THE US REPORT

Just last week Volkswagen announced that it will build a U.S. automotive production facility in Chattanooga, Tenn., where it will produce a car designed specifically for the North American consumer and invest $1 billion in the economy. That announcement was followed by the dedication of Nissan Americas headquarters (photo, right) in Franklin, Tenn. The new center serves as regional headquarters for the United States, Canada and Mexico.

Just when you thought the economy was tanking and rumors of major American carmakers’ financial woes are floating, two manufacturers are in the news—the good news—confirming an intent to funnel money into a Southern state. Prof. Martin Winterkorn, CEO of Volkswagen AG was quoted in a news release at the Tenn. Dept. of Economic and Community Development: “Volkswagen will be extremely active there. This plant represents a milestone in Volkswagen’s growth strategy. We will be selling 800,000 Volkswagens in the U.S. by 2018, and this new site will play a key role. This, along with our growth strategy, is a prerequisite for the economic success of the company in the dollar region. We look forward to establishing an important mainstay for ourselves when we become the biggest European carmaker there.”

Nissan Americas CEO Carlos Ghosn offered a statement in his company’s news release: “Nissan Americas is an investment in our future,” Ghosn said. “We purposefully designed the building to inspire and enhance collaboration among our employees. The building also is a statement about our confidence in the continued growth of Nissan in the Americas and our unyielding commitment to environmental sustainability.” In May, Ghosn unveiled Nissan’s five-year business plan, GT 2012, including an outline of Nissan’s commitment to leadership in the design, development, manufacture and distribution of zero-emission vehicles.

While the vehicles themselves will be environmentally friendly, they will rely on a power infrastructure for batteries to recharge.

Disclosure: I drive a Nissan Altima and I am crazy about that car.

For sources, click on 'References' link below this post. Photo of Nissan's Franklin headquarters from Nissan Americas website.

A huge conflict over global warming has erupted, with experts saying there is no consensus and that man-made emissions are not doing the harm some experts claim. Daily Tech broke the story today. Read my post about this at Red State. Enjoy the video below produced by Americans for Prosperity. I discovered the video at The Washington Examiner.

I've written a number of stories here at The US Report about global warming/climate change, with some recent ones in the Environment category.

I do believe America should develop alternative forms of energy. I do not believe we can do that overnight; politicians have put this off for the last 16 years. It will take time to reduce our use of oil. But the insane political frenzy about this subject is costing people in our country ridiculous amounts of money. In other countries where there are internal conflicts and corrupt leadership, food donations people depend on from us are being diverted for fuel. We have to do something, but it cannot be done overnight.

In the video below, the young man who says he advocates $8 a gallon gasoline took a cab to see  Al Gore who arrived with a motorcade. Gore's driver idled the engine for 20 minutes so the car would be cool.

Neither that young man nor Gore can begin to imagine what it is like for a senior living on a small fixed income or a single mother trying to keep a roof over her children's heads. I know what that is like because I have delivered food to people like that. In person.

Since the mortgage crisis broke, I’ve wondered if fraud figures into the losses and I’ve made a point to ask people if they know a person who lost their home. I haven’t met a single person who has, and I've talked to a broad variety of people. The FBI announced this  week the sentencing of a woman for mortgage fraud and identity theft. The case was prosecuted in the US Court for the Western District of Missouri. Kimberly M. Davis, 43, of Lee’s Summit (Mo.) was sentenced to four years in federal prison without parole. The FBI investigated and solved the case. The court also ordered Davis to pay $191,000 in restitution. Davis used stolen identities to purchase homes. Davis tied up more than $1,000,000 in mortgage loans.

On Dec. 9, 2007, Davis pleaded guilty to using the names, Social Security numbers and birth dates of three separate victims, without their permission, to purchase two homes in Lee's Summit. Davis worked as a mortgage broker at firms in Liberty and Gladstone from November 2003 through January 2005.  Between Nov. 19 and 25, 2003, Davis used a stolen identity to obtain a $317,894 loan from Countrywide Home Loans, Inc., for the purchase of a Lee's Summit residence at 704 S.W. Winterstar Dr. Between July 2 and Sept. 17, 2004, Davis used another stolen identity to obtain a $347,438 loan from Countrywide for the purchase of another Lee's Summit residence at 2520 Wintercreek Dr. Between Dec. 31, 2004, and Jan. 7, 2005, Davis used a third stolen identity to obtain a $362,424 loan from Accredited Home Lenders, Inc., for the purchase of the second Lee's Summit residence (at 2520 Wintercreek Dr.), ostensibly by the third identity theft victim.

So I wonder how much of this “mortgage crisis” is really a crisis. Congress spent tons of time investigating allegations of steroids in baseball players, an act that really cost me nothing even if the players had used steroids. But the mortgage crisis which will definitely cost taxpayers money received little attention in the way of investigations, at least until now at a point when it's basically too late. And you wonder why this Congress has such low approval ratings.

The Associated Press, a brand long regarded as an impartial provider of news, has moved to a more opinionated approach, according to an article at Politico. The AP sells what has traditionally been billed as straight news to a majority of the nation’s newspapers. AP content is also carried by other media such as websites and radio.

Commenting on the Politico article, Warner Todd Huston at Red State wrote about new Washington Bureau Chief Ron Fournier, who “…decided that a more hard-charging, opinion oriented style of writing is the new direction the AP should take in this new Internet age and it's a direction that makes the AP's past bias even more pronounced.” Fournier began acting as chief in May.

I noted in my own column at Red State the differences in two AP stories dealing with the age of public figures. A story about Supreme Court Justices carried the headline, “No rush to retire black robes on Supreme Court.” The opening sentence pointed out that Justices John Paul Stevens (88) and Ruth Bader Ginsburg (75) stay physically active. No concerns were expressed about those justices coping with demands and rigors of their positions. Both justices are considered liberal. A headline for the other story dealing with Sen. John McCain’s age (71) blurted, “For some, Republican John McCain is ‘too old.’”

A backdrop for the AP’s new slant is a decline in revenue for newspapers. Digital Media Wire says 2008 may end up as the “worst on record for the newspaper advertising industry.”

Significant reliance on wire service stories results in homogenized content in newspapers across the nation, creating a challenge for a newspaper to distinguish its own brand from another’s. Newspapers do often try to edit so that the story carries regional significance, something that may be harder to do now that AP will focus on what I perceive as advocacy journalism.

Most of us non-tech types compute with nary a care each day, but software makers, hardware makers and other tech experts collaborated secretly to fix a vulnerability that if exploited would have allowed hackers to literally take over the Web. In one scenario, you’d type in the URL of your bank but you’d actually be taken to a copycat site that would steal your personal information. Breitbart says, “Security researcher Dan Kaminsky of IOActive stumbled upon the Domain Name System (DNS) vulnerability about six months ago and reached out to industry giants including Microsoft, Sun and Cisco to collaborate on a solution.” Kaminsky said he found the vulnerability by accident.

Kaminsky wrote about the experience at the DoxPara Research website. As I read his account of the challenge and the solution, I thought to myself how like poetry technology is, at least as far as the passion and complexity go. Poetry presents a problem—this may sound like overkill, but trust me, poetry will challenge you if it’s approached as art rather than emotional gush—and you pore over the lines, explore the options, see what one tweak will produce, manipulate something as small as a comma and go from there. Kaminsky’s passion for his work is evident. There’s a charming video of him with his niece, explaining the situation in layperson’s terms.

There's a simple clickthrough at DoxPara to check your own DNS security. I was relieved to know mine is safe, at least as far as one can tell.

I tried to thank him and the other collaborators, but wasn’t able to leave a comment at DoxPara. So here’s my expression of gratitude to Kaminsky and all the others who selflessly devoted their time to making the Web a safer place for all of us. The potential fallout from the DNS security flaw was phenomenal—in the 21st century a new category of hero has emerged. These researchers and tech experts are a type of new warrior in my opinion, utlitizing the sort of weaponry that is among the most complicated on the planet. This group definitely deserves a whole lot of our gratitude. Maybe the Nobel Prize Foundation could, for once, recognize a group that did something to benefit common people in every country in the world.