Current Events in September 2017

A British insurance company says both food companies and consumers are hurt by counterfeit food products. The NFU Mutual Food Fraud Report 2017 says companies lose money to knock-offs and consumers lose confidence in the food in their shopping carts.

This isn't exactly a new problem. A 2016 report by the group Oceana alleged that as much as 20% of international seafood is mislabeled. In other words, it isn't the kind of fish the label says it is.

Businesses can get a bad name when a counterfeiter appropriates their logo or brand to market an inferior product, though those cases are rare. All too often, an adulterated product competes with the real thing, but since the knock-off sells for much less, legitimate companies are at a competitive disadvantage. There can also be health risks to consumers.

"While most fraudulent food is bought and consumed without being detected, there can also be health risks associated with buying fake food where, in extreme cases, there may be substances included that are unfit for human consumption,” Frank Woods, a retail specialist at NFU Mutual, told ConsumerAffairs.

"There is also the risk of a person becoming ill when eating a product that contains unidentified allergens, or through contaminated food that is out of date."

Getting around the rules

There are rules in place to prevent “fake” food products from reaching the market, but the report says there are many ways around them, including falsified or inaccurate documentation. Internet sales have also made it easier to get fake food on the market.

While the problem of food counterfeiting and mislabeling has always been around, it seems to have gotten worse in recent years. Last year an Interpol and Europol joint task force seized more than 10,000 tons of fake food and more than a million liters of counterfeit beverages, including liquor, in 57 countries.

The task force discovered almost nine tons of sugar contaminated with fertilizer in Sudan. In Italy, it seized 85 tons of olives that had been painted with copper sulfate solutions to deepen their color.

Broad definition

The definition of fake food is broad. It not only includes pasting a well known company's logo on a counterfeit product, it also includes food that contains unlisted additives or misidentifying ingredients altogether. For example, Interpol agents seized a shipment of peanuts that had been repackaged and relabeled as pine nuts, posing a lethal threat to consumers with severe peanut allergies.

“Fake and dangerous food and drinks threaten the health and safety of people around the world who are often unsuspectingly buying these potentially very dangerous goods,” Interpol's Michael Ellis said at the conclusion of the investigation.

Just last month, the owner of a European food company was sentenced in connection for selling 30,000 tons of horse meat as beef. The NFU Mutual Food Fraud Report suggests these and other cases of fake food are taking a toll on consumer confidence.

In polling more than 2,000 consumers, the NFU researchers discovered one third are less trusting of products and retailers than they were five years ago. Only 9% said their trust has risen.

Spotting a fake

Counterfeit foods can be hard to spot, but buying recognized brands from reputable retailers can reduce your chances of getting stuck with a fake. Buying fresh produce may also be safer, since whole foods are harder to adulterate.

Read the list of ingredients carefully. If the description says something like "aroma of..." or "essence of...," it might not be the real thing. According to BonAppetit.com, the ingredients label might list "vanillian" instead of "vanilla," hoping you won't notice.

The easiest food products to counterfeit are essentially those that can be adulterated without changing the appearance. For instance, olive oil can be diluted with vegetable oil and still look the same. Cheese and fish are also easily mislabeled because most consumers can't easily distinguish them.

"It is very difficult for consumers to be able to detect fraud, but by encouraging and supporting those businesses that do seem to be transparent and put fighting fraud to the forefront of what they do, they also inspire a healthy and sincere market," Woods said.

Woods says any success enjoyed by food counterfeiters just makes them stronger, putting legitimate food companies at more of a disadvantage.

Consumers who downloaded the CCleaner security program thought that they were protecting their devices from malware, but security researchers at Cisco Talos say the app directly delivered malware to millions of users.

The discovery made earlier this month involves what the researchers call a “supply chain attack.” Supply chain attacks happen when hackers target a company or manufacturer that delivers a product to consumers.

In this case, the download servers used by Avast (CCleaner’s parent company) were breached. Hackers used their access to the servers to modify CCleaner’s download package to include malicious malware that was delivered to users.

“For a period of time, the legitimate signed version of CCleaner 5.33 being distributed by Avast also contained a multi-stage malware payload that rode on top of the installation of CCleaner,” explained the researchers.

Millions of users affected

CCleaner is an extremely popular tool amongst consumers for ridding computers of malware and improving speed and performance. In November, Avast boasted that the program had been downloaded over 2 billion times, with 5 million users downloading the app per week. Unfortunately, the researchers say that these high growth numbers can be disastrous from a security standpoint.

“If even a small fraction of those systems were compromised, an attacker could use them for any number of malicious purposes,” said Cisco Talos researcher Edmund Brumaghin in a blog post.

Piriform, the company that operates the affected download servers, has confirmed that versions 5.33.6162 and 1.07.3191 of CCleaner for 32-bit systems were compromised by hackers. The company estimates that as many as 2.27 million people are using the affected software or have downloaded a compromised version of CCleaner Cloud.

“The compromise could cause the transmission of non-sensitive data…to a 3rd party computer server in the USA,” the company said. “We sincerely apologize for this and are committed to making sure nothing similar happens again.”

What to do

Brumaghin says that users who have downloaded a malicious version of the CCleaner program need to restore their devices to a state before August 15, 2017 and update to the latest available version of the program to avoid infection.

Piriform encourages users to download the latest version of the software here. (Note that visiting this link will initiate a download for the latest version of CCleaner.)

From purchasing school supplies to making sure kids eat a healthy breakfast, parents play a major role in helping set the stage for success in the classroom. But some parents may be overlooking one critical tool for academic success: routine eye exams.

A recent survey by VSP Vision Care and YouGov found that half of U.S. parents skip back-to-school eye exams. In fact, one in 10 (13 percent) parents had never taken their child(ren) to the eye doctor.

Annual eye exams are crucial, experts say, as they can help spot issues early. Left untreated, certain eye issues can cause kids to fall behind academically or developmentally. They can even lead to vision loss later in life.

Eye strain affects academics

While something like a  toothache is an obvious indicator of a dental problem, signs of a vision problem can be more subtle.

“More often than not, vision problems go unnoticed until children begin school,” said Marcela Frazier, O.D, Associate Professor of Ophthalmology in the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) Department of Ophthalmology.

“Children grow up naturally adapting to vision issues, so when they get into school and start reading and learning, that is when parents and teachers begin to notice certain problems,” she said.

But even a slight change in vision can lead to eye strain and affect a child’s performance in school, says Frazier.

Nine signs

If your child appears to be falling behind in school or struggling in sports, it might be time to have your child’s eyes checked out by a trained professional.

“Vision isn’t the first culprit parents think of when their child is struggling in school, but it can be playing a part in their child’s poor school or sports performance,” Frazier said.

Here are nine signs your child may need an eye exam, according to UAB physicians:

• Complaining of headaches. Squinting and straining to focus can cause headaches over extended periods of time.

• Fatigue after reading. If cracking open a book leads to symptoms of eye fatigue for your child (tired, burning, or itching eyes), it may be time to head to the eye doctor.

• Poor sports performance. If your normally skilled sports player is showing signs of clumsiness, poor hand-eye coordination, skewed depth perception or inability to focus, eye problems could be the culprit.

• Squinting. The act of squinting is a subconscious attempt to make the pupil smaller, therefore restricting the amount of light it receives and enhancing a blurry image. If you notice your child squinting or closing one eye, they might need glasses.

• Blinking or rubbing eyes. If your child rubs their eyes while trying to concentrate on reading or another activity, vision problems could be at play.

• Poor reading ability and comprehension. Reading the same sentence multiple times, disinterest in reading, and getting sidetracked easily are all signs of a vision issue.

• Poor school performance. Because kids don’t have a concept of poor vision, they might not tell you when they can’t read the blackboard -- but suffering grades can suggest they are having a hard time reading what their teacher writes.

• Holding electronic devices or books too close. Drawing reading material close to the eyes or sitting too close to the TV can mean a child is living with nearsightedness.

Loss of place while reading. Kids who have already learned how to read should be able to focus on the text without using a finger to track the words.

Since 1935, medical research has shown a clear connection between calorie restriction and longer life expectancy, but no study since then has been able to establish exactly why. That is, until now.

A study published earlier this month by researchers at the Lewis Katz School of Medicine at Temple University indicates that calorie restriction slows the speed at which proteins and chemical compounds attach to our DNA and activate certain genes. Slowing the rate of these “epigenome changes” has been associated with greater longevity.

The researchers’ findings center around chemical modifications at the genetic level called DNA methylation. In basic terms, this process is used to control when a gene expresses itself. Senior investigator Dr. Jean-Pierre Issa says these findings explain why certain animals tend to live longer than others.

"Our study shows that epigenetic drift, which is characterized by gains and losses in DNA methylation in the genome over time, occurs more rapidly in mice than in monkeys and more rapidly in monkeys than in humans," he said, noting that more rapid movement is associated with shorter lifespans.

Extending lifespan at the genetic level

Issa explains that DNA methylation patterns “drift steadily throughout life, with methylation increasing in some areas of the genome, and decreasing in others.”

Until now, epigenetic drift was generally associated with age, but researchers had no way of proving that it affected overall lifespan. However, when Issa and his team analyzed methylation patterns in mice and monkeys, they found distinct differences between the epigenetic drift in older subjects and younger subjects.  

Building on these findings, Issa and his team set out to see if epigenetic drift could be altered to increase test subjects’ lifespan. They found that one of the strongest factors for slowing epigenetic drift (and subsequently increasing lifespan) was restricting the calories that subjects consumed.

Great impact on future health studies

While the findings only support a theory that researchers have longed suspected, Issa says his team’s conclusions could greatly impact future health research.

"The impacts of calorie restriction on lifespan have been known for decades, but thanks to modern quantitative techniques, we are able to show for the first time a striking slowing down of epigenetic drift as lifespan increases," he said.

Other recent studies have associated epigenetic drift with age-related disorders and diseases like cancer. However, further studies on epigenetic drift need to be conducted before researchers can fully grasp its inner workings or establish effective methods for controlling it, especially in human test subjects.

"Our lab was the first to propose the idea of modifying epigenetic drift as a way of modifying disease risk. But why epigenetic drift occurs faster in some people and slower in others is still unclear,” said Issa.

The full study has been published in Nature Communications.

The retail industry may be closing stores and consolidating, but those looking for a seasonal job opportunity will have lots of options thanks to fierce competition among bigger store chains.

Global outplacement and executive coaching firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas predicts a high demand for seasonal employees as retailers prepare for the holidays.

“The competition among major big-box retailers will incentivize consumers to spend more this holiday season. These stores will need to add staff in order to meet demand,” said Challenger, Gray & Christmas CEO John Challenger.

Target has already announced it's hiring 100,000 seasonal workers for the holidays -- up by more than 22,000 from last year. The retailer also indicated it will be lowering prices in all stores in response to Amazon and Walmart’s price-slashing practices.

Since 2012, holiday hiring announcements have averaged 604,000 per year, according to Challenger tracking, with some of it by non-retailers, such as FedEx and UPS.

Seasonal retail employment increased by 641,000 during the final three months of last year, the lowest number since 2009, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), with job gains down 9.6% from 2008.

Changing times

In fact, BLS data show retail-related transportation and warehousing employment increased by a non-seasonally adjusted 246,700 workers in the final quarter of the year, up 8% from the final three months of 2015. In 2007, the seasonal job gains for this sector measured just 24,300.

“As holiday shopping habits turn virtual, retailers are responding by hiring more warehouse and transport workers,” said Challenger. “While retail hiring has fallen over the last couple years, major announcements indicate workers will still be needed for customer-facing positions, as retailers attempt to give consumers an experience they cannot receive online.”

In addition to Target’s announcement, Michaels has announced it will add 15,000 holiday workers, and 1-800-Flowers will increase its staff by 8,000 workers for the holidays.

Challenger's tracking shows retailers have announced over 6,000 store closures and 67,000 job cuts in the first eight months of the year. Despite these numbers, many retailers projected the highest number of hiring announcements for any industry, with over 248,000.

Most of those hiring announcements came early in the year, as retailers like Walmart and Dollar General expanded. The Home Depot announced plans to hire 80,000 workers for the summer season in March. Meanwhile, Amazon has been steadily boosting employment rolls after a January announcement of over 100,000 hires in the next 18 months.

The bulk of holiday hiring announcements occur in September. In fact, between 2011 and 2016, September hiring announcements have averaged over 415,000.

Some of the best shows are the ones put on by Mother Nature, such as the recent total solar eclipse.

Another spectacular show, available in much of the U.S., is the dramatic change in the color of the leaves, starting in late September and extending well into November.

Regardless of where you are in the country, there is probably a scenic drive not far away. But just like the eclipse, timing is everything because the leaves burst into bright color at different times, and those times can vary year to year.

New England and Mid-Atlantic

When you think of leaf-watching, you probably think first of New England, long regarded as offering some of the world's most spectacular foliage. You can attribute that to its northern climate and abundance of sugar maple trees. The leaves on these trees turn from green to brilliant oranges and reds.

This video, shot from a drone last fall, provides a glimpse of what fall is like in New England.

Northern Maine starts to turn in late September, with Vermont, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, upstate New York, and Pennsylvania joining in by mid-October.

From a base in Boston, you can set out and see the changing leaves from several different vantage points. The drive departing from central Massachusetts takes you through thick, mature trees and past historic villages that celebrate the season with festivals.

Heading north, you can crisscross the Connecticut River between Vermont and New Hampshire, both with plenty to offer leaf-peepers. In New Hampshire, scenic Route 3 takes you to Franconia Notch State Park. There, you can leave your car and board the Cannon Aerial Tramway, which provides a birds-eye view of the foliage as as you glide 4,200 feet up to the top of Cannon Mountain.

The tourism site Travel New England has plenty of accomodation suggestions.

Pennsylvania claims more than 2.5 million acres of state forest and state parklands that explode in color in the fall. It makes the state a popular destination for leaf viewing.

"Fall is Pennsylvania's forte," said Carrie Fischer Lepore, a state tourism official. "We are home to a longer and more varied fall foliage season than any other state."

The Midwest

Mid-October is prime time for leaf viewing in the upper Midwest, with miles of brilliant colors stretching from North Dakota to the hills of West Virginia.

In Michigan, the Keweenaw Peninsula is a popular destination for fall foliage, where the leaves begin to turn in early October. For the adventurous who are not content to just view the scenery from the comfort of a car, there are bike tours and kayak trips.

The Keweenaw Adventure Company has both of those areas covered, renting both bicycles and kayaks. It also provides lodging in cottages, cabins, chalets, and houses.

The official Michigan tourism site, Travel Michgan, is making a major push to attract Autumn visitors.

“Fall in Michigan offers countless opportunities to chase the color and discover the hidden gems found along backroads and byways,” said Dave Lorenz, Vice President of Travel Michigan, part of the Michigan Economic Development Corporation.”

West Virginia is called the Mountain State for a reason. There are mountains everywhere and nearly all are covered by trees, which explode in color in mid-October.

Winding two-lane roads will take you through some spectacular scenery, but a unique way to see the foliage is to board the New River Train Excursion, which starts at the former Chesapeake & Ohio mainline in Huntington and winds through the southern part of the state. There are four other train trips that travel past miles of colorful trees.

Colorado color

Fall color comes to Colorado in stages, depending largely on elevation. The leaves start to turn in late September in parts of the Rockies and mid-October in the eastern plains.

Trail Ridge Road makes its way though Rocky Mountain National Park, Estes Park, and Grand Lake. It's a great route for leaf peepers who want to get the first look at changing leaves.

The San Juan Skyway extends in a 236-mile loop through the San Juan Mountains of southwest Colorado past mile after mile of blaze-colored leaves.

You can park your car and board the Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad, with trips timed to coincide with peak leaves along the route.

But one of the favorites of Colorado's Autumn visitors is the Peak To Peak Scenic and Historic Byway, established in 1918. It starts in Boulder and takes travelers on a journey along the Continental Divide, where the fall colors are among the most dramatic in the state.

No matter where you live, there are probably areas of spectacular fall foliage that don't require a long trip to get there. The secret, of course, is timing your arrival to a time when nature's show is at its height.

To help plan your trip, check out this foliage map from the Weather Channel, which predicts when leaves will be at their peak all across the nation.

Saving for a down payment on a house is a worthy goal. So is putting money away for retirement.

But the first goal for any consumer should be saving up enough money to meet an emergency expense like a car repair, appliance replacement, or medical bill. Having an emergency savings account not only provides peace of mind, it can help prevent a growing credit card balance with a very high interest rate.

Unfortunately, many consumers are struggling to put any money into savings, and instead are living paycheck-to-paycheck. A recent survey shows more than half of consumers don't have as much as $1,000 in a savings account.

Allie Vered, Director of America Saves, a non-profit that tries to motivate consumers to save money, has drilled down into the numbers and doesn't like what she sees.

Spending habits and worrisome statistics

"What's worrisome to me is that 42% of women have nothing saved, versus 28% for men,” Vered told ConsumerAffairs. “When you look all the way through, from emergency savings to retirement savings, women consistently save less."

Part of that could be because men still earn more than women. But over time, that gap appears to widen.

"Females only make 82% of what males make upon graduation, but 10 years later women are making 69%," Vered said.

Vered says Millennials also seem to have more difficulty saving. Coming of age during the 2008 financial crisis, they tend to be thrifty but are burdened with student loans.

“They have whole different sets of challenges with managing income and savings that we don't really understand," she said.

Consumers today generally spend a larger percentage of their income than they did in the past, in part because society encourages it. As young people, the World War II generation was encouraged to be thrifty because there was war-time rationing. There were a limited number of consumer products to buy and this generation carried that thriftiness through life.

Today's consumer culture encourages people to spend money. Vered says technology also plays a role.

"Spending habits are being driven, in part, by social pressure that hasn't been there in the past,” she said. “You can show your wealth, and more broadly, to different audiences via social media. That, it turn, can create pressure to have misplaced priorities."

First steps toward saving

To get on the path to proper savings priorities, the personal finance experts at the American Bankers Association recommend “paying yourself” before you pay any of your bills. That means making a regular deposit, no matter how small, into a savings account.

The best way to do that is automating it, using your online bill pay account to move money from your checking account to a savings account each month. If you wait until the end of the month to see how much money you have left for savings, chances are there won't be any.

Next separate your spending into two categories – wants and needs. Look at the things you need to spend money on – things like the rent or mortgage, the utility bill, insurance, etc.

Then look at the spending in the “want” category. It not only includes dinners out and impulse buys, it might also include cable TV and smartphones.

There are increasingly more ways to “cut the cord” with cable by watching more content online at less cost. And while you probably think you can't part with your smartphone, you might be able to spend less on a phone and a service plan if you just shop around.

Freedom from financial worry

Finally, don't feel like you have to get to $1,000 in your emergency saving account overnight. The point is to build a modest amount into your budget so that you don't really notice.

If your budget is tight, start with $25 a month. You can increase it slightly as you pay off debt and find ways to trim spending.

“This small goal can lead to a lifetime of practice,” Vered said. “Saving isn't an amount, it's an activity that you build into so that you can get to your goals.”

And reaching goals is a big part of America Saves' mission. While some people find gratification in spending money, there is also gratification in saving it.

For one thing, it brings freedom from financial worry, making it a little easier to sleep at night.

There are a myriad of benefits to engaging in active play with a child, from fostering creativity to helping build physical and cognitive strength.

Playgrounds are often the setting of active play between parents and children, but care should be taken to avoid injuries. Playground injuries are more common and more serious than you might think.

Each year, more than 200,000 children ages 14 and younger are treated in hospital emergency departments for playground-related injuries, including broken bones, internal injuries, and concussions.

Preventing slide injuries

While bumps, bruises, and scraped knees are often par for the course during childhood, slide-derived broken legs may be avoided simply by electing not to ride down a slide with a child on your lap.  

A new study by the American Academy of Pediatrics finds that children using slides are far more likely to injure their lower leg or shinbone when on a parent’s lap.

Kids who ride down a slide alone are unlikely to suffer a broken bone if their foot catches the edge or bottom of the equipment and is twisted backwards. But on a parent’s lap, they will whiz down the slide much faster because of the added weight of the adult, making bone fractures more likely if their foot gets caught.

Study details

The study, which looked at injuries in more than 350,000 children under age six on playground slides between 2002 and 2015, found that the majority of the injuries for toddlers and infants on slides are fractures.

“Many parents and caregivers go down a slide with a young child on their lap without giving it a second thought,” said the lead author of the new research, Dr. Charles Jennissen, from the University of Iowa.

“In most cases I have seen, the parents had no idea that doing so could possibly give their child such a significant injury,” he added. “They often say they would never have done it had they known.”

In light of the study’s findings, the researchers recommend that adults and teens not go down a slide with a young child on their lap. If caregivers do choose to do so, extreme caution must be used to prevent the child’s foot from catching on the slide’s surfaces.

For new parents, uncharted territory looms around every corner. Each new stage of a baby’s development must be waded through with caution in order to avoid threats to a baby’s health and well-being.

The possibility of a peanut allergy is one potential risk parents must face as children begin the process of expanding their diet to include solid foods. To lower this chance, parents are now advised to introduce peanuts early and often.

In its revised peanut ingestion guidelines for babies issued earlier this year, the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) suggested that parents should introduce peanut-containing foods early to reduce the chance of a peanut allergy developing.

Now, a new FDA-approved tool aims to make the process of introducing peanuts to a baby’s diet a little less nerve-wracking for parents.

Gradual introduction

Hello, Peanut gives parents a means of gradually introducing peanuts to children. The product includes eight packets of organic peanut and sprouted oat blends in powdered form.

Per its instructions, parents of babies five months or older without a known peanut allergy or previous exposure to peanut products should mix a packet in with pureed baby foods the child already likes. If a reaction occurs, such as flushing or hives, parents should stop using the product.

If no reaction develops, the system can be continued by administering “maintenance” packets (containing 2 grams of peanut powder) up to three times a week to sustain tolerance. These can be used until the baby can eat peanut butter or is old enough to chew and swallow peanuts without choking.

May prevent peanut allergy

“We are pleased the FDA approved our petition for a qualified health claim linking early peanut introduction and the prevention of peanut allergies," said Dr. David Erstein, an allergist who founded the company Assured Bites, the company that manufactures Hello, Peanut.

"We hope this will further educate and encourage parents to heed the advice of their medical professionals to introduce peanuts early and often to reduce the chance of a peanut allergy developing,” he said.

Consumers should note that the claim is qualified as opposed to authorized, meaning that there is some scientific evidence to support the product's claims but that the evidence isn't conclusive.

Not for babies at high-risk

The FDA still recommends parents check with their child's doctor before feeding a baby any foods containing peanuts. On its website, Hello, Peanut notes that the product is "intended for the general population without a history of food allergies or eczema."

Parents should also note that the product is not a cure or treatment for existing allergies. If you already know your child is allergic to peanuts, do not use the Hello, Peanut system.

Impersonating Al Pacino or Donald Trump may get you laughs at a party, but impersonation is no laughing matter when scammers do it.

In recent years, scammers have pretended to be from the IRS, the FTC, the FBI, and now – the BBB. The Better Business Bureau is warning consumers that it has learned that scammers are using its name and logo to shake down small businesses or infect their computers with malware.

Spam emails are going out warning businesses that they are “violating the Fair Labor Standards Act,” the “Health and Safety Act,” and numerous non-existent laws and regulations.

The emails contain a link where the recipient is instructed to go to either get more information or clarify the matter. The BBB says the link most likely triggers a download of malware that can steal user names and passwords, along with other sensitive records.

The BBB is a private organization that rates businesses. It is not affiliated with any government agency and does not enforce federal, state, or local laws or regulations.

What to do

If you receive a copy of one of these phishing emails purporting to come from the BBB, the Better Business Bureau would like to get a copy. You can forward it to phishing@council.bbb.org.

Phishing emails are usually pretty easy to spot. They're never specific about who they are addressed to. You won't find your name anywhere on it. Rather, you'll be addressed as “member,” or “customer.”

Scammers may be clever, but they aren't that skilled with grammar or syntax. Phishing emails are usually riddled with misspellings and oddly structured sentences.

Sense of urgency

Scammers often try to create a sense of fear or urgency to make their victims act before they think. They'll make threats like “you must click this link or your account will be closed,” or that some other unpleasant thing will happen.

Don't be fooled by impressive and official-looking logos. It's a very simple thing to copy a real logo and paste it into an email. If you have the slightest doubt, look at the link address by hovering your cursor over it. The text should match the URL your mouse reveals. Odds are great that it won't.

If you're reading this too late, after you've already clicked on a link in a phishing email, don't panic. First, run a good virus scan to detect any malware you might have downloaded, then change all your user names and passwords.

American Honda Motor Co. is recalling 646 model year 2008-2012 Accords, 2010 and 2012 Accord Crosstours, 2006-2011 Civics, 2007-2011 CR-Vs, 2009-2012 Fits and Pilots, and 2010-2012 Insights that received replacement passenger front air bag inflators.

One dealership may have incorrectly installed the replacement air bag inflators.

In the event of a crash, an incorrectly installed passenger front air bag inflator may deploy the air bag improperly, increasing the risk of injury.

What to do

Honda will notify owners, and dealers will replace the passenger front air bag module assembly, free of charge. The recall is expected to begin October 1, 2017.

Owners may contact Honda customer service at 1-888-234-2138. Honda's numbers for this recall are O07, Y0A, N06, G05, M04, Y01, and O09.

In addition to taking steps to prepare the inside of your home to handle cooler temperatures, it’s important to also take steps to prepare the outside of your home for the coming fall season.

As lush green lawns give way to blankets of crunchy leaves, lawn equipment and sprinklers will earn some much needed time off. But wheeling the lawn mower to the shed isn’t all you’ll need to do to prepare the outside of your home for the onslaught of leaves, debris, and colder temperatures to come.

Before putting the outside of your home to bed for the season, a few actions are necessary to help ensure your lawn and lawn equipment will be ready to return to business as usual when spring rolls around again.

Outdoor fall checklist

Here are a few fall home maintenance to-dos that will help to get your home ready for winter.

• Winterize your lawn mower. After giving your lawn its final mow of the season (usually around mid-October), drain the gas from the tanks of your lawn equipment. Gas that is left to sit in a tank for months can slowly deteriorate, which can damage internal engine parts. If you would prefer to save spare gas, add fuel stabilizer to prevent it from degrading over the winter.
• Fertilize the lawn. Fall is a great time to fertilize your grass, according to lawn experts. Fertilizing now helps keep the grass strong during winter and imbues it with the reserves necessary for a spring growth spurt. For fertilizing lawns in late fall, look for a product with a low middle number for NPK (for example, 32-0-10).
• Drain sprinkler systems. Freezing temperatures pose a major threat to irrigation systems. To prevent irrigation lines from freezing, take some time to drain them. Turn off the water to the system at the main valve, shut off the automatic controller, open drain valves to remove water from the system, and remove any above-ground sprinkler heads and shake the water out of them.
• Seal air leaks. Make sure the heat in your home will stay inside (and small rodents will stay outside) by sealing up any cracks in the foundation or near doors or windows with color-matched exterior caulk.
• Clean gutters. After leaves have fallen, be sure to remove them -- as well as acorns, sticks, and other debris -- so that melting ice can flow freely. Make sure your gutters and downspouts are in good condition. Replace if they are worn, damaged, or trapping water.

The U.S. House of Representatives appears close to voting the Fiduciary Rule out of existence, but it will need the support of the Senate to make that happen.

The Fiduciary Rule was drawn up by the Obama Administration and has a seemingly simple premise. Financial advisors must put their clients' financial interests above their own.

The rule had not yet taken effect when President Trump took office, and his Labor Department quickly announced plans to delay implementation of the rule.

It should be pointed out that the financial services industry is adamantly opposed to it and was successful in persuading the Trump Labor Department to delay key enforcement elements for 18 months.

If House Republicans have their way, however, that would be a moot point since the entire rule would be overturned, thanks to a rider that was attached to a spending bill in the House. Lawmakers there are expected to pass it.

Why so controversial?

It might be constructive to examine how such a simple sounding rule -- that financial advisors should give their clients the advice that would boost their wealth, regardless of the consequences for the advisor -- could be so controversial.

In the latter years of the Obama Administration, AARP was a major supporter of the proposal, claiming that retirees were losing money in their retirement savings because they were being steered into questionable investments that carried high fees. When investments were made in certain mutual funds, for example, the advisor might get a nice commission, even though there might be other investment options more favorable to the client but less favorable to the advisor. The Obama Administration decided that posed a conflict of interest.

Heidi Shierholz, Policy Director of the Economic Policy Institute (EPI) has told the Labor Department that just delaying the key elements of the rule would end up costing retirement savers $10.9 billion over 30 years.

Shierholz arrives at that figure by assuming the delay of the enforcement provisions will result in about a 50% compliance rate. The numbers, she says, could actually range from $5.5 billion to $16.3 billion, based on actual compliance with the rule.

“Delaying this common sense rule will cost working people who are saving for retirement billions of dollars—dollars that will end up in the pockets of unscrupulous financial advisers,” said Shierholz. “Anyone who wants the American people to get a fair return on their hard work should oppose this delay.”

Industry's reasons

But it's not quite that simple to the financial services industry, which appears to universally oppose the rule. Various industry groups have said the rule would prove costly and force companies to alter their business models.

They also maintain that implementing the rule would deprive most middle income investors of any financial advice, since financial advisors would have to charge large fees to work with middle income clients.

Some of the strongest pushback to that position has come, not from consumer advocates, but Wall Street trader Josh Brown, who last year attacked that argument in the pages of Fortune.

"For the first half of my career, I was a cog in the machine, working at third-tier broker-dealers and selling products to the masses," Brown wrote. "I saw these conflicts firsthand. Over the years since, I've tried to get the truth out there about what I'd seen when Wall Street and Main Street collide. But the incentives that create bad behavior are still there."

Brown charged that brokers are routinely given the most compensation for selling the products that cost their clients the most in fees.

Backers of the Fiduciary Rule say the regulation is down but not out. Even if the House votes to kill the rule, they say the Senate -- where the Republicans have only a two-vote majority -- is not likely to go along.

Also this week, The Wall Street Journal reported that several states are getting in position to increase investor protections in case the Fiduciary Rule goes down in flames.

Following two destructive hurricanes in two weeks, there are a lot more flood-damaged cars in the U.S. than there were a month ago.

All too often, these vehicles make their way onto used car lots, or are offered in the classifieds in private party sales. A new report from Carfax, an automotive data company, suggests consumers are currently driving around in 325,000 cars and trucks that have been underwater.

That's a 20% increase over last year and doesn't take into account the impact from the recent hurricanes.

In most cases, when a car is submerged in water, the insurance company will declare it a total loss, and write the owner a check for a replacement. But that doesn't always happen.

What to do if your car is flooded

State Farm Insurance advises consumers whose cars have suffered flood damage to carefully inspect the vehicle, but not to start it. If water has gotten into the engine, starting it can cause even worse damage.

The company offers a step by step guide here.

As you might expect, it all depends on how high the water got. If it covered the floorboards but didn't make it to the seats, there might be extensive damage but the insurance company might decide it can be repaired.

The experts at Popular Mechanics suggest wasting no time cleaning out your flooded car, since mold, mildew, and even corrosion can set in almost immediately. They say you need to get started before the insurance adjuster arrives, because there is no guarantee he or she can get there right away, especially if there has been widespread flooding.

If the water has made it all the way to the dashboard, the vehicle needs to be totaled. That's especially true if the flooding was caused by salt water. Maybe the interior can be cleaned and the mechanical systems repaired, but Popular Mechanics says the complex and intricate electrical systems in today's vehicles are probably beyond repair if they were submerged.

What buyers should watch out for

So consumers shopping for a used car have to be aware of two types of flooded cars; those that have been repaired but may still have flood-related issues, and those that should have been junked but somehow have made it back onto the market.

There are classic signs that a car has been underwater. When you open the door, you are likely to be greeted by a musty odor, no matter how much detergent and disinfectant was used to clean the interior.

This will be especially true if you open the trunk. The trunk compartment is not ventilated and it is almost impossible to cover up that musty smell.

You might also be able to see signs of water damage. If the car was underwater for any period of time, there may be a watermark on the seats that is difficult, if not impossible, to remove. It might be even more visible in the trunk.

Look for signs of rust on metal fixtures, especially seat belts, and look at the rear of the car for the dealer decal. If the dealer is in a market -- like Houston -- that recently suffered flooding, the integrity of the vehicle needs further investigating, especially if it is on a used car lot in Illinois.

The reason consumers should avoid flooded cars goes far beyond cosmetics. A flood-damaged vehicle is probably going to be an unreliable vehicle. One thing after another may go wrong because the vehicle may be rusting from the inside.

'Salvage' title

If an insurance company declares a flooded car a total loss, there is nothing to prevent you from purchasing it from the insurance company and trying to repair it. But if you do, that vehicle, by law, must carry a "salvage" title. That lets any potential buyer know that the vehicle has been repaired from a defect serious enough to deem it a total loss.

"Our data shows there's still much work to be done in helping consumers avoid buying flood damaged cars," said Dick Raines, president of Carfax. "They can, and do, show up all over the country, whether it be a few miles or hundreds of miles from where the flooding occurred."

Raines worries about what Hurricanes Harvey and Irma will mean for unsuspecting consumers shopping for a used car. He estimates the two storms could result in several hundred thousand more flooded cars ending up on used car lots and in the classifieds.

"Buyer beware" has never been more important than now when you go used car shopping.

Scientists are constantly striving to come up with new advancements that allow humankind to stay ahead of evolving diseases and health threats. But a new study shows that sometimes taking a step away from the newest technologies is the only way to help those most in need.

Researchers from Chang Gung Memorial Hospital and the Chang Gung University College of Medicine have created a new test for tuberculosis (TB) that they say will increase detection rates for the disease in low- and middle-income countries.

The approach for the test is different because it doesn’t rely on sophisticated machines or expensive equipment to make diagnoses. All that medical professionals will need is access to a smartphone – a piece of technology that is becoming more accessible in emerging economies – and a paper-based device.

Diagnosing TB in patients

Using gold nanoparticles and fluorescent single-stranded DNA sequences, the researchers have shown that they can bind the genetic material of bacteria that causes TB (called Mycobacterium tuberculosis) and incorporate it into a paper-based device.

The researchers say that adding similar bacterial DNA to the paper forces it to change color, and that measuring the amount of color change on a smartphone can then allow doctors to know the bacterial concentration of the sample they tested.

In simpler and more practical terms, patients who may be infected with TB can test a sample of their DNA on the paper-device to see if they are carrying the bacteria responsible for the disease. The researchers say the results of the test take less than one hour to process, and that the tool may go a long way towards preventing the TB in countries without access to advanced medicine.

The full study has been published in ACS Sensors.

There's good news and bad news in GoBankingRates.com's annual savings survey.

Each year the personal finance site asks consumers how much money they've managed to save. This year 54% reported having less than $1,000 in the bank.

While that might not sound like the good news, it is. Last year, 69% of consumers had less than $1,000 set aside.

"We did see that the percentage of people who have less than a thousand dollars saved, and that includes people with zero savings, fall -- and that is good news because it shows a higher percentage of people have $1,000 in savings," Cameron Huddleston, a reporter at GoBankingRates, told ConsumerAffairs.

Now here's the bad news: 39% of consumers admitted they had no savings at all, up from 34% who were in that predicament last year. So despite a steadily improving economy, a lot of consumers are moving backward.

It should be pointed out that the survey specifically asked consumers how much money they had in "a savings account," and Huddleston concedes that it is possible consumers have socked money away in other things, like money market accounts or even checking accounts that pay a higher rate of interest.

"Part of it could just be semantics," Huddleston said. "On the other hand, the increase in people with $1,000 in savings could have to do with their improving financial condition.

Incomes are rising

Consumers, it turns out, are making more money. The Census Bureau reports that real median household income increased by a little more than 3% between 2015 and 2016. At the same time, fewer consumers were officially "poor," with a nearly 1% drop in the poverty rate.

The official tally shows median household income last year was $59,039, up from $57,230 the year before. But while consumers were making more money, it was harder to save.

"The people who are doing okay and seeing their financial situation improve -- perhaps they are actually setting aside more," Huddleston said. "They're finding a little more room in their budget to increase their savings.

But the improvement is not across the board. Drilling down into the numbers, we see that younger people seem to have the hardest time putting money away. There could be several reasons for that.

Millennial headwinds

Millennials are early in their careers and their paychecks aren't that big. If they have started a family, their expenses could be growing. Then, there are those student loans.

"It probably comes as no surprise that Millennials are dealing with a lot of student loan debt," Huddleston said. "Every year student loan balances rise as college tuition rises."

And that takes a big bite out of the monthly budget. That leaves less to pay day-to-day expenses, much less to sock away in savings.

Huddleston says that may make saving money harder, but not impossible. She cites the case of a young couple she recently interviewed with a take-home pay of $3,200 a month. Yet, she says they managed to pay off $5,000 in debt in one month by tightening their belt and liquidating assets.

"During that time they had been paying off student loans, they had actually been putting money aside into savings," she said.

Make saving a priority

If you're going to save money, Huddleston says, you have to make it a priority. If you don't, you'll be tempted to spend any extra money in your budget. The concept of "paying yourself first" actually works if you build a regular payment into your savings account into your monthly budget.

And while saving for retirement, a down payment on a home, or a child's education are worthy savings goals, Huddleston says the first goal should be to fund an emergency savings account.

"Something is going to come up," she said. "Your car is going to break down, you're going to need emergency dental surgery, you're going to have a big medical bill, and you're going to have to come up with the cash to pay for it."

Why does it seem so hard to save money? Yes, life does seem to have a lot more expenses than it did in earlier generations, but Huddleston doesn't discount the role of social media. When consumers see posts about their friends' fun vacations or nights on the town, they naturally want to join in.

In fact, she cites previous studies that show it isn't low-income consumers who live paycheck to paycheck as much as those making good salaries. Households earning $100,000 a year or more are most likely to be the ones living paycheck-to-paycheck.