Doggy and monkey don’t want to share the lollipop.
Must be too yummy!

By The Daily Ticker, June 4, 2014

The future of driving is looking bright, literally. In the video above, The Daily Ticker meets a new U.S. automaker, Elio Motors, with a bright orange prototype of its Elio automobile. It’s got one door, two seats, three wheels and stands to make driving more affordable for many Americans. Why? It’s being engineered to achieve 84 MPG on the highway at a cost of $6,800.  It’s also being made in the U.S.A.

Elio’s founder and CEO, automotive engineer Paul Elio, tells us the original concept behind Elio Motors was to help Americans struggling with high prices at the pump. The automaker is marketing it as an “and” (i.e. in addition to your current vehicle) not “or” car, for things like driving to work.

They’re planning to build it at a former General Motors (GM) plant in Shreveport, Louisiana, which GM got rid of in its bankruptcy. Elio pledged to create 1,500 jobs when it purchased the plant.

motorreview

“If you’re going to build a sophisticated product like a vehicle, America is still the best place to do it, hands down … we have the skilled labor force, we have the infrastructure,” Elio says, adding that he thinks the price tag of his car will demonstrate a product can be made in the U.S. at a low cost.

One secret to keeping costs down is by using parts already in use in other vehicles, says Elio vice president of sales Jerome Vassallo.

The Elio is technically a motorcycle, because it has fewer than four wheels. The automaker is engineering it for a 5-star crash test safety rating. Kathryn Henry, a spokesperson for the Department of Transportation, says the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration will not test the Elio though, as it is not technically a car. (The company is lobbying for an exception). Elio’s safety features include a roll cage, three airbags that cover all the windows, and engineering built to absorb frontal, side and rear collision impact.

Another hitch to the Elio: Drivers may need a motorcycle license to drive it in some states. One potential bright side is that it will require motorcycle insurance, which Vassallo says is less expensive, and you may be able to drive it in the carpool lane.

Production of the Elio is scheduled to begin in March of 2015, but interested buyers can reserve their spot on the website. More than 18,000 people already have.

As for how the car drives, we tested it out – in the safety of an empty parking lot – and you can see how it performs in the video (remember – it’s a prototype, so no seatbelts and some features will be different).

As for those incredulous that the price will only end up being $6,800, when pressed, Vassallo says that is what they are aiming for and he is 80% to 90% confident it will be below $7,000.

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By Charlene Sakoda, Odd News, June 4, 2014

An unnamed Cincinnati woman has filed a lawsuit against the University of Cincinnati (UC) Medical Center alleging that their employees posted her private medical records, including her positive diagnosis for a sexually transmitted disease, on Facebook. Mike Allen, the woman’s attorney, spoke to WLWT News 5, “She was absolutely devastated. That is the most private of private medical information that was posted on Facebook and went out to a group on Facebook that had a huge dissemination.” A screenshot of the woman’s medical record with her personal information and syphilis diagnosis, was posted to a Facebook group called “Team No Hoes,” which has over 2,300 members. The court documents indicate that comments followed the post calling the woman a “’hoe’ and a ‘slut.’”

The lawsuit names UC employee Ryan Rawls, another unnamed UC employee (believed to be a nurse), and the victim’s ex-boyfriend, Raphael Bradley. The station tried to get a comment from the named defendants but there was no answer at either home.

Exhibit 1 of the lawsuit: a screenshot of the victim’s medical record that was posted on Facebook. (WLWT)

Allen said that the woman’s ex-boyfriend convinced the UC employees to release the medical records, which was in violation of state and federal laws. “To have that kind of information in the public domain when it is clearly legally to be protected, that’s a problem and that’s a problem that UC’s responsible for,” the attorney said.

Diana Lara, spokeswoman for the UC Medical Center, told WLWT that they have not yet received the lawsuit, and they could not comment on pending litigation.

The lawsuit is asking UC Medical Center to examine their procedures to prevent an incident like this in the future. They are also seeking more than $25,000 in damages and a jury trial. About his client, Allen said, “She doesn’t want to go out. She doesn’t want to talk to people. People who were formerly her friends have made fun of her for it. She’s chastised in the community and all of this could’ve been avoided if UC Med Center had proper protections in place.”

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Justin Hyde By Justin Hyde
Motoramic, June 4, 2014

Even by Tornado Alley standards, the hail storm that hit Blair, Neb., on Tuesday was a whopper, with tennis-ball-sized chunks of ice pounding the town for 15 minutes. Some 27 people were injured, hundreds of homes and buildings damaged and scores of windows broken. And the biggest hit landed at the local mega car dealer, which estimates nearly 4,500 new cars and trucks suffered some $10 million in damage.

The Woodhouse Auto Family dealership chain has its flagship Ford and Chrysler/Dodge/Jeep stores in Blair, with $152 million in new-vehicle inventory — all of which was sitting outside Tuesday when the storm blew in. In one video recorded by employees and posted to the dealership’s Facebook page, the hail sounds like a storm of buckshot hitting the roof.

The dealership says it is still counting up the damage to the vehicles on its lots, but that the traditional post-hailstorm sale will be sizable. Normal-size hail can inflict thousands of dollars of dents and broken glass; several of the cars shown at the Woodhouse dealership look near-totaled, considering they might need entirely new roofs, hoods and fenders.

Many dealers can use paintless dent repair to get small dings out, but before you grab your checkbook, a few warnings about hail-damaged vehicles. Insurance and valuation can get tricky fast: If you buy one and decide the dents add character (or you can’t afford all the fixes), the insurance company will still write down the value of the car so it’s not paying for repairing old damage in any future crash. The damage report will likely be flagged in VIN tracking systems. And a hail-damage discount may be less than the reduction in its resale value.

And don’t worry if you can’t get to Blair for this deal. With the way weather patterns are changing, chances are there’ll be a hail of a sale near you soon.

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Our life of poverty is as necessary as the work itself. Only in heaven will we see
how much we owe to the poor for helping us to love God better because of them.

~Mother Teresa