Current Events in December 2018

Johnson & Johnson continues its vigorous pushback against a Reuters article claiming the company’s talc and baby powder products contain asbestos and that it knew about it for decades.

Appearing on CNBC, Johnson & Johnson CEO Alex Gorsky said the company does not think its products contain the known carcinogen.

"And that's demonstrated in thousands of studies, studies not only conducted by J&J, but studies conducted by independent authorities, well-respected authorities, where we work closely with regulators who are overlooking the methodology," Gorsky told the network.

On Friday, the Reuters news agency reported that it had obtained internal Johnson & Johnson documents that it said showed J & J’s talc and baby powder was sometimes tainted with asbestos, but the company kept that information from consumers and government regulators.

Consumer lawsuits

Johnson & Johnson has faced lawsuits by consumers who claim they got cancer after using the company’s products. In April, a New Jersey court awarded damages of $37 million to a man who claimed he developed mesothelioma after inhaling dust that was generated through his regular use of Johnson & Johnson talc powder products since his birth in 1972 to approximately 2003.

In July, a state court jury in St. Louis ordered Johnson & Johnson to pay $4.7 billion in damages to 22 women and their families after the plaintiffs claimed the company's talcum powder caused their ovarian cancer.

Most of the damages were punitive, making up one of the largest product liability verdicts in history.

In his interview with CNBC, Gorsky said Johnson & Johnson uses the best testing methods to ensure the purity of its powder and it continues to improve those tests to ensure their accuracy.

Grosky says there is a sizable body of evidence that supports the company’s position. He cited a Harvard Medical School study of 100,000 patients, both male and female, who used the products in question.

He said the study found "no causation between talc, baby powder and ovarian cancer or any type of asbestos-related disease."

T-Mobile has been granted approval for its proposed merger with Sprint following “several months of negotiation with company representatives,” the Wall Street Journal reports.

T-Mobile said in a statement late Monday that the $26 billion takeover was cleared by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS).

The company said the U.S. Department of Justice, Department of Homeland Security, and Department of Defense (collectively referred to as Team Telecom) also confirmed that it has no objections to the merger.

“We are pleased to achieve both of these important milestones in the journey to build the New T-Mobile," said T-Mobile CEO John Legere. "We are a step closer to offering customers a supercharged disrupter that will create jobs from day one and deliver a real alternative to fixed broadband while delivering the first broad and deep nationwide 5G network for the United States...We look forward to continuing our discussions with the remaining regulatory agencies reviewing our transaction to share our story and subsequently achieve similar positive results.”

Facing opposition

T-Mobile and Sprint filed the proposed deal with the FCC on June 18. Obtaining approval by CFIUS was an important step in the process of moving forward with the deal, but the merger must still be approved by antitrust officials, including the FCC and DOJ.

Following a brief delay in September, the FCC has resumed its review of the proposed merger of the two wireless providers.

The deal is opposed by a number of parties, including a group called the 4Competition Coalition Last week, the group announced a new alliance aimed at preventing the merger from happening.

Critics of the deal say it would reduce competition, cost thousands of jobs, and lead to higher prices for consumers. If the two companies merge as planned in the first half of 2019, the number of wireless providers in the United States will drop from four to three.

T-Mobile and Sprint have argued that joining forces is necessary to introduce 5G services.

As homelessness continues to inch higher, many of America’s cities wrestle with how to get people off the streets, out of shelters, and into affordable housing.

In the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD)’s new Annual Homeless Assessment Report to Congress, the only silver lining inside the homeless cloud was that homelessness among veterans fell 5.4 percent and homelessness experienced by families with children declined 2.7 percent nationwide since 2017.

"Our state and local partners are increasingly focused on finding lasting solutions to homelessness even as they struggle against the headwinds of rising rents," said HUD Secretary Ben Carson.

Matthew Doherty, executive director of the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness, pointed to a lack of affordable housing as “the fundamental obstacle to making further progress in many communities."

The affordable housing dilemma

Finding affordable rental housing anywhere in America is problematic for those who walk that line between homelessness and four walls they can call their own.

As U.S. News and World Report discovered in its annual "Best Places to Live" study, moving to a new home is no easy task, especially for those who opt to move to a completely different part of the U.S.

"You’re not only considering the type of house or apartment you want, but you're also weighing whether you’ll be able to afford the area, send your kids to good schools, get to work easily and a number of other major factors," wrote Devon Thorsby, U.S. News’ Editor, Real Estate.

While New York City, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Miami are off the affordability scale, there are places like Des Moines where residents spend 23.5 percent of their earned income on housing.

Zillow found most affordable homes are in the Southeast and Midwest. Those regional cities that offer a better bang for the real estate buck include Grand Rapids, Michigan, where the median monthly rent is $786, and Greenville, South Carolina, where rent will only set you back $762 a month.

Help is on the way

HUD Secretary Ben Carson says that improvements are being made to help consumers attain affordable housing. He says HUD can help by promoting more housing development across the country.

In his best effort to dispel the reports of bleak conditions for first-time homebuyers, Mr. Carson told the Wall Street Journal that given escalating home sales and rental prices, for homelessness "to be relatively flat is actually pretty good."

Carson’s agency already has an initiative called Housing First on its feet. Housing First’s baseline motive is that a homeless person or family’s most basic need is having stable housing. If there are other issues that may affect the household -- for example, sobriety -- those can and should be addressed once housing is obtained.

Technology is stepping up to help, as well. Earlier this year, Texas-based ICON teamed up with New Story, a California-based non-profit to create 3D-printed affordable homes, costing under $10,000 and benefiting those in need.

The farm recently identified as one source of the E. coli contamination in romaine lettuce is also recalling its cauliflower, as well as its red- and green-leaf lettuce. The Adam Bros. Farms of Santa Maria, CA says it’s recalling additional lettuce products “out of an abundance of caution.”

The decision follows the FDA’s announcement last week that the California farm was at least partially responsible for the E. coli romaine lettuce outbreak that sickened 59 consumers across 15 states.

In a statement, the farm said none of the additional products it’s recalling have tested positive for E. coli, nor have any consumers been sickened by the products -- there is only the possibility of contamination.

Employees from the farm added that they "discovered that sediment from a reservoir near where the produce was grown tested positive for E. coli. Filtered and treated water from the reservoir may have come in contact with the produce after it was harvested.”

Connected to the outbreak

The potentially affected cauliflower was harvested in California from November 27 through 30 and shipped to retailers across Arizona, California, Illinois, Louisiana, Maryland, North Carolina, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, and Pennsylvania, as well as to Canada and Mexico.

The products were distributed to California, Colorado, Texas, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Washington, and Canada.

Consumers in possession of cauliflower that was harvested in California during the dates specified should throw it out or bring it back to the grocery store.

"Adam Bros. Farming, Inc. feels a strong commitment to its customers and has worked for years to provide a safe and healthy food supply," the company said.

The FDA said on Thursday that the lettuce grown and distributed by Adam Bros. Farms isn’t responsible for the entire outbreak. At this point, the investigation has identified 11 distributors, nine growers, and eight farms as potential sources.

Health officials are still advising consumers not to eat romaine from growing regions near Northern and Central California. Romaine grown in greenhouses or hydroponically should be safe for consumption.

If you’ve received a phone call from an obvious scammer this holiday season, you’re in good company. A new report by First Orion shows scam calls are up 129 percent over last year’s holiday season.

A survey of 1,000 consumers found 62 percent had received a call from a scammer within the last seven days, compared to only 27 percent a year ago. Over half the consumers in the survey said they receive more spam calls than legitimate phone calls.

First Orion is the same company that recently predicted that over half the calls made to mobile phones next year will be fraudulent unless providers do something to screen them. Providers are under pressure from the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and state attorneys general to step up the campaign against illegal number “spoofing” and the escalating number of robocalls.

One of the most prevalent holiday scams is a caller asking for a donation to a phony charity. The survey shows that kind of scam has the best chance of success.

Charity scams are the most effective

Sixteen percent of consumers said they received a call from someone claiming to be from a charitable organization. Unfortunately, 25 percent of those consumers said they fell for it.

Other common calls pushing scams this holiday season revolve around debt and credit cards. Sixteen percent of consumers said that was their most recent call. Twelve percent said their most recent scam call tried to sell them on a cruise or vacation package, and 12 percent said their last call was from someone claiming to be from the IRS.

Last year, scammers averaged $430 from each successful swindle. Of the 1,000 consumers in the survey, 8 percent said they had experienced some kind of financial loss from a criminal who called them.

Of the people who admitted to being scammed, 43 percent said they divulged credit card information while 28 percent said they revealed their Social Security number. Eleven percent said they gave a scammer their username and password to one of their accounts.

There could be a significant benefit for any cellular provider who finds a workable method of blocking spam calls. The First Orion survey found 79 percent of consumers would be more inclined to switch to a carrier that could automatically block scam calls.

Twitter has notified some users that a bug may have exposed their personal data.

Those affected had an associated phone number on their account. The data leak shared the country code of the associated phone number, “as well as whether or not their account had been locked,” Twitter said in a notice.

The company hasn’t provided an estimate for how many accounts potentially had information exposed. Twitter initially spotted the issue in November, but it didn’t disclose details of the problem until earlier this week for reasons that remain unclear.

“No action is required by you and we have resolved the issue,” Twitter said.

Malicious actors

Twitter said “unusual activity” came through one of its support forms for contacting the company. The company found a large number of inquiries from IP addresses in China and Saudi Arabia.

“While we cannot confirm intent or attribution for certain, it is possible that some of these IP addresses may have ties to state-sponsored actors,” Twitter wrote.

While the amount of information exposed in the leak was minor in comparison to other breaches that have occured this year, TechCrunch noted that malicious actors could have used the security flaw to “figure out in which countries accounts were based, which could have ramifications for whistleblowers or political dissidents.”

Users who may have had their country code improperly shared were contacted directly. Twitter has stated that full phone numbers were not leaked and users don’t have to do anything in response.

The Commerce Department reports housing starts surged 3.2 percent in November, a report that would appear to suggest a reversal in the recent housing market slowdown. But a closer look at the numbers shows that isn’t the case.

Builders aren’t putting up single-family homes, which are in short supply in the “starter home” category. Instead, nearly all the new construction in November was focused on building more apartment buildings.

With rising home prices and the highest mortgage rates in a decade, consumers aren’t buying as many homes, but people have to live somewhere. With more consumers renting their homes instead of buying, builders are adding to the supply of apartments. This comes as good news for renters who prefer to remain renters. Not only will there be more apartments to choose from, but an increase in the supply should also keep rents stable.

In early December Apartment List, an online rental marketplace reported its national rent index increased by 0.1 percent month-over-month, the second straight monthly increase after a slight dip in September.

Year-over-year, the increase is only 1.3 percent, a much lower rate than home prices have risen. It’s also a lower rate of rent increases when compared to both 2016 and 2017.

Fewer single-family homes

Meanwhile, the latest housing data shows builders are shying away from new single-family home construction. Single-family housing starts plunged 4.6 percent last month and were down more than 13 percent year-over-year.

Builders find small starter homes less profitable than more expensive luxury homes, but they are finding it hard to sell those more expensive homes in the current market. In its latest report, the National Association of Realtors (NAR) said pending home sales tumbled 2.6 percent in October.

NAR Chief Economist Lawrence Yun said the recent rise in mortgage rates has reduced the pool of eligible buyers. Many could end up in those new apartments now under construction.

Though many feelings and experiences from childhood carry over into adulthood, particularly those that are traumatic or stressful, a new study found that a strong parental figure can help allay those feelings over the long term.

Researchers from the Emory School of Medicine explored the way a parental figure, or different parenting styles, can affect children’s responses to stress, though the results were most promising for younger children.

“Interventions such as parent training designed to help parents respond positively to young children, might be especially important in situations that are really challenging or where there are low resources,” said researcher Jennifer Stevens.

Managing stress

The researchers performed a two-part experiment, with one part focusing solely on the children’s responses and the other focusing on mothers and their children working together. In both trials, the researchers used an fMRI machine to evaluate changes in the amygdala -- the part of the brain that processes fear and emotions.

In the mother/child part of the experiment, the researchers had the pairs work on an Etch-a-Sketch project and then had the children rate their mothers’ facial expressions over the course of the project. Afterwards, the children were shown pictures of adults making various facial expressions.

For the younger children in the experiment (aged eight through 10), their mothers’ reactions and responses affected their brain’s response to fear. The children were more likely to have a delayed response to the faces that were considered fearful when their mothers’ were more patient and positive with them during the Etch-a-Sketch project.

Though this result wasn’t the same for the older group of participants (aged 11-13), it shows that for younger children, their parents can help determine their response to fear, and even help to make them less fearful.

In the other experiment, children were shown pictures of adults, again showing a wide variety of facial expressions.

The researchers found that the children who hadn’t experienced anything traumatic in their lives reacted only to the faces that were scary or threatening. However, for the children who had experienced poverty or violence, their brains gave off the fear response for pictures of faces that were both threatening and non-threatening.

Overall, the study shows that regardless of the circumstances children grew up in, the bond with their parents can shape how they view stressful or potentially harmful situations.

Parental influence

Parents can influence their children throughout their lives in more ways than they realize. A recent study found that harsh parenting can affect children’s performance in school.

Children raised in stricter households were found to place a greater emphasis on their friend groups instead of their school work, and both boys and girls were at a greater risk of dropping out of school and engaging in risky behaviors.

“In our study, harsh parenting was related to lower educational attainment through a set of complex cascading processes that emphasized present-oriented behaviors at the cost of future-oriented educational goals,” said lead author Rochelle F. Hentges.

Similarly, researchers found that moms’ lifestyles, particularly where weight loss or gain is concerned, can affect their children’s habits; however, dads appear to be off the hook.

The study found that in households where the mom lost weight -- even slightly -- the children had lower body mass indices (BMIs). The inverse was also true -- when moms gained weight, the children also tended to have extra weight. However, children weren’t affected by their dads’ weight fluctuations. 

Volkswagen Group of America is recalling 12 model year 2018 Audi A5 Sportbacks and model year 2017-2018 Audi A4 Allroad vehicles.

A passenger airbag module mounting screw may not have been tightened sufficiently, possibly affecting the deployment of the airbag in the event of a crash.

If the airbag does not deploy correctly, the risk of an injury can increase.

What to do

Volkswagen will notify owners, and dealers will inspect the airbag mounting screw, tightening or replacing it as necessary, free of charge.

The recall is expected to begin January 26, 2019.

Owners may contact Audi customer service at 1-800-253-2834. Volkswagen's number for this recall is 69Y4.

Mercedes-Benz USA (MBUSA) is recalling 16 model year 2019 E450 4Matic and E63S AMG wagons.

The vehicles have a tailgate mounted spoiler that may not be properly attached and therefore could detach while the vehicle is being driven.

If the spoiler detaches while the vehicle is moving, it can become a road hazard, increasing the risk of a crash.

What to do

MBUSA will notify owners, and dealers will inspect and correct the mounting of the spoiler, as necessary, free of charge.

The recall is expected to begin December 19, 2018.

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

Separate class action lawsuits focused on Google’s location tracking mechanism amid claims that the tech titan unlawfully stored user location information have been combined into a single suit in California.

According to TopClassActions, U.S. District Judge Edward J. Davila approved a consolidation of six proposed Google class action lawsuits in order to “promote efficiency and avoid the possibility of inconsistent judgments.”

The lawsuits claim that to completely block Google from saving location data, a user would have to disable the “web and app activity” setting in their account. Google reportedly failed to inform users about the setting, nor did it disclose that the setting was “crucial” in the company’s power to track and store user data.

“Google improperly baited users into using its applications and functionalities without worrying about their privacy by representing to users that they could control Google’s access to their location data and allowing them to opt out of giving Google their location data, then Google switched users into allowing it to collect their location data,” one of the Google tracking class actions stated.

The U.S. Supreme Court waved that red flag in a separate case where chief justice John Roberts commented that when a third party has access to the information stored on one’s cell phone, that entity “achieves near perfect surveillance, as if it had attached an ankle monitor to the phone’s user.”

The backstory

The genesis of the Google suit started with an investigation by the Associated Press (AP), in which computer science researchers at Princeton University were able to create a visual map of the movements of the study’s subject as he moved around with his Android phone that had Location History toggled off.

The map included the subject’s “train commute on two trips to New York and visits to the High Line park, Chelsea Market, Hell’s Kitchen, Central Park, and Harlem. To protect his privacy, The AP didn’t plot the most telling and frequent marker -- his home address.”

Following the Associated Press’ scrutiny, Google updated its disclosures. However, plaintiffs in the Google class action lawsuits claim that this was “too little, too late and does not absolve the company of liability.”

The AP’s findings were confirmed by Vanderbilt University computer science professor Douglas C. Schmidt in a separate study.

“Google counts a large percentage of the world’s population as its direct customers, with multiple products leading their markets globally and many surpassing 1 billion monthly active users,” Schmidt concluded.

“A major part of Google’s data collection occurs while a user is not directly engaged with any of its products. And while such information is typically collected without identifying a unique user, Google distinctively possesses the ability to utilize data collected from other sources to de-anonymize such a collection.”

The data that Google collects

Since Google found itself under the heat lamp on the matter, it’s seemingly doing its best to make sure users know what data they’re allowing the company to collect and use.

When “Web & App Activity” is on, Google saves information like:

• Searches and other things you do on Google products and services, like Maps

• Your location, language, IP address, referrer, and whether you use a browser or an app

• Ads you click, or things you buy on an advertiser’s site

• Information on your device like recent apps or contact names you searched for

• Websites and apps you use

• Your activity on websites and in apps that use Google services

• Your Chrome browsing history

Do you have an Android phone?

The magnitude of Google’s data collection is significant, especially on Android mobile devices where it’s estimated that those devices send 10 times more data to Google than iPhones. And when you multiply that data times the two billion active monthly users that connect to the world using that platform, the data net that Google casts is vast.

Google might argue that it’s codependent on Android since it’s the ecosystem for many related products ranging from wristwatches to coffee machines. Nonetheless, Google’s ability to give or deny data collection is squarely on users’ shoulders.

If any of this unnerves you as an Android owner, the best next step to take is following Google’s guide to data collection for Android.

iPad and iPhone users should also double-check their Google data collection settings, as should anyone who relies on a desktop or laptop for connecting to the internet.

Facebook has once again notified users that some things not meant to be shared might have been accessed anyway because of a system bug.

In this case, Facebook says photos that users might have started uploading but were not ready to share might have been exposed. The company says 6.8 million users could have been affected.

“Our internal team discovered a photo API bug that may have affected people who used Facebook Login and granted permission to third-party apps to access their photos,” Facebook’s Tomer Bar explained in a blog post. “We have fixed the issue but, because of this bug, some third-party apps may have had access to a broader set of photos than usual for 12 days between September 13 to September 25, 2018.”

How it’s supposed to work

Normally when a Facebook user gives permission for an app to access their Facebook photos, the platform only gives access to the photos people have shared on their timeline. But in this case, Bar says the bug in the system could have given developers access to photographs shared on Marketplace and Facebook Stories, and other images that people uploaded but had not yet posted.

“For example, if someone uploads a photo to Facebook but doesn't finish posting it - maybe because they've lost reception or walked into a meeting - we store a copy of that photo for three days so the person has it when they come back to the app to complete their post,” Bar wrote.

This week Facebook says it will offer tools for app developers that will help them determine which people using their app might have been affected. The company will also work with developers to help them delete photos that were not meant to be shared.

Affected users will be notified

Users whose pictures might have accidentally been shared will also get a message from Facebook informing them of the issue. The notification will direct them to a Help Center link where they'll be able to see if they've used any apps that were affected by the bug.

Ireland’s Data Protection Commission, which is tasked with enforcing the European Union’s (EU) General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), notes that this is just the latest breach notification it has received from the social media giant since the GDPR went into effect in May.

“With reference to these data breaches, including the breach in question, we have this week commenced a statutory inquiry examining Facebook’s compliance with the relevant provisions of the GDPR,” the agency said in a statement.

More Americans are going an entire week or longer without making any cash purchases, according to a recent analysis from the Pew Research Center.

As of Fall 2018, roughly three-in-ten (or 29 percent) of adults in the U.S. said they make no purchases using physical currency during a typical week -- that’s up from 24 percent in 2015, according to Pew.

Demographic patterns in the new survey were similar to those from Pew’s 2015 survey.

“Most notably, adults with an annual household income of $75,000 or more are more than twice as likely as those earning less than $30,000 a year to say they do not make any purchases using cash in a typical week (41% vs. 18%),” Pew said in a release.

“Conversely, lower-income Americans are about four times as likely as higher-income Americans to say they make all or almost all of their purchases using cash (29% vs. 7%),” the Center said.

Going cashless

Pew’s research suggested that a growing percentage of consumers are becoming comfortable without cash.

About half of Americans (53 percent) said they try to make sure they always have cash on hand just in case they need it, which represented a 7-percentage-point drop from the 60 percent who said the same in 2015.

However, less than half (46 percent) of consumers said they “don’t really worry much about whether they have cash with them, since there are lots of other ways to pay for things.” In 2015, only 39 percent of U.S. consumers said they felt this way.

Around four-in-ten consumers (43 percent) who said they don’t really worry about having cash on hand said they don’t normally use cash to pay for their weekly purchases, compared with 18 percent of consumers who report that they try to make sure they always have cash.

Pew’s research revealed that younger consumers (those under the age of 50) were more likely than those 50 and older to say they don’t typically worry about having cash in their wallet. Fifty-two percent of 18- to 49-year-olds felt this way, compared to only 38 percent of those 50 and older.

The new research comes as more businesses are making changes intended to reduce the need for consumers to use cash. Amazon plans to open more of its cashier-less Amazon Go stores by 2021, and Kroger is experimenting with a cashless checkout system of its own.

Consumers increasingly rely on the internet to make purchases, but ecommerce continues to evolve. Some of those changes may benefit consumers in the months ahead, but some might not.

Absolutnet, an ecommerce marketing consultant, has analyzed the industry and identified what it says will be 10 significant trends in the coming year.

Activist consumers

Consumers’ spending patterns are increasingly influenced by their values. This is especially the case among millennial consumers.

This has begun to spill over into ecommerce, especially when it comes to shipping and packaging. Absolutnet predicts a growing segment of consumers is less impressed by two-day shipping, considering it environmentally wasteful. They have similar feelings about products encased in single-use plastic.

End of free returns

Retailers have not only offered free shipping to capture consumers’ loyalty; many offer free returns as well. But Absolutnet predicts that convenience may be about to end in 2019.

The company points out free returns currently cost retailers about $400 billion and returns have increased by 53 percent since 2019.

The tax-free party is over

Thanks to a 2018 Supreme Court ruling, states are aggressively collecting sales tax on internet purchases, and more retailers are complying. In states where the sales tax is 5 percent or more, that can be a sizable increase in the cost of the purchase.

Improvements in mobile

In the beginning, consumers bought things online using their PC because that was just about the only option. Today, however, consumers are increasingly likely to order with a mobile device.

Retailers know that and are working to make it easier. Absolutnet predicts “Mobile eCommerce is about to get much, much faster and more fluid.”

Social media as a marketplace

In 2019 you may not have to go to a retailer’s website to order what you want. One of the year’s biggest trends may be the ability to order directly from a social media platform.

More helpful QR codes

QR codes make it easier and faster for a retailer or manufacturer to give consumers information about a product. In 2019, QR codes are likely to impart even more data. They will also no longer be dependant upon an app.

The ‘Amazonation’ of retail

There’s no question that Amazon has had a major impact on retail, and not all of it has been negative. Absolutnet predicts more brick-and-mortar retailers will increasingly become online retailers.

In 2018, both Walmart and Target made moves in that direction. Look for nearly everyone to follow their lead in 2019.

Shopping on the go

Another way brick-and-mortar retailers have tried to counter Amazon is making it more convenient to shop. You can be in your car and place an order using a mobile app, then drive to the store to have an employee place your purchase in your car.

Supermarkets and department stores have been leaders in this trend. In 2019, even smaller stores will likely start providing this service. Retailers will also use your location to send messages about stores, restaurants, and gas stations that are nearby.

Buying from a computer

Absolutnet predicts retailers will hire their first artificial intelligence (AI) sales personnel in 2019. Chances are consumers will be talking to computers in the coming year.

Product content syndication

Retailers will become more efficient in giving consumers product information and, increasingly, will use syndication to do it. Product content syndication is content that is automatically pushed to multiple sites/channels from a centralized point, broadening its reach and visibility while ensuring consistency.

California regulators have dropped their proposal to levy a surcharge on text messages made by state residents. The California Public Utilities Commission said a new ruling by the FCC prevented the state from adding a tax on text plans.

"On Dec. 12, 2018, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) issued a declaratory ruling finding that ‘text messaging’ is an information service, not a telecommunications service, under the Federal Telecommunications Act," the CPUC said in a statement.

The CPUC said that texting could have been subject to state tax under California law if it were considered a telecommunications service.

"In light of the FCC's action, assigned Commissioner Carla J. Peterman has withdrawn from the CPUC's Jan. 10, 2019 Voting Meeting" the text tax proposal.

“Illogical, anticompetitive and harmful to consumers”

Last week, the agency said it was pushing for the text tax in the hope that it would help increase funds for programs that provide telecommunications services to low-income residents. A vote on the measure was set to happen on January 10.

The proposed measure faced stiff opposition from the wireless industry, business groups, and others.

The CTIA, a trade group representing wireless companies, argued that the measure would have created inequity "between wireless carriers and other providers of messaging services," such as WhatsApp, iMessage, and Skype.

"Subjecting wireless carriers' text messaging traffic to surcharges that cannot be applied to the lion's share of messaging traffic and messaging providers is illogical, anticompetitive, and harmful to consumers," the CTIA said in a legal filing.

State residents also voiced their opposition to the idea.

"Of course California wants to tax your text messages. They would tax your toilet use if they could, " one Twitter user said.

It’s not the kind of news retailers want to hear just days before Christmas. Consumers appear less confident that they can pay their credit card bills, which could influence last-minute holiday spending.

CompareCards, a division of LendingTree, reports its Credit Card Confidence Index dipped in December showing consumers are less confident they can pay off their credit card bills in full. That doesn’t necessarily mean that consumers won’t keep spending, but worries about carrying a balance -- or increasing one -- could rein in purchases.

On a scale of one to five, 61 percent of cardholders rated their confidence level a four or five, down from 64 percent who felt that way the month before. At the other end of the scale, slightly more consumers rated their confidence level between 1 and 2 than they did in November.

How about paying off the balance within six months? Using that same scale, only 67 percent of cardholders were confident they could do that, compared to 71 percent in November.

Subject to interpretation

The numbers, of course, are subject to interpretation. It doesn’t necessarily mean consumers’ economic position is slipping; it could mean their spending during the holiday shopping season has increased.

Consumers who usually pay off a $500 credit card bill each month might have spent twice that during the holiday shopping season so far and realize they may need a couple of months to  clear the ledger.

Other data within the survey suggests that could be the case. More than a third of consumers -- 37 percent -- said they paid off their credit card balance in full in each of the last six months, suggesting prudent use of their plastic.

At the same time, 20 percent of the consumers in the survey said they were not able to pay their credit card balance in full even once in the last six months.

Glass is half-full?

Matt Schulz, chief industry analyst at CompareCards, prefers to see the results as a “glass is half-full” scenario, noting that the numbers are pretty good considering the stock market’s recent swoon and the fact that consumers are shopping for the holidays.

"Frankly, the fact that it didn't dip more may be a testament to just how confident Americans still feel about their finances,” Schulz said. “While the economy is certainly strong today, the next few months hold many potential landmines as people wrestle with increasing debt, rising interest rates, an unpredictable political landscape, and a volatile stock market.”

A Commerce Department report shows consumers increased their spending at retailers last month 0.9 percent as holiday sales got underway in earnest.

Consumer spending for the third quarter was 3.6 percent higher. Analysts say the new numbers suggest the economy is still strengthening and could point to stronger-than-expected economic growth in the final three months of 2018.