Daily Detroit News Byte

General Motors dropped a bomb on Monday, saying it will likely close three assembly plants including Detroit-Hamtramck in a pre-emptive move to cut costs and headcount ahead of an expected downturn. The moves mean the elimination of as many as 14,000 jobs — including 1,500 at Detroit-Hamtramck — and the elimination of slow-selling sedans like the Chevrolet Volt and Impala and the Buick LaCrosse. A transmission plant in Warren could also close. It's a particularly dubious cap to the saga of the Poletown plant, which rose during the 1980s after the two cities it straddles worked with GM to condemn and raze a working-class neighborhood of the same name. On today's episode, we speak with Hamtramck Mayor Karen Majewski, who tells us the closure leaves a city defined by the auto industry without any actual auto manufacturing. It also leaves Detroit without an open auto-assembly plant. In fact, here's Mayor Mike Duggan statement about it: "This morning I spoke to Mary Barra and she advised me for the first time of t