For now.
"Buffett group buys Rosa Parks items" Associated Press August 30, 2014
DETROIT — The purchase price for hundreds of items that belonged to civil rights icon Rosa Parks was $4.5 million, a lawyer said Friday, a day after the deal was confirmed by the son of billionaire investor Warren Buffett.
I can't help but think there was a better way to let that money flow.
Howard G. Buffett declined to reveal the amount his foundation paid for the items, which have remained in storage in New York for years, but the price was listed in a court filing and disclosed by an attorney for heirs of Parks.
After an auction house gets a commission, 20 percent of the balance goes to relatives of Parks, with the rest set for the Rosa & Raymond Parks Institute for Self Development in Detroit, said Lawrence Pepper.
‘‘This property has been on the market since 2007,’’ Pepper said. ‘‘We had a few feelers from other places, but they were not in the range of what everybody felt was reasonable. The offer from the Buffett people was the first one that everybody agreed was reasonable.’’
Buffett said his foundation plans to give the items to an institute or museum for public display. There are more than 1,000 artifacts, including her Presidential Medal of Freedom and Congressional Gold Medal, letters, and furniture.
‘‘They’re going to do the right thing,’’ Pepper said.
A-choo!
Water!
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Jury did not:
"17-year prison term sought in Detroit-area porch shooting" Associated Press August 29, 2014
DETROIT — A man convicted of killing an unarmed woman on his porch should get a prison sentence of at least 15 years, in addition to a mandatory two-year punishment for the unlawful use of a gun, prosecutors said in their recommendation to a judge.
Theodore Wafer, 55, of Dearborn Heights returns to court next Wednesday, about a month after he was convicted of second-degree murder in the shooting of Renisha McBride....
I said water, not Wafer!
Wafer shot McBride last Nov. 2. He insisted it was self-defense in response to her pounding on his door at 4:30 a.m.
Jurors heard conflicting statements from Wafer. He suggested to police immediately after the shooting that it was an accident, and that he did not know his shotgun was loaded. But on the witness stand, Wafer said he shot because he feared for his life.
Prosecutors said Wafer was inside a locked house and should have called 911 instead of opening the front door and shooting McBride through the screen door.
It is not known why McBride was on Wafer’s porch, although she was drunk and had been in a car wreck earlier that night.
Left the scene of an accident because it took the ambulance two hours to show up.
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And at the bottom of the Globe cup:
"Detroit resumes shutting off water service" Associated Press August 27, 2014
DETROIT — Bankrupt Detroit resumed shutting off water to people who have not paid bills after a month-long suspension that followed international and local criticism that the practice was unduly harsh to residents of one of the nation’s poorest cities.
The city said it was scheduled to deny service to 420 customers Tuesday, although it was not clear how many had actually been shut off.
Detroit filed the nation’s largest-ever municipal bankruptcy last year and has struggled to manage basic services.
That's life in the big city.
Nearly 45 percent of the city’s 173,000 residential water accounts are past due, the city said. Some 25,000 customers have negotiated payment plans with the city.
The city stepped up action in March against customers 60 days behind on paying bills or owing more than $150. More than 19,000 residential customers have been shut off since then, the city said.
The move drew international reaction as some groups appealed to the United Nations to help poor residents. Three UN specialists responded in June that the shutoffs could constitute a violation of the human right to water.
It is!
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I've been thirsting to see something about that, and all I got was Boston Globe backwash.
This government has billions to foment overthrows and support juntas installed by coup, has money for all they illegal immigrant kids, but has nothing for Detroit citizens and residents.
