'A Weird Sort of Victory' at the USDA

I have written about "Baxter" before. Baxter is not a person. Rather Baxter is a robot rapidly replacing humans in various manufacturing jobs. See Meet "Baxter" the Robot Out to Get Your Minimum-Wage, No Benefits, Part-Time Job, Because He's Still Much Cheaper; Fed Cannot Win a Fight Against Robots. Service Jobs Next to Go

After firing 20% of its workers, doubling water rates and outsourcing trash collection, Flint, Michigan, has a balanced budget. It’s also approaching the point at which it can’t function as a city. That’s the assessment of Edward Kurtz, its emergency manager. Without reliable revenue to replace dwindling property and income taxes and state funding, the birthplace of General Motors Co. won’t be able to support its citizens, even if its books are square, Kurtz said.

As I’ve mentioned before, although the auto industry seems to have stabilized in the wake of the financial crisis (and I see that as a good thing), overcapacity continues to be the major, long-term problem facing automakers (see Auto Industry’s Big Little Problem).

Jane Black takes note of an in

Yesterday the U.S. Department of Agriculture and First Lady Michelle Obama revealed the federal government’s new food icon, MyPlate, to help consumers — especially young ones and their parents — make healthier food choices (

The Burrill Report submits: MacroGenics and Eli Lilly said teplizumab, an experimental monoclonal antibody for the treatment of type 1 diabetes, failed in a late-stage clinical trial. The Data Monitoring Committee, composed of independent experts in the fields of diabetes and biostatistics, completed a planned analysis of one-year safety and efficacy data of the trial of teplizumab.

The Burrill Report submits: Shares of Cambridge, Massachusetts-based Curis (CRIS) fell nearly 50 percent on news that its experimental drug in combination with Avastin and chemotherapy failed in a mid-stage trial in metastatic colorectal cancer.