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Reuters / August 7, 2016 The German state of Lower Saxony, Volkswagen's second-largest shareholder, has no plans to sue the automaker for damages caused by its emissions-test cheating scandal, its prime minister, Stephan Weil, told reporters. Earlier this week, the state of Bavaria said it would sue VW, the first regional government in VW's home country to take legal action against the company. The states of Hesse and Baden Wuerttemberg sad they were considering joining Bavaria. VW's home state of Lower Saxony, which has a veto power on the automaker's supervisory board and holds a fifth of VW's voting rights, currently sees no legal basis to claim damages, Weil told Welt am Sonntag. "As a result there are no plans for a lawsuit," he said. Shares in VW plunged in the wake of the revelation of the cheating by U.S. regulators last September, hitting the state coffers and pension funds of German states. Bavaria's state pension fund for civil servants lost as much as 700,000 euros ($780,000).

Reuters / August 7, 2016 U.S. authorities have found three unapproved software programmes in 3.0 litre diesel engines made by Volkswagen's Audi unit, German weekly Bild am Sonntag reported. The software allowed the turbocharged direct injection (TDI) engines used in Audi's Q7, Porsche's Cayenne and VW's Touareg models to shut down emissions control systems after about 22 minutes. Official methods to measure emissions usually last about 20 minutes. Volkswagen has admitted it cheated on U.S. diesel emissions tests for years and said in June it would spend as much as $15.3 billion buying back vehicles from consumers and providing funding that could benefit makers of cleaner technologies. That settlement however would not address about 85,000 larger 3.0 litre Audi, Porsche and VW vehicles that emitted less pollution than 2.0 liter vehicles but were also fitted with illegal emissions-control equipment. Audi and Volkswagen admitted to U.S. authorities the presence of illegal emissions-control equipment in the 3.0 litre vehicles last year. Audi managers are scheduled to appear at a hearing in front of U.S. EPA on August 10.

Marco Rubio: women with Zika should not be allowed abortions The Guardian / August 7, 2016 Florida senator Marco Rubio has said women infected with the Zika virus should not be allowed to have abortions, even if their babies have microcephaly, the severe developmental disorder than can result from infection with the disease. “If I’m going to err, I’m going to err on the side of life,” Rubio said. Rubio, who has championed Zika funding bills in the Senate, also blamed Democrats for the failure to pass such federal aid. According to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) figures, Florida is the state second-worst affected by Zika, after New York, but is the only state to have infections caused by local mosquitoes. Most Zika cases in the US have been found in people who travelled to affected countries Rubio ran unsuccessfully for the Republican presidential nomination and only recently decided to run for re-election rather than give up public life. During the presidential campaign, he said he was opposed to abortion in all instances, including in cases of rape or incest. “I understand a lot of people disagree with my view – but I believe that all human life is worthy of protection of our laws,” he said. “And when you present it in the context of Zika or any prenatal condition, it’s a difficult question and a hard one. But if I’m going to err, I’m going to err on the side of life.” CDC Director Tom Frieden has estimated that the lifetime cost of caring for a child born with microcephaly could reach $10 million. Florida Governor Rick Scott was asked about criticism he has received over a 40% cut to the state’s mosquito control budget in 2011. “What we’ve done is allocate the dollars better,” he said. “We reduced some funding originally but we dramatically increased the funding over the last five, six years I’ve been in office. We have a very good mosquito board. I’ve allocated $26.2 million of state funding.” As of Friday [despite the ramifications of Zika curtailing healthy normal reproduction in the United States], Florida officials had released only $1.9 million of those funds.

The National Interest / August 6, 2016 It is now plainly evident, incontrovertibly so, that the executive and legislative branches of the U.S. government consider what was once known as “federal law” to now be merely “federal suggestions.” Recent events confirm this to be true. On August 1, the United States military launched airstrikes in Sirte, Libya against ISIS. According to Pentagon press secretary Peter Cook, the action was ordered by the president and came “at the request of Libya's Government of National Accord.” When asked what legal justification the President based the strikes on, Cook claimed it was the “2001 Authorization for the Use of Military Force [AUMF] similar to our previous airstrikes in Libya.” Yet that authorization, also known as Public Law 107-40, explicitly limits the president to use force only against “those nations, organizations, or persons he determines planned, authorized, committed, or aided the terrorist attacks that occurred on September 11, 2001.” Recognizing that ISIS didn’t exist in any form in 2001, U.S. Army Capt. Nathan Smith recently filed a lawsuit against the president for violating this law. Perhaps he should also have named the Senate and House of Representatives as accomplices. Congress routinely surrenders its constitutional obligations to the White House and blithely ignores its own laws. The Constitution, of course, ascribes to Congress the sole authority to declare wars. But more to the point, the 1973 War Powers Resolution restrains the administration’s ability to independently wage war. The law is explicit and irrefutable in its provisions. It requires that the “President in every possible instance shall consult with Congress before introducing United States Armed Forces into hostilities.” Not “some” instances and not just for major combat operations. It specified “in every possible instance,” which includes sending U.S. military personnel to bomb targets in a foreign country. In his lawsuit, Smith factually notes that the president “did not get Congress's approval for his war against ISIS.” Administration lawyers predictably claimed the suit should be thrown out. “The President has determined that he has the authority to take military action against ISIL,” the motion to dismiss claimed. And in any case, the brief continued, the president’s action actually did have Congressional approval, claiming that “Congress has ratified that determination by appropriating billions of dollars in support of the military operation.” Apparently they did not read the entire War Powers Resolution, because it expressly forbids such rationalization. “Authority to introduce United States Armed Forces into hostilities . . . shall not be inferred” from any legislative action “including any provision contained in any appropriation Act, unless such provision specifically authorizes the introduction of United States Armed Forces into hostilities.” The 2001 AUMF does not authorize the President to engage the Islamic State anywhere and the 1973 Resolution specifically states the appropriation of funds does not constitute approval for the use of force. The net result is that the president ignores the law, and Congress refuses to hold him accountable to it. The lethargy of inaction has effectively amended the Constitution so that Congressional approval is no longer required for war and peace decisions. It now resides exclusively in the hands of a single individual: the president. What does this portend for the future? The Founders wisely designed a system of government which called for a separation of powers for a reason. Congress is a powerful and critical check on the executive, which has steadily consolidated more and more power in recent history. This should alarm all who cherish the Constitution. Regardless of who occupies the White House, are the American people prepared to confer the power over war and peace to any one person, freeing them from any restraint or accountability to act as they personally see fit? Our first president certainly didn’t think so. In his farewell address in 1796, George Washington warned against the tendency to subtly expand power in the presidency. He cautioned: The spirit of encroachment tends to consolidate the powers of all the departments in one, and thus to create, whatever the form of government, a real despotism… If, in the opinion of the people, the distribution or modification of the constitutional powers be in any particular wrong, let it be corrected by an amendment in the way which the Constitution designates. But let there be no change by usurpation; for though this, in one instance, may be the instrument of good, it is the customary weapon by which free governments are destroyed. For the security of our nation and the preservation of our democratic government, we must demand that Congress fulfill its obligations and either approve or disapprove the use of force in the name of the United States. If the case for military force is strong, let the administration plainly put forth its justification. But the very least Congress could do for the American public is conduct vigorous and open debate. For the past several decades, U.S. administrations have been unwilling to seek congressional approval for the use of force. The House and the Senate have been unwilling to challenge the president. In 2013, however, popular opinion clearly constrained the White House from going to war with Syria. Voters must again flex their democratic muscle. Whether it be by voting only for those candidates who credibly promise to fulfill their constitutional obligations or again communicating its displeasure to Washington, the people have apparently become the last line of defense providing checks and balances on the government. It’s time our elected officials stop placing burdens on the backs of our citizens and started doing the job for which they were elected. Daniel L. Davis is a widely published analyst on national security and foreign policy. He retired as a Lt. Col. after twenty-one years in the U.S. Army, including four combat deployments, and is a Foreign Policy Fellow for Defense Priorities and a member of the Center for Defense Information's Military Advisory Board.

CNN / August 7, 2016 Australia is being "swamped by Asians", mosques need to have security cameras, halal-certified food is funding terrorism and "Communist China" shouldn't own Australia's electricity. These are the words of the woman who is now one of Australia's most powerful politicians, newly-elected senator Pauline Hanson. Hanson was confirmed elected to the Australian Senate last week, along with three other members of her One Nation party, according to the Australian Electoral Commission. The surprise result makes hers the fourth largest party in the Senate, meaning the government will need her support to pass all legislation, unless they turn to the left-wing Labor and Greens parties. With 78 overall in the Australian Senate, and 39 required to pass or block legislation, Hanson's four One Nation senators can join with the 35 Opposition and Green party members to stop any legislation. Among the policies of Pauline Hanson's One Nation party are surveillance cameras in mosques, banning the burqa, stopping Muslim immigration to Australia and holding a national inquiry into Islam. . . .

For a time, I owned the very last highway coach manufactured by Kenworth, the XW-1. It was built in October, 1948 which was coincidentally the same month and year that North Coast Transportation was sold to Greyhound and became North Coast Greyhound, then wrapped into Northwest Greyhound which consisted of several small regional lines that the hound was buying up. The XW-1 was a demo that had some features not found on the 25 previous W-1 coaches that Kenworth turned out. KW was unsuccessful in getting GHL interested in purchasing more W-1's although they did operate the XW-1 (NWGHL unit no. Y1001) for several years on the old North Coast routes, primarily up and down Hwy. 99 between Vancouver BC and Portland. The W-1's were only sold to North Coast and Intermountain Transportation of Anaconda, MT. They were powered by Hall Scott 190's which were 779 cubic inch 240 hp "pancake" gas engines, with either a 4 or 5 speed Spicer. The XW-1 featured torsion bar suspension and 37 reclining seats with underfloor and trunk baggage bays. The big Hall Scott, although an excellent long life engine only produced around 3-4 mpg and just could not compete with the General Motors Diesel 6-71 which was taking over the industry by that time. With no further orders, Kenworth dropped out of the highway coach market. The lucrative school bus division was transferred to Pacific Car and Foundry (the Kenworth Pacific) and a few years later sold off to Gillig. The excellent picture that you posted is of a deck and a half, or "decker" as North Coast referred to them. During the '30's Kenworth quite often relied on out of house body builders to furnish the body that went on the KW chassis. The body on the bus pictured was built by either Heiser or TriCoach and the bus had a Hall Scott 180. Most of the NCL coaches, including the Kenworth W-1's had the distinctive round NCL light on the upper front. Kenworth produced buses from 1922 to 1948 (not counting the above mentioned school bus production). http://www.busconversions.com/bbs/index.php?topic=22124.0

The Italian border town of Ventimiglia where hundreds of unwanted (and unvetted) Sudanese, Eritrean and Ethiopian economic migrants have been trying to cross into France from Italy. . . Uninvited, unwanted and out of control.

Immigration into the United States reached its peak between 1880 and 1920. Our policies on immigration, our thought process, can not today be the same as before. That was then..........this is now. Our situation today is 100 percent unlike the United States of that time some 100 years ago. Our house is full. Our life support functions are already working far over their designed capacity. Speaking of "these" alleged refugees, who in reality are economic migrants alike the ones that have Europe in chaos, their Islamic Law (Sharia) -based religion, literally, clashes with western culture and values.

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German attackers directed by ISIS contacts in Saudi Arabia The Financial Times / August 7, 2016 The two refugees who launched terror attacks in Germany last month were in contact with suspected members of the militant group ISIS, including one with a Saudi Arabia phone number. Records of internet communication now in the hands of German investigators show both men, the Afghan teenager Riaz Khan Ahmadzai, and Mohammed Daleel, a 27-year-old Syrian, were advised and directed by ISIS, which provided tips on ensuring the maximum number of casualties. Ahmadzai was shot dead by police after going on the rampage with an axe and a knife near the Bavarian town of Würzburg on July 18, wounding five people, while Daleel died after blowing himself up outside a wine bar in Ansbach, also in Bavaria, six days later, injuring 15 people. Germany is still reeling from the attacks, the first committed by Muslim refugees who were part of the big wave of migrants that has entered the country over the past few years. They have become a problem for Angela Merkel, Germany's long-serving chancellor, whose popularity has taken a big knock in the wake of the attacks. A poll published by ARD-Deutschlandtrend on Thursday showed her approval rating dropped 12 percentage points to 47 per cent this month. Merkel insists she will not deviate from her open-door refugee policy, despite repeated calls for a rethink from the CSU, sister party to her CDU. The ARD poll showed that about two-thirds of Germans are unsatisfied with the policy. German media — including news magazine Der Spiegel and the Sueddeutsche Zeitung — said Ahmadzai had been in contact with an ISIS member shortly before he launched his attack aboard a train near Würzburg. He had suggested the teenager drive a car into a crowd, much like Mohamed Lahouaiej Bouhlel, the 31-year-old Tunisian who had killed 85 people in Nice four days earlier. But the teenager said he could not drive. His contact allegedly replied: "You should learn. The damage would be a lot greater". Instead, Ahmadzai said he would board a train and attack the first passengers he saw. The Sueddeutsche said Daleel sent a picture of the site of the open air concert in Ansbach that he planned to attack to his Isis contact, who reportedly lives in Saudi Arabia, saying: "This area will be full of people." The contact replied: "Kill them all." Sueddeutsche quoted from an analysis of the two attacks by the Bundeskriminalamt, Germany's Federal Criminal Office, which said they showed jihadi social networks were "not only capable of motivating volunteers through the use of general propaganda, but also of actually advising and instructing them". The paper said Ahmadzai was in touch with his ISIS contact just before he launched his axe-and-knife attack, saying he was waiting for the train. The contact promised he would send a video the teenager had filmed of himself brandishing a knife and pledging to kill "infidels" to the "centre", and that Isis would claim responsibility for the attack. Ahmadzai had filmed footage a few days earlier in his foster home in the small Bavarian town of Ochsenfurt. Meanwhile, Spiegel reported that investigators believe Daleel's death may have been an accident. He reportedly intended to leave his rucksack, packed with explosives, in a crowd of people at the music festival and detonate it remotely. Shortly before the bomb exploded, his handler had told him to film the blast and its aftermath and send the footage to Isis. But according to Spiegel the bomb exploded prematurely, killing Daleel and injuring 15 people. The magazine said Daleel clearly intended to carry out further attacks, since investigators found more bomb-making material in his flat. Also, in the video message claiming responsibility for Ansbach he appeared with his face covered.

Reuters / August 7, 2016 A machete-wielding radical Islamist man yelling “Allahu Akbar!” (God is Great) injured two female police officers before being shot outside the main police station in the southern Belgian city of Charleroi on Saturday. One of the female officers suffered significant "wounds to the face". The attacker, who was shot by a third officer, subsequently died of his wounds. The attacks were claimed by the Islamic State jihadist group. Prime Minister Charles Michel condemned the attack, while Interior Minister Jan Jambon called it cowardly. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Web comments: All this will continue until European and U.S. policies and methods change. The radicals, IS, ISIS, OR WHOEVER, are not more organized or dedicated than World War Two Nazi led Wermacht soldiers or those of the Imperial Japanese military. Muslim radicals are not better equipped, not more willing to die, and not more ruthless. Allied policy to defeat the Axis powers was to kill so many of their combatants and supporters that their war fighting ability simply ceased to exist. That policy did not wait for the enemy to DO anything but simply to identify with and support Axis goals. It is war....again. --------------------- A barbarian, reared in a culture from another Century, perhaps 16th Century, is unable to integrate into 21st Century culture. He is wielding a sword injuring 2 unfortunate female police officers. Some will say this is no clash of cultures. They are entitled to their opinion. But for me, this is a primitive, from a primitive religion teaching that unbelievers are pigs to be slaughtered. So he sets about trying to slaughter them ! The Turks raged against the Germans in the 16th Century. Islam is still trying to rule the world by the sword. --------------------- The Western Europeans have forsaken their culture, heritage and way of life by refusing to secure their borders. They will never again know the carefree security they once enjoyed in no small part due to the sacrifice of American lives and treasure. Their haughty and foolish leaders were dismissive of the hard lessons their ancestors learned at Tours, Lepanto, Malta, the Reconquesta, Constantinople, Vienna and countless other bloody encounters. Islamic culture is simply not compatible with the values, practices and institutions of the West. The very definition pf peace is different. They should also come to understand that it is not likely that Americans will again make major sacrifices to ensure for them what they themselves are not willing to defend. There are quite enough American military cemeteries in Europe. --------------------- I think Aesop said it best all those centuries ago: "A farmer picked up a viper that was half-dead from the cold. When the farmer had warmed the viper, the viper uncoiled and grabbed hold of the man's hand and with a fatal bite, he killed the man who had wanted to save him. As he was dying, the man spoke some words that are well worth remembering: 'Well, I got what I deserve for having shown kindness to a scoundrel!" --------------------- Many people around the world have grievances with this country [the U.S.], therefore, they have grievances with the American people, we the people. When we do need immigration, we should be looking for immigrants that do not have a grievance. Importing immigrants with grievances is only destroying our country. This is common sense. If one has a grievance with this country, stay where you are at. Being an American means…being an American, means assimilating and respecting our institutions including the legal system. If one wants a special legal system of another country, then stay put. This failed experiment of trying to settle world grievances through immigration is a losing proposition. --------------------- If people weren't being killed and hurt it would be hilarious. the authorities are dumbfounded. if only they could figure what ties all of these attacks together. if we only had some clue as to what it is about all of these people that makes them attack seemingly random people on the street without provocation. it is almost as if they are being directed to do it by some creed or organized belief system... but that would be criminal. any belief system that espoused such barbarism and violence surely would be considered a hate group and banned from society. at the highest levels of government and law enforcement the best and brightest are scratching their heads while furiously pacing back and forth desperately trying to make the connection. what could it be? what could possibly be driving these people to these outrageous acts of violence? we may never know. shrugs shoulders. sighs. --------------------- That's why a new PewCenter study of the migrants streaming into Europe is so important — because it transports us beyond the daily drumbeat of sensational headlines to gaze upon the alarming demographic reality confronting the continent, and to extrapolate its likely political end point. The study is filled with illuminating data — on the national origin of the migrants (the number of asylum seekers coming from Syria, Afghanistan, and Iraq more than quadrupled between 2013 and 2015); on the leading destinations of asylum seekers (Germany ranks first); on public attitudes toward the EU's asylum policies (overwhelmingly negative). But the most ominous numbers can be found in a chart titled, "Young men make up 42 percent of all of Europe's asylum seekers in 2015." That's right: 42 percent of first-time asylum seekers in 2015 were men aged 18 to 34. And the percentage of asylum seekers who were women in that age cohort? Eleven percent. That imbalance — much larger in some countries — points to a future in which considerable numbers of young men will find it extremely difficult to find spouses. And that's a serious problem. As a leading expert on the topic put it a few months ago in an important articlefor Politico: Societies with extremely skewed sex ratios are more unstable even without jihadi ideologues in their midst. Numerous empirical studies have shown that sex ratios correlate significantly with violence and property crime — the higher the sex ratio, the worse the crime rate. "Even without jihadi ideologues in their midst." When such ideologues are around, offering those unmarried, sexually frustrated, economically and culturally alienated young men the prospect of lashing out in vengeance at the world around them in acts of spectacular violence that supposedly contribute to a noble cause — well, let's just say it's unlikely to end well. .

Both Ford and International had a important place in their portfolios for a solid low-cab-forward (LCF), and still do ! I was rather shocked when they launched the Ford LCF and International CF/CityStar with that cramped Mazda "Titan" cabin. First you had that small, cramped cab, then you had the noisy VT275 4.5-liter Navistar V-6 diesel, and finally you had a dealer body that didn't know how to sell such an important new addition to their line-up. Why couldn't Ford have put their heart into it and fund a cutting edge new LCF cab........with American characteristics ? Ford sold the LCF from 2006 to 2009*. The inline 5-cylinder Ford 3.2L Duratorq TDCi was available from 2006 rated at 200hp and 350 lb-ft, and Ford should have used it (Today in the 2017 US market Transit, the 3.2L is still rated at 350 lb-ft ). Ford has also built it's 3.0L "Lion" V-6 diesel rated at 237, 251 and 271hp, and 330, 370 and 440 lb-ft. The F-150 will (finally) be offered with a version of that. * The International CF/CityStar was launched earlier, sold from 2004 thru 2009.

The St. Louis "UFO" allegedly was a drone. That one solved, you can't help but think of the Area 51 and other alleged "UFO" sighting when you read this: In the early 2000s, Iranian F-14 crews reported seeing increasingly sophisticated and bizarre drones. The CIA’s intelligence drones displayed astonishing hypersonic space-capable flight characteristics, including an ability to fly outside the atmosphere, attain a maximum cruise speed of Mach 10 and a minimum speed of zero, with the ability to hover over the target. And, the drones used powerful [electronic countermeasures] that could jam enemy radars using very high levels of magnetic energy. In November 2004, one F-14 crew intercepted a suspected CIA drone. As the aviators tried to lock onto the drone with their Tomcat’s AWG-9 radar, they “saw that the radar scope was disrupted. The drone lit its green afterburner and escaped. http://www.bigmacktrucks.com/topic/40915-the-iran-deal-whos-kidding-who/?page=2 Ask any Army Air Corps veteran about the so-called "Foo Fighters" they witnessed over Europe. They're not UFO fanatics, rather, just veterans recounting what they really saw. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foo_fighter) Your country, most likely, as two sets of weapons, the conventional ones which you see (for the most part), for the conventional actions of today........and the ones you don't see, possibly to fight off unfriendly "visitors". It's illogical to assume for one moment that we're alone. It is logical to assume, from our experience here, that the galaxy would have as many unfriendlies and it does friendlys. Why keep our highest tech and alien encounters a secret? Because it would all be too much for the masses to digest (you imagine the panic), and of course you never reveal your ace card.

Twin girls die after being left in hot car; drunk father charged with manslaughter Associated Press / August 5, 2016 A father was charged with manslaughter Friday in the deaths of his 15-month-old twin girls, who were left in a hot car in their west Georgia town. Witnesses heard screams and saw Asa North running from the parking lot in front of his home, carrying the toddlers to an inflatable kiddie pool out back. He and his neighbors tried to revive them with water and ice packs, but they were too far gone. Outside temperatures were in the 90s shortly before police were called at about 6:30 p.m. Thursday. North, 24, is charged with two counts of involuntary manslaughter and two counts of reckless conduct. "I think possibly alcohol was a factor in some of his decisions that day, and maybe played a factor in this," said Carrollton police Capt. Chris Dobbs, who identified the girls as Ariel North and Alaynah North. A man with North had been drinking heavily, and "we believe the father had been drinking that day also," Dobbs said. Police tested North's blood-alcohol level and were awaiting results from a lab, he said. The girl's mother was at Grady Memorial Hospital in Atlanta at the time, visiting her sister, who had been in a serious car crash Wednesday, Dobbs said. "I guess he forgot about the kids and left them in the car," said Donnie Holland, the twins' uncle. "He should have took care of them kids better than that, what he did. He should have never been in the house asleep. He should have got the kids out of the car the time he got out of the car, you know." It wasn't immediately clear who discovered that the twins were unresponsive in their child seats in the back of the SUV. "The neighbors heard some screaming — I guess coming from the father — and saw him running around back with the two children," Dobbs said. Arriving officers performed CPR after finding people trying to cool the girls off in the baby pool. "One of the neighbors got some ice packs out of the freezer and carried it out there," Dobbs said. The twins were pronounced dead at a hospital. Autopsies were being done at the Georgia Bureau of Investigation crime lab. The twins died as prosecutors in another metro Atlanta county prepare for the murder trial of Justin Ross Harris, 35, who is accused of intentionally leaving his toddler son to die in a hot SUV for about seven hours in 2014. Harris' trial was moved to the coastal Georgia city of Brunswick after a judge agreed with defense lawyers that an impartial jury could not be found in the Atlanta area. The trial is expected to begin in September. .

More like Ford Australia-designed global Ford Ranger is (finally) coming to the North American market, the only global region that Ford has excluded it from. There are 2 diesel options, the 2.2L 4-cylinder and the 3.2L 5-cylinder. Will both be offered in the US market? While the 3.2L is a blast, I can assure all that the 2.2L has plenty of power to satisfy most people's expectations, with of course the better fuel economy. Hopefully its SUV stablemate, the Everest, will join it. I hope they don't rebadge it as Bronco. The Bronco is a signature Ford product, but the Everest is not a Bronco. The appearance is all wrong, for being a Bronco. About Iveco, that was years ago. Any non-compete clause has expired, and that would have only pertained to the (western) European market. I predict the new-for-2016 Avon Lake F-650/750 will retain the steel Super-Duty cab until the next refresh. And since it's a low-volume, low-priority product, that could be 5 years down the road.

Reuters / August 5, 2016 Consumer Reports urged the Justice Department to hike compensation for 475,000 owners of Volkswagen diesel vehicles that skirt U.S. emisisions rules, and allow owners who opt for a fix the right to later reconsider the decision. In comments filed on Friday on the proposed agreement, Consumer Reports said the buyback offer undervalues retail prices [no surprise there] and urged the use of values that "would lead to buyback offers for consumers that would be at least several hundred dollars higher." Consumer Reports also wants owners who opt for a fix to be able to change their mind and instead sell the car back to Volkswagen because the car may perform differently once a fix is performed. The public comment period for the Volkswagen consent decrees ends on Friday. U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer granted preliminary approval on July 26 to the settlement, which includes the largest-ever U.S. automotive buyback offer, and set an Oct. 18 hearing to grant final approval. Volkswagen agreed to spend up to $10.033 billion on the buyback for 2.0-liter vehicles that emit up to 40 times legally allowable pollution. It has agreed to separate settlements worth $5.3 billion to offset excess polluting, boost clean vehicles and compensate more than 40 U.S. states. Consumer Reports said it generally supported the settlement, but urged "regulators to wield robust oversight of Volkswagen to ensure that the company implements its recall, investment, and mitigation programs appropriately" and it called on "federal and state officials to assess tough civil penalties and any appropriate criminal penalties against the company in order to hold it fully accountable." VW still faces fines for violating the U.S. Clean Air Act and a potential consent decree that would subject it to oversight by an independent monitor, and must resolve the fate of 85,000 3.0 liter polluting vehicles. It also faces new civil suits from New York, Maryland and Massachusetts for violating state environmental laws as well as an ongoing Justice Department criminal investigation.

Nice clean clothes and shoes. No ordinarily prudent person would say these trendy, mostly well-dressed individuals fit the description of "refugees". Where are the women, the mothers? Where are the children? The majority of the alleged refugees are well-fed able-bodied young men (Hmm)...........who want to come "milk" the west, without any respect for it. .

US poised to take in 10,000 Syrian refugees by September Associated Press / August 5, 2016 After a slow start, it appears increasingly likely that the Obama administration will hit its goal of admitting 10,000 Syrian refugees [economic migrants and terrorists] into the United States before the end of September. State Department figures show that 2,340 Syrian refugees arrived last month in the United States. That's more than what occurred during the entire seven months after President Barack Obama directed his team to prepare for 10,000 admissions from the war-torn country. Total admissions for the current budget year, which ends Sept. 30, now come to about 7,900, and the vast majority of them are Sunni Muslims, records show. If the pace from June and July continues this month, the target should be reached with a couple weeks to spare before Obama heads to the United Nations to urge world leaders to admit more refugees and to increase funding for relief organizations. The U.N. General Assembly is holding a summit to address the large movements of refugees and migrants that stems primarily from conflicts in the Middle East and Africa. Obama would have been hard-pressed to make the case for other countries to do more with the U.S. failing to reach a goal that amounts to only about 2 percent of the 480,000 Syrian refugees in need of resettlement. [Are they actually in need of resettlement?…..Or should those able bodied men being staying and fighting for their country?] Organizations that help relocate Syrian refugees said the White House and other administration officials have grown increasingly confident of hitting the target. "They put more resources on it, which is allowing more individual's to be processed and therefore able to travel," said Stacie Blake, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants, one of nine groups that help resettle Syrian refugees. Obama's call for 10,000 entries this year was criticized by most Republican governors and the GOP presidential candidates, who argued that the government lacked an adequate screening system to prevent suspected terrorists from slipping into the U.S. Extremist attacks in Europe and the U.S. have increased concerns about immigration. An Associated Press-GfK poll conducted in early July showed that 69 percent of Republicans say they favor the temporary ban on Muslim immigration. Overall, Americans opposed such a ban by a margin of 52 percent to 45 percent. [And yet every American we know is for the ban….hmm] Rep. Vern Buchanan, R-Fla., sent a letter to Obama on Thursday calling on him to stop accepting Syrian refugees as a matter of national security. "We are seeing a clear pattern in which a number of recent attacks have been carried out by ISIS terrorists with ties to Syria," Buchanan said. He cited the killing of a French priest, the murder of a German woman with a machete and a bombing at a German music festival as examples. The White House has emphasized that the screening process for refugees takes 12 months to 18 months and includes in-person interviews and a review of biographical and biometric information. The administration also has said it is focused on bringing in refugees who are in the most desperate situations, such as families with children and those in need of medical care. In the year prior to Obama's new target, the U.S. accepted about 1,680 Syrian refugees. Secretary of State John Kerry, speaking with reporters during a visit to Buenos Aires, Argentina, said the United States has developed "sufficient methods" of screening would-be refugees. "We are very comfortable that we are bringing people in who will be a great plus to our country." Kerry said. Kerry said that "not one event in the United States, of terror" has been committed by a refugee allowed to resettle in the U.S. But two Iraqi refugees were arrested in 2011 for plotting to send weapons and money to al-Qaida operatives fighting against U.S. troops back in Iraq. The scheme was foiled, but the case did leave jitters about whether extremists could slip in among the Syrian refugees. "We believe ... the people who are fleeing Syria are the most harmed by terrorism. They are parents. They are children. They are orphans," Kerry said. "It is very important that we do not close our hearts to the victims of such violence." Kerry also applauded Argentina's pledge to resettle 3,000 Syrian refugees in the South American country and said the United States is committed to working with the government there on security issues.

Trade Trucks AU / August 5, 2016 As it closes in on a decade on Australian roads, Hino says its 300 Series Hybrid still tops the market Hino Australia is celebrating its 300 Series Hybrid’s continued market success as the truck heads towards a decade on the road. Since its launch in 2007, the diesel-electric light-duty truck has topped the hybrid sales market in Australia with 481 units sold. Hino Australia chairman and chief executive officer Steve Lotter says the sales stem from a more environmentally-conscious consumer and transport industry. "Global demand for a low greenhouse gas emission truck gave us the perfect opportunity to provide our proven hybrid solution to Australian businesses," Lotter says. "We stepped into a truck market unfamiliar with diesel-electric technology and implemented the world's best hybrid system thanks to our Toyota Group connection." That connection sees the integration of an electric motor found in the Toyota Hybrid Synergy Drive system – seen in consumer vehicles such as the Prius and Camry Hybrid – into the 300 Series trucks. According to Hino, independent tests in 2012 found the hybrid models reduce fuel consumption, CO2 emissions, and costs by 21 per cent in pick-up and delivery roles in metropolitan Sydney. Over the course of 100km, Hino says operators saved approximately 6.66 litres of fuel and 179.35 grams of CO2 emissions. "The research and development by Toyota and our global Hino counterparts ensured our product delivered on our promise of quality, durability and reliability," Lotter says. "For our local customers, recognising that the Hino Hybrid helps save fuel and increase the bottom line has made it the preferred choice for fleets of all sizes." The hybrid and electric topic has been on the tongue of many truck manufacturers in recent times with Telsa and Mercedes-Benz announcing truck plans, Scania trialling its hybrid truck on Swedish electric highways, and Adgero speaking about its new regenerative braking-powered UltraBoost ST at ComVec 2016. .

Terrorist Suspects in Europe Got Welfare Benefits While Plotting Attacks The Wall Street Journal / August 3, 2016 Belgian financial investigators looking into recent terror plots have discovered a disturbing trend: Some of the suspects were collecting welfare benefits until shortly before they carried out their attacks. At least five of the alleged plotters in the Paris and Brussels terror attacks partly financed themselves with payments from Belgium’s generous social-welfare system, authorities have concluded. In total they received more than €50,000, or about $56,000 at today’s rate. The main surviving Paris suspect, Salah Abdeslam, collected unemployment benefits until three weeks before the November attacks—€19,000 in all. At the time, he was manager and part-owner of a bar, which Belgian officials say should have made him ineligible. Many of the participants in a disrupted Belgian terror plot also had been on the dole, according to the judge who sentenced more than a dozen people in the so-called Verviers cell last month. Police thwarted the plot early last year, finding explosives, weapons and police uniforms after a shootout that killed two people. The revelations raise a difficult conundrum for Europe. On one hand, the modern welfare state is a primary tool for combating poverty as well as integrating immigrants. On the other, officials are working hard to find and stop potential sources of revenue for those bent on committing terrorist atrocities. “We’ve identified that the benefit system is vulnerable to abuse for terrorist financing purposes,” said Tom Keatinge, director of the Centre for Financial Crime and Security Studies at the Royal United Services Institute in London. “What are we going to do about that?” European governments may want to give benefits in the form of vouchers, or re-examine their hands-off approach to how people spend their benefits, Mr. Keatinge said. “If you’re paying benefit to people in certain parts of Brussels, maybe you need to be a little more observant about who you’re paying to, and what they might be doing with it.” All of the Paris and Brussels terror suspects known to have received welfare were EU citizens. Philippe de Koster, director of Belgium’s Financial Intelligence Processing Unit, said security and welfare officials need better coordination to avoid benefits being paid to “people suspected of financing terrorist activities.” That would require a change in law, because currently benefits can be cut only after a person is convicted of terrorism, or the suspect leaves the country. Mr. de Koster, whose agency investigated the financial side of the Paris and Brussels attacks, said there is no evidence that welfare benefits were used by the alleged plotters to directly finance those attacks. But, he said, “social-welfare benefits provided them with livelihoods and indirect support for their terrorist activities.” In some cases, Mr. de Koster said, suspects transferred welfare money onto prepaid debit cards that later were used in the twin attacks. Stemming terror financing has been a major goal of governments around the globe. While the focus has been on depriving Islamic State of oil revenue and other macro financing sources, officials also are trying to cut off local funding avenues for small-cell and lone-wolf attacks. The task is difficult because the sums are so small. Officials have estimated it cost less than €30,000 to carry out the Paris attacks, and less than €3,000 for the Brussels attacks. The Tunisian immigrant who mowed down scores of people in Nice, France, paid €1,600 to rent the truck used in the attack, prosecutors said. Government officials have identified student-loan fraud, insurance scams and robbery as among the money sources for terror suspects in the West. Islamic State itself suggested welfare benefits as a financing source, in a 2015 manual called “How to Survive in the West: A Mujahid Guide.” In a section headed “Easy Money Ideas,” the manual suggested “if you can claim extra benefits from a government, then do so.” European countries including Belgium, France, Netherlands and Denmark collectively have cut off hundreds of people from welfare after discovering they had traveled to Syria to fight with Islamic State. Legislation pending in the Netherlands would make it easier to cut off suspected foreign terrorist fighters after a finding by intelligence services. “We don’t want violent jihadist activities to be funded by Dutch taxpayers,” Minister of Social Affairs Lodewijk Asscher has said. People who return from Syria and are prosecuted won’t get benefits restored; those who aren’t prosecuted must reapply. In Belgium, officials last fall found that seven suspected foreign fighters who had left the country and 15 returnees from Syria were receiving unemployment benefits. Five proven to be in Syria were cut off, officials said, but there were no legal grounds to suspend payments to the others. Since the Brussels attacks in March, checks by officials have become more frequent, one Belgian official said. One in April by the National Employment Office, conducted after revelations by the public broadcaster, found that 14 terrorism detainees had received benefits while in prison. Fred Cauderlier, the Belgian prime minister’s spokesman, said a law was changed following the Paris attacks to prevent people convicted of terrorism from receiving benefits while in jail. He defended his country’s welfare system and said it would be an “offensive intellectual shortcut” to say that welfare benefits sponsored the Paris and Brussels attacks. “This is a democracy,” he said. “We have no tools to check how people spend their benefits.” In Belgium, people exiting prison often receive social benefits to help reintegrate into society. This was the case with Khalid el-Bakraoui, who served two years in prison before blowing himself up in the Maelbeek subway station in Brussels in March. Bakraoui was given jobless benefits in early 2014, after a stint in prison for armed robbery and carjacking. In total, he collected about €25,000 in unemployment, medical and other benefits, according to one of the people familiar with the case. He wasn’t shut off until last December, when Belgian authorities issued a warrant for him in connection with the Paris attacks. He went underground, and using fake IDs rented several hide-outs used by the Paris and Brussels attackers. He later was glorified by Islamic State as one of the main organizers of the March massacre in the Belgian capital. .

Heartbreaking? This group intentionally decided to illegally enter the United States, rather than applying at their U.S. Embassy to immigrate legally. Ignoring U.S. immigration law, they paid a bribe to climb into the back of a trailer that can not be opened from the inside. As of today, have all of those 39 illegal immigrants been deported? Note that the government and media have now replaced the term “illegal immigrant” with the softer “undocumented immigrant” language, because they don’t want to infer these people are........”illegally”........in the United States. The common American citizen, born and raised in the United States, is expected to follow our nation’s laws. We may not agree with them, to various degrees, but we are expected to obey our laws........and we do. With that in mind, why are “illegal” immigrants, individuals who have committed the very serious crime of crossing our borders illegally, repeatedly given amnesty and allowed to stay, many at the expense of the U.S. taxpayer. Clearly, there is a double standard. If "illegal" immigrants, criminals by definition the moment they illegally entered the United States, are immune from U.S. law, would not natural-born U.S. citizens be afforded immunity from U.S. law as well? By allowing illegal immigrants to remain, an bizarre act of ignoring our established immigration laws, a tangled web is inherently woven.

Watauga Man Accused of Smuggling People Into Texas for Profit NBC Dallas/Fort Worth / October 8, 2015 A Watauga, Texas man has been indicted by a federal grand jury, accused of smuggling undocumented [i.e. illegal] immigrants into Texas for financial gain, according to the Department of Justice. On Sept. 18, deputies with the Frio County Sheriff's Department and agents with the U.S. Border Patrol responded to a 911 call from someone who said they saw several people exiting a tractor-trailer parked at a convenience store in Frio County, southwest of San Antonio. When authorities arrived, they found 39 undocumented [illegal] immigrants, including 28 men, seven women and four children, from Guatemala, El Salvador and Mexico, officials said. "We see hands sticking out of a little rear door on the trailer," said Frio County Sheriff's Sgt. Jerry Reyna. "Very heartbreaking. The youngest that was in there was a 13-year-old little boy. As soon as he jumped out of the trailer he said, 'Thank you so much. Thank you for saving us,'" said Frio County Sheriff's Deputy Aaron Ramirez. They took the accused driver, 33-year-old Drew Christopher Potter, into federal custody. He has been charged with one count of conspiracy to commit alien smuggling for financial gain and three substantive counts of transportation of undocumented immigrants. "According to the indictment, Potter conspired to transport undocumented aliens for private financial gain," the DOJ said. Police said the trailer was a refrigerated unit, but it was not working properly, and temperatures were well above 100 degrees inside. "There was a little siding in that trailer, where you could tell they were trying to make a hole to get some air," Ramirez said. Potter remains in federal custody, officials said. If convicted, he faces up to 10 years in federal prison and a maximum $250,000 fine for each count. .

Land Line / August 4, 2016 A Fort Worth trucker who pleaded guilty to smuggling 39 undocumented immigrants in the back of his trailer has been sentenced to more than three years in federal prison. U.S. District Court Judge Xavier Rodriguez sentenced 34-year-old Drew Christopher Potter to 41 months in prison during a sentencing hearing on Aug. 3. Potter had pleaded guilty in April to conspiracy to transport undocumented immigrants. In addition to the jail time, Potter was sentenced to three years of supervised release, according to court records. According to the criminal complaint, Potter was arrested Sept. 18, 2015, at a Road Ranger convenience store at Highway 57 and Interstate 35 in Frio County. The complaint states that a concerned citizen called 911 after witnessing multiple people exiting the rear of Potter’s tractor trailer. All 39 individuals were later taken to area hospitals and treated for dehydration. Potter told investigators with Homeland Security that he had picked up what he initially thought was an abandoned trailer at the request of two men who hired him via an ad on Craigslist and had previously paid him $800 on two separate occasions to drive the trailers from Laredo to San Antonio. Potter claimed that when he stopped to buy a drink at the Road Ranger, he noticed the trailer was moving and that when he opened the door, people started jumping out of the trailer. Police arrived shortly thereafter. .

So for July in Brazil: Overall market heavy truck sales are down 8% market, Volvo is down 31%.........but Scania is up 16%. Another wonderful day to be a Scania distributor.

Dagens Industri / August 4, 2016 According to the Brazilian Association of Automotive Vehicle Manufacturers (ANFAVEA): Volvo registrations of new heavy trucks over 15 tons in Brazil plunged 31 percent to 340 vehicles in July, compared with the same month last year. Compared to June 2016, July 2016 registrations rose 15 percent. The total number of new heavy truck registrations in Brazil fell 8 percent to 1,537 vehicles in July, compared with the same month last year. Compared to June 2016, July 2016 registrations rose 34 percent. Scania registrations of new heavy trucks (over 15 tons) in Brazil rose 16 percent to 372 vehicles in July, compared with the same month last year. Volvo registrations of new medium-heavy trucks in Brazil plunged 49 percent to 136 vehicles in July, compared with the same month last year. The total number of new medium-heavy truck registrations in Brazil was 1,268 vehicles in July.