GM Recalls Another 8.2 Million Vehicles

DETROIT (AP) — General Motors' safety crisis worsened on Monday when the automaker added 8.2 million vehicles to its huge list of cars recalled over faulty ignition switches.

The latest recalls involve mainly older midsize cars and bring GM's total number of recalls this year to over 28 million. GM said it was aware of three deaths, eight injuries and seven crashes involving the vehicles recalled on Monday. But the company said it has no conclusive evidence that faulty switches caused the crashes.

The Detroit company also said it plans to take a $1.2 billion charge in the second quarter for recall-related expenses. Added to a $1.3 billion charge in the first quarter, that brings total recall expenses for the year to $2.5 billion.

The latest recalls cover seven vehicles, including the Chevrolet Malibu from 1997 to 2005 and the Pontiac Grand Prix from 2004 to 2008. The recalls also cover a newer model, the 2003-2014 Cadillac CTS. GM said the recalls are for "unintended ignition key rotation."

CEO Mary Barra said the recalls stem from an extensive safety review within the company.

"If any other issues come to our attention, we will act appropriately and without hesitation," she said in a statement.

GM is urging people to remove everything from their key rings until the recalled cars can be repaired.

It also announced four other recalls Monday covering more than 200,000 additional vehicles. Most are to fix an electrical short in the driver's door that could disable the power locks and windows and even cause overheating.

The announcement temporarily halted trading of GM stock on Monday afternoon, but it resumed in about a half hour and was down 1.2 percent to $36.19.

Senators Want Corinthian Colleges To Stop Accepting New Students

NEW YORK (AP) -- A dozen U.S. senators, all Democrats, are pushing Corinthian Colleges Inc. to stop accepting new students in a letter to the Department of Education.

Corinthian owns the Everest College, Heald College and WyoTech schools and has about 75,000 students.

The Education Department this week worked out a deal with Corinthian that gives it $16 million in federal student aid funds to keep the company running as it figures out a plan to sell or close many schools over the next six months. Corinthian, which has more than 100 campuses, said it will look for new owners for most of its schools and hopes to have sales agreements in place within about six months.

Santa Ana, California-based Corinthian had warned last week that it could go out of business after U.S. regulators limited its access to federal funds. The government is scrutinizing the company over allegations that it altered grades, student attendance records and falsified job placement data used in ads.

In the letter addressed to Education Department head Arne Duncan Thursday, the 12 senators said students need to be protected from the company. Iowa Senator Tom Harkin, who is also the chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee, was one of the politicians who signed the letter.

"Corinthian has shown itself to be one of the worst actors in the for-profit college industry," the letter said.

Representatives from Corinthian and the Education Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The letter also wants the Education Department to make sure the company explains to students its plans and to stop any for-profit education company that's under investigation from purchasing from or taking on students from Corinthian.

This Genius Printed His Resume On Beer (And Got The Job)

Creativity is key -- especially in graphic design.

That's why one graphic designer in Canada sought to separate himself from other recent graduates by printing his resume on a pack of beer.

Brennan Gleason, of British Columbia, was finishing his studies at University of the Fraser Valley earlier this year when he was given an assignment: Create a work of self-promotion. Since Gleason would be graduating in a few months, he wanted to make the most of the project and decided to create a nontraditional resume that would give potential employers an idea of who he is and what he enjoys in life -- like brewing beer.

"At the end of our program, everyone is obviously looking for jobs in the industry. So, I used that to my advantage," the web and graphic designer told The Huffington Post. "I sent about three of them out to places I knew I really wanted to get a job at and ended up getting a few offers right away."

To create his "Résum-Ale," Gleason spent about seven weeks brewing a blonde beer. During the process he created labels for each bottle -- which featured a snipped from his portfolio and an accompanying QR codes -- and designed a concise version of his resume for the box.

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After he sent out the unique resume to several design firms in Vancouver and received a few offers back, he decided to accept a job at Techtone as the digital marketing agency's creative director.

While Gleason admits that using a pack of home-brewed beer as a resume would likely not work in other industries, he doesn't think the alcohol alone was what got him hired.

"I think it’s mostly just because it's different from a traditional resume," Gleason told HuffPost. "As designers, were always trying to show off our creativity. That’s the first impression these companies see."

In Gleason's case, his first impression was pretty smooth.

12 Powerful Photos That Will Change The Way You Look At The World Cup

These photos say it all.

The World Cup in Brazil this month is shining a global spotlight on the nation's wealth gap and mounting social unrest over government services. Despite the fact that Brazil is the unofficial capital of soccer, a whopping 61 percent of its people say that hosting the World Cup is bad for the country, according to a Pew poll.

With more than $11 billion spent on the World Cup, many Brazilians are wondering where else that money could have gone.

Here are 12 of the most striking photos that show some of the conditions and controversies in the World Cup's host country:

A mural by Brazilian street artist Paulo Ito on the side of a schoolhouse in São Paulo.

A man wears a Brazilian national jersey as he walks across a polluted stream in a Rio de Janiero slum.

A tent camp in São Paulo that is home to roughly 1,500 people from the Workers Without a Roof Movement, which is protesting the lack of affordable housing in the region. Brazil has a serious housing shortage: The nation needs 5.24 million more homes, according to the Institute of Applied Economic Research.

Taken during the Confederation's Cup tournament in Brazil last year, this photo illustrating wealth inequality was dubbed "the two faces of Brazil."

A.Signl and B.Shanti from the German artist collective "Captain Borderline" created this street art installation. In an email to The Huffington Post, A.Shanti explained that the piece was put up across the street from a police station in Rio, and that onlookers were "very happy about the work, because it really reflects the situation in Brazil right now."

This second work by A.Signl and B.Shanti is located Rio de Janeiro's city center. The painting suggests the burden of hosting the World Cup for the average Brazilian.

A performer raises a Brazilian flag covered in fake blood in the city of Belo Horizonte. He was paying tribute to the Brazilian workers who died during the construction of World Cup stadiums.

This street art piece was created by Joga Bonito and posted to his Flickr account.

Protesters block a street in Curitiba, Brazil, during a match on June 16. Their sign asks who benefits from the World Cup.

Residents protest in a slum in Rio de Janeiro in May in an attempt to pressure the government to allocate more money to public services.

People spell out "Red card to child labour" on a beach in Rio de Janeiro as part of a campaign by the International Labour Organization. According to Gary Stahl, a UNICEF representative in Brazil, there are 3 million Brazilian children who are victims of child labor.

A demonstrator wearing a Brazilian flag wades through the reflection pool outside the Brazilian Congress in June 2013 to demand that 10 percent of the country's GDP be spent on public education. The protest was one of several in Brazil in June that began as opposition to transportation fare hikes, then expanded to a list of causes including anger at high taxes, poor services and high World Cup spending, before coalescing around the issue of rampant government corruption. (AP Photo/Eraldo Peres)

If you're wondering about the underlying causes behind this unrest, check out this documentary by Vice News:

Olive Garden Is Evidence Of A Huge Problem In The Economy

One restaurant operator has just given us a small window into a huge problem with the American economy.

Darden Restaurants, the Orlando-based purveyor of sit-down food chains, announced its fourth-quarter earnings on Friday, revealing that some of its restaurants have done much better than others in the past few months.

What was the major difference between success and failure at its restaurants? The diners. Restaurants that serve the well-off are thriving, while those that serve the rest of us are struggling, in a microcosm of the broader economy.

Struggling are Olive Garden and Red Lobster, which are largely geared toward middle-class customers, who have been squeezed during the recession and slow recovery. Families with young children cut back on restaurant spending during the downturn, and they haven’t come back, according to a recent survey by restaurant research firm NPD Group.

Same-store sales, a measure of performance at restaurants open a year or more, dropped 3.5 percent at Olive Garden and 5.6 percent at Red Lobster over the quarter. At Long Horn Steak House, Darden’s middle-of-the-road steak chain, same-store sales rose 2.4 percent, but traffic -- the measure of how many people are actually coming through the door -- dropped over the quarter.

On the other hand, at Darden’s Capital Grille, where most dinner entrees fetch more than $40 each, same-store sales increased 4 percent over the quarter. That makes sense, too: Over the past few years, the kinds of people who can afford a fancy dinner have seen their incomes grow, even as everybody else's incomes have stayed flat.

Still, Darden is hoping it can convince pinched diners to spend again at Olive Garden by re-making the chain in the image of other trendy restaurants. They’re offering convenience through online and tablet ordering, more choice and customization options for their various combo meals, faster lunch service and even tapas -- all while still emphasizing the value of a meal that comes with unlimited salad, soup and breadsticks.

The hope is that they’ll attract the all-important “millennials” and “multi-cultural households” who are doing all their eating at Chipotle and Panera right now, Darden chief operating officer Eugene Lee said on the company’s earnings call.

Seafood chain Red Lobster has struggled for years, thanks to a suffering middle-class, along with changing dining habits and fluctuating seafood prices.

Darden plans on selling Red Lobster to boost performance. “We don’t believe that Red Lobster is as well-positioned as our other brands for the future that we see,” Darden’s CEO Clarence Otis Jr. said on the company’s earnings call.

Darden's performance over the past few years, with and without Red Lobster.

GM's Cars Killed People, So Why Won't We Stop Buying Them?

General Motors has been suffering a spectacular recall debacle for months, warning customers about cars that spontaneously shut down and airbags that don't deploy. But people just can't seem to stop buying GM vehicles.

"I would buy another GM car. I love my car," said Melanie Conover, a married mother of three in northern New Jersey.

In May, Conover's 2013 Chevrolet Traverse was recalled by GM over concerns that the airbags could fail in a crash. A few days before the company contacted her about the recall, Conover said, her car had almost been hit when a teenager ran a stop sign. Her three children, including an infant daughter, were in the car with her when it happened.

But although the near-accident was scary, and although she complains that GM was too slow when it came to repairing her car's defective airbag wiring, Conover remains loyal to the company.

"There are always safety concerns when I'm driving with my kids. But GM makes good cars," she told The Huffington Post. "I've owned three Hondas, a Cadillac and this car in my lifetime. And mine and my hubby's faves were the Caddy and this car." (Cadillac is also made by GM.)

Melanie Conover's 2013 Chevy Traverse, which was recalled in May by GM over concerns that the airbags could malfunction. Conover says she loves her car and would buy another GM in the future despite the company's ongoing crisis.

While it may seem irrational to remain loyal to an automaker that repeatedly warns of serious safety concerns, GM fans like Conover are not uncommon. Although GM has issued 44 recalls in North America this year, stemming from problems that have been tied to 50 crashes and 13 deaths, the company recently said its sales for the month of May were up 13 percent from the month before, the biggest May gain in seven years.

The company's total sales this year from January to May are also up 3 percent from the same period last year. About half of GM's customers are repeat buyers, GM spokesman James Cain told HuffPost in an email.

Such customer loyalty and brand resilience may be a sign that people just don't care about scary recalls as much as they used to, crisis-management strategist Gene Grabowski told HuffPost.

"Five or 10 years ago, companies in crisis were remarkable," Grabowski said. "Now, it's become so common it's no longer remarkable. Accidents are expected. Recalls are expected."

This unconcerned attitude is reflected in the number of drivers who actually get their cars fixed during recalls. Experts say about one-third of people with a vehicle affected by automaker recalls never bring their car in for repair.

This may be because the news just doesn't penetrate.

"Many times, people don't read mail, they don't watch commercials on TV, they don't look at things like this," said Rep. Tim Murphy (R-Penn.) on Wednesday during a congressional hearing on GM's handling of the ongoing recall crisis. "It isn't until it gets on a comedy network or something that people pay attention."

People may also remain loyal to the GM brand because many of the GM models affected by the recalls are no longer made, which might in turn be giving customers the impression that GM's safety problems went away with the discontinued cars.

Finally, patriotism might also be a factor in consumer loyalty to GM, Grabowski said.

"I think people feel a bond and a kinship with the GM brand," he said. "And I think it's because GM did come out of the 2008 bankruptcy. They paid back the government money. The president himself has praised GM. I think that resonates, not with everyone, but with a lot of people."

A 2005 Chevy Cobalt is parked outside a dealership in Alexandria, Va., in April. GM recalled all Chevy Cobalts from 2005 to 2010 over fears the cars would suddenly shut off while in motion, disabling power steering and airbags. (AP Photo/Molly Riley)

Michigan resident Kristin Barger brought in her 2006 Chevy Cobalt for repairs in April after GM recalled the vehicle for issues with its ignition switch. GM said the ignition switch problem was causing cars, including the '06 Cobalt, to turn off while in motion, causing the loss of power steering and disabling the airbags.

Though Barger said she still has frequent problems with her ignition jamming while her car is parked, she also said she would buy another GM product the next time she needs a new car.

"GM runs deep in my family," she told HuffPost, noting that her father worked at the company for more than 30 years. Barger said she doesn't totally "trust the safety" of her car, but said she "loves it" nevertheless, and she has faith the company "will turn this around and build a better product" in the future.

Many consumers, like Barger, will stick with certain brands even when other products on the market are safer because they have a sentimental attachment to a company, said Tulin Erdem, a professor of marketing at NYU who studies consumer behavior.

"There are emotional reasons for why [customers] are loyal, in spite of new information that there might be safety issues," Erdem said. "For example, these people may have memories of GM cars. They may remember things growing up with their families in a GM car."

"It's not rational," Erdem said.

Alexander C. Kaufman contributed reporting.

Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz: Obamacare Is A 'Net Positive'

Despite its disastrous rollout, Obamacare has been a good thing overall, according to Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz.

“I think it’s a net positive,” Schultz said Tuesday of President Barack Obama’s Affordable Care Act. “Millions of Americans have health insurance today. Companies that did not pay for health insurance are now doing it.”

Last year, Schultz expressed concern that the botched rollout of the HealthCare.gov website would overshadow what he believed were the law’s good intentions. At the height of the problem in October, Schultz told CNBC, “Unfortunately, in this kind of situation, execution trumps strategy. It might be a great strategy, but the execution is really flawed. It’s off the rails.”

But now that officials have fixed the site and more than 8 million Americans have signed up for insurance, he said, the program's benefits outweigh its issues.

“No plan would have been perfect,” he said. “It'll be refined, improved.”

Schultz spoke with HuffPost reporters and editors as part of a media tour promoting a new Starbucks program that offers workers the chance to get a college degree at an extreme discount.

Unlike many corporate chiefs and franchisees, Schultz said he has no plans to cut benefits as a result of the law. Business owners have periodically made waves by suggesting Obamacare would push them to cut their employees’ hours so they wouldn’t have to cover them. Obamacare requires that businesses with 50 or more full-time employees provide health insurance to anyone working at least 30 hours a week.

Schultz noted that Starbucks’ plan was always more generous than the new law requires, offering coverage to employees working 20 hours or more per week. He said that “the first question we got from shareholders” about the law was whether Starbucks would bump up its threshold to 30 hours to save money.

“That’s millions of dollars and we wouldn’t do it,” Schultz said.

Still, it’s possible that kicking part-time employees off the company’s plan could actually result in a better deal for them if they buy insurance through the Obamacare exchanges instead. In many cases, part-time workers may make so little that they would qualify for subsidies under the law, but they aren’t eligible if their company offers an affordable plan that meets Obamacare’s standards. If the employees qualify for Medicaid, they're still eligible even if their employer offers an affordable plan.

Trader Joe’s announced last year that it would stop offering health insurance to its part-time workforce, much to those workers' chagrin. But several months later, some employees told HuffPost that the decision actually worked out in their favor.

That's because by providing affordable insurance, Obamacare frees up some workers staying at their jobs only for health benefits to leave and pursue other opportunities, like finding more fulfilling jobs that don’t offer insurance, starting a business, taking care of their kids or retiring.

Koch Brothers Plan $300 Million Spending Spree In 2014

The billionaire Koch brothers and their political network are planning to spend almost $300 million during the 2014 election cycle, some of which will go toward a renewed effort to combat unprecedented carbon regulations unveiled by the Obama administration last month.

According to The Daily Beast, industrialists Charles and David Koch will advance a new energy initiative this weekend at a California resort featuring Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) and libertarian political scientist Charles Murray. While its scope isn't clear yet, the group will be spearheaded by the Freedom Partners Chamber of Commerce, a 200-member organization that has funneled millions of dollars to various nonprofits in the Koch network.

The new push comes in the wake of proposed EPA regulations that would cut carbon dioxide emissions from power plants by 30 percent. It also follows a February announcement from billionaire liberal investor Tom Steyer, a major advocate against the Keystone XL pipeline, that he will be undertaking his own $100 million initiative to make climate change a key issue in 2014.

Americans for Prosperity, the main political arm of the Kochs, is already planning a $125 million spending spree on other political projects across the country, according to Politico.

Politically oriented nonprofits aren't the only beneficiaries of Koch money. The United Negro College Fund, which supports historically black colleges and universities, announced a $25 million grant last month from Koch Industries, Inc.

The billionaire brothers are also a frequent topic of conversation in the Senate, where Democrats are calling for a constitutional amendment to restore Congress' power to regulate campaign finance after the Supreme Court struck down several fundraising restrictions. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) clashed on the matter during a recent Senate Judiciary Committee hearing.

Lululemon To Collect Customer Data, After Years Of Avoiding It

Lululemon will soon be learning a lot more about you.

The purveyor of stretchy yoga pants is going to start collecting customer data after years of avoiding it, chief executive Laurent Potdevin said on Thursday.

"We’ve actually never used a lot of data in the history of Lululemon, and we are shifting that as quickly as possible," Potdevin said on a conference call with analysts. "We've got a very loyal guest, and we should learn a lot more about him or her."

So Lululemon is building a system to take it "into the future," he said.

Unlike most retailers, Lululemon does not have a lot of customer data, Potdevin admitted. Most large retailers use computer programs to track buying habits so they can tailor marketing to certain shoppers and try to predict what customers are going to buy, among other goals.

Potdevin's predecessor Christine Day, who left the company last December and now runs Canadian health food company Luvo, shunned such tactics. She once said that mass data collection gives companies a "false sense of security."

Instead, according to a 2012 Wall Street Journal report, Day used low-tech tactics to learn about customers: Workers were trained to eavesdrop on customer complaints, and shoppers were invited to leave suggestions on chalkboards in stores.

The privacy policy on Lululemon's website, which was last updated in January 2013, says the retailer "may collect personal information in connection with your use or purchase of Lululemon's products and services."

The policy goes on to say: "The personal information that Lululemon may collect may include your name, username, password, email address, age, date of birth, gender, address, telephone number, credit card and debit card numbers (with expiration dates), personal preferences, and any other personal information that you choose to include in your profile, your submissions of your goals to Lululemon, or in other communications to Lululemon."

Potdevin did not specify the types of data Lululemon will collect, nor when this collection might begin. Lululemon did not respond to a request for additional comment.

Verizon Sends Cease-And-Desist Letter Over Netflix's Public Jab

Verizon isn't going to take an insult from Netflix sitting down.

The broadband company sent a cease-and-desist letter to Netflix on Thursday about a message Netflix has been showing some customers that blames congestion on Verizon's network for slow network speeds, according to a CNBC report.

Netflix subscribers have begun noticing that when videos stop streaming properly, a message appears on the screen indicating that congestion on an Internet service provider's network is to blame for the interruption. Vox Media designer and Verizon customer Yuri Victor was one of the first to notice the passive-aggressive dig: "The Verizon network is crowded now. Adjusting video for smoother playback..." AT&T subscribers spotted a similar message as well.

Someone Left A Loaded Gun In The Toy Aisle Of Target

A Target employee found a loaded handgun in the toy aisle of a South Carolina store last week, just days before activists began petitioning the retailer to ban firearms from its stores.

The gun, loaded with live ammunition, was found sitting atop a superhero Playskool toy box at a Myrtle Beach store last Friday, WMBF News reported Thursday morning.

"We take these matters very seriously and we are partnering with local law enforcement on this incident," Molly Snyder, a Target spokeswoman, said in a statement to The Huffington Post. "Because this matter is under investigation, we are unable to share additional information."

Nobody Knows, Cares Whether Your Clothes Are Made In Deadly Factories

You probably don't know who makes your clothes. The scary thing is, the retailer that sold them to you may not know, either.

A yearlong study of factories in Bangladesh by New York University's Center for Business and Human Rights found that many retailers can't be sure which factories make the products they sell, often in immaculate shops half a world away. That's because manufacturers sometimes farm out work to local factories that aren't registered with trade associations or the local government and that operate away from the eyes of regulators, the study found.