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Mansfield Plumbing Products has a 94-year legacy in Perrysville, Ohio. Founded in 1929, the company is the fourth-largest employer in the county and makes toilets and sinks.  According to the Mansfield News Journal , the company recently announced plans to close the factory on December 31, 2023, cutting some 277 employees in the process; about 220 are represented by the Teamsters. The company says...

According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), the U.S. coal industry will see nearly a quarter of its operating plants sunset by the end of the decade – a pace that EIA says is actually slower than the aggressive closure activity of the decade before.

According to Bloomberg , Tesla – who has been cutting prices incrementally on its electrics for the better part of a year – has reached a new low. And that’s not bad news for customers, who can now buy a Tesla for the same amount, or less than, the average price of a gasoline powered car.

If you’ve shopped around for a new vehicle lately, you know that prices are crazy. Recent analysis from Kelley Blue Book puts the average new vehicle price in the U.S. at around $48,000. That’s up only $199 from one year ago, but it’s considerably higher than the pre-pandemic  average of around $38,000. Kia has apparently noticed this too and took current consumer costs into consideration when dec...

The new car market has been the scene of a ton of drama over the last few years, and when you pair scarcity with demand, the creative solutions tend to flow. For some high demand vehicle models, that has resulted in an active resale market – so much so that automakers have had to apply preventative measures to stop individuals from reselling new vehicles for a profit.

Perhaps one of the brand names most associated with its home state of Pennsylvania, Utz potato chips are legendary, therefore the latest company news might make locals feel a little salty – Utz says it plans to close its oldest plant, the Carlisle Street factory in Hannover, PA. In a bid to “support volume growth and reduce costs,” Utz has announced its lowest volume plant, which currently produce...

Boeing, one of the most recognizable names in the aerospace industry, is out millions and has some egg on its face after it was caught not fully complying with all manufacturing specifications for one if its U.S. Navy contracts. The company has long held a contract to manufacture the V-22 Osprey, a vertical takeoff and landing military aircraft. According to the U.S. Justice Department, Boeing fro...

The International Space Station launched in 1998 and since then it has served as an important research facility for multiple nations. The old ISS still has some good years left but space agencies are already planning for its demise. The ISS is scheduled to be deorbited beginning in 2030. Considering it weighs nearly 1 million pounds, it’s a heavy task. As New Atlas points out, the ISS can’t simply...

Honda’s latest project sees the automaker partnering with its local dealer associations to produce small, electric ride-on vehicles that will be distributed to children’s hospitals throughout the U.S. The Shogo, which gets its name from a Japanese phrase meaning “soaring into the future,” is a sleek little battery-powered racer that can cruise through the hallways at speeds between 1 and 5 miles p...

St. Peter, MN – a town of about 12,000 people – is home to the headquarters of one of the oldest operating boat manufacturers in the United States. While the Alumacraft name is well known on the recreational hunting and fishing scene, the latest news from the company isn’t fun – Alumacraft parent BRP has announced it will lay off 68 workers at its St. Peter plant.

The Department of Labor has revealed the findings of an OSHA investigation that discovered a concrete pipe manufacturer could have prevented an incident at one of its job sites in Florida. According to OSHA , in March, two employees of Foley Products Company climbed inside a concrete mixer to remove hardened concrete. But as one of the workers exited the mixer, the machine restarted with the secon...

Toyota wants to achieve annual electric vehicle sales of 3.5 million by the end of the decade. To accomplish this goal, the automaker is looking to cut its plant investment, production processes, and manufacturing preparation lead time in half.  Recently, reporters were given a glimpse of the company’s technology poised to drive this transformation. According to Nikkei Asia , Toyota unveiled a pro...

New challenges are facing an already tenuous market for semiconductors as China is making some changes in the name of national security. As a key exporter of certain rare earth minerals that are critical to the production of some computer chips and solar panels, China holds the cards to a burgeoning market where semiconductors serve as the base of many electrical and electronic products. But inste...

A space factory designed to manufacture pharmaceuticals while in orbit around Earth will now be hanging out off planet a little longer than expected. That’s because the U.S. Air Force denied Varda Space Industries’ request for re-entry, according to TechCrunch , which said the company asked for permission to land a capsule at a Utah training facility. The report said the Federal Aviation Administr...

Agility Robotics yesterday announced plans to open RoboFab, a robot manufacturing facility in Salem, Oregon. The company behind the bipedal Digit isn't just making a few of these things; they plan to produce more than 10,000 robots per year. So, let's see, according to the National Association of Manufacturers, we'll have 2.1 million unfilled jobs by 2030—I'm not sure that we&a...

The Department of Justice announced that Navmar Applied Sciences Corporation, an engineering and technical services provider, will pay $4.4 million to settle allegations of False Claims Act violations.  Between 2010 and 2012, the Department of the Navy granted contracts to Navmar related to the supply of enhanced intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance systems, hardware, maintenance technica...

In July, Tesla announced that its first production Cybertruck electric pickup rolled off the assembly line, nearly four years after its initial unveiling and two years behind the original timetable. As the long-anticipated vehicle approaches its scheduled delivery expected this quarter, reports have emerged of prototypes spotted charging , what the vehicle’s “frunk” and interior look like and how...

Ford this week unveiled the 2024 F-150 and eagle-eyed observers noticed a subtle change to the automaker’s iconic blue oval that came along with it. Car and Driver noticed that the new logo removed the smaller silver oval on the inside of the badge. The outer border of the oval and the lettering are also now white instead of chrome. The publication confirmed the changes with Rob Brancheau, who ser...

In March 2022, an Air Starter Components Inc. worker in Texas suffered a finger amputation. The incident occurred when the worker's hand became caught in a polishing machine that did not have the required machine safety guards. One year later , OSHA returned to the scene to conduct a follow-up investigation and determine if the manufacturer of air starters and other engine components and part...

An extreme runner is in a bit of trouble following an ocean voyage. The runner, Reza Baluchi, was trying to traverse the Atlantic Ocean in a structure that resembles an adult-sized hamster wheel when the U.S. Coast Guard spotted him. According to a criminal complaint , the Coast Guard found Baluchi while transiting the Atlantic Ocean 70 nautical miles off the coast of Georgia in preparation for Hu...

It turns out a lack of ambition sunk the “Ambition,” a crane barge that was declared a total loss after capsizing in the Gulf of Mexico last year. The Ambition was being towed when it sank on June 15, 2022 and released nearly 2,000 gallons of oil. The vessel, owned by Rigid Constructors, was a $6.3 million loss. Results from a recent National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) investigation blamed...

The CEO of EV startup Lucid Motors had a really good year in 2022. A new CEO compensation survey from Automotive News and Equilar says the head of the luxury EV company's compensation package is valued at more than a third of a billion dollars.  Peter Rawlinson's base salary, at $575,000, is reasonable. He also took home $5.5 million in stock options and some $373 million in stock awards...

 Toyota suffered a major production setback last month when it had to shut down all 28 vehicle assembly lines at all 14 of its automotive plants in Japan. The company is now saying that this bad memory was caused by a lack of memory. According to the Guardian , Toyota said the August 29 production stoppage occurred after “insufficient disk space” caused a system malfunction following a standard ma...

Automatic speaker identification has gained popularity in security applications due to its proficiency in detecting and countering fraudulent attempts to mimic a user’s voice through digital manipulation.  However, digital security engineers from the University of Wisconsin-Madison discovered that these systems have a weakness when facing a novel analog attack. According to the team, speaking thro...

One of the biggest appliance manufacturers in the country, with nine U.S. factories including five in Ohio, is out millions after mishandling a serious defect with some of its products. Whirlpool, which is based in Benton Harbor, Michigan, has agreed to pay an $11.5 million civil settlement. According to the Consumer Product Safety Commission, the company failed to immediately report issues with 1...