G.M. Shakes Up Its Accounting Division May 18, 2006
DETROIT, May 17 (Reuters) ? In response to a series of accounting errors, General Motors said on Wednesday that it would overhaul its corporate controller’s office and hire a financial advisory firm. Paul W. Schmidt, the current controller, will retire later this year and Peter R. Bible, the chief accounting officer, will resign effective June 1, G.M. said in a statement. The company said it would combine the two positions and search for a successor outside the company.G.M. also said it had retained AlixPartners, an advisory firm, to help with accounting, financial reporting and related matters.Fritz Henderson, the company’s chief …
Wincanton adds Goodyear Dunlop to client portfolio
Multi-client warehousing and supply chain solutions provider Wincanton is set to operate a newly-built central warehouse in the Slovak town of Senec for Goodyear Dunlop Tyres. Wincanton will manage the distribution of tires from the new warehouse throughout Slovakia, to the Czech Republic and to Hungary. The five year contract has been signed between Wincanton, Goodyear Dunlop Tyres Czech, Goodyear Dunlop Tyres Slovakia, and Goodyear Dunlop Tyres Hungary.”This project is something more than the standard provision of logistics services. It involves the reorganization and consolidation of our activities in Slovakia and the transfer of our center from Bratislava to …
Shareholder dissidence mars Ford AGM May 17, 2006
The chairman and CEO of Ford Motor Company, Bill Ford, has reiterated his pledge not to accept a salary or bonus until the company’s operations return to profitability. Speaking at the automaker’s annual meeting, however, it became apparent that Mr Ford’s promises have failed to satisfy every shareholder. Reports emerging from Detroit said that a total of eight shareholder proposals opposed by Ford were voted down at the annual meeting, but two initiatives aimed at curbing the influence of the Ford family in the management of the company drew about one-in-five votes cast.Moreover, a proposal to require that Ford …
Honda Plans a New U.S. Plant, and Indiana Craves It
DETROIT, May 16 ? Japan’s Honda Motor Company, on a push to expand its sales of fuel-efficient cars in the United States, said it would spend $400 million to build a sixth North American assembly plant, creating 1,500 jobs. At a news conference Wednesday morning in Tokyo, Honda President Takeo Fakui said the company would also spend $639 million to build its first new plant in Japan since 1976, and $140 million on an engine plant in Canada.Further, Honda said it would build a new family-size hybrid electric car that would go on sale in 2009, and hoped to …
Chairman of Hyundai Is Charged With Theft
SEOUL, South Korea, May 16 ? The chairman of the Hyundai Motor Company, South Korea’s largest carmaker and a symbol of the nation’s economic rise, was charged Tuesday with embezzling more than $100 million and causing far larger financial damage to companies under his control. The chairman, Chung Mong Koo, 68, was charged with misappropriating 130 billion won ($136 million) to set up a slush fund that was apparently used to buy political influence, Chae Dong Wook, a senior prosecutor at the Supreme Prosecutors’ Office, told reporters. He said Mr. Chung was also charged with breach of trust, accused …
Shelby Journal: New Fuel for a Stalled Upstate Economy May 14, 2006
SHELBY, N.Y., May 10 ? The railroad once carried the economy of this rural town and its upstate New York neighbors. Farmers took their crops to the nearest depot to send to market. Massive blocks of sandstone from local quarries were shipped out by rail. And vegetable processors like H. J. Heinz and the toy manufacturer Fisher-Price located factories here to take advantage of the trains.But the industrial base of western New York has slowly withered over the last 50 years, with people following jobs out of the region. Fisher-Price in nearby Medina closed its plant in 1995, putting …
Motoring: Coming Through in the Clutch at Stick-Shift U.
Feeling pressure from sophisticated New Yorkers, who suddenly possessed extraordinary knowledge of horsepower and torque, this writer had learn how to drive a “stick.” This was not phrased in the form of a question. These sophisticated New Yorkers, who suddenly possessed extraordinary knowledge of horsepower and torque, were just making sure I knew what would happen if I did not buy a manual-shift car.When my wife told me that learning to drive a stick shift was like dancing ? best done while the mind is young and malleable ? I was not persuaded. Even in my mid-30′s, I argued, my …
Military Plans Tests in Search for an Alternative to Oil-Based Fuel
The Air Force has begun looking for a way to power its jets on something besides conventional crude-oil-based fuel. In a series of tests ? first on engines mounted on blocks and then with B-52′s in flight ? the Air Force will try to prove that the American military can fly its aircraft by blending traditional crude-oil-based jet fuel with a synthetic liquid made first from natural gas and, eventually, from coal, which is plentiful and cheaper. While the military has been a leader in adopting some technologies ? light but strong metals, radar-evading stealth designs and fire-retardant flight suits, …
Handlebars: Hog Heaven: A Helmeted Priest and a Choir of Harleys
Outside the Cathedral of St. John the Baptist in Patterson, N.J., last Sunday, Msgr. Mark Giordani walked vigorously, sprinkling holy water on motorcycles, their owners and bystanders. THE drops of water, when they landed, were shockingly cool on skin heated by the midday sun. Some of that skin was leathery from exposure to sun and wind, some of it was tattooed. It was the skin of motorcyclists whose bikes, most of them Harley-Davidsons, lined three blocks. Outside the Cathedral of St. John the Baptist last Sunday, Msgr. Mark Giordani walked vigorously, sprinkling holy water on the motorcycles, their owners and …
Green Tech: Solution or Distraction? An Ethanol Reality Check
Embraced by automakers and promoted by industry mascots like Corn Cob Bob, ethanol is ascendant. But the alcohol-based fuel won’t soon replace gasoline. Q. What is ethanol and how is it made?A. Ethanol is a form of alcohol; in the United States, it is produced mainly from corn. The starch in the corn is converted to sugar, which is fermented to produce the fuel, a process not unlike making corn liquor in a still. Ethanol fuel, typically blended with 15 percent gasoline and sold as E85, has some advantages over gasoline ? lower emissions of greenhouse gases and higher octane …
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