I’m verklempt

Last Saturday, the band Garbage had a concert in Detroit. Two of the concert goers were Scott Sauter and Domenick Viviano. The two had flown to California in the past to a benefit show for a friend of the band named Wally who was very sick, something that clearly impressed lead singer Shirley Mason. How impressed?

Click through to find out. (Do it. You won’t be sorry.)

Roy Roberts may be a convincing liar but he is still a liar

Michigan’s experiment with Emergency Managers has begun to catch national attention, thanks largely to the efforts of Rachel Maddow and her staff. One of the things that has become quite clear from the things I have written about here and the terrific reporting by The Rachel Maddow Show is that, despite the fact that our state is relying on budget-cutting Emergency Managers to solve problems that are complex and multi-faceted, they have yet to show that they actually WORK. Simply stated, outside of one tiny village, there has yet to be a city or school district that has emerged out from under and Emergency Financial Manager or an Emergency Manager and remained financially stable.

The Detroit Public Schools has been under the control of an Emergency Manager or Emergency Financial Manager for many years. The first Emergency Financial Manager, Robert Bobb, actually left the school district in a bigger financial hole than when he arrived. He was replaced by Governor Snyder by an auto industry marketing and sales guy, Roy Roberts.

Roberts is very proud of his work and went on national television to tell the world that the Detroit Public Schools are back and, not only are they back, they are kicking some serious academic ass, surpassing the state average MEAP scores in a majority of categories.

As it turns out, it was a complete lie. Click through for details.

The country is waking up to what’s happening in Michigan

The U.S. Department of Education is investigating a civil rights complaint over the use of Emergency Managers in the Detroit Public Schools. The complaint alleges that black and brown students are being singled out for takeover of their school systems while kids in majority white districts facing similar financial problems aren’t similarly impacted. It also claims that black and brown students face discipline that their white counterparts do not.

More after the jump.

Well, that was quick

Standard and Poor’s Rating Services didn’t wait for Detroit’s new Emergency Financial Manager Kevyn Orr to actually accomplish anything or, in fact, to even begin his first day on the job. Yesterday they went ahead an upgraded Detroit’s outlook rating from “negative” to “stable”.

These Emergency Managers are like wizards or something! Orr doesn’t start his new job until March 25th, a week from now.

Details and more after the jump.

It’s good to be the king banker

There’s a story emerging out of Detroit about the role too-big-to-fail banks have played in the creation of Detroit’s fiscal emergency. Last week, Dave Dayen reported at the National Memo that some banks have begun foreclosure proceedings on homeowners and then simply walked away before taking possession of the property. This leaves evicted homeowners on the hook financially for the home they are no longer permitted to live in. What’s worse is that the banks don’t even have to inform the homeowner or the city of Detroit which no longer receives any tax revenue from the property.

Not only that, banks have been reaping huge profits in debt restructuring fees and, as added salt in the wound of a city in crisis, Republicans have ensured that these same banks will be paid in full as Detroit works to get out from under its crushing debt.

Much more after the jump.

Aww, geez…

I don’t want to beat this guy up too much since he’s just getting started and I feel compelled to wish him success in his job. He is a Democrat, after all, and I think we ALL want Detroit to do well. However, one would hope that the guy tasked with saving Detroit from its financial disaster would be a bit more detail oriented than this. It turns out Kevyn Orr has two outstanding tax liens on properties he owns in Maryland. They are related to unpaid unemployment taxes.

Oops.

Details after the jump.

And so it is done

[Caricature by DonkeyHotey from photos by Anne C. Savage for Eclectablog, not for reuse.]

This afternoon, Michigan Governor Rick Snyder appointed Washington, D.C. lawyer Kevyn Orr to be the Emergency Financial Manager of Detroit.

The Emergency Financial Assistance Loan Board has to make the formal appointment of an emergency financial manager and they meet later today.

With that, nearly half of all Michigan African Americans will live without local democratically-elected representation.

Lucky for him he’s a lawyer. I suspect that’s going to come in very handy in the coming months.

Impatience is not a virtue

Anyone paying attention to Detroit’s plight knows that their current financial crisis goes back for decades. Housing policies that favored white flight to the suburbs, the decline of the oh-so-important-to-Detroit auto manufacturing industry and the Great Recession have all taken their toll on this aging manufacturing city. Years of neglect and a blind eye toward investment in our state’s largest city have created a perfect storm that has resulted in it a huge chunk of its population. Many of those that remain do so only because they are too desperately poor to escape.

Despite this, Governor Rick Snyder and his administration are giving up on a consent agreement signed with the city last year after only 10 months. The agreement, signed in April of 2012, simply didn’t solve problems that have been in the making since the middle of the last century quickly enough for these Republicans so tomorrow Governor Snyder is expected to appoint Washington, D.C. lawyer Kevyn Orr to be the new overseer of the city.

Click through for more.

The world is watching Here is the video from my appearance yesterday on the Inside Story Americas discussion program on Aljazeera English TV. I must say I was VERY impressed with the quality of the show. The production values and the staff, including the most-excellent host and moderator Shihab Rattansi, were all top-notch and give other cable news shows a […]

The world IS watching Tonight I will appear with two other guests on Aljazeera English TV‘s flagship discussion program Inside Story Americas. I and two other guests will be discussing Detroit’s financial emergency and the possible imposition of an Emergency Financial Manager to run the city. It appears that the decision to overrule local democracy by the state government in […]

The Curse of the Living Romneys

Michigan, a state which had a Romney for governor and then endured over a year’s worth of a man who hasn’t lived here in sixty years telling us he is a Michigander, doesn’t seem to be able wash the Romney kids out of its hair.

First, Slate’s Davie Weigel suggested Mitt Romney as a the perfect candidate to be Detroit’s Emergency Financial Manager. And now Mitt’s older brother Scott Romney is considering a run for Carl Levin’s Senate seat.

Why won’t they leave us alone?

Click through for details.