Current Events in September 2018

One of the most valuable corporations in the United States just got even richer. Amazon reached $1 trillion at the stock market on Tuesday, nearly making history in the process.

Amazon was beat to the $1 trillion mark in July by Apple, the first publicly-traded company ever to be valued so highly. But when it comes to CEO pay, Amazon’s Jeff Bezos can run circles around his competitors. The richest man in modern history, Bezos in July was estimated to be worth $150 billion. He has said that he wants to use his earnings to invest in “space travel.”

The record valuation just after Labor Day may come across as ironic timing to current and former warehouse workers who have been working to expose what they describe as slavery-like conditions at Amazon’s warehouses.  

In the United States and elsewhere, workers have described working 10-hour shifts with two breaks less than 15 minutes long. That combined with high production targets has left workers peeing in water bottles and trash cans or wearing diapers to work in order to meet their quotas, they say.

Worker strikes and company response

Thousands of workers in Europe launched a strike during Prime Day to protest conditions at the warehouses. More recently, Senator Bernie Sanders accused the company of paying workers in the United States wages so low that many are forced to rely on food stamps and other public benefits.

Amazon’s public relations office released statements in April denying that workers peed in water bottles and has described the senator’s claims as misleading. Amazon also pays some warehouse workers to work as  “ambassadors” or paid spokespeople on social media. Those workers describe receiving generous benefits and lengthy bathroom breaks.

“Just like Jeff I can use the restroom anytime I want!,” an Amazon Ambassador named Jeremy recently posted on Twitter.  “No bottle needed. That's especially good news for me being that I drink water like a camel.”

In the last decade, the income gap between America's poorest and wealthiest households widened, according to a report by the Congressional Budget Office (CBO).

In 2014, households at the top received significantly more income than households at the bottom. According to CBO estimates, average income among the bottom 20 percent of households was around $19,000. In the highest fifth of the population, income averaged $281,000.

In the wealthiest households, there was also a sizable income gap between the top and bottom. In the bottom half of that group, incomes averaged $151,000. But among the top 1 percent of that group, the average income was around $1.8 million.

Relying on benefits to keep up

The CBO report also examines how tax policies and government benefits affect income and shows households closest to the bottom are relying more and more on benefits and entitlements to keep up. In fact, among the lowest 20 percent, government benefits and transfers made up a significant portion of household income.

"Because of the progressive structure of those systems, the distribution of income after transfers and taxes was more even than the distribution of income before transfers and taxes," the authors write. "In 2014, those transfers and taxes boosted the lowest quintile’s share of total income by more than 3 percentage points."

After accounting for benefits and transfers, the average income for the bottom 20 percent rose from $19,000 to $31,000. At the same time, these same programs and policies, including the taxes to pay for them, reduced incomes by about 7 percent in the top 20 percent of households.

Previously just for the poor

Programs transferring income to the middle and lower income households include Social Security and Medicare. But they also include programs that previously mostly targeted the poor, such as the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP), the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), formerly known as the Food Stamp program, and Supplemental Security Income (SSI).

Richard Reeves, author of a Brookings Institution report on income inequality, tells Axios that it is a mistake to think of welfare programs as just something for the poor since a growing number of middle class families are receiving, an relying on, these benefits.

A 2017 Brookings Institution report links rising income inequality to almost no growth in wages over an extended period of time. The report shows that after adjusting for inflation, wages in 2017 were only 10 percent higher than they were in 1973, with annual real wage growth just below 0.2 percent.

Toyota is recalling about 192,000 model year 2016-2018 Prius vehicles in the U.S.

The recalled vehicles have an engine wire harness which is connected to the hybrid vehicle Power Control Unit.

A portion of the harness could contact the cover at this connection and wear over time, causing an electrical short circuit, which can generate heat, posing the risk of a vehicle fire.

What to do

Toyota will notify owners and dealers will check the engine wire harness assembly. If a wire core is exposed, the engine wire harness assembly will be replaced with a new one that includes a protective sleeve.

If a wire core is not exposed, protective tape will be installed on the engine wire harness assembly.

The recall is expected to begin in late September.

Owners may contact Toyota at (800) 331-4331.

Publix Super Markets of Lakeland, Fla., is recalling an undetermined amount of ground beef products made from chuck

The products may be contaminated with E. coli O26.

An epidemiological investigation identified 18 case-patients, predominantly from Florida, with illness onset dates ranging from July 5 – 25, 2018.

The following products, purchased by consumers from June 25, 2018, through July 31, 2018, are being recalled:

• Bacon & cheddar burgers
• Bacon & cheddar meatballs
• Bacon & cheddar slider
• Bacon & fried onion burger
• Bacon & fried onion meatball
• Bacon & fried onion slider
• Badia seasoned ground chuck burger
• Blue cheese burgers
• Blue cheese meatballs
• Blue cheese slider
• Ground chuck
• Ground chuck burgers
• Ground chuck for chili
• Ground chuck for meat loaf
• Ground chuck slider 
• Jalapeno & cheddar slider
• Jalapeno and cheddar burger
• Jalapeno and cheddar meatballs
• Meat loaf grillers
• Mesquite seasoned ground chuck burger
• Montreal seasoned chuck burger
• Seasoned meatloaf (oven ready)
• Spanish meatballs
• Steakhouse seasoned ground chuck burger
• Stuffed peppers (oven ready)
• Stuffed pimento cheese burger
• Swiss & mushroom burger
• Swiss & mushroom meatball
• Swiss & mushroom slider

The recalled items were shipped to Publix Super Market retail locations in the following Florida counties:

• Brevard
• Charlotte
• Citrus
• Collier
• Desoto
• Flagler
• Hernando
• Highlands
• Hillsborough
• Indian River
• Lake
• Lee
• Manatee
• Marion
• Orange
• Osceola
• Pasco
• Pinellas
• Polk
• Sarasota
• Seminole
• St. Lucie
• Sumter
• Volusia

What to do

Customers who purchased the recalled products should not consume them, but discard them or return them to the place of purchase.

Consumers with questions may contact Publix Super Market’s customer care department at (800) 242-1227 or online at www.publix.com/contactus.

Volvo Cars USA is recalling 25 model year 2019 Volvo XC40s.

The rear seats may not have rear seat back lock strikers, allowing the seat back to move forward during certain hard braking conditions or a crash, increasing the risk of injury.

What to do

Volvo will notify owners, and dealers will inspect the vehicles and install the seat back lock strikers if they are missing, free of charge.

The recall is expected to begin October 15, 2018.

Owners may contact Volvo customer service at 1-800-458-1552. Volvo's number for this recall is R89898.

You've probably seen the claims on the internet – “a weird trick” to lose that belly fat. Or maybe a magic pill or diet that will accomplish the same thing.

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has recently gone after marketers that it said were making unsubstantiated claims that supplements could slim down your waistline.

“At a price of up to $149.97, plus shipping and handling, for a 90-day supply, the only slimming going on here was from consumers’ wallets,” the FTC recently warned. “The most effective way to lose weight is to eat fewer calories and exercise more. Claims that you’ll lose weight without changing your habits simply aren’t true.”

Researchers say eating heart-healthy foods that are high in fiber and low in saturated fats may make it slightly easier to get rid of stubborn fat around your midsection. Writing in ACSM's Health & Fitness Journal, Kari D. Pilolla of the California Polytechnic State University in San Luis Obispo says there is no miracle diet, food, nutrient, or bioactive component that will target abdominal fat.

Health concerns

However, Pilolla says there is a very good reason to concerned about too much belly fat – reasons that extend far beyond appearance. There are known health risks associated with abdominal obesity; according to the most recent data, 54 percent of Americans can be classified as abdominally obese.

“Independent of body weight, a larger waist circumference increases risk for cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and metabolic syndrome," Pilolla writes.

That's because the fat stored in stomach muscles is believed to be more "metabolically active" than fat residing under the skin but above the abdominal muscles. Generally, women are considered abdominally obese if they have a waist circumference 34 inches or more. Men fit into that category if their waist is 40 inches or more.

What to eat

Pilolla is highly skeptical of claims that a certain pill or diet will “cure” belly fat. But she says eating more of the right foods can actually help. But the right foods, she says, aren't usually part of the internet diets.

The right foods include fresh fruits and vegetables. If you're looking for a specific diet to follow, Pilolla suggests the NIH-developed Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension (DASH) diet and the Mediterranean-style diet.

Both diets include fruits, vegetables, fish, and whole grains while limiting unhealthy fats.

On Friday, California's Senate approved the “gold standard” of state-level net neutrality protections. The measure, called SB 822, passed by a 27-12 vote after having been passed Thursday by the State Assembly by a similarly large margin.

"We passed the strongest net neutrality standards in the nation," San Francisco Democrat Scott Wiener, who co-wrote the bill, said in a statement.

Gov. Jerry Brown, a Democrat, has until the end of September to sign the bill. If enacted, California would become the fourth state to create a net neutrality law since the FCC scrapped net neutrality regulations last year. The bill in California is widely considered to equip consumers with the most stringent protections.

"This is about a level playing field and an Internet where we as individuals get to decide where we go on the Internet instead of being told by Internet service providers, or manipulated by Internet service providers, into going where they want us to go," Wiener said.

What the bill does

The bill prohibits internet service providers (ISPs) from blocking or throttling lawful traffic. It also bars the practice of charging websites for access to an ISP’s subscribers or for fast lanes to those subscribers.

SB 822 also prevents ISPs from getting around these protections at the point where data enters their networks and from charging access fees to reach ISP customers. Additionally, the bill prevents companies like AT&T (which is both an ISP and a content provider) from not counting the content and websites they own against subscribers’ data caps.

“When Donald Trump’s F.C.C. decided to take a wrecking ball to net neutrality protections, we knew that California had to step in to ensure our residents have access to a free and open internet,” Wiener said in a statement.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation, an advocacy group that supports online privacy, called the bill’s advancement "a victory that can be replicated." Weiner expressed similar sentiments, noting that he hopes California’s potential new net neutrality rules can be rolled out at a national level.

At a launch event in Stockholm, Sweden later today, Mercedes-Benz will unveil its all-electric sport utility vehicle (SUV) which will compete with Tesla’s upscale electric cars.

The German automaker previously said that the EQC is equipped with two electric motors on the front and rear axles for a total power output of up to 300 kW. Mercedes claims that it will be able to accelerate from 0 to 100 km/h (0 to 62 mph) in under five seconds.

Mercedes joins other automakers who have built electric vehicles of their own in an effort to secure a position in the fast-growing EV sector, which is currently dominated by Tesla.

Taking on Tesla

On Monday, Audi began mass production of its e-tron -- the automaker’s first all-electric SUV. The automaker will unveil the production version of its electric SUV in San Francisco on September 17. Earlier this summer, oil giant BP entered into a deal to purchase EV charging business Chargemaster.

“While Tesla currently has a strong hold on the luxury electric market, I don’t think this will be the case after the arrival of the German premium offerings,” Wajih Hossenally, an automotive powertrain analyst with IHS Markit, told Reuters.

“Tesla has virtually zero competition – but this will change from 2019 onwards,” the analyst noted.

Mercedes’ new EQC electric SUV will be released on the market in 2019 and will compete in the same bracket as Tesla’s $49,000 Model 3 sedan.

Mercedes has already received more than 2,000 refundable deposits for its new electric vehicle. Audi plans to begin taking reservations backed by refundable $1,000 deposits.

In a new marketing effort, some colleges will begin price-matching tuition in the hopes of bringing in more students.

While a number a private universities will be offering students public school tuition, a number of public institutions will be offering out-of-state students the opportunity to pay like the locals.

Using billboards and social media campaigns, colleges and universities across the country are hoping to draw in more students from their local areas. Additionally, many schools are hoping they’ll attract higher-performing students, thus boosting their academic profiles, while others are hoping to change the public perception that college is unaffordable.

Nathan Mueller, a principal at EAB -- a consulting firm that helps schools with enrollment strategies -- said that any increases in enrollment universities see after announcements like these will most likely not last long-term. He says that “the interest seems to cool” once schools have the time to evaluate the success of the initiative.

Specific offers

At Oglethorpe University near Atlanta, students with a GPA of 3.5 or higher and a 1250 SAT or 26 ACT score will be eligible to pay the tuition rate of any in-state university. This year, Oglethorpe’s tuition and fees is posted as $39,830. However, with scholarships, students would pay much less, and the average Oglethorpe student ends up paying $13,700 per year.

President Lawrence Schall is hoping to attract higher-performing students, as well as prove that a private education can be affordable and attainable.

“It is about growing the top of the class,” Dr. Schall said.

Currently, Oglethorpe admits roughly 25 percent of the students it accepts, though 10 to 15 percent of those students are high-ranking.

Recently, Oglethorpe has seen an increase in tuition revenue, and in an effort to continue the upwards trend, the school is hoping to admit and enroll even more students -- and from different locations. While the majority of the students are from Florida, Tennessee, and Georgia, Oglethorpe’s newest freshman class comes from 17 different states.

Similarly, since 2012, the University of Nebraska at Kearney has experienced a one to two percent enrollment decline. Now, the school will be offering students from Colorado and Kansas in-state tuition.

A new malware called CamuBot has been uncovered with its first attack centered on Brazilian bank customers.

The malware hides in plain sight, acting as if it’s the user’s bank-required end-user security module and mimicking the bank’s online persona all the way down to the bank’s logo.

According to researchers with IBM’s X-Force team, CamuBot was first discovered on August 28 after showing up in an attack on business-class banking customers in Brazil. It was IBM that dubbed the malware CamuBot.

“CamuBot is more sophisticated than the remote-overlay type malware commonly used in fraud schemes,” wrote Limor Kessem, an Executive Security Advisor with ITM.

“Instead of simplistic fake screens and a remote access tool, CamuBot tactics...focuses on business banking and blends social engineering with malware-assisted account and device takeover.”

Kessem went on to say that the malware appears to be focusing on Brazilian banks in its first series of raids and that business banking customers carry the most risk.

How does CamuBot differ from other malware?

“The delivery of CamuBot is personalized,” said Kessem. “Since the malware’s operators target businesses in Brazil, it is very possible that they gather information from local phone books, search engines or professional social networks to get to people who own a business or would have the business’s bank account credentials.”

In the financial world, malware-driven theft is on the rise. In January, ConsumerAffairs reported on “Jackspotting,” a scheme in which malware took control of automatic teller machines (ATM).

CamuBot’s game is to lay low for as long as possible so it can become part of what the end-user perceives as a typical component of their online banking. Once the malware thinks it’s considered part of the norm, it goes after things like online credentials and keystrokes.   ThreatPost reported that, in some cases, the malware can also hijack one-time passwords used for biometric authentication.

Once the bot has gotten what it came for, the data is sent to a command-and-control (C&C) server that threat actors have set up as the headquarters for their cyber theft ring. Once the data heist is completed, the information is then used to ransack bank accounts, orchestrate identity theft, or packaged up for sale on the Dark Web.

Cybercriminals recently proved how crucial it is for financial institutions to keep their systems as vigilant as possible when threat actors were able to nab $13.5 million from Cosmos, India’s oldest bank.

Following last year’s particularly severe flu season, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) is recommending that all children aged 6 months and older get a flu shot as soon as the vaccines become available by the end of October.

The group’s recommendations for the 2018-2019 flu season follow a flu season during which 179 children died from flu-related illness and thousands more were hospitalized in the U.S. Health officials estimate that approximately 80 percent of the children who died were unvaccinated.

"The flu virus is common -- and unpredictable. It can cause serious complications even in healthy children," said Dr. Flor Munoz of the AAP Committee on Infectious Diseases. "Being immunized reduces the risk of a child being hospitalized due to flu."

Protection against influenza

The AAP advises pediatricians to offer flu vaccine injections to all children 6 months and older.

Injections are recommended since the nasal spray vaccine has been less effective in the past two flu seasons, the group noted. However, the nasal spray vaccine can be used for children 2 years of age or older who would not otherwise receive the flu shot.

“For instance, if a child refuses the flu shot, or if the physician's office runs out of the injected vaccine, the nasal spray would be appropriate,” the AAP said.

Specific recommendations

Children between 6 months and 8 years of age require two doses the first time they are vaccinated against flu. Children 9 years of age and older require only one dose, regardless of their vaccination history, the AAP said.

Children with egg allergy can receive the flu vaccine with the same precautions considered for any vaccine. Pregnant women can be given the injected flu vaccine at any time during pregnancy.

"The effectiveness of the flu vaccine varies and is affected by factors such as the child's age, health status, vaccination history and the strain of influenza circulating in a community," said Dr. Henry Bernstein, a member of the CDC Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices and an Ex-Officio member of the AAP Committee on Infectious Diseases.

"We urge parents to talk with their pediatricians now to avoid any delay in getting their children vaccinated."

Predictions that consumers will stop buying cars and will start sharing them may be a bit premature.

New car dealers had a robust August in terms of sales, with the average transaction price (ATP) for a new car or truck hitting $35,541, up $643 from August 2017. The ATP held steady from July's sales.

So far in 2018, compact and subcompact SUVs have been big sellers as gasoline prices have continued to rise. But despite a nearly 20 percent sales growth in these segments, prices have remained mostly flat and even dipped in August.

Kelley Blue Book (KBB) analyst Tim Fleming says that's likely a reflection of today's extremely competitive landscape and the abundance of new models available.

Further discounts

“Moving forward, the industry could see further discounts and incentives in these utility segments, as automakers continue to focus their attention on placing their products at the top of consumers' consideration lists," Fleming said.

In the mid-size SUV/crossover segment, consumers paid $161 less for one of these vehicles in August than they did in July. In the subcompact SUV/crossover segment, they paid $113 more last month.

Consumers also paid less in August than they did in July when they purchased vans, sports cars, minivans, mid-size sedans, luxury mid-size SUV/crossovers, luxury full-size SUV/crossovers, luxury sedans, high-end luxury sedans, hybrids, and full-size sedans.

Honda and Chevy models cost more

In terms of brands, consumers who purchased a new Honda last month tended to pay the most for them. Honda ATPs were up 4 percent year-over-year, more than twice the industry average.

Consumers saw the most significant price increases for the Accord and the Civic. Prices for Honda's Acura nameplate were up 3 percent on the strength of the redesigned RDX, which surged 11 percent.

GM cars also cost more last month, especially Chevrolets. KBB says Chevrolet's ATP was largely a result of a strong mix of Silverado HD sales, which pushed the Silverado's ATP up 6 percent. The redesigned Traverse was also in demand last month, rising 13 percent.

Consumers found some of the best August deals at their Nissan dealer. The heavily-promoted Rogue cost more last month but consumers were able to purchase an Altima sedan at a 1 percent discount from July.

Just in time for back-to-school, there's a flood of new research suggesting college students are second-guessing their decision to pursue a bachelor’s degree.

As the cost of tuition and books continues to climb, students are resorting to extreme measures to make ends meet. A new survey by Cengage, a textbook publisher, found 41 percent of students said they skip meals in order to pay for course materials.

When asked to rank the financial stresses of going to college, paying for textbooks is a close second to tuition. Eighty-five percent of students ranked paying for books more stressful than of paying for food, rent, and healthcare. Some students said they cut back on the number of classes they take in order to reduce the cost of books.

“The survey’s results should be a wake-up call for everybody involved in higher education,” said Michael Hansen, CEO, Cengage. “This is especially true for the publishing industry, including our own company, as we historically contributed to the problem of college affordability.”

A CBS News report earlier this year found the average yearly cost of college course materials totaled $1,200.

Buyer's remorse

To pay for the rising cost of books and tuition, most students now take out some form of student loan. And if you asked those to took that step, many will tell you that getting the degree was not worth the debt that it required.

A survey by Varo Money found that well over a third of recent college graduates said the degree was not worth they money they now have to repay. The survey found that those still in college are more optimistic about the value of their degree than those who have already graduated, suggesting disillusionment may follow graduation.

Personal finance company WalletHub has published a report showing doubts about the value of college are growing among current students. Its 2018 Student Money Survey found 25 percent of currently enrolled students believe a excellent credit score is worth more than a college degree.

Excellent credit more valuable

"I find it pretty disheartening,” said Ira Rheingold, executive director and general counsel of the National Association of Consumer Advocates (NACA). “If we lived in a nation where college and health care were affordable and jobs provided workers with good wages and benefits, consumers would not be so dependent on credit to live a good life or even simply make ends meet.”

The cost of college goes up each year. The College Board reports the average cost of tuition and fees for the 2017–2018 school year was $34,740 at private colleges, $9,970 for state residents at public colleges, and $25,620 for out-of-state residents attending public universities.

In an effort to fight the spread of child sexual abuse material (CSAM) online, Google will be launching an artificial intelligence toolkit that will help organizations quickly review large amounts of sexual abuse material and reduce the need for human inspection.

While countless organizations have been working tirelessly to report these horrific images, Google’s new initiative will make the job much easier.

“Today we’re introducing the next step in this fight: cutting-edge artificial intelligence (AI) that significantly advances our existing technologies to dramatically improve how service providers, NGOs, and other technology companies review this content at scale,” Google wrote in a company blog post.

The process

Google will utilize deep neural networking for image processing and then prioritize the most likely candidates for review.

“While historical approaches to finding this content have relied exclusively on matching against hashes of known CSAM, the classifier keeps up with offenders by also targeting content that has not been previously confirmed as CSAM,” Google wrote.

This new technology’s speed will allow children who are being sexually abused to be identified faster -- and protected from future abuse. Additionally, the number of responses will increase by 700 percent more than before, while reducing the number of eyes needed to look at the images.

Google is offering the service for free to non-governmental organizations and industry partners through the Content Safety API.

“We, and in particular our expert analysts, are excited about the development of an artificial intelligence tool which could help our human experts review material to an even greater scale and keep up with offenders, by targeting imagery that hasn’t previously been marked as illegal material,” said Susie Hargreaves OBE, CEO of the Internet Watch Foundation. “By sharing this new technology, the identification of images could be speeded up, which in turn could make the internet a safer place for both survivors and users.”

J.T.M. Provisions of Harrison, Ohio, is recalling approximately 960 pounds of cooked ground beef patties.

The product may be contaminated with Listeria monocytogenes.

There have been no confirmed reports of adverse reactions due to consumption of these products.

The following cooked, ready-to-eat beef patty crumble item, produced on May 17, 2018, is being recalled:

• 20-lb. cases containing four 5-lb sealed pouches of “COOKED BEEF PATTY CRUMBLES” with case code “47860” and a Julian date of “18137.”

The recalled product, bearing establishment number “EST. 1917” inside the USDA mark of inspection, was shipped to distribution centers located in California.

What to do

Customers who purchased the recalled product are urged not to consume it, but discard it or return it to the place of purchase.

Consumers with questions regarding the recall may contact Joe Maas at (513) 367-4900.