Author: Chris Morran

Newly released documents under the Freedom of Information Act reveal not just the Justice Department’s guidelines for how to use social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter for investigative purposes, but which ones are the most friendly to their requests for access to user info.

In the slides of what appears to be a DOJ PowerPoint presentation from Aug. 2009 titled “Obtaining and Using Evidence from Social Networking Sites,” the major social networking sites are examined for their utility and tendency to cooperate.

Facebook is described as “Often cooperative with emergency requests.”

MySpace “requires a search warrant for private messages/bulletins less than 181 days old.”

Under the Twitter heading, they list the “good news” that “most Twitter content is public,” but then go on to list several bits of “bad news” like “Stated policy of producing data only in response to legal process” and “no contact phone number.”

And while the DOJ had very little to say about getting info from LinkedIn, they do point out that the business-centric network “can be used to identify experts” and to “check background of defense experts.” Which is kind of scary, considering how they also point out that “profile information is not checked for reliability.”

Also of interest is the section on Legal and Practice Issues. Under the heading of “Knowledge is power,” they suggest investigators “Research ALL witnesses on social-networking sites.”

Speaking of witnesses, the DOJ reminds everyone that “Social networking and the courtroom can be a dangerous combination,” and urges caution when friending judges or defense counsel.

EFF Posts Documents Detailing Law Enforcement Collection of Data From Social Media Sites [Electronic Frontier Foundation]

Yesterday, we wrote about a Chicago-area Subway that was the target of lawsuits after being tied to 21 separate cases of Shigellosis, an infectious disease caused by the food-borne Shigella bacteria. Well, that number has increased, just a little bit, to 78 confirmed cases.

The Health Dept. in DuPage County released the news yesterday about the increase in the number of cases stemming from tainted food at the Subway in Lombard, IL.

Health officials say that they know of 11 people who have been hospitalized from the disease. As of yesterday, all but one had been released.

Symptoms of Shigellosis include diarrhea, vomiting, fever and stomach cramps. These normally begin one to two days after being exposed to the bacteria.

The Lombard restaurant remains closed during the ongoing investigation, though we doubt there are people lining up for its grand reopening.

Number of cases climb in Subway illnesses [WGN]

If you’re planning on flying on United Airlines between now and March 29, the airline is offering to help you save a bit of cash on your checked luggage… if you ship it via FedEx.

The airline has temporarily cut the price of the door-to-door baggage delivery service it offers through FedEx to $25/bag for up to 9 bags.

United passengers are normally charged $25 for their first checked bag and $35 for their second. So, if you have four bags to check, you can save $30 with the FedEx deal.

However, the deal isn’t without its catches:

-Even though you can travel as late as March 29, the sale ends at 5pm ET on Friday.

-The $25 offer is only available on flights in the continenatl U.S.

-FedEx won’t pick up or deliver bags on weekends, so be sure you don’t pack anything necessary if you’re traveling on a Saturday.

If they were to make this a permanent price reduction, would it be of interest to you?

United Airlines offer: You fly, your bags get shipped [Denver Business Journal]

Remember that funny-smelling U.S. Airways plane that sent passengers and crew to the hospital for the third time in less than three months? Well, the FAA thinks they know what was behind the most recent incident — exhaust fumes.

The plane didn’t even make to the runway in Charlotte, NC, the other day when two passengers and seven crew members aboard a Jamaica-bound flight noticed a bizarre odor and began to feel ill shortly after pushing back from the gate.

According to the FAA, there were faulty seals on the rear doors of the Boeing 767. And a strong tailwind on the tarmac caused exhaust fumes from the engines to infiltrate the cabin.

The plane is once again grounded until this latest problem is fixed.

This is the same jet that was grounded in late December after crew members suffered ill effects from a hydraulic fluid leak. And then on Jan. 16, 8 passengers and 7 crew members on same plane fell sick during a flight from the US Virgin Islands to Charlotte. That incident was blamed on a fuel leak.

Despite all of this, a rep for The U.S. Airline Pilots Association says it’s not yet time to throw in the towel on this particular plane: “There may be a time in the future that we say we don’t want to fly the airplane anymore, but we’re not there yet,” he said.

FAA: Exhaust fumes leaked into US Airways plane [Charlotte Observer]

Earlier this week, a reader wrote in to tell us how a customer service rep at Charter Communications tried to convince him to keep his cable service my telling him a whopper of an untruth about cable companies taking over all the streaming video services on May 1 or some such nonsense. Now, another Charter customer says the company is misleading them and other customers into believing that their routers don’t work and they need to rent one from Charter.

Over at Reddit, a Charter internet customer writes in to say that after a year of things working just fine, his LinkSys router doesn’t seem to work correctly with his cable modem. The 10mbps service they pay for was coming in at 2mbps, if at all. But when they plugged their computer directly into the modem, it worked just fine.

The customer picks up the story with their call to Charter:

They asked what brand router we had, and when we told them they said that it was too old and incompatible (WRTG54, not that old at all), and pressured my roommate (the primary account holder) into renting one from them that would work better. I mean really pressed the issue with him. Obviously, we said no, that we’d been using the Linksys for years and it had been fine.

Well, here we are the next day with NO internet. I could not get an IP address AT ALL on our Linksys router. So, I tried another Linksys that I had sitting around. AGAIN, no IP address AT ALL. Charter told us that since the modem works when plugged directly into the machine that our routers must be bad and we needed to rent one from them. Again, we told them no. I suspected that they might have blocked the spectrum of Linksys MAC addresses, so I cloned my PC’s MAC address to the Linksys and it INSTANTLY connected. Our bad, out of date, incompatible Linksys router suddenly is getting the 20mbps speeds that our PC’s were getting.

I am aware that the modem “grabs” the MAC of whatever it’s plugged into when it’s powercycled. For example, moving the ethernet cable from my machine to my roommates would NOT work unless the modem was powercycled after the move to “grab” the new MAC address. This is not the issue here. Charter is actively blocking the MAC addresses of Linksys devices at our home after we told them we had a Linksys and refused to buy their router because ours was “broken.”

Obviously we’re fine because I know how to clone a MAC address (a VERY simple process in a Linksys device) but so many other people don’t. Is this even legal? At the very least, it’s shady and disgusts me.

And, as the customer suggests, when you google “charter +linksys” you find several more instances of Charter customers complaining about their LinkSys routers suddenly no longer working.

So the big question: Is this just a technical glitch or is Charter deliberately blocking certain equipment in an attempt to get customers to rent their hardware?

Charter Tried To Con Me And Lied About It [Reddit]

In a slightly more upscale version of the McDonald’s beer bottle drive-thru robbery from earlier in the week, a Starbucks in Texas had its tip jar heisted by someone passing through the drive-thru lane.

According to police, a fella cruisin’ in a PT Cruiser rolled up to the drive-thru window at the Starbucks in League City, TX, around 3 p.m. And when the ‘bucks employee at the window turned to get the guy’s order, the driver snatched the tip jar — and the $25 inside — through the window and drove off.

The employee didn’t notice the missing jug o’ cash, but the driver of the car behind the suspect had an eagle eye, not only spoting the theft, but writing down the license plate number.

Thievery in Starbuck’s drive-through line [Ultimate Clear Lake]

The flight attendants at American Airlines say that contract negotiations have hit a wall, so they’ve asked for permission call an end to the talks. If granted, this would move the union one step closer to what could be the largest airline strike in the U.S. since 2005.

The Association of Professional Flight Attendants is the second union in a week to ask for permission from the National Mediation Board to end negotiations with American. Last week, the Transport Workers Union — representing the airline’s ground crew — made their request. The Board has not yet decided on whether or not to grant the TWU’s wish.

If the Mediation Board does agree to let either union end negotiations, the unions would be offered binding arbitration. If either the unions or American reject that offer, that’s when a 30-day “cooling off” period begins before an actual strike can happen.

The major sticking point in the contract negotiations is the $1.6 billion the attendants, ground workers and pilots collectively gave up in 2003 in an effort to keep American out of bankruptcy. They now want that money back in the new contracts.

While American publicly says they feel they have “made progress and look forward to getting back to the table and back to work,” they have also told the FAA that they are thinking about using managers and other employees as replacement workers in case a strike does occur. That’s exactly what the airline did in 1993 when employees walked off the job for five days.

The last major strike in the U.S. was in 2005. 4,200 mechanics and aircraft cleaners at Northwest Airlines went on strike in that instance. Northwest responded by hiring replacement workers.

American Air Attendants Ask U.S. Board for Clearance to Strike [Business Week]

Perhaps feeling a bit bloated, Kraft Foods Inc. announced earlier today that they’re cutting down on the amount of salt used in a number of its most popular products.

Kraft says it wants to reduce its overall average sodium content by about 10% over the next two years. They figure that amount equates to around 750 million teaspoons of salt.

Among the Kraft products up for major reductions in sodium is Oscar Mayer Bologna. The company wants to cut the s-o-d-i-u-m from everyone’s favorite meat-like product by 17%.

Another big target of Kraft’s sodium shrink ray is its Easy Mac Cups product. They say some flavors of the instant mac-and-cheese product will see sodium reductions of 20%.

“We are reducing sodium because it’s good for consumers, and, if done properly, it’s good for business,” said Rhonda Jordan, President, Health & Wellness, Kraft Foods. “A growing number of consumers are concerned about their sodium intake and we want to help them translate their intentions into actions.”

She adds that the short-term sodium cuts will impact more than 1,000 separate Kraft products and that the company’s long-term goal is an even greater reduction of its total sodium usage.

In case you didn’t know — though if you’re a Consumerist reader, you probably do — that cell phone charger you have plugged into your wall socket is pulling power even when you’re not charging your phone. AT&T figures that enough power is wasted in the U.S. alone to power 24,000 homes for a year. That’s why they’ve gone all eco-savvy on us and announced their new ZERO charger.

The main selling point of the ZERO is that it doesn’t do what other chargers do — it stops leeching power from the socket once you disconnect your phone. So it should save you a little money on your electric bill.

AT&T is also pitching the product as a waste-reducing option. Instead of having a separate ZERO charger for each type of phone, the charger is really just a small block that can be attached to different phones with the use of interchangeable cables.

The ZERO is slated to go on sale at AT&T stores in May.

Is this something you’d be interested in?

If you’re buying beer or renting a car, you probably understand why someone would want to see a photo ID. But Consumerist reader GyroMight was perplexed when he went to pick up some aerosol computer duster at Target and had to fork over his license to make the purchase.

Tell us all what happened, Gyro:

Just got back from Target where we had to pick up some odds and ends including some canned air to keep the inside of my computer dust free. When we got to the checkout counter, the lady asked for my driver’s license. I was a little confused since we had not picked up any alcohol and she was in the middle of scanning our items so she wasn’t asking for it to compare against my credit card. I guess she picked up on my confused look as she mentioned it was for the canned air and made a remark about “what kids are doing these days”. Since I was with my wife I decided not to make a big deal about it, but I don’t really enjoy just handing over my id for it to be scanned and kept in some sort of database, kept somewhere out in cyber space or in some company’s server to do with god knows what.

We don’t know if GyroMight ever saw the below episode of “Intervention,” but we’re guessing situations like this are the reason why Target is checking IDs on computer duster:

This may come as bad news to the 4 of you left out there that still rent videos at Blockbuster. The once-great chain of video stores is once again teetering on the edge of filing for bankruptcy.

Blockbuster filed its annual report yesterday and, well… things are not looking up. Sinking sales and increasing competition from services like Netflix and on-demand video “raise substantial doubt about our ability to continue as a going concern.”

At the end of 2009, Blockbuster says that the company’s liabilities were $314.3 million greater than their total assets.

In an attempt to compete with Redbox DVD kiosks, Blockbuster had hoped to unleash 10,000 of their Blockbuster Express-branded units last year. But, according to the report, less than 4,000 of them are out there. They say they still intend on rolling out more kiosks in 2010.

The company says they’re planning to shutter between 500 and 545 underperforming retail stores in 2010. They also will be cutting $200 million in staffing and advertising.

Is Blockbuster just postponing the inevitable, or do you think they’ll eventually be able to enjoy success in the new home video marketplace?

UPDATE: Blockbuster Again Warns Of Possible Bankruptcy Filing [WSJ]

Because it happens way too frequently, we’re often posting horror stories of air travelers being cooped up in a plane for hours on the tarmac waiting for weather to clear, a runway to open or the stars to align. And even though there will soon be penalties for planes that make passengers idle too long on the tarmac, it’s still going to happen. And just in case it happens to you, the folks over at Jaunted have prepared these 5 tips for surving the ordeal with a minimum of pain.

5. Always pack a little food in your carry-on
Jaunted says that, especially when you know there’s a high risk for delay, packing some extra snacks will “not only save you, but if you share, you’ll quickly breed goodwill in a stressful situation and find sympathetic fellow passengers.”

4. Have a pen
“You can make notes about rearranged travel plans… do the crosswords in the back of the in-flight magazine… draft your complaint letter… write “HELP” really large on a piece of paper and hold it up to the window by your seat, hoping people in the terminal see it.”

3. Remain calm
Stranded planes are a pressure cooker for anxiety, so it’s probably best if you keep your cool. Says Jaunted, “expressing frustrations calmly and rationally to a flight attendant could yield the bag of pretzels you desire to feed your hungry child.”

2. Tweet, tweet, tweet
While you still have battery power on your phone, let the world know what’s going on. It would probably be a good idea to know the Twitter accounts for the airline you’re traveling on, so you can (calmly… see above) let them know as the situation worsens. It also creates a searchable, public record of the situation in case the airport disputes passengers’ complaints.

1. Have all of your travel information and airline phone numbers handy
The most constructive way to spend that time stuck in the flying tin can is A) voicing your complaint to the airline’s customer service people and B) alerting others — car rental, hotels, connecting airlines, friends who are supposed to pick you up — know that you might need to alter your plans.

Any other suggestions? What did Jaunted leave off the list?

The Top Five Easiest Ways to Survive a Tarmac Delay [Jaunted]

Yet another Domino’s Pizza delivery dude has been attacked. This time, the unfortunate victim wasn’t robbed of his cash, but of the pizza and hot wings he was attempting to deliver.

The incident took place just before midnight on Monday in Redwood City, CA. The 58-year-old driver was unloading his cargo from the trunk of his car when the suspect — described as having a stocky build and short black hair and wearing dark pants and a large short-sleeved T-shirt — knocked him to the ground and began demanding cash.

The driver, perhaps hearing about the Domino’s delivery guy whose boss wanted him to pay back the money that was stolen from him, refused to comply with his assailant. So, rather than flee the scene loot-less, the mugger took the food.

“The guy decided to steal the food in lieu of money,” a police officer said. In total, the robber got away with about $40 in food.

A similar thing happened last month in Georgia, where a driver was forced to hand over around $36 in wings to armed attackers.

Can we not do something to protect the pizza deliverers of this nation? This is getting out of hand…

Robber steals order from pizza guy in Redwood City [Mercury News]

This is a bit of bittersweet news for those of us who remember sneaking down to our high school music room to score a can of Pepsi from the machine between classes — PepsiCo has announced that they’ve volunteered to pull all their beverage products out of schools around the world by 2012.

For students here in the U.S., this is nothing new. Both Pepsi and Coca Cola stopped selling their sodas in American schools 4 years ago. But this latest move pulls Pepsi drinks out of all schools (with students age 18 and under) in 200 countries.

Coke did recently announce that they would stop sales in primary schools around the globe, but that the company would continue to sell their products to high school students if their schools wanted them to.

“We believe school authorities should have the right to choose what is best for their schools,” a rep for Coke explained.

Meanwhile, even the people at the Center for Science in the Public Interest had something nice to say about PepsiCo’s announcement.

“We applaud Pepsi for its global commitment,” a rep for CSPI said. “But shame on Coca-Cola for insisting on targeting high school students in most countries around the world.”

Do you think this reflects a genuine interest from PepsiCo in curbing childhood obesity? Or is it merely a PR stunt to get people to ultimately drink more Pepsi?

Pepsi is dropping out of schools worldwide by 2012 [USA Today]

For the third time in just three months, the same U.S. Airways plane has reportedly made passengers and crew members ill and complaining of an odd odor. This time, the seemingly cursed jet had 9 people, including 2 pilots, heading to the hospital.

The Boeing 767 had just pushed back from the gate in Charlotte, NC, en route to Jamaica, when complaints from passengers and crew of an “electrical” smell in the cabin had the plane heading back to the gate.

While initial testing couldn’t find a problem with the air quality on board the plane, the above-mentioned pilots, 5 flight attendants and 2 passengers were all taken to the Carolinas Medical Center complaining of symptoms consistent with exposure to toxic fumes.

“We’ve taken [the plane] out of service until we resolve the issue,” a rep for the airline said.

This is the same plane that has already been taken out of service twice in recent months.

The 767 was grounded in late December after crew members suffered ill effects from a hydraulic fluid leak. It was cleared to fly shortly thereafter.

Then on Jan. 16, 8 passengers and 7 crew members on board this particular plane fell sick during a flight from the US Virgin Islands to Charlotte. Once the plane landed, several people were hospitalized and the jet was once again taken out of service. This time, the headaches and nausea were credited to a fuel leak.

On Jan. 21, the repaired plane was back in the air, and had flown without reports of illness since.

“We’re still looking into the cause,” a rep said about the latest incident. “We’re just at the troubleshooting stage.”

US Airways plane again causes illness [Charlotte Observer]

The folks at Time Warner Cable had lots of apologizing to do yesterday after viewers in some parts of North Carolina were treated to footage of naked ladies on what are listed as two different children’s channels.

For about two hours on Tuesday, Time Warner customers in the Cary, NC, area who went to look at either the Kids On Demand or PreSchool On Demand channels got an eyeful of nubile nudes playing in the preview window next to all the selections for the little ones.

“We’re very, very sorry it happened. We know parents are concerned,” Says a rep for TWC, “Basically, we had a piece of equipment fail and what happened is some previews for the Playboy Channel actually got diverted into the preview box on our Kids on Demand and our PreSchool On Demand… It took about an hour or so once we were notified of the problem to actually get it fixed.”

And considering the error occurred during the hours when kids are most likely to have the TV on while getting ready for school, the rep admits, “Unfortunately it hit at the worst possible time on the worst possible channels.”

While TWC believes that only a small number of young people actually viewed the adults-only footage, the rep concedes, “But one’s too many!”

Time Warner apologizes for Playboy-kids channel glitch [WRAL]

Authorities in Southern California are on the lookout for a man they believe has been peeping into the ladies’ room of an area McDonald’s.

The alleged peeper, described as a 5’7″ Hispanic male, about 40-years old, brown eyes, black slicked-back hair and a “large face” is suspected in at least two incidents at a McDonald’s in Torrance, CA.

Most recently, on March 13, police say the suspect followed a female customer into the batroom at the fast food eatery and then attempted to get a peek of her from under the stall. When he was spotted, the victim screamed and the suspect fled.

The police in Torrance think this may be the same man suspected in a similar incident at the same McDonald’s on Feb. 22.

Anyone with information about the crime is being asked to call the Torrance Police Detective Division at (310) 618-5570.

Police looking for McDonald’s ‘Peeping Tom’ [KABC]

While banks have spent the last two years consolidating and closing, it looks like people have been turning elsewhere for their financial services. Walmart — you might have heard of them — just opened up their 1,000th in-store MoneyCenter and have announced they’re rolling them out to 500 more locations before the end of 2010.

That means that there will soon be MoneyCenters in around 40% of Walmart’s 3,763 locations.

For those unfamiliar with MoneyCenters, it’s basically just a place where you can cash a check (for a minimum of $3), pay your bills (for a minimum of $.88) and make wire transfers (for a “great low fee,” though I’m sure some would differ on the meaning of “great”).

It’s also where you can get yourself a Walmart MoneyCard. That’s the store’s pre-paid Visa debit card, which will cost you $3 to start, $3 a month in “maintenance fees,” and will cost you $3 each time you add money to the card, unless you’re cashing a check.

Have you had any experiences with Walmart MoneyCenters or the MoneyCard? How did it compare to your experiences at banks and check cashing stores?

In a move toward greater transparency, the New York City Board of Health has decided that all restaurants in the five boroughs will now be required to post large letter grades reflecting the results of their most recent health inspection.

Currently, the Health Dept. assigns numerical scores, based on the number and severity of violations found, to each of the 24,000 restaurants it inspects every year. While it will continue to use that system for official use, the signs posted outside of each eatery will reflect that score’s corresponding letter grade.

According to the Health Dept., if a restaurant receives an “A,” they’ll get the certificate immediately. If the inspection turns up a grade below “A,” restaurants have one month to get themselves up to “A” status before being obligated to post the lower grade. If the restaurant owner contests their sub-A grade, they can post “grade pending” signs until pleading their case before the Health Department’s Administrative Tribunal.

“Letter grades will make the inspection process more transparent, giving every potential customer instant access to important information,” reads a statement from the Dept. of Health. “At the same time, the risk-based inspection schedules will focus City resources on restaurants that warrant the most scrutiny.”

The Health Department plans to enact the new system in July.

While the current Soda Tax trend looks doomed to fail in New York state and Philadelphia, researchers are already making a suggestion for the target of the next sin tax — pizza.

A team of doctors writing in the Archives of Internal Medicine allege that levying an 10% tax on yummy, delicious, mouth-watering pizza would cut the average person’s caloric intake by around 11.5%.

The study claims that, by raising the price of both soda and pizza by 18%, the average person would cut enough calories to lose 5 lbs in one year.

“While such policies will not solve the obesity epidemic in its entirety and may face considerable opposition from food manufacturers and sellers, they could prove an important strategy to address overconsumption, help reduce energy intake and potentially aid in weight loss and reduced rates of diabetes among U.S. adults,” wrote the team led by Kiyah Duffey of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. “Our findings suggest that national, state or local policies to alter the price of less healthful foods and beverages may be one possible mechanism for steering U.S. adults toward a more healthful diet.”

In their conclusion, the researchers lay some blame on government subsidies for corn: “Sadly, we are currently subsidizing the wrong things including the product of corn, which makes the corn syrup in sweetened beverages so inexpensive.”

Tax soda, pizza to cut obesity, researchers say [Reuters]