SAN RAMON, Calif. (AP) — A driver has been arrested after authorities say he ran over his passenger twice after arguing with her on the side of a San Francisco Bay Area freeway.

The woman was transported to a hospital with serious injuries.

The Oakland Tribune reports (http://bayareane.ws/1yrC8D1 ) the California Highway Patrol arrested 22-year-old Washington Wiley Jr. of Sacramento following the Monday incident.

The car was traveling on Interstate 680 in San Ramon, a suburb east of San Francisco, when the argument started.

Authorities say the woman got out of the car, and the man drove into her. The driver then reversed the car and struck the woman again, backing over her.

The woman was pulled back into the vehicle, and it drove off. Officers used witness descriptions to track the car and arrest the man.

___

Information from: The Oakland Tribune, http://www.oaklandtribune.com

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Nissan Motor Co. issued two separate recalls this week that cover more than 768,000 SUVs and crossover vehicles in North America because no one wants to drive a car that can catch fire or that has a hood that could unexpectedly fly up while driving down the road. 

According to a notice [PDF] from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, Nissan’s first recall covers 486,815 model year 2008 to 2014 Rogue crossover vehicles that may experience electrical shorts and fires when moisture is present.

Nissan says that the vehicles, which were produced between March 2007 and July 2014, may experience an electrical short in the harness connector due to moisture of snow or water and salt seeping through the carpet on the driver side floor.

Owners of the affected Rogue vehicles will be notified and dealers will inspect the panel wiring harness connector. If necessary, a new harness connector and waterproof seal will be installed.

The second recall for Nissan this week concerns 170,665 model year 2013 to 2014 Pathfinder and model year 2013 Infiniti JX35 vehicles because a secondary latch on the cars’ hood could fail, sending the cover flying up impairing the driver’s view of the road, according to a notice [PDF] from NHTSA.

Officials with Nissan say the recall was initiated after the company became aware of problems in rental vehicles when drivers unintentionally dislodged the secondary hood latch. The secondary latch is designed to catch the hood from flying up if the primary hood latch is disengaged.

In several instances, the dislodged secondary latch resulted in the hood flying up, causing damage to the vehicles. However, Nissan says there have been no reports of crashes or injuries related to the issue.

To remedy the issue, dealers will modify the angle of the hood release mechanism to provide additional length to the release cable.

In addition to the vehicles recalled in the U.S., Nissan says 52,312 Rouge crossovers, and 15,972 Pathfinders and JX35 SUVs will be recalled in Canada.

We’re dealing with ankle-deep slush in the parking lots here at Consumerist’s northernmost bureau. Harsh winter weather is harsh for shoes, especially shoes that haven’t been designed to be tough and waterproof. If you’re still waiting for your backordered duck boots, here’s what you should do to keep your shoes looking nice after the snow melts.

Racked posted this handy guide to how to waterproof your shoes and cope with other terrible things that winter can do to footwear.

Leather shoes

Protect them ahead of time with a product sold or recommended by the manufacturer. Don’t make assumptions, and make sure to follow the instructions provided.

If salt stains appear on your leather shoes, you can remove them with white vinegar: just wipe the salt off with a vinegar-soaked cloth.

Suede shoes

The same rules apply to suede as to leather, but waterproofing is even more important.

In case of salt stains, use a suede brush.

Rubber boots

No, they don’t really get damaged by snow, water, or salt: that’s kind of the point. You should clean them, though, which will keep them looking nice for longer. Rubber and canvas alike can be cleaned with soap and water in case of stains.

Wet shoes

Stuff them with balled-up newspaper and put them close–but not too close–to a source of heat like a radiator or a vent.

The Essential Winter Shoe Care Guide [Racked]

How fresh is fresh? That’s the question at hand in a lawsuit brought by a group of Wegmans customers in New Jersey who say that just because the store’s rolls are technically put in an oven on the premises, that doesn’t mean they’re “store-baked.” The same group is going after Whole Foods in the lawsuit for similar reasons.

The lawsuit alleges that Wegmans is misleading customers by advertising its bakery rolls as “store-baked” because the bread is prepared elsewhere, frozen, then reheated at the store, reports BuffaloNews.com.

That description, however, would make the average customer believe that the rolls are whipped up from scratch at the store and baked fresh there, the lawsuit claims.

The customers are seeking class-action status and want compensation for customers in New Jersey’s Camden and Burlington Counties, for anyone who bought the bread products between 2008 and now.

Whole Foods is also named in a similar lawsuit, reports NJ.com, with customers alleging that the chain’s claims to making its own bagels, croissants, cookies, cakes, pies, muffins and rolls in-house is misleading.

“These individuals like to know what they’re buying. They shouldn’t mislead people that the baking is done on premises,” an attorney for the consumers told NJ.com.

Wegmans denies it’s leading customers astray.

“We haven’t deceived or misled our customers in any way,” said a Wegmans spokeswoman.

Both companies have requested the lawsuits be moved to federal court, as their headquarters are outside New Jersey, in Texas and New York, respectively.

Wegmans customers sue in New Jersey [Buffalo News]
Wegmans, Whole Foods accused of making half-baked claims about their bread [NJ.com]

Even though fuel prices have precipitously dropped in recent months, no one wants to waste their gas because of a fuel leak. For that reason, and because a fuel leak could lead to a vehicle fire, Volkswagen is recalling nearly 26,000 sedans and SUVS in the U.S. and 80,000 worldwide.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration reports [PDF] that Volkswagen has issued a recall for 26,008 vehicles in the United States after receiving reports of small fuel leaks in a number of models.

Affected vehicles include the 2012 model year Audi A6 and Volkswagen Touareg hybrid, model year 2012 to 2013 Audi A7 and the model year 2011 to 2012 Audi Q7, S4 and S5.

According to a notice [PDF] from Volkswagen, which owns the Audi brand, vibration during driving, and production issues can cause small leaks in the vehicles’ fuel injection system.

Officials say that a leak – no matter how small – in the presence of an ignition source increases the risk of a vehicle fire.

While Volkswagen says it is unaware of any fires or injuries caused by the issue, reports received by NHTSA detail consumers’ concerns regarding the leaks.

In one report, the consumer claims fuel fumes appeared under the hood and through the air conditioner vents in their 2012 Audi A6. A local dealer determined the vehicle had a fuel leak.

Owners of affected vehicles will be notified in March and dealers will replace fuel rails and corresponding seals.

Are you having a good day so far? Then you might not want to ruin it by reading on, because holy crap, there are some really awful, terrible people in the world. Allegedly: Police in Nebraska say a woman drowned a three-week-old puppy in an airport bathroom after being told she couldn’t board her flight with the dog. Deep breaths. Must take deep breaths.

According to a police report cited by The Smoking Gun, a 56-year-old Florida woman was arrested last week at the Central Nebraska Regional Airport in Grand Island.

Cops say she first tried to board the plane last Thursday with three uncaged puppies and was turned away by airport workers. Her parents took two of the dogs and she returned on Friday with the remaining puppy, stowed in a carry-on bag.

She was denied boarding again, which is when she allegedly killed the Doberman puppy.

“On my arrival I learned a 3 week old puppy had been drowned in the toilet after a woman tried 3 times to get it on the plane,” the officer summoned to the scene reported.

The suspect was arrested after police spoke with her and “numerous witnesses” came forward, including the person who found the dog in the bathroom.

“The puppy was taken to the Humane Society and autopsied. It was found to have water in one of its lungs,” police said.

Please, people. Please, for the love of living things, don’t do this. Time for a cry break.

Cops: Woman Drowned Puppy In Airport Toilet After Not Being Allowed To Board Plane With Animal [The Smoking Gun]

WASHINGTON — Say goodbye to that puppy in the window: Montgomery County is considering a ban on selling puppies and kittens at retail stores.

A public hearing is scheduled for Tuesday night.

Montgomery County Council President George Leventhal says the bill is among the most popular he’s ever worked on.

Leventhal says the Humane Society of the United States requested the bill, and he says it struck him as a sound idea.

“There’s a concern about inhumane treatment of animals,” Leventhal said.

The language in the bill refers to “certain animals” but targets the sale of puppies, dogs and cats.

It would not affect independent dog and cat breeders who do not sell to retailers, Leventhal said. The bill only applies to selling animals in a retail setting.

Under the bill, “You cannot procure puppies from breeders outside the state and sell live puppies that come from breeders.” Rescue animals could be offered for adoption or sale at pet stores, but not those produced by breeders. The bill is aimed at so-called “puppy mills” — breeding operations that produce litters on a mass scale for sale in retail outlets.

Leventhal says only one retailer sells puppies in Montgomery County, and it’s in Rockville, Maryland. So if the bill is enacted it would not automatically apply to the Rockville retailer. Leventhal says he’s been in contact with Rockville Councilmember Julie Palakovich-Carr about making Rockville law consistent with the Montgomery County law if the bill is passed.

The only retailer that sells puppies in Montgomery County is Just Puppies in the Twinbrook Shopping Center. Just Puppies owns two outlets, one in Rockville and one in Towson, in Baltimore County. WTOP contacted the shop for comment. Both are closed on Mondays.

Follow @WTOP on Twitter and WTOP on Facebook.

The post Ban on retail puppy, kitten sales considered in Montgomery Co. appeared first on WTOP.

WASHINGTON – In the days and weeks ahead, potholes will bloom on area roads as predictably as flowers in spring.  Driving into a pothole can cause a blown tire, a bent wheel rim or worse yet,  damage to the car’s suspension system.

Many motorists may be unaware that they can submit pothole damage claims to the government agency responsible for maintaining the road and thus obligated to fill the potholes.

“There is a process for filing a claim and drivers do have a right to file that claim,” says Jenni  McCord, public affairs officer for the Virginia Department of Transportation.

“Winter is conducive to potholes,” says David Buck, media relations manager for the Maryland State Highway Administration.

The rain and snow, changing temperatures and salt all contribute.

Damage from potholes on Virginia state roads are handled by VDOT’s customer service center, which can be reached at 1-800-367-7623 or online.

Damage claims in Maryland are filed with the Claims Department at the Maryland Treasurer’s Office.  The number 410-260-7684 or 888-942-0162.  The office can also be contacted online.

But if the pothole is not on a state road, the motorist would have to contact the individual county’s department of Public Works or Transportation.

Claims for pothole damage on D.C. streets are filed with the Office of Risk Management.

But there may be a faster and better way to get a care repaired or a tire replaced.

“They are governmental claims and they are very, very, very slow in being handled,” says Attorney David Tompkins of Bethesda-based Lewis and Tompkins PLC.

There’s another hurdle to getting the state, county or city to pay.  The claims will be thoroughly investigated.

“Potential factors that are considered are: had the pothole been previously reported; was VDOT aware of the pothole or was it already on our list to be filled; and did crews have enough time to fill the pothole?” McCord says.

Attorney Tompkins says to win the claim motorists have to show what the state, county or city did wrong.

“Most of the jurisdictions that I’ve dealt with have had a pretty dim view of whether you can prove that or not or whether you’re just somebody trying to get the county pay for your flat tire,” Tompkins says.

“Cars are already going to have some wear and tear on them as it is, it’s going to be a difficult proposition to prove that a flat tire came necessarily from a pothole,” Tompkins says.

Tompkins advises his clients whose vehicles have been damaged by potholes to file a claim with their own insurance company.

“They’ll have to pay their deductible, but they’ll get their car repaired faster so they can get back to getting to work and taking their kids to school without having to wait what could be months to get their car fixed,” Tompkins says.

“If you can show that the pothole damaged your tire and you go through your own insurance, your insurance carrier will go through a process of making that governmental claim for you to get their money back. If they do…you’ll get your deductible back from your insurance carrier.”

Follow @WTOP on Twitter and WTOP on Facebook.

 

The post Guide to government claims for pothole damage appeared first on WTOP.

Editor’s Note: The Local Woof is a column that’s sponsored and written by the staff of Woofs! Dog Training Center. Woofs! has full-service dog training, boarding, and daycare facilities, near Shirlington and Ballston.

Much like in humans, your dog will go through an adolescent phase and this period can be fraught with difficulty. Dogs will enter their adolescent period at around 6 months old, and exit between 18 months and 2 years of age. Smaller dogs tend to mature more quickly, larger dogs more slowly.

During this time you may feel like your dog has forgotten everything they learned in puppy class. You are not imagining it. There is physiological evidence that neural synapses are breaking and reforming at a very high rate. Previously attentive pups will start to ignore you and non-chewers will become destructive maniacs.

Fear not, this is normal. Most of what you will experience is a non-emergency and I find myself encouraging puppy owners to double down. Your progress may slow down and your dog’s attention span might shorten but they are still learning. As your dog becomes more independent they are going to push their boundaries and experiment with new things. Just like with human teenagers, it is really important that you remain present to guide your teenage pup into a well-behaved adulthood. Do not let them just figure it out on their own.

One behavior that is an adolescent emergency is if your previously friendly dog begins to show signs of aggression toward people or other dogs. While this is not uncommon, it is not a behavior your dog is just going to “grow out of.” Without intervention, this is likely to become worse and you can end up with a seriously aggressive dog. If your dog starts to growl, bark or lunge at people or other dogs contact your trainer as soon as possible.

Here are a couple of adolescence survival tips:

1. Take another class: This will help you to continue to work with your dog through their “teenage years.” It keeps the two of you connected and might allow your trainer to identify any serious problems before they get worse. This could be a great time for a low key class like tricks, or a sport like agility or nosework.
2. Hang onto that crate: Maintain your dog’s crate training well into adulthood. Continuing to crate your dog when you are not home or sleeping can help prevent problem behaviors like chewing or barking at the window from developing in the first place. It can also be a solution if these behaviors show up. If it’s been three months since your dog was crated, the solution may not be so easy.

The post Local Woof: Surviving Your Dog’s Adolescence appeared first on WTOP.

It will soon be more difficult for consumers who prefer the taste of British-made chocolate to get their sweet-tooth fix. A new deal between Hershey’s and Let’s Buy British Imports essentially puts a stop to the import of many iconic British chocolate brands from overseas.

The New York Times reports the two parties agreed to stop the import of all British-produced Cadbury chocolate, as well as KitKat bars, Toffee Crisps and Yorkie chocolate bars after Hershey’s claimed the products infringed on its trademarks and trade dress licensing.

(Once again, don’t worry about not having a Cadbury Creme Egg this Easter. Hershey’s has a license agreement to manufacture Cadbury’s chocolate in the U.S., albeit with a different recipe.)

Officials with Hershey’s say that L.B.B. and other groups were importing the products that were never intended for sale in the United States.

The issue doesn’t come down to the chocolate itself, as chocolate made in Britain has a distinctly different recipe.

For example, the Times reports, British chocolate has a higher fat content; the first ingredient listed on a British Cadbury’s Dairy Milk (plain milk chocolate) is milk. In an American-made Cadbury’s bar, the first ingredient is sugar.

Instead the decision to stop importing the goods from overseas rests on the products’ packaging. Toffee Crisps comes in an orange packaging and yellow-lined brown script, which Hershey’s says too closely resembled that of the Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups, while Yorkie bars could be considered an infringement on the York peppermint patty, the Times reports.

“It is important for Hershey to protect its trademark rights and to prevent consumers from being confused or misled when they see a product name or product package that is confusingly similar to a Hershey name or trade dress,” Jeff Beckman, a representative for Hershey’s tells the Times.

While you would often be hard-pressed to find a British-made chocolate bar in the aisle of your local supermarket, many small, independently owned speciality stores regularly stocked the items.

One British goods retailer tells the Times that the ban on importing the treats will likely put her out of business.

“Cadbury’s is about half of my business,” she says, “and more than that at Christmas. I don’t know how we’ll survive.”

After a Deal, British Chocolates Won’t Cross the Pond [The New York Times]

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WASHINGTON — Charlotte is a chocolate Lab mix who arrived at the Washington Animal Rescue League with her puppies. At just 1 year old, she’s almost a puppy herself … but without all the annoying behaviors.

Charlotte is very sweet and a bit timid with new people and in new environments. But it’s obvious that she wants human companionship. if you sit, talk sweetly, and scratch her neck, she’ll encourage your attention with a gentle swat of her paw or a canine kiss.

Charlotte is looking for a loving adult home with someone who will help build her self-confidence and shower her with the affection she deserves. Could that be you?

About WARL: Founded in 1914, the Washington Animal Rescue League is the oldest animal shelter in Washington D.C. Its mission includes rescuing, rehabilitating and finding homes for animals who have no where else to go. The League also supports animals through affordable veterinary care, community outreach and education. Learn more about the Washington Animal Rescue League at www.warl.org.

If you are thinking of adding a furry friend to your family, check out these other great shelters in the area.

 

Maryland

Humane Society of Charles County

(301) 645-8181

71 Industrial Park Dr. PO Box 1015 Waldorf, Md. 20604

Humane Society of Charles County offers a low cost spay/neuter program to the public. Please call or visit our website for more information. The shelter is also looking for more foster parents to help its animals.

Prince George’s County Humane Society
(301) 262-5625
P.O. Box 925 Bowie, Md. 20718

Prince George’s County Humane Society is also looking for foster parents. For more information, contact the organization.

PAW – Partnership for Animal Welfare
(301) 572-4729
P.O. Box 1074 Greenbelt, Md. 20768

Paws Animal Kingdom
(301) 920-2318
P.O. Box 11531 Takoma Park, Md. 20912

Montgomery County Humane Society
(240) 773-5960
14645 Rothgeb Dr. Rockville, Md. 20850

The Animal Welfare League of Montgomery County
(301) 740-2511
12 Park Ave. Gaithersburg, Md. 20877

D.C.

Washington Humane Society
(202) 576-6664
1201 New York Ave. NE 20002

ASAP – Alliance for Stray Animals and People
(202) 331-1330
P.O. Box 65438 Washington, D.C. 20035-5438

Metropolitan Guinea Pig Rescue
(202) 575-2210
Approved applicants may attend monthly adoption meets that are usually held at the house of a volunteer in either Northern Virginia or Southern Maryland.

Lucky Dog Animal Rescue
(202) 741-5428
Lucky Dog is a foster home organization and does not run a dedicated housing facility.

Northern Virginia

A Forever Home
(703) 961-8690
A Forever-Home is a non-profit dog rescue group that operates in the Northern Virginia/Washington Metropolitan area.

Lab Rescue of L.R.C.P.
(301) 299-6756
Lab Rescue of the LRCP is a volunteer driven, non-profit organization that rescues, fosters and places homeless, abused, and/or abandoned Labrador Retrievers.

FOHA – Friends of Homeless Animals
(703) 385-0224
All visitors must speak to a Friends representative prior to receiving directions to their shelter location.

SPCA of Northern Virginia
P.O. Box 100220 Arlington, Va. 22210-3220

Animal Welfare League of Alexandria
(703) 746-4774
4101 Eisenhower Ave. Alexandria, Va. 22304

Animal Welfare League of Arlington
(703) 931-9241
2650 S. Arlington Mill Dr. Arlington, Va.

Lost Dog and Cat Rescue Foundation
(703) 295-3647
P.O. Box 223953 Chantilly, Va. 20153

HART – Homeless Animal Rescue Team
(703) 691-HART
P.O. Box 7261 Fairfax Station, Va. 22039-7261

King Street Cats Rescue and Adoption
(703) 231-7199
25 Dove St. Alexandria, Va. 22314

Follow @WTOP and @WTOPliving on Twitter and WTOP on Facebook.

The post Pet of the Week: Charlotte appeared first on WTOP.

LOVINGSTON, Va. (AP) — A Nelson County man must pay more than $3,000 in fines following his guilty plea to keeping dead dogs and canine body parts on his property.

Animal control officers discovered the dead dogs and body parts at 60-year-old Bruce Pfeifer’s home in Afton in February 2011.

The News & Advance (http://bit.ly/1yULaxw ) reports that Pfeifer pleaded guilty last week in Nelson County General District Court to animal cruelty and failure to bury dead animals.

Judge Sam Eggleston III sentenced Pfeifer to a year in jail and suspended the time after four months served. Pfeifer received credit for time served.

Pfeifer’s wife, Robin Kitts Pfeifer, was convicted in 2011 on similar charges. She received a suspended sentence and was fined more than $1,000.

___

Information from: The News & Advance, http://www.newsadvance.com/

The post Va. man sentenced, fined for keeping dead dogs on property appeared first on WTOP.

This is a sponsored post by veterinarian Elizabeth Arguelles, owner of Just Cats Clinic at Lake Anne Plaza. She writes weekly on Reston Now.

It takes a lot people working behind the scenes to ensure that a patient’s visit to a veterinary clinic goes as smoothly and pleasantly as possible for both the cat and the owners. One of the key members of your cat’s healthcare team is your practice’s licensed veterinary technician.

Though the terms “licensed veterinary technician” and “veterinary assistant” are sometimes used interchangeably, there are definitive differences between the two positions.

For starters, though licensed vet techs sometimes do the jobs of veterinary assistants, the latter usually cannot do what the former does. No specific educational training or credentials are required for someone to become a veterinary assistant. Licensed veterinary technicians, on the other hand, must complete a two-year program at an American Veterinary Medical Association accredited college or technical school and hold a professional license that must be renewed annually. Licensed technicians are also required to complete a certain amount of continuing education as well.

So what is a veterinary assistant’s role in a clinic? Generally speaking, veterinary assistants tend to be the backbone of patient care in any veterinary practice. Some of their responsibilities include:

• Greet patients and taking patient history
• Patient care in hospital, boarding, and by following up with owners regarding how a patient is doing at home post procedure
•  Assisting the veterinarian or licensed vet tech by holding patients during examinations or the administration of oral or topical medications
• Venipunctures
• Taking blood pressures, temperatures, weights
• Client education and information
•  Providing limited postsurgical wound care, such as changing bandages or dressings
•  Cleaning and sterilizing exam rooms, operating rooms, labs or other parts of the clinic after each patient.

The functions of a licensed veterinary technician at a clinic include the duties of veterinary assistants, plus:

• Manage hospital flow and help train veterinary assistants
• Work as a nurse under the direct supervision of a veterinarian
•  Prepping patients for surgery by administering anesthesia
• Monitoring the cat’s vitals during surgical procedures
• Administering injections or giving oral/topical medications as directed by the veterinarian
• Filling prescriptions and dispensing the associated medications
• Performing cystocentesis – collection of sterile urine sample from the bladder
• Taking blood samples, performing urinalysis and identifying parasitic infestations
• Subgingival dental polishing and scaling under direction of veterinarian
• Place IV catheters
• Massage therapy and physical therapy for patients

Licensed technicians are a wealth of knowledge and a great asset to any healthcare team. At Just Cats Clinic, we are proud to have a full time licensed technician, and two students currently enrolled in a veterinary technician program!

The post A Who’s Who of Helpers at the Vet’s Office appeared first on WTOP.

Today we have to ask ourselves the important questions like, “is there such a thing as being too prepared?” If you happen to be the United Parcel Service and we’re talking about the 2014 holiday shipping season then you’d probably say yes.

Bloomberg reports that UPS is blaming the costly extra measures it took to ensure on-time delivery leading up to the 2014 holiday season for its lower than anticipated earnings and for a possible increase to shipping costs.

Coming off a disastrous 2013 holiday shipping season where many consumers’ gifts didn’t make it under the tree in time, UPS announced early last year that it would do things differently in 2014.

In all, the company hired 95,000 extra workers and spent nearly $675 million on improvements to software, driver aids temporary sorting facilities and extra staff.

Those added maneuvers – along with reasonably cooperative weather – paid off in a 98% on-time delivery rate for express packages, Consumerist reported earlier this month.

However, the company’s total volume package for most days between Dec. 1 (Cyber Monday) and December 22 (the peak shipping day before Christmas Eve) fell far below projections. That means, as Bloomberg reports, that much of the company’s new workers and trucks were left idling.

Officials with the company say the drop in productivity, coupled with the extra expenses for training and overtime resulted in UPS’s 2014 preliminary earnings falling far below expectations.

“UPS invested heavily to ensure we would provide excellent service during peak when deliveries more than double,” said David Abney, UPS chief executive officer. “Though customers enjoyed high quality service, it came at a cost to UPS. Going forward, we will reduce operating costs and implement new pricing strategies during peak season.”

Translation: We probably won’t hire as many seasonal workers and will likely charge more for holiday shipping next year.

UPS Prepared Too Well for Holiday Rush and Paid the Price [Bloomberg]

UPS slammed by a different holiday season mess-up [Fortune]

It’s the opening weekend of tax season! If you work an hourly or salaried job, the W-2 form summarizing how much you earned and how much tax you’ve paid is already in your mailbox or will be soon, since the deadline to mail them out is February 2nd. If you plan to use the Windows or Mac version of TurboTax, though, there’s something that you should know before you get started.

As soon as the 2014 version of TurboTax hit real-life and virtual shelves, customers noticed that something was different. There are different versions of the software for different audiences: Basic, Deluxe, Premier, and Home and Business. There are also versions for incorporated businesses and for tax preparers, but those the four consumer desktop software versions are the source of this conflict.

What Intuit did for tax year 2014 is change which services come with each tier, shifting some of the forms to the more expensive versions. They made the same changes to the pricing tiers on their Web-based service for 2013, so the change is not entirely unexpected.

The first rumblings came as soon as the software was released last year, and some true early birds got a head start on their returns. They noticed that something was missing: some pretty common forms that had always been part of TurboTax Deluxe. These included:

Schedule C (self-employment expenses and income)

Schedule D (capital gains and losses––stock sales)

Schedule E (supplemental income like royalties or rental income)

Schedule F (farm income)

Those are forms that most people don’t file. For people who do file them, though, those forms are an essential part of their tax return. When TurboTax customers discovered that forms they expected to have as part of the TurboTax “interview” interface weren’t there, the 1099-MISC hit the fan.

While some can be filled out in “forms mode,” that defeats the point of using a program like TurboTax. If people wanted to fill out forms, they would download PDFs from the IRS web site.

Here’s a screen grab of the in-program upsell from Mouse Print’s Edwin Dworsky:

We contacted Intuit about this situation, and in their explanations to the media of this change, they emphasize two points. First, they say, most customers don’t use the desktop version of the software anymore. That might have been the case in 1991, but most of their customers now fill out their taxes on the Web or use a mobile app. According to the company, only 20% of their customers now purchase and use the desktop versions.

An Intuit representative told Consumerist that the basic versions of the software (the ones that mostly compete with the IRS’s free e-filing program) are cheaper than in previous years, and that customers who pay for the upgrade will find it super easy to file. “We recognize change isn’t always welcome,” she explained. But we think believe our customers will find that if they do need to use a different product this year, they’ll be truly delighted with the extra guidance, additional insights into deductions and credits for which they may qualify and the increased confidence from knowing they left nothing on the table.”

It’s true that the upgraded versions offer access to TurboTax support staff, which you may or may not need, but encountering an upsell in the middle of typing in their information. Angry customers are fighting back in the way people do in 2015: well, they’re also burning up the TurboTax brand Facebook page, but there’s a campaign of negative Amazon reviews meant to attract the attention of potential buyers before they spend $40 on the Deluxe version.

Intuit is taking this campaign very seriously. TurboTax representatives, including the brand’s vice-president, have stepped in on Amazon to comment on some of the poor reviews.

One reviewer who says that he has used TurboTax since 1995 explains why he thinks it’s time to move on:

I have no interest at all in experimenting with the various “flavors” of TurboTax to make sure I’m buying the right one. I have a couple of shares of stock purchased from “OneShare.com” that were given to me as gag gifts that occasionally report dividend income. Will “Deluxe” handle this? I’m selling a home for which I may or may not need to report capital gains income. Will this require a $30 upgrade? I have no idea, and I’m not interested in taking a chance and finding out I was wrong the hard way.

I’m off to a competitor, most likely H&R Block, because it’s cheaper, and quite clear what it will allow me to do. Farewell, old friend TurboTax. It was great while it lasted, but it’s time to move on.

Another customer explained the options for people who need to file a full Schedule C or who put anything on Schedule D.

I hate what Intuit has done with Turbotax. I especially hate the disingenuous comment added by the Turbotax VP. Sure, you can manually file the Schedule D, but what the heck did I pay for? The Deluxe version clearly says you can file your Fed return electronically–except the actual software says you can’t.

So, the real answer is if you need to file Schedule D you’ll have to pay $30 more as stated in other comments. Alternatively, you can do what I did–which was uninstalled the software, submitted a request for a refund (6-8 weeks!), and started using other software….after using Turbotax for over 20 years. Good job Intuit–you just lost another loyal customer–for life.

Intuit has offered $25 rebates to returning TurboTax customers who bought the wrong product. Competitor H&R Block has also joined the party. They sell tax preparation software in addition to preparation services, and are offering free copies of their program to disgruntled TurboTax customers.

Intuit finally sent an e-mail to customers today along with that $25 rebate offer, apologizing for the confusion and explaining why the company thought that this was a good idea. That $25 doesn’t cover the entire upgrade fee, but at least the letter apologizes in plain language rather than corporatese.

We messed up. We made a change this year to TurboTax desktop software and we didn’t do enough to communicate this change to you as proactively and broadly as we could or should have. I am very sorry for the anger and frustration we may have caused you.

Intuit has a long history of doing right by our customers, and in this instance, we did not live up to the standards of excellence you have come to expect from us. We did not handle this change in a manner that respected our loyal customers and we owe you an explanation of what we are doing to make it right.

The letter concludes:

I deeply regret the anger and distress we have caused those of you affected by this change. Our customers are the heartbeat of every TurboTax employee. Our hope is that we can regain your trust and demonstrate that our commitment to you has never been stronger.

It’s important to step back and look at the big picture, too. Intuit has spent millions of dollars ($2.8 million in 2014) lobbying the federal government to make sure that American taxpayers still have to file tax returns, and even running fake grassroots campaigns against proposals, even though for most people the IRS could simply pre-populate the form with the information they have and cut us a refund check or send us a bill. The state of California already does this for state income tax returns, and other countries, including Denmark, Sweden, and Spain, do this. People would be welcome to do their own math and file a return, but they wouldn’t have to.

In its ads and sales materials, TurboTax brands itself as an “interview,” like dealing with a tax preparer but without the human interaction. Intuit doesn’t want the federal government to make filing our tax returns easier, because they want us to buy TurboTax to make filing taxes easier for us.

Dale City, Lake Ridge, Manassas rank as Virginia's 'most boring' places to live PotomacLocal.com We often think of our homes as a respite from work and the outside world. Many of us make long commutes between home and our jobs to so we can enjoy better schools for our children, better shopping, and an overall better quality of life on the weekends.

We all know that copyright law means you shouldn’t download copies of movies from shady torrent sites, and that you should pay for the music you listen to. We know it means people and companies have rights to stuff they make, like photos and music and books, and that there are legal and illegal ways of sharing those things.

But what most of us don’t really think about is how broad the net of copyright law really is.

Nominally, copyright protects content creators. If you write a book, or sing a song, or take a photograph, you have the right to control distribution of — to make money from — your original work. And, for a period of time, you are the only one with that right. If you take a picture, I can’t then print a copy and sell it for money without your explicit permission, because you have the right to the income from your own hard work. That much makes sense: legally and ethically, it’s yours.

That’s how it works in theory, anyway. Realistically, here in 2015, copyright law is a far cry from the original question of who has the right to copy a work. Now, copyright law is so much bigger.

The tendrils of copyright law reach worldwide into almost everything we consume, do, and are in the digital era. The rules and regulations about how the internet works, what privacy rights you have, and how the entire digital economy functions all spring from copyright. It’s everything from why a bar can’t buy a really big-screen TV to why you don’t actually own any of the media you pay for.

If you ever use a computer, or read, watch, look at, use, or listen to any piece of media or software created since printing or recording were invented, copyright law affects you.

Writer Cory Doctorow, probably best known for his work with tech and culture site Boing Boing, is a copyright expert. He’s joined a special project with the EFF to advocate for easing the burdens of DRM on consumers and content creators. And late last year he published a book, Information Doesn’t Want to Be Free, explaining the impact of copyright law on pretty much everyone in clear, plain English.

Doctorow’s book is a readable, concise look at the breadth and scope of copyright law in the modern age. Here are four key takeaways we should all keep in mind.

At this point, DRM and software go hand in hand. Everything comes with some kind of anti-sharing, anti-piracy, anti-copying, anti-any-unauthorized-use key built in.

The first digital battleground was music. After the Napster era dawned and crashed at the turn of the century, Apple’s iTunes and iPod launched an era of device-locked music. Now, the music industry has largely backed away from DRM (both iTunes and Amazon sell DRM-free tracks and albums), in favor of streaming services — but everything else is locked by platform.

But, Doctorow points out: all digital locks break. Every one can be broken, and is, usually quickly. From DRM on Kindle books to tech that supposedly locks down features on a blu-ray disc — any piece of code ends up with a cracked version all over the internet within, usually, minutes.

And that leads to…

The companies that make and sell digital locks want to know if you’re breaking theirs. They really want to know.

In one chapter of his book, Doctorow discusses the attempt of content-rights-owning companies to scrape YouTube to find, and have removed, any instance of their work. Any publicly listed video shows up, but videos flagged “private” do not.

Viacom sued Google over this, claiming that YouTube was complicit in every one of its users acts of copyright violation because it allowed videos to be marked as private. Viacom argued that they should have access to everything everyone puts on YouTube just in case any of it should be copyrighted material.

“Under Viacom’s legal theory — which was supported in amicus briefs filed by organizations representing all the major studios, broadcasters, publishers, and record labels — companies should allow the giant entertainment corporations to access all of our private files to make sure we’re not storing something copyrighted under cover,” Doctorow explains, then continues:

This is beyond dumb. It’s felony stupidity. It’s like requiring everyone to open up their kids’ birthday parties to enforcers from Warner Music, to ensure that no royalty-free performances of “Happy Birthday” are taking place. It’s like putting mandatory webcams into every big screen TV, to ensure they’re not being used to run a bootleg cinema. It’s like a law giving the big five publishers keys to every office in the land, to ensure that no one is photocopying books on the sly.

And the flip side of privacy is…

Everything is (or is becoming) a computer. Your phone, your tablet, your actual computer. Your car. Your television. Your printer. Your refrigerator, your lightbulbs, your washing machine. Your pacemaker. Your insulin pump. Traffic signs. Traffic lights. Airplanes.

The “smarter” and more network-connected everything gets, the more vital security is. It’s one thing if someone messes with a network-connected printer; it’s entirely another if they can remotely cut your brakes.

But privacy locks can weaken security, because “security” means different things to media companies and to consumers.

When digital locks get broken, the companies that install them want to be able to patch them, and keep them up to date, and make them temporarily not-broken again. But that means that companies want — and get — access to your stuff any time it connects to the internet, whether you want it to or not.

As Doctorow puts it: “Digital locks can’t work without renewability. You can’t ‘protect’ devices from their owners unless you can update them without their owners’ knowledge or consent.”

But then that makes the legal software as good as malware. “Renewability for digital locks means that you can’t be allowed to know what’s running on your computers,” he continues. “And that means you can’t decide what’s running on them. … The endgame for renewability must be that all computers are built with this facility in mind.”

“Imagine what it will mean when the person operating a car, or carrying around an implanted device, can’t know or control what’s running on that computer — but third parties can.”

Which means…

Doctorow draws two bright lines connecting copyright law to other major issues: government surveillance, as shared by Edward Snowden; censorship by private companies; and the necessity of free expression to civil and human rights.

Copyright claims are often used as a silencing tactic, where a party with power issues a takedown claim to get content from a party with less power removed from the internet.

For example, Doctorow cites copyright takedown notices issued by police departments demanding to have videos of their officers committing illegal acts taken down on the grounds that the police, not the person with an iPhone who recorded them, have copyright on the videos. Or takedown notices issued by the Church of Scientology to have removed articles from opponents who used leaked internal documents to criticize the organization.

“There are almost never penalties for abusing the takedown process,” Doctorow notes. “It’s the measure of first resort for rich and powerful people and companies who are threatened by online disclosures of corruption and misdeeds.”

Likewise, intermediary companies become gatekeepers of what end users may and may not consume — because they don’t want to get sued. So they fall into the “notice and takedown” scheme, and pass it all along to you. And that includes possibly having your entire broadband connection throttled or hijacked if a copyright holder doesn’t like what a user of that connection has been doing.

Because they have the right, and the ability, to keep an eye on you if you’re anywhere in the ecosystem: using a computer, phone, or internet connection that you didn’t build out of string yourself.

A week ago, Target made the surprising announcement that it is closing its Canadian division. Meanwhile, things aren’t bad in the Canadian retail sector for all discounters from across the border: competing American invader Walmart announced that it’s opening eleven new Supercenters Supercentres in eight different provinces by the end of January 2015.

Some of the new Supercentres are entirely new stores. Others are existing Walmart stores that have been expanded to fit a grocery section, or moved down the street to a bigger building That gives Walmart Canada a total of 280 Supercentres and 114 regular Walmarts.

Maybe we need to redefine “regular Walmart,” since the majority of the chain’s stores are now Here in the US, if you’re curious, the company says that they have 3,401 Supercenters and 471 stores that are only discount stores. In fact, Walmart now has more Neighborhood Markets than traditional discount stores now, with 487 of those. (Neighborhood Markets are the company’s brand that is just a supermarket.)

Walmart Confirms Opening of 11 Supercentres across Canada in January 2015 [CNW]

ormaldehyde may be good for preserving dead bodies, but as a known carcinogen, it’s not really something you want to put into a living body. But when users of e-cigarettes — many of whom ditched smoking because of cancer-causing chemicals like formaldehyde — enjoy their tasty vapor, they may be getting more formaldehyde than they would from smoking a cigarette.

This is according to a new study published as a letter to the editor in the New England Journal of Medicine.

Researchers used a “tank system” e-cigarette with a variable-voltage battery to test the levels of formaldehyde-releasing chemicals produced while vaping.

According to their research, the presence of these chemicals was low or undetected under low-voltage (3.3V) conditions. But when cranked up to high-voltage (5.0V), the tested vapor contained a level of formaldehyde-releasing agents much higher than the formaldehyde you’d get from a cigarette; between 5 to 15 times the amount.

The researchers, who plan to continue their testing beyond this initial study, tell the AP that because most liquids used in e-cigs are made from similar materials, the issue of formaldehyde production “is not brand-dependent.”

The American Vaping Association — protecting all your vaping rights — takes issue with the study, alleging that real e-cig users don’t use high-voltage settings for as long as it would take to produce the results in the study. A lawyer for the group likens it to someone leaving a steak on a grill all day; it would produce carcinogens but no one actually eats like that.

While the study may give e-cig users pause about vaping, the study isn’t conclusive and doesn’t make any claims about the effects of the formaldehyde-releasing agents.

And indeed, formaldehyde is just one of many toxins found in cigarette smoke, so this news hopefully won’t have anyone running back to tobacco.

“No one should conclude from this that e-cigarettes used at high voltage are worse than combustible tobacco cigarettes,” a biologist with the American Cancer Society tells the AP.

A recent Pizza Hut ad that you’ve probably seen on TV features the chain purportedly bringing some of its new crusts and toppings to a small town in Italy, where old people hated everything. While pizza crust stuffed with Vegemite/Marmite isn’t new in Australia and New Zealand, this ad bragging about how much foreigners hate it is new.

The test subjects are supposedly young foreigners staying in a backpackers’ hostel. That makes sense, since international travelers staying in a hotel are a population of adventurous people who will be interested in free food. While enthusiastic at first, the backpackers found the pizza revolting.

Of course, not everyone in the countries where Marmite and Vegemite are traditionally served enjoys the yeasty spread, so there are plenty of Australians who would never order this. Some people enjoy it in small quantities, not the gobs of it that The Hut shows being slathered alongside the mozzarella in this crust.

Wonderful Pizza Hut Ad Shows People Being Totally Disgusted by Its New Pizza [AdWeek]

When a restaurant located inside a prison and staffed entirely by inmates can nab the title of best in town, there should be no excuses for other eateries to step up their game. Almost 1,000 restaurants in Cardiff, Wales have their work cut out for them to catch up with the city’s top-ranked dining spot after patrons voted it the best food in town.

Diners voting on TripAdvisor ranked The Clink Restaurant at HMP Cardiff No. 1 out of 946 restaurants in the Welsh capital, reports the South Wales Evening Post.

Prison inmates work as the chefs, cooks, servers and every other job a restaurant has and are paid about $21 per 40-hour work week, and their hard work isn’t going unnoticed by diners.

“The standard set by everyone at this venue would be hard to match in any other restaurant we have been to in recent times,” read one review.

“The waiters were great with perfect service – better than we have had in some starred restaurants – and also attentive to your needs,” read another, with a five-star rating.

The restaurant serves breakfast and lunch to the public and employs 30 inmates, who are training to get catering qualifications that will allow them to have the job skills to seek employment in other restaurants once they leave prison.

“The whole team is delighted to have made it to the top spot on TripAdvisor, and to be ranked so highly against almost 1,000 restaurants in the city is a huge achievement for us,” the general manager told the Post.

“The recognition we have received from so many of our diners for the atmosphere we’ve created, the effort we put into sourcing our ingredients, the high standard of front of house service offered by the waiters and the skill our menus is incredible. A big thank you to everyone who has left such kind comments on our page, we’ll continue to impress our customers and hope we can stay at pole position for the foreseeable future.”

Prison restaurant run by criminals named the best in Cardiff [South Wales Evening Post]

A new federal lawsuit filed against McDonald’s and a franchisee for the eatery alleges that more than a dozen black employees were fired simultaneously because they supposedly did not fit into the color palette desired by their employer.

The complaint [PDF], filed this morning in a U.S. District Court in Virginia by 10 former McDonald’s workers, claims that the plaintiffs — all members of minority ethnic groups — “were subjected to rampant racial and sexual harassment” from senior members of staff.

Among the statements allegedly made by supervisors: that “there are too many black people in the store,” the use of terms like “bitch,” “ghetto,” and “ratchet” to describe African-American employees, and the labeling of an Hispanic worker as a “dirty Mexican.”

The suit also claims that the plaintiffs were penalized for rule infractions while white employees were not.

In terms of sexual harassment, the plaintiffs say that managers “inappropriately touched female employees on their legs and buttocks; sent female employees sexual pictures; and solicited sexual relations from female employees.”

The allegations all involve McDonald’s restaurants in the Virginia towns of South Boston and Clarksville, all owned by the same franchisee.

According to the complaint, that franchisee took over the restaurants in late 2013, and at the time, most of the employees were African-American.

Plaintiffs say that the new owner then “implemented a plan to reduce the number of African-American employees and hire more white employees,” allegedly telling workers that “the ratio was off in each of the stores,” and that he wanted “the ratio to be equal.”

Supervisors from the franchisee were less polite, according to the complaint, supposedly telling employees that it was “too dark” at these McDonald’s and that there was a “need to get the ghetto out of the store.”

One of the more startling allegations claims that one supervisor told another, “now we can get rid of the ni**ers and the Mexicans.”

In March 2014, say the plaintiffs, the franchisee hired a large number of white workers. On a single day in mid-May of that year, 15 black employees — including nine of the plaintiffs — were dismissed.

Plaintiffs claim they asked for an explanation for why they were being fired. According to the complaint, they were told they were good workers but they “didn’t fit the profile” desired by ownership.

“Following the training instructions given by McDonald’s Corporate, several of the plaintiffs called McDonald’s Corporate to complain about their terminations and the blatant racial discrimination,” reads the lawsuit. “McDonald’s Corporate, however, did nothing.”

“We asked McDonald’s corporate to help us get our jobs back, but the company told us to take our concerns to the franchisee – the same franchisee that just fired us,” one plaintiff says in a statement about the lawsuit. “McDonald’s closely monitors everything we do, from the speed of the drive-through line, to the way we smile and fold customers’ bags – but when we try to tell the company that we’re facing discrimination, they ignore us and say that it’s not their problem.”

Consumerist reached out to McDonald’s for comment on the suit. And even though we forwarded a copy of the complaint along with our request, a rep for the company said, “We have not seen the lawsuit, and cannot comment on its allegations, but will review the matter carefully.”

“McDonald’s has a long-standing history of embracing the diversity of employees, independent Franchisees, customers and suppliers, and discrimination is completely inconsistent with our values,” continues the statement from the fast food company. “McDonald’s and our independent owner-operators share a commitment to the well-being and fair treatment of all people who work in McDonald’s restaurants.”

Flavor packets and crunchy noodles make a poor substitute for road salt, so it’s good that there isn’t ice on the highways of North Carolina right now. A tractor-trailer filled with cases of ramen noodles went off the road on I-95 southbound, spilling cases of noodles on the road and blocking traffic for hours.

The driver says that he was sleepy, but was pushing to get to the nearest truck stop. “I thought I could make it down to the truck stops in Kenly, and I didn’t quite make it,” he told local TV station WTVD. “I kind of drowsed off, and next thing I knew I had taken out the guard rail.” It was good that the guardrail was there, but the truck crashed and the trailer spilled cases of noodle packets on the highway.

Unlike some recent crashes we’ve highlighted where food from big rig crashes ended up at local shelters, the packets and cups of noodles were found to be contaminated with diesel fuel. Maybe a food with more nutritional or monetary value would have been salvaged and some of the packets washed off, but ramen isn’t worth the effort, we suppose.

The driver was unhurt, but the truck was badly damaged, as was the trailer. The noodles were hauled to a nearby landfill.

RAMEN NOODLE TRUCK CRASH BLOCKS I-95 [WTVD]

In the latest baby trend to sweep the news, another woman has given birth on an airplane: A woman delivered a premature but healthy baby girl on a Royal Jordanian Airlines flight while flying over the Atlantic Ocean to New York from Amman.

Luckily for the 33-year-old Jordanian woman, who officials believe was traveling alone, there was a nurse and a doctor onboard to help her when she went into labor four hours before landing, reports the AFP.

The mile-high baby arrived at around 5:30 p.m. New York time on Tuesday, airline officials said, with the plane continuing on instead of making an emergency landing in Canada after the captain was told everything was fine with the birth.

“The delivery was fast and easy, helped by an anaesthesiologist and a legal nurse who happened to be on board, and in cooperation with the crew members,” the airline said in a statement. “Mother and child were in good health and there was no need to divert the plane.”

The woman had been 31 weeks pregnant, which falls within the range the airline allows for pregnant women to fly (up to 36 weeks, 32 weeks for twins).

“The mother expressed gratitude for the great help she received from the physician, the nurse and the flight attendants, and thanked the RJ staff at (John F Kennedy International Airport),” Royal Jordanian said.

Jordanian woman gives birth over Atlantic [AFP]

Fairfax City funeral home loses Army colonel's body (but later finds it) Washington Post After retired Army Col. Joseph “Mal” Chapman of Fairfax died in November 2013, his family arranged for a viewing and funeral service the following week, with burial in Arlington National Cemetery. But when the family arrived for the viewing at Everly ...

WASHINGTON – Today his steady, resonant voice is synonymous with political reporting for Washington listeners, but 50 years ago this week Dave McConnell made his debut on WTOP Radio.

On Jan. 18, 1965, “I Dream of Jeannie” was on TV; “The Sound of Music” was in theaters, and The Beatles’ “I Feel Fine” topped the charts. It was also the day McConnell started reporting for what was then 1500 AM.

McConnell is celebrating five decades reporting for Washington’s Top News, most of it spent as the Capitol Hill correspondent, where he remains the lone full-time Congressional correspondent for a local radio station in the United States.

His constant, dogged reporting on the Hill has made him an institution.

He has covered 12 presidential elections, five inaugurations and countless changes in party momentum. He taps his vast knowledge of Congress and its history to help explain to listeners why a vote, a speech or even inaction matters.

Despite all the challenges of covering such a competitive beat, the political theater, the accolades and technological advancements (you can follow him on Twitter @McConnellWTOP), McConnell has no plans to hang up his microphone. He has never breathed the word “retirement.”

“I honestly cannot imagine WTOP without Dave. Honestly,” says recently retired Rep. Frank Wolf, R-Virginia. “You ought to sign him up for another 50 years, or at least another five or 10 if you can.”

His golden sound

Part of McConnell’s staying power comes from the way he speaks.

“That voice. He’s absolutely meant for radio,” says Rep. Gerry Connolly, D-Virginia. “He has a voice that is authoritative and commanding but at the same time reassuring and just resonant. And I think everyone expects to hear it at least once or twice a day on their commutes to Washington.”

His lasting legacy

Rep. Steny Hoyer, D-Maryland, and McConnell met early in their careers in the 1960s, when Hoyer was serving in the Maryland statehouse and McConnell was a rookie reporter.

“Dave McConnell is really, I think, one of the most decent and good journalists that I’ve known in my career,” Hoyer says.

Five years ago, Hoyer embarrassed his friend by recognizing the veteran reporter’s years of service covering Congress on the House floor.

Upon learning of McConnell’s career milestone, other lawmakers echoed Hoyer’s sentiment, remarking how much they appreciate his non-partisan, unbiased reporting.

“Some reporters, you know, you need to be on guard. Not so with Dave. Dave wants to understand what you’re saying, why you’re saying it. He’s interested in reporting the news as it is,” says former Rep. Jim Moran, D-Virginia, who recently retired from Congress.

Since 1981, McConnell has covered what he calls “the world’s greatest deliberative body.” But he learned the ins and outs of the Capitol long before he held a microphone.

“It’s part of WTOP lore that Dave McConnell, while other kids were skipping school to go catch a baseball game and see the Senators, he was sneaking into the Capitol to hear the actual senators debate,” says WTOP Senior News Director Mike McMearty.

His fair and trusted reporting

He started out covering daily news here in his hometown, and it wasn’t long before McConnell found himself at the anchor desk.

His anchoring and reporting were featured in this 1967 video “Getting the News”:

McConnell now reports live each weekday, just steps from the House floor in his hourly “Today on the Hill” segments.

“He is one of the most reliable people that I’ve ever worked with,” says Judy Taub … at the editor’s desk.

“If something is breaking on or near the Hill, he will get there in no time at all. He will be on the phone with me, probably reporting as he’s running down the steps, and will come through for us,” Taub says.

During his tenure at WTOP, McConnell has covered breaking news not only on the Hill but around the rest of D.C.

WTOP veteran traffic reporter Bob Marbourg recalls McConnell’s reporting during the 1982 crash of an Air Florida jet over the 14th Street Bridge.

“I heard him on the two-way: ‘I’m stuck in traffic. I’m not moving.’ I said, ‘Dave, make a sharp right turn and park in a snow drift. You’re going to have to walk.’ And Dave McConnell did — on foot, dressed for Capitol Hill — walk to the 14th Street Bridge and filed some of the very first reports on the Air Florida crash on the handheld radio,” Marbourg says.

McConnell was there when the Capitol shut down on Sept. 11, 2001; when President Ronald Reagan was shot; during the 1998 Capitol shootings; through the inauguration of five presidents, through war and peace. He has covered it all.

“I mean, you had the impeachment thing; you had the Iraq War, even the bank scandal. He should really write a book about all those contentious issues that he had to face calmly and try to be honest in his deliberations,” says former Rep. Connie Morella, R-Maryland.

In 2013, he was honored with a Career Achievement Award by the Radio and Television Correspondents’ Association. He has also received the AIR Lifetime Achievement Award (2001), the Society of Professional Journalists Hall of Fame Award (1999) and various AP Broadcast Journalism awards.

“I don’t think Dave has any idea how many people he has touched, how many people that he’s informed, what a difference he has made in terms of reporting everything that happened of consequence over the last half-century,” Moran says.

Follow @WTOP on Twitter and WTOP on Facebook.

The post A golden voice with a sterling reputation: WTOP’s Dave McConnell celebrates 50 years appeared first on WTOP.