say they have been trying to do for months. 

"We have worked tirelessly with Orbitz to reach a deal with the economics that allow us to keep costs low and compete with low-cost carriers," said Scott Kirby, President – American Airlines. "While our fares are no longer on Orbitz, there are a multitude of other options available for our customers, including brick and mortar agencies, online travel agencies, and our own websites."

Orbitz echoed the "other options" line in a brief statement:

"Our sites offer hundreds of airlines which are eager to capture the revenue American is choosing to forego and we will continue to show our customers a broad range of flight options to thousands of destinations in the U.S. and worldwide."

Tickets already purchased through Orbitz websites remain valid for travel, but changes to reservations must be made through each airline's reservations department.

The dispute affects not only Orbitz but also several other sites it owns, including ebookers.com and CheapTickets.com. 

Orbitz for Business is not affected by the dispute.

The dispute arises from American's efforts to reduce the percentage of each booking it pays to Orbitz, as American and other legacy carriers compete with low-cost carriers like Southwest, which are often not listed in Orbitz and other online travel sites.

In December 2010, American yanked its listings from Orbitz and Travelport in a dispute that wound up in court.

It's often said that maintaining your health will result in spending less money on doctor's visits, tests and prescription medicine.

It would make sense that is true, but can anyone really back it up? Researchers at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center say they can.

In a study, they found that overweight people who have diabetes can save, on average, $500 per year by shedding pounds through proper diet and exercise.

"Lifestyle interventions promoting weight loss and physical activity are recommended for overweight and obese people with type 2 diabetes to improve their health," said Mark A. Espeland, lead author of the study. "This is the first study to show that weight loss can also save money for these individuals by reducing their health care needs and costs."

In the study, subjects with type 2 diabetes, a condition largely the result of obesity and other lifestyle factors, were put on an intensive lifestyle intervention program, supplemented with diabetes support and education. Others in the study maintained their normal lifestyle and managed their diabetes solely through medication.

Results

The researchers say at the end of the study, those who lost weight and adopted a healthier lifestyle had 11% fewer hospitalizations. Those who were admitted to hospitals were discharged 15% earlier. They also had to purchase fewer medications.

The researchers were able to put a dollar amount on those differences. The group that lost weight saved an average $5,280 over 10 years – or $528 per year.

Espeland said the people who lost weight and increased physical activity improved their overall health because they had better control of their diabetes, blood pressure, sleep quality, physical function and symptoms of depression. The cost savings appeared to be consistent regardless of age, initial weight, gender or ethnicity.

"Type 2 diabetes is a chronic disease that is affecting more and more adults, increasing their health care needs and costs," Espeland said. "This study shows that by losing weight and being physically active, individuals can reduce these costs."

Boost for corporate wellness programs

The findings may provide additional support for corporate wellness programs, that provide incentives for employees to get regular exercise and adopt a healthy lifestyle. According to Kiplinger, more than 40% of large employers surveyed by the National Business Group currently offer their employees some kind of incentive for participating in a wellness programs.

The average incentive is just under $400. The corporations hope to recoup the cost of those incentives through lower health insurance premiums, as well as increased worker productivity and fewer sick days.

According to Kiplinger, some employers may add $75 to an employee's health savings account if they participate in an exercise program.

The U.S. military is grappling with the effects poor lifestyle choices have on health, not just in dealing with rising health care costs but in filling out its ranks.

According to Army Magazine, about 1 in 4 possible recruits is eligible to enlist. Some of the other 75% might be ineligible, have weight or medical issues that keep them out of uniform.

It quotes Army officials as say the declining pool of recruits is a problem, so the urgency for better health and lifestyle choices is no longer simply a national health issue, nor just an economic one -- it's a matter of national security.  

If you've ever bought or sold the K-cup knockoffs known as Grove Square Coffee pods, you might have grounds for a class-action standing — at least if you live in Illinois' Seventh District.

Courthouse News Service reported that “misled coffee lovers get break on common claim.” Yet the first paragraph of the court's 27-page ruling almost sounds like it was written by someone in Keurig's marketing department:

This case is about coffee. Not just any coffee - it is about the individual coffee pods that are used in the popular Keurig coffeemakers. The Keurig system solved a problem with which coffee drinkers had struggled for years: how to make individual portions of fresh-brewed coffee in a tidy, flavorful, easy, and relatively inexpensive way.

The patent on individual K-cups expired in 2012, which is why there have been so many other options on the market since then (and also why Keurig's next-generation coffee makers are supposed to come with RFID-chip pods, to ensure that only officially branded K-cup pods can be used in future Keurig coffee machines).

Not instant

Patented K-cups and their post-2012 non-branded knockoffs all share something in common with standard home coffee makers: a filter, which is necessary to ensure you get a cup of coffee without any coffee grounds in it.

So a K-cup or knockoff is basically a pre-packaged, disposable coffee filter, pre-filled with enough ground coffee to brew one cup. K-cup coffee is not the same thing as “instant” coffee – those water-soluble crystals that dissolve when you mix them in hot water. In other words: making instant coffee does not require a filter, but brewing coffee does.

Anyway: until the K-cup patent expired in 2012, the only legal way for a company to sell filtered single-serving brewed-coffee pods was through a licensing agreement with Keurig.

However, Sturm Foods (parent company of Grove Square Coffee) got around the pre-2012 patent requirements by introducing a slightly different product in 2010: pods which look like K-cups from the outside, but have no filters inside. Since the GSC pods were filterless, they did not contain true ground coffee, only dissolvable instant coffee. (And anyone who's tried instant coffee knows: it simply does not taste as good as brewed coffee.)

As Courthouse News said:

Sturm's consultants allegedly advised that "use of the word 'instant' is a real no-no," so Sturm's packaging for its pods describe the product as "naturally roasted soluble and microground Arabica coffee."

The package showed fresh beans on the front, and set forth a "Coffee Lover's Bill of Rights," including the right to a "fresh cup," but did not mention that the pod contained only a dusting of fresh coffee on top of instant chunks.

In addition, the package warns users not to remove the foil seal on top of the pod, stating that the cup will not work in the coffee maker without it - a false claim, possibly intended to ensure the buyer did not view the contents of the pod.

Premium prices

Sturn also charged premium prices for its instant coffee. But high prices and fancy packaging couldn't hide the fact that instant coffee simply does not taste as good as brewed, which is why, according to the court decision, “The public response after the release of GSC was awful. The day after the product started selling in Wal-Mart stores, Sturm emailed its employees to request that the legal department, not the quality control or sales department, be immediately informed about any complaints regarding GSC.”

One retailer allegedly told Sturm that GSC “has been the poorest performing introductory product that we have had in our 12 year history.” Sturm allegedly responded in part by having its own employees open online sockpuppet accounts to post fake, glowing reviews about GSC products.

Exercise may actually get your kid's brain in shape, a new study finds.  It doesn't prove it will make your kids smarter but it hints at it.

The study was conducted  by Laura Chaddock-Heyman, a postdoctoral researcher in the psychology department at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

"Our work suggests that aerobically fit and physically fit children have improved brain health and superior cognitive [thinking] skills than their less-fit peers," she said. The hope is that these findings will reinforce the importance of fitness during development.

According to a review of 14 studies published in 2012 in the journal JAMA Pediatrics, there is a clear connection between physical fitness and academic performance: Students who were physically active were more likely to get better grades, score higher on cognitive tests, or both.

The latest research  on fitness and brainpower, published in 2014 in the journal Brain and Cognition, adds to those discoveries. Results showed that kids who were more aerobically fit had better language skills than kids who weren't as fit.

They found that the kids who were more in shape — those who were better at taking up oxygen during exercise — tended to have faster neuroelectric responses associated with understanding context and grammar while reading. These kids also performed better on tests that included the language skills they need for school.

So instead of getting a tutor for your kids this year you may want to get them a bike and a ball and tell them to go play outside. 

The World Health Organization (WHO) is weighing in on electronic cigarettes, declaring that they represent an “evolving frontier filled with promise and threat for tobacco control.” 

In a report prepared for an upcoming conference in Moscow, WHO questions whether e-cigs actually help smokers quit the habit, calls for bans on advertising and restrictions on using the devices indoors. It also suggests regulations are needed to:

• Impede e-cigarette promotion to non-smokers and young people;
• Minimize potential health risks to e-cigarette users and nonusers;
• Prohibit unproven health claims about e-cigarettes; and
• Protect existing tobacco control efforts from commercial and other vested interests of the tobacco industry.

The suggested regulations outlined in the report include a ban on e-cigarettes with fruit, candy-like and alcohol-drink flavours until it can be proved they are not attractive to children and adolescents.

E-cigarettes have been marketed in almost 8,000 different flavours, and there is concern they will serve as a gateway to nicotine addiction and, ultimately, smoking, particularly for young people, the report warns.

Experimentation with e-cigarettes is increasing rapidly among adolescents, with e-cigarette use in this group doubling from 2008 to 2012, the report says.

Gentlemen, you may not be too fond of tomatoes but it might be a good idea to load up on them anyway. A new study finds that men who eat over 10 portions a week of tomatoes have an 18% lower risk of developing prostate cancer, the second-most common cancer among men.

You can thank lycopene, an antioxidant which fights off toxins that can cause DNA and cell damage, according to Vanessa Er, from the School of Social and Community Medicine at the University of Bristol, England.

"Our findings suggest that tomatoes may be important in prostate cancer prevention. However, further studies need to be conducted to confirm our findings, especially through human trials. Men should still eat a wide variety of fruits and vegetables, maintain a healthy weight and stay active," she said.

Prostate cancer rates are higher in developed countries, which some experts believe is linked to a Westernized diet and lifestyle.

To assess if following dietary and lifestyle recommendations reduces risk of prostate cancer, researchers at the Universities of Bristol, Cambridge and Oxford looked at the diets and lifestyle of 1,806 men aged between 50 and 69 with prostate cancer and compared with 12,005 cancer-free men.

The study, published in the medical journal Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers and Prevention, is the first of its kind to develop a prostate cancer "dietary index" which consists of dietary components – selenium, calcium and foods rich in lycopene – that have been linked to prostate cancer.

Men who had optimal intake of these three dietary components had a lower risk of prostate cancer.

Tomatoes and its products – such as tomato juice and baked beans - were shown to be most beneficial, with an 18% reduction in risk found in men eating over 10 portions a week.

Nestlé is breaking the rules but for a good reason. It announced an industry-leading animal welfare program that will eliminate several controversial yet standard practices within its global supply system.

Their new policy will eliminate confining pigs in gestation crates. No more calves placed in veal crates. No longer will they force rapid growth for chickens. They will not cut genitals, horns and tails without administering a pain killer first.

Nestlé has some 7,300 suppliers from whom it buys animal-derived products directly. Each of these suppliers, in turn, buys from others, meaning that Nestlé’s new program will apply to literally hundreds of thousands of farms around the world.

An independent auditor, SGS, will carry out checks to ensure the new standards are met on Nestlé's supplying farms. Some of these checks are also attended, unannounced, by World Animal Protection representatives, according to the guidelines.

When a violation is found and a supplier does not show improvement after guidance from the company, it can no longer supply Nestlé, the company added.

Nestlé is also encouraging food sustainability by promoting the global Meatless Monday movement via on-package messaging for some of its products. 

The Humane Society International says it's very pleased with the changes.  

Consumers will applaud this policy as well. They have made it clear that being abusive to animals in breeding farms or for that matter at any time is not acceptable.

Mortgage applications posted their second straight advance during the week ending August 22.

Data from the Mortgage Bankers Association’s (MBA) Weekly Mortgage Applications Survey show applications increased 2.8% from the previous week.

The Refinance Index rose 3%, pushing the refinance share of mortgage activity up 1% -- to 56% of total applications, the highest level since March 2014. The adjustable-rate mortgage (ARM) share of activity held steady 8.0% of total applications.

Contract interest rates

• The average contract interest rate for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages (FRMs) with conforming loan balances ($417,000 or less) dipped to 4.28% from 4.29%, with points decreasing to 0.25 from 0.26 (including the origination fee) for 80% loan-to-value ratio (LTV) loans. The effective rate was unchanged from last week.
• The average contract interest rate for 30-year FRMs with jumbo loan balances (greater than $417,000) increased rose 4 basis points, from 4.18% to 4.22%, with points increasing to 0.28 from 0.23 (including the origination fee) for 80% LTV loans. The effective rate increased from last week.
• The average contract interest rate for 30-year FRMs backed by the FHA slipped to 3.98%, the lowest since June 2013, from 3.99%, with points increasing to 0.13 from 0.03 (including the origination fee) for 80% LTV loans. The effective rate increased from last week.
• The average contract interest rate for 15-year FRMs moved to 3.47% from 3.44%, with points rising to 0.34 from 0.30 (including the origination fee) for 80% LTV loans. The effective rate was up from last week.
• The average contract interest rate for 5/1 ARMs was unchanged at 3.10%, with points increasing to 0.52 from 0.44 (including the origination fee) for 80% LTV loans. The effective rate increased from last week.

The survey covers over 75% of all U.S. retail residential mortgage applications.

Suzuki Motor Of America is recalling 19,249 model year 2010-2013 Kizashi vehicles manufactured October 2009 through July 2012.

In the affected vehicles, spiders may weave a web in the evaporative canister vent hose, blocking it and causing the fuel tank to have an excessive amount of negative pressure. That could cause the fuel tank to crack, resulting in a fuel leak, increasing the risk of a fire.

Suzuki is in the process of notifying owners, and dealers will replace the evaporative canister vent line on the affected vehicles with a vent line that has a filter on the end. If the canister vent line is found to be obstructed by a spider web, the fuel tank will also be replaced. These repairs will be performed free of charge. The recall began on August 12, 2014.

Owners may contact Suzuki customer service at 1-800-934-0934. Suzuki's number for this recall is VG.

A consumer group wants federal safety regulators to open a formal investigation into power system failures in Chrysler vehicles that have been blamed for sudden stalls and other problems.

"Chrysler's TIPM (Totally Integrated Power Module) is a computer run amuck," said Clarence Ditlow, executive director of the Center for Auto Safety. "Owners report that their vehicles act as if possessed and leave them in dangerous situations -- stalled vehicles stranded without warning on the highway, fuel pumps that won't shut off, windows that open and shut ..." 

Ditlow's group filed a petition with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) asking it to open a formal investigation into the problem. Chrysler said it is investigating the allegations.

"Chrysler Group vehicles meet or exceed all applicable safety standards. However, in keeping with sound engineering practice, the Company is actively investigating customer complaints and retrieving components from the field for closer analysis," Chrysler Group said in a statement.

Ditlow said thousands of owners have reported incidents to NHTSA as well as to consumer websites.

"Death trap"

Among them is Carol of Martinez, Calif., who said in a ConsumerAffairs posting that her 2009 Jeep Grand Cherokee had become a "death trap, stalling while driving or stopped in traffic or at a light."

She said the dealer was unable to diagnose the problem and replaced the spark plugs. 

"The next day it stalled driving down the street. Today the vehicle stalled in traffic. The malfunction light came on and will not turn off. ... It seems Jeep dealership service centers, independent shops and technicians are familiar with this problem plaguing but are not equipped with a firm fix."

In an Aug. 1 entry, NHTSA recounted a consumer complaint about a 2010 Chrysler Town and Country:

THE CONTACT OWNS A 2010 CHRYSLER TOWN AND COUNTRY. THE CONTACT STATED WHILE DRIVING APPROXIMATELY 55 MPH, THE ENGINE STALLED WITH THE ILLUMINATION OF THE ENGINE AND ELECTRONIC CONTROL MODULE WARNING INDICATORS. THE VEHICLE FAILED TO RESTART AND WAS TOWED TO AN AUTHORIZED DEALER FOR DIAGNOSIS. THE DEALER WAS UNABLE TO LOCATE A PROBLEM. THE MANUFACTURER WAS NOT NOTIFIED OF THE ISSUE. THE APPROXIMATE FAILURE MILEAGE WAS 52,000.

Millions affected

Ditlow says the problem affects millions of Chrysler products.

"The TIPM is in millions of 2007-2014 Chrysler vehicles and fails at such high frequency that Chrysler has run out of replacement parts," Ditlow said. "Consumers are faced with a terrible dilemma -- park the vehicle until parts are available or ride at risk of being in deadly crash."

Ditlow's petition seeks a recall of all Chrysler vehicles with defective TIPMs and replacement with a redesigned module that provides safe and reliable vehicle control.

You'll never guess what Facebook is doing to make its user experience less obnoxious!

Luckily you don't have to guess, because we'll come right out and tell you: Facebook's cracking down on obnoxious “click-bait” headlines of the “You'll never guess what so-and-so is doing!” or “You'll be amazed to hear what happened!” variety.

Facebook defines “click-baiting” as being when “a publisher posts a link with a headline that encourages people to click to see more, without telling them much information about what they will see.”

The lack of information is what makes it clickbait. After all: anyone who posts a link hopes people will click on it (otherwise, what's the point?), but legitimate headlines are supposed to give at least some indication of what the story's actually about — hence, the difference between posting a link titled “Facebook finally cracks down on clickbait” versus “You'll never guess what Facebook is doing to make its user experience less obnoxious!” The former is a legitimate headline; the latter is clickbait.

Bottom feeders

CNN Money referred to “a whole ecosystem of bottom-feeder Web sites that specialize in these kinds of stories.” Facebook's main motivation for the crackdown against that ecosystem is that clickbait can lead to a vicious cycle for the typical Facebook user: the more you're tricked into clicking on links which (it turns out) you don't actually care about, the more likely it is that your Facebook “feed” will include lots more links you don't care about, crowding out the ones you do and increasing the likelihood you'll spend less time on Facebook.

But a clickbait crackdown might have other advantages as well. Some clickbait is relatively innocuous, in that whoever put it up is only trying to get more clicks. But clickbait is also very popular with hackers and scam artists, who will use it to trick people into downloading malware.

Do you remember last March, when a Malaysia Airlines flight mysteriously vanished? On April Fools' Day the Better Business Bureau had to put out a serious, no-joke scam warning to let Facebook users know that malware writers were using the missing airline as clickbait: Facebook posts promised (for example) exclusive, never-before-seen video of the missing flight, or even said that the flight had been found, but anyone who clicked the link soon found their computers infected with malware.

With luck, Facebook's crackdown on “legitimate” clickbait (legitimate in the sense that it's only trying to inflate its click-numbers, rather than try to install malware or worse) will make life more difficult for clickbait scammers too.

If you're like most of us, you've heard of Bitcoin but may be a bit hazy about just what it is and where you might get some.

Well, what it is isn't easily explained but it's basically what's called cryptocurrency -- virtual money generated, distributed and stored completely outside government channels.

The non-digerati among us have been a bit slow to pick up on the whole virtual currency idea but it's about to get a little bit easier, as Bitcoin ATMs begin to appear here and there.

Unlike your typical ATM, these machines will take your cash but they won't dispense $40 from your checking account to cover your cabfare home. Instead, you insert your cash and the machine generates your digital currency at the current exchange rate, which changes constantly.

The thing that's a little hard to grasp with digital currency is that you can't physically grasp it. It exists -- if you will -- in the cloud. It's a notch or two above an idea or a dream but it's not anything you can put in your pocket.

Heavy lifting

What is "is" -- if it is anything at all -- is a "key," a highly secure series of digits that are generated when your purchase is processed. The ATM machine does the heavy lifting for you and records the purchase in your account.

Frankly, the odds are this information won't be of much use to you just yet, since there are only 204 Bitcoin ATMs operating worldwide -- 38 in North America -- at the moment, according to Coin ATM Radar, which keeps track of such things. So it's not as though one is coming to your neighborhood 7-11 anytime soon.

This isn't bad news for the average consumer, as there is really no compelling reason to begin adopting virtual currency just yet. It comes in handy for criminals, of course, but then so does cash.

If you're feeling adventurous, keep in mind that Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies aren't backed by any government, which may or may not be a good thing. Also, the exchanges that generate and store Bitcoin currency aren't insured by anything resembling the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, so there is a bit of risk inherent in the whole affair.

On the other hand, only a certain number of Bitcoins will ever be generated so -- just like gold and other physical commodities -- they should increase in value over time.

How much time is anyone's guess and will be the subject of future stories.