The federal judge overseeing a lawsuit filed by more than a dozen states to stop President Trump’s plan to cut off billions of dollars in payments to health insurance providers has decided to not issue a preliminary injunction preventing the White House from halting the subsidies.
These monthly payments, created as part of the 2010 Affordable Care Act, are provided by the federal government to insurance providers who sell qualifying healthcare plans on the individual market (aka “Obamacare”). The subsidies are intended to help insurers keep out-of-pocket expenses — like co-pays and deductibles — low, particularly for Americans making between 100% and 250% of the federal poverty line.
Though it’s estimated that the annual spending on these subsidies is currently at around $7 billion, the exact amounts of the payments are not appropriated by Congress. Thus, President Trump has maintained that he has the authority to end them at any time. And on Oct. 12, the White House directed the agencies involved to halt the subsidy payments, which he has repeatedly characterized as “bailouts” to the insurance industry.
Without the subsidies, a number of insurers have indicated that they will either raise their premiums in 2018 or exit the individual market, causing the entire industry to become less stable and possibly leaving large swaths of Americans without any access to an individual plan.
The day after Trump’s announcement, California Attorney General Xavier Becerra led a coalition of 18 states in filing a federal lawsuit, accusing the President of violating the Administrative Procedures Act, which details how Executive branch agencies make and change rules, by making this policy change on a whim. The complaint also charges President Trump with failing to live up to the “Take Care” clause of the Constitution, which requires that the President faithfully execute the laws the land, not just the ones he likes.
The lawsuit sought an emergency injunction from the court, which held a hearing on the matter on Oct. 23.
Today, U.S. District Court Judge Vince Chhabria denied that request for a preliminary injunction, concluding that “the emergency relief sought by the states would be counterproductive.”
Chhabria points out that state insurance regulators, including California, “have been working for months to prepare for the termination of these payments,” and believes that “most state regulators have devised responses that give millions of lower-income people better health coverage options than they would otherwise have had.”
Any injunction issued by the court right now would have only lasted for a few months, but the affected insurance providers are already locked into their 2018 rates. What’s more, notes the court, these insurers are legally obliged to provide the cost-sharing measures to lower-income policyholders regardless of whether these subsidies continue.
“Therefore, allegations by the states about harms that loom further on the horizon – say, in 2019 or beyond – are not particularly relevant at the moment, because those harms can likely be addressed at the end of the case, if the states are indeed able to prevail on the merits,” notes Chhabria. “What matters for this motion is how people will be affected in 2017 and 2018 without a preliminary injunction.”
The states are also asking the court to declare that the cost-sharing subsidy payments are required by law, and that President Trump is therefore unable to simply turn them on and off at his discretion. Chhabria notes in his order that this is too complex an issue to have resolved after only a few days of consideration, but his initial read of the situation is that the Trump administration is on more solid legal ground.
We’ve reached out to Attorney General Becerra and New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman for comment and will update if we receive a response.
After pulling the plug on these subsidies, the President, who has openly cheered for the Affordable Care Act to “explode,” called on Congress to address the payments through legislation.
Almost immediately, a bipartisan accord was reached that would have propped up the subsidies for another two years while making some tweaks to states’ ability to tinker with the requirements of the ACA. At first, the President seemed to grudgingly support the deal, but within hours was back to calling it a bailout and saying he would not support it.
Most national parks are free to enjoy, but some of the most popular destinations overseen by the National Park Service charge entrance fees of around $25 to $30 for a full vehicle. Today, the Trump administration announced a proposal to more than double some of those fees for visitors during peak seasons.
The White House contends that these increased fees are necessary to pay for maintenance that the park system has deferred for too long.
“The infrastructure of our national parks is aging and in need of renovation and restoration,” Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke said in a statement. “We need to have the vision to look at the future of our parks and take action in order to ensure that our grandkids’ grandkids will have the same if not better experience than we have today. Shoring up our parks’ aging infrastructure will do that.”
Raising fees for 17 of the most-visited parks would mean that the NPS would collect an additional estimated $70 million per year, with at least 80% of that sum required to be spent on the park where it is collected.
Less than one-third of all national parks charge admission fees, and annual passes would still be available individual parks and for all federal lands for just a bit more than it would cost to enter a park with one passenger vehicle.
Which parks are the popular ones where fees would go up? If the proposal goes through, the higher fees would be in place when each park’s respective peak season starts, or the five months when it receives the highest traffic.
Here are when the peak seasons would begin, and the parks that would begin collecting $70 per carload on that date:
May 1, 2018: Arches, Bryce Canyon, Canyonlands, Denali, Glacier, Grand Canyon, Grand Teton, Olympic, Sequoia & Kings Canyon, Yellowstone, Yosemite, Zion
June 1, 2018: Acadia, Mount Rainier, Rocky Mountain, Shenandoah
Joshua Tree: As soon as possible in 2018, since the peak season begins on Jan. 1.
If you have any insights or thoughts to share with the National Park Service about the proposal, you can submit them to the National Park Service comment page until Nov. 23.
Here’s a handout from the NPS that lays out different fees for different vehicle types, and how they would change from the current structure to the proposed one in both the regular season (yellow) and peak season (green).
Sears might be selling off brands, taking loans from its CEO, and ending relationships with long-standing partners, but that doesn’t mean it’s giving up just yet. In an apparent effort to strike a nostalgic chord with customers who remember flipping through the Sears catalog and flagging the things they wanted as gifts, the struggling department store chain is resurrecting its once-popular holiday Wish Book.
Sears announced today that “just in time for the start of the holidays” it will bring back a reinvented version of its “definitive holiday gift source,” the Wish Book.
The Wish Book — which launched in 1933 and was scrapped in 2011 — makes its return in both physical and digital form with 120 pages of what Sears deems “top quality” products.
The company says that it decided to bring back the catalog because customers apparently wanted it.
“Our members told us they missed the Wish Book, so we had to bring it back, but in a special way that lets you share more joy wherever you are,” Kelly Cook, chief marketing officer for Sears and Kmart, said in a statement.
The online version of the book allows customers to hover over photos to see product details, create wish lists, and access continually updated prices.
While the online catalog is already available, Sears says that its “best members” will receive a limited edition printed 2017 Wish Book.
Other Shop Your Way members will receive an email inviting them to pick up the book at their local Sears stores, because maybe they’ll stick around and buy something, too.
Sears isn’t the only retailer looking to capture sales and customers through the lost art of producing catalogs.
In 2015, JCPenney revived its print catalog after realizing people used it to shop online for products. The new version of the catalog was meant to be a “branding tool” that point out products to customers who then visited the retailers’ website to purchase.
Several retailers have latched onto the glossy branded magazine concept, including Restoration Hardware, Land’s End, Anthropology, and others.
In fact, the Direct Marketing Association reported in 2015 that the number of catalogs mailed in the U.S. had actually increased in recent years.
A month after the Federal Trade Commission gave Walgreens the go-ahead to acquire half of Rite Aid’s 2,000 stores for $4.38 billion, the chain says it will be closing 600 stores — and most of those will be Rite Aid locations.
The store closures will start next spring, said George Fairweather, a Walgreens Boots Alliance vice president with a really long job title, during this mornings quarterly earnings call.
“Following regulatory clearance, we have been able to complete a comprehensive review of the combined store portfolio to determine the scope for optimizing locations,” Fairweather said. “This has resulted in our decision to close approximately 600 stores and related assets over an 18-month period, beginning in spring 2018.”
The company hasn’t put out a list of which stores will be getting the axe, but another fancy-titled Walgreens person said today that the “vast majority” of closures will be Rite Aids, and most of those will be stores that are located within one mile of a store within Walgreens’ existing network.
So, if you have both a Walgreens and a Rite Aid within a short walking distance of your home, the odds are that one of them will be shutting down soon and probably turned into a random donuts/vaping supply store run by your older brother’s strange friend from high school.
When you bring in your recalled car to get a safety defect fixed, you might assume that the problem has been remedied. Yet owners of more than 342,000 previously recalled Kia Soul vehicles are finding out that their cars need to have the same issue repaired again.
Kia recently announced the recall of 342,381 model year 2014 to 2016 Soul vehicles over a recurring steering flaw that was supposed to be repaired following a 2014 recall.
According to a notice [PDF] posted with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, the affected vehicles may contain a pinion plug that could allow the pinion gear to separate from the steering gear assembly.
Kia notes that the remedy proposed by the original recall [PDF] may not have been properly performed. In some cases, the pinion plug may not have been secured correctly, the carmaker said.
If this occurred, the pinion gear may separate from the steering gear assembly, causing loss of steering. This could, in turn, increase the risk of a crash.
Affected vehicles will likely produce a “clunking” noise from the steering rack while the steering wheel is being turned.
With the new recall, Kia says dealers will secure the plug or replace the steering gear if needed.
Owners of the affected vehicles will be notified by mail in mid-November. Customers who have already had their vehicles repaired after the initial recall will be reimbursed.
The lightweight metal architectural cladding that is believed to have played a significant part in a deadly June 2017 fire in a London apartment tower is still being used on thousands of buildings around the world, but what can be done about it?
On June 14, 2017, a fire in fourth-floor apartment of London’s 24-story Grenfell Tower quickly spread upward. While the investigation is ongoing, it’s believed that the cladding — Reynobond PE, which sandwiches a polyethylene core between two sheets of aluminum — created a chimney effect that drew smoke, heat, and flames up the tower’s exterior, setting fire to additional apartments along the way.
While the building’s lack of fire exits, smoke alarms, and sprinklers contributed to the disaster, the aluminum sheets on the outside of the Reynobond PE were not sufficient to keep the flames away from the polyethylene core. Once that petroleum-based plastic catches fire, it burns very, very hot.
Arconic (formerly Alcoa) stopped selling these panels shortly after the fire, instead offering a fire-resistant version for high-rise buildings where it could spread fires and make rescue difficult.
“Especially when it comes to facades and roofs, the fire can spread very rapidly,” marketing materials for the panels read. “As soon as the building is higher than the firefighters’ ladders, it has to be conceived with an incombustible material.”
Yet the original version still adorns thousands of buildings around the world, notes the Wall Street Journal. In 2009, building codes written by the nonprofit International Code Council loosened restrictions on polyethylene panels, allowing the combustible versions to be used on buildings. The structures needed interior sprinklers and to be far from other buildings, and the tiles couldn’t cover more than 50% of the exterior, but some members of the committee have misgivings about their decision now.
There’s no registry of buildings that incorporate the panels, but they’ve become a common building material in the last decade. The Wall Street Journal studied manufacturers’ marketing materials and found examples of the panels on a high school in Alaska, a university building in California, and a 32-story Marriott hotel in Baltimore.
Skyscrapers in Dubai also include the material, including a New Year’s Eve fire in 2015 that destroyed part of a hotel during celebratory fireworks. One high rise in that city, the Torch tower (which may need renaming) uses clad panels and caught fire twice in three years.
Like many airlines, JetBlue is currently trying to add more seats to some of its planes so it can accommodate more passengers per flight, and make more money for its bottom line. But there’s something standing in the way of JetBlue’s “cabin restyling program”: Broken toilets.
JetBlue is planning to reconfigure its A320 jets to add an additional 12 seats to the current 150. As part of that, the airline is installing Space Flex lavatories made by a company called Zodiac Aerospace. But in an earnings call this week, CEO Stephen J. Priest admits that the makeover hasn’t been perfect, citing “design challenges” with lavatories already installed on many of its restyled A321 planes.
“The industry has experienced design failures with the space efficient lavatories that we have installed on our A321s, and we are planning to install on the A320s,” he explained.
This translates to non-working toilets, which is a major problem on any flight, prompting JetBlue to start pulling A321s for repairs.
“Equipment quality hasn’t been up to standard and we’ve seen alignment issues in the installation,” a JetBlue spokesman explained to Bloomberg. “These problems are leading to a high rate of inoperable parts and out-of-service lavatories.”
Instead of moving forward and installing the lavatories on A320 planes, JetBlue has been working with Zodiac and Airbus to make sure the repairs it’s making on the A321s are working before installing them on more planes. The company will have a formal review next month to do a check on the repairs being done, “because the last thing we want to do is to put this product on our A320 aircraft and then ultimately have to bring them back into do any repairs or servicing,” notes Priest.
More than two years after an investigative report alleged that laminate flooring sold at Lumber Liquidators contained high — and potentially dangerous — levels of formaldehyde, the flooring retailer has agreed to pay $36 million to close the books on class-action lawsuits brought by customers.
Lumber Liquidators announced Tuesday that it had reached a memorandum of understanding with a group of law firms to settle two Virginia lawsuits accusing the company of selling noncompliant composite flooring that contained hazardous levels of formaldehyde.
Under the deal, Lumber Liquidators will $22 million in cash and $14 million in store credit to customers who purchased the laminate flooring between Jan. 1, 2009 and May 31, 2015.
The deal, which must still be approved by a judge, does not constitute an admission by the company of any fault or liability related to the flooring.
“We are pleased to have entered into this MOU, and welcome it as an important step toward resolving this legacy issue and moving forward,” Dennis Knowles, CEO of Lumber Liquidators, said in a statement.
The lawsuits included in the settlement were filed individually but combined [PDF] by a federal judge in Virginia in 2015, with firm Cohen Milstein taking lead.
Lumber Liquidators found itself on the receiving end of several class-action lawsuits in 2015 following reports that the company had violated federal and state laws by selling Chinese-manufactured laminated wood products containing formaldehyde at levels known to pose serious health risks.
The dangerous levels of formaldehyde used in the wood come to light through a 60 Minutes report in March 2015.
Testing of the laminated wood Lumber Liquidated sourced from suppliers in China allegedly contained more formaldehyde than its domestically sourced laminates and similar products sold by competitors.
The findings also spurred an investigation by federal regulators at the Consumer Product Safety Commission and allegations that it had illegally imported the flooring, which used wood that had been illegally harvested from protected forests in the Russian Far East.
In Oct. 2015, the company pled guilty to the Lacey Act — a law that bans illegally harvested animal and plant products, including trees, from sale in the United States — and to pay $10 million to the federal government and a wildlife charity.
Following the lawsuits and investigations, Lumber Liquidators’ CEO Robert Lynch resigned from the company.
While Lumber Liquidators stopped selling the products shortly after the 60 Minutes report, the products remained in many customers’ homes.
In June 2016, the company announced that it had reached an agreement with federal safety regulators that Lumber Liquidators wouldn’t restart the sales of the products and that it would provide customers who already installed the flooring with test kits.
If you’re traveling to France in the near future and have dreams of picking apart the delicate, flaky layers of authentic croissant, be warned that these beloved pastries may be in short supply when you get there. Why? Apparently because people are eating more butter.
Reuters reports that the increased consumer demand for butter — coupled with a shortage in milk production — in France has resulted in butter prices doubling in just the past year.
Butter is an essential ingredient in making a croissant, but some bakeries have decided to cut their butter orders rather than pay the higher price. As a result, there are fewer croissants and other pastries being made in France right now, and the ones that are available may be more expensive.
“Because the year-end holidays are approaching, with Christmas preparations and particularly the ‘Galette des Rois’ cake which needs a lot of butter, if there is not a significant decline, we will be forced to pass on the price rise,” one Paris baker told Reuters.
And in French supermarkets, signs are popping up in barren butter cases, explaining that there is a shortage for certain brands, Reuters notes.
The shortage is due to falling milk production as well as an increasing demand for butter around the world as consumers turn their noses up at spreads like margarine.
But despite the high demand for butter, dairy farmers in France claim they’re not seeing the benefits because they’re often paid based on cheaper raw milk and powder prices, Reuters notes, and prices haven’t been adjusted amid the butter shortfall.
To that end, although Agriculture Minister Stephane Travert reportedly downplayed the idea of dire shortages this week, he did tell parliament that retailers and suppliers should agree on price adjustments.
Even though President Trump recently promised that your 401(k) retirement accounts would not be negatively affected by the ongoing effort to cut taxes, the folks in Congress who are actually deciding what tax laws will be changed say that putting limits on retirement plans is still a distinct responsibility.
Last week, the Capitol Hill rumor mill churned up the idea that in order to make the numbers behind a massive tax overhaul package work out, Republican leadership in Congress might consider a drastic cut to Americans’ 401(k) retirement plans — specifically, that the tax reforms could put a lower limit on the maximum amount you’re allowed to contribute to your 401(k).
These rumors sparked immediate backlash, which President Trump attempted to quell via — what else? — Twitter, claiming that the Republicantax plan would include “NO change” to the “great and popular” 401(k).
Some members of Congress, however, appear not to feel particularly beholden to what the President promises.
Rep. Kevin Brady (TX) is the chair of the House Ways and Means Committee, the committee that’s handling the tax proposal. The tax bill is, basically, his as much as it belongs to any individual member of Congress, and he said at an event today that changes to 401(k) plans are indeed still totally on the table.
“We think we can do better,” Brady told attendees.
However, as the Washington Post notes, that “better” was incredibly light on details, with Brady saying only, “we are continuing discussions with the President, all focused on saving more and saving sooner.”
The Republican majority’s plan is to lower tax rates. The modern-day party’s core philosophy holds that less taxation is better for the overall economy, and so that’s the agenda they came into power with and plan to enact.
But the revenue that the federal government generates from taxation doesn’t just sit around in a giant Scrooge McDuck tower; it gets used to fund agencies, programs, and services. Lowering tax rates means that you have less money coming in, which means you need to figure something out about all that spending.
The White House has long since proposed steep spending cuts to offset tax cuts — but that only gets the feds partway there.
That brings us to the 401(k). These retirement plans are tax-deferred, meaning that whatever you contribute to them while you’re working doesn’t count as “income” for the purposes of calculating your income tax. If you earn $50,000 this year, but contribute $5,000 to a 401(k), then as far as the IRS is concerned your taxable income is actually only $45,000.
Currently, individuals under 50 can contribute a maximum of $18,000 annually to a 401(k), and individuals over 50 can contribute $24,000 per year to theirs. That’s a pretty significant chunk of pre-tax income, if you’re anything near the max.
The proposed new cap on contributions, though, may be as low as $2,400 — a mere $200 a month. If that’s the case, then you could suddenly have up to $16,000 of additional taxable income showing up in your paycheck.
That’s what makes the math behind a tax cut work out, then: Your rate may be lowered, but the amount of income you have that’s considered taxable goes up. And so in the end it can be basically a wash for the government: the principle at play is that 5% of $100 is the same as 10% of $50, and either way the feds get $5.
The idea of slashing the cap on Americans’ primary retirement savings plans to less than one-seventh of their current levels does not sit well with many.
The average American has nowhere near enough money saved for retirement, and roughly a third of us have nothing at all socked away for our golden years. The trend, therefore, has been to encourage Americans to save more where possible.
It’s hard to be specific, because the math has a ton of variables in it, but by and large experts estimate that most folks will need six or seven figures in the bank to retire comfortably. But if you can only put $2,400 per year into your 401(k), that’s only $96,000 after 40 years of contributions. Even employer matches and market growth can only do so much with that.
It’s not just individuals who are displeased with the idea, though. There’s massive money in the money business, and the banks and investment firms that manage retirement accounts (and their trade groups) have concerns about the idea that less money would funnel to them. If fewer people are investing money in accounts, and the ones who still are invest less, that’s bad news for the companies that make their profit from the funds.
Support for slashing the 401(k) isn’t exactly universal in Congress, either. Back when the rumor about the proposal first hit, Ohio Senator Rob Portman told the WSJ that he was “skeptical” about the proposal, adding, “I don’t think you want to disincentivize retirement savings in any way right now.”
In a move that absolutely will not backfire and result in viral videos of terrifying clowns menacing the customers of their local fast food franchises, Burger King has come up with the brilliant idea of offering free food to customers who slather on the clown greasepaint this Halloween.
What could possibly go wrong?
First off, even though Burger King is making a big media push about this clown promotion, it won’t be available at most BK locations. In fact, only select Burger Kings in Boston, Miami, Los Angeles, Austin, and Salt Lake City will be offering a free Whopper to customers who come in dressed like clowns.
So not only will BK have to deal with angry customers who want to know why they didn’t get a free Whopper — those customers will be dressed like the ghost-faced embodiment of millions of childhood nightmares.
Also, the promotion doesn’t take place during the day on Halloween, but between 7 p.m. and 3 a.m., meaning there will be scores of wannabe Pennywises terrifying customers and employees until the wee hours of the morning.
In reality, this entire promotion appears to be a way for BK to publicly take a dig at Ronald McDonald, the longtime mascot — scary in his own right — of the chain’s arch-nemesis.
This is all but confirmed by Burger King’s promotional video for the deal, which features a demonized clown — who looks an awful lot like Ronald — terrorizing a Burger King customer.
This, of course, could lead McDonald’s fans to feel a bit slighted. Perhaps resulting in yet another Burger King lobby full of taunting Ronald McDonald clowns.
Still, if you’re willing to take your chances for a free Whopper, you better be quick about it. The promotion only applies to the first 500 clown-dressed customers.
When you’re flying from say, Siberia to the U.S., you will definitely have to take more than one flight, and probably on different airlines. But because juggling different boarding passes for different legs of your trip isn’t always easy, United Airlines will now let travelers save their boarding passes for flights on partner airlines directly in the United app.
United says it’s the first U.S. carrier to let customers add boarding passes for partner airlines to their phones. Through United’s partnerships, travelers can connect to about 1,300 destinations around the world.
“As we continue to make improvements to the United app, we found that simply allowing our customers to access boarding passes for their entire itinerary within the same app made a big difference,” said Kate Gebo, chief customer officer at United.
Here are the airlines that will now have boarding passes accessible through the United app, though more partners will be added in the “near” future:
• Adria Airways
• Aegean Airlines
• Air Canada
• Air New Zealand
• ANA
• Asiana Airlines
• Austrian Airlines
• Azul Brazilian Airlines
• Brussels Airlines
• Cape Air
• Croatia Airlines
• EVA Airways
• LOT Polish Airlines
• Lufthansa
• Scandinavian Airlines
• Shenzhen Airlines
• SWISS
• THAI Airways
• Turkish Airlines
In June, the Department of Homeland Security gave an ultimatum to airports around the world: Beef up your security or face a ban on carry-on electronics on flights heading to America. Tomorrow is the deadline for those advanced security measures to be in place, so U.S.-bound travelers should prepare themselves accordingly.
Starting tomorrow, Oct. 26, 280 airports in 105 countries must have in place a set of new enhanced security measures — such as increased screening of electronic devices — for the estimated 2,000 daily flights traveling to the U.S.
In announcing the new restrictions in June, then-Secretary of Homeland Security John Kelly (he’s now President Trump’s Chief of Staff) said the agency was raising “the global baseline of global aviation security.”
The measures — which were to take effect 120 days from the announcement — were put in place as the agency began to lift its previous laptop ban on airports and planes flying to the U.S. from eight countries in the Middle East and North Africa.
While DHS did not provide specific details on the enhanced screening, the agency said it would lay out a “clear path” to encourage airlines and airports to adopt more sophisticated screening approaches, including better use of explosive detection canines and advanced checkpoint screening technology.
Additionally, the agency said it would encourage more airports to become Preclearance locations, where security is enhanced because passengers go through customs and border security screening before boarding flights to the U.S.
Consumerist has reached out to DHS for additional information on the new measures, we’ll update this post if we hear back.
Reuters reports that several airlines have put in the work to meet the still-unspecified security measures, increasing concerns that delays will begin to plague airports around the world.
For instance, Cathay Pacific Airways says it has revamped its check-in processes and suspended self bag-drop services. The airline tells Reuters that it will also have short security interviews for passengers traveling to the U.S.
As a result of the new measures, the airline is suggesting passengers arrive at the airport three hours before departure.
Similarly, Lufthansa tells Reuters that passengers should arrive at the airport 90 minutes before departure as they may face short interviews at the gate or check-in areas.
Singapore Airlines said it would deploy security questioning during the check-in process and boarding, Reuters notes.
While many airlines and airports say they are ready to meet the new security standards, they’re still confused as to why they are necessary at all.
When Kelly announced the requirements in June, he didn’t provide any details on whether or not there were new credible threats to U.S. flights.
The DHS’ FAQ on the new measures only notes that “recently evaluated intelligence indicates terrorist groups continue to advance multiple efforts to target the aviation sector and are seeking ways to circumvent aviation security.”
Alexandre de Juniac, CEO of the International Air Transport Association, tells Reuters that the way the new measures were introduced was “very strange.”
“Unilateral measures announced without any prior consultation… That is something that is very concerning and disturbing,” he said.
The group contends that such moves by individual governments could cause unnecessary disruptions and unintended safety consequences.
Still, if airlines want to avoid laptop bans, they must abide by the new rules.
Airports that do not cooperate with the new measures or are too slow to adopt them “could be subject to other restrictions—including a ban on electronic devices on their airplanes, or even a suspension of their flights to the United States,” Kelly said in June.
To determine if foreign airports are abiding by the new regulations, DHS will assess and inspect airlines. It’s unclear when these inspections will begin.
When burrito chain Chipotle recently added queso dip to its menu, it seemed like the answer to many Chipotle fans’ prayers. But while the new cheesy dip made headlines, they weren’t necessarily good, with a number of early customers voicing their disappointment. However, Chipotle claims most people actually like the queso, and at the very least it’s not hurting sales.
Announcing his company’s latest quarterly earnings, CEO Steve Ellis argued that the burrito chain had been able to “change the narrative about Chipotle” in the wake of the high-profile 2015-2016 food-borne illness and norovirus outbreaks at a few Chipotle locations. Sales through the first nine months of 2017 were up 17% over the same period last year, said Ells.
Chief marketing Officer Mark Crumpacker explained during the call that around 19% of the new and “lapsed” customers visiting in recent months ordered queso, and around 15% of customers are continuing to order it either as a side or as a topping to their entrée.
Sales at the California and Colorado restaurants where queso was initially tested average out to around 15% long after those tests began. While queso-haters on social media are are loud, the company claims that its research found that “93% of customers that tried queso on an entrée said they like our queso,” Crumpacker reported.
Another upcoming menu change at the chain could eliminate the last genetically modified organisms on the chain’s menu, the high fructose corn syrup in the mainstream sodas that it serves, as part of a promised “top to bottom redesign of the beverages [Chipotle] serves and how they are merchandised to our customers.”
That’s the only information we have, but expect something similar to the lower-calorie house-made beverages that Panera Bread now emphasizes.
Other planned changes at Chipotle will include a redesigned app, which will include pretty basic features like being able to quickly reorder one’s favorite past meals, and being able to use Apple Pay to place orders. The chain also hopes to boost catering orders by cutting the minimum order from 20 diners to 10.
If you’ve got one of those infant motion seats intended to soothe a baby with gentle swaying or bouncing, you probably want to pay attention: Fisher-Price is recalling 63,000 Soothing Motion Seats over a potential fire hazard.
Fisher-Price initiated the recall of 63,000 Soothing Motion Seats after receiving 36 reports that the devices overheated, including one report of a fire within the motor housing.
Thankfully, no injuries have been reported related to the issue, but Fisher-Price urges owners to stop using the seats immediately.
According to a notice posted with the Consumer Product Safety Commission, the issue with the seats is contained in the motor housing, the part of the machine that actually moves the seat.
The seats bounce, sway, vibrate, can play 10 songs and nature sounds, and have an overhead mobile.
In all, the recall affects two different types of Fisher-Price seats that can be identified by the model number on the underside of the motor housing:
• Fisher-Price Soothing Motions Seats with model numbers CMR35, CMR36, CMR37, and DYH22
• Smart Connect Soothing Motions Seats with model number CMR39
The recalled seats had been available online and in stores nationwide since Nov. 2015. There were sold at Walmart, Target, Amazon, Toys ‘R’ Us, BuyBuyBaby and other retailers and websites for between $160 to $175 each.
Owners should contact Fisher-Price for a full refund. The company can be reached at 800-432-5437 or online at http://ift.tt/1fFsisJ and click on Recalls & Safety Alerts for more information.
As it was predicted, so it has come to pass: In an effort to combat “porch pirates” who love swiping any boxes left outside, Amazon is launching a new service that allows delivery people to walk into customers’ homes to drop off packages.
Amazon Key starts Nov. 3 and is only open to Prime members. It also requires customers to first buy an Amazon Key In-Home Kit, which starts at $249.99. The kit includes the Amazon Cloud Cam (so you can watch your delivery live or in a clip later), an indoor security camera, and a compatible smart lock from either Kwikset or Yale. You can get the lock installed for free, however.
Here’s how it works:
1. You place your order, and then on delivery day, you’ll get a notification with a four-hour delivery window for when the driver will show up.
2. Right before they get there, you’ll receive an “Arriving Now” notice on your phone, at which point you can watch the delivery live if that’s your thing.
3. Drivers will knock first, then request to unlock the door with a handheld Amazon scanner.
4. Amazon verifies that the package is where it’s supposed to be and that the driver is near the door — and not say, still in the truck — turns on the camera, and unlocks the door.
5. The driver places the package inside the door and requests to relock the door.
6. After delivery is complete and your door is relocked, you’ll get a final notification.
Amazon notes that it’s not a great idea to use this system if you have pets that have access to the front door or could be near it at the time of delivery.
The system can also be used to give friends and family or other trusted people temporary access to your home.
Amazon will be launching a professional services feature — tied to its Amazon Home Services — in the next few months as well, including home cleaning companies like Merry Maids and pet sitters and dog walkers from Rover.com.
As one might expect, some folks are skeptical about allowing strangers inside their homes when they’re not there:
Amazon Key? I mean what could go wrong with allowing a complete stranger to deliver packages inside my home while I'm away? It's a no for me http://pic.twitter.com/XL8B9ThoU7
— Joey
(@JoeySmith511) October 25, 2017
