Financing also comes from Silicon Valley venture capitalists Ray Lane and John Doerr of Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, said The News-Star newspaper in Monroe. Louisiana businessman James Davison, who owns the former plant, told the newspaper he is also an investor.

The plant most recently was operated by Guide Corp. The company was formed in 1906 as an automotive lamp-repair company. It later became GM's Delphi Lighting unit and was spun off in 1998, a year before GM and Delphi Corp. separated.

The collapse occurred Sunday in the congested city center of Zhuzhou during rush hour, and crushed cars trucks and one bus under the massive superstructure. The bridge had been condemned by government officials and an attempt to level it with explosives had earlier failed, though traffic was allowed to continue underneath even as the bridge stood in a significantly weakened condition. Nine people died in the incident and sixteen were sent to area hospitals with one man in intensive care. The provincial government has promised to compensate the families of the dead to the tune of 400,000 yuan ($59,000 USD) and investigate the contractor and officials involved in the fiasco. [CRI English, Izismile]

Unfortunately, the officer hit a gravel patch at high-speed and swerved into a minivan. No one was hurt, but the driver of the unidentified Ferrari got away. Sounds like they need a Cabon Motors E7. Police are on the lookout of a red Ferrari driven by a person who can't stop laughing. Thanks to Mike for the tip! [News1130]

The program puts Audi engineers together with students to imagine the future of the brand as a sporty, premium brand with unique technology and eye-catching designs. The result is a selection of design concepts for Audi to draw from, but more importantly an engaged student base interested in working for Audi in the future. That's all well and good, but we want to get our hands on that S1 Quattro inspired race-car concept. Is it getting hot in here?

This isn't the last time we'll see the E7 on the news, as they tell us it's coming to a disaster near you in 2012. But, they do make mention of some of the neat trick equipment on-board and show why we really hope (or maybe don't hope, depending on how we look at it), this police cruiser makes it into production.

LeRoy was arrested back in October when witnesses observed him, er, making love to a car wash vacuum cleaner in the wee hours of the morning. Caught red-handed by police called to the scene by the horrified witnesses, he admitted to the lewd act and got tossed in the slammer. Yesterday in Saginaw County Circuit Court, the 29-year-old was sentenced to 90 days in jail along with mandatory drug testing after pleading no contest. You can't make this kind of thing up folks. [DetNews]

Ford tells me in choosing entries, they're looking for an ability to draw both comments and YouTube views on the entry. So, here's your chance to shine as Jalopnik commenters. Go crazy! Let's get some serious comment traffic going here and some serious view traffic going over on YouTube to show FoMoCo what JalopMoCo is made of!

Be sure to hit the HD button if you're rocking a broadband connection — now you'll get me swaying in full digital glory.

The new law would make texting or playing video games while driving a secondary offense, which means that a driver could receive a ticket if pulled over for something else, but not be rolled for simply texting. The fine would be set at a non-negotiable $100. Senator Buzz Thomas had attempted passing an identical piece of legislation earlier that didn't make the cut. Buzz stated texting "is one of the most dangerous things a driver can do."

Although our official response is one of happiness for getting drivers-who-text off the roads, we did ask Jalopnik's resident "txtng xprt," Ben Wertigree, for his opinion. He replied,

"LOL OMG suk my blz"

There you have it.

[Freep]

Show organizer Paul Everitt explains:

"We didn't want the situation of planning a show against a background of uncertainty, so we crystallised debate very quickly: could manufacturers commit to the show for 2010? The manufacturers are all in the process of making redundancies, cutting salaries, cutting working hours and trying to save money. It would have been foolhardy for them to come to us and commit to spending very significant amounts of money at such a time. Unsurprisingly, the people we asked all said they couldn't commit, so we have canceled."

Sounds reasonable, but where will the myriad cottage-industry British automakers introduce their latest wares? Given the recent history of British brands, the Mumbai Auto Show might be a good call. [Autocar]

The decision was made in-part due to a 10-year, $7.5 million tax break awarded by the state government, but there are other reasons behind the decision as well. Mercedes has been part of a long term hybrid transmission research and development partnership with BMW and General Motors, which has seen commonized designs go to production for GM in things like the Tahoe Hybrid. Daimler is also working closely with system integrator Cobasys on hybrid programs, which also has a local facility in the area. The new research and development facility will directly employ about 223 people, with a total of about 454 total jobs created directly and indirectly. News like this indicates the Detroit area's future isn't completely dead. [Edmunds]

The Concept: Film a two-minute or less short about why you're the most Jalopnik of them all. We'll be running a few of these contests as we've got a sizable stockpile of goodies to go around, so we'll keep this one hugely open-ended. Do whatever you like: Show us your car. Show us your pile of vintage. Keep it light, keep it interesting. Hoonage is highly regarded, but we're not responsible for any pain or damage you bring upon yourself.

The Judging: In the same vein of many of the college film contests, this is a very short deadline project. You've got 'til Sunday, March 22nd at Midnight to submit your video. Videos need to be submitted to YouTube.com with the tag "JalopnikContest1". Videos not conforming to this policy won't be accepted as we won't be able to find them. Optional: If you think you're really hot shit, you can submit your video link and a short blurb explaining why your clip is especially good to Didorosi@Jalopnik.com with precisely the subject line: "Jalopnik Video Submission: I'm In With You Like Brown On A Cow" We'll nominate our favorite videos and post five clips for one stage of voting. The winner of the voting earns the prize! What's the prize, you ask? Well...

The Prize: One quart of official Roush Full Synthetic engine oil signed by Jack Roush! Winners will get their choice of tasty 5W-20 or 5W-30 weight oil, Sharpie-signed by the short, hatted racer himself. You can't buy this kind of merch, folks. Sit this shiny silver quart on your speedshop's shelf in pride as it unleashes the fury and precision of American craftsmanship onto all that you build under it's watchful eye. We'll also publicly declare the winner with an article featuring their video, so fame and glory is definitely on the table. After we run three video contests, we're likely to have a championship competition between the three winners; so think of this as edging your way into the semi-finals.

The Rules: Standard contest rules apply. If you're posting straight to YouTube, make sure to include your Jalopnik username in the description, or we won't know who we're giving the prize. We reserve the right to use your likeness in all posted videos and may post them to our site at anytime. After we announce a winner, the prize will be shipped cheapest possible option straight to a continental address of your choosing. Don't discount the carrier pigeon choice - those guys work cheap.

Get out there, have at it. Happy filming!

According to Crane VP Steve Leva, the company is having the same financial troubles befouling the common automotive waters as any other supplier, but they're working to restructure and open as soon as possible. The management team is hoping to resume operations in as little as a week, but are targeting sometime this month. This is great news for the for grease monkeys everywhere, as the horror of stock V8 idle and terrifying valve float need not befoul your Saturday night special. Take that Carpocalypse. [AutoWeek]

In case you've never turned a wrench in anger or popped off a valve cover, Crane Cams is one of the original hot rodding companies and has been supplying the world with wonderful go-fast parts for 56 years. This week they closed up their New Jersey plant and laid off their remaining employees. No longer will a their high-lift cams or stiff titanium valve springs cause thunderous stop light intimidation. The world will be a colder, slower, less awesome place.
[News Journal Online]

The boy zipped through Sunday morning traffic in the Chaoyang district, eventually crashing into more than a dozen cars, trucks and minibuses. He also downed two power lines and completely mangled the city bus. Following the hijinks, the authorities were not terribly amused and took the kid into custody, calling his guardians who were probably not amused either. One man, identified as Liu, said the bus was bearing down on him like a "dancing dragon, I threw my canteen and ran for my life." Coincidentally, the "Dancing Dragons" is also the name of the Jalopnik-sponsored breakdancing team. [CBC]

We understand your frustration Mr. Bernero, but jeez-o-pete, lay off the campaign tactics and Red Bull for a minute and answer the kind Fox News anchor's questions. Of course, we've also heard he's a bit of a hot-head — Wert knows him from his days working for Michigan Governor Granholm in Lansing, and here's what he had to say:

My favorite Virg story is from back in 2003 when he was still in the State Senate. Virg cornered me next to one of the stairwells in the Capitol building in Lansing at some lobbyist luncheon. Virg knew I worked for the Governor, knew I was a senior staff member and decided I was a great target to bitch about some funding measure the Governor was pushing — despite the fact I wasn't in legislative affairs, nor was I going to lobby on his behalf to them. Regardless, he decided he wanted to play "hardball" with me, so he got in my face, blustering, gesturing wildly and bitching about the funding decision. The only problem is that I'm like a foot taller than him. So in order to get in my face, he needed to stand on the tips of his toes. So there we were, him bitching and yelling, pointing his finger in my face, me trying not to laugh at this little guy trying to intimidate me, when I realized that I could help him out. I stopped him in mid-sentence saying "Hold on a second," grabbed him, spun him around and stepped down one step so that I was now eye-to-eye with him, finishing with a "There, that's better — you looked like you were going to topple over. Please, continue your bitching." His face red with anger, Virg started to say something, then spun around and stalked off. I only smiled, put on my jacket and walked back over to my office in the Romney Building across the street."

[via dailykos]

DailyMail reports an unnamed Austrian farmer has been using a beloved Golf to transport some beloved calves. He even took steps to modify said hatchback to make it comfortable and accessible for their trips around the countryside.

Quoting the original article, "The unidentified farmer, from Kufstein district in Tyrol, insisted he 'acted out of love for his animals' as they would have been 'too cold' in an open-air trailer." Animal rights activists are raging over the prospect that someone would transport livestock in anything other than a government-approved animal trailer.

To calm the foaming mouths of the fur-happy lunatics, he agreed to "only transport young animals in the car that did not weigh more than 80 kilos." Happy now, Pamela?

[DailyMail]

We're actually not quite sure what's going on here, but this photo posted on GrandPrix.com is both creepy and awesome enough to warrant a captioning contest. Maybe McD's is sponsoring the team? Maybe Ronald was just hanging out. Maybe he really did get an audition. Either way, caption away.

[via GrandPrix.com]

Officials in Pinal County, Arizona have recently terminated their contract with Redflex, the company currently providing speed camera coverage for the rural area. Reasons for the termination include negligible income from the program and a doubling of accident-related deaths on the applicable roadways.

The two camera vans shuttered 11,416 times during the period between September 2007 and last month. Of those snaps, 7,290 resulted in tickets, but only 3,711 were paid. Those paid tickets resulted in $134,199.43 of gross profit, but the county only saw a net profit of $12,391.58. After running the numbers through a very complex series of algorithms, we arrive at the total cost of the speed camera program, which is a whopping $121,807.85.

Instead of the failed camera program, county officials hope to reinstall actual police officers to do the ticketing, thereby upholding the motorist's constitutional rights to face their accusers.

Constitutional Rights 1. Speed Cameras 0. Booyah.

(Hat tip to Jeff!)

[AZCentral]

The news comes just two weeks after we reported GM's unable to find a buyer for its quirky Swedish brand. Both companies are said to be excited about the deal, GM because it wants rid of the brand as it moves towards a more slimmed-down, government-sanctioned product portfolio and Saab because it’ll finally be able to develop its own new products free of GM’s badge engineering.

Those new products are still a ways off, however. The first step towards independence would see Saab moving production of the forthcoming 2010 Saab 9-5 from the Opel factory in Russelsheim, Germany to its headquarters in Trollhattan. While excessively expensive — requiring $100 million, some of which would come from the Swedish Government — the move is seen as key to reestablishing Saab as a Swedish brand made in Sweden. The Trollhattan facility is also currently operating at only around half its 170,000 cars-per-year capacity, so the move would be an economic stimulus for the Swedish economy.

9-3 Convertible production would also return to Sweden from Magna Steyr in Austria, but the upcoming Saab 9-4X SUV will still be produced in Mexico. A sensible move given its US-biased sales.

So what? You’re probably asking yourself. GM-based Saab’s are hardly the stuff of a reborn from jets brand. We agree with you, but a return to domestic ownership and the ability to conduct its own R&D and design future products like the long overdue 9-3 replacement are exactly what the brand needs. Whether or not it can spin an injection of capitol from the government together with a partially refreshed product portfolio to survive long enough to actually develop all-new products remains to be seen.
[via Autocar and Trollhattan Saab]