kscarbel2

Heavy Duty Trucking / October 12, 2015 A Kenworth T680 will be transporting the 51st U.S. Capitol Christmas Tree this year, stopping at 10 community celebrations en route to the tree-lighting event in Washington D.C. In advance of the tree-cutting ceremony on Oct. 27, Kenworth released a distinctive decal for the T680 showcasing several design details referencing the journey of the tree. The decal features the Chugach Mountains and the U.S. Capitol with the words “From the Northern Lights to the Capitol Lights.” The decal also includes the official seal of the 2015 capitol Christmas tree with a map of the tour route it will take from on the way to Washington D.C. This year’s Capitol Christmas Tree is a 74-foot Lutz spruce that will be shipped from Anchorage, Alaska to the Port of Tacoma in Washington. Lynden Transport driver, John Schank, will take the tree from Seattle on a 3,000 mile journey to the Capitol pulling a specially designed trailer. The T680 is a 76-inch mid-roof sleeper equipped with a 485 horsepower Paccar MX-13 engine. “The tour of ‘The People’s Tree’ offers millions of Americans an opportunity to see our nation’s symbol of celebration,” said Kurt Swihart, Kenworth marketing director. “The Kenworth T680 mid-roof 76-inch sleeper offers the perfect spec’d truck to complete this important tour.” The tour will include a stop at Kenworth’s Chillicothe, Ohio plant where the truck was built and will include community event in Chillicothe on Nov. 17. For more information on the Capitol Christmas Tree, click here. The tree’s progress can also be tracked along its journey, here. Related reading - http://www.kenworth.com/media/52555/t680-design-us-capitol-christmas-tree.pdf .

I always preferred the 22MO349, much more attractive than the later short-lived lamp. Did Watts check the Volvo PDCs (parts distribution center) and do a dealer locator check?

Father murders 22-month-old son, intentionally leaves him in hot car Reuters / October 12, 2015 A Georgia man charged with killing his 22-month-old son sent an online message saying: "I love my son and all but we both need escapes," just hours before his child was found dead in the back seat of a hot car, according to court testimony on Monday. Prosecutors said the message to a woman and other online chats established motive in the murder case of Ross Harris, 34, who was charged after authorities said he left his son, Cooper, in a car for seven hours in June 2014. "It can’t be more apparent than in his own words,” Assistant District Attorney Chuck Boring told a Cobb County judge. “He loved his son and all but they both needed escapes.” Harris was a self-described “sex addict,” the prosecutor said, adding the death of his son would have helped further his ability to have extramarital affairs. Harris' attorneys argued his online affairs had nothing to do with the toddler's death and sought to have "sexting" charges against Harris separated from the murder case. Cobb County Superior Court Judge Mary Staley rejected that motion on Monday, finding that Harris’ texts and emails with women other than his wife could help prosecutors establish motive and his state of mind before the death. Cobb County police detective Phil Stoddard testified that Harris was having breakfast with his son on the day of the toddler's death when Harris sent the "escapes" message to a woman who had posted online that she hated having children. Harris also said he missed “having time to myself and going out with my friends,” the detective said. Harris told police he forgot to drop his son off at daycare on his way to work and discovered the child after he left the office that afternoon. Harris' attorney, Maddox Kilgore, has called Cooper's death a "horrible and gut-wrenching accident." Prosecutors have said Harris killed the toddler so he could live a "child-free" life. On Monday, Staley also refused to dismiss an indictment against Harris on a charge of attempting to sexually exploit a minor by trying to convince her to send him pictures of her genitals. The judge set a trial date for Feb. 22. .

The 60 Minutes interview between President Obama and reporter Steve Kroft. Kroft challenged Obama's strategies in Syria and against ISIS, accusing the president of embarrassing failures and a lack of leadership. Steve Kroft: The last time we talked was this time last year, and the situation in Syria and Iraq had begun to worsen vis-à-vis ISIS. You had just unveiled a plan to provide air support for troops in Iraq, and also some air strikes in Syria, and the training and equipping of a moderate Syrian force. You said that this would degrade and eventually destroy ISIS. President Obama: Over time. Steve Kroft: Over time. It's been a year, and-- President Obama: I didn't say it was going to be done in a year. Steve Kroft: No. But you said...... President Obama: There's a question in here somewhere. Kroft was pressing Obama on the administration's timetable and successes so far against ISIS, at one point describing a now-scuttled Pentagon plan to train and equip anti-Islamic State fighters as an 'embarrassment.' The White House announced Friday that it is pausing the train-and-arm plan after it was revealed last month to a Senate committee that instead of an initial goal of 5,000 fighters, the U.S. military now only has four or five still on the battlefield in Iraq and Syria. Steve Kroft: If you were skeptical of the program to find and identify, train and equip moderate Syrians, why did you go through the program? President Obama: Well, because part of what we have to do here, Steve, is to try different things. Because we also have partners on the ground that are invested and interested in seeing some sort of resolution to this problem. And-- Steve Kroft: And they wanted you to do it? President Obama: Well, no. That's not what I said. I think it is important for us to make sure that we explore all the various options that are available. Steve Kroft: I know you don't want to talk about this. President Obama: No, I'm happy to talk about it. Steve Kroft: I want to talk about the-- this program, because it would seem to show, I mean, if you expect 5,000 and you get five, it shows that somebody someplace along the line did not-- made-- you know, some sort of a serious miscalculation. President Obama: You know, the-- the-- Steve, let me just say this. Steve Kroft: It's an embarrassment.

Where was the love for country in our elected officials when the U.S. Department of Justice on December 18, 2000 approved the sale of American icon Mack Trucks to Sweden's Volvo Group in 2000? An oxymoron, the American flag flying beside the sign of a conquering foreign company.

So we air-dropped 112 pallets of ammunition (50 tons) to Syrian rebels last night. I wonder now how much they've already handed over to ISIS. ISIS appears to be delighted with the U.S.-purchased Toyota pickup trucks that the Syrian rebels presented them with. This latest development, coming days after the CIA claims to have abandoned a $500 million plan to train thousands of "moderate" rebels to fight ISIS (If you know how to determine if a Syrian rebel is a "moderate" rather than a radical, call the CIA suggestion line at 1-800-CIA-HELP). Washington criticizes the Russians for mounting air attacks. Then the next day, we bomb a Doctors-Without-Borders hospital and kill 20 people. They'd reported their GPS location week-after-week. We knew. After the attack began, they called the US government both locally and in Washington. But the attack continued. Go figure

Apparently, the ACLU supports illegal activities in these United States including illegal immigration. The ACLU should be designated an illegal organization and banned. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Pennsylvania city must pay $1.4 million legal fees for targeting illegal immigrants Reuters / October 7, 2015 The mayor of Hazleton, Pennsylvania on Wednesday said the city will seek a ten-year payment plan after being ordered by a court to pay $1.4 million to lawyers who sued the city over a 2006 ordinance targeting illegal immigrants. Mayor Joseph Yannuzzi said that if agreed to by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and other plaintiff lawyers, the payment plan would allow the city of 25,340 to avoid the tax hikes and layoffs it would otherwise need in order to pay the legal fees. "We lost, so we had to pay. But it was not a wasted cause. We thought we were right," Yannuzzi said. U.S. District Judge James Munley issued his ruling about the fees late on Tuesday. In 2006, Hazleton's City Council, at the prodding of then-mayor Lou Barletta, passed an ordinance barring local businesses from hiring illegal immigrants and landlords from renting housing to them. Barletta is now a U.S. Representative. The ACLU and others sued. The subsequent court battle lasted eight years, with appeals going twice to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit. The city was unable to get past rulings that immigration control was a matter for the federal government. ACLU lawyers originally asked for $2.8 million in legal fees. But Judge Munley cut that amount by half because the lawyers did not prevail on all their claims. Munley rejected a 14-year payment plan proposed by Hazleton's lawyer, Kris Kobach, a national activist against illegal immigration who is also the Republican Secretary of State of Kansas. Kobach did not respond to a request for comment. Omar Jadwat, one of the ACLU lawyers, said the lawyers are committed to finding a payment plan for Hazleton "that works." Yannuzzi said he did not believe the city would appeal. The court set a Jan. 15 deadline to work out a payment agreement.

Navistar Press Release / October 1, 2015 International Truck today announced that it will be introducing the Allison TC10 fully automatic transmission coupled with the Cummins ISX15 on its International ProStar model. The engine/transmission combination—an industry first— will be available for order beginning in December 2015 with expected delivery dates of early 2016. "The introduction of the TC10/ISX15 combination on the International ProStar is another example of how we are bringing industry-leading solutions to the market quickly for our customers," said Jeff Sass, Navistar senior vice president, Sales and Marketing. "The quality and performance of the International ProStar, coupled with the integrated Allison TC10 transmission/Cummins ISX15 engine combination, will deliver the uptime and fuel efficiency our customers demand." The Allison TC10, offered with 10 forward speeds and two reverse, uses a patented torque converter and full power shifts to deliver superior performance and productivity when compared to automated manual transmissions. The premium transmission is ideal for tractor applications and is extremely well-suited for distribution applications where the tractor-trailer splits its work cycle between city and highway conditions. "With the TC10, Allison has been able to bring its reputation for smooth vehicle drivability along with transmission reliability and performance to the Class 8 tractor market," said Heidi Schutte, executive director of North America sales for Allison Transmission. "The TC10 maximizes powertrain fuel efficiency while achieving and maintaining highway cruising speeds to save both time and money." First introduced in 2014 on International ProStar and International TranStar powered by N13, the Allison TC10 is the first fully automatic transmission for the Class 8 on-highway segment. The TC10 transmission's unique design utilizes a blended architecture with full-power shifts, a torque converter and a twin countershaft gear box. "We set very aggressive performance and fuel economy targets for the TC10," said Randy Kirk, senior vice president of engineering and product teams for Allison Transmission. "We're proud to see the TC10 exceeding those expectations with significant fuel economy gains when compared to fleet averages with other transmission technologies." The Allison TC10 comes equipped with Allison's newest generation of electronic controls and FuelSense® technology which provide superior fuel economy features, prognostics to eliminate unnecessary oil and filter changes and enhanced shift selector functionality. A standard five-year or 750,000 mile warranty is also included. More information about the TC10, including customer testimonials, is available at allisontransmission.com/tc10.

Bloomberg / October 7, 2015 A noisy yellow machine laying down railroad track near Alva, Oklahoma -- as much as a mile a day of concrete and steel -- is Warren Buffett’s solution to the industry’s dwindling coal traffic. After this year, BNSF Railway Co. will be more than 99 percent finished with a second, parallel line to its 2,200-mile (3,500-kilometer) Los Angeles-to-Chicago route. Doubling up will create a rail superhighway speeding deliveries of toys, electronics, autos and other goods, because trains won’t have to yield to each other on sidings as they do on single tracks. The goal: help the unit of Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc. grab cargo now going by road. “If the rails can improve the reliability of the transit time,” shipping consultant Satish Jindel said, “it helps them compete with the trucks.” Snatching consumer products and other freight from big rigs is more crucial than ever. Coal, once a pillar of U.S. rail traffic, is fading as utilities burn cheaper and cleaner natural gas. Average weekly carloads are down 20 percent from five years earlier. Viable Option The Los Angeles-to-Chicago route links the busiest U.S. container port to the biggest mid-continent rail hub, giving BNSF a leg up in the race to find alternatives to those dwindling coal cars. And there’s room to grow: consultant FTR Transportation Intelligence estimates that trains now move only about 19 percent of the 71 million trailer loads that travel 550 miles or more, a rough threshold for where rail becomes an viable option. “We have significant opportunities to convert” truck cargo to rail, said Katie Farmer, chief of BNSF’s consumer group. “We’ve really narrowed the gap now between what was traditionally rail service and over-the-road trucking.” That’s where the dual tracks come in. More and longer trains can be run on two tracks than on a single line. Once the double-tracked section in Oklahoma is completed at the end of October, BNSF will have just seven more miles of line to build -- involving three costly bridges -- and will be able to run 78 trains a day in that region, up from 62 now. Faster Speeds With no need to pull over, they can also go faster. A BNSF train laden with truck trailers now can make the Los Angeles-Chicago run in 64 hours, said consultant Jindel. Completing the twin-tracking will shave off as much as three hours, he said. XPO Logistics Inc., an arranger of shipments for customers such as Costco Wholesale Corp., figures that about a third of the long-haul freight that it now sends by truck is a candidate to switch to train, Chief Strategy Officer Scott Malat said. If that rule of thumb were applied across the industry, there could be more than $100 billion of business up for grabs by railroads, he said. “Rails have realized that, and that’s one of the main reasons they’ve been investing so much in their capacity, service and efficiency,” Malat said. Direct Shot In the eastern U.S., CSX Corp. is reconstructing a Washington tunnel with twin tracks and enough height to handle two containers stacked atop one another. In the west, Union Pacific Corp. is laying a second track on its 760-mile line between Los Angeles and El Pa so, Texas. It has about 150 miles to go. Buffett’s railroad has a key advantage over Union Pacific: the most direct shot between Chicago and Los Angeles, where the region’s two ports handle about 40 percent of U.S. imports shipped in containers. Those boxes, holding finished goods like shoes, furniture and auto parts, leave ships to be hoisted onto trains or trucks. Railroads are already winning more of this so-called intermodal business. Rail shipments of containers grew 15 percent over the last decade while other cargoes, such as coal and chemicals, dropped 11 percent. Intermodal traffic is up 2.3 percent in 2015, the Association of American Railroads said Wednesday. But persuading shippers to switch still isn’t easy. While it’s cheaper to send freight by rail, it takes longer. The cost of transferring containers to trains and then back to trucks for final delivery makes it difficult to compete on trips of less than 550 miles, said Larry Gross, a partner at FTR Transportation Intelligence. Trucks are more punctual and flexible. This is why Tiera Adams’s job in Oklahoma is crucial for BNSF. Sporting an orange vest, white hardhat and a two-way radio on her hip, the 25-year-old is project manager for the 10-mile stretch of new line going in alongside the Southern Transcon route, which was completed in the early 1900s to bypass steep mountains in northern New Mexico. Adams, tramping along on foot behind the clanking track layer and dispensing instructions, revels in taking out the bottleneck in the midst of the farmland outside Alva. “You see the fruits of your labor when they start running the trains double once you’re done,” Adams said.

Los Angeles Times / October 11, 2015 At a laboratory in downtown Los Angeles, a big rig spins its wheels on massive rollers as a metal tube funnels its exhaust into an array of air quality sensors. Engineers track the roaring truck's emissions from a bank of computer screens. The brand-new diesel truck is among the cleanest on the road, the engineers at the California Air Resources Board testing lab say. Even so, its 550-horsepower engine spews out more than 20 times the smog-forming nitrogen oxides of a typical gasoline-powered car — and that won't be good enough for the state to meet stricter federal smog limits adopted this month. Cutting ozone, the lung-damaging gas in smog, to federal health standards while meeting state targets to cut greenhouse gas emissions will require a radical transformation of California's transportation sector over the next two decades, air quality officials and experts say. Millions of new electric cars must replace gasoline-powered models. Buses will have to run on hydrogen fuel cells. New technologies and cleaner fuels need to proliferate quickly to slash pollution from trucks, cargo ships and trains. "We have to go to zero tailpipe emissions," said Mark Z. Jacobson, a professor of civil and environmental engineering at Stanford University. "There's really no other solution." The changes will fall heavily on vehicles because they are the dominant source of air pollution in California. The largest reductions must come from the heavy-duty sector that transports goods through ports, freeways, rail yards and warehouses. The diesel-powered freight system emits 45% of the smog-forming pollution in the state and lags behind passenger vehicles, which have reduced tailpipe emissions dramatically over 50 years of smog-fighting regulations. The transition is beginning with automobiles. A 2012 Air Resources Board mandate aims to put 1.4 million zero-emissions vehicles on the road by 2025 and requires them to account for one in seven new car sales by that year. In one scenario under consideration by the agency, the number of electric, plug-in hybrid and fuel-cell vehicles would increase to 5 million and 40% of new car sales by 2030. About 160,000 zero-emissions vehicles are on the road today in California — just 0.5% of the passenger fleet. To reach air quality and climate change targets, technology being pioneered in cars must eventually be scaled up to trucks and other heavy-duty vehicles. In July, Gov. Jerry Brown issued an executive order directing state agencies to establish "clear targets" to transition California's freight system to "zero-emission technologies." That won't be easy, state regulators say. But one advantage for California is that it can lean on many of the same efforts needed to meet its goal of cutting greenhouse gas emissions 40% below 1990 levels by 2030. Those carbon-cutting policies should simultaneously reduce levels of ozone, fine-particle pollution and cancer-causing diesel soot. Some of those measures are outlined in a recent Air Resources Board report that projects California can reduce transportation-related pollution to meet air quality and climate change targets over the next 15 years with cleaner fuels, vehicles and energy sources. For heavy-duty vehicles, diesel engines will continue to dominate through 2030, the report says, but under even tougher emissions rules. "While today's trucks are significantly cleaner than their predecessors, we'll need new engine standards that are about 90% cleaner," said Karen Magliano, chief of the air quality planning and science division at the Air Resources Board. Chris Shimoda, policy director for the California Trucking Assn., acknowledged the industry "is way behind light-duty cars in terms of the introduction of zero-emissions technology." That's in part because the because the state Air Resources Board has not yet adopted zero-emissions requirements for freight, Shimoda said. But heavy-duty trucks also face higher technological hurdles and "the engineering challenges of trying to get a battery-electric or hydrogen fuel cell truck that can haul 80,000 pounds across the country." "It's going to take time to introduce that technology," Shimoda said. A key driver of the changes is the nation's worst ozone pollution in Southern California, which can reach over 100 parts per billion in inland valleys. Ozone, linked to asthma, heart disease and premature deaths, is formed when pollution from motor vehicles, power plants and other combustion sources cooks in the heat and sunlight. Though air quality has improved markedly in California, the smoggiest regions — the South Coast basin and the San Joaquin Valley — have so far failed to meet a series of federal ozone standards going back to 1979. Regional air quality regulators say they must cut smog-forming nitrogen oxides at least 75% beyond existing regulations to meet a 2037 deadline to clean the air to the new federal ozone limit of 70 parts per billion. Environmentalists say Southern California officials are not acting quickly enough. The obstacles are so great that air regulators and transportation planners "have to get a lot more aggressive," said Adrian Martinez, an attorney for the environmental nonprofit Earthjustice. Martinez wants to see zero-emissions lanes on freeways and electrified corridors for trucks hauling cargo in and out of the ports. "We need to get this stuff going now because these projects take decades," he said. Barry Wallerstein, executive officer of the South Coast Air Quality Management District, is optimistic that the region can meet ozone standards through improvements in diesel engines and new technology, such as hybrid trucks powered by overhead catenary wires. "We shouldn't underestimate ingenuity and ability to continue to further reduce emissions," Wallerstein said. When pressed on the Southland's failure to meet previous air quality standards, he said, "we need to pick up the pace." Wringing enough pollution out of trucks and other cargo-moving vehicles to get Southern California's ozone levels down to 70 ppb will require a "paradigm shift" to battery-electric and fuel cell technology, said Scott Samuelsen, an engineering professor who directs the Advanced Power and Energy Program at UC Irvine. The key question, he said, "is how to make an economically viable transition of a freight industry that's evolved with diesel engines." Some of those changes can be seen at the Port of Long Beach, where crews have finished building the first half of a $1.5-billion terminal that unloads, stacks and sorts shipping containers using electric cranes and driverless, battery-powered vehicles instead of diesel-burning yard tractors. "We're looking to expand use of electricity," said Art Wong, a spokesman for the port. "This terminal is going to be the first." Back in downtown L.A., where the Air Resources Board is testing heavy-duty trucks, lab manager Keshav Sahay put the difficult task ahead in simple terms: "We have to do more."

Private Fleets Back Higher Truck Weight Limit Heavy Duty Trucking / October 9, 2015 The National Private Truck Council is now throwing its own weight behind the legislative effort to allow individual states to increase the federal vehicle weight limit to 91,000 pounds for tractor-trailers that are equipped with a sixth axle. Although NPTC is a member of the most active lobby for upping the federal GCW limit, the Coalition for Transportation Productivity, the association that represents some 600 private fleets said on October 9 that it has directly voiced its support for truck-weight reform in a letter sent to the members of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee. That committee is charged with drawing up the House version of the long-overdue highway bill, which NPTC wants to see incorporate the Safe, Flexible and Efficient (SAFE) Trucking Act (H.R. 3488) introduced in September by Rep. Reid Ribble (R-WI). NPTC contends that Ribble’s measure would give states the “flexibility to safely confront highway capacity issues” by letting carriers run heavier, six-axle trucks on Interstate highways within their borders. “H.R. 3488 would improve options for enhancing productivity,” wrote Gary Petty, president and CEO of NPTC. He stressed that the association “would not support this legislation if our members thought that it might diminish safety or harm highway or bridge infrastructure.” Petty also called out the railroad lobby's effort to derail Ribble’s proposal. “We understand that the railroad industry and their surrogates are opposed to this bill,” he wrote. “But railroad interests should not hold a veto over highway transportation policy. They should compete for freight in a free and fair marketplace that allows for productivity enhancements for all modes.” He also made the point that H.R. 3488 “does not mandate anything. It would merely allow the state governments to permit truck combinations up to 91,000 pounds in a six-axle configuration to use the Interstate highways in their state. State agencies would retain the ability to limit or even prohibit use of these vehicles when safety dictates otherwise. Moreover, use of six-axle vehicles at 91,000 lbs. would not create additional harm for pavement or bridges.” The NPTC letter is the latest word from a trucking-affiliated group that has publicly stated that it is either for, against, or (for lack of a better word) neutral on Ribble’s SAFE Act. In a Sept. 16 letter sent to Ribble, the Truckload Carriers Association argued strongly against allowing the increase in the weight limit. Recognizing that the bill “attempts to improve trucking productivity on our highways,” TCA stated that it opposes the measure because “it clearly would only benefit a minority of the industry.” The truckload group also contended that the cost to properly equip trailers and tractors to take advantage of the higher weight limit would not be compensated by rate increases, yet carriers would be compelled by customers to invest in the more costly equipment. Like TCA, The Trucking Alliance, a coalition of trucking businesses that lobbies for safety improvements, does not support the bill. “This legislation wasn't written to benefit trucking companies, because it would drive up operating costs, drive down truck driver wages and curtail investments in safety technologies,” Lane Kidd, the Alliance’s Managing Director, told HDT. When asked by HDT if the American Trucking Associations had any reaction to the bill, ATA spokesperson Sean McNally replied, “No, we don’t.” NPTC’s letter may be read online.

What Mk. Spitfire is it? I hope they finally find those crated and buried Mk. XIV Spits at RAF Mingaladon in Burma.

This woman murdered these three children on March 20. Her act is undisputed. Why hasn't she been executed? ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Florida mother murders her 3 children Associated Press / October 11, 2015 The victims of a Florida woman who killed her own children told their mother how much they loved her before they died. Jessica McCarty, 33, told police officers that she didn't deserve to live after the alleged deed, for which she faces the death penalty and three first-degree murder charges in Brevard County. Police say that Lacey McCarty, 7, was drowned in a bathtub, and that her brothers Phillip McCarty, 6, and Christopher Swist, five months, were strangled with cords around their necks. The children told their mother how much they loved her so much during the killings. McCarty recalled her daughter Lacey saying during the murder: 'She kept telling me, 'I love you mommy'. She also texted photos of the bloody house to her boyfriend Christopher Swist, 30, before he rushed home and called 911 while holding the youngest child in his arms. The baby was on life support for two days before being declared dead at a local hospital. McCarty had her first two children with husband Phillip McCarty. A report from the Department of Children and Families said that in 2009 McCarty was investigated for possible child neglect and labeled an 'intermediate' risk to her children because of her suicidal tendencies. McCarty, who also previously pleaded guilty to stealing prescription pads to acquire painkillers, was ordered to go to counseling. Other court notes in the case say the McCarty had previously told family members '"I will snap my babies' necks and take them with me when I kill myself'. She also left a goodbye note to her family saying that she 'had no other choice'. The note said that she was 'told how I suck at everything I do. Well you were right, I am worthless'. McCarty is being held without bond. .

When the welded single and double channel crossmembers cracked, with tanker haulers or ready-mix operators for example, the dealers were thrilled at the arrival of the plate-type service crossmember (9QL4551M) first seen on the state-of-the-art MH Ultra-Liner platform. It made replacement ten times easier. There's a Mack Service Bulletin on it.

We used the English System at that time, so the frame rails were, for example, 3/8 inch. And then 3/8" was rounded out to 10mm in description for the global market. Of course 3/8" and 10mm are extremely close. The first time we dealt with the Metric System was when we offered the normally aspirated Scania D8 and turbocharged DS8 as an engine option. Never had any troubles. Then we entered another stage with the Metric System when we began selling the superb Renault-produced Mack Mid-Liner medium truck range. That generally went smoothly. When many dealers did a wheelbase change, after removing the crossmember rivets, they went back with Mack Truck's legendary (5/8") "body bound bolts", the best frame fastening system ever devised right up to the present day (my opinion). The third Metric System introduction was the MH Ultra-Liner, the cab and the chassis. And it used metric body bound bolts. There were still some English System fasteners around the truck as well. Of course shortly after the MH's introduction, we put the Super-Liner on the MH platform resulting in the RWI 600/700, so that was metric as well. Next, the E7 and CH brought Mack deeper into the Metric System. Both the English System and Metric System get the job done, but the latter is obviously a bit more versatile.

Tennessee father beats 4-month-old daughter to death Associated Press / September 30, 2015 Police say a 4-month-old girl was beaten to death by her father because she would not stop crying. Nathan Scarborough faces charges including first degree murder in perpetration of aggravated child abuse and neglect. Police said officers went to a home in the Memphis suburb of Cordova on Sept. 22 and found the baby unresponsive. She died at a hospital. Police interviewed Scarborough, the girl's biological father, and he acknowledged he beat her when she would not stop crying. Scarborough acknowledged that he did not administer aid to the baby and placed her in bed. When the baby did not wake up, police said Scarborough began calling for help. The baby arrived at Baptist Children's Hospital in full cardiac arrest and later died. Scarborough initially told police he was painting in the same room with the baby at his home on Creek Way Cove when he noticed the baby was lifeless and called 911. But the Medical Examiner's Office later found the baby had internal injuries to its head, and the case was ruled a homicide. Police later determined Scarborough was responsible.

Baltimore man smothers 5-month-old daughter to death Associated Press / October 5, 2015 A 23-year-old Baltimore man has been charged in the death of his 5-month-old daughter. Police said officers responded at 5 p.m. Saturday to a home in the 6400 block of Sefton Avenue for a report of an unresponsive infant. The 5-month-old child was taken to Johns Hopkins Hospital for treatment. Police said medical staff discovered that the infant had passed the stage of rigor mortis, and 5-month-old Noran Lee Torbet was pronounced dead shortly after arriving at the hospital. Family members of the child were questioned and detectives centered on the child's father, identified as Jeffery McKinney, as a person of interest. Police said McKinney confessed that he became frustrated when the infant would not stop crying. He placed a pillow on top of the baby to muffle the sound of her cries, police said. "This was no accident. This was absolutely no accident. The suspect confessed to us there were several pillows placed over top of the baby's body to get it from crying," Baltimore police Director T.J. Smith said. After realizing that his daughter was unresponsive, police said, McKinney put the baby on the edge of the mattress against the bedroom wall and piled pillows on top of her. Police said McKinney went downstairs and asked family members if they had seen the infant. Once they found the child, the infant’s grandmother immediately began CPR while waiting for the ambulance to arrive. McKinney was arrested and charged with second-degree murder, assault and child abuse.

North Texas mom charged with neglecting 5 kids; 1 near death Associated Press / September 30, 2015 A Texas mother is accused of abandoning her five children after police found them starving, filthy and, in the case of a baby, near death while her 8-year-old son was left in charge of his siblings. Police went to the home Friday after teachers in Bowie reported the boy had missed several days of class. Officers found the 8-year-old, girls ages 4 and 2, a 17-month-old boy and a 3-month-old boy, Bowie police Lt. Rick Beckham said. The two smallest children wore soiled diapers that they appeared to have been wearing for days, causing a diaper rash so severe one child was bleeding, he said. The infant weighed just 7 pounds, he said. Three children were being treated for malnutrition. "The ER doctor said the baby was malnourished to the point it may not have survived a few more days without food," Beckham said. "The house was completely filthy and in total disarray. There was garbage and human waste all over the house. You could literally smell the house from the street," Beckham said. The children's mother, Jessica Petroni, arrived while police were still at the house, telling officers she had been at a doctor's appointment. The mother was booked into Montague County Jail and was being held Wednesday on five counts of abandoning/endangering a child-criminal negligence. Each count is punishable, upon conviction, by up to two years in jail. Records do not list an attorney for Petroni to comment on her behalf. Her bond is set at $50,000. Beckham said the children's father has been gone about two weeks for a job in Collin County, where they were supposed to be moving. He said the children indicated to police that their mother "leaving them alone is a normal thing." The family had been the subject of child-welfare investigations previously while living in Wylie in Collin County, 35 miles northeast of Dallas, Beckham said. "The oldest boy said he was embarrassed by how the house looked. No child says that. The 2-year-old girl held out her hands to me and called me 'Papa,'" Beckham said.

Murdered children found in Detroit freezer Associated Press / October 9, 2015 Autopsies have determined that the two children discovered dead in a Detroit freezer earlier this week were beaten to death, and that the youngest child also suffered 'thermal injuries'. Mitchelle Blair, 35, has currently only been charged with child abuse, but that may change now that the deaths of her children Stoni Blair, 13, and Stephen Berry, 9, have been ruled a homicide. The autopsy comes just a day after child welfare officials said Blair's two surviving children had been terribly abused in a house of horrors. The Michigan Department of Human Services is taking steps to end Blair's rights to her two other children, a 17-year-old daughter and an 8-year-old son, who are currently with a relative. In a court filing, the state said her daughter described a home where she and her surviving brother were beaten with an extension cord and piece of wood and hit and burned with a hot curling iron. Medical exams revealed evidence of abuse, including numerous scars, on the surviving children. Twenty-five scars were found on the boy's back that were consistent with being hit by an extension cord, according to a petition obtained by the Detroit News. Blair's teenage daughter also described how her siblings were killed. 'Blair tortured Stephen for approximately two weeks prior to his death by tying a belt around his neck, throwing hot water on him while in the shower and putting a plastic bag over his head,' the state said, quoting the 17-year-old. Stephen was 'unresponsive' on Aug 30, 2012, and Blair wrapped his body in bed linen and put him in the freezer. Nine months later, Blair became 'enraged' when Stoni said she didn't like her surviving siblings and strangled the girl with a T-shirt and suffocated her with a plastic bag. Blair then made the teen put Stoni in the deep freezer following her death. The bodies of the children were discovered on Tuesday while court officers were serving an eviction notice. The apartment was reportedly filled with food and trash and rendered almost 'unlivable'. Blair's 8-year-old boy also was aware that his sister and brother were killed and subsequently placed in the freezer. While being questioned, Blair told investigators she placed Stephen 'in a boiling hot tub of water until his feet blistered' because she found out Stephen was allegedly sexually assaulting a relative, according to the Detroit News. Blair's teenage daughter said neither she nor her siblings have attended school for two years. There is no record of the children attending classes, according to a Detroit Public Schools official. Earlier Thursday, Blair appeared in court on child abuse charges via a video feed from a police lockup. Magistrate Renee McDuffee entered a not-guilty plea on her behalf. The state said it investigated allegations of abuse in 2002 and 2005. Blair was referred to counseling and allowed to keep custody of her children. The two fathers of Blair's surviving children are unfit to care for them, according to the state. Together they owe $50,000 in child support and haven't seen the kids in two to three years.

Father murders 5-week-old daughter October 3, 2015 A Pittsburgh man charged with fracturing his 5-week-old daughter’s skull and killing her told one witness that the infant was a “psycho baby” who cried all the time and said to another that he might have “put her down too hard,” according to a police affidavit. Joseph Swidorsky also told various versions of how Braelyn Swidorsky received her head injuries. The accounts he gave included one that placed blame on the first responders who were helping her, suggesting that “maybe the medics did something to her when they arrived as she was fine before they arrived,” police said. Swidorsky, 30, of Richardson Avenue in the city’s Brighton Heights section, is charged with criminal homicide and endangering the welfare of children in connection with the June 15 death. Allegheny County police arrested him Thursday. Swidorsky was bathing Braelyn in the morning on June 15 while the girl’s mother, Ashley Cain, and her other daughter were in a different room in a home in the 200 block of Martsolf Avenue in West View. Ms. Cain walked into the bathroom and found Braelyn blue and unresponsive. She told Swidorsky to call 911. Police and EMS arrived at 11:18 a.m. and took Braelyn to Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh of UPMC, where she was pronounced dead that night. An autopsy showed she died from a head injury, and a Children's Hospital doctor determined that the damage was inflicted by someone else. Swidorsky told detectives that Braelyn became “jiggly” and “limp” during her bath, took a deep breath after crying and then became unresponsive, the affidavit said. But witnesses told investigators that Swidorsky could not keep his stories straight while at the hospital, telling one variously that the baby might have been hurt in a fall, that perhaps he injured her while performing cardiopulmonary resuscitation, that the older sibling did not like the infant and might have hurt her, and that the injuries might be a week old. Police also noted that Braelyn was wearing a diaper when officers arrived. When asked why, Swidorsky said he put the diaper on before starting CPR, the affidavit said. Swidorsky is being held in jail on no bail awaiting a preliminary hearing. Court records show that Swidorsky pleaded guilty to DUI in 2010 and 2008, and in 2005 to felony criminal mischief.

Yet another toddler left in car to die Fox8 / September 24, 2015 8-month-old Jayce Markell Benjamin, of Garfield Heights, Ohio died after being left in an SUV for nearly ten hours. Jayce's mother, Katrell Johnson, instructed her 10-year-old brother to put Jayce in his car seat around 7:50 a.m. Wednesday. Then the grandmother's boyfriend drove seven children, including Jayce, to school and to a day care center. The boyfriend forgot to take the 8-month-old toddler into the day care with other kids. He drove back to the shared family residence, and the grandmother then drove the SUV to work at 10:15am, later driving the SUV to get lunch at a nearby McDonald's. The mother contacted the grandmother around 5 p.m. after Heavenly Kids called to inquire about why Jayce didn't show up in the morning. The grandmother then went out to the SUV in the Macedonia Walmart parking lot around 5:30 p.m. and found the infant unresponsive in a third row car seat. Investigators said the surface temperature of the car seat the infant was in was 120 degrees 50 minutes after Jayce was removed. His body temperature was 100.3 degrees.

Georgia mother arrested after meth found in body of her dead 4-month-old Associated Press / September 29, 2015 A Newnan woman was arrested Saturday after toxicology reports revealed a high amount of methamphetamine in the body of her dead 4-month-old child. Jasmen Nicole Hazelrigs’ two surviving children — ages 2 and 4 — tested positive for the drug as well. Coweta County Sheriff’s Office Lt. Col. James Yarbrough said deputies initially responded to a 911 call at Hazelrigs’ Crawford Circle home in Newnan on the morning of Sept. 7. Hazelrig’s 4-month old daughter, Harmony Breeze Hazelrigs, was found unresponsive. Roommates had made repeated attempts to wake Hazelrigs by banging on her bedroom door before entering the room to find the dead infant, Yarbrough said. An exact cause of death has not yet been determined, but Yarbrough said the fact that the deceased child and both of its siblings tested positive for meth was enough to arrest Hazelrigs on three counts of child cruelty. The 22-year-old woman was also charged with possession of meth after the drug was found in the bedroom she and her children shared, Yarbrough said. Authorities were waiting on blood and hair analyses to come back before charging Hazelrigs, authorities said. She is being held at the Coweta County jail without bond. The two surviving children are in state custody. Yarbrough said the Division of Family and Children Services had previously “looked at” Hazelrigs “for the living conditions of the children.”

Parents charged after infant found dead in out-of-gas car Associated Press / September 30, 2015 Police have charged a couple with endangering their three young children, including a 5-month-old girl found dead when they ran out of gas driving her to a hospital. Ambridge, Pennsylvania police said the home where 27-year-old Tariq Taylor and 21-year-old Katreona Mathews were staying was not fit for their kids. "There was just nothing there to care for the children," said Lt. Brian Jameson with Ambridge Police. "No food, no bottles, no formula, no diapers, no wipes. And there was drug paraphernalia around everywhere." That paraphernalia includes hypodermic needles, drug stamp bags, and a cooking spoon, police said. Taylor and Mathews have not been charged for the death of their baby, Kourteny Taylor. Autopsy results are pending, and police say more charges could be filed depending on how the child died. Police say the couple told investigators the child wasn't breathing so they tried to get to the hospital. But Ambridge police believe the child had been dead for about eight hours before that happened. Taylor was already jailed on an unrelated warrant before being charged for endangering the children. Mathews was captured Wednesday afternoon. Authorities said the car the couple first tried to drive to the hospital had been reported stolen from Pittsburgh, and there was a sawed-off shotgun in the trunk. Mathews and Taylor are scheduled for preliminary hearings in front of a judge on October 9th.