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( Ralph Krawczyk Jr ) Nearly five months after Fiat Chrysler issued a recall of 230,000 Dodge and Jeep SUVs for fuel pump issues that could lead to a vehicle stall, the company expanded the number of affected vehicles by more than 467,000. The automaker announced today that it would recall an additional 467,480 model year 2012-2013 Dodge Durangos and 2011 Jeep Grand Cherokees in order to fix an issue with the vehicle’s fuel pump function. Engineers with the company determined that a condition in a 2014 investigation may now extend to later model vehicles. The issue centers on a pattern of repairs to fuel-pump relays that are susceptible to deformation, and could prevent the vehicle from starting or lead to an engine stall. The company says it is unaware of any injuries or accidents related to the problem. In all, the recall covers 338,216 vehicles in the U.S., 18,991 in Canada, 10,829 in Mexico and 99,444 outside the North American Free Trade Agreement. Chrysler will notify owners...

( JKehoe_Photos ) We’ve heard plenty of times in the past few years that if you have a smart TV — one that’s internet-enabled, for all that app goodness — that it might be watching you just as much as you watch it. Samsung in particular generates a lot of questions about how secure your data is with your TV, as do LG and Vizio. But there’s a missing piece to the equation. If your TV is watching you, why? Who stands to gain (in the sense of cold hard cash) from your data? That’s what our colleagues over at Consumer Reports (Consumerist’s parent company) decided to find out . Your TV is collecting and sending data about everything you watch — TV, streaming content, or discs — to a third party, CR explains. And those three companies have been doing it since as far back as 2012. The process is known as automatic content recognition (ACR), and there’s an entire industry now built on collecting and making money from viewer behavior data. And the data is indeed valuable, to the right buyers...

( Sapurah Lashari ) For several years now the government has offered federal student loan forgiveness programs aimed at helping borrowers to avoid defaulting on their debts. While recent reports have shown that the popularity of the programs has exceeded expectations , a group of six senators say the Department of Education could do more given the billions of dollars in payments it receives from federal loans each year. Six senators — Sen. Elizabeth Warren (MA), Sen. Sherrod Brown (OH), Sen. Jeff Merkley (OR), Sen. Richard Blumenthal (CT), Sen. Tammy Baldwin (WI), and Sen. Edward Markey (MA) — sent a letter [ PDF ] to Secretary of Education Arne Duncan scolding the Department for turning federal student loans into a source of revenue while students struggle to make ends meet. The Department is “squeezing students who are struggling to get an education” in order to maximize profits, the senators say, pointing to the Congressional Budget Office’s most recent estimates indicating that ...

( benh57 ) A Canadian man who flew with his wife on an American Airlines flight from Dallas to Mexico in March 2013 has filed a lawsuit against the airline, blaming it for his wife’s death. He claims that when his wife started to experience respiratory distress and couldn’t breathe, he told the crew that she had a pre-existing lung condition, and they would need an ambulance to meet their plane, reports ABC News . Instead, his suit says two crew members showed up at the plane with a wheel chair. The husband also claims that although crew administered oxygen to his wife while she was in the midst of the episode, and she improved, she was forced to give the oxygen equipment back. “While disembarking the aircraft and over [the plaintiff’s] objection, a member of the flight crew demanded that [she] give up the oxygen supplied earlier by the flight crew that had been keeping her alive,” the lawsuit said. According to the complaint, she died about 30 minutes afterward. The airline declined ...

If you’ve been considering starting your morning with the cream-filled Cinnabon Delights at Taco Bell but decided they weren’t sugary enough, the fast food chain is now testing a similarly cream-filled, deep-fried treat that is coated in Cap’n Crunch and has a mysterious pink dough. Taco Bell, which might as well change its name to “Why The Hell Not?,” tells Nation’s Restaurant News that the “Cap’n Crunch Delights” are being tested in Bakersfield, CA, and are intended to be a throwback to Cap’n Crunch Crunch Berries cereal. “It’s a nostalgic throwback brand from when you were a kid,” explains the Bell’s senior director of marketing, presumably in between bites of a chalupa-wrapped beignet filled with pure adrenalin. “We feel like it will appeal to what we call ‘kid-ults,’ or the kid-adults out there.” While these sugar bombs are going to be on the breakfast menu, Taco Bell says they will also be available the rest of the day. Over at FoodBeast , they already have actual photos of t...

( Julio Marquez ) The FCC voted yesterday to reclassify broadband and protect the open internet. In other words, at long last, we have a net neutrality rule . And that’s great! But there is still a lot we don’t know, and there are a lot of questions left unanswered. Here are the major things we don’t know, and parts we’re waiting to better understand. 1.) We still don’t know exactly what the rule says — and that’s completely normal. As the Washington Post points out , some folks are already working themselves into a bit of a conspiracy-theory frenzy about the fact that the full text hasn’t yet been published, even though the vote happened 24 hours ago. But a delay between FCC votes and the release of the full, finalized text of the rule they’re voting on is completely normal — it’s part of the process, just how the agency always works. You can argue whether or not the rule should have been made public before the vote, but after the vote there’s a very specific procedure the commission...

(Klamath County Sheriff’s Dept.) Though sometimes it feels like your keys, wallet or phone can just go walking away from where you left them, a man in Oregon was shocked this week to first find that his log cabin had been stolen, and then to find that it had somehow wandered 3,750 feet away from its original resting place. The circumstances surrounding the case of the mysterious move are a bit complicated: A woman, her ex-husband and her ex-boyfriend type all own the property where the log cabin sat jointly, explains ABC News , but only the ex-boyfriend’s name is on the home loan and he apparently built the cabin. Police believe the ex-husband sold the house to a neighbor for $3,000, placing it in the new owner’s field half a mile away, without the ex-boyfriend’s permission. When he came back to the property months after last being there and found the log cabin missing, he called the cops. “Quite frankly, it’s one of the most unusual moments I’ve ever seen,” the sheriff said, adding t...

( БРАТСТВО ) Since the Food and Drug Administration won’t set down hard-and-fast rules on non-medical antibiotic use in farm animals, it’s up to the farmers and the companies who buy the most meat to make a change that will cut down on the use of drugs that result in bigger cows, pigs, and chickens, but also put us all at risk for drug-resistant pathogens. That’s why some public health advocates are looking to Steve Easterbrook, who will take over as CEO of McDonald’s on Monday and who is in the rare position of being able to effect change on a large scale. The fast food giant reportedly buys upwards of 2% of all beef sold in many countries where it operates, and even more chicken, making it one of the largest single buyers of meat. McDonald’s own guidelines [ PDF ] acknowledges that there are concerns about the use on farm animals of antibiotics that are medically important to humans, and say that antibiotic use at its meat-supplying farms “shall be used in accordance with all appli...

( Sybren Stüvel ) In this era of social media and crowdsourced reviews, businesses with happy customers do what they can to publicize positive feedback. But if a company compensates customers for reviews and fails to disclose that tit-for-tat relationship, it’s illegal and deceptive marketing. Just ask the Georgia-based auto-shipping company targeted in the Federal Trade Commission’s first case involving misrepresented online reviews. The FTC announced today that AmeriFreight, an automobile shipment broker, agreed to settle charges that it violated the FTC Act when it deceptively represented that its favorable online reviews were based on unbiased reviews from customers. According to the complaint [ PDF ], AmeriFreight – which arranges the shipment of consumers’ cars through third-party freight carriers – provided consumers with a discount of $50 off the cost of services if they agreed to review the company’s services online. If customers refused to make an online review, the compa...

While no one can take away the joy of watching someone’s jalopy get turned into a gleaming pile of doodads and gadgets in bright colors that just so happened to also have wheels, the internet has been abuzz about reports that MTV’s early ‘aughts “reality” TV show Pimp My Ride wasn’t exactly the fairy tale you see on the screen. The Huffington Post had a few people talking about how the show hosted by Xzibit really went down. Though it purported itself to be the kind of surprise fantasy-turned-reality set-up we all love about contests like Publishers House or other seemingly random rewards, things weren’t so simple. For example, one guy said MTV took back some of the gadgets installed in his car after they filmed it for TV, including in his case, a “pop-up” champagne contraption and a “drive-in theater.” Sounds shady, sure, but he further explained to HuffPo that MTV didn’t want to condone drinking and driving, thus pulling the booze device, and that the theater wasn’t street safe. B...

( afagen ) Perhaps you think you’re clever, sure, but just because you can pull a James Bond and movie move and rig your car in a way that helps you break the law, doesn’t mean you won’t get in trouble for it. Police in New York say a truck driver tried to skirt the rules by modifying his bumper in such a way that it could flip up and hide his license plate when he went through tolls. That move effectively blocked the toll booth’s cameras from capturing an image of his license plate, blocking the toll system from seeing it and thus, avoiding the $95 fare for an 18-wheeler on the George Washington Bridge, reports Reuters . Police said he was hauling a load of candy across the bridge going to New York City this week, and before he got to the toll gates, he flipped a switch on his dashboard, enabling the tricky device that tilted the bumper up, hiding the plate. “The officer positioned at the toll booth sees the bumper lift to a 90-degree angle. This makes it unreadable to the EZ-Pass re...

( thronx ) Another day, another lawsuit against Apple: This time around, the company’s facing a lawsuit from Ericsson that seeks to ban imports on all iPads and iPhones amidst a dispute about licensing fees for several patents. Fresh off the heels of another lawsuit this week that found a jury ordering Apple to pay $532 million to another company, Apple is squaring off against telecom manufacturer Ericsson, after the Swedish company accused it of infringing on 41 of its patents that are used in iPhones and iPads, reports the New York Times’ Bits Blog . One of the patents involved includes technology related to Long Term Evolution, known as LTE, which is the latest high-speed wireless technology used for transmitting data between cellular networks and mobile devices. The two sides sued each other over Apple’s use of some of those patents last month, with Apple claiming that Ericsson was demanding too much money to license the technologies, and Ericsson saying in a separate suit that Ap...

( Colin ) Earlier this week, American Express announced that it would be raising annual interest rates on more than 1 million accounts , leading lots of people to ask if this could happen to their credit card — and what they should do about it. Credit card companies are indeed allowed to raise your APR, but the CARD Act of 2009 includes pro-consumer restrictions that prevent sudden and retroactive rate hikes for cardholders in good standing and gives them the option of closing your account without penalties. NO SUDDEN RATE HIKES While the CARD Act allows to hit delinquent customers (those who are at least 60 days behind on payments) with a higher penalty APR, cardholders who are continuing to make payments must be given 45 days notice in writing before a rate change. That’s why you need to open every piece of mail from your credit card company even if you get all your statements online. NO RETROACTIVE RATE HIKES That higher APR will only apply to new transactions and not to your curr...

One of Amazon’s patent applications. There can be a lot of worry over getting a package from Amazon delivered successfully — but what if your item never had to travel farther than the distance between the curb and your door? Amazon has filed a few patent applications in an effort to perhaps make curbside 3D printing a reality for the future. These “mobile manufacturing hubs” would allow drivers to pop out products right outside the customer’s home, reports the Wall Street Journal , all from the delivery truck that’s already driving around dropping off other products. The explanation for the patents says that using such a system would cut down on the time it takes to deliver a package, and also cut down on how much warehouse space Amazon needs to hold all its products. “Time delays between receiving an order and shipping the item to the customer may reduce customer satisfaction and affect revenues generated,” Amazon wrote in the applications. “Accordingly, an electronic marketplace ma...

( Reflection717 ) It’s been about eight months since a divided U.S. Supreme Court thrust a dagger through the gut of streaming video startup Aereo , and three months since the company filed for bankruptcy protection . And any hope that the company might be sold or resurrected has vanished with news that its name and patents have been sold off like parts of an old used car. GigaOm points to a bankruptcy court filing showing the results of an assets auction that only brought in around $2 million, a small fraction of what investors had hoped to get from bidders. We may someday here the Aereo name again, with DVR-maker TiVo snatching up the company’s trademarks and its list of customers. Perhaps TiVo will use the name for an upcoming version of its DVR that records over-the-air network feeds , or maybe it will just plaster the name on a wall at TiVo HQ as a reminder to employees of what can happen when you anger the TV networks. Another company, RPX, managed to walk off with Aereo’s pat...

Here are ten of the best photos that readers added to the Consumerist Flickr Pool in the last week, picked for usability in a Consumerist post or for just plain neatness. ( Sascha Kohlmann ) ( Great Beyond ) ( Karen Chappell ) ( Ben Roffelsen ) ( Jamie McCaffrey ) ( Jason Cook ) ( Susanne ) ( Karen Chappell ) ( Thomas Gut ) ( Eric BEAUME ) Want to see your pictures on our site? Our Flickr Pool is the place where Consumerist readers upload photos for possible use in future Consumerist posts. Just be a registered Flickr user, go here , and click “Join Group?” up on the top right. Choose your best photos, then click “send to group” on the individual images you want to add to the pool. by Laura Northrup via Consumerist

( frankieleon ) It’s not surprising that sales of breakfast cereal are falling: Americans, as a whole, are starting to eat breakfast on the move, cut carbs, and many people are fearful of genetically modified corn and wheat. If we do sit down and eat breakfast, we’ll scramble some eggs or microwave some oatmeal. Sure, there’s one cereal cafe in the world, but overall the trends are going against cereal. Kellogg’s was one of the companies that pioneered the food, making corn into flakes so they could serve a light breakfast at the Kellogg family’s health resort in Battle Creek, Michigan. This week, Bloomberg Businessweek asks: why is Kellogg all soggy now, performing worse than its competitors in the cereal business? Companies like General Mills are hurting, but doing better overall. Some experts blame this on miscalculations, like alienating core customers of its organic brand, Kashi. While sales of frozen waffles and pancakes are doing well overall, Kellogg’s Eggo brand is not. You...

Over the summer, we rounded up what all the key players in broadband and online were saying about the potential for the FCC to write a clear net neutrality rule. Earlier today, the FCC actually went and made that rule ; here’s what everyone has to say about it now. Although AT&T, Comcast, and Verizon all hint once again at lawsuits, it will be some time before they can actually file any. The rule first has to be made official with publication in the Federal Register, and then it will take even longer for it to go into effect to be challenged. AT&T AT&T started trying out legal frameworks for objecting to the vote weeks before it became a reality, so today the company took a more personal and emotional tactics with a first-person blog post from SEVP of external and legislative affairs Jim Cicconi. Cicconi chides the FCC for actually taking a stand and regulating, saying: Every chairman in my memory, including the current one, has faced political stampedes of one sort or a...

The tweet that has since been deleted. (@JetBlue) JetBlue is busy apologizing on Twitter for a now-deleted and ill-advised Tweet that made a bad pun referencing the Hindenburg Disaster. Too soon, perhaps, but also, reminding people of the time a flying machine crashed isn’t the best way to instill confidence in your own flying machines. Just sayin’. Though it’s been more than 75 years since the Hindenburg burst into flames and crashed, killing 36 people, JetBlue’s now-deleted “Oh, the Bluemanity!” Tweet with a photo of one of its plane’s tails did not go over well with Twitter users. This, in reference to the famous remark made by radio broadcaster Herbert Morris , “Oh, the humanity!” while reporting as the zeppelin burned and fell to the ground. The Twitterverse was not amused. @JetBlue Yikes, puns from the Hindenburg disaster are not the sentiment I'd want to invoke when advertising my flying machine. — Amanda Vories (@The_Binivore) February 26, 2015 . @JetBlue Great referen...

( Mike Mozart ) How does a department store company grow when department stores, as a category, are not doing so well? They have to go where customers are, and in general where customers are headed is “downmarket.” Looking at the success that its competitors have had with stores aimed at “aspirational shoppers” with thinner wallets, Macy’s is expanding into the discount brand-name model that you can find at chains like Nordstrom Rack and Off Fifth. Sure, you can boost profitability by cutting costs, which Macy’s has tried to do in recent years, but it also makes sense for them to go where consumers are. Where are are is “not shopping at department stores.” Instead, we’re combing racks at stores like the department store-affiliated outlets, as well as closeout fashion chains like TJ Maxx, Marshalls, Burlington Coat Factory, and other regional discounters. Macy’s has announced that it’s spending $1.2 billion on expanding in two directions: internationally and down the price scale. While...

Just a bit of the harsh critique that ownership left for its former servers and kitchen staff. Yelp is usually a place for restaurant diners to vent about bad service and food — and occasionally for restaurants to start ill-advised social media wars with those who complain. But it’s rarely the place for a restaurant to publicly point the finger at its own employees. And yet, as Eater.com points out , that’s exactly what a now-closed Chinese restaurant in the L.A. area did earlier this week. A note posted on Feb. 24 by an account claiming to represent the restaurant thanks customers who patronized the eatery for nearly 20 years and even extends gratitude to Yelpers who gave the restaurant bad reviews due to “incompetent” servers who ignored customers. The major portion of blame for the closing goes to the location, which the owners say was getting too expensive. Then it rips into waitresses, some of whom had been there upwards of 26 years, but whose substandard work ethic was “hurtin...