A123, recipient of a $249 million Department of Energy manufacturing grant, warned of impending debt default and cash problems that forced the company to seek bankruptcy protection. With 14 straight quarterly losses–nearly $83 million in 2nd Quarter 2012 and $125 million in the previous quarter, on top of $258 million …
Another green-energy-related company built on government subsidies is having trouble keeping its head above water. This time, the scandal surrounds Compact Power, a subsidiary of LG Chem.* In 2010, the Obama Administration proudly gave Compact Power a $150 million grant to build a vehicle battery manufacturing facility in Michigan. These …
Recent negotiations of the Trans-Pacific Partnership have sent representatives of government supported industries, like New Balance shoes, scrambling for political help to maintain their high tariffs. While an economic case can’t be made for keeping these tariffs in place, proponents are touching a much more emotional one: culture. New England …
A teachers’ union contract in Bay City, MI, has become a focal point in the battle over a ballot measure in that state that seeks to provide legal guarantees for union collective bargaining agreements — and invalidate laws that conflict with those agreements. The contract allows teachers to show up …
The states of Michigan, Oklahoma, and South Carolina have sued the Obama Administration in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia over provisions of the Dodd-Frank Act that allow the government to seize financial institutions. Several private organizations joined in the legal complaint, to challenge also the constitutionality …
The Highland Park School District near Detroit, Michigan, is undergoing major reform this year as emergency manager Joyce Parker turns the district’s schools over to a private charter company. Highland Park is currently in the lowest 10 percent of Michigan school districts, with Highland Park Community High School ranking in …
In the national effort to overcome dependence on government, Michigan has just moved one step forward toward ensuring that welfare promotes self-reliance. On Tuesday, Governor Rick Snyder (R) signed legislation to place a four-year time limit on cash assistance benefits for welfare recipients. In 2006, Michigan passed similar legislation under …
President Barack Obama visited a federally funded advanced battery plant in Holland, Michigan, today to tout the success of his green jobs initiative. But there’s another highly touted green company in Michigan that the President didn’t visit—and with good reason. About 170 miles away in Oak Park, Michigan, the state-government-funded …
