Current Events in February 2024

Lovevery of Boise, Idaho, is recalling about 51,500 Slide & Seek ball runs with wooden knobs sold in the U.S. and Canada.

The packaging configuration can allow damage to the wooden knob on the ball run during shipping and cause it to come loose and detach, posing a choking hazard to children.

The firm has received 33 reports of the wooden knob detaching during shipping and six reports of the wooden knob detaching after shipment. No injuries have been reported.

This recall involves certain units of the 2023 Slide & Seek ball runs, which are wooden toys with a plastic ball ramp that is included in Lovevery’s Babbler Play Kits for children aged 13 to 15 months.

The recalled toys have a wooden knob on the door, do not have a Lovevery logo engraved on the bottom, and do not have a green sticker on the inside wall of the door with the wooden knob.

The ball runs, manufactured in China, were sold online at Lovevery.com as part of the Babbler Play Kit from June through November 2023, for about $120 for the kit.

What to do

Consumers run should immediately take the ball run away from children, stop using it, and contact Lovevery for a free replacement.

Consumers will receive a free replacement after registering on the firm’s website, removing and marking the affected door with a specific case number (which will be emailed to known purchasers), uploading a photo of their marked door to www.recallrtr.com/ballrun, and affirming to Lovevery that the door will be disposed of in the trash.

Lovevery is contacting all known purchasers directly.

Consumes may contact Lovevery online at www.recallrtr.com/ballrun, toll-free at (888) 520-0167 from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. (CT) Monday through Friday, or by email at ballrun@lovevery.com for more information.

What does the name “Rufus” mean to you? It's a name you don't hear much in this century, but it’s Amazon’s choice for its new AI shopping experience.

And the company swears up and down that it’s just the thing that can uncomplicate all the work you do to find exactly what you’re looking for.

The company points out that this is a “new” Alexa. Alexa may be able to tell you what the weather is, but it can’t answer your question about “Is this jacket machine washable?” or “What’s the difference between lip gloss and lip oil?” Amazon says that questions like that are what Rufus can take care of in no time at all.

“From broad research at the start of a shopping journey such as ‘what to consider when buying running shoes?’ to comparisons such as ‘what are the differences between trail and road running shoes?’ to more specific questions such as 'are these durable?’, Rufus meaningfully improves how easy it is for customers to find and discover the best products to meet their needs, integrated seamlessly into the same Amazon shopping experience they use regularly,” the company said in the announcement.

Here’s how Amazon thinks you’ll love Rufus

Using information from across Amazon and the web, Rufus can reportedly help you:

• Conduct more general product research on Amazon, such as “What to consider when buying headphones?”

• Search for products based on an activity or specific occasion, like “What do I need for a camping trip?”

• Compare categories so you can make more informed decisions

• Find the best recommendations and receive refined results

• Ask product detail questions to help you pick a product or find the perfect gift

Rufus is being launched in waves, beginning with a small subset of customers in the U.S. using its mobile app, and progressively rolling it out to the rest of our U.S. customers in the coming weeks.

If you’re a vegan, you – and three-fourths of the world – think that when you buy a “vegan” product, it’s completely free of anything derived from an animal. Guess again.

A new study by the Chartered Trading Standards Institute (CTSI) claims that despite that supposition, there is no legally binding definition for the term anywhere in the world.

That means that products that are labeled “vegan” can contain small amounts of eggs or dairy. Interestingly enough, things like fruit – presumably totally vegan – can contain trace amounts of animal-derived products. And a "trace" is enough to kill someone.

And it’s not just the things vegans eat, either. Several years ago, a lawsuit was brought by a vegan customer, who sued Michael Kors after buying a handbag advertised online as vegan, but later discovered it contained leather. In short, as BeVegCertified says, “Vegan claims lack credibility, accountability, and legitimacy.”

Plant-based and Valentine's sweets pose a problem, too

Plant-based food products are also an issue. In 2020, the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) upheld a complaint against Burger King and its plant-based ‘Rebel Whopper’ burger.

In the ASA’s mind, consumers should be able to take claims of '100% WHOPPER. NO BEEF’ and the term ‘plant-based burger’ as real, meaning that the sandwich had zero beef or animal protein in it at all.

The mistake that Burger King made wasn’t in the patty itself – it was completely plant-based – but where it ran afoul of the ASA was cooking the patty on the same grill as meat products, and the complete burger contained egg-based mayonnaise. Therefore, the sandwich as a whole wasn’t suitable for vegans or vegetarians. 

The upcoming Valentine’s Day could be iffy, too, for vegan consumers. For example, in its review of Valentine’s sweets, GoDairyFree says dairy-free Valentine's Day treats might be labeled as vegan, but could still risk cross-contamination or include non-vegan ingredients like eggs or honey, as indicated by "not vegan" disclaimers.

Who’s at risk? How to get around the issue?

There are probably some vegan food producers who are painstakingly careful about not making this mistake. “[But] with one in six people suffering with food allergies, there is a very important need for food to be labeled correctly,” CTSI researchers said. 

How do vegans get around this issue? Not easily, unfortunately. But there are some extra steps they can take to be a little more assured that “vegan means vegan.”

The first thing to do is read all labels carefully and look for non-vegan ingredients like milk, whey, casein, lactose, eggs, honey, gelatin, and certain types of vitamin D3.

Looking for certifications could help, too. Again, this will take some work as there are a number of organizations that “verify” whether a product is truly vegan or not, but here are the six certifications you should look for.

Inflation has fallen in recent months and one reason may be falling gasoline prices. But that might be about to change.

According to AAA, the national average price of regular gas is $3.15 a gallon, five cents higher than seven days ago. The average price is up six cents a gallon in the last month.

“We are in that time of year where pump prices begin to heat up, usually peaking around July,” said Andrew Gross, AAA’s spokesperson. “But unless something shocks the global oil market and causes prices to spike, the national average for a gallon of gas will probably stagger higher, with some flat days or even small price dips along the way.”

But something could be lurking that could cause prices to escalate faster than expected. Hostilities are increasing in the Middle East, and not just between Israel and Hamas. The conflict in Yemen is drawing in U.S. forces because of threats to shipping – primarily oil shipments.

Closer to home, there is a major outage at BP’s Whiting refinery, halting gasoline production. Patrick DeHaan, head of Petroleum Analysis at GasBuddy, says it is likely fuel production will stop for a couple of weeks, though he says that assessment could change with more information.. At the same time, he says gasoline demand is rising.

Where prices are rising the fastest

Prices are rising the most in the Southeast, which normally has the cheapest gas. Prices are already rising in the Midwest, a region that may feel the brunt of the refinery closure. Here are the states in the Southeast and Midwest that have seen the sharpest one-week increase in prices at the pump:

• West Virginia    + $.10

• Minnesota    + $.09

• Alabama    + $.08

• Virginia    + $.05

• Michigan    + $.04

Wyoming has the cheapest gas prices in the nation, with a statewide average price of regular at $2.68 a gallon. Oklahoma is second with an average price of $2.70.

California continues to have the highest gas prices in the nation. The statewide average for regular gas is $4.56 a gallon.

West Virginia, Mississippi, Arkansas, Louisiana and New Mexico. What do these five states have in common?

If you said they have the lowest income per capita in the U.S., you would be partially correct. Four of the five are in that category.

So it might be somewhat surprising that a new study from ConsumerAffairs found another common link among these five states: they have the largest percentage of mortgage-free homes in America. They have the largest percentage of homeowners who don’t make a monthly mortgage payment.

Owning your home free-and-clear is somewhat rare in the U.S., a status that usually isn’t achieved until later in life. Data from the National Association of Realtors (NAR) suggests that around 80% of buyers in the U.S. needed some kind of financing to purchase a home from July 2022 to June 2023. 

But in two states – West Virginia and Mississippi – slightly more than 50% of homeowners don’t have a mortgage.

Demographics

Jessica Lautz, NAR’s deputy chief economist and vice president of research, says demographics could be part of the explanation.

“This is likely a factor of home prices and how long the owner has been in the home,” said Lautz. “It is more likely that seniors who have been in their homes for longer periods would be mortgage-free. In areas like Colorado and Utah, which had pandemic-fueled housing booms, there may be more recent home buyers who have not yet had an opportunity to pay off their mortgage.”

In fact, about one-half of mortgage-free homeowners are 65 and older. Another factor is the recent trend of all-cash purchases, especially by people who sold houses in expensive states and moved to these states where prices are lower. 

“The U.S. still has tight housing inventory, and when there are multiple offers, the all-cash buyer is likely to win,” said Lautz. “In December of 2023, the share of all-cash buyers was 27% of home buyers.”

For those of us who work behind a desk, we’re doing a lot of sitting. 

All that sedentary time adds up, and according to a new study published in JAMA, there are health risks associated with sitting for too long. 

The researchers found that in order to counteract the negative effects of excessive sitting, desk workers are encouraged to do some extra exercise each day. 

“These findings suggest that reducing prolonged sitting in the workplace and/or increasing the volume or intensity of daily physical activity may be beneficial in mitigating the elevated risks of all-cause mortality and cardiovascular disease associated with prolonged occupational sitting,” the researchers wrote. 

Too much sitting comes with risks

For the study, the researchers analyzed data from nearly 500,000 participants who were enrolled in a health surveillance program in Taiwan from 1996 through 2017. Researchers collected information on the participants’ jobs, lifestyle, physical activity, and overall metabolic health, including blood pressure, cholesterol, blood sugar, and more. 

Ultimately, the researchers learned that sitting down for large portions of the day wasn’t good for the participants’ longevity. The study showed that those who had jobs that required sitting for the majority of the day had a 34% higher risk of death from cardiovascular disease, and a 16% higher risk of death from any cause. 

Exercise can help

However, you can counteract these negative health risks with some added exercise. The researchers explained that by increasing exercise each day, mostly sitting workers can lower their mortality risk. 

When sedentary workers upped their exercise by 15-30 minutes per day, their mortality risk lowered to match another group in the study – those who are more active at work but aren’t physically active. 

Another option: take frequent breaks throughout the work day to break up long periods of sitting. The study found that individuals who alternated throughout the day between sitting and standing were also not at an increased mortality risk. 

“As part of modern lifestyles, prolonged occupational sitting is considered normal and has not received due attention, even though its deleterious effects on health outcomes has been demonstrated,” the researchers wrote. “Emphasizing the associated harms and suggesting workplace system changes may help society to denormalize this common behavior, similar to the process of denormalizing smoking.”