Declarations

Innocence Lost … Again

“New GM was not born innocent.”

—Arizona Attorney General Tom Horne wants civil penalties of $10,000 for each of the hundreds of thousands of GM vehicles sold in the state in violation of consumer-fraud law. Arizona became the first state to join the wave of litigation against GM over faulty ignition switches.

A Double Standard

“There’s clearly a double standard.”

—Michael Solomon, president of the Taxi Taxi cab service in the Raleigh area, told North Carolina lawmakers that drivers for Uber, Lyft and similar services should be required to obtain commercial license plates and pay for commercial insurance that covers them around the clock. State legislators are studying digital services that allow people to sell car rides through a smartphone app or rent out rooms to travelers. No legislation is currently proposed on the businesses.

Getting to Know Them

“If it gets crowded down there we won’t be in there long. … You’ll get to know your neighbors pretty well.”

—James Trudeau, of Bourbonnais, Ill., says that since he buried a storm shelter in his yard, each of his neighbors has secured the promise of a spot if a tornado heads their way. The storm shelter was manufactured in Arkansas. It has shelves, seating, a breathing vent and steps to its underground confines.

Paint and a Crime Scene

“We can tell the location by the different variations of paint.”

—Oklahoma State University Ph.D student Collin White, who uses a computer to compare spectral paint to the paint of automobiles using algorithms as part of a national effort to identify criminals using a sample of automobile paint taken from a crime scene.

Cyber Networks

“New York’s National Guard has a unique role to play in protecting our cyber networks.”

—U.S. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., in her Nov. 17 letter to Army National Guard’s Acting Director Major General Judd Lyons. In her letter, Gillibrand urged for swift approval of a proposal allowing the New York and New Jersey Army National Guards to form a joint cyber protection team focused on addressing the growing cyber security threats to the region’s infrastructure and networks.