Tagged: Detroit

In the early 1980s, the city of Atlanta was known as the murder capitol of America. It's economy was flailing, much of the city was dangerous - the city needed help.

Sound familiar? 

The national image of Atlanta sounds alarmingly similar to how many Americans view the city of Detroit.

The city of Flint is dumping its contract with the Detroit Water and Sewerage Department.

Flint emergency manager Ed Kurtz signed a contract today to get the city’s water from a new pipeline that’s being built from Lake Huron to Genesee County.

Officials with Detroit's system made a final offer to try and keep Flint’s business. But Kurtz says the numbers were “unreliable.”

“After the first year…for 29 years they could raise those rates…do any kind of capital expenditures…anything they wanted to do…and just add them to our bill,” says Kurtz.

Today is the last chance for Detroit water department officials to make their case to keep Flint as a customer.

The state Treasury Department gave the Detroit Water and Sewerage Department until this evening to present its final best offer to the city of Flint.

Flint has been a DWSD customer for many years. But Flint city officials say they want to get their tap water from a new Karegnondi Water Authority pipeline being built from Lake Huron to Genesee County.

A newly awarded presidential permit will allow Michigan to wrap up an agreement with Canada to build a new international bridge. The bridge will connect Detroit and Windsor-Ontario. Michigan, U.S. and Canadian officials cheered the news today. 

DETROIT (AP) - A state prison on Detroit's east side will be reopened as a temporary detention center for anyone arrested in the city.

Mayor Dave Bing's office says the summer opening of the Mound Correctional Facility will free up about 40 police officers for street patrols. It was closed by the state in January 2012.

Officers currently are assigned to five police lockup facilities and a holding unit at Detroit Receiving Hospital where people who are arrested are held until their arraignments. Prisoners then are released to the Wayne County sheriff's office.

Bing's office says the five police lockups will be closed and that the Mound facility will hold up to 200 people.

The city launched an initiative last month that focuses on crime hot spots, drug arrests and enforcing traffic laws.