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Bank of America hit with $250 million in fines, refunds for ‘double-dipping’ fees, fake accounts

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 10:50:49 GMT

By Ken Sweet and Michelle Chapman | The AssociatedBank of America will reimburse customers more than $100 million and pay $150 million in fines for “double-dipping” on overdraft fees, withholding reward bonuses on credit cards and opening accounts without customer consent.Combined, it is one of the highest financial penalties in years against Bank of America, which has largely spent the last 15 years trying to clean up its reputation and market itself to the public as a bank focused on financial health and not on overdraft fee income and financial trickery.BofA must refund $100 million to customers, pay $90 million in penalties to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and $60 million to the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency. “Bank of America wrongfully withheld credit card rewards, double-dipped on fees, and opened accounts without consent,” said CFPB Director Rohit Chopra, in a statement. “These practices are illegal and undermine customer trust.”Empowered by a broad man...

There’s so much extra milk, U.S. farmers are dumping it in the sewer

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 10:50:49 GMT

By Nazmul Ahasan and Michael Hirtzer | BloombergThere’s more milk than ever in the US but nowhere left to process it, forcing farmers across the Upper Midwest to pour the excess dairy down the drain.The Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District’s wastewater treatment system has been handling increased volumes of milk, a spokesperson confirmed, though he couldn’t verify how much. Since-deleted videos on social media earlier this summer showed farmers pumping thousands of gallons of excess milk directly onto their fields.Pete Hardin, editor of Wisconsin-based dairy publication The Milkweed, told local media the state’s milk supply with no home could fill as many as 50 trailers a day, each carrying 6,000 to 7,000 gallons.“We know that milk is being dumped in other parts of the Midwest, not just Wisconsin,” said Laurie Fischer, the founder and chief executive officer of American Dairy Coalition. “At the same time, farms are making decisions as milk prices fall to their lowest levels sinc...

Family whose son was killed on California freeway sues Uber, saying driver left him there

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 10:50:49 GMT

The family of a Corona man who was hit by a car and killed says he was left behind on the 91 Freeway when his Uber ride pulled over to let out another passenger who had to throw up. Now the family is suing the ride-hailing company, alleging the driver’s negligence led to his death.The crash that killed 21-year-old Cory Hunter occurred just before 3 a.m. on Sunday, May 21. At the time, the California Highway Patrol only identified Hunter as a pedestrian who somehow had made it to the fast lane of the 91 near the Serfas Club Drive exit in Norco.Hunter died at the scene after an oncoming Toyota Corolla hit him, the CHP said. But his family said the CHP report left out that Hunter was only on the freeway after his ride left without him.“They said that he was just walking on the freeway,” said his mother, Rhonda Hunter, of Norco. “He could have been homeless. He could have been a guy on drugs. My son never did drugs.“People thought maybe he committed suicide,” she said. “He did not — he ...

Opinion: Lack of investment in women’s health research has consequences

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 10:50:49 GMT

The summer of 1993 was an eventful time: Prince changed his name to a symbol, “Jurassic Park” was released and Congress passed the National Institutes of Health Revitalization Act requiring the inclusion of women in clinical research.Most people aren’t aware of this law, which requires that women be included in research to develop drugs, therapies and treatments that are designed to improve the health of all people. For decades, women were underrepresented in or excluded from biomedical research studies because they could become pregnant or their hormones were deemed “too complicated.” This caused large gaps in our understanding of how sex and gender inform health and disease.Because men made up the majority of research participants, women’s health suffered. Drugs, therapies and medical devices were developed with the male patient in mind. A 2001 Government Accountability Report found that 8 out of 10 drugs pulled from the market had greater health risks for women than for men. And ...

Opinion: California slavery reparations are about more than cash payments

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 10:50:49 GMT

When the reaction of state lawmakers and Gov. Gavin Newsom to recommendations by the state task force on reparations was described as “cool,” California Secretary of State Shirley Weber let out a slight, knowing chuckle.“I hope many of those who supported the work of the task force would still see the value of it and continue to support it,” said Weber, who as a member of the Assembly carried the legislation in 2020 that created the panel.The bill was passed with broad backing from Democratic legislators and signed by the governor, who had been an outspoken advocate of repairing the damage the legacy of slavery has had on generations of Black Californians.Weber, D-San Diego, soon was appointed secretary of state by Newsom and was sworn in to office in January 2021.Newsom and many of those lawmakers have since become circumspect in their reactions to the task force proposals, if they have offered any response at all.The caution grew after estimates surfaced th...

Krugman: So much for claims that Big Government has made Americans lazy

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 10:50:49 GMT

Bernie Marcus, a co-founder of Home Depot, had some negative things to say about his fellow Americans in an interview last December. “Socialism,” he opined, has destroyed the work ethic: “Nobody works. Nobody gives a damn. ‘Just give it to me. Send me money. I don’t want to work — I’m too lazy, I’m too fat, I’m too stupid.’”You’re naive if you think his take is exceptional. Without question, rich men are constantly saying similar things at country clubs across America. More important, conservative politicians are obsessed with the idea that government aid is making Americans lazy, which is why they keep trying to impose work requirements on programs such as Medicaid and food stamps despite overwhelming evidence that such requirements don’t promote work — but do create red-tape barriers that deny help to people who really need it.I’m not under the delusion that facts will change such people’s minds. But everyone else should know that over the past year we have, in effect, conducted a...

Southern California community declares local emergency, residents consider post-landslide future

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 10:50:49 GMT

The land movement that destroyed 12 homes in a Rolling Hills Estates neighborhood this weekend — and has continued sending 10 of those buildings sliding toward a canyon — has slowed, officials said Tuesday, July 11, the same day the City Council declared a local state of emergency.The shifting land, meanwhile, also broke a sewer line, forcing five additional homes on Peartree Lane to be evacuated, though the earth under those homes is not moving, officials said.Still, the stark reality of the tragedy, as well as its ongoing fallout, belied the placid and suburban normalcy to which the Rolling Hills Park Villas outwardly returned on Tuesday. Residents took out their garbage. They walked their dogs. They made runs to the grocery store.Even the mail arrived.But normal doesn’t really exist on Peartree Lane.Instead, a dozen homes are cracking and crumbling. Most will become rubble. Their owners face an uncertain future. And even those whose homes are safe are now confronting the uncomfor...

How America’s push for the atomic bomb spawned enduring radioactive waste problems in St. Louis

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 10:50:49 GMT

ST. LOUIS (AP) — The federal government and companies responsible for nuclear bomb production and atomic waste storage sites in the St. Louis area in the mid-20th century were aware of health risks, spills, improperly stored contaminants and other problems but often ignored them, according to documents reviewed by The Associated Press.Decades later, even with much of the cleanup complete, the aftereffects haunt the region. Federal health investigators have found an increased cancer risk for some people who, as children, played in a creek contaminated with uranium waste. A grade school closed last year amid radiation concerns. A landfill operator is spending millions to keep underground smoldering from reaching nuclear waste illegally dumped in the 1970s. The AP examined hundreds of pages of internal memos, inspection reports and other items dating to the early 1950s, and found nonchalance and indifference to the risks of materials used in the development of nuclear weapons during an...

Broadcom’s $61 billion deal to buy VMware gets cleared by European Union regulators

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 10:50:49 GMT

Computer chip and software maker Broadcom’s $61 billion proposed purchase of cloud technology company VMware got the green light Wednesday from European Union regulators who were satisfied by concessions to ease competition concerns.The European Commission, the EU’s executive arm and top antitrust enforcer, said Broadcom made comprehensive commitments to provide access and system connections to its only existing rival, Marvell, as well as any other potential future competitors. The commission said the concessions mean the deal “would no longer raise competition concerns.” The approval from the 27-nation bloc is conditional on Broadcom living up to its commitments for 10 years, with an independent trustee monitoring compliance. The commission had opened an in-depth investigation last year over worries that the combination of Broadcom hardware and VMware software could lock out rival technology. The deal still faces scrutiny elsewhere. Britain’s competition regulator...

How behavioral economics can help you save on airfare

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 10:50:49 GMT

It’s not just you: Shopping for airfare is harder than ever. Choosing between basic economy and regular economy fares and navigating add-on fees makes booking more complicated, and that’s no accident. Airlines are harnessing lessons from a still-emerging academic field known as behavioral economics to nudge customers into spending more.“Behavioral economics was developed by incorporating ideas from psychology into standard economic theories,” says Cait Lamberton, a professor of marketing at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School. “If you see a deal that is available for only a short amount of time, and you pay more than you usually would, standard economics would say you’ve made an irrational decision. Behavioral economics says that no, what your brain is doing is responding to scarcity.”These seemingly irrational choices are called “biases,” many of which can affect how we shop. For example, “loss aversion” makes us hyper-sensitive to losing money and more likely to ...