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Sale of Renault Trucks Defense comes to ‘definitive halt’ ... for now Defense News / October 31, 2017 PARIS ― The idea of selling Renault Trucks Defense could be dead in the water, however some wonder whether a French Army competition for a light multirole reconnaissance vehicle could resurrect the move. There’s a school of thought that the sale of RTD ― a subsidiary of Swedish truck-maker Volvo ― is simply postponed rather than canceled. And according to three defense executives, the tender for the Army vehicle, dubbed Light VBMR, is key to the future of RTD. Winning a contract worth hundreds of millions of euros would boost the value of the company and bring back the sale of Volvo’s military business, Volvo Group Governmental Sales, the sources said. “Light VBMR is a determining factor,” an executive said. RTD is the major part of the government sales unit. That expectation of a sale clashes with remarks by Joël Barre, the head of France’s Direction Générale de l’Armement procurement office, or DGA, who said Oct. 18 that Volvo would not put the subsidiary back on the market. “Concerning RTD, there will not be a sale,” Barre told the defense committee of the lower house National Assembly, an official record of the meeting showed. Barre told legislators he had seen Jan Gurander the day before and asked the Volvo deputy CEO and chief financial officer whether there had been a cancellation or a postponement of a few months. “He guaranteed that there is a definitive halt on a sale, assuring me that he would give RTD the resources to develop itself,” he said, adding that the DGA would keep a careful eye on these “verbal commitments.” RTD chairman Emmanuel Larcher — who accompanied Gurander — backed up the remarks of the Volvo senior executive, Barre said. ‘They have to sell it‘ Industry executives, however, expect a sale of RTD, in part because the company is seen as a strong candidate in the competition for the Light VBMR. There is a view that both the previous bidders, CMI and KNDS, had factored in RTD winning the Light VBMR contract in their valuations, a source said. So even if RTD were to win the deal, the prospective bids would not rise. Volvo called off the sale of the VGGS division last month after a competition — which ran almost a year — failed to attract bids as high as the Swedish company and its bank adviser, Rothschild, expected. According to the three executives who spoke to Defense News, among the bidders for the light vehicle contract are Engie Ineo, teamed with Austrian partner Achleitner; KNDS; RTD; Soframe; and Thales. A selection in the tender for the light vehicle is expected by the end of the year or early next year, an executive said. The best and final offers have been handed in and are being assessed. A DGA spokesman confirmed the competition has been launched and is underway. No further details were available. One view is that by winning the light vehicle contract, RTD would boost prospective bids by €200 million to €300 million (U.S. $233 million to $349 million) in a renewed sale of VGGS. RTD has a strong position as major supplier of light vehicles to the French Army, but there seems to be uncertainty over its future in the wake of Volvo’s attempt to sell the unit. The Volvo governmental sales unit includes Acmat, Mack and Panhard alongside RTD. “They have to sell it,” a source said. The core business of Volvo is commercial trucks, while VGGS accounts for only 1.5 percent of group sales. In the tender for the light vehicle, Thales was expected to offer its Australian Bushmaster vehicle, which could be assembled under license in France with an industrial partner. The electronics company displayed a Bushmaster at the trade show Forum Entreprise Defense, held Oct. 18-19 at Versailles, just outside the capital, an executive said. Equipment service was the theme of the show. RTD was expected to offer its Sherpa or Bastion vehicles, while KNDS could pitch a Krauss-Maffei Wegmann four-wheel drive vehicle, which equips German and Polish special forces. The light multirole vehicle is part of the French Army’s Scorpion modernization program, with a first delivery due in 2021. The Army expects an increased order of 558 light vehicles, compared to a previous target of 358 units, the service website shows. That revised number reflects the government’s 2016 decision to boost the strength of the Army in an anti-terrorist drive. The DGA confirmed the higher order. A first batch of 400 units is due by 2025 under the first phase of Scorpion, with the balance of orders expected in the second phase. The Army requirement is for a 10-ton, four-wheel drive vehicle to equip command, brigade, intelligence and electronic warfare units. The vehicle will be equipped with a standard information and command network, software-defined radio, and electronics, and it will be armed with a remote-controlled 12.7mm or 7.62mm machine gun. The Light VBMR vehicle will replace the Véhicule Blindé Léger scout car. Volvo said Oct. 17 the company would “discontinue” the sale of its government sales unit as offers had been too low, and that the group would continue with the operation. CMI and KNDS had filed rival bids of about €400 million for VGGS, which Volvo and Rothschilds considered too low in view of expectations of offers of €500 million to €700 million. CMI is a Belgian firm that build guns and turrets for armored vehicles. KNDS is a joint venture between Krauss-Maffei Wegmann and Nexter.

It all begs the question, if half of what the news tells us about Clinton and Trump is true, then how could they possibly be allowed to run for the office of president?

C'mon David, what's the matter with you. History 101.....When we interfere in the elections and internal affairs of countries around the world, it's all well and good. But when they interfere, it's very, very bad.

The Advertising for Immigrants Show Newsweek & ABC News New York / October 31, 2017 Sayfullo Saipov, a 29-year-old Uzbekistan native, was awarded a permanent resident visa in 2010 under the Diversity Immigrant Program (aka. Green Card Lottery). The [taxpayer funded] program is meant to increase the number of immigrants from countries with low rates of U.S. immigration [Why???]. The program awards 55,000 green cards a year, a majority of which go to people in African and Eastern European nations, according to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. To qualify, applicants must prove that they have a clean criminal record [impossible to verify], have a high school diploma or its equivalent, or have at least two years of work experience within the past five years. It takes two years of vetting to get a visa [Breaking News - Vetting failed]. The Immigration Act of 1990, also known as the Schumer program, after its sponsor Chuck Schumer (D-NY), established the current and permanent Diversity Visa program. Congress has tried to end the Diversity Visa lottery program five times since 2007. The program's future most recently came into question when the Reforming American Immigration for a Strong Economy (RAISE) Act, sponsored by Senator Tom Cotton (R-Ark.), called for its elimination as part of a wider reduction in legal immigration. In its statement supporting the bill, the White House called the Diversity Visa lottery program “outdated,” adding that it “serves questionable economic and humanitarian interests.” Saipov applied for the program in 2008 and was granted a Diversity Visa two years later. According to government records, there were 153,661 applicants for a DV-10 visa from Uzbekistan in fiscal year 2008. In 2010, 3,356 Uzbeks received a visa, meaning Saipov had a 2.1 percent chance of succeeding. From its independence from the Soviet Union in 1991 until last year, Uzbekistan was ruled by Islam Abduganiyevich Karimov, whose authoritarian rule pushed many of its residents to emigrate. ISIS also has a presence in Uzbekistan and recruits militants from there.

Clinton’s link to Putin is the underreported ‘dossier’ bombshell Marc A. Thiessen, The Washington Post / October 31, 2017 The news that the Clinton campaign and the Democratic National Committee paid for research used in the discredited Trump-Russia “dossier” is a bombshell. But even more shocking — and overlooked — is the revelation that the firm the Clinton campaign hired to compile that dossier, Fusion GPS, is the same firm that has been accused in recent congressional testimony of launching a smear campaign in Washington against Sergei Magnitsky, the Russian lawyer who was tortured and killed in a Russian prison in 2009 after uncovering a $230 million tax theft by 23 Kremlin-linked companies and individuals close to President Vladimir Putin. Which raises the question no one seems to be asking: Why was Hillary Clinton using an opposition research company with Putin-linked clients to dig up dirt on Donald Trump? The claimed link that was identified in congressional testimony has its roots in the Putin regime’s lobbying for the repeal of the 2012 Sergei Magnitsky Rule of Law Accountability Act, which froze assets and banned visas for Russians involved in or benefiting from Magnitsky’s murder, as well as for others involved in torture, extrajudicial killings or abuses against those seeking to promote human rights or expose illegal activity by Russian officials. So far, some 35 Putin cronies have been sanctioned under the act, infuriating the Russian president. After the act passed, prominent Magnitsky supporters in Russia began to be mysteriously poisoned, thrown off buildings or shot on bridges in front of the Kremlin. At the same time — according to testimony by Magnitsky’s boss, Hermitage Capital Management chief executive William Browder, recently made to the Senate Judiciary Committee — Fusion GPS launched a lobbying campaign in Washington to repeal the Magnitsky Act by charging (a) that Magnitsky was not murdered and (b) that he and Browder were, in fact, the ones responsible for the tax fraud. Of course, Magnitsky was blameless, and Browder’s only crime was that he virtually single-handedly led the charge for passage of the Magnitsky Act — originally opposed by the Obama administration, including Clinton’s State Department. One of the faces of the campaign to repeal the Magnitsky Act was the Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya (the same lawyer who famously met with Donald Trump Jr. in 2016). She visited the United States in 2016 ostensibly to lobby on adoption issues (Putin had barred Americans from adopting Russian children in response to the passage of the Magnitsky Act), but her real purpose was to push the repeal of the act and prevent the passage of a global law bearing Magnitsky’s name. Concurrently, Veselnitskaya defended Prevezon, a company sanctioned under the Magnitsky Act for laundering money from the tax fraud Magnitsky uncovered. Prevezon is owned by Denis Katsyv, a Putin-linked oligarch and son of a former Russian government minister. In July, Browder appeared before the Senate Judiciary Committee, where he testified that Prevezon “hired Glenn Simpson of the firm Fusion GPS to conduct a smear campaign against me and Sergei Magnitsky. . . . He contacted a number of major newspapers and other publications to spread false information that Sergei Magnitsky was not murdered, was not a whistleblower and was instead a criminal.” As a former Wall Street Journal reporter, Simpson had extensive contacts with his former media colleagues he could use to spread anti-Magnitsky propaganda. In an interview with me, Browder alleged that “Glenn Simpson was trying, on behalf of the Putin regime, to cover up the murder of Sergei Magnitsky, knowingly lying to journalists in Washington to write false stories. . . . Natalia Veselnitskaya hired him to lie, and Natalia Veselnitskaya was working for Putin. So it’s pretty clear to me that this was a major Putin operation.” (In a statement, Fusion GPS counsel Joshua Levy strongly denied Browder’s claims: “William Browder has an ax to grind with Fusion GPS. His retaliatory attacks on the company are not supported by a shred of evidence. His latest claim that Fusion GPS was hired by the Kremlin to cover up the murder of Sergei Magnitsky — five years after it occurred — is untrue and defamatory. His death was a tragedy, and no one at Fusion GPS has ever said anything to the contrary.”) Earlier this year, Browder filed a complaint with the Justice Department accusing Fusion GPS and others involved in the anti-Magnitsky campaign of unlawfully lobbying on behalf of Russian interests in violation of the Foreign Agents Registration Act. In a letter to the department, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa) wrote, “The issue is of particular concern to the Committee given that when Fusion GPS reportedly was acting as an unregistered agent of Russian interests, it appears to have been simultaneously overseeing the creation of the unsubstantiated dossier of allegations of a conspiracy between the Trump campaign and the Russians.” Here’s the bottom line: We have congressional testimony, under oath, that Clinton hired the same firm to smear Trump that Putin reportedly used to smear Magnitsky. Moreover, we also know that the Fusion GPS dossier relied on senior Russian government officials for much of the dirt it compiled, including “a senior Russian Foreign Ministry figure” and a “former top level intelligence officer still active in the Kremlin.” Together, those are bombshell revelations. Yet today, there is barely a peep in the mainstream media about the Clinton-Fusion-Putin connection. Imagine the outrage that would have ensued if we had learned that Trump had hired an opposition research firm with Putin-linked clients to dig up dirt on Clinton and that senior Russian government officials had been the sources of the unsubstantiated allegations that were leaked to the media. The left would be screaming, “Smoking gun!” None of this absolves the Trump campaign of collusion charges. But there is now more public evidence about Clinton’s collusion with Russia than there is about any such collusion by Trump.

Senator Franken hammers Facebook lawyer at hearing over Russian ads The Guardian / October 31, 2017 A top executive at Facebook struggled to answer on Tuesday as an angry and incredulous Al Franken, a Democratic senator, demanded why the social network accepted political advertisements paid for in Russian roubles during the presidential election. “This is something you guys have to deal with and fix,” Franken told Stretch, who was appearing instead of the more recognisable Facebook leaders Mark Zuckerberg or Sheryl Sandberg. “You were kind of the canary in the coal mine in 2016.” In a devastating line of questioning, Franken asked irately: “How did Facebook, which prides itself on being able to process billions of data points and instantly transform them into personal connections for its users, somehow not make the connection that electoral ads paid for in roubles were coming from Russia? Those are two data points! American political ads and Russian money: roubles. How could you not connect those two dots?” “People are buying ads on your platform with roubles. They’re political ads. You put billions of data points together all the time. That’s what I hear that these platforms do: they’re the most sophisticated things invented by man, ever. Google has all knowledge that man has ever developed. You can’t put together roubles with a political ad and go hmm, those two data points spell out something bad?” Franken asked whether Facebook would pledge not to publish a political ad paid for in North Korean won. As Stretch demurred, Franken interjected fiercely: “Please answer yes or no, sir ... You’re sophisticated. You’re the chief legal counsel for Facebook. Please answer yes or no.” Stretch sought to clarify that currencies did not necessarily indicate the source country of an advert and refused to commit to banning political ads purchased in foreign currencies. But Franken snapped back, asking why a bad actor would choose the North Korean won to conceal his activities. He told the counsel: “My goal is for you to think through this stuff a little bit better.” Senator Dianne Feinstein highlighted fake pages such as “Black Matters US” and “United Muslims of America”, which Russians used a custom audience tool to target. Senator Chris Coons struck a similar tone to Franken and again Facebook bore the brunt. He drew attention to an advert that claimed Hillary Clinton, along with Barack Obama, was despised by Americans and the army should be withdrawn from her control. Another advertised a non-existent “miners for Trump” rally. People were “duped”, Coons said. .

Was the 5sp Maxitorque transmission used with 300+hp engines? No. The 300 Plus was design for multi-speed (Eaton) transmissions, typically a 10-speed back then. We knew the 300/5-speed Maxitorque combination was the best (and certainly the envy of the industry). However, some multi-speed transmission customers simply wouldn't bend and give it a try. So creating a multi-speed version of the Maxidyne allowed us to play both sides of the fence (We didn't call the 300 Plus a Maxidyne, because spec-wise it wasn't). Now, I know customers that put a 5-speed Maxitorque transmission behind a 300 Plus, because the Eaton blew up and they had a used 5-speed on the floor. And I watched those trucks run the road for years. But technically, it was a mismatch. This all being before CMCAC (Chassis-mounted Charge Air Cooling / intercooler), the 300 had 285hp and the 300 Plus had 315hp. But they performed nose-to-nose. The Maxidyne Plus (ETAZ-673A) was the first Maxidyne to be painted a color other gold, that being Andes Copper. The 2-valve E6-350(R) was also painted Andes Copper. This color designated engines designed for multi-speed transmissions. The early 300s, with the scoop in the R-model hood, were the most powerful ever built. They could pull a building off it's foundation and up a hill.

Bob, concrete ties work great if they are properly designed and installed, in all temperature and elevation extremes. China is a prime example. They have the largest rail system in the world today, both passenger and freight. And the level is on par with Western Europe and Japan. How China can leap forward in 30 years time while we crawl (and that's being generous) is damning. .

Eight people killed in New York 'act of terror' after truck drives on to bike path The Guardian / October 31, 2017 Eight people were killed and more than a dozen injured after a man drove a truck nearly a mile down a bike path in Manhattan on Tuesday afternoon, striking pedestrians, cyclists and a school bus. New York City mayor Bill de Blasio said the incident was being treated as an act of terror. The suspect was yelling "Allahu Akbar" as he got out of the truck. Saipov reportedly left a note in the truck saying he carried out the attack on behalf of ISIS. De Blasio said a police officer assigned to the area stopped the attacker by shooting him in the stomach (abdomen). After smashing into the school bus, injuring two adults and two children, the 29-year-old suspect exited the truck displaying “imitation firearms” and was shot by police. The suspect was in custody, and a paintball gun and a pellet gun were recovered at the scene. The truck drove south after entering a pedestrian and bicycle path, where it struck multiple people. Six men were pronounced dead at the scene on the cycle lane and two other people were dead on arrival at the hospital. The suspect is 29-year-old male Uber driver Sayfullo Saipov, an Uzbekistan national. He entered the US in 2010 and lived in Ohio, Florida and recently Paterson, New Jersey. "I have just ordered Homeland Security to step up our already Extreme Vetting Program. Being politically correct is fine, but not for this! We must not allow ISIS to return, or enter, our country after defeating them in the Middle East and elsewhere. Enough!” Trump tweeted Tuesday night around 9pm ET. Inside the truck, police found a stun gun and two cell phones with 90 videos of propaganda about the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) and 3,800 images related to the terrorist group. Saipov is charged with providing material support to a terrorist organization and using a vehicle to cause violence. Saipov rented the truck from a Home Depot in New Jersey before driving into Manhattan to carry out the attack. He traveled for nearly a mile down a bike lane next to the West Side Highway, coming to a stop only after he slammed into a schoolbus. He then exited the vehicle carrying a black bag, a pellet gun and a paintball gun, yelling "God is great" in Arabic. Saipov was soon shot by a police officer and arrested. Inside a black bag that Saipov dropped after being shot, officers found three knives and a wallet containing a Florida driver's license. A note was discovered 10 feet from the truck with English and Arabic writing stating "No God but God and Muhammed is his Prophet" and "Islamic Supplication. It will endure." The FBI obtained a search warrant to search the two cellphones found inside the truck [why was that necessary, given events???]. A woman from Cincinnati, Ohio, who identified herself as Dilfuza Iskhakova, said that Saipov had stayed at her home there for several months about six years ago, after arriving in the US from Uzbekistan. “He seemed like a nice guy, but he didn’t talk much,” said Iskhakova. “He only went to work and came back. He used to work at a warehouse.” Iskhakova said Saipov had been applying for a green card when she knew him. Ohio state records show he registered a business involving vehicles to her home in May 2011. Iskhakova thought Saipov had moved from Ohio to Florida, and then to the New York region, and that he now had a wife and two young daughters. She said she did not know if Saipov was religious. “He’s from my country,” Iskhakova said. “His father knows my husband, and sent Sayfullo here because he didn’t know anyone.” .

Oh contraire Pierre (Billy) WARRANTY COVERAGE Transmission 5 years / 750,000 Miles Clutch 3 years / 350,000 Miles Paccar Transmissions Brochure - https://paccarpowertrain.com/media/2703/paccar_2017_brochure_r7_digital.pdf

Mack Bulldog / 2013, Volume 2 Artist Joseph Csatari Captures the Spirit of Mack Bending over his drafting table, Joe Csatari looked the picture of a young art director — tall and thin with dark hair, a generous smile and intense eyes that reflected his Hungarian heritage. He raised his head to see his boss gesturing toward him. There was another man in the office, a big man. As Csatari walked down the hall at the Boy Scouts of America (BSA) headquarters in North Brunswick, New Jersey, he felt a mixture of nervousness and excitement. “Joe,” his boss said, “I’d like you to meet Zenon Hansen, the president of Mack Trucks and a big supporter of the Boy Scouts.” Hansen looked as tall as Csatari with broad shoulders, gray hair and glasses and a pipe the size of a trowel. In the lapel of his blazer he wore a gold pin depicting a Bulldog. He had come from Diamond T-White Trucks to assume the presidency of Mack earlier in 1965 and served on the national executive board of the BSA since 1959. He knew the organization, and Csatari’s work. He got right down to business. “The most important thing to a company is spirit,” he said. “Without that, you have nothing.” He showed Csatari the photo of a painting. “This is the best-known symbol in the trucking business, and it typifies what I want the company to stand for — a tough and reliable product. I want you to redo it.” Csatari took a closer look at the photo. It showed a white Bulldog standing on three legs, the fourth obscured by a hind limb. “I want strength,” Hansen said. “I want you to put the other leg in — everyone knows that a Bulldog has four legs instead of three. And it should be a brindle color. It can’t be white. That’s the color of the competition.” Csatari agreed to the commission. Hansen shook his hand, looked him in the eye and said, “I like your style. I know you can do it.” And he did. Portrait of an Artist Joseph Csatari has painted the portraits of some of the most well-known figures in modern history —Dwight D. Eisenhower, First Lady Betty Ford, the picture of Chef Boyardee that appears on cans of mini ravioli. He has illustrated more than 300 books, magazines and other publications. His work has appeared in the Saturday Evening Post, Time and Outdoor Life. But it’s his association with the BSA and the organization’s first official artist, Norman Rockwell, that attracted public acclaim ... and the attention of Zenon Hansen. Csatari was born in 1929 in South River, New Jersey. His older brother wanted to draw and paint, and so did Joe. He loved Rockwell’s work with its combination of craftsmanship and heart, and copied the artist’s covers for the Saturday Evening Post. After studying art, he joined the BSA Supply Division’s advertising department in 1953. In 1958, he became the art director and in 1973 served as art director of Boys’ Life magazine. His meeting with Rockwell would change his life. “When the Boy Scouts would come up with a theme for a painting, I’d interpret it with a layout,” Csatari said. “Then I would get the models and take them to Norman’s studio in Stockbridge, Massachusetts. He had my layout and the models and a photographer. He would pick the photographs that would tell the story and start painting.” Those paintings graced the covers of everything from the Boy Scout Handbook to the Scouts’ annual calendars. When Rockwell retired from the Scouts in 1976, the BSA named Csatari its official artist. A year later he launched his career as a freelance artist. Today, at age 84, he lives in the same town in which he was born, South River, with his wife Susan. He continues to work upstairs in his studio, light filtering down on the easel from skylights, framed sketches and paintings of his and Rockwell’s work covering the walls. And while he has never driven a truck, he remembers with pride the day Zenon Hansen asked him to paint what has become the symbol of trucking around the world. “I was flattered,” he said. “He wanted my style.” Filling in the Details That style was meticulous, bold and heroic, the very qualities Hansen wanted the Bulldog to portray. The commission, which took about three weeks, went smoothly. “I made little roughs on tracing paper,” Csatari said. “I traced the sketch onto canvas, then I went ahead with the painting. They were very pleased with it.” That’s an understatement. This wouldn’t be the only time Csatari worked for Mack Trucks. He would paint the Brockway Husky, the mascot of the Brockway Motor Company, a firm Mack purchased in 1956. But this time felt different. “I took the painting up to [Hansen’s] office and showed it to him. He looked at it and said, ‘Joe, that’s it. You hit it right on the head. I like it.’” Hansen was so pleased that he had numerous copies made on canvas and hung the original behind his desk at World Headquarters, a constant reminder of the rugged spirit of Mack. A Place in History That one painting has assured Joe Csatari’s place in Mack history. “He was an important contributor to the turnaround of Mack Trucks in the Zenon Hansen days,” said Don Schumaker, curator of the Mack Trucks Historical Museum in Allentown, Pennsylvania. “Csatari’s creation was an instant hit. Like his mentor, Norman Rockwell, he was able to visualize and depict a very lifelike and determined looking Bulldog. The picture has been used everywhere since then.” The original painting now hangs in a fitting place — at Mack World Headquarters in Greensboro, North Carolina, outside the office of Kevin Flaherty, president of Mack Trucks North American sales and marketing. The artist who succeeded America’s best-known painter is pleased to help promote the world’s most-famous truck. “I feel very humbled, very privileged, that my logo would represent this great Mack company.” PDF - https://jeffwidmer.files.wordpress.com/2013/08/bulldog-v2-2013-joe-csatari-article.pdf .

Kenworth Truck Co. Press Release / October 24, 2017 A look at the build and loading process for the Kenworth 963 severe-duty truck. .

You expect to read about such an occurrence in China. My question is, why is Norfolk Southern still using wooden railroad ties in year 2017? The answer must lie around why the greatest country on earth has one of the worst railway systems.

Transport Topics / October 30, 2017 ATLANTA — Norfolk Southern Railway has filed a federal lawsuit against an Alabama company, claiming the company failed to use proper protective coating on more than 4.7 million wooden railroad ties. Norfolk Southern says it is being forced to replace millions of defective railroad ties because they’re degrading faster than expected, the company said in a lawsuit filed this month in U.S. District Court in Alabama. Instead of using materials that preserve the wood, officials with Boatright Railroad Products Inc. ordered workers to “make them black by whatever means necessary” so they appeared to be properly treated but were not, Norfolk Southern maintains in the suit. “So long as the railroad ties had the same physical appearance as a tie that had been properly treated, it did not matter to defendants if the substance used to ‘make it black’ was actually a wood preservative at all.” Motor oil, anti-freeze, paint and other substances that would not effectively preserve the wood were used on the ties instead of creosote — the chemical which should have been used, the company alleges. Boatright also provided misleading samples to a consultant for the railroad who was checking on the quality of its work, the lawsuit alleges. The Alabama firm’s employees were instructed to take the consultant out hunting at the same time he was to be inspecting railroad ties being treated at the facility, the lawsuit states. A lawyer who represented Boatright in previous legal matters didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment Oct. 30. Properly treated rail ties are “crucial” to the railroad’s operations, as untreated ones can “degrade and deteriorate prematurely, thereby jeopardizing the safety and integrity of Norfolk Southern’s rail network and the interstate rail network as a whole,” the company’s complaint states. Safety is a top priority, and Norfolk Southern “continues to inspect and closely monitor the condition of all cross ties across its rail network in accordance with the highest industry standards,” the railroad said in a statement Oct. 30 to The Associated Press. “Any tie found to be experiencing premature degradation will be replaced before it can pose a risk to safety,” the statement said. Several Amtrak routes use Norfolk Southern’s tracks for passenger trains. It’s possible that passengers could face some delays as ties are replaced, said Sean Jeans-Gail, vice president of government affairs and policy at the National Association of Railroad Passengers. The state of the nation’s railroad tracks has come under scrutiny in recent months amid concerns about derailments of lengthy trains hauling oil or ethanol in the Midwest and the South. The National Academies of Sciences recently called for more thorough inspections of freight railroad tracks. More frequent inspections are needed to prevent potentially catastrophic derailments of trains hauling oil and ethanol in which ruptured tank cars can produce giant fireballs, the scientific organization said in a report this month. Virginia-based Norfolk Southern operates freight trains in more than 20 states in the southern and eastern United States. From 2009 to 2014, Boatright provided Norfolk Southern with nearly 5 million railroad ties, and virtually all of them were installed in the railroad’s network, the lawsuit said. About 4.5 million of them are described as cross ties; and 193,000 are switch ties. Also included in the total are about 72,000 inferior bridge ties, according to the suit. .

https://www.bigmacktrucks.com/topic/43765-ford-preparing-diesel-powered-f-150/

I really appreciate a good truck parts metal fabricator. As they mentioned, Northside builds the utility box.........http://www.northsideind.ca/ And Carco installs it.............http://www.carcoindustries.com/ Western Star does little more than cut two checks.

Scania Group Press Release / October 30, 2017 Scania’s net sales in the first nine months of 2017 rose to a record high SEK 86.4 billion, an increase of 15 percent compared to the previous year. Demand for the new truck range was good and the service trend remains positive. Summary of the first nine months of 2017 Operating income, excluding items affecting comparability, amounted to SEK 9,080 m. (7,492) Operating income rose to SEK 9,080 m. (3,692) Net sales increased by 15 percent to SEK 86,403 m. (75,209) Cash flow amounted to SEK 3,007 m. (-192) in Vehicles and Services Comments by Henrik Henriksson, President and CEO “Scania’s net sales in the first nine months of 2017 rose to a record high SEK 86.4 billion, an increase of 15 percent compared to the previous year. Demand for the new truck range was good and the service trend remains positive. The period was affected by a high investment level, higher production costs for running double product ranges and a less favourable market mix. In spite of this, the company managed to present strong earnings for the first nine months of 2017 of SEK 9,080 m., giving an operating margin of 10.5 percent. In the third quarter, in addition to continued high cost levels, currency started to impact negatively on earnings. Order bookings for trucks rose by 27 percent in the first nine months compared to the year-earlier period. The strong demand for trucks continued in Europe. The trend in Latin America is positive and we see increased demand in Brazil from very low levels. In Eurasia, the trend in demand is positive, mainly due to Russia’s continued recovery. In Asia, demand increased thanks to strong sales efforts, particularly in China and Iran. Order bookings in Buses and Coaches were strong overall and increased by 2 percent compared to the same period in 2016. In the business area Engines, the demand trend is positive in all segments. Service revenue amounted to a record high SEK 17.5 billion, an increase of 11 percent. Financial Services reported operating income of SEK 862 million and credit losses remain at low levels. In September the second stage in Scania’s introduction of the new generation trucks was launched – the Scania XT range with trucks tailor-made for the construction and forestry industries. In October Scania received the decision from the European Commission concerning alleged inappropriate exchange of information. Scania contests its findings and will appeal against it. Scania also emphasises that it has co-operated fully with the European Commission during the investigation period.” .

Scania Group Press Release / October 28, 2017 Scania in Brazil has launched the V8-powered Super Road Train R620 6x4. The truck-trailer combination meets local weight regulations with 11 axles for a load capacity of up to 91 metric tones (200,621 pounds). It meets the needs of the Brazilian agricultural industry for sugar cane and grain transports. One of Brazil’s largest sugar cane producers, Usina São Martinho, has already purchased 12 truck and trailer units. The Super Road Train can be operated from fields where the cane is loaded via dirt roads onto motorways all the way to the processing plants. New Brazilian legislation permits transport of up to 100 km for vehicle combinations with a total combined gross weight under 91 tonnes, a maximum height of 4,40 m and a length of 28–30 metres. V8 engine ideal for this new application Responding to industry demands, Scania came to the conclusion the V8 engine would be ideal for this new application. The 620 horsepower 16.4 litre V8 engine develops 3,000 Nm of torque ranging from 1,000 to 1,400 rpm and gives Scania the highest power and torque rating among competitors in Brazil. The Super Road Train has been adapted for optimal performance, including an off-road engine air filtration system installed in the rear of the cab. Another adaption is that the brake system has been complemented with a third compressed air supply for simultaneous braking throughout the combination of the truck, semi-trailer and trailer when the parking brake is engaged. .

The United States is the only country in the world that taxes the “foreign-earned” income of its citizens. If you’re a UK citizen working in France, you naturally pay taxes on your salary to the French government. However you pay nothing to the UK. Why would you? Based on what we’re being told, Manafort received payments overseas working as a consultant. That’s not a crime. Manafort apparently didn’t like the idea of paying taxes twice on his foreign-earned income, once to the foreign country where the money was earned, and again to the US. I can appreciate that. He put his foreign-earned income in tax havens such as Cyprus, St Vincent and the Grenadines. He has no right to place his foreign-earned income where he wants? For the record, generally speaking, I dislike consultants and politicians (because it means they’re a cheat and a liar. And when they’re not kissing babies, they’re stealing their lollipops).

Paul Manafort: how decades of serving dictators led to role as Trump's go-to guy The Guardian / October 30, 2017 A multimillion-dollar spending spree, allegedly using funds from the former Soviet bloc, appears to have caught up with Trump’s one-time campaign chief A home improvement company in the Hamptons, New York, is on the list for more than $5m. An antique rug store in Alexandria, Virginia, is down for almost $1m. A men’s clothing store in New York: $849,215. A clothing store in Beverly Hills, California: $520,440. A contractor in Florida: $432,487. An indictment unsealed on Monday morning lists dozens of alleged payments by Paul Manafort, Donald Trump’s former campaign chairman, to stores and businesses since 2008. In nearly all the transactions, cash flowed from accounts in tax havens such as Cyprus and St Vincent and the Grenadines. For years, the transglobal torrent of money drenched luxury retail outlets and real estate offices from New York to California and back again, the indictment says. Art galleries, landscapers, car dealerships – none of the retailers seem to have checked very carefully where the cash came from. Amid the shopping sprees, Manafort himself returned frequently to the alleged sources of his fortune in the former Soviet bloc. The consultant-for-hire had set up shop at 4 Sophia Street in Kiev back in 2005, as Ukraine struggled through waves of election, revolution and reverses. There, Manafort found high demand for his skills as a former Washington lobbyist for some of the world’s most notorious despots – Zaire’s Mobutu Sese Seko, the Philippines’ Ferdinand Marcos and Angolan rebel Jonas Savimbi among them. Soon, his sphere of operation came to include members of the Russian oligarchy. But none of those clients was as significant as the one waiting in his future: Donald Trump. For five months in the spring of 2016, as Trump scrambled to lock down a resistant Republican party, Manafort stepped in as campaign chairman, offering all the street smarts that 40 years of selling advice out of a briefcase had taught him. Manafort’s partnership with Trump appears to have ended for good on Monday, when Manafort surrendered at FBI headquarters, without a word from the president in his defense. Along with a former business partner, Rick Gates, Manafort faces federal charges including conspiracy, money laundering and tax evasion. None of the cash that helped Manafort “enjoy a lavish lifestyle” had made a stop at the Internal Revenue Service, prosecutors claim. It seems a dazzling fall for a man who just one year ago was on the verge of celebrating one of the greatest political upsets of all time, the election of Donald Trump as president of the United States. Manafort might have hoped the victory would deliver him from legal peril – and it could yet, given the president’s powers to grant pardon. But the conversion of a campaign chairman to potential felon represents a criminal crisis of historic dimensions for US politics, and the culmination of a presidential campaign story that seems out of place for American democracy – even as it seems of a perfect piece with the nominee. Manafort, 68, began his career in politics in 1976, working as a field lieutenant on the floor of the Republican national convention to stave off an attack on the incumbent president, Gerald Ford, by an upstart called Ronald Reagan. Four years later, Manafort was working for Reagan, and directly after his 1980 victory, Manafort opened a lobbying firm with the future Trump adviser Roger Stone, Charles Black and, later, Peter Kelly. The firm came to specialize in cultivating favors in Washington on behalf of foreign clients with difficult images. “Black, Manafort, Stone and Kelly lined up most of the dictators in the world that we could find,” Stone said in a podcast last year. “Pro-western dictators, of course. Dictators are in the eye of the beholder.” A 1992 Center for Public Integrity report placed the firm atop its rankings of a group it called “the Torturer’s Lobby”. Manafort, who has denied all wrongdoing, has said that his consulting work helped to achieve victories for democracy in otherwise out-of-reach places. Trump liked Manafort’s sales pitch. In February 2016, the real estate tycoon had already won three stunning victories in state primary contests, but the campaign feared the Republican party would find a way to rob Trump of victory at the last minute, at the national party convention. Given the comparative placidity of recent presidential contests, almost no one had relevant experience of herding delegates in a convention setting, with one notable exception: Manafort. Manafort’s CV was a perfect fit for Trump. But for a candidate who prized personal loyalty above all else, even more important was Manafort’s status as a downstairs neighbor. In 2006, Manafort had spent $3.7m on an apartment in Trump Tower in Manhattan. Trump hired Manafort, who quickly rose to the level of campaign chairman. Trump secured the presidential nomination. And then, with a reality TV showman palpably close to the presidency, everything came under a microscope as it never had before. Manafort did not last long under the scrutiny. It emerged that a handwritten ledger recovered from the home of the former Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovych listed $12.7m in payments to Manafort’s company. As questions mounted about Manafort’s undisclosed work for Kremlin-linked political interests, he was forced to step down from the campaign, just one month after the convention euphoria. Under pressure from investigators, Manafort registered as a foreign agent in June 2017 – but by then it was too late. Reports had emerged that special counsel Robert Mueller was scrutinizing Manafort on suspicion of money laundering. A month later, FBI agents stormed Manafort’s home in a pre-dawn raid, seizing computers and documents. At the time, Trump spoke in Manafort’s defense. “I’ve always found Paul Manafort to be a very decent man,” Trump said at the time. “He’s like a lot of other people, probably makes consultant fees from all over the place, who knows, I don’t know. “But I thought it was pretty tough stuff.”

Driving the International HV James Menzies, Truck News / October 30, 2017 NEW CARLISLE, Ind. – International Truck has brought to market the new HV model, an updated WorkStar truck for vocational applications. The exterior went unchanged, but the HV now features the new interior that’s being adopted across most of International’s product line, including the LT and RH models. The key advantages of the new interior are a modern design, with more vibrant color driver display, and repositioned mirrors that offer better visibility. The company says its mirrors were moved forward to require less head movement – 15% to the left and 5% to the right. I drove an HV Series dump truck on the off-road course at Navistar’s New Carlisle, Ind., proving grounds in early October. The visibility was improved, thanks also to the removal of the vent windows and the lowering of the window beltline, resulting in more glass and fewer obstructions. New doors reduce exterior noise and will keep the cab more comfortable in extreme temperatures. They offer twice the stiffness as the previous door design, and feature a reinforced door pocket that doubles as a grab handle to support even the heaviest drivers when climbing in and out of the truck. The truck I drove had the standard International A-26 engine, producing 475 hp and 1,700 lb.-ft. of torque. The transmission was a six-speed Allison automatic, featuring the new steering column-mounted stalk shifter, which freed up some room in the driver environment. The new stalk shifter also controls the engine brake. The dash is better laid out, with a highly customizable center panel. It can house up to 30 switches to accommodate complex body types. The HV also gets an improved HVAC system, including a max defrost setting that can clear a window of ice much faster than the previous design. A new vent has been added in the center of the console to provide greater comfort to the middle passenger in bench seat configurations. Larger switches are easier to access while wearing work gloves. A power distribution center is mounted on the top of the passenger side dash. The circuit breakers are protected from spilled beverages, thanks to a cleverly designed trough that directs any liquids – even spills as large as a Big Gulp – away from the sensitive electronics. The Bluetooth speaker has been relocated to a better home on the door post for improved audio. The HV is intended for lighter-duty vocational applications than its bigger brother, the HX Series. The HX comes in an aluminum cab and maintains its own distinct styling and interior, with some features carried over from the now defunct truck making partnership with Caterpillar. The HV interior is a straight carry-over from the LT and RH and the truck features a steel cab. It’s a less expensive option that’s still capable of some heavy-duty vocational applications, but the 12.4-liter A-26 engine is the largest available engine offering. It can also be spec’d with all-wheel drive, which the HX cannot. The HV offers much improved visibility over the WorkStar, and a quieter ride thanks to the more robust, better-sealed doors. The 50-degree inside wheel cut afforded excellent maneuverability and the entire dash and driver display bring a more modern look and feel to the interior of the HV. The previous interior hadn’t changed significantly in 16 years, so WorkStar drivers will appreciate the update. LoneStar gets new cab, too The same cab that was carried over to the HV was also given to the International LoneStar. “The entire driver environment has been redesigned, and we did that with feedback from driver clinics,” said Tom Harting, during a drive around Navistar’s three-mile oval track. The International LoneStar highway tractor retains its unique, bold exterior design, but now incorporates the interior improvements being rolled out across International’s product line. Harting said image-conscious fleets and owner-operators are the main LoneStar buyers, with some larger fleets buying a few as reward trucks. It’s available exclusively with the Cummins X15 engine. .

Phase 2 trailer efficiency regs shelved Jason Cannon, Commercial Carrier Journal (CCJ) / October 27, 2017 A federal appeals court on Friday paused implementing portions of tightened greenhouse gas and fuel economy standards that were set to take effect in January for trailers. The Truck Trailer Manufacturers Association (TTMA) last month requested that the U.S. Federal Court of Appeals in D.C. suspend planned enforcement of EPA Greenhouse Gas Phase 2 (GHG2) with regard to trailers, citing the EPA’s prior agreement that further rule making was needed. Friday, that stay was granted by a three-judge panel. Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) panned the decision. Michelle Robinson, director of the Clean Vehicles Program for the USC, says GHG2 was set to reduce oil consumption in the U.S. by more than a million barrels every two days, and cut 1.1 billion metric tons of pollution over the lifetime of the trucks covered by the rule. “Making trailers more efficient delivered at least 10 percent of these benefits,” she added through a statement issued by the organization. “Now, the court has sided with trailer manufacturers who don’t want to comply with the rule, and the Trump administration has already signaled its intent to let them off the hook completely by revising the regulations.” In April, TTMA requested the trailer initiative be paused, and questioned the EPA’s authority to regulate trailers under the Clean Air Act sine the act only covers “self-propelled vehicles.” Friday’s decision to grant TTMA’s request for a stay doesn’t permanently scrap Phase 2 with regard to trailer efficiency. The EPA says it plans to reevaluate its trailer provisions through public comment and rule-making, which is likely to carry over into next year.

Kevin Jones, Trailer-Body Builders / October 27, 2017 WINDSOR, ON. Recognizing that vocational truck users need crew cab space, but not necessarily more space for crew, Western Star will soon introduce a cab extension package that allows customers multiple options on the amount of room behind the front seats and, more importantly, the freedom to configure that extra room as they see fit. John Tomlinson, XD and vocational sales manager for Western Star, provided Trailer/Body Builders with an exclusive preview of the IronFeather 24” Back Pack Cab Extension System this week at the Canadian Transportation Equipment Association Technology Conference here. Essentially, the back pack system is a variation of the Western Star extended cab crew cab, introduced earlier this year. “The more I talked to customers, the more I found that many of them actually don’t use the crew and extended cabs for a crew seating, they use it for storage—but it’s the only thing they could get,” Tomlinson said. “So we took that and went back to the drawing table: Why don’t we just design something for storage?” Indeed, Tomlinson tells of simply walking outside his home where utility workers had parked a truck equipped with a crew cab. He asked if he could look inside, and found the seating area covered with gear—tools, jackets, notebooks. And he also tells of vocational customers who have fabricated their own work-arounds—though these perhaps were not up to OEM engineering standards. So, in keeping with Western Star’s recent innovation push to leverage its unique market position as a small, premium brand backed by Daimler, the world’s largest truck manufacturer, the company worked with Northside Industries (NSI) on a factory-built solution. The system will be presented formally at the NTEA Work Truck Show next March. “It was pretty easy for Western Star. We have an open-back cab, so all of our sleepers use a socket,” Tomlinson said. “We worked with the people that developed our crew cab, NSI, to develop this Back Pack system that uses our socket mounting. It snaps on right at the factory; we get CARCO to do the install.” While a 12-in. storage extension and the full crew cab have been announced, the new Back Pack will be available in 12-in. and 24-in. configurations, or with a 36-in. extension that can be equipped as a rest cab sleeper, with a 3-person certified bench seat, or even with a work table. Among the marketing bullet points: • The extremely light weight storage units are fully customizable • Clean design allows users to fabricate custom interiors; and • The extension can be set up for light loads or heavy loads using rear chassis mounting. The absence of a crew cab had kept Western Star “out of a lot markets,” Tomlinson noted, but customers have insisted the brand would be “in” with the option. And now Western Star has upped the ante: The IronFeather Crew Cab and the Back Pack extension are available with all Models including the big bore Detroit DD16 and Cummins ISX engine offerings. More to come in the spring.

Car & Driver / October 27, 2017 Ford has confirmed that it’s bringing back the Bronco as a four-door SUV for 2020, but one customizer of vintage trucks thought, “Why wait?” The result is this first-generation Bronco made into a four-door and dubbed the Four Horseman. The build is by Maxlider Brothers Customs, a Chicago-area shop that specializes in Broncos. Starting with a ’66 truck, the team, led by brothers Erik and Kris Barnlund, lengthened the chassis by 26 inches. A supercharged 5.0-liter Coyote V-8 from Roush Performance supplies the power—600 horses’ worth; four-wheel disc brakes by Wilwood keep a leash on the big brute. Naturally, the Bronco is four-wheel drive; the axles are from Currie Industries, with Yukon Gear & Axle supplying the driveshafts, differentials, and locking hubs. MJR Industries created the custom suspension, which includes Fox Racing shocks. BFGoodrich 37 x 12.5/20 tires wrap 20-by-12.5-inch gloss-black wheels. Power-deploying assist steps help passengers climb aboard. The custom-fabricated interior includes three rows of seats, upholstered in marine performance vinyl, while Wetsounds Bluetooth sound bars and subwoofers help supply the tunes. The four-door Bronco is headed to this year’s SEMA show and will compete in that event’s Battle of the Builders. Will Four Horseman bring doomsday to its rivals? We’ll have to wait and see. .