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Consumer Confidential: Big toy recall, J&J’s stealth recall, no price hike for stamps

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Here’s your thirsty Thursday roundup of consumer news from around the Web:

--Fisher-Price is recalling more than 10 million toys because of a variety of potential dangers, including choking hazards and protruding pieces. Here’s the list of products being recalled in the United States: About 7 million Fisher-Price Trikes and Tough Trikes toddler tricycles; about 950,000 Healthy Care, Easy Clean and Close to Me high chairs; about 100,000 Fisher-Price Little People Wheelies Stand ‘n Play Rampways; about 2.8 million Baby Playzone Crawl & Cruise Playgrounds, Baby Playzone Crawl & Slide Arcades, Baby Gymnastics Play Walls, Ocean Wonders Kick & Crawl Aquariums (C3068 and H8094), 1-2-3 Tetherballs and Bat & Score Goals. If you have any of these things around your house, get them away from little ones immediately. More info is available here.

--Speaking of recalls, a senior official at the Food and Drug Administration says the agency should have acted quicker to crack down on Johnson & Johnson, which conducted a stealth recall last year by buying up defective packets of Motrin from stores nationwide. J&J apparently told the FDA in April 2009 that it planned to repurchase the defective Motrin, which didn’t dissolve correctly. But it wasn’t until July of that year that the agency said the company needed to do a proper -- and public -- recall, not a shadowy repurchasing program. Really, it’s amazing that a major company like J&J could get away with something like that.

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--Hope you’re not too fond of Saturday mail delivery. The committee that oversees the U.S. Postal Service has denied a request to hike the price of first-class stamps by an additional 2 cents. The Postal Regulatory Commission says the service hasn’t supported a proposal for an average increase of 5.6%, compared with an inflation rate of 0.6%. The Postal Service in July said the recession had cut mail volume and revenue. Now facing a budget deficit of $238 billion through 2020, the service is seeking ways to economize. Ending Saturday mail delivery is high on the list.

-- David Lazarus

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