Current Events in November 2016

If you believe everything you read lately, the auto industry is about to shrink. Millennials won't buy cars, but will share them through car-sharing arrangements.

Or, they will simply summon a driverless car from a smartphone app and be driven to and picked up from their destination.

Wall Street has bought into these scenarios as the stock prices for Ford and GM have sunk in recent months. But when all of this happens, and whether it really does happen, is still very much in doubt. After all, each era has offered up ambitious visions for the future that never materialized.

Still robust sales

As for the auto industry, it appears to still be doing quite nicely. Consumers have not yet shown an inclination to give up car ownership. While it's true new car sales were down about 6% last month, it's only because the comparison is to October 2015, when the industry blew the roof off sales projections.

According to Kelley Blue Book (KBB), consumers not only bought new vehicles in huge numbers last month, they paid top dollar for them. The average transaction price was $34,663, nearly $800 more than consumers paid in October 2015.

"The Detroit automakers posted gains between 4% and 6% percent, as their strong portfolios of trucks and SUVs align extremely well with current consumer demand,” said KBB analyst Tim Fleming.

The auto industry was on the ropes in early 2009, in the wake of the financial crisis. But since then it has begun to set sales records month after month. Is all that going to end because Millennials want to share cars and not even own one? So far, the evidence hasn't been persuasive.

Role of Millennials

A new study by automotive site Edmunds.com suggests the major impact Millennials are bringing to the auto world features a more prominent role for women in the purchase process. The study found that both men and women are equally confident in their ability to negotiate a deal.

The most likely result of Millennials emergence as the biggest group of car-buyers, says Michelle Shotts, senior director of customer insights at Edmunds, is automakers, dealers, and marketers will begin to engage with car shoppers on a highly personalized, individual level.

But they'll still be buying cars and, for the foreseeable future, they'll be driving them themselves.

Mercedes-Benz USA (MBUSA) is recalling 2,215 model year 2016-2017 GLE 300d 4MATIC, GLE 350, GLE 350 4MATIC, and GLE 400 4MATIC vehicles manufactured October 14, 2015, to November 23, 2015.

The vehicles' low beam headlights may not be adjusted properly. Thus, these vehicles fail to comply with the requirements of Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard (FMVSS) number 108, "Lamps, Reflective Devices, and Assoc. Equipment."

If the low-beam headlights are out of adjustment, the driver's visibility may be reduced, increasing the risk of a crash.

What to do

MBUSA will notify owners, and dealers will inspect and correct the headlight adjustment, as necessary, free of charge. The recall is expected to begin in November 2016.

Owners may contact MBUSA customer service at 1-800-367-6372.

There are still about 70 million cars in the United States equipped with Takata airbags that could prove fatal in even a minor accident, like the one that killed Huma Hanif, 17, fatally injured by shrapnel from the airbag when her Honda Civic rear-ended another car at low speed in Houston.

Airbags in older cars like Hanif's, about 300,000 of them, are the biggest problem -- they have a 50 percent chance of exploding, safety officials say.

Takata itself is not in very good shape either. It is teetering on bankruptcy and seeking a buyer. This raises the question of who takes responsibility for the airbags if Takata goes away.

Federal highway safety chief Mark Rosekind addressed that question in Detroit Wednesday, saying automakers have the "ultimate responsibility" for replacing the airbags, no matter what happens to Takata, Reuters reported.

Rosekind also said he is concerned that not enough is being done to track down more than 300,000 older cars -- most of them Hondas and Acuras -- that have the most dangerous Takata airbags.

Honda has said that it has made multiple mailings -- as many as 20 in some cases -- to owners of Hondas from the 2001 to 2003 model years, but many of the cars have been sold to new owners, raising concerns that the mailings may have gone astray.

Honda now says it is about to start conducting home visits to owners of the older cars. The company also says it is looking for new ways to convince owners of recalled cars to get them fixed. Rosekind suggested it may be necessary to take mobile repair teams into neighborhoods to make the repairs, according to Reuters.

Ordered off the road

Maybe safety officials should consider the tactic they used to get 16,000 recalled Volvo tractor-trailer trucks fixed when it was discovered that the steering could fail without warning. The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) ordered the trucks off the road and roadside safety and weigh stations were alerted to carry out the order.

All 16,000 of the trucks were fixed, the Department of Transportation announced on Nov. 1, the first time anyone can recall a car or truck recall campaign that was 100 percent successful. Many recalls stall or are delayed because dealers can't get parts and consumers either don't respond to mailings or don't receive them.

Safety advocates have long called for a more aggressive program to ensure that critical safety recalls are completed quickly and completely, meaning that all of the recalled vehicles are actually fixed, something that rarely happens now.

Sen. Bill Nelson (D-Fla.), a senior member of the Commerce Committee, wrote to the head of NHTSA two years ago urging him to require automakers to provide consumers with loaner cars or rental-car reimbursement if they could not get their cars fixed immediately. 

Nelson then wrote to Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx urging him to impose civil penalties on any company that refused to provide drivers with an alternate form of transportation while they wait for their cars to be repaired. Neither idea was implemented, although Honda and some other manufacturers are urging dealers to provide rentals or loaners while airbag recalls are carried out.

"Abysmal" record

Senators Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.) and Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), members of the Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee, have called the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration's recall rate "abysmal" and have called on NHTSA to accelerate its efforts.

"Takata has lied to cover up problems with its airbags and NHTSA has aided this malfeasance with an inept and illogical recall process. NHTSA’s recall rate is abysmal and it is in part responsible for this most recent death," they said in a statement after Huma Hanif's death became the tenth attributed to Takata airbags in the U.S.

The most recent reported U.S. fatality also involved an older Honda Civic, a 2001 model driven by a 50-year-old woman killed Sept. 30 in Riverside County, Calif. Honda said it had sent 20 recall notices to the registered owner of that car but the recall was never completed. 

Many of the fatalities are occurring in hot and humid locations, like Texas and Florida. In Houston, Serena Martinez filed suit this week seeking compensation for the injuries she suffered when the airbag in her 2002 Honda Accord exploded. Heat and humidity cause ammonium nitrate, the propellant used in the recalled airbags, to break down, making it more susceptible to detonation.

Experienced air travelers know which airports they like and which ones to stay away from. Unfortunately, for those of us who don’t fly as much, bad service and amenities can often catch us by surprise.

To address this issue, the folks over at ThePointsGuy.com – a travel and lifestyle media platform -- took a look at the 30 busiest airports in the U.S. and ranked them from best to worst.

Each was judged on a variety of factors, including flight delays, cancellations, average security wait times, distance from the city center, public transit options, bars and restaurants, lounges, Wi-Fi costs, and parking rates.

Best and worst

The study found that Phoenix Sky Harbor International was the best airport in the U.S. It is the closest airport to its city’s center, has the second-best public transit time, third-cheapest parking, third-most restaurants and bars per capita, and the fifth-fewest flight cancellations.

Rounding out the top five were Portland International Airport in Oregon; San Diego International Airport, Salt Lake City International Airport, and Honolulu International Airport.

On the other hand, frequent fliers in New York will dismayed -- thought not surprised -- that two of their most well-known airports make the bottom of the list. La Guardia Airport, located in Queens, came in dead last due to having the most flight delays, most cancellations, and most expensive parking of all the airports surveyed.

John F. Kennedy Airport, also in Queens, occupies the second-to-last spot for having the longest security wait times and longest driving time from the city center.

The other three contenders at the bottom of the list included Detroit Metropolitan Airport, Chicago O’Hare International Airport, and Newark Liberty International Airport.

To see the complete list, visit the researchers' site here. 

About 3.4 million GD Midea dehumidifiers sold under just about every brand name you can think of are being recalled because they can overheat and catch fire. Midea has received 38 reports of smoke and fire. About $4.8 million in property damage has been reported, but there have been no injuries reported thus far.

The brand name, model number, pint capacity, and manufacture date are printed on the nameplate sticker on the back of the dehumidifier. To determine if your dehumidifier has been recalled, enter the model number at https://www.recallrtr.com/dehumidifier.

The humidifiers were sold at Lowes, Menards, PC Richard, and other stores nationwide from January 2003 through December 2013 for between $100 and $300.

This recall involves 25, 30, 40, 50, 60, 65, 70, and 75-pint dehumidifiers with the following  brand names: Airworks, Alen, Arcticaire, Arctic King, Beaumark, Coolworks, ComfortAire, Comfort Star, Continental Electic, Crosley, Daewoo, Danby, Danby & Designer, Dayton, Degree, Diplomat, Edgestar, Excell, Fellini, Forest Air, Frigidaire, GE, Grunaire, Hanover, Honeywell, Homestyles, Hyundai, Ideal Air, Kenmore (Canada), Keystone, Kul, Midea, Nantucket, Ocean Breeze, Pelonis, Perfect Aire, Perfect Home, Polar Wind, Premiere, Professional Series, Royal Sovereign, Simplicity, Sunbeam, SPT, Sylvania, TGM, Touch Point, Trutemp, Uberhaus, Westpointe, Winix, and Winixl

Consumers who have a faulty model should immediately turn off and unplug the dehumidifiers and contact GD Midea for either a replacement unit or a partial refund. Consumers whose dehumidifiers were manufactured before October 1, 2008 will receive a partial refund, not a replacement. The manufacturing dates can be found on the back of units.

Consumer Contact: GD Midea at 800-600-3055 from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. CT, Monday through Friday or online at www.midea.com/us/. Click on Product Recall for more information.  

If you are traveling by air this Thanksgiving weekend, hopefully you have booked your flight by now.

If not, you may not only have a hard time making connections, but you'll pay the premium rate.

For those of you who have your tickets and made your plans, you might want to get to the airport a little early. Estimates suggest there will be crowded terminals.

Airlines for America (A4A), the industry trade group, projects 27.3 million consumers will travel by air during the Thanksgiving travel period, a rise of 2.5% over last Thanksgiving. The group says that amounts to an extra 55,000 passengers a day.

74,000 extra seats

For their part, the airlines say they can handle the extra load. Domestic airlines have added 74,000 seats per day by adding flights and replacing smaller planes with larger ones.

The reason more consumers are flocking to the nation's airports is no mystery. The airlines have lowered fares, passing on some of their fuel savings to consumers.

“Airlines are adding capacity to accommodate the increased demand, and travelers should rest assured that while more people will be flying, there will be more than an adequate number of seats available,” said A4A Vice President and Chief Economist John Heimlich.

Airlines may have increased their capacity to handle the expected increase in passengers, but what about the boarding process? Should travelers expect bottlenecks at airport security checkpoints?

Bottlenecks?

The airlines say these checkpoints should be manageable because of the increased number of consumers who have registered for programs like PreCheck, that moves passengers through the screening process faster.

The Transportation Security Administration says that consumers who purchase a five-year membership for $85 will be able to get through the security checkpoint and board the aircraft without having to remove their shoes, laptops, liquids, belts, and light jackets.

TSA says it's still a good idea to arrive at the airport two hours before your flight, especially during the Thanksgiving travel period. You'll find TSA's additional tips for reducing your waiting time in line here.

There are several ways debt collectors can step over the line when they try to collect money from consumers. A lawsuit claims Buffalo, N.Y. debt collectors tried just about all of them.

New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) have filed a federal court lawsuit against two individuals who Schneiderman alleges were operating a network of “fly-by-night collection shops that harass, threaten, and deceive” consumers so that they would pay money they might not owe.

The lawsuit seeks to close the debt collection operations and to compensate consumers affected by the debt collection efforts.

Threats and deception

“These collection shops inflated debts, threatened victims, and deceived them out of millions,” Schneiderman said.

CFPB Director Richard Cordray says the debt collectors used fear and intimidation tactics to force consumers to pay debts, without verifying or proving that they actually owed the money.

The Fair Debt Collections Practices Act sets out consumers' rights when it comes to collecting debts and places strict limits on what collectors can say or do. When collectors violate these rules, they can often force consumers to pay money they do not legally owe.

List of charges

The suit makes a number of accusations. It claims the defendants violated the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act in its interactions with consumers. It also claims they ran afoul of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, which bars unfair and deceptive acts or practices in the consumer financial marketplace.

The suit claims “repeated fraudulent acts and deceptive acts or practices” in violation of New York law, which also has provisions covering debt collection.

The specific charges provide a laundry list of things a debt collector is not supposed to do: inflating the amount owed by taking on fees they aren't allowed to collect; threatening legal action against the consumer when there were no grounds to do so; and telling consumers they would be arrested immediately if they didn't pay up.

The suit is a good reminder that consumers have options when a debt collector is trying to collect a dubious debt. Among the key provisions is the right to see verification of the debt.

The Federal Trade Commission spells out consumers' rights here.

As they did last year, retailers are getting an early start on Black Friday deals, rolling them out early to snag consumers' dollars before some other store does.

Amazon has opened up what it calls its Black Friday Store, with sale items every day in advance of the official start to the holiday shopping season. In fact, Amazon is promising to put up new deals periodically every day until December 22.

At the same time, the online retail giant has launched several curated Holiday Gift Guides. The company predicts OLED, HDR, and 4K TVs will be big draws in electronics, along with Alexa-enabled home security cameras, VR/360-degree cameras, instant film cameras, and drone photography.

Other predicted hot items include Twitch streaming and in-home music studio equipment, along with VR and AR gaming products.

Shopping with Alexa

"This holiday season, we're offering more deals than ever before and - for the first time ever - giving Prime members an opportunity to use Alexa voice shopping for purchasing their holiday gifts hands-free,” said Doug Herrington, Senior Vice President of North American Retail at Amazon. “They can make purchases simply by asking Alexa-enabled devices, like the new Echo Dot, while relaxing at home with family and friends."

Walmart is also getting an early start, offering up daily holiday gift deals on its website. There are featured deals each day from a number of different departments, including electronics, apparel, toys, and appliances.

Sam's Club, meanwhile, has introduced its “Instant Savings Book,” promising instant deals across all departments. The company says all the potential savings add up to $5,000.

Of course, Black Friday itself is coming up fast. BestBlackFriday.com has published what it says are leaked Black Friday ad slicks from Sam's Club, Dell, Walmart, and Toys R Us. Deals include a Dell laptop for $99.99.

As daily fantasy sports (DFS) became incredibly popular and profitable, two DFS enterprises, FanDuel and DraftKings, emerged as the biggest players.

In the fall of 2015, their TV ads were everywhere. The two companies spent more money on advertising than beer companies as they both competed for players. It was also about that time that a number of states began suing DraftKings and FanDuel, claiming they were violating gambling laws. Suddenly, both companies found themselves besieged by critics.

So these competing rivals got to be a little friendlier. No doubt their legal teams compared notes and their top executives chatted from time to time. Their lobbyists probably worked together to persuade various state legislatures to exempt DFS from gambling laws.

Now, it appears critics of FanDuel and DraftKings may have driven them into one another's arms, with various publications reporting the two companies are poised to merge with each other. Bloomberg News quotes sources familiar with the discussions as saying DraftKings co-founder Jason Robins will lead the combined enterprises while FanDuel co-founder Nigel Eccles will serve as chairman of the board. Neither company has commented on the reports.

Investors would like to see it

The investment community has been cheering for a possible merger for some time, pointing out that the two companies have nearly identical games that could neatly fit under one operation. A combined company would not need to spend nearly as much on advertising.

Like any potential merger, there would likely be anti-trust concerns. The two companies reportedly control about 90% of the DFS market. In 2015, there were more than 57 million people in the U.S. and Canada playing DFS games, according to the Fantasy Sports Trade Association.

However, more recent research suggests the growth of DFS is slowing and that there are fewer new players choosing to participate. That could be strong incentive for both DraftKings and FanDuel to join forces, with savings on ad spending going straight to the bottom line.

Monday's explosion at a Colonial Pipeline facility in Alabama was a much worse mishap than the leak that occurred there in early September. The explosion killed one employee and injured seven others.

Footage from the scene showed the scope of the disaster, sending gasoline futures prices soaring, since gasoline prices throughout the Southeast surged when the pipeline had to be shut down for eleven days in September. The initial assumption was this interruption would be worse.

It's clear now that it might not be. Colonial said Tuesday that it believes it will be able to restart the pipeline by the end of the week, before the interruption in fuel supplies will be fully felt.

Gasoline futures went from being up 15% immediately after the explosion to now being up just 4%. Analysts say the effect to the overall gasoline market should be minor.

Retail price movement

However, some states in the affected region have already seen price movement at the pump. Georgia, which suffered the biggest price increase after the September pipeline incident, saw the statewide average price of gasoline rise three cents a gallon between Tuesday and Wednesday, according to the AAA Fuel Gauge survey. Its prices were only now getting back to normal.

In South Carolina, the statewide average, which has been consistently among the lowest in the nation, rose two cents a gallon overnight, from $2 a gallon to $2.02. Prices in other states in the region have not reacted in response to the pipeline accident.

Apparently, actual damage from the explosion was less than expected. Colonial said part of the delay in restarting the line is controlling the fire resulting from the explosion. Repair crews cannot get safe access to the site until the fire is out.

When a leak to the main pipeline occurred September 9, it stopped the flow of gasoline for eleven days, resulting in fuel shortages in Tennessee and rising prices in Georgia, the Carolinas, and Virginia.

It just makes sense that getting your exercise and staying in shape would have positive benefits for your health. But a new study suggests that it also might help consumers who have a high-stress job.

Researchers from the University of Basel in Switzerland, along with colleagues in Sweden, have found that being in good shape helps protect against health problems associated with work-related stress. This is important because work stress can often lead workers to become more sedentary, possibly exacerbating health issues.

“Above all, these findings are significant because it is precisely when people are stressed that they tend to engage in physical activity less often,” said Professor Markus Gerber.

Health and stress

The researchers came to their conclusions after measuring the fitness levels of 200 Swedish employees using a bicycle ergometer test. Participants were nearly split between male (51%) and female (49%), with an average age of 39. Measures for blood pressure, BMI, cholesterol, triglycerides, and glycated hemoglobin were recorded.

Additionally, the researchers asked all participants to provide information on their current stress levels. The findings showed that individuals who were more stressed tended to have higher cardiovascular risks than those who were less stressed. The researchers note that cardiovascular fitness is linked to virtually all health risk factors, and that individuals who are physically fit were less at risk overall.

For participants who were most stressed, the findings showed very different health measures between those who had high, medium, and low fitness levels.

Employees with a low fitness level were shown to have higher LDL cholesterol scores; LDL cholesterol is considered by experts to be “bad” cholesterol that collects in blood vessels and causes blockages and heart attacks. On the other hand, employees with a high level of fitness had better scores on health-related measures, showing that their bodies were less affected by work-related woes.

Treating stress

The researchers believe that their work can have direct implications on how medical professionals treat stress-related disorders. By promoting high activity and exercise, they posit that individuals with excessive levels of stress may avoid cardiovascular problems.

The full study has been published in the journal Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise. 

If you are planning to rent a home, expect some extra competition. A new survey from real estate marketplace Zillow shows more potential homebuyers, perhaps growing frustrated at the lack of available homes, are considering renting instead.

That means consumers who have no alternative but to rent will go head to head with consumers who have the means to buy a home but have decided to keep their options open and rent a place for a while longer.

Zillow has broken down the ins and outs of the typical home search. For those who want to rent a place, it now takes an average of 10 weeks to find a home to rent. It takes two weeks longer if you're looking in a tight rental market.

But for those who plan to buy a home, the average search takes 17 weeks, in part because rising prices have pushed more homes out of range and the overall decline in inventory means there are fewer homes to choose from. The Zillow survey-takers found that most consumers who recently moved into a new home considered both buying and renting before settling on one or the other.

Continuing to rent an easy option

Just how tough is it to buy a home these days? The Zillow survey found more than half – 54% – of buyers lost the first home on which they made an offer. For many of these buyers who were renting at the time, continuing to rent became an easy option.

"The line between renting and buying is blurry, and that's a sign of the times," said Zillow Chief Marketing Officer Jeremy Wacksman. "It's difficult and time-consuming to find a home to move to, especially in competitive housing markets.”

Wacksman says keeping rental options open can be a savvy strategy in today's housing market. Renting while still looking to buy allows him or her to avoid settling for a less-than-desirable home.

Still hard to buy, but for a different reason

After the financial crisis more people rented because they simply couldn't qualify for a mortgage under the new, suddenly tighter lending standards. Now that more people can afford to buy, there are fewer homes to purchase.

Zillow notes that renters now make up a larger group of the U.S. population than at any time in the last half century. Last week, the U.S. Census Bureau reported the homeownership rate rose very slightly to 63.5 percent in the third quarter of 2016 – recovering slightly from a 51-year low.

From pre-ordering the year’s most wanted toy to making sure Santa has been informed of every item on their child’s wish list, parents often do everything they can to make their children’s holiday dreams come true. But a new survey finds that parents often overextend themselves financially on the quest to fulfill their child’s holiday wish lists.

Additionally, the survey found that 64% of parents agree with the statement, "I spent more over the holidays than I should have." The average amount parents spent on children between ages 8 to 14 was $422, although 34% of parents spent $500 or more.

Potential consequences

If a 35-year old parent pulls from his or her retirement savings to cover $500 in holiday spending, Allenbaugh says this could translate to a loss of nearly $6,000 at retirement.

What to do instead

It's easy to spot a really old photograph. Besides the antique cars in the background and the funny-looking clothes the people are wearing, the picture itself is likely to be yellowed or faded.

But digitizing the photograph and using a processing software like Photoshop can restore the old photograph to close to its original condition. It also makes it easier to keep and store it.

Many a Baby Boomer has begun combing through a lifetime of photographs, deciding which ones to keep and which ones to toss. And if photo prints are to be kept, they have to be physically stored somewhere, taking up room.

That's why many people who happen to have hundreds, or even thousands of photographs have decided to reduce the number of prints in their collection and instead store their photographs digitally. If you decide to do that, however, it's a good idea to back up your collection.

Hard drives have been known to crash. Ransomware could infect your computer, locking up all your files, including photos and videos.

The easiest way to back up all your photographic records is to purchase a large thumb drive, copy files to it, and put it in a safe place. Cloud storage is another option.

Permanent storage

If you'd like to have your photos survive for 1,000 years, Yours.co has a service for you. It says it can offer "permanent" storage in the cloud.

The service also automates backups from Instagram, Flickr, Google Photos, Dropbox, Facebook, and Google Drive.

“Each month, Yours.co burns your data to an MDISC, an archive-grade optical media disc that boasts a 1000-year shelf life,” the company said in a release. “Yours.co then sends the discs to either a home address or secure storage facility to ensure that data is and remains yours.”

The company maintains that even a thumb drive back-up is temporary, lasting only about five years. External drives, it says, have to be replaced about as often.

"The typical consumer has literally thousands of pictures or videos stored on various electronic storage devices and cloud services,” said Paul Brockbank, CEO of Yours.co. “And yet, most don't understand the limitations of these storage media that make data loss a real possibility. The pictures of your wedding, last year's vacation or that video of your child's first steps are irreplaceable. Losing any of them would be tragic. Yet people lose photos and videos all the time – and don't know it."

The new service costs $8 a month or $89 a year. The cost includes sending discs containing the files to your home, or to a vault. The vault, the company says, is carved into the side of a mountain and can withstand a nuclear attack.

The revelation that Wells Fargo had phonied up checking and credit card accounts for customers, in a bid to inflate sales numbers, was bad enough. It cost the bank $185 million in state and federal fines, but that hasn't been the end of it.

The bank is now facing lawsuits because of the scandal, which prompted CEO John Stumpf to retire. And one of the bank's biggest critics in Washington, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), has pressed for additional changes in the executive suite.

Now comes word that Wells Fargo has agreed to settle a lawsuit brought by plaintiffs who charge the bank financially exploited consumers who were losing their homes in the aftermath of the financial crisis.

$50 million settlement

Reuters reports that Wells Fargo has agreed to pay $50 million to settle a suit that charged the bank made an excessive profit on third party appraisals of homes that defaulting homeowners were required to pay.

Most mortgage agreements contain language allowing a lender to charge the homeowner for the cost of an appraisal if he or she defaults. The appraisal tells the lender what the property is now worth.

The suit claimed Wells Fargo significantly marked up the cost of the appraisals, sometimes charging the consumer more than double what the bank paid. Reuters quotes a spokesman for the bank as saying it did nothing improper but agreed to the settlement to put the matter to rest.

Playing Whack A Mole

But Wells Fargo might feel like it's playing Whack A Mole at this point, as another lawsuit pops up as one is settled. A law firm is now trying to find consumers for a proposed class action settlement with the bank for alleged robocalls.

Greenwald Davidson Radbil PLLC issued a press release last month seeking consumers who had received texts or calls on cell phones from the bank without permission. The lawsuit claimed Wells Fargo used an automatic telephone dialing system to make or initiate calls in connection with overdrafts of deposit accounts. Wells Fargo said it did not break the law and did nothing wrong.

Can a pillow really prevent multiple sclerosis? Maybe, but there's no scientific evidence to back up the claim and, as a result, MyPillow has agreed to stop marketing its pillow as being able to prevent, treat, or cure diseases or symptoms unless it has scientific evidence to support its claims.

The agreement stems from a lawsuit filed last month by the Alameda County, Calif., District Attorney that focused on MyPillow’s unsubstantiated claims to treat conditions such as insomnia, sleep apnea, and fibromyalgia and the company’s cozy relationship with the National Sleep Foundation.

The lawsuit, joined by eight other California counties, alleged that MyPillow “knew or reasonably should have known” that the marketing claims were likely to mislead consumers.

The lawsuit followed an investigation by Truth in Advertising, Inc., (TINA.org)  a non-profit organization that provided information to California consumer protection officials.

As part of the California agreement, MyPillow must stop making claims it can't substantiate and must also pay $995,000 in civil penalties and give $100,000 to homeless and domestic violence shelters in the state.

“MyPillow is pleased to have reached an agreement with Alameda County," MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell said in a statement. "With this settlement, we are able to avoid a costly and drawn out court case and turn our attention back to our number one passion, our customers. As part of the settlement, MyPillow will make a $100,000 donation to nonprofit organizations in California that help the homeless and victims of domestic violence."

In a separate class action lawsuit recently settled in San Bernardino Superior Court, MyPillow agreed to pay $5.00 per household to MyPillow purchasers who submit a claim form.

"Official pillow"

MyPillow must also stop promoting its product as the “official pillow” of the National Sleep Foundation, after the TINA investigation found that the company had failed to disclose its financial connection with the foundation to consumers.

“Companies making millions from unsupported health claims that are warned by TINA.org to halt their deceptive marketing practices are going to pay a price if they don’t comply,” said TINA.org Executive Director Bonnie Patton.

The California suit isn't the only issue that has Minnesota-based MyPillow tossing and turning at night. In August, the company agreed to pay $1.1 million to New York State, which alleged that MyPillow had knowingly failed to collect sales tax on pillows sold to sleepy New Yorkers.

“Out-of-state companies like MyPillow cannot shirk their obligations to New York. Companies that fail to collect and remit applicable sales taxes harm the State and local governments — something that cannot be tolerated,” said New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman. 

MyPillow also faces multiple class-action lawsuits that dispute company founder Michael J. Lindell's claim to be a "sleep expert," take issue with its use of the New York Times logo to imply that its products are endorsed by the newspaper, and assail the legitimacy of MyPillow's buy-one-get-one-free offer.