August marks the beginning of the end of summer, as well as a new school year for many people. Because of that, it may not seem like a good time for shopping anything other than pencils, notebooks, and backpacks. However, August has much more than back to school deals and... Read more →
Which cities are best for finding hidden gems at yard sales? To mark the annual 127 Yard Sale — The World’s Longest Yard Sale, starting Aug. 1 — Lawn Love ranked 2024's Best Cities for Scouring Garage Sales. It compared the 500 biggest U.S. cities based on four categories. More... Read more →
My daughter Mona is great at making salads. As part of a large farm family, she’s used to cooking for crowds. When she comes to visit, as she did for my July Fourth party, she always asks me to get out the large bowls. Then she peruses her vegetarian cookbooks, which she brings with her, and prepares her latest salad success. Read more →
Another huge recall deserves your attention. Best Lighting Products is recalling about 710,600 LED High Bay light fixtures and, in addition, about 19,100 were sold in Canada. Plastic pins securing the LED board can degrade, allowing the energized LED board to come loose and contact the lens or combustible materials, posing a fire risk. Read more →
Thursday I wrote about how more than 50 percent of inflation is caused by corporate price gouging and wondered why politicians don’t talk about it and news organizations don’t cover it. Friday I was going to write about the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau suing Acima and its former chief executive officer Aaron Allred for illegal lending activities. Read more →
It’s amazing that corporate price gouging gets such little attention. It’s responsible for more than 50 percent of inflation that’s causing consumers so much stress and hardship. However, it gets little publicity. Accountable.US, a consumer watchdog group, reports lots of information on this, but I seldom see it in the press. Here are a few examples: Read more →
What’s surveillance pricing? It’s when a company looks at information about you and sets the price of an item or service you want to buy based on that information. The FTC issued orders to eight companies offering surveillance pricing. It wants to know about the possible impacts these practices have on privacy, competition, and consumer protection. Read more →
Consumers need to read ingredient labels carefully to avoid brominated vegetable oil or BVO because, although the U.S. Food and Drug Administration finally banned it, products containing BVO may remain for sale on store shelves. BVO has mainly been used to help stabilize citrus flavorings in sodas, sports drinks, and energy drinks. Read more →
The evacuation of American Airlines Flight 2045 on July 12 at the San Francisco International Airport took longer to complete than the federal standard of 90 seconds. While only minor injuries were reported, delays in the evacuation created an unacceptable risk of major injuries or death for the passengers and crew. Read more →
Here’s another huge recall consumers need to know about. Bissell is recalling about 3.2 million steam shot handheld cleaners in the United States and another 355,000 in Canada. The recalled steam cleaners can spew hot water or steam onto users while heating or during use, posing a burn risk. Bissell has received 157 reports of minor burn injuries. Read more →