"Detroit may get federal aid; financial bailout is unlikely; Obama proposes $300m aimed at several problems" by Jackie Calmes | New York Times, September 27, 2013
WASHINGTON — Two months after Detroit became the largest city ever to file for bankruptcy, top Obama administration officials will be there Friday to propose nearly $300 million in combined federal and private aid toward a Motown comeback — only a fraction of the billions the city owes and a reflection of the budget and political limits on President Obama.
This first major infusion from the federal government, which administration officials said would not be the last, would be used to help clear and redevelop blighted properties, improve transportation systems, bolster the police — especially around schools — and overhaul city management systems wrecked by years of poor administration and resources.
What took $o long?
The package follows weeks of meetings in Detroit and at the White House between an administration team and local business, labor, and philanthropic leaders on how best to pool resources. Final details were to be worked out in a two-hour meeting of the federal and local officials at Wayne State University, participants said.
While Obama remained in Washington as fights over the budget and health care threaten a government shutdown at the start of a fiscal year Tuesday, he is sending a delegation led by his chief White House economic adviser, Gene B. Sperling, which includes three Cabinet members: Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr.; Shaun Donovan, secretary of housing and urban development; and Anthony R. Foxx, secretary of transportation and former mayor of Charlotte, N.C.
Administration officials acknowledged that the initial aid would hardly solve problems in Detroit. But, Sperling said, “It’s the largest city bankruptcy in the history of our country, on our watch, and we’ve got to do something.”
Yet the idea of the federal government’s responsibility toward Detroit is hardly a settled issue in Washington. Instead, divisions on the question reflect the fundamental divide between the two parties about the size and role of government.
Congress, preoccupied with reducing federal deficits, has been all but silent about helping the birthplace of the auto industry and, some say, of the American middle class.
Like all children, the auto industry left home years ago.
The Republican-controlled House is hostile to any spending initiatives from Obama. In the Senate, two Southern Republicans separately and unsuccessfully proposed legislation intended to ban bailouts — Detroit leaders have not sought one — briefly churning the racial currents at play in a city where four out of five residents are black.
Only banks get bailouts -- as the racial card is plied again!
With the chances that Congress would pass any bill for Detroit “somewhere between zero and zero,” as an administration official put it, Obama has fallen back on what he can do through executive actions, with available money and tax credits, or via partnerships with businesss and foundations.
In other words, he will dictate.
Even before Friday’s event, administration officials worked with Michigan’s governor, Rick Snyder, a Republican, to redirect $52 million in federal money to be used to demolish abandoned properties that are blighting communities and discouraging investment.
Most of the roughly $300 million to come is federal money, with the state and foundations chipping in, according to the White House.
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Related: Sparring opens Detroit bankruptcy trial
Sunday Globe Special: Detroit Gone to the Dogs
So has this country.
NEXT DAY UPDATE: US cities turn fiscal corner but not yet on solid ground
Yeah, right. Tell it to Detroit.
Yup, it's those pensions and healthcare they promised you for your public service that is the problem, not Wall Street's looting of the funds.
"Disgraced Detroit mayor gets 28-year sentence" by Steven Yaccino | New York Times, October 11, 2013
DETROIT — A federal judge on Thursday sentenced Kwame M. Kilpatrick, the former mayor of this beleaguered city, to 28 years in prison for widespread corruption that prosecutors say deepened the city’s financial crisis.
“At the very least, a significant sentence will send a message that this kind of conduct will not be tolerated,” said Judge Nancy G. Edmunds of US District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan.
That sends a stronger message.
Kilpatrick, 43, was convicted of two dozen counts in March that included charges of racketeering and extortion, adding his name to a list of at least 18 city officials convicted of corruption during his tenure as mayor.
No wonder the city is in such $hit shape.
His sentencing comes at a sobering moment for the city he once led, which is now remaking itself in bankruptcy court as residents wrestle over whom to blame for the mess.
Start at the top.
“He’s become the poster child of what went wrong with the city and why it went bankrupt,” said Adolph Mongo, a political consultant who worked for his reelection campaign. Yet, he said, it was unfair to pin the city’s problems on any single elected leader.
Kilpatrick’s lawyers had pushed for a sentence of no more than 15 years. They have 14 days to file an appeal.
Kilpatrick spoke softly as he pleaded with the court for a lesser sentence Thursday and apologized to any residents that he may have let down.
“They’re hurting,” he said, adding, “A great deal of that hurt I accept full responsibility for.”
But?
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Related: US seeks 28 years for ex-Detroit mayor
Got what they wanted.
"A man who stole his father’s body from a Detroit cemetery was placed on probation Tuesday and ordered to take mental health medication or face jail."
That is a tough choice. I think I would choose jail.
Also see: Judge puts Michigan’s course on same-sex marriage on hold
He did all you young lovers a favor:
"Two killed in Detroit senior center shooting" Associated Press, October 22, 2013
DETROIT — Authorities on Monday released the identities of two women who investigators say were shot to death the day before at a Detroit seniors’ home. A 65-year-old man has been detained for questioning but has not been charged.
The victims in Sunday’s shooting were Deborah Socia, 59, and Maria Gonzalez, 64. Socia was shot in the head and Gonzalez was shot several times, said Mary Mazur, a spokeswoman for the Wayne County medical examiner’s office.
Police say both women were friends of a woman who had broken off a relationship with the man under investigation, whose name hasn’t been released.
The man surrendered to police Sunday evening at the center on the city’s southwest side, where the man and the women killed were residents.
The shooting happened after the man had an argument with his girlfriend that ended their relationship, police said in a news release.
They said the man went to his apartment at the Pablo Davis Elder Living Center, got a rifle and started looking for two residents he believed to be responsible for ending the relationship.
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When you think about he was also acting like a dictator whoever he was.
