Languish.org

Quote from: The Nickname Who Was Thursday on March 17, 2009, 12:54:35 PM
Anyone else think that broken down dentist chair looked like a robot?  :-\

Quote from: The Brain on March 17, 2009, 12:59:03 PM

Quote from: Darth Wagtaros on March 17, 2009, 01:10:47 PM
Detroit should be turned into the military's urban combat training center.  At least something good would come out of that shit hole.

QuoteLegendary Detroit jazz club Baker's tries to stay open
Business down, bills up
BY MARK STRYKER • FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER • March 18, 2009

Baker's Keyboard Lounge, the legendary Detroit jazz club at Livernois and 8 Mile, might be taking its final chorus.

Owner John Colbert said on Tuesday that without a significant uptick in business, he has only enough money and wherewithal to keep the club afloat for about two months. His major goal is to keep the doors open through the club's 75th anniversary in early May.

Business is off 35% to 40% in the last nine months, Colbert said, and a combination of factors -- the recession, road construction on Livernois, parking issues and a dramatic hike in the club's water bill -- have conspired to bring Baker's to the brink of extinction.

"Nobody gets rich running a jazz club, but in the 13 years since I've owned the place, we've never experienced anything like this," Colbert said.

Baker's has been integral to Detroit's cultural identity as a jazz mecca for so long, it's hard for musicians, aficionados and even casual fans to conceive of the city without it.

If metro Detroiters have been to one jazz club, it's likely been Baker's. With its hipster vibe, cozy banquets, art deco decor, rich history and bebop soundtrack, Baker's has long been regarded as the Platonic ideal of a jazz club.

The club, which opened in 1934, runs neck and neck with the Village Vanguard in New York for the title of world's oldest jazz club. Down Beat, a leading jazz magazine, routinely names Baker's on its list of the 100 great jazz clubs worldwide.

"It's like the Alamo in a sense -- it's the last real jazz club standing in Detroit," said Jim Gallert, a die-hard fan and historian of local jazz.

'Like working at Carnegie Hall'
There are other spots that showcase jazz in metro Detroit, including Bert's Marketplace, Cliff Bell's, Dirty Dog Jazz Cafe, Music Hall's Jazz Cafe and the Firefly Club, but Baker's legacy and longevity make it unique.

The club became a fixture on the national scene beginning in the 1950s under the leadership of former owner Clarence Baker. Jazz greats like John Coltrane, Oscar Peterson, Dizzy Gillespie, Dave Brubeck and Ella Fitzgerald were regulars, and performing at Baker's has long been a rite of passage for local musicians.


"When you work there, it's almost like working at Carnegie Hall because of who else has played there," trumpeter Johnny Trudell said. The Detroit veteran will lead a jam session on May 3 to raise money for the club during the anniversary celebration May 1-4.

Colbert, 62, bought the place in 1996 from Clarence Baker and, with the help of partner Juanita Jackson, found a winning formula. Jackson reintroduced the kitchen and a stylish soul food menu, and Colbert instituted a mostly local and regional music policy, eliminating cover charges during the week and keeping them low on the weekend, and never wavering from a commitment to traditional acoustic jazz.

The joint packed them in for years, but business has soured. Colbert said median construction on Livernois, which has angered neighborhood residents and business owners, makes it difficult for customers to get to Baker's. Worse, he said, the project eliminated convenient street parking in front of the club.

"It's just killed my lunch and happy hour business," he said.

Soaring notes, soaring bills
On another front, Colbert said his water rates skyrocketed after the city replaced a broken meter and began charging for actual usage instead of an estimated cost. The city also imposed a $27,000 retroactive charge, which meant that his monthly payment, including servicing his debt, has increased from $800 to $1,800. Colbert said he was denied a hearing to contest the charges.

George Ellenwood, a spokesman for the Detroit Water and Sewerage Department, said he did not have immediate access to Baker's records Tuesday but that a retroactive charge of such size "would not be inconceivable" for a business but would be surprising.

"It's certainly a matter that needs to be looked into," he said.

Colbert has owned the club and accompanying real estate outright since paying off the mortgage in 2001. He said the recession is keeping neighborhood patrons at home, and weekend surges are not great enough to cover losses sustained on weekdays.

Colbert has cut back on costs by using younger musicians and eliminating larger ensembles in favor of compact trios and the like. He's added a weekly comedy night and included more blues and popular genres into his mix. He said he had resisted raising prices because he knows his clientele is hurting, too.

"Business just needs to take a turn in the other direction and we can survive," Colbert said. "Maybe somebody will buy it from me and continue the tradition, but I can't continue with the anxiety of not knowing whether I have to be the person to turn the lights out. I don't want to be the one to do that."

QuoteFriday, she got into it with CoCo, Foolish and Mr. Chase when she called WJLB FM 98 to talk about her stance on Cobo Center. It was the day after a Cobo discussion in council chambers, when Conyer's colleague Barbara-Rose Collins gave an impassioned 17-minute speech that took on suburban leaders and global imperialism, followed by singing "Onward Christian Soldiers."

Here are highlights from the interview that immediately took a bad turn when Foolish asked Conyers about the meeting:

Foolish: What the hell is wrong with the rest of the City Council members? How can we have meetings publicly televised all over the world where people are singing and getting into it with each other, and you are the leader? They sound immature. They sound like grown folks who are confused.

Conyers: Why is it you always have to attack the black people of Detroit?

Foolish: What do you mean, black people? We are attacking the ignorant.

Conyers: Why we gotta be ignorant? We don't call you ignorant.

Foolish: My job is to be ignorant. You all's job is to be what?

Conyers: Our job is to be human. That's our job.

Quote from: MadImmortalMan on March 17, 2009, 12:39:21 PM
This is pretty sad.

http://www.time.com/time/photogallery/0,29307,1882089,00.html





Edit: I always thought that train station looked like some monstrous Soviet edifice. The Detroit Palace of Culture.

QuoteThe last sad days of the Detroit man found frozen
Charlie LeDuff / The Detroit News
DETROIT -- Johnnie Redding's body had not even been put in its grave before another man had moved into his house.

This was an outrage, and one of Johnnie's friends threatened to evict the interloper by force. Even the people of the rough and raw streets have their law. Johnnie's friend pounded on the door of the little A-frame wigwam, made of felt and perched on top of an abandoned garage. The wigwam had a framed window and a chimney. It had a river view and a garden.

The interloper cowered inside.

"You's probably the one who killed Johnnie," Johnnie's friend barked at the plank-board door, alcohol vapors tumbling from his mouth. "You killed Johnnie and now you sleeping in his bed! You bes' be gone by sundown."

Of course, Johnnie's friend would not return at sundown, what with the small matter of scrounging up a dinner and another pint of vodka. The interloper would still be sleeping in the wigwam. And by the time the sun had set, there would be no more reminders that Johnnie walked these streets.

Johnnie Redding died of a cocaine overdose, coroners said Wednesday. It was the final word on a man whose death might have gone unnoticed.

His body was found at the bottom of an open elevator shaft last month, encased in ice, only his legs jutting out. Adding to the surreal picture was a pillow that gently propped up his left foot, dressed in a clean white sock and shoe with fresh laces. He looked almost peaceful.

The photograph of Johnnie would make its way around the world, along with the details that many knew his cadaver was down there but did little, if anything, about it. City boosters complained it was another case of the media focusing on the bad in a city with many wonderful qualities.

Except that Johnnie was found in a gaping elevator shaft owned by a local billionaire in a city with tens of thousands of abandoned buildings. And still, some of these decaying buildings keep people alive. Almost 20,000 homeless people drift through the streets of Detroit, meaning that one in 47 here is without a bed, according to the Homeless Management Information System, which tracks people who seek services. With too few shelter beds and too little money to help the walking poor, places like the crumbling warehouse where Johnnie was found have become the de facto shelters.

"People accept it, and it is not normal," said Durene L. Brown, the Detroit ombudsman. "It's not normal for a child to walk out of her house and see all these abandoned buildings and blight. It's not normal for a man to be frozen at the bottom of an elevator shaft.

"City officials must drive around with their windows tinted too dark."

Johnnie's last moments

Johnnie killed himself. His autopsy revealed no broken bones, no wounds and no water in his lungs, which means he did not fall into the flooded shaft and drown. Most likely, Johnnie was smoking cocaine with somebody and died, coroners suspect. Johnnie's party pal may have panicked and tossed his body down the water-filled shaft.

"Last year, a man overdosed and his colleagues stuffed him in a suitcase, put him in an SUV and lit it on fire," Dr. Carl J. Schmidt, Wayne County's chief medical examiner. "The point is there are people out there like that. The way a member of society dies is a reflection of the way society lives."

His given name was Johnnie Lewis Redding. But his street name was Johnnie Dollar. He was described by people who knew him on the street as a consummate hustler, a pool shark, a block captain who liked a little liquor and a little cocaine. He took handouts and mission food, but he didn't walk around with his hat in his hand and he didn't get Social Security.

Johnnie, 56, painted houses. Johnnie hustled pool tables from Ann Arbor to southwest Detroit. When he was low on money, he would sort clothing at the Most Holy Trinity rectory for $10. Sometimes, the church would give him charity bus tickets that he would turn around and sell.

"He didn't have to be out on the streets, but the street life is an adrenaline rush," said Dennis Mugridge, the church's outreach director. "If this was the 1800s, Johnnie would have been a mountain man."

Johnnie came to Most Holy Trinity four years ago asking for money to help pay for his pain medication after having all his teeth removed. Mugridge last saw him in November.

"He wanted bus fare to get out of town," Mugridge remembered. "I wouldn't give it to him. I regret it now."

A rough place
Detroit is a hard place to be homeless. There is little milk, little honey and little sun. Johnnie may have been frozen in the shaft for more than a month, but nobody knew he was missing except the homeless men who had been living next to the shaft, who figured someone else had called the authorities.

Johnnie moved around. When he grew weary of the street life, when his body began to shut down, Johnnie would go home to relatives and dry out. To get himself right, he liked to say. He stayed with his brother, Homer, in River Rouge. He stayed with his sister in Atlanta for six months last year and then, feeling the itch, he came back to Detroit in September and got lost again.

"He promised he'd be back," said his niece, Tanya Coleman of Atlanta. "I said, 'Uncle you ain't coming back.' He said, 'Yes I am. I'm just going up to get an ID then I'll be back, I promise.' I knew he wasn't."

So Johnnie came back to Michigan to get his driver's license straightened out, with every intention of returning to Georgia. But like a moth to the light, Johnnie gravitated to the corner near Happy liquor store on Fort Street, hanging around with his friends who call themselves the Bus Stop Boys. Wearing a trench coat and with his pockets bulging, Johnnie passed out $10 bills to his friends and told them to buy themselves beer. "That's why we called him Johnnie Dollar," said Delaney Windom. "He was one of the good ones."

Johnnie Dollar did not have to be on the streets, said those who knew him. "It's the only place he could be hisself," Windom said.

That's one way to put it. "At some point in his life, he didn't want to work anymore," said his brother, Homer. "He got laid off from the steel plant about 15 years ago and that was it. But he wasn't homeless. Too many people loved him."

What homelessness is, is a matter of opinion. The Department of Housing and Urban Development defines it as anyone living in a shelter or on the streets. HUD estimates there are 700,000 homeless people in America, but federal dollars finance fewer than 200,000 beds. The U.S. Department of Education counts homeless children as those who live doubled up in another family's home or in motels. In 2007, they counted almost 700,000 homeless children, one-third living in shelters or outdoors. The Wayne County Medical Examiner considers a homeless person to have no permanent address -- which includes Johnnie. Jerry Davis, one of the Bus Stop Boys, put it like this: "Homeless means nobody wants you no more. So you can't consider Johnnie homeless."

Except that Johnnie did consider himself homeless. He was given a meal on Oct. 25 by the Ark Foundation, an outreach program run by former drug addicts and homeless people. In exchange for the meal, he had to sign his name, age and address in a manifest. On line number seven, in shaky block lettering he wrote: Johnnie Redding, 56, Homless.

Homer almost cried when he saw Johnnie's signature. "I don't know why he said that. He was a person. He was a person. He was a person."

Perhaps 300 people came to Johnnie's memorial service Saturday, including Mimi, one of the Bus Stop Boys. It was paid for by an insurance policy left on his life by his mother, Orlene. She suspected something like this might happen, Homer said. She did not want her children drifting around the Earth in death. "She seen too much in life," Homer said.

In the end, Johnnie was buried in Westland in a box that was more expensive than anything he owned in life.

And back at his wigwam, the tenant opened the door a crack. "Nothing's permanent," he said. "We all end up in a box. What do you think this is?"

Johnnie, it turns out, did not live in the wigwam anymore, since the new man had claimed it while he was away. Finders keepers: That, too, is the law of the street.

So Johnnie built himself another abode of wood and tarpaulin in the culvert below. Near his pillow were two silk neckties and a book: "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer."

QuoteCity Hall has phone hangups

A certain City Council member borrows her grandchild's telephone when she makes confidential calls. Political consultant Adolph Mongo keeps hearing, "Don't go to (a downtown restaurant) because the whole place is bugged."

Maybe they've watched too many episodes of "The Wire" or read a couple of hundred too many lurid mayoral SkyTel text messages. Maybe, as Christine Beatty's lawyer Mayer Morganroth contends, Detroit's political players are merely exercising due diligence "because you have to always treat the telephone as if it were (bugged.)"

Or maybe there really is a wire under that plate of lasagna.

Exercising caution
From elite downtown law firms to City Hall corridors, the vogue for verbal caution is more pronounced than at any time since the height of the Coleman A. Young era, when jurors strained to understand fuzzy telephone recordings played in another era's sludge-hauling contractor scandal.

On Friday, Sam Riddle -- the Detroit political consultant and former chief of staff to Council President Monica Conyers -- greeted passersby on Campus Martius and acknowledged that freedom of speech had taken a hit. "I could probably sell T-shirts that say, 'Let's talk about it in person,' " he says, referring to noticeable fall-off among those willing to speak on the phone with him.

"It's not so much the conversations people are having as the ones they aren't." Birmingham lawyer Patrick Barone was trying to plead a case in Detroit last month when he was warned about a big chill in the climate for making deals. A politically astute attorney observed: "There's more wire in this town than there's ever been," Barone says.

The perception of ears tuned in to private frequencies may or may not be creating a new era of ethics, but it's definitely cramping styles, stimulating cell phone borrowing and cutting down on phone calls.

Are federal agents really tuning in to every City Hall call? It may not matter, so long as people assume they are.

Surveillance law tough
"People are so paranoid, they don't even want to talk to their relatives," Mongo says.

The law is tougher than most think, says Steve Fishman, the criminal defense lawyer. Even so, he says, "I absolutely think that (the fear of surveillance) is inhibiting the way people do things in the city. I can tell you I wouldn't call an official I've known for 40 years in this climate."

Legally, prosecutors are required to jump through hoops before getting legal authorization for electronic surveillance, and "minimization" rules dictate that agents can't listen to conversations if they're not specifically related to the authorized investigation.

Morganroth, who represented Young, remembers him at the Manoogian Mansion. The mayor cranked up the TV volume, turned it down, loudly uttered an expletive, then cranked up the volume. Over and over.

In that spirit, Riddle says he keeps talking because "being free is fraught with risk."

Quote from: Queequeg on March 28, 2009, 11:06:36 PM
At some point isn't Detroit bound to make some weird kind of comeback as a hipster mecca or something?  I mean the housing is super cheap, surely there must be some American Apparel loving idiot who wants to live in Detroit for novelty value.

Quote from: Admiral Yi on March 28, 2009, 11:29:00 PM

Quote from: Queequeg on March 28, 2009, 11:06:36 PM
At some point isn't Detroit bound to make some weird kind of comeback as a hipster mecca or something?  I mean the housing is super cheap, surely there must be some American Apparel loving idiot who wants to live in Detroit for novelty value.

According to the big article in the current Time an abandoned factory is being rented out as artisan work space.

Quote from: Queequeg on March 28, 2009, 11:06:36 PM
At some point isn't Detroit bound to make some weird kind of comeback as a hipster mecca or something?  I mean the housing is super cheap, surely there must be some American Apparel loving idiot who wants to live in Detroit for novelty value.

Quote from: Savonarola on March 29, 2009, 11:56:35 AM

Quote from: Queequeg on March 28, 2009, 11:06:36 PM
At some point isn't Detroit bound to make some weird kind of comeback as a hipster mecca or something?  I mean the housing is super cheap, surely there must be some American Apparel loving idiot who wants to live in Detroit for novelty value.

There are some people in Detroit like that; but not that many.  Detroit is really inconvenient; there's only a couple grocery stores in the city and hardly any retail shopping. 

Quote from: jimmy olsen on March 29, 2009, 12:01:07 PM

Quote from: Savonarola on March 29, 2009, 11:56:35 AM
There are some people in Detroit like that; but not that many.  Detroit is really inconvenient; there's only a couple grocery stores in the city and hardly any retail shopping. 

How does that work? Are you exaggerating or are they simply enormous?

QuoteFree Press wins national award for Kilpatrick series
FREE PRESS STAFF • March 31, 2009

The Free Press has won yet another national honor for its coverage of the Kwame Kilpatrick text-message scandal, tying for first in the largest newspaper category in awards announced today by the Investigative Reporters and Editors organization.

The Free Press coverage, "A Mayor in Crisis," tied for first with McClatchy Newspapers, whose Washington reporters tracked down former Guantanamo Bay prison detainees to expose abuses.

IRE, a professional organization which supports investigative reporting, cited Free Press reporters Jim Schaefer and M.L. Elrick for obtaining the text messages then-Detroit Mayor Kilpatrick exchanged with aide Christine Beatty that exposed their lies at a police whistle-blower trial and showed how the city's subsequent payout of more than $9 million was an effort to cover up their lies.

Then, "through careful analysis of public records obtained under the Freedom of Information Act, the reporters verified a trove of text messages and...with the aid of other Free Press reporters, methodically demolished the mayor's carefully built façade of lies, pay-offs and cronyism – a compelling example of investigative reporting's ability to reveal abuses of power," the award announcement said.

IRE specifically cited Free Press reporters Jennifer Dixon and Dawson Bell for their role in follow-up stories on the scandal. The coverage has received several national awards. It was edited by David Zeman, assistant managing editor for investigations at the paper.

The awards, to be presented at IRE's annual conference in June in Baltimore, spanned 15 categories of watchdog reporting in broadcast, print and on the Web, and a range of market sizes.

QuoteThe Free Press coverage, "A Mayor in Crisis," tied for first with McClatchy Newspapers, whose Washington reporters tracked down former Guantanamo Bay prison detainees to expose abuses.

Quote from: Admiral Yi on March 31, 2009, 03:34:31 PM
Sav, did you eat your pre-Lenten puschkis (sp)?

I remember that you are a Papist; are you a Polack?

Quote from: Savonarola on March 31, 2009, 03:49:42 PM

Quote from: Admiral Yi on March 31, 2009, 03:34:31 PM
Sav, did you eat your pre-Lenten puschkis (sp)?

I remember that you are a Papist; are you a Polack?

Pączki; I had one on Mardi Gras.   :)

I am a Papist, but not a Polack.  My mother's family came over on the canoe with Cadillac :frog:  The traditional Lenten dish for Detroit's old French community is muskrat.  I've never had it; but it's supposed to be really greasy.

Quote from: Malthus on March 31, 2009, 04:11:44 PM
Shit, if they knew what Detroit would become in the future, they would have paddled that canoe a little further.  :lol:

Quote from: MadImmortalMan on March 17, 2009, 12:39:21 PM
This is pretty sad.

http://www.time.com/time/photogallery/0,29307,1882089,00.html





Edit: I always thought that train station looked like some monstrous Soviet edifice. The Detroit Palace of Culture.

Quote from: Queequeg on March 31, 2009, 11:30:15 PM
Sav, how endogamy bound are Chaldean women in Detroit?  If I end up in Ann Arbour, I'd probably end up trying to date at least one Assyrian.

Quote from: Winkelried on April 01, 2009, 02:46:55 AM
Detroit seems to be the right place to produce "Fallout: The Movie".  :P

Seriously, comparing Hiroshima and Detroit, you wouldn't guess it was the former that got nuked.

Quote from: Savonarola on April 01, 2009, 07:49:14 AM

Quote from: Queequeg on March 31, 2009, 11:30:15 PM
Sav, how endogamy bound are Chaldean women in Detroit?  If I end up in Ann Arbour, I'd probably end up trying to date at least one Assyrian.

Not very, unless you're looking for someone straight off the boat.  Chaldeans have been living in Detroit since the 1920s; they're about as ethnic as the Greeks or Italians.

Are you looking at graduate school at Michigan?

Quote from: Queequeg on April 01, 2009, 11:36:27 AM

Yeah, I am.  Not sure yet, though.

QuoteFarm could make Detroit hot spot for fresh foods
BY JOHN GALLAGHER • FREE PRESS BUSINESS WRITER • April 2, 2009


Businessman John Hantz of Detroit, in an exclusive interview with the Free Press, unveiled his plans for Hantz Farms -- a concept that would convert hundreds, even thousands, of vacant parcels in the city into urban agriculture.

Offering jobs and an ability to produce fresh fruits and vegetables locally, Hantz Farms could help Detroit "become a destination for fresh, local and natural foods and become a major part of the green movement," Hantz said.

Detroit already is home to hundreds of smaller community gardens. But Hantz's proposal is the first to envision large-scale commercial farming.

He said he could grow everything from Christmas trees to fruits and vegetables, with amenities such as a cider mill or horseback riding available.

With an estimated 40 square miles of vacant parcels, Detroit offers many sites where, in theory, a big farm operation might work. Hantz, a resident of Detroit's Indian Village district, is tentatively looking at a blighted area near Eastern Market, but exact boundaries would depend on whether he wins the city's cooperation.

A look at the plan
George Jackson, the city's chief development officer and president of the Detroit Economic Growth Corp., said he is evaluating Hantz's proposal.

"I'm going to look at this as I would any development deal," Jackson said.

Land assemblage remains a key question. Hantz owns several parcels in the city, but the vast majority of the acreage he needs for his project is still either owned by private parties or is tax-foreclosed land owned by the city, county and state.

Hantz envisions the city, county and state donating the land to his project or selling it at a nominal cost. The payback would come in increased tax revenues once the farm is up and running.

Hantz is chief executive of Hantz Group, a network of financial services firms based in Southfield.

He also owns the Detroit Ignition of the Xtreme Soccer League.

Vacant land solution?
Matt Allen, onetime press secretary to former Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick, manages the project as senior vice president of Hantz Farms.

Allen said Hantz Farms is a good solution for vacant land.

"What is it worth to the city just sitting there? Nothing," he said. "Part of the approach to this is that, the larger this becomes, the benefit gets greater and greater faster."

Even as a concept, the idea is controversial.

Jeffrey Armstrong, dean of the Michigan State University College of Agriculture and Natural Resources, called Hantz Farms "a challenging and exciting opportunity."

But Rebecca Salminen Witt, president of the nonprofit Greening of Detroit, said small community plots do more good for Detroiters, helping knit communities together.

"Folks are hoping for, wishing for, looking for a silver bullet to the vast expanses of vacant space that we see in the city," Witt said. "And because of that, they want to say, 'Great, we'll just plunk a couple-of-hundred-acre growing operations here and there.' "

Allen responded that there ought to be a place for both community gardens and commercial farms in Detroit.

"There's more than enough land to go around," he said.

QuoteTo urban hunter, next meal is scampering by
Detroit retiree, 69, supplements his income by living off the land
Detroit - When selecting the best raccoon carcass for the special holiday roast, both the connoisseur and the curious should remember this simple guideline: Look for the paw.

"The paw is old school," says Glemie Dean Beasley, a Detroit raccoon hunter and meat salesman. "It lets the customers know it's not a cat or dog."

Beasley, a 69-year-old retired truck driver who modestly refers to himself as the Coon Man, supplements his Social Security check with the sale of raccoon carcasses that go for as much $12 and can serve up to four. The pelts, too, are good for coats and hats and fetch up to $10 a hide.

While economic times are tough across Michigan as its people slog through a difficult and protracted deindustrialization, Beasley remains upbeat.

Where one man sees a vacant lot, Beasley sees a buffet.

"Starvation is cheap," he says as he prepares an afternoon lunch of barbecue coon and red pop at his west side home.

His little Cape Cod is an urban Appalachia of coon dogs and funny smells. The interior paint has the faded sepia tones of an old man's teeth; the wallpaper is as flaky and dry as an old woman's hand.

Beasley peers out his living room window. A sushi cooking show plays on the television. The neighborhood outside is a wreck of ruined houses and weedy lots.

"Today people got no skill and things is getting worse," he laments. "What people gonna do? They gonna eat each other up is what they gonna do."

A licensed hunter and furrier, Beasley says he hunts coons and rabbit and squirrel for a clientele who hail mainly from the South, where the wild critters are considered something of a delicacy.

Though the flesh is not USDA inspected, if it is thoroughly cooked, there is small chance of contracting rabies from the meat, and distemper and Parvo cannot be passed onto humans, experts say.

Doing for yourself, eating what's natural, that was Creation's intention, Beasley believes. He says he learned that growing up in Three Creeks, Ark.

"Coon or rabbit. God put them there to eat. When men get hold of animals he blows them up and then he blows up. Fill 'em so full of chemicals and steroids it ruins the people. It makes them sick. Like the pigs on the farm. They's 3 months old and weighing 400 pounds. They's all blowed up. And the chil'ren who eat it, they's all blowed up. Don't make no sense."

Hunting is prohibited within Detroit city limits and Beasley insists he does not do so. Still, he says that life in the city has gone so retrograde that he could easily feed himself with the wildlife in his backyard, which abuts an old cement factory.

He procures the coons with the help of the hound dogs who chase the animal up a tree, where Beasley harvests them with a .22 caliber rifle. A true outdoorsman, Beasley refuses to disclose his hunting grounds.

"This city is going back to the wild," he says. "That's bad for people but that's good for me. I can catch wild rabbit and pheasant and coon in my backyard."

Detroit was once home to nearly 2 million people but has shrunk to a population of perhaps less than 900,000. It is estimated that a city the size of San Francisco could fit neatly within its empty lots. As nature abhors a vacuum, wildlife has moved in.

A beaver was spotted recently in the Detroit River. Wild fox skulk the 15th hole at the Palmer Park golf course. There is bald eagle, hawk and falcon that roam the city skies. Wild Turkeys roam the grasses. A coyote was snared two years ago roaming the Federal Court House downtown. And Beasley keeps a gaze of skinned coon in the freezer.

With the beast fresh from the oven, Beasley invites a guest to lunch.

He believes coon meat tastes something like mutton or pork, but to the uneducated pallet, it has the aroma and texture of opossum.

While Beasley preps his coon with simple vinegar brine and spices, there are 100 ways to cook a coon.

There is roast coon with sweet potato, sausage and corn bread stuffing; raccoon cobbler and roast marinated raccoon with liver and onion. It is this reporter's opinion that the best sauce for coon may very well be hunger.

The story of Glemie Dean Beasley plays like a country song. The son of a sharecropper, Beasley left school at 13 to pick cotton. He came to Detroit in 1958. His woman left him in 1970 for a man he calls Slick Willy.

Someone stole his pickup truck and then someone killed his best dog.

"I knowed some hard times," Beasley says. "But a man's got to know how to get hisself through them hard times. Part of that is eating right."

Quote from: Valmy on April 02, 2009, 12:24:37 PM
Wow Austin is far larger than Detroit now.  Well when the city collapses we will take your sports teams.

Quote from: Savonarola on April 02, 2009, 12:36:14 PM
The 900,000 figure is only the city proper; the metro area is much larger than that.

Quote from: Queequeg on March 31, 2009, 11:30:15 PM
Sav, how endogamy bound are Chaldean women in Detroit?  If I end up in Ann Arbour, I'd probably end up trying to date at least one Assyrian.

Quote from: Savonarola on April 02, 2009, 12:20:10 PM
Not to outdone by the Freep, the News has an article on urban hunting:

Quote
"Today people got no skill and things is getting worse," he laments. "What people gonna do? They gonna eat each other up is what they gonna do."

Quote from: Valmy on April 02, 2009, 12:24:37 PM
Well when the city collapses we will take your sports teams.

Quote from: Ed Anger on April 01, 2009, 07:57:07 AM
Michigan football sucks.

QuoteConyers fires staffer, lashes out at Sheila Cockrel
Leonard N. Fleming and Darren A. Nichols / The Detroit News
Detroit --Two security officers for City Council today escorted a staffer for City Council President Monica Conyers from City Hall, one day after he says she fired him for talking to The Detroit News about her troubles gathering signatures for the Aug. 4 primary.

The incident comes on the same day that the controversial president engaged in a shouting match with Councilwoman Sheila Cockrel over whether news cameras should be removed from council chambers during a discussion about Cobo Center.

Taft Gaddy, who was Conyers' staff secretary, was led out to the parking garage across from the Coleman A. Young Municipal Center with his belongings in his hands. He said he was handed a letter this morning making his dismissal official.

"She called me yesterday and told me not to come to work because of the article, cussing me out," Gaddy said. "I wouldn't have been getting terminated for nothing else. I don't think she was fair with that, but that's her prerogative."

Gaddy was out last Saturday at the Eastern Market trying to persuade wary voters to sign Conyers' petition. He pleaded with one woman to sign because he needed to keep his job and feed his children. She refused.

"There's some challenges, sure," Gaddy told The News in the article. "But I convince more people than not to sign."

Conyers and her spokeswoman, Denise Tolliver, didn't immediately return phone calls seeking comment.

This morning, tensions boiled between Conyers and Sheila Cockrel during the closed-door discussion of the transfer of the Cobo Regional Authority. Sources say Conyers used foul language when Cockrel questioned her about allowing the media into the council's chambers.

"It just doesn't send a good statement about how this particular council is led," Cockrel told The Detroit News' reporting partner, WXYZ-TV (Channel 7).

Conyers' longtime consultant and former chief of staff, Sam Riddle, went to City Hall after the incident to discuss it and other matters with the council president. Riddle said Conyers feels the council has run smoother in the past several days, when Cockrel was absent due to an illness.

"We talked about the so-called incident. She seemed to feel very strongly Sheila Cockrel is a disruptive influence on the council," Riddle said. "(Conyers) was on the job of taking care of the people's business without disruption."

Riddle said Conyers isn't remorseful and remains concerned that Cockrel is a disruption.

The flap is the latest in a string by Conyers, who has had significant run-ins with colleagues since joining the panel.

Last year, she infamously called then-Council President Kenneth Cockrel Jr. "Shrek" during a heated argument. In February, she apologized for making light of Councilman Kwame Kenyatta's hearing and education during a dustup over her attempts to lay off a council staffer, Michelle Williams. Kenyatta told Conyers she needs mental health assistance and referred to her as "Councilwoman A," a reference to an unnamed panel referenced in federal documents as taking bribes.

Conyers brought Williams back on the job a day after laying her off.

QuoteKenyatta to council: Reprimand Conyers
By Zachary Gorchow • Free Press Staff Writer • April 2, 2009
Detroit City Councilman Kwame Kenyatta called today for the council to formally reprimand President Monica Conyers through a censure resolution condemning her conduct.

Kenyatta said he will introduce the resolution soon and that it was prompted by the accumulation of incidents involving Conyers, the latest of which were some negative remarks she made toward Councilwoman Sheila Cockrel this morning behind closed doors.

Earlier this year, the Free Press reported that Conyers hurled insults at Kenyatta about his hearing aid, untrue rumors that he had cancer and lack of a college degree.

Conyers would remain in office regardless of whether she was censured. The move would amount to a rebuke.

There have been a series of incidents involving Conyers since she was first elected in 2005.

Conyers got into a bar fight although prosecutors exonerated her. She called Cockrel a "drunk" during a council meeting after Cockrel needled her about the bar fight. Perhaps most infamously, she exploded at then Council President Ken Cockrel and called him "Shrek" during a meeting over a procedural dispute.

During her time on one of the city's pension boards, Conyers was accused of threatening another member with a gun -- although she denied the allegation.

"I think it's just gone too far," Kenyatta told reporters. "We have to stand up to this president and say -- I'm not asking for her to resign at this point -- but I am saying that your behavior needs to be curtailed. It needs to be professional. It needs to be positive. It needs to be representative of the citizens of Detroit."

Kenyatta said he did not know whether a majority of the council would support his resolution.

Quote from: charliebear on April 02, 2009, 12:58:05 PM
You could probably get the Lions fairly cheap.

Quote from: Savonarola on April 02, 2009, 02:47:40 PM


Monica is the gift that keeps on giving.  :)

QuoteWho's stealing from Detroit's kids?
BY ROCHELLE RILEY • FREE PRESS COLUMNIST • April 3, 2009

Years of financial mismanagement have come home to roost, and emergency financial manager Robert Bobb made clear this week just how much he has to clean up.

He announced that the school district's deficit now exceeds that of the City of Detroit. I still haven't figured out how the city ran up a $300-million deficit. So it is beyond me to understand how DPS could go over budget by $305 million -- and expect to get away with it. Even Mayor Ken Cockrel Jr., who is working to balance the city budget, called the DPS deficit "staggering, and certainly ... very scary."

The deficit was caused partly by instances of mind-boggling ineptitude or stupidity, including $15.2 million in unrecorded invoices and contracts and -- get this -- millions to cover 597 employees who weren't supposed to be on the payroll.

What?

The findings will force Bobb to close as many as 50 schools and cut thousands of jobs in the next two years. But my broken record is still playing: What happened to the money? Who's going to pay it back? And who's going to jail?

Force the guilty to repay it all
I've been swamped with calls about payback. But those callers asked how former Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick went from $6-million man to $6 man, a parolee who claims that, after expenses, he can afford to pay only $6 a month toward the $1 million he owes the city in restitution. (Instead of a letter saying, "The dog ate my promissory note," Kilpatrick sent his lawyer with a note saying, "It will take me almost 14,000 years to pay y'all back.")

But now callers are asking when the county will find and fine the crooks who stole education from Detroit's children and helped rob the district blind.

To the callers: It's about time. And to Bobb, the manager who is turning dysfunctional into functional, I say: Leave no stone unturned.

Bobb and his team, which includes a former FBI special agent, must review every contract, every check, every construction order, travel order, phone bill and agreement signed by a DPS employee in the past 10 years.

And any person they believe guilty of stealing from children should be tried, sent to jail and forced to repay the district every dime. With interest.

Get the priorities straight
And before school board member Marie Thornton sends me another e-mail about how much board members need to go to San Diego on Saturday to a school board conference, let me preempt her:

Marie, it doesn't matter what you might learn about stimulus funds at a California retreat. This district cannot afford to send you.

THERE IS NO MONEY.

The district can barely afford to send people to Lansing to explain why, after being in the hole by $139.7 million last year, according to a report by staff writer Chastity Pratt Dawsey, it then overspent by an additional $166.1 million this year!

Unless they're teaching math or accounting in San Diego, every Detroit school board member must stay home and work with Robert Bobb to fix the district and FIND the crooks.

QuoteConyers got ex-con brother city job
Building official says councilwoman recommended him; she denies it
David Josar / The Detroit News
Detroit --A top city official says City Council President Monica Conyers pulled strings to get her brother, an ex-con with a violent record, a job in the building department that was to last only 120 days but was extended for two years.

"She came up to me, handed me his resume and said 'You should hire him. He's a good guy,' " said Amru Meah, director of Building & Safety Engineering.

Reggie Esters, 38, was fired from the $30,500 job last summer on claims of chronic absenteeism. About the same time, he was charged with 10 felonies stemming from allegations he brandished a shotgun at two people, according to court records. He pleaded guilty to one count and faces sentencing April 17.

Records obtained this week by The Detroit News show Esters submitted a resume showing he worked continuously for two construction firms from 1999 to 2006. State records show he was incarcerated for assault and weapons charges for much of that time.

Meah said Conyers wanted her brother hired as a $50,000 inspector, but he wasn't qualified and wouldn't pass a license exam. Instead, he was hired as an investigator who checked if businesses are properly licensed.

Conyers, whose maiden name is Esters, said Meah is wrong. She denied that Esters is her brother, despite papers filed in Wayne County Probate Court in 1976 that identify them as siblings with the same parents, Robert H. and Alice Esters.

"I have no idea what Mr. Meah is talking about," Conyers said.

Calls to Marlon Evans, Esters' attorney, were not returned.

The city has no rules against hiring felons and Meah said he didn't know of Esters' record until a reporter told him about it Thursday.

"Human Resources is supposed to check that," he said.

Daniel Cherrin, spokesman for Mayor Kenneth Cockrel Jr., said Esters' position did not require a background check although Human Resources "looks for inconsistencies and other red flags."

Esters' resume "was reviewed and he met the minimum requirement for the position," Cherrin said, but added that the person who headed Human Resources a the time, James Tyler, an appointee of former Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick, was fired shortly after Cockrel took office.

Cherrin did not know if any references were checked. None was listed on Esters' application.

According to records obtained through the Freedom of Information Act, Human Resources fast-tracked Esters' hire as a commercial and residential investigator after Meah wrote that there was an "immediate need" to fill the position.

"Mr. Esters has the experience that we require for this position. Please see attached resume for your review," Meah wrote in an Oct. 27, 2006, letter to Tyler. Conyers was elected to the panel 11 months before.

Meah said he fired Esters last summer after he was repeatedly missing from work.

"I said, 'He's not around. Fire him,' " he said.

A provisional employee does not get benefits and can be terminated at any time.

Esters, who records indicate is one of Conyers' three brothers, has been arrested at least 14 times since 1988, when he pleaded guilty to shoplifting in Redford Township and was put on probation for one year. In 1990, he was charged with first-degree murder but was acquitted after a jury trial. In 1998, he pleaded guilty to carrying a concealed weapon, according to Wayne Circuit Court records.

On his one-page resume, Esters stated that he had graduated from MacKenzie High School in 1988 and had worked as a "FORMAN" for Jenkins Construction in Detroit from 2000 to 2006 with responsibilities that included "Plan, organize and manage the overall construction development."

But on Sept. 20, 2001, Esters was incarcerated by the Michigan Department of Corrections after he pleaded guilty to assault with intent to cause great bodily harm and being a felon in possession of a weapon. He began his sentence in prison but was then transferred to a boot camp until he was released on May 30, 2006.

That was about the time Meah said Conyers approached him about finding a job for her brother.

Esters was reappointed five times to the post even though he had signed a statement saying he knew the job would last 120 days.

The practice is not uncommon in Detroit.

Quote from: Savonarola on April 03, 2009, 10:54:13 AM
[
I hate to skip to the end of the book for everyone; but they will only find a handful of the guilty, the few caught perpetrators will get token fines or short jail sentences and the vast majority of the theft will be financed by the taxpayers.  Plus it will all be the fault of white people and suburbanites.

QuoteConyers acknowledges ex-con brother after denying him
David Josar / The Detroit News
Detroit --One day after denying it, City Council President Monica Conyers acknowledged that Reggie Esters, the ex-con she helped get a job in City Hall, is her brother.

Denise Tolliver, spokeswoman for Conyers, acknowledged the relationship this morning, but didn't explain why Conyers told The Detroit News she isn't related to Esters, 38, a felon with a long rap sheet. When speaking to a reporter Thursday at City Hall, Conyers said, "That can't be my brother."

Thursday, Conyers denied pulling strings to hire Esters for a building department job in 2006 that he lost last year on claims of absenteeism.

Since then, Tolliver released a statement attributed to Conyers saying she's an advocate for helping those who have been incarcerated get their lives back on track.

"You don't get to choose your family, and everyone has a right to be productive," the statement read. "That is why I fight so hard at council for ex-offenders to have jobs."

She added that she also visits inmates at local correctional facilities to "lift and encourage them."

The Detroit News reported today that in 2006 Conyers -- whose maiden name is Esters -- suggested to Amru Meah, the head of Building Safety & Engineering, that he would be a good hire as an inspector.

"She came up to me, handed me his resume and said, 'You should hire him. He's a good guy,'" Meah said.

Meah said Esters did not have the qualifications for that position but found him a $30,500 job checking if city businesses were properly licensed. The job was supposed to last 120 days, but was extended for two years.

Records obtained this week by The Detroit News show Esters submitted a resume showing he worked continuously for two construction firms from 1999 to 2006. State records show he was incarcerated for assault with intent to cause great bodily harm and weapons charges for much of that time.

Meah said he fired Esters because he missed work. About the time he was fired, Esters was charged with 10 felony counts related to his brandishing a shotgun at two people in Detroit. He pleaded guilty and is set to be sentenced this month.

Quote from: Savonarola on April 03, 2009, 03:25:29 PM
Surprise!  It really was her brother after all:

QuoteConyers acknowledges ex-con brother after denying him
David Josar / The Detroit News
Detroit --One day after denying it, City Council President Monica Conyers acknowledged that Reggie Esters, the ex-con she helped get a job in City Hall, is her brother.

Denise Tolliver, spokeswoman for Conyers, acknowledged the relationship this morning, but didn't explain why Conyers told The Detroit News she isn't related to Esters, 38, a felon with a long rap sheet. When speaking to a reporter Thursday at City Hall, Conyers said, "That can't be my brother."

Thursday, Conyers denied pulling strings to hire Esters for a building department job in 2006 that he lost last year on claims of absenteeism.

Since then, Tolliver released a statement attributed to Conyers saying she's an advocate for helping those who have been incarcerated get their lives back on track.

"You don't get to choose your family, and everyone has a right to be productive," the statement read. "That is why I fight so hard at council for ex-offenders to have jobs."

She added that she also visits inmates at local correctional facilities to "lift and encourage them."

The Detroit News reported today that in 2006 Conyers -- whose maiden name is Esters -- suggested to Amru Meah, the head of Building Safety & Engineering, that he would be a good hire as an inspector.

"She came up to me, handed me his resume and said, 'You should hire him. He's a good guy,'" Meah said.

Meah said Esters did not have the qualifications for that position but found him a $30,500 job checking if city businesses were properly licensed. The job was supposed to last 120 days, but was extended for two years.

Records obtained this week by The Detroit News show Esters submitted a resume showing he worked continuously for two construction firms from 1999 to 2006. State records show he was incarcerated for assault with intent to cause great bodily harm and weapons charges for much of that time.

Meah said he fired Esters because he missed work. About the time he was fired, Esters was charged with 10 felony counts related to his brandishing a shotgun at two people in Detroit. He pleaded guilty and is set to be sentenced this month.

I'm glad Monica didn't have to resort to a life of crime like her brother.   :)

QuoteTo urban hunter, next meal is scampering by
Detroit retiree, 69, supplements his income by living off the land

Detroit - When selecting the best raccoon carcass for the special holiday roast, both the connoisseur and the curious should remember this simple guideline: Look for the paw.

"The paw is old school," says Glemie Dean Beasley, a Detroit raccoon hunter and meat salesman. "It lets the customers know it's not a cat or dog."

Beasley, a 69-year-old retired truck driver who modestly refers to himself as the Coon Man, supplements his Social Security check with the sale of raccoon carcasses that go for as much $12 and can serve up to four. The pelts, too, are good for coats and hats and fetch up to $10 a hide.

Advertisement

While economic times are tough across Michigan as its people slog through a difficult and protracted deindustrialization, Beasley remains upbeat.

Where one man sees a vacant lot, Beasley sees a buffet.

"Starvation is cheap," he says as he prepares an afternoon lunch of barbecue coon and red pop at his west side home.

His little Cape Cod is an urban Appalachia of coon dogs and funny smells. The interior paint has the faded sepia tones of an old man's teeth; the wallpaper is as flaky and dry as an old woman's hand.

Beasley peers out his living room window. A sushi cooking show plays on the television. The neighborhood outside is a wreck of ruined houses and weedy lots.

"Today people got no skill and things is getting worse," he laments. "What people gonna do? They gonna eat each other up is what they gonna do."

A licensed hunter and furrier, Beasley says he hunts coons and rabbit and squirrel for a clientele who hail mainly from the South, where the wild critters are considered something of a delicacy.

Though the flesh is not USDA inspected, if it is thoroughly cooked, there is small chance of contracting rabies from the meat, and distemper and Parvo cannot be passed onto humans, experts say.

Doing for yourself, eating what's natural, that was Creation's intention, Beasley believes. He says he learned that growing up in Three Creeks, Ark.

"Coon or rabbit. God put them there to eat. When men get hold of animals he blows them up and then he blows up. Fill 'em so full of chemicals and steroids it ruins the people. It makes them sick. Like the pigs on the farm. They's 3 months old and weighing 400 pounds. They's all blowed up. And the chil'ren who eat it, they's all blowed up. Don't make no sense."

Hunting is prohibited within Detroit city limits and Beasley insists he does not do so. Still, he says that life in the city has gone so retrograde that he could easily feed himself with the wildlife in his backyard, which abuts an old cement factory.

He procures the coons with the help of the hound dogs who chase the animal up a tree, where Beasley harvests them with a .22 caliber rifle. A true outdoorsman, Beasley refuses to disclose his hunting grounds.

"This city is going back to the wild," he says. "That's bad for people but that's good for me. I can catch wild rabbit and pheasant and coon in my backyard."

Detroit was once home to nearly 2 million people but has shrunk to a population of perhaps less than 900,000. It is estimated that a city the size of San Francisco could fit neatly within its empty lots. As nature abhors a vacuum, wildlife has moved in.

A beaver was spotted recently in the Detroit River. Wild fox skulk the 15th hole at the Palmer Park golf course. There is bald eagle, hawk and falcon that roam the city skies. Wild Turkeys roam the grasses. A coyote was snared two years ago roaming the Federal Court House downtown. And Beasley keeps a gaze of skinned coon in the freezer.

With the beast fresh from the oven, Beasley invites a guest to lunch.

He believes coon meat tastes something like mutton or pork, but to the uneducated palate, it has the aroma and texture of opossum.

While Beasley preps his coon with simple vinegar brine and spices, there are 100 ways to cook a coon.

There is roast coon with sweet potato, sausage and corn bread stuffing; raccoon cobbler and roast marinated raccoon with liver and onion. It is this reporter's opinion that the best sauce for coon may very well be hunger.

The story of Glemie Dean Beasley plays like a country song. The son of a sharecropper, Beasley left school at 13 to pick cotton. He came to Detroit in 1958. His woman left him in 1970 for a man he calls Slick Willy.

Someone stole his pickup truck and then someone killed his best dog."I knowed some hard times," Beasley says. "But a man's got to know how to get hisself through them hard times. Part of that is eating right."

Quote

DETROIT —  A social worker at a high school in Detroit is being lauded as a hero after he stopped a 17-year-old boy who allegedly was carrying a sawed-off shotgun and wrestled the boy to the ground.

No one was injured.

The Detroit Free Press reports 41-year-old social worker Idris Herring saw the teen rush through a metal detector Thursday at Westside Academy and glimpsed what looked a gun.

The boy fled after Herring tackled him and no arrests had been reported Saturday. Detroit Public Schools police said they were seeking a warrant for the teen's arrest.

There was no indication whether the shotgun was loaded.

The newspaper said the teen got the gun from a vehicle after having an altercation with a student at the school.

QuoteMoore, Nugent, Wilson sound off on Detroit
April 4, 2009, 1:17 PM EST
DETROIT (AP) -- Michael Moore says parts of it look like "the landscape of another planet."

Ted Nugent refers to its "embarrassing filth."

Mary Wilson speaks of its beauty and prosperity — from another time, long ago.

What is this woeful place? It's Detroit, a city they all know well and (believe it or not) love dearly.

It's also a place that's hard to avoid hearing about lately.

It started last month when the contestants from "American Idol" descended for "Motown Week" and heated up Monday with a presidential rejection of General Motors' and Chrysler's turnaround plans. It ends this weekend when college basketball's premier showcase, the Final Four, hits town.

The events have trained an oversized spotlight on the Michigan metropolis and have people across America talking about the state of the Motor City.

Three of those who weighed in this week are Moore, Nugent and Mary Wilson, all famed Michigan-bred entertainers who were asked to address autos and all things Detroit. And the consensus is this: The city has seen better days.

"Sadly, a majority of Americans have written off Detroit, and for those of us who grew up in Michigan and still live here `heartbreaking' doesn't really describe it," said Moore, who rose to prominence with his 1989 documentary, "Roger & Me," which focused on GM plant closings in his hometown of Flint.

Moore, who now lives in Traverse City, currently is filming a movie on the economic crisis, Wall Street and corporate greed — "a comedy," he says.

Moore recently was flying to Detroit when, on approach, an out-of-towner in a nearby seat motioned toward the window and asked the filmmaker: "What's it like down there?"

Nothing like it used to be, Moore told his fellow traveler.

"There was an attitude then that anything was possible," said Moore, who feels the old Detroit mantra that hard work equals a good life no longer holds.

He places the blame on the shoulders of auto executives, who he says presided over "a pathetically run business."

He applauded President Barack Obama's decision to remove Rick Wagoner from his post atop General Motors Corp. The new president on Monday also rejected GM's and Chrysler LLC's restructuring plans and set the stage for a major realignment of the industry.

Nugent, the wildman rocker and outdoor enthusiast known as the "Motor City Madman," is far to the right of Moore on the political spectrum and doesn't see government intervention in autos as a particularly good thing.

"Left to their own accord and entrepreneurial enterprise, I am confident the U.S. auto industry would have outperformed all others. ... Now that Fedzilla has had the audacity to turn up the havoc-wreaking, criminally violating the U.S. Constitution and all parameters of logic and decency, it appears the death knell has sounded. It breaks my Motor City heart," he said.

Wilson, who grew up in Detroit, fondly remembers the city then as "a beautiful, prosperous place" where car jobs were plentiful. Her father worked in an auto factory.

She later became a member of the legendary Motown group The Supremes and went on to worldwide fame. Wilson said she "wouldn't have wanted to grow up in any other city."

But Wilson, who now lives in Las Vegas, said things have soured in Detroit, and jobs could be the key to a resurgence.

"It's all about people working. The city needs the factories," she said. "It needs the auto industry ... so people can work."

As for the city itself, the trio believes Detroit can rise again despite the autos meltdown, recent mayoral scandal and the long-standing problems of crime, poverty, blight and population loss.

Some good news will arrive Saturday when years of planning and preparation culminate in tens of thousands of hoops enthusiasts, many of whom traveled a great distance, packing Ford Field.

"Outsiders will experience the glowing good will and decency of the fine folks of Detroit and Michigan ... and will also eat great food and meet great people and hear soulful music," said Nugent, who will be back in town later this month for a reunion of his group, the Amboy Dukes.

While some in the converted football stadium will be pulling for one of the other three entrants, it's fair to expect quite a few will be cheering on the local favorites from Michigan State, who play Big East power Connecticut in the evening's first game.

Moore, who often is seen wearing a green Michigan State ball cap, has this prediction: Spartans 72, Huskies 53.

Quote from: charliebear on April 05, 2009, 08:30:21 AM
I mentioned to Sav just a few days ago that I was embarrassed by Detroit.  I think Moore and The Nuge got right to the point.

Quote from: jimmy olsen on April 05, 2009, 08:46:18 AM

Quote from: charliebear on April 05, 2009, 08:30:21 AM
I mentioned to Sav just a few days ago that I was embarrassed by Detroit.  I think Moore and The Nuge got right to the point.

Isn't everyone embarrassed by Detroit?

QuoteCouncil president Conyers to debut TV talk show Tuesday
Controversial leader will do interviews, take calls on city politics
Leonard Fleming and Mark Hicks / The Detroit News
Controversial City Council President Monica Conyers is getting into the talk show business.

On Tuesday, "Ask the Councilwoman With Monica Conyers" debuts on WHPR-TV (Channel 33) from 3:30-4 p.m. It will be filmed at the station's studios in Highland Park, the same day the council has its weekly sessions.

Conyers, the wife of U.S. Rep. John Conyers, will interview guests, offer two minutes of commentary and take calls from the public.

She's hoping her first show will feature interviews with Mayor Kenneth Cockrel Jr. as well as his mayoral opponent, businessman Dave Bing. Neither has confirmed.

"It's not her objective to slam anybody," said Conyers spokeswoman Denise Tolliver. "This is a tool for her to make sure people know what's going on in council."

A 13-week contract is being negotiated, Henry Tyler, the station's program director, said Sunday. She joins fellow council member JoAnn Watson and state Rep. Coleman A. Young Jr., who both have air time, he said.

"They're able to open those phone lines and let the public call in to the station. ... It's a way people can talk to their public officials."

The show follows a tough week for Conyers, who had a shouting match with a colleague and fired a contractual employee for telling The Detroit News about troubles gathering signatures to appear on the Aug. 4 ballot.

She also denied hiring her ex-convict brother for a City Hall job but said she recommended him only because she believes in second chances.

QuoteImpeach Conyers before it's too late

Detroit is saddled with too many handicaps to tolerate a time bomb as head of its City Council.

Monica Conyers is not only dysfunctional as a leader; she's also dangerous to the city's image. She's erratic and volatile and is a public threat.

We've all been waiting to see if the Justice Department has the evidence and the courage to indict the wife of its connect-the-dots boss, House Judiciary Chairman John Conyers.

But the feds are taking too long making up their minds in the City Hall corruption probe, and the seven months until the November election are an awfully long time to risk Conyers' bizarre behavior.

She's got to go now.

The Detroit News reported last week that Conyers intervened to get her brother a city job, telling the building department Reggie Esters is a "good guy," but neglecting to mention that he'd just got out of prison. Esters lasted two years, was fired for not showing up for work and then was arrested on 10 felony counts, including brandishing a shotgun.

When asked about her role in his hiring, Conyers denied everything, including that Esters is her brother. There's a pattern here. After pitching a fit in the lobby of a Denver hotel last summer, she claimed it never happened, despite confirmation by the hotel and police. There's no polite way to say this: Conyers can't tell the truth.

But that's not her most disturbing character flaw. She also has a hair trigger temper and a foul mouth she can't control.

Last week, Conyers gave a good cussing to fellow Councilwoman Sheila Cockrel, telling her to "shut the (expletive) up" and asking the longtime widow if she "needed a man." Cockrel became the third colleague Conyers has verbally assaulted. Previously, she called Ken Cockrel Jr. "Shrek" at the council table and made fun of Kwame Kenyatta's poor hearing.

Heap onto those incidents a bar fight, the firing of an employee for talking to the press, failure to account for her travel expenses and abuse of her bodyguard privilege, and it adds up to all the reason needed to declare her unfit for office.

Conyers can't figure out why all the fuss. "I don't regret nothing. I ain't done nothing worth apologizing for," she told The News, blaming her woes on racism. "They say all black women have mental problems."

No, just the ones who get into bar brawls, curse their colleagues and, despite holding a law degree, suddenly can't string together two grammatical sentences. Here's your sign, Madam President: You may have mental problems.

Kenyatta suggests the council should formally reprimand Conyers. That isn't enough.

The city Charter is murky on what it takes to impeach an elected official, as we learned from the Kwame Kilpatrick scandal. But council should test its ability to remove Conyers. At the least, it should replace her as president. Let her sue.

If her fellow council members fail to act, when Conyers finally blows, they can't say they didn't see the warning signs.

QuoteCouncil: Tear down Central Depot at owner's expense
BY NAOMI R. PATTON • FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER • April 7, 2009

The Detroit City Council passed a resolution requesting the emergency demolition of the Michigan Central Depot at owner Matty Moroun's expense.

Moroun, a billionaire who owns the Ambassador Bridge and has plans to build a second bridge next to it, has 30 days to respond to the council's resolution

"I want it down now," said Councilwoman Barbara-Rose Collins, who introduced the resolution to raze the structure, sitting vacant since 1988. "It's obviously a public hazard."

Mayor Ken Cockrel, Jr. has allotted $3.6 million to demolish the depot in his proposed federal economic stimulus funding list.

But, Collins said, "The city should have no obligation whatsoever to tear it down."

She also said the $3 million could be used to build homes on the east side, or to "improve the quality of life for Detroit citizens . . . It should not go to a billionaire."

"It should've been down years ago," Council President Monica Conyers said, citing a city blight ordinance that would allow the city to take over the neglected property. Conyers, who also opposes using federal stimulus money to tear it down, also said she would be willing to consider other options if Moroun "came up with some type of plan to make it viable," like a shopping outlet.

Councilwoman Sheila Cockrel voted against the resolution.

Collins called Moroun a "sweet person," but said, "It's as though he's a king in his own little kingdom."

City attorneys are drafting a report for the council about how to enforce the resolution.

QuoteDetroit lawyer sues over demotion
She alleges reverse discrimination for her 'ghetto court' comment
BY BEN SCHMITT • FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER • April 8, 2009

The City of Detroit's former top lawyer sued the city Tuesday, saying that she was illegally demoted when she described the 36th District Court as a "ghetto court."

Kathleen Leavey, who is white in a court where most judges are black, said in the lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court that she was not talking about race when she criticized the courthouse Jan. 14.

Leavey told the Free Press at the time that she got into a heated discussion with a court administrator about the court's handling of a lawsuit against it, in which it asked the city to pay a $400,000 judgment without warning. "I told her people regard this as a ghetto court because of the way they treat people," Leavey said, adding that she was referring to long lines and slow service.

In her lawsuit, Leavey, a Detroit resident, alleges reverse race discrimination, retaliatory defamation and First Amendment retaliation in the lawsuit. She is seeking damages in excess of $75,000.

"The Slang Dictionary defines 'ghetto' as 'backwards and messed up,' " Leavey's lawyer, James Fett, wrote in the suit. "Leavey's African-American colleagues have never been subject to discipline, admonishment or ridicule for using the term 'ghetto.' "

Leavey, who is on leave, said she was forced to resign her post as interim corporation counsel after 36th District Chief Judge Marylin Atkins contended in a letter that the remarks were racist. Atkins is named as a defendant in the lawsuit.

"There are few things worse than being called a racist," Fett said.

"I don't have a comment at all," Atkins said Tuesday.

Cockrel's spokesman, Daniel Cherrin, said he could not comment on a pending lawsuit.

QuoteCobo deal dies as judge sides with city council
By Zachary Gorchow • Free Press Staff Writer • April 9, 2009

A judge has blocked a regional authority for Cobo Center, ruling today that Detroit Mayor Ken Cockrel Jr. had no right to veto the City Council's nullification of a state law creating the authority.



After almost two weeks of trying to get Cockrel and the City Council to strike a deal in the council's lawsuit, Wayne County Circuit Judge Isidore Torres said the talks had failed.

"For whatever reason it didn't happen, and that's fine," he said.

Torres then handed out a written copy of his ruling to each side, and Council President Monica Conyers' reaction left no doubt about the result.

"Yes! We won!" she said, slapping a nearby table exultantly.

Meanwhile, glum city attorneys filed out of the courtroom.

Conyers said she hoped Gov. Jennifer Granholm would reopen negotiations on how Cobo should be governed.

Aging, dingy and in severe need of more space and renovations, Granholm, the Legislature and regional leaders agreed in December on a five-member regional authority to run Cobo and the extension of hotel, liquor and cigarette taxes to pay for $288 million in upgrades.

But there was a caveat – the City Council had the opportunity to reject the plan.

Saying they objected to the city giving up ownership to Cobo with no guarantees that Detroit businesses would receive contracts from the regional authority, a 5-3 majority of the council voted to nullify the state law.

But then Cockrel vetoed the council's rejection resolution. The state law appeared to give the council the final say with no power to the mayor, so the council sued and Torres agreed with it.

"Throughout the act, the powers and duties of the legislative body and the local chief executive officer are delineated in plain language, but none of these creates under the act a veto power in the chief executive officer over a resolution disapproving the transfer," Torres wrote.

Quote from: Savonarola on April 09, 2009, 01:27:30 PM

QuoteCobo deal dies as judge sides with city council
By Zachary Gorchow • Free Press Staff Writer • April 9, 2009

A judge has blocked a regional authority for Cobo Center, ruling today that Detroit Mayor Ken Cockrel Jr. had no right to veto the City Council's nullification of a state law creating the authority.



After almost two weeks of trying to get Cockrel and the City Council to strike a deal in the council's lawsuit, Wayne County Circuit Judge Isidore Torres said the talks had failed.

"For whatever reason it didn't happen, and that's fine," he said.

Torres then handed out a written copy of his ruling to each side, and Council President Monica Conyers' reaction left no doubt about the result.

"Yes! We won!" she said, slapping a nearby table exultantly.

5-3 majority of the council voted to nullify the state law.

But then Cockrel vetoed the council's rejection resolution. The state law appeared to give the council the final say with no power to the mayor, so the council sued and Torres agreed with it.

"Throughout the act, the powers and duties of the legislative body and the local chief executive officer are delineated in plain language, but none of these creates under the act a veto power in the chief executive officer over a resolution disapproving the transfer," Torres wrote.

Quote from: jimmy olsen on April 09, 2009, 02:02:40 PM


How can the state allow a municipality to nullify a state law? Where's Zombie Andrew Jackson when you need him?

QuoteKilpatrick paid lawyers $1M from election fund
Action could violate campaign finance laws
By M.L. ELRICK, JIM SCHAEFER and JOE SWICKARD • FREE PRESS STAFF WRITERS • April 8, 2009


Former Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick used his re-election fund to pay lawyers nearly $1 million for their ultimately futile efforts to keep him out of jail -- a move that possibly violates state campaign finance laws.

Kilpatrick's lead attorney, James Thomas, defended tapping the campaign account but Maurice Kelman, a retired Wayne State University law professor, said it was improper. Kelman has been calling on Kilpatrick to disclose his spending.

A spokesman for state Attorney General Mike Cox said Wednesday that such matters are typically referred to local prosecutors.

Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy's spokeswoman Maria Miller declined comment on the legality of tapping the fund but said prosecutors will look at the $215,000 that Kilpatrick said he had left in the fund at the end of 2008.

"We're interested in any money that can go toward the mayor's restitution," she said.

The former mayor owes the City of Detroit more than $900,000 in restitution as part of the deal he reached last year when he pleaded guilty to two counts of obstruction of justice stemming from the text message scandal.

Other details that emerged from the campaign finance report — which was filed nearly two months late — show that Kilpatrick received only six contributions after the Free Press revealed the text message scandal in January 2008.

No one contributed to the fund after Worthy brought eight felony counts against Kilpatrick in March 2008.

QuoteCharity, family got checks from Kilpatrick campaign fund
Lawyer fees could mean huge fines, expert says
BY M.L. ELRICK, JOE SWICKARD and JIM SCHAEFER • FREE PRESS STAFF WRITERS • April 9, 2009

While Kwame Kilpatrick sat in a Wayne County Jail cell, his campaign fund kept working.

Among those collecting checks during the former mayor's incarceration were the Next Vision Foundation -- run by his sister, Ayanna, and his cousin Jacquelyn Watts, who took over as treasurer of the re-election account.

The Next Vision Foundation, the Kilpatrick family charity, received $5,000. Watts, who had worked in the mayor's office until Ken Cockrel Jr. replaced Kilpatrick, got $3,000 for her accounting services.

Besides small payments for items including bank service charges and credit card fees, the fund's only other expenditures after Kilpatrick entered jail on Oct. 28 were $3,000 to Emma Bell, his longtime fund-raiser, and $600 to Philip Thomas, a lawyer hired as part of a failed bid to help Kilpatrick keep his law license.

But the bulk of the more than $1.1 million spent over the course of 2008 went to lawyers -- most of whom defended Kilpatrick against criminal charges stemming from the text message scandal and his assault on a detective from the Wayne County Sheriff's Office.

Maurice Kelman, a retired Wayne State University Law School professor and election law expert, said those expenditures could lead to fines of up to $1 million for the former mayor.

"You cannot spend campaign money for personal use," Kelman said Wednesday. "A lawyer doing purely criminal work should not be paid with campaign funds."

He said that under state law, the former mayor can be fined "dollar-for-dollar for everything that Kilpatrick improperly spent."

But first, he said, someone must file a complaint with the Michigan Secretary of State, which could trigger a hearing at which Kilpatrick would have to be found in violation of campaign finance law.

Kilpatrick attorney James Thomas disagreed.

"Obviously this was something that was well-researched before the funds were received," he said, adding that Kilpatick's campaign fund was established to keep him in office. If Kilpatrick were convicted of a crime, he would be forced to resign as mayor.


"If he did not defend himself he would not have been able to stay in office," James Thomas said.

Kilpatrick ultimately pleaded guilty to two counts of obstruction of justice stemming from the text message scandal. As part of the deal, he resigned from office, agreed to serve 120 days in jail and five years on probation, relinquished his law license and agreed to pay the City of Detroit $1 million in restitution. He also agreed not to run for office for five years and pleaded no contest to an assault charge for shoving a deputy trying to serve a subpoena.

Of the lawyers paid from the re-election account, James Thomas received the most: $284,251.

He also received $85,000 from the Detroit Justice Fund, a legal defense account Kilpatrick established, according to IRS documents the fund filed.

James Thomas said Wednesday that the nonprofit Kilpatrick Civic Fund also has paid him for preparing documents requested by federal investigators.

Kelman conceded that some of the campaign expenditures for attorneys may be permissible, citing legal work related to the Detroit City Council's efforts to unseat Kilpatrick and removal hearings Gov. Jennifer Granholm held in September.

But Kelman said there is no justification for paying Philip Thomas to help Kilpatrick try to retain his law license.

"There's nothing that says you have to be a licensed attorney in order to hold the office of mayor," Kelman said.

QuoteOakland County Executive L. Brooks Patterson, who resisted earlier, more expensive Cobo renovation plans, but agreed to the one rejected by the council, said he would follow through on his promise to lure the North American International Auto Show to Oakland County.


"In-friggin'-credible!" Patterson said in a statement. "If they're popping champagne corks in Detroit City Council chambers this afternoon, I would suggest to you it's terribly premature. What City Council has done is overturn five years of hard negotiation that was Detroit's last best chance to secure long-term funding for Cobo Hall and frankly the North American International Auto Show.


"I have no stomach, no appetite, no interest in going back to the table to rewrite a piece of legislation that would be satisfactory to Monica Conyers."


The city won't be able to count on the state Legislature to help craft a new plan for Cobo, said Senate Majority leader Mike Bishop, R-Rochester.


"I don't see this coming back to the table any time soon," he said. "It's hard to tell somebody from Traverse City or Grand Rapids that extending our good graces to the city of Detroit is great for them, but they all understood that it was a good thing to do for the state."


When the city council rejected the Cobo compromise, a process that took five years, getting outstate lawmakers back on board will be difficult at best. A different solution will wait until at least after the city elections in November.


"I've seen a lot of things come out of city council that make me shake my head, but this is Exhibit A on why we need massive change," Bishop said. "The legislature is going to have to wait to see what the next election brings."

Quote from: jimmy olsen on April 09, 2009, 02:02:40 PM
How can the state allow a municipality to nullify a state law? Where's Zombie Andrew Jackson when you need him?

Quote from: DontSayBanana on April 10, 2009, 09:38:23 AM

Quote from: jimmy olsen on April 09, 2009, 02:02:40 PM
How can the state allow a municipality to nullify a state law? Where's Zombie Andrew Jackson when you need him?

Read before you paste, Tim. The state explicitly put the council's assent as a caveat.

Quote from: jimmy olsen on April 10, 2009, 10:47:47 AM
I read it the first time. It just makes the situation more horrifying in my opinion. It's an absolutely insane situation, and the legislature that passed the law should have been impeached. A city council should have no ability whatsoever to nullify state legislation.  That the city council in question is Detroit's just makes it 100 times worse.

Quote from: Caliga on April 10, 2009, 01:25:29 PM
When I hear the name "Kwame", I reach for my Browning.  :rolleyes:

Quote from: jimmy olsen on April 10, 2009, 10:47:47 AM
I read it the first time. It just makes the situation more horrifying in my opinion. It's an absolutely insane situation, and the legislature that passed the law should have been impeached. A city council should have no ability whatsoever to nullify state legislation.  That the city council in question is Detroit's just makes it 100 times worse.

QuoteDespite mugging, Dutch reporter won't beat up on Detroit
By BILL McGRAW • FREE PRESS COLUMNIST • April 14, 2009

Award-winning Dutch journalist Jacqueline Maris is back in the Netherlands, safe and sound after her reporting trip to Detroit last week during which she and a photographer were carjacked.

Her three-part series on Detroit is running this week on VPRO, Dutch public radio. While Maris plans to include the carjacking incident in Part 3, she said having her rented Chevy Cobalt stolen at gunpoint will not affect the tone or conclusion of her reports.

She said she plans to construct a portrait of a city that goes beyond out-of-town journalists' stereotypes of abandoned houses and car-company woes.

"I don't want to stop where every journalists stops," Maris said in a phone interview Monday.

"When you read about Detroit, you read about the auto industry, the train station and some collapsing buildings. There's never people."

Her desire to do a comprehensive report on Detroit doesn't mean Maris — a veteran journalist who has reported from war zones in Africa and the Middle East — will tell a story that would be approved by the chamber of commerce.

"I could have done a very positive story," she said, "but there are drugs, gangs, wild dogs and garbage."

On the VPRO Web site, the reports are headlined: "Stories from a city in free fall."

In other American cities she has visited, such as Boston and New Orleans, decay was limited to specific districts, Maris said.

In Detroit, she was struck by how much the entire city outside of the central business district appears to be in distress.

"It looks nice in downtown," Maris said. "The Book Cadillac is very nice, and you see the potential. But when you get in the neighborhoods, it is very shocking. Wherever you go you see the houses that were once the houses of dreams. You see once there was a thriving life there."


The reporting trip was Maris' first visit to Detroit. Working with photographer Daimon Xanthopoulos, Maris spent nine days in the city, which is longer than many visiting reporters stay


Each report will be 35 minutes long, an eternity by even American public radio standards. Xanthopoulos' photos will appear on the station's Web site starting Wednesday: http://weblogs.vpro.nl/buitenland/

Maris said Part 1 deals with the history of Detroit and the auto industry, and what making cars meant to African Americans who came from the south for the city's good pay and relative freedom.

Part 2 will discuss people who are taking the initiative to improve life in the city, including the Motor City Blight Busters in northwest Detroit, the venerable Capuchin Soup Kitchen on the east side and parents in southwest Detroit who have organized to get rid of stray dogs.

"People in Detroit seem very strong and resilient," Maris said.

Part 3 will tell a more personal story, partly through Xanthopoulos' photos. Xanthopoulos spent time in Detroit during the winter, exploring the city on foot and met, among other people, a homeless single mother. They will tell of her search for shelter, and they will also discuss their experience of coming face to face with a 9mm pistol.

The carjacking took place in the former Brewster Projects, near Ford Field. Xanthopoulos handed over the keys to two men, one who wore a ski mask. Xanthopoulos and Maris fled; the thieves did not attempt to steal the journalists' recording equipment or expensive cameras. Maris said Detroit police responded promptly.

Maris, 50, the mother of two sons, said she will use the incident not to illustrate her bad luck, but tell to tell a bigger story, much as she did when she witnessed atrocities while reporting on the Liberian civil war in 1993.

"I went home to safe Holland," Maris said, where there is a solid safety net, and not everyone can own a gun and many fewer people fall into desperate poverty.

She's not going to tell her listeners not to go to Detroit for fear of getting shot.

But, she said, she will say that in Detroit, "many people are trapped."

QuoteShe said she plans to construct a portrait of a city that goes beyond out-of-town journalists' stereotypes of abandoned houses and car-company woes.

QuoteCouncil president Conyers skips TV show filming
Darren A. Nichols / The Detroit News
Detroit -- One week into Monica Conyers' stint as a talk show host, and she's already relying on reruns.

The City Council president was a no-show Tuesday for "Ask the Councilwoman With Monica Conyers" on WHPR-TV (Channel 33).

The show is filmed live at 3:30 p.m. at the station's studios in Highland Park.

After showing commercials for 10 minutes, the station aired last week's debut episode.

"She didn't make it," said R.J. Watkins, owner of the station. "The staff is here. The guest is here. She didn't show."

Left waiting was her guest, the Rev. Wendell Anthony, president of the Detroit Branch NAACP.

Conyers spokeswoman Denise Tolliver blamed an undisclosed meeting that ran long. Tolliver said she expects Conyers to appear next week.

"Her meeting ran long. She couldn't be right on time (for the live show)," Tolliver said. "We had to make a quick decision to run the old show. Because it's live, we had to get something on."

Conyers, the wife of U.S. Rep. John Conyers, will interview guests, offer two minutes of commentary and take calls from the public. She's reached out to mayoral candidates Mayor Kenneth Cockrel Jr. and Dave Bing, but neither has agreed to be on the show. 

A 13-week contract is being negotiated, said Henry Tyler, the station's program director.

Conyers joins fellow council member JoAnn Watson and state Rep. Coleman A. Young II, both of whom have air time.

Watch highlights of last week's show at detnews.com/detroitcityhallinsider.com.

QuoteAging, dingy and in severe need of more space and renovations, Granholm, the Legislature and regional leaders agreed in December on a five-member regional authority to run Cobo and the extension of hotel, liquor and cigarette taxes to pay for $288 million in upgrades.

Quote from: Scipio on April 15, 2009, 12:42:42 PM

QuoteAging, dingy and in severe need of more space and renovations, Granholm, the Legislature and regional leaders agreed in December on a five-member regional authority to run Cobo and the extension of hotel, liquor and cigarette taxes to pay for $288 million in upgrades.

Now, that's one hell of a misplaced modifier.  Granholm may be in early middle age, but for a Canadian, she's not that dingy.

Quote from: Malthus on April 14, 2009, 08:25:32 AM
Great. Detroit, new destination for adventure tourism.

Move over, Papua New Guinea.

Quote from: Savonarola on April 15, 2009, 12:52:11 PM

Quote from: Scipio on April 15, 2009, 12:42:42 PM

QuoteAging, dingy and in severe need of more space and renovations, Granholm, the Legislature and regional leaders agreed in December on a five-member regional authority to run Cobo and the extension of hotel, liquor and cigarette taxes to pay for $288 million in upgrades.

Now, that's one hell of a misplaced modifier.  Granholm may be in early middle age, but for a Canadian, she's not that dingy.

:lol:

Good catch, and from the Pulitzer winning Free Press.

QuoteCobo may lose grip on car show
Expansion deal dies after Cockrel loses appeal
Darren A. Nichols and Christina Stolarz / The Detroit News
Detroit --The Cobo Center expansion is dead, organizers of the North American International Auto Show -- its premier event -- may explore leaving town, and city and suburban leaders are squabbling over who's to blame.

Hours after the Michigan Court of Appeals upheld a lower court ruling Friday killing the deal, auto show organizers said they're open to other venues, while acknowledging few alternatives exist in southeast Michigan. The court ruling nixed a transfer to a regional authority -- once hailed as an example of area cooperation -- that would have overseen a $288 million expansion to the decades-old facility.

"We've got an obligation and a responsibility to the show to provide it with the best venue possible," said Joe Serra, the co-chairman of the 2009 show. The event pumps $350 million to $500 million into the economy.

"It's only proper we keep an open mind to all options. Our dream was to stay at Cobo and make (the show) a part of Detroit. That's why we've been so patient over the years and make that work. Our hearts are with Detroit and Cobo."

Doug Fox, a show co-chairman, said organizers aren't interested in leaving Cobo, but would "at least listen to those options and consider them." They have a commitment to stay at Cobo through 2010.

"I don't believe there is a facility that meets our needs," Fox said. "We were hopeful this was going to be our solution, and maybe it can still be our solution. Our goal all along is to stay in Detroit. We've made this clear for many years."

The two antagonists in the deal -- Oakland County Executive L. Brooks Patterson and City Council President Monica Conyers -- blame each other for the deal's collapse. Patterson said he's open to revisiting the deal after the November city elections, should voters elect a new council.

'Let the dust settle'
"We have to back it up and let the dust settle," Patterson said. "When the (mayoral and Detroit City Council) elections are over, maybe we'll have a more reasonable group with which to engage. I'd be willing to submit the identical legislation. If they try to change the terms, Oakland County has no interest."

Conyers said Patterson should "stop trashing Detroit and its leaders and act like a grownup and come back to the table." She added that Patterson, whom she reached out to late Friday afternoon to urge him to come back to the table, is upset "because he cannot control us."

"Do not make this about me instead of dealing with the issues," Conyers said. "We are tired of his divisiveness and attacks on our elected officials. When he wants to deal with the issues instead of attacking the person, then we can talk."

In a unanimous decision, the Court of Appeals affirmed Wayne Circuit Judge Isidore Torres' decision that Mayor Kenneth Cockrel Jr. illegally vetoed a City Council resolution blocking the transfer. Cockrel argued the city charter allows mayors to veto council resolutions, but the court agreed that a December law gave the council sole power to thwart the deal.

Council members said Detroit should have received more than $20 million for the facility and more than one vote on the authority. The five-member authority was to be composed of one representative apiece from Detroit, the state and Wayne, Oakland and Macomb counties.

The authority was set to take over Monday. Instead, the city retains ownership and has no plans for renovations.

Cockrel, who will not appeal, said he disagreed with the ruling but has no regrets.

"A modern, improved Cobo Center is critical to the competitiveness of Detroit and the region," Cockrel said. "I will do whatever is needed to ensure that the much-needed improvements to the facility are made as soon as possible."

Wayne County Executive Robert Ficano said he's not giving up because "we were very close to a deal." He wants to bring the issue back after the May 5 mayoral election.

Granholm sees few options
But Gov. Jennifer Granholm, who signed the legislation in January surrounded by council members who later voted against the deal, said there is little interest in Lansing to create a better one.

"Today's ruling leaves very few options," Granholm said in a released statement. "Once the mayor and the City Council agree on a plan that is acceptable to all of the interested parties, then we will be in a position to move forward."

Two weeks of talks spurred by Torres broke down after members of the regional authority deadlocked over giving Detroiters an edge when awarding contracts, according to those close to the negotiations. Patterson's authority representative, Mike Carroll, wanted all bidders to have an equal shot at doing business at Cobo Center and opposed a plan that benefited Detroit-based enterprises

"Will Oakland County enter into a family and friends purchasing policy? No, not a chance. We don't do that out here," said Bob Daddow, Oakland's deputy executive.

"There isn't much else that can be done. The City Council, who decided to challenge the legislation, got what they wanted. They have to develop a plan to renovate it to save the auto show."

While Patterson called the court ruling a "setback," he did say he wants the auto show to remain in Detroit because "that's where it belongs."

But if the council can't make that happen, Patterson said he'd rather have the event move into the suburbs than Chicago or Las Vegas.

QuoteIgnominious end for financial manager
April 18, 2009

There's vandalism, and there's vandalizing someone's wheelchair.


There's burglary, and there's burglarizing the home of a widow who's attending her husband's funeral.

There's double-dipping, and there's skimming hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars from a city that had to close its own fire department.

That's what a three-member state oversight board suggested former Wayne County Commissioner Art Blackwell did when he served as Highland Park's emergency financial manager. Blackwell was fired Friday after board members concluded he had committed "an egregious breach of public trust" by paying himself hundreds of thousands of dollars more than the state had authorized.

Friday's emergency meeting of the Local Emergency Financial Assistance Loan Board was called after Highland Park school board member Robert Davis said records he obtained under the Freedom of Information Act showed that Blackwell cosigned 14 checks to himself from city funds between April and December 2008. The records suggest that Blackwell has collected a total of $495,000 from the state and the city.

Gov. Jennifer Granholm named Blackwell as Highland Park's emergency financial manager at a salary of $1 a year, but the Local Emergency Financial Assistance Loan Board raised his salary last April to $11,000 a month and made it retroactive to October 2007 -- for a current total far less than he has apparently collected.

Blackwell says his critics should focus on Highland Park's improved fiscal posture, for which he claims credit.

Highland Park employees will doubtless be delighted to learn their pension fund is solvent. But the allegation that its emergency financial manager exploited his extraordinary authority to enrich himself beyond what those he worked for authorized or can afford is a gravely serious one that undermines public confidence in the government's integrity.

Blackwell had better come up with a more detailed explanation for his profligate check-writing. And it looks as if he'd better get ready to share it with a jury of his peers.

QuoteDetroit councilman walks away from mortgage
Candidate for mayor saw value of home tumble as payment set to rise

DETROIT - It was their dream home, a two-story, four-bedroom colonial in one of Detroit's nicest and most stable neighborhoods.

But then, one day in December, City Councilman Kwame Kenyatta and his wife packed up their belongings, locked the doors, mailed in the keys and walked away — adding another vacant house to the thousands in a city hard hit by the nation's mortgage crisis.

"We're already underwater when it comes to what we're paying on the house versus what the house is worth," Kenyatta said.

Around the country, the practice, sometimes referred to as "mortgage walking" or "jingle mail," appears to be growing. But for Kenyatta, the decision could do more than hurt his credit rating.

It could damage his bid for mayor of Detroit this summer, particularly since he has been one of the city's most vocal supporters of measures to improve neighborhoods and clean up blight.

"If I'm going to follow you, you need to be a leader," said Patricia Dixon, a former neighbor of Kenyatta's. "You don't show leadership by walking away from your home in the city of Detroit. You have vandalism where they find out the houses are vacant. You have people stealing fireplaces."

Kenyatta, a Democrat, is not the only elected official facing mortgage trouble. The Wayne County prosecutor's Detroit home has gone into foreclosure. And California Rep. Laura Richardson nearly lost her home before she paid up delinquent home loans.

Walking away from a mortgage isn't illegal; the bank takes possession and tries to sell the house. But "it just puts more properties in foreclosures, and that's the last thing we need right now. That's just pulling the median sales price down," said Karen Kage, who runs a real estate listing service in suburban Detroit.

In Detroit, the median sales price for a home is now a pathetic $5,800, down more than $66,000 from seven years ago. An estimated 16,000 foreclosed homes are on the market in the city of about 920,000 residents. Detroit also has one of the highest unemployment rates in the nation, at around 20 percent.

Kenyatta's former neighborhood, North Rosedale Park, is unlike most of the rest of Detroit. Stately, well-kept brick homes line quiet, winding streets. It fights to hold off blight from surrounding northwest side neighborhoods.

Kenyatta's former home is the ugly duckling on its block. Dead grass spreads gray across the lawn. Withered advertising circulars are strewn about the porch and the hedges.

Bought for $225,000, the home nose-dived in value to $100,000, according to Kenyatta. Its manageable $2,600-a-month mortgage soon was about to soar about $1,000.

About five months ago, the Kenyattas moved to a rented condo on the city's east side. It has three bedrooms, four baths, a whirlpool bath, finished basement and garage. The rent is less than their old mortgage. (In Detroit, City Council members are elected from the city at large, not from districts, so leaving the neighborhood does not affect Kenyatta's eligibility to serve.)

"It's not like I'm making out like a fat rat here," Kenyatta said. "The credit is now going to be shot."

Kenyatta said that because his mortgage payments were made on time and he was not in foreclosure, he did not qualify for any relief programs through his lender.

Kenyatta, 53, once served on the Detroit school board and was a Wayne County commissioner before winning his council seat in 2005. He council salary is about $81,000 a year. His wife, Monifa, also a former county commissioner, is retired.

Kenyatta said he hopes voters can separate the personal from the political with the August mayoral primary approaching.

"History will show that some of the greatest leaders who did great work for the public may not have done so good by themselves," he said. "In most cases, they neglect themselves to take care of the people's business. My record in public office, I'm proud of it. I think I've done good."

But public confidence in Detroit's political leadership has been in the cellar for more than a year, beginning with the scandal over then-Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick's affair with his chief aide. Both were charged with perjury and sent to jail.

Kenyatta can only hope that Detroit voters are forgiving.

"If voters view being an excellent financial manager as an essential quality for the mayor, then it may cause him problems," said Lyke Thompson, director of the Center for Urban Studies at Wayne State University in Detroit. "If on the other hand, they sympathize with him because so many voters have had similar troubles, it may be less of a problem."

Copyright 2009 The Associated Press

Quote from: jimmy olsen on April 20, 2009, 06:41:20 PMKwame Kenyatta

QuoteFree Press wins Pulitzer for mayor probe
Panel cites 'uncovering of a pattern of lies' by Kilpatrick, Beatty
Francis X. Donnelly / The Detroit News
Detroit -- The Detroit Free Press won journalism's highest award Monday for an investigation that led to the resignation, conviction and three-month jail stretch of former Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick.

The newspaper staff won the Pulitzer Prize for local reporting for the probe, which showed that Kilpatrick committed perjury by denying a dalliance with his chief of staff.

The citation singled out the work of investigative reporters Jim Schaefer and M.L. Elrick, who had pursued the often-troubled mayor for five years.

"This is something you want to do your whole life," Elrick told the ebullient staff in its cramped newsroom in downtown Detroit. "This is validation for all our work."

It was the ninth Pulitzer won by the 177-year-old Free Press, and its first in 19 years. The paper shared the award with the East Valley Tribune of Mesa, Ariz.

In naming the Free Press, the Pulitzer board cited the paper's "uncovering of a pattern of lies by (Kilpatrick and his chief of staff), prompting an investigation of perjury that eventually led to jail terms for the two officials."

Kilpatrick was dogged by questions of irregularities throughout two terms as mayor while the Free Press, The Detroit News and other news outlets frequently chronicled his misbehavior.

But it wasn't until last year that he found himself entangled in a legal morass he couldn't escape.

The Free Press obtained 14,000 text messages written by Kilpatrick and chief of staff Christine Beatty that contradicted their sworn testimonies in a wrongful termination lawsuit filed by two police officials.

The ensuing investigation has won several other prestigious awards, including the George Polk Award, Worth Bingham Prize, Eugene S. Pulliam First Amendment Award and Investigative Reporters and Editors Award.

Quote2 Chihuahuas stolen as woman shops in Detroit
Dogs taken from car as woman seeks wig for cancer-stricken grandmother
BY AMBER HUNT • FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER • April 22, 2009

Jaronna McCrae left her Muskegon home Saturday on a mission: to buy a wig so that her cancer-ridden grandmother could feel pretty on Mother's Day.

She was in the city less than 30 minutes, she said, when her car was broken into and the cargo inside — her two red-furred Chihuahuas — was stolen.

"She's been crying for three days," said Jaronna McCrae's mother, Erline McCrae. "She's just hysterical."
Jaronna McCrae, 27, who works in nursing and group homes with mentally ill people, said the dogs were stolen from her car about 10:15 a.m. Saturday while she shopped at Kelly Beauty Supply at Kelly and Houston/Whittier.

"They did it so quick," she said Tuesday through tears from her Muskegon home. "I wasn't even in there for 10 minutes."

McCrae asked that the Free Press not publish the dogs' names so that whoever stole them won't be able to give them commands.

The dogs are a mother-daughter pair. Mom is 4 years old and daughter just turned 1. Both have red fur, though Mom's has some dark undertones throughout.

McCrae said she regularly takes the dogs with her to play with the mentally ill patients with whom she works. They were tag-along dogs so accustomed to riding in the car that they had a nice-sized kennel decorated with a pink bed and a water bowl.
On Saturday, she ventured into Detroit to shop for a wig for her ailing grandmother, Frances Love, who has colon cancer and lost her hair in chemotherapy. McCrae said she felt comfortable leaving the dogs for a few minutes because the weather Saturday was pleasant, so she cracked the car's sunroof and windows.

Within 10 minutes, she said, she heard glass breaking, followed by a car alarm. Fellow patrons tried to grab the dog thieves' license plate but it sped away too quickly, McCrae said.

"They were in a burgundy Oldsmobile Alero and there were two of them," she said. "That's all I know."

McCrae is venturing back to Detroit this weekend to post flyers in hopes of finding her beloved pups. In the meantime, she hopes that making her story public will alert would-be dog buyers to be on the lookout.

Her mother, Erline McCrae, isn't a fan of her daughter returning to Detroit. "You just can't find a dog in a big city," she said.

People with information can call the Detroit Police Department's Eastern District at 313-596-5900.

QuoteDetroit audit: Use of funds violated city policy
By ZACHARY GORCHOW • FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER • April 22, 2009

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A petty cash fund in Detroit's Water and Sewerage Department was improperly used to pay $1,400 for the retrieval of a city truck that was impounded after the city employee driving it was caught in a prostitution sting, according to an audit of the department.

Funds from one of the department's petty cash funds also paid a total of $44,900 for two annual dinners in the 2005-06 and 2006-07 fiscal years to honor retiring employees - at a cost of $57.25 and $55 per person, respectively.

Not only did that violate city policy that bars the use of taxpayer funds for food when it is not for public or governmental purposes that serve the entire community, it also more than doubled the city's per person dinner limit of $23.

The report from the Detroit auditor general, obtained by the Free Press, covers activity in the department's petty cash funds between July 2006 and September 2008 - all during the time when former Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick was in office. Kilpatrick resigned in September 2008.

It details wide-ranging violations of city policy on the use of funds from petty cash, which is supposed to be used for infrequent or emergency purposes.

Among the audit's major findings:

• Purchases of regularly needed office supplies that should have been done through the requisition process or put up for bid were made from petty cash

• $51,050 from unspecified other departmental sources was improperly routed into one of the department's petty cash funds - $44,900 of which was used to pay for the retirement dinners.

• Lack of safeguards over the funds, including no training, custodians of the funds not having a copy of the city's imprest cash fund manual and failure to segregate duties to ensure separate authority over check signing and of the cash itself.

• Twelve of the department's 16 petty cash funds had unresolved shortages or overages at the end of the 2007-08 fiscal year.

• The department's main petty cash fund, at $12,000, is inappropriate and showed a nearly $3,000 shortage. Department officials responded the reason for the shortage was that "a former clerk did not keep a running balance" and the balance was "never reviewed and corrected." The audit called for reducing the size of the fund to reflect actual monthly activity.

In response, Department Director Pamela Turner, who was appointed by Mayor Ken Cockrel Jr., said officials would implement procedures to correct the problems.

The department also is seeking reimbursement of the $1,400 from the water department employee over the impoundment of the city truck.

Chief Financial Officer Joseph Harris, who also began his job under Cockrel, said the city would correct the problems. Harris said his department -- the Finance Department -- should not have approved the food purchases and has since rejected subsequent department food and refreshment requests that violated city policy.

QuoteConyers, Karmanos wrangle over issues at political breakfast
Participants bemoan lack of cooperation among suburbs, city
BY KATHLEEN GRAY • FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER • April 23, 2009
The topic was "Economy, Regionalism and Race Relations," but in metro Detroit this morning, none was in very good shape.

The panelists at the Pancakes and Politics breakfast were an odd conglomeration of business and politics: Detroit City Council President Monica Conyers; Peter Karmanos, Compuware founder and new boss to Kwame Kilpatrick; think tank founder Phil Power and demographer Kurt Metzger.

There were all frustrated that better cooperation among regional leaders seems to be an elusive goal that is harming not only Detroit, but the rest of the region and the state.

"The Center for Michigan is holding a series of community conversations and we've talked to 3,500 people so far in the state," Power said. "Uniformly people tell us we have to recognize that this is an entire region. And if Detroit puts a moat around the city, it hurts everyone."

The dispute over ownership and operations of Cobo Hall was a tier one topic at the breakfast and Conyers said the blame for the death of the deal lies with Oakland County officials and Gov. Jennifer Granholm. She said the token $20-million payment a regional authority would have paid the city for the Cobo was unacceptable.

"We don't want any tokens, because I don't consider myself a token," she said. "Stimulus money is available for convention centers. The problem is the governor doesn't want to give us money to use for Cobo Hall."

Conyers also said she believes abandoned buildings in the city should be converted to outlet stores and that term limits should be instituted for the Detroit City Council, mayor and school board.


"If you continue to have the same people, you never get new people with creative ideas," she said.

Karmanos said the sorry state of the city's schools is one of the failures that is fueling the lack of regionalism in the metro region.

"When I went to school in Detroit, it was one of the best districts in the nation and the teachers weren't part of the union," he said. "Today, everyone is in the union and we uniformly have poor schools throughout the region."

The lack of progress being made on mass transit in metro Detroit is one of the biggest signs that regionalism has been unsuccessful, Metzger said.

"We've got to get light rail just up to West Grand Boulevard first," he said, but the economy is hampering many redevelopment efforts.

"Detroit can be the laboratory for radical redevelopment," he said. "But. we have suburbs against suburbs, nobody has any money and financially we're all suffering."

As for Kilpatrick, Karmanos said he's doing well and that coworkers have described him as "a breath of fresh air."

Quote from: charliebear on April 23, 2009, 09:25:22 AM
I'm hearing whispers that a Monica recall is in the works.

Quote from: DontSayBanana on April 23, 2009, 09:30:33 AM

Quote from: charliebear on April 23, 2009, 09:25:22 AM
I'm hearing whispers that a Monica recall is in the works.

It's taken this much bad press and this many reports of bad behavior? We tried to petition to get our governor recalled for less.

Quote from: DontSayBanana on April 23, 2009, 09:30:33 AM

Quote from: charliebear on April 23, 2009, 09:25:22 AM
I'm hearing whispers that a Monica recall is in the works.

It's taken this much bad press and this many reports of bad behavior? We tried to petition to get our governor recalled for less.

Quote from: Savonarola on April 23, 2009, 09:41:36 AM
Recalling her really isn't worth the effort.  The recall campaigns against Kwame Kilpatrick was delayed and blocked repeatedly by the courts.  This is an election year for the city; even if a recall effort could go through, it probably wouldn't before the elections were held.

Quote from: DontSayBanana on April 23, 2009, 09:50:10 AM
Well, if you're already into her election year, then no, it's not worth the effort. Can't you just set up and advertise some kind of repository of the bad press Conyers has gotten to ensure the public sees how bad she is for Detroit and votes her out?

QuoteDetroit parking agency blasted in city audit
Mismanagement has led to lack of control over revenues, it says
BY ZACHARY GORCHOW and NAOMI R. PATTON • FREE PRESS STAFF WRITERS • April 23, 2009
Chronic mismanagement of Detroit's Municipal Parking Department has led to a lack of control over the $30 million that the city's parking meters and garages collect, according to a scathing report from the city's auditor general.

The report showed startling swings in the revenue generated by city garages, with some facilities fluctuating by as much as $111,000 from month to month.

Department officials also were unable to explain to auditors why the Ford Underground Garage -- a busy facility beneath East Jefferson Avenue that serves the Coleman A. Young Municipal Center -- reported no revenue for several months.

The parking department audit, like two others for separate departments submitted to the City Council this week by Auditor General Loren Monroe, catalogs violations of city policy on the use of petty cash and a lack of safeguards of public money.

Councilwoman Sheila Cockrel, whose Budget, Finance and Audit Committee is to review the audits, said the parking department has suffered from a "fundamental breakdown in process and procedure," saying any department "over time will stop functioning" without adhering to departmental policies.

All of the audits examined conduct that occurred between 2006 and September or October 2008 -- when former Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick was still in office. Mayor Ken Cockrel Jr. took office Sept. 19.

Officials with the Municipal Parking Department failed to verify the revenues reported by the private firm that manages parking for Cobo Center and Joe Louis Arena and thought they lacked the power to audit those contracts, when in fact they do have that power.
The problems were so serious that Monroe recommended reorganizing the department by either having a company lease the parking facilities from the city, or moving some of the department's functions into other agencies.

The parking facilities are now managed by private firms that collect the revenue for the city.
In response, parking Director Shawny DeBerry said some of the departmental issues identified in the audit were "not necessarily accurate," but "MPD will uphold the recommendations and correct any deficiencies that were discovered by your office."

DeBerry, a Cockrel appointee and holdover from the Kilpatrick administration, has served as MPD director since September 2007.

The department operates and maintains 23 parking facilities.

Mayoral spokesman Anthony Neely said an independent audit by KPMG, an auditing firm, shows that the problems within the department have been changed or are in the process of being fixed.

Quote from: charliebear on April 23, 2009, 09:35:59 AM
Sad, eh?  Remember that the people of Detroit re-elected the Kwamster for a second term after they knew about many of his misdealings.  I'm not saying they're stupid, but I lack the appropriate term for them.

QuoteDepartment officials also were unable to explain to auditors why the Ford Underground Garage -- a busy facility beneath East Jefferson Avenue that serves the Coleman A. Young Municipal Center -- reported no revenue for several months.

Quote from: saskganesh on April 23, 2009, 11:51:52 AM
this is a fascinating thread. now that I live in Ontario, I should make plans to goto Detroit for some apocalypse tourism.

Quote from: saskganesh on April 23, 2009, 11:51:52 AM
this is a fascinating thread. now that I live in Ontario, I should make plans to goto Detroit for some apocalypse tourism.

Quote from: Caliga on April 23, 2009, 12:28:12 PM

Quote from: saskganesh on April 23, 2009, 11:51:52 AM
this is a fascinating thread. now that I live in Ontario, I should make plans to goto Detroit for some apocalypse tourism.

I'd be afraid of running into mole rats and super mutant behemoths.  :Embarrass:

Quote from: Savonarola on April 23, 2009, 12:02:21 PM

Quote from: saskganesh on April 23, 2009, 11:51:52 AM
this is a fascinating thread. now that I live in Ontario, I should make plans to goto Detroit for some apocalypse tourism.

I'll buy you a beer if you do.   :)

Quote from: Savonarola on April 23, 2009, 10:47:49 AM

Quote from: charliebear on April 23, 2009, 09:35:59 AM
Sad, eh?  Remember that the people of Detroit re-elected the Kwamster for a second term after they knew about many of his misdealings.  I'm not saying they're stupid, but I lack the appropriate term for them.

Despite all his faults, Kwame kept it real.   :cool:

That's something that cannot be said about Hill, Hendrix and Archer.

Quote from: saskganesh on April 23, 2009, 04:20:29 PM
beer AND mutants!

I gotta go at some point.

Quote from: Savonarola on April 23, 2009, 04:10:26 PM
I'll buy you a beer if you are maimed by mole rats or super mutant behemoths in Detroit.  :unsure:

QuotePoll: Detroiters dissatisfied with Conyers
Darren A. Nichols and Leonard N. Fleming / The Detroit News
Detroit -- City residents are divided on whether they trust suburban officials to give Detroit a square deal on regional issues, but overwhelmingly disapprove of City Council President Monica Conyers' leadership on Cobo Center and other issues, a Detroit News/WXYZ-Channel 7 poll shows.

The poll of 400 likely voters in Tuesday's mayoral matchup between Kenneth Cockrel Jr. and Dave Bing suggests Conyers' Detroit-first message resonates with nearly half of the electorate, but most disapprove of her. The poll had Cockrel leading 39 percent to 33 percent, but found that 24 percent of voters remain undecided.

The survey found Detroiters split on whether they "trust the government leaders of surrounding communities to fairly deal with the City of Detroit as an equal partner," with 47 percent trusting suburbanites and 45 not.

Those issues were underscored in the recent debate about the transfer of Cobo Center from the city to a regional authority, which would have cleared the way for a $288 million expansion. Conyers led the fight that killed the effort, arguing that $20 million wasn't enough for the city to give up the riverfront facility.

The poll by Lansing-based EPIC-MRA, which has an error rate of 4.9 percentage points, shows 81 percent of residents gave Conyers poor marks for "handling issues where she has taken a public stand, such as the recent Cobo Hall expansion."

Just 6 percent gave her "excellent" marks.

The numbers reveal little support for a Conyers' write-in campaign for mayor: 4 percent of voters said they would vote for her if she ran Tuesday, while 42 percent favored Cockrel and 30 percent went with Bing.

Another 80 percent gave negative marks to the City Council that Conyers leads. And 69 percent said they view Conyers unfavorably.

"There is a clear negative image or view of her," pollster Bernie Porn said. "She's clearly not connecting with voters. The only positive thing is her numbers are not better than the Detroit City Council as an institution."

Conyers issued a statement emphasizing the poll's margin of error and adding, "polls do not vote, people vote."

Earlier in the week, she told viewers of her TV show that she is emboldened by press criticism.

"If the media is saying bad things about you, you must be doing something right for the city of Detroit," Conyers said on "Ask the Councilwoman with Monica Conyers on WHPR-Channel 33.

Quote from: Barrister on April 23, 2009, 04:41:16 PM

Quote from: saskganesh on April 23, 2009, 04:20:29 PM
beer AND mutants!

I gotta go at some point.

I have it on good authority that Detroiters do not like it when you call them "mutants".

QuoteDetroit's entitlement culture withers a bright, blue dream

I remember when Dick Dauch bought American Axle Manufacturing from General Motors and poured tanker truckloads of bright blue paint over what was then a dreary complex of parts plants sprawling across Hamtramck and Detroit.

Dauch, the quintessential factory man, was hell-bent on proving heavy manufacturing could still be done here, with a union work force, and with the Big 3 automakers as the customer base. That eye-catching paint job was the symbol of his hopes.

Now, 15 years later, Dauch is cutting the Detroit work force sharply and consolidating the work in Three Rivers, Mich., and Mexico. He isn't mealy-mouthed about the reasons:

"This isn't a North America problem, or a Michigan problem. It isn't a union problem. It's a Detroit problem," says Dauch, who has headed manufacturing for GM, Chrysler and Volkswagen North America. "Detroit has an entitlement culture -- 'You owe me this job.'

"Detroit can compete on quality, but it can't compete on costs. And the difference in the global economy is cost structure."

Dauch is still obviously angry over the 87-day strike by the United Auto Workers union against AAM last year in response to demands for concessions. In the end, the new contract reduced wage and benefit costs, but that was only part of the answer.

"The No. 1 disadvantage to being in Detroit is labor costs," Dauch says. "No. 2 is reliability."

Detroit has the highest absenteeism rate of any AAM facility. In Mexico, Three Rivers, Indiana and elsewhere, absenteeism is barely a blip. Many days, the Mexican plant -- also unionized -- has no workers absent.

But in Detroit, absenteeism runs at least twice as high, and on some days it can approach nearly one-third of the workforce in parts of the plant. Lines have been shut down because not enough employees show up.

"I've been working since Aug. 24, 1964, and I've taken three-and-a-half sick days," says Dauch. "I've got employees who miss two or three days a week."

Maybe that would have flown 30 years ago when Detroit was still fat and happy. But jobs are fungible today. Employers like Dauch have a fiduciary responsibility to take work where it will be done most efficiently.

It isn't just about hourly wages. Dauch's employees in Three Rivers, also UAW members, make about the same hourly rate. But they've agreed to a contract that gives the company more operating flexibility, and they show up for work.

Dauch says he hasn't given up on North America. In fact, he's opened four plants in the United States, including one in Indiana. He hasn't even given up on Detroit. He's keeping the equipment here and, if business picks up, may bring back work.

But he offers fair warning to this job-starved city. We aren't entitled to anything, least of all a job that someone someplace else is willing to do not just cheaper, but also better.

Wednesday, I listened to several autoworkers complain on the radio about union-busting corporations, unfair trade policies and the loss of middle-class manufacturing jobs.

But not one mentioned that on the same day, there were places in Dauch's now-faded blue Detroit factory where nearly one in three workers were AWOL.

Quote from: Savonarola on May 01, 2009, 11:54:43 AM
I thought you had to work for the City of Detroit to take that many sick days.

Quote from: Berkut on May 01, 2009, 11:59:56 AM
State of New York works as well.

I know a guy who I officiate with who is a manager for the transportation department. He once told an employee to quit shirking work, and the employee told him to go fuck himself. When he tried to reprimand the employee for not working and telling him to go fuck himself the union stepped in to "mediate" and make sure nothing happened beyond a letter in the file, which was removed after 90 days or something like that.

Unions are awesome!

Quote from: MadImmortalMan on May 01, 2009, 12:05:12 PM


Did that guy later transfer to the Dept. of Corrections?

QuoteI've been working since Aug. 24, 1964, and I've taken three-and-a-half sick days

QuoteDetroiters cast ballots for mayor; light voter turnout expected
David Josar, Doug Guthrie and Leonard N. Fleming / The Detroit News
Detroit --Elections officials predict light turnout today for the special election between Mayor Kenneth Cockrel Jr. and businessman Dave Bing to complete the term of former Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick.

Elections officials predict about 15 percent, but no more than 20 percent. In contrast, slightly more than 13 percent of voters went to the polls to choose the successor to Councilwoman Brenda Scott after she died.

Cockrel, who had been City Council president, became mayor under city charter rules when Kilpatrick resigned and went to jail because of the text-message scandal. Bing, a former Detroit Piston and owner of an automotive supply company, is making his first run for elected office.

No matter who wins, another mayoral primary will be held in August and a general election in November to decide who will be the serve in that post for the four-year term that starts in 2010.

Donning a blazer and baseball cap, Dave Bing and his wife, Yvette, voted this morning at St. Johns Presbyterian Church near downtown as voters streamed past and a media horde gathered.

Bing, the first-time candidate, said he's feeling good about winning.

"I'm excited and the prediction is that we will come out on top," Bing said.

Bing said he has seen a momentum shift toward his candidacy. "I think people are starting to feel that they want change and that change is necessary," he said around 8:15 a.m.

Turnout was light as polls opened this morning at Logan Elementary School on the city's southwest side. About one half-dozen voters had cast their ballots within the first half hour of polls opening at 7 a.m.

George Owen, 65, voted for Cockrel.

"He has done a good job so far," Owen said. "I like Bing but I don't think he brings experience with the politics."

Neighbor Joseph Koziara, 83, voted for Bing.

"I want somebody that don't owe anybody," he said. "You don't have to be a rocket scientist to run a city."

Voters are also being asked if they want a charter commission to convene and rework some of the rules that direct city government. If the measure is approved, nine charter commission members will be elected in November.

Polls close at 8 p.m.

Quote from: garbon on May 01, 2009, 02:19:07 PM
I discovered Detroit Road on my way back from lunch today.  It has a bunch of tiny hovels and some sort of waste/sewage factory (I saw a big burning flame.) :)

QuoteDetroit pension trustees travel globe as funds lose billions
Some trips were lavish, but full records not released
BY JENNIFER DIXON AND TINA LAM • FREE PRESS STAFF WRITERS • May 5, 2009

Detroit's public pension trustees approved trips last year to more than 100 conferences around the globe, even as the city's two pension funds were losing billions.

And trustees weren't the only ones allowed to travel. The funds' executive secretary, assistant secretaries and one or two attorneys also were approved routinely for trips.

It's not clear how many of the 21 trustees, and their staffs, attended these conferences, or what they spent. The public pensions -- one for police and fire, the other for general city workers -- have yet to turn over most travel records sought by the Free Press last year under the state open-records law.

One pension lawyer said the funds destroy travel records after a year or two because of space limitations.

The newspaper was given some records for a recent conference in Dubai. They show that trustee Barbara-Rose Collins, also a city councilwoman, spent more than $9,000 for a business-class seat on her flight alone.


Limited records from 2007 show then-trustee and current City Councilwoman Alberta Tinsley-Talabi was approved to spend four nights in a $710-a-night New York hotel. It's unclear if she used the rooms; the pensions still were seeking her receipts earlier this year.

Political consultant Sam Riddle, former chief of staff to now-Council President Monica Conyers, traveled with Conyers when she was on the general retirement board, including meetings in Portugal, New York, Hawaii and Hong Kong.

"There's no better place than these exotic locales to cultivate a relationship," he said.

Trustee trips often lack disclosure
Last fall, Barbara-Rose Collins, a trustee on Detroit's police and fire pension fund, decided she wanted to learn more about investing in the Middle East and North Africa.

So she plunked down $6,840 to register for a pension conference in Dubai.


And she booked a business-class plane fare for $9,238. By contrast, the Rev. Wendell Anthony, a trustee on the city's general retirement fund, flew to the same conference for just more than $1,000.

Collins, also a city councilwoman, spent another $485 with Royal Luxury Transport of Dubai, which offers chauffeured sedans and rental cars.


Collins said she opted for the driver because she wanted to see the city and she said unescorted women in Dubai, in the United Arab Emirates, risk being called whores or sluts, or having stones thrown at them.

In all, Collins spent more than $20,000.


Although her tab represents a sliver of the funds' budgets, the Dubai conference offers a glimpse into the closely guarded, globe-trotting practices of Detroit's two public pensions, where trustees cross continents even as the world financial crisis -- and shaky investments -- have led to more than $2 billion in losses for city workers since mid-2007.


The Free Press is suing the pension boards to obtain a broad range of travel documents under the state Freedom of Information Act. The pensions have attempted to charge thousands of dollars for many records, which the newspaper is disputing.


Other travel records have been denied to the Free Press; pension lawyers, citing a lack of storage space, say they destroy travel receipts as a matter of policy after closing the books on a given year.


The lack of disclosure makes it impossible to say how often trustees and staff travel. The funds' longtime attorney, Ronald Zajac, won't comment.


Collins concedes her airfare was costly, but blames the high fee on her chief of staff.


"I will just have to pay better attention -- not just get on an airplane and go," Collins said. "I agree that's a lot of money. I'm glad that I went business class, but I bet I could have found a cheaper fare if I had tried."


Miami, Mumbai and more
According to meeting minutes, trustees for Detroit's two pensions, representing about 20,000 retirees, approved travel to more than 100 conferences around the world in 2008.

Trustees for the general retirement fund approved trips by 13 people to attend 84 conferences in cities such as London, Dubai, Singapore, Miami, Las Vegas, Key West, Ft. Lauderdale and Mumbai, India.




The police and fire fund approved trips for 15 people to attend about three dozen conferences in places like Palm Springs, Calif., New York City and Scottsdale, Ariz.


Geoffrey Hirt, a finance professor at DePaul University in Chicago, said it makes no sense for trustees, whose concern should be protecting retirees' assets, to approve so many conferences for so many people.


"People should be allocated a certain number of meetings a year, for budgetary reasons," Hirt said.


"Any time you spend a dollar on a meeting, that's not going into a rate of return," Hirt said. "The question becomes, how much should you spend to keep these people well-educated? They haven't been well-educated on corporate governance because they're not practicing good corporate governance."


The pension funds have been accused of excessive travel for at least 15 years.


In 2007, the Free Press reported that 13 trustees were planning to attend a conference in Hawaii, among them then-Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick and then-Police Chief Ella Bully-Cummings, making it the second-largest contingent nationwide. The mayor and police chief eventually canceled.


Details edited out
The Free Press obtained the Dubai records under the state open-records law, even as other travel records were denied.

Many details of Collins' $2,931 stay at the Al Murooj Rotana, the conference hotel, were edited out by the police and fire fund, without explanation as the law requires.


In a phone interview Thursday, Collins said she rented a car and driver to have a male escort, at the hotel's recommendation, and covered some costs herself.

"Women don't walk the streets," she said.

Actually, though Dubai is Muslim, it has a large, cosmopolitan tourist population, with luxury shopping and a hedonistic club scene. Women commonly appear on city beaches in bikinis and wear Western garb in public.


Collins said she used the driver to take her out to eat and see the city. "I would have opted for a tour, but the concierge didn't recommend it because of my age," said Collins, 70.

Collins' chauffeur costs were separate from her trips between the airport and the hotel, which cost $41 each way.


The $10,000 version
The Rev. Anthony, a trustee on the city's general retirement pension fund, made the trip with his wife, Monica Anthony. His Dubai trip cost $10,622.

While Collins flew business class, Anthony and his wife flew economy. His flight cost $1,070. The fund did not pay for his wife's ticket.


Anthony's hotel bill was $2,742 and, like Collins', many details were edited out.


Anthony did not return repeated calls seeking comment.


Failures to account
Only a trickle of travel documents has been made public by the pension funds.

In January, the funds released records showing that some trustees had failed to document advance payments for travel in 2007 and 2008.


The funds said former trustee Monica Conyers, now City Council president, had failed to account for thousands of dollars for hotel stays and airline travel.

Conyers disputed that, saying the pension funds had lost some receipts and she had repaid the rest.

Former trustee Alberta Tinsley-Talabi, a member of City Council, was cited for failing to submit receipts for four nights in a New York City hotel in late 2007, where her room rate was $710, and for four nights in Las Vegas at $544 a night. Her office said it was gathering receipts.


Daniel Cherrin, spokesman for Mayor Ken Cockrel Jr., who has representatives on each board, said pension travelers should "exercise common sense and good judgment when using taxpayer dollars."


Retirees respond
Ed Wertz, a retired Detroit cop, called the trip to Dubai "absolutely ludicrous ... particularly at a time when the economy is the way it is."

The pension trustees "have a fiduciary responsibility to the retirees, not themselves," said Wertz, 64.


Dan Pauley, a retired Detroit police sergeant, said he does not support pension trustees "having a grandiose time" with retirees' money.

"Is it really necessary?"

On the road again
Last week, Collins was on the road again, attending a conference in New Orleans, blocks from the French Quarter.

Collins said the New Orleans conference was "very intensive," and she came home with so much literature her baggage exceeded airline weight limits.


She could not say the same about Dubai.


The seminars were complex, with 60 speakers on arcane topics such as the growth in infrastructure investing, deal flow in the secondaries market and sovereign wealth funds.


The Dubai investment environment was so different, Collins took away little of value.


It was "not information that I would use," she said.


Contact JENNIFER DIXON: 248-351-2993 or [email protected]

Quote from: Valmy on May 05, 2009, 11:36:10 AM
That makes no sense...how can they possibly justify having a city administration meeting outside of the city?

QuoteMayor Bing: Detroit businessman unseats Cockrel
David Josar, Leonard N. Fleming and Darren A. Nichols / The Detroit News
Detroit --Retired Detroit Pistons great and political newcomer Dave Bing made a dramatic political debut Tuesday, riding a platform as a change agent to a come-from-behind upset of Mayor Kenneth Cockrel Jr.

With light turnout, Bing outlasted Cockrel, the son of a political icon, by 52-48 percent. Bing serves until year's end and should take office in about a week once the results are certified by the Board of Canvassers. Cockrel returns to lead the council, a post he held before becoming mayor in September when Kwame Kilpatrick resigned and went to jail.

"The real work starts now," said Bing, 65, an NBA Hall of Famer and owner of the Bing Group, to loud cheers at the Doubletree Suites Fort Shelby Hotel.


"What we will bring ... is efficiency, transparency, honesty and integrity back to the mayor's office."

Cockrel, who led in the polls, lost to a first-time politician despite the backing of nearly every powerful union in the city and matching Bing in fundraising in a race that cost more than $2 million. He thanked his staff at a banquet hall in southwest Detroit, pledged his support to Bing and conceded at 11:30 p.m.

"You have not seen the last of me," Cockrel said.

He challenged Bing, who moved last fall from Franklin for the race, to get to know the city.

"Hang out with the brothers in front of the liquor store, drinking 40s out of paper bags. .. Get to know that. Get to understand and know the people you'll be representing."

About 15 percent of voters turned out to help Bing win, continuing the momentum he began after finishing first in the Feb. 24 primary.

Tim Kiska, a University of Michigan-Dearborn professor who analyzed results for The Detroit News, said Bing even won absentee votes, which Cockrel had carried in the primary. Voters also approved a proposal to begin rewriting the city charter, 78-22 percent.

Kiska said residents sent a clear message to a City Hall beset for the last year by scandal.

"The voters were just honked off," Kiska said.

EPIC-MRA pollster Bernie Porn, whose poll last week showed Cockrel with the lead, said late endorsements of Bing may have swayed large swaths of undecided voters. In the past six days, Freman Hendrix, a former deputy mayor who finished third in the February primary, and civil rights icon the Rev. Jesse Jackson endorsed Bing.

"He ended up getting the momentum," said Porn.

Earlier Hendrix supporters said they would favor Bing if their candidate wasn't in the race. "That was a difference maker," Porn said.

Voter Nicole Wells said Hendrix's endorsement helped "seal the deal."

"I'm really ready for something new in Detroit politics," Wells said. "I would love to see a revamp of the entire political system here, including the people."

Bing's victory is part of an unprecedented cycle of four elections in one year, prompted by Kilpatrick's resignation. Voters return for an Aug. 4 primary and Nov. 3 general election to chose a four-year mayor.

Inside Bing's raucous victory party, the Rev. Wendell Anthony led chants of "Dave Bing is the real thing" and cautioned that "the game ain't over."

"There are two more quarters left," said Anthony, president of the Detroit Branch NAACP. "The third quarter is in August. The fourth quarter is in November. (But) it's going to be going into those quarters with Dave Bing as captain."

Cockrel has said he plans on running again.

The filing deadline is Tuesday and already some 60 candidates have pulled petitions for the race.

"Detroit is in trouble," said Adolph Mongo, a political consultant and Cockrel supporter. "I thought it was going to be a close race. We might have four mayors in one year. Can we take that again?"

The Rev. Oscar King, the mayor's pastor, said the loss could build character for Cockrel.

"This is the first race that he's ever lost," King said "So this is a new area for him and character is built through two things: criticism and defeat. So what this will do, it will show everybody the man that he is."

Bing takes office facing a host of challenges, including a $300 million budget deficit and the prospect of mass layoffs among the city's 15,000 workers.

Bing, who has said he will work for free, has promised to retain Police Chief James Barren, but has been vague about other plans.

He's expected soon to announce a team of labor, law and other experts he promised would examine the city's workforce and right-size government.

Bing's first chance to exert his influence -- and work with a sometimes unpredictable council now led by Cockrel -- will be on the city's budget.

The council already has begun reviewing Cockrel's spending plan, but could scrap the process and start from scratch.

Bing supporters said they were drawn by his message of change, business experience and break from business as usual at City Hall.

Some such as Marcia Richardson, 54, said Cockrel had his chance and failed to impress.

"I'm interested in seeing more change than I've seen since Cockrel got into office," said Richardson, who lives on the east side.

"He's the one who was supposed to have a relationship and the connections. I know the city; everyone is really hurting right now with the economy, but we should see some services restored. ... Cockrel knew what was going on so he should have had a way to make things happen while he had the chance."

Cockrel earned high marks early in his eight months in office, winning kudos for a series of appointments and completing long-overdue audits.

But he picked a fight with the City Council and lost over the expansion of Cobo Center.

Some political observers, such as zoning board member Jonathan Kinloch, said the fight made Cockrel seem ineffective and fueled his defeat.

Quote from: Valmy on May 06, 2009, 11:23:54 AM
So...is it a good thing that Mr. Bing won?

Quote from: MadImmortalMan on May 06, 2009, 11:20:53 AM
What would you do if your last name was "Porn", anyway?  :P


I bet his emails get caught in spam filters all the time.

Quote from: MadImmortalMan on May 06, 2009, 11:52:22 AM
Does Monica have to run for her seat in November too?

QuoteViolence may take Cinco de Mayo parade out of Detroit
Santiago Esparza and George Hunter / The Detroit News
Detroit -- The city's annual Cinco de Mayo parade, an 83-year mainstay, likely will be moved to the suburbs because of violence that broke out at Sunday's event, organizers said.

The Mexican Patriotic Committee has staged the two-mile parade from Patton Park to Clark Park on West Vernor in southwest Detroit, but a fight that broke up the parade briefly Sunday, along with a fatal shooting two blocks south of the parade route, has organizers making plans to move the event out of the city, committee co-president Belda Garza said.

"It is unfortunate when anything like that happens in our community," said Garza, a former state representative. "We want to attract the hard working families and give them a fun weekend."

The committee is considering Wyandotte or Dearborn as possible locations, Garza said.

Gloria Rocha, committee co-vice president, said there have been rumors in the past about possible gang violence spilling over into the parade or related festivities, but it had never happened before Sunday.

"Of course we are worried," Rocha said. "Violence has never been this close."

About 40 young men fought in the street as the parade neared a close at Clark Park, witnesses said. They exchanged punches and threw bottles. The melee was over quickly as Detroit police officers on motorcycles and in SUVs broke up the fight.

Lincoln Park resident Emmy Vega attended the parade with her husband, 4-year-old daughter and several nieces and nephews. Vega, 25, who is four months pregnant, decided to leave after the fight.

"The gang fighting started toward the end of the parade," Vega said. "There were guys throwing up Latin Counts gang signs and wearing red bandannas."

Red is the Latin Counts' color.

"They started hollering back and forth, then the fighting started," said Vega, who has lived in southwestern Detroit most of her life. "It was just too much. We had planned to stay for the festivities after the parade, but we decided enough is enough. It was insane. I'm glad we left."

About three hours after the parade ended, a 25-year-old man was fatally shot in the head while sitting in a car at Scotten and Porter, a few blocks from the parade route.

Detroit police Sgt. Eren Stephens Bell said investigators were probing the slaying and fight, although she said police believe the murder does not appear to be gang related.

QuoteEditorial: Bing's task
Ex-Pistons star must grab reins of city government and move quickly to confront Detroit's problems

The Detroit News
Congratulations are due to Dave Bing. He won a hard-fought campaign to complete former Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick's term. He now has about half a year to solidify his hold on the office and prepare for the final challenge this fall to win a full term of his own.

Bing knows the difficulties he faces. He's promised to bring in a team of experts to get a handle on city government. They'll need to move fast. The city is in a state of decline, with auto industry reeling and some proud industrial icons in danger of disappearing.

Detroit's revenues have been trending down over the last decade. The combined total of state revenue sharing and casino taxes is greater than the combined yield of the city's property and income taxes. A healthy city would not be so dependent on state aid and gambling revenues.

The city's administration is in a state of disarray. A recent series of audits of the city's finance, water and parking departments, covering part of Kilpatrick's tenure, revealed an inability to account for revenues and spending. In the case of the parking department, the problem involves millions.

The city is confronting a deficit that has been estimated variously at $250 million to $300 million and delicate negotiations with municipal labor unions, which will have to give up more in pay or benefits if the budget is to be brought into balance.

In addition, Bing must deal with a City Council that can be truculent and divisive. The council's majority has already squandered a great deal of good will in the state capital and among Detroit's neighbors as it slapped away a very good deal to regionalize the governing board of Cobo Center in return for an infusion of cash to refurbish the aging convention hall. As a result, the city is in real danger of losing the North American International Auto Show.

Bing has the advantage of being well-regarded throughout the area. Now he must try and restore some of that good will and win cooperation from Lansing and the suburbs.

The city's school district is notorious for being ineffective and wasteful. It may well be that Bing could find himself coping with its problems too.

All of these issues are sitting on the desk of Mayor Bing. He will quickly have to become expert at doing more with less while attempting at the same time to broaden the city's economic base so he can take a break from managing decline. We wish him well. The well-being of the region depends to a large degree on his success.

Quote from: DontSayBanana on May 06, 2009, 04:27:51 PM
Good to see Conyers demoted to probable less soundbites.

QuoteConyers gears up for a fight over control of Detroit City Council
Charter says Cockrel's in charge; she says: We'll see what happens
BY NAOMI R. PATTON • FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER • May 7, 2009


As Mayor Ken Cockrel Jr. prepares to return to the Detroit City Council as its president, as stipulated by the city charter, current council President Monica Conyers is saying: not so fast.

She told local TV news media that "the charter only speaks to succession forward, it doesn't speak to what happens if the mayor happens to come back. ... That is something council is looking into, but we'll see what happens."

Under the city charter, Cockrel, who was council president, became mayor when Kwame Kilpatrick resigned from that job. The charter says he can return to council as president. Conyers would go back to being president pro-tem.

But if their relationship is any indicator, Cockrel may have a fight on his hands.

Conyers and Cockrel battled before and during the eight months Cockrel has been mayor. The latest clash came when Cockrel vetoed a Conyers-led rejection of legislation that created a regional board to run Cobo Center. A Wayne County judge sided with the council, saying Cockrel lacked the authority to veto the action.

Councilwomen Sheila Cockrel and Alberta Tinsley-Talabi, said they welcome Cockrel's return.

"I'm proud to have served with him," Tinsley-Talabi said. "We'll certainly be cordial."

Quote from: Savonarola on May 07, 2009, 08:04:58 AM
I may have spoken to soon:

[snip]

Usually I'd assume that no one was so petty or short sighted that they'd fight over this; but Monica has defied my expectations in the past.

QuoteRep. Conyers tops in use of campaign funds for travel
Election watchdogs raise questions whether money was spent properly
Gordon Trowbridge / Detroit News Washington Bureau
Washington -- Rep. John Conyers' campaign committee spent nearly $46,000 on travel and transportation during the first three months of 2009, a figure far higher than his colleagues among senior members of Congress.

The campaign also bought $14,000 worth of Super Bowl tickets for the veteran lawmaker and campaign donors.

Conyers' campaign says every item was a legitimate campaign expense. A Conyers campaign spokesman, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said each dollar was related to campaign requirements.

But the level of spending on travel -- nearly double the next-highest figure among more than 60 senior members of Congress -- raises questions about whether the Detroit Democrat, chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, is mixing campaign business and personal affairs.

"To take money I presume was given in the name of winning future elections and converting it into entertainment and these lavish items, that issue needs to be raised," said Rich Robinson, director of the Michigan Campaign Finance Network.

Another Michigan congressman, Midland Republican Dave Camp, also had significantly above-average travel spending.

Conyers' disclosure of campaign fundraising and spending for the first three months of 2009 shows spending on plane tickets, hotels and limousine services in Detroit; Washington, D.C.; Tampa, Fla., and Los Angeles.

That figure is nearly double the next highest figure among a group of more than 60 lawmakers, including House leaders of both parties, committee chairmen and ranking Republicans and Michigan members of the House. Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., the House Homeland Security Committee chairman, spent about $23,000 during the same period.

Camp ranked fifth, spending about $14,000 on travel in the first quarter. Campaign spokesman Sage Eastman attributed that to the size of Camp's district -- the second-largest in the state and in the top 25 percent of all districts nationwide -- and his recent elevation to the role of top Republican on the House Ways and Means Committee.

$14,000 Super Bowl trip
In addition to travel, Conyers paid about $14,000 for tickets to this year's Super Bowl XLIII in Tampa. A campaign spokesman said Conyers held a fundraiser there and paid for tickets for some donors. The payments were to television networks ESPN, CBS and Fox, two ticket brokers and the pro football players union. Face value of the tickets to the Feb. 1 game was $800 or $1,000, depending on the seat.

The expense of the trip may have been even higher. The campaign reported a debt of $8,500 to DirecTV, the NFL's satellite TV broadcaster, for "event tickets, travel, lodging," though it was unclear if the debt was related to the Super Bowl.

Conyers, first elected to Congress in 1964, is the second-longest serving member of the House, trailing only fellow Michigan Democrat John Dingell. He is widely admired by liberals as a champion of civil rights and as one of the toughest critics of the Bush administration. A founding member of the Congressional Black Caucus, he's one of the most prominent African-American politicians of the past half-century.

While campaign finance experts said they were troubled by the spending there is no proof of wrongdoing in Conyers' first-quarter campaign statement filed with the Federal Election Commission; in fact, FEC rules give lawmakers wide latitude in how the spend their donors' money.

Campaigns can spend money for campaign-related trips by the candidate, his or her staff, and spouses and dependent children. Campaign money also can pay for travel related to a candidate's role as a federal officeholder; for instance, a past FEC ruling allows campaigns to pay for travel to and from Washington for a member's spouse and children.

The rules bar spending on personal travel, such as vacations, or for expenses that a candidate would incur even if not an officeholder, such as groceries and household utilities.

$13,000 on limo service
The campaign spokesman attributed the travel spending to Conyers' prominence. As a national figure, the spokesman said, Conyers travels widely around the country, holding fundraisers and developing campaign contacts.

More than $13,000 of the travel expenses went to a Baltimore limousine company. The spokesman said the payments for private car service during the inauguration came at a time when such services in the Washington, D.C., area were more expensively priced.

The Super Bowl trip raised the biggest questions with campaign finance watchdogs.

"That's something people might be inclined to see as personal use in the guise of official duties," said Sheila Krumholz, executive director of the Center for Responsive Politics, which tracks money and influence in government. Krumholz said the Super Bowl trip and Conyers' overall level of spending merit scrutiny from constituents, who should decide whether the spending represents unwarranted perks or legitimate use of campaign money.

The Conyers spokesman said the campaign held a fundraiser in Tampa and paid for Conyers and a group of donors to attend the game. The FEC report does not reveal which donors attended the fundraiser or received tickets, but Conyers collected $22,000 in donations in the two weeks surrounding the Feb. 1 game -- exceeding the roughly $14,000 spent on game tickets.

Conyers has faced questions in the past from the House Ethics Committee over complaints by staffers that they were directed to do campaign work or perform personal chores for Conyers, including babysitting. In December 2006, Conyers admitted to "a lack of clarity" in assigning office staffers and agreed to bar any from performing campaign work unless they were on leave from the House.

QuoteRuling: Cockrel, not Conyers, to lead council
BY NAOMI R. PATTON • FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER • May 8, 2009


Outgoing Mayor Ken Cockrel Jr. can legally return to the Detroit City Council as council president, according to a memo from the council's legal analyst.

After Mayor-elect Dave Bing takes the oath of office for mayor of Detroit, "present Mayor Kenneth V. Cockrel Jr. will return to his elected position of president of the Detroit City Council," David Whitaker, director of the council's Research and Analysis Division, wrote today.

Current Council President Monica Conyers questioned Thursday whether Cockrel could return to the council president position, and directed Whitaker to review the relevant sections of the charter related to succession of the council president's seat.

"The charter speaks in the present tense," she said at a council meeting Thursday. "I don't know if he gets to come back or not."

Whitaker's two-page memo was attached to a 31-page memo sent to the council May 5, entitled "Success to Office of Mayor," that included Wayne County Circuit Court Judge William Giovan's October ruling that the city charter permits a council president to return to council if a new mayor is elected the next year.

Meanwhile, Bing is scheduled to be sworn in as mayor during a small ceremony at 3 p.m. Monday at the city's Election Commission, spokeswoman Meagan Pitts said today. City Clerk Janice Winfrey is to give Bing the oath of office.

Deputy elections director Rachel Jones said canvassers today balanced the number of ballots at three city precincts with names of voters in poll books. She said discrepancies were due to transposed numbers and other clerical errors.

Bing will complete Kwame Kilpatrick's term, which runs through 2009. Bing has said he will run for a full, four-year term that begins in 2010.

Quote from: Savonarola on May 08, 2009, 03:59:35 PM
Occasionally the system does work  :):

Quote from: alfred russel on May 08, 2009, 04:03:24 PM
Not for those of us entertained by her antics. :(

QuoteConyers: Cockrel changed the office locks on me
Darren A. Nichols / The Detroit News
Detroit -- The brewing controversy over the transfer of the Council presidency continued this morning when Monica Conyers accused Kenneth Cockrel Jr. of changing the locks to the City Council president's office without her knowledge.

Conyers said Cockrel called a police sergeant to have the locks changed at around 7:30 a.m. and her staffers didn't have access to the office. One room got opened at around 11:30 a.m., while another remained locked.

"I get a call from my staff. They cannot get in the office," Conyers said. "No call to me on the phone, not nothing. I don't want any problems from anybody. (But) the first time something would have happened, you would have said Monica did it. That wasn't right."

Cockrel is expected to return to the Detroit City Council as early as this afternoon after Dave Bing is sworn-in as mayor at a 3 p.m. ceremony. Bing defeated Cockrel in last week's special election.

He did not attend today's council session, but his nameplate is attached to the seat that's available for the president. Cockrel's office began making the transition late last week.

"How can you be the mayor and the president all at the same time?" Conyers said. "He's just overpowered our office with all of his stuff," Conyers said. "You just can't come in and take over. That's not right. He's making it difficult."

Saturday, Conyers said she would willingly return to her old post as council president pro-tem -- the panel's second-in-command -- and said the media exaggerated tensions between her and Cockrel.

Last week, she asked council attorneys to clarify whether Cockrel would return to the council as president. But Conyers said she did so at the request of a voter.

QuoteJudge to Kilpatrick: Scale down, pay up
$6,000-a-month payment to Detroit not optional, he says
BY M.L. ELRICK and JOE SWICKARD • FREE PRESS STAFF WRITERS • May 9, 2009


Kwame Kilpatrick will have to scale back his lifestyle instead of his restitution payments, a judge ruled Friday.

Wayne County Circuit Judge David Groner rejected the ex-mayor's request to avoid paying the City of Detroit $6,000 per month toward the $1 million he agreed to reimburse the city as part of a plea deal to resolve the text message scandal.

Kilpatrick attorney Michael Alan Schwartz had argued in a March 24 court filing that Kilpatrick could only spare $6 a month from his $120,000 annual salary as a salesman for a Compuware subsidiary.

He cited expenses such as his $900-a-month 2009 Cadillac Escalade and the $2,700-a-month rent for his posh home in Southlake, near Dallas.

But Groner -- who ordered Kilpatrick to make the payments after news reports about his high living after being released from jail in February -- wrote in his decision that the former mayor "must realize that he is a convicted felon, and will have to balance meeting all the conditions of his probation, including restitution payments, with the lifestyle to which he has grown accustomed."

"In other words," Groner added, Kilpatrick "may not be able to sustain an upper middle class existence while he still owes a debt to society."

Groner invited Kilpatrick to request a restitution hearing, but Schwartz instead said he would appeal the decision.

Maria Miller, a spokeswoman for Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy, said Kilpatrick "presented no legitimate grounds to modify his restitution."

Quote from: Savonarola on May 11, 2009, 01:36:01 PM

Previously Kwame said that he could afford to give the city $6 a month and had gone to court claiming hardship.   I guess the judge didn't buy it, but how will our hero keep it real with such a paltry salary and a large debt?   :(

Quote from: alfred russel on May 11, 2009, 01:42:24 PM

Quote from: Savonarola on May 11, 2009, 01:36:01 PM

Previously Kwame said that he could afford to give the city $6 a month and had gone to court claiming hardship.   I guess the judge didn't buy it, but how will our hero keep it real with such a paltry salary and a large debt?   :(

Probably with all the money he has coming in that he didn't tell the court about.

Quote from: DontSayBanana on May 11, 2009, 03:56:54 PM
:lol: Arguing based on your lifestyle only works in divorce court, Kwame.

Also, that's hilarious about Cockrel changing the locks. How long's the transition period? Is Conyers' demotion already effective or is this just hilarious pettiness? :huh:

Quote from: Savonarola on May 11, 2009, 04:15:01 PM
Bing was sworn in this afternoon; so technically Cockrel jumped the gun by a couple hours.  I think it was a sensible precaution on his part knowing that he and Monica don't get along and Conyers is prone to lash out when she's angry.

QuoteDPS asks for federal disaster funding

Jennifer Mrozowski and Santiago Esparza / The Detroit News
Detroit -- Detroit Public Schools emergency financial manager Robert Bobb on Wednesday asked the federal government to put the school district under a "special presidential emergency declaration" to allow it to receive emergency funding.

"We are encouraged by the administration's redirection of additional resources into school improvement," Bobb said in a letter to U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan. "However, much bolder action is necessary to redirect the Detroit Public Schools so that it may become a model for 21st century urban education."

The U.S. Department of Education did not comment on the request, but state officials said no other Michigan school district has used this tactic.

Presidential emergency declarations are typically made available only in natural disasters, which may mean Bobb's request is not applicable.

Duncan, who was in the city on a listening tour, did not address Bobb's request, but said the district is poised to receive federal funding -- possibly millions of dollars -- if radical changes occur.

He also said he supports efforts to have Detroit's new mayor take over the school system, saying necessary changes happen when good leaders are in control.

"I am strongly advocating for mayoral control," Duncan said at Cody High School on the city's northwest side.

Mayor Dave Bing, who accompanied Duncan on his tour of Cody, said now is the time for mayoral control, but added that he prefers a ballot measure versus legislative action.

"A lot of the leadership is perfectly aligned to make changes," said Bing, who has consistently said he would welcome the opportunity to take control of the troubled district.

Bing later addressed a national United Way convention at Cobo Center, saying that improving the district is a top priority and that he plans to rely on partnerships to help get the job done.

Mayoral control is not new to the system, nor has it been embraced by voters.

In 1999, then-Gov. John Engler pushed for a takeover of the district by empowering the mayor. Legislation passed that year allowing the mayor to appoint six board members, but Detroiters felt resentment over the loss of local control and voted in 2004 to restore the elected board.

They picked an 11-member board the next year, and the elected group took control in January 2006. By many accounts, the takeover left the district in worse shape than before.

Wayne County Commissioner Keith Williams, talking with a group of leaders assembled at Cody, said mayoral control isn't the answer.

"We don't need a takeover," he said. "We need cooperation."

Duncan, before ascending to his federal spot, was superintendent of Chicago Public Schools. That district is run by Mayor Richard Daley. He said he hopes the Detroit schools can move from being a "national disgrace" to a "national model," and he would like to commit significant federal resources to help the system.

But to receive the funding from Washington, Detroit will need to make dramatic reforms, Duncan said on WDET-FM's (101.9) "Detroit Today."

"We're not going to invest in the status quo," he said. Regarding Bobb's letter to Duncan, district spokesman Steve Wasko said the district's education crisis is like the one New Orleans schools faced after Hurricane Katrina, necessitating the special request.

"The basic concept is that all levels came together in the case of New Orleans after Katrina," Wasko said. "Our emergency has been longer in coming and slower to dissipate. That is the same level of call to action we need in DPS."

Bobb's requests included funds for a new student information system, new construction and improvements to existing schools. Because of the more than $300 million deficit the district is facing, Bobb asked that the district be exempt from the traditional process that requires the system to pay for improvements and then receive federal reimbursement.

He pledged "bold" action to reform the system.

"While we are planning to fundamentally alter the way we are organized in the Detroit Public Schools, we do not have the financial resources to fund the investments I know are necessary to turn around this system," Bobb said.

Duncan credited Bobb with making quick improvements to the district, which includes the announcement Tuesday that 29 schools will be shuttered as part of a plan to trim the deficit.

During the tour of Cody High School, Duncan also met with students. The school was selected for the visit because it's being transformed this fall into a collection of smaller, specialized programs on one campus. Duncan also met with Gov. Jennifer Granholm, State Superintendent Mike Flanagan, Detroit Federation of Teachers President Keith Johnson and Bobb.

"We're here because we want to figure out how to make Detroit Public Schools the best in the country," Duncan told students.

Flanagan, who launched the process to have an emergency manager appointed in Detroit Public Schools, said he, too, is optimistic about the changes in the district.

Quote from: Savonarola on May 14, 2009, 10:58:14 AMLike the district spokesman, I am certain this will work every bit as well as the government efforts in New Orleans after Katrina.   :)

Quote from: Caliga on May 14, 2009, 12:10:15 PM
Will Barack Obama: not care about black people?  :)

QuoteCharlie LeDuff: Off Woodward, life hits a dead end
Detroit -- If you are feeling confused or overwhelmed by the circumstances of our times, if you need a place to consider where we've been and where we are, make a drive to West Robinwood Street.

It is a haunted, damnable portrait of what we've become. The neighborhood is a burned-down ghost town of 56 raped and looted houses east of Woodward and north of McNichols. It is empty save for five elderly families and a middle-age couple who live near Woodward and refuse to open their doors.

Ironically, the neighborhood is just a chip shot from the elegant Palmer Park Golf Course and a one-stop bus ride to the grave of Rosa Parks. Robinwood is located along the stretch of Woodward that in 1909 became the first mile of concrete roadway in America. That was exactly 100 years ago.
The people of the Detroit Metropolitan region got a glimpse of the ruined block a few months ago when the police convened a press conference from the blood-stained porch of 654 Robinwood claiming they had rounded up 61 outlaws including the killer who assassinated the dope man at that address in broad daylight.

And then like quicksilver, the police and the press slipped away.

The six families remain. Trapped.

"Do I live in Hell? Yes I do and no I don't," said Jerry Williams, who lives at 666 Robinwood and spoke through a steel gate dressed in a bathrobe and dirty socks. "It would be Hell if I was dead, but I ain't. So that just makes the place ugly. The most ugly thing that human beings can create."

As you might guess, Williams used to work in an auto factory. And Williams got laid off. The rest of the neighborhood had little luck either. The neighbors to Williams' left were evicted and, three days later, somebody firebombed the house. The flames ruined Williams' car -- a Chrysler.

The dead dope man used to live to the right of Williams. To the right of the dope man's house lives Fatimah Muhammad, the only other house occupied on the north side of that block of Robinwood Street.

She bought the place for $60,000 eight years ago and can't get out unless she walked away from the mortgage. She figures she couldn't get $5,000 for the place. That doesn't stop the criminals from getting in. Last week, in broad daylight, three men forced their way into her house. One held her at gunpoint in her bathtub, while the other two managed to steal some sneakers. The police never took fingerprints, she said.

"I'm tired, I'm spent, I'm scared," Muhammad said. "And I'm stuck. Who would want to buy this house?"

Robinwood was an integrated and well-kept block just five years ago, the remnant people say. And then it was gone in the blink of an eye. It started at the east end of the block when a house was rented to 5 adults and 20 children. More families moved out. More renters moved in. The radios started. The brown bags. The gangs of young men. The gunshots. The dope houses. The fires. The insurance checks.

Durene L. Brown is the ombudsman for the city of Detroit. She has the endless and unenviable job of fielding complaints from city residents and the occasional question from reporters. She asked to see Robinwood Street, wondering if it was truly the worst in Detroit.

"Insanity," she said as she drove through and stopped to talk to Muhammad. The problems here are deep, Brown said. The last audit of the city's Demolition Division was conducted 15 years ago. Moreover, the city was granted $23 million in federal funds last year to tear down neighborhoods like this, but the City Council voted to give $9 million of that money to local ministers for neighborhood block programs. "Blight like this is caused by greed and ineptitude," Brown said. "If something doesn't change, this is coming to a neighborhood near you, and that includes the suburbs."

Places like Robinwood are the epitome of Dave Bing's problem. The newly elected mayor says he wants to knock down shoals of squalor and relocate the remaining people to clean and coherent neighborhoods. But where would this money come from? Detroit is a city with tens of thousands of rotting houses and factories. Nobody knows exactly how many because nobody has ever bothered to count. And Robinwood is located on the city's main thoroughfare.

Lilacs and hibiscus still grow in this ghetto. But so does the malignancy. There were gunshots in the alley two Mondays ago. Three Mondays ago, someone packed the side yard of 598 Robinwood with old tires as high as the window sills. This past Monday, two teenagers found a dead fighting dog stuffed in a box. On Tuesday, Brad Edwards of Detroit's Fox 2 News reported that an 81-year-old shut-in -- Marabel, of 461 Robinwood -- died the morning after Christmas and went undiscovered for days. Her body remains unclaimed at the county morgue.

On Monday, a police cruiser rolled through.

"I've never seen a place like this," said the white cop.

"Vietnam," said the black cop.

"Hard to believe this is America, but it is," said the white cop.

And with that, they were off.

QuoteCouncilwoman Barbara-Rose Collins won't seek re-election
Darren A. Nichols and Charlie LeDuff / The Detroit News
Detroit -- Barbara-Rose Collins, one of the city's longtime and most controversial leaders, is calling it a career, deciding today to end her re-election bid for the City Council.

Collins, the first African-American woman elected to U.S. Congress from Michigan and a longtime member of the council, submitted papers at the city clerk's office today withdrawing her candidacy in the Aug. 4 primary.

"I'm 70 years old, and I'm not sure how much longer I have. I want to accomplish some other things," Collins told The Detroit News. "Almost my whole adult life has been in government, since I was 30 years old. It's frightening to step away from the power, the ability to negotiate from the inside. I love government, the legislative end of government."

Collins becomes the second councilwoman on the nine-member panel to opt against re-election, following Sheila Cockrel. Today is the deadline for the 207 candidates for council to withdraw.

Collins last year acknowledged she's been contacted by the FBI in its corruption and kickback probe into City Hall. Cockrel, who has testified before the grand jury but isn't believed to be a target, also said the investigation contributed to her decision not to seek re-election.

"She's living under a cloud of constant nonsense, a City Council investigation, Cobo (and) ridicule for her singing voice," said political consultant Adolph Mongo, who used to run Collins' district office when she was in U.S. Congress. "It's enough stress for a 40-year-old much less a 70-year-old. There's nothing wrong with saying good-bye."

Collins, who came out of the influential Shrine of the Black Madonna Church, was elected to the Detroit School Board in 1971, according to her City Council biography. In 1982, she joined the council for eight years, initiating city ordinances on South African divestiture, toxic-waste cleanup and single-room occupancy for the homeless.

From 1992-96, Collins served in the U.S. House of Representatives, first serving the 13th District and later the 15th District after redistricting. During her time, she was appointed the majority whip-at-large. She's proud of legislation on sexual harassment laws, equal pensions for women and helping to bring the Neighborhood Enterprise Zones to Detroit.

But those two terms in Congress also brought the most controversy of her career.

In 1995, she was sued by her former spokesman, Bruce Taylor, who claimed he was fired when his lover died of AIDS and Collins feared he might have the virus. Collins contended he was laid off with five others to reduce the staff after Republicans took control of the House.

"They said all kinds of nasty things," said Collins, who has championed gay rights. "I fired him because he wouldn't work. He was gay when I hired him. He didn't all of a sudden become gay. The papers ran with that."

A year later, the Detroit Free Press quoted Collins as saying she hates the white race. She claimed the quotes were taken out of context and sued the newspaper.

The U.S. Justice Department and House Ethics Committee was investigating her on claims of misuse of office, campaign and scholarship funds when she lost her re-election bid to Carolyn Cheeks-Kilpatrick in the Democratic primary.

"Every day for two years they had me on the front page with horrible things," Collins said. "I hate to say it, but in my lifetime some of my best friends were white. It sounds like a cliché, but that's how I grew up."

Collins, who described herself as intelligent, talented and experienced, returned to the Detroit City Council in 2001. She has won kudos for championing the downtrodden, but scrutiny for behavior some consider goofy. She wears tiaras on her birthday, sang "Onward Christian Soldiers" in council chambers in March and likened the transfer of city-owned Cobo Center to imperialism.

She said she's knows she's leaving a city with massive problems, describing it as a place like a doughnut with a hole in the middle. Stepping away from the Detroit City Council will allow her to fix those problems without conflicts of interest.

"It's not about getting re-elected or losing an election. It's about the rest of my life," Collins said. "My life isn't over, but it's winding down, and I want to put all of my effort into rebuilding the community. Detroit isn't going to grow and prosper until we fill that hole in the doughnut.

"If I want to sit on the banks of the Detroit River and fish while I contemplate my next step, I can do that next year."

QuoteDetroit could cash in on cruise industry
BY ELLEN CREAGER • FREE PRESS TRAVEL WRITER • May 18, 2009

Its bare steel girders are just going up this week.

But by spring 2010, downtown Detroit's new $15-million public docking terminal is to be ready to accept Great Lakes cruise ships that could bring hundreds of tourists to town.


"We don't like to label it a cruise terminal because from a realistic point of view, it's not going to be like Miami," said John Kerr, director of economic development for the Detroit/Wayne County Port Authority.


"But even if we had half a dozen vessels stopping a dozen trips a year each, it would be beneficial. We estimated back in 1998 that cruise ships contribute $150,000 per stop to the economy."


The terminal is at the foot of Bates and Atwater near the Renaissance Center. It will make Detroit a player in a small but steady tourism sector of the state. Great Lakes cruises draw American and European tourists who pay $4,000 to $11,000 to sail on 100-passenger luxury ships, stopping at ports such as Houghton, Mackinac Island and Holland.

Port cities look for ways to get in on the action
This summer, three cruise ships will glide through Michigan waters and stop at ports in Wyandotte, Mackinac Island, Manistee, Holland and Houghton.

But within two years, downtown Detroit hopes to get in on the Michigan cruising action.

A $15-million docking facility under development will accept ships as large as 420-passenger vessels and unload tourists right into the heart of downtown, said John Kerr, director of economic development for the Detroit/Wayne County Port Authority.

"We think Great Lakes cruising is about at the same place as Alaskan cruising was in the 1960s," he said. "There's a lot of room to grow."

'It's exciting to think about'
The new Detroit port is just one piece of the puzzle. A Michigan consortium called the Port Cities Collaborative is a group of 23 port towns in the state working to market themselves to cruise ships.

The city of East Tawas already has planned shore excursions for cruise ship passengers, banking that by 2011, ships will stop there on their way from Detroit to Mackinac Island. They're planning agritours, beekeeping tours, dairy tours, lighthouse tours and golf and fly-fishing tours.


European tourists traditionally have been a main market for Great Lakes cruising, but the new ships also are geared to Americans and Canadians through the Ann Arbor-based Great Lakes Cruise Co. (www.greatlakescruising.com).



"Europeans are very much into nature," says Helen Pasakarnis, director of the East Tawas Tax Increment Finance Authority, which has been working on East Tawas' port-of-call project.

"Something like 50 to 60% of cruise ship passengers do shore excursions. It's exciting to think about. The town is abuzz. It's got everyone invigorated."

What Detroit has to offer
The new Detroit docking terminal is in a prime spot on the Detroit River. At the foot of Bates Street between the Renaissance Center and Ford Auditorium, it should be completed by spring 2010.

Besides cruise ships, the dock will be used for tour boats, water taxis, tall ships and possibly for recreational boaters stopping to get customs documents for day trips to Canada.

Inside, the two-story terminal will have a waiting area for 100 to 200 passengers.

The terminal also will have a ticketing area, lobby and offices for customs agents, cruise line staff, crew and port authority officials.

The space, with great water views, may be available for event rental, Kerr said.

How the project came to be
Federal and state money for the project was scraped together in the last decade by U.S. Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., the Michigan Department of Transportation and the port authority. The 1.3-acre parcel of land was obtained from General Motors Corp.

The pie-shaped property had massive construction hurdles because of underground obstructions, including the Detroit-Windsor Tunnel, which runs under a corner of the property.

The architect is Hamilton Anderson Associates. White Construction and Braun Construction are the builders.

Looking toward the future
Although big cruise ships that sailed the Great Lakes a few years ago -- such as the MV Columbus and Orion -- aren't sailing this year, Kerr says a better port product will attract ships in the years to come.

In fact, 2010 will see a new cruise ship, the Pearl Mist, stopping in Michigan. But because ships plan their itineraries up to two years in advance, said Sarah Caruana, marketing director of the Great Lakes Cruise Co., Detroit isn't on the itinerary yet.

But cruising Motown has a future, Kerr is certain: "We believe this project will be a model for the Great Lakes."

Quote from: Savonarola on May 15, 2009, 02:57:56 PM
"I'm 70 years old, and I'm not sure how much longer I have. I want to accomplish some other things," Collins told The Detroit News. "Almost my whole adult life has been in government, since I was 30 years old. It's frightening to step away from the power, the ability to negotiate from the inside. I love government, the legislative end of government."

Quote from: Darth Wagtaros on May 18, 2009, 12:43:45 PM
Will Detroit's new theme song be the Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald?

Quote from: MadImmortalMan on May 18, 2009, 01:16:19 PM
I'm loving all these Jeff Daniels ads I'm seeing everywhere trying to get businesses to move to Michigan. I forget, was he Dumb or Dumber?  :lol:

Quote from: MadImmortalMan on May 18, 2009, 01:16:19 PM
I'm loving all these Jeff Daniels ads I'm seeing everywhere trying to get businesses to move to Michigan. I forget, was he Dumb or Dumber?  :lol:

Quote from: garbon on May 18, 2009, 01:25:59 PM
Yeah...who is going want to stop at a cruise stop in Detroit? :yeahright:

Quote from: garbon on May 18, 2009, 01:25:59 PM
Yeah...who is going want to stop at a cruise stop in Detroit? :yeahright:

Quote from: Neil on May 18, 2009, 02:10:18 PM
Why would tourists visit Detroit?  The place won't be fit for human habitation for decades.

Quote from: Ed Anger on May 18, 2009, 02:35:32 PM

Quote from: Neil on May 18, 2009, 02:10:18 PM
Why would tourists visit Detroit?  The place won't be fit for human habitation for decades.

Potty break on the way to Windsor.

QuoteFeds request Conyers' records
Prosecutors want travel, expense forms from her term on pension board
Leonard N. Fleming and Paul Egan / The Detroit News
Detroit -- A federal grand jury investigating City Hall corruption is seeking travel records and expenses of City Councilwoman Monica Conyers during her tenure on the city's General Retirement System.

A grand jury subpoena obtained by The Detroit News indicates that federal prosecutors also want the "oath of office taken after her appointment as a member of the board of trustees," any training regarding service, ethics and conflict of interest training on the board, and any ethics, conflicts of interest or disclosure forms filed by Conyers.

Pension fund officials were required to turn in the documents on May 13, but it is unclear if an extension was granted. The subpoena is dated April 30. A spokeswoman for Conyers, who recently left the pension system, referred comment to criminal attorney Steve Fishman.

"I know nothing of this," Fishman said. "I'm learning about it from you."

Federal officials and an attorney for the pension fund declined comment.

The Conyers subpoena is one of a series of grand jury subpoenas served on the General Retirement System and the Detroit Police and Fire Retirement System as part of the City Hall corruption investigation.

The Detroit News reported in April that one of the subpoenas sought documents related to a General Retirement System investment called Avignon Holdings in a residential real estate development near Sarasota, Fla.

Joe Capozzoli, president of CAP Advisors of Northville, which brought that investment to the pension fund, said he understood federal investigators were interested in a trip one of the trustees took to Florida to inspect the investment.

Persons familiar with the investigation said Monica Conyers flew to Florida, accompanied by one of her sons, to inspect the Avignon Holdings investment. Conyers, who until last week was council president, has kept a low public profile at City Hall in recent days and has been absent from several meetings.

The FBI and the U.S. Attorney's office are conducting a wide-ranging investigation of contracting at City Hall that dates to at least 2005. It involves the city pension funds, a consulting business run by ex-Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick's father, deals at Cobo Center and a multimillion-dollar city sludge contract, among other areas of inquiry.

QuoteMedia's grim portrait of Detroit
City's image takes a hit with international coverage of Big Three woes, foreclosures, decaying buildings
Louis Aguilar / The Detroit News
Detroit

For months, a stream of reporters and news crews from around the globe have parachuted into the Motor City, roaming the industrial ruins of the old Packard plant and the once-glamorous Michigan Central Depot train station.

They trot alongside homeless people or laid-off autoworkers for a day or two. Toss in a few foreclosed homes and the desperate condition of the Big Three, and the world's picture of Detroit as the symbol of America's humbled economy is complete -- just a couple of years after its image was looking up, as a city on the rebound.

"From Motown to No-Hope town," blared a recent headline in the London Independent. "Requiem for Detroit" declared Rolling Stone. "Detroit: Human Cost of the Downturn," said the Sunday Times of South Africa.

In previous decades, Detroit was the image that came to the world's mind when it thought of racism or crime. Today, it's the face of the global recession. Forbes.com declared Detroit to be America's second "most abandoned city," behind Las Vegas.

Business leaders and boosters are hopeful the critical national and international coverage surrounding the bankruptcy of Chrysler LLC -- General Motors Corp. is trying to avoid filing -- won't further hamstring the city's attempts to lure visitors and businesses.

They offer the same advice today as they did when Detroit grimaced under the camera's glare following the 1967 riots, or during its infamy as America's murder capital: Keep calm, and carry on.

But it's a struggle.

"We've become the icon for everything that's gone wrong in the economy. And that's the story some of them are going to get, no matter what," said Randal Charlton, executive director of TechTown, Wayne State University's research and development center.

A prominent Chinese communist broadcaster recently asked Charlton if he felt threatened, living and working in Detroit. "Never," in the nine years since he founded a successful company in Detroit, Charlton said. His company is one of 70 that fill TechTown, in a refurbished Albert Kahn-designed industrial building.

"He looked absolutely bored," at the answer, Charlton said of the newsman. While the coverage further clouds Detroit's international image, Charlton sees a silver lining among international investors -- if they'll listen.

"When the average home in Europe is $200,000, do you know how enticing it is to say, 'You want affordable housing? We have plenty of it,' " Charlton said.

"Our future lies partly in Chinese, Indian and European manufacturers. These are not people who intimidate easily. You want to know how much an advantage we have by being able to offer, say, a free, empty factory? That's priceless.

"What the world needs to see is we are embracing this crisis," he said. "So let's give it to them."

Michigan Economic Growth Corp. officials respond to the negative press by pointing to an Economist magazine report that rated Michigan among the top five states for attracting international investments.

"We remain very aggressive in courting international investment," said Bridget Beckman, spokeswoman for the state agency that promotes business growth and investment.

John Carroll, whose assignment is to attract foreign investors to the region on behalf of the Detroit Regional Chamber of Commerce, says the tone of negotiations hasn't changed from the recent spate of bad press.

"We have much to offer: an international border, an educated work force thanks to the global companies we've had based here for decades," said Carroll, executive director of the Detroit Regional Economic Partnership.

"It's more that the global downturn has changed everything. This press doesn't help. What I fear is the conversations and opportunities I never get to have with companies because the negative press has scared them away," he said.

Several out-of-town reporters who have been to Detroit recently said it's not their intention to beat up on the city. Even Dutch reporters who were carjacked at the former Brewster housing project aren't down on Motown.

"But you have to understand the place looks so extreme," said Jacqueline Maris, radio correspondent for the Netherlands' VPRO, which did a three-part series on the city.

"All those empty buildings -- and they were clearly wonderful places -- that is something very uncommon. The fate of the auto companies, these global icons of business, you must understand what an amazing story that is for the world right now."

Maria Pia Mascaro, a New York-based correspondent for the French national daily Liberation, came to Detroit to report on urban farming.

"The media is looking for places that will never be the same after this global recession, and Detroit is a perfect example," Mascaro said.

"You are a city of tremendous innovation, of amazing music and culture. But it also true that you are ground zero when it comes to economic crisis. Don't you realize what an incredible opportunity that can be?

"The world is searching for solutions out of this mess, and Detroit can be one of the answers."

Quote"When the average home in Europe is $200,000, do you know how enticing it is to say, 'You want affordable housing? We have plenty of it,'" Charlton said.

QuoteSeveral out-of-town reporters who have been to Detroit recently said it's not their intention to beat up on the city.

Quote5 lawyers in Kilpatrick saga face ethics charges
Violations stem from $8.4-million whistle-blower settlement
By David Ashenfelter, Joe Swickard, M.L. Elrick and Jim Schaefer • FREE PRESS STAFF WRITERS • May 20,

Five lawyers who engineered a secret $8.4-million lawsuit settlement to conceal the text messages that drove Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick out of office have been charged with professional misconduct.

The lawyers – chief assistant corporation counsel Valerie Colbert-Osamuede; her ex-boss, former city corporation counsel John E. Johnson; city-retained private lawyers Samuel McCargo and Wilson Copeland II, and Mike Stefani, who represented three cops in lawsuits against the city – were charged with misconduct Tuesday by the Michigan Attorney Grievance Commission after a 14-month investigation.

The Michigan Attorney Discipline Board, which tries and disciplines lawyers for professional misconduct, released the documents today and set hearings in the case for July 8-14.

Reached this morning, Stefani said he had received the legal papers, but was not yet ready to respond. Among other things, the grievance commission accuses Stefani of committing a criminal misdemeanor, contending that he covered up a felony by agreeing to "conceal irrefutable evidence of Kilpatrick's perjury in return for" the $8.4-million lawsuit settlement for his police clients.

"We just received this and we'll be preparing our response," said defense lawyer Gerald Evelyn, speaking for Johnson.

There was no immediate response from the other lawyers. The five face possible suspension or revocation of their law licenses if they're found to have committed the misconduct.

Krystal Crittendon, the head of the city's law department, said no decision has been made about Colbert-Osamuede's job status, and likely won't be made today. She said Colbert-Osamuede spoke to her last night, but Crittendon has not had a chance to review the charges.

Robert Agacinski, head of the Attorney Grievance Commission, said the charges were the result "in the most part of very good lawyers confusing their duty to the people of Detroit, the City Council and the Office of Mayor with the individual, Kwame Kilpatrick."

The charges mark a chapter in the scandal, but do not close the book, Agacinski said.

"With testimony and discovery there may be more insights to be gained," he said.

Larry Dubin, a University of Detroit Mercy law professor and former chair of the state Attorney Grievance Commission, said the lawyers could be suspended or disbarred if the charges are proven based on a preponderance of the evidence - the standard of proof in attorney misconduct cases.

"The City Council appeared to approve the settlement without being informed by their own lawyers of the basis of that settlement was to cover up the perjury that had been committed by the mayor and his chief of staff," said Dubin, who has been critical of the city lawyers' conduct as the scandal unfolded.

John Brennan, an ethics expert at Cooley Law School in Lansing, said "it's good the profession is acting. It was not enough to get the mayor."

Brennan said the lawyers representing the city "were absolutely critical to what happened," and that they cannot avoid blame by claiming they were only giving advice.

Brennan said the grievance commission's "clear message" in leveling the charges "is that tolerating wrong-doing is just as bad as causing it to happen."

Their cases will be handled by three-lawyer panels appointed by the discipline board.

The charges grew out of a 2007 whistle-blower trial in which former Detroit cops accused Kilpatrick and his former chief of staff, Christine Beatty, of forcing them from their jobs in 2003 after the officers began asking questions about a never-proven wild party at the mayoral Manoogian Mansion and alleged misconduct involving the mayor's security team.

A jury awarded two of the cops $6.5 million in September 2007. Although Kilpatrick vowed to appeal, he abruptly settled the suit and a second one for $8.4 million in October 2007, hours after learning that Stefani had obtained a copy of text messages showing Kilpatrick and Beatty had lied at trial when they denied having an extramarital affair. Stefani planned to make the text messages public in court papers justifying his request for legal fees from the trial.

After the Free Press requested a copy of the settlement under the Freedom of Information Act, the lawyers tore up the original agreement and created two new ones – one secret and the other public – to conceal the existence of the messages. As part of the agreement, Stefani agreed to turn over his copy of the text messages and not publicly disclose their existence.

Detroit's City Council then approved the $8.4-million settlement, without ever being told by the city lawyers about the text messages or the existence of the secret agreement.

A Wayne County judge last year ordered the lawyers to divulge the secret agreement in response to a Freedom of Information lawsuit filed by the Free Press.

Here are the details of what the lawyers are accused of:

• Colbert-Osamuede is charged with five counts of professional misconduct, including concealing the secret agreement from the city council; engaging in a conflict of interest after learning that the mayor's interests conflicted with those of the council; lying to a judge about the existence of the messages; obstructing the Free Press in its FOIA lawsuit to obtain the agreement, and lying to the grievance commission about whether she and McCargo ever discussed the newspaper's FOIA suit.

• Johnson is charged with two counts: hiding the secret agreement from the city council and he also is charged with allowing city lawyers to conceal the secret agreement from the Free Press and a Wayne County Circuit Court judge hearing the FOIA case.

• McCargo, Kilpatrick's private lawyer in the whistle-blower case, is charged with covering up Kilpatrick's and Beatty's perjury, hiding evidence and making false statements to the AGC in its investigation. He also is accused of not reporting misconduct by other attorneys.

The alleged cover-up of Kilpatrick's perjury is a criminal misdemeanor, the AGC said. While the commission made the accusation of a crime, it does not have authority to criminally charge lawyers.


• Copeland, a private lawyer whom the law department hired to help represent the city in the whistle-blower suit, is charged with failing to advise the city council about the secret agreement even though he helped draft it.

• Stefani is charged with five counts including instructing Skytel, the city's Mississippi-based text message provider, to send the messages to him rather than the judge who presided over the whistle-blower trial, despite the judge's repeated order that he wanted to see any text messages first before deciding whether they would be released to Stefani. Stefani is also accused of failing to notify the grievance commission about "irrefutable evidence of Kilpatrick's perjury."

The misconduct charges against the lawyers do not recommend any specific disciplinary action.

The grievance commission previously cleared three other lawyers in its probe: city attorney Ellen Ha, who said she was kept in the dark about the agreements; Deputy State Treasurer Valdemar Washington, then a Flint lawyer who was called in to help facilitate a settlement of the whistle-blower suit; and Stefani partner Mike Rivers, who helped represent the cops in the whistle-blower case.

The status of a 9th lawyer who was investigated, William Mitchell III, remains unclear. Mitchell had traveled to SkyTel headquarters at Kilpatrick's behest to find out why the company had released the mayor's text messages to Stefani. After the trip, Mitchell took a folder believed to contain the messages to Kilpatrick and later to a high-profile criminal lawyer in the Washington, D.C., area. Mitchell was not charged in the legal papers released this morning.

Mitchell did not immediately respond to a call and e-mail requesting comment.

Kilpatrick also was investigated but surrendered his law license as part of his plea agreement in the case.

Kilpatrick and Beatty pleaded guilty last year to obstruction of justice for lying in the whistle-blower case and were sentenced to 120 days in prison. Kilpatrick agreed to resign and pay $1-million restitution to the city. Beatty, who resigned in February 2008 after the scandal broke, agreed to pay $100,000 restitution.

Kilpatrick was released from jail in February and took a job with Compuware and lives in Southlake, Texas. Beatty was released in March.

After details of the secret agreement became public, legal experts said some lawyers in the scandal seemed more interested in protecting Kilpatrick's reputation than safeguarding the city's interests and keeping the Detroit City Council informed about the reasons for settling a multimillion-dollar case.

Experts said lawyers involved in the settlement talks were required to notify legal authorities upon learning that Kilpatrick, a lawyer, had lied in court or engaged in other misconduct.

Quote from: Savonarola on May 20, 2009, 12:09:50 PM
The story that just won't die...

Quote from: charliebear on May 21, 2009, 11:37:31 AM
Doggone it, I still want to know who killed the stipper!

Quote from: Caliga on May 21, 2009, 12:42:38 PM

Quote from: charliebear on May 21, 2009, 11:37:31 AM
Doggone it, I still want to know who killed the stipper!

Duh, it was Kwame.  :)

Quote from: Savonarola on May 21, 2009, 12:55:26 PM
Please  :rolleyes: Kwame would never kill anybody.



He'd have one of his minions do it.   :)

QuoteWatson paid pittance for taxes on 'nonexistent' Detroit house
BY M.L. ELRICK and NAOMI R. PATTON • FREE PRESS STAFF WRITERS • May 24, 2009

Detroit City Councilwoman JoAnn Watson paid only $68 in property taxes this year because city records say her well-kept, brick Tudor-style home doesn't exist. Although the home has occupied its west-side plot since 1926, city records have classified the parcel as an empty lot for the past decade.

Watson said she was unaware of the discrepancy until the Free Press contacted her. She said the change came before she was elected to City Council -- and without her involvement.

"I pay the taxes. All I know is I had a big drop when my house got hit hard by a tornado," she said. "We had great damage."

Watson said she could not recall the specific date the tornado hit, saying it might have been 2002, or perhaps 1993.

She acknowledged, however, that she never reported the incident. National Weather Service meteorologists said the last tornadoes to hit Detroit occurred in 1996 and 1997 -- before Watson says her taxes were reduced because of what she called "the natural disaster."

Watson, who said she receives her property tax bill separate from her mortgage bill, said she never questioned why her taxes dropped -- or why they didn't increase after she repaired her home.

"If it's an amount that's been determined by the people who are in the business of assessing ... and you pay that, then what's the issue?" she asked.

Watson's neighbors in comparable homes pay $2,000 to $6,500 in taxes. "My house has always been there," she said.

On Friday morning, Watson entered the city tax assessor's office and asked for a review of her tax bill.

Neighbor: 'Wow! I'm shocked'
Since joining the City Council six years ago, insisting that Detroit get its fair share has been one of Watson's signature issues.

On Sept. 29, for example, Watson was the only council member to vote against a tax break for General Motors Corp. in return for building the Chevrolet Volt at its Poletown assembly plant.

As recently as Tuesday, Watson blasted state officials who she said have cut $130 million from the city's portion of revenue sharing over the years. "They owe us," she said during a City Council meeting, demanding that the state pay the money to help Detroit through its financial crisis and reduce its deficit.

Watson's failure to realize she was paying significantly less than she should is noteworthy because she occasionally admonishes city officials for not being more diligent in collecting outstanding property taxes. She says the city needs that money to reduce its deficit, which recent estimates put at close to $300 million.

Watson, who is paid $81,000 a year and gets a city-owned Ford Crown Victoria, said her taxes are paid in full. She said it never occurred to her that her tax bill was a fraction of what it should have been.

"I am paying what the assessor assessed," Watson said, expressing dismay when the Free Press informed her Thursday of the discrepancy.

She blamed the error on a tornado that she said struck her home several years ago. Just when is not exactly clear. She has guessed that it hit as recently as 2002 or as long ago as 1993. The National Weather Service says the last tornadoes to hit Detroit came in 1996 and 1997.


Watson bought the home on a land contract in 1990. She agreed to pay $40,000. A year earlier, city assessors pegged the home's value at about $37,000.

Currently, assessors calculate the property's value at $1,658 because they consider it a vacant lot.

Watson said she noticed the drop in her property tax bill, which she handles herself, but assumed it was because the tornado left a hole in her roof and damaged the home's foundation.

How assessors would have known that is unclear.

Linda Bade, the city's chief assessor, did not return messages Friday.

Watson said she did not call city officials or file an insurance claim. She also said she did not seek a reduction in her property taxes. Watson said that when the lower bill arrived, she simply paid it and did not ask any questions.

"I came to the natural conclusion my house isn't worth much any more," she said. "This assessment dropped because of something that had nothing to do with me."

Watson, who was elected to the City Council in 2003, said she was not a city official at the time the taxes dropped.

She said she did not rejoice in the tax break.

"In fact, I was kind of insulted," she said, adding that she feared the value of her home had plummeted.

However, in 2002, as she prepared to run for City Council, Watson obtained a $60,000 mortgage.


To obtain the loan, Watson acknowledged that her property was appraised. But she said that appraisal did not prompt her to think that her home had regained value and, consequently, would merit an increase in her property tax bill.

She said she assumed the appraisers "used their financial wizardry" to help her get the loan on her home.

When Free Press reporters questioned Watson about her property taxes, she said she would go to the assessor's office Tuesday and say: "Are you aware you're charging me for a lot and I live in a house?"

If correcting the error generates a bill for back taxes, Watson said she will be "happy to pay it. I pay my bills."

Watson instead went to the assessor's office Friday morning, arriving just after 9.

A clerk confirmed that the property was listed as vacant.

The councilwoman said, no, there was a home on the lot, and told her about the tornado.

Watson asked how soon her property could be reassessed.

"I don't want special treatment," she said. "I want someone to look at it."

The exchange was completed in about 10 minutes. The clerk reviewed her 2002 mortgage. And she gave Watson a form to request an assessment.


"I'll bring it back," Watson said, smiling.

One of Watson's neighbors, informed Friday of Watson's tax bill, was incredulous.

"Wow! I'm shocked," Natalie Solomon told the Free Press.

Solomon, who lives across the street from Watson, said, "I know my property taxes.

"That's not fair."

QuoteCouncilwoman Watson defends low tax payments
ASSOCIATED PRESS • May 25, 2009

City Councilwoman JoAnn Watson defended her low property taxes in recent years, repeating in a Sunday news conference that she paid everything the city told her she owed.

The Free Press reported Sunday that Watson paid only $68 in property taxes on her home this year because city records indicate the property is a vacant lot. Owners of comparable nearby homes paid $2,000 to $6,500 in property taxes.

Watson told the Free Press she thought damage from a tornado caused her property value to drop several years ago and said she had nothing to do with the reduced taxes. She also said she never questioned the change in assessment, nor did she wonder why it did not increase after she repaired the home.

"I've been a target of a smear campaign," Watson told reporters from other news media outlets gathered outside her west-side home Sunday.

When asked why anyone would want to smear her, Watson replied: "I don't smoke, I don't drink and I don't sleep around. It's an election year. I'll let you figure it out."

Quote from: alfred russel on May 26, 2009, 11:25:10 AM
This is a big assumption--that she didn't exert influence over her assessment to get it so low. But if we make that assumption, did she do anything wrong? Would you fight an assessment that was too low?

Quote from: Savonarola on May 26, 2009, 12:51:53 PM

Quote from: alfred russel on May 26, 2009, 11:25:10 AM
This is a big assumption--that she didn't exert influence over her assessment to get it so low. But if we make that assumption, did she do anything wrong? Would you fight an assessment that was too low?

That is a big assumption; even if the change in assessment occurred before 2003, when she was appointed to the council,  Watson was still well connected politically.  She had served on Congressman John Conyers' staff and on city commissions for twenty years prior.  It's an amazing coincidence that it was her property that was assessed wrong and that the assessment was never corrected in the seven to sixteen years since it was changed.

If she didn't use her own political influence then what she did wasn't all that terrible; but I would say it is wrong.  By paying only a fraction of the taxes she should have owed she knowingly forced an unfair tax burden onto the people she represents.  Also as a member of the city council she could have easily had it corrected; while an ordinary citizen would have to navigate the Detroit city bureaucracy to do the same.

Quote from: alfred russel on May 26, 2009, 11:25:10 AM
This is a big assumption--that she didn't exert influence over her assessment to get it so low. But if we make that assumption, did she do anything wrong? Would you fight an assessment that was too low?

Quote from: Berkut on May 26, 2009, 01:09:07 PM

Quote from: alfred russel on May 26, 2009, 11:25:10 AM
This is a big assumption--that she didn't exert influence over her assessment to get it so low. But if we make that assumption, did she do anything wrong? Would you fight an assessment that was too low?

*I* would not, but then I am not a politician charged with a higher degree of public trust, disclosure, and integrity. If the state tax assessor screwed up, I would happily enjoy my good fortune.

Quote from: Scipio on May 26, 2009, 05:40:22 PM
If my tax bill dropped that far, I would keep my fucking mouth shut until they figured it out.

QuoteWhy are the jail cells empty?
Sheriff, prosecutor say crime isn't dropping but arrests by police are
BY JEFF GERRITT • FREE PRESS EDITORIAL WRITER • May 28, 2009

Empty jail cells are normally something to celebrate, but Wayne County's top law enforcement officials say the hundreds of vacant jail beds are not because of a drop in crime or more reasonable sentencing. Floors of the downtown Detroit jail are empty because police are arresting fewer people accused of those crimes.

Altogether, three county jails that held about 2,500 prisoners a year ago now house 400 fewer inmates.

Sheriff Warren Evans said police are so slow to respond to some calls that the crimes never get reported. Prosecutor Kym Worthy was more blunt:

"We don't tell the truth about crime," she said.

Detroit has lost hundreds of sworn officers in recent years. The Police Department didn't respond to repeated requests for interviews with its top leaders, but it released preliminary statistics showing an overall decline in criminal activity this year, despite a 24% increase in homicides.

East-sider Joyce Betty, 56, isn't buying it.

Last February, a young assailant snatched Betty's purse, which contained $300 in cash, while she pumped gas at a Mack Avenue filling station. Surveillance cameras captured the crime on videotape, but police never responded.

Said Betty: "I have little faith in the Detroit Police Department."

Empty cells point to police breakdown

It's an incredible sight: In a city riddled with crime, entire floors of the Wayne County Jail in downtown Detroit are empty.

The seventh floor of the Baird Detention Facility, normally home to 128 newly arrested prisoners, is vacant. So are the ninth floor and half of the 12th floor. Another 128 beds at the Dickerson Detention Facility in Hamtramck are also closed. That adds up to more than 400 empty beds in Wayne County jails that, up to about a year ago, were filled with roughly 2,500 prisoners.


The main explanation is simple, according to the county's top two law enforcement officials: Detroit police are making fewer arrests, a dereliction so obvious it has led some Detroiters to conclude there's no point in even calling the cops.

"I've talked to dozens, probably hundreds, of people in the community who are telling me they never made a report because the police never came," Wayne County Sheriff Warren Evans said Tuesday. "The delay in response time is such that many, many, many crimes don't get reported."

Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy agrees, echoing Evan's assertion that decreases in reported crimes are misleading.

"We tell the press that crime is going down," Worthy said. "It's not going down; it's going up, exponentially, and we have many fewer officers on the street. We need to acknowledge the problem."

The Detroit Police Department did not respond to several requests for comment last week. Instead, a department spokeswoman, citing preliminary police statistics, said overall crime in the city so far this year is down 9.1%, excluding a 24% increase in homicides -- a trend that, if true, would partly explain the jail's decreasing census, especially for those awaiting trial.

In 2007, the Wayne County Sheriff's Department recorded 20,423 felony bookings. Last year, there were just 18,261 -- a drop of more than 10% in a single year. So far this year, bookings have continued to drop roughly 10%, said Undersheriff Daniel Pfannes.

But few city residents think a drop in crime is the reason. Ask east-sider Joyce Betty, 56. A young man snatched her purse, with $300 in it, out of her car while she pumped gas at Mack and Gratiot in February. Betty called 911 on her cell. Police never responded. "They made no attempt to contact me," Betty said, even though the gas station has surveillance tapes of the incident. "It's water over the dam, but I have little faith in the Detroit Police Department."

Neither Oakland nor Macomb Counties report comparable declines in their own jail populations. Both counties' cells remain full, despite innovative efforts to manage the population, Macomb County Sheriff Mark Hackel and Oakland County Undersheriff Michael McCabe say.

Pontiac, however, is experiencing a trend similar to Detroit's: Arrests have declined as the number of sworn officers has dropped from 170 to 65 in the last three years.

The Detroit Police Department deploys about half the number of sworn officers it did in the 1990s, and has lost roughly 1,000 officers over the last five years.

Even serious crimes aren't getting solved. Arrests are made in only 37% of Detroit homicides, compared to more than 60% nationwide. Officers have too little time to investigate, and they work with a community that often does not trust them. Detroit's shuttered police crime lab has raised more troubling questions about homicide investigations.

Another reason arrests are down is the closing -- for good cause -- of many decrepit, pre-arraignment holding cells under a federal consent decree that is mandating reforms. Six years ago, police held 350 in such lockups, compared to about 130 today. Shift supervisors, and probably officers, know when the lockups are full.


Evans said he offered to lease county jail cells for police lockups five years ago. Negotiations continue, but a deal should have been struck long before this.

Privately, some law enforcement officials also say Detroit police are frustrated by the added paperwork required for arrests under the federal consent decree. But that's no excuse for failing to perform. The consent decree, signed in 2003, might be a headache, but it's one the department earned by abusing the citizens it was supposed to protect, including mistreatment of prisoners in lockups and dragnet arrests of homicide witnesses. The department also had the highest rate of fatal shootings by officers among America's big cities.

Fundamental breakdowns in other basic services also decrease public safety. Copper thieves have made land-line phone service in parts of the city, especially on the east side, unreliable and sporadic. It's not unusual for phone lines to be dead when crime victims try to call 911.

No one is questioning the integrity or competence of underpaid Detroit police officers. They work hard and, in many cases, risk their lives daily. But the department continues to do 1970s-style policing, reacting to crime rather than using data-driven policing efforts. The Michigan Department of Corrections and other criminal justice agencies have information that would enable the department to focus its resources on people most likely to commit crimes.

"In dealing with crime, particularly violent crime, a data-driven surgical approach is the direction we need to go," said former U.S. Attorney Saul Green, group executive for public safety under new Mayor Dave Bing. "I do believe we have some improvements to make in that area."

Until then, floors of empty Wayne County jail cells -- normally a reason to celebrate -- should comfort no one.

QuoteDon't gut D's core to save GM
BY TOM WALSH • FREE PRESS COLUMNIST • May 28, 2009

MACKINAC ISLAND -- On this island 300 miles from Detroit, where automobiles are not even allowed, it's still impossible to escape the shadow of General Motors Corp.

As the Detroit Regional Chamber's annual Mackinac Policy Conference began here Wednesday, the loudest buzz was about GM in general, and its Renaissance Center headquarters in particular.

As the White House presses GM to keep slashing costs on the eve of an expected bankruptcy filing, GM is believed to be preparing a new round of white-collar job cuts, which could create still more vacant space in the RenCen, where GM's head count has already shrunk from 6,000 to 4,400 in recent years.

The specter of a half-empty RenCen has fueled renewed speculation about GM consolidating office workers.

And Jim Fouts, mayor of Warren, home to GM's sprawling tech center complex -- which also has surplus space due to cuts in the automaker's engineering and design staffs -- is making a bold play to lure GM's headquarters out to his suburb.

Forget about it, says Detroit Mayor Dave Bing, who delayed his departure to the Mackinac shindig by a day in order to make another round of calls to cajole and plead with GM and government officials not to forsake downtown Detroit.

Bad idea, agrees Gov. Jennifer Granholm, about GM's home base leaving Detroit.

Imagine a vacant RenCen
Rip Rapson, president of the Troy-based Kresge Foundation, puts it apocalyptically.

"We are dead," he said, "if the region decentralizes into the Warrens and the Southfields."

Moving GM's headquarters out of Detroit is "an indescribably bad idea," said Rapson, whose foundation has pledged $50 million to the massive Detroit riverfront redevelopment and is a major backer of a proposed light-rail line along Woodward Avenue downtown.

"This is a time to assemble critical mass in the city core, not disassemble," he added.

Rapson's right.

Whatever GM would gain from more efficient utilization of office space by vacating the RenCen would be far outweighed by the damage to Detroit's core -- symbolically and otherwise -- by turning the 73-story RenCen into an empty white elephant.

Would there be any point in building a Detroit light-rail line if the giant RenCen, built as a symbol of hope in the wake of the 1967 riots, sits deserted?

Why bother to expand Cobo Center on the riverfront if GM abandons the river's most dramatic structure?

Why not just let the convention center migrate out to Novi, if GM is in Warren and Fiat-Chrysler is in Auburn Hills?

While we're at it, why not just excavate the old Motown Museum on West Grand Boulevard, put it on wheels and roll it out to Brighton!

There are other ways for GM to find savings as it downsizes, without gutting Detroit. GM has 1,000 or so people at a service and parts operations center in Grand Blanc, for starters, who could move downtown.

President Barack Obama's auto industry overseers can't really want to gut downtown Detroit.

Can they?

QuoteKilpatrick's restitution payment late, $3,500 short
By M.L. ELRICK and JIM SCHAEFER • FREE PRESS STAFF WRITERS • June 2, 2009

Former Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick's latest restitution payment arrived three days late and $3,500 short, the Free Press has learned.

A judge in March ordered Kilpatrick to pay $6,000 a month in restitution toward the $1 million he agreed to pay the City of Detroit when he pleaded guilty last year to two perjury-related felonies. His lawyer argued that Kilpatrick could afford to pay only $6 a month.

After mustering $6,000 for his April restitution payment, Kilpatrick sent only $2,500 last month. The payment, due on the 15th of each month, came on May 18, said Russ Marlan, spokesman for the Michigan Department of Corrections.

Failing to make full restitution payments could lead to Kilpatrick being found in violation of his probation.

In another complication for the former mayor, Compuware officials contradicted Kilpatrick's explanation for why he wanted to go on a congressional trip last month to the Middle East.

He said it was for work. They said it was not.

Mideast trip said to be business; company disagrees
Kilpatrick told probation officials he wanted to make a business trip to the Middle East in May, a state corrections official said.
But a spokeswoman for Compuware, which hired Kilpatrick, told the Free Press on Tuesday that the ex-Detroit mayor's planned trip was not for the company.

Kilpatrick could face sanctions if he misled probation officials about the reason for his proposed trip.


On May 18, Kilpatrick sought permission to go Dubai, Qatar and Iraq to assess the health care system of the military overseas, Marlan told the Free Press on Tuesday.

Although it was a congressional trip, Kilpatrick said he would be going as a representative of his employer, Marlan said. Marlan added that Kilpatrick said he would be able to provide documentation to support that.

Kilpatrick works in Texas for Covisint, a subsidiary of Compuware.

But Compuware spokeswoman Lisa Elkin said Tuesday that Kilpatrick was not scheduled to go to the Middle East on business.

"The trip you're referring to, I believe, is the Congress trip that the mother was supposed to go on," she said, referring to Kilpatrick's mother, U.S. Rep. Carolyn Cheeks Kilpatrick, D-Mich.

"There was not a business trip," Elkin added.

Because Kilpatrick is on probation, he needs permission to travel outside of Texas.

Marlan said Michigan corrections officials opposed allowing Kilpatrick to go on the trip, which was scheduled for May 24-30. He said Kilpatrick had not been on probation long enough to show he can abide by the probation terms. Kilpatrick also failed to make a full restitution payment last month, he added.

Marlan said Texas officials, who supervise Kilpatrick, did not issue a travel permit. Kilpatrick apparently never took the trip.

Probation officials in Michigan and Texas considered Kilpatrick's request an unusual one, he said. "We don't have many probationers ... ask to engage in international travel," Marlan explained.

Of more immediate concern to officials is Kilpatrick's payment of only $2,500 of the $6,000 monthly restitution he was to pay in May.
Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy said her office will ask Wayne County Circuit Judge David Groner to look into the matter. "Judge Groner was extremely clear in his order that defendant Kilpatrick was to pay $6,000 per month in restitution," Worthy said in a statement. "$6,000 is not $2,500."

Worthy also criticized his proposed trip to Dubai.

"I'm curious to know how he would even be able to travel when we are in possession of his passport," she said.

Attorney Michael Alan Schwartz, who in March sought unsuccessfully to reduce Kilpatrick's restitution payments, did not return calls for comment.

Quote from: Savonarola on May 28, 2009, 11:59:40 AM
Here's some good news for people who fret about the size of the US prison population  :)

QuoteWhy are the jail cells empty?
Sheriff, prosecutor say crime isn't dropping but arrests by police are
BY JEFF GERRITT • FREE PRESS EDITORIAL WRITER • May 28, 2009

QuoteDPS audit: $1.7M in taxes lost, sloppy bookkeeping
BY CHASTITY PRATT DAWSEY • FREE PRESS EDUCATION WRITER • June 3, 2009

Detroit Public Schools Emergency Financial Manager Robert Bobb released audit findings this morning that show sloppy bookkeeping at 189 of 194 school buildings and a suspected loss of $1.7 million in taxes the tax-exempt schools should not have paid.

The audits showed loans made to school officials using school funds, missing funds from activities, school funds diverted to personal accounts, principals writing and signing checks, untimely deposits and money taken home by staff.

Three cases involving high schools and two involving elementary schools have been turned over the district's inspector general, former FBI official John Bell.

"We have a reason to believe some of them probably will" be turned over to the prosecutor's office, Bobb said.

"How do you justify making loans to school officials?" he said.

Over a period of 21 days, 35 auditors investigated 194 schools that handle $2.5 million to $4 million in funds. Only five had "entirely proper bookkeeping," he said.

"My own assessment is it's not multimillions, it's just petty thieves and over time it adds up" Bobb said.

Major sporting events are the source of many complaints, Bobb said. For example, in instances where there are $5 ticket fees for major sporting events, $2 allegedly may make it to the school, he said.

Internal auditors will be posted at major events to ensure proper procedures are followed, Bobb said.

Odell Bailey, the district's auditor general, called the 21-day audit sweep "unprecedented." Bailey said it is the first district-wide, school-level audit in the four years since an internal audit department was eliminated.

While saying the financial problems may have cost the district $1.7 million in sales taxes, the district has not estimated the losses to the district due to misappropriations.

"We've audited every level of school," Bailey said. Auditors found "an environment devoid of basic controls...You could be looking at organized chaos," where staff try to cover theft.

Bobb called a $510,000 contract to a local firm to create an internal audit process "a waste of money that did not produce anything," but credited the school board for being "on the right track."

The school board hired the firm before Bobb took office in March. The process the auditor general created took less than a day, according to a statement Bobb released.

In an effort to show how some waste occurs, Bobb showed media nearly a dozen food-handling bins that were found unused at Schulze Elementary where a news conference was held this morning. Other such equipment is piling up at other schools, he said.

Also found were music facilities for keyboard classes, but no keyboards.

Furthermore, debris from the school that was demolished to build the current Schulze is under a mound with grass now growing over it. Bobb called the mound a hazard that could attract and injure playful children.

"That's a problem that must be corrected," he said.

Bailey said bookkeepers will receive annual training and those who handle the largest budgets will now report to the chief financial officer.

Quote from: Caliga on June 03, 2009, 08:01:35 AM
Is this thread really still "temporary" or should we promote it to permanent status?  :)

QuoteMom says son, 11, handcuffed to door at Detroit school
Mark Hicks and Jennifer Mrozowski / The Detroit News
Detroit -- A Detroit Public Schools parent is considering legal action against the district after her son allegedly was handcuffed to a door at Sampson-Webber school for several hours Monday.

"It was really unnecessary to be done on a little boy," said Charmaine Hunt, whose 11-year-old son told about her about the incident Monday. "I'm not accepting that."

Hunt said about 11:40 a.m. Monday, her son, Antonio Hobson, a fourth grader at the school, was involved in a fight with another student.

She said he told her he suffered a bloodied nose and was restrained by a school security officer. But when he was deemed unruly, the principal, Regina Randall, ordered him to be handcuffed to a door in another room, Hunt said.

Randall, reached at home today, had no comment.

Hobson tried telling school officials he was hungry because he had not eaten lunch and had to use the restroom, Hunt said, but his requests initially were ignored.

"They fed him cereal and milk later on, like he's in prison or something," Hunt said, adding that her son's nose was struck when someone tried to reopen the door to the room.

The boy was released when school ended at 3:30 p.m., she said. Since learning of the incident, Hunt said she has kept her son at home, and is reluctant to send him back for the rest of the year.

"My son doesn't want to go back there. He's actually scared," Hunt said.

District spokesman Steve Wasko said he had no immediate information on the alleged incident. Hunt said two school officials -- a social worker and curriculum leader -- met with her Tuesday about the incident, saying they planned to file a complaint with the district. A call to the Detroit Public Schools' Department of Public Safety has not been returned.

An acting administrator at the school told a reporter: "There's a department at central office you contact for news," and hung up.

It also was unclear whether the other student involved in the alleged fight was disciplined.

Hunt said she plans to file a complaint, obtain an incident report, seek legal counsel and voice her concerns at a school board meeting today at the district's headquarters.

After hearing of the incident, school board member Marie Thornton said she met with Sampson-Webber staff on Wednesday to learn more.

Randall was absent, she said, and staff told her they were "fearful" of her. Thornton said the school's assistant superintendent, Sharon Appling, told her Monday's incident was being investigated.

Thornton said district officials have received complaints about Randall's conduct in the past, and Randall recently learned she would lose her position as part of emergency financial manager Robert Bobb's restructuring plan for DPS.

Thornton said she was "appalled" by the allegations and has contacted Bobb, acting district superintendent Teresa Gueyser and DPS general counsel about investigating and possible disciplinary action.

"You don't even handcuff a dog to the door," Thornton said. "It's not right."

Quote from: Savonarola on June 04, 2009, 01:59:20 PM
"They fed him cereal and milk later on, like he's in prison or something,"

QuoteCourt records show ex-Cobo contractor bribed city official
Paul Egan / The Detroit News
Detroit -- A former Cobo Center contractor made illegal payments to an unnamed city of Detroit official and an associate of that official at the same time he was bribing former Cobo Center Director Lou Pavledes, according to court records released today. 

Karl Kado, 68, of West Bloomfield Township, was expected to enter a guilty plea to a charge of filing false tax returns before U.S. District Judge Marianne O. Battani.

According to a plea agreement, Kado "intentionally omitted ... about $130,000 in cash (income) for tax year 2002 and about $140,000 in cash for tax year 2003."

"One of the reasons defendant did not report these monies ... is that defendant used some or all of this unreported cash to make illegal payments to a city of Detroit official, an associate of that official and ... Pavledes," the plea agreement says. "Some of these payments were requested of defendant by the city official and the associate of that official."

The plea agreement suggests that other city officials are implicated in the Cobo scandal besides Pavledes and another former Cobo director, Glenn Blanton.

Both Pavledes and Blanton recently pleaded guilty to corruption charges and have admitted to taking bribes from Kado.

Kado faces federal sentencing guidelines of 12-18 months, but is expected to get less because he is cooperating with authorities.

Kado appeared for his arraignment today with his wife, Julie, one of his children and his attorney, Chris Andreoff.

The Cobo charges are part of a longstanding and wide-ranging FBI investigation of Detroit City Hall contracting.

Filing false tax returns is a three-year felony.

Kado held exclusive and lucrative electrical and janitorial contracts at the Cobo Center and also had a share of Cobo catering through his Metro Services Organization LLC and related companies.

Pavledes, who was Cobo director from 1996 until 2004, last year admitted to taking about $100,000 from Kado when Pavledes pleaded guilty to a felony financial charge related to the way he tried to conceal the bribe payment from federal authorities.

Blanton, who was Cobo director from November 2004 until February 2007, admitted to taking about $15,000 from Kado when he pleaded guilty in October to an obstruction of justice charge.

Both Pavledes and Blanton await sentencing before Battani.

Quote from: Caliga on June 03, 2009, 08:01:35 AM
Is this thread really still "temporary" or should we promote it to permanent status?  :)

QuoteAt night, crews let Packard Plant burn
BY BILL MCGRAW • FREE PRESS COLUMNIST • June 9, 2009
That big plume of black smoke that filled the sky Monday night and was visible from downtown to the eastern suburbs?

It was just the Packard Plant burning.

Again.

And that fire is likely to be burning this morning, because the Packard Plant is too dangerous for Detroit firefighters to enter after dark, so they had to let it burn Monday night.

Fire crews are called to the massive and mostly abandoned complex about once a week, said Lt. Steve Kirschner of Engine Co. 23, which is stationed a few blocks west of the plant.


The fires stem from scrappers and their acetylene torches and people, many of them young, who like to explore the Packard Plant and think it's cool to set fires to the huge mounds of trash and other dumped debris in the complex's large rooms.

On Monday night, the black smoke came from thousands of wooden pallets, garbage and plastic tubing on the fourth floor of a six-story building a few hundred yards north of E. Grand Boulevard.

"We're going to let it burn itself out," Kirschner said. "We never go in at night. It's just not safe."

The Packard complex, designed by Albert Kahn starting in 1903, is located near Mt. Elliott and I-94. It consists of 3.5 million square feet of space in 43 interconnected buildings. Many of the buildings are filled with trash and dumped articles, including old pleasure boats and shoes. There is one small business that remains in the complex, a chemical-processing concern.

Kirschner said Engine 23 and other fire companies responded to a fire recently during the day and discovered about 25,000 square feet of shoes burning. The smoke, partially from the shoes' rubber and glue, was dangerous for the firefighters and anyone in the neighborhood who might have breathed it.

Hazardous-materials crews monitored the air Monday night and found no need for evacuations. The cause of the fire was not known, but firefighters were certain it was set. They called for an arson car, but none was available.


The Packard site is filled with tunnels, open sewers and collapsing walls and ceilings, often the result of scrappers cutting out I-beams. Last fall, two scrappers fell one story in a cloud of dust, cement slabs and bricks when they cut out a beam and the lower part of a covered bridge collapsed into an alley-like street, Bellevue Avenue. The scrappers limped away. The debris remains where it fell.

In 2007, the fire department warned its personnel about the Packard's dangers and had fire crews from across central Detroit tour the site to try to understand it, in case they were ever called to fight a blaze there.

A memo from the chief of department said the complex's roadways could collapse due to the weight of the rigs. It advised that fires should be fought from the outside of the building, shooting water inside.

While it is technically not abandoned, the Packard Plant is mind-numbing in its vastness, decay and the large trees growing from its roofs. It is totally open to trespass.

The complex is owned by a company called Bioresource Inc., which emerged with the title after a lengthy court battle with the City of Detroit. City officials say the firm has failed to pay Detroit taxes since it bought the plant in 1987. State records show Bioresource has not filed an annual report since 2000 and was declared dissolved by the state in 2003.


Contact BILL McGRAW at [email protected].

QuoteKilpatrick's new home bigger than Manoogian
1st home left for one in gated community
BY JIM SCHAEFER and M.L. ELRICK • FREE PRESS STAFF WRITERS • June 9, 2009

Kwame Kilpatrick, who claimed that he could spare only $6 a month for restitution to the City of Detroit, moved into a million-dollar home over the weekend that dwarfs the Manoogian Mansion.

At 5,866 square feet, Kilpatrick's new digs, which he is leasing in tony Southlake, Texas, are nearly 50% larger than the city-owned mansion he used to occupy as Detroit mayor, before the text message scandal cost him his job and his freedom. The Detroit mansion is just 4,004 square feet.

Kilpatrick's home is in a gated community and is listed for sale at $1.1 million. It has five bedrooms, five and a half baths, a game room, a study, a formal dining room and an inground pool.

Jim Carlisle, who owns the home, would not say how much the former mayor is paying to lease it. The Kilpatricks moved in Saturday, leaving their 2,839-square-foot rental home 3 miles away.

Kilpatrick's lawyer said there is a perfectly good explanation.

Why Kilpatricks moved to a new place
Kilpatrick's 6-month lease was up.

He was uncomfortable with people walking up and knocking on his door.

And someone else -- name withheld -- is helping him pay his new lease.

Those are reasons why Kilpatrick moved Saturday from a 2,800-square-foot home to one more than twice that size in a gated community about 3 miles away in Southlake, Texas, his lawyer, Michael Alan Schwartz, said Monday.

"His lease came up, what am I going to say?" said Schwartz, who didn't know about his client's move until informed by the Free Press. "Yeah, it would have been better at a different time ... but he's got to go on with living. He's got to go on with his life."

The timing refers to a Wayne County prosecutor's motion, filed last week, that asks Wayne County Circuit Judge David Groner to convene a hearing to dig into why Kilpatrick was late last month with his $6,000 restitution payment to the City of Detroit.

As part of his probation for his crimes in the text message scandal, Kilpatrick is under court order to repay $1 million to the city. As the Free Press first reported last week, Kilpatrick was $3,500 shy until he paid the balance Monday morning. He also made his full June payment one week early.

That, Schwartz said Monday, should be enough to stop any further proceedings against Kilpatrick.

Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy demanded to know, in her court filing, why the former mayor hasn't been charged with several probation violations related to his finances and an "alarming" travel request he made to go to the Middle East. Kilpatrick said it was for work, but his employer, Covisint, a subsidiary of Detroit-based Compuware, said he had no business for them in the Middle East. The trip never happened.


The Kilpatricks paid about $3,000 for the home they had been leasing in Southlake. It's unclear how much the new lease will cost.

Schwartz is appealing Groner's order earlier this year that Kilpatrick pay $6,000 a month to the city, saying that the former mayor has just $6 left over each month after expenses like a $900 car lease and his rent. Schwartz said Kilpatrick will be paying the same amount for his new lease, with a person Schwartz wouldn't identify paying the balance each month.

Peter Henning, a Wayne State University law professor and former federal prosecutor, said Kilpatrick's new posh digs are "a problem for prosecutors. They're not going to be happy with it. But when will the court step in, ultimately? That's really the question. And has he crossed the line?"

Worthy wasn't backing off Monday, setting up a potential showdown in court soon.

"We're awaiting a court date from the judge to discuss many issues related to defendant Kilpatrick," her spokeswoman, Maria Miller, said.

In a court motion in February, assistant prosecutor Robert Moran wrote that Kilpatrick "can reside in a more modest home until he meets his obligations to the court and the City of Detroit."

After his February jail release, Kilpatrick began work as an account executive at Covisint. His first-year salary is roughly $180,000, with the possibility of sales-related bonuses, company officials have said.

Neighbors already have noticed the Kilpatricks moving in. There were reports of vans at the home Saturday and new furniture deliveries.

"He has a 6-month lease on a house. That's my understanding," said Stuart Wood, president of the local homeowners association. "Our expectation and my expectation is that we will be good neighbors, and he will be a good neighbor. Hey, this is Texas. Everybody's friendly around here."


Rhonda Krupp, who lives across the street, said Monday, "I met their children, and they are delightful."

Wood, who also lives across the street but had not yet met the Kilpatricks, sent out an e-mail recently encouraging neighbors to welcome them. He said the street, which has 13 houses, is in one of the few gated communities in the area.

The new Kilpatrick home is in the same school district, so the three boys will be able to attend the same schools.

"Apparently, there are a lot of people there who just walk up to his house," Schwartz said of Kilpatrick's first Texas home. No threats have been made, but "it got to be a bit much" for the family.

"Why don't we give the man a fair chance," Schwartz pleaded, "to just do what he's got to do?"

Contact JIM SCHAEFER: 313-223-4542 or [email protected]

QuoteAmerican dream fades at Axle plant in Hamtramck
Charlie LeDuff / The Detroit News
Hamtramck

As the world focused on the collapse of General Motors Corp. and the goings-on at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue and 1 Wall Street, a sad but not unrelated scene played out this week at 2140 Holbrook St.

At 5:57 a.m., Bill Alford, the president of UAW Local 235, shambled up the street to punch in for work at the American Axle & Manufacturing plant No. 8. He cut a pathetic figure Monday, one shoe untied and dressed in a hockey sweater with a large C embossed on the chest. C is for captain, but Alford is now the captain of almost nobody.

  As GM declared bankruptcy, more than 500 UAW workers employed at the plant here quietly received a letter by FedEx informing them that they were indefinitely laid off. Normally presidents of local unions do not go to work at the plant, as management prefers not to have labor agitators on its factory floors. But when there are too few employees to do the work, Alford is required by contract to return to the plant.

And so Alford had the task of operating a forklift, loading crates of tools and machinery onto a truck bound for Texas, he said.

"They don't want a middle class," said Alford, 34, standing in the rain, the shoe still untied, referring not only to the managers of American Axle, but also the owners of industry in general. "I see that in the future people will have to move to Mexico for a job. This is a dark day for the American laborer."

General Motors may be entering a new chapter in its life, but the American worker still confronts the little problem of NAFTA and the cheap Mexican and subsidized Canadian labor he cannot compete with.

The plant, which straddles Detroit and Hamtramck, is the largest in Axle's sprawling worldwide manufacturing complex. It mainly produces axles for GM's heavy-duty pickups, which accounts for about three-quarters of its sales. American Axle management plans to keep operations running at its plant in Guanajuato, Mexico, while all but shutting down in Hamtramck.

Since American Axle was spun off from General Motors and reconstituted in 1994, the union negotiates with American Axle, not GM, and does not get the sweetheart deal other UAW workers will get. In fact, Local 235 went on strike for three months last year and lost. It was a cold, bitter dispute, complete with fires in the oil drums. The unionized workers, numbering nearly 2,000 at the time, gave in to deep wage cuts, in some cases from $28 an hour to $14, in exchange for keeping their jobs. Apparently it was not enough. Fewer than 300 union members were working in the plant Monday.

In the meantime, Dick Dauch, the CEO and chairman of American Axle, was given an $8.5 million bonus by his board of directors after the strike and gave assurances to the workers and the city of Hamtramck that he would keep production here.

Dauch, who at least until the strike had a reputation for believing in the competitiveness of U.S. manufacturing, could not be reached by telephone. But he told The Detroit News in April that he was fed up with the absenteeism and entitlement-mindset of the Michigan worker. The union calls the claims a bald-face lie, an excuse to move south of the border.

Chris Son, the director of communications at American Axle, called late Wednesday to say that the layoffs are "fallout from the GM and Chrysler shutdowns." He also confirmed that the Mexicans will continue to work as the Americans are out on the street.

"For logistical reasons, a level of production will continue in Mexico," said Son. "At the same time, there will be lower production requirements in Detroit. Other than that, I have no further comment on that matter."

Automobile jobs are still an underpinning of the American economy. One auto factory job creates as many as eight or nine others, according to the Center for Automotive Research. Cars and car parts contribute most greatly to the American trade imbalance along with electronic merchandise.

And, according to the Economic Policy Institute, Big Three motor vehicle production in Mexico increased by 4 percent while falling in the United States and Canada by 25 percent in 2008. As of 2006, Michigan has lost more than 61,000 jobs due to NAFTA -- and counting, the institute says. Household income in Michigan continues to fall and American workers are left to wonder where it all fell off.

"I'm not ever going to buy another Chevy," said Jeff Johnson, who came to the union hall to get an explanation. Johnson received the layoff notice on his birthday, mistaking the FedEx package for a present. "I'm not buying another new car because I'm not ever going to be able to afford a new car."

"Who knows," said Bill Cooper, the flamboyant city manager of Hamtramck, outside city hall. "American Axle is going to cost anywhere from a half-million to $2 million dollars in revenue to the city if it shuts down completely. It would just kill us. Somebody turn out the lights."

Beleaguered Hamtramck -- an industrial hamlet of 22,000 people that is completely surrounded by the city of Detroit -- is increasingly becoming a town with too many mice and not enough men. A welfare office is scheduled to open on Joseph Campau Street, once a difficult concept in this working class town.

The mayor had her car stolen last month and two weeks ago an elderly city councilman, Al Shulgon, tried to beat off a carjacker with a cane. He failed and the carjacker made off with his jalopy.

"If they're carjacking junkers now, imagine what the future's going to look like around here without American Axle," Cooper said. "If you see Dick, have him call me, I can't get a hold of him."

Quote from: Berkut on June 09, 2009, 09:01:15 AM
Damn those Canadians and their subsidized labor!

QuoteKilpatrick's golden touch
Posted by Joel Kurth (The Detroit News) on Tue, Jun 9, 2009 at 12:35 PM
It's funny how the ball bounces sometimes. On the same day news broke that ex-mayor Kwame Kilpatrick is living in a $1 million rented mansion, the City Hall Insider was handed documents showing his old digs -- the one he sold to his ex-lover Christine Beatty and her now-ex husband Lou -- were sold at a foreclosure auction.

The May 11 sale comes atop a string of personal losses for Lou Beatty, who was divorced from Christine in 2006 and filed for bankruptcy protection in October, claiming assets of $50,000 to $100,000 and between $50,000 and $100,000 in liabilities.

His ex-wife is also listed on the foreclosure documents that show the 1,500-square-foot brick home fetched $102,411 at auction. As Insider fans recall, the mortgage was more than $90,000 delinquent, and behind more than $7,000 in property taxes.

The house on Santa Rosa -- where the Beattys lived during her affair with Kilpatrick and from where Lou noted in a notorious text that 'You had attitude until KK came over' -- was a major windfall for Kilpatrick. He and his wife bought the home in 1995 for $42,000 and sold it to the Beattys five years later for $103,500.
(https://languish.org/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi251.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fgg302%2FWaynebureau%2F1-beattyhouse.jpg&hash=a419b8dffc05569738b8ca0cf9c37832e54f3e2e)

Kilpatrick, meanwhile, is now resting his feet in a nearly 6,000 square-foot, palace in Southlake, Texas, built in a style known in French as decor de Tony Soprano.
(https://languish.org/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi251.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fgg302%2FWaynebureau%2Fkwamemansion.jpg&hash=35e1d0532bad59d071d2002f9d2cc0d307a156b1)

Quote from: Savonarola on June 09, 2009, 09:09:57 AM

I'm guessing he's refering to socialized medicine; a CAW laborer is cheaper than a UAW one because the company provides the American laborer with health care while the government provides the Canadian laborer with the same.  This isn't a fair comparison because the taxes in Ontario are higher than those in Michigan in part in order to provide socialized medicine.

QuoteCategory: A reason to drink
Posted by Dave Krieger on Sun, Jun 7, 2009 at 8:02 PM
A tale of two cities
Today in Detroit, I had my car jacked by a teenager and then was shot at by a group of east siders hanging out on the street.

There are two cities within Detroit, one for those of us who try to make life better for all of us and another for those who seem to rob humanity of all its gleaming worth.

Why doesn't our society wake up and decide that this is an anathema to our co-existence? The educational and family values instilled in those remaining in Detroit are suspect at best and downright criminal at its worst.

Right now this city disgusts me over such a simple life skill called respect. If those of us who have cannot teach and help those less fortunate, we are going to dissolve into a Tombstone society in which gunplay and arrogance rule the day.

I volunteer to teach students photography, I work and live in Detroit and support many organizations designed for those who struggle and this kind of BS happens.

What the hell is going on with this city and those we elect who seem to spend more on their lavish lifestyles than care about crime and changing the lawless attitude in this town?

QuotePosted by Diana McNary (The Detroit News) on Tue, Jun 9, 2009 at 3:07 PM
My rant about those 2 cities: Detroiters need serious attitude adjustment
My goodness. My sympathy goes out to Dave Krieger after reading his most recent post. Doesn't everyone who's been in Detroit for a while have some sort of story like that - either as a crime victim, friend of a crime victim or as a witness?

I do. My husband was carjacked and robbed two blocks from our house in 2006. Two teens had rented, yes rented, an assault rifle from some other enterprising punk who'd seen a way for some easy cash. They came up behind him as he pumped gas, asked him for money and stuck him in the ribs with the gun (which, to this day, we suspect didn't work). Then they went through his pockets and took his wallet, keys and phone and told him to run. The car was packed full of musical equipment, ready for our bands to play at a benefit for five kids who'd just lost their mother to cancer. It was probably $20,000 worth of our lives, gone in an instant to two scrawny little losers who didn't give a damn about how much damage they were doing.

There's no way to describe the seething anger at anyone who thinks that's an acceptable way of life. There's no way to describe how it felt when one of the guys scowled at my husband and the judge in the courtroom while being arraigned. There's no way to describe how much I wanted to slap his family, sitting on the courtroom bench in front of me, his mother and tiny teen sister chatting nonchalantly about how she'd skipped some court date because her friend said she didn't have to go and what to name her baby and how to get a baby-daddy test.

Anger is an obvious way to respond to this lunacy. Oh yeah, I spewed some language in the following days that was nowhere near printable and would probably ruin me if I ever decided to run for office. Then we tried to find a silver lining, telling ourselves that no matter what they did to hurt us, our lives were still better than theirs. We tried to find some relief in seeing a destructive punk sent off to Jackson for 15-60 years. We have an everlasting and deep respect for the Detroit police detectives who cracked the carjacking ring. We also had to laugh at the stupidity of the carjackers, getting caught in a stolen car with stolen car parts and personal items from several of their previous victims.

Still, it brings little comfort to put away a few criminals in a city with far too many of them.

Yes, we need a serious attitude adjustment in this city. We, those from the "good" Detroit, the ones who volunteer to teach photography (hats off to Dave) or to perform at a fundraiser for a grieving family's cancer-treatment bills, do not deserve this. Nor do the disrespectful, don't-give-a-damn criminals deserve one bit of our sympathy or tolerance.

Quote from: Savonarola on June 11, 2009, 11:59:30 AM
  I spent several days at the Frank Murphy Hall of Justice as an expert witness in a murder trial.

QuoteHey, Cal, Moneybutt, here's a way to make some money off your arsenal:

Quote from: jimmy olsen on June 11, 2009, 02:31:08 PM

Quote from: Savonarola on June 11, 2009, 11:59:30 AM
  I spent several days at the Frank Murphy Hall of Justice as an expert witness in a murder trial.

Elaborate.

QuoteDetroit has a reputation for violence and mayhem. This reputation stems from a variety of factors; some historical, like the riots and the decline of the automotive industry; some current, like the hard drug endemic and the subsequent drug related crime. In the past decade Detroit has taken the initiative and the city is somewhat safer than it once was, but the reputation has been hard to shake.

Suburban Detroit for the most part is safe, and has a much lower crime rate. For this reason the Livonia City Police were shocked as was the neighborhood at the death of Marco Pesce and his family.

Pesce was a jeweler in the Detroit suburb of Livonia. Jewelers are a preferred target for professional robbers. Cash can be traced by serial number. Stolen goods can often be traced the same way, and fences will offer only pennies on the dollar. Jewelry can be melted down and is therefore untraceable, and precious metals and gems bring in their value on the street. For this reason jewelers must exercise extra caution. Pesce's major mistake was that he left his safe at home.

On a Saturday afternoon, right before Christmas, two men donned masks, broke into Pesce's home and forced his son, at gun point, to call his father home on a family emergency. Pesce raced home to find his children and his mother (who had come from Italy to visit for the holidays) captive. The men forced Pesce to open the safe, then they ransacked the house, then they forced the family to get down on their hands and knees in a circle and then they executed them one after the other.

One of the perpetrators had a Christmas Dinner planned with his girlfriend and family that night. After leaving Pesce's home he called her up and said to her "Honey you're going to hate me for this, but I'm in Kentucky. I found a man who wants to buy my car, and I came down here to sell it."

He called her on his cell phone, and that's how I became involved. I'm an engineer for a cellular phone company. A cellular phone works by broadcasting and receiving frequency from an antenna on a cellular tower. These cell sites have a limited range, (usually a mile or two) on which the phones serve. For billing purposes we monitor and record the cell site and the time the calls were made. Once the police started to get a lead on the perpetrators they subpoenaed their cell phone records and an engineer. I drew the short straw.

The day I was scheduled to go to court was winters last grand rally. A mere dusting of snow was in the air when I left for the courthouse, in the thirty minutes it took me to get there the city was pounded with 6 inches of snow. The wind turned hard bitter and pounding and I was blanketed in snow by the time I got to the Frank Murphy Hall of Justice. I stood in line for security, miserably dripping melting snow.

After a bit of a clean up I went to the court room. Everyone was late and there was a great deal of concern over whether the jurors would arrive. Eventually they did, there was 28 total jurors since the trials were being run simultaneously. One of the defendants was black and one was white. One of the jurors on the black man's jury, a white woman, had complained to a clerk of illness and asked to be dismissed.

No attorney can resist the opportunity to grandstand, and the defense lawyer for that jury. He brought us from the Civil War to pending Supreme Court cases on the issue of racism and covered all points in between. Racism is still a factor in the United States, he argued, so a white woman was expendable on the trial of a black man. The prosecuting attorney then got up to suggest that justice was better served if there were as many jurors as possible. Then the other defense attorney got up and started to make incoherent remarks about jurors. He wasn't looking so good, and suddenly announced that he wasn't feeling well and asked to be dismissed. He stopped mid sentence (a sure sign of serious illness of an attorney) and just started coughing. The judge said he could be excused but the attorney didn't move; he just kept coughing. Then he stopped, started to wobble, and collapsed stiff shoulder and in a straight line amidst a chorus of gasps. The judge ordered everyone to clear the court. That attorney had suffered a mild heart attack and was taken out of court on a gurney.

He had fallen right in the direction of the prosecutor. The prosecutor had been talking to, what he referred to as his "Thug Witness," before the issue with the jury came up. Said thug, upon seeing the attorney collapse asked the prosecutor "Did he make a move on you? I think he's faking it, I saw him try to make a move on you." The prosecutor told the thug that the defense attorney had looked pretty serious to him.

The decision was made to run the trials separately, continuing immediately with the trial with the healthy attorney. Court was in recess for the day, and the trial would continue the next day. I went to the prosecutor's office and spent most of the rest of the day discussing the data we had provided. The defense was still maintaining the alibi that the defendants had been in Kentucky selling their car. The phone records put their cell phones in the city of Livonia in the general vicinity Pesce home. The girlfriend of one of the defendants was going to testify that she had talked to the defendant when our phone records showed he had called her house.

The trials went about the same both times. I was forced to wait out in the hall as the trials progressed. The court house had hard wooden benches that felt like church pews and became uncomfortable after a while. I read books and watched the people pass by.

Parisians say that if you wait in a café in Paris long enough half the world will walk by. The other half passes through the Frank Murphy Hall of Justice. Kids were out in the hall filled with indolent braggadocio impatiently waiting for their friend to be sentenced; one minute shouting the next reserved and worried. Women were waiting for their husbands bail hearing. Some guy was telling another how alcohol destroyed his life. An attorney told the defendant's friends that the defendant needed to return his calls.

The real show was the prosecution's star witness in my trial. He was one of the defendant's uncles and the Don of West Detroit's Motorcycle Gang. He was on probation and had a rap sheet as long and as gory as the scroll of the sins of Babylon. The perpetrators were (don't be shocked) previously convicted felons and were therefore not allowed to buy firearms. The Don had connections and had sold his nephew the guns used in the slaying. His nephew had come over the night of the killing and bragged about five people being dead. The Don had agreed to testify on behalf of the prosecution in exchange for immunity. Ratting out your own nephew is frowned upon in organized crime societies, but the Don said he'd never be able to look himself in the mirror again if he didn't testify, so testify he did.

The Don was a hulk of a man, big burly and strong as an ox. He had scars and he looked like he ate nails for breakfast. He left the courtroom in tears, bawling his eyes out. The prosecuting attorney tried to console him, but he just would not stop. It seems the defense attorney had been extraordinarily tough on the Don.

After seeing that I was mighty nervous when it came my turn to testify. My testimony lasted all of five minutes and the defense attorney didn't even bother to cross examine me the first trial. My second appearance was equally brief, but I had to wait out in the hall just as long.

The two men were found guilty and sentenced to life in prison without parole. Mr. Pesce's brother showed there were no hard feelings at the sentencing by telling the court "They are baby killers. I hope that when they go in jail they get the shit beat out of them every day."

Perhaps some justice was done, and perhaps the city is a better place, but Detroit is still Detroit. The day of the sentencing a man threatened to run poison gas through the ventilation shafts of the Frank Murphy Hall of Justice (for reason's unrelated to the Pesce slayings.) Police raided his home and found he did have all the chemicals he threatened to use. Fortunately he didn't use his cell phone to call in the threat.

Quote
Developer admits funneling $6,000 to Detroit City Council member
Paul Egan and Leonard N. Fleming / The Detroit News

Detroit --A Detroit businessman pleaded guilty Monday to paying more than $6,000 in bribes to an unnamed member of the Detroit City Council in connection with a $1.2-billion sewage sludge contract the panel awarded in 2007.

The council member was not identified in court documents or by Rayford W. Jackson when he admitted to the bribery conspiracy charge, but persons familiar with the investigation identified the council member as Monica Conyers, whose change of position on the Synagro Technologies Inc. contract allowed it to pass by a 5-4 vote.

Steve Fishman, Conyers' Detroit attorney, declined comment on Jackson's guilty plea and said he had no new information to provide on any case involving Conyers. She made a brief appearance Monday at City Hall, and her spokeswoman, Denise Tolliver, declined comment.



Jackson, 44, pleaded to a bribery conspiracy charge and admitted he used a courier on four separate occasions to deliver bribes to "Council Member A" -- the same council member that former Synagro official James R. Rosendall Jr. earlier admitted to bribing.

Jackson's plea represents a further ratcheting up of pressure in the long-running and wide-ranging investigation of City Hall contracting, the scope of which includes former Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick and his father, business consultant Bernard N. Kilpatrick. Jackson is the second person to plead guilty to charges stemming from the Synagro contract, while three have pleaded guilty to crimes involving contracts at Cobo Center. Other City Hall deals also are under investigation.

The courier Jackson used is also not identified in court records. But persons familiar with the case identified him as Jackson's 38-year-old brother, Lennie, who was released from federal prison in 2006 after doing time on a drug-related charge.

Under Rayford Jackson's plea deal, prosecutors say his brother will not be charged for delivering the bribes, though he could go back behind bars if it's determined he violated the terms of his parole.

"I conspired with others to provide money to elected officials in exchange for favorable votes before the city of Detroit," Jackson told U.S. District Judge Avern Cohn.

The plea deal Jackson signed is more explicit, saying he "paid or caused to be paid bribes" at the request of the council member to reward the council member for supporting the sludge-hauling and treatment contract awarded to Synagro of Houston. Jackson was Synagro's local partner on the sludge deal, charged with pushing it through City Council.

In January, the city and Synagro agreed to rescind the contract.

Although Jackson insists he is not cooperating with federal authorities to help indict others, his guilty plea directly implicates Council Member A.

And, according to the plea agreement, Lennie Jackson is cooperating with prosecutors. He couldn't be reached for comment.

A sentencing date for Rayford Jackson has not been set. He faces up to five years in prison.

Unlike many plea agreements, Jackson's does not require him to testify against others; nor does it promise lenient treatment. The documents also show he has a prior criminal record, having been placed on probation for three years in 1988 for receiving stolen property.

Jackson, who attended court surrounded by five bodyguards, admitted using his brother to send bribes on four separate occasions, based on information from Jackson's plea agreement and persons familiar with the investigation.

The first bribe, of an undisclosed amount, was delivered to an aide to Council Member A in the fall of 2007. Jackson admitted his brother delivered a second envelope containing an unspecified bribe directly to the council member in the parking lot of the Mr. Fish restaurant in Detroit on Oct. 4, 2007.

On Nov. 20, 2007, Lennie Jackson delivered to the council member an envelope containing $3,000 at the Butzel Family Center in Detroit.

And on Dec. 4, 2007, Jackson's brother brought the council member another envelope containing $3,000 in a McDonald's parking lot, Jackson admitted in plea documents.

"All of the payments were made to Council Member A for the purpose of securing and maintaining Council Member A's support for the Synagro contract and for no other purpose," the plea deal states.

Jackson told The Detroit News in an exclusive interview published Saturday that he planned to plead guilty to cut his losses in the Synagro case, but did not intend to provide federal officials with information or testimony that could be used to indict others in the scandal.

Jackson's attorney, Richard H. Morgan Jr., said Jackson would likely get leniency if he agreed to testify against others.

However, "sometimes people take positions and decide they're not going to bring anyone but themselves down," Morgan told reporters. "That's what he's done."

Morgan said Jackson was not responsible for the downfall of former WJBK-TV (Channel 2) anchor Fanchon Stinger, who lost her job after her ties to Jackson were made public.

"The media took her down," Morgan said.

Jeffery A. Taylor, Stinger's Sterling Heights attorney, said Jackson's guilty plea marks "an important day" for Stinger in moving toward closure of the Synagro story. Taylor said he is confident Stinger will not face any charges in the Synagro scandal.

Rosendall, a Grand Rapids businessman who was Synagro's Michigan vice president, earlier pleaded guilty to a similar bribery conspiracy charge. He is cooperating with federal officials and awaits sentencing.

Synagro, which fired both Rosendall and Jackson after the bribery scandal was revealed, has not been charged.

Quote
Monica Conyers reluctant to take plea deal, sources say
Leonard N. Fleming, Paul Egan and Darren A. Nichols / The Detroit News

Detroit --Detroit City Councilwoman Monica Conyers has yet to accept a plea deal offered by the federal government in connection with a corruption investigation at City Hall, increasing the odds that she could soon face federal indictment.

The federal authorities told Conyers they wanted an answer by the end of the day Tuesday, but there had been no movement by 5 p.m., a person familiar with the investigation said.

The bribery-related charge that Conyers could plead to carries a maximum sentence of five years in prison, though she probably would receive less time.

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Two sources who have spoken with Conyers said she is reluctant because she doesn't want to serve time in jail.

Conyers mostly ignored reporters when she left City Hall in an unmarked car after 3 p.m. en route to her weekly television show "Ask the Councilwoman With Monica Conyers." But when asked if she would accept a plea, she murmured that The Detroit News was "full of (it)."

Conyers seemed to briefly allude to the allegations during a live broadcast of her show on WHPR-TV (Channel 33). She acknowledged that she's been in the news but challenged detractors, saying, "If you aren't praying for me, then you are just adding to the problem."

"First and foremost, I am a child of God," Conyers said. "All these things going on right now, I believe in my heart, God will deliver me from."

Later in the show, Conyers brushed off a caller who asked directly what she thought about the "latest scandal" involving Synagro. "I don't have a thought," she said.

Steve Fishman, Conyers' attorney, declined to comment.

Her husband U.S. Rep. John Conyers, who is the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee that oversees the U.S. Attorney's office and FBI, was unavailable for comment. His spokesman in Washington declined to comment on the plea deal or the congressman's knowledge of it.

Conyers was not identified in federal court documents nor by developer Rayford W. Jackson when he pleaded guilty Monday to bribery conspiracy charges in federal court, but sources say Conyers is the official known as "Council Member A."

Jackson pleaded guilty to paying more than $6,000 in bribes to an unnamed member of the Detroit City Council in connection with a $1.2 billion sludge contract approved in late 2007. He admitted to using a courier on four separate occasions to deliver bribes to "Council Member A" -- the same council member that former Synagro official James R. Rosendall Jr. earlier admitted to bribing.

Conyers, who showed up to the regularly scheduled City Council meeting, declined to speak to reporters and was primarily silent during the meeting except to pitch a community event this afternoon. She looked worried.

After Conyers left the meeting, Councilman Kwame Kenyatta said he hoped those involved in the scandal are identified soon. He said he's upset about being lumped in with someone who's allegedly taken a bribe.

"It was an affront to all of us who don't do business that way, and it's incumbent upon us to speak up," Kenyatta said. "Hopefully we're moving toward conclusion, but not fast enough. If you say there's a cloud, a council member A, B, or C, then we need to know who that is. If not, it looks as if it's all of us and could be an indictment on all of us."

Council President Kenneth Cockrel Jr. told reporters after the session that he wants indictments to move quickly.

"The bottom line is this whole Synagro issue has been out there some time. I'm of the mindset of whatever they've got, bring it," Cockrel said.

"I know in my experience with federal investigations, they tend to be slow and meticulous, but when they come, they come like a ton of bricks. My feeling is if they are going to come like a ton of bricks, they ought to come now."

Quote from: MadImmortalMan on June 17, 2009, 03:54:11 PM

Bribery. Looks like Monica will wind up in the slammer.   :(

Quote from: garbon on June 17, 2009, 08:55:32 PM
Actually the question in my mind is who does something so blatantly wrong for a measly 6k?

Quote from: Savonarola on June 19, 2009, 09:25:26 PM

Quote from: garbon on June 17, 2009, 08:55:32 PM
Actually the question in my mind is who does something so blatantly wrong for a measly 6k?

Former city councilwoman Kay Everett allegedly sold her vote for a 17 pound case of sausage on one occasion and a day at the spa on another.  (She died before her case came to trial; hence the "Allegedly.")

Quote from: DontSayBanana on June 17, 2009, 06:27:39 PM
The question on everybody's minds: politicians are paid to act dumb while they're taking the money right out of your pocket, but can anybody act that well? Or is it Option C, and she's just freaking nuts?

Quote from: garbon on June 17, 2009, 08:55:32 PM
Actually the question in my mind is who does something so blatantly wrong for a measly 6k?

QuoteLibrary money paying city bills
Official: Cash supposed to go to benefits
By ZACHARY GORCHOW and CHASTITY PRATT DAWSEY • FREE PRESS STAFF WRITERS • June 20, 2009

The City of Detroit has been spending property tax money intended for Detroit Public Library employees' benefits on city operations instead, a library official said Friday.

Revelations about the city's use of library money came on the same day the Free Press reported that the city had been spending tax money it collects on behalf of the Detroit Public Schools to cover the city's payroll and other obligations.

The city would later reimburse DPS.

The library is a separate municipal corporation from the city with a dedicated millage that provides most of its $48-million annual budget.

On Friday, Library Commissioner Jonathan Kinloch said library staff learned this week that the city spent $6.2 million in property tax money that was supposed to go to the library, dating back to July 1.

The money was to cover employee benefits and contributions to the library workers' pension fund.

The city still owes the library the money.

"It's horrible, and it's illegal," Kinloch said. "There's a piggy bank that our money is supposed to be in, and the city is basically going into our piggy bank to pay their bills."

Joseph Harris, the chief financial officer during Mayor Ken Cockrel Jr.'s tenure, said he was unaware the practice of spending others' tax dollars dated back to July.

Financial experts say that the practice is a sign a municipality is in serious financial trouble.

A spokeswoman for Mayor Dave Bing did not respond to requests for comment Thursday and Friday about how close the city is to running out of cash. Nor is it known how, or if, the city plans on repaying the library.

Several council members did not return messages, including Council President Cockrel.

The city's use of other entities' money also is attracting attention in the Legislature.

Senate Majority Leader Mike Bishop, R-Rochester, finds the situation "very troubling," said spokesman Matt Marsden.

He said Bishop and other senators would closely review the matter.

A spokesman for House Speaker Andy Dillon, D-Redford Township, did not return messages.

State law empowers either house of the Legislature to ask the treasurer for a preliminary review.

"It absolutely puts it on our radar screen," Marsden said. "Ongoing fiscal mismanagement in the City of Detroit affects the whole state, not just the City of Detroit."

Quote from: Neil on June 20, 2009, 08:36:47 AM
For starters, it's a relatively small amount of money, and is thus easy for the people bribing her to part with.  It's also easy to conceal.  And let's remember, she's selling her vote on every single vote that is brought before council.  Assuming that 6k is the going value (although I would imagine that many issues would be less, and some might be worth more), that will add up in a hurry.

QuoteCouncil weighs ban on 'pay-to-play'
Proposed ordinance would prohibit political donations from firms wanting no-bid contracts
Darren A. Nichols / The Detroit News
Detroit -- After a dizzying year of scandal and corruption allegations, the City Council is taking steps some members say will end the "pay-to-play" culture at City Hall.

An ordinance drafted by Councilwoman JoAnn Watson would prohibit political contributions from companies seeking no-bid contracts of more than $25,000. It's modeled after a similar law in New Jersey.

"Under the circumstances of what everyone is going through right now, every protection for the city (and) our citizens is necessary," said Alberta Tinsley-Talabi, who called for the ordinance to be reviewed by the Ethics Board.

The proposal comes amid an ongoing FBI investigation into allegations that Synagro Technologies Inc. officials bribed city officials, wined and dined them and used private jets to secure a $1.2 billion sludge-hauling contract in 2007.

But while many applaud the sentiments behind the ordinance, some officials question its legality and effectiveness.

"It is a good idea, but the problem is you have to be careful in not going too far," said Peter Henning, a Wayne State University law professor. "You have to be careful not to go too far or you'll have it declared unconstitutional, and it doesn't do anyone any good. This is one of those processes that isn't measured in days or months. It's always a slow process."

Detroit's culture of pay-to-play practices in City Hall has been under the spotlight since a federal investigation was revealed last year. Since then:

• Alabama banker Donald V. Watkins claimed then-city treasurer Jeff Beasley pressured him to donate $100,000 to then-Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick's legal fund in exchange for a $15 million pension investment in his now-failed airline.

• Two officials with ties to Synagro -- local partner Rayford Jackson and James Rosendall, a former vice president based in Grand Rapids -- pleaded guilty to conspiracy to bribery. The City Council approved the sludge deal 5-4 after at least one member switched her vote. A handful of council members have been contacted by the FBI, but none has been charged.

• A strip club owner has accused Sam Riddle, a onetime aide to Councilwoman Monica Conyers, of seeking $25,000 to allow the establishment to open. Riddle denies the accusations. Conyers also faces claims of taking jewelry valued at $40,000 from a jewelry store whose owner wanted the city to ease restrictions that he said would make his business more difficult. Conyers has declined to comment.

• Ex-Cobo Center directors Lou Pavledes and Glenn Blanton pleaded guilty to felonies and admitted accepting bribes from contractor Karl Kado.

The proposed ordinance calls for limits on political contributions or in-kind donations to political candidates a year before a pending contract. It would keep third parties, family members and political action committees from making contributions.

Companies or contractors who break the ordinance would face a four-year ban from seeking a no-bid contract.

Officials with the city's law department requested three weeks to review the ordinance. They expressed concern that the ordinance is not expansive enough because it only deals with no-bid contracts, and cited potential conflicts with state campaign finance laws.

"Upon review, it would appear it does not have enough expansiveness that would be desired in order to really address the contracts that are coming in. It would not address the vast majority of the contracts that are approved by Detroit," said Tonja Long of the city's law department.

Councilwoman Sheila Cockrel said more should be done to come up with a law that creates a framework to root out corruption.

"We shouldn't rush to judgment and just pass anything," said Cockrel, who also wants city lobbyists to be registered so officials know the people who are doing city business. "We need to take the time and do the due diligence and come up with a structure that maximizes transparency, accountability and deals with the perception of pay to play."

QuoteAudit reveals 257 ghosts on DPS payroll
FREE PRESS STAFF • June 24, 2009

A payroll audit this month at Detroit Public Schools turned up 257 names that will be subject to an investigation into illegal ghost employees, officials said Tuesday.

All of the district's estimated 13,880 workers had to pick up paychecks or direct-deposit slips in person by June 12 as a first step in determining if anyone who is not on the payroll is collecting pay.

There were 37 unclaimed paychecks and 220 unclaimed direct-deposit slips totaling about $208,000, said Odell Bailey, DPS's auditor general. He added that the recipients are not on approved leave.

Robert Bobb, DPS's state-appointed emergency financial manager, also said an audit has begun to determine if employees have unapproved health care dependents that are running up costs.

DPS is to hold a public meeting at 7 p.m. Monday at Frederick Douglass Academy, 2001 W. Warren, to reveal next year's draft budget.

Quote from: Caliga on June 24, 2009, 09:49:42 AM
FYI, my company employs something like 58,000 health care workers, most of whom work offsite in client homes/group homes, and we do that paycheck pickup in-person thing at most sites 3-4 times a year.  Every single time it's done, people get busted.

QuoteAs council president, Conyers hired aunt
Hiring again brings up issue of nepotism in city employment
Christine MacDonald and David Josar / The Detroit News
Detroit --While City Council president this year, Monica Conyers hired her aunt in the council's administrative offices, which manages payroll, travel and purchases for the council members.

Politicians hiring family is not new, but Sunceria Garrett's job adds to the list of Conyers' relatives who are or have recently drawn City Hall paychecks. Conyers has employed her eldest son periodically. Her brother got a position in the city's Buildings and Safety Engineering Department. And her niece works for the mayor's office.

Another staffer who has worked in Conyers' office for at least two years, Kimberly Hutchinson, lives at the same address as Conyers' mom, according to Secretary of State records.

Conyers' spokeswoman Denise Tolliver wouldn't directly answer questions about Hutchinson or Garrett, who according to Wayne County probate records is the sister of Conyers' mother. But Tolliver released this statement: "All hired staff is duly qualified to hold their positions they have by means of their education and experience."

The News couldn't reach Garrett or Hutchinson on Thursday for comment.

Conyers is under scrutiny in a broad federal investigation of City Hall. Sources have identified Conyers as the "Council Member A" referenced in federal court documents as having received bribes in connection with a $1.2 billion sewage sludge contract council awarded in 2007 and an earlier agreement for a composting facility in southwestern Detroit.

Coit Ford, a public policy assistant to council President Kenneth Cockrel Jr., on Wednesday would only confirm that Garrett, 50, was on staff, but wouldn't provide her salary or hire date. City records show that last year Hutchinson's base salary was $52,000. The council president handles the $2.2 million budget for council administration, including the hiring and firing of administrative staff.

The city has no ban on elected officials hiring relatives, and officials have debated adding an anti-nepotism provision to the ethics ordinance.

Former Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick employed several relatives including uncles and cousins. Council President Kenneth Cockrel Jr. who, following Kilpatrick's resignation, served as mayor until May, hired his wife's half-uncle, John Clark, as his chief of staff. He was let go after Clark was caught on electronic surveillance accepting a payment or payments in relation to the sewage contract. He hasn't been charged.

Conyers served as council president while Cockrel was interim mayor. She's since returned to her old post as council president pro-tem.

Councilman Kwame Kenyatta said he'd back a ban on hiring relatives. He said he hasn't hired any while on council. But his wife, Monifa, was appointed by Wayne County commissioners to complete his term on the panel after he was elected to council. That's something of a tradition for the post that pays about $68,000 a year. A few years earlier, Cockrel's wife, Kim, was appointed to his seat when he joined the council.

"The use of the office for personal and family gain, that in itself is something we should guard against," Kenyatta said.

Garrett was Conyers' treasurer during her council run in 2005 and Hutchinson also worked on the campaign, records show.

In April, The Detroit News reported that Conyers -- whose maiden name is Esters -- gave the resumes of her brother, Reginald Esters, and other former convicts to Amru Meah, the head of Buildings & Safety Engineering at the time.

Esters was eventually fired by Meah for attendance issues. In April he was sentenced to five years in prison for brandishing a shotgun at several people last summer in the city.

Conyers' son, John Conyers III, worked for her on and off starting in July 2006, at one point for about $15 an hour.

Ellen Conyers has worked in the mayor's Office of Neighborhood Commercial Development since at least October 2006. Tolliver told the Detroit Free Press in April that Conyers had nothing to do with getting her niece the $63,000 a year job.

QuoteCandidate wants Detroit to pump way to safety
Charlie LeDuff

T. Pharaoh Muhammad believes he has conjured a real, practical, low-cost idea to make Detroit safer.

Require all gas stations within the city limits to have at least one full-service pump.

"It may not seem like much," says Muhammad, 39, a former production manager at the Warren Truck Assembly plant who took a buyout last November.

"But if you live in this city as I do, then you know that people are afraid," says Muhammad, who recently moved in with his mother on Edison Street.

Muhammad, a fresh and affable face in the Detroit political scene, believes he can get the law passed. All he needs is the voting public to pluck him from the obscurity of 167 candidates vying for the nine city council seats that are up for election this November.

Call him the Preacher of the Pump. The Teacher at the Tank. Just don't call him Jerome. He left the name -- Timothy Jerome Grant -- behind 17 years ago when he joined the Nation of Islam after hearing the Supreme Minister Louis Farrakhan preach at Cobo Center. His work at Mosque No.1 has put him in touch with the real people of the city, he says.

"They are afraid to do the most simple things, like sit on their porches or get out of their cars to pump gasoline. The problems here are so big that this is something that we can get done that goes a long way toward improving the quality of life in the city, a quality we had here once upon at time."

And to prove the need for a full-service attendant, Muhammad invited a reporter out to a gas station on the west side of town at the corner of Boston and Linwood. This area is heavy with racial symbolism. The riots of 1967 ignited just a few blocks from here. The Black Jesus at the Sacred Heart seminary is just a block away. The original home of Henry Ford just a few blocks more.

But those were other times altogether.

"These days people worry about getting carjacked or worse," Muhammad says.

And on cue, the police are called as two women go berserk on the snack cakes and trash can. The manager on the other side of the bulletproof glass responds with racial epithets. Frail, google-eyed women wander aimlessly. Three different men aflame in alcohol approach motorists looking for a hand-out. Muhammad mediates in all cases, as though one man can save a corner.

A woman, Angela Robinson, smiles as the dapper Muhammad fills her tank. She said she would be willing to pay a dime more for a gallon of gas in order to feel safe. "I wouldn't have stopped this time of night if my brother wasn't with me. I usually try to come in the day."

Muhammad wants to make clear that he in no way is slighting the city. In fact, he holds a certain proprietary outlook about Detroit. It is a black city, the country's largest black city, and it should be run by blacks.

"The good, the bad, the funk, I love it here and I love the people," he says. But the buffoonery of the political class, the graft in the school district, the spiraling crime only serves to hobble its development while confirming the worst stereotypes held by those outside the city limits.

"They've failed," Muhammad says, obliquely referring to former mayor Kwame Kilpatrick, who was sent to jail for perjury, and the current crop of City Council people. Individual members have, among other things, gotten themselves entangled in a federal bribery probe, neglected to pay proper federal taxes and city taxes and defaulted on a mortgage leading to yet one more abandoned house in the city.

Muhammad was raised on the east side of the city by a single mother. He graduated from Edwin Denby High School in 1988 and received a bachelor of fine and communication arts from Wayne State University in 2001. He was a factory worker of 15 years, a father of two daughters and an active member of the Nation of Islam.

"Look, I'm no saint," Muhammad says, pumping yet another tank while two men bicker violently in the shadows.

"I'm just saying is it too much to ask for a lady to be able to feel comfortable in the lights of a gas station? We have to stop accepting less and expect more."

QuoteMonica Conyers to plead guilty today in Synagro scandal
Paul Egan / The Detroit News
Detroit -- After months of protesting her innocence, Detroit City Council President Pro Tem Monica Conyers is expected to enter a guilty plea this morning in connection with the Detroit sludge hauling bribery scandal, according to records filed with the U.S. District Court, Eastern District.

A hearing is set for 10 a.m. in front of U.S. District Judge Avern Cohn.

Federal prosecutors have been in plea talks in recent days with City Council pro tem Monica Conyers and her former aide, Sam Riddle.

According to the paperwork filed, Conyers will be pleading guilty to a single count of conspiracy to commit bribery: "Beginning at a date unknown and continuing until in or about Dec. 2007 ... Monica N. Conyers did knowingly and voluntarily conspire and agree with an aide and others to corruptly solicit and demand for the benefit of herself and others, and agreed to accept, things of value from persons while an agent of the city of Detroit ... with the intent that Conyers would be influence and rewarded with connection with any business, transaction or series of transactions of a value of $5,000 or more with the city of Detroit. ...

"Defendant Conyers and her co-conspirators executed the conspiracy by agreeing Conyers and her aide would receive money and other things of value by creating the perception in the payors' minds that Conyers would be influenced in taking actions beneficial to the persons giving the things of value using her authority as a member of the Detroit City Council."

Two examples from the indictment:

• On Nov. 20, 2007, at 3:15 p.m., Conyers met with "an individual sent by (Detroit businessman) Rayford W. Jackson" in the Butzel Family Center parking lot and received "an envelope containing cash."

• On Dec. 4, 2007, at 2:30 p.m., "an individual sent by Rayford Jackson" met Conyers and her aide in a McDonald's parking lot in Detroit at which time she received "an envelope containing cash."

Steve Fishman, Conyers' attorney, could not be reached for comment.

James R. Rosendall Jr., a former official with Synagro Technologies Inc., and Jackson earlier pleaded guilty to bribery charges in connection with $1.2 billion contract the Detroit City Council awarded in 2007.

Quote from: Neil on June 26, 2009, 09:11:23 AM
So, are they going to execute her?

QuoteMonica Conyers convicted of conspiracy
She faces up to 5 years in prison
By BEN SCHMITT, JOE SWICKARD, JIM SCHAEFER, DAVID ASHENFELTER, M.L. ELRICK and ZACHARY GORCHOW • Free Press Staff Writers • June 26, 2009

Detroit City Council President Pro Tem Monica Conyers pleaded guilty this morning to conspiring to commit bribery and is free on personal bond.

U.S. District Judge Avern Cohn said, "The defendant now stands convicted."

The one count of conspiring to commit bribery is punishable for up to five years in prison.

Conyers entered the courtroom at 10 a.m. in a beige linen skirted suit and plastic cat-eyed glasses. She sat down and immediately leaned over and began chatting with her lawyer. Behind her in the first two rows of public seating sit seven agents from the FBI. The rest of the courtroom is filled with reporters and court workers from throughout the building who wanted to see the plea deal unfold.

Conyers, the wife of powerful Democratic congressman U.S. Rep. John Conyers, appeared before Cohn to answer charges in connection with the wide-ranging probe of wrongdoing at Detroit city hall.

She has long been under suspicion in the Synagro bribery probe, not least because she had been a vocal opponent of the contract before suddenly switching her sentiments. She became the deciding voice in the city council's 5-4 vote to approve the sludge-hauling deal in November 2007.

Conyers' plea does not mean she will immediately leave office automatically, said Detroit attorney Bill Goodman.

Goodman, who represented the City Council in its fight to oust ex-mayor Kwame Kilpatrick, said the city charter requires a council member to step down "the minute he or she is convicted of a felony. In federal court, that process is complete at the sentencing."

No resignation letter has been submitted by Conyers to Detroit City Council as of this morning, according to the council clerk's office, Council President Ken Cockrel Jr.'s office, and council's legal office.

The federal plea document released today cites two instances in late 2007, in the days surrounding the approval of the now-infamous Synagro Technologies sludge-hauling contract, when Conyers accepted cash bribes from a Synagro consultant.

The document does not cite the specific amount of the bribes, but previous court documents have said that Conyers, identified previously by the feds as Council Member A, took at least two bribes of $3,000 each, among other bribes.

In both cases cited in the court documents today, Conyers was handed the cash in an envelope by a individual representing Rayford Jackson, a Detroit businessman doing work for Synagro who pleaded guilty to bribery earlier this month.

On one of those two occasions, Conyers was accompanied by an aide. Previous court documents indirectly identified former Conyers aide and political consultant Sam Riddle as having participated in the bribery scheme.

The charge reads: Monica Ann Conyers beginning on a date unknown and continuing until or about December 2007, did knowingly and voluntarily conspire and agree with an aide and others to corruptly solicit and demand for the benefit of herself and others and to accept and agree to accept things of value from persons while an agent of the City of Detroit, an entity that received more than $10,000 in federal funding during the calendar year of 2007, with intent that Conyers would be influenced and rewarded in connection with any business transaction or series of transactions of a value of $5,000 or more with the City of Detroit.

Overt acts: On Nov. 20, 2007, at approximately 3:15 p.m., Conyers met with an individual sent by Rayford Jackson in the parking lot at Butzel Family Center and received an envelope containing cash. On Dec. 4, 2007, at approximately 2:30 p.m., an individual sent by Rayford Jackson met Conyers and her aide in a McDonald's parking lot in Detroit at which time the individual delivered an envelope containing cash.

She has been at the center of FBI questioning for months about the city's sludge disposal contract with Synagro Technologies and her activities as a member of the city pension board.

Also attending the hearing is David Whitaker, director of research and analysis division of Detroit City Council, sitting in the back row with coworker Marcel Hurt. Whitaker said they are to report back what happened to city council today.

"What happens next depends on what the council wants us to do, and what the charter requires," Whitaker said. He said if Conyers pleads and a change is required on council, JoAnn Watson becomes mayor pro tem.

Rayford Jackson's brother Lennie is believed to be the courier who met with Conyers.

Elizabeth Jacobs, Lennie Jackson's attorney, declined to comment on Conyers' plea or plea document.

"The thing speaks for itself," Jacobs said today.

U.S. Attorney Terrence Berg will hold a news conference immediately after the guilty plea.

A person who answered the phone this morning at the Washington D.C. office of John Conyers said no one there was immediately available to comment on the plea agreement.

In January, James Rosendall, the Michigan-based Synagro vice president, pleaded guilty to a federal bribery charge for his role in the Detroit Synagro contract and was fired by the company.


Rosendall, 44, of Grand Rapids admitted to plying Detroit officials with cash, contributions, chartered flights and a case of Cristal champagne -- which costs thousands of dollars -- to win approval of the $1.2-billion sludge disposal contract.

He is faces 11 months in prison and a fine of up to $200,000 for his role in the scheme, which began in 2001.

Synagro suspended him without pay last summer after the Free Press revealed that federal officials were probing a deal to build a sludge disposal facility in Detroit.

Come back to Freep.com for more developments.

Staff writer Tammy Stables Battaglia contributed to this report.

QuoteCouncil members react to Conyers' plea
BY ZACHARY GORCHOW AND JOE SWICKARD • FREE PRESS STAFF WRITERS • June 26, 2009

Detroit City Councilwoman Monica Conyers is likely now a former member of the council with her guilty plea to felony bribery charges, even though she hasn't resigned, Council President Ken Cockrel Jr. said today.


Cockrel told the Free Press that he has asked council attorneys to research the issue, but based on research so far, Conyers is done.


"I think at this point a letter of resignation is probably moot," he said. "I think for all practical purposes, this is probably her last day on the council."


After former Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick pleaded guilty to felonies last year, he was allowed to remain mayor for another 14 days, but Cockrel said this situation is different because a mayoral transition is much more complicated than a council departure.


Cockrel said he has mixed feelings. He called it a sad day for the city and another black eye. But he said it's also good that federal authorities are moving so that the cloud over the council lifts.


Asked for his thoughts on the departure of Conyers, who had some infamous outbursts while a council member, Cockrel said, "I'd be lying if I didn't say there's a certain amount of relief there."

Council member Sheila Cockrel called on Conyers to resign right away.


"Now is the time for Ms. Conyers to step aside so the remaining council members can get about the business of the city without her presence," said Sheila Cockrel, who has frequently clashed with Conyers.


"This is a very sad day for the city council, but it comes with a certain sense of relief that the cloud of Synagro can begin to dissipate," Sheila Cockrel said.


She said the plea is a further cleansing from the recent years of corruption including the jailing of Kilpatrick in last year's text-message scandal.


"This is a day of shame and disgrace but an important step in the city recovering from the trauma and tragedy of the past few years," she said.

Quote from: DontSayBanana on June 26, 2009, 11:01:01 AM
Huh. What does this do to John Conyers' standing, now that his wife is a convicted felon?

Quote from: Savonarola on June 26, 2009, 09:14:27 AM

Quote from: Neil on June 26, 2009, 09:11:23 AM
So, are they going to execute her?

Only if they can try her in Ohio as well; the death penalty was abolished in Michigan in 1846.

Quote from: Neil on June 26, 2009, 11:07:43 AM

Quote from: Savonarola on June 26, 2009, 09:14:27 AM
Only if they can try her in Ohio as well; the death penalty was abolished in Michigan in 1846.

Didn't they get her on a federal beef?  Surely the laws of Michigan are irrelevant.

Quote from: alfred russel on June 26, 2009, 11:09:49 AM
I feel betrayed by the guilty plea. I was anticipating months of ridiculous trial updates from Sav.

QuoteConyers' plea sends bad message about city, strong signal to voters
FREE PRESS EDITORIAL BOARD • June 26, 2009

With Monica Conyers now headed for the federal slammer, it's worth pondering how many cities could claim to be facing a more robust culture of corruption than Detroit.

First, former Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick went down for lying and then firing cops and pilfering public funds to cover his lies. Now, just months later, the president pro tem of the City Council, the second-highest ranking member of the city's legislative arm — and the wife of a powerful Detroit congressman — admits to conspiring to take bribes. The Conyers scandal is totally separate from Kilpatrick's entanglements and may yet yield even more convictions.

This is crookedness at a level you might expect in the capital of some Third World country, not in the largest city of an American state. It's the kind of sorry distinction that Detroit and indeed all of Michigan — already fighting a battered national image — just don't need. In reflects a ruthless selfishness on the part of elected officials, putting themselves above the law and ahead of the people they serve. It's just a fine way to say "Welcome to Detroit."

That said, the process of ferreting out the rogues in city government is important, overdue and ultimately cathartic. It may be the only way — in a city that has failed in the past to use the democratic process as a check against breaches of public trust — to shock the public conscience enough to inspire change.

Maybe now Detroiters will demand a charter that contains ironclad ethical guidelines and powerful mechanisms to enforce them. The city has got to take the charter revision process seriously and elect charter commission members who have a keen sense of appropriate governmental conduct.

Maybe now Detroiters will also demand more of the officials they elect to represent them. Conyers, remember, was elected four years ago on sheer name recognition — the wife of Congressman John Conyers, chair of the House Judiciary Committee. But that proved a shallow judgment of her character and the absolute wrong reason to elevate her to public office.

She was bar brawling in northwest Detroit before she even took her seat. She was foul-mouthing and disrupting council meetings within months.

And four years later, you'd have to strain to point out a single significant contribution she has made while on the council. Meanwhile, we now know she was taking money illegally.

Detroiters have 167 choices on the fall council ballot. They've got to choose more wisely, based on record achievement, work ethic and character.

If there's a glimmer of hope on this dark day in Detroit, it's in the understanding that should now be prevalent in the city.

Crooks don't belong in public office. And if Motown doesn't want to be known as Roguetown, it will need to avoid electing bad actors like Monica Conyers in the first place.

QuoteTallying up Detroit's absurdities
BY BILL MCGRAW • FREE PRESS COLUMNIST • June 29, 2009

It is difficult to identify the most absurd aspect of a city as eccentric, loony and unpredictable as Detroit.

But let's go with the Packard Plant today.

The 43-building complex, perhaps the largest decrepit building in the country, burned again Sunday night in a two-alarm fire that tied up nearly 25% of Detroit's fire rigs for hours. Black smoke, blown by westerly winds, drifted over a slice of Detroit's east side toward Grosse Pointe.

Some crews remain on the scene this morning.

This fire was actually fires, plural.

The big blaze burned on the upper floors on the east side of the six-story complex, along Concord Street. One fire burned below that, in an area on the first floor, in a football-field-sized room that is home to tens of thousands of old shoes that someone dumped. Another fire burned in a bunch of wooden pallets that someone dumped in a courtyard on the Packard's west side.

Needless to say, officials believe the fires were deliberately set.

Absurdity No. 1: Parts of the Packard Plant burn on a regular basis.

"We're here about every other week," said Deputy Chief Reginald Amos.

"This place is a death trap," Battalion Chief Greg Best said.


Three weeks ago, a smaller, more contained fire broke out in the middle of the plant after dark. That one made news because officials decided to let it burn itself out, which it did, in about 24 hours.

Fire crews fought Sunday's infernos because the fires were more accessible, and they broke out in daylight, about 7:30 p.m.

"If we let this burn, it would burn for days," said Best. "It's spreading through the whole top floors."

Absurdity No. 2: The Packard complex, near Mt. Elliott and I-94, has 3.5 million square feet and is abandoned except for a small chemical company that was not affected by Sunday's fire.

The complex exists in an advanced state of decay and is totally open to trespass. It is filled with collapsing ceilings, crumbling walls, gaping holes, tons of garbage, tens of thousand of dumped items, two-story-tall roof trees and loads of graffiti.

"I smoke blunts," someone had written near the scene of the fire.

At one point Sunday, officials backed Ladder Co. 20 away from the building because they feared the entire six-floor wall might collapse.

The huge shards of glass in the broken window frames would act like the blade of a guillotine if they fell on a passerby or firefighter.

Absurdity No. 3: As usual, firefighters battled the blaze with their usual array of limping apparatus. The first ladder truck on the scene, Ladder 16, could not raise its ladder. As usual, several rigs from the city's 66-vehicle fleet were out of service Sunday, so the 13 or so rigs at the fire left large swaths of the city without their primary fire responder.


The greatest absurdity: The city seems incapable of doing anything about this situation that endangers citizens and its own employees, sucks up precious city resources and — even by Detroit standards — looks like hell.

Who owns the place?

That's murky.

The complex is ostensibly owned by a company called Bioresource Inc., which emerged with the title after a lengthy court battle with the city.

Yet Detroit officials say the firm has failed to pay city taxes since it bought the plant in 1987. And state records show Bioresource has not filed an annual report since 2000, and was declared dissolved by the state in 2003.

Absurd.

Contact BILL McGRAW: [email protected].

QuoteConyers took cash and jewelry, ex-aide says
Riddle details questionable transactions she brokered; John Conyers' name used but role unclear
BY M.L. ELRICK, JIM SCHAEFER, ROCHELLE RILEY and GINA DAMRON • FREE PRESS STAFF WRITERS • June 29, 2009

Monica Conyers has admitted accepting bribes in a sludge deal, but the Detroit councilwoman's political adviser and onetime chief of staff told the Free Press she received cash and jewelry for brokering other questionable transactions.

The aide, Sam Riddle, said Conyers even helped draft a letter sent by her husband, Congressman John Conyers Jr., D-Mich., to help a man with whom she had financial ties. It is unclear whether John Conyers knew of his wife's alleged link to the businessman.

In that deal, Riddle said, Monica Conyers arranged for Riddle to get a $20,000 contract with Greektown entrepreneur Dimitrios (Jim) Papas in about 2007. Riddle said Papas hired him for crisis consulting and political advising -- but he was never asked to do any work. She then demanded $10,000 of that money as a "finder's fee," Riddle said.

At some point after Papas paid him, Riddle said, John Conyers sent a letter to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in support of a controversial hazardous waste injection well in Romulus that one of Papas' companies was seeking to operate.

Federal investigators examined a variety of Monica Conyers' dealings. U.S. Attorney Terrence Berg said Sunday: "We didn't have any evidence the congressman was knowingly or intentionally involved in Ms. Conyers' illegal conduct."

Monica Conyers' lawyer wouldn't discuss Papas. And Papas did not return messages seeking comment.

Karen Morgan, John Conyers' spokeswoman, declined to discuss the letter.

Riddle: How deals got done
Monica Conyers' relationship with Riddle was complicated.

She was often his client. She was once his boss. And she sometimes found consulting work for him that put cash or jewelry in her pocket, Riddle told the Free Press on Friday in an exclusive interview.


There was the consulting deal he said Conyers set up for him with Papas -- a deal that garnered Conyers half of Riddle's $20,000 fee.

Riddle said Conyers also introduced him to the owner of Zeidman's Jewelry & Loan, a pawnshop whose efforts to relocate and expand in Southfield have become part of a federal probe into public corruption.

In that deal, Riddle said, Conyers collected jewelry from Zeidman's for her role, while Riddle received a five-figure fee and a watch from the pawnshop. Riddle said he gave some of that money to a Southfield councilman.

Conyers' lawyer Steve Fishman said of Riddle's account: "There is a factual basis for the guilty plea contained in the written plea agreement. Anything beyond the plea agreement is pure speculation."

Papas didn't return messages at his home and restaurant, nor did his attorney. Zeidman's owner, Tom LaBret, hung up on a reporter seeking comment.


On Friday, when Conyers pleaded guilty to bribery conspiracy in the $1.2-billion Synagro sludge-hauling deal, federal prosecutors said that they would describe other wrongdoing at Conyers' sentencing. They did not provide details.

Peter Henning, a Wayne State University law professor and a former federal prosecutor, said evidence of other misdeeds could convince U.S. District Judge Avern Cohn to impose a strict sentence on Conyers. Her deal with prosecutors called for a maximum of 5 years in prison.

"I think the government's going to come after her -- both barrels," Henning said. "I would not be surprised if they ask for the max."

The Papas deal
Riddle said Conyers not only arranged his deal with Papas, she drove him to Papas' Greektown office.

"The councilwoman said she had a client for me, that she would do a contract and would do a retainer for me. And it was Jim Papas," Riddle told the Free Press on Friday.

Riddle said Conyers had brokered similar deals.

"She knew she couldn't pay me" as a consultant, "so she would go about the business of finding me clients," he said.

Something about this deal was different, however.

"I didn't have to do a lot of work," Riddle said. "And the councilwoman insisted on half of my retainer as a finder's fee."

Riddle said Papas gave him checks totaling $20,000. He said he then paid the councilwoman $10,000 cash.

"While I felt it was a bit exorbitant, it didn't feel that bad given the workload, which was nil," Riddle said, adding, "It was clear he was dealing with me because of Monica, not because of any special skill set he was hoping to gain with me."

Despite the deal, Conyers was not in a position to aid Papas directly.

One of his companies, Environmental Geo-Technologies (EGT), had entered into an agreement to operate the Romulus hazardous waste injection wells for Detroit's Police and Fire Retirement System, which had invested millions in the troubled project. Conyers served on the city's general retirement fund, a separate pension for retired municipal workers.

While the police and fire pension fund supported EGT's takeover of the well, the project still needed approval from federal regulators.

Riddle said that at some point after Papas hired him, Monica Conyers' husband, U.S. Rep. John Conyers, wrote a letter to the Environmental Protection Agency seeking favorable treatment of the well project. John Conyers, the 21-term congressman, chairs the House Judiciary Committee.

Riddle gave the Free Press an unsigned copy of the letter along with a fax cover sheet from the congressman's office addressed to "Mrs. Conyers" listing her City Council fax number. Under "Comments" it says: "Draft Letter for approval." The cover letter says it was sent by Mustafa Ali, whom the congressman's spokeswoman confirmed once worked in his office.


Riddle said Monica Conyers told him she wanted him to deliver the letter to Papas, but changed her mind. He said he did not know if Papas ever got a copy of the letter.

"She generated the letter," Riddle said of Monica Conyers.

It is unclear whether Papas' alleged payments to Riddle were in any way connected to John Conyers' subsequent letter to the EPA.

In any event, at some point, John Conyers signed the letter and sent it to the agency. The Free Press independently obtained a copy of the signed letter. It is identical to the draft Riddle provided.

Ethics rules prohibit House members from contacting federal agencies on matters in which they have a personal financial interest. It is unclear whether John Conyers knew of any financial connection between his wife and Papas.

John Conyers' spokeswoman would not answer questions about the congressman's letter, including why he sent it, or whether he knew if his wife had indirectly benefited from Papas.

Federal prosecutors previously have cleared Congressman John Conyers of any role in his wife's crimes.

Riddle was unable to provide the Free Press with copies of his contract with Papas, but said federal investigators have copies. A person familiar with the probe confirmed federal agents inquired about the deal.

The EPA later rejected the specific requests sought in the Conyers letter.

The Zeidman's deal
Riddle said Conyers introduced him to Tom LaBret, the owner of Zeidman's, which was seeking to move its Southfield location to 10 Mile and Evergreen. That transaction is now under federal investigation.

"She told him that I could help him out in Southfield," Riddle said.

He said he was paid a five-figure retainer, and the wristwatch he was wearing Friday when he spoke with a Free Press reporter.

He said Monica Conyers negotiated his deal with LaBret and took jewelry for herself.

LaBret hung up on a reporter who called Saturday. He did not return a subsequent message left on his cell phone.

A person familiar with the situation confirmed Riddle's account. The person requested anonymity because of the sensitivity of the investigation.

Riddle said he gave some of his retainer to a Southfield councilman for a community project. Riddle would not name the councilman or detail how much money he gave him. He said he did not know what the community project was or whether the money ever got there.

The person who confirmed much of Riddle's account told the Free Press the councilman was William Lattimore. Lattimore is cooperating with federal authorities probing the Zeidman's transaction in Southfield. The person said Lattimore received at least $7,500.

Lattimore denied taking money and said Saturday the "city's process was not corrupted."

Lattimore accused Riddle of trying to "save his own ass."

"Unlike Sam, I'm not going to comment on my testimony to the U.S. Attorney's Office. I can't. Whatever Sam chooses to do or chooses to relinquish, I guess that's his business. I've been told I cannot comment on my testimony."

Riddle and former state Rep. Mary Waters, who live together, are caught up in the Southfield portion of the federal inquiry, though Riddle insists Waters was not involved.

"Mary Waters had absolutely nothing to do with that other than she introduced me to a councilman she knew out there," Riddle said.

The FBI tapped Riddle's phones from August 2007 until April 2008.

In return for his retainer, Riddle said, he "engaged in aggressive consulting ... quasi-lobbying," including mediating conflicts between Zeidman's and the councilman, showing renderings of the Zeidman's project and obtaining a letter of support from the councilman.

Lattimore denied signing such a letter.


Waters acknowledged that her political prospects had been damaged by the federal probe. "I think I have some explaining to do to the people, which I intend to do," she said, adding, "I did not believe that Sam or Bill, two people that I knew, were doing anything criminal."

Riddle said he didn't break the law.

"I never bribed anyone," he said. "I never attempted to buy any votes."

Staff writers Jennifer Dixon, Tina Lam and Joe Swickard contributed. Contact JIM SCHAEFER: 313-223-4542 or [email protected]. Contact M.L. ELRICK: 313-222-6582 or [email protected].

QuoteCockrel to Conyers: Quit or be forced out
David Josar / The Detroit News
Detroit -- City Council President Kenneth Cockrel Jr. says he will begin forcing embattled Councilwoman Monica Conyers from office unless she resigns by Tuesday.

At a press conference today in City Hall, Cockrel said he and colleagues are ready to move forward with a set of resolutions that could be voted on Tuesday to strip Conyers of all her powers and then hire attorney William Goodman to begin the process to remove her from office.

Goodman was hired to do the same with former Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick.

"It is my opinion that pleading guilty to a federal crime, she has essentially forfeited her seat," said Cockrel, who was joined at the press conference by fellow council members Sheila Cockrel, JoAnn Watson, Brenda Jones, Alberta Tinsley Talabi and Kwame Kenyatta.

Cockrel did not know how soon forfeiture proceedings, if she refused to resign, would begin.

Cockrel said he spoke briefly with Conyers on Sunday night. She pleaded guilty on Friday to a single count of conspiracy to commit bribery.

"I did sense some degree of remorse," he said. "But she wants to take some time to make her decision."

Cockrel said Conyers indicated she wants time to consult with her husband, U.S. Rep. John Conyers, and her family.

Sheila Cockrel called on Monica Conyers to do the right thing.

"She owes it to the city of Detroit to resign immediately and save another media circus. For Detroit's sake, resign," she said.

Jones added that Conyers should resign "for the sake of her family."

The other councilmembers chose to remain silent.

Not attending were Councilwomen Martha Reeves and Barbara-Rose Collins.

Earlier today, before Cockrel's ultimatum, Conyers' spokeswoman, Denise Tolliver, said the councilwoman would attend today's council session for a scheduled vote on the expansion of Cobo Center. No such vote is on the agenda, however. Tolliver couldn't be reached for further comment.

Conyers is scheduled to chair a budget committee meeting this afternoon. As of 10:15 a.m., she was not in City Hall.

Kenneth Cockrel said parts of the council's next plan, such as what to do with Conyers' staff, are still being ironed out.

The 44-year-old Conyers admitted Friday in federal court to taking cash from a Houston-based company in exchange for her vote on a city sludge-treatment contract.

Monica Conyers faces up to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine when she's sentenced. Cockrel said last week that city attorneys were looking into whether Conyers will forfeit her council seat immediately, or whether that will happen after she's sentenced.

Last summer, council tried to begin removal proceedings against Kilpatrick, but the process was scuttled after a Wayne County judge ruled the City Charter was too vague. Kilpatrick resigned as part of a plea deal, although at the time of his decision, Gov. Jennifer Granholm had begun a proceeding where she could have used her powers to oust Kilpatrick.

This morning, Goodman said he believes the process to remove Conyers could be done "in a few weeks."

He said there was no uncertainty that the "conviction of a felony" is a clear reason for council to remove an elected official from office.

The Wayne County judge affirmed that a conviction of a felony is a valid reason to remove an elected official.

However, he also ruled that council could not remove "an elected official (who) violates any provision of the charter punishable by forfeiture" because that reason is too vague.

Council wanted to oust Kilpatirck, alleging he had used his office for private gain, that he failed to disclose a secret side deal to settle police lawsuits in return for hiding embarrassing text messages and that he spent taxpayer money while committing a charter violation.

Goodman added that he "would be honored" to help the city and the council "solve and resolve" the controversy swirling around Conyers.

Quote from: Savonarola on June 29, 2009, 10:06:31 AM
If it was anyone else I’d be sure he or she would resign quietly; but Monica never ever does anything quietly.  The city charter is such that I doubt the council would be able to oust her; at least not before her term expired anyway.  Still I can’t see what she would gain by remaining on the council.

QuoteConyers to resign from Detroit City Council on July 6
David Josar and Darren A. Nichols / The Detroit News
Detroit -- City Councilwoman Monica Conyers at 11:52 a.m. today submitted a letter of resignation to City Clerk Janice Winfrey.

Conyers wrote: "Effective Monday, July 6, 2009, I hereby resign from my position as Council President Pro-Tempore of the Detroit City Council. My staff will be available until December 31, 2009, to assist in the offices of my colleagues."

Earlier in the day, City Council President Kenneth Cockrel Jr. said he would begin forcing embattled Councilwoman Monica Conyers from office unless she resigned by Tuesday. Attorney General Mike Cox also issued a statement saying he would move to remove Conyers if she didn't resign.

Cockrel left City Hall about 20 minutes after Conyers submitted her resignation but was talking on the phone and did not answer questions from reporters.

However, he later released this statement: "I am glad she did the right thing and resign from the Detroit City Council. Now we, as a council and a city, can move on and forward in focusing on the vital issues our city faces -- and we will."

The 44-year-old Conyers admitted Friday in federal court to taking cash from a Houston-based company in exchange for her vote on a city sludge-treatment contract involving Houston-based Synagro.

She faces up to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine when she's sentenced.

Conyers was elected to council in 2005 and received the second-largest vote tally. That was her second run at elective office. She had lost in an earlier run for state Senate.

She is the wife of Congressman John Conyers Jr. They married when she was 25 and he was 61. She was seven-months pregnant at the time with their first child.

Councilwoman Sheila Cockrel, who had fractious relationship with Conyers, called the resignation "an appropriate decision."

"It is time for the City Council to move beyond Synagro and address the issues that are important to the city," she said.

She said she was concerned that Conyers still wants to remain on council for a week, where she gets access to a city-owned vehicle and earns about $81,000 a year.

In addition, she does not believe Conyers' staff will be allowed to stay in city jobs.

"As far as I'm concerned, she forfeited her seat when she pleaded guilty," she said.

At a press conference this morning in City Hall, Cockrel said he and colleagues were ready to move forward with a set of resolutions that could be voted on Tuesday to strip Conyers of all her powers and then hire attorney William Goodman to begin the process to remove her from office.

Goodman was hired to do the same with former Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick.

"It is my opinion that pleading guilty to a federal crime, she has essentially forfeited her seat," said Cockrel, who was joined at the press conference by fellow council members Sheila Cockrel, JoAnn Watson, Brenda Jones, Alberta Tinsley Talabi and Kwame Kenyatta.

It was not immediately known what Conyers' resignation, which will not go into affect until next Monday, will have on any actions by council.

Cockrel said he spoke briefly with Conyers on Sunday night. She pleaded guilty on Friday to a single count of conspiracy to commit bribery.

"I did sense some degree of remorse," he said. "But she wants to take some time to make her decision."

Quote from: Monica Conyers
"Effective Monday, July 6, 2009, I hereby resign from my position as Council President Pro-Tempore of the Detroit City Council. My staff will be available until December 31, 2009, to assist in the offices of my colleagues."

QuoteJohn Conyers defends letter to EPA
By TODD SPANGLER and JIM SCHAEFER • FREE PRESS STAFF WRITERS • June 30, 2009

Before U.S. Rep. John Conyers was for a waste injection well in Romulus, he stood with fellow Democratic Rep. John Dingell who was against it.

In 2003, the influential husband of Monica Conyers appeared at a public hearing in Romulus, standing with fellow Michigan Democratic Rep. John Dingell, who was dead set against a planned hazardous waste injection well in that city.

"We're trying to keep the God-given resources that this area is blessed with as healthy and as clean as possible," Conyers told an audience on April 21, 2003.

Early today, John Conyers offered an explanation as to why his position changed before he sent a letter on July 17, 2007, to the Environmental Protection Agency in support of Greektown businessman Dimitrios (Jim) Papas' efforts to transfer permits that would restart the controversial, leak-prone well.

In a statement e-mailed to the Free Press just after midnight, Conyers' office said he "determined that this was something the EPA should reconsider" based "on the context of the congressman's representational duties to his constituents," including the Detroit police and firemen's pension board, which was heavily invested in the waste well operation.

The statement from Conyers' spokeswoman went on to note that federal prosecutors cleared him of any involvement in the bribery investigation into Conyers' wife.

Sam Riddle, the one-time political consultant and aide to Monica Conyers, told the Free Press last week that that Monica Conyers had indirectly benefited from Papas in 2007, before the EPA letter. It's unclear whether John Conyers then knew of any financial ties between his wife and Papas.

The Free Press also has learned that Papas was a political supporter of Monica Conyers. He contributed $1,500 in 2005 to her successful run for City Council. He also cohosted a fund-raiser that brought $12,250 to her campaign, records show. Riddle, who spoke exclusively to the Free Press for Monday editions, said the 2007 EPA letter from John Conyers was generated by Monica Conyers after she arranged a $20,000 consulting contract for Riddle with Papas. One of Papas' companies — Environmental Geo-Technologies — had contracted with the Detroit Police and Firemen's Retirement System to operate the deep-injection well, in which the system had invested millions.

Riddle said Monica Conyers demanded $10,000 from Riddle as a finder's fee.

In a statement Monday night, Papas said he has cooperated fully with federal agents who have investigated Monica Conyers and others.

"Mr. Papas categorically denies any wrongdoing in his past interactions with Monica Conyers or Sam Riddle," the statement read. "During the period in question, Mr. Papas had no business before the City Council and he sought no special consideration in any matters of government."

Papas also said he was told he is not a target of the ongoing investigation.

Monica Conyers pleaded guilty Friday to a felony for taking bribes in connection with an unrelated $1.2-billion sludge-hauling contract. Her crime carries a penalty of up to 5 years in prison, and federal authorities said they plan to present evidence of other crimes at her sentencing.

U.S. Attorney Terrence Berg has said that agents have found no evidence that John Conyers "was knowingly or intentionally involved in Ms. Conyers' illegal conduct."

State Rep. Doug Geiss, a Taylor Democrat who represents Romulus and is an ardent opponent of the deep-injection well, demanded Monday that John Conyers clarify his position on the project.

"I'd like the congressman to go on the record," he said. "I call for him to publicly state it."

In his 2003 public testimony, Conyers — first elected in 1964 — said that while he wanted to continue discussions about the controversial well project, he was going to "join with" Dingell, who was firmly opposed to the project, "in a struggle that has been going on for many years."

A year later, at another hearing, a member of Conyers' staff painted a bleak picture of trucks loaded with hazardous waste rolling up I-75.

In that 2004 hearing, staffer Deanna Maher appeared for the congressman and said: "Everyone in the entire Downriver area, every community is totally against this injection well, and not just for environmental concerns."

None of those concerns were mentioned in Conyers' 2007 letter to the EPA. Though in both, concerns were raised about the police and fire fund's star-crossed investment in the Romulus well.

In the end, the EPA rejected the specific requests sought in the Conyers letter.

QuoteCouncil 'a second job' for Martha Reeves, back from Motown tour abroad
BY BILL MCGRAW AND ZACHARY GORCHOW • FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER • June 30, 2009

When we left Detroit City Councilwoman Martha Reeves Friday, she was performing as Martha and the Vandellas in England, barnstorming the country in a Motown 50th anniversary tour, being hailed as a legend, lionized as a diva and missed at the council table during a busy week back home.

Since then, Reeves told an interviewer that her council service was "a second job I have" after singing. She also returned to Detroit, unable to comment on the departure of Monica Conyers because, she said, she didn't know Conyers had resigned.

The last concert was Sunday night in Liverpool, and Reeves missed work at her $81,000-a-year "second job" — with car and staff — in Detroit for the sixth day Monday.

And Monday happened to be one of the most historic days in council history, as six members held a news conference and called for their disgraced colleague Conyers to step down after her guilty plea to federal bribery charges.

Later Monday, Conyers announced she would resign.

Reeves missed critical votes on approving water and sewer rate increases last week. She also was gone as the state Legislature was finalizing legislation to set up a regional authority to oversee the expansion and renovation of Cobo Center.

Back in town Monday evening, Reeves defended her absence.

"There's nine council members," she said. "All you need is a majority vote. My staff was there at every meeting. I got full reports."

Reeves said she was unaware that Conyers had resigned until told by a Free Press reporter about 6 p.m. She declined to comment on Conyers' departure, saying she needed to get up to speed on what happened.

"I'm not that familiar with what's going," she said. "I can't make a comment on anything."

In Britain, Monday's Liverpool Daily Echo reviewed Sunday's concert.

"Martha Reeves & the Vandellas and Mary Wilson of the Supremes more than held their own," wrote Jade Wright. "Motown and its plethora of sublime songs changed the face of music forever. And last night, a part of that magic shone in Liverpool."

The tour, which includes members of the Supremes, Miracles, the Commodores and Jr. Walker's All Stars, received generally favorable reviews in a nation where Motown remains highly popular.

In an interview on the BBC's "Woman's Hour" radio show, Reeves was asked about a gaffe in Brighton, England, where, the interviewer noted, she greeted the crowd by saying, "Good evening, Bristol."

BBC: Hear the interview with Martha Reeves on the BBC

Laughing, Reeves recalled: "The audience was quick to say, 'No, Brighton.' They forgave me right away."

Interestingly, as Reeves referred to her Detroit council gig as a "second job," she told her interviewer touring and politics help keep her sharp.

"I'm very happy to still be alive," said Reeves, who turns 68 on July 18. "A lot of my friends have gone on to heaven. I have some fond memories. I can still remember where I am. So it's a good thing. I think the music keeps me ... and the second job I have keeps me active."

The interviewer expressed astonishment that Reeves sits on the Detroit City Council, but then said: "I mean, why shouldn't you be involved in politics? But it just seems odd."

Then there was this exchange at the end of the interview:

MR: "I have had over 100 different backup singers."

BBC: "In that time? Good grief, you've gone through them, Martha, by the sound of things."

MR: "They've gone through me.

BBC: "Of course they have. Lovely to meet you, it really is."

MR: "Take 'em and bring 'em and you can take them as far as they'll go.

Reeves will be busy in July.

In the Vandella business, that is.

Her Web site lists concerts this Saturday, July 4, in New Jersey and Friday, July 10, and Saturday, July 11, near St. Louis.

Contact BILL McGRAW at [email protected].

QuoteDecomposed body found in stolen Jeep in Detroit
BY TAMMY STABLES BATTAGLIA • FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER • June 30, 2009
A body so badly decomposed that a foot fell off was discovered in a stolen Jeep parked behind a house on Detroit's east side Monday.


As Detroit Police investigators tried to check a tether on an ankle just after 4:30 p.m., the foot fell off. Now, homicide officials will try to determine how long the person – too decomposed to determine man or woman Monday – was in a Jeep Cherokee parked in the 18000 block of Alcorn, near 7 Mile and Gratiot.

QuoteMonica Conyers takes to the air on Channel 33
By BEN SCHMITT • FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER • June 30, 2009


She may have resigned her post as Detroit City Council president Pro Tem, but Monica Conyers continued her job as television talk show host today.

Conyers rushed into the studios of WHPR-TV (Channel 33) this afternoon to host her popular Tuesday talk show. She started the broadcast by thanking many of her supporters, especially those in the religious community.


She then offered her opinion on who she thinks Detroiters should vote for in the August primary, giving her support to Councilwomen Martha Reeves and JoAnn Watson.


She took credit for coming up with a plan for the City of Detroit to keep Cobo Center, though she said the current plan for the convention center doesn't provide everything Detroiters need.


"I would have asked for more," she said. "They were trying to give Cobo away in the middle of the night. Just give it away while you were sleeping and while I was sleeping."


She also took partial credit for the water affordability program that helps low-income residents with their water rates, and the reduced trash fee for seniors.


Dressed in a one-piece dress with a strand of pearls and a blazer, Conyers asked reporters on hand if they were there for her show. She wouldn't say if it will be her last broadcast.


Conyers embraced station CEO and owner R.J. Watkins, who says her show gets high ratings.


Just before airing, Conyers rushed out to her car to retrieve something. On her way out she said, "Ya'll think I'm afraid of you. I'm not afraid of y'all.''


Her show, which normally runs for 30 minutes starting at 3:30 p.m., will be on for an hour today.


Conyers has pleaded guilty to federal charges of conspiracy to receive a bribe.

Quote from: Savonarola on June 30, 2009, 10:07:44 AM

I'm glad Martha has found a part time job to supplement her singing career.   :)

Quote from: jimmy olsen on June 30, 2009, 04:32:59 PM
7 shot at a Detroit bus stop, 5 of them teenagers and 2 in critical condition. :(

http://www.cnn.com/2009/CRIME/06/30/michigan.school.shooting/

Quote from: MadImmortalMan on June 30, 2009, 05:04:30 PM

Quote from: Savonarola on June 30, 2009, 10:07:44 AM

I'm glad Martha has found a part time job to supplement her singing career.   :)

It's not such a bad thing. A politician who never goes to work has a much smaller chance of fucking up things.

Quote from: Savonarola on July 01, 2009, 08:23:11 AMI don't know why, but this time of year we usually see the shoot-outs in the city.  A couple years ago we had someone open fire in the crowd at the fireworks.

QuoteRiddle: FBI probed $50K deal with Dems
He, state Dem boss differ over why he got paid

Paul Egan / The Detroit News

Detroit -- Political consultant Sam Riddle says federal investigators have questioned $50,000 he received in 2006 from the Michigan Democratic Party-- payments he described as election year "hush money."

In a recent interview with a Detroit News editor, Riddle said the Democrats paid him not to say negative things about Gov. Jennifer Granholm, who faced a challenge from Republican businessman Dick DeVos in the November election that year.

FBI agents also questioned Riddle about connections between Granholm and business consultant Bernard N. Kilpatrick, the father of then-Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick, said Riddle, the former chief of staff to Councilwoman Monica Conyers.

Granholm and Bernard Kilpatrick worked together in the administration of the late Wayne County Executive Edward H. McNamara in the 1990s. Federal agents have been investigating payments made to Bernard Kilpatrick's consulting firm, Maestro Associates LLC, by companies seeking contracts with the city of Detroit while his son was mayor.

Mark Brewer, chairman of the Michigan Democratic Party, said the $50,000 contract with Riddle's Meridian Management Systems of Flint was for media consulting and was not specifically related to the gubernatorial campaign.

"I can't be responsible for what Sam now says about the contract," Brewer said. "The contract was for media consulting services, and we did in fact consult him about appropriate messages and people to talk to for the fall campaign.

"We have had absolutely no inquiries from law enforcement about this contract," Brewer said.

Liz Boyd, a spokeswoman for Granholm, said the governor had no comment on what Riddle said.

"Clearly, that is a matter between Mr. Riddle and the Michigan Democratic Party," Boyd said of the contract. "I have nothing to add."

As for the FBI asking questions about ties between Granholm and Bernard Kilpatrick, "it is not unreasonable to assume that if the FBI is investigating someone, they might ask questions about someone they might have once worked with or known," Boyd said.

Federal Election Commission records show the Democrats paid Riddle's company the money in five $10,000 installments on July 15, July 29, Sept. 6, Oct. 10 and Nov. 5. The election was Nov. 7.

Granholm's links to Bernard Kilpatrick were also an issue last July, when The News reported that Granholm spoke to a top official in the U.S. Attorney's Office about whether it was possible to have a joint resolution of the ongoing federal investigation of Detroit City Hall-- in which Bernard Kilpatrick was a major focus-- and her review of then-Mayor Kilpatrick's conduct in office, which was then pending.

A day after that article appeared, the Detroit Free Press reported that Granholm also asked then-First Assistant U.S. Attorney Terrence Berg about the strength of the government's case against Bernard Kilpatrick-- an allegation her office denied.

In a related development Tuesday, Detroit businessman Jim Papas said Conyers approached him about hiring Riddle in 2006 because "she felt her budget was too limited."

But Papas denied any wrongdoing or connection between a $20,000 contract with Riddle and a letter that Conyers' husband, U.S. Rep. John Conyers, wrote to federal agents in support of Papas' controversial deep injection well. John Conyers' staffers had opposed the project.

Papas, who issued a statement saying he is not a target of investigators, said he asked a staffer for John Conyers to write the letter. Riddle had nothing to do with it, Papas said. Conyers issued a statement early Tuesday denying any wrongdoing and saying he reconsidered his position "in the context of the congressman's representational duties to his constituents."

Federal agents said Conyers had no knowledge of his wife's crimes and didn't attempt to influence the investigation. Monica Conyers pleaded guilty Friday to conspiracy to bribery for accepting at least $6,000 to switch her position on a $1.2 billion sludge-hauling contract, allowing it to pass in 2007.

QuoteConyers speaks out on TV show
Councilwoman apologizes, regrets hiring former aide
David Josar and Christine Macdonald / The Detroit News
Detroit --Outgoing City Councilwoman Monica Conyers took to the airwaves one day after announcing her resignation, lashing out at the media, apologizing to supporters and distancing herself from onetime chief of staff Sam Riddle.

"If I was smart, I would have listened to my husband (U.S. Rep. John Conyers) and (Riddle) never would have worked for me," Conyers said Tuesday during the broadcast of a 60-minute television show "Ask the Councilwoman with Monica Conyers" on WHPR-TV 33 in Highland Park.

"But sometimes, we as women don't listen to our husbands."

Conyers pleaded guilty Friday in federal court to accepting bribe money to influence her vote on a city sludge contract. Riddle had been her longtime consultant and now, too, is ensnarled in the City Hall corruption scandal.

Her comments follow Riddle's claims that Conyers set up a $20,000 contract between him and Greektown mogul Jim Papas related to his deal with the city's pension system to operate a controversial waste well in Romulus.

The TV show was the first time Conyers had spoken publicly since her plea, and it was vintage Conyers. She smiled throughout most of the hour, but at one point wiped away a tear. She closed by blowing a kiss to the camera and apologizing to voters.

"To all the residents of Detroit, if I disappointed you, I apologize," said Conyers, who drove herself to the Highland Park broadcast studio. Conyers prefaced her remarks by saying she wouldn't talk about her guilty plea. "I don't want to get my judge mad at me, and I don't want to go to jail," she said, then proceeded to light into the media for camping outside her house. She entered the studios asking reporters, "You think I'm afraid of y'all?"

After the taping, Conyers said she hopes to be back next week for another segment.

"I shall too see all you later," she said.

Conyers said she resigned -- this is her last week on council -- because she didn't want to drag the city through a crisis, but called out City Council President Kenneth Cockrel Jr. for threatening to begin forfeiture of office proceedings. She said it would have failed.

Conyers said the only two council members running for re-election worthy of endorsing are JoAnn Watson and Martha Reeves, and the only other candidate she would recommend voters select is Fred Hall.

Conyers also reiterated her love of God and thanked pastors for praying for her, saying "God doesn't give you more than you can handle," but added, "if you blast me, God, you better hope nothing happens to you."

Also Tuesday, Cockrel fired Conyers' aunt, Sunceria Garrett, from the council's administrative offices and didn't renew four of her staffers' contracts. Cockrel said Garrett -- whom Conyers hired while she served as council president -- was let go for budget reasons.

Quote from: DontSayBanana on July 02, 2009, 09:37:07 AM
So of the two people she named as "worthy of re-election," one can't even be arsed to show up for sessions if she's got a gig. That's a fantastic grasp of politics Monica has. I wonder how often during the week John reads accounts of his wife and just facepalms.

Quote"I shall too see all you later," she said.

Quote from: DontSayBanana on July 02, 2009, 09:37:07 AM
So of the two people she named as "worthy of re-election," one can't even be arsed to show up for sessions if she's got a gig. That's a fantastic grasp of politics Monica has. I wonder how often during the week John reads accounts of his wife and just facepalms.

QuoteDetroit council takes aim at Billy Dee Williams malt liquor ads
David Josar / The Detroit News
Detroit -- Put off by a recent spate of billboards around the city that feature actor Billy Dee Williams touting malt liquor with the phrase "works every time," the City Council on Tuesday began looking at ways to regulate billboard advertising.

"This is killing our community," Councilwoman JoAnn Watson said after a local minister, Mayowa Lisa Reynolds, appeared before council asking for help.

Reynolds said she conducted a survey and found the billboards, which feature a cartoon representation of Williams trying to sell Colt 45, located in every square mile of the city.

"This is just wrong for our city," said Reynolds, who then questioned what the slogan, "works every time," means.he Col

"That if women drink it, ladies will lose their virginity?" she asked. "Or a man will do things out of character?"

She added that she did not find the billboards in nearby communities such as Royal Oak and Plymouth.

"It's an issue of racism and perversity," Watson said.

Council directed its Research and Analysis Division to see what action council could take and whether council could halt the erection of new billboards.

City planning director Marcel Todd said that "regulating content is a very scary grounds" because of freedom of speech issues.

However, the city can regulate "time, place and manner" of advertising in the city, he said.

Other cities have taken action against the billboards.

In St. Louis, for example, city officials have criticized the advertisements because they don't include the drinking age or identify the product as being alcoholic.

Councilwoman Alberta Tinsley-Talabi, who got elected to council after launching a "Denounce the 40 ounce" campaign two decades ago to cut down on alcohol sales, was especially upset.

"Every 20 years we have to start this fight again," she said.

Council President Kenneth Cockrel Jr. said he too had problems with the billboards but tempered his criticism by suggesting that the ads wouldn't go up if people didn't buy the products.

"We also have to check ourselves," he said. "I see a lot of people buying 40 ounces."

Quote from: Savonarola on March 18, 2009, 02:13:54 PM
It still has the look and feel of a 30s Jazz Club (just like the Village Vanguard, in fact.)

QuoteMonica Conyers returns to airwaves, says helping folks got her in trouble
The Detroit News / The Detroit News
Highland Park -- Former City Councilwoman Monica Conyers today blamed her desire to help neighbors on her current troubles.

"My biggest problem is helping people," Conyers told viewers on WHPR-TV (Channel 33.) "This whole situation has gotten to the point where I don't want to help people. That's a sad situation. ... If they're going to turn around and lie about people, if they're going to lie on me, I don't want to help people."

The comments on her live show, "Ask the Councilwoman," were the first in public since Conyers resigned Monday after pleading guilty to a five-year felony on claims she accepted two payments of $3,000 to switch her vote in 2007 on a $1.2 billion sludge-hauling contract.

Conyers addressed a lawsuit filed last week from a former staffer, Shanise Robinson, who claims she quit because Conyers did nothing to stop sexual harassment from another employee, Dale Foster, who is now a council candidate. Robinson worked for Conyers for a month in 2008 and alleged Conyers used profanity and threatened to fire her for using the wrong coffee cup and how she answered the phone.

Conyers denied that Robinson ever told her about the situation and said she hired the longtime worker because she had two young children. She said Robinson just left the office one day and never explained her whereabouts. Foster also has denied the claims.

"I felt bad for her," Conyers said. "To say I said those curse words and to not tell me that someone in my office was sexually harassing her and to sue the city ... I just find that disingenuous."

"No one ever ran personal errands for me under any circumstances ... ," Conyers said. "People think I'm down now, so they're going to make up the whole kitchen sink just to make a quick penny."

Conyers, who apologized to viewers for wearing a baseball cap and a T-shirt with the words "100% Back," also touched on the media's treatment of deceased pop star Michael Jackson, threw her support behind new Police Chief Warren Evans and announced the show would still be called "Ask the Councilwoman" even though she resigned.

"I love this show," Conyers said. "A lot of people don't want me to do my show, but I enjoy it. ... Who knows? Maybe I'll get a national sitcom."

Conyers spoke at length about her love of Jackson and the media's treatment of him before and since his death. She said she once got his autograph at the Hotel St. Regis and has listened to his CDs nonstop since his death.

"If I dig into their backgrounds, I could find some bad things, but vengeance is mine sayeth the Lord," Conyers said.

She also exchanged words with a reporter outside the Highland Park station, asking if he wanted her to go to jail and telling viewers, "I don't know why they are here." At one point, a caller accused Councilwoman Sheila Cockrel of bringing about Conyers' downfall.

"Absolutely, we know that," Conyers said. "But I can't talk about that now. Everything will come out in its own time."

Conyers also told viewers the city still got a raw deal with a compromise to expand Cobo Center. Legislation passed recently in Lansing would allow the city to maintain ownership, but lease it to a regional authority that would oversee an expansion and improvements for the North American International Auto Show.

Conyers said she pressed for the lease-back deal, but the city was "hoodwinked" because there are no guarantees that Detroiters would receive 25 percent of jobs at the center or $15 million to pay the debt on the parking structure.

Conyers pleaded guilty last month to conspiracy to commit bribery in connection to the City Hall corruption probe.

She turned in her city-owned Crown Victoria on Monday, said her spokeswoman, Denise Tolliver.

Quote from: Savonarola on July 10, 2009, 03:08:29 PM
"...if they're going to lie on me, I don't want to help people."

QuoteBills mounting as Detroit police reforms crawling along
BY JOE SWICKARD and DAVID ASHENFELTER • FREE PRESS STAFF WRITERS • July 13, 2009

Through years of broken promises, foot-dragging, millions of dollars in oversight fees and payouts in police misconduct lawsuits, U.S. District Judge Julian Cook has been patient as three Detroit police chiefs -- James Barren, Ella Bully-Cummings and Jerry Oliver -- failed to comply with most federally mandated reforms.

Cook has extended deadlines and modified requirements since 2003, when the city signed agreements pledging to clean up the police department. But he may have reached the end of his tolerance.

In an extraordinary step, Cook has sent out a news release inviting the media to a hearing Friday to talk about the city's progress in correcting massive problems uncovered by a 2000 Free Press probe of shootings by police, dragnet arrests and mistreatment of prisoners.

Cook wouldn't discuss the invitation, but officials and citizen groups said it appears that Cook is ready to demand action.

"He hasn't wielded the big stick as we had expected him to," said Ron Scott of the Coalition Against Police Brutality, whose protests help bring about the decrees.

In 6 years, 36% of goals met
Detroit cops promised to clean up their department years ago.


But the legal agreements city officials signed in 2003 with the U.S. Department of Justice's civil rights division over questionable shootings of civilians, illegal dragnet arrests and inhumane treatment of prisoners, have remained unfulfilled for six years with no end in sight.


"Where we are is unsatisfactory," Detroit Deputy Mayor Saul Green said last week. "Mayor Bing recognizes that and we're not going to accept it."


A court hearing is set for this Friday before Cook to discuss the city's progress -- or lack of it -- in enacting reforms. Cook specifically invited the news media to attend the hearing, which is typically held behind closed doors.


Since signing the so-called consent decrees in 2003, only 73 of the 203 provisions -- 36% -- have been met, according to the last review, released in February. The next report is due this week and little improvement is expected.

"It's time, it's past time" for reforms, said City Councilwoman JoAnn Watson, one of several council members to complain about the pace of reform.

Watson wants Cook to make the City Council a party to the agreement and have a say in the reforms, something Cook refused to do in 2003. Cook also previously rejected efforts by a community group, the Detroit Coalition Against Police Brutality, to join the case.

Cook's apparent frustration is matched by Mayor Dave Bing and his top aide Green, a former U.S. attorney who once pushed through similar federally ordered reforms in Cincinnati.

Last week's sudden firing of Barren, who held the post less than a year, by Bing was tied in part to the troubled and slow-paced reform efforts.

Within hours of taking charge of the department, incoming Chief Warren Evans, the former Wayne County sheriff, met with the top brass and told them complying with the decrees is a top priority.


Evans "has assured us this is an area of clear focus and attention," Green said.

Minuses, pluses
According to past reports on the department's progress, federal monitors are especially troubled that the police still don't have a functioning computerized early warning system to monitor, track and evaluate officers' performance. The current system, promised for decades, has too little memory, has trouble cross-referencing and analyzing data and is hard to use.

In addition, only a handful of patrol cars have functioning video cameras, a concern to Wayne County prosecutors and judges. They said the cameras seem prone to malfunction at critical times.

Detroit paid out $13.3 million in lawsuit settlements and claims paid without legal cases being filed in the 2007-08 fiscal year for police misconduct. That figure -- the most recent available -- includes the $9.1 million paid in the whistle-blower case that launched the text message scandal. The city also paid $1.6 million for constitutional violations and $1.2 million for a fatal shooting.

Because the city is self-insured, the money comes out of municipal accounts.

On the plus-side, illegal dragnets -- the practice of detaining potential homicide witnesses and holding them without a court order -- have been curbed, and police holding cells have been fitted with smoke detectors, fire alarm systems and sprinklers.

News probe revealed problems
A Free Press investigation in 2000 found Detroit police led major cities in the rate of fatal shootings of civilians, with the incidents often given cursory investigations that were often tilted toward the officers.


The newspaper also found the department had stalled previous reform efforts and that city officials had once hid a critical outside evaluation. That evaluation, uncovered by the Free Press, laid out a road map for reform.

Watson said Green, with his experience as a federal monitor in Cincinnati, "is our secret weapon, our ace in the deck" to get the police in line. In that city, community group involvement was considered key to implementing the reforms.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Judith Levy, the Justice Department's point person for the decree, declined to comment.

Cook didn't return calls.

Quote from: Caliga on July 13, 2009, 10:43:10 AM

Quote from: Savonarola on July 10, 2009, 03:08:29 PM
"...if they're going to lie on me, I don't want to help people."

:rolleyes: Bitch.  At least give me a reach around if I'm gonna lie on ya.

QuoteSouthfield official Lattimore avoids getting on ballot
BY GINA DAMRON • FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER • July 13, 2009

Southfield City Councilman William Lattimore — who is facing a federal bribery charge — won't be on the ballot for the city's September primary because he hasn't paid up more than $600 in debts to the city, including hundreds in parking tickets, the city clerk said today.

Lattimore, charged in Detroit's U.S. District Court earlier this month, faces a felony charge that he took $7,500 in 2007 as a councilman, "intending to be rewarded and influenced in connection with his official duties," according to court documents.

In an interview with the Free Press today, Lattimore said he's not sure when he'll appear in court.

He also said that, because of the charge, he wanted to withdraw from the election, but had already missed the deadline to do so. Lattimore — who was first elected to the council in 2005 — said he intentionally neglected to pay debts he owes to the city so he wouldn't be eligible. A letter he sent to Southfield City Clerk Nancy Banks on July 8 gave the same explanation for the debts.

"Once I got charged, I felt I needed to concentrate everything, concentrate my attention solely on my deal, on my case," Lattimore said. "I couldn't do both. I couldn't campaign and do that."

Banks said Lattimore owed about $576 in parking tickets and $48.54 on a past-due water bill.

Lattimore did, however, pass a FBI background check — required of all potential candidates — according to a July 7 letter from Southfield Police Chief Joseph Thomas Jr. to Banks.

Officials with the police department could not be reached for comment this afternoon.

In his letter, Lattimore wrote to Banks that he needs to concentrate on trying to "vindicate" himself from the charges.

Lattimore has said Detroit political consultant Sam Riddle and former state Rep. Mary Waters are also under scrutiny in the Southfield federal probe. All three have been investigated as part of a probe linked to Zeidman's Jewelry & Loan, a pawnshop that relocated and expanded in Southfield.

"I so wish that things were different for me than what they are now," Lattimore wrote in his letter, "but I have to do whatever I can do to try to safe my life, and my livelihood."

QuoteDetroit Police Department
The election the first black mayor of the city of Detroit was all about police brutality. Detroit leaders had recruited white men from the southern United States that were (according to court records) big stuff Klansman. These men were recruited to help keep the "Negro" in place.

Many blacks moved from the brutal South to the promising North after World War II in hopes for a better life. The numbers were frightening to some whites, who felt blacks in large numbers would take over control of the city. So, the police department leaders implemented the "Big Four," where they had four big stuff Klansman riding in one squad car.

Blacks were subject to beatings by the Big Four on any occasion, at any time. Wherever blacks gathered, they had to be on the lookout for the Big Four. The Big Four beat many good and well-meaning black citizens and created bad feelings between black citizens and Detroit's police.

By 1973, many whites had moved to the suburbs and blacks had been encouraged to participate in city political systems by the passage of the 1965 Voters Right Act and the election of Mayor Richard Hatcher in Gary, Ind. Coleman Young ran for Detroit's mayor on a platform of changing the city's police department and won big time. Throughout his terms as mayor, Young won without an endorsement from the police department's political organization.


It is heartbreaking to think that after 40 years of black officials holding offices, from the City Council to the official dogcatcher, that there are still so many problems between the citizens and its police department.

To see what the federal government is charging the police department with is beyond imagination:

1. No computers to track officer performance

2. No video cameras on squad cars

3. Illegal dragnet arrests

4. Mistreatment of prisoners

The results include $13 million paid out in lawsuits for 2007, $1.6 million for Constitutional violations and $1.2 million for fatal shootings.

How can this be with all the blacks in power in a mostly black city? What is missing or what is not being told? Why didn't Police Chiefs Ella Bully-Cummings or Jerry Oliver do anything about these problems? Did nonresident officers that came in under the Dennis Archer administration to turn Detroit around cause these problems?

Something is not being revealed to the public and responsible journalists need to find out and tell the whole story.

QuoteDPS board seeks to halt Bobb
It wants answer on roles in school reform
Mark Hicks And Marisa Schultz / The Detroit News
Detroit -- The Detroit Public Schools' board voted unanimously Tuesday to seek a court order to halt the emergency financial manager's plan to turn 17 of the district's 22 high schools over to four professional management firms to help boost student achievement and graduation rates.

They'll also ask a judge to more clearly define the board's role in setting academic policies while emergency financial manager Robert Bobb works to overhaul the district's finances. Attorney David Olmstead is working for free on the issue, board members said.

Bobb announced the plan Friday, a day after the board adopted its own master plan for academics. Board members said he made the plans without their knowledge and didn't consult them. They say he overstepped his authority and was interfering with their role in setting the district's educational policy.

"We hope this forces him to say what he's going to do, which is consult with us," board President Carla Scott said, adding the court order would allow a judge to further outline the board's authority.

"We have no problem working with him, but we have a problem with him working around us. You can't do something without discussing it with us. You don't have a right to set the policy."

Last week, Gov. Jennifer Granholm's spokeswoman said Bobb, whom the governor appointed earlier this year, is not overstepping his role with the district. Granholm gave him a very difficult job of turning around the district, and he doesn't need to be micromanaged, Liz Boyd said.

Scott said the board's legal counsel still is determining whether the action will be filed in federal or circuit court.

District spokesman Steve Wasko said schools would remain DPS schools, and that Bobb's plan did not mean the schools would be privatized.

"Mr. Bobb continues to be focused on the children's issues, not the adult ones," he said. "Dwelling on the adult ones for far too long has led a district to seven consecutive years of deficit spending and, even worse, more years of academic deficits."

Bobb's plan involves some of the districts' worst-performing high schools and is part of a wider restructuring of 40 schools. Bobb is considering management companies for six alternative schools and 10 elementary schools.

Despite the closure of 29 schools, nearly 2,500 layoffs and elimination of general funding to the Children's Museum, the district is facing a $259.5 million deficit. And last week, Bobb also met with retired U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Ray Reynolds Graves to discuss Chapter 9 bankruptcy for the district.

During Tuesday's meeting, board members expressed concern about whether Bobb's plan would cause greater financial hardship to the district. They also hoped to obtain contracts for the management firms to learn about their pay.

"This money should be explained in how it's being spent and where," said board member Ida Short.

Board member Anthony Adams agreed.

"We're talking about process and procedure," Adams said. "It's about transparency and spending millions of dollars."

Scott said the board was not interested in fighting Bobb but wanted to make sure board members had their say in how they reshaped the district. That's what the board is assigned to do, she said.

"Our intention is to set the standards that our children deserve," Scott said. "We're not afraid of reform, but we do draw the line at giving a substandard education to our students."

Quote from: Darth Wagtaros on July 15, 2009, 12:08:24 PM
Better to disband Detroit.  Its a national disgrace to allow a major American city to make Zimbabwe look well governed.

Quote from: Neil on July 15, 2009, 12:10:16 PM

Quote from: Darth Wagtaros on July 15, 2009, 12:08:24 PM
Better to disband Detroit.  Its a national disgrace to allow a major American city to make Zimbabwe look well governed.

Just wall it off and declare it a no man's land?  That has potential.

Quote from: Savonarola on July 15, 2009, 12:34:23 PM

Quote from: Neil on July 15, 2009, 12:10:16 PM

Quote from: Darth Wagtaros on July 15, 2009, 12:08:24 PM
Better to disband Detroit.  Its a national disgrace to allow a major American city to make Zimbabwe look well governed.

Just wall it off and declare it a no man's land?  That has potential.

But what if the President's plane crash lands there?  Kirk Russel is getting old.

QuoteSam Riddle indicted on corruption charges
Ex-state legislator Mary Waters also indicted
BY JOE SWICKARD AND BEN SCHMITT • FREE PRESS STAFF WRITERS • July 15, 2009

Detroit political consultant Sam Riddle was indicted today on a host of federal charges ranging from bribery to extortion, mail fraud and making false statements.

Also charged was former state legislator Mary Waters, who lives with Riddle. The pair were charged with conspiracy to bribe and two counts of bribery stemming from their alleged roles in helping a Southfield pawnshop relocate and expand in that city.

Riddle alone was charged with multiple offenses in connection with the tainted 2007 Synagro sludge-treatment contract. He was charged with extortion, making false statements, mail fraud and bribery relating to Synagro.

Neither Riddle nor his lawyer David Steingold was available for immediate comment.

Todd Flood, Waters' lawyer, declined to comment.

QuoteConyers, Riddle teamed up to extort thousands, indictment alleges
Ex-state legislator Mary Waters also indicted
BY JOE SWICKARD, BEN SCHMITT, DAVID ASHENFELTER AND GINA DAMRON • FREE PRESS STAFF WRITERS • July 15, 2009

Detroit political consultant Sam Riddle was indicted today on a host of federal charges ranging from bribery to extortion, mail fraud and making false statements and court documents contend that former City Councilwoman Monica Conyers participated at every turn of the conspiracy.

Also charged was former state legislator Mary Waters, who lives with Riddle. The pair were charged with conspiracy to bribe and two counts of bribery stemming from their alleged roles in helping a Southfield pawnshop relocate and expand in that city.

Riddle alone was charged with multiple offenses in connection with the tainted 2007 Synagro sludge-treatment contract. He was charged with extortion, making false statements, mail fraud and bribery relating to Synagro.

Riddle also was indicted on various corruption charges involving then-Detroit City Councilwoman Monica Conyers, who recently pleaded guilty to bribery in the Synagro deal. Riddle was an aide to Conyers.

Gina Balaya, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Attorney's Office, said Riddle and Waters will not appear in court today.

The indictment involving Detroit corruption cites four deals in which the feds say that Riddle and Conyers extorted money from people or companies seeking city business. Among the allegations:

• That Riddle and Conyers extorted $20,000 from the owner of a technology company seeking a multimillion dollar investment from the General Retirement System.

• That the pair extorted $20,000 from a Detroit restaurant owner who had business before the City Council.

• Riddle and Conyers extorted another $25,000 from a company operating strip clubs that was seeking a change in licenses from the City Council.

• In addition, Riddle and Conyers allegedly conspired to extort money from a Detroit real estate developer who had business before council and was seeking a multimillion dollar investment from Detroit's General Retirement System.

In addition, Riddle is charged with conspiring to extort money in connection with the city sludge contract with Synagro Technologies, for allegedly accepting cash payments on Conyers' behalf to influence her vote on the Synagro contract.

The indictment says Conyers told Riddle, "You better get my loot, that's all I know," in November 2007 as they pair put pressure on a Detroit restaurant owner to hire Riddle for consulting work. The indictment points out "the restaurant owner told Conyers he did not need a consultant."

Conyers recently pleaded guilty to a single felony bribery charge in the Synagro deal, admitting that she took bribes to cast the deciding vote in the November 2007 Synagro deal, a $1.2-billion contract that has since been rescinded because of serial corruption.

According to the Southfield indictment, between April 2007 and May 2008, defendants Riddle and Waters conspired with each other to bribe City Councilman William Lattimore with $12,500 in order to influence and reward Lattimore for his support for the relocation and expansion of the Zeidman's jewelry and pawn shop in Southfield.

Riddle received three payments totaling $45,000 for his help in the Zeidman's project; the indictment does not specify who paid him. He also received a $5,500 Breitling watch, the feds say. Waters received a $6,000 Rolex, the indictment says.


The Indictment charges that Riddle and Waters paid Lattimore $7,500 in cash on about August 1, 2007. Riddle and Waters made a second payment of $5,000 to Lattimore that October. In May of last year, Lattimore advocated and voted for the relocation of the pawn shop at a city council meeting. The indictment said Lattimore had issued letters on City of Southfield letterhead supporting the relocation soon after each of the two bribes were paid by Riddle and Waters.

In an earlier interview with the Free Press, Lattimore had specifically denied writing such a letter of support.

Lattimore was charged with a single count of bribery in the pawnshop deal. He has previously denied wrongdoing and declined comment today.

Andrew Arena, FBI Special Agent in Charge in Detroit said: "The City of Detroit has a right to expect honest services from its public officials, however, that trust has been abused. The indictment speaks for itself by outlining an arrangement of extortion and bribery between Sam Riddle and Monica Conyers."

Neither Riddle nor his lawyer David Steingold was available for immediate comment.

Todd Flood, Waters' lawyer, declined to comment.

U.S. Attorney Terrence Berg said the corruption probes are not over.

"The indictments today are an additional step of investigations into corruption in the metropolitan area," Berg said. "The investigation is continuing."

Come back to freep.com for more on this breaking story.

QuoteFeds paint Conyers as bold shakedown artist
BY BILL McGRAW • FREE PRESS COLUMNIST • July 15, 2009

The federal grand jury indictment might say "United States of America vs. Samuel L. Riddle Jr."

But the name of Monica Conyers surfaces everywhere in the 27-page document, which contends that the former city councilwoman played Bonnie to Riddle's Clyde as they prowled Detroit, boldly shaking down businesspeople and stuffing their pockets and bank accounts with cash.

The indictment is only the government's version of events, and Conyers' attorney, Steve Fishman, cautioned that it should be read with skepticism.

Fishman said: "What was it that Gladys Knight said? 'Believe half of what you see, and none of what you hear.'"

Conyers wore the pants in this dysfunctional family.

"You'd better get my loot, that's all I know," Conyers is quoted as telling Riddle regarding a payment from a restaurant owner.

Riddle passed her $10,000 in that caper, the indictment says.

Conyers pleaded guilty last month to one count of bribery conspiracy in the $1.2 billion Synagro sludge-hauling deal. If even some of the new allegations are true, you don't need a Harvard law degree to realize Conyers got a great deal.

She also resigned from the council, putting an end to one of the loudest, weirdest, shortest, most polarizing and corrupt political careers in memory.


While Conyers' plea agreement precludes any additional charges, U.S. District Judge Avern Cohn can consider the information contained in the indictment when he decides her sentence. Under the plea deal, the maximum Conyers can do is five years.

Conyers first took office in January 2006. Just 15 month months later, according to the indictment, Conyers and Riddle began their extortion racket.

The indictment charges:

• Conyers conspired with Riddle to hit up the owner of a technology company for $20,000 to make Riddle a bogus "consultant."

• Conyers and Riddle pressured a Detroit restaurant owner to pay Riddle $20,000 for another "consulting job" that didn't exist.

• Conyers and Riddle received $25,000 from the owner of a strip club with an issue before the city council.

• Conyers and Riddle attempted to receive money in another faux "consulting contract" for Riddle, this time with a real estate developer.

Conyers, the wife of U.S. Rep. John Conyers, a Detroit Democrat, became notorious for her bad temper in public. In private, she appears to be equally difficult. The indictment portrays her as nagging Riddle and ordering him to carry out her orders in their various schemes.

"This bitch is a trip," Riddle told an owner of the technology company, explaining Conyers was eager to receive the owner's final $5,000 payment.

"Work on the, uh, five thing," Riddle advised, "so I can keep her chilled out and stuff."

QuoteDetroit council hears complaints about Cobo Center plan
Darren A. Nichols / The Detroit News
Detroit --The City Council has begun to discuss plans to expand Cobo Center this morning, reviving an often-controversial debate about the future of the facility and the North American International Auto Show.

About 100 residents are in the City Council's 13th floor auditorium for a public hearing that began at 10 a.m. The council isn't expected to make any decision today, just hear debate.

The first speaker was Annivory Calvert, a council candidate, who said she was speaking on behalf of her son, state Rep. Coleman A. Young II. She said there's been no appraisal of the land. Like most of the 20 speakers, she had a problem with the plan.

"It seems to be a hobby for them (in Lansing) to step on home rule," said Theo Broughton of Hood Research, a community group. "It seems to me there are whose who are circumventing the power of the City Council."

City resident Sylvia Williams called it "share cropper" legislation.

"This was lousy," said Williams, who has owned her home for 31 years. "It is of no benefit to the residents of Detroit."

The council shot down a plan earlier this year that would have transferred ownership to a regional authority that would oversee nearly $300 million in renovations to help keep the auto show in Detroit. Mayor Dave Bing has expressed confidence in a new plan that would allow the city to retain ownership and lease it to the authority for 30 years.

Bing isn't taking the proposal to the council, and members would need to muster six votes to defeat the proposal by Aug. 1. Otherwise, it goes into effect. Tom Barrow, a mayoral candidate in the Aug. 4 primary, criticized Bing for refusing to take the plan to the council.

"This slick, disrespectful grab of our jewel will devastate our city financially," Barrow said. "The cunning Oakland County Executive (L. Brooks Patterson) and his out-state friends do this now while we have a leadership that is weak and a council under duress and our citizens uninformed. In short, they display a heart thumping disregard for the people of Detroit. We cannot let this happen!"

If the council rejects the plan again, Oakland County will get funds to renovate a facility, publicly outlined as the Rock Financial Showplace in Novi, to host the show.

"Cobo Hall is the line in the sand," said Lester Little of the grassroots Call Em Out Coalition. "We need to expand Cobo Hall, but we need to vote this deal down. We don't need to regionalize (the facility)."

But some speakers favored the deal, including union representatives who said 7,000 members are dependent on a new deal for Cobo.

Quote from: Ed Anger on July 16, 2009, 12:24:54 PM
Ohio should send some of its fine politicians to Michigan and help our brothers out. Youse can have Bob Taft, Sharrod Brown and Rhine McLin.

Quote from: Savonarola on July 16, 2009, 12:43:15 PM

Quote from: Ed Anger on July 16, 2009, 12:24:54 PM
Ohio should send some of its fine politicians to Michigan and help our brothers out. Youse can have Bob Taft, Sharrod Brown and Rhine McLin.

Can we have Dennis Kucinich and Jerry Springer too?  They could join Bing and create a Mayoral Dream Team.

QuoteCity resident Sylvia Williams called it "share cropper" legislation.

QuoteMonica Conyers' wrist slap is wrong message
BY STEPHEN HENDERSON • FREE PRESS COLUMNIST • July 16, 2009

Someone in the local U.S. Attorney's Office may have some 'splainin to do.


They have it all backward in the ongoing city hall corruption probe.

Here's why.

Based on the indictment handed down Wednesday of political consultant Sam Riddle, it seems prosecutors believe Riddle and former Detroit City Councilwoman Monica Conyers were running a pretty robust shakedown operation.

The documents say they hit up a strip club owner for $25,000, extorted $20,000 each from a technology company and a restaurant, and tried to put the arm on a real estate developer.

Riddle's facing a slew of charges related to each of those acts, as well as his involvement with Conyers on the rotten Synagro sludge deal and some other stuff. By statute, he could face a sentence in excess of 100 (yes, one hundred) years.

But Conyers, if you'll remember, copped a plea a few weeks ago to one count of conspiracy in the Synagro deal. And even though she's mentioned about as often as Riddle in his indictment, she isn't being charged for any of the non-Synagro schemes they allegedly hatched. She faces 5 years max in federal prison -- one-twentieth of the time Riddle could get.

Sorry, but that doesn't make sense.

Conyers was the public official involved here, the one who took an oath to serve the public faithfully, and the one who had the power to deliver on any favors she and Riddle concocted to sell.

Small fish faces biggest punishment
At best, in the indictments Riddle appears as a glorified bagman, the go-between who did the face-to-face strong-arming and ferried the cash.

Of course, I understand how deals get made with prosecutors. The U.S. attorney reportedly had been trying to pinch Riddle for some time to get him to cooperate with the investigation. He told them to leap from the Belle Isle bridge.

Conyers obviously cooperated (though it's not clear to what extent) with prosecutors, in exchange for a plea deal.

So they'll try to pound Riddle for his obstinacy. And Conyers will get, by comparison, a wrist slap.

It may often be about who rolls first. But what kind of public message does that send in this case?

Federal prosecutors say this corruption probe is about clearing the crooks out of local government -- in Detroit and other jurisdictions.

"This is a battle against public corruption," thundered Andrew Arena of the FBI, in his best Eliot Ness intonation, when Conyers' plea was announced.

But if the public officeholders get better deals than the private citizens caught up in their shenanigans, it seems the battle has a fuzzy focus. In some ways, the message the feds send here is as important as the results they achieve.

If prosecutors believe, according to Riddle's indictment, that Conyers was at the center of a galling criminal enterprise, her plea deal should have reflected it.

Quote from: Darth Wagtaros on July 15, 2009, 12:08:24 PM
Better to disband Detroit...

QuotePolice official: Escort for toys left in Jackson's memory is 'unacceptable'
Santiago Esparza / The Detroit News
Detroit -- Police officials criticized the use of a four-car police escort for two hearses jammed with stuffed animals in memory of Michael Jackson on Friday morning as it headed to Woodlawn Cemetery.

Detroit police officials couldn't say how much the escort cost the city, and Detroit Police 2nd Deputy Chief John Roach criticized the decision to provide it.

"There's no way to defend it," Roach said. "It's unacceptable. Clearly, this is not something that never should have happened."


The escort guided the hearses from the funeral procession through red lights.

Mourners had left the toys and other items at the Motown Museum on West Grand Boulevard since the singer died June 25. He was 50. After sitting outside for three weeks, the toys were not safe to donate to a children's museum or orphanage, museum CEO Audley Smith said.

"We have now concluded that it would be best to bury the items," Smith said Friday morning.

Roach said the decision to provide the escort was not made by senior command staff and is an example of changes that need to be made within the department.

Once at the cemetery, the toys were unloaded from the tops of the hearses and from boxes inside the vehicles. They were then placed into clear plastic bags and then inside donated vaults. The cemetery donated the equivalent of three graves for the vaults.

A donated gravestone detailed the singer's impact on the music industry and the world.

Jackson's songs from more than 40 years of performing played over speakers as a service was held. "Don't Stop Til You Get Enough" played as the hearses arrived and "Ben" as the service ended. About 50 people were present, but some were staff from the museum, Cole Funeral Home and the cemetery.

Lisy Henderson could not stifle tears when she looked at the gravestone.

"That is so nice," she said. "I am a devoted fan from back in the Jackson 5 days. He left a mark on my heart."

An exhibit will be established at the museum honoring Jackson and some of the items left in his memory will be put on display as part of it, Smith said.

Timothy Michael Vick of Ferndale was happy for the effort. He brought a photo he took of the singer in 1989 when Jackson visited Detroit with businessman Don Barden. Vick included photos of himself then and now in a frame containing the Jackson photo. The Ferndale man said his wife thinks he is crazy, but Jackson left a mark on his life he cannot forget.

"It just doesn't seem like he is gone," Vick said. "I think I cried more for him than when some family members passed."

Aunna Chamberlain of Detroit called Jackson's passing sad.

"I am 21 years old, and I look at him as a role model," she said. "He shaped the lives of so many."

Chamberlain's 6-year-old brother, Colin, amused the crowd with an array of Jackson's signature dance moves from the "Thriller" music video.

"I know all the songs," Colin said, showing his fancy moves. "Look, 'Thriller.' "

QuoteTax debts, money woes hound Detroit council members
Members face trouble, but experts torn on what it means for city
BY M.L. ELRICK • FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER • July 19, 2009

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Detroit City Council members are paid about $81,000 a year and have free use of a Ford Crown Victoria, but the money and perks don't go very far when you're saddled with liens for more than a quarter-million dollars in back taxes.

Paying off her tax bill had been a challenge for Martha Reeves even before she was elected to City Council in 2005. She is one of several council members who have faced financial difficulty.

The lead singer of Martha Reeves & the Vandellas was slapped with an Internal Revenue Service lien amounting to $69,565 in 2003. Late in 2006, after taking a seat on the City Council, Reeves was hit with another federal tax lien for $193,167. The Michigan Treasurer joined the act in 2008, putting a lien for $7,392 on Reeves. And on May 27, the IRS tacked on another lien for $9,470.

The grand total? Nearly $280,000.

It's not clear how much of that Reeves still owes because neither the IRS nor the state Treasury Department will discuss a taxpayer's situation. When the taxes are paid up, a lien release will be filed.

It's also not clear how much Reeves earns from singing engagements at home and overseas. She did not return calls seeking comment.

More than just Reeves
A Free Press investigation of Detroit's City Council reveals that Reeves is one of five council members who have had trouble at times managing their own budgets.

With the city's $1.6-billion general fund budget facing a deficit as high as $300 million, the council members' own lack of financial savvy raises questions about their ability to help steer the city through these difficult times.

Consider:

• Barbara-Rose Collins, a longtime elected official who has served in Congress and on the Detroit school board, had federal and state tax liens totaling nearly $108,000 placed on her home after she was elected to the council in 2001. She has since paid the back income taxes.

• Alberta Tinsley-Talabi, a 15-year council veteran, has a history of failing to pay all of her taxes on time. While on the council in 2004, she paid $2,800 to a collection agency the city hired to recoup delinquent taxes. Some of Tinsley-Talabi's unpaid taxes dated to 1995. The Wayne County Treasurer initiated forfeiture proceedings on two buildings she owns, but the councilwoman was able to retain them after paying back taxes.

• Monica Conyers, who recently resigned from the council after pleading guilty to a bribery charge, had an east-side home she owns enter forfeiture proceedings in April. Conyers kept the home after paying $465 in back taxes and penalties.

• Kwame Kenyatta, elected in 2005, walked away from his home on Bretton after his family's income dropped and his mortgage increased, resulting in a default.

Council President Ken Cockrel Jr. said he wasn't aware of his colleagues' problems, but said significant financial woes could be a concern for Detroiters.

"I think anybody can relate to having some financial difficulties that cause you to fall behind on certain bills, including a house note or property taxes," Cockrel said.

"When the outstanding debt begins to rise into the tens of thousands and hundreds of thousands, that does become a problem in my view. Because as council members, we're responsible for overseeing a budget of hundreds of millions of dollars.

"I think a valid question for voters to ask is, 'Can we trust certain people to be good stewards of tax money when they're not being good stewards of their own?' "

Experts weigh in
Two experts offer different views on how members' personal financial troubles may affect their ability to work through Detroit's fiscal crisis.

"It's a warning sign that citizens and voters should be at least considering," said Eric Scorsone, a Michigan State University professor of state and local government who runs workshops for newly elected county commissioners.

"While I don't think it's impossible that someone who has financial problems could successfully manage a government ... one does need to have some financial literacy ... and actually government is far more complicated because of the way it's managed," said Scorsone, who has also worked as an economic adviser at the state and local level in Colorado.

Joe Harris, a former city auditor general who served as the city's chief financial officer in late 2008 and early 2009, said he isn't so sure -- despite his past frustration in getting the council to enact financial reforms.

Harris said the council has resisted some of the strong medicine he prescribed to help alleviate the city's budget ills.



"That went over like a lead balloon," he recalled.

But while he questioned the wisdom of a couple of council members, he cautioned against concluding that they were unable to help balance the city's budget because of their individual financial problems.

"Each situation is different. To generalize about a set of people based on different circumstances for each one is probably unfair," Harris said.

Tinsley-Talabi attributed her tax problems to renters who fell behind on their payments. She said she has empathy for people who have trouble making ends meet.

"You probably could find reporters, you probably could find lawyers, you probably could find accountants who've had challenges," she said. "In a perfect world, none of us would have any of those. But we don't live in a perfect world. Does it mean we're human? It sure does."

'I pay my taxes on time'
Collins attributed her tax woes to a misunderstanding over what would happen when she withdrew her 401(k) money. She said the IRS wasn't very sympathetic when she tried to work it out.

She attributed the city's budget problems to the mayor's office, which she said is responsible for drafting the budget. Council members do not have the expertise to do that, though they can rely on their staff for guidance, Collins said, adding that Detroiters are well-served by the council.

"I don't believe in the elitist-type government where you can't elect anybody to serve unless they have a CPA degree," she said, referring to certified public accountants. "I think our founding fathers wanted someone who lives next door to you -- peers. And that's what we" have.

Conyers denied that her east-side property had been forfeited for unpaid taxes, despite a document from the Wayne County Treasurer showing that the property was forfeited on March 1 for unpaid 2007 taxes, and another document showing that Conyers retained the property after paying $465 on June 16.

"It was never forfeited. I pay my taxes on time," she said before refusing to discuss the matter further.

Kenyatta said the circumstances that cost him his home are no different than what many people are experiencing.

He declined to discuss the specific problems of his colleagues, but said those problems, coupled with recent allegations of public corruption -- most notably Conyers' guilty plea to accepting a bribe for her vote supporting a 2007 city sludge-hauling contract -- could affect the public's confidence in the council.

"That could be a concern that maybe because of personal finances people would be more susceptible to taking money under the table," Kenyatta said. "But I think it depends on the individual council person and how they take care of ... the people's trust."

True public servants?
He said the biggest problem council members have had in assessing the city's budget predicament is gaining access to accurate information from city officials who work for the mayor and do not answer to the council.

As for council members' personal financial problems, Kenyatta said it may just be a matter of priorities.

"True public servants," he said, "take care of the people's business quicker than they take care of" themselves.

Quote from: Savonarola on July 20, 2009, 08:52:21 AM

"I think a valid question for voters to ask is, 'Can we trust certain people to be good stewards of tax money when they're not being good stewards of their own?' "

QuoteDetroit murders up, police chief says

Evans vows accurate tally, better police response

Charlie LeDuff and Santiago Esparza / The Detroit News
Detroit crime numbers, already among the highest in the nation, are expected to balloon this year as a result of dramatically increasing homicides and chronic underreporting of violence in previous years, said Warren C. Evans, the new chief of police.

The growing homicide rate -- already nearly 20 percent higher in 2009 than even revised totals from last year -- and the disturbing revelation that perhaps as many as 20 percent of violent crimes are not logged by the Detroit Police Department are his top priorities, said Evans, who took command two weeks ago.

"It's the Wild West out there," said Evans in an interview with The Detroit News about the city's violent crime problem.

According to Evans, 216 people had been slain in Detroit this year as of Thursday, putting the city on pace for as many as 450 for the year. Over the same period in 2008, there were 181 homicides and 375 for the year, giving Detroit the highest murder rate in the nation.

As a comparison, New York City had suffered 200 homicides through July 1. New York City has nearly 10 times the population of Detroit and 17 times more police officers.

Evans said he has noticed an unacceptable undercounting of violent crimes in a random sampling of police records.

The problem, Evans said, is an overwhelmed force that does not respond in a timely fashion to emergency calls.

"It usually happens at shift change," Evans said. "Guys come in the afternoon, and there is a backlog of 25 runs. If they don't get to those calls and don't write a report, the crime never gets counted. That's got to change. That's going to change."

As a consequence, citizens should expect to see a spike in crime statistics even if actual crime goes down under his stewardship, said Evans.

Undercounting crime is a chronic problem with the department. Earlier this month, the city changed its 2008 homicide tally from 306 to 375 after a Detroit News investigation showed that the Police Department has systematically undercounted murder for years.

"I do agree that homicides are up and crime reporting is down," Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy said. "I am buoyed by the fact that the numbers are being examined. It is also my earnest hope that they will also take a long hard look at the (homicide) clearance rate as well."

The Rev. Nicholas Hood III, a former city councilman who called for, but never received, a federal investigation into the city's crime statistics in 2000, called the push for an accurate count of crime "a very healthy development."

"For too long, we've pretended that things are better than they really are," said Hood. "The minute we have a true acknowledgement of the problem is the minute we can take appropriate measures to address the problem."

Evans inherited a department that is underfunded and dispirited. He is the city's third chief of police in less than a year and serves Dave Bing, the city's third mayor in less than a year.

What is more, the department has been under federal monitoring since 2003, after a Justice Department investigation documented violations of civil rights through police brutality, detention of homicide witnesses and unsafe holding cells where many prisoners died. A federal judge Friday blasted the department's lack of compliance as "grossly inadequate" and extended monitoring beyond 2011.

Evans unveiled new policies to the Board of Police Commissioners last week.

One of those policies takes effect today: towing the vehicles of unlicensed drivers in high-crime areas. Evans said that at least 3 in 10 murders are committed during a drive-by shooting.

"Because we don't have the beds to put them in, we can't arrest them," Evans said of unlicensed drivers. "They know it's catch-and-release. They know we're not taking them to jail, and we know we're not. But if you take their car, who wants to walk home through a strange neighborhood in the middle of the night? Make it so they can't drive around causing mayhem. It's low-hanging fruit."

Evans said one of his plans to dampen crime is to get more officers on the streets. He wants the department to contract with the Wayne County Jail to handle prisoners, allowing him to close city jails and partially crawl out from federal supervision.

"It would put 90 officers on the street," Evans said. "That is almost a full precinct's strength."

Evans was the Wayne County sheriff when he ran unsuccessfully against Bing earlier this year for mayor. Weeks later, Bing appointed him as Detroit's chief of police, succeeding James Barren.

Quote from: Ed Anger on July 20, 2009, 09:27:54 AM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YSp2KGMQEk8

Quote from: Valmy on July 20, 2009, 10:49:59 AM

Quote from: Ed Anger on July 20, 2009, 09:27:54 AM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YSp2KGMQEk8

The best part of that is the comments where the Michganers are all like 'LEAVE DETROIT ALONE!  YOU ARE LUCKY THEY EVEN LEAD THE NATION IN MURDERS FOR YOU BASTARDS!'

Quote from: Ed Anger on July 20, 2009, 10:53:28 AM


Best one:

i went there this past weekend and it was pretty much like that LOL

It was also scary being the ONLY white person inside of the mall. Im not a racist person, but I knew that I was not wanted there. I got so many bad looks from people.

:D

Quote from: Savonarola on July 20, 2009, 10:56:32 AM

Quote from: Ed Anger on July 20, 2009, 10:53:28 AM


Best one:

i went there this past weekend and it was pretty much like that LOL

It was also scary being the ONLY white person inside of the mall. Im not a racist person, but I knew that I was not wanted there. I got so many bad looks from people.

:D

That's probably just a story.  There are no malls in the city of Detroit.

Quote from: MadImmortalMan on July 20, 2009, 10:59:26 AM
What's the murder rate in Baghdad?

Quote from: Ed Anger on July 20, 2009, 10:57:35 AM


WHERE WILL YOU PEOPLE GET YOUR CINNABONS AT?

I'll pray for you.

Quote from: Savonarola on July 20, 2009, 11:03:27 AM

Quote from: Ed Anger on July 20, 2009, 10:57:35 AM


WHERE WILL YOU PEOPLE GET YOUR CINNABONS AT?

I'll pray for you.

The white devil has stolen all the Cinnabons and keeps them in the suburbs.

Quote from: MadImmortalMan on July 20, 2009, 10:59:26 AM
What's the murder rate in Baghdad?

Quote from: Savonarola on July 15, 2009, 09:23:06 AM


four big stuff

Quote from: jimmy olsen on July 20, 2009, 11:07:59 AM

Quote from: Savonarola on July 15, 2009, 09:23:06 AM


four big stuff

:huh:

Quote from: jimmy olsen on July 20, 2009, 11:07:59 AM

Quote from: Savonarola on July 15, 2009, 09:23:06 AM


four big stuff

:huh:

QuoteDetroiters feel the sting that Obama chose Warren instead
Charlie LeDuff / The Detroit News
Detroit

This past Saturday, President Barack Obama addressed the Ghanaian parliament, extending America's hand to the African continent while condemning corruption and tyranny.

"No country is going to create wealth if its leaders exploit the economy to enrich themselves," he said.
He could have been talking about Detroit. And when he came to Metro Detroit on Tuesday, Obama conspicuously did not set foot in the city -- the nation's largest black urban center plagued by corruption, illiteracy and crime. Detroit, it seems, is less Ghana and more gangrene in the national political consciousness. And with the presidential snub, Obama appears to have fanned the feelings of hopelessness and isolation in the city.

"We're black and he got our vote quite frankly because many of us voted for him because he is black," said Karsem McCurtis on Tuesday, whose family owns Conner's Food, just a stone's throw from the Wayne County Community College campus on Detroit's east side. As it happened, Obama chose Macomb Community College in Warren to unveil a national education initiative.

"It would have been good for him to come," said McCurtis, whose building is painted with an Obama mural. "But he's got our vote locked up, and he's not going to get much play coming to a black city full of corrupt politicians."

McCurtis makes the obvious point about a city that has become the nation's punch line: Kwame Kilpatrick, Monica Conyers, school officials stealing millions from the children, a murder rate that tops the nation, an illiteracy rate of 50 percent and tens of thousands of crumbling buildings. The list goes on.

The White House said it had no comment as to the reason for the president's fly-by of Detroit on his first trip to the state since his election, except to say that he wishes he could have spent the whole day in Michigan.

"I have to say I'm disappointed," said Jerome Smith, an unemployed machinist from Detroit, who was standing at the bus stop at Macomb Community College as the president's motorcade arrived. "Have you seen him rub shoulders with blacks in this country? On the international stage, yes. South of Eight Mile, no."

The president will address the national convention of the NAACP this Friday. It will be his first speech to a predominately African-American audience since taking office.

Obama won 97 percent of the vote in Detroit, totaling more than 325,000 votes. In Macomb County, he took 53 percent, totaling just less than 224,000. That is a difference of 100,000 votes, but still Detroit was not important enough to visit.

Macomb County -- 90 percent white and 40 percent Catholic -- is the one-time home of the famed Reagan Democrats, the working-class whites who famously flipped for Ronald Reagan in the 1980s, based in part on his appeal to their racial grievances.

Obama has neatly sidestepped the issue of race so far, blaming global trade and greedy CEOs as the cause of the sliding middle class way of life.

It is this large group of white voters that Obama must maintain if he is to push through his ambitious plans for health care reform, renewable energy and perhaps a second stimulus package.

"It's the white swing voter he's after," said Adolph Mongo, the brass-knuckled political consultant based in Detroit. "His people are telling him that Macomb County is the major player in Michigan. He snubbed the largest population of black folks in America. He's making a big mistake. He needs to come to Detroit and reassure people that what he's pushing is going to help everybody."

"It was a huge snub," said L. Brooks Patterson, the Republican Oakland County executive. "Why would he want to get near Detroit considering the awful national publicity over the past few years?"

Detroit Mayor Dave Bing said Obama has an open invitation. "Although he has not visited the city as president, it is important to note Mr. Obama has been working hard with Mayor Bing on behalf of the residents of the city," Bing said in a statement.

In the meantime, Detroit continues to empty out. Paulette Bouyer, the gun-toting church lady who was featured in these pages in January after her west-side home was broken into during broad daylight, is moving to Patterson's Oakland County. "The president can't wave a magic wand and make Detroit all right," Bouyer said. "The people have to demand more than thievery from their politicians. But you wish he would have come here for 10 minutes."

Quote from: Caliga on July 22, 2009, 07:21:43 AM
Why would he go out of his way to appeal to black voters?  They voted for him in 2008 simply due to his skin color, and unless the GOP picks a black candidate in 2012 to run against him, they'll all do so again.

Quote from: Savonarola on July 20, 2009, 10:56:32 AM

Quote from: Ed Anger on July 20, 2009, 10:53:28 AM


Best one:

i went there this past weekend and it was pretty much like that LOL

It was also scary being the ONLY white person inside of the mall. Im not a racist person, but I knew that I was not wanted there. I got so many bad looks from people.

:D

That's probably just a story.  There are no malls in the city of Detroit.