Detected in a number of returning travelers in the U.S. over the past month, the mosquito-transmitted Zika virus is rampant in Brazil, present in a number of Central American countries, and linked to birth defects in babies. The W.H.O. has declared it a world health emergency. Read key facts about the disease here from the CDC. The CDC has […]
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The Massachusetts attorney general is looking into whether Gilead Sciences violated state consumer protection laws in its drug pricing. One of the drugs in question, Solvadi, costs $84,000 for a 12-week course of treatment. The median income for a United States household in 2014 was around $53,000. Also last week, the nonprofit AIDS Healthcare Foundation, filed a […]
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has released its latest monthly consumer complaint snapshot, highlighting consumer complaints about financial services such as debt settlement, check cashing, money orders, and credit repair. The report shows that consumer complaints about these types of financial services generally revolve around issues of fraud or problems with reliable customer service. It […]
The Federal Trade Commission press release explains: For the first time, identity theft victims can now go online and get a free, personalized identity theft recovery plan as a result of significant enhancements to the Federal Trade Commission’s IdentityTheft.gov website. The new one-stop website is integrated with the FTC’s consumer complaint system, allowing consumers who […]
As Iowans prepare to begin the process of selecting the parties' nominees for president, a Vox piece over the weekend theorizes that the attraction many voters feel to "outsider" candidates of both parties this cycle is based on a sense that the prevailing approach to economic issues in this country — which has brought us deregulation, […]
It's "Almost Pizza"! Watch it here.
Consumer Reports released this week a survey of consumers understanding of "natural" on food labels. The report found that almost two-thirds of consumers are misled by foods labeled as “natural.” Of 1,005 adults polled in December, more than half incorrectly believed that natural claims on labels had been independently verified, and nearly two-thirds thought the […]
by Paul Alan Levy Dr. Rosalind Griffin, a Michigan psychiatrist who apparently derives a significant part of her income by testifying as a medical expert for parties defending against tort claims, but also serves as a member of the Michigan Attorney Discipline Board — the adjudicatory arm of the Attorney Grievance Commission — has initiated […]
The Feb. 8 issue of Forbes alerts readers to a strange and troubling new phenomenon: litigation investing. Companies like Mighty provide "investors" (more accurately: gamblers? loan sharks?) the opportunity to make loans to plaintiffs to help them while their lawsuit is pending, with repayment contingent on success. Some problems: First, interest rates are predatory — […]
Stanford researchers are trying to test whether the use of algorithms on health data could improve the way we screen for certain genetic diseases. The implications are concerning for privacy but exciting for disease prevention. And the current test has some privacy protections built in, as FiveThirtyEight explains: The researchers plan "to flag doctors who […]