General Motors

Since the Motown sound went silent -- except on oldies stations -- and General Motors and Chrysler (but not Ford) required life support from Washington, there has been little to recommend Detroit, Mich., to visitors, much less its residents. The recent conviction of Kwame Kilpatrick, the former mayor of Detroit, on multiple charges, including racketeering, fraud and extortion, adds another insult to the city's injury, increasing its misery. During the mid-20th century, Detroit was a vibrant city with a population of almost 2 million.

General Motors officially launched its new electric motor in White Marsh Tuesday, a milestone in U.S. manufacturing - and a key part of the company's bet that the electric-vehicle market is poised to grow. With production under way at the Baltimore County "eMotor" plant, GM says, the company is the first automaker to manufacture electric-drive motors domestically. The operation is small for now: About 20 employees make motors for the plug-in electric Chevrolet Spark EV, side by side with 27 robots.

The big three U.S. automakers are making much more than record profits these days. In one of the most remarkable turnarounds in the annals of heavy industry, the lords of Detroit have recreated themselves as the manufacturing force they had been for half a century but seemed fated never to be again. The record quarterly earnings General Motors, Ford and Chrysler reported, welcome to management and stockholders, are even better news for the U.S. economy.Just 15 years ago, Chrysler was begging for a federal handout to survive and GM was a doddering behemoth tripping over its own limbs.

Since the Motown sound went silent -- except on oldies stations -- and General Motors and Chrysler (but not Ford) required life support from Washington, there has been little to recommend Detroit, Mich., to visitors, much less its residents. The recent conviction of Kwame Kilpatrick, the former mayor of Detroit, on multiple charges, including racketeering, fraud and extortion, adds another insult to the city's injury, increasing its misery. During the mid-20th century, Detroit was a vibrant city with a population of almost 2 million.

General Motors launched Saturn into orbit last October, but the idea for creating the new car company began in a planning meeting in 1982.At that time, General Motors was relying on Japan and South Korea to set the pace for new-car design. The company had even formed a division called Geo to sell Japanese cars in its Chevrolet stores. But General Motors decided to go a step further in meeting the imports.Saturn managers were given a blank sheet to design not only a new car, but a new way of doing business.

John Walter Raymond, a retired General Motors assemblyman, died Tuesday at Avalon Manor Nursing Home in Hagerstown from complications of colon cancer. He was 80 and lived in Essex. Born in Baltimore, Mr. Raymond grew up in the Pimlico area. He left school after the eighth grade, and worked as a deliveryman and did other odd jobs. In 1942, he enlisted in the Army. Mr. Raymond was sent to Europe and fought in the Battle of the Bulge. He earned the Bronze Star after a raid on an enemy artillery position during the battle, his family said.

Milton Ay Yuhn, retired General Motors Corp. supervisor, died Monday while being taken from a hospital to a nursing home after suffering a fall nearly a month ago. The Parkville resident was 92. Born in Baltimore and raised on Cliftmont Avenue, he attended city public schools until the seventh grade. Mr. Yuhn told family members he left the city at age 16 and traveled across the country by jumping on railroad boxcars. He lived in California for several years before returning home and working in a relative's gas station.

Rose Rebsamen, a retired personnel secretary who worked at the General Motors Fisher Body Division on Broening Highway, died Tuesday after an apparent stroke at a niece's home in Towson. She was 87. She was born Rose Mitchell in Flushing, Ohio, and attended public schools in Lafferty and Steubenville, Ohio, and Ambridge, Pa. In the early 1940s, she moved to Baltimore and joined GM's personnel department as a secretary. In 1948, she married William Rebsamen, who died in 1993. Mrs. Rebsamen established a women's section of the U.N. Club Auxiliary, an Italian-American fraternal organization.

James S. Brennan, a retired supervisor for General Motors who also served in the Air Force during the Korean War, died Dec. 21 in his Severna Park home after a lengthy battle with lung cancer. He was 75. Mr. Brennan was born in Baltimore. He graduated from City College in 1951 and attended the University of Maryland, College Park. He enlisted in the Air Force and fought as an airman first class in the Korean War. He then returned to Maryland, where he worked as a supervisor for General Motors for more than 20 years.

Raymond Powell, a retired General Motors Corp. assembly-line worker and a longtime volunteer for the homeless, died of lung cancer Wednesday at Harbor Hospital. The Glen Burnie resident was 74. Born in Collins, Ga., Mr. Powell was one of 11 children. When he was 18, he moved to Baltimore and worked as a construction worker for Welsh Construction. He was later promoted to supervisor. During the Korean War, he served from 1950 to 1951 in the Army with the 62nd Engineering Construction Battalion and was discharged with the rank of staff sergeant.

Richard S. Corbin, a retired General Motors Corp. master electrician, died Monday of cancer at his Joppa home. He was 67. Mr. Corbin was born and raised in Framingham, Mass., where he graduated in 1960 from Framingham High School. He served in the Navy as an electrician from 1960 to 1964, aboard the carrier USS Ranger. After being discharged from the service, he went to work as an electrician at the General Motors plant in Framingham. In 1992, he was transferred to the old General Motors plant on Broening Highway, where he worked until retiring in 1999.

General Motors might be fine for the garage, but do you want it in your investment portfolio? You'll soon have a chance to buy stock in the "new" General Motors Co., which has filed for an initial public offering that's expected to happen Thursday. The company plans to offer at least 365 million common shares at a price of $26 to $29 a share, though the final price would be set the day before the offering. Taxpayers already own a piece of GM, thanks to a $50 billion government bailout that left the U.S. government controlling about 61 percent of the company.

General Motors Co.'s deal to sell Saturn to the Penske Automotive Group has fallen through, forcing the automaker to shutter the brand altogether. The sale had been expected to be completed as soon as this week. "Penske Automotive Group ... has decided to terminate discussions with General Motors to acquire Saturn," GM Chief Executive Fritz Henderson said in a statement. As a result, "we will be winding down the Saturn brand and dealership network." The news is a blow to GM, which had made selling three of its brands, along with shutting Pontiac, a key component of its post-bankruptcy restructuring efforts.

A year ago, when a group of GM executives came to The Baltimore Sun to meet with the editorial board, they couldn't stop talking about the Chevy Volt. Still in the conceptual stages, the plug-in electric hybrid was their answer for the future and repentance for years of gas-guzzling SUVs that, at the time, had been made unattractive by sky-high fuel prices. They seemed to pine for it, like a baseball team trailing badly in the bottom of the ninth might wish for a six-run homer. A lot has changed since then.

Legendary automaker General Motors Corp. on Monday became the largest U.S. industrial company ever to file for bankruptcy-law protection, in a restructuring that puts it under unprecedented government ownership and jump-starts a plan that will include plant closings and thousands of job losses, but that the company hopes will return it to profitability. The transmission plant in White Marsh will remain open, but a Wilmington, Del., plant that has many workers who live in the Baltimore area will shut down July 31. The bankruptcy reflects the downfall of what was once an icon in the auto industry whose management problems were exacerbated so badly by the global recession that the Obama administration stepped in to take over.

A day after President Barack Obama threw down the gauntlet for the American auto industry, General Motors Corp. began once again the work of selling cars. On Tuesday, even as its new chief executive acknowledged the growing possibility of bankruptcy, the ailing carmaker announced an incentive plan that, in part, will cover car payments for customers who lose their jobs. The program, which GM is calling "Total Confidence," is designed to lure American back into the showroom. "Consumers right now are looking for corporations to be sympathetic with what they're going through," said Jeff Goodby, co-chairman of Goodby, Silverstein and Partners, an ad agency that promoted a similar program by Hyundai Motor Co. The White House has given General Motors 60 days, and Chrysler 30 days, to work out their structural problems before the federal government yanks financial support.

Calvert Thomas, a descendant of Maryland's founding family who became a leading attorney for the General Motors Corp., died Friday at Hartford Hospital in Connecticut. He was 88 and had suffered from prostate cancer. He was born and raised in Baltimore, where he competed in wrestling and lacrosse at the YMCA and graduated from Polytechnic Institute. Mr. Thomas received his bachelor's degree from Washington and Lee University in Lexington, Va., where he became a two-time conference wrestling champion.

On the one hand, we have to feel for the tens of thousands of General Motors workers who are waiting for the other shoe to drop. For the families that will be wondering where the next paycheck will come from.On the other hand, I think back to when General Motors and I parted company for good. And I wonder how many others there are like me.It was 31 years ago and I was buying my first new car. Until then, I had bought nothing but used cars. Get a cheap beater, run it until it falls apart, and then find another one.But I had finally landed a job on a good newspaper and did some moonlighting on weekends, so it was time to start the process.

President Barack Obama says he is committed to a reorganized and downsized American auto industry, but whether that goal is doable remains to be seen. The president's auto task force, which demanded and received the resignation Sunday of Rick Wagoner, General Motors chairman and CEO, is expected to recommend more short-term aid for GM and Chrysler on Monday with a 60-day deadline on getting needed concessions from union workers and creditors. Continuing to pursue a plan to save GM short of bankruptcy is the right course.