Tagged: hansen clarke

Several weeks ago, I was contacted by someone attempting to smear Congressman Hansen Clarke, who faces a tough primary race next month to try and keep his job.

The writer told me that he had uncovered the fact that the congressman’s father was from a different country and gave his son a different name, which he later changed. Well, not only had I known that, I had written about it.

Clarke has never made a secret of either that his father was from Pakistan. Nor was it a secret that the boy was named Molik Hashem, a name he later Anglicized.

Although Michigan’s foreclosure activity declined in the first quarter of 2012, Michigan still has the 7th highest foreclosure rate in the country.

Democratic Congressman Hansen Clarke represents Michigan’s 13th district. This week he's in Washington D. C. and hopes to introduce a bill that would suspend home foreclosures nationally for up to three years.

A small crowd camped out inside the building that houses state offices in Detroit Friday.

The group was there to protest Michigan’s emergency manager law, Public Act 4—and the state’s plans to use it in Detroit.

The protest was small and peaceful, if loud, with prayers and song. Tempers did flare briefly when private security guards tried to force protesters to leave.

U.S. Representative Hansen Clarke (D-Detroit) wants the state to hold off on plans to appoint a financial advisory board to oversee things in Detroit.

Clarke is quoted in the Detroit News saying "even though Detroit is in a financial crisis, this current financial board has the power and the focus to cut staff, outsource departments and sell assets. That's not the way you get out of a financial crisis."

From the Detroit News:

Clarke says he wants the federal government to provide relief similar to what was given to New York City in 1975 to keep it from going into bankruptcy.

Clarke, who says he's prepared to introduce legislation in Congress next week, says he understands it's a long shot, but said the idea is worth pursuing. Any legislation would have to be passed through the Republican-led House and Democratic-led Senate.

The race for Michigan's 14th Congressional District just got more crowded. The Detroit Free Press reports today that former state Rep. Mary Waters has thrown her hat in the ring, competing for a congressional seat representing the western half of Detroit.

Waters, a Democrat from Detroit, will be facing U.S. Reps. Gary Peters (D-Bloomfield Township), Hansen Clarke (D-Detroit), and Southfield Mayor Brenda Lawrence for her party's nomination, the Free Press reports.

While Waters nearly won a congressional seat back in 2008, the Free Press writes, her recent record is a bit more rocky:

Waters’ fortunes faded when she pleaded guilty in 2010 to a misdemeanor count of filing a false tax return related to a bribery scandal involving her one-time boyfriend Sam Riddle. She tried to withdraw her plea, but the U.S. Court of Appeals affirmed the plea last year and Waters was sentenced to one year of probation.

Michigan Radio's Rick Pluta reported last year on a related story involving Waters and Sam Riddle:

Michigan native and GOP Presidential candidate Mitt Romney is drawing fire from Michigan Democrats for remarks he made on a radio program this week.

At the very end of a radio interview Romney called the Chevy Volt “an idea whose time has not come.”

There was little context for the remark, but Democrats seized on it. They say it’s part of a pattern of Romney “rooting for the US auto industry to fail.”

Detroit Congressman Hansen Clarke says “time is of the essence” for his proposed Detroit Jobs Trust Fund Act.

That’s legislation Clarke has proposed that would divert federal taxes collected in Detroit into a trust--about $2 billion annually over five years. That money would then be used to finance jobs and infrastructure projects.

Detroit Congressman Hansen Clarke says the growing “Occupy” movement is helping his efforts to push for student loan debt relief.

Clarke introduced a resolution in July encouraging Congress to focus on what he calls the country’s “true debt problem.” Student loan debt is expected to surpass $1 trillion this year.

Clarke says the issue is gaining traction in Congress as a way to lessen household debt and jumpstart the economy.

He says relief should focus on federally-guaranteed student loans.

“I also want to reduce and maybe eliminate much of the compounded interest and fees and penalties that borrowers have to pay on top of the principal that they borrowed. See, all these fees and everything, and the interest…that’s what really adds up," Clarke said.

Clarke calls President Obama’s proposals for student loan relief “a good start,” but says Congress also needs to act.

No one has introduced such comprehensive legislation yet.