A tire brand you should be riding on

Here’s a Consumer Reports update, Between the Lines style. This is an unpaid endorsement, by the way.

Longtime readers may recall that I have sung the praises of Hankook tires. Hankook tires and Samsung televisions, to be exact. If you’re unsure of what tire brand to buy, choose Hankook. If you’re unsure what brand of television to get, buy Samsung. Both are extremely high quality without paying a premium price.

Can we focus on tires in our consumer chat today? Yes we can, thanks for asking.

Hankook tires are the bomb. I’ve owned and driven many cars in my adult life. That’s a lot of tires purchased. Hankook is the brand that has never disappointed, either in price or performance.

I’m currently running a set of Hankooks on my 2011 Nissan Rogue. Over the weekend, I found the paperwork in my glove box. I purchased this current set of Hankooks back in June of 2017 when the Rogue had 98,540 miles on it. Today, the Rogue has 191,422 miles on it, while running on that same set of Hankook tires. Doing the math, that’s nearly 93,000 miles out of this set of Hankook tires. If you know anything about modern day tires, you know this is damn near amazing. The tires had a 65,000 mile warranty. Looking at the tread, I’m convinced I could easily get at least another 5,000 miles out of these puppies, but I want some new rubber on the road before winter weather hits, and I’ve found a “buy 4 for the price of 3 sale.” So I will be replacing them next week. Replacing them with, you guessed it, another set of Hankooks.

A decade ago my wife had a Toyota Camry. I had a set of Hankooks put on that reliable ride and those babies lasted for over 100,000 miles. I kid you not.

Important note: To get this kind of mileage out of a set of tires you need to be good about rotating them. I have tires rotated at every other oil change. Most tire outlets will off you free lifetime rotation with your tire purchase, be sure to ask.

Finally, the heat is on. And I’m here for it.

Last week it was U.S. Sen. Josh Hawley. This week it is an odd couple tag team duo of Sam Graves, Republican, and Emanuel Cleaver, Democrat, coming after the United States Post Office for lackluster mail service in the Kansas City area. I don’t want to sound like a trend setter, but when it comes to recognizing and pointing out problems with USPS, The Landmark has been well ahead of its time. It’s great to see our elected officials are finally taking notice and taking region-wide complaints seriously. In years past The Landmark has sometimes felt like the Lone Ranger on this topic. Thankfully that’s no longer the case.

Congressmen Graves and Cleaver jumped into the fray this week, demanding answers from United States Postmaster Louis DeJoy about crappy mail service in the Kansas City area. Both congressmen have received reports from constituents that the postal service is failing to deliver the mail six days a week.

At this point we’ll yield our time to the Fifth District Congressman from Missouri. Take it away, Reverend.

“Ensuring the delivery of mail is one of the few powers specifically delegated to Congress in the Constitution, so when I hear about constituents reaching out to my office having not received their mail in weeks, it compels members of Congress to act,” said Cleaver. “Americans rely on the postal service to pay their bills on time, collect their hard-earned paychecks, and receive vital medications.”

Now some postal service commentary from Graves: “Missourians from all walks of life depend on the United States Postal Service to deliver the mail six days a week,” Graves said. “It doesn’t matter if you live in downtown Kansas City, in the suburbs, or in rural North Missouri, folks depend on the mail to get prescriptions, bills, and other important documents in a timely manner. The failure of the agency to live up to its core promise, particularly when they just posted a $60 billion net profit, is unconscionable. I’ve long supported our postal workers and the dedication they have to delivering the mail on time, but it’s clear there’s a leadership problem somewhere in the chain of command and Missourians deserve some answers.”

Amen to you, my brothers in the fight against crappy mail service.

Specifically, Graves and Cleaver requested formal responses to the following questions addressed to Postmaster DeJoy:

1. Has the USPS received internal or external reports of significant failures to uphold its six-day mail delivery, as required by law?
2. What is the USPS’ plan to achieve reliable six-day delivery of the mail in all regions of the country?
3. Specifically, how does the USPS plan to address the Kansas City region’s unreliable mail delivery?
4. If/when the USPS has a change in delivery service, how does the USPS plan to notify constituents?
5. If there are barriers to achieving this required level of service, what are they?
6. Does the USPS plan to reinvest its new profits into services that support letter carriers’ critical work to deliver six-day mail?

A follow-up on last week: A report on those baseball over/under win total projections I made for you in the April 6 edition, a day prior to the start of the MLB regular season. These are called futures. Here are the results. I nailed four out of five of these futures. The one I missed? Missed it by half a game. How many of your favorite national baseball experts can say that? I’d put the over/under on that at zero.

Here’s a review of my picks:

*Took the Reds under 75.5 wins. The Reds only won 61 games. Very easy winner.
*Took the Nationals under 71.5 wins. The Nationals won only 55 games. Very easy winner.
*Took the Mariners over 85.5 wins. The Mariners won 90 games. Easy winner.
*Took the Blue Jays over 91.5 wins. The Blue Jays won 92 games. Very narrow winner.
*Took the Rockies over 68.5 wins. The Rockies won 68 games. Very narrow loser.

(Catch Foley and Speckman on Landmark Live with former NBA jump shooter deluxe Scott Wedman, Thursday night on Facebook)