Consumer protection refers to the laws designed to aid retail consumers of goods and services that have been improperly manufactured, delivered, performed, handled, or described. Such laws provide the retail consumer with additional protections and remedies not generally provided to merchants and others who engage in business transactions, on the premise that the consumers do not enjoy a sufficient bargaining position with respect to the businessmen with whom they deal and therefore should not be strictly limited by the legal rules that govern recovery for damages among businessmen. The overarching goal is to protect individuals and the interest of the public in general from unfair and misleading activity in business and commerce (such as false advertising and deceptive trade practices) and scams perpetrated by criminals (such as identity theft and pyramid schemes) that harm a substantial number of consumers.
Ketchum is a city in Blaine County, Idaho, United States, in the central part of the state. The population was 3,003 at the 2000 census. It is in the Wood River Valley, adjacent to Sun Valley; the two communities share many resources and both sit in the same valley beneath Bald Mountain, with its world-famous skiing. The city also draws tourists from around the world to enjoy its fishing, hiking, trail riding, tennis, shopping, and more. The airport for Ketchum, Friedman Memorial Airport, is approximately 15 miles (24 km) south in Hailey. The elevation of downtown Ketchum is 5,853 feet (1,784 m). Ketchum was once an isolated mining and ranching town in the wilds of central Idaho. After the development of Sun Valley in 1936, the city became popular with celebrities, including Gary Cooper and Ernest Hemingway. Hemingway loved Ketchum and the surrounding area, fished, hunted and lived in the valley. It was in Ketchum that Ernest Hemingway took his own life; he and his granddaughter, model and actress Margaux Hemingway, are buried in the Ketchum Cemetery. Singer Ben Lee wrote a song dedicated to Ketchum which appears on his album Something to Remember Me By. Every Labor Day weekend, Ketchum hosts the Wagon Days festival, an old west themed carnival featuring wagon trains, including narrow wagons actually used to carry ore, a parade, and even simulated street gunfights.