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Mother begs plantation owner not to sell her children at auction

By Diane Bukowski

Putting Detroit Public Schools on the charter auction block recalls nothing more clearly than the sale of African children by plantation owners as their families wept. After kidnapped Africans won their freedom, one of the first things they did was establish a system of public schools for all, without regard to race, class, or gender.

In the DPS release announcing that 18 charter organizations had bid on 50 Detroit Public Schools, Robert Bobb said, “We are pleased with the broad experience of many of the organizations that applied and their potential to transform academically-challenged schools . In a number of cases, applicants already run one or more schools that significantly outperform the DPS schools they seek to operate, as measured by the Excellent Schools Detroit report cards.”

The bidders listed have specifically selected DPS schools Jemison, Gardner, Carver, Howe, Davison, White, Loving, Burns, Noble, Nolan, Stewart, Brewer, Detroit City High, Catherine Ferguson, Hancock, Barsamian, MacDowell and Clark, although they are expected to be in the running for a total of 50 schools.

Grades for schools run by charter bidders run mainly in the C overall range, with several showing F’s in reading.  Of the 18 DPS schools the bidders specified, however, 8 have B scores, 4 have C scores, and one has a D-Alert on the state’s Ed YES! Scale. For the most part, they outperform schools operated by bidders on the chart below. Many charter schools listed with better grades are not located in poor urban areas.

Four of the charter organizations listed were blasted in a Detroit News article as posted on a website below:

SUBSTANDARD CHARTERS FAIL MICHIGAN STUDENTS

Posted at http://www.susanohanian.org/atrocity_fetch.php?id=1225

By Brad Heath
Detroit News 10/26/03

Marchers take off from Catherine Ferguson Academy May 10

Six companies responsible for teaching more than 17,000 of Michigan’s charter school students provide an education that falls short even of some of the state’s most troubled inner-city schools.

A Detroit News analysis shows those shortcomings are hidden by minimal scrutiny of how the companies manage more than $123.7 million in tax money each year.

The low-performing companies include three of the biggest for-profit charter school managers in the state, whose students often fall far below minimum standards in reading, writing and math, state education records show. The companies’ schools also spend a smaller share of their budgets in the classroom than others.

Marchers tell DABO: NO charter schools!

While charter schools overall are less likely to meet state standards than traditional schools, Michigan has put thousands of students’ educations in the hands of a few companies that lag behind even faltering districts like Flint and Grand Rapids. Of the 40 companies that run charter schools, six had lower fourth-grade English and math scores than those cities.

Management companies oversee nearly every aspect of 151 of the state’s 200 charter schools, including what is taught and who teaches it, making Michigan one of the nation’s biggest venues for private control of public education.

What’s more, there has been no comprehensive attempt to monitor how the companies perform.

CFA marchers head down Woodward May 10 (photographer was in her car behind the march with a phalanx of other cars; she was later ticketed for blockading traffic because she wouldn't pull over into the marchers)

Instead, oversight rests with more than two dozen universities and school districts that track individual schools. The state Education Department lacks even a full list of which companies run charters in Michigan, let alone a way to measure their success.

“Nobody has asked whether they’re doing a decent job,” said Nancy Van Meter, the director of the American Federation of Teachers’ Center on Privatization. “Nobody has a handle on this, and it’s a question taxpayers in Michigan need to ask: Are you satisfied with this use of your tax dollars?”

Mother protects children from rain outside DABO May 19

State officials say they want more scrutiny of management companies, including performance and financial reviews, but say limited money and staff makes that impossible.

Critics have argued for years that letting companies run public schools — instead of merely supplying textbooks and buses — will hurt students as the companies cut costs to turn a profit. That concern takes on increasing importance as Michigan continues its rancorous debate over whether to raise the cap on the number of schools public universities can charter.

The News found that students attending schools run by the Leona Group, Mosaica Education and Charter School Administration Services have test scores that lag even compared with other charters. Those companies serve more than a quarter of students in Michigan’s charter schools. Three others — Alpha-Omega Education Management, Black Star Education Management and CAN Associates — each manage one school.

School operator fired

Monica Smith and speaker at CFA rally at Fisher Bldg. May 10

In the 10 Michigan schools run by Mosaica Education Inc., for example, only two of every five fourth-graders was able to read as well as the state says they should. And one in five met the state’s minimum standards in writing and math, according to the Michigan Educational Assessment Program tests.

One of those schools, Detroit Advantage Academy on the city’s west side, fired Mosaica last year after board members complained that the company wasn’t making promised improvements, missed reporting deadlines and failed to give school board members timely updates on how tax money was being spent.

“Had they been able to do everything they were required to do in our contract, we wouldn’t have terminated them. That includes educational goals. It includes providing financial reports,” said Karlena Glenn, a Detroiter who serves on the school’s board.

The bottom line was that the board no longer trusted Mosaica to administer public money, she said.

Outside Fisher Bldg. May 20

Mosaica contends the board didn’t have the authority to fire it.

Mosaica and other management companies say they take their own measurements of students’ progress, and each claims to be making gains. Companies contend parents who aren’t satisfied would leave. Enrollment waiting lists, they say, are evidence of success.

Gabrielle Garner of Southfield enrolled her daughter in Charter School Administration Services’ Southfield Academy this year, in part because she liked how closely it resembles a private school, with students required to wear uniforms. Students at the school have lower test scores than Southfield’s traditional public schools.

More important than who runs the school, she said, is that her daughter is happier and seems to be getting a better education than she was in an Oak Park public school last year.

“What’s important are the results we get,” she said. “Everyone here is working parents, and we just want the best for our kids.”

Explanation falls short

Demo at Mayor Bing's state of the city address March 2010

One classroom at the Voyageur Academy, a for-profit charter school in Detroit run by the Leona Group, bubbles with fourth-grade voices speaking Spanish. The school is small, with about 330 students. Parents get report cards every week. Principal Roderick Atkins knows his students by name.

Still, students at Voyageur lag behind the Detroit Public Schools on elementary school exams. Last year, 39 percent of fourth-graders read as well as the state said they should, compared with 55 percent in Detroit Public Schools.

Voyageur was warned by the state this year that those scores didn’t show enough progress.

“It wasn’t good. We’re still trying to figure out what happened,” said Atkins, who left a marketing job with General Motors Corp. to run the school. Test scores for Voyageur’s seventh- and eighth-graders, taught in a different school, exceeded public school averages. Continue reading →

By Diane Bukowski

CFA students marching from school May 10

DETROIT—Encouraged by extensive national coverage of their occupation of Catherine Ferguson Academy (CFA) April 15, the school’s young mothers, their babies and supporters have kept up their battle to save not only that unique school, but all Detroit Public Schools.

In the last two weeks, they targeted charter school owner and bidder Rev. Horace Sheffield III in a march outside his offices at Wyoming and Grand River May 19. Drivers going by in heavy rush-hour traffic constantly blew their horns in support, laying on them when police arrived, until the cops retreated into a parking lot across the street.

Marching to save CFA May 10

Previously, they took Woodward Avenue May 10, closing it off to northbound traffic, as they marched miles from CFA at Selden and 16th to the Fisher Building to protest the pending installation of new Emergency Manager Roy Roberts. That march too was accompanied by loud horn-blowing.

“Whose schools? Our schools! Whose streets? Our streets!” they cried out. Young mothers wheeled their babies in their carriages, others had their children help make signs, and one taught her son how to read a sign during the rally outside the Fisher Building.

Teaching daughter how to read protest sign

“I’m here because my school is very important to Detroit,” Dalana Gray, accompanied by her little daughter Danyla Gray, said May 19. “Not only do we care about our school, but we care about all of DPS.”

CFA student Breanna Thomas said of the drivers honking their horns, “I think they should join us to support us. With the little people we do have, we have been able to stop the closing of three schools so far, and we are going to do an occupation again if they don’t back off CFA!”

“Hell, no, DABO has got to go!” marchers outside Sheffield’s Detroit Association of Black Organizations office chanted. Sheffield drove by the picket, rounded the corner and kept going, but police showed up not long afterwards. One of the officers said they had received a call to come to the scene, although protesters were picketing on the sidewalk in compliance with city regulations.

DABO still has Last Chance flier on website, but school obsolete

Sheffield’s DABO has joined 17 other bidders who are seeking to charterize schools that DPS Czar Robert Bobb put on a list of 45 slated for closing this June. DABO already operates the Detroit Cares Alternative School, formerly the Last Chance Academy, out of the former location of the city’s fabled Courtis Elementary School, at 8100 W. Davison. Previously, according to state records, Sheffield also operated a charter school known as “Galilee.”

Galilee is listed with a 0 score on the 2008 Michigan School Report Card list, while no records of the scholastic progress achieved at the Last Chance Academy or Detroit Cares are currently on the list.

Rev. Horace Sheffield III

In an interview on MSNBC about Detroit Cares, Sheffield said, “”I don’t think college preparation is the cornerstone of Detroit Public Schools anymore. The vast majority of these kids are looking for a high school diploma and to get jobs.”

The story went on to interview numerous students, including some from Detroit Cares, who said they cannot find jobs anywhere regardless.

Sheffield also runs a church, “New Destiny Baptist Church,” out of the Davison location. He was formerly the pastor at New Galilee Baptist Missionary Church on Detroit’s east side, but state documents show the president is now Karen Gray Sheffield. Detroit ministers have taken over many of over 80 DPS school buildings that have closed since 2004, as well as recreation centers and other city-owned facilities.

Sandra Hines speaking at anti-PA 4 rally in Lansing April 13

“The community fought for two years to keep Courtis Elementary School open,” said Sandra Hines of the Coalition to Restore Hope to DPS. Hines was active at school board meetings in the battle against closures in 2008 and 2009, especially that of Courtis. She was removed by DPS police from one meeting as she decried the closings. She also garnered 40 percent of the vote in a run for the school board in 2008.

 “Courtis made AYP (average yearly progress) until Robert Bobb took over,” Hines explained. “He did not fill vacancies for math and science teachers for the seventh and eighth grades, so class sizes increased to over 40 students,” Hines explained. “It was rumored that Sheffield had been trying to buy the school while it was still open, and now he owns the building. He is the reason Courtis closed.”

A Courtis parent commented on a school review website, “My child had some teachers that really cared about her education. Mr Weir is a sweetheart, Mrs Blankenship was simply wonderful, Mr Smith was a great math teacher, and Ms Blazo is an excellent counselor. This school has some good teachers as well as some not so good. I wish I could take all of the good …  Read more teachers from this school and combine them with my children’s previous good school teachers and just make one big great school. Its important to have good teachers that really care about the children’s well being.”

Sheffield with City Councilwoman JoAnn Watson at May 7 meeting at former Courtis Elementary School, now Sheffield's New Destiny Church; photo by Zenobia Jeffries, featured in Michigan Citizen

To add insult to injury, Sheffield held a “DABO House of Delegates” meeting there May 7, during which community leaders addressed the audience in opposition to PA 4, the Emergency Manager legislation which gives people like Bobb and Roberts dictatorial control over school districts and municipalities. The previous emergency financial manager act allowed Sheffield to take over Courtis.

A review of DABO’s 2009 non-profit tax filing (click on DABO 990 2009 for full copy) shows it had $1.2 million in revenue, and $1.184 million in expenses. Of its revenue, $690,646 was for its “alternative academy” (public tax revenue from the school aid fund).  Sheffield was paid $80,400 in salary, but took out a $175,145 loan from the agency.

Christine Abood, DPS teacher for 38 years

Sheffield was called at three numbers, including his cell phone, but was not available for comment on this story.

During the protest at DABO, Christine Abood, a teacher at Carleton Elementary, said it was one of the three schools taken off the list for closure or charter auction. She said she has been a teacher for 38 years, and all she wants is smaller class size.

“I’m against all school closings,” she said. “They tear up neighborhoods, causing private companies who want to invest in Detroit not to do so. They need stable neighborhoods. So-called ‘declining enrollment’ in DPS schools actually makes us equal to the suburbs. We get smaller class sizes of 26 or 27 instead of the 40 and more that we used to have. You cannot run a school system the same way you run a business; an industry mindset is different than an education professional’s mindset.”

Drivers kept honking horns all though protest at DABO

Abood denounced charter schools.
“Most of them are for profit, and the only way they can profit is by cutting back on the quality of the teachers, many of whom are not even certified, and charging students for things like extracurricular activities. Our students are not for sale on the marketplace!”

CFA student Catherine Buckens, there with her 2-year-old son Da’Mire Zimmons, vowed, “Turning Catherine Ferguson into a charter school is not going to work or happen. Our students are having an impact, and they know we’re serious.”

Catherine Buckens and son at DABO protest May 19

Monica Smith, leader of the By Any Means Necessary (BAMN) coalition, which has supported the CFA students, called on hundreds more to come out to keep CFA and other Detroit public schools from closing or being put on the charter auction block.

For more information, call 313-585-3637 or email monica.smith@bamn.com. Follow BAMN on YouTube and MySpace as well, and go to their website at www.bamn.com. To read about occupation of Catherine Ferguson Academy and see video, click on story “Young Mother Describes Occupation of Catherine Ferguson Academy” at  http://voiceofdetroit.net/?p=6582.

CFA mother and baby: where will they go?

CFA mothers take Woodward

SIGN PETITION TO SAVE CATHERINE FERGUSON  ACADEMY AT:  http://www.grownindetroitmovie.com/school.php  

Prison overcrowding in California

The 5-4 decision represents one of the largest prison release orders in U.S. history. The court majority says overcrowding has caused ‘suffering and death.’ In a sharp dissent, Justice Antonin Scalia warns ‘terrible things are sure to happen.

‘

By David G. Savage, Washington Bureau, LA TIMES

May 23, 2011, 8:56 a.m.

WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court ordered California on Monday to release tens of thousands of its prisoners to relieve overcrowding, saying that “needless suffering and death” had resulted from putting too many inmates into facilities that cannot hold them in decent conditions.

It is one of the largest prison release orders in the nation’s history, and it sharply split the high court.

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  Inmates bunked in triple tiers

Justices upheld an order from a three-judge panel in California that called for releasing 38,000 to 46,000 prisoners. Since then, the state has transferred about 9,000 state inmates to county jails. As a result, the total prison population is now about 32,000 more than the capacity limit set by the panel.

Justice Anthony M. Kennedy, speaking for the majority, said California’s prisons had “fallen short of minimum constitutional requirements” because of overcrowding. As many as 200 prisoners may live in gymnasium, he said, and as many as 54 prisoners share a single toilet.

Kennedy insisted that the state had no choice but to release more prisoners. The justices, however, agreed that California officials should be given more time to make the needed reductions.

In dissent, Justice Antonin Scalia called the ruling “staggering” and “absurd.”

He said the high court had repeatedly overruled the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals for ordering the release of individual prisoners. Now, he said, the majority were ordering the release of “46,000 happy-go-lucky felons.” He added that “terrible things are sure to happen as a consequence of this outrageous order.” Justice Clarence Thomas agreed with him.

In a separate dissent, Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. and Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. said the ruling conflicted with a federal law intended to limit the power of federal judges to order a release of prisoners.

State officials and lawyers for inmates differ over just how many prisoners will have to be released. In recent figures, the state said it had about 142,000 inmates behind bars, and the judges calculated the prison population would need to be reduced to about 110,000 to comply with constitutional standards.

Depiction of slave ship conditiosn

Kennedy said the judges in California overseeing the prison-release order should “accord the state considerable latitude to find mechanisms and make plans” that are “consistent with the public safety.”

The American Civil Liberties Union said the court had “done the right thing” by addressing the “egregious and extreme overcrowding in California’s prisons.”

David Fathi, director of the ACLU national prison project, said “reducing the number of people in prison not only would save the state taxpayers half a billion annually, it would lead to the implementation of truly rehabilitative programs that lower recidivism rates and create safer communities.”

Meanwhile, the court took no action on another California case in which a conservative group is challenging the state’s policy of granting in-state tuition at its colleges and universities to students who are illegal immigrants and have graduated from its high schools.

The justices said they would consider the appeal in a later private conference.

Carole Kronberg of Detroit

 By Carole Kronberg

Dear Charter Commission Members and Members of the Media Serving Detroit: 

I write in the hope of mitigating the future, potentially disastrous effects (which will reflect upon all of you) of what I continue to see as a great injustice being done to myself and most other civic-minded citizens of Detroit.  

Detroit’s New City Charter, as it is proposed now, includes some very constructive improvements, but for all the work you obviously have done, it fails to preserve/perpetuate the most basic of Detroit values: self-determination through democracy or, stated another way, freedom through hard-won voting rights.

DWSD worker Andrew Daniels-El says charter must bar privatization and sell-off of city assets

If adopted without amendment, the new City Charter will not only give each Detroit resident/voter FEWER votes and options through which to make “our” City Council more accountable; it will also give us representatives who may be the most outstanding of (not the whole city, but) smaller neighborhood pools. but deprive us of choosing more than one city-wide champion. It will also provide for a WEAKER, more divided Council (less able to defend the interests of the city as a whole — our collective culture as well as property interests) and NO defense whatsoever against potential misuse of police presence/powers by uniquely (not electively/democratically) empowered entities. 

We have been advised that those of us reconsidering (or STILL alarmed by) the prospect of leaving our city so vulnerable and “up for grabs” are “too late” to undo the damage already done by certain interests’ deliberate misrepresentation of their plan in order to promote (and go BACKWARDS to) “Council-by-District.”  

Therefore, I write to ask this:  Is it too late for the People of Detroit to demand inclusion in the new Charter of a “contingency plan” which would describe and provide a non-violent means to return control of the city to its residents if/when a majority of Detroiters realize that they have been systematically deceived and robbed?

Respectfully submitted,

Carole A. Kronberg

VOD ed, note: DETROITERS HAVE THE OPTION TO VOTE THIS CHARTER DOWN AS A WHOLE. IF IT IS NOT SATISFACTORY, VOTE NO!! IN NOVEMBER!.

A portion of the statewide protest against education cuts May 21, 2011

wsws.org

By Tobin Reese
23 May 2011

Several thousand teachers, students and other workers came together at the state capitol building in Lansing, Michigan on Saturday in opposition to cuts in public education.

In recent days, the Republican-controlled legislature has either passed or put into motion bills that will have a devastating impact on schools and communities in the state and accelerate the already brutal cuts imposed over the last decade.

The measures include requiring employees to pay 20 percent or more of the cost of their health plans, forcing school districts to solicit private companies for certain services and eliminating many aspects of collective bargaining.

Saturday’s event was called jointly by the Michigan Education Association (MEA) and the Democratic Party-backed We Are The People coalition, but the protests drew many students and broad layers of the working class who are opposed to the austerity measures being enacted at the local, state and federal level.

Socialist Equality Party supporters distributed the SEP statement “Public Education is a social right!” which calls for the development of a political movement of the working class, independent of the Democrats, Republicans and the trade unions, to fight to defend education and other social rights

Rob

Rob, a Waterford middle school teacher, said, “I’m here today because teachers are being made public enemy number one. We’re being scapegoated. It’s not a revenue problem, it’s a spending problem. And it’s not just at the state level. There’s not enough money for schools because of the tax cuts for the rich and fighting the wars.”

Steve, a social studies teacher at a small Michigan school district, which is laying off 48 teachers, told the WSWS, “That we spend more on prisons than education speaks to where the priorities lie. Now they have reduced the cuts to $200 per pupil—but when you’re operating on nothing, how can we take any cuts?

“It’s frustrating. There is an alternate goal with these politics. They created the Emergency Financial Manager, and it seems like they are only good at creating financial emergencies.”

Governor Rick Snyder recently signed into law a measure that gives so-called Emergency Financial Managers (EFM) dictatorial powers to tear up existing labor agreements, sell off public assets and usurp elected bodies. The policy—which was originally initiated by Snyder’s Democratic predecessor, Jennifer Granholm—is currently being used in the Detroit schools and Benton Harbor, and the governor has threatened to use it in scores of other school districts to impose drastic cutbacks and attacks on public employees.

Cynthia

Cynthia, a reading specialist at Reeths-Puffer Public School in north Muskegon, said, “We need money for social programs at home that is being spent on war. My district is cutting one teacher at every grade level. This means that students in four classrooms will be squeezed into three.

“I just found out my job is one of those being cut. I’ve taught for 10 years, and this is it. I teach reading to the lowest of the low reading level students. The cuts will result in more crowded classrooms, hurting the most vulnerable kids. I teach kids who come from poor families, kids living with their grandparents because their parents can’t find work.

“It’s insanity. They say there’s no money. There’s money, it’s a matter of how it’s being spent. Education is a basic need. The right to education goes back to the founding fathers, that democracy needs an educated populace as a safeguard against tyranny. I can’t believe what they are doing. Teachers are not well paid, but we’re a section of society that is still able to pay our bills, buy a home. They want to do away with that.”

Teachers were given no lead from the union officials who spoke from the platform. On the contrary, they sought to channel popular opposition to the cuts into support for the Democratic Party proposing recall efforts, lobbying legislators and a get-out-the-vote campaign for Obama and other Democrats in 2012.

Michigan Education Association President Ira Salters praised two Democratic state representatives in the crowd and added, “This fight doesn’t end until November 6, 2012, when we are going to elect true friends of labor and the middle-class. These days prove to us that elections do have consequences, but so do the votes in legislature. We brought them here, we can get them out.”

Other union officials repeated this theme, including United Auto Workers President Bob King, who suggested that workers were responsible for the current situation because they had voted Republican in the last election. He gave no explanation of why support for the Democrats had collapsed and joined the effort to conceal the fact that the Democrats, from the White House to the state and local level, were currently attacking workers no less viciously than their Republican counterparts.

The campaign for Democrats is aimed blocking any serious struggle against Snyder and the Republicans. The union officials’ aim is not to stop budget cuts and attacks on teachers—with which they fully agree—but to assure that they have a seat at the table to impose them on their members. In this way the upper-middle-class managers who run the unions can ensure their continued dues income and high salaries. This includes MEA President Salters, who received total compensation of nearly $300,000—up 15 percent from the previous year—while teachers lose jobs and suffer pay freezes and cuts. Continue reading →

David Rambeau

By David Rambeau,  free-lance writer on the Detroit Plantation

April 18, 2011

 “Tell the truth to the people, tell no lies, claim no easy victories.”  Amilcar Cabral, African revolutionary

 This year, as usual, the city of Detroit must develop and enact its annual budget for the upcoming fiscal year which begins 1 July 2011.  This is the task of the Mayor and his executive branch of city government, which, when completed, must be submitted to the city council for revision and eventually for approval. 

Mayor Dave Bing

 This year several factors complicate this already mysterious, covert process.  According to the mayor, the city is already $155 million in deficit as of April 2011 (with more deficit accruing in May and June) coming into the 1 July 2011 – 30 June 2012 budget.  This simply means that each week the city is spending $3 million more than it is receiving in revenues.  Earlier in this fiscal year 2010-2011 the city got a $250 million bond issued to cover an additional revenue shortfall, transferring this amount from part of the deficit to a contracted debt.  Totaling those two items means that the city for this year was/is at least $405 million in deficit/debt, or $8 million per week. 

 Recently, Mayor Bing stated that unless significant budget cuts were made the city would be $1.2 billion in deficit by 2015, or in 4 years, and that would cause the governor to appoint a financial overseer.  The governor promptly refuted this allegation and said he had no intention of taking over the city.  Even if the governor hadn’t stated this, it wouldn’t have happened.  Why?  Because rational investors would stop buying the city’s tax anticipation bonds which are the only reason the city is currently still in business, such as it is.  So essentially the mayor was blowing smoke.

AFSCME workers take a stand

Let’s look at that $1.2 billion shortfall the mayor predicted.  For the sake of this analysis we’ll assume his figures are reasonable.  That means a deficit of $155 million plus for this year and, on average, a $340 million deficit for each of the next three years.    The mayor also said he wasn’t going to have massive layoffs, but was going to try to get the unions to renegotiate their recently agreed to contract with the city and thereby cut the deficit.  Not likely. 

 Councilman Gary Brown said the city needed to layoff 1,000 workers.  Let’s examine this.

Suppose each city worker averages $50,000 salary and $50K in benefits each year.  That’s $100,000 per worker per year.  Multiply that by Brown’s 1,000 workers and that comes to $100 million saved or shaved off the deficit per year.  But the deficit for this year $155 million (and rising), and the next fiscal year $340 million totals $495 million.  To reach that total the city would have to layoff 4,950 workers who currently earn $100,000 in salary and benefits annually.

 Since the city has about 12,000 workers, and if it lays off about 5,000 workers, it would have 7,000 remaining workers.  Think what that would mean. 

 If we figured that the average city worker earns $80,000 in cash and benefits, the city would have to lay off about 6,100 workers, leaving about 5,900 workers remaining.  Think what that would mean regarding service. 

You can dispute these figures, or go into denial, or tell me I don’t know what I’m talking about, but, as the saying goes, “Ball don’t lie.”

 Can the workers count this ?  Yes.  Can the workers understand this?  Yes.  Will they like it?  No.  Will they complain?  Yes.  Will they march and rally?  Yes.  Will that make any difference?  No.   

City Council President and Vice-President Charles Pugh and Gary Brown

That’s why Bing and all of the executive branch should be in the community discussing this issue.  Same for the city council.  That’s why Bing’s “visionary” meetings last fall were irrelevant.  It’s not about vision; it’s about money and productive capacity.  But if you can’t state and communicate the problem accurately, you can’t solve the problem.  Neither he nor the city council state the problem correctly.  Moreover, I’m still waiting for the city council to present a State of The City paper for this year, much less a fiscal analysis.   I don’t believe either have the courage to do so, except in vague, meaningless, self-serving generalities. 

 Let’s look at this situation from another angle.  There are four city retirees for every working city employee.  The executive branch states that retirees’ pensions and benefits cost $900 million per year or 30% of the city’s budget of $3.1 billion per year.  Cut that $900 mill in half and the books are balanced.  Can Bing do this?  He can’t even bring it up.  Not that it’s going to happen, but it states the historical and arithmetic nature of the problem.  GM and Chrysler had the same (among many) problems, retirees’ pensions and benefits.  You know where they ended up.  Coleman Young should have declared the city bankrupt the day after he took office.  That would have been visionary.  He didn’t, neither will Bing. 

All of this should be no surprise.  The Detroit Public Schools and the Detroit Public Library are in the same boat.  It’s called 60 plus students per class with the former and closing most of the branch libraries with the latter. 

 Let the games begin.  

Post Script:

Immediately after the Mayor and his executive staff of about a dozen people made their presentation to the city council in the council chambers at city hall, they walked out, not waiting to hear in person a single public comment.  Then the president of the city council limited each public comment to one (1) minute.  One speaker, a union leader, indicated that the public had to wait until all the executive staff had entered the council chambers before any of the public could be admitted to chambers.  Union workers, though they arrived before the executive staff, had to cool their heels while the bureaucrats filed in. 

To add insult to injury when the budget hearing was cablecast on the public channel, the video producer (a part of the mayor’s staff) edited out the public comments from the videotape of the hearing, while the mayor and the council’s comments were cablecast, over and over and over again ad infinitum on the public channel. 

Why then should black people think anybody (the mayor, his staff and the council) who never meets with them, never listens to them, and never involves them significantly in the process, is worthy of their trust and support?

These are but a few examples of the fiscal and democratic challenges and incompetencies, the arrogance and disrespect of Detroit’s city government for its residents.  To arrive at the place we are now would obviously require many more over decades to bring us to our current condition.  It would take volumes to communicate the seismic faults that permeate the system.  Be advised, and carry on as best you can.                  

                                                                            -30-

Reading reference: Collapse by Jared Diamond, a comprehensive, historical and sociological analysis of the decline of societies and civilizations. 

David Rambeau is a free-lance writer, long-time producer of the television program, For My People, which airs Saturday mornings on WKBD-TV, Ch. 50.  He is also the publisher of the Urban Theater Magazine.  For more information access him through youtube.com/projectbaitdet, or his website: projectbait.blakgold.net.  Comments may be sent to David Rambeau – facebook or projectbait@att.net. Project Bait’s website on You Tube can be accessed by clicking on http://www.youtube.com/user/ProjectBaitDET#g/a.

Attorney Vanessa Fluker (third from right) with supporters as they file out of courtroom May 13; dozens more were still inside

 By Diane Bukowski

DETROIT – After listening to arguments in front of a packed courtroom supporting “peoples’ attorney” Vanessa Fluker May 13, Wayne County Circuit Court Chief Judge Virgil Smith is to rule this week on the recusal of Judge Robert Colombo from a landlord-tenant case for “the appearance of conflict of interest.”

During the case, Colombo fined Fluker $12,000, calling her lawsuit on behalf of client Asha Tyson “vexacious.” Tyson was being evicted by her mortgage holder, the Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) Group.

“Judge Colombo renegotiated his own home mortgage with RBS in very favorable terms while presiding over this case,” Fluker’s attorney Jerome Goldberg argued May 13. “He negotiated a $65,000 reduction in the principal from $200,000 to $135,000 in 2009. That is the the issue. We discovered this fact on March 1, 2011. Judge Colombo’s extreme actions against my client triggered our investigation.” (Click on http://www.waynecountylandrecords.com/RealEstate/SearchDetail.aspx   to view Colombo’s mortgage document.)

Attorney Jerome Goldberg

This was the third mortgage renegotiation Colombo conducted with RBS, Goldberg said, resulting in a mortage discharge in 2009 while he was hearing the Asha Tyson case.

Goldberg said additionally, “Under Michigan Court Rule 2.003 and the Michigan Code of Judicial Conduct, we do not have to prove wrongdoing. He did not make a disclosure. This raises a red flag and indicates the appearance of impropriety. The necessity for confidence in the judiciary is so great that a judge has to abstain from what an ‘objective and reasonable observer,’ not a judge or lawyer, considers the appearance of impropriety. The proper course of action is to disqualify Judge Colombo.”

Click on  MCR 2.003 and Code of Judicial Conduct    to read language in the code.

Chief Judge Virgil Smith

Judge Robert Colombo

Smith repeatedly asked whether someone had paid the $65,000 or that the bank took a loss on Colombo’s implying that Goldberg needed to prove that.

David Wells, the attorney with Simon Galasso & Frantz PLC, which is representing Charter One/RBS, argued chiefly that Goldberg was out of the time limits for filing for recusal, disputing Goldberg’s claim that the limits tolled from the date of the discovery of Colombo’s mortgage renegotiation.

Judge Smith said. “This is a complicated case and we are waiting for transcripts. I will take this under advisement and issue a written opinion within two weeks.

After the hearing, Fluker said, “I think my attorney did a wonderful job, and I just want to believe that God will see to it that justice prevails.”

A highlight of this year’s Barristers’ Ball was the inaugural Golden Gavel Award, which WBA President Brandy Robinson (right) presented to Vanessa Fluker for her commitment to representing distressed homeowners during one of the country’s worst economic downturns.

Goldberg decried Fluker’s treatment at the hands of Judge Colombo, who claimed among other issues that briefs she filed in her client’s case were the worst he had seen.

“My client received the Golden Gavel award as the Outstanding Attorney of the Year from the Wolverine Bar Association,” he said. “She is universally respected for the quality of her work. If a disqualification of Colombo doesn’t happen at this level, it will happen on appeal.”

Colombo has refused comment on the matter because the case is still pending.

Weeks also claimed that a housing discrimination case Fluker cited in defense of her client, filed by the Center for Community Justice and Advocacy, had been dismissed.

Kimberly Boyd-Harris

Kimberly Boyd-Harris, Executive Director for the Center, was at the hearing to support Fluker.

“Our organization filed a federal lawsuit against RBS citing discriminatory lending practices against African-Americans living in the city of Detroit,” Boyd-Harris explained. “It was based on RBS’ unwillingness to rectify the situation. Since the case was dismissed, however, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) has taken action against RBS Citizens.”

On May 5, the DOJ issued a release stating that a $3.6 million settlement was reached with Citizens Bank regarding alleged lending discrimination in Detroit.

“Citizens Republic Bankcorp (CRBC) and Citizens Bank of Flint, Mich., will open a loan production office in an African-American neighborhood in Detroit, invest approximately $3.6 million in Wayne County, Mich., and take other steps as part of a settlement to resolve allegations that they engaged in a pattern or practice of discrimination on the basis of race and color,” said the DOJ.

Thomas E. Perez, Assistant Attorney General in charge of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division, said, “Discrimination in the provision of lending services based on race deprives communities of access to credit and leaves the residents of minority neighborhoods vulnerable to predatory lenders. This type of discrimination is part of the web of intolerable practices that stripped vast amounts of wealth from communities of color in the last decade.”

The DOJ said the lawsuit originated from a 2010 referral by the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System to the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division.

In 2000, the Royal Bank of Scotland was the 10^th largest bank in the world. It is 84 percent owned by the government of the United Kingdom, and in Nov. 2009 announced plans to cut 19,700 jobs. The following month, the RBS revolted against its main shareholder, the British Government, threatening to resign unless they were allowed to give bonuses of 1.5 billion pounds, or $2.42 billion, to its investment staff. Their action came in the wake of an 850 billion pound bailout by UK taxpayers.

People Before Banks is holding a fundraiser for Vanessa Fluker’s legal defense fund, as well as its campaign against Chase Bank, on Thurs. June 2, 2011 at 6 p.m. at the UAW Local 600 headquarters, located at 10550 Dix Ave., Dearborn, MI. For more information, click on http://peoplebeforebanks.org/.

MORE NEWS ON THE BATTLE AGAINST FORECLORUES: Michigan Appeals Court rules MERS foreclosures illegal; victims should seek redress

If your house was foreclosed, you may be able to stay in your home and pursue claims under this decision.

(WXYZ) – A ruling by the state Court of Appeals could mean relief for thousands of people facing foreclosure in Michigan.

The ruling applies to foreclosures started under the Mortgage Electronic Registration System, or MERS. …

The court ruled that MERS was not entitled to initiate what is called foreclosure by advertisement. Local lawyers are telling people that if MERS carried out their foreclosures, they should go to court as soon as possible because any eviction involving MERS must be dismissed.

VOD Ed.: Attorney Jerome Goldberg said Vanessa Fluker filed the first case in Michigan challenging the right of MERS to foreclose and evict homeowners.)

Michigan Court Of Appeals Rules MERS Has No Authority To Foreclose

Kenny Snodgrass

 Submitted by Kenny Snodgrass

 CNA , HONG KONG, Taipei Times 

An international study has found that the Chinese people originated not from “Peking Man” in northern China, but from early humans in East Africa who moved through South Asia to China some 100,000 years ago, Hong Kong’s Ming Pao daily reported yesterday in a finding that confirms the “single origin” theory in anthropology.

According to the newspaper, a research team led by Jin Li ( 金力 ) of Fudan University in Shanghai has found that modern humans evolved from a single origin, not multiple origins as some experts believe.

In China, school textbooks teach that the Chinese race evolved from “Peking Man,” based on a theory that humans in Europe and Asia evolved from local species.

Jin Li, Fudan University

But Jin and his fellow researchers found that early humans belonged to different species, of which only the East African species developed into modern humans.

This new finding nullifies the theory that the ancestors of the Chinese people were “Peking Man” who lived in northern China 400,000 years ago.

Based on DNA analyses of 100,000 samples gathered from around the world, a number of human families evolved in East Africa some 150,000 years ago, said Li Hui ( 李輝 ), a member of Jin’s team.

Black Chinese

About 100,000 years ago, some of those humans began to leave Africa, with some people moving to China via South and Southeast Asia, Li said.

According to the newspaper article, it has been proven that the “65 branches of the Chinese race” share similar DNA mutations with the peoples of East and Southeast Asia.

It said that the Shanghai scientists were part of an international team comprised of researchers from Russia, India, Brazil and other nations in a five-year project studying the geographic and genealogical routes related to the spread and settlement of modern humans.

http://www.taipeitimes.com/news/front/archives/2005/05/12/2003254307

(Link details numerous articles confirming that ancestors of Asian people in China migrated from Africa.)

 Kenneth Snodgrass –
Author of  “From Victimization to Empowerment
The Challenge Of African American Leadership
The Need of Real Power” website: www.trafford.com/07-0913
eBook available at http://ebookstore.sony.com/search?keyword=Kenneth+Snodgrass

KennySnod – 215 Video’s on YouTube at, www.YouTube.com/KennySnod