Tag results for: Consumer


Product Downsizing: Are You Paying More and Getting Less at the Grocery Store?

Category: Season 5

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Mary Bach

Independent Consumer Advocate and Chair, AARP Pennsylvania Consumer Issues Task Force

Mary Bach is a nationally recognized, independent Consumer Advocate. She is also Chair of the AARP Pennsylvania Consumer Issues Task Force. She has taken her knowledge to many television outlets including the Today Show, Good Morning America, Donahue, and Dateline. She has also been featured in the pages of Good Housekeeping, Business Week, Money Magazine, USA Today, and the Wall Street Journal. Her work is centered around preventing fraud against older consumers.

You may have noticed a trend happening at the grocery store. Everything from bars of soap to cartons of ice cream are shrinking in size. When asked why products are being manufactured in smaller packages, the corporate response can sometimes be laugh out loud funny. Companies downsize to increase profits and most of the time shoppers don’t notice that their favorite product has changed. Consumer Advocate Mary Bach presents tales of outlandish and comical downsizing in hopes of getting viewers to pay greater attention to the products they put in their shopping cart.

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Scanned or Scammed: Are You Getting What You Pay For?

Category: Season 5

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Mary Bach

Independent Consumer Advocate and Chair, AARP Pennsylvania Consumer Issues Task Force

Mary Bach is a nationally recognized, independent Consumer Advocate. She is also Chair of the AARP Pennsylvania Consumer Issues Task Force. She has taken her knowledge to many television outlets including the Today Show, Good Morning America, Donahue, and Dateline. She has also been featured in the pages of Good Housekeeping, Business Week, Money Magazine, USA Today, and the Wall Street Journal. Her work is centered around preventing fraud against older consumers.

Do you ever feel “ripped off” in the marketplace? Do you understand Pennsylvania’s amusing and confusing sales tax applications? Have you ever been overcharged with an inaccurate price scan at the checkout register? Consumer Advocate Mary Bach wants you to stand up for your rights as a shopper. Your shopping trips will never be the same after this entertaining and educational presentation packed with important consumer information.

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Identity Theft & Imposter Scams

Category: Season 6

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Mary Bach

AARP Pennsylvania Consumer Issues Task Force

Mary Bach is a nationally recognized, independent Consumer Advocate. She is also Chair of the AARP Pennsylvania Consumer Issues Task Force. She has taken her knowledge to many television outlets including the Today Show, Good Morning America, Donahue, and Dateline. She has also been featured in the pages of Good Housekeeping, Business Week, Money Magazine, USA Today, and the Wall Street Journal. Her work is centered around preventing fraud against older consumers.

Is your relative really in trouble and calling you for money? Is the person on the phone asking for bank information really from the IRS? Phone scams are on the rise. But if you can spot a scam, you can stop a scam. Learn about techniques criminals use to steal your personal information and get no-nonsense advice on how to avoid identity theft and imposter scams.

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Lottery Frauds & Sweepstakes Scams

Category: Season 7

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Mary Bach

Independent Consumer Advocate and Chair, AARP Pennsylvania Consumer Issues Task Force

Mary Bach is a nationally recognized, independent Consumer Advocate. She is also Chair of the AARP Pennsylvania Consumer Issues Task Force. She has taken her knowledge to many television outlets including the Today Show, Good Morning America, Donahue, and Dateline. She has also been featured in the pages of Good Housekeeping, Business Week, Money Magazine, USA Today, and the Wall Street Journal. Her work is centered around preventing fraud against older consumers.

That free, all-inclusive vacation —is it too good to be true? Did you really win a lottery you don’t remember entering? Are free contests really free? Pennsylvanians report more than 50,000 cases of fraud to the Federal Trade Commission each year. Don’t fall for these classic phone and mail scams. Get common sense advice and learn to spot “Red Flags” that will help protect you from consumer fraud.

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Tips to Help You Save on Your Energy Bills

Category: Season 7

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Shari A. Williams & Christina Chase-Pettis

Senior Communications Specialists, Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission

Over the last 24 years, Shari has provided advanced professional public relations work, consumer education and public outreach to Pennsylvania consumers. Additionally, Shari participates in the PUC’s overall communications strategy, specifically related to consumer education and outreach.

Christina is a seasoned and highly respected consumer education leader with over 20 years of experience providing consumer education, outreach and training programs to thousands of consumers, human service agencies and other interested stakeholders throughout the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.

Do you want to learn about the many Utility Programs and Services offered by your local Utility Company as well as ways you can save money on your home energy bills? Join us with presenters from the PA PUC’s Consumer Education and Outreach Team to learn about these valuable programs – and to find out about low cost/no cost conservation tips to help you save on your energy bills!

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Enhancing Senior Safety

Category: Season 8

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Trooper Jessica L. Tobin, Community Affairs Officer, Pennsylvania State Police

Trooper Tobin engages with community members and organizations to collaboratively identify and problem-solve local challenges to increase the safety of residents, visitors, and law enforcement. Community Affairs Officers strive to develop relationships within underserved communities across the commonwealth.

What are the best ways to protect yourself against theft and fraud? How can you identify scams that come to your home as innocent looking emails or friendly phone calls? Trooper Jessica Tobin, a Community Affairs Officer with the Pennsylvania State Police will help you learn to recognize common signs of scams and frauds and shares some good agencies to notify when this issue occurs.

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Evaluating Dietary Supplements for Seniors

Category: Season 8

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Lynn James, MS, RDN, LDN, Senior Extension Educator with Penn State Extension

Lynn James provides educational programs for organizations and the community on improving nutrition, health, and food safety. Her program focus is community nutrition research and program development in food and culture, family chronic disease prevention, Type 2 Diabetes, and food safety.

Did you know seniors can be at risk for spending their limited income on supplements they might not even need? Dietary supplements aren’t regulated like foods, and some can be unsafe and/or not do what they promise. We’ll help you determine whether a supplement has been found to be effective and safe and identify sources of credible information for dietary supplements.

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Food Insecurity among Older Adults and the Emergency Food Safety Net

Category: Season 10

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Kristina P. Brant, Ph.D., Extension Educator

Kristina Brant is an Assistant Professor of Rural Sociology at Penn State. She is a qualitative researcher who studies the family and community dimensions of substance use. Her work has been recognized by the American Sociological Association and the Rural Sociological Society, and it has been funded by multiple organizations including the National Science Foundation, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, and the Center for Rural Pennsylvania. She also works with Penn State Extension to put research into practice through community-based education and programming in rural Pennsylvanian communities.

Justine Lindemann, Ph.D., Extension Educator

Justine Lindemann is an Assistant Professor of Community Development and Resilience in Penn State University’s College of Agricultural Sciences. She has years of both domestic and international experience working on issues around community and economic development related to food system change.

The reduction of COVID-era benefits such as expanded SNAP payments, continued inflation, and rising food prices have put unprecedented pressure on older adults’ abilities to meet their household food needs. The emergency food network in Pennsylvania, which includes food banks, food pantries, and other local organizations that distribute food, has attempted to expand service delivery to meet these increased needs; however, crucial gaps in funding and food provisioning have widened. In this talk, we will draw on recent research to describe the work of the emergency food network in Pennsylvania, discuss increased food insecurity and the programs that work to address food needs among older adults, and provide more information on the relevance of these programs to listeners.

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If you need to connect with resources in your community, but don’t know where to look, PA 211 is a great place to start. From help with a utilities bill, to housing assistance, after-school programs for kids, and more, you can dial 211 or text your zip code to 898-211 to talk with a resource specialist for free. Our specialists will listen to your needs and give you information on programs in your community that might be able to help. 

The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) helps Pennsylvanians buy food. People in eligible low-income households can obtain more nutritious diets with SNAP increasing their food purchasing power at grocery stores and supermarkets. Those who are eligible receive an Electronic Benefits Transfer (EBT) ACCESS Card to make food purchases. 

The United States Department of Agriculture, or USDA, makes commodity foods available to State Distributing Agencies. States provide the food to local agencies that directly serve the public (food banks, food pantries, soup kitchens, etc.). The local organizations distribute the food to eligible recipients for household consumption or use them to prepare and serve meals in a congregate setting. Recipients of food for home use must meet income and household eligibility criteria. 

The Senior Food Box Program works to improve the health of low-income seniors by supplementing their diets with nutritious USDA Foods. In Pennsylvania, eligible participants include low-income individuals who are at least 60 years old and whose household income is at or below 130 percent of the U.S. poverty level. 

The WIC Farmers Market Nutrition Program (FMNP) and Senior Farmers Market Nutrition Program (SFMNP) provide WIC recipients and low-income seniors with fresh, nutritious, unprepared, locally grown fruits, vegetables, and herbs from approved farmers in Pennsylvania. 

Feeding Pennsylvania is the statewide association of nine Feeding America affiliated food banks. The mission of Feeding Pennsylvania is to promote and aid our member food banks in securing food and other resources to reduce hunger and food insecurity across the state and to provide a shared voice on the issues of hunger and food access within the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. 

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News, Views, and Attitudes Part 1: Our Innate Need to Know

Category: Season 10

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Mark Kelley, PhD., Author, Journalist

Mark Kelley, PhD. is a native Pennsylvanian, who taught journalism/mass communications at Syracuse University and the University of Maine, after twenty-five years as a professional journalist.

Media literacy is the ability to critically analyze stories presented in the mass media and to determine their accuracy or credibility. This session introduces our innate need to know what is happening in the world around us and explains how our brain processes the information gathered by our five senses—vision, hearing, touch, taste, and smell—into messages we can understand. It also explores how we form attitudes (opinions) using the information delivered by our senses, and the impact our attitudes have on our ability to understand messages we receive from mass media.
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News, Views, and Attitudes Part 2: The Development of News Media in The United States

Category: Season 10

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Mark Kelley, PhD., Author, Journalist

Mark Kelley, PhD. is a native Pennsylvanian, who taught journalism/mass communications at Syracuse University and the University of Maine, after twenty-five years as a professional journalist.

The News, Views, and Attitudes series explores the state of the news media and their audiences today, trying to examine whether truth can be found there and, if so, how someone might be more successful in extracting it. This session tracks the development of news media in the United States and examines how well they have communicated the truth–about people, places, and things–that we need to know. It examines efforts by some to discredit certain media and convince audiences they are not telling the truth (fake news). It also notes the advent of the Internet, and the threat it poses by creating a world where everyone can claim to be a journalist.

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News, Views, and Attitudes Part 3: How Mainstream Journalists Do Their Jobs

Category: Season 10

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Mark Kelley, PhD., Author, Journalist

Mark Kelley, PhD. is a native Pennsylvanian, who taught journalism/mass communications at Syracuse University and the University of Maine, after twenty-five years as a professional journalist.

Media literacy is the ability to critically analyze stories presented in the mass media and to determine their accuracy or credibility. This series explores the state of the news media and their audiences today, trying to examine whether truth can be found there and, if so, how someone might be more successful in extracting it. This session explains how mainstream journalists do their jobs and looks at the commercial and ideological pressures under which they work. It examines ethical standards journalists are committed to, and reviews scholarly research attempting to answer the question: Are American journalists biased?

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