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"After his death, at least 50 youths took to the streets and started to break windows at the entrance of Gabelle, an outskirt of the city. The youths also burned garbage, tires, a motorcycle and five vehicles in a shipyard, said the police. When the Police and the fire-fighters arrived on the scène, protesters threw stones and Molotov cocktails against them. Then, the police retaliate by firing tear gas but it was unable to enter into Gabelle." Think about that last sentence for a minute. "France/Civil unrest: clashes erupted in Fréjus after a young man killed himself," from ESISC, October...

In 2002, President George W. Bush helped make us poorer by signing off on higher steel tariffs. In 2009, President Barack Obama helped make us poorer by signing off on higher tire tariffs. Is this supposed to be change we can believe in? Economic analysis shows that trade creates wealth. The law of comparative advantage demonstrates that when we specialize and trade, we produce more wealth using the same resources. Preventing trade means that we use more resources to produce less wealth.

A new tariff on tires produced in China could shift prices for inexpensive rubber into overdrive. "It changes the market for cheap tires," said Bruce Harrison, an automotive industry analyst at IHS Global Insight, a Boston-area economic forecasting firm. "We're going to see almost immediate price increases at the bottom end of the market." President Barack Obama announced last Friday the U.S. would levy steep tariffs on Chinese-manufactured tires in response to pressure from the United Steelworkers union, which represents workers at U.S. tire plants. The union argued cheap Chinese imports decrease U.S. tire production and create job losses. Retailers...

Trade: President Obama has fired the opening salvo in a trade war with China by slapping 35% tariffs on its tires. But besides giving China a kick, this protectionism will harm Americans across the economy.Sec. 421 of the 1974 Trade Act, intended to control surges in imports. But the markets paid attention. Global stock futures tumbled over the weekend. Asian markets dropped sharply Monday, fearing a wave of U.S. protectionism. China called the U.S. move "rampant protectionism" and vowed to investigate dumping charges against U.S. auto parts and chicken, two industries that have made inroads into the China market. The...

A full-blown trade row erupted between the US and China after Beijing accused Washington of “rampant protectionism” for imposing heavy duties on imported Chinese tyres and threatened action against imports of US poultry and vehicles. Trade relations between two of the world’s biggest economies deteriorated after Barack Obama, US president, signed an order late on Friday to impose a new duty of 35 per cent on Chinese tyre imports on top of an existing 4 per cent tariff. In his first big test on world trade since taking office in January, Mr Obama sided with America’s trade unions, which have...

A full-blown trade row erupted on Sunday night between the US and China after Beijing accused Washington of “rampant protectionism” for imposing heavy duties on imported Chinese tyres and threatened action against imports of US poultry and vehicles. Trade relations between two of the world’s biggest economies deteriorated after Barack Obama, US president, signed an order late on Friday to impose a new duty of 35 per cent on Chinese tyre imports on top of an existing 4 per cent tariff.

President Barack Obama on Friday slapped punitive tariffs on all car and light truck tires entering the United States from China in a decision that could anger the strategically important Asian powerhouse but placate union supporters important to his health care push at home. Obama had until Sept. 17 -- next week -- to accept, reject or modify a U.S. International Trade Commission ruling that a rising tide of Chinese tires into the U.S. hurts American producers. A powerful union, United Steelworkers, blames the increase for the loss of thousands of American jobs.

EPA will also pursue a ban on the manufacture and distribution of lead tire weights in response to a 2009 petition from the Ecology Center, the Sierra Club and other NGOs requesting that the agency establish regulations prohibiting the manufacture, processing, and distribution of lead tire weights.

The U.S. Department of Transportation has proposed a new replacement tire label that would include, for the first time, information about the tire's impact on fuel economy and carbon dioxide emission reductions. The proposal, which was put forth by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), also would provide customers "with two other key pieces of tire performance information: wet weather traction and tread wear," according to NHTSA officials. All three ratings would be displayed on a removable label attached to the replacement tire at the point of sale. The new ratings also will appear on the federal government's www.safercar.gov...

Largo police stopped a Clearwater man early this morning because they say he was driving a car that had only three tires. A short time later, they arrested him for having a blood-alcohol level nearly twice the level at which the state presumes a person is unable to safely drive. Henry C. Romeu, 27, faces DUI charges. According to police, Romeu was traveling on East Bay Drive just after 2 a.m. without a rear passenger tire, something Largo police Lt. Mike Loux said “isn’t as uncommon as you think.” Romeu displayed uneven balance, had bloodshot eyes and registered 0.200 and...

When it comes to developing a tire that can take on tough terrain, such as exploring trails or crawling rocks, engineers at Goodyear say they “left no stone unturned” when developing the new Wrangler MT/R tire with Kevlar. Due to be available in March, it is the company’s first off-road tire built with DuPont’s Kevlar material for enhanced sidewall puncture resistance. The use of Kevlar, which is reportedly pound-for-pound five times stronger than steel, brings superb sidewall cut- and puncture-resistance to an area of the tire that demands extra toughness when driving off-road, according to Melissa Montisano, Goodyear’s general manager...

Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co., the biggest U.S. tire maker, said Wednesday it plans to cut nearly 5,000 jobs this year after a sharp drop in sales led to a loss of $330 million in the fourth quarter. The job cuts equal almost 7 percent of the Akron, Ohio-based company’s work force and follow the elimination of about 4,000 jobs in the second half of last year.

There's more that one way to green a car, and many of the most interesting technological advancements don't involve powering an internal combustion engine. Consider that much of the fabric, plastic and rubber that goes into a car's construction is derived from petroleum, and you see why alternatives are becoming increasingly attractive. Automakers have taken up corn-based plastics and soy-based seat foam, and now the latest greenery comes by way of defatted soy flour. The latter is an organic substance that's being considered as a replacement for the petroleum-based "carbon black" rubber particles that are currently specified in the vast...

A few days ago there were reports that 30 cars had their tires slashed at an early voting site in Flordia. Apparently only Obama supporters cars were targeted. Also, at an Obama rally in Fayetteville NC, again 30 cars had their tires slashed. Unfortunately I have been unable to find any updated news on these incidents. Suspects talked to? Suspects caught? Zero follow up after initial reports. Anyone here have any updates? It seems odd that two places seperated by many miles both magically had 30 cars affected.

Tire companies, big box stores, and the government are putting the brakes on the use of lead wheel weights. Through EPA's National Lead-Free Wheel Weight Initiative, partners have agreed to phase-in the use of lead-free alternative wheel weights and reduce the amount of lead released into the environment by 2011. "Our partners have pledged to reduce or eliminate their use of lead wheel weights," said Susan Parker Bodine, assistant administrator of EPA's Office of Solid Waste and Emergency Response. "Their efforts will remove millions of pounds of lead from the environment and the waste stream." Eliminating lead wheel weights is...

Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. said Tuesday that it would close 92 money-losing retail stores with about 500 full-time workers by the end of the year. The move by the biggest U.S. tire maker affects about 11% of Goodyear outlets in North America and will result in charges of about $30 million, half of which will be recorded in the third quarter. The stores, all company owned, had combined annual losses of about $9 million, the Akron, Ohio-based company said. "Taking this action now will allow us to focus our attention on locations with the best long-term potential," said Scott...

MIDI - EVE OF DESTRUCTION

Csaba is the Editor-In-Chief for Car & Driver magazine. Many of the "car guys" (and women) here will recognize his name. He pretty well rips up the Obama nonsense.

We know Obama is not the sharpest tool in the shed but why stop at tire inflation as a way to achieve energy independence? He should recommend that all Americans drive with their windows up in the summer and not use their car air conditioning. Think of the better gas mileage we would get if everyone just did this simple thing. Better aerodynamics equals greater efficiency and not using the a/c conserves gas. Combined with inflating your tires properly this would give us even more oil than we would get from expanded drilling!!! The motto could be: Inflate, Perspirate, Dehydrate!!!

Q: Is over-inflation harmful? A: Yes. Over-inflation is also dangerous. Over-inflated tires ride on just the center portion of the tire causing a smaller contact area between the tire surface and the road — decreasing your vehicles grip, steering and overall handling. Tires are more likely to be punctured or damaged by a sudden impact with road hazards, which may lead to a sudden “blow-out.” Over-inflation also increases the wear on your tires and suspension components decreasing the life of the tire.

Dashboard Obama, His ego inflates when your tires inflate.

Want to get an idea why Democrats have no clue on energy policy? Take a listen to Barack Obama explaining how we can get an extra 12 million barrels of oil a day. We can pull it out of thin air — literally: "There are things you can do individually, though, to save energy. Making sure your tires are properly inflated — simple thing. But we could save all the oil that they’re talking about getting off drilling — if everybody was just inflating their tires? And getting regular tune-ups? You’d actually save just as much!" Er, no it couldn’t....

Auto Safety Expert: Check Age Of Tires The tires motorists depend on every day to help get them from here to there might be holding a secret that could prove catastrophic. Not many people think about the age of their tires. Most think mileage ratings are the only determining factor in how long tires will last. Drivers should also consider how old their tires are -- not when they were bought, but when they were made, Call 6's Rafael Sanchez reported. Safety advocate Sean Kane has spent years investigating tire failures. His group, Safety and Research Strategies Inc., documented 140...

OSAKA — Toyo Tire & Rubber Co said Fiday it will raise the prices of automotive tires for the North American market by up to 60% on March 1 due to rising raw materials and fuel prices. The Osaka-based company will increase the prices of tires for passenger cars, light trucks, larger trucks and buses that are sold through a sales subsidiary in North America.

Until he turned himself in Friday on a decade-old warrant, Hsu used his wallet and connections to make friends with Democrats everywhere. Including Wisconsin. While on the lam, Hsu gave $10,000 - the maximum allowed - to the Wisconsin Democratic Party's federal account in October 2004, records show. That's in addition to the already disclosed $2,000 that he gave to Gov. Jim Doyle in July 2005. In addition to Clinton, others who rushed to dump their tainted campaign cash were presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois, U.S. Sen. Barbara Boxer of California, comedian Al Franken, a U.S. Senate candidate...

NEWARK, N.J. (AP) -- A tire importer said Thursday it would recall 255,000 Chinese-made tires it claims were defective because they lack a safety feature that prevents tread separation. The recall involves half the number of tires that the importer, Foreign Tire Sales Inc., had identified in June as possibly posing a risk. The models involved are steel-belted radial replacement tires for pickups, vans and sport utility vehicles that consumers bought from early 2004 through mid-2006, Foreign Tire Sales said.

Tulsa - It's the middle of the summer travel season. And, Oklahoma Attorney General Drew Edmondson is warning consumers to beware of potentially hazardous tires, likely on thousands of trucks, SUVs and vans. The tires were sold in the U.S. by Foreign Tire Sales, Inc. and are missing 'gum strips', which prevent tread separation. The tires were sold under the names "Westlake", "Compass" and "YKS" between 2004 and 2006 and were manufactured in China by Hangzhou Zhongce Rubber Company Ltd. ...

FORT EUSTIS, Va. - Soldiers from the 97th Transportation Company recently returned from an unconventional mission - recovering thousands of tires from off the Florida coast in an effort to dismantle the world's largest man-made reef. The 15 Soldiers spent two and a half months off the Florida coast, conducting training operations for dive teams. They then traveled down coast to Fort Lauderdale, where they began a historic effort in environmental preservation. "In 1972, a number of organizations with good intentions dropped about two million tires in the Atlantic Ocean in an effort to build the world's largest man-made reef,"...

A death and injury lawsuit has prompted a U.S. tire importer and distributor to ask the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration for help in recalling nearly half a million Chinese-made light truck tires. This is not a definitive list, but consumers should be on the lookout for steel-belted radial light truck tires sold under the names Westlake, Telluride, Compass and YKS in the following sizes: -- LT235/75R-15 -- LT225/75R-16 -- LT235/85R-16 -- LT245/75R-16 -- LT265/75R-16 -- LT3X10.5-15 These tires were sold by the following distributors: -- Tireco, Compton, California -- Strategic Import Supply, Wayzata, Minnesota -- Omni United USA, Inc.,...

A fatal auto accident in Pennsylvania has stirred concerns about another potentially hazardous Chinese product in wide use in the U.S.: tires. About 450,000 Chinese-made tires sold in the U.S. -- and possibly many more -- may lack an important safety feature, according to federal regulators and the U.S. distributor that helped design them. But the task of identifying who bought the defective tires and getting them off the road has been complicated by litigation and holes in the nation's product-recall system. The tire defect comes in the wake of several other high-profile safety problems involving Chinese products, including the...

NEWARK, N.J. (AP) - Federal safety officials have ordered a tiny tire importer to recall as many as 450,000 tires that it bought from a Chinese manufacturer and sold to U.S. distributors. Foreign Tire Sales Inc., of Union, said an unknown number of the light truck radials it imported since 2002 from Hangzhou Zhongce Rubber Co., of Hangzhou, China, could suffer tread separation, a problem that led to the nation's largest tire recall in 2000. FTS said an unknown number of the tires it sold were made without a safety feature, called a gum strip, which helps bind the belts...

First it was pet food, then toothpaste, then toy trains. Now it's tires. A lawsuit blames cheap Chinese tires for a fatal traffic accident in Pennsylvania. The suit says tread separation caused a cargo van carrying four passengers to crash, killing two passengers and injuring the other two. The light truck tires were sold under the names Westlake, Telluride, Compass and YKS... The case is reminiscent of the huge Firestone tire recall of 2000, when faulty tires were blamed for a series of accidents and rollovers, many involving the Ford Explorer. "This is a prime example of a private lawsuit...

Excerpt - TOPEKA, Kan. The chairman of the House Armed Services Committee is calling for a deal to get striking workers at Goodyear's Topeka plant back on the job. The plant makes tires for Humvees, the military's workhorse vehicle in Iraq and Afghanistan. About 12-thousand Goodyear workers in the United States and Canada have been on strike since October, including those at the Topeka plant. Congressman Duncan Hunter of California says production is down about 35 percent, creating a shortage of tires for Humvees. ~ snip ~

SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) - For those digging and hauling their way through the commodity boom, "naked" and "barefoot" are anything but sexy. The terms refer to monster trucks without tires - a painful sight to companies scrambling to keep pace with soaring demand in the energy, mining and construction industries. For small-time miners, trucks idled on bare axles are losing money by the minute, forcing them to curtail operations during an historic surge in metals prices worldwide. Meanwhile, the tires themselves have become red-hot commodities, fetching tens of thousands of dollars apiece -- even for retreads, in some cases -...

A plan in the early 1970s to create a massive artificial reef off Fort Lauderdale has turned into an environmental mess with the U.S. Navy, Broward County and others trying to figure out how to remove about two million tires covering 36 acres of ocean floor. What was intended to lure game fish now is damaging sensitive coral reefs and littering Broward's tourist-populated shoreline. ''They thought it would be a good fish habitat. It turned out to be a bad idea,'' said William Nuckols, project coordinator and military liaison for Coastal America, a federal group involved in the cleanup. ``It's...

Derrick Yannayon, assistant lab manager at Standards Testing Laboratories, sets up a tire for the bead unseat test. The lab, headquartered in Massillon, Ohio, tests tires to see if they meet federal standards. (Photo by Gus Chan)   China's Prices Undercut U.S. Tire Makers, Causing Plant Closings BY THOMAS W. GERDEL [Massillon, OH] -- Rapidly rising imports of tires, especially from China, are increasing pressure on American tire makers to close more plants and cut domestic production. Passenger-tire imports, which have been steadily increasing every year this decade, topped the 100 million mark in 2005, with Chinese imports up...

As prices at the pump continue to rise, drivers are always looking for new solutions for savings. The use of nitrogen is rising in popularity in the Bay area and costs less than a tank of gas. "Fuel savings for an automobile is the highest priority right now, I think," Olin Mott Tires President Rick Mott said. "One of the advantages of nitrogen, of course, is the fuel savings." Race car drivers and airlines have been using it for decades and so are an estimated 10 percent of tire shops around the country. Auto experts said nitrogen is retained in...

PARIS -- Edouard Michelin, the co-managing partner of France's Michelin, the world's leading tire maker, was killed in a boating accident, the company said Friday. A short statement from the company gave no details about his death or the accident. It said that another managing partner, Michel Rollier, would take over direction of the company. A company official told Dow Jones Newswires that Mr. Michelin, 42 years old, died in a boating accident. The accident took place near Ile de Sein, off Brittany's coast. Mr. Michelin took over the company's reins from his father, Francois Michelin, in 1999. Michelin is...

NEW YORK - Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. said Friday it will close an undisclosed number of plants in various locations, part of a sweeping restructuring aimed at improving its North American tire business and saving up to $1 billion over the next three years. The Akron, Ohio, company, one of the world's largest tire makers, did not say how many jobs would be affected. It also did not say how many plants it will close or their locations, but added that cutting high-cost capacity will be a key consideration. Goodyear said it plans to cut high-cost manufacturing capacity between...

1 million tires catch on fire in Wis. July 20, 2005 WATERTOWN, Wis. -- A massive fire erupted in a huge pile of tires at a recycling plant Tuesday, sending black smoke billowing for miles and forcing roads to be closed while firefighters tried to contain the blaze. The fire ignited in about 1 million tires at the Watertown Tire Recycling Co., said Lt. Doug Ninmann of the Dodge County Sheriff's Department. No one was injured and the cause wasn't determined, but people within a mile's radius were warned to take shelter if the smoke becomes too intense, he said....

Douglas and Clinton April 29, 2005 How delighted Jason Gibbs must have been to utter the following sentence: "Governor Douglas believes we need people in the United States Senate who understand how important it is to protect and improve our environment." Gibbs is Gov. James Douglas' principal spokesman, and he was responding to a letter from Sen. Hillary Clinton to New York environmental officials supporting a test burn of tires at the International Paper plant in Ticonderoga, N.Y. IP wants to conduct a two-week test burn at the plant, and Clinton weighed in on the company's behalf, saying the plant...

New York Sen. Hillary Clinton is backing a plan to burn old tires to supply energy to an upstate New York paper mill that will produce clouds of acrid black smoke - a proposal that has nearby residents in a panic over potential health risks. In an April 13 letter to the New York Department of Environmental Conservation, Clinton urged that the agency approve a two-week test burn at International Paper's Ticonderoga, N.Y., mill – adjacent to environmentally pristine Lake Champlain. "I know that some are concerned about the potential air quality impact of burning tires at the mill," she...

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has just announced that tire sensors will be required on vehicles beginning in 2008. And the Bureau of Labor Statistics recently issued a report showing that car ownership costs are the second highest household expense in the U.S., second only to housing costs and three times as much as medical costs. Maybe the two agencies should talk to each other. That way, the NHTSA would know how its regulations have increased the cost of car ownership over the years, one regulation at a time. The establishment media could help. Instead of reporting that the...

GREENVILLE, S.C.--The first automobile to use air-filled tires was a racecar built by André and Édouard Michelin in the early 1890's. More than a century later, the French company founded by the Michelin brothers is so identified with pneumatic tires that its mascot, Bibendum, is a man made of little else. Now, after decades spent persuading the world to ride on air, the company has begun work on an innovation that could render the pneumatic tire obsolete. Engineers at Michelin's American technology center here envision a future in which vehicles would ride on what they call the Tweel, a combined...

The 25-year-old son of newly elected congresswoman Gwen Moore was arrested Friday by Milwaukee police and later released in connection with the election day slashing of tires on 20 vans and cars rented by the Republican Party, according to police records. Sowande Ajumoke Omokunde, also known as Supreme Solar Allah, arrived at the Milwaukee police administration building Friday morning with his attorney, was arrested at 9 a.m. and held in the police holding facility for several hours before being released, according to records. Omokunde is one of three suspects who had been arrested as of late Friday. Opel E. Simmons...

Cooper Tire & Rubber Co. announced Thursday that it will lay off 114 of 159 employees at its Clarksdale plant. The layoffs will occur Nov. 12. The layoffs, according to Cooper Tire spokeswoman Patricia J. Brown, are necessary because of a steady decline in the demand for inner tubes. Cooper Tire owns 30 plants, but the Clarksdale location is the only one that still makes inner tubes. Brown said the plant will discontinue inner-tube production when the layoffs occur but will remain open to produce bladders and continue mixing operations for internal consumption by other Cooper facilities. The bladders are...

<p>A court has frozen the Trinidad assets of a U.S.-based tire company that closed its plant in this Caribbean country and dismissed more than 400 workers, officials said Wednesday.</p> <p>Carlisle Tire and Rubber Ltd. closed the southern Trinidad tire plant two weeks ago after workers began protesting what they claimed were unsafe working conditions, including exposure to harmful chemicals.</p>

<p>Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. is considering closing an Alabama tire plant and layoffs at plants in 10 other states as well as other options to meet its goal of saving $1.1 billion over the next three years, company officials said Monday.</p>

White House tires of Blair's UN diplomacy By Toby Harnden in Washington (Filed: 14/03/2003) Hawks in the White House have criticised Tony Blair for his persistence in seeking a new United Nations resolution. The senior officials are urging George W Bush to press ahead with war. An outspoken attack on Mr Blair's policy at the UN by a Bush administration official reflected growing tensions in Anglo-American relations. "Blair is hurting himself by dragging this out," the official said. "It's not for Americans to tell British politicians how to behave. But what is he getting out of this? He should just...