Change isn’t always fun… but it can turn out fantastic. It can make room for true progress. It can set your life off in a new, improved direction. All this and more is the case for 2017.
You will need to be bold this year and face some transitions and challenges with courage and a positive attitude. These have been hovering for a long time. Have no illusions – 2017 may not be an easy year, but then not much worth having comes easy.
Buckie Got It…. my topic this morning is Mechanic in St. Kitts.
What is reliable mechanic?
I want to believe mechanic in SK love to know they have your vehicle in their garage for long extended period. Maybe so, that when people pass by they can say ” wow this guy have to be really good because his shop is full”
A good mechanic fix your vehicle properly so that you don’t come back with the same problem. If additional parts needed let the customer know instead of fixing just it came in the shop for. He can also get good recommendations from you. You shouldn’t have to stay by a mechanic shop all day to ensure your vehicle is been work on.
A good mechanic should have your vehicle clean before it leave their shop and not having it looking worst than it came in. Is it a car wash? no, but customers services takes you a long way.
To all mechanic who love to bullshit people please, it’s time to stop and be more professional.
I can remember one of my vehicle was in a mechanic shop. While I catching bus to go to work my car was been driven for a whole week until decided am going for my car.
I am just fed of complains about mechanic taking long and I mean long like months to fix people vehicle.
Star of “The Fate of the Furious,” the hip-hop artist known as Ludacris rides on the edge to balance tech, his music and his life.
It should come as no surprise that Chris “Ludacris” Bridges, one of the stars of the Fast & Furious movie franchise, isn’t a fan of self-driving cars.
“I honestly feel that no one can ever take the place of a human being when it comes to actually driving, especially when it comes to that last-minute instinct if something happens to go wrong,” Ludacris, 39, told CNET during a cover shoot in his hometown of Atlanta.
“The same way computers crash every now and then, I feel like cars that are gonna drive people, there’s a slight chance that it may crash,” he said in December, ahead of reprising his role as tech guy Tej Parker in “The Fate of the Furious,” also known as “Fast & Furious 8.”
“I don’t think it’s for me.”
That’s not to say he’s leery of tech. While not quite the techie he plays on screen, Ludacris says his house has all sorts of gadgets he controls through his iPhone apps. He also relies on apps to help him with his music. But the hip-hop artist also thinks we should put our tech down every once in a while. “There’s a time to disconnect,” he says. “There’s nothing like actually interacting with other human beings.”
Ludacris spoke with CNET News Editor-in-Chief Connie Guglielmo about why he still drives his first car, the tech he’d like to see invented and singing in the shower. Here’s an edited transcript of their conversations.
The trailer for “Fast & Furious 8” went viral when it was released in December. Why do you think people are so excited about the franchise?
I’m not able to give away all the specifics of the movie, but I think it’s exciting because as time has gone on, the sequels continued to get better and better. Usually when you have sequels, that’s not the case. We have some of the most loyal fans when it comes to this movie that I’ve ever seen in my entire life, so I’m excited.
But as the trailer tells, Dom [played by Vin Diesel] has gone rogue on us. I don’t think anybody saw this coming, but you have to see the movie in order to understand why.
You drive a tank in the movie.
Were your co-stars jealous?
I don’t think anybody was jealous because that’s just my character. My character is the tech guy, and he is the one who wants to have the most electronics and powerful guns at his disposal. Everyone has a car that fits their personality and that one fit mine.
I hear you’re devoted to your first car.
A 1993 Acura. I drive it all the time. It had over 273,000 miles on it before I had to change the engine. Acura stepped in just because I had it for so long because it’s been a staple in my life. They helped me refurbish it and restore it — new engine, new paint job, interior — everything.
Why are you so attached to it?
Man, just because it keeps me grounded. It keeps me humble. This is a car I had before my first commercial success. I wrote a lot of songs in this car. This is something that no matter how big I get, I want to be reminded of where I started.
Silicon Valley is making a big push into self-driving cars. What do you think about that?
That’s gonna change the dynamic of people driving. I think the same way computers crash every now and then, I feel like cars that are gonna drive people, there’s a slight chance that it may crash. I don’t think it’s for me.
I honestly feel that no one can ever take the place of a human being when it comes to actually driving, especially when it comes to that last-minute instinct if something happens to go wrong.
That’s not to take anything away from Tesla or all these cars that have these features because I don’t understand it as much as people in engineering and the scientists putting it together. [But] I would rather rely on a human being than a computer when it comes to driving. That’s a stance I’m going to take.
He loves tech. He hates tech. And he’s a “perfectionist” Virgo. Meet Ludacris.
You’ve said your favorite car is a Ford GT. Tell me why.
It’s extremely powerful. I love that it’s American. I think it’s unique — you can’t compare that car to any other. It doesn’t look like any other car; it doesn’t drive like any other car. And it’s a stick shift — people love automatics these days — [they’re] starting to get away from the old-fashioned, extremely well-designed, stick shift cars. So that to me is No. 1.
Do you own one?
No, I don’t own one. It’s a time in my life where — when it comes to cars — I’m like, “let me just pay for the experience, not the possession.” I’m gone a lot, traveling a lot, and it didn’t make sense for me to have a bunch of cars just sitting in a garage and not being driven most of the time.
Are you a techie in real life?
I’m not as much of a techie as I am in the movie, obviously. For the most part, I continue to learn and dive into the tech world just because it’s so fascinating how fast things continue to evolve. I think everybody in this world is trying to catch up with technology.
What’s your favorite piece of tech?
My iPhone. Everything is so accessible, it’s very easy for me. I’m a Mac type of guy so I just love the format. And obviously as time goes on, they just continue to make everything more compatible and everything so much more easily accessible.
What piece of tech do you wish had never been invented?
It would be the iPhone because they keep up coming out with new ones so you gotta upgrade [laughs]. It’s a gift and a curse. Best piece: iPhone. Worst piece: iPhone.
What piece of tech would you like to see invented?
[Something] that helps you read people’s mind, or tech that’s like “Back to the Future” — so you could time travel. And I want somebody to come out with a DJ application where you have your playlist but everything mixes together. So they put all the songs with the same tempo together, and they are able to blend so that one song doesn’t all the way go off before the next one comes on.
What about your house? Do you have a lot of smart-home tech?
My house is pretty smart when it comes to that. So yes, I do have a control to be able to look at all the cameras, turn off lights, televisions, electronics. I do that from the phone.
You’ve also said you’re concerned about your daughters spending too much time with tech.
For business, I think it’s great. It helps you work more efficiently. It’s continuing to be the future. Everything is consolidating into certain devices to help you move faster and get things done.
I also feel there’s a time to disconnect. There’s nothing like actually interacting with other human beings. For myself and my children, I try to have a perfect balance. That’s the best thing I can say. It’s about balance.
Do you use tech for your music creative process?
Oh yeah. You have all these things and devices and applications that help you voice your ideas. You even have apps that help you with the tempo. You have GarageBand, where you can lay a format of a beat and then go later to a studio and try to finish it.
There was a time where people had to write stuff down in a notebook, if you’re doing lyrics or writing certain things. Now it’s like you can speak into a microphone and have it dictated back to you, and everything’s written out. So I think it just helps you move a lot faster.
Do you sing in the shower?
Everybody sings in the shower. If they tell you they don’t, they’re lying to you.
Any favorites?
The favorites in the shower depend on what’s currently out, whatever the new favorite song is.
Is it true that “The Devil Wears Prada” is one of your favorite movies? Why?
Man, because at the end of the day, it’s really about perseverance and just being a person that is trying to get the job done — concentrated on the success of a brand and not really worried about what other people think about them.
It’s not about necessarily being nice to people. It’s about showing people and giving them a challenge that they may have never had in their lifetime in order to accomplish something.
I just really love the movie because it’s about a boss. It’s about being a boss, and the types of things you have to do to make a brand successful.
You’re an entrepreneur in your hometown of Atlanta. What kind of a boss are you?
It’s about balance once again. Sometimes I’m a little mean, but for the most part, I’m pretty good. I keep good people around me and they don’t mess up as much. It took me a long time and many years to get to the point where I have these individuals around me, so now I don’t really yell as much.
One of your investments is a startup called Roadie, which is described as an “on-the-way” delivery network — even to Good-will. What’s it about?
It’s like an Uber for packages. We started it about two years ago, and it’s a people-to-people exchange. It’s people who are already on their way somewhere, who can [pick up and deliver something to you] instead of using FedEx and UPS.
Have you used it yourself?
What have they delivered?
Yeah. If I left something at a hotel — a camera battery or something like that — I’ve used it to see how efficient it is. I definitely feel people need to try it out.
Any chance you might be a Roadie yourself?
[Laughs.] You never know. One day, I might do that.
You’re also behind a new app for slang. Why?
Words with Friends was one of my favorite applications, but there were certain words that haven’t been added to the dictionary yet that should be a part of this game. So we came up with something called Slang and Friends. So this game is similar to Words with Friends but different in that we’ve come up with words that people use on an everyday basis that are slang.
Last year you opened a restaurant in Atlanta’s airport called Chicken-n-Beer, which was also the name of your third album.
Chicken-n-Beer is important to me because it started off as a multiplatinum album. When I made that album and that name and that title, I never in a million years would’ve thought that we would open up a restaurant titled the same thing in the busiest airport in the world.
Over time you start diversifying and start just thinking about your business portfolio as an entertainer and what influence you have. I met someone who is now my partner, and we came up with this concept and years later it has come to fruition.
I just want to show young entrepreneurs that anything you can dream of, you can work hard at and it can come true. It’s an accomplishment I’m very proud of.
You’ve said you wanted to be a multifaceted entrepreneur…
Entreprenegro.
Well you’ve done that. Some people might just check out and live off their success, but it seems like you have more to do.
[Laughs.] Absolutely.
About the author
Connie Guglielmo (@techledes), editor-in-chief of CNET News, is a veteran tech journalist who has worked for MacWeek, Wired, Bloomberg News and Forbes. She thinks the next big thing should be a real transmogrifier.
Editorial
Connie Guglielmo
Rochelle Garner
Design
Mark Hobbs
Marc Mendell
Photography
Mark Mann
Mariel Myers
John Kim
Production
Justin Cauchon
Danielle Ramirez
Wendy Dittamore
Jeremy Toeman
US District Judge Derrick Watson halted enforcement of the travel and refugee bans less than six hours before they were due to go into effect.
BuzzFeed News Reporter
and 1 other
WASHINGTON – A federal judge in Hawaii has blocked President Trump’s second attempt at a refugee and travel executive order set to take effect after midnight.
The temporary restraining order, which applies nationwide, blocks the Trump administration from enforcing sections 2 and 6 of the new executive order — the travel and refugee portions of the order.
US District Judge Derrick Watson, who made clear from the start of oral arguments Wednesday morning in Hawaii that he was focused on the constitutional claims, found that the plaintiffs are likely to succeed on their claim that the executive order violates the Establishment Clause — because it discriminates against Muslims.
“Any reasonable, objective observer would conclude, as does the Court for purposes of the instant Motion for TRO, that the stated secular purpose of the Executive Order is, at the very least, ‘secondary to a religious objective’ of temporarily suspending the entry of Muslims,” Watson wrote in granting the TRO.
Watson noted in his order that he was not issuing a stay of the TRO, even if the Justice Department filed an emergency appeal.
The decision means that, for now, only a stay of the TRO from the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit or the US Supreme Court would allow the Trump administration to enforce the new executive order.
Three federal judges heard staggered arguments across the country — from morning arguments in Maryland to morning arguments in Hawaii to mid-day arguments in Washington state.
The order from Watson came less than six hours before the new executive order was due to go into effect.
Trump and the Justice Department — which has tried mightily to argue that the March 6 executive order addressed all of the legal concerns that had thwarted the original, Jan. 27, order — were left waiting on the three federal judges in the hours before the effective date, which Trump himself had set. The executive order, which would temporarily suspend the US refugee program and immigration from six countries, was due to take effect at 12:01 a.m. ET Thursday.
Of course, the feds weren’t the only ones waiting.
Opponents of the new executive order — most of whom maintain it remains just a further watered down version of the “Muslim ban” that Trump had promised on the campaign trail — also were waiting. Those opponents include individuals, nonprofit refugee and other advocacy organizations, about 20 state governments, several cities, technology companies, and many more who either directly challenged or have weighed in to support others’ challenges in court.
US District Judge Theodore Chuang, who went first Wednesday, didn’t rule from the bench after hearing the arguments in Maryland. He said he would try to issue an order later in the day, but wouldn’t guarantee it. Chuang didn’t signal which way he would rule, but did ask both sides to share their preferences for what he should do if he decided to block at least certain parts of the executive order.
The second hearing, before Watson in Hawaii, took place about five hours after the first ended. He also did not rule from the bench — but issued his order soon thereafter.
A third hearing began at 2 p.m. PT in Seattle before US District Judge James Robart on a motion in Ali v. Trump to temporarily halt part of the travel ban in the executive order from taking effect. He, also, did not rule from the bench, but said a written order would follow.
A fourth pending request for Robart to enforce his prior injunction — issued as to the original executive order — against the new executive order also is pending, in the case brought by the state of Washington, but no hearing has been scheduled on that request.
With no ruling from Robart on that request by noon Wednesday in Seattle, Washington filed a separate request that the judge issue a new temporary restraining order against the new executive order. After holding the hearing in the Ali case, Robart also held a last-minute hearing on the state’s request.
“Because of the grave harms the States and their residents will begin suffering at midnight tonight if Executive Order 13780 takes effect, the States ask that if this Court is going to deny or postpone ruling on the pending motion to enforce the injunction, it grant this motion for temporary restraining order,” the Washington lawyers wrote.
From the start of the arguments in Hawaii, Watson said that he was most interested in hearing about the constitutional arguments — whether the executive order discriminates against Muslims in violation of the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment.
Colleen Roh Sinzdak, one of the Hogan Lovells lawyers representing the challengers, argued remotely from Washington, DC, and said there were several ways the order was discriminatory, including the fact that it targeted Muslim-majority countries and the negative portrayal of Islam.
Acting Solicitor General Jeffrey Wall, who also argued remotely after appearing in court in Maryland earlier in the day, said that the harms laid out by the challengers, such as the denial of a visa, were speculative. He also said that foreign nationals overseas didn’t have due process rights, so there couldn’t be any due process violation.
Hawaii’s lawyers had argued that the state had standing to sue because the executive order affected enrollment, recruitment, and academic activities at state universities. It’s a similar argument that Washington state raised in the earlier case that resulted in an injunction, and Hawaii’s lawyers invoked the Washington case on Wednesday to back up their standing argument.
When the ruling came down, Watson found that Hawaii — as well as the individual plaintiff, Dr. Ismail Elshikh — had standing to bring their claims.
The challengers in Maryland — individual visa holders who say they’ve experienced stigma from the president’s actions and would be separated from family trying to travel to the US once the order takes effect, as well as nonprofits that work with refugees — want a nationwide injunction stopping the order from taking effect in its entirety.
A lawyer for the government disputed that any emergency action was needed, but said that if the judge did enter an order, it should be narrow and limited to the individual plaintiffs and certain clients of the nonprofits that sued.
Acting Solicitor General Jeffrey Wall argued that the new executive order “directly, serially” addressed concerns that the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit had expressed about the first version of the travel ban. He said the latest order made clear that lawful permanent residents and current visa-holders wouldn’t be affected, removed a section focusing on Syrian refugees, and also took out a provision that would have prioritized religious minorities once the refugee program resumed. Critics charged that the religious minorities section was aimed at putting Muslim refugees at a disadvantage.
Chuang asked if the changes in the second order were more about addressing due process issues raised the first time around how the president’s order would affect visa holders and applicants, as opposed to broader claims that the order violated the First Amendment’s Establishment Clause by discriminating against Muslims.
The order draws no religious distinctions on its face, Wall replied, and any allegation that the order nevertheless disparately affected Muslims wasn’t a legal argument that the court could consider.
Chuang asked both sides about what he should do with Trump’s remarks during the presidential campaign advocating for a ban on Muslim immigration. Omar Jadwat, the director of the ACLU Immigrants’ Rights Project, said the court should consider whatever information a reasonable person would find relevant in exploring the government’s purpose in adopting the travel restrictions. That included comments by Trump and his advisers about a Muslim ban, Jadwat said.
“The government never disputes that if you take all of the publicly available evidence together, it shows that purpose,” Jadwat said. “Instead, it’s asking the court to turn a blind eye to much of the evidence that is apparent to everybody.”
Wall countered that Trump’s statements as a candidate, as opposed to an elected official with the benefit of guidance from agency officials, were less relevant than what he’d said and done after taking office. The campaign comments were even less on point in looking at the second order, which was drafted in response to concerns raised by judges who looked at the first order, Wall said.
The Maryland case was first filed in early February in response to Trump’s original executive order, after a federal judge in Seattle had already issued a nationwide injunction in early February.
Facing unfavorable rulings in several federal courts, Trump on March 6 signed a new executive order that would rescind the earlier order and replace it. The latest version would temporarily halt immigration from Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, and Yemen (Iraq was removed from the list) for 90 days, but exempts current visa-holders and makes clear that exceptions would be considered.
The new order again would suspend the US refugee program for 120 days – refugees already scheduled to come to the US by March 15 wouldn’t be affected – and cut the number of refugees who would be allowed in by more than half, from 110,000 to 50,000. In addition to removing the indefinite halt on Syrian refugees, the new order also removes the section prioritizing claims from religious minorities once the program resumed.
During arguments on Wednesday, Chuang asked another lawyer for the government, Arjun Garg, if the president could set the maximum number of refugees allowed in at zero and still be in compliance with the federal Refugee Act. Garg said that he could, if the president determined that allowing refugees in would be harmful to US interests.
Unlike the January order, the new one was announced 10 days before it would take effect, giving agencies and travelers more time to prepare. There was chaos at airports nationwide in the hours and days after Trump issued his January order, which had taken effect immediately when Trump signed it.
Challengers Will Try To Stop Trump’s New Travel Order This Week Before It Even Takes Effect
Find background here on the challenges to the new executive order.
Trump Administration Readies For A Day Of Fighting To Defend The New Travel Order In Court
Find legal documents here in the four pending requests for orders halting enforcement of the new executive order at BuzzFeed News.
General Motors (NYSE:GM) said Wednesday it will create or keep 900 jobs in Michigan factories over the next 12 months, including some workers who were due to be laid off in May.
This is in addition to the 7,000 jobs and $1 billion investment announced in January, according to the automaker.
The announcement came Wednesday as executives from GM, Ford (NYSE:F) and Fiat Chrysler (NYSE:FCAU) are expected to appear at an event with President Donald Trump in Detroit. Trump is set to announce a review of federal fuel-economy rules that the Obama administration finalized a week before Trump took office. Automakers and federal authorities had previously agreed to review the CAFE standards this year.
GM said it plans to bring back 500 jobs to its Lansing Delta Township assembly plant by early 2018, when the automaker expects to complete the rollout of new SUVs.
GM also said it will redeploy 180 workers from Lansing to support production of heavy-duty Chevrolet Silverado and GMC Sierra pickup trucks in Flint, Michigan. Another 220 new jobs will be added to GM’s Romulus Powertrain Plant to ramp up production of a 10-speed automatic transmission.
The previously announced layoffs in Lansing are tied to GM’s decision to build the new GMC Acadia in Spring Hill, Tennessee, a move initially expected to impact 1,100 total employees before Wednesday’s announcement. GM will focus on building the Buick Enclave and the redesigned Chevrolet Traverse in Lansing. Rehiring 500 workers will help the company meet demand for the new vehicles, GM said.
Follow Matthew Rocco on Twitter @MatthewRocco
This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
©2017 FOX Business Network, LLC. All rights reserved.
