Auto Warranty Fraud.

Attorney General Chris Koster warns consumers about new tactics businesses are using to try to trick people into purchasing bogus auto warranty products of limited value. Koster filed lawsuits against six such businesses Friday.

According to Koster, the businesses marketed what appeared to be "extended auto warranties" to consumers, but actually were "service contracts" or "automotive additives." Many consumers did not realize they were not receiving auto warranties until they received the package in the mail. The companies sold the products as service contracts and auto additives and avoiding Missouri’s service contract laws, which provide some protection for consumers.

Customers who purchased "service contracts" often later realized the significant limits to coverage. Many contracts contain a 30 to 90 day, 1,000 mile period during which consumers cannot make claims, because that is considered a "pre-existing condition" of the vehicle. However, the extended service contract is only fully refundable within the first 30 days. Customers asked for a cancellation or refund when they discovered the provider would not pay a claim after that initial period, but were refused refunds because they were not within the 30-day cancellation timeframe. Many of the contracts have also been promoted as extending a warranty for 7 years and 100,000 miles. These companies do not tell the consumer that the coverage maybe limited to the actual cash value of the vehicle. For an older, high-mileage vehicle, the coverage may soon be less than the price paid by the consumer for the contract.

For companies using the auto additive scam, customers were sent a bottle of fluid for their car’s transmission, engine, or cooling system, with instructions to immediately add it to the vehicle. Customers were instructed to install the additive in order for the warranty to be valid. But they later were denied a refund and told the purchase is non-refundable if the product has been used. In effect, the companies encouraged consumers to use the fluids immediately, knowing that would nullify their opportunity for a refund. Many consumers did not request the additive and did not realize they would be sent this additive until they received the packet.

"These businesses are using a ‘bait and switch’ scheme and preying on consumers’ fears of not having adequate vehicle warranty coverage," Koster said. "They lured vulnerable consumers into purchasing ‘auto warranties,’ and then switched to sell them into service contracts and auto additive warranties with inferior or negligible repair coverage, while making it almost impossible for the consumers to cancel the contract or get refunds.

"I believe this auto warranty business continues to be rife with fraud, and Missouri continues to be at the center of this deception," Koster said. "This office will continue to pursue and prosecute businesses such as these that target unsuspecting, innocent consumers."

Happy Birthday, Gitmo

by Dafna Linzer, ProPublica -

Much has occurred with regards to Guantanamo Bay and many decisions are yet to come.

But there is another milestone worthy of note: Friday marked the eighth anniversary of the creation of the legal foundation for the prison and the second-tier justice system established to try terrorism suspects there.

On Nov. 13, 2001, President George W. Bush signed what has become known as Military Order No. 1 in what he termed a Global War on Terrorism. Without informing his national security adviser, his secretary of state, his chief of staff or his communications director, Bush approved what would appear three days later in the Federal Register as: "Military Order of November 13, 2001: Detention, Treatment, and Trial of Certain Non-Citizens in the War Against Terrorism."

The few people inside the former administration who knew about the order were instrumental in its creation, including former Vice President Dick Cheney, his lawyer David Addington, former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, former Attorney General John Ashcroft and a young, and then unknown, lawyer inside the Justice Department named John Yoo.

The order created a separate track of justice for any foreign citizen picked up on a global battlefield with the Pentagon serving as jailer, prosecutor and judge.

The findings, drafted in secret, also laid the way for many of the asserted war powers that the Bush administration later relied on.

"It was a foundational building block of the war on terror’s legal architecture," said Matthew Waxman, a professor at Columbia Law School who worked on detainee issues during the Bush administration.

But those blocks began to crumble -- under legal challenge, political opposition and global outrage over a prison that President Obama would come to describe as a stain on America’s "moral authority."

Detainees began arriving in Guantanamo two months after Bush signed the order and almost immediately world leaders lined up to condemn the facility. In a landmark 2006 ruling, the Supreme Court ruled that the military commission system that had been in place for Guantanamo Bay violated U.S. and international law, and that the Geneva Conventions applied to the detainees.

Detainees now have rights to challenge their detention and the military commissions have been revamped.

All told, since Military Order No. 1 came into effect, the prison at Guantanamo has ballooned in size and notoriety. Nearly 800 detainees have been housed there. Six have died there; more than 500 have gone home. More than 200 are still there, in limbo.

I made a startlin’ discovery the other day. I needed a piece of string. As I dug through this drawer and that, the realization that there was not decent lengths of string in the house struck me. How could I have overlooked stockin’ up on such an essential household item?

We’ve all seen those big balls of string collected and sittin’ on display. All I needed was a couple a foot of decent sized string.

I suppose it happened durin’ one of those clear- out-the-junk frenzies that happen ever few years. That last bit of string was thrown out with that bolt I was lookin’ for the other day and couldn’t find. Apparently my junk drawers have been neglected and need restockin’.

I’m makin’ a list.

This is some fact, but mostly,

Just Jake Talkin.’

---

To Your Good Health

By Paul G. Donohue, M.D.

New Treatments for Rheumatoid Arthritis

DEAR DR. DONOHUE: I developed rheumatoid arthritis four years ago. I am still working, lifting 70 pounds and pushing up to 150 pounds in a handcart, and I work 10 hours a day. I had been on methotrexate, but it made me sick. Then I went on hydroxychloroquine. Next was Enbrel, and now rituximab. I am a 47-year-old woman and have worked 22 years at my job. My insurance company is denying me coverage for rituximab because I don’t take methotrexate. So I have hit a wall. People tell me to write to you for a cure. Is there one? -- G.G.

ANSWER: There isn’t a cure for rheumatoid arthritis, but so many newer treatments exist that control of it is possible for most patients. Rheumatoid arthritis is the less common kind of arthritis. It usually strikes between the ages of 35 and 50, and more women have it than men.

Rheumatoid arthritis, unlike osteoarthritis -- the common kind of arthritis -- is more than a joint disease. It’s a systemic disease. That means the entire body is affected by it, and many organs can be involved -- the lungs, the lung coverings, the heart, blood vessels, eyes, spleen and bones. Systemic symptoms include fatigue and weakness. The hands, wrists, knees, feet, elbows and neck are the joints most affected. They become swollen, red, hot, painful and often deformed. The goals of treatment are relief of pain, reduction of inflammation, stopping joint destruction and maintaining joint function.

There are some things you can do on your own. Exercise is important, but your job calls for exhausting physical labor, something that’s not good for rheumatoid arthritis. Will your employer switch you to another position? Rest stops the stress on joints. You can try taking omega-3 fatty acids, found in fish and obtainable in pills. It has helped some.

Nowadays, the trend is to start rheumatoid arthritis patients on the most powerful drugs so joints don’t become permanently damaged. You have taken some -- methotrexate and Enbrel. Rituximab (Rituxan), usually combined with methotrexate, has been quite effective for rheumatoid arthritis that’s unresponsive to other medicines.