Current Events in March 2021

Northern Tool & Equipment Company of Burnsville, Minn., is recalling about 3,640 Powerhorse 13000ES Portable Generators.

The generators have a wiring error which can result in an electrical shock to users.

The firm has received one report of an incorrect wiring connection. No injuries have been reported.

This recall involves Northern Tool & Equipment Powerhorse 13000ES Portable Generator Model #799215.

The gasoline generator is blue with white Powerhorse logos, a black frame and two wheels. Powerhorse 13000ES is printed in white on the top front.

A list of the recalled serial numbers may be found here.

The serial number is located on the lower left of the frame.

The generators, manufactured in China, were sold at Northern Tool & Equipment stores nationwide and online at www.northerntool.com from July 2016, through September 2020, for about $1,850.

What to do

Consumers should immediately stop using the recalled generators and contact Northern Tool & Equipment to schedule a free repair by an authorized dealer.

Consumers may contact Powerhorse Product Support toll-free at (866) 443-2576 from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. (CT) Monday through Friday or online at www.northerntool.com and click on “Recall Products” at the bottom of the page for more information.

Mercedes-Benz USA (MBUSA) is recalling 58 of the following vehicles:

• Model year 2017-2019 C300 s E300,
• Model year 2018-2020 CLA250s, 2020 CLS450s, AMG E53s, AMG GT53s, GLE450s,
• Model year 2018 AMG E63s, AMG GTAs,
• Model year 2017-2020 GLA250s, GLC300s,
• Model year 2019 GLC350s, AMG GLC43s,
• Model year 2017-2018 GLE350s,
• Model year 2019 AMG GLC 43s, GLC350s, GLE400s,
• Model year 2017 GLS450s, S550s, C300 Cabrios, and
• Model year 2018-2019 S560s.

The communication module might have been inadvertently deactivated during a service visit, which could have disabled the Emergency Call (eCall) function.

A disabled eCall system would prevent a vehicle occupant from contacting emergency services through the call center in an emergency, potentially delaying emergency responders and increasing the risk of injury.

What to do

MBUSA will notify owners, and dealers will inspect the communication module and activate it -- if necessary -- free of charge.

The recall is expected to begin April 13, 2021.

Owners may contact MBUSA customer service at (800) 367-6372.

The recent Texas storm that left millions in the dark has just claimed its first corporate victim. Brazos Electric Power Cooperative Inc. -- one of the largest generation and transmission cooperatives in Texas and one of the myriad of electricity providers caught off-guard by the storm -- has filed for bankruptcy protection. 

The trickle-down effects of the storm left companies like Brazos Electric with “excessively high invoices” by the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) for the “purported” cost of electric service, which ERCOT demanded payment of “within days.” According to the bankruptcy petition, Brazos Electric is disputing a claim of $1,809,469,233 from ERCOT.

“As a cooperative whose costs are passed through to its members, and which are ultimately borne by Texas retail consumers served by its Member cooperatives, Brazos Electric determined that it cannot and will not foist this catastrophic financial event on its members and those consumers.”

Throughout the financial restructuring process that comes with bankruptcy procedures, Brazos Electric says the move was an effort to protect both its cooperatives and its more than 1.5 million members from “unaffordable electric bills.”

Other storm-related lawsuits continue to mount

Just last week, a Texas woman sued the electric company Griddy after her bill was nearly $10,000 following the same winter storm. On Monday, Texas' attorney general followed up with yet another lawsuit against Griddy Energy and Griddy Holdings -- not specifically for the outrageous bills, but rather for "false, misleading, and deceptive advertising and marketing practices.”

Attorney General Ken Paxton claimed Griddy "passed skyrocketing energy costs to customers with little to no warning, resulting in consumers paying hundreds or even thousands of dollars each day for electricity.”

“Griddy misled Texans and signed them up for services which, in a time of crisis, resulted in individual Texans each losing thousands of dollars,” Paxton said. “As Texans struggled to survive this winter storm, Griddy made the suffering even worse as it debited outrageous amounts each day. As the first lawsuit filed by my office to confront the outrageous failure of power companies, I will hold Griddy accountable for their escalation of this winter storm disaster. My office will not allow Texans to be deceived or exploited by unlawful behavior and deceptive business practices.”

Paxton went on to say that one of the goals of the lawsuit was to ensure that Texas residents will receive “truthful and accurate energy service in the future.” 

Fraudsters have decided to play on the lack of cohesive information on how and where to get vaccinated for COVID-19. 

Desperate Americans have been going everywhere from Google and Facebook to their local drugstore or grocery stores to try to find out where and how they can get vaccinated. Fraudsters have picked up on the confusion and are building out counterfeit websites posing as legitimate pharmaceutical companies such as Pfizer and Moderna to try to snare some easy money for themselves.

“As little as $30 a dose”

In one example, Scamicide reported that a fake Moderna website was offering vaccines that people could buy for as little as $30 a dose. 

“Often the cost is more,” wrote Steve Weisman. “Sometimes you receive nothing except a lesson in how to lose your money. Other times you may actually receive something, but whatever you get is not a real vaccine that will not protect you from the coronavirus and could potentially be dangerous to your health.”

As of mid-February, Department of Homeland Security (DHS) investigators had analyzed close to 80,000 COVID-19-related domain names and confiscated approximately $33 million in illegal proceeds, according to a spokeswoman for the agency. One particular scammer tried to pull off a fast one by creating “mordernatx.com” -- not only adding an “r” to Moderna’s real website “modernatx.com” but even mimicking its look and feel.

Scammers are also upping their game when it comes to how they fleece their victims by using common digital payment methods like Zelle, PayPal, and Square. Early Warning Services LLC, the company behind Zelle, told the Wall Street Journal that even though it’s constantly on the lookout for transactions that violate its terms of service, consumers are advised to treat Zelle payments like cash and be aware of “too good to be true” offers. 

“We continue to invest in and bolster fraud-fighting resources by both increasing staffing and adopting new technology,” a representative for Square told the Journal.

Forewarned is forearmed

Scammers are working hard to lure you into their den of fake vaccines. They’re using what they know about search algorithms employed by Google, Bing, and other search engines so that their phony website appears close to the top of any vaccination-related search results.

“You expect that Google will only give you stuff that’s valid,” Douglas Schmidt, co-director of the Data Science Institute at Vanderbilt University, told the Wall Street Journal, adding that older populations who weren’t raised on the internet are especially vulnerable.

The smartest move for anyone wanting to learn about getting their coronavirus vaccination is to go to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) website. There, you’ll find a section titled “How do I get a Vaccine” that can give you all the details. 

An evenly divided Senate plans to begin debate this week on the Biden administration’s $1.9 trillion coronavirus (COVID-19) stimulus bill after the House passed it over the weekend.

The measure could pass the Senate with no Republican votes because Democrats are presenting it in the form of a budget reconciliation measure, which requires only a simple majority, not the filibuster-proof 60 votes.

The bill would send most Americans a direct payment of $1,400 and would increase unemployment benefits by $400 a week. There is also money to pay for vaccine distribution and major funding for state and local governments.

No Republicans in the Senate have expressed support for the measure, calling it too expensive. Some have also said a spending level of this magnitude is unnecessary since the latest economic numbers show rapid improvement.

Minimum wage issue

The House bill also contains a provision to hike the minimum wage to $15 an hour that almost certainly will be dropped from the Senate version of the measure. Last week, the Senate  parliamentarian ruled that a budget reconciliation bill could not include an increase in the minimum wage.

A budget reconciliation bill can only address issues that affect the federal budget, such as government spending. The parliamentarian ruled that the minimum wage only applies to businesses and therefore cannot be included in the bill.

Should the Senate pass the stimulus bill without the minimum wage increase -- or any other changes -- the measure would have to go back to the House for another vote. Supporters of the measure are pushing for timely action. They note that expanded unemployment benefits expire on March 14. They hope to have the extension, contained in the proposed legislation, in place by then.

Democrats cannot afford to lose a single vote in the Senate since Republicans and Democrats each hold 50 seats. Vice-present Kamala Harris would cast the deciding vote in what is expected to be a deadlock at 50 to 50.

Wasting no time, officials at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) met over the weekend to grant emergency use authorization (EUA) to Johnson & Johnson’s coronavirus (COVID-19) vaccine.

Hours earlier, an FDA advisory committee concluded a day-long meeting by recommending emergency use of the vaccine, finding that it is safe and effective in preventing the virus. 

Eligible Americans who have been frustrated in trying to schedule an appointment to get vaccinated may suddenly find it is easier. Johnson & Johnson said it has millions of doses of the vaccine that it can begin distributing this week.

“The authorization of this vaccine expands the availability of vaccines, the best medical prevention method for COVID-19, to help us in the fight against this pandemic, which has claimed over half a million lives in the United States,” said Acting FDA Commissioner Dr. Janet Woodcock. 

Woodcock notes there are now three approved vaccines in the supply chain and that all of them met standards set out in an “open and transparent scientific review process.”

Distribution has begun

The company has already begun shipping its COVID-19 vaccine to distribution points and expects to deliver enough by the end of March to enable the full vaccination of more than 20 million people in the U.S. 

The vaccine holds an advantage over the two previously approved vaccines because it only requires a single dose. Part of the distribution bottlenecks surrounding the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines have occurred because they require two shots, both of which have to be scheduled at the same time.

In clinical trials, the Johnson & Johnson vaccine was less effective than the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines, but the testing was done at a time when new, more contagious variants of the virus were circulating around the world. However, scientists said the vaccine appeared to protect people from serious forms of COVID-19.

100 million doses in 2021

Johnson & Johnson said it plans to deliver 100 million single-shot doses of the vaccine to the U.S. during the first half of this year. The U.S. government will manage the allocation and distribution and recipients will be prioritized according to guidelines set by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

“We believe the Johnson & Johnson single-shot COVID-19 vaccine is a critical tool for fighting this global pandemic, particularly as it shows protection across countries with different variants,”said Dr. Paul Stoffels, Johnson & Johnson’s chief scientific officer. 

Stoffels said a vaccine that protects against COVID-19, especially against the direct outcomes of hospitalization and death, will help ease the burden on people and the strain on health systems around the world.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) announced Monday that it has launched an investigation into Toyota’s RAV4 vehicles. Regulators said there have been 11 reports of fires in 2013-2018 RAV4 vehicles. 

Toyota said it’s aware of the investigation and is cooperating with the NHTSA’s probe, which involves more than 1.86 million vehicles.

In a filing, the NHTSA alleged that “a non-crash thermal event” originated in the left side of the SUVs engine compartment. The auto safety agency said the vehicle’s 12-volt battery appears to be the “area of origin” in a majority of incidents reviewed. 

Investigators suspect that the issue may be caused by improper battery installation. Specifically, they say it involves a short on the battery’s hold-down frame by the positive terminal of the 12-volt battery. The agency said the problem “may result in the sudden loss of electrical power, vehicle stalling, and/or a fire originating in the engine compartment.” 

Stalling reported before fires

Most drivers said the incidents happened while they were driving their RAV4, but four fires started while the ignition was off. Investigators said “stalling” was reported in the run up to several incidents. 

"Drivers experienced stalling prior to the thermal event in half of the instances where the vehicle was in motion," the NHTSA said. 

The agency said it’s opened the investigation to “better understand the contributing factors and frequency of vehicle fires originating from the battery region of the subject vehicles.” So far, no injuries or accidents have occured in connection to the issue. 

The vehicles under investigation haven't been recalled, but they eventually could be depending on what the investigation reveals. 

Walmart announced Monday that it’s lifting the $35 minimum order requirement for its two-hour delivery service, “Express.” The move may give the retailer an edge over competitor Amazon, which still has a $35 order minimum on its Prime Now service. 

Consumers can get food, pantry items, household essentials, and other products delivered in less than two hours through Walmart’s Express service. 

The service is available at 3,000 Walmart stores and typically costs $10 on top of a standard delivery fee of between $7.95 or $9.95. However, Walmart drops the delivery fee when customers sign up for a Walmart Plus subscription. 

“Many customers use Express delivery for when they’re in a pinch, whether it be a missing ingredient for a weeknight dinner or a pack of diapers,” Tom Ward, Walmart’s senior vice president of customer product, said in a statement. “Customers told us sometimes the items they needed in a hurry didn’t meet the minimum, so we’re removing it, making it even easier for customers to get what they need when they need it.”

Last May, the company launched its two-hour delivery service on a larger scale in an effort to reach more people staying home due to the pandemic. Walmart notes that its free curbside pickup service still carries a $35 order minimum.

In a video posted over the weekend, President Joe Biden implied that he supports the Amazon warehouse workers’ union drive happening in Bessemer, Alabama. While he didn’t name Amazon specifically or explicitly direct workers to vote in favor of unionization, the president said in the video that he supports the effort taking place in Alabama. 

"Today and over the next few days and weeks, workers in Alabama and all across America are voting on whether to organize a union in their workplace," Biden said in a video shared to his Twitter page. "This is vitally important — a vitally important choice, as America grapples with the deadly pandemic, the economic crisis and the reckoning on race — what it reveals is the deep disparities that still exist in our country."

Biden said in the video that this month’s vote should not be met with any intimidation, coercion, threats, or “anti-union propaganda.” 

"It's not up to an employer" to decide any union election, Biden added in the video posted to Twitter. “I made it clear during my campaign that my policy would be to support unions organizing and the right to collectively bargain. I’m keeping that promise.”

Vote taking place

This month, more than 5,800 warehouse workers at the Bessemer, Alabama facility are voting on whether to join the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union (RWDSU). Mail-in voting started this week and will continue through the end of March. 

In a statement, the RWDSU thanked Biden for his support of the organizing drive. 

“As President Biden points out, the best way for working people to protect themselves and their families is by organizing into unions,” said RWDSU president Stuart Appelbaum in a statement. “And that is why so many working women and men are fighting for a union at the Amazon facility in Bessemer, Alabama.”

Amazon has said the workers organizing the union drive at the Alabama facility don’t represent the majority of its workers. The e-commerce giant has tried to convince workers that a union will only result in money being pulled from their paycheck with little benefit. 

“Amazon already offers what unions are requesting for employees: industry-leading pay, comprehensive benefits from the first day on the job, opportunities for career growth, all while working in a safe, modern and inclusive work environment,” said Amazon spokesperson Rachael Lighty. “At Amazon, these benefits and opportunities come with the job, as does the ability to communicate directly with the leadership of the company.”

A new study conducted by researchers from the University of Sydney found that many employers’ efforts to build morale and boost feelings of camaraderie can actually hinder their workers’ performance. 

The findings suggest that the intention behind team-building activities can be lost when employees feel like they’re being forced to complete them. While these exercises can be helpful in bringing colleagues together, they can actually have the opposite effect when they’re mandatory.

“Since publishing our previous research on team-building exercises, many workers told us that they despise team building activities and see them as a waste of time, so we decided to look more in-depth at what’s behind this,” said researcher Dr. Petr Matous. 

Are there benefits?

The researchers were most interested in seeing what kinds of team-building activities were most beneficial to workers. They put the study participants through several self-disclosure sessions to gauge what they thought were effective and ineffective team-building strategies. 

“Almost every day at work, workers are subjected to interventions that are implicitly or explicitly designed to change our networks of working relationships,” said Dr. Matous. “Teams are formed, merged, and restructured, staff are relocated, and office spaces are redesigned. We are expected to participate in drinks after work and team building events. All this is done with the aim of improving workplace effectiveness, efficiency, collaboration, and cohesion -- but does any of this work?” 

Ultimately, the researchers learned that activities designed to build rapport among colleagues are hit or miss. The participants expressed the most frustration with these exercises when they felt forced to be involved. Many of these sessions feel inauthentic to employees, and several of the study participants reported feeling uncomfortable sharing so many personal details with their bosses and co-workers. 

This is important because when employees are consistently mandated to attend and participate in these events, it can impact how they feel about their jobs and hinder their overall job performance over time. 

“Many people do not want to be forced into having fun or making friends, especially not on top of their busy jobs or in stressful, dysfunctional environments where team building is typically being called for,” said researcher Dr. Julien Pollack. “These activities often feel implicitly mandatory. People can feel that management is being too nosy or trying to control their life too much.” 

How should companies approach this?

Though the researchers found that many team-building activities can be a source of stress or discomfort for employees, they also learned that not all exercises are the same, and there are beneficial ways to engage groups of employees. The biggest takeaway from this study is that employees want a choice; having the ability to opt out makes workers feel more in control, and giving employees the choice of who to work with in these activities can make them less uncomfortable. 

Team-building can be effective for employees and their bosses, and the researchers hope that more companies take these findings into consideration when it’s time to plan them. 

“With caution, many relational methods to improve teams and organizations can be borrowed from other fields,” said Dr. Matous. “The question is how to apply them effectively to strengthen an entire collective, which is more than just the sum of individual relationships, and that’s where analyzing methods using network science makes the main contribution.” 

Audi is recalling 26,967 model year 2020-2021 Q7s.

The airbag control module may deploy the second stage of the front passenger airbag too quickly after the first stage when the seat is occupied by a child, increasing the risk of injury.

What to do

Audi will notify owners, and dealers will update the airbag control module, free of charge.

The recall is expected to begin April 16, 2021.

Owners can contact Audi customer service at (800) 253-2834. Audi's number for this recall is 69BV.

BMW of North America is recalling 20,963 model year 2011-2014 S 1000 RR/R/ HP4, R 1200 GS/GS Adventure/R/RT, K 1300 S, K 1600 GT/GTL/GTL Exclusive and model year 2014 R nine T motorcycles.

The fuel pump and auxiliary fuel pump in certain models, may crack and leak fuel during vehicle operation.

A fuel leak in the presence of an ignition source may result in a fire.

What to do

BMW will notify owners, and dealers will replace the fuel pump, free of charge.

The recall is expected to begin April 2, 2021.

Owners may contact BMW customer service at (800) 525-7417.