Colorado Business Litigation Lawyer Blog

With the exception of the Mercedes-Benz S550, the Nissan Titan, and the Smart Fortwo, American companies made all the vehicles on the Forbes "Worst-Made Cars On The Road" list. The only bright note is that no Ford vehicles made their way onto the list.

Forbes' list starts with the lowest-rated vehicles in at least three of Consumer Reports' 2011 reliability, safety and performance studies. These are based on Consumer Reports' overall scores for 2011 vehicles, and reports such as: The Most Reliable Cars; Best and Worst Values; Highest Cost of Ownership; Best and Worst Safety Performance Survey; and Best and Worst Fuel-Economy.

The worst-rated vehicles are: Cadillac Escalade (base model), Chevrolet Tahoe Hybrid, Dodge Nitro SLT, Dodge Dakota, Jeep Wrangler Unlimited, Mercedes-Benz S550, Chrysler Town & Country, Chevrolet Colorado, Chevrolet Aveo/Aveo5, Jeep Liberty/Jeep Liberty Sport, Nissan Titan, and Smart ForTwo.

Forbes notes that the Mercedes S550 only made the list because of its high cost of ownership, low fuel efficiency, and a low rating for overall value (as opposed to problems with reliability, safety or performance, which affected the other vehicles on the list). Forbes also points out that nearly every car or truck made today is safer, more efficient, and more reliable than anything on the road that was manufactured as recently as 15 years ago.

Playboy magazine recently announced that the University of Colorado in Boulder edged out Penn State as the nation's number 1 party school. Playboy bases that ranking upon observations of current and former students, feedback from Playboy campus representatives, and input of fans on Playboy's social media pages.

The 50-something medical marijuana dispensaries and four beer breweries in Boulder were factors in CU's high ranking. About one-half of the school's over 24,000 undergraduates turn out for the annual 4/20 smoke-out on school grounds. Other factors include the school's male-to-female ratio and its winning percentage of sports teams. The school earned bonus points for the campus' proximity to beaches, ski slopes, and Colorado's hot music scene.

We don't really know to what extent the "party school" reputation affects a prospective student's decision when college application time rolls around, but we do have a strong suspicion that parents and guardians may not be thrilled about CU's party-school accolade. On the positive side, students interested in the art and study of debate will have a perfect opportunity to test out their skills of persuasion on either side of this issue.

The argument may go something like: "Sure, Dad, CU may have a party reputation, but think of the advantage I'll have over the other students: with half of them high and the rest hung over, I'm sure to be top of the class (being that I'm personally not into such seedy things). I'll also take extra care to find a roommate who's a straight arrow, I promise."

Continue reading "C.U. Named Nation's No. 1 Party School: Good News or Bad News?" »

Epsilon, a Dallas-based marketing firm that handles email marketing and database hosting for customers such as JPMorgan Chase Bank, U.S. Bancorp, Capital One, Barclay's Bank, Kroger, Best Buy Co., TiVo Inc., and Walgreens, reported in the last week of March that a hacker gained access to databases containing millions of customers' names and possibly their email addresses.

These large businesses have sent emails to customers informing them of the incident and warning them that even though it is believed that no other personal information was contained in the hacked databases, unscrupulous persons still can use the information to send fraudulent emails to the customers, requesting personal information, such as passwords, credit card numbers, PIN numbers, and the like. Such emails may purport to come from the customer's bank or other companies with which the customer does business. The emails may contain a link that takes the user to a fraudulent webpage that requests personal information.

The businesses involved are warning customers to be especially careful not to give out any such information, and say they will not ask customers for personal information over the internet. If a customer receives a suspicious email, he or she should independently find out the telephone number of the company and call to verify that any email that purports to be from the customer's bank or other company is legitimate.

So far, none of the news accounts contain any information as to how or by whom the databases were hacked. Retail businesses regularly tell customers and potential customers that they can safely transact business over the internet because the company has a "secure website," as evidenced by the inclusion of "https" in the web page address, rather than the unsecured designation of "http." This means that a user's name and password is encrypted (coded) before being sent to the business's server. In addition, a "lock" icon will appear somewhere in the window of the browser.

Continue reading "Warning! Your Name and Email Address May Have Been Hacked" »