Nissan Is Recalling Nearly 400,000 Vehicles Over Potential Fire Hazard
Nissan says it is recalling nearly 400,000 vehicles in the U.S. that pose a potential fire danger because of a braking system defect.
Eugene Hoshiko/AP
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Eugene Hoshiko/AP
Nissan is recalling nearly 400,000 vehicles in the U.S. because of a braking system defect that could cause them to catch fire. Owners are advised to park affected vehicles outside and away from structures if the anti-lock brake system warning light comes on for more than 10 seconds.
The Japanese automaker says a pump seal may become worn down and cause brake fluid to leak. “If the warning is ignored … the brake fluid leak may potentially create an electrical short in the actuator circuit, which in rare instances, may lead to a fire,” the company says in documents sent to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
The recall affects four different models in the U.S.: the Nissan Murano SUV, model years 2015 to 2018; Maxima sedans, model years 2016 to 2018; and the Infiniti QX60 and Nissan Pathfinder SUVs, model years 2017 to 2019.
Nissan says in a statement emailed to NPR that it is working on a fix and that owners of affected vehicles will be notified beginning in early December 2019. “Once the remedy is available, owners will receive a final notification letter asking them to bring their vehicle to an authorized Nissan dealer or INFINITI retailer to have the remedy work completed at no cost for parts or labor,” the company says.
This isn’t the first time Nissan has had problems with brake fluid leaks. Last year, for example, Nissan recalled more than 215,000 vehicles. The automaker says vehicles in the 2018 recall that haven’t been repaired are included in the current recall.
The documents Nissan sent to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration do not state whether the brake system defect has caused any fires or injuries.
However, a NHTSA database of complaints from vehicle owners contained several unconfirmed reports of problems with leaks in the anti-lock brake system. One complaint from Sierra Vista, Ariz., said that a 2017 Nissan Maxima “ignited and exploded” less than a month after it was purchased. According to the owner, insurance investigators said it happened because brake fluid leaked onto the circuit board.
Earlier this year, Nissan North America recalled 1.2 million vehicles because the reverse camera could be adjusted so that the monitor appeared blank, which violates U.S. safety standards.
Paolo Zialcita is an intern with NPR’s News Desk.
Trump Wants Insurers and Hospitals To Show Real Prices To Patients
One rule announced by the Trump administration Friday puts pressure on hospitals to reveal what they charge insurers for procedures and services. Critics say the penalty for not following the rule isn’t stiff enough to be a an effective deterrent.
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Updated at 3:10 p.m. ET
President Trump has made price transparency a centerpiece of his health care agenda. Friday he announced two regulatory changes in a bid to provide more easy-to-read price information to patients.
The first effort targets hospitals, finalizing a rule that requires them to display their secret, negotiated rates to patients starting in January 2021. The second is a proposal to make insurance companies show patients their expected out-of-pocket costs through an online tool. That proposed rule is subject to 60 days of public comment, and it’s unclear when it would go into effect.
“Our goal is to give patients the knowledge they need about the real price of health care services,” said Trump. “They’ll be able to check them, compare them, go to different locations, so they can shop for the highest-quality care at the lowest cost.”
Administration officials heralded both rules as historic and transformative to the health care system.
“Under the status quo, health care prices are about as clear as mud to patients,” said Center for Medicare & Medicaid Services Administrator Seema Verma in a written statement. “Today’s rules usher in a new era that upends the status quo to empower patients and put them first.”
As NPR has reported, hospitals are currently required to post their “list prices” online, but that information has been very hard to use and doesn’t tell consumers much about what they are likely to pay. The new rule makes hospitals show what they really pay for services — not the list prices — and requires them to make that information easy to read and easy to access.
“I don’t know if the hospitals are going to like me too much anymore with this,” Trump said in a White House news conference Friday afternoon. “That’s OK.” He later added, “We’re stopping American patients from just getting — pure and simple, two words, very simple words — ripped off. Because they’ve been ripped off for years. For a lot of years.”
The second rule Trump announced Friday (which is a proposed rule, still subject to public comments before being finalized) affects insurance companies. It would essentially make insurers give patients their “explanation of benefits” upfront. It would require insurers to explain how much a service would cost, how much your plan would pay and how much you would owe — before the service is performed. The idea is that patients could use that information to shop around ahead of time for a better deal — assuming a better deal can be found, and the service isn’t a medical emergency.
Certainly these rules would give patients more information than they currently have. The other promise of these rules — that they will bring down health care costs — is more of an open question.
In public comments for the hospital rule, hospitals argued that having to make their negotiated rates public would backfire — if a hospital is charging less than another one nearby, it could theoretically raise its price to more closely match its competitor’s.
Secretary of Health and Human Services Alex Azar dismissed that argument on a call with reporters Friday morning.
“This is a canard,” he said. “Point me to one sector of the American economy where the disclosure of having price information in a competitive marketplace actually leads to higher prices as opposed to lower prices.”
Larry Levitt, executive vice president of the Kaiser Family Foundation, pointed out on Twitter that the penalty for hospitals that defy Trump’s transparency rule was “quite weak.”
“A maximum fine of $300 per day,” he wrote. “The technical term for that is ‘chump change.’ I wonder how many hospitals will just pay the fine.”
There’s also an open question about whether these rules will survive legal challenges. Another Trump administration proposal to show drug list prices in television ads was blocked in the courts.
“We may face litigation, but we feel we’re on a very sound legal footing for what we’re asking,” Azar told reporters.
NFL Suspends Myles Garrett ‘Indefinitely’ For Hitting QB With His Own Helmet
Cleveland Browns defensive end Myles Garrett hits Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Mason Rudolph with his own helmet as offensive guard David DeCastro tries to intervene, in the final seconds of their game Thursday night.
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Updated at 12:05 p.m. ET
The NFL has suspended Cleveland Browns defensive end Myles Garrett “indefinitely,” after Garrett ripped off Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Mason Rudolph’s helmet and whacked him in the head with it during a fight at the end of a game Thursday night.
Garrett won’t play again in the rest of 2019 and the postseason, the NFL announced. A date for his possible reinstatement and return won’t be set until he meets with the commissioner’s office.
“Garrett violated unnecessary roughness and unsportsmanlike conduct rules, as well as fighting, removing the helmet of an opponent and using the helmet as a weapon,” the NFL said as it announced its decision.
In response to the NFL’s move, Browns owners Dee and Jimmy Haslam sent a statement about Garrett to member station WCPN ideastream in Cleveland saying, “We understand the consequences from the league for his actions.”
The NFL also suspended Steelers center Maurkice Pouncey for three games for fighting: he punched and kicked Garrett in the aftermath of the helmet hit. And it punished the Browns’ Larry Ogunjobi with a one-game ban because he blindsided Rudolph with a hit after the quarterback had been separated from Garrett.
The league also fined all three players, but it did not disclose the amounts. The Browns and Steelers organizations were each fined $250,000.
The Haslams said they are “extremely disappointed” in the altercation. They added, “We sincerely apologize to Mason Rudolph and the Pittsburgh Steelers. Myles Garrett has been a good teammate and member of our organization and community for the last three years but his actions last night were completely unacceptable”
If Garrett’s suspension withstands an expected appeal, he would miss the Browns’ last six games. His punishment is one of the stiffest penalties for on-field behavior the NFL has ever levied, second only to that of Oakland Raiders linebacker Vontaze Burfict, who was suspended for the rest of the season in late September, with 12 games remaining.
The NFL says more disciplinary measures “will be forthcoming” for other players, including those who left their benches to join the fight.
Garrett’s actions obliterated the NFL’s boundaries of controlled violence, resulting in his immediate expulsion from Thursday night’s showcase game. The fighting also triggered shock and outrage and disbelief in the closing seconds of a game that the Browns’ defense had dominated.
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Garrett was ejected from the game along with Pouncey, who rushed in and helped take Garrett to the ground in retaliation for his attack on Rudolph. As lineman David DeCastro grappled with Garrett, Pouncey punched and kicked at his helmet. The Browns’ Ogunjobi was also ejected.
Discussing the fracas after the game, Garrett said it was “embarrassing and foolish and a bad representation of who we want to be.”
“Rivalry or not, we can’t do that. We’re endangering the other team. It’s inexcusable,” Browns quarterback Baker Mayfield said.
Garrett has emerged as a defensive star for Cleveland in his third professional year, but he has also incurred penalties at a fast rate, including two roughing-the-passer calls and an unsportsmanlike conduct foul before Thursday’s game.
The NFL has a personal safety rule forbidding “impermissible use of the helmet” — but the rulebook foresaw players using their own helmet to hit others in the course of a game, not a football player ripping an opponent’s helmet off and striking him with it.
“I made a mistake, I lost my cool,” Garrett said afterward. “And I regret it. It’s going to come back to hurt our team. The guys who jumped in the little scrum — I appreciate my team having my back, but it should never have gotten to that point. That’s on me.”
“I thought it was pretty cowardly, pretty bush league,” Rudolph said after the game. When asked how he was feeling after the violent end to a tough game, he replied, “I’m fine. I’m good, good to go.”
Before this season, the NFL’s longest suspension was a five-game ban earned by Albert Haynesworth in 2006 for removing a Dallas Cowboys player’s helmet and then stomping on his face.
After last night’s game, former Steelers linebacker James Harrison — who faced his own suspensions for dangerous hits during his career — was one of many NFL insiders who said Garrett’s actions amounted to assault.
“That’s assault at the least,” Harrison said via Twitter. He added, “6 months in jail on the street.. now add the weapon and that’s at least a year right?!”
The incident began with around 10 seconds left in the game: Garrett grabbed Rudolph as the quarterback completed a harmless third-down pass in the Steelers’ own end, stopping the game clock at 8 seconds. But after Garrett tugged and twisted Rudolph to the ground, the two began wrestling and Rudolph grasped Garrett’s helmet with both hands.
As they got up, Garrett ripped the quarterback’s helmet off by its facemask — and as DeCastro tried to intervene, Garrett swung Rudolph’s helmet in a vicious overhand arc, hitting the quarterback. As Rudolph turned to an official seeking a penalty, the Browns’ Ogunjobi leveled him from behind, sending him back down to the turf.
At the time, the Browns were leading 21-7, and their defense had already recorded four sacks and four interceptions against Rudolph’s Steelers. In the Browns’ stat sheet for the night, Garrett was notably absent from its sack list.
Going into Thursday night’s game, Garrett was leading the AFC in sacks, with 10 quarterback takedowns through the first nine games of the season. He had also been effective against the Steelers, recording four sacks and forcing three fumbles in just three games against the Browns’ division rivals.
Cleveland started the year on a wave of optimism, with talk of a possible run deep into the playoffs. But the team hasn’t lived up to those expectations. And now — instead of discussing their hopes to build on a win that brought their record to 4-6 — the Browns and Garrett are the talk of the NFL for all the worst reasons.
Prior to Garrett’s ejection, Browns safety Damarious Randall was also kicked out of Thursday night’s game, for delivering a dangerous helmet-to-helmet hit on Steelers wide receiver Diontae Johnson. But it was the end of the game that left the worst impressions in Cleveland.
“It feels like we lost,” Mayfield said afterward.
KOKOKO!: Tiny Desk Concert
Credit: Mhari Shaw/NPR
KOKOKO! are sonic warriors. They seized control of the Tiny Desk, shouting their arrival through a megaphone, while electronic sirens begin to blare. There’s a sense of danger in their sonic presence that left no doubt that something momentous was about to happen. And it did!
With instruments tied and hammered together — made from detergent bottles, scrapyard trash, tin cans, car parts, pots, pans and more — KOKOKO! managed to alter the office soundscape.
Backed by a bank of electronics, including a drum machine, this band from the Democratic Republic of the Congo redefines the norm of what music is and how music is made. Wearing yellow jumpsuits that are both utilitarian and resemble Congolese worker attire, this band from Kinshasa feel as though they’re venting frustrations through rhythm. And all the while they’re making dance music, all from their debut LP, Fongola, that feels unifying — more party than politics.
SET LIST
- “Likolo”
- “Tongos’a”
- “Malembe”
MUSICIANS
Makara Bianko: drums, vocals; Débruit: synthesizer, vocals; Boms Bomolo: bass, vocals; Dido Oweke: guitar; Love Lokombe: percussion, vocals;
CREDITS
Producers: Bob Boilen, Morgan Noelle Smith; Creative Director: Bob Boilen; Audio Engineers: Josh Rogosin, Alex Drewenskus ; Videographers: Morgan Noelle Smith, Jack Corbett, Bronson Arcuri, Maia Stern; Associate Producer: Bobby Carter; Executive Producer: Lauren Onkey; VP, Programming: Anya Grundmann; Photo: Ben De La Cruz/NPR
