Here’s an interesting item , from the Inside Bay Area political blog. To those who need more incentive to click, the gist of it is that Nadia Lockyer has a sizable head start in money raised for the upcoming Alameda County District 2 supervisor race. Hayward Councilman Kevin Dowling has considerably less cash available, but he’s maintaining that most of his donations come from within the district, while nearly all of Lockyer’s war chest comes from outside the area.

Today’s paper had this story about what happens when a large plant such as NUMMI closes. Nearly 400 workers will soon be out of work at a Hayward supplier of plastic parts whose sole customer was NUMMI. And, of course, more than 10 times that many people will no longer have jobs at NUMMI itself when the plant closes in April.

And for the big picture, multiply that again by 10. According to today’s story, “some industry watchers believe the auto factory’s closure could imperil 40,000 to 50,000 jobs in California.”