Current Events in April 2018

McDonald’s has announced that it will invest an additional $150 million into its tuition assistance program for employees over the next five years.

The fast food giant’s Archways to Opportunity program was started in 2015 and has since provided college tuition assistance to over 16,400 employees.

In addition to investing more in the program, the company is lowering eligibility requirements from nine months to 90 days of employment and weekly shift minimums from 20 hours to 15 hours.

Accelerated by tax law changes

The new eligibility requirements -- which go into effect on May 1 -- will give up to 40,000 more restaurant employees access to the tuition assistance program. Eligible restaurant employees will have access to $2,500 a year and managers will have access to $3,000 a year.

The company says its decision to bolster its educational program was based on the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017, which lowered the corporate tax rate from 35 percent to 21 percent.

“Our commitment to education reinforces our ongoing support of the people who play a crucial role in our journey to build a better McDonald’s,” said Steve Easterbrook, McDonald’s President and CEO, in a statement.

“By offering restaurant employees more opportunities to further their education and pursue their career aspirations, we are helping them find their full potential, whether that’s at McDonald’s or elsewhere.”

Employees can apply their tuition assistance to either a trade school, community college, or a traditional four-year college.

Considering a new credit card? Temkin Group has released its 2018 credit card ratings, giving USAA and Discover the highest marks for customer experience.

Temkin reviewed 11 companies that issue credit cards and gave USAA the highest score, with a rating of 77 percent. Discover finished second with a rating of 75 percent.

As an industry, credit cards fell slightly from last year's overall ranking. Here's how the various card issuers stack up:

1. USAA: 77 percent

2. Discover: 75 percent

3. Barclaycard: 73 percent

4. Chase: 72 percent

5. American Express: 71 percent

6. Citigroup: 68 percent

7. U.S. Bank: 68 percent

8. Capital One: 67 percent

9. Bank of America: 66 percent

10. Wells Fargo: 64 percent

11. HSBC: 52 percent

'Legitimate improvements'

"In 2017, many of these credit card issuers saw double-digit increases in their scores," said Bruce Temkin, managing partner of Temkin Group. "The fact they managed – for the most part – to sustain those higher scores shows that those gains were not just an anomaly, but actually represented legitimate improvements to their customer experience."

USAA serves the military community, both active duty and retired, along with family members. It offers the Preferred Cash Rewards Visa Signature card, providing 1.5 percent cash back on every purchase.

It also issues the Cashback Rewards Plus American Express card, paying 5 percent cash back on the first $3,000 in gasoline and military base purchases. It pays 2 percent cash back on your first $3,000 in supermarket purchases and 1 percent on everything else.

Temkin says USAA's customer experience score showed the most improvement over the previous year, rising four percentage points. HSBC's score fell the most year-over-year, declining by 17 points.

BMW has launched a pilot “Access by BMW” program in Nashville that lets members swap one BMW vehicle for another through a mobile app.  

For a monthly payment (which includes insurance, maintenance, and roadside assistance), members get unrestricted access to a select portfolio of BMW vehicles. Subscribers can vary their vehicle selection depending on their usage or activity needs. There is no limit to the number of times members can switch vehicles within a given month.

After a vehicle is requested, a BMW concierge will deliver the vehicle (already fully-fueled and with the member’s personal preferences pre-set) to the member’s location at the desired time.

Two tiers of membership

BMW joins several other automakers who are testing vehicle subscription services, including Cadillac and Porsche.

“As customers continue to explore the growing mobility market, service-related offerings are becoming more in demand. With Access by BMW, our members will enjoy the freedom of personal mobility with access across a broad range of our highly emotional vehicles,” said Ian Smith, CEO of BMW group financial services, in a statement.

“Subscription-based services are of emerging interest for our customers, and we’re excited to be offering a mobility service to meet their individual and evolving needs.”

During the pilot phase, Access by BMW will offer two tiers of membership ranging from $2,000/ month (the “Legend” tier) to $3,700/month (the M tier).

Legend includes access to the BMW 4 Series (coupe and convertible), BMW 5 Series (including 530e), the BMW X5 xDrive40e iPerformance PHEV, and the BMW M2 coupe.

The M tier includes access to four of the automaker’s most powerful and highest performing models, including the BMW M4 convertible, M5 sedan, the M6 convertible, and the X5 M and X6 M SUVs.

Although the service is initially only available in Nashville, it may later expand to other cities.

“It’s a very small pilot; just enough to get our feet wet and see what happens,” a BMW spokesperson told Digital Trends.

Consumers hoping to lease a new car found plenty of deals in March, and one industry source reports many of those bargains have spilled into April.

A number of manufacturers are still offering discounts on mid-size and large SUVs, as well as truck deals. In something of a surprise, lease prices stayed flat or actually rose on many small and mid-size sedans, according to Wantalease.com, an online leasing marketplace.

The site reports the Nissan Sentra has the lowest monthly lease payment of all vehicles, coming in at just $109 per month -- the same price as in March. It's currently priced below the Honda Civic, which had offered the lowest payment -- $149 -- over the last six months.

In April, consumers leasing a Civic should expect to pay $189 a month.

Bigger is cheaper, at least this month

According to Wantalease, the bargains this month are mostly centered on mid-size and large SUVs, as well as small pickup and large pickup truck segments. The vehicle seeing the largest price drop in April is the Chevy Silverado 1500 4WD Double Cab.

Wantalease reports the truck can be leased this month for $299 a month, a relatively low payment for a full-size pick-up. Edmunds.com reports the average lease payment for a truck sold between January and September 2016 was $431. That's still significantly less than the average finance payment of $615.

Other truck and SUV lease deals this month include the GMC Canyon Crew Cab for $249 per month, the Ford Expedition at $469 per month, and the Ford Explorer at $349 per month -- all with April payments below what consumers paid last month.

'Increase in aggressive pricing'

“We’re seeing an increase in aggressive pricing beginning to permeate across cars and trucks for lease deals,” said Scot Hall, executive vice president at Wantalease. “With a slight pullback in new-vehicle sales, consumers will be increasingly on the hunt for aggressive deals on everything from small cars to large, luxury trucks and SUVs.”

Both the Chevrolet Cruze and Chevrolet Malibu saw sharp increases in lease payments in April, but both are still under $200 a month.

March sales figures compiled by Kelley Blue Book (KBB) show which cars went up in price and which went down, helping consumers locate the best buys. Hyundai-Kia saw the biggest drop from February -- 0.9 percent -- followed by Subaru and Honda.

High performance and high-end luxury cars saw prices fall the most -- at 1.7 percent and 1.8 percent, respectively. Prices for minivans were down 0.8 percent.

Grindr, the popular dating and hook-up app targeted to gay men, is facing tough questions from United States senators after European researchers revealed that it was sharing user data with third parties.

“Grindr collects highly personal data about its users,” wrote Senators Edward Markey (D-Massachusetts) and Richard Blumenthal (D-Connecticut) in a letter addressed to Grindr’s interim CEO Zhou Yahui.

The senators are asking Yahui, who is based in Hong Kong, to answer over a dozen detailed questions about how the app collects data and what it is used for. The senators are demanding a response by April 17.

“Simply using an app should not give companies a license to carelessly use, handle or share this type of sensitive information,” they add.

Users asked sensitive questions

Grindr surged in popularity with the premise of searching for potential hook-ups in an anonymous and safe environment. The app was initially tailored only to men seeking other men and allowed users to set up profiles without confirming their identify.

However, a rise in spam profiles caused the company to ditch anonymous profiles in 2013. In 2017, Grindr announced that it was opening the app to women, transgender people, and bisexual men.

Despite the changes over the years, Grindr has soared in popularity and now has a registered 3.6 million users.

When new users create their Grindr profiles, they are asked a series of sensitive questions, including their sexual preference and HIV status. Users then have the option of displaying their HIV status on their profile for others to see.

But consumers likely assumed that the information would stay contained in the app -- not be shared with third parties.

Users' HIV statuses shared 

Data researchers in Norway, where data collection laws are much stricter than they are here, discovered the company’s practices via a technical analysis published on Saturday. According to their findings, users’ HIV statuses are shared with two outside analytics firms and their sexual preferences are shared with several third-party companies that do not encrypt the data.

The Consumer Council, an advocacy group in Norway, looked over the results and announced plans shortly after to file a complaint to the country’s regulators. The group charges that Grindr’s practices are in violation of Europe’s laws designed to protect user data.

The findings gained attention in the United States when BuzzFeed published a report independently verifying the data-sharing on Monday.

ACT UP New York member James Krellenstein told BuzzFeed news that Grindr is unique for encouraging users to be transparent with each other about their HIV status.  

“To then have that data shared with third parties that you weren’t explicitly notified about, and having that possibly threaten your health or safety — that is an extremely, extremely egregious breach of basic standards that we wouldn’t expect from a company that likes to brand itself as a supporter of the queer community,” he told the publication.

Grindr reponds

In a statement on their United States website, Grindr had a somewhat defensive response while also acknowledging that it had room to improve.

"We give users the option to post information about themselves including HIV status and last test date, and we make it clear in our privacy policy that if you choose to include this information in your profile, the information will also become public," the company’s CTO Scott Chen wrote.

He claimed that the company has never sold personal data and added that it they are “always looking for additional measures that go above and beyond industry best practices to help maintain our users’ right to privacy.”

But Grindr did not indicate in its statement whether it would agree to answer the Senators’ more detailed questions about its data collection practices.

The company later backtracked somewhat, telling the publication Axios that it would stop sharing users’ HIV status with the outside vendors.

Last minute tax filers aren't always that choosy about who prepares their tax return -- but they should be.

They might see a hand-painted sign in their neighborhood, or respond to a flier they see on a bulletin board. If they're unlucky, they could end up with a "rogue" tax preparer.

A rogue tax preparer is someone who might scam you, stealing your refund, or even your identity. Or it might be someone with a rudimentary knowledge of tax preparation who will collect a fee but not do a very good job of preparing your tax return.

The California Tax Education Council says there are five red flags that indicate you are dealing with a rogue tax preparer.

Claims they are endorsed by the IRS

The Internal Revenue Service does not endorse tax preparers. However, it does recognize credentials, such as certified public accountant (CPA), enrolled agent, and attorney. Those professionals are allowed to represent clients before the IRS.

Tax preparers who are not one of these professionals may be allowed to prepare returns in some states, but they usually must complete a state license examination. In any case, taxpayers should check to make sure any paid tax preparer is permitted to prepare returns.

Doesn't have a PTIN

This is a big tip-off. If you charge a fee to prepare a federal tax return, you are required by the IRS to have a Preparer Tax Identification Number (PTIN). If the preparer works in a tax preparation practice, they must have their own PTIN and not use one for the entire office.

Doesn't sign their name to the return

There's a line on your tax return for the paid preparer to sign. It's common for a rogue tax preparer to sign with the name of a business -- or, if they're really bold, write "self prepared" instead of writing their name. That won't fly with the IRS.

Legitimate tax preparers will sign their name to your state and federal tax returns and include their PTIN on all federal tax returns.

Takes a percentage of your refund

Professional tax preparers have set fees for their services and disclose them ahead of time. Beware of tax preparers who base the fee on a percentage of your refund or claim they can obtain larger refunds than their competitors.

Generally, tax preparation fees are based on the complexity of your tax return. The amount of your refund is not relevant.

Suggests you direct deposit your refund to their account

Watch out for this one. The IRS prefers to direct deposit tax refunds rather than send out checks, but it's never a good idea to let your refund go to someone else's account. In fact, it's against IRS regulations.

If you don't have a bank account, you can have the refund deposited to a money card.

China has announced it will impose tariffs on 106 U.S. products, the latest shot fired in a brewing trade war between the two trading partners.

The announcement follows the Trump administration's announcement that it will impose tariffs on a number of Chinese products, including components used in technology and aerospace.

So far, it's not a trade war, but few are ruling out the possibility that it could turn into one. Should that happen, consumers most likely would end up as the victims.

Tariffs are imposed on imports when the importing country believes the imports are priced too low, putting domestic producers of the same product at a competitive disadvantage. The tariff paid by the foreign producer becomes a cost that almost always gets added to the retail price when it goes on sale to the consumer.

Tariff spares consumer products

The newly-announced U.S. tariffs are not on Chinese products sold directly to consumers. For example, the White House did not announce new import duties on shoes and clothing from China, which are staples of discount stores in the U.S. Tariffs on those products would have raised prices for consumers.

However, the tariffs on electronic components could eventually raise the retail prices for television sets, tablets, and computers.

According to an analysis by Bloomberg News, the list of Chinese products targeted for a 25 percent tariff appear to have been chosen with care. The tariffs target products that appear to have received significant support from Chinese government policies. They also appear to exclude products that would have hit consumers hardest.

Advantage China

Since China's exports are heavy on the consumer product side, analysts say that could give China an advantage should the current trade dispute ratchet up to the trade war level.

Tariffs on steel and aluminum, announced last month, are more likely to have a deeper impact on consumers. Economists say the tariffs are likely to increase prices for the two metals, making everything from cars to barbecue grills more expensive for consumers.

Consumers who are also investors are already feeling the pain from the threat of a trade war, as stocks have sold off sharply since the tariffs were imposed. The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 700 points Monday and was poised to open sharply lower today.

Facebook is not done with Russia… yet.

The social media leader is still uncovering accounts linked to the Internet Research Agency (IRA), the Russian company bent on turning Facebook into a propaganda fest.

And as soon as Facebook finds them, they’re axed from the platform. On Tuesday, the company announced that it had removed 70 Facebook and 65 Instagram accounts, plus another 138 Facebook Pages that were controlled by the IRA. Many of the offending Pages were also sneaking in Russia-favored advertisements and those, too, have been removed.

Facebook has a serious dog in this fight and not afraid to give up the large number of users who visit these sites. An estimated 1.08 million unique users follow those suspect Facebook Pages and 493,000 unique users follow a minimum of one of the Instagram accounts.

Those users are mostly eastern European (Russia, Ukraine, Georgia, Kyrgyzstan, et al), but also include 42,000 Brazilian users.

‘We’ll keep fighting’

Losing money doesn’t seem to be an issue for Facebook, either — especially when it comes to losing face. On the income side of the Russian-influence equation, a related $167,000 was spent on Facebook and Instagram ads since 2015.

“The IRA has consistently used inauthentic accounts to deceive and manipulate people,” wrote Alex Stamos, Facebook’s Chief Security Officer. It’s why we remove every account we find that is linked to the organization — whether linked to activity in the US, Russia or elsewhere.”

“We know that the IRA — and other bad actors seeking to abuse Facebook — are always changing their tactics to hide from our security team. We expect we will find more, and if we do we will take them down too. But we’ll keep fighting and we’re investing heavily in more people and better technology to constantly improve safety on Facebook.”

While the IRA’s most heralded invasion is the one surrounding the 2016 Presidential election, the new dearly departed are accounts that were “targeting people living in Russia,” Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said in a post.

Increased investment in security

Zuckerberg seems determined to wipe every bit of mud thrown on his company’s face -- mud that was first slung when it was discovered that Cambridge Analytica plucked profile data from Facebook users to slant advertising to benefit Donald Trump’s presidential campaign and other right-wing candidates.

And the Facebook CEO is putting his money where his mouth is. “We have also significantly increased our investment in security. We now have about 15,000 people working on security and content review. We'll have more than 20,000 by the end of this year,” Zuckerberg said in a post.

He goes on to remind the world that Facebook found and took down 30,000 fake accounts leading up to France’s 2017 presidential election; worked in tandem with Germany’s Federal Office for Information to examine the threats it was was seeing relating to its 2017 elections; and Facebook’s deployment of Artificial Intelligence tools that “proactively detected and removed fake accounts from Macedonia trying to spread misinformation.”

Zuckerberg closed his post with this promise: “Security isn't a problem you ever fully solve. Organizations like the IRA are sophisticated adversaries who are constantly evolving, but we'll keep improving our techniques to stay ahead -- especially when it comes to protecting the integrity of elections.”

Following its decision to go public via an unconventional direct listing, music streaming service Spotify kicked off trading Tuesday just after 12:30 p.m. ET at $165.90 a share -- up 25.6 percent from a “reference price” of $132.

Share prices dropped as the day went on, ending at $149.01. While early buyers suffered losses on paper, the volatile price swings that many had expected were not seen.

By the end of the session, Spotify’s market valuation was $26.5 billion. Investors had initially pegged the company’s value at $30 billion when the market opened.

“It’s a fair market price. It’s not manipulated or set by any puts and takes by banks or institutional investors,” Chi-Hua Chien, an early investor in Spotify who is now at San Mateo, California-based venture capital firm Goodwater Capital, told Reuters.

‘Our focus isn’t on the initial splash’

Spotify's founder and CEO, Daniel Ek, said in a blog post Monday that the listing wasn't supposed to be the most important day for the company.

"Normally, companies ring bells. Normally, companies spend their day doing interviews on the trading floor touting why their stock is a good investment," he said. "Our focus isn't on the initial splash."

“Spotify is not raising capital, and our shareholders and employees have been free to buy and sell our stock for years,” Ek wrote. “So while tomorrow puts us on a bigger stage, it doesn’t change who we are, what we are about, or how we operate.”

Focusing on the long term

Despite reporting a loss of $1.5 billion last year in the wake of profitability challenges, Ek remains optimistic about the future of Spotify.

At the end of 2017, Spotify had 157 million monthly active users and 71 million premium subscribers. The company restated those metrics two weeks ago, eliminating 2 million users from its monthly active user tally to account for fraudulent streams from people using hacked apps.

The company plans to grow its business and make a profit by investing heavily in “developing our two-sided marketplace with new and better product features and functionality for users and creators.”

Its growth strategies include entering new markets, further penetrating existing markets, continuing to invest in its advertising business, and expanding non-music content.

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg will testify before the House Energy and Commerce Committee next week, the committee has announced.

Zuckerberg has been in the eye of the Facebook storm over privacy issues since it was revealed that user data had been illegally obtained and used by a political marketing firm.

In a joint statement, committee chairman Greg Walden (R-OR) and ranking member Frank Pallone, Jr. (D-NJ) said the hearing will be an opportunity to shed light on critical consumer data privacy issues.

They said that as a result, all Americans may better understand what happens to their personal information online. The hearing is scheduled for 10 a.m. ET on April 11.

Zuckerberg declined an invitation to appear before a British Parliamentary committee investigating the same issue. Officials in both nations say they want to learn more about what data Facebook collects from users and who has access to it.

The scandal

In March, the New York Times reported that Cambridge Analytica, a political marketing firm, used Facebook user data to target ads on behalf of the British campaign to leave the European Union and the U.S. presidential campaign of Donald Trump.

Facebook said Cambridge Analytica was never authorized to receive the data, and obtained it from an app developer who had conducted a survey on Facebook. People who took the survey were informed that the developer would have access to their Facebook profiles -- as well as the profiles of all their Facebook friends. However, the friends were never informed their data was being accessed by a third party.

Since the revelation, Facebook has made a number of changes in the way it handles and safeguards user data, including severing ties with a major data broker and giving users more control over privacy settings.

Facebook is currently under investigation by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and several state attorneys general

Despite high vaccine coverage in many developed countries, pertussis – otherwise known as whooping cough – has made a comeback in recent years. The condition accounts for nearly 200,000 infant deaths each year, with rates increasing steadily since the 1970s.

While past research has placed blame for the disease’s resurgence on flaws in the current generation of vaccines, a new study suggests that the real reason is that we’ve reached the “end of the honeymoon” stage when it comes to immune protection. Senior author Pejman Rohani explains that the vaccine that was first administered decades ago has left current generations exposed.

"This study is important in that it revealed that there has been no change to the epidemiology of pertussis that is causing the rise in the number of cases," Rohani said. "Instead, it is a function of the way vaccines were administered over the decades. It is an effect that takes a long time to manifest."

Less than optimal vaccines

Routine vaccinations for pertussis began in the 1940s, and the immediate impact was a drastic decrease in cases of the condition. Even consumers who weren’t vaccinated became far less prone to contracting it because of the overall decreased rate of transmission.

However, the researchers explain that shortcomings in that first vaccine have led to slowly degrading immunity rates among consumers -- a fact that has left current consumers with inadequate resistance to the disease. This finding stands apart from other arguments in the scientific community that places the blame on current vaccinations.

“Our results suggest that the resurgence of pertussis is a predictable consequence of incomplete historical coverage with an imperfect vaccine that confers slowly waning immunity,” the researchers said. “We found evidence that the vaccine itself is effective at reducing overall transmission, yet that routine vaccination alone would be insufficient for elimination of the disease.”

Children most at risk

Although adults are at risk of contracting pertussis, the study reaffirms that young children are the primary group affected by the condition. The researchers recommend that this group – and especially vulnerable children – be targeted with additional treatments to reduce the overall number of sicknesses.

“Efforts aimed at curtailing transmission in the population at large…are more likely to succeed if targeted at schoolchildren, rather than adults,” the researchers said.

The full study has been published in Science Translational Medicine.

At the end of March, Toys “R” Us continued its liquidation process by shutting down its website. In a final farewell message, the retailer said that it would no longer be accepting online purchases. Instead, it said shoppers would need to visit brick-and-mortar stores to buy products.

This news presents a problem for shoppers who may have had a Toys “R” Us gift card but aren’t conveniently located near a store. However, a recent announcement from Bed Bath & Beyond may offer some small consolation.

In a message on the its website, Bed Bath & Beyond says that it will be accepting Toys “R” Us and Babies “R” Us gift cards online for store credit. Consumers who want to take advantage will have to act fast, though; the offer is only good until 11:59 p.m. on Thursday, April 5.

Consumers won’t get full value

In its post, Bed Bath & Beyond points out that consumers won’t get the face value of what their gift card is worth. The company says that the amount of reimbursement will vary based on Toys “R” Us store closings, but Business Insider reports that shoppers should expect around 65 percent of the value on the card being exchanged.

But with only a couple of weeks left before the gift cards are no longer valid, many consumers may jump at the chance to get their money’s worth while they can.

To learn more, including how to convert eligible gift cards into a Bed Bath & Beyond eGift card, visit the company’s website here.

Les Schwab is recalling 41,336 steel-belted radial truck tires that were retreaded for customers.

The vulcanizing compound used during the retreading may not have been completely cured, resulting in incomplete adhesion of the tread to tire casing.

The incompletely cured vulcanizing compound can result in the tire tread separating from the tire casing, increasing the risk of a crash.

The potentially affected retreaded tires were manufactured at Les Schwab's three retread facilities during calendar weeks 42 through 50 of 2017 and have the DOTR numbers: RDNJ4217RS - RDNJ5017RS, RNVK4417RS - RNVK5017RS and RCEE4217RS - RCEE5017RS.

What to do

Les Schwab will notify the customers that had their tires retreaded, and will exchange them for properly retreaded ones, free of charge.

The manufacturer has not yet provided a notification schedule. Owners may contact Les Schwab at 1-541-447-4136.

Toyota Motor North America is recalling approximately 6,000 model year 2018 Camrys and Highlanders and model year 2017 Siennas, Tacomas and Lexus RX350s.

A component in the vacuum pump assembly which provides braking assist may have been manufactured incorrectly. This condition could lead to the illumination of a warning light, a warning message, an audible tone, and result in the sudden loss of braking assist.

A sudden loss of braking assist while driving could increase the risk of a crash.

What to do

Toyota and Lexus dealers will replace the vacuum pump with a new one at no cost to customers.

All known owners of all the involved vehicles will receive a notification by first class mail by late May.

Owners may contact Toyota at 800-331-4331 or Lexus at 800-255-3987.

An Alaska cannabis lab that is permitted to operate under state law is being forced to relocate  after Wells Fargo apparently discovered what they were doing.

“We have to relocate because Wells Fargo called in the loan on our building,” announced Steep Hill Alaska, an Anchorage-based lab that tests legal marijuana for THC content and mold per state regulations.

“They will foreclose if we do not move out -- just because we are a Cannabis business,” the lab said via a post on Instagram.

Wells Fargo spokesman Brian Kennedy responded with a statement explaining the decision to the Associated Press:  “It is currently Wells Fargo’s policy not to knowingly bank marijuana businesses, based on federal laws under which the sale and use of marijuana is still illegal.”

Only two labs left

Alaska established a marijuana control board shortly after voters pass an initiative to legalize recreational and medicinal marijuana in 2014. It mandates that all dispensaries must contract with independent labs to test their products for possible contaminants and THC content.  

The labs play an important role for the state’s legal weed consumers, but they were the subject of a controversy in January when state regulators found wide inconsistencies in their test results.

Regulators said that Steep Hill had detected a dangerous type of mold growing in an edible product, while another lab in the state did not, among other inconsistencies. Steep Hill CEO told KTUU at the time that they employ scientists “who follow the highest standards of scientific integrity and testing practices.”

Steep Hill, which did not return a message from ConsumerAffairs, was one of only three permitted labs in the state.

Federal laws keep weed money out of banks

As states have embraced regulating marijuana sales and cultivation, a growing number of banks or credit unions have agreed to do business with state-legal cannabis businesses.

However, federal law officially considers any marijuana transaction to be money laundering. While the Obama administration in 2014 issued guidance to banks on how to handle marijuana money without getting in trouble, most major financial institutions have remained reluctant to accept any marijuana business, especially since Trump Attorney General Jeff Sessions has shown a willingness to enforce federal drug laws in legal states.

That means that the majority of businesses in the multi-billion dollar legal weed industry are operating in cash -- putting many business owners at risk of robbery and creating headaches at the tax office.

In January, a group of  18 attorneys generals from states that regulate marijuana sent a letter to Congress asking for legislation that would allow banks to accept marijuana money without running afoul of federal anti-drug laws.

A group of bipartisan senators, including Alaska Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski, are now sponsoring the SAFE Banking Act, a bill that would prevent the feds from prosecuting banks simply “because the depository institution provides or has provided financial services to a cannabis-related legitimate business.”

A new report from the National Safety Council finds most states have failed to implement effective policies to tackle the opioid addiction crisis in America.

In fact, the Council said only 13 states -- Arizona, Connecticut, Delaware, Washington, D.C., Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Mexico, North Carolina, Ohio, Rhode Island, Virginia, and West Virginia -- have improved their approach to the drug epidemic in the last year.

Eight states -- Arkansas, Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, Montana, North Dakota, Oregon and Wyoming -- received failing grades, having adopted just one or two out of six key actions recommended in the report.

'Need to wake up'

"While we see some states improving, we still have too many that need to wake up to this crisis," said Deborah A.P. Hersman, the Council's CEO. "For the last five years, the Council has released Prescription Nation reports to provide a road map for saving lives across the country. We hope states adopt the recommended actions laid out here so we can eliminate preventable opioid deaths and stop an everyday killer."

The National Institute on Drug Abuse reported last month that opioid overdose -- which includes heroin as well as prescription painkillers -- kills an average of 115 Americans each day. Beside the toll in lives and health, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimates prescription opioid abuse is an $78.5 billion drain on the U.S. economy each year.

Some states where opioid abuse is particularly bad have a much bigger challenge. In February, Maine Attorney General Janet Mills reported 418 drug overdose deaths in the state in 2017, an 11 percent rise over 2016 -- when deaths surged 40 percent over 2015.

Deadly rise of illegal fentanyl

The report said 85 percent of opioid-related deaths were caused by the victim taking one or more opioid drugs, with a 27 percent increase in deaths due to illegal fentanyl and fentanyl analogs. Heroin overdose deaths, meanwhile, declined.

Drug manufacturers have come under fire for allegedly assuring medical practitioners that these powerful prescription painkillers are not addictive. In February, Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) released a report tracing payments from major opioid drug makers to third party advocacy groups that have promoted the use of painkillers.

McCaskill says her report describes how drug makers have invested heavily in third party organizations that serve as pro-opioid advocacy groups. The report says these groups have issued guidance that minimizes the risks of opioid addiction and endorses opioid use for the long-term treatment of chronic pain.

Apple took a large bite out of Intel on Monday. The company announced that it will be making its own chips for its Mac computers by 2020, which sent Intel stock tumbling as much as 9.2 percent before finishing the trading day down 6 percent.

The plan, according to Bloomberg, is still in incubation, but Apple’s goal is to make the company’s entire array of devices -- including Macs, iPhones, and iPads -- work seamlessly with each other.

Codenamed “Kalamata,” the project will likely take several years and multiple steps to complete.

Breaking up is hard to do

This shift could be quite a sting for Intel, but it could mean more cash going in Apple’s own pockets.

The chipmaker has had a significant chunk of Apple’s business going back to 2007 and was paid $300 on average for each Intel chip Apple installed in one of its products. It’s estimated that 5 percent of Intel’s revenue stream -- more than $1 billion a year -- comes from the Apple money tree.

The move is probably also confusing to Intel. It’s a complete about face from Apple’s announcement in February to drop Qualcomm chips from iPhones and go exclusively with Intel chips.

Is this the start of a trend?

With device-to-device processor integration added on top of cost-savings, Apple would have extra flexibility in launching new products, and having control over its hardware should strengthen the security level of its products.

While a 5 percent hit to its revenue is something Intel can handle, the bigger question is will other manufacturers, a la Apple, take to building their own chipsets.

Bringing all component manufacturing in-house is uncharted waters for Apple. The company’s 2010 purchase of Intrinsity, a Texas-based semiconductor maker, seemed to signal a desire to wean itself off Intel. Lately, the company has sourced custom processors from Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing and Samsung. It has also used ARM-based co-processors for special functions such as the Touch Bar and Power Nap features on MacBooks.

Still, making every single component may be a Herculean task. For example, Apple uses more than 20 different (and mostly foreign) manufacturers to build an iPhone. Those include Samsung for batteries, Toshiba for flash memory, and Sony for cameras.

Can this move mean more jobs?

If President Trump had his way, Apple would make everything in the U.S. In his 2016 presidential bid, Trump declared that “we’re going to get Apple to build its damn computers in this country instead of other countries.”

Carrying the torch of “very large tax cuts for corporations” in hand, Trump spoke directly to Apple CEO Tim Cook after the election and said he expected Apple to bring more manufacturing jobs to the U.S. Trump even went as far as saying that Cook had made clear-cut promises.

“I spoke to [Cook]. He's promised me three big plants - big, big, big... We're gonna get Apple to start building their damn computers and things in this country, instead of in other countries," Trump said in an interview with the Wall Street Journal last July.

A new report finds many college students don’t have enough to eat or enough money for a secure place to live as they pursue their college education.

Researchers at Temple University and the Wisconsin HOPE Lab report that 36 percent of university students and 42 percent of community college students surveyed said they had been food insecure in the 30 days preceding the survey.

The survey of 43,000 students at 66 institutions in 20 states and the District of Columbia included over 20,000 students at 25 four-year colleges and universities, as well as students attending community colleges.

Key findings

Just 41 percent of community college students and 48 percent of university students were completely secure, having never experienced food or housing insecurity or homelessness during the past year.

A third of university students (36 percent) were housing-insecure in the past year, as were 46% of community college students, meaning they could not afford rent or utilities or needed to move frequently. Nine percent of university students and 12 percent of community college students said they were homeless in the last year.

Nine percent of community college students said they had gone a whole day without eating in the past month because they lacked money. That number was 6 percent among university students.

Rising college costs

While the issue of college hunger isn’t new, the researchers say the problem is only growing as college costs continue to soar.

"Prices have gone up over time," said lead author Sara Goldrick-Rab. "But the rising price is just a piece. This is a systemic problem."

Inadequate aid packages and growing enrollment among low-income students may also be contributing to the problem. Although her report paints an already-bleak picture, Goldrick-Rab says the number of college students who struggle with hunger and/or homelessness is likely even higher.

For these types of reports, researchers rely on universities to distribute the surveys to a self-selecting group of students to fill them out. Constraints like these make it likely that college hunger is more prevalent than the report indicates, Goldrick-Rab says.

Colleges and universities can take steps toward mitigating the problem of hunger and homelessness among students by understanding the problem and developing programs to support students.

“Even while facing financial constraints, colleges and universities can act to ensure that their students’ basic needs are met,” Goldrick-Rab wrote. “Addressing food and housing insecurity helps promote positive student development, retention and graduation, and is closely aligned with institutional missions focused on both access and excellence.”

Consumer confidence surged to its highest level since 2004 towards the end of last year, but millennials now have less consumer confidence than their parents.

That’s according to data from the University of Michigan, Haver Analytics, and Deutsche Bank Global Research.

Optimism among those under 35 hasn’t dropped below that of those aged 55 and older in the last 60 years, since the University of Michigan began recording the consumer sentiment of these two generations.

Economic hardships

Millennials’ diminished confidence is likely rooted in the economic hardships many of them have faced as they came of age. Student loan debt has reached $1.4 trillion as the cost of college has soared.

Burdened by student loan debt and higher housing costs than their parents faced at their age, many young Americans are finding it almost impossible to spend “only” 30 percent of their income on rent or a mortgage, MarketWatch notes.

Additionally, for the first time in more than 130 years, millennials are more likely to live with their parents than with a spouse or partner in their own household. Researchers say that’s because younger Americans tend to get married later in life and/or have more student loan debt than they can feasibly manage while also paying for rent or a mortgage.

Higher cost of living

Peter Schiff, the chief executive of Euro Pacific Capital, believes the middle class has been gutted by over-regulation, an escalating cost of living, and stagnant wages.

“Families are smaller,” Schiff told MarketWatch. "They can’t afford to raise their kids or send them to college without taking out a lot of student debt. It’s too expensive. People are getting married later in life and many don’t get married at all."

But there may still be reason for optimism. Although many millennials have nothing saved for retirement, reports indicate that some millennials do have assets. A recent Bank of America report found that nearly half (47 percent) of working millennials have $15,000 or more in savings and 16 percent have $100,000 or more in savings.

Concern for the next generation

Americans appear to be concerned about the economic prospects of those who come after them. A 2017 Pew study found that just 37 percent of Americans believe today’s children will grow up to be better off financially than their parents.

Half (49 percent) of 18- to 29-year-olds believe that the next generation will be worse off, while more than half (61 percent) of Americans aged 50 and over believe the next generation will be worse off.

“The U.S. may be one of the richest countries in the world, with one of the highest per capita gross domestic products among major nations, but Americans are fairly pessimistic about economic prospects for their country’s children,” said the Pew study author, Bruce Stokes.