Leid Stories – Called to Action: Pastor Takes On The Battle for Benton Harbor, Mich. – 05/07/14

By progressiveradionetwork

Hearing Friday, May 30, 8:30 a.m. on felony voter fraud charges vs. Rev. Pinkney in Berrien County Courthouse, 811 Court St. Joseph, Michigan (Hearing has been changed several times to discourage attendance; go to Black Autonomy Community Network Organization [BANCO] website to check for any updates at http://www.bhbanco.org/.)

Under house arrest until a hearing May 16 on voter-fraud charges, the Rev. Edward Pinkney maintains a surprisingly upbeat demeanor, calling it “just the latest effort to beat us down in the battle we’ve been waging here.”

“Here” is Benton Harbor, Mich., an almost all-black town that has seen its population plummet from 45,000 to about 10,000 residents, 70 percent of them unemployed and 90 percent at or below the U.S. poverty level. But it is a “beachtown,” on the shores of Lake Michigan, and major corporations have their eyes on its real estate.

Whirlpool Corp. wants it all, Pinkney says, and it’s been very aggressive in getting its way—including co-opting local political leadership and paying off civil-rights organizations like the NAACP. His house arrest, he says, stems from his leadership of a campaign to recall the mayor, who he calls a “stooge of the corporations.”

The pastor of the nondenominational God’s House of Faith, discusses his abiding faith in the power of grassroots people to create change, even when the odds appear to be against them. They must be prepared—as he is, he says—to deal with “corruption and co-optation of their own.”

Hear interview with Rev. Pinkney below.

TROUBLE IN BENTON HARBOR

By Ashahed M. Muhammad –

Assistant Editor-

Last updated: May 6, 2014 – 11:41:38 PM

A court ruling postpones elections amid questions about voter signatures and fears of high level political intimidation

BENTON HARBOR, Mich. (FinalCall.com) – The Benton Harbor mayoral recall election did not take place on May 6 as scheduled. Berrien County Judge John E. Dewane granted a preliminary injunction halting the vote.

Marcus Muhammad announces candidacy for Mayor. Photo Melanie Yuill Fox 28

The election has Benton Harbor Commissioner Marcus Muhammad challenging current Mayor James Hightower. It was halted after signatures needed to demand a recall, just under 400 were needed, and an outspoken local activist and recall supporter who collected signatures were arrested and charged with voter fraud. Fewer than 40 signatures were challenged.

In a written ruling issued May 1, Judge Dewane determined there was not enough time to sort out the facts prior to the scheduled recall election and granted a request from Berrien County Clerk Sharon J. Tyler to stop the election.

Berrien County Judge John Dewane.

It was also Ms. Tyler who approved the signatures and allowed the recall to originally go forward. The judge decided it was in the “best interests” of Benton Harbor voters and Berrien County’s elected officials to keep the vote from happening

Despite the talk of procedure, signature verifications and eligibility questions, some worry the hold-up isn’t about voters but about who will rule the small majority Black town and challenge the awesome power of giants like the Whirlpool Corp., which is based in Benton Harbor. There have been debates about whether corporations have too much power and too many benefits while giving Benton Harbor’s Black residents little. Meanwhile just across a bridge, literally, sits St. Joseph, a majority White city thriving locality.

A judge’s ruling and questions

“The election is scheduled in five days. I cannot hold a trial to determine the facts before the election. Therefore, Clerk Tyler has requested a preliminary injunction to preserve the status quo pending a determination of the facts. Granting a preliminary injunction is within my sound discretion,” Judge Dewane wrote. “While the alleged altered dates on sheet 38 escaped Clerk Tyler’s detection on initial cursory examination, they now appear to be in some instances obvious.”

Benton Harbor Mayor James Hightower at reception in Whirlpool HQ,

Rev. Edward Pinkney, 65, leads the Black Autonomy Network Community Organization (BANCO) and is an outspoken area activist highly critical of Whirlpool as a corporate interloper he believes exploits the poor. He believes legal hurdles are being erected late time to prevent a recall vote and keep Mr. Muhammad from becoming mayor.

“They want to postpone it indefinitely they figure that their man (Mr. Hightower) doesn’t have a chance. They have even lost faith in their own man,” said Rev. Pinkney. “We had enough signatures, the city clerk verified, the county clerk certified it. So there’s a problem. If the county clerk certified then she should be held accountable that’s how I look at it,” he added.

Mayoral candidate Marcus Muhammad with James Cornelius.

Rev. Pinkney has been charged with five counts of election forgery, each a felony carrying up to five years in prison, and six misdemeanor charges connected with allegedly allowing people to sign more than once.

James Cornelius, listed as the sponsor of the move to recall Mayor Hightower, also faces two misdemeanor charges. Mr. Cornelius is a proud member of BANCO, the organization run by Mr. Pinkney. This is nothing but political harassment, said the 59-year-old. He told The Final Call that Berrien County Sheriffs have questioned him multiple times and he is not afraid of the consequences of being an activist. He does not believe he did anything wrong—even if someone did in fact accidently sign a petition multiple times.

Benton Harbor Mayor James Hightower’s wealthy home in Benton Harbor.

“I’m going to still be out here being a champion for the people, and that’s my job in the community. Everybody’s job should be that, but they’re putting fear in them so they are scared to even do anything. I ain’t scared! I’m a soldier,” said Mr. Cornelius. “The very people trying to work for Mr. Muhammad as far as the election—they are targeting us.”

Shortly after the ruling on May 1, Mr. Muhammad expressed respect for the court decision, but plans to continue to campaign.

“Despite the prevailing circumstances, I’m encouraged and eventually the people will have their day,” said the hometown hero who led Benton Harbor High School’s basketball team to success as a player and coach and hopes to lead his struggling town to progress, as well.

Most of Benton Harbor’s neighborhoods are full of homes like this. It is the city of any size with the highest poverty rate in the country.

Mayor Hightower said he is glad some time is being taken to “sort things out.” He said his inspection of petitions found 190 violations and he wondered why the Benton Harbor City Clerk and the Berrien County Clerk certified the signatures.“In my opinion, they never should have been certified in the first place,” said the incumbent mayor. “To have an election based upon possible fraudulent circumstances would be a travesty for the residents of the city. We have to ensure the integrity of our elections.”

But even he admits, “There’s a disconnect between the state board of elections and the legislators. You can’t give me a list of rules to go by to challenge these petitions and then there’s another set of rules that the clerk goes by to certify them. That doesn’t make sense to me.”

Voter intimidation?

Although there may be questions regarding some of the signatures, it has not come from residents. In fact, some residents felt intimidated by Berrien County Sheriffs who questioned them about signatures.

Helen Jones, who has lived in Benton Harbor for over ten years, said she felt “scared and intimidated” when sheriffs came to her apartment asking her about her signature and “shoving a recorder in my face.”

Evelyn Canaga had the same experience when officials came to question her about her signature.

“I did not like it at all,” said Ms. Canaga. “I got so scared when they approached me,” she added. She said she talked to her neighbor who was also uncomfortable by the presence of the sheriffs mentioning that she might not ever sign anything again. Residents of the small town were looking forward to the May 6 vote to have their voices heard and their feelings known.

Many Benton Harbor residents expressed support for Muhammad over the man currently in office.

Rev. Pinkney gives award to actor Danny Glover at Justice Dinner in Benton Harbor last year.

Joseph Outlaw is 40-years-old and has lived in Benton Harbor all his life. Mr. Outlaw believes the political establishment fears those who want to actually improve conditions. The future depends on making change, not just having rallies and talking about making change, he said. Mr. Outlaw cited that as the reason he supports Mr. Muhammad for mayor.

“He can bring change—they don’t want to change the conversation around this place. They want to keep having something to argue and fight about. He’s fixing to get rid of that arguing and fighting and that’s what they don’t want. They want us to stay at this standstill. He can bring opportunity, he can bring movement,” said Mr. Outlaw. “Right now we are not moving and that’s what they’re scared of. They’re scared of real change.”

Boys and Girls Club of Benton Harbor

John Howard, 40, has lived in Benton Harbor for the last two decades. He was the director of the Boys and Girls Club of Benton Harbor until April 18. He was asked to resign after being photographed at a campaign rally for Mr. Muhammad. Numerous associates of Mr. Howard who knew of his work called him an asset to the community as mentor for youth. He’s unable to go into details about his resignation because of an agreement with the Boys and Girls Club. However he did say leaving the position “was not my choice.”

“In our community we are at a turning point,” said Mr. Howard. “We live in a community that publicly wants some people to stay neutral, and I have never been a neutral person.”

Political opponents targeted?

Mr. Muhammad recently walked throughout the community to smiles and waves, stopped to speak with residents and visited Mr. Pinkney who is under house arrest pending a court appearance.

“Reverend Pinkney has already been persecuted as a political prisoner,” said Mr. Muhammad. “All politics are local and given that he is a strong freedom fighter on a local level, the political attack and persecution is beginning right there. As I have said, he is presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt, but as I see it, the charges are frivolous and trumped up.”

Marcus Muhammad with NOI Minister Louis Farrakhan.

Members of the Nation of Islam from Benton Harbor and Grand Rapids, Mich., as well as community residents, showed support for the outspoken activist. Rev. Pinkney said change and a new direction is needed. The current mayor only cares about himself and his personal needs, he added.

Mayor Hightower’s goals are more aligned with corporate interests than the needs and desires of those in the community, he continued.

“I think where Hightower is leading us is towards failure for the residents of Benton Harbor, not for Whirlpool Corporation, not for Lakeland Hospital—because those are the people he supports—I’m thinking about the residents, the people that’s on the ground, the people that live here, the people that are unemployed, those are my concerns,” said Rev. Pinkney.

Youth of Benton Harbor take part in May 26, 2012 march against PGA and Whirlpool.

“We can’t wait. Black people always wait. We wait so long for everything and we never get it. Next year I might be gone I might be deceased, anything could happen. I think the time is now,” said Rev. Pinkney. “I think we need a change and I think Marcus Muhammad is the man to be in there as mayor.”

Rev. Pinkney denies knowingly allowing people to sign a recall petition more than once. If it happened, it was an administrative or clerical error and not done with intent to deceive, he added.

“If you sign twice the signature becomes null and void, so that would have been defeating my whole purpose of being out there,” the activist said.

Joseph Taylor, the Benton Harbor Area School Board treasurer, was one of those who also met with Rev. Pinkney and supports Mr. Muhammad for mayor. He describes the state of affairs in Benton Harbor as “chaotic.”

Slavesmaster Rick Snyder goes after Michigan’s Black cities, schools.

“The future of Benton Harbor is gentrification, which is going on all across America,” said Mr. Taylor.

Emergency financial managers have been placed in control of several cities in Michigan, including Benton Harbor, Detroit and Flint, and the voters have been disenfranchised, said Mr. Taylor. All of the cities have large or majority Black populations. What is happening now with the corporate takeover of Benton Harbor has been years in the making, he said. Those corporate interests have taken precedence over the needs of the people, he added.

Mr. Muhammad believes the political attack against Rev. Pinkney and other supporters is aimed at stopping a political awakening taking place in Benton Harbor largely due to his mayoral campaign.

“The former director of the Central Intelligence Agency said every time there is an assassination there is a cover story, and the cover story only covers or camouflages the real story,” said Mr. Muhammad. “The real story in this case was to stop the election because in all of the polls and in all the predictions, they had Marcus Muhammad becoming the next mayor of a city that just had nearly $600 million in corporate and private dollars invested. Big money and big business would have a hard time at the bargaining table with an administration that is not favorable to their desires,” he said.

Rev. Edward Pinkney at conclusion of May 7, 2011 March against Snyder fascist takeover of Michigan.

Previous related VOD article:

http://voiceofdetroit.net/2014/04/26/free-rev-edward-pinkney-recall-whirlpool-stooge-benton-harbor-mayor-james-hightower/

Supporters of the McGruder/Simmons family protested earlier outside family court. Tamikia McGruder is top left, Arthur Simmons top right. Cornell Squires is top center, other CPS victims Helen and Debbie Williams hold banner.

Atjamino Simmons placed with white suburban couple at 2 months old

 Referee Mona Youssef further delays return of McGruder/Simmons children  

One child attempted suicide, claims sexual abuse in foster care

Children being forcibly medicated with psychotropic drugs 

By Diane Bukowski 

May 4, 2014 

Atjamino Simmons, taken from her grandmother at two months old.

DETROIT – Wayne County Family Court Referee Mona Youssef delayed the return of the six children of Tamikia McGruder and Arthur Simmons during a hearing April 28, despite evidence of severe harm they have experienced during the supervision of Child Protective Services (CPS), and of the literal CPS kidnapping of their baby Atjamino.

Youssef set a new hearing date for July 28, although the parents’ attorneys called for the immediate return of the children, particularly baby Atjamino, or at the very least for an earlier hearing.

Atjamino Jakiaanti Simmons, born Dec. 22, 2013, was evidently illegally taken  from her paternal grandmother’s home by CPS worker Willie Campbell on Feb. 25, 2014, according to court documents. An order by Referee Nicolas J. Bobak dated Feb. 6, 2014 placed the baby with her paternal grandmother, Doris Davis. (See order below.)

“Atjamino’s grandmother told the worker she wanted the baby back,” Ms. McGruder told VOD. “But Mr. Campbell told her it was too late in the process and it had already been done in the courts. There is no court order to take my baby and put her in foster care. She is with a white couple in Oakland County who have other foster children. When I have visited her at the Children’s Center, I saw rashes on her chest and in her vaginal area, plus I saw cat hairs in her diaper bag.”

Tamikia McGruder shows cell phone photo of Atjamino.

She said she doesn’t even have the couple’s last name or address.Below is an affidavit signed by grandmother Doras Davis swearing that she had informed CPS she wants her grandchildren and that CPS removed baby Atjamino from her home on Feb. 25, 2014 without a court order. A message was left with CPS Investigor Willie Campbell May 6, 2014 for his response to these allegations, but he had not returned the call before press time.

Samantha Burks, referred to in the affidavit, is the family’s CPS foster care worker, who also testified in court. She did not explain why Atjamino was taken.

According to court documents, a referee ruled last year that Ms. McGruder and Mr. Simmons should be allowed unsupervised visits with their children, but CPS never complied. The couple has seen their children only at the offices of the DHS on Hamilton in Highland Park and the Children’s Center, with CPS workers and foster parents always present.

Arthur Simmons, Jr. holds child during DHS visit, after the little boy ran outside crying, “DADDY, DADDY!”

Referee Youssef ruled that Ms. McGruder would have to wait four weeks before seeing her children in unsupervised visits, while Mr. Simmons would have to wait eight weeks. She conditioned the visits on orders that the couple undergo psychiatric evaluations. There is no medical documentation from qualified medical doctors or psychiatrists in CPS records that the parents have any psychiatric disorders.

Referee Youssef did admit a sworn statement from the parents, handwritten letters from Ms. McGruder, and photos of their newly-rented, immaculate three-bedroom ranch home into evidence at the request of Ms. McGruder’s attorney Ray McDonald. Both parents testified on the stand for the first time since their children were taken May 30, 2013.

Despite Burks’ depiction during her testimony of Arthur Simmons as belligerent and uncooperative, he was calm and forthright during his testimony.

Simmons said he is the biological father of four of the children and has helped care for and loves the others. He said he has told Burks several times that he is complying with CPS requirements to see a counselor.

“I did refuse to sign the treatment plan regarding medication for my children and myself,” Simmons said. “I was in prison for a time during which they put me on 17 different medications [including Risperdal which caused severe enlargement of his breasts]. When I came home, I weaned myself off all the medications. I didn’t want my children treated like that.”

Timothy Searcy outside courthouse during previous hearing.

The couple’s 12-year-old son was taking Risperdal, which can also cause depression and suicidal ideation, while under CPS supervision, until he tried to hang himself in October and was removed from foster father Timothy Searcy’s home.

“I planned for Atjamino ever since 2006, when I named her,” Simmons testified. “There is no valid reason why we don’t have her now. This was the baby that was going to change my life.”

Simmons said he was incarcerated in 2006 when he planned for Atjamino, but was looking forward to returning home to Ms. McGruder and continuing their family. He said he had not visited the baby since she was seized from his mother’s home because he was told his visits might endanger the return of the infant.

“I have never been diagnosed with a mental illness by a professional doctor,” Simmons testified. “But everyone at the DHS office thinks I need to be on medication. I told [CPS worker] Desiree Johnson that they TRIED to diagnose me at the prison with schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, but I have not yet had any doctor diagnose that.”

The family’s file is replete with references to “undiagnosed mental health illnesses” and NOS (“not otherwise specified”) psychological disorders with respect to the parents. But the only documentation of these assessments is from CPS and foster care workers who are not licensed physicians or psychiatrists.

Family Court Referee Mona Youssef has three young children herself. She was also the referee in the case of the Louis and Cecilia Espinosa family (links to previous VOD stories below).

Ms. McGruder then took the stand, also calm and firm in her testimony. Despite some of its shocking character, which included one son’s suicide attempts, allegations of sexual abuse by his foster father, and Ms. McGruder’s temporary death during the Caesarian delivery of Atjamino, the many social workers lining the courtroom wall barely reacted.

Instead, during a break, several laughed and joked with each other. One was heard repeatedly saying during the parents’ testimony under her breath,“That’s a lie.” Another jumped up from the audience and loudly objected to admission of the parents’ written statement before Referee Youssef told her she was out of order and admitted the statement at the request of Attorney McDonald.

Ms. McGruder said she is opposed to the entire family being on psychotropic medications as implied in a recent treatment plan.

“If everybody in the family is on medications, who is going to take care of us?” she said.

“When I was younger in foster care, they had me on medications but as an adult I have never been prescribed any psychotropic medications,” Ms. McGruder said. She added that her placement on the CPS central registry caused her to lose her job as a home care worker with the responsibility of giving medications.

Ms. McGruder is described in some CPS records as “slow,” so many who read her handwritten notes and letters sent to former Referee David Perkins and DHS Executive Director Maura Corrigan appeared surprised. All the letters are well-written and very expressive of her concerns for her children and her desire to have them returned.

Both Ms. McGruder and Mr. Simmons keep extensive documentation from the courts and CPS regarding their family’s time with CPS.

Tamikia McGruder with one of her four sons at visit held at DHS offices on Hamilton.

“My children were never hospitalized for psychiatric reasons when they were with me, and they were never on medications,” Ms. McGruder said. “I’m opposed to [two sons] being on medications. [One son’s] arms look swollen like they are about to pop off his body. I need way more information about that medication. [Another son] was on Risperdal and I have seen many TV commercials about what that does to children, so I wouldn’t give it to him when he was with me and they told me that constituted neglect.”

After CPS removed the children that child was administered the drug by his new caregivers. [The older children’s names are not being used in this story to avoid any detrimental effects in their social circles.]

Ms. McGruder continued, “[That son] never hung himself while he was in my care, but since then he has tried to hang himself four times. He accused his foster father of sexually inappropriate touching, and I told Ms. Burks but nothing was done.” The family has since filed a police complaint regarding those allegations. The suicide attempts have been documented in hospital records.

Cornell Squires (r) with his friend, the late Mayor of Jackson, MS. Chokwe Lumumba.

Cornell Squires, a paralegal with the advocacy group We the People for the People, said Ms. McGruder’s allegations during the hearing of sexual abuse of her son should have immediately occasioned investigative action by the court, but Ref. Youssef appeared non-responsive.

“Professionals are required to report such allegations to the police,” Squires said, “or they can be held liable.”

Ms. McGruder said she had signed a treatment plan at the beginning of the family’s involvement with CPS and was told her children would be returned if she completed its requirements. She said she fully finished all the requirements including family counseling, parenting classes, and visits with her children.

Two of Tamikia and Arthur’s other sons during visit at DHS offices.

In response to CPS worker Burks’ allegations that she missed some visits, Ms. McGruder said that she had a Caesarian delivery of her baby in December and “died on the table.” She said she had to be resuscitated. She said she sometimes missed appointments due to the extreme lateness of bus transportation, but that she loves her children, has bonded with Atjamino, and is ready for them to come home.

She testified that the family has rented a beautiful new three-bedroom home which just passed inspection by Ms. Burks and Sherry Howard. Photographs of the home were included in the package admitted into evidence.

Attorney McDonald said, “The record is clear that [Ms. McGruder] has completed all different components of the treatment plan. The presumption is that she benefited from these. She is not an abuser in this case. To lose custody of her newborn baby right after birth has left her very distraught and frustrated. It seems like the system comes up with something additional every time. It’s never-ending. Ms. McGruder is desirous and willing to take her children home. It’s detrimental for Atjamino to be away from her mother. I am asking the court to return the children, or at the very least the baby, and to order that meanwhile unsupervised visits including overnight take place.”

His plea and that of Simmons’ attorney, however, apparently fell on deaf ears for the time being. Meanwhile, Ms. McGruder and Mr. Simmons say they yearn every day for the return of their children to their loving arms.

Tamikia McGruder and Arthur Simmons show crib and supplies ready for their baby Atjamino.

(VOD: The McGruder/Simmons story typifies literally thousands of cases across the country and even the world, due to the financial connections among the state, juvenile courts, foster care agencies, foster parents, and drug companies, all of whom profit from federal funding for every child seized from his/her family.  

The defiant stand of Maryanne Godboldo against the police seizure of her daughter in 2011 brought much of this to light locally. Agencies and websites across the U.S. are increasingly coming forward to document similar criminal abuse of children by the system, particularly in poor communities and those of color. See story coming on the situation of Debbie Williams, shown in photo at top of this article.)

Related articles on Espinoza case handled by Referee Mona Yousseff:

http://voiceofdetroit.net/2011/08/24/referee-youssef-orders-mother-from-home-after-cps-claims-5-children-suffer/

http://voiceofdetroit.net/2011/10/09/%E2%80%9Ci-want-my-mother-to-come-home-espinoza-trial-continues-oct-14-10-a-m/

http://voiceofdetroit.net/2011/08/03/espinoza-family-fights-for-their-five-young-children/

http://voiceofdetroit.net/2011/07/26/amber-alert-save-espinoza-family-from-cps/

Previous articles on McGruder/Simmons family:

http://voiceofdetroit.net/2014/03/26/12-year-old-child-hangs-himself-after-rubber-stamped-cps-seizure-from-family-prescription-of-drug-risperdal/

http://voiceofdetroit.net/2014/04/14/mcgrudersimmons-family-wins-cps-court-adjournment-until-mon-april-28-files-sex-crimes-report-with-police/

VIDEO BELOW COURTESY OF DEBBIE WILLIAMS

Councilwoman Emeritus JoAnn Watson speaks at May Day rally with “VOTE NO” on Plan of Adjustment banner behind her.

 Demand this case be heard ASAP by the U.S. Sixth Circuit Court

Judges Rhodes has compromised his authority

 From: City Employees 

Subject: Supporters Filing Lawsuits on our Behalf Date: Sun, 4 May 2014 19:17:28 -0400 

The American Association of Retired Persons (AARP) has filed a lawsuit along with the California Public Employees Retirement System (CALPERS), National Conference on Public Employee Retirement Systems and the Texas Association of Public Employees Retirement Systems in support of the appellants [Detroit retiree systems and groups, and unions] and in support of the reversal of the decision.

To read briefs of the three organizations, click on AARP Amicus-brief-Detroit-bankruptcy-appeal; DB 6th CalPERS ab 2.CV01 and DB 6th ab Natl Conf PERS_3 compressed.

Protesters demand end to emergency management May 1, 2014 in Grand Circus Park.

I am not for certain since I am not an attorney, but I am fearful that these [Plan of Adjustment] agreements being drawn up behind closed doors can hinder us. Why are the mediators pushing everything on the fast track? Could they be fearful of their decisions being overturned?If I am right today I will be right tomorrow and next week. If I am wrong and stand a chance of decisions being overturned I have got to move as fast as possible to dodge the bullet. If I am reaching any attorneys and you have knowledge of how this fast tracking and agreeing may affect us please e-mail me at mcclellancr@netzero.net .

The definition of amicus curiae—- a brief presented by someone interested in influencing the outcome of a lawsuit but who is not a party to the lawsuit.

Thank you for your time and please pass the word along.

AARP files amicus brief in Detroit bankrutpcy case

By Mark Hornbeck | AARP Michigan

April 30, 2014

Jacqueline Morrison, AARP Michigan State Director

AARP filed an amicus brief late this afternoon with the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals in each of seven appeals filed in the Detroit bankruptcy case, according to AARP Michigan State Director Jacqueline Morrison.

The decision of Michigan voters to protect the pensions of state and local government employees through their ratification of the 1963 State Constitution is supported by the AARP brief.

The brief provides context for the legal decision in terms of the case’s impact on the lives of retirees.

AARP’s brief discusses the economic implications of the proposed benefit reductions on City of Detroit workers and retirees, as well as on the City of Detroit itself.

Specifically, the brief notes that through reductions in retiree benefits and cost of living adjustments, the amount of income that retirees receive will be diminished. At the same time, retirees will face a significant increase in their health care costs. This creates a recipe for drastically reducing the standard of living of a median income retiree to an income that in many instances will fall below the poverty level.

See more at: http://states.aarp.org/aarp-files-amicus-brief-in-detroit-bankrutpcy-case/#sthash.tkcBVIgw.dpuf

[The CalPERS and National Conference briefs are discussed in detail in Voice of Detroit’s story below, at http://voiceofdetroit.net/2014/05/03/no-detroit-bankruptcy-deal-may-day-marchers-block-detroit-streets-banks-natl-retiree-systems-blast-rhodes/]

Marchers blockade Jefferson Avenue in downtown Detroit May Day, 2014.

 Marchers demand no sell-out by unions, pension systems in secret talks

By Diane Bukowski

 May 2, 2014

 DETROIT – As “retiree groups” allegedly began caving in to a Detroit bankruptcy deal, thousands of marchers, largely city retirees, blocked traffic downtown and invaded the corridors of Chase Bank and Emergency Manager Kevyn Orr’s residence May 1. They chanted, “No Pensions, No Peace,” “Show Orr the Door,” and called on retirees to VOTE NO on any deal.

City retiree Ezza Brandon addresses rally at Hart Plaza, as school board member Elena Herrada (to her left) and others listen.

“May Day! May Day!” cried city retiree Ezza Brandon, who co-chaired a kick-off rally at Hart Plaza with Abayomi Azikiwe of the Moratorium NOW! Coalition.

Jan Kruszewski condemns banks including UBS.

“What happened to our rights under the state Constitution?” Brandon asked. “They want retirees to take pension cuts of 4.5 percent, then go back 10 years for another 28 to 29 percent from our annuities, while the banks get 75 to 100 cents on the dollar. Their wasteful spending on consultants is only eclipsed by their brutal attacks on our seniors. Vote NO on the Plan of Adjustment!”

Protester Jan Kruszewski said, “[Detroit creditor] UBS has been found guilty of $1.5 billion worth of municipal fraud, along with many other banks. They should be thrown in jail, not bailed out.” Another speaker pointed out that Vietnam recently sentenced criminal bankers to death.

The marchers, representing a broad spectrum of grass-roots and national community, legal and religious groups, started the day with an “Ecumenical Unity Breakfast” at UAW Local 600’s Dearborn headquarters, then caravanned downtown to Hart Plaza.

Abayomi Azikiwe leads off Hart Plaza rally.

CalPERS, Nat’l Retirement Conference sue to support Detroit retirees

The same day, the California Public Employees Retirement System (CalPERS), the world’s largest pension system, and The National Conference on Public Employee Retirement Systems filed scathing critiques of U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Steven Rhodes’ eligibility decision in the U.S. Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals.

Judge Rhodes (center) chaired one-sided forum on Chapter 9 and EM’s on Oct. 10, 2012 with (l to r), Treasury Dept. rep. Frederick Headen, who has led many takeovers; Edward Plawecki, EM trainers Douglas Bernstein and Judy O’Neill (also a co-drafter of PA 4), and accountant Charles Moore of Conway McKenzie, a major witness for Orr at bankruptcy trial.

Their amicus briefs, supporting appeals by Detroit’s retirement systems and unions, said Rhodes’ ruling essentially makes Chapter 9 bankruptcy illegal under the U.S. Constitution, and called for its immediate reversal. The suits constituted the first concrete, substantial national showing of support for Detroiters under attack.

Workers wear May Day T-shirts at rally.

If unions and “retiree groups” participating in ongoing secret mediation sessions on the Detroit bankruptcy agree to a deal, they would have to withdraw the Sixth Circuit appeals and forego that support. They would also have to deny that the Michigan Constitution firmly guarantees public employee pensions under Article 9, Sec. 24, a key issue in the amicus filings. (More on these briefs at conclusion of this story.)

Meanwhile, U.S. District Judge George Caram Steeh is hearing a class action suit challenging the constitutionality of Public Act 436, the Emergency Manager law which was used to declare Detroit bankrupt. (See separate story to come.)

Hart Plaza rally – “Detroit is Ground Zero”

Councilwoman Emeritus JoAnn Watson speaks.

“We have the right to democratic and constitutional rule, and to have our unions protected,” Detroit City Councilwoman Emeritus JoAnn Watson told the Hart Plaza rally. “Our children are being assaulted under EM rule, even though 2.3 million Michigan residents voted NO to emergency managers.”

Elena Herrada, a Detroit School Board member in exile while EM Jack Martin runs the Detroit Public Schools, said Mayor Mike Duggan plans to snatch DPS up under his rule.

Cecily McClellan of Concerned Citizens and Retirees.

“Evict Kevyn Orr from OUR building, the Coleman A. Young Center,” Jerry Cullens of Detroit Eviction Defense (DED) demanded. He said he joined DED when they mobilized dozens against the police to stop the eviction of his family from their home, one of tens of thousands of evictions which have devastated Detroit and suburban neighborhoods.

Cecily McClellan of the Detroit Concerned Citizens and Retirees was forced to retire when the city shut down its Human Services, Health and Workforce Development Departments, all nearly 100 percent federally funded.

“Detroit is Ground Zero in this national attack orchestrated by the Koch Brothers and ALEC,” McClellan said.“It’s based on divide and conquer, just like the whole country was, because Detroit is mostly Black. The retirement systems are worth $6 billion that they want so they can skim their money off the top. It’s about a wealth transfer by the super ungodly rich.”

ALEC is the powerful, corporate-funded American Legislative Exchange Council, which holds secret meetings involving corporations and state legislators who draft ‘model bills’ to benefit corporate profits at public expense.

Youth from FIST and Good Jobs Now were part of the rally.

Boycott churches if they don’t join fight to save Detroit

Rev. Ed Rowe of Central United Methodist Church fired up the crowd, striding back and forth as he declared, “I don’t live in a bankrupt city; I live in a city that is run by a morally, spiritually and physically bankrupt system.”

Pastor Ed Rowe of Central United Methodist Church.

He called on protesters to get their ministers and pastors to throw the full weight of their churches against the assault on Detroit, or to cease attending and funding those churches.

Representing Detroit youth, Demeeko Williams of Detroiters Resisting Emergency Management (D-REM), said, “They want to take away our rights and jobs and throw us in prison. We’ve got to take our city back! Take back Belle Isle!”

Demeeko Williams points to CAYMC — That building belongs to us!

Since EM Orr gave the State of Michigan an open-ended, unpaid “lease” on the island in February, state troopers have shown an increasingly aggressive presence there. The arrests of over 200 largely Black males so far have been reported. Meanwhile, a huge blue State Police prisoner bus stands in the parking lot of the island’s casino.

A representative also spoke on behalf of undocumented workers in Detroit, who daily face mass deportations facilitated by police, sheriffs and the U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) division.

Marchers block streets, occupy Chase Bank, Orr’s home at Book Cadillac

A well-orchestrated campaign of civil disobedience then took off. (See photo at top of story.)

Marchers head down Woodward toward Chase Bank.

 Protesters moved out onto Jefferson Avenue, spreading their banners and signs across its entire southern width. Although one Detroit police officer tried to get a driver to run down a marcher, law enforcement eventually backed off and re-routed incoming traffic from the John Lodge freeway.

“Ain’t no confusion, pensions are in the constitution,” marchers chanted. “Hey Judge Rhodes, our rights won’t be sold. Bail out Detroit, not the banks!”

The blockade continued for half an hour as police sirens wailed. Then marchers turned down Woodward, blocking that street as they headed for Chase Bank’s Detroit headquarters. Without pause, they invaded the broad marble lobby of the bank, carrying their banners and picket signs and loudly chanting.

Marchers pack lobby of Chase Bank, which has been sued many times for fraudulent lending and eviction practices.

Eventually, the entire lobby was filled with demonstrators as bank security guards locked doors into the teller area and stood back, unsure what to do.

The street blockaders then took off down Fort to the Westin Book-Cadillac hotel at Washington Blvd. Here EM Kevyn Orr lives in a luxury suite paid for by Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder, while selling off and privatizing Detroit assets including the Detroit Water and Sewerage, Public Works, and Public Lighting Departments, the Detroit Institute of Arts, and Belle Isle.

Marchers pack lobby of Westin Book Cadillac, where Orr resides.

Here and in the city’s own offices, Orr consults with the partners of Jones Day, his allegedly “former” law firm which along with Miller Canfield, Ernst & Young, Conway McMenzie and   /Stiffel have presented themselves as the legal representatives of the City of Detroit in bankruptcy proceedings.

Marchers crowded outside, then proceeded straight through the doors of the hotel, packing the entire circular lobby with signs raised, chanting “Not one penny, not one dime, stealing pensions is a crime!” and “No more Orr—show him the door!”

Marchers leave Book Cadillac triumphantly.

Despite some shoving by hotel security, no one was arrested, and the crowd emerged triumphant at the end.

“Dan Gilbert—shame on you! Housing is a right!”

The blockade proceeded down Washington Blvd. to Capitol Park, which billionaire racist Dan Gilbert, owner of the Cleveland Cavaliers, the Greektown Casino, and swaths of downtown Detroit property, is seeking to turn into a residential and playground area for well-to-do whites.

Marchers pass Griswold Apts. in Capitol Park.

Developers associated with Gilbert are evicting over 180 senior, disabled and largely Black Section 8 residents of the Griswold Apartments, many of whom have lived there for up to 30 years in beautiful large apartments with stunning views of downtown Detroit.

Dan Gilbert/LeBron James

Gilbert infamously excoriated Miami Heat basketball star LeBron James for leaving the Cavaliers, comments which many civil rights leaders took as plantation-owner treatment of Cavaliers basketball players.

Ironically, Gilbert has since condemned L.A. Clippers owner Donald Sterling for his recent similarly racist rant. In a statement, Gilbert’s office said, “The diverse staff members of the Cleveland Cavaliers franchise are unified in encouraging commissioner Silver and the NBA to respond with swift and appropriate action consistent with a strong zero tolerance approach to this type of reprehensible behavior.”

The Albert’s new multi-racial ad.

VOD earlier raised complaints about picture window sized ads for “The Albert,” the new name for the complex, which depicted all white residents and patrons, a violation of the U.S. Fair Housing Act. Ironically, the developers have redone the ads to show multi-racial residents, at the same time they are forcing multi-racial long-time tenants out.

Griswold Apartments, LLC, the alleged developer, received a 10-year tax break from the Detroit City Council last November after Ted Phillips of the United Community Housing Coalition assured the Council that his group would find other non-downtown placements for the tenants.

As they passed the Griswold Apartments, marchers chanted, “Shut down Capitol Park, shut down GM! May Day every day! Occupy the USA!”

Marchers block streets in front of Federal courthouse on W. Lafayette.

Marchers then took Shelby to Fort Street to block traffic outside the Federal Courthouse on W. Lafayette where bankruptcy proceedings are being held, for an extended period of time.

Cops try to block marchers’ exit off Fort St.

The marchers spread across the street while police, taken off guard by the winding nature of the march, rushed cruisers and mounted cops over to the scene, seeking to block the demonstrators’ exit at the west end of Fort.However, the march adroitly snaked through an opening and re-took the streets, proceeding back to Woodward Ave.

Marchers foil cops’ blockade.

Back down Woodward to rally at Hazen Pingree statue

The marchers resumed their journey to Woodward Avenue, where their full numbers could be seen. Black, white, young, old, babies, seniors, retirees and their supporters, they demanded to know, “Land of the Free? Where’s our democracy?” and “Make the Banks Pay!”

Babies and youth take the march back down Woodward.

They appropriately concluded their downtown occupation at the feet of the statue of former Detroit Mayor Hazen Pingree, which bears a plaque calling him the “people’s mayor.” It says, “He was the first to warn the people of the great danger threatened by private corporations.”

Plaque on statue of “people’s mayor” Hazen Pingree.

After the 1891 “Trolley Car Riot,” Pingree helped establish the public sector in Detroit, including the Detroit Street Railways (DSR), meant to be just that, the Public Lighting Department, originally meant to power all city residences, and Detroit Receiving Hospital, which remained public until it was taken over in 1980 by the Detroit Medical Center. With current Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan at the helm of the DMC, it became part of a for-profit hedge-funded corporation.

Marchers from the National Action Network cheer as Rev. Chas. Williams II speaks.

The Rev. Charles Williams, Michigan coordinator of the National Action Network, addressed the group, among others.

“Fifty years ago, your people and activists from across the country left their homes to fight for voting rights in the South,” Williams recalled. “But here we are 50 years later still fighting to protect the voting rights of people in Michigan and in Detroit. We are going to continue to protest and march in the spirit of civil disobedience, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., SNCC and the SCLC. You ain’t seen nothing yet!”

Undefatigable activist Monica Lewis Patrick said, “This is all about you and your children, to make sure that they have pensions too. Don’t give in to the tyranny of austerity. The financial crisis was manufactured by the banks. Most of you have been on the front lines for a long time, resisting, unifying, fighting back. Don’t you back up! This is the beginning, not the end. We still have not put all our feet on the ground. Go out in the neighborhoods, talk to your families, your friends and your neighbors. Many of them don’t know, and they don’t know that they don’t know.”

Some groups who organized march with contact info and meeting times:

Moratorium NOW! and Stop the Theft of Our Pensions: Phone: 313-680-5508  http://moratorium-mi.org/ Meets every Monday night at 7 p.m. at 5920 Second Avenue, Detroit, MI

Detroit Concerned Citizens and Retirees: Phone 313-444-0061; Meets Mondays at 11 a.m. at N’namdi’s, 12511 Woodward Ave. Highland Park, MI

National Action Network, Detroit Chapter: http://nationalactionnetwork.net/chapter/nan-detroit-chapter-51013/  Meets every Saturday at 10 a.m. at Historic King Solomon Baptist Church,  6100 14th St, Detroit, MI 48208. (313) 355-2150

Detroit Eviction Defense: Ask for Eviction Defense at  (313) 429-5009 http://detroitevictiondefense.org/ Meets every Thursday, 6 p.m. Old St John’s Church, 2120 Russell near Eastern Market Detroit

Uniting Detroiters: www.unitingdetroiters.org

Michigan Welfare Rights Organization: www.mwro.org

Monica Patrick speaks at concluding rally.

NAT’L RETIREMENT SYSTEMS BLAST JUDGE RHODES’ RULINGS, FILE SUIT IN SIXTH CIRCUIT TO SUPPORT DETROITERS

 Retirement systems say Rhodes ruling would make Chapter 9 itself unconstitutional 

Rush to bankruptcy exit must be opposed by Detroit unions, retiree groups as national support grows

By Diane Bukowski 

May 2, 2013

Click on DB 6th CalPERS ab 2.CV01 and DB 6th ab Natl Conf PERS_3 compressed to read complete briefs from CalPERS, NCPERS

DWSD worker and union official Laketa Thomas (l) at rally in Detroit May 1.

DETROIT – Representing the first national support of substance for Detroit retirees and residents, the California Public Employees Retirement System (CalPERS), and The National Conference on Public Employee Retirement Systems filed amicus briefs May 1 in the U.S. Sixth Circuit Court to support Detroit retirees and residents in their battle against bankruptcy and pension theft.

Michigan’s state constitutional protection of public employee pensions is central to the arguments of both groups in demanding reversal of U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Steven Rhodes’ ruling that Detroit is eligible for Chapter 9 bankruptcy and can cut pensions.

“The California Public Employees’ Retirement System (“CalPERS”) is the largest State-run pension system in the United States, and one of the largest sovereign pension funds in the world. . . .” says CalPERS in its 64-page brief. “It currently administers the pensions for nearly 1.7 million current and former public employees, who are drawn from over 3000 California public employers. It has been involved in at least five chapter 9 bankruptcies in California, and is currently involved in the second and third largest municipal bankruptcies in United States history–the cities of Stockton and San Bernardino.”

Protesters begin civil disobedience in downtown Detroit, blockading Jefferson Avenue.

CalPERS, through its attorneys from K & L Gates, LLP, said that Rhodes’ decision, which authorized state officials to raid Detroit pensions, “ . . . .was the first of its kind, determining that a municipality can impair the rights of a public pension system in bankruptcy despite express State law prohibitions to the contrary.”

It notes that Rhodes’ ruling is relevant to all public pension systems nationally because it “can be misconstrued for the broad proposition that all pensions are subject to impairment under Chapter 9.” At least 24 states have provisions protecting public pensions.

Detroit protesters: system is bankrupt.

The CalPERS suit says Section 903 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code “expressly preserves a State’s laws governing its creatures [i.e. municipalities] notwithstanding the filing of a chapter 9 petition. . . .the court misconstrued the Tenth Amendment and the limitations it places on a State’s ability to “consent” to violations of State laws and constitutional provisions.”

It says Rhodes’ interpretation of Section 903 would make the very existence of Chapter 9 federally unconstitutional.

“In essence, the bankruptcy court decided a constitutional question, not because it was unavoidable, but because it believed that putting the issue behind it would facilitate negotiations and the administration of the case. This was not appropriate,” said CalPERS.

The brief also questioned whether the Detroit’s “good faith” requirements were met in filing bankruptcy. “ . . . . the eligibility requirements, including good faith, must have real meaning and force,” CalPERS asserts.

Detroit protesters take Shelby to federal courthouse.

It says further, “Congress envisioned that municipal debtors would come to bankruptcy with clean hands by expressly including a good faith filing requirement. Here, despite the fact that the bankruptcy court acknowledged there is “some substantial truth” in the claim that the City did not file in good faith . . . .it nonetheless concluded that the objectors had not overcome the extra-statutory “strong presumption” of a good faith filing. Exactly what the result would have been had the court not improperly injected its own notions of Congress’s purposes into the analysis is unknown, but this Court [i.e. the Sixth Circuit] should review this finding with a ‘jaded eye.'”

Detroit protestor: Orr speaks with Snyder tongue.

Opponents of the bankruptcy have argued that the Jones Day law firm and others planned the raid on the city’s pension systems as early as 2011, using Chapter 9 to circumvent state law. Detroit EM Kevyn Orr himself boasted, “Federal law trumps state law.” His “former” law firm, Jones Day, authored a “white paper” in 2011 laying out its plan for using Chapter 9 to attack public pensions, and has since gone on to use that plan to effect a takeover of Puerto Rico’s systems.

Judge Rhodes himself chaired a one-sided forum on Chapter 9 and Emergency Managers on Oct. 10, 2012, which included proponents of emergency manager rule as well as a chief witness for EM Kevyn Orr in the bankruptcy case. He did not disclose his participation. When challenged, he refused to recuse himself because of it.

The brief notes that municipalities are not merely “creatures of the state,” as Orr and his advisors contend ad nauseum, but that individuals residing in municipalities are protected by the Tenth Amendment as well.

Detroit marchers with their babies take Woodward Ave.

“Because federalism’s protections are not designed solely to protect the States alone, those rights cannot be consented away by the State,” CalPERS says. “How can a State give something away that it does not solely possess? The answer is: It cannot. It is far too simplistic to say that Michigan, or any other State, by authorizing one of its creatures to file for chapter 9, consented away the enforcement of State statutory and constitutional law protecting individuals to benefit a single, financially distressed municipality.”

The National Conference on Public Employment Retirement Systems (NCPERS), with the Texas Association of Public Retiree Employment Systems, filed the second brief of 19 pages through Tarcza & Associates, based in New Orleans, LA.

Protester with SnydOrr mask.

In addition to points made in the CalPERS brief, it condemns the use of an unelected emergency manager, and cites the vital importance of public retiree pensions to the health of state and national economies, as well as to that of the stock market.

“In this particular case, the bankruptcy court has given unprecedented power to an un-elected government official, the Emergency Manager for the City of Detroit,” says the NCPERS brief. “When Michigan voters inserted Article IX, Sec. 24 into their constitution, they could not in their wildest dreams have imaged than an un-elected government official could use the federal bankruptcy process to override the will of the people.”

The brief goes on, “According to the United States Census Bureau, there are more than twenty million working and retired state and local government employees in the United States. Retired public employees live in virtually every city and town in the nation. Nationally, state and local pensions support 2.9 million jobs and $443 billion in economic activity. In Michigan alone, 301,626 residents received $5.9 billion in pension benefits from state and local plans in 2009.”

Protester on bicycle.

NCPERS says that public pension plans hold “more than $3 trillion in assets.”

“These payments . . . .provide a robust economic stimulus to local economies throughout the nation . . . .In Michigan, it is estimated that the economic impact of state and local pensions accounted for 72,000 jobs and contr200ibuted $9.2 billion to the state economy in 2009. . . .Likewise, the assets of these plans are an important source of liquidity and stability for the nation’s financial markets. . . .Public pension plans account for over 1/6 of the ownership of the U.S. stock market. Creating instability within these funds would have a ripple effect on the entire U.S. economy.”

March extended all the way down Woodward Avenue.

_________________________________________________________

By Monica Lewis Patrick

April 29, 2014

Monica Lewis Patrick, former City Council candidate, is interviewed at rally to save Belle Isle Aug. 1, 2012

Please share this information with persons that you would personally recommend for employment! This is an opportunity to prepare our Youth, Returning Citizens, the Unemployed and the Underemployed for upcoming employment opportunities in Detroit.It is urgent that you inform your candidate that a drug screen is required, please do not apply if they cannot pass the test at this time. We the People of Detroit is committed to holding the Federal Government, State and Local government responsible for the distribution of funding for the purpose of training, employing and contracting with the Citizens of Detroit!

A HUD Section 3 Plan can be demanded to create the mechanism for creating jobs that we so desperately need and deserve, but we must have capable, trained, willing and determined candidates! They are hoping that we cannot get candidates to enter the program and they truly don’t expect them to succeed and achieve! Let’s prove them wrong!

Thank you for your service to the Citizens of Detroit!

Monica
Monica Lewis-Patrick, M.A.L.S.
We the People of Detroit
313-530-0054

wethepeopleofdetroit@gmail.com

By Andrea Nicolas

7News Adelaide (Australia)

April 28, 2014, 6:31 pm

https://au.news.yahoo.com/sa/a/23036893/exploration-company-believes-it-may-have-found-mh370/

Author Deborah Dupre, Human Rights Examiner

VOD Editor’s Note: VOD featured an earlier story from Examiner.com by  Deborah Dupre which appears to tie this recent discovery to an earlier hypothesis. That story said Flight MH370 crashed as it tried to land at the Pulau Langkawi Airport off the Straits of Malacca, not thousands of miles away from its original destination. According to this latest story, after the crew passed out, the plane may have continued past Pulau Langkawi on autopilot to what GeoRenosance says it believes to be the crash site in the nearby Bay of Bengal.

FIRST ON 7: An Adelaide-based exploration company believes it may have located the wreckage of Malaysia Airlines flight MH370, 5000km away from where authorities have been looking.

The company, GeoResonance, says its research has identified elements on the ocean floor consistent with material from a plane.

Six weeks have now passed since the plane disappeared and extensive searches in the Indian Ocean have failed to locate any wreckage.

Today, Prime Minister Tony Abbott admitted the chance of finding debris on the surface is slim to none.

Air search for MH370 called off: Abbott

Malaysia MH370 Capt. Zaharie Ahmad Shah with family. Dupre’s story said he was a “beloved and respected human rights defender.”

He said efforts will not focus on the ocean floor, but GeoResonance believes authorities have been looking in the wrong place.It started its own search for the missing aircraft on March 10.

“The technology that we use was originally designed to find nuclear warheads, submarines… our team in the Ukraine decided we should try and help,” David Pope from GeoResonance said.

The company surveyed over 2,000,000 square kilometres of the possible crash zone, using images obtained from satellites and aircraft.

Scientists focused their efforts north of the flight’s last known location, using over 20 technologies to analyse the data including a nuclear reactor.

They could not believe what they found in the Bay of Bengal.

“Our team was very excited when we found what we believe to be the wreckage of a commercial airliner,” Mr Pope said.

Pavel Kursa from GeoResonance told 7News: “We identified chemical elements and materials that make up a Boeing 777… these are aluminium, titanium, copper, steel alloys and other materials.”

The images showing chemical elements detected in the area the company believes it has located MH370. Photo: FIRST ON 7.

The images showing chemical elements detected in the area the company believes it has located MH370. Photo: FIRST ON 7.

An initial report was sent to authorities while the black box still had two weeks of battery power.

The team then verified its findings by analysing images from the same area on March 5, three days before the plane disappeared.

“The wreckage wasn’t there prior to the disappearance of MH370,” Mr Pope said.

The full report was delivered on April 15.

“We’re not trying to say that it definitely is MH370, however it is a lead we feel should be followed up,” Mr Pope told 7News.

7News tried to contact the office of search co-coordinator Angus Houston today but there was no response.

Earlier article from Examiner.com by Deborah Dupre:

http://voiceofdetroit.net/2014/03/19/expert-pilot-tracks-malaysian-plane-with-plausible-but-tragic-scenario/

VOD: see map below showing proximity of Bay of Bengal to Straits of Malacca, off which the airport at Pulau Langkawi is located.

Rev. Edward Pinkney (center) leads rally against Whirlpool-sponsored PGA tournament in Benton Harbor May 26, 2012

Rev. Pinkney arrested, charged in effort to stop recall election May 6 

Activist faces up to 20 years in prison; is under house arrest; judge has banned his computer use 

Hearing on whether recall will proceed set for Tues. Apr. 29 at 9 a.m.

By Diane Bukowski 

April 26, 2014 

Benton Harbor Mayor James Hightower at reception in Whirlpool HQ.

BENTON HARBOR – The Rev. Edward Pinkney, a longtime fighter against Whirlpool’s impoverishment of this majority-Black city and Gov. Rick Snyder’s emergency management, was arrested April 25 and charged with five felony counts of election fraud, each carrying up to five years in prison, and six misdemeanors. His supporters say it is an attempt to stop the May 6 election recall of Whirlpool ally Mayor James Hightower.A SWAT team composed of Berrien County sheriffs, Michigan State police, and Benton Harbor Township police surrounded and stormed Pinckney’s home April 24, just after he left with his wife to celebrate her birthday.

“I guess they came to kill,” Rev. Pinkney told VOD in a phone interview. “The phone started blowing up with neighbors telling us what was going on. We spent the night in Kalamazoo. My attorney Ted Parrish called police and said I would turn myself in Monday April 28, but they insisted they wanted me immediately. They spent that night driving all over Benton Harbor looking for me.”

Youth lead march against Whirlpool and PGA May 26, 2012.

Rev. Pinkney turned himself in the next morning with his attorney at the Berrien County County Courthouse, where he was arraigned on the charges. Circuit Court Judge James LaFata placed him under house arrest and banned him from using his computer.

“I don’t even think that’s legal,” Pinkney said. He said supporters will still conduct his Sunday evening radio call-in show at 5 p.m. Callers can reach them at 347-994-3644. 

Benton Harbor citizens, including James Cornelius, who initiated the recall campaign and also faces one charge, say they want Hightower recalled because he opposed a city income tax that would include Whirlpool, the mammoth appliance corporation headquartered in Benton Harbor.A website for Rev. Pinkney’s organization BANCO (Black Autonomy Network of Community Organizations), describes Hightower’s alliance with Whirlpool.

Rally in Benton Harbor.

“Mayor James Hightower . . . says the Whirlpool Corporation should not pay taxes – only the residents of the city of Benton Harbor should foot the bills,” the BANCO site says. “Whirlpool Corporation’s profit last year was more than ten billion dollars, and it paid no taxes to the city of Benton Harbor where the headquarters resides.“Mayor James Hightower and the Whirlpool Corporation fought extremely hard [in Nov. 2013] to defeat the city income tax which would have provided $3.5 million dollars the very first year and every year after.  Residents and those who work in the city would pay the income tax. Corporations would, too.”

The site says the income tax would have charged residents and businesses 1 percent, and non-residents, who make up 90 percent of those who work in Benton Harbor, 0.5 percent.

After residents voted the income tax down, Hightower took out a $2.3 million loan to finance city expenses, pushing the economically-strapped city further into debt.

Over the past decades, Whirlpool has shut down numerous plants in the city that once employed residents, and has been conducting a massive take-over of choice Benton Harbor land, including that surrounding the gorgeous Lake Michigan beach which is part of the public Jean Klock Park.

Gov. Rick Snyder is taunted by hundreds of protesters during Benton Harbor’s Blossom Time Parade, where he presided as Grand Marshal. Here he passes by construction of new Whirlpool HQ.

Whirlpool has put their brand new headquarters on riverfront property in Benton Harbor, and built a luxury golf course and residential development directly off the Klock Park beach.

BANCO has called for a “Mass Demonstration against Voter Suppression in Benton Harbor,” to be held May 24, 2014 at 11 a.m at Benton Harbor’s City Hall, 200 Wall Street. A press conference is set for 10:30 a.m. There will be other protests planned for Rev. Pinkney’s court appearances.

“Voter suppression is led by the Whirlpool Corporation and the Berrien County Sheriff Department,” the organization says. “Protest all injustices being forced on our town, your town and all around the country! It is not one thing it is everything. The murder of Benton Harbor residents, gentrification by Whirlpool, Governor Snyder’s Emergency Manager dictatorship. Find it on the ActivateHub community calendar!”

Rev. Pinkney has broad support across the country, for his battles not only against Whirlpool and Snyder, but also against police brutality and Berrien County’s racist courts. During one of those battles, he was incarcerated for quoting the Bible to a judge.

On Oct. 7, 2013, BANCO sponsored a well-attended Justice Fund dinner whose speakers included actor Danny Glover and Green Party Presidential Candidate Jill Stein/

For further information, call Rev. Pinkney at 269-925-0001, or go to the BANCO website at www.bhbanco.org/.

Related stories:

http://www.wndu.com/news/headlines/Actor-Danny-Glover-stops-in-Benton-Harbor-for-Justice-Fund-Dinner–226625521.html

http://voiceofdetroit.net/2012/08/16/rev-pinkney-fights-latest-attempt-to-topple-him-from-bh-naacp-post/

http://voiceofdetroit.net/2013/05/28/whirlpool-and-em-move-to-take-control-of-benton-harbor-parks/

http://voiceofdetroit.net/2012/05/31/benton-harbor-body-of-timothy-bulldog-allen-found-in-lake-last-seen-in-police-custody/

http://voiceofdetroit.net/2012/05/31/benton-harbor-a-poem/

http://voiceofdetroit.net/2012/05/31/benton-harbor-a-poem/

http://voiceofdetroit.net/2012/05/22/occupy-the-pga-in-benton-harbor-may-23-27-2012-ems-must-go/

http://voiceofdetroit.net/2012/04/16/pastor-fights-state-naacp-takeover-of-benton-harbor-chapter-says-whirlpool-engineered-grab/

http://voiceofdetroit.net/2012/02/13/occupy-the-pga-in-benton-harbor-may-23-27-2012-maddow-show-features-bh-em-putting-citys-public-radio-station-on-e-bay/

http://voiceofdetroit.net/2011/07/01/benton-harbor-emergency-manager-wants-you-off-the-lawn-and-the-beach/

http://voiceofdetroit.net/2011/06/25/hundreds-rally-in-benton-harbor-on-8th-anniversary-of-uprising-against-police-murder-of-terrance-%e2%80%9ct-shirt%e2%80%9d-shurn/

http://voiceofdetroit.net/2011/05/12/benton-harbor-blossom-time-%e2%80%98recall-rick%e2%80%99/

http://voiceofdetroit.net/2011/05/03/get-up-benton-harbor-and-michigan-stand-up-for-your-rights/

http://voiceofdetroit.net/2011/04/22/benton-harbor-takeover-sparks-furious-reaction-em-is-joe-harris-former-detroit-auditor-general/

http://voiceofdetroit.net/2010/09/12/benton-harbor-protests-whirlpool-golf-course-opening/

Rev. Pinkney leads first march against EM takeover under Public Act 4, that of Benton Harbor under Joe Harris.

BAMN at affirmative action March on USSC in Washington, D.C.

BY BAR EXECUTIVE EDITOR GLEN FORD

April 24, 2014

“Black folks have no rights that white majorities are bound to respect.”

That’s the message from the U.S. Supreme Court, which declared diversity programs an option that white majorities can legally ban. The High Court also safeguards the right of the rich to dominate elections. This week’s ruling shows that the Roberts Court “knows how to serve both majorities of whites and Big Capital, too.”

“Majoritarian rule becomes a crude legal redoubt of white supremacy.”

Justice Anthony Kennedy, who wrote the decision.

White majorities have the constitutional right to create laws that selectively lock racial minorities into inferior status. So decreed the United States Supreme Court, in a 6 to 2 vote [8] upholding Michigan’s prohibition against affirmative action in public higher education. Although race-conscious admissions polices remain legally permissible, voters may close the door to such remedies to historical discrimination, at will, as set forth in Justice Anthony M. Kennedy’s controlling opinion: “There is no authority in the Constitution of the United States or in this court’s precedents for the judiciary to set aside Michigan laws that commit this policy determination to the voters.”

In plain English, Black folks have no rights that white majorities are bound to respect.

Hitler salutes like Anthony Kennedy.

It’s “a racist decision,” the modern equivalent to the Supreme Court’s 1896 Plessy v Ferguson ruling sanctifying racial segregation, said Shanta Driver [9], lawyer for Detroit-based By Any Means Necessary, the losing party in the case. The decision “makes clear that this Court intends to do nothing to defend the right to equality in politics, opportunity, rights, hopes and aspirations of its Latina/o, black, Native American and other minority citizens” said Driver. “At the very moment that America is becoming a majority minority nation this Court is declaring its intention to uphold white privilege and to create a new Jim Crow legal system.”The circling of black robes around the inviolability of the principle of one person-one vote is a supreme historical irony, given that the Constitution originally counted Black slaves as “three-fifths [10] of all other Persons” for the purpose of apportioning the Congress. White majorities were slim or non-existent in the slave-intensive states, whose reconstruction to electoral “democracy” remains incomplete to the present. Yet, in the waning days of a national white majority, an era projected to end around the year 2043 [11], majoritarian rule becomes a crude legal redoubt of white supremacy.

Child pronounces Jim Crow dead at MLK Day march in Detroit, 2011.

“This Court intends to do nothing to defend the right to equality.”

Back in 2003, the Supreme Court ruled that affirmative action at the University of Michigan served a compelling public interest in spreading “diversity” in the upper echelons of U.S. society. As I wrote in The Black Commentator [12] at the time, the Court was not addressing Black historical grievances, which had already gone by the legal wayside. Rather, it ruled that the programmatic inclusion of non-whites at elite public universities created benefits for society as a whole. This week’s ruling sweepingly proclaims the right of white majorities (58 percent of “the voters” in a 2006 Michigan referendum) to forgo such benefits, at their pleasure, as have [13] California, Florida, Texas, and Washington.

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. civil rights march.

Affirmative action, as understood by President Lyndon Johnson and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., is long dead [12]. It is “diversity” as public policy that was mortally wounded by the Roberts court, this week. Diversity is now an option that can be outlawed by white voter fiat – which will no doubt occur at a quickening pace given that majorities of whites believe they are the main objects of discrimination in American life. A 2011 study [14] by researchers at Harvard and Tufts Universities, titled “Whites See Racism as a Zero-Sum Game That They Are Now Losing,” showed whites “believe that anti-white bias is more prevalent than anti-Black bias” and that “Black progress is linked to a new inequality” – at white expense.

It is difficult to imagine a greater mass cognitive dissonance. The racism that has always been endemic to the U.S. drove whites crazy, and majorities of them remain nuts – dangerous people, capable of…anything. The High Court has given its benediction to the righteousness of their insanity.

“Diversity is now an option that can be outlawed by white voter fiat.”

The judicial system is, of course, even more consistent in building a body of legal precedent for the supremacy of money in electoral politics, than of the primacy of majorities – the two being antithetical in principle. In practice, however, the U.S. Supreme Court knows how to serve both majorities of whites and Big Capital, too. The post-Civil War Supreme Court elevated corporations to personhood, smoothing the way for the Gilded Age, and plunged Blacks into the depths of Constitutionally-sanctioned Jim Crow, simultaneously creating all-white electorates and one-party rule by the most backward elements of the bourgeoisie in Dixie.

In Michigan, where white majority opinions and prejudices are deemed sacred by the High Court and a racist referendum is dubbed a “Civil Rights Initiative [15],” more than half of Black voters have been effectively disenfranchised under the dictatorship of state-imposed emergency financial managers. In jurisdictions like Detroit, Flint and Benton Harbor, where Blacks are the bulk of the population, majorities mean less than nothing; they are dangerous, and must be politically neutered for the general public good, while Wall Street picks Detroit’s bones in a federal bankruptcy court.

Where racism is endemic, all kinds of things are possible – and constitutional.

BAR executive editor Glen Ford can be contacted at Glen.Ford@BlackAgendaReport.com

Source URL: http://blackagendareport.com/content/supreme-court-white-majorities-%C3%BCber-alles

Links:

[1] http://blackagendareport.com/category/african-america/reverse-racism

[2] http://blackagendareport.com/category/african-america/plessy-v-ferguson

[3] http://blackagendareport.com/category/african-america/diversity-programs

[4] http://blackagendareport.com/category/african-america/any-means-necessary

[5] http://blackagendareport.com/category/african-america/affirmative-action

[6] http://blackagendareport.com/category/political-economy/corporate-personhood

[7] http://blackagendareport.com/sites/www.blackagendareport.com/files/Affirmative-Action-demonstration.jpg

[8] http://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/23/us/supreme-court-michigan-affirmative-action-ban.html?ref=us

[9] http://www.bamn.com/social-justice/statement-from-bamn-plaintiffs-on-scotus-ruling-in-schuette-v-bamn

[10] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three-Fifths_Compromise

[11] http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/06/13/18934111-census-white-majority-in-us-gone-by-2043?lite

[12] http://www.blackcommentator.com/49/49_cover.html

[13] http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2013/06/24/us/affirmative-action-bans.html

[14] http/ase.tufts.edu/psychology/sommerslab/documents/raceInterNortonSommers2011.pdf

[15] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michigan_Civil_Rights_Initiative

[16] mailto:Glen.Ford@BlackAgendaReport.com

[17]http://www.addtoany.com/share_save?linkurl=http%3A%2F%2Fblackagendareport.com%2Fcontent%2Fsupreme-court-white-majorities-%25C3%25BCber-alles&linkname=Supreme%20Court%3A%20White%20Majorities%20%C3%9Cber%20Alles%20

BAMN supports Affirmative Action on the steps of the State Capitol in Lansing, Michigan.

STATEMENT FROM THE BAMN PLAINTIFFS ON THE SUPREME COURT’S RULING IN SCHUETTE V COALITION TO DEFEND AFFIRMATIVE ACTION, INTEGRATION AND IMMIGRANT RIGHTS AND FIGHT FOR EQUALITY BY ANY MEANS NECESSARY

April 22, 2014 

Shanta Driver at press conference Nov. 15, 2012 after Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals victory.

DETROIT — Shanta Driver, national chairperson of BAMN, the Coalition to Defend Affirmative Action, Integration and Immigrant Rights and Fight for Equality By Any Means Necessary, was also the attorney who argued for minority political rights at the Supreme Court in Schutte v BAMN. Her comments on today’s decision follow:“Today’s Supreme Court decision upholding the ban on affirmative action in Michigan is a racist decision. It is this Court’s Plessy v Ferguson. The decision of the Court today makes clear that this Court intends to do nothing to defend the right to equality in politics, opportunity, rights, hopes and aspirations of its Latina/o, black, Native American and other minority citizens. At the very moment that America is becoming a majority minority nation this Court is declaring its intention to uphold white privilege and to create a new Jim Crow legal system.

Young marchers from BAMN protest outside Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder’s home near Ann Arbor, MI against his takeover of majority-Black cities in Michigan through PA 4, the first Emergency Manager Act.

This decision allows a white majority electorate, state legislature, state courts and other political and legal entities to pass laws that create inequality in political rights and most immediately, access to higher education. The new civil rights and immigrant rights movement is the only force that can restore progress in this society and stop the resegregation of higher education. It took the last civil rights movement to overthrow the old Jim Crow, and the young leaders of the new civil rights/immigrant rights movement will defeat the new Jim Crow.

The aim of state bans on affirmative action is to encourage public universities to discriminate against the right of Latina/o, black and Native American applicants to attend this nation’s most prestigious public universities. Any university that claims to use a holistic admissions policy cannot turn a blind eye to the effects of institutional racism and inequality in K-12 education, and must consider the real-life experiences and obstacles that its minority applicants face. BAMN encourages any Latina/o, black and Native American student who applied to the University of Michigan, deserves to be at the University of Michigan, and was rejected, to contact BAMN and fight for your equal right to attend the university.”

http://www.bamn.com/

Constitution Check: Has the Supreme Court ended affirmative action at the college level?

April 24, 2014 by Lyle Denniston

Lyle Denniston looks at the Supreme Court’s recent ruling on affirmative action, other historical decisions on it, and the next case about the subject heading toward the Justices.

THE STATEMENTS AT ISSUE:

“Today, by permitting a majority of the voters in Michigan to do what our Constitution forbids, the Court ends the debate over race-sensitive admissions policies in Michigan in a manner that contravenes constitutional protections long recognized by our precedents.”

– Justice Sonia Sotomayor, in a dissenting opinion on Tuesday as the Supreme Court upheld Michigan’s voter-approved ban on the use of race in selecting students to enter the state’s public colleges and universities. The ruling came in the case of “Schuette v. Coalition to Defend Affirmative Action.”

“A majority of the Justices not only overturned a decision by the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit, which had struck down Michigan’s measure, but also made clear that they would reject any similarly argued challenge to the bans on race-conscious admissions adopted by voters in Arizona, California, Nebraska, Oklahoma, and Washington.”

– Peter Schmidt, Washington reporter for The Chronicle of Higher Education, in an online story on Tuesday about the scope of the Supreme Court’s decision.

WE CHECKED THE CONSTITUTION, AND…

Racial equality disputes, it is fair to say, have been a source of deep and growing constitutional controversy within the Supreme Court for at least the past decade, and the basic notion of “affirmative action” has been increasingly moving to the center of disagreement. The court, however, has just raised the prospect that this approach may be facing new and significant narrowing, at the least.

 

While the use of race as a key factor in shaping public policy and government programs has been used for hiring public workers and placing government contracts, its most frequent use – and its most controversial – has been in the field of education. Indeed, the effort to rid the public schools of racial segregation, in the wake of the Supreme Court’s 1954 and 1955 rulings in the case of Brown v. Board of Education, led directly to the creation of the concept of “affirmative action” as a remedy for ongoing racial bias. (Some historians suggest that it may actually have had its origins in an order by President Harry Truman in 1948, desegregating the U.S. military.)

At the college level, the Supreme Court applied the idea in 1977 to uphold voluntary use of race as a factor in selecting students to attend the University of California’s medical school, in the decision of California Regents v. Bakke. But the continuation of that approach never was far from controversy, and when the Supreme Court reopened the issue in 2003, in two cases from the University of Michigan (one in the law school, one for undergraduate admissions), it was not at all clear that it would survive fully intact.

It did survive, but only by a 5 to 4 vote, in the case of Grutter v. University of Michigan – the law school case. There were clear warning signs: the four dissenters argued that the admissions program was a thinly veiled version of a quota system. Among those dissenters were Justices Anthony M. Kennedy, Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas, who would continue on the court after several changes in its membership.

Those three, in fact, formed the core of a five-Justice majority four years later that struck down a voluntary public school affirmative action plan in a case involving the Seattle school district. They were joined by then-new members, Chief Justice John G. Roberts, Jr., and Justice Samuel A. Alito, Jr. That was the clearest sign yet that “affirmative action” was definitely in deepening trouble constitutionally. Chief Justice Roberts reinforced that impression, with a now-famous comment in one of the opinions for the majority: “The way to stop discrimination on the basis of race is to stop discriminating on the basis of race.”

Only Justice Kennedy, who made clear at that time that there were some situations in which race could still be used in defining education policy, kept the Seattle decision from going further.

Then, in 2013, the Supreme Court returned to “affirmative action” at the college level for the first time in ten years and, once more, there were fairly common assumptions that this approach to racial equality in education would again be in peril. This was the case of Fisher v. University of Texas, involving a white applicant’s rejection for admission at the university’s flagship Austin campus.

This time, Justice Kennedy wrote the lead opinion. It spoke for a 7-1 majority (with only Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg dissenting). But the ruling totally supplanted the Grutter decision from a decade earlier, and created a new form of constitutional analysis that almost certainly would make it more difficult for public universities to justify the use of race in their admissions policy.

The ultimate outcome of that case remains uncertain, because it is currently going through a new round in a federal appeals court, the Fifth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. That court held a hearing on the case on November 18, and is now pondering a decision.

That case appears most likely to be the next test of the Supreme Court’s view on “affirmative action” at the college level.

But two days ago, the Supreme Court fundamentally altered the outlook for the use of race in educational policy with its decision in another Michigan college case, Schuette v. Coalition to Defend Affirmative Action. In a 6-2 decision (with Justice Elena Kagan not taking part), the court ruled – for the first time – that the voters of a state may bar their public officials from any use of race in admissions to public colleges.

Although the court’s lead opinion, written by Justice Kennedy, stressed that the court was not ruling on whether race-based admissions policies themselves were unconstitutional, the ruling created an opening for states to scuttle “affirmative action.” It said explicitly that issues of racial policy in America can be handled quite competently at the polling place.

Almost certainly, the skepticism that the Kennedy opinion expressed in that opinion about the role of the judiciary in overseeing America’s debate about racial issues will be studied by the appeals court judges as they prepare to write their ruling in the new round in the University of Texas case.

In fact, on Tuesday, lawyers for the University of Texas brought the new decision to the appeals court’s attention, to try to persuade those judges that the Supreme Court, in fact, had not undermined the constitutional premises of “affirmative action.” The challengers to Texas’s admissions policies very likely will take a different view.

Lyle Denniston is the National Constitution Center’s adviser on constitutional literacy. He has reported on the Supreme Court for 55 years, currently covering it for SCOTUSblog, an online clearinghouse of information about the Supreme Court’s work.

Recent Constitution Daily History Stories

Podcast: The affirmative action controversy at the Supreme Court

The Schuette decision and constitutional deliberation

Supreme Court allows states to ban affirmative action

Plan of Adjustment proposes $650 Million in “Financial Recovery Bonds,” most for UBS AG and Bank of America

POA slashes retirees’ annuity savings by alleged $273 million, in addition to pension and health care cuts; state pension “trusts” can increase cuts later 

Detroit lost $732.2 million in state revenue sharing 2003-14 

Retirees campaign to VOTE NO on POA, protests set for Wed. April 30 against PA 436, and Thurs. May 1 to “SHUT DOWN DETROIT” 

By Diane Bukowski 

April 21, 2014 

DETROIT—Detroit Emergency Manager Kevyn Orr wants to finance his Bankruptcy Plan of Adjustment (POA), filed April 16, by borrowing $650 million in “Financial Recovery Bonds,” to satisfy “certain claims of unsecured creditors” at interest rates of 4 to 5 percent over 30 years.

Cecily McClellan at N’namdi meeting.

At the same time, he proposes to exact brutal cuts from Detroit residents and taxpayers, workers, and retirees, including slashing annuity savings funds by a total of $273 million. The City of Detroit has already lost a total of $732.2 million in state revenue-sharing funds, from 2003-14, according to a recent Michigan Municipal League report.

“It’s the funky filthy rich hedge funds who are behind this, who want to put us in poverty,” retiree Cecily McClellan said at during a meeting of the Detroit Concerned Citizens and Retirees at N’namdi’s in Highland Park April 16.

She and other retirees, members of the Detroit Concerned Citizens and Retirees, are leading a VOTE NO campaign on the Plan of Adjustment. McClellan is also Vice-President of the city union the Association of Professional and Technical Employees (APTE).

UBS AG and Bank of America, who face dozens of major lawsuits and criminal charges for fraudulent practices across the globe, would get about $580 million of the recovery bonds under a proposed 40 percent “COPS Settlement” included in the POA.

That is 40 percent of $1.45 billion, the outstanding principal on the predatory $1.5 Billion “Certificates of Obligation” (COPS) loan the banks foisted on the city in 2005-06. According to a Citizens Research Council of Michigan report, the total amount outstanding in 2010, including interest, hedge fund profits, and other payments, was $2.9 billion. The COPS settlement does not say whether the city would be liable for the remainder.

Joe O’Keefe of Fitch Ratings and Stephen Murphy of Standard and Poor’s press $1.5 billion POC deal on City Council Jan. 31, 2005.

Orr previously called the entire COPS transaction “void ab initio, illegal and unenforceable” in a Jan. 31 lawsuit, because it violated the city’s state-imposed debt limit, and used phony “Service Corporations” to sponsor the debt. He asked U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Steven Rhodes to cancel any remainder owed.

“This Court stated earlier and states again that it will not participate in or permit the city to perpetuate the very kinds of hasty and imprudent financial decision making that led to the disastrous swaps and COPS transactions,” Rhodes said Jan. 16, in denying Orr’s second proposed swaps deal with the two banks. “They have already caused great harm to city creditors and citizens.”Orr has said priorities in Detroit’s bankruptcy include public safety, streetlights, and blight removal, but paying the city’s debt clearly remains its chief goal.

But U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Steven W. Rhodes on April 11 approved a related $85 million interest-rate “swaps” settlement with the UBS and Bank of America, which actually totals $385 million with monies already paid out by the city. The main COPS settlement does not provide for the return of hundreds of millions the city has already paid under the 2005-06 deals, which have caused it to default on its debt three times since then.

Judge Rhodes (3rd from l) chaired one-sided forum on Chapter 9 and Emergency Managers Oct. 10, 2012, featuring (l -r) Edward Plawecki, Douglas Bernstein, Judy O’Neill and Charles Moore. Headen has led dozens of state takeovers of municipalities; Bernstein and O’Neill are EM trainers, with O’Neill a co-author of PA 4; Moore of Conway McKenzie is a key witness for EM Orr at the Detroit bankruptcy trial.

Rhodes’ April 11 decision opened the floodgates for the current Plan of Adjustment. In its wake, some Unlimited Tax General Obligation (UTGO) bondholders happily agreed to settle for 76 percent of their original debt, or $272 million, instead of the 15 percent Orr originally proposed.

The plan as it now stands converts the city’s two Retirement Systems into “irrevocable trusts,” none of whose voting Trustees “may be an employee, contractor, agent or affiliate of the City or any labor union representing employees of the City, a member of any such labor union, or a Member or Beneficiary of the Retirement System,” according to the POA.

“Retirees are only looking at what they’re reading in the newspapers, about their pension cuts being reduced to 4.5 percent,” retiree Hassan Aleem said at the N’namdi’s meeting.

Retiree Hassan Aleem (speaking with others including Carl Williams (r) at N’namdi meeting.

“They’ve got to understand, their systems will be in a trust totally controlled by the state. The Governor will appoint the trustees. How many people trust Rick Snyder with your pensions? They’re saying, ‘We’ve got your money and we’re not going to give you a damn thing.’ But this is our money and the retirement systems have a right to give it back to us.”

Aleem estimated that the POA as it stands now actually involves 50 to 60 percent cuts, not 4.5 percent. Currently, retirement system trustees are elected by their membership. The so-called “expert” trustees appointed in their stead will have complete control over the trusts’ funds, investments, employment of advisors and actuaries, as well as pay-outs to retirees, leaving proposed POA cuts to retirees essentially open-ended.

Gov. Rick Snyder and Kevyn Orr announce bankruptcy filing July 19, 2013.

“The disclosure statement says anything they agree to now they have the right to revoke later, and not even notify you, even if they take us to the poverty level,” said retiree Carl Williams during the meeting.

The Plan, while reducing DGRS retirees’ pensions by 4.5 percent instead of the originally proposed 26-34 percent, mounts a severe attack on their Annuity Savings Funds. Most city workers have contributed 3 percent, 5 percent, or 7 percent of their own wages on a voluntary basis throughout their employment to this plan.

They plan to recover from each GRS member’s monthly pension check the alleged amount of interest “overpayment” from 2003 to 2013, for a total of $273 million, according to Jones Day attorney Bruce Bennett.

Jones Day and Kevyn Orr want to CLAW-BACK interest from retirees’ savings accounts.

Even members who rolled their annuities over into private plans upon retirement will be affected, with the cut coming out of the pension portion of their check. The amount would be individually calculated for each retiree. The POA suggests that if retirees vote no on the plan, or persist in opposing the Emergency Manager Act or the city’s bankruptcy eligibility, their pensions will be cut 29 percent.The chart below, from the CRC 2010 report, shows that rates of return for the city’s retirement systems from 2005 to 2010 actually far exceeded the S&P 500 index, except for the disastrous years of 2008-09, during the global economic meltdown caused chiefly by Wall Street’s predatory lending practices.

Investment Returns; Total Fund Composite Return

S&P 500 Market Returns, DPFRS and DGRS  (Citizens Research Council)

So, retirees at the meeting asked, does Orr also plan to increase the annuity portion of retirees’ monthly checks to compensate them for the systems’ prosperous years, during which they got only a 7.9 percent return instead of returns as high as 17.4 percent?

In a Reuters blog from Aug. 2013, Cate Long says “Orr has said many times that Detroit’s two pension funds have overstated their funding levels and used inappropriate assumptions in their valuations. But guess what? The state of Michigan uses almost identical assumptions as Detroit. Michigan’s Employee Retirement System is funded at a 10 percent lower level than Detroit’s General Retirement System (the lesser funded of the two systems).

Tina Bassett, spokesperson for the Detroit General Retirement System (DGRS), denied published reports that the DGRS has agreed to the POA.

“We have only agreed to the 4.5 percent reduction in monthly checks,” she told VOD. “None of the rest is acceptable, except the 20 percent cap on any Annuity Savings Fund reductions. How that will proceed is still being worked out. There has been no deal yet. We are still in negotiations. When there is one we will hold informational meetings with the membership. We are trying to get the best deal possible. It will still be up to the retirees to vote it up or down.”

Leeland and Tina Bassett of Bassett and Bassett

She said the deadline for mailing ballots to retirees has been moved from May 1 to May 12. Each individual ballot would contain the cuts individual retirees will face, which will differ according to Annuity Savings Fund calculations.She said no matter how retirees vote, however, Judge Rhodes still has the final say-so, with a cram-down provision included in Chapter 9 open to him.

Funds from the Detroit Institute of Arts funders and the state of Michigan proposed in the plan, a total of $850 million, allegedly to aid retirees, are contingent on the acceptance of the plan by all retirees and all groups representing them, including the retirement systems, the unions, the Official Committee of Retirees and others.

POA threatens retirees who vote NO with further cuts.

 Approval of the plan by voting “Yes” on ballots to be mailed out means agreeing that Article 9, Section 24 of Michigan’s Constitution does NOT protect public pensions from being “diminished or impaired,” which that section DOES say.

It also includes an agreement to withdraw all legal challenges to the POA, Detroit bankruptcy eligibility, and the Emergency Manager Act, PA 436. Bassett said the DGRS is still pursuing its Sixth Circuit challenge if and until a palatable settlement is reached and approved.

However, neither the DIA funders nor the State Legislature have yet given their approval to the funds, saying it is contingent on retirees’ approval first.Seven entities representing city workers and retirees currently have bankruptcy eligibility appeals pending at the U.S. Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals.

Protesters demand an end to PA 436 emergency management.

A class action lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of PA 436, which has redacted references to the City of Detroit to get Rhodes to remove his stay on lawsuits against state officials, is pending before U.S. District Court Judge George Caram Steeh. A hearing on the state’s motion to dismiss that lawsuit is set for Wed. April 30 at 10:30 A.M. at the federal courthouse at 231 W. Lafayette.Opponents of PA 436 plan to demonstrate outside at 9 a.m. The following day, Thurs. May 1, a broad coalition is sponsoring a “Shut Down Detroit” day of protest.

In his statement approving the swaps pay-out, Judge Rhodes clearly denigrated the hundreds of retirees and their supporters who have repeatedly demonstrated against pension cuts and the dismantling of Detroit since the bankruptcy filing.

Retirees protest cuts outside bankruptcy court April 1, 2014.

“It is apparent each of parties is waging an orchestrated PR campaign,” Rhodes said. “This case is not about who wins in court of public opinion . . . It’s about enhancing both city’s future and creditor recoveries by using the most efficient and effective avenues available. In this case, that avenue is certainly not a PR campaign nor is it a litigation campaign for years at great expense. That [right] avenue is a campaign of all-out good faith mediation and negotiation as demonstrated by parties to the swap settlement.”

U.S. District Court Chief Judge and Mediator Gerald Rosen, a member of the Federalist Society.

U.S. District Court Chief Judge and Mediator Gerald Rosen, a member of the Federalist Society.

He said U.S. District Chief Judge Gerald Rosen, who is a member of the right-wing Federalist Society, has a “fervid commitment” to resolution of the case through mediation. Mediation is still ongoing on various matters, including the proposed dissolution of the Detroit Water and Sewerage Department, the city’s most valuable asset, through regionalization or privatization.

Chapter 9 differs from Chapters 11 and 13 in the Bankruptcy Code because it does not allow creditors to call for liquidation of a municipality’s assets. However, it contains a caveat.

“Section 904 [of Chapter 9] limits the power of the bankruptcy court to “interfere with – (1) any of the political or governmental powers of the debtor; (2) any of the property or revenues of the debtor; or (3) the debtor’s use or enjoyment of any income-producing property” unless the debtor consents or the plan so provides.” (Click on Municipality Bankruptcy Chapter 9for full U.S. Courts document.)

Rhodes ruled early on that EM Orr IS the debtor, the City of Detroit. Detroit is the only city across the country in Chapter 9 bankruptcy that is in control of an Emergency Manager (read dictator); others still have ELECTED OFFICIALS who so far have held off on public employee pension cuts, particularly in California.

(VOD—more to come on Plan of Adjustment analysis in separate stories.)

Read Complete Second Amended Plan of Adjustment and Disclosure Statement by clicking on:

http://www.mieb.uscourts.gov/sites/default/files/detroit/docket4140.pdf

http://www.mieb.uscourts.gov/sites/default/files/detroit/docket4141.pdf