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Two divisions of newly formed car giant Stellantis face fraud charges in a sweeping investigation into the manipulation of diesel vehicles in emissions testing. The automaker, established by the merger of Fiat Chrysler and PSA Group earlier this year, said that a French court had charged its Peugeot and Citroen brands with consumer fraud. The Peugeot probe concerns vehicles sold in the country fro...

As COVID-19 cases continue to drop, Americans are eager to get back to the beach this summer and make up for lost time. But it appears there’s a little problem that needs to be worked out first. A recent investigation by the online pharmacy and laboratory Valisure uncovered alarming ingredients in some of the most popular sunscreen brands. The report identified the chemical benzene in sunscreen lo...

Food and beverage giant PepsiCo on Monday shared plans for a new corporate policy embracing remote work flexibility — led by shifting half of its office staff to working from home permanently. PepsiCo says that under its new "Work that Works" program, there will be no default, day-to-day workplace for employees in its headquarters locations. Office associates, along with their managers,...

We may have forgotten about the supply-chain debacle inflicted by the infamous ship that became trapped in the Suez Canal this past spring, but those manufacturers with goods aboard haven’t. Companies with products aboard the Ever Given in March are still awaiting their goods. And while the cargo ship may not be immobilized, those companies continue to sit in limbo — with their products and money...

This week, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) made an incredible announcement that could, at first, improve the operational readiness of soldiers but eventually improve the lives of any person suffering jet lag or food poisoning. In April 2020, DARPA introduced the ADvanced Acclimation and Protection Tool for Environmental Readiness program. The ADAPTER program aims to create ne...

It’s one of the most popular brands produced by Stellantis, formerly known as Fiat Chrysler. So why are 1,600 workers at a Jeep plant in Belvidere, IL on the cusp of losing their jobs? Unfortunately we’re seeing the fallout from a global computer chip shortage hitting greater extremes. Earlier this month, Stellantis attributed losses of about 11% in Q1 to semiconductor shortages that impacted prod...

With over 21.6 million people, the infrastructure of Mexico City faces a daily strain that is both immense and unique. And while we’ve covered some of the challenges this creates, including the recent and devastating collapse of a metro train overpass , a report on Wired.com adds a unique problem to the mix. Using radar-based ground measurement tools that can go up to 100’ into the earth, geologis...

In April of this year, we reported on the latest activities of Aerion Supersonic, the ambitious, Boeing-backed planemaker whose goal was to bring supersonic passenger jets to the sky by the middle of the decade. The company’s “boomless cruise” technology is designed to ferry business travelers on an ultra quiet jet in about half the time of a traditional plane… without creating a sonic boom. The p...

The automobile maker and Lockheed Martin co-announced May 26 that the two companies are working together on developing a new line of moon rover vehicles that astronauts will use in future lunar missions. The iconic car maker and aerospace and defense provider touched on how NASA’s upcoming Artemis missions will take humans to the moon by 2024 — for the first time since 1972. When they do, astronau...

The US Military is under fire after a training incident gone awry. According to a recent report, a group of soldiers were engaged in a training exercise in Bulgaria when a mistake sent them off course. The group was assigned the task of clearing and securing multiple structures on the US airbase in Cheshnigirovo  when they inadvertently strayed from the designated area and onto private property. T...

It was April 30th when workers at a Volvo truck assembly plant in Dublin, Virginia called off a 13-day strike after the company brokered a peace agreement with the UAW: talks would begin again and so would the work. And it’s true that talks, which had begun in February of this year, did resume while the plant’s 2,900 UAW members worked under the terms of an expired, five-year contract that had bee...

If you’re looking for someone to blame for the price of chicken wings, experts say it’s the fault of the pandemic -- at least partially, anyway -- as American appetite for chicken has remained strong during COVID restrictions and in response to fast food chicken sandwich wars. And while chicken producers are working overtime to try to address the demand, one proposed plant is being sidelined over...

A couple in Pennsylvania is taking Solar Roof to court and attempting to initiate a class-action lawsuit against the Tesla subsidiary. It seems that after agreeing to a price of just over $46,000 to have their entire roof outfitted with Tesla panels for generating solar energy — and re-financing their home to pay for it — the couple put down a $100 deposit and waited for Tesla to contact them.

Among other lessons, the past year has shown the serious consequences of the decades-long inability to get modern broadband communications to rural or remote communities. Too many parts of the country still don’t have access to broadband even as some cities rocket into the 5G age, but there’s no easy fix: installing towers, cables and other necessary infrastructure is expensive — particularly when...

An Oklahoma manufacturer of prefabricated steel structures will pay more than $430,000 to settle dozens of apparent violations of U.S. sanctions on Iran, federal officials announced this week. According to the U.S. Treasury Department , Alliance Steel of Oklahoma City outsourced engineering work to an Iranian company at least 61 times between late 2013 and late 2018. Officials said that when Allia...

One of the smaller pieces of news coming out of the Shanghai Auto Show last week was the unveiling of new, and more colorful versions of China’s most popular electric car. Standing out more than the new yellow, pink and green versions of the Wuling Hong Guang Mini EV is its price tag. Introduced last summer at base prices of under $4,400, the new models will be staying as light on the pocket book...

Huawei is one of the world’s most prominent consumer electronics and telecommunications companies. It’s also the first global tech giant to emerge from China — a fact that put a target on its back from governments wary of Beijing’s influence and motives. The U.S., in particular, imposed sanctions that prevented the company form using U.S.-made technology — including Google’s Android platform — and...

A jury has awarded three veterans a total of $7.1 million after a case against 3M went to trial. At issue are earplugs. The Wall Street Journal first reported the resolution last week, when a Florida jury agreed with the plaintiffs who said that 3M failed to warn users of product defects relating to its earplugs. The earplugs in question are called Combat Arms, a product designed for soldiers that...

Ford is making its first foray into long-range, fully electric vehicles with the Mustang Mach-E, an SUV based on its iconic sports car that drew rave reviews as thousands of deliveries began in recent months. But a new report highlights the types of headaches that likely await automakers as they transition to more and more electrified fleets. The Mach-E, which starts at more than $40,000, boasts a...

Typically, a story involving smugglers and a high-speed boat chase through the harbors of Hong Kong would be fuel for a Jason Statham movie surrounding organized crime, guns and/or drugs. Post-pandemic however, we’re not talking about nefarious substances or weapons. Rather, a report on DigitalTrends.com links these events to approximately 300 stolen Cryptocurrency Mining Processors made by Santa...

Based in Paris, Illinois, North American Lighting manufactures automotive lighting systems. On Nov. 14, 2020, an accident at the company's Advanced Forward Lighting Plant left an employee severely injured. According to the Department of Labor, a master maintenance technician suffered severe facial burns when pressurized material in a B-13 plastic molding machine exploded. OSHA investigated th...

If you order fries from a fast-food establishment during April, don’t be shocked if they tell you they’re out of ketchup. Yes, as just the latest food commodity facing major disruption due to impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, America is currently facing a ketchup packet crisis. As first reported by the Wall Street Journal, restaurants nationwide are scrambling to find supply of ketchup packets tha...

On Wednesday, March 31st, 49-year-old Cody Easterday pleaded guilty to a $244 million scam to defraud Tyson Foods and another unnamed company.  According to the Department of Justice, the Washington man charged the companies to purchase and feed hundreds of thousands of cattle. The only problem was, they didn't exist.  Cody Easterday owns cattle feedyard Easterday Ranches and he agreed to buy...

The gearheads over at Jalopnik usually take to new auto development with a critical eye, so when their observations reach the level of aggrandized headlines, well… it’s worth taking a look. In this case, it relates to the automaker Genesis, a division of Hyundai headquartered in Fountain Valley, California -- and what Jalopnik refers to as “the hottest concept car in a decade.” And they’re not alo...

After more than a half-century of making cars for General Motors, the automaker closed down the local assembly plant in 2019 — then announced it would sell the factory to a newly formed electric vehicle maker bearing the city’s name. Although Lordstown Motors Corp. would employ a fraction of GM’s former workforce, the company appeared poised to leap into the nascent market for electric pickups wit...