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

Chief Justice Marilyn Kelly is sworn to represent all citizens regardless of race or economic status

FROM: CORNELL E. SQUIRES

TO: Chief Justice Marilyn Kelly

MICHGAN SUPREME COURT

Dear Chief Justice Kelly : 

 My civil lawsuit that was filed in Wayne County Circuit Court on August 12, 2009, now that a year have passed, I have been bombarded with ,Ethnic Bias and Racial Discrimination and  Willful  Refusal  to  enforce  and  honor  the  Michigan law   in the  Courtroom  of  Judge Kathleen MacDonald.  I filed my civil lawsuit in my attempt to get redress for a civil wrong committed  against  me   by  white  Defendants.  

Third Judicial Circuit Court Judge Kathleen McDonald

However, on  Friday  August 13 , 2010.  Judge Kathleen MacDonald  refused  to   allow  my  written  Motion  for  Reconsideration  – to  be  heard  in  open Court in  the  Wayne County  Circuit  Court  in  the  Civil  Action  of  Cornell  E  Squires vs  Carl  Arnett  et  al,  under  Case # 09-019877-PD. As a matter of fact every motion in my case that went before Judge Kathleen Mac Donald was denied–all 8 motions I filed before her. .

On “MOTIONS HEARINGS” days on Friday I noticed that Judge MACDONALD would always rule in favor the parties with the attorneys with no regard to any material facts the non attorney would present in her court!   She has a history of discrimination toward all non lawyer litigants that ever had cases before her.  I found particularly that in African American civil cases  Judge KATHLEEN MACDONALD always denied every non-lawyer litigant’s motion if an attorney represents the other party. Her record speaks for herself and its shows 99 .9% of all African American non lawyers’ Motions are denied in her courtroom.  

The only motion that‘s been granted was when Judge Macdonald was on a medical leave of absence.  My case has been in litigation for a year and a half, with only one motion granted in my favor. It was granted by acting Judge John D. O’HAIR in May 2010  O’Hair is a retired prosecutor acting judge for Kathleen Macdonald while she is on a leave of absence.   Continue reading →

Mistersky Power Plant

By Marshall Powell, from Detroit Uncovered

Detroit soon will jettison its Public Lighting Department, according to a city hall insider. 

“Detroit will be out of the public lighting business by the time your business is done,” Charles Beckham told Detroit Charter Commissioners, who must finish their work by the end of 2012. 

Beckham, Mayor Bing’s former chief administrative officer, was the guest speaker at a Commission meeting Sept. 14. He was invited to discuss the City’s enterprise departments, described as those that generate relatively significant revenue such as the municipal parking, building and safety, and water and sewerage departments. 

No stranger to Detroit politics, having been part of the good and sad of it, Beckham was Water and Sewerage director under Coleman A. Young, later joined the Kilpatrick administration and helped run Mayor Bing’s 2009 campaign. Beckham served as the Mayor’s chief administrative officer until he resigned in May. 

City workers protest privatization of PLD, loss of jobs for residents May 27

“The move is not to necessarily sell public lighting. That’s always controversial,” Beckham said. “These assets in the public lighting department cannot be sold without the approval of voters,” he said referring to the “old and antiquated” equipment at Detroit’s Mistersky Power Plant. 

Russ Bellant, a retired city worker, agrees with Beckham but only to a point. Citizens readily voice opposition to selling city assets but in this case that’s not the threat, Bellant said.  DTE never wanted to buy Misterksy, according to Bellant. “They just wanted it to go out of business to eliminate the competition.” 

“Although the PLD can’t be sold, it can be dismantled,” Bellant says. He contends that dismantling the PLD is exactly what mayors have been doing for the last 50 years. “Mayors have been under a lot of pressure and persuasion from the downtown business community, including DTE.” 

Bellant says Mayor Bing is stripping Public Lighting of its ability to generate revenue.  “What Bing is doing is he’s implementing the death of the public lighting department.” 

Bellant says the Water and Sewerage Department and Wayne State University are no longer PLD customers.

“Wayne State was a multi-million dollar a year customer. If you have these sources as customers, you can sell bonds. People who sell bonds know these folks are going to pay their bills.” Consequently, Bellant considers empty and shortsighted arguments that the city can’t support the PLD.

 Beckham disagrees. “We could save a lot of money by shutting down Mistersky and buying all our energy from DTE,” he told those attending the meeting held at the Fellowship Chapel church on the City’s west side. 

Shortly after taking office, Mayor Bing announced plans to decommission Mistersky within 90 days in favor of buying energy for DTE. The city currently buys 75 percent of its energy from DTE, according to Beckham. Mistersky is still up and running, although Beckham described it as feeble and lacking capacity to serve the city’s needs. Continue reading →

Pre and post natal care in danger

Cuts in “unprofitable” services like pre and post-natal care likely

 Vanguard will provide “core services” for a minimum of ten years “at one or more hospitals,” according to a list of “Frequently Asked Questions” authored by the AG’s office. These include “a neonatal intensive care unit, obstetrics, emergency services, a trauma-designated emergency department, intensive care, general medical services, inpatient rehab services, inpatient and outpatient surgery, radiology and diagnostic services, cardiology services, and outpatient rehab.”  

In a recent interview, Kosman, who has reviewed documents on the AG’s website, said, “What jumped out at me was that Vanguard is not committing to keep certain facilities or divisions open. Their focus will be on remaining profitable by focusing on services such as heart surgery, not on pregnant moms. They are not committing to nursing levels. Why isn’t the DMC waiting until President Obama’s health care reform is in effect?  Wall Street makes money where Wall Street makes money. It sounds to me like the DMC is where some of it may be.”  

RN's on strike for patient care

Attorney Ron Glotta angrily asked during the forum, “How do you maximize profits? You do it by reducing wages, attacking unions, increasing charges, and limiting services. You take your profits out of the city of Detroit and put them in hedge funds. Money is coming in with President Obama’s new health care plan. That’s Vanguard’s motive. It’s not complicated.”  

Under Obama’s plan, for-profits will actually be at an advantage. Only non-profits will have to account in detail for the quality of care they render under recently-enacted stricter regulatory requirements for that sector.  

Vanguard takeover could endanger Hutzel premie unit

Attorney Benjamin earlier said, “We’re concerned that the deal doesn’t have enough guarantees for Detroiters . . . .Vanguard can close any of the DMC hospitals if the DMC board majority agrees. In the meantime, they can cut back on any unprofitable services, such as Hutzel Hospital’s premature infant unit, the largest in the state. That would cause infant mortality in Detroit, already the highest in the country, to increase even further.”  

During the forum, Benjamin raised the thorny question of Detroit Receiving Hospital (DRH), previously called Detroit General Hospital (DGH), the city’s only publicly-owned hospital. In 1980, after a three-year community battle to save DGH, it was privatized.   Continue reading →

Was DMC denied access to bond markets? 

DMC CEO Duggan has said the transfer to Vanguard is necessary because Wall Street turned its back when he tried to float bonds to finance upgrades of DMC facilities.

Ryan Beene writes for Crain’s Detroit Business, which has extensively covered the proposed transfer. Keith Crain, CEO of Crain’s Communications, Inc., sits on the DMC board. 

“The proposed deal to sell the Detroit Medical Center to Nashville-based Vanguard Health Systems was the product of more than a year’s worth of work by the DMC board of directors to secure the system’s future,” Beene reported in 2009.

 He quoted DMC board chairman Stephen D’Arcy, also vice-chairman of Price Waterhouse Coopers, who said the process began in early 2009 when the board needed to invest $200 million in Children’s Hospital of Michigan.

 D’Arcy told Beene there were not sufficient capital funds available for the CHM capital improvements. 

DMC’s 2009 consolidated financial reports contradict D’Arcy’s statement. Although the reports say the DMC had a deficit in unrestricted net assets of almost$178 million (improved from over $326 million in 2008), they also reported that funds for proposed capital improvements in 2010 were sufficient.  Continue reading →