Coasttocoast trip. We thought it was time to put a road trip together the mother of all road tests. Gerri are consumers ready to give up control of their cars . All that on the willis report where consumers are our business. The family of a 4yearold georgia boy has been awarded 150 million after a jury found chrysler guilty in his horrific death. Remington walden thats his picture right there. Riding in the back of the familys 199 9 Jeep Grand Cherokee when the car was involved in a rear end crash causing the fuel tank to leak and burst into flames. Joining me shaun cane and plaintiff attorney bob hilliard. Welcome to you both. Sean, im going to start with you im no engineer seems to me putting the gas tank near the rear axle not a great design. Tell me how you analyze this design . Good . Bad . Is it leading to accidents . Clearly putting a tank that close to the crush zone is a big problem and a known problem. Obviously go back to the pinto and before the pinto it was a bad idea. Fact that chrysler did this in such late model vehicles was stunning, and no surprise we are here today. David bob so if i understand it this is the largest settlement in actual damages. Is this going to cause a flood of lawsuits . It should gerri. Good to see you again, by the way. The problem is the gas tank is filled with gasoline and literally inches from the back bumper, and six inches below the bumper. So a small impact from behind, if you have a child in their booster seat like young remy was aunt got out of the car without any injuries the other driver without injuries. Took more than a minute for this poor child to burn alive as a result of the terribly defective gas tank placement. Gerri i want to show a picture of the rear of that vehicle. You can see how close the gas tank is to the rear of the car. If you run into, it youre going to hit it knock it out of place. The gas tank is going to rupture, and create a fire. Look at the actual car after this vehicle crash and you can see that it went up in flames. Tragic. I cant imagine the family what theyve been going through with this. Sean, to you, we knew about this for a long time. Come on. We talked about this forever, nhtsa sort of got involved. There was a private meeting between nhtsa the auto company why didnt anything happen . This is actually a really interesting point in history is that we had a government investigation open since 2010, and by 2013, that investigation was upgraded. The government was going to have to make a Decision Fish or cut bait. They were going to have to decide, are we going to force this forward and look to do action to force a recall . At the same time, chrysler was gearing up to play hardball with the agency. So what ultimately culminating is the meetings between then secretary of transportation ray lahood and the administrator met in secret with chrysler and cut a deal for a fixit that is not going to fix the problem. Gerri what was the fix . To put a trailer hitch on the back of this vehicle which even according to chrysler, it was only going to provide slight incremental benefits in low speed crashes. The problem isnt low speed crashes, its highspeed crashes that the tanks explode with such fury. So the reality is it doesnt fix the problem. Gerri doesnt fix the problem, and bob, really . A hitch . Were going to put a hitch on this car . What do you make of this . Well and ill tell you this is where reality is stranger than fiction. The trailer hitch didnt even work as a trailer hitch. They simply said this would give you a little more protection from very low speed impacts and sean is exactly right. This was a secret meeting and nhtsa blinked. You know, they xlly capitulated to chrysler they had a fix which allowed chrysler to save money but not safety related. Gerri wow. Thats damning. The little fix would not have saved this little boy. Gerri i want to get your reaction, we covered the Auto Industry a lot of the problem weve had bob on a lot to talk about the ignition switch failures and now seen nhtsa at work, upclose and personal. I have to tell you, sean its not impressive. Whats going on . Are they too close to the industry . Why arent they more righteous about fixing a 4yearold boy dead for no good reason. A complex problem, institutional problem that goes back decades. Agency is outmaneuvered by the industry. They dont get the funding necessary, on top of that there is the revolving door problem. In this case whats amazing is the administrator, David Strickland who cut the deal, subsequently left within months, is now working for a law firm in d. C. That does lobbying for chrysler. Gerri wow goodness. My goodness. Bob, quick reaction, why cant they get the job done . You know, theyre not even in bed with the Auto Industry. They are literally co joined twins gerri. Theyre outspent. Theyre not adversarial. They dont keep the car industry at arms length and try to cozy up and cut a deal without thinking about the safety consequences. Until you see that beautiful little boy whos picture you just showed and you think about what he went through in the last 60 seconds of his life is because of nhtsa and because of chrysler. Gerri i want to mention one other story quickly before we go. A woman, kayla white, 23, pregnant died in one of these cars. Just before dying went to the car dealership, asked for the hitch, they said we cant get it done. Sent her on her way. She died the next day. If you want to know if your car is recalled for any reason at all. Go to the nhtsa website, enter your vehicles model, year, make, and model information, you can find out if you need to get something fixed or changed. Ohio federal judge ordered the irs to turn over a list of nearly 300 Tea Party Groups whose applications for taxexempt status were put on hold by the agency after a classaction lawsuit claim Constitutional Rights were violated. Joining me is hans von spikowski. I hope i got it right. You got it right. David you have to turn these over and the judge is demanding it. They tried to get a protective order and the judge not only denied it but issued an order compelling them to turn this over. Its a big procedural wayne for the Tea Party Organizations in the lawsuit. David of course the irs, their defense is it violates privacy laws and couldnt do this. Theyve been approved to listen to your telephone calls. They certainly have no issue looking at our personal information. Are they talking about out of both sides of their mouth on this . Particularly are. The statute they were relying on is a statute intended to prevent the irs from publicly disclosing peoples tax returns. The irs instead is trying to use that same statute to not turn over information about their abuse of taxpayers. Gerri wow. Okay, weve already seen the irs decline to give information to the congress when its been subpoenaed, right . Right. Gerri no were not sharing and the ig comes in and says the information is in plain sight, i found it. Is that possible . Is there any way for the irs not to comply to say we cant find it. We dont know where it is. Its on a tape we lost years ago. No, because the judge ordered them to turn over some very specific information, and it includes the list of almost 300 organizations that the irs sent to the inspector general. So theyre not going to be able to say they cant find this. The only thing they could do is defy the judge that would open them up to frankly serious sanctions against the Justice Department and potentially the treasury department. Gerri i want to mention and talk to you about a woman named tackesia brown worked for irs. Now in big hot water. Basically she won money for a private client in an auto accident and took the money herself, if im understanding the details correctly. What happened . And why would somebody working for the irs do Something Like this . Well, it wasnt just she was working for the irs, she was working for the Ethics Office of the irs, which would come as probably no surprise to a lot of american taxpayers. What i dont quite get in this is what she was doing representing private clients when shes working for the irs too. Gerri little outside work, little bonus little extra. Whats interesting about this case is that at one points, she apparently left a file, a private file about a taxpayer on a party bus, headed i think to new york, and when she was caught she said my boss, hell cover for me. David maybe not. Shes no longer working for the irs. Gerri i got to tell you, i have to share the details that we repeat often, ill admit it. Irs rehires exstaffers who have big problems. 824 of 7100 employees h employment issues. Of those 141 had documented tax problems. So they hire these people back despite the fact that maybe they dont pay their taxes. Theyve had some other kind of issue. It seems to me if you were at the gate. Charged at the helm with collecting taxpayer dollars, this would not be the way you operated . No it wouldnt, and keep in mind, not a single one of the employees who was involved in this targeting a conservative organization which san abuse of the law, violation of the law, none of them have suffered consequences. Lois lerner retired with a full pension. She hasnt had any kind of financial consequences from what happened. Gerri you know you and i have to be nicer, its almost april 15th, my friend. [ laughter ] thanks for coming on hans great to see you. Sure any time. Gerri thanks a bunch. All next week, just a reminder another the willis report users guide as we focus on tax tips, scams and getting the deductions that youre due. And looking out for you, if you have tax questions let us know and our experts will answer them. Drop an email by going to our website gerriwillis. Com. Still a lot more to come this hour including why credit card safety features may not be implemented any time soon. And next, 148 people mostly students gunned down at a university. Why . Because theyre christian. Is the world ignoring this persecution . Well have the latest. Let me know what you think, tweet me at gerriwillis. Com. Well be right back. u. unnnnnnonning okay, josh, do your stuff okay, people you know the drill. Canned foods only, guys sometimes you got to give and not receive sometimes you got to live what you believe open your arms, cause thats where it starts right here with you and with me what the world needs now is love. josh speaks a little help from up above, fit to make. A message from the foundation for a better life. Gerri for christians holy week is the most important time of the year. They are the target of religious extremists. Christians have been the target of terrorists and religious zealots. And lets be clear, muslim terrorists. Most recently the slaughter of 147 christians in kenya. With me is the president for Islamic Forum of democracy and the author of the book battle for the soul of islam. And former u. S. Navy lieutenant commander. Tell me why is the world ignoring the slaughter of christians . Gerri, american muslim you cant help but think its because nobody wants to address the elephant in the room the persecution of christians is because of radical islam is. Because our communities, our muslim communities are in denial, and in order to address it you have to have a strategy against the global jihad. These countries which theyre being decimated and genocides are happening against christians in kenya in syria in iraq, the Jewish Community has long been gone because of a similar process of pushing them out of countries so they can be pure islamic countries and lose their soul of christian history and jewish history of the middle east. Gerri you know i read every church in iraq was surrounded by a blast wall. I dont understand why dont you see more reporting on this . Because you know, yes we heard about this most recent example, but its something thats going on every day. If its not people being beheaded or killed or maimed theyre being beaten up in the streets. Why . Because theyre christian. And thats so true, and we have to get back to our roots as americans which is about religious liberty against theocracy, and muslims are fighting this same battle today. The same ones that attacked the muslim radicals that attacked the cops in egypt just last week, that same town that had the horror of the beheadings of families in libya saw another attack against trying to build a church in egypt. Modern muslims came to protect them and push the savages out. There are solutions happening. Were just ignoring it. Gerri but the population of christians in the middle east, ive read i dont know how accurate this is from 20 to 5 , it keeps going down down, down, ultimately if christians are driven out of middle east where theyve been for centuries, what will be the impact . Thats so important. I cant underscore that enough. If you want hope for liberty for freedom for democracy, you have to have a middle east thats diverse. If that diversity leaves so also does the soul of the middle east and the chance for freedom, which is based in pluralism and diversity. Our president signed a bill for special envoy in religious minorities to protect the minorities in august 2014. That position still has not been filled. It needs to be higher in the priority if we want a free middle east and the arab awakening not to get filled by radical islam and the more of the sunni shia sectarianism. These allies like the saudis and i dont know maybe iran is an ally theyre fueling the radical ideologies throughout the middle east that are fueling these militants. I think the Catholic Church is reminding us that the christians need to be protected and calling on muslim leaders, imagine if the pope reminded the imams every friday to say it is a muslims duty to protect christian minorities jewish minorities and others. Unfortunately i think Political Correctness prevents. That were hearing some good things for the christian leaders from the pope and the Coptic Church and i hope the Catholic Community will begin to hold us muslims accountable for whats happening by the radicals being produced by the ideas within our communities. Gerri its no surprise that this is happening during holy week. Deeply concerning nonetheless. Zuhdi thank you for coming on the show. Thank you, appreciate it. Gerri we want to know what you think . Is the world ignoring the persecution of christians in the middle east . Vote. Ill show the results at the end of tonights show. Later, our legal panel answers the question who should be responsible for a hazing death . And Credit Card Companies are coming up with ways to end data breaches. Were looking out for you and your money coming up after the break. Gerri headsup consumers. The latest Credit Card Technology designed to keep your personal Information Safe is getting pushed back in thousands of stores nationwide. They say they cant meet an october deadline to update equipment. Here with what that means for your money, robin seidl, Senior Writer for the wall street journal. Pleasure to you have on. Whos behind this move to stop the improvement in my credit card safety . The Food Marketing institute which represents thousands of Retail Food Stores as well as pharmacies sent a letter last week to visa, American Express mastercard and discover saying hey, we know were supposed to have our equipment updated by october were not going to make that deadline and would like to you push it back. Gerri 2016 . No indication thats going to happen. Gerri no surprise they knew the deadline was coming. They are having problems getting the equipment. Theres a 16week delays in ordering equipment, and they also are kind of concerned about putting in new technology ahead of the holidays. Gerri my goodness. October didnt work for them, theyd rather a different time in the calendar. Doesnt this mean money to them . Arent they worried that consumers wont like these cards . I dont know if theyre worried. It is money. It costs a couple hundred could be a couple hundred dollars per machine just for the machine. You have to upgrade software and hardware and train your cashiers and train the consumers as well because the cards work a little differently. Gerri its a big impact to the bottom line ultimately, and thats probably playing a big role in decision to delay this out to 2016. Yes. Gerri will they be successful . I dont think so. There is no indication that visa and mastercard discover and amex are changing deadline and what it means is if you i have one of the new credit cards and i use it at a merchant that does not accept them and i have to use the oldfashioned swipe and theres fraud, the merchant is liable. Today the bank is liable. That liability shift changes in october. So the merchants will be on the hook. Its in their interest to update their own machines so that they dont wind up paying for fraud losses. Gerri they should pony up and get it moving. Thats in their best interest. What would you say to consumers tonight who are worried about this . I think there are first of all, the consumers are getting the new cards, and there are certain stores that are already live with this. Some of the big ones walmart is target is, if not completely live is getting live, home depot. Both of which obviously were breached and not a lot of problems. Merchants are getting them, its a matter of where you go and whether or not it makes a difference. Gerri will they tell consumers when everything is go . They wont tell you, you can easily tell. You wont be swiping. If you have to insert and dip your card thats the new upgraded terminal. If you are doing the oldfashioned swipe. Its an oldfashioned terminal. Gerri great reporting. Thank you. Gerri shocker from the Labor Department leaving many to question if were headed back into a recession. The details on the labor report and advice. And students sued by parents after their son dies in a hazing incident. Are all Fraternity Members gerri just wanted to let you know. We received moments ago a statement from the president on the shooting at a Kenyan University where 147 students were shot and killed. All of them christian. They were targeted because they were christian. They were asked are you christian . If they answered yes they were killed. This statement from the president which is lengthy contains no mentions of christians. It decries wh