Auto Czar Takes Hands-On Approach to Buick City

Melanie Trottman of The Wall Street Journal reports:

When worries about environmental cleanup costs stalled plans to redevelop an abandoned auto factory in Flint, Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm called Edward Montgomery.

Mr. Montgomery, President Barack Obama's auto-communities recovery czar, cut through the bureaucracy at the Environmental Protection Agency, and brought officials from the EPA's Washington office to meet with Flint officials to get a deal done.

The solution: Carve out the part of the 700-acre site with the worst contamination, and clear the rest for potential sale to investors who have told the city they would create a multipurpose facility that would employ as many as 500 people in hard-hit Michigan. A process that could have taken years wound up taking just a few months.

G.M. Back for More?

According to The Wall Street Journal, G.M. will be asking for more money, even if they decide on bankruptcy as the automaker faces a Tuesday deadline for a restructuring plan.

John D. Stoll and Sharon Terlep report:

General Motors Corp., nearing a federally imposed deadline to present a restructuring plan, will offer the government two costly alternatives: commit billions more in bailout money to fund the company's operations, or provide financial backing as part of a bankruptcy filing, said people familiar with GM's thinking.

The competing choices, which highlight GM's rapidly deteriorating operations, present a dilemma for Congress and the Obama administration. If they refuse to provide additional aid to GM on top of the $13.4 billion already committed they risk seeing an industrial icon fall into bankruptcy.

The Home Front

A reflection on AC Spark Plug from Cooley's Dictum:

"During WWII my mother and several of my uncles and aunts worked at AC building the implements that defeated the Axis powers. At the time my dad was a flight engineer in the Army Air Corp while his wife was building the .50 caliber machine guns that provided armament for the Air Corp planes.

"Having lived in the Potter School area from '58 until I went into the Army in '67, the AC complex was one of the areas that you passed through several times a day to get to school, downtown, well, to get virtually anywhere that your life took you in those days. Considering its sprawling size, it was a major part of the neighborhood and well-suited to gumming up local traffic at shift change.

"Later, my sister and my first wife (...ack!...) worked there making oil filters and cruise control assemblies.

"And now, reduced to compact piles of rubble and debris, it's gone, what with the rest of the manufacturing world having closed up shop locally and moved away overseas.

"Truly, I am bummed. One can never go home again. Home no longer exists. Wall Street sold it for short term profits."

The Paperless Newspaper

Do you look forward to reading the old-school paper edition of the Detroit Free Press every morning with your coffee? Well, prepare yourself for a new morning routine and consider investing in a laptop.

J. Linx writes:

"On top of everything else, the WSJ is reporting that the Detroit Free Press and its partner paper, The Detroit News, may stop home delivery everyday but Thursday, Friday and Saturday. An abbreviated print edition would be available at newsstands on the other days. Readers would be directed to an expanded digital version."

Wagoner might need to get out for G.M. to get bailout

G.M.'s gain may be Chief Executive Rick Wagoner's loss.

The Wall Street Journal reports: "On Sunday, Sen. Christopher Dodd (D., Conn.), a supporter of emergency loans for Detroit, suggested Mr. Wagoner should go if the government follows through and provides billions of dollars to help the auto giant restructure and return to profitability."

Let's talk about crime

Crime is a frequent topic on Flint Expatriates, but it is hardly mentioned by the national media these days. Part of the reason is that the rate of violent crime declined every year from 1992 through 2004. But since then, the per-capita violent crime rate has started climbing again. And in some areas, like Flint and Detroit, the rate has spiked.

"You can talk all you want about [falling] crime rates, but the fact is that 99,000 people have been murdered in this country since September 11, [2001]" says Gene Voegtlin, the legislative counsel for the International Organization of Chiefs of Police.

So why isn't crime a bigger national issue?

Ashby Jones of The Wall Street Journal explains why:

Dismayed local politicians, frustrated police chiefs and bewildered academics trot out a host of reasons, from media myopia to the fallout from 9/11 to a narrowing in differences between Democrats and Republicans. Some think the problem owes, at least in part, to the fact that crime has fallen so precipitously in the nation's media centers, namely Los Angeles and New York. "It's true," says George Tita, a professor of criminology at the University of California, Irvine. "If what's happening in Philadelphia were happening in L.A. and New York, we'd be hearing a lot more about it."

Others say crime has simply been overshadowed by other issues, including national security. "All eyes, all attention at the federal level, are on Al Qaeda and the war on terror," says Michael Nutter, Philadelphia's mayor. "Fact is, al Qaeda wouldn't last a day in parts of Philadelphia. I've got gangsters with .45s that would run them outta town."

On the political front, crime has fallen way behind issues such as Iraq, health care and gas prices, not to mention the meltdown of our financial system.

GM losses and buyouts continue

After losing $722 million in the fourth quarter, General Motors announces buyouts for all 74,000 union workers.

“Despite progress and buoyant markets outside the U.S., falling volumes and competitive pressures in the U.S. will continue to pressure G.M. North America and hence overall G.M. operational results,” Brian A. Johnson, an analyst with Lehman Brothers, wrote in a note to clients Tuesday.

The Wall Street Journal has details of the UAW-approved buyout offer:

This new buyout offer is different in that it is designed to open the door for a flood of new workers that GM has said it will hire following its recently inked contract with the UAW. Currently, workers at GM plants typically make $73 an hour, including wages and benefits, no matter what role they fill. The UAW is allowing GM to reclassify about 16,000 of these jobs, such as janitorial jobs, as "non-core" assignments with wages and benefits equaling $25.65 an hour.