Mitri Shatara

Nissan Recalls Over 203,000 Pickups

More than 203,000 Nissan pickup trucks in the U.S. are being called back because they can roll away when put in park.

The pickups from the model years 2020 through 2023 are included in the recall.

In documents released by U.S. safety regulators on Thursday, Nissan says that truck owners should always use the parking brake when they park their trucks.

The company says that when the trucks are put in park, the transmission parking pawl may not engage. The pawl makes sure that the trucks don’t move.

Nissan says it doesn’t know about any accidents or injuries related to the recall.

Still, the company is working on fixing the cars.

The owners will start getting letters on November 1 and will be told again when repairs are ready.

Nissan issued a separate recall in June for Titan and Frontier models made between December 2019 and June 2022, the administration report said, because the parking pawl might not engage.

In July, a Mississippi Nissan plant reported that a truck moved after being placed in park.

According to the administration’s September report, this defect appeared to be different from the one in the June recall.

“If the parking pawl does not engage, an affected vehicle may move after placing the shifter into ‘Park,'” the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration report said. “If the customer does not engage the parking brake, the potential for movement of the vehicle increases the risk of injury or crash.”

A report said that the company is trying to determine if other Nissan or Infiniti cars may also be affected.

By entering the 17-digit vehicle identification number on the administration’s website, drivers can find out if their truck has been recalled.

Alexander Shunnarah Trial Attorneys

Our law firm releases blogs like these to help keep readers safe. Product recalls are important to follow, as a defective product could be dangerous. If you or a loved one is injured due to a defective product, our personal injury lawyers can help you get compensation. Call us today for a free consultation at 1-800-229-7989.

References:

https://wwmt.com/news/state/nissan-recalls-over-200k-pickups-due-to-risk-of-rolling-away

https://upnorthlive.com/news/local/nissan-recalls-over-200k-pickups-due-to-risk-of-rolling-away

https://www.newson6.com/story/6324464d0cabfd0139533b2a/nissan-recalls-over-200000-pickups-in-the-us-due-to-risk-of-rolling-away

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/09/19/business/nissan-truck-rollaway-recall.html

Biden Says ‘Pandemic Is Over’

White House officials spent most of their time this year planning a careful, step-by-step plan that they hoped would help the U.S. get out of its COVID-19 pandemic era.

One thing that wasn’t in the plan was for President Joe Biden to say they were out of it.

President Biden’s sudden announcement that the coronavirus pandemic is “over” has made it harder for the White House to get more money to fight the virus and convince people to get a new booster shot.

It has also given Republicans more reasons to criticize the administration for continuing to extend a COVID “emergency.”

Biden’s comments, which aired Sunday on “60 Minutes,” reflect that more and more people think the virus is less of a threat, even though hundreds of Americans still die every day from COVID.

According to an Axios-Ipsos poll that came out last week, 46% of Americans have returned to their lives before the pandemic.

This is the most people who have answered this way since the pollsters started asking this question in January 2021.

“We still have a problem with covid,” Biden said. “We’re still doing a lot of work on it … but the pandemic is over.”

Many of the president’s top health officials didn’t know about Biden’s comments until they read about them on Twitter or in the news.

Two high-level administration officials said that the president had not planned to make big news about Covid and had not talked with his health advisers about announcing the end of the pandemic.

When the White House looked at a transcript of his comments after the interview, which was taped earlier in the week, it did not alert its Covid team.

This meant that the administration did not have a coordinated plan for what to do after the interview aired.

Since then, health officials have quietly and sarcastically patted themselves on the back for a job well done: They joked that after 20 months of working around the clock, all that was needed to end a once-in-a-century crisis was for Biden to say it was over. Others said that the time had come for such a statement. They said that the virus is now manageable and that Biden was just being honest about where his administration has been going for a long time.

However, in the last two weeks, about 65,000 new cases of Covid-19 were reported daily, according to data from Johns Hopkins University. But the number of reported cases is going down in almost every state.

On average, 400 people still die every day from COVID in the United States. This is a number federal health officials believe is “still too high.”

Officials have also said that the COVID-19 public health emergency declaration will likely be extended at least once more this year.

But local health departments in the U.S. have lifted most of the COVID restrictions, and travel is back to how it was before the pandemic.

In the wake of the summer wave caused by the BA.4 and BA.5 subvariants of Omicron, the rate of new hospitalizations caused by the virus has also slowed down substantially.

Public health experts say that widespread immunity from vaccines and previous infections, as well as the growing use of COVID-19 treatments like Pfizer’s Paxlovid, have helped stop the virus from killing as many people, even though it caused a wave of infections this summer.

“We are not where we need to be if we are going to quote ‘live with the virus,'” Anthony Fauci, Biden’s chief medical adviser, said on Monday. 

“We still must be aware of how unusual this virus is and continues to be in its ability to evolve into new variants which defy the standard public health mechanisms of addressing an outbreak.”

“Although we are much better off than we were months ago, as the president himself said, we still have a lot of work to do to get it down to a low enough level that we would feel comfortable with it,” Anthony S. Fauci, the government’s top infectious-disease expert, said in an interview. 

“I’m not comfortable with 400 deaths per day.”

Alexander Shunnarah Trial Attorneys

References:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2022/09/18/biden-covid-pandemic-over/

https://www.politico.com/news/2022/09/19/biden-pandemic-over-covid-team-response-00057649

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/biden-covid-pandemic-over/

https://www.cnn.com/2022/09/18/politics/biden-pandemic-60-minutes/index.html

Family Dollar Recalls Several OTC Products

Family Dollar recently recalled several kinds of Colgate toothpaste and mouthwash because stores in more than one state did not keep them at the right temperature.

This comes after the franchise owned by Dollar Tree voluntarily recalled over-the-counter medicines last month.

Some of these products, like Clearblue pregnancy tests, Trojan condoms, and Polident denture products, also failed to meet temperature requirements.

The Food and Drug Administration put out both recall notices on September 16, and by Tuesday, September 20, they were the most-searched terms on Google.

They didn’t say what temperature the products were kept at or how long they had been there on either notice.

But Family Dollar said that it hasn’t heard of any complaints or reports of illness from customers about the Colgate products or the over-the-counter medicines.

The recall of over-the-counter products was done “out of an abundance of caution,” the company said in a letter.

“Family Dollar has told the affected stores to check their stock right away and to put any affected products in quarantine and stop selling them,” the company said in a statement. “Customers who may have bought affected products can return them without a receipt to the Family Dollar store where they were bought.”

The FDA has asked Family Dollar stores in 11 states (Arizona, California, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Montana, New Mexico, Nevada, Oregon, Texas, and Utah) to take back the following Colgate toothpaste and mouthwashes:

  • Colgate Optic White Stain Prevention Toothpaste, 2.1 ounces
  • Colgate Optic White Charcoal Toothpaste, 4.2 ounces
  • Colgate Optic White Mouthwash, 16 fluid ounces
  • Colgate Optic White High Impact Toothpaste, 3 ounces
  • Colgate Optic White Toothpaste Icy Fresh, 3.2 ounces
  • Colgate Optic White Stain Fighter Toothpaste Clean Mint, 4.2 ounce

The FDA says that Family Dollar is also recalling dozens of over-the-counter products, such as condoms made by Trojan, pregnancy tests made by Clearblue, nasal spray, eye drops, and denture adhesive.

The recall affects some stores in every state except Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington, Alaska, and Hawaii.

  • Clearblue Smart Countdown Pregnancy Test, 1 count
  • Lifestyles Skin Non-Latex Lubricated Condoms, 3 count
  • VeriQuick Pregnancy Test, 1 count
  • First Response (pregnancy test), 2 count
  • Skyn Original Non-Latex Condoms, 12 count
  • Skyn Elite Non-Latex Condoms, 12 count
  • VeriQuick Pregnancy Test, 1 count
  • At Home Marijuana Test Strip
  • Trojan Ultra Ribbed Lubed (condoms), 3 count
  • VeriQuick Pregnancy Test, 2 count
  • Trojan Ultra Thin Condom Latex, 3 count
  • Skyn Elite Large Non-Latex Condom, 12 count
  • Preferred UTI Test, 1 count
  • Lifestyles Ultra Sensitive Condoms, 12 count
  • Clear Eyes Contact Lens Drops Lubricating, 0.5 fluid ounces
  • Bausch & Lomb Biotrue Multi-Purpose Solution, 4 fluid ounces
  • GoodSense Saline Solution, 12 fluid ounces
  • KY Jelly Lubricant, 2 fluid ounces
  • Opti-Free Replenish Multi-Purpose (contact lens solution), 2 ounces
  • Simply Saline Nasal Mist, 3.1 ounces
  • Opti-Free Puremoist Disinfecting Solution, 4 fluid ounces
  • Dentemp One Step, 0.077 ounces
  • Fixodent Original Cream, 2.4 ounces
  • Dr. Talbot’s Toddler Toothpaste Brush, Tutti Frutti 
  • Curad Strong Waterproof Strip, 1 inch, 20 count
  • GoodSense Denture Cleanser GRN Tablet,40 count 
  • Fixodent Adhesive Cream Ultra Max Hold, 2.2 ounces
  • Curad First Aid Kit
  • Poligrip Power Max Hold, 2.2 ounces
  • New Skin Liquid Bandage, Clear, 0.3 fluid ounces
  • Travel Kit Toothbrush, Cap, Paste In Pouch, 1 count
  • Fixodent Original Cream, Travel, 0.75 ounces
  • Polident Denture Cleanser Tablets, 28 count
  • Poligrip Adhesive Cream, Additive Free, 2.4 ounces 
  • GoodSense Denture Cleaner Overnight Tablets, 40 count
  • Polident Denture Cleansers, 84 count
  • Polident Overnight Whitening Tablets, 28 count
  • Fixodent Adhesive Cream with Scope, 2 ounces
  • Poligrip Extra Care Adhesive Cream, 2.2 ounces
  • Super Poligrip Adhesive Cream, 0.75 ounces
  • Poligrip Denture Adhesive Original, 2.4 ounces

Alexander Shunnarah Trial Attorneys

Defective Products can cause consumers serious injuries. We will regularly post recent recalls on our website on our latest news blog at: https://shunnarah.com/category/latest-news/. If you or a loved one is injured by a defective or unsafe product, call our personal injury lawyers today at 1-800-229-7989.

References:

https://www.marketwatch.com/amp/story/recall-shoppers-should-check-toothpaste-condoms-pregnancy-tests-bought-at-family-dollar-11663693321

https://ca.finance.yahoo.com/news/condoms-pregnancy-tests-other-products-201427559.html

https://www.narcity.com/family-dollar-recalled-huge-list-of-products-using-every-day

https://www.mynews13.com/fl/orlando/news/2022/09/19/family-dollar-issues-recall-on-some-over-the-counter-products

Complaints About Inaccurate Credit Reports Are Soaring

Something’s not adding up.

During the pandemic, consumer credit has held up very well, and household debt has gone down. Credit card balances have gone down even for people who have lost jobs or been hurt financially in other ways because of the recession.

Consumer Reports says, though, that Americans are on track to set a record this year for the number of complaints about credit report inaccuracies that they send to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

In 2020 and 2021, a non-profit consumer advocacy group found that a little more than half of the complaints sent to the federal agency were about credit score errors and concerns.

But in the first half of this year, three-quarters of all complaints were about credit report errors.

“Mistakes on credit reports are all too common and can have serious consequences, especially for those who are already struggling to make ends meet,” Consumer Reports policy analyst Syed Ejaz said in a statement. “No one should have to pay to access their own financial information.”

Consumer Reports asked the three biggest credit bureaus, Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion, to do something to make sure that people’s credit reports are correct.

It said that one way to do this is for the major credit bureaus to stop making people pay for their reports.

Equifax and TransUnion charge between $20 and $30 per month for unlimited access to personal credit reports. The reports from Experian are free.

Under the Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act, consumers can get a free, full credit report once a year at the website annualcreditreport.com.

Experian and TransUnion charge people to look at their reports more than once.

Free Access To Your Credit Report

In a letter to the credit bureaus, Ejaz said that seeing your credit report once a year isn’t enough.

He argued that consumers need to be able to get their reports at any time and for free so they can quickly find mistakes and dispute them.

“Consumers should be able to get a free copy of their credit report at any time and as often as they need to,” Ejaz said.

Companies use credit scores for employment decisions, landlords use them to decide whether to rent to someone, and insurance companies use them to determine how much to charge.

So, Ejaz said, the bureaus shouldn’t hide credit score concerns behind a paywall.

A few months ago, Equifax accidentally sent hundreds of thousands of Americans the wrong credit score.

This is why people are now pushing for everyone’s free access to credit reports.

A group of people is now suing Equifax in a class action lawsuit because of the credit scores sent out from March 17 to April 6.

Federal lawmakers have also asked Equifax to explain how the mistake happened and how customers will be compensated for it.

Ejaz wrote in a letter that credit bureaus can improve accuracy in addition to offering the complete credit report for free reports by:

  1. Don’t prevent consumers from seeing their credit reports if they can’t answer identity questions about who they are.
  2. Before putting something on someone’s credit report, double-check their full name, date of birth, and Social Security number;
  3. Letting a customer file a consumer dispute into a previous claim of inaccuracy;

Consumer Reports has started an online petition to make it clear that credit reports should always be free.

In the past few years, inaccurate credit reports have become a growing national problem. Many people say it’s hard to get Equifax, Experian, or TransUnion to remove mistakes from their files.

A study by the CFPB found that the three credit bureaus fixed less than 2% of the credit report complaints they got in 2021.

This is a significant drop from the 25% they fixed in 2019.

Consumer Reports said that between 2018 and 2021, the number of people who complained to the CFPB that their credit reports were wrong more than doubled.

Alexander Shunnarah Trial Attorneys

To read more blogs on recent news, check out our blog: https://shunnarah.com/category/latest-news/. Our personal injury attorneys are continually updating the blog to keep readers up to date on recent news stories and information about personal injury law. If you or a loved one has been injured due to someone else’s negligence, call 1-800-229-7989 for a free consultation.

References:

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/consumer-reports-credit-report-score-error/

https://www.news9.com/story/6322fca94ef63f0710ab26de/complaints-about-inaccurate-credit-reports-are-soaring

https://www.npr.com.ng/complaints-about-inaccurate-credit-reports-are-soaring-more-news/

Biden Announces A Tentative Deal To Avoid Rail Strike Is Reached

Rail companies and their workers came to a tentative agreement Thursday to stop a nationwide strike that could have stopped freight trains and hurt the economy less than two months before the midterm elections.

The two sides had been discussing the contract for years without agreeing, and the deadline was Friday at 12:01 a.m.

President Joe Biden announced the deal. It was reached after a marathon 20-hour round of talks at the Labor Department. Just one day before the threatened walkout, the announcement was made.

“This agreement is validation of what I’ve always believed — unions and management can work together … for the benefit of everyone,” Biden said in the White House Rose Garden.

Biden got right in the middle of the argument.

Two White House officials who didn’t want to be named but talked about the president’s involvement said that Vice President Joe Biden called both sides and told them that “a shutdown is unacceptable” after a day of talks with administration officials.

Before a possible strike deadline on Friday, railroads were getting ready to stop shipping crops and delay shipments of farm fertilizers.

Because Amtrak and many commuter railroads use tracks that belong to freight railroads, a strike would have also impacted freight and passenger transportation for the American public.

Amtrak and commuter railroads were ready for cuts, delays, and cancellations in service.

After a few weeks, union members will vote on the agreement, including a 24% wage boost.

Biden, a Democrat who thinks unions built the middle class, took a political risk by threatening to shut down the government.

However, he was also aware of how a rail workers’ strike may harm the economy before the midterm elections.

At those elections, majorities in both houses of Congress, key governorships, and many essential state offices will be up for grabs.

Better wages, better working conditions, and assurance about health care expenses will all benefit rail workers.

Some of the terms of the deal are:

  • Voluntary assigned days off and one additional paid day off (Unions had sought 15 paid sick days. Currently, rail freight workers don’t have any sick days)
  • Guaranteed time away for medical visits
  • No disruptions to current health care plans
  • An immediate wage increase of 14% and 24% over the next five-year period
  • Annual lump sum bonuses of $5,000

The deal changed workplace attendance policies that workers thought were too harsh.

In a joint statement, the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen and the SMART Transportation Division said that workers would be able to take time off for medical care without getting in trouble.

Those attendance policies had become the central sticking point as the deadline for a deal neared.

Victor Chen, a sociologist at Virginia Commonwealth University who studies labor, said that unions and the workers they represent care more and more about working conditions.

“At a certain point, good wages just aren’t enough to make up for the toll these sorts of working conditions impose on workers,” Chen said.

“The companies need to treat workers like human beings, rather than just inputs in a business process.”

After the main railroads reduced about one-third of their staff (or around 45,000 jobs) over the past six years, the railroad unions cited workload and attendance regulations.

Costs have been cut everywhere in the railroad industry, and operations are now based on fewer, longer trains that use fewer locomotives and workers.

The unions said that the remaining workers, especially engineers and conductors, were on call 24 hours a day, seven days a week, because of job cuts. They also said that strict attendance rules made it hard for them to take time off.

Chen said that the tight job market and ongoing service problems on the railroads gave unions an edge at the bargaining table.

Shippers have been very upset about the supply chain disruptions and bad service this year. This is because railroads had difficulty hiring enough people quickly enough to keep up with a rise in demand as the economy recovered from the pandemic.

The problems with shipping gave union leaders and rail workers more power.

Alexander Shunnarah Trial Attorneys

Did you enjoy reading this article? Check out more recent news blogs here: https://shunnarah.com/category/latest-news/. Our Personal Injury Lawyers are dedicated to keeping readers informed on recent news reports and information about personal injury law. If you or a loved one has been injured due to the negligence of someone else, call our law firm at 1-800-229-7989 for a free consultation.

References:

https://www.miamiherald.com/news/business/article265843156.html

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2022/09/15/railroad-strike-averted-biden-says-tentative-labor-agreement-reached/10385192002/

https://www.npr.org/2022/09/15/1123114110/biden-says-a-tentative-railway-labor-deal-has-been-reached-averting-a-strike

California Sues Amazon, Alleging its Dominance Pushes Up Prices

California is suing Seattle-based Amazon, saying that the company broke the state’s antitrust and unfair competition laws by stifling competition and doing things that make sellers on other sites keep their prices high.

Rob Bonta, the attorney general of California, says that Amazon uses contract provisions to stop third-party sellers and wholesale suppliers from lowering prices for products on non-Amazon sites, even on their own sites.

The complaint says that this makes it harder for other stores to compete.

California filed the 84-page lawsuit in San Francisco Superior Court on Wednesday.

It is similar to a complaint that the District of Columbia filed last year, which was thrown out by a district judge earlier this year and is now being appealed.

But officials in California say they don’t think they will have the same problem.

This is because they have information from a more than two-year investigation that included subpoenas and interviews with sellers, Amazon’s competitors, and current and former Amazon employees.

“Without basic price competition, without different online sites trying to outdo each other with lower prices, prices artificially stabilize at levels higher than would be the case in a competitive market,” the complaint states.

The suit says that merchants who don’t follow the policy could have their products taken off of Amazon’s most prominent listings and face other penalties, like having their accounts suspended or closed.

It says that Amazon’s policy forces merchants to list higher prices on other sites, which helps Amazon keep its lead in online shopping.

The lawsuit from California wants, among other things, to stop Amazon from making contracts with sellers that hurt price competition.

It also wants a court to order Amazon to pay the state money for the higher prices. The state didn’t say how much money they want.

The Associated Press asked Amazon for a comment, but they didn’t answer immediately.

The company has previously said that sellers on the platform set their own prices. It has also said that it has the right to avoid putting products in the spotlight if their prices are not competitive. In a Wednesday statement,

Amazon reviewed these points again and said that Bonta has it “completely wrong.”

Insider Intelligence, a research company, says that Seattle-based Amazon controls about 38% of online sales in the U.S.

This is more than Walmart, eBay, Apple, Best Buy, and Target combined.

Democrats in Congress put Amazon’s share at about 50% in a report. On Amazon’s external market, almost 2 million suppliers advertise their goods. 58% of the business’s retail sales come from these sales.

During a news conference on Wednesday, Bonta claimed that several sellers have stated they would provide lower prices on other websites with lower seller fees, but they don’t because they don’t want to upset Amazon.

“Amazon has stifled its competition for years, not by successfully competing, but by blocking competition on price,” Bonta said. “As a result, California families paid more, and now Amazon must pay the price.”

He said the lawsuit is also a message to other companies who “illegally bend the market at the expense of California consumers, small business owners, and the economy.”

Those in the tech sector also criticized the case. Amazon would be forced to boost pricing, according to Adam Kovacevich, CEO of the industry trade group Chamber of Progress, which receives funding from Amazon and other internet businesses.

“That makes no sense while consumers shop for bargains to counter inflation, and it’s based on a legally unsound theory already rejected by federal courts,” Kovacevich said.

Even with that defense, lawmakers and advocacy groups that want stricter antitrust rules have been looking at Amazon’s market power.

Earlier this year, members of Congress asked the Justice Department to look into whether or not the company collects information on sellers to make competing products and feature them more on its site.

Critics have also said that the rising fees sellers pay make it harder for new merchants to join the market.

On Capitol Hill, congressional lawmakers from both parties have been pushing for legislation that would make it harder for Amazon and other big tech companies like Apple, Google, and Meta to prioritize their goods and services over those of their competitors.

The bill has passed through the most important committees, but it has been stuck in Congress for months because of strong opposition from the companies.

Alexander Shunnarah Trial Attorneys

The lawyers at Alexander Shunnarah Trial Attorney release blogs keeping readers up to date on important information. Our attorneys understand business law and can help if you are experiencing a business tort issue. A business tort can be defined as anything from interference with a contract to unfair competition in the marketplace. For a free consultation, call us today at 1-800-229-7989.

References:

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/california-sues-amazon-antitrust-law-violations/

https://www.kqed.org/news/11925651/california-sues-amazon-alleging-antitrust-and-unfair-competition-law-violations

https://abcnews.go.com/Business/wireStory/california-sues-amazon-alleging-antitrust-law-violations-89903952

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