Friday, September 11, 2009

“Dodge calls RPM defection "a business decision" - Boston Globe” plus 4 more

“Dodge calls RPM defection "a business decision" - Boston Globe” plus 4 more

Dodge calls RPM defection "a business decision" - Boston Globe

Posted: 11 Sep 2009 08:39 AM PDT

RICHMOND, Va.—Dodge is calling Richard Petty's decision to move to Ford next season "a business decision."

Auto Dealers Appeal EPA Ruling On Calif. Emissions - Industrial Distribution

Posted: 11 Sep 2009 06:23 AM PDT

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Auto dealers and business leaders on Thursday appealed a decision by the Environmental Protection Agency that allowed California to establish the nation's first greenhouse gas standards for cars and trucks, setting the stage for a potential attempt to block the global warming rules.

The National Automobile Dealers Association and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce asked the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit to review the EPA's decision. The EPA in July granted California's request for a waiver allowing it to push tougher air pollution rules.

The EPA's decision cleared the way for California to implement a 2002 state pollution law requiring tougher fuel efficiency requirements in new cars trucks by 2016.

California's approach serves as a national model for fighting tailpipe pollution linked to global warming, and the Obama administration is expected to release proposed regulations later this month setting fuel efficiency standards at 35.5 miles per gallon by 2016.

By requiring improved auto fuel efficiency, less carbon dioxide is emitted from vehicle tailpipes because less fuel is burned for every mile traveled.

Environmental groups have backed the tougher requirements and said the appeal was an attempt to undermine the Obama administration's efforts to curb global warming.

"It's very clear that the Chamber of Commerce and the auto dealers hope to flatten the tires of the California car standards," said Frank O'Donnell, president of Clean Air Watch.

Mary Nichols, chairwoman of the California Air Resources Board, said the groups were pursuing "an outdated course of action designed to obstruct and oppose efforts to move us towards a cleaner environment and greater energy security." She predicted the EPA would win in court.

The EPA said in a statement that it had granted the waiver after a comprehensive analysis of the science and the law involved and that it was "fully confident it will be found by the courts to be entirely consistent with the law."

Robin Conrad, executive vice president for the National Chamber Litigation Center, the Chamber's public policy law firm, said there was "simply no legal justification for giving California waiver authority. Global warming is an international issue, not a local one."

Conrad said the waiver "sets a dangerous precedent that could lead to a confusing patchwork of dual environmental regulation down the road."

The state regulations to implement the law had been in limbo for five years because the Bush administration refused to provide a waiver required by the federal Clean Air Act. Thirteen other states and the District of Columbia have said they wanted to impose the same requirements as California once the EPA gave the go-ahead.

The petition for review to the appeals court could allow the auto dealers and the Chamber to ask a judge to block the order at a later date. Motions are due in October.

The states that have said they want to follow California's approach include are Arizona, Connecticut, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Mexico, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont and Washington.

Associated Press writer Dina Cappiello contributed to this report.

Anti-Abortion Activist Gunned Down Outside Michigan High School - FOX News

Posted: 11 Sep 2009 09:00 AM PDT

A well-known anti-abortion activist was shot multiple times and killed Friday morning in front of a Michigan high school, and another man was shot and killed just miles away in what police are investigating as related incidents.

Owosso police chief Michael Compeau said Jim Pouillon, 63, was outside the school Friday morning with a sign when a man drove by and shot him. No one else was injured.

Michigan State Police have taken a suspect into custody, the Flint Journal reported.

The school was placed on immediate lockdown, though no students were hurt or involved in the shooting, Ossowo Hish School officials told the paper.

When authorities were responding to the first shooting, officials received a report that another man had been shot and killed at a gravel pit business in Owosso. Shiawassee County Sheriff George Braidwood said Mike Fuoss was found dead in his office.

A 33-year-old Owosso man was later arrested in connection with the school shooting at about 8:15 a.m. at his home, according to Compeau. The chief said he then told police he was involved in the gravel-pit shooting.

School officials say the first shooting took place outside of school grounds around 7:30 a.m., when most students were already inside the building for classes. The school, located 20 miles west of Flint, was allowing students to leave with a parental escort, WLNS News reported.

Police barricaded a section of street in front of the high school, where a large sign bearing the image of a baby and the word "Life" was visible, according to the Flint Journal.

Click here for more on this story from the Flint Journal.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

UK gov't acts against ex-owners of MG Rover - Boston Globe

Posted: 11 Sep 2009 08:31 AM PDT

Former Rover executive John Towers, Rover dealer John Edwards, Peter Beale, a board director of Edwards Cars, and Nick Stephenson, an MG Rover director under BMW, bought the company for a token 10 pounds ($16.50) from BMW in 2000.

Small business insurance Rx - CNN Money

Posted: 11 Sep 2009 08:46 AM PDT

(Fortune Small Business) -- With Democrats and Republicans fighting a death match over health care reform, some small business owners fear that their priorities will get lost in the fray.

"Congress hasn't approached health care reform from a small business owner's standpoint," says Todd McCracken, president of the National Small Business Association. No one knows how the legislative battle will pan out, but here are three crucial health care issues to keep on your radar this fall.

The Penalty Box. What if hiring one more employee saddled your company with tens of thousands of dollars in federal fines? According to legislation before the House, businesses with payrolls as low as $250,000 would pay a 2% tax if they didn't provide health insurance (that would rise to 8% as payroll grew to $400,000). And in early Senate legislation, firms that employ 25 or more workers would have to insure them all or pay a per-employee penalty. Those tipping points could discourage business growth.

The Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions addressed this problem in July, amending its version of the bill to exclude a firm's first 25 employees -- not just firms with 25 or fewer -- from an annual fee of $750 per worker. So putting a 26th employee on the payroll would trigger only one $750 fee -- not 26 of them.

More taxes, please. When did you last request more taxes? Never? Well, there's a first time for everything.

Some entrepreneurs would like to see the federal government put a cap on the value of tax-deductible insurance. Under the current, uncapped system, big businesses can offer deluxe insurance tax-free, which helps them recruit and retain employees.

A tax on premium insurance would generate necessary funding for healthcare reform, limit plans that cover unnecessary procedures and level the playing field for small businesses. Also, Congress could grant self-employed taxpayers the same healthcare deductions as businesses.

Pool power. Small businesses and the self-employed don't have the bargaining power of corporate behemoths. That could change if Congress gives entrepreneurs the right to form insurance purchasing pools. In 2008 and 2009 a bipartisan group of lawmakers introduced Small Business Health Options Program (SHOP) bills to allow such pools.  To top of page

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