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By Jacob Wheeler
Apollo News Service

Chattanooga, TN - Twenty years ago, under popular mayor Gene Roberts, Chattanooga launched an effort to rejuvenate its deteriorating downtown. In 1992, the city opened what at the time was the world’s largest freshwater aquarium. That same year, the Chattanooga Area Regional Transportation Authority (CARTA) opened an electric transit vehicle (ETV) shuttle service with the aim of bringing people – and businesses – back downtown.

By Jacob Wheeler
Apollo News Service

United Streetcar, a union company in Portland, Ore., and wholly owned subsidiary of Oregon Iron Works, has built the first American-made streetcar in over half a century. United Streetcar already has a deal in place to build thirteen of its streetcars for the cities of Portland and Tucson, Ariz.

Two articles below.

By Timothy R. Homan and Shobhana Chandra
Bloomberg

Reports on U.S. manufacturing, employment and home sales pointed to slower growth in the second half of the year, just as government spending to stimulate the economy begins to wane.

The Institute for Supply Management’s manufacturing gauge fell more than forecast to 56.2 last month from 59.7 in May. A reading greater than 50 points to expansion. Other data showed contracts to buy existing homes fell 30 percent in May, and claims for jobless benefits unexpectedly rose last week.

By GRETCHEN MORGENSON
NY Times

AS we inch closer to a clearer understanding of the products and practices that unleashed the credit crisis of 2008, it’s becoming apparent that those seeking the whole truth are still outnumbered by those aiming to obscure it. This is the case not only on Wall Street but also in Washington.

BY JEFF BENNETT AND MIKE RAMSEY
Wall Street Journal

FLORA, Ill.—A year after the U.S. government swooped in to rescue two crippled auto giants, the car business is showing signs of life again—and so are local economies across the heartland that depend on it.

The company is setting the stage for another taxpayer shakedown

By Shikha Dalmia
Reason

By Krister Rollins
WCH6 Portland

PRESQUE ISLE, Maine (NEWS CENTER) - The Surface Transportation Board has released its first draft of a report looking into the effects of abandoning 233 miles of rail line in northern Maine.

The draft, released by the Surface Trasnportation Board's Section of Environmental Analysis, found that abandoning the line could increase truck trips on Maine's highways by as much as 73,344 a year. That number would consume an additional 3.3 million gallons of fuel a year.

The draft estimates that it would take four trucks to replace every rail car.

By KEITH BRADSHER
NY Times

BEIJING — Nearly 150 years after American railroads brought in thousands of Chinese laborers to build rail lines across the West, China is poised once again to play a role in American rail construction. But this time, it would be an entirely different role: supplying the technology, equipment and engineers to build high-speed rail lines.

Clayton County loses vital bus service, link to AtlantaMany workers fear they'll lose their jobs without the transportation, cut off because of a county budget shortfall.

By Richard Fausset
Los Angeles Times

Reporting from Jonesboro, Ga. - The Great Recession has yet to claim J.C. Butler's warehouse job on the north side of metro Atlanta.

But now it has eradicated his means of getting there.

More miles on less fuel: Gov't setting tough new efficiency standards for future vehicles

KEN THOMAS
AP

The Obama administration set tougher gas mileage standards for new cars and trucks Thursday, spurring the next generation of fuel-sipping gas-electric hybrids, efficient engines and electric cars.

Below is the table of contents of a must read article that shows the class warfare by the top 1% against the rest of us. The funneling of money to the top has made the economic life of most Americans very fragile. It is time to do something about it. The article below lays out the case and urges action.Kevin ZeeseExecutive DirectorProsperityAgenda.USIs It Time for Law Abiding American Citizens to Stop Paying Their Taxes and Start a New Government?

By David DeGraw
AmpedStatus Report

Shifts in global power, ongoing or potential, are a lively topic among policy makers and observers. One question is whether (or when) China will displace the United States as the dominant global player, perhaps along with India.

Such a shift would return the global system to something like it was before the European conquests. Economic growth in China and India has been rapid, and because they rejected the West's policies of financial deregulation, they survived the recession better than most. Nonetheless, questions arise.

We need to take a look at what forces in American society are preventing people from being able to resist tyranny and dehumanization.

Transcript of a recent interview with Bruce E. Levine by OpEd News' Joan Brunwasser. Levine is a clinical psychologist and author of Surviving America’s Depression Epidemic: How to Find Morale, Energy, and Community in a World Gone Crazy (Chelsea Green Publishing, 2007).

By Keith Naughton
Bloomberg

March 22 (Bloomberg) -- Ford Motor Co. raised Chief Executive Officer Alan Mulally’s 2009 compensation 5.3 percent to $17.9 million as the automaker returned to profit and avoided the bankruptcies that befell its U.S. competitors.

He received $1.4 million in salary and $16.5 million in stock, option awards and other compensation, the Dearborn, Michigan-based company said today in a regulatory filing. For 2008, Mulally’s total was valued at $17 million, including $2 million in salary and no bonus.

US auto giant Chrysler on Monday announced it would build an electric version of Fiat's compact 500 -- or Cinquecento -- for the US market.

Agence France-Presse

"Beginning in 2012, Chrysler Group will manufacture the Fiat 500EV for the United States market," the company said in a statement.

"Pricing will be announced closer to launch, but will be competitive with similar electric vehicles in the market."

By David Swanson
Free Speech for People

The damage from the Supreme Court's decision in "Citizens United v. FEC" continues to spread as feared. Newly emboldened corporations are suing to overturn state laws that restrict corporate spending on politics:

"A pro-natural resource development group [how's that for spin?] and a Bozeman painting company asked a Helena District Court on Monday to strike down Montana’s 1912 ban on corporate donations and expenditures to political campaigns to comply with a January U.S. Supreme Court ruling."

Marylanders are responding to the shocking new Supreme Court ruling that corporations, for the first time, can spend unlimited funds to influence any local, state or federal political campaign, a ruling the state Senate president called "offensive" and "devastating to democracy."

By TODD WOODY and CLIFFORD KRAUSS
NY Times

SAN FRANCISCO — If electric cars have any future in the United States, this may be the city where they arrive first.

The San Francisco building code will soon be revised to require that new structures be wired for car chargers. Across the street from City Hall, some drivers are already plugging converted hybrids into a row of charging stations.