The Volkswagen Cheat, Selfie Destruction

The Big Cheat: Volkswagen admitted today that 11 million cars around the world are equipped with the same software that was designed to defeat emissions tests on cars sold in the US. Previously the automaker said the software was in half a million cars in this country.

Volkswagen CEO Michael Horn said the company “totally screwed up.” The company’s stock lost 17.1 percent of its value yesterday.

Volkswagen said it immediately put aside $7.3 billion to change the cars that were programmed to lower emissions while their exhaust was being tested for pollutants.

Nation: A survey conducted by the Association of American Universities found that during their four years in college 27.2 percent of senior women say they experienced some kind of sexual assault ranging from touching to outright rape. Previous studies have put the figure at about 20 percent but it’s hard to compare because the surveys use varying definitions of sexual assault. In the AAU study some of the most elite universities reported the biggest numbers; 34.6 percent at Yale, 34.3 percent at the University of Michigan, and 29.2 percent at Harvard.

>The former CEO of the Peanut Corporation of America has been sentenced to 28 years in prison for knowingly selling salmonella infected peanut butter. The company’s peanut butter made 700 people sick and killed nine of them. Parnell’s brother got 20 years in prison and another executive was sent away for five.

Internal communications showed that as the outbreak grew Parnell ordered peanut butter to be shipped, despite questions about its quality, because “I can’t afford to loose [sic] another customer.”

PopeTour: Pope Francis is scheduled to arrive in Washington DC today. His schedule calls for him to meet President Obama tomorrow and speak to a joint session of Congress on Thursday, where he is expected to talk about immigration and climate change. Friday Francis goes to New York and Philadelphia on Saturday.

Natural Selection: Out of money and popular support, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, once considered a golden boy to run for president, announced he’s dropping out. He urged his fellow candidates to narrow their field saying, “I encourage other Republican presidential candidates to consider doing the same so that the voters can focus on a limited number of candidates who can offer a positive, conservative alternative to the current front-runner.” That’s Donald Trump.

Walker rose to national prominence fighting and busting public employee unions and surviving a recall vote. But he came off as a minor league candidate for president, once even proposing building a wall on the Canadian border to keep out illegal immigrants.

The Obit Page: Daniel Thompson, the inventor of the bagel-making machine, who in one stroke made the bagel a national food and set off a perpetual argument about what’s a real bagel, has died at age 94 in Rancho Mirage, Calif. Until Thompson’s invention, the quintessential Jewish food was rolled by hand, boiled and baked … almost exclusively by unionized Jewish bagel bakers in big cities. But Thompson’s machine did for the bagel what McDonald’s did for the hamburger. And put them in a plastic bag, which is really a sin.

Measured Diagonally: Deposed NBC News Anchor Brian Williams returns from the penalty box today to anchor MSNBC’s live coverage of the Pope’s visit to the US. Williams is expected to lead MSNBC’s re-make into a hard news operation, but he’s taken a big cut in pay and stature.

Selfie Destruction: A man visiting the Taj Mahal in India recently died when he fell taking a “selfie” picture. An informal survey says more people have died this year taking selfies (12) than have been killed by sharks (8).

Saturday, November 16, 2024

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The Most Corrupt Justice

Monday, October 2, 2023

Democracy and Video in the Dark

Sunday, February 26, 2023

Page Two: Do the Right Thing

Tuesday, February 1, 2022

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Monday, September 13, 2021

Page Two: Cuomo Must Go

Friday, August 13, 2021

Trump and the Truth

Tuesday, November 3, 2020

The “Great” President

Monday, March 30, 2020

It's Been Said

"Christians, get out and vote, just this time. You won't have to do it anymore. Four more years, you know what, it will be fixed, it will be fine, you won't have to vote anymore, my beautiful Christians. I love you Christians. I'm a Christian. I love you, get out, you gotta get out and vote. In four years, you don't have to vote again, we'll have it fixed so good you're not going to have to vote."

  • Donald Trump courting the vote of the Christian right

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