Editing Decatur, Illinois (section)

===Former employers===
From 1917 to 1922, Decatur was the location of the Comet Automobile Company,<ref>{{Cite web |title=Comet Automobile Company Records Accession1771 |url=http://www.dalnet.lib.mi.us/henryford/docs/CometAutomobileCompanyRecords_Accession1771.pdf |website=www.dalnet.lib.mi.us}}</ref> and the Pan-American Motor Corporation.

In 1950, the Marvel-Schebler Division of [[BorgWarner]] opened a new facility in Decatur. The plant, which once had as many as 1,300 employees, was sold to Facet Aerospace Products in 1982. The plant closed in April 1983.<ref>{{cite news |title=Work ends today at Marvel-Schebler |work=Herald & Review |issue=Pg A4 |date=April 15, 1983}}</ref>

{{See also|Lysine price-fixing conspiracy}}
In early November 1992, business executive [[Mark Whitacre]] of Decatur-based [[Archer Daniels Midland]] confessed to an [[Federal Bureau of Investigation|FBI]] agent that ADM executives, including Whitacre himself, had routinely met with competitors to fix the price of [[lysine]], a food additive. The lysine conspirators, including ADM, ultimately settled federal charges for more than $100&nbsp;million. ADM also paid hundreds of millions of dollars ($400&nbsp;million alone on the [[high-fructose corn syrup]] class action case) to plaintiffs and customers that it stole from during the [[Price fixing|price-fixing]] schemes.<ref name="Greenwald, John">{{Cite web |date=January 14, 2009 |title=THE FIX WAS IN AT ADM - TIME |url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,985379,00.html |access-date=March 30, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090114104626/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,985379,00.html |archive-date=January 14, 2009 }}</ref><ref name="Wilson">{{cite web |author=Wilson, John K. |date=December 21, 2000 |url=http://www.bankrate.com/brm/news/investing/20001221c.asp?prodtype=grn |title=Price-Fixer to the World |publisher=[[Bankrate.com]] |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20031217002440/http://www.bankrate.com/brm/news/investing/20001221c.asp?prodtype=grn |archive-date=December 17, 2003}}</ref><ref name="KaplanFox">{{cite web |url=http://www.kaplanfox.com/press.php?&id=7 |title=Archer Daniels Settles Suit Accusing it of Price Fixing |publisher=KaplanFox |date=July 19, 2004 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070929213021/http://www.kaplanfox.com/press.php?&id=7 |archive-date=September 29, 2007 }}</ref><ref name="FoodNavigator">{{cite web |url=http://www.foodnavigator-usa.com/news/ng.asp?id=52937–sweetener-settlement-for |title=Sweetner Settlement for ADM |publisher=FoodNavigator |date=June 18, 2004}}</ref> In 2014, ADM moved its upper corporate management out of Decatur and established the new ADM World Headquarters in downtown Chicago. Following the ADM corporate exit, Decatur became listed by the [[United States Census Bureau]] as number 3 in "The 15 Fastest-Declining Large Cities" which showed a 7.1% population loss of (-5,376) from 2010 to 2019.<ref name=":2" />

The Japanese corporation [[Bridgestone]] owns [[Firestone Tire and Rubber Company]], which operated a large tire factory here. Firestone's Decatur plant was closed in December 2001 amid a [[Firestone and Ford tire controversy|tire failure controversy]]. All 1,500 employees were laid off.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2001/12/14/us/an-illinois-tire-plant-closes-and-a-way-of-life-fades.html|title=An Illinois Tire Plant Closes and a Way of Life Fades|last=Kilborn|first=Peter T.|date=December 14, 2001|work=The New York Times|access-date=April 29, 2017|issn=0362-4331}}</ref> Firestone cited a decline in consumer demand for Firestone tires and the age of the Decatur plant as the reasons for closing that facility.<ref name="Close Plant">{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2001/06/28/business/bridgestone-firestone-to-close-tire-plant-at-center-of-huge-recall.html|title=Bridgestone/Firestone to Close Tire Plant at Center of Huge Recall|last=Barboza|first=David|date=June 28, 2001|work=The New York Times|access-date=April 29, 2017|issn=0362-4331}}</ref>