"Conyers lacking signatures to get on primary ballot
WASHINGTON — Representative John Conyers of Michigan, the longest-serving lawmaker running for reelection this year, doesn’t have enough petition signatures to qualify for the ballot, the Wayne County Clerk ruled Tuesday.
More than 1,400 of the 2,000 signatures filed by Conyers’s campaign were invalid, clerk Cathy Garrett said Tuesday. That leaves the Democrat with 592 valid signatures — more than 400 short of the 1,000 needed under Michigan law to qualify for the Aug. 5 primary ballot.
Conyers, first elected to Congress in 1964, represents a district that includes part of Detroit and its suburbs in Wayne County.
He is the top Democrat on the Judiciary Committee and a founder of the Congressional Black Caucus.
If reelected, Conyers would become the longest- serving member of the House of Representatives after his Michigan colleague John Dingell, 87, retires at the end of the year.
Conyers, 84, has until the end of the week to appeal the decision to Michigan Secretary of State Ruth Johnson, a Republican. He could still run as a write-in candidate if that appeal fails.
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"Congressman from Mich. seeks to get back on ballot" Associated Press May 17, 2014
DETROIT — Longtime US Representative John Conyers on Friday appealed a decision that he lacked enough valid signatures to get on the August primary election ballot, part of a larger legal campaign to restore his name and run for a 26th term.
Conyers’s filing with the Michigan secretary of state’s office seeks to reverse this week’s decision by Wayne County Clerk Cathy Garrett to keep the Democrat off the ballot because some petition collectors hadn’t complied with state voter registration requirements.
Spokesmen said the secretary will review the appeal and decide by June 6.
The filing comes a day after Conyers, who was first elected to the House in 1964, joined a federal lawsuit taking aim at the requirement that petition collectors be registered voters.
The suit was filed against Garrett and Secretary of State Ruth Johnson by the American Civil Liberties Union’s state chapter on behalf of two petition circulators and others.
Garrett’s review found Conyers was more than 400 signatures short of 1,000 needed.
Conyers argues in his appeal that the clerk’s decision ‘‘is factually and legally unsound.’’ Several of the circulators of nominating petitions had their voter registration confirmed, the appeal says.
The lawsuit and ACLU officials say the US Supreme Court and the US Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit have struck down such requirements because they violate the rights of free speech and political association. The ACLU also asked the court to order Garrett and Johnson to stop enforcing the law, which the group believes is unconstitutional. A hearing is planned for Wednesday.
Michigan lawmakers last month amended the law to the eliminate voter registration requirement in some cases, but it does not apply to the election involving Conyers.
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"Judge orders Rep. John Conyers put on ballot" Associated Press May 24, 2014
DETROIT — A judge on Friday ordered US Representative John Conyers’s name placed on the August primary ballot, trumping Michigan election officials who said the Democrat was ineligible because of problems with his nominating petitions.
Unbelievable. Dictates from on high.
The ruling by US District Judge Matthew Leitman capped a turbulent day of law and politics and appeared to diminish the possibility that Conyers — second in seniority in the House — might have to mount a write-in campaign to keep his 50-year congressional career alive.
Michigan voters should do the right thing and dump him themselves.
Conyers needed 1,000 petition signatures to get a spot in the Democratic primary. But many petitions were thrown out because the people who gathered names weren’t registered voters or listed a wrong registration address.
But Leitman issued an injunction putting Conyers on the ballot. He said a Michigan law that puts strict requirements on petition circulators is similar to an Ohio law that was struck down as unconstitutional by a federal appeals court in 2008.
Leitman said the free speech rights of Conyers and the circulators were harmed.
?????????
There is evidence that the failure to comply with the law was a ‘‘result of good-faith mistakes and that [circulators] believed they were in compliance with the statute,’’ he said.
When you claim ignorance, citizen of the country, it's not a good enough excuse. That's AmeriKan ju$tice for you!
Leitman’s decision came hours after the Michigan secretary of state agreed with Detroit-area election officials and said Conyers was disqualified.
Conyers, 85, was pleased with the sudden victory.
‘‘I’m trying not to smile openly much but this is very good news, and it’s also good news for the process,’’ Conyers told WXYZ-TV.
What, that sitting $hits like you can be unlawfully and automatically placed on the ballot for a rigged election?
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I only see scum. Him and his wife. Sorry.
How is the old neighborhood doing, anyway?
"Detroit task force says blight cleanup will cost $850 million" by Monica Davey and Timothy Williams | New York Times May 28, 2014
DETROIT — Saying that Detroit needed to rid itself of its vast collection of dilapidated houses, junk-filled lots, and empty shops, a task force examining the city’s blight said Tuesday that the price tag for the cleanup would be at least $850 million, including the likely demolition of 40,000 buildings scattered around the city.
Conyers really brought home the bacon, huh?
The price tag came in a report by the Blight Removal Task Force, an organization formed to catalog and come up with ways for Detroit to rid itself of the decay that has become one of the bankrupt city’s most defining features.
Did you see those picture of Conyers?
The task force also suggested that the city must deal with the hulking factories that dot Detroit — crumbling reminders of the manufacturing prowess of a city far larger, wealthier, and more vibrant than it is today.
Related:
Rosie the Riveter Was a Lesbian
Detroit Dreaming
The report, however, warned that demolishing industrial structures would add hundreds of millions more to the cost, in part because of the need to remedy likely environmental degradation that the buildings have left behind....
But it is global warming that is the problem, says the blog editor upon another cloudy and cool late May Day.
The survey grew out of a task force convened in September by the Obama administration, which was seeking options as to how Detroit might remake itself after it became the nation’s largest city to file for municipal bankruptcy.
No bailout for them?
Despite concerns about the cleanup cost, city, state, and federal authorities, along with foundations and private business leaders, backed the study’s remedy.
What a surprise. Why do you think they put the force together in the first place?
Kevyn D. Orr, Detroit’s emergency manager, said Tuesday that the city’s problem with blighted buildings had been mounting since the Depression and had been the subject of multiple studies over many previous city administrations....
Are you flipping kidding?
Detroit on a slide that long, even when America's car companies were number one, two, and three?
The data was gathered by 150 resident surveyors and volunteer drivers who divided the city into quarter-mile squares, which were nicknamed “microhoods.” The front of each property was photographed and surveyors filled out forms related to the condition of each property. The information was then uploaded via a livestream feed and confirmed by surveyors comparing it to other databases. Among other figures in the survey, it was revealed that 30 percent of Detroit’s parcels of land are now uninhabited — 114,000 vacant lots....
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Look who is coming to help:
"Mich. House OKs $195m to protect Detroit pensions, art" by David Eggert | Associated Press May 23, 2014
LANSING, Mich. — Michigan’s Republican-led House approved spending $195 million to help prevent steep cuts in Detroit retiree pensions and the sale of valuable art, a measure that would link the state with a broader deal designed to end the largest public bankruptcy in US history.
Nowhere near enough.
By a bipartisan 74-36 vote, the chamber approved legislation Thursday contributing state funds to join $466 million in commitments from 12 foundations and the Detroit Institute of Arts. The pool of money would shore up Detroit’s two retirement systems while the city-owned art museum and its assets would be transferred to a private nonprofit.
The corporate takeover continues.
A state-dominated board could potentially oversee the city’s finances for at least 13 years, longer if the city’s books are not balanced. The oversight commission would go dormant in as little as three years if Detroit’s finances stay solid post-bankruptcy.
The House passed 11 bills, which go to the Senate, also controlled by Republicans. The plan has the support of the Republican governor and legislative leaders, but its passage has not been assured in the bailout-averse Legislature.
House representatives stood and applauded after the votes, saying politics were put aside to help rebuild Detroit.
(Had they been put a$ide a lot sooner Detroit wouldn't have needed this. What arrogant a$$holes!)
“Choosing to do nothing means putting billions of debt and uncertainty on our kids and our grandkids,” said Republican Representative Al Pscholka, who noted his district is closer to Chicago than Detroit. “Michigan and southwest Michigan are in a strong position by settling this matter, by settling this bankruptcy.”
Federal government doesn't seem to care.
The legislation would transfer $194.8 million from Michigan’s savings account to an authority that would disburse the money to Detroit’s pension funds, if the bankruptcy judge approves a restructuring plan later this year resolving the city’s debts and other conditions are met.
Just wondering why they would have to do that.
Looting the Pension Funds; All across America, Wall Street is grabbing money meant for public workers
Oh.
The up-front state payment, the equivalent of $350 million spread over 20 years, would come from the state’s rainy day account and would be repaid with annual $17.5 million withdrawals from Michigan’s tobacco settlement over 20 years.
Bond insurers have pointed to the art collection — which includes Van Gogh’s “Self Portrait” — as a possible billion-dollar source of cash in the 10-month-old bankruptcy case.
The wealthy elite wants to get their hands on the art. Who benefited from this bankruptcy?
The city firmly opposes that and instead is banking on the separate deal brokered by mediators that would protect the art forever and limit pension cuts for approximately 30,000 retirees and city workers to no more than 4.5 percent instead of as much as 34 percent.
In voting against the bills, David Nathan, a Democrat who represents Detroit, said he fears Michigan’s “takeover” of the city could go on forever.
“This bill tramples on democracy,” he said. “I don’t think anybody in this room would accept what you are asking the citizens of the city of Detroit to accept.”
We don't live in a democracy or a republic anymore; what we have here is corporate governance administered by an oligarchy.
Supporters of the legislation countered it is modeled after oversight of New York City in the 1970s. Doing nothing is not an option, they said.
They got a federal bailout.
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Look who else is pitching in:
"$100 million going to Detroit from JPMorgan Chase" Associated Press May 22, 2014
DETROIT — Financial giant JPMorgan Chase says it will spend $100 million over five years in Detroit to support and accelerate the bankrupt city’s economic recovery.
It's a kickback from the looted pensions.
The banking company announced the effort Wednesday at an event in Detroit with Governor Rick Snyder of Michigan.
JPMorgan Chase chief executive Jamie Dimon told reporters that his company is a for-profit institution and is investing in the city to make money.
It's true. Bankers do not have hearts.
Snyder said the company’s effort is ‘‘truly special’’ and appreciated.
Chase says it is putting $50 million into Invest Detroit and Capital Impact Partners, which lends to Detroit development projects. It says it is putting $25 million into blight removal, $12.5 million into job training, $7 million into small businesses, and $5.5 million into Detroit’s M-1 light rail project.
They need $850m for the blight, but it looks like JPMorgan wants to spruce up the city for themselves. That's what it looks like.
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Maybe they could pool all that money together and set it aside for bonuses instead.
