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Scott Pelley and ’60 Minutes’ visit ‘ground zero’ DHL recession town

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Few corners of America have escaped the current economic bloodbath, but ’60 Minutes’ may have discovered one of the hardest-hit places.

Sunday’s show features a piece from correspondent Scott Pelley detailing the struggles of Wilmington, Ohio, which is reeling from courier service DHL’s decision to close its American hub there. The closure will result in the loss of 10,000 area jobs, a staggering blow for a town that has only 12,000 residents within the city limits.

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‘One of the people we talked to described the town as ‘ground zero for unemployment,’ ‘ Pelley said by phone Thursday afternoon. ‘And it truly is.’

Pelley and his producers quickly seized on the town as emblematic of Americans’ economic despair after Sens. Barack Obama and John McCain both mentioned it during their presidential campaigns last fall. Residents were eager to tell their stories, Pelley said, because they felt most Americans still had no idea what was happening there. He recounted stories of working-class parents reluctantly pulling their kids out of college and local businesses facing near-certain ruin.

The town, Pelley said, ‘is a little bit like Katrina without the physical damage.’

-- Scott Collins

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