Go tofreep.comfor photogalleries, finalresults, updatesand a video fromthe campaign trail.� Huckabee’slongshot run paysoff nicely. 4A� The scene insideone caucus. 5A

DES MOINES, Iowa — Barack Obamaand Mike Huckabee scored decisive if im-probable victories in Iowa’s first-in-the-nation presidential caucuses Thursday,buoyed by huge turnouts at church base-ments, school auditoriums and even livingrooms across the state.

Both now have the early edge in a com-pressed schedule of caucuses and prima-ries across the nation.

Obama, the charismatic Democraticsenator from Illinois who has touted him-self as the candidate for change, beat for-mer North Carolina Sen. John Edwards

and New York Sen. Hillary Clinton, whoadvisers had warned might want to avoid apossible defeat in Iowa.

Meanwhile, Huckabee, the former Ar-kansas governor and bass-plucking Bap-tist preacher, rode a continuing wave ofpopularity in the state, wrenching awaythe lead long held by Republican MittRomney, a former Massachusetts gover-nor and Bloomfield Hills native.

With 93% of precincts reporting, Huck-abee had 34% while Romney had 25% andformer Sen. Fred Thompson and Sen.John McCain had 13% each.

The loss now puts Romney in the posi-tion of needing to win New Hampshire’s

ELECTION 2008 | IOWA CAUCUS

OBAMA, HUCKABEEWIN FIRST ROUND

REPUBLICANS: Mich.native Romney can’t fend

off ex-governor’s late surge

BRIAN BAER/Sacramento (Calif.) Bee

Presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., addresses supporters at a rally inDes Moines, Iowa, after winning his party’s caucus Thursday.

MANDI WRIGHT/Detroit Free Press

Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee speaks during a victory party in DesMoines, Iowa, on Thursday after being declared the winner of his party’s caucus.

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INDEXVol. 177, Number 245© 2008Detroit Free Press Inc.Printed in the U.S.

Their fast starts take sting out of Lions’ flop SPORTS, 1D

WINGS, PISTONS: AMAZING!

International spam king AlanRalsky has been indicted in Detroiton charges of violating federal anti-spam laws, the U.S. Attorney’s Of-fice announced Thursday.

The 41-count indictment saidRalsky, 62, of West Bloomfield; his

son-in-law, Scott Bradley, 46, alsoof West Bloomfield, and nine otherpeople used unsolicited e-mail topump up the price of penny stock inChinese companies to artificiallyhigh prices and then sold it, reap-ing huge profits for themselves andleaving Internet subscribers whopurchased it holding the bag.

Prosecutors described Ralskyas one of the most prolific spam-

mers in the nation.His operation used illegal meth-

ods to maximize the amount ofspam that could be sent while evad-ing spam-blocking devices, andtricked recipients into opening andacting on advertisements, prosecu-tors said.

Tactics included false headers ine-mail messages; proxy computersto disguise the source of spam;falsely registered domain names to

Leading Internet spammer indicted� At freep.com: Mike Wendland’stake on Ralsky.

10 others also facingfederal charges

By DAVID ASHENFELTER

FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER

See INTERNET , 3A

DAVID P. GILKEY/Detroit Free Press

The charges against Alan Ralsky, 62, ofWest Bloomfield could get him 20 yearsin prison plus large fines.

Ford Motor Co., in the midst of a re-structuring, fell to No. 3 in U.S. autosales last year, as Toyota Motor Corp.posted its 12th straight year of recordU.S. sales and moved up to second placebehind General Motors Corp.

Even though Fordheld on to pickup lead-ership with its F-Series— the nation’s best-selling vehicle name-plate for 26 years andthe best-selling truckfor 31 years — the com-pany’s Ford brand isno longer the nation’sbest-selling make.

Among brands,GM-owned Chevrolettook that title in a mar-ket squeezed by ahousing crisis and re-cession fears.

Overall, GM saleswere down 6% in 2007.But GM remains

America’s No. 1 automaker, with U.S.sales of 3.8 million last year. AlthoughToyota is far behind, with 2.6 million,GM isn’t taking anything for granted.

“We think over the course of manyyears, we’re going to be duking it out forleadership,” Mark LaNeve, GM NorthAmerica vice president for sales, serviceand marketing, said Thursday during aconference call with journalists. “Sowe’ve certainly got our eye on Toyota allthe time.”

The two are neck and neck for globalsales leadership, but those results arenot yet available.

Chrysler LLC, meanwhile, posted an

2007 U.S. AUTO SALES

ToyotadropsFord a notchGM is solid No. 1in a down year

By SARAH A. WEBSTER

FREE PRESS BUSINESS WRITER

See SALES, 3A

Chrysler

3.1%

December: +0.5%

Ford

11.8%

December: -8.9%

GM

6.0%

December: -4.4%

’07 auto sales highlightsNew No. 2: Toyota topped Ford as thesecond-biggest seller of cars and trucks inthe United States.Chevy on top: More Chevrolets were soldthan any other brand. But Toyota dealers,who also sell Scion brand cars, sold morevehicles. Ford falls from first to thirdplace.Top truck: The Ford F-Series locked up its31st straight year as the best-sellingtruck on the strength of its redesignedSuper Duty pickups, such as the F250.Racing cars: The Toyota Camry was thetop-selling car for the sixth straight year. Long live the (minivan) king: Thanks to a51.3% jump in December sales, the DodgeGrand Caravan staved off the HondaOdyssey as America’s top-selling minivan.Detroit share: GM, Ford and Chryslercombined for 52.4% of the new cars andtrucks sold in the United States last year,down from 53.7% in 2006.No. 9: With a total of 16.1 million cars andlight trucks sold, 2007 had the lowestsales since 1998 and was ninth all-time.

Henrik Zetterberg

Chauncey Billups

BARACKOBAMA 38% EDWARDS

30% CLINTON

29%100% of precincts counted

MIKEHUCKABEE 34% ROMNEY

25%THOMPSON

13% MCCAIN

13%93% of precincts counted

By KATHLEEN GRAY

and TODD SPANGLER

FREE PRESS STAFF WRITERS

DEMOCRATS: Edwardstakes second; front-runner

Clinton finishes in third

See IOWA, 4A

� Chrysler reveals job-cut plan. 1E

� GM centennial to include blogs, rock. 1E

MORE RESULTSDEMOCRATS100% of precincts reportedBill Richardson 2% Joe Biden 1% Uncommitted 0% Chris Dodd 0% Mike Gravel 0% Dennis Kucinich 0%

REPUBLICANS93% of precincts reportedRon Paul 10% Rudy Giuliani 3% Duncan Hunter 0% Tom Tancredo 0%