Consumer Protection
Payday loans and ICE: Minnesota has tamed both
Citizen activists resist ICE, Minnesota interest caps put an end to legal payday loans
James R. Hood
James R. Hood, an editor and consumer-affairs journalist with more than five decades of experience, has held senior editorial leadership roles at The Associated Press, United Press International, Zapnews and ConsumerAffairs.
Watch for energized snowstorm prices, consumer groups warn
Snow and frigid temps energize utilities to pile on the charges
Consumer Protection
Trump appointees go easy on fin-tech payday loans that trap consumers
Payday-style loan apps are getting an easy ride from Trump's agencies
Health
Chatbots crowding out psychiatrists
Unregulated, unlicensed, untrained apps are treating troubled patients
Consumer Protection
Solar panels: they're bright shiny objects but they throw off a lot of glare
Problems with financing, installations and service lead a growing list of complaints
AI/Privacy
Musk's DOGE improperly accessed Social Security data: court filing
Lawmakers calling for prosecution of those responsible
Money
Whatever happened to the Trump Phone?
There's still no phone although Trump Mobile is offering a bring-your-own-phone wireless plan
Health
Microdosing GLP-1: Too little of a good thing?
Marketers and their publicists are hawking tiny doses of GLP-1 but there's no evidence it's effective
ICE’s $28.7 billion budget fuels unprecedented domestic surveillance expansion
Massive funding increase is being used to build one of the largest surveillance apparatuses ever
Consumer Protection
Americans lose hundreds yearly on subscriptions; now, a bipartisan bill targets ‘dark patterns’
Left for dead, Unsubscribe Act returns in new bipartisan bill
Money
When is a payday loan not a payday loan? Depends on who and when you ask
Federal consumer protection officials have changed their tune since Trump took over
Insurance
Surprise! Your health insurance just got way more expensive
Millions of Americans discover the enhanced ACA subsidies they’d been counting on have quietly vanished