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

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 →

By Lee Higgins, Ann Arbor.com

A Belleville man who was Tasered during a drug bust at his mother’s Superior Township home Friday  died less than two hours later at St. Joseph Mercy Hospital, family members said.

Pearlie Jackson says she was in a hospital waiting room, desperate for information about her 31-year-old son, Stanley Jackson Jr., when a doctor gave her the news.

He told her Stanley was “fussing and trying to get off the stretcher” in the emergency room, and his heart stopped “when they gave him medication to relax him,” she said.

“You’re telling me my son is gone!” she recalls screaming as she collapsed.

It’s unclear what caused the death of Stanley Jackson Jr., a former high school running back with no known medical problems. An autopsy was planned for this afternoon, and Michigan State Police detectives were investigating.

Jackson leaves behind numerous family members, including four children, ages 3 months to 12 years, his mother said. Doctors spent 40 minutes trying to revive him, she said.

A witness said he saw Stanley run inside his mother’s Heather Drive home after two Washtenaw County sheriff’s deputies and an undercover officer converged on the area about 4:45 p.m. Friday. Continue reading →

Detroit march steps off Aug. 28 Photo from UAW website

 By Diane Bukowski

 DETROIT – The Aug. 28 “Jobs, Justice and Peace” march in Detroit was thousands strong, led by the United Auto Workers (UAW), the Farm Labor Organizing Committee (FLOC) and other unions, RainbowPUSH, the Moratorium NOW! coalition and numerous other community groups, the Martin Luther King High School marching band alongwith other young people, and progressive ministers.  

U.S. Rep. Maxine Waters (D-LA) speaks, with Rev. Jesse Jackson and UAW Pres. Bob King behind her

“We are about to spark a movement across America!” U.S. Congresswoman Maxine Waters (D-Los Angeles) told the crowd. “Detroit is the epicenter of what’s wrong with corporate greed. Wall Street has disinvested in our cities instead of putting people to work in public service jobs. They have stolen our pensions, torn down public housing, and taken the homes of working people who have been paying mortgages for 15, 20 and 30 years. They are destroying public education. Our children are not failing, THEY have failed our children. But we are not intimidated, we are going to take back Detroit, take back our cities, and take back America!”  

 “We care about the unemployed, the senior citizens, the retirees, the children,” King said. “Our people are jobless because Wall Street has led the country into an economic crisis, and many of our leaders are morally bankrupt. They created the horrendous wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. Everybody here worked to elect President Barack Obama. But we made one mistake—we did not keep on marching. If you don’t keep marching you start losing. We must march until we die, we will march until we win!”   

MECAWI calls for MORATORIUM NOW!

Jackson called for the rebuilding of Detroit and cities across the country, and for a national moratorium on home foreclosures.  

“There are thousands of vacant lots here in Detroit,” he said. “We need to train our youth to rebuild and rehab homes instead of tearing them down. Detroit is a food desert—not one major supermarket chain is in the city. They have cut public transportation. People on welfare can’t afford to own cars legally; the city has the highest insurance rates in the country. Detroit, do not give up your spirit, do not live below your privilege! There are no George Wallaces, no Bull Connors, no water cannons and no dogs to stop us!”   

FLOC Pres. Baldemar Velasquez calls for boycott of Chase Bank

Baldemar Valesquez, president of FLOC, said their union will lead a national divestment campaign of Chase Bank beginning Sept. 7, asking consumers to close their Chase accounts and cancel Chase credit cards. 

FLOC’s website says, “JP Morgan Chase is one of the lead banks in a consortium of lenders that provides $498 million dollars in credit to Reynolds American, one of the largest tobacco companies in the US. While Reynolds American and JP Morgan Chase make billions, tobacco farmworkers continue to suffer serious human rights abuses in the fields. Although Reynolds does not directly employ these farmworkers, they determine the terms for contract growers which directly affects the living and working conditions of farmworkers.”   

SEIU delegation; marcher calls for national public works program

Velasquez said, “Our workers have the right not to die in the tobacco fields, like dogs under the trees.” He also called on U.S. companies to “stop exporting jobs, and exploiting imported workers.”  

Al Garrett, President of Michigan Council 25 of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME), said his union will commit all its resources and people to the Oct. 2 mobilization.  

“We’re ready to march on the Coleman Young Center, the Guardian Building, the state capitol, and Washington, D.C!” he cried out. “We are 1.4 million strong across the country and we will be there!” 

Atty. Vanessa Fluker demands end to foreclosures

Attorney Vanessa Fluker called for those present to join a march against the Bank of America in downtown Detroit Sept. 1, to save the home of Michelle Hart and her disabled mother. She noted that mortgage companies, which are insured by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, make more money by evicting people than they do by keeping them in their homes.  

“Bail out the banks, not the people!” she demanded.  

Democratic gubernatorial candidate, Lansing Mayor Virg Bernero, and his running mate, Southfield Mayor Brenda Lawrence, also excited the crowd with their appearance. The two are running on a progressive “Main Street, not Wall Street” platform targeting Republican candidate Rick Snyder, who is a millionaire businessman financing his own campaign.  

Award-winning Martin Luther King, Jr. band

The Democratic state convention was happening at Cobo Hall the same weekend. Among its controversial aspects was the refusal of Democratic Party chair Mark Brewer to allow a resolution sponsored by the 14th District to hit the floor. It called for the removal of Detroit Public Schools czar Robert Bobb because of the massive school closings, lay-offs, and huge debt that he has sponsored during the current state take-over of the district. 

Many delegates also decried the party’s selection of candidate for

Marchers call for single-payer health care

the State Supreme Court. A contingent at the rally carried “Judge Thomas” signs, marking the second time that Wayne County District Court Judge Deborah Thomas has tried unsuccessfully to get the nomination. Thomas led a long campaign against the county’s racially unbalanced jury system, which results in juries that are mainly composed of suburbanites judging defendants who are primarily Detroiters. 

PROTESTERS TELL BOA: STOP EVICTION, JOIN HARDEST HIT PROGRAM  

Protesters demand BOA halt eviction of Michelle Hart and her disabled mother

By Diane Bukowski 

DETROIT — Dozens of demonstrators, many called out by Attorney Vanessa Fluker’s  announcement at the Aug. 28 Jobs, Peace and Justice march, hit the Bank of America’s downtown Detroit headquarters Aug 31 . They demanded a stop to the pending eviction of Michelle Hart and her mother, and that BOA and other lenders sign on to Michigan’s $228 million Hardest Hit Homeowners’ Program, meant to  help unemployed workers. 

“Michelle Hart and her elderly mother face imminent foreclosure and eviction from their home in Southfield, Mich., by Countrywide and Bank of America,” Fluker said. “The bank refuses to modify Ms. Hart’s usurious, adjustable-rate mortgage, even though it signed a binding Consent Agreement with the Attorney General’s office on Oct. 6, 2008, to modify loans.  Ms. Hart has fought in court for a year and a half now to get BOA and Countrywide to abide by the Consent Agreement and modify her loan.  But the bank refuses and is forging full steam ahead to evict her and her mother, who suffers from pancreatic cancer.  BOA would rather toss them out on the street than negotiate a loan modification because of  Ms. Hart’s job loss and lower wages.”  

Attorney Jerome Goldberg added that  the “Help for Hardest Hit Homeowners” program that provides over $282 million in federal monies to Michigan to keep unemployed workers in their homes is failing because neither Bank of America, Countrywide or any other major lender has signed on to participate in the program.        

The march was temporarily disrupted by a lone cop who took it upon himself to snatch away a bullhorn from one of the protesters. City Councilwoman JoAnn Watson joined the march at that point and retrieved the bullhorn from the officer. The march then resumed, with more  protesters joining in. 

The Moratorium NOW! Coalition, along with the Michigan Emergency Committee Against War & Injustice, holds weekly organizing meetings every Monday at 7:00 p.m. at 5920 Second Avenue in Detroit.  All are welcome.                                                                                                    

 Moratorium NOW! Coalition to Stop Foreclosures, Evictions and Utility Shutoffs  Phone: (313) 887-4344  moratorium@moratorium-mi.org;  www.moratorium-mi.org. 

NEW YORK RALLY OF UNEMPLOYED BUILDS FOR OCTOBER 2 MARCH ON WASHINGTON

U.S. Rep. Charles Rangel speaks at NYC rally for unemployed Sept. 1

 From One Nation Working Together  

September 1, 2010 – New York. – Heeding a call to put New Yorkers back to work, hundreds of unemployed people and their supporters rallied at the Federal Hall Building across from the New York Stock Exchange in lower Manhattan at 11:00 a.m. this morning to demand that city, state and federal government representatives make getting people back to work their number one priority. 

The rally was sponsored by New Yorkers who have joined the One Nation Working Together movement, a coalition of more than 170 human and civil rights organizations, environmental, ethnic, labor, peace, youth, student and faith-based organizations that are bringing hundreds of thousands to Washington, D.C. on October 2 to demand the same. 

“New York City’s official unemployment rate is nearly 10 percent, but we know that it’s higher than that,” said Hazel Dukes, president of the NAACP New York State Conference. “We need to go to Washington on 10.2.10 and demand as One Nation Working Together that our officials help put everyone back to work NOW.”  Continue reading →

Gen. David Patraeus, formerly head of international forces fighting Iraq,, now head of Afghanistan forces, greets President Obama in Iraq

Why the combat might not really be over

By Robert Dreyfuss

Let’s get the good news out of the way first. In President Obama’s Iraq speech last week, he said that the U.S. combat role in Iraq has ended and that Iraqis have “responsibility for the security of their own country.” He said that “all US troops will leave by the end of next year.” And he promised, once again, that U.S. troops will begin to leave Afghanistan too, next July.

That’s about it. Now the bad news.

Most distressingly, Obama treated the war in Iraq as if it were a minor, tactical disagreement, rather than a fundamental, black-and-white difference between two irreconcilable views. “I am mindful that the Iraq war has been a contentious issue at home,” he said. “It is time to turn the page.” To underline the point, he mentioned that he’d telephoned former President George W. Bush before delivering the speech, though he mercifully spared us details of that conversation. Needless to say, the unprovoked invasion of Iraq by the United States in 2003 was a clear-cut, criminal war of aggression, making it far more than a merely “contentious” issue. 

Hundreds of thousands of Iraqis died for no good reason, and many thousands more are likely to perish as Iraq’s bitterly divided body politic settles its differences with guns and bombs over the next five or 10 years. Millions of Iraqi children have been traumatized beyond repair. By going into Iraq, the United States alienated its friends, weakened its alliances, emboldened its adversaries, blackened its reputation, squandered a trillion dollars, suffered tens of thousands of dead and wounded, utterly failed to spread democracy and freedom in the region, vastly strengthened Iran’s strategic position in the Middle East and the Persian Gulf, and devastated a nation by shattering its economy, its state institutions and its very social fabric in a manner that will take at least two generations to repair. 

None of this seems to have occurred to President Obama, who wants to turn the bloody page. Continue reading →

Charter schools CEO Doug Ross, Skillman CEO Carol Goss, DPS EFM Robert Bobb

Helen Moore letter to gubernatorial candidate Virg Bernero protesting Dems’ blocking of 14th District resolution at convention

Aug. 29, 2010

Dear Mr. Bernero:

I am the convention delegate who was persistent at the microphone during the Democratic Convention.  From what I have been told, you are a very caring man.  I am writing to you to request a meeting concerning the disrespect and the lack of integrity on the part of Mr. Mike Brewer.  For months Mr. Brewer has been attempting to block the resolution submitted by the Fourteenth District pertaining to the firing of the Emergency Manager of the Detroit Public Schools, Mr. Robert Bobb. We learned that the resolution that was submitted on time by Carol Conway to Mr. Brewer had mysteriously disappeared.  No one could find it.  After questioning Mr. Brewer, he said he never got it. Carol Conway said he did.  We are asking for an investigation of this matter and we need your help if we are to move forward together to keep our Detroit voters working for the Democratic ticket.  We need to meet as soon as possible.  Please let us know when.

 In order to stop the deficit from increasing; the firing of entire unions; outsourcing; hiring of his friends; closing of schools; no bid contracts to companies headquartered outside of Michigan and even as far away as Europe; taking over academics and the entire school system resulting in a lawsuit filed by the Detroit Board of Education to gain back the control of academics, we decided to present a resolution pertaining to these issues to the Democratic Party with true facts to counteract the wrong information disseminated by the news media which was actively promoting Mr. Bobb.  The resolution  was presented in April to the Fourteenth District and the delegates voted unanimously in favor of presenting it to the State Central Committee. 

Helen Moore, delegate

 DPS debt, apartheid funding, charter schools destroy district, not part of debate 

DPS teacher Kimberly Porter wears Black to mourn loss of public education for children, during Dec. contract meeting

 By Diane Bukowski

DETROIT – A “devil’s triangle” destroying DPS is being largely ignored in discussions about the district’s governance and solutions to its problems. 

 “When the new elected board takes office, it will have a huge concrete block around its neck,” said attorney George Washington, who represented the Detroit Board of Education in its recent successful battle against a mayoral takeover of DPS. “The two state takeovers have been the greatest financial boondoggle ever seen.” 

 Washington referred to the fact that over 90 percent of state per-pupil aid for students in Detroit, nearly a half-billion dollars, will be reserved for bank debt in 2011 alone, according to Detroit Public Schools (DPS) documents. (See VOD article “Bank of NY Mellon controls DPS.)  

 A second side of the triangle is state per-pupil funding for Detroit, $7660 in 2010. It runs about three-fifths of that accorded to students in suburbs like Bloomfield ($12,443) and Birmingham ($12,336). This recalls the notorious Three-Fifths compromise enshrined in the U.S. Constitution in 1787, which considered a kidnapped African three-fifths of a person. 

 If the state aid factor were equalized even by one-half the difference between funding for those two wealthy districts and Detroit, it would put another $205.5 million into DPS coffers. 

 Charter schools are the third side of the “devil’s triangle.” 

 “In the 2002-2003 school year, DPS’s pre-kindergarten through 12th grade student population was 164,500, but estimates for Detroit’s public school enrollment this year stand as low as 84,000 students,” Julianne Hing writes in the March 2010 edition of Colour Lines. “Experts project that in five years’ time, the number of students in Detroit Public Schools will be 56,000 students. 

DPS student Kelly Lewis calls for Bobb to go on trial

“But Detroit also has a robust charter school industry with a student enrollment of 54,000 kids. That’s right, Detroit’s charter school enrollment is set to outpace its public school enrollment. That alone is so mindbending that it eclipses the fact that when the charter school population and public school population of Detroit is combined, Detroit’s pre-K through 12 student population has actually increased in recent years.” 

DPS is thus losing $414 million a year to charter schools within the city’s limits alone, when one multiplies the charter school population by DPS per-pupil state aid of $7660. 

 “Every time the state gets its hands on our school district, it ends up hundreds of millions of dollars more in debt,” said Agnes Hitchcock, steward of the grass-roots Call ‘em Out Coalition. “All the debt incurred through the state under both Kenneth Burnley and Robert Bobb should be forgiven by the state.”  Continue reading →