(NEW YORK) — The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service announced on Friday that 7,560 pounds of Italian pork sausage products from Bob Evans Farms Foods, Inc. were being recalled over potential contamination with extraneous materials, specifically thin blue rubber.
The raw Italian pork sausage impacted by the recall was produced Sept. 8, 2022, with a use or freeze by date of Nov. 26, 2022.
Click here to view the recalled labels of the 1-pound containers.
The affected Bob Evans Italian Sausage is labeled with lot code XEN3663466 and has a time stamp between 14:43 and 15:25, the FSIS stated. The products also bear establishment number “EST. 6785” inside the USDA mark of inspection.
“The problem was discovered after the firm notified FSIS it had received consumer complaints reporting thin blue pieces of rubber in the product,” the recall notice stated. “There have been no confirmed reports of adverse reactions due to consumption of these products. Anyone concerned about an injury or illness should contact a healthcare provider.”
The FSIS added that it is “concerned that some product may be in consumers’ refrigerators or freezers” and advised anyone who’s purchased the products “not to consume them.”
Consumers should throw out or return the products to the original place of purchase.
“FSIS routinely conducts recall effectiveness checks to verify recalling firms notify their customers of the recall and that steps are taken to make certain that the product is no longer available to consumers,” the agency said.
Bob Evans Foods, Inc. did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the recall.
(NEW YORK) — Jury selection is set to begin Monday in the criminal trial of former President Donald Trump’s namesake family real-estate business, which was charged last year by prosecutors in Manhattan, New York with orchestrating a years-long scheme to evade taxes.
The Trump Organization compensated certain executives with off-the-book perks — including rent, utilities and garage expenses at a luxury apartment building, private school tuition and leases for luxury cars — that were never accounted for on the company’s payroll taxes, according to the Manhattan district attorney’s office.
“This was a 15-year-long tax fraud scheme,” Carey Dunn, then-general counsel at the Manhattan DA’s office, said when the indictment was unsealed last summer. “It was orchestrated by the most senior executives.”
The company has pleaded not guilty and Trump has dismissed the investigation as a “hoax.” A spokesperson for the Trump Organization previously said in a statement that the company will “look forward to having our day in court.”
A corporate defendant cannot serve prison time. A conviction could require the Trump Organization to pay a maximum fine of $10,000 and, potentially, the taxes allegedly skirted.
More significant, according to authorities, are the potential collateral consequences that could come with a conviction. Existing contracts could be voided if a counterparty has rules against doing business with felons, and banks could consider calling in loans or altogether terminating their relationship with the Trump Organization.
“One major issue when considering a corporate conviction is reputational harm,” said Daniel R. Alonso, a partner in Buckley’s New York office and formerly the chief assistant district attorney in the Manhattan district attorney’s office.
On the other hand, said Alonso, “In this case, I’m not sure the Trump Organization’s reputation could be harmed much more than it has been.”
The trial, which is expected to last into early December, comes as Trump faces a half-dozen other investigations into his business practices, his efforts to overturn the Georgia vote, his alleged role in the Jan. 6 attack, and the removal of documents with classification markings from the White House.
Among those testifying in the Trump Organization trial will be the company’s longtime chief financial officer Allen Weisselberg, who pleaded guilty last month after being charged as part of the alleged scheme.
The longtime CFO pleaded guilty to all 15 counts he faced, including conspiracy, criminal tax fraud, grand larceny and falsifying business records. He conceded that he skirted taxes on nearly $2 million in income, including fringe benefits like rent, luxury cars and private school tuition for his grandchildren.
Weisselberg, who first met Trump in the 1970s when he began working for his father, was required to testify against the Trump Organization as part of his plea deal, and to serve five months in jail.
“The case against [the Trump Organization] is dramatically strengthened,” prosecutor Josh Steinglass said of Weisselberg’s guilty plea at a hearing in the case in September.
“During the operation of the scheme, the defendants arranged for Weisselberg to receive indirect employee compensation from the Trump Organization in the approximate amount of $1.76 million … in ways that enabled the corporate defendants to avoid reporting it to the tax authorities,” the indictment against Weisselberg said.
The charges are a “disgrace” and “shameful,” Trump told ABC News last year after the indictment was unsealed, calling Weisselberg “a tremendous person.”
The indictment said that, beginning in 2005, Weisselberg used the corporation’s bank account to pay the rent for his apartment, and he and others paid their utility bills using the corporation’s account. The indictment also accused Weisselberg of concealing “indirect compensation” by using payments from the Trump Organization to cover nearly $360,000 in upscale private school payments for his family, and for nearly $200,000 in luxury car leases.
“Weisselberg intentionally caused the indirect compensation payments to be omitted from his personal tax returns, despite knowing that those payments represented taxable income and were treated as compensation by the Trump Corporation in internal records,” the indictment said.
The rest of the case against the Trump Organization is based largely on documents, including spreadsheets and charts, along with other accounting materials. Prosecutors say their challenge will be to spin a compelling narrative for the jury to follow.
The prosecution will be led by Steinglass, who joined the prosecution team from the district attorney’s violent crime division, and Susan Hoffinger, the head of the DA’s investigation division.
A corporate tax fraud case was not what prosecutors were after when they first filed charges against Weisselberg last summer. Sources have told ABC News that prosecutors had hoped Weisselberg would turn on Trump as part of a larger criminal investigation into the former president’s business practices that remains ongoing.
But the plea deal that Weisselberg agreed to contains no requirement that he cooperate in the criminal case against Trump himself, which centers on whether Trump knowingly misled tax authorities, lenders and insurance brokers by providing inaccurate financial statements about the value of his real estate portfolio.
Trump, who has denied all wrongdoing, has decried the investigation as politically motivated.
(NEW YORK) — Barilla Pasta is being sued for its marketing as “Italy’s No. 1 brand of pasta.”
A lawsuit filed last year by customers Matthew Sinatro and Jessica Prost claims that the slogan in question “leads reasonable consumers to believe that Barilla’s products are made and/or manufactured in Italy using ingredients from Italy.”
Sinatro and Prost, who said they bought one box of angel hair and two boxes of spaghetti, respectively, claim in the lawsuit that they purchased Barilla thinking the contents were made in Italy. They also claim the colors of the Italian flag and imagery “further reinforces the notion that the products ‘are authentic pastas from Italy.” The duo are also challenging “the packaging for 52 additional Barilla-brand pastas across several sub-brands: Classic Blue Box, Collezione Artisanal, Gluten Free, Veggie, and Whole Grain,” which they did not purchase.
In a motion to dismiss, Barilla argued that the slogan is a registered trademark and “its utility is to exclusively identify Barilla (not Italy) as the source of the product.”
Barilla argued that “no reasonable consumer could be deceived” by their packaging because all 54 products — which includes Barilla-brand pastas from several sub-brands — “are conspicuously marked ‘Made in the USA’ with the location of Barilla’s headquarters in Illinois.”
While the statement appears on the blue cardboard boxes, Barilla also states on its website that its pasta “sold in the United States is made in our plants in Ames, Iowa and Avon, New York, with a few exceptions. Barilla Tortellini and Barilla Oven Ready Lasagne are made in Italy.”
When the company first opened plants in the U.S., the website states, “the Barilla family was very concerned about maintaining Barilla’s high quality standards” and ensured that the machines used to make pasta in those facilities were the same as those used in the Parma, Italy plant.
“The recipe and the wheat blend are the same as that used in Parma, Italy. Barilla purchases its wheat from around the world, ending up with the best wheat available,” the site reads.
On Monday, Judge Donna M. Ryu denied in part Barilla’s motion to dismiss and said the lawsuit can proceed.
“As Plaintiffs note, Barilla asks the court to assume that consumers would solely perceive the Challenged Representation to mean that the products at issue are part of the Barilla brand, and not that they are made in Italy from Italian ingredients,” Ryu wrote. “In other words, Barilla asks the court to decide as a matter of law that the Challenged Representation can mean only one thing. However, Plaintiffs have alleged that the Challenged Representation appears with the colors of the Italian flag, and that this imagery further reinforces the notion that the products ‘are authentic pastas from Italy.'”
Ryu also rejected the company’s argument that the case should be dismissed because its products “are conspicuously marked ‘Made in the USA’ with the location of Barilla’s headquarters in Illinois,” stating that the materials on which that argument rests “are not properly before the court.” Elsewhere in the order, Ryu stated that those materials — including photos of its packaging and nutrition label — were “barely legible” and “purportedly cut and pasted from third party websites, accompanied by typed captions that do not appear to have been part of the original webpages.”
ABC News’ Good Morning America has reached out to both Barilla and Clarkson Law Firm, which is representing the plaintiffs, for comment on the decision and will update with a response.
The order allows the case to move forward, but also allows Barilla to continue using the slogan as the case proceeds.
(NEW YORK) — Just weeks away from the 2022 midterm elections, a senior Google official said Wednesday that the company hasn’t seen the same style of hacking from groups backed by the governments of China and Iran as during the 2020 election.
Speaking with reporters, Shane Huntley, the senior director Google’s Threat Analysis Group, compared the current level of activity to past reports from the company that Chinese and Iranian actors targeted email accounts related to the campaigns for then-candidate Joe Biden and then-President Donald Trump in 2020.
“We haven’t seen that this year,” Huntley said. “We’re watching very closely.”
“It’s so far relatively quiet on the hacking front,” he said.
But, he added, outside groups remained focused on disinformation: “There’s a lot happening behind the scenes, but we haven’t seen that sort of cyberattack nature that we’ve sort of have seen in previous years.”
During the 2020 campaign, Google went public with what it said were documented attempts by Chinese and Iranian hackers to compromise email accounts for Biden and Trump campaign staff.
The efforts appeared to be unsuccessful — but were a part of what federal government officials described then as ongoing attempts by foreign countries to interfere in domestic elections. (Both China and Iran have in the past denied accusations of cyberattacks on U.S. entities.)
Of election security, Google’s Huntley said Wednesday that major efforts were being made regarding that and disinformation.
Google officials on Wednesday also offered a broader look at personal cyber security.
Heather Adkins, Google’s vice president of security engineering, told reporters that in the next five to 10 years, “We will see the death of the password.”
She added that Google would continue to iterate on things like “security keys, passkeys that the authentication experience.” In May, Apple, Google and Microsoft announced a joint effort to expand support for passwordless sign-in across devices and platforms.
“The reality is that everyone’s gonna get hacked at some point,” Adkins said. “And the differentiator will become how quickly we recover from that. And you actually see that in Ukraine.”
Noting the cyberattack on the American satellite company Viasat in the early days of Russia’s attack on Ukraine, earlier this year, Adkins said the firm was “actually able to recover very quickly, quickly enough to put their feet back on the ground and then resist the invasion.”
Huntley, the security official, said that Google has been able to to help Ukraine and Ukrainian government officials protect themselves amid the conflict, thus allowing the Eastern European nation to “take direct actions because we were actually able to help out.”
(NEW YORK) — Eggo has a new product this holiday season that you won’t find in the frozen foods aisle.
Kellogg’s waffle brand collaborated with Sugarlands Distilling Co. to craft a sweet churned cream, rum, cinnamon and nutmeg boozy beverage that they’re calling Eggo Nog Appalachian Sippin’ Cream.
This new “Eggo-inspired eggnog liqueur” is said to pair perfectly with the beloved frozen waffles and gives grown-ups a chance to “L’eggo during the most chaotic time of the year.”
Sugarlands master distiller Greg Eidam told ABC News’ Good Morning America they amped up the recipe for the classic holiday drink to set their product apart.
“We use a rum base for our Eggo Nog, which has a slightly sweeter profile than some traditional boozy eggnogs,” he said. “Our team worked very hard to ensure the taste was reminiscent of classic eggnog, while also complementing the flavors you expect from an Eggo waffle. … Plus, ours pairs naturally with a perfectly toasted Eggo waffle.”
Eidam said the frozen waffles are a household staple for his grandkids as well as himself.
“They’re one of my favorite indulgences after a late night at the distillery,” he said, adding that “collaborating with Eggo to create Eggo Nog was a great deal of fun” — both personally and as a business opportunity for the Tennessee-based distilling company.
According to early tasters, Eidam said the response so far “has been tremendous.”
“We hope parents enjoy the product and find fun ways to incorporate it into their evening ‘me time,’ this holiday season,” he said, with just over 60 days to go until Christmas.
Eggo Nog will be available in select retailers nationwide throughout the holiday season. Consumers can locate a retailer online here.
(NEW YORK) — Marcelo Candia spends all day teaching a classroom full of 4-year-old children in northern Virginia — then walks across the street to work in a grocery store bakery for four more hours.
It’s the reality faced by so many workers in the child care industry, where low pay and other factors have created a labor crisis exacerbated by the coronavirus pandemic.
“I love what I do,” Candia, a father who is also working toward an associate’s degree, told ABC News. “I come here with a lot of energy. I go out of the school when I’m finished my period here with a boost of energy.”
As the U.S. job market continues to bounce back from the coronavirus pandemic, the child care industry has lagged behind.
The sector has lost about 9.7% of its workforce compared to pre-pandemic levels, or about 102,400 employees between February 2020 and last month, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
‘This is unheard of’
Leslie Spina, who runs five early childhood education centers in Philadelphia, told ABC News she continues to face staffing shortages.”
“We’re about 22% short-staffed right now,” Spina, the executive director of Kinder Academy, said. “This is unheard of.”
At Candia’s center, ACCA Child Development Center in Annandale, Virginia, the shortage of workers has meant fewer kids can receive care.
“I have a couple of classrooms that are not staffed,” Isabel Ballivian, the executive director of ACCA Child Development Center, told ABC News. “Therefore, we don’t have children there.”
Low wages drive staffing shortage, experts say
The most significant factor driving the staffing crisis is low pay for child care workers, according to experts.
A child care worker in the United States made an average of just $13.31 per hour, or $27,680 per year, in 2021, according to the most recent available data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
“It’s physically mentally, emotionally hard work, and it’s one of the lowest paid jobs in every single state in the country,” said Lea Austin, the executive director of the Center for the Study of Child Care Employment, at the University of California, Berkeley.
Many day care teachers want to stay in the industry but cannot afford to provide for their own families, educators and center directors told ABC News.
“If I wanted to have kids, if I wanted to get married and kind of go to that next part of my life, it’s just not really possible,” Nicole Lazarte, who leads an infant classroom at ACCA Child Development Center, said. “I could do it, and I’ve seen people do it, but I see them struggle.”
Instead, educators often turn to higher-paying, less stressful jobs in retail and restaurants.
“We’re not paying what Target pays,” Spina said. “We’re not paying what Chick-fil-A pays — because we can’t afford to.”
Many teachers are also drawn to publicly funded K-12 schools, which typically offer better wages, vacation time and other benefits. Center directors say that can lead to a brain drain at day cares as more experienced workers leave.
Reliance on tuition from parents prevents wage increases
Unlike public K-12 schools, which are funded by taxpayer dollars, early childhood centers primarily rely on tuition charged to parents to fund their budgets.
They do also often receive some public assistance, but the amount they get varies widely across states and jurisdictions.
But it’s not nearly enough for so many centers, many of which closed during the pandemic as enrollment lagged.
“We are not going to solve this problem without public intervention and public funding,” Austin said. “It really is the equivalent of trying to fund a public school system through parent fees.”
Ballivian, who runs ACCA Child Development Center, said that raising tuition simply is not an option, with many working-class parents struggling to make ends meet themselves.
“The large majority of the children that we serve come from families that have low income and that are relatively new to the community,” Ballivian told ABC News. “It is imperative that these kids have access to quality care and education, because it’s the one thing that is changing the trajectories of their lives.”
Some daycare centers have fought to retain workers by increasing pay and benefits, but limited financial resources makes doing so difficult.
The center receives some funding from the county and state — and got federal dollars during the pandemic — but, Ballivian said, is still facing an approximately $200,000 deficit for the current fiscal year “because we decided to increase the salaries.”
“There are times when you wake up and think, is it worth it? Should I continue to do this?” she said. “But I know that I am making a difference in the lives of others.”
DC tries supplementing teachers’ incomes
Some jurisdictions, like Washington, D.C., have tried to channel more money to early childhood centers — and teachers.
The D.C. government, which provides various grants to centers themselves, also launched an innovative program this year that supplements educators’ salaries — with payments totaling up to $14,000 per year.
Payments to teachers are part of an array of funding the city spends on early child care, according to Sara Mead, the city’s deputy superintendent of early learning. Residents benefit from free, universal pre-kindergarten; centers receive grants to raise their quality of care; and low-income families receive subsidies to cover child care costs.
Latoria Meyers, who teaches infants and toddlers at Kidspace Child and Family Development Center in Washington, said the additional money from the city has helped her “tremendously.”
“I’m a single mom, so it helped me kind of get back on a financial balance, as far as, like, paying some things off, actually taking my son on a trip finally — his first plane ride,” Meyers told ABC News.
The center where she works provides free child care to families who have experienced homelessness, trauma and abuse. It relies largely on private donations, as well as funding from the city.
Sandra Jackson, the president and CEO of House of Ruth, the organization that runs the center, told ABC News that paying relatively more has helped retain quality workers.
“It’s a no brainer,” Jackson said. “The child care workers, teachers, anyone that comes in contact with children is just as important as our doctors, our lawyers, our Supreme Court justices.”
Parents feel squeeze
Amid the staffing shortages, parents have felt the squeeze as options for care become more limited.
Courtney Tay, a pre-kindergarten teacher in Springfield, Missouri, has spent months searching for a day care space for a daughter she is expecting in December.
“For most of the centers, they don’t have any availability until summer or fall of 2023,” she said. “I’m looking for care when she is three months old, and they’re not going to have any available until she’s about eight or nine months old.”
Tay plans to rely on her mother for help until then.
“I’ve been really surprised by how difficult it is to find a place for her,” Tay said.
Federal reform needed to end crisis, experts say
Experts say reform is needed at the federal level to transform the early childhood education system, attracting workers and making care affordable and accessible.
“The reality is state and local governments can’t do this on our own,” Mead, of the D.C. government, told ABC News. “There are fiscal constraints that we operate under that are different from those of the federal government and so to get really large infusions of funds, it will be necessary to tap the power of federal funds.”
President Joe Biden pushed Congress to approve major investments in child care, including funding for free, universal preschool for all 3- and 4-year-old children nationwide.
But after Republicans in Congress blocked that plan, Biden faced additional resistance from Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin, of West Virginia, and dropped the investments from a later iteration of a domestic spending plan Congress did pass.
Without change, the industry will continue to face job shortages and high rates of staffing turnover, according to Austin, who has studied the U.S. early childhood care system’s workforce extensively.
“If we can’t figure out how to have reform of our early childhood education system that is driven by public dollars,” Austin said, “we’re not going to recover from this crisis.”
(NEW YORK) — The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission announced Wednesday a mandatory safety standard for testing and labeling clothing storage units in an effort to curb deaths and injuries caused by wobbly furniture tipping over.
The new standard is a significant upgrade to the existing policy and includes minimum stability requirements, a mandatory display of important safety information, as well as reporting on the performance and technical data on the product’s stability. The CPSC defines clothing storage units as products such as chests, bureaus, dressers, armoires, wardrobes, chests of drawers and door chests, among others.
“Each year, children are killed or injured in dresser tip-over incidents. The standard set today will ensure that dressers are safer and fewer children are at risk,” CPSC Chairman Alex Hoehn-Saric said in a statement. “I want to thank the members of Parents Against Tipovers and other consumer advocates who have spent years pushing the agency to set a strong standard that will protect children going forward.”
The federal standard is a win for parents and families of victims of furniture accidents, who have lobbied for enhanced safety guidelines for years. The STURDY ACT, or Stop Tip-Overs of Unstable Risky Dressers on Youth Act, which was passed by the U.S. House of Representatives and referred to committee in the Senate in 2019 — though never brought up for a vote on the Senate floor — proposed that the CPSC issue a mandatory furniture safety standard, including mandating strong warning requirements and labels.
According to a CPSC news release on Wednesday, an average of 5,300 injuries result from dressers and clothing unit storages tipping over each year, and “young children are most at risk of injury or death from tip over incidents.”
Over the course of nearly two decades, from 2000-2018, the CPSC reported 556 tip-over-related fatalities. Of those reported deaths, 83% involved children from 1 month to 14 years old.
The CPSC also noted in its news release this week that it was “aware of 234 fatalities resulting from clothing storage unit tip overs from January 2000 through April 2022, including 199 child fatalities.”
In 2015, the CPSC launched “Anchor It!” a campaign that works to raise awareness of tip-over dangers.
“Every 24 minutes in the U.S. a child goes to the emergency room because of a tip-over incident involving furniture or a TV,” said CPSC Commissioners Marietta Robinson and Joseph Mohorovic in a statement announcing the campaign’s launch. “[Anchor It!] is a call to action for parents and caregivers to ‘get on top of it, before they do.’ If we can prevent one more death, it will be worth it.”
CPSC tips to remember:
Use sturdy furniture designed to hold TVs, such as television stands or media centers.
Mount flat-screen TVs to the wall or furniture to prevent them from falling over.
Secure TVs even if they are not wall-mounted with an anti-tip device.
Follow the manufacturer’s instructions to secure TVs properly.
Secure top-heavy furniture with anti-tip devices, whether it’s old or new.
Remove items that might tempt kids to climb, such as toys and remote controls, from the top of TV and furniture.
(NEW YORK) — As rising gas prices strain the budgets of many Americans, President Joe Biden announced on Wednesday moves that aim to address the oil supply shortage behind the cost spike.
Most notably, the announcement includes the release of 15 million barrels of oil from the nation’s stockpile — known as the Strategic Petroleum Reserve — in December.
The release accounts for the final 15 million barrels of oil from the 180 million that Biden vowed to release over six months.
The move renews questions about why the U.S. stockpiles oil, how much oil the reserve has left and if more oil on the market can bring down gas prices.
Here’s everything you need to know about the SPR:
What is the U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve?
Established after the Arab Oil Embargo triggered an energy crisis in the early 1970s, the SPR provides an emergency source of oil that protects the U.S. against a sudden supply crunch.
The reserve, which can reach as many as 714 million barrels, is stored in large, high-security underground salt caverns along the gulf coastlines of Louisiana and Texas. As of Oct. 7, the reserve stood at 408 million barrels or 57% of overall capacity, according to the Energy Information Administration.
The president retains wide discretion to release oil from the reserve in what he deems an emergency. In such cases, the U.S. sells the oil on the open market, which in theory should bring oil prices down by increasing supply.
How often has the U.S. released oil from the reserve?
Before the Biden administration, the U.S. released oil from the reserve under emergency conditions three times since it was founded in 1975.
Most recently, in 2011, then-President Barack Obama ordered the release of 30 million barrels alongside additional commitments from allies amid supply disruptions in Libya and elsewhere.
The U.S. released oil reserves in 2005 following the devastation of oil refineries wrought by Hurricane Katrina. Plus, in 1991, the U.S. released oil from the reserve at the beginning of the Gulf War in an effort to assuage concern over oil supply shock from the onset of the conflict.
How much oil has Biden released from the reserve and why?
In March, the Biden administration announced a commitment to release about 1 million barrels per day from the reserve over the ensuing six months — a move that aimed to alleviate some of the oil supply shortage caused by the Russia-Ukraine war as well as supply chain bottlenecks.
The total release of oil from the Biden administration will reach 180 million barrels by December.
For context, the U.S. consumed about 20 million barrels per day last year, EIA data showed. In other words, the amount released by the Biden administration equates to roughly nine days worth of U.S. oil consumption.
Has oil released from the reserve brought down gas prices?
Analysts say recent releases from the oil reserve have reduced gas prices. But other factors have also contributed to the decline in gas prices from a peak in June, including a drop-off in demand after a summer travel surge.
A report from the Treasury Department in June found that releases from the strategic reserve had accounted for a reduction in gas prices of $0.33 per gallon.
Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody’s Analytics, estimates an even larger impact on gas prices.
Releases from the strategic petroleum reserve have “reduced oil prices by an estimated close to $10 per barrel, which translates into a saving of about 40 cents per gallon,” Zandi told ABC News.
(NEW YORK) — Whether you’re planning a big holiday meal for a large family this Thanksgiving and dislike cooking, or are in charge of the main dish for your upcoming friendsgiving, fast food chain Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen has a Southern-style solution for you.
Some Americans have begun opting out of traditional Thanksgiving dinners in favor of amping up side dishes, or have chosen to simply forgo a giant turkey and replace it with a smaller bird. But for those still looking forward to enjoying some savory, juicy turkey this November, Popeyes has you covered.
The company, famous for its fried chicken and biscuits, has spread its wings ahead of the holiday season to offer a Cajun-style turkey once more.
The fast-food chain announced the return of the fan-favorite Thanksgiving dinner staple on Tuesday. Pre-orders are open, with deliveries slated to begin as early as Oct. 24.
The bird, which feeds 8 to 12 people and costs $94.99, is marinated with Popeyes’ signature blend of Louisiana seasoning, slow roasted and flash fried for a crispy coating, then frozen and packaged to be delivered for an easy thaw, reheat and eat experience.
Customers can preorder the turkey for pickup from their local Popeyes by calling or visiting in person, while supplies last, or online for direct delivery to their doorstep. Online orders will arrive one to three business days after the order is shipped.
The announcement is likely a relief for those with busy lives or anyone who could use a little help in the kitchen: Popeyes conducted its own survey of over 500 people and found that “more than 50% of respondents feel stressed to host Thanksgiving dinner at their own home and think that the turkey is the hardest dish to cook as part of the meal.”
“Hey, it’s Elizabeth with Student Advisors,” a warm, professional voice began in a voicemail left on Sept. 13, weeks after the Biden administration announced it would be offering up to $20,000 in student loan forgiveness for the nation’s tens of millions of borrowers.
“I’m just giving you a call in regards to your school loan. I do have you prequalified here for the updated forgiveness program and possibly even loan discharge. It is imperative that we go over the details just as soon as possible because it does look like your status is going to expire soon. But I will go ahead and keep it in pending status for you for now,” the voice — “Elizabeth” — said in the voicemail, before leaving a callback number.
On Monday, President Joe Biden formally announced the opening of the federal student debt cancellation application, following a “beta” test of the process over the weekend which had drawn in eight million applicants.
While mostly celebrating the political implications of his policy, Biden also carved out a warning for eligible borrowers: Be wary of increased scam attempts, which prey upon people desperate to have their school loans forgiven.
“I’m also focused on going after fraudsters who call borrowers,” the president said. “If you get a call pretending they’re from the government trying to help them with your loans, let’s be clear: Hang up. You never have to pay for any federal help for the student loan program.”
“If you get any questionable calls, please tell us by going to reportfraud.ftc.gov,” he said.
On Tuesday in a consumer report, the Federal Trade Commission said scammers were already “on the move” one day after the application’s official launch — trying to get borrowers’ money and personal information.
The voicemail left on Sept. 13 is a prime example of the type of scam attempts that Biden is cautioning borrowers against. It includes a number of fraud indicators, Federal Trade Commission staff attorney Michelle Grajales told ABC News, like the fact that “Student Advisors” is not an accredited loan servicer and that “Elizabeth” claimed fast action was required from the borrower so they didn’t lose their benefits.
Contact from a servicer other than the one whom an individual is enrolled with and if a servicer charges a fee for the loan application process are other “major red flags,” Grajales said, echoing Biden’s warning.
All benefits of the forgiveness program are available for free through an application from borrowers’ own loan servicers or through the government website studentaid.gov.
“DON’T pay anyone who contacts you with promises of debt relief or loan forgiveness. YOU DO NOT NEED TO PAY ANYONE TO OBTAIN DEBT RELIEF,” the Department of Education said in a blog post this month called the “Do’s and Dont’s of Student Debt Relief.”
Biden’s warning on Monday follows a White House fact sheet released on Oct. 5, where his administration advised against student loan scam attempts that had begun even before he announced the cancellation policy.
The administration said then that it would be ramping up enforcement between the Department of Education, the Federal Trade Commission and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the Department of Education’s Office of Inspector General, Secretaries of State, state banking regulators and state attorneys general, among other bodies — aiming to catch more scammers and increasing shared information between entities so they might work faster in each state to stop fraud.
Student loan complaints are shared across federal and state agencies using the Federal Trade Commission’s Consumer Sentinel Network, which connects about 3,000 federal, state, local and international law enforcement users. Online advertisements are one component of the FTC’s complaint system, along with calls, texts and emails.
“At least in a general sense, student loan debt relief complaints appear to be going up this year as opposed to last year,” Grajales said, noting findings from the FTC network. She said that was “also continuing kind of an upward trend from 2019 and 2020.”
Be wary of loan scams via search engine: Watchdog
Tech Transparency Project, a nonprofit organization that monitors tech companies, released an investigation in July, before the Biden administration had even announced its forgiveness policy. The organization found that a significant number of ads running on search engines like Google were student loan scams, either posing as government agencies or trying to gather information or finances from people but never delivering them services.
According to the report, 12% of the ads that appeared in Google searches for key terms around student loan forgiveness were scams.
“Google’s response was that these things aren’t allowed,” Tech Transparency Project Director Katie Paul said in an interview.
The nonprofit followed their July report with an October check-in, which found that certain search terms used in their July report continued to return scam ads — though the number had somewhat reduced.
“This change shows that Google is clearly capable of more effective enforcement. The question is why that effective enforcement didn’t come until there was a very public warning about these types of scams from the highest level of government, and why Google’s action against companies profiting from those scams isn’t the status quo,” Paul said.
In response to questions from ABC News on why the search engine had served loan scam ads, according to the Tech Transparency Project, Google said that they were “committed to combating financial fraud in ads and protecting our users and advertisers from scammers” through a number of policies in place to enforce the fraud and an investment in verification processes.
On Tuesday, however, following the official loan application rollout, Paul said she noticed another increase in the search-engine advertisements.
“Google is still allowing advertisers to redirect borrowers searching for the administration’s debt relief application. If Google was actually focused on delivering the most authoritative information, it would not allow the highest bidders to jump ahead of the government’s relief efforts,” she said.
How to avoid student loan scammers
The Federal Trade Commission warns students and borrowers not to share personal information, especially Federal Student Aid ID, Social Security numbers or credit card information, with any website or person other than on the government’s official portal — and not to upload or attach any documents.
The agency has also stressed that there is no fee to apply for student debt forgiveness.
Since the student loan announcement in August and Biden’s October push to clamp down on fraud, the Federal Trade Commission said they have issued blog posts that have gone out to 300,000 subscribers, educating those people on how to spot scams and avoid fraud. They’ve also engaged in social media campaigns in both English and Spanish.
Grajales said the agency’s chairwoman, Lina M. Khan, has met with senior officials at other agencies to coordinate reducing scam attempts.
“My message to fraudsters looking to cheat the American people is don’t do it. We’re gonna hold you accountable,” Biden said on Monday.
The FTC is equipped to handle the fraud cases, they say
The Federal Trade Commission said it is leading the charge to enforce crackdowns on individuals or companies who are attempting to perpetuate fraud.
Grajales, the staff attorney, told ABC News that the agency collects complaints and then shares them with law enforcement agencies nationwide.
“We’re active in this space,” Grajales said, as the agency has recovered hundreds of thousands of dollars for borrowers already engaged in student loan scams over the past five years.
“We seek to get money back for consumers as well as to put these people out of business and get what we call lifetime bans for the wrongdoers. And we are successful in most of these lawsuits,” Grajales said.
Like Biden suggested, the Federal Trade Commission said the best place to record instances of fraud is reportfraud.ftc.gov. Even if an individual did not fall victim to fraud, they should report any attempts against them.
