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October 15. 2008
PageA9
Freightliner to Close Portland Plant
Daimler Trucks of North
America, formerly known as
Freightliner, announced Tues­
day that about 1,000 jobs will
be eliminated when its closes
its Portland m anufacturing
plant in June 2010.
The end of production at the
39-year-old Portland plant.
will not affect the location or
operation of the com pany’s
headquarters on Swan Island,
where about 2,200 people
work, company officials said.
But the m ove c o m e s
nearly a year after Daimler
announced it was m oving
hundreds of white-collar jobs
out of Portland headquarters
to new o ffic e s in S o u th
Carolina.
Daimler said that its North
American truck division will
drop its Sterling brand and end
truck production at plants in
Portland and Ontario, Canada
as it moves to deal with de­
pressed demand.
The company said Western
Star production will be as­
signed to a plant in Santiago,
Mexico, while Freightliner-
brand military vehicles will be
produced at one of its facili­
ties in the Carolinas by mid-
2010.
M M n N M M M M M l
ACORN Defends Voter Registration Drives
After GOP
complaints
of fraud
(AP) - An activist organization
on Tuesday defended its voter
registration practices amid new
allegations of voter fraud and a
call from Republican lawmakers
to investigate irregularities.
In O hio, D em ocrat Barack
Obam a told reporters that the
group's registration problem s
should not be used by the GOP
as an excuse to keep voters from
turning out on Election Day.
The Association of Commu­
nity Organizations for Reform
Now, known as ACORN, has reg­
istered 1.3 million young people,
minorities and poor and working-
class voters, the group says.
Som e of those registration
cards have become the focus of
fraud investigations in Nevada,
C onnecticut, M issouri and at
least five other states. Election
officials in Ohio and North Caro­
lina also recently questioned the
group's voter forms.
More than 13,(XX) workers in
21 states recruited less-fortunate
voters, who tend to be Demo­
crats.
"The vast, vast majority were
dedicated w orkers," ACORN
spokesman Kevin Whelan said
at a news conference on Tues­
day. "They did something remark­
able in bringing all these new
voters."
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ACORN spokesperson Kevin Whelan speaks Tuesday at a press conference in Washington,
D.C. Behind him is Maryland ACORN president, Rev. Gloria Swierenga. (AP Photo/)
House Republicans have also fraud. The campaign accuses the
renewed their push for the Jus­ Democratic presidential candi­
tice Department to investigate the date of having close ties to the
group. ACORN has been drawn group.
Obama and two other lawyers
into a back-and-forth between
in 1995 represented ACORN in a
the presidential campaigns.
R epublican John M cC ain's lawsuit against the state of Illi­
cam p aig n on T u esday said nois to make voter registration
Obama should rein in ACORN's easier. During this year's primary,
efforts in order to fight voter Obama hired a firm with ties to
t
the group for a massive get-out-
the-vote effort.
Obama told reporters on Tues­
day that ACORN was not advis­
ing his campaign on voter regis­
tration.
"This is another one of those
distractions that get stirred up
during the campaign," Obama
said.
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