The U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood announced a Federal Ban on Texting for Commercial Truck Drivers.  This should help cut down on the number of potential truck accidents.

U.S Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood today announced federal guidance to expressly prohibit texting by drivers of commercial vehicles such as large trucks and buses. The prohibition is effective immediately and is the latest in a series of actions taken by the Department to combat distracted driving since the Secretary convened a national summit on the issue last September.

“We want the drivers of big rigs and buses and those who share the roads with them to be safe,” said Secretary LaHood. “This is an important safety step and we will be taking more to eliminate the threat of distracted driving.”

The action is the result of the Department’s interpretation of standing rules. Truck and bus drivers who text while driving commercial vehicles may be subject to civil or criminal penalties of up to $2,750.

“Our regulations will help prevent unsafe activity within the cab,” said Anne Ferro, Administrator for the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA). “We want to make it crystal clear to operators and their employers that texting while driving is the type of unsafe activity that these regulations are intended to prohibit.”
FMCSA research shows that drivers who send and receive text messages take their eyes off the road for an average of 4.6 seconds out of every 6 seconds while texting. At 55 miles per hour, this means that the driver is traveling the length of a football field, including the end zones, without looking at the road. Drivers who text while driving are more than 20 times more likely to get in an accident than non-distracted drivers. Because of the safety risks associated with the use of electronic devices while driving, FMCSA is also working on additional regulatory measures that will be announced in the coming months.

During the September 2009 Distracted Driving Summit, the Secretary announced the Department’s plan to pursue this regulatory action, as well as rulemakings to reduce the risks posed by distracted driving. President Obama also signed an Executive Order directing federal employees not to engage in text messaging while driving government-owned vehicles or with government-owned equipment. Federal employees were required to comply with the ban starting on December 30, 2009.
The regulatory guidance on today’s announcement will be on public display in the Federal Register January 26 and will appear in print in the Federal Register on January
27.

The public can follow the progress of the U.S. Department of Transportation in working to combat distracted driving www.distraction.gov.

Washington, D.C., Dec. 8, 2009 — The Securities and Exchange Commission today halted a Ponzi scheme involving a New York firm that solicited investments involving personal injury lawsuit settlements but instead shipped the money overseas. The SEC obtained a court order freezing the assets of the firm, its president, and several companies holding money from the scam that began several months ago.

The SEC alleges that Rockford Funding Group LLC used cold calling and a Web site to raise at least $11 million from more than 200 investors in 41 different states and Canada since March 2009. Rockford Group falsely touted itself as a leading private equity firm with an $800 million pipeline of investments and many Fortune 500 companies as clients, and told investors their money would be safely invested in structured settlements in private lawsuits.

According to the SEC’s complaint, filed in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, Rockford Group does not appear to engage in any investment activity that would generate any returns for investors, let alone its claimed returns of at least 15 percent annually. Instead, dividend payments made to investors have been funded by other investors’ contributions, and Rockford Group transferred most of the money collected from investors to banks in Latvia and Hong Kong.

“Rockford Group dressed itself up as a high-powered firm with a safe strategy to make huge returns, but everything was a lie,” said George Canellos, Director of the SEC’s New York Regional Office. “Rockford Group pressured investors through cold calls and fooled them with a Web site, but fortunately the scheme was detected early on.”

The SEC alleges that Rockford Group lured investors by promising high returns and falsely assuring investors that it is a member of the Securities Investor Protection Corporation (SIPC) with up to $4 million in insurance to meet customer claims. According to the SEC’s complaint, however, Rockford Group is not a member of SIPC.

Misrepresentations that Rockford Group made to mislead investors, according to the SEC’s complaint, included:

• False claims that the firm has been in existence since 1999, when it actually was not incorporated until December 2008.
• False claims that during the past 10 years, its “portfolio has increased 251 percent compared to a 12.8 percent increase in the Dow Jones Index.”
• Promotional material falsely identifying 20 Fortune 500 corporations as Rockford’s major institutional pension plan clients.
• False statements to at least one investor that Rockford Group is “going public” and that large investors in its Fixed Dividend Contracts will receive special access to shares sold in its initial public offering.

The SEC further alleges that Rockford Group has no structured settlement assets and does not appear to engage in any investment activity that would generate returns for investors. Besides making dividend payments to investors that are funded by other investors’ contributions, Rockford Group misappropriated more than $10.4 million of investor funds by transferring these funds to foreign bank accounts located in Latvia and Hong Kong to supposedly pay for “cooling systems,” “construction equipment,” “electronic systems,” and other equipment unrelated to the firm’s claimed investment strategies. According to the SEC’s complaint, the investor funds were wired to foreign bank accounts in the names of twelve entities whose relationship to Rockford is unknown. The Commission charged those entities as well as Genadi Yagodayev, the president and sole member of Rockford Group and sole signatory on its bank accounts, as relief defendants for the purposes of recovering investor assets from them.

The SEC’s complaint charges Rockford with violating the antifraud and registration provisions of the federal securities laws, and seeks an injunction, disgorgement and financial penalties. The SEC also charges the recipients of investor funds as relief defendants, and seeks disgorgement and prejudgment interest. The Honorable Paul G. Gardephe, U.S. District Court Judge for the Southern District of New York, granted the Commission’s motion for emergency relief, including an order temporarily restraining Rockford from committing further violations of the antifraud and registration provisions of the securities laws, and an order freezing Rockford’s assets and the assets of the relief defendants.

The CPSC has released findings from studies done on the Chinese Drywall problems.

The Studies

The 51 home study contracted by CPSC was done by Environmental Health &
Engineering (EH&E), an internationally known environmental testing firm based in
Massachusetts.

In addition, today two preliminary reports on corrosion safety issues are being released.
The Sandia National Laboratories’ (SNL) Materials and Engineering Center is studying
the long-term electrical safety hazards of conductor metal components. The National
Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) is studying the corrosion effects on fire
safety components taken from complaint homes.

Findings

EH&E compared 41 “complaint” homes in five states selected from CPSC’s consumer
incident report database, with 10 noncomplaint homes built around the same time in the
same area as the complaint homes. Homes were sampled between July and September
2009.

The EH&E findings are that hydrogen sulfide gas is the essential component that causes
copper and silver sulfide corrosion found in the complaint homes. Other factors,
including air exchange rates, formaldehyde and other air contaminants contribute to the
reported problems.

In ways still to be determined, hydrogen sulfide gas is being created in homes built with
Chinese drywall. Earlier studies found large amounts of elemental sulfur in the Chinese
drywall. CPSC is investigating drywall from other sources that may mimic the problems
found with Chinese drywall. CPSC is meeting with drywall manufacturers and others
who are studying this issue to take their findings into consideration.

EH&E exposed copper and silver test strips, known as coupons, in homes for a period of
about two weeks. The coupons showed significantly higher rates of corrosion in
complaint homes than in the control homes. The dominant species of corrosion on the
coupons was copper sulfide and silver sulfide, as determined by additional laboratory
tests. Visual inspection and evaluation of ground wire corrosion also revealed
statistically significant greater ground wire corrosion in complaint homes compared to
non-complaint homes.

The EH&E study also found that by using hand-held x-ray fluorescence (XRF) and
Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR) instruments, they were able to detect markers that
could identify Chinese-made dry wall at a sheet-by-sheet level.

While drywall-related corrosion is clearly evident, long term safety effects are still under
investigation. Like the EH&E study, initial reports available today from SNL and NIST
show copper and silver sulfide corrosion on samples of metal taken from homes with
problem drywall. These ongoing investigations will help the CPSC identify the nexus of
problem drywall and long term safety issues.

In addition, the EH&E study found elevated formaldehyde readings in both the control
and complaint homes. This is typical for new, more air-tight homes due to items such as
cabinets and carpets which emit formaldehyde. Both formaldehyde and hydrogen sulfide
are known irritants at sufficiently high levels. The concentrations measured in this study
were below those levels. Investigators believe that the additive or synergistic effects of
these and other compounds in the subject homes could cause irritant effects evident in the
homes.

In addition, the chinese drywall lawsuits are scheduled to begin in New Orleans on January 25, 2010.

My official source for news, TMZ, is reporting that Balloon Boy’s mom, Mayumi, is not a U.S. citizen, and could possibly face deportation depending on the crime she is eventually convicted of. Mayumi’s attorney purportedly explained that she is a “Japanese citizen” and could force deportation if convicted of a felony or “certain misdemeanor.”

What is not clear from the blurb is whether Mayumi has any status at all, though it appears that she may be a lawful permanent resident (LPR). If she is an LPR, let this situation be a lesson to all LPRs – you should apply for citizenship before concocting an insane scheme to draw attention to yourself. In all seriousness, Mayumi you are not helping the immigration debate.

Citizens of Gwinnett County (with skin that is not white)…brace yourself for a barrage of racial profiling at its best. Prepare to be pulled over for trumped up traffic violations so under-trained police officers can inquire into your immigration status in an attempt to bring another prized “illegal” back to the station so that the County can receive federal money for housing them. Prepare to be questioned regarding your immigration status if you call the police for help after having been the victim of a crime or traffic accident.

Gwinnett County recently announced that it will be joining Cobb, Hall, and Whitfield Counties as a county that practices 287(g), a federal program that trains and authorizes deputies to enforce federal immigration law.

With 287(g) expanding, it is now more important than ever to know your rights and be prepared. If you are a person affected by the expansion of the program, remember, do not sign anything! Ask to speak to an attorney immediately, and do not allow yourself to be pressured into accepting what the ill-trained 287(g) officers say is your fate.

This last weekend, for the first time since 1982, an AMERICAN won the NYC Marathon. As someone who has run several marathons and who would have been lapped by this winner, I greatly admire these fleet footed men and women. Why is this an immigration issue? Well, it turns out a commentator on CNBC by the name of Darren Rovell thinks there are different kinds of “Americans.” In this case, Meg Keflezighi, an American ,who immigrated to the United States when he was 12 as a refugee, proudly wore the USA on his sweat stained jersey as he cruised to victory in the NYC Marathon. Much was made in the press of the fact that an American had finally won this particular marathon again after more than 25 years! But, Mr. Rovell was apparently looking for a controversial way to express his ignorance. Mr. Rovell noted:

“He is an American citizen thanks to taking a test and living in our country…Nothing against Keflezighi, but he’s like a ringer who you hire to work a couple hours at your office so that you can win the executive softball league.”

Rovell explained his bizarre views in an article on CNBC’s web site: It’s a stunning headline: American Wins Men’s NYC Marathon For First Time Since ‘82. Unfortunately, it’s not as good as it sounds. Meb Keflezighi, who won yesterday in New York, is technically American by virtue of him becoming a citizen in 1998, but the fact that he’s not American-born takes away from the magnitude of the achievement the headline implies.

Mr. Rovell later apologized, because he realized what an idiot he sounded like. But the apology was hollow, without meaning, and dug the hole even deeper. He explained that because this great runner had trained here since he was young, he was now American “enough” to count.

It turns out, Keflezighi moved to the United States in time to develop at every level in America. So Meb is in fact an American trained athlete and an American citizen and he should be celebrated as the American winner of the NYC Marathon. That makes a difference and makes him different from the “ringer” I accused him of being. Meb didn’t deserve that comparison and I apologize for that.

Mr. Rovell, you sir are an emblem of what is wrong with the immigration debate in America today. I suppose that in your opinion that folks like Albert Einstein (immigrated as an adult), Zbigniew Brezinski (immigrated as an adult and fellow NBC employee), Isaac Asimov (a favorite of mine), Dan Aykroyd (he was born funny in Canada), Alexander Graham Bell (a Scott, who immigrated as an adult), Wayne Gretzky (learned Hockey in Canada), Patrick Ewing (who was also a U.S. Olympian–guess we should give that Gold Medal back, eh Mr. Rovell), and literally millions of others, simply do not count as “real” Americans to Mr. Rovell because they did not “grow up” as Americans. I guess we should reject them and their contributions to America becuase they did not “grow up” here. As my kids might say, Dude, stop drinking the Haterade! America is a nation of immigrants. Once you take that oath, it is your future that matters, not your past. This sentiment is the beauty of what it means to be an American. You are part of a greater good, you are part of the greatest experiment in the history of mankind. You the former immigrant, are now an American. You are now as good as Mr. Rovell, even if you did not grow up in America. You are now as good as anyone else. Mr. Rovell, take a civics course and learn what it means to be an “American.”