Laws in all states generally require kids to be vaccinated against various childhood diseases before they may attend school. (And, of course, school attendance itself is legally required.) But most of those laws have exceptions to accommodate parents' religious and philosophical objections. (And the laws don't require kids to be vaccinated when their medical conditions […]
Author Archives: Brian Wolfman
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) has just ordered Citibank and its subsidiaries to refund about $700 million to roughly 7 million consumers harmed by illegally imposed credit card add-on products and services (such as credit-protection and monitoring). Citibank and its subsidiaries also will pay $35 million in civil penalties to the CFPB. A detailed […]
This study by researchers at the University of Pennsylvania and Columbia University finds that people who live in certain zip codes in Pennsylvania with fracking were hospitalized more often than people who live in a "control county" that does not have fracking. The study says that the "data suggest that [fracking] wells, which dramatically increased […]
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has produced this short video on vehicle recalls.
The percentage of adults in the U.S. without health insurance — 11.4 — is at its lowest point since Gallup began tracking the issue in 2008. The uninsured rate has dropped six percentage points since the end of 2013 — right before most Affordable Care Act requirements kicked in. Read about it here.
Law professor and dean Erwin Chemerinsky has written this op-ed about the tone of Justice Scalia's opinions. Here's the beginning: Justice Antonin Scalia is setting a terrible example for young lawyers. Ignore, for now, his jurisprudence, his famously strict originalism; it's his tone that's the problem. I have taught argumentation for many years, first as […]
That's the question consumer reporter Jerry Hirsch, with help from the Union of Concerned Scientists, tries to answer in this article.
Consumer reporter Michelle Singletary has written this article warning consumers about potential car-rental snafus, with a focus on how to insure the car. Some of her key tips: ●Double-check ahead of time what your personal auto policy covers for a rental, including whether you’re covered for “loss of use,” which is a charge you could […]
Last month, the Fourth Circuit held in In re GNC Corp. that "to state a false advertising claim on a theory that representations have been proven to be false, plaintiffs must allege that all reasonable experts in the field agree that the representations are false.” — F.3d –, 2015 WL 3798174, at *7 (4th Cir. […]
The Center for Science in the Public Interest has remade Coke's famed “Hilltop” ad to drive home the relationship between sugary soft drink consumption and obesity (and obesity's cousin, diabetes). CSPI recently reported that its video has been view more than 300,000 times in English. To view the video in English, go here or click on […]