Latest Headlines on OCRegister.com
[x] Close
OC Watchdog ~ Your tax dollars at work.

Cash-for-clunkers’ most popular carmaker: Toyota

February 10th, 2010, 3:00 am by Teri Sforza, Register staff writer

clunkersCash for clunkers, indeed!

  • The  most popular cars purchased in last summer’s consumer-spending-stimulus-blitz were Toyotas, amounting to nearly one of every five cash-for-clunkers transactions.
  • About seven of every 10 of those brand new Toyotas has now been recalled.

Oops.

The federal government spent $2.85 billion on the cash-for-clunkers program, moving nearly 678,000 new cars and trucks off the lots, according to the latest report to Congress.

Some 132,000of those vehicles were Toyotas.

The chart below, from our colleagues at Bloomberg, shows the popularity each Toyota model that was purchased with the help of a voucher from the cash-for-clunkers program.

toyota_clunkers

More than a dozen people apparently lost their lives in accidents related to Toyota’s problems, but some 40,000 die in car accidents each year, according to federal statistics.

HEARING POSTPONED

The blanket of snow that hit the nation’s Capitol has spared Toyota executives the wrath of Congress- for a while, anyway, our colleague Dena Bunis reports.

The House Committee on Oversight and Reform originally supposed to get under way this week will now be held on Wednesday, Feb. 24. Toyota’s North America Chairman Yoshi Inaba, as well as federal regulators, are expected to get a grilling (though several of our readers have postulated that Congress will be grilling Toyota some steak). Read Bunis’s report here. 

CONSUMER COMPLAINTS EXPLODE

In the wake of unprecedented recalls,  many drivers  of Toyota vehicles are viewing their cars with great suspicion - whether those cars have been officially recalled or not. 

See our story here for more details.

For more on the Toyota recall, click here.…  and here.

More Watchdog:

Posted in: Consumer stuff • Federal government • Public safety • Toyota • Transportation | Post a Comment »

Pols hide Super Bowl fundraisers

February 9th, 2010, 8:31 am by Dena Bunis, Washington Bureau Chief

superWe’re used to lawmakers finding creative ways to wring money out of their contributors. They do golf tournaments, spa trips, etc. But what a deal for donors: Give some money and get a Super Bowl ticket.

The non-profit newsroom,  ProPublica, enlisted the aid of news organizations around the country to participate in their Super Bowl Blitz project, asking us to check if our members of Congress and Senators were going to the big game and how they got their tickets.

We played. Turns out none of Orange County’s House members or California’s senators went to the Super Bowl in Miami this year or attended last year’s game.

meekinvite1ProPublica did find out that a couple of lawmakers went underground with their planned fundraisers. Click here to read their extensive report about how contributions and football mixed at this year’s game.  See their chart of the entire Congress here.

In fact, ABC News crews showed up at Florida Democratic Rep. Kendrick Meek’s fundraiser, trying to find out who was giving and who was getting. Well Meek’s people wanted none of that. First they shut the crew out of the event. Then they peeled off the name tags of donors as they left so they couldn’t be outed.

ABC followed Meeks to his car to ask him about where he got his tickets etc. he declined comment.

Who dat?

More Watchdog:

Share this post:
  • email
  • Digg
  • del.icio.us
  • Facebook
  • Google Bookmarks
  • NewsVine
  • Fark
  • TwitThis

Posted in: Congress • Federal government | 7 Comments »

More democracy-aversion at OC water districts?

February 9th, 2010, 3:00 am by Teri Sforza, Register staff writer

ocwd1Last week, the Orange County Water District appointed Noble J. Waite to its powerful board of directors, replacing Wes Bannister, who died in December. Which brings things strangely full circle.

See, Waite sat on OCWD’s board for 21 years, from 1970 to 1991.

In 1991, Waite retired, and was replaced by Wes Bannister.

Bannister then sat on the powerful board for nearly 20 years, until he died.

So  now Waite is replacing his replacement.

Will this prompt members of last year’s Orange County Grand Jury to yank bits of their hair out? In a scathing report last summer, the grand jury blasted local water districts for, among other things:

  • circumventing the democratic process by appointing people to vacant seats, rather than holding elections;
  • and for not having term limits, which allow the same few Water Lords to serve decade after decade after decade (see Some water officials use office for personal gain for detail).

The Irvine Ranch Water District recently filled a seat by appointment, rather than election, even though the seat had nearly four years on it.

The Municipal Water District of Orange County recently filled a seat by appointment, rather than election, as well.

OCWD thinks the appointment makes sense. “Waite’s many years of public service and previous experience resolving complex water issues within the District and the water community will serve the District well again,” it said in a press release (which landed in our e-mailbox early Saturday - days after the action was taken).

Now, Waite is apparently a much-loved city father in  Huntington Beach (bio), and he apparently will not run for election when the seat comes open in November (which would take care of the GJ’s concern that hand-picked appointees run in elections as incumbents, and then reign for the rest of their natural lives).

Read the rest of this entry »

Share this post:
  • email
  • Digg
  • del.icio.us
  • Facebook
  • Google Bookmarks
  • NewsVine
  • Fark
  • TwitThis

Posted in: Special districts • Water | 6 Comments »

Lawsuit seeks class-action status over Toyota Prius problems

February 8th, 2010, 3:37 pm by Teri Sforza, Register staff writer

toyota-new-2010-prius-hybrid-photo-01A woman has filed suit against Toyota Motor Sales, alleging the 2010 Prius she bought in August has severe braking problems that make it dangerous to drive - and is asking that the judge grant the suit class-action status, so others can recoup damages as well, according to the Los Angeles Daily News.

Elaine Miller seeks unspecified damages on allegations of negligence and breach of warranty, the News reports. The suit was filed Friday in Los Angeles Superior Court.

A Toyota spokesman said the company does no comment on litigation.

Miller said she brought it on behalf of other 2010 Prius owners, as well purchasers of the 2010 Lexus HS250h hybrid. Neither model is within the nearly 2.3 million cars recalled by Toyota last month over sticking accelerator pedals, but a Toyota announcement concerning the Prius is expected this week.

Read the rest of this entry »

Share this post:
  • email
  • Digg
  • del.icio.us
  • Facebook
  • Google Bookmarks
  • NewsVine
  • Fark
  • TwitThis

Posted in: Consumer stuff • Toyota | 5 Comments »

Stimulus money probes why men don’t like condoms

February 8th, 2010, 3:00 am by Teri Sforza, Register staff writer

coburn-report-boatAre the staffers in Sen. Tom Coburn and Sen. John McCain’s offices gunning for writing careers at “The Colbert Report?”

A scathing report titled “Stimulus Checkup,” released under the two senators’ names and highlighting 100 programs they claim are wasting billions of federal dollars, is some of the funniest stuff since Tina Fey dressed up as Sarah Palin on “Saturday Night Live.”

“Few security analysts see the dinner cruise industry as a key vulnerability in our nation‘s efforts to combat terrorism,” says the report. “But, that did not stop the Department of Homeland Security from awarding nearly $1 million to the privately-held Entertainment Cruises, LLC, to step up its security efforts.”

The Chicago-based company has 23 vessels in eight cities. One ship, the Spirit of Boston, got $943,190 in stimulus funds to pay for an alarm and surveillance system. “Entertainment Cruises vice president, Gary Frommelt, noted that it was unusual for his company to get terrorism-prevention funding. ‘We feel that we‘re really a low threat for a terrorist incident. But the stimulus was a nice perk,’” the report quotes Frommelt as saying.

We share our favorites from the report below, but  we don’t want to appear as if we’re piling on. Before we detail how much was spent on studies of why men don’t like condoms and whether booze makes coeds more likely to engage in casual sex, we’d like to point out that:

Read the rest of this entry »

Share this post:
  • email
  • Digg
  • del.icio.us
  • Facebook
  • Google Bookmarks
  • NewsVine
  • Fark
  • TwitThis

Posted in: Federal spending • Financial meltdown | 36 Comments »

Congress to grill slow-moving Toyota - and federal regulators

February 7th, 2010, 10:34 am by Teri Sforza, Register staff writer

toyota-logoToyota - the most popular car maker in America - has a lengthy pattern of molasses-slow reactions to safety concerns in its vehicles, in some instances making design changes without telling customers about problems with vehicles already on the road, a New York Times investigation shows.

Customers in Europe complained about sticking accelerator pedals as early as December 2008, and Toyota started installing redesigned pedals on new vehicles there last August. But it took months for the company to recall cars in the United States he Europe due to the problem, the Times reports. Read its complete story here.

This “What? Who, us?” pattern will surely be addressed in this week’s hearings. Congressional investigators will delve into Toyota’s sudden-acceleration troubles, ”focusing on discrepancies in the automaker’s explanation of the problem, the role of regulators who oversee the industry — and ultimately whether federal safety standards are grossly outdated, given the advanced electronics technology at the heart of modern car-making,” reports the Los Angeles Times (which has been light years ahead of everyone on this story, though it’s nice to see the NYT getting into the action).

Read the rest of this entry »

Share this post:
  • email
  • Digg
  • del.icio.us
  • Facebook
  • Google Bookmarks
  • NewsVine
  • Fark
  • TwitThis

Posted in: Consumer stuff • Federal government • Toyota • Transportation • watchdog roundup | 11 Comments »

Federal air marshal program: ‘A total waste of money’

February 5th, 2010, 1:05 pm by Teri Sforza, Register staff writer

cnnThe federal air marshal program - meant to protect America’s commercial flights from terrorist attacks - was thrown together in a “knee-jerk reaction” after 9/11, its critics say.

Its budget: More than $800 million a year.

How many terrorists did the FAMs stop with this $800 million? Zero, according to a CNN Special Investigation (though agents did make four arrests last year - which averages some $200 million per arrest).

While President Obama  has called for an extra $85 million to put more FAMs on aircraft - in the wake of the Christmas Day Underwear Bomber’s failed attempt to blow up a Delta jet - members of Congress are calling for an investigation of the entire FAM program, demanding a ”clean sweep,” according to CNN’s report.

The number of air marshals employed is classified information, but it’s been widely reported that there are fewer than 4,000 of them. With 28,000 commercial flights every day in the U.S., the odds of an air marshal being on your flight are “embarrassingly low” - at 5 percent, CNN calculates.

Many air marshals are rising in revolt against what they call a poorly-run agency. We’ve written quite a bit in this space about former air marshal Robert MacLean of Ladera Ranch, who apparently has plenty of company in thinking that the entire program is upside down.

Read the rest of this entry »

Share this post:
  • email
  • Digg
  • del.icio.us
  • Facebook
  • Google Bookmarks
  • NewsVine
  • Fark
  • TwitThis

Posted in: Federal government • Public safety • Transportation | 35 Comments »

Add raging Toyota 4Runner to recall list, local woman says

February 5th, 2010, 3:00 am by Teri Sforza, Register staff writer

04_toyota_4runner_500Deanna Reynolds is afraid of her Toyota.

On Jan. 2, she was pulling into a parking spot when her engine surged and her car leaped forward with such force that she smashed into the PT Cruiser parked opposite her, launching it completely from its spot. Trembling, she backed up, turned off her ignition, and kept repeating, “What just happened? What just happened?”

Stories like Reynolds’ are not uncommon in this era of unprecedented Toyota recalls. But Reynolds, of San Clemente, doesn’t own one of the recalled cars. She owns a 2004 Toyota 4Runner. Which is supposed to be just fine.

But it is not fine.

Read the rest of this entry »

Share this post:
  • email
  • Digg
  • del.icio.us
  • Facebook
  • Google Bookmarks
  • NewsVine
  • Fark
  • TwitThis

Posted in: Consumer stuff • Public safety • Toyota | 47 Comments »

« Previous Entries