Current Events in October 2018

American Honda Motor Co. is recalling 967 model year 2017-2018 Acura NSX vehicles.

The crossover pipe couplers between the left and right fuel tanks may leak.

A fuel leak in the presence of an ignition source can increase the risk of a fire.

What to do

Honda will notify owners, and dealers will replace the left and right fuel tanks, free of charge.

The recall is expected to begin November 6, 2018.

Owners may contact Honda customer service at 1-888-234-2138. Honda's numbers for this recall are U29, and Z28.

3301861 Nova Scotia Limited is recalling Cabot brand oysters that may be contaminated with Salmonella.

There have been no reported illnesses associated with the consumption of the recalled product.

The following products, sold in Nova Scotia, Quebec and possibly nationally throughout Canada, are being recalled:

What to do

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

Mercedes-Benz USA (MBUSA) is recalling 22 model year 2018 Mercedes-Benz E63S AMG 4MATICs.

The front passenger seat can be adjusted beyond its intended limit posing an increased risk of injury to the occupant in the event of a crash.

What to do

MBUSA will notify owners, and dealers will inspect the adjustment range, and if needed, install a mechanical adjustment range limitation or update the seat control unit software, free of charge.

The recall is expected to begin October 19, 2018.

Owners may contact MBUSA customer service at 1-800-367-6372.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced on Tuesday that it seized more than a thousand pages of documents from e-cigarette maker Juul during an unannounced inspection of the company’s headquarters in San Francisco on Friday.

The news comes a week after the agency announced that it was considering a ban on the online sale of e-cigarettes, which would primarily be an effort to drive down the number of minors who are able to acquire and use the products.

Commissioner Scott Gottlieb called the widespread use of e-cigarettes among teens an “epidemic” and said easy access to the products is only fueling the trend.

“E-cigs have become an almost ubiquitous ‒ and dangerous ‒ trend among teens," Gottlieb said in a statement. "The FDA won't tolerate a whole generation of young people becoming addicted to nicotine as a tradeoff for enabling adults to have unfettered access to these same products."

Scrutiny of marketing practices

The agency has requested that e-cigarette manufacturers, including Juul, submit plans to curb youth use of their products within 60 days.

Last week, the FDA said it was looking into how e-cigarette manufacturers market their products -- especially flavored products, which tend to appeal to kids. Gottlieb said at an event hosted by Axios that the FDA will be releasing data in November that shows a “disturbingly sharp rise” in the number of teens using e-cigarettes.

That announcement came a month after the agency revealed that it had sent more than 1,300 warning letters to retailers who were found to have illegally sold Juul and other e-cigarette products to minors during “an undercover blitz" of both brick-and-mortar and online stores that occurred over the summer.

Friday’s surprise investigation was an attempt to seek “further documentation related to Juul's sales and marketing practices, among other things," the FDA said in a statement. The investigation “resulted in the collection of over a thousand pages of documents," the agency said.

Facebook's data breach, disclosed last week, will likely be costly for the social media giant as European privacy regulators demand answers.

On Friday, Facebook announced that a security breach compromised about 50 million login credentials but said the issue had been resolved. But Europe has the world's toughest privacy rules and the European Union could impose fines that – by some estimates – could be in excess of $1 billion.

Ireland's Data Protection Commission (DPC) complained that Facebook's initial disclosure of the breach was light on details. The DPC said Facebook appears unable to tell users the extent of the risk they face.

The DPC said it wants answers from Facebook and those replies will determine whether there will be fines and how much they are. Later, the commission tweeted that Facebook had begun to fill in some blanks.

“Facebook issued a blog on Friday last indicating that 50 million accounts were potentially affected by a security issue,” the agency wrote. “We understand that the number of EU accounts potentially affected is less than 10 percent of that. Facebook has assured us that they will be in a position to provide a further breakdown in relation to more detailed numbers soon.”

General Data Protection Regulation

The EU's General Data Protection Regulation took effect in May and imposes heavy penalties on companies found to be in violation of it. Offenders can be required to pay $23 million or 4 percent of the previous year's international revenue. Under that formula, Facebook could face a fine in excess of $1 billion.

This isn't the first time Facebook has had to deal with a privacy issue. It faced a harsh backlash in March, when it revealed that personal information on millions of users had fallen into the hands of a political marketing firm.

In that case, there was no breach of its system. A third-party app developer had been granted access to the data but was not allowed to give it to anyone else. Facebook said the developer then sold the data to Cambridge Analytica, a political marketing firm.

At its developer conference in May, Facebook reaffirmed its commitment to protecting user data. CEO Mark Zuckerberg said the company would take a “broader view” of its responsibility to protect users' privacy.

Not getting enough sleep is an all too common feeling, and while many tend to focus on feeling sluggish or needing an extra jolt of caffeine to make it through the day, lack of sleep could be having a much more important effect on consumers nationwide.

Kimberly Fenn, associate professor of psychology and director of the MSU Sleep and Learning Lab, recently led a team of researchers from Michigan State University in the largest controlled study on sleep deprivation.

Fenn and her team’s experiment was unique in that it focused specifically on the ways sleep deprivation impedes people’s efforts in completing tasks, and their overall memory function throughout the day.

“If you look at accidents and mistakes in surgery, public transportation, and even operating nuclear power plants, lack of sleep is one of the primary reasons for human error,” Fenn said. “There are many people in critical professions who are sleep-deprived. Research has found that nearly one-quarter of the people with procedure-heavy jobs have fallen asleep on the job.”

Maintaining memory and completing tasks

Fenn and her team were primarily concerned with the ways sleep deprivation affected the participants’ memory and their ability to complete tasks.

Utilizing 234 participants, half of the group was allowed to sleep after midnight, while the other half was required to stay awake all night in the lab. Both groups got to the lab at 10 p.m. and were instructed to begin a task that forced them to follow steps in a particular order. Sporadically during their work, the groups would be briefly disrupted and then instructed to return to their work, forcing them to remember where they had left off.

In the morning, both groups were back in the lab and repeated the same protocol.

According to the results, the group that was able to sleep after midnight performed much better on the task by morning. At night, both groups met the criteria of the task -- no participants failed. However, by morning, just one percent of the group that slept failed to meet the criteria of the task, while 15 percent of the group that was awake all night failed.

“Sleep-deprived participants not only showed more errors than those who slept, but also showed a progressive increase in errors associated with memory as they performed the task -- an effect not observed by those who slept,” Fenn said. “This shows that the sleep-deprived group experienced a great deal of difficulty remembering where they were in the sequence during interruptions.”

Because of this, Fenn points fingers at memory maintenance, as well as regular, day-to-day interruptions -- like text messages -- to be major factors at play for those who are sleep deprived. She found that it’s much harder to resume tasks -- without error -- once interrupted.

Effects in real time

Though Fenn notes that the effects of sleep deprivation are wide-reaching, some have greater repercussions than others.

“Every day, approximately 11 sponges are left inside patients who have undergone surgery,” Fenn said. “That’s 4,000 potentially dire missteps each year and an example of a procedural task gone terribly wrong that can result from sleep deprivation.”

“Our research suggests that sleep-deprived people shouldn’t perform tasks in which they are interrupted -- or, only perform them for short periods.”

Fenn also uses the example of students who pull all-nighters before exams, but more than likely can’t remember the material they spent all night memorizing. Additionally, she references train and car accidents, as well as the Challenger Explosion, Chernobyl, and the Exxon Valdez oil spill as other incidents that can all be traced back to sleep deprivation in some way.

To read the full study that was published in the Journal of Experimental Psychology, click here.

People may disagree over whether corporations count as people, but there’s little debate that whatever they are, they tilt decidedly male.

In California, for instance, only 16 percent of people on corporate boards are women. Businesses that are based in the state with the fifth largest economy in the world are now going to have to prepare for some modest changes.

On Sunday, Gov. Jerry Brown signed a new law requiring publicly-traded companies whose primary offices are in California to have at least one woman on their board by the end of 2019.

That quota will go higher depending on how many board members a given company has. By 2021, companies with at least five directors will have to have two women and those with seven will have to have three women. Companies that don’t comply will be fined $100,000.

"Given all the special privileges that corporations have enjoyed for so long, it's high time corporate boards include the people who constitute more than half the 'persons' in America," Brown said when signing the law.

Providing more gender balance

State senators Hannah-Beth Jackson and Toni Atkins, who sponsored the bill, said they had tried to encourage corporations to bring on more women with voluntary measures back in 2013, but the gender imbalance has barely changed since then.

The legislation sparked a debate over whether requiring women leadership by law would be insulting and lead to ineffectual “token” positions.

“This is an incredibly emotional topic for both the corporations as well as for women,” venture capitalist Jillian Manus told the San Jose Mercury News. “On one hand, I think it’s an insult, and on the other it’s an advantage.”

The California Chamber of Commerce and associations that represent the restaurant industry, the construction industry, the police garage industry, grocery stores, and ambulance companies opposed the measure, claiming that mandates to bring more women on boards would hurt other diversity efforts.

“We are concerned that the mandate…. that focuses only on gender potentially elevates it as a priority over other aspects of diversity,” the groups said.  “Our companies are not focused on only one particular classification, but rather all classifications.”

But proponents noted that the #MeToo movement has exposed numerous companies and industries for allowing the abuse of female employees and other women. Jackson, the state senator, argued that it was “no coincidence” that disgraced movie producer Harvey Weinstein had no women on the board of his production company.

The new law will also affect Silicon Valley. Facebook’s Sheryl Sandberg and Susan Desmond-Hellmann are the only two women on the company’s nine-member board. Google and Apple have a respective 11 and eight people on their boards, but each only have two women.

Will the last MoviePass subscriber leaving the theatre, please turn out the lights?

The neverending saga of MoviePass may have reached the end. Or, at least, one might hope so.

MoviePass has decided to add insult to injury by taking one last swing at keeping the lights on.  According to the Verge, the company’s latest last gasp effort comes in the form of pinging a “select test group” of customers who the company says didn't opt into its latest three-movies-a-month deal.

The ultimatum

In the emails to those customers, MoviePass was heavy-handed, saying that those subscribers' accounts will be reactivated unless they officially opt-out by jumping through the hoop of clicking on a specific link.

“To be clear, unless you opt out, your unlimited subscription will be restored and you will begin enjoying unlimited movies again (up to 1 new movie title per day based on existing inventory) at $9.95 a month, and your credit card on file will be charged on a monthly basis beginning Friday, October 5, 2018,” said the email.

Month after month, the movie subscription service has been thought to be on the brink of closing its doors for good, but it always seems to come up with some twist that keeps its financial hope, albeit faint, alive. Only a couple of weeks ago, the company made a last gasp play at staying afloat via a proposed one-for-500 reverse stock split. As of yet, the gimmick hasn’t worked and MoviePass’ stock still sits below 2 cents a share.

Be sure to check your email

ConsumerAffairs hasn’t heard from any customers who previously “officially” cancelled their MoviePass membership but still received the “auto-renewal” email.

Still, with the tone of this ploy and the ever-present technical wrinkles, consumers should double-check their inboxes to make 100 percent sure they’re not being re-enrolled and set up for automatic -- and recurring -- billing.

Airlines have begun to raise travel costs again, but Southwest is running counter to that trend, at least for three days.

Consumers who book by October 4 can book some round-trip flights for less than $100. The flights must depart between November 28 and December 19 or from January 3 through February 13.

The discount fares begin at $49 one-way on relatively short flights. As the flights get longer, the fares rise to $79, $99, and $129.

Southwest traditionally offers the sale two times each year in an attempt to fill planes during off-peak travel periods. For example, the fares do not apply for travel during the typically busy Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays.

Exclusions apply

There are other exceptions as well. The discount fares are not available for flights on Fridays and Sundays. There are additional limits on some of the airline's warm weather destinations. All Orange County, California flights are also excluded.

You can check out all the fine print here.

As you start looking at the schedule of eligible flights, you'll also notice they all are non-stop trips. Destinations that require connections aren't part of the promotion, though the airline said that some of the fares may be lower than usual during the promotion periods.

Consumers aren't guaranteed the discount fare, even if they book within the three-day window. Some seats have already been booked by full-fare passengers. Once the remaining seats are booked the flight will be full and unavailable for the promotion.

Travel costs are going up

With rising rule prices, air travel got more expensive over the summer, with several airlines adjusting fees instead of fares. Research has shown that consumers often choose a flight based on the cost of the fare without fully considering the fees involved.

In August, United, Southwest, and JetBlue made fee adjustments, with Southwest increasing its flat $15 for Early Bird Check-In to $15, $20, or $25 per one-way route starting on August 29. What the flier pays is based on the length of the flight and what Southwest considers the popularity of that flight’s Early Bird Check-In.

Last month, Delta increased the fee for the first checked bag to $30 for U.S. domestic travel, an increase of $5. The fee for a second checked bag is $40.

Before choosing a flight, travelers should look at all of the airlines' fees and add the applicable ones to the cost of the fare.

On Tuesday, Amazon announced that it will be raising its minimum wage for U.S. workers to $15 per hour beginning November 1.

The e-commerce giant said in a statement that the new minimum wage will benefit more than 250,000 full-time and part-time Amazon employees across the country, as well over 100,000 seasonal workers who will be hired to work at the company’s fulfillment centers this holiday.

The announcement follows harsh criticism of online retailer’s working conditions and pay. At the end of August, Senator Bernie Sanders (I-Ver.) engaged in a public feud with the company over its pay and work environment at warehouses and fulfillment centers.

The Vermont Senator said at the time that Amazon had been “less than forthcoming with information about their employment practices.”

“What we do know is that Amazon’s median employee pay is only $28,446 — 9 percent less than the industry average and well below what constitutes a living wage in the United States,” he said. “Further, we believe that many of Amazon’s workers are employed by temporary staffing agencies and contractors and make even less than the median Amazon employee.”

Public pressure to raise minimum wage

“We listened to our critics, thought hard about what we wanted to do, and decided we want to lead,” Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos said in a statement. “We’re excited about this change and encourage our competitors and other large employers to join us.”

Senator Sanders praised the company’s minimum wage hike, calling it “enormously important.”

"Today I want to give credit where credit is due," Sanders said in response to the new hourly wage. "What Mr. Bezos has done today is not only enormously important for Amazon's hundreds of thousands of employees, it could well be, and I think it will be, a shot heard around the world."

Amazon also announced that it will be lobbying for an increase in the federal minimum wage, which is currently $7.25 per hour. Sanders said he hopes that other executives and firms around the country will follow Amazon’s lead.

Target announced earlier this year that it would raise its minimum hourly wage to $15 by 2020. In January, Walmart said it planned to raise its starting wage to $11 per hour.

For the first time, college students now have the option to fill out the Free Application for Federal Financial Aid (or FAFSA) form on their smartphone or tablet.

The federal Education Department says filling out the document, a crucial first step in receiving federal student aid, may be a little easier for some students who may not have access to an internet-connected computer.

About 95 percent of U.S. consumers have a mobile device of some sort, according to the Federal Student Aid office. In launching the new digital options, the Education Department hopes to expand student access to free aid money.

Leaving money on the table

In 2017, over $2.3 billion in free federal grant money was left on the table as a result of students not renewing their FAFSA form throughout college or in graduate school, according to an analysis by Nerdwallet.

"Students should be able to complete their FAFSA easily on their phones and in one sitting. They should receive expert, tailored advice about their options. It's called 'student aid,' after all. And throughout the life of their loans, students should be able to communicate directly — by texting or chatting or whatever the most current method is — with professionals whose primary duty is to them," Secretary Betsy DeVos told financial aid professionals in a speech last November, when the app was announced.

"We will make the financial aid process modern, streamlined, more accessible and simply easier for students — and you,” Devos added.

The myStudentAid app can be downloaded from Apple’s App Store or from Google Play for Android devices. Additionally, the FAFSA website has been updated with a new “mobile-friendly” design.

The FAFSA for the 2019-2020 school year officially became available on October 1.

More than 62 percent of Americans believe domestic violence is a serious problem, but one-third are reluctant to discuss it.

A new report from the Allstate Foundation shows the percentage of people who don't want to discuss the subject has actually increased since the last survey on the topic four years ago.

The foundation says the subject needs airing, especially in light of statistics from the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence (NCADV) which indicate that 25 percent of U.S. women have been targets of violence by an intimate partner.

Happens every day

"Domestic violence happens every day, it doesn't discriminate and it affects every class, race and community, which is why The Allstate Foundation is committed to breaking the cycle of domestic violence," said Elaine Denslow, an Allstate agent in Washington state. "Domestic violence comes in many forms, whether that's physical, emotional, sexual, or the most common form, financial abuse."

Denslow and other agents in several western states are collecting clothing and household items for survivors and have raised more than $150,000 to support domestic violence programs.

The Allstate Foundation study found that 55 percent of people it questioned said they have been a domestic violence victim or knew someone who had. The study also found that not all of the abuse is physical.

"Financial abuse is the most common form of domestic violence,” Denslow said. “It's an invisible weapon that often goes unnoticed, making it the leading cause of family homelessness."

Men are also victims

NCADV statistics show that women between the ages of 18 and 24 are most commonly abused by an intimate partner, but men can also be victims. In fact, the group says one in seven men have been victims of severe physical violence from an intimate partner in their lifetime.

Their data indicates that 20 percent of women said they had been raped at some point. Nearly half said the perpetrator was someone they knew. The same report shows one in seven men said they had been raped,.

The Mayo Clinic points out that domestic violence directed against men is not always easy to spot. It says these incidents often begin with insults and name-calling, interfering with family relationships and friendships, and fits of jealousy that escalate into physical encounters.

The race to make your current wifi network completely obsolete is now underway.

Verizon announced that its 5G home Wi-Fi network was launching October 1. According to the company, customers can expect average Wi-Fi speeds of 300 mbps and can test the service out with a three-month free trial.

Service is currently limited to only four cities in the United States -- Houston, Indianapolis, Los Angeles, and Sacramento. Verizon began inviting people in the selected cities to sign up last month.

For now, the service is available for homes only. Verizon and other carriers have yet to launch a 5G mobile network, but the industry is clearly trying to build excitement for one with frequent promises that 5G mobile service will come in the future.

In September, AT&T said that it will provide mobile 5G in 12 cities by the year's end.

In a new study published in Springer, researchers found that women who are in their last trimester of pregnancy during the darker months of the year -- and are thus seeing fewer daylight hours -- are more likely to experience postpartum depression both during the last trimester and after their babies are born.

Some previous research has linked lack of natural light to depression in adults, but the complete breadth of research has been far from conclusive. Nevertheless, researcher Deepika Goyal and her team from the University of San Francisco conducted a sleep trial to provide further evidence.

The trial consisted of 293 women -- all first-time mothers and all from California -- both before and after pregnancy.

“Among first-time mothers, the length of day in the third trimester, specifically day lengths that are shortening compared to day lengths that are short, long, or lengthening, were associated with concurrent depressive symptom severity,” said Goyal, lead researcher of the study out of San Jose State University.

Need for natural light

The researchers used the daylight hours in the northern hemisphere. In this system, “shortening days” run from August 5 through November 4; “short days” last from November 5 through February 4; and “lengthening days” ran from February 5 to May 4; and “long days” are May 6 through August 4.

With those guidelines, the study found that the women whose third trimester consisted of more “short days” experienced the most depression symptoms at 35 percent. Once the babies were born, the researchers found the depression symptoms peaked.

Conversely, for those women whose final trimester was during months with longer daylight hours, the depression risk was at its lowest (26 percent). The study also found 30 percent of all participants to be at risk for developing depression.

When conducting the trials, the researchers evaluated risk factors associated with depression, such as how long each woman slept, history of depression, socioeconomic status, age, and recorded daylight hours during the final trimester.

Getting creative with light exposure

The researchers found that women who are exposed to more natural light in their final months of pregnancy -- and immediately following childbirth -- posed less of a risk for developing depression-related symptoms.

However, for women who have a history of mental health problems, have experienced symptoms of depression, or whose final months of pregnancy are during months with fewer daylight hours, the researchers suggest a number of different solutions to help with risks of depression.

“Women should be encouraged to get frequent exposure to daylight throughout their pregnancies to enhance their vitamin D levels and to suppress the hormone melatonin,” Goyal said. “Daily walks during daylight hours may be more effective in improving mood than walking inside a shopping mall or using a treadmill in a gym.”

Goyal also encourages utilizing light boxes -- a popular method used for light therapy -- and spending as much time outside as possible.

TerraTrike of Grand Rapids, Mich., is recalling about 600 adult tricycles (trikes).

The right hand wheel hubmount can bend or break, causing the user to lose control of the trike, which can result in serious injury or death.

The firm has received seven reports of the hub mounts bending or breaking. No accidents or injuries have been reported.

The recalled TerraTrike adult, pedal powered, orange, green or yellow tricycles have two wheels in the front and one wheel in the back and a black canvas seat.

Recalled models include: TerraTrike Rambler x16 (orange), Rambler All Terrain (green) and Rambler E.V.O. (yellow). The trikes, depending upon model, come with either three 20-inch wheels or three 24-inch wheels.

The model names are located on the outrigger tubes that come out of the main tube and connect to the front wheels. The serial numbers included in this recall are listed on the firm’s website at www.terratrike.com and are located under the main tube on a barcoded sticker near the rear wheel.

The serial numbers are also stamped into the head (vertical) tube of the outrigger.

The trikes, manufactured in Taiwan, were sold at authorized TerraTrike dealers, independent bicycle dealers and recumbent bicycle specialty stores nationwide and online at www.TerraTrike.com from May 2018, through August 2018, for between $2,000 and $3,500.

What to do

Consumers should immediately stop using these recalled trikes and return them to the place of purchase for a free repair.

Consumers may contact TerraTrike at (800) 945-9110 from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. (ET) Monday through Friday or online at www.terratrike.com and click on “Important Safety Recall” for more information.

Mercedes-Benz USA (MBUSA) is recalling 4,702 model year 2018 GLC300 4MATIC Coupes, GLC300s, GLC300 4MATICs, GLC350e 4MATICs, GLC43 AMG 4MATIC Coupes, and GLC43 AMG 4MATICs equipped with LED headlights.

The front turn signals may have an incorrect color of pink or violet.

Turn signals that are the wrong color may not be as easily recognized by other drivers, increasing the risk of a crash.

What to do

MBUSA will notify owners, and dealers will inspect the color of the turn signal, replacing the LED module as necessary, free of charge.

The recall is expected to begin November 9, 2018.

Owners may contact MBUSA customer service at 1-800-367-6372.

BMW of North America is recalling 33 model year 2018-2019 BMW X6 sDrive35i, X6 xDrive35i, X6 xDrive50i, and X6M vehicles.

The wheel bolts on thee vehicles may not have been properly tightened.

Improperly tightened wheel bolts may loosen and break, affecting vehicle handling and control, increasing the risk of a crash.

What to do

BMW will notify owners, and dealers will replace and tighten all of the wheel bolts, free of charge.

The recall is expected to begin November 1, 2018.

Owners may contact BMW customer service at 1-800-525-7417.

The Justice Department has filed a lawsuit against the state of California, charging that its newly enacted net neutrality law places “unlawful burdens” on the federal government's efforts to deregulate the internet.

The suit was filed within hours of California Gov. Jerry Brown signing the net neutrality bill into law.

California’s net neutrality law cleared both houses of the legislature by wide margins. The law reimposes the standard enacted by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) under the Obama administration in 2015. It requires all internet service providers to treat all internet traffic the same.

For example, under the previous national policy, overturned by the Trump administration last December, networks could not charge more to companies offering video streaming services. They also could not slow down a service like Netflix while providing faster speeds to their own streaming services.

California State Senator Scott Wiener spearheaded the drive to reimpose net neutrality in the state and said the final product constituted “the strongest net neutrality standards in the nation."

The Justice Department suit takes a different view, saying the California law attempts to regulate the internet, which is now contrary to federal law.

FCC supports the suit

“I’m pleased the Department of Justice has filed this suit,” said FCC Chairman Ajit Pai, who led FCC efforts to overturn the federal net neutrality policy. “The Internet is inherently an interstate information service. As such, only the federal government can set policy in this area. And the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit recently reaffirmed that state regulation of information services is preempted by federal law.”

Pai makes the claim that net neutrality, as envisioned by the California law, hurts consumers. He says that under the law, large ISPs like Verizon and AT&T would be prohibited from offering some free data plans he says allow consumers to stream video and music, exempt from any data limits.

“They have proven enormously popular in the marketplace, especially among lower-income Americans,” Pai said. “But notwithstanding the consumer benefits, this state law bans them.”

But supporters of net neutrality argue they are the ones defending a free and open internet. Without it, they say corporations will decide what you can see online and how fast you can see it.

The argument probably won't be settled anytime soon, and when it is it will probably be the Supreme Court that settles it.

If regulators are looking for a reason to approve the merger of Sprint and T-Mobile, Sprint is offering one. It says it can't guarantee its survival as an independent company.

According to a Federal Communications Commission (FCC) filing, the smallest of the four major carriers, said it is losing customers at a rapid rate. Losses have mounted in recent years, requiring Sprint to slash $10 billion from its operating budget.

In its filing, the company said there is no more left to cut, leaving it with no way to make the investments required to keep up with technology developments, including 5G service.

Sprint told the FCC that it has not been able to “turn the corner” with regard to its core business and sees its best hope by joining forces with T-Mobile.

Review is on 'pause'

The FCC is currently considering the two companies' merger proposal but has hit the pause button, extending the 180-day review period. The FCC said it needs the additional time because the two companies submitted a “substantially revised network engineering model,” explaining how they would combine technical operations.

Even without the merger, both telecoms would have to make significant infrastructure investments to provide 5G wireless service. Both Verizon and AT&T are rolling out 5G service this year in a limited number of cities.

The need for a robust 5G network that can compete with its two larger rivals was a principal reason T-Mobile offered in April when it announced plans to merge with Sprint.

Currently, the FCC is considering the engineering aspects of the proposed union. Whether a merger would violate antitrust laws will be determined by the Department of Justice, which has yet to begin its review.

There's already some opposition on that front. A group of Democratic Senators led by Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) has expressed concern that reducing the number of major carriers from four to three would harm low-income consumers, who make up a large percentage of the two companies' subscribers.