Consumer News & Alerts   |   July 30, 2007

BUSH "SLOWLY KILLING" SAFETY AGENCY
So says Thomas Moore. Who is he to make such charges? Among other things, he's the senior member of the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC), the agency charged with ensuring the safety of children's clothing and toys, household items, sporting goods and other everyday products sold to American consumers.

In the best of times, the CPSC is not exactly a powerhouse. It's much smaller and more anonymous than the FDA and USDA, which regulate food and drugs, and lacks the horsepower of NHTSA, the agency that regulates auto safety. Yet the CPSC is responsible for hundreds of thousands of products -- most of them imported. It relies almost totally on the goodwill of companies to report defects and agree to recalls. Under the Bush Administration, the agency has fallen even farther behind, says Moore.

PUGNAPPED!
As the indictment of Atlanta Falcons quarterback Michael Vick makes clear, dogfighting is no longer confined to rural backwaters but is increasingly popular in major cities and suburbs, with major-league sports fans -- and players -- accounting for a growing piece of the action. This would be OK if it weren't for the dogs involved. Besides being viciously cruel to the pit bulls and other dogs thrown into the ring, dogfighting is also implicated in the dognapping and sacrifice of many smaller dogs, often swiped from their yards while the owners aren't looking.

This is what Sherrie of Baltimore thinks happened to her twin Pugs, Ritchie and Thomas. Through sheer determination and pugnaciousness, Sherrie has recovered Thomas but Ritchie is still missing in a city that is one of the dogfighting capitals of North America. Lisa Wade McCormick tells Thomas and Ritchie's story and also looks at the explosive growth of dogfighting and what it means for pet ownes.

GAS PRICES DROP
Exxon Mobil reported a quarterly profit of $10 billion, thanks in part to record-high gas prices earlier this year. However, prices dipped last week as OPEC pledged to produce more oil if needed. The nationwide average price was around $2.93 at week's end, though prices remained high in the Midwest because of refinery problems.

Greenest, Meanest A Honda Civic model that's powered by natural gas is the greenest car in America and a Volkswagen diesel-powered Touareg is the meanest vehicle in the land, at least according to the 2007 Green Book which ranks vehicles according to their environmental friendliness. The Toyota Prius and Honda Civic Hybrid take the second and third spots on the green list. There was not a single car from the Big 3 on the green list. Several on the meanies list, though.

What We Say Yet another survey finds Americans say they want more fuel-efficient cars. More than 90 percent of likely voters responding to a Pew Foundation poll said they want Congress to enact tough new gas mileage standards. Of course, the poll results would carry more weight if they were backed up by buying behavior.

WATERED DOWN
Many decades ago, your editor wrote a story quoting experts as saying that consumers who bought bottled water because they thought it was safer than tap water were wasting their money. Pepsi went into ultra spin control and, next thing you know, my then-boss -- the executive editor of the Associated Press -- ordered the story rewritten so it was more to the liking of Pepsi's flacks. But the truth will out eventually and, sure enough, Pepsi has at last conceded that its Aquafina comes not from babbling brooks high atop a snow-capped peak. It comes out of the tap. The only real difference is that it costs about 5,000 times as much as tap water. Those little plastic bottles don't do much for the environment either. And then there are all those trucks that ... well, you get the picture.

Bottled water tastes better than tap water because the chlorine is removed. This is basically what in-home filters do too. Removing the chlorine makes the water taste better but does nothing -- as in no thing -- to remove heavy metals or other potentially harmful pollutants.

Oh, and speaking of Pepsi, a new study links metabolic syndrome -- which can lead to diabetes, heart disease and other maladies -- to, you guessed it, diet soft drinks.

More health news ...

• Avandia, Other Diabetes Drugs Increase Risk of Heart Failure Fluid retention caused by the drugs may be to blame, researchers say.

• Air Pollution Linked To Clogged Arteries UCLA researchers demonstrate how diesel exhaust leads to hardening of the arteries.

• Hearing Test May Predict Sudden Infant Death Syndrome Inner ear abnormality detectable in newborn hearing test.

• Watch Out for Fat Friends Study finds obesity is contagious. Then again, so is thinness.

• Botulism Recall Extended to More Canned Goods Canned meat, dog food and chili among the recalled items.

• Airlines Seek Passengers Who Flew With Meningitis Patient Teen-aged girl flew from Orlando to Atlanta, then on to Wichita, Kansas.

Seniors take note ...

• Depression Not a Normal Part of Aging Old age might not be a barrel of laughs but depression's not normal and should be treated.

• Hip Protectors Don’t Protect Elderly In Falls: Study Seniors might as well save their money, researchers report.

• Researchers “A Step Closer” To Alzheimer’s Cure British scientists working on a drug that may stop, and ever reverse, progression of Alzheimer's.

THE 411 ON FREE 411
Directory Assistance has turned into what might politely be termed a crap shoot. For a hefty fee, operators who are apparently compatriots of Borat will give you a number that is not even remotely close to what you asked for. But there's hope. Our David Wood reports that it's now fairly simple to get 411 information that is free. Whether it's any closer to being accurate is another story.

More electronics and gadgetry developments ...

• Karmazin "Clarifies" XM-Sirius Merger Plans More room for family friendly and religious programming, he claims.

• Google, AT&T Square Off Over Wireless Broadband Google wants "open" system that encourages innovation, competition.

• MySpace Deletes More Sex Offenders Rupert Murdoch's MySpace finds 29,000 more potential predators.

• Court OKs Rebate Lawsuit against Cingular/AT&T Company advertises "rebate" but sends "reward card."

• Security Flaw Found In iPhone Hackers can take control of the phone and get access to personal information.

HOUSE OF CARDS
The stock market is increasingly jittery about the mess created by the subprime mortgage bender that has given the financial services industry a huge hangover. The housing markets aren't doing so well either. As easy credit dries up, it becomes harder to sell homes -- and also harder to buy them. Add that all together and our Martin Bosworth reports it's not hard to see why Wall Street has had to go lie down.

In other outrages ...

• Consumers Dispute FTC Report on Insurance Credit Scoring After due deliberation, the Federal Trade Commission issued a report that found little harm from the use of credit scores by insurance companies. Consumer groups reacted scornfully, saying it's more than a little apparent that using credit scores to fix insurance premiums discriminates against minorities and others who may, in fact, not be riskier clients than those with better credit.

• The Hartford Settles Up The company will pay $115 million to settle allegations by Connecticut, Illinois and New York that it faked bids and allowed illegal trading in some mutual funds.

RED CARPET TREATMENT
It was long ago said of a certain New England bishop that he took his winters in Florida not because he himself hated the brutal weather but, rather, because he could not stand to see the poor suffer. It is no doubt for similar humanitarian reasons that business travelers and others who are basically flying on someone else's money are so eager to sign up for the "Registered Traveler" programs that let them hustle around the lengthy security lines that greet taxpayers of more modest means. So for them, we guess it's welcome news that the programs are expanding to more taxpayer-financed airports where one would think everyone would be treated equally.

• Congress Finds Fault With FAA's Slow Fixes Air traffic controllers worn to a frazzle, Congressional committee finds.

• Lone Congressman Can’t Kill Amtrak But fate of the national passenger rail system remains in doubt as Bush threatens veto.

• Passengers Convince Cruise Line to Go Smokefree Royal Caribbean phasing in no-smoking rule on all its ships.

RECALLS

SCAMS & SCANDALS

• Feds Freeze Negative Option Telemarketer's Operations Suntasia lured consumers into "free" buyers' and travel clubs.

• Movie Extra Scam Ensnares St. Louis Man Man pays $600 for "ticket" that never arrived.

UNIVERSAL CRAZINESS
Lawbreakers are everywhere these days, but fortunately we have civic-minded corporate citizens ready to stand up for what's right. Thus, when the parents of 18-month-old Holden Lenz uploaded a YouTube video of Holden dancing -- well, sort of dancing -- as Prince's "Let's Go Crazy" blared in the background, Universal Music Publishing Group showed what it was made of.

Universal's lawyers shot their cuffs, snapped their suspenders and ran to the courthouse, filing suit against YouTube and Holden's parents, demanding that the dancing toddler video be removed, and also demanding huge sums to compensate the company and the artist for the irreparable harm caused them by this craven outrage against all that is wholly owned and copyrighted by the money men of music.

Those able to look lawbreakers in the eye can see the video on our site but, please, turn the sound down so as not to inflict any further irreparable harm on Universal.

SUMMER SCHEDULE
Our weekly and daily newsletters will be published somewhat sporadically in August, thanks to sorely needed vacations and beach junkets. We'd like to be more specific but not knowing how the ever-sifting sands of wireless broadband and Wi-Fi hotspots will be aligned this year, we're reluctant to make promises we can't keep. Thanks for your understanding.

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