The story shown below is from the March 13, 2015 Boone County Journal which is available free of cost at many Boone County merchants or on line at: http://www.boonecountyjournal.com/news/2015/Boone-County-News-03-13-15.pdf#page=1
Thursday, March 12, 2015
Fiat Chrysler CEO Says Combination With GM, Ford ‘Feasible’ - Bloomberg Business
(Bloomberg) -- Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV is open to a combination with General Motors Co. or Ford Motor Co., and said a deal with one of its larger U.S. counterparts would be “technically feasible.”
“We don’t have any restrictions,” Chief Executive Officer Sergio Marchionne said Thursday in an interview in Geneva. The condition for any deal is “saving the highest amount of capital” on developing new vehicles.
“There’s bantering that goes on all the time” he said, when asked about talks with GM and Ford. Still, there is “nothing substantive.”
Marchionne, the architect behind the merger that created Fiat Chrysler, has been a vocal proponent of consolidation in the auto industry. High costs for developing cleaner cars and adding self-driving features put pressure on traditional automakers, which also face the threat of new competition from the likes of Apple Inc. and Google Inc.
Marchionne sounded less enthusiastic about the potential of tying up with PSA Peugeot Citroen, doubting that the French manufacturer would solve London-based Fiat Chrysler’s problems. He also said he never had talks with Volkswagen AG executives about a combination.
Representatives of Ford and GM said they are focused on their own businesses.
“We have no other plan or interest other than continuing to accelerate our own One Ford plan,” said Susan Krusel, a spokeswoman for the Dearborn, Michigan-based automaker.
Said GM’s Tony Cervone: “We have our strategy and we are working on it. This is not worthy of a comment
Fiat Chrysler CEO Says Combination With GM, Ford ‘Feasible’ - Bloomberg Business
This Billionaire Governor Taxed the Rich and Increased the Minimum Wage -- Now, His State's Economy Is One of the Best in the Country | Carl Gibson
Co-Founder of US Uncut
The next time your right-wing family member or former high school classmate posts a status update or tweet about how taxing the rich or increasing workers' wages kills jobs and makes businesses leave the state, I want you to send them this article.
When he took office in January of 2011, Minnesota governor Mark Dayton inherited a $6.2 billion budget deficit and a 7 percent unemployment rate from his predecessor, Tim Pawlenty, the soon-forgotten Republican candidate for the presidency who called himself Minnesota's first true fiscally-conservative governor in modern history. Pawlenty prided himself on never raising state taxes -- the most he ever did to generate new revenue was increase the tax on cigarettes by 75 cents a pack. Between 2003 and late 2010, when Pawlenty was at the head of Minnesota's state government, he managed to add only 6,200 more jobs.
During his first four years in office, Gov. Dayton raised the state income tax from 7.85 to 9.85 percent on individuals earning over $150,000, and on couples earning over $250,000 when filing jointly -- a tax increase of $2.1 billion. He's also agreed to raise Minnesota's minimum wage to $9.50 an hour by 2018, and passed a state law guaranteeing equal pay for women. Republicans like state representative Mark Uglem warned against Gov. Dayton's tax increases, saying, "The job creators, the big corporations, the small corporations, they will leave. It's all dollars and sense to them." The conservative friend or family member you shared this article with would probably say the same if their governor tried something like this. But like Uglem, they would be proven wrong.
Between 2011 and 2015, Gov. Dayton added 172,000 new jobs to Minnesota's economy -- that's 165,800 more jobs in Dayton's first term than Pawlenty added in both of his terms combined. Even though Minnesota's top income tax rate is the 4th-highest in the country, it has the 5th-lowest unemployment rate in the country at 3.6 percent. According to 2012-2013 U.S. census figures, Minnesotans had a median income that was $10,000 larger than the U.S. average, and their median income is still $8,000 more than the U.S. average today.
By late 2013, Minnesota's private sector job growth exceeded pre-recession levels, and the state's economy was the 5th fastest-growing in the United States. Forbes even ranked Minnesota the 9th-best state for business (Scott Walker's "Open For Business" Wisconsin came in at a distant #32 on the same list). Despite the fearmongering over businesses fleeing from Dayton's tax cuts, 6,230 more Minnesotans filed in the top income tax bracket in 2013, just one year after Dayton's tax increases went through. As of January 2015, Minnesota has a $1 billion budget surplus, and Gov. Dayton has pledged to reinvest more than one third of that money into public schools. And according to Gallup, Minnesota's economic confidence is higher than any other state.
Gov. Dayton didn't accomplish all of these reforms by shrewdly manipulating people -- this article describes Dayton's astonishing lack of charisma and articulateness. He isn't a class warrior driven by a desire to get back at the 1 percent -- Dayton is a billionaire heir to the Target fortune. It wasn't just a majority in the legislature that forced him to do it -- Dayton had to work with a Republican-controlled legislature for his first two years in office. And unlike his Republican neighbor to the east, Gov. Dayton didn't assert his will over an unwilling populace by creating obstacles between the people and the vote -- Dayton actually created an online voter registration system, making it easier than ever for people to register to vote.
The reason Gov. Dayton was able to radically transform Minnesota's economy into one of the best in the nation is simple arithmetic. Raising taxes on those who can afford to pay more will turn a deficit into a surplus. Raising the minimum wage will increase the median income. And in a state where education is a budget priority and economic growth is one of the highest in the nation, it only makes sense that more businesses would stay.
It's official -- trickle-down economics is bunk. Minnesota has proven it once and for all. If you believe otherwise, you are wrong.
Manley's Belvidere Ford Lincoln to hold groundbreaking ceremony - News - Rockford Register Star - Rockford, IL
BELVIDERE — Manley's Belvidere Ford Lincoln will hold a public groundbreaking ceremony at 1 p.m. March 12 at their new location, 1800 N. State St.Work on the new building is expected to be completed by the summer.For information: 815-544-2138.
Vacant 10-story NDK tower in Belvidere, site of 2009 explosion, is coming down - News - Rockford Register Star - Rockford, IL
BELVIDERE — More than five years after a fatal pressure vessel explosion at NDK Crystal along Interstate 90 in Belvidere, the building's gutted 10-story production tower is finally coming down.Rockford-based Cord Construction Co. began dismantling the tower at 701 Crystal Parkway on Feb. 16. The $950,000 demolition project is expected to be completed by June 15."The whole tower is coming down," said Randy Fago, Cord Construction project manager and on-site superintendent. "It's such a tall structure we have to dismantle it in sections with a crane."Fago said that in addition to the tower, Cord will demolish 8,000 square feet of office and production space.NDK President Ken Hennessy would not go into detail about the company's decision to get rid of its production plant this year."The timing is appropriate to do it now," Hennessy said.On Dec. 7, 2009, superheated liquid escaped from inside a pressure vessel at the NDK plant, causing an explosion that sent thousands of pounds of debris soaring hundreds of feet from the building. An 8-by-4-foot, 8,600-pound vessel fragment flew 435 feet through two concrete ….
ComEd spokesman Paul Callighan set to retire, former Freeport mayor filling job - News - Rockford Register Star - Rockford, IL
Gaulrapp came to ComEd following a two-term stint as Freeport's mayor from 2005-2013. He previously served two terms as the city's first ward alderman while also working in the sales department for Erickson Dental Laboratory and Supply.Gaulrapp said he experienced a smooth transition to ComEd from city government, relying on his experiences as a northern Illinois native. He also is excited for the new challenge he'll encounter as the public face of the area's electrical supplier."I've been fortunate because the shift to ComEd kept me in contact with some of my friends who are mayors and aldermen in other communities," Gaulrapp said. "Having municipality experience has been great for working with the different city officials."When there are large events, it's important to get information out to the public as quickly as possible. I hope to do a great job like Paul did so that people throughout the area
Wednesday, March 11, 2015
Greece wants $236 billion in German World War II reparations
February 9, 2015
Athens: Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras says the country has a "moral obligation" to claim reparations from Germany for the damages wrought by the Nazis during World War II.
Greece had "a moral obligation to our people, to history, to all European peoples who fought and gave their blood against Nazism," he said in a key address to parliament.
Berlin has already sounded a firm "no" to requests for reparations nearly 70 years after the end of the war, but Mr Tsipras and his radical left party have vowed to tackle the issue. The issue risks aggravating already strained ties between Athens and Berlin, as Mr Tsipras bids to reverse austerity measures imposed by its international creditors.
"Our historical obligation is to claim the occupation loan and reparations," the new prime minister said, referring to Germany's four-year occupation of Greece and a war-time loan which the Third Reich forced the Greek central bank to give it, and which ruined the country financially.
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Mr Tsipras's anti-austerity Syriza party claims Germany owes it about around €162 billion ($236 billion), about or around half the country's public debt, which stands at over €315 billion. The loan to the Third Reich was for 476 million Reichsmarks, which was valued at $US8.25 billion in a 2012 German Bundestag lower house of Parliament report.
Mr Tsipras said on Sunday that his government would not seek an extension of a stringent bailout program and would carry out its campaign pledges to roll back austerity, but gradually.
In laying out his government's program in a speech before Parliament, Mr Tsipras sought to tread a line between satisfying coalition lawmakers and supporters that his government will honour the anti-austerity promises that brought it to power last month while reassuring creditors that his radical leftist administration is prepared to move towards a compromise that keeps the economy afloat without further burdening European taxpayers.
Greece's creditors - the European Commission, the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund - want the new government to seek an extension beyond February 28 of the European portion of the country's bailout of €240 billion. However, the government has said that despite dwindling cash reserves, it is not interested in the latest portion of the bailout, a loan of €7 billion, because of what it sees as onerous conditions. Instead, it has said it wants a program between now and the end of May to bridge the gap and permission to raise short-term funding by issuing treasury bills.
"We only have one commitment: to serve the interests of our people, the good of society," Mr Tsipras said, noting that it was an "irreversible decision" of his government to fulfil its campaign promises "in their entirety".
AFP, New York Times
Greece wants $236 billion in German World War II reparations
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