The Bloomberg Way
After graduating, Miller interviewed at several banks in Frankfurt and tried for a trading position at Commerzbank. Then a Bloomberg reporter and old friend, Katherine Snyder, suggested he check out Bloomberg.
?He was too big a risk-taker to become a trader,? Snyder says, mentioning the mock trades Commerzbank asked him to make as part of one interview.
He started at Bloomberg as a print reporter in Frankfurt in January 2000, going on to cover telecoms at the height of the internet bubble, when companies like Deutsche Telekom and Vodafone were making major acquisitions.
<img src="http://media5.picsearch.com/is?ElgY-xXgqM5rMo6nfPa3-qkjFbrBpq6YfwY5BuxcV-w&height=224" style="max-width:430px;float:left;padding:10px 10px 10px 0px;border:0px;" alt="auto body shops near me" title="auto body shops near me (c) article.wn.com" />?It?s all about you, Matt,? Mullaly says.
Later, Mulally sings the anchor?s praises to Business Insider. ?He?s true north,? Mulally enthuses. ?We love him because he knows and loves automobiles, and we like to make him smile.?
Miller?s producers give him an hour for lunch, begging him to be back at 11:30 and not to run off. Admitting he has a tendency to ?get crazy and annoy people,? he asks if he?s doing OK. Assured that he?s doing fine, he rushes out for a pair of Detroit?s beloved Coney dogs.
The Road Back
Dr. Dean Lorich, an orthopedic trauma specialist, operated on Miller?s leg the day after the accident. After the leg began to swell uncontrollably, he told Gill and Stewart that there was a 50% chance it would have to be amputated. Better not to mention that to Matt, they decided.
And I love Detroit, even though it?s fucking bombed out.? As downtown Detroit begins to stir, Miller explains the significance of the new truck, the future of Detroit, and what?s going to happen when he gets to the convention center (his producers are basically going to yell at him for a while).
His wounds now closed, Miller began gradual physical therapy. Therapists used a Continuous Passive Motion machine to bend his leg. He had to practice climbing stairs; on his first attempt he froze in terror, sat, and slid down the steps.
On June 15, after almost three weeks in the hospital, Miller was discharged.
Back in Bronxville, he worked to regain his independence. Two nurses made sure the house was handicap-accessible, and determined that he didn?t need any additional help. His family catered to his every need.
?Unfortunately, I don?t believe the NYPD put the resources and time and effort into the matter,? he says. ?And I think if they had, there might have been a different result.?
As for insurance liability, the most Maloney could get from the elder Henriques? Geico policy was $50,000 - which Miller chose not to accept, opting to fight the insurance companies for more.
?The irony is, when people get themselves insufficient insurance, they essentially make themselves judgment proof,? Maloney says.
The Millers also began working with a lawyer, Andrew ?Duke? Maloney III - a former criminal prosecutor and a motorcycle rider himself - to track down the driver of the white pickup. Maloney was critical of the lack of progress the NYPD had made. It took him just a few hours to run the plate on LexisNexis research database.
The vehicle?s owner was Osbourne Karl Henriques, 66. However, Henriques was in Federal custody in North Carolina at the time of Miller?s accident, awaiting a psych evaluation to stand trial for possessing with intent to distribute more than 200 kilos of marijuana.
?That?s what she said!? Miller shouts.
Once inside the show, Miller interviews Bill Ford Jr., an exclusive for Bloomberg, and the chairman seems impressed by his knowledge.
Miller spends the next hour inspecting the new Fords, opening car doors and checking out the ramps in the new pickups. He stands on a ramp. His height now significantly increased, he?s directly in the shot as CBS tries to interview Alan Mulally about 50 yards away.
Pressing Pause
By early 2013, Miller was anchoring two shows, Rewind and Street Smart, and producing his own segments in the field several times a week, from playing squash with hedge-fund managers to visiting tailors for new suits. On the air all day, he systematically covered the car <a href="https://Www.Google.com/search?hl=en&gl=us&tbm=nws&q=industry&btnI=lucky">industry</a> in Detroit and the New York Stock Exchange from opening to closing bell.
The bike rotated clockwise slightly, and the truck struck Miller on the left side, crushing his left leg between the two vehicles. His helmet slammed into the truck.
Matt MillerMiller with Ford's Alan Mulally at the Dearborn Truck Plant. At that moment, Jake Cohen, a college freshman, was staring out the window of his parents? nearby apartment. He watched the white pickup make an ?erratic turn? and slam into Miller. ?There was a very loud crashing noise,? he says.
?He was too big a risk-taker to become a trader,? Snyder says, mentioning the mock trades Commerzbank asked him to make as part of one interview.
He started at Bloomberg as a print reporter in Frankfurt in January 2000, going on to cover telecoms at the height of the internet bubble, when companies like Deutsche Telekom and Vodafone were making major acquisitions.
On Sept. 11, 2001, as the terrorist attacks reverberated around the world, Bloomberg decided to get a correspondent in every foreign bureau to report on live television. The headquarters in New York called the Frankfurt print bureau asking who wanted to go on TV, and nobody spoke up - except Miller.?I need them for ankle support,? Miller said.
A former anchor of Rewind on Bloomberg TV, Miller covers business (and increasingly Bitcoin). He is also an automotive-industry reporter, a gig with serious perks. He is rarely without a <a href="http://ccmixter.org/api/query?datasource=uploads&search_type=all&sort=rank&search=luxury%20sedan&lic=by,sa,s,splus,pd,zero">luxury sedan</a> or sports car - think Aston Martins, Bentleys, and Ferraris - provided by the automakers for his segments.
Weekends often find him test-driving these vehicles at the Monticello racetrack in New York and at Lime Rock in Connecticut. Last week, he raced Lamborghini Aventadors at the New Jersey Motorsports Park, and rode every model of Ducati motorcycle in the Catskills with the company?s head of North American sales.
He felt better thanks to the help of antibiotics, a gluten-free diet, and a new psychiatrist who prescribed him an antidepressant. ?Plus, it was summer,? he says. ?I was loving riding the bike.?
On May 29, 2013, Miller changed into leather pants and a motorcycle jacket that hardens on impact and put on his boots. Helmet in hand, he walked through the space-age lobby of Bloomberg?s Lexington Avenue headquarters, past a gauntlet of eye-rolls at his excessive gear.
?As soon as he hit him, he stopped for a minute. He obviously recognized that he hit somebody. Then he took off in the opposite direction.?
People began to gather around Miller, who kept trying to stand up, all the while yelling obscenities at the fleeing pickup. Another witness recorded the license plate and described the driver to the police as a black male, bald, in his 30s or early 40s with a medium build and wearing a white shirt.
It was about 6:30 p.m., and he had a date that night with a new girlfriend, Mariu Tena, a pretty 22-year-old Spanish college student.
In the parking garage, Miller hopped on his Ducati and began his commute home, heading north on York Avenue. As he crested a slight hill before the 79th Street intersection, a cab made a left turn without signaling, and he swerved right to avoid it.
At that moment, a white Ford F-250 pickup truck heading south made an illegal U-turn into the intersection. Miller caught the truck in his peripheral vision; he veered to the right and clutched his brakes, causing his front tire to lock up and his rear one to lift into the air.
?Unfortunately, I don?t believe the NYPD put the resources and time and effort into the matter,? he says. ?And I think if they had, there might have been a different result.?
As for insurance liability, the most Maloney could get from the elder Henriques? Geico policy was $50,000 - which Miller chose not to accept, opting to fight the insurance companies for more.
?The irony is, when people get themselves insufficient insurance, they essentially make themselves judgment proof,? Maloney says.
Miller credits his experience in Germany - holing up in a castle with the children of the country?s elite, having drinking competitions and sword duels and going on ice-climbing expeditions in the Alps - with straightening him out. ?It was the beginning of my drive to be somebody,? he says.
?Alden Cordovan loafers,? he says. ?The Wall Street kind.? His hotel room is tidy, but stacks of car magazines - Truckin?, Motor Trend, Automobile, and Road & Track - litter nearly every surface. The Auto Show is his Super Bowl, he says with a smile, that?s why he can?t wear his hiking boots.
His wounds now closed, Miller began gradual physical therapy. Therapists used a Continuous Passive Motion machine to bend his leg. He had to practice climbing stairs; on his first attempt he froze in terror, sat, and slid down the steps.
On June 15, after almost three weeks in the hospital, Miller was discharged.
Back in Bronxville, he worked to regain his independence. Two nurses made sure the house was handicap-accessible, and determined that he didn?t need any additional help. His family catered to his every need.
Before long, paramedics arrived on the scene. They took off Miller?s helmet and jacket, then took out a pair of scissors to remove his boots and pants.
?No, no, no! These pants cost, like, 500 bucks!? Miller protested, to little effect.
As he was loaded into the ambulance, he fretted about his date, his career, and, finally, his leg.
Next thing he knew, he was in the trauma center at New York Presbyterian, his head and neck rigid in a brace that made him feel paralyzed, an IV drip in his arm.
Bloomberg TVMiller on Bloomberg.Miller?s taking a ride along the Hudson Valley?s hairpin roads to Bear Mountain to take his bike to family-owned Rockwell Cycles in Fort Montgomery, New York, his favorite shop.
He punches in the code and his garage door opens. Pausing a moment, he admires his red-and-white Ducati Multistrada Pikes Peak edition standing in its wheel chock. ?Isn?t she beautiful?? he says, throwing a leg over the bike. With the help of ?Duke? Maloney, he?s still pursuing Osborne Henriques to pay his medical bills, but the legal case seems a distant concern as the engine starts with a high-pitched whine.Among their more controversial practices is an ancient tradition called Mensur, a form of fixed-stance ritual dueling with swords. Fighters, clad in full body armor, endeavor to lacerate their opponent?s face, while a doctor stands ready to administer first aid.
A scar from such a match, called a Schmiss, is considered a badge of honor.
After Miller and a friend began visiting the Corps Borussia fraternity as part of a research project, he saw his first duel. The doctor was the father of one of the participants. After the son?s ear was severed by his opponent, he asked his father to reattach it.
"That?s the fist sculpture from the movie '8 Mile,'" he says, pointing at the local landmark.
Bloomberg didn?t spring for parking passes this year, and finding a spot for the massive truck proves difficult. At one garage, an attendant shakes his head. ?You too big,? he says.
He waves at Ray Day, Mulally?s vice president of communications. ?Come on, Matt!? barks Dan Barbossa, a PR manager for Ford.
Later, Steven Curtis, who does PR for Toyota, strikes up a conversation with Miller. They talk in hushed tones about the new sports car that will be revealed today. The FT-1 will be a throwback to the Supra, connecting Toyota with its sporty heritage. ?Is it gonna steal the show?? Miller asks.
Maloney discovered that Henriques lived with two adult children and a grandchild in Queens. One, a 35-year-old son with the same name had served nine years in prison for attempted murder and intimidating a witness, before being released in 2011. On Google Maps, Maloney saw a white Ford pickup parked in the younger Henriques? driveway.
?I mean, I was skating on thin ice in a number of different ways.?
Matt MillerMiller on a BMW R1000 at home in Bronxville with his dog, Steve.Finally, by May, Miller had just begun putting his life back together. ?It was like someone let me off my leash,? he says about losing Rewind. ?That really improved my outlook at work.? He began to focus his energy on covering Detroit and building better relationships with auto executives like Alan Mulally, Bill Ford, and Mark Reuss of General Motors.
A Knight?s Tale
Raised in Granville, Ohio, by a professor mother and lawyer stepfather, Miller dropped out of Granville High School in 11th grade, in 1991. It was the sixth school he?d tried since age 13. Despite being a gifted student, he hated being in the classroom. His mother, Gill, a professor at Denison University, gave him an ultimatum: If he really wanted to drop out, he would have to go to three psychiatrists; she would pick one, he would pick one, and they would both pick the third.
The Vespa was Miller?s gateway drug. Soon, it led to a Ducati Monster 620 he picked up on eBay. The seller delivered the bike, gray with red wheels, to Miller?s office, and he drove it home, unlicensed, in his loafers. ?It was terrifying at first,? he says.
?But by the time I got home, I was a master.?
In 2006, Bloomberg brought Miller to New York to groom him as an anchor, giving him a two-hour midday slot anchoring a newsmagazine as a sub for Deirdre Bolton, who was out on maternity leave in 2007. He started covering the automotive beat as a side project.Matt MillerMiller in a favorite T-shirt.
On Sept. 11, 2001, as the terrorist attacks reverberated around the world, Bloomberg decided to get a correspondent in every foreign bureau to report on live television. The headquarters in New York called the Frankfurt print bureau asking who wanted to go on TV, and nobody spoke up - except Miller.
On June 9, a plastic surgeon closed the final fasciotomy incision, which had grown to about three inches wide, with skin grafted from his upper left thigh; he expressed gratefulness that they didn?t take his tattoo of Skinny Puppy, the Canadian electro-industrial band, from his other thigh.
?He still says, ?Miller, every time I look in the mirror I think of you.? It really builds character, because after that, you can pretty much face any kind of physical danger.? Miller says wistfully that nobody had ever cut him deep enough to give him a Schmiss of his own.
Matt MillerMiller with Mike "The Situation" Sorrentino at a Victoria's Secret show in 2010.Now 15 years later, Miller?s accident appears to have interrupted a tailspin of malaise that had begun to affect his life and career. The lasting effects of his accident - psychologically and physically - are difficult to parse in a life filled with near misses, serendipitous happenings and audacious gambles that have always seemed to come out in his favor.
The Vespa was Miller?s gateway drug. Soon, it led to a Ducati Monster 620 he picked up on eBay. The seller delivered the bike, gray with red wheels, to Miller?s office, and he drove it home, unlicensed, in his loafers. ?It was terrifying at first,? he says.
?But by the time I got home, I was a master.?
In 2006, Bloomberg brought Miller to New York to groom him as an anchor, giving him a two-hour midday slot anchoring a newsmagazine as a sub for Deirdre Bolton, who was out on maternity leave in 2007. He started covering the automotive beat as a side project.Matt MillerMiller in a favorite T-shirt.His left leg was instantly crushed. The driver of the pickup fled the scene, and although authorities believe they may have a suspect, the investigation is ongoing. Miller spent almost a month in the hospital, much of it in unbearable pain. After skin grafts, three surgeries, and a grueling program of physical therapy, he is on his way to a full recovery.
The psychological effects may be more long-lasting. A certain penchant for risk-taking was evident to me when Miller and I first met years ago on Fire Island, where our parents owned adjacent summerhouses. Even as a 10-year-old, I was well aware of my 20-something neighbor?s boisterous personality and appreciation for bourbon and German beer.
Maloney discovered that Henriques lived with two adult children and a grandchild in Queens. One, a 35-year-old son with the same name had served nine years in prison for attempted murder and intimidating a witness, before being released in 2011. On Google Maps, Maloney saw a white Ford pickup parked in the younger Henriques? driveway.
Miller?s brother, Stewart, soon arrived at the hospital and began making calls. First he called Mariu, Miller?s girlfriend, then his mother, Gill.
Meanwhile, as the drugs started kicking in, Miller began joking with the nurses. ?You all deserve raises,? he told them, promising to do a story on what heroes they were.
Street Smart had been reassigned to Trish Regan and Adam Johnson in 2012, leaving Miller to focus on Rewind and his other segments. Miller?s bosses cancelled Rewind in 2013, replacing the show with Bloomberg West and Mark Crumpton?s Bottom Line. ?I think they totally sensed I was overwhelmed,? Miller says.
Off the record, Miller says. ?I just want to know!?
Later that morning, Miller, waiting to interview Mulally, explains his accident to a cameraman. ?I got hit by a truck, dude,? he says.
?Like one of these?? says the cameraman, pointing to the new F-150.
?Actually, it was an F-250.?
Mulally walks up to Miller, entering the circle of cameras and equipment with two directors' chairs in the center for the interview. ?What?s happening?? the Ford CEO asks Miller with a smile, and then bows, reenacting the ?I?m not worthy? shtick from the movie "Wayne?s World."
Pressing Pause
By early 2013, Miller was anchoring two shows, Rewind and Street Smart, and producing his own segments in the field several times a week, from playing squash with hedge-fund managers to visiting tailors for new suits. On the air all day, he systematically covered the car industry in Detroit and the New York Stock Exchange from opening to closing bell.
At 1 p.m., Miller is sitting in the front row at the Fiat press conference, where CEO Sergio Marchionne will announce the finalization of the Chrysler acquisition. Reporters barrage Marchionne with big questions about the acquisition, where the headquarters will be, and international ramifications of the deal.
He proved to be a natural, and Bloomberg soon began to send him to report from the Frankfurt Stock Exchange. Eventually, they asked him to come to London to sub for a European correspondent who was on vacation.
Meanwhile, Miller went to physical therapy up to three times a week for four months. His treatment included cryotherapy, massages, muscle stimulation, moist heat, whirlpools, isometrics, stationary bike, treadmill, swimming, and elliptical. He meticulously dressed his gaping wound, spreading moisturizer over his skin graft.
By the end of July, he could walk with crutches and had returned to work. His camera angles were set up to allow him to wear shorts on the air. By October, after months of recovery and rehab, he was finally able to walk without a cane.
He waves at Ray Day, Mulally?s vice president of communications. ?Come on, Matt!? barks Dan Barbossa, a PR manager for Ford.
Later, Steven Curtis, who does PR for Toyota, strikes up a conversation with Miller. They talk in hushed tones about the new sports car that will be revealed today. The FT-1 will be a throwback to the Supra, connecting Toyota with its sporty heritage.
?Is it gonna steal the show?? Miller asks.
?Yeah right, Mr. Twitter!? Curtis responds.
The bike rotated clockwise slightly, and the truck struck Miller on the left side, crushing his left leg between the two vehicles. His helmet slammed into the truck.
Matt MillerMiller with Ford's Alan Mulally at the Dearborn Truck Plant. At that moment, Jake Cohen, a college freshman, was staring out the window of his parents? nearby apartment. He watched the white pickup make an ?erratic turn? and slam into Miller. ?There was a very loud crashing noise,? he says.
Matt MillerMiller in the hospital, shortly after his accident.By Thursday night, Miller was in so much pain that he was writhing, begging the nurses for more morphine. Eventually, the swelling in Miller?s leg reduced enough to permit a second surgery. Miller would keep his leg.
Back In The Saddle
A couple of weeks later, Miller steps into his driveway wearing a Held motorcycle suit - similar to the one that saved his life - and a gleaming white helmet. ?Daddy?s going for a ride, Steve,? he says to his undersize rottweiler smiling from behind a wrought-iron fence.
He stands confidently on both legs. If he didn?t eagerly tell you how he?d been hit by a truck, or proudly show you his 11-inch scar resembling, he says, a part of the female anatomy, you would have no idea that two titanium plates and 13 screws hold his left leg together.Ramirez was there and asked her to dance. At the end of the evening, he asked for her phone number, and she gave it to him, ?because I thought he was a nice guy,? she would later tell investigators. Courtesy of Jorge MancillasPatricia Esparza in Barcelona, Spain, on a high-school program.
They spent the day together. That night, they both later told the police, Esparza finally told Van she?d been raped, and when he pressed her, she told him Ramirez?s first name.
3. "You Were a Victim"
On May 24, the day after seeing Ramirez?s phone bill with ?Paty? scrawled on the back, investigator Ben Meza asked Ramirez?s roommate, Eloe Silva, if he knew who Paty was, the record shows. Silva said that a few weeks before the murder, toward the end of March, Ramirez had come home and told him that he?d been in the dorm room of a girl by that name.
This week, he?s heading off to California to race Audi R8s against the U.S. CEO.
Given Miller?s predilection for high-speed hobbies, the disaster that befell him on May 29, 2013, when a white pickup t-boned his Ducati motorcycle in a Manhattan intersection, may seem unsurprising. About 6:30 pm, Miller was commuting home to Bronxville on his Ducati 1199 Panigale, when a white Ford F-250 pickup made an illegal U-turn and collided with his bike.
Bloomberg TVMiller on Bloomberg.Miller?s taking a ride along the Hudson Valley?s hairpin roads to Bear Mountain to take his bike to family-owned Rockwell Cycles in Fort Montgomery, New York, his favorite shop.
He punches in the code and his garage door opens. Pausing a moment, he admires his red-and-white Ducati Multistrada Pikes Peak edition standing in its wheel chock. ?Isn?t she beautiful?? he says, throwing a leg over the bike. With the help of ?Duke? Maloney, he?s still pursuing Osborne Henriques to pay his medical bills, but the legal case seems a distant concern as the engine starts with a high-pitched whine.
?You aren?t that old,? Marchionne interrupts with a smile.
?When you came in and bought Chrysler,? Miller says. ?I was so excited.?
He asks Marchionne when Alfa Romeos will be reintroduced in America.
?2014,? Marchionne says. ?Then you can stop lusting after them, and redirect it for better uses.?
?He has no problem doing that,? one of his producers says.
Later, Miller slips away without Marchionne noticing. Another reporter asks a question about the international potential of Alfa Romeo. ?I lost my guy,? he says about Miller. ?The one with the hormonal imbalance. What word did he use??
Matt MillerMiller in the hospital, shortly after his accident.By Thursday night, Miller was in so much pain that he was writhing, begging the nurses for more morphine. Eventually, the swelling in Miller?s leg reduced enough to permit a second surgery. Miller would keep his leg.
Miller backs the bike cautiously out of his driveway and into the street. He rolls through the first stop sign because nobody is ever there, but stops completely at an intersection. On a ramp for the Sprain Brook Parkway, he leans forward, tucking in his elbows, and takes off.
Miller?s first coanchor, Carol Massar, recalls their easy chemistry. ?Broadcast is a funny thing,? she said. ?Some relationships you just can?t fake. He remembers things. He?s wicked smart. Matt can just wing it.? She adds that women often trigger his provocative nature and penchant for mischief.
?Ask me about the time he did a piece on Victoria?s Secret and brought me ?presents? on air.?
If all three said it was OK for Miller to quit, then he could. ?I didn?t want him to be sitting on a shrink?s couch at age 40, blaming me for letting him drop out of school,? she says.
All three doctors told Miller that he should drop out of school. He got his GED and took the ACT and SAT. His SAT scores - in the 1500s - earned him a scholarship from the state of Ohio. Miller tore up the letter and, after a brief stint at Denison, declared he would never set foot in a school again.
The Millers also began working with a lawyer, Andrew ?Duke? Maloney III - a former criminal prosecutor and a motorcycle rider himself - to track down the driver of the white pickup. Maloney was critical of the lack of progress the NYPD had made. It took him just a few hours to run the plate on LexisNexis research database.
The vehicle?s owner was Osbourne Karl Henriques, 66. However, Henriques was in Federal custody in North Carolina at the time of Miller?s accident, awaiting a psych evaluation to stand trial for possessing with intent to distribute more than 200 kilos of marijuana.
Among their more controversial practices is an ancient tradition called Mensur, a form of fixed-stance ritual dueling with swords. Fighters, clad in full body armor, endeavor to lacerate their opponent?s face, while a doctor stands ready to administer first aid.
A scar from such a match, called a Schmiss, is considered a badge of honor.
After Miller and a friend began visiting the Corps Borussia fraternity as part of a research project, he saw his first duel. The doctor was the father of one of the participants. After the son?s ear was severed by his opponent, he asked his father to reattach it.?I need them for ankle support,? Miller said.
A former anchor of Rewind on Bloomberg TV, Miller covers business (and increasingly Bitcoin). He is also an automotive-industry reporter, a gig with serious perks. He is rarely without a luxury sedan or sports car - think Aston Martins, Bentleys, and Ferraris - provided by the automakers for his segments.
Weekends often find him test-driving these vehicles at the Monticello racetrack in New York and at Lime Rock in Connecticut. Last week, he raced Lamborghini Aventadors at the New Jersey Motorsports Park, and rode every model of Ducati motorcycle in the Catskills with the company?s head of North American sales.
Ramirez called the next morning and asked Esparza out to breakfast. She told him she could go if her sister, Juana, and her friend, Nancy Luna, came too. Afterward, Ramirez offered to drive Esparza and Luna the 25 miles back to Pomona, and they said yes. He dropped Luna off at her dorm and asked Esparza if she would show him around campus.
?It?s all about you, Matt,? Mullaly says.
Later, Mulally sings the anchor?s praises to Business Insider. ?He?s true north,? Mulally enthuses. ?We love him because he knows and loves automobiles, and we like to make him smile.?
Miller?s producers give him an hour for lunch, begging him to be back at 11:30 and not to run off. Admitting he has a tendency to ?get crazy and annoy people,? he asks if he?s doing OK. Assured that he?s doing fine, he rushes out for a pair of Detroit?s beloved Coney dogs.
Neither did a professor Esparza said she talked to about the rape, when she burst into tears as she tried to explain why she?d missed a deadline for class.
Esparza told one other person: Her ex-boyfriend Gianni Van. Esparza and Van had started dating the previous August. They met at the clothing store where Esparza was working for the summer when Van came in to pick up an order. He was the 25-year-old assistant manager of a shoe store in nearby Costa Mesa and had an interest in fashion design. He liked to surf and drove a sports car.
?I hope that you?re being completely honest with us,? he said before he left. ?Because murder is the kind of crime that doesn?t go away. The investigation never stops.?
Courtesy of Jorge MancillasEsparza with her daughter, Arianna, who is now 4.For 17 years, that warning barely echoed in Patricia Esparza?s life. She graduated from Pomona with a double major in psychology and women?s studies. She went on to earn a Ph.D.
Motor City
One Jan. 13, the sun has yet to rise as Miller stands in his hotel room, preparing to cover the first day of press week at the North American International Auto Show. He puts on a pair of business shoes for the first time since the accident eight months earlier - a small but telling symbol of a return to normalcy.
?I mean, I was skating on thin ice in a number of different ways.?
Matt MillerMiller on a BMW R1000 at home in Bronxville with his dog, Steve.Finally, by May, Miller had just begun putting his life back together. ?It was like someone let me off my leash,? he says about losing Rewind. ?That really improved my outlook at work.? He began to focus his energy on covering Detroit and building better relationships with auto executives like Alan Mulally, Bill Ford, and Mark Reuss of General Motors.
The cameras roll. The interview goes well; it flows by, unforced, like a well-rehearsed dialogue, just a couple of gearheads shooting the breeze.
Mullaly wants to know what Miller thinks of the F-150. ?What do you think?? he asks. ?You know trucks.?
?I have to have an unbiased opinion as a journalist,? Miller says. ?But I?ll say I?m incredibly impressed. Obviously 700 pounds of weight saving. And you have built-in motorcycle ramps, which is a huge bonus for me.?
Street Smart had been reassigned to Trish Regan and Adam Johnson in 2012, leaving Miller to focus on Rewind and his other segments. Miller?s bosses cancelled Rewind in 2013, replacing the show with Bloomberg West and Mark Crumpton?s Bottom Line. ?I think they totally sensed I was overwhelmed,? Miller says.
Back In The Saddle
A couple of weeks later, Miller steps into his driveway wearing a Held motorcycle suit - similar to the one that saved his life - and a gleaming white helmet. ?Daddy?s going for a ride, Steve,? he says to his undersize rottweiler smiling from behind a wrought-iron fence.
He stands confidently on both legs. If he didn?t eagerly tell you how he?d been hit by a truck, or proudly show you his 11-inch scar resembling, he says, a part of the female anatomy, you would have no idea that two titanium plates and 13 screws hold his left leg together.
The police asked Esparza if Van had gotten upset. ?Yes,? she said, according to the transcript of the interview Meza conducted, but ?he was just there for me.? Had he done anything to suggest he might retaliate? Esparza said no.
?Is Gonzalo dead?? she asked Meza, saying she?d noticed that he was from the homicide unit. He said yes. And then Meza continued, ?If you know who killed him, this is the time for us to talk about it, because we don?t want you getting into something that later on you might not be able to get out of.Mike Nudelman/Business InsiderOn a clear day last October, Bloomberg TV anchor Matt Miller stood on the corner of York Avenue at 79th Street, staring across the stream of traffic at the spot where five months earlier he had nearly died.
?Crazy,? he muttered, limping back to the curb. The 40-year-old looked the part of a television personality: He wore a camel sport coat over a Brooks Brothers shirt, tennis racket cuff links, and Diesel jeans with an alligator belt. Only the hiking boots seemed off.
The columns face each other, rather than the load center of the car.
The front arms of the vehicle lift are shorter than the rear arms.
The lift squeals, shakes and whines when lifting a load.
You have metal shavings on the floor near the column.
You bought the lift so you wouldn't bang the door on the column, but continue to bang the door on the column.
You pay a company like mine to replace slider blocks every few years.
Miller?s brother, Stewart, soon arrived at the hospital and began making calls. First he called Mariu, Miller?s girlfriend, then his mother, Gill.
Meanwhile, as the drugs started kicking in, Miller began joking with the nurses. ?You all deserve raises,? he told them, promising to do a story on what heroes they were.
It was about 6:30 p.m., and he had a date that night with a new girlfriend, Mariu Tena, a pretty 22-year-old Spanish college student.
In the parking garage, Miller hopped on his Ducati and began his commute home, heading north on York Avenue. As he crested a slight hill before the 79th Street intersection, a cab made a left turn without signaling, and he swerved right to avoid it.
At that moment, a white Ford F-250 pickup truck heading south made an illegal U-turn into the intersection. Miller caught the truck in his peripheral vision; he veered to the right and clutched his brakes, causing his front tire to lock up and his rear one to lift into the air.
Esparza said she had no more to offer. Meza kept pushing. Because of Ramirez?s wounds, he said, the killer ?was somebody that would be very, very angry, and somebody that has a nice build like you, gets raped by this guy. ? Don?t try and protect anybody.? A few minutes later, he continued, ?Is there anybody you?re trying to protect?
?Cause don?t do that. ... You were a victim, like I said, so I want to keep it that way.?
Esparza gave no new information. ?I just get a feeling about you that you know more than you want to tell us, and you may be protecting somebody,? Meza told her. He asked if she would take a polygraph test. Esparza agreed, and Meza said he?d call her to make the arrangements.
And then the past charged in. On her way to an academic conference in St. Louis, in October 2012, Esparza was arrested at Boston?s Logan Airport for the 1995 murder of Gonzalo Ramirez.
4. The Night of the Murder
Esparza?s account of the events leading up to the murder helped lead to those indictments, and she came back to California repeatedly during the next year, for hearings and to testify about the murder before a grand jury. But cooperating did not set her free. Last fall, after she again returned to California knowing that her bail could be revoked, prosecutors presented her with a stark choice-plead guilty to manslaughter and accept a three-year prison sentence, or stand trial for murder.
?He still says, ?Miller, every time I look in the mirror I think of you.? It really builds character, because after that, you can pretty much face any kind of physical danger.? Miller says wistfully that nobody had ever cut him deep enough to give him a Schmiss of his own.
Miller credits his experience in Germany - holing up in a castle with the children of the country?s elite, having drinking competitions and sword duels and going on ice-climbing expeditions in the Alps - with straightening him out. ?It was the beginning of my drive to be somebody,? he says.
Matt MillerMiller with Mike "The Situation" Sorrentino at a Victoria's Secret show in 2010.Now 15 years later, Miller?s accident appears to have interrupted a tailspin of malaise that had begun to affect his life and career. The lasting effects of his accident - psychologically and physically - are difficult to parse in a life filled with near misses, serendipitous happenings and audacious gambles that have always seemed to come out in his favor.
?Nobody cared about cars in 2008 and 2009 - except to cover the bankruptcy, which was from a financial perspective,? Miller says. ?For me, it started when I was able to shift people away from the Greek debt crisis for a moment to check out this hot new BMW. Or away from Christine Lagarde or Dominique Strauss-Kahn for a minute to look at this sexy new Porsche four-door.? As car companies rebounded and began to spend more money on advertising, Bloomberg?s relationship with them grew.
On Nov. 5, 2003, his birthday, Bloomberg moved Miller to London and onto television full time.
Soon after, he got his first bike, a Vespa 125. ?I was living in Chelsea and I was working in the city. It was this 45-minute commute on the Underground that would just suck the life out of anybody,? he says. ?When I got my Vespa, it changed everything because I would wake up in the morning and I would be excited because I got to ride my scooter to work.?Reyes rushed to help his friend, but the second man got out of the van and came toward him. Thinking he had a gun, Reyes turned and ran down the block for help. He found a security officer at a nearby Motel 6, but by the time they made it back to the intersection, Ramirez, the two men, and the van were gone.
Miller backs the bike cautiously out of his driveway and into the street. He rolls through the first stop sign because nobody is ever there, but stops completely at an intersection. On a ramp for the Sprain Brook Parkway, he leans forward, tucking in his elbows, and takes off.
Instead, he started pulling off her clothes and she wound up on the floor. ?We were struggling and I seriously don?t know how I ended up there,? she said. After he wrestled her pants off, she stopped trying to fight. ?I figured it will be better for me if I pretend that, um, I?m going along with it,? she told the police.
?I kind of just blanked out.?
Afterward, Esparza cried into her pillow. Ramirez asked if he could see her again. She said no, and he left. Esparza went the next day to see a college nurse and got a morning-after pill. She told the nurse she?d been ?date raped,? but the nurse, according to what Esparza told investigators, didn?t suggest making a police report.
The coming debuts of the Chevrolet Bolt and Tesla Model 3, which will have 200 miles of electric range, should make battery electric vehicles more appealing, even with cheap gas, Brauer said. A lack of charging stations, once thought to limit adoption of electrics, becomes almost moot because of the longer range, he said.
Instead, the man squished it beneath his boot and said, ?Was ist verloren, ist verloren? (?What?s lost is lost?).
Convinced he?d finally found his niche, Miller soon moved into the Borussia house and began dueling. During his second and last bout, he won by slitting his opponent across his entire forehead. The wound began spouting blood, and the fight was halted. ?After, we had a beer and became friends,? Miller recalls.
We here at Standard Industrial & Automotive Equipment are happy to discuss various issues regarding automotive lifts, quality and what is best suited for your shop. Feel free to contact us if we can be of any assistance.
?Nobody cared about cars in 2008 and 2009 - except to cover the bankruptcy, which was from a financial perspective,? Miller says. ?For me, it started when I was able to shift people away from the Greek debt crisis for a moment to check out this hot new BMW. Or away from Christine Lagarde or Dominique Strauss-Kahn for a minute to look at this sexy new Porsche four-door.? As car companies rebounded and began to spend more money on advertising, Bloomberg?s relationship with them grew.
The Bloomberg Way
After graduating, Miller interviewed at several banks in Frankfurt and tried for a trading position at Commerzbank. Then a Bloomberg reporter and old friend, Katherine Snyder, suggested he check out Bloomberg.
?As soon as he hit him, he stopped for a minute. He obviously recognized that he hit somebody. Then he took off in the opposite direction.?
People began to gather around Miller, who kept trying to stand up, all the while yelling obscenities at the fleeing pickup. Another witness recorded the license plate and described the driver to the police as a black male, bald, in his 30s or early 40s with a medium build and wearing a white shirt.
In this Monday, March 21, 2016, photo, a man sits in the driver's seat of a Nissan Micro Mobility Concept vehicle at the New York International Auto Show. The electric vehicle is designed to transport two people over short distances. The batteries can be recharged in four hours and the range is up to 62 miles (100 kilometers).
(AP Photo/Mark Lennihan)
Brauer thinks electrics and hybrids will make up more than half of U.S. sales in the next 12 years as SUVs and trucks get the new systems. Hyundai's O'Brien thinks the shift will happen sooner.
Any spike in gas prices will only help. The International Energy Agency last month predicted that oil prices will more than double by 2020 because drillers are cutting investments due to current low prices, which will eventually reduce supply.
Esparza refused the plea bargain. Standing before TV cameras outside the Santa Ana courthouse in November, 4-year-old Arianna?s arms wrapped around her and Mancillas by her side, she said of the manslaughter proposal, ?I cannot accept because it would essentially be a lie.? Esparza, 39, described herself entirely as a victim: ?I was terrorized,? she said of the night Ramirez was murdered.
The psychological effects may be more long-lasting. A certain penchant for risk-taking was evident to me when Miller and I first met years ago on Fire Island, where our parents owned adjacent summerhouses. Even as a 10-year-old, I was well aware of my 20-something neighbor?s boisterous personality and appreciation for bourbon and German beer.
It?s been 18 years, and honestly this part is blurry, but as far as I know all that I thought was: ?This man is on me and I need to get him off.'? As for what Esparza expected Van would do to Ramirez, last year she told the grand jury that she thought, "the worst that would happen is that he would rough him up."
She left the club with Van, in a car that followed Kody Tran, Gries, and Rojas, who were in the white van. When the van hit Ramirez?s truck, and the men got out and went after Ramirez, Esparza says she was taken completely by surprise. ?Not in my wildest dreams did I expect that Gonzalo Ramirez was going to be pulled into a van," she said. Rojas got out of the van and drove Esparza away in the car, they both told the police.The electric range meets the daily commuting distance of more than half of U.S. drivers, according to Toyota. Price wasn't announced. It's due out in late fall.
TOYOTA HIGHLANDER: Toyota's three-row SUV gets some upgrades for 2017. Base models still have a four-cylinder engine and six-speed transmission, but drivers can upgrade to a new 3.5-liter V6 with a new eight-speed transmission. Toyota says the new combination has more power and is more fuel efficient.
Gunter's design worked for about two years. He still dinged a door occasionally, but he was able to continue growing his belly and was always able to get out of the vehicle. One day however, Gunter raised a car with his vehicle lift and heard a horrendous squealing noise, metal on metal. He also noticed that the arms of his lift were shaking and rocking and he stopped to make sure that the vehicle didn't bounce off the lifting pads.
A Knight?s Tale
Raised in Granville, Ohio, by a professor mother and lawyer stepfather, Miller dropped out of Granville High School in 11th grade, in 1991. It was the sixth school he?d tried since age 13. Despite being a gifted student, he hated being in the classroom. His mother, Gill, a professor at Denison University, gave him an ultimatum: If he really wanted to drop out, he would have to go to three psychiatrists; she would pick one, he would pick one, and they would both pick the third.
In this Monday, March 21, 2016, photo, the Nissan Micro Mobility Concept vehicle is displayed at the New York International Auto Show. The electric vehicle is designed to transport two people over short distances. The batteries can be recharged in four hours and the range is up to 62 miles (100 kilometers).
(AP Photo/Mark Lennihan)
In this Monday, March 21, 2016, photo, a man walks past the Nissan Micro Mobility Concept vehicle at the New York International Auto Show. The electric vehicle is designed to transport two people over short distances. The batteries can be recharged in four hours and the range is up to 62 miles (100 kilometers).
Very few manufacturers take the time to make this distinction on their auto lifts. The good majority of two-post auto lifts that are advertised as "asymmetric" are the exact same as the symmetric auto lift with different arm lengths. Does this concept work? Of course it will for a while. But remember what happened to Gunter and his buddies, you will experience severe wear on the bearings (or slider blocks) over time.
How did Patricia Esparza go from being a victim of rape to a murderer, in the eyes of prosecutors? The answer hinges on what happened the night Ramirez was killed. What Esparza didn?t tell the original investigators in 1995, but did recount in 2012, was that on the night of the murder, Van took her to El Cortez, on the chance of finding Ramirez there.
By this point, she says, he was fluctuating between being kind and being angry-blaming her for the rape and saying that she must have wanted the sex to happen, she says. They went to the club with Kody Tran and Shannon Gries, friends of Van?s, along with Gries? girlfriend, Julie Rojas, who also made a statement to the police in 2012.
HYUNDAI IONIQ: Here's a triple play: The Ioniq is designed to handle three methods for making it move - battery power, gas and electric hybrid, and a plug-in hybrid that can travel over 25 miles on battery alone. And it looks normal, not much different from the popular gas-powered midsize Sonata.
Off the record, Miller says. ?I just want to know!?
Later that morning, Miller, waiting to interview Mulally, explains his accident to a cameraman. ?I got hit by a truck, dude,? he says.
?Like one of these?? says the cameraman, pointing to the new F-150.
?Actually, it was an F-250.?
Mulally walks up to Miller, entering the circle of cameras and equipment with two directors' chairs in the center for the interview. ?What?s happening?? the Ford CEO asks Miller with a smile, and then bows, reenacting the ?I?m not worthy? shtick from the movie "Wayne?s World."
The columns face each other.
Front arm length is the same as rear arm length.
The lift states "symmetrical".
You have a difficult time getting out of the car when you drive in.
You don't have a difficult time getting out of the truck when you drive in.
You have an account with a body shop to repair door dings.
Silva had been lying on his bed, and Ramirez grabbed the cuffs of his pants and yanked them off. ?That?s the way I took the pants off the girl I had sex with,? Silva remembered him saying.Santa Ana Police DepartmentGonzalo Ramirez
The phone numbers Ramirez had written on his bill traced to Esparza?s Pomona College dorm room, and to her family?s house in Santa Ana. On June 8, Meza and another officer went to talk to Esparza. The police asked if she knew Ramirez, and she said yes. She told them about the rape and also that she had confided in Gianni Van, her ex-boyfriend.
at DePaul University in clinical psychology. As a researcher, she focused on human resilience, studying how Latino and urban teenagers develop a sense of belonging and cope with loss and conflict. In 2007, she became a consultant on mental health to the World Health Organization in Geneva.But even with cheap oil, Mick Roberts, a 46-year-old hydrogen engineer from Lowell, Indiana, bought a 2015 Chevrolet Volt hybrid in October when gas was $2.20. He got a good deal on an outgoing model, but Roberts says he likes the smooth-shifting, quiet motor and quick acceleration. "It would be tough to go back to gas," he said.
?I was in a dark, dark place,? he says. ?A lot of partying, a lot of punk rock, a lot of death metal.? He had a tongue piercing until a Bloomberg producer recently made him remove it.
One Christmas, in 1994, after getting a raise from $8.40 an hour to $9 an hour, he asked Gill and his stepfather, Dixon, about trying out college after all, eventually winning a spot at Antioch in Yellow Springs, Ohio. ?That?s where I got my first footing in Austrian economics,? Miller said.
When Gill moved to New York City, bringing Miller?s two younger stepbrothers with her, Miller followed. ?He would go out all night,? she says. ?He?d be getting in at 6 when I?d be waking up to work, and would get annoyed when I?d turn the light on.? Eventually, she says, she had no choice; she kicked him out, ?with no money in his pockets.?
Miller drifted among friends, sold tickets to comedy shows, and worked as a door-to-door salesman. He eventually found a steady gig at a record store in Greenwich Village called Generation Records. Meanwhile, he fell into a social scene he feels lucky to have survived.
The 2017 Honda Civic hatchback prototype appears on display during a news conference, Tuesday, March 22, 2016, in New York, as part of the New York International Auto Show. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer)
The 2017 Toyota Prius Prime is shown at the New York International Auto Show, Wednesday, March 23, 2016, in New York. (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan)
The 2017 Toyota Prius Prime arrives at the New York International Auto Show, Wednesday, March 23, 2016, in New York. (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan)
When Gill moved to New York City, bringing Miller?s two younger stepbrothers with her, Miller followed. ?He would go out all night,? she says. ?He?d be getting in at 6 when I?d be waking up to work, and would get annoyed when I?d turn the light on.? Eventually, she says, she had no choice; she kicked him out, ?with no money in his pockets.?
Miller drifted among friends, sold tickets to comedy shows, and worked as a door-to-door salesman. He eventually found a steady gig at a record store in Greenwich Village called Generation Records. Meanwhile, he fell into a social scene he feels lucky to have survived.
He also wanted a drink of water. ?I said, ?Well, I have a lot of work, but sure,?? Esparza later told the police. ??I have to drop my stuff off, so let?s just go up to my room.??
Esparza had a single. Ramirez lay down on her bed and asked her to have sex. She said no. He insisted, saying she?d led him on. She told the police that she said to him, ?You know, you have to leave, because I have to do my work.? Ramirez persuaded her to lie down next to him, and they talked for a bit, but when he tried to kiss her, she got up and asked him again to go.
Some of these lifts are listed with the ALI and pass 3rd party testing. They can be constructed well and the sales people selling the concept really have their pitch down. Having seen the products used improperly in the shops and having serviced numerous "Versymmetric" lifts that have had failed bearings (slider blocks), our opinion isn't very positive.
Motor City
One Jan. 13, the sun has yet to rise as Miller stands in his hotel room, preparing to cover the first day of press week at the North American International Auto Show. He puts on a pair of business shoes for the first time since the accident eight months earlier - a small but telling symbol of a return to normalcy.
?Alden Cordovan loafers,? he says. ?The Wall Street kind.? His hotel room is tidy, but stacks of car magazines - Truckin?, Motor Trend, Automobile, and Road & Track - litter nearly every surface. The Auto Show is his Super Bowl, he says with a smile, that?s why he can?t wear his hiking boots.
?The true basis of capitalism.?
Matt MillerMiller with friends at the Corps Burussia fraternity in T?bingen in 1999.While attending an economics course at T?bingen University in Germany during his junior year, Miller developed an interest in a bizarre and little-known facet of German cultural history - the fraternal institutions as Verbindungen. Private student groups that date to the 12th century, they are now viewed by many Germans as archaic institutions steeped in racism, sexism, and elitism.
This Monday, March 21, 2016, photo shows the battery compartment located under a white cover behind the driver's seat of the Nissan Micro Mobility Concept vehicle at the New York International Auto Show. The electric vehicle is designed to transport two people over short distances.
The batteries can be recharged in four hours and the range is up to 62 miles (100 kilometers). (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan)
It took the lift manufacturers a while to figure it out, but eventually they did. Currently, very few lifts are sold as "symmetrical" lifts. The ones that are sold are usually being sold for a particular purpose, such as working on vans or trucks. (Vans and trucks have the door in front of the centerline of the vehicle, so a column really doesn't get in the way.) Some customers will purchase a symmetrical lift because they want a "drive thru" capability, and sure enough, the symmetrical lift usually gives a few more inches in that regard.Electrics also suffered from driver concern that the battery could run out of juice on a trip.
Now, the tide is slowly turning. General Motors and Tesla will bring electric vehicles to market next year priced around $30,000, including a $7,500 federal tax credit. Battery range has improved significantly, experts expect gasoline prices to eventually climb higher, and the advent of autonomous vehicles favors motors powered by electricity over gas.
Esparza had never met Gries or Rojas before. She?d been briefly introduced to Tran and his wife, Diane, at their wedding reception (Van was Kody Tran?s best man). ?I didn?t really know these people or what they were capable of,? she told me on the phone from prison.
According to Esparza and Rojas, Van and the other men wanted Esparza to show them the guy who had raped her, and when Ramirez walked by their table, she pointed him out.
Esparza says she felt threatened and intimidated by Van-and that she was particularly ill-equipped to deal with those feeling because for years, as she has said publicly since she was charged, she was sexually abused by her father. ?For a very long time it was very difficult for me to travel back into that moment,? she told me about that night at El Cortez.
Clinton, meanwhile, highlighted her support for the federal bailout of the auto industry - a vote that Sanders opposed.
"What was so sad is that my opponent voted for it before he voted against it," she said. "There are some folks supporting my opponent in the primary who just can't stand the facts."
Trade is likely to be a concern in the primary contests Tuesday in Ohio, Illinois and Missouri. Despite the auto bailout during the recession, many communities in the manufacturing belt have struggled with the shift of factory jobs to Mexico and Asia.
?The true basis of capitalism.?
Matt MillerMiller with friends at the Corps Burussia fraternity in T?bingen in 1999.While attending an economics course at T?bingen University in Germany during his junior year, Miller developed an interest in a bizarre and little-known facet of German cultural history - the fraternal institutions as Verbindungen. Private student groups that date to the 12th century, they are now viewed by many Germans as archaic institutions steeped in racism, sexism, and elitism.
If all three said it was OK for Miller to quit, then he could. ?I didn?t want him to be sitting on a shrink?s couch at age 40, blaming me for letting him drop out of school,? she says.
All three doctors told Miller that he should drop out of school. He got his GED and took the ACT and SAT. His SAT scores - in the 1500s - earned him a scholarship from the state of Ohio. Miller tore up the letter and, after a brief stint at Denison, declared he would never set foot in a school again.
FILE - In this Thursday, Feb. 4, 2016, file photo, a model poses next to Toyota's fourth-generation Prius hybrid car at the Auto Expo in Greater Noida, near New Delhi, India. It wasn?t apparent on Super Bowl Sunday, but a Toyota television ad featuring a surprisingly quick Prius hybrid eluding police marked a turning point for the auto industry.
Automakers now say hybrid and electric vehicles perform better than gas-powered vehicles. (AP Photo/Altaf Qadri, File)
The Pacific trade deal, yet to be given legislative approval in the U.S., would erase most tariffs and other trade barriers among a dozen nations that account for nearly 40 percent of global economic output. They are Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, Vietnam and the U.S.
If you have been really doing your research, you will have probably heard the term "Versymmetric" thrown out there from a few manufacturers. The theory behind this term is that they have designed an automotive lift that is capable of being both symmetrical and asymmetric at the same time.
Toyota's Fay says there will be more chapters in the Prius police chase ad series, including one for the new plug-in. "The early adopters understand the differences in the technology," he said. "But with the mainstream customers, we all still have a ways to go to explain the benefits."
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Follow Tom Krisher at website His work can be found at website
The police identified the murder victim as 25-year-old Gonzalo Ramirez and soon linked him to another crime report they had received hours earlier. At about 12:30 a.m., Ramirez and a friend, Noel Reyes, had left a dance club, El Cortez, in Santa Ana, the city next to Irvine.
Ramirez had driven about a mile in his pickup truck when a white van rear-ended him at a red light. Ramirez pulled over to the curb and got out. From the truck, Reyes turned around and saw two men and a woman sitting in the van, he told the police. One of the men got out and started to punch Ramirez.
When purchasing a surface mounted two-post automotive lift, it is important to decide what type of lift you will need to best suit the vehicles you want to pick up. An automotive lift is a tool and just as you know that a pneumatic wrench is better than a monkey wrench for changing tires, it is important for you to determine which type of lift is best suited for each type of vehicle.The 5.2-liter, 540 horsepower engine can take the car to nearly 200 miles per hour, even with an open top. "I think this is quite cool," said Dietmar Voggenreiter, board member for sales and marketing. Since the R8 was launched in 2008, the brand's U.S.
sales have gone from 80,000 per year to more than 200,000.
The 2017 Audi R8 Spyder is shown Wednesday, March 23, 2016, at the New York International Auto Show. (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan)
This Monday, March 21, 2016, photo shows the battery compartment located under a white cover behind the driver's seat of the Nissan Micro Mobility Concept vehicle at the New York International Auto Show. The electric vehicle is designed to transport two people over short distances.
The batteries can be recharged in four hours and the range is up to 62 miles (100 kilometers). (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan)
In this Monday, March 21, 2016, photo, a man sits in the driver's seat of a Nissan Micro Mobility Concept vehicle at the New York International Auto Show. The electric vehicle is designed to transport two people over short distances. The batteries can be recharged in four hours and the range is up to 62 miles (100 kilometers).
"This six- to nine-year lead time is all about the auto companies saving money," she said.
The agreement requires that automatic braking be standard in most cars and light trucks with weighing up to 8,500 pounds no later than Sept. 1, 2022. The braking would have to be standard on nearly SUVs and pickup trucks with weighing between 8,501 and 10,000 pounds beginning no later than Sept.
Inside, Apple CarPlay and Android Auto are now standard. One new safety option is reverse automatic braking, which can halt the car if it's about to back into something. Goes on sale later this year.
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Durbin reported from Detroit.
The 2017 Audi R8 Spyder is shown Wednesday, March 23, 2016, at the New York International Auto Show. (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan)
But even with cheap oil, Mick Roberts, a 46-year-old hydrogen engineer from Lowell, Indiana, bought a 2015 Chevrolet Volt hybrid in October when gas was $2.20. He got a good deal on an outgoing model, but Roberts says he likes the smooth-shifting, quiet motor and quick acceleration. "It would be tough to go back to gas," he said.
The motors help the SUV accelerate faster and drive more sharply around bends. Acura expects the MDX Sport Hybrid to get 26 miles per gallon in city and highway driving, or 7 mpg more than a non-hybrid MDX. MDX goes on sale this summer, with the Sport Hybrid version later this year.
Yet at $2 per gallon, it would take more than 10 years to recoup the $3,720 price difference between a base model Toyota Camry hybrid and its four-cylinder gas-engine counterpart. But that's not always a fair comparison, said Stephanie Brinley, senior analyst for IHS Automotive.
Hybrids often come with more equipment and are comparable to better-equipped, pricier models, she said.
The coming debuts of the Chevrolet Bolt and Tesla Model 3, which will have 200 miles of electric range, should make battery electric vehicles more appealing, even with cheap gas, Brauer said. A lack of charging stations, once thought to limit adoption of electrics, becomes almost moot because of the longer range, he said.
He would leave his house at 7 a.m. to be on air from 9 a.m. until 8 p.m., after Rewind. But these responsibilities soon began to overwhelm him. He had been battling depression for almost a year and was still suffering from recurring effects of Lyme disease he had contracted in November at a friend?s farmhouse in Connecticut.
As a power source, electricity outpaces gasoline in just about every area, says Karl Brauer, senior auto analyst for Kelley Blue Book. Advancements have made batteries smaller, increased their storage capacity and brought prices down. Electric motors can take off faster than gas engines, and hybrids can power wheels with both electric and gas motors for better acceleration. Electrics also are far quieter.
About an hour later, Rojas and Esparza say, Van summoned them to Accurate Transmission, an auto shop owned by Kody and Diane Tran. Esparza was taken upstairs, where she saw Ramirez hanging by chains from the ceiling, beaten and bloody. She told the police that he said to her in Spanish, ?I don?t know you, little one.? Diane Tran was at the shop too, and when she also spoke to the police in 2012, she said she saw Ramirez, covered in blood, and heard him speak a few words in Spanish. Rojas, who says she stayed downstairs, told the police she heard Esparza scream, ?crying that it wasn?t him.? Van and Kody Tran apparently didn?t believe her. According to Rojas and Esparza, they used the sight of Ramirez?s tortured body to warn the women against ratting them out: This is what will happen to you if you screw us.
?That?s what she said!? Miller shouts.
Once inside the show, Miller interviews Bill Ford Jr., an exclusive for Bloomberg, and the chairman seems impressed by his knowledge.
Miller spends the next hour inspecting the new Fords, opening car doors and checking out the ramps in the new pickups. He stands on a ramp. His height now significantly increased, he?s directly in the shot as CBS tries to interview Alan Mulally about 50 yards away.1. A Body by the Side of the Road
On the morning of April 16, 1995, a passerby reported a body, wrapped in strips of blue towel and lying by the side of the road, to the police in Irvine, Calif. It was a young man, dead. Bloody gashes covered his head, shoulders, back, and arms. His skull was cracked and two of his fingers hung from one hand, nearly severed.
Forensic examiners later concluded that the wounds had been inflicted with a meat cleaver.
Buick Global Vice President Duncan Aldred speaks during a media preview for the 2017 Buick Encore in New York, Tuesday, March 22, 2016, as part of the New York International Auto Show. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)
The new 2017 Buick Encore is displayed during a media preview in New York, Tuesday, March 22, 2016, as part of the New York International Auto Show. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)
FILE - In this Thursday, Feb. 4, 2016, file photo, a model poses next to Toyota's fourth-generation Prius hybrid car at the Auto Expo in Greater Noida, near New Delhi, India. It wasn?t apparent on Super Bowl Sunday, but a Toyota television ad featuring a surprisingly quick Prius hybrid eluding police marked a turning point for the auto industry.
Automakers now say hybrid and electric vehicles perf