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Daimler Press Release / March 30, 2017 First delivery to customers of 21 Mercedes-Benz Actros with Mercedes-Benz Uptime Schober transport company counts on significantly increased vehicle availability through connectivity of trucks with transport company and Mercedes-Benz Service Safety package with Active Brake Assist 4, Lane Keeping Assist, Proximity Control Assist and Attention Assist Sideguard Assist for the company's new tractor units Predictive Powertrain Control (PPC) for fuel-saving driving Stuttgart / Wörth – The Schober Transport GmbH from Weinstadt in the Stuttgart region took delivery in March 2017 of a total of 21 Mercedes-Benz Actros. The occasion involved a genuine premiere: the 15 Actros 1845 LS 4x2 tractor units and six Actros 1845 LSNRL 4x2 Volumer tractor units are the first trucks to be equipped with the new Truck Data Center and the new Mercedes-Benz Uptime service system. By communicating the status of the vehicle in real-time, the new system allows predictive truck maintenance and analytics while significantly increasing the availability of the vehicles. Along with Pascal Schober, responsible for Business Development at his father's company, Steffen-Kai Schober, owner and managing director of the Schober transport company, took delivery of the ground-breaking vehicles at Europe's largest truck plant in Wörth. The official handover was performed by Thomas Witzel, Sales Director Mercedes-Benz Commercial Vehicles Württemberg: "We are delighted to grow our business relationship with Schober Transport GmbH, which is marked by dependability and honesty, with the handover of the first Actros trucks with Mercedes-Benz Uptime, thereby assuring the long-term economic success of the Schober transport company." "Our fleet is 100 percent Mercedes-Benz. These trucks guarantee utmost quality and reliability in the tightly deadlined movement of goods and they ensure that our fleet is always equipped with state-of-the-art technology," says Steffen-Kai Schober. In particular, he highlights the excellent cooperation with his Mercedes-Benz partners, the fast response to acute issues and problems as well as the high popularity of the Actros with the drivers. "The new Actros tractor units and Actros Volumer tractor units offer the best vehicle concept on the market and provide us with optimal support in the profitable realisation of our goals." He succinctly sums up those goals: punctual delivery, maximum safety for driver and cargo as well as active environmental protection through high fuel economy and lowest possible CO2 emissions – with the Mercedes-Benz Actros. Mercedes-Benz Uptime minimises downtimes and breakdowns Mercedes-Benz Uptime continuously monitors the status of the vehicle systems in real-time. Within a matter of seconds, the data are interpreted, critical states detected and specific action recommendations issued. "The ability to prevent vehicle breakdowns, to ensure absolute punctuality of deliveries and to predictably plan maintenance work is essential for our transport company. We are firmly convinced that Mercedes-Benz Uptime will help us to consistently meet these goals – a new and important tool for assuring our future," says Steffen-Kai Schober. Through the early detection of critical vehicle states, Mercedes-Benz Uptime already permits the preventive maintenance and repair of all new Mercedes-Benz Actros, Arocs and Antos trucks. In this way, breakdowns and costly downtimes are reliably prevented. This leads to significantly increased vehicle availability. Wherever it is on the road, the truck is in constant contact with the transport company's fleet manager, the Mercedes-Benz Customer Assistance Center in Maastricht and the customer's preferred Mercedes-Benz service workshop. In addition, Mercedes-Benz Uptime tracks the maintenance history of all trucks equipped with the system. This records, and therefore lastingly optimises, the success of repairs by means of comparison with other vehicles. The use of Mercedes-Benz Uptime is based on the new Truck Data Center. The connectivity module receives data from the truck's sensors, cameras, etc. and analyses this information for many different applications. Uptime was unveiled at the IAA International Motor Show for Commercial Vehicles in 2016, its reliable operation and efficiency having previously been comprehensively tested over three years in more than 1400 trucks in 16 fleets and in four countries, which delivered proof of the system's suitability for use. Saving fuel, improving safety The 21 new Mercedes-Benz Actros trucks of the Schober transport company are powered by fuel-efficient OM 471 12.8 l six-cylinder in-line engines of the latest generation with an output of 330 kW (449 hp). All 21 trucks are equipped with the Mercedes-Benz Eco package as well as Predictive Powertrain Control (PPC) for fuel-saving driving. PPC combines GPS data and topographic maps with the Mercedes PowerShift 3 automated transmission and improves the fuel efficiency by up to five percentage points. "We value the safe and comfortable workplace offered to our drivers by the Actros," says Steffen-Kai Schober. The Schober transport company has therefore comprehensively equipped its Actros vehicles with safety assistance systems. In addition to the new Active Brake Assist 4, this includes a compendium of the latest Mercedes-Benz assistance systems. Comprising Lane Keeping Assist, Stability Control Assist, Proximity Control Assist and Attention Assist. The new Sideguard Assist also provides improved protection for cyclists and pedestrians when the truck makes a turn. It also means greater safety when changing lane to the right, for example at motorway junctions. Four generations of green fleets and sustainable logistics concepts Based in Weinstadt in Baden-Wuerttemberg, Schober Transport GmbH has been a leading service provider in all areas of logistics for over 80 years. From six sites across Germany, some 600 employees serve customers in many different sectors. The focus is on the industry/automotive sector as well as fresh, dry and temperature-controlled food logistics. The company's logistical bandwidth extends from contract logistics and warehousing to co-packing, empty-pallet/ returns management and goods picking to the development of tailored transport and logistics concepts. The company's own fleet comprises over 110 vehicles, all from Mercedes-Benz. As a general rule, the company's entire fleet covers an annual distance of 14.9 million kilometres. Around 1.1 million pallets a year are transported, mainly inside Germany but also in Italy and the Benelux countries. The company attaches very great importance to environmentally sound transport using the latest vehicle technologies, a safe and environmentally aware driving style, intelligent fixed-route services with no empty runs and a host of other measures. "We aim to create lasting value for our company through consistent identification with values and goals such as economic growth, qualification and training, environmental protection and quality of life," says Steffen-Kai Schober, summing up his company's philosophy. .

Bob, it's sounding like the new 7X 7.0-liter V-8 will replace the 6.8-liter V-10 in the F-650/750. Ford would be looking at economy of scale. Total V-10 annual sales can't be high.

Paul, the dictionary says the word gaggle can be used to describe a flock of geese. But the only time I heard the word used in my lifetime was in how World War 2 pilots in the European Theater of war described the sight of a number of enemy fighters.

Sean Kilcarr, Fleet Owner / March 30, 2017 In their heart of hearts, no one really likes rules in trucking, much less the transportation and logistics industry as a whole. Now, many may rightly say this rule or that regulation is needed to improve safety, but really, at the end of the day for most fleets, a rule ends up being just one more headache – one more item on the checklist of life that needs to be crossed off – on the road making a living hauling freight. [For some interesting “inside baseball”-style insight into how the rules governing transportation get made, go here, here, and here.] Yet here’s an interesting twist to add to this discussion regarding rulemaking: are regulations actually hindering the refurbishment of our nation’s transportation infrastructure? None other than U.S. Secretary of Transportation Elaine Chao touched on this line of thought during her speech yesterday at the Department of Transportation (DOT) “open house” ceremony as part of the agency’s ongoing 50th anniversary celebrations. [Lyndon Johnson’s administration founded the DOT we know and love today, with the agency going into “full operation” on April 1, 1967. Click here for a detailed history on the DOT’s somewhat tortured creation.] Chao noted that President Trump’s infrastructure initiative – which she said “will be announced later this year” – will be a “strategic, targeted program of investment” valued at $1 trillion over 10 years; one that will also cover more than transportation infrastructure by including energy, water and potentially broadband and veterans hospitals, as well. “The President’s plan hopes to unleash the potential for private investment in infrastructure by incentivizing public-private partnerships … and investors say there is ample capital available, waiting to invest in infrastructure projects,” Chao said. “So the problem is not money. It’s the delays caused by government permitting processes that hold up projects for years, even decades, making them risky investments.” Even transportation safety itself seems to be threatened (if I can use that word) by the tidal wave of regulations crafted over the last several years, according to new report from the Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI) with this overly-long and clunky title: Toward Performance-Based Transportation Safety Regulation: Focus on Results Instead of Rigid Rules to Improve Safety and Promote Innovation. “Safety is a major concern when it comes to transporting passengers and freight around the country, but too often regulators make it difficult for industries to find new, innovative ways to meet their safety goals,” noted Marc Scribner, CEI senior fellow and author of group’s report, in a statement. More bluntly, he added that businesses and entrepreneurs have “long complained” about having to comply with unnecessarily rigid regulations that stress adherence to administrative rules rather than performance-based regulations, which focus on results. “The best way to improve transportation safety is to replace government micromanaging with performance goals, which would hold industries more accountable and encourage new technologies and practices that improve safety,” Scribner said. CEI’s data indicates that the “more prescriptive” transportation safety rule – the ones most truckers dislike – are generally found in the pipeline, aviation, trucking, and railroad regulatory regimes. “Prescriptive rules, in addition to being more onerous for the regulated entities, often produce additional social costs by hindering innovation,” CEI noted in its report. One example it used to illustrate this problem is the debate over replacing rear and side-view mirrors with cameras – an argument truck engineers are deeply engaged in, especially in terms of fuel economy improvement efforts. CEI noted in its report that new camera and sensor technologies can obviate the need for rearview mirrors by either replacing the mirrors’ viewing function with cameras or by eliminating the need for driver viewing by automating the driving function completely. [But don’t bet on automated trucks hitting the road en masse anytime soon.] Yet Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard (FMVSS) 111 currently requires that all passenger cars have side-view mirrors on both the driver and passenger side and rearview mirrors inside – period. No if’s, and’s or but’s. So now we turn to the November 2015 request from Google for an interpretation of FMVSS 111 from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) office of chief counsel for a waiver from this rule. Why? Google – as we all know – had by that date developed a fully self-driving automobile and was asking about the possibility of alternative rearview mirror compliance with sensors, as the Google prototype eliminated the need for what CEI called “human driver monitoring.” But in February 2016, CEI noted that NHTSA’s chief counsel replied that under current law, “it cannot interpret Google’s [self-driving vehicle] as compliant with these standards and requirements. This would need to be undertaken through rulemaking.” NHTSA did entertain the possibility of Google obtaining an exemption in the future from FMVSS 111, but CEI the agency concluded such an exemption would not permit large-scale production and deployment, as current law caps exemptions at 2,500 units per year for two years. That same month, CEI noted that NHTSA “favorably interpreted” FMVSS 111 to permit the inside rearview mirror to double as a rearview camera display, but this permits cameras and driver displays only as supplements to mirrors, not replacements. And all of this is going on even as NHTSA is mandating the installation of rear-view camera systems on all light vehicles weighing under 10,000 lbs. manufactured on or after May 1 next year – trucks and buses included. One would think that rulemaking effort would’ve convinced NHTSA to be more open-minded about cameras. But not yet it seems. And perhaps that’s why in the larger context rulemaking can bog down infrastructure repair and expansion efforts. We’ll see if that holds true going forward.

Chinese-owned Prestolite Taking Part in SuperTruck II Program Heavy Duty Trucking / March 29, 2017 Prestolite Electric, a manufacturer of alternators, starters and new energy solutions, and its parent company Zhongshan Broad-Ocean Motor Co., will participate in the development of advanced technologies in support of the SuperTruck II program. Prestolite will work to develop the next generation of rotating electric technologies through the program and make use of its parent company’s manufacturing capabilities and experience with electric vehicles to innovate. “This activity illustrates our commitment to engineering innovative products and solutions for the Class 8 market in North America and around the world,” said Nick Laenen, vice president of sales and marketing, North America, South America and Australia for Prestolite Electric. The SuperTruck II program was created by the U.S. Department of Energy to demonstrate the most efficient technological capabilities of commercial truck manufacturers and parts makers. It aims to spur development and research in the industry. The Prestolite and Leece-Neville product line includes high-output alternators and gear reduction starter motors for on- and off-highway trucks, military applications, mining vehicles, school and city buses, motor coaches and other uses. Broad-Ocean is a global supplier of motors, alternators, and starters to multiple markets, including appliance, air handling, and commercial transportation.

Navistar recalls 2,700 trucks due to air brake issue Matt Cole, Commercial Carrier Journal (CCJ) / March 29, 2017 Navistar has announced it is recalling approximately 2,700 International trucks because of a problem that could cause the air brakes to lose pressure. Affected trucks include 2017 International LoneStar models manufactured between June 7 and Dec. 20, 2016; 2016-2017 International ProStar models manufactured between May 5, 2015 and Dec. 22, 2016; 2016-2018 International LT models manufactured between June 1, 2015 and Jan. 12, 2017; and 2017-2018 International RH models manufactured between March 30, 2016 and Dec. 14, 2016. Navistar says the cause of the recall is the air dryer mounting bracket could fracture, causing the air dryer to separate from the frame with possible airline separation from the dryer, which could result in air system leaks or loss of air pressure to the brake system. The recall says this could result in increased stopping distances, increasing the risk of a crash. Navistar says drivers would likely see a loss of air pressure on the air gauge or hear a buzzer in the cab of the truck if the defect occurs. To fix the defect, Navistar will replace the air dryer mounting bracket with a bracket made of heavier gauge steel and thicker gussets. Dealers and owners will be mailed notification letters by May 12. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s recall number for this recall is 17V-174. If contacting Navistar for more information on the recall, the manufacturer recall number is 17502.

Midwestern Mack dealer celebrating 95th anniversary Successful Dealer / March 30, 2017 Mack dealer Pozzo Truck Center recently celebrated its 95th anniversary as a Mack dealer. Founded in 1921 by William A. Pozzo Sr., the business was opened after a Mack parts and repair facility in Gary, Indiana closed. Pozzo, an Italian immigrant who was a mechanic at the facility and also raced with the Fiat team at the Indianapolis 500, sold some bonds to build a building at 11th and Madison in Gary. In 1972, the business moved to 3001 E. 15th St., Gary, where it still resides. “Pozzo Truck Center has been serving Mack customers almost as long as Mack Trucks has been in business,” sasy Jonathan Randall, senior vice president of sales for Mack Trucks North America. “On behalf of the entire Mack family, congratulations to Pozzo on this impressive achievement.” Following the success of the East 15th Street location, Pozzo added two other locations, one in South Chicago Heights, Ill. in 1986 and the other in South Bend, Ind., in November 2016. .

Antique and classic trucks at MATS 2017 Fleet Owner / March 30, 2017 Photo gallery - http://fleetowner.com/mats/antique-and-classic-trucks-mats-2017#slide-0-field_images-215121

Transport Topics / March 30, 2017 Pozzo Truck Center Inc. [formerly William A. Pozzo, Inc.] recently achieved a milestone in its history of serving Mack customers as it celebrated its 95th year as a Mack Trucks dealer, the truck maker said. Founded in 1921 by William Pozzo Sr., the business was opened after a Mack parts and repair facility in Gary, Indiana, closed. Pozzo, an Italian immigrant who was a mechanic at the facility and also raced with the Fiat team at the Indianapolis 500, built a new building for his new business and financed it through the sale of bonds. “Mack is synonymous with tough, reliable trucks and integrated powertrains,” says Jud Salmon, who owns the dealership with wife Linda, William Pozzo’s granddaughter. “The integrated powertrain was a great selling point because Mack could control the quality of the components in the truck with its balanced design. Mack’s reputation helped our reputation as a dealer.” The dealership continues to be headquartered in Gary and has locations in South Chicago Heights, Illinois; and South Bend, Indiana. “Pozzo Truck Center has been serving Mack customers almost as long as Mack Trucks has been in business,” Jonathan Randall, senior vice president of sales for Mack Trucks North America, said in a statement. “On behalf of the entire Mack family, congratulations to Pozzo on this impressive achievement.” Mack Trucks is a unit of Sweden-based Volvo Group.

Transport Topics / March 30, 2017 Navistar is recalling some trucks due to the possible loss of air brake pressure that could “increase the risk of a crash,” the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) says. The potential number of trucks affected is 2,733, according to NHTSA, and includes certain 2016-2018 International LT, 2016-2017 International ProStar, 2017 International LoneStar and 2017-2018 International RH heavy trucks. The potential problem is with the air dryer mounting bracket, which may fracture and cause air system leaks or a loss of air pressure to the brake system, according to NHTSA. Navistar will notify owners and dealers will replace the air dryer mounting bracket, free of charge. The recall is expected to begin May 12. Owners may also contact NHTSA's Vehicle Safety Hotline at 888-327-4236 (TTY 800-424-9153) or go to www.safercar.gov.

Paul, should we not have a unified 50-state law on voter registration so as to resolve the whole matter going forward?

VW settles 10 U.S. state diesel claims for $157 million Reuters / March 30, 2017 Volkswagen AG has agreed to pay $157.45 million to settle environmental claims from 10 U.S. states over its excess diesel emissions, as the world's largest automaker looks to move past the scandal. The settlement, announced Thursday, covers Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, Massachusetts, New York, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont and Washington, as well as some consumer claims. In 2016, the German automaker reached a $603 million agreement with 44 U.S. states, but that settlement did not cover claims in the announcement. In total, VW has agreed to spend up to $25 billion in the U.S. to address claims from owners, environmental regulators, states and dealers and to make buyback offers. The settlement is significantly less than what the states had sought when they sued VW last year. Washington state had said in 2016 it planned to impose $176 million in penalties related to state environmental claims, while other states said they could seek penalties totaling hundreds of millions of dollars. Volkswagen said the deal with 10 state attorneys general "avoids further prolonged and costly litigation as Volkswagen continues to work to earn back the trust of its customers, regulators and the public." Earlier this month, Volkswagen pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court in Detroit to fraud, obstruction of justice and falsifying statements as part of a $4.3 billion settlement reached with the U.S. Justice Department in January over the automaker's diesel emissions scandal. Under the plea agreement, VW agreed to sweeping reforms, new audits and oversight by an independent monitor for three years after admitting to installing secret software in 580,000 U.S. vehicles. The software enabled it to beat emissions tests over a six-year period and emit up to 40 times the legally allowable level of pollution. The September 2015 disclosure that VW intentionally cheated on emissions tests led to the ouster of its chief executive, damaged the company's reputation around the world and prompted massive bills in what has become the costliest automotive industry scandal in history. VW still faces an ongoing criminal investigation in Germany.

Trump administration seeking “modest” changes to NAFTA The Washington Post / March 30, 2017 White House calls for changing, but not scrapping, NAFTA The Trump administration will seek modest — but numerous — changes to the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), according to a draft of a letter sent to Congress last week, displaying a much more conventional approach to trade negotiation than the dramatic changes President Trump had suggested he planned to seek. The draft letter suggests a much more diplomatic tone than Trump has threatened to use during NAFTA renegotiations. It says, among other things, that the White House would look to strengthen cooperation under the World Trade Organization (WTO), an international group that the Trump administration had suggested in the past it might not abide by. The draft letter also reinforces that Canada and Mexico are the United States' two largest export markets, and that the countries have “shared borders” and “shared goals, shared histories and cultures, and shared challenges.” “Compared to some of the campaign rhetoric, the letter seemed quite reasonable and measured,” said John Veroneau, a former deputy U.S. trade representative under President George W. Bush. “It didn’t strike me as suggesting a departure from the status quo in any significant way.” One section of the letter that is likely to prove controversial appears to call for restricting federal procurement to U.S. suppliers. If the two other countries adopted similar rules in response, U.S. firms that have contracts with Mexico City and Ottawa could lose business. NAFTA is a free-trade agreement that went into force in 1994 after the Clinton administration reached a deal with Canada and Mexico. NAFTA has significantly expanded trade between the three countries, but Democrats and Republicans have said the agreement should be changed because they fear it has hurt U.S. workers. Trump has complained that the deal has allowed Mexico to take advantage of the United States, causing an imbalance in the kinds of goods that are shipped across the border and luring away U.S. jobs. To renegotiate NAFTA, the White House must send a letter to Congress stating its intent, and the White House’s Office of the U.S. Trade Representative began circulating a letter last week. The White House must formally notify Congress 90 days before it formally begins renegotiating the trade agreement, and when the letter is formally sent to Capitol Hill, that process will start. “For reasons of scale alone, improving the NAFTA has the greatest potential to benefit the workers, farmers, and firms of the United States,” says the draft, which was signed by Stephen P. Vaughan, the acting U.S. trade representative. “Basically, in most areas, it’s very consistent with the trade negotiating strategies of past administrations,” Schott said. He added, though, that there are several lines in the letter that indicate departures from past policy. One of the objectives listed is to “seek to level the playing field on tax treatment,” which suggests duties on Canadian and Mexican products. During the campaign, Trump floated a tariff of as much as 35 percent on certain goods imported from Mexico. Another possibility is that if Republicans in Congress deliver on their proposal to adjust corporate taxes at the border, the administration's negotiators want to to make sure that Mexico and Canada are ready to accept the change. Other language in the letter suggests the administration is skeptical of a process for resolving disputes between governments and multinational firms that has been criticized by liberal figures including Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Ma.), who say corporations have exploited the system at the expense of the public interest. Some on the right have objected to the process as well, arguing that it impinges on American sovereignty by giving international tribunals authority that would otherwise belong to U.S. courts. Yet the letter does not explicitly call for ending the process, known as investor-state dispute settlement. “They put a lot of code words in there about that, but there’s still some ambiguity,” Schott said. Another component of the letter appears related to an old dispute with Canada over softwood lumber. For more than three decades, U.S. loggers have argued that their Canadian competitors are receiving unfair advantages from the government, and the draft calls for eliminating a provision of NAFTA that Canadians could use to appeal any duties the United States imposes on Canadian softwood in retaliation. There were only a couple of passages in the letter that seemed reflected Trump’s stated policy of putting the interests of American workers first. One, Veroneau noted, was the section on “rules of origin,” which govern how much raw material from outside North America can be used in products that are manufactured in Canada, Mexico or the United States and sold under NAFTA’s favorable terms. The document calls for “rules of origin that ensure that the Agreement supports production and jobs in the United States.” Some of the proposed changes are generic and could be interpreted in different ways. The draft letter says, for example, that it would “address anticompetitive business conduct, and other competition-related matters, as appropriate.” The letter also calls for stronger intellectual-property rights and a commitment from Mexico and Canada not to impose customs duties on digital products. “NAFTA is the worst trade deal maybe ever,” Trump said in a debate with Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton in September. "It's a defective agreement." Trump has said that if Mexico does not agree to the United States' demands in the renegotiations, he probably would withdraw from NAFTA. But the letter does not include this threat. “We are committed to concluding these negotiations with timely and substantive results for U.S. workers, consumers, businesses, farmers, and ranchers, keeping in mind U.S. priorities and negotiating objectives,” the draft letter says.

CJ66 Concept Melds Generations of Jeeps with Modern Mopar Hardware Car & Driver / March 30, 2017 The Jeep CJ66 is just the latest in a long and storied line of Jeep concept vehicles to emerge from the creative minds at Jeep and Mopar. Built with a variety of Jeep components including bits from the TJ-, CJ-, and JK-series Jeeps, the Moab-inspired CJ66 makes its debut at the 2016 SEMA show in Las Vegas. Starting with a Jeep Wrangler TJ frame, the team dug deep into the brand’s legacy and came up with a 1966 Jeep CJ Universal Tuxedo Park body. While the specific details regarding the low-volume Tuxedo Park Jeeps are highly contested, most experts agree that it debuted as an option package in 1961 to imbue the rugged Jeep with more upscale appeal for the general consumer. It achieved this by adding chrome bumpers, hood hinges, and badging, plus whitewall tires and other minor trim upgrades. In 1964, Kaiser introduced the Tuxedo Park Mark IV as a new model of sorts. Rare in any configuration, the rarest is the long-wheelbase Universal model, which is what Mopar used for the CJ66 concept. Jeep called this one Universal because it let buyers outfit their Jeep to fit their needs with numerous hard- and softtop options and even the opportunity to specify a PTO to run a post-hole digger or other agricultural equipment. Whatever the backstory, it’s hard to ignore this rig’s Copper Canyon finish, the 35-inch BFGoodrich all-terrain tires, and the Jeep Performance Parts 17-inch wheels with color-matched beadlock rings. A two-way air system takes the hassle out of airing the tires up and down for conditions at hand, and a two-inch lift kit keeps some daylight between the rubber and metal. A new, as-yet-unspecified Mopar crate V-8 mates with a six-speed manual transmission, which sends torque to a pair of Mopar Dana 44 axles. Mopar also supplies the engine cover, the cold-air intake, and the cat-back exhaust. Oversize concept fender flares team with front and rear Mopar 10th Anniversary Wrangler JK Rubicon bumper kits; the skid plates, front bumper plates, and concept rock rails come from Jeep Performance Parts. Matte-black accents contrast with the Copper Canyon paint on the hood, the seven-slot Jeep grille, the bezels of the Wrangler JK headlamps, the hood hinges, and the latches. The LED amber fog lamps and a Warn winch with fairlead come from Mopar. A custom-built roll cage, mandrel bent to match the two-inch chop of the windshield, surrounds the seats, which are sourced from the dearly departed Viper. The center console and shifter were swiped from a JK, and Mopar provides the instrument-panel gauges and the all-weather mats. Finally, the steering-wheel center features the special 50th Anniversary Moab Easter Jeep Safari logo, unveiled earlier this year. If you’re seeking a clotheshorse for the Mopar and Jeep Performance Parts brands, you could do a lot worse than the cleverly constructed Jeep CJ66 concept. Knowing the Jeep folks, you can bet it’ll get a chance to turn a tire on the rocks before too long. Photo gallery - http://www.caranddriver.com/photo-gallery/get-your-kicks-cj66-concept-melds-generations-of-jeeps-with-modern-mopar-hardware-gallery#slide=1&fullscreen=0 .

Ford to announce Ontario engine program in boost to Canada automaking Reuters / March 29, 2017 Ford Motor Co. plans to announce production of a new engine in Windsor, Ontario, two sources familiar with the matter said, in an investment that would boost Canada's auto industry after years of job losses to Mexico and the U.S. The sources told Reuters the 7X engine, for large pickup trucks, is to be announced with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau at the Ford Essex Engine Plant in Windsor on Thursday morning. Joe Hinrichs, Ford's president of the Americas, and Mark Buzzell, CEO of Ford of Canada, also will be on hand, the automaker said in a notice. No details were provided. During 2016 contract negotiations with Canadian union Unifor, Ford pledged to spend $700 million on its Ontario manufacturing operations. The lion’s share of the money was earmarked for a “major engine program” at the Essex Engine Plant. The promised new engine program fulfilled a key goal for the union, which had sought investments from each of the Detroit 3 automakers last fall. Spokesmen for Ford and Trudeau declined to comment. In addition to Trudeau, Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne will be on site, according to a spokeswoman from Edelman, a public relations firm working for the province of Ontario. They will also be part of an announcement “related to autonomous vehicles,” an advisory from Edelman said, without providing details. More torque Brian Maxim, a vice president at AutoForecast Solutions, said in a telephone interview that the 7.0-liter, V8 engine would have more torque and be more fuel efficient than the 6.8-liter V10 engine now built in Windsor and used in Ford's super-duty trucks, such as its F-250s. Maxim said he expected Ford to produce about 125,000 units of the new engine per year, starting in 2019. New investment in engine production in Canada was seen as vital because the large V8 and V10 motors now built by Ford in Windsor were expected to end production in four years. Between 2001 and 2013, some 14,300 jobs were lost in vehicle manufacturing in Canada, according to Hamilton's Automotive Policy Research Center. Unifor Local 200 President Chris Taylor, who spent much of Wednesday in meetings with Ford management, would only tell Automotive News Canada that the Ford announcement “is good news for our site.” About 800 employees at the Essex factory currently build 5.0-liter V-8 engines. Next door, at the Windsor Engine Plant, about 600 workers build the 6.8-liter V-10 engines.

"The meeting next week with China will be a very difficult one in that we can no longer have massive trade deficits and job losses. American companies must be prepared to look at other alternatives." U.S. President Donald Trump / March 30, 2017

Reuters / March 30, 2017 President Donald Trump's former national security adviser, Michael Flynn, has told the FBI and House and Senate intelligence committees investigating the Trump campaign's potential ties to Russia that he is willing to be interviewed in exchange for immunity from prosecution. Flynn was fired in February for failing to disclose talks with Russia's ambassador before Trump took office about U.S. sanctions on Moscow.

Driverless vehicles and the end of the trucker Leslie Hook, Financial Times Weekend Magazine / March 30, 2017 New self-driving technology threatens an American way of life Ramona Saucedo has been on the road for nearly two months, and she’s ready to get back home. Standing in front of a dusty white truck in the parking lot of a Flying J truck stop, she fingers her iPhone as she waits for a call from her business partner, who is checking on her progress. If she stays on schedule, driving 10 or 11 hours a day, she’ll be back home in Tucson next week. “I miss cooking my own meals, believe it or not,” she says with a chuckle. At 52, Saucedo has been driving long-haul for nearly a decade, and has the heavy-set build that comes from long hours on the road. It’s a job that runs in the family: her father, brother and son were all truck drivers, and Saucedo says she started driving mainly for the pay. At her old job as an office worker she could barely make ends meet, and had to scrape and scrounge if one of her two children needed a little cash. Now, she drives thousands of miles a week and travels all over the country, sleeping each night inside the truck. Money is no longer a problem. At the truck stop, Saucedo is surrounded by hundreds of drivers who have made similar trade-offs. The United States has more than three million truck drivers, many of whom drive long-haul, or “over the road” as it’s known in the business. As one of the highest paying jobs available that does not require a college degree, trucking can be an economic lifeline. But its future is increasingly uncertain. As the sun sets, the parking lot starts to fill up with drivers stopping for the night. Sleeping in the truck is an integral part of the job. “I call this my ‘tiny house’,” grins Patrick Spicer, 67, a long-haul driver from Reno, as he shows off the inside of his new 2017 Kenworth T680. He gestures to the bunk beds, his guitar, and a box of vanilla-flavoured protein drinks sitting on the floor. There’s a cupboard for clothes, a refrigerator for food and even a pink stuffed unicorn perched on the dash. Spicer, who has stopped to make sure his 60-tonne cargo of wine is properly balanced, is a 20-year veteran of the industry. “If you are smart and don’t waste your money, you can make a good living,” he says. Last year, the median income for a driver with three years’ experience was $57,000, according to the National Transportation Institute. Experienced drivers like Spicer can earn more than $75,000. But he’s not optimistic about what’s ahead. “There is no future in trucking,” he says. He gestures to the parking lot full of 18-wheelers: “In 10 or 15 years, these will all be autonomous trucks. There is no way to stop it.” In an industrial neighbourhood of San Francisco, Stefan Seltz-Axmacher, 27, is one of the people trying to take the humans out of the truck. Sitting in the driver’s seat of a Daimler Freightliner that he has modified, he leans forward and adjusts a pair of robotic feet that rest over the brake and accelerator pedals. Underneath the steering wheel is a small motor that can steer the vehicle. These devices, along with radar and cameras mounted on the exterior, allow the truck to be driven remotely by a human when it is in congested city areas. Once it is on the open highway, the truck can drive itself. “Our intention is for trucks to move from A to B without a human in the vehicle,” Seltz-Axmacher explains. He is the co-founder of Starsky Robotics, a small, two-year-old start-up working on self-driving trucks. As he sees it, this is solving the “core problem” of North American logistics. “It is really hard to get people to live in a truck,” he explains. “Those long-haul drivers are the most sought-after people in logistics.” With a US trucking industry that moves more than 10 billion tonnes of freight a year, his market is already made, he believes. “We would lease the robots to the trucking companies,” he explains. “We are able to go to people who are already looking for drivers, and be their driver.” All over Silicon Valley, one start-up after another is making a similar bet. Not all of them are trying to take human drivers out of the truck completely, as Starsky is, but everyone agrees this will be the outcome of their technologies in the long run. Investors are pouring in. One of these is Jim Scheinman, a venture capitalist at Maven Ventures who has backed start-ups in both autonomous trucks and cars. Self-driving trucks will arrive “significantly before” self-driving cars, he says. “It’s probably going to happen so much faster than city driving, just because [highway driving] is so much easier,” he explains. Highways are much less complex than urban areas, with fewer intersections and clearer road markings. The economic opportunity is tantalising: in the US, trucks carry more than 70 per cent of domestic freight tonnage. Trucking industry revenues were $726bn in 2015, more than the sales of Google, Amazon and Walmart combined. “With trucks we can actually build a billion-dollar company,” Scheinman says — meaning a start-up that is valued at more than $1bn, also known in the Valley as a “unicorn”. Not every self-driving start-up will become a unicorn, of course. Failure is common in the rough-and-tumble world of Silicon Valley, particularly when a sector becomes so hot that even bad ideas can get funding. For trucking start-ups, a turning point came last August, when Uber announced it was buying a six-month-old start-up, Otto, for a price tag of more than $600m in equity. After that, other trucking start-ups found it much easier to raise money. Scheinman, 50, sketches out how he sees the future of transportation. “In my vision of this world of autonomous vehicles, every single vehicle is autonomous, everywhere in the world,” he says, sitting on a terrace at the Battery, a private club in San Francisco frequented by venture capitalists. “It won’t be ‘cars’ or ‘trucks’, it will just be robots. Then you have a much more perfect system, because you don’t have humans making mistakes.” This kind of thinking is setting Silicon Valley up for a clash with the rest of the country, where those “humans making mistakes” represent millions of jobs under threat from automation. In Washington, President Donald Trump has made American jobs a cornerstone of his economic agenda, and has shown a fondness for truckers in particular. “No one knows America like truckers know America,” he said in an Oval Office address in late March, flanked by representatives of the trucking industry. “You see it every day and you see every hill, every valley, every pothole . . . every town, every forest from border to border and ocean to ocean.” The president even climbed into a big rig parked in front of the White House, smiling, waving and honking the horn. Partly this is pandering to his supporters: truck driving is a much more common occupation in states that voted heavily for Trump than it is in states that voted for Hillary Clinton last November. Truck drivers are often choosing between jobs in construction, oil fields or trucking, none of which requires a degree. With current oil prices low, trucking can attract people living in more depressed areas that lack local construction opportunities. Although “over the road” driving is not an easy job, it has long been seen as a way out, and a way up, for those with few other options. The loneliness of life on the road is a frequent complaint, and some truck drivers travel with dogs, or bring their kids along during school holidays, to break the solitude. For couples, a popular option is team driving, which yields extra bonuses because they can drive twice as far in a day. “Some people don’t have houses, they just live in their trucks,” Spicer says approvingly. “If you are a young couple, that is the way to go. I know people that have done that, and saved up for a down payment on a house.” President Trump has routinely lambasted companies that he accuses of moving jobs overseas. It can only be a matter of time, some fear, before he turns his attention to the threat posed to American jobs by robots — and, in particular, self-driving vehicles — precisely at the moment when these technologies are on the verge of maturing. So far his administration has not made its position on self-driving trucks clear. However, in a recent meeting with state governors, transportation secretary Elaine Chao suggested she was worried about how autonomous vehicles might impact truck drivers. “I am very, very concerned about that and very cognisant of those challenges. So we do have to transition people and we need to keep that in mind,” she said. How soon those “transitions” might need to occur is a matter of great debate. Self-driving start-ups can be broadly split into two camps: those working on interim solutions in which a human driver is assisted by self-driving technologies; and those that, like Starsky, are focused on removing the human from the vehicle as soon as possible. The technologies that will hit the road first are firmly in the former camp, which means there will be a period of several years in which the human driver is working side-by-side with the self-driving systems before full autonomy can occur. Daimler, the German carmaker that accounts for 40 per cent of the US truck market, has invested heavily in self-driving technologies. But its top self-driving engineer Derek Rotz says he doesn’t expect fully autonomous trucks — the kind with no driver at all — within his lifetime. “That’s quite frankly something that we are not looking at,” he says. Rotz should know, because he is the engineer who helped develop the first self-driving truck to receive a testing licence in the US, in 2015. That concept vehicle, Daimler’s Freightliner Inspiration, is able to drive itself under certain conditions but also needs a human at the wheel (which is known as level-three autonomy). Rotz explains that many of the systems developed for the Inspiration are now incorporated on current Freightliner trucks, such as predictive cruise control, which uses maps and elevation data to keep the truck at a safe speed going down hills. Drivers will still be needed for a long time to come, he adds. One of the first steps in the journey towards autonomous trucks will be a technique known as platooning, in which trucks follow each other at close distances to save fuel. Each driver in the platoon keeps his or her hands on the wheel, but the engine and the brakes on the rear truck are linked to the front truck, allowing the two vehicles to slow down and speed up perfectly in sync. Peloton, a start-up based in Mountain View, expects to see its platooning systems in use in commercial fleets later this year. Daimler, Volvo and Scania have also demonstrated platooning systems. While platooning is not technically considered self-driving, it is a key test of how willing the industry will be to adopt new forms of automation. Josh Switkes, the chief executive of Peloton, says the start-up is already working on more advanced forms of platooning, including having the rear vehicle steer itself. But he thinks it will be at least a decade before drivers’ jobs start to be really impacted by automation. “Truck drivers today are not going to lose their jobs,” he says. “We see a process where, at least for the foreseeable future, drivers become more important and more highly skilled.” That view is not quite shared by other trucking start-ups in Silicon Valley, particularly those that aim to take the humans out of the vehicle entirely. However, the technical obstacles of realising their vision are significant. Trucks have some unique challenges when it comes to self-driving technology. Their weight, which is at least 12 times greater than a standard passenger car, makes them harder to control, and the vehicle dynamics change considerably depending on their load. A commercial truck must also drive much further than a passenger car, with a typical lifespan of more than a million miles, creating much more wear on delicate self-driving sensors. On top of that, trucks already come with a patchwork of built-in computers: new trucks today will typically have a processor for the brakes, one for the engine, one for the transmission and one for each camera or radar. A safe autonomous system must be able to communicate smoothly across components from different manufacturers. The greatest challenge, however, is that there is simply no room for error. Humans may get distracted and fall asleep, but the general public will hold robots to a higher standard (as was demonstrated last year with the outcry over the first death from Tesla’s Autopilot). The safety advantage of autonomous vehicles is touted by their proponents as one of their key selling points. But what engineers see as a perfect future, the general public can see as terrifying — particularly if that means an 80-tonne truck flying down the freeway with no one in the driver’s seat. If robots are at the wheel, they have to be perfect. To achieve that, autonomous driving systems must be able to recognise and quickly react to everything that crosses their path. “Safety is really not about the 99 per cent use case, it is about the .00001 per cent of the time something crazy happens,” explains Josh Hartung, founder of PolySync, a start-up that makes software for self-driving cars. The hardest scenarios for autonomous vehicles to deal with are unlikely, one-off events, called “edge cases”, such as a child on a scooter or an unexpected stop in a construction zone. The artificial intelligence controlling the vehicle is trained with real-world experiences, so if the AI hasn’t encountered one of those situations before, it won’t know what to do. Edge-case scenarios are one of the main things that have been occupying Alex Rodrigues, the co-founder of Embark, a start-up that is working on autonomous trucks. Rodrigues has been building robots since he was 13, and began with self-driving golf carts before deciding that trucks might hold more commercial opportunities. At 21, he is barely old enough to have a commercial trucking licence (he has a learner’s permit) but that hasn’t stopped him dreaming big. “We are looking to essentially reset how the industry operates, with self-driving as a first-class citizen,” he tells me. Embark’s idea is that its trucks will drive autonomously on highways between set staging areas, and then a human driver will fetch the truck when it exits the highway and drive it to its final destination. “We want to have hand-offs, so there is no human in the vehicle when it is on the highway,” Rodrigues explains. (Scheinman is an investor in Embark.) As each start-up vies for success, the cut-throat competition of the sector has led to a fair share of intrigue. Uber’s purchase of Otto, which was its largest acquisition, has come under particular scrutiny. All of Otto’s co-founders had previously worked at Alphabet, the parent company of Google, which has been developing its own self-driving technology. In February, Uber was served with a lawsuit from Alphabet’s self-driving subsidiary, Waymo, which alleged one of the co-founders of Otto had stolen trade secrets and infringed on patents for a special kind of rotating radar. Uber says the lawsuit is baseless. At the time that the Otto purchase was made, Uber’s chief executive Travis Kalanick waxed eloquent about the potential of the trucking business. In October the company released a slick promotional video that showed an Otto truck on a highway, towing a cargo of Budweiser beer while the truck’s driver sat in the back of the cabin, reading a magazine. But more recently it is Uber’s trucking ambitions that have taken a back seat. Self-driving taxis are Uber’s top priority, and most of the former Otto employees who joined through the acquisition are now working on cars instead. As for the truckers themselves, not all of them will be sad to see their old jobs disappear. Sergei Tulei, an IT specialist and truck driver from Moldova, has sat at both sides of the table. He used to work as a test driver for Otto, an experience that has made him a big fan of what he calls, in a heavy Russian accent, “robot trucks”. Tulei remembers the thrill of sitting behind the steering wheel as the truck started to drive itself. “It’s like you are drinking something from a cup, and you don’t know what’s in it,” he explains. The driver has to be particularly alert in case the truck does something unexpected or starts to drift out of its lane. “You would have to be crazy to say it’s not scary to test in the trucks. But it is safe.” For Tulei, 30, trucking has been his ticket to a better life. He came to the US from Moldova six years ago, and bought his first truck, a 2007 Volvo, shortly after his child was born. He was undeterred by the fact that it had almost a million miles on it, since he had previously worked as a car mechanic. “It is not an easy job, but it is good for guys who are trying to grow, maybe they can make more money, more freedom,” he says. He points to friends in Europe who are doing the job for far less money. “They are dreaming to come here to be a truck driver.” But as Tulei grew his fleet, he found that it was frustrating to manage the drivers on long-haul trips. “They are people, they have their own problems,” he says. “Maybe [the driver] is sick, maybe he’s in a bad mood, maybe he doesn’t want to go to Colorado because it’s snowy there.” Driverless will solve all that, he says. “In 10 or 20 years when we have these autonomous trucks, it will be easier because we won’t have to deal with people, but with robots. If you ask them to go to Texas, they will go to Texas.” The difficulty of recruiting long-haul drivers and the unpopularity of the work are often mentioned as key reasons why greater automation could help the industry. The American Trucking Associations, which lobbies Washington on behalf of trucking companies, estimated that there was a driver shortage of 40,000 in 2014, though it believes this situation has recently improved. However, the ATA’s statements about a shortage of drivers — which support its lobbying efforts to lower the minimum age for long-haul drivers — are at odds with wage data. Over the past 15 years, the incomes of over-the-road truck drivers have not kept up with inflation. Fierce competition has kept freight prices, and driver wages, low. (More than 90 per cent of US trucking companies are small, independent fleets of fewer than six trucks.) At the larger fleets, rapid training programmes and signing bonuses mean a steady churn of new drivers, most of whom stay for less than a year. Annual turnover at big trucking groups is more than 80 per cent, as drivers jump from one company to the next in search of better pay. Start-ups such as Embark point to these numbers as evidence that nobody will really miss the jobs that are being automated away. “When you actually have the human all the way out of the vehicle [on the highway], there’s a whole bunch more of these higher-paying, much preferred local jobs,” says Rodrigues. The drivers fetching the self-driving trucks to and from staging areas, for example, could live at home. Jeff Scorsur, 39, a truck driver who used to own his own fleet, thinks this sounds like a great idea. “It’s not a real fun life,” he explains, referring to his years of long-haul driving. He now works at Embark, where he test drives their autonomous truck, and is optimistic about the human jobs that will exist alongside self-driving vehicles. “In the future there will be some job loss,” he says. “But it’s also an opportunity, to get maybe more skills, a job that can make more money.” Even though drivers’ jobs will be safe while self-driving vehicles require special handling, there are millions of jobs outside of the truck cabin that will be deeply impacted by the coming shift. The trucks support a network of towns based around truck stops, where gas stations, stores, restaurants and laundromats serve the drivers. There are more than seven million people working in trucking and trucking-related industries, according to the ATA — one in 17 working adults in the US. As trucks become self-driving, service jobs at places such as the Flying J could come under threat. It’s a problem that some in Silicon Valley are already worrying about. “What happens to the towns when the trucks don’t stop there?” asks Aaron VanDevender, chief scientist at Founders Fund, the venture capital group started by Peter Thiel. Self-driving trucks will only need maintenance at the beginning and end of their trips, he points out, whereas drivers today have to stop to eat and pee constantly. VanDevender likens this shift to the construction of the US Interstate system in the 1950s, 60s and 70s, which bypassed the smaller towns that lay along older roads such as Route 66. “A lot of those towns were just eviscerated,” he says. “This is like that kind of structural change, but an order of magnitude more intense.” Even though self-driving trucks may be better at moving goods around, they will undermine one of the key economic flows through the centre of the country. As automation has a growing impact on a wider range of industries, Silicon Valley is discussing what role tech companies and government should play in preparing for this shift. For the trucking towns, VanDevender believes that they will require some kind of economic support, otherwise they will collapse. “The sociopolitical consequence of not getting it right is very severe,” he says, referring to the transition to self-driving vehicles. “It’s like the iron law, hungry people riot.” Ideas such as a universal basic income are increasingly popular in the Valley, with some prominent entrepreneurs funding research into the concept. Washington DC is also grappling with the question of how to prepare for a shift in types of jobs. “The challenge for political leaders, for industry, is how do you incorporate the citizenry into this incredible migration to new technology,” says Michael Drobac, a tech lobbyist for Akin Gump, based in Washington DC. He notes that self-driving companies have been beefing up their lobbying teams, preparing for a debate that will profoundly shape their industry and others. “It is not specific to truckers,” he points out. “It is not just the red states, it is everywhere. The economy is changing for everyone.” Ramona Saucedo, the driver from Tucson, recently watched a video of a self-driving truck demo along with some other drivers. “It looked like they were doing a good job, but I don’t know what we’re going to do now,” she says. “The other guy that was sitting there was freaking out, he was like, ‘I’m going to be out of a job now.’” The drivers wondered how robotic vehicles would be regulated, since human drivers are limited to 11 hours’ driving a day under federal law. “It doesn’t get tired, it doesn’t sleep,” Saucedo says. “Will the rules change? That’s our curiosity . . . And who will wash out the truck, if it gets dirty?” Coming from a family of truck drivers, Saucedo feels that self-driving trucks could really impact her community. “It’s going to be devastating for a lot of people,” she says. “There are some drivers that have degrees, but a lot of drivers don’t. And this is their form of making money for their family.” As for Saucedo herself, she says that she is planning to quit in June. It wasn’t exactly the fear of automation, nor the long hours, that prompted her decision. Rather, she points to Washington DC. “There’s just too much uncertainty with the way things are going, with imports,” she says. She is worried that Donald Trump’s America First policies will result in less trade, and therefore less truck freight. Once she sells her truck, Saucedo is planning to find work as a dispatcher or a cargo inspector — a job that is still close to the industry but will remain in demand, even when robots are driving. Leslie Hook is a San Francisco correspondent for the FT .

BBC / March 30, 2017 The US representative to the United Nations, Ambassador Nikki Haley, said on Thursday that "we can't necessarily focus on Assad the way that the previous administration did". Under President Obama, the US said Syrian President Bashar al-Assad must go and backed rebels fighting against him. But US resources shifted after the rise of the so-called Islamic state. "Our priority is no longer to sit there and focus on getting Assad out," said Haley. "Our priority is to really look at how do we get things done, who do we need to work with to really make a difference for the people in Syria," she added. (The big question is, should our employees in Washington be spending time, money and effort meddling in the internal affairs of another country on the other side of the world, at a time when we’re forced to use private funding to upgrade our national infrastructure due to a lack of money?)

The Guardian / March 30, 2017 Steve Bannon, the senior adviser to Donald Trump, will not face criminal charges in Florida for voter fraud, prosecutors have ruled, despite them finding evidence that he never lived at or intended to reside at a vacant house in Miami where he was registered to vote. The decision follows an investigation conducted by Katherine Fernandez Rundle, the Miami-Dade state attorney, following the Guardian’s disclosure last year that the former Breitbart chairman and Trump campaign chief held an active voter registration at an abandoned, rented property in the Coconut Grove area of the city. “This investigation revealed evidence that tends to indicate that the subject did not intend to or actually reside in Miami-Dade County,” Fernandez Rundle said. “However, the investigation also revealed sufficient evidence that the subject intended to legally reside in Miami-Dade County,” the document continues. “Therefore, at a minimum, there is reasonable doubt as to the subject’s guilt. Because the evidence is insufficient to prove beyond and to the exclusion of every reasonable doubt that the subject swore falsely on a voter registration application, the state attorney’s office is not pursuing charges. The matter is now closed.” According to the Miami-Dade supervisor of elections, Bannon was registered to vote in the county between 2 April 2014 and 19 August 2016, when he switched his registration to a new address in Sarasota County, a property owned by Andy Badolato, a Breitbart News contributor with whom he had previously worked on political films. The switch came in the same week as the Guardian’s initial report. In January, Sarasota’s elections chief purged Bannon’s name from the county’s roll of voters after concluding that he was simultaneously registered to vote in New York state. Voters who are registered in two places have previously drawn Trump’s ire, the president tweeting on the same day as Bannon’s Sarasota removal that “I will be asking for a major investigation into VOTER FRAUD, including those registered to vote in two states ...” Others who have fallen foul include Steve Mnuchin, Trump’s treasury secretary, and the president’s daughter Tiffany, who held an active New York registration at the same time she was registered to vote as a student in Pennsylvania. “The prosecutor’s ethical obligation persists regardless of the subject being investigated or the charge being contemplated." ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- "There's two sets of laws, one for the police [powers that be], and one for the ordinary citizens"

Like many elder Americans born in the 1920s and 1930s, I've long been an admirer of Herbert Hoover. So I found this live footage of him and his thoughts are great interest. I'm a deep admirer of history.

Ford will record $295 million Q1 hit from two North American recalls Automotive News / March 29, 2017 Ford Motor Co. said it will take a $295 million hit to its first-quarter earnings from two recalls in North America announced Wednesday, one involving engines that could catch fire and the other involving a persistent door latch problem. Ford CFO Bob Shanks last week alluded to a higher-than-expected warranty cost that will impact Ford’s first quarter earnings. In a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Ford said the $295 million charge would be absorbed mainly by its North America and Europe business units and would be included in first-quarter results. Ford is calling back 230,000 2014 model year Escapes, 2014-15 Fiesta STs, 2013-14 Fusions and 2013-15 Transit Connects equipped with 1.6-liter GTDI engines. Ford said a lack of coolant circulation can cause the engines to overheat, cracking the cylinder head. That could result in an oil leak that could ignite a fire. Ford said it’s aware of 29 reports of fires in the U.S. and Canada; no injuries have been reported. Ford currently doesn’t have service kits available and told customers to continue to drive their vehicles. The company advised customers to seek a dealer if their vehicle leaks coolant. It will mail customers instructions on how to check and refill coolant. About 208,584 of the affected vehicles are in the U.S. and federalized territories, 21,854 are in Canada and 318 are in Mexico. The affected vehicles: • 2014 Escapes built at Louisville [U.S.] Assembly from Feb. 12, 2013 to Sept. 2, 2014 • 2014-15 Fiesta ST built at Cuautitlan [Mexico] Assembly from Jan. 22, 2013 to May 27, 2014 • 2013-14 Fusion built at Hermosillo [Mexico] Assembly from Feb. 15, 2012 to June 6, 2014 • 2013-15 Transit Connects built at Valencia [Spain] Assembly from June 13, 2013 to Dec. 14, 2014 Ford on Wednesday also expanded a door latch recall to nearly 211,000 vehicles including 2014 Fiestas, 2013-14 Fusions and 2013-14 Lincoln MKZs. Last September, Ford recalled an additional 1.5 million vehicles for the same issue. Since 2014, the total number of vehicles Ford has recalled for various door-latch problems has topped 4 million. Separately, the automaker Wednesday issued two other recalls covering another 659 vehicles. Ford is recalling 548 2017 model year F-450 and F-550 trucks with faulty driveshafts. Ford said continued operation of those vehicles could result in fractured tranmissions or driveline components, which could cause power loss while driving or unintended moving while parked. Finally, Ford is recalling 111 2017 model year Edges for missing windshield header welds. Ford isn’t aware of any accidents or injuries in the three other recalls.

Volkswagen cleared by EPA to sell repaired 2015 diesels Bloomberg / March 29, 2017 Volkswagen AG will soon do what's been impossible since its emissions crisis began: sell diesel-powered cars in the U.S. The company received approval from the EPA for dealers to sell 2015 model year diesels after updating the vehicles' emissions software, VW Group of America spokeswoman Jeannine Ginivan said. The software update is part of a required emissions repair approved by the EPA and California Air Resources Board. The repair will also include changes to diesel engine hardware, but dealers do not have to wait until the repair parts become available early next year, Ginivan said. "We are still finalizing the details of this program and will provide more information on its implementation at the appropriate time," Ginivan said in a statement. Volkswagen admitted in 2015 to rigging nearly 500,000 diesel cars to pass U.S. emissions tests. The company froze sales of new and certified used diesels in the U.S. while it worked with regulators on an approved fix. The company has set aside $24 billion (22.6 billion euros) to cover costs and fines related to the scandal. Significant milestone Reviving diesel sales marks a significant milestone in VW's efforts to recover from the scandal and rebuild its relationship with environmental regulators. It also returns a key product to dealer showrooms that attracted a cult-like customer base and accounted for about 20 percent of the VW brand's pre-scandal sales. Yet it's a mostly symbolic step. The sales approval only applies to about 67,000 diesels from the 2015 model, about 12,000 of which are currently in dealer inventory, Ginivan said. An EPA spokeswoman didn't immediately return messages seeking comment. Volkswagen has also said no new diesel models will be offered in the U.S. at least through model year 2018. The company is moving aggressively toward electric vehicles, signaling a diminishing role for diesel engines in the company's portfolio, especially in the U.S. The program will also eventually include used 2015 diesels the company has repurchased from owners through the 2016 settlement with U.S. regulators and owners, she said. Some customers have elected to keep their cars and receive restitution and an emissions repair under the terms of its $10 billion buyback.

Evidence of how convoluted and hopeless things have become. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Seattle sues Trump administration over threat to 'sanctuary' cities Reuters / March 29, 2017 The city of Seattle sued U.S. President Donald Trump's administration on Wednesday over its executive order seeking to withhold federal funds from "sanctuary cities," arguing it amounted to unconstitutional federal coercion. Seattle Mayor Ed Murray says the Constitution forbade the federal government from pressuring cities, “yet that is exactly what the president’s order does. Once again, this new administration has decided to bully.” “Things like grants helping us with child sex trafficking are not connected to immigration,” Murray said, adding: "It is time for cities to stand up and ask the courts to put an end to the anxiety in our cities and the chaos in our system." U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions threatened on Monday to strip Justice Department grants from cities and other local governments that choose to shield illegal immigrants from deportation efforts. Trump, who made tougher immigration enforcement a cornerstone of his campaign, directed the government in his Jan. 25 executive order to cut off funding to sanctuary jurisdictions. That order has yet to be put into effect, but Sessions' announcement seemed to be the first step in doing so. Trump administration officials say the immigration crackdown is focused on illegal immigrants convicted of serious crimes. Responding to the Seattle lawsuit, a U.S. Justice Department representative said in a statement: "Failure to deport [illegal] aliens who are convicted of criminal offenses makes our nation less safe by putting dangerous criminals back on our streets." Seattle’s action was the latest legal salvo over the Trump immigration order from local governments across the country, including the city of San Francisco and California’s Santa Clara County. Police agencies in dozens of "sanctuary" cities, including New York, Los Angeles and Chicago, have barred their officers from routinely checking on immigration status when making arrests or traffic stops. They have also refused to detain people longer than otherwise warranted at the request of federal agents seeking to deport them. Supporters of the policy argue that enlisting police cooperation in rounding up immigrants for removal undermines communities' trust in local police, particularly among Latinos. Murray said the goal of Seattle's lawsuit was to have the courts declare that federal authorities “cannot force our local police officials to be involved in federal immigration activities.”