Magnolia Marketplace

Toyota announced late last night it is recalling 133,000 2010 Prius hybrids to fix problems associated with the antilock braking system software. Also included in the recall are 14,500 2010 Lexus HS 250h models.

Toyota said in a press release that some Prius and 250h owners have experienced “inconsistent brake feel during slow and steady application of brakes on rough or slick road surfaces when the ABS is activated in an effort to maintain tire traction.”

Obviously, the Prius is near and dear to the heart of Mississippi’s business community, with the facility in Blue Springs on tap to eventually build the vehicle. Magnolia Marketplace is working on a story for next week’s MBJ about how the recall mess will (or won’t) affect the goings-on in North Mississippi. Look for it.

UPDATED AT 10 A.M.: Meant to include a link to the Toyota press release, which is here.

So the Saints won the Super Bowl, Drew Brees won the game’s MVP, and according to various national media outlets, poverty, corruption and every other scourge on New Orleans is gone forever, or at least that’s what the hours of pregame coverage yesterday seemed to imply. And if there is anybody north of Memphis who is aware that Hurricane Katrina did her worst damage in Mississippi, I’d like to meet that person.

Moving on.

Toyota announced yesterday that it will unveil its plan of action for dealing with the problems that have arisen with the Prius’ antilock braking system. This is the latest blow in the wave of recalls to hit the company the past couple of weeks.

We have a message in to the Toyota Motor Manufacturing North America folks in an effort to get a few details on when they’ll make the announcement, and what exactly it will entail.

When we hear back from them, we’ll post what they have to say.

UPDATED AT 10:52 A.M.: Still no word from the stateside Toyota folks, but Kyodo News in Japan is reporting that about 300,000 Prius hybrids will be recalled. Details are here.

UPDATED AGAIN AT 12:53 P.M.: Magnolia Marketplace just heard from Mike Michels, spokesman for Toyota Motor Sales USA. He did not provide a timetable for when Toyota would issue its Prius solution, saying only that it would be “early this week. Otherwise, there’s nothing to report,” he said.

We just got off the phone with Toyota Motor Manufacturing North America Spokeswoman Barbara McDaniel. Here’s the full transcript of our brief conversation.

Magnolia Marketplace: “Has anything become official with the Prius recall?”

McDaniel: “No, there’s nothing official. We’re still investigating.”

Magnolia Marketplace: “I’m contractually obligated to ask this question, but will this have any effect on the Blue Springs facility?”

McDaniel: “No.”

So there you have it. Gov. Haley Barbour is holding a press conference at 11 a.m. to announce yet another round of budget cuts, but we’ll try to sneak in a question about Toyota and see what he thinks.

UPDATED AT 9:36 A.M.: Barbour’s office has just issued a press release announcing the press conference at 11 has been canceled so Barbour can “continue to analyze budget options.”

Toyota, which supposedly will build its hybrid Prius at some point in Blue Springs, has not had the greatest month.

Seven of the company’s models, totaling more than 5 million vehicles, have been recalled the past two weeks because of issues with accelerators sticking.

Now comes news from Japan — where it’s already Friday so the daily newspapers have hit the Web and the streets — that the company is expected to recall the 2010 Prius because of problems with the car’s antilock braking system. The Nikkei, the Japanese version of the Wall Street Journal, reports that the Japanese Transport Ministry has yet to receive notice of a formal recall, which would have to happen before anything became official. There have been a total of only 180 complaints in the U.S. and Japan associated with the Prius’s brakes, but the falloutf rom the first round of recalls has probably magnified the issue somewhat.

We’ll have reaction from statesode Toyota folks first thing in the morning.

Just before Christmas, Magnolia Marketplace made a few predictions for 2010 (read them here) and one of them was that Ole Miss QB Jevan Snead would throw at least one interception in the Cotton Bowl.

Just call us Nostradamus Marketplace.

Anyway, the first workday of 2010 has a chance to prove another of our predictions true, although it is a small chance.

Gov. Haley Barbour is set to make a “major economic development announcement” this afternoon at 4, according to a press release from his office.

Two things jump to mind immediately: One is Toyota and the other is a steel pipe manufacturer that wants to build a facility in Tunica. Based on what Magnolia Marketplace has heard the past couple months, we would be suprised — but not at all shocked — if Toyota announced before March or April that the Blue Springs plant was moving forward. That’s not to say definitively that today’s news from Barbour won’t be Toyota-centric, but it would be a mild upset if it was.

There is a decent chance Barbour will tell everybody that the German manufacturer of steel pipes has resolved the financing issue that has held up the Legislature passing an incentive package. Barbour had planned to call a special session in late October to do so, but that has been delayed while the company got its financial ducks in a row.

It could be either of those two things, or it could be neither of those two things. As soon as we know, we’ll spread the word.

UPDATED AT 10:15 A.M. : Toyota spokeswoman Barbara McDaniel just emailed to say that today’s announcement will have nothing to do with Toyota. “It’s not us,” McDaniel wrote.

So there you have it.

Apologies for the extended neglect of the blog. With the Holidays switching up the schedule here at the MBJ, we’ve had to cram two work weeks into one. That’s not a complaint, because it means we’re getting a few days off to do the Christmas routines, watch bowl games, drink eggnog and watch more bowl games.

Big things happened in 2009. Some good, some not good, some pretty bad. We took a look back in this week’s edition. Next week, we’ll look forward with some predictions for 2010 from some of the state’s business and political experts. There’s a surprise or two in there. Look for it.

In that vein, some personal predictions from Magnolia Marketplace:

• The legislative session that starts in a couple weeks will be wild and woolly.

• And despite what each party’s leadership says now, the state’s budget for fiscal year 2011 will not be done by the end of March, though we’d love to be proven wrong.

• No state agency will be happy with its appropriation for FY2011.

• In fact, many agency heads will cry bloody murder.

• Gov. Haley Barbour’s proposal to merge the three HBCUs into one will get absolutely nowhere in the Legislature, but that’s not going out on much of a limb.

• The Congressional campaign between Republican State Sen. Alan Nunnelee and Travis Childers, the Democrat from Booneville who represents the First District, will be a humdinger, with the national committees from each party pouring lots of money into it.

• The tone of the campaign will be exceedingly nasty.

• Toyota will announce it is ready to move forward with the Blue Springs plant.

• By this time next year, we’ll have a much clearer picture of the gubernatorial candidates for 2011, particularly on the Democratic side.

• On Jan. 2, Jevan Snead will throw at least one interception in the Cotton Bowl.

• Magnolia Marketplace will hit the ceiling when he does.

To you and yours, Merry Christmas. We’ll see you Dec. 28.

In response to a recent accident in California that involved fatalities, Toyota is issuing a recall of 3.8 million Toyota and Lexus vehicles because the company says the floor mats can interfere with the accelerators.

Included in the recall is the 2005-2010 Prius Hybrid. The Prius is scheduled for production in Blue Springs, though a starting date has not been set.

The 3.8 million vehicles is the largest U.S. recall the company has ever issued. Magnolia Marketplace ran a Google search and was able to come up with only one link, which is here.

UPDATED AT 3:40 p.m. : Details of the accident responsible for the recall can be found here.

“We are not here to moan and cry.”

That was College Board President Scott Ross’ opening line to the Joint Legislative Budget Committee this morning as the Institutions of Higher Learning presented its FY2011 budget request. The JLBC has spent this week telling state agencies that money is slim and could get slimmer before the next fiscal year begins next July.

IHL submitted a request that is $42.8 million more than it received in FY2010. Seventeen million dollars of that will pay for a cost of living adjustment that will allow for colleges and universities to keep the purchasing power it has as the price of goods and services rises, IHL Commissioner Dr. Hank Bounds told lawmakers.

The bulk of the rest of the additional funding is made up of $21 million for the University of Mississippi Medical Center.

“Our big need is to increase our school size,” said interim UMC Chancellor Dr. James Keeton. UMC has 120 medical students, which is all the school can handle with its current size and resources, Keeton said. “We would like to grow that to 150.” While the extra $21 million wouldn’t cover the full cost of growing the student body to 150, it would be a start, Keeton said.

In a nod to the state’s dwindling tax revenue, Bounds said he has talked with all eight university presidents about the idea of consolidating some functions like purchasing, the contract 403(b) notification requirement administration and the IRS 125 administration.

“They are all open to that,” Bounds said.

Lt. Gov. Phil Bryant said he was “stunned” at that announcement, since the consolidation of any state service has long been a subject most lawmakers and state agencies have refused to even discuss.

“We can’t afford to wake up three or four years from now and have mediocre programs,” Bounds said. “We have to think differently. We also recognize that if all (economic) prognosticators are accurate, we could see some really tough days ahead.”

Bounds did not have a cost savings estimate consolidation of some functions might provide. He did say that IHL is preparing to receive fewer state funds in future budget years, and that there is a plan in place to operate the system in such an event.

The budget Bounds and other officials presented Thursday morning, which totals $841.5 million, is about $200 million less than the budget they originally planned to present. The first budget, Bounds said, would have brought funding for Mississippi’s colleges and universities up to the Southeastern average.

Bounds spent a several minutes selling higher education as a driver of economic development in Mississippi.

“I really believe we can only educate ourselves out of the financial crisis,” he said. “It is absolutely clear that if Mississippi is going to move forward we have to produce a better-educated citizenry.”

Mississippi needs more graduates who fall into the STEM category — Science, Technology, Education and Math, Bounds said.

The funds available for the Mississippi Tuition Assistance Grant, which awards $500 per semester to entering freshman who have at least a 15 on the ACT and a 2.5 GPA, are low. The funds are at the same level they were in 2000, but the number of students who are eligible has seen “an appreciable gain,” Bounds said.

With state money in a sharp decline and enrollment up at nearly every institution, Bounds could not rule out tuition increases to make up the difference.

“We will do everything that we can (to prevent tuition increases),” Bounds said. “But I can’t guarantee they won’t go up.”

House Appropriations Committee Chairman Johnny Stringer, D-Montrose, told Bounds he would do “all I can” to get IHL’s budget funded at the level it requested.

The IHL’s presentation took up the vast majority of this morning’s hearings. Afterward, the Mississippi Development Authority presented a budget request of $22.6 million, which is the same amount it got in FY10. The MDA’s state funding has been basically level since 2003. Federal money makes up most of its budget.

“We cannot afford to lose momentum right now,” MDA Executive Director Gray Swoope told the Committee.

Swoope said that Nissan continues to fulfill the Memorandum of Understanding it signed with the state regarding direct job numbers — the company employs about 3,100 people directly — and Toyota is still “fully committed to Mississippi. They are going to build vehicles in Blue Springs.”