General Motors In Major Steering Recall
March 2, 2010
US (ChattahBox) – General Motors (GM) has announced that they are to become the latest car manufacturer to take part in a major recall, with 1.3 million compact vehicles suspected of power steering problems.
House Panel Finds Toyota ‘Deliberately Withheld’ Evidence in Lawsuits
February 27, 2010
(ChattahBox)—-Under the increasing glare of public scrutiny, Toyota Motor Corp is becoming exposed as a company with a notorious culture of secrecy, which contributed to its current safety related recalls, resulting in dozens of fatalities. And internal company documents subpoenaed by a congressional panel, show that the beleaguered automaker also kept manufacturing defects hidden from plaintiffs suing the company for damages. Rep. Edolphus Towns (D-NY), chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee said that Toyota “deliberately withheld” evidence in lawsuits related to vehicle safety, exhibiting a “systematic disregard for the law.” Read more
Deal brings Tweets to Yahoo search results and portals
February 24, 2010
Yahoo is adding real-time Twitter content to both search results and Yahoo profiles, joining the fray of integrating social networking with search results. Yahoo users will also be able to view their Twitter feeds and post to the service directly from the Yahoo accounts, similar to the plans Yahoo announced to let Facebook users update their profiles from their Yahoo accounts.
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Wall Street Flush With 17% Bonus Increase, While Rest of the Country Suffers
February 24, 2010
(ChattahBox)—Wall Street is back on its feet after nearly tanking two-years ago. With an infusion of taxpayer-funded federal bailouts to prevent their risky investments from taking down the whole economy, the big banks and financial firms are back to paying out huge bonuses, which contributed to the near collapse of the economy. Besides the recipients of the estimated $20.3 billion in bonuses, the City of New York is also happy to receive the tax revenue from the big pay days. State comptroller, Thomas P. DiNapoli, noted that the 2009 bonuses jumped 17 percent from 2008. But even that increase is low, because it doesn’t account for the non-cash company stock portion of bonuses, which tips the overall actual increase to 30 percent. Read more
Toyota Bragged it Saved $100M in Floor Mat Recall, Now 34 Dead
February 22, 2010
(ChattahBox)—Internal Toyota documents obtained by the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, reveal that the automaker boasted about saving more than $100 million, when it convinced federal safety regulators that only a limited recall of floor mats was required to address the lethal accelerator problems. After successfully limiting the recall of Toyota vehicles with sticky gas pedal problems, Yoshimi Inaba, chairman and CEO of Toyota Motors Sales U.S.A., traveled to Washington last August, where he made a presentation entitled “Wins for Toyota” that included the $100 million savings. But their savings at the expense of human lives did not last for long. The floor mat recall did not fix the sticky gas pedal problem and while Toyota officials congratulated themselves on a “win,” hundreds of drivers experienced accidents, which included 34 fatalities. Read more
New Recall Ahead for Toyota Corollas?
February 17, 2010
(ChattahBox)— Toyota’s troubles are not over. The beleaguered Japanese automaker is now considering another recall. This time it’s for the company’s best seller Corolla, which has some problems in the power steering. The company just issued massive safety related recalls for dangerous accelerator problems and faulty brake systems in its Prius model and other hybrids. Read more
Hip Hop Brothers ‘Birdman’ and ‘Slim’ Williams to Become Oil Tycoons
February 14, 2010
(ChattahBox)—With all of the bling amassed by Cash Money Record founders, Ronald “Slim” Williams and Bryan “Birdman” Williams, the two hip hop moguls are now investing some cash money into the oil business. The Williams brothers founded an oil exploration company named Bronald Oil & Gas LLC, which is focused on “exploration and development properties in Osage County, Oklahoma, as well as in Texas, Louisiana and Florida in the United States and in Central America.” Although, the company does not yet have any staff or investors, the fans of the Cash Money owners, point out that Bryan “Birdman” Williams must be serious about the new oil venture, because he now sports a tattoo of an oil well on his shaved head. Read more
PhRMA Head Billy Tauzin Quits as Health Reform Stumbles
February 12, 2010
(ChattahBox)—-Billy Tauzin, president of the pharmaceutical industry’s major trade group, known as PhRMA is resigning from his post, according to several media reports. Tauzin, one of the highest paid lobbyists in Washington and a former Congressman from Louisiana, apparently became embroiled in internal disputes with other PhRMA officials, after the organization struck a controversial deal with the White House to help propel the passage of health care reform. With the election of Republican Scott Brown in the Senate to fill the late Ted Kennedy’s seat, depriving the Democratic caucus of its 60 member filibuster-proof majority, healthcare reform is now in limbo. Read more
Google’s plan to build high-speed broadband a case of leading by example
February 10, 2010
(ChattahBox) – Google announced on its blog Wednesday, that is constructing an experimental fiber network that the company says will “deliver Internet speeds more than 100 times faster than what most Americans have access to today. Google said it has no intention to build a nationwide network to rival those offered by giants such as Comcast Corp., AT&T and Verizon Communications Inc., but only build and test a few fiber-optic networks that reach homes, aiming to serve 50,000 to 500,000 people. Google said it would select the test locations this year and its service would be offered at “a competitive price,” with connection speeds of 1 gigabit per second. Many high-speed home Internet connections operate at less than 10 megabits per second. Read more
Toyota Announces Recall of Over 400,000 Prius Hybrids and Return to Genchi Genbutsu
February 9, 2010
(ChattahBox)—-Toyota president Akio Toyoda announced a global recall of over 400,000 Prius vehicles and other hybrids for faulty brake systems, during a lengthy press conference on Tuesday, in which Toyoda apologized for the recent quality control problems, but declared that his company was not “omnipotent.” This latest recall comes on the heels of the recall of nearly eight million vehicles for lethal accelerator problems. Despite Toyota’s insistence that the sticky gas pedal problem was not due to electronics, the Prius hybrid recall is indeed attributed to the vehicles’ computer, pointing to a software glitch. Read more