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Carlos Ghosn's new lawyer, 'the Razor,' starts slashing

TOKYO — Carlos Ghosn's new lawyer took aim at Nissan, prosecutors and courts on Wednesday, dismissing the charges against the ousted chairman as an internal company matter and saying Japan was out of step with international norms by keeping his client in jail. "This should have been dealt with as an internal matter," Junichiro Hironaka, nicknamed the Razor, said at his first press briefing. Ghosn, who was arrested in November over alleged financial misconduct and remains in detention in a Tokyo jail, picked a new team last week with long-time defense attorney Hironaka as a key member to replace Motonari Otsuru, a lawyer who once ran the prosecutor's office investigating him. Hironaka's combative style contrasts with the low-key approach adopted by media-shy Otsuru. Ghosn's switch to an aggressive legal strategy came after his attempts to win bail failed and just before lawyers were due to sit down with prosecutors and judges for the first time to hash out a schedule for pre-trial discovery meetings, where prosecutors will reveal evidence and submit a list of witnesses. Hironaka said he didn't know why Ghosn picked him, but added that Ghosn probably wanted an experienced criminal lawyer as the case moved toward trial. The 73-year-old defense attorney is reputed for winning high profile cases, including the acquittal of a senior lawmaker, Ichiro Ozawa, on financial misconduct charges. He also helped free a senior bureaucrat Atsuko Muraki who was jailed for four months on corruption charges fabricated by prosecutors. Yet, even with greater legal firepower the former Nissan Motor Co boss faces a criminal justice system where only three out of every 100 defendants pleading not guilty are acquitted. Neither does Japan have a plea-deal mechanism that would allow Ghosn to agree to lesser charges for a lighter sentence. "The change in lawyers means a change in style, but the legal strategy will still be the same. I don't think it increases Ghosn's chance of an acquittal," said Masashi Akita, a defense lawyer at Shin-Yu Law Office in Osaka, ahead of Wednesday's comments by Hironaka. Ghosn has lost his perch atop an automotive alliance trio of French carmaker Renault SA and Japanese automakers Nissan and Mitsubishi Motors Corp. Attempts to win bail, including an offer to wear a GPS ankle bracelet and hire security guards to stop him trying to tamper with evidence, failed.

2016 Nissan Titan coming to 2015 Detroit Auto Show

The Titan has continued to sit in a corner of Nissan's front yard, taken out on occasion but largely unloved, the same way you see a project truck in a neighbor's driveway that makes you wonder, "Are they ever going to do anything with that?" The fullsize pickup made the news about six months ago when reports surfaced that the next generation would offer a Cummins diesel engine that had originally been meant for Ram, then it returned to the shadows.
According to a report from Edmunds, the Titan will return to the spotlight in about a year, with the unveil of the 2016 model planned for next year's Detroit Auto Show. Along with that oil-burner, it will bring a gasoline V6 engine, a complete redesign and a regular cab configuration to finally give it a fighting chance against the thick end of the light-duty truck market. Toyota gets pressed for the molasses-like sales of the Tundra, but that fullsize entrant sold 7,890 units in January and 10,988 in December 2013. Nissan sold 887 Titans in January, 1,284 in December 2013 and broke 2,400 US sales in a single month just once in four years. (The segment-leading Ford F-150, for reference, sold 46,536 units in January.)
An entry-level model and a regular cab option should give the Titan a welcome and overdue sales boost. Better power numbers and fuel economy for the V8 would probably go a long way, too. We expect to start getting glimpses of its future later this year.

Convocation of eagles takes over bed of Nissan pickup

Let this be a lesson to those of you who plan to visit Unalaska, Alaska (yes, it's a real city on Unalaska Island in the Aleutian Islands): If you park at Safeway with a garbage bag full of fish fillets in your pickup's bed, the eagles will find you. That's what happened above when an unidentified man parked his Nissan and returned to find a convocation of bald eagles feasting on his fish.
Neither the man nor those parked near his truck could get to their cars for fear of getting a beatdown from The 'Murica Bird, and police were called to break it up, which they did with neither beast nor fowl injured in the process.
Other than being awesome watching, other things we can take away from this video are the question who comes up with bird gathering names (a "murmuration" of herons and an "unkindness" of ravens?), and the bounty of this comment left by user "Abraham" at the KUCB news report: "It's just that the luxury edition has so much more eagle, it saddens me to think of you missing out." See what caused it all in the video below.