Consumer News & Alerts   |   November 13, 2006

IT TAKES MORE THAN TIME
It's been said that living well is the best revenge. But there's a little more to it -- you want to live well for as long as possible. That means making it to old age in solid physical and financial shape. The physical part is fairly simple -- exercise, no tobacco, a good diet, healthy ancestors and a little bit of luck will get you into your eighth or ninth decade. But what happens then? Mark Huffman takes a look at some of the essential steps, possibly including long-term care insurance, that can help ensure an old age that's not only healthy and wise, but wealthy too.

Planning for retirement involves more than insurance, of course. Buy the right mutual funds early enough and you can build up a nice nest egg. Wall Street veteran Fred Yager reviews the basics in his Picking the Right Mutual Funds.

Besides the challenge of aging healthily and wealthily, there's the challenge of detecting and deflecting scams ... like the "Grandparents Scam" and the Social Security update scam.

New Cell Phones Target Seniors Big numbers, simple rate plans make these cell phones more attractive to older consumers. Now if only someone would put bigger labels on the shampoo and hair conditioner bottles.

POLLS CLOSE, GAS PRICES START TO RISE
So, was it an election-year conspiracy that caused gas prices to fall nearly $1 a gallon since last spring? Guess we're about to find out. Gas prices inched up last week, hitting a nationwide average of $2.22 for a gallon of regular unleaded.

Gas price speculation aside, consumers are still stuck on hybrids and automakers are rushing to bring new models to market. General Motors is planning a new plug-in hybrid. The company is trying to live down its image as electric car killer. It's not only prospective hybrid owners who are sold on the concept. Prius ranks #1 in owner satisfaction, a recent survey finds.

REAL VS. IMAGINED DANGERS
Everyone knows a healthy diet is important but if you talk to food scientists, most of them will tell you that the #1 health risk is not too much trans fatty acid or not enough fruit, it's contamination ... primarily E. coli and salmonella. These were, of course, the causes of the recent spinach- and tomato-borne outbreaks. In fact, there are more than 1 million E. coli and salmonella infections in the U.S. annually. Irradiation of high-risk foods could cut that number drastically and save several hundred lives, says a University of Wisconsin physician writing in the New England Journal of Medicine. Call it something else ("naturally fresh") and most people would probably accept irradiation as casually as they accept an airport x-ray machine.

Another very real but largely ignored danger ...

Hotel Balcony Railings Many railings in older hotels and other public places are too widely spaced, allowing children to fall through. This might sound far-fetched, but children can and do fall through the widely-spaced railings. It happened to Lauren Shpigler's three-year-old son Sammy just minutes into a Hawaiian vacation, according to an investigative report on "Inside Edition."

Then there are the metal fragments possibly lurking in a few of the millions of bottles of store-brand acetaminophen caplets recalled last week. It was an odd recall. The caplet manufacturer refused to release the brand names under which the pills were marketed.

Not to mention the hidden dangers of tattoos. Sure, everybody knows you can get HIV or hepatitis if the equipment's not sterilized, but toxic chemicals in the ink? Who knew?

WEIGHT LOSS CHARLATANS GAINING
More Americans are trying to lose weight but, unfortunately, they're relying on unproven, ineffective and possibly unsafe products, a new University of Connecticut study concludes. The study found that more than 60 percent incorrectly believe their chosen weight-loss products have been tested and proven to be safe and effective. In fact, nutritional supplements for years have been able to get away with saying almost anything, thanks to a little help from their friends in Congress. Maybe it's time for that to change?

THE PEOPLE SPOKE ... LOUDLY
Now and then, the voters get their chance, and like a jury that had sat through an interminable trial, they brought back a pretty stiff verdict this time. We would like to think that Congress has gotten a clear message that The People want their welfare to be considered on a par with the interests of Big Business and the defense/intelligence contractors who infest the intra-Beltway region. Any number of consumer issues should be on the agenda ... including telephone bill cramming, privacy and net neutrality and gas and car prices .

New Top Cops On the state level, new attorneys general will be taking charge of consumer protection and other issues in their states. Some of them have some pretty familiar names -- like Brown, Cuomo and Biden. AGs who do a good job of fighting for consumers can find themselves moving on to higher office. Just ask Eliot Spitzer and Charlie Crist, now the governors-elect of New York and Florida, respectively.

CALENDAR ITEMS
It may not show up on your calendar, but the holiday season starts early this year. So Wal-Mart and other big retailers would have you believe. Halloween was hardly over but you could hear those sleigh bells start to ring. Is this a good thing? Time will tell, we suppose. One thing seems certain: this will be the year that retailers put the Christmas back in the holidays. Wal-Mart, which took a lot of heat for being too ecumenical last year, will be ho-ho-hoing everey chance it gets.

FLY EARLY, STAY LATE
The holiday travel season is always something of a barely controlled crash landing and it's liable to be even worse this year, with airp***s more crowded than ever and airports cursed with long security lines and baggage foul-ups. Most important thing to remember: avoid the Sunday after Thanksgiving.

Airline Performance A Mixed Bag In September More flights on time in September, but more bags were lost, according to the federal number-crunchers. Best advice: arrive early, travel light.

RECALLS

SCAMS & OUTRAGES

• Stock-Touting Scam Emails touting a little-known stock are almost certainly a scam.

• "Smishing" Phishing techniques moving to the cell phone networks.

• "Vishing" It combines email and voice technology to swipe your account data.

• Zango Company placed pop-up ads, adware on consumers' computers without permission.

• Postal Jobs Tennessee company sold worthless prep materials for jobs that didn't exist.

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