No one knows what’s happening with Foxconn’s promised factory in Mount Pleasant, Wisconsin (my hometown!) after conflicting reports surfaced last week that construction was on hold, then not on hold, on hold again, and then maybe back on track after Trump personally called Foxconn CEO Terry Gou. We’ve been tracking the story closely, Bloomberg Businessweek just ran a cover story about it, and there’s a great Reply All episode about it as well. It’s… well, it’s a mess.
But nothing quite captures the insanity like this tremendous report from Terry Sater at WISN 12 in Milwaukee. Here are some things it contains:
- Absolutely no one from Mount Pleasant, Racine, or Foxconn going on the record.
- Mount Pleasant Village President Dave DeGroot hiding behind his door to avoid answering questions about the broken deal.
- Sater more or less vlogging from his car while driving around the Foxconn property as Foxconn security tails him.
- Foxconn security pulling Sater over and kicking him off the property after they arrive at the main construction office.
- Michael Bonn, the finance director for Mount Pleasant, telling Sater that he’s “trying to figure [it] out myself” because he hasn’t been to work in a day and a half.
Strong showings all around. If you know anything about what’s going on with Foxconn and Mount Pleasant, do let us know.
https://www.theverge.com/2019/2/8/18217310/foxconn-wisconsin-mount-pleasant-dave-degroot-local-news