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Baseball team to dress like Trans Am, complete with screaming chicken

Come to think of it, the Screaming Chicken actually sounds like the name of a minor league baseball team. Well, it isn't, but the famous logo of the same name that graced the hood of the 1970s Pontiac Trans Am will at least be making it to a baseball uniform this summer. The Lansing Lugnuts, a Single-A affiliate of the Toronto Blue Jays, will be rocking these special uniforms to honor the late Burt Reynolds and his film Smokey and the Bandit. By default, it will also be honoring the car the movie made famous: the 1977 Trans Am painted black with gold trim and, of course, the screaming chicken on the hood. This is a pretty good history of the emblem. So why the Lugnuts and Burt Reynolds? Although he claimed to be born in Georgia for much of his career, he admitted in a 2015 autobiography that he was in fact born in Lansing, Mich. After a few years, his family settled in Florida. Not exactly hometown hero stuff, but minor league baseball promotions have been made of more tenuous connections. The Burt Reynolds tribute night will be July 20, and if you want to get a screaming chicken jersey for yourself (I mean, wouldn't they be perfect for a cars and coffee?), the game-used jerseys will be auctioned off for charity after the game.

Distracted driver crosses center line and hits police car

Attentive driving and quick reflexes saved the life of a police officer in Hudson, WI, when an oncoming driver drifted into the officer's lane and struck his cruiser. According to KMSP, the officer was patrolling along a busy road through Hudson on March 31 when the crash occurred. Dash cam video from the patrol car which was released to local media shows the dramatic collision unfold. As the officer came around a mild left-hand curve, a white, 90s-era Pontiac Grand Am continued straight through the curve, across the center line, and directly into the officer's path. The officer was able to avoid a head-on collision, but the Pontiac still struck the driver's side of the patrol car. "Both the officer and the other driver are ok, however, this accident could have been much, much worse," said a Hudson Police Department official on the department's Facebook page. "So please remember to pay attention to your driving at all times when behind the wheel." Minnesota's Department of Public Safety estimates that one in every four crashes in the State of Minnesota are caused by distracted drivers. DPS believes that the actual number may be higher, but police often have difficulty proving distracted driving as the cause of a crash. Government/Legal Pontiac Driving Safety Coupe Police/Emergency

NHTSA could add 1M cars to GM recall

The Detroit Free Press is reporting that the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration may expand a recall campaign for faulty brake lamps. The agency is currently looking into complaints that certain 2004-2011 Chevrolet Malibu models as well as some 2007-2009 Saturn Aura sedans may have brake lights that do not illuminate when the driver presses the pedal. Alternatively, the lamps may also illuminate without input from the driver. General Motors recalled 8,000 Pontiac G6 models from the 2005 model year for the same problem, and NHTSA is currently investigating whether to add 550,000 more G6 models built between 2005 and 2009 to the list for the same issue.
In addition, investigators are currently examining 97 complaints from Malibu and Aura owners with the same trouble. If NHTSA adds those models to the recall campaign, more than one million units could be covered. GM, meanwhile, says there have been no accidents or injuries as a result of the problem.