Author: Serkadis

The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety has awarded the 2011 Hyundai Sonata its 2010 Top Safety Pick. The 2011 Sonata scored a rating of good in front, side, rollover, and rear tests and standard electronic stability control.

Hyundai announced yesterday that it will debut a turbo and hybrid variant of the new Sonata at the 2010 New York Auto Show.

Click here for more Hyundai Sonata news.

Refresher: The 2011 Hyundai Sonata is currently on sale with prices starting at $19,195 for the base GLS model. Power for the 2011 Sonata GLS comes from a 2.4L direct-injected 4-cylinder making 198-hp and 184 lb-ft of torque. The 2011 Hyundai Sonata SE starts at $22,595 and is powered by a 2.4L 4-cylinder uprated to 200-hp.

2011 Hyundai Sonata:

– By: Kap Shah

Copyright rulings in Australia have been a real mixed bag lately, haven’t they? There was the wonderful iiNet ruling that said ISPs weren’t liable for actions of their users, and the ruling on telephone books saying you can’t copyright facts. But then there was the Kookaburra ruling that found infringement in an 80s song of a popular children’s folks song. And, to balance things out, now there’s another bad ruling, that seems to go against the very principles explained in the iiNet rulings.

Slashdot points us to the news that an Australian court has ruled in favor of Nintendo, against the distributor of mod chips that can be used in Nintendo DS devices. Nintendo has been busy suing such distributors around the globe, though so far without much success. In places like Spain and France, courts were smart enough to realize that just distributing these chips — which can be used for legal purposes as well as infringing purposes — should not be considered infringement itself. It’s the basic question of secondary liability, and figuring out if a third party should take the blame for actions of end users. In the iiNet case, the court realized that doing so would result in misplaced blame. In this case, the court didn’t seem to care.

It’s really too bad, because the court is basically saying that users don’t have the right to modify a product they legally purchased and own. And, on top of that, a company selling a product that has perfectly legal uses can be held liable for the fact that some users also do unauthorized things with it. That’s a troubling precedent by any measure.

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Filed under: Coupe, Jaguar, Design/Style

Drive a Jaguar XK and you’ll agree, there’s little wrong with the way it rides, handles, and goes. Looks are subjective and the competition keeps ratcheting up interior quality and equipment to levels that surpass what’s sumptuously packed into Jaguar’s rakish two-door. With that in mind, Jaguar is keeping what’s great, namely the bonded-and-riveted structure, and changing what’s looking old, according to Autocar.

The body will finally ditch its throwback fish-mouth and move to a grille predictably inspired by the XF, and there will be more sculpting and surface development in the metalwork, though final choices have yet to be made. The convertible version will keep its soft roof for weight and packaging reasons, mainly, and the interior will reportedly be the best-ever in a Jaguar.

The biggest news is Jaguar’s addition of a diesel engine for its sports/GT model. Long since the bastion of trucks, torquey modern diesels are gaining popularity in sports cars from BMW, Audi, and now Jaguar. A 3.0-liter turbodiesel V6 will be offered in the upcoming XK D, serving up 300 horsepower and exceptional fuel economy. Big, fat torque from a less-thirsty engine sounds like a good idea to us, and Jaguar is hoping that it boost XK volume back up to 10-12,000 units per year. The exhaust note might need a little work, however, to ever be better than the hoodlum-class V8 bark the XK currently trumpets so gloriously.

[Source: Autocar]

Report: Details on the next Jaguar XK originally appeared on Autoblog on Thu, 18 Feb 2010 17:32:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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interesting thought – Can living near a train station save you from foreclosure?
Mortgage defaults higher in neighborhoods dependent on driving, research shows –
BY MARY WISNIEWSKI  – thanks MK – … the chance of foreclosure is higher in neighborhoods more dependent on cars, according to a report by the Natural Resources Defense Council, which included data from Chicago’s Center for Neighborhood Technology. The report examined 40,000 mortgages in Chicago, Jacksonville and San Francisco. … – Chicago Sun Times

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major piece by Mark Hanson – Principal Balance Reductions – Quit Wasting Your Breath – Mark Hanson Blog
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Congressman Ron Paul – Texas Straight Talk – Are US Taxpayers Bailing Out Greece? – Ron Paul at House.gov

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Coming Soon: 5 Million More Foreclosures – Barry Ritholz – Studies keep showing what we have known for a long time: Fighting foreclosures is a futile — and counter-productive — use of resources.  New studies by John Burns Real Estate Consulting and Standard & Poor’s Financial Services conclude that loan mod efforts only serve to delay the inevitable, resulting in future foreclosures. – Big Picture Blog

and
New wave of foreclosures by end of 2010 is feared – By Jim Puzzanghera and Don Lee – About 4 million U.S. homeowners are 90 days or more delinquent on their loans or in foreclosure proceedings, Moody’s Economy.com says. A federal loan modification program is helping a relative few. – LA Times Business

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Reverse Mortgages? – Obama to Promote Annuities and Other Forms of Guaranteed Life Income – The Department of Labor and the Department of the Treasury (the “Agencies”) are soliciting comments whether the agencies could or should enhance the use of lifetime income or other arrangements designed to provide a stream of income after retirement.  One of the questions is related to reverse mortgages:  What are the advantages and disadvantages of approaches that combine annuities with other products (reverse mortgages, long term care insurance), and how prevalent are these combined products in the marketplace? – Reverse Mortgage Daily 
and
The Unloved Annuity Gets a Hug From Obama – By RON LIEBER- As slogans go, it’s hardly “Keep Hope Alive,” or even “Change We Can Believe In.”  But there were annuities, in a report from the administration’s Middle Class Task Force that came out this week. They are among the tools the administration is promoting as it tries to give Americans a better shot at a more secure retirement. – NY Times
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US Subprime Prices Down Nearly 6%, 2007 Vintage Drops Significantly – Sandro Scenga – Heightened concerns about the valuation of U.S. subprime RMBS assets manifested in an across-the-board drop for all vintages, according to Fitch Solutions in its latest CDS of RMBS indices results. – RiskCenter.com
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Shadow Inventory of Homes to Take Nearly 3 Years to Clear: S&P – by JON PRIOR – … As for the total amount of homes in the shadow inventory, Amherst Securities places the total at 7m. The Royal Bank of Scotland found 2.7m, and First American CoreLogic counted 1.7m.  S&P estimates the inventory to equal a 33-month supply of homes. Analysts added the estimate is actually conservative, as they did not assume homes not showing signs of distress would default and push the overhang of supply even further. … – HousingWire

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Federal Housing Finance Agency Proposes New – Housing Goals for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac – has links to full rule and appendices – FHFA Press Release

CHICAGO — Charges were upgraded Thursday afternoon for an Englewood man who drove a van that fatally struck a 6-year-old girl and critically wounded her aunt Tuesday night on the South Side.

Eddie Lumpkin, 48, was driving a vehicle that struck a girl and her aunt at 7340 S. Ashland Ave. about 6:35 p.m. Tuesday, police said.

Lumpkin, of the 7300 block of South Damen Avenue, was initially cited for DUI, not having insurance, failing to carry a driver’s license, failing to reduce speed, negligent driving and striking a pedestrian in the road, police News Affairs Officer Laura Kubiak said Wednesday.

As of 2:40 p.m. Thursday, Lumpkin was additionally charged with two felony counts of aggravated DUI and one count of reckless homicide, according to a release from News Affairs. He was also cited with transporting liquor in the vehicle.

Jada Washington, 6, of 1426 W. 73rd St., was pronounced dead at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday at the University of Chicago Comer Children’s Hospital, according to the Cook County Medical Examiner’s office.

An autopsy Wednesday found the girl died of cervical injuries from a minivan striking her and her death was ruled an accident, the medical examiner’s office said.

Jada’s 21-year-old aunt was taken to Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn in critical condition, police said. Fire Media Affairs Director Larry Langford said the woman suffered multiple fractures.

Langford said the van appeared to strike the two as they crossed the street. When emergency crews arrived, the driver and van were still on the scene in the middle of the block.

Lumpkin will appear for a bond hearing Friday.

The police Major Accident Investigation Unit are investigating.

Read the original article from FOX Chicago News.

Distributed via Chicago Press Release Services

SKOKIE, Ill. — Illinois State Police are on the scene of a state building in north suburban Skokie for a possible bomb threat.

The building for the Illinois Department of Health and Human Services, at 8020 St. Louis Ave. in Skokie was evacuated about 10 a.m. for a possible bomb threat, Illinois State Police Trooper James Madden said.

Emergency crews arrived on the scene at 11 a.m. and Illinois State Police remained on the scene at 2 p.m., Madden said.

Cook County Sheriff’s police are also responding, Madden said.

A Cook County Sheriff’s police spokesman was not immediately available for comment.

Read the original article from FOX Chicago News.

Distributed via Chicago Press Release Services

State government is delinquent in paying pretty much everybody.

As we reach the 2010 Primary election, it will again be time for the state to tackle the budget, since they made no secret of putting it off until after the election, even when they were all but constitutionally mandated to do it by May of last year.

As delays mount on completing the state’s budget, many local institutions that rely on state funding are trying to figure out how to make ends meet when the money that is owed to them is consistently late.

In Macon County, institutions that serve large segments of the community are already laboring under budget shortfalls of their own as revenues stagnate and state lawmakers mandate higher contributions into retirement funds for civil servants and teachers.

The state owes the City of Decatur three months worth of income tax, to the tune of nearly $1.4 million.

“I guess the good news is that interest rates are so low we’re not missing out on a whole lot of investment income,” McCrady said.

“On the flip side, we’ve had to learn to be much more careful with our cash.

Based on what I hear from other cities, we’re not (being treated) any different.”

The state is also two quarters behind paying the city for maintenance and repairs the city has made to state-owned roadways in the area, about $60,000.

“We have several programs that are reimbursable through the state of Illinois, and right now most of these (late payments) run back to July and August of 2009,” said Macon County Treasurer Steve Grimm. “That’s how far behind they are.”

Grimm puts the state’s backlog at nearly $800,000 on payments ranging from six to eight months late. A large chunk of that is salaries and stipends that are partially reimbursed through the state.

Read the original article from Herald & Review.

Distributed via Chicago Press Release Services

 

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has trade idea – The Yuan Is About To Surge Beyond Your Wildest Dreams – The Mad Hedge Fund Trader – The Chinese Yuan is just begging for a home run. Any doubts that it is a huge screaming buy should have been dispelled last week when news came out that China had displaced Germany as the world’s largest exporter. – Money Game at Business Insider
and
China ‘to allow’ yuan to rise – By James Quinn – China could be on the verge of letting the yuan appreciate in order to attempt to put a brake on growth, a leading economist has said, in a move that has spread concern in international currency markets. – Telegraph.co.uk

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TIPS Drive Away Biggest Bond Bulls Seeing Inflation – By Oliver Biggadike and Daniel Kruger  – Treasury Inflation-Protected Securities are posting the biggest losses since Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. collapsed in 2008 as investors say they’re too expensive when consumer prices are barely rising. – Bloomberg

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gives probabilities: Positioning for Deflation or Inflation? – …  We were told long ago that the agency mortgage backed security purchase program that was put in place by the Federal reserve during the depths of the financial crisis would be ending in March.  …  Freddie and Fannie have recently announced that they will buy out all loans with 120+ days of delinquency over the next three months which would effectively put $175B into investors hands to be reinvested in the MBS market.  Take away support in one arena and replace it in another.  Just a shell game.  More uncertain signals from the Fed. – Surly Trader
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The Municipal Bond Crisis Is About to Begin – by Graham Summers – Thus ends one more safehaven. – Gains, Pains, and Capital

You’re about to bombarded with plenty of talk about whether hiking the discount rate is meaningful. Here’s one compelling argument that it’s a total smokescreen, and a way for Bernanke to look hawkish without actually doing anything. The gist is that since banks aren’t borrowing directly from the Fed right now it doesn’t matter.

That’s fine, but perception is a huge game when it comes to the Fed, especially this Fed, which remains in a straightjacket in terms of what it can really do without hurting the economy and causing a painful dollar spike.

But here’s the thing, you don’t have to take our word for it.

The market is slumping after hours, and the dollar is spiking. That means it matters. End of story.

Update: Oh, and here’s gold. Wonder if gold traders think the move is meaningful.

Join the conversation about this story »

See Also:

• Fed Hikes Rate At Discount Window!
• PPI Shows Inflation Way Higher Than Anticipated, Jobless Claims Take Big Bump Up
• Morgan Stanley: Today’s PPI Explosion Means You Can Kiss Deflation Goodbye

CHICAGO  — A Cicero town official tells Newsradio 780 that Cicero police have questioned two people who stepped forward, claiming to have information about the deadly fire.

The official, who wanted to stay anonymous, says it’s not clear where the information will lead. But the official says the two who came forward and contacted authorities said they had information about the apartment building and its occupants.

A spokesman for the town of Cicero, Ray Hanania, confirmed that investigators have interviewed several people but Hanania says he does not know what information was provided. Hanania says investigators have received dozens of leads about the fire. No cause has been determined.

Hanania says Cicero Firefighter Shawn Ahrens, who was critically injured at the fire scene, has been released from the hospital.

Read the original article from WBBM News Radio.

Distributed via Chicago Press Release Services

Generally speaking, if you’re on trial for something, it’s probably not a good idea to piss off the judge. Informercial king Kevin Trudeau has been battling the FTC concerning his pitches for a diet book, which the FTC felt were deceiving. The court case itself has had a series of twists and turns, but as the latest case moved forward, Trudeau posted the judge’s email address to his website, and announced it on his radio show, and asked people to email the judge in his support. Apparently, quite a few people did so — and the judge was not amused, sentencing him to 30 days in jail. As Consumerist notes, the types of people who buy the sorts of things Trudeau is selling might not be the most rationally-minded people, and apparently a few took it upon themselves to not just email the judge their support of Trudeau, but to send vaguely threatening messages as well.

Still, there is an open question as to whether or not this is actually illegal. Eric Robinson points out that it’s common enough for those on trial to have friends contact a judge, sometimes even via email. Of course, those sorts of setups are usually more limited to a specific group of selected friends, rather than broadcast to the public at large. Either way — whether legal or not — it does seem like a generally smart tip to remember: don’t piss off a judge in charge of dealing with your case, and urging a hoard of followers to email that judge is pretty certain to piss him off.

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The Fed just raised the discount rate from 0.50% to 0.75%.

The instant reaction: Futures are down after hours, and the dollar index is shooting up.

Right now this is being characterized as “normalization,” which is fine, but it’s obviously a clear sign of the beginning of the end.

Here’s the full announcement.

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The Federal Reserve Board on Thursday announced that in light of continued improvement in financial market conditions it had unanimously approved several modifications to the terms of its discount window lending programs.

Like the closure of a number of extraordinary credit programs earlier this month, these changes are intended as a further normalization of the Federal Reserve’s lending facilities. The modifications are not expected to lead to tighter financial conditions for households and businesses and do not signal any change in the outlook for the economy or for monetary policy, which remains about as it was at the January meeting of the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC). At that meeting, the Committee left its target range for the federal funds rate at 0 to 1/4 percent and said it anticipates that economic conditions are likely to warrant exceptionally low levels of the federal funds rate for an extended period.

The changes to the discount window facilities include Board approval of requests by the boards of directors of the 12 Federal Reserve Banks to increase the primary credit rate (generally referred to as the discount rate) from 1/2 percent to 3/4 percent. This action is effective on February 19.

In addition, the Board announced that, effective on March 18, the typical maximum maturity for primary credit loans will be shortened to overnight. Primary credit is provided by Reserve Banks on a fully secured basis to depository institutions that are in generally sound condition as a backup source of funds. Finally, the Board announced that it had raised the minimum bid rate for the Term Auction Facility (TAF) by 1/4 percentage point to 1/2 percent. The final TAF auction will be on March 8, 2010.

Easing the terms of primary credit was one of the Federal Reserve’s first responses to the financial crisis. On August 17, 2007, the Federal Reserve reduced the spread of the primary credit rate over the FOMC’s target for the federal funds rate to 1/2 percentage point, from 1 percentage point, and lengthened the typical maximum maturity from overnight to 30 days. On December 12, 2007, the Federal Reserve created the TAF to further improve the access of depository institutions to term funding. On March 16, 2008, the Federal Reserve lowered the spread of the primary credit rate over the target federal funds rate to 1/4 percentage point and extended the maximum maturity of primary credit loans to 90 days.

Subsequently, in response to improving conditions in wholesale funding markets, on June 25, 2009, the Federal Reserve initiated a gradual reduction in TAF auction sizes. As announced on November 17, 2009, and implemented on January 14, 2010, the Federal Reserve began the process of normalizing the terms on primary credit by reducing the typical maximum maturity to 28 days.

The increase in the discount rate announced Thursday widens the spread between the primary credit rate and the top of the FOMC’s 0 to 1/4 percent target range for the federal funds rate to 1/2 percentage point. The increase in the spread and reduction in maximum maturity will encourage depository institutions to rely on private funding markets for short-term credit and to use the Federal Reserve’s primary credit facility only as a backup source of funds. The Federal Reserve will assess over time whether further increases in the spread are appropriate in view of experience with the 1/2 percentage point spread.

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The Porsche Museum in Germany will be sending its legendary Type 64 Berlin Rome Car on a long journey to Atlanta where it will be displayed at the High Museum of Art to celebrate the brand’s 60th anniversary in America.

“Type 64 is of very special significance to the history of the Porsche brand: Built in 1938/39 under the guidance of Ferdinand Porsche, this unique car already had all the features that make sports cars from Zuffenhausen so very special the world over to this day: lightweight construction and superior aerodynamics, exceptional performance, reliable technology, and that unique design so characteristic of a Porsche,” Porsche said in a statement. “Originally developed for the Berlin-Rome long-distance race, Type 64, due to the war, never entered a race in its lifetime. But it marks an essential milestone en route to the first Porsche, Type 356 built in 1948.”

The Type 64’s streamlined aluminum body has influenced Porsche’s current sports cars including the Porsche 911 all the way to the Panamera.

1938 Porsche Type 64:

– By: Kap Shah

A Warren Township man charged with beating his girlfriend’s 6-year-old daughter pleaded guilty to a reduced charge Thursday.

As the girl’s mother did two weeks ago, Lee Terry-Hemphill, 21, pleaded guilty to attempted aggravated battery to a child during a hearing before Lake County Circuit Judge John Phillips.

Terry-Hemphill and Jennifer Jordan, 28, now face prison sentences of up to 15 years, but are also eligible for probation.

Assistant State’s Attorney James Newman said Jordan’s daughter went to Woodland Elementary School on March 12 and complained she was in pain over her entire body.

The girl said Terry-Hemphill and her mother had beaten her the previous day with a belt because she was late getting up for school.

An examination at Advocate Condell Medical Center in Libertyville revealed bruises on her back, buttocks, thighs and arms that appeared to have been made by a belt, Newman said.

Terry-Hemphill and Jordan were arrested the following day at their apartment in the 3400 block of North Almond Road and charged with aggravated battery to a child.

Newman said he agreed to reduce the charges against both in exchange for the guilty plea to spare the victim the trauma of testifying in court.

Jordan is scheduled to be sentenced March 4, and Terry-Hemphill’s sentencing is set for April 5.

Both are held on $500,000 bond.

Read the original article on DailyHerald.com.

Distributed via Chicago Press Release Services

I’ve cursed the 10MB over-the-air cell data download limit on Apple’s iPhone many a time, especially when trying to grab a podcast or game for use on the train while traveling. Things got slightly better in that regard today, since Apple doubled the download limit for apps, games and iTunes content over 3G and Edge data connections.

Of course, I noticed the bump in download capacity when I absentmindedly tried to download a podcast that exceeded both the old and new limits, so it’s hard to say as of yet how much of an improvement in user experience this actually represents. Likewise, so far every other article I’ve seen regarding the change has found out about it by trying to download something that’s far larger than 20MB.

So why the change? Well, presumably there actually are some apps, video or podcasts out there that are between 10 and 20MB in size, so there is that. Maybe it indicates that a milestone has been reached by AT&T in terms of its ability to handle greater bandwidth usage, but somehow I doubt that, too. I can’t help but think that the real reason has to do with the upcoming iPad.

Since half of the iPad models will sport 3G connectivity, it makes sense to expect users to want to be able to access more content using that connection, especially given that they won’t be using the cellular connection for making calls or doing anything phone-related. I’m just speculating, but I think it’s also possible that the sweet spot for Apple’s visually rich e-book and e-magazine content will fall somewhere in that 10 to 20MB range.

Pocket Gamer has another interesting take on why Apple upped the limit. According to them, many iPhone developers were tailoring their games and apps to fit just under the 10MB cap, so that it would be easier for customers to purchase the software on the go from anywhere. An impulse buy, after all, isn’t nearly as likely to be made when you’re at home in the comfort of your Wi-Fi network, where you have so many other diversions vying for your attention.

Accordingly, a cap increase should result in a corresponding increase in the level of App Store software releases. As Pocket Gamer’s Spanner Spencer puts it:

Double the available app size for remote users should therefore make for some doubly impressive products. In all likelyhood this is in preparation for the inherently larger size of iPad games and apps.

Let’s hope this analysis proves correct, because it should mean promising things are on the horizon for iPhone and iPad users alike.

Related GigaOM Pro Research: How AT&T Will Deal with iPad Data Traffic

Credit market specialist and overall brilliant writer David Goldman has an excellent essay at First Things.

In it he takes a long-term look at various economic boom and bust cycles — what jobs were destroyed in each recession, and which industries took their place.

He writes:

In previous recoveries, virtually all net new job creation came from new businesses. Most new businesses, to be sure, are small businesses, although the ones that created the most jobs were startups that grew very quickly. The most common estimate is that new business accounts for about two-thirds of net job creation.

During the 1980s, cellular phones, cable television, and other new technologies were an important source of new job growth. During the 1990s, the tech boom funded tens of thousands of startups, and, during the 2000s, the real-estate boom. Every deadbeat could get a job in the 1980s installing cable televisions, and every starving artist became a real-estate agent during the 2000s.

For the past fifteen years, the American economy has been geared to invest inflows of foreign capital in the household balance sheet, using the proceeds to import goods from the countries who lent us the money. That came to a bad end in 2007. All the employment associated with investing foreign savings and spending the proceeds—real-estate sales, mortgage banking, retail trade, and so forth—is no longer required. With a rapidly aging population, America will see less residential investment and more savings. America should be investing in high-value-added manufacturing and exporting. That would help America’s balance sheet, but it won’t do much for aging, semi-skilled workers who are too old to learn a completely new trade. Nor, as noted, will manufacturing in the best of cases create many new jobs.

Join the conversation about this story »

See Also:

• Initial Jobless Claims Worse Than Expected
• The Only Group That Saw Real Employment Gains Was White Women
• Manufacturing Clearly Way Ahead Of Services As ISM Index Misses Expectations Due To Weak Employment

When the next-generation Jaguar XK arrives around 2013, it will offer a near 300-hp V6 diesel-powered variant in its lineup to go against the likes of BMW’s 635d.

According to sources, the XK diesel will be powered by a 3.0L twin-turbo V6 unit that will allow massive amounts of torque, allowing it to go from 0-60 mph in under 5 seconds. Even with that type of performance, the XK diesel is expected return an estimated 25 mpg in U.S. terms.

Click here to get pricing on the 2010 Jaguar XKR.

Also, the XK diesel should also help the sports car’s production to average back up to 10,000 to 12,000 units annually. No word on whether the model will be offered in the United States but we wouldn’t bet on it.

– By: Omar Rana

Source: AutoCar