From the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA): October 20: NHTSA urges owners of certain Toyota, Honda, Mazda, BMW, Nissan, and General Motors vehicles to act immediately on recall notices to replace defective Takata airbags. The message comes with urgency, especially for owners of vehicles affected by the regional recalls in the following areas: Florida, […]
Author Archives: Scott Michelman
A Los Angeles ordinance requires hotel and motel operators to collect information from their guests — including the guest's name and address, number of people in the party, arrival and departure dates, room number, vehicle information, and more — and authorizes law enforcement to inspect this information without a warrant. The Ninth Circuit ruled that […]
The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reports today: Three widely cited state studies of air emissions at Marcellus Shale gas development sites in Pennsylvania omit measurements of key air toxics and calculate the health risks of just two of more than two dozen pollutants. State regulators and the shale gas drilling industry over the past four years have […]
We've recommended before the insightful investigative journalism of Jake Halpern on the debt collection industry (see here for a post earlier this month and here for a story from 2010). Last week, Halpern appeared on Fresh Air to discuss his new book, Bad Paper: Chasing Debt from Wall Street to the Underworld. Eye opening and […]
Yesterday, the Washington Post endorsed Brian Frosh for Attorney General of Maryland. Among his opponents' weaknesses, according to the Post, is that he "wants to promote arbitration as an alternative to consumers suing businesses." On the other side of the issue, a congressional candidate in Virginia (running for an open seat in the D.C. suburb […]
In defending against federal and state antitrust claims that it monopolized the digital music market, Apple sought to file under seal a variety of information, including its prices, names of other companies, and expert analysis. In a victory for court transparency, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California late last week refused, […]
Several education technology companies have signed a pledge to protect student privacy in respects not required by federal law. Reports Politico: Companies signing the pledge — including Microsoft, Amplify, Edmodo, Knewton and Houghton Mifflin Harcourt — will commit to clearly disclose what type of personal information they collect about students, and for what purpose. They […]
As Pew describes it: This report, the fourth in Pew’s Payday Lending in America series, examines Internet-based payday loans and finds that lender practices often have serious detrimental effects on consumers. Online payday loans are more expensive than those offered through stores and are designed to promote renewals and long-term indebtedness, and they frequently result […]
Always insightful, the NYT's former Supreme Court correspondent takes stock of jurisprudential trends over the last nine years as well as recent moments when the Chief has chosen a more moderate path than some of his colleagues. Read it here.
As the NYT explains, "Paper bags and reusable plastic bags will be available at checkout counters for a 10-cent fee designed to prod shoppers to remember their own reusable bags, and to reduce the number of plastic bags that end up clogging rivers, snagged on trees or taking up space in landfills." The oddly-named "American […]