Compact pickup trucks, lawsuits over tiny fish, unexpected dangers on the road and more await you in The Morning Shift for Wednesday, Aug. 1, 2018. 1st Gear: Ford’s Got Plans, Maybe A new compact Ford unibody pickup truck is in the works with plans to bring it to the U.S. market in 2022—at least, according to sources familiar with the matter. Those sources spoke to Automobile recently, saying that the truck would be built on the next-generation Focus platform. With Ford throwing most of its cars out the window here in the North American market because everybody wants trucks, SUVs and crossovers, it makes sense to build yet another size variation of a truck. Sources told Automobile the reported new smaller truck would slot in below the new Ford Ranger, which has gotten pretty large itself. From Automobile: Ford is preparing a compact pickup truck that would fill the space left open when its Brazilian-built, Fiesta-based subcompact Courier pickup was replaced with the … [Read more...] about Is Ford Bringing an Actual Small Truck Back to the U.S.?
U s fish and wildlife service
Why A Tiny Fish Is Stalling The New Toyota-Mazda Factory In Alabama
A small, Alabama-native fish species that rarely grows longer than an inch had a big impact on the 2,400-acre site of the planned $1.6-billion plant for Toyota and Mazda. A lawsuit about the fish’s potential for extinction with development in the area was filed in June, and the automakers announced that work to build the plant was temporarily halted on Thursday—just over a month later. The giant plant spent 2017 making headlines how much as more than a dozen U.S. states were making a fuss to try to become the site of it, but the area of Alabama that the automakers ultimately decided upon comes with its own fuss. Toyota and the city of Huntsville, Alabama issued statements about the plant on Thursday, scheduled to start producing up to 300,000 cars annually once built. The statements and work stoppage were triggered by a lawsuit from a nonprofit called the Center for Biological Diversity in June aiming to protect the spring pygmy sunfish, a species living in dense … [Read more...] about Why A Tiny Fish Is Stalling The New Toyota-Mazda Factory In Alabama
U.S. agency considers dropping wolf protections
John Flesher Associated Press Published 6:02 p.m. UTC Jun 14, 2018 Traverse City – The federal government is considering another attempt to drop legal protections for gray wolves across the lower 48 states, reopening a lengthy battle over the predator species. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service on Thursday told The Associated Press it has begun a science-based review of the status of the wolf, which presently is covered by the Endangered Species Act in most of the nation and cannot be killed unless threatening human life. If the agency decides to begin the process of removing of the wolf from the endangered species list, it will publish a proposal by the end of the year. “Any proposal will follow a robust, transparent and open public process that will provide opportunity for public comment,” the service said in a statement to the AP. The government first proposed revoking the wolf’s protected status in 2013, but backed off after federal courts struck down … [Read more...] about U.S. agency considers dropping wolf protections
Lawsuit Claims $1.6-Billion Toyota-Mazda Factory Could Push Fish Species To Extinction
During the entire last half of 2017, more than a dozen U.S. states were making a fuss to become the site of a $1.6-billion production plant for Toyota and Mazda. Now that the companies have picked Alabama, the fuss has changed—the plant could put a rare fish species at risk of extinction, according to a recent lawsuit. The lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia and found by AL.com, never explicitly mentions the production plant or the car companies, and neither Toyota nor Mazda are the targets. Instead, the lawsuit was filed by the Center for Biological Diversity, a nonprofit organization that helps species nearing extinction, challenging U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s alleged failure to comply with parts of the Endangered Species Act for Alabama’s spring pigmy sunfish. That alleged failure means there’s a lack of legal protection for the only known habitat the fish has left, and the development around the plant could directly … [Read more...] about Lawsuit Claims $1.6-Billion Toyota-Mazda Factory Could Push Fish Species To Extinction
‘Forgotten’ WWII battle still burdens U.S. veterans
Mark Thiessen and Mari Yamaguchi Associated Press Updated 9:34 p.m. UTC May 27, 2018 Anchorage, Alaska – William Roy Dover’s memory of the World War II battle is as sharp as it was 75 years ago, even though it’s been long forgotten by most everyone else. His first sergeant rousted him from his pup tent around 2 a.m. when word came the Japanese were attacking and had maybe even gotten behind the American front line, on a desolate, unforgiving slab of an occupied island in the North Pacific. “He was shouting, ‘Get up! Get out!’ ” Dover said. Dover and most of the American soldiers rushed to an embankment on what became known as Engineer Hill, the last gasp of the Japanese during the Battle of Attu, fought 75 years ago this month on Attu Island in Alaska’s Aleutian chain. “I had two friends that were too slow to get out,” the 95-year-old Alabama farmer recalled. “They both got bayonetted in their pup tents.” … [Read more...] about ‘Forgotten’ WWII battle still burdens U.S. veterans