pileofcrapola

We've shown you how to make a hanging garden with a shoe organizer , but Matthew Budram's design takes hanging gardens to the next level. This setup has a hydroponic watering system.

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Tired of never finding the perfect backpack for you? I was, and so I decided to create my own custom backpack from scratch. It took some thoughtful design and hard work, but now I have a bag literally tailored to my needs.

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It's summer time, and that means we're all a bit more likely to end up with some random cuts while we're playing outside in the sun. Not all of those cuts need stitches though. The Wall Street Journal breaks down when you'll need them.

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Being in a relationship necessarily means that you're going to share some of your digital life with your partner. How much is too much? Do you prefer no boundaries at all, or do you keep your partner at arm's length?

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You probably already know that your car insurance premiums can be significantly higher if you have no or poor credit. WalletHub conducted a study by state and insurance carrier to find out just how much your credit can affect your insurance rate.

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You spend a lot of time in very close contact with your mattress, and it's important to keep it clean. As you can't just throw it in the washing machine, you need to gets hands on, and Katie Berry has a few tips to help get your mattress looking like new again.

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While the relationship between Mother Nature and the Human World might be getting a bit too cozy, turning wild animals into bargoers and birthday bashers, which while adorable, is not good for either party involved, it’s still pretty adorable to imagine a bear cub with a cookie jar stuck on its head getting a big rescue.

When someone leaves animal crackers around, wild animals are going to want a taste, which is what happened to a 6-month-old black bear cub emulating Winnie Pooh. He went for a discarded oversized cookie jar in the absence of honey, reports NorthJersey.com.

After he got his head properly stuck in the plastic bin, the little guy wedged himself in a tree, proving to be quite a challenge for rescuers. They climbed 40 feet up into the tree to rescue him and give him a large dose of fluids after his dehydrating ordeal.

“It was an oversized animal cracker jar. We suspect he got it from a neighbor’s trash container. We did find trash on the ground,” said a spokesman for the state Department of Environmental Protection.

“He was trying to eat what remained in the jar and pulled the jar over his head,” he added. “He got spooked and went up into the tree.”

Various fire departments were also onhand with two of the DEP staff, all coming together to save our hero from what could’ve been an awful outcome.

Rescuers set up netting in case the bear fell, and then tranquilized him so they could cut the jar off his head.

He’s now in safe hands and is expected to be just fine. Here he is taking a nice, cool dunk after his ordeal:

Now’s a good time to remind you all: Take care of your trash if you live in an area with foraging wildlife, animal-proofing trashcans and not leaving bins out overnight unprotected, the DEP says.

Bear cub rescued after head gets stuck in cookie jar in Ringwood [NorthJersey.com]

Kroger Co., the largest supermarket operator in the United States, plans to expand its online grocery offerings now that it has made the move to purchase Vitacost.com.

The deal, valued at $280 million, would give Cincinnati-based Kroger a jumpstart in entering new markets and new channels, Reuters reports.

Boca Raton-based Vitacost.com is an online grocery and nutrition products retailer dedicated to selling vitamins, herbs, supplements, sports nutrition and beauty care products. The company currently has about 2.3 million active customers.

The deal marks the second significant change for Kroger this year. The company completed the purchase of North Carolina-based Harris Teeter Supermarkets for $2.4 billion in January.

That acquisition added more than 200 supermarkets to Kroger’s network.

Kroger to buy online retailer Vitacost.com for $280 mln [Reuters]

A San Francisco 49ers linebacker reportedly won’t face charges for allegedly making a false bomb threat at Los Angeles International Airport earlier this year.

According to a report by USA Today, Aldon Smith will not face charges stemming from his arrest in April, instead he will face a City Attorney Office hearing on July 30 to discuss the matter.

While prosecutors reserves the right to file charges for up to one year after the incident, officials with the office say no further action is planned.

Officials explain to USA Today that a City Attorney Office hearing is administered “in lieu of a criminal filing… Involved parties are scheduled to attend and give their account of the incident. The individuals are then admonished about the applicable laws and given suggestions on how to avoid similar incidents in the future.”

While that legal situation appears to be winding down, Smith still faces sentencing for weapons and DUI charges from unrelated incidents.

USA Today reports Smith is likely to be suspended by the NFL for the start of the upcoming season.

49ers’ LB Aldon Smith won’t face charges for LAX bomb threat [USA Today]

T-Mobile, a company that has tried to position itself as being consumer-friendly, has been accused by federal regulators of being anything but friendly. The self-described “Un-carrier” has been accused in federal court of making hundreds of millions of dollars off of so-called “premium” text-messaging subscriptions that were often never requested by subscribers.

According to the complaint [PDF] filed by the Federal Trade Commission in a U.S. District Court in Seattle, T-Mobile allowed third parties to participate in what’s known as “bill cramming,” the placing of often-questionable charges for premium services on a phone customers’ bill.

The FTC alleges that T-Mobile received anywhere from 35-40% of the total amount charged to consumers for subscriptions (mostly $9.99/month) for things like “flirting tips, horoscope information or celebrity gossip.”

Making matters worse, the government claims that T-Mobile sometimes continued to bill customers for these services even after being made aware that they were being operated by scammers.

The FTC says that the demand for refunds on these charges were high, with sometimes as many as 40% of affected users requesting refunds for the charges. If that wasn’t enough of an indicator that the charges were fake, then the FTC says that industry auditor alerts, law enforcement actions, and news articles should have been a sign to stop collecting these for the scam artists.

Another thing that makes the cramming all the more serious is T-Mobile’s large numbers of prepaid customers who don’t receive bills for their monthly service but who were nonetheless being charged for these unwanted services.

“When an unauthorized charge for $9.99 has been charged to these consumers’ accounts, [T-Mobile] has deducted $9.99 worth of minutes from their available balance,” reads the complaint, saying that the phone company “typically has provided no notice to the consumer of the charge.”

Those who receive paper bills were likely just as unaware of the charges, given that some wireless bills can be 50 pages or longer. As seen in the example above, all that’s listed in the summary at the front of the bill is a $9.95 “usage charge.”

Even if you find the charge details buried deep in the T-Mobile bill, it would often be listed with a nonsensical abbreviation like “8888906150BrnStorm23918,” that gives no indication that it’s a horoscope messaging service or some other scam that the user never signed up for.

The FTC says that T-Mobile received indications of a probably as early as 2012 but continued allowing some of these charges at least through the end of 2013.

Some consumers who complained were not given full refunds by T-Mobile, even though they had never authorized these subscription charges, according to the complaint, which states that some subscribers were only offered partial refunds of two months’ worth of the charges, while other customers were told to go after the scammers if they wanted full refunds. Of course, T-Mobile failed to provide adequate contact information for these scammers.

The FTC’s complaint seeks a court order to permanently prevent T-Mobile from engaging in mobile cramming and to obtain refunds for consumers and disgorgement of T-Mobile’s ill-gotten gains.

In a call with reporters to discuss the complaint, the FTC said that it tried to reach a deal with T-Mobile before filing with the court.

“We did engage in settlement negotiations with T-Mobile, but were not able to reach a settlement, so we’ll be proceeding in court,” explained Jessica Rich, Director of the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection, who advised that all consumers should read their bills closely and quickly contact any carrier when they see unauthorized charges. Additionally, consumers should consider requesting to block all third-party charges from their wireless contracts.

“It’s wrong for a company like T-Mobile to profit from scams against its customers when there were clear warning signs the charges it was imposing were fraudulent,” said FTC Chairwoman Edith Ramirez.

Sen. Jay Rockefeller, Chairman of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, which has been investigating bill-cramming for the last couple of years, says he is “deeply disturbed by the FTC’s allegations that T-Mobile allowed millions of dollars in unauthorized charges to be crammed on consumer wireless bills.”

If outlet stores for mid- to high-end retailers give shoppers a way to find decent bargains, you’d think that a Kmart outlet store would have some real bottom-dollar deals on items that couldn’t be cleared from inventory at regular Kmart stores. But shoppers who visit a “Kmart at a Discount” location should enter with the caveat that saving money is a hit-or-miss proposition.

Blogger and couponing expert Jill Cataldo recently wrote about a visit to one such “Kmart at a Discount” store in Belvidere, IL, outside of Rockford.

We told you the other day the Sears real estate site that lists virtually every Sears and Kmart in the country as being available to rent out. According to that data, this discount store is a “closed store” rental opportunity, but signs outside and in the store proudly state “We Are now Kmart At A Discount & We Are Here To Stay.”

The location apparently was supposed to close at the end of 2013 but has been able to remain open as a “Discount” outlet for the already-discount retailer.

In addition to all the signage inside bragging about alleged savings on items, Cataldo found smaller signs clearly stating that, “Your Kmart at a Discount will not be participating in the current K-Mart TV promotions, circulars, coupons or mailers.”

That sort of restriction is to be expected from a store full of clearance items, but what wasn’t expected were the not-clearance prices on a number of things in the store.

For example, while the Boys’ Apparel section listed everything as 40% off, Cataldo says she’s paid lower prices for these items at clearance sales inside regular ol’ Kmart stores.

She found a “Duck Dynasty” T-shirt that was still $17 even after the 40% discount, but only a few months earlier she’d found tees for the hit A&E reality show going for only $3 each at Meijer (which she managed to knock down to $1.20 each with her coupon dexterity).

Similarly, the Toy dept. had toys marked down to $27 that she’d found elsewhere for around $10.

There was an Angry Birds Star Wars Jenga set marked from $29.99 to $22.49, but Cataldo says that she’d seen the same game earlier that day on clearance at a nearby Toys R Us for $4.99.

“By now, I was starting to wonder who this store was supposed to appeal to,” she writes. “Simply slapping percent-off signs on overpriced merchandise does not create a ‘deal.’ Anyone familiar with regular and sale prices for these items would quickly realize that most of the products Kmart At A Discount is selling simply are not good buys.”

She did note that there were some bona fide deals to be found in the winter clothing area, where things were 70% off the sticker price. So if you’re looking to save money for next December, there’s apparently a store in Illinois waiting for you.

People throw around the term “nanny state” a lot these days, but we’re going to assume they don’t mean the nanny who was arrested after police found two children locked inside a sealed-up hot car while their supposed caretaker was busy bronzing her skin at the tanning salon.

KOIN-TV reports that the 23-year-old nanny from Portland (the one on the left side of the country) left her charges — a 3-year-old boy and a 2-month-old girl — inside her car in a parking lot on a 90-degree day.

Police say an officer arrived at the tanning salon parking lot one sultry afternoon and someone there pointed him toward the Dodge Caravan with the pair of children inside.

The officer opened the door to get the “soaked in sweat” children out, and stated that he “felt the heat radiating from (the child) through his bullet proof vest.”

While he was freeing the kids from their oven-on-wheels, the nanny exited the tanning salon and identified herself as the youngsters’ caretaker, but initially claimed that she’d left the children in the minivan with their mom.

But that was not true, as a Department of Human Services worker later confirmed that the mother was at work all day.

The nanny entered a not guilty plea to charges of first-degree criminal mistreatment, recklessly endangering another, first-degree child neglect and driving while suspended.

[via NY Daily News]

Let’s get one thing straight — day care is meant for children, not for stashing things you don’t have time to take care of at the moment. For example: 72 pounds worth of whole, frozen chickens that police say one man swiped from a truck and decided to hide at a local day care.

Police in Delaware say a 49-year-old man took possession of a bunch of chicken that had been on a delivery truck, reports DelawareOnline.com.

And apparently the day care workers didn’t appreciate the dropoff, confronting the suspect when he came back later to reclaim his purloined poultry. Officials say he tried to hide the goods behind the facility, which happens to be near the grocery store where he allegedly grabbed the chicken.

A worker saw him and confronted him, at which point he ran off and the facility called the cops. Police reunited the frozen chicken with the delivery driver.

The next day the suspect decided it might be safe to get his stash back, but when a worker confronted him again and tried to follow him, police say the man slashed at the worker in the back with a steak knife.

He was later spotted by police officers who were able to arrest him, and charged him with second-degree assault, theft under $1,500, resisting arrest and offensive touching (ostensibly for the slashing, not for handling the chicken).

Police: Chicken thief slashed day care worker [DelawareOnline.com]

Hormel Foods Brands added to its already diverse portfolio by making a move to purchase CytoSport Holdings, the maker of supplement brands such as Muscle Milk.

Minnesota-based Hormel announced that it will pay $450 million for California-based CytoSport.

Officials with Hormel, which produces brands such as Dinty Moore meals, Skippy peanut butter, Hormel Chili and DiLusso deli meats, say the deal should close within 30 days.

Hormel board chairman Jeffery Ettinger says in a news release that the addition of CytoSport aligns with the company’s focus on protein.

CytoSport specializes in a variety of dietary supplements that are designed to provide muscle mass for body builders and other athletes.

Hormel Foods to Acquire Maker of Muscle Milk® Sports Nutrition Products [Hormel Foods]

For the second time in as many months the Dodge Ram is at the center of a probe by U.S. regulators. This time an issue with the truck’s fastener can cause the rear axle to lock or detach, and in some cases cause the vehicle to enter an uncontrolled spin.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration opened a preliminary investigation into more than 260,000 model year 2005 Dodge Ram 1500 after receiving 15 consumer complaints on the issue.

According to NHTSA’s notice [PDF] the rear differential locked up or the driveshaft separated at the rear connection.

Consumers reported there was little or no noise or other warnings prior to the lock-up and/or separation.

Of the 15 reports, seven occurred at speeds of 50 miles per hour or greater, and two allege that the rear axle lockup caused the truck to go into a spin.

“While driving on interstate 195, I entered exit lane 28A and without warning at 60MPH my rear tires locked up, the driveshaft disconnected from rear and my truck went into an uncontrolled spin.”

The preliminary evaluation seeks to assess the scope, frequency and safety-related consequences of the alleged defect.

A branch of Barclays bank in the U.K. had to shut down temporarily yesterday, after a customer walked in and reportedly made a few stinky deposits. Fine, I won’t dance around it: He pooped. On the floor. Multiple times.

An eyewitness tells the Daily Star that a middle-aged man who appeared “well-to-do” and “calm but angry” simply walked into the branch and started doing his bathroom business from the bottom of his shorts, while customers watched in horror.

So was it a protest against the deplorable state of banking around the world today, was he striking a blow for all the disenfranchised consumers out there? We may never know.

“He didn’t say anything at all, but you can tell from his face he looked angry,” the witness explains. “I wasn’t really paying attention until I noticed a foul, but unmistakable smell.”

He claims the man even went up and down the stairs to make sure he made a mess, going about on his rounds and defecating.

“I looked at the guy and he was just calmly walking around the bank – going to all the areas he could,” the witness said. “And then as calmly as he walked in he left.” He did add that the man “looked smug” as he exited the building.

Staff was flabbergasted, the spectator reports, and “the stench was unreal.”

Customers were asked to leave while the staff cleaned up the mess.

Thus far, Barclays hasn’t commented on the incident.

That’s the wrong kind of deposit! Barclays bank customer POOS all over the floor [The Daily Star]

It’s nothing new for drivers to poke fun at the police, but two Indianapolis police officers weren’t in a joking mood when they pulled over a driver with a bumper sticker reading “unmarked police car” taped in her back window and made her remove it. She’s now suing, claiming her First Amendment rights to free speech were violated.

The woman was driving her silver minivan to work one day when officers pulled her over inside a parking garage, and said she’d have to remove the sticker, reports the IndyStar.com.

“The officer asked her, ‘Is this your vehicle?’ and asked for her license and registration,” the woman’s lawyer, of the American Civil Liberties Union said. “And then he said, ‘With that bumper sticker, someone could think you’re impersonating a police officer.’”

The attorney said he also suggested someone who dislikes cops might try to shoot at her.

“It’s a joke — it’s ironic,” her attorney said of the bumper sticker. “It’s like you or I wearing a T-shirt that says, ‘Undercover cop.’”

She did what the cops told her, and was free to go after she did. She was nervous and intimidated, she says, so she didn’t try to argue. She says her coworkers later suggested she call the ACLU, which she did the next day.

The ACLU claims in the civil lawsuit that the two officers violated her constitutional right to free speech as well as Fourth Amendment rights “by their unreasonable detention and interrogation.”

She’s seeking unspecified damages and legal costs. The suit also asks for an injunction requiring “defendants to cease and desist from further suspicionless detention, interrogation, harassment, and intimidation related to the humorous content of bumper stickers.”

And also, about that sticker?

“[The plaintiff] has not put the bumper sticker back on her minivan but wishes to do so.”

The city of Indianapolis responded to the lawsuit, saying in a statement from corporation counsel, “We take every lawsuit against the city extremely seriously.”

No joke: Driver sues IMPD officers over her bumper sticker [IndyStar.com]

They say that some mistakes you make will haunt you the rest of your life (like that ZIMA logo tattoo on the small of my back). They should add that mistakes made by the state of New Jersey will also apparently cling to you like stink on a skunk. Just ask the man who has watched a $17,000 error by the Garden State bloom into a $21,000 problem that now involves South Carolina… and which will never, ever go away.

We first told you about the unlucky fellow in the spring of 2013, when he was being chased by the NJ Dept. of Labor for $17,000 in unemployment benefits it claimed he owed.

A quick recap: Back in 2007, the man lost his job in New Jersey and filed for unemployment. A few months later, he and his family relocated to South Carolina. He contacted the state to ask what should be done about his unemployment and was told to keep filing with New Jersey.

As you probably recall, jobs weren’t exactly easy to come by in 2008 so the man took what he could get, occasional part-time work at Lowe’s, sometimes only 10 hours a week. Again, he checked with the folks in NJ and they said to keep filing there to claim for the hours he wasn’t working every week.

This went on until 2010 when his benefits dried up. Only at that point did someone in NJ mention that he should have filed in South Carolina once he’d crossed a certain income threshold that would have taken him off the NJ unemployment logs and onto the ones in his new state.

Not long after being told this, the state of NJ was demanding he repay $17,000 in unemployment benefits to the state that had given him incorrect information for more than two years.

With some help from the Newark Star-Ledger’s Bamboozled column — penned by Consumerist’s Karin Price Mueller — the state finally admitted that the man had done everything he’d been told to do and it was an “agency error.” Thus, he would not have to repay the $17,000.

End of story, right? Not by a long shot.

In a new Bamboozled story, the man says he had a couple of months of peace before the crud-storm started up again.

Last summer, the state of South Carolina called him in, told him he needed to fill in some paperwork.

“They said New Jersey asked them to have me apply for benefits for the years in question, years later,” he tells Bamboozled. “I felt funny doing this but I didn’t want to rock the boat.”

The folks at the unemployment office didn’t really have an explanation for the paperwork, saying they were just doing what they’d been asked by New Jersey officials to do.

It took about nine months, but the ghost of New Jersey returned angrier than ever this past spring, when South Carolina dropped a $21,000 bill on this unlucky fellow.

The state also sent him a $200 check that he’s never cashed for fear of the unholy ghouls that would be unleashed.

Shortly after the $21,000 notice from South Carolina came yet another payment demand from NJ for the original $17,000.

South Carolina eventually explained to the man that the $21k bill was actually being sent on behalf of NJ, as South Carolina doesn’t bill consumers for overpayment of benefits; it garnishes their wages and benefits to recoup that money.

Then came yet another notice from NJ, this time demanding $15,931 in repayment.

When contacted by Bamboozled, a rep for the NJ Dept. of Labor basically said there is nothing that can be done about these bills, even though the state openly admits it screwed up and the man doesn’t owe the money.

“In such cases, an individual may continue to receive notices of the debt, which does not disappear,” explained the rep, presumably between performances in the Paramus Park Playhouse production of No Exit.

The rep says that the notices are probably the result of newer fraud detection initiatives intended to recoup lost money for states and the federal government. Since the debt isn’t being pursued but hasn’t been wiped off the books, some a-hole computer somewhere sees his $17,000 as low-hanging fruit to be collected.

And it will likely continue to be that way; not just with notices but with his tax returns. It’s possible — but not definite — that any future tax refund could be wiped out by an automated collection of this not-a-debt.

“I can’t understand for the life of me why they can’t turn off the spigot if they decided it’s an agency error,” said the man, who has a new job of rolling the same huge rock up the same huge hill every morning. “It’s an uneasy feeling but I’m going to look at this as a closed chapter.”

Bamboozled: $17,000 unemployment mix-up will haunt man forever, state says [NJ.com]

It’s not a great week for Graco: Hot on the heels of Consumer Reports’ announcement that one of its strollers is a safety risk, the company says it’s recalling the harness buckles on 1.9 million infant car seats, due to difficulty opening the buckle.

After an investigation by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, Graco says it will provide a free replacement buckle to those car seats affected, which were manufactured between July 2010 and May 2013.

Don’t know if your car seat’s buckle is part of the recall? You can check its model name and manufacture date on Graco’s recall site.

There have been no reported injuries associated with the funky buckles, but Graco is encouraging consumers to order a buckle replacement kit and install the new piece as soon as it arrives. According to Graco, the seats can still be used safely while waiting for replacement buckles.

“As the industry leader in baby and parenting essentials, the decisions we make about product safety are far-reaching. We take this responsibility seriously,” said Laurel Hurd, President of Graco Children’s Products. “Both NHTSA and Graco investigated consumer concerns in an effort to address the issues with the buckles used on certain infant car seats. We are pleased to announce a solution that we believe is in the best interest of consumers and underscores our shared commitment to child passenger safety.”

Sold! Homes Sold in Manassas Patch.com If you're wondering if you might be getting some new neighbors or if that house you've been eyeing in the area is off the market, this is the list you need. About the listings. These real estate listings come to Patch in a direct feed from Zillow and ... and more »

Colorful parrotfish and spindly sea urchins are the key to saving the Caribbean's coral reefs, which may disappear in two decades if no action is taken, a report by several international organizations said Wednesday.

An 11-year-old autistic boy who police suspect was kept in a cage has been removed from a Southern California home, and his parents have been arrested.

Water flowed down the aisles and rained down on passengers of a double-decker Qantas Airways flight bound for Australia after a leak that forced the plane to return to Los Angeles late Tuesday, airline officials and passengers on the flight said.

Irritating behaviors are known as "social allergens," and there are a few ways to deal with them.

Powerful painkillers have been driving the nation's rising rate of overdose deaths, and now the government is singling out the states where doctors write the most prescriptions.

T-Mobile USA knowingly made hundreds of millions of dollars off its customers in potentially bogus charges, a federal regulator alleged Tuesday in a complaint likely to mar the reputation of a household name in wireless communications.

A disease that is nearly always fatal to blue crabs is affecting the young crab population in the Chesapeake Bay, says Jeff Shields, a scientist with the Virginia Institute of Marine Sciences.

A mother pig and her piglets were tagged by vandals at a Frederick County petting farm.

One person is dead and another is injured after a crash that closed a part of the Prince William Parkway early Tuesday morning.

It's a question that can start an instant argument among motorists in the region: Who are D.C.'s worst drivers? The numbers are in.