Though Toyota had not made a formal recall of the Prius as of Thursday morning, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has opened an investigation into braking problems with that specific model. This news comes on the heels of recent announcements that many of the car maker’s models have had problems with a sticking accelerator pedal. Roughly 2.3 million vehicles in eight of Toyota’s models are part of the gas pedal recall, according to the New York Daily News.
Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood advised Toyota owners to take their cars directly to the dealership to have the problem fixed, but that announcement caused Toyota dealerships to worry they’d be flooded with worried car owners, and most say they won’t have the parts to repair the problem until next week.
With all of these problems coming to light, Toyota’s reputation for reliability and high standards has most definitely been compromised. Now the company must wait to see how consumers will react to the brand in the future, while competitors try to capitalize on the company’s misfortunes.
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In the meantime, if you have a Toyota, this CNN video on how to stop a car with a stuck gas pedal might be of use. Stay safe out there.
Last night during President Barack Obama’s State of the Union speech, he outlined his vision for the future and touched on how Congress should share responsibility for governing the country now that the Democrats have lost their super majority. On NPR, Republicans called the speech a long “political tirade” and accused Obama of still “whining” about the problems he inherited from the Bush administration.
He also addressed the struggles faced by the middle class in this faltering economy and creating or saving jobs for those workers. Most Democrats agreed with the points of the speech, but as Slate points out, Obama seemed to side with the public and reinforce the idea that Congress was the problem. This might have irked a few in his own party.
Now it’s your turn to critique the president’s speech. What did you think?
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Just for fun, after voting, check out this word cloud graphic from The Guardian that compares the words used in Obama’s speech to those used by former presidents like JFK and Lincoln.
The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reported Tuesday that Little Rock Mayor Mark Stodola has shown an interest in the 2nd Congressional District seat that will soon be vacated by Rep. Vic Snyder. (He’s announced he won’t seek another term in order to spend more time with his family.)
The Democrat-Gazette reported that, “Stodola ran for Congress in 1996 and lost to Snyder in the Democratic primary by less than 2,000 votes.” The mayor told a reporter, “I think I’ve got one of the best jobs in the state already,” and added that “[As mayor] I can help people more quickly than Congress ever can.”
If Stodola runs, he’ll have to file in March and is still considering the idea. In the meantime, what do you think? Should Stodola run for Snyder’s seat?
The NBC late night battle between Jay Leno and Conan O’Brien is heating up. O’Brien made his stand earlier this week in an open letter to the People of Earth saying that he believes the Tonight Show simply would not be the Tonight Show if it aired at 12:05 (eastern time) and followed Jay Leno’s show at 10:30. He said, “After only seven months, with my Tonight Show in its infancy, NBC has decided to react to their terrible difficulties in prime-time by making a change in their long-established late night schedule.”
Now, Jay Leno may also be threatening to leave his NBC home and counters O’Brien’s argument by saying his show was only given four months to establish itself in a primetime slot.
Now the two comedians seem to be switching their anger from NBC and taking jabs at each other. Other late night hosts like Jimmy Kimmel and Jimmy Fallon are also commenting on and having fun with the NBC drama. Popeater reports that David Letterman wants Conan O’Brien as a guest on his show.
So, by now you’ve probably already picked a side. It’s just time to vote in our poll and claim it. Are you ready?
In mid-December, local attorney Jon Wesley Hall Jr. submitted to attorney general Dustin McDaniel a proposed constitutional amendment that would legalize medical marijuana in the state.Certification of the proposed name and title by McDaniel would have allowed petitioners to gather the 77,468 signatures to put the measure on the November 2010 ballot.
A growing business
However, on Jan. 4, McDaniel rejected the proposal and called the popular name submission “misleading or partisan” according to a report by the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. McDaniel argued that the proposal does not define medical marijuana in a way that would be understandable to voters. He was quoted in the Democrat-Gazette report as saying, “In my opinion, this term does not have a ‘general currency among the public’ such that it can be assumed most voters will readily understand what it entails.’
Attorney Hall contends that the definition of “medical marijuana” is a detail that will have to be worked out by the state legislature and accused McDaniel of “nitpicking” his proposal.
Outside of Arkansas, 13 states have legalized the use of medical marijuana even though the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the federal government has the right to enforce federal drug laws in a state’s that have legalized the drug for medicinal purposes. However, the U.S. attorney general recently stated that the feds would not interfere with state’s that allow the use of medical marijuana.
Having said all that and knowing that the issue of medical marijuana has been complicated in states like California, how do you feel about legalizing the drug in Arkansas? What if it becomes a cash crop? Do you think the state stands to profit from spending less on locking up people for pot possession and taxing the sales of the drug? Vote in the poll and leave your thoughts in the comments.
News outlets are reporting that the airport in Amsterdam where staff failed to find the explosives that were taken aboard Detroit-bound Northwest Airlines flight 253 on Christmas Day has now installed the new full-body scanners that produce a detailed 3D image of passengers.
ap photo. An employee at a Netherlands airport demonstrates the full body scanner and the images it shows. The highlighted area shows a possible security threat.
The incident has prompted passengers to wonder how the scanners actually work and if they could amount to a violation of privacy. CNN has reported that the scanners use radio waves that would allow staff to “detect substances such as explosives and plastic weapons.” The process takes 30 seconds at most but may “take longer for airport staff to review the images produced and — given the level of detail, more passengers may find themselves subjected to follow-up security checks as a result,” according to CNN.
Some passengers say the “naked” images produced by the scanners are humiliating and worry that images could be saved by the computer. The Transportation Security Agency says the equipment would not produce a compromising image of a passenger.
So far, these scanners are used at Manchester Airport in England, Tokyo’s Narita Airport in Japan, Amsterdam and Israel’s Ben Guiron airport. In the U.S. 40 scanners have been installed in 19 airports, according to CNN.
A few weeks ago, a friend mentioned a yard sign she saw that said “The Grinch is a Democrat.” And that got me wondering how other people feel about the Grinch’s political affiliation — before his change of heart, of course.
Someone who lives in a cave, despises Christmas and can barely keep his dog’s loyalty … what do you think? Let’s have a good-natured Christmas poll to find out. No one’s feelings should be hurt over this one. It’s just for fun.
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And Merry Christmas to everyone!
While you’re deciding, check out this alternative version of “You’re a Mean One, Mr. Grinch” by Versamerge.
A school in Illinois banned chocolate milk from its lunchroom cafeteria for a year but has recently reinstated the beverage after students protested. NPR reported last week that the National Dairy Council is working to keep the chocolate milk in school cafeterias because they say milk consumption declines when only plain white milk is available for kids. They say the added sugar is an acceptable trade-off for the nutrients that milk provides.
Ann Cooper, the director of nutrition services for public schools in Boulder, Colo., has successfully banned chocolate milk in her district. She told NPR that the sweet milk is “soda in drag.”
What do you think? Should children be allowed their daily dose of chocolate milk? Is the dairy industry simply trying to protect its interests? Is the milk “soda in drag”? Leave your votes and comments.
A subcommittee of the House Energy and Commerce Committee passed a bill Wednesday that, if it became law, would ban the NCAA from promoting the Bowl Championship Series National Championship Game as a true national championship game since the winner is not decided as the result of a playoff.
Republican Rep. Joe Barton of Texas was the sponsor of the bill.
The BCS currently chooses two teams to play in a championship game based on two polls and six computer rankings. This year’s BCS national title game features No. 1 Alabama and No. 2 Texas on Jan. 7. Eight other schools are selected to play in the Orange, Sugar, Fiesta and Rose bowls, but six conference champions — the ACC, Big East, Big 12, Big Ten, Pac-10 and SEC champions — receive automatic bids to those bowl games while the remaining conferences do not receive automatic bids.
BCS officials do not appear to be worried about the bill becoming law, and BCS executive director Bill Hancock stated: “With everything going on in the country, I can’t believe that Congress is wasting time and spending taxpayers’ money on football. We feel strongly that managing of college sports is best left to the people in higher education.”
Former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee’s decision in 2000 to commute the sentence of Maurice Clemmons has haunted him in recent days. The former Arkansas prisoner was sentenced in 1989 to 108 years in prison. A year after his parole in 2000, Clemmons was again sent to prison for a robbery conviction but was released in 2004.
On Sunday, the 37-year-old Clemmons walked into a Seattle coffeeshop and killed four police officers. After moving to Washington state, Clemmons racked up more felony charges but somehow eluded prison.
Now, Huckabee is taking the brunt of the blame for commuting Clemmons’ sentence with detractors saying that he’d still be in prison today if it weren’t for Huckabee’s decision. The former governor says if he had known what Clemmons was capable of, he would never have chosen to decrease his prison sentence.
However, some say the damage is done and this news will ruin Huckabee’s chances of a successful presidential bid in 2012. What do you think?
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