Already took a piss and I like to stay regular:
"Detroit retirees to vote on debt plan" Associated Press June 09, 2014
DETROIT — Thousands of retired Detroit municipal workers will soon have to make sense of the legalese and complexities of the largest public bankruptcy filing in US history and cast votes that will affect how much they will earn for the rest of their lives.
Detroit’s bankruptcy is at a critical stage after the Michigan Legislature last week approved a $195 million lifeline to help prevent steep cuts in Detroit’s pensions.
With Governor Rick Snyder expected to sign the measure this week, attention now turns to the tens of thousands of creditors, especially 32,000 active, former, or retired employees, who have until July 11 to vote on the city’s plan to shed $18 billion in debt and become solvent again.
The stakes are great — and painful. General retirees — trash haulers, mechanics, janitors, clerks — would see a 4.5 percent cut in their pension and the elimination of annual inflation payments.
In addition, some who received generous annuity returns from the pension fund would be forced to give back as much as 20 percent. Detroit insists the cuts will be even worse if the plan is rejected.
Did they make bank CEOs give back their stolen loot?
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Related: Detroit Bankruptcy Means Government Can Break Promises
Maybe you should pool them then.
"Michigan Senate approves $195 million for Detroit" June 04, 2014
LANSING, Mich. — Michigan’s Senate on Tuesday approved spending $195 million to help prevent steeper cuts in Detroit retiree pensions, linking the state with a deal designed to shield valuable city-owned art from being sold and resolve the largest public bankruptcy in US history.
I'd rather you pay the workers and sell that stuff. Sorry.
The Republican-led chamber voted 21-17 to contribute the 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.
Oh. Rich are getting the stuff anyway, so....
Governor Rick Snyder is expected to sign the legislation quickly after a required technical move by the GOP-controlled House, which passed the bills about two weeks ago.
By backing the deal, the governor and legislators in part are hoping to avoid a protracted bankruptcy and the potential for city retirees to fall into poverty, which could cost the state some $270 million in social safety net costs over 20 years.
All so BANK$TERS can GET PAID!
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Look who is coming to the re$cue:
"Koch brothers targeting fair bankruptcy deal in Detroit" June 02, 2014
After months
of painful negotiations, the City of Detroit and many of its creditors
stand on the verge of a “grand bargain” that would help the city climb
out of bankruptcy. But a new roadblock has emerged: a powerful national
conservative group, which seems bent on wrecking the deal to make an ideological point. It’s an irresponsible action.
As tends to happen in compromises, almost nobody in Michigan is completely happy
with the emerging bargain. Pensioners will take a cut. The insurers who
covered the city’s bonds will suffer. The city government will cede
some fiscal autonomy to a state control board for at least 13 years.
Even the deal’s silver linings come with clouds: Detroit won’t lose its
cherished art museum, but control of the collection will pass to a
private foundation.
The conservative group Americans for Prosperity, though, insists on
unconditional surrender by the city. In urging Michigan legislators to
reject the deal, the Koch-brothers-backed group is demanding the city
liquidate the art collection and seek more pension reforms. Although
Republican leaders and the state’s GOP governor, Rick Snyder, back the
deal, and the parts that need legislative approval have passed the Michigan House, their future in the Senate remains unclear.
The group has threatened to run ads in Republican primaries against
any Michigan legislators who vote for the package, which would shift
$195 million from one state fund into aid to Detroit. “Detroit has
behaved like this for 30 years,” said a spokesman for the group.
“Politicians there won’t change their behavior if they keep getting
bailouts from the hardworking taxpayers of Michigan.”
“Bailout” is a somewhat misleading term in the context; Snyder argues
that the state could be on the hook for even more if pension cuts were
too Draconian, since impoverishing retirees could force them onto public
assistance. But it fits the storyline some have tried to impose on
Detroit’s woes. Indeed, it’s proven irresistible for outside groups from
across the political spectrum to make ideological grist out of
Detroit’s collapse. Depending on whom you ask, Detroit’s woes are a
morality tale about the evils of globalization, white flight, banks,
unions, overregulation, or corrupt politicians.
Detroit’s many problems do indeed hold many warnings for other
cities, and if Americans for Prosperity were seeking ways to prevent
future Detroits it might be doing a public service. But sabotaging the
bankruptcy deal now would only raise the likelihood of more misery in
America’s once-great industrial powerhouse.
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Word is the Kochs are trying to buy the city. What a nightmare, huh?
Related:
Blacks High on Koch
Globe Sucks Koch Cock
For crack?
Conyers Comes Up Short
Why did you neglect your di$trict?
Time to take a drive:
"Man drives hundreds of miles with corpse passenger | Associated Press June 05, 2014
WARREN, Mich. — A Detroit-area man was so determined to return to Michigan from Arizona that he refused to stop and contact authorities even after one of his passengers died en route, police said Wednesday....
Their 1,700-mile journey began Sunday in the Phoenix area after the woman checked herself out of a mental health facility there. At some point the woman may have taken oxycodone, police said.
When the driver later tried to wake her, he found her body cold to the touch and presumed that she had died.
‘‘He then does an Internet search via his phone,’’ said Warren police Sergeant Stephen Mills. ‘‘He says he finds on the Internet that he has 48 hours to take her to a medical examiner or to a morgue.’’
How would they know that?
Amazing how they can find some communications, but can't find the hackers, perverts, et all, 'eh?
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Okay, you got him for 48 hours.
Time to step on the gas!
