Pogo

WASHINGTON (CPSC) - The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, in cooperation with the firm named below, today announced a voluntary recall of the following consumer product. Consumers should stop using recalled products immediately unless otherwise instructed. It is illegal to resell or attempt to resell a recalled consumer product.
Name of Product: Pogo sticks
Units: About 159,000
Distributor: Bravo Sports of Santa Fe Springs, Calif
Note: Disney licensed its brand name to Bravo Sports
Hazard: The bottom rubber tip attached to the pogo stick frame can wear out prematurely, posing a fall hazard to consumers. Also, the end caps on the handlebars can come off, exposing sharp edges. This poses a laceration hazard to consumers.Incidents/Injuries: Bravo and CPSC have received 82 reports of the bottom tip wearing out on the pogo sticks, including five reports of injuries. A 9-year-old girl suffered a skull fracture and chipped a tooth. Another 9-year-old girl cut her lip and chin, requiring stitches. Other injuries included scrapes, hits to the head and teeth pushed in.A new report by the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction (SIGIR) found that Dubai-based federal contractor Anham LLC overcharged the Department of Defense by at least $4.4 million for spare parts and equipment. The SIGIR audit found "egregious examples of overbilling" by Anham, including:
* $4,500 for a circuit breaker valued at $183.30 (which would represent a 2,355 percent markup)
* $3,000 for a circuit breaker valued at $94.47 (a 3,076 percent markup)
* $75 for a piece of plumbing equipment valued at $1.41 (a 5,219 percent markup)
* $80 for a small segment of drain pipe valued at $1.41 (a 5,574 percent markup)
And, last but certainly not least:
* $900 for a control switch valued at $7.05 (a 12,666 percent markup)
This should sound depressingly familiar. After all, it was just a few short weeks ago that POGO made public a DoD Inspector General audit detailing how Boeing overcharged the Army up to 177,000 percent on helicopter spare parts.Anham promptly fired back in a press release, insisting it had actually saved U.S. taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars, and that if anyone was to blame for overcharges it was the Pentagon, claiming “not a single screw or nail was purchased without prior, advance approval by the U.S. government.”Unfortunately, there is evidence that Anham is not just engaging in petty mudslinging. SIGIR found that Anham’s U.S. government contracts in Iraq and Afghanistan, which total about $3.9 billion, are hampered by “weak oversight in multiple areas that [leave] the government vulnerable to improper overcharges.” SIGIR recommended an in-depth review of all Anham contracts, citing poor government oversight, questionable competition practices, and undisclosed conflicts of interests among Anham and its subcontractors.Anham first landed on POGO’s radar last year when it was announced that it had been chosen to take over a contract to supply food to U.S. troops in the Middle East. The previous prime contractor, Kuwaiti logistics firm Agility, had been indicted several months earlier for, you guessed it, overcharging the government