2009 News Picture Story - Second

John Tully

D Town Auto

Jim Fouts, the Mayor of Warren, Mich., recently launched a “Buy American” campaign from his office across the street from the General Motors plant that employs about 30,000 of the city’s residents. “GM is the heart of Warren,” he said, adding that if the plant goes down, the Detroit suburb will soon follow. Despite the collapse of the economy into a recession with Michigan reaching a national high of 15% unemployed, automakers had a presence at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit pushing incentives for new energy efficient cars as laid off auto workers protested outside.