Miracle Ear’s company to pay $700,000 settlement
HARRISBURG. Pa. (AP) — The
nation's third-largest hearing aid manu
facturer said Wednesday it will pay a
total of $700,000 to 15 stales to settle
charges claiming it used deceptive adver
tising to sell its Mirai le Ear devil e
Dahlberg ln< agreed to change its ads
and make disclosures about the limita
tions of its product It did not acknowl
edge any wrongdoing
The agreement ended an investigation
started lost year by the 15 states into Mir
ocle Ear ads. which said devices
equipped with Clarifier circuits eliminate
background noise, allowing users to
understand conversations in noisy envi
ronments
Pennsylvania's Bureau of Consumer
Protection argued (bat no hearing aid
could live up to such a claim
"There's no way a mm hanical device
can function like a human ear.” said
Stephen Hladik. state deputy attorney
general "A hearing aid is an amplifier It
does not hove the ability to differentiate
sound the way it was implied in the
advertising campaign."
Dahlberg ran the ads nationally until
when the U S Food and Drug
Administration ordered the company to
stop tha campaign
Dahlberg. a Golden Valley. Minn.,
based subsidiary of Bausch a Lamb Inc.
of Rochester. N Y.. said it sought to
resolve the matter to avoid costly litiga
tion over an old ad campaign
"Dahlberg has consistently defended
and maintained that the performance
claims for the Clarifier < ircult were sub
stantiated by reliable scientific evi
dence,” said Carl Sassano. president and
chief executive offic er
Despite the agreement, the Federal
Trade Commission said it would proceed
with a separate lawsuit filed in January
charging that the ads were false and
unsubstantiated
As part of the accord announced
Wednesday. Dahlberg must disc lose in
ads that hearing aids may not provide the
same benefits to all users, and that the
affit acy of hearing aids mav depend on
proper fit. degree of bearing loss and
amine v of patient evaluation
The company also must include a dis
claimer that understanding spee< h in a
noisv environment mav be difficult, even
with the Clarifier.
In addition to Pennsylvania, states
receiving money under the settlement
an- Arizona. California. Florida. Illinois,
Massachusetts. Minnesota, Missouri.
Now Mexico, New York. North Carolina.
Texas. Vermont. West Virginia and Wis
consin.
Two past tenants open
doors of Biosphere 2
TUCSON. Arli. (AH) — Kt) floss
I wo people who lived inside
Biosphere 2 for two years
were arrested Wednesday for
allegedly breaking into the
sealed environmental ex|x>ri
ment and leaving the doors
open so outside air could get
in.
Abigail Ailing, who has
been taking responsibility for
Monday's intrusion in calls
to reporters across the coun
try, faces two felony charges,
burglary and criminal prop
erty damage, and a misde
meanor trespassing f ount.
She was arrested at a Tuc
son motel with fellow crew
member Mark Van Thillo,
saiil Pinal County Sheriff’s
spokeswoman Belia Fes
senden. Van Thillo fai es the
same charges.
Ailing and Van Thillo,
among eight people who
lived in the sealed dome for
two years ending Sept. 28,
1093, are employees of the
project's operator. Space
Biospheres Ventures.
Both were suspended from
their jobs with the project
last week by a court-appoint
ed receiver representing the
controversial project’s finan
cial backer, Texas billionaire
Ailing had indicated she
was considering turning her
self in, but Fessenden said
the pair was arrested by a
surveillance team when they
appeared to be preparing to
leave the motel.
Ailing said she ordered the
doors thrown open at the
giant terrarium to end the
experiment in order to pro
tect the current crew of seven
living in the dome outside
Ora< le. 35 miles north of
Tucson. Without offering
specifics, she said the crew
was in danger because the
receiver had suspended man
agers who know how to oper
ate the system and that the
crew was Incapable of react
ing to emergent ies that might
occur.
The case was initially clas
sified a misdemeanor. Fes
senden said the property
damage count was boosted to
u felony after Biosphere 2
officials estimated losses at
$80,000. The only physical
damage revealed publicly
was that five small panes of
glass in the dome's "lungs"
were broken, as wore plastic
seals on some doors. Four of
the five doors were left open.
Homeless hero s rescue disputed
NKW ORPHANS (AP) A homeless man's sto
ry that he res« ued an elderly couple from a flam
ing wri»< k in a daring act that led to a |ob offer,
i asti and other assistant •• was disputed Wednes
day by several people who salt) they witnessed the
in i ident.
"We nil helped ea< h other," said Craig Allen,
who works at a serve e station at the intersection
where the accident o< currod There's no way one
person did it all
Hut police stood by their initial account that
Michael Dennis risked his litn Saturday to pull
Margaret Walt/er, f»7, and her husband Klmo, 79.
out of a burning cor.
After that account was publicized, calls poured
in to the poli< e station from people offering mon
ey, clothes and |obs Dennis, who had been home
less for two years after Ivemg laid off ns a forklift
operator, was hired Tuesday by a Baton Rouge
company He was honored for his bmverv Wednes
day by New Orleans police
Dennis said others were trying to i ash in on his
celebrity, including an erroneous report that Gen
eral Motors Corp had given him S10.000 On
Tuesday. Dennis told reporters about the GM gift,
but on Wednesday he said he had been mistaken.
"1 got them out of the car by myself." Dennis
said. "Now people are coming out of the wood
work saving. 1 did it. I did it.' I'm angry about it "
Allen said he and four co-workers joined about
five others in the rescue.
Glen Gharouleau, who manages a nearby tile
store, displayed burns on his arm and face that he
said he got when he pulled Waltzer out of the car.
lie said the men from the service station rescued
Margaret Waltzer.
"I went in the car twice and (Dennis) is taking
the credit for it," he said. "That was not him. That
was mo."
Another witness. Dorothy Gotlin, said Dennis
saved the couple's lives. Hut she said the smoke
was so thick "you couldn't see what was happen
ing m the car. You couldn't see the people in
there.”
Publicist sentenced, stole Trump’s shoes
NEW YORK (AIM — A publi
cist who admitted having a "sex
ual relationship" with Marla
Trump's footwear was sen
tem «'d Wednesday to up to four
and one-half years in prison for
stealing her shoes and lingerie
Chuck Jones. 52, a former
public relations aide for Trump,
rejected several plea deals that
would have spared him |ail but
would have required psyi hintrii
counseling
State Supreme Court Justii e
Richard Andrios told Jones be
was satisfied that Jones had
committed the crimes for rea
sons he could not really control
"I don't think you have any
one to blame but yourself," he
said.
A jury convicted Jones Feb. 16
of burglary, criminal possession
of stolen properly and weapons
possession Andrias sentenced
him to one and one-half to four
and one-half years in prison. He
fac«*d up to IS years on the bur
glary count alone
"1 think the jury was wrong,
and we're going to appeal this,"
Jones said outside court
Jones was arrested in July
1992 after police seari hed his
office and found dozens of pairs
of Marla Trump's missing shoes,
boots and undergarments hid
den in closets and drawers. The
hacks of the footwear had been
slashed Police also found an
unlicensed handgun.
A videotape taken by a hidden
camera in Trump s apartment
showed Jones rummaging
through her closet. Jones
claimed he had permission to be
in the apartment
Trump, formerly Marla
Maples, married developer Don
ald Trump last year
Jones, who is married and has
two daughters, often spoke
openly during the three-week
trial of his "sexual fascination"
with women's shoes.
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