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The Associated Press reported Wednesday that Packard Bell NEC Inc. would close its computer plant in Sacramento, Calif., and eliminate 1,400 jobs.
So what? There are items like this every day on the business news wires.
Well, many of those computer jobs once existed in Michiana, in a huge St. Joseph factory operated by Zenith Data Systems.
We mourned when the city lost Zenith Data Systems and its 570 jobs in 1996.
After all, things once looked so bright for the Zenith Data operation, which grew from nothing in 1980 to a peak employment of 1,800 people in 1990.
For a while there, it looked as though Michiana would have a major role in the fast-growing personal computer manufacturing industry. Zenith Data was a leader in the PC market, especially in sales to governmental agencies.
But...