Keep up with the award-winning Watchdog column, appearing twice a week at www.DallasNews.com/watchdog.
Read the story about The Watchdog’s 20th birthday here.
Consumer Protection against Scams and Fraud
Watchdog Nation founder Dave Lieber is taking a stand on behalf of his readers’ number one pet peeve.
His stand is a symbolic run for the U.S. presidency, which he announced Sunday, Jan. 10, 2016 in his Watchdog column in The Dallas Morning News. See it here.
The pet peeve? His readers — citizens of Watchdog Nation, he calls them — are quite surprised when they have phone numbers, email addresses, sometimes even bank account numbers for scammers who try to hurt them. Yet the authorities don’t seem to care.
Dave proposes creating a “junior FBI squad” that would work both here and overseas to take out the thousands of illegal operations that call, mail and email Americans every day with duplicitous schemes.
How can you help? Enjoy the debut campaign video here. And share the link – https://youtu.be/8iKqghi1nzg – with you friends. Let’s have fun.
Read our original story about leaks on Twitter before the official campaign announcement here.
Read Dave Lieber’s Watchdog for President announcement speech here.
On TV: Fighting back the Watchdog Nation way
Thanks to Kristi Nelson and NBC5 for letting me share Watchdog Nation’s ways to fight back every Monday around 11:20 am.
Become a citizen of Watchdog Nation:
Still here? Visit Dave Lieber’s other fun websites: DaveLieber.org
Make shopping for electricity fairer for Texans. Force roofers to get a state license. Stop charging extra for people who pay with debit and credit cards. Verify that fingerprinting all Texans for driver’s licenses is legal. Protect auto insurance customers who ask questions about their policies.
These are the five dream bills offered up by Dallas Morning News Watchdog Dave Lieber in his recent two-part series. Read Part One and Part Two.
By far, his Retail Electricity Reform Act of 2015 is his top-priority. “I get more complaints from Texans about their electricity contracts than any other subject,” Lieber says. “I have placed the top ones into my dream bill. I’m seeking one or more lawmakers willing to take on the big powerful interests and clean up all the loopholes. So far, no legislator has taken the big step. But I’m hoping for it.”
Lieber wants to ban minimum usage fees, regulate unregulated fees and make comparison shopping easier by forcing all companies to advertise the full price including the delivery charge.
Watchdog Nation founder Dave Lieber discusses his legislative proposal on NBC5. Watch here:
Read about the four minor bills here.
Read about the major electricity bill here.
Follow The Watchdog at www.dallasnews.com/watchdog and see the progress of this year’s campaign.
Still here? Visit Dave Lieber’s other fun websites: DaveLieber.org
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More Watchdog Nation News:
Watchdog Nation Partners with Mike Holmes
America meets Watchdog Nation/Listen to Fun Radio Interview
Watchdog Nation Debuts New e-Book and Multi-CD Audio Book
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This video shows the best tips for 2015 from Dallas Morning News Watchdogs Dave Lieber and Marina Trahan Martinez.
How did we figure this out?
Based on our mail and the most common problems we see. If you hit most of these correctly, you’ll lessen your chances for a hassle-free ’15.
Happy New Year from The Watchdog Desk at The Dallas Morning News.
Watch Dave live on NBC5.
Read the full column this is based on here.
For desktop and laptop viewers, here’s the information in a cartoon we made.
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More Watchdog Nation News:
Watchdog Nation Partners with Mike Holmes
America meets Watchdog Nation/Listen to Fun Radio Interview
Watchdog Nation Debuts New e-Book and Multi-CD Audio Book
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Still here? Visit Dave Lieber’s other fun websites:
Personal: YankeeCowboy.com
Hipster site: DaveLieber.org
In the billion words written about President John F. Kennedy in these last days, almost everyone has missed one of the most important contributions of his presidency.
JFK is the founder of the American consumer rights movement.
I bet you didn’t know that. Here’s how it happened.
The year before he died, Kennedy stood before cameras in the Roosevelt Room in the White House and announced his support for changes in law that we take for granted today: truth in lending, pesticide regulations, meat inspections, government approval of pharmaceuticals, product safety and, my favorite, more TV channels.
Kennedy said, “Consumers, by definition, include us all. If consumers are offered inferior products, if prices are exorbitant, if drugs are unsafe or worthless, if the consumer is unable to choose on an informed basis, then his dollar is wasted, his health and safety may be threatened, and the national interest suffers.”
No president had ever talked like that.
Kennedy went further, announcing his consumer bill of rights:
The right to safety. Products should not be hazardous to health or life.
The right to be informed. Consumers should be protected from fraudulent, deceitful or grossly misleading information in advertising and on labels.
The right to choose. Give people a variety of products at competitive prices.
The right to be heard. Consumer interests should be heeded by legislators and policymakers.
Kennedy’s wishes are now enshrined in law.
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More Watchdog Nation News:
Watchdog Nation Partners with Mike Holmes
America meets Watchdog Nation/Listen to Fun Radio Interview
Watchdog Nation Debuts New e-Book and Multi-CD Audio Book
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Still here? Visit Dave Lieber’s other fun websites:
Personal: YankeeCowboy.com
Hipster site: DaveLieber.org
Don’t fall off your chair when you hear this, but the Texas Legislature has enacted major changes in how Texans can monitor their local, county and state governments. These changes are for the better for both officials and the public.
Texas is the first state in the nation to create a new way to monitor the work and deliberations of government officials. Each government, whether it be city council, school district, county commissioners court or a state agency, is now allowed to create an Internet message board where officials, both elected and appointed, can publicly discuss government business away from officially called meetings.
But there’s one caveat. The public now has a right to listen in, or rather read, what’s being said.
In the past, it was illegal for government officials to discuss either in person, by phone or electronically the people’s business outside of a posted public meeting. Not to say that they didn’t do it, but they weren’t supposed to.
The new law that takes effect Sept. 1 states that governments can create a message board and place it prominently on their website. Officials can write back and forth, even deliberate with one another.
In another change that has already taken effect, any official who can’t be present for a public meeting can now video conference in and be considered part of a quorum — as long as the public can watch, too.
Picture this: Councilwoman A is away on business during the night of a council meeting. So she sets up her iPad in her hotel room and still participates. The government shows her image on a big screen in the meeting room. Councilwoman A is there, virtually.
A third big change coming Sept. 1 is that text messages, emails and other electronic messaging from either public or private accounts between elected officials will officially be part of the public record.
If two school board members text each other during a meeting about how they intend to vote, anyone has the right to request access to those messages. If they’re not handed over, that’s a violation of the state public information act.
As part of this new law, when governments outsource government services to outside vendors, communications with those vendors are now public, too.
“This was a really good session for transparency,” says Donnis Baggett of the Texas Press Association. “Transparency was a buzzword for the session. For the most part, it was a breath of fresh air compared to past sessions.”
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More Watchdog Nation News:
Watchdog Nation Partners with Mike Holmes
America meets Watchdog Nation/Listen to Fun Radio Interview
Watchdog Nation Debuts New e-Book and Multi-CD Audio Book
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The idea for the first-in-the-nation message board came from Republican Attorney General Greg Abbott and Democratic state Sen. Kirk Watson of Austin.
How public officials use the message board, if they create one, remains to be seen. Will they actually engage in frank discussions electronically in front of the public, or will they use the message board for propaganda purposes?
These new laws take the state’s open records and open meetings requirements into the 21st century, says Kelley Shannon, executive director of the Freedom of Information Foundation of Texas.
“The clear understanding is, if you’re performing governmental functions, no matter the device, it’s subject to the Texas Public Information Act,” says Laura Lee Prather, an Austin attorney who specializes in First Amendment issues and worked closely with lawmakers and open government advocates to get these bills passed.
Remember that to get this information, all you have to do is write a letter to a government body requesting it. There are a few exceptions for what’s available, but most government documents are yours for the asking. Sometimes you have to pay, depending on the request and the governmental body, and sometimes you don’t.
The state’s public information act is clear about who owns these records: you do. The preamble to the Texas Public Information Act states that public servants do not have “the right to decide what is good for the people to know and what is not good for them to know. The people insist on remaining informed so they may retain control over the instruments they have created.”
It’s our job to remind them of that. Now it’s a whole lot easier.
The new laws
Read the new open government laws at the Texas Legislature Online website, www.capitol.state.tx.us/. Search “Legislation” by bill number and use 83R, for the 83rd regular session.
SB 1368: Declares that electronic messages on public or private accounts are available through open records requests. Takes effect Sept. 1.
SB 1297: Allows governments to create an Internet message board for public officials to deliberate away from public meetings. Takes effect Sept. 1.
HB 2414: Permits video conferencing by officials unable to be physically present at a publicly called meeting. Has become law.
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Still here? Visit Dave Lieber’s other fun websites:
Personal: YankeeCowboy.com
Hipster site: DaveLieber.org