kscarbel2

Their isn't one presidential candidate who is truly qualified to be president. As has been for decades, qualified Americans avoid the position. The theatrical Trump tells people the hard truth, but the masses aren't interested in realty. Thinking about our country's stewardship takes up too much time. The thought of Hillary being elected.......is very scary.

Reuters / July 2, 2015 A war between China and America is a favorite subject of armchair military analysts. Why would it happen? How would it play out? Authors have written thousands of pages online and off trying to answer these questions. That’s why Ghost Fleet, a new novel by national-security analysts August Cole and P.W. Singer, is fascinating. The book, set in the near future, is an account of a war between China and the United States written by two men whose day jobs are studying conflict and making policy recommendations. If anyone could get this scenario right, it’s these two military experts. Though it is fiction, the authors have taken great pains to keep their storytelling realistic. The novel particularly shines when the writers depict the failures of the Pentagon’s newest weapons systems. Over the past decade, U.S. taxpayers have poured trillions of dollars into fancy new weapons, such as the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter and the Littoral Combat Ship, though defense experts warned of their many failings. Lockheed Martin, the chief contractor on the F-35, attributes the planes many documented problems to its stage of development and promises that they all will be corrected by the time of deployment or shortly thereafter. Ghost Fleet imagines a war that begins with the Littoral Combat Ship and F-35 and ends with the United States relying on a reserve fleet of older, but more reliable, weapons moored near San Francisco. The Pentagon’s newest toys fail so spectacularly that Washington must fall back on their old, less technologically dependent weapons. The authors could be most prescient when describing the failings of recent U.S. military investments. They are less so when explaining why China picks a fight with the United States. Cole and Singer are so used to citing their military research that they’ve done it in their novel. Ghost Fleet has extensive footnotes. Don’t believe a passage about an emerging technology? The notes direct you to the Pentagon press release about it. Because of this, Ghost Fleet has a certain weight. Cole and Singer are so steeped in future wars that they depict the fighting — on the ground, in space and on the Internet –with an air of indisputable authority. Killer weapons and legacy systems The Pentagon’s current obsession with Swiss-army-knife-style weapon systems, which are able to do many different things, leads it to lose the first major battle against China in Ghost Fleet. In the novel, China kicks off its assault on the United States with an epic redo of Pearl Harbor. Faced with a surprise attack, Washington’s fleet of fancy Littoral Combat Ships and hangars full of F-35s can’t fight off Hainan’s troops. Part of this is due to the surprise attack, but much is due to the technology itself. The LCS and F-35s are largely untested weapon systems beset by ballooning budgets and horrifying problems. Worse, according to the authors, both rely far too much on computers. The F-35, in particular, is considered by many weapons experts to be a laughingstock. Its gun can’t shoot because Lockheed has yet to write the software for it; the $600,000 helmet required to fly the plane has yet to work as intended, and, in at least on case, the jet’s engine has caught fire. Despite these problems, the Pentagon is adopting the F-35 in all of its branches … and getting rid of battle-tested legacy systems. Ghost Fleet shows us the consequences of a U.S. military-industrial complex focused more on selling expensive new systems than on building quality weapons. Cole and Singer’s rendering of Pearl Harbor Two hinges on how shoddy the LCS and F-35 are. They’ve written a fictional version of the nightmare-scenario defense that many military journalists and analysts have long predicted would happen when the F-35 went to war. Following a series of sophisticated cyberattacks, the fancy jets barely fly, don’t carry enough ammo to effectively engage the enemy and are easily destroyed by Chinese fighters. In the end, it’s America’s ghost fleet that comes to the rescue. The Pentagon resurrects ships and planes retired by defense-contractor overreach and technological hubris. The old F-16s and A-10s still fly, and they’re ready and able to beat back America’s enemies. They are simple weapon systems, particularly when compared to the F-35 and the LCS. Better yet, they use outdated and simplistic computers that China can’t jam or hack. In Ghost Fleet, the old planes are the best planes. It’s vastly preferable to see the F-35′s failure in fiction than in real life, where real lives would be lost. Lockheed Martin, the manufacturer, says its product is reliable and able. “Here’s the truth about the F-35,” the company wrote in a recent statement about the jet responding to media criticisms of the weapon. “The jet has flown to the corners of the flight test envelope and it’s meeting or exceeding expectations in performance. There are no insurmountable obstacles to successfully completing the development program on schedule in 2016.” Clashing interests Ghost Fleet is full of wonderful moments. It’s got space pirates, drug-addled hackers out of a William Gibson novel and American insurgents fighting occupation in Hawaii. Cole and Singer make these fantastical elements work, and weave them into the story. But there’s a problem. The reasons behind the conflict feel far-fetched. The motivations of the Chinese antagonists feel more like the schemes of a Bond movie villain than the inevitable outcome of current geopolitics. There is a pernicious myth that the United States and China will never go to war because they are economically interdependent. But a closer look at history should worry everyone. China and America are closely linked economically. China sold the United States almost half a trillion dollars worth of goods in 2014, and Beijing holds trillions of Washington’s debt in U.S. Treasury bonds. But it’s quite possible that, as Ghost Fleet details, it is because of these economic ties — not in spite of them — that the two superpowers might come to blows. The authors debunk the idea that economic interests would prevent another world war within the first 30 pages of their novel. One character explains that imperial Germany was Britain’s largest trading partner before World War One. Japan, he says, was America’s biggest trading partner leading up to World War Two. The economic ties between Japan and America leading up to World War Two are more complicated than that. The island nation relied on U.S. oil imports to keep its military rolling. Washington, however, didn’t like Tokyo’s attempts to expand its territory into China. Congress attempted to sanction and blockade Japan to cut it off from its military’s main source of oil — the lifeblood of its dreams of empire. In Ghost Fleet, after a catastrophe in the Middle East, America becomes the world’s largest energy exporter. China’s Communist Party falls and a more militaristic, capitalist system replaces it. The two nominal allies expand their trading territory, and China imports most of its fuel from America. Then, Chinese scientists discover a massive natural-gas deposit in the Mariana Trench. This new source of energy means China can divorce itself from its old trading partner. Worse, the Chinese military establishment convinces the political leadership that China can no longer expand its trading territory without taking some away from its largest competition — the United States. So China attacks America to assert itself as a global power and establish more control over the Pacific Ocean’s trade routes. It’s an elegant and fictional way to get everyone fighting. But the world is far more complicated and chaotic. According to the Pentagon’s most recent report on China’s military, Beijing’s goals are “defending … territorial integrity, securing China’s status as a great power, and, ultimately, reacquiring regional preeminence.” These goals, especially the first and last, are key to understanding how a war between the superpowers might occur. The United States currently dominates the Pacific, but China has expanded rapidly to defend its increasing interests in the western Pacific. It is there, in the waters off the Chinese mainland, that I believe we’ll see the event that starts a war between the superpowers. It will probably be something ridiculous. Tensions between Washington and Beijing have escalated in recent years as China has asserted itself more and more beyond its borders. Beijing currently claims Taiwan and several islands scattered throughout the west Pacific as its territory, and it’s fielding more ships, planes and even building artificial islands to legitimize its claims. Washington holds treaties with Japan, Taiwan and the Philippines, and the U.S. Navy aggressively patrols the waters in these regions, often coming right up to the perceived border with China. If China ever invades Taiwan or pushes into the wrong island off the coast of Japan, the wronged country may go to war against Beijing. Such a conflict would test the value of a treaty with Washington and may drag it into a larger war. As tensions rise, both sides might also perceive tiny infractions as aggressive behavior. Both Beijing and Washington claim it would never throw the first punch, but we may soon see a day where an act of war is as simple as a U.S. jet crossing into Chinese airspace, or a Beijing drone crashing in Japan. The Chinese leadership in Ghost Fleet is aggressive and arrogant, ready to take what it wants at the edge of a sword. It begins the war for prestige and power. Often, wars begin for sillier reasons, and people later justify their actions as part of a larger scheme that never existed. In 1969, a World Cup qualifying match sparked a four-day war between El Salvador and Honduras. The fighting wasn’t about soccer; the match just ignited existing tensions. In 1914, a Serbian anarchist assassinated Austria’s archduke and set off a tidal wave of events that killed almost 40 million people. Wars often begin this way, when some small event pushes existing tensions to the fore. The United States and China just need another decade of tension and the right spark. It won’t take anything as contrived as a vice admiral’s dreams of a dominant China. Ghost Fleet is written by defense experts with a flair for fiction and a desire to document their sources. Their predictions of how and why the superpowers come to blows may not be plausible, but their vision of how the conflict would play out–in cyberspace and in the Pacific – seems so realistic that it’s frightening. Article - http://blogs.reuters.com/great-debate/2015/07/01/failure-of-new-u-s-weapons-systems-may-be-more-than-science-fiction/

Forget the casting number. When you called your Mack dealer, were they able to cross 8QE44 over to the Wagner number via part number supercession, or their old paper Mack-to-Vendor crossover book?

Yesterday, the Washington Navy Yard campus was placed on lockdown amid reports of gunshots in the same building where 12 people were killed during a shooting rampage in 2013. Gunshots make a distinctive sound. And federal official say a surveillance video showed two people jumping the fence next to the building a couple of minutes before the first report of the gunshots. But 12 hours later, all news of the event has been whitewashed from the headline pages of the online media. (you can google search it) Officials have since issued an "all clear", saying they haven't found any credible evidence of a threat. We are expected to believe that surveillance video showing people jumping the fence next to the building minutes before the first report of the gunshots is not suspicious, much less credible evidence of a threat. Peculiar?.........you be the judge.

Press Release / May 2015 Diamond Specialty Vehicles of Hershey, Pennsylvania, doing business as T-Line Specialty Vehicles, has displayed its new TCS vocational hood configuration and “Driver II” aluminum construction Diamond T cab. Website: http://tlinetrucks.com/ Related reading: http://www.bigmacktrucks.com/index.php?/topic/40010-t-line-successor-to-diamond-t-plans-return-to-market/?hl=t-line http://www.bigmacktrucks.com/index.php?/topic/39977-t-line-announces-summer-launch-for-raider-ii/?hl=t-line http://www.bigmacktrucks.com/index.php?/topic/39126-diamond-specialty-vehicles-announces-all-new-models/?hl=t-line .

Göteborgs-Posten / July 2, 2015 In the election campaign, Prime Minister Stephen Löfven promised an investment in an industry chancellor, who will lead the job of growing Sweden’s industrial base. But it will not be a single chancellor, rather it will be four: Ousted Volvo CEO Olof PerssonLisa Lindstrom, CEO of the digital design company DobermanPia Sandvik, Chairman of the Research Network RISEKarl Gustaf Ramstedt, CEO at embedded system and industrial IT company Prevas The four will support the government's job of developing Sweden into an even stronger industrial country.

STEMCO Acquires Goodyear Air Springs Business Trailer/Body Builders / July 1, 2015 Stemco, an EnPro Industries company, has acquired the manufacturer of Goodyear air springs, as well as Super Cushion and Spring Ride air springs, from ContiTech, a division of Continental Corporation. This business unit was part of the business called Veyance that was recently acquired by Continental. With the acquisition, STEMCO acquires the Super Cushion and Spring Ride lines of truck, trailer and truck cab suspension products, as well as cab seat springs. Also included in the acquisition are the Veyance manufacturing facility in San Luis Potosi, Mexico, the Veyance research and development operations in Fairlawn, Ohio, and all NAFTA related patents and applications. "The Goodyear air springs business carries with it a strong brand presence and premium product performance," said Todd Anderson, STEMCO president. "Customers will be able to count on the same consistent product performance and brand attributes, as the products will continue to be manufactured in the same facility and engineered by the same design team with the same support functions, in addition to gaining the support of the entire STEMCO team." He added, "We are looking forward to the air springs team joining the STEMCO family. Their record of success and growth potential make this an exciting addition to our business. STEMCO's commercial vehicle market focus, superior product technology and outstanding reputation for training and customer support make this acquisition a complement to the STEMCO business strategy." Air spring products are available now through the existing distributor network. For more information on the new STEMCO product lines, visit www.stemcoairsprings.com.

Child dies after running for hours carrying firewood, Grandmother and mother-in-law charged WYFF / March 10, 2015 An Alabama woman charged with capital murder in the death of her granddaughter forced the girl to run for more than three hours carrying sticks and firewood as a punishment for lying, prosecutors said Monday. Joyce Garrard is accused of forcing 9-year-old Savannah Hardin to run until she died as punishment for a lie about eating candy on the school bus. She could be sentenced either to death or life without parole if convicted. According to prosecutors, neighbors said Garrard yelled at the girl as she ran, forcing her to continue "like some kind of drill sergeant." A neighbor, Chad Jacobs, said he saw the girl running and carrying firewood and sticks over a two-hour period as he came and went from his home. "Joyce and Savannah were in the yard, and Joyce was telling Savannah to keep running," said Chad Jacobs. "She was just saying, 'Keep running, I didn't tell you to stop.'" Jacobs said he wasn't concerned at first but eventually saw the girl "on all fours" on the ground and vomiting with Garrard pouring water over her. Paramedics arrived within minutes, he said. When paramedics arrived, they found Savannah on the ground, "freezing cold to the touch," her clothes and shoes soaking wet, Reid said. Garrard never told the medics that the girl had been running; she said only that the girl collapsed in the yard, Reid said. Savannah wasn't supposed to eat candy because she was on medication for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and had a bladder problem, but she had eaten candy on the school bus the day before she died. Garrard was angry that Savannah ate the candy "but she was more upset about the lie," Reid said. Surveillance video from a school bus shown to a jury showed Garrard talking with the bus driver, Raenna Holmes, about Savannah taking candy without paying from another student who was selling it. Garrard told Holmes: "She's going to run until I tell her to stop." The women then talk about a bladder condition the girl had and a procedure she had related to that condition. The driver then asks, "Is she OK?" Garrard replies: "She might be when I get about four more bottles of water in her." The girl's stepmother, Jessica Mae Hardin, is awaiting trial on a murder charge in the girl's death. Authorities said she failed to intervene while the older woman forced the girl to run.

Texas mom murdered daughter, 4, stuffed her in car trunk New York Daily News / June 22, 2014 A Texas mom facing an impending divorce murdered her innocent 4-year-old daughter and stuffed the body in the trunk of a car because she was jealous of the happy little girl, shocked family members say. Stacie Marie Parsons, 25, walked into the Athens, Texas police department just before 9 a.m. Monday and told officers she had murdered her daughter. Police found the badly beaten girl, with severe head and chest trauma, wrapped in a garbage bag in the trunk of the car along the 400 block of Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. Investigators believe the woman drove to a bridge some five miles away and committed the horrendous act before driving the car back home and walking to the police station. Gary Wyatt, her common-law husband of six years, said he’d told the woman he wanted a divorce Sunday night, setting off a ferocious argument. Parsons and little Victoria were gone when he awoke Monday morning but that he assumed they had gone to sign up for prekindergarten. When she returned home, she wouldn’t talk to her 45-year-old husband or his friend, Randy Dyess. Instead, she turned with a dark stare and said, “I wouldn’t be in that car if I were you.” "Oh, God it was awful,” a weeping Wyatt told the TV station. “Foaming out of her mouth, her head was bashed in. My baby's dead, she killed my baby." Cops haven’t released a motive, but a bawling Wyatt said his wife resented Victoria, her own baby. “To be honest with you, I think she's been jealous of that little girl since the day she was born," he told KLTV. And family friend Dyess said the woman was always on edge, even before the recent dustup over the possible divorce. "She said I'd rather kill Victoria and spend the rest of my life in prison, than to put up with you," Dyess told the station. Parsons is held in jail in lieu of $2 million bond. She has no prior criminal history.

2 arrested in twisted, gruesome child abuse case; Corpse, starved teen and sick infant found Associated Press / April 8, 2015 Two people have been arrested in what authorities describe as a twisted, gruesome case of abuse involving a child's corpse hidden in a broken-down car, a starved baby living on water and a sheltered teenager impregnated by her stepfather. Jondrew Lachaux, 39, and Kellie Phillips, 38, turned themselves in after the three children were discovered, North Las Vegas police said. The two face child abuse charges. Lachaux is also charged with concealing evidence after the toddler's badly decomposed body was found in the garage. According to court documents, the man and woman took five of their children on a trip to Oakland, California, eight months ago. The couple left behind two daughters — a teen and a sickly 3-year-old toddler — in their suburban Las Vegas home because the rental vehicle was full. The teen is Phillips' biological child and Lachaux's stepdaughter. Authorities say Lachaux reportedly impregnated the teen, who gave birth at home without any medical care to a now 4-month-old girl. She struggled to care for herself while pregnant and her 3-year-old sister who had medical problems while they were home alone. But the teen said she was too scared to call for help even after the food and medication left by their mother ran out. "The totality of evidence is leading investigators to believe she was almost a prisoner in her home," police Sgt. Chrissie Coon said. "Fugitives can psychologically confine their victims without physically being present." The case first unraveled on April 1. The teen was seen at McCarran International Airport with a very sick baby. The infant was hospitalized in extremely critical condition for severe malnutrition and hypothermia from surviving on watered-down baby formula. In an interview with police, the teenager described abuse at home in detail, saying Lachaux raped her without her mother knowing. For the last five years, the family had lived in North Las Vegas, but the group of children rarely went outside and was homeschooled. The teen told police she has had braces on from five years ago but hasn't seen a dentist since. In late March, she said her stepfather came home to hide her sister's corpse and then kicked her out of the house in fear that her mother would find out about the pregnancy. She survived for a few days homeless in public places, including at the airport and on the Las Vegas Strip. The teen said the 3-year-old sister apparently had trouble breathing and died about a month ago. She called her parents for two weeks before Lachaux called back to learn of the death. Lachaux and the teen hid the badly decomposed body in the back seat of a broken-down Mercedes in the garage. The corpse was leaking fluids but was concealed in a box surrounded by blankets, plastic bags and pizza boxes, according to court records. The coroner's office said it has not yet positively identified the body or the cause of death. The teen is now being held in juvenile detention on a child abuse charge. The other five children -- ages 1, 3, 4, 7, 8 and 9 -- were found with Phillips in good health and have been put in protective custody.

The Next Frontier in Airline Travel - Tag Your Own Bags The Wall Street Journal / July 1, 2015 For decades, fliers have checked their bags the same way: hand them to an airline employee and trust that they will reappear at the destination. Now big changes to that model are coming as airlines look to streamline the airport experience—and pass more work to customers and machines. The airlines latest ideas includes having fliers tag their own bags, print luggage tags at home and track their bags on smartphones. Later this year, some fliers in Europe likely will begin using what could be the future of flying luggage: permanent bag tags that digitally update if flight plans change. Improved technology and loosened security rules are accelerating changes to baggage handling. The changes face hurdles, including opposition from unions, security rules and fliers who prefer a human touch. On a recent weekday at Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport, several fliers struggled to tag their bag and summoned airline employees for help. Still, carriers are plowing ahead. More than a third of global airlines now ask fliers to tag their own bags, compared with 13% in 2009. By 2018, more than three-quarters of carriers intend to offer the service. “I don’t work for the airline. Why should I do their job?” said Mark Sam Rosenthal, a television writer from New York who prefers to check bags with ticket agents. “If something goes wrong or I have a question, the self-tagging machine isn’t going to have an answer,” he said. Charlie Leocha, head of the flier-advocacy group Travelers United, predicted the new technology will shorten airport lines, but also warned it would eventually replace airline workers, frustrating fliers when storms or other disruptions hit. Airline unions generally oppose the new technology for the same reasons. Airlines say such technology isn’t intended to reduce staff, but instead free workers to handle customer problems. From 2004 to 2014, a period in which airlines added many self-service technologies like kiosks, the number of U.S. ticket agents fell about 13.5% to roughly 138,000, according to federal estimates. U.S. airline passengers increased 8.6% to 761 million over that period. The biggest of the coming changes is permanent bag tags, electronic devices that strap on to frequent fliers’ luggage and digitally display their flight information. The tags display bar codes like a traditional tag, allowing them to work with existing infrastructure. Fliers update the tags via Bluetooth from their smartphones, and the airline can also remotely update the tag if its owner gets rerouted. Officials expect similar technology to soon arrive in the U.S. “Home-printed and electronic bag tags are the low-hanging fruit for U.S. airlines,” said Stephanie Taylor, manager of passenger services at Airlines for America, the largest U.S. airline trade group. “We’re expecting multiple carriers to adopt these solutions by the end of the year.” Simpler bag-handling changes are becoming pervasive. It is now common for travelers to tag their own bags in Europe, and it is catching on in places like China, Africa and the Middle East *. * Here’s the airline industry paying off Rupert Murdoch’s WSJ to provide misinformation to Americans. I routinely travel across Europe, the Middle East and Asia on Lufthansa and other airlines, and have yet to observe self-tagging The Transportation Security Administration late last year changed its policy to make it simpler for U.S. airlines to offer self-tagging *. American Airlines Group Inc., United Continental Holdings Inc. and Alaska Air Group Inc. are adding self-tagging kiosks across the country. * The FAA, long accused of being too cozy with the airlines, is often cited as an example of "regulatory capture" - in which the airlines openly dictate to its regulators its governing rules, and arranging for beneficial regulation. During the Bush administration, the FAA actually called the airlines their “customers” and adopted a business model for evaluating its performance. Now, the FAA ironically calls the airlines "stakeholders." In the U.S., airlines still must staff bag-drop stations because security rules require employees to check identifications of passengers checking bags. Airlines for America* said it is lobbying the TSA to allow a biometric identification check, such as facial-recognition software or fingerprint readers, to remove humans from the process. The TSA said it “does not currently envision changes to bag security requirements.” * The top lobbyist for the leading U.S. airline trade association Airlines for America, Shelley Rubino, is since 2014 the girlfriend of Transportation Department chairmen. House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Chairman Bill Shuster (R-PA)...........conflict of interest? Airlines also are moving to improve bag tracking ahead of a June 2018 deadline set by industry groups to install such technology.

US hands foreign companies tax advantage The Financial Times / September 25, 2014 The Obama administration has handed foreign companies an advantage over American rivals because they will not be caught by new rules governing access to offshore cash. The US this week unveiled proposals to discourage controversial mergers known as “inversions”, which American companies have used in part to gain tax-free access to earnings parked outside the US. A US Treasury official, referring to measures that make it harder to access offshore cash, told the Financial Times: “Our actions are specifically targeted to inverted companies.” They will not apply to foreign companies that acquire a US business and its cash pile. Some tax experts questioned why the two groups should be treated differently. “It seems unfair and inappropriate,” said Steve Rosenthal, senior fellow at the Tax Policy Center, a non-partisan think-tank. US companies have used inversions to establish addresses in countries with low tax rates, enabling them to access offshore cash without triggering US taxes that become payable when overseas earnings are repatriated. According to Moody’s, the rating agency, US non-financial companies hold about $950bn in overseas cash and liquid investments. As a result of the measures, a US company’s offshore cash would become cheaper to access if it were acquired by a European rival than if the US company did an inversion. Stephen Shay, a Harvard Law School professor and former Treasury lawyer, said: “It shouldn’t matter whether the new [corporate] structure comes in the form of a new foreign acquirer or an inverted transaction. The fact is there is attempted avoidance of US tax on the offshore earnings either way.” Inverting companies have been slammed by President Barack Obama for abandoning the US and eroding its tax base. On Monday, when Jack Lew, Treasury secretary, unveiled the measures, he praised “genuine” cross-border mergers done for business reasons for “encouraging foreign investment to flow into the United States”. European companies have spent $173bn so far this year on acquisitions of US businesses, according to Dealogic. The deals have been driven more by a desire for exposure to the faster-growing US market than by the attractions of offshore cash. The Treasury’s targeted steps were praised by a trade group for foreign businesses in the US, the Organization for International Investment. “They have tried to thread the needle, which was welcome,” said Nancy McLernon, its chief executive. But Mr Rosenthal, the tax expert, said: “US companies say: “If we invert, why should we be at a competitive disadvantage to a foreign multinational that acquires a US company and is not subject to these inversion rules?’” Even before Monday’s proposals, inversions did not allow US companies instant tax-free access to their accumulated overseas earnings. They first had to be moved out from under the US tax net using one of several complex techniques. The Treasury plans to eliminate three of the techniques, but the two most popular – known as “hopscotch loans” and “decontrolling” – will still be available to new foreign-based owners of US subsidiaries. In previous proposals for broader tax reform, which remain stymied by Congress, the Obama administration signalled a desire to curb tax avoidance on offshore cash by all companies, inverted or not.

Once upon a time, America led the world in innovation and industrial might. But as a result of government casting a blind eye to the fast declining state of American industry, a significant portion of U.S. industry is now under foreign ownership. In order for a major country like the United States to regain its position as a world leader, we must have a solid economy, which inherently requires a solid industrial foundation. Today, we no longer have that. Much has been allowed to go abroad, while the meager remnants remaining is being sold to foreign companies. - Germany's ZF has acquired TRW - Italy's Fiat owns Chrysler, Dodge and Jeep - China's Wanxiang has acquired over 20 U.S. businesses including battery maker A123, Dana’s coupled-products business, Neapco and D&R Technology. - Germany's Daimler acquired Freightliner, Western Star, Detroit Diesel and Thomas Built Buses - Sweden's Volvo acquired White, Autocar, GMC heavy truck and Mack Trucks - Germany’s Knorr-Bremse owns Bendix Commercial Vehicle Systems - Sweden’s Haldex acquired Anchorlok and the Neway suspension control valve business - Germany’s SAF acquired Neway air suspensions, and 5th wheel makers Holland and Simplex - Prestolite Electric, which includes the Leece-Neville brand, was acquired by Zhongshan, China-based Broad Ocean Motor Company and Beijing-based Ophoenix Capital. - Nexteer Automotive aka GM Global Steering Holdings LLC (formerly Delphi Steering and GM’s Saginaw Steering Division) was acquired by Chinese government-owned Pacific Century Motors - Korea's Doosan owns Bobcat - Aircraft and industrial engine maker Teledyne Continental Motors was acquired by Chinese government aircraft maker AVIC - Canada's Bombardier acquired Learjet Corporation - Mexico's KUO Group acquired Borg-Warner and Spicer transmissions - Italy's Fiat thru subsidiary CNH Global owns Case-IH and New Holland - Sweden's Volvo acquired the road construction equipment division of Ingersoll Rand - Japan's Bridgestone owns Firestone - France's Michelin owns Uniroyal and BF Goodrich - China’s Beijing West Industries acquired Delphi’s brake and suspension divisions - Netherlands-based Mittal Steel acquired (asset holder of Bethlehem Steel, LTV, Weirton Steel, Georgetown Steel and US Steel) - Mexico's Metalsa S.A. acquired 10 Dana plants that produce structural components for chassis and body structures in light and commercial vehicles - Germany's Siemens acquired Houston-based Dresser-Rand - China's Shuanghui owns Smithfield Foods - Belgium's InBev owns Anheuser-Busch - South African Breweries (SAB) acquired Miller Brewing - Germany's Merck KGaA acquired St. Louis-based Sigma-Aldrich - Switzerland's Nestle owns Gerber baby foods and Purina - Sweden's Electrolux owns the Frigidaire, Kenmore and Tappan brands - South Korea's LG owns Zenith - Netherlands-based Philips acquired Magnavox, Philco and Sylvania - China's Lenovo acquired IBM's personal computing division - Japan's Seven & I Holdings owns 7-Eleven - The UK's InterContinental Hotels Groups owns the Holiday Inn and Crowne Plaza hotel chains, and Candlewood Suites - China's Wanda Group owns the AMC cinema chain - The Venezuelan government owns Citgo - Mexico's Bimbo Group acquired Sara Lee's bakery business and the following brands: Arnold, Ball Park, Boboli, Brownberry, Cinnabon Bread, EarthGrains, Entenmann’s, Francisco, Freihofer’s, Marinela, Milton’s Bread, Mrs Bairds, Oroweat, Roman Meal, Sara Lee, Stroehmann, Sun-Maid Bread, Thomas’ and Tia Rosa. - The British-Dutch conglomerate Unilever owns Ben & Jerrys, Vaseline, Hellmann’s, Best Foods, Ponds, Good Humor and Breyers - Germany's Henkel owns Dial soap, Loctite, Orbseal and Bergquist - Germany's Bayer acquired Miles Laboratories and Cutter Laboratories (including Cutter insect repellent, Alka-Seltzer, One-A-Day, Flintstones vitamins and Bactine), and the consumer care business of Merck & Co. which included the brands Claritin (allergy), Coppertone (sun care), MiraLAX (gastrointestinals), Afrin (cold) and Dr. Scholl’s. - Bayer CropScience acquired biological company AgraQuest - Thailand’s Thai Union Frozen Products owns Chicken of the Sea and Orion Seafood International - South Korea’s Dongwon owns StarKist - The UK’s Lion Capital owns Bumble Bee Foods - Giant Carlisle (Martin's Food Markets, Ukrops), Stop & Shop and Giant-Landover supermarkets are owned by Dutch retailer Koninklijke Ahold N.V. - Food Lion and Hannaford supermarkets are owned by Belgium-based Delhaize Group - Colombia's Cementos Argos has acquired the cement and ready mix producing assets of Vulcan Materials and LaFarge - UK-based Tarmac PLC acquired the cement and ready mix producing assets of Stamford, Conn.-based Lone Star Industries (for many years the largest U.S. cement maker) - Two-wheeled electric people mover Segway has been acquired by China’s Ninebot The list, sadly, goes on and on. European companies have spent over $173 billion in 2014 on the acquisition of US businesses. Think about that.

Reuters / July 1, 2015 [in a rare sign of economic wisdom] The United States filed a lawsuit on Wednesday to stop Sweden's Electrolux AB, which owns the Frigidaire, Kenmore and Tappan brands, from buying General Electric Co's appliance business, the Justice Department said in a statement. It said the $3.3 billion deal would hurt competition, and consumers, by combining two of the three top makers of stoves, cooktops and ovens. Whirlpool Corp, which bought Maytag in 2006, is the third. Electrolux shares traded in the U.S. (ELUXY.PK) on the OTC Pink market fell 9.3 percent, with more than 40,000 shares exchanged. GE's share price was steady. GE, which also has the Hotpoint brand and sells almost exclusively in the United States, said in a statement that its goal remained to close the deal in 2015. "Electrolux and GE intend to vigorously defend the proposed acquisition," the company said in a statement. In its complaint, the Justice Department said that Whirlpool, GE and Electrolux had 90 percent of the U.S. market for stoves and ovens. Leslie Overton, a deputy assistant attorney general at the Justice Department's Antitrust Division, said the Electrolux deal would lead to higher prices for consumers. "This lawsuit also seeks to prevent a duopoly in the sale of these major cooking appliances to builders and other commercial purchasers," she added. But Electrolux disagreed. Its antitrust attorney Joe Sims argued that LG, Samsung and others were moving into the market to challenge the Big Three. "There is absolutely no barrier of any kind to any other manufacturer participating," he said. Sims said that the company and Justice Department had been in settlement talks. "We are rational and are therefore more than happy to come to a reasonable settlement if the DOJ (Justice Department) is. If not we're just going to have to win in court," said Sims, who said the deal could close by the end of the year. GE’s move to sell off its appliances business is part of a shift the U.S. conglomerate is making to sharpen its focus on manufacturing big-ticket industrial products such as jet engines and power turbines. To that end, GE in April announced it would exit $200 billion worth of finance assets, while it is seeking to acquire the power equipment unit of France’s Alstom. European regulators have expressed concerns that GE’s purchase of Alstom’s power unit would leave just two gas turbine companies in Europe, with GE only competing with Germany’s Siemens. GE has been working on concessions to save the planned 12.4 billion euro ($13.7 billion) purchase, which would be the biggest in the U.S. conglomerate’s history. GE on Tuesday warned that the appliances sale would not close in the second quarter because of an ongoing regulatory review, and expected an after-tax gain of roughly 5 cents to 7 cents per share should the deal close. GE is expected to earn $1.29 per share this year, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S. The case at the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia is United States v AB Electrolux and General Electric Co. It is No. 15-1039.

New York mother arrested after police say she tied her son to a bush KFSN Fresno / July 1, 2015 Police say she had no one to take care of him and did not want to bring him to the house she babysits at, so she tied him to the bush by a leash so he wouldn't run around the condo complex.

Ohio women sentenced to six years for contaminating son's IV bag Reuters / July 1, 2015 An Ohio mother pleaded guilty on Wednesday to child endangerment and was sentenced to six years in prison for injecting feces into her son's intravenous bag at a Cincinnati hospital, prosecutors said. Candida Fluty, 35, a West Virginia resident, was seen on a hospital security video in January injecting something into the IV bag of her son, then age 9, causing him to run a fever. Authorities later found evidence of fecal matter in the solution. Fluty's son was being treated for Hirschsprung, a congenital medical condition that affects the bowels. Fluty was charged in Hamilton County with two counts of felonious assault and two counts of felony child endangerment. She pleaded guilty to one count of child endangerment in an agreement with prosecutors, the Hamilton County Prosecuting Attorney's Office said. Prosecutors say Fluty may suffer from Munchausen by proxy syndrome, in which a caregiver fabricates a medical problem for someone in their care. "We are satisfied with the plea and sentence," Chief Assistant Prosecutor Julie Wilson said. "Our concern was for her child and we hope that he is doing well." Fluty could have been sentenced to up to eight years in prison if convicted on all four counts.

Sister of slain woman charged with helping mom dump her body Associated Press / July 1, 2015 The younger sister of a woman who authorities say was killed by their mother in March has been accused of helping dump the body in a field. Hannah Tyburski, 19, was arrested Tuesday on charges of obstructing justice, tampering with evidence and abuse of a corpse. The body of her sister, 26-year-old Rachele Tyburski, was found March 15 near a recreation complex in Lorain County. Their mother, 46-year-old Janet Tyburski, was arrested May 5 and charged with aggravated murder. Authorities say she suffocated Rachele Tyburski. Janet Tyburski has pleaded not guilty and is being held on $2 million bond. Hannah and Janet Tyburski were charged in a secret indictment filed in Lorain County on June 18. Authorities said Janet Tyburski contacted Hannah Tyburski two days after the killing at a home in Lakewood, a Cleveland suburb, and asked for help disposing of the body. Police and prosecutors haven't said why Janet Tyburski would have killed her daughter. Hannah Tyburski, a college student, is free on $7,000 bond. She has a hearing scheduled for Thursday in Lorain County Common Pleas Court.

Father charged with murder after leaving 2-year-old in car for 16 hours The Washington Post / June 23, 2015 A Baltimore man who left his 2-year-old daughter in a hot car for 16 hours after he had five drinks (and passed out) has been charged with her murder, police said. Baltimore police said they were called at 5:15 p.m. on Monday for a report of an unconscious child inside a vehicle. Paramedics arrived and took the girl — Leasia Carter — to a hospital, where she was later pronounced dead. A preliminary investigation found that the girl had been inside the vehicle unattended for 16 hours, according to police. Police said that the temperature outside reached 89 degrees while she was in the vehicle. She suffered second-degree burns in the car. Her father, Wilbert Carter, 31, is charged with murder and child abuse. He is being held at the city jail. Police said in a charging document that Carter told them he had consumed five alcoholic drinks during the day on Sunday. Around midnight, he said, a friend drove his car to Brendan Avenue. He said he has no memory of what happened after that. His mother and aunt told him they saw him come home at about 7 a.m. When he woke up at about 4 p.m. on Monday, he asked them where his daughter was, he told police. They told him that they had assumed the girl was with Carter’s sister. A cousin then called to tell him that his car was still on Brendan Avenue. He went there, and found his daughter still buckled into her car seat. Police said that Carter has a history of consuming so much alcohol that he passes out.

Death of Maryland boy pushed in swing for three days ruled homicide Reuters / June 30, 2015 The death of a 3-year-old Maryland boy discovered last month in a park swing where his mother had been pushing him for three days has been ruled a homicide, authorities said on Tuesday. The boy died of dehydration and hypothermia, according to a statement from Charles County Sheriff's Office spokeswoman Diane Richardson. Officers found the boy, Ji’Aire Lee, around 7 a.m. on May 22 after witnesses reported seeing a woman pushing a child on a swing for an unusually long time at a park in La Plata, about 35 miles (55 km) south of Washington, Richardson said. When the officers arrived they found the 24-year-old mother, who has not been identified, still pushing the child, and realized immediately that he was dead. The boy and his mother had been at the park since Wednesday morning, Richardson said. Police found them Friday. The boy was alive Wednesday when he was placed in the swing where he stayed until police found him, Richardson said. Police did not give a time of death, but Thursday's temperatures were unseasonably cold, Richardson said. There were no obvious signs of trauma. The mother was taken to a hospital for an evaluation. No charges have been filed pending a review by the Charles County State's Attorney's Office.

Boy chained up with dead chicken around neck tells his story Associated Press / July 1, 2015 Handcuffed and shackled to a block of steel, the young boy would brace himself when he heard footsteps outside his bedroom door. He knew that once the grown-ups entered, the abuse would begin. For years, he was whipped with belts, his face was burned with electrical wires and his fingers were broken with pliers — all to "teach him a lesson." The abusers, who have since pleaded guilty, were his legal guardian — a supervisor with the Department of Social Services in Union County, North Carolina — and her longtime boyfriend, an emergency room nurse. The abuse ended in November 2013 after police discovered the boy in handcuffs, chained to the front porch of the house with a dead chicken hung around his neck. When police entered the roach-infested house "covered with urine and animal feces," they found something else: four other children, ages 7 to 14, who had been adopted by the couple over the years. They were removed and placed in protective custody. All were abused, but authorities say the boy bore the brunt of the couple's rage. "I was scared to death," the boy, now 13, told The Associated Press on Tuesday. "I thought I wouldn't survive." The AP is not naming the boy because of the nature of the abuse. Three months after Wanda Sue Larson and her boyfriend Dorian Harper were sentenced, the boy is telling his story. Larson was released from prison in April, just nine days after pleading guilty to child abuse charges. Now, the boy wants everyone to know she didn't serve enough time. "I want her to be in jail longer," he says. His mother agrees. "It's ridiculous," his mother said. The AP isn't identifying the mother, to avoid indirectly identifying her son. Jeff Gerber is founder of the Justice for All Coalition, which organized protests against the plea deal that led to Larson's release. He said there is widespread outrage over Larson's lenient sentence. Harper, 58, was sentenced to up to 10 ½ years in prison after pleading guilty March 17 to maiming, intentional child abuse inflicting serious injury and assault with a deadly weapon. Two weeks later, Larson, 58, was sentenced to nearly 17 months in jail after pleading guilty to four counts of child abuse. But she was given credit for time served in jail after her arrest and was released April 9. She lives in the same county where the boy now lives. Telephone messages left for District Attorney Trey Robison were not returned Wednesday. Robison has said he agreed to the plea deals mainly to spare the child-victims from having to testify. Messages left for Larson's attorney, Robert Leas, were not returned Wednesday. At her sentencing, Larson expressed remorse for failing to protect the boy and the four others. She blamed most of the abuse on her boyfriend. The boy, however, says Larson not only knew about the abuse, but encouraged it. As he tries to recover, he worries that he might run into her at a neighborhood store, a mall. What would happen then? "That's why I want to tell my story," he said, softly. He now lives with his mother in a Charlotte apartment. Wearing a green Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles T-shirt and blue gym shorts, he sat on a couch in his living room, patiently answering questions. Barely 5 feet tall and slender, with brown hair and brown eyes, he looked younger than 13. Court documents say he was put in foster care a decade ago after problems arose at the home of an aunt where he had been staying while his mother was moving from another state, and he ended up with Larson. When the boy's mother found out he was in foster care, she tried to get him back. But Larson said the boy had developed a bond with her family and he stayed with her. Eventually she became his legal guardian. The mother only got to see her son a few times a year at a neutral setting, and he said nothing about the abuse. Meanwhile, the boy says Larson told him his mother was sick and he couldn't visit her. "She'd say, 'Your mom is in the hospital. She's there because of your behavior. You're killing her,'" he says. Eventually, Larson and Harper pulled the children out of a Union County school, saying they'd school them at their secluded home where they also kept farm animals. The boy says he was handcuffed and chained to a steel anvil in his locked room where he slept on the floor. At times, they'd starve him and he'd have to beg for scraps. Sometime, the other children would sneak food to him and he'd hide the wrappers in a hole in the wall. Many nights, he wasn't allowed to use the bathroom. The boy says he was even shackled when he went outside. The only time they removed the chains was when he cleaned the house, or picked up animal feces. One time, he says Harper cut his left arm and poured salt in the wound. The scar is still visible. It reached a point that every time they entered his room, he'd pray: "I hope I don't get hurt." Then he'd think about his mother, that maybe they'd be reunited. He kept dreaming of escaping, and that kept him going. A few days before the boy was rescued, Harper blamed him for the death of a chicken and made him wear it around his neck — even at night. The police were responding to a call about a loose animal when they stumbled on him, chained up on the front porch. The boy is still recovering. His mother says it will be a long road. Her son goes to therapy twice a week. He's in summer camp and public school. Still, there are times he can't escape. He had a nightmare that Larson came to his house and took him away. He couldn't find his mother. "I woke up and I thought it was real," he said. "It was just a dream, but I couldn't go back to sleep."

No, no. For starters, Mack thought to share the block with them for greater economy of scale. This link will answer many of your questions - http://www.bigmacktrucks.com/index.php?/topic/34624-mack-scania-cooperation/ In its displacement class, today's Scania V-8 is arguably the best truck engine in the world.

U.S. probing whether airlines collude to keep airfares high Reuters / July 1, 2015 The U.S. Department of Justice said on Wednesday it is investigating whether U.S. airlines worked together illegally to keep airfares high by signaling plans to limit flights. The Justice Department wrote to major U.S. air carriers demanding that they detail decisions to limit the number of seats they offer, and what they've said about those plans to investors, securities analysts and the public. Airlines contacted have been asked to provide “available seat miles on a regional and system wide basis” back to January 2010 and a raft of other data. The top four U.S. carriers American, Delta, United and Southwest control some 80 percent of the domestic air travel market. The four confirmed receipt of the regulator's letter and said they are cooperating fully with the investigation. News of the probe sent the Dow Jones U.S. airlines index .DJUSAR down 2 percent. Shares of the U.S. carriers have gyrated in recent weeks as investors questioned whether they were planning to add capacity at a pace faster than overall economic growth, which could put downward pressure on fares. Southwest fueled investor jitters about declining profit margins in May when it unveiled plans to boost capacity by as much as 8 percent this year from 2014, although it later revised the expected increase to 7 percent. But carriers have started taking flights off their fall schedules and postponing aircraft deliveries in response to Wall Street concerns that adding more flights and seats could erode fares and margins. Mergers, new fees imposed on passengers and caution about adding capacity have boosted U.S. airline earnings after a decade of bankruptcies following the September 11, 2001 attacks. In the past year, tumbling oil prices have helped the carriers post billion-dollar profits. The probe focusing on whether the top U.S. carriers are colluding domestically comes as some of the same airlines complain that foreign rivals are competing unfairly on some overseas routes. U.S. carriers have asked the Obama administration to freeze access to U.S. airports by three Gulf airlines for allegedly receiving state subsidies. The Gulf airlines deny that they have received subsidies in violation of trade agreements. The U.S. airlines also have fought plans by low-cost Norwegian Air Shuttle ASA (NWC.OL) to expand its U.S. flights under an Irish subsidiary, with claims that it will undermine wages and working standards. Consumer advocates and some lawmakers praised the Justice department action focusing on domestic fares. "This investigation must be tireless and timely to save consumers from the onslaught of price increases in summer fares," U.S. Senator Richard Blumenthal said in a statement. The airlines and their defenders say ticket prices have fallen in 2015 while capacity this summer has reached a post-recession high. "Our members compete vigorously every day, and the traveling public has been the beneficiary," trade group Airlines for America said in a statement Wednesday. Separately, Connecticut's attorney general sent letters to the four carriers last week asking whether they have coordinated prices, citing recent statements at an industry conference held last month in Miami.

Scania utilized an individual cylinder head design (long popular in Europe), while Mack used a two-cylinder head design (four heads total).

US probing possible airline collusion to keep fares high Associated Press / July 1, 2015 The U.S. government is investigating possible collusion between major airlines to limit available seats, which keeps airfares high, according to a document obtained by The Associated Press. The civil antitrust investigation by the Justice Department appears to focus on whether airlines illegally signaled to each other how quickly they would add new flights, routes and extra seats. A letter received Tuesday by major U.S. carriers demands copies of all communications the airlines had with each other, Wall Street analysts and major shareholders about their plans for passenger-carrying capacity. Justice Department spokeswoman Emily Pierce confirmed Wednesday that the department was investigating potential "unlawful coordination" among some airlines. She declined to comment further, including about which airlines are being investigated. Thanks to a series of mergers starting in 2008, American Airlines, Delta Air Lines, Southwest Airlines and United now control more than 80 percent of the seats in the domestic travel market. During that period, they have eliminated unprofitable flights, filled a higher percentage of seats on planes and made a very public effort to slow growth in order to command higher airfares. It worked. The average domestic airfare rose 13 percent from 2009 to 2014, when adjusted for inflation, according to the Bureau of Transportation Statistics. And that doesn't include the billions of dollars airlines collect from new fees: $25 each way to check a bag and $200 to change a domestic reservation. During the past 12 months, the airlines took in $3.6 billion in bag fees and another $3 billion in reservation change fees. All of that has led to record profits for the industry. In the past two years, U.S. airlines earned a combined $19.7 billion. This year could lead to even higher profits thanks to a massive drop in the price airlines pay for jet fuel, their single highest expense. In April, U.S. airlines paid $1.94 a gallon, down 34 percent from the year before.