Author: Meg Marco

ABCNews is reporting that “a new government report reveals that some high-level regulators have spent more time looking at porn than policing Wall Street.” It seems that the report, obtained by ABC News, says senior employees of the SEC spent hours on the commission’s computers looking at sites like naughty.com, skankwire, youporn, and others, thus clearly removing their only defense, the fact that “X” is right next to “C” on the keyboard.

Oh here’s the best part, one of the 31 staffers mentioned in the report, a senior attorney for the SEC, was actually spending “up to eight hours a day” surfing for porn, and when the hard drive on his government issued computer was full he “downloaded more to CDs and DVDs that accumulated in boxes in his offices.”

Another staffer, this one an accountant, apparently accessed pornographic sites 16,000 times in a month, says the report.

And how much does one make surfing porn for the SEC? Seventeen of the employees were “at a senior level,” earning salaries of $100,000 to $222,000 per year.

Looks like I’m in the wrong business.

SEC and Pornography: Workers Spent Hours on Porn Sites Instead of Stopping Fraud [ABCNews]

The school district outside Philly that has come under fire for installing and using remote webcam software to secretly take 56,000 photos and screenshots of students and others is now in trouble with their insurance company, says the Philadelphia Inquirer.

In papers filed in federal court, Graphic Arts Mutual Insurance Co. contends that none of the allegations in the suit filed by Harriton High School sophomore Blake Robbins and his parents fits the definitions in the school district’s $1 million liability policy.

The Robbins suit says the district invaded his privacy, violated his civil rights, and broke wiretapping and other laws when it secretly activated the Web camera on his school-issued laptop in the fall.

“Those allegations do not state any claims for ‘bodily injury’ or ‘property damage’ as those terms are defined in the policy,” Graphic Arts Mutual said in its complaint, filed last week.

If the courts agree with the insurer, the impact could be costly for the Lower Merion district, which has hired lawyers from an elite Philadelphia law firm, Ballard Spahr L.L.P., and specialists from L3 Communications Corp., a computer forensics firm, to defend itself in the suit and to investigate the now-disabled laptop-tracking system.

According to the Inquirer the majority of the photos were taken by the district in an effort to recover stolen or lost laptops, but that the cameras may not have been turned off in a timely fashion after the laptops were recovered.

“The taking of these pictures without student consent in their homes was obviously wrong,” a lawyer for the school district said.

The lawyer for the student who is suing the school district told the Inquirer that the “now-disabled system had surreptitiously collected more than 400 photos of his client – including shots of him when he was shirtless and while he slept in his bed last fall – as well as thousands of images from other students’ computers.”

Lower Merion report: Web cams snapped 56,000 images [Philly]
N.Y. insurer balks at coverage for laptop suit [Philly]

Hide your children and gird your loins, because just like The Highlander, there can be only one. From the depths of the stinking swamps of mergepocalypse, come our two ignoble contenders. First, the dread pirate Comcast, known throughout the land for gobbling up all companies that are foolish enough to sail through its treacherous waters. Second, Ticketmaster, Lord of Tickets, Duke of fees, Master of… tickets. After forming an unholy alliance with LiveNation, Lord Ticketmaster has united the forces of darkness in a quest to force all people of this good land to pay $2.50 for the use of their own printers.

So, what say you, Internet?

Which is the Worst Company In America?

This is a post in our Worst Company In America 2010 series. The companies competing for this honor were chosen by you, the readers. Keep track of all the goings on at consumerist.com/tag/worst-company-in-america. Print the bracket, here.

Cracked has assembled a list of 15 unintentionally perverted children’s toys. This Batman water pistol was somehow the worst. It’s just… we just don’t want to think about it anymore, ok?

In other news, we remember the Balzac. In this case it’s not only unintentionally perverted, but unintentionally literary as well.

15 Unintentionally Perverted Toys for Children [Cracked]

During the President’s address to Wall Street bankers today in New York City, he reminded them that their predecessors had completely flipped out about a bill that passed through Congress way back in 1933. It was, in their view, sure to “not only rob them of their pride of profession but would reduce all U.S. banking to its lowest level.” What was this reform bill?

From the White House:

So, yes, this debate can be contentious. It can be heated. But in the end it serves only to make our country stronger. It has allowed us to adapt and to thrive.

And I read a report recently that I think fairly illustrates this point. It’s from Time Magazine. I’m going to quote: “Through the great banking houses of Manhattan last week ran wild-eyed alarm. Big bankers stared at one another in anger and astonishment. A bill just passed… would rivet upon their institutions what they considered a monstrous system… such a system, they felt, would not only rob them of their pride of profession but would reduce all U.S. banking to its lowest level.” That appeared in Time Magazine in June of 1933.

The system that caused so much consternation, so much concern was the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, also known as the FDIC, an institution that has successfully secured the deposits of generations of Americans.

What do you think? Does he make a valid point? Or is it apples and oranges?

Remarks by the President on Wall Street Reform [White House]

Bank of America and Ticketmaster have been within 10 votes of one another for like, 24 hours now, which is just unprecedented in the history of this contest. As of this post, they are exactly tied. So here’s what we’re going to do. At midnight in the central time zone, we are going to close the poll.

That’s right, you have until midnight central to vote. After that, whoever wins, even if it’s by one vote, will win. If it is exactly tied we will enter an overtime period of one hour in which a new, tie-breaker poll will be posted. If it is still tied after that, we will hire some hockey players and hold a shoot out. No, that’s a lie. We won’t do that, even a little bit.

If you’d like to vote and break up the tie, please, please do so.

Our healthy friends at Consumer Reports Health have an interesting article today about a new study that shows that a single high dose of aspirin (up to 1000 mg) can work as well as a lower-dose prescription drug.

Take it away, experts:

Overall, roughly 1 in 2 people (52 percent) who took a single dose of aspirin (900 mg or 1000 mg) rated their pain as having improved to mild or better within two hours. And 1 in 4 people (24 percent) said that their pain had completely disappeared. In comparison, only 1 in 3 people (32 percent) who took an inactive treatment (a placebo) said their pain had improved to mild or better, and 1 in 10 (11 percent) reported that their pain had disappeared. People who took aspirin were also more likely to see improvements in their nausea and sensitivity to light or sound.

But these findings may actually underestimate how well aspirin works. This is because many people take painkillers when they first get migraine symptoms, rather than waiting until their pain becomes moderate or severe, as occurred in these studies. Research suggests that taking painkillers early works better than waiting until the pain gets worse. So it could be that aspirin helps more migraineurs when it’s used early on.

The study didn’t look at what happens to people who take aspirin frequently for migraines but CRH notes that aspirin has been linked to stomach irritation. In addition, CRH says children and teenagers shouldn’t take aspirin for migraines or any other condition, as it can cause a rare but dangerous problem called Reye’s syndrome.

Have you tried this? Any luck with it?

Aspirin makes the grade for migraine relief [CRH]

I know we don’t usually veer this far into fashion and whatnot, but since Japan’s Uniqlo just set a record by signing a $300 million contract for a store on 5th ave in NYC, we thought it germane to mention that George Costanza is clearly their main fashion inspiration.

This little grab is from a series of other compelling examples of how George Costanza is not only apparently the best dressed Seinfeld character (Well, maybe a tie with Kramer because of that lobster shirt), but his look is being duplicated at all the hottest brands these days.

We love you, George.

Check out the rest. [via BuzzFeed]

Well, well, well, what do we have here? It’s our nation’s largest cable company and harbinger of mergepocalypse doom, Comcast, VS a certain little company from Florida.

Just to recap: Comcast is about to merge with NBC, forming an unprecedented voltron-like-creature comprised of both content and distribution channels that has everyone, including Al Franken, former NBC employee, freaking out. Also, they have some other problems.

Cash4Gold… well, just browse this information.

Which company deserves a spot in the finals?

This is a post in our Worst Company In America 2010 series. The companies competing for this honor were chosen by you, the readers. Keep track of all the goings on at consumerist.com/tag/worst-company-in-america. Print the bracket, here.

The White House has released potions of a speech to be made by the president later today in NYC. In it Mr. Obama calls on banking industry lobbyists to halt their efforts to stop financial reforms that he feels are in the best interest of the market and the country.

Here is the excerpt, from USAToday:

One of the most significant contributors to this recession was a financial crisis as dire as any we’ve known in generations. And that crisis was born of a failure of responsibility — from Wall Street to Washington — that brought down many of the world’s largest financial firms and nearly dragged our economy into a second Great Depression.

I am sure that many of those lobbyists work for some of you. But I am here today because I want to urge you to join us, instead of fighting us in this effort. I am here because I believe that these reforms are, in the end, not only in the best interest of our country, but in the best interest of our financial sector. And I am here to explain what reform will look like, and why it matters.

A comprehensive plan to achieve these reforms has passed the House of Representatives. A Senate version is currently being debated, drawing on the ideas of Democrats and Republicans. Both bills represent significant improvement on the flawed rules we have in place today, despite the furious efforts of industry lobbyists to shape them to their special interests.

It was that failure of responsibility that I spoke about when I came to New York more than two years ago — before the worst of the crisis had unfolded. I take no satisfaction in noting that my comments have largely been borne out by the events that followed. But I repeat what I said then because it is essential that we learn the lessons of this crisis, so we don’t doom ourselves to repeat it. And make no mistake, that is exactly what will happen if we allow this moment to pass — an outcome that is unacceptable to me and to the American people.

As I said two years ago on this stage, I believe in the power of the free market. I believe in a strong financial sector that helps people to raise capital and get loans and invest their savings. But a free market was never meant to be a free license to take whatever you can get, however you can get it. That is what happened too often in the years leading up to the crisis. Some on Wall Street forgot that behind every dollar traded or leveraged, there is family looking to buy a house, pay for an education, open a business, or save for retirement. What happens here has real consequences across our country.

The administration also has on their website an outline of what financial reforms they support and why.

“Relying on market discipline to compensate for weak regulation and then leaving it to the government to clean up the mess is not a good strategy for economic growth nor financial security,” reads the post.

According to the White House the goals of these proposed reforms include:

* Clearer accountability in supervision and regulation so that financial firms can operate under a coherent set of rules and expectations without the current regulatory arbitrage opportunities that allow some firms to “game the system.”

* Stronger capital buffers to increase the ability of financial companies to weather the ups and downs of financial markets.

* Lesser concentration of risk among the largest financial firms so that any one firm can fail without creating a domino effect throughout the entire financial system that jeopardizes jobs, family savings and the entire economy

* Greater transparency in the derivatives market that will make the system safer by providing regulators with the data they need to manage systemic risk and help ensure the integrity of financial markets so we can prevent future AIG-like disasters.

The speech can be viewed live here at 11:55 EDT.

Obama: ‘Free market’ is not a ‘free license’ [USAToday]
Wall Street Reform [White House]

President Obama issued a memo last night instructing HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius to write rules that will allow patients to designate visitors at facilities that accept Medicare and Medicaid. This move would benefit same-sex couples, unmarried heterosexual couples, widowed adults, members of religious orders and others who want to have someone other than an immediate family member as a visitor or decision maker for medical care, notes the WSJ Health Blog.

From the White House:

There are few moments in our lives that call for greater compassion and companionship than when a loved one is admitted to the hospital. In these hours of need and moments of pain and anxiety, all of us would hope to have a hand to hold, a shoulder on which to lean — a loved one to be there for us, as we would be there for them.

Yet every day, all across America, patients are denied the kindnesses and caring of a loved one at their sides — whether in a sudden medical emergency or a prolonged hospital stay. Often, a widow or widower with no children is denied the support and comfort of a good friend. Members of religious orders are sometimes unable to choose someone other than an immediate family member to visit them and make medical decisions on their behalf. Also uniquely affected are gay and lesbian Americans who are often barred from the bedsides of the partners with whom they may have spent decades of their lives — unable to be there for the person they love, and unable to act as a legal surrogate if their partner is incapacitated.

Read the whole memo here.

[Via WSJ Health Blog]

Oh Philadelphia, we know you love the whole “we boo Santa” image, but we must say that intentionally vomiting on an 11-year-old girl is a bit much, even for you.

CBS3 reports that a man was arrested at the Phillies game Wednesday and has been accused of intentionally vomiting on the 11-year-old daughter of an off-duty police officer.

“When I say disgusting, there was not only insults and vulgarities directed at us, but also beer was thrown at us,” the girl’s father told CBS 3.

“I actually heard the individual behind me say, ‘I’m gonna get sick’, then I couldn’t believe what I saw. He actually had his fingers down his mouth and into his throat to make himself vomit. He vomited and lurched forward and it was hitting my daughter,” he explained.

The police officer and several other fans subdued the man until police arrived. He’s been charged with simple assault, aggravated assault, reckless endangerment, harassment, disorderly conduct and resisting arrest.

In brighter news, a nice fan caught a ball and gave it to the girl, who apparently slept with it like a Teddy Bear. Awwww.

Do you worry about taking your kids to sporting events because of people like “vomit-fan”, or does “nice-ball-catching” fan make up for it?

Cops: Man Purposely Vomited On Girl At Phils Game [CBS3]

Here we go: Ticketmaster is merging with LiveNation to produce an uber monopoly on live events. Anthem BCBS raised rates and made everyone in California angry enough that the company had to agree to postpone the rate increases.

Which one shall taste your wrath?

This is a post in our Worst Company In America 2010 series. The companies competing for this honor were chosen by you, the readers. Keep track of all the goings on at consumerist.com/tag/worst-company-in-america. Print the bracket, here.

The Consumer Products Safety Commission has voted to create a new database of consumer complaints that will allow consumers to “see complaints of injuries or potential harm that are filed to the commission by consumers, safety groups, health care professionals and others,”
says the Chicago Tribune. Previously this information only became public after it led to a recall.

When a new complaint is filed, the CPSC will give the manufacturer 10 days to review it before it goes public. This, of course, is not hugely popular with manufacturers.

“Our primary concern is that information might be provided to the public which is not accurate or which might even be malicious,” said Carter Keithley, president of the Toy Industry Association, which represents more than 530 toy manufacturers and importers. “The damage that could be done to a company’s reputation and sales could be irreparable.”

The CPSC is like, yeah, sorry, too bad:

“We’re not going to make everybody happy,” CPSC commissioner Bob Adler, an avid database supporter, acknowledged at a recent agency meeting. “It will be an incredible balancing act.”

New database to help people make ‘safe’ choices when buying strollers, grills and more [Chicago Tribune]

Your average Cub fan will, of course, be familiar with the Wrigley Rooftop that sports the “Eamus Catuli” sign, but it seems the well-known rooftop is now in foreclosure.

From Chicago Breaking News:

The building is known for featuring a sign in Latin that says “Eamus Catuli,” which translated means “Let’s go little bears.” But the owners of the club were stripped of its control when a Cook County Circuit judge appointed a receiver earlier this month to take over operations.
First Personal Bank of Orland Park filed the suit in February seeking more than $2.7 million in principal and interest payments. The bank loaned the owners of Lakeview Baseball Club $2.8 million in 2006, and made a second loan of $350,000 a year later.

CBN says that court papers show that the bank was “concerned” that “borrowers were diverting money from the club and using such funds for purposes unrelated to its operations.”

That doesn’t sound good.

The Lakeview Baseball Club and other adjacent rooftops pay the Cubs 17% of their revenue for the right to sell rooftop seats.

‘Eamus Catuli’ Wrigley rooftop club in foreclosure [Chicago Breaking News]

It’s National Library Week and BuzzFeed has put together a list of the top 20 passive aggressive library signs. It’s hard to choose a favorite, but here are 3 we especially like.

More over at BuzzFeed.

Here is the question that plagues the magazine industry at the moment. Reader Danielle likes Real Simple magazine and is a subscriber. However, there are so many ads in it that it’s ruining the experience for her. To make matters worse, the entire magazine is on their website… with fewer ads. So why should she subscribe?

Danielle says:

I’ve been a subscriber of Real Simple magazine for awhile now, and they are currently harassing me to renew my subscription. I’m not going to, and here’s why: when I receive my hard copy of the magazine it takes me thumbing through ten full pages of advertisements before I get to the first section.

Ten pages!

Considering that the pages are double-sided, that’s twenty ads to get to the initial content, and then many many more pages of ads in between every small section. Meanwhile, I can hop online and get all of the content that’s in the magazine for free with less ads. I just can’t believe this. There is nothing in the magazine that isn’t on the website! Where’s the benefit in being a subscriber? It’s so frustrating! I like the magazine so I want to give them my money, but I just can’t see any benefit in doing so.

Let’s ask the internet: What should magazines do to get you to subscribe?

The New York Post says that a state worker in charge of running a corrections department food facility took Fridays off… for 17 years. Now they’re going after him for $230,000 worth of Friday pay, as well as other “ill-gotten” gains.

From the NYP:

[The worker] “freely admitted” to playing hooky from the state’s Food Production Center in Rome, the report found.

“This certainly gives new meaning to the phrase ‘casual Fridays,’ ” [the state comptroller] told reporters yesterday.

“He not only dressed down, he didn’t even bother to show up. Quite simply, this is outrageous.”
The watchdogs blasted correction officials for either approving — or failing to catch — a host of perks that appeared intended to compensate [The worker] for taking on a new responsibility for a food facility in 1992 without getting a raise.

Other perks mentioned in the article include billing taxpayers for “75 stays at the local Quality Inn on nights E-ZPass records suggest he was at home.”

Oh, E-Z Pass.

State employee took every Friday off for 17 yearsI [NYP] (Thanks, LiveCheap!)

Things are really starting to heat up. Bank of America has already breezed through match-ups with Citibank and Walmart, and now only Time Warner Cable with their “metered broadband” stands between the mortgage giant and the Final Four.

Time Warner Cable has been a strong player, beating unpopular competitor Charter Cable in an industry match-up and then stomping on HP.

Which company deserves a kick in the pants?

This is a post in our Worst Company In America 2010 series. The companies competing for this honor were chosen by you, the readers. Keep track of all the goings on at consumerist.com/tag/worst-company-in-america. Print the bracket, here.

Reader Ariel writes in after Delta refused to let her check her bags curbside because one was 5lbs too heavy, despite the fact that her other one 10lbs under. She says she was told it was Delta’s policy that she couldn’t move 5lbs of her crap to the other bag. This set off a chain of events that cost her $1500.

Ariel writes (to Delta):

On March 22, 2010 I was scheduled to fly from Los Angeles to New York City for a business trip. I had confirmed reservations on Delta Flight [redacted] departing LAX at 7:00 am. I left my home at 5:30 am and arrived at the airport at 5:50 am. I had already checked in online to receive my boarding pass and pay for my 2 checked bags.

When I arrived at the airport, I used the curbside sky cap to check my bags. I did not have to wait for his assistance as there was no one else in line so I had plenty of time when I got there.

He determined I had one bag that was 55 lbs (5 lbs over weight) and one at was 40 lbs (10 lbs under weight). My first response was to ask if I could step aside and repack my bags so that both bags would be under the 50 lb weight limit. In fact I have gone through this maneuver twice before when I’ve flown on Delta in the past.

He said in no uncertain terms that I was NOT allowed to do this. I asked him why and he said that it would be against company policy. He said that he would be fired if he allowed me to do that. He then said that he would have to go talk to his manager, at which point he left me standing at the curbside for over 5 minutes. When he returned he confirmed that I would not be allowed to repack my bags.

At this point I said I would be happy to pay the overweight bag penalty since I was getting very close to the 45 minute cutoff to check bags. He threw his hands up and said, “Well that’s not something I can help you with. You’re going to have to go stand in that line for special circumstances.”

As my frustration grew, I grabbed my bags and sprinted over to the front of the line. By the time I got over to the Special Circumstances line it was 6:18 am (42 minutes before my departure) and they said they were unable to check my bags. Because I was upset and late I did not get the sky cap’s name or id number.

Delta Customer Service attempted to rebook me on a later flight but all flights to JFK were overbooked and the best they could do was to offer me a seat on the red eye that would arrive in New York at 8 am on March 23. This wasn’t going to work for me since I had a 9 am meeting on March 23 that I couldn’t miss.

My only option at this point was to schedule another flight with another airline. I asked if I could keep my returning flight but Delta Customer Service told me that if I changed my round trip ticket to a one-way ticket, the price would be well over $1100. Plus I would incur additional penalties for altering my reservations. I was left with no other choice then to book an entirely new, same day, round trip reservation with another airline for over $1200! Not only that, but I was told that I would be charged $150 for canceling my reservations.

The obstructive behavior by the sky cap resulted in my having a total of $1500 in unnecessary and exorbitant out of pocket expenses. I am a young, small business owner and this is an expense that I cannot afford to incur. I am shocked and disgusted at the lack of customer service or human compassion that the Delta employees exhibited, especially in these hard economic times.

Is this an actual policy? You can’t move 5lbs of crap from one bag to another?

Has this ever happened to you, Internet?