Transportation secretary: 'What GM did was break the law'

Detroit automaker agrees to $35M fine, have consent decree after defect probe David Shepardson and Melissa Burden The Detroit News Comments Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx (AP) Washington — General Motors Co. agreed Friday to pay a record-setting $35 million civil penalty for delaying a recall of 2.6 million older cars for ignition switch defects linked to 13 deaths and 32 crashes and has agreed to a consent order to make significant and wide-ranging changes. Federal officials offered a scathing review of the Detroit automaker’s approach to safety, citing a 2008 presentation that encouraged employees in communications to be factual but "not fantastic" in writing about problems,...