Tagged: Detroit

Detroit Mayor Dave Bing will not seek re-election.

Bing made that announcement after months of indecision. He frustrated reporters weeks ago when he pulled petitions for re-election, only to say he hadn't committed to running.

Then he called a press conference, and handed out pamphlets highlighting his successes in office.

Then he spoke for nearly 20 minutes about his achievements before announcing "that I have decided not to seek another term as mayor Detroit."

Bing said his political career might not be over.

DETROIT (AP) - Dave Bing has scheduled an announcement on his political future Tuesday, the deadline to file for a second 4-year term as Detroit's mayor.

Four p.m. Tuesday is the filing deadline.

Bing spokesman Bob Warfield said in an email Monday night that Bing would "make a major announcement about his political future" at noon Tuesday at the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History.

Buena Vista could hold summer camps for students

There could be a solution for the students in Saginaw County’s Buena Vista district to finish out the school year.  A plan to use federal funds to run voluntary “skills camps” that focus on reading, math, and writing will be presented this evening to the local school board.

"The Buena Vista superintendent says it’s a creative solution that would allow students to finish out the school year," Michigan Radio's Rick Pluta reports.

Man with pressure cooker arrested at Detroit Metro Airport

On Saturday Hussain al Khawahir was taken into custody at the Detroit Metro Airport. He tried to enter the US from Saudi Arabia with an altered passport, and lied to security officers about why he was carrying a pressure cooker. Al Khawahir will have a bond hearing this afternoon, reports Michigan Radio's Kate Wells.

Detroit Mayor to make announcement about future

Detroit Mayor Dave Bing has scheduled an announcement for today at noon. Bing's spokesman Bob Warfield said that Bing would "make a major announcement about his political future." Today is the deadline to file for a second 4-year term as mayor, the Associated Press reports.

“Huh.”

That is a completely understandable reaction the first time people see the Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit’s new exhibit. It’s called “Mobile Homestead.”

The "work of art" is a mobile house, a suburban-looking, one-story, white ranch house. It's the kind of house they've seen a million times before.

So why is the modern art world, the New York Times, and the Wall Street Journal breathlessly declaring this house one of the most significant, world-renowned pieces of 2013?

It's a simple formula. Don't spend more than you make.

Charles Dickens' character "Mr. Micawber" expressed it this way in David Copperfield:

"Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure nineteen [pounds] nineteen [shillings] and six [pence], result happiness. Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure twenty pounds ought and six, result misery."

"Misery" describes the city of Detroit's problems over the last several years.

Detroit has been breaking Micawber's rule for some time. In his report released last night, Detroit Emergency Manager Kevyn Orr wrote this:

Excluding proceeds from debt issuances, the City's expenditures have exceeded revenues from fiscal year 2008 to fiscal year 2012 by an average of $100 million annually.

Here's a representation of Detroit spending more than it makes in graph form:

I had dinner recently with Elaine Stritch, the Broadway legend who in later years, won new television audiences with her work on everything from The Cosby Show to 30 Rock.

She is 88 now and after living in New York and London since World War II, moved back to her hometown recently, back to greater Detroit. And I was curious about why. Yes, she has some family here, but as Stritch candidly said, she has enough money that she could live anywhere. She told me, it was the sun.

Detroit sunshine is like that of nowhere else in the world, she said, inviting, bright and warm even on chilly days. “In New York, well, the sun is a cold and distant thing,” she said.