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

 Even Republicans object to president’s proposed cuts

They include 50 percent cut to LIHEAP program which funds THAW 

(VOD ed.: More coming on Detroit’s situation with focus on utility profits; regardless of federal cuts, DTE and others must STOP SHUT-OFFS! They can afford it! Also read earlier article, OBAMA CUTS TO HOME ENERGY ASSISTANCE TO HAVE DEVASTATING CONSEQUENCES, by clicking on http://www.wsws.org/articles/2010/mar2010/heat-m27.shtml.)

By Eartha Jane Melzer | 10.05.11 | 8:17 am

THE MICHIGAN MESSENGER

TRAVERSE CITY, Mich. — As winter approaches in this prosperous-looking northern Michigan city, it is clear the safety net has ripped. Thousands of households can’t afford to heat their homes and aid agencies predict many people will be forced to choose between eating and staying warm. Yet there are signs Republicans in Washington may be listening.

Pres. Obama proposed 50 percent cut in LIHEAP

First, the bad news. The Obama administration, under pressure from Republicans to cut spending, has proposed a 50 percent cut to the main federal program that helps people keep their heat on. The latest White House budget, issued in February, proposed slashing funding for the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program, known as LIHEAP, from $5.1 billion to $2.57 billion, a move that would bring the program’s funding back to its 2008 level.

The program got a big budget increase under the president’s stimulus program, which Obama now says needs to be scaled back.

“We doubled the home heating assistance program when I first came into office in part because there was a huge energy spike,” Obama said at a press conference announcing the cuts last  February. “Energy prices have now gone down but the cost of the program has stayed the same. So what we’ve said is let’s go back to a more sustainable level.”

In Traverse City (population about 14,000) and surrounding Grand Traverse county, Obama’s proposal would cut emergency heating assistance — given to 3,633 households last year — almost in half.

The fighting over the LIHEAP budget in Washington has forced Michigan officials to lower the cap for emergency assistance, according to Whitney Skearns, customer assistance coordinator for Consumers Energy and co-chair of the Coalition to Keep Michigan Warm. Until Oct. 1, a family could get up to $800 to turn back on the utilities, Skearns said. Now the maximum is $450. (VOD ed: The Coalition to Keep Michigan Warm includes the utilities as well as groups like the Michigan Poverty Law Center. Its website is at http://www.coalitiontokeepmichiganwarm.com.)

Family waits for assistance at United Community Housing Coalition in Detroit, which also administers a THAW site.

At the same time, the need for energy assistance is growing, despite the fact that Traverse City has flourished in the last decade. Unlike much of the state, northwestern Michigan has gained population with the arrival of retirees and people escaping Flint and Detroit. Filmmaker Michael Moore has rehabbed the city’s State Theater and launched a film festival that sold 128,000 tickets this summer. Downtown, once home to Woolworth’s and Big Boy, is now lined with stores that sell designer vinegars, equestrian garb and gelato.

Nonetheless, the Great Recession is felt almost everywhere.

“The middle class is struggling to even stay afloat but yet there is a very affluent upper class here and I know — and God knows — there is a lot of people who have barely enough to survive,” said Richard Tomey, street outreach worker for Goodwill Industries, which runs the town’s homeless shelter.

The Father Fred Foundation, a Christian charity in Traverse City, reports a 41 percent increase in visits since last year from people needing help keeping their utilities on.

Nothing can replace LIHEAP, says Martie Manty, the foundation’s executive director. “Leaning on the nonprofit sector is not very realistic because the nonprofits are dependent on the community and the community of donors is stretched,” she said in an interview. Continue reading →

Greg Thrasher at State Capitol rally April 13, 2011

 By Greg Thrasher, VOD Contributing Editor

Director PLANE IDEAS

http://planeideas.blogspot.com
 Right here..Right now…For many Black people living in America from the gritty urban venues of neighborhoods like Detroit to the contours of cul de sacs of suburbia these are perilous times even in the post racial era of a Black Man in the White House. The velocity of negativity is at web speed from the media accounts of entire industries collapsing and people being laid off into forever to tales of young children body parts being tortured and burned in shabby 3rd world urban shacks. Life in America is perilous; the revolution is being televised and it is on every channel with surround sound and 3D pictures.
 
Right here..Right now..This is a moment for the community to step away from the insanity and madness and the aura of hopelessness and decadence and confusion and reach out  and hold on to each other from family to friends to associates and maybe even strangers. People are under enormous stress and duress all manner of thoughts, excuses, plots are in the heads of even normal responsible people. The dreams people have now are nightmares full of nothingness. 

Harlem Blues by Romare Bearden

Right here..Right now.The Black community more than any other aggregate of people in this nation must get a grip and stop the descent into raw insanity. Our pastors, uncles, aunts, cousins, sons and daughters must reach into their collective souls and memories to create a place where a safe refuge exists, not just a real place but a sphere where the unspoken word is supreme and positive thoughts are cultivated and rewarded and embraced .

The Black community needs a life altering transfusion of humanity and hope. This force must be new and novel and life altering . It must be more than prayers, testimonies and tired sound bites. We have to create a harvest of love even in the dirt of concrete streets and alleys. We must carve out a new real time miracle that enters in our homes and our minds. We need a sound, a noise, a creation of powerful bond that elevates us from the present day insanities. We are in perilous moments 24/7 everywhere in America.
 
 

Navigating through hopelessness

Right here..Right now…The Black community must regroup and create a safe haven where love, honesty, civility, decency, trust, sharing, all the ingredients of civility and love must break though. We are in a dark era where fear, anger, frustration, pain, and evil is becoming an accepted norm and custom. Our values and purpose are floundering. We are shaky and unreliable for each other.
 

Right here..Right now.. Across this great nation in every enclave, backyard, front porch, pew, gym, office, basement, church, temple, playground, bedroom, kitchen our community needs a cultural reset and return to the genius of basic truths and straight forward truth. Our community must step up and correct all the wrongs which have us at the end of cliff.

Right here..Right now….We must save ourselves from each other ….This is where our lives must change ..Right where YOU are when YOU read this…Reach Out and help our community navigate to a new promise land..Right Here..Right Now: 

Navigating through Hopelessness- Together

Espinoza family and friends reunited for a short time Sept. 27: (l to r rear) Pedro, Luis Jr , Cornell Squires, Oscar Gutierrez, Mabel Love; (l to r front). Luis Sr. holding Leonardo, mother Cecilia with Genoveva in front of her

Espinoza children at Family Court Sept. 27 as custody trial begins

By Diane Bukowski 

Oct. 3, 2011

DETROIT – The five children of Luis and Cecilia Espinoza of southwest Detroit were very happy to finally see their mother again in Wayne County Family Court Sept. 27. They have only been able to see her one hour a week, pending the results of a trial on a petition for temporary custody that began that day before Referee Charles Wilson. 

Attorney Frederick Smith

Three of the children, including Genoveva, 6, told Children’s Law Attorney Frederick Smith before the hearing, “I want my mother to come home.” Smith is the court-appointed Guardian ad Litem for Genoveva. 

Genoveva, in a pretty lavender dress, shyly hugged her mother. Leonardo appeared relieved, and ran around joyously after the hearing. He thought his mother was not coming home because she did not love him anymore, according to  family friend Cornell Squires. 

Family friends Oscar Gutierrez, Mabel Love, and Cornell Squires were there to lend their love and support. 

“It is not right what they are doing to this family,” Gutierrez said. “I’ve known them for many years, and they have been together for too long to be broken up like this. Genoveva especially needs her mother. She is getting older, and there are no other girls or women in the home.” 

Consuelo Meade, 83, lives in this luxury condominium in Warren while the Espinoza family lives in a poor neighborhood in southwest Detroit

Consuelo Meade, Cecilia’s adoptive mother, claimed in a July 8 child abuse complaint against Cecilia that she gave Genoveva a black eye on Father’s Day, June 19. Genoveva went to visit Meade with her parents’ permission the same day, but Meade never brought her back home and appears to be seeking custody of the family’s only daughter. 

In a preliminary hearing Aug. 3, Referee Mona Youssef ordered the child to return to her family, but ordered her mother to move out temporarily. 

Meade’s version of events has been disputed by others in the family, including the oldest child, Luis, 13, the prime witness. He told VOD earlier that his mother was not home when Genoveva was injured, that she had crawled under her bed as she sometimes does and hurt herself, and he had to lift the bed off of her. 

Luis Espinoza, Jr., 13, protested with his family outside Family Court at first heearing;; he wants his baby sister and his mother back home

But Children’s Protective Services worker Shanitra Bowman testified that she conducted a “forensic interview” with Genoveva July 9 in which Genoveva accused her mother of hurting her. 

“Genoveva said she received a black eye from her mother because she had not urinated on herself at her grandmother’s, but she did at home,” Bowman said. She said Genoveva told her the incident took place when Meade brought Genoveva and her brother Gavino home. 

“I did forensically interview her at her grandmother’s home,” Bowman contended. On cross-examination, she admitted she had been working for the Department of Human Services since April, 2011, three months at the time she interviewed Genoveva. 

Bowman said the interview took 20 minutes, and that she did not know where her notes taken during the interview were.  Continue reading →

MWRO protesters at Cadillac Place Sept. 29

• State debt is $70 BILLION
• Snyder budget slashes $1 billion in corporate taxes
• Taxes pensions, cuts education funding a total of 17 percent
• Cuts local government aid by $100 million
• Cuts public assistance by $70 million: 50,000 suffer first month

Michigan‘s Gov. Rick Snyder signed the FY2012 $47 billion state budget into law on June 21, 2011. The budget eliminates $1 billion in corporate taxes and initiates taxes on pensions. It also cuts school funding by 2.2%, higher education funding by at least 15% and lessens aid to local governments by $100 million.

The state’s fiscal year begins on October 1st and ends on September 30th of the following calendar year.^[4]

Michigan has a total state debt of $69,418,882,370 when calculated by adding the total of outstanding debt, pension and OPEB UAAL’s, unemployment trust funds and the 2010 budget gap as of July 2010.

FY2012 State Budget

Gov. Snyder asked the legislature for $38.25 million from the state’s general fund to pay a portion of the $106 million the state owes in interest on Michigan’s $3.1 billion federal unemployment insurance debt. The remaining portion of the interest payment will come from a state solvency tax that went into effect this year on Michigan employers, and from state unemployment penalty and interest funds.

On June 21, 2011, Gov. Rick Snyder signed the FY2012 $47 billion budget into law. ^]The two budget bills signed by the governor were House Bill 4526 and House Bill 4325. The last time the state had a completed budget in place this early was 1981.

The budget assumes $265 million in savings in 2011-12 from employee concessions. The governor hopes to convince state employee unions to reopen their contracts to provide those concessions, and delayed making layoffs in September 2011. The union contracts do not expire until the end of the 2012 calendar year. One of the concessions the governor seeks is having employees increase the percentage of health care costs that they pay for from 10% to 20%. At the unions’ urging, the governor agreed to study whether the state government had too many managers, and to consider reducing the number of managers. The state’s ratio at the time the study started was 6 employees to each manager. The union claims that if the ratio was 7 to 1 that the state would save $75 million. (VOD: Enough to restore public assistance cuts by itself.) Continue reading →

This is a meeting for all the concerned citizens of Detroit and other surrounding areas. ALL ARE WELCOME! We will be planning things such as: Location of base camp, Location of protest, Working groups, and other goals and activities pertaining to a successful protest. If you have been dying to have your voice heard about the activities going on, in New York and other cities across this country COME TO THIS MEETING! We all have a voice and it’s about time it was heard!!!

Synderville at Michigan Welfare Rights Association protest across from Cadillac Place Sept. 29

Rainbow PUSH mingles with protesters, auto execs, refuses call for Michigan boycott

“Occupy Detroit” meeting Mon. Oct. 10 could pave way for direct action

Unions must use  “economic clout” to support the poor, confront system 

By Diane Bukowski 

Oct. 7, 2011

Troy Davis, executed despite worldwide protests on Sept. 21 by fascist state of Georgia

DETROIT – To date, more than 50,000 Michigan individuals including children remain in limbo regarding whether their public assistance benefits providing shelter, utilities, food and the other necessities of life will be summarily executed, as was Georgia’s Troy Davis on Sept. 21. 

U.S. District Court Judge Paul Borman temporarily suspended the assistance cut-off Oct. 4, opening a window of opportunity. On Monday, Oct. 10 at 7 p.m., organizers of “Occupy Detroit” will meet Mon. Oct. 10 from 7-9 p.m. at the Spirit of Hope Church, 1519 Martin Luther King Blvd. to plan how they will join millions of others across the U.S. who are part of the “Occupy Wall Street” movement, targeting the true source of this genocidal assault on poor and working people here and abroad. 

DHS Director Maura Corrigan and counterpart

Borman upheld claims by the Center for Civil Justice (CCJ) that Maura Corrigan, Director of the State’s Department of Human Services, violated recipients’ right to due process under the 14^th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. 

“The Sept. 11, 2011 Notice failed to provide FIP [Family Independence Program] Benefit recipients with ‘a detailed statement of the intended action, the reason for the change in status, citation to the specific statutory section requiring reduction or termination, and specific notice of the recipient’s right to appeal,” Borman ruled. 

Protest at Cadillac Place against benefit cuts, called by MWRO, Sept. 29

In fact, according to the plaintiffs, the state did not publish the policy, BEM 234 (click on Benefits BEM 234 to read policy) applicable to the cut-offs to anyone, including its own workers, until Oct. 1. Those workers were required to try to make contact with clients at least three times to explain the benefits cut. DHS sent out three separate notices based on what the CCJ called a “secret policy.” 

“We are very, very pleased that the court recognizes the important issues and is willing to protect all children and families that did not have adequate notice,” Attorney Jacqueline Doig of the Saginaw-based Center for Civil Justice, which brought the suit on behalf of three individual plaintiffs, said. (Click on Benefits lawsuit,  and Benefits motion for TRO and brief to read pertinent documents.)

Rev. Jesse Jackson refused to call for boycott of Michigan businesses despite mass murder of the poor in the works.

Judge Borman certified the complaint as a class action covering all affected individuals in Michigan, and appointed CCJ as their legal representatives. 

However, he did not take jurisdiction in Count II of the complaint. Doig said they would decide whether to pursue state court relief after consultation with their clients. 

In that section, the plaintiffs cited the state’s notice claiming they had surpassed the federal 60 month time limit, set  in 1996 with the creation of the federal Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF) program. That legislation, signed by then President Bill Clinton as part of his “Welfare Reform” program, for the first time in 60 years set lifetime time limits and work requirements for public aid. However, it left several exemptions possible and also allowed the states to continue providing assistance through their own state funding after the 60-month limit expired. 

Michigan has provided benefits using both TANF and state FIP funds since 1996. 

Sept. 29 MWRO protest

The plaintiffs did not challenge the 48-month time limit set by the legislature in August under the Michigan Social Welfare Act. They said instead that the state never bothered to calculate the number of months victims of the expected Oct. 1 cut-off   had received under FIP, and that many had not reached the 48-month limit. They said the state had no authority to cut benefits using a federal statute. 

Earlier, hundreds demonstrated Sept. 29 outside Cadillac Place, which houses Michigan Governor Rick Snyder’s Detroit office. The Michigan Welfare Rights Organization has sponsored the weekly Thursday demonstrations, during which protesters have demanded, “Tax the Rich, Not the Poor.” They carried signs which declared the benefits cuts “Mass Murder” and “Execution of the Poor.”  

Banks, Snyder guilty of mass murder

This time, they temporarily set up a “Snyderville” tent on the West Grand Blvd. median, portending a possible round-the-clock occupation which, however, has not yet taken place. 

Rev. Jesse Jackson of Rainbow PUSH attended this and other protests that week, along with Michigan Rainbow PUSH director the Rev. David Bullock, U.S. Congressman John Conyers and others.

Jackson then stuck around for his organization’s Global Automotive and Energy Summit at MGM Grand Casino the following week, Oct. 5 and 6. It featured “executives, entrepreneurs, suppliers, dealers, consumers, government and elected officials, automotive manufacturers, energy representatives and others . . . to discuss strengthening the automotive industry, changing trends, and creating opportunities,” according to the Rainbow PUSH website. 

VOD asked Jackson and U.S Representative John Conyers if they would call for a boycott of Michigan businesses and convention centers  until public assistance recipients are restored to the rolls, as supporters of Troy Davis, executed Sept. 28, have called for a boycott of Georgia. 

 Both reacted with a horrified, resounding “NO.” They said an “economic recovery” was underway, despite evidence to the contrary all around them in the neighborhoods of Detroit. All over the world, markets are teetering on the brink of collapse. (Click on THE EUROZONE CRISIS to read more on this matter.)  Continue reading →

Charles Jones with his daughter Aiyana Stanley Jones in happier days, before her execution by Detroit police; he now faces life in prison without parole

A&E photographer’s indictment says she showed videotape to third party 

By Diane Bukowski

October 6, 2011 

(VOD Ed: this entire story has been published in The Final Call, Oct. 18 edition. It is on the streets as of Oct. 12, but not online yet.)

Worthy (at left) in court with killer cop Joseph Weekley; she did not attend arraignment of Charles Jones

DETROIT – Seventeen months after a Detroit police “Special Response Team” stormed seven-year-old Aiyana Stanley-Jones’ home in a poor neighborhood and shot her to death as an A&E TV crew was filming, Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy has charged the child’s father, Charles Jones, 26, with first-degree murder. 

At the same time, she charged a single officer, Joseph Weekley, 36, who lives in the well-to-do white suburb of Grosse Pointe, and a single A&E official with lesser charges of manslaughter and perjury, respectively, related to the horrific raid. 

Aiyana’s grandmother, Mertilla Jones, who was sleeping with the child on a couch when police tossed an incendiary grenade through the window above them on May 16, 2010, and saw her granddaughter die, expressed utter anguish after her son was arraigned Oct. 5. 

Mertilla Jones (right) in younger and happier days (Facebook)

“This is a sad day for my family,” Jones, the mother of eight. said. “We are not doing well at all. This is the second one of my sons they have railroaded. I have lost two of my sisters in the last six months. It’s not right to charge Charles after he lost his daughter. Are they going to charge the cops that threw the flash bomb and the ones that tried to cover it up? Meanwhile, a seven-year-old innocent little baby girl is dead.” 

Police arrested Ms. Jones, drug tested her, and held her for several days after the raid. Assistant Police Chief Ralph Godbee  (now head of the department) claimed she had “interfered” with Weekley, causing his gun to go off. 

Aiyana had joy in her short life

She was never charged, but the city has reiterated those contentions in an ongoing civil suit brought by Charles Jones and Aiyana’s mother Dominika Stanley in the case. 

Charles Jones’ sister LaKrystal Sanders said, “My brother had nothing to do with that case,” referring to the shooting death of 17-year-old Je’Rean Blake two days earlier, the case in which Jones is charged, and the pretext police used for the raid. 

Jones’ friends Randolph Monzure and Calvin Carpenter also said he didn’t have anything to do with the Blake shooting. 

“They’re trying to railroad him,” Carpenter said. “He already lost his child, and now they’re trying to make more moves.” 

Jones was represented at his arraignment by attorney Jonathan Marko of the law firm of nationally noted attorney Geoffrey Fieger. He requested that Jones’ preliminary exam be postponed until Nov. 18 to allow time for discovery. Jones will later be represented by another attorney from Fieger’s firm. Meanwhile he was ordered held without bond. 

“He needs representation and deserves representation,” Marko said.

Chauncey Owens with attorney David Cripps pled guilty April 11 but did not name Charles Jones during procedure

Sanders’ fiancé Chauncey Owens pled guilty to second-degree murder as the shooter in the Blake case, but questions remain. His attorneys tried several times to get his confession thrown out, saying it was taken under extreme duress after he found out Aiyana was dead, and that he was not competent to stand trial. 

His sentencing has been postponed twice, due to “problems with the plea deal,” according to the prosecutor’s office. It is now set for Oct. 31. 

Local media has claimed his plea deal involved saying Charles Jones gave him the gun, but no such claim exists in his court file. Owens was peacefully arrested during the raid, which took place at 12:30 a.m., although police watching the house saw him outside during daylight hours and could have made the arrest then. Continue reading →

Occupy Wall Street protesters on Brooklyn Bridge, New York City

 WEBSITE: Occupy Wall Street.  Click on  live streaming to see events unfold.

Drop All Charges on ‘Occupy Wall Street’ Arrestees! 

Stop Police Attacks & Arrests! Support ‘Occupy Wall Street’!

• SIGN THE ONLINE PETITION AT http://bailoutpeople.org/dropchargesonoccupywallstarrestees.shtml  to send email messages to Mayor Michael Bloomberg, NYC City Council, NYPD, the NY Congressional Delegation, Congressional Leaders, the NY Legislature, President Obama, Attorney General Holder, members of the media YOU WANT ALL CHARGES DROPPED ON THE ‘OCCUPY WALL STREET ARRESTEES!
• IN NYC, DEMONSTRATE on MONDAY OCTOBER 3 at 5 PM at New York City Hall – 250 Broadway at Park Place, Manhattan and on WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 5 join the Community Labor March to Wall St./Zuccotti Park – gather at 4:30 pm Gather at City Hall – 250 Broadway
• AROUND THE COUNTRY, Solidarity Occupations have begun in over 100 cities! Find the one near you at www.facebook.com/OccupyWallSt

The arrest of over 700 people on Saturday, Oct 1 on the Brooklyn Bridge by the New York City Police Department is an outrage and an injustice. Numerous videos clearly show top NYPD police officials actually leading the demonstration on to the roadway of the bridge, not the pedestrian walkway. Then they blocked further movement and started arresting hundreds of activists. This is entrapment. 

A loose network of organizations and individuals called the occupation named “Occupy Wall Street”. It started 15 days ago. It has no ending date. No one knows how long it will last. But it is now attracting growing and enthusiastic mass support giving voice to the widespread hatred of the banks. 

Brooklyn Bridge occupation

The protesters are opposing the domination by the top banks and corporations of every aspect of life in the U.S. today. The only interest of the banks is in maximizing profits, not in meeting people’s needs in the U.S. or anywhere in the world. The protesters are mostly youth, who have heroically congregated by the tens of thousands to “occupy Wall Street” protesting the authority of a small elite over the rest of humanity, “the 99%.”

They have been met with brutality, harassment, and oppression for the crime of raising their voices and fighting for justice. 

This brutality is just another instance of the NYPD’s usual standard behavior. The racist murders of Sean Bell and Amadou Diallo, the brutal attacks on all kinds of peaceful protestors from centuries ago, to the police attacks on the demonstrators just one week prior to the October 1 mass arrests, the hundreds of thousands of “stop and frisk” searches on youth of color, and the efforts to attack immigrant workers, all show who the NYPD serves to protect, from whom they recieve their orders.

Wall Street protesters are publishing their own newspaper, The Occupied Wall Street Journal

We demand that those arrested be immediately released, and that all charges be dropped. We also demand that the NYPD pay reparations to all those they unjustly arrested.

The most violent criminals on this earth are not those protesting Wall Street, but those who sit on Wall Street, and own the world’s wealth. In their ruthless drive for greater profits, lower pay and to keep us divided they foment racism, sexism and LGBT bigotry and attacks on immigrants and Muslims. They close thousands of industries and lay off millions of workers here in order to pay 1/10 the wages in oppressed countries abroad. While speaking empty words of democracy they occupy and bomb countries and carry out drone attacks, while shutting down protests here. They profit from endless wars, militarism, environmental destruction, millions of foreclosed homes and the largest prison system in the world.

Media center at Occupy Wall Street

The youth, rallying against them, and crying for justice are heroes and should not be subject to harassment, arrests, and other abuses for their righteous actions.

Emergency protests are called for Monday 5pm at NYC City Hall against the mass arrests and on Wednesday, Oct 5 a mass labor rally of support for Occupy Wall Street.

DROP ALL THE CHARGES!

STOP THE POLICE ATTACKS AND MASS ARRESTS!

PEOPLES NEEDS! NOT BANKERS’ GREED!

SPREAD THE OCCUPATIONS!  

THE OCCUPATION SPREADS ACROSS THE COUNTRY: LOS ANGELES, BOSTON, CHICAGO, DENVER,

• 700 arrested over the weekend as protestors camp out in New York’s financial district
• Protest enters third week with activists in LA saying they will remain ‘indefinitely’

By Daily Mail Reporter

Last updated at 11:54 AM on 3rd October 2011

The arrests of 700 people on Brooklyn Bridge over the weekend have only strengthened the resolve of anti-Wall Street protesters as the campaign entered its third week.

Los Angeles occupation

The protests against corporate America, which began in New York City two weeks ago, have already spread across the country, with demonstrations starting up in Los Angeles, Boston, Chicago, Denver and Seattle. Continue reading →