If It’s Good for Philip Morris, Can It Also Be Good for Public Health?

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Joe Nocera:

“We don’t make widgets,” Steve Parrish likes to say, and that acknowledgment strikes me as a good place to start this story. Parrish, whose title is senior vice president for corporate affairs, is a highly paid executive at Altria Group, a New York-based holding company that is the 10th-most-profitable corporation in America. If the name of the company doesn’t strike you as terribly familiar, that’s because a few years ago the company changed its name. It used to be called Philip Morris, a name that still attaches to two of its holdings, Philip Morris USA and Philip Morris International. (Altria also owns Kraft Foods.) So, yes, let’s stipulate right up front: Steve Parrish represents the country’s leading tobacco company, whose best-known brand, Marlboro, is so dominant it accounts for 4 out of every 10 cigarettes smoked in the United States. Last year, Philip Morris USA alone made $4.6 billion in profits. What was it that Warren Buffett once said? “You make a product for a penny, you sell it for a dollar and you sell it to addicts.” They most certainly don’t make widgets.

Kraft is parent of Madison based Oscar Meyer Foods.

Fascinating Look at Friedman’s War of Words Regarding GM & Toyota

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Ed Wallace:

It was a blast across GM’s bow that was unparalleled in its ferocity and malicious intent. For here was Thomas L. Friedman of the New York Times decreeing that, for the benefit of our nation and society, General Motors should fold. Friedman argues that GM is almost solely responsible for our country’s extreme gasoline demand, which in turn is why our troops are in the Middle East fighting the War on Terrorism.

Then again, few realize that only 40% of the oil America uses today goes into producing gasoline for the 200 plus million automobiles we drive. What Friedman did not rail against was our airline industry, which accounts for 7% of our petroleum use, or the 24% used by business and industry. I’m surprised he didn’t call out New Englanders, because of their inconsiderate use of heating oil in winter, the reason our troops are in Iraq securing crude supplies.

GM’s Brian Akre has much more:

I’ve spent much of the past week trying to get a letter to the editor published in The New York Times in response to the recent Tom Friedman rant (subscription required) against GM (see “Hyperbole and Defamation at The New York Times,” June 1).

I failed. This is my story.

For those of you who haven’t read it already, Mr. Friedman spent 800 words on the Times op/ed page to accuse GM of supporting terrorists, buying votes in Congress and being a corporate “crack dealer” that posed a serious threat to America’s future. He suggested the nation would be better off if Japan’s Toyota took over GM.

The “Truth About J.D. Power’s IQS”

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Michael Karesh:

If you compare the rankings based on production quality alone, the brands’ relative positions change dramatically. BMW bounds 24 places to third; Buick jumps 14 to eighth; MINI ascends 13 to 16th; Mercedes-Benz climbs nine also to 16th; Subaru also gains nine to 19th. At the same time, Dodge drops eight to 27th; GMC plummets 13 rungs to 22nd; Nissan plunges ten, also to 22nd. Eight others change position by at least five slots. These include Chrysler, which shares many models with Dodge yet moves up five places, to fifth. Out of 37 brands, 16 rankings are heavily affected by the inclusion of design quality.

FBI’s Preliminary 2005 US “Uniform Crime Report”

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The FBI: PDF File. Madison’s results:

Violent Crime, 2004: 841 2005: 839

Murder, 2004: 2 2005: 2

Forcible Rape, 2004: 94 2005: 80

Robbery, 2004: 292 2005: 329

Aggravated Assault, 2004: 453 2005: 428

Property Crime, 2004: 7,279 2005: 7,739

Burglary, 2004: 1450 2005: 1449

Larceny-theft, 2004: 5268 2005: 5682

Motor Vehicle theft, 2004: 561 2005: 606

Arson, 2004: 83 2005: 65

I had the opportunity to speak with Madison Police Lt. Joe Balles a month or so ago regarding local crime data. He mentioned that the City of Madison Police department responds to 157,000 calls annually and that 1 out of every 3 has additional data (“crime”). The data is generally stored and reported following the FBI’s Uniform Crime Reporting standards.

Joe mentioned that the community does not report simple theft to them as they did in the past; bike thefts are an example of this. Finally, Joe noted that the FBI’s data model does not include some types, such as ID or credit card data theft.