Check out this fascinating report in Wired last week, which explains how Cornell Tech researchers cracked the code to shortened URLs from Microsoft and Google and as a result were about to figure out personal information about specific individuals: "By guessing at shortened URLs until they found working ones, the researchers say that they could have […]
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A new study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found a link between exposure to e-cigarette advertisements and the use of e-cigarettes by middle and high school students. The study is the first to assess the link between exposure to e-cigarette advertising and current e-cigarette use, and it concludes that efforts to reduce […]
Yesterday, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau ordered the debt collection law firm Pressler & Pressler, LLP, two principal partners, and New Century Financial Services, Inc., a debt buyer, to stop churning out unfair and deceptive debt collection lawsuits based on flimsy or nonexistent evidence. The consent orders bar the companies and individuals from illegal practices […]
Listen to NPR's report last week, here.
Researchers at George Washington University have found that "people who eat fast food tend to have significantly higher levels of certain phthalates, which are commonly used in consumer products such as soap and makeup to make them less brittle but have been linked to a number of adverse health outcomes, including higher rates of infertility, especially […]
More than 300 kids have been killed and almost that many seriously injured when they've gotten tangled up in blind cords, the Post reports. It describes the deaths in chilling fashion: "The deaths are fast and silent. Often, the parent is in the same room and turns away to change a channel or put away […]
Borrowers who obtain loan forgiveness based on disability or families who have student debt discharged based on the death of a child have to pay taxes on that benefit under current law. Now three senators are pushing for relief. Marketwatch reports, citing the example of "a Maine couple who were able to have their son’s […]
As we've discussed, poor people across the country face incarceration for minor offenses because they can't pay fines and fees. (See here, for instance.) On a more hopeful note, check out the recent op-ed in the Post by Texas municipal court Judge Ed Spillane. Entitled "Why I refuse to send people to jail for failure […]
Following up on Brian's illuminating post earlier this week about the widening gap in life expectancy between the rich and the poor, two other articles discussing health and the economic divide are worth a read. First, the New York Times, drawing on the same research that Brian flagged, concludes: "The Rich Live Longer Everywhere. For the […]
Bartik and Nelson have written Credit Reports as Résumés: The Incidence of Pre-Employment Credit Screening. Here is the abstract: We study recent bans on employers' use of credit reports to screen job applicants – a practice that has been popular among employers, but controversial for its perceived disparate impact on racial minorities. Exploiting geographic, temporal, and […]