Just hours after General Motors filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, the Rev. Jesse Jackson led a rally of more than 1,000 people at Michigan’s state Capitol Monday, demanding that the government and industry join forces to save jobs for U.S. auto workers and that laws be enacted to stop the avalanche of home foreclosures. “We demand better,” the civil rights icon said at the gathering. Read more.

The U.S. government is officially in the auto business. General Motors, the century-old auto-manufacturing behemoth, will file for bankruptcy protection today in an unprecedented agreement that would spare the company but give the federal government amazing new powers over a major company. The U.S. government would inject a staggering $30 billion into the floundering firm, giving American taxpayers a 60-percent stake in GM. Read more.

Auto industry crisis costs Tiger Woods’ cash. General Motors Corp. will end its nine-year endorsement relationship with golfer Tiger Woods in an effort to further reduce expenses as the company fights to survive financial devastation. GM announced Monday that it will no longer use the star athlete to endorse such products as the Buick, whose emblem Woods has carried on his golf bag. The deal was thought to be worth about $7 million. GM says Woods agreed with the parting of ways because it will let him spend more time with his growing family.

Judge chastises Travis Henry for his spending.  Former Denver Broncos player Travis Henry hopes a judge will change the $3,000 monthly payment order for one of his nine children. Henry, who’s not likely to play in the NFL again after he was charged with attempting to deal cocaine, says he’s unemployed and unable to kick out the cash for his son. “He’s got child support obligations across the country, and he’s got zero income,” lawyer Randall Kessler recently told a court. An earlier order from the judge observed that Henry spent $100,000 on a car and $146,000 for jewelry, and instructed him to establish a $250,000 trust fund. Henry’s appealing the order.

Spelman has a thing for science. Atlanta’s Spelman College produces the most African-American graduates who go on to earn doctoral degrees in science and engineering, according to the latest college stats. The small private liberal arts college for women with a student body of about 2,200, sent 150 Black students on to Ph.D. degrees in those traditionally male disciplines from 1997 to 2006, according to a survey by the National Science Foundation. That’s more than any other undergraduate program in the country except the much larger, coed Howard University, with 224. Howard, another historically Black institution, has about 7,000 undergraduates. As for the other Georgia institutions, Morehouse ranked fifth in the country with 99; Georgia Tech came in 48th with 32; and Emory didn’t make the top 50. “Spelman really shatters many of our ideas about women in science and math, and Black women in science and math in particular,” said Lily McNair, Spelman’s associate provost of research.

General Motors names its first Black design director. Just as the struggling auto industry seeks new capital to save its life, one of the big three picks a Black woman to head up its North American design division. Read more here.