By Marty Padgett
May 17th, 2006
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As if the child of Britney Spears and Kevin Federline didn’t have bad celebrity-child karma already on its shoulders! Now apparently little Sean Preston Spears has mom’s driving habits to survive. Earlier this year paparazzi snapped Spears behind the wheel with infant in lap, unbelted. Her media-savvy response? She did it to save him from said paparazzi. Now the same lenses have spied Spears driving in her
MINI Cooper Convertible, with Sean Preston in the back seat—in a front-facing child chair. The sleazier New York papers (no, not the Times, you imp!) splashed pictures of the scene on Page 1. And aside from Britney’s questionable fashion (hair in Edna Turnblad curlers, no less), her choice of seat positions left some question as to whether she was belting in Sean Preston properly. Federal guidelines say children under a year and 20 pounds must be in a back seat facing backwards, but Spears’ publicist cites California law that permits children under 6 and 60 pounds be in the back seat, direction unspecified. Any CHPer on the scene could have ticketed Spears for the seat—we’ll leave it to you to write your Congressperson as to why she can’t be arrested for stealing Madonna’s tongue.
Tags: Reviews, Enthusiasts, Shoppers
Posted in: 2008, MINI, Cooper Convertible
By Marty Padgett
May 16th, 2006
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When Bill
Ford Jr. wasn’t being chastised by an irate stockholder during the company’s recent annual shareholders meeting in Delaware, he took time to acknowledge soon-to-be-retiring
Ford President James Padilla (shown here, on left).
Padilla will retire July 1. He thanked him for his 36 years of service to the automaker and wished him well in retirement and that he hoped he got everything he deserved. Well, courtesy of the Securities and Exchange Commission, we now know what he deserves…or at least what
Ford Motor Co. will give him.
According to the filing, he’s going to be a consultant to
Ford Motor Co. for the next year and a handsomely paid one at that. He’ll get $592,080, which will be paid at the beginning of each quarter. That’s a check for $148,020 sitting in the mailbox. Additionally, he “will be eligible for two executive vehicles under the Executive Evaluation Vehicle Program.
He will also “be provided a laptop computer, software, a docking station with monitor, printer, fax machine and wireless support, email, internet connection, and phone service for use during the term of the agreement. He’ll also get “the same post-retirement benefits, such as health care and life insurance on the same terms and conditions as other Company salaried employees retiring at the same time, the filing said.
On the down side, no more using the company jet to get around the country. So if you’re checking in at the Spirit Airline counter and the guy standing behind you looks an awful lot like Padilla, it just may very well be…
Tags: Reviews, Industry
By Marty Padgett
May 12th, 2006
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In the slow-moving recovery underway in the city of New Orleans, post-Katrina, flooded cars have become an unexpected hot button in the coming mayoral runoff election that pits Ray Nagin, who steered the city through the Category Three storm, against Lieut. Gov. Mitch Landrieu.
The vehicles in question are an estimated 50,000 cars and
trucks ruined by the floods that killed more than 1200 city residents and forced more than half of the city’s population to flee to Houston, Atlanta and other points beyond. Even now, eight months after the storm, the cars can be found everywhere in the Crescent City: in median strips (called neutral grounds here), on the shoulders of Interstate 10, but mostly tucked under highway overpasses, where they were dragged off main thoroughfares and left for later removal.
The removal process hasn’t just lagged — it’s bogged. Nagin’s administration negotiated for months on a deal that would have allowed privateers to remove the cars and pay the city a flat $100 per vehicle. The vehicles would then be stripped and crushed. But the Mayor’s office says that it lacked the authority to declare the vehicles abandoned. Now, the city is looking at a deal that would be potentially far more costly to do the same thing.
The problem is typical of the obstacles to the city’s recovery. New Orleans doesn’t have the estimated $23 million to pay for the removal project, which the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has said it will reimburse — but only in full if the project is complete by June 30. After that, FEMA reduces the percentage it will reimburse the fractured city to 90 percent.
In the meantime, Nagin must face Landrieu in a runoff election that will shape the future of the city. And Landrieu is using the cars as a potent political football prior to the runoff. “New Orleans shouldn’t be the graveyard for abandoned cars, says mayoral hopeful Landrieu (pronounced “lan-droo) in a TV ad in which he stands amid a sea of flood-damaged vehicles.
Estimates from the local paper say it could take six months to remove all the vehicles from town. By that time, Nagin may not have a role at all in their removal. Though he snared 38 percent of the votes in the city’s mayoral election on April 22, he didn’t win a majority. Landrieu, who grabbed 29 percent in the first vote and has since lined up scores of endorsements, is heavily favored in the runoff, which is set for May 20.
Tags: Enthusiasts, Industry, Shoppers, Reviews
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