Slip back into fashion

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MORNING HOME DELIVERY NOW AVAILABLE. CALL (800) 395-3300
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Metro Edition
Monday, January 23, 2006
MOTOWN SHOWDOWN: STEELERS VS. SEAHAWKS
‘Bus’ comes home!
Detroit’s own
Bettis stars
in Super clash
of opposites
By Mike O’Hara
The Detroit News
A parking place is reserved for “The
Bus” and his Pittsburgh Steelers teammates for Feb. 5 at Ford Field in Detroit,
but they’ll have to drive through the Seattle Seahawks to win Super Bowl XL.
America’s grandest sports event, with
a television audience of some 140 SUPER BOWL
million
viewers
and a week of hype
that puts Detroit in COUNTDOWN
the nation’s eye,
will feature a Motor City jewel in Steelers
running back Jerome “The Bus” Bettis
from Detroit’s Mackenzie High School.
Detroit’s Super Bowl will be a match of
old-school football against new-age
America.
It is the Steelers and smashmouth
football from the Steel City, with four Super Bowl championships in their trophy
case, against the team from the Pacific
Northwest. Seattle has Starbucks, Microsoft and a magnificent version of the West
Coast offense that has propelled the Seahawks to their first Super Bowl appearance in franchise history.
A clash of opposites will provide ample fodder for two weeks of debate, and a
compelling game is in the offing. The vote
here is for the old school: Steelers 27, Seahawks 23.
Bettis, playing his first Super Bowl in
his hometown to cap a 13-year career that
is certain to land him in the Pro Football
Hall of Fame, will be the dominant storyline.
It began to play out moments after
Pittsburgh had quashed the Broncos.
XL
Daniel Mears / The Detroit News
Seattle’s Shaun Alexander
celebrates after running in a
touchdown for the Seahawks.
MORE INSIDE
‘THE BUS’ IS BACK
Bettis’ family can’t wait to see their
boy in hometown Super Bowl. 3A
STEELERS TAKE CHARGE
Pittsburgh’s Big Ben and Bus Show
makes Detroit stop for Big Game. 1D
SEATTLE SAILS THROUGH
Seahawks take the pounce out
of Panthers to dominate game. 1D
PARTIES SPICE UP WEEKEND
Fugees, Bow Wow, John Legend
to perform around Motown. 1E
MORE ONLINE
Debate the outcome in
Sports Talk.
Browse photo galleries.
View clips from past
Super Bowls.
Study stats galore: Injuries, odds.
CyberSurvey: Who will take it all?
Go to detnews.com/superbowl.
Dale G. Young / The Detroit News
Steelers running back Jerome Bettis will play his first Super Bowl in his hometown. “Tell them I’m coming home,” Bettis told reporters
after his team dismantled the Denver Broncos. “Tell them we’re going to the Super Bowl."
Top secret
Ford plan:
Recyclable
vehicles
Could Big Beaver be the next downtown?
entertainment will help transform
the business district from what is
Troy civic leaders hope that two major projects along Big Beaver Road — the already a vibrant hub of activity to a
Monarch and the redevelopment of the former Kmart headquarters — will
district some say could rival the stotransform the corridor into a place where people can live, work, eat and shop.
ried thoroughfares of American reTOWN CENTER
Former Kmart Somerset
tailing and commerce. Those devel75
BANMOOR
headquarters Collection
opments are planned at the former
By Joe Menard
CUNNINGHAM
Kmart Corp. headquarters, and at
The Detroit News
the so-called Monarch site nearby.
MAP AREA
W. BIG BEAVER
TROY — National City Bank
Not everyone is thrilled with
MACOMB
OAKLAND
moved its employees out of RochesBUTTERFIELD
more development.
GOLFVIEW
Troy
Civic
ter, Warren, Birmingham and Royal
Proposed
“Thirty years ago, I could drive
Center
Detroit
N
Oak and established its Michigan
Monarch
KIRTS
WAYNE
anywhere
in Troy in 10 minutes.
development
headquarters at the former Top of
1 / 4 M I LE
Now it takes me 10 minutes just to
Troy building last year because
The Detroit News get off my street,” said James Savleaders wanted to be on Big Beaver,
where the action is.
ibility, and from a proximity stand- tion of two large developments age, a 75-year-old Troy resident who
“It’s the total package,” said Ted point, it’s just easy for our employ- along Big Beaver stand to turn the moved here from Royal Oak 30
years ago to escape the urban lifeParker, president and CEO of the ees.”
district into what City Manager
company’s Michigan operations at
Other commercial centers in John Szerlag calls “downtown style.
the renamed National City Center. Metro Detroit are bustling and Southeast Michigan.”
“This location provides us great vis- growing, too, but the probable addiCity leaders believe housing and Please see Big Beaver, Page 5A
company’s spirit of innovation.
“The goal is to help us do with
products what we did with manufacturing at the Rouge Plant,” said
Ford spokesman Jon Pepper, referring to the $2 billion environmentally friendly makeover of the
Dearborn industrial complex.
Please see Ford, Page 5A
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left out in the cold. 1B
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24/7 at
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LIVERNOIS
MC CLURE
ALPINE
LAKEVIEW
TROY CENTER
Time
Ford Motor Co.’s restructuring
strategy has captured attention
— Time magazine’s cover story
this week features Bill Ford Jr.’s
plans for the automaker.
CROOKS
The Detroit News
COOLIDGE HWY.
Big Beaver revitalization
GOLFVIEW
Metro leaders hope
redeﬁning Troy corridor
will breathe life into
Southeast Michigan.
By Bryce G. Hoffman
While Ford Motor Co. will capture the attention of the nation today when it announces a major
corporate downsizing, the automaker also has begun a secret research project in hopes of producing recyclable, environmentally
friendly cars of the future.
The effort — known internally
as the “Piquette Project,” after
Ford’s famed Piquette Avenue factory in Detroit where the Model T
was developed nearly a century
ago — was launched last year by
Chairman and CEO Bill Ford Jr. as
part of his campaign to revive the
Please see Super Bowl, Page 3A
Toyota’s standing
among dealers is best
in the business. 1C
INSIDE
••
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Classified .......1G
Comics .......6-7E
Crossword.....7E
EDITORIALS: OUR OPINIONS
Deaths ...........5B
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Features .........1E
Horoscope ....6E
Lottery ...........2A
Metro ..............1B
Money&Life...3C
Movies............2E
Newsmakers.5E
Next! ...............4E
Obituaries .....5B
Opinions.........7A
Sports ...........1D
TV....................5E
Weather.........6B
America should not flinch from
the use of force if necessary to
prevent Iran from gaining nuclear
weapons. 6A
Super Bowl buzz
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METRO 1B
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From parties to the game, get the inside scoop
Metro Edition
Tuesday, January 24, 2006
PAINFUL
FORD SLASHES 28% OF ITS WORK FORCE IN SWEEPING BID TO SAVE ITSELF
IMPACT AT A GLANCE
By Bill Vlasic
and Bryce G. Hoffman
The Detroit News
DANIEL HOWES
Automaker’s
‘way forward’
isn’t a clear
path after all
EARBORN — The anxiety
was supposed to end Monday.
Michigan and Ford Motor
Co.’s employees expected to get all the
answers, to know which plants would
close and which would survive, which
executives would get axed and which
ones wouldn’t, which communities
would bear the brunt of yet another
automotive retrenchment and yet another hit to their tax bases.
But questions about Ford’s “way
forward” restructuring are only beginning for an automaker whose
grand vision of where it wants to be by
the end of the decade begs two words
in response — “show us.”
“I recognize,” Mark Fields, Ford’s
president of the Americas, told me in
an interview Monday evening, the
open questions in the “way forward”
plan “continue to add a level of stress
to the organization” often referred to
as an extended family. “What family
also understands is if we attack the issue head on and we do it with tough
love.”
In theory, perhaps. But this is
Ford’s second major North American
overhaul in four years amid strong economic times and confirmation of
just how small it thinks it must get to
prosper. Among the nagging questions still hanging out there:
D
Please see Howes, Page 4A
DCX plans its
own shake-up
DaimlerChrysler AG CEO Dieter
Zetsche plans to streamline the
Stuttgart, Germany-based automaker, shifting some responsibilities
from the parent company to the
Chrysler Group and Mercedes-Benz
operating divisions.
Around 5,000 administrative and
other white-collar jobs, most of them
in Germany, are likely to be eliminated as part of the changes. But the Auburn Hills-based Chrysler Group is
likely to be spared deep cuts.
See report, 1C
David Coates / The Detroit News
A worker leaves Ford’s Wixom assembly plant at lunchtime Monday. Many of the plant’s 1,567 workers hope they’ll be able to
transfer to another Ford plant once the automaker’s largest North American factory closes.
PLANTS
14
factories to be closed by 2008
Employee Venessa Seldon talks with
her daughter about the cuts.
PEOPLE
25,000-30,000
blue-collar job cuts, by 2012
4,000
■ Wixom assembly, 1,567 workers
■ St. Louis assembly, 1,445 workers
■ Atlanta assembly, 2,028 workers
■ Windsor casting, 684 workers
■ Batavia, Ohio, transmission, 1,745
workers
■ Two more assembly plants will
be targeted for closing by year-end
and seven more factories will be
identified later.
■ A new, low-cost assembly plant
will be built.
■ St. Thomas, Ontario, plant will be
cut to one shift.
No shock for
Wixom, but end
is tough to take
Ford will keep investing in products
like the Reflex concept that take the
company into new market segments.
PRODUCT
■ More emphasis on hybrids, small
cars and crossover vehicles
PRICING
■ Retail prices will be cut as new
models debut, and rebates will be
reduced
salaried job cuts by end of March
6-7
PURCHASING
top corporate officers cut
by end of March
$6 billion
reduction
material
Reduce
materialinand
purchasing
and purchasing
costs bycosts
2010by 2010
PRODUCTION
1.2 million
PROFITS
fewer vehicles produced annually in
North America by end of 2008
DEARBORN — Ford Motor Co. is staking its future on the success of a gutwrenching restructuring of its North American operations that will dramatically
downsize the No. 2 U.S. automaker.
Mired in one of the deepest crises in its
102-year history, Ford on Monday unveiled
its long-awaited “way forward” plan to
slash up to 30,000 manufacturing jobs, cut
4,000 salaried employees and shutter 14
factories — including its assembly plant in
Wixom.
“These cuts are a painful last resort, and
I’m deeply mindful of their impact,” Chairman and CEO Bill Ford said. “They’re going
to affect many lives, many families, and
many communities.”
The restructuring plan is Ford’s most determined effort yet to stem deep losses in
North America and beat back surging foreign automakers. Even so, some investors
and analysts said Ford left key questions
unanswered Monday and they remain
skeptical that the automaker is moving
quickly and aggressively enough.
Ford’s announcement was another staggering blow to the traditional American auto industry, coming on the heels of the
bankruptcy of auto-parts giant Delphi
Corp. and moves by General Motors Corp.
to cut 30,000 of its own hourly workers and
close 10 plants.
Charles V. Tines / The Detroit News
■ Make North American auto operations profitable by 2008
“These cuts are a painful last resort,”
says Chairman and CEO Bill Ford Jr.
By Nick Bunkley, Josee Valcourt
and Louis Aguilar
The Detroit News
WIXOM — Closing factories and cutting jobs may be Ford Motor Co.’s only hope
for a secure future. But for the tens of thousands of workers in Wixom, St. Louis, Atlanta and beyond who will lose their livelihoods, the automaker’s survival plan translates into uncertainty and fear about their
own prospects.
The news didn’t come as a surprise to
many who learned their fate Monday when
the automaker announced plans to close
five factories by 2008 and another nine by
2012, but that didn’t make it any easier to
stomach.
“The hardest part for most of us is that
we were the No. 1 plant in safety and quality
Please see Wixom, Page 4A
6 PAGES INSIDE
WHITE-COLLAR WAIT
WIXOM WINCES
QUESTIONS REMAIN
STOCKS RALLY
NEXT STEP
About 4,000 salaried jobs
will be cut before April.
4A
Shops, restaurants that
rely on plant take a hit.
1B
Ford is still deciding which
additional sites it will close.
1C
Despite fourth-quarter
bump, Ford’s profits down.
3C
O’Connor: Workers must
act fast to save finances.
6A
TUESDAY’S WEATHER
High 40 Low 24
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in the 6-county
metro area.
INSIDE
••
Bridge.............6F
Business ........1C
Calendar ........4F
Comics........6-7F
CYBERSURVEY
Will this finally be enough?
Go to AutosInsider.com.
Crossword.....7F
Deaths ...........5B
Editorials .......8A
Features .........1F
Health .............1H
Horoscope.....6F
Lottery ...........2A
Metro ..............1B
Movies............2F
Newsmakers.5F
Opinions ........9A
Parenting .......4F
Sports ............1D
TV....................5F
Weather.........6B
Ford must follow through on its
announced plans to dramatically
change the way it does business
to prevent future layoffs. 8A
Great outdoors
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SPORTS 8D
Metro Edition
Wednesday, January 25, 2006
Election
cash is
diverted
Geeks Grit
to kin
SUPER BOWL
XL COUNTDOWN
vs
It’s a tale
of two cities
Official nicknames
Pittsburgh: Steel City
Seattle: Emerald City
Pittsburgh: The Mellons
Seattle: The Gateses
City councilwoman
loans thousands of
dollars to husband;
pays for birthday party.
Food and
drink
By David Josar
and Lisa M. Collins
First families
Pittsburgh:
Clark bar,
Heinz Ketchup
Seattle: Starbucks, braised
tuna
The Detroit News
Inventions
Pittsburgh: Banana split, bingo,
road map, pull-tab cans
Seattle: Mass-marketed
down vests, water skis,
dialysis machines
Iconic movie
Pittsburgh: Zombie classic
“Night of the Living Dead”
Seattle: “Singles”
Seattle street performer David McKesson plays some Black Sabbath music in front of the original Starbucks
in the Pike Place market. Many consider the market the soul of the city.
What’s hotter: Football or culture clash?
By Joel Kurth
and Francis X. Donnelly
Pittsburgh: Carhartt work
jackets and baseball caps
Seattle: Eddie
Bauer
parkas
and
umbrellas
Alberta Tinsley-Talabi’s use of
donor cash needs “explaining,”
a state spokeswoman says.
LOWDOWN ON SPENDING
Campaign bills go beyond signs,
T-shirts and consultants. 11A
of five years of campaign finance reports.
For instance:
Her disclosure statement
said she gave a $200 loan to her
brother, and a $4,000 loan to
her husband, which were not
fully documented. Although
candidates frequently make
Please see Cash, Page 11A
Music
The Detroit News
One city sees its beloved football team as a reflection of itself. The other city’s most ardent
fans acknowledge they’re not sure exactly what
a “seahawk” looks like.
When Pittsburgh and Seattle meet in Super
Bowl XL, the 2,500 miles and three time zones
that separate the cities may seem as big as the
galaxy. More than any other Super Bowl in recent memory, the Feb. 5 contest is a clash between two versions of American culture and
lifestyle.
The Steelers and Seahawks are more than
just about East vs. West. They’re smokestacks
vs. silicon chips. Whiskey and porterhouse vs.
soy iced lattes and squid tempura. Perry Como
vs. Pearl Jam. Football as religion vs. football as
a nice diversion if the team is winning and salmon aren’t running.
“We’re, like, opposites,” said Andy Kay, 55, a
Pittsburgh resident who runs a Steelers souvenir shop near the team’s Heinz Field.
Please see Two cities, Page 6A
Fashion flair
Detroit City Councilwoman
Alberta Tinsley-Talabi has
made loans from her campaign war chest to relatives
and failed to provide full
documentation for those
and other transactions, raising questions about her use of
political donations, according
to a Detroit News review of
campaign finance records.
Tinsley-Talabi says she has
done nothing wrong, and Michigan election law gives candidates substantial leeway in how
they can use donations that
aren’t spent on campaigning.
But her use of campaign
funds for personal expenditures and transactions with
family members far exceeds
that of her peers on the City
Council, according to a review
FORD’S PAINFUL PLAN
Pittsburgh: Christina Aguilera,
Perry Como,
Henry Mancini
Seattle: Jimi
Hendrix, Kurt
Cobain,
Kenny G
Source: Detroit News research
SECURITY TIGHT
By Bryce G. Hoffman
FBI, Detroit Police will be
on guard. 1B
DCX TO CUT 6,000 JOBS
The Detroit News
Automaker plans to centralize
group operations. 1C
CYBERSURVEY
Darrell Sapp / Pittsburgh Post Gazette
Make no mistake, Pittsburgh loves the team that gave it four
championships. Businesses close early on Sundays for
Steelers games, leaving normally crowded streets empty.
If Bill Cowher
coached the
Lions, what would
the team be like?
Find it all at
detnews.com/superbowl/
IN OTHER NEWS
Mercedes S550 is one $100,000
high-tech marvel. 1F
Student, 14, will be tried for
attempted murder in pool incident. 1B
WEDNESDAY’S WEATHER
High 32 Low 20
24/7 at
detnews.com.
Weather, 6B
50¢
30¢ home delivery
in the 6-county
metro area.
Ford shakes up
sales operations
INSIDE
DEARBORN
—
The
sweeping job cuts and factory
closures planned at Ford Motor
Co. have little chance of returning the company to prosperity if
it can’t put the brakes on a 10year U.S. market share slide.
Ford outlined a new strategy
Monday to blitz the market with
small cars, hybrids and crossovers, while tempering its reliance on truck-based SUVs and
profit-eating incentives.
On Tuesday, Ford followed
up with the announcement that
its top North American sales
and marketing executive, Steve
Lyons, is leaving in March after
••
Bridge ............6E
Business ........1C
Comics .......6-7E
Crossword.....7E
FORD LAUNCHES AD
New TV commercial echoes
restructuring plan. 1C
less than a year in the position,
part of a broader reshuffling of
executives.
Lyons, 57, will be succeeded
by Cisco Codina, 54, who is currently in charge of Ford’s customer service division.
Codina, a veteran sales executive, is stepping into one the
toughest jobs in Detroit.
Deaths .......4-5B
Drive................1F
Editorials......12A
Horoscope ....6E
In The News ..2A
Lottery ...........2A
Metro ..............1B
Movies............2E
Newsmakers.5E
Opinions.......13A
Sports ............1D
TV....................4E
Weather.........6B
Gov. Granholm’s new plan to give
college scholarships to students
who perform well on state tests
is a welcome move. 12A
U-M
upsets
MSU
Sports, 1D
Super Bowl
replica tickets.
Coupon inside, 5D
Metro Edition
Thursday, January 26, 2006
SUPER BOWL
XL COUNTDOWN
GOD of SOD
Granholm
pushes
401(k)s
RETIREMENT: Add state-run 401(k)
Small-company employees without
a pension plan could sock money away.
EDUCATION: Hike college incentives
Students who complete two years of college
could receive $4,000 Merit Scholarship.
JOBS: Raise minimum wage
Workers could earn at least $6.85 an hour,
up $1.70, if governor gets lawmakers to agree.
By Mark Hornbeck
and Charlie Cain
Detroit News Lansing Bureau
Crews made up of groundskeepers from various NFL teams paint the Super Bowl XL logo onto Ford Field. Each year, the NFL brings the
all-stars of the profession together to make the Super Bowl field immaculate.
He brings his 40 years of
turf expertise to Ford Field
H
The Detroit News
LAURA BERMAN
Since the weather outside isn’t frightful, men such as Martin
Gemme and their snow machines blitz the Winter Blast. 1B
OPERATION GRIDIRON
What is the NFL up to?
If you’re selling fake game
items, you’ll find out soon. 1B
FOOTBALL WIDOWERS
Not all men have sports
in their blood. 1E
MORE ONLINE
COMING
SUNDAY
Your guide
to fun during
Super Bowl
week
See what they’re
saying on Pittsburgh
and Seattle Web sites.
Find it all at
detnews.com/superbowl.
24/7 at
detnews.com.
Weather, 6B
50¢
Please see Granholm, Page 8A
30¢ home delivery
in the 6-county
metro area.
Metro Detroiters shocked by the
size of their heating bills this winter will find another surprise when
the next one arrives.
But this time, it’s good news.
Michigan utilities are reducing
their natural gas rates because
warmer-than-normal
temperatures across the country have
caused wholesale prices to fall. The
mild weather also means Metro
Detroit homeowners are using significantly less gas.
“The weather’s been great,” said
Timothy Wright, a chef at the Detroit Athletic Club who’s been Please see Heat bills, Page 3A
IN OTHER NEWS
“World’s gone crazy,”
says mom of teen who
was attacked in pool. 1B
Kerkorian snaps up
more GM stock. 1C
Please see Berman, Page 6A
THURSDAY’S WEATHER
High 38 Low 28
lawmakers to increase the state’s
minimum wage by $1.70 to $6.85
an hour on Jan. 1, 2007, and, barring that, vowed to lead a ballot
proposal campaign this fall.
Granholm acknowledged that
families are being hurt by the
state’s sluggish economy, but offered no sweeping new plans to
create jobs. Measures approved
last year by the Legislature must
be given time to work, she said.
“Wherever we live in Michigan, we know that as our auto industry struggles in this global
economy, our people feel that pain
more than any other state in the
country,” the 46-year-old firstterm governor said.
working overtime to cover his family’s rising expenses. His most recent bill from the Michigan Consolidated Gas Co. was $270.
“We’ve been lucky,” said Wright,
who lives in St. Clair Shores. “This
time last year, we were freezing.”
On average, a MichCon customer will be charged about $232 in
February, $77 less than expected.
That’s more than last winter but is
still a considerable savings for
those scrambling to make ends
meet in Michigan’s sluggish economy.
About $7.70 of that savings is at-
By Nick Bunkley
knows more than he does,” says Dan
Jarosehevich, sports event director
for Ford Field.
Although he’s officially “retired,”
Toma is in year-round demand as a
consultant. He was on his way to New
Orleans, hired to work on Tulane University’s baseball field, when Hurricane Katrina hit. There was a stint in
Hawaii working on the Pro Bowl. And
now this three-week stint as groundskeeping consultant for the NFL and
Super Bowl XL, which is also his
40th.
“I’m a working consultant,” he
says, opening two small but powerful
hands, the fingers edged with calluses, the nails polyethylene clean.
He uses sandpaper to keep the calluses smooth.
Unlike members of the two teams
GOP skeptical of governor’s plans,
say they are short on specifics. 8A
Milder weather
cuts heating bills
MORE INSIDE
e started out as a nitty-gritty
dirt man and became the undisputed king of playing
fields.
Now he’s on duty at Ford Field, a
compact, wiry figure in NFL colors,
calling out encouragement to the turf
troops, all 23 of them.
From Heather Nabozny, the Detroit Tigers’ head
groundskeeper, to
Dan Leblanc, a former New Hampshire truck driver
plucked from obscurity to Super Bowl
dirt duty, the all-star
team of turf specialists now plying Ford
Toma
Field with perfectionist fingers owes its elite professional status to one man.
George Toma: sports legend, dirtand-grass impresario. He’s come up
the long way, from the simple days of
seed to the middle years of sod and
then to the modern art of artificial
turf. At almost 76, Toma is now a major league fake-and-real-dirt deity,
the God of Sod.
He was there when the Lions first
installed artificial turf. “Nobody
LANSING — Tens of thousands of Michigan employees who
have no retirement plan could invest in a state-run 401(k) program
under a proposal
unveiled Wednesday night by Gov.
Jennifer
Granholm in her annual statewide address.
The governor,
in her fourth State
of the State mess- Granholm
age, also proposed
providing health care coverage to
a half-million uninsured working
poor, rearranging the Merit Scholarship program to award $4,000
to students who complete two
years of college, and removing
state limits on controversial stem
cell research. She renewed a call to
REPUBLICANS ON ATTACK
INSIDE
••
Bridge ............6E
Business ........1C
Classified .......1F
Comics .......6-7E
Crossword.....7E
Deaths ...........5B
Eats & Drinks 1G
Editorials......18A
Horoscope ....6E
Lottery ...........2A
Metro ..............1B
Movies............2E
Newsmakers.5E
Opinions.......19A
Sports ............1D
Stocks............4C
TV....................5E
Weather.........6B
A Republican plan to loosen
requirements of a proposed tough
state high school curriculum will
harm students. 18A
Super Bowl
replica tickets.
Labor Voices:
Schools need
cash. 11A
Coupon inside, 8D
Metro Edition
Friday, January 27, 2006
SIMPLY STAGGERING
XL COUNTDOWN
Cops round up suspected felons before Big Game. 1B
SUPER BOWL
GM loses
$8.6B
Takes hit
for layoffs, Delphi
Promises better 2006
By Bill Vlasic
And Brett Clanton
Detroit News
photo illustration
Rouge:
Ford cars
or no spot
in the lot
The truck factory,
which hosts tours, is the
automaker’s only plant
to set rule for workers.
By Bryce G. Hoffman
The Detroit News
DEARBORN — Plant manager Rob Webber delivered a
blunt message to workers at Ford
Motor Co.’s Dearborn Truck factory this week: If you work at
Ford, you better drive a Ford.
Otherwise, park across the street
and walk.
The new policy at Dearborn
Truck, the modern centerpiece of
the famed Rouge industrial complex and the site of popular factory tours, comes as Ford officials
have been exhorting workers to
rally behind the automaker’s
massive turnaround effort.
Losing money and sales in
North America, Ford on Monday
announced plans to close as
many as 14 plants and cut up to
30,000 blue-collar workers.
“It was something this plant
manager took upon himself. It’s
not a companywide policy,” said
Ford spokeswoman Anne Marie
Gattari, adding that Ford supported the decision, which was
made in consultation with local
union leaders.
Beginning next Wednesday,
only vehicles manufactured by
The Detroit News
SUPERMOM
These days, Jerome’s
mother is everywhere
Please see GM, Page 9A
UNION GETS DELPHI UPDATE
UAW leaders at the supplier will hear
about the bail-out talks. 1C
Brandy Baker / The Detroit News
CYBERSURVEY
Is it fair for the Dearborn
Truck Plant to ban all
non-Ford vehicles from its
parking lot? Vote and
comment at
AutosInsider.com.
IN OTHER NEWS
Howes:
Taubman is
bullish on
Detroit. 1C
Has
Michigan
really gained 99,000
jobs? 1B
Members-only
stores boast big
bargains. 1E
DETROIT — General Motors
Corp. closed the books Thursday on
a miserable 2005, but in the process
took major steps toward downsizing
its North American auto operations
and resolving its long-term pension
obligations at bankrupt Delphi
Corp.
GM’s staggering $8.6 billion
loss last year was
the second-worst
in its history, underscoring the automaker’s dismal
performance in
the U.S. market Wagoner
and its crippling
problems with health care costs and
excess factories.
But the huge loss was due in part
to $3.6 billion in charges taken in
the fourth quarter to fund the cost of
factory closures and long-term pension and benefit obligations to former GM workers employed at Delphi.
The Delphi-related charge was
the first evidence that GM and the
United Auto Workers have made
progress in talks to provide a socalled “soft landing” for thousands
of Delphi workers whose jobs are on
the line in bankruptcy.
GM also disclosed that it is in discussions with the UAW on “an accelerated attrition program” that could
pave the way for a wave of early retirements in its hourly work force.
Since her son has made it into the Super Bowl, Gladys Bettis, mother of Pittsburgh Steelers running back Jerome Bettis, has made the rounds
on television shows and is even recognized by strangers, all of which she takes in stride. “I don’t need a change,” she says of the new fame.
ladys Bougart had eight
brothers, and to them, she
was more than a sister. She
was a tackling dummy.
They played rough, and she
hated it. They used her dolls as
footballs, and she hated that even
more. “When I grow up,” she
told herself, “my boys are
not going to play football.”
Which is funny to think of
now, because at age 33, her
younger son still does.
Gladys Bougart grew up
to marry Johnnie Bettis,
G
the boy next door in Detroit. Their
third child grew up and out to become Jerome (The Bus) Bettis of
the Pittsburgh Steelers.
Between them, Gladys & Son
have become the Official FeelGood Story of Super Bowl XL. He’s
a solid running back and an
even more solid citizen coming home to play what might
be his last game. She’s the
lively, camera-ready and
utterly
unaffected
mom who helped
mold him into an NFL Man of the
Year.
“It’s been our life,” Gladys Bettis says, “following Jerome.” And
with the full media onslaught still
to come, the nation is following
her.
Monday morning, she was in
New York for a segment on
ESPN2’s “Cold Pizza.” She flew
back to Detroit that afternoon,
then zipped off to Pittsburgh on
Tuesday to tape a commercial for
WHAT’S THE BUZZ?
See what other cities have
to say about Detroit. 6A
MICHIGAN MISSED OUT
Bettis could’ve been a Wolverine,
opted for Notre Dame. 3D
COMING SUNDAY
Your guide to fun during
Super Bowl week
Please see Super mom, Page 6A
NEAL RUBIN
The scouting report on Gladys Bettis
Less-famous kids: Kimberly, 39,
a student who works for a staffing
company, and John, 37, a mortgage banker.
Newest grandchild: Jada,
daughter of Jerome and fiancee
Trameka Boykin. Jada turns 1 on
FRIDAY’S WEATHER
High 46 Low 34
Saturday. Boykin has a degree in
child development. “I love her,”
Gladys says.
Most honest admission: To the
TV producer who wired her for
sound at the Steelers’ last game.
“I curse,” she warned. “We edit,”
24/7 at
detnews.com.
Weather, 6B
50¢
he said.
Super Bowl tickets: Forget it.
Jerome had 15 and they’ve all been
distributed to family.
Omen: “Feb. 5 is the 36th day of the
year. Does everyone know what my
son’s uniform number is?”
30¢ home delivery
in the 6-county
metro area.
INSIDE
By Gregg Krupa
The Detroit News
They approach a long-festering
dispute from opposite ends of the
debate, but Jews and Palestinians
in Metro Detroit were both asking
the same question Thursday: Can
Hamas change?
Hamas, the militant Islamist
group that has repeatedly
launched attacks against Israeli citizens, won a stunning victory in
elections in the occupied territories Wednesday, claiming as many
as 76 seats in the 132-seat Palestinian parliament.
The win by Hamas, which has
pledged to eliminate the state of Israel, leaves them with thin hope —
perhaps only a prayer — that Hamas will somehow change its
stripes, several Jews said.
Please see Hamas, Page 5A
Outlook for peace cloudy. 4A
••
Bridge.............4E
Business ........1B
Class Index..10G
Comics .......4-5E
Crossword ....5E
In Detroit,
some ask
if Hamas
can change
Deaths ...........5B
Editorials .....10A
Homefinder....1G
Horoscope ....4E
Lottery ...........2A
Metro ..............1B
Movies........2-5F
Obituaries .4-5B
Opinions........11A
Sports ............1D
Stocks............4C
TV....................2E
Weather.........6B
Weekend.........1F
Gov. Granholm has revealed
herself to be a big-government
Democrat who wants a caretaker
state. 10A
Metro Edition
SUNDAY, JANUARY 29, 2006
Rise&shine, Detroit!
It’s the ﬁnal
countdown
for the city’s
big moment
Payoff ’s
big, but
sun cities
get more
By Joel Kurth
The Detroit News
By Louis Aguilar
The Detroit News
DETROIT — Rappers will
be a dime a dozen, and everybody from George Clooney to Microsoft founder Bill Gates is expected to swoop in for Super
Bowl weekend in Motown.
But the glittery crowd won’t
be as big — and won’t stay as long
— as when Super Bowls are hosted in sun-drenched cities like
San Diego, Miami or even Jacksonville, Fla.
Super Bowl XL will undeniably be a financial boon for Metro
Detroit, but more realistic economic impact estimates show
that winter weather and Detroit’s lack of tourist trappings
may put a $40 million chill on
the big money payoff the region
had expected from the event.
The
National
Football
League’s championship game
and the frenzy that accompanies
it likely will pump $262 million
or less into Metro Detroit’s economy, said David Allardice, the
Lawrence Technological University professor who authored an
economic impact study in 2003
for Detroit’s Super Bowl host
committee.
Super Bowl boosters had
hoped to at least match the $302
million windfall that a warmweather city like San Diego typically reaps.
Chad Tollefson sets up the framework of a huge tent that will run down Woodward at the Motown Winter Blast. Most Detroiters,
entrepreneurs and bystanders alike express cautious optimism about the city’s preparedness for the Feb. 5 Super Bowl.
Please see Payoff, Page 14A
Todd McInturf / The Detroit News
YOUR TICKET TO FUN
Come back to The News every day
this week to win hot tickets to cool
Super Bowl parties.
Ron Wirsgalla moves boxes into the Gem Theatre, right across from
Ford Field, where comedian Jimmy Kimmel will air his talk show.
Well, Detroit, this is it.
Gulp.
Ready or not, the world’s eyes
turn here with the arrival today
and Monday of the Seattle Seahawks and Pittsburgh Steelers for
Super Bowl XL on Feb. 5 at Ford
Field.
After four years of plans, $1 billion in investments and commitments from 9,000 volunteers, this
week — unlike any other in recent
history — could shape whether
Detroit is regarded nationally as a
renaissance city or, as one critic
wrote, America’s own Baghdad.
“Detroit is going to prove the
world wrong,” said Maurice Morton, a former Wayne County prosecutor scrambling to open a
lounge near Campus Martius by
Tuesday.
“There’s going to be a thousand
events every night, a party like
we’ve never seen. It’s just unfortunate that if visitors venture off the
main corridors, the blight will
turn them off.”
Most agree downtown hasn’t
looked so good in decades, but it’s
surrounded by some of the nation’s grittiest slums. It’s a contrast that has the city acting like
frenzied bridesmaids throwing
silk seat covers on metal folding
chairs the night before a wedding.
In this case, the event will be
broadcast to up to 1 billion worldwide viewers and attended by
100,000 visitors, A-list celebrities
and 3,000 reporters.
“It’s coming down to the wire,
but I don’t think it would come together any other way,” said Todd
Steve Facione, right, wearing a black jacket, shows Winter Blast
volunteers new directional signs set up to guide visitors.
Please see Party, Page 13A
MORE ONLINE
Audio: Reporters detail the top
parties.
Photos: The
city gets ready.
Web links: Hot
pages in Pittsburgh, Seattle.
Odds: The bets, the latest line.
Forums: Who will win, and by how
much?
Go to detnews.com/superbowl.
MORE INSIDE
KIDS SCORE
FUN POINTS
BIRTH OF
A LEGEND
NFL pros host
1,000 area youths
at clinic, a Super
Bowl tradition. 1B
Their win at ’82
Super Bowl
launched 49ers’
legacy. 1C
HOSPITALITY
GETS HOT
Eateries, hotels,
limo services are
ready for their
close-up. 1D
Metro hospitals put hearts into cardiac care
The Detroit News
$1.50
Health System, artery-opening angioplasties are done in less than 90
minutes. Beaumont Hospital in
Royal Oak offers a posh cardiovascular center just for women. And at
Providence Hospital’s new heart
center in Southfield, patients’ families can watch procedures on a
$1.25 with seven-day
home delivery
in the Metro area
Recycled newsprint is used to print
The Detroit News and Free Press.
delivery call: (313) 222-6500.
computer screen in the waiting
room.
The rivalry means more potentially lifesaving options for the nearly 62 million people nationally who
suffer from some form of heart disPlease see Heart, Page 8A
Michigan residents may have
to shell out more to hunt, fish. 1B
➤
lets.
The intense competition has
Cardiac care has become Metro hospitals scrambling to stake claim
Detroit’s latest health care battle- to being the best choice for the fasground as hospitals spend millions test, most high-tech advances in
on doctors, technology and gleam- cardiac care, long the most profiting new buildings designed to woo able arena in medicine.
heart-sick patients and their walAt Detroit-based Henry Ford
By Sharon Terlep
IN OTHER NEWS
Retiring columnist George Weeks
reflects on politics, people. 17A ➤
Ford retirees challenge
firm’s health care deal with
UAW. 1D
••
Business..............1D
Class Index ..........1N
Deaths ................4B
Editorials ...........18A
Horoscope ...........3N
Ideas .................17A
Lottery ................2A
Metro ..................1B
Money & Life........3D
N.Y. Times
Crossword ..........19A
Obituary...............5B
Sports..................1C
Stocks.................4D 132nd year, No.160
Weather...............6B ©The Detroit News
Printed in USA
Mitch Albom ..........1F
Books ...................4F
Crossword ............2N
Ron Dzwonkowski ..2F
Editorials...............2F
Entertainment........1K
Game On! .............8K
Horoscope ...TV Book
Jumble .................4N
Vol. 175,
Movie Guide ..........7K
No. 270
Real Estate .......1G, 1J
© 2006
Sound Judgment....4K Detroit Free Press Inc.
Sunday ..................1F Printed in the
The Way We Live ..1M United States

Slip back into fashion

Transcription

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