Other than a house or a college education, buying a car is the largest purchase many Americans make. There's a lot of stress associated with it. WGLT's Charlie Schlenker talks with Dan Deneen, a McLean County Attorney who frequently represents car buyers against dealerships. To buy a car the low stress way, Deneen says approaching a car purchase should be done systematically.
When you go to a car lot, Deneen also says,
take an extensive test drive.
Keep your current car is usually best. But if you must buy another, buy right . . . (NPR audio)11/6/2015
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Volkswagen Finds Emissions Problems In 800K More Cars
Volkswagen said Tuesday that an internal investigation headed up by Jones Day has uncovered emissions irregularities in 800,000 more cars, a day after it denied a slew of new allegations from U.S. regulators that it installed software to skirt emissions testing on more cars than previously admitted.
The Willamette Art Center
hosts the annual "Empty Bowls" Benefit Sale: Saturday, Nov. 21 - 9 am to 5 pm Sunday, Nov 22, 2015 - Noon to 4 pm to benefit Marion Polk Food Share In Justice Roberts' America, corporations aren't just people, they're the only people with rights10/31/2015 Good New York Times piece on mandatory binding arbitration clauses, the fine print that corporations use to immunize themselves for their abuses of consumers.
The corporate lawyers on the Supreme Court have ushered America into its post-Constitutional phase, repealing the 7th Amendment entirely because their corporate masters hate having to face a jury of real people. They prefer forums where the only thing that matters is how much money you have. Hat tip to the American Bar Association magazine. Reporting years too late to do much good, but better than nothing.
As we kick off national Celebrate Pro Bono week, I’d like to thank you for being a member of our volunteer corps of pro bono professionals. You support a critical nation-wide mission. On behalf of so many veterans, their loved ones, and their survivors please let me express how very much we appreciate your commitment to The Veterans Consortium Pro Bono Program.
["Who is in ALEC?" I hear you ask. These companies. If a company you patronize is among them, write to them and tell them to stop using your money against your interests. - John Gear]
"We want to thank the Chamber for highlighting the hard work the American Association for Justice and trial lawyers across the country do every day to help protect consumers from the corporate scams and abuses of Wall Street corporations who put their bottom lines over consumer safety. From tobacco to asbestos, the Chamber has never met a defective product they didn't like and have lobbied for decades to change the rules so they can't be held accountable by the public.
Last week, we saw the CEO of the Peanut Corporation of America receive a 28-year prison sentence for his role in a deadly salmonella outbreak, and now we're working with our allies to stop a Chamber-backed bill in Congress that would immunize Volkswagen for knowingly defrauding its consumers. What the [Chamber] report details so well is that the American Association for Justice is fighting for a world with more accountability, less injury, and more justice for consumers." --- Linda Lipsen, American Association for Justice Hat tip to National Law Journal for running this great, down-to-earth explanation of why it is so important that Americans be able to band together as a class to seek a remedy when their individual damages are too small to make a lawsuit sensible. A Threat to Class Actions Looms in High Court If your Oregon Volkswagen or Audi is affected by the recall for the "defeat device" that VW installed to defeat US emissions testing, I would like to speak with you.
In addition to spending 30-90 minutes reviewing your estate plans (will/trust, durable power of attorney, advance directive, HIPAA release forms and most important, your beneficiary orders with all your financial institutions), you should also take 10 seconds of each birthday to check and see if the State of Oregon is holding any lost or unclaimed property of yours. It's surprising what people can lose track of:
NOLO Press has a good, step-by-step guide if you think you or someone in your family may have been snared by an identity thief:
(Screenshot below only part of the guide). This is a great service, and it's free. Junk credit solicitations are a blight, and a real risk -- the one that hits you right when you're feeling pinched can tempt you into accepting one of those cards, which can easily lead to years of woe and even bankruptcy. Hat tip to "Cool Tools" for promoting this free service.
An excellent editorial in The Des Moines Register on the scandalous (and now nation-wide) policy that permits nursing homes to essentially force residents and families to sign away their rights, upon admission to the facility, to ever sue the nursing home for any future incident of harm, abuse or neglect - no matter how egregious or horrible. http://www.desmoinesregister.com/story/opinion/editorials/2015/08/19/editorial-nursing-homes-take-away-right-sue/32033361/ Richard J. Mollot, Executive Director Long Term Care Community Coalition SUBMIT YOUR COMMENTS HERE: http://www.regulations.gov/#!submitComment;D=CMS-2015-0083-0001 Here are mine.: As an attorney with an elder law practice who is married to a woman who ran nursing home regulation in two states, I can say with absolute confidence that the most important thing you could do to benefit elders who are facing the need to enter long-term care facilities is PROHIBIT any predispute arbitration clauses in these facilities. An elder friend of mine who lives in a development with a lot of other elders sends:
I had a very roundabout path in life before becoming an attorney. And one of the things I picked up on my journey was a real hatred of bad writing, especially "legalese" -- a specialized kind of jargon, piled even higher and deeper than the usual sludge that you see in the workplace.
Hating bad work writing isn't just a pet peeve. I hate bad work writing because it leads to problems, and it makes it easy for people to get ripped off. I became quite adept at fixing bad work writing, to the point where I was the lead technical writer and editor for the central policies and procedures group for the lead contractor at the Hanford Nuclear Reservation. My job was to make it easy for people to know what to do, when, without having to have a PhD, and also to make it impossible to miss when the person giving the orders really hadn't thought through what they were demanding of other people. I did a little of this work as a favor for a friend the other day, and he paid me a nice compliment in return. He said "You are the first person I've met who can make bylaws sing." If your nonprofit wants to have better results, one of the best things you can do is look at your bylaws, policies and procedures with a very critical eye. And if they aren't terrific -- if they are creating problems and confusion instead of solving problems and preventing confusion -- do a complete rewrite. I'd be glad to help. It's an investment, but one that can pay dividends for decades. News about the Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation (SLAPP) by Murray Energy against Public Citizen: Time for a quick update on the corporate lawsuit to silence Public Citizen.
You are invited to join an online screening of Lost in the Fine Print and discussion of forced arbitration with legal experts Wednesday July 22nd, 12 noon (Pacific) RSVP today! Narrated by former U.S. Secretary of Labor Robert Reich Watch the trailer At AFJ, we fight tirelessly to keep the courthouse doors open to consumers harmed by big business. Buried in everyday agreements for products, services and jobs is fine print saying if you are harmed, you can’t go before an impartial judge or jury. That’s why we’re working with the National Association of Consumer Advocates, Public Citizen, Public Justice, and US Public Interest Research Group (USPIRG) to spread the word about forced arbitration and discuss ways to fight back. Join the discussion with legal experts on Wednesday, July 22nd as we watch a clip from the short documentary, Lost in the Fine Print, and learn more about forced arbitration and how we can fight back. You can join us from wherever you are; this virtual “conversation” will be broadcast through our website. RSVP and learn more about forced arbitration at www.LostInTheFinePrint.org. Please submit any questions for our panelists to amanda@afj.org by July 21st! Stand with us as we learn more about forced arbitration and join together to take back our rights. What do you need to log on to the conversation? All you need is a working internet connection. On the 22nd, we’ll email out a link to watch the Hangout and participate in real time. You don’t need a video camera, sound equipment, or anything complicated. RSVP today! This event is brought to you by: The National Association of Consumer Advocates, Public Citizen, Public Justice, US Public Interest Research Group (USPIRG) Remember those shady businesses that preyed on military service members, and who always located right outside the base where the youngest, least sophisticated, soldiers and sailors couldn't help but pass by them? Well, there still out there, still trying to prey on you, years after you left the service.
Remember, you NEVER need to go through a private broker to apply for your VA benefits. The VA interest rate reduction loan program can be a great deal if you've got a mortgage, but not if you go through a scammy outfit like this to sign up. And there's no reason to! This business is like one of those scams that charges you a huge fee just to do something simple you can do yourself for little or no cost, like renew a business license. Vets, remember: you never want to give any outfit like this your confidential financial information. If there's ANY VA benefits programs you can't figure out how to apply for on your own, call the Oregon Department of Veteran Affairs -- not a predator like these guys! (Clarification: you apply for IRRRL through a mortgage broker, but before you apply, you should review program details with a Veterans Service Officer -- with interest rates having been so low so long, it's an unusual veteran who will be able to benefit from the IRRRL program -- meanwhile, the broker will make out like a bandit, and try to jack you into adding home improvements to your loan on top of charging you points and origination fees. Unless you have an unusually high-interest loan that you somehow have failed to refi already, you are probably going to be better off keeping your existing loan and using the money that you would spend on this to pay off higher cost loans, such as credit cards or student loans.) Shady high-pressure sales types love to offer elderly people "free" meals and "free" trips and lots of "free" things. Now ask yourself: do you honestly think they would send you come-ons like the one above if they didn't have absolute certainty that the profits they will make off the people who fall for their pitch will more than pay for the piddling costs of these "free" meals and the postcards?
If you want to get honest, unbiased advice on ways to save money on your home energy costs, call the Energy Trust of Oregon at 1.866.368.7878 or send them an email at info@energytrust.org to request more information about home energy conservation programs. You already pay for ETO programs and services through a small surcharge on your monthly utility bills -- so you should use the program you've already paid for. ETO is a nonprofit whose mission is to help the Northwest reach its conservation goals. They will help you evaluate all your energy and money-saving options at no cost, and they aren't selling anything. So don't fall for shady promotional "free lunch" deals, no matter how strong you think your sales resistance is. Companies that market like this are a lot hungrier and more experienced at this game than you are. Real people -- normal people like you and your family -- often hear lawyers and others talking about "Corporate personhood" and "Corporate Control" and corporate this and corporate that, and you don't really know what it means, and most of the companies you deal with seem pretty OK, and they make good products, and you don't really know why everybody makes a big deal out of whether "Corporations are people, my friend" in the words of Mitt Romney. So it's important to note when a story really shows you what it means that our court system is dominated from top to bottom with judges appointed from the ranks of corporate lawyers, people who have never represented an actual real person in their entire lives. The story below shows perfectly what it means when corporate values replace human values in the justice system http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/jun/11/lost-hands-making-flatscreens-no-help When I lost my hands making flatscreens I can't afford, nobody would help me Rosa Moreno Injured workers like me don’t ask for much of the billions these companies make off of our work. We just want enough to take care of our families |
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