It’s a show famous for grandiose measures — where longhorn cattle once lumbered through downtown Detroit, Jeeps smashed into plate-glass windows and a virtual blizzard blasted snow on stage.

But expect a quieter time in a few weeks at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit — absent the usual extravagance and party atmosphere — matching the subdued spirits of the struggling U.S. auto industry.

“I think the focus will be more on cars and letting the cars be the stars,” said Joe Serra, co-chairman of the show and president of Grand Blanc-based Serra Automotive Inc.

Continue reading: The Flint Journal

This is the tale of two Santas and what they did Monday. It might be hard to fathom, given the economic apocalypse playing out in Detroit and Michigan this holiday season and virtually everyone’s need to conserve cash.

Before Monday’s “sleigh ride,” as they called it, Mr. and Mrs. Santa went to their credit union and withdrew $11,000 from their savings — all in crisp $100 bills — which they placed in their pockets and carried to the Lincoln Park police station. To be clear, this was their money, and it was destined for others with no strings attached.

Continue reading: Freep.com – be sure to check out the photo gallery!

Detroit has become everyone’s favorite whipping boy these days, but in The New Republic, Jon Cohn notes, “for all of Detroit’s mistakes, it is also a victim of something it did right: ensuring a middle-class lifestyle for blue-collar workers.” “In a more enlightened society, after all,” Cohn writes, “government would have made those promises and extended them to all workers, thereby spreading the burden of financing them to all taxpayers. That’s how it’s done in Europe and in Japan–which, not coincidentally, is the home of Detroit’s most successful competitors. But the U.S. government never took that step. So, instead of a public welfare state, we got a private one, administered for only some workers and paid for by their employers. Sooner or later, this arrangement was bound to fail.”

Interesting that the lifestyle that was the envy of the world has become something not to aspire to, but to rail against. Read more in Auto Destruct from the New Republic.

Levi Stubbs, Abdul “Duke” Fakir, Lawrence Payton and Renaldo “Obie” Benson — will be honored in February with a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award.

“How great is that?” said Duke Fakir, the sole survivor of the original Four Tops. “I just wish the other guys were here to hear this and to receive it — it’ll go to their families, of course.”

The Grammy Awards will air at 8 p.m. Feb. 8 on CBS (Channel 62). Other Motown acts that received the honor in the past are Marvin Gaye, Stevie Wonder and the Funk Brothers.

Continue reading: The Detroit News

The Record-Eagle’s anniversary celebration starts with a 40-page special section in four sections that chronicle the city’s history. We will continue to mark our heritage throughout the next year with stories every Sunday appearing here on our Web site, and with four exhibits in 2009 at the Grand Traverse Heritage Center.

The notoriety of being arrested for trying to swipe Batman movie posters while dressed as the Joker hasn’t quit for Three Rivers resident Spencer Taylor.

Coming in at No. 19, a makeup-laden Taylor is featured as one of the Top 20 mug shots of 2008 at http://www.thesmokinggun.com, a Web site featuring police reports and mug shots from around the country.

Utah is the nation’s fastest growing state, knocking Nevada from its usual top spot.

Utah’s population climbed by 2.5 percent from July 2007 to July 2008, according to new population estimates from the Census Bureau. Arizona is the second-fastest growing state, followed by Texas, North Carolina and Colorado.

Nevada, last year’s fastest-growing state, fell to eighth. Nevada had been among the four fastest-growing states each of the last 23 years.

Only two states — Michigan and Rhode Island — lost population from 2007 to 2008.
California remained the most populous state, followed by Texas, New York, Florida and Illinois.

Key people involved in the winding road to the GM-Chrysler rescue deal of 2008 are convinced of one thing that all stakeholders should take to heart: The presidents — both Bush and the incoming Barack Obama — and Congress are watching like hawks.

They want to see visible progress in days or weeks, not just three months from now, on cost-cutting and brand realignment and debt structure. All auto executives, board members, suppliers, dealers, bondholders and union officials should be on notice that their jobs and institutions are on the line.

The Detroit Media Partnership L.P., which operates the Detroit Free Press and the Detroit News, is expected to announce next week that it will cease home delivery of the papers’ print editions on most days of the week, according to the Wall Street Journal.

Detroit Media has not made a final decision, these people said. But the leading scenario set to be unveiled Tuesday calls for the Free Press, the 20th largest U.S. newspaper by weekday circulation, and the News to end home delivery on all but the most lucrative days — Thursday, Friday and Sunday. On the other days, the company would sell single copies of abbreviated print editions at newsstands and direct readers to the papers’ expanded digital editions. The Free Press, owned by Gannett Co., and the News, owned by MediaNews Group, are operated by Detroit Media under a so-called joint operating agreement.

Continue reading: MITECHNEWS.COM

…the problem with Detroit seems more complicated than interest rates. Some blame the United Auto Workers union for uncompetitive high labor costs. Others blame the banking crisis for making it more difficult for people to get car loans. And there’s a huge contingent that blames the Big Three for focusing on big gas-guzzling pickups and SUVs, which lost their appeal when gasoline got over $4 a gallon last summer.

But is that really Detroit’s fault?

Continue reading: denverpost.com

Check out the trailer for the latest superhero flick starring Alabama Sen. Richard Shelby as Robocop Out fighting to clean up Detroit.

View it at Freep.com

The jailing of former Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick has been named Time magazine’s No. 9 scandal of the year.

The magazine said of Kilpatrick: “The former middle school teacher became Detroit’s first mayor charged with a felony while in office”. The article mentions text messages sent by Kilpatrick to former chief of staff Christine Beatty’s city-issued pager, and the subsequent publishing of some of those messages by the Free Press.

Continue reading: Freep.com

Detroit’s thinning population is vividly — some would say disturbingly — illustrated in a new map that is creating a buzz in local planning circles.
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The map shows how to tuck the land mass of Manhattan (23 square miles), San Francisco (47 square miles) and Boston (48 square miles) — and their combined populations of nearly 3 million people — into Detroit. All three urban areas fit snugly within Detroit’s 139 square miles with room to spare.

Detroit, where the population peaked at 2 million in the early 1950s, is home to about 900,000 today and is still losing people. The depopulation and demolition of abandoned properties has left the city dotted with thousands of vacant parcels, ranging from single home lots to open fields of many acres.

Continue reading: Freep.com

No crowds, no mosquitoes and beautiful views.

That’s what winter camping offers, says Mike Evanoff.

He’s a little biased, as the supervisor at the Bay City State Recreation Area, but said people who want to get out of the house this season should consider a stay at the state park in Bangor Township.

“As long as the campers are properly prepared for the cold temperatures, it really is a great time to camp and get outdoors,” Evanoff said.

Continue reading: The Bay City Times

Stuck selling to wholesalers or relying on their own small retail shops, Michigan’s whitefish industry was left with little room to grow.

The value of the Great Lakes annual whitefish catch dropped from $1.04 a pound in 2000 to 78 cents a pound in 2006, according to U.S. Geological Survey data.

But a program to help Michigan’s agricultural entrepreneurs get their products into retail stores is aiming to change that.

“If suddenly Michigan broke off and floated into the Great Lakes, we’d have enough businesses to feed ourselves,” said Matt Birbeck, a project consultant at Michigan State University’s Product Center for Agriculture and Natural Resources. “There’s nothing we couldn’t do.”

Continue reading: LSJ.com

Hopefully, I can take the concerns facing Michigan and the Fourth Congressional District to the leadership level, making sure we have the right policies to help grow our economy and create jobs,” Camp said. “Not every state has had the long, deep job loss we’ve had or the economic problems or concerns with the environment or tourism. Those are my first concern and I will now be in a position to make my views heard in ways I couldn’t before.”

Michigan received a big economic shot in the arm Thursday when the U.S. Department of Energy chose Michigan State University as the site for a prized $550 million nuclear research facility.

The Lansing-based Anderson Economic Group estimates the project could generate more than $1 billion in economic activity for the mid-Michigan region over 20 years, creating 400 permanent jobs, not including construction.

“A massive effort to highlight Michigan State University’s unique capability paid off for MSU, Michigan and the nation,” said Sen. Carl Levin, D-Detroit. “At a moment in our history when Michigan needs signs of hope, today’s decision by the Department of Energy to build the Facility on Rare Isotope Beams at MSU fills the bill. It is the best news for Michigan in a long time.”

Continue reading: mlive.com

Anyone catch Neil Young at the Palace Sunday night? We didn’t this time — but from reading the setlists posted online during the tour thus far, we’re betting that he was as great as ever (though he’ll never top premiering the Rust Never Sleeps show at Pine Knob during the late ’70s, shocking the hell out of everybody — by singing about “Johnny Rotten,” among so many other things — at a time when his audience had no idea of what to expect).

Interesting thing is there’s been a real connection between Mr. Young and the state of Michigan during the last two months or so.

Continue reading: Metro Times

As I think about the U.S. government bailing out Detroit, I can’t help but reflect on what, in my view, is the most important rule of business in today’s integrated and digitized global market, where knowledge and innovation tools are so widely distributed.

It’s this: Whatever can be done, will be done. The only question is will it be done by you or to you. Just don’t think it won’t be done. If you have an idea in Detroit or Tennessee, promise me that you’ll pursue it, because someone in Denmark or Tel Aviv will do so a second later.

Why do I bring this up? Because someone in the mobility business in Denmark and Tel Aviv is already developing a real-world alternative to Detroit’s business model. I don’t know if this alternative to gasoline-powered cars will work, but I do know that it can be done – and Detroit isn’t doing it. And therefore it will be done, and eventually, I bet, it will be done profitably.

Continue reading: The International Herald Tribune

The round metal building with its green dome looks only slightly out of place next to barns full of mooing cows. It takes up about a third of an acre, inconspicuous on the sprawling Scenic View Dairy farm, surrounded by dirt roads and acres of tasseled corn.

Inside, stinky manure from 3,500 cows and 9,400 pigs is being fermented and turned into electricity. What’s left afterward is a rich, dark pile of soft biofiber that looks like mulch and smells only faintly of its origins. It goes back into the barns as bedding for the cows. Liquid that is leftover is sprayed as fertilizer onto nearby corn, soy, alfalfa and wheat crops.

Continue reading: Freep.com

Four Michigan State University School of Packaging students have won the first-ever Recycle Glass Day YouTube video competition put on by the Glass Packaging Institute.

The institute, which serves as a trade association representing the North American glass container industry, will present the winning students with a total cash prize of $5,000 and will present MSU’s School of Packaging with a $5,000 prize, according to information from the institute.

Continue reading: lsj.com

If alternative energy development is the answer to the country’s economic woes — as President-elect Barack Obama and many others have suggested — then Muskegon’s future is looking bright.

The “wind turbine in a box” will be unwrapped at ACE Hardware stores across the country next May with a “made in Muskegon” tag. The product, inspired by the Grand Valley State University Energy Center and produced by local company EarthTronics, can save consumers electricity costs and is expected to generate about 100 local jobs that could balloon to many more.

“This can truly be a Michigan product,” said EarthTronics President Reg Adams of the turbines that are expected to begin production in early 2009. “This is Michigan’s to lose. Our plan is to do this right here in Muskegon.”

Continue reading: mlive.com

The winless Lions have failed to draft many players capable of being competitive in the NFL since 1998 — when Peyton Manning was drafted No. 1 — with their first-, second- and third-round selections.

Here’s a look at who the Lions took in the first three rounds over the past decade, with a note about how they panned out. They are listed in draft round order (overall selection in parentheses).

Check ‘em out at: Freep.com

The debate over aid to the Detroit-based automakers is awash with half-truths and misrepresentations that are endlessly repeated by everyone from members of Congress to journalists. Here are seven myths about the companies and their vehicles, and the reality in each case.

Continue reading: Freep.com

Lawrence Technological University is offering tuition discounts of 50% to displaced workers to help get Michigan’s economy moving again.

“The Recovery Starts Here package is an investment in the future of our state and nation, and the right thing to do,” LTU President Lewis N. Walker said today in unveiling the program.

“We believe this is the first comprehensive package of recovery initiatives set forth by any university in the nation. The recovery starts here and it must start with us. We invite other institutions throughout Michigan to join us. Together, we will succeed.”

Continue reading: WZZM13.com

Michigan ranks in the top tier of states for bicycle friendliness, the Michigan Department of Transportation says.

A recent survey by the League of American Bicyclists ranked the state well in its education efforts and in infrastructure available for cycling, putting the state at 12th in the nation. More info on the survey is available at http://www.bikeleague.org/programs/bicyclefriendlyamerica.

Continue reading: WZZM13.com

Mike Ilitch has the most brand power of any owner in professional sports. And the only owner with less in his home market than the Lions’ William Clay Ford Sr. was reviled for trying to uproot a franchise.

That’s according to the 2008 Turnkey Team Brand Index, a survey released Monday that uses scientific polling to pinpoint how teams and owners are perceived by local fans.

Continue reading: Freep.com

Mackinac Island ranks No. 6 in HGTV’s one-hour special, “Top Christmas Towns,” to air at 8 p.m. Dec. 7.

The cable network looked for unique holiday celebrations across the country and singled out 10. Mackinac gets the nod for its vintage Christmas feel, with horse and buggy rides and Santa visits with every child on the island to hear their Christmas wish.

Continue reading: Freep.com

With little fanfare, a new car factory opened in America earlier this month. The new Honda assembly plant in Greensburg, Ind., will produce 200,000 compact Civic models annually after reaching full capacity late next year. The contrast couldn’t be starker between Detroit’s woes and the continuing U.S. expansion of Japanese, German and Korean car companies — in both market share and manufacturing capacity. There are two American auto industries, one generally thriving and the other drastically shrinking.

Then there’s this….

For all the Pinto’s infamy, perhaps no car better captured America’s decade-long haplessness than the pug-ugly AMC Gremlin, which debuted in 1970 and died — mercifully — in 1980. The Gremlin’s shape, fittingly, was first sketched out by an American Motors designer on the back of a Northwest Airlines air-sickness bag. On Aug. 20, 1979, 18-year-old Brad Alty, fresh out of high school in Mechanicsburg, Ohio, was driving his Gremlin to work when the car broke down. He was two-and-a-half hours late to his first day on the job at a new motorcycle factory that Honda Motor was opening in central Ohio.

For the next few weeks, Mr. Alty and his 63 co-workers did little but sweep floors and paint them with yellow lines. Then they started building three to five motorcycles a day. And at the end of each day they would disassemble each bike, piece by piece, to evaluate the workmanship. Mr. Alty hated it, and he kept getting grief from his older brother for working for a Japanese company. “I thought I had made a mistake by going to work there,” he recalled recently. “It was like, ‘What the heck am I doing here?’ ”

But Mr. Alty stuck with it, and Honda stuck with him. Honda’s real goal was to build cars in America, but the motorcycle plant allowed it to test the mettle of American workers for a modest investment. The workers passed the test. Honda started building Accords in Ohio in November 1982. Ironically, some U.S. Honda dealers actually protested that they wanted to sell only Accords made in Japan. But the quality of the Ohio-made cars was soon confirmed.

Read it all: THE WALL STREET JOURNAL