Off-track inMiddletown

摘要

IT HAS been a tough summer for Muncie, a small city 60 miles north-east of Indianapolis and half way between an industrial past and a possible future as a college town. Unemployment dipped briefly below 9% this spring, but floated back up to 10% in June and July. The car-parts makers that were once Muncie's life blood have largely given up on it; but creating skilled manufacturing jobs at a new locomotive factory is turning out to be a hard slog.