Can’t win for losin’… The Snyder administration was handed another in a long list of legal setbacks today as my now-favorite judge, Ingham Country Judge William Collette, smacked them down again. Recall that Judge Collette had already issued a mighty smackdown to the Detroit Emergency Manager Review Team earlier in the month: An Ingham County judge this afternoon ordered all […]

You don’t have to be a jerk about it Last spring when I published exclusive audio of Benton Harbor Emergency Manager Joe Harris talking about crushing the unions, I was shocked at what he said and, more to the point, how he said it: So, I’ve laid off twenty-five people. I’ve laid off nine police officers. I’ve laid off four […]

A Consent Agreement by any other name is still an Emergency Manager Yesterday, Michigan Governor Rick Snyder presented a Consent Agreement to the city of Detroit. You can read the 26-page Consent Agreement HERE (pdf). HuffPo Detroit has a great run-down of the key parts of the Consent Agreement HERE. There’s some surprisingly egregious stuff in there. Whoa. Here’s the […]

Yeeouch. That’ll leave a mark. One of my newest heroes these days, Ingham County Judge William Collette has had just about enough of Governor Sndyer’s Detroit Emergency Manager review team. As I mentioned this afternoon in my Michigan Emergency Manager news round-up, this review team tried to circumvent the Open Meetings Act, which Judge Collette had already found them in […]

It just goes on and on and on and on Lots of news to cover today. Make sure you click through to the jump page if you’re reading this from the front page of Eclectablog. Stand Up For Democracy coalition delivers 226,637 petition signaturesYesterday, the Stand Up For Democracy coalition and Michigan Forward delivered well over the 160,304 signatures needed […]

Who thought THAT was a good idea? I cannot for the life of me understand why he did it, but when Mitt Romney came to Detroit today, he chose the 65,000-seat Ford Field. It was such a bizarre choice that even the Detroit Free Press wrote about it. Romney camp’s game plan: Make Ford Field look crowdedIt won’t be hard […]

You know Mitt Romney is delusion about the Government-led rescue of the auto industry. He’s pretending that there was capital to save the industry from anywhere by Washington DC. Then he’s saying that he would have done everything Obama did, except he would have punished workers more while protecting Wall Street’s interests. Mitt’s refusal to stand up for the auto […]

It just goes on and on and on again… Decision to close Highland Park school not made by Emergency Manager Jack MartinContrary to what some outlets have reported, the decision to close Barber Focus school was NOT made by new Emergency Manager Jack Martin During a parent meeting on Monday, superintendent Edith Hightower announced that Barber Focus School would merge […]

Historic Detroit treasures lost in rush to save money Eric T. Campbell has a fine piece up at The Michigan Citizen where he talks about the loss of Detroit’s historic school buildings. The Detroit Public School Emergency Managers Robert Bobb and, now, Roy Roberts, don’t appear interested in saving these historic buildings. Once they are gone, they are gone forever. […]

It’s been no secret that Governor Snyder and his team were going to force union members to bear the full brunt of the financial problems Detroit faces. Now they have finally gotten around to saying it publicly. Detroit Mayor Dave Bing and the City Council must reach concessions with city unions by early February to avoid a recommendation of state […]

Good news is hard to come by in Detroit these days but, yesterday, they got some very good news. Chrysler announced it is adding a third shift at the Jefferson Assembly Plant, restoring 1,100 jobs. Chrysler Group LLC said Thursday that it will add a third shift — with 1,100 new jobs — at its Jefferson North Assembly Plant in […]