Hasta La Gadget!

Outsiders. Outsider Artist. Outsider Voices. Outsider Entrepreneurs.

The adjective certainly draws the eye.

Isn’t every entrepreneur an outsider in some way? The entrepreneur must hover outside of the market to see a gap; must be daring to answer that gap with no assurance of success; must be willing to go outside of convention and give everything to the idea, the business.

After all as Woody Allen said, more or less: “It’s a wonderful thing to be ahead of your time. Ideally, though, about 15 minutes ahead!” for successful innovation requires that consumers can make the leap to the new model without it feeling too alien. I think we’ve found the right degree of innovation in the way we guide our customers.

Through friends in Princeton and the guys at Tigerlabs, I got to know Mark Censitis–an entrepreneur who turned his outsider status in the wine industry into a successful business that grew from Princeton to the greater New York Metro area. This outsider status allowed Mark to innovate the traditional wine shop model to become more friendly to the consumers it serves–and Mark’s stores even cater to the tastes of the local communities they individually serve.

I asked Mark to share his experiences, how he identified the gap in his market, the guts to make it happen, and got a few tips for wine drinkers too!

Steve Mariotti: First of all, why do you call yourself an outsider?
Mark Censitis: I call myself an “outsider” because prior to starting CoolVines, I had no connection to the wine industry, except as a consumer. Like many other consumers, a frustrated one. Unless we’re in an environment where we can taste wines before we buy them (and even there, many people don’t trust their own taste. That’s an whole other article on the psychology going on there!), all we have to go on when making a selection is what is written on the label or what others have written about the wine.

As I grew into adulthood, I became increasingly interested in wine as part of a lifestyle. However, I found the environment to be incredibly complex and obtuse.

SM: How did you turn that outsider status allow you to identify a gap in the market?
MC: It seemed that no matter how hard I studied information about wine – reading wine magazines and books, going deep into certain regions or types of wine, I’d still have the same experience of walking into a wine shop, staring at the “wall of wine” and not knowing what to buy. Or, I’d have the experience of drinking a wine that I really enjoyed and not know how to use that experience to find similar wines.

One time I asked a wine shop to recommend something new for me; something I’d never had before. They gave me a Bergerac (a red wine from this region in the southwest of France). I loved it. But how, I wondered, do I use that information to find ANOTHER wine that I’ll like? Was it the winemaker? The grape variety? The region? The vintage year? It was very frustrating. I think I bought another bottle of the same wine out of desperation, but my question remained on my mind.

SM: How did you land on a solution to this quandary?
MC: I starting thinking about how wine could be presented to customers who, like me, are enthusiastic about, but not expert in, wine. I focused on the taste experience of the wine, rather than its ingredients or pedigree. I categorized wines into families that transcended regional designations, grape variety “recipes” –instead grouping them on similar taste profiles. All light, crisp white wines went together in one group, as did all big, flavorful red wines.

The categories changed in number and definition as I tried to find a new taxonomy for wine that would make sense to wine drinkers, rather than wine academics. Along the way, I found others who were trying to do the same thing. Although I was in a way disappointed to find that I was not the inventor of such an approach, it was also comforting to realize that others were hearing this same question in the market.

After all as Woody Allen said, more or less: “It’s a wonderful thing to be ahead of your time. Ideally, though, about 15 minutes ahead!” for successful innovation requires that consumers can make the leap to the new model without it feeling too alien. I think we’ve found the right degree of innovation in the way we guide our customers.

SM: Why is wine so complicated?
MC: Even if you were knowledge enough to decode the label – knowing what is meant by the appellation systems in Europe, or the grape variety labeling in the US and other “new world” wine producing regions. Even if you studied enough to know which vintage years were considered good ones in each region around the world. Even if you knew the competitive market price for a given wine and whether this store was selling you a good value or not. Even if you knew all those things, there are still nuances to wines made by different wineries/winemakers from the same region, with the same grapes, labeled and classified in the same way, in the same vintage year, and sold at the same price. Put succinctly, you won’t know if you like a given bottle of wine until you taste it.

SM: How can wine consumers find the best value when shopping for wine?
MC: I know my answer is going to sound a bit self-serving, but Shop at CoolVines!

However, out of genuine respect for the many other wine merchants who are truly on the same quest of helping their customers enjoy–and not stress over–wine, and that is this: find yourself a store, or store(s), where the wine merchant has a point of view about wine. A store where they care about, and endorse, the wines that end up on the shelves of that store. That already puts you in a much favored position, eliminating wines that don’t fit that shop’s criteria and standards for quality, value, and whatever other criteria they use (the store might sell only organic wines, or only Italian wines, etc.).

Now, get to know the staff, or more importantly, have them get to know you–what you have liked, and not liked, from your experiences both in and out of their store. Let them do a lot of the homework for you, in other words, so that you can focus on the best part–enjoying the wine!

SM: What does the future of CoolVines look like?
MC: Well, after starting in Princeton and Westfield, NJ, we just opened our 3rd store, in Jersey City. We plan to continue expanding, reaching the many underserved markets in the NY metro area. Each of our stores has its own feel, with wine (along with beer and spirits) selections that are tailored to the local market, but each maintains the same disciplined approach to selecting and presenting wine to our customers. We’re also working on a very cool web application which we hope to launch shortly, which will enable each of our customers to maintain an ongoing dialog with us, providing feedback on wines they’ve liked or not, enabling us to make customized recommendations for new wines to try.

SM: What are you drinking these days?
MC: I love so many types of wine. I often joke that my favorite wine is the one I’m about to try for the first time. I love the diversity in the many styles and expressions of both the land where the wine begins and the people who make or turn those fruits into this magical elixir. So, I like trying new things.

Lately I’ve been enjoying aged rosés, a wine not typically known for great aging potential, but some winemakers have figured out how to create them and the results have been quite intriguing. I’ve enjoyed exploring white wines made with skin maceration (soaking) and exposure to oxygen during the winemaking process – so called “orange wines”. These wines are definitely not for everybody, and at times even push my boundaries beyond what I find palatable…but they are definitely cool. But my great love might still be the wines of Piedmont Italy made with the nebbiolo grape – Barolo, Barbaresco, Gattinara, as well as the varietal nebbiolo of Lange. I know no other wine with the combination of delicate floral flavors and scents combined with the strong crisp acid backbone and tooth-roughening tannins that make this wine age so beautifully.

Image Source: telesurtv.net

The speed in which the foreign media bubble surrounding Mexico’s government has deflated in recent weeks has been stunning, although hardly surprising for those of us who suspected it was only a matter of time. Admittedly, even the pessimists had been caught off guard at the speed in which Enrique Peña Nieto and his party, the PRI, managed to push through an ambitious structural reform agenda during its first two years in power. From the start, however, there were lingering doubts over the government’s capacity for effective policymaking since this would be undertaken in the context of significant political-administrative shortcomings. Now that these have – tragically – become apparent, a re-evaluation of the outlook for the successful implementation of the reforms into the medium- and long-term (that is, beyond the short-term goal of negotiating and approving them) is undeniably in order. It is also worth understanding why many of these shortcomings were painfully aware to many Mexicans from the very start, but thoroughly missed abroad.

A history of failed reformists

Anyone thinking that the government of Enrique Peña Nieto represents a fundamental shift from the way Mexican politics is done is grossly mistaken. He is neither a “reformist” nor a “modernizer”, two words that are frequently misused by foreign observers when labelling a statesman who is believed to be steering country in the direction of liberal democracy and free market policies. Not coincidentally, the last Mexican head of state to have been bestowed such praise was Carlos Salinas de Gortari (1988-94) who despite having successfully negotiated NAFTA and gained Mexico a seat at the OECD, ended his presidency with an indigenous uprising in the state of Chiapas and handed off to his successor an economy that was just days from plunging into a massive balance of payments crisis (the so-called Tequila Crisis of 1994/95). With this in mind it should not be surprising why many Mexicans have remained broadly sceptical of Peña Nieto’s achievements: it wouldn’t be the first time in their lifetimes that the country was tipped for success only for hopes to come crashing down.

For all his telegenic appearance suggests, it may come as a shock to those abroad that Peña Nieto is neither the driving force of his own government, nor that his inner circle is a radical departure from the old PRI that it has dissociated itself with (his political mentor, Arturo Montiel Rojas, is as old guard as it gets). If there is a parallel to how the Peña Nieto government likely operates in practice, it is perhaps as a modern Camelot: one where the president does not generate the ideas that drive the government’s policymaking, but chooses those that are best put forward to him by his closest aides. Unfortunately what Peña Nieto lacks in initiative he also lacks in zeal (something that his two predecessors, Vicente Fox and Felipe Calderón, had in abundance – and to a fault). The result is a government that flounders whenever it requires its leader to take the helm himself. Until recently, it had encountered no situation in which it needed to do so but the manner in which Mexico’s political crisis has intensified over the past two months is the direct consequence of this meek individual leadership that has been all too obvious even before he was elected.

Three months of getting it all wrong

Perhaps the first warning shot of things to come was the long delayed introduction of the National Gendarmerie. This 40,000-strong unit was originally designed to mirror their European equivalents and was seen as ideal for fighting the drug cartels: trained in policing duties but with the firepower of a military force. In the event, the Gendarmerie that was finally deployed with as much aplomb as disappointment in late August was barely 5,000-strong and constituted as a division of the Federal Police due to the impracticalities of such a small force being independent. The idea that soldiers and marines would be part of it was also shot down due to the intransigence of the military establishment in serving under civilian command. The government has quietly played down the fiasco, despite this being lauded since Peña Nieto’s campaign days as the flagship security policy that his government would bring to the table. No further change to the security strategy has been proposed since.

Almost a month to the day that the Gendarmerie was introduced came the most shocking tragedy in a drug war that has had no shortage of them: the disappearance and likely murder in Iguala, Guerrero of 43 students from a rural teacher training school in Ayotzinapa with a long history of left-wing activism. The blatant complicity between the municipal government, the local police, and the hitherto little-known drug cartel known as Guerreros Unidos has since sparked a national outrage without precedent in decades and the PRI has borne the brunt of it even despite the fact that its left-wing rival, the PRD, governed both the municipality and the state in which it happened (not to say that the PRD has escaped unscathed; if anything it is facing its most severe internal strife since its formation in 1989). Every week since has seen countless vigils, marches and protests, many of which have turned violent and which despite an initially tepid foreign media coverage, has by now shattered the view held abroad that Mexico’s drug war had somehow been contained ; a view which of course, few Mexicans have been duped into believing.

Meanwhile, the administration’s response has been clumsy and late: it took nearly a month before Mr Peña Nieto met in person with the families of the disappeared students, and his government’s ten-point list of commitments reads like every other failed promise to fight crime and strengthen institutions before it. To add insult to injury has been the disastrous press conference held on November 7th by the general attorney, Jesús Murillo Karám, which was perceived to be inconsistent and &nbspcapped by an untimely comment of “I’ve had enough”, which in turn sparked a deluge of scorn from social media. The massive march held on November 20th, symbolically chosen for being the anniversary of the Mexican Revolution of 1910, suggests that the social pressure is far from subsiding, which is probably what the government has been banking on all along. At its climax, a large effigy of Peña Nieto was burned in the middle of the Zócalo, Mexico City’s main square.

There’s more. On the same day as the attorney’s press conference, a tender for a high-speed train (Latin America’s first) between Mexico City and Queretaro was cancelled after receiving just one bid, from a Chinese construction company (China Railway) allied with various Mexican partners. News of the single bid was met with concern from industry experts: the CEO of Bombardier (a major Canadian aerospace and transport firm which had expressed early interest) stated that the tender’s two-month deadline was unrealistically short since a project so “technically challenging” would require around a year. But as one local commentator noted, there were only two possible causes for this fiasco: either the bidding process was indeed fraudulent and the government was pre-empting any scandal, or the process had been legit but the government was simply not willing or able to defend it in the face of expected criticism and scrutiny. Either case represents shocking incompetence in handling a project of this magnitude.

Like every scandal in Mexico, this story would come with an encore: an investigation into the $7 million home (nicknamed the “white house” by the local media) of the first lady, former telenovela actress Angélica Rivera, revealed that the house was listed under the name of one of the Mexican companies involved in the rail bid, Grupo Higa, which had coincidentally received numerous projects during Peña Nieto’s time as governor of the State of Mexico (2006-12). Later it was alleged by Rivera herself that the house had been “transferred” to her in 2010 by media giant Televisa, which has long been accused of wielding undue political influence in light of its uncomfortably cosy relationship with the PRI. As this article is written, there has been no convincing answer to who actually paid for the house, and how, or if Rivera’s statements are to be believed (her patronising television address on November 18th was cringe-worthy even by telenovela acting standards), why effectively gifting a multi-million dollar home to the wife of a state governor with presidential aspirations is not a shamefully blatant conflict of interest even under the narrowest definition.

What this means for the reforms

In the short run, the legal implications of the “white house” scandal may give added impetus for the protesters to intensify the pressure over the coming weeks: it is hard to believe that a situation like this would not lead to calls for impeachment in the US or a vote of no-confidence in a European parliamentary system. But in the longer run, the government’s recent string of failures matter enormously if they serve as early warning signs of deficiencies in the implementation of its structural reforms. For example, the energy reform, by far the biggest economic game-changer since NAFTA, calls for the creation of numerous new regulatory entities, and a tight schedule for both the transformation of Pemex into a “productive state firm” as well as for the liberalization of the sector to private competition. As was the case with the high speed rail tender, cutting corners in a rush to get things done may prove critical if these new markets open before they are ready to operate efficiently.

The success of nearly all reforms therefore rests on the same things that Mexican governments have consistently failed to get right in the past: establishing effective, transparent, uncorrupted institutions and preventing the conflicts of political and private interests from eroding the reforms’ social benefits. More so, to spread these benefits – when and if they materialize – across the general population (particularly the poor) requires well-defined channels of redistribution across the three levels of government which at least in their lower levels (state and municipal) are mired in frightening levels of incompetence and corruption, as the incidents in Iguala have highlighted. A veritable revolution in how the government administers and distributes its revenues is long overdue but old habits die hard: the past two budgets have seen an increase in federal transfers and little effort to strengthen the capacity of states and municipalities to finance themselves. Additionally, these budgets see a massive rise in infrastructure spending which although arguably needed, is typically the sector most prone to corruption. These are not the signs of a truly “reformist” government, when the rotten edifice in which Mexican policymaking rests is left intact.

Can this government still deliver?

Time will tell if the Peña Nieto government recovers from its recent failures and delivers on its promise of bringing prosperity and peace to millions of Mexicans. But for foreigners accustomed to having been served an undeservedly rosy picture of the country’s state of affairs over the past few years, the honeymoon has to be over: a more realistic appraisal of the challenges that Mexico faces should frame any discussion of its outlook from now on. Despite the success of passing the structural reforms, this is a government has faced serious deficiencies in achieving its immediate policy objectives (not least has been the anaemic state of GDP growth since Peña Nieto came to power), and has not shown signs that it is willing to change the decision-making environment in Mexico.

Ultimately, political capacity matters and it is a prelude to development, not a consequence of it as many people seem to believe. In a recent article, &nbspeconomist Dani Rodrik summed up the pros and cons of NAFTA twenty years on, noting that “for too long, Mexico’s economic policies have reflected the view that the real economy will take care of itself once the ‘fundamentals’ (macroeconomic stability, openness, and basic regulations) are in place”. To some extent, depending on the reform agenda to bring about economic success is not so much different: unlock the bottlenecks to growth, and growth will magically come. It won’t, without absence of a radical transformation of how Mexican politics works. If there is any positive legacy from the Iguala tragedy as well as the scandals and failures that have erupted around it, is that the government and the Mexican political establishment as a whole can finally realize they are the ones in more dire need of reform.

Few people are alive today who would remember when wild turkeys teetered on the edge of extinction after almost being eaten into oblivion. But how that fate was avoided represents what is considered by some to be the greatest conservation success story in American history.

Today, the Earth got a little hotter, and a little more crowded.

Stephen Colbert takes the Polar Plunge here, highlighting the dim lights who don’t understand how global warming can create both extremely cold and hot weather.

The new US-China climate pact packs a lot of punches.

OO The U.S.-China CO2 Deal Is An Energy, Climate, And Political Gamechanger
increasing chances of a 2015 global climate agreement to avoid catastrophic change, and ensuring that carbon-free energy will be the dominant source of future new energy.

OO The New Climate Deal With China May Actually Help The US Economy

OO China’s Gigantic New Commitment To Renewable Energy, Explained
“That target will light a fire under China’s already-aggressive renewable deployments and put even stronger limits on coal and other fossil fuels.”

President Obama and China President Xi Jinping shake on a global climate pact. Phys.org

OO What Climate Scientists Have To Say About Obama’s Deal With China – it can have a significant impact on climate change, and undercuts delaying arguments saying China should move first.

OO U.S.-China Climate Deal Another Blow To Big Coal – as China, a major coal burner, pledges to peak its emissions, and get 20% of its power from renewables by 2030.

ActOnClimate/Twitter

OO What You Need to Know About U.S.-China Climate Pact – the US pledges to cut carbon pollution up to 28% below 2005 levels by 2020.

SOLAR KEEPS RISING

Hmmm… which one, which one…. This is a trick question, right?
http://bit.ly/GoSolarAmerica

OO US: SunEdison, TerraForm Buy First Wind to Become Renewable Project Giant

OO Staples Helps Mainstream Customers Hunt For Solar Panels

Watch US Solar Grow presented by GreenTechMedia

OO US: SunPower Is Tripling Solar Capacity, Boosting Cell Efficiency, And More!

OO New ‘Solar Cloth’ Allows Solar Cells to Stretch Across Parking Lots, Stadiums – being flexible and weighing far less than traditional solar panels, it is ideal for thin, weak roofs.

OO ‘Scandalous’ Solyndra Program Actually Earned Taxpayers A $5 Billion Profit

OO SolarReserve Is Part of the South African Solar Surge

Check it out here, right now!

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GOOD CLEAN NEWS

OO U.S. Pledges $3 Billion To Developing Countries To Fight Climate Change

President Obama is getting ready to wield the green sword of his position to fight climate change for all Americans.

OO The Coming Climate Onslought – President Obama readies a sweeping list of executive actions. Way to go, O!

OO Historic US-China Climate Deal Is a Sign of Clean Energy’s Growing Political Strength
China’s willingness to adopt emissions targets reflects its confidence in non-fossil energy

OO The World’s Biggest Battery Is Being Built For Southern California’s Grid

OO Air Force Tests First EV Fleet With Two-Way Power Flow in California – energy market participation could cut vehicle costs in half.

Ggg carbon density map

OO New Amazon Carbon Maps May Help Limit Deforestation by defining the most carbon rich storages areas that must be protected.

OO India: Man Plants Forest, Becomes Film Star

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WHAT WORKS

Speaking Out:

OO Protecting Your Family From Fracking – listen to the pros via itunes or download.

OO Parents Protests Payoff: Company Halts Fracking Plan Near School

OO A New Poll Finds More Americans Oppose Fracking Than Support It

OO Hundreds Rally Against Proposed Natural Gas Pipeline In Massachusetts
Worried about local environmental impacts.

ggg

Illegal logging destroys beautiful forests, and important carbon storage systems. Rhett Butler at mongabay.com

OO Greenpeace Investigation Prompts Belgian Authorities To Seize Timber Shipment – from illegal loggers.

Good Ideas:

OO GM’s Latest Plan To Combat Climate Change: Protect Grass via a carbon credit program; grasslands help store carbon.

OO Send President Obama a Pen to Veto the Pipeline!

Informed Leadership:

Australians protest their government’s climate denial stand with a mass “heads in the sand” demonstration. 350.org

OO At G20, Obama Leapfrogs Australia’s PM With Call To Action

Population Matters:

Planned Parenthood

Keeping Carbon Footprints Down:
More Teens Want LARCs, Long Term Reversible Contraceptives reports Allison Batdorff at the Record Eagle. They are safe for teens, says the American Academy of Pediatrics, and take the human error out of preventing pregnancy.

LARCs range from toothpick sized implants to IUDs. At $500-$1000 per implant, they are far cheaper, both in money and carbon emissions, than a baby – and a far happier alternative to an unwanted baby.

Insights:

OO 2013, 2014 Polar Intrusions into US :
Fueled by Jet Stream Weakened From Global Warming

NASA: A Stark Portrait of The Yearly Atmospheric Cycle of CO2

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WHAT DOESN’T WORK

Fossil Fuel Follies:

OO 6 Years Of Current Emissions Would Blow The Carbon Budget For 1.5 C Warming

OO India’s Coal Rush Could Tip Us All Into Irreversible Climate Change – gotta keep prodding them into solar power…

Epilogue: BP continues to complain about paying for the tremendous mess it created. Wikipedia.

OO BP Tries To Pay Less For The Gulf Oil Spill, Again

OO Shell Ignored Faulty Pipeline Warnings Before Massive Nigeria Oil Spills documents show.

OO Why The U.S.-China Climate Deal Makes Keystone XL Pipeline An Even Worse Idea

Bad Habits:

Wikipedia

OO Pope Francis To World Leaders: Consumerism Creates Constant Environmental Assault

OO Palm Oil Production Poses Problems for the Climate

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WHY WE SHOULD ACT NOW: RISING RISKS

Daily Climate Change: Global Map of Unusual Temperatures, Nov 24, 2014

How unusual has the weather been? No one event is “caused” by climate change, but global warming, which is predicted to increase unusual, extreme weather, is having a daily effect on weather, worldwide.

Looking above at recent temperature anomalies, much of the US and the waters surrounding it are experiencing warmer than normal temperatures. Although some rain has reached California the eastern Pacific warm spot continues and so does the state’s drought.

Much of the areas surrounding the North Pole are experiencing much warmer than normal temperatures – not good news for our Arctic thermal shield of ice. Hotter than usual temperatures continue to dominate human habitats.

OO NASA, Other Data Show Globe Had Warmest October – making a string of 3 record-breaking hot months on the planet.

OO At This Rate, The World Will Have To Stop All Carbon Emissions In 2040
To Stay Under 2°C Warming says IEA; even as clean energy expands, so does the deadly practice of burning fossil fuels.

Lightning Expected To Increase 50% With Global Warming says a new study, reports Science Daily. Lightning ground strikes are driven by deep explosive convection, mainly fueled by water vapor, which has been increasing as the atmosphere warms and absorbs it. With more lightning strikes, expect more death and destruction from lightning-caused wildfires, says Jeff Masters at Weather Underground.

KEEPING CARBON STORED: FORESTS UPDATE
Forests: the cheapest way to store carbon

Mongabay

OO Surprising Reasons To Be Optimistic About Saving Forests – the causes of deforestation are becoming more manageable, and new tools are coming online that will help conserve them.

OO Reducing Deforestation Is Good For Business argues a new report.

OO Leaf Bacteria Are Important To Tree Health and may help forests adapt to climate change.

OO Only Place Where Rhinos, Tigers, Elephants, And Orangutans Coexist Is Under Threat

OO ‘Guns Kill Trees Too’:
Overhunting Raises Extinction Threat For Trees

OO ‘Militarized Occupation’: Local Communities Pay The Price For Palm Oil

There is, of course, much more news on the consequences and solutions to climate change. To get it, check out this annotated resource list I’ve compiled, “Climate Change News Resources,” , at WordPress.com here. For more information on the science of climate change, its consequences and solutions you can view my annotated list of online information resources here.

To help you understand just what science does and does NOT do, check this out!

Every day is Earth Day, folks, as I was reminded by this beetle I photographed recently in South Africa. Making the U.S. a global clean energy leader will ensure a heck of a lot more jobs, and a clean, safe future. If you’d like to join the increasing numbers of people who want to TELL Congress that they will vote for clean energy candidates you can do so here. It’s our way of letting Congress know there’s a strong clean energy voting bloc out there. For more detailed summaries of the above and other climate change items, audio podcasts and texts are freely available.

Happy Thanksgiving, Everybody!!

For a great, sugar-free appetizer try this: place a cinnamon dusted apple slice on top of a bagette slice, add a slice of plumped (rehydrated) mission fig, a pecan half, and top with a slice of jack cheese — or be really naughty and use brie!! Repeat for the number of desired appetizers, then bake all at 375 til cheese melts in oven. Remove and serve!

NEW YORK, Nov 24 (Reuters) – A Texas judge on Monday overturned the conviction of a woman who pleaded guilty to causing a fatal crash that killed her fiancé that was later linked to a faulty switch in the General Motors Co car she was driving, according to her lawyer.

Van Zandt County District Judge Teresa Drum granted a petition from Candice Anderson to vacate her conviction for criminally negligent homicide, according to her lawyer, Robert Hilliard.

Anderson was driving a 2004 Saturn Ion in East Texas with her fiancé, Gene Mikale Erickson, as a passenger when it veered off the road and hit a grove of trees in 2004.

This undated photo shows the wreckage of the car crash that killed Gene Mikale Erikson.

The car’s air bags failed to deploy, and Erickson was killed. Local prosecutors concluded Anderson was to blame, and she agreed in 2007 to plea deal under which she served five years of community supervision and paid a $2,500 fine and restitution for Erickson’s funeral costs, Hilliard said.

This year, GM recalled 2.6 million vehicles – including the 2004 Saturn Ion – over a problem with the ignition switch that could cause it to switch out of position and cut power to the air bags and brakes. Anderson’s crash was later identified as one of 13 linked to the switch.

Anderson filed a writ of habeas corpus to set aside her conviction earlier this year, saying that she and crash investigators had no way of knowing of the defect at the time of the crash. Had they had that information, they would have reached a different conclusion about the causes, according to the petition.

The petition was granted following a hearing on Monday, Hilliard said.

“GM knew this defect caused this death yet, instead of telling the truth, watched silently as Candice was found guilty of involuntary manslaughter,” Hilliard said in a statement.

GM had submitted a letter in connection with Monday’s hearing acknowledging the switch “may have caused or contributed to” the failure of the air bags to deploy.

A GM spokesman, Jim Cain, said in a statement that the company cooperated fully with court requests in connection with Anderson’s petition.

“It is appropriate for the court to determine the legal status of Ms. Anderson,” he said.

GM has set up a program run by lawyer Kenneth Feinberg to evaluate and pay claims for injuries and deaths linked to the switch. Anderson has received an offer of compensation from the program, Hilliard added. (Reporting by Jessica Dye.; Editing by Alexia Garamfalvi and Andre Grenon)