plus 3, Scott's first start honored with decal at Atlanta - NASCAR

Scott's first start honored with decal at Atlanta - NASCAR
The Jacksons: Loving, but leaving, Detroit - Detroit Free Press
Scofflaws owe big fines - Worcester Telegram & Gazette
Analysis: Auto industry in Louisiana at crossroad - Product Design & Development

Scott's first start honored with decal at Atlanta - NASCAR

Posted: 07 Mar 2010 08:48 AM PST

HAMPTON, Ga. -- Forty-nine years ago Friday, Wendell Scott became the third black driver to race in NASCAR's top touring division, then known as the Grand National division and now known as the Sprint Cup Series.

In honor of this and in anticipation of next year's 50th anniversary of Scott's historic first start in Spartanburg, S.C., NASCAR created an original decal that was placed on all trucks in Saturday's E-Z-GO 200 Camping World Truck Series race and on all cars participating in Sunday's Kobalt Tools 500 Sprint Cup Series race at Atlanta Motor Speedway.

"Wendell Scott's legacy is an important one in the history of this sport. His career is an important part of the fabric of NASCAR. I think it's both appropriate and important for NASCAR to continue to honor that legacy," said Marcus Jadotte, NASCAR's managing director of public affairs.

Scott remains the only black to win a race in NASCAR's top national touring series, doing so on Dec. 1, 1963, on a 1-mile dirt track in Jacksonville, Fla. He made 495 starts during his career and posted 147 top-10 finishes before retiring in 1973. Scott died in 1990.

Among those in attendance for the unveiling of the special decal honoring Scott prior to Saturday's Truck Series race at AMS was his daughter, Sybil Scott. She spoke glowingly of his memory, and of NASCAR's efforts to honor the father who once had to battle prejudice just to get his car on the track.

Sybil Scott and Jadotte agreed that a large part of Scott's considerable legacy has been carved out in NASCAR's ongoing Drive for Diversity program. Several drivers who participate in the program were in attendance Saturday, but Jadotte pointed out that the program's platform also includes efforts that are focused on educating college-age students about NASCAR and opportunities in the sport, including the possibility of internship positions within the industry. (Continued)

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The Jacksons: Loving, but leaving, Detroit - Detroit Free Press

Posted: 07 Mar 2010 07:15 AM PST

The first in a series

Plywood and stained sweatpants cover the broken glass, but you can still see the bullet hole that came from a neighborhood shootout in the summer of 2003.

An assault rifle bullet pierced the back of the white bungalow on 32nd Street.

"It was like Afghanistan or Iraq," said Anthony Jackson, 24, who lived in the southwest Detroit home from 1994 to 2004. He was in the front yard on a quiet night when shots broke out over a neighborhood beef.

"I dropped to the ground and dug my face into the dirt," he told me. "They were shooting for five, seven minutes; it seemed like hours."

Afterward, spent cartridges littered the block.

The following year, Anthony and his younger brother, Austin Jackson, now 19, and mother, Cheryl Jackson, 46, moved to the suburbs. Others followed. Six years ago, practically every house on the block was occupied. Now, half appear vacant. Across the street, trash flows from an open front door.

Still, for Anthony, these blighted blocks represent sweet solidarity. He recalls the backyard barbeques, the boys nailing a milk crate to a tree and shooting hoops, bowling on Friday nights, old heads giving kids a dollar for the ice cream truck.

"Everybody had love for each other," said Anthony, walking down 32nd Street two weeks ago. "It's was like one big family. If I did something wrong, my neighbors would punish me the same way as my parents. I miss the community. In Detroit, everyone had open arms.

"The hood is love."

Safety, schools, livability

For families like the Jacksons, the decision to leave Detroit is wrenching, but not uncommon in a city that has lost more than half its population since 1950.

Some, like the Jacksons, are driven away by the crime. Others want better schools or more convenient services.

Three decades ago, white flight led the exodus. But by 2008, nearly three of four leaving the city were black.

A third of the city's 140 square miles are now vacant. In some east-side neighborhoods, up to 80% of the land is empty, abandoned, burned-out.

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Scofflaws owe big fines - Worcester Telegram & Gazette

Posted: 07 Mar 2010 08:05 AM PST

WORCESTER — From late May to early October last year, city parking enforcement officers ticketed a red Cadillac six times at expired meters, three times for tow zone infractions and twice for $200 handicap parking violations.

Parking enforcement officers ticketed the car three more times for various other no-nos, such as parking more than a foot from the curb, during the same period.

The registered owner of the car, Alexa Lopez, blew off the $705 in accumulated tickets, leading to another $600 in penalties.

The $1,305 in unpaid fines and penalties owed by Ms. Lopez puts her atop the list of city parking scofflaws, according to a Telegram & Gazette review of city records.

Ms. Lopez, who could not be located for this story, and six other people at the top of the list each owe more than $1,000 in parking tickets and penalties. The 20 worst parking offenders in the city as a whole owe an eye-popping $18,600.

The white Chevrolet owned by Silvio F. Pinto, who is a close second on the list of parking scofflaws, racked up more than two dozen meter violations totaling $260 in fines in one month in the summer of 2008. Left unpaid, the tickets have ballooned to $1,300 with penalties. Mr. Pinto also couldn't be located for this story.

But Richard A. Oehling of Willard Avenue said he was surprised to learn from a reporter that his name is on the list with $755 in outstanding fines and penalties.

"The car was not in our hands at the time. Somebody stole it from a repair shop and, apparently, it sat somewhere collecting tickets," Mr. Oehling said.

In September, notices of unpaid parking tickets began arriving in the mail at his house.

Mr. Oehling said he reported the purple Geo stolen in August. The car was missing for about three weeks before police found it stripped. His insurance company considered the sedan totaled and sent him a check, he said.

Case closed. Or so he thought.

"They sent me all the tickets, and I collected them. But I must admit that once the car had been totaled by the insurance company, I forgot all about it. I have all the tickets, and I need to go down there and get that taken care of," Mr. Oehling conceded.

Until he does, he is on the hook for $235 in fines and $520 in penalties, according to the city.

Mr. Oehling, and anybody else with outstanding parking fines, cannot renew a driver's license or car registration until they pay up, noted city Parking Administrator Elvira Guardiola.

"A good chunk of the people know that they took a chance and that they parked illegally, and they come in and pay the fine. Others have issues, so they appeal it. Some just don't pay," said Ms. Guardiola, who has heard every excuse in the book in her more than three years running the city's Parking Administration Office.

Ms. Guardiola recalled one woman who showed up at her office furious over parking tickets. Ms. Guardiola informed the young woman that she would have to pay the fines and penalties on the spot or the city would slap a boot on her car.

"She started yelling and screaming, and she walks out. By the time she got down to her car, there was a boot on it already," Ms. Guardiola recalled. "She came running back and was so mad, trying to jump over the counter to get to me. We had to call the police."

The city's nine parking enforcement officers write roughly 70,000 parking tickets a year. At last check, the city was owed $4.7 million in overdue fines and penalties, she said.

Parking at an expired meter will get you a $15 ticket. If the owner of the car hasn't paid in 21 days, a $5 penalty gets tacked on. After another 21 days, the city adds a $15 penalty to the tally.

If the owner still hasn't paid up, the city informs the state Registry of Motor Vehicles not to renew the driver's license or vehicle registration, which adds another $20 to the penalties.

Parking enforcement officers can immobilize a car with a boot clamped over a wheel when the owner has five or more parking tickets that are more than 21 days overdue without an appeal pending.

If all the accumulated fines and penalties aren't paid within 24 hours of the booting, the city has the car towed and holds it until the fines are paid. The vendor for the city's parking administration software also is a collection agency that seeks to recover overdue fines and penalties.

The block on renewing a license or registration usually gets parking scofflaws to break out their checkbooks eventually.

R&G Auto Sales and Rentals owner Ron Favacchia doesn't want to have any registration problems with his fleet of 30 rental cars, so he tries to keep up with the penalty notices that trickle into his office at a rate of about one a month, he said.

"Normally, the customer pays them, and we never see the tickets. We only see them when they don't get paid," Mr. Favacchia said. "You do get some people who think, 'Oh, I'm not going to worry about it.' "

Mr. Favacchia said his rental contract states that any parking tickets are the responsibility of the customer.

"Normally, they'll come in and either pay me or go and pay the city. But some people try to get away with it," he said. "We get FastLane violations where they go through the FastLane twice a day for three weeks, then all the sudden we have $900 in tickets."

R&G Auto Sales ended up on the list of parking scofflaws at No. 18 with $755 in unpaid fines and penalties. Parking enforcement officers tagged a green Buick, one of the company's rentals, more than a dozen times, including once for a $200 handicap parking violation, two years ago.

Mr. Favacchia said it was his understanding that the city was pursuing the customer for those fines. He said he would follow up with the Parking Administration Office to straighten out the situation.

Ms. Guardiola said people sometimes erroneously assume that if they lend a car to a friend and that person gets a parking ticket, it's the friend's responsibility. Actually, the owner of the car is on the hook. If the person who borrowed the car doesn't pay, the owner must, she said.

Some delivery truck drivers also apparently think they're immune from parking tickets.

"Not too long ago, we booted a UPS truck downtown. It stopped all their business for the day, and it was early in the morning. They had to have another truck come in to take all the packages," she said.

The incident was not lost on the other shipping companies. Ms. Guardiola said it's not unusual now for managers from FedEx, UPS and other shipping companies to call periodically to make sure they don't have any outstanding fines.

Ms. Guardiola said she knows that nobody likes to get a parking ticket. She knows because it happens to her too. She got one in Worcester not long before she took over as city parking administrator. She filed a written appeal, which got shot down. She paid the fine.

In her more than three years as the city's parking czar, Ms. Guardiola has taken her share of verbal abuse from irate drivers.

"Once this gentleman walked in and was extremely upset because he had gotten tickets. He pointed at me and he says, 'You got me all these parking tickets,' " she recalled.

"I looked up at him and said, 'Oh, I'm so sorry. Did I park your vehicle in the wrong place again?' He started laughing, and I said, 'OK, let's start over again.' "

Contact Thomas Caywood by e-mail at tcaywood@telegram.com.

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Analysis: Auto industry in Louisiana at crossroad - Product Design & Development

Posted: 07 Mar 2010 08:05 AM PST

Analysis: Auto industry in Louisiana at crossroad

Louisiana has reached a crossroad in its quest to catch up with other Southeast states in the automobile manufacturing business: one of its companies is on the way out, while the other is waiting to get started — both with the help of Washington, D.C.

On the way out is General Motors Co. in Shreveport. After a deal with a Chinese manufacturer collapsed to sell the politically incorrect SUV, GM said last month it would phase out the brand. Hummer manufacturing at the Shreveport plant had stopped in January, pending the sale — and isn't likely to ever resume.

On the other side of the state in Monroe, much-lesser-known V-Vehicle Co. is awaiting word on a federal loan to produce what is basically a mystery car to the public, though the company has said it will get 40 miles per gallon and cost around $10,000.

There must be some irony in V-Vehicle's federal involvement to the 950 GM workers who are scheduled to hit the street no later than mid-2012 after GM ends production of the Chevrolet Colorado and GMC Canyon pickup trucks.

A year ago, there was hope that GM would produce a new line of vehicles at the Shreveport plant. The optimism evaporated into an eventual closure notice after the government got into the GM bailout business.

The unsuccessful Hummer buyer had pledged to continue building the H3 and H3T pickup truck in Shreveport until June 2011, with a one-year option after that. The state was talking about Hummer being the key to an automotive complex, since Hummer would take up only 25 percent of the plant space. Now, the state is back to square one, though economic development head Stephen Moret says landing an automobile manufacturer is the top priority.

No matter what occurs — other than a last-minute Hummer buyer suddenly appearing — the plant seems headed for at least a period of idleness, which doesn't do the GM workers, once numbering 3,000, or the Shreveport-Bossier City economy much good.

V-Vehicle is hoping to have word on a $320 million federal loan application by the end of March. The Energy Department is lending money to vehicle makers offering futuristic technologies — the Hummer need not apply — that will reduce gasoline consumption.

V-Vehicle, which eventually plans to employ 1,400 workers, says its car will fill that bill. The public, to this stage, has had to take the company's word for that, along with that of state officials who set up a $67 million taxpayer incentive package for the startup.

The car is still under competitive wraps. That's standard procedure in the industry, but can raise eyebrows of some who still wonder whether the project is for real. Frank Varasano, former Oracle Corp. executive and V-Vehicle CEO, said recently that a prototype is under testing and a marketable product could be in dealer showrooms by the end of 2011.

However, state incentives, for now, have been cut off and V-Vehicle is returning $6.8 million in incentive money to the state since a March 1 deadline for getting the federal loan passed. Varasano and Moret say they expect a favorable decision by the end of the month.

What happens if the Energy Department rejects the money? Varasano would say only that he expects favorable resolution of the issue — and didn't want to go down the what-if road. The company says it has raised $86.5 million in private equity, but needs something around $400 million to get the vehicle into production.

GM has said the Shreveport plant could close sooner, depending upon market demand for its pickup trucks. So, it's possible that about the time the last truck rolls off the line in Shreveport, the first V-Vehicle will be popping out in Monroe into economic times that are almost impossible to predict in terms of jobs and gasoline prices.

The Federal Reserve suggests the United States will have an unemployment rate of 8.2 percent to 8.5 percent by then, certainly not the best of times. But that could boost the appeal of a $10,000 vehicle, or so V-Vehicle is hoping.

___

EDITOR'S NOTE: Alan Sayre is the New Orleans-based business writer for The Associated Press.

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