Don’t follow the hammer

I read in last week’s news that corporate India is in disbelief after a nutted-out mob of laid-off workers lost their minds and bludgeoned their CEO to death.The boss – head of the Indian operations of Graziano Transmissioni, an Italian-headquartered manufacturer of car parts – died of “severe head wounds.” Other managers were beaten, but survived.According to news reports, the attack followed a

Gaslessville

From spotty shortages preceding Hurricane Ike to region-wide outages, Middle Tennessee where I live has become a gasless desert. I visited the Soviet Union in the mid-’80s, and lived through the Arab oil embargo of the ’70s, and the scene here reminds me of those two experiences.The lines at gas stations are not as long as they were in California’s Bay area when I lived there in the ’70s, but

Bienvenido a Miami

Major cargo theft from commercial trucks in the United States is on pace to double this past year’s estimated $1.2 billion haul.A bad economy and relatively low risk, high reward means criminals are stealing more from commercial trucks than ever before.I was in Miami this week, interviewing members of the Tactical Operations Multi-Agency Cargo Anti-Theft Squad, also known as TOMCATS. Housed in

Voting records can be had ... for the inquiring voter

On Nov. 4, voters across the country will cast ballots on many important races and issues.At the federal level, all of the 435 seats in the U.S. House of Representatives are up for election, while 35 – or about one-third – of the 100 U.S. Senate seats are up for grabs. At the state level, 11 governors’ seats are on ballots, while 80 percent of state legislators’ positions across America are on

Tracking Ike online

A number of truckers have contacted Land Line and recommended weather Web sites, official and unofficial. Online weather sites, if you haven’t checked them out, are nothing short of amazing.OOIDA member Kenneth Becker, Montgomery, TX, likes wunderground.com, the Weather Underground site. Ken was in North Dakota Friday and called me from some oil field. He was getting ready to see how his hometown

A meeting of non-partisan minds

“Hot fuel” came under the spotlight before two members of the Tennessee General Assembly recently at a town hall to discuss energy use and conservation.Yours truly jumped at the chance to bring up the topic in a public forum, and, although passing legislation is always a crapshoot, at least one of the representatives said she was considering legislation for 2009 to address the issue.Hot fuel is

Update for you Hammer heads

After a healthy dose of mugging for the crowd and the cameras, Jason McCoy dashed back to the microphone to deliver his band’s trademark chorus line.“I’m a road hammer,” he and his band mates proclaimed. “A white-knuckled steel gear jammer, Rig jockey highway slammer – I’m just doin’ what I gotta do.”The Road Hammers, a Canadian band now residing in Nashville, TN, blend elements of modern and

Time to engage the BS meter

Spin, distortion, misrepresentation and, in some cases, outright lies will fill the airwaves for the next two months. You can count on it.With the conventions of both political parties over and the race for the presidency in full swing, the challenge of sorting out truth from fiction falls squarely on the shoulders of voters.Calling this an emotionally charged election is pretty much an

Mary Peters paints a truck-free picture

It’s difficult to imagine a world without trucks. That is, unless you’re with the DOT.Solutions offered by U.S. Transportation Secretary Mary Peters to some of the nation’s most challenging transportation problems do not bode well for truckers.Here’s the proof.Peters recently announced a plan for reform that would consolidate 108 DOT programs into eight programs with priority given to congestion