Tomohiro Ohsumi/Bloomberg via Getty Images(WASHINGTON) -- Honda is recalling 45,747 Odyssey minivans due to a problem with the model’s liftgate.
“[T]he gas-filled struts that help to raise and support the liftgate of vehicles equipped with a power liftgate system may be prone to early life failures due to a manufacturing flaw,” Honda said in its recall notice. “The flaw can result in a leak of the pressurized gas, leading to reduced strut performance.”
The company says the potential malfunction -- affecting certain 2008-2009 models -- could cause the vehicle’s liftgate to close unexpectedly, posing a risk to those around it.
Honda says its dealers will fix the problem at no charge.
Alex Wong/Getty Images(WASHINGTON) -- The Obama administration is set to unveil a proposal on Wednesday that will call for lowering the country's corporate tax rate to 28 percent, a senior administration official tells ABC News.
Doing so would put the U.S. in line with its major competitors and encourage greater investment. At 35 percent, the nation's current corporate tax rate stands among the highest in the world.
The president's plan will also include cutting the effective rate on manufacturing to 25 percent, according to the official. Both deductions would be paid for by closing dozens of tax loopholes and eliminating subsidies.
Furthermore, the official says the proposal will introduce a minimum tax on foreign earnings to discourage moving jobs overseas.
Details of the plan will be announced Wednesday by the Treasury Department.
Justin Sullivan/Getty Images(REDMOND, Wash.) -- In an amusing viral marketing video, Microsoft has gone on the offensive, attacking Google Docs, the search giant’s collaborative, online word processing tools.
The video offensive is an effort to promote its own Office 365 service.
In the video -- set to a spoof of the song from the Bruce Willis comedy series Moonlighting -- Googen Apperson, a Google Docs salesman, tries to convince an executive to use the software in her organization. But she points out alleged flaws in the Docs service, including how it doesn’t work when you don’t have an Internet connection. She is interrupted when an R&B singer breaks into song about how Google killed off a number of services.
“Google killed of Gears and Wave/They buried to Buzz the same way/If Google Apps meets its grave, your business is hosed,” he sings.
Microsoft calls it Googlighting and explains in its accompanying blog post that it is, “what happens when the world’s largest advertising business tries to sell productivity software on the side.”
“If these concerns and current revelations about Google’s privacy policies have you troubled, this may be a great time to check out Office 365, the online collaboration solution for businesses who don’t want their documents and mail read,” the video states.
Microsoft has also called out Google for circumventing privacy policies. Google did not immediately respond to ABC News’ request for comment on the new video.
Comstock Images/Thinkstock(NEW YORK) -- If you converted a traditional IRA to a Roth IRA a few years back, get ready to pay the taxman.
In 2010, millions of Americans who wanted to convert their traditional IRA to a Roth were given a tax break; they were able to split the claimed income into two years -- 2011 and 2012. But now, the first half of that income needs to be claimed on returns filed this spring.
"People may have sometime taken an action in the prior year and then forgotten that they did that," says Kathy Pickering with H&R Block. "This is a great time to look back and say, 'Did we do that conversion? What's the income that I'm going to need to recognize? What are the taxes that I'm going to have to pay on that and do I have the money to pay those taxes?'"
And it could potentially be a lot of money -- a $100,000 conversion means taxpayers would have an extra $50,000 in income to report this year.
Taxes for new IRA conversions now have to be paid in the year of the conversion.
Win McNamee/Getty Images(WASHINGTON) -- Playing defense on rising gas prices, President Obama plans to promote his energy policy in a visit to Miami on Thursday, senior administration officials said Tuesday.
Administration officials said the president’s speech at the University of Miami will build off his State of the Union address, when he called energy one of the four “pillars” for “an America built to last,” and is not a direct response to the political heat Obama has been taking for the pain at the pump.
The president is expected to outline his all-of-the-above approach to energy production, calling for a clean energy standard and the need to eliminate oil and gas subsidies, among other things.
While Republicans on Capitol Hill and the campaign trail have blasted Obama’s energy policy in recent days, the White House is confident the president has a solid case for the progress he’s made toward securing a strong energy future.
In the short term, administration officials said there’s no magic solution to immediately bring down gas prices and declined to say whether the president would consider tapping the Strategic Petroleum Reserve.
The president’s Thursday speech will kick off a series of events in the coming weeks focused on American energy.
Cristina Arias/Getty Images(NEW BRUNSWICK, N.J.) -- Johnson & Johnson has chosen a new CEO as it tries to recover from a series of product recalls. Effective April 26, 2012 -- the day of the company's annual shareholder's meeting -- current CEO Bill Weldon will hand the reins over to Alex Gorsky, a Johnson & Johnson veteran.
Sixty-three-year-old Weldon, who has served as CEO of Johnson & Johnson since 2002 and will remain on the company's board of directors as chairman, said the selection process for his successor was thorough.
"This succession decision involved a rigorous, thorough and formal multi-year process, which included consideration of two superbly qualified internal candidates, as well as outside candidates," Weldon said, according to a company statement. He added, "The future of Johnson & Johnson is in very capable hands."
Gorsky first joined Johnson & Johnson as a sales rep for Janssen Pharmaceutica. By 2001, Gorksy had advanced his way to president of Janssen. In 2003, he was promoted to oversee Johnson & Johnson's pharmaceutical business in Europe, the Middle East and Africa before leaving the company in 2004. Gorsky returned to Johnson & Johnson after four years as head of pharmaceuticals in North America at Novartis. In 2009, Gorsky was appointed as worldwide chairman of the surgical care group as well as the company's executive committee.
Gorsky, 51, has also been nominated for election to the company's board of directors.
Johnson & Johnson generated $65 billion in sales in 2011, according to Bloomberg. Still, the quality of various recalled products from artificial hips to OTC brands such as Tylenol have cost the company more than $1 billion in lost sales, The Wall Street Journal reports.
According to Bloomberg, Gorsky will earn $1.2 million as the ninth CEO of the world's second largest health care company.
Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images(WASHINGTON) -- Gas prices continued an upward climb, settling at an average price of $3.59 a gallon, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.
In some places, consumers are already seeing gas prices over $4. The weekly gas price average, released Tuesday, was up 40 cents from a year ago, and up by 7 cents from last week.
"I'm expecting the national average to float dangerously close to $4 a gallon," Patrick DeHaan, GasBuddy.com's senior petroleum analyst, told ABC News. DeHaan said that following last week's average price per gallon of $3.53, gas prices are very close to "that psychological $4 mark."
"We are on course to break through $4 nationally," he said. "Some of these major metro areas could hit $4.50 or even higher. This year we may have a run for the money in knocking down the record from 2008."
The peak national average retail price of regular grade gasoline hit $4.114 per gallon on July 7, 2008, according to the EIA.
In 2011, the real annual average for a gallon of regular gas reached $3.56, which was up more than a $1.00 from the 2010 average of $2.90, according to the EIA. The EIA, which has compiled data since 1919, has the previous record high as $3.45 for 1981.
"We may set a new record," said DeHaan. "I'm still expecting 2012 to be the highest yearly average we have ever paid."
One of the reasons for the climb is Iran.
"Iran continues to make threats, and we continue to hear rhetoric about how they will cut off shipments to the U.S. or cut off access through the Strait of Hormuz," DeHaan said.
On Monday, Iran's oil ministry announced it had halted crude shipments to British and French companies.
"They're using oil as a weapon," DeHaan said. "The situation is tied to Iran's nuclear ambitions and the United States and European Union seem hell bent on making sure they drop their nuclear ambitions -- placing them on a collision course with who will act first."
Iran holds the world's fourth-largest proven oil reserves and the world's second-largest natural gas reserves, according to the EIA.
"The price that affects the price you pay at the pump has gone up just as much and that's why you're starting to see retail prices rise," said Ben Brockwell of Oil Price Information Service.
Brockwell said the situation in Iran and the EU may be one reason that the futures market is higher, but said he does not believe the reasoning is completely "justifiable."
"There's more to this than Iran and Europe," he said. "It's something else that is piling on.
"I think demand in oil consumption is growing at a rapid pace in developing countries like China and India," Brockwell said. "There's also sense that the U.S. economy is improving, and with that oil demand will be improving."
Regardless of whether the U.S. economy is improving, analysts don't expect gas prices to come down any time soon.
"This is somewhat a big game of chess and U.S. motorists are held victim," DeHaan said. "In fact, motorists all over the world are held victim."
Hemera/Thinkstock/ABC News(NEW YORK) -- The Dow Jones industrial average closed up Tuesday after hitting the intra-day high of 13,000 for the first time since May 2008. The stock index is at a nearly four-year high, closing just under 13,000.
The Dow closed at 12,967, up 0.13 percent, while the S&P 500 closed at 1,362, up 0.08 percent.
Paul Larson, chief equities strategist for investment firm Morningstar, said the 13,000 mark was an arbitrary number without much intrinsic value to the markets. Still, it is twice the intra-day market low of 6,440 at the height of the recession on March 9, 2009.
The Dow opened the morning at 12,980 while the S&P 500 opened to 1,364, which was that index's highest close since 2008. The Dow Jones industrial average closed Friday at 12,950, up 0.35 percent, and the S&P 500 closed at 1,361.
With European finance ministers agreeing to a new bailout package for Greece, all eyes were watching whether the Dow would pass the psychological threshold of 13,000 after being closed Monday in honor of Presidents Day. The index briefly passed the mark shortly before 11:30 a.m. ET before returning to about 12,995.
"There's nothing magical about the 13,000 level, but it could help boost investor sentiment to some extent," Scott Brown, an economist with Raymond James, said.
Early Tuesday morning, eurozone finance ministers finished seven months of deliberating in Brussels and agreed to a bailout plan for Greece of 130 billion euros, or about $171.5 billion, its second in three years. Martin Koehring, an economist for the Economist Intelligence Unit, said that without the bailout, Greece faced the prospect of defaulting on a 14.5 billion euro, or about $19.1 billion, bond redemption due by March 20.
Tomohiro Ohsumi/Bloomberg via Getty Images(TOKYO) -- A senior executive of scandal-plagued company Olympus was found dead outside his apartment in the Indian city of Gurgaon in an apparent suicide.
Tsutomu Omori, 49, head of Olympus Medical Systems in India, was found hanged near a park in his apartment complex, according to the Times of India. Police believe Omori committed suicide late Sunday. He left behind two suicide notes written in English and Japanese. One read, “I am sorry for bothering you,” according to police.
The Japanese camera maker has been engulfed in a massive financial scandal involving efforts to cover up $1.5 billion in losses. Earlier this month, Tokyo police arrested seven Olympus executives for their roles in one of Japan’s largest corporate scandals.
There have been no reports to suggest a link between Olympus’s woes and Omori’s death, however.
Hemera/Thinkstock(BRUSSELS) -- Greece is on track to avoid defaulting on its mountain of debt next month, after finance ministers in the single currency euro zone approved a $170 billion bailout on Tuesday.
The meeting in Brussels lasted nearly 13 hours, and agreement only came after overnight haggling by European governments.
Any relief in Greece is offset by a grim reality that it faces years of sacrifice. Income reductions and tax increases are part of the proposal to reduce the Greek deficit and help it deal with past debts that have not been repaid.
Mario Tama/Getty Images(NEW YORK) -- The Dow Jones industrial average on Tuesday hit the intraday high of 13,000 for the first time since May 2008. The stock index is at a nearly four-year high, and a few points from closing at 13,000, which it has not done since May 2008.
With European finance ministers agreeing to a new bailout package for Greece, all eyes were watching whether the Dow would pass the psychological threshold of 13,000 after being closed on Monday in honor of Presidents Day. The index briefly passed the mark shortly before 11:30 a.m. Eastern Time before returning to about 12,995.
The Dow opened Tuesday morning at 12,980, then dropped lower. The S&P 500 opened to 1,364, which was that index's highest close since 2008. The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed Friday at 12,950, up 0.35 percent, and the S&P 500 closed at 1,361.
Eurozone finance ministers finished seven months of deliberating in Brussels and agreed to a bailout plan for Greece of 130 billion euros, or about $171.5 billion, the country's second infusion in three years. Martin Koehring, an economist for the Economist Intelligence Unit, said without the bailout, Greece faced the prospect of defaulting on a 14.5 billion euro -- or about $19.1 billion -- bond redemption due by March 20.
Stockbyte/Thinkstock(NEW YORK) -- Prices at the pump were at or below $1 in late 1998, early 1999. Now, 13 years later, Americans are paying about four times that amount and it's bound to go a lot higher by the time the peak driving season starts in mid-May.
Currently, gasoline is averaging $3.56 nationwide -- 40 cents more than at the same time last year.
The reasons for the price hike: trouble with Iran, greater international demand, switching over to more expensive grades for the spring and the People’s Bank of China reducing its banks’ reserve requirements that sent the cost of crude up to $105 a barrel, the most it's been in a year.
President Obama says the increase also has to do with the economy improving. Be that as it may, rising prices will likely be pinned on the White House, not the Republicans who are blaming Obama’s refusal to build the Keystone Pipeline as a big reason why the U.S. is still dependent on foreign energy sources.
Creatas/Thinkstock(NEW YORK) -- With the tax filing deadline less than two months away, many are making plans to submit their tax returns soon. But as Eric Smith with the IRS explains, some people don't have to file.
"If your income is very low chances are you are not required to file a return -- but there are many situations where you'll want to file a return anyway," he says.
ABC News asked tax preparer Janice Hayman about who might not need to file.
She says, "There may be retired people that don't need to file a tax return if their taxable income is low enough."
And if you have low or moderate income, be aware of the earned income tax credit.
"If you're trying to make ends meet on about $49,000 or less there's a good chance you may qualify for this credit," Hayman notes. "About one in five eligible tax payers fail to claim the credit."
Hemera/Thinkstock(NEW YORK) -- With European finance ministers agreeing to a bailout package for Greece, global stock markets are trending upward on Tuesday. Equity markets in the U.S. opened up, after being closed on Monday in honor of Presidents Day, with all eyes watching if the Dow would pass the 13,000 mark.
On Tuesday morning, the Dow Jones Industrial Average opened to 12,980, approaching its highest level since May 2008. The S&P 500 opened to 1,364, also approaching its highest level since 2008. On Friday, the Dow closed at 12,950, up 0.35 percent, and the S&P 500 closed at 1,361.
Euro-zone finance ministers finished seven months of deliberating in Brussels Tuesday and agreed to a bailout plan for Greece -- its second in three year -- of 130 billion euros, or about $171.5 billion. Martin Koehring, economist for the Economist Intelligence Unit, said without the bailout, Greece faced the prospect of defaulting on a 14.5 billion euros -- or about $19.1 billion -- bond redemption due by March 20.
"If we get a resolution or even improvement as far as Greece and stress in the financial markets is concerned, that could boost some of the gains we're seeing in the stock markets," Nick Bennenbroek, head of currency strategy for Wells Fargo, said ahead of the deal.
Meanwhile, back in the U.S., Home Depot announced strong fourth-quarter earnings Tuesday, including a 32 percent increase in net income to $774 million. Kraft reported a fourth quarter net income of $830 million, up from $540 million, in line with expectations.
However, Walmart reported a 15 percent drop in profit for the fourth quarter to $5.16 billion, missing estimates.
David Paul Morris/Bloomberg via Getty Images(SHENZHEN, China) --Ever wondered where your Apple products are made? Nightline anchor Bill Weir visited a Apple factories in China.
In recent months, the fond memorials for Steve Jobs and the company's record-breaking profits have been tarnished by some of the worst press in Apple's history, most of it related to its top Chinese supplier, Foxconn.
Just after a horrific rash of worker suicides at the Foxconn factory complex outside of Hong Kong in 2010, a monologist named Mike Daisey launched a one-man show called The Agony and The Ecstasy of Steve Jobs. He described travelling to the gates of Foxconn and meeting people coming off 13-15 hour shifts on the Apple lines. He described a 13-year-old who spent her days cleaning iPhone screens.
Daisey's show was featured on NPR's This American Life in January and a listener named Mark Shields was so moved, he launched a petition drive online. Over 250,000 Apple users called on the company to build the first "ethical" iPhone, and protests were planned at Apple stores around the world.
In a three-golf-cart convoy, both Apple and Foxconn reps took Weir around to a half dozen production lines in Shenzhen and Chengdu, and there were always five to six people with them as they toured the factories and dorms. But aside from suggesting a visit to the counseling center or canteen, they never steered them to interviews and never interrupted.
This is some of what they saw.
See it yourself on Tuesday's Nightline.
Adam Lashinsky of Fortune magazine and author of the new book Inside Apple, spoke with ABC New Radio's Richard Davies about Apple's image problem. He said the company operated in secrecy before Job's death but now they face several challenges including resurrecting its image.
Alex Wong/Getty Images(WASHINGTON) -- The Obama administration is set to unveil a proposal on Wednesday that will call for lowering the country's corporate tax rate to 28 percent, a senior administration official tells ABC News.
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