News Tagged ‘Los Angeles

Gas explosion at Calif. business kills one, severely burns another

los angeles map index 100x100An explosion blew the roof off an industrial building housing a metal working shop in South Los Angeles early Friday morning, killing one person and seriously injuring another. Investigators suspect somebody within the business tampered with the gas lines Thursday after the gas service was shut off for nonpayment.

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Federal government ordered Toyota production and sales suspension

toyota logoYesterday, Toyota ran full-page advertisements in more than 20 major American newspapers to tell customers that its decision to suspend production and sales of many of its top-selling vehicles is just a “Temporary pause. To put you first,” as the headline proclaims.

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CPSC info center helps consumers living with toxic Chinese drywall

chinese drywallThe federal government has launched a new section of its web site called the Drywall Information Center. The agency developed the section in an effort to field consumer questions and complaints about the influx of tainted Chinese-made drywall to the U.S. that occurred in 2006 and 2007 when domestic drywall supplies ran low.

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California men file sudden acceleration lawsuit against Toyota

toyota logo“Neither driver error nor floor mats can explain away many other frightening instances of runaway Toyotas,” said an for two men who filed a lawsuit against the car manufacturer in a California federal court on November 5. “Until the company acknowledges the real problem and fixes it, we worry that other preventable injuries and deaths will occur,” the for the men said.

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Toxic drywall: new meaning for the term China Syndrome?

cpsc importsIn the 1970s, a blockbuster movie popularized the apocalyptic theory that radioactive material from a nuclear meltdown could burn through the earth’s core and resurface on the other side of the world. Today, the words “China Syndrome” could be an accurate description of the influx of dangerous consumer products flooding the U.S. market from overseas and China in particular – products such as toxic Chinese drywall, which builders and suppliers imported during the 2006-2007 building boom and post-Hurricane Katrina reconstruction efforts. These products, analysts are coming to understand, threaten to harm more than the American consumer and his wallet.

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TBI kills UC San Diego pole vaulter

pole vaulterA 19-year-old pole vaulter for the University of Southern California San Diego died earlier this month after receiving a traumatic brain injury. According to the Los Angeles Times, sophomore Leon Roach from Huntington Beach, California, had been practicing his vaults on Thursday, September 3. Roach was completing a jump but missed the pads and hit the concrete instead, landing head first.

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Texting and driving: getting the message out in different ways

texting and drivingLast month, we wrote about the texting-while-driving video produced by the Police Department of Gwent, Wales, a 4-minute graphic glimpse at what happens when a driver, distracted by a text message, unconsciously steers into oncoming traffic. The filmmakers posted the video to YouTube in condensed form (the entire film is 30 minutes long) simply to show a colleague, never expecting it would go viral. Within weeks, it was viewed more than 4 million times on YouTube and other web sites. The video’s instant popularity astounded everyone, but some critics wonder whether its message carried through the noise and carnage of the fictitious three-vehicle crash.

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CBS reports Toyota destroyed evidence in rollover, roof crush cases

toyota capAn investigative report by CBS reveals the lengths some big corporations will go to conceal evidence that casts the company and its products in a dubious light. The report features Dimitrios Biller, a former for Toyota, who accuses the car manufacturer of withholding and destroying evidence in more than 300 rollover and roof crush lawsuits. Biller alleges Toyota took measures to hide evidence “of its vehicles’ structural shortcomings,” an effort which he claims amounted to a “ruthless conspiracy.”

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Texting while driving: graphic video brings dangers to life

CellPhoneText 100x100“A solid and growing body of studies shows that texting, conversing on hand-held phones or even chatting hands-free … make us dangerous drivers, as likely to get into an accident as if we were legally drunk,” says a Los Angeles Times editorial published last week. Many states and municipalities have tackled the scourge of cell phone-talking drivers with legislation aimed at reducing the rising tide of cell-phone related driving accidents, but what to do with cell phone-texting drivers?

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LA police sue department for no-helmet order at demonstration

lapd badge 150x150Los Angeles police responding to a pro-Palestinian rally outside the Federal Building on Wilshire Boulevard were told not to wear protective head gear. As the demonstrations mounted, one police officer received a head when he was struck in the head with a sign. The Los Angeles Police Protective League, a union for the city’s finest, has taken action in response to the no-helmet order, claiming that commanders jeopardized the of their officers.

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