VOICE OF DETROIT: The city's independent newspaper, unbossed and unbought

Detroit city worker’s child demands “Back off our pensions” during strike at Wastewater Treatment Plant Sept. 30, 2012.

State Judge Aquilina barred attack on pensions

Major city creditor UBS announces record profits, settles mortgage fraud suit; Orr wants retirees to take 10 cents on dollar 

City creditor US Bank NA charged in Ponzi set-up; Judge Rhodes co-authored “The Ponzi Book: A Legal Resource for Unraveling Ponzi Schemes” 

Emails show bankruptcy planned as early as January, in advance of negotiations with pension funds, unions

By Diane Bukowski 

July 23, 2012

DETROIT – In the first hearing on Detroit’s Chapter 9 filing July 24, U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Steven Rhodes will deal with Detroit Emergency Manager Kevyn Orr’s request to block further proceedings in state lawsuits filed by the city’s pension boards and two groups of retirees. Both Orr and Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder have openly said they are seeking to reduce pension benefits through the bankruptcy filing. 

Ingham County Circuit Court Judge Rosemarie Aquilina with three of her five children.

The federal hearing is set for Wed. July 24 at 10 a.m. in Judge Rhodes’ courtroom at 211 W. Fort, Suite 1800. 

Ingham County Circuit Court Judge Rosemarie Aquilina on July 19 enjoined Snyder and Orr from targeting pension benefits in violation of both the State Constitution and Emergency Manager Act PA 436.

“I don’t think the constitution should be made to be Swiss cheese,” Judge Aquilina said July 22, to a courtroom packed with journalists representing global media. “Once we erode it with one hole, there will be others.”

She adjourned that hearing until July 29, 2013 at 9 a.m. at the request of the pension boards, not concurred in by defendants Orr and Snyder. She asked that numerous briefs be filed prior to the next hearing. Judge Aquilina’s court is located in the Ingham County Veterans Memorial Courthouse in Lansing at 313 W. Kalamazoo, Lansing, Michigain.

UBS profits soar along with goat sculpture in front of its offices.

Meanwhile, major Detroit creditor UBS AG, which holds at least $1.5 billion in Pension Obligation Certificate (POC) debt, just announced increased profits and a $919 million settlement with the Federal Housing Financing Authority on charges that it defrauded homeowners on mortgage loans prior to the 2008 global economic crash. 

UBS, one of the world’s largest banks, embroiled in numerous criminal fraud scandals, has not agreed to cut city payments on the POC loan itself, although Orr has touted its agreement to take 75 cents on the dollar in a related $379 million swap deal. 

Robert Davis at union rally on Hart Plaza July 12.

Also on July 22, union activist Robert Davis revealed a mass of emails obtained through a state lawsuit. He said the emails show members of the Jones Day law firm, Orr’s former employer and now Detroit’s “debt-restructuring consultant,” conspired as early as January to plot a bankruptcy filing. 

The city’s pension funds and unions have contended that Orr has not conducted good-faith negotiations with them prior to filing bankruptcy, a requisite for the judge’s approval of the petition for bankruptcy. 

RETIREES’ LAWSUITS 

The city’s two pension funds, the Detroit General Retirement System (DGRS) and the Detroit Police and Fire Retirement System (DPFRS), joined two individual groups of retirees in filing for a temporary restraining order against any impairment of pension benefits on July 17, just prior to EM Orr’s Chapter 9 bankruptcy filing July 18. 

Gov. Rick Snyder and Detroit EM Kevyn Orr at press conference July 19, 2013.

The pension fund lawsuit says that Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder and Orr are violating both the Michigan Constitution and Emergency Manager Act PA 436 by demanding drastic reductions in pension pay-outs. It cites Chapter IX, Sec. 24 of the Michigan Constitution which says,    “[t]he accrued financial benefits of each pension plan of the state and its political subdivisions shall be a contractual obligation  thereof which shall not be diminished or impaired thereby.” 

Attorney Jerome Goldberg of the Moratorium NOW! Coalition said Michigan has one of the strongest constitutional protections for pensions in the country. The city of Central Falls, Rhode Island, cut pension benefits after filing bankruptcy, but its state constitution has no such protections. 

In addition to the state constitutional issue, the pension funds’ lawsuit challenges Orr’s authority under PA 436 to attack pension benefits, since PA 436 specifically provides that such benefits will be paid. 

City workers at Belle Isle picnic July 28, 2012 demand “No EM.” Michigan citizens overwhelmingly repealed PA 4 Nov. 6, 2012, but Snyder replaced it with PA 436.

In their brief, the pension funds note, “It is clear that Michigan’s legislators never intended that the governor or an emergency financial manager take action in violation of Art IX Sec. 24. Indeed MCL 141.1552(m)(ii) [in PA 436] expressly provides that “[t]he emergency manager shall fully comply with . . . . section 24 of article IX of the state constitution of 1963. And MCL 38.1683 provides that “[t]he right of a member or retirant of a retirement system to a retirement benefit shall not be subject to execution, garnishment, attachment, the operation of bankruptcy or insolvency laws, or other process of law and shall be unassignable.” 

In other words, say the pension funds, “[t]he governor may authorize and the emergency financial manager may petition for a chapter 9 municipal bankruptcy only to the extent that such action does not impair or diminish accrued financial benefits.” 

Miller Canfiled attorney Mike McGee at City Council table April 4, 2013, the day Council passed the disastrous consent agreement.

The pension funds are represented by Attorney Ron King and others from the law firm of Clark Hill. 

Snyder and Orr are represented by Miller Canfield. The Detroit City Council last year approved an extension of the city’s contract with Miller Canfield, whose attorney Mike McGee helped draft Public Act 4, the predecessor to PA 436, as well as the April 4, 2012 PA4 “consent agreement” between the city and the state, passed by the City Council 5-4. Miller Canfield is also advising the city on the bankruptcy filing. 

UBS PROFITS UP DESPITE GLOBAL LITIGATION; SETTLES MORTGAGE FRAUD CASE WITH FHFA

Bloomberg Businessweek reported July 22,  “UBS rose in Zurich trading after posting net income of about 690 million Swiss francs ($734 million). Profit climbed from 524 million francs a year ago and beat the 586 million-franc mean estimate of four analysts surveyed this month by Bloomberg. UBS attracted about 12.8 billion francs in net new funds to its wealth management units and increased its capital buffer, the bank said.

“UBS is exceeding analysts’ profit estimates for a second quarter in a row after Chief Executive Officer Sergio Ermotti announced 10,000 job cuts last year and a strategy to exit most debt-trading businesses at the investment bank to focus the firm on money management.”

The UPI reported the same day, “The Swiss bank UBS said Monday it had struck a deal with U.S. authorities to settle charges that it misrepresented mortgage bonds issued in 2004 through 2007.

“UBS settled with the Federal Housing Finance Agency, which has accused 18 big banks of overstating the value of bundled mortgage securities in advance of the 2008 financial meltdown that was largely caused by overwhelming numbers of defaulting home loans.

Christina Livingston, a supporter of people who had lost their homes to foreclosure, or have been battling banks over loan modification, reacts to cheers from fellow protesters as she is arrested outside a Chase bank branch in downtown Los Angeles.Thursday, Dec. 16, 2010. Police arrested 22 protesters who blocked the doors to the bank in acts of civil disobedience. (AP Photo/Reed Saxon)

“Details of the agreement were not disclosed but The New York Times reported UBS said it was accepting a one-time, pretax charge of $919 million related to the settlement.

“The FHFA filed the lawsuit in 2011, seeking billions of dollars in compensation from the banks. FHFA losses involving UBS loans totaled $900 million, the Times said.”

In addition to those charges, UBS is involved in a criminal fraud lawsuit filed by the U.S. Department of Justice. It has agreed to a $1.5 billion fine while two UBS Japan traders are facing trial. UBS is one of the banks on the LIBOR (London Interbank-Offered Rate) panel which are facing charges globally for rigging interest rates to benefit themselves. LIBOR sets interest rates for practically every loan around the world.

LIBOR lawsuits have been filed by municipalities, states and other investors in the U.S. and globally.

US Bank NA let Russel Wasendorf, known at the “Midwest Madoff,” use customers’ money in Ponzi scheme.

US Bank NA is a city creditor that has been holding Detroit’s casino tax revenue hostage to ensure payment of the UBS debt.

On June 5, 2013, the U.S. Commodities Futures Trading Commission sued US Bank NA, alleging that it knowingly allowed Russell Wasendorf Sr., founder of Peregrine Financial which has since imploded, to use customer money held at the bank to finance his lavish lifestyle. Wasendorf is currently serving a term 0f 50 years in prison for taking over $215 million in client funds.

Since U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Rhodes is a co-author of “The Ponzi Book: A Legal Resource for Unraveling Ponzi Schemes,” he might want to look into US Bank NA’s role in Detroit’s debt situation.

EMAILS SHOW JONES DAY SOUGHT BANKRUPTCY AS EARLY AS JANUARY

Also on July 22, union activist Robert Davis and others held a press conference at the AFSCME Council 25 headquarters in downtown Detroit to reveal a slew of emails obtained through Davis’ lawsuit against Snyder’s appointment of Orr.

Jones Day attorney Dan Moss

One email, sent by Jones Day attorney Dan Moss on Jan. 31, 2013 to Orr, already proposed to become Detroit’s emergency manager,  says “It seems that the ideal scenario would be that Snyder and [Mayor Dave] Bing both agree that the best option is simply to go through an orderly Chapter 9. This avoids an unnecessary political fight over the scope/authority of any appointed emergency manager and, moreover, moves the ball forward on setting Detroit on the right track.”

Davis said in published remarks, “It’s an outright slap in the face to the citizens in the city of Detroit . . .“You already see what their agenda is. It clearly indicates from day one … the decision [to file for Chapter 9 bankruptcy] was already made.”

Mike Mulholland protests 80 percent cut to DWSD workforce which is also part of Orr’s plan.

Davis’ contention is important because the U.S. Bankruptcy Code requires that good-faith negotiations with creditors be conducted prior to filing a petition for bankruptcy. Both the pension boards and the city’s unions have said that Orr blind-sided them with his “Proposal for Creditors,” which caused their representatives to “nearly jump out of their seats,” June 14, according to AFSCME Local 207 Vice-President Mike Mulholland. 

Mulholland said Orr made it clear at that meeting that he intended to remove the elected pension boards which oversee the funds. At a press conference July 19, Orr said he will file a motion to appoint a representative for retirees instead. 

Orr held two meetings after June 14 with pension and union officials. Many exited the meetings in fury after Orr demanded that they sign confidentiality agreements about the discussions and would not back down on his original demands.

Related documents and articles:

Aquilina ruling 7 22 13

Detroit pension fund brief 7 19 13

http://voiceofdetroit.net/2013/07/21/orr-jones-day-aim-bankruptcy-gun-at-detroit-retirees-let-wall-street-off-hearing-mon-july-22-9am/

http://voiceofdetroit.net/2013/07/06/orrs-phony-victory-on-casino-taxes-and u-s-bank-na/

http://voiceofdetroit.net/2013/07/03/sign-petition-to-request-us-doj-fraud-investigation-of-ubs-re-predatory-1-5-billion-detroit-loan/

http://voiceofdetroit.net/2013/07/01/while-detroit-em-orr-attacks-pension-board-travel-consultant-milliman-inc-luxuriates-in-dubai-at-worlds-most-expensive-hotel/

http://voiceofdetroit.net/2013/07/01/orr-milliman-attack-on-detroit-pensions-a-very-rough-preliminary-guesstimate/

http://voiceofdetroit.net/2013/06/20/em-orrs-plan-for-detroit-phony-debt-moratorium-theft-of-city-assets-including-water-belle-isle-pensions/

http://voiceofdetroit.net/2013/06/09/people-rise-up-against-em-kevyn-orr-and-bank-takeover-of-detroit/

http://voiceofdetroit.net/2013/05/16/detroit-em-orrs-report-envisions-a-nightmare-future/

A laid-off city worker sent the following announcement:

Download flier above from Local 207 website at http://www.afscme207.com/ 

 __________________________________________________________________

Download flier at Bankruptcy demo 7 26 12 flier

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Above: Trayvon Martin’s father Tracy Martin speaks at rally in Miami, Florida July 20, 2013

TRAYVON MARTIN KILLED TWICE

George Zimmerman innocent verdict in the death of Trayvon Martin creates a national protest, including a rally in downtown Detroit.

A No Struggle, No Development Production by Kenneth Snodgrass

July 20, 2013

Kenneth Snodgrass, VOD Videojournalist

DETROIT  — About four thousand Metro Detroit residents took to the street Saturday to call for justice for slain Fla. young man Trayvon Martin. JUSTICE FOR TRAYVON MARTIN!

Their message: We protest in the name of justice for the family of TRAYVON MARTIN, the Black Community in Detroit and all over the country. We are protesting against both institutional and violence in communities.. We are protesting against the conditions that breed crime and violence in Detroit and across the country, which is rooted in the economic powerlessness of our communities. We protest the disrespect of racist whites and foreign merchants and others, of us and our communities.

We feel violence and crime in our communities is rooted in our dependency on a racist economy, our mis-education, poor leadership, our economically depressed communities and families. Our peaceful protest demonstration is to show that a Black Man’s life is worth more than some petty merchandise. We are venting our emotions while coming together to fight against this racist violence that has created so much senseless violence again our people. We declare “WE” will answer to the problems confronting our communities through collective unity, and from collective unity we can accomplish any goals we set to achieve.

Out Of Tragedies Can Come Triumphs, Join Us! – –

A No Struggle, No Development! Production By Kenny Snodgrass, Activist, Photographer, Videographer, Author of From Victimization To Empowerment… www.trafford.com/07-0913 – eBook available at www.ebookstore.sony.com YouTube – I have over 260 community videos, and over 84,000 hits on my YouTube channel at www.YouTube.com/KennySnod

DETROIT RALLY AT FEDERAL BLDG. DOWNTOWN

PART ONE

PART TWO

PART THREE

PART FOUR

PART FIVE

{Above is live stream video from Freep of Bing/Orr press conference announcing bankruptcy filing July 18, 2013. Be patient with ad at beginning; it will go off and video begins in circular fashion due to live stream.)

Seek to pit residents against workers

Let Wall Street creditors off the hook with token cuts

Retirees contest bankruptcy filing in ongoing court case 

BY DIANE BUKOWSKI 

JULY 21, 2013 

Detroit Emergency Manager Kevyn Orr and Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder purport to represent the City of Detroit at press conference on bankrutpcy filing July 19, 2013.

DETROIT – Detroit emergency manager Kevyn Orr and his boss, Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder, directed by Orr’s long-time law firm Jones Day, filed a federal bankruptcy case for the City of Detroit July 18. It primarily targets the city’s retirees. Orr earlier used the threat of bankruptcy to demand that retirees agree to pension pay-outs of ten cents on the dollar. 

City workers pack Coleman A. Young lobby July 12, 2013, the day after retirees rejected Orr’s plan.

They refused, countering that the State Constitution firmly protects public pension benefits. Ingham County Circuit Court Judge Rosemarie Aquilina enjoined Gov. Snyder and Orr from any further action on the filing July 19, during a hearing on three lawsuits by retirees. Another hearing on their ongoing cases is to be held July 22 at 9 a.m. in Judge Aquilina’s court in Mason, MI.  State Attorney General Bill Schuette has appealed her ruling. 

Article 9, Section 24 of Michigan’s Constitution section reads: “The accrued financial benefits of each pension plan and retirement system of the state and its political subdivisions shall be a contractual obligation thereof which shall not be diminished or impaired thereby. Financial benefits arising on account of service rendered in each fiscal year shall be funded during that year and such funding shall not be used for financing unfunded accrued liabilities.” 

UBS CEO Sergio Ermetti before fall from fortune and USDOJ criminal fine of $1.5 billion.

In contrast to his demands from retirees. Orr said he reached an agreement with global banks UBS AG and Bank of America/Merrill Lynch to take 75 cents of the dollar for $379 million in swap agreements. 

The Detroit bankruptcy is the largest municipal bankruptcy in the history of the U.S. It has created a bittersweet panic on Wall Street, where investors are selling Detroit’s General Obligation Bonds (GOB) at bargain basement prices. 

Over $13.7 billion in municipal bonds overall have been sold off in the last eight weeks amid speculation about Detroit’s situation, and Orr’s first-time designation of GOB’s as “unsecured debt,”  according to the Wall Street Journal. The Journal also notes, however, that the sell-offs will result in “high yields” for investors. 

At a press conference July 18, Orr downplayed the gravity of the filing. 

Orr says city’s debt crisis due to POC’s.

“It is large in terms of the magnitude of debt,” Orr said, alleging the city’s long-term debt totals $18 billion. “But Detroit has been working its way to a level of insolvency for decades. Part of the reason we’re here is that in 2005 and 2006, Detroit borrowed $1.5 billion to provide a solution for pension obligations, then hedged those with swap agreements for which we paid hundreds of millions. We went into default on those agreements in 2009 so we doubled down and pledged the city’s casino revenues to support the agreements. For some time, Detroit has simply not been on a sustainable footing.” 

Orr referred to loans from UBS AG and Siebert, Brandford and Shank, now SBS Financial. Representatives of Standard and Poor’s and Fitch Ratings actually came to the City Council table Jan. 31, 2005 to push for the loans. In another conflict of interest, the city’s Chief Financial Officer in 2005, Sean Werdlow, took a top manager position with SBS later that year. 

Ratings agencies later downgraded the city’s debt rating anyway, most recently after Orr deliberately defaulted on a $37.9 million POC payment due June 14, when he met with the city’s creditors. With the bankruptcy filing, the ratings have plunged even further. 

U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder announces $1.5 billion criminal fraud fine paid by UBS>

Orr deflected questions from this reporter on the legitimacy of that loan at a press conference July 19 and also during the press conference held to announce his appointment in May. 

He has repeatedly refused to discuss the fact that UBS AG paid a $1.5 billion fine to the U.S. Department of Justice in a criminal fraud case, and that Standard and Poor’s currently faces a $5 billion USDOJ criminal fraud lawsuit. After the press conference, State Treasurer Andy Dillon off-handedly claimed the state is investigating the loan, since Orr’s proposal to creditors cites its possible illegitimacy, but he was clearly not being serious. (VOD has started a petition on Change.Org at http://www.change.org/petitions/jeffrey-knox-usdoj-criminal-fraud-division-investigate-criminal-bank-ubs-ag-for-predatory-1-5-billion-loan-to-detroit. Please click link and sign.)

New Wave under 35 rally at Hart Plaza before march to Coleman A. Young Cneter July 12, 2013.

Orr has used the POC debt to blame retirees for the City’s alleged economic crisis. However,  the city’s pension boards, retirees, and unions all vehemently opposed the risky POC deal, which experts condemned at a forum sponsored by then Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick earlier that year as “one of the seven deadly sins of municipal finance.” 

Across the country, POC studies have found that many cities faced economic ruin as a result of borrowing pension bonds prior to the global economic melt-down of 2008. None of the lenders has been held accountable for what many experts termed nothing more than a crap shoot based on Wall Street vagaries. Pension bonds basically bet that interest rates will go down and save a municipality money on its total outstanding pension debt, but that did not happend after 2008.

Rev. Charles Williams Sr. of the National Action Network speaks at rally demanding moratorium on Detroit’s debt to banks May 9, 2012.

At the July 19 press conference, Snyder said the bankruptcy filing is aimed at restoring services to city residents, while also claiming that the city’s chief problem is “city government.”

“In 1950, Detroit had a population of $1.8 million; now its population is 680,000,” Snyder said. “The city is filled with blight, there are 78,000 abandoned structures, and the level of services is unacceptable. Police response time is 58 minutes, while the national average is 11 minutes. In 24 of the years since 1985, Detroit has been in the top ten of the most violent cities in the country.” 

Neither Orr, Snyder nor Dillon laid the blame for the city’s condition on corporations including the auto companies which have fled Detroit, devastating its tax base, or banks and mortgage companies which targeted predominantly Black and Latino cities for predatory “adjustable rate” mortgages, then illegally foreclosed on the homeowners involved. The banks are not paying taxes on the foreclosed properties, and according to a national study, are not maintaining foreclosed properties for re-sale in poor communities of color. 

Pres. Barack Obama with campaign contributor Robert Wolf, formerly head of UBS Americas division.

Ingham County Circuit Court Judge Rosemarie Aquilina sent a copy of her order enjoining the bankruptcy filing to U.S. President Barack Obama. Under the federal Chapter 9 Bankruptcy Code, the U.S. Treasurer can intervene in a municipal bankruptcy filing. 

A spokesperson for the President, however, said he has no intention of doing so but is offering his help in other unspecified ways. Vice-President Joe Biden said later that there will be no bail-out along the lines of those granted to Detroit automakers and banks during Obama’s terms of office. 

To date, no municipal bankruptcy filing has touched actual pension checks. The city of Stockton, CA, which filed for bankruptcy in 2011, is leaving pension pay-outs alone in exchange for the California Public Employees Retirement System (CalPERS) agreement to take a one-time two percent pay-out on health care benefits. 

During  the July 19 press conference at Detroit’s Maccabbees Building, one reporter asked Orr, “Aren’t you funding the city’s crisis on the backs of the poorest people?” Another asked why he is demanding that the city’s pension funds take ten cents on the dollar, contrasting that to the 75 cents on a dollar agreed to with UBS AG and Bank of America/Merrill Lynch. 

“The $2 billion [total] payment I am proposing for unsecured creditors is the only mechanism possible,” Orr responded. “UBS and Merrill Lynch are secured creditors. They agreed to release their losses and not seek secondary action against their insurer.” 

Protest outside Orr’s “public meeting” June 10.

Orr has said the city will continue to pay UBS/BOA on the swaps until the bankruptcy is finalized. The Chapter 9 bankruptcy code,as well as Michigan Public Act 436, under which Orr operates, however, provide that the city must not be able to pay its debts for the next 60 days. 

Orr considers the money the city owes to its pension funds, as well as GOB’s, to be “unsecured debt,” despite continued payments into the funds’ annuity plans by active city workers. He has said city payments to the funds will cease during bankruptcy proceedings and that eventually he wants to convert the funds to “defined benefit” plans or even 401K’s, not financed by the city. 

Judge Steven Rhodes (center) announcing publication of “The Ponzi Book: A Legal Resource for Unraveling Ponzi Schemes,” published by LexisNexis®.. He is a co-author. He needs to investigate the Ponzi scheme for which the U.S. Commodities Future Trading Commission has charged Detroit creditor US Bank NA.

He said he was not sure if the agreement with UBS/BOA has been signed. U.S. Bankruptcy Court Judge Steven Rhodes, of the Eastern District of Michigan, who has been selected to oversee the case, must authorize all such agreements. He has not yet even held a hearing. Orr is asking for an expedited process beginning as early as July 23.

Orr added that he has reached agreement with US Bank NA to release $180 million a year in city casino tax revenues being held in trust to assure payment of the $1.5 billion POC loan. US Bank NA’s insurer Syncora, Inc. has not yet agreed to release the funds, however. 

Orr said he expects the bankruptcy to be finalized by summer or fall of 2014, although such proceedings for other cities like Stockton, CA are taking place over much longer periods and have not yet concluded. 

Orr lost his customary cool when discussing the city’s retirees. 

AFSCME Co. 25 rep Ed McNeil denounces Orr and Jones Day for requiring those in negotiations to sign confidentiality agreements.

“I am being sued on a weekly basis,” he declared, referring to the retiree lawsuits. 

Orr said he has held ongoing “good faith” discussions with “unsecured” parties including the retirees which have resulted in no agreements for cuts in pension pay-outs. On July 11, some union and pension representatives stormed out of a meeting after being asked to sign confidentiality agreements on the discussions. The next day, hundreds of young demonstrators from AFSCME’s “New Wave Under 35” national convention rallied and stormed the Coleman A. Young Center.

Orr said that he is constrained by the time limit of his alleged 18-month tenure. Reports that the city council can vote him out after that period have been incomplete, since Public Act 436 says such a vote must be approved by the Mayor, and that the Governor can override that decision if he decides a longer period is necessary. 

Fourth of July protest demanding independence for Detroit at Orr’s residence at the Westin Book-Cadillac. One protester demands, Hands off city pension funds.

Additionally, PA 436 provides for a “transition” period after exiting emergency management, during which the governor and state treasurer still hold the reins. 

“I have asked the unions if they will represent the retirees in court,” Orr said. “They refused. So I am moving to appoint a retirees’ committee. This is an unusual step, asking to appoint an opposing party.” 

Orr did not respond when asked about the role of the city’s two elected pension boards, the Detroit General Retirement System (DGRS) and the Detroit Police and Fire Retirement System (DPFRS), which actually represent retirees. 

Retired Detroit Water & Sewerage Department worker and long-time AFSCME Local 207 officer Mike Mulholland, who has been present in the negotiations, refuted Orr’s allegations in an article by Jane Slaughter published in Labor Notes. 

DWSD retiree Mike Mulholland speaks at rally against appointment of Emergency Manager.

“It wasn’t negotiations, it was PowerPoint presentations about how bad the situation is,” Mulholland told Labor Notes. “Orr wouldn’t answer AFSCME’s requests for negotiations, so they went and taped a letter to the door of his office.” 

Earlier, after Orr’s June 14 meeting with city creditors, held at the Wayne County Airport, Mulholland said that union and pension board representatives present “were right on the verge of jumping out of their seats. Orr made it clear that he will remove the pension boards under PA 436, but said the pension boards can still negotiate with him. By that time, he will be the only representative of the pension boards.” 

PA 436 contains a clause allowing the EM through the governor to remove one or more elected officials of pension boards representing systems that are less than 80 percent funded, and replace them with a person(s) of their choosing. 

While Orr criticized Detroit pension officials for travel expenses, Milliman sponsored a convention in world’s most expensive hotel in Dubai.

Milliman, Inc., hired by the city to review the status of its pension funds, has said that as of 2010, The GRS was 32 percent funded, while the DPFRS was 50 percent funded, in conflict with figures published by the pension funds’ official actuary, Gabriel, Roeder and Smith which showed much higher levels. The Milliman reports have not been publicly released.

The complaint, filed on behalf of retirees Robbie Flowers, Michael Wells, and Janet Whitson, says, “The Detroit Emergency Manager has, as part of his restructuring planning, publicly announced that he intends to significantly cut vested pension amounts of the city’s retirees and employees in violation of Article 9, Section 24 and threatened to seek to extinguish their Article 9, Section 24 rights in bankruptcy if they fail to agree which they have not.” 

Robbie Flowers, a City of Detroit Library worker and a plaintiff in the lawsuit, at convention for librarians.

Although Snyder and Orr’s attorneys contended at the hearing that the Chapter 9 filing does not mean pensions will necessarily be cut, the complaint quotes Orr’s comments from an interview with the Detroit Free Press editorial board. 

“It is what it is – so we said that in a soft way of saying, ‘Don’t make us go into  bankruptcy,'” Orr is quoted as saying. “If you think your state-vested pension rights, either as an employee or a retiree – that’s not going to protect you. If we don’t reach an agreement one way or the other, we feel fairly confident that the state federal law, federalism, will trump state law or negotiate. The irony of the situation is we might reach a deal with creditors quicker because employees and retirees think there is some benefit and that might force our hand. That might force a bankruptcy.” 

City Council candidate Monica Patrick speaks at rally to save Belle Isle from state control.

To read about the devastating results Orr’s proposed bankruptcy will have on city residents, see story link on “Orr’s plan for Detroit below this article.   Orr has said that his proposal to creditors, described in that story, is basically identical to the plan of adjustment he plans to present to the bankruptcy court. It includes mammoth service cuts for city residents, including the loss of 40 percent of the city’s street lights,  and likely asset conversions and sell-offs for entities like the Water and Sewerage Department, D-DOT, and Belle Isle. 

Although Chapter 9 bankruptcy precludes the liquidation of a municipality’s assets to pay off creditors, it allows such liquidation to happen  if the municipality consents. 

United States bankruptcy code books.

Additionally, while Chapter 9 says filing is limited to a “municipality,” it also says “chapter [9] does not limit or impair the power of a State to control, by legislation or otherwise, a municipality of or in such State in the exercise of the political or governmental powers of the municipality, including expenditures for such exercise.” This author questioned Orr’s authority under federal law to file for bankruptcy July 19, but this provision pretty much answers that question. 

Meanwhile, however, the U.S. Bankruptcy Code says “[t]he Secretary of the Treasury of the United States may, or if requested by the court shall, intervene in a chapter 9 case.” Fed. R. Bankr. P. 2018(c). Further, “[r]epresentatives of the state in which the debtor is located may intervene in a chapter 9 case.” Id. In addition, the Bankruptcy Code permits the Securities and Exchange Commission to appear and be heard on any issue and gives parties in interest the right to appear and be heard on any issue in a case. 11 U.S.C. §§ 901(a), 1109. Parties in interest include municipal employees, local residents, non-resident owners of real property, special tax payers, securities firms, and local banks.” 

Mass protest in France against pension cuts.

If President Barack Obama, Vice President Joe Biden, and their cabinet, will not intervene on behalf of the people of Detroit, the only option is for city workers and retirees, local residents, and others to intervene, BY ANY MEANS NECESSARY. A court intervention is one way. 

The massive demonstrations this week across the country against the Trayvon Martin verdict, and calls for boycotts of Florida products, along with admittedly small but signficiant traffic blockades on Woodward by the Citizens for Highland Park Schools, point the way for other means.

General strike in Greece Feb. 20, 2013.

The labor movement must also reinvigorate itself according to its founding principles. The five-minute occupation of the Coleman A. Young Center July  by AFSCME’S New Wave under 35 was a start—but please—five minutes? The top union leadership of the UAW and the rest of the AFL-CIO has refused to call on the economic clout of its workers with a general strike, It’s time now—as the largest and poorest Black majority city in the U.S. is used a a sacrificial lamb to Wall Street’s dictum that “Capitalism must grow or die.” 

Better the death of capitalism than the millions of poor and working people across the U.S. and the world, deprived of the basic means of sustenance, herded into prison concentration camps, and slaughtered by the increasingly militarized police and the U.S.-NATO armies across the world.

The video below shows young residents of Pittsburgh, another city which fell victim to the POC craze, reciting their program for a new world.

Related stories and documents:

US Courts Chapter 9 Bankruptcy

PA 436 of 2012

Detroit petition for bankruptcy

Acquilina order on bankruptcy 7 19 13

Retiree lawsu;it complaint; Retiree lawsuit brief; Retiree lawsuit motion070313_1

http://voiceofdetroit.net/2013/06/20/em-orrs-plan-for-detroit-phony-debt-moratorium-theft-of-city-assets-including-water-belle-isle-pensions/

Pension Obligation Bonds Risky Gimmick or Smart Investment

Detroit Bankruptcy Reverberates in Michigan and in Bond Markets WSJ 7 19 13

Detroit Bankruptcy Takes Aim at Pensions Labor Notes

SP Further Cuts Detroit Rating as City to Halt Paying Pension Debt

And many more from Voice of Detroit–just put “banks” in search box.

DETROIT EM KEVYN ORR (r) AND BOSS MICHIGAN GOV. RICK SNYDER (l) AT PRESS CONFERENCE JULY 19, 2013.

(VOD covered Friday press conference with Detroit EM Kevyn Orr and Gov. Rick Snyder and is researching matters; story coming this week-end. Meanwhile, Judge Rosemarie Aquilina’s order forbidding further action on bankruptcy is at Acquilina order on bankruptcy 7 19 13, motion and briefs by retirees’ attorneys in one case are at Retiree lawsuit complaint; Retiree lawsuit motion070313_1; and Retiree lawsuit brief. Judge Aquilina said she was prepared to rule in favor of retirees prior to temporary halt to hearing. She will continue hearing the case Monday, July 22 at 9 a.m. in the 30th Circuit Court in Mason, Michigan.)

Published: Saturday, 20 Jul 2013 | 5:13 AM ET Reuters

Investors dumped Detroit’s municipal bonds a day after the city’s historic bankruptcy filing even as a ruling in state court raised questions about whether the bankruptcy will stand up to court review. 

Judge Rosemarie Aquilina

Attempts by Michigan Governor Rick Snyder and Detroit’s Emergency Manager Kevyn Orr to put a positive spin on the largest municipal bankruptcy in U.S. history failed to reassure investors. Prices on some Detroit bonds plunged and there were wider declines in the $3.7 trillion U.S. municipal bond market. 

The state court judge in Michigan’s capital of Lansing [actually Ingham County Circuit Court in Mason, Michigan] ordered Orr to withdraw the bankruptcy petition because the state law that allowed Snyder to approve the bankruptcy violated the Michigan Constitution. The governor lacks the power to “diminish or impair pension benefits,” according to the ruling by Ingham County Circuit Court Judge Rosemarie Aquilina. 

Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette, acting on behalf of Snyder, quickly filed an appeal with the state appeals court. His office said motions seeking emergency consideration were expected to be filed later on Friday. 

(Read More: Detroit’s bankruptcy battle likely to be long and painful) 

U.S. Bankruptcy Court Judge Steven Rhodes, assigned to Detroit case.

Orr, meanwhile, filed a motion with Federal Bankruptcy Court Judge Steven Rhodes, who was appointed on Friday to oversee the Detroit case, requesting a hearing as soon as Tuesday on his request to place lawsuits aimed at derailing the city’s Chapter 9 proceedings on hold. The emergency manager’s motion also asked the judge to rule on deadlines, schedules, notification lists and other procedural matters. 

Ken Klee, a bankruptcy lawyer at Klee, Tuchin, Bogdanoff & Stern LLP, said the Judge Aquilina’s orders could be coming too late in the Detroit bankruptcy case. 

“The state judge could not order Detroit to dismiss the case or Kevyn Orr to dismiss it, because once it’s filed the automatic stay under the bankruptcy code kicks in, to protect the city and its employees from lawsuits,” he said. 

Neither Snyder nor Orr could necessarily be compelled to withdraw the city’s petition at this juncture, he added. 

(Read More: Detroit bankruptcy could hit millions of retirees)

Orr, who was appointed by Snyder in March to try to resolve the city’s financial crisis and tackle its $18.5 billion in long-term debt, acknowledged that court battles over the need for a bankruptcy filing could be protracted and difficult. 

Detroit Mayor Dave Bing greets U.S. President Barack Obama.

A first test in a Chapter 9 bankruptcy proceeding is whether the city has explored other reasonable options before filing, and the city will “have an eligibility fight, I suspect” over the decision, Orr said. 

Detroit Mayor Dave Bing says it is unlikely President Obama will bail out the city. Charlie Langton, Langton Law partner, believes the city will get a bailout, while Carol Roth, author of “The Entrepreneur Equation, is against it. 

In the bankruptcy filing, Orr stated he has set an objective to conclude the bankruptcy process no later than September 2014. 

“I’ve got 15 months left on my tenure,” Orr said. “I promised the governor that we were going to try and get this done within the time frame provided by the statute.” 

Judge Rhodes of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan was assigned to oversee the Detroit case, which involves thousands of creditors. Bankruptcy experts expect the case could last years and cost tens of millions of dollars. 

(Read More: Tear down chunks of Detroit: Billionaire landowner) 

Protest against EM law March 14, 2013

Under the 2012 Michigan law that created the emergency manager position, Orr’s term is limited to 18 months, after which he can be removed by a two-thirds vote of Detroit’s city council. 

Detroit, a former manufacturing powerhouse and cradle of the U.S. automotive industry and Motown music, has struggled for decades as companies moved or closed, crime became rampant and its population shriveled by about 25 percent in the past decade to 700,000. 

Under the state law that created the emergency manager position, Detroit could not file for bankruptcy without the governor’s approval. Lawsuits by pension funds and city workers, filed earlier this month, had sought to prevent a filing. But on Thursday, Orr filed the bankruptcy petition, with Snyder’s permission, just minutes before Judge Aquilina was set to rule on a petition to stop the process. 

In an interview with Reuters on Friday, Snyder sidestepped the constitutional question.

“That’s a matter in litigation and we have very good attorneys who I’m sure are on top of that,” he said. 

The governor has sought to paint the bankruptcy filing as a positive move for the city and the state. 

Sculpture of Joe Louis’ fist in downtown Detroit.

“We’re the comeback state in Michigan, but to be a great state we need…Detroit on the path to being a great city again,” Snyder, a Republican, said at a press conference. 

Snyder acknowledged that the bankruptcy would be seen as a new low point for the city, but said, “This is the day to stabilize Detroit.” 

Orr addressed concerns that art works at the Detroit Institute of Arts or other city assets would be auctioned off to pay off creditors, who have been offered pennies on the dollar. 

(Read More: Should Detroit sell its art collection?) 

“Right now, there’s nothing for sale,” he said. 

U.S. Vice President Joe Biden told reporters on Friday that White House officials had been briefed on Detroit’s situation, but that it was unclear what help the administration could provide. 

In the state court proceeding on Friday, Judge Aquilina said she plans to keep the White House informed on matters affecting pensions by sending her rulings in the state cases to President Barack Obama, according to her law clerk, and attorney William Wertheimer, who is representing retirees in a lawsuit. Continue reading →

VOD: Detroit EM Kevyn Orr made a flash announcement during a press conference held with little notice today at 6:15 p.m. that Gov. Rick Snyder has authorized the City of Detroit to file for bankruptcy. He and Snyder are to hold a press conference tomorrow, Friday, July 19 at 10 .m. with more details. Meanwhile, click on Detroit petition for bankruptcy for text of bankruptcy petition filed Thursday. VOD will publish an analytical article on this matter as soon as possible, that will be more “fair and balanced” than the Fox News coverage below.

Stockton city worker leaves city hall.

One dangerous note: this bankruptcy filing is unlike previous filings in Stockton, CA and other cities, because an unelected official, Kevyn Orr, with no accountability to the people of Detroit, will represent the city in bankruptcy court. In other cities that have filed for municipal bankruptcy, their elected officials have in many cases fought for the rights of the cities’ retirees. Orr’s intent in filing is to bypass state law which protects retirees’ pensions, and seek a precedent-setting decision in federal court that would equate retirees with giant global banks and corporations.

July 18, 2013

Detroit filed for the largest municipal bankruptcy in U.S. history Thursday after steep population and tax base declines sent it tumbling toward insolvency.

The filing by a state-appointed emergency manager means that if the bankruptcy filing is approved, city assets could be liquidated to satisfy demands for payment.

Detroit EM Kevyn Orr (r) with advisors Bruce Bennett of the Jones Day law firm and Kenneth Buckfire of Miller Buckfire, during press briefing before his creditor’s meeting June 14, 2013 at Metro Airport.

Kevin Orr, a bankruptcy expert, was hired by the state in March to lead Detroit out of a fiscal free-fall, and made the filing Thursday in federal bankruptcy court.

“Only one feasible path offers a way out,” Gov. Rick Snyder said in a letter to Orr and state Treasurer Andy Dillon approving the bankruptcy. The letter was attached to the bankruptcy filing.

“The citizens of Detroit need and deserve a clear road out of the cycle of ever-decreasing services,” Snyder wrote. “The city’s creditors, as well as its many dedicated public servants, deserve to know what promises the city can and will keep. The only way to do those things is to radically restructure the city and allow it to reinvent itself without the burden of impossible obligations.”

Gov. Snyder marches in Benton Harbor Blossomtime Parade last year to jeers from hundreds of protesteres.

Snyder had determined earlier this year that Detroit was in a financial emergency and without a plan to improve things. Snyder hired Orr in March, and he released a plan to restructure the city’s debt and obligations that would leave many creditors with much less than they are owed.

Orr was unable to convince a host of creditors, including the city’s union and pension boards, to take pennies on the dollar to help facilitate the city’s massive financial restructuring.

Some creditors were asked to take about 10 cents on the dollar of what the city owed them. Underfunded pension claims would have received less than 10 cents on the dollar under that plan.

Detroit EM Kevyn Orr at press conference announcing his appointment by Gov. Rick Snyder (in background).

A team of financial experts put together by Orr said that proposal was Detroit’s one shot to permanently fix its fiscal problems.

The filing leads to a 30 to 90 day period that will determine whether or not the city of Detroit is eligible for Chapter 9 protection, and define the number of claimants who may compete for Detroit’s limited settlement resources. The petition seeks protection from unions and creditors who are renegotiating $18.5 billion in debt and liabilities, according to the Detroit Free Press.

“The President and members of the President’s senior team continue to closely monitor the situation in Detroit,” White House spokeswoman Amy Brundage said in a statement Thursday.

“While leaders on the ground in Michigan and the city’s creditors understand that they must find a solution to Detroit’s serious financial challenge, we remain committed to continuing our strong partnership with Detroit as it works to recover and revitalize and maintain its status as one of America’s great cities,” the statement read.

ROBERT WOLF, WHILE HEAD OF THE GLOBAL SWISS BANK UBS AG’S AMERICAS DIVISION, WAS ONE OF THE BIGGEST FUNDRAIDERS FOR PRES. BARACK OBAMA’S CAMPAIGN, ACCORDING TO THE NEW YORK TIMES. UBS AG FOISTED A PREDATORY $1.5 BILLION POC LOAN ON DETROIT IN 2005, WHICH THE CITY HAS DEFAULTED ON THREE TIMES, CAUSING ITS CREDIT RATINGS TO DROP AND ITS CASINO TAXES TO BE HELD HOSTAGE TO PAY OFF THE DEBT.

(VOD: Click on http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2012/07/19/wolf-to-leave-ubs-to-form-new-firm/ to read entire NYT Dealbook article on Detroit creditor UBS AG’s role in funding Pres. Barack Obama’s campaign. The President to date has ignored pleas from Michigan’s Black residents to have the Justice Department investigate the fact that Emergency Manager Acts have disenfranchised more than half of them. Until today, he has not weighed in on the Emergency Manager takeover the nation’s largest Black-majority city, Detroit.)

Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., remained positive about Detroit’s outlook in spite of the major blow that bankruptcy delivered:

Protesters at airport during Kevyn Orr’s meeting with creditors June 14 demanded: CANCEL THE CITY’S DEBT.

“I know firsthand, because I live in Detroit, that our city is on the rebound in some key ways, and I know deep in my heart that the people of Detroit will face this latest challenge with the same determination that we have always shown,” the Senator said in a statement released Thursday.

Predatory mortgage loans and illegal foreclosures drove 170,000 families out of Detroit.

A number of factors — most notably steep population and tax base falls — have been blamed on Detroit’s descent toward insolvency.

Detroit was once synonymous with U.S. manufacturing prowess. Its automotive giants switched production to planes, tanks and munitions during World War II, earning the city the nickname “Arsenal of Democracy.”

Detroit lost a quarter-million residents between 2000 and 2010. A population that in the 1950s reached 1.8 million is struggling to stay above 700,000. Much of the middle-class and scores of businesses also have fled Detroit, taking their tax dollars with them.

Detroit’s budget deficit is believed to be more than $380 million. Orr has said long-term debt was more than $14 billion and could be between $17 billion and $20 billion.

Click for More at the Detroit Free Press

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2013/07/18/detroit-files-for-largest-municipal-bankruptcy-in-us-history/#ixzz2ZRF4lwKb

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2013/07/18/detroit-files-for-largest-municipal-bankruptcy-in-us-history/#ixzz2ZREx76Pp

Historic Day: Detroit Files For Bankruptcy

July 18, 2013 5:51 PM

Vickie Thomas

Reporting Vickie Thomas

DETROIT (WWJ) – After years of hand wringing over the state of affairs in the rust belt hub that has struggled in recent years perhaps more than any other large city in America, it’s official: Detroit has filed for Chapter 9 bankruptcy protection.

Motown, the gritty place that pioneered automobiles, modern manufacturing and soul music, now has the largest municipal bankruptcy case in U.S. history.

The 16-page filing was submitted to federal U.S. Bankruptcy Court Thursday afternoon with no announcement from the city or state.

Detroit has been struggling, crushed under billions of dollars in debt following decades of mismanagement, population flight and loss of tax revenue. The city lost a quarter-million residents between 2000 and 2010. Detroit now has an estimated 700,000 residents; down from 1.8 million in the 1950s.

No Federal Government Bailout In The Works For Detroit

Detroit City Councilwoman JoAnn Watson speaks at rally calling for moratorium on Detroit’s debt to the banks May 4, 2013. She has also called for a federal bail-out and a $10 billion Marshall Plan for Detroit.

For weeks, emergency manager Kevyn Orr has been working to try to lower the city’s debt as he slashes budgets, works with unions, and make sense of Detroit’s disjointed financial records.

A city official notably said the federal government should bail out Detroit, though the president has made no indication that’s a possibility.

Orr’s options were these: File for bankruptcy or cut the biggest bond restructuring deal of all time.

The latter didn’t happen.

Said Orr, in a written recommendation hand-delivered Tuesday to Gov. Rick Snyder and state Treasurer Andy Dillon:

“Based on the current facts and circumstances, I have concluded that no reasonable alternative to rectifying the city’s financial emergency exists other than the confirmation of a plan of adjustment for the city’s debts pursuant to chapter 9 of the bankruptcy code because the city cannot adopt a feasible financial plan that cant satisfactorily rectify the financial emergency outside of a chapter 9 process in a timely manner.” [View a copy of Orr’s letter].

Gov. Snyder on Thursday approved the bankruptcy

Detroit Mayor Dave Bing with State Treasurer Andy Dillon, both allies of Gov. Snyder.

“Only one feasible path offers a way out,” Snyder wrote in a letter to Dillon and Orr.

“The citizens of Detroit need and deserve a clear road out of the cycle of ever-decreasing services,” Snyder said. “The city’s creditors, as well as its many dedicated public servants, deserve to know what promises the city can and will keep. The only way to do those things is to radically restructure the city and allow it to reinvent itself without the burden of impossible obligations.”

“Despite Mr. Orr’s best efforts, he has been unable to reach a restructuring plan with the city’s creditors,” Snyder said. “I therefore agree that the only feasible path to a stable and solid Detroit is to file for bankruptcy protection.” [View a copy of the letter].

According to sources talking to WWJ City Beat Reporter Vickie Thomas, city officials were preparing the filing earlier Thursday. Federal Court spokesman Ron Hansen confirmed the filing shortly after 4 p.m.

Meantime, one mayoral candidate says Orr’s numbers are not adding up.

Mayoral candidate Krystal Crittendonl

Krystal Crittendon, an attorney for the city, is criticizing the math in Orr’s latest financial report. She said the Washington-based bankruptcy attorney’s numbers do not add up.

“The whole foundation that brings him here is false,” Crittendon said. “We do not have a $15 [billion] or a $20 billion debt problem. We have less than a $2 billion short-term debt problem that we could manage if we just went out and collected revenues that are owed to the city; stop giving, you know, tax abatement to people who can actually afford to pay taxes.”

Orr was hired by the state in March after a financial emergency was declared in Detroit.

Following a meeting last month with Wall Street creditors, Orr estimated Detroit’s budget deficit at $380 million, and the city’s long-term debt at $20 billion. Creditors are being asked to take about 10 cents on the dollar of what’s owed to them. [VIEW THE PROPOSAL HERE]

At that time, Orr gave the city a 50-50 chance of avoiding bankruptcy.

Bankruptcy expert Douglas Bernstein, with West Bloomfield’s Plunkett Cooney Law Firm, said the filing will kick-start a multi-month period where a federal judge and consultants would determine whether Detroit is eligible for Chapter 9 protection.

MILWAUKEE MAN, 72, CONVICTED OF KILLING 13-YEAR-OLD BLACK NEIGHBOR

By KYLE JONES kjones@ashlanddailypress.net

Posted: Wednesday, July 17, 2013 10:00 pm

Defense will seek to prove mental illness

John Henry Spooner, 72; Patricia Larry and a photo of her 13-year-old son Darius SImmons, shot to death by Spooner May 31, 2012.

John Henry Spooner, a 76-year-old Milwaukee resident, has been convicted of first-degree intentional homicide. Henry had suspected that a 13-year-old neighbor, Darius Simmons, had broken into his home and stolen weapons in May of 2012.

Spooner’s own security camera footage shows him confronting Simmons while he was retrieving his family’s trashcan. Spooner is shown pointing a gun at Simmons from about six feet away, and then briefly pointing the gun at Simmons’s mother who is standing on her porch off camera. Spooner then points the gun back at 13-year-old Simmons and fires, hitting the boy in the chest.

After Simmons managed to stumble away, Spooner then fired another shot that missed. Simmons then collapsed in the street and died in the arms of his mother, Patricia Larry.

Video below, from Spooner’s own security camera, was shown at trial

Spooner lingered after the shooting, pacing up and down the sidewalk until police arrived. Officer Richard Martinez testified that while he was handcuffing Spooner, the shooter proclaimed, “Yeah, I shot him.”

The trial will now enter into the second phase in which the defense will attempt to prove that Spooner was mentally ill at the time of the shooting.

UPDATE: Wis. man to testify in neighbor’s shooting death

Posted: Thu 3:21 PM, Jul 18, 2013

UPDATED Thursday, July 18, 2013 — 3:20 p.m.

Spooner being led into court.

MILWAUKEE (AP) — A Milwaukee man convicted of homicide this week will testify in the mental illness phase of his trial, against the advice of his attorney.

Seventy-six-year-old John Henry Spooner declined to testify in the first half of his trial. In that phase a jury convicted him of first-degree intentional homicide.

The judge asked him Thursday whether he wanted to testify in the second phase, which is designed to determine his mental competence at the time of the shooting. He said he wanted to make a statement instead.

The defense requested a break so he could be mentally evaluated. A doctor ruled him competent to proceed, and Spooner said he would testify,

Spooner was convicted Wednesday of fatally shooting of his teenage neighbor after accusing the boy of burglary. The trial is now in a second phase to determine his mental competence.

Copyright 2013: Associated Press

______________________________________________

UPDATED Wednesday, July 17, 2013 — 4:11 p.m.

MILWAUKEE (AP) — A psychiatrist testifying in the trial of a Milwaukee man who fatally shot his teenage neighbor says the man once killed his daughter’s kitten.

Spooner killed his daughter’s kitten. Many psychiatrists say killing animals is a prelude to killing humans.

Dr. Basil Jackson testified Wednesday in the second phase of a trial for 76-year-old John Henry Spooner. The testimony came hours after a jury found Spooner guilty of fatally shooting his 13-year-old neighbor after accusing the boy of stealing from him.

The second phase is to determine Spooner’s mental competence at the time of the 2012 shooting. [A psychiatrist already found Spooner competent to stand trial.]

Jackson says Spooner once killed a kitten that his daughter brought home because he didn’t want a cat. The psychiatrist, who was hired by the defense, says that sort of anger prompted Spooner to momentarily lose control during the several seconds that he fired two shots at the boy.

Copyright 2013: Associated Press

VIDEO OF STEVIE WONDER CALL FOR BOYCOTT OF FLORIDA

By Charles S. Daigle

Published on Jul 14, 2013

While performing in Quebec City on July 14th 2013, Stevie Wonder reacts to the not-guilty verdict in the George Zimmerman trial that followed the shooting of Trayvon Martin. He declares he will not perform in Florida as long as the Stand-your-ground law isn’t revoked there, or anywhere else in the world with such a law. I am the author of this video, if you wish to use it on television, on radio or on your website, I can grant you the right to do so, demanding that credits be given at time of publication. I can be reached at charles.savard.daigle@gmail.com

Rev. Edward Pinkney of Black Autonomy Community Organizations (BANCO) in Benton Harbor at rally against EM’s May 26, 2012.

__________________________________________________________ 

Poll: Boycott Florida Businesses and Products?By : Diana Ozemebhoya Eromosele | July 15, 2013 

Profile picture of the “Boycott Florida” Facebook group.

If it grows in Florida, was made in Florida or makes money in Florida, then it is eligible to be included in a list of products and businesses that some Trayvon Martin supporters will boycott as a way to protest the not-guilty verdict in the George Zimmerman second-degree-murder trial.

More specifically, creators of the “Boycott Florida” Facebook page want state legislators to repeal the “Stand your ground” law that shielded Zimmerman from prosecution. According to the group’s Facebook description, it hopes that “an economic embargo on Florida’s industry will force corporations to use their power, money and influence to stand with us against Stand Your Ground.”

And “the happiest place on Earth” is no exception. That’s right: Walt Disney World Resort is among those businesses in the bull’s-eye: The franchise’s most notable symbol — Mickey Mouse — is the profile picture for the group’s Facebook page, except that there’s a red slash across Mickey’s face, along with the words “Just Say No.”

The Philly Post is reporting that verdict protesters in Philadelphia vow to boycott Florida oranges and Florida orange juice. Tropicana is undoubtedly not happy about that.

Efforts are being made by Trayvon Martin supporters for an all-out boycott of Florida oranges and products derived from them. On Sunday, at a rally in Philadelphia’s Love Park that drew at least several hundred protesters, the call was clear: Don’t eat Florida oranges, and don’t drink Florida orange juice. Similar messages have been going out around the country via social media and online petitions.

Another Florida product? NAACP Convention held in Orlando, Florida the week after the Zimmerman verdict.

Please read VOD article below with cautionary note about depending on the feds: http://voiceofdetroit.net/2013/07/17/detroit-marches-in-wake-of-zimmerman-verdict.

March against Zimmerman verdict rounds Woodward Ave. towards Washington Blvd.

 Grandmother of Aiyana Jones, 7, speaks in wake of killer cop hung jury

Participants stress the fight against racism, unlike US AG Holder

Hamlin calls for real battle against “a violent enemy” 

By Diane Bukowski 

July 17, 2013 

One marcher carried a sign fashioned with Skittles and a pop bottle, the items Trayvon was carrying when he was murdered by George Zimmerman.

DETROIT – Over 500 Metro Detroiters packed the streets on short notice July 14 to protest the acquittal of Trayvon Martin’s killer George Zimmerman the night before. They marched from Grand Circus Park to the Federal Building on Michigan Avenue, chanting “No Justice, No Peace!” 

The march was organized by a broad spectrum of the city’s social justice organizations. 

Mertilla Jones, grandmother of Aiyana Jones, 7, stood out among the speakers at the initial rally. The trial of Detroit police officer Joseph Weekley, who shot the child to death May 16, 2010 during a military-style police raid on her home, ended in a hung jury June 18.  Jones noted the parallels between the trials of Zimmerman and Weekley, including the apparent fact that the prosecution in both cases did not appear intent on winning.

Mertilla Jones, grandmother of Aiyana Jones, 7, killed by Detroit police in 2010, weeps as she speaks at rally.

Weekley is scheduled for a new pre-trial hearing in front of Wayne County Circuit Court Judge Cynthia Gray Hathaway Thurs. July 25 at 9 a.m. according to court records. 

“The verdict they put down last night on Trayvon’s murderer was not right,” Jones told the crowd. “I don’t think that they’re going to convict Weekley either. I’m out here for all the Aiyanas and Trayvons, and Aiyana is here too, because she speaks through her grandmother. To Trayvon’s family, you have my sympathy. We are in this battle for the long run. Nobody can take away my memory of watching my 7-year-old granddaughter get her brains blown out. It was horrible, very, very ugly, and I don’t wish that on anyone. I hope that every time Weekley looks in his daughters’ eyes, he sees Aiyana’s face.” 

Marchers pack streets around Grand Circus Park.

Wayne County Prosecutor Robert Moran prosecuted Weekley and, in an evident conflict of interest, is also prosecuting Aiyana’s father Charles Jones for first-degree murder in the death of Je’Rean Blake. His chief witness is jail-house snitch Jay Schlenkerman. 

During the Weekley trial, Moran failed to object to numerous improprieties, including the constant unfounded characterization of the Jones home as a crack house and repeated references to Chauncey Owens, the long-time boyfriend of Aiyana’s aunt, also charged in Blake’s death, as a “murderer.” Jones and Owens have yet to be tried. 

Marchers condemned the ongoing presence of virulent racism in the U.S.

The one lengthy objection Moran did make was to the presentation of photos taken from the Facebook page of one of Aiyana’s uncles, which defense attorney Steve Fishman said showed various relatives with guns at undisclosed locations and times.  However, Moran made that objection out of the presence of the jury, and only briefly noted it had been made while the jury was there. 

As in Trayvon’s case, where the judge forbade the use of the term “racial profiling,” Moran never attempted to say racism was involved in the killing of a Black child living in a poor Black neighborhood by a white police officer living in the well-to-do, predominantly white suburb of Grosse Pointe Park. 

Marchers of all races, ages and sexes united for Trayvon and against racim.

In Zimmerman’s trial, many including renowned prisoner/activist Mumia Abu Jamal have said the prosecution handed the trial to the defense. 

“I’ve never seen a defense lawyer utilize, so skillfully, the ju-jitsu-style techniques of witness flipping,” Abu Jamal wrote. “In all honesty, the state’s prosecution witnesses became defense witnesses. And where the defense was adroit, the prosecutor bumbled and fumbled.” 

The prosecution apparently failed to do a forensic voice analysis of the 911 call a neighbor made during Trayvon’s killing. Trayvon’s family testified it was his voice heard in the background shouting in horror for help, while Zimmerman’s mother said it was her son’s voice. 

Many youth attended the march.

In keeping with the judge’s dictum, the Zimmerman prosecutor did not attempt to make a case that Zimmerman was motivated by racism, although testimony was given that Zimmerman had repeatedly made 911 calls regarding the presence of Black youths in his neighborhood. 

In both trials, the juries were all white except for one Black member. 

The demonstrators in Detroit July 14 vehemently disagreed with the “see no racism” approach, carrying signs that declared “Justice for Trayvon! Say NO to Racism!” 

Cassandra David and son Alex Lamar, 15.

Cassandra David attended the march with her son Alex Lamar, 15. 

“I’m down here for my son,” David said. “He’s 15 years old. It’s a shame that Black kids are being killed like this. They shouldn’t be stereotyped. My son has a 4.0 grade point average, and is an accomplished athlete. He is very respectful, he holds the door for people. We are here to oppose people being profiled by the color of their skin.” 

Lamar said, “This is crazy. This is like the case of Emmett Till, which we’re just learning about in class. That was almost half a century ago, and it’s still going on, as if history is repeating itself.” 

Likewise, Angela Thomas, who attended the march with her sons Demetrius Collins, 12, and Canaan Thomas, 11, said she was there for them. 

Mother Angela Thomas and her sons Demetrius Thomas, 12 and Canaan Thomas, 11 (front)

“I brought my boys out here to back democracy and to show them what’s right,” Thomas commented. 

Chantel Simmons commented on VOD’s previous post on the Zimmerman verdict, “My heart hurts for my people; it will never change[how] I feel. We are losing more of our children every day because people feel they have the right to hurt our kids. This was all about color. No one on earth can stay it was not. Why are we the only ones that have to tell our children about color at a young age like something is wrong with them? I love my color and teach my children to love their color. When will this ever change?” 

Mike Hamlin, a co-founder of Detroit’s renowned League of Revolutionary Black Workers in 1969, stressed that the struggle against economic, political and social racism must progress to the level of a real fight, not just rallies and marches, to succeed. 

LRBW co-founder Mike Hamlin calls for serious fight beyond rallies.

“This year marks the 50^th anniversary of the assassination of Medgar Evers,” Hamlin said, referring to the civil rights leader who was gunned down in his driveway in  Decatur, Mississippi by Byron De La Beckwith, a member of the White Citizens’ Council, on June 12, 1963. 

Hamlin also brought up the cases of Emmett Till, 15, brutally lynched in 1955, and Cynthia Scott, a Black Detroit woman killed by police July 5, 1964. A demonstration of 5,000 took place outside police headquarters to protest her murder on July 13, 1964 according to the book, “On the Ground: Black Panther Parties in Communities Across America,” edited by Judson Jeffries. 

Emmett Till, 15, in his coffin after torture and slaughter by Southern racists in 1955. His mother asked that the photo be published to show the depths of racism in the U.S.

Hamlin focused on the centuries-long oppression of Black people in the U.S., from slavery to 5,000 recorded lynchings in the 20^th century, to prison labor in the south, where Black men were kidnapped and forced to work as slaves long after slavery allegedly ended. 

“People are saying, ‘We just want justice,’ but I ask where the hell have you been for the last 350 years?” Hamlin said. “Malcolm said non-violence only works if you have a moral people. Our enemies are arming themselves; there are stand your ground laws in 34 states. Justice is not going to happen without a fight, because we are not dealing with a non-violent enemy.”

The march concluded with a rally at the Federal Building on Michigan Avenue in downtown Detroit. Many in the march called for federal civil rights charges to be brought against Zimmerman.

US Atty. General Eric Holder at NAACP Convention July 16, 2013.

However, U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder and spokespersons for the Obama administration have stressed the difficulty of bringing charges based on civil rights violations against Zimmerman, noting that it will be difficult to prove “intent.” 

Following are excerpts of Holder’s speech to the NAACP National Convention July 16, 2013, with a link to the full text at the end. The word “racism” never appears in his talk.

“Today I’d like to join President Obama in urging all Americans to recognize that, as he said, we are a nation of laws, and the jury has spoken. . . .

Detroit marchers.

“This afternoon I want to assure you of two things: I am concerned about this case and as we confirmed last spring, the Justice Department has an open investigation into it. Now while that inquiry is ongoing, I can promise that the Department of Justice will consider all available information before determining what action to take. . . .

“We must also seek a dialogue on attitudes about violence and disparities that are too commonly swept under the rug, by honoring the finest traditions established by generations of NAACP leaders and other nonviolent advocates throughout history; and by paying tribute to the young man who lost his life here last year, and so many others whose futures have been cut short in other incidents of gun violence, that pass too often unnoticed, in our streets. And we must do so by engaging with one another in a way that is at once peaceful, inclusive, respectful and strong. 

Family at Detroit rally. What will the future hold for this young child?

As we move forward together, I want to assure you that the Department of Justice will continue to act in a manner that is consistent with the facts and the law. We will not be afraid. We are committed to doing everything possible to ensure that in every case, in every circumstance and in every community, justice must be done.”

Holder also spent a large part of his talk declaring that progress is being made on assuring the voting rights of Black U.S. residents, despite the recent U.S. Supreme Court decision striking down part of the Voting Rights Act in Shelby County v. Holder.

For full text of Holder’s talk, click on AG Holder on Trayvon Martin at NAACP 7 16 13.)

President Barack Obama and Holder, however, have repeatedly failed to act on instances of blatant racism, rampant police brutality, economic devastation, and the abrogation of Black voting rights here in Detroit and Michigan.

Aiyana Jones, 7, murdered by Detroit police May 16, 2010.

The Justice Department NEVER opened an investigation into the Aiyana Jones murder on May 16, 2010, despite promising it would do so once the state investigation had concluded. That investigation ended in 2011. While killer cop Joseph Weekley remains employed and goes home to his family every night, Aiyana’s father Charles Jones has been locked up since Nov. 2011, while he grieves the loss of his only daughter.  Her male relatives continue to be harassed and arrested by Detroit police, according to Mertilla Jones and others in the family, with nary a word from Holder.

The Justice Department exonerated FBI agents and Dearborn and Detroit police who brutally shot Imam Luqman Abdullah to death 21 times, during a set-up raid at a warehouse in Dearborn Oct. 28, 2009. The Imam’s autopsy showed that he was savagely attacked by police dogs as well. Iman Abdullah was a Black cleric who headed a mosque in one of the poorest neighborhoods of Detroit, which ministered to the needs of the community. He was known to be associated with Imam Jamil Abdullah Al-Amin (formerly H. Rap Brown of the Black Panthers), who was framed up on charges of murdering a Georgia law enforcement official and is now incarcerated for life. Imam Al-Amin also led similar efforts to address the needs of the Black community in Georgia, while working to bring Black youth together to fight for a positive future, as did the Black Panthers.

Imam Luqman Abdullah, murdered by FBI, Detroit and Dearborn police Oct. 28, 2009.

Why anyone should ever have expected the USDOJ and Holder to do anything other than exonerate their own people begs reason.

Finally, President Barack Obama and Eric Holder have NEVER responded to pleas from the Black citizens of Michigan, more than 51 percent of whom are effectively without voting rights due to emergency manager laws.

U.S. Rep. John Conyers wrote Holder on Dec. 2, 2011 asking him to open a Justice Department investigation into Public Act 4. A staff member told VOD that the last they heard was Holder’s declaration that the voting rights of Michigan’s Black citizens are a matter for the cities and state to solve. 

In the nascent stages of the emergency  manager takeover of Detroit, the largest Black majority city in the U.S., Pres. Obama never even deigned to visit the city during his last campaign, despite the fact that droves of Detroiters turned out to the polls to vote both for him and for Proposal 1, which overturned PA 4. Now Detroit is subject to PA 436, a reincarnation of PA 4 which threatens the city’s very existence. WHERE ARE PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA, ERIC HOLDER, AND THE U.S. JUSTICE DEPARTMENT?

The belief that the Obama administration will bring justice in the Trayvon Martin case, which many people continue to cling to, only delays the struggle that is needed to win real victory for Trayvon, his family, and the Black residents of this Jim Crow police state and prison nation, the struggle to which Mike Hamlin referred when he spoke at the July 14 rally.