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Ford going ahead with moving small car production to Mexico: CEO Reuters / November 15, 2016 Ford is moving ahead with plans to shift production of small cars to Mexico from Michigan, while "two very important products" will be built in its U.S. factories, CEO Mark Fields told Reuters on Tuesday. President-elect Donald Trump has criticized Ford for the decision to shift production of Focus small cars to Mexico in 2018, and said he would consider levying tariffs on Mexican-made Fords. "We’re going forward with our plan to move production of the Ford Focus to Mexico, and importantly that’s to make room for two very important products (Ranger and Everest) we’ll be putting back into Michigan plants," said Fields. "There will be no job impact whatsoever with this move." Ford Chairman Bill Ford Jr. said last month he met with Trump. Ford has countered Trump's criticism, saying the company makes more cars and trucks in the United States than any other automaker. Fields said with U.S. gasoline prices so low, "it's very difficult for us to be able to make money on a vehicle produced in the U.S." in the small car segment. If Ford decided to build the Focus small car line in the United States, and had to raise the price, "we wouldn't sell the vehicle." Also at the Los Angeles Auto Show, Ford launched the U.S. market EcoSport, a small SUV that Ford will import from its plant in Chennai, India. (The EcoSport is also produced in Rayong, Thailand, Chongqing, China and Camcari, Brazil) "We already have the plants and investment in other parts of the world. It frees us up to make further investments in the U.S.," Fields said, pointing to the money invested to launch a new SuperDuty pickup at a plant in Kentucky. Related reading - http://www.bigmacktrucks.com/topic/45093-trump/?page=7

BMT...........Simply the best knowledge base for truck information the world over.

My friend, look at this thread, which I started. Read my very first post. http://www.bigmacktrucks.com/topic/40814-people-should-and-do-trust-me-hillary-clinton/?page=1 Rather than have a big mess, a bunch of cluttered "noise", I thought to organize Clinton and Trump news on separate focused threads (David started the original "Trump" thread). When I post the news, I avoid the "opinions" of the news organizations, and the generally worthless hearsay, and post what was actually said, and try to support it with video. If you see the man/woman say it, that is factual. About the cheating, the masses will never be told what these two people have actually done in their lives. It's ensured that we can't connect the dots. And we aren't witnesses. We only know what we're told, and we're often told from a script that has ulterior motive when it comes to government. Their goal is to manipulate and control you. When you become upset over Hillary or what not, that indicates they have succeeded. Take a step back, a deep breath, and stay in control of your thoughts. Don't allow them to control it. Trump said that he was going to drain the swamp in Washington, because politicians couldn't make America great again. And yet, he ran as a republican, forming a bond with the political establishment rather than running as an independent, and 99 percent of his camp are career politicians.

Trump’s stance on immigration puts him closer to Obama The Financial Times / November 14, 2016 As Donald Trump reaffirms his goal of expelling at least 2 million unauthorized [illegal] immigrants with criminal records, Hispanic groups and other critics argue that his stance is closer to President Barack Obama’s than usually thought. Advocacy groups who criticize the president-elect’s plans as unjust and unworkable have also attacked Mr Obama as the “deporter-in-chief” for expelling more than 2.7 million unauthorized immigrants during his first seven years in office. The current president’s policy on deportations ran in parallel to his effort to give others the right to remain legally in the US. “Obama is the person who has deported more people than any president before him,” said Clarissa Martinez de Castro of the National Council of La Raza, a Hispanic advocacy group that dubbed the White House’s current occupant the deportation president in 2014. “If you listen to the debate it sounds like Obama has been at the border giving people green cards. It’s ludicrous, these alternative realities. The notion that Obama hasn’t been enforcing the law is an easy talking point to stir your base, unless you are suffering the consequences of his actions.” Mr Trump vowed on Sunday to deport 2-3 million people including “gang members [and] drug dealers” in the US illegally but appeared to step back from his campaign pledge to expel all of the US’s 11 million unauthorized immigrants. His promise to do in short order what took the Obama administration two terms has raised questions about the feasibility of his promises, given legal and practical impediments to throwing even hardened criminals out of the country quickly. Muzaffar Chishti of the Migration Policy Institute, a research group, said Mr Trump’s ability to fulfil his pledge would be hindered by the constitution’s requirement to give deportees legal due process and by the limitations of the US’s enforcement apparatus. “Our immigration court system is quite clogged. You would be adding another group to the clogged system,” he said, noting that there is already a backlog of 500,000 deportation cases. “It would require a huge expansion of law enforcement personnel. But even after that it would require a huge expansion in the number of immigration judges and prosecutors. Putting such a system in place quickly would be a tall order,” Mr Chishti said. In an interview with CBS on Sunday, Mr Trump — who campaigned on building a border wall and ordering mass deportations — identified immigration reform as one of his top three priorities alongside healthcare and changes to the tax system. “What we are going to do is get the people that are criminal and have criminal records, gang members, drug dealers, we have a lot of these people, probably 2 million, it could be even 3 million, we are getting them out of our country or we are going to incarcerate,” he said. Independent analysts were baffled by the numbers the president-elect gave. The Migration Policy Institute estimates that 820,000 of the US’s 11 million unauthorized immigrants have a criminal conviction and that 300,000 are for felonies, the most serious crimes. In 2012 the Department of Homeland Security estimated that there were 1.9 million “removable” non-Americans with criminal convictions, but more than half of them were legally present with green cards or other forms of visa. “The vast majority of the American public would agree that somebody who poses a national security threat or a threat to community wellbeing should not be released on to the street,” said Ms Martinez de Castro. But she said Mr Trump had failed to provide specifics about who he would categorize as a criminal. “I’m assuming he’s casting a very broad dragnet,” she said. To the dismay of immigrant advocates, a substantial number of the Obama administration’s deportations have involved people who committed minor infractions such as traffic violations or had no criminal record at all. The Obama administration stepped up deportations in part to show Republicans that the border was secure as it tried to persuade Congress to pass a comprehensive package of immigration reforms. But that legislative effort failed in 2013. A subsequent attempt to use Mr Obama’s executive powers to remove the deportation threat for some 4m unauthorized immigrants with no criminal records was stopped by the Supreme Court in June. Mr Trump appeared to soften his stance on mass deportation towards the end of his campaign and said on Sunday that many illegal immigrants were “terrific people”.

Reuters / November 14, 2016 Despite his opposition to the 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq, President-elect Donald Trump is considering two advocates of that war for top national security posts in his administration. Former top State Department official John Bolton is under consideration as Trump's secretary of state. Ex-CIA Director James Woolsey is under consideration for U.S. director of national intelligence. Both men championed the Iraq invasion. Top Bolton aide Frederick Fleitz, who earlier worked at the CIA unit that validated much of the flawed intelligence on Iraq's weapons of mass destruction programs, is involved in transition planning. A return to power for the three officials would represent a change of fortune for them and other "neoconservatives" who provided the intellectual backing for the invasion of Iraq. The group saw its clout wane in Bush's second term, as U.S. troops in Iraq found themselves mired in a sectarian civil war, and has watched from the sidelines during Democratic President Barack Obama's eight years in power. Trump has said he opposed the invasion of Iraq, in which more than 4,000 U.S. troops and hundreds of thousands of Iraqis died, and which led to the creation of al Qaeda in Iraq, the forerunner to ISIS.

SEC Chairman White to Leave Agency, Opening Door to Conservative Shift The Wall Street Journal / November 14, 2016 Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Chairman Mary Jo White (age 69 in December) plans to step down in January, opening the door to a new Republican-appointed leader who could move to loosen rules on Wall Street and curb the aggressive enforcement approach Ms. White prosecuted. The change in command portends a significant shift at the SEC, which has for six years focused on tightening rules required by the 2010 Dodd-Frank Act, a regulatory overhaul championed by Democrats. A Republican SEC chairman, appointed by President-elect Donald Trump, also could pull back on a host of rules that Ms. White conceived, including curbs on mutual funds’ use of derivatives, and stricter controls on algorithmic traders and off-exchange venues known as dark pools. Ms. White’s departure also creates uncertainty in the short run because the SEC would have to operate with just two of the five commissioner seats filled after she leaves. Gridlock could ensue because one commissioner would have an effective veto on any regulatory decision or enforcement action. During Ms. White’s tenure, which began in April 2013, the SEC overhauled the regulation of money-market mutual funds, credit-rating firms, stock exchanges, and electronic trading venues. She frequently navigated political infighting at the SEC to complete Dodd-Frank requirements, and such friction could continue under a Republican chairman. The SEC is normally governed by five commissioners, including three from the president’s party and two from the other. President Barack Obama nominated two candidates to fill the existing vacancies more than a year ago, but the gridlocked Senate hasn’t confirmed them. Republican Commissioner Michael Piwowar is likely to lead the agency as acting chairman after Ms. White exits, although Mr. Trump could nominate someone else as Ms. White’s permanent successor. The SEC also pursued record numbers of enforcement cases during Ms. White’s term, including claims against private-equity firms such as Blackstone Group LP and Apollo Global Management. Her handpicked priorities included the policing of financial-reporting fraud and punishing even the smallest violations on the theory that it would deter a culture of misconduct. Mr. Trump hasn’t yet signaled his choices to fill SEC vacancies. But his aides have tapped Paul Atkins, a conservative former SEC commissioner, to handle issues related to the transition for the SEC and other financial regulatory agencies. The change in leadership at the SEC is just one of many ways financial regulation is expected to change course sharply—through personnel and policy—during Mr. Trump’s presidency. His transition team on Nov. 10 issued a statement saying it was crafting a plan to “dismantle the Dodd-Frank Act.”

Giuliani: Defeating ISIS Is an Early Focus for Trump The Wall Street Journal / November 14, 2016 Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani said Monday that President-elect Donald Trump would likely focus much of his initial foreign-policy strategy on destroying ISIS, setting aside more vexing problems in the Middle East and elsewhere. Mr. Giuliani is one of the leading candidates to become Mr. Trump’s first secretary of state. On Monday, Mr. Giuliani suggested several times that he would be interested in the post. “ISIS, short-term I believe, is the greatest danger and not because ISIS is in Iraq and in Syria, but because ISIS did something al Qaeda never did—ISIS was able to spread itself around the world,” he said. In the Middle East, Mr. Giuliani painted a picture of a collection of countries that are at odds with each other and on the brink of spilling into a broader regional war. He said Iran had exerted its control over Iraq and Syria. On Iraq, Mr. Trump has said the U.S.-led invasion in 2003 was one of the greatest foreign policy mistakes in U.S. history, but Mr. Giuliani had a different take. “I think the way we exited Iraq was the worst decision made in American history,” he said, saying it allowed ISIS to flourish in the vacuum that was created.

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Is the U.S. heavy truck sales slump over? Calculated Risk / November 14, 2016 The following graph shows heavy truck sales since 1967 using data from the BEA. The dashed line is the October 2016 seasonally adjusted annual sales rate (SAAR). Heavy truck sales really collapsed during the recession, falling to a low of 181 thousand in April and May 2009, on a seasonally adjusted annual rate basis (SAAR). Then sales increased more than 2 1/2 times, and hit 479 thousand SAAR in June 2015. Heavy truck sales have since declined again - probably mostly due to the weakness in the oil sector - and were at 374 thousand SAAR in October. Even with the recent oil related decline, heavy truck sales are at about the average (and median) of the last 20 years. Sales have been at about the same level for four consecutive months. It is possible the oil related slump in heavy truck sales is over. .

This year’s Cold Comfort saw the launch of the Epoke ‘Beast’, with four machines on order for Lincolnshire County Council already. Transport Network / June 10, 2016 The Epoke Sirius Ast 10m3 pre-wet spreader is fitted with the Epoke’s Epomaster X1 control system and mounted to a 32-tonne Mercedes Arocs 4143 8x6 chassis. The machine also comes with Eposat automated spreading and EpoNav route guidance and is fitted with a Scarab - Riko SPV320 fully hydraulic ‘V’ plough with Kupper plough edges and controlled by the Scarab Smart Can plough control system. The Beast features a stainless steel unloaded auger system meaning the salt in the hopper is metered by the Epoke dosing mechanism into the auger rather than being pushed through a variable aperture via a conveyor belt. Chair of the National Winter Service Research Group (NWSRG), and principal maintenance engineer at Lincolnshire County Council, David Davies, told Transport Network said the new augur system should ensure accurate spreading while reducing the amount of salt spillage, which can corrode the vehicle, extending the operating life and reducing overall whole life costs. His authority takes all its vehicles on a 10-year lease agreement with full maintenance. With the Beasts' order, the authority hopes to save £4,000 per annum through the new lease and Mr Davies said it should also make savings on some of the routes due to extra salt capacity of the 32-tonne vehicles. Mr Davies said: ‘The issue for us is we wanted to replace four 6x6 machines, which were Volvo 26 tonne vehicles. We needed big pushers that can handle the Lincolnshire Wolds environment. The problem is with the Euro 6 standards 6x6 Euro 6 vehicles can’t carry the same weight we require. ‘The Beast is an 8x6 Mercedes 32-tonne chassis and is only about one foot longer. So it is a similar size but we can upgrade to a 10m3 body for the salt storage.’ He added Lincolnshire’s order is equipped with multi-angle blades, giving the option of V blades or straight blade, which can be very useful tackling the extra snow in the Wolds. .

Transport Engineer / November 14, 2016 Essential Fleet Services has taken delivery of four 8x6 Mercedes-Benz Arocs gritters – the UK’s first – for its contract with Lincolnshire County Council. The vehicles are Arocs 4143 AKs with ClassicSpace M-Cabs, 428bhp six-cylinder engines and PowerShift 12-speed automated transmissions. Their Danish-built Epoke gritting bodies were fitted and supplied, along with demountable Riko V snowploughs complete with Küper blades, by UK agent Scarab, of Tonbridge, Kent. Key to the order, won by dealer Intercounty Truck & Van, was the availability of a factory-fitted front drive axle, as well as the proven reliability of previous Mercedes-Benz vehicles and dealer back-up. The council’s fleet of 47 gritters, leased through Essential Fleet Services, are mainly 6x4 Mercedes Axors. The four new 8x6 Arocs have replaced 6x6 vehicles by another manufacturer – two are based at its Willingham Hall depot near Market Rasen, and one each at Horncastle and Manby. The 32-tonne Mercedes-Benz chassis offers a gritter body with carrying capacity of 10 cubic metres. The vehicle can travel further and stay out for longer than its 26-tonne predecessor before it has to reload. As with previous gritters, the council’s new trucks are equipped with sprayers that pre-wet the dry salt with a brine and water solution just before it reaches the spinner, so it clings better to the surface and is not blown away. This allows the salt to melt snow and ice more quickly. David Davies, the council’s principal maintenance engineer and fleet manager, says: “Three-drive axles are essential for operation in the Lincolnshire Wolds, which are very susceptible to bad weather coming off the North Sea. The fact that our new Arocs were available direct from the factory as a complete, winterised package makes a big difference – Mercedes-Benz have met all our expectations.” The Arocs are the subject of 10-year agreements with Lincoln-based Essential Fleet Services, which supports 42 local authorities from its nationwide service centres. It owns a fleet of more than 1,000 trucks, some 300 of which are Mercedes-Benz rigids, among them a number of Econic refuse vehicles. Essential’s national fleet engineer John Dimbleby agrees that the availability ex-factory of the 8x6 Arocs chassis was crucial: “The online build is very reassuring in terms of anticipated reliability and warranty cover, because once you start dealing with ‘add ons’ you’re just introducing another element that can go wrong,” he says. “Gritting chassis don’t cover high mileages but although they’re washed down after every run, they do spend time standing in wet, salty atmospheres that can play havoc, for example, with their electronics. Mercedes-Benz trucks are without doubt the most reliable on our fleet,” he adds. .

Engineering News / November 14, 2016 South Africa’s new truck market is under pressure, with a 10% drop in sales likely in 2016, says UD Trucks Southern Africa (UDTSA) marketing director Rory Schulz. This means the new truck market should end the year around the 25,000 mark. The decline in the market reflects the bad fortunes of the South African economy, with almost zero economic growth expected in 2016. Schulz says new medium and extra-heavy truck sales are “down dramatically”. Appetite in the mining and construction sectors especially has dipped sharply. The heavy truck market is, however, “very stable”. Sales in this bread-and-butter segment reflect the need for food and other basic goods to still reach the shelf. But it’s not all bad news, says Schulz. The economic growth experienced in 2016 is as low as witnessed in 2009, when the truck market could only notch up around 19,000 units for the year. “We have already surpassed 19,000 units this year, so the truck market has done reasonably well,” says Schulz. He is hopeful that the market has bottomed out, with growth of between 1.5% and 3% possible next year, largely in the second half of the year. “This will bring us closer to 30,000 units again.” South Africa’s new truck market stood at 22,593 units for the first ten months of 2016. Another yearly decline in the market will follow on a 3.2% drop seen in 2015 over 2014. Volvo Group Reshuffles A reshuffle in the boardroom at truckmaker Volvo seems to have handed Japanese-based UD Trucks [formerly Nissan Diesel] back some of the autonomy lost when it was acquired by the Swedish group. Volvo – which includes Volvo, Renault and UD Trucks – last year named Martin Lundstedt as its new chief executive. “We are now a brand-focused organisation,” says UD Trucks Southern Africa acting VP Gert Swanepoel. Pressed on what this means, Volvo Group Trucks Asia and Joint Ventures sales president Jacques Michel says Lundstedt had determined that the Volvo truck group will no longer be a multi-brand organization, but that it would rather focus on its individual brands. “So, the organization is shifting. It is a big change compared with what we have heard before. It is good change for the UD brand.” UD Trucks is now focused only on UD Trucks, “managing its own future”. South Africa is UD Trucks’ biggest market outside Japan. Swanepoel is hopeful UDTSA is now in a position “to bring its business back to the old levels” seen before the acquisition. Schulz says UDTSA will continue truck assembly at its Rosslyn plant, near Pretoria. Kenya “is a priority for us in the next few years”, also in terms of assembly, urged on by the East African country’s duty structure, he adds. Looking ahead, he says UDTSA will focus on the heavy and extra-heavy truck segments in the short to medium term. “In the long term we want to focus on all segments.” UDTSA has lost substantial ground in the medium truck segment in recent years. Overall UD sales in South Africa have dropped from 2,992 units in 2012, to 2,559 units in 2015. As part of its short-term plans, UD Trucks will launch three new additions to its Quester heavy truck range. This includes a rigid 4 x 2, a rigid 6 x 2 and a 6 x 4 dedicated compactor chassis with Allison transmission fitted as standard. These new models will all be available from December. “Our strategy to promote Quester in the rigid segments, such as construction and waste, as well as the municipal business, has certainly proved successful since the product range was launched in South Africa in 2015,” says Swanepoel. “We are expanding this strategy to offer our customers what they need and adapting to market needs.” The Quester range was recently launched in Ethiopia, and will be introduced in several markets within the southern and eastern Africa region within the next year. UDTSA is responsible for 18 markets outside South Africa. .

Europe's top truckmakers could face 100 billion euro cartel damages claim Reuters / November 14, 2016 Litigation management company Bentham Europe plans to fund a potential 100 billion euro ($110 billion) damages claim against Europe's biggest truck makers after they admitted to operating a 14-year price cartel. Bentham said on Monday it intends to back a group action on behalf of truck buyers who fell victim to the cartel involving Volvo, Daimler, Paccar's DAF, CNH Industrial's Iveco and Volkswagen's MAN. Four truck makers were fined a record 2.9 billion euros by EU regulators in July for price fixing and passing on to customers the costs of complying with stricter emission rules. Volkswagen's MAN escaped a fine after it blew the whistle, but all five conceded that they had operated a cartel between 1997 and 2011 apart from VW stablemate Scania, which remains under investigation. Bentham Europe, owned by funds managed by U.S. investment firm Elliott Management, estimates that 10 million trucks were sold across the EU in the period and that each one was overpriced by about 10,500 euros. Bentham, which is also funding shareholder lawsuits against British supermarket chain Tesco and VW, said that it is too soon to announce which law firm would bring its proposed claim or in which European jurisdiction it would be filed. Third-party litigation funding has become increasingly mainstream in the UK over the past seven years. Funders offer to pay for lawsuits in exchange for a share of any payout and returns can be sizeable, but it is a high-risk business and payments for successful claims can take years to materialize. Critics say that litigation funding operators can bully smaller companies by threatening class actions. But Bentham Europe, whose competitors include the likes of Burford Capital and United States-based Gerchen Keller Capital, says it only takes on sizeable claims where it scents proper misconduct. "Bentham is determined to bring the opportunity to recover the overcharges to the attention of as many truck purchasers as it can and enable these victims of the cartel collectively to seek redress," said Bentham Europe's Chief Investment Officer Jeremy Marshall. "Claims against the truck cartel are expected to be one of the largest-ever compensation claims resulting from a cartel ruling."

Dagens Industri / November 14, 2016 Five of Europe's largest truck manufacturers, including Volvo, are threatened in a lawsuit by its customers through a class action. It has previously been disclosed to the companies for 14 years colluded in a price cartel, something Volvo's CEO Martin Lundstedt acknowledged for DI in July this year. Litigation management company Bentham Europe has published truck buyers' plans to file a 100 billion euro ($110 billion) damages claim, corresponding to approximately SEK 1 billion (Swedish Krona). Last summer, the European Commission fined four of the manufacturers, Volvo, Daimler, Paccar and CNH Industrial [Iveco], of 2.9 billion euros. Germany’s MAN, controlled by VW Group, avoided EU fines for helping to expose the cartel. The cartel operated from 1997 to 2011. Bentham Europe estimates that 10 million trucks were sold across the EU in the period and that each one was overpriced by about 10,500 euros. Scania’s claims* that it did not participate in the cartel are still being investigated by the European Commission. * http://www.bigmacktrucks.com/topic/46111-truckmakers-get-record-324-billion-eu-fine-for-cartel/#comment-339708 .

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UAW reaches deals with Navistar, Clark County engineer’s office Springfield News-Sun / November 14, 2016 The United Auto Workers Local 402 has ratified a deal for more than 100 workers at Springfield’s Navistar facility, and reached an agreement with employees in the Clark County Engineer’s Office. The two most recent agreements would mean all four of the UAW’s bargaining units are currently under contract, said Jason Barlow, president of the UAW Local 402. The units include Navistar’s Springfield production facility, Navistar’s Truck Specialty Center Bargaining Unit, the Clark County Engineer’s office and Akzo Nobel Paint in Springfield. The UAW Local 402 represents more than 1,100 Navistar workers at its Springfield plant. Hourly workers in the county engineer’s office were scheduled to vote on ratify a proposed three-year contract Monday evening, and no further details were immediately available. That deal, which covers about 25 workers, included changes in overtime pay, clothing allowances and other benefits, as well as raises each year of the deal, Barlow said. Members of Navistar’s Truck Specialty Center Bargaining Unit also recently ratified a four-year contract with Navistar, covering workers at the company’s Springfield facility, Barlow said. The unit represents 131 UAW mechanics who perform truck modifications and pre-delivery inspection service on two shifts. “This year was kind of a perfect storm,” Barlow said of the recent contracts. The union and company reached a deal in October just as the previous contract was set to expire. The new agreement includes wage increases each year of the contract, a new training program for workers, offers a $2,000 signing bonus and strengthens the 401K retirement program for workers, Barlow said. The contract also includes some changes in work rules sought by the company, he said. “In all reality, this was not a concessionary agreement,” Barlow said. Overall, Navistar employs more than 1,500 workers at its Springfield plant, and thousands of retirees also live in the area. The company recently struck a new deal with Volkswagen in which the German firm pledged to buy a roughly 17 percent stake in Navistar and invest as much as $256 million in the manufacturer. Employment has been steadily growing locally after the truckmaker previously announced two separate deals to build GM vehicles in Springfield. The company is having a non-production week this week, Barlow said, in part due to light demand in the heavy truck market. Navistar’s competitors have laid workers off, he said, while Navistar has instead decided to implement down time for workers. “We’re one of the only heavy truck groups in the U.S. that doesn’t have people on long-term layoff,” Barlow said. The union leader is optimistic work at the facility will increase and he said the company is preparing to begin production as part of the joint agreement with GM in January or early February. “That will bring some additional job security to Springfield,” Barlow said. .

Fleet Owner / November 14, 2016 December 1 is fast approaching. If you’re a fleet owner and that day does not resonate with you, you could be in trouble. On December 1, 2016 major changes to the overtime rule will be going into effect. The U.S. Department of Labor is changing the overtime exemption regulations and that change has the potential to impact 4.2 million employees who are currently classified as exempt. And I am betting some of them work for you. By way of review, an exempt employee is one that is not eligible to receive overtime pay for hours worked over 40. Conversely, non-exempt employees have to be paid time and a half for any hours they work over 40 in a week. The big change is in the dollar threshold of the wage for an exempt employee. Prior to December 1 it is $23,600. After that date it jumps to $47,476. In other words full-time salaried employees who earned $455 a week were not eligible for overtime protection under the Fair Labor Standards Act. Next month that weekly amount is $913. The mostly likely place where fleets will see this play out is with their administrative and professional staff and people like dispatchers, clerks, etc. If you have not started to take steps to address this change, you already are behind the curve. It is going to become even more critical to accurately track hours worked by employee. You may need to put a new process in place to keep a very close eye on hours worked if you want to control overtime expenses and at the same time, ensure that your business does not suffer. You have several options for dealing with this change: Cap hours worked per week at 40 Pay the additional overtime for your employees who have been impacted by the change Raise salaries so they are higher than the threshold Move employees from salaried to hourly There is no one right solution. Each fleet will have to do some calculations to figure out which option makes the most sense in its operation. One thing you can’t do is ignore the change because that could land you in big trouble. And if you think this is going away, think again. The plan is to update the salary threshold every three years. More information about the ruling is available at https://www.dol.gov/WHD/overtime/final2016/

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Trump team seeks top-secret security clearances for Trump's children CBS / November 14, 2016 President-elect Donald Trump is potentially seeking top secret security clearances for his children. The Trump team has asked the White House to explore the possibility of getting his children the top secret security clearances. Logistically, the children would need to be designated by the current White House as national security advisers to their father to receive top secret clearances. However, once Mr. Trump becomes president, he would be able to put in the request himself. His children would need to fill out the security questionnaire (SF-86) and go through the requisite background checks. While nepotism rules prevent the president-elect from hiring his kids to work in the White House, they do not need to be government officials to receive top secret security clearances. The issue raises another layer of questions about the unique role his children are playing and conflicts of interest with their running his network of businesses. Mr. Trump’s children Ivanka, Eric and Donald Jr., as well as son-in-law Jared Kushner, were named to the president-elect’s transition team late last week. Though they were an integral part of his campaign team, Mr. Trump’s children have all stated that they will not hold formal roles in the government. “No,” Ivanka told CBS News’ Lesley Stahl when asked during a “60 Minutes” interview if she would join the administration. “I’m going to be a daughter. But I’ve-- I’ve said throughout the campaign that I am very passionate about certain issues. And that I want to fight for them.” .

Speaking on Trump, President Obama said: “Regardless of what experience or assumptions he brought to the office, this office has a way of waking you up. Reality has a way of asserting itself." ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- President Obama, alluding to why Hillary Clinton lost the election. "I believe that we have better ideas, but I also believe that good ideas don't matter if people don't hear them. And one of the issues that Democrats have to be clear on is that given population distribution across the country, we have to compete everywhere, we have to show up everywhere. We have to work at a grassroots level, something that's been a running thread through my career." "I won Iowa not because the demographics dictated that I would win Iowa, it was because I spent 87 days going to every small town, and fair, and fish fry, and VFW hall. And there were some counties where I might have lost, but maybe I lost by 20 points instead of 50 points. There are some counties that maybe I won that people didn't expect — because people had a chance to see you and listen to you and get a sense of who you stood for and who you were fighting for." Listen in at 2:00