The culprit?
Once again, government neglect.
"US agency slow on safety investigations; Missed deadline 12 times with drivers since 2010" by Tom Krisher | Associated Press August 12, 2014
DETROIT — People are waiting longer than they should for an answer when they petition the government to open an investigation into what could be serious safety problems....
Because it is a corporate government now.
A 1974 law passed to make the agency move faster requires a decision within four months of receiving a petition. But even though the agency has fined automakers such as General Motors and Toyota millions for missing deadlines to disclose safety issues, there is no penalty when the agency is tardy.
The administration concedes it has missed the deadlines but says it often must ask petitioners for more data to complete its analysis. Still, in eight petitions reviewed by the AP, it took more than a year to open an investigation or close the case.
Safety advocates say a delay that long can put lives at risk.
Not the better lives.
And given the recent criticism of the agency for its role in GM’s delayed recall of cars with defective ignition switches, these advocates question whether it is functioning well enough to protect the public....
Answer: it is not.
Clarence Ditlow, executive director of the Center For Auto Safety, a nonprofit founded by consumer advocate Ralph Nader, petitioned in November 2009 for an investigation into fires in Jeep SUVs with gas tanks behind the rear axle.
Negative Nader.
Despite reports of 12 fires, nine injuries, and one death at the time, it took the agency more than nine months to grant the petition and open a formal investigation — five months after the legal deadline....
Addressing consumer safety concerns in a timely manner is likely to be debated when agency chief David Friedman makes a second appearance in the fall before House and Senate subcommittees investigating the GM recall.
Not even going to say it.
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Related:
GM issues third recall on SUVs that can catch fire
Newest GM recalls push industry to yearly record
Valets: Better not joyride in this Corvette
Crash-prevention gear to be mandated
The technology uses a radio signal to continually transmit a vehicle’s position
GM Post Stalled Out
Let's see if we can't pick up some speed:
"US high-speed rail plans face persistent hurdles; Funding system under Obama draws criticism" by Ron Nixon | New York Times August 07, 2014
WASHINGTON — The Obama administration has spent nearly $11 billion since 2009 to develop faster passenger trains, but the projects have gone mostly nowhere and the United States still lags far behind Europe and China, where trains on average top 220 miles per hour.
So WHICH WELL-CONNECTED CONCERN STOILE the TAXPAYER MONEY?
Although Republican opposition and community protests have slowed the projects, transportation policy experts and members of both parties also blame missteps by the Obama administration — which in July asked Congress for nearly $10 billion more for high-speed rail — for the failures.
Put it into food stamps instead!
Instead of putting the $11 billion directly into high-speed rail projects, they say, the administration made the mistake of parceling out the money to upgrade existing Amtrak service, which will allow trains to go no faster than 110 miles per hour.
They did it with $olar $timuloot, too!
None of the money originally went to service in the Northeast corridor, the most likely place for high-speed rail. Florida, Ohio, and Wisconsin, all led by Republican governors, in the meantime canceled high-speed rail projects and returned federal funds after deeming the projects too expensive and unnecessary.
I refer you to the question I just asked above.
“The Obama administration’s management of previously appropriated high-speed rail funding has been as clumsy as its superintending of the Affordable Care Act’s rollout,” said Frank N. Wilner, a former chief of staff at the Surface Transportation Board, a bipartisan body with oversight of the nation’s railroads.
Except that is now a $elling point for the fall elections, ha-ha-ha!
High-speed rail was supposed to have been President Obama’s signature transportation project, but as Obama’s second term nears its midpoint, some experts say the president’s words were a fantasy.
Like so much of his failed term of office so far.
“The idea that we would have a high-speed system that 80 percent of Americans could access in that short period of time was unadulterated hype, and it didn’t take an expert to see through it,” said Kenneth Orski, the editor and publisher of an influential transportation newsletter who served in the Nixon and Ford administrations. “And scattering money all around the country rather than focusing it on areas ripe for high-speed rail, didn’t help.”
But advocates say they are hopeful.
These people are pathetic. A plate of swirling steaming stinker right under their nose and they deeply inhale!
“Once something gets built then we’re going to see more projects get going,” said Ray LaHood, Obama’s first transportation secretary. LaHood said it took the interstate highway system decades to be completed, and he predicts that high-speed rail will be the same.
LaHood said California seemed the most likely candidate for success with high-speed rail, even though plans for a 520-mile train route between Los Angeles and San Francisco have been mired in controversy.
No worry about earthquakes?
Despite strong backing from Governor Jerry Brown, a court ruling had tied up state bond funding for the $68 billion project.
See: Bankrupt California Post
The intere$t charges are going to be astronomical.
An appeals court on July 31 threw out that ruling, which had been based on a lawsuit. But opponents are still increasing calls to kill the project, and polls show waning public support for it.
They saw the price tag as services are slashed and taxes raised.
Still, California has begun construction of the tracks and put out bids for a vendor to build the trains. And the new rail project will get an infusion of funds from the state’s cap-and-trade-program, which requires business to pay for excess pollution.
Pffffft!
But....
Time to hit the brakes.
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I'll let you off here:
"GM Financial says Justice Department seeks subprime records" Bloomberg News August 05, 2014
DETROIT — The lending unit of General Motors Co., the largest US automaker, said Monday that the Department of Justice has subpoenaed documents related to its subprime lending practices.
The inquiry adds another challenge for GM chief executive Mary Barra, who is already grappling with a separate Justice Department investigation over the automaker’s slow handling of potentially fatal defects in millions of its small cars. While that crisis has roiled for six months, GM’s US sales have kept increasing with new products such as the Chevrolet Tahoe and Buick Encore. Easy credit has helped fuel industrywide auto sales, which are on pace for the best year since 2006.
That is all that is important. Did GM have a good quarter.
The Justice Department has been looking closely at the auto lending industry. In December, Ally agreed to pay a record $98 million to settle Justice Department and regulatory claims that the firm helped car dealers inflate the cost of auto loans to black and Hispanic borrowers....
That's RACISM, and what kickback cut did the government get on that one?
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