GREENWICH — Officers arrested a driver who was found asleep at the wheel of a car on Artic Street at 4:45 a.m. on Dec. 24, police said.
The arrest report stated that officers found prescription pills in the driver’s possession.
The 46-year-old man from Greenwich was charged with driving while intoxicated, possession of a controlled substance and illegal possession of prescription pills, police said. Bail was set at $250 and posted.
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A 37-year-old woman from Norwalk turned herself in at police headquarters on Wednesday to face an arrest warrant, police said.
She was charged with breach of peace and criminal mischief in connection with an incident in Byram on Dec. 4, police said. She was released on $500 bond.
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Officers responded to a disturbance at a residence in the Pemberwick neighborhood on the night of Dec. 24, police said.
A 56-year-old Greenwich woman was charged with criminal mischief after she was alleged to have broken a phone and other items, police said. She was released on $150 bond.
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A Bridgeport man was arrested Sunday night on a charge of violating a protective order in the Glenville section of town, according to the police report.
Esteban Sebourne, 67, was also charged with stalking and criminal trespass, based on previous warrants that involved past incidents, according to police. Bail was set at $50,000.
GREENWICH — Officers arrested a driver who was found asleep at the wheel of a car on Artic Street at 4:45 a.m. on Dec. 24, police said.
The arrest report stated that officers found prescription pills in the driver’s possession.
The 46-year-old man from Greenwich was charged with driving while intoxicated, possession of a controlled substance and illegal possession of prescription pills, police said. Bail was set at $250 and posted.
—
A 37-year-old woman from Norwalk turned herself in at police headquarters on Wednesday to face an arrest warrant, police said.
She was charged with breach of peace and criminal mischief in connection with an incident in Byram on Dec. 4, police said. She was released on $500 bond.
—
Officers responded to a disturbance at a residence in the Pemberwick neighborhood on the night of Dec. 24, police said.
A 56-year-old Greenwich woman was charged with criminal mischief after she was alleged to have broken a phone and other items, police said. She was released on $150 bond.
—
A Bridgeport man was arrested Sunday night on a charge of violating a protective order in the Glenville section of town, according to the police report.
Esteban Sebourne, 67, was also charged with stalking and criminal trespass, based on previous warrants that involved past incidents, according to police. Bail was set at $50,000.
Former President Lyndon Johnson was probably not the first, nor certainly the last, to note that more Americans have died on the nation’s roads than in all of its wars combined. He called it “the highway disease” in a speech in 1966, when he signed legislation that aimed to curb the slaughter.
At the time, more than 50,000 Americans were dying annually in traffic crashes. A new highway safety bureau, later named the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, or NHTSA, was created to set vehicle safety standards, oversee recalls of defective cars and trucks, conduct safety research and consumer education, and distribute traffic safety grants to states — all helping to reduce the body count.
But lately NHTSA, which turns 50 this month, has been asleep at the wheel, safety advocates say, playing its part in the Trump administration campaign to cut business regulations. The agency, part of the Department of Transportation, has scaled back key activities even as progress against “the highway disease” appears to have stalled. After traffic deaths hit an all-time low of 32,479 in 2011, they began climbing and in recent years have ranged between 36,000 and 38,000.
“It’s a total do-nothing agency now,” complained Joan Claybrook, who headed NHTSA from 1977 to 1981. NHTSA “continues to take a back seat to whatever the industry wants,” said Jason Levine, executive director of the Center for Auto Safety, a nonprofit advocacy group.
NHTSA officials declined to be interviewed for this story, but said in an email that a key safety metric, the fatality rate — measured by traffic deaths per total miles driven — “has improved steadily’’ since 1970. “We will continue to work to fulfill the agency’s mission of saving lives on our roads and highways,” the email said.
Automakers, including Ford, General Motors, Fiat Chrysler, Toyota, Honda and Hyundai, did not respond to requests for comment.
Records and interviews show that NHTSA has failed over the past four years to complete safety standards that could increase the chance of people surviving, or avoiding, a crash. President Donald Trump set the tone within days of taking office with an executive order directing federal agencies to rescind two rules for each new one they issue.
Jason Levine, executive director of the Center for Auto Safety. Photo courtesy of the Center for Auto Safety.
One consequence is that NHTSA is years late in meeting congressional deadlines to finalize a host of safety measures. In place of enforcable rules, the agency has favored guidelines and voluntary agreements with automakers on implementing new safety technologies and developing self-driving cars.
NHTSA did push hard on one rule — to weaken mileage standards for cars and trucks in the fuel economy program it jointly manages with the Environmental Protection Agency.
In April, the agencies issued a final rule to relax the targets set by the Obama administration for 2021 to 2026 models, which even some automakers opposed. At the same time, the rule stripped California and other states of the power to set their own tougher standards, a move the states are challenging in court. NHTSA defended the action as a major safety advance, saying it will hold down vehicle prices and encourage motorists to replace older models with newer, safer ones.
NHTSA also has resisted for more than three years an order to raise penalties on automakers for violations of mileage standards. A 2015 law requires inflation adjustments so the impact of penalties doesn’t weaken over time. NHTSA’s claim that the law doesn’t apply to the fuel economy program triggered lawsuits by 13 states and environmental groups. The agency lost the latest round in August when a federal appeals court rejected its position.
Civil settlements with automakers, dealers and component manufacturers for such offenses as hiding safety defects and delaying recalls also have declined sharply under Trump, a FairWarning review of NHTSA records shows.
NHTSA imposed 49 civil penalties totaling $685,079,550 during the eight years of the Obama administration, including 17 multimillion dollar fines against Toyota, Honda, BMW, General Motors, Ford, Fiat Chrysler, Hyundai and others, FairWarning found.
The agency has levied a total of seven penalties for $231,270,000 during Trump’s four-year term. Nearly the whole amount was what NHTSA described as a record-breaking penalty of $210 million against Hyundai and Kia over their handling of recalls sparked by engine fires — though $81 million was the actual fine, with the rest to be deferred or invested in safety improvements. [For a breakdown of penalty settlements by year, click here.]
NHTSA has also reached a dubious milestone, going an entire presidential term without a permanent head. Heidi King was nominated as NHTSA administrator and served on an acting basis for more than a year, but resigned in 2019 after the Senate failed to confirm her.
Yet critics acknowledge that the agency, and its safety mission, have long suffered from neglect no matter who is in office.
David Friedman, former deputy administrator of NHTSA, is vice president for advocacy at Consumer Reports. Photo courtesy of Consumer Reports.
“NHTSA is a chronically underfunded and over-politicized agency, and those two combined can make it very hard for it to do its work,” said David Friedman, NHTSA’s deputy administrator from 2013 to 2015 and now vice president for advocacy at Consumer Reports.
Road crashes are the leading cause of death for Americans ages 1 through 19. About 100 people perish daily, the equivalent of a fully-loaded Boeing 747 crashing every three or four days. Fatalities aren’t the whole story. Well more than 2 million people a year are injured in the U.S., according to NHTSA estimates, and health care and other financial costs annually run into the tens of billions of dollars.
Yet while Americans are sensitive to many lesser risks, the cruel arithmetic doesn’t appear to fully register with politicians or the general public. That may be why, despite road crashes causing 95% of U.S. transportation deaths, NHTSA’s budget is about one-sixteenth that of the Federal Aviation Administration.
NHTSA currently has 620 full-time staff and a 2020 budget of $989.3 million, about two-thirds of it passed along to state and local governments as traffic safety grants. The agency counted a staff of about 900 before the Reagan administration imposed drastic budget cuts in 1981. Its staff has mostly ranged from 600 to 650 ever since, as Republican and Democratic administrations have been consistent about one thing: never giving NHTSA that much to work with.
“It’s not hard to see that doubling, tripling, quadrupling the workforce would allow NHTSA to save more lives — a lot more lives,” Friedman said. “It would allow the agency to put more standards on the books, update consumer information in ways that get more innovative safety technology into the hands of consumers, and increase enforcement around defects.”
Larry Hershman was at NHTSA from 1999 until 2017, most of the time in the agency’s Office of Defects Investigation, which reviews safety complaints and oversees recalls of defective vehicles.
“We were always understaffed,” Hershman told FairWarning. “You’re going up against a company like General Motors or Toyota or Ford, and they have a product liability or safety group with dozens or hundreds of engineers and tons of lawyers. And generally, we would have maybe a couple of investigators working on a particular product area or manufacturer.”
“Certainly, the staffing levels could have been much better to level the playing field,” Hershman said. “I think we did a pretty good job considering the limitations.”
Larry Hershman, a former safety defect investigator at NHTSA. Photo courtesy of Hershman.
Hershman recalled his irritation when lawmakers bashed NHTSA for lapses and delays.
“They really rip into the agency for not doing this or that. But where’s the money?” he said. “Come on, you can’t have it both ways.”
Perhaps feeling picked on by lawmakers, safety advocates and the auto industry, NHTSA is something of a fortress agency. Interview requests are rarely granted, and in dealing with journalists NHTSA can be gun-shy and stingy with information.
It has repeatedly run afoul of the federal Freedom of Information Act, which requires agencies to disclose public records. Since 2007, NHTSA has been the target of at least nine successful FOIA lawsuits. (Full disclosure: FairWarning has a pending FOIA suit against NHTSA involving records requested a year ago.)
Among NHTSA’s courtroom opponents has been Randy Whitfield, a statistician with Quality Control Systems Corp., a consulting firm. Whitfield told FairWarning that NHTSA currently is sitting on two FOIA requests for data from the Fatality Analysis Reporting System, a database on crash deaths used by researchers. According to Whitfield, the agency used to routinely release this sort of information, but now withholds it.
“Am I going to have to go to court to get the FARS data, for God’s sake?” Whitfield said.
NHTSA over the years has issued dozens of safety standards, from seat belt, airbag and child seat requirements that have saved tens of thousands of lives, to less-familiar rules on the performance of everything from tires, headlights, brakes, door latches and roofs. But its rulemaking efforts were strongest in earlier years. More recently, the agency has focused more energy on campaigns to encourage safe driving and supervising recalls.
Adopting safety standards is, by design, a drawn-out process that has become more laborious over time. It requires years of procedural steps, including an exhaustive analysis of the proposed rule’s monetary costs and benefits — always with the knowledge that the industry can go to court to tie up regulations it doesn’t like.
David Strickland, NHTSA’s administrator from 2010 to 2014, said that completing a rulemaking in four years “is crazy fast.” And once a standard is issued, manufacturers typically have several more years to implement the change in all new models — creating an opportunity to market the safety feature as a pricey add-on before it becomes standard. In the long period of gestation, people are injured and killed who would have been spared had things moved more quickly.
Consider the long struggle over backup cameras to cut the toll of backover accidents, which were causing thousands of injuries and over 200 deaths annually — mostly of small children or elderly people. The horror of parents killing their own children led Congress to pass the Cameron Gulbransen Kids Transportation Act of 2007, named for a 2-year old whose father, a pediatrician, backed over the toddler in their driveway on Long Island in New York.
The original timeline called for a final rule by 2011, with cameras in all new vehicles by 2015. But NHTSA kept pushing back the deadline, reflecting criticism from the White House Office of Management and Budget of a lopsided comparison of costs to install cameras against the far lower dollar values assigned for lives saved.
Fed up with the delays, consumer groups and parent-activists eventually sued to force adoption of the standard. In March 2014, a day before a federal appeals court hearing, NHTSA caved and issued the standard. By then, most new vehicles already had cameras, though manufacturers still had until 2018 to install them in all models.
Other safety rules ordered by Congress, but years behind schedule, have triggered an investigation by the Government Accountability Office.
The overdue rules were ordered in transportation bills passed in 2012 and 2015. One standard sought by Congress aimed to improve the structural integrity of long-distance buses after a series of deadly wrecks. Others involved child seat protections in side-impact crashes; a mandate that recall notices be sent to vehicle owners by text or email; and a requirement for seat belt reminders in back seats, where many passengers fail to buckle up. That would be “an easy, simple, low-hanging fruit change” that could save lives, remarked Janette Fennell, founder of the advocacy group KidsAndCars.
None of these rules has been completed.
Cathy Chase, president of Advocates for Highway & Auto Safety. Photo courtesy of Advocates.
The delays led Sen. Edward Markey (D-Mass.) to rebuke Heidi King, then NHTSA’s acting administrator, at a 2018 hearing.
“It’s on our regulatory agenda as ‘in progress’,” King responded at one point.
“I appreciate your support for all the public safety regulations that we’re working on,” she said another time.
The list of blown deadlines “goes on and on,” Markey complained. “The agency has to do its work, finish these rulemakings,” he told King. “The longer this goes …, the more endangered the public is.”
Asked about the delays, NHTSA told FairWarning in its written response that safety rules can’t be issued without first being adequately researched. “Regardless of statutory deadlines, if the underlying research does not exist, it needs to be developed and performed.”
In October, the GAO agreed to investigate the delays at the request of members of the House Energy and Commerce Committee. They asked the GAO to determine if funding constraints or unfilled positions were keeping NHTSA from doing its job.
“These safety mandates cannot save lives if they are not carried out,” said the letter to the GAO from Energy and Commerce chairman Frank Pallone (D-N.J.), consumer protection subcommittee chair Jan Schakowsky (D-Il.) and member Lisa Blunt Rochester (D-Del.).
“This blatant disregard for Congressional directives not only endangers the lives of all who travel on our roads,” the letter continued, “but also suggests that NHTSA may face institutional challenges that hinder its ability to fulfill its safety-critical mission.”
NHTSA has also come under attack for failing to set rules for autonomous features that advocates say could save thousands of lives, but currently are not required in vehicles nor covered by minimum performance standards. This includes standards for fully self-driving cars and for autonomous features already found in many new models.
A recent analysis by Consumer Reports found that 11,800 lives could be saved annually if four of these features — automatic emergency braking, pedestrian detection systems, and blind spot and lane departure warnings — were in use fleetwide.
Automatic braking systems, intended to reduce rear-end collisions, are supposed to be installed in all new models by September 2022, under a voluntary agreement between automakers and NHTSA. Because this and other advanced features aren’t required, nor subject to performance standards, you could have one manufacturer “rolling out a wonderful system” while another’s advanced features are faulty, so that consumers “don’t know what they’re buying,” said Cathy Chase, president of the safety group Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety.
NHTSA defended the use of voluntary measures. “The rulemaking process … is time-consuming and lengthy,” it said, quoting from a recent speech by deputy administrator James Owens. “On the other hand, voluntary cooperation allows us to implement new programs and information sharing in a matter of months, as compared to years.”
A crashworthiness test for the government’s star safety rating system for new model cars and trucks, formally known as the New Car Assessment Program. U.S. Department of Transportation/NHTSA photo.
Critics also bemoan the sinking value of the NHTSA star ratings that for decades have guided car shoppers, while also teaching the industry that safety sells. Formally known as the New Car Assessment Program, or NCAP, it awards up to five stars to new cars and trucks, based on how they hold up in crash tests.
But the system has not been updated to differentiate vehicles with advanced safety technologies, though a growing number have them. Moreover, 98% of new cars and trucks get either a 4- or 5-star rating. “There is no comparative value in the system anymore,” Jason Levine of the Center for Auto Safety told FairWarning. “It’s the equivalent of handing out candy at Halloween: Everybody gets some.”
Updates to NCAP could help to address an alarming trend: as vehicles have become safer, resulting in fewer deaths for vehicle occupants, people on the outside — pedestrians and bicyclists — have suffered a rising toll. While total crash fatalities rose 9% from 2010 to 2019, according to one analysis, pedestrian deaths increased 44%.
Some have called for including pedestrian safety in the star ratings, for example, by crediting vehicles with systems to detect and brake for pedestrians when the driver doesn’t see them.
NHTSA spent nearly two years working to update and refine the NCAP program during the Obama administration, but didn’t finish. Under Trump, NHTSA abandoned the work.
Then in October 2019 the agency announced it was reviving the effort, saying it planned “to propose significant updates and upgrades to the New Car Assessment Program in 2020.”
It hasn’t happened yet.
This story was produced by FairWarning (www.fairwarning.org), a nonprofit news organization based in Southern California that focuses on public health, consumer, labor and environmental issues.
December 31, 2020 at 04:00PM
https://www.marylandmatters.org/2020/12/31/in-battle-against-the-highway-disease-nhtsa-attacked-as-being-asleep-at-the-wheel/
In Battle Against 'the Highway Disease,' NHTSA Attacked as Being Asleep at the Wheel - Josh Kurtz
The shift to online shopping was already well underway pre-pandemic.
Consumers are taking advantage of expanded service offerings to get the products.
Customers see digital and in-store as two facets of the same experience.
People are looking for brands to deliver instantly on the values they believe in.
In the absence of historic data, BI and search insights have become critically important.
Now that the holiday buying season is well underway, we’re seeing the extent to which the year of the pandemic—and its unusual consumer trends and behavior—is impacting the retail industry. While some of these trends could revert to historic levels post-pandemic, others will likely change retail into 2021 and forever.
The shift to online shopping was already well underway pre-pandemic, although no one could have predicted the speed at which adoption would increase over these past months.
As digital accounts for an increasing proportion of purchases, retailers are being challenged to change their view of the online channel.
It is not useful to perceive digital as a threat to their business – rather, digital complements and can even augment the in-store shopping experience.
With this in mind, where should retailers focus their efforts for the holiday season and heading into 2021?
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Consumers are driving the swift shift to digital
According to the National Retail Federation, 59% of shoppers started their holiday shopping early this year. Analysts at Morgan Stanley estimate that overall Black Friday sales fell 20% from last year, with the decline in foot traffic overpowering healthy online sales increases.
Adobe Analytics says that consumers spent $9 billion online on Friday, a 21.6% increase from last year and the second-biggest figure for online retailers ever. The firm pegged online sales at $23.5 billion in the four-day Thanksgiving-to-Sunday period, up 23% from last year.
Although foot traffic was down for the weekend, consumers who made the trip weren’t there to window-shop.
Craig Johnson, president of retail research firm Customer Growth Partners, told the New York Times that retailers experienced higher in-store conversion rates than usual and that he expects this trend to continue through to Christmas.
These weekend sales do not show the significant shift in when consumers are buying, the time frame between the third and fourth-quarter sales.
The holiday shopping season historically starts in November and ends in January. This year, retailers pulled forward deals before Halloween, prompting early buying and created urgency for buyers to avoid shipping delays.
Fear and anxiety about the Coronavirus is undoubtedly the main driver of the accelerated shift to digital this year. The discomfort and potential danger of being packed in shopping malls and stores weigh heavy on consumers’ minds.
In fact, four out of five Americans surveyed by McKinsey in October stated they continue to feel unsafe and have yet to return to pre-COVID-19 levels of comfort with “normal” out-of-home activities.
For many, this unease is overriding any remaining distrust of online shopping and payment methods.
Consumers are taking advantage of expanded service offerings to get the products they need.
More than 34% of consumers say they are taking advantage of curbside pickup, and 41.5 % are using BOPIS (buy online pickup in-store) fulfillment methods, according to a September survey. Consumers are also booking a time online to shop in-store, without crowds, even outside of regular business hours.
A new phenomenon has emerged, thanks to online shopping: ROPO (research online, purchase offline), or web-rooming, a strategy now used by 82% of consumers.
This is where a consumer begins their shopping journey online and completes the purchase in-store. ROPO disproves the long-standing retail-killing theory that consumers will visit retail stores to find and learn about products, then go online to buy them.
I shared more COVID-related digital behaviors that won’t be going away in 2021 in this recent column.
Simply put, customers see digital and in-store as two facets of the same experience. Retail channels are merging, and retailers need to embrace the omnichannel age by blending both together to create a strong, holistic presence in the physical and digital environments.
Revving up your ecommerce and mcommerce strategies
A recent survey found that 54.5% of consumers said they would reduce shopping visits, while 22.9% said they would not shop in stores at all. Optimizing for online and mobile shoppers’ needs is imperative.
Consumers aren’t betting on the world going back to normal, either. IBM found in September that 62% of consumers believe we will likely see more global pandemic events.
As unpredictable emotions and events continue to influence purchasing decisions, retailers are being challenged to reimagine retail into 2020 as an omnichannel relationship rather than a series of transactions.
As you plan for this holiday season and the year ahead, think from the perspective of your customer: What’s in it for me? Consumers are looking for products that best fit their lives and unique circumstances.
A recent survey of 1,000 US adults found that the vast majority of respondents (80%) want personalization from retailers. Hyper personalization solutions to satiate customers’ needs are a top priority, and we know that personalization delivers results.
Research shows that when companies use data to create personal interactions with a large segment of their customers, it provides top-line results with these programs earning 20% higher customer satisfaction rates and a 10 to 15% boost in sales conversion rates.
What’s more, those retailers that consistently deliver high customer-satisfaction scores earn returns three times higher than retailers with low customer-satisfaction scores. The residual benefit with targeted campaigns is that it can also reduce marketing and sales costs by 10-20%.
Personalization is a gamechanger, but do not forget the power of local search optimization.
Since 18% of local searches lead to a purchase within one day, managing your local search SEO, Google My Business account, updating offerings, and delivering mobile-friendly websites still play an essential role to your customer today. Where and whenever consumers are motivated to shop, retailers need to be there.
And as traditional retailers figure out entry-level personalization techniques like coupons and preference upsell ads, they will be left behind with the acceleration of innovative retail experiences such as digitally-enabled stores, pop-up online stores, Facebook Live shopping, and more.
As the evolution of retail has picked up speed, search insights have become critical to business intelligence
It takes a great deal of business intelligence to power these interactions; to inform the personalization and rich shopping experience that constantly connected consumers expect.
Yet retailers are struggling to plan for a season in which past trends and historical sales data cannot predict impending sales patterns. McKinsey recently found that 64% of consumers have changed the stores, brands, and the way they shop, making traditional data trends useless for retailers.
In the absence of historic data, search insights have become even more critically important.
These are your closest digital indicator of the voice of customer, and we know those organizations that implement changes based on data analytics can expect to see sales margins increase between 8 and 25%.
Search data and market intelligence will better inform retailers’ understanding of who their customer is right now, how they are spending, and what matters to them the most.
What are your customers telling you in their browsing behavior, search queries, and on-site behavior?
Customer experience & AI will drive success for retail into 2021
If you feel like you’re being pulled in all directions and need to be everywhere at once, you’re not alone. The pursuit of a seamless, frictionless customer experience cannot be achieved without the ability to monitor, actively listen, and then activate search insights at scale.
Scaling retail into 2021 will require AI-powered technologies, but having the right people in place to augment your tech is key. Retailers will benefit from the automation of repetitive tasks, for sure, but AI’s potential runs so much deeper than simple time savings.
AI will help retailers increase sales, improve customer retention, and more successfully launch new products; in fact, these were identified as top benefits of AI-powered martech in a recent study.
Consumers care about the people behind the brand and what they stand for, too. More than ever, buyers are factoring brand ethics and behavior into their evaluation of products.
People are looking for brands to deliver on the values they believe in, and 71% of consumers prefer to buy from brands that align with their values.
This requires more than a well-written ‘About Us’ page. AI will be key to communicating and creating experiences that mirror these values, as well.
In 2021, AI will help retailers not only deepen their understanding of the customer experience but to optimize for it in real-time.
Retail leadership teams and shareholders, as they gather around the boardroom table (or a video call) to review their 2021 plans, should be saying to themselves and one another: “Retail reimagined is our only way forward for survival.”
If that reimagining means incorporating AI into your marketing organization for the first time this year, you’ll want to read this column on setting your first AI project up for success.
Jim Yu is the founder and CEO of BrightEdge, the leading enterprise SEO and content performance platform.
A truck driver was ticketed for sleeping behind the wheel while stopped in the middle of a roadway late last week.
The incident occurred on December 23rd just before 4 a.m. in Leeds County, Ontario, Canada.
According to CTV News, a police officer was out on a routine patrol when he noticed a truck stopped in the middle of an off ramp on the 401 Highway near Reynolds Road.
The officer drive up to the rig to investigate and discovered the 63-year-old driver was asleep behind the wheel.
The driver has since been charged with interfering with traffic and failing to keep a proper log.
It is not clear why the rig was stopped in the middle of the roadway.
PINOLE, Calif. (KGO) -- A Bay Area contestant on "Wheel of Fortune" definitely folded "Under Pressure" when it came time to solve the puzzle.
On an episode that aired on Nov. 26, Jacquelyn Rios from Pinole confidently stated she was ready to guess the phrase on the board. Basically, all that was missing was a name that appeared to be David "Somebody."
If you know your music history, it would be obvious which David was the answer. But if you're from the Bay Area, it's quite possible that a certain local celebrity would come to mind instead.
With the letters already on display, you could see the song title "Under Pressure" fully filled out.
She just needed to know the artists who created the classic rock hit.
When going in for the win, Rios guessed, "'Under Pressure' by Queen and David Louie."
The correct response would have been legendary singer and songwriter David Bowie.
On social media, some joked that Rios "knows her Bay Area news reporters better than her British rock singers."
Who can blame her? They are both legends!
When interviewed by David Louie, she said, "I was just under so much pressure, and I thought of you and ABC7 since I grew up watching you guys, and that's the first thing that came to my mind. So that's what I said, and I instantly knew it was incorrect. But I figured I better say something than nothing."
FRESNO, California (KGPE) – The man police found dead behind the wheel of a car in Fresno Tuesday was identified by Fresno County Coroner’s Office.
The victim was 20-year-old Logan Morales, of Fresno.
According to Fresno Police, one of their officers heard shots around 10 p.m. – and then discovered Morales a short time afterward in the driver’s seat of a car in the area of San Pablo and Minarets avenues, in the Pinedale area of Fresno.
The officer found a vehicle struck by gunfire and discovered that the driver had multiple gunshot wounds. The victim was pronounced dead at the scene
According to police, no one in the area reported the incident. Detectives continue to work on what led to the shooting.
For local, national, and breaking news, and to get weather alerts, download our FREE mobile app from the Apple App Store or the Google Play Store.
Technavio estimates the global automotive steering wheel market to grow by 22.81 million units, progressing at a CAGR of about 4% during the forecast period. The report offers an up-to-date analysis regarding the current market scenario, the latest trends and drivers, and the overall market environment.
Technavio has announced its latest market research report titled Global Automotive Steering Wheel Market 2020-2024 (Graphic: Business Wire)
The market is driven by the increasing use of steering-mounted electronics. However, the development of cars without steering wheels might challenge growth.
Based on the application, the market saw maximum growth in the passenger cars segment in 2019. The segment is driven by the increasing adoption of passenger cars worldwide. The market growth in the segment will be significant over the forecast period.
58% of the market’s growth originated from APAC in 2019. Rising production and sales of automobiles and the expansion of production facilities by global automakers are driving the growth of the market in APAC.
China and Japan are the key markets for the automotive steering wheel in APAC. Market growth in this region will be faster than the growth of the market in other regions.
Major Three Automotive Steering Wheel Market Vendors:
Autoliv Inc.
Autoliv Inc. operates its business through the Passive safety segment. The company manufactures various steering wheel technologies such as electrical motor-integrated steering wheels, steering wheels with heated rims, among others. It also offers advanced intuitive steering wheels that recognize when the driver takes the hands of the wheel and automatically switches to the autopilot driving mode.
GKN Automotive Ltd.
GKN Automotive Ltd. operates its business through segments such as Electric Drive Systems, All-wheel & 4-wheel drive systems, and Sideshafts & Propshafts. The company offers a wide range of steering wheel and associated components.
Hyundai Mobis Co. Ltd.
Hyundai Mobis Co. Ltd. operates its business through segments such as Auto parts and After-sales services. The company offer EPS is an electronic steering system used to change the direction of the vehicle as intended by the driver. EPS secures safety through excellent responsiveness and steering as well as Failure Mode Effects Analysis. It also offers R-EPS, P-EPS, and C-EPS depending on various performance requirements.
Global Automotive Speed Sensor Market – Global automotive speed sensor market is segmented by application (passenger cars and commercial vehicles) and geography (APAC, Europe, North America, South America, and MEA). Click Here to Get an Exclusive Free Sample Report
Global Automotive Crankshaft Market – Global automotive crankshaft market is segmented by material (forged steel, cast iron/steel, and machined billet) and geography (APAC, Europe, North America, South America, and MEA). Click Here to Get an Exclusive Free Sample Report
Technavio suggests three forecast scenarios (optimistic, probable, and pessimistic) considering the impact of COVID-19. Technavio’s in-depth research has direct and indirect COVID-19 impacted market research reports.
Market share assessments for the regional and country-level segments
Strategic recommendations for the new entrants
Covers market data for 2019, 2020, until 2024
Market trends (drivers, opportunities, threats, challenges, investment opportunities, and recommendations)
Strategic recommendations in key business segments based on the market estimations
Competitive landscaping mapping the key common trends
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Technavio is a leading global technology research and advisory company. Their research and analysis focuses on emerging market trends and provides actionable insights to help businesses identify market opportunities and develop effective strategies to optimize their market positions. With over 500 specialized analysts, Technavio’s report library consists of more than 17,000 reports and counting, covering 800 technologies, spanning across 50 countries. Their client base consists of enterprises of all sizes, including more than 100 Fortune 500 companies. This growing client base relies on Technavio’s comprehensive coverage, extensive research, and actionable market insights to identify opportunities in existing and potential markets and assess their competitive positions within changing market scenarios.
December 31, 2020 at 05:20AM
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/global-automotive-steering-wheel-market-222000273.html
Global Automotive Steering Wheel Market to Grow by 22.81 Million Units During 2020-2024 | Featuring Autoliv Inc., GKN Automotive Ltd., and Hyundai Mobis Co. Ltd. among others | Technavio - Yahoo Finance
Whether you loved her or hated her, it was impossible to ignore Danica Patrick. Between her time on the IndyCar scene and her foray into NASCAR, the driver made motorsports history wherever she went. In retirement, though, things are a bit different.
In 2018, Danica Patrick called it a career and retired from the world of motorsports. Believe it or not, she doesn’t miss driving one bit.
Danica Patrick made motorsports history during her career
As almost anyone can confirm, auto racing is a male-dominated space. That reality, however, didn’t stop Danica Patrick from making an impact on both the IndyCar and stock car racing scenes.
Patrick started out driving go-karts and, despite an early crash, proved to be a natural behind the wheel. After attending the Lyn St. James Foundation Driver Development Program and moving to England to further refine her craft, Danica was ready for action.
In 2004, Danica Patrick returned to the United States to join Rahal Letterman Racing for the 2005 IndyCar season; she earned Rookie of the Year honors that campaign and eventually became the first woman to win an IndyCar Series race. That success, however, wasn’t enough, and she set her sights on NASCAR.
After starting on the ARCA Racing Series, Patrick transitioned into the Nationwide Series and, eventually, the Sprint Cup Series. While she didn’t win a NASCAR race during her time on the circuit, she did make plenty of history as a female driver in a male-dominated field.
While climbing behind the wheel of a car might not seem like the most conventionally ‘athletic’ thing, drivers like Danica Patrick still have to dedicate their lives to motorsports in order to find success. Eventually, though, even the most passionate racer has to retire.
For Patrick, that moment came in 2018. While she stopped racing full-time during the previous year, she took part in one last Indy 500 and Daytona 500 before calling it a career.
After spending almost three decades behind the wheel, retiring from racing had to be quite a change. Patrick, however, doesn’t miss climbing behind the wheel one bit.
“No. No, I don’t [miss racing]. I’m being really honest,” Patrick explained in 2019, according to the Orlando Sentinel. “I’m not someone who looks back on things and has a lot of regret. I’m really not. Anytime anybody asks me if I could change anything, what would I change? Well, I’m just not the kind of person that really thinks like that. You know, I [raced] it for 27 years and life is so short and there’s so much to experience and so much to do. I spent a lot of time racing and now I can spend time doing other things.”
Danica Patrick still knows how to keep busy, though
Even though she’s no longer racing, don’t think that Danica Patrick is just sitting on the beach doing nothing. If anything, she knows how to make the most of her time.
In retirement, Patrick has branched out into the business world. She has a clothing line and her own wine label; the former IndyCar and NASCAR driver has also appeared on NBC’s racing coverage and hosts the Pretty Intense podcast. In her personal life, Patrick dated Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers, but the couple broke up in 2020.
Thanks to her racing career, Danica Patrick also has a net worth that’s reportedly between $60 and $80 million. With money like that, it’s a bit easier to enjoy retirement without longing to get back into motorsports.
FRESNO, California (KGPE) – A man was found dead in Fresno behind the wheel of a vehicle Tuesday night, according to police.
An officer patrolling nearby reported hearing gunshots shortly after 10 p.m. in the area of San Pablo and Minarets avenues, in the Pinedale area of Fresno. The officer found a vehicle struck by gunfire and discovered that the driver had multiple gunshot wounds.
The victim was later pronounced dead at the scene. He was not officially identified, but is described as a Hispanic male adult.
According to police, no one in the area reported the incident.
Detectives are working to establish what led to the shooting.
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Recently, Pat Sajak dissed the old Wheel of Fortune shopping-spree format, labeling it "the most boring three minutes of television."
Both Pat and Vanna White expressed that they were glad the game show phased out the shopping elements, which prompted contestants to spend their earnings on physical prizes.
On Twitter, several Wheel of Fortune fans disagreed with Pat and Vanna, calling for the return of the retro format.
During the Dec. 23rd episode, TVLine reports that Pat teased a contestant for reminiscing about a retired Wheel of Fortune "shopping segment," where players would spend their winnings from the game show on all sorts of physical prizes. As longtime fans can remember, the shopping format took on various forms over the years until it was eventually phased out in the late '80s.
Clearly not a fan of the shopping-spree format, Pat, who has been on the show since 1981, told the contestant that he thought it was "the most boring three minutes of television." What's more, at the end of the episode, Pat turned to cohost Vanna White and doubled down on his dislike of the old concept.
"I don’t miss them [the shopping sprees]," he explained. "In retrospect [you think], 'Oh, that was kind of fun,' but, really, it was this thing going around with the [contestant’s] head in a circle … It was really not exciting television. We like it just the way it is." Agreeing with Pat's remarks, Vanna declared that Wheel of Fortune "is so much better now" than it was with the shopping-spree bit.
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Though Pat and Vanna seemed to be in agreement, many folks on Twitter didn't exactly see eye to eye with the iconic gameshow duo. "I rather liked the shopping rounds, particularly when [former announcer] Charlie O’Donnell was reading off the prizes," one fan tweeted in response. "It could be epic with today’s money and products!" another said. "@Patsajak I agree that for the most part the shopping element was boring. But it had a unique charm to it because it was the only show that kind of did that thing. Other games you won cash alone or a prize that was assigned. Just my opinion," a different fan tweeted.
Per PopCulture.com's reporting, this isn't the first time Pat has expressed his aversion to the old-school format. On PatSajak.com in the early 2000s, Pat reportedly noted that he had no desire to bring back the shopping. "Trust me, it was the most boring two minutes in television as shoppers hemmed and hawed over whether they wanted the dining room table or the floor lamp," he allegedly said.
Recently, Pat has made headlines for what some fans have labeled "testy" behavior toward Wheel of Fortune contestants. In November, some viewers took issue with Pat after he jokingly called a contestant "ungrateful" when the player questioned one of the answers on the board. Pat once again drew backlash in early December when he scolded another contestant for interrupting an advertisement plug.
Through it all though, Pat has continued to stay silent on social media.
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Kayla KeeganSenior News and Entertainment EditorKayla Keegan covers all things in the entertainment, pop culture, and celebrity space for Good Housekeeping.
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ABOVE VIDEO:Brevard County Sheriff’s Office has named Jennifer Lynn Athans as BCSO’s Fugitive of the Week.
BREVARD COUNTY, FLORIDA – Brevard County Sheriff’s Office has named Jennifer Lynn Athans as BCSO’s Fugitive of the Week.
Athans is wanted for Failure to Appear for Early Resolution reference to Petit Theft 2 or more Prior Theft Convictions.
She has $5,000 bond and was last seen in the Satellite Beach area.
If you have any information on the whereabouts of Jennifer Lynn Athans, BCSO encourages you to contact the Fugitive Unit at 321-633-1227 or call CRIMELINE at 800-423-TIPS (8477). You can also email wheeloffugitive@bcso.us or leave a tip on the BCSO App.
December 30, 2020 at 08:47AM
https://spacecoastdaily.com/2020/12/wheel-of-fugitive-brevard-sheriffs-office-names-jennifer-lynn-athans-fugitive-of-the-week/
WHEEL OF FUGITIVE: Brevard Sheriff's Office Names Jennifer Lynn Athans 'Fugitive of the Week' - SpaceCoastDaily.com
Your Mac hijacking your cursor and asking you to wait around is never welcome. People call it different things, including the spinning wheel, beachball, or pinwheel of death.
The good news is a spinning wheel means macOS hasn’t crashed completely. You might be able to wrestle back control.
What Is the Spinning Wheel of Death on a Mac?
That rainbow spinning wheel (whatever you might call it) is a common macOS wait cursor. It’s triggered when an application doesn’t respond for a few seconds and signals that you should wait before giving the app more instructions.
This isn’t to be confused with the blue spinning wheel, which is also sometimes called the “JavaScript pinwheel.” A blue wheel mostly appears in web content when running Java apps. It usually occurs when a website sends a wait command. It often appears in web apps, like Google Sheets.
How to Fix the Spinning Wheel of Death
A spinning wheel (or beachball) is a sign from the operating system that an app isn’t behaving as it should. This is one of the better problems to encounter because it means your system is probably running fine. It’s likely just one app that’s causing the issue. If you find the app and fix the problem, you should be golden.
With that in mind, let’s run through how to find the app in question, and how you can get rid of the spinning wheel.
Find the App Causing the Issue
A spinning wheel generally means macOS has detected a problem in a specific app. The good news is it also means your entire system (including the OS) hasn’t crashed. In fact, a spinning wheel doesn’t necessarily mean anything has crashed (yet).
If it’s not already obvious, you can find the app causing the issue by cycling through those that are active. To do so, press Command+Tab or just click around on the screen (your mouse should still work even though the cursor has changed).
If you can’t tell which app is causing the issue, Activity Monitor might be able to help. You can launch it by heading to Applications > Utilities or searching for it in Spotlight. Under the CPU tab click the “% CPU” column to organize the list by current system usage.
This puts the thirstiest apps at the top of the list. See if any are using more than their fair share of CPU resources. You might also see “(Not responding)” appended after the app name in the list. Resist quitting the app just yet and move on to the next step.
Wait a While
Many times, the spinning wheel of death appears when an app is trying to do something. For example, it might appear when you’re trying to render a video in an editing program or perform batch edits in a photo-editing app. It might even pop up when you’re connecting to a server in an online game.
In these cases, waiting is the best option. If you’ve already told an app to do something, you might as well give it some time to finish the task. Sometimes, this isn’t something you explicitly requested. For example, the macOS Photos app might be performing image analysis on a set of photos you recently imported.
Other apps should function normally during this period, assuming you aren’t putting the system under a huge load (like rendering video or 3D models, for example). Step away from your computer for a few minutes and let your Mac work out the problem.
Force Quit the Problem App
If you’ve waited a while for any tasks to complete, but your computer is still unresponsive, it might be a good idea to force quit and restart the app. If you have any unsaved data or work, you might lose it when you do this, so be sure you’ve given the app long enough to recover.
You can try quitting the app normally first. To do so, right-click (or two-finger click or press Control+Click) its icon in the Dock, and then choose Quit. The app might take a second to respond. However, by shutting it down normally, you might avoid losing any unsaved work.
Unfortunately, this doesn’t always work. You can also force quit an app by right-clicking its icon in the Dock, holding the Option key on your keyboard, and then selecting “Force Quit.”
Alternatively, you can launch Activity Monitor, find the app, and then quit the process from there.
When the problem app is closed, the spinning wheel of death should disappear. You should now be able to reopen the app and try again.
Got a Persistent Pinwheel? Restart Your Mac
If the pinwheel refuses to disappear or keeps reappearing, restarting your machine is a good idea. Just click the Apple logo, select “Restart,” and then wait. After your machine reboots, it should be fast and responsive, with no wait cursors in sight.
Sometimes, your Mac might crash to the point that restarting it via the Apple logo isn’t possible. If this occurs (and you feel like you’ve waited long enough for it to respond), press and hold your Mac’s power button (or the Touch ID button on some MacBooks) until it powers off.
Apple
This is the last resort for any major system crashes, and you will lose any unsaved work in the applications that are still running. If possible, save and close any apps that are still responding before you attempt this step.
A Frequent Spinning Wheel Indicates Other Problems
It’s reasonable to expect to see the spinning wheel from time to time, particularly when dealing with resource-intensive applications. However, if you start seeing it often and across a variety of applications, this might indicate a larger problem.
In this case, the state of your system could be contributing to software instability. One common cause is a lack of available storage. Your Mac needs free space to function. Both the operating system and third-party applications swell and contract their use of storage over time
So, first, make sure your Mac has enough free space. Apple doesn’t specify what the “right” amount of free space is. However, we recommend leaving about 10% of your primary disk space (around 20GB on a 256GB MacBook). That should be enough to keep the cogs turning.
A lack of RAM might also cause the spinning pinwheel to regularly appear in memory-hungry apps. There’s not a lot you can do about this unless you’re using an iMac, Mac mini, or Mac Pro that allows you to upgrade the memory.
If you’re stuck on an older version of macOS, like 10.10 (OS X Yosemite) or earlier, you might want to try repairing disk permissions if you’re seeing the spinning wheel a lot.
To find out which version of macOS you’re running, click the Apple logo at the top left and select About This Mac. If it’s version 10.11 or later, you can skip this section.
If you’re working with version 10.10 or earlier, launch Disk Utility by navigating to Applications > Utilities folder or just search for it in Spotlight. Select the main boot drive (usually called “Macintosh HD”) in the sidebar, and then click “First Aid.” Let your Mac scan and repair any errors it finds.
This isn’t necessary on 10.11 (El Capitan) or later, as Apple introduced changes to the way the permission system works.
Beachball Be Gone!
Hopefully, these tips will give you a good idea of how to solve any future problems with the spinning wheel (or beachball) of death.
Keep in mind, though, the one good thing about seeing the spinning wheel is the problem is likely one app. If you’re having system-wide instability, though, you might want to learn how to fix a frozen Mac next.
