Program Directory

 
Feagler and Friends - Culture and Student Achievement, Chrysler Buyout: DaimlerChrysler
Feagler and Friends
 
 
 
Newsmaker: Douglas Clifton, former editor, The Plain Dealer. Clifton retired this week after 38 years in the newspaper business, the last eight with The Plain Dealer. He rose from a reporting job with the Miami Herald to run Knight-Ridder's Washington Bureau and later served as managing editor of the Charlotte Observer, executive editor of the Herald, and finally editor of The Plain Dealer. Now, he's set to begin the next phase of his life and he'll talk about it with Mr. Feagler.

Culture and Student Achievement: A new study this week by the local think tank Policy Bridge says neighborhood attitudes and media culture is thwarting achievement by minority students. Policy Bridge went to the streets of Cleveland and found a prevailing anti-education attitude among young people. Those who wanted to achieve say they felt peer pressure not to. The study also complained students are bombarded by media images glorifying "thug" culture. Policy Bridge says it's time the community came to grips with the problem and found solutions.

Chrysler Buyout: DaimlerChrysler agreed this week to sell the company's Chrysler division to Cerberus Capital Management for $7.4 billion, taking a Big Three company private for the first time in a half-century. The UAW endorsed the deal, but it will do nothing to avert 13,000 layoffs and other downsizing already planned. Cerberus is already a major player in the automotive industry, having just acquired a majority stake in GMAC. It's also a bidder for two other major auto suppliers: Tower Automotive and Delphi.

Eminent Domain: Cuyahoga County probate Court is the battleground this week for the latest skirmish over eminent domain. Developer Scott Wolstein wants to flatten the east bank of the Flats and put up his own complex of residential, retail and office space. And he's acquired much of the land he needs. The Port Authority has gone to court to help him get the rest from landowners who've complained they haven't gotten fair offers for their properties.

May 21, 2007