Detroit thread. Post Kwame, Monica, and $1 houses here.

[garbon]

Assaults, robberies plague new transit center
"We all got off the bus and began running for it because it was freezing cold that day," Dassari said. "When we saw that it was empty, we couldn't believe it. All my little dreams were crushed."

This is why you should dream big, dear.

[Savonarola]

Can't stay out of trouble, even for a day, but he still looks faboulous:

Riddle ordered to wear tether, hits back at critics

George Hunter and paul egan / The Detroit News

Detroit -- Political consultant Sam Riddle, ordered by a judge today to return to wearing an electronic tether, lashed out at critics on his Facebook page who criticized him for violating a court order from his domestic assault case by having contact with the alleged victim, former state Rep. Mary Waters.

"I will live my life as I (expletive) see fit," Riddle posted on Facebook shortly after noon today. "I am prepared to suffer any consequences for not surrendering my soul -- don't like that? Then get off my (expletive) page."

Wayne Circuit Judge Gregory Bill said during an emergency bond hearing that Riddle must be monitored because of recent contact he had with Waters, his former live-in companion.

Riddle was on bond from a domestic assault case involving Waters. As part of Bill's bond order, Riddle was to have no contact with Waters, who was present in the courtroom today.

"My order has been violated," Bill admonished Riddle in the courtroom. Bill warned Riddle that he considered incarceration.

At one point during the hearing, Riddle interrupted Bill, which caused the judge to snap back.

"Please ... the only person who likes their sentence interrupted is an inmate," Bill said.

Bill also told Waters not to have any further contact with Riddle.

"If Miss Waters initiates contact, she might be the one standing in front of me next time," he said.

Riddle said the meeting with Waters, which occurred at a Birmingham movie theater on Valentine's Day, was by happenstance and that Waters initiated the contact.

"I've been to a lot places. I see a lot of different people," Riddle also said after the proceeding. "When I see her, I'll have to make her an invisible woman. I'm not permitted to acknowledge the humanity of Mary Waters."

Riddle also said he believes he is being "tag-teamed" by the Wayne County Prosecutor's Office and the Department of Justice.

Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy responded to Riddle's comments in a written statement after the hearing.

"This office handles over 8,000 domestic violence cases a year," she said. "We are treating this case the same as any other domestic violence case.

"We are duty-bound as officers of the court to immediately report any violation of court conditions. We agree with the court's decision to reinstate the tether today."

Riddle, who also indicated that he's considering retaining prominent lawyer Geoffrey Fieger, joked about the tether.

"Man, I can't wear my cowboy boots with this thing on," he said.

In addition to the state assault case, Riddle has been indicted by the Justice Department in two corruption cases in federal court in Detroit.

The first case, in which Riddle is accused of shaking down businesses for consulting payments while he worked as a top aide to former Detroit City Councilwoman Monica Conyers, ended in a mistrial Wednesday. The government says it will try the case again.

Riddle and Waters are scheduled to stand trial in federal court June 1 on allegations they bribed former Southfield City Councilman William Lattimore in connection with a pawn shop relocation. Lattimore has pleaded guilty to bribery and awaits sentencing.

[Savonarola]

Shocked, yes I am shocked to discover corruption in Detroit:

Feds have evidence ex-Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick took bribes
Contractor said Kilpatrick got up to $100K, his father up to $290K; Kilpatrick's lawyer says he knows nothing of bribery accusation
BY JENNIFER DIXON and JIM SCHAEFER
FREE PRESS STAFF WRITERS

A contractor who pleaded guilty in an ongoing corruption probe in Detroit has told investigators that he handed as much as $100,000 in bribes to then-Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick in 2002, according to interviews and sworn documents reviewed by the Free Press.

The contractor, Karl Kado of West Bloomfield, also told the FBI he paid hundreds of thousands of dollars to the mayor's father, and thousands more to a close mayoral aide, according to the records and interviews.

Kado told authorities he paid Kwame Kilpatrick in four or five installments of about $20,000 each. Kado, who is awaiting sentencing for paying bribes to protect multimillion-dollar Cobo Center contracts, said he sometimes delivered the money in envelopes to Kilpatrick's office on the 11th floor at City Hall, and sometimes Kilpatrick dropped by Cobo to get the cash.

The allegations are significant because they show, for the first time, that the government has secured the cooperation of someone who says he gave payoffs directly to Kilpatrick.

Authorities obtained the information as part of a years-long, complex and wide-ranging investigation in Detroit and Southfield that has produced a series of public corruption charges and 10 guilty pleas.


In pursuing Kilpatrick, investigators tracked cash moving in and out of bank accounts and wiretapped the phone of his father, among others, while slowly trying to build a case.

FBI agents also contend in sworn statements that they have grounds to believe Kilpatrick and his associates used the mayor's office to run a criminal enterprise, a term the FBI reserves for organized crime and racketeering cases.

It remains to be seen whether Kilpatrick or his father will ever face federal charges.

Kilpatrick's attorney, James Thomas, said he does not know of any bribery accusations against his client. The mayor's father, Bernard Kilpatrick, did not respond to interview requests. Kado and his lawyer declined to comment.

FBI believes mayor used office in criminal enterprise
In their investigation of Kwame Kilpatrick, FBI agents are trying to prove that the ex-Detroit mayor and his associates used his elected office as a criminal enterprise to enrich themselves, according to sworn documents reviewed by the Free Press and interviews with people familiar with the probe.

It's not clear whether the federal government will ever bring charges against Kilpatrick.

But in trying to build a case of criminal conspiracy, federal authorities have scrutinized a variety of evidence they say they have gathered against Kilpatrick, his father and close associates of the former mayor, according to records and people familiar with the probe.

Authorities describe a variety of alleged bribes and extortion demands during Kilpatrick's years in office that, when taken together, could amount to racketeering violations under federal law. Allegations cited in government documents and culled from interviews include:

• That Kwame Kilpatrick accepted bribes of up to $100,000 from Kado, a businessman who had exclusive, no-bid janitorial and electrical-services contracts at Cobo Center and a sundry shop at the convention hall.

• That Kilpatrick deposited unspecified sums of cash into bank accounts without declaring the funds as income.

• That Bernard Kilpatrick received large amounts of money from contractors and business owners in return for official acts by the mayor; and that he pressured others to donate to his son's political or civic fund.

• That Kado paid at least $30,000 in bribes to mayoral aide Derrick Miller, including $10,000 for a trip to Europe.

• That Miller told a local businessman he would be punished for backing a political opponent when Kilpatrick sought re-election. Shortly afterward, the businessman's commercial vehicles started getting ticketed in Detroit -- with the directive to do so allegedly coming from the mayor's office.

FBI agents have said they believe these activities and others constitute a criminal enterprise -- wording that indicates the government is trying to build a case under the Federal Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, or RICO, which has been used to prosecute a pattern of crimes by public officials, Wall Street swindlers and, most notably, Mafia families.

A RICO case -- if it ever materializes -- would expose Kwame Kilpatrick to far greater potential punishment than others who have been charged in an ongoing metro Detroit public corruption probe. Defendants in RICO cases can face up to 20 years on each count.

Peter Henning, a Wayne State University law professor and former federal prosecutor, said building a RICO case may explain why federal prosecutors have spent years investigating Kilpatrick.

"It wouldn't be surprising if it took two or three years to build a case," Henning said.

Kilpatrick did not return phone and e-mail messages seeking comment Friday and Saturday. James Thomas, his criminal defense lawyer, said Friday he did not know of any bribery accusations against his client in the federal corruption probe.

"I am not aware of any direct payment that was ever made to Kwame Kilpatrick," said Thomas, who helped defend Kilpatrick against perjury-related charges in the text message scandal. "And frankly, I'd be surprised to see it.

"But I'm not going to try my case in the media. There hasn't even been an indictment yet. If Mr. Kilpatrick is charged, we will try our case in the court and not in the press."

Bernard Kilpatrick and Miller could not be reached for comment.

Kado provides specific evidence
In the long-running metro Detroit probe, which has already produced 10 guilty pleas, the government has talked to scores of people, subpoenaed bank and business records, and obtained court approval to wiretap phone conversations of Bernard Kilpatrick, then-aides to the mayor and others.

The most specific evidence to come out against Kwame Kilpatrick in the government documents and in interviews involves Kado, the onetime Cobo Center contractor. He is set to be sentenced in March, after admitting that he bribed a Cobo official, who is now in prison, and a city official and an associate of that official, both unidentified.

It is unclear what, if any, evidence federal authorities have to corroborate Kado's claim that he bribed the ex-mayor.

Kado, 69, declined to be interviewed Friday, as did his lawyer.

But the records reviewed by the Free Press show that Kado began to secretly cooperate with the government's long-running investigation of city hall corruption well before he was criminally charged in August 2008.

Kado offered the FBI the following account:

He said Kilpatrick initially approached him in 2001, when he was first running for mayor, and asked for Kado's support. Two or three days later, Miller, Kilpatrick's longtime friend, visited Kado at Cobo, where Kado ran a sundries shop.

Kado said he turned over $10,000 for the election.

Kado told agents that after Kilpatrick won election, he was hit up for cash by Kilpatrick's father, Bernard. Kado said he decided to pay because he believed Bernard Kilpatrick -- who had set up a consulting business just 10 days before his son took office -- could get Kwame Kilpatrick to help Kado resolve any problems at Cobo.

Kado estimated that he paid Bernard Kilpatrick as much as $290,000 between 2002 and 2005. The Free Press previously reported that federal authorities have tried to determine whether Bernard Kilpatrick was involved in payoff schemes to steer city business to contractors, and whether he illegally passed along money to his son.

In September 2005, the U.S. Attorney's Office wrote to Kado that he was a target of its corruption probe. Kado said he showed the letter to Bernard Kilpatrick, who rented office space from Kado in a building on East Jefferson, and asked him for advice about hiring a lawyer.

He said Bernard Kilpatrick asked whether he knew who the government was investigating. Kado said he wasn't sure, but said that Bernard Kilpatrick could be a focus. He said he then told Bernard Kilpatrick he couldn't give him any more money because the FBI was after him.

Thirty to 40 minutes later, according to Kado's account, Bernard Kilpatrick approached Kado in the parking lot and told him he could get Kado another 10 years at Cobo if he was willing to work together. Kado said he declined, telling Bernard Kilpatrick not to worry about it.

$10,000 here, $10,000 there for an aide
According to Kado's account, he also told FBI agents that Miller, the city's chief information officer under Kilpatrick, pressured Kado to give a piece of his lucrative electrical contract at Cobo to Miller's relative, who had been lobbying Kado for work.

Kado said he balked and contacted Bernard Kilpatrick to complain. After that, the relative stopped coming around Cobo.

Kado said he later regretted rebuffing Miller, believing he may have damaged his relationship with the mayor's close friend. So, at a party in the Palmer Park neighborhood in late 2003 or early 2004, Kado said, he gave Miller an envelope with $10,000 in cash.

Miller wanted more, Kado told authorities, and asked him for another $10,000 so he could attend a European auto show. Kado said he paid the money in late 2004.

Miller has not been criminally charged by the feds.

In August 2008, well after Kado began talking with the feds, he was charged with felony tax violations in connection with bribes at Cobo.

Last June, he admitted that he failed to report $270,000 from his sundry business that he used to bribe a Cobo Center director, an unnamed city official and that official's associate to protect no-bid contracts that generated about $1 million a year in profits for Kado. When he is sentenced in March, Kado faces a mere zero to six months in prison because of his cooperation.

RICO case has pros and cons
Federal RICO law defines a criminal enterprise as "any group of six or more people" who engage in a pattern of crimes such as bribery, extortion, money laundering, mail, or wire fraud."

"Such groups maintain their position through ... corrupt public officials, graft, or extortion, and generally have a significant impact on the people in their locales," the FBI says on its Web site.

In the records reviewed by the Free Press, federal agents listed at least eight people who they say participated in the Detroit conspiracy. The list included Kwame and Bernard Kilpatrick, and Miller.

To date, a dozen people have been charged in the Detroit-area corruption probe, with 10 pleading guilty. They have faced bribery and other charges carrying up to five-year prison terms.

Should Kilpatrick be charged under RICO, he will face up to 20 years on each count, if convicted. The government could also seize whatever assets Kilpatrick has left after state authorities finish collecting from him in the text message scandal.

David Griem, a Detroit criminal defense lawyer and former federal prosecutor, said pursuing a RICO case gives prosecutors two advantages.

"You increase or enhance the potential penalties if they are convicted, and it paves the way for forfeiture," Griem said, referring to the government's ability to seize any property that may have been purchased with criminal proceeds.

But, he said, a racketeering prosecution also "greatly complicates the case and makes it more difficult to prove."

Feds also may build money case
Government documents suggest the FBI also is investigating possible money-laundering or tax evasion by the ex-mayor.

Kilpatrick, who has been under criminal probe by the Internal Revenue Service, made several cash deposits, which he kept under $10,000 -- the level that would trigger automatic scrutiny by federal bank regulators, the documents reviewed by the Free Press say. The cash was deposited without being reported as income, the records contend. Authorities say Kilpatrick also paid credit card bills with cash.

Griem said the government would likely look closely at possible money laundering when someone makes cash deposits and also pays their bills with cash, particularly if the person is not running a cash-intensive business.

"If there is a pattern of such activities, this will certainly come under the scrutiny of federal investigators," Griem said.

I always assumed that Kwame would rise phoenix like from the ashes and once again assume his rightful place as mayor; like a Detroit style King Arthur.  With this latest scandal, though, I'm not so sure.  This may be too much even for the city of Detroit.

[Savonarola]

And you can always count on the FREEP forums for the most erudite commentary:

i think its hilarious when a black person does anything wrong white folks come out of the woodwork with all their negative bs.when a white amn does something stupid i hear absolutely nothing.i guarantee my white education i recieved that if this were vice versa we would not have nearly half the post.you know why because black people dont care about what white people do thats your business.so continue with your racist remarks nothing will change and its noone were hurting in particular say, for maybe our kids future.

This is so true, why I have heard barely any negative commentary about the stupid things George W. Bush did.

[Savonarola]

And another:

LOOK AT THESE FOOLS, TAKE MONEY FROM THE WHITE MAN, WHITE MAN SNITCHES ON ALL YOUR PEOPLE, HE GETS MILLIONS YOU GET HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS, HE'S LOOKING AT 0-6 MONTHS AND UR LOOKING AT 20 YEARS MINIMUM IN FEDERAL PRISON. SMALL FISHES ALWAYS GET CAUGHT FIRST AND THROWN IN THE FRYING PAN!!!! IDIOTS

You just can't trust the White Devil to keep quiet after extorting him.   

[Savonarola]

Kilpatrick must live lavishly, his lawyer says
Appeal aims to delay hearing on probation
BY JOE SWICKARD and BEN SCHMITT
FREE PRESS STAFF WRITERS

Kwame Kilpatrick is living large because, his lawyer says, he has to.
 
Kilpatrick's attorney, Daniel Hajji, made the claim in an impassioned 14-page motion filed with the state Court of Appeals late Tuesday in an effort to postpone the ex-Detroit mayor's Friday probation-violation hearing in circuit court -- one that could eventually land him behind bars.

Wayne County Circuit Judge David Groner will arraign Kilpatrick for failing to pay $79,011 toward the $1 million he owes in restitution by last Friday's deadline. Kilpatrick and his lawyers say he doesn't have the money, despite his plush lifestyle in a tony Dallas suburb and $120,000-a-year sales job for Covisint, a Compuware subsidiary.

"The clientele he must establish a rapport with are likely to be the privileged and the affluent," Hajji said in the motion. "Burgers and beer at the local bar is not going to be sufficient."

Maria Miller, spokeswoman for Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy, said: "We intend to file a response tomorrow with the Court of Appeals."

'Detroit is being revictimized'
In a motion asking the appeals court to reconsider and postpone Kilpatrick's Friday probation-violation hearing in circuit court, Hajji said: "Detroit is being revictimized, and this time, the trial court and the prosecution are lending a hand."

Hajji said it would be no surprise if Kilpatrick loses his job because of the additional scrutiny. "The trial court and the prosecution do not seem to be concerned with getting the restitution paid," he wrote of Wayne County Circuit Judge David Groner.

"The trial court appears to infer that it wants Mr. Kilpatrick to live a middle-class existence, when such an existence is inconsistent with earning a sufficient amount to fulfill his restitution obligation.

"Mr. Kilpatrick is going to have to function in the upper echelons of society."

Kilpatrick works as a sales representative for Covisint, a subsidiary of Detroit-based Compuware. He has a base salary of $120,000, but could earn substantially more through commissions. Compuware officials could not be reached for comment Tuesday evening.

Miller said Tuesday that its lawyers will be in court Friday and ready.

Groner is to arraign Kilpatrick on Friday on a probation violation for failing to pay $79,011 toward the $1 million he owes in restitution by last Friday. But, unless the former mayor pleads guilty, which is unlikely, don't look for a hearing on the matter for weeks.

Hajji wrote in his motion that the case had become "a farce."

"Yet, here the prosecution adds another layer of absurdity," he wrote.

When Kilpatrick wept in Groner's court as prosecutors played jailhouse conversations between him and his wife during restitution hearings last fall, Hajji said: "Mr. Kilpatrick's tears were real. ... He only asks that his family be left alone. ... Mr. Kilpatrick wishes to move on, even if the City of Detroit does not."

In the 14-page motion filled with assertions in bold type and snarky asides, Hajji raised the specter of racial divisions in metro Detroit surrounding the Kilpatrick case.

"The town is divided, with many of the opinion that Mr. Kilpatrick is nothing more than a darker version of Bill Clinton, many of the opinion that he was corrupt, and many of the opinion that his is just another giant fiasco that is accomplishing little more than giving Detroit another black eye."

During a hearing Tuesday over Kilpatrick's failure to pay, Beverly Smith, area manager for the Michigan Department of Corrections, gave Groner a draft report outlining the department's assertion that Kilpatrick violated his probation by failing to make the full $79,011 payment by Friday.

However, payments for the former mayor came in through 57 money orders totaling $14,048 on Friday and 17 money orders totaling $21,125 on Monday. The money came from unidentified payees.

Smith told Groner the report recommends a probation-violation warrant be issued for Kilpatrick.

After the hearing, Michael Alan Schwartz, one of Kilpatrick's lawyers, said the violation hearing will not become a gimme for prosecutors: "You got to have due process ... and I'm going to hold them to their proofs."

He also said that some of Kilpatrick's payments could have been donations from "warm-hearted people" who wanted to help out.

In 2008, Kilpatrick pleaded guilty to obstruction of justice and no contest to assault and resigned from office. The plea came after the Free Press broke the text message scandal that showed that Kilpatrick and his former chief of staff Christine Beatty perjured themselves during a 2007 civil whistle-blowers trial involving police officers.

Kilpatrick served 99 days in jail and was ordered to pay $1 million in restitution to Detroit. He then filed a document claiming he could spare only $6 a month for his beloved city as he lounged in a swank $1.1-million Texas mansion.

And when Kilpatrick missed Friday's deadline for the $79,011 restitution payment, he apparently opened the door for additional probation violations. Prosecutors contend that Kilpatrick has repeatedly violated probation by lying about his finances and hidings his assets with his wife, Carlita Kilpatrick.

University of Detroit-Mercy law professor Richard Krisciunas said the Frank Murphy Hall of Justice sometimes rivals the healing shrine at Lourdes when someone is facing the stark choice of pay or jail: "A guy will say he's broke, and the judge will say '30 days.' The next thing you know, here's ... the cash. It's a miracle!"

A former high-ranking Wayne County prosecutor, Krisciunas said Kilpatrick was the author of his own woes: "He's maintaining a lifestyle of the rich and famous and then the utter stupidity of claiming he can only pay $6 a month."

Livonia attorney Bill Winters, who is president of the Wayne County Criminal Defense Bar association, said he believes Groner has every right to jail Kilpatrick.

"In general, a defendant who willfully ignores or refuses to pay restitution, providing that person has the means to pay, can be jailed," Winters said Tuesday. "Whether it's going to happen with this defendant, I don't know."

Your heart just goes out to the guy.     His mother is a congresswoman; it's his divine right to live an upper class lifestyle. 

[garbon]

[Savonarola]

Another Travel with Charlie:

Blue-collar workers hanging on by thread
Charlie LeDuff / The Detroit News
Garden City -- They arrive at work at 7:25 a.m. and many of their cars are rusting buckets of crud. Except for the boss's. He drives a Volvo.

Walk in the door at Schaefer Screw Products and there is the enemy -- the clock. The oil vapors and solvents are overwhelming. The yellow light is dispiriting. The workers don't want to be here. The liquor bottles in the weedy lot out back tell part of the story. The graffiti in the bathroom -- profanely denouncing "hard workers" -- tells the rest.

The workers punch the clock at precisely 7:30 a.m., not a minute later since they would be docked 14 minutes and nobody in America works 14 minutes for free. A quiet resignation settles over them as the roar of the screw grinding machines rev up. Want it or not, they need to be here. After this place, there is no place. Not in today's America.

This machine shop may be the next wobbling domino in the collapse of the American manufacturing sector and the struggles of its blue-collar workers. There are at least seven shops nearby that are available for lease.

Schaefer Screw is in an industrial section of Garden City north of Ford Road, about two miles west of Detroit.

My brother Bill Parker and his wife Kim work there. Bill, 35, made $70,000 shuffling subprime mortgages for Rock Financial in 2006. He used to wear suits and now he wears oily jeans making $8.50 an hour counting and cleaning screws. For Christmas, he got a $43.80 bonus and evicted from the house he wrote the mortgage on.

"Dude, I was making more than that in high school," he said. Then he recited the new battle cry of a generation: "I'm just glad to be working."

Schaefer Screw is a three-generation mom-and-pop shop dating back to 1946. By all rights it should have a "For Sale sign" in the window. Its jobs should be overseas in places like Guangzhou and Juarez and Bangalore, where the labor is cheap.

Free trade is friend and foe
The ironic bit is this: Schaefer Screw would not be here at all had it not been for the cheap Chinese labor that supplies the plant with screws and bolts and fittings and nipples. Inside its 20,000-square-foot frame sits a snapshot of American lives of desperation: falling wages, fewer hours, homes nearing default, a business nearing failure, worker/management friction.

"I got a call from New York in 2001," recalled the owner Mike Szalay, 45, who along with his brother Mark took the place over from his father Sanford, who took it from his father Mike. The caller was a competitor, but also a friend. "He warned me that my prices were too high. He said guys in China are coming in and they're going to kill you. Get with it. NAFTA is here. So I kicked a few pieces over there I wasn't making money on, standard plumbing fittings. I thought I'd give it a try. They came back. The quality was good; the price was right."

NAFTA, the North American Free Trade Agreement, created a free trade block beginning in 1994. But that is only part of the story. The World Trade Organization (WTO) began quietly in 1995, encouraging a sort of worldwide NAFTA that all but eliminated international trade barriers. China was admitted in November 2001 and since then Michigan has lost nearly 400,000 manufacturing jobs or nearly 50 percent of its industrial work force.

"It's got its roots in the Big Three," Szalay said of the job losses. "The big boys made so much money, they gave the unions whatever they wanted, no matter what productivity was. They gave a guy $28 an hour to lean on a broom. So it trickled down and my guy wanted $20 to lean on a broom. It got so bad they figured out a way not to pay the guy with the broom. They moved whole factories, whole industries overseas.

"But now it's swung too far. We've got nothing left here. I'm employing people in menial jobs just to keep them going. And I'm scared to death that this place is going to die. How are we going to pay this national debt back? The stimulus? What sort of jobs are we going to tax? Where's the value in the money?"

Schaefer employs 20 people, down from 40 when the WTO began. It is considered a manufacturer, but only about 25 percent of the product is made on site. What choice did he have?

"I'm a distributor technically," said Szalay.

Except for the few machinists filling spot orders, the menial jobs consist basically of removing screws from a box that says Made in China, counting the bits, cleaning them and putting them into new boxes that do not say Made in China.

There are machines that can count and clean screws more quickly and efficiently than a human being, Szalay said, but the machines cost $50,000 plus maintenance and software. In today's America, a human being is cheaper than a machine in the short run.

At the same time, Szalay had to ask his workers for concessions: a 5 percent reduction in pay and a 20 percent cutback in hours. This is not unusual. The average hourly earnings for the American worker fell last year by nearly 2 percent when adjusted for inflation, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Of the more than 8 million jobs lost in the past two years -- 2 million were the good-paying jobs in the manufacturing sector.

The workers were not pleased. When Szalay went back into his office, a machinist said this of the boss: "I'm sicka hearing about the economy. What's he gonna do? Trade in his Hummer for a Porsche?"

He traded it for the Volvo.

Struggling to get by
For workers here, Szalay is the closest they will come to THE MAN. And by THE MAN they mean the bozos in Washington, D.C., who voted for the trade agreements and the bank deregulations that let the jobs slip away and money disappear into thin air.

When they say THE MAN, they mean the wolves on Wall Street who amplified the housing bubble and nearly took the world economy down. Instead of paying the price and going out of business and collecting their own unemployment checks, the Wall Street wizards got a multibillion-dollar bailout paid for in part by that $43.80 screw factory bonus. Now those wizards are making beaucoupbonuses again while some see darker clouds on the horizon.

Goldman Sachs, which was a heartbeat away from failure in 2008 and received $40 billion in federal aid, paid out $16 billion in bonuses and compensation in 2009 -- an average of nearly $500,000 per employee. The bank paid just $14 million in taxes. At the same time, Deutsche Bank forecasts that a quarter of homeowners are underwater and RealtyTrac.com reported 315,000 foreclosures in January, the most for that month on record. Many economists are predicting a bleak year in the housing market if wages and unemployment don't improve.

"You feel the whole thing's a swindle," says Cindi Borbi, the 59-year-old account manager behind a desk behind a cloud of cigarette smoke. Her husband took his life last year after being let go from his auto supply firm. He left his wife a broken heart, a mound of debt and a house she can't pay for. "I'm looking for a basement if you've got one."

Amanda Wollschlager, 26, is giving up her home. Her husband was laid off a year ago from a white-collar job at an auto supplier. His unemployment benefits will run out in March. They are packing up the baby and heading to Arizona. "We heard there's jobs out there, hopefully," she said.

Mike Straw, 42, must be the most honest man in America. Straw, a 12th-grade dropout, earns $8 an hour but takes home about $75 a week. Up to his neck in house payments on a house that is no longer worth what he owes, Straw has decided to pay instead of walk away.

Why?, he was asked. A lot of people are walking out on debts.

"A lot of people do, but I don't," he said. "If everybody walked away on what they owe, where would we be?"

And with that, the lunch bell rang. Everybody was huddled around the time clock like it was the only thing giving off heat.

[Alcibiades]

Depressing.  What do you do Sav, employment wise, if you don't mind me asking.

[HVC]

Depressing.  What do you do Sav, employment wise, if you don't mind me asking.

He works for the Detriot Tourism Association


:p

[Savonarola]

Depressing.  What do you do Sav, employment wise, if you don't mind me asking.

Not at all, I'm an engineer for the Cellular division of AT&T.  Business is booming for us; even in a recession people can't live without iPhones.

[Savonarola]

Depressing.  What do you do Sav, employment wise, if you don't mind me asking.

He works for the Detriot Tourism Association


:p

I'm trying to play up the "Adventure Tourism" angle.

[Savonarola]

Two Detroit Schools Employees Suspended


Detroit (WWJ)  -- A principal and bookkeeper at Detroit Public Schools Randolph Career and Technical Center have been suspended without pay for allegedly using school funds to remodel their homes and pay for personal food and gasoline. 

Detroit Public Schools Inspector General John Bell said principal Gwendolyn Miller and bookkeeper Eugenia Holimon will face disciplinary hearings for allegedly misusing school funds. 

Bell said an investigation was started last July after a former worker at Randolph phoned in a tip about possible wrongdoing. 

Bell said Holimon allegedly used Home Depot, Sam's Club and Dell Catalogue sales for personal purposes, that school employees installed a furnace at Miller's residence, and that the school's Comerica checking account was used to purchase equipment for Miller's residence.

The investigation showed that between December 2006 and June 2009 Holimon, who has been with the district for 19 years, spent in excess of $29,000 of Randolph funds for a home mortgage, purchased a $2,995 projector for her boyfriend and purchased $6,200 on food and gasoline for her family's personal use.

Bell also said Holimon's son, who lives out of state, made $6,700 in unauthorized Sam's Club purchases via Randolph's account.

Miller, who has been with the district for 26 years, allegedly ran a tab of $642.28 over a three year period at the school's boutique shop.

The district's investigation showed that fraudulent bank statements, computer request quotations and vendor letters were created to conceal true items purchased.

The two suspensions are the third and fourth such suspensions.  Last June, the district suspended the principal and bookkeeper at Golightly Vocational and Technical Center for misuse of school funds.

Bell and Emergency Financial Manager Robert Bobb said several other investigations are underway and say those stealing from the district will be caught.

The depressing (well, on of the depressing) thing about this is that if the School Board had remained solvent these people would never have been caught.  The DPS never did audits, they didn't even have a process to do audits.

[Savonarola]

How Detroit is saving you money:

Millions from stimulus unspent

Detroit has received $170 million in federal stimulus dollars but has been able to spend only $16.8 million of it because the city is broke, and most of the available grants require it to spend money up front and get reimbursed.


But for a city courting a $330-million deficit, spending on anything but the necessities is next to impossible.

Today, the Detroit City Council is expected to receive an update on how stimulus money is being spent within the city.

City department officials are scrambling to apply for extensions in an effort not to lose the funding, but the city's financial situation -- and its gloomy forecast -- could render their actions moot.

"We are working with the Obama administration through the federal stimulus and other grant opportunities to take advantage of every funding opportunity to create jobs, make our streets safer and provide much-needed relief to our citizens," Detroit Mayor Dave Bing told the Free Press. "Like many cities, our financial crisis has made this process more difficult, but we will continue to manage our way through."

Last February, President Barack Obama signed the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act in an effort to pump some life into the nation's economy. Detroit seemed to be the perfect candidate for such a boost, but city officials within various departments appear to have difficulty tracking the funds and finding ways to utilize grants -- those that require up-front spending and those that don't.

The Detroit Police Department, for example, has received $20.2 million in stimulus funds -- some of which requires up-front spending -- but has spent only about $350,000. The Public Works Department, too, has been granted $23.4 million but has not moved off a dime. "We inherited a grant process that was inefficient and ineffective, and we are making progress toward resolving it," said Dan Lijana, a Bing spokesman.

There have been some bright spots, though.

The city's Workforce Development Department spent $9.1 million for a summer youth employment program. And the Department of Human Services has spent nearly $5 million to help Detroiters reduce energy costs by greening their homes.

"The stimulus act ends in another 17 months -- we need to keep striking while the iron is hot," said Walt Rushing, director of the city's Office of Grants & Stimulus.

Rushing said Detroit is working to have a Web site running within the next two months that would allow the public to track when the city receives, and spends, stimulus funds.

He said other big cities also are facing spending-for-reimbursement challenges, and there is a national move afoot to convince the Obama administration to release some of the money up front. At the National Conference of Mayors convention last month, Bing addressed the issue with members of the administration.

"Nobody is flush with cash these days," Rushing said.

Not that I would ever turn down pork for the D, but you'd think some of our congressmen (say Representative Conyers or Representative Cheeks-Kilpatrick) would have a passing knowledge of the city's financial state and their ability to use these funds.

[MadImmortalMan]

http://www.detnews.com/article/20100225/METRO/2250445

Bing on unions: 'Either they can't read, they can't add or they can't comprehend'
Christine MacDonald / The Detroit News

Detroit --Mayor Dave Bing today criticized leaders of the city's largest union for foot-dragging on contract negotiations, saying it's costing the financially strapped city $500,000 a month and could result in more layoffs.

"Either they can't read, they can't add or they can't comprehend," Bing said at a press conference this morning in his office at City Hall. "It has to be one of the three.

"Everyone is running with a deficit in their budgets. It's leadership or a lack of leadership that has got us to where we are."

Bing said he's ready to impose a contract on the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Council 25 but said the city must follow the law. Both parties are now in fact-finding, a process which could last until July.

More layoffs may be necessary in the meantime to help shore up the city's estimated $325 million deficit, although Bing didn't give any numbers.

Bing has been at odds for months with AFSCME leaders over calls for concessions, including 10 percent pay cuts through 26 furlough days and fringe benefit cuts. The union represents about 3,600 workers such as landscapers, street pavers and crossing guards.

But union leaders shot back at Bing this morning. They said the irony was that Bing's 10 a.m. press conference to introduce his new human resources and labor relations staff was the same time both parties were supposed to be at AFSCME offices on Lafayette Boulevard for the fact-finding hearings.

"They have dragged their feet," said Richard Mack, an AFSCME attorney. "They are late every day."

The mayor's staff said in a written statement that the appropriate city officials were at the fact finding this morning and said it was AFSCME representatives who requested a delay because of the press conference.

Union officials say they understand the city's precarious finances and are willing to commit to the furlough days. But they say the city hasn't made a case for many of the fringe benefit changes they want, including changes to vacation, sick time and health care. And they have criticized Bing for not being sincere about making tough budget cuts elsewhere, including his own staff.

"The union has not run from the financial situation the city of Detroit is in," said Catherine Phillips, AFSCME's lead city negotiator. "Let's end this. We are costing the city's millions."

Bing has ratified deals with 26 of the city's 49 unions, one union vote is pending, and he has imposed contract conditions on three others, staffers said.

He blamed union officials, who he said have repeatedly tried to delay negotiations in court unsuccessfully, including asking a judge at one point to jail Bing for contempt. Bing said he is sensitive to the rank-and-file city employees but said the city is in a "financial crisis".

"It's not the rank and file," Bing said. "The (union) leadership will still have their jobs."

The City Council recently approved fringe benefits reductions that Bing negotiated with about 25 unions representing nearly 1,400 staffers and another 1,300 non-union workers. They include:

• Suspending tuition reimbursement until 2012 to save $520,000 a year.

• Reducing vacation and sick days for new hires, including eliminating up to six bonus vacation days if they don't call in sick.

• Dropping coverage for fertility and impotence drugs such as Viagra to save $1.6 million a year.

• Stopping employees from being able to add adult dependents -- parents or adult children -- to their insurance as long as they pay the monthly premiums.

These are in addition to a 10 percent pay cut in the form of 26 furlough days.

In August, Bing vowed to lay off 1,000 workers if unions didn't agree to new contracts. He backed down, but noted the city's work force has fallen to 11,800 from 13,200 when he took office in May.

From The Detroit News: http://www.detnews.com/article/20100225/METRO/2250445#ixzz0gxqkdQ4Y

49

They probably have to retain a full-time squad of negotiators for that.