Month: February 2015

A recent study by nonprofits As You Sow and the Natural Resources Defense Council showed that the food industry has a long way to go toward reducing the environmental impact of their product packaging. The study analyzed 47 prominent companies and ranked them Poor, Needs Improvement, Better Practices, or Best Practices based on their commitment to recycled content, recyclability in materials used, switching to reusable packaging, and boosting material recycling. Of the 47 companies analyzed, zero achieved Best Practices status, and only two (Starbucks and McDonalds) reached Better Practices. McDonalds reached Better Practices status by reducing the weight of its packaging and using 33% post-consumer recycled content to make its sandwich boxes. McDonalds has also made a pledge to phase ou...

Currently, it’s up to Florida drivers to educate themselves on the risks of buying used car tires. But a bill introduced in the Florida Senate would make it illegal to sell unsafe used tires in the state. Staffers of Sen. Greg Evers, the bill’s sponsor, told the local CBS affiliate Feb. 6 that the bill is intended to address predatory used tire businesses that exploit consumers’ lack of knowledge, as well as safety issues associated with some used tires. In January, the Rubber Manufacturers Association said that it expected seven states, including Florida, to consider legislation regulating used tire sales in 2015 (Georgia, Indiana, New Jersey, Oklahoma, South Carolina and Texas round out that list). The goal of such legislation, the group said, should be to improve “highway and motorist...

In a disconcerting update on Target's store-closing catastrophe in Canada, another problem has just emerged: many of the Target locations had brought franchised pharmacists into the stores, and now that every store is being closed, Target is forcing those pharmacists to sell their own businesses at absurdly low prices to rival chain store Walmart. And what's even worse -- thousands of patient health records, once belonging to these Target pharmacies, now seem to be hanging in limbo, waiting to be sold to the highest bidder. When U.S.-based Target decided to close all of its 133 Canadian stores at the beginning of 2015, it's safe to say that no one was surprised. The company, which has chain stores all across the U.S. and is very successful in the American market, had been struggling to f...

About 20 years ago, Boston University economics professor Laurence Kotlikoff started Economic Security Planning, a firm that sold financial-planning software. Recently, Kotlikoff has re-purposed the firm's ESPlanner software to help divorcing couples weigh potential financial settlements and the impact they could possibly have on each individual. Now, he and his firm are offering this type of analysis via a new website, FairDivorceDecisions.com. Kotlikoff explains that this by quantifying the long-term impact of potential settlements, the service "can stop a lot of the arguments." The idea struck Kotlikoff as he was going through his own divorce. Dayle Ballentine, his former partner, agreed that the software made things easier, and described their divorce as "pretty amicable." The softw...

New reports from the Harvard University Joint Center for Housing Studies have some good news, and some bad news. On the one hand, growth in home improvement spending is expected to slow down during 2015. On the other hand, home improvement spending is still growing. In fact, the U.S. home improvement industry could post record level spending in 2015. The latest Leading Indicator of Remodeling Activity, which is designed to estimate national homeowner spending on improvements for the current quarter and subsequent three quarters, projects that the annual growth for 2015 will decelerate from 6.3% in the first quarter of 2015 to 1.6% by the third quarter. "Due in part to weakening home sales last year, growth in remodeling spending is expected to deflate somewhat in 2015," said Chris Herber...

It's already been a long winter with plenty of snow, leaving many residents across the nation worried about the state of their roofs. When roofs are covered in snow and ice, it's nearly impossible to tell when they're near collapse, but a new system called Roof Monitor may be set to change that.Roof Monitor was developed by Brad Beldon, a longstanding member of the roofing industry who wanted to design a way to monitor the condition of snow-laden roofs. Using wireless sensors that transmit real-time data, building owners with Roof Monitor will be able to make more informed decisions about winter roof maintenance.The wireless sensors are placed on the exterior surface of the roof and measure environmental changes and roof loads. The data collected by the sensors is integrated into a user-fr...

Dealing with customer service representatives over the phone can be a hassle -- for both the customer and the company employee. But when tempers flared a little too much at Comcast, one billing customer got a surprise when she received her monthly statement. Ricardo and Lisa Brown of Spokane, Washington, had to call their cable and internet provider over a billing matter. When they received their statement in the mail, they noticed that Ricardo's name had been changed -- to "Asshole Brown." When Lisa Brown called Comcast to get the name changed back, employees were reluctant to help. She reached out to Christopher Elliott, a consumer advocacy writer for the Washington Post, USA Today and other publications. After hearing the Browns' story, Elliot featured a full report of the Comcast deb...

Talk about having your cake and eating it too. A California state employee recently found himself in hot water for lying about his need to work from home, in order to secretly take on a second job. The worker, who was employed with the Department of Industrial Relations, lied to his supervisor about needing to telecommute -- claiming he needed to care of his sick mother -- with the intention of secretly working a second full-time job at a San Francisco hospital, according to the report from the state auditor. Taking place between 2010-2011, the lie was not discovered for almost a year -- 10 months -- due to the laid-back management style of the employee's supervisor, according to State Auditor Elaine Howle's December report. The report, which focused on incidences of bad behavior ...