By Colleen Rothe

Many of us are already in shock because of the ever increasing ‘pain at the pump,’ as the sensationalistic media likes to term it. In fact, on average, most Americans are paying more than 60 cents more per gallon than this time last year.

And when our fuel prices jump, so does all the rest of our goods. A dozen eggs are about $3 in the Puget Sound area; the cost of a gallon of milk is averaging closer to that of a gallon of gas.

By Jeanne Roberts

S.C. Johnson is a privately owned, multinational company based in Wisconsin. It has been in business since 1886 and makes common household cleaning products. With annual sales of around $7 billion, and nearly 12,000 people working in more than 60 countries, S. C. Johnson doesn't need my approval. In spite of that, I'm tempted to give it an A, for effort if not for environmentalism. Let me tell you why.

By Linsey Knerl

Last October was designated as Breast Cancer Awareness month. While the pink embossed appliances and ribbon-adorned beauty products are emphasized far less this month, there is still an attempt by many companies to “cash in” on the kind of sales that aligning with non-profit concerns can bring. This apparent goodwill is not sitting well with everyone, however. Websites like ThinkBeforeYouPink.org have made efforts to educate consumers on the truth behind the hype. The verdict is in, and it's not “pretty in pink.”

By Gene Ayres

I don’t usually write product reviews, but this one is too good to resist. Not.

For a long time, I prided myself in being the last person left that didn’t need a cell phone. Then, damned if I didn’t need one (or more to the point, thought I needed one). Unfortunately, this need arose when I moved to China to teach for 30 months, and soon had students, colleagues, and later on a fiance to keep track of. Not to mention, on occasion, my own whereabouts.

By Colleen Rothe

How would you like to have to show evidence of tattoos in order to secure a car loan? That’s exactly what happened to a Maryland man recently. He went in to buy a Toyota and during the credit check his name popped up as a suspected terrorist. He was asked to be ‘checked for tattoos’ to prove he wasn’t the person on the list.

By Jeanne Roberts

Hidden fees, those nasty little (and sometimes not so little) charges that make your electric, gas, Internet, phone and other public-service bills rise from merely reasonable to astronomical, are the stealth fighters of public services billing. Invisible until the damage has already been done, they swoop in to rob your bankbook, and your sanity, of the equilibrium needed to make it from one day to the next in this failing modern economy.

By Colleen Rothe

Many in the Puget Sound area and others around the country seeking beverages not full of chemicals have greedily guzzled down the Honest Tea brands of sport drinks and teas.

I counted myself as one of them, my favorite being the Honest Ade Pomegranate and Blueberry flavor. It’s like squeezing pomegranate and blueberry juice straight from the fruit into your mouth. Additionally, anything with peach flavoring came out tasting quite fake and overly sweet. But Honest Tea’s Peach OO-La-Long tea, which features the spokesman for most fans of irreverence, Opus, tastes like ice-tea with a slice of peach in it.

Linsey B. Knerl

Online shopping has its advantages. Avoiding checker lines, saving gas, and keeping out of the mall during peak holiday months are just a few reasons I will always return to the net for my bulk diapers and new DVD releases. Throw in free shipping, and I’m a sucker for the online option. Lately, however, I’ve had to ask myself, “Am I truly saving money with free shipping?” Here are just a few of the many free shipping experiences I have had this year:

By Gene Ayres

This has been a sad week for consumers. Or at least this consumer. For the second time in a decade, one of my heroes has taken a hard fall, courtesy of a certain commodity in high demand and low repute. Bye bye, Elliot Spitzer. You just did a Clinton, it seems. And unlike Hillary’s Bill, it doesn’t look like you’re going to be able to explain this one away so easily.

By Jeanne Roberts

To add to the subprime debacle - which has caused the worldwide meltdown of financial markets - Countrywide, the largest mortgage lender in the U.S., is now the object of a criminal inquiry. The Justice Department and the FBI recently charged the company with fudging both its financial stability and the quality of the mortgages it wrote between 2001-2005. Both agencies are reviewing Countrywide's Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filings, with an eye to separating truth from lies. Falsifying SEC filings is a serious no-no in the financial world, and could earn Countrywide officers prison terms. 



By Linsey Knerl

A recent class-action lawsuit accuses TJX Stores of leaving sensitive customer information open to hacking. This “lack of security” resulted in unscrupulous people having access to shoppers’ credit card and check information, driver’s licenses, and government identification. Sorting out the mess isn’t going to be easy.

By Gene Ayres

Here’s an idea: go to your pantry (or fridge) and take out ten random processed food or beverage-like products. Take a look at the ingredients. Random processed food products are required by law (weak as it already is) to list products’ contents in order of quantity (i.e. the mostest is the firstest). What’s firstest on practically everything? (Water doesn’t count, and we’ve already discussed water). Hint: it isn’t MSG. At least not yet (another article for another day).

By Colleen Rothe

When I signed up to write articles for The Dispatch there was a part of me that wondered how I would constantly and consistently come up with topics that readers would not only find interesting but useful.

It’s odd how real life just plops things in your lap. And sometimes they might explode, too, as was the case today while completing my most recent grocery shopping transaction.

By Jeanne Roberts

I normally write about corporate polluters, but a recent Supreme Court ruling – that consumers can’t sue the makers of defective medical devices – makes me so mad I could spit!

The ruling was handed down by Justice Antonin Scalia, the same man who - in a recent BBC interview - defended torture as a means of uncovering information. I would suggest Scalia ought to be ashamed of himself, but he clearly isn’t capable of feeling shame, which requires some degree of humility.

By Linsey Knerl

Airborne products have been gaining in popularity among both travelers and the homebound since their introduction in 2001. Those popular little effervescent tablets that claim to help ward off viral afflictions are now finding themselves in a different kind of water --- hot water, to be exact. The company’s claims that the products can prevent colds are being disputed in the form of a $23 million class-action lawsuit.

By Gene Ayres

Funny how one of the most important words in the Free World lexicon used to be “choice.” That was before it became a dirty fighting word with only one definition, which I dare not mention here. But let’s face it, real choice, from a consumer’s perspective these days, is a rich man’s luxury.

Sure, there are lots of choices when it comes to buying a car: you can spend half a year’s salary, one year’s salary, two year’s salary, and so on. Or pay a mere 9.5 % interest on a nice car loan. Or spend the same amount for a lease and end up with nothing.

Likewise, you have a million choices when buying a home, starting at just ten years of salary (and in some places, that’s the down payment). Or, you can just pay a month’s worth of wages, say for, a month of rent.