The Survive and Thrive Boomer Guide

Despite government shutdown, Trump administration continues to work with the gas and oil indistries on offshore drilling

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 move necessary to “comply with the Administration’s America First energy strategy.”

Earthjustice, the League of Conservation Voters, and the Natural Resources Defense Council are critical of the move.

“As the American people experience the painful effects of the Trump Shutdown, the administration is busy serving the oil and gas industry," the groups said in a joint statement Thursday. "Instead of working with Congress to end the longest government furlough in American history, the Trump administration is prioritizing a radical, unpopular plan to subject America’s coasts to more offshore drilling. The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management is asking dozens of employees to return to work at the behest of oil and gas industry lobbyists.

Sterling Jewelers agrees to $11 million settlement for signing consumers up for store credit cards without their consent

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 credit insurance product without consumers’ knowledge or consent and misrepresented the terms of the store cards. Under to the settlement, Sterling will pay $11 million in penalties.

“By tricking consumers into enrolling in store credits cards, Sterling Jewelers betrayed customers’ trust and violated the law,” said New York Attorney General Letitia James. “This settlement holds the company accountable for its misconduct and ensures that no more consumers are deceived.”

Sterling, doing business as Kay Jewelers, Jared The Galleria of Jewelry, and other brands, is based in Ohio and operates about 1,500 jewelry stores throughout the United States.

FDA should ban widely used, deadly gout medication, consumer group says

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 the FDA to ban the medication in June 2018.

The FDA convened advisory committees in response to a request from Takeda Pharmaceuticals America, maker of the brand name febuxostat product Uloric, for approval to update the medication’s labeling to include results of a recently completed clinical trial. The trial, which involved more than 6,000 gout patients, showed that patients taking febuxostat were significantly more likely to die from cardiovascular causes compared with those receiving the much older gout medication allopurinol.

Initial clinical trials testing febuxostat prior to FDA approval linked the medication to possible increased risks of serious cardiovascular outcomes, including heart attack, stroke, and death. The FDA rejected the medication twice due to these safety concerns before approving it in 2009 on the condition that the manufacturer conduct the now-completed large, post-market clinical trial to further evaluate the cardiovascular risks.

Toyota and Fiat Chrysler recalling about 3.3 million vehicles due to faulty airbags

Toyota is recalling 1.3 million vehicles in North America and Fiat Chrysler is recalling more than 1.6 million vehicles worldwide.

The air bag 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 States.

Castellón wine region in Spain working on rebuilding its wine industry

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 by law to uproot their hybrid vines. This seriously damaged the agrarian sector of villages such as Cabanes, Vilafamés, Vall d´Alba, Benlloch, and Les Useres.

The first winery we visited was in Vilafamés, 16 miles northwest of Castellón. We had to park outside the town of 2,000 and walk up a hill because tourist cars aren’t allowed in the town, only local residents.

Fiat Chrysler agrees to pay $800 million to settle charges of emissions cheating

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 programed the software used by Fiat Chrysler and Volkswagen in diesel vehicles.

The two agreements, to be filed later this month, will provide compensation for consumers who purchased or leased Fiat Chrysler vehicles containing illegal defeat devices and more than $172.5 million to 49 states, the District of Columbia, Guam, and Puerto Rico.

Fiat Chrysler and Bosch attempted to pull the wool over the eyes of American consumers, and pollute their way to the bank, said New York Attorney General Letitia James.

Did you overspend for the holidays?

About 93 million Americans, or 37 percent, overspent over the holidays, and 46 million people, or 18 percent if Americans, regret at least one holiday purchase, according to WalletHub’s 2019 Post-Holiday Shopping Season Survey.

“Buyer’s remorse is especially common when a purchase is made on impulse,” said Paul Rose, interim dean of the School of Education, Health, and Human Behavior at Southern Illinois University. “Many people procrastinate when purchasing gifts, and run out of time in December to carefully consider their purchasing options.”

There’s also a cultural connection between the holidays and shopping. Three in 10 people say that spending more makes the holidays happier, while two in 10 say that the holidays are worth accumulating credit card debt for.

Nearly 1 million Ford vehicles are being recalled due to air bags that can explode and scatter metal pieces

Photo: IFCAR

Ford is recalling more than 953,000 vehicles throughout the world, with 782,000 of them in the United States, to replace air bag inflators that can explode when deployed and scatter metal fragments, which can strike, injure, and even kill vehicle occupants.

The maker of the air bags involved in the recall is Tokyo-based Takata, one of three major manufacturers of air bags. It provides air bags and other components to automakers around the world.

Included in the recall are the:

Loan servicer settles charges it deceived student borrowers about lower-cost payment plans and loan forgiveness

Federal student loan servicer ACS Education Services agreed to a $9 million settlement Friday for steering distressed borrowers away from income-based repayment plans towards other, more expensive options. It also addresses claims that ACS deceived borrowers about the availability of loan forgiveness after a borrower works for 10 years in a public-service job. 

In addition to paying penalties and restitution to borrowers, ACS has agreed not to service loans for the major federal programs or private loans for five years. Most eligible borrowers will receive between $100 and $450. 

“Students rely on college to be a ladder to success, but too often prohibitive costs and disingenuous loan servicers trap students in a quicksand of debt,” said New York Attorney General Letitia James. “ACS has systematically failed borrowers by refusing to educate them on more effective federal repayment options, and instead, pushing them towards options that padded their bottom line.”

For-profit college to pay more than $493 million in debt relief to students due to fraudulent practices

Forty-eight attorneys general announced an agreement Thursday with for-profit education company Career Education Corp. to reform its recruiting and enrollment practices and offer debt relief of about $493.7 million to 179,529 students nationally.

CEC currently offers mostly online courses through American InterContinental University and Colorado Technical University. CEC has closed or phased out many of its schools over the past 10 years. They include Briarcliffe College, Brooks Institute, Brown College, Harrington College of Design, International Academy of Design & Technology, Le Cordon Bleu, Missouri College, and Sanford-Brown. 

The agreement resolves a five-year investigation into allegations that CEC made misleading statements or failed to disclose information to prospective students on total costs, transferability of credits, program offerings, job placement rates, and other topics.