Declarations

No Bogus Charges Allowed

“Some repair shops have abused consumers by refusing to return a vehicle until the consumer pays bogus charges.”

—Iowa Attorney General Tom Miller. A new law took effect May 1 in Iowa aimed at protecting consumers against unscrupulous car repair shops that hold a vehicle “hostage” and refuse to return it unless the customer pays charges not authorized by law. Iowa’s car repair law, in effect for more than 20 years, already makes it illegal for repair shops to charge for unnecessary repairs, charge for work that has not been completed, or charge more than the estimate without the customer’s approval. The new Senate File 2108 prohibits repair shops from refusing to return a vehicle to a customer until the consumer pays such unlawfully-imposed charges, if the Attorney General requests return of the vehicle. “Most repair shops are honest and obey consumer protection laws, but this will help prevent one kind of abuse we see often,” Miller said.

Still Protected

“From 2005 until now we’d been in limbo. We had no guarantee (revenue protection would continue) until it was published in the Federal Register.”

—John Sandbakken, international marketing director for the National Sunflower Association, says new crop insurance rules published in the Federal Register that include sunflowers in the list of 10 crops eligible for revenue protection should end the need for persistent lobbying by the industry. Previously, the revenue assurance policies for sunflowers were based on the Chicago Board of Trade soybean futures market and the formula used did not reflect what the sunflower crop was actually worth, according to the Risk Management Agency and Bismarck, N.D.-based National Sunflower Association. The sunflower industry has persuaded the RMA to change the formula, starting with the 2008 crop year. “We visited with (RMA) every single year. We’ve just constantly stayed in touch to make sure we were always on the front burner with them, make sure they saw what the interest was,” Sandbakken said.

A Way to Overcome?

“What we’re currently doing, and I suspect it will probably take the next 48 hours or so, is saying, ‘Is there a way to overcome this problem?'”

—Doug Suttles, chief operating officer at BP Plc, comments after the company suffered a setback in an attempt to contain oil gushing into the Gulf of Mexico from with a huge metal dome. BP was forced to move the four-story containment dome off to the side on the sea floor after a buildup of crystallized gas forced it to suspend the effort. Covering the leak with the structure was seen as the best short-term way to stem the flow from the oil well off the coast of Louisiana, which ruptured on April 20.