The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, under the direction of acting Interior Secretary David Bernhardt, has issued a revised contingency plan ordering as many as 40 Interior Department personnel to continue work on the Trump administration’s revised five-year offshore leasing plan during the partial government shutdown. The agency said the... Read more →
Photo credit: M.O. Stevens Sterling Jewelers Inc. has agreed to pay $11 million after investigations by the New York Attorney General’s Office and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau found that Sterling signed consumers up for store credit cards without the consumers’ knowledge or consent. Sterling also enrolled consumers in a... Read more →
Two-thirds of consumers believe that real estate agents are always or almost always required to represent the interests of the home buyer or seller with whom they are working, according to a survey. Yet, many agents working with consumers represent the interests of the other party or the interests of... Read more →
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration should immediately ban the widely-used gout medication febuxostat because it poses unique, serious risks – including the risk of dying from cardiovascular disease – and provides no unique benefit, Dr. Michael Carome, director of Public Citizen’s Health Research Group, said Friday. Public Citizen petitioned... Read more →
With 800,000 federal employees being furloughed or working without pay, many stories have been reported about people having difficulty paying their bills including mortgages, rent, car payments, and student loans. How much money should consumers have for an emergency fund? The standard recommendation is three to six months of expenses.... Read more →
It’s a new year and time to think about fresh starts, new goals, and another year under our belts. No matter life’s ups and downs, the baby boomer bloggers in our group keep writing articles and booming along. This week they’re writing about travel, names for grandchildren, holiday spending, menopause... Read more →
Toyota is recalling 1.3 million vehicles in North America and Fiat Chrysler is recalling more than 1.6 million vehicles worldwide. The airbag inflators can explode when deployed and scatter metal fragments, which can strike, injure, and even kill vehicle occupants. Toyota’s announcement Wednesday includes 1.3 million vehicles in the United... Read more →
Recently, I was fortunate to visit my daughter in Madrid, and we had a wine-tasting road trip to the Castellón region on the Mediterranean south of Barcelona and north of Valencia. The Castellón winemakers are working on rebuilding the wine industry of the region. In 1982, local producers were forced... Read more →
Fiat Chrysler Automobiles and Robert Bosch agreed Thursday to settle charges related to “defeat device” software intended to circumvent emissions standards for air pollutants. Bosch, a parts supplier, supplied and programmed the software used by Fiat Chrysler and Volkswagen in diesel vehicles. The two agreements, to be filed later this... Read more →
Consumer, worker, health, and safety protection agencies throughout the federal government are being disrupted by federal worker furloughs coming from the partial government shutdown, according to a report Public Citizen released Wednesday. “As long as the shutdown continues, essential consumer, worker, health and safety protections carried out by these agencies... Read more →