Car owners need to be told if their vehicles are equipped with event data recorders, commonly called black boxes, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said Monday. Beginning with 2011 model year vehicles, dealers will need to disclose the existence of the technology in owners manuals. Privacy groups have said many owners don’t know the boxes are in their cars. Vehicles with the devices will need to collect at least 15 types of data, including vehicle speed, whether the driver was wearing a seat belt, and whether the driver hit the accelerator or the brake before the crash.
Ford Motor Co. will soon unveil a new series of large F-Series pickup trucks powered by an optional new clean-burning diesel engine, company officials said Monday. The new 6.4-liter diesel engine will be larger than the current 6-liter engine and will produce more horsepower, but it will have better fuel economy and be quieter than its predecessor, the company said. It also will dramatically reduce particulate pollution.
A strike that shut down numerous construction sites in the area Aug. 1 continued Monday following the overwhelming defeat of a contract offer, union officials said. Lawyers for both sides agreed to terms in a new offer on Thursday, but two days later employers rescinded the offer and “blew up the language,” said Allan B. Darr, business manager for International Union of Operating Engineers Local 302.
The Bill &Melinda Gates Foundation was among a few dozen banks, insurance companies, mutual funds and other entities that loaned $350 million to MediaNews Group Inc. for its purchase of four newspapers from publisher McClatchy Co. The Seattle-based Gates Foundation, the world’s largest philanthropy with an endowment of about $30 billion, contributed an unspecified amount of money toward the transaction, according to an Aug. 8 filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission by MediaNews Group.
The Treasury Department auctioned three-month bills at a discount rate of 4.975 percent, down from 4.98 percent last week. The six-month bills were auctioned at a discount rate of 4.975 percent, down from 5.030 percent last week. The three-month rate was the lowest since 4.965 percent on July 17. The six-month rate was the lowest since 4.925 percent on June 12. The discount rates reflect that the bills sell for less than face value. For a $10,000 bill, the three-month price was $9,872.86, while a six-month bill sold for $9,748.49. Separately, the Federal Reserve said Monday that the average yield for one-year Treasury bills, a popular index for making changes in adjustable rate mortgages, edged up to 5.10 percent last week from 5.09 percent.
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