pileofcrapola

CHARLESTON, S.C. (AP) — Cold weather in New England has meant more patients for sea turtle hospitals in the South.

The South Carolina Aquarium said five loggerhead sea turtles stunned by the cold were flown south Monday from the New England Aquarium in Massachusetts.

Three of the turtles are being treated at the South Carolina Aquarium in Charleston while the other two are being treated at the Georgia Sea Turtle Center on Jekyll Island, Georgia.

Officials say that cold weather off New England earlier this month stunned about 400 turtles.

When temperatures in shallow water get too cold, turtles can be stunned in a condition similar to hypothermia. Stunned turtles tend to float the surface, and some wash ashore or become easy prey for predators.

The post Sea turtles brought south from New England for treatment appeared first on WTOP.

LIMA, Ohio (AP) — A man Ohio police say sent them a selfie because he didn’t like the mugshot they were using has been arrested in Florida.

Lima (LY’-muh), Ohio, police say Donald “Chip” Pugh was arrested Tuesday in Century, Florida, and is being held on another warrant out of Georgia.

Police in Ohio say Pugh also is wanted for failing to appear in court and is a person of interest in several other cases.

Lima police say Pugh sent them a picture of himself in a sport coat and sunglasses along with a message stating, “Here is a better photo that one is terrible.”

The police department has posted on its Facebook page a new mugshot of a smiling Pugh after his arrest in Florida.

Pugh can’t be reached for comment while he’s in custody.

The post Police: Man who sent selfie to replace mugshot is arrested appeared first on WTOP.

REDONDO BEACH, Calif. (AP) — The latest on the federal investigation of a refinery blast in California (all times local):

___

11:15 a.m.

Federal investigators say an 80,000-pound piece of equipment shaken loose by a refinery explosion landed within a few feet of a tank holding tens of thousands of pounds of a toxic acid.

Mark Wingard, an investigator with the U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board, said Wednesday the Feb. 18, 2015, explosion at the ExxonMobil refinery in California also damaged a laser sensor designed to detect the release of the acid and clouded surveillance cameras.

The board’s chairwoman, Vanessa Allen Sutherland, says the modified hydrofluoric acid in question could have caused significant injuries if released.

Officials say ExxonMobil has not responded to more than half of the board’s requests for information related to the refinery blast — specifically those related to acid.

Sutherland says her group is working with Department of Justice to enforce subpoenas.

___

10:15 a.m.

An independent federal investigation has found that several oversights contributed to an explosion at a California oil refinery that injured four contractors and rained white ash on surrounding homes.

The U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board said Wednesday that a key unit had operated for five years without a maintenance overhaul.

The board also says managers at the ExxonMobil refinery used an outdated plan when they decided to shut down the fluid catalytic cracking unit, or FCC unit, to do repairs and had no safeguards to prevent combustible materials from reaching an ignition source in another unit.

California workplace regulators fined Exxon $566,000 last summer for health and safety violations related to the blast. Exxon is appealing.

Exxon spokesman Todd Spitler says an internal investigation found no wrongdoing.

The post The Latest: Oil refinery blast nearly caused acid leak appeared first on WTOP.

WASHINGTON — A D.C. Fire lieutenant facing disciplinary action after a delayed response to help a choking boy will be allowed to retire without being disciplined.

His retirement comes after a D.C. law passed last March was supposed to prevent firefighters under disciplinary investigation from retiring or resigning until the process is complete. According to D.C. Fire, the department has failed to adopt the required regulations.

D.C. Fire spokesman Tim Wilson said the lieutenant — whose name hasn’t been released — filed his paperwork to retire in December, and will be able to receive a full pension.

The firefighter was at the center of an investigation into the response to a March 13, 2015 call to 911 about a 1-year-old boy who was choking on a grape at a home on Warren Street Northwest.

The closest paramedics were at a station three blocks away, but because the nearest engine had disconnected from the department’s computer network, they were not assigned to the call. An ambulance from farther away was instead sent to the call, according to an internal report released by Mayor Muriel Bowser’s office.

The lieutenant faced charges of neglect of duty, incompetence and unreasonable failure to assist the public for not letting dispatchers know the unit at his station was available.

The report also alleges that the initial call for help was heard at the station, but the crew was told stay at the nearby Tenleytown station because they were not assigned to the call. The fire truck eventually responded, about 12 minutes after the initial 911 call came in.

The child was taken to the hospital, where he died several days later.

This was one of several high profile cases involving Fire and EMS crews in the District which involved delayed response times or failure to help residents in need.

The post D.C. Fire lieutenant to retire without discipline after delayed response death appeared first on WTOP.

WASHINGTON — Mooove over, cows. There’s another milk that’s pleasing the palates of consumers. Goats are making their mark on the U.S. dairy industry.

When Cathy Soult’s husband passed away in 1993, she had to find a way to keep her central Pennsylvania farm up and running. Goats, she concluded, were the way to go.

Initially, Soult raised the animals for export. But when Mexico closed its borders amid fear of mad cow disease, she held on to her animals and decided to go into the dairy businesses — even though she wasn’t convinced there would be a big enough market.

“Only because I wasn’t in-tune with what the public wanted,” says Soult, who runs the farm, Wayside Acres, with her daughter, Gwen.

But over the years, the market found Wayside Acres, and now the mother-daughter operation has more business than it can handle.

“We could definitely double the production and still have the sales,” Soult says. “It’s evolved from word-of-mouth; we’ve never really advertised.”

In 2014, the nation’s dairy herd grew 2 percent from the previous year, and producers reported a 15 percent increase in sales, The Associated Press reports. Furthermore, sheep and goat milk raked in $92.2 million in 2012, which is a third higher than sales reported in 2007.

Savvy consumers in search of healthier and more sustainable food products can take credit for driving this trend.

Goat milk has more calcium, magnesium, potassium and vitamin C than cow milk, Modern Farmer reports. It’s also naturally homogenized, which makes it easier to digest.

“It takes about 20 minutes to digest goat milk, whereas it takes two to four hours to digest cow’s milk,” Soult says. “It also is easier on people who have allergies.”

That’s because the protein structure of goat milk is different from cow’s. It still contains lactose, but many who have allergies to cow milk are still able to consume goat milk. In fact, it’s often recommended by pediatricians for young children who have difficulty transitioning from breast milk to conventional dairy products.

Environmental sustainability also plays a role in the nation’s growing taste for goat milk. Soult says goat dairies don’t have the same manure problems that plague their cow counterparts.

“And you can raise a lot of goats on a small amount of acreage,” says Soult, who explains that farmers can typically account for one cow per acre, compared to 10 goats per acre.

At the 43-acre Breezy Way Farm in Bedford, Pennsylvania, Heather Hall and her husband, Luke, keep about 225 dairy goats. Each animal produces about a gallon of milk a day.

Unlike Soult, the Halls don’t process the milk on their farm. They work with Trickling Springs Creamery, a family farm-focused processor and supplier, to pasteurize their goat milk and distribute it to markets throughout the area, including a retail stand at Union Market, MOM’s Organic Market and Whole Foods.

Joe Miller, director of marketing for Trickling Springs, says after 11 years of working with local cow farmers, the creamery decided to build the equipment necessary to take on and process goat milk. In 2012, Trickling Springs worked with four goat farmers; now, it has 12 and is looking to add more.

“Demand has definitely grown,” Miller says. “We’ve seen our sales grow, but we’ve also seen conversations around goat milk and people asking where they can get goat milk — we’ve seen that growing over the last five years.”

Lee Robinson, a dairy and frozen category buyer at Whole Foods Market, says Whole Foods stores in the D.C. area have been carrying goat milk for a number of years after receiving requests from customers.

“It started for early adopters looking for another option to cow’s milk dairy — just a local request here and there through the stores,” Robinson says.

Now, most Whole Foods stores are stocked with goat milk. And while Robinson says the demand for goat milk is still present, a number of plant-based milk alternatives, such as almond milk and coconut milk, have kept its sales from skyrocketing.

“So it’s a little bit different of a landscape than it used to be,” Robinson says, about all the milk alternatives that have surfaced in recent years.

Robinson says for a while, Whole Foods carried goat milk ice cream. Now, it’s harder to find. But customers can find goat milk in butters, infant formulas and, of course, cheeses.

“Overall, the availability and variety of goat’s milk cheese has grown, I’d say, over the last three to five years,” says Amy Gomez, regional specialty coordinator for Whole Foods.

Gomez says shoppers seek out goat cheese for its unique flavor, but they also gravitate to goat for its nutritional profile.

“It’s lower fat, lower calorie, lower cholesterol and higher in calcium than cow’s milk,” she says.

Trickling Springs’ Miller says because of its broad appeal, consumers will likely see more goat milk products on grocery store shelves in 2016.  

“You already have goat cheese, and I think that will keep going, but I think you might see some more goat yogurts out there, you may see some goat butters, some flavored goat milks. I think you can expect some of those over the next few years as awareness and interest in goat milk keeps growing,” he says.

One hurdle the goat milk industry has to overcome before it makes a bigger splash is taste. Soult says goat milk has a reputation for being musty and strong in flavor, but that couldn’t be further from the truth.

“If you’re getting really fresh and good quality goat milk, it should taste like cow milk and it shouldn’t have a taste to it,” she says.

Plus, she says the rich and creamy nature of goat milk makes it a great cooking alternative to conventional milk — especially when it comes to making ice cream.

Breezy Way Farms’ Hall says other farmers are taking note of the growing goat industry. She says she’s constantly fielding questions from people interested in starting their own operations. “It’s crazy how many goat dairies are starting up. Now there’s more and more people who want to get into it,” Hall says.

And while goat milk may never surpass the supply and demand of cow milk — dairy cows produce about 20,000 more pounds of milk annually than goats, and cow milk accounted for nearly 95 percent of milk consumption in 2014, according to The Associated Press — goats are proving the grass is just as green in their pasture.

The post Mooove over cows: Goat milk sales climb in U.S. dairy market appeared first on WTOP.

WASHINGTON — Fairfax County Police say wildlife officials are getting more reports of coyotes.

Dr. Katherine Edwards, the county’s wildlife management specialist, said the foragers will not only eat trash, they could attack small animals — including pets.

Coyotes could see larger dogs as competitors since the mating season has just started, Edwards said in a news release.

Minimize your chances of encountering a coyote by keeping your pets inside, taking down bird feeders or outdoor pet bowls and securing your garbage can.

Never feed or attempt to “tame” a coyote, Fairfax County Police say. To keep them at bay, police suggest the following:

• Place garbage and compost in an animal-proof container, such as a metal trash can with latches on the lid or secure with bungee cords.
• Keep trash inside until the morning of trash pickup whenever possible.
• Do not feed pets outside or store pet food outside.
• Pick up ripe, fallen fruit and do not let it accumulate on the ground.
• Put away bird feeders at night to avoid attracting small rodents and other coyote prey.
• Trim shrubbery to ground level to remove hiding cover.
• Close up all openings under porches/decks, crawl spaces or outbuildings where animals might establish dens.
• Keep small pets inside and do not leave unattended when outside.
• Keep dogs on short leashes (less than 6 feet) while walking outside.
• Provide secure shelters for poultry, rabbits, and other vulnerable animals.
• Be alert at dusk and dawn. Coyotes are most active at night and early morning hours; however, they may be active during the day in search of food or denning sites.

If a coyote is in sight, Fairfax County police suggest using hazing techniques to frighten them:

• Yell and wave your arms at the coyote.
• Use noisemakers such as whistles, air horns, bells, “shaker” cans full of marbles or pennies, or pots and pans banged together.
• Throw nonedible objects in the direction of the coyote including sticks, small rocks, cans or tennis balls.
• Spray the coyote with a water hose, water guns or spray bottles with vinegar water, pepper spray or bear repellent.
• Install motion sensor lights or a motion-activated sprinkler around your home.
• Install fencing to keep coyotes out of yards. Fencing should be at least 6 feet tall, have an outward slanting overhang or roller-type device to prevent coyotes from climbing or jumping, and have an L-shaped mesh apron buried one to two feet to deter digging. Few fences are completely coyote-proof.

The post Fairfax County sees uptick in coyotes appeared first on WTOP.

Fairfax County Police charged a man with assault and battery, disorderly conduct and animal cruelty after he allegedly assaulted a family and the family dog Saturday morning in Great Falls.

Police were called to the 10600 block of Runaway Lane at 8:19 a.m.

They said a man, believed to be experiencing emotional distress, approached a couple and their children as they were attempting to get into their car. The suspect allegedly yelled obscenities and assaulted the husband and the family’s dog, and verbally threatened the wife, police said.

Responding officers witnessed some of the erratic behavior and took the suspect into custody immediately. He was charged with assault and battery, disorderly conduct, and animal cruelty. He will undergo a psychological evaluation Monday, police said. His identity is being withheld due to the sensitive nature of this case.

There were no injuries.

In other crime news reported by FCPD’s Reston District Station:

UNLAWFUL ENTRY

A resident reported that an unidentified female entered a residence in the 1100 block of Amanda Drive in Great Falls through an unlocked door Friday at about 8:06 p.m.

The suspect spoke briefly to the resident and then left without taking anything. She was described as white, about 30 years old, 5 feet 5 inches tall and around 130 pounds. She had short, straight, reddish-blonde hair. She was wearing a black dress, a black coat and black heels. She was carrying a black purse.

LARCENIES

•  1800 block of Explorer, credit card from business
• 2200 block of Hunters Woods Plaza, clothing from business
• 1400 block of North Gate Square, cash from residence
• 11700 block of North Shore Drive, property from vehicle
•  1400 block of Parkdale Court, driver’s license from residence
• 1600 block of Wiehle Avenue, briefcase from vehicle

The post Nearby: Family and Family Dog and Assaulted in Great Falls appeared first on WTOP.

This week’s Pet of the Week is Winston, another friendly frenchie who loves discovering all the adventures Arlington has to offer a small dog.

Winston is still a puppy and, like most puppies, enjoys exploring the outside world, especially around his Clarendon neighborhood. From picking up the best sticks on the block to visiting his favorite stores, Winston just wants to have fun and make new friends.

Here’s what Winston’s parents had to say about their snuggly, snorting pet:

Winston is a three-year-old French Bulldog clown who is convinced that he is part human. You may have seen him strutting the streets of Clarendon inspecting every tree patch, sitting on the corner people-watching, or stopping in the local stores just to say “hello” — and to see if there are treats on hand! If you are one of the many to stop and say hi, you will surely be greeted with a “frenchie” kiss.

Winston loves both his canine brethren and any human bearing treats or willing to give scratches. He’s a stick enthusiast and often asks to go outside just to circle back to that perfect stick he saw on his walk. He’ll make sure everyone sees how proud he is of his prize as he takes it all the way home, often carrying them for several blocks. Once inside, he loves to “zoomie” around the apartment. Despite a bit of stubbornness when he wants to stay put, you can’t help but smile at his face.

His nightly routine includes wrestling with his dad, Kris, and snuggling with his mom, Jennifer. In the morning, he asks to be picked up in the bed so he can get in a quality 30 minute snuggle before he starts his day.

Winston is truly a one-of-a-kind dog and we look forward to all the years he’ll be snorting and snoring with us. If you see him out be sure to say hello! He’ll love you — seriously — forever!

Want your pet to be considered for the Arlington Pet of the Week? Email arlingtonnews@gmail.com with a 2-3 paragraph bio and at least 3-4 horizontally-oriented photos of your pet.

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

Meet Indianna Jones, this week’s Pet of the Week. Indianna, a pug, lives in Reston with her people. Melissa and Phil. Here is what Melissa has to say about her:

Indianna Jones , or Indy as she is known to most, is a charismatic 4-year old fawn pug. From a very early age Indy has lived up to her name.

She was born in the Shenandoah mountains on a pug farm with five other brothers and sisters. My husband and I always like to say that we didn’t pick her, she picked us. Within her first few weeks of life she wandered right into a storm drain and had to be rescued through a manhole. Her only sustaining injury is her ongoing fear of any sewer drains she spots while on a walk. She avoids them at all costs! (Can you blame her???)

Indy loves walks around Reston Town Center and Lake Anne Plaza. She has traveled the country and spent time hiking and exploring in Washington State, Colorado, Iowa, and West Virginia. Indy is a pure delight and is loved by everyone who meets her! Her weaknesses are bananas and peanut butter and her strengths are her unconditional love and fetching regular-size tennis balls.

Indianna Jones and her owners will receive $100 in Becky’s Bucks, as well as some treats, from our sponsor, Becky’s Pet Care.

Want your pet to be considered for the Reston Pet of the Week?

Email news@Restonnow.com with a 2-3 paragraph bio and at least 3-4 horizontally-oriented photos of your pet.

Each week’s winner receives a sample of dog or cat treats from our sponsor, Becky’s Pet Care, along with $100 in Becky’s Bucks.

Becky’s Pet Care, the winner of three Angie’s List Super Service Awards and the National Association of Professional Pet Sitters’ 2013 Business of the Year, provides professional dog walking and pet sitting services in Reston and Northern Virginia.

The post Reston Pet of the Week: Indianna Jones appeared first on WTOP.

HAGERSTOWN, Md. (AP) — The Maryland State Fire Marshal’s Office says a 15-year-old Hagerstown boy faces arson charges after he used a cellphone to record video of himself setting fire to his bedroom.

The agency said in a statement Wednesday that the boy told investigators he poured rubbing alcohol onto his dresser, set it on fire and then swiped the flaming liquid onto his bed.

Investigators say he then ran from the house, dropping his cellphone in the process.

The agency says nobody was hurt but the fire caused an estimated $5,000 in damage.

The boy was charged as a juvenile with first-degree malicious burning and malicious destruction of property.

The post Police: Teen made video of himself setting house on fire appeared first on WTOP.

PotomacLocal.com

Dogs sniff out drugs, bombs in Manassas Regional Airport PotomacLocal.com K9 teams last week were sent from federal, state, and local agencies to improve their abilities of sniffing out drugs and bombs. The 80 K9 teams trained by working with two Virginia Railway Express trains and two 34-passenger airplanes provided by ...

PotomacLocal.com

Manassas supports call to regulate plastic bags PotomacLocal.com For most, it doesn't make a difference, but it looks like the autonomy of this grocery store decision might be changing for Manassas residents in the future. The debate of whether or not plastic bags should be banned from grocery stores due to their ...

Prince William County community calendar, Jan. 14-20, 2016 Washington Post Genealogy 201 Genealogy librarian Tish Como teaches advanced strategies for searching online. 11 a.m. Bull Run Regional Library, 8051 Ashton Ave., Manassas. 703-792-4540. Free, registration required. Ice skating The outdoor rink is open for the season. and more »

At this time last year, the rest of the world was freaking out over the prospect of a change to the recipe of Cadbury Creme Eggs. Here in the United States, we were safe from the recipe change, with our Hershey’s-licensed creme eggs remaining as inferior as they’ve ever been. However, researchers speculate that the recipe change cost Cadbury £6 million ($8.6 million) in lost sales.

The Easter candy season is apparently just now kicking off in the United Kingdom, since they don’t start putting out Easter candy in mid-December like Americans do. This news doesn’t come from Cadbury itself, but an outside market research firm, IRI, which looked into the egg situation on behalf of a grocery trade group.

Their research found that Cadbury’s Easter candy lines sold about £10 million less than would have been expected, putting most of the blame on the Creme Egg change.

Cadbury, for its part, insists that they never sold Creme Eggs in a shell of Cadbury’s Dairy Milk chocolate, and that all of this fuss over a recipe change is fuss over nothing. “The fundamentals of the Cadbury Creme Egg remain exactly the same as the original in 1971 recipe with delicious Cadbury chocolate and a unique gooey creme filling,” a spokesperson told The Telegraph.

Sure, this news doesn’t affect us directly, but it’s a reminder of an important consumer fact: don’t mess with people’s cherished holiday candy memories.

Cadbury loses more than £6m in Creme Egg sales after changing recipe [The Telegraph]

For years, Amazon was able to win over some video game fans by guaranteeing release-day delivery of new titles. But now that gamers can pre-order digital downloads of their games (for the same price) so that they’re available right away when they go live, Amazon is going after customers who want to save money on these pricey new releases.

Amazon announced today that Prime subscribers will now be able to save 20% off sticker price, not just on pre-orders, but also on new titles during their first two weeks of release.

That second part is important, given the number of high-profile games that have been rushed to market with broken content, this two-week window means that Amazon customers can wait to see if the game has crippling problems (or horrendous reviews) before they buy.

Amazon is putting a number of conditions on the deal.

For example, the games must be bought through Amazon itself, and not through any of the many sellers (even the Prime-eligible sellers) that use Amazon to reach consumers. It’s also limited to disc-based games. Digital download codes will not be sold at the lower price. And you can only buy one copy of a game with the discount.

If you’ve already pre-ordered a qualifying title, Amazon says it will apply the discount automatically.

Polygon notes that Best Buy and GameStop offer similar discount programs that cost significantly less than the $100 annual price for Prime, meaning people who only want the discounted games might want to check those programs out before they fork over the money for Prime. But if you’re already a Prime member, this is a nice add-on to the existing benefits of free shipping, and video and music content.

Here’s the problem with eating plants: they come from outside, where animals also live. Sometimes, animals want to try our food, too, and the safeguards meant to keep animals that we didn’t mean to eat off our plates fail. That’s when we end up with dead baby weasels in our salads.

Don’t click through to see the pictures unless you really want to be put off salad: I was just starting to eat non-local lettuce again after last year’s salad beetle saga.

A nurse practitioner in England ended up with a dead baby weasel in her salad, and she was not pleased. Nurses are not known for their weak stomachs, yet she told reporters that she threw up, probably not expecting to see a dead, wet, mangled weasel in her salad.

She thought it was a mouse at first glance, since it’s hard to tell exactly what the animal is. She probably didn’t want to look closely at it. The Yorkshire Post reports that the store where she purchased the salad, supermarket ASDA, offered a £5 voucher ($7.22), later increasing their offer to £100 after tests showed that the animal was real and that it was a baby weasel.

“It has caused me a lot of trauma,” she told the Yorkshire Post. “I initially thought it was a mouse, and for about a week afterwards I had weird dreams about mice coming out my mouth.”

Let’s hope that the salad supplier improves their quality controls, and may all of the nurse’s future salads remain weasel-free.

Take Our Poll

Bradford nurse finds baby weasel in her Asda salad [Yorkshire Post]
What on earth is this disgusting furry creature a nurse found in ASDA carrot salad? [Mirror]

At the end of last year, tornadoes in north Texas destroyed homes, killed twelve people, and caused as much destruction as you might expect of a tornado. One family near Dallas was fortunate that they were out of the country and not in their house when it was destroyed, but in the aftermath had to deal with a frustration that they didn’t need: their electric company kept sending them bills for power in their non-existent house.

The company, Reliant, sent the family text message updates about their power usage, which somehow increased after the tornado. Again, the family of four wasn’t just out of town, but the house was no longer there. One would think this could all be straightened out with a simple phone call to the power company pointing out that a house that isn’t there in a neighborhood that had lost power when the tornado hit doesn’t need electricity, but that wasn’t enough.

A Reliant representative told them that they should have called earlier: the power was back on to their nonexistent house, and they were responsible for the bill. Instead, the family turned to their local CBS affiliate’s consumer reporter. Suddenly, they received a refund and an apology.

In a statement to the station, Reliant explained what happened: apparently, none of the four people the call was transferred to knew what was supposed to happen. The company waived the erroneous bills and apologized. In a statement to the TV station, they explained in part:

In anticipating the needs of Reliant customers there, we proactively reached out to hundreds of them with offers of assistance.

We placed notes on the accounts of thousands of others who we could not reach to ensure that our agents were aware that special assistance is available. Unfortunately, the call center agents who talked with Ms. Kashif did not follow these procedures or offer this planned assistance.

Reliant also said that they have informed other call center representatives what they’re supposed to do, and clarified that they’re not complete jerks toward tornado victims, having donated $50,000 to Red Cross relief efforts, and helping victims with items like solar-powered flashlights.

Tornado Destroys Couple’s Home, Electric Company Sends A Bill [CBS DFW]

It’s right there, somewhere. Buried deep in a menu under “legal” in an app, or lurking somewhere in the footer of a website that never seems to stop adding content while you scroll. Each of us encounters dozens of them every day and yet most of us never give any thought to them. It is, of course, the privacy policy.

There is an implicit promise apparent in the phrase “privacy policy,” an indication that a business is going to respect your privacy — or, at the very least, that you have some privacy. It’s right there in the name, so “privacy” must be involved somewhere, right? Somehow?

The policies are definitely about privacy, yes, so it is involved… it’s just not actually guaranteed.

Nearly every website, service, app, and online business has a privacy policy. Sometimes it’s right there, linked from a homepage. Sometimes it’s a few paragraphs buried thousands of words into a user agreement you’ll likely never read.

In spite of their prevalence, most of us don’t know what these policies say, do, or are — and misconceptions abound.

This is our attempt to clear up some of those myths, like…

Myth #1: Federal law requires all online businesses to have a privacy policy
Reality: FALSE

There is no global right to privacy, online or off, under U.S. law (other nations’ laws vary), nor is there a universal legal requirement that privacy policies be written or posted.

You can feel the “but” coming though, right?

Yes, there’s a but: there are several specific industries and types of data that, under federal law, do require a certain kind of handling or disclosure, as well as some relevant state laws — and that patchwork quilt of laws and regulations is pretty widespread.

Health care providers, for example, are covered by the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA). However, not all entities that might hold sensitive health data are covered by or required to adhere to the HIPAA rules, which is becoming a problem as the world of personalized and wearable health tech expands.

Another type of highly-protected data involves your money. There are two important laws out there dealing with businesses that handle consumers’ financial info, and the privacy parts of both are enforced by the Federal Trade Commission.

One is the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA), which was first passed in 1970 and has been updated and amended a few times in the 45 years since. The other is the 1999 Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act, which changed a number of banking rules.

These are two complicated pieces of legislation, but businesses that have data about your money are often covered under one or the other. The FCRA generally applies to consumer reporting agencies, and the the GLBA covers any business that’s “significantly engaged” with financial activity — a larger pool of businesses than you might think.

The FTC has guides explaining which businesses need to adhere to the FCRA or to Gramm-Leach-Bliley, but both are full of lots of conditional statements and very important details.

In short, these are the rules that cover your banking transactions, your Social Security number, your credit history, and even information that relates to your “character, reputation, or personal characteristics,” depending on who is gathering it and what it’s being used for.

There are also other, narrower laws and regulations applying to even more niches of data. Cable and telecoms’ uses of consumer data are regulated by the Cable Act and Telecommunications Act, for example, and enforced by the FCC.

Federal government sites and services have their own regulations and disclosure rules. And then there’s a whole separate world of privacy, COPPA, that applies to the data of children under age 13.

Beyond all that, though, there is also one state-level law that has had a large impact. California passed its Online Privacy Protection Act in 2003, and that law requires anyone who operates a website that California residents can access or use to “conspicuously post its privacy policy.”

Because of the way the Internet works, the list of websites accessible to California residents is functionally the same as a list of all websites, and so in a sense that California law has become a de facto national policy.

Myth #2: Privacy policies guarantee that my data will be kept private
Reality: FALSE

A privacy policy is a document disclosing what information a business gathers and what they do with it, not a guarantee that your data will be treated with any particular sensitivity or regard.

In a general sense, most privacy policies are telling you three things:

1. What data is this business collecting about you and your actions?
2. How and why (for what uses) does the company collect that data?
3. With whom, and under what circumstances, does the company share that data?

For most online businesses, those disclosures are going to be about how they collect, use, and share your interactions with them — things like your web browsing and purchase histories — with third-party data brokers and marketers who can use this info to try to sell you more stuff.

They may also include descriptions of which sharing you can or can’t opt out of, and explanations of how to do that.

This is easier to understand with examples.

Take Bank of America’s consumer privacy notice. As a bank, they’re limited under the laws we just discussed. Even so, though, the bank is quite clear that it will share whatever data it can share with third-party marketers. And BofA tells you quite clearly which kind of marketing you can or cannot opt out of.

Most policies, though, strive to be at once both accurate and vague. Take Kohl’s, for example, a brick and mortar retailer with a sizable online presence. And, like many other retailers who exist in both the on- and offline spheres, Kohl’s has a privacy policy that tries to cover all the bases.

Under “types of information we collect,” Kohl’s says:
“We collect your information, including certain personal information, such as your name, address, phone number, email address, location information, and more, from various sources, including:

• Information collected when you interact with us, such as during transactions, completion of forms, registration or surveys, and through your participation in our marketing incentives and programs;
• Information from other sources, such as companies that help us to update our records; and
• Information automatically collected when you visit or use our Site or view our online ads, such as via cookies and device information, and in Stores, such as through your use of our Wi-Fi Services.”

“Information from other sources” is a broad category that covers Kohl’s in the physical and virtual worlds.

Likewise, under the heading “how we share this information,” Kohl’s says it shares with “companies that provide support services to us and our business partners.” That category of “support services” and “business partners” is also very broad, and could effectively encompass any company that does business with Kohl’s.

As for that language…

Myth #3: Privacy policies always have to be in incomprehensible legalese
Reality: FALSE

Granted, many privacy policies are so positively impenetrable that you could go cross-eyed in about ten seconds flat trying to parse them, but they don’t necessarily have to be.

In fact, there has been a consumer-friendly trend over the past few years of trying to make privacy policies almost comprehensible to the casual reader. This trend toward readability has picked up so much steam that even the Wall Street Journal has noticed it.

Perhaps surprisingly, Facebook is one of the exemplars in this move toward increased coherence. While the company might have its fingers in basically every aspect of the online world, its privacy policy is (now) clear and explicit about what data the site collects and how it is used.

The layout, too, is meant to be readable, using plain English headers, white space, and color-coding to make sure that you don’t completely glaze over between learning that data includes not only things you do but things everyone else you know does, and learning the long list of entities it can be shared with.

Crowdfunding platform Kickstarter likewise has a plain-English policy, as do Pinterest and Spotify. But there’s a reason that even the policies that try hard to be accessible still use very, very carefully crafted, lawyer-friendly language. It’s because…

Myth #4: A business must adhere to the terms of their posted privacy policy, whatever it says
Reality: TRUE

This last part is where companies get in trouble: if you say you’re going to do a thing, you are beholden to that thing.

Regardless of whether you are required under any specific law to protect any data in a certain way or post a privacy policy, if you do post one, you must adhere to it.

It’s the FTC’s job to protect consumers from false, misleading, or deceptive advertising or promises, and failing to adhere to your statements about privacy counts.

For example, if you happen to be an app that promises that content vanishes in to the ether ten seconds after someone views it, you actually need to make sure that content is not accessible (and stealable) more than ten seconds after someone views it.

That’s what got Snapchat in trouble with the FTC back in 2014: the company made claims about privacy that the feds found were just not true. Messages did not, as claimed, vanish completely after being viewed. Users did not, as claimed, always receive a notice when someone permanently saved their content. And users were not, as claimed, connected only to their friends but sometimes, accidentally, to complete strangers.

In a statement at the time of the settlement, FTC chair Edith Ramirez made the agency’s position clear: “If a company markets privacy and security as key selling points in pitching its service to consumers, it is critical that it keep those promises.” She added, “Any company that makes misrepresentations to consumers about its privacy and security practices risks FTC action.”

There are a few businesses where customers might expect to witness employees performing grooming rituals, of course. But because a restaurant is definitely not a salon, two Arkansas Waffle House workers were fired after customers filmed them doing stuff with hair in the kitchen.

Two customers said they found hair in the food while eating at Waffle House last week, reports WREG, with one saying the other was “pulling strings of hair out of his mouth.”

One of the customers then recorded two employees involved in activities you should only do at home or in the salon.

“She dipped her hair down in the pot and when it came back up she was drying it off with one of the towels,” one of the witnesses said.

When WREG asked the store’s manager about the incident, he said the workers in the video were fired, and that what they’d done was unacceptable.

Waffle House corporate issued a statement as well, saying the company found out about it from a Facebook message, and reached out to the management team.

“After identifying the parties involved, they were immediately terminated,” Waffle House told WREG. “The health department has been out to the restaurant for an inspection which it passed, and they have closed the case. We do not tolerate these behaviors and strive to provide a clean, safe environment for all our customers.”

Employees caught doing hair in Waffle House kitchen [WREG]

Like any automaker testing self-driving cars in California, Google has to file reports with the state disclosing any incidents with their vehicles where a human test driver was required to take over. Though it says its cars are getting better at avoiding these “disengagements,” Google reported 13 incidents over a 14-month-period that would’ve resulted in a collision if a human hadn’t intervened.

Google’s report [PDF] outlined 272 situations in that timeframe where software on its vehicles detected a problem that needed a human driver to remedy, otherwise known as disengagements, the Wall Street Journal points out.

Out of those instances, Google’s analysts determined that if a human hadn’t jumped in, there would probably have been 13 “contacts” with other vehicles or objects.

In a sign of improvement within the report, the number of disengagements declined over that period, going from once every 785 miles in the first quarter of testing to once every 5,318 miles in the most recent.

Google has the largest fleet of autonomous vehicles on public roads in California right now, but other automakers and suppliers had to make similar reports, with far higher frequency of interventions, the WSJ points out. This shows that self-driving vehicles simply aren’t ready to dive into whatever the road may throw at them without a dedicated human on standby.

If you’ve got a plan to build a life-sized statue of Aaron Rodgers or Jeff Goldblum in your backyard, you’ll no longer have to explain to LEGO why you’re buying so many bricks. The company says it’s reversing its policy on bulk purchases, and won’t ask customers what their intentions are when they buy a bunch of LEGO pieces at once.

In a statement posted on its website on Tuesday, LEGO said that while in the past it had asked customers ordering bulk purchases to explain the “thematic purpose” of their project, because it didn’t want to “actively support or endorse specific agendas.”

“However, those guidelines could result in misunderstandings or be perceived as inconsistent, and the LEGO Group has therefore adjusted the guidelines for sales of Lego bricks in very large quantities,” the company said.

Instead, the company will ask customers to make clear that LEGO doesn’t support or endorse their projects, if they’re displayed in public.

The change comes after Chinese artist Ai Weiwei accused the company of censorship in October. He wanted to buy bricks in bulk for a piece on political dissidents, but LEGO said at the time that its policy was to reject requests if it believed the bricks would be used to make a political statement, the BBC notes.

A deeply-discounted humidifier, an ultra-cheap pressure cooker, and All-Clad cookware sets highlight today’s best deals. Bookmark Kinja Deals and follow us on Twitter to never miss a deal. Commerce Content is independent of Editorial and Advertising, and if you buy something through our posts, we may get a small share of the sale. Click here to learn more.

Read more...

HEMPSTEAD, N.Y. (AP) — A man accused of firing the bullet that fatally struck a 12-year-old girl as she sat in the living room of her New York home was retaliating after his younger brother’s hover board was stolen by a rival gang member, police said Monday.

Jakwan Keller, wearing a bulletproof vest, declined to comment as detectives led him out of Nassau County police headquarters on Long Island. He later pleaded not guilty to murder, weapons possession and other charges in connection with the death of Dejah Joyner at an arraignment.

The Oct. 16 shooting was an act of retaliation after Keller’s brother had his hover board — a two-wheeled, motorized scooter — stolen days earlier by a member of a rival set of the Bloods street gang, Acting Nassau County Police Commissioner Thomas Krumpter said at a news conference.

Joyner, who police said was not the intended target, was shot in the head after a single bullet pierced through the window of her family’s home in Hempstead and struck her as she was eating dinner. The seventh-grader died the next day.

Investigators believed the intended victim was “in proximity to the home,” Krumpter said. He declined to say whether a member of Joyner’s family was being targeted or provide any further details.

Keller was identified as a suspect after police received dozens of tips and collected video from the area, though the shooting itself wasn’t captured on camera, Krumpter said.

“This is a depraved individual who committed a heinous, cowardly act,” Krumpter told reporters.

Assistant District Attorney Mitch Benson said at Keller’s arraignment that he “knew the danger” of his actions when he fired into the home. Officers cleared the courtroom after emotions flared during the court proceeding and dozens of people — including family members of both the victim and the suspect — began shouting at one another.

“Our emotions are just all over the place,” said Joyner’s aunt, Carol Miles, after attending Keller’s arraignment. “We’re praying for peace for his family. That young man has a family just like Dejah does.”

The post Cops: Hover board theft spurred killing of 12-year-old girl appeared first on WTOP.

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — The last survivor of the devastating San Francisco earthquake and fire of 1906 has died, a relative confirmed Monday.

William A. “Bill” Del Monte died at a retirement home in nearby Marin County on Monday. He was 11 days shy of his 110th birthday. His niece, Janette Barroca of San Francisco confirmed his death of natural causes.

He’d been doing “great for 109 years old,” Barroca said Monday.

Del Monte was just three months old when the quake struck, forcing his family into the streets to escape in a horse-drawn buck board with fire burning on both sides, Barroca said. The family crossed the bay to Alameda County but eventually came back to the city after the home was rebuilt, Barroca said.

His father had opened the famous Fior d’Italia on Broadway in 1886 and it was destroyed in the quake but reopened in a tent not long after. By 1915 the Italian restaurant was prospering again, according to a 2011 San Francisco Chronicle story.

Del Monte attended San Francisco schools and after graduation went to work briefly for his father at his North Beach restaurant. But even in his teens he was interested in playing the stock market. And he was good at it. By 1929 at age 23, he was worth a million dollars, according to the San Francisco Chronicle story.

He lost the money but around the same time he gained a wife: a knockout known as Vera Minetti. They eloped to Reno in 1935 and they were married for 57 years until she died. They never had children. While his true passion was playing the stocks, he also ran a San Francisco Bay Area theater for years, according to published reports.

Del Monte’s death leaves a void in the city’s history.

Ruth Newman was the oldest remaining survivor of the earthquake before her death last summer. She was 113.

Newman was 4 years old when the quake struck in the early morning of April 18, 1906. She died July 29 at her home in Pebble Beach, California, the coastal town where she and her late husband moved to after living in nearby Pacific Grove, said her daughter Beverly Dodds.

Newman never attended the annual earthquake commemorations events in San Francisco, which include gatherings at Lotta’s Fountain in downtown before dawn, because she preferred to sleep in rather than rise before dawn to attend, her daughter said.

But Del Monte did over the years. In 2010 he was the only survivor who made it to Lotta’s Fountain, riding in the back of the city’s big black, 1930 Lincoln convertible.

More than 1,000 people were killed in the earthquake and fires. According to the U.S. Geological Survey, measurements of the quake have ranged from magnitude 7.7 to 8.3.

“The common thread I would draw with all of these survivors is they had a unique, dry wry sense of humor as anyone would have at being so rudely tossed out of bed at 5:11 in the morning,” said organizer Lee Houskeeper. “But none could compare to Bill. He had absolutely the sharpest mind of anybody I’ve ever known. A sharp mind, a sharp sense of humor and he was a complete flirt. My guess is there are a lot of heartbroken nurses out there today.”

The post Last survivor of 1906 San Francisco earthquake dies at 109 appeared first on WTOP.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Taxpayer dollars for office space and other expenses incurred by ex-presidents who earn lucrative speaking fees would be limited under a bill approved Monday by the House.

The bill, approved on a voice vote, is aimed at former presidents such as Bill Clinton and George W. Bush who earn millions of dollars through speeches, book deals or other income.

U.S. taxpayers paid a total of $3.5 million in 2014 in pensions and benefits to the four living former presidents, including $1.3 million for Bush and $950,000 for Clinton, according to a report by the Congressional Research Service. Most of that money was for sprawling office space for Bush in Dallas and Clinton in New York.

Clinton earned more than $100 million for speeches between 2001 and 2013, while Bush has earned at least $15 million since leaving office in 2009, according to a report by the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee.

The House bill would set presidential pensions at $200,000 a year, nearly the same as the current amount, with an additional $200,000 set aside for office space and other expenses. The bill would reduce expense payments by $1 for every dollar above $400,000 earned by a former president.

Under the legislation, ex-presidents who earn more than $600,000 a year would not receive federal funds for office expenses or travel. Presidential pensions would not be affected by the amount of income earned. The bill would not affect Secret Service protection for ex-presidents or their families.

Rep. Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, chairman of the House oversight panel, called the bill a simple matter of fairness.

“This bipartisan bill recognizes the reality that most former presidents are wealthy individuals not in need of subsidies from the American taxpayer,” Chaffetz said. “It ends a needless government handout to former presidents making millions of dollars upon leaving office.”

A 2014 report by the Congressional Research Service said taxpayers paid more than $420,000 that year for Bush’s 8,237-square-feet office in Dallas. Clinton’s 8,300-square-feet space in New York cost nearly $415,000.

Taxpayers also shelled out nearly $180,000 for office space in Houston for former President George H.W. Bush and nearly $110,000 for work space in Atlanta for Jimmy Carter.

The bill now goes to the Senate. Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, has introduced a similar measure. Co-sponsors include Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, a GOP presidential candidate.

___

Follow Matthew Daly: http://twitter.com/MatthewDalyWDC

The post House approves bill to cap expenses for ex-presidents appeared first on WTOP.

BERRYVILLE, Va. (AP) — Fewer farmers in Virginia reported losing livestock to coyotes in fiscal year 2015.

The Winchester Star (http://bit.ly/1OXaNay) reports during the past year, farms lost 218 sheep and 60 calves — a 24 percent decrease in sheep losses and a 24 percent decrease in calf losses.

Chad Fox, district supervisor for Wildlife Services with the U.S. Department of Agriculture in Christiansburg, says no farms in Frederick or Clarke counties reported coyote predation during that period.

Fox says the USDA’s program to help prevent coyote predation was funded in 1990 after the animals became a problem in the mid-1980s.

To prevent further issues, Fox’s department recommends better fencing, moving livestock to different pastures and keeping them closer to human habitation. He says farmers should also guard animals such as dogs and donkeys.

___

Information from: The Winchester Star, http://www.winchesterstar.com

The post Coyote predation on the decline in Virginia appeared first on WTOP.

Though it might be nice to have a car for some occasions, there are plenty of people for whom owning or leasing a vehicle just isn’t worth it. Ford thinks it can appeal to those who might want their own wheels but don’t want to bear the burden of paying for it alone, with a new lease-sharing program it’s preparing to test.

Starting next month in Austin, the Ford Credit Link pilot will offer leases on vehicles to groups of between three and six people, the company announced today at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit, reports Biz Beats blog at the The Dallas Morning News.

“Lease groups can reserve drive time, check vehicle status, keep up with maintenance, communicate with each other, view their account, and make payments through a vehicle plug-in device and app,” Ford says.

Leases are only for 24 months and will be available at three Austin dealerships.

“Austin is a progressive city with a rich demographic mix. It has effective public transportation, and consumers who use various mobility options but may not need a full vehicle lease to meet their transportation needs,” David McClelland, Ford Credit executive vice president, marketing and sales, said. “This combination makes Austin a good place to test Ford Credit Link.”

It’s an interesting idea, though it could also provide fodder for college roommate fates on a level beyond the usual disagreements over who refuses to wash the dishes for weeks on end. Being stuck in a lease with an friend who turns out to be irresponsible could be a particularly uncomfortable situation, we’d imagine.

Nine retailers, including CVS and Rite Aid, have recalled two flavors of store-branded children’s liquid cold medicine over a potential overdose risk.

The Perrigo Company medicine, sold nationally under a number of brand names, contains a dose cup with incorrect markings that could lead to an overdose, the manufacturer announced on Monday.

The recall covers batches of children’s grape liquid and three batches of its children’s cherry liquid cough medicine sold in 4-ounce bottles with dosage cups.

Sunmark, Rite-Aid, Topcar, Kroger, GoodSense, Dollar General, Care One, and CVS pulled the store-branded cough medicine from their shelves.

Giant and Stop & Shop were the first retailers to remove the medication, under the Care One brand, last week.

An overdose of the medication may cause hyper excitability, rapid eye movements, changes in muscle reflexes, ataxia, dystonia, hallucinations, stupor, and coma.

Additionally, Perrigo warns that too much of the cold medicine can cause nausea, vomiting, tachycardia, irregular heartbeat, seizures, respiratory depression, and death can also occur with overdose.

So far, Perrigo says it has not received any reports of overdoses related to the medication.

“There have been no reports of adverse events to Perrigo as a result of the incorrect dosage markings,” Joseph Papa, CEO of Perrigo, said in a statement. “Perrigo is taking this action to maintain the highest possible product quality standards for our retail customers and consumers. We are taking this action because it is the right thing to do.”

The recalled medication can be identified by the following labels, SKUs, and expiration dates:

Hundreds of thousands of residents in five states and one U.S. territory will receive a two-year reprieve from having to use an additional form of identification when going through airport security, as the Department of Homeland Security extended the deadline for state drivers licenses to meet REAL ID standards. 

Homeland Security secretary Jeh Johnson announced on Friday a schedule for the final phase of implementation of minimum security standards for state-issued driver’s licenses and photo IDs.

Effective Jan. 28, 2018, air travelers with a driver’s license or identification card issued by a state that does not meet the requirements of the REAL ID Act must present an alternative form of identification acceptable to the Transportation Security Administration in order to board a commercial domestic flight.

Of course, the Dept. also provided some exceptions, noting that if a state has been granted an extension to comply with the Act, the effective date may not apply.

Currently, 23 states are fully compliant with the REAL ID Act, and the Department has used its authority to grant states extensions when they demonstrate steps toward compliance. The remaining 27 states and territories have been granted extensions for a period of time to become compliant.

Six states and territories – Illinois, Minnesota, Missouri, New Mexico, Washington, and American Samoa – are noncompliant and do not currently have extensions.

With the release of the timeline, these states and territories will receive a defacto extension until 2018.

The requirements under the Act have been hotly debated in many states, with some claiming the law violates consumers’ privacy, even passing laws barring motor vehicle departments from complying with the law.

Under the standards, licenses are required to be equipped with “machine readable” technology, like a chip or a magnetic strip, to store residents’ personal information.

The information will eventually be shared through a system administered by the American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators, allowing states to access information from other states.

While the federal government can’t force states to adopt identification standards, it can force their hands in other ways, mainly determining that current IDs aren’t sufficient enough to pass through airport security.

If state IDs fail to comply with REAL ID standards, federal agencies can’t accept them as standalone proof of identification. The final phase of the DHS plan is access to commercial aircraft.

The Department’s timeline is as follows:
• Effective immediately: The Department of Homeland Security will conduct outreach to educate the traveling public about the timeline below, and continue engagements with states to encourage compliance with REAL ID standards.
• Starting July 15, 2016: TSA, in coordination with airlines and airport stakeholders, will begin to issue web-based advisories and notifications to the traveling public.
• Starting December 15, 2016: TSA will expand outreach at its airport checkpoints through signage, handouts, and other methods.
• Starting January 22, 2018: Passengers with a driver’s license issued by a state that is still not compliant with the REAL ID Act (and has not been granted an extension) will need to show an alternative form of acceptable identification for domestic air travel to board their flight.
• Starting October 1, 2020: Every air traveler will need a REAL ID-compliant license, or another acceptable form of identification, for domestic air travel.

This afternoon, someone who does social media for the shoe brand Crocs had an amazing idea. What if they joined the rest of the Internet in remembering musician and all-around starman David Bowie publicly on Twitter? What if they took one of his famous makeup looks and applied it to a white Crocs shoe? Yes, this is a thing that actually happened.

Whether it’s the death of an almost universally respected celebrity or the anniversary of an historic event, brands always want to hop on the Twitter trend train to visibility-town. At least in this case, the person behind the tweet was actually aware of who David Bowie was and tried to be on topic, but ended up making what looks like a very orthopedic Gatorade ad.

The original tweet has been taken down, but multiple users preserved it for posterity in screen grab form.

There, there, readers, it’ll all be okay. Here’s a rather video that serves as an aesthetic counterpoint to Crocs to soothe your eyes and soul.

FURTHER READING:
10 Examples Of Why Companies Should Just Avoid Twitter Altogether