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The landscaper red flags too many homeowners miss

• Watch for major red flags: Scammers often claim they have leftover materials and pressure you into making a same-day deal.

• Never hand over large upfront payments: Experts recommend smaller payments instead of paying for most of the project before work begins.

• Do your homework first: Read negative reviews, verify licensing and insurance, ask for references, and always insist on a written estimate.

A California homeowner says he lost thousands whenhe was he was pressured into paying $2,500 after a landscaper allegedly tried charging him $5,000 for a mulch job that he believed should have cost only a fraction of that amount, according to a recent report from CBS 8 San Diego.

Unfortunately, consumer experts say cases like this are becoming far more common as spring and summer landscaping season ramps up nationwide.

The often follow a predictable pattern:

• A contractor happens to be in the area with extra material.
• Theyre too busy to provide a proper estimate.
• They promise fast work and low prices.
• They often request a large upfront payment.
• Work either never starts, drags on endlessly, or is left unfinished.

Legitimate contractors should always be willing to provide:

• A written estimate
• A basic contract
• A breakdown of costs
• A payment schedule

Watch out for 'leftover materials'

This was the crux of the CBS 8 report. A landscaping crew showed up at the homeowners residence offering to mulch his yard for $10 a bag, which was a significant discount.

The homeowner added that the landscaper claimed they couldnt provide a written estimate because they were too busy, which is an obvious warning sign.

Once the work was completed, he was handed a $5,000 bill, the equivalent of 500 bags of mulch. The homeowner figured it was about a 50-bag job, so he knew he was being scammed.

He got the police involved but was told it was a civil matter and he needed to work it out with the landscaper. He ended up paying the scammer $2,500 to have him leave his property and avoid any future issues or harassment.

Be wary of anyone knocking on your door claiming:

• They just finished work nearby.
• They have leftover mulch, pavers, or asphalt.
• They can offer a huge discount but for today only.

This high-pressure tactic is extremely common in contractor .

Legitimate landscapers rarely:

• Demand same-day decisions
• Pressure homeowners at the door
• Offer steep discounts for immediate payment

A big red flag: Large upfront deposits

While deposits are normal for legitimate landscaping jobs, experts say homeowners should be cautious anytime a contractor demands a very large percentage upfront.

Thats especially true if they:

• Pressure you to pay immediately
• Only accept cash
• Claim the deal expires today"
• Ask for payment before materials arrive

A safer approach is to make smaller payments that are tied to actual work completed.

For example:

• Small deposit upfront
• Payment after demolition
• Payment after materials arrive
• Final payment after completion

Pro tip: Paying with a credit card (if possible) can provide stronger fraud protections than cash, checks, or payment apps.

Fake reviews are making harder to spot

One reason these are spreading is because scammers now look far more believable online. A polished website and dozens of five-star reviews no longer guarantee a company is legitimate.

Before hiring anyone:

• Read negative reviews first
• Check how long the business has existed
• Search the company name plus complaints or scam
• Verify licensing and insurance directly
• Ask for local references

Pro tip:Reverse-image search any landscaping photos on their website or social media pages. Some scammers will steal project images from legitimate companies.

The bottom line

Landscaping are growing because homeowners are spending heavily on outdoor projects while scammers know many people want quick (and cheap) fixes during spring and summer.

The good news is that most share the same warning signs like inability to provide an estimate, large deposits, and rushed decisions.

Taking an extra day to research a landscaper and insisting everything is put in writing could potentially save you thousands of dollars and a massive headache later.

The retailer tested the service in Seattle and Philadelphia

By Mark Huffman of ConsumerAffairs

• Amazon is expanding its new Amazon Now service to dozens of U.S. cities, promising delivery of groceries and household essentials in about 30 minutes or less.

• The service will initially reach millions of customers in metro areas including Atlanta, Dallas-Fort Worth, Philadelphia, and Seattle, with more cities planned by years end.

• Prime members will pay delivery fees starting at $3.99, while Amazon positions the service as its fastest mainstream delivery option yet.

Several decades ago, a pizza chain promised delivery within 30 minutes or less. Now Amazon is making that promise in select cities sort of.

The company has announced that the ultra-fast delivery service around 30 minutes is expanding to dozens of cities across the United States after initial pilot programs in Seattle and Philadelphia. Amazon said the service is now broadly available in Atlanta, Dallas-Fort Worth, Philadelphia,and Seattle, while additional expansion is planned for cities including Houston, Phoenix, Denver, Orlando, Minneapolis,and Oklahoma City.

Amazon Now focuses on high-demand items customers may need immediately, including groceries, household essentials, over-the-counter medications, pet supplies, and small electronics. Amazon executive Udit Madan said the service is designed for situations where consumers need or want the convenience of rapid delivery.

The service operates through smaller urban fulfillment hubs stocked with roughly 3,500 frequently purchased products. Those facilities are significantly smaller than Amazons traditional warehouses and are intended to shorten delivery times in densely populated areas.

What it costs

Prime members will pay delivery fees beginning at $3.99 per order, while non-Prime customers will pay $13.99. Amazon also plans to charge small-order fees for purchases under $15.

The launch intensifies competition among retailers racing to provide near-instant fulfillment. Walmart already offers express delivery on more than 100,000 products, and app-based services such as Instacart and DoorDash have conditioned consumers to expect faster delivery windows.

Amazon executives said the company has seen strong demand for faster shipping options, noting that orders for everyday essentials are growing faster than other delivery categories. The company has steadily shortened delivery windows over the past decade, moving from two-day Prime shipping to same-day and one-hour delivery in some markets.

Still, analysts cautioned that ultra-fast delivery can be expensive and difficult to scale profitably.

Amazon also appears mindful of comparisons to Dominos Pizzas abandoned 30 minutes or less guarantee, which ended in the 1990s after lawsuits tied to delivery crashes. Amazon said it will not guarantee delivery times and emphasized that workers and drivers are not expected to rush orders.

Massive youth survey suggests local tobacco restrictions may reduce e-cigarette use over time

• Researchers analyzed survey data from more than 2.8 million California middle and high school students.

• Areas with flavored tobacco bans reported lower youth vaping rates than areas without restrictions.

• The study found no evidence that the bans led to an increase in cigarette smoking among teens.

Flavored vape products have been at the center of public health debates for years, especially because flavors like fruit, mint, and candy are often seen as appealing to younger users. Now, a new California-based study suggests local restrictions on flavored tobacco products may be linked to lower rates of teen vaping.

Researchers from University of California San Diego and San Diego State University examined how local flavored tobacco bans affected youth vaping habits across California communities. Their findings, published in JAMA Health Forum, showed that students living in areas with these policies were less likely to report current e-cigarette use compared with students in places without such bans.

Our findings suggest that local flavored tobacco bans can be an effective strategy for reducing youth e-cigarette use, researcher Eric Leas, Ph.D., MPH, said in a news release.

Importantly, we did not find evidence that these policies led young people to switch to cigarettes, which has been a major concern raised in policy debates.

The study

To study the impact of those local policies, the research team analyzed responses from 2,805,708 students who participated in the California Healthy Kids Survey between 2017 and 2022. The survey included students in seventh, ninth, and eleventh grades and asked questions about tobacco and e-cigarette use during the previous month.

Researchers compared students attending schools in jurisdictions that had active flavored tobacco bans with students in areas that did not. They used a statistical method known as a dynamic difference-in-differences analysis, which allowed them to evaluate how vaping trends changed over time as different communities adopted the restrictions at different points.

The analysis also adjusted for several community-level factors that could influence tobacco use, including racial and ethnic diversity, poverty levels, and educational attainment. According to the study, this approach helped researchers better isolate the association between flavored tobacco bans and youth vaping behaviors.

The results

The results showed lower vaping rates among students living in areas with flavored tobacco restrictions. In jurisdictions with bans in place, 6.2% of students reported current e-cigarette use, compared with 7.7% in jurisdictions without bans.

Researchers also found that the reductions appeared to strengthen over time. Three years after a ban was implemented, youth vaping rates were nearly two percentage points lower in areas with restrictions. Four years after implementation, the difference grew to more than nine percentage points.

At the same time, the study found no significant association between flavored tobacco bans and youth cigarette smoking. Cigarette use among teens remained relatively similar in jurisdictions with and without the policies, addressing concerns that some young users might switch from vaping to traditional cigarettes if flavored products became harder to access.

The authors said continued monitoring will be important as Californias statewide flavored tobacco restrictions remain in effect. They also noted that future research could help determine how enforcement and community differences influence the long-term impact of these policies.

Local policies gave us a valuable window into how flavored tobacco restrictions may influence youth behavior over time, researcher Giovanni Appolon, MPH, said in the news release. As more jurisdictions adopt these policies, continued monitoring will help determine how enforcement, policy design and community context shape their public health impact.

Study finds diet quality may matter for brain health

• Researchers found that people who followed healthier plant-based diets had a lower risk of Alzheimers disease and related dementias.

• Diet quality appeared to matter, with unhealthy plant-based foods linked to a higher dementia risk.

• The findings suggest that even people who adopt healthier eating habits later in life may still benefit.

A growing body of research has explored how food choices affect long-term health, and now scientists are taking a closer look at how diet may influence brain health as people age.

A new study published in Neurology, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology, found that people who followed healthier plant-based diets were less likely to develop Alzheimers disease and other forms of dementia compared to those whose diets relied more heavily on less nutritious plant-based foods.

Researchers emphasized that the study only found an association and does not prove that diet directly prevents dementia. Still, the findings add to growing evidence that the quality of foods people eat may play an important role in healthy aging.

Plant-based diets have been shown to be beneficial in reducing the risk of diseases like diabetes and high blood pressure, but less is known about the risk of Alzheimers disease and other dementias, researcher study author Song-Yi Park, Ph.D. said in a news release.

Our study found that the quality of a plant-based diet mattered, with a higher quality diet associated with a reduced risk, and a lower quality diet associated with an increased risk.

The study

The study focused on several types of plant-based eating patterns. One measured overall plant-based eating, meaning participants ate more plant foods than animal products. Another focused specifically on healthier plant foods such as whole grains, fruits, vegetables, nuts, legumes, vegetable oils, tea and coffee. A third measured less healthy plant-based foods, including refined grains, fruit juice, added sugars and potatoes commonly eaten in processed or fast-food meals.

Importantly, the researchers were not studying vegetarian or vegan diets specifically. Instead, they looked at how much healthy and unhealthy plant-based food people consumed overall.

To conduct the study, researchers followed 92,849 adults with an average starting age of 59. Participants came from a variety of racial and ethnic backgrounds, including African American, Japanese American, Latino, Native Hawaiian and white adults. Over an average follow-up period of 11 years, 21,478 participants developed Alzheimers disease or another related dementia.

At the beginning of the study, participants completed detailed food questionnaires about their eating habits. Researchers then scored each participant based on how closely their diets matched the three plant-based eating patterns. Factors such as meat, dairy, eggs, seafood, healthy plant foods and less healthy plant foods were all included in the scoring process.

The research team also examined how peoples diets changed over time. A smaller group of more than 45,000 participants completed a second dietary questionnaire about 10 years later, allowing researchers to compare how shifts in eating habits related to dementia risk.

The results

After accounting for factors like age, exercise levels and diabetes, researchers found noticeable differences between dietary patterns.

People who consumed the highest amounts of plant foods overall had a 12% lower risk of dementia compared to those who consumed the least. Those who most closely followed a healthier plant-based diet had a 7% lower risk.

Meanwhile, participants whose diets contained the highest amounts of unhealthy plant-based foods had a 6% higher risk of dementia.

Researchers also found that dietary changes over time appeared to matter. People whose diets became more unhealthy over the 10-year period had a 25% higher risk of dementia, while those who moved away from unhealthy eating patterns had an 11% lower risk.

We found that adopting a plant-based diet, even starting at an older age, and refraining from low-quality plant-based diets were associated with a lower risk of Alzheimers and other dementias, said Dr. Park. Our findings highlight that it is important not only to follow a plant-based diet, but also to ensure that the diet is of high quality.

The study authors say the findings suggest that adopting healthier eating habits even later in life may still be associated with better brain health outcomes. However, they also noted an important limitation: the study relied on self-reported food questionnaires, meaning participants may not have remembered their diets perfectly.