ANN ARBOR - Nearly half of the entries in the spring 2009 Great Lakes Entrepreneur's Quest business-plan writing contest are in the Information Technology, Software, Web-based applications and electronic publishing categories, a review of the 175 teams shows. Alternative energy entries placed second with 34, following by New Products with 20, Life Sciences with 17,
DETROIT - The U.S. Treasury, in an escalating back-and-forth that may determine whether Chrysler LLC avoids liquidation, has quickly responded to Chrysler lenders that rejected an earlier Treasury bid to slash the car maker's debt. The Treasury now proposes that the banks and other lenders accept as payment 22 percent of the $6.9 billion they
DETROIT - General Motors Corp. plans to idle most its plants for about two months this summer as the company races to cut costs and production to keep pace with sinking demand, said a person familiar with the plan. The car maker typically closes its plants for a two-week summer vacation. A GM spokeswoman declined
LANSING - Banks that are owed millions of dollars by Chrysler Corporation are trying to force the automaker into bankruptcy, Gov. Jennifer Granholm said Wednesday, declaring the situation unacceptable. She told reporters the position of banks that were on the receiving end of billions of federal dollars to bail out the industry are threatening the
DETROIT - The negotiations over what happens at Chrysler are getting to be contentious. The Wall Street Journal reports that Chrysler's banks rejected the government's request that they slash the company's debt by 85 percent. No dice, say the bankers. They offer to cut that debt by only 35 percent, plus they want 40 percent
WASHINGTON - Computer spies, apparently from China, have broken into the Pentagon's $300 billion Joint Strike Fighter project - the Defense Department's costliest weapons program ever - according to current and former government officials familiar with the attacks. Similar incidents have also breached the Air Force's air-traffic-control system in recent months, these people told The
DETROIT - Chrysler could be headed for liquidation, the Wall Street Journal warns. It says the U.S. Treasury Department believes Chrysler's weak product line and lack of international presence means it's not worth saving. On top of that, Chrysler's secured lenders - the ones who would get paid first if the company goes out of
LANSING - As a sign of the continuing and deepening economic downturn the state is suffering, a University of Michigan economics group has forecast a loss of 239,000 jobs in 2009. That number is nearly twice the number of job losses forecast by the Research Seminar in Quantitative Economics six months ago at its annual
DETROIT - Michigan residents may begin applying for the state's new enhanced driver's license Tuesday so they can legally return to the United States from Canada, Mexico, Bermuda and the rest of the Caribbean starting June 1. Enhanced driver's licenses are equipped with the latest technology to speed up border crossings and deter fraud. When
MANISTEE - Gov. Jennifer Granholm helped Mariah Power open its first high-volume manufacturing plant in Manistee. The retrofitted auto parts plant will employ up to 120 former auto workers in a rural region of Michigan best known for its Indian casino. The manufacturing site begins operations with 30 new employees and will produce 100 Windspire