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May 10, 2013: EAA / Buena Vista / Kevyn Orr declares crisis
The Education Achievement Authority takes over lowest performing schools. Plus, the city’s financial picture is worse than we thought, and Kevyn Orr is setting himself up for bankruptcy. All this and more local Detroit headlines, this week on MiWeek. Topics of Discussion: Education Achievement Authority improves the academic performance of children in Detroit Buena Vista [...]

May 3, 2013: Roy Roberts/Gary Peters/Detroit Mayoral Race
Topics of Discussion: Roy Roberts, Emergency Manager of Detroit Public Schools, retires Stabalizing Detroit Public Schools Gary Peters Senate Run Dave Bing speaks out, Detroit’s Mayoral Race The MiWeek team takes a look at what’s next for Detroit Public Schools and the Detroit mayoral election is right around the corner, Mike Duggan leads in the [...]

April 26, 2013: Education Reform / Re-election Plans / Lansing Film Incentives
Topics of Discussion: “Skunk works” Education Meeting Mayor Bing for re-election…maybe? Kevyn Orr Speaks Turkia Mullins Lansing Film Credits The MiWeek team discusses the effectiveness of the ‘skunk works’ education panel. Is this a voucher model, or school choice model? Plus, Christy, Nolan, and Stephen take a look at the possibility of Mayor Bing running [...]

- Stephen Henderson: Bing unleashes a political shocker in a city where nothing's shocking
In a city where political twists and turns and surprises are normal as the river flow, this one definitely startled me. But that feeling quickly gave way to at least a little panic. - Stephen Henderson & Nancy Kaffer: Grim truth of the Orr report is that bankruptcy very much on the table
It's hard to imagine how something could be disappointing and illuminating at the same time, but Detroit emergency manager Kevyn Orr might have pulled it off with his 45-day report on the city's finances. - Stephen Henderson: Delinquent loans show Detroit still has a long way to go on comeback trail
In total, downtown and Midtown developers are delinquent right now on nearly $25 million in federal Housing and Urban Development (HUD) loans they got through city government, according to the city's records. And because the loans were advanced on the city's federal block grant allocation, the non-payments mean about 20% of Detroit's annual HUD funding - $7 million that would go to mostly neighborhood-based projects - is being withheld. - Stephen Henderson: Running prisons for profit so wrong, it's almost criminal
Conservative lawmakers think the problem's spending, and they're pushing privatization hard - of food services, medical care and other services. And there's no question: Michigan is one of only a few states that invests more in prison bars than it does in colleges and universities. But a more thoughtful critique of the state's prison system would focus on how long we keep people locked up, and what we do to ensure that once they're back out, they don't re-offend.

- Nolan Finley: Press' wake-up a nightmare for Obama
If a scandal falls in Washington and the media heavyweights ignore it, does it make a noise? - Nolan Finley: Success starts with a good mom
Going through my mother's things, I came across my sixth-grade report card. Ouch. Your permanent record is less painful viewed through the filter of an aging memory than it is on paper. - Nolan Finley: Trump looks at Detroit, and 2016
The host of television's "Celebrity Apprentice" was more optimistic about the Motor City than he was about the GOP, which he says is tying itself in knots to pander for votes. - Nolan Finley: Column: Detroit settles on new police chief
Detroit may be just a week or two away from having a new police chief. A job offer should go out late this week to Cincinnati Police Chief James Craig, a native Detroiter who is the consensus choice of Emergency Manager Kevyn Orr and the city's Police Commission.




