Our vacation with friends at their timeshare in Puerto Vallarta clouded over the second day. After we lay on the beach for 15 minutes, Karen said, “OK, I want you to know that I’d love to lie on the beach under the sun and hear the ocean roar the first two weeks of every March.” Suddenly my vacation veered towards one of those marital collisions of competing interests, in this case her passion for sun-baked ocean frontage versus my passion for spring ski slopes. We investigated buying a timeshare and found the process more congenial than we expected and complex because our interests are complex. << MORE >>

Two days after our vacation began in Puerto Vallarta, the US State Department issued a travel alert for tourists in Mexican areas outside of Puerto Vallarta where violence has erupted from popular President Calderon’s assault on drug cartels. Under reported is that Calderon has balanced his enforcement with 300 treatment centers financed through drug money seized by Federales. Threatened cartels have attacked the centers, murdering 43 addicts and health care workers in Juarez. Imagine the two fisted power of smashing drug distribution from cartel criminals while reducing demand through treatment centers for the 22 million drug addicts in the U.S. << MORE >>

    We seemed fascinated with Olympic dreams realized or deflated by hundredths of a second. Ski slalom commentator Picabo Street reminds us of the chasm between gold and silver: years ago she won by a hundredth of a second over some little known skier, watching somewhere.
     For a few seconds I imagined myself wearing a U.S. Olympic jacket. As a lifeguard the summer after breaking my college’s swim records, I swaggered around with a whistle draped ...

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Our 33-year-old niece, Jill Marie McMullen, lost a courageous battle with cancer on Monday, February 8. Her faithful spirit shined through stories from family and friends making us wish we'd known her better. Since we moved from her Michigan hometown to the west coast when she was four, we knew her from glimpses during family visits or word-bites during distant sharing. We laughed about the time she and I tumbled into Deschutes River whitewater and I used my lifeguard skills to guide us to safety. Last year I thought about plunging into municipal bonds and she used her municipal bonding expertise to teach me about the financing.<< MORE >>

In early January my Clear Skies column reported on deceptive practices I uncovered after telephone conversations solicited by a direct mail postcard from EWS – Vehicle Services, www.extendedwarrantyservices.com. An agent offered to sell me a services contract for my Honda Civic. After investigating I filed complaints with the BBB in Chicago and the office of Washington’s Attorney General. My complaints demanded EWS cease deceptive mailings and telephone sales practices. What has happened since is the good and bad news about the power of consumer action. << MORE >>

When we moved here in 2001 the Wenatchee Valley Chamber of Commerce promised 300 days of sunshine, so I get depressed when our Christmas/News Years holiday haze hides my clear skies. My mood darkens when I read in the World that ozone pollutants are suspended in the aired when western winds blow in contaminated air from Asia. Mission Ridge’s snow sparkled views of the Northern Cascades lift my mood, but otherwise I obsess on ways to reclaim my 300 days of sunshine. Those obsessions have generated threads of ideas to clear up our skies and my gloominess. First I’ll list the threads and then weave them together. << MORE >>

Last week’s Empire Press profiled Tom Stahl’s fight to forestall genetically modified wheat from firms such as Monsanto in eastern Washington. Stahl believes growers would be disadvantaged, and I believe he’s right, not just because of gm wheat, but because business and regulatory practices have heaped burdens onto growers. The Wenatchee World recently reported lawsuits against Monsanto, which controls as much as 90 percent of some seed genetics. The practices began when Monsanto patented genetically modified seeds so they’d benefit growers with increased characteristics and benefit Monsanto because they couldn’t reproduce. The seeds increase yields and simplify life for growers who no longer have to save seeds to sew. Growers use whatever profit might be left after the harvest to buy Monsanto seeds next year. And growers can more efficiently apply herbicides such as Monsanto’s Round-Up since seeds are unaffected by it. << MORE >>

Recent agricultural layoffs that devastated the local Brewster area are further proof that communities suffer under weak immigration administrative systems and inadequate immigration policies. Substantial progress on immigration reform for our clear skies agricultural businesses is much closer than we may realize. Now is the time for us to support it, but it takes teamwork. Hiring legal workers requires governmental administrative systems. Never underestimate the damage ineffective administration can inflict. For example, until 2006, illegal alien felons in federal prisons were released to local communities. By 2009 ICE exported virtually every one. More importantly, Congress supports an Immigration Service program called E-Verify, an electronic employment verification system that uses an employee's I-9 form to verify work status within minutes. << MORE >>

    Deceptive mail advertising quickly lands in my recycle. One warranted attention, and complaints.
    EWS -- Vehicle Division mailed me an "IMPORTANT VEHICLE NOTICE" for my 2008 Honda. The front listed a Customer ID No. and Deadline Date: Jan 8, 2010. The back had: "Call Now to Activate your Vehicle Service Contract." Below that in bold, underlined words: "Your Risks: If you choose NOT to take action, you will be FINANCIALLY LIABLE .." Liable for what?
"Any repairs that are necessary after your warranty expiration date." The notice offered help: "ACT NOW"  You still have time to ACTIVATE extended out-of-warranty vehicle coverage." I decided to call after that prodigious deception.
    Mr. Harris answered and asked for my customer number. I asked, "Am I a customer?"
    "No," he said, "they're giving you the last chance to extend the warranty, so, how many miles on your car?"
    Based on my stated mileage, he proposed a 5-year, 100,000-mile warranty with a $260.50 down payment (after a $200 first-call discount), and $130.25 for 18 months, a total of $2,605.
    He advised me to buy, saying it's, "The smartest thing you can do. I guarantee you, you go into a dealer and they'll run you through a wringer at more than a $130 a month."
    I declined and called Sheri Freer in the finance department at my dealer, Apple Valley Honda. Based on the same mileage she quoted a similar payment plan that included Washington sales tax. Her total was $1932.12. Mr. Harris never mentioned taxes, and still quoted almost $700 more.
    Freer said they'd never hire a third party to contact customers. "If the warranty is ending, you may get a call from me as a courtesy." 
    Freer told me, "Companies can get owner and the VIN number from Washington's DOL, but they don't have the mileage or the warranty date."
    Using owner and VIN numbers from state information for marketing purposes is illegal, according to Mary Lobdell, in Washington's Attorney General's office. She is overseeing Washington's two-year investigation with 39 other states on deceptive marketing practices for vehicle service contracts.  "There are all levels of deception in these cases, " she said.
    My notice implied a relationships with a customer, the manufacturer, a final deadline, a final chance, and that it's a warranty. EWS marketed me a service contract from an insurer, not a warranty. The insurer must be registered with Washington's Office of the Insurance Commissioner. EWS, actually Endurance Warranty Services, LLC, is not registered with the OIC, so I called back. A man said EWS is a "warranty broker," and that my quote would be insured by Royal Administrative Services from Massachusetts.
    Royal is not registered on the OIC site, so late yesterday I emailed Royal asking if they were authorized to sell in Washington.
    Endurance is accredited with the Chicago BBB since March, 2007. The Chicago BBB rating is a C, with details about 55 complaints in the last 36 months, 38 of which have been resolved in the last year. Five were irresolvable.
    Lobdell said the investigation is impacting the industry. "The business works, as companies have admitted, when marketing outruns the refunds, which they have to keep low."  Some insurers are failing as contract sales generate less cash. 
    I filed complaints with Washington's Consumer Protection Division and Chicago's BBB, but Lobdell advised me to also file with the Illinois Attorney General.
    A commenter on the Town-Hall for the automotive website Edmunds.com admitted giving credit card information to the EWS sales person. After trying to revoke it during the call, the representative said, "that could not be done." The frustrated victim accuses an unknown, unscrupulous dealer employee of providing information, which is unlikely.
    Lobdell said the state has tightened regulations around companies authorized to obtain vehicle information for research and statistical analysis, but she believes there is still a leak to the industry, perhaps through another firm.
    These incidents make me feel like an elk in a herd crossing Alaskan tundra, trailed by wolves. Aging toward frailty, I increasingly fear these predatory firms tracking me and my information. The good news is our Attorney General's office is investigating, but my complaint to the Consumer Protection Division is the only one against Endurance.
    Our initial defense is accurate, registered complaints, more publicly available. In the meantime we can alert people and save the evidence.     

 

 

        

Three recent stories of judicial cases saddened me and fired my imagination for a news resolution. A Waterville man, Phillip Wilson, 48, admitted that his Toyota Tundra crossed the centerline, careened off a semi-truck, and killed a 62-year-old Oroville driver. Wilson admitted he’d taken prescription medications for chronic back pain. The state’s blood analyst said the combination of drugs in his blood would make a patient drowsy. On December 31st Wilson is scheduled to begin a two years and three months prison sentence. The sentence does little to alleviate the tragedy. Does it heal the victim’s family? A civil case that might compensate the family requires another trial. Does it rehabilitate Wilson, who was also injured in the crash? Does the community benefit more than it costs to jail him? << MORE >>