Tesla, the American electric car maker has announced that is recalling 90,000 of its Model S vehicles due to a potential issue with the seatbelt system in the cars.
The Tesla recall is a voluntary one spurred on by one incident in Europe.
According to Business Insider, one Telsa owner sitting in the front passenger seat in Europe turned around in her seat to speak to people sitting in the rear of the car, and her seat belt came unbuckled. When Tesla tested the problem, it confirmed similar problems and issued the recall.
The issue is only impacting the Model S and a company spokesperson told Business Insider that the recall was being done out of an “abundance of caution.”
Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla Motors. Photo Credit: Maurizio Pesce/ Flickr (CC By 2.0)
Tesla broke the news to customers in an email.
From the email sent to Tesla customers (obtained by The Next Web):
“We are sending you this email to inform you of a proactive action Tesla is taking to ensure your safety. Tesla recently found a Model S in Europe with a front seat belt that was not properly connected to the outboard lap pretensioner. This vehicle was not involved in a crash and there were no injuries. However, in the event of a crash, a seatbelt in this condition would not provide full protection. First and foremost, we care about your safety.
This is the only customer vehicle we know of with this condition. Even though we have since inspected the seat belts in over 3,000 vehicles spanning the entire range of Model S production and found no issues, we have decided to conduct a voluntary recall as a proactive and precautionary measure to inspect all front Model S seat belts and make absolutely sure that they are properly connected. (We have no concerns regarding seat belts in the rear of Model S.)”
Tesla has asked all Model S customers to schedule an appointment at a Tesla service facility so they can do an inspection.
More to come. Stay with Rise News.
#BREAKING Tesla recalls 90,000 Model S vehicles for seatbelt fix
— Agence France-Presse (@AFP) November 20, 2015
Cover Photo Credit: Steve Jurvetson/ Flickr (CC By 2.0)
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American Sailor Says He Had Gun Pulled On Him By Police, Told To “Check His Attitude”
Travis Bridges Jr. is an active duty sailor in the American Navy.
He’s based in Norfolk, VA and played football for Navy in college.
He’s a pretty straight-laced and squared away guy.
So that’s why many people are upset on social media after he posted a story about a run-in he had with a police officer yesterday in Norfolk.
Here is his full post, which has since gone viral: (Emphasis added is our own)
“My license tag expired yesterday, my dad renewed it for me and took a photo of the information before putting it in the mail.. I was just pulled over for an expired tag, long story short, I had a gun drawn on me for reaching for my phone “in a swift manner” to show him the picture, after I clearly asked him twice if I can reach for it.
The encounter resulted in an hour search of my car while I was handcuffed because “I smell like Marijuana”…His supervisor let me go and thanked me for my compliance but told me to check my attitude because I did not feel comfortable answering all their questions.
I do not smoke, I was on the way home from work(which was on a Naval Warship), nothing in my car has been anywhere near weed since I got it in 09, and I’m clearly shaken that I had a gun about a foot away from my face.
I have all the officers information and the individuals involved will not get away with this, hopefully the Norfolk Police Department has higher standards than these individuals working for them. If anyone has any advice or wants to help, you are more than welcomed to contact me.”
RISE NEWS has reached out both to Bridges and the Norfolk Police Department for further information. We’ll update this story as we get more information.
RISE NEWS is a grassroots journalism news organization that is working to change the way young people become informed and engaged in public affairs. You can write for us.
Cover Photo Credit: Travis Bridges/ Facebook
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Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Really Didn’t Like The Balloon Drop At The DNC Last Night
NBA hall of famer Kareem Abdul-Jabbar gave one of the most pointed speeches of the Democratic National Convention.
Unfortunately for him, his speech wasn’t pointed enough to pop all the balloons that dropped on the convention floor after Hillary Clinton’s speech.
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar just hates balloons.
Democratic New York Delegate and Mayor of Ithaca Svante Myrick took some photos of Abdul-Jabbar looking angered by the balloons and put them on his Facebook page.
The photos caused a stir online with nearly 1,000 people “liking” them.
Poor Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.
All he wanted to do was make fun of Donald Trump and show off his very good speaking abilities.
Instead, he had to wage war with his old nemesis- latex balloons.
Dear God.
At least the night started out well.
RISE NEWS is a grassroots journalism news organization that is working to change the way young people become informed and engaged in public affairs. You can write for us.
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On The Whole, Americans Don’t Seem To Really Care About Homeless People
They sleep quietly, waiting in plain sight to be spotted or recognized.
Humans treated inhumanely out of ignorance, discomfort, or fear.
They see everything and yet everything overlooks them; they are the homeless of America.
In an article in The Atlantic, Stephen Lurie references a recent Gallup poll stating that, “just 2 percent of respondents said that the category of “Poverty/Hunger/Homelessness” constituted “the most important problem facing this country today.”
It is easy to say that homelessness is a sad and important issue in this country, but it is another thing to actually prioritize the lives of those in need.
We as a country do not take care of homeless people.
People are not interested in statistics regarding the homeless.
isidewith.com’s homepage for the most important topics of 2016 does not even include homelessness as a prioritized topic.
So does the country just simply not care about those in need, or is there a different problem in place?
Carey Fuller of the Huffington Post put it best stating that, “homelessness isn’t an invisible problem; it’s a highly ignored and marginalized problem which ends up making the problem worse for homeless people.”
We aren’t afraid to admit that there is a significant problem of homelessness in this country, but we are terrified to feel any form of personal responsibility for a homeless person.
Photo Credit: Karim Corban/ Flickr (CC By 2.0)
A capitalist society often causes a perception that those in bad situations are responsible for their misfortunes.
The whole, “pull yourself up by your bootstraps” ideal is one that many Americans believe in, even if they themselves never had to do so in order to find success.
The problem isn’t always the homeless individual; the problem is a government and a society that does not see that individual as an equal American.
The problem is a system that is put in place to make rich people richer and poor people poorer.
A very famous video of a 2011 study at Harvard explained that 90 percent of Americans believe that economic wealth should be more equally distributed than they perceive it to be now.
Another part of the video plays into this idea describing the “American Dream”, and that people need motivation to work hard in order to achieve success and “keep our country moving forward”.
WATCH: Wealth Inequality In America
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So maybe that’s it? Maybe it is easy to disregard the homeless because they are not perceived as helpful members of society?
Photo Credit: Victoria Johnson/ Flick (CC 2.0)
Well then let’s look at the numbers for this idea: Green Doors explained that the homeless visit emergency rooms more frequently and stay in hospitals for a longer period of time.
Here is what their study showed: “Each visit [for the homeless] costs $3,700; that’s $18,500 spent per year for the average person and $44,400 spent per year for the highest users of emergency departments.”
Moyers & Company published an article that found it costs $21,000 more to “ignore the homeless than it does to give them homes”.
These numbers come from the cost of medical attention, incarceration, shelters, etc.
So clearly this idea that leaving these people homeless is a cheaper option that actually fixing the problem is widely inaccurate.
The proven truth, is that helping the homeless find a permanent home is much more successful than ignoring them.
An NPR article declared that Utah reduced their chronic homeless population by 91 percent after instating their Housing First initiative.
The Utah solution focuses on putting people in stable housing situations first before dealing with other service needs. And people put into these homes are expected to pay monthly rent for them. But the mix of refocusing priorities and demanding accountability seems to have worked.
Granted, Utah is much smaller than states with a greater homeless population, but their work still proves that solving this problem can be done, and it can benefit everyone.
Personally dealing with the homeless on a day-to-day basis should not resemble an obstacle course of averting eye contact and speeding up ones pace when walking by someone; but it does, and it always will.
The only way to deal with the homeless and represent “American ideals” is to make poverty a prioritized topic, and create national conversation that works towards helping these individuals in a permanent and meaningful way.
If an individual can succeed of the help from family inheritance and support, homeless can and should be allowed to succeed with the help of the country’s support.
RISE NEWS is a grassroots journalism news organization that is working to change the way young people become informed and engaged in public affairs. You can write for us.
Cover Photo Credit: Moise Nicu/ Flickr (CC By 2.0)
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