Free Republic

With all of the attention focused on the National Labor Relations Board these days, many people may not realize that there is another labor board that governs labor relations exclusively in the airlines and railroad industries. That labor board is the National Mediation Board (or NMB) and serves to enforce the 1926 Railway Labor Act. Right now, the NMB has its hands full with an ugly fight between unions that has just gotten uglier amid allegations of one of the unions forging signatures as three unions fight for which union(s) gets to claim $15 million per year union dues. Since...

We were going to suggest that this is the Detroit City Council’s way of pointing and yelling “squirrel,” except it wouldn’t be remotely believable because all of the squirrels moved out several years ago. Believe it or not, having just become the country’s largest municipal bankruptcy in history and with no other more pressing issues at hand, the Detroit City Council passed a resolution calling for a federal investigation of George Zimmerman. Detroit City Council passes Zimmerman investigation resolution goo.gl/fb/h56yx— 590 KZO News (@590KZONews) July 24, 2013 For many Twitter users, this only helps further explain what’s happened to...

The Deal on Detroit, Part II. Date Monday, July 22, 2013 at 01:40PM By Peter M. De Lorenzo Detroit. The headlines last week were terrible for those of us who call this region home, a kaleidoscope of every possible way to say that Detroit had run out of room and run out of time. Bankrupt. Broke. Busted. And now it’s all over but the hand-wringing and the legal wrangling for the Motor City. For those of us who live in the area, it was no surprise in the least. This city and this region have been teetering on the brink...

The Trayvon Martin speech of Barack Obama is the greatest symbol of his style of governance and the focus of his administration. Detroit became the largest city to declare bankruptcy last week, but Obama chose to stir the flames of racial division and give America a lecture on racism rather than address the factors that led to the Motor City's demise. This exemplifies how Obama perceives his office – it's more of a celebrity post than a seat of governance. There are countless examples. He preached on the necessity of Obamacare, but left the details of the law to Congress....

DETROIT (WWJ) – A new hockey arena for the Detroit Red Wings got another step closer to reality Wednesday with Michigan Strategic Fund Board approval of $450 million in bonds for the structure. State officials said the overall project, which includes a total of $650 million in arena costs and retail, residential and restaurant development around the arena on 45 acres, would create 4,380 construction jobs. The city’s bankruptcy is not expected to interfere with the project, which backers said consists of 56 percent private investment from Olympia Development and 44 percent public financing from tax capture in the Detroit...

In the city of Detroit, 60 percent of children reportedly live in poverty, 40 percent of the streetlights don't work, police take about an hour to respond to any call, it filed for bankruptcy protection last week, and, according to mayoral candidate Tom Barrow, it's all a lie. "Chess moves are thought way in advance," Barrow tells the local ABC affiliate WXYZ. Barrow was visiting the WXYZ studio to introduce himself to the public that may not know who he is, for a get-to-know-the-candidate-who-really-believes-all-of-your-city's-problems-are-entirely-made-up segment. "These are really big claims you're making...the way you're talking, these problems are all made...

Take Oakland, which is Detroit's doppelganger on the West Coast. The run-down Bay Area city, which has the highest crime rate in California, recently laid off more than 100 police to fund retirement benefits and pension-obligation bonds. Murders and robberies shot up by nearly 25% last year. To avert steeper cuts, the city borrowed an additional $210 million to finance pensions. . . Philadelphia is spending about 20% of its budget on pensions to make up for years of short-changing the system.

Detroit & other liberal success stories (Intellectual Froglegs S2E5 VIDEO)

“Of course, it’s an 85 percent black city,” Mr. Dyson replied. “It’s been perceived as a colony of black people who are ringed by suburban white areas that are now going into the city to plunder it. The perception is that there is a massive takeover of resources and materials and properties, basically being occupied.” “We have to acknowledge that part of this has to be the racial animus that has characterized that city for the last 50-some-odd years,” he continued. “The service industries hemorrhaged jobs in the inner city, depleted that city of its economic infrastructure and left it...

Other cities now on the radar include Cincinnati, Minneapolis, Portland, Ore., and Santa Fe, N.M. -- following Moody’s saying in April that they and 11 other municipalities were being reviewed for a possible credit downgrade, the result of a new analysis system that further considers pension liabilities. Though much of the national concerns have focused on pension liabilities, heath care costs for retired municipal employees pose an equally if not larger problem.

<p>What a difference four decades makes. In the mid-’70s, New York City’s threat of bankruptcy was a horror that the state, feds and city ultimately avoided. Last week, Detroit declared bankruptcy because Michigan thought it was the best choice — and Washington stayed silent.</p>

Tuesday, July 23, 2013 So Long Detroit Posted by Daniel Greenfield @ the Sultan Knish blog A century ago it was the lure of work that drew people from rural areas and far away countries to American cities. The big cities had jobs. Unlike rural areas, they had such high concentrations of them that if you moved there, then you might be able move from job to job without having to turn hobo and travel to find work. The big city offered workers to employers and employment to workers. That arrangement worked when cities were places where things were made....

Detroit City Council member JoAnn Watson on Tuesday introduced a resolution supporting the U.S. Justice Department's investigation into the Florida slaying of Trayvon Martin. Federal investigators are looking into whether or not George Zimmerman violated the teen's civil rights when he followed him in his gated neighborhood out of suspicion, leading to an altercation and the fatal shooting.

OK..I'm not a lawyer...haven't even stayed at a Holiday Inn Express in over a decade, and apologies to all in advance if this a dumb question. But I know there are lots of smart folks, even smart lawyers, here.

Within hours of Detroit filing the biggest municipal bankruptcy in U.S. history on July 18, French TV and other media followed up with the reassuring message that, in France at least, such a turn of events would be impossible. Under French law, municipalities are required to balance their budgets, and the national government can — and occasionally does — intervene to force them to comply. But take a closer a look at what’s been happening since the 2007 financial crisis, and a rather more nuanced, and surprising, picture emerges. For more than a dozen sizable towns and districts across France...

Agreeing with fellow MSNBC host Melissa Harris-Perry, Ed Schultz claimed that Detroit had filed for bankruptcy because the city had a government that was just too small. On Saturday, Schultz argued “Republican policies” led Detroit to become a “conservative utopia.” Harris-Perry last week said what is happening in Detroit occurs “when government is small enough to drown in your bathtub.” “Detroit, Michigan, used to be really a symbol of industrial strength and manufacturing in this country. But, thanks to a lot of Republican policies, the city is now filing for bankruptcy,” Schultz said over the weekend.

On Friday, a Michigan Circuit Judge Rosemarie Aquilina ruled Detroit bankruptcy is unconstitutional.   On Friday, a circuit court judge in Ingham County ruled that Detroit's federal bankruptcy filing violated a part of Michigan's constitution that protects union pensions. She ordered it withdrawn, a day after Detroit became the largest U.S. city in history to file for chapter nine bankruptcy.  Judge Rosemary Aquilina also said the filing did not honor President Barack Obama's work for the city, who she said "took [Detroit's auto companies] out of bankruptcy." Aquilina said she would send a copy of her order to Obama.  “It’s cheating, sir,...

It is so sad to watch one of America's greatest cities die a horrible death. Once upon a time, the city of Detroit was a teeming metropolis of 1.8 million people and it had the highest per capita income in the United States. Now it is a rotting, decaying hellhole of about 700,000 people that the rest of the world makes jokes about. On Thursday, we learned that the decision had been made for the city of Detroit to formally file for Chapter 9 bankruptcy. It was going to be the largest municipal bankruptcy in the history of the United...

Item condition: -- “Highly damaged, missing residents and defective infrastructure.” Time left: 4d 18h (Jul 26, 2013 15:01:35 PDT) Current bid: US $90,100.00 This is your chance to own a piece of America! Known for producing some of America's finest automobiles like the Chevy Vega and Ford Pinto, Detroit was once home to a bustling industrial and manufacturing economy. All it needs now is a little TLC (and approximately 3 trillion dollars). In addition to owning a little slice of Michigan, your purchase of Detroit gets you: •An honorary Detroit Pistons championship ring from 2004 •That cool Chrysler commercial with...

Detroit declared bankruptcy yesterday. Depending on which news source you follow, it’s big news, or it’s not. Many are calling on the federal government to bail out Detroit. After all, the Feds bailed out GM and Chrysler. Why not bail out a city in our fair country? Because then the entire tax base of the US is responsible for the misdeeds of one city. Can’t happen, and the Feds shouldn’t bail out states or private companies either. Chicago has its own pension and spending problems. But it’s not Detroit. Detroit’s economy was based on one industry. It was a one...