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Marchers protesting EM’s converge on Gov. Rick Snyder’s home near Ann Arbor on MLK Day Jan. 16

 Wednesday, February 15, 2012, 12:41 PM

By Jonathan Oosting | joosting@mlive.com MLive.com .

State financial review teams operating in Detroit and the Highland Park Public Schools held a series of private meetings in violation of the Michigan Open Meetings Act, according to an Ingham County Circuit Court Judge, who reportedly has voided their work.

Judge William Collette last week issued a temporary injunction ordering the Detroit review team to comply with the Open Meetings Act. WDIV reports Collette ruled today that all work by the team is null and void.

Collette also voided the work of the Highland Park schools review team, according to The Detroit News, including the recommendation of an emergency manager.

Robert Davis

Today’s ruling came in response to lawsuits filed by Robert Davis, a Highland Park school board member, union activist and vocal critic of Public Act 4, Michigan’s controversial emergency manager law.

Gov. Rick Sndyer appointed the Detroit review team in late December after a preliminary examination revealed “probable financial stress” in Detroit, and he appointed Emergency Manager Jack Martin to run the Highland Park schools last month.

The Snyder administration has argued that review teams are not subject to the Open Meetings Act, which is designed to promote transparency in state government, and a spokesperson said last week that the state would appeal Collette’s preliminary injunction.

It’s not immediately clear what today’s ruling means for the review process in Detroit or Martin’s job in Highland Park, but the ruling could have implications for municipalities and school districts across the state currently under control of an emergency manager.

“We will abide by whatever process guidelines are mandated by the judge’s ruling and cooperate accordingly,” Detroit Mayor Dave Bing said in a released statement. “We have been open and transparent about the City of Detroit’s financial condition and will continue to do so.”

The Michigan Treasury and Snyder’s office have not yet responded to a request for comment.

The Detroit review team had up to 60 days to review the city’s finances and was expected to present its findings later this month to Snyder, who could decide to appoint an emergency manager or sign a consent agreement with city officials.

Harry Belafonte waves to Martin Luther King Jr. (right) at a 1965 civil-rights march in Montgomery, Alabama.

 Posted by Black Star Journal February 15, 2012

(VOD editor: this story brought to mind yesterday’s Damon Keith award, presented to Detroit Mayor Dave Bing by Michigan Governor Rick Snyder, as Bing cuts bus routes and jobs drastically, and Snyder moves to take Detroit over with an emergency manager.)

BY MAUDLYNE IHEJIRIKA,                             Staff Reporter 

February 13, 2012

It was both a walk down memory lane and a call to action when singer, actor, civil rights activist and international humanitarian Harry Belafonte spoke at St. Sabina Church.

Part of a Black History Month program that also brought Princeton Professor Cornel West to the South Side church on Sunday, Belafonte, espousing incendiary views on racism and capitalism for six decades, did not hold back during his presentation Friday night. 

U.S. President Barack Obama ordered Wall Street bail-out

Criticism of President Barack Obama’s bailout of Wall Street banks, comparison of the Occupy America movement to the 1960s civil rights battle, and an urging of African Americans and the poor toward an uprising to alleviate racism and poverty were among topics covered by an 84-year-old luminary who has sat with many of the world’s heads of state.

“I find myself at this time of my life with a lot of questions I thought we had answered,” said Belafonte, who was born in Harlem, N.Y. in 1927, was the first African-American man ever to win an Emmy Award and was a key confidant to Martin Luther King Jr.

“The last time I saw Dr. King, he had come to our home in New York, which was not uncommon as we plotted strategies for campaigns we were waging, and he was in a surly mood,” Belafonte told some 1,000 who braved a snowstorm to hear him.

Greece burns in wake of general strikes, street rebellions Feb. 13, 2012

“King said, ‘We have fought long and hard for the goals we’ve achieved, but therein lies my deepest concern, that in this struggle for integration, which we are achieving, I do genuinely believe that we will be integrating into a burning house,’’ Belafonte said.

“I never understood how prophetic that was until subsequent history revealed itself.”

Deeply entrenched in the civil rights movement, Belafonte was a friend who would bail King out of jail, and who, with such notables as Julian Bond, John Lewis and Dick Gregory, founded the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC). 

What future does this country hold for Black youth?

So many of the gains of that movement have been lost, he charged, ticking off decimated and disinvested inner-city communities devoid of a middle class; continuing disparities yielding low funding of public education and high incarceration rates of minority youth; and high poverty and unemployment rates that still more greatly afflict minorities.

“But for all the battles that we’ve won, we have yet not won the war,” Belafonte said.

In 1960, he was named cultural adviser to the Peace Corps, and in 1987, a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador. He has earned worldwide recognition for his dedicated work on behalf of African children stricken by poverty and HIV/AIDS, as well as his outspoken advocacy for the poor and oppressed across the globe.

“And when I’m accused of dishonorably criticizing our president, somebody has tried to turn this into a personal affair,” Belafonte said of his more recent criticisms of Obama’s economic policies. “I like Barack Obama. I think he’s a nice young man. There’s a lot about him that fills me with a sense of pride. His presence as president of the United States of America means that we did something right in the civil rights movement.

Musician Bob Marley also called for people's uprising against poverty and racism

“But all of these truths do not exempt him from the moral responsibility that he has in his governance of this country. What Dr. King taught us was that without an angry people, without the poor rising up in indignation against their conditions, our leaders will never be pushed to do what they must do.”

A World War II U.S. Navy veteran, Belafonte found work as a local club singer to pay for acting classes in the late 1940s but instead found music his calling. His breakthrough 1956 album, “Calypso,” was the first LP ever in history to sell more than 1 million copies. A prolific actor as well as singer by the late 1950s, he won the Emmy for his 1959 TV special, “Tonight with Harry Belafonte.” He was the organizer of the multi-artist recording, “We Are the World,” which won the 1985 Grammy Award for record of the year and raised millions for emergency famine and health aid to Africa, and was awarded the National Medal of the Arts from President Bill Clinton in 1994.

“When I look at young people in the Occupy Wall Street movement, and hear, ‘Why don’t they go get a job?’ I think, where have I heard that before? When we gathered in the early days of our own rebellion, they said, ‘Why don’t you all go smoke a joint somewhere and get lost?’ ” Belafonte said. “What we’re facing now is an opportunity among young people trying desperately to find their way. The pundits say, ‘Where are their leaders?’ Their leaders are found in history. ‘What do they want?’ Take a look at what we wanted, and you’ll find it’s the same menu. What’s missing is that rage.”

Colombia leads the world in murders of trade unioinists, abetted by AFL-CIO

VOD editor: the following is an excerpt from an article, which can be read in its entirety by clicking on The Wikileaks Revelations on the role of the AFL-CIO in Latin America. VOD is publishing this to expose not only the role of the AFL-CIO in Colombia (similar to that in many other Latin American countries), but to question the leadership of the union movement in the U.S. 

While unions in countries like Greece and Italy are conducting general strikes against the horrific austerity policies there (see article below) unions in the U.S. have yet to call on the economic clout held by their members to fight similar attacks. This article makes one wonder what type of meetings are going on between top union leaders in the U.S. and the forces which are carrying out austerity measures here.

By Alberto C. Ruiz

Colombian union leader dead in the streets

There are about a dozen Wikileaks cables which reflect meetings between the AFL-CIO’s Solidarity Center and the U.S. Embassy in Bogota, and they are quite revealing.    For example, there is an embassy cable from August 11, 2008, entitled, “COLOMBIAN UNIONS, IDEOLOGY, AND THE ARMED CONFLICT.”   

And, in this cable, the Solidarity Center’s Rhett Doumitt [the same AFL-CIO staffer directly involved in aiding and abetting forces that carried out the coup against President Chavez in 2002] professes strong views on this subject to the U.S. Embassy, in particular to Ambassador Brownfield.

Rhett Doumitt (right), Solidarity Center Andes Director; Bill Camp (center), Sacramento CLC California; Nancy Hall (left), CWA Dallas Texas

Thus, in this cable, Mr. Doumitt is said to have “complained of a ‘Stalinist’ approach taken by Communist and other hard-left labor leaders within the CUT,” the largest labor confederation in Colombia.   The cable continues:

In 2006, they affiliated with the Social Democratic international confederation, which later became the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC). Even then, RHETT DOUMITT of the AFL-CIO affiliated Solidarity Center said the Communists literally ‘turned the lights out’ at the convention in a last ditch attempt to block this affiliation.

Further in the cable, DOUMITT complains that the politics of the labor movement in Colombia impede positive, practical advances on labor issues. In the April 22 monthly ‘labor dialogue’ meeting with President Uribe, the confederations focused discussions on the investigations of the Colombian congressmen associated with the parapolitical scandal.    CGT (Confederacion General de Trabajadores Democraticos) International Relations Secretary Jose Leon Ramirez notes there was no discussion of labor issues at the meeting. Still, DOUMITT says the unions have made progress in moving away from their traditional polemic cold war perspectives.

Colombia is strategically located. bordering on Venezuela and Brazil, which have elected socialist and progressive presidents

Another cable from another meeting indicates identical complaints to the Embassy by Doumitt about the Colombian labor movement elevating its political concerns – e.g., about the “parapolitical” scandal which involved scores of politicians collaborating with the paramilitaries who, among other things, have been hunting down labor leaders – over purely labor concerns.   

In this cable, dated February 5, 2009, Doumitt complained that “the public’s perception that the unions value politics over pocket book issues for workers also limit union membership.  Doumitt complained that the politics of the labor movement in Colombia impede positive, practical advances on labor issues, but noted that some unions are moving away from their traditional socialist ideologies.”

Colombian union march

Still, in another cable dated September 5, 2008, Doumitt seems to side with the Colombian government in terms of the debate over the figures of unionists killed in Colombia.  Thus, the cable states:

The tenor of these cables is repeated in other Latin American countries, such as Ecuador, where the Embassy reported on a meeting with Solidarity Center officials who told the Embassy “that unions generally have a bad reputation all around. Younger workers see them as either communist or irrelevant, and most Ecuadorians seen them as essentially selfish actors.” 

In a January 22, 2007 cable emanating from Peru, and entitled, “GOP Wins Battle Against Radical Teacher’s Union,” the local AFL-CIO representative is cited as siding with the government in this legal victory which, among other things, limited the number of teachers (from 314 to 30) who could engage in full-time union activity and still receive their teachers’ salaries.  Continue reading →

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

 By Rev. Edward Pinkney

 February 13, 2012 

It is our distinct honor and privilege to invite you to Occupy The PGA in Benton Harbor, Michigan scheduled for May 23-27 2012.

 [The national Senior PGA championships for 2012 and 2014 are to be held on the luxurious new Harbor Shores golf course in Benton Harbor, bordering the city’s gorgeous public beach on Lake Michigan, which Whirlpool and other corporations are rapidly encroaching on. Benton Harbor is 89.2 percent Black and has a poverty rate of 48.7 percent, compared to Michigan which is 14.2 percent Black and has a poverty rate of 14.8 percent. For more on the PGA’s plans for the Benton Harbor events, click on SENIOR PGA CHAMPIONSHIPS TO BE HELD IN BENTON HARBOR 2012 AND 2014 from PGA website

Harbor Shores golf range in Benton Harbor, Michigan

 We are committed to escalating the Occupy Movement to support human rights in housing in addition to push back against bailouts for fraudulent Banks. 

They are stealing our homes and our lives. We are calling for a national boycott of Whirlpool, Kitchen Aid and all corporations that are destroying the 99%.  

Democracy is non-existent in Benton Harbor, Michigan.  Benton Harbor has its very own Dictator! 

Rev. Edward Pinkney (l) leads march against PA 4 in Benton Harbor 2010

Please place on your face book.

For more information contact Rev Edward Pinkney at 269-925-0001 

blogtalkradio.com/pinkney call in to pinkney show every Sunday at 5 pm 347-994-3644      bhbanco.org

Uploaded by PortlandActionLab on Feb 1, 2012

Occupy Portland calls for a national day of non-violent direct action to reclaim our voices and challenge our society’s obsession with profit and greed by shutting down the corporations. We are rejecting a society that does not allow us control of our future. We will reclaim our ability to shape our world in a democratic, cooperative, just and sustainable direction. Already 30+ cities are planning actions. Get involved and find out more at http://www.shutdownthecorporations.org .

The Portland Action Lab is a direct action spokes council organizing as part of Occupy Portland. More info at www.portlandactionlab.org.

By Barbie Latza Nadeau

Feb 13, 2012 7:07 AM EST

After yet another push for austerity, Greeks have finally had enough, staging massive riots. Barbie Latza Nadeau on how the euro zone’s other nations are reacting.

The burnt out shells of at least 45 buildings in central Athens were still smoldering on Monday morning after a weekend of angry protests reached its apex on Sunday night in what Greek prime minister Luca Papademos called the worst breakdown of violence since 2008. Broken glass, chunks of marble ripped from the public squares and empty tear gas canisters lined the streets after an all-night battle pitted protesters against security forces who say they were outnumbered by a five-to-one ratio. Hundreds of protesters and police officers were injured and local Greek Sky television reported that at least twice, security forces ran out of tear gas.

Greeks rise up against austerity measures weekend of Feb. 11, 2012

Protests were held across the country, including in the tourist havens of Crete and Corfu, but the violence centered in Athens, where over 80,000 protesters took to the streets burning buildings and destroying property. An estimated 20,000 people also gathered in Greece’s second city Thessaloniki, where looters broke storefront windows and destroyed city parks. On Sunday, protesters were joined by a violent contingent of masked anarchists who took direct aim at security forces under the violent anti-authority mantra of the Black Bloc movement.

Greeks rise up

The demonstrations followed general strikes last week that were meant to warn politicians against passing a biting austerity package that would save Greece from debt default—at a hefty price tag for the population. The $4.3 billion package was ultimately approved by a 199 to 74 margin in a late-night vote, but the victory was bittersweet for Greek leaders. “We must understand and persuade Greek citizens that when you have to choose between bad and worse, you must choose the bad to avoid the worst,” Greek finance minister Evangelos Venizelos told parliament ahead of the vote. 

Greece burns

Greek leaders had until Feb. 15 to adopt the austerity measures, but they were compelled to push the bill through parliament over the weekend—before world markets opened Monday morning—in an attempt to show European leaders led by German Chancellor Angela Merkel that the country deserved to be saved. Shares in Greek banks rose by 10 percent on Monday in a clear sign of approval that the bill was passed. But the violent reaction led many to wonder whether ordinary Greeks can afford to stay in the euro zone and whether the weekend’s events will become the norm. Concern that the Greek measures are like putting a band-aid on a cancerous tumor have prompted many European leaders to openly question the fate of the euro zone’s single currency. Greek leader Antonis Samaras, head of the conservative opposition who is favored to win Greek elections, warned supporters of contagion among the weaker European economies.  “We should show the Europeans that what is happening in Greece will soon spread to the rest of Europe if we do not change the policy of endless austerity.” 

Protesters mass outside Parliament building in Greece Feb 2012

Smaller economies like Ireland and Portugal, which also have unsustainable debt like Greece, are watching to see what happens.  If Greece defaults and is expelled from the euro zone, they are vulnerable to follow suit. Leaders in debt-laden Italy, which is often touted as “too big to bail, too big to fail,” and where austerity measures like those passed in Greece top the agenda, are equally worried. Italy’s interim leader Mario Monti has received accolades from America’s President Obama for his work on Italy’s economic debacle, but he’s seen as “public enemy No. 1” to many Italians who say they’ll take the Greek approach if austerity measures become too painful. 

Greece and Italy are both run by caretaker governments after their democratically-elected leaders George Papandreou and Silvio Berlusconi were forced to resign last fall. Both countries will have to hold elections by 2013, and many would-be candidates are concerned about the fallout from supporting these hard-hitting measures. The Greek cuts include trimming 15,000 public sector jobs and mandating a 22 percent decrease in the minimum wage in the private sector—the third such slice in less than a year. In practical terms, the minimum-wage cut would drop the base pay for most non-professional jobs from €751 to €600 a month (in U.S. dollars, $1,000 to $795) for those who already have regular jobs and allow employers to pay 10 percent less to new employees they hire.  Pensions, too, will be decreased, as will many welfare services. A 28-percent drop in tourism and rampant cost-of-living increases spawned by the unrest and panic have meant that most Greeks earn barely enough to scrape by. 

Greeks call for global uprisings

Papademos, who has the unsavory task of trying to save the country from economic implosion, called for calm ahead of the Sunday night vote. “This vandalism, violence.. they have no place in a democracy and will not be tolerated,” he said in a television address before the Greek parliament voted. “I call on the public to show calm. At these crucial times, we do not have the luxury of this type of protest. I think everyone is aware of how serious the situation is.”

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Barbie Latza Nadeau, author of the Beast Book Angel Face, about Amanda Knox, has reported from Italy for Newsweek since 1997 and for The Daily Beast since 2009. She is a frequent contributor to CNN Traveller, Departures, Discovery, and Grazia. She appears regularly on CNN, the BBC, and NPR.

For inquiries, please contact The Daily Beast at editorial@thedailybeast.com.

Former State Rep. Mary Waters, flanked by Rev. Wayne McQueen (r) and Willie E. Burton, outside Chrome Craft plant in Highland Park Feb. 2, 2012

By Diane Bukowski 

February 3, 2012 

HIGHLAND PARK , MI — On the eve of SuperBowl week-end, former State Rep. Mary Waters. a cancer survivor, Rev. Wayne McQueen, and precinct delegate Willie E. Burton called on the National Football League to suspend the Jacksonville Jaguars’ new owner Shahid Khan, whose net worth is $2.5 billion. They demanded that Khan clean up the chemically contaminated site of the former Chrome Craft plant in Highland Park, which he also owns. 

New Jacksonville Jaguars owner Shahid Khan, right, is introduced by NFL commissioner Roger Goodell during a news conference at the NFL owners meeting in Irving, Texas, Wednesday, Dec. 14, 2011. The sale from franchise founder Wayne Weaver to the Pakistani-born Khan was unanimously approved Wednesday. The deal reportedly is for $760 million. (AP Photo/LM Otero)

According to former workers at the plant, the site is contaminated with Hexavalent Chromium, a highly dangerous carcinogren which was featured in the movie “Erin Brockovich.” Brockovich and residents near a Pacific Gas & Electric plant in California won a class action lawsuit against the company for hexavalent chromium contamination of the site.

“If the NFL can suspend NFL players for their activities both on and off the field, then surely the NFL must be able to suspend owners from directing their teams if those owners are conducting their businesses in a manner that threatens the public health, safety and welfare of the people of Highland Park and Detroit, Michigan”, Waters said during a press conference outside the plant Feb. 2.

Detroit Lions' Ndamukong Suh

NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell instituted a new off-the-field conduct policy in 2007. It resulted in the suspensions of numerous players, including Atlanta Falcons starting quarterback Michael Vick, Tennessee Titans cornerback Adam “Pacman” Jones, Cincinnati Bengals wide receiver Chris Henry, and Chicago Bears defensive tackle Tank Johnson, for arrests ranging from driving without a license to Vick’s dog-fighting charges. The players ere suspended prior to any convictions. Most recently, the NFL suspended Detr0it Lions’ defensive tackle Ndamukong Suh on Thanksgiving for allegedly stomping another player during a game against the Green Bay Packers. All of the players are Black.

“Are the lives of the urban poor and people of color any less valuable than that of an NFL quarterback?” Waters asked Goodell in a letter she emailed to him Dec. 1.

Waters said she previously wrote Goodell in December asking that Khan’s application to own the Jaguars be denied due to HIS off-the-field conduct. Goodell ignored that demand, and has not responded to Waters’ recent Above, Pacific Gas & Electric contaminated site in Califonria    letter  (click on  Waters letter tp NFL head).

“In the name of environmental justice, I ask that the NFL delay the activities of the Jacksonville Jaguars until properties owned by Mr. Khann are scientifically certified to be free of cancer-causing agents such as Hexavalent Chromium,” Waters wrote. “This action may be the only leverage our community can exert to ensure compliance with the humane business practices.” 

She noted that Khan’s ability to purchase the Jaguars was derived in part from Chrome Craft operations. 

Former Chrome Craft workers and residents of the poverty-stricken area surrounding the plant, located at 318 Midland in Highland Park, have been campaigning to get the property cleaned up since last year. They have established a website at http://cleanupchromecraft.org/. 

Antwine Riggs

Two former workers are featured on the site. 

“I worked at Chrome Craft for 13 years, until it closed in 2009,” Antwine Riggs reported. “During that time there were a lot of problems with the machines that processed the waste from the chroming lines.  One machine that was broken a lot was the dryer that chroming sludge went through – the arm that moved the sludge into the dryer was usually broken so the sludge wouldn’t dry and would spill off the conveyor onto the ground near the container outside.  It probably happened three to four times per week.”

Saad Bolos

“Part of the plant’s chroming system was on the roof of the plant – a series of pipes that fed into the tanks on the chroming line,” former worker Saad Bolos said. “The pipes were PVC, not even metal, about four inches diameter.  One winter one of the PVC pipes burst.  It was filled with chroming bath and it spilled all over the plant property and washed into the alleyway.  I remember the snow turning a yellowish-golden color, the same color your hands would be at the end of a shift, even if you wore gloves at work.”

 “The Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS), the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), and the [U.S. Environmental Protection Agency] have determined that chromium(VI) compounds are known human carcinogens,” according to a report from the HHHS. The report added that it causes a range of other health problems when inhaled or ingested.nd cause a range of other health problems when inhaled or ingested.

Erin Brockovich continues to campaign for enviironmental justice around the world

“Protecting future generations from exposure to hexavalent chromium—also known as chromium (VI) or Chromium-6 —is a growing priority for federal regulators, the Clean Up Chrome Craft website says. “For example, an influential report by the Environmental Working Group on Chromium-6 in municipal water supplies led the U.S. EPA to issue new guidance to water systems for monitoring the chemical.[In October 2010, the EPA proposed new rules for air emissions from electroplating plants,  and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) issued a final rule that provided workers with additional protections by requiring companies to inform their employees of whenever they are exposed to the chemical, regardless of how little.”

Tina Lam, of the Detroit Free Press, wrote in December that former workers are seeking a state investigation of contamination caused by Chrome Craft.

Lam wrote, “The plant . . ., has been cited over the past 20 years for 39 violations of city, state and federal laws regarding its discharges into Detroit sewers, its lack of a permit to store hazardous waste, improper storage of waste and failure to train workers, according to documents obtained by the UAW under the Freedom of Information Act. The NAACP, the UAW, environmental groups and workers are asking the state’s Department of Environmental Quality to investigate. (Click on   to read letter.)

Read Freep article at http://www.freep.com/article/20111213/NEWS05/112130398/Former-workers-seek-state-investigation-of-Chrome-Craft

Former State Rep. Waters is currently running is a threeay campaign race for U.S. Congress, involving the redistricted 14^th district. Her opponents are former State Senator Gary Peters and incumbent U.S. Rep. Hansen Clarke.

Aerial view of Chrome Craft plant (red A marker) shows many residential properties surrounding it.

Occupy Detroit demands good bus service for the people Oct. 28, 2011

No notice given; regular monthly “customer comments” meeting Thurs. Feb. 16, 5-7 p;m. D-DOT HQ; contractor’s plans include regionalization  

By Diane Bukowski 

February 9, 2012 

DETROIT – If Detroit bus riders thought they were in bad shape last year, waiting three and four hours for buses that sometimes never came, they will be in shock February 24 when the city eliminates 24-hour and weekend service and institutes drastic cuts in bus personnel. 

ATU Div. 26 President Henry Gaffney speaks at press conference after drivers' sick-out Nov. 4, 2011

Henry Gaffney, President of Amalgamated Transit Union Division 26, represents the city’s bus drivers. He confirmed the accuracy of fliers circulating around Detroit headlined “BUS CUTS/BUS CUTS.” (See flier at top of article.) 

“Mayor Dave Bing said last year that he did not want to see seniors and children waiting long hours for buses in the cold,” Gaffney told VOD. “But he hasn’t even held hearings or informed the public yet that D-DOT will eliminate week-end service beginning Feb. 24, along with night-time service from 1 a.m. to 4 or 5 a.m.” 

The only meeting scheduled on the Detroit Department of Transportation (D-DOT)’s website is a regular monthly “customer comments” meeting Thurs. Feb. 16, from 5-7 p.m. at D-DOT headquarters at 1300 E. Warren, off the Chrysler (I-75) service drive. 

Grand River bus around corner from Rosa Parks Terminal Sept. 2011

Gaffney said bus drivers know about the new schedules because they have been posted at the terminals. He said driver lay-offs were reduced from 163 (cited in the flier) to 78 only three days ago. The fliers call on the public to contact Bing’s office as well as City Council members to express their outrage. 

“The lay-off of 78 drivers is still devastating,” Gaffney said. “We don’t have enough drivers now. People are retiring faster than I can breathe. The least senior drivers are those who work the weekends and so they will go first. The current situation is terrible as it is already. The buses are packed early on and have to pass by many stops because there’s no room. They’re already down to a bare minimum on the week-ends, one or two buses running on each route.” 

Gaffney said he cannot understand why transportation is not considered a priority in Detroit. 

City is trying to avoid dealing with riders at public hearings like this one in 2009; since then, dozens of routes have been canceled and hours shortened.

“At least 120,000 people ride the buses every day, not because they want to, but because they have to. A good transit system can bring in millions of dollars to the economy, but we have two failing systems, D-DOT and SMART. SMART laid-off 70 drivers last year and cut their weekend service. What will people do about getting to their jobs and other places they need to go?” 

Management of the Detroit Department of Transportation (D-DOT) has been contracted out to Parsons Brinckerhoff Michigan, Inc. according to a work order obtained by VOD.  Parsons has subcontracted to an obscure start-up company, Envisurage, LLC., whose CEO is Mark Aesch. Aesch was CEO of the Rochester Genessee Regional Transportation Authority (RGRTA) in New York state from 2004 to 2011. Their contract began Jan. 1, 2012, meaning they are effectuating the lay-offs and route cuts. (Click on PBE_0001_NEW to view work order. Under “page display” on PDF menu, click on “single page view” for ease of reading.)

AFSCME Local 312 President Leamon Wilson demanded more mechanics and parts availablity, no contracting out, at City Council public hearing Sept. 16, 2011

The original concept behind contracting out management, according to discussions last year between the Bing administration and AFSCME Local 312, representing bus mechanics, was that it would prevent the lay-offs of mechanics and drivers, increase available work time including overtime, and allow for hiring more workers in the wake of rampant retirements. 

But a primary goal listed in the work order is to “design alternatives to transition the governance structure to exist in a regional authority.”

There have been numerous proposals in Lansing over the years to merge D-DOT and the pseudo-public SMART (Suburbuan Mobility Authority for Regional Transportation). Michigan Gov. Rick Sndyer has now proposed to use federal funding to create a regional authority, bypassing both systems, their workers and riders. Many Detroiters fear that a regional authority will condemn Detroit to second-class transportation status, and mean a loss of funds for Detroit bus routes, as well as jobs for Detroiters.

In its “Operations Plan for DDOT,” Parsons Brinckerhoff/Envisurage (PB/E) says under the heading Evaluate Staff, “We undoubtedly have too many employees and we certainly have too many employees that lack a vested commitment to excellence. All employees will be given the opportunity in very short order to demonstrate their personal commitment to organizational success. Absent that, staff changes will be necessary both financially and culturally.” 

AFSCME says: Hire city youth, no cuts, Detroit won't go to the back of the bus

Through the past years, city administrations have touted diversity and cultural change in departments such as the water department. According to union representatives, the result has been massive privatization schemes that have resulted in the loss of city jobs held primarily by Black Detroiters, and Detroiters’ loss of control over city services, including those that bring revenue to the city. 

PB/E says they will accomplish the “staff changes” through the following means:

•  Establish work plans—tied to strategic objectives—with quantifiable collaborative goals.
• Each month conduct over-performers/under-performers meeting.
• Establish staff reduction plan to bring levels to a benchmark norm.
• Reduce staffing levels to drive savings and match industry norms. 
  

  Occupy Detroit protest last October

The implications are that staff reductions will be tied to performance, not seniority, a violation of union contracts. 

D-DOT receives the majority of its funding from federal and state grants. PB/E’s proposed actions can cause the city to lose millions from the feds. Under the Federal Urban Mass Transportation Act (UMTA), funds can be withheld if the city does not provide “fair and equitable protective arrangements” for D-DOT employees. These include:

• The preservation of rights, privileges, and benefits under existing collective bargaining agreements;
• The continuation of collective bargaining rights;
• The protection of employees against a worsening of their positions with respect to their employment;
• Assurances of employment to employees of acquired mass transportation systems and priority of reemployment for employees terminated or laid off; and
• Paid training or retraining programs.
  

  Mark Aesch--Detroit's new bus czar?

Under the work order, PB/E will be paid $2,068,000 for 11 months of work. Added to that will be “Incentive Compensation,” which could provide as much as $2,015,000 additionally, according to a complex schedule, a total of $4,083,000. 

The order says the company’s goal is to reduce the city’s contribution to D-DOT from $6.3 million a month to $4.6 million a month, or on a yearly basis, from $75.6 million to $55.2 million. That goal is part of the incentive plan, with PB/E given bonuses for every reduction. 

Additionally, there will be hidden costs. 

PB/E says it will hire a five-person senior executive team, which will cost $1.1 million over 11 months. In addition, it says it will perform “staff augmentation” as necessary, in the wake of the lay-offs, with the new workers employed by PB/E. 

The work order creates a new classification of “Senior Management Consultant” at a “Total Average Hourly Rate” of $311.42, including $28.31 an hour in profit and $172.52 in “overhead.” The order does not specify how many of these consultants will be hired. 

PB/E also says it will build “high quality” information systems, with unknown amounts going to contractors, review and renegotiate vendors’ contracts if need be, and analyze D-DOT’s capital program to determine “cash availability” in federal grants. 

PB/E wants to cut number of buses.

“The single most important task we can focus on to drive financial success is to more efficiently schedule our equipment,” says the work order. “Buses that are scheduled simply to burn gas and pay overtime will be eliminated.” PB/E claims that it will identify “standing loads and over-crowding—add service where appropriate.” 

It will also “work to identify appropriate downsizing of the fleet,” while at the same time “defeat all obstacles to increasing fleet availability (drivers, attendance, parts availability, supervision attentiveness) . . . .” 

They also claim they will focus on “communications with the community,” although they have scheduled no public hearings on the proposed cuts. 

Pres. Gaffney said he has spoken with ATU local officials in Rochester, New York, where the Rochester Genesee Regional Transit Authority (RGRTA), where Aesch was CEO. He left at the end of 2011, allegedly to work in “the private sector,”
according to a story on ABC 13.

Prior to his departure, he had unsucessfully proposed combining four Bus riders in Rochester N.Y. (above)         regional transportation systems established by the New York State Legislature in 1969, into one, encompassing 250 square miles. The proposal was criticized as unwieldy.

 “They told me we had better start praying,” Gaffney told VOD. He said no one from PB/E, including Aesch, has contacted him, and he has been unsuccessful in contacting any of them. He added that the city has refused to give him a copy of the actual contract with PB/E, and he has had to request it through the Freedom of Information Act.

Gary Rauen is an ATU International Vice-President in Washington, D.C., who worked with the Rochester ATU local for three and a half years while Aesch was CEO of RGRTA. 

D-DOT rider talks with bus driver William WIlliams about common concerns Nov. 4

“My involvement with Mark Aesch during that time was zero, zilch,” Rauen said. “He never even one time met with me and the union regarding routing changes or levels of service. He never got involved with contract negotiations. When he left, we had 378 pending arbitration cases, involving progressive steps of discipline leading up to termination, and there are only 325 drivers in the local. Morale was terrible. If I was CEO of any company, and knew that many cases were pending, my face would have been across the table from the local union. He was a terrible boss, with a totally closed-door policy.” 

Rauen said Aesch’s attitude toward the community was no different. 

Mark Aesch promoting his book

“He’s a fabulous communicator with the politicians, but not with the people, and certainly not with the riders,” Rauen said. “He was about self-serving purposes, writing his book and promoting himself.’ 

Aesch’s book is “Driving Excellence.” His company, Envisurage, is apparently a start-up company that is not even listed on the state of Michigan’s business entity website. 

Envisurage’s website, at http://envisurage.com, says, “Under his leadership in Rochester, Mark successfully introduced the concept of managing a public sector agency with a private sector mindset. The results have led the nation – a reduction in fares, multi-million dollar surpluses and actually reducing their reliance on taxpayer dollars.”

Bing has broken promises made to DDOT drivers, workers, and riders

A recent article from Rochester.com noted that beginning with Aesch’s term as CEO, the RGRTA “scaled back its service to its most profitable routes in the city and first ring suburbs, . . But RGRTA did not simply abandon routes that significant numbers of passengers relied upon for their jobs. It negotiated partnerships with nursing homes, colleges, public schools, hospitals, businesses and other transit-dependent institutions to continue service.”

According to the article, RGRTA now has 50 contracts with such entities, which pay RGRTA to subsidize the service they provide to their constituents.

Rauen noted the RGRTA surpluses resulted from its previous CEO’s integration of the region’s school districts’ transportation into RGRTA, not from anything Aesch did. 

The website says Aesch lives in Tampa, Florida and is also a “Senior Advisor with the global engineering and consulting company, Parsons Brinckherhoff.” 

The Huffington Post notes that while living in Livonia, New York, Aesch contributed $2500 to Republican Rick Perry’s campaign for President. Aesch previously served as district director for U.S. Rep. Bill Paxon (R-New York).

 Attempts were made to contact Aesch by an email service provided on the Envisurage website, which does not list a phone number for the company. Intelius lists Aesch’s addresses in Livonia N.Y. and Tampa, Florida, but does not list an address in Michigan. 

Neither Mayor Bing’s press representative nor Aesch returned VOD’s emails and calls before press time. ATU Pres. Gaffney said D-DOT’s former director, Lovevett Williams, has retired.

Taminko Sanford center, mother of Davontae Sanford, with his family outside court July 29, 2010 Photo by Diane Bukowski

By ED WHITE  
  
 http://www.twitter.com/edwhiteAP

January 30, 2012

IONIA, Mich. — A Detroit hit man in prison for eight murders said he’s willing to publicly take responsibility for four more to help clear a young man who claims he’s innocent of the slayings and confessed at age 14 only to satisfy police.

Vincent Smothers

Vincent Smothers’ testimony would be the most crucial evidence yet to try to persuade a judge to throw out Davontae Sanford’s guilty plea and free him from a nearly 40-year prison sentence. In an interview with The Associated Press, Smothers declared: “He’s not guilty. He didn’t do it.”

Smothers said he never used a 14-year-old accomplice – blind in one eye and learning disabled – to carry out his paid hits, mostly victims tied to Detroit’s drug trade. Ironically, there’s no dispute that Smothers confessed to the so-called Runyon Street slayings when he was captured in 2008, but prosecutors have never charged him and never explained why.

“I understand what prison life is like; it’s miserable. To be here and be innocent – I don’t know what it’s like,” Smothers said of Sanford, who is now 19. “He’s a kid, and I hate for him to do the kind of time they’re giving him.”

Told about the AP interview, Sanford’s attorney said she soon would ask a judge to bring Smothers to court.

Wayne Co. Prosecutor Kym Worthy has adamantly refused to drop charges against Davontae Sanford

“If we can get Mr. Smothers up on the stand, it would be awesome for Davontae,” Kim McGinnis said Monday.

Smothers, 30, spoke over a phone Saturday at the Michigan Reformatory with a glass window separating him from an AP reporter. He’s 130 miles west of Detroit where he unflinchingly killed people on streets, inside homes and even while he talked on a cell phone. He finally was arrested in an alley in 2008 while holding his daughter.

Smothers quickly confessed to a series of murders, including the execution-style shooting of a Detroit officer’s estranged wife for $50. He says he was paid $60,000 over a two-year period. He eventually pleaded guilty to eight slayings and was sentenced to at least 52 years in prison.

Davontae Sanford in court three years after his conviction

Sanford, meanwhile, has been fighting to get out of prison. A Wayne County judge soon is expected to decide whether to throw out his guilty plea to four killings on Runyon Street in 2007. McGinnis has worked to discredit the police investigation. She discovered major holes, including Smothers’ confession and the fact that a gun used in the murders was found at the home of an accomplice who, like Smothers, hasn’t been charged.

Prosecutors, however, have refused to back away from Sanford’s guilty plea. At times, they have acknowledged that Smothers may have been involved but they won’t rule out a role for the younger man.

“There is no link between me and him,” Smothers told the AP. “I never knew him.”

McGinnis has been desperate to get Smothers on the witness stand. He invoked his right against self-incrimination last year but was willing to allow his attorney, Gabi Silver, to testify about what he told her about Runyon Street. The prosecutor, however, objected and courts said no.

Listen to Nancy Lockhart’s interview with Davontae’s mother Taminko Sanford and his attorney Kim McGinnis by clicking on link below:

“I’ll testify if possible and answer all questions truthfully. Anything I will say will be the truth,” Smothers told the AP. “I don’t lie.”

The prosecutor’s office had no comment Monday about Smothers’ willingness to testify. Silver said Smothers has “always wanted to right this wrong.”

“It’s too bad that a kid who didn’t have anything to do with this crime is sitting in prison. That to me is a tragedy,” Silver said.

With short hair, clear face and a thin build, Smothers looks much younger than his 30 years. He smiled often during the interview and expressed dry humor, especially when he described odd jobs – drywall, plumbing, roofing – while a student at Detroit’s Kettering High School and later a factory job in Warren.

“You sound surprised,” Smothers said of his resume.

He declined to talk about why he became a hit man but said, “I understand people think I’m a monster.”

“Over the course of my young adulthood, I developed a hard heart where people didn’t matter … When you grow up in the city there’s just certain facts of life,” Smothers said.

Ed White can be reached on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/edwhiteAP

Read more here: http://www.tri-cityherald.com/2012/01/30/1807085/apnewsbreak-detroit-hit-man-says.html#storylink=cpy

Click on http://www.change.org/petitions/new-trial-for-davontae-sanford to sign petition for a new trial for Davontae.

Autistic Teen Fatally Shot by Police in Calumet City Home: MyFoxCHICAGO.com

 Information provided by CBS Chicago

February 2, 2012

CALUMET CITY, Ill. (CBS) — Police in Calumet City were defending their actions Wednesday after officers shot and killed a 15-year-old boy, who has a form of autism, after he [allegedly] threatened them with a knife.

15-year-old Stephon Watts with little relative

Stephon Watts’ family said he suffered from Asperger’s Syndrome — a high-functioning form of autism — and attention deficit disorder.

As CBS 2′s Susanna Song and WBBM Newsradio’s Steve Miller report, they claimed the boy was only holding a butter knife. Police would only describe it as a “kitchen knife.”

The deadly encounter happened at the boy’s home at 541 Forsythe Av. in Calumet City, police said.

Calumet City Police Chief Edward Gilmore said the boy cut a police officer through his shirt sleeve with a “kitchen knife.”

Stephon's mother Danelene Powell-Watts

“I think they did everything they possibly could to avoid this,” Gilmore said. “It’s unfortunate that we had to get to this situation.”

As CBS 2’s Suzanne Le Mignot reports, Stephon’s mother, Danelene Powell-Watts, arrived at the police station in Calumet City on Wednesday shortly before police held a news conference to discuss the shooting.

Powell-Watts was screaming, livid, and inconsolable after her son was killed. She was furious that officers used deadly force against her son this time, rather than subduing him with a stun gun.

“They shot my son,” she yelled as officers as she was blocked from entering the Calumet City police station. “Every last one of you know my son has autism.”

Gilmore said police had been called to the home 10 times since 2010 to deal with the boy. Stephon’s father called police again Wednesday morning after the teen had become aggressive.

“We tried to do everything we could to keep him from being a victim, as he was an offender. He chose to be an offender,” Gilmore said.

The chief said police were called to the home to get Stephon under control, as they had been before. But that didn’t work, he said.

“When he slashed the officer’s arm, the officer felt his life was in jeopardy and he had nothing else to do, but to defend himself,” Gilmore said.

Stephon’s family said police have used a stun gun on him in the past.

“They didn’t have to murder him. This is nothing but murder and they shoot to kill,” Powell-Watts said. “He had a butter knife and … my husband said that he lunged at the police officer.”

Stephon’s uncle said police had subdued his nephew with stun guns before.

Calumet police converge on Powell-Watts home; Calumet City is in southern Illinois.

“They didn’t have to shoot him. They could have tasered the child. He’s only 15 years old,” Wayne Watts said. “They could have tased him, like they did him before, took him to the hospital and he would have been fine and that’s what I want to know. Why couldn’t they do that to him so that he could still be breathing with us right now?”

Gilmore said a stun gun wasn’t used because the lead officer did not have a stun gun.

Five officers responded to the Watts home after Stephon’s father called police, according to Gilmore. Two entered the house, heading to the basement where they found Stephon. One of those two officers did have a stun gun with him.

“Unfortunately today, when he slashed the officer’s arm, the officer felt his life was in jeopardy and he had nothing else to do, but defend himself,” Gilmore said.