Fed up with the Detroit Police Commission’s mountain of uninvestigated complaints — and no approved plan to deal with them — a federal judge is hauling the city into court this morning to explain why it shouldn’t be penalized for repeatedly missing deadlines.

U.S. District Judge Julian Abele Cook Jr. issued a strongly worded four-page order Wednesday saying he “will not tolerate the city’s cavalier approach toward complying with this court’s orders.”

Cook said there are 1,100 backlogged complaints with the Office of Chief Investigator, and the city has not met his deadline orders for a plan to address them and come up with a case-management plan.

He said the city, “notwithstanding the court’s unequivocal instructions” missed a 4 p.m. Monday deadline to deliver the plans or ask for an extension. The extension request was filed 25 minutes after the deadline — and the judge noted that his staff had reminded the city of the looming deadline on Friday.

Cook’s chastisement is the latest snag in the city’s efforts to meet police department reforms mandated in federal consent decrees. The decrees resulted from a federal probe after a 2000 Free Press series exposed the high rate of people killed by police and slipshod investigations.

The case has been given extensions while the city struggles to come up with acceptable reforms on use of force, tracking officers’ performance and treatment of prisoners.

Police commission Chairman Mohamed Okdie said the board has only 18 investigators, and a request for another 18 is pending before the Detroit City Council.

Okdie said investigators’ tasks range from complaints of an officer’s demeanor to whether policies were followed in the fatal shootings of Officer Brian Huff and 7-year-old Aiyana Stanley-Jones.

“We are getting rid of the backlogged cases,” Okdie said. “It can be done, just not as fast as the judge wants.

“Even if we clear up 400, 500 or 600 complaints since January, we have another 400, 500 or 600 complaints coming in.”

Source:freep.com/ JOE SWICKARD

An Army investigation has found that potentially hundreds of remains at Arlington National Cemetery have been misidentified or misplaced, in a scandal marring the reputation of the nation’s pre-eminent burial ground for its honored dead since the Civil War.

Army Secretary John McHugh announced Thursday that the cemetery’s two civilian leaders would be forced to step aside, and he appointed a new chief to conduct a more thorough investigation to examine the graves and sort out the mix-up.

“I deeply apologize to the families of the honored fallen resting in that hallowed ground who may now question the care afforded to their loved ones,” McHugh told a Pentagon news conference.

Arlington National Cemetery is considered among the nation’s most hallowed burial sites, with more than 300,000 people buried there with military honors. An average of 30 funerals are conducted there every day.

Among those buried at the cemetery are troops killed in Iraq and Afghanistan, as well service members from past conflicts dating back to the Civil War.

The cemetery, located across the Potomac River from Washington in northern Virginia, attracts more than 4 million visitors annually.

Led by the service’s inspector general, Lt. Gen. Steven Whitcomb, the investigation found lax management of the cemetery, where employees relied on paper records to manage the dozens of burials each week and maintain the thousands of existing gravesites.

Whitcomb said at least 211 remains were identified as potentially mislabeled or misplaced and that there could be more.

Source:The Detroit News/ Anne Flaherty and Pauline Jelinek

The Detroit Downtown Partnership and After5Detroit kicked off a program Wednesday aimed at showing nearly 400 young professionals starting out in Detroit that the city has plenty to offer after the work day ends. Ten city restaurants supplied food for the event at the Boll Family YMCA, while some tourism-focused companies provided information on their services. The event attracted mostly summer interns, but included new hires who were encouraged to network.

“I just got here 10 minutes ago,” said Sean Williams, a 24-year-old Michigan State University senior who is interning at Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan, “and I’ve already talked to 10 people.”

The idea is to show the young professionals flocking to the suburbs after work that they will miss “good times” this summer in downtown Detroit, said Kerry Doman, founder of After5Detroit.com. It is also intended to persuade more young professionals to work and stay in the city.

“When you graduate, we want you to see yourself here,” Doman said. “If they have a really fun experience here this summer — meet some really cool people — then they might consider staying here.”

Many college interns have misconceptions about Detroit that keep them from exploring the city and getting involved, she said.

The program will try to fight those by providing an Eastern Market tour, kickball tournament and several parties. It costs $95 to join, but many Detroit businesses are paying the fee for their employees in an effort to improve company retention rates.

Source:The Detroit News/ Tim Devaney

Local 4 Doctor Frank McGeorge takes a look at the science behind flip flops.

Click Link below to View Video:

http://www.clickondetroit.com/video/23798899/

The basics sound familiar — text messages sent on a city-issued pager reveal a steamy affair between a city official and a mistress.

But the case now before the U.S. Supreme Court relates to Sgt. Jeff Quon, an Ontario, Calif., police officer, not to former Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick.

How the Supreme Court decides the case about text message privacy has implications not just for Kilpatrick and his attempts to recover damages from former Detroit text message provider SkyTel, but for all employees who use company-issued communications equipment, experts say.

“I think the smart thing to do if you’re an employee is to assume everything on your company-issued devices is subject to becoming public,” said Jeremy Gray, a partner in a Los Angeles law firm who specializes in employment law and has written about the Quon case.

“Make sure you’re not using those devices for some sort of shenanigans.”

Quon’s extramarital affair was revealed after police officials audited officers’ text messages to find out to what extent they were being used for nonpolice business. Quon, a member of a SWAT team that was on call 24/7, was told the messages were subject to audit. But Quon’s boss said he wouldn’t read the text messages as long as Quon paid for any overage fees, which Quon did.

The key issue is whether Quon had a reasonable expectation of privacy, since his employers knew he did some personal texting and his boss said he wouldn’t read the messages.

Kilpatrick’s texts, containing sexually explicit exchanges between himself and his former chief of staff, Christine Beatty, as well as evidence of trysts with other women, were released to attorney Michael Stefani through a police whistle-blower lawsuit and later leaked to the Detroit Free Press.

Though the circumstances are different, Quon and Kilpatrick share an important legal argument. Both cite the federal Stored Communications Act in saying their city’s text message provider never should have released the messages without their consent.

Expectations at issue

In Quon’s case, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the city of Ontario’s text pager provider, Arch Wireless, violated the Stored Communications Act when it turned over transcripts of Quon’s text messages to the city. The court found that only the sender and recipient could consent to the release of the messages.

In March, Kilpatrick filed an amended complaint in Hinds County Circuit Court in Mississippi, alleging SkyTel similarly violated the federal law when it turned his text messages over to Stefani in response to a civil case subpoena. That case is pending.

The appeals court’s finding that the city of Ontario violated the Stored Communications Act is not part of the appeal before the Supreme Court — only the question of whether Quon had a reasonable expectation of privacy in connection with his personal texts. But the issues are linked.

“You would agree, I think, that if the … Stored Communications Act, if that made it illegal to disclose those e-mails, then (Quon) would certainly be correct that he has a reasonable expectation of privacy; isn’t that right?” Chief Justice John Roberts asked during oral arguments April 19.

“No, Mr. Chief Justice, we would not agree with that,” replied Kent Richland, an attorney for the city.

“It’s not reasonable to assume that people are going to follow the law?” asked the chief justice.

Decision likely in fall

Despite those questions from Roberts, Gray and other analysts who followed the oral argument believe the court will likely rule that Quon had no expectation of privacy, and even if he did have one, the city had reasonable grounds to look at his messages as a way of auditing whether it was paying for personal messages sent on public time.

The decision, expected this fall, “certainly isn’t going to help (Kilpatrick),” Gray said.

Source:detroitnews.com/ Paul Egan

The mayor of Gary, Indiana, and Michael Jackson’s father, Joe, on Wednesday will announce “a major move forward” to bring a museum and performance arts center bearing the singer’s name to the city.

Mayor Rudy Clay has said the project has the potential to bring 500,000 to 750,000 visitors to Gary and an annual income of $100 million to $150 million dollars to the community.

 In addition, the Jackson Family Museum and a Michael Jackson Performing Arts Center will generate hundreds of construction jobs and thousands of full-time jobs for the community when the project is completed, the mayor said in a press release.

 Joe and Katherine Jackson started their large family in a two-bedroom house in a working-class neighborhood in Gary. All 10 Jackson children were born in Gary between 1950 and 1966, including one who was stillborn.

 The Jacksons moved from Gary to Los Angeles, California, in 1971 amid the success of the Jackson 5 group, which featured Michael Jackson and four older brothers.

 Their home at 2300 Jackson Street is still a shrine for the occasional tourist.

Jackson died on June 25, 2009.

Source:CNN.com

An independent autopsy found that 7-year-old Aiyana Stanley-Jones was shot in the head, not the neck, and the Wayne County Medical Examiner has corrected the girl’s cause of death.

Geoffrey Fieger said Tuesday the new findings contradict official accounts of the girl’s fatal shooting by a police officer during a botched raid at Aiyana’s home on the city’s east side.

Fieger said the autopsy conducted by Macomb County Medical Examiner Daniel Spitz also offers proof that the fatal shot was fired through the home’s open door — not after an officer entered the house and had a confrontation or collision with the girl’s grandmother.

“I just wonder why you keep saying it was an accident. He shot purposefully,” said Fieger, who has filed a lawsuit on behalf of the family claiming negligence and a police cover-up.

“I’m not suggesting that he knew what he was shooting at. I’m telling you that he pulled the trigger and shot into the house. That’s not an accident. Why he did it, I can’t tell you. What he was aiming at, I can’t tell you, but I can tell you it’s not an accident.”

County officials confirmed the death certificate issued five days after Aiyana’s May 16 death was corrected Friday to reflect the new findings. The original certificate issued on May 21 listed Aiyana’s only injury as a gunshot wound to the neck. A county spokesman said Tuesday the death certificate was issued prior to the final written conclusions of the official autopsy, which remain unavailable to the public.

Spitz was hired by the family to analyze the death. He determined in his report that a bullet entered through the top of the girl’s head, passed through her brain, exited through her neck and grazed her chest.

“The day after her death, you began to receive disinformation from the Detroit Police Department,” said Fieger.

Officials from the Detroit Police and Michigan State Police, which is investigating the girl’s death, didn’t return calls Tuesday. Police have said the fatal shot came from the gun of Officer Joseph Weekley.

Police raided the home on Lillibridge a block from Mack Avenue in search of a murder suspect. They arrested Chauncey Owens in a simultaneous raid on an upstairs flat in the same building. The homes have separate addresses and entrances. Owens was bound over for trial Tuesday in the May 14 slaying of 17-year-old Jerean Blake in a parking lot not far from Aiyana’s home.

Fieger claimed the findings offer proof of a police cover-up and attempt to lay blame for the girl’s death on her grandmother.

Mertilla Jones, 46, has said a stun grenade thrown by police through a front window about 12:30 a.m. caused her to tumble from the living room sofa where she and her granddaughter were sleeping. She has said she never touched the officer, but yelled at him, “You f’ed up. Gone and killed my grandbaby.” She said another officer scooped up the bleeding girl and ran with her outside. The girl was rushed to a hospital where she was pronounced dead an hour later.

Mertilla Jones was arrested and her family was told she had tried to grab the officer’s gun. She was released about 12 hours later after police announced the two may have collided in the dark.

She said Tuesday that animations of the scene prepared by Fieger’s office were accurate with her recollections of the events. Fieger said he assumes police recovered the spent bullet from somewhere inside the house, which could also help prove the trajectory of the shot.

The new autopsy “completely disproves this false claim that there was some kind of struggle inside the house,” Fieger said.

Feiger also backed away from earlier claims he made about the flash grenade causing burns to the girl’s body. On Tuesday, Fieger said the girl’s blanket was burned, but not the girl.

Soon after the tragedy, Fieger said he was shown a video recording of officers gathering on the front porch that showed the shot was fired from outside the home. He said Spitz’s analysis confirms that scenario. Fieger said he only saw the video but has assurances he will be given a copy.

He implied Tuesday that the video isn’t the same as recordings made of the raid by a camera crew from the A&E network for the reality show “The First 48.”

All of the video recordings were made from outside the home, and Fieger said the one he was shown clearly shows a “muzzle flash” from an officer’s gun after he kicked open the door and before he entered the house.

He said he is uncertain what the A&E video might show, but he challenged Detroit Police Chief Warren Evans to show the video to the public. The show’s tapes reportedly were given to Michigan State Police investigators.

Fieger said he wants the city to apologize to the family and, “secondly, I want them to tell the truth.”

Aiyana’s father, Charles Jones, seated next to Fieger at the press conference Tuesday, said, “The truth.”

He said nothing else.

Source:The Detroit News/ Doug Guthrie and Mike Wilkinson

Pistons owner Karen Davidson filled up wheelbarrow after wheelbarrow with mulch. Bob Lanier swept a renovated basketball court . James Edwards and Tim McCormick painted.

Members of the Pistons, the NBA Players Association and NBA Care came together with Detroit Mayor Dave Bing to help launch Leadership Detroit on Wednesday at Butzel Family Center on Detroit’s east side.

About 100 volunteers from Palace Sports & Entertainment and United Way helped renovate the center.

“I helped in the computer lab,” said 12-year-old Amari Posey, who regularly comes to Butzel for after-school activities. “I’m excited that we’re all coming together. Most of all, I’m excited about how great the computer lab is going to look after we’re done.”

The old computer lab, which had outdated computers, was revamped with 15 new computers. The building’s old peach-colored walls were repainted red, white and blue — the same color scheme used by the Pistons. An outdoor play-scape was repainted and mulch was added to the area. An activity area was renovated with a television, a foosball table, a pool table and an air hockey table. An outdoor basketball court was resurfaced, and graffiti was removed. The volunteers also created six paintings that will hang in the facility, including one that will welcome seniors and youth to the center.

“We didn’t want to pick a facility that we had to start from scratch,” said Bing. “We wanted to make sure that whatever investment was going to be made was going to be an add-on of what is already here. A lot of people forget about the east side, but our leader here has done a good job, and she didn’t have to do much to convince me that this was the right place.”

Bing was referring to Cecilia Walker, who has worked at Butzel for seven years, the past three as director.

“It’s always been a dream to improve or enhance the appearance of the center, while adding additional opportunities for the young people, as well as the seniors,” Walker said. “The peach was OK in its day, but it was time for a makeover.”

Former Piston Derrick Coleman , who grew up in Detroit, said he knows how important the renovated Butzel will be to the community and said more people need to get involved.

“We used to have this when I was growing up, and we kind of got away from it,” Coleman said. “It’s great to see the mayor bringing this back.”

Source:freep.com/ GEORGE SIPPLE

Actress Vanessa Williams will trade her scheming ways on TV comedy “Ugly Betty” for a role on a show where just about everyone seems to be plotting something: “Desperate Housewives.”

The ABC network said on Tuesday that Williams will play “a wicked new housewife” in the upcoming new season starting in September, in a regular role that will see her make an appearance in just about every episode.

“Desperate Housewives,” which had its 2010 season finale on Sunday, stars Teri Hatcher, Marcia Cross, Felicity Huffman and Eva Longoria Parker as four denizens of suburban Wisteria Lane. Their lives are more dramatic and often times sordid than the facade they try to maintain, but they stay close friends.

Williams played Wilhelmina Slater, an editor of fashion magazine MODE on the ABC comedy “Ugly Betty,” which ran from 2006 until it was canceled this year.

Her character, Wilhelmina, butted heads with the wealthy scion of the publishing family that owned MODE, as she tried to wrestle away control of the company in a series of secret schemes.

Williams was nominated for three Emmy Awards for her role on “Ugly Betty.” She currently stars in the Broadway musical “Sondheim on Sondheim.”

Williams in 1984 became the first black Miss America. But she resigned the crown amid controversy when nude photos of her, taken before the beauty pageant, were published in Penthouse magazine.

On the strength of her singing talents, Williams staged a comeback with her 1988 debut album “The Right Stuff.” After that, she scored hits with such songs as “Save the Best for Last” and won an Academy Award, a Golden Globe and a Grammy for her song “Colors of the Wind” from the 1995 movie “Pocahontas.”

Source:msnbc.com