Current Events in April 2018

The auto industry is presenting consumers with a stark choice if they want  cars to emit less pollution in the future. In an interview, an auto industry lobbyist evoked a communist-style takeover of personal trucks to justify the industry’s successful campaign to undo Obama-era fuel efficiency standards.

“To meet the standards, some people would have to give up their trucks,” Wade Newton, a spokesman with the Auto Industry Alliance, the powerful trade group representing the automobile industry, told ConsumerAffairs.

Newton said that earlier plans for personal car and truck fleets to reach an average of 54.5 miles per gallon by 2025 -- which the industry initially agreed to under the Obama administration -- are no longer feasible because gas prices are lower than carmakers anticipated.

That, in turn, has caused consumers to choose trucks over electric cars. “I don't think people forecast that consumers would want [the number of] trucks that they have,” Newton said.

But experts and environmental advocates say that selling fully electric vehicles, though helpful, was never a key part of the 2025 standards.

“These standards don’t require that a single electric vehicle be made,” Dan Becker, director of the Center for Auto Safety’s Safe Climate Campaign, told ConsumerAffairs. "The auto companies are trying to confuse people by saying that people don't want the vehicles that would be made under the standards.”

Pointing to a technical analysis done by the EPA under the previous administration, advocates say that the technology already exists to make gas-powered vehicles efficient enough to reach an average of 54.5 miles per gallon by 2025.

Instead of using that technology, however, car companies have convinced Trump to indefinitely postpone the regulations. At the same time, the car industry is asking consumers to buy electric vehicles that are in shorter supply and more costly upfront.

Detroit follows Tesla

Tesla may like to portray itself as the start-up taking on entrenched automobile interests, and it is the only car company to continue publicly endorsing the Obama-era fuel standards. But plenty of brands are at least paying lip service to electric and plug-in vehicles and are promoting their own electric models.

General Motors has embraced electric vehicles more quickly than any other of the “big three” automakers in the United States, with the company’s popular Chevy Bolt coming a close second to Tesla’s Model S in electric vehicle sales last year.  

“General Motors believes the future is all-electric,” Mark Reuss, the company’s head of product, said in an announcement last October. “We are far along in our plan to lead the way to that future world.”

Other companies are vowing to catch up. Earlier this year, Mercedes Benz said it would make electric versions of all its vehicle models by 2022 and build a “global battery network” to support the program.

Ford Motor Company, which moved just 1,817 of its electric Focus models in 2017, similarly promised to ramp up its efforts and double their investment in electric cars in the near future.

“We’re all in,” Ford Motor Executive Chairman Bill Ford Jr said of electric cars at the North American International Auto Show that took place last January. “The only question is, will the customers be there with us?”

The Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers, the trade group that represents “the big three” as well as a dozen other major international brands, introduced a campaign last month to encourage consumer purchases of electric cars on the East Coast.

“The ‘Drive Change. Drive Electric.’ campaign will focus on the benefits of electric cars and advancing consumer awareness, understanding, consideration and adoption of these vehicles in the region,” the group says in their campaign.

"That's the challenge...we invested billions of dollars in alternative technologies and fuel efficient vehicles,” Newton, the car industry lobbyist, tells ConsumerAffairs. “We need consumers to embrace those products.”

But, in fact, consumers have already been embracing the models -- 2017 was a record year for electric vehicle sales, with 199,826 vehicles sold in the United States, according to figures analyzed by Ars Technica. That represents a 25 percent increase from 2016, which was another record year for electric car sales.

Electric cars, which advocates say are helpful in reducing greenhouse gas emissions in states where the grid is clean, are more popular than ever, but they still constitute only a fraction of the cars that get produced.  

“They’re not making very many of them,” Becker says, pointing to Ford’s particularly slow embrace of electric cars.

"We're not evaluated on what we make, we’re evaluated on what consumers buy,” responded Newton to such criticisms. “We produced a lot. The problem is selling them.”

The original agreement

The original plan to make vehicles twice as efficient by 2025 was hailed as a major compromise between environmentalists who wanted stricter standards and an industry that is resistant to change.

The Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) standards, which measure the average fuel economy of a corporation’s passenger car and truck fleet, were introduced by the feds during the Arab oil embargo in the 1970s. From its inception, auto companies based here and elsewhere resisted attempts to regulate their overall emissions. Emissions gradually improved over the years, but change happened slowly.

The long-term compromise that the companies agreed to seven years ago marked a historic departure. Joined by representatives from Ford, GM, Chrysler, and foreign manufacturers, Obama announced in 2011 that the CAFE standards would gradually increase, with a final goal of reaching 54.5 miles per gallon by 2025, or a 50 percent reduction in greenhouse gases.

The 2025 figure was lower than the 62 mpg standard that environmentalists said was doable and necessary, but advocates were cautiously optimistic at the time that the less restrictive standards would still reduce pollution.

“The talks over the last few weeks have yielded real progress, and we’re hopeful there’s a way to improve fuel economy but retain customer choice and the industry’s recent resurgence,” a General Motors spokesman said at the time.

Auto industry changes its tune

Not long after Trump was elected into office, however, car companies began singing a different tune. The Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers sent the Trump administration a letter last year claiming that the emissions rules they previously agreed to were unrealistic. (The industry says that their request to have the regulations reviewed had nothing to do with the new administration).

And several weeks after Trump’s inauguration in January 2017, the CEOs of Ford, General Motors, and Chrysler Fiat met with him privately. Afterward, Ford Motor Company's then-CEO Mark Fields proclaimed that 1 million United States jobs would be at risk under Obama’s fuel economy standards.

"It was a Trumpian alternative fact by this Ford CEO,” says Becker, the director of the Safe Climate Campaign, noting that Ford Motor Company does not employ close to one million people at its manufacturing plants in the United States. According to figures from the US government, the entire auto industry combined does not employ one million people at manufacturing plants in the United States.

Regardless, it’s an argument that has worked with an administration that has been characteristically hostile to any environmental regulations, especially if they were imposed under Obama.

In early April, after months of discussions, EPA administrator Scott Pruitt announced that he would establish new, more relaxed fuel standards for cars made between 2022 and 2025, citing arguments made by car companies that consumers were not interested in fuel efficient cars.

Pruitt’s analysis also said that safety and consumer choice was at risk under the Obama plans. “One thing they haven’t done is say that the previous technical analysis was wrong,” says Becker, with the Safe Climate Campaign. "This is mechanics, not rocket science. All these companies have the technologies.”

By casting the previous administration's analysis aside, the EPA under Trump has “decided to ignore this evidence and misconstrue how the standards work,” David Cooke, a senior vehicles analyst with the Union of Concerned Scientists, wrote in a recent blog post.

Uncertainty about the new standards

How the new fuel standards will look is unclear. EPA administrator Scott Pruitt has not yet announced what the new standards will be, only that the Obama rules have been put on hold.

In his report explaining why they were reworking the Obama-era rules, Pruitt and the EPA relied heavily on criticisms leveled by the auto industry that did not propose any alternative solutions. Newton, with the auto alliance, says that stakeholders have not reached a consensus on what they want.

Automakers have at times wavered between complaining about the Obama-era standards while stating that they would still comply with them. One Ford representative told the site CityLab recently that they have “not asked for a rollback,” instead characterizing their own lobbying efforts as simply a request for more “flexibility.”

“We will continue to work with EPA, NHTSA, and California on one national standard with additional flexibility to help us provide more affordable options for our customers,” the Ford spokesman told the site.

California to propose its own standards

California has promised to enact its own efficiency standards should the Trump administration back away from the 2025 plan, sparking Pruitt’s EPA to threaten legal action against the state. The uncertainty is bound to create a regulatory headache for car companies.

Advocates like Becker say that the industry may be getting more than they bargained for under Trump, as California and governments in other nations  impose stricter standards on fuel emissions that could conflict with the standards that Pruitt may introduce.

Environmental organizations, meanwhile, have jumped on what they describe as auto industry double talk, with GreenPeace releasing a spoof ad for a “Ford future” that shows a family using oxygen masks.

The auto industry alliance disputes the idea that they are “greenwashing” their image by promoting electric cars while lobbying to loosen fuel standards. If more consumers could just buy electric cars, the auto industry says there wouldn’t be a problem.

“We want attention to these fuel efficient vehicles,” Newton says.

Facebook published 27 pages of previously secret rules today on how the site’s moderators decide which photos, videos, and posts should be removed and which can stay online.

The company said it spots potentially problematic content by using either artificial intelligence or reports from other users. That information is then passed on to its 7,500+ human content reviewers who work around the clock in over 40 languages.

Detailed policies

Facebook said it does not allow hate speech about “protected characteristics,” including race, ethnicity, national origin, religious affiliation, sexual orientation, sex, gender, gender identity, serious disability, or disease.

It said there are “some protections” around immigration status and three “tiers of severity” by which posts are judged. Here are a few of the site’s rules:

• The sale of marijuana is not allowed (even in states where it’s legal)

• Sexual activity in general is banned unless “posted in a satirical or humorous context”

• Photos of breasts are allowed if they depict an act of protest

• Guns can only be shown to adults aged 21 or older, and sales between individual people are not allowed

• Bullying rules don’t apply to comments made about public figures

Providing clarity

A shorter version of the guidelines had leaked before, but the full guidelines had not been released to the public until today.

In releasing the detailed guidelines (which include specific examples), Facebook hopes to provide transparency about its content-policing process, which has in the past been criticized for appearing to be inconsistent at times.

“We decided to publish these internal guidelines for two reasons,” said Monika Bickert, Vice President of Global Policy Management at Facebook, in a statement.

“First, the guidelines will help people understand where we draw the line on nuanced issues. Second, providing these details makes it easier for everyone, including experts in different fields, to give us feedback so that we can improve the guidelines – and the decisions we make – over time.”

"We want people to know about these standards, we want to give them clarity," Bickert said.

Getting user feedback

The company admits that its enforcement “isn't perfect.”

“We make mistakes because our processes involve people, and people are not infallible," Bickert said. For this reason, Facebook is also adding a way for users to appeal when one of their posts gets taken down because of sexual content, hate speech, or violence.

Users will get a message explaining why the post was taken down and can follow a link to request a review, which will be handled by a team member “typically within 24 hours.”

“We are working to extend this process further, by supporting more violation types, giving people the opportunity to provide more context that could help us make the right decision, and making appeals available not just for content that was taken down, but also for content that was reported and left up,” Bickert said.

Consumers can pretty much kiss net neutrality goodbye. The Obama-era "Open Internet Order" ended Monday and the "Restoring Internet Freedom Order" took over.

Federal Communications Commission chairman Ajit Pai originally introduced the Restoring Internet Freedom Order in December, and it passed by a single vote of the FCC’s commissioners. Congress tried to overturn the order but came up short.

Net neutrality levied heavy regulations on internet service providers (ISP) by requiring them to treat all internet traffic the same. It prevented ISPs from charging more for access to certain content or stifling the speed at which content was delivered.

"In place of that heavy-handed framework, the FCC is returning to the traditional light-touch framework that was in place until 2015," wrote the FCC in a press release. "Moreover, the FCC today also adopted robust transparency requirements that will empower consumers as well as facilitate effective government oversight of broadband providers’ conduct."

Who wins and who loses?

For an ISP, the repeal of net neutrality is like winning the lottery. With the new law in place, these companies have the authority to decide what content consumers can access, plus reap the financial rewards of that control.

For the consumer, it’s a different story. Net neutrality ensured a level playing field where everyone had access to the same internet services and experiences. Now, given the fact that there’s only one major broadband provider is more than half of the United States, those sole providers can dictate what a consumer pays, the content they can get, and the speed at which they get it.

There’s no way to foretell the future, but the FCC has shown that its viewpoint on the internet can shift from one administration to another.

"Net neutrality was essential for our economy; it was essential to preserve freedom and openness, both for economic reasons and free speech reasons," said Julius Genachowski, FCC commissioner in the Obama administration.

All is not lost

There appears to be a few ISPs riding into this battle wearing a white hat. Take Comcast for example. David L. Cohen, Comcast’s Senior Executive Vice President, went on record saying that this change is not the end of net neutrality.

“Despite repeated distortions and biased information, as well as misguided, inaccurate attacks from detractors, our Internet service is not going to change. Comcast customers will continue to enjoy all of the benefits of an open Internet today, tomorrow, and in the future. Period," he said.

States and communities can still have a say in this matter, too. New York governor Andrew Cuomo took a stand for the little guy and signed an executive order stating that "the Internet is an essential service that should be available to all New Yorkers." With that order, Cuomo banned New York State's government from entering into any agreement with an ISP unless that ISP agreed to the fundamentals of net neutrality.

Several other governors -- including Washington, Montana, Vermont, New Jersey, and Hawaii -- have also signed executive orders to preserve net neutrality rules and an additional 30+ states have proposed legislation that would keep those rules in place.

On top of those efforts, there are 22 state attorneys general who’ve come together to block the FCC’s rollback of net neutrality.

At the grassroots level, the activist group Fight for the Future has nearly 25,000 signatures in a petition asking legislators to defend net neutrality and "protect the free and open Internet for generations to come."

Struggling retailer Sears Holdings just may have bought some time. Eddie Lampert, the company's CEO, has offered to purchase the retailer's more valuable parts through a hedge fund he heads.

The result could be a leaner operation with more cash and less debt. Sears Holdings has announced the receipt of a letter from ESL Investments that lays out the proposal.

The letter suggests that Sears Holdings, which operates Sears and Kmart stores, should sell all or a portion of its Kenmore brand, along with the Sears Home Improvement business and the PartsDirect portion of the Sears Home Services division.

Substantial value

The letter notes these three properties have "substantial value," and that selling them could enable Sears Holdings to improve its financial stability. The letter went on to say that if the company is willing to take those steps, ESL could be a buyer.

Sears Holdings has struggled in recent years to stem the flow of red ink from its operations. Earlier this month, published reports detailed the company's plans to spin off some of the real estate from its closed stores, primarily in shopping malls.

The Wall Street Journal reported the company had retained a commercial real estate firm to sell about 16 locations in an online auction.

Kenmore is one of the company's more valuable assets. A year ago, Sears Holdings worked out a deal to sell the appliance line on Amazon. In addition to the marketing deal, Sears also said that its Kenmore Smart room air conditioners are integrated with Amazon's Alexa app and are available now on Amazon. It said it would expand the distribution to include all Kenmore home appliances.

Closing stores

Meanwhile, the company continued to close unprofitable stores throughout 2017. In January, it announced the closing of 150 Sears and Kmart locations. A couple months later, the company said in an SEC filing that there was “substantial doubt” that the business could continue unless it found a way to raise additional capital.

Only one month later, Sears opted to close another 50 auto center locations and 92 Kmart pharmacy operations, with Lampert saying that the company would “continue to take difficult yet necessary actions,” and “closely evaluate the longer-term viability of stores where a clear path to return to profitability is not in sight.”

Last August, the downsizing efforts continued with yet another batch of store closings. In a quarterly earnings report, Sears Holdings announced that it would close another 28 Kmart stores as part of its transformation effort.

As for the proposal from Lampert's hedge fund, Sears Holdings said it will review the proposal, noting there is no assurance that it will result in a transaction.

Amazon, Netflix, and several major Hollywood studios (including Disney, Fox, Sony, Universal, and Warner Bros.) are suing SET Broadcast over claims that its Set TV streaming service is used for piracy.

Set TV is a $20-per-month streaming service that comes with its own set-top box. For the low monthly fee, subscribers get access to over 500 live TV channels and “thousands” of on-demand shows. The service even gives users access to Netflix shows and movies that are still in theaters.

The lawsuit alleges that Set TV (d.b.a Setvnow) is promoting pirated material to consumers by relying on “third-party sources that illicitly reproduce copyrighted works and then provide streams of popular content such as movies still exclusively in theaters and television shows.”

“Defendants promote the use of Setvnow for overwhelmingly, if not exclusively, infringing purposes, and that is how their customers use Setvnow,” the complaint continues.

Plaintiffs want the service shut down

The suit was filed in a California district court on Friday by the Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment (ACE), a coalition of media companies dedicated to fighting piracy.

In addition to allegations of promoting pirated material, ACE claims that Set TV aimed to grow its subscriber numbers by paying for sponsored reviews on YouTube.

“You have new releases right there and you simply click on the movie … you click it and click on play again and here you have the movie just like that in 1 2 3 in beautiful HD quality’,” said one sponsored video posted by a popular YouTube user, Solo Man.

The suit seeks $150,000 per work infringed, which could add up to millions of dollars. In addition to monetary damages, the plaintiffs are asking the California district court to shut down the service and impound all of its set-top boxes.

SET Broadcast has not yet commented on the case.

Amazon has announced a new way to deliver packages by locking them in the trunk of a customer's car.

It's an expansion of its current Amazon Key service, which allows delivery personnel access to a customer's home. Amazon Key In-Car will allow deliveries to be made to the trunk or cabin of a vehicle parked in an accessible area.

Both services are designed to address the issue of packages being delivered to a residence when no one is home to accept them. It gets around the problem of packages being left on doorsteps, where they may be subject to theft.

The in-car service is available now in 37 U.S. markets. There is no charge for Prime members. The video below demonstrates how it works.

Customers need the right kind of car

The service is currently available for consumers who own Chevrolet, Buick, GMC, Cadillac, and Volvo vehicles. Cars equipped with OnStar and Volvo's On Call make it easy to provide Amazon access to the vehicle, unlocking it, placing the package inside, and relocking it.

To set it up, customers download the Amazon Key app and link their Amazon account with their connected car service account. After setup is complete and the delivery location is registered, customers can order on Amazon and select the "In-Car" delivery option at checkout.

On the day of delivery, the app lets consumers make sure they've parked within the delivery location range. It also provides notifications with an expected four-hour delivery window.

Frequent notifications

Consumers are notified when the package is on its way and when the delivery has been made.

"In-car delivery gives customers that same peace of mind and allows them to take the Amazon experience with them," said Peter Larsen, Amazon's vice president of delivery technology.

Amazon Key, the service providing access to a customer's home for delivery, launched last fall. Since then, Larsen says it's successfully delivered thousands of valuable items. With that service, customers must install a smart door lock that is then controlled using the Amazon Key app.

Iran’s central bank has issued a ban on the use of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies by banks and other financial institutions, the Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA) reported.

The decision to ban digital currencies was made in an effort to prevent money laundering and financial terrorism.

“According to CBI public relations department, CBI made the decision by its supreme committee in charge of fight with money laundering last Iranian calendar year,” the state news agency said in a statement.

“Virtual currencies have the option to be used for money laundering, supporting terrorism, and exchange of sums between wrongdoers,” pointed out the CBI circulation.

Shielding Iranians from cryptocurrency risks

The decision was preceded by months of doubt and uncertainty about the idea of cryptocurrencies coming out of Iran. Last November, deputy director of new technologies at the Central Bank of Iran said Bitcoin was “risky” and that the bank planned to conduct a comprehensive review of the currency.

"Given that Bitcoin and other currencies have not been introduced by the central bank as the official currency, as well as the risk of buying it and the activity of traders in this field, more precautions are coming into the market because of the possibility of malice,” Naser Hakimi said at the time.

In February, the country’s central bank released a statement indicating that it did not recognize the legitimacy of any cryptocurrency within the country's borders. It discouraged Iranians from purchasing cryptocurrencies in the interest of protecting them from risk.

"The wild fluctuations of the digital currencies along with competitive business activities underway via network marketing and pyramid scheme have made the market of these currencies highly unreliable and risky," the statement said.

The move to officially ban the use cryptocurrencies comes weeks before a May 12 deadline when President Trump will decide whether to restore economic sanctions on Tehran, which would be a blow to the 2015 pact between Iran and six major powers. Iran’s currency, the rial, hit an all-time low amid concerns about a possible return of crippling sanctions.

To avoid unnecessary risk, the IRNA is advising Iranian banks and financial institutions to avoid any sale or purchase of cryptocurrencies or taking any action to promote them.

Polaris Industries of Medina, Minn., is recalling about 10,900 Polaris Ranger XP recreational off-highway vehicles (ROVs).

The center seat belt bracket can separate from the frame, posing an injury hazard to the riders.

The company has received five reports of insufficient welds of the center seat belt bracket to the vehicle frame identified by dealers during required vehicle setup inspection procedures. No incidents or injuries have been reported.

This recall involves model year 2016 and 2017 Polaris Ranger XP recreational off-highway vehicles (ROVs) sold in a variety of colors.

The ROVs have “POLARIS” printed on the front grill, “XP” on the front fenders, and “RANGER” on the rear fenders.

The vehicle identification number (VIN) is printed on a label on the driver-side frame of the vehicle, between the cargo box and left rear tire.

The ROVs, manufactured in the U.S., were sold at Polaris dealers nationwide from April 2016, through April 2018, for between $12,000 and $20,000.

What to do

Consumers should immediately stop using the recalled ROVs and contact a Polaris dealer to schedule a free inspection and repair. Polaris is contacting all known purchasers directly.

Consumers may contact Polaris at 800-765-2747 from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. (CT) Monday through Friday or online at www.polaris.com and click on “Off Road Safety Recalls” at the borrom of the page for more information and to check their VIN to see if their vehicle is included in any recalls.

Vitakraft Sun Seed of Weston, Ohio, is recalling one lot of Sunseed Vita Prima Exotics Sugar Glider Formula.

The pet product may be contaminated with Salmonella.

There have been no reports of illness to date.

The following product is being recalled:

• UPC #: 87535-20060
• DESCRIPTION: Sunseed Vita Prima Exotics Sugar Glider Formula, 28oz
• LOT: 271391
• EXP: 12/20/19
  

The recalled product was distributed in California, Florida, Illinois, Michigan, New Jersey, Nevada, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Texas and Edmonton, Alberta in Canada.

What to do

Customers who purchased the recalled product should discontinue using it and may return the unused portion to the place of purchase for a full refund.

Consumers with questions may contact customer service at 800-221- 6175, Monday through Friday from 8:30am – 5:00pm (EST).

Hyundai Motor America is recalling 580,058 model year 2011-2013 Sonatas and model year 2011-2012 Sonata Hybrids.

In the event of a crash, the air bag control unit (ACU) may short circuit, preventing the front airbags, seat belt pretensioners, and side airbags from deploying.

If the front air bags, seat belt pretensioners, and side airbags are disabled, there is an increased risk of injury to the vehicle occupants in the event of a vehicle crash necessitating deployment of these safety systems.

Earlier this year, Hyundai recalled 154,753 model year 2011 Sonatas and has now expanded that the vehicles noted above.

What to do

The remedy for this recall is still under development.

Owners may contact Hyundai customer service at 1-855-371-9460. Hyundai's number for this recall is 174.

Antitrust lawyers at the Justice Department are reportedly investigating AT&T and Verizon for possible collusion.

Published reports cite people close to the investigation as saying the government is trying to determine whether the rival wireless carriers have worked together to make it more difficult for consumers to switch from one cell phone company to another.

The Justice Department has a policy of not commenting on potential investigations.

Specifically, the probe is focusing on whether the two telecom giants have tried to block embedded SIM (eSIM) technology, a way to make it easier to switch from one communication system to another.

According to Engadget, eSIM integrates the identification technology contained on the plastic SIM card and places it into the device's processor or modem. That way, consumers can switch carriers without having to get a new SIM card.

Customer retention

For major wireless companies, losing customers to another carrier is costly. Not only does the company lose revenue, it must spend money through marketing to gain a new customer to make up for the one it lost.

Bloomberg News reports that Apple, which has been a major developer of eSIM technology, is one of the parties raising the collusion complaint. The news service quotes a Verizon spokesman as saying the whole matter is "a difference of opinion" with hardware makers on what the standard should be for the switching technology.

“Any good government inquiry is looked at and ultimately decided on merit,” Verizon's Rich Young told Bloomberg. “That was the case in 2016 and we are very confident the government will reach the same conclusion this time.”

More customers plan to switch

The data site Statista notes that consumers increasingly are looking for better deals from cell phone companies. In the spring of 2008, it counted 17.7 million wireless customers who planned to switch to another carrier. By the spring of 2017, the number had grown to over 25 million.

AT&T is already involved with the Justice Department in a lawsuit over its proposed merger with Time Warner.

The government argues that the combined company would be too big and powerful. However, AT&T says merging its wireless business with a content producer like Time Warner would not harm competition.

Apple has decided that a component in some of its 13-inch MacBook Pro laptops may fail and cause the computer’s built-in battery to expand. The company says this is not a safety issue and will replace the affected batteries free of charge.

If you have a 13-inch MacBook Pro built between October 2016 and October 2017, you can check to see if your computer is eligible for the repair by going to Apple’s Support page and typing in your unit’s serial number. Serial numbers on MacBooks can be found by going to the “About This Mac” section under the Apple Menu at the top left of your screen. At the bottom of that screen is where you’ll find the serial number.

The battery replacement program covers MacBook Pro models for 5 years after the unit was first purchased.

How the battery replacement procedure works

If your battery is affected by this recall, there are three ways to get it replaced.

1. Find an Apple Authorized Service Provider.

2. Make an appointment at an Apple Retail Store.

3. Mail in your device to the Apple Repair Center.

Once a computer’s eligibility is verified, repair time is estimated to be 3-5 days. Apple urges each MacBook owner to back up their data prior to bringing it in for repair.

The ifs, ands, or buts

Apple warns that if it finds there are existing, non-related issues that impair the battery replacement or have caused damage to the computer, customers may be responsible for costs associated with those repairs.

The company also says that having a battery replaced does not extend the computer’s standard warranty coverage.

For those who previously paid to have the battery replaced, Apple is offering a refund.

Batteries have been a thorn in the side of Apple recently. Earlier this year, Apple added a software update that tackled the battery issue surrounding accusations that it purposefully slowed down older iPhone models.

Chinese electronics maker ZTE issued a statement today in response to the government’s decision to ban the company’s American exports for the next seven years. In its statement, the company warned that the ban could threaten its survival and negatively impact American companies.

“The Denial Order will not only severely impact the survival and development of ZTE, but will also cause damages to all partners of ZTE including a large number of U.S. companies,” ZTE said.

Illegal shipping and false statements

The ban was handed down earlier this month, one year after ZTE pleaded guilty to illegally shipping telecoms equipment to Iran and North Korea. The company agreed to pay $1.19 billion in penalties.

However, the U.S. said that ZTE made "false statements" to the Department of Commerce's Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) while the investigation was still ongoing. The false statements centered around the disciplinary actions it took toward employees who were involved in the incident.

ZTE allegedly violated the terms of a 2017 plea agreement by giving employees who acted illegally full bonuses. The company also admitted that it did not fire all 35 of the employees who violated the law.

The denial of export privileges will keep ZTE from getting parts or software from U.S.-based suppliers, such as Qualcomm and Dolby.

Efforts to comply

Now, the company is saying that it tried to comply with the US and invested “tremendous resources in export compliance.” It said measures were taken against employees who may have been responsible for the incident. Additionally, ZTE said it spent $50 million on an export control compliance program in 2017.

"It is unacceptable that BIS insists on unfairly imposing the most severe penalty on ZTE even before the completion of investigation of facts, ignoring the continuous diligent work of ZTE and the progress we have made on export compliance," the company said.

ZTE says it will continue its efforts to “resolve the issue through communication.”

The company added that, if necessary, it could “take judicial measures to protect the legal rights and interests of our company, our employees and our shareholders, and to fulfill obligations and take responsibilities to our global customers, end users, partners and suppliers."

A leaked internal memo suggests that ZTE has assembled a crisis team to deal with the situation.

A number of Gmail users have reported finding messages in their “Sent” folders that appeared to have been sent from themselves. Users said they discovered messages for things like “growth supplements” delivered to email addresses they didn’t recognize.

“My email account has sent out 3 spam emails in the past hour to a list of about 10 addresses that I don’t recognize,” a user posted on Gmail’s Help Forum.

“I changed my password immediately after the first one, but then it happened again 2 more times. The subject of the emails is weight loss and growth supplements for men advertisements,” the user continued.

Forged email headers

The messages contained forged email headers to make them appear to have been sent “via telus.com,” a Canadian telecommunications company.

The forged email headers allowed the messages to slip past spam filters. The fact that they appeared to have been sent by the affected user is what caused them to end up in the Sent folder.

Many users were concerned that the messages were an indication that their account had been hacked. However, Google assured users that their accounts were secure and that the issue had been fixed.

“We are aware of a spam campaign impacting a small subset of Gmail users and have actively taken measures to protect against it,” Google confirmed to Mashable. “This attempt involved forged email headers that made it appear as if users were receiving emails from themselves, which also led to those messages erroneously appearing in the Sent folder.”

“We have identified and are reclassifying all offending emails as spam, and have no reason to believe any accounts were compromised as part of this incident,” the company said.

Report as spam

Google encouraged Gmail users to report any suspicious email as spam, noting that more information on how to report spam can be found by visiting the site’s Help Center.

TELUS, meanwhile, confirmed that its servers aren’t generating the emails.

“We have identified spam emails being circulated that are disguised to appear as if they are coming from http://telus.com. We are aware of the issue and can confirm the messages are not being generated by TELUS, nor are they being sent from our server,” a spokesman for the carrier said in a statement.

“We are working with our 3rd party vendors to resolve the issue, and are advising our customers not to respond to any suspicious emails.”

A growing number of major tech companies are pushing their suppliers to switch to renewable energy, USA Today reports. The trend is causing big problems for the struggling coal industry.

Last month, Apple said that 100 percent of the electricity it uses for its facilities and data centers comes from renewable sources. The company said that 23 of its suppliers have also made a commitment to 100 percent renewable energy.

To win over big tech buyers (and the 20-year contracts they often promise), many energy companies are changing their policies to help tech companies’ hit their renewable energy targets.

Sourcing from solar and wind

Focusing on renewable energy is often being used as a way for companies to get an edge in the marketplace.

"The smart ones are seeing it as a competitive advantage," Lisa Jackson, Apple's vice president of environment, policy and social initiatives and former head of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency under the Obama Administration, told USA Today.

When Amazon wanted to build a wind or solar powered data center in northern Virginia, Dominion Energy created a special power purchase agreement that allowed Amazon to contract for 100 percent renewable electricity.

“We thought about it, we understood their reasoning, we convinced ourselves that it was in our best interests to do it and we ended up signing,” Greg Morgan, director of customer rates and regulations for Dominion.

Morgan said that tech companies have “knowingly and willingly paid a premium for green power” over the last few years because it has helped advance their self-stated goals.

Corporate buyers want clean energy

Corporate buyers of electricity -- such as Budweiser, General Motors, and Walmart -- are also setting green goals.

Walmart committed to going 100 percent renewable back in 2005. The company recently said it gets 28 percent of its global electric needs from renewable energy, and it’s striving to hit 50 percent by 2025.

Budweiser announced last year that it would be completely powered by renewable energy by 2025, and GM plans to hit the same target by 2050.

In today’s eco-minded energy marketplace, the coal industry continues to struggle. Shares of U.S. power produced by coal have decreased steadily since 2008 as the marketplace has grown increasingly unwelcoming of the non-renewable energy source.

The government hasn’t discouraged coal production, but many companies have indirectly done so through their efforts to create a healthier environment. “There are boards of directors that say 'we want to set a carbon footprint goal for our companies,'" said Appalachian Power President and COO Chris Beam.

Travelers returning home on Sunday on Southwest Airlines encountered a few delays as the carrier cancelled about 40 flights for engine inspections.

In a statement, Southwest said the flight disruptions were the result of its decision to step up its ongoing engine fan blade inspection program, looking for signs of metal fatigue. An engine blade separated from an engine in mid-flight last Tuesday, killing a passenger aboard Southwest Airlines flight 1380.

"We have minimized flight disruptions this past week through actions such as proactive aircraft routings to cover open trips, performing inspections overnight, and utilizing spare aircraft, when available," the company said.

"On Sunday, we only canceled about 40 flights due to fan blade inspections out of a planned schedule of almost 4,000 flights. The cancellations are minimal -- roughly 1 percent of scheduled flights."

Delays not related to FAA order

The airline stressed that the flight disruptions had nothing to do with the Federal Aviation Administration's (FAA) Emergency Airworthiness Directive that requires airlines flying planes using the CFM56-7B engine to inspect those engines within 20 days. Southwest said its existing inspection program “meets or exceeds” the requirements set out in the FAA directive.

The CFM56-7B is a commonly used engine on a Boeing 737, which makes up the Southwest Airlines fleet.

In the immediate aftermath of last week's accident, Southwest said it would accelerate its own engine fan blade inspection program. The initial investigation of last week's accident revealed that a titanium blade from one of the Boeing 737's engines separated and shattered a window, gravely injuring the passenger sitting next to it.

The accident occurred about 20 minutes after the jet took off from New York's Laguardia Airport on a flight to Dallas. The pilot made a heroic emergency landing at Philadelphia as passengers fought to keep the injured passenger from being sucked out of the plane. The passenger died at a Philadelphia hospital.

Southwest says the voluntary inspection program will continue this week and may affect operations. It advises travelers to visit Southwest.com frequently to check flight status.

The yield on the U.S. government's 10-year bond, which had been struck at around 2 percent for years, is suddenly rising and is almost at 3 percent today.

For Wall Street investors, rising bond yields can be a warning sign. Stocks that were cheap at a 2 percent yield look more expensive when these interest rates rise. Consumers with stock portfolios can expect this year's volatility to continue for a while.

Five percent is about average

But rising bond yields may mean more than that for consumers. Robert Frick, corporate economist for Navy Federal Credit Union, doesn't think the jump in bond yields is the result of fundamental changes in the economy. Rather, he says rates are just getting back to normal.

"The long-term average of the 10-year is about 5 percent, but that's easy to forget considering we've had artificially low rates since the Great Recession," Frick told ConsumerAffairs.

Economist Joel Naroff, of Naroff Economic Advisors, believes rising bond yields serve as an inflation warning. In fact, he predicted rising prices when Congress passed the landmark tax cut and stimulus bill last December.

"What did anyone expect when you cut taxes when the economy is solid and the labor markets are tight?" Naroff asked. "Rising inflation was going to happen, was forecast by most economists and only the naive among us thought that you could implement massively expansionary fiscal policy when it wasn’t needed without any negative impacts."

Benchmark for interest rates

The 10 year Treasury note is a key benchmark for many interest rates consumers pay, so when yields rise, so do interest rates.

"The impact on consumers will be higher rates for those with variable rate loan products and on mortgages," Naroff said. "For many who have had variable rate products for a while and who didn’t see much change, they could be in for a shock, especially if the Fed keeps raising rates, as expected."

Frick agrees that rising interest rates may be the effect consumers feel most. Since mortgage rates are affected, he says 2018 may be an opportune time to purchase a home, while rates are still relatively low.

There may also be a positive effect for consumers, especially those who put money away in savings. For well over a decade the interest paid on savings has been paltry, often less than 1 percent. This month, several banks have increased the interest rate paid on a one year certificate of deposit (CD) to over 2 percent.

That's still low by historical standards, but it’s much higher than typical interest paid on deposits over the last decade.

World’s Best Cheeses of Armonk, N.Y., is recalling 22 cases of Formagerie de la Brie brand, l’Explorateur soft ripened cheese.

The product may be contaminated with Listeria monocytogenes.

No illnesses have been reported to date.

The recalled product, which comes in a 250-g (8.8-oz.), clear plastic package marked with lot #’s H036, H038, H043 and H044, and is made from pasteurized milk, was sold in retail stores in New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Maryland, Utah, Colorado, South Carolina, Pennsylvania, Texas and Washington D.C., from February 28, 2018, through April 13, 2018.

What to do

Customers who purchased the recalled product should not consume it, but discard it or return it to the store for refund.

Consumers with questions may contact World’s Best Cheeses at 914 273-1400, Monday – Friday from 8:00am – 5:00pm, or by email at Recall@wbcheese.com.