Current Events in May 2016

Gulf States Toyota is recalling 844 model year 2015-2016 Toyota 4Runners manufactured September 22, 2014, to March 23, 2016 and equipped with accessories installed by Gulf States.

The Load Carrying Capacity Modification Label may not reflect the correct added weight of the installed accessories. As a result, these vehicles fail to comply with the requirements of Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard number 110, "Tire Selection and Rims for Passenger Cars."

An incorrect label may result in the vehicle being overloaded, increasing the risk of a crash.

What to do

Gulf States will notify owners, and dealers will install an accurate label, free of charge. The recall is expected to begin on June 1, 2016.

Owners may contact Gulf States customer service at 1-800-444-1074. Gulf States' number for this recall is 16R2.

Blue Bell Ice Cream is recalling select lots of Rocky Road pints produced in its Brenham, Texas, plant.

The packages may actually contain Cookies 'n Cream ice cream, which contains soy and wheat, allergens not listed on the label.

No illnesses have been reported to date.

The pints can be identified as a Rocky Road pint with a Cookies 'n Cream lid, and contain Cookies 'n Cream Ice Cream. They can also be identified by the code 022918576 located on the bottom of the pint.

The ice cream was distributed through retail outlets, including food service accounts, convenience stores and supermarkets in Texas and Louisiana.

What to do

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

Consumers with questions may call 979-836-7977, Monday – Friday ,8 a.m. – 5 p.m. (CST).

Munchkin of Van Nuys, Calif., is recalling about 180,000 Latch lightweight pacifiers and clips.

The clip cover can detach from the pacifier’s clip, posing a choking hazard.

The firm has received 10 reports (five in the U.S. and five in Canada) of the clip cover detaching from the pacifier clip. No injuries have been reported.

This recall involves Munchkin’s Latch lightweight pacifiers and clips sold as a set. The pacifiers were sold in five styles: designer, rattle and heartbeat clips with 0m+ natural shape pacifiers, and designer and rattle clips with 6m+ orthodontic pacifiers.

The designer pacifiers and clips 0m+ and 6m+ are in three color patterns: blue and white strips, orange and with white polka dots and pink with white polka dots. The rattle pacifiers and clips 0m+ and 6m+ are green with beads in the pacifier cover to make a rattle sound and have a polka dot strap. The heartbeat pacifiers and clips have a red, heart-shaped pacifier cover and red and white polka dots on the strap.

The pacifiers and clips, manufactured in China, were sold at Babies R Us, Target, Wal-Mart and other mass merchandisers, juvenile product, baby boutique and discount stores nationwide and online at amazon.com, munchkin.com and other website from March 2014, through March 2016, for between $11 and $15.

What to do

Consumers should immediately take the clip away from young children and contact Munchkin for a free replacement Lightweight Pacifier pack with two pacifiers or a full refund.

Consumers may contact Munchkin toll-free at 877-242-3134 from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. (PT) Monday through Friday or online at www.munchkin.com for more information.

When you go into the hospital, you trust the medical staff will do everything in its power to make sure you leave alive.

But Johns Hopkins researchers calculate that more than 250,000 people in the U.S. die each year because of medical errors. The researchers say it is difficult to know for sure, however, because the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) does not have a category for “medical errors” on death certificates.

If the researchers are correct, mistakes made by health care professionals would be among the most common causes of death. The CDC's third leading cause of death, respiratory disease, kills a far fewer 150,000 per year.

The problem, says Dr. Martin Makary, professor of surgery at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, is medical mistakes have never been recognized in a standardized way of collecting statistics.

“The medical coding system was designed to maximize billing for physician services, not to collect national health statistics, as it is currently being used,” Makary said.

How do they know?

But if that's true, how can the Hopkins researchers claim that medical mistakes kill a quarter million people each year?

The researchers say they looked closely at four different studies of the medical death rate from 2000 to 2008. Using hospital admission rates, they concluded that 251,454 deaths were caused by a medical error, translating into 9.5% of all U.S. deaths.

That would make medical mistakes the third leading cause of death in the U.S., behind heart disease and cancer.

Previous warnings

The Johns Hopkins researchers are not exactly the first to suggest medical mistakes are a significant health and safety issue. ConsumerAffairs, in fact, has a Hospital Errors and Patient Safety category for articles we've written on the topic over the years.

A study as far back as 2004 projected at least 200,000 annual deaths from medical errors. In 1999, when in-hospital deaths were estimated to be half that, the Institute of Medicine called medical error deaths a national epidemic.

Makary says there is a very practical reason to begin acknowledging, and counting, deaths related to medical errors. Cause of deaths statistics, he says, set public health priorities.

“Right now, cancer and heart disease get a ton of attention, but since medical errors don’t appear on the list, the problem doesn’t get the funding and attention it deserves,” Makary said.

The researchers say most deaths caused by medical errors are not due to the quality or skill of medical personnel. Rather, they suggest poorly designed and inefficient health care systems are a threat to patient health and safety.

If it seems to you that no one is happy with car insurance premiums, you're right. But don't leave out the insurers themselves -- they're not having such a great time either, according to a recent report from Fitch Ratings.

The company found that while property insurance has enjoyed three straight years of significant profits, car insurers as a whole reported an underwriting loss for the fifth straight year in 2015. 

“The poor performance is a reflection of previous overly aggressive pricing in commercial auto and a recent extended period of heightened claims severity, particularly relating to bodily injury claims,” said James Auden, managing director, Fitch Ratings, according to the Insurance Journal, a trade publication. 

Too many accidents

In plain English, premiums are too low to pay all the collision and injury claims that result from a climbing traffic accident rate, transforming the once mighty auto insurance business into what Fitch called a “chronically underperforming product segment.” 

Fitch said insurers increased rates an average of seven percent in 2015 but that wasn't enough to keep pace with rising claims.

Insurers are also confronting growing consumer resistance to higher premiums and many state regulators are cracking down on rate increases. Earlier this week, Virginia became the 19th state to ban "price optimization," a procedure many insurers use to identify customers who may be more willing than others to pay higher premiums.

Consumer advocates and state insurance regulators argue that, since insurance is required, pricing should be based strictly on objective measurements of risk, not on how much the company thinks it can squeeze out of a given consumer. 

Fitch says, however, that despite consumer and regulator resistance, auto rates are likely to increase "significantly" in the near term. 

Top Writers

Progressive has grown to become the largest writer of commercial auto business based on net written premiums, while, according to Fitch, also generating substantial underwriting profits.

Progressive wrote $2.2 billion of commercial auto in 2015, just above Travelers, which wrote $2 billion. Nationwide ($1.7 billion), Zurich ($1.487 billion), and Liberty Mutual ($1.486) round out the top five, according to the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC), 

MetLife recently said it is entering the auto insurance market and introduced its first commercial auto policy. The product is now available in Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio, with more states planned in the near future.

The unemployment rate has dropped significantly in the last couple of years, but the economy is still barely growing.

Could it be because, even though more people are working, they aren't earning what they once did? There has been a huge increase in the number of temporary and contract employees – partly because of competition for skilled workers and partly because temporary workers, who aren't receiving benefits, allow companies to be more flexible.

Employment site CareerBuilder and its economic modeling subsidiary Emsi have conducted research showing that more companies are moving toward a temporary workforce. Their findings project temporary employment will add 173,478 jobs from 2016 to 2018 – an increase of 5.9%. To create the report, researchers pulled data from more than 100 national and state employment resources.

Three million temporary workers

Kyle Braun, President of CareerBuilder’s Staffing and Recruiting Group, says there are already some three million people in the temporary workforce, with that number growing at a healthy pace over the next few years.

“Opportunities are opening up in a variety of occupations and pay levels, and this is a trend we’re seeing in a wide range of industries and company sizes,” Braun said.

Some jobs and some industries are better suited to temporary work than others. CareerBuilder said there are hundreds of thousands of available temporary jobs that pay more than $15 an hour.

In CareerBuilder's rankings, software developers stand to earn the highest wages in the temporary workforce, at a median pay of $46.72 an hour. It says there are currently more than 14,000 job openings in that category.

Formerly salaried occupations

But some traditionally salaried jobs are also trending toward temporary positions. For example, CareerBuilder says there are currently more than 42,000 temporary positions for registered nurses, paying a median $33.28 an hour.

Even some traditionally union jobs have transitioned to temporary positions. There are currently more than 21,000 openings for temporary machinists, paying $19.38 an hour.

Other temporary occupations paying more than $15 an hour include truck drivers, bookkeepers, administrative assistants, computer support personnel, construction workers, and human resource specialists.

Last December, CareerBuilder commissioned a Harris Poll which showed that 47% of employers planned to hire temporary personnel at some point in 2016, up slightly from the year before. But 58% said at least some of those temporary or contract workers would be transitioned into full-time, permanent positions in the future.

The services sector of the economy expanded for the 75th consecutive month in April.

The Institute for Supply Management says its Non-Manufacturing Index (NMI), which is used to track the sector, registered 55.7% -- an increase of 1.2% from March. A reading above 50% indicates expansion; below 50% suggests contraction.

Within the NMI, the New Orders Index rose 3.2% to 59.9%, the Employment Index was up 2.7% to 53% and the Prices Index jumped 4.3% to 53.4%, the first increase in three months.

Industry performance

The 13 non-manufacturing industries reporting growth in April were:

1. Information;
2. Management of Companies & Support Services;
3. Accommodation & Food Services;
4. Wholesale Trade;
5. Health Care & Social Assistance;
6. Utilities;
7. Finance & Insurance;
8. Real Estate, Rental & Leasing;
9. Construction;
10. Agriculture, Forestry, Fishing & Hunting;
11. Public Administration;
12. Professional, Scientific & Technical Services; and
13. Retail Trade.

The four industries reporting contraction in April were:

1. Other Services;
2. Mining;
3. Transportation & Warehousing; and
4. Educational Services.

The pace of job-cutting surged in April as US-based employers announced plans to reduce their workforces by 65,141.

According to the figures from outplacement consultancy Challenger, Gray & Christmas (CG&C), that's an increase of 35% over March and 5.8% higher than the total for April 2015.

In the first four months of this year, planned job cuts -- at 250,061 -- are up 24%from the same period in 2015 and the highest January-April total since 2009.

“We continue to see large scale layoffs in the energy sector, where low oil prices are driving down profits,” said John A. Challenger, chief executive officer of CG&C. “However, we are also seeing heavy downsizing activity in other areas, such as computers and retail, where changing consumer trends are creating a lot of volatility.”

Energy and computer sectors hit hard

Another 19,759 jobs disappeared in the energy sector in April, bringing the year-to-date total to 72,660, up 26% from first four months of 2015.

Computer firms cut 16,923 positions -- the highest total among all industries. Approximately 12,000 of those were from chipmaker Intel, which is shifting away from the traditional desktop and laptop market and toward the mobile market. To date, computer firms have announced 33,925 job cuts, a whopping 262% above a year earlier.

“For all intents and purposes, the economy remains strong,” Challenger noted. “The nation’s payrolls have experienced 66 consecutive months of net job gains, a trend that is likely to continue with the new report out Friday.”

Jobless claims

First-time applications for state unemployment benefits rose last week for a second straight week.

The Department of Labor (DOL) reports initial jobless claims were up by 17,000 in the week ending April 30, to a seasonally adjusted 274,000. Still this was the 61st consecutive week of claims below 300,000, the longest streak since 1973.

The four-week moving average, which is less volatile than the weekly headcount and considered a more accurate gauge of the labor market, was up 2,000 -- to 258,000.

The full report is available on the DOL website.

Virginia has become the 19th state to ban the insurance industry practice of "price optimization" -- a method many insurers use to get the highest possible premium payments out of policyholders.

The term refers to insurance companies studying consumers' behavior to test their tolerance for price changes, then using that information to set rates, rather than basing rates on objective measurements of risk.

The practice may be profitable, but Virginia Insurance Commissioner Jacqueline Cunningham says it is illegal and she has issued an official bulletin to insurance companies reminding them of that fact.

Tied to risk

Cunningham's bulletin clearly explains that insurance rates must be tied directly to risk and cannot be raised based on consumers' shopping habits. 

Her actions are winning praise from consumer advocates.

“Most Americans are required by law to buy auto insurance and by their mortgage company to buy homeowners insurance, and it is terribly unfair and entirely illegal for insurance companies to vary premiums based on whether or not they are statistically likely to shop around,” said J. Robert Hunter, Director of Insurance for the Consumer Federation of America (CFA) and former Texas Insurance Commissioner. 

“We applaud Commissioner Cunningham for her strong and clear stance in favor of protecting consumers from the unfair practice of price optimization," Hunter said. 

Price optimization marks a radical departure from the actuarial practice of pricing insurance premiums according to the risk of loss posed by the policyholder, CFA said. 

“Price optimization by insurers is Big Data run amok and simply price gouging by a fancy name. Consumers are being punished for activities and circumstances unrelated to risk and without any disclosure or transparency by insurers,” said Birny Birnbaum, Executive Director of the Center for Economic Justice. “The state actions by 19 insurance commissioners are the first steps in returning insurance practices to the foundation of pricing insurance based on risk of loss.”

Virginia is the 19th jurisdiction to notify insurers that price optimization violates state insurance statutes that require cost-based pricing and prohibit unfair discrimination in setting insurance premiums. Maryland, California, Ohio, Florida, Vermont, Washington, Indiana, Pennsylvania, Maine, Washington, D.C., Rhode Island, Montana, Delaware, Minnesota, Colorado, Connecticut, Alaska, and Missouri have previously issued notices to insurers with the same message as the Virginia bulletin: utilizing non-risk related consumer characteristics to set insurance prices is illegal.

States have been loosening fireworks laws and emergency doctors say the result has been an increase in both the number of injuries to children and the severity of the injuries.

In a study presented at a meeting of the Pediatrics Academic Societies in Baltimore, researchers looked at federal and state data from the National Inpatient Sample, with data on 8 million hospital stays each year, and the Nationwide Emergency Department Sample, which annually compiles information on 30 million discharges from emergency medicine facilities.

They found that the number of patients under age 21 treated and released by emergency departments between 2006 and 2012 rose modestly. Significantly larger increases were seen in injuries requiring inpatient hospital admission, which skyrocketed from 29% of cases in 2006 to 50% in 2012.

"The increase in fireworks-related injuries and the severity of these injuries in children since 2006 are very concerning," said Charles Woods, MD, FAAP, one of the study's authors and associate chair of pediatrics at the University of Louisville.

"Although our findings do not prove a direct link to relaxations in state laws governing fireworks sales, it may be time for lawmakers to reassess this issue. Parents and caregivers of children also should be aware of these increasingly serious injuries and the potential dangers involved in allowing young children to handle and play with fireworks," he said.

Findings mirrored

The findings mirror those of other studies. In 2014, the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) reported that there were eight deaths and an estimated 11,400 injuries related to fireworks in 2013, compared with 8,700 injuries in 2012. 

Injuries were frequently the result of the user playing with lit fireworks or igniting fireworks while holding the device, CPSC researchers said.

Consumers also reported injuries related to devices that malfunctioned or devices that did not work as expected, including injuries due to errant flight paths, devices that tipped over, and blowouts.

In 2013, children younger than five years old experienced a higher estimated per capita injury rate than any other age group. Sparklers and rockets accounted for more than 40% of all estimated injuries.

Lately real estate news has focused on rising home prices. Just last month the National Association of Realtors (NAR) reported that existing home prices jumped 5.7% in March, year-over-year.

But home buyers aren't the only consumers paying more to put roofs over their heads. Rents have been rising just as fast – faster in some cases.

Both home prices and rents are rising for the same reason – a supply and demand imbalance. And both have their roots in the 2008 financial crisis and Great Recession.

A new report by the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) traces the origins of the rental affordability crisis and finds few short-term solutions.

Vacancies down, rents up

"Demand for rental housing has greatly outstripped supply, rapidly pushing vacancies down and rents up even as incomes fell. The supply is still trying to catch up with the demand," said Lynn Fisher, MBA's Vice President for Research and Economics.

The financial crisis hit just as members of the Millennial generation were preparing to leave home and form households. Those lucky enough to find jobs had to compete for rental housing with their older peers, who ordinarily would be shopping for a home purchase after renting a few years.

But mortgage lenders radically altered course, almost overnight. Instead of making mortgage loans to anyone with a pulse, lenders imposed tough underwriting standards, requiring a 20% down payment and an excellent credit score.

As a result, far fewer people were able to purchase homes than in previous years. Home sales sagged but rents surged, since vastly more consumers were renting instead of buying.

Record-high affordability problem

"The most visible indicator of the rental housing crisis is the record-high affordability problem created by rising rents while renters' incomes have declined,” the authors write. “Yet the evidence presented in this report suggests the root of the problem is that many more renters have been added than was expected according to the trends before 2006.”

The housing market has recovered in terms of price, in large part because interest rates are so low and there has been a dramatic decline in the inventory of homes for sale. Despite the rising prices, NAR chief economist Lawrence Yun says first time buyers have begun to return to the market, albeit somewhat slowly.

"With rents steadily rising and average fixed rates well below 4%, qualified first-time buyers should be more active participants than what they are right now," Yun said. "Unfortunately, the same underlying deterrents impacting their ability to buy haven't subsided so far in 2016. Affordability and the low availability of starter homes is still a major barrier for them in most markets."

The MBA report projects six million consumers since 2006 would have become homeowners, if they could have found an affordable home and qualified for a mortgage. Instead, they have remained renters, helping to drive up demand – and thus, costs.

The report notes one bright spot; apartment construction has nearly doubled from 2010 to 2012 and rose another third from 2012 to 2014. But with a sharp reduction in new single-family home construction, even sharp increases in multi-family building may have a difficult time meeting demand, as more would-be homeowners remain renters.

How's your credit score? If it is a number that's considered “excellent,” you shouldn't respond to just any random credit card offer.

If you do, you could be leaving money and services on the table. That's because credit card companies have cards for different levels of credit worthiness. They save the best benefits for consumers with excellent credit and, as a rule, have no annual fee.

Excellent credit, by the way, is considered a FICO score of between 750 and 850.

Chase Slate

The Chase Slate has a couple of features that make it an attractive choice. If you are carrying a balance on another card, you can transfer the balance to your Chase Slate card with no transfer fee, as long you do it during the first 60 days the account is open.

On the other hand, if you have an excellent credit score, you might not be carrying a balance, negating one of the card's primary benefits.

Another nice feature is a monthly FICO credit score, given at no charge. While there are several sites now that provide a “free credit score,” these scores are not always your FICO score, a proprietary formula that most lenders rely on to make credit decisions.

What you won't get with the Chase Slate are generous cash back rewards, so it might be wise to consider a rewards card instead if you don't need the balance transfer feature.

BankAmericard Cash Rewards

While there are many cash back rewards cards for consumers with excellent credit, the BankAmericard Cash Rewards card is definitely worth a look, especially if you are already a Bank of America customer.

Upon signing up, the card pays a $100 cash bonus after you spend $500 in the first 90 days the account is open. You earn 3% cash back at the gas pump, 2% at the supermarket, and 1% on all other purchases. In all, you can earn up to $1,500 in combined purchases each quarter.

If you are a Bank of America customer, you can get a 10% customer bonus every time you redeem your cash back into your checking or savings account. For Bank of America Preferred Rewards clients, that bonus can be 25% or more.

There are plenty of other good rewards cards. You can check out some of them here and here.

Citi Diamond Preferred

If you would like a lot of extra services with your credit card, then you might consider the Citi Diamond Preferred card. VIP treatment is its main attraction.

Cardmembers are entitled to 24/7 access to personalized concierge service, providing help in booking hotels, flights, and concert tickets.

It also has a fairly lengthy 0% introductory period for balance transfers – 21 months. However, there is a fee for these transfers, ranging from a minimum of $5 to a maximum of 3% of the transferred amount.

Suburban areas across America are dotted with one subdivision after another, where residents are required to belong to a homeowner association (HOA). Residents pay a fee and, in return, receive some level of services.

It might be something as simple as maintenance of common areas. In some communities, the fee might take care of amenities like swimming pools and tennis courts. In some developments, the HOA has responsibility for repairing and maintaining roads.

In other words, the association operates like a small local government, providing some of the same services a local municipality might offer.

For years, HOA members have argued that the money they pay to their association should be tax deductible, just as state and local taxes are. Some lawmakers in the House of Representatives agree, and recently introduced the Helping Our Middle-Income Earners (HOME) Act, a measure allowing HOA members making up to $115,000 in annual income to deduct up to $5,000 in HOA fees from their federal tax return.

Support for middle class homeowners

“The HOME Act recognizes that millions of middle class homeowners are struggling to keep up with rising household expenses like child care, college tuition, health care, mortgage and community assessments,” Rep. Anna Eshoo (D-CA), one of the bill's co-sponsors, said in a statement. “The Home Act can go a long way by providing relief from this tax burden on millions of middle class families.”

The bill defines "qualified homeowners association assessments" as regularly occurring, mandatory financial assessments that are paid by a taxpayer to a homeowners association for the taxpayer's principal residence, that directly benefit the residence, and result from the taxpayer's mandatory and automatic membership in the HOA.

Eshoo says HOAs have multiplied in recent decades and are usually associated with condominium and townhouse developments that offer affordable housing. She says more than 65 million Americans are members of HOA, living in 26 million homes that are part of a community association.

In California, she says more than 8.6 million residents live in community associations, more than one million of whom are over age 55.

The bill has been referred to the House Ways and Means Committee, where no action has been taken. With 2016 being an election year, with a shortened Congressional calendar, action this year is unlikely.

Nissan North America is recalling 108,503 model year 2014-2016 Rogues manufactured July 31, 2013, to January 16, 2016.

The rear lift gate support stays may corrode due to insufficient anti-corrosion treatment, which could cause a sudden release of pressure. If this occurs, the support stays may break off, increasing the risk of injury.

What to do

Nissan will notify owners, and dealers will replace the rear tailgate stays, free of charge. Parts are not currently available. Owners will be sent interim notifications by mid-June 2016. A second notice will be sent when remedy parts become available.

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

The NBC reality series “The Biggest Loser” has been an inspiration to many obese people. They have watched as contestants embraced a supervised, on-camera lifestyle transition to a healthy diet and exercise.

Even the contestants who didn't win went home happy, with slimmer, lighter bodies. But a team of U.S. researchers wondered what happened next? Did the feel-good story continue, off-camera? In most cases, it did not.

The researchers investigated 16 of the show's contestants, 14 of whom participated in the follow-up study. All but one gained back some of the weight. Four regained everything they lost, and then some.

The study found the 14 participants lost an average of about 128 pounds, regaining about 90 pounds over six years.

Looking for 'why?'

But that wasn't the point of the study – the researchers suspected they might find some regained weight, since that often happens to dieters. The real question they wanted to answer was “why.”

The “why” appears to center on changes to metabolism, which is kind of like your body's miles-per-gallon (MPG) rating. You want your body to have the MPG of a Hummer, not a Prius.

In their study, the researchers determined that the dramatic weight loss altered the body's metabolism, the rate at which it burns calories. As subjects dropped pounds, the body slowed the rate at which it burned calories. They call it metabolic adaptation.

Using before and after data for the contestants, the researchers found their resting metabolic rate (RMR) slowed in the years following the show.

The researchers said their study, supported by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), is probably the longest follow-up investigation of the changes in metabolic adaptation and body composition following weight loss and regain.

Suppressed RMR

“We found that despite substantial weight regain in the six years following participation in 'The Biggest Loser,' RMR remained suppressed at the same average level as at the end of the weight loss competition,” the authors wrote.

They found mean RMR after six years was about 500 calories a day lower than expected, based on the measured body composition changes and the increased age of the subjects. The contestants who lost the most weight, they said, also experienced the greatest slowdown in RMR at that time.

Those most successful in keeping the lost weight off after six years also experienced greater ongoing metabolic slowing.

“Metabolic adaptation persists over time and is likely a proportional, but incomplete, response to contemporaneous efforts to reduce body weight,” the study concludes.

The takeaway

The takeaway, however, is not that obese people should not try to lose weight and adopt a healthier lifestyle, far from it. Rather, it's an acknowledgment of the physical obstacles your body can throw up to maintaining the weight loss.

Despite their weight regain, the contestants were “quite successful” at long-term weight loss compared with other lifestyle interventions, the study found. The researchers also found that those who experienced the biggest metabolic change did not experience the greatest weight regain and those who were most successful in keeping the weight off had pretty much the same metabolic slowdown.

So the lesson, the researchers say, is “long-term weight loss requires vigilant combat against persistent metabolic adaptation that acts to proportionally counter ongoing efforts to reduce body weight.”

It should be noted that participants in “The Biggest Loser” all had close medical monitoring during the show. You should not undertake any sort of significant weight loss effort without consulting a doctor first.  

A federal court has entered a $13.4 million judgment against the CEO of BlueHippo, a notorious scam that took payments for computers that were often never delivered to consumers.

“This scheme preyed on cash-strapped consumers looking for computers to improve their lives and the lives of their children,” said Jessica Rich, the Director of the Federal Trade Commission’s Bureau of Consumer Protection. “This case shows that the FTC not only takes decisive action against wrongdoers, but also does whatever it takes to see the case through to a fair conclusion.”

At the FTC's request, the court found BlueHippo Funding LLC, BlueHippo Capital LLC and CEO Joseph Rensin in contempt for continuing to operate a deceptive computer financing scheme in violation of a federal court order that the defendants agreed to in 2008. The court also entered judgment against Rensin, BlueHippo’s CEO, for $13.4 million, the harm consumers suffered as a result of the scheme.

The FTC charged the BlueHippo defendants with contempt in 2009, alleging that, between April and December of 2008, they flouted the 2008 order by contracting with thousands of consumers to finance new computers, most of which were never delivered.

After a hearing, the court found that the defendants violated the 2008 order, but awarded consumer redress of only $609,000. The FTC prevailed on its appeal of the redress award, and ultimately the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York entered a $13,400,627.60 judgment on April 19, 2016.

It seems hardly a month goes by without a report of a passenger flying into a rage while on board a commercial aircraft. It has become so common there is even a web site devoted to cataloging these incidents.

The displays of emotion are often chalked up to the decline in service by commercial airlines – long lines, delays and cancellations, and having to pay fees for things that were once included in the fare.

But researchers at the University of Toronto and Harvard have come up with another explanation.

Katy DeCelles and Michael Norton studied these incidents and concluded they are more likely to occur on aircraft that have a first class cabin. They say the odds of an air rage incident go up even more if coach passengers have to walk through first class to reach their cramped seats.

Four times more likely

Just having a first class cabin, the study found, made air rage four times more likely to occur than if the plane were a single class cabin.

"I expected there to be more support for a lack of leg room as a contributor to air rage, given the attention that leg room has had -- but there wasn't," said DeCelles, an associate professor of organizational behavior and human resource management.

The study relied on a database of thousands of flight incident reports, covering several years, on a large international carrier. The incidents had to be of a serious nature and included passengers refusing to sit down, yelling obscenities at a flight attendant of belligerent behavior closely associated with too much alcohol consumption.

While there may be a lot of factors contributing to air rage, the researchers suggest an overlooked one is perceived class inequality, feeling slighted because someone else is enjoying better accommodations.

Other possibilities

However, the research does not explain why celebrities, and others who are sitting in first class, sometimes engage in air rage. Actor Alec Baldwin, who presumably flies first class, has been bounced off at least one flight for allegedly getting into a tussle with a flight attendant.

Flight attendants, themselves, have been known to flip out at passengers. In one case a couple of years ago, one member of the flight crew deployed an emergency chute on the tarmac to escape the aircraft.

Another possible explanation for the rash of air rage incidents is an increase in the number of passengers who simply feel that deserve better than what they're getting. Mental health author Joseph Burgo writes that people who erupt in what he calls narcissistic rage may also express a frustrated sense of entitlement.

“By which I mean the feeling that one has a right to be given something which others believe should be obtained through effort, and unrealistic expectations of favorable treatment or automatic compliance with one’s expectations,” he writes.

And a lot of those folks are sitting in first class, not just in coach.

Drivers are always complaining about potholes, lousy signage, potholes and poor lane markings on the nation's highways. And now they're being joined by self-driving car manufacturers who say their robots are having trouble seeing the lines and reading the signs on American streets.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk has called it "crazy" and Volvo's North American CEO lost his cool recently when one of his company's autonomous prototypes refused to budge during a press event at the Los Angeles Auto Show, Reuters reported. 

"It can't find the lane markings. You need to paint the bloody roads here," Lex Kerssemakers exclaimed to LA Mayor Eric Garcetti.

Automakers are finding it difficult to cope with the patchwork of laws and standards in the U.S., unlike European and Asian nations, where government tends to be more centralized and the same standards are used nationwide for things like traffic signals, signs and lane markings.

Consistently inconsistent

In the U.S., some states use reflectorized paint while others use colored bumps to mark lanes. Some use both. Others seem to have forgotten that lanes are supposed to be marked.

Then there's the little matter of traffic signals. In some states and cities, they are stacked vertically, in others horizontally. Still others use what traffic engineers call "doghouse style," a combination of vertical and horizontal.

There is also the little matter of snow, which tends to pile up on roads and block lane markings. It's unheard of in Silicon Valley, where Google and other technology companies are working on self-driving cars but very common in much of the country. 

What's a robot to do?

Some carmakers and technology companies will want the U.S. to retrofit its roads to suit them, while others say they are finding ways to work around the problem. Mercedes-Benz, for example, says its "drive pilot" system uses 23 different sensors to figure out what's what and can keep a car in the proper lane at speeds up to 84 miles per hour under most conditions.

Some mapmakers, like TomTom, are working to make their maps accurate within centimeters, so they can keep cars on the road even when there are no lines. That's assuming, of course, that the maps are up to date.