Chipotle Sued For Not Disclosing Food Quality Control Problems To Stockholders

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Customers don’t trust fast-casual Mexican-ish restaurant Chipotle very much right now, after a series of foodborne illness outbreaks in different parts of the country. The outbreaks of e. Coli, Salmonella, and norovirus were unrelated to each other, but demonstrated problems with the chain’s food-handling procedures. Now an investor has filed a lawsuit on behalf of shareholders who bought stock in the company in the lsat year, claiming that the company should have known about the problems with its food handling processes, and disclosed them.

The company’s food safety woes have undermined customers’ confidence in the chain, and sales are down 30%, according to Chipotle’s most recent quarterly report. That has hurt the company’s share price, making the value of customers’ investments fall even further than their sales–down 35% as of Friday afternoon.

According to Reuters, the lawsuit claims that the burrito chain hurt investors by failing to let them know that “quality controls were inadequate to safeguard consumer and employee health,” something that its own management evidently didn’t know. While the eatery has changed its cooking and chopping procedures since the outbreak, it hasn’t yet regained the public’s trust despite the company founder and co-CEO going on a national media apology tour.

All that was needed to cause an outbreak of the massively contagious norovirus in Boston was for one manager to not force a sick employee to go home. The food safety failures may have been chain-wide, or may have been caused by one person somewhere in the company failing to do his or her job just one time. All its victims know is that the company’s “food with integrity” slogan is rather hollow when you’re in gastrointestinal distress.

The company declined to comment to Reuters about the lawsuit.

Chipotle sued for misleading investors over food safety [Reuters]

by Laura Northrup via Consumerist

Mazda Adds 374,000 Vehicles To Takata Airbag Recall List

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Weeks after federal regulators announced that additional vehicles would be added to the long list of those affected by Takata’s airbag defect, Mazda recalled 374,000 automobiles in the U.S. 

The recently recalled vehicles have been linked to defective front passenger side airbags made by the Japanese parts maker.

According to a notice [PDF] filed with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, the recall includes 374,519 model year 2003 to 2008 Mazda 6, model year 2006 to 2007 MazdaSpeed 6 and the 2004 RX8.

“In the event of a crash necessitating deployment of the passenger’s frontal air bag, the inflator could rupture with metal fragments striking the vehicle occupants potentially resulting in serious injury or death,” Mazda said in the notice.

The company will notify owners of affected vehicles and dealers will replace the frontal airbag with a new one.

For more than a year now, Takata has been at the center of a massive recall centered on airbags that can rupture with such force that pieces of shrapnel fly at drivers and passengers causing injuries and even death.

So far, eight deaths in the U.S. and nine worldwide have been linked to the defect.

Consumers looking to see if their vehicles are part of the largest auto recall in history can check by entering their 17 digit VIN on the SaferCar.gov website, which produces a list of all recalls associated with a particular vehicle.

[via Reuters]

by Ashlee Kieler via Consumerist

Amazon Prime Now Drivers In Arizona Sue Company For Misclassification, Wage Theft

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Last year, a group of delivery drivers for Amazon’s Prime Now service who worked through third-party services sued Amazon and their employers in California. Now a group of couriers in Phoenix, Arizona are doing the same, pointing out that being required to wear Prime Now uniforms, ask customers to take Amazon surveys, and work fixed hours from an Amazon warehouse should have made them employees of the mega-e-tailer, not independent subcontractors.

In the suit, filed this week in federal district court, the three lead plaintiffs allege that they and other couriers were misclassified as “independent contractors,” and should have been considered employees under the Fair Labor Standards Act. Employee status would make them them eligible for overtime, vehicle expense reimbursement, and would mean that the employer’s portion of their payroll taxes would be covered by their direct employer, Courier Logistics Service.

The drivers claim that they’ve been misclassified as independent contractors, even though their jobs really have all of the features of being employees. They report to an Amazon facility at specific times, check in and out with a dispatcher, and are not allowed to refuse assignments.

Yet they also frequently worked more than 40 hours per week, and also were required to make deliveries in their own vehicles, paying any expenses incurred in the process. They received $16 per hour plus any tips collected through the app. Amazon suggested $5 per delivery, but customers could alter that or give the driver no tip at all. They were prohibited from accepting cash tips.

They are requesting a jury trial, and that Amazon pay all drivers in Arizona the overtime they would be owed had they worked the same hours while classified as employees, as well as the self-employment tax that they were forced to pay.

Curry et al. vs. Amazon.com and Courier Logistics Services [PDF download] (via Courthouse News)

by Laura Northrup via Consumerist

States Say Volkswagen Won’t Turn Over Documents In Emissions Investigation

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A group of state attorneys general called out Volkswagen on Friday for allegedly withholding documents related to its use of “defeat devices” to skirt emissions standards in 500,000 vehicles in the U.S. 

Reuters, citing a source close to the matter, reports that VW referenced German privacy law when refusing to share emails between its executives and other communications regarding the emissions scandal with the 48 attorneys generals.

“I find it frustrating that, despite public statements professing cooperation and an expressed desire to resolve the various investigations that it faces following its calculated deception, Volkswagen is, in fact, resisting cooperation by citing German law,” Connecticut AG George Jepsen said in a statement to Reuters.

Jepsen said the AGs are working on an investigation that would “hold Volkswagen accountable for its behavior to the extent possible under the law, and we will seek to use any means available to us to conduct a thorough investigation of Volkswagen’s conduct.”

VW declined to provide comment on its use of German privacy law or the withholding of documents.

“We are in permanent exchange with U.S. authorities and are cooperating closely with them. We are not commenting on ongoing investigations,” a spokesman for the carmaker tells Reuters.

Volkswagen blasted for shielding emissions documents from U.S. probe [Reuters]

by Ashlee Kieler via Consumerist

Colorado AG Investigating Scammers Who Hoard DMV Appointments, Sell Them To Undocumented Residents

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When something is free, but it’ll take a long time to get it, there’s always the chance that someone will try to take advantage of the situation to make a profit off impatient people. In Colorado, the attorney general’s office is investigating a scalping scheme that involves scammers hoarding driver’s license appointments with the Department of Motor Vehicles, then turning around and selling them to undocumented residents.

Many undocumented residents want to get a driver’s license, but are experiencing a long wait to obtain one, more than two years after the IDs were made legal, reports CBS Denver.

It’s a slow process: there are only three offices in Colorado offering the program, and there’s a three-month wait once you’ve made an appointment. Thousands have yet to get that appointment — which is free — in the first place, which is where the scam comes in.

“Someone, and we think it’s more than one, have started to hoard the appointments and make them and sell them,” said Attorney General Cynthia Coffman. Her office says they’ve received reports of victims paying up to $1,000 for an appointment.

“We started receiving complaints November of last year and so did the Division of Motor Vehicles,” she added.

It’s unclear how many people have been targeted by the scam, or how the scalpers are finding their prey. Groups that work with undocumented residents think victims might be paying for the appointments at neighborhood corner stores, the kind that offer help with taxes, insurances, and other filing duties.

Coffman says the investigation’s goal is to close any loopholes that have allowed the scam to succeed, and is asking for victims to come forward. Undocumented residents don’t need to be nervous about working with a state agency, she says, and are allowed to remain anonymous.

“We’re interested in finding who took the money, not the people who have been victimized,” says Coffman.

Scalpers Sell DMV Appointments To Undocumented Residents [CBS Denver]

by Mary Beth Quirk via Consumerist

Victoria’s Secret Giving Away $70 Workout Pants When You Buy $30 Sports Bras

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Usually, when someone offers a “Buy X, Get Y Free” deal, Y is something that costs the same or less than X. But that is apparently not the case for a deal currently being offered by Victoria’s Secret. 

Consumerist reader Kenny was confounded by the math behind the offer: buy a sports bra and get a free “sport pant” to go with it.

Makes sense for VS to be pushing workout gear, with so many New Year’s resolutions waiting to be fulfilled, but it struck Kenny as odd that lingerie-loving Vicky would give away sport pants that can go for as much as $72 just because someone bought a sports bra, which can cost as little as $30.

Here’s the deal:

The promotion, which runs until 11:50 p.m. (EST) on Jan. 10, has several caveats, including one free pair of pants per customer, and the purchase can’t include a clearance item. Additionally, to actually redeem the deal, shoppers must enter a code during checkout.

Of course it’s possible the retailer is offering the deal as a way to move inventory, or in the hopes that once shoppers have one pair of pants in their bag they won’t be able to resist adding another pair. Or the company could be hoping that people forget to enter the code for their free pants, if they have a cart full of items.

We reached out to VS to ask these very questions, but have yet to hear back.

It looks like some VS shoppers have already caught on to the unusual offer, since a number of items have already sold out.

by Ashlee Kieler via Consumerist

How StubHub’s Policies Let Greedy Ticket Sellers Screw Fans Over

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If you buy tickets on StubHub, they come with a guarantee, which is great. Additionally, any seller who cancels tickets after they’ve been sold could face a financial penalty for doing so. But that penalty doesn’t seem to be enough to stop the most unsavory sellers from violating the rules.

This week, an L.A. Lakers fan made national news after he complained to The Lead Sports about having his StubHub tickets to Kobe Bryant’s final game canceled after he’d already purchased them.

Back in November, before Bryant officially announced that this season would be his last, the fan and three of his friends figured they might as well buy tickets for the last game of the season just in case it was also Kobe’s final outing in a Lakers uniform.

So he bought the tickets — four seats in row 17 of Sec. 106 of the Staples Center — and then got incredibly lucky (or so he thought) when Kobe subsequently confirmed his plan to retire.

Then, on Dec. 15, two weeks after dropping the retirement bomb, the fan got an email from StubHub giving him the bad news: The order had been cancelled because the “seller let us know that they were listed incorrectly.”

Rubbing salt in the wound, StubHub said that no replacement tickets could be provided because similar seats were now going for nearly $2,000 each — ten times what he’d paid for his seats.

You can read the full, disheartening email chain on The Lead Sport, but it basically involves the fan fruitlessly banging his head against a wall of incompetence and general shruggery at StubHub, where someone actually had the temerity to conclude a response with “I do hope you find cheaper tickets very soon.”

Speaking with SFGate.com, a rep for StubHub was apologetic and pointed out that the company’s user agreement states that “Under no circumstances may Sellers cancel orders at one price and repost the same tickets for a higher price. Failure to fulfill your orders will lead to charges as stated in the Seller Policies.”

But as Sports Illustrated’s Brendan Maloy noted, that penalty is only “20% of the ticket price.”

The fan originally paid $195 each for his tickets. So the seller was hit with about a $40/ticket penalty.

Right now, if you want to purchase four tickets in that same section, you’ll pay at least $1,325 — per ticket. In fact, there are four seats in the very row where he was supposed to be sitting… at a price of $1,500 a pop:

Assuming the original seller for these tickets was able to get at least $1,000 each for the seats he’d originally sold for $195, that means he made $4,000 minus the approximately $80 in penalties… so $3,200.

We’ve seen the same thing happen with ticket resellers at the Super Bowl, where they realize — as late as the day before the very game — that they can make more money by canceling bona fide orders and selling to some deep-pocketed latecomer.

“The reality is that these instances happen less than 1% of the time,” says the StubHub rep, who probably doesn’t realize how huge that small percentage actually is in real-world terms.

Think about it: The Staples Center seats 19,000 people for a basketball game. One percent of 19,000 is 190. Even it’s one-tenth of 1%, you’re still talking about 19 fans who could be getting screwed over by greedy resellers — and that’s for a single game at a single venue, for a team that is really, really horrible at basketball right now.

Even if it’s just this fan and his four friends, that’s still not acceptable. There is no reason to give sellers such an easy out.

And in fact, it’s possible that StubHub could have done something to compel this seller to make good on his offer.

In addition to the 20% penalty for canceling purchased tickets, StubHub “reserves the right in its sole discretion to charge your payment method the full amount of the replacement costs StubHub incurs under the FanProtectT Guarantee (including costs in excess of 20% of the ticket price).”

To us, that means that if StubHub had to go and get this fan some pricey new tickets from someone else, the company had the legal right to charge that cost to the greedy reseller who canceled the original order.

There is a happy ending to this story. After his tale of woe got heard ’round the world, various NBA sponsors and other companies looking for good publicity reached out to offer him better tickets than the ones he’d been screwed out of.

by Chris Morran via Consumerist

Man Shoved 5 Bags Of Frozen Shrimp Down His Pants At Family Dollar

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At Consumerist, we do our best to bring you the latest news about people stuffing meat, shellfish, or power tools down their pants. It’s only the second week of the year, and there’s already a second “crimes against meat” incident in the news. In Albany, Georgia, a man was caught on camera with three bags of frozen shrimp stuffed down his pants, and two in his back pockets.

A store employee told police that she had seen the shopper place shrimp bags down his pants, and heard the characteristic “crunch” of frozen food when stopping him at the door. The suspect unhanded (unpantsed?) the five bags of shellfish at the store entrance, then ran away.

Video? Of course there’s video. If you happen to know this suspect, the Albany police and CrimeSTOPPERS would like to hear from you: contact them at 229-446-9252.

Shoplifter hid shrimp in his pants [WALB]

by Laura Northrup via Consumerist

Motorola Heading To That Cellphone Store In The Sky As Parent Company Lenovo Starts Phasing Out Brand Name

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Clutch your Razr tight and give the StarTAC under your pillow a pat — the Motorola name will soon be a thing of the past.

After buying Motorola Mobility from Google in 2014, Lenovo has decided to put the brand name out to pasture as it combines its two phone businesses under the company name.

Don’t shed too many tears, however, the Motorola name will live on in the corporate realm as a division of Lenovo, Motorola Chief Operating Officer Rick Osterloh told CNET.

“We’ll slowly phase out Motorola and focus on Moto,” Osterloh told CNET Thursday at the CES conference in Las Vegas.

The M “batwing” logo will also stay, but the full name won’t appear on Moto products in the near future, and will instead be called Moto by Lenovo. Rhyme-y.

Goodbye, Moto(rola). Iconic brand name to be phased out [CNET]

by Mary Beth Quirk via Consumerist

Cool Mist, Warm Mist; Large Unit, Small Unit: There’s A Lot To Consider When Buying A Humidifier

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Humidifiers come in all shapes, sizes, and apparently, animal likeness. While variety is always a good thing for consumers, knowing which product is best for your specific needs and home can be a daunting task. 

To clear up some of the confusion, our colleagues at Consumer Reports put together an interactive video for humidifier-buyers, detailing the various tests they perform, along with a few tips for picking the unit that makes the most sense for their needs.

The video is divided into five chapters — Cool Mist, Warm Mist, Key Features, Room Size, and Maintenance — that viewers can use to jump to features that matter most to them in their search for a new device.

There are generally two types of humidifier: cool mist and warm mist. Each device is suited for a different need. While cool mist humidifiers are great for warm, dry climates, warm mist humidifiers are suited more for dry, cool climates.

Cool and warm mist devices also differ in their construction, cool mist uses filters, while dry mist doesn’t. Warm mist uses more electricity, while cool mist doesn’t.

These are all factors CR suggests potential buyers keep in mind, as well as whether or not a unit is convenient for your home and lifestyle.

For example, size really does matter. If you opt for too large of a unit, you could end up with excess condensation, which can result in a mold problem.

The interactive video also has you covered once you bring home your unit, with tips and tricks to keep your humidifier in tip-top shape.

by Ashlee Kieler via Consumerist

Shuttle America Flight Diverted After Passenger Allegedly Became Violent Toward Flight Attendants, Others

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We get it, sometimes you want to shove your seatmate’s elbow off the armrest, or maybe wish evil upon the person taking up all the overhead space. But cooler heads should prevail, lest you find your flight making an unscheduled stop. A Shuttle America flight yesterday had to be diverted after a passenger allegedly attacked a flight attendant and her fellow travelers.

The flight was operating as United Express, heading from New York’s LaGuardia Airport to Chicago’s O’Hare International airport with 69 passengers and four crew members, reports CBS Chicago, when a female passenger allegedly attacked a flight attendant and threatened other travelers.

Four passengers helped restrain her, using belts and seat belt extenders to keep her in her seat until the plane landed in Detroit. Police then removed her from the plane.

“She went to hit [another passenger] more towards the face, and she started kicking me, so I grabbed her legs, he grabbed her arms,” one of the men who wrangled the suspect told CBS Chicago, adding that another man “came flying over and jumped in the middle of it. He grabbed her legs, and then another gentleman got involved” while he grabbed items to tie her with.

On video recorded by some passengers, the passenger can be heard swearing and cursing at the men as the hold her down. Witnesses say it’s unclear what set her off, but he and others didn’t want to take any chances.

The flight continued onto O’Hare without further incident. It’s not immediately clear if the passenger was charged.

Chicago-Bound Flight Diverted After Passenger Attacks Flight Attendant [CBS Chicago]

by Mary Beth Quirk via Consumerist

Founder Of Jelly Belly Looking For Re-Entry Into Candy Industry With Caffeinated Jelly Beans

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We’ve already seen caffeinated Cracker Jacks, chewing gum, and peanut butter (some of which are already off the market), and now the founder of Jelly Belly is hoping to give a jolt to the candy market with caffeinated jelly beans. 

Back in the mid-’70s David Klein came up with the idea of Jelly Belly — a jelly bean that would have flavor throughout the bean, not just on the outside — which he then sold off a few years later for a few million dollars.

Now, the L.A. Times reports, Klein is trying to get back into the candy game with a caffeine-infused jelly bean.

Unlike traditional jelly beans that tend toward sweet — or really gross with flavors like grass — the new candy fits more with its “slightly caffeinated” concept with coffee-inspired flavors.

The idea for Original Coffee House Beans was cooked up by Klein and his business partners as a way to cater to adults looking for a more sophisticated candy, you know, with a kick.

“Everybody goes to Starbucks or those kinds of places, but nobody has actually made a line of jelly beans that was inspired by the flavors of the coffee that they drink there,” Klein said.

With flavors like hot cocoa, peppermint, chai tea, coffee and doughnuts and caffe macchiato, Klein believes the candy will appeal to all kinds of coffee drinkers.

Klein and his partners recently launched a Kickstarter campaign seeking $10,000 to launch the new brand.

“We have seen people that have been able to fund their business almost immediately, and you don’t have to give up any equity portion,” he said. “We felt with Kickstarter, people would be aware of our product.”

Analysts tell the L.A. Times that the unusual candy-coffee-caffeine combination could end up being a lucrative concept.

Viraj D’Costa, an anylst with IBISWorld, says the coffee and snack industry has seen an increase in revenue in recent years, and a niche candy would be a welcome addition.

“Those actually might be things that adults are actually interested in buying,” he said. “He might have a good shot at having a product that fits in to the market.”

Still, the idea of caffeinated anything doesn’t always sit well with health advocates and regulators.

In May 2013, Wrigley pulled its Alert Energy caffeinated gum just months after it was released, shortly after the Food and Drug Administration announced it would investigate the gum and other products with additional caffeine.

And in November 2015, lawmakers urged the FDA to look into the safety of caffeinated peanut butter.

Jelly Belly inventor hopes caffeinated jelly beans will fuel his comeback [Los Angeles Times]

by Ashlee Kieler via Consumerist

Fired St. Louis Cardinals Exec To Plead Guilty To Hacking Houston Astros Front Office

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Sports-related chicanery often ends in suspensions and the occasional expulsion, but rarely does it rise to the level of actual crime. Then again, it’s not every day that one team illegally breaches the private network of another.

Last year, we told you that the FBI was investigating whether or not someone at the St. Louis Cardinals had hacked into the Houston Astros’ network to gain access to sensitive and proprietary information about the team.

Now the Wall Street Journal reports that former Cardinals scouting director Chris Correa is going to plead guilty to five of twelve charges related to the hacking, which first occurred as far back as 2012.

Back in 2011, Houston hired general manager Jeff Luhnow away from the Cardinals front office, where he had been the Vice President of Baseball Development.

Once he arrived at Houston, Luhnow built a database called “Ground Control” — containing information like stats, player evaluations, and trade negotiations — that was similar to the “Red Bird” one he’d used at St. Louis.

After some of the stolen information was leaked online, an investigation tracked the source of the breach to a computer in a home where Cardinals staffers had lived.

In July, the Cardinals fired Correa, reportedly for his involvement in the breach. His attorney pointed the finger back at Luhnow, effectively accusing the Astros GM of misusing proprietary info gleaned from his years with the Cards. Luhnow and the Astros have denied these claims.

by Chris Morran via Consumerist

Woman Files Lawsuit Against Applebee’s Claiming She Found Bloody Fingertip In Her Salad

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Unless it’s of the chicken tender variety, finding a finger in your food would no doubt be an unwelcome and highly unpleasant experience. Enough for one California woman to sue Applebee’s, after she says she found a bloody fingertip in her salad, after she’d already consumed some of the dish.

The woman and her family were eating at Applebee’s on Dec. 20, and she had ordered the Chinese chicken salad, her attorney said in a statement, and she’d shared it with her husband and their young child. That’s when she says she found a small slice of fingertip in her food.

“It was so gross,” the woman said in a press release from the attorney’s law firm. “I’m on pins and needles worrying about what my family might have been exposed to,” adding that she was particularly worried because she’s pregnant.

The family notified the restaurant, which confirmed that the fingertip belonged to an employee at that location. Applebee’s counsel sent a letter to the family nine days later, informing them that they wouldn’t require the cook to undergo any medical tests.

The claim is seeking unspecified damages for emotional distress, medical expenses for testing and lost income.

A spokesman for Applebee’s forwarded a statement from the area director of the franchisee, Apple MidCal, to the San Luis Obispo Tribune, calling the incident “unacceptable.”

“We take matters involving the health and safety of our guests and team members seriously,” the statement reads. “Accordingly, we immediately investigated and determined that an accident did occur in our kitchen. We discussed the matter with the [family] while still at our restaurant, shared our sincere apologies, and have continued to speak with [the woman] in an effort to address her concerns.”

The statement adds that the employee involved volunteered to undergo any screening that would provide peace of mind for the customer, and that the franchisee is retraining team members on safety protocols “and will take any necessary actions to prevent anything like this from occurring again.”

by Mary Beth Quirk via Consumerist

FCC Chair: 39% Of Rural America Lacks Broadband Access

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If you live in the city, it’s almost a certainty that your property can get high-speed Internet access from at least one company. But for rural America, it’s a different story, with nearly 4-in-10 people lacking access to fixed-line broadband service.

This is according to FCC Chair Tom Wheeler, who will issue his latest annual Broadband Progress Report later this month.

In a fact sheet [PDF] released in advance of that report, Wheeler notes that, as of 2014, 39% of the U.S. rural population didn’t even have the option of calling up a cable or phone company to provide their homes with broadband service. While that’s an improvement over previous years — it was up at 55% in 2012 — the urban/rural gap still represents a very wide and deep digital canyon.

Only 4% of Americans in densely populated urban areas lack access to broadband (that doesn’t mean that 96% of people have it; just that they could purchase it if they chose to), while the nationwide average shows that 90% of Americans can get acceptable landline Internet service.

A big part of the problem with providing high-speed Internet to rural America is infrastructure. Many of these areas are served by old copper-line networks that telecom companies have repeatedly been accused of neglecting and allowing to fall into disrepair.

Unless these companies are willing to improve their rural networks — and not just wait until the FCC eventually relents and lets them replace copper-line service with wireless tech — there will likely still be a significant portion of the country’s rural population that lags behind in Internet connectivity.

Likewise, the telecom industry is fighting efforts by some government-owned broadband providers to expand the availability of high-speed Internet to areas in need. In 2015, the FCC voted to overturn two industry-backed state laws — one in North Carolina, another in Tennessee — that prevented municipal broadband providers from selling their service to other towns and counties, but nearly half the states have some sort of law either barring municipalities from operating broadband networks, or from making that service available directly to consumers.

In better news, earlier this year, the FCC announced deals with 10 Internet service providers, including Verizon and AT&T, to spend a total of $1.5 billion each year over the course of six years to improve rural broadband service in 45 states and one U.S. territory. The goal is to reach some 3.6 million U.S. households that are currently unserved or underserved.

Tribal lands and U.S. territories lag even farther behind in connectivity, with 68% of people in rural tribal lands lacking broadband access (41% for all tribal residents), and 66% of everyone in U.S. territories unable to get high-speed Internet in their homes.

[via DSLreports]

by Chris Morran via Consumerist

Walmart Employee Drags Unconscious Woman From Her Burning Car

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When employees of a Pennsylvania Walmart learned that there was a car on fire in the parking lot early in the morning on New Year’s Day, they didn’t sit around, stare into space, and wait for the fire department to show up. An overnight employee ran outside with a fire extinguisher to put out the blaze… and that’s when he noticed an unconscious woman inside the locked vehicle.

She was sitting in the driver’s seat, passed out or napping, with her head against the window. This was around 7 AM on New Year’s Day. While the car was locked, its windows were open, and the employee was able to reach in, unlock the car, and pull the woman out of the vehicle.

It was mostly the front of the car that was on fire, and he was unable to put the fire out before rescuing the driver. The brave employee then woke up the still-unconscious driver and walked her into the store. Police said that the woman smelled of alcohol, but wasn’t injured in the fire. They didn’t share the cause of the fire.

Walmart Employee Saves Woman From Burning Car In Parking Lot [KDKA] (warning: video may start automatically)
Wal-Mart employee pulls unconscious woman from burning car [Sharon Herald]

by Laura Northrup via Consumerist

CDC: Americans Are Eating Too Much Sodium And Food Companies Are Partly To Blame

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Even if you’re not pouring mountains of salt over everything you eat, you still might be consuming more sodium than the recommended 2,300 milligrams per day. It’s easy to see why, the Centers for Disease Control says, when food companies and restaurants are pouring salt into their products.

An analysis in this week’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly report from the CDC says that 89% of U.S. adults were consuming more salt than recommended between 2009-2012, citing National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey data.

Men between the ages of 19-51 ate about 4,400 mg a day, while women consumed around 3,100 mg a day, the CDC says. Adults 51 and over had slightly lower numbers. About 90% of children of all ages exceeded their daily amounts of salt intake as well, with boys and girls 9-13 getting about 3,300 mg and 3,000 mg respectively, which is a big increase from the recommended 2,200 mg for that age group.

Again, it’s not like we’re all whipping out the salt shaker every time we face a piece of broccoli. The CDC says most of the sodium we consume is coming from processed foods and meals served in restaurants. You might not be aware of that fact, or have any way to find out how much sodium you’re getting.

“It’s very difficult for individuals to lower consumption on their own, because there’s so much sodium in everything they eat,” Tom Frieden, director of the CDC, told NPR’s aptly named blog, The Salt.

Though many food companies have made an effort in the past few years to reduce sodium in their products, it’s not enough, Frieden says.

“Some companies have made significant progress, but across the whole industry we need to see steady reduction,” he says. “The bottom line is we want to put choice into consumers’ hands about putting it in, since you can’t take it out once it’s in there.”

Some of the saltiest products out there: Bread, deli meats, pizza, poultry, soups, cheese, pasta dishes, meat mixed dishes, and savory snacks like popcorn.

If you’re worried about your sodium intake, read the label when you can. If it’s a deli meat, well, just assume it’s chock-full of sodium. And for those living in or visiting New York City, you’ll soon be able to spot foods with high levels of sodium just by looking for the salt shaker warning labels that became a requirement for chain restaurants in the city in December.

We Eat Too Much Sodium Because Companies Keep Dumping It In Our Food [The Salt]

by Mary Beth Quirk via Consumerist

U.S. Marshals Raid CES Booth To Seize Alleged Knockoff Scooters

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We’ve seen lots of odd things at CES International over the years — live kangaroos, stormtroopers, boxing matches, Seth Rogen — but one thing we’ve never seen before is U.S. marshals seizing knockoff products for alleged patent infringement.

According to Ars Technica, that’s what happened yesterday to a Chinese manufacturer accused by a California-based startup of ripping off their design for a one-wheel scooter.

Future Motion, the U.S. company, filed a patent infringement complaint [PDF] in federal court on Tuesday against Changzhou First International Trade Co.

Future Motion’s Onewheel scooter, whose development was bolstered by a successful $630,000 Kickstarter campaign, is a self-balancing, one-wheeled (as the name implies) device that currently sells for $1,499. Future Motion has patents related to the device’s design and tech that don’t expire for at least another 14 to 20 years.

The company’s lawsuit alleges that Changzhou blatantly violated those patents, selling a knockoff product on Alibaba — and even bringing it to CES — for significantly less money.

“Defendant Changzhou is making, using, offering for sale, selling, and/or importing a self-balancing electric vehicle under the name ‘Surfing Electric Scooter’ that appears to copy the ONEWHEEL® design,” reads the complaint.

According to Ars, after filing the lawsuit, Future Motion was granted a telephone hearing with a U.S. District Court judge who then granted an emergency motion authorizing the marshals to shut down the booth, halt any sales, and seize relevant Changzhou products. In the end, the marshals grabbed about a half-dozen of the alleged knockoffs from the booth.

A lawyer for Future Motion tells Ars that, following an in-person hearing before the court, the judge could decide that Changzhou is not obviously infringing on the patents and return the seized products, but, adds the lawyer, “I feel confident that would not happen.”

by Chris Morran via Consumerist

VW Reportedly Considering Buying Back More Than 50,000 Emissions-Cheating Cars In The U.S.

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Volkswagen may buy back tens of thousands of vehicles in the United States if the company can’t find an easy way to remove “defeat devices” that allow the cars to evade emissions standards. 

The potential buyback is just one of several options being weighed by the carmaker in order to satisfy federal regulators who uncovered the emissions cheating scandal in September, Bloomberg reports.

VW, the Environmental Protection Agency, and the California Air Resources Board are currently in discussions on ways to resolve the emissions issues plaguing more than 500,000 vehicles in the U.S. and 11 million worldwide.

According to sources who were briefed on the matter, VW has concluded that it would be easier after to repurchase some of the more than 500,000 vehicles equipped with defeat devices in the U.S. than it would be to fix them.

For now, the figure being linked to a potential buyback is about 50,000 vehicles, but that number could increase.

“We’ve been having a large amount of technical discussion back and forth with Volkswagen,” EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy told Bloomberg on Thursday. “We haven’t made any decisions on that.”

So far, McCarthy says proposals brought forth by VW have been “inadequate.”

“We haven’t identified a satisfactory way forward,” McCarthy said, noting that the EPA is “anxious to find a way forward so that the company can get into compliance.”

A spokesperson for VW tells Bloomberg that the company is working with regulators to reach a solution, but declined to provide details on the discussions.

The company is also working to create its own remedies for the three generation of VW and Audi vehicles found to be non-compliant with emissions standards.

Sources tell Bloomberg that the oldest cars in the mix are currently being equipped with SCR catalytic converters, which includes the installation of a tank of urea-based solution that reduces emissions.

VW Weighs Buyback of Thousands of Cars in Talks With U.S. [Bloomberg]

by Ashlee Kieler via Consumerist

Report: American Apparel Receives $200M Takeover Bid From Investor Backing Former CEO Dov Charney

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Last month, we heard rumblings that American Apparel’s founder and former CEO Dov Charney was working with an investment firm to figure out a plan to buy the company out of bankruptcy. The chain said at the time that Charney hadn’t made any kind of formal offer. Today, a new report says an investor working with Charney has offered up a takeover bid of more than $200 million for American Apparel.

Bloomberg cites people familiar with the situation, who say that if American Apparel accepts the offer and deal goes through, Charney would be back in the saddle again in some capacity. He was ousted more than a year ago amid allegations of misconduct.

It might not be so easy for Charney, however, as American Apparel’s bankruptcy case is wrapping up. The retailer filed for bankruptcy protection in October of this year, after earlier admitting it’d run out of financing to keep things going. The proposed bankruptcy plan would give ownership of the company to bondholders in exchange for a reduction in debt, and was supported by 95% of secured lenders. They’ll get all their money back under the proposal.

If the plan goes through as expected, a judge would make a final decision on Jan. 20. That means Charney doesn’t have much time to get the company and its creditors to accept his offer. If he fails to woo them, he and his financial ally would have to convince a judge to put the kibosh on American Apparel’s reorganization plan. He’s moving in that direction already, filing an objection on Thursday to the current reorganization plan and saying he has advanced an alternative restructuring proposal by well-funded investors, Bloomberg says.

American Apparel declined to answer Bloomberg’s specific questions about the offer, instead saying that it “evaluates all bids consistently, and in the ordinary course. The company remains focused on pursuing the completion of its financial restructuring following its planned bankruptcy court hearing at the end of this month.”

American Apparel Said to Get Takeover Bid From Charney Ally [Bloomberg]

by Mary Beth Quirk via Consumerist

United Airlines Fined $2.75M For Tarmac Delays, Treatment Of Disabled Passengers

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In October, United Airlines apologized to a disabled passenger who ended up crawling off the plane after he was told he’d have to wait up to 50 minutes for a wheelchair. This is just one of several complaints related to United’s treatment of disabled passengers. When combined with penalties for stranding passengers on the tarmac for more than three hours, the airline now faces federal fines of $2. 75 million.

The Department of Transportation announced on Thursday that it had fined United $2 million for violating rules protecting air travelers with disabilities and $750,000 for violating rules prohibiting long tarmac delays.

An investigation into United was initiated after the Dept. received a “significant increase in the number of disability-related complaints” in 2014.

“A review of these disability-related complaints revealed that United failed to provide passengers with disabilities prompt and adequate assistance with [boarding] and deplaning aircraft and with moving through the terminal,” the Dept. said in a statement.

Additionally, the investigation found numerous instances in which United failed to return passengers’ wheelchairs, other mobility aids, or other assistive devices in a timely manner or in the condition in which the airline received them.

These issues were found to have occurred at Houston International Airport, Chicago O’Hare International Airport, Denver International Airport, Newark International Airport, and Dulles International Airport.

A separate investigation by the Dept. found that United violated federal laws related to the length of time passengers can be stuck on the tarmac on a delayed flight.

Under federal rules, airlines operating aircraft with 30 seats are prohibited from allowing domestic flights to remain on the tarmac for more than three hours and international flights to remain on the tarmac for more than four hours at U.S. airports without giving passengers an opportunity to leave the plane.

Specifically, United will pay $750,000 for five lengthy tarmac delays that took place at Chicago O’Hare International Airport on Dec. 8, 2013 and one lengthy tarmac delay of a flight that was diverted to Houston Hobby Airport on May 20, 2015.

Although the delays were a result a multiple factors at O’Hare, including severe weather, the DOT’s Enforcement Office found that mismanagement at United’s gate caused five flights to exceed the Department’s three hour limit on the tarmac for domestic flights.

In Houston, the DOT found that the airline failed to attempt to deplane passengers after their flight was diverted to the airport because of severe weather and the need to refuel.

by Ashlee Kieler via Consumerist

Campbell Soup To Label Products Containing GMOs, Supports Mandatory Labeling

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While some large food producers contend that mandatory labeling of products containing genetically modified or genetically engineered ingredients would be a burdensome and unnecessary requirement, the folks at Campbell Soup Company have decided to not only voluntarily label their GMO-containing products but to publicly support mandatory GMO labeling.

About 75% of Campbell’s products — in addition to its namesake soups, Campbell also makes brands like Pepperidge Farm, Bolthouse Farms, Arnott’s, V8, Swanson, Pace, Prego, among others — use ingredients made from corn, canola, sugar beets, or soybeans. Almost all of the farmers producing those crops in the U.S. use GMO seed.

So for a company like Campbell, there’s no way it can simply stop using GMO ingredients and still produce the quantity of product that its customers demand. In fact, the company has no intention to make such a change because it maintains that GMOs have been repeatedly proven safe and that they may be needed to meet the increased demand for food around the globe.

“I want to stress that we’re in no way disputing the science behind GMOs or their safety,” explains Campbell CEO Denise Morrison. “The overwhelming weight of scientific evidence indicates that GMOs are safe and that foods derived from crops using genetically modified seeds are not nutritionally different from other foods.”

So if Campbell contends that GMOs are safe and necessary, why does it support nationwide mandatory labeling? Because 9-in-10 consumers want to at least know whether the foods they eat contain these ingredients.

Campbell cites that figure — from a survey conducted by our colleagues at Consumer Reports — as evidence that American consumers have a desire for more transparency from the companies that produce their food.

“We are operating with a ‘Consumer First’ mindset,” says Morrison. “We put the consumer at the center of everything we do. That’s how we’ve built trust for nearly 150 years. We have always believed that consumers have the right to know what’s in their food.”

Campbell has fought state-level GMO labeling requirements in California and Oregon, arguing that labeling regulations that vary from state to state create a patchwork that is too complex and costly for large food producers to deal with. Instead, it believes that a national GMO labeling standard would be best for everyone.

“We now believe that proposing a mandatory national solution is necessary,” says Morrison. “Printing a clear and simple statement on the label is the best solution for consumers and for Campbell.”

Campbell currently labels its products sold in Vermont like the soup can shown above. Below the ingredients list, it includes a disclosure stating something like “Partially Produced With Genetic Engineering,” directing consumers to its whatsinmyfood.com site for more information, including a list of the various GMO ingredients it uses across its range of products.

The company tells the NY Times that it will be working with the FDA and other regulators to craft the language for standard, nationwide GMO label for its products.

by Chris Morran via Consumerist

Blue Bell Still Finding Listeria In Factories, Not In The Ice Cream

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Beloved ice cream brand Blue Bell is still expanding its distribution again after last year’s Listeria contamination and massive recalls. The company issued an update last night about its production facilities with some potentially frightening information: there’s still Listeria in certain spots in their production facilities that can’t be eradicated. However, they assure the ice cream-eating public that new ice cream isn’t contaminated.

In their “facilities update,” the company explains that since Listeria is present in the environment, it’s impossible to eradicate it from a building entirely. What they can do is identify those areas and sanitize them frequently while also conducting tests to check for new sites of bacteria in the factory.

They also want customers to know that every batch is being tested. This is so important that they mention it twice in the update, and is clearly meant to reassure the public. While fans are happy to have the products back in stores, it’s understandable that customers might be skittish after recent reports about alleged conditions inside facilities and management cutting corners and failing to listen to employee concerns.

Listeria happens to be a foodborne pathogen that can survive being frozen, which is why its presence in ice cream is a particular threat. The Blue Bell outbreak killed three people and sent twelve to the hospital. In healthy people, infection with listeriosis causes fever and muscle aches, along with diarrhea and abdominal pain. Infection can be life-threatening to people who are elderly, young, or who have compromised immune systems.

Listeriosis is especially dangerous for pregnant women, since the infection generally goes beyond the intestinal tract (causing those muscle aches) and can affect the fetus, leading to miscarriage or stillbirth.

An update on our enhanced procedures at our production facilities [Blue Bell Creamery] (via Food Safety News)

by Laura Northrup via Consumerist

Consumerist Friday Flickr Finds

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Due to Christmas and New Year’s Day falling on Fridays, it’s been two weeks since our last installment of Flickr Finds. Let’s see what treasures have been submitted to the Consumerist Flickr pool in that period. Selection here were picked for usability in a Consumerist post or for just plain neatness.

Want to see your pictures on our site? Our Flickr pool is the lace where Consumerist readers upload photos for possible use in future Consumerist posts. Just be a registered Flickr user, go here, and click “Join Group?” up on the top right. Choose your best photos, then click “send to group” on the individual images you want to add to the pool.

by Laura Northrup via Consumerist