Posted: 04 Mar 2010 09:23 PM PST

MADISON — New vehicle registrations in Wisconsin are nearly half of what they were in 2000.

Registrations dropped 46 percent — a hit that's felt well beyond the state's auto dealerships.

Thousands of jobs have disappeared as auto plants and their suppliers deal with the fractured auto industry.

The auto statistics service Cross-Sell shows the number of new vehicles registered in Wisconsin in 2009 was nearly 172,000 — down from nearly 320,000 in 2000.

Nearly 700 new vehicles were registered in Brown County in January, compared with 568 in January 2009, according to the Department of Transportation. Door, Kewaunee and Shawano counties saw similar increases, while year-over-year declines were recorded in Manitowoc, Marinette and Oconto counties.

Since 2000, 107 auto dealerships have closed in Wisconsin, including 56 in 2008 and 2009.

State employment in auto parts manufacturing fell 44 percent from 2000 to 2009.

Parts factories such as Tower Automotive and Delphi in Milwaukee and Lear and SSI in Rock County closed.

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Levin is acting chair of Ways and Means panel - Modesto Bee

Posted: 04 Mar 2010 03:32 PM PST

The Ways and Means Committee is arguably the most powerful and influential in Congress. It originates all tax laws and has jurisdiction over trade, Social Security and benefit programs that pay about half the cost of Americans' health care.

In choosing Levin, Democrats went with a soft-spoken leader whom Democrats hope will help move them past Rangel's ethics problems and provide a steady hand as Congress tries to pass a health care bill this month.

Once health care is addressed, Levin will have to turn his attention to billions of dollars in tax cuts set to expire at the end of the year - a thorny issue that will only get more complicated and politically charged as congressional elections approach in November.

Levin, 78, represents an auto industry district outside Detroit and is the Democrats' foremost expert on trade, an issue that has been on the back burner since President Barack Obama took office. He gives up his chairmanship of the Ways and Means subcommittee on trade to head the full committee. His younger brother by three years, Sen. Carl Levin, also a Michigan Democrat, is chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee.

"Every human being is different," Levin said of his management style. "I think what I will try to combine is organization, collegiality and making tough decisions."

Levin said he hopes to work on health care, economic development and job creation. On the latter, Obama has wanted more focus on giving businesses tax incentives to increase their payrolls, an approach rejected by many Democrats in the House. In his new role, Levin could help bridge that gap.

But the biggest issue that he and perhaps the entire Congress face once health care is out of the way will be the billions in tax cuts initiated by former President George W. Bush in 2001 and 2003 that expire at the end of this year.

If Congress doesn't act, taxes at every income level would increase, with the top income tax rate rising from 35 percent to 39.6 percent. The top capital gains tax rate would rise from 15 percent to 20 percent and the top tax rate on dividends would increase from 15 percent to 39.6 percent. The $1,000 child tax credit would be reduced to $500.

"Clearly they have to be addressed, as does the estate tax," Levin said. "I think we will continue the middle-class income tax cuts."

Obama has said he wants to extend most of the tax cuts, allowing taxes to increase only on individuals making more than $200,000 a year and couples making more than $250,000. Republicans argue that increasing taxes on high earners would hurt small businesses.

Democrats on the committee were still trying to get used to Levin as chairman on Thursday, saying the future was uncertain for big issues like trade and tax reform.

"What we need to do is to take the temperature of what's happened in the committee and at least proceed with some discussions and give the interim chairman some room to make some suggestions," said Rep. Richard Neal of Massachusetts, a senior Democrat on the committee.

Levin, first elected in 1982, is in his 14th term. He will serve as the committee's acting chairman until Rangel's ethics case is resolved or a new Congress convenes next year.

The ethics committee admonished Rangel last week for breaking House rules by accepting corporate-financed travel. He has called his exile temporary, but he still faces inquiries over late payment of income taxes on a rental villa he owns in the Dominican Republic, his use of House stationery to solicit corporate donations to an educational institution that bears his name and belated disclosure of hundreds of thousands of dollars in previously unlisted wealth.

Rangel, who has said he didn't want his ethics case to damage fellow Democrats, said of Levin, "It's the best thing for the country, the Congress and the committee under the circumstances. I love him. He's good. He's thorough. He's got a reputation, and he'll do us well."

Levin told reporters: "I think you know my close relationship with Charlie. At this point, I'm acting chairman."

Stark stepped aside Thursday, saying he wanted to keep his chairmanship of the Ways and Means subcommittee on health, a position he would have had to give up if he had taken over the full committee.

The chairmanship then fell to Levin who is the next most senior Democrat.

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Andretti Autosport signs 15-year-old driver - ESPN.com

Posted: 04 Mar 2010 03:18 PM PST

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Associated Press

INDIANAPOLIS -- Sage Karam isn't old enough to drive on the streets of his home state. But the Pennsylvania native will be racing on the streets of St. Petersburg, Fla., later this month.

The 15-year-old from Nazareth, Pa., was hired Thursday by Michael Andretti to drive in the USF2000 national championship, which begins March 27-28 in the Florida city. It's the first time Andretti's team will compete in the "Road to Indy" driver development program.

Karam has competed in the Skip Barber national championship and the World Karting Association the past several years. He was the only American driver to compete full-time in a national karting championship and an open-wheel series in 2009.

This story is from ESPN.com's automated news wire. Wire index

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YouTube Launches Auto-Caption For All English-Language Videos - NPR News

Posted: 04 Mar 2010 02:35 PM PST

This is what auto-captions will look like on YouTube. (Screenshot / NPR)

From now on, when you put a video up on YouTube it will get captions.

"This is huge. It's what I dreamt of for years," said Ken Harrenstein, a software engineer at Google who is deaf. Harrenstein announced the new auto-caption software at YouTube's headquarters in San Bruno.

Harrenstein, a graduate of MIT, explained how he often missed lectures when he was in college because he couldn't understand them. Now, many lectures are video taped and put on YouTube. Harrenstein showed how he could view a lecture with captions. But, even more exciting he can search a phrase like "elephant and mouse," and find the exact moment in the lecture where the professor said those words.

Auto-captioning technology isn't new but YouTube engineers say its never been deployed on such a wide scale. Every minute, 20 hours of video are uploaded to YouTube. Mike Cohen, a research scientist at Google, says the technology has been around for 50 years. But the progress on it has been incremental. Now it's hit a point where it's gotten really useful.

It's useful, but Cohen and Harrenstein admit it's still flawed. They showed a video where the word "salmon" had been substituted for "sim card." They also said that it will be used only on videos with clear enough audio -- that means those folks talking with a stereo in the background and rambling on with loud traffic noise behind them won't get transcribed.

Still, this is a big step. There were a group of students at the announcement from a local deaf school who were absolutely elated about the technology. They were a hip looking group of young women dressed in stylish jeans and shoes and no doubt they were going to feel hipper now that they could watch more YouTube videos without having to keep asking a person who can hear to explain it.

Harrenstein says they will be constantly improving the technology and will hopefully have it available soon to do transcriptions in languages other than English

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