Posted: 20 Sep 2009 01:04 AM PDT

Lexus LX570 takes a family anywhere in style and comfort

Jim Mateja

September 20, 2009

It can pilot the family on the open road or climb a hill and ford a stream, while cooling a couple cans of pop and a sub sandwich for either.

Lexus loaded its LX570 full-size SUV with just about every conceivable amenity and then added a new one for 2009: a $4,050 luxury package with a radar system that senses when a car or person, motorcycle or wall, is in your path and applies the brakes to prevent contact.

There's also adaptive cruise control that senses when traveling faster than the car ahead and regulates speed and braking to keep a safe distance.

And crawl control to limit engine speed and apply brakes over rough or slippery surfaces so the driver can focus on steering; holds itself on a hill without rolling when first started; adjusts shock settings for on- or off-road surfaces; raises itself 3 inches for off-road clearance or lowers 2 inches for easier entry/exit; has full-time all-wheel drive with a low setting for off-road excursions; and offers stability control and traction control on- and off-road.

Yet the tall SUV, weighing in at 5,995 pounds, doesn't move like a ballerina, especially in sharp corners or turns.

A 5.7-liter, 383-horsepower V-8 with 6-speed manual-mode automatic has the muscle to climb or pass without huffing, but moving nearly three tons means a disappointing 12 mpg city/18 highway. No hybrid or cylinder deactivation. For shame.

The SUV holds eight in three rows. Second-row room is very good, and the power-operated split seats motor back to accommodate legs and knees or forward to create more cargo space. Third row is tight for other than kids. Second-row seats fold and flip for access to the back, but don't attempt entry in a skirt or carrying a cane.

Cargo room is limited with the third row in use. But those seats, together or alone, power against the side walls to make way for luggage or gear.

Nifty amenities include four-zone front/rear climate control, push-button start and Lexus Link, which like General Motors' OnStar emergency satellite communication service calls for help in an accident or unlocks doors if needed. And we love the insulated "cool box" under the center armrest to hold pop, sandwiches or the kids' medicine.

A new, wide-view front and side monitor ($1,000) with cameras in the grille and under the passenger-side mirror shows what's up front and alongside on the navigation screen. But it takes time for the eye to adjust and brain to digest the split-screen input.

There's also power tailgate, backup camera, headlamp washers, voice-activated navi with real-time traffic alerts, Bluetooth phone capability, tool kit, first-aid kit, power front-seat-cushion extenders and stowage in the tailgate, under the cargo floor and in the cabin walls.

Base price is a hefty $75,705, before more than $10,000 in those nifty options.

So no free lunch, even if pop/sandwich are cooled.

2009 Infiniti G37As the model year slips away, we tested the 2009 Infiniti G37 hardtop convertible that joined the lineup in June.

Performance and handling are exceptional. The 3.7-liter, 24-valve, 325-hp V-6 with a 7-speed automatic is swift from the light, while the sports-tuned suspension keeps radials planted no matter how sharply the road twists, turns, dips or climbs. Steering is sports-car precise. Mileage rating is 17 city/25 highway.

And there's a bonus to the potency: an all-season metal top that quickly drops and stores in the trunk, though when it's hiding there, trunk space goes from minuscule to fictional.

Good room up front, but not a car for those who need people space in back.

Heated/cooled seats, while kind to the skin, are hard on the ears, making a sound like a radio speaker spitting out static.

And while it's good that the navi provides information on congestion, do the latitude, longitude and altitude readings pinpoint potholes?

Base price for the G convertible is $43,850. A long list of options pushed the sticker to a much-too-high $52,000.

Read Jim Mateja Sunday in Rides. Contact him at transportation@tribune.com.

Tribune Media Services

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D. England Design Launches Contract Automotive Artwork Website - PR.com

Posted: 20 Sep 2009 12:00 AM PDT

Wabash, IN, September 20, 2009 --(PR.com)-- A new web site, hotautomotiveart.com offers screen printers, manufacturers and ad agencies a reliable source for high detail production ready artwork. Services offered are original concepts, high resolution final digital art, color separations for screen printing, catalog layout and design, and head wear design. The site has a five page portfolio displaying artwork from each category.

The owner, Dave England has had a long career in the industry developing product for mass market and specialty channels of distribution. He has vast experience with developing licensed product lines such as, Chevrolet, Ford, Dodge, Harley Davidson and American Biker.

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Chopped: After years of following their moves, Feds crack Cocke County ... - Knoxville News Sentinel

Posted: 19 Sep 2009 07:13 PM PDT

Chopped: After years of following their moves, Feds crack Cocke County chop shop operation

Photo by Don Wood

As more than 100,000 football fans made their way to their seats in Neyland Stadium last October, Grant Williams trained his wary eyes on a group of Knoxville Police Department officers. They had taken up positions in his "honey hole," and he was none too happy about it.

Williams, a 33-year-old alleged professional car thief from Cocke County, was staking out a parking area near Neyland Drive for vehicles that he and his partner, James Sisk, 46, could steal, according to FBI records.

The two men had done this before and had even developed an elaborate code they used when talking on their cell phones to throw off federal agents who might be listening in, court records show.

Going to UT football games to steal cars, for instance, was called "tailgating."

What they didn't know was that the FBI had not only broken their code but also had obtained wiretap orders that allowed them to eavesdrop at will. The FBI and Tennessee Highway Patrol had been gathering information on a crew of people since early 2001 and suspected them of stealing hundreds of vehicles from spots in Tennessee, Georgia, Virginia, North Carolina and Louisiana.

Hundreds of pages of recently unsealed court documents offer for the first time a comprehensive look at the group's alleged operations.

Authorities say the thieves preferred crowded parking lots such as those found around Neyland Stadium, at area shopping malls and at the NASCAR Motor Speedway in Bristol. They primarily targeted high-dollar pickup trucks and SUVs that could easily be "chopped" for parts.

Federal prosecutors say they also trafficked in large amounts of cocaine, and the FBI believes they were protected by crooked cops, according to federal prosecutors.

Williams, Sisk and 21 other people are named in a 36-count indictment returned in June, bringing the number of people to face federal charges in a long-running effort to stamp out public corruption in Cocke County to 71 men and women, including nine local lawmen.

'Bicycle Cop Day'

On the day they went tailgating - Oct. 4, 2008, when UT was playing Northern Illinois - Williams' plan apparently called for him to pick out an appropriate vehicle and notify Sisk by phone, who in turn would steal it and drive it to a rendezvous point, according to transcripts unsealed in federal court in Greeneville.

Williams called Sisk at 6:04 p.m. and reminded him the game was supposed to start in less than an hour. As the men bantered back and forth, Williams provided a sparse description of the vehicle sitting in one of their favorite spots.

"I know we can get some dollars out of it for sure," Williams said. "It's pewter, it's got brand-new Michelins on it."

"Is it in that one place there?" Sisk asked.

Williams replied: "You know, down there, by the river, up in that hole. ... Yeah, do it and turn the lights off and take it up to the crib out of the way."

They were thwarted, however, by the presence of a half-dozen KPD officers who seemed to have no intention of moving on.

"They're up in here with bicycles," Williams said when he called Sisk back a few minutes later. "They're having Bicycle Cop Day, I guess. Here at our honey hole."

"So we need to forget about it, huh?" Sisk asked.

"Yeah, or go someplace else," Williams replied. "They got a bunch of them up in here . ... It's just so pretty, they're in there loafing. ... Oh, I'm fixing to walk down through there, and then I'm going to be out of sight. They're up in there right now, smoking cigarettes. ... Yeah, I know, a man don't need no trouble."

During the next Vols home game Oct. 18 against Mississippi State, Williams and his younger brother, 31-year-old Eric Scott Williams, allegedly returned to Knoxville, making off with a 2006 Chevrolet Silverado, records show.

'Tradin' Paint'

By then the FBI had already compiled enough evidence to conclude the Williams brothers were senior members of the so-called "Hawk Organization," a mob-style outfit that was reportedly protected by a cadre of corrupt cops. They also were the sons of a popular Newport Police Department captain, Milburn "Theodore" Williams, now retired, who also has been charged in the investigation.

According to the FBI, the group was headed by Grant Williams and Raymond Eddie Hawk, 55, both of whom had allegedly made careers out of running chop shops and trafficking in drugs. Large amounts of cocaine and marijuana allegedly flowed through their hands.

Authorities say they also allegedly made a hefty profit through insurance scams. Friends and acquaintances of the group, for instance, would turn their vehicles over to the Hawk Organization and then file bogus insurance theft claims, the FBI alleges.

After pursuing the group for nearly 10 years, federal prosecutors finally secured indictments against them in June using federal racketeering laws that were created to pursue organized crime groups like the Mafia.

Hawk, Sisk, and the Williams brothers have been charged with racketeering and running a chop shop, while 19 other men and women are accused of associated crimes.

The attorneys representing Hawk, Sisk and the Williams brothers either declined to comment or didn't return phone calls.

The records unsealed in federal court show the FBI had been pursuing the group since the 2001 inception of the "Rose Thorn" probe into police corruption in Cocke County. Both Hawk and Grant Williams were believed to be tied in with the same power brokers who had allegedly allowed organized gambling, prostitution and other crimes to flourish in the county.

The Rose Thorn probe closed last year, but the FBI's investigation into the chop ring's activities continued under the new moniker "Tradin' Paint," named in part for the crew's repeated targeting of the world-famous NASCAR track in Bristol.

Junkyards and chopped cars

According to documents, the Hawk Organization maintained a false front as a legitimate junk yard business while large sums of money - as much as $1 million a year, according to one of Hawk's alleged cohorts - flowed into its coffers.

From at least 1999 until their arrests, Hawk members stole vehicles and sold drugs with an almost reckless abandon, apparently paying little heed to the fact that the Feds had publicly named them as targets, according to FBI records.

On a single day in March 2007, for instance, the group is believed to have stolen three "virtually identical" Chevrolet Silverado trucks from the Bristol Motor Speedway during the NASCAR Food City 500 race, records show. At that time, Hawk and Williams had already been the subjects of numerous news reports linking them to law enforcement officers who had either resigned or been convicted of federal crimes.

By his own account, Grant Williams has been a professional car thief since he was in high school. As such, he was one of the first people that state and federal authorities decided to talk to when Rose Thorn began.

When Williams was questioned in March 2001 by a team of FBI and TBI agents shortly after the probe began, the agents had little interest in pursuing yet another car thief from Cocke County. They were hunting bigger game - crooked cops in the local sheriff's department - and Williams might have come across as nothing more than a low-level hood who could be pressured for information.

Whatever the case, Williams apparently wasted no time in incriminating himself, records show.

"Williams told agents that he and his brother ... worked for Ray Hawk stealing automobiles and disassembling stolen automobiles at H-1 Auto and other locations," according to an FBI affidavit filed years after the meeting.

Court records give no hints as to why Williams was questioned or the context his statements were made in. They also don't say if Williams was offered immunity from prosecution or some other type of deal by authorities in exchange for his cooperation, but court testimony from an FBI agent in 2006 revealed that Williams was at one time working for the FBI but suddenly stopped.

Connections and influence

Hawk, a well-known local businessman who had racked up a chop shop conviction in the 1980s, also emerged as a target of the Rose Thorn probe in the early days of the investigation.

In February 2004, the FBI executed a search warrant at H-1 Auto, finding stolen vehicle parts. The name of the shop was changed to A Automotive after the raid and, on the surface at least, ownership of the property was switched to his daughter, Robecca Hawk, who has also been charged.

The FBI was particularly interested in the men's relationship with Patrick Taylor, who served as the second-in-command at the Cocke County Sheriff's Department until he was nabbed in a 2005 FBI sting.

Grant Williams described Taylor as a friend who had the misfortune of attracting the FBI's attention, records show, and Williams made it clear he didn't want to make the same mistakes.

On Aug. 5, 2008, agents recorded a meeting between Williams and an informant dubbed "CS-5" in which Williams bragged about his connections to law enforcement. When the informant said he'd heard the "cops, TBI and FBI were all over Newport," Williams said he already knew that, records show.

Williams also bragged about how much cocaine he had sold and his purported connections to law enforcement, telling the informant on another occasion that he pretty much owned the cocaine trade in large swaths of East Tennessee.

"He was hooked up with motorcycle gangs and everything else. ... Grant Williams has Morristown, Greeneville, and a little bit of Strawberry Plains," records state.

Williams maintained his belief that the FBI had been unable to amass enough proof to shut them down.

Snorting whitewalls, smoking ribs

The FBI intercepted several thousand phone calls and text messages during the probe. Deciphering what they were saying sometimes proved a challenge.

For example, Hawk and Williams allegedly used the term "gift" to refer to a vehicle obtained through insurance fraud, described chopped cars as "fixed" vehicles, used "whitewalls" to designate cocaine, and employed the phrase "smokes them ribs" as a euphemism for marijuana use, according to FBI agents who claim to have broken the Hawk Organization's code.

But Hawk also operated a legitimate junkyard business that sold auto parts across the country over the Internet, and it may ultimately prove difficult in court to separate his legitimate business transactions from purportedly illegal deals.

Some conversations, in fact, could be interpreted as the gripes of legitimate businessmen straining to

make ends meet while under the thumb of intrusive government regulators. Or, they could be the words of men who knew their phones might be tapped by the FBI.

On Dec. 29 of last year, Hawk called Harold Grooms - whom the FBI believes to be a chop shop operator but who hasn't been charged - and complained that they weren't making enough money, records show. Hawk laid much of the blame at the feet of state and federal authorities tasked with inspecting cars and tracking stolen parts, opining that they had singled out the two Cocke County businessmen for harassment.

"Hawk said he doesn't give a ... if they are listening to him," according to an FBI summary of the conversation.

Why did the Feds wait so long?

One question the unsealed documents don't answer is why federal authorities waited until this year to arrest the group.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Neil Smith, who drafted the indictments and has been prosecuting Rose Thorn-related cases since the probe began, declined to comment other than to say that more arrests could be pending as the investigation continues to unfold.

FBI records do, however, hint that the reason the group was allowed to operate was the determination of federal authorities to ensure the operation was shut down for good.

Using undercover agents to penetrate the upper echelons of the Hawk Organization was deemed too dangerous, and there seemed little hope of getting any of the major players to betray their friends. Patrick Taylor, for instance, had refused to cooperate with the FBI even when facing the certainty of a prison sentence. Other potential players were expected to behave much the same way, FBI Agent Jeffery Blanton wrote in an Aug. 27, 2008, affidavit.

While lots of evidence had been amassed by that point, it apparently wasn't enough to guarantee convictions for the racketeering charges that prosecutors sought. Also, while the use of search warrants had turned up stolen vehicle parts, the evidence didn't "reveal the scope and breadth of the organization," Blanton wrote.

The suspects also learned from their mistakes, he said, and had taken to heart the lessons learned from past raids in which FBI agents had found incriminating vehicle parts.

They knew to move fast, records show.

"Once a vehicle is stolen and transported to a chop shop, it is typically 'stripped to the wiring harness' within four hours, and the complete rebuilding of a salvage switch (chopped car) can be completed within eight hours," Blanton wrote. "Usually all parts not used in the rebuild have the identification numbers defaced, cut into small pieces and taken to a scrap yard."

It's clear from court records that the FBI at times despaired of successfully penetrating Cocke County's infamous criminal subculture.

Convening a grand jury to investigate the Hawk Organization - a move that would have allowed select witnesses to testify under a grant of immunity - was considered but then rejected because there was no way to guarantee that witnesses or their families wouldn't be harmed or killed, according to an affidavit filed by FBI Agent Lane Rushing.

"Based on similar prior investigations, I have become aware that potential witnesses often are unwilling to testify because associates in the criminal enterprise are familiar with the potential witnesses' family members in Cocke County ... and the potential witnesses fear their testimony and cooperation would result in violence against witnesses' family members," Rushing wrote.

"In this situation, federal law enforcement cannot ensure the safety of numerous family members and could in fact do little to adequately protect them from their criminal associates."

J.J. Stambaugh may be reached at 865-342-6307.