HEMPSTEAD, NY VOL. 81 Issue 13
The Hofstra
Chronicle
Tuesday March 8, 2016
KEEPING THE HOFSTRA COMMUNITY INFORMED SINCE 1935
Expanded Takata recall revives memory of grad student By Laurel O’Keefe ASSISTANT NEWS EDITOR
A massive recall of Takata airbags, due to lethal explosions upon inflation, expanded last week as Toyota recalled another 198,000 vehicles in the U.S. Honda has been most effected however, and expanded their list of models in February resulting in more than 2.2 million cars recalled, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. The recall that originally targeted 2008-2010 Hondas, now encapsulates autos as new as 2016. Jewel Brangman, a former graduate student at Hofstra University, was the eighth death caused by metal shrapnel from an exploding Takata airbag in a
rented 2001 Honda Civic after an accident on Sept. 7, 2014 in Los Angeles County. She was 26 years old when the malfunction took her life. The impact from the accident, a minor four car fender bender, led to an explosion from the driver’s side airbag that caused Brangman’s fatal injuries. Brangman’s death was the only one to come of the four-car accident and despite roughly 38 million airbag recalls issued by Takata, it was “the first to be linked to a defective Takata airbag in a rental car,” according to carcomplaints.com. Since the accident, Honda has admitted that the company was made aware of the defect in 2004 but did not recall cars until 2008. Still, the majority of the recalls
came in the summer of 2015. Shortly after her death, a lawsuit was filed by Brangman’s father, Alexander Brangman. The Chronicle attempted to reach out to Brangman’s family but was unable to find sufficient contact information. In an interview with CBS news after the accident, Alexander Brangman recalled her final moments, “She was at this particular event earlier and she texted me a picture like she always did,” Brangman said to CBS news. “She said, ‘I love my life.’ She said, ‘I love my life.’” The family’s attorney released a statement detailing the lawsuit.
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Photo Courtesy of CBS Jewel Brangman, pictured with her father, Alexander Brangman. Jewell was 26 years old when she was lost her life due to an airbag explosion on Sep. 7, 2014.
WSJ columnist gives lecture on U.S. foreign policy
By Marie Haaland STAFF WRITER
For this year’s Donald J. Sutherland Lecture, Bret Stephens, who is currently a foreign affairs columnist for the Wall Street Journal, outlined his view of the United States’ current role in foreign affairs at the Guthart Cultural Center Theater on Wednesday, March 2. Stephens started the lecture by talking about the years 2011 and 2012, when many people believed the world was moving in a positive direction. Phrases like, “the tide of war is receding” and we “left Iraq stable and secure” populated the news cycle, but Stephens was skeptical that this would last. President Obama’s foreign policy has been to redraw and retreat because he felt we were overextended in Iraq and lost resources in Afghanistan. Stephens used the 1920s and 30s as examples of what happens when the U.S. retreats from war.
He said even when we as a known as country tried to disengage from broken windows the world, the world did not leave policing. us alone. Instead, Stephens said Stephens the dangers of the world became claims that if the so great it was hard for us to U.S. has troops surmount. in countries Sophomore political science abroad, it would major Kenneth Mulvena, said, provide a sense “The first thing I took from the of security to lecture was that [Stephens] was the people in an intelligent man and makes the country by a good argument for a more showing that aggressive foreign policy.” someone is Stephens strongly disagrees there to enforce with the idea of isolating the U.S. the law. from the rest of the world. Instead, Antonio he believes the U.S. should be Grillo, a the world’s police force. He used sophomore the analogy of a broken window journalism to explain why this would be major, said, “I beneficial. do not think that Committing a small crime, America being like breaking a car window, then the world’s allows for more serious crimes to policeman is be committed, such Jesse Saunders/The Chronicle as taking everything out of the car. Continued on a4 Bret Stephens talks at the 2016 Donald J. Sutherland Lecture in the Guthart Cultural Center Theater This is a concept on Wednesday, March 2.