Find out what's been bugging you.  These folks are clearly very dedicated.  If you've encountered a bizarre garden pest, odds are it's in here.  Don't kill your bug until you check this site.

What's That Bug

Bank of America may have just dumped its carefully-cultivated share of the immigrant banking market. 

Working immigrants form a lengthy queue at B of A's MacArthur Park branch on 6th and Alvarado.  The long wait is made easier by a friendly, attentive staff and branch manager, and all visitors are made to feel welcome.  Not only is the branch a convenient location from which to dodge rubber bullets during immigration rallies; it has also served as a relatively safe haven for immigrant earnings, under a checking/savings plan with the appealing name Nuevo Futuro ("New Future").

So committed was Bank of America to this program, CEO Kenneth D. Lewis delivered a speech entitled "Nuevo Futuro Americana" at La Raza's national gathering in 2004 - the year of Nuevo Futuro's product launch.  They have also mirrored their web newsroom with a Spanish version.

So it is with some surprise that we've learned Bank of America has dismantled Nuevo Futuro and is now charging a $5.95 "convenience fee" to former Nuevo Futuro account holders, except for those who have convinced their employers to issue paychecks via direct deposit.  This violates the agreement under Nuevo Futuro that any accounts which automatically draw $25 monthly into savings will be charged no monthly fees. 

If your employer doesn't offer direct deposit, says Bank of America, you can switch to an account that will tag you more than eight bucks should the balance dip below $1,000 at any moment during the month.  That's convenient!

Bank of America's manner of notifying customers of this change would charitably be described as "lousy".  There it is, in plain English, on Page 2 of statements covering December 2006.  (If memory serves...I'll scan the bill soon:) No mention of the new fees, direct deposit requirements or the fee amount.

Wells Fargo, a key competitor to B of A in California, offers the fee-free version and assures us that no account products are pulled out from existing customers - ever.  If your product should be no longer offered to new account holders, your account remains "grandfathered". 

This one speaks for itself . 

Seriously. 

Okay, I guess I'm using the site to document any consumer gripes.  Here's one to Pur, owned by Proctor & Gamble, which led me to a real doozy I'll post after this.  

1) We don't have that sweepstakes thing so we can't register on the site.  
2) You require too much personal info for registering.  Date of birth, to register a water filter?
3) We have the Pur 200.  Prescribed filter is CRF 950.  I don't think the "easy indicator" has moved in several months.  It is slightly to the left of the arrow.
4) Is it true that the CRF 950 has been dumped and the new one has no indicator and filters less ?
5) One website shows CRF-950-WC as the replacement.  Are these available retail?
6) One CRF-950 replacement has a thicker seal.  Has our PUR 200 been delivering us unfiltered tap water this whole time?

Prior to submitting, the search assistant found answers to the following:

The answers to the following questions may be relevant to your question:

Okay, I get two of those, but animal research?  

Now I'm even more anxious about the water filter.   

In the May issue of their Fearless Flyer, Trader Joe's advertises their Meatless Corndogs which they characterize with the word "vegetarian".  However, these Meatless Corndogs contain "carmine", a red dye derived from the critter pictured at right.  To see these animals in their natural habitat, check out these great photos from the collection of UC Irvine Prof. Peter J. Bryant.

Legally, a product may be labeled as "Meatless" and include insects like the cochineal.  But what about advertising it as "vegetarian"?

So popular is the cochineal blood that "by 1600, cochineal was second only to silver as [Europe's] most valuable import from Mexico" See The Bug That Changed History or check out the book A perfect red : empire, espionage, and the quest for the color of desire . 

But, Trader Joe, must you put this in "meatless" corn dogs? 

My sister asks a fair question: why not use beet juice?  Beet juice is an excellent bug-free souce of red dye.

A saying comes to mind that has endured in our family since that dinner in Chinatown.  "No meat.  Just a little."

You might wonder if it's just Trader Joe's branding of the Morningstar Farms product.

Apparently not. 

Per Morningstar's website, they're using Red #3.  Also known as Erythrosine (Tetraiodofluorescein), it is a cherry-pink coal based fluorone food dye.

Yes, Trader Joe, we'd rather eat coal.