President Obama visits Detroit

On Friday, President Barack Obama visited the Chrysler Group LLC's Jefferson North assembly Plant in Detroit during a brief stop in Michigan to promote economic growth in the auto industry.

Obama visited the Chrysler plant a little more than a year after the company emerged from bankruptcy to see a company that is on the road to recovery.

During the President's visit, Chrysler Group CEO Sergio Marchionne announced that the company's Sterling Heights Assembly Plant, which was scheduled to close after 2012, will now remain open. In addition, he announced that the company will add nearly 900 jobs on a second shift of production, scheduled to start in the first quarter of 2011. To support that operation, suppliers will add nearly 500 jobs.


Because my duties are first and foremost to the communities of Chelsea and Dexter, I was unable to attend the president's visit. However, as I believe the creation of auto jobs affects everyone in the state, I sent my trusted friend and photographer, Ian Kushnir, in my place. Ian has attended several news events with me and was thrilled with the opportunity to cover the president's visit to the Motor City.

Ian's communications with me via cell phone also allowed me to recreate a story from the president's visit, and that will be posted to our news site shortly.

~D.L.