Free Republic

PARIS -- Edouard Michelin, the co-managing partner of France's Michelin, the world's leading tire maker, was killed in a boating accident, the company said Friday. A short statement from the company gave no details about his death or the accident. It said that another managing partner, Michel Rollier, would take over direction of the company. A company official told Dow Jones Newswires that Mr. Michelin, 42 years old, died in a boating accident. The accident took place near Ile de Sein, off Brittany's coast. Mr. Michelin took over the company's reins from his father, Francois Michelin, in 1999. Michelin is...

NEW YORK - Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. said Friday it will close an undisclosed number of plants in various locations, part of a sweeping restructuring aimed at improving its North American tire business and saving up to $1 billion over the next three years. The Akron, Ohio, company, one of the world's largest tire makers, did not say how many jobs would be affected. It also did not say how many plants it will close or their locations, but added that cutting high-cost capacity will be a key consideration. Goodyear said it plans to cut high-cost manufacturing capacity between...

1 million tires catch on fire in Wis. July 20, 2005 WATERTOWN, Wis. -- A massive fire erupted in a huge pile of tires at a recycling plant Tuesday, sending black smoke billowing for miles and forcing roads to be closed while firefighters tried to contain the blaze. The fire ignited in about 1 million tires at the Watertown Tire Recycling Co., said Lt. Doug Ninmann of the Dodge County Sheriff's Department. No one was injured and the cause wasn't determined, but people within a mile's radius were warned to take shelter if the smoke becomes too intense, he said....

Douglas and Clinton April 29, 2005 How delighted Jason Gibbs must have been to utter the following sentence: "Governor Douglas believes we need people in the United States Senate who understand how important it is to protect and improve our environment." Gibbs is Gov. James Douglas' principal spokesman, and he was responding to a letter from Sen. Hillary Clinton to New York environmental officials supporting a test burn of tires at the International Paper plant in Ticonderoga, N.Y. IP wants to conduct a two-week test burn at the plant, and Clinton weighed in on the company's behalf, saying the plant...

New York Sen. Hillary Clinton is backing a plan to burn old tires to supply energy to an upstate New York paper mill that will produce clouds of acrid black smoke - a proposal that has nearby residents in a panic over potential health risks. In an April 13 letter to the New York Department of Environmental Conservation, Clinton urged that the agency approve a two-week test burn at International Paper's Ticonderoga, N.Y., mill – adjacent to environmentally pristine Lake Champlain. "I know that some are concerned about the potential air quality impact of burning tires at the mill," she...

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has just announced that tire sensors will be required on vehicles beginning in 2008. And the Bureau of Labor Statistics recently issued a report showing that car ownership costs are the second highest household expense in the U.S., second only to housing costs and three times as much as medical costs. Maybe the two agencies should talk to each other. That way, the NHTSA would know how its regulations have increased the cost of car ownership over the years, one regulation at a time. The establishment media could help. Instead of reporting that the...

GREENVILLE, S.C.--The first automobile to use air-filled tires was a racecar built by André and Édouard Michelin in the early 1890's. More than a century later, the French company founded by the Michelin brothers is so identified with pneumatic tires that its mascot, Bibendum, is a man made of little else. Now, after decades spent persuading the world to ride on air, the company has begun work on an innovation that could render the pneumatic tire obsolete. Engineers at Michelin's American technology center here envision a future in which vehicles would ride on what they call the Tweel, a combined...

The 25-year-old son of newly elected congresswoman Gwen Moore was arrested Friday by Milwaukee police and later released in connection with the election day slashing of tires on 20 vans and cars rented by the Republican Party, according to police records. Sowande Ajumoke Omokunde, also known as Supreme Solar Allah, arrived at the Milwaukee police administration building Friday morning with his attorney, was arrested at 9 a.m. and held in the police holding facility for several hours before being released, according to records. Omokunde is one of three suspects who had been arrested as of late Friday. Opel E. Simmons...

Cooper Tire & Rubber Co. announced Thursday that it will lay off 114 of 159 employees at its Clarksdale plant. The layoffs will occur Nov. 12. The layoffs, according to Cooper Tire spokeswoman Patricia J. Brown, are necessary because of a steady decline in the demand for inner tubes. Cooper Tire owns 30 plants, but the Clarksdale location is the only one that still makes inner tubes. Brown said the plant will discontinue inner-tube production when the layoffs occur but will remain open to produce bladders and continue mixing operations for internal consumption by other Cooper facilities. The bladders are...

<p>A court has frozen the Trinidad assets of a U.S.-based tire company that closed its plant in this Caribbean country and dismissed more than 400 workers, officials said Wednesday.</p> <p>Carlisle Tire and Rubber Ltd. closed the southern Trinidad tire plant two weeks ago after workers began protesting what they claimed were unsafe working conditions, including exposure to harmful chemicals.</p>

<p>Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. is considering closing an Alabama tire plant and layoffs at plants in 10 other states as well as other options to meet its goal of saving $1.1 billion over the next three years, company officials said Monday.</p>

White House tires of Blair's UN diplomacy By Toby Harnden in Washington (Filed: 14/03/2003) Hawks in the White House have criticised Tony Blair for his persistence in seeking a new United Nations resolution. The senior officials are urging George W Bush to press ahead with war. An outspoken attack on Mr Blair's policy at the UN by a Bush administration official reflected growing tensions in Anglo-American relations. "Blair is hurting himself by dragging this out," the official said. "It's not for Americans to tell British politicians how to behave. But what is he getting out of this? He should just...

Date: 11/28/2002 What Happens To Rubber That Wears Off Auto Tires? Alison J. Draper, an assistant professor of chemistry at Bucknell University, Lewisburg, Pa., is doing research where the rubber meets the road -- literally. She's investigating the environmental and health impacts of automobile tire wear particles. As automobile tires move along a road, tiny particles are worn off, and can end up in the air and in nearby waterways. Draper previously did research on diesel exhaust, but says that tire rubber is "much more interesting chemically," containing heavy metals like zinc and cadmium, hydrocarbons, latex, and sulfur-containing compounds. Draper's...

Michelin Man's my carrot By MARTYN SHARPE HUNDREDS of people have been flocking to gawp at a carrot — shaped just like the Michelin Man. Retired steelworker George Woodhall, 68, dug up the wacky eight-inch veg in his back garden. It boasts a roly-poly body and even chubby little arms and legs. Amazed George, of Barnsley, South Yorks, said yesterday: “It’s an exact replica of the famous Michelin Man made out of tyres. “Complete strangers have been coming from miles around to look.” Wife Annie, 59, said: “We always eat all the veg George grows — but the Man is...