Representative Marcy Kaptur (D-Toledo) made the headlines at Politico today for “exploding” on AIG officials.

Following a hearing of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform Wednesday, Kaptur reportedly accused an AIG trustee of sending money to banks that are exploiting her constituents.
“They hire outside people to come in and rape us,” Kaptur said, her voice rising. “It’s outrageous.”
Outrage. I like it!
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Last month, Rust Wire had a brief post about a fake “promotional” video for Cleveland posted on YouTube. The video sparked quite a discussion, both on this web site and within Cleveland.
I thought it was somewhat humorous, but many didn’t like it. Some Rust Wire readers pointed out that humor like this can hurt the city and its image, others said we should be able to laugh at ourselves once in awhile. (It even prompted Cleveland’s tourism and promotional agency, Positively Cleveland, to launch a contest to make a more …

Check out this view of the old, abandoned Fort Pitt Steel Casting plant in McKeesport, Pa. (outside Pittsburgh).
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A sad story about Toledo in Sunday’s Washington Post.
The article describes how the downturn in the economy is hitting white-collar workers- hard. (I should know, I’m one of them!)
“In this corner of Ohio, the workforce is contracting at an alarming speed, with unemployment climbing to rates more typical of counties in Appalachia,” the article states. “In March, unemployment in Toledo reached 12.6 percent, an increase of more than 50 percent over March 2008.”
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Amber Arellano says it better than I ever could in today’s Detroit News.
“It’s tough for some folks to understand that many of us want to be here [in Detroit]. We didn’t end up here by inertia or lack of vision or better options. We’re educated and mobile; we can live anywhere. We choose to stay — or to return.”
“We return because we love the people and the culture. We stay because we’re proud of our roots, of who we are. We’re not naïve about this region’s daunting challenges; we’re choosing …

Amber Arellano says it better than I ever could in today’s Detroit News.
“It’s tough for some folks to understand that many of us want to be here [in Detroit]. We didn’t end up here by inertia or lack of vision or better options. We’re educated and mobile; we can live anywhere. We choose to stay — or to return.”
“We return because we love the people and the culture. We stay because we’re proud of our roots, of who we are. We’re not naïve about this region’s daunting challenges; we’re choosing …

Upset with being named to Forbes’ “10 Fastest Dying Cities” list, Daytonians are taking action, The Dayton Daily News reports.
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Upset with being named to Forbes’ “10 Fastest Dying Cities” list, Daytonians are taking action, The Dayton Daily News reports.
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Today’s Pittsburgh Post-Gazette has an article describing a bad outlook for manufacturing.
“The decline in the numbers of manufacturing jobs lost in April may be a sign of even worse news: The country is running out of manufacturing jobs to lose,” the article states.
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I didn’t catch this week’s episode of “The Office,” and now look what happened.
Apparently, Jim and Pam were planning to get married in Youngstown, which proves definitively, according to this blog, that the show’s writers have no knowledge of Rust Belt geography.
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