Current Events in October 2016

Consumers have been attempting to manage the data they use on their mobile devices for years, with mixed success. But as technology continues to advance and new media trends take hold, it has gotten more and more difficult to do. Certain services, such as video streaming, can take a big bite out of users’ data if they’re not careful, which can lead to hefty overage charges.

It is for this reason that many providers have changed or abandoned unlimited data plans, which are potentially less lucrative than raking in exorbitant fees related to data limits. However, Verizon recently announced a new mobile data plan that allows users to buy unlimited data for small chunks of time.

The plan, called PopData, allows consumers to take advantage of 30- and 60-minute periods of unlimited data, which could be very useful if you need to download a large file or find yourself in an area without Wi-Fi. The company is pricing the 30-minute periods at $2 per extension and the 60-minute periods at $3 per extension, and the total cost of all extensions will be added to each customer’s bill at the end of the month.

Shortcomings

While the new plan may seem great at first glance, critics have been quick to point out its shortcomings. First, customers should be aware that PopData is only available while they’re in an LTE network; consumers in an area where Verizon’s 3G network is only available WILL NOT be able to use PopData, so data limits will still apply. The plan is also only available to postpaid subscribers, which means prepaid customers won’t be able to access it.

Perhaps more worrying is the way that the timer works on the plan. Once a user selects an extension and starts the timer, there is no stopping it. If there are network problems, like slow speeds or bad performance, the timer will continue to tick down anyway.

For users on less congested networks, this might not be too much of an issue. But for those who might be sharing a network in a city or highly-populated area, having a set time of unlimited data isn’t all that helpful if the network speeds are slow.

So, before signing up for a block of unlimited data, consumers should be well aware of network conditions and how it might affect their mobile activities. To learn more about PopData, visit the plan’s page here and peruse the FAQ section here.

"Soylent Green is made out of people.* They're making our food out of people. Next thing they'll be breeding us like cattle for food. You've gotta tell them." -- Thorn, a character in "Soylent Green"

Anyone who's seen the 1973 film "Soylent Green" might wonder why a prepared food company would name itself Soylent, but that's what a Bay Area start-up did.

Soylent makes drinks, food powder, breakfast bars, and snack bars that promise to supply not just nutritients but "macronutrients." Instead, the snack bars, introduced just a few months ago, have been causing macroproblems as customers report the bars made them sick.

The company has responded by withdrawing the bars while it investigates and is offering refunds to its subscribers. 

"After hearing from our customers, we immediately began investigating the cause of the issue and whether it was linked to a problem with the Bars. So far we have not yet identified one and this issue does not appear to affect our other drinks and powder," the company said in a statement on its website. 

Macrofood

Like several other meal replacement companies, Soylent claims its products are not just snacks but meal replacements -- enough to live on, in other words. Maybe that's why it says they supply "macronutrients." 

We looked up macronutrients and here's what we found:

a substance required in relatively large amounts by living organisms, in particular.

• a type of food (e.g., fat, protein, carbohydrate) required in large amounts in the human diet.
• a chemical element (e.g., potassium, magnesium, calcium) required in large amounts for plant growth and development.

So, a macronutrient is something you have to eat a lot of -- like, uh, food. What we guess they're trying to say is that Soylent bars, liquids, and powder aren't just sugar and food coloring but actually the stuff of life, so to speak.

"Knotty old rope"

Could be, although the bars are not the only Soylent products that have come in for their share of criticism. Brian Merchant, a reporter for Motherboard, set out to live on the stuff for a month.

"It was my second day on Soylent and my stomach felt like a coil of knotty old rope. I wasn’t hungry, but something was off. I was tired, light-headed, low-energy, but my heart was racing," Merchant wrote. "I had twenty-eight days left of my month-long all-Soylent diet—I was attempting to live on the full food replacement longer than anyone besides its inventor—and I felt woozy already."

Soylent is -- what else? -- a venture-backed company started by a 25-year-old, Rob Rhinehart, a software engineer who tried to apply his skills to basically reverse-engineering food.

The result is a powder that Merchant said "tasted like granular baby formula that was somehow simultaneously sugary and salty. Previous tasters had compared it to semen, which made sense, and so did the nods to cake batter and uncooked oatmeal."

Could you live on the stuff? Opinions differ, but the consensus seems to be that you could but why would you want to? Eating is, or at least is supposed to be, at least mildly pleasurable and often provides an opportunity for social interaction. Choking down a chalky substance might not be macro enough for many consumers. 

Federal health officials have a warning for open-heart surgery patients: a device used during your surgery may have been contaminated with bacteria when it was made, and a dangerous infection can develop long after the surgery.

The device is a 3-T heater-cooler made by Sorin, now known as LivaNova PLC. It’s used to keep a patient’s blood and organs at a specific temperature during the surgery.

More than 250,000 heart bypass procedures using heater-cooler devices are performed in the United States every year and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warns that about 60 percent of them used the devices that have been associated with these infections.

The CDC said that in hospitals where at least one patient has been infected, the risk of additional infections ranges from 1 in 100 to 1 in 1,000. Patients who had valves or prosthetic products implanted are at higher risk of these infections.

Symptoms to watch for

Patients who've had the life-saving surgery don't have to do anything now, other than watch for signs of an infection and seek medical care right away if those symptoms develop.

The CDC says that patients who have had open heart surgery should seek medical care if they are experiencing symptoms associated with infections, such as night sweats, muscle aches, weight loss, fatigue, or unexplained fever.

There is no test for the infection, which is caused by a bacteria known as Mycobacterium chimaera. It rarely makes healthy people sick, but the CDC warns that patients who have been exposed to the bacteria through open-heart surgery can develop general and nonspecific symptoms that can often take months to develop. As a result, diagnosis can be missed or delayed, sometimes for years, making these infections more difficult to treat.

Infections can be diagnosed only through a lab culture, a lengthy process that can take up to two months.

“It’s important for clinicians and their patients to be aware of this risk so that patients can be evaluated and treated quickly,” says the CDC’s Dr. Michael Bell. “Hospitals should check to see which type of heater-coolers are in use, ensure that they’re maintained according to the latest manufacturer instructions, and alert affected patients and the clinicians who care for them.”

Patients who have had open-heart surgery and are concerned about symptoms they may be experiencing should contact their healthcare providers.

The holiday shopping season is fast approaching and surveys have shown that many consumers have been making purchases since Labor Day.

So now might be a good time to point out that if you plan to do a lot of end-of-the-year spending, doing it with a rewards credit card might help you save as much money as hitting the stores early on Black Friday.

In recent years personal finance experts have emphasized rewards credit cards as an easy way to save money. Like any credit card, a rewards card needs to be used responsibly, but if utilized to make purchases you would ordinarily make with a debit card or cash, credit card purchases can put money in your pocket.

How much varies from card to card, but the folks at Discover have rolled out some special holiday promotions, upping the rewards consumers can earn during the holidays, using the Discover it Card or Discover it for Students. Both cards normally pay 1% on all purchases but also have special quarterly promotions.

5% bonus

For example, for the fourth quarter Discover will pay a 5% cashback bonus on purchases at Amazon.com, department stores, and Sam's Club – places where consumers probably do the lion's share of their shopping. The 5% bonus applies to a total purchase amount of $1,500. Above that, any additional spending earns the regular 1% cash back.

“We try to make sure that we don't make our program complicated,” Maureen Powers, vice-president of rewards for Discover, told ConsumerAffairs. “We don't want customers to have to start planning how they are going to earn their rewards, or having to do math.”

Added bonus for new customers

There's an even better payoff for consumers who just recently obtained a Discover it Card, or plan to get one soon.

“Our card members can earn Cash Back Match,” Powers said. “They are earning all of these rewards, and then at the end of the first 12 months that they have the card, we will double all of those rewards.”

How much can that add up to? Let's assume you are a new cardholder who ends up spending $1,750 at Amazon, a number of department stores, and Sam's Club. You earn $75 on the first $1,500 and $2.50 on the difference between $1,500 and $1,750. Then, because you qualify for Cash Back Match, the amount is doubled for a total of $155 in cash rewards.

Powers also says Discover offers price protection, in case you find the item you purchase later at a lower price.

“What consumers will do is send in the receipt and show where they found a better price, and Discover will refund the difference up to $500, if you do it within 90 days of the purchase,” she said.

While doing your holiday shopping with cash may keep you from overspending, it doesn't put money in your pocket. But it bears repeating, using a rewards credit card for all your holiday purchases will only put you ahead if you exercise discipline and don't over-spend.

GITI Tire (USA) is recalling 250,620 imported Primewell Valera Touring II tires, sizes 205/50R17 93V XL, 215/50R17 95V XL, 225/50R17 94V, 225/50R18 95T; 205/65R16 95H, GT Radial Champiro Touring A/S tires, sizes 205/50R17 93V XL, 215/50R17 95V XL, 225/50R17 94V, 205/65R16 95H; and 225/50R18 95T, and Dextero Touring DTR1 tires, sizes 205/50R17 93V XL, 215/50R17 95V XL, 225/50R17 94V, manufactured by PT. Gajah Tunggal TBK in Indonesia.

The replacement passenger car tires may develop cracks in the lower sidewall, potentially resulting in a loss of air.

A loss of air pressure may result in sudden tire failure, increasing the risk of a crash.

What to do

GITI will notify owners, and dealers will replace the affected tires, free of charge. The recall is expected to begin in October 2016.

Owners may contact GITI customer service at 1-877-342-0882.

Continental Tire the Americas is recalling 14,567 Crosscontact LX20 tires, size P275/55R20 111S, manufactured May 3, 2015, to May 9, 2015.

The tires, sold as replacement tires as well as original equipment on certain General Motors full size trucks and SUVs, may have insufficient adhesion within the belt package, resulting in tread wear, vibration, noise, or bulging areas on the tire.

The insufficient adhesion can cause partial or full tread/belt loss, increasing the risk of a crash.

What to do

Continental will notify owners, and dealers will replace the tires, free of charge. The manufacturer has not yet provided a notification schedule.

Owners may contact Continental customer service at 1-888-799-2168.

One of the main political sticking points for candidates over the years has concerned taxes – more specifically, how to make sure U.S. companies pay their fair share of them.

Many have called the tax system broken over the years because of how easy it is for a company or corporation to acquire a business overseas and move its tax address. This allows multinational businesses to engage in “earnings stripping,” which is the term that describes a company that pays deductible interest to a parent company or affiliate in another country that has lower taxes. Simply put, it allows a business to avoid paying as much as they should in U.S. taxes.

But in an interview with CNBC on Thursday, U.S. Treasury Secretary Jack Lew announced new regulations that will limit companies’ ability to take part in this kind of “egregious” tax avoidance. The new rules will seek to end earnings stripping and mandate that corporations file documentation on interest deductions on related-party loans.

“This administration has long called for legislative action to fix our broken tax system. In the absence of Congressional action, it is Treasury’s responsibility to use our authority to protect the tax base from continued erosion,” said Treasury Department Secretary Jacob J. Lew in a statement.

“We have taken a series of actions to make it harder for large foreign multinational companies to avoid paying U.S. taxes and reduce the incentives for U.S. companies to shift income and operations overseas. Such tax avoidance practices are wrong and should be stopped.”

Exceptions and exemptions

The proposed regulations were submitted back in April, and were subject to months of scrutiny from stakeholders before being finalized. As a result, the finalized version allows for several exceptions and exemptions for situations where there is a low risk of earnings stripping.

Feedback from the public also led to exemptions for foreign subsidiaries of U.S. multinational corporations, transactions between pass-through businesses, cash pools, and limited exemptions for financial institutions and insurance companies that are subject to regulatory oversight for their capital structure.

The final regulations also include more relaxed documentation requirements than those suggested in April, as well as more exceptions for ordinary course transactions like stock acquisitions associated with employee compensation plans. The regulations will go into effect on January 1, 2018.

Mixed reviews

Republicans and Democrats have remained divided on the new regulations. Rep. Kevin Brady (R-Tex) claims the regulations were pushed through too quickly and may damage U.S. workers and the economy. “By rushing the review process – despite the extensive comments received – and finalizing these regulations so quickly, it appears the Obama Administration has ignored the real concerns of people who will be most impacted by these far-reaching rules,” he said.

On the other side of the aisle, Rep. Sander Levin (D-Mich) said the new regulations were a step in the right direction towards restoring fairness to the tax system.

“For years, companies have been inverting and engaging in earnings stripping to unfairly lower their tax bills. In the absence of Republican action on tax reform, Treasury has used its Administrative authority to help bring fairness to the tax system. Today’s regulations from Treasury—which took into account extensive comments from the public and intensive meetings with Republicans and Democrats in Congress—go straight to the core of that fairness issue by strongly limiting a company’s ability to use this tax avoidance strategy, which involves disproportionately leveraging a U.S. company with debt and ‘stripping’ the U.S. tax base through deductible interest payments,” he said.

One tax expert found both positives and negatives to the new regulations, saying that some necessary steps were taken but that some parts were still worrisome.

“On the plus side, the documentation rule’s applicability of 1/1/18 and the exception – for the time being at least – for foreign issuers were responsive to comments and were absolutely necessary. . . But the rules’ general response regarding cash pooling will still be highly burdensome where they apply as will the retroactive application of the re-characterization rules,” said Ronald Dabrowski, a principal of KPMG LLP, a Washington National Tax practice.

So, based on the mixed reviews, consumers may have to wait and see if the new regulations save the tax system or lead to the collapse of the country as we know it. The smart bet may be to expect something in between. Consumers can learn more by visiting the Treasury's fact page here.

Before trekking out to an amusement park or embarking on an exciting adventure with the kids, parents may want to consider the fact that family happiness is often found right at home.

In a new study, researchers from Baylor University found that family leisure at home can be a “more effective route to happiness” due to the fact that familiar activities are easier for the brain to digest.

When the brain is busy digesting new information, it can make it more difficult to reap the emotional benefits of quality time together, explained lead author Karen K. Melton, Ph.D., an assistant professor of child and family studies in Robbins College of Health and Human Sciences at Baylor.

“When the brain is focused on processing new information -- such as taking part in an unfamiliar activity with unfamiliar people in a new location -- less 'brain power' is available to focus on the family relationships.”

Inside the home

You might think that any quality time is good quality time, but Melton disagrees. “All family leisure is not equal,” she says, adding that “the best predictor of happiness for families may be spending quality time together in familiar activities inside the home.”

To reach this conclusion, Baylor researchers asked 1,502 families to answer an online questionnaire regarding the nature of their family’s leisure time together. Questions included, “What activities do you do?” and “How often do you do them?”

Scores supported the researchers’ initial hypothesis, which stated that families that participated in more leisure with lower levels of recreation would have higher levels of happiness.

The study’s authors note that these findings are good news for families with limited time, few resources, or both.

Expressing stress

Hanging out at home together may also offer families a way to release some steam. Instead of plastering on a happy face while doing activities outside the home, families members can “express stress and conflict as well as pleasure during leisure time” at home, says Melton.

So what at-home activities pave the way for healthy and happiness-inducing quality time together? Melton says there’s no one-size-fits-all answer, but simple, familiar activities are a good place to start.

"For some families, quality togetherness is having dinner together or playing games; for others, it may be hobbies, videos or TV, music," Melton said. "At the end of the day, what matters is that we are social beings who crave a sense of belonging and connectivity."

The study has been published in World Leisure Journal.

As we head into the end of the year with an economy that remains anemic, one factor economists are closely watching is the housing market.

After crashing in 2009, housing has recovered nicely, with prices rising nearly to pre-crash levels. But one of the biggest reasons for the price rally, especially lately, is that the supply of homes hasn't kept pace with demand.

So where does it go from here, and what does it mean for the economy? The latest ValueInsured Housing Confidence Index is not overly encouraging. While home prices are rising, confidence among consumers in the housing market is about the same as it has been all summer.

“Home prices rose over the summer, putting them out of reach for many renters who also saw their rents rising,” said Joe Melendez, ValueInsured's CEO. “Another factor suppressing housing confidence is the unsettling presidential contest and uncertain future it entails.”

Put those considerations together with the hangover from the 2009 housing crash and Melendez says many prospective buyers really need a confidence boost.

The Millennial factor

Millennials are being a large and powerful block of consumers who are shaping the housing market, and the survey breakdown shows this generation continues to have economic anxiety and uncertainty. They're skeptical and prepared for volatility.

Sixty percent of Millennials questioned by survey takers worry the housing market has entered a bubble and could face a correction in the next two years. Only 47% of Americans as a whole hold that view. The survey finds that prospective first-time buyers, in particular, are worried about instability in the housing market.

Indeed, the latest data from the National Association of Realtors (NAR) suggests a slowing housing market going into the end of the year. At the end of September, NAR reported pending home sales – a statistic based on contracts signed but not yet closed – fell in August by 2.4%.

Fewer homes for sale

NAR chief economist Lawrence Yun attributes it mostly to fewer available homes for sale. Where there were higher inventories of homes, Yun says, sales were higher. It's just simple math.

He also has a warning – without an increase in new home construction, the housing recovery could, in fact, stall.

He notes that housing inventory has shrunk year-over-year for 15 straight months. That has meant homes sold faster and for more money. So it might not be all that surprising that people searching for a home to buy are feeling some angst.

How is your dog feeling? A quick glance at his tail might offer some clues, but there’s often a lot more going on below the surface.

Joji Yamaguchi, the biologist behind the creation of a new smart collar called ‘Inupathy,’ believes a dog’s heart rate is the biggest indicator of his current emotional state.

In an effort to better understand his dog and help other pet owners do the same, Yamaguchi designed a collar which shows -- via different colored lights -- how a dog is feeling at an emotional level.

“I was always worried about my dog’s nervousness and wanted a way to learn how to make him relaxed,” Yamaguchi told Newsweek. “So I invented a device capable of analyzing the rhythm of a heart beat."

Gauging dogs’ needs

Colored LED lights embedded on the collar function as a way of letting pet parents see how their dog is reacting to the world at any given moment.

If your dog is in a relaxed state, a blue light will appear on the device. If he’s focusing intently on a squirrel in the distance or attempting to master a new trick, the light will glow white to indicate that the dog is concentrating.

Knowing if a dog is happy, calm, excited, or concentrating can help pet owners understand their dogs’ needs, says Yamaguchi. This deeper understanding, he believes, can strengthen the bond between pet parents and their dogs.

‘Mental visualizer’

Instead of relying on the position of a dog’s tail or other external indicators of emotion, the Inupathy collar lets pet owners see their dog’s internal emotional state.

What might the collar reveal? In Yamaguchi’s case, the device opened his eyes to the fact that his Corgi preferred to be within close proximity of him.  

“I’ve learnt that the distance between me and my dog, and whether I’m touching him or not is very important,” Yamaguchi said. “He is also more relaxed with the door of a room closed, rather than opened.”

He also found that aggression wasn’t always the reason his dog barked at other dogs. He gleaned this insight by comparing his dog’s reaction to cats versus dogs. While barking at cats, the collar lit up red, Yamaguchi told The Next Web. But while barking at dogs, the collar picked up on the fact that the bark was less aggressive.

The Federal Trade Commission has finished applying an astringent solution to a group of skincare companies that it accused of using deceptive marketing and billing tactics to skin consumers.

The companies, which sold Auravie, Dellure, LéOR Skincare, and Miracle Face Kit products have agreed to court orders with the FTC or had default orders entered against them.

“These defendants tricked people into paying for skin care products and abused the credit card system to extend their scheme,” said Jessica Rich, director of the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection. “The Commission will continue to attack scams that rely on supposed ‘free trial’ offers and unauthorized credit card charges.”

"Risk-free trials"

The agency said the defendants sold their skin creams through false advertisements for “risk-free trials.” According to the FTC, the defendants convinced consumers to provide their credit card information, purportedly to pay nominal shipping fees.

However, the defendants allegedly used consumers’ credit card information to impose unauthorized recurring monthly charges of up to $97.88 per month for unordered products. The FTC also charged defendants with misrepresenting themselves as accredited by the Better Business Bureau (BBB).

The total number of defendants eventually reached 33. Most were charged with violating the FTC Act, the Restore Online Shoppers’ Confidence Act, and the Electronic Funds Transfer Act.

Each final order bans the defendants from selling products through a “negative option,” in which the consumer’s silence is interpreted as consent to receive and pay for goods and services. The orders also bar them from future deception and credit card laundering.

For medical researchers focused on multiple sclerosis (MS), the hope is to move beyond just slowing the progressive and debilitating disease towards actually restoring some lost functions.

Researchers writing in the medical journal Neurology have reported what appear to be promising results from the use of a drug already in physicians' arsenal.

They write that the use of the drug alemtuzumab actually reversed some of the nerve damage in MS patients. They note the drug isn't employed very often because it is known to have potentially serious effects.

Alemtuzumab is normally prescribed to patients in later stages of MS who haven't responded well to other treatments. It is used most often with the most common form of the disease, relapsing-remitting MS, in which symptoms alternate between improving and worsening.

The study

In the international study, relapsing-remitting MS patients who did not respond well to at least one other MS drug were treated either with alemtuzumab or interferon. Their level of disability was monitored from the beginning to the end of the study.

By the end of the two-year monitoring period, 28% of the patients receiving alemtuzumab had regained at least some lost function. They were two times more likely to have shown improvement than the patients receiving interferon.

“These results are encouraging, but exactly how alemtuzumab may reverse damage, whether it’s through repairing myelin, creating new nerve synapses, greatly reducing inflammation or some other mechanism, is yet to be investigated,” said Dr. Bibiana Bielekova, a member of the research team.

That, the researchers say, needs to be pursued in follow-up studies. But the study is just the latest to suggest that it might be possible to repair some of the damage caused by MS.

Earlier research

As we reported in 2014, animal studies had suggested a drug called anti-LINGO-1, also called BIIB033, may be able to repair the demyelination of the nerves. However, Phase II clinical trials, completed early in the summer, did not achieve the hoped-for results.

Dr. Alfred Sandrock, executive vice president and chief medical officer at drug maker Biogen, said researchers aren't giving up.

“Achieving repair of the human central nervous system through remyelination would be a substantial achievement, and while we missed the primary endpoint, the SYNERGY study results suggest evidence of a clinical effect of opicinumab,” he said. “Due to the complex nature of the data set, we continue to analyze the results to inform the design of our next study.”

American Honda is recalling about 350,000 Civic Coupes and Sedans from the 2016 model year to update software affecting Electric Parking Brake (EPB) functionality, free of charge.

No crashes or injuries have been reported related to this issue, which was discovered through warranty claims associated with the illumination of the brake warning light.

The software for the Vehicle Stability Assist Electronic Control Unit may prevent application of the EPB when it is applied immediately after turning the vehicle ignition off. (This condition will not occur if the EPB is applied before turning off the vehicle ignition.)

If the EPB cannot be applied, the "BRAKE" warning indicator in the instrument panel will blink for 15 seconds to alert the driver. Additionally, if the EPB does not properly set and a parking gear is not selected by the driver, the vehicle may roll away, increasing the risk of a crash.

Honda is announcing this recall to encourage each owner of an affected vehicle to take it to an authorized dealer for repair as soon as they receive notification of this recall from Honda. Mailed notification to customers will begin in early November 2016.

Additionally, owners of these vehicles can determine if their vehicles require repair now by going to www.recalls.honda.com or by calling (888) 234-2138.