Zorro
Zorro's JournalRoomba maker iRobot files for bankruptcy protection; will be taken private under restructuring
Roomba maker iRobot has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, but says that it doesn't expect any disruptions to devices as the more than 30-year-old company is taken private under a restructuring process.
IRobot, which became well known for its robotic vacuums, has struggled of late, dealing with increased competition, layoffs and a declining stock price. In 2022 Amazon announced that it had agreed to buy iRobot for about $1.7 billion, but that deal was called off last year. Amazon blamed “undue and disproportionate regulatory hurdles” after the European Union signaled its objection to the transaction.
Amazon said at the time that it would pay iRobot a previously agreed termination fee of $94 million and iRobot said that it would undergo a restructuring to help stabilize the company.
iRobot said Sunday that it is now being acquired by Picea through a court-supervised process. Picea, or Shenzhen PICEA Robotics Co., Ltd., is iRobot's primary contract manufacturer. With facilities in China and Vietnam, Picea has built and sold more than 20 million robotic vacuum cleaners.
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/roomba-maker-irobot-files-bankruptcy-130113688.html
Hegseth's office 'escalating' probe of Sen. Mark Kelly, Pentagon says
The Pentagon said Monday night that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is “escalating” his review of Sen. Mark Kelly’s involvement in a video he and other Democratic lawmakers made reminding service members of their duty to disobey illegal orders — an unprecedented use of the military justice system to investigate a political adversary.
In a statement, the Defense Department said it was elevating what had been a “review” to an “official Command Investigation” to be carried out at least in part by the Pentagon general counsel’s office. The change signals a more formal effort by Hegseth to scrutinize the Democratic senator from Arizona, who is a retired Navy officer and outspoken critic of the Trump administration.
Within the military, such investigations seek to determine whether disciplinary action — or potential legal action — is warranted, according to a handbook from the Naval Justice School. They typically last about 30 days and can involve documenting evidence and conducting interviews with relevant witnesses.
Military law experts and Democratic lawmakers have said that, although retired military officers can be recalled to active duty, Hegseth’s inquiry into Kelly is a highly unusual use of the military justice system. Some Republicans have also questioned the investigation’s merit.
https://wapo.st/48G57yZ
Ford takes $19.5B charge in hybrid pivot, cancels F-150 Lightning EV, launches new battery storage business
Source: Yahoo Finance
Ford (F) announced a series of moves in its EV business, pivoting to a hybrid and extended-range EV (EREV) strategy instead of full EVs. The company will take a whopping $19.5 billion in charges related to the move. Ford canceled the Lightning EV pickup in its existing form, and the company said it would shift battery production to other areas.
“The operating reality has changed, and we are redeploying capital into higher-return growth opportunities: Ford Pro, our market-leading trucks and vans, hybrids, and high-margin opportunities like our new battery energy storage business,” Ford CEO Jim Farley said in a statement.
Ford will concentrate its North American EV development on its new, low-cost, flexible Universal EV Platform used for smaller, more efficient EVs designed to tap into a broader range of customers. The first vehicle from the Universal EV Platform will be the fully connected midsize pickup truck assembled at its Louisville Assembly Plant starting in 2027.
As part of this plan, the next iteration of the F-150 Lightning will shift to an EREV architecture and be assembled at the Rouge Electric Vehicle Center in Dearborn, Mich. EREVs are essentially EVs that use an onboard gas engine as a generator to charge the vehicle's batteries.
Ford said production of the current generation F-150 Lightning has concluded, as the company redeploys employees to the Dearborn Truck Plant to support a third crew for F-150 gas and hybrid truck production. The Novelis aluminum plant fires impacted gas-powered F-150 production, prompting the shift.
Read more: https://finance.yahoo.com/news/ford-takes-195b-charge-in-hybrid-pivot-cancels-f-150-lightning-ev-launches-new-battery-storage-business-210713166.html
I had hoped the F-150 Lightning EV would be more successful, but looks like that just wasn't in the cards...
Feds say they foiled New Year's Eve terror plot in L.A., Southern California
Source: Los Angeles Times
A plan to attack several Los Angeles-area businesses on New Year’s Eve was detailed, dangerous and already in motion, authorities said.
But as four people allegedly tied to an anti-government group gathered last week in the Mojave Desert to make and test several test bombs, FBI officials foiled the terror plot.
“They had everything they needed to make an operational bomb at that location,” First Assistant U.S. Atty. Bill Essayli said at a news conference Monday morning. “We disrupted this terror plot before buildings were demolished or innocent people were killed.”
The four people were arrested on suspicion of plotting an attack that Essayli called “organized, sophisticated and extremely violent.” They were all tied to a radical faction of the Turtle Island Liberation Front called Order of the Black Lotus, which FBI Assistant Director in Charge Akil Davis called “a violent homegrown anti-government group.”
Read more: https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2025-12-15/new-years-eve-terror-plot-charges-southern-california
I would stay away from large crowds this New Year's Eve...
DeSantis names sponsor of bill striking 'climate change' from Florida law to utility board
Former state Rep. Bobby Payne has said that initiatives combatting climate change are “unfitting for our country.”A former state lawmaker and utility official will soon be on the Florida board that regulates utilities and decides how much they can charge residents for electricity.
Gov. Ron DeSantis announced his appointment of ex-state Rep. Bobby Payne, a Republican from Palatka, to the five-member state utility board earlier this year. His appointment will take effect in January, though he must be confirmed by the Florida Senate to keep the job.
Payne sponsored a 2024 bill that deleted the majority of mentions of “climate change” from state law, which drew national headlines. That proposal, which was signed into law by DeSantis, overhauled state energy policy to focus less on the reduction of greenhouse gases, which contribute to the warming of the planet. It also prohibited offshore wind turbines in state waters, relaxed regulations on natural gas pipelines and reduced local government control over the location of natural gas storage facilities.
As a result of that law, state officials repealed aspirational clean energy goals that called for 100% of the state’s energy come from renewable sources by 2050.
Payne previously worked for four decades in the electric industry, according to the governor’s office, including in multiple leadership roles at Seminole Electric Cooperative, Inc.
https://www.tampabay.com/news/environment/2025/12/15/florida-utility-fpl-electric-power-bill-climate-change-desantis/
Climate change isn't real if we just keep denying it...
How long before Trump threatens The Onion?
https://www.tiktok.com/@theonion/video/7581946882230881550Florida moves toward eliminating four vaccine mandates, expanding exemption
The Florida Department of Health on Wednesday took a step toward eliminating four childhood vaccine mandates — a move the department can take without the Legislature’s sign-off or the governor’s signature.
The proposal, which was debated during a Friday workshop in Panama City Beach, is the first tangible step in Florida Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo’s plan to eliminate all vaccine mandates in Florida.
Florida statute requires vaccinations for diseases like polio, measles and tetanus. Changing those requirements takes the Legislature’s action.
But the Department of Health has for years required four additional vaccines for school attendance: Varicella, or chickenpox; Hepatitis B; Haemophilus influenzae type b, or Hib; and Pneumococcal conjugate, or PCV15/20.
https://www.tampabay.com/news/florida-politics/2025/12/12/florida-vaccine-mandate-ladapo-desantis-chickenpox-health-exemption/
Getting reeeeaal tired of these anti-science zealots making public policies that affect the welfare of the state and country...
Golden Dome: The Astronomical Cost of Defeating 'Any Foreign Aerial Attack'
Just days into his second administration, President Donald Trump signed an executive order attempting to do what no other commander in chief has done: build a system for the US to “deter—and defend its citizens and critical infrastructure against—any foreign aerial attack on the Homeland.”
The threats that the so-called Golden Dome is meant to defeat sit mainly in the arsenals of Russia, China and North Korea, which together have hundreds of nuclear missiles and thousands of other weapons that could be used to wage war on the US.
The US has historically relied on a policy of nuclear deterrence, and a limited system of ground-based missile interceptors in Alaska and California, to fend off such an attack. But Trump’s Golden Dome would go much further.
The initiative is intended to create layers of defense systems from the ground to space that will stop incoming missiles launched from anywhere in the world. It would uniquely rely on a system of space-based interceptor satellites that track and destroy missiles in orbit as they hurtle toward a destination on Earth—technology that doesn’t yet exist.
Even if Golden Dome does become operational, there’s no guarantee the system will be 100% effective. What it will look like, who will make it and how much it will cost have still not been made public.
https://www.bloomberg.com/graphics/2025-golden-dome/?accessToken=eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJzb3VyY2UiOiJTdWJzY3JpYmVyR2lmdGVkQXJ0aWNsZSIsImlhdCI6MTc2NTYzNjE2OSwiZXhwIjoxNzY2MjQwOTY5LCJhcnRpY2xlSWQiOiJUNzRMNE1LR0lGUk0wMCIsImJjb25uZWN0SWQiOiJDNjgyQTUwQzJCRDM0MTFCQTgwQjEwQjZEQjczQzM1MSJ9.CNS6Er8AfFdGZFcF13LwrIj0dRGjMDlEQYo1me8XQ1Q
Stephen Miller's Wife Makes Embarrassing Error While Defending Melania's English
The wife of the architect of Donald Trump’s mass deportation policy made an embarrassing blunder while attempting to defend Melania Trump’s command of English.
Katie Miller, a conservative podcaster who is married to top Trump aide Stephen Miller, was apparently trying to argue that the first lady, a former model from Slovenia, is the “good” type of immigrant, unlike Democratic Minnesota Rep. Ilhan Omar, who fled Somalia’s civil war as a child.
“Melanie Trump loves her country and has devoted her life to serving it,” Miller wrote in a post on X. “You can’t say the same for Ilhan Omar who openly hates America and laughs off the theft of a billion dollars by her own Somali people.”
Her replies were quickly flooded with users asking, “Who’s Melanie?”
https://www.thedailybeast.com/stephen-millers-wife-katie-makes-embarrassing-error-while-defending-melania-trumps-english/
DeSantis admin diverted child welfare and medical funds for consultants, ads
During the fight to defeat amendments 3 and 4 last year, Gov. DeSantis’ administration spent at least $36.2 million in taxpayer funds.Gov. Ron DeSantis’ administration diverted more than $35 million in taxpayer funds — an amount far greater than previously known — as part of a brazen agenda last year to defeat two ballot amendments he staunchly opposed, a Tampa Bay Times/Miami Herald investigation has found.
Much of the state money was intended to assist needy Floridians, including children. Instead, it paid for political consultants, lawyers and thousands of advertisements that helped DeSantis and his supporters win at the ballot box.
The ads purchased with the diverted money blanketed TV, social media and radio stations in the weeks before the election. They defended Florida’s six-week abortion ban and made exaggerated claims about the dangers of marijuana without mentioning that both were the subject of ballot amendments last fall.
Along the way, the governor’s administration bent state spending laws and obscured millions in government spending, records and interviews show.
The findings shed new light on the DeSantis administration’s marshaling of state resources to finance his fight against political causes supported by a majority of Florida voters. Amendment 3 would have legalized recreational marijuana. Amendment 4 would have overturned the six-week abortion ban pushed by DeSantis. Both fell just short of the 60% needed to pass.
https://www.tampabay.com/news/florida-politics/2025/12/12/desantis-election-2024-amendments-ads-abortion-marijuana-spending/
Maybe Floridians will finally wake up to the rampant corruption in the state government.
Profile Information
Gender: MaleHometown: America's Finest City
Current location: District 48
Member since: 2001
Number of posts: 18,294