Free Republic

~snip~ In the meantime, Tjornehoj suggests that muni investors should not be overly concerned with Detroit's woes. "We've had disruptions in the muni market in the past," he says. "The problems out there are generally known well ahead of time, and the market does price those risks [appropriately]." Tjornehoj also notes that investors can minimize risk by investing in a diversified portfolio of municipal bonds. "Your conservative investor is probably just fine using national [muni funds] with a lot of geographic diversification," he says. Ciccarone also has an optimistic outlook. "The bottom line ... is I don't think that there...

DETROIT, MI -- The victim in an attempted robbery pulled out a gun and shot one of two people who attacked him Thursday, according to police reports released Saturday. The 66-year-old man was approached by two suspects who tried to rob him near Burgess Street and Florence Avenue in Detroit around 10:25 a.m. Thursday, according to police. The victim, who is licensed to carry a concealed pistol, exchanged fire with the suspects. One 21-year-old suspect was struck in the body and was listed in temporary serious condition at the hospital, police reported. The victim was also struck by a bullet...

In the industrial midwest, the city government of Detroit went into bankruptcy in July. Out in California, the city governments of Stockton and San Bernardino entered bankruptcy proceedings in 2012. But the Detroit and California bankruptcies, like Tolstoy’s unhappy families, are not alike. They suffer from quite different ailments. You can see the difference by comparing their populations in the 1950 and 2010 censuses. In 1950, Detroit – then the nation’s fifth-largest city – had 1,849,568 people. In 2010, it had 713,777. Stockton and San Bernardino were not much more than small towns in 1950, with 70,853 and 63,058, respectively....

Much has been said about why Detroit lies in critical condition, but one serious wound has been festering for decades: the unsustainable pension and health benefits that were secured for city employees by self-serving union bosses and their political collaborators. These irresponsible promises constitute $11 billion of the once-great Motor City’s $20 billion in debt. It’s a timely lesson in government guarantees gone wrong, yet it seems that few onlookers are taking notes. States and cities across the country face similar challenges and, should they choose to do nothing, may meet a fate like Detroit’s. My home state of Pennsylvania...

DETROIT (WJBK) - Michigan's "stand your ground" law is practically the same as the Florida law, and there are a lot of people hoping that a review leads to it being repealed. However, we spoke with one Detroit man who said "stand your ground" quite possibly saved his life and without a doubt kept him out of prison. "If it wasn't for [the] 'stand your ground' law, right now I would be in jail, and my life could've been taken at that point," said Darrell Standberry. It happened nearly two years ago, but Standberry remembers like it was yesterday the...

To campaign against the bullying of LGBT people as if disagreement with the gay lifestyle were an evil is itself a form of bullying.On June 19, the US District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan ruled in favor of a high school student named Daniel Glowacki, who had charged that his high school teacher, Jay McDowell, had violated his constitutional right to freedom of speech. He was granted one dollar in compensation. The court’s verdict, in vulgar terms, was that the pig had the right to say what he said. The facts, according to the court’s judgment, are these....

--snip-- Detroit is hardly the first city to think of having ObamaCare subsidize its retirees. Chicago, which is in financial difficulty but not bankruptcy, announced a similar plan even before Detroit. Other cities — some not even financially distressed — are contemplating doing the same thing. And why not? ObamaCare imposes no penalties on governments that offload their retirees — in contrast to large employers who offload their active employees.

Since Canadian born Ted Cruz has emerged on the scene in Washington as a future presidential candidate for 2016, attention has turned to whether he is Constitutionally eligible for Article 2 Section 1, the presidential qualification clause. This is what we know. Ted Cruz was born in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. Many say that disqualifies him to be eligible for the presidency. Enter former Michigan Governor Jennifer Granholm. She was born in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. I came across an interview she did with Fox News's Chris Wallace in February of 2010. During the interview Wallace brought up the fact that...

Larry Grathwohl, who had just come back to Cincinnati from Vietnam, was infiltrating the domestic terrorist group Weatherman, the only one to have done so. Larry saved potentially hundreds of lives when he alerted the FBI to a bomb placed near a Detroit police station and a restaurant. Bill Ayers, Education Secretary of Weatherman, told him that in the revolution, lives would have to be sacrificed. ... My interest in Bill Ayers began a few years ago when I learned about his career as a “Distinguished Professor of Education.” In reality he was working to destroy everything that was good...

NEW YORK – Chicago, America’s third largest city, could follow Detroit into bankruptcy, warned Mayor Rahm Emanuel in the city’s “Annual Financial Analysis 2013” released last week. “Until we pass meaningful pension reforms in Springfield, the outlook for future years is unsustainable,” Emanuel concluded bluntly, anticipating a current budget crisis that could develop into a full-fledged budget meltdown within the next four years.Emanuel noted that Chicago’s current budget deficit of $338.7 million is expected to grow to $1.6 billion by 2016, due largely “to ballooning obligations under current pension legislation.”Compounding the fact that pensions for public employees are less than...

In a remarkable admission that is likely to rock the Internal Revenue Service again, testimony released Thursday by House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Dave Camp reveals that an agent involved in reviewing tax exempt applications from conservative groups told a committee investigator that the agency is still targeting Tea Party groups, three months after the IRS scandal erupted..

After Detroit filed bankruptcy two weeks ago, the attention turned to America's other financially distraught cities. Think Motown is the only major U.S. city in a boatload of financial trouble? Think again. Detroit's bankruptcy filing sent shivers down the spine of municipal bondholders, government employees, and big-city urban residents all over the country. That's because many of the 61 largest U.S. cities are plagued with the same kinds of retirement legacy costs that sent Detroit into Chapter 9 bankruptcy this summer. These cities have amassed $118 billion in unfunded healthcare liabilities. These are legal promises to pay healthcare benefits...

“I’m proud of Detroit.” On the other end of the line was Sen. Tupac Hunter (D-Detroit), who is a member of the Mike Duggan inner circle. He was calling to remind everyone of what the senator said last week in the midst of a media story line that somehow his candidate for Mayor of Detroit could not win an uphill write-in campaign. So much for that story line. “You said you would save that tape,” he chuckled as he basked in a very impressive victory for his guy for mayor. Mr. Duggan defied the experts and finished fir - not...

Think Motown is the only major U.S. city in a boatload of financial trouble? Think again. Detroit’s bankruptcy filing sent shivers down the spine of municipal bondholders, government employees, and big-city urban residents all over the country. That’s because many of the 61 largest U.S. cities are plagued with the same kinds of retirement legacy costs that sent Detroit into Chapter 9 bankruptcy this summer. These cities have amassed $118 billion in unfunded healthcare liabilities. These are legal promises to pay healthcare benefits to municipal workers beyond the employee contributions to finance those funds. This is a giant fiscal sinkhole—and...

Detroit, you're not alone. Across the nation, cities and states are watching Detroit's largest-ever municipal bankruptcy filing with fear. Years of underfunded retirement promises to public sector workers, which helped lay Detroit low, could plunge them into a similar financial hole. A CNBC.com analysis of more than 120 of the nation's largest state and local pension plans finds they face a wide range of financial burdens as aging work forces near retirement. Thanks to a patchwork of accounting practices and rosy investment assumptions, it's not even clear just how big a financial hole many states and cities have dug for...

Young Tatiana Kirby cried until she couldn't cry anymore last Monday night after an angry man attending a party next door pumped several bullets into the body of her father, Pastor Tim Kirby, 46, after he asked them to turn down the music. "It was devastating. I cried for a minute, and then it was like I couldn't cry no more," the young girl told WDIV 4 of her father's untimely death in Detroit, Mich. "He was a good father. He was always a caring person. Every Sunday we were always in church. He always made sure we had clothes,...

America Discredited 06.08.2013 America Discredited. 50771.jpeg Paul Craig Roberts As Washington loses its grip on the world, defied by Venezuela, Bolivia, Ecuador, and now Russia, the US government resorts to public temper tantrums. The constant demonstration of childishness on the part of the White House and Congress embarrasses every American. Washington's latest outburst of childish behavior is a response to the Russian Immigration Service granting US whistleblower Edward Snowden asylum in Russia for one year while his request for permanent asylum is considered. Washington, having turned the US into a lawless state, no longer has any conception of legal procedure....

In conjunction with the observance of the 85th birthday of the late Martin Luther King, Jr. in January, the Michigan Coalition for Human Rights is organizing a community-wide conversation with the goal of ridding our justice system of racial and class bias. Representatives of police agencies and courts, together with clergy, interested citizens and community leaders, will be invited to address and find solutions to the troubling implications arising from the” not-guilty” verdict rendered in Florida’s People vs. Zimmerman case. The members of the jury seemed to believe they had little choice but to find Zimmerman not guilty, due to...

Detroit declared bankruptcy a few days ago. I've written, for years, about how Detroit should serve as a stark warning to Americans who believe in liberal social policies, like highly progressive taxes and expensive social safety nets. These socialist programs don't cure income inequality. They merely destroy wealth by reducing incentives for building businesses and encouraging dependency. That's why societies with lots of government spending typically have few civil institutions and a small middle class. Here's the message our politicians on both sides of the aisle seem to miss: 50 years ago, Detroit was one of the largest and wealthiest...

Detroit, you're not alone. Across the nation, cities and states are watching Detroit's largest-ever municipal bankruptcy filing with great trepidation. Years of underfunded retirement promises to public sector workers, which helped lay Detroit low, could plunge them into a similar and terrifying financial hole. A CNBC.com analysis of more than 120 of the nation's largest state and local pension plans finds they face a wide range of burdens as their aging workforces near retirement. Thanks to a patchwork of accounting practices and rosy investment assumptions, it's not even clear just how big a financial hole many states and cities have...

On 19 July 2013, Martin E. Dempsey, the Chairman of the United States Joint Chiefs of Staff, delivered an unclassified letter to Senator Carl Levin concerning the risks of US military intervention in Syria. While the letter is was ostensibly delivered to the Senate, it actually delivered the equivalent to ten American thermonuclear bombs hitting Tel Aviv and Jerusalem simultaneously. While the letter was supposedly written by Dempsey, it was surely approved and intensely vetted by President Obama himself. So while the letter had Dempsey’s signature, it was Obama’s policy. The Dempsey/Obama letter outlined all the catastrophic effects which would...

For the open-borders crowd, immigration is a patent medicine, able to cure whatever ails you. The latest pitch is that requiring immigrants to live in Detroit is the solution to that city's many ills -- see here and here, for instance. The second link, from National Journal, is aptly titled "A Modest Proposal", because it's no more real than Jonathan Swift's 18th century essay by the same name calling for the Irish to escape poverty by selling their children as food to the rich. The problem is that the Detroit suggestions do not seem to be intended as satire. And...

Downtown Detroit’s housing market was hit hard by the recession, as well the collapse of manufacturing and the long-term exodus of people. Currently one of the nation’s worst housing markets, the prices of homes have plummeted, while foreclosures continue to skyrocket. While the city is struggling to recover, China’s real estate-hungry buyers see an investment opportunity. While many people in the United States aren’t looking to purchase homes, a new craze has hit Chinese investors hoping to cash in on Detroit’s woeful housing economy. After announcing that the city filed for bankruptcy on July 18, Detroit property has been a...

The Talk Shows August 4th, 2013 Guests to be interviewed today on major television talk shows: FOX NEWS SUNDAY (Fox Network): Reps. Eric Cantor, R-Va., and Justin Amash, R-Mich.; Michael Hayden, a former head of the CIA and the National Security Agency.MEET THE PRESS (NBC): Sens. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., and Saxby Chambliss, R-Ga.; former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani.FACE THE NATION (CBS): Reps. Paul Ryan, R-Wis., and Michael McCaul, R-Texas; and Sen. Chuck U. Schumer, D-N.Y.THIS WEEK (ABC): Gen. Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff; Reps. Peter King, R-N.Y., and C.A. Dutch Ruppersberger, D-Md.STATE OF THE UNION...

Time Warner Cable's blackout of CBS continued Saturday, and neither side indicated a resolution of their dispute over fees is imminent. Time Warner dropped CBS Friday in New York, Los Angeles, Dallas and several other cities, leaving three million customers without the network's programs. The issue is fees that the cable company pays CBS to air its programs. Each has accused the other of making unreasonable demands ... The CBS stations that went dark are WCBS and WLNY in New York; KCBS and KCAL in Los Angeles; KTVT and KTXA in Dallas; WBZ and WSBK in Boston; KDKA, WPCW-CW in...

Detroit’s bankruptcy and the problems facing its pension funds offer two important lessons to other communities. One is that state and local governments need to do a much better job managing retirement funds. The other is that they should not pre-emptively reduce hard-earned benefits at the first sign of trouble. Several state and local pension systems around the country are under serious stress. Not surprisingly the hardest hit retirement funds are in places devastated by global economic forces like Detroit, as well as inland cities in California like Stockton, which was battered by the real estate collapse and has also...

Police arrested a 43-year-old Detroit man who attempted to break into Kid Rock's home. The man, who has not been identified, was arrested at his home north of Detroit after the singer offered a $5,000 reward to anyone who could provide information on him. Prior to his arrest, Kid Rock posted surveillance images of the suspect  - who was notably wearing crutches during the attempted burglary - on his website and stated that he is an 'avid hunter and marksman' and 'will not hesitate to shoot anyone' who threatens his family. 'Don't mess with a mother****** like me,' the singer,...

Stephen Ross, the billionaire owner of the Miami Dolphins, is recruiting tax-and-spend puppet candidates to challenge fiscally conservative Florida Republican state legislators in the 2014 Republican primaries. The New York real estate investor’s actions are the latest in his campaign of personal destruction against fiscal conservatives who voted against massive taxpayer subsidies for Ross’ Sun Life Stadium. Ross, a real estate investor from Michigan who now lives in New York, owns 95 percent of the Miami Dolphins and Sun Life Stadium. Ross sought funding this year from Florida state and local taxpayers to cover much of the expenses for $350...

What do northwest Washington, D.C., South Beach Miami and upper Manhattan have in common? Less than 50 years ago, the now vibrant communities didn't look much different from most of Detroit, says emergency manager Kevyn Orr—whom Gov. Rick Snyder tapped in March to revive the broken Motor City. This is what gives him hope that Detroit can stage a comeback. "D.C. in '91 was still burned out from the 1968 riots," recalls the youthful 55-year-old attorney who worked for 22 years in D.C., at the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, Resolution Trust Corporation, Justice Department and Jones Day law firm. "You...

Salon’s Andrew O’Hehir has fingered the main culprits behind Detroit’s bankruptcy. According to him, it’s none other than Fox News host Sean Hannity and all his fellow racist conservatives who were threatened by Smokey Robinson. In his July 27 screed for Salon headlined “Why the Right Hates Detroit” O’Hehir claimed the fall of big cities like Detroit and New Orleans had less to do with longtime Democratic rule and more to do with the right’s desire, as seen in the “coded racism of Sean Hannity” to punish the cities that spawned “the worldwide revolution symbolized by hot jazz, Smokey Robinson...

Rep. David Camp (R-Mich.) will decide whether or not to run for Senate by next January. “I always knew I was going to be on the ballot. We run every two years in the House. “I just don’t know where I’m going to be on the ballot at this point,” he told Bloomberg TV in an interview airing Friday evening. “I think certainly by January, I’ll be able to know whether I’m going to do one or the other.” He said he was being encouraged to look at the race for the seat being vacated by Sen. Carl Levin (D)....

Chicago — Having just been downgraded three notches by Moody’s, Chicago is suddenly hearing the uncomfortable shifting of deck chairs, as people wonder if the nation’s third-largest city is about to slam into the same debt-and-pensions iceberg that sank the SS Detroit last month. It was once inconceivable that the Motor City would become the setting for post-apocalyptic visions of burned out, abandoned neighborhoods, a corrupt and incarcerated city government, and all-but-nonexistent public services. Yet Detroit’s collapse took but a few decades. Now, the same disbelief and denial about Chicago is being heard, yet the evidence for the inescapable bill...

It's big news here. I'm not sure of the details but Paul W. Smith WJR radio this morning was livid. Apparently the race baiting media has found a story in the least likely spot. Hillsdale College.

DETROIT — In 1860, an uneasy Charles Darwin confided in a letter to a friend: “I had no intention to write atheistically” but “I cannot persuade myself that a beneficent and omnipotent God would have designedly created the Ichneumonidae with the express intention of their feeding within the living bodies of caterpillars.” What appalled him had fascinated entomologist William Kirby (1759-1850): The ichneumon insect inserts an egg in a caterpillar, and the larva hatched from the egg, he said, “gnaws the inside of the caterpillar, and though at last it has devoured almost every part of it except the skin...

We’ve all heard about Detroit’s bankruptcy as bleeding-heart “economists” plead for a bailout from Uncle Sam. Yet, the city of Detroit intends to move forward with its contribution to the Redwings’ new hockey arena. According to CNN, the city plans to spend $444 million of Michigan taxpayers’ money on the facility, despite hour-long police delays and shutting off 40 percent of its street lights to save money. To borrow from The Simpsons character Mr. Burns, Detroit plans to use taxpayer funds to help a billionaire build a private playground for millionaires. Team owner Mike Ilitch is only worth $2.4 billion...

So I guess going to a New York McDonald’s isn’t a good idea right now. Videographer and conservative blogger Adam Sharp of SharpElbows.net attended one such demonstration and interviewed an SEIU member, easily identifiable as such by his purple shirt. When asked whether the union member supported the $15 per hour wage increase the McDonald’s workers were demanding, he admitted, “I’m not sure.” He also said he was there to show his support for the workers rather than the company and expressed a fear that, “if they’re [the McDonald’s employees] pissed off, they could be doing something to that food.”...

Did the progressive “blue model” of city governance destroy Detroit? And if so, is Detroit’s bankruptcy a deeper concern to progressive cities like Chicago, Oakland, and Santa Fe, which are beginning to teeter under the weight of unsustainable pension liabilities? To be sure, Detroit’s multi-decade fall into despair, disrepair and ultimate bankruptcy had myriad causes: the shrinking US-owned auto industry, unsustainable pension deals, and city council investments in gee-whiz development deals instead of a focus on basic maintenance and services. But critics say the failure of the Democratic one-party machine in Detroit to build racial peace, control crime, and boost...

FLINT, MI -- A group of protestors operating under the banner of Anonymous -- a multi-faceted, underground activist group known for hacking computers of U.S. government offices and those of foreign countries -- took to downtown Flint Wednesday, July 31, to support a range of social and political issues. Led by Flint resident Adam Gerics, founder and co-director of New Market Fire Station Compassion Center of Greater Flint and a candidate for Flint City Council, protestors stood outside U.S. Rep Dan Kildee's Flint District Office, 801 S. Saginaw St. "A major part of this action is that we want to...

Things got heated when they started speaking about the emergency manager and whether they could work with him. Candidate Krystal Crittendon came out and said she would not. "I am going to say something that you will not hear my running mates say. If elected, I will fire Kevyn Orr," Crittendon said. "How would you fire him when he doesn't report to you without creating chaos in the city?" she was asked. "If you don't think that there is chaos now, you haven't been paying attention. The emergency manager right now cannot do anything in city government if the employees...

The way it works is fiendishly simple. Black politicians pass laws that extort wealth by gunpoint from those better off (the so-called rich) and give it to those less so (the poor) -- in this case, poor blacks. Over time, made dependent on government largess for survival, an ever-growing number of poor blacks vote for the black politician, who promises to shower them with the most free goodies paid for by the "evil rich." This is how black political dynasties are born and nourished in this nation. As the saying goes, "Those who rob Peter to pay Paul can always...

It may not look particularly attractive, but as just $1 this family home is a complete bargain. However, despite being on the market for the drop-down price since February last year, the Detroit property is astonishingly still for sale. It is one of a number of run-down properties lying in the suburbs of Michigan's largest city, which earlier this month filed for bankruptcy, crippled by enormous debts. Built in 1915, the property on Saint-Clair Street has been listed for sale since May 2011. After initially being placed on the market for $900, its price was dramatically reduced to just $1...

Very bad boys! When Detroit citizens found themselves held up at gunpoint by officers who demanded their valuables, they thought they were impersonators. But they were wrong. Some Detroit police officers are being accused of robbing citizens at gun point, in uniform. So what do you do if you are pulled over and don’t believe the officer has good intentions? Local police have issued a statement saying that you have permission not to stop if you don’t believe a real police officer is trying to pull you over. They say to call 911 and ask a dispatcher for assistance. But...

<p>Update: The two police officers accused of holding up two young men at a gas station were released on Tuesday.</p> <p>The Wayne County Prosecutor's office will continue to review the warrent request.</p> <p>Original Story: A Good Samaritan snapped photos of what appeared to be two men impersonating police officers involved in a pistol-whipping and robbery outside a Citgo gas station on Detroit's east side on July 21.</p>

DETROIT (WJBK) - The bad news came in broad daylight that 45-year-old Deon Taylor of Detroit was dead inside a building. "He was a very loving, strong man," said daughter Deleesha Taylor. "His children are devastated. His grandchildren are devastated, and all I can say is we're trying to deal with this. It's hard," said sister-in-law Ramona Harper. "I don't know what's going to happen now. He had 24 kids," said sister Jacqueline Taylor. 24 children are waiting to find out who or what took their father from them far too soon. Deon's cause of death is currently a mystery....

MUSKEGON, MI – Today is judgment day for 21-year-old Julia Charlene Merfeld, who thought she was hiring a hit man to murder her husband but really was being video-recorded with an undercover police officer. Merfeld’s sentencing is set for 1:30 p.m. today, July 30. Chief Muskegon County Circuit Judge William C. Marietti earlier committed to cap her minimum sentence at six years in state prison, but he has the discretion to set her maximum sentence at anything up to life. Merfeld pleaded guilty June 27 to solicitation to murder. MLive and the Muskegon Chronicle will cover the sentencing live online...

"Does anybody think it's OK to have 40-year-old trees growing through the roofs of dilapidated houses?" -- Detroit's Emergency Manager Kevyn Orr "A few years ago, the nonpartisan Bay Area Center for Voting Research rated Detroit as the most liberal city in America." -- Michael Tanner Detroit was once one of the world's great cities. It was the 4th largest metropolis in America, jobs were plentiful because of the auto industry, and Motown even kept it on the cutting edge musically. Unfortunately, from 1962 until the present day, the mayor of Detroit has been a Democrat. The result? Detroit's...

Despite the Motor City's bankruptcy filing last week, its abundant engineering talent and car history lure Chinese automobile companies seeking global expansion, as Michael Barris reports from Detroit. Detroit is still Motor City - at least to Chinese automotive companies doing business here. In the past decade, dozens of them have been drawn to the area, not just because of its existing infrastructure, supply network, abundance of skilled workers or tax benefits, but because of Detroit's pivotal role in automobile history. "It is the center of modern vehicle technology," proclaims John Yang, chief metallurgist with ZYNP International, the US distribution...

JACKSON, MI – While efforts to terminate her parental rights were pending, Bridget Marks, a mother of three, appeared as a stripper on The Jerry Springer Show. “They don’t watch Jerry Springer in my house,” Marks, 23, responded when Assistant Prosecutor Kati Rezmierski asked her if she would want her children to see the show, which aired May 3. There is no nudity in the episode, titled “Strippers Go Round and Round,” and Marks said she was paid for her appearance. Marks, who said she no longer works as a dancer, was testifying Monday, July 29, during a family court...

Liberals incessantly claim fealty to “science,” while falsely caricaturing libertarians and conservatives as the ones stubbornly ideological and averse to real-world facts. Scientific method, however, involves objective observation and testing beliefs against results. In that vein, it is liberals who prove habitually impervious to facts and the disastrous real-world results of their philosophies. Take gun control as one recurring example. Liberals persist in their anti-Second Amendment crusade despite irrefutable data that America’s murder rate has been cut in half over the past three decades even while gun possession has reached record highs and firearms restrictions have drastically receded across America....

**SNIP** Usually, they vote with their feet and leave. But in extreme cases like Detroit, they simply fail to pay them: Nearly half of the owners of Detroit's 305,000 properties failed to pay their tax bills last year, exacerbating a punishing cycle of declining revenues and diminished services for a city in a financial crisis, according to a Detroit News analysis of government records. ... "Why pay taxes?" asked Fred Phillips, who owes more than $2,600 on his home on an east-side block where five owners paid 2011 taxes. "Why should I send them taxes when they aren't supplying services?...