David W. Gilbert, an associate professor of automotive technology at Southern Illinois University, altered a circuit in the accelerator pedal he tested, making it unreasonable to draw conclusions about vehicles on the road, Toyota said yesterday at a briefing at its U.S. headquarters. To prove its point, Toyota replicated the test on competitors cars and achieved similar results.
An ABC News broadcast in February featuring Gilbert was misleading, and Toyota should have had an opportunity to observe and analyze the test before it was broadcast, Mike Michels, - - - - >

The parent company of the Honolulu Star-Bulletin announced Thursday it was purchasing longtime rival The Honolulu Advertiser, the largest newspaper in Hawaii, and would merge the two publications if a new buyer couldnt be found soon.
“The reality of it is, finding a buyer in this kind of economic environment is going to be difficult and thats an understatement,” said Gerald Kato, a University of Hawaii journalism professor.
Kato said a “vibrant marketplace calls for many and diverse voices. Less voices is an injustice to the community.”
Newspaper analyst Ken Doctor of Outsell Inc. said finding a buyer was “highly unlikely.”
“The biggest problem - - - - >

From a digital Scrabble game that checks the words to a hovering UFO to miniature radio-control cars, toy makers are amping up the tech quotient but not prices.
Zhu Zhu Pets, the furry mechanical hamsters that zoom around, were the runaway hit of the holiday season. One key to their success: a price tag under $10.
The American International Toy Fair begins Sunday. This is the annual event where toy makers show off new offerings that will make their way into next years stockings. Previews from toymakers and interviews with analysts make clear that the focus is on innovation and price. Few - - - - >

Jim Lentz, president of Toyota Motor Sales USA, is to speak on the morning news and talk program before holding a conference call with other media organizations, said a company official who declined to be identified because the plan isnt public. Lentz may also appear on Bloomberg Television.
The TV appearances will be the first for a U.S. audience after the automaker ran an informational ad in newspapers today and President Akio Toyoda gave a 75-second apology last week in Davos, Switzerland, in contrast with other Japanese - - - - >

Valassis, a marketing company that provides direct mail and coupons, said the deal settles lawsuits it filed in several states against News America Marketing. Among them is a jury decision in Michigan circuit court last July that awarded Valassis $300 million in damages. News America was appealing that ruling.
Valassis accused News America of threatening customers with price hikes for not offering exclusivity in marketing deals.
Meanwhile, News America argued that Valassis tried to force higher marketing rates by publicly announcing price changes.
In a statement Saturday, News Corp. said it did not want to risk presenting - - - - >

The findings are based on an analysis of how local news stories evolved in Baltimore during one week last summer. The review by Pew Research Centers Project for Excellence in Journalism monitored 53 media outlets - newspapers, television and radio stations and Web-only operations.
Newspapers and their Web sites provided 61 percent of the original reporting or fresh information on six major news stories that unfolded during the week of July 19-25, the study found. Local television stations and their Web sites accounted for 28 percent of the new information, followed by radio stations and their sites at 7 percent and - - - - >

The 27-year-old newspaper announced the latest round of layoffs in its Thursday edition and said the last sports section would appear Friday. Among those let go was the newsroom leader, Managing Editor David Jones. Another round of cuts was made earlier in December, and the newspaper published its last Sunday edition last weekend.
The paper will publish a new weekday print edition starting Monday. It will focus on the newspapers core strengths, including politics and cultural issues, President and Publisher Jonathan Slevin said Wednesday in a statement.
“Our market-based, forward-looking plan is both a response to the recessionary economy, continued downward financial - - - - >

The business model is unraveling at ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox and the local stations that carry the networks programming. Cable TV and the Web have fractured the audience for free TV and siphoned its ad dollars. The recession has squeezed advertising further, forcing broadcasters to accelerate their push for new revenue to pay for programming.
That will play out in living rooms across the country. The changes could mean higher cable or satellite TV bills, as the networks and local stations squeeze more fees from pay-TV providers such as Comcast and DirecTV for the right to show broadcast TV channels - - - - >

Berkshire and its subsidiaries have about 225,000 workers, the Omaha, Nebraska-based company said this week in regulatory filings. Thats 8.6 percent lower than the 246,083 disclosed in the 2008 annual report. Berkshire provided the jobs information in a document tied to its planned $26 billion takeover of railroad Burlington Northern Santa Fe Corp. Buffett didnt reply to a request, left with an assistant, for comment on the cuts.
Buffett, Berkshires chief executive officer, oversees a collection of more than 70 subsidiaries that sell products including Geico car - - - - >

Crude snapped two days of gains as the dollar rose to a three-month high against the euro after the U.S. Federal Reserve said yesterday the economy is strengthening and the deterioration in the labor market is abating. Oil rose the most in a month yesterday after the Energy Department said U.S. crude inventories declined to the lowest since the week ended Jan. 9.
“Its a bit of the dollar” thats causing the decline in prices today, Thina Saltvedt, a commodities analyst at Nordea Bank AB in Oslo, - - - - >