Current Events in May 2015

Nissan North America is recalling 263,692 model year 2004 Pathfinders manufactured January 6, 2004, to July 19, 2004, and 2004-2006 Sentras manufactured January 7, 2004, to August 26, 2006.

Upon deployment of the passenger side front air bag, excessive internal pressure may cause the inflator to rupture. Metal fragments could strike and seriously injure the vehicle occupants.

Nissan will notify owners, and dealers will replace the passenger air bag inflator, free of charge. The recall is expected to begin on June 15, 2015.

Owners may contact Nissan customer service at 1-800-647-7261.

ZYK Enterprises of Duvall, Wash., is recalling 2,522 pounds of boneless veal trim and whole veal muscle cut products.

The product may be contaminated with E. coli O157:H7

There are no reports of illnesses associated with consumption of this product.

The following boneless veal trim and whole veal muscle cuts produced from January 2-23, 2015, are being recalled:

• 60 lb. bulk boxes of boneless veal trim with a package produced date of January 5, 2015.
• 60 lb. bulk boxes of boneless veal trim with a package produced date of January 20, 2015.
• Various size bulk boxes ranging from 22 to 63 lb. of boneless veal trim and whole muscle cuts with multiple package dates from January 2-8 through January 23, 2015.

The recalled products bear the establishment number “EST. 9325” inside the USDA mark of inspection on the boxes. Product from these lots was shipped for further processing to wholesale establishments in California, Massachusetts and Washington state.

Consumers are advised to prepare their raw meat products, including fresh and frozen,safely, and consume only ground beef that has been cooked to a temperature of 160 ° F. 

Consumers with questions may call Zeeshan Qazi at (425) 788-1128.

Why is Rep. Mike Pompeo (R-Kansas) trying to pass a national labelling law for genetically-modified organisms (GMOs)? Well, to appease Europe of course.

From the American Farm Bureau to the Grocery Manufacturers Association, a lot of the people who run America’s food system say we need Pompeo’s bill to stop the spread of a patchwork of state-level GMO labelling laws. But it’s not as though these laws have been a runaway success. Many were voted down, and the ones that passed face court challenges, leading many to suggest Pompeo’s bill is like taking a sledgehammer to a fly.

Whatever happened to informing voters before they go to the ballot box? And why isn’t Pompeo invoking the Commerce Clause of the United States Constitution (Article I, § 8) which precludes states from interfering in interstate commerce?

Rick Tolman, former CEO of the National Corn Growers Association, says stopping local anti-GMO measures is only part of Pompeo’s goal. America’s trade relations also have to be considered. But how exactly does a law that applies only to Americans bear upon our trade relations?

"Nothing but a front"

Alas, it turns out the GMO-labelling portion of Pompeo’s bill is nothing but a front. It’s actually an international trade bill in disguise. Buried within H.R. 1599 is the following:

The Secretary shall promulgate regulations to specify a maximum permissible level of food consisting of a bioengineered organism that may be inadvertently present in food bearing claims [that bioengineering was not used]. (SEC. 425, emphasis added.)

A threshold limit on something renders it a potential contaminant, and you can rest assured America would not be the world leader in GMO farming today had GMO crops been labelled as contaminants when introduced in the 1990s. This codification of a maximum permissible level will make it possible, for the first time ever in America, for organic farmers to sue their neighbors when their neighbors’ GMO crops “contaminate” their organic crop above that level.

But if GMOs actually pose a threat to organic crops, would it not behoove Pompeo to include the precise point at which this threat becomes reality? Instead, the bill leaves it to “The Secretary,” a political appointee, to “promulgate regulations” after this law is passed, reminiscent of when Speaker Nancy Pelosi said of Obamacare that "We have to pass the bill so that you can find out what is in it.”

Arbitrary limit

The reason Pompeo avoids being specific is because he knows full well any such limit will be arbitrary. GMOs pose no threat to organic crops. Nonetheless, here's the European Union’s regulation that will be cribbed in order to maintain America’s trade relations with anti-GMO nations:

Organic production outlaws the use of genetically modified organisms. However, the regulation on genetically modified food and feed lays down a threshold (0.9%) under which a product's GMO content does not have to be indicated. [Only] Products with GMO content below this threshold can be labelled organic.

And that, my friends, is how you screw American GMO farmers while facilitating “regulatory cooperation” with Europe, Japan, China and Russia.

Elitist leaders in these anti-GMO nations prevent their farmers from growing GMOs even as they import millions of tons of GMOs from America every year. And they have now managed to force a Republican and a Democrat (G.K. Butterfield) to join hands here in America to pass a law that ostensibly allows for the voluntary labelling of GMO foods, but which is really designed to force America to adopt a European-style, make-believe threshold limit on GMOs in organic food.

An American invention

America invented GMOs. And we’re the leader in this field precisely because we do not have a threshold limit on GMO content. Why would we? Even European scientists say GMOs are perfectly safe. As such, American organic stakeholders agreed not to set a threshold limit for GMO “contamination” of an organic crop back in 1997 during President Clinton’s second term when America’s National Organic Program (NOP) was written.

Synthetic pesticides, by contrast, do have a threshold limit because they can be dangerous. But GMOs are not. So American organic farmers are only prevented from making use of GMOs, and can’t claim damage from them. And by all accounts, this arrangement has served the American organic industry very well, resulting in “remarkable growth domestically and globally.”

But, alas, activists want more. They want it all in fact. And by caving in to them, Pompeo and Butterfield are not only trashing the 2002 bipartisan Act of Congress that passed America’s NOP into law; they’re also putting the future of every American GMO farm on the line, while providing a huge disincentive for researchers to develop new GMO crops. Indeed, where are the farmers crazy enough to grow new GMO crops when the threat of a lawsuit hangs over their heads?

GMO labelling is bad for America whether at the state or federal level, which is why organic activists are so muted in their opposition to Pompeo’s bill. It plays right into their hands.

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Mischa Popoff is a former organic farmer and USDA-contract organic inspector, and is the author of "Is it Organic?"

People with celiac disease must avoid gluten in their diets and many take probiotics to aid the digestive process.

So it might come as a shock to these consumers that researchers at the Celiac Disease Center at Columbia University Medical Center (CUMC) report finding traces of gluten in more than half the popular probiotics they tested.

Tests performed on 22 top-selling probiotics revealed that 12 of them had detectable amounts of gluten.

Probiotics are commonly taken by patients for their theoretical effect in promoting intestinal health, though evidence of benefits is limited to a few clinical situations.

Supplement users have more symptoms

“Many patients with celiac disease take dietary supplements, and probiotics are particularly popular,” said Dr. Samantha Nazareth, a gastroenterologist at CUMC and the first author of the study. “We have previously reported that celiac patients who use dietary supplements have more symptoms than non-users, so we decided to test the probiotics for gluten contamination.”

Gluten is a protein in grains like wheat, rye, and barley. Even though it has become trendy in recent years to exclude it from your diet, people with celiac disease really need to avoid it. Otherwise, they could encounter pain and gastric distress. There is some evidence it raises their cancer risks.

It's important to note that the majority of the probiotics that tested positive for gluten contained really small amounts – less than 20 parts per million of the protein. In fact, they would be considered gluten-free by Food and Drug Administration (FDA) standards.

However, four of the brands – 18% of the total – contained in excess of that amount. Two of them, the researchers said, carried a label declaring them to be “gluten free.”

Inaccurate labeling

“We have been following reports in the scientific literature and news media on inaccurate labeling of nutritional supplements, and it appears that labels claiming a product is gluten-free are not to be trusted, at least when it comes to probiotics,” said Dr. Peter Green, professor of medicine and director of the Celiac Disease Center, “This is a potential hazard for our patients, and we are concerned.”

However, even the researchers concede it isn't clear if these trace amounts of gluten are enough to cause harm to someone with celiac disease.

"We know that most patients with celiac disease only develop intestinal damage when consuming more than 10 milligrams of gluten daily, and it is unlikely that contaminated probiotics can lead to that amount unless patients are ingesting mega-doses," said Dr. Benjamin Lebwohl, assistant professor of medicine and epidemiology at the Celiac Disease Center and a co-author of the study. Still, these findings raise troubling questions.”

For one, he asks why is there any gluten in these products at all, given that many of the people using it have no tolerance for the protein. He also wonders if other products labeled “gluten free” in fact might not be.

“And given the great consumer interest in probiotics, will regulatory bodies take action to protect the public?” he asked.

After rising in April for the first time in four months, builder confidence in the market for newly built, single-family homes is on the decline again.

According to the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB)/Wells Fargo Housing Market Index (HMI) confidence was down 2 points in May to a level of 54. Still, the HMI is up 9 points from the same period a year ago.

“Consumers are exhibiting caution, and want to be on more stable financial footing before purchasing a home,” said NAHB Chief Economist David Crowe. “On the bright side, the HMI component measuring future sales expectations has been tracking upward all year, mortgage rates remain low and house prices are affordable. These factors should spur the release of pent-up demand moving forward.”

Mixed components

The NAHB/Wells Fargo Housing Market Index gauges builder perceptions of current single-family home sales and sales expectations for the next 6 months as “good,” “fair” or “poor.” The survey also asks builders to rate traffic of prospective buyers as “high to very high,” “average” or “low to very low.” Scores for each component are then used to calculate a seasonally adjusted index where any number over 50 indicates that more builders view conditions as good than poor.

The component charting sales expectations in the next 6 months rose 1 point to 64, the index measuring buyer traffic dropped a single point to 39, and the component gauging current sales conditions dipped 2 points to 59.

Looking at the 3-month moving averages for regional HMI scores, the South and Midwest each rose 1 point to 57 and 55, respectively. The Northeast fell a point to 41 and the West dropped 3 points to 55.

“Despite this month’s slight dip, builder confidence in the new home market remains above the 50-point benchmark,” said NAHB Chairman Tom Woods, a home builder from Blue Springs, Mo. “Overall, the second quarter of 2015 is shaping up to be very solid.”

Acura is recalling approximately 19,500 model-year 2014-2015 MDX and RLX vehicles equipped with the Collision Mitigation Braking System (CMBS) in the U.S.

The CMBS may incorrectly determine that there is the potential for a forward collision if a vehicle detected ahead is traveling near a metallic structure, such as a metal guard rail or fence. This could lead the CMBS to apply the vehicle brakes unexpectedly, increasing the risk of a crash with following traffic.

No crashes or injuries have been reported related to this issue in the U.S., but 1 crash was reported in Japan.

Owners should take the recalled vehicle to an authorized dealer as soon as they receive notification of this recall. Mailed notification to customers will begin in June.

Owners can determine if their vehicles require repair by calling (800) 382- 2238 and selecting option 4.

Natural Creations of Woodbine, Iowa, is recalling a small quantity of Natural Creations New Zealand Colostrum dietary supplements.

The product contains milk, an allergen not listed on the label.

No illnesses have been reported to date.

The recalled product was distributed principally through retail stores in Arizona, Georgia, Iowa, Idaho, Illinois, Kansas, Louisiana, Michigan, Minnesota, North Carolina, North Dakota, Nebraska, Nevada, Texas, Virginia and Wyoming.

The product is packaged in a white plastic container containing 120 capsules, with lot numbers 1112301 and 3102914 located directly below the supplement box on the label. The UPC code is 877730001016.

Consumers who have purchased the recalled product may return it to the place of purchase for a full refund.

Consumers with questions may contact the company at 1-877-647-1601 Monday - Friday 7:30-4:00 CST.

OC Raw Dog of Rancho Santa Margarita, Calif., is recalling 2,055 lbs. of Turkey & Produce Raw Frozen Canine Formulation.

The product may be contaminated with Salmonella.

The recall affects Turkey & Produce Raw Frozen Canine Formulations that were packaged into 6.5-lb. Doggie Dozen Patties and 5-lb. Bulk Bags with the lot number 1511 and use by date of 10/8/15.

The products were distributed in Minnesota, Missouri, Pennsylvania and Colorado and sold to consumers through independent pet specialty retailers.

Customers who posses the recalled product are asked to submit a picture of the package with the lot number to Olivia@ocrawdog.com for verification of product in the marketplace. The product may be returned to the place of purchase for a full refund or replacement product.

Consumers with questions may contact the company at 1-844-215-DOGS (3647) Monday thru Friday 9am – 5pm PST.

Gulf States Toyota (GST) is recalling 387 model year 2015 Toyota Siennas manufactured January 23, 2015, to April 13, 2015, and equipped with non-Toyota-brand overhead entertainment accessories installed by GST.

During reassembly of the interior after the overhead entertainment system installation, a trim panel securing clip may have been reused instead of being replaced. If the clip was damaged during the entertainment system installation, the trim panel may detach in the event of a side curtain air bag deployment and strike a vehicle occupants increasing the risk of injury.

GST will notify owners, and dealers will replace the trim panel securing clip, free of charge. The recall is expected to begin June 8, 2015.

Owners may contact GST customer service at 1-800-444-1074. GST's number for this recall is 15R1.

Aurora Products is recalling raw macadamia nuts packaged under the Aurora brand label and various store brand labels.

The products may contain Salmonella.

No illnesses have been reported to date.

The recalled products were distributed to retail stores in Connecticut, District of Columbia, Delaware. Kentucky, Massachusetts, Maryland, Maine, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Virginia and West Virginia.

Consumers who have the recalled products listed below should not eat them, but destroy them or return them to the place of purchase.

Customers with questions may contact Aurora Products at (800)-898-1048 between 9:00AM – 5:00 PM EST. Monday – Friday.

AURORA BRANDED PRODUCT

PRIVATE LABEL PRODUCT

Private Label Products That Use Store Branded Labeling Include: Belmont Market, Citarella, Ernest & Klein, Gourmet Garage, Harvest Co – Op Market, Le District, Lees, Palmers Market, Walter Stewart, Whole Food Market and Wild By Nature.

Belmont Market Brand Products

Citarella Brand Products

Ernest Klein Brand Products

Gourmet Garage Brand Products

Harvest Co – Op Market Brand Products

Le District Brand Products

Lees Market Brand Products

Palmers Market Brand Products

Walter Stewart Market Brand Products

Whole Foods Market Brand Products

 Wild By Nature Brand Products

Google says its fully autonomous pod-shaped cars are ready to roll but the company has not yet applied for the permit it will need to hit the road in California.

Google has been testing Lexus SUVs retrofitted with its self-driving software and hardware for quite some time but it is now itching to take its fully autonomous prototypes out for a ride.

What's the difference? Well, besides being a lot smaller than an SUV, the Google pod cars have no steering wheel, brake pedal or accelerator. They are inended to be just what the name implies -- fully autonomous, leaving the "driver" with nothing to do but sit there.

That, after all, is the whole idea -- creating a car that is basically a personal transport pod, according to a blog post by Chris Urmson, director of the project.

"When we started designing the world’s first fully self-driving vehicle, our goal was a vehicle that could shoulder the entire burden of driving. Vehicles that can take anyone from A to B at the push of a button could transform mobility for millions of people, whether by reducing the 94 percent of accidents caused by human error, reclaiming the billions of hours wasted in traffic, or bringing everyday destinations and new opportunities within reach of those who might otherwise be excluded by their inability to drive a car," Urmson said.

25 mph

The pod cars will be scooting around Google's hometown of Mountain View, Calif., collecting real-world experience that can be used to refine the process and iron out any kinks.

Urmson said speeds will be capped at 25 miles per hour and drivers will be on board with removable steering wheels, brake pedals and accelerators so they can take control of the car if needed.

He noted that the Lexus vehicles have been logging 10,000 miles per week and, although they've been involved in three fender-benders, all the accidents were minor and were the fault of the other car's driver. 

Not everyone is happy with that explanation.

“It is important that the public know what happened,” wrote John M. Simpson of Consumer Watchdog in a letter to Google.  “You are testing driverless vehicles on public highways, quite possibly putting other drivers at risk.” 

Simpson said Google should release all of the data it has on the accidents, however minor.

California enacted legislation in September that allows autonomous cars on its streets and highways, although each model must be tested and granted a permit. So far, Google hasn't applied for that permit, Automotive News reported.

The Internet has made it easy to get your prescriptions filled or refilled. Many pharmacies have the means to fill your order online and mail it to you, of have it ready for pick-up when you visit the store.

But that's not to be confused with ordering your prescription drugs from an online pharmacy you aren't familiar with, one that may not be located in your city, your state or even your country.

The Alliance for Safe Online Pharmacies, known as ASOP Global, warns that buying from one of these drug sellers is a prescription for trouble.

“These days, buying prescription drugs on the Internet is easy, but finding a safe source for those medicines is not,” said ASOP Global Founder and Executive Director Libby Baney.

50% of medicines fake

She says there are between 35,000 and 50,000 active online drug sellers and that 97% do not comply with U.S. laws. Worse still, she claims that 50% of medicines sold online are fake or counterfeit.

That's a warning echoed by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), which has found in many instances counterfeit medicine – pills passed off as being from an established pharmaceutical company – don't even have an active ingredient, or might have ingredients that are dangerous.

Consumers aren't the only victims. In April the FDA reported that a counterfeit version of Botox was found in the U.S. and much of it had been sold to doctors' office and medical clinics.

In 2012 the agency warned consumers about a counterfeit version of the widely-prescribed ADHD drug Adderall. FDA laboratory tests revealed the counterfeit version contained the wrong active ingredient. Consumers were turning to unregulated online pharmacies to buy it because the genuine version was in short supply.

It could contain anything

Since by their very nature counterfeit drugs are unregulated, they can be made anywhere by anyone – even in someone's basement. Since no agency is examining what the drugs contain, they have been found to contain everything from floor wax, mercury, concrete, chalk, boric acid, road tar and paint, to anti-freeze and other poisons.

“This means that consumers are just a click away from buying products that may cause harm, treatment failure or even death,” Baney said.

There's an added danger to doing business with an illegal online pharmacy. You are giving your credit card or other personal information to someone who is, in fact, a criminal. If they are willing to sell you a pill that might kill you, they are certainly capable of stealing and misusing your financial information.

Illegal online pharmacies are big business, however, and Baney says the largest of them generate millions in sales each month. Because they are largely anonymous and mostly located outside the jurisdiction of the United States, it makes it very hard to prosecute them.

The only way to know if a drug is counterfeit is through chemical analysis done in a laboratory. Since you probably don't have that capability, your best advice is to only order prescription drugs from your local pharmacy or other trusted sources.

If gasoline prices quickly rise in the next several months, it won't be because oil prices have gone up. More and more industry experts believe world oil prices will remain flat for the foreseeable future and U.S. government data tends to agree.

Since last fall consumers have enjoyed gasoline prices averaging under $3 a gallon in almost all areas of the country, made possible by the sharp drop in world oil prices. The price of oil has declined because there is too much oil on the market and not enough demand.

While prices have slowly crept back up to $60 a barrel, the latest government forecasts suggest there may not be enough demand to push them much higher. This is a remarkable turnaround from just a few years ago.

2008's record high prices

Just before the financial crisis of 2008 gasoline prices hit a record high, with a national average of $4.17 a gallon and the price over $6 in some areas. At the time the U.S. was already in the midst of a recession but it was said the rest of the developing world, principally China, had a voracious appetite for oil.

Even after the price of oil crashed in late 2008, it was climbing again early in 2009, primarily because China was a major importer. Then, two things happened that brought us to where we are today.

First, the U.S. oil industry roared to life, thanks to fracking technology. U.S. oil production surged in places like North Dakota and Ohio, rivaling the output in more traditional oil producing areas.

The U.S. is producing so much oil that Saudi Arabia has entered a price war with U.S. producers, trying to drive down the price and gain market share. In short, producers are pumping more oil than the world needs right now.

Demand hasn't materialized

It was expected that world oil demand would eventually suck up the excess production, but that hasn't happened – and might not for a longer than expected time. It turns out that China's robust economic machine is slowing down, as are economies in other developing nations that in the past have driven up the price of oil.

After processing all this data, the Energy Information Administration (EIA) concludes that U.S. gasoline price should remain stable, allowing for seasonal fluctuations at refineries.

“EIA expects U.S. regular gasoline retail prices, which averaged $3.36/gal in 2014, to average $2.43/gal in 2015 and $2.63/gal in 2016,” EIA said in a report this week. “The average household is expected to spend $675 less for gasoline in 2015 compared with last year because of lower prices.”

Even though the long-term trend looks promising for motorists, AAA reports the national average price of gasoline has increased 26 out of the last 27 days. Regional refinery issues on the West Coast have pushed up prices in a handful of states, mostly in the west but prices are expected to head lower in June.

California is the most expensive state in which to drive, with an average gasoline price of $3.72 a gallon. South Carolina, at $2.37 a gallon, is the cheapest.

Last week, the Window Covering Manufacturers Association (WCMA) announced that it was launching the “Best For Kids” program, a third-party certification process “designed to help consumers and retailers identify window covering products that are certified as best suited for use in homes with young children.”

Although window coverings seem innocuous to anyone with adult sensibilities, some types can indeed be fatal to small children – especially window blinds with long cords. Last year, during the 22-day period spanning February 8 through March 1, four children in America died after they accidentally strangled themselves on window-covering cords.

The WCMA's “Best For Kids” certification program is intended to address this problem. In order to win that certification, the WCMA says, “a window covering product must either have no cords or the inner cords cannot be accessible, as defined by the industry's safety standard.... If accessible inner cords are present in products with no operating cords, the accessible inner cords cannot create a hazardous loop in accordance with [certain] test procedures.”

Not far enough

But critics say this doesn't go far enough. Today, the Consumer Federation of America responded to and criticized the “Best for Kids” program on the grounds that it would still allow dangerous corded window coverings to be bought and sold:

Unfortunately, while this program provides assurances that cordless products are available to consumers, it fails to effectively address hazards posed by all corded window coverings and require that all window covering products be safe.  Under this program, WCMA member companies will still be selling window coverings that pose unreasonable and unacceptable risks to children. … The clear solution is to ensure that only cordless products, or products with cords made inaccessible by a passive guarding device, are available for sale. 

Meanwhile, you can take steps to ensure your own home's window-coverings are safe. If you have small children. or if you entertain visitors with small children in tow, do an inventory: do your window-coverings have any long ropes or cords, anything from velvet ties holding back long curtains to miniblind pull-strings with plastic aglets on the ends? That's the part most likely to be hazardous to young children.

If you cannot afford to replace your current window coverings with “cordless” varieties, at least make sure the ends of any rope-ties or pull-cords are up high, out of reach of any young child. For example: if the ends of your miniblind pull-strings dangle low enough for small kids to reach, try driving a small nail or decorative hook high into the wall next to the window, and keep the cords looped around that.

After the downfall of Corinthian Colleges, which declared bankruptcy earlier this month following years of legal troubles which included federal agencies ranging from the Department of Education (DoE) to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), plus the attorneys general of several different states, all alleging that Corinthian-owned schools defrauded students in various ways, lawmakers and other public officials have turned a sharper eye to other for-profit schools dependent upon a steady stream of federally backed, bankruptcy-proof student loans to stay in business.

Today, Congresswoman Jackie Speier (D-California) released an open letter to Education Secretary Arne Duncan urging the DoE to “conduct an investigation of and exercise increased oversight over the for-profit college operator ITT Educational Services, Inc.,” which has allegedly “engaged in deceptive and predatory lending practices, pushing students into high-interest loans they know cannot be repaid, at vast taxpayer expense.”

Speier's letter, available in .pdf form here, includes a list of complaints which sound depressingly familiar to anyone who knows Corinthian's story.

Predatory lending

Last year, for example, the feds sued Corinthian for “predatory lending practices,” and Speier's letter mentions similar practices from ITT: “The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filed charges on May 12, 2015 alleging that that [sic] the CEO and CFO of ITT Educational Services covered up balloning loan obligations stemming from the company's …. predatory lending programs.”

Last November, a former ITT student in Pennsylvania wrote us to say “I was one of those students who signed for a private loan in order to continue my education. Unaware of the lies and deceit that was going on within the company. The program of study was electronics.... I was assured that upon graduation I would have a career, not a job.”

But after graduating in 2011, she discovered her degree was useless: “I am a temporary employee. My credit is shot and I make a little above minimum wage. I have gone on numerous interviews just to be laughed at and questioned about why ITT. … I am over $50,000 in debt because I believed I was getting a good education that would lead to a good future.”

And remember: that debt, like almost all student-loan debt, can't even be discharged in bankruptcy. But a former student who goes over his head in debt to attend a traditional, accredited state college or university at least has an authentic college degree (or credits to count toward one) to show for that outrageous debt load. ITT students say they don't even get that.

Good grades but ...

Mike from Oregon told us in January: “I went to ITT and I finally graduated with really good grades, 3.8 … in 1994.” A few years later, Mike wanted to enroll in a regular four-year school to earn a bachelor's degree, but learned that no reputable school would “transfer any credits at all from ITT, so I had to start over from scratch …. since it is not an accredited school if you ever plan to further your education and want to transfer to a real college you are much better off going to a real college from the start.”

Still, Mike says, his degree from ITT isn't completely useless: “you can hang it on the wall to cover up a hole or you can use it to cover a stain.”

Jay in Massachusetts made a similar observation from a different perspective. He spent one academic year – September 2013 through the following June – teaching at an ITT “Electronic Technology School.”

"Rot-gut shameless"

I have been a PhD electrical engineer for 25 years, mostly in the defense sector. But have never worked for such a rot-gut shameless enterprise, not even close. You need to understand [the] whole enterprise, ITT I mean, is a colossal nationwide profiteering scam. There are so many problems with ITT, I hardly know where to begin …. Recruiters routinely tell students that ITT courses will transfer should a student decide to complete a conventional 4-year program at another school after, say, completing an associates degree program at ITT. This is false. Credits will transfer to another ITT school (or possibly to another for-profit school like ITT) - that much is true - but not to an accredited state university.

In her letter to Education Secretary Duncan, Rep. Speier alludes to such complaints, and previous problems with the now-defunct Conrinthian schools, when she says:

The Department of Education has conducted increased oversight and exercised enforcement options in the past, as it did with the Corinthian Colleges [but] those investigations have been plagued with delays. In fact, Corinthian Colleges, Inc. was investigated by the SEC in June 2013 – a full year before ED opened their own June 2014 investigation …. This delay harmed students who continued to take loans on a worthless education, and taxpayers who footed the bill. I ask that in this case you take action quickly and responsibly.