Orion

In a bid to reduce its numbers of skilled workers, General Motors is reportedly offering skilled-trades workers a $60,000 buyout to leave the automaker's payroll by March.

Autoworkers laid off from a General Motors plant in Orion Township, Mich., have until the end of the day Tuesday to decide whether to take jobs at the automaker's Lordstown assembly plant, some 250 miles away in neighboring Ohio.

General Motors unveiled plans Thursday to build a new compact Buick sedan at an idled plant in Michigan that once built Pontiacs. The automaker will invest $145 million to retool the Orion Assembly plant, which will build the new Buick Verano sedan as well as a yet-unnamed small Chevrolet car, GM said during a press briefing at the plant, about 40 miles north of Detroit.

GM is expected to announce the production of a new compact car for Buick -- the Verano. The upscale sedan will be assembled in a former Pontiac plant in Orion Township, Mich., helping to restore 1,200 jobs at the facility.

President Obama's plan to scrap the Constellation space program designed to send U.S. astronauts to the moon is being blasted by senators from states with heavy space industries. The policy shift reignites questions about the mission of the U.S. space program and the role of private companies in that effort.