Noted civil rights leader Jesse Jackson had his Cadillac Escalade stolen in Detroit after making an appearance at a “Green Jobs” rally sponsored by the UAW as part of its “Jobs, Justice and Peace” demonstration.

One day after the rally, the Escalade used by Jackson to tool around Detroit was found with its windows smashed and rims stolen. One could argue that having to build these replacement parts is a very small scale Keynesian stimulus package to the auto industry. Most people would just vomit at the rank hypocrisy of  of driving a gas-guzzling full-size Cadillac SUV to a social justice rally.

While Jackson is still considered an important voice in the African American community (despite his frequent anti-Semitic outbursts), a fair number of rappers, who arguably made the Escalade such an important icon of pop culture, don’t seem to think so.

[Source: Jalopnik]

The Detroit-area wheel thieves have struck again, this time liberating the giant chrome 20″ rims off of Mayor Dave Bing’s GMC Yukon Denali.

The SUV, which police say is used by Bing’s family, was allegedly parked in a secure lot at Bing’s condominium. No other vehicles were targeted, and a replacement set of dubs were summoned via tow truck.

Ex-Detroit mayor Kwame Kilpatrick previously made headlines for leasing expensive SUVs on the taxpayer’s dime, while an Autoguide contributor recently had the wheels stolen off of a Lincoln MKT while visiting the city. Detroit and full-size SUVs seem to be a bad combination.

[Source: ClickOn Detroit]

A former GM employee and her husband have been indicted by a federal grand jury in Detroit in an industrial spying case. Ex-GM worker Shanshan Du and her husband Yu Qin are accused of photocopying thousands of documents relating to hybrid vehicle technology.

Prosecutors allege that the couple attempted to pass the documents on to a Chinese company, but destroyed the documents once an investigation began. The two are scheduled to appear in court today.

[Source: Detroit Free Press]

The end goal for most venture-capital financed start-ups is to issue an IPO and help get some money into the hands of those investors brave enough to give the company money at the early stages. Tesla Motors, perhaps the first Silicon Valley car company(and headed by Elon Musk, a former dot-com executive), is about to do just that, after filing papers with the Security and Exchange Commission, detailing terms of their IPO.

Tesla is expected to issue roughly 11 million shares of the company, with the shares going for $14 to $16 each. As a reward for the IPO, Toyota will invest another $50 million in the company, as part of an alliance between the two companies, which includes the NUMMI auto plant in California, and a new mass market sedan in 2012.

So far, Tesla only sells a 2 seat sports car, the Tesla Roadster, but the company plans to introduce a high end sedan, known as the Model S, in the near future. So far, Tesla has continually lost money each quarter, with total revenues of just under $150 million.

[Source: Detroit News]