Don’t Fear Your Prius

There may be more to the runaway Toyota story than we’re aware of:

The Los Angeles Times recently did a story detailing all of the NHTSA reports of Toyota “sudden acceleration” fatalities, and, though the Times did not mention it, the ages of the drivers involved were striking.

In the 24 cases where driver age was reported or readily inferred, the drivers included those of the ages 60, 61, 63, 66, 68, 71, 72, 72, 77, 79, 83, 85, 89—and I’m leaving out the son whose age wasn’t identified, but whose 94-year-old father died as a passenger.

These “electronic defects” apparently discriminate against the elderly, just as the sudden acceleration of Audis and GM autos did before them. (If computers are going to discriminate against anyone, they should be picking on the young, who are more likely to take up arms against the rise of the machines and future Terminators).

It’ll be interesting to see how this unfolds.

When the Going Gets Tough, the Hapless Sue Someone Else

Once again, thanks to my friend Michael Hasenstab, an update on the Koss embezzlement:

Koss Corp. has sued American Express alleging that the credit card company knew that Koss money was being used to pay for shopping sprees by a Koss executive since 2008, but did nothing to stop the fraud.

Koss has said it lost $31 million since 2004 to embezzlement by its former vice president of finance, Sue Sachdeva.

Sachdeva has been indicted in federal court on six counts of wire fraud in connection with the allegations.

So forget the CEO and CFO of Koss, forget the company’s accountants and auditors. $31 million goes missing because American Express didn’t tell the company about what are now clearly unauthorized purchases. Because, you know, when Koss authorized payment of the American Express bills for clothing and furs, how could they have possibly known those purchases weren’t for company business? Employees always wear furs when manufacturing/selling Koss speakers. It reduces static shocks or something. American Express, that’s who should’ve known and put a stop to it. Yes. That’s right. American Express. Time to file a lawsuit.

There. Problem solved, stockholders. Have faith in our company once again.

U.N. Climate Chief to Step Down in July and Join. . . An Accounting Firm

Amid the tom-foolery of Climategate, the U.N.s climate chief is stepping down to join an accounting firm:

De Boer will leave on July 1 to join KPMG, the Secretariat for the U.N. framework convention on climate change (UNFCCC) said in a statement. He had led the agency since 2006 and his contract was expected to be extended in September.

“It was a difficult decision to make, but I believe the time is ripe for me to take on a new challenge, working on climate and sustainability with the private sector and academia,” de Boer said in the statement.

Riiight. As if being the scandalized U.N. agency isn’t enough, De Boer feels compelled to share his expertise and recipe for success with the private sector.

Can’t wait.

Oklahoma Charity Sues Ex-chief, Claiming Porn, Bribes

Yikes. Looks like Feed the Children brought a gun to a knife fight:

Larry Jones took bribes and hid hard-core porn magazines at the charity, Feed The Children is alleging in a countersuit against its fired president.

The charity also is accusing Jones in the civil case of other misdeeds, including misspending charity funds, pocketing travel money, keeping gifts from appearances and misusing a charity employee as a nanny.

Jones, 69, denied wrongdoing.

These are all allegations, of course, so Jones isn’t guilty of anything. Though this kind of response isn’t helpful:

He specifically said the alleged bribes were above-board payments to him and that the magazines were research for a new novel, “The Zipper Disease,” about AIDS in Africa.

So it’s not that these actions didn’t occur; it’s that the interpretation of these actions that make them so nefarious.

Sigh.

I admire Feed the Children’s work. Larry Jones is responsible for much of its success over the last 30 years. They’re a prime example of how a charitable organization can provide services to people in need far better than the government can. But I wonder how it will be able to survive this kind of scandal. I hope it can.