Official who lied about air safety in Manhattan after 9-11 gets $11 million contract

As President Bush’s health chief, Tommy Thompson was criticized for not doing enough to help workers exposed to toxic debris from the Sept. 11 attacks at the World Trade Center.

Now, a company he leads has won a $11 million contract to treat some of those workers who responded to New York’s ground zero. AP

G.M. Closing 4 Plants in Shift From Trucks Toward Cars

Problem: Managers asleep at the wheel when a change hits that should have been obvious for at least the last 5 years. Consumers respond in logical, predictable fashion.

Solution: Fire people working for said managers, close plants, blame the consumers.

Responding to a consumer shift to more fuel-efficient vehicles, General Motors said Tuesday that it would stop making pickup trucks and big S.U.V.s at four North American assembly plants and would consider selling its Hummer brand.

The moves, announced Tuesday by the company chairman, Rick Wagoner, will slash 500,000 units from the automaker’s overall production, and pave the way for increased investment in smaller cars and passenger vehicles. Within three years, he said, trucks will account for less than 40 percent of the vehicles that G.M. produces in North America, down from about half today.

Mr. Wagoner said that rising gasoline prices had forced a “structural shift” by American consumers away from truck-based vehicles built by G.M.

“These prices are changing consumer behavior and changing it rapidly,” Mr. Wagoner said in announcing the cuts before G.M.’s centennial shareholders meeting in Wilmington, Del. “We don’t believe it’s a spike or a temporary shift. We believe it is, by and large, permanent.” NY Times

Here in Germany people will probably like this though. Even more German/European cars to be sold to America.

Guess which country has world-record exports, while the other has the world´s biggest trade deficit?