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How will your car rate under new EPA fuel economy window stickers?
How will your car rate under new EPA fuel economy window stickers? Even with fuel economy ratings on window stickers, it can be difficult for consumers to judge how efficient their car is compared to others at a glance. That's one thing that the Environmental Protection Agency's new fuel economy labels are designed to address by assigning letter grades to every model. According to EPA assistant administrator Gina McCarthy, the letter grades—from "A " to "D"—will be assigned on a bell curve, with the median being a "B-." That means most cars will cluster around a "B-," while few will get an "A " or "D." Specifically, according to the joint notice of proposed rulemaking by the EPA and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), 697 of the 2012 model-year vehicles will get a "B-," while 14 will get an "A-... | |
Car sticker debate shouldn't surprise appliance makers
Car sticker debate shouldn't surprise appliance makers Automobile groups are crying foul over the government’s proposed new window sticker , in particular the version that would assign letter grades for fuel economy and greenhouse gas emissions. The sticker “falls short because it is imbued with schoolyard memories of passing and failing,” Dave McCurdy, chief executive of the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers, told the New York Times . Welcome to our world, say appliance leaders, who have debated the merits of grade-based product labeling for years. The controversy stems from the fact that the U.S. is one of the few countries that doesn’t use a categorical scale to indicate appliance efficiency on its yellow EnergyGuide label ... | |
Recall: 2010 Kia Soul, 2011 Sorento - Fire risk
Recall: 2010 Kia Soul, 2011 Sorento - Fire risk Kia is recalling 2010 Soul and 2011 Sorento vehicles to address a wiring harness that may not have been properly soldered. The recall targets over 35,000 vehicles built between September 7, 2009 and July 30, 2010. The wiring harness is used for lighting the Soul front-door speakers and Sorento accent trim. The concern is that when the lights are used in certain circumstances, an electrical short can occur and potentially result in fire. Owners will be contacted this month, and dealers will replace the wiring harnesses free of charge. Owners may contact Kia for more information: 800-333-4542 Next Steps SUV Buying Advice : Types of SUVs | SUV Features | SUV Brands All SUV Ratings Subscribers can view and compare all SUV Ratings... | |
Cash for appliances: Check your state for rebates
Cash for appliances: Check your state for rebates Delaware and Idaho both ended their cash for appliance programs on August 31. Despite their modest scope—Delaware distributed $838,800 in federal funding, while Idaho dished out $1.46 million—officials in both states were upbeat about their programs’ long-term benefits for energy savings and consumer education. “We’ve created more efficiency-minded consumers who are going to help transform the marketplace and pass their consumption patterns to their kids," says Paul Kjellander, the administrator of Idaho ’s Office of Energy. "That’s key because it’s the consumer that defines how markets develop.” “Where we got creative is trying to focus on saving electricity and water, so we were trying to focus on appliances like dishwashers and washing machines that could do both, rather than refrigerators” says Collin O’Mara, Secretary of Delaware ’s Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control... | |
Nissan Leaf electric-car charger installation cost proves shocking
Nissan Leaf electric-car charger installation cost proves shocking As the Nissan Leaf moves closer to production late this year, consumers who have put down $99 deposits on the all-electric car are learning more about the financial impact of driving on the leading edge. And the costs are shocking, potentially tallying thousands of dollars. Electric-car buyers need to factor not just the purchase price (or lease payments) and energy consumption, but the cost for an at-home charger and its installation. The charger runs from about $700 to $1,200. Being much more than a power cord, the charger takes the alternating current from your house or elsewhere on the grid and converts it to DC for charging the batteries. It also protects the batteries from overheating, overcharging, or charging too fast... | |
FDA looks to curb “robo-tripping”
FDA looks to curb “robo-tripping” Abuse of cough medicine containing dextromethorphan , known as “robo-tripping”, is on the rise according to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, which has asked the Food and Drug Administration to look into ways to control the abuse. The DEA says that emergency room visits from abuse of the drug have increased in recent years and about half of those visits involve young people aged 12 to 20. Dextromethorphan (which is a cough suppressant) is not very effective at controlling the most common coughs caused by cold or flu. It is available over-the-counter in more than 120 products, such as Coricidin, Nyquil Cough, Robitussin DM, and Vicks 44. When used as directed , dextromethorphan is considered safe by the FDA... | |
Daily electronics deals
Daily electronics deals Today's electronics deals, courtesy of The Consumerist : HP Direct : HP Coupon Code $250 off HP Laptops $1349 (Combines w/ Instant Discounts!) JR.com : Logitech Harmony 700 Advanced Universal Remote Control (similar to Harmony ONE) $80 Buy.com : GPX Under-Cabinet 8.1" LCD 1080p HDTV with Radio Tuner for $65.99 w/ Free Shipping Walmart : Sony 16GB MP3 Video Player with Speakers - Red for $79 w/ Free Shipping Roku : Roku SD $59.99, HD $69.99, HD-XR $99.99 (were $80, $90, $130) NewEgg : Western Digital VelociRaptor 150 GB 10,000 RPM 3.5" Hard Drive $99.99 free ship (next best $135) Google Code University : FREE Tutorials on Web Programming, Databases & more Entertainment Buy.com : Wii Fit Charging Stand with Two Rechargeable Battery Packs for $14... | |
Back-to-school: Have your school sign up for Safety Alerts
Back-to-school: Have your school sign up for Safety Alerts Far too often, recalls and safety alerts don’t reach the consumers that need them the most. There’s typically only a 10 to 30 percent consumer response rate to recalls. That puts a lot of consumers who may never have received the information in harm’s way. Children are particularly vulnerable to risk of injury, illness, or death from unsafe foods and products. Busy parents are bombarded with information and often don’t hear about vital safety issues and recalls. So Consumers Union set out to find a way to get safety into the homes of parents with school-age children. We’ve created a unique coalition of government agencies, parent organizations, and school administrators to disseminate recalls and safety alert information to parents and caregivers... | |
Another Online Gotcha - from Consumer Reports
Another Online Gotcha - from Consumer Reports If you find an unexpected charge on your credit-card statement after shopping online, you may have been the victim of Data Pass -- another sneaky way to get online shoppers to buy more. Data Pass -- Another Online Gotcha - CR Podcast Subscribe now! Subscribe to ConsumerReports.org for expert Ratings, buying advice and reliability on hundreds of products. Update your feed preferences | |
Oil ad from the mad '60s brags about glacier-melting ability
Oil ad from the mad '60s brags about glacier-melting ability Here’s an ad from the 1960s that Mad Men ’s Don Draper might have dreamt up, before dashing off to a three-martini lunch. In it, the oil company Humble (which would later become Exxon) boasts that, “This giant glacier has remained unmelted for centuries. Yet, the petroleum energy Humble supplies—if converted into heat—could melt it at the rate of 80 tons each second!" Times have changed, as evidenced by Exxon’s latest ad campaign touting its research into greenhouse gas-reducing algae. But an investigation into U.S. energy policy in the October 2010 issue of Consumer Reports finds there’s still plenty of room for improvement. Check back next week—when the issue will be online and on newsstands—for the full details... | |
Consumers Union advocates for rear seat-belt reminder systems
Consumers Union advocates for rear seat-belt reminder systems When it comes to getting recalcitrant drivers and front-seat passengers to use seat belts, there's nothing quite as effective as that irritating dinging that just won't go away until they buckle up. But there's no federal requirement for seat-belt notification systems in the back seats of vehicles, where children usually ride. Consumers Union and some other safety groups want that to change. Read more and comment Public Citizen and Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety recently filed a petition seeking revision of federal regulations to require automobile manufacturers to install seat-belt reminder systems for designated rear seating positions in light-passenger vehicles... | |
Thirsty potted plant exacts fiery revenge on Arkansas homeowner
Thirsty potted plant exacts fiery revenge on Arkansas homeowner You can't make this stuff up. State Farm recently concluded that a fire that caused $20,000 damage to an Arkansas home was caused by a dead plant. Or in insurance-speak: “The fire was caused by self-heating through decomposition of organic materials contained within a plastic flowerpot.” Translation: Spontaneous combustion. The homeowner told the Associated Press that the flowerpot had contained dead, decomposing flowers and potting soil that his wife had planted in the summer of 2009. “She had intended on repotting (the flowers),” he said. Sadly, they sat on the porch, unwanted and unwatered, and eventually died. What happened next was even sadder. On July 25, the plant burst into flames, burned a hole in the deck and spread to the vinyl siding... | |
Rep. Nita Lowey visits Consumers Union to push food-safety bill
Rep. Nita Lowey visits Consumers Union to push food-safety bill Rep. Nita Lowey with Consumers Union's Jim Guest (right) and Michael Hansen (left). Earlier today, U.S. Congresswoman Nita Lowey stopped by Consumers Union’s headquarters in Yonkers, N.Y., to talk about the need for reform of our food-safety laws. Lowey represents New York’s Westchester and Rockland counties in the U.S. House of Representatives. She met with CU’s food-safety experts and spoke with reporters to urge the U.S. Senate to pass a long-pending bill that would overhaul the ability of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to protect our food supply. Read more and comment CU President Jim Guest and Senior Scientist Michael Hansen joined Representative Lowey in a call for the U... | |
Samsung Galaxy Tab: More details revealed on iPad competitor
Samsung Galaxy Tab: More details revealed on iPad competitor The Galaxy Tab as seen in Samsung's video . Photo: Samsung Samsung today released new details about the Samsung Galaxy Tab, the first viable iPad competitor we know of. (For basics on the device, see our blog, Samsung Galaxy Tab: The first serious iPad competitor from last week). Here's the new information: The tablet weighs about 13 ounces. Its TFT-LCD display's resolution is 1024 x 600 and measures 7 inches. That makes it 7 ounces lighter than the iPad and its display quite a bit smaller than the iPad's 10 inches. Powered by a 1GHz Cortex A8 processor, the Galaxy Tab will connect via 3G, 802.11n Wi-Fi, and Bluetooth. You'll be able choose from models with 16 or 32GB of built-in memory; an external slot can accept up to 32GB of removable memory... | |
Scientists close to understanding gravity … again
Scientists close to understanding gravity … again What, you thought Newton cracked this one already? Physicists at the National Institute for Standards and Technology (NIST) say they may have a way to measure the effects of gravity at very short distances, say 1/1,000 the diameter of a human hair. “There are lots of competing theories about whether gravity behaves differently at such close range,” says NIST physicist Andrew Geraci. It’s not entirely clear how this information might be used. But, adds Geraci, “progress in the scientific community comes not just from individual experiments, but from new ideas.” And so we thought you’d want to know. —Daniel DiClerico Subscribe now! Subscribe to ConsumerReports... | |
"Organic" label on fish would mislead under proposed standards
"Organic" label on fish would mislead under proposed standards A group of more than 40 organizations, including our publisher, Consumers Union, came out hard against a set of proposed standards for organic Canadian seafood this week. The proposals would allow an organic label to be slapped on fish that comes from farms that use antibiotics and feed their fish up to 30 percent nonorganic food—including fish from the wild that could easily contain mercury and PCBs, according to a letter from the groups. “Consumers deserve clear assurance that their choice of organic products supports a safer and more sustainable environment,” says Urvashi Rangan, Ph.D., technical policy director at Consumers Union. “Fish labeled as 'organic' that are not fed 100 percent organic feed, that come from polluting open-net pen systems, or that are contaminated with PCBs fall significantly short of expectations for organic products... | |
Courts rule on legality of planting GPS trackers on suspects' cars without a warrant
Courts rule on legality of planting GPS trackers on suspects' cars without a warrant GPS is everywhere. Now, according to a California court, it can also be used to track criminal suspects. In a case involving a marijuana grower, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco has decided that police didn't violate the suspect's Fourth Amendment protection from unreasonable search and seizure by sneaking his driveway and attaching a GPS tracking device to the bottom of his Jeep. (Court document pdf .) In a different case in Washington, D.C., an appeals court decision went the other way, ruling a lower court erred in admitting evidence acquired by the warrantless use of a GPS device to track that defendant's movements... | |
New-car fuel-economy stickers promise abundant information and connectivity
New-car fuel-economy stickers promise abundant information and connectivity Officials from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) put two basic proposals out to consumers for a vote . These car window stickers provide much more detailed information than today's Monroney stickers, giving consumers details on energy consumption and environmental impact. Behind those proposed fuel-economy grade labels are a lot of numbers, including: City and highway fuel economy ratings Long-term fuel costs Comparative ratings against all other cars Greenhouse gas emissions in grams per mile, as well as a comparisonagainst all other cars A bar comparing air pollution that is not included in the overall letter grade One proposal includes all this information, along with a letter grade that attempts to sum it all up into one ranking... | |
Good night! Morningland recalls 68,957 pounds of raw milk cheese
Good night! Morningland recalls 68,957 pounds of raw milk cheese Morningland Dairy of Mountain View, Missouri, is recalling 68,957 pounds of cheese because it may be contaminated with Listeria monocytogenes and has the potential to be contaminated with Staphylococcus aureus. The recall involves a range of sizes and products under the Morningland Dairy and Ozark Hill Farms labels. The raw cow’s milk cheeses are Colby, Hot Pepper Colby, Garlic Colby, Italian Colby, Dill Colby, No-Salt Added Mild Cheddar, Mild Cheddar, Medium Sharp Cheddar, Sharp Cheddar. The raw goat’s milk cheeses are Colby, Hot Pepper Colby, Italian Colby, Garlic ‘N’ Chive Colby, Mild Cheddar, Medium Sharp Cheddar, Sharp Cheddar. The codes affected by the recall are handwritten on the front of the label and range from A10 (representing January 1, 2010) through F250 (representing June 25, 2010)... | |
Daily Dispatch: Navteq works to humanize GPS directions; Skyfire: flash capable iPhone browser submitted to Apple for approval
Daily Dispatch: Navteq works to humanize GPS directions; Skyfire: flash capable iPhone browser submitted to Apple for approval In today's Digital Dispatch: Navteq tries to make GPS directions more 'human' ( cnet ) ...Rather than say, "turn right in 150 feet," as current GPS devices do now, Navteq's system gives directions based on landmarks. The instructions will include "turn right after the yellow shop," or "turn right at the traffic signal," the company said in a statement. Google Making Extraordinary Counteroffers To Stop Flow Of Employees To Facebook ( TechCrunch ) ...One recent Googler, we’ve confirmed, was recently offered a counter offer he couldn’t refuse (except he did)... |
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Osteoporosis Drugs May Be Linked to Cancer Risk
The long-term use of oral bisphosphonate osteoporosis drugs such as Actonel, Boniva, and Fosamax may be associated with a doubling in esophageal cancer risk, but the risk to individual users remains small, researchers say. | |
Men With Insomnia May Have Higher Risk of Death
Men with insomnia have a fourfold higher death rate than those who sleep at least 6 hours a night, a 14-year study finds. It's not yet clear whether women with insomnia also die sooner. | |
Is Your Kitchen as Clean as a Restaurant's?
An online quiz rates your hygiene practices with a letter grade -- and gives you the information you need to keep your food safe from bacteria. | |
Prescription Drug Use on the Rise in U.S.
Prescription drug use in the U.S. has been rising steadily in the past decade and the trend shows no signs of slowing, the CDC says in a new report. | |
Teen Pot Smoking Won't Lead to Other Drugs as Adults
New research finds little support for the hypothesis that marijuana is a "gateway" drug leading to the use of harder drugs in adulthood. | |
FAQ: How Health Care Reform Will Affect You
The journey toward health care reform reached a historic milestone March 22 when the House approved legislation that would extend coverage to 32 million more Americans and impose new restrictions on the insurance industry. | |
Massage Techniques and Types: Swedish, Deep Tissue, and More
If you’re new to massages, all the types and techniques can be a little overwhelming. WebMD answers common massage questions and explains the different styles. | |
Weight Loss Pill Meridia Ups Heart Attack, Stroke
People who take Abbott's weight-loss pill Meridia have a higher risk of non-fatal heart attack and stroke, a study sponsored by the drug's maker finds. | |
Physically Unprepared Skiers Face Heart Risk
Many people fail to rev up their exercise regimen before they leave for a ski vacation -- and the sudden burst of activity on the slopes puts them at risk for heart attack, researchers say. | |
New Anticlotting Drugs in the Works
The drugs apixaban and Xarelto are effective at preventing deadly blood clots, new studies show. | |
Sex Not on Most New Moms’ Minds
A research review finds that new moms have little sex drive in the first months after delivery. | |
Michael Douglas and Throat Cancer FAQ
In the wake of actor Michael Douglas's announcement that he has stage IV throat cancer, WebMD answers frequently asked questions about the disease. | |
Bad News About Youth Boosts Elders' Esteem
People over 50 get a self-esteem boost when they read negative news about young adults, a study shows. | |
Coffee May Combat High Blood Pressure
Older people with high blood pressure who drink one to two cups of coffee a day have more elastic blood vessels than those who drink less or more, Greek researchers report. | |
Young Skin Care: Natural Makeup and Cosmetic Ingredients That Matter
Tips for healthy skin care for your teen. | |
What Chemicals Are in Your Personal Care Products?
Many personal care products contain controversial chemicals. What do experts say about making healthy choices? | |
What's Irritating Your Child's Eyes?
Avoiding irritating fumes that can make eyes red and watery. | |
Taking Care of Baby's Sensitive Skin
Worried about chemicals like phthalates and parabens in your baby shampoos, soaps, and lotions? See what the experts say. | |
Cleaning Your Home Without Harsh Chemicals
Tips on keeping your house germ-free. | |
When Your Child Has Allergies
How to avoid common triggers around an allergic child. |
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