Tell It To Al

OK, this is getting weird.

Another driver of a runaway Toyota has time to call 911, but no time to throw the car in neutral or turn the ignition key? Click here to read all about it in this report from the Associated Press.

And click here to see my previous remarks on this ongoing phenomena.

Americans have as much or more confidence in the press than they do in law firms, Congress and Wall Street, according to the latest Harris Poll Confidence Index, released Monday.

This is to say that we in the press only inspire “a great deal of confidence” in less than 15% of the population. OK, so why are you even reading this a member of the press is reporting it?

According to the poll, the press tied law firms for 13%, and Congress tied Wall Street for only 8%. Arguably, Congress and Wall Street are the same thing, and members of the press are often just poor slobs like me who didn’t have enough money to go to law school.

At the top of the list of places where people held a great deal of confidence were the military, 59%; small business, 50%; major educational institutions, such as colleges and universities, 35%; medicine, 34%; and the U.S. Supreme Court, 31%.

The Harris Poll has been measuring confidence since 1966. The overall index fell from 54 last year to 53 this year. It had fallen to 44 in 2008.

The biggest change in the index was confidence in the White House, which fell 9 points to 27%.

There were also declines in colleges and universities, from 40% to 35%; organized religion, from 30% to 26%; and television news, from 22% to 17%.

It’s that time of year again, when job market expert extraordinaire John Challenger estimates just how much March Madness is going to cost U.S. employers.

The first week of the NCAA men’s basketball tournament will set companies back by $1.8 billion, the CEO of global outplacement firm, Challenger Gray & Christmas Inc., estimated in a report he released on Monday.

Employees scrambling to their computers to research 64 teams, join betting pools, and stream live broadcasts are not only a drain on productivity but also squeeze Internet bandwidth, Challenger said.

“March Madness and the subsequent office pools have been going on long enough that employers can no longer claim to be caught off guard by the annual event,” Challenger said. “Those who insist there will be no impact are kidding themselves.”

Productivity, however, is in the eyes of the beholder. Isn’t it better to watch the games at work and get paid to do so? Sure beats finding your self unemployed and having to watch the games at home.

The median weekly earnings for women in 2009 were $657 vs. $819 for men, according to a report released by the Institute for Women’s Policy Research on Monday.

The latest figures show that the gender gap narrowed slightly in 2009. This tends to occur in recessions as employers cut back on overtime pay, which more often goes to men, the Institute said.

Still, the gender gap is higher than the low of 19% it hit in 2005. It now stands at 19.8%.

Why is the work of women worth 20% less than the work of men?

Click here to read the report.

First General Motors Corp. made a rash and desperate decision to close more than 1,000 dealerships. Now it’s making a rash and desperate decision to reinstate 661 of them. This on again, off again decision-making is just another example of your tax dollars are work. I talk about it with Eric Kahnert of Denver’s NBC affiliate, 9News.

Does the Second Amendment give you the right to carry a loaded gun into Starbucks? Starbucks seems to think so.

Click here to read my column on Starbuck’s decision to allow its customers to openly carry guns into its stores in states where carrying firearms is legal.

I’ve received several emails from people suggesting that I am somehow against the Second Amendment, and would like to take away everyone’s guns, just because I wrote a column suggesting that maybe carrying a gun into Starbucks isn’t such a great idea.

I’m a gun owner myself and have no problem with responsible people owning and carrying guns. I just don’t get these people who show up at private businesses with guns strapped to their belts.

Starbucks has the right to ask customers not to bring their guns into their stores, but it has chosen not to do so. This decision has upset thousands of its customers. Here’s an email I received from one of them:

———-

I’ve already e-mailed Starbucks and given them my view regarding their “gun” policy. I’m just waiting for the headlines “Gunman shoots Starbuck’s staff member because he did not like his latte.”

Since my 14 year old son was accidentally killed when my neighbors son took a gun onto a public golf course to hunt jack rabbits, I have actively supported the Brady organization and am active in supporting proper gun controls at state level. For the past twenty years I have repeatedly given testimony in the Colorado State Capital fighting the gun advocates. You see what really hurts is the fact that no-one was held responsible for my son’s death, it was and still is perfectly legal for a 15 year old to take and discharge a gun on a public golf course!

I am not against guns and have many hunter friends who have several guns all securely locked away. But the difference between a sensible gun owner and a gun lobbyist is that the sensible gun owner support sensible gun controls and also cannot see why the extreme gun advocate’s want to openly display guns in public like bullies trying to intimidate the public. What is the point of wanting to display their guns, “don’t cross me I have a gun” it is certainly not for protection?

I have come in direct contact with some of these “over zealous gun advocates” many times. It has not been a pleasant experience. I’ve received comments from “get back where you came from bitch”, (I’m British by birth American by choice) to being tugged at with the comment “we’ll save you.” OK but who is going to save me from them?

Flu epidemics make the front page. Gun deaths the back page, that is if they are reported at all. Yet there were more gun deaths during the flu epidemic than from the flu.

I wonder what our forefathers would think of all this? I wonder, would they have the courage, unlike our present politicians, to legislate proper & sensible gun controls.

Thank you for your article.

Respectfully,

Carole Bell.

Incidentally, my California son & his wife did spend more than $10,000 a year on coffee and gift cards for their clients. They also support gun control but because of the Starbuck policy no longer buy the gift cards or drink Starbuck coffee.

Haiti, Chile, Taiwan - the recent spate of earthquakes begs one obvious question: When’s the next big one going to hit California?

No one will be surprised when it happens, but it will still catch Californians unprepared.

A recent survey by UCLA School of Public Health concludes that more than 60% of Californians remain unprepared for “an inevitable, large-scale earthquake.”

According to the survey:
* Fewer than 20% of households have reinforced or inspected their homes for earthquake resistance.
* Only 40% three gallons of water stored per person.
* Fewer than 20% have purchased earthquake insurance.
* Only 40% percent of Californians have made family disaster plans.
The survey was conducted for the California Emergency Management Agency, California Seismic Safety Commission and CaliforniaVolunteers.

“The recent earthquakes in Chile and Haiti are unwelcome reminders of the devastating impact earthquakes can have on people and communities,” said Secretary Matthew Bettenhausen of the California Emergency Management Agency. “It calls attention to the need for Californians to do even more to prepare for the big one.

What are you doing for Employee Spirit Month?

Did you even know that March was Employee Spirit Month?

Neither did I. How’s that for spirit?

I did, however, manage to track down the origins of holiday. Click here to read about it in my column.

Toyota executives seemed unable to explain some of the bizarre accidents involving their cars during Congressional hearings last week.

Accident victims, on the other hand, can’t seem to fully explain them either.

Most puzzling of all, some of them have time for phone cars while their accelerators are stuck. Click here to read column.

Jim Press is a guy who left Toyota Motor Corp. in 2007 to go work for Chrylser.

Need I say more about his ability to envision the future?

Press apparently was trying to help out his old pal at Toyota when he emailed this statement to The Wall Street Journal about Toyota’s sticky gas pedal crisis.

“The root cause of their problems is that the company was hijacked, some years ago, by anti-family, financially oriented pirates,” he wrote. “They didn’t have the character to maintain a customer first focus.”

I read this to mean a bunch of greedy profiteers took over the company and did everything on the cheap, even at the expense of human lives, to make themselves a buck. And how is this different than any other corporation, Mr Press?

When Press couldn’t pull this kind of stunt off at Chrysler, he turned to the government for a bailout.

I’m not sure how much help his statement is going to be for Toyota when it goes to court on wrongful death claims.

Sure, Press was just sticking up for Toyota’s president Akio Toyoda, who was unmercifully grilled before Congress this week. But he probably did more harm than good.

“Akio Toyoda is not only up for the job, but he is the only person who can save Toyota,” Press said.

Maybe Toyoda would be better off getting a recommendation from someone at Zastava Corp., which used to make a car called the Yugo.