It’s National Bacon Day and I’m celebrating it by advising consumers to stop eating bacon cured with sodium nitrate. When I began writing as a consumer journalist, one of the first things I found out that amazed me was sodium nitrate is a carcinogen. It was during the 1970s. When... Read more →
Do your Labor Day plans include an end-of-summer trip? If so, you might be traveling to one of the top U.S. destinations for the holiday. I researched several dozen websites to see which popular spots are attracting consumers for Labor Day 2014 travel. Here are the results: 1. New York... Read more →
Labor Day, the holiday to celebrate American workers, is coming up quickly. What are your plans? Will you be traveling, shopping, hosting a barbecue, relaxing, or attending a Labor Day event? Or, unluckily, working? Travel For those planning to travel, the roads will be jammed like most years. AAA Travel... Read more →
Photo: JKBRASIL I’m not a fan of television. Way too much violence and nonsense. I regularly watch “Grey’s Anatomy,” “Downton Abby,” the news, “Late Night With David Letterman,” and some of the evening cooking shows. I occasionally tune into “Dr. Phil” and a few shows on Channel 9. I don’t... Read more →
I’m the host for this week’s Best of Boomer Blogs #370. The fantastic weather in the Seattle area continues, and my garden is producing wonderful vegetables. But, what I write about this week on my blog are the surprises I’m finding my garden. Mostly nice, but one scary. For Tom... Read more →
The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission and Ace Bayou Corp. are announcing the recall of about 2.2 million bean bag chairs following the deaths of two children. The zippers on the bean bag chairs can be opened and children can then crawl inside, get trapped, and suffocate or choke on... Read more →
As the wonderful weather continues in the Seattle area, I’m enjoying, mostly, finding surprises in my garden. I’m occasionally finding a strawberry or two or three, which are so tasty now that the raspberries are long gone. This cucumber is a surprise because it’s from my smallest cucumber plant, which... Read more →
The Federal Trade Commission asked a federal court Friday to shut down a scam that targeted financially distressed Americans by pitching a phony debt relief and credit repair program. The program falsely claimed it was provided and funded by the federal government and endorsed by Pres. Barack Obama. The scam... Read more →
The U.S. Justice Department has reached a $16.65 billion settlement with the Bank of America Corp. – the largest civil settlement in American history – to resolve federal and state claims against the bank and Countrywide Financial Corp. and Merrill Lynch, companies it acquired in 2008. As part of the... Read more →
Fandango Inc. and Credit Karma Inc. are agreeing to settle Federal trade commission charges that the companies’ mobile apps left consumers’ sensitive personal information, including credit card information and Social Security numbers, vulnerable to interception by third parties. The lawsuits allege that the companies disabled a process called SSL certificate... Read more →