Consumer Reports

Alright, confession time: I watch a lot of bad reality TV. Please don’t judge me. For many reasons, one of my favorite shows is the Biggest Loser. I’m a health nut; I love watching the transformations; and I get a kick out of the trainers screaming their heads off. But the fact that such a show even exists and that the people on it are getting bigger and bigger each season is kind of a sad commentary on the state of overall health in this country. A lot of the bad health habits we have now as adults were learned as kids and teenagers. We eat the same foods our moms cooked and we learn about an active or sedentary lifestyle from our parents’ examples. So it seems the way to fix our obesity problem is to start with educating kids and parents, which is exactly what the Let’s Move campaign is trying to do. Backed by Michelle Obama, Let’s Move teaches kids the importance of getting some kind of activity every day. It uses the approach that something, even if it’s just a little, is always better than nothing. Take a walk, ride a bike, play tag. It’s all better than guzzling a soda and playing video games. Parents can learn simple things they can do to encourage their kids to be healthy. Sit down on a weekend and map out dinners for the week together. Involve your kids in the process of choosing healthy foods and, if age appropriate, let them help make dinner. Instead of a candy dish, parents could swap it for a fruit dish. Put easy to grab fruits in your kids’ reach and they might not miss the candy. Being healthy doesn’t have to mean some extreme diet and exercise plan, it can be little things you do each day to help set a good example for your family. Check out Letsmove.gov and share one healthy thing you do each day.

People are always asking us questions about scams and fraud . There are many types of financial fraud like mortgage scams that target the elderly, Ponzi schemes, tax fraud that steals money from our nation’s coffers, predatory lending that discriminates against vulnerable communities, and credit card fraud. A few years ago I was a victim of identity theft . The scary thing about identity theft is that so much of your personal information is in the hands of others – in medical offices, human resources, school records, and credit card applications. You’re really at the mercy of the people holding your records. I was lucky that the fraudsters didn’t do any financial harm to me, but the mountain of paperwork and follow-up was outrageous.

Mailbox-filling handbills proliferate in the spring, promising low-ball prices to clean your carpets, air ducts and chimney. But will the people who send them deliver a bona fide spruce-up, or is their real intention to clean you out? Read more…

We all know that talking on a cell phone while driving and texting while driving are big no-nos (and against the law in some states), but who knew that talking on our phones while walking across the street could really be that dangerous. I know I am on the phone at least once a week on my walk to and from my D.C. office. A recent episode of HealthDay TV reports on a study that simulated people walking across a busy street either on a cell phone, listening to music or not distracted at all. Turns out participants in that study who where on the phone failed to successfully cross the street more often than the people listening to music.

This past month my Internet service provider has been the bane of my existence. My service has been fickle, at best. More often than not, it will work for a few hours and then stop. And then I’ll spend another hour on the phone with customer service trying to troubleshoot. They’ve sent a technician once to fix the problem, and our service worked for a week or two, but then last week it went out again. I wasted more time on hold and talking to very nice and very helpful customer service agents. (That’s not sarcasm, the people I spoke with this time around tried to do the best they could.) But alas, my service still goes out every couple hours and then stays out for several more. I finally had to file a complaint against the company. I’ve never had to do that before so I turned to ConsumerAction.gov for advice on what to do. My first instinct was to call up my Better Business Bureau , but ConsumerAction.gov advised that I try to contact someone higher up at the company first. So I hunted around on the company Web site until I found a contact name and email for the Vice President of customer relations. Then I followed some of the suggestions from one of the sample complaint letters and read about next steps to take. I decided I’d wait a week before contacting the BBB to see if the company could resolve the problem. Earlier this week I got a phone call from the company telling me they were trying to get the problem fixed as soon as possible and I have another technician coming out this week. I really hope this solves the whole problem. I hate paying so much for service and then not having it and I’d really rather not have to file a complaint with the BBB. Have any of you ever had problems with a company that you had to file a complaint against? What was the process like? Was it easy or tough and did you get the results you wanted?

Our guest blogger today is

Some of my blogs lately have been pretty serious and perhaps just a little intense, so it is time to lighten it up a bit. Whenever I am in a funk or taking life way too seriously, I turn to music to settle my nerves and put a little spring back into my step. Recently, as I was driving down the highway listening to a 70’s radio station, I heard a peppy little song with one of my favorite percussion instruments… cowbells.

The peak of hurricane season is now here, ushered in by the arrival of Ana and Bill . The southeastern part of the country will now be on alert until the middle of the fall when hurricane season passes. But hurricane season affects more than the people living in Florida, the Carolinas, or other hurricane-prone states. It also affects vacationers who plan fun get-aways to the South. I know every year when my family planned our vacation to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina for August, my mom would always pay close attention to the weather to see if any storms were a-brewin’. A hurricane far off the coast usually meant awesome waves, but anything that moved too close to shore had the potential to rain out our beach vacation. NOAA’s making it easier for people to track hurricanes by offering widgets that can be embedded on Websites and blogs. These widgets make it super easy to track the hurricanes. You won’t have to be glued to the TV trying to catch the latest. And to give residents and vacationers some peace of mind, NOAA’s predicting this year’s hurricane season will most likely be average to below average in terms of the number of hurricanes developing. People are still advised to be on alert if they plan to travel to or live in the areas most affected by the Atlantic hurricane season.

I’m taking a hiatus from my Gov Gab hiatus today to bring you my GSA coworkers reports about their Fourth of July experiences. My colleague Karen Trebon tells us about the Smithsonian Folklife Festival and my colleague Jonathan Rubin reports out on the National Mall fireworks display. Tell us about your Independence Day celebrations in the comments section and don’t forget to post your photos to the USA.gov Fourth of July Flickr photostream . You have until midnight eastern time tonight and we’ll be highlighting our favorite photos here tomorrow!

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