Detroit Free Press from Detroit, Michigan • 31

Hiq Detroit News' jos if. 1 Section Inside Business Insider buying jumps Company executives are buying their firms' stocks at a high rate. Page 4C The D.tr;it Nwi tmim find tf Mhi-M Pi joiI at hltpdtf news com curmntbi? Sunday, August 25, 2002 mm Mew New token-exchange machines, faster drink fountains, coinkss slots to speed up service. world in general." By month's end, Greektown also hopes to convert 6 percent of its nickel slots to coinless technology'. Coinless is considered a key development for future casinos because of potential cost and labor savings.

Another change involves the casino's beverage service, used daily by 12,000 people, Greek-town has begun using relatively high-tech beverage carts that can service the casino's floor for an hour three times longer than the regular cup-carrying carts now employed. Please see CASINO, Page 2C tance of No. 2 MGM Grand Detroit Casino in terms of revenue. In iis brief history, Greektown, owned by the Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians, has been a distant third behind MGM and MotorCify Casino in Detroit.

With consumers accustomed to the convenience of automatic teller machines and self-serve supermarket checkout lanes, casinos also are trying to give gamblers faster services. 'All of die technology that we're looking to incorporate is more about convenience," said Salvatore Semola, Greektown's chi ef operating officer. "It's consistent with what's happening in the business By Becky Yerak The Detroit News DETROIT After gambling at a Triple 7 quarter slot machine at Greektown Casino, Scott Steffy lugs his winnings toward the "cage," the area where workers dole out currency to gamblers in exchange for tokens. But the 29-year-old Flint resident abruptly stops when he spots a self-service redemption machine. Other gamblers are dumping in their tokens and getting money back, saving themselves the bother of waiting in line at the human-staffed cage, '1 like this," Steffy, a Laborers Local 1075 union member, said about Greektown's self-service machine.

"It's better than standing in line." In less than a minute after dumping in his tokens, Steffy walla off with crisp bills and quarters totaling $55.50. The speedier machine is among three technological changes Greektown is making to improve customer service. Twenty-one months after its opening, Greektown is within striking dis Donna Terek The Detroit News Sal Semola, Grcektown Casino's chief operating officer, says the casino's looking to incorporate more technological changes to offer gamblers more convenience. Ford's credit unit is back on straight and narrow again Judging by my mail, many of you aren't convinced that Ford Motor Co. is back on track.

You are wrong, but that attitude is at least understandable. In the auto industry, reform doesn't kick in overnight. It takes a while for the system to purge, and skepticism is normal until the company finally puts up the right set of performance numbers. But here's one thing you can quit worrying about altogether: Ford Motor Credit the automaker's big financial arm. Take my word for it the finance company's mid-life crisis is over.

True, it dallied where it shouldn't have. But now it has repented and, under a new management team, is again following the straight and narrow. And what a team. Ford Credit in essence is a huge bank one of the biggest in the world. But President Greg C.

Smith and CFO Bibiana Boerio aren't your typical bankers. Smith is an engineer. In traditional Detroit parlance, you'd call him a car guy. Excuse me, a truck guy. He joined Ford in 1973 and spent half his career engineering trucks.

He also has field experience in marketing and dealer relations. He joined Ford Credit as head of strategic planning after serving in a similar position on Ford's corporate staff. Boerio was hired at Ford in 1976, a member of the last class of college stars recruited by the legendary former Ford finance chief Ed Lundy. Her command of the terms and methods of corporate finance is encyclopedic, enough to dazzle even the most cautious bankers, bond traders and stock analysts. Yet she too has 'nri il iffiT-t llnrt nvrvo.

"On? fmh city stood up fcr what tiny wanted but nssr tby'rs cayinj -Wre not going to p-y Wo that as a ilttb bit ef a bzi mro." Greg Joseph, mayor of River Rouge Publicity causes judge to 1 (0 oss suit LJ n7 wnr LJ LJ J' Hi hi 1 n. ifSt if 1 3 ft Torches cut steel into slabs in the No. 2 continuous caster at National Steel. Ecorse and River Rouge are now at odds with the company, asking a judge to force tax payments. LJ Ecorse, River Rouge wait for $3 million each rience, having worked at Jaguar's Brown's Lane, Coventry headquarters for five years.

She also did a stint in one of the most personally demanding jobs in the industry ff Detroit 1 0 1 Mefvindaie Allen Kvw pa 6 National Steel i property manager for Ford Division. It's hard to imagine two more appropriate leaders for a company that deals every day with the world's great financial markets and the everyday car buyer and car dealer, and must know how to coddle all three. Former Ford CEO Jacques Nasser wanted Ford Credit to mimic die performance of GE Datroif -U mstf. The Detroit News Capital Com. the finance arm Plaintiff claimed Ford boss harassed her in media reports.

By Susan Carney The Detroit News DETROIT A Wayne County Circuit Court judge has dismissed a sexual harassment case against Ford Motor Co. because the plaintiff and her attorneys ilk-gally generated publicity about the defendant that could have swayed a jury. Wayne Circuit Judge William J. Giovan ruled last week that plaintiff Justine Maldonado and her attorneys ignored Michigan law and court orders when they staged protests, distributed leaflets, and provided information to the news media that publicized co-defendant Daniel P. Bennett's criminal history, as well as allegations that he harassed other women.

"The behavior in question has been intentional, premeditated, and intransigent," Giovan said in a sharply worded decision, "It was designed to reach the farthest boundaries of the public consciousness. It should be presumed to have had its intended effect." In 1995, Bennett was found guilty of indecent exposure, but the conviction was later expunged from his record. Michigan law prohibits divulging or publishing information about a verdict that has been set aside, according to die judge's decision. The court ruled in June that Bennett's conviction, and his alleged behavior toward other women, could not be used as evidence at trial. Maldonado, 38, a quality inspector at Ford's Wixom Assembly Plant, alleged that Bennett, one of her supervisors, at various times in 1998 engaged in lewd behavior, demanded sexual favors, and followed her home.

She sued Ford and Bennett in June 2000. Giovan's ruling last week came after Ford asked the court to throw out the case, citing the pretrial publicity. He did not rule on whether Maldonado was harassed, and dismissed her case with prejudice, which means she cannot sue again. Miranda Massie, one of the attorneys representing Maldonado, said the ruling violates die First Amendment right to free speech. "We're going to immediately appeal" Massie said.

"Pretrial publicity is simply not a basis for dismissing a case and the judge's decision is unprecedented Elizabeth Hardy, an attorney representing Ford, said Massie is "twisting" the judge's decision. "They want die focus to be on squelching free speech, but that's not the issue here. The issue is misconduct. Dismissing a case for misconduct is by no means unprecedented." You can reach Susan Carney at (313) 222-2287 scarney detnevis.com. Uztlmzl Steel Corp.

Headquarters: Mishawaka, Ind. 2001 sales: $2.49 billion 2001 loss: $652 million 2002 (first half) sales: $1.26 billion 2002 (first half) loss: $108 million Metro Detroit workers: 3,050 2002 taxes owed to Ecorse and River Rouge: $5 million Source; National Steel Corp. and cities of Ecorse and River Rouge By Francis X. Donnelly The Detroit News ECORSE For nearly a century, the hulking Great Lakes Steel complex along the Detroit River endured the ups and downs of the economy along with the neighboring communities that grew up around it. Generations of steelworking families trace their roots to the industrial behemoth.

For some, the smoke belching from the plant's towering blast furnaces means jobs. For others, it means tax revenue. But the Downriver communities are beginning to take a dim view of their gritty economic engine. Now, they say, the smoke is just smoke. The company's parent, National Steel filed for Chapter bankruptcy protection in March and recently told the two cities where it's located that it won't pay property taxes for the next year.

The towns, Ecorse and River Rouge, say they can't operate without the money. Because of past financial problems, they've already cut back police protection, firefighting and street upkeep. Without the tax revenue, the cities said they would stumble into bankruptcies of their own. "We've already cut beyond die bone," said Ecorse Mayor James DiTrapani, who describes himself as the only full-time mayor in Michigan without a secretary. "We're on a skeleton crew." National Steel pays about $3 million a year to each city, whose budgets are between $10 million and $11 million.

The money is especially crucial to River Rouge, which already is $1.5 million in debt unrelated to the steel maker's tax payments. The city has asked a federal judge overseeing the company's bankruptcy proceedings in Chicago to require National Steel to pay its taxes. The legal contretemps puts two former allies, the city and its biggest business, who had joined together in past campaigns to keep the company afloat, on of General Electric Co. Under Nasser's idol, former GE Chairman Jack Welch, GE Capital became a fabulous implement of growth and profits. A plan to fast-grow Ford Credit in similar fashion didn't work, producing a glut of sour assets.

These have been largely dumped. Anyway, Ford Credit's basic financial condition is bullet-proof, and Smith and Boerio primarily are engaged in steering the company back along its historic gold-plated path and coaching people about its true situation. For instance, there's been concern about. Ford Credit's use of the sort' of mysterious off-balance sheet finance instruments that became notorious in the Enron debacle. At Ford Credit, these are neither mysterious, nor are they really off die balance sheet.

Their use is simple, clear, tactically correct and there in black and white for anyone to see. These and other things that outsiders need to know were pulled together into an info packet for outsiders, called Ford Credit University. The "university" even has an official seal and a Latin motto reflecting its mission: Fiscus, Vest ire, Sustinere: Finance, Invest, Support. But the car-buying public undoubtedly will steal a line from Julius Caesar and say about the revamped Ford Credit: I came, I saw, I borrowed. You can reach James Hig-gins at (313) 222-2740 or jhisiinsdetnews.com.

opposite sides of the "t)ur whole city stood up for steel," said Greg loseph, mayor River Rouge. "They got what they wanted but now they're saying, 'We're not going to pay you We took that as a little bit of a bad move," The mammoth Great Lakes Steel, a unit of National Steel, dominates the riverfront of Ecorse and River Rouge. The complex, which is four miles long, is one-third the size of the two communities. Its work force of 3,050 equals 15 percent of the cities' population. The Downriver area, whoso fate has been entwined with the steel industry since the Depression, may soon be hearing some good news.

National Steel said it hopes to get enough orders to reopen its third furnace, which has been closed for two years. Some workers are returning to their jobs. Please see STEEL, Page 2C Pfiofos by Alan Lassig' Vie Detroit News Carrie Wiliyard, a process engineer from Wyandotte, watches as molten iron is poured into a vessel to make steel at i.e Great Lakes Steel unit of National Steel Corp. in Ecorse. The parent company is in Chapter bankruptcy.

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