No sign of Hoffa’s body at Detroit site" by Corey Williams and Mike Householder | Associated Press, October 03, 2012
DETROIT — Like many others that came before it, the latest search for former Teamsters boss Jimmy Hoffa has come up empty.
Tests on soil samples gathered last week from a backyard in suburban Detroit showed no traces that Hoffa — or anyone else — was buried there, Roseville police announced Tuesday....
Thus ended the latest in a long string of tips and rumors about one of America’s great mysteries.
Over the years, authorities have dug up a Michigan horse farm, looked under a swimming pool, and pulled up floorboards in their quest for the former union leader.
Anyone check in the corner of the end zone in the Meadowlands?
Hoffa last was seen July 30, 1975, outside a restaurant in Oakland County. The day he disappeared, Hoffa was supposed to meet with a New Jersey Teamsters boss and a Detroit mafia captain.
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Related: In Hoffa search, no remains found
Hoffa was murdered because he threatened to spill the beans after being shut out of the Teamsters after his release from prison. The man likely knew many things, including elements of the JFK assassination.
"Civil rights icon Parks honored with postage stamp" Associated Press, February 05, 2013
DEARBORN, Mich. — Rosa Parks, who died in 2005, became one of the enduring figures of the civil rights movement when she refused to cede her seat in the colored section of the Montgomery, Ala., bus to a white man after the whites-only section filled up. Her defiance and the ensuing black boycott of the city bus system helped the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. rise to national prominence.
The stamp ceremony was part of a 12-hour event at The Henry Ford museum complex in celebration of the 100th anniversary of Parks’s birth that also featured speeches and live music.
Henry Ford is an American hero.
USPS launched the series Jan. 1 with the Emancipation Proclamation Forever Stamp, which was issued at The National Archives in Washington. In August, the series will culminate with the dedication of a stamp recognizing the 50th anniversary of the historic March on Washington.
The Parks stamp went on sale Monday at post offices nationwide and at The Henry Ford, where dozens of people lined up to buy it, and nearby where collectors gathered to get their new stamps and other collectibles stamped by a postal service employee.
Let's let Rosa R.I.P., readers.
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I hope it does better than the Simpson's stamp.
"Judge says Michigan militia head held long enough" by Ed White | Associated Press, August 09, 2012
DETROIT — The leader of a southern Michigan militia once accused of plotting a violent rebellion against the government was given no additional time behind bars Wednesday for possessing illegal weapons after serving two years in jail awaiting trial.
Federal prosecutors wanted David Stone to spend at least nine more months in custody. But a defense attorney said even that punishment would be cut short with good behavior and would disrupt Stone’s attempt to rebuild his life.
‘‘I just ask for your mercy,’’ Stone told US District Judge Victoria Roberts.
The judge agreed, saying prison ‘‘would not make much sense.’’
In March, Roberts acquitted Stone and seven Hutaree militia members of conspiring to rebel against the government with a violent uprising that would target law enforcement. The judge found no evidence of a specific plan. It was an embarrassing defeat for the FBI and the US attorney’s office in Detroit after months of investigation that involved secretly recorded video and audio, a paid informant, and an undercover agent.
Translation: it was another patsy plot set-up so the FBI could look good and ju$tify itself.
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Also see:
FBI Case File: The Hutaree Hoax
Hutaree Ha-Ha
Which is what I'm trying to do with this post.
"Man has to try twice to get arrested in Detroit" Associated Press, September 03, 2012
DETROIT — A man suspected of fatally shooting two men and wounding two others had to turn himself in twice before Detroit police would arrest him, authorities said.
Detroit police said the 36-year-old man got into an argument at a party Saturday, retrieved a gun and opened fire. Four people were shot, and two died. The man surrendered at a fire station about two hours later, and fire officials called police, but no officers turned up.
Police said in a statement that ‘‘due to area patrol units being busy handling high priority runs, no units were dispatched to the location.’’
The man eventually went to a police station, where he was arrested.
Police Chief Ralph Godbee said he has ordered an investigation into why no patrol car was sent to the fire station.
Police should have made ‘‘every effort to ensure that this person was taken into custody,’’ he said.
Sergeant Eren Stephens, a police spokeswoman, said Sunday that the department would examine what police units were doing at the time the suspect tried to surrender, including whether they might have been involved in other aspects of the shooting investigation....
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"Detroit mayor suspends police chief during investigation" by Corey Williams | Associated Press, October 04, 2012
DETROIT — For the second time in two years, a Detroit police chief is embroiled in a sex scandal.
Detroit Mayor Dave Bing suspended Ralph Godbee Tuesday from his $140,400-a-year job amid allegations that the married chief of police had a sexual relationship with a subordinate.
Godbee, 44, and Angelica Robinson, 37, an internal affairs officer, had been conducting an affair that she said had run its course, according to her attorney, David Robinson.
‘‘There was a sexual relationship between my client and Godbee,’’ David Robinson said. ‘‘She was trying to end the relationship, and Godbee didn’t want to let it go.’’
Bing fired Godbee’s predecessor, Warren Evans, in 2010, partly because he was romantically involved with a female officer.
In the more recent case, Angelica Robinson posted a photo of herself with her service weapon in her mouth on the social media site Twitter after learning Godbee was at a weekend police conference with another woman, David Robinson said. He said Godbee had other officers locate Angelica Robinson and put her under surveillance.
‘‘Obviously, it raised the implication of suicide,’’ David Robinson said. ‘‘The story is that she was hurt he was at a conference with another woman. Certainly this has created a lot of pressure. Unfairly, her future is a little bit uncertain. She has to suffer the humiliation.’’
Angelica Robinson has been reassigned from internal affairs to other duties.
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"Detroit police chief steps down amid sex probe" by Corey Williams | Associated Press, October 09, 2012
DETROIT — Detroit’s police chief stepped down Monday after a week of embarrassing revelations about a sexual relationship with a subordinate, forcing the city to search for a fifth leader in four years for a department dealing with one of the nation’s highest violent-crime rates.
Ralph Godbee was hired two years ago to replace a predecessor fired following an affair with a female officer who allegedly also had a relationship with Godbee. His departure extends the revolving door of leadership in a cash-strapped city....
It was the same woman? Then she bad news!
It was the same woman? Then she bad news!
As the city begins its search, police rank-and-file are becoming more vocal about a 10 percent pay cut and 12-hour work shifts enacted near the end of Godbee’s tenure. Bing’s office contends those cuts and others are necessary to help reduce a budget deficit of more than $200 million.
It's about to get a lot worse for the cops.
It's about to get a lot worse for the cops.
McKinnon, who led the Police Department for four years in the mid-1990s and resigned to teach at a university, said the city should also look outside the ranks for its new chief.
‘‘Detroit, traditionally, has been somewhat of an enclosed city,’’ McKinnon said. ‘‘For some reason, we are reluctant to bring outsiders in . . . particularly in law enforcement.’’
Godbee’s predecessor, Warren Evans, was dumped by Bing in 2010 for taking part in a promotional video for a cable police reality show. Bing later said he also fired Evans because the chief was romantically involved with a lieutenant. It later was learned that Godbee also had a relationship with that female officer when he held the rank of assistant chief.
A year earlier, Bing fired chief James Barren after less than a year on the job. Bing said Barren did not do anything wrong, but that he felt the department needed a leadership change.
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Just wondering why you even need police in Detroit.
"Suspect in Mich. officer’s slaying found dead" Associated Press, September 11, 2012
WEST BLOOMFIELD TOWNSHIP, Mich. — A former auto executive, suspected of gunning down an officer who responded to a trouble call in an affluent Detroit suburb, was found dead inside his house Monday evening, police said.
They always say suicide, and I always think the cops killed him. Makes the report a lot easier.
They always say suicide, and I always think the cops killed him. Makes the report a lot easier.
Police had been surrounding the home of Rickey Coley since Sunday night, when an officer was shot to death while responding to a report of a possible suicide attempt or medical emergency.
Police used construction equipment to tear a hole in a second-floor wall of the home Monday afternoon, then sent in a robot to look for the suspect, according to West Bloomfield Township’s supervisor, Michele Economou Ureste. The robot found Coley’s body on a bed, surrounded by knives and other weapons, she said.
It was not immediately clear if Coley took his own life, said police Lieutenant Tim Diamond.
During the standoff, police and Coley exchanged hundreds of rounds of gunfire, Ureste said....
Coley, 50, was having legal and financial problems in his business and was recently divorced.
Police sent a team about 10 p.m. Sunday after getting a 911 call that Coley had tried to kill himself or needed medical attention, Diamond said. Officers called Coley’s name as they climbed the stairs to the second floor and were met by shots....
If he was going to kill himself.... ?????
If he was going to kill himself.... ?????
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Related:
"Police are investigating what prompted a 64-year-old military veteran to stride into a suburban Detroit police station then open fire on officers, leading to an exchange of gunfire and his own death, authorities said Monday."
So it is sort of a California/Dorner situation?
"Investigators believed the killings were drug-related, police spokeswoman Yvette Walker said. The killings were the latest in what has been a particularly violent year in Detroit."
Was it?
See: The Vile Statistics on Violent Crime
"Mother charged in girl’s stabbing death" by COREY WILLIAMS | Associated Press, January 03, 2013
DETROIT — A 26-year-old woman was charged Wednesday with felony murder in the stabbing death of her daughter at their Detroit home just days before the girl’s ninth birthday....
Her slaying came at the end of a particularly brutal year in Detroit. By Thanksgiving, the city had surpassed the 344 homicides reported in all of 2011. As of Dec. 16, the city had recorded 375 murders....
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At least it wasn't a gun, but maybe we should start talking about banning knives.
Prepare for more brutality:
"Review team: Detroit is in financial emergency" by COREY WILLIAMS | Associated Press, February 20, 2013
At least it wasn't a gun, but maybe we should start talking about banning knives.
Prepare for more brutality:
"Review team: Detroit is in financial emergency" by COREY WILLIAMS | Associated Press, February 20, 2013
DETROIT — A state-appointed review team has determined Detroit is in a financial emergency, paving the way for Republican Governor Rick Snyder to appoint an emergency manager who would develop a new plan to get the city out of its fiscal crisis....
The review team pointed to the city’s ongoing cash crisis, which has threatened to leave the city without money to pay its workers or other bills. It noted that the city’s deficit could have reached more than $900 million in fiscal year 2012 if the city had not borrowed enormous amounts of money; that Detroit has long-term liabilities, including underfunded pensions, of more than $14 billion; and that the city’s bureaucratic structure makes it difficult to solve the financial problems.
Is borrowing really the way to go since it will cost taxpayers even more?
‘‘The city has been running deficits since 2005 . . . (and) masking over those with long-term borrowing,’’ said state Treasurer Andy Dillon, a member of the review team.
Under Michigan law, Snyder has 30 days to decide for himself whether there’s a financial emergency. Mayor Dave Bing would have 10 days to request a hearing. Snyder could then appoint an emergency manager.
The emergency manager would be responsible for overseeing all city spending. Bing and the City Council would keep their jobs, but the manager would decide all financial matters.
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"Detroit to get manager after years of trouble" by Monica Davey | New York Times, March 02, 2013
DETROIT — Governor Rick Snyder of Michigan announced Friday that the city of Detroit is so snarled in financial woes that the state must appoint an emergency manager to lead it out of disaster.
‘‘There is probably no city that is more financially challenged in the entire United States. If you look at the quality of services for citizens it’s ranked among the worst. So we went from the top to the bottom over the last 50 or 60 years,’’ Snyder told city residents in a town-hall-style meeting that was broadcast live on local television stations across the city.
‘‘It’s time to say we should stop going downhill,’’ he said. ‘‘There have been many good people that have had many plans, many attempts to turn this around, they haven’t worked. The way I view it, today is a day to call all hands on deck.’’
The state-appointed manager, who could be selected later this month, would ultimately wield powers aimed at swiftly turning around the municipal government’s dire circumstances — powers to cut city spending, change contracts with labor unions, merge or eliminate city departments, urge the sale of city assets, and even, if all else failed, to recommend bankruptcy proceedings.
After a state report that Detroit is carrying more than $14 billion in long-term liabilities and experiencing nearly annual projections of cash shortfalls, the decision was years — perhaps decades — in the making. Still, it set off a range of pointed, emotional reactions here about whether this was the first step toward true repair in a city that was once the nation’s fourth largest or one last very public sign of a city crumbling.
Some elected city leaders have widely criticized the notion of an outside manager as a takeover of their city and an affront to democratic principles, and they were expected to protest the governor’s decision. Under Michigan law, city officials have 10 days in which to seek reconsideration by the governor, as well as the possibility for a legal appeal in the courts after that.
The decision comes during an election year for the mayor and City Council here, and even before Snyder’s formal announcement on Friday, members of the City Council had been mulling legal options, including the possibility of hiring outside lawyers to block the move.
While the state of Michigan has sent in managers to solve crises in other smaller cities over many years, the move is politically fraught in Detroit, the state’s largest city that is mostly black and is dominated by Democrats in a mostly white state where the capital is now controlled by Republicans, including Snyder.
Some political experts in Michigan have speculated that Snyder will choose a financial expert who is African-American in an effort to calm racial dimensions of the move in a city that is 83 percent black....
Leaders of the local NAACP in Detroit vehemently denounced the notion. ‘‘This is antidemocratic, not needed, and it’s against everything that this nation was founded upon,’’ the Rev. Wendell Anthony, president of the local chapter, said in an interview. ‘‘For one individual to be able to wipe out the duties of our duly-elected officials, that’s more or less a dictatorship and it’s against everything that America is supposed to be about.’’
Anthony added that the state might want to consider whether it really wants to take on the troubles of a city where residents have complained bitterly about darkened streetlights, slow response times by police officers, and delayed buses even as city coffers are drained. ‘‘If you come into Detroit,’’ Anthony said, ‘‘you own Detroit. You own education. You own police and fire. You own public lighting.’’
Some business leaders, however, said they welcomed the prospect of a state-appointed manager. Even as the city has wrestled with a shrinking population and tax base and shortfalls in the budget to pay for public services, there are signs of growth in the private sector, and some business leaders say the city’s financial tangle has become the one remaining factor still holding back Detroit.
‘‘Our motto has been, ‘bring it on,’ ’’ Sandy K. Baruah, chairman of the Detroit Regional Chamber of Commerce, said of an outside manager. ‘‘This sends a positive message to business that Detroit is fixing its problems.’’
Baruah discounted suggestions that news of a financial emergency in the city might now somehow frighten away industry or entrepreneurs. ‘‘My opinion is that every negative story about Detroit has already been written,’’ he said.
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"Fixing finances of Detroit to be tough
DETROIT — It appears the appointment of an emergency manager to take over Detroit’s failing finances is all but a done deal. But it remains unclear who will get the job. Governor Rick Snyder is saying little about his selection, except that the person is ‘‘top notch.’’ The state Emergency Loan Board will officially hire the candidate. The city has massive deficits and debt."
Related(?):
Maybe this will help:
Some say it has become a necessity with recent moves of thousands of jobs downtown by Quicken Loans and other employers. Detroit’s current public transportation offerings include a problem-plagued public bus system and the extremely limited People Mover elevated rail. Buses often break down, leaving riders waiting an hour or more to be picked up at stops across the city.
"Housing project where Supremes lived coming down" by Corey Williams | Associated Press, November 16, 2012
DETROIT — A vacant Detroit housing project that was home to the Supremes before the talented trio struck gold with Motown is coming down.
Demolition of the massive Frederick Douglass Homes — known to most Detroit residents as the Brewster projects — could begin in early 2013, Mayor Dave Bing announced Thursday.
Covering several city blocks, the complex bathes part of downtown and surrounding neighborhoods in shadow and fear and is a symbol of the city’s decline.
A $6.5 million federal Housing and Urban Development grant will cover the cost of tearing down the 75 condo-style apartments, two 6-story buildings, and four 14-story towers. Soil remediation — the removal of any below-ground pollution — is included in that tally.
‘‘It’s going to take us, probably, the better part of a year to get everything down,’’ the mayor told reporters at a news conference in front of the hulking complex. ‘‘This total area will be cleaned up.’’
The city has no set plans for redevelopment of the complex.
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Where's the love?
"Sex researcher’s son charged with exposing self" by MIKE HOUSEHOLDER | Associated Press, September 07, 2012
DETROIT — A pioneering sex researcher’s son who was cited for masturbating in New York’s Central Park earlier this year was arrested in a rural Michigan sting operation for allegedly exposing himself to two female undercover investigators.
A nude William H. Masters III yelled for the attention of the two female kayakers Saturday, then made obscene gestures from the bank of the Pinnebog River, Huron County Sheriff Kelly Hanson said. The women were a sheriff’s deputy and her assistant, taking part in a sting operation after a recent spate of similar incidents in the area....
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Also see: Mich. lovebirds rescued after elaborate proposal
They were blue birds?
Man held for theft of father’s corpse in Detroit
Police said a man arrested in the theft of his father’s corpse had hoped the body would return to life. Lieutenant Harold Rochon told The Detroit News that the son is ‘‘very religious’’ and was ‘‘hoping his father would be resurrected.’’
Which is what Detroit is hoping will happen to its city.
