Current Events in February 2017

Millions of women have received emails from something called the International Women's Leadership Association, or IWLA. The emails give the impression that the organization has reviewed the qualifications of the recipient and decided to invite her to join their business networking group.

In fact, says New York Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman, the company sent millions of emails without actually reviewing much of anything. The IWLA has agreed to pay a $200,000 penalty -- which was suspended because of the company's financial condition -- and will clean up its recruiting practices.

“Mass email solicitations cannot be used as a proxy for deceptive marketing practices,” said Schneiderman. “Honesty and transparency are the hallmarks of consumer protection, and those same principles must be upheld online.”

Schneiderman said the IWLA's solicitations come in various forms, but they all contained the statement, “it is my distinct pleasure to notify you that, in consideration of your contribution to family, career, and community, you have been selected as a woman of outstanding leadership.”

Schneiderman said the claim that individuals were chosen for membership based on a review of their qualification was false but nevertheless lured more than 100,000 women into signing up for membership over the last three years.

IWLA is a New York corporation with a main office located in Uniondale, New York. Its stated purpose is to provide “women with opportunities to meet, share and collaborate, whether in business or otherwise.” It claims to market its services to women at all stages of their career to help foster their upward mobility. The IWLA claims over 14,000 members who subscribe to its services and receive the benefits and privileges offered by the association.

McDonald’s has tried out several initiatives in the past year or so in the hopes of drawing in more customers.

The company has experimented with opening its breakfast menu all day, using fresh ground beef for its burgers in select markets, creating a breakfast happy meal, and installing smart menu boards and other modern conveniences. Despite all that, though, the Golden Arches and the rest of the fast food industry continues to show anemic growth.

However, not to be deterred, McDonald’s is now offering a new deal to once again attract consumers. Bloomberg reports that the chain will be offering discounts on beverage options nationwide. Starting in April, customers will be able to buy a soda of any size for $1 and any McCafe specialty drink for $2.

Declining demand

Adam Salgado, McDonald’s Vice President of U.S. marketing, says the deal will add “another layer of great value for customers with more choices,” and will appeal to those who are looking for a good deal.

“We know that there are budget-conscious consumers out there. Value will always be a part of our strategy,” he said.

Analysts have pointed out that maximizing revenue on drinks could be a smart move to help the bottom line, since drinks generally have higher profit margins than food items. However, customers in some markets will be able to take advantage of some noticeable price changes resulting from the decision. For example, Bloomberg points out that customers in Chicago may save over a dollar on certain McCafe frappes.

Though the move is meant to attract more customers, analysts point out that demand for fast food has been pretty weak lately. McDonald’s led the industry last year and increased its revenue by 2.4%, but experts expect that number to decline to 1.5% this year.

It's one thing to check out the reviews on the latest iPhone. After all, you might want to compare it to another model.

There might be a little more at stake, however, if you are selecting a surgeon for a major operation.

So now the non-profit Consumers' Checkbook/Center for the Study of Services has launched a new site, SurgeonRatings.org, where specialized physicians will be evaluated based on patient outcomes.

For example, patients will be able to see how often patients of a particular surgeon die in the hospital or within 90 days of hospital discharge, have serious complications while in the hospital, or need to go back within 90 days of discharge for problems connected to the surgery.

Pick the best, avoid the worst

The reasoning behind the ratings site is simple. The operators want consumers to be able to pick the best surgeons and avoid the bad ones. Consumers' Checkbook says preventable medical errors kill an estimated 200,000 patients a year and are now the third leading cause of death in the U.S. That's nearly six times the number of Americans who die each year in auto accidents.

Doctors will no doubt protest that the ratings can be skewed if a particular surgeon operates on a large number of patients who are in frail, fragile condition before the operation. They could also argue that they shouldn't be held accountable if a large number of those patients don't make it.

Consumers' Checkbook says its case analysis takes all that into consideration. It also says it had to fight various U.S. government agencies in court for years to get access to the records it needs to render its judgments.

Ratings on 12 types of surgery

The new site will rate surgeons on 12 types of high-risk surgery, including various types of heart and vascular operations, major bowel surgery, spine and pulmonary operations, and total knee and hip replacements.

The analysis found that in heart valve and bypass operations, the highest-rate surgeons lost only 3% of their patients. The lowest-rated surgeons in that category lost 10% of their patients.

If research by the Harvard Medical School is any indication, the new site will prove popular with patients, but doctors might be slow to embrace it.

In general, the study showed doctors were less supportive than patients of sharing data on public review sites and were more likely to trust information on health system websites, which tend to rate their own physicians. Patients, meanwhile, were more trusting of the independent review sites.

Keurig Green Mountain Inc. will be paying $5.8 million for not immediately reporting a safety defect in one of its coffee brewers to federal safety officials, as required by law.

The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) said the penalty settles charges that Keurig was tardy in reporting a defect and unreasonable risk of serious injury with the Keurig MINI Plus Brewing Systems.

But three members of the five-member commission said they voted "reluctantly" to approve the penalty, the second highest in the agency's history, saying it was too small to have much of an impact. 

"We have serious reservations about whether the amount will have any meaningful deterrent effect on Keurig or other multi‐billion dollar companies who are well‐positioned to dismiss this size penalty as a small cost of doing business," said commissioners Robert S. Adler, Elliot F. Kaye and Marietta S. Robinson in a joint statement.

The three noted that Keurig is a "$4.5 billion business with over 6,000 employees," easily able to pay a few million dollars. They blamed "restrictive and cumbersome" regulations for preventing them from making further assessments of Keurig's delays.

200 reports

The company conceded that between 2010 and 2014, it received about 200 reports of hot water, coffee, and coffee grounds spraying out of the brewers. In more than 100 of these incidents, consumers suffered burn-related injuries to their faces, hands, and bodies. Some of the injuries were severe and resulted in second and third-degree burns. 

Keurig finally recalled about 6.6 million of the MINI Plus brewers in December 2014. 

The dissenting commissioners noted that one of every two consumers who complained to Keurig about the problem beginning in 2009 had suffered injuries, some severe, a rate they called "alarming."

It wasn't until November 25, 2014, that Keurig "informed the commission about a problem with the brewers but continued to import and sell them into December," they said.

"Not at liberty"

"Unfortunately, we are not at liberty to provide any more specificity regarding Keurig’s violation of the reporting requirement because the restrictive and cumbersome information disclosure provisions in section 6(b) of the Consumer Product Safety Act prohibit us or anyone else at the agency from disclosing any facts beyond those set forth in the negotiated Settlement Agreement," the commissioners said.

They noted that "companies continue to strongly resist staff efforts to better inform the public by including more detail about the alleged violative conduct in the civil penalty agreements."

Keurig did not provide an immediate response.

A woman in the United Kingdom who testified that her Nissan suddenly accelerated on its own was recently cleared of killing a pedestrian.

Ann Diggles, an 82-year-old retired nurse, was parking her Nissan Qashqai in the town of Leyland in 2014 when, she said, her car suddenly shot forward. The vehicle plowed into a curb, hitting and killing 53-year-old Julie Dean. The case received significant attention in the British press, as the Qashqai is Britain’s fifth best-selling car, according to the Daily Mail.

That specific Nissan model is not sold in the United States. However, Nissan is one of many car makers whose United States drivers also gripe of sudden unintended acceleration (SUA), or the phenomenon in which a driver says their car took off on its own as the brakes failed.

Other Nissan models target of SUA reports

A search of “Nissan” and “unintended acceleration” in the United States Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s voluntary database turns up 23 reports. The most recent report, from January 31, describes an accident in which a 1993 Nissan Altima suddenly accelerated as the driver was going into reverse. “THE CONTACT SUFFERED FROM HEAD, ARM, SHOULDER, AND LEG INJURIES,” the report says.

In 2015 Nissan agreed to recall 298,747 of its Versa and Versa Note models over sudden acceleration concerns. The NHTSA had begun a probe into the cars’ engineering and sudden acceleration a year earlier. Rather than blame the sudden acceleration on a mechanical or software issue, however, Nissan linked the problem to drivers’ shoes.

“Nissan says the right edge of the driver’s shoe may catch the edge of the center console lower trim panel,” causing the accelerator to become depressed, according to a report from the Detroit News.

Computer issue vs. driver error

Like Diggles, owners of Hyundai vehicles and a Tesla have also publicly claimed that their vehicles suddenly accelerated while they were parking.

"If you're turning into a parking space, you have a lot of stress on the front drive system,” Samuel Seco, an electrical engineer who has studied sudden acceleration in cars for over 20 years and provides expert testimony in civil and criminal cases involving the issue, told ConsumerAffairs. “Since everything is based on running through the computer, including sensors on your drive systems, any one of those could carry onto the system, carry on to the on-board computer and attack it."

But the automotive industry, along with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration,  have maintained  that sudden unintended acceleration is caused by driver error, not the computerization of vehicles. Preston Crown Court attorneys prosecuting the Diggles case, working with experts from Nissan, told jurors that there were no problems with Diggles’ car. Nissan’s Deputy General Manager Takuma Nakamura even flew in from Japan to testify for the Crown Court prosecutors and vouch for the safety of Diggles’ vehicle.  

Attorneys for Diggles said that a malfunction in the car’s electronic throttle, in which a computer controls the throttle opening settings, had caused the “uncommanded acceleration” in her car. Nakamura claimed in his testimony that the car’s computer has a “self-diagnostic feature” which would allow the car to record any such malfunctions.

Other Nissan owners come forward

Two other Nissan owners contacted Diggles’ attorneys after reading about her case in the news. On short notice, they agreed to testify about their own experiences with sudden acceleration at her criminal trial.

On February 7, shortly after jurors cleared Diggles of killing Julie Dean, the trial judge reportedly said that the two witnesses “are to be commended for the efforts that they individually took to contact the defense and come to court at very short notice.”

Nissan’s spokespeople have not returned messages from ConsumerAffairs. 

There are an abundance of pathogens and bacteria that consumers must face on a daily basis, and in many cases our immune systems are up to the challenge. However, even some of the most innocuous microbes can be dangerous – or even fatal – under certain circumstances.

Listeria monocytogenes, for example, is a common food-borne organism that can pose great harm to consumers who ingest it. Those with compromised immune systems, such as young children and the elderly, can have fatal reactions to it, but even healthy consumers can suffer from symptoms like high fever, severe headache, stiffness, nausea, abdominal pain, and diarrhea.

Up until now, experts believed that the bacteria could also cause miscarriages or stillbirths in women who were late into pregnancy. But a new study from the University of Wisconsin-Madison shows that women in early pregnancy can be similarly affected.

"For many years, listeria has been associated with adverse outcomes in pregnancy, but particularly at the end of pregnancy. What wasn't known with much clarity before this study is that it appears it's a severe risk factor in early pregnancy,” said physiologist and researcher Ted Golos.

Causing miscarriage

Researchers discovered the threat after conducting a study involving listeria and pregnant rhesus macaques at the Wisconsin National Primate Research Center. The primates were fed doses of listeria comparable to what a person may be exposed to in contaminated food to see what effect it had on pregnancy.

By tracking the progression of the contaminants, the researchers were able to pinpoint how and when it affected the fetus. Though the macaques showed no obvious signs, each subject’s pregnancy ended abruptly after the microbes reached the reproductive tract. The researchers found that the listeria microbes had infected the mothers’ placenta and led to fetal demise.

“In that region, there’s a rich population of specialized immune cells, and it is exquisitely regulated. When you introduce a pathogen into the midst of this, it’s not very surprising that it’s going to cause some sort of adverse outcome disrupting this balance,” explained UW graduate student Bryce Wolfe.

“It should be a barrier. . . but we’re hypothesizing that the maternal immune system’s attempt to clear the bacteria actually results in collateral damage to the placenta that then allows the bacteria to invade the fetus,” added Golos.

More caution necessary

So, what does this mean pregnant women? The researchers say their results point to listeria being a culprit in many miscarriages that have thus far gone unidentified.

Currently, pregnant women are warned to avoid foods like unpasteurized milk, soft cheese, raw sprouts, melon, and deli meats due to potential listeria contamination. But the study shows that perhaps even more caution should be taken throughout pregnancy due to the bacteria’s speed and stealth at harming an unborn fetus.

“It’s striking that mom doesn’t get particularly ill from listeria infection, but it has a profound impact on the fetus,” said Golos. “There are effective antibiotics available. It is treatable. The issue is that because it’s asymptomatic, the fetus may be infected by the time anyone realizes that mother was infected,” added Wolfe.

The researchers plan to continue working with listeria in order to better understand how it infects the human reproductive tract, how long its incubation period is, and what other problems it causes that lead to miscarriage. They hope that the knowledge they gain can be used to help protect women from all types of pathogen infection in the future.

The full study has been published in mBio. 

Tension in a relationship can often stem from money woes. In fact, research has shown that money sparks tension in the relationships of around 7 in 10 couples.

But disagreements about money can be avoided by keeping the lines of communication open. While you may not be able to predict what financial circumstances will befall you in the future, you can make sure your relationship won’t be rattled by money-related issues.

Understanding your partner’s perspective and expressing your own feelings about finances can keep money from adversely affecting your relationship down the road. For this reason, experts say all couples should consider having “the money talk.”

Find a neutral time to talk

"Money discussions are tough to have, often bringing up core issues about our own relationship to money, as well as anxieties about the future," said senior CFP board ambassador Jill Schlesinger. "While it can be a hot button issue for many, not being open with your partner about money can often lead to more issues down the line."

Talking to your partner about your finances can keep your relationship on solid ground no matter what financial issues may crop up in the future. But there’s a right and wrong way to broach the topic of money with your partner.

Schlesinger has a few tips on how to start a conversation about finances. Her first piece of advice: choose a good time to talk. Instead of bringing up money during a heated argument, set aside a specific time and place to have a calm, judgment-free chat about money.

Conversation pointers 

When the time has come to have the money talk with your signficant other, Schlesinger recommends keeping your communication open and honest. To keep the conversation heading in the right direction, it may be helpful to follow these tips:

• Share it all. Let your partner know where you stand financially by sharing information on outstanding debt, investments, bank and retirement accounts, and any bonds you may have. Create a master list of assets and note who owns each or whether it’s jointly owned. Make sure to include any account usernames and passwords, broker names, contact information, and other account info to share with your partner.
• Agree on a path forward. Align your financial priorities by talking about retirement, college planning, and cash flow management plans. To avoid any confusion in the future, ask your partner questions like, “Do you want to keep separate bank accounts and both contribute to a joint account?”
• Allocate financial tasks. With the conversation behind you, the next step is to divide financial responsibilities in a way that suits each partner’s strength. The task of handling day-to-day bills may be better suited to the partner who likes to use apps to track spending, while managing long-term investment accounts may be a better fit for the other partner.

Back in August, we reported that Google was staking its claim in the ride-sharing business. Using its Waze navigation app, the company began testing a “Going my way?” concept that allowed drivers to connect with travelers that were going in the same direction.

Initially, tests were confined to Israel and the San Francisco Bay area, but the Wall Street Journal reports that positive results have prompted Google to expand the program. Waze chief Noam Bardin announced that the company will be testing the service in several U.S. cities and in Latin America over the next several months.

Ride-sharing differences

The expansion is likely to put Google on a collision course with other popular ride-sharing services like Lyft and Uber. However, Waze’s service differs in several key ways.

For one, users must order their Waze rides hours in advance and there is no guarantee that a driver will accept. This is because the service asks drivers who use the navigation app to pick up travelers who are going in the same direction. Uber and Lyft, on the other hand, operate more of an on-demand service that users depend on to take them wherever they want to go on short notice.

As such, drivers will more than likely not be using Waze as their main source of income, as many Uber and Lyft drivers do now. Riders only pay drivers 54 cents per mile – the reimbursement rate for business travel according to the IRS – and Waze currently doesn’t take a cut of those earnings. However, that could change if the service finds success.

The main drawing point for riders will be the difference in price. A trip from downtown Oakland to downtown San Francisco cost a scant $4.50 for users of the Waze service, while Uber and Lyft’s cheapest rides cost $10.57 and $12.40, respectively. However, much of the service’s success will depend on driver cooperation.

“Can we get the average person on his way to work to pick someone up and drop them off once in a while? That’s the biggest challenge,” said Bardin.

Self-driving integration?

Google bought Waze for $1 billion back in 2013, but it has had its eyes on the self-driving market for some time. In the same year, it invested $258 million in Uber and placed one of its executives on the company’s board.

Over time, the companies parted ways due to competition, but the emergence of the Waze Carpool service may kick things into overdrive. As of right now, Google does enjoy some advantage because it doesn’t have to overcome some of the regulatory obstacles that other ride-sharing services have had to deal with. Bardin also notes the possibility of integrating self-driving technologies into the service in the future.

“If we were a startup, we couldn’t afford to take these sorts of long term bets. With Google, we can. . . And maybe at the end of the day, instead of a neighbor picking you up, a robot picks you up,” he quipped.

Eating fish can be part of a healthy diet. A balancing concern, however, is the amount of mercury consumers might ingest along with the fish.

It's an unfortunate fact that mercury is in the environment and, when it gets in the water, it also gets into fish. Researchers presenting their findings at the American Academy of Neurology meeting in Boston in April are offering a preview.

They say they found that increased consumption of high levels of mercury from seafood is associated with a greater risk of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease. ALS is a progressive neurological disease that is ultimately fatal.

The researchers make a distinction between species, however. They say just eating a lot of seafood is not associated with a greater risk of ALS.

The study

To reach their conclusions, the researchers studied more than 500 people. More than half had been diagnosed with ALS.

The participants were quizzed on how much fish was in their diet, whether it came from the supermarket or was wild-caught, and the types of fish they ate. Researchers compared the species and noted whether they tended to be high or low in mercury contamination.

For example, swordfish and shark are considered high in mercury, while salmon and sardines are on the lower end of the scale. Toenail samples were collected from both groups and the mercury levels were measured.

Researchers also measured the levels of mercury found in toenail samples from participants with ALS and compared those levels to people without ALS.

Twice as likely to have ALS

The researchers said the link was not hard to find. Among people in both groups, those who ate the most fish were twice as likely to be in the group that had been diagnosed with ALS.

More than 60% of the group with ALS were in the top 25% of estimated mercury consumption, compared to 44% of those who didn't have the disease.

Those who had the most mercury in their toenail samples were more likely to be in the ALS group.

The researcher point out that their study is merely preliminary and needs to be replicated by additional studies. They also point out they are not suggesting consumers avoid fish, but rather choose species that are lower in mercury.

Last month, the government issued advice to consumers about what fish to eat and what to avoid. The agencies involved found pregnant women were not eating enough healthy fish, and advised them to consume more salmon and avoid swordfish.

A few years back, telephones were humming with millions of illegal robocalls promoting a Florida-based cruise line. The calls claimed to be part of a political survey but were actually hawking cruise vacations.

The Federal Trade Commission and 10 states have now berthed the remaining defendants in the case, most notably Fed Accuardi. He and his company allegedly provided the robocallers with telephone numbers used in the scam, which at its peak was placing 12 to 15 million calls per day, according to the FTC.

Among other penalties, Accuardi faces a judgment of $1.35 million, which will be suspended after he pays $2,500. Accuardi and his companies are barred from robocalling and illegal telemarketing, as well as helping anyone else make such calls.

"Free" cruise

The CCL robocall campaign ran from October 2011 through July 2012. Consumers typically heard a pre-recorded message telling them they had been selected to participate in a 30-second research survey, after which they would receive a “free” two-day cruise to the Bahamas.

In reality, the calls were designed to market CCL’s cruises and various up-sell packages. The illegal robocalls generated millions of dollars for CCL, the FTC said.

The complaint charged Accuardi and his companies with assisting and facilitating the illegal calls by providing robocallers with hundreds of telephone numbers, making it possible for them to choose and change the names that would appear on consumers’ caller ID devices, funding a part of the robocalling campaigns, and hiding the robocallers’ identities from authorities.

The attorneys general of Colorado, Florida, Indiana, Kansas, Mississippi, Missouri, North Carolina, Ohio, Washington, as well as the Tennessee Regulatory Authority, helped the FTC in bringing this case.

One measure of how consumers are doing financially is how they are handling their debt.

On the heels of a report showing a rising credit card default rate in December, consumers appeared to slip behind on all their debt payments last month.

The monthly S&P/Experian Consumer Credit Default Indices, a report that monitors changes in consumer credit defaults, shows the overall default rate ticked up three basis points from the previous month to 0.92% in January.

But it's the bank card default rate that's the headline number. It rose 26 basis points from December to 3.21%. That suggests consumers were having a harder time making their credit card payments on time in the aftermath of the holidays.

Other debt defaults rise more slowly

At the same time, defaults on car loans rose slightly from the previous month to 1.06%. Defaults on first mortgages rose even less, to a default rate of 0.72%.

The five U.S. cities monitored each month all saw increases in debt defaults last month, with Miami experiencing the largest hike, up 14 basis points to 1.67%. That puts it at a 31-month high.

Dallas and Los Angeles both saw their composite rates rise eight basis points, but remain well under 1%. Chicago's default rate is just over 1%, and New York's is just under. Both cities saw slight increases last month.

What's behind the increase? Part of the answer may be that consumers are taking on more debt. As loan volumes rise, so does the likelihood that some borrowers will default. But David Blitzer, managing director and chairman of the index committee, says the credit card numbers bear watching.

"While consumer credit default rates on mortgages and auto loans remain low and stable, default rates on bank cards have popped up to the highest level seen since July 2013," Blitzer said.

Not too worried

But overall, Blitzer says the current consumer debt default levels are not flashing economic warnings. He notes that during the two years between 2004 and 2006, when the economy was fairly strong, bank card defaults were higher than they are today.

"Recent data point to consumer optimism: retail sales rose 5.5% in January 2017 compared to a year earlier, consumer sentiment measures rose over the last two years, and employment and labor market conditions are favorable," Blitzer said. "Federal Reserve data on consumer credit and mortgage debt outstanding reveal that consumers are borrowing money."

But are they borrowing too much? Back in September the personal finance website WalletHub published a study showing consumers added a record $34.4 billion in new credit card debt in the second quarter of last year, the largest build-up since the government began tracking the statistic in 1986.

At the time, the authors of the study wrote that it is not a question of whether consumers are weakening financially, but rather how long "this trend toward pre-recession habits will last and just how bad it will get.”

Even though the groundhog saw his shadow earlier this month, spring is not that far away, and with it, mosquitoes and the returning threat of the Zika virus.

Over the winter months, medical researchers have been busy working on vaccines against the virus and are reporting significant progress.

“The pace of preclinical and early clinical development for Zika vaccines is unprecedented,” said Dr. Dan H. Barouch, of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC).

Barouch is the corresponding author of a review paper in the journal Immunity, detailing advances toward a Zika vaccine. In a very short time, he says researchers have shown that a variety of vaccine platforms can provide significant protection against Zika virus challenge in animal tests.

"However, unique challenges will need to be addressed in the clinical development of a Zika vaccine,” Barouch said.

Three vaccines under development

Today, just two years after the first Zika outbreak in Brazil, researchers have focused their attention on three different vaccine candidates that they say have been effective in protecting both mice and rhesus monkeys in laboratory settings. Several human trials began last fall at various sites in the U.S.

“The rapid advancement of Zika vaccine candidates into clinical trials reflects the uniquely focused and effective collaboration among scientists in the field to address this important global problem,” said Barouch.

While the symptoms of Zika are not extreme and people normally recover after a few weeks, the virus has devastating effects when a pregnant woman is infected.

Devastating impact on pregnant women

The World Health Organization (WHO) warns that a Zika virus infection during pregnancy is a cause of congenital brain abnormalities, including microcephaly, a birth defect in which the brain is not fully developed. Zika has also been known to trigger Guillain-Barré syndrome.

Even with the progress recorded over the last year, Barouch says a lot about the Zika virus remains unknown, which will slow development of a vaccine.

Safety considerations, he says, are a key concern since the target population for any vaccine will include women who are pregnant or may become pregnant.

Thanks to top ratings for crash protection, a superior-rated front crash prevention system and good-rated headlights, the redesigned Subaru Impreza walked away with the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety's (IIHS) 2017 TOP SAFETY PICK+ award.

Vehicles can win the TOP SAFETY PICK award by earning good ratings in the IIHS five crashworthiness tests -- small overlap front, moderate overlap front, side, roof strength, and head restraints -- along with an available front crash prevention system that earns an advanced or superior rating.

The plus is added for winners that also have acceptable or good headlights.

Solid test results

Both the sedan and wagon version of the small earned the + award. The Impreza's optional EyeSight system got a superior rating for front crash prevention. In IIHS track tests at 12 mph and 25 mph, the Impreza avoided a collision. The system also has a forward collision warning component that meets National Highway Traffic Safety Administration criteria.

Several headlight systems are available on the Impreza. When equipped with LED headlights and high-beam assist, which automatically switches between high beams and low beams depending on the presence of other vehicles, the car earns a good headlight rating. Without high-beam assist, the LED headlights get an acceptable rating. The halogen lights that come on lower trim levels earn a marginal rating.

The Impreza also earned the top rating of good+ for ease of use of LATCH hardware for installing child restraints, making it the only small car to earn top ratings in all IIHS evaluations.

Initially, there were fears that excessive use of wireless devices would result in a rash of brain cancers. Instead, they're being blamed for a rash of car crashes. 

Insurance companies say they can't raise premiums fast enough to keep up with the cost of replacing sheet metal and paying those killed and injured in accidents caused by distracted drivers. Travelers, The Hartford, and Horace Mann all reported profit declines in their most recent reports and pinned much of the blame on smartphones.

Insurers aren't charities, and rising claims show up in the premiums consumers pay. The Insurance Information Institute says the average U.S. car insurance premium rose to $926 last year, up 16% from 2011.

While you may not care about insurers' profit margins or even about insurance premiums, the rising accident toll has human costs as well. The National Safety Council last week released its estimate of traffic deaths in 2016 -- 40,200, a 6 percent increase from the year before.

The 2016 increase comes on top of a 7 percent rise in 2015 for a two-year increase of 14 percent, the highest in more than half a century, the New York Times noted. 

It's killing us

"Our complacency is killing us. Americans believe there is nothing we can do to stop crashes from happening, but that isn't true," said NSC President and CEO Deborah A.P. Hersman. "The U.S. lags the rest of the developed world in addressing highway fatalities. We know what needs to be done; we just haven't done it."

The higher death toll comes despite anti-lock brakes, electronic stability control, airbags fore and aft, back-up cameras, airbags, and other technology that is supposed to help prevent accidents and make them more survivable.

You might say the higher accident rate can be attributed to more traffic caused by a growing economy, increasing population, etc., but the National Safety Council report breaks it down to 1.25 deaths per 100 million miles traveled, a 3 percent increase from 2015, suggesting that there is more at work than simply increased travel.  

“Distracted driving was always there, but it just intensified as more applications for the smartphones became available,” said Bill Caldwell, executive vice president of property and casualty at Horace Mann, quoted in a Wall Street Journal report. 

What to do

The solution for individuals is clear: put your smartphone in the glove compartment while driving and leave it there. The solution for the U.S. as a whole is bit more complex. 

The National Safety Council has issued a list of recommendations, including: 

• Mandate ignition interlocks for convicted drunk drivers and better education about the nature of impairment and when it begins
• Extend laws banning all cell phone use – including hands-free – to all drivers, not just teens; upgrade enforcement from secondary to primary in states with existing bans
• Upgrade seat belt laws from secondary to primary enforcement and extend restraint laws to every passenger in every seating position in all kinds of vehicles
• Standardize and accelerate into the fleet automotive safety technologies with life-saving potential, including blind-spot monitoring, automatic emergency braking, lane departure warning, and adaptive headlights
• Pass or reinstate motorcycle helmet laws
• Adopt comprehensive programs for pedestrian safety

Following a rigorous testing and evaluation process, the editors at Kelley Blue Book (KBB) have named the 12 best family cars of 2017. To come up with this year’s list, KBB tested last year’s winners against the best of the new and redesigned 2017 models.

Last year, several sedans made it onto Kelley Blue Book’s Best Family Cars list, but sedans are noticeably absent from this year’s list. The experts at KBB say it’s clear that SUVs tend to outshine sedans in terms of family friendliness and cargo versatility.

"Looking at sales trends, soccer field parking lots and school drop-off lines, it's clear that families have moved on from the family sedan, and now the modern family car is an SUV," said Jack R. Nerad, executive editorial director and executive market analyst for KBB.

Metrics evaluated 

Each of the vehicles on KBB’s list was chosen for its inclusion of features that are attractive to the average parent. Throughout the testing process, KBB editors focused on metrics such as safety, value, reputation, comfort and convenience, cargo versatility, technology, and fit of various rear-facing and forward-facing child safety car seats.

Affordability was also a key focus in KBB’s evaluation process. Family car shoppers may be pleased to learn that the starting prices for this year’s winners range from about $20,000 to the low $30,000 range, with the exception of one pricier vehicle (the Chevrolet Tahoe).

Nerad added that SUVs and crossovers often check many of the boxes on a parent’s car shopping checklist, especially as they have grown more comfortable and fuel efficient over the years.

“Car shoppers have demonstrated an increasing preference for the elevated driving position, superior cargo versatility and higher profile of SUVs, which make them more functional as family cars than traditional sedans,” he said.

Top-rated vehicles

Kelley Blue Book identified the top four vehicles in each of three categories: best two-row SUVs for families, best three-row SUV for families, and best minivan for families.

Here are the winners, listed in order of popularity based on sales volume.

Best Two-Row SUVs for Families: 

• 2017 Honda CR-V
• 2017 Subaru Outback
• 2017 Kia Sportage
• Honda HR-V

Best Three-Row SUVs for Families: 

• 2017 Toyota Highlander
• 2017 Honda Pilot
• 2017 Nissan Pathfinder
• 2017 Chevy Tahoe

Best Minivans for Families:

• 2017 Toyota Sienna
• 2017 Honda Odyssey
• 2017 Chrysler Pacifica
• 2017 Kia Sedona

A Los Angeles County woman says Sprint defrauded her and at least 99 other California consumers with false promises of lower rates and three prepaid Visa cards, each worth $350.

“Such representations was part of a common scheme to mislead consumers and incentivize them to purchase telephone services in spite of the inhibition brought about by the difficulty of installing them,” Sylvia Nixon alleges in her class-action suit, which seeks a $5 million damage award against Sprint, Courthouse News Service reports. 

Nixon says she took Sprint up on its offer and switched services in November 2014, after a salesman promised her Sprint bill would be half the cost of her previous provider. The salesman allegedly also said Sprint would pay her termination fee from the other provider and give her three prepaid Visa cards with $350 on each.

But, says Nixon, her Sprint bill was far more than 50 percent of her previous bills, Sprint didn't pay her $1,500 termination fee, and the company only gave her two Visa cards. 

Sprint “persists and continues to engage in these practice and will not cease doing so unless and until forced to do so by this court,” she argues.

She is represented by attorney Todd Friedman of Woodland Hills, Calif.

What to do

Editor's note:  This story is about a class-action lawsuit. If you are among the class of consumers described in the suit, you may eventually be eligible to participate in whatever compensation the court awards, if any. Unlike what many people think, you do not "join" a class action -- you are either in the class covered by the action or you are not. 

Often, consumers included in an award do not need to take any action, as the defendant is required to contact them directly. In other cases, the court and the attorneys who brought the case will issue instructions when the case is settled.

Please note that under our Privacy Policy, we cannot provide you with the names of other consumers who may be similarly affected. 

Please see our Class Action Guide for more information. 

We recently reported that Yahoo and Verizon were making progress in closing their acquisition deal. The agreement had faced many headwinds, from multiple Yahoo data breaches to circulating rumors about Verizon asking for a huge discount on the deal.

Despite those challenges, the companies remained in negotiations, and sources close to the situation said last week that Verizon could be asking for a $350 million discount and shared responsibility with Yahoo over any legal ramifications connected to recent data breaches.

Now, the Wall Street Journal reports that the companies will cut $350 million off the original $4.83 billion agreement and will evenly split costs connected to the breaches, according to sources. Verizon and Yahoo have not yet formally announced the revised agreement but are expected to in the near future.

Not out of the woods yet

Both companies are facing some pressure when it comes to cementing the deal.

Yahoo has already made plans that it intends to follow through on if the acquisition is successful, including changing the name of its remaining business to “Altaba” and paring down its number of board positions. One source speculated that the company is also eager to sell stakes in Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. and Yahoo Japan Inc.

For Verizon’s part, the deal comes with plenty of positives and negatives. Upon successfully acquiring Yahoo’s internet business, it would be able to expand its mobile media and advertising markets and take advantage of the large user base connected to the Yahoo platform. However, company shareholders are being cautious about doing business after the recent data breaches that affected over one billion Yahoo accounts.

While these same shareholders will ultimately have to approve the revised acquisition agreement, the companies hope that the deal will close by mid-April. 

At its 17th annual Toy of the Year (TOTY) Awards gala in New York City recently, the Toy Industry Association announced the top toys and games of the year.

Back in August, the Toy Industry Association (TIA) announced that its 2017 Toy Awards would include several new categories, including Action Figure of the Year, Collectible of the Year, Construction Toy of the Year, Doll of the Year, Rookie of the Year, and Vehicle of the Year.

The updated categories were meant to represent the toy category and not “girl” or “boy” specific toys and games, according to the TIA.

'Oscars' of the industry

"This year's TOTY winners truly run the gamut, from quirky collectibles and skill-building construction toys, to family games and educational tech toys," said Steve Pasierb, TIA president and CEO. “But there is one thing they all have in common: they bring fun, laughter, and learning to kids!”

The yearly convention, which is known as the "Oscars" of the toy industry, was held at the Intrepid Sea, Air, & Space Museum in New York City.

In addition to eliminating gender-based toy award categories, the TIA also made an effort to make its judging process more transparent and efficient. Winners in each category were ultimately selected based on votes from toy retailers, media, TIA members, and consumers.

The big winners

The LEGO Friends Amusement Park Roller Coaster took home the coveted “Toy of the Year” award, while Pop! from Funko, LLC won the “People’s Choice” award for amassing the most online votes from consumers.

At the end of the night, one winner in each of the TOTY Awards' 14 categories had been announced. The following toys came out on top: 

• Action Figure of the Year: DC Super Hero Girls Action Figure Assortment from Mattel, Inc.
• Active/Outdoor Toy of the Year: Bunch O Balloons from Zuru
• Activity Toy of the Year: Crayola Air Marker Sprayer from Crayola, LLC
• Collectible of the Year: Pop! from Funko, LLC
• Construction Toy of the Year: LEGO Friends Amusement Park Roller Coaster from LEGO Systems, Inc.
• Doll of the Year: Barbie Fashionista Doll from Mattel, Inc.
• Game of the Year: Yeti in My Spaghetti from PlayMonster!
• Infant/Preschool Toy of the Year: Doc McStuffins Toy Hospital Care Cart from Just Play
• Innovative Toy of the Year: Hatchimals from Spin Master Ltd.
• License of the Year: Paw Patrol from Spin Master Ltd.
• Rookie of the Year: 3DoodlerStart Essentials Pen Set from WobbleWorks
• Specialty Toy of the Year: LEGO Disney Castle from LEGO Systems, Inc.
• Tech Toy of the Year: CodeGamer from Thames & Kosmos
• Vehicle of the Year: Air Hogs Star Wars X-Wing vs. Death Star - Rebel Assault from Spin Master Ltd.