Current Events in August 2018

Discount grocer Aldi has announced that it’s adding new products to its aisles, with an emphasis on natural foods.

Existing Aldi stores -- which are typically about 12,000 square feet -- will also be expanded to allow for bigger aisles, less-cluttered shelves, and more refrigeration space. The changes are part of a $1.9 billion effort to give the stores “a modern market feel and a little more space.”

“The continued success of our store expansion and remodel initiatives has given us the opportunity to carefully select and introduce new products that satisfy our customers’ increasing preferences for fresh items, including organic meats, salad bowls, sliced fruits and gourmet cheeses,” said Jason Hart, CEO of ALDI U.S.

“We know people lead busy lives, so we’re making it even easier for them to purchase everything on their shopping list at ALDI, while still saving money,” Hart said.

Product expansion

Aldi said it plans to increase its selection of natural, fresh, and organic foods by 40 percent. The items being added generally fall under one of three categories: fresh and healthy, convenient, and must-have items.

New products will include more fresh meats, an expanded produce selection, and a new line of vegan and vegetarian options, as well as more baked goods and alternative milks. Consumers will also find more easy-to-prepare meal starters, including quinoa bowls and premium pasta sauces.

Once Aldi’s expansion is complete, 20 percent of products in every Aldi will be new compared to last year. The German-owned chain said it plans to have 2,500 locations nationwide by the end of 2022 -- up from 1,800 currently.

Aldi’s push toward fresh and organic items may help it compete with high-end retailers. Diane Sheehan, an analyst with Kantar Consulting, says focusing on premium shoppers could backfire on pricier grocery stores like Whole Foods.

In today's competitive grocery landscape, everyone "expects good deals on quality products,” Sheehan told CNN Money. "Those retailers continue to be underestimating Aldi and are doing it to their own detriment.”  

Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren is proposing a new bill -- the Accountable Capitalism Act -- in an effort to reshape capitalism, reign in big corporations, and give local communities and workers a greater say.

Warren introduced the bill in an article in The Wall Street Journal and said she was looking to reverse “a fundamental change in business practices” that have long made corporations focus on profits, rather than bettering wages for workers or local investments.

“The obsession with maximizing shareholder returns effectively means America’s biggest companies have dedicated themselves to making the rich even richer,” Warren wrote in the article.

The bill

Under the Accountable Capitalism Act, corporations that bring in over $1 billion in annual revenue would be required to get a charter from the federal government. The charter would come from a new office Warren wants to create -- the Office of United States Corporations within the Department of Commerce -- and would require companies consider interests outside of shareholders.

The new department would also be able to revoke charters based on requests from state attorneys general, or if the department finds that the company has a history of repeated illegal conduct and has failed to correct it.

Businesses would have to take the interests of customers, workers, and the towns and cities where they operate into consideration. Should shareholders feel that corporate directors aren’t meeting their obligations, they are permitted to sue.

Additionally, employees at these corporations would be able to elect 40 percent of the boards of directors. Based on Warren’s research, nearly 3,500 public companies -- and hundreds of other private companies -- would be covered under the legislation.

“Real wages have stagnated even as productivity has to continued to rise,” Warren wrote. “Workers aren’t getting what they’ve earned. Companies are also setting themselves up to fail.”

Under the legislation, 75 percent of directors and shareholders are required to approve any corporation’s political expenditures.

Public response

Public opinion has been mixed since Warren introduced the bill. While some see it as governmental control, others are endorsing Warren’s creative thinking.

“The last thing I want is Elizabeth Warren telling companies what they can or cannot do,” said Kevin Kelley, CEO of Benchmark Investments. “The private market will reward those that take care of their shareholders.”

Steve Forbes, chairman of Forbes Media, believes the bill will lead to “stagnation.”

“What she’s talking about is freezing the economy as it is, keeping things as they are,” Forbes said. “That’s just not going to work.”

However, a group of academics studying the history of corporations and economics see the positives in Warren’s proposed legislation.

“We believe legislation along these lines to be long overdue,” the group, led by Cornell law professor Robert Hockett, wrote. “While some of us would like to go even further than the Act does, we all agree that [the] legislation takes the critical first steps in realigning our regime of incorporation with its original purposes.”

​The auto industry is spending billions of dollars to develop self-driving cars but a new survey from Cox Automotive shows nearly half of consumers don't want them.

The 2018 Cox Automotive Evolution of Mobility Study did show that consumers have a strong interest in automated safety features, such as automatic braking. But 49 percent said they would not want a fully autonomous vehicle, up from 30 percent from two years ago.

"As awareness around the development of autonomous technology increases, we're seeing some dramatic shifts in consumer sentiment," said Karl Brauer, executive publisher of Autotrader and Kelley Blue Book. "People now have a deeper understanding of the complexities involved when creating a self-driving car, and that has them reconsidering their comfort level when it comes to handing over control."

Ford's approach

That consumer sentiment apparently counts for very little, as the auto industry is racing to put fully autonomous cars on the nation's roadways. Ford, however, is tapping on the brakes.

In a lengthy report to the U.S. Department of Transportation, the Detroit automaker explained how it plans to safely and carefully test its self-driving vehicles on public roads. In the report, Ford said it is vital to earn the public's trust before fully launching the new technology.

In the report, Ford went into detail about how it would train safety drivers to prevent mishaps, including system failures and even hacking. The vehicles will all be equipped with "black box" recorders that would provide insight into any accident. The company said its underlying strategy is to reduce the risk of failure but to protect people in case something goes wrong.

Recent accidents a concern

The Cox Automotive report attributes some of the public's growing skepticism of self-driving cars with some recent accidents, but it says there may be more to the equation. The report notes that survey subjects who were unaware of these accidents, including a March pedestrian death in Arizona, were just as likely to want to drive their own vehicle as someone who knew about the accidents.

And while most consumers agreed that fully autonomous vehicles need real world testing, 54 percent want the testing to take place in another town or city from where they live.

Consumers seem to be telling automakers they should build more cars with automated safety features, but leave the drivers with their hands on the wheel. Joe George, Cox Automotive Mobility Solutions Group president, says that might be a critical step in creating a customer base that one day might accept cars driven by computers.

T-Mobile has launched a new customer service initiative called Team of Experts, which gives its postpaid customers in different regions across the U.S. their own “dedicated” group of customer care representatives.

The service team can be reached by dialing 611 or messaging straight from the T-Mobile app or iMessage using Apple Business Chat.

“‘Your call is important to us’ are the six emptiest words ever robo-spoken,” said John Legere, CEO of T-Mobile. “People are fed up with horrible customer service that puts cost control ahead of customer happiness.”

Cutting down on customer frustration

T-Mobile’s new service gets customers in touch with real customer service representatives quickly, without having to listen to a robot voice or push a series of buttons on a phone menu.

“While other brands mechanize customer service, we’re going the other way – no bots, no bouncing, no BS. With Team of Experts, we’re tearing up the traditional playbook, killing the phone menu and putting people at the center of customer care, like they should be. Because at T-Mobile, our customers have always been rock stars to us,” Legere said.

The carrier also promises to shrink call times by offering more callbacks, 24/7 support, and “asynchronous” messaging help to help solve the problem fast. If a customer has to contact T-Mobile again regarding the same issue, the same team will still be there.

“They’re going to make sure that it is solved and that you’re happy with the resolution,” said Callie Field, T-Mobile’s executive VP of customer care.

However, Field acknowledged that “Team of Experts” may not completely eliminate wait times

“Sometimes there’s some things you can’t avoid — like wait times. Because let’s face it, sometimes your team’s just busy,” Field said. “The difference is that when we’re busy, we’ll promise to you that we’ll handle you in a way that puts your time first. Our default option is that when you call, instead of waiting for us, schedule a time and we’ll call you back. So it’s your time — not our time — that matters.”

Music-related announcements

To mark the beginning of the initiative’s launch, T-Mobile is giving customers one year of free Pandora Plus streaming. Users will be able to get a code to unlock their free Pandora Plus subscription in the T-Mobile Tuesdays iOS and Android app on August 28.

T-Mobile also announced that it’s partnering with Live Nation to give its customers access to last-minute reserved tickets to otherwise sold-out shows "at first day prices." On Live Nation’s website, users will be able to look for a T-Mobile Reserved Seats icon starting 30 days before select shows, confirm their T-Mobile account, and get access to the event.

General Motors is recalling 94 model year 2018 Chevrolet Express and GMC Savana vehicles with certain combinations of front-tire and gross-vehicle-weight option codes.

The Tire Pressure Monitoring System (TPMS) may be incorrectly calibrated, causing the TPMS warning lamp to illuminate when tire pressure reaches 37 PSI, not 41 PSI.

If the low tire pressure telltale is not illuminated at the correct tire pressure, the driver may have less time to react to a low-tire-pressure situation, which could affect the driver's ability to control the vehicle in certain situations and could increase the risk of a crash.

What to do

GM will notify owners, and dealers will check the PSI information on the remote control door lock receiver (RCDLR) and tire placard match, and if the information is different the RCDLR will be reprogrammed. This repair will be done free of charge.

The manufacturer has not yet provided a notification schedule. Owners may contact Chevrolet customer service at 1-800-222-1020, or GMC customer service at 1-800-462-8782. GM's number for this recall is 18255.

Last week, the New York City Council passed multiple bills that will temporarily pause the granting of new licenses for any Uber or Lyft cars. The pause will last for one year, while the Taxi and Limousine Commission (TLC) spends that time studying the effects of ridesharing companies on the current industry. Mayor Bill DeBlasio is expected to sign the legislation in the coming days, making it effective immediately.

Companies like Uber now have to work within the limitations set by these new laws.

“We take the Speaker at his word that the pause is not intended to reduce service for New Yorkers and we trust that he will hold the TLC accountable, ensuring that no New Yorker is left stranded,” said Uber spokesperson Danielle Filson.

“In the meantime, Uber will do whatever it takes to keep up with growing demand and we will not stop working with the city and state leaders, including Speaker Johnson, to pass real solutions like comprehensive congestion pricing.”

Creative measures

Because Uber is restricted to its existing vehicles, the company is committed to finding innovative ways to grow moving forward.

A spokesperson told Business Insider that Uber is “ready to use creative measures to get around the language of the bills.” The spokesperson noted the important distinction that the pause is on the number of new vehicles -- not a limit on the number of new drivers. It is this fine line that has sparked Uber to think about reaching out to drivers who spend two or three days a week off the app to see if they’d allow new drivers to use their already-registered vehicles.

The company has estimated roughly 120,000 industry drivers in the city, and there are at least 35,000 existing licensed vehicles in the system that aren’t being utilized. Uber is also planning to pitch employment opportunities to existing black car and yellow taxi drivers in NYC.

Uber, however, is not planning on fighting one measure of the new bill -- the new minimum pay-rate for drivers. An Uber spokesperson reported that the company is “supportive” of a minimum wage for its drivers.

Differing viewpoints

When the news of the cap was revealed, it left New Yorkers divided.

“The Uber business model is flood the market with as many cars and drivers as possible, gain more market share, and to hell with what happens to those drivers or anybody else involved,” said Mayor DeBlasio. “And in the end what that has created is the kind of race to the bottom that has literally driven down wages below minimum wage level for a lot of Uber drivers and even for other drivers.”

The city’s taxi drivers -- part of the New York Taxi Worker Association -- had a similar reaction.

“Our activism created the momentum to regulate app-dispatch companies for the very first time,” the group said. “What happened didn’t just set a precedent for New York City, it set a precedent for the entire world as app companies like Uber and Lyft uses technological innovation to return us to a time of sweated labor, destroying lives and livelihoods across the planet.”

However, many New Yorkers are less than pleased with the cap. Millennials -- who make up a large portion of the rideshare market -- took to social media to vent their frustrations. African Americans in the city particularly didn’t see the decision as a good move. The demographic has long complained that taxi drivers are less likely to stop for them than for a white passenger.

“In NYC’s legislation capping the number of Uber and Lyft cars on the road, are there any new penalties or enforcement mechanisms for when yellow cabs refuse to pick up Black people?” one user asked in a tweet.

The city is also being criticized for putting limitations on one of the few reliable transportation options for New Yorkers.

A group of House democrats want to know when FCC Chairman Ajit Pai knew that the agency’s claims of a DDoS attack were false.

Last week, the FCC’s Office of Inspector General released a report that found no evidence to support the claims of DDoS attacks in May of 2017.

The agency had previously blamed multiple DDoS attacks for temporarily taking down a comment section of its website following a segment of Last Week Tonight, in which comedian John Oliver asked viewers to submit comments to the FCC and speak out in support of net neutrality.

However, viewers were unable to voice their opinion on the proposed rollback of net neutrality because the comment submission section wasn’t available at the time.

Now that it has come to light that the agency’s claims of a DDoS attack were false, a handful of Democratic lawmakers want to know when Pai became aware that there was no DDoS attack and why the agency didn’t correct its public statements alleging a DDoS attack before now.

Misrepresented facts

“We want to know when you and your staff first learned that the information the Commission shared about the alleged cyberattack was false,” Democratic lawmakers wrote in a letter to Pai.

"It is troubling that you allowed the public myth created by the FCC to persist and your misrepresentations to remain uncorrected for over a year,” they wrote. The letter was signed by Representatives Frank Pallone Jr. (NJ), Mike Doyle (PA), Jerry McNerney (CA) and Debbie Dingell (MI).

The results of the investigation concluded that FCC officials deliberately misrepresented facts in responses to Congressional inquiries.

"Given the significant media, public and Congressional attention this alleged cyberattack received for over a year, it is hard to believe that the release of the IG's report was the first time that you and your staff realized that no cyberattack occurred," wrote the lawmakers.

"Such ignorance would signify a dereliction of your duty as the head of the FCC, particularly due to the severity of the allegations and the blatant lack of evidence."

The Democratic lawmakers have asked Pai for complete written responses to their questions by August 28. Pai is also scheduled to appear before a Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee oversight hearing on Thursday where he is expected to face questions about the results of the investigation.

Southwest Airlines is the latest airline to limit the types of animals that passengers can bring aboard aircraft.

The airline has issued a set of updated policies for transporting trained service and emotional support animals in the aircraft cabin. The changes go into effect Monday, September 17.

It follows other airlines making similar adjustments to their policies after some consumers complained that existing policies were being abused.

"We welcome emotional support and trained service animals that provide needed assistance to our customers," said Steve Goldberg, Senior Vice President of Operations and Hospitality. "However, we want to make sure our guidelines are clear and easy to understand while providing customers and employees a comfortable and safe experience."

Southwest said it reviewed the recent enforcement guidance issued by the Department of Transportation (DOT), and also looked at the feedback it received from customers and employees. It also consulted several advocacy groups representing customers with disabilities who travel with service animals.

Changes in policy

After reviewing that guidance, Southwest said it will make the following changes on September 17:

• Emotional support animals (ESA) will be limited to dogs and cats

• ESAs will be limited to one per passenger

• ESAs must be in a carrier or on a leash at all times

Passengers with ESAs will still be required to present a complete, current letter from a medical doctor or licensed mental health professional on the day of departure.

When it comes to trained service animals, Southwest will only allow the most common service animals -- dogs, cats, and miniature horses -- to board. Unusual or exotic animals will be rejected on health and safety grounds.

If a passenger is traveling with an animal, he or she must be able to provide "credible verbal assurance" that the animal is a trained service animal.

Ongoing review

"The ultimate goal with these changes is to ensure customers traveling with service animals know what to expect when choosing Southwest," said Goldberg. "Southwest will continue working with advocacy groups, employees, customers, and the DOT to ensure we offer supportive service animal guidelines."

Part of the policy change includes the formal recognition that fully-trained psychiatric support animals (PSAs) qualify as trained service animals. In the past, the airline conveyed informal recognition.

However, Southwest says all emotional support and service animals must be trained to behave in a public setting and must be under the control of the handler at all times. The airline said it reserves the right to deny boarding to any animal that is not behaving in accordance with guidelines.

As millions of people have turned to electronic cigarettes in recent years, the only thing that researchers and the industry have agreed upon is that smoking vaporized nicotine is at least safer than smoking a normal cigarette.  

But whether that’s a good enough reason to allow e-cig makers to market their products to the general population remains an open question.  

A new peer-reviewed study claims that vaping can damage important cells in the immune system and cause inflammation of the lungs. The researchers, writing in the journal Thorax, say that they "caution against the widely held opinion that e-cigarettes are safe.”

Vaping and lung damage

Using lung tissue samples in a laboratory, the researchers said they found evidence that the vapors, when inhaled, can damage the immune system cells that protect lungs from bacteria, allergens, dust, and other irritants.

While the researchers acknowledge that vaping is clearly less carcinogenic than smoking cigarettes, they say they are worried that vaping may still cause lung disease.

"I don't believe e-cigarettes are more harmful than ordinary cigarettes -- but we should have a cautious scepticism that they are as safe as we are being led to believe,” lead author Dr. David Thickett, a professor at the University of Birmingham in England, told the BBC.

"They are safer in terms of cancer risk -- but if you vape for 20 or 30 years and this can cause COPD [chronic obstructive pulmonary disease], then that's something we need to know about,” he added.

Hooking new users?

For people struggling to quit their cigarette addictions or bystanders who otherwise would breathe in secondhand smoke, researchers widely agree that e-cigarettes are a better choice.

But the impression that vaping is harmless may also be getting people who otherwise wouldn’t smoke hooked on the devices. Previous studies  show that only 52 percent of e-cigarette users are former smokers  

Experts say that smokers using e-cigarettes to quit should choose devices with larger cartridges, because e-cigs that deliver more nicotine are the only ones proven to work as a cessation aid. Researchers also advise consumers to avoid any brands that have ties to the tobacco industry.

To borrow a line from ‘Monty Python and the Holy Grail,’ it may be time to “bring out your dead.”

MoviePass, the subscription ticketing service, can retort with “I’m not dead” all it wants, but it may be soon.

Helios and Matheson, MoviePass’ parent company, posted a humiliating quarterly earnings report on Tuesday, disclosing that the company’s operating losses have mushroomed from less than $3 million in the second quarter of 2017 to $126.6 million in the second quarter of 2018.

MoviePass has tried every trick in the book to reframe its model, but time is running out. At the rate it’s going through the money in its bank account -- approximately $73 million a month -- the service could well be belly-up by October.

Investors cry foul

As if losing millions isn’t enough of a bad day at the box office, the folks at MoviePass are also facing a lawsuit. On Monday, Helios and Matheson Analytics Inc. investors filed a class action suit alleging that the company pulled the wool over the public’s eyes regarding the profitability of MoviePass before the stock tanked, according to a filing submitted in New York federal court on Monday.

"Helios was touting MoviePass’ valuation and path to profitability even though there was no reasonable basis to even imply that the MoviePass business model could lead to profitability for Helios," reads the filing by shareholder Jeffrey Braxton.

"MoviePass’ business model was not sustainable because there was no reasonable basis to believe that MoviePass could monetize the model to a degree that could be maintained before being too buried in debt to survive."

The class action group might be getting some love from MoviePass’ competition. The group’s Twitter account, @MoviePassLaw, claims that “AMC has contacted us, before our Moviepass case is presented to the Supreme Court they are hoping to provide each victim a one-year subscription to AMC Stubs A-List. Fantastic! Moviepass has failed us and we will show them!”

Instagram users have taken to Twitter to complain about a new hack on the social media site that locks them out of their accounts and then changes the username, image, and email address on the account.

Mashable first broke the news yesterday after spotting various tweets from Instagram users. There are “two of hundreds of Instagram users who have reported similar attacks since the beginning of the month,” Mashable reported. “According to data from analytics platform Talkwalker, there have been more than 5,000 tweets from 899 accounts mentioning Instagram hacks in just the last seven days.”

Instagram users are reporting that they can no longer sign into their accounts because the login details have changed. Some accounts have been deleted entirely, while others have the profile pictures changed to animated images from Disney or Pixar films. Other users had their email addresses changed to emails with Russia’s .ru domain.

Instagram’s response

The company addressed the issue on its blog yesterday, saying it will be conducting an investigation into the hack.

Many users have taken to Twitter to complain that the platform hasn’t done enough to help them during this process. Users’ login information has been changed, and so they can’t recover their accounts.

One user tweeted: “hey instagram -- another victim of account hacking here and I can’t find any way to report it! Absolutely livid and lack of official response is awful -- please help or release a statement on action for those affected! #instagramhacked”

“We are aware that some people are having difficulty access their Instagram accounts,” Instagram wrote in a blog post. The company also gave users directions on how to recover accounts and advised that people should cut off access to any suspicious third-party apps and activate two-step authentication.

An Instagram spokeswoman said in a statement that the company’s top priority is safety for users.

“When we become aware of an account that has been compromised, we shut off access to the account and the people who’ve been affected are put through a remediation process so they can reset their password and take other necessary steps to secure their account,” she said.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said on Tuesday that it is monitoring a measles outbreak.

Between Jan. 1, 2018 and July 14, 2018, 107 people in 21 states reported contracting the virus. The majority of people who got measles were unvaccinated.

The states with confirmed cases include North Carolina, Arkansas, California, Connecticut, Florida, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Louisiana, Maryland, Michigan, Missouri, Nevada, New Jersey, New York, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Texas, and Washington.

Airborne virus

Last year, there were 118 cases of measles in 15 states and the District of Columbia. That was up from only 86 cases in 2016.

The last outbreak occurred in 2015 when 188 people contracted measles. Although no source was ultimately identified, the outbreak in 2015 was thought to be traced to a traveler from overseas who brought the highly contagious disease to an amusement park in California.

The measles are common in Europe, Asia, the Pacific, and Africa and can spread easily to people in the U.S. who have not been vaccinated. The virus is spread through coughs and sneezes.

Symptoms show up within 10-14 days of exposure and include fever, cough, runny nose, red eyes, and sore throat. After that, a red or reddish-brown rash appears, first on the face at the hairline then on the rest of the body.

Health officials say some people may suffer from severe complications, such as pneumonia and brain swelling, which could result in hospitalization or death.

The CDC says measles can be prevented with the MMR vaccine, which children usually get between 12 and 15 months of age. A second dose is usually given between the ages of 4 and 6.

Millions of U.S. consumers are seeing a boost in their credit score as a result of an overhaul in the way major credit reporting firms handle negative credit information.

Under a new agreement with state regulators, non-loan items that went to collection firms -- such as old gym memberships or traffic tickets -- will be removed from consumers’ files.

Consumers who had at least one collections account erased from their files saw an average gain of 11 percent in their credit scores, according to a new study by the New York Federal Reserve.

Changes imposed

The credit boost some consumers are seeing is the result of a 2015 settlement between 31 state attorneys general and Experian, Equifax, and TransUnion, who together created the National Consumer Assistance Plan. The plan -- which went into effect in the second half of 2017 -- was designed to limit credit reporting errors that negatively impact scores.

The New York Fed report found that the number of people with a collections account on their credit report dropped from 33 million to 25 million between June 2017 and June 2018. The report was based on a sample of millions of anonymous credit reports from credit reporting firm Equifax.

The report found that the population that was impacted by the change had lower credit scores to begin with. One third had a delinquency of some kind in their credit accounts compared to 8 percent of everyone else.

The average increase in credit score was 11 points, the study found. Eighteen percent of the sample saw gains of at least 30 points, but those who saw bigger boosts typically still had bad credit afterwards.

“These borrowers will certainly benefit in the long run from the cleanup of their credit reports, since higher scores are associated with better access to credit, to the job market, and even to the rental housing market,” the New York Fed said.

“But the immediate impact of the removal of collections will be muted if the beneficiary’s credit record continues to be tarnished with other negative information.”

Hyundai Motor America is recalling 3,305 model year 2018 Genesis G80s.

The Occupant Classification System (OCS) may incorrectly detect that an adult is in the passenger seat, even if the seat is unoccupied.

In the event of a crash, if a child or infant is in the seat, the front passenger air bag may deploy instead of being deactivated, increasing the risk of injury.

What to do

Hyundai will notify owners, and dealers will reprogram the OCS, free of charge.

The recall is expected to begin August 24, 2018.

Owners may contact Hyundai customer service at 1-855-371-9460. Hyundai's number for this recall is 002G.

Camber Pharmaceuticals is recalling Valsartan tablets, USP, in 40-mg, 80-mg, 160-mg and 320-mg doses.

Trace Amounts of N-Nitrosodimethylamine impurity were found in an active pharmaceutical ingredient (API).

NDMA is classified as a probable human carcinogen (a substance that could cause cancer).

The company has not received any reports of adverse events to date related to this recall.

Valsartan, which was distributed nationwide by Qualanex LLC, is a prescription medication used to treat high blood pressure and congestive heart failure, and is packaged in 30-ct & 90-ct bottles

The following lot numbers and expiration dates are being recalled:.

What to do

Consumers should contact their doctor for further guidance and potential change of treatment before they stop taking this product.

Consumers with questions regarding this recall may contact Qualanex at (800) 505-9291 Monday to Friday between 9am – 5pm (CT) or by email at recall@qualanex.com.

Chrysler (FCA US LLC) is recalling 61 model year 2018 Chrysler Pacificas.

The front axle halfshafts may have been incorrectly assembled, preventing the shaft from being properly secured to the constant-velocity (CV) joint.

If the axle shaft disengages from the CV joint, the vehicle will have a loss of drive or allow the vehicle to move while in the "Park" position. Either condition may increase the risk of a crash.

What to do

Chrysler will notify owners, and dealers will replace the left or right halfshaft assembly, free of charge.

The recall is expected to begin September 14, 2018.

Owners may contact Chrysler customer service at 1-800-853-1403. Chrysler's number for this recall is U80.