In a surprising development, Toyota is announcing today that it plans to pick Tupelo, Miss. over Marion, Ark. and Chattanooga as the site of the company's next North American manufacturing plant.

The scuttlebutt is that Marion, with its close proximity to Memphis, and Chattanooga were both hurt by their air quality problems.

Hmmm. So maybe that $6.3 million worth of air quality improvement grant money that the feds decided to withhold from Memphis as a penalty for Memphis scamming them over the FedExForum parking garage doesn't seem so insignificant after all, does it?