7onyourside's Blog

7 On Your Side needs your help.

Do you cross into Mexico to buy prescription drugs at a bargain?  If so, we'd like to interview you for an upcoming story.  Please email us at 7oys@fox7.com and leave us your contact information.

We're especially interested in hearing from anyone who had a bad experience with medicine they bought south of the border.  Have yoy ever bought something and it turned out to NOT be what you thought?

Have you gotten your IRS stimulus check yet?  You might be surprised by how small it is.

We've gotten a lot of calls from people who thought their check would be bigger.  So we started looking into how the government calculates the amount.  It can be complicated, but we've tried to break it down for you.  Catch our story Tuesday night at 9:00.

The IRS has a page that answers a lot of your questions.  It also includes a handy calculator to figure out exactly how much you're getting:  http://www.irs.gov/newsroom/article/0,,id=177937,00.ht
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In the meantime, what are you planning to spend your check on?  Do you think it will really stimulate the economy?

You buy a horse. You raise it. You treat it like it's part of your family. But what happens when the horse gets too sick or too old? Horse owners have options, including hiring a vet to put the animal to sleep. But some horses are sold. And some of the sold horses end up as food in other parts of the world.

Horse slaughter is an issue that stirs strong opinions on both sides of the issue. It's not illegal to slaughter horses in the United States, but it's illegal in several states, including Texas. In fact, there are no horse slaughter facilities currently operating in the US. Yet, thousands and thousands of horses are transported out of the country for slaughter.

The way they're transported to slaughter, whether your for slaughter or against slaughter, will be a focus of our story tonight.

7 On Your Side obtained some very graphic undercover footage of these horses and how they are killed. We've had a lot of discussions about how much of the video is appropriate to show on TV. On one hand, we never want to feature gratuitous violence, but on the other, the footage may be necessary to tell the story, It's really hard to imagine the conditions these horses face without seeing it directly. It is truly disturbing to watch.

Feel free to share your thoughts on the issue.  Our story airs tonight (TUES) at 9:00 PM.

Meantime, we want to share some photos of Diamond the horse.  Diamond is featured in our story as the horse standing next to Chris during his reporter standup.  She was a last minute addition to the story and we'd like to thank Diamond and her owner for their help.

Diamond saying, "Hello, news crew."

A lucky shot of Diamond galloping.

Welcome to the new 7 On Your Side blog.  I think we're finally getting the hang of this internet thing.

I'm John Craven, the producer for 7 On Your Side.  Along with reporter Chris Coffey and photojournalist Shane Gordon, we make up Austin's longest-running consumer and investigative team.  We want to make this blog a place to interact with you, discuss stories we're working on, and get your feedback on stories we've done.  More than anything, we want our stories to get people talking.

Feel free to leave us story tips here as well.

Tonight's story features the pay day loan industry.  You've probably seen them around Austin, especially in lower-income neighborhoods.  Pay day lenders say they provide fast cash to people who don't qualify for traditional loans.  Critics say they prey on students, the poor, and those with bad credit, trapping them in a cycle of debt.

Whatever your view, 7 On Your Side discovered that payday lenders operate with almost no government oversight in Texas, because of a little-known loophole in state law.

Check out the story and let us know what you think.  (Once it airs, you can see it here:  http://www.myfoxaustin.com/myfox/pages/Home/Detail;jse
ssionid=0286DB810FFE70CAD1C772CC598CADB8?contentId=8604
92&version=165&locale=EN-US&layoutCode=TSTY&pageId=1.1.
1&sflg=1)  Should pay day lenders face more state regulations?  Do you think they unfairly target vulnerable people, or should customers know what they're getting into ahead of time?