GM Recalls Another 8.2 Million Vehicles

DETROIT (AP) — General Motors' safety crisis worsened on Monday when the automaker added 8.2 million vehicles to its huge list of cars recalled over faulty ignition switches.

The latest recalls involve mainly older midsize cars and bring GM's total number of recalls this year to over 28 million. GM said it was aware of three deaths, eight injuries and seven crashes involving the vehicles recalled on Monday. But the company said it has no conclusive evidence that faulty switches caused the crashes.

The Detroit company also said it plans to take a $1.2 billion charge in the second quarter for recall-related expenses. Added to a $1.3 billion charge in the first quarter, that brings total recall expenses for the year to $2.5 billion.

The latest recalls cover seven vehicles, including the Chevrolet Malibu from 1997 to 2005 and the Pontiac Grand Prix from 2004 to 2008. The recalls also cover a newer model, the 2003-2014 Cadillac CTS. GM said the recalls are for "unintended ignition key rotation."

CEO Mary Barra said the recalls stem from an extensive safety review within the company.

"If any other issues come to our attention, we will act appropriately and without hesitation," she said in a statement.

GM is urging people to remove everything from their key rings until the recalled cars can be repaired.

It also announced four other recalls Monday covering more than 200,000 additional vehicles. Most are to fix an electrical short in the driver's door that could disable the power locks and windows and even cause overheating.

The announcement temporarily halted trading of GM stock on Monday afternoon, but it resumed in about a half hour and was down 1.2 percent to $36.19.

Things Get Super-Awkward When CNBC Discusses Whether Tim Cook Is Gay

America's most testosterone-fueled news channel just had itself a little chat about gay CEOs. It went about as smoothly as you might expect.

New York Times columnist Jim Stewart was on CNBC Friday morning discussing the mystery of why chief executives in Corporate America aren't outing themselves left and right. He has a new column -- with the very New York Timesy headline "Among Gay CEOs, The Pressure To Conform" -- about former BP CEO John Browne, who has only discussed his own sexuality after retirement.

Stewart, who is openly gay, expressed surprise that none of the gay CEOs he talked to for the column -- and there are many, apparently -- were willing to go on the record about their experience.

At which point CNBC anchor Simon Hobbs interjected:

"I think Tim Cook is fairly open about the fact that he is gay at the head of Apple, isn't he?"

There followed approximately four seconds of utter silence -- an eternity in television time -- while the other four people on the set each looked like they might have pooped their pants just a little bit.

(If you're pressed for time, you can fast-forward to about the 47th second of the video to hear Hobbs start his comment.)

When they were able to express themselves again, they could do so only in guttural tones rather than coherent thoughts:

"Mmmmmmm, no," intoned Stewart.

"Ohhhhh dear," said Hobbs. "Was that an error?"

"Wow!" said CNBC reporter David Faber. "I think you just... yeah."

All the while, Stewart's head was on a greased swivel of disapproval:

Turns out, funny story, Cook has not been open at all about his sexuality, or much of anything else in his private life for that matter, perhaps because what the hell difference does it make?

People point to a December speech, when Cook said, "I have seen and have experienced many types of discrimination, and all of them were rooted in the fear of people that were different than the majority.”

Which is not quite the same thing as saying, "Hey, America, guess what, I'm gay!" And Cook was also talking in that speech about cross-burning and racial discrimination he saw growing up in the South.

Cook has publicly advocated -- including in the op-ed pages of The Wall Street Journal, of all places -- for an end to workplace discrimination based on sexual identity. But that is evidence only of common sense, not sexuality.

Other news outlets have declared that Cook is gay, but Cook has been silent on the matter. So it's not really Stewart's or CNBC's place to break that silence.

"I don't want to comment about anybody who might or might not be, because... I-I'm not gonna out anybody," Stewart said on CNBC, when he had recovered.

And that was pretty much the end of the most-awkward segment ever on CNBC, after which everybody immediately resumed shouting loudly about stock prices and the Federal Reserve and Obamacare, or whatever it is they're always mad about. At least, I assume that's what happened -- like everybody else in America, I usually watch CNBC with the sound off.

Stealing A Pen At Work Could Turn You On To Much Bigger Crimes

Steal a pen from your office and you could find yourself on a path toward becoming the next Bernie Madoff.

That's the warning of a new study, called "The Slippery Slope: How Small Ethical Transgressions Pave The Way For Larger Future Transgressions," by David Welsh of the University of Washington, Lisa Ordóñez of the University of Arizona, Deirdre Snyder of Providence College, and Michael Christian of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. According to the study, which was published in the Journal of Applied Psychology, minor unethical behavior at work, if undetected, puts workers on a "slippery slope" that could lead to worse behavior over time.

Stealing a pen is basically a gateway to massive corporate fraud.

To most of us, fairly innocuous sins like taking a pen from work or neglecting to refill the office coffee pot are much easier to justify than, say, racking up $2 billion in trading losses. But over time, the researchers found, those minor misdeeds make it easier to justify more and bigger evils in the long run.

“People rationalize their behavior to justify it,” Ordóñez, one of the study's authors, said in a press release. "They might think ‘No one got hurt,’ or ‘Everyone does it.’ The next time, they feel fine about doing something a little bit worse the next time and then commit more severe unethical actions.”

The researchers tested this theory by watching subjects in a number of different situations. One interesting experiment found that subjects who were given 25 cents for doing a minor unethical thing were much more likely to take $2.50 to do something more egregious later on than those who were offered $2.50 to do a big no-no at the start. According to the researchers, this shows that people are less likely to commit what they call "abrupt and large dilemmas" when they haven't already committed gradual, small transgressions.

If you're considering taking home a ream of copy paper, just think: doing so could land you behind bars with this guy.

The study cites Madoff, who was sentenced to 150 years in prison for orchestrating the largest Ponzi scheme in history and spoke of this phenomenon to his longtime secretary, according to Vanity Fair:

“Well, you know what happens is, it starts out with you taking a little bit, maybe a few hundred, a few thousand. You get comfortable with that, and before you know it, it snowballs into something big.”

So what can you do to prevent yourself from becoming the next Jeff Skilling?

The researchers offer a number of tips to discourage the minor stuff, like putting in place a firm set of ethical guidelines and calling workers out for the small things, like taking home too many office supplies.

“The ideal is for employees to recognize when they’ve committed a minor transgression and check themselves," Michael S. Christian, one of the paper's co-authors, wrote.

U.S. Ruling Loosens Four-Decade Ban On Oil Exports

The Obama administration has quietly cleared the way for the first exports of unrefined American oil in four decades, allowing energy companies to chip away at the long-standing ban on selling U.S. crude overseas.

Read the whole story at online.wsj.com

Olive Garden Is Evidence Of A Huge Problem In The Economy

One restaurant operator has just given us a small window into a huge problem with the American economy.

Darden Restaurants, the Orlando-based purveyor of sit-down food chains, announced its fourth-quarter earnings on Friday, revealing that some of its restaurants have done much better than others in the past few months.

What was the major difference between success and failure at its restaurants? The diners. Restaurants that serve the well-off are thriving, while those that serve the rest of us are struggling, in a microcosm of the broader economy.

Struggling are Olive Garden and Red Lobster, which are largely geared toward middle-class customers, who have been squeezed during the recession and slow recovery. Families with young children cut back on restaurant spending during the downturn, and they haven’t come back, according to a recent survey by restaurant research firm NPD Group.

Same-store sales, a measure of performance at restaurants open a year or more, dropped 3.5 percent at Olive Garden and 5.6 percent at Red Lobster over the quarter. At Long Horn Steak House, Darden’s middle-of-the-road steak chain, same-store sales rose 2.4 percent, but traffic -- the measure of how many people are actually coming through the door -- dropped over the quarter.

On the other hand, at Darden’s Capital Grille, where most dinner entrees fetch more than $40 each, same-store sales increased 4 percent over the quarter. That makes sense, too: Over the past few years, the kinds of people who can afford a fancy dinner have seen their incomes grow, even as everybody else's incomes have stayed flat.

Still, Darden is hoping it can convince pinched diners to spend again at Olive Garden by re-making the chain in the image of other trendy restaurants. They’re offering convenience through online and tablet ordering, more choice and customization options for their various combo meals, faster lunch service and even tapas -- all while still emphasizing the value of a meal that comes with unlimited salad, soup and breadsticks.

The hope is that they’ll attract the all-important “millennials” and “multi-cultural households” who are doing all their eating at Chipotle and Panera right now, Darden chief operating officer Eugene Lee said on the company’s earnings call.

Seafood chain Red Lobster has struggled for years, thanks to a suffering middle-class, along with changing dining habits and fluctuating seafood prices.

Darden plans on selling Red Lobster to boost performance. “We don’t believe that Red Lobster is as well-positioned as our other brands for the future that we see,” Darden’s CEO Clarence Otis Jr. said on the company’s earnings call.

Darden's performance over the past few years, with and without Red Lobster.

The Health Risks Of Unemployment (CHART)

First, we learned that people who are unemployed are more likely to experience depression than people employed full-time. And now, Gallup-Healthways researchers show us how unemployment is linked with heart health, too.

The report also showed that long-term unemployment carries much higher obesity risks than short-term unemployment. Specifically, the obesity rate for people who have been unemployed for a year or more is 32.7 percent. Compare that with 22.8 percent for people who have been unemployed for two weeks or less, or 25.1 percent for people who have been unemployed for three to five weeks.

The report, which is based on data from more than 350,000 adults in 2013, also included 5,000 interviews with the long-term unemployed (which is being unemployed for 27 weeks or more) and the short-term unemployed (which is being unemployed for fewer than 27 weeks).

The long-term unemployed were also more likely to report more days where poor health was a hindrance to going about their usual activities. They reported 4.7 days in the last 30 days where their poor health kept them from their usual activities, compared with 1.4 days reported by the full-time employed.

"Over the longer term, one of the most worrisome implications of these relationships is that many of those who have been unemployed for a prolonged period may suffer chronic health problems even if they successfully re-enter the workforce," the Gallup researchers wrote in the report.

KFC Gives 3-Year-Old Pit Bull Attack Victim $30,000 After Allegedly Kicking Her Out

JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — KFC Corp. says it's investigating allegations that a restaurant employee in Jackson, Mississippi, asked a 3-year-old to leave because her facial injuries disturbed other patrons. The company is also giving $30,000 toward Victoria Wilcher's medical bills, a spokesman said Sunday.

The allegation about KFC was made Thursday on "Victoria's Victories," a Facebook page following Victoria Wilcher's recovery from a pit bull attack in April. The administrator posted a photo showing Victoria smiling shyly in spite of her facial scars and cartoon-decorated eye patch, and wrote, "Does this look scary to you? Last week at KFC in Jackson MS this precious face was asked to leave because her face scared the other diners."

Post by Victoria's Victories.

KFC posted an apology the next morning, requesting details.

"As soon as we were notified of this report on Friday, we immediately began an investigation, as this kind of hurtful and disrespectful action would not be tolerated by KFC," spokesman Rick Maynard wrote Sunday in an email to The Associated Press. "Regardless of the outcome of our investigation, we have apologized to Victoria's family and are committed to assisting them. The company is making a $30,000 donation to assist with her medical bills. The entire KFC family is behind Victoria."

Her grandmother Kelly Mullins said Victoria had just been to a doctor's when they stopped at the restaurant. She ordered mashed potatoes for Victoria because she thought the hungry child could swallow the soft food without chewing.

She says she was then approached by an employee. "They just told us, they said, 'We have to ask you to leave because her face is disrupting our customers,'" she told WAPT-TV (http://bit.ly/1p7ByYo).

Victoria wept all the way home and now is embarrassed by her appearance — something that wasn't the case before, Mullins said.

"She won't even look in the mirror anymore," Mullins said. "When we go to a store, she doesn't even want to get out" of the car.

Victoria was attacked by pit bulls at her grandfather's home. The dogs broke her nose, both jaws, cheekbones and right eye socket; the right side of her face is paralyzed and she lost that eye, according to her Facebook site. Her bottom jaw was reconstructed but she needs a feeding tube and must grow more bone in her face before more surgery is possible, it states.

The page's administrator wrote Sunday that "Victoria's Victories" had gone from 250 people praying for Victoria to thousands.

The page had more than 32,500 "likes" on Sunday.

A message posted Friday evening by another Mississippi KFC franchisee, Dick West of West Quality Food Service in Laurel, offered "a big KFC picnic" for the child and her family.

West also wrote that he knows the Jackson restaurant owners "and they have never in the 50 years they have operated in Jackson allowed anyone coming into their restaurants to be treated with dis-respect."

In a message to the AP, he wrote, "I am sure KFC will make their finding public as soon as the facts are in. In the meantime, I offered to treat Victoria to a picnic because regardless of the outcome of the investigation, she has been thru more than any little girl should and I wanted to give her a special treat."

___

Online:

https://www.facebook.com/victoriasvictories

The U.S. Government Is Investigating Why Your Netflix Is So Slow

If your "Orange is the New Black" binge marathon has been interrupted by buffering and you wondered who to blame, the Federal Communications Commission is now trying to answer your question.

In a statement Friday, FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler said he has asked his staff to obtain information about the secret deals that Web companies like Netflix make with Internet service providers to ensure their content travels smoothly across broadband networks to your computer.

Such arrangements have been the subject of growing conflict between Netflix and Verizon, which have spent the past two weeks publicly blaming each other for those frustrating moments when Netflix videos buffer or freeze.

Last week, Netflix began posting a series of error messages to its customers suggesting that congestion on Verizon's network was degrading video quality. Verizon responded by sending Netflix a cease-and-desist letter demanding that the company stop sending the notices.

When Internet service slows, it is often impossible for the public to tell which company is at fault because the details of such arrangements are kept secret.

On Friday, Wheeler said he wants "to understand whether consumers are being harmed." He said the FCC has received details of the deals between Comcast and Netflix and Verizon and Netflix, and is asking for others.

"To be clear, what we are doing right now is collecting information, not regulating," Wheeler said. "We are looking under the hood. Consumers want transparency. They want answers. And so do I."

"The bottom line is that consumers need to understand what is occurring when the Internet service they’ve paid for does not adequately deliver the content they desire, especially content they’ve also paid for. In this instance, it is about what happens where the ISP connects to the Internet. It’s important that we know -- and that consumers know," he said.

Comcast spokeswoman Sena Fitzmaurice said in an email that "we welcome this review," but cautioned that "the broadband consumer should be the focus of this inquiry and not any particular business model.

Verizon spokesman Ed McFadden said that such deals have "worked well for the Internet ecosystem and consumers" and "we are hopeful that policymakers will recognize this fact and that the Internet will continue to be the engine of growth of the global economy."

Netflix spokesman Corie Wright said the company also welcomed "more transparency in this area."

"Americans deserve to get the speed and quality of Internet access they pay for," Wright said in an email.

Many large tech companies -- including Google, Microsoft, Apple, Amazon and Facebook -- have quietly brokered content deals with Internet service providers. Because its popular, data-heavy videos can create traffic jams on broadband networks, Netflix has agreed to pay Comcast and Verizon to ensure its content is streamed to customers smoothly. However, Netflix has also repeatedly complained about the arrangements.

The agreements are technically beyond the scope of the FCC's recent proposal to allow Internet providers to charge web companies more to deliver their content via a "fast lane." The FCC's proposed net neutrality rules only relate to the so-called last mile of online traffic that flows directly to customers' homes.

But Wheeler told a congressional panel recently that the FCC would start looking more closely at the deals between Web companies and Internet providers, which are known in the industry as peering arrangements.

On Friday, consumer groups applauded Wheeler's announcement. Michael Weinberg, vice president at the digital rights advocacy group Public Knowledge, said he "hopes that this effort by the FCC will begin to shine a light on this increasingly important aspect of the Internet."