Domino's CEO: Why Put Calories On The Menu If 90% Of Our Customers Never Enter The Store?

Domino's CEO: Why Put Calories On The Menu If 90% Of Our Customers Never Enter The Store?: "

As regulations requiring all restaurants with 20 or more outlets to label their in-restaurant menus with calorie info go nationwide, the CEO of Domino's Pizza says the idea -- as constructed by the federal government -- just doesn't fit a business like his, given the variable nature of pizza and its many toppings and the fact that store owners are paying for sign updates that most customers will never see.

J. Patrick Doyle, the pizza chain's president and CEO, lays out his objections to the law in an op/ed piece for TheHill.com, but here are the highlights of his argument:

* 90% of Domino's orders are placed online or by phone, meaning that adding those calorie counts to the menu is virtually pointless.

* Doyle claims the FDA regulation doesn't account for foods like pizza that have a vast range of calorie possibilities, depending on what the customer orders and how many people share the pizza. He says the law requires Domino's to give calories for a whole pizza, while customers would rather it be done by the slice.

* In places like New York, where calorie counts have been on the menu for quite some time, Doyle says the company has seen no change in ordering habits.

* While there are many, many Domino's around the country, Doyle says that the average franchise owner has four stores and half of the franchisees only own one. But because they fall under the Domino's umbrella, they are each required to have the calorie counts.

Concludes Doyle:

It is absurd to impose rules that will increase costs to business in a manner that will never be seen by 90 percent of our customers, and will be so confusing as to be ignored by the very few who ever see it.. We strongly support the spirit of what the FDA is trying to provide to consumers. The FDA should let us continue to give customers relevant nutritional information where they actually order, in an efficient and fair way, so we can get back to growing our businesses.

On menu regulations, government must do better [TheHill.com]

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Ball Park & Oscar Mayer Square Off In Court Over Who Has The Best Wiener

Ball Park & Oscar Mayer Square Off In Court Over Who Has The Best Wiener: "

'Let the wiener wars begin.' That's what a judge in a legal battle between the nation's two biggest hot dog brands declared earlier today, as the makers of Oscar Mayer and Ball Park franks each accused the other of misleading and deceptive advertising practices.

Lawyers for Ball Park's parent company Sara Lee, and Kraft Foods, the folks behind Oscar Mayer hot dogs, have been suing and countersuing each other for two years, each alleging that the other is lying to consumers about the qualities of their product while unfairly disparaging their competitors.

It all began in 2009 when Sara Lee sued over Oscar Mayer ads claiming that its dogs had bested Ball Park in a national taste test. Sara Lee lawyers say the test in question was less than scientific. 'They were served boiled hot dogs on a white paper plate,' adding that Ball Park dogs are intended to be eaten on a bun and might taste overly salty otherwise.

That same year, Kraft sued over Ball Park ads that called the hot dogs 'America's Best Franks' and claimed that other hot dogs 'aren't even in the same league.'

In addition to these allegations, the court will hear Sara Lee's arguments that Oscar Mayer Jumbo Beef Franks are not '100 percent pure beef' as advertised.

From the AP:

Kraft defends the '100 percent pure beef' tag, saying its intent was to state that the only meat used is beef. Some industry hot dogs include a mix of turkey, pork, chicken or other meats. Kraft further argues that the 'pure beef' label is justified because surveys show a perception among some consumers that hot dogs contain 'mystery meats.'

The judge tried to interject some common sense into the trial.

'Don't we have here a couple of big hot dog companies just saying they are the best?' he asked. 'Is there something more unusual going on here than what goes on every day?'

The judge pointed out the pot-kettle nature of the lawsuits when the Ball Park lawyer brought up the aforementioned issue of the allegedly tainted taste test around which Oscar Mayer based its ad campaign. He noted that Ball Park had done something similar by running ads citing an award given to the hot dog by a group of 10 top San Francisco chefs.

'And how would ten chefs in San Francisco know what the best hot dog is when they have never been to Chicago or tasted a Chicago hot dog?' asked the judge.

Dogs day in court: 'Let the wiener wars begin' [Chicago Tribune]

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Government Wants Organic Small-Batch Ice Cream Maker To Stop Making Organic Small-Batch Ice Cream

Government Wants Organic Small-Batch Ice Cream Maker To Stop Making Organic Small-Batch Ice Cream: "

Nice Cream is a small ice cream company in Chicago that does something strange and daring in the modern food landscape: they make and sell ice cream using only ingredients with names that ordinary people can pronounce. Ingredients such as 'cream,' 'eggs,' and 'pie.' The tiny company was a classic recession success story: a laid-off teacher experiments at home with her Cuisinart ice cream maker, and with hard work and creativity creates a delicious product that's eventually sold at Whole Foods. But the state of Illinois doesn't really see it that way, and Nice Cream will have to shut down or make drastic changes to its products and process in order to stay legal. They're first, and other small-batch ice cream makers could be next.

The problem is that regulations are designed for industrial food production, not tiny companies making gourmet products. Illinois requires pasteurization and regular bacteria tests for perishable prepared food like ice cream, and the company rents kitchen space and doesn't have the required pasteurization equipment. Acquiring that equipment would cost an estimated $40,000. There is a way around it: use pre-made ice cream mix and fruit syrups instead of the current pronounceable ingredients and fresh fruit. That's not a product that fans are going to pay $8.99 a pint for.

Local ice cream makers face shutdown by state [Chicago Tribune]

Nice Cream [Official Site]

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Atlanta Teacher Exposes Teacher-Aided Cheating On Standardized Tests

Atlanta Teacher Exposes Teacher-Aided Cheating On Standardized Tests: "

Incentivized standardized tests are designed hold teachers and schools accountable for student performance, but they also provide plenty of motivation to artificially inflate test scores. A teacher in Atlanta helped expose her colleagues of doing just that.

CNN reports her suspicion helped lead to the revelation that 178 teachers and administrators at 44 Atlanta schools were somehow involved in score inflation.

The teacher, who was a witness in a state investigation, said she suspected chicanery when other teachers' students started making her kids -- and in turn, her -- look bad:

'I started believing that I wasn't a good teacher. Other teachers were coming in with these perfect scores and mine are not so perfect. I mean they weren't bad, they were just normal.'

When the teacher initially brought her concerns to her principal about how kids who couldn't read or count did so well on the tests, he dismissed her insinuation, calling the kids 'good guessers.' Now some teachers and administrators are facing criminal charges, having guessed incorrectly that they wouldn't be caught.

Cheating report confirms teacher's suspicions
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Department Of Justice, Four States File Fraud Suit Against For-Profit College Company

Department Of Justice, Four States File Fraud Suit Against For-Profit College Company: "

The for-profit college industry has earned a reputation for shady methods of operation, such as peddling flimsy academic credentials for high prices and minimal effort in the classroom, and now the government is taking one of the largest corporations in the industry to court.

The New York Times reports the U.S. Department of Justice and four states are suing the Education Management Corporation (EDMC), which operates the Art Institutes, Brown Mackie College and several other institutions, seeking $11 billion. The plaintiffs, which include California, Illinois, Indiana and Florida, contend that EDMC received $11 billion financial aid from 2003 to 2011.

The suit accuses EDMC of violating a federal law against paying recruiters based on the number of students they manage to enroll. Each year, EDMC certified that it was in compliance with the law.

A lawyer who's filing the suit says EDMC is representative of system-wide exploitation:

'The depth and breadth of the fraud laid out in the complaint are astonishing. It spans the entire company -- from the ground level in over 100 separate institutions up to the most senior management -- and accounts for nearly all the revenues the company has realized since 2003.'

EDMC countered in a statement:

'The pursuit of this legal action by the federal government and a handful of states is flat-out wrong. EDMC's 2003 compensation plan followed the law in both its design and implementation, as EDMC's response to the governments' complaint will show.

'Federal regulations issued in 2002 permitted companies to consider enrollments in admission officer compensation, so long as enrollments were not the sole factor considered. To ensure compliance with this regulation, EDMC worked closely with outside experts in both human resources and education law to develop a plan that required consideration of five quality factors along with enrollment numbers to determine salaries.'

If you've studied at a for-profit college, was your education worthwhile?

For-Profit College Group Sued as U.S. Lays Out Wide Fraud [The New York Times]

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Department Of Justice, Four States File Fraud Suit Against For-Profit College Company

Department Of Justice, Four States File Fraud Suit Against For-Profit College Company: "

The for-profit college industry has earned a reputation for shady methods of operation, such as peddling flimsy academic credentials for high prices and minimal effort in the classroom, and now the government is taking one of the largest corporations in the industry to court.

The New York Times reports the U.S. Department of Justice and four states are suing the Education Management Corporation (EDMC), which operates the Art Institutes, Brown Mackie College and several other institutions, seeking $11 billion. The plaintiffs, which include California, Illinois, Indiana and Florida, contend that EDMC received $11 billion financial aid from 2003 to 2011.

The suit accuses EDMC of violating a federal law against paying recruiters based on the number of students they manage to enroll. Each year, EDMC certified that it was in compliance with the law.

A lawyer who's filing the suit says EDMC is representative of system-wide exploitation:

'The depth and breadth of the fraud laid out in the complaint are astonishing. It spans the entire company -- from the ground level in over 100 separate institutions up to the most senior management -- and accounts for nearly all the revenues the company has realized since 2003.'

EDMC countered in a statement:

'The pursuit of this legal action by the federal government and a handful of states is flat-out wrong. EDMC's 2003 compensation plan followed the law in both its design and implementation, as EDMC's response to the governments' complaint will show.

'Federal regulations issued in 2002 permitted companies to consider enrollments in admission officer compensation, so long as enrollments were not the sole factor considered. To ensure compliance with this regulation, EDMC worked closely with outside experts in both human resources and education law to develop a plan that required consideration of five quality factors along with enrollment numbers to determine salaries.'

If you've studied at a for-profit college, was your education worthwhile?

For-Profit College Group Sued as U.S. Lays Out Wide Fraud [The New York Times]

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Macy's Admits It's Totally Peeping On You In The Fitting Room

Macy's Admits It's Totally Peeping On You In The Fitting Room: "

If you live in Florida and feel like someone's peeping on you in the department store fitting room to make sure you're not thieving, well, they could be!

Local 10 News in Tampa Bay checked into a certain Macy's and discovered many of their privacy doors were installed backward, with the slats facing downward instead of up, thus allowing an outsider to peer in.

When they brought this to the attention of Macy's, the store was all like, yep! We do that!

"Retailers work hard to strike a balance between preserving the privacy of customers, providing customer service, maintaining customer safety in fitting rooms, and deterring the theft of merchandise," said Melissa Goff, Vice President of Media Relations & Cause Marketing at Macy's. "Macy's is continually reviewing our policies and procedures to ensure we are serving the best interests of all of our customers. We strive to make customers feel safe and secure at Macy's."

They apparently do this all across the country, whenever states allow it by law.

The news station says the issue came to light when a former employee who worked at loss prevention realized the doors were backward, and reported it to his managers. He claims he was soon retaliated against for his report, and eventually fired, ostensibly for other reasons.

F.S.S. 877.26 allows stores to monitor customers from outside a dressing room, but it's pretty uncool that stores aren't telling customers they're doing so in that way.

Other stores who permit the backwards door slat method are Saks Fifth Avenue, Ann Taylor Loft and Dillard's.

Hidden cameras expose privacy problems in Macy's fitting rooms [WTSP10 News]

Many US ISPs in epidemic of covert search-hijacking of their customers

Many US ISPs in epidemic of covert search-hijacking of their customers: "The Electronic Frontier Foundation worked with UC Berkeley's International Computer Science Institute to uncover a widespread program of search-hijacking by American ISPs. Many US ISPs run covert proxies that redirect certain lucrative search queries (made by customers who believe that they are searching Google or another search engine) to their preferred suppliers, pocketing an affiliate fee for delivering their customers. Participating ISPs, which include Cavalier, Cogent, Frontier, Fuse, DirecPC, RCN, and Wide Open West (Charter used to do this, but appear to have stopped), did not disclose the practice to their customers, who were meant to believe that they were getting the search results that their preferred search-engines had presented.

EFF and ICSI uncovered the vendor that supplied the hijacking software, a company called Paxfire.

Using EFF's HTTPS Everywhere Firefox extension and a search-engine that permits HTTPS logins (such as Google or DuckDuckGo) will prevent this sort of hijacking.

The published research papers did not identify the controller of the proxy servers that were receiving the traffic, but parallel investigations by the ICSI Networking Group and EFF have since revealed a company called Paxfire as the main actor behind this interception. Paxfire's privacy policy says that it may retain copies of users' 'queries', a vague term that could be construed to mean either the domain names that they look up or the searches they conduct, or both. The redirections mostly occur transparently to the user and few if any of the affected ISP customers are likely to have ever heard of Paxfire, let alone consented to this collection of their communications with search engines.

The proxies in question are operated either directly by Paxfire, or by the ISPs using web proxies provided by Paxfire. Major users of the Paxfire system include Cavalier, Cogent, Frontier, Fuse, DirecPC, RCN, and Wide Open West. Charter also used Paxfire in the past, but appears to have discontinued this practice.

Why do they do this?


In short, the purpose appears to be monetization of users' searches. ICSI Networking's investigation has revealed that Paxfire's HTTP proxies selectively siphon search requests out of the proxied traffic flows and redirect them through one or more affiliate marketing programs, presumably resulting in commission payments to Paxfire and the ISPs involved. The affiliate programs involved include Commission Junction, the Google Affiliate Network, LinkShare, and Ask.com. When looking up brand names such as 'apple', 'dell', 'groupon', and 'wsj', the affiliate programs direct the queries to the corresponding brands' websites or to search assistance pages instead of providing the intended search engine results page.

Widespread Hijacking of Search Traffic in the United States

(Image: 2005_South Africa_Centurion_DSCF0242, a Creative Commons Attribution Share-Alike (2.0) image from hmvh's photostream)

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Delta And US Airways Will Refund "Taxes" Collected During FAA Shutdown

Delta And US Airways Will Refund "Taxes" Collected During FAA Shutdown: "

Delta was the first airline to start giving out refunds for the extra money they've been scalping from passengers while the FAA remains shut down. After the airline made the announcement Monday, US Airways on Tuesday said they would follow suit.

Until its mandate is re-extended, the FAA has no authority to collect federal taxes, which are assessed on each passenger's ticket. Most airlines opted to raise airfares the same amount as the tax amount, which is essentially a hidden fare increase.

Last week the IRS asked airlines to please give people refunds for the money and said that airlines can do so, just like when a refundable ticket is exchanged.

The refunds will apply to travelers who bought tickets on or before July 22 and flew between July 22 and whenever the FAA's lights go back on.

Delta has not said when the refunds are going to start coming, but a spokesperson told USA Today that, 'it should be relatively soon.' Yeah, when an airline tells you it should by any time now, it's time to break out a thick book.

Delta to refund taxes for travel during shutdown [The Dallas Morning News] (Thanks to Michael!)

US Airways joins Delta in refunding ticket taxes paid before FAA shutdown [Washington Post]

PREVIOUSLY

Senators Blast Airlines For Profiteering During Tax Holiday

How To Get A Tax Refund From JetBlue

Airlines Not Passing On Savings Of Not Having To Pay FAA Taxes

Delta, Continental, Others Jack Up Fares After Federal Tax Takes Vacation

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Ticketmaster Makes Deal With Walmart, Devil Confused As To Whose Soul To Collect First

Ticketmaster Makes Deal With Walmart, Devil Confused As To Whose Soul To Collect First: "

Earlier today the nation's largest retailer, Walmart, announced a deal with the nation's least essential company, Ticketmaster, to sell overpriced tickets via in-store video screens at hundreds of Walmarts around the country.

'By integrating ticketing into Walmart stores, we are able to offer fans this very convenient way to learn about upcoming events, purchase and take home tickets without leaving their neighborhood,' said Nathan Hubbard, CEO of Ticketmaster about the unholy alliance between the two companies.

The ticket-vending displays will be popping up at various Walmarts in California, New York, New Jersey, Texas, North Carolina, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Maine, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania, Indiana and Florida.

Ticketmaster says it will be coming up with exclusive deals for tickets (no doubt promoted by its parent company Live Nation at Live Nation-owned venues) for Walmart shoppers.

Both companies are perennial entries in the Consumerist Worst Company In America tournament. Ticketmaster has made the competition's Final Four for several years in a row, an made a good showing in the 2010 Finals before losing out on the Golden Poo to Comcast.

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What If Food Labels Looked Like This?

What If Food Labels Looked Like This?: "

Maybe the real reason Americans are so fat is because our food labels are so ugly. If they were easier on the eye to read, maybe more people would read them and make better eating choices. That was the idea in mind behind a recent design contest at the University of California, Berkeley, School of Journalism aiming to give the standard government-mandated food label a much-needed makeover. The winning entry uses colored boxes for each ingredient that are sized in proportion to how much of each is inside the package.

The entry submitted by designer Renee Walker is a big improvement in terms of readability. The simple graphical approach makes it easier to understand what's inside. The question is whether it would be able to deal with products that have a more complicated series of ingredients. You can look through the juried selections yourself and vote for the best one by sharing it on Facebook. The winners will be forwarded onto the FDA for consideration.

Rethink the food label [News21]

Designing a Better Food Label [NYT]

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How Long Should Paid-Off Medical Debt Be Part Of Your Credit Report?

How Long Should Paid-Off Medical Debt Be Part Of Your Credit Report?: "

This is very good news because. I owe Group Death $$$ for a eye prescription that is High Way Robbery. The charge was just for the prescription not including eye glasses.

Right now, any medical debt that gets sent to a collections agency can remain on your credit report for up to seven years, even after it's been paid off. This ding on your credit score can be the difference between qualifying for a loan or being denied. That's why the House Committee on Financial Services is looking at a bill that would erase some paid medical debts from folks' credit reports.

The Medical Debt Responsibility Act, introduced earlier this summer by Congressman Heath Shuler of North Carolina, would require the three major credit bureaus -- Equifax, TransUnion and Experian -- to remove records of medical debt of up to $2,500 within 45 days of being paid off.

'Small amounts of medical debt cause huge credit problems for millions of responsible, hard-working Americans who have suffered an illness or accident,' said Shuler when the legislation was first introduced. 'By keeping cleared medical debt off of credit reports, this bill will allow more Americans to have the credit score they deserve and need to buy homes and stimulate economic growth in their communities.'

Says Congresswoman Nydia Velazquez of NY, a co-sponsor of the bill, 'Medical debt is not a reliable indicator of credit risk, yet nearly a quarter of Americans have seen their credit scores plummet because of small, routine medical bills.'

A rep for the American Bankers Association argues that lenders have a right to know about an applicant's entire payment history, saying that while the debt the bureaus would be required to be remove 'is not major medical debt, but still, there are exceptions that seem to undermine the purpose of credit reports even if well-intended.'

The credit bureaus worry that, by deleting this information from a credit report, borrowers might qualify for loans they are not prepared to pay. 'Expunging predictive information is not in the best interest of consumers or credit granters -- both of which benefit when credit reports and scores are as accurate and predictive as possible,' reads a statement from VantageScore, a credit-scoring company developed by Experian, TransUnion and Equifax.

Where do you come down on this issue -- Is seven years too long for a paid-off doctor's bill to remain on a credit report? Is erasing the debt record after 45 days too soon?

Bill seeks to erase medical debt from credit reports [CNN Money]

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Inmate Ran $1 Million Credit Card Scam Using Cell Phone & Secret Shoppers

Inmate Ran $1 Million Credit Card Scam Using Cell Phone & Secret Shoppers: "

Armed with only an illegal cellphone and a cadre of secret shoppers, an inmate at the nation's largest single federal prison was able to coordinate upwards of $1 million in credit card fraud in the outside world.

According to a rather exhaustive piece in the Cleveland Plain-Dealer, the inmate, already serving time in New Jersey for credit card fraud, would spend up to 17 hours a day on his phone, calling directory assistance to ask for the numbers of people with names that matched those of his cohorts on the outside.

He'd then call these people, posing as a staffer from a utility or cable provider, trying to wrest even a small portion of identifying info -- birth date, some digits from their Social Security Number -- from them. Then he'd call up the credit card companies, often pretending to be a fraud investigator at the same company, trying to turn that scrap of information into all the relevant details he would later need. If the employee became suspicious, he would hang up and try again until he found someone who he could sweet talk.

Once he had all the info to steal someone's identity, he would once again contact the credit card folks, this time to either add one of his shopper's as an approved user on the card or to have his shoppers' name and info swapped in for the real user.

With that nasty business out of the way, the inmate's secret shopper crew could now go about their business of running up huge credit card tabs on the heisted accounts. If stores checked with the credit card providers, these shoppers would show up as approved users, so they were able to go about their business unimpeded.

The shoppers would go into stores with detailed list of things to purchase, which would then be sold to pre-arranged buyers for around half of the retail value, all of it profit to the criminals.

It wasn't until a detective from Ohio began investigating an incident at a local Lowe's, where one of the shoppers had purchased over $14,000 of stuff with someone else's card, that the inmate's plot began to unravel. The investigation would eventually involve the U.S. Attorney's office, the federal prison system and a wiretap on the inmate's phone.

After investigators figured out how the inmate was directing his crew from behind bars, they identified a handful of stores that were to be visited by the secret shoppers. The stores were to allow the transactions to go through while investigators followed the shoppers and other crew members to find out how the goods were being distributed.

When police finally swooped in, the inmate was found to have three phones -- it's not known if they were used in the scam -- along with notebooks full of names, credit card and Social Security Numbers.

Even after he was taken to Ohio to face these new charges, the inmate still managed to use the prison pay phone to continue his scheming. A search of his new prison cell turned up a six-page spreadsheet containing credit card information, a packet of receipts, canceled checks, bank statements and credit-card images.

He even attempted to pass himself off as a member of the U.S. Marshal's service to get himself transferred to another prison.

The inmate eventually pleaded guilty to wire fraud and ID theft charges and was sentenced to an additional 14 years in prison. Authorities have asked that he be labeled 'a serious telephone abuser' so that his access to prison pay phones will be limited.

Inmate's huge credit-card scam unravels when Bath Township detective connects dots [Clevand Plain Dealer]

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