During his speech, the President touched on the economy and jobs, but focused primarily on rising tuition costs and college affordability. His proposed initiatives had the crowd very enthusiastic. To see his speech and the out line of his new initiatives click here.

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ANN ARBOR, Mich. (WXYZ) -Thousands of people gathered at the Al Glick Field House in Ann Arbor to watch President Obama speak at the University of Michigan Friday morning.

He arrived to a boisterous crowd.

“Hello Michigan! It is good to be back in Ann Arbor,” the President said – as he took the podium.

During his speech, the President touched on the economy and jobs, but focused primarily on rising tuition costs and college affordability.

“From now on I’m telling Congress, we should steer federal campus-based aid to those colleges that keep tuition affordable, provide good value [and] serve their students well. We are putting colleges on notice… if you can’t stop tuition from going up then the funding you get from taxpayers each year will go down,” said the President.

He told the crowd that the administration is working to expand the availability of grants and loans and make it easier for people to pay their student loans back.

“Thanks to the hard work of Secretary Duncan, my administration is increasing federal student aid so more students can afford college.”

President Obama is pushing against higher interest rates on student loans – which are expected to double in July.

“Your President and your First Lady were in your shoes not long ago,” the President said. He spoke about owing $24,000 in student loans. When that drew a cheer from one audience member, the President questioned whether that student also owed $24,000 in loans.

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Unless the Legislature steps in, a cut in the income tax rate — from 2.5% to 2.4% for residents and from 1.25% to 1.20% for nonresidents — will be required under a 1998 state law that was part of a deal to preserve the city’s state revenue-sharing payments in return for a gradual reduction in the income tax.

State Rep. Maureen Stapleton, D-Detroit, said Tuesday that the requirement is “ridiculous” and should be waived. Detroit needs to be able to control its destiny, and that includes setting its own tax rates, she said.

“I certainly would hope that the Legislature … would at least take the handcuffs off,” Stapleton said.

An analysis by the Citizens Research Council of Michigan, released Friday, estimates that the lost revenue to the city — or savings to taxpayers — would be about $8.5 million in the fiscal year that begins July 1.

The law allows the city to seek a waiver of annual rate cuts if it fails to meet benchmarks of financial health.

Detroit sought the waiver from a state administrative board in December. But it was denied because a Department of Treasury analysis found the city met only two of four indicators of financial stress: a depleted rainy day fund and high unemployment. The law requires three for the waiver to be granted.

Surprisingly, Detroit did not meet the threshold for financial distress for overall income tax revenue — Detroit’s rose slightly between 2010 and 2011 — and property values.

Read the rest of this article by Dawson Bell of the Lansing Bureau in the Detroit Free Press

Fielder and the Tigers agreed Tuesday to a nine-year, $214 million contract, a person familiar with the deal said. The AL Central champions boldly stepped up in the Fielder sweepstakes after the recent knee injury to star Victor Martinez. A week ago, the Tigers announced the productive designated hitter could miss the entire season after tearing his left ACL during offseason conditioning.

CBS first reported the agreement with Fielder.

The person told The Associated Press the deal was subject to a physical. The person spoke on condition of anonymity because the contract was not yet complete.

Several teams had shown interest this winter in Fielder, the free agent first baseman who had spent his entire career with the Milwaukee Brewers. He visited Texas, and the Washington Nationals also got involved in the discussions.

The Tigers won their division by 15 games before losing in the AL championship series to Texas. With Fielder now in the fold, general manager Dave Dombrowski and owner Mike Ilitch have a team that figures to enter the 2012 season as a favorite to repeat in the division — with an eye on winning the franchise’s first World Series title since 1984.

“Everyone knew Mr. Ilitch and Mr. Dombrowski were going to make a move when Victor went down,” outfielder Brennan Boesch said in a phone interview with the AP. “But I don’t think anybody thought it would be this big.”

The move also keeps Fielder’s name in the Tigers’ family. His father, Cecil, became a big league star when he returned to the majors from Japan and hit 51 home runs with Detroit in 1990. Cecil played with the Tigers into the 1996 season, and young Prince made a name for himself by hitting prodigious home runs in batting practice at Tiger Stadium.

In an interview with MLB Network Radio on SiriusXM, Cecil Fielder said he was “shocked” by the news that Prince was heading to Detroit.

“He’s been there in Detroit most of his young life so I think he’ll be comfortable in that place,” Cecil Fielder said. “I know Mr. Ilitch is probably excited because he’s been wanting that kid since he was a little kid, so he finally got his wish.”

With Cabrera and Fielder, Detroit will begin this season with two players under age 30 with at least 200 career homers. According to STATS LLC, that’s happened only once before. At the start of the 1961 season, the Milwaukee Braves featured 29-year-old Eddie Mathews (338 homers) and 27-year-old Hank Aaron (219).

Fielder hit .299 with 38 home runs and 120 RBIs last season. He is a three-time All-Star and was the MVP of last year’s event in Phoenix.

The beefy slugger has averaged 40 homers and 113 RBIs over the past five years. He’s also been among the most durable players in the majors, appearing in at least 157 games in each of the last six seasons.

Fielder hits left-handed, while Cabrera is a righty. Manager Jim Leyland will get to decide where to put them in the batting order.

“I don’t think there’s a better right-left combo in any lineup in baseball,” Boesch said. “I’m sure Skip’s wheels are already turning on how to set them up.”

And to think, the Tigers also have the American League’s reigning MVP and Cy Young Award winner — right-hander Justin Verlander.

Fielder’s deal is only the fourth $200 million contract in baseball history, following Alex Rodriguez’s $275 million, 10-year contract with the New York Yankees, A-Rod’s $252 million, 10-year deal with Texas and Albert Pujols’ $240 million, 10-year contract last month with the Los Angeles Angels.

Among current players, Fielder’s $23.78 million average salary is behind only A-Rod ($27.5 million), Ryan Howard ($25 million), and Cliff Lee and Pujols ($24 million each).

Dombrowski indicated last week he’d probably seek a short-term solution to Martinez’s injury, but he left himself some wriggle room, saying it depended who the replacement was.

Acquiring Fielder opens all sorts of possibilities. For now, Detroit has an opening at DH with Martinez out. But Martinez is in the second year of a $50 million, four-year contract.

One option could be to move Cabrera from first base to third. He played third base regularly for the Florida Marlins before the Tigers acquired him before the 2008 season.

Third baseman Brandon Inge has one year left on a two-year, $11.5 million deal with Detroit.

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The news came Wednesday amid signals that Obama and his 2012 campaign team will pay particular attention to Michigan, with new TV ads here and in three other states set to air beginning today.

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Obama is expected to talk about his speech to Congress, not the campaign. But there are increasing indications the president’s re-election team won’t rest on recent history to keep Michigan voting for a Democratic president. Democrats have won the last five elections.

Obama last visited metro Detroit in October, when he brought South Korean President Lee Myung-bak to the General Motors plant in Orion Township to promote a new free-trade agreement. Obama also visited Detroit for a Labor Day speech.

No details have been released, but a White House official told the Free Press that Obama will be in metro Detroit next Thursday and Friday, with an event planned Friday morning.

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The official spoke on condition of anonymity because the schedule hasn’t been released. It’s standard practice for presidents to make public appearances after unveiling their agenda in a State of the Union address.

Obama is expected to deliver the address to a joint session of Congress at 9 p.m. Tuesday.

Michigan is considered to possibly be in play this year, particularly if a native son — former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, who grew up in Bloomfield Hills — is the Republican nominee.

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In Detroit and elsewhere, the murder of Greene has been the subject of whispers and conjecture for years. The family of Greene filed suit against Kilpatrick and the city, claiming that the powers that be squelched the subsequent investigation.

In November, a federal judge dismissed the case. Now he’s releasing the testimony behind his decision. The Detroit Free Press reports:

Chief U.S. District Judge Gerald Rosen said he plans to unseal dozens of items, including the sworn testimony of then-Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick, two former police chiefs and several police executives who were questioned in the case — unless they file objections within 30 days.

It wasn’t immediately clear when the records would be made available.

Rosen said previously he wouldn’t release the testimony of several others, including former Michigan Attorney General Mike Cox, because they didn’t factor into his decision to toss the case.

Cox lost the 2010 Republican gubernatorial primary amid criticism about his handling of the investigation into the Manoogian party rumors. He didn’t take along State Police investigators to his interview with Kilpatrick and declared the rumor an urban legend.

Rosen previously said he also doesn’t plan to release the depositions of Kilpatrick’s wife, Carlita Kilpatrick, who was rumored to have assaulted a stripper at the 2002 party; former Kwame Kilpatrick top aide Christine Beatty; former city Law Department director Ruth Carter; two former Kilpatrick bodyguards, or Darrett King, the man some detectives said they believe killed Greene.

Read more at the Detroit Free Press

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Bing presented a financial and operational restructuring plan update to the council Thursday afternoon. It highlights cost savings from 1,000 imminent layoffs, overdue payments from the Detroit Public Schools district and a corporate tax increase he says will mitigate a cash shortfall.

The 18-month plan calls for $102 million in savings through June and $258 million over the 2013 fiscal year. Auditors had previously warned Detroit could run out of money as early as April.

Bing said members of a state review team won’t uncover any financial issues in the city that his administration doesn’t know about when they meet with his staff in the coming weeks.

A preliminary review last month determined there was “probable financial stress” in city government and that Detroit faces a general fund deficit of about $200 million. The review team is looking into Detroit’s finances – a step in a process that could lead to Michigan taking over the city’s government.

“Do we have financial stress? Damn right we do. We’ve had it since day one,” Bing said.

The review team’s recommendations will be forwarded to Gov. Rick Snyder. City officials have said they want to avoid the need for a state-appointed emergency manager.

City Council President Pro-Tem Gary Brown said he was not as hopeful about the plan as Bing. In the past, including the previous two years under Bing, city budget officials have repeatedly overestimated the revenue coming in to the city treasury, Brown told Bing and mayoral aides.

“It (revenue) just didn’t show up as projected,” Brown said. “And we don’t have a system in place in city government to react.”

In particular, Brown said he has reservations about projected savings from reduced overtime, work rule changes and a reorganization of the municipal bus system’s management.

City labor union leaders have been collaborating with the council and Bing to convince the state that an emergency manager is not necessary. Changes to union contracts and the pension system still are needed to eliminate the city’s long-term structural financial problems.

Bing and union leadership are negotiating medical benefits concessions that can save the city $15 million through June and changes to pensions that would bring about $25 million in savings in the 2013 fiscal year. Bing has said he’ll cut 1,000 jobs early this year to save about $14 million.

“A large percentage of the city’s budget is tied up in labor contracts in terms of hourly wages, health care and retirement issues,” said Mike Boudreau, director of Bloomfield Hills-based O’Keefe and Associates financial turnaround consultants.

“There’s no way around that, but I think it’s unfair to put it totally on (the unions). I think the pain needs to be spread around.”

While Bing’s plan focuses on the next 18 months, Detroit’s structural issues also need to be addressed, Boudreau added.

“I think he’s headed in the right direction, but I think it’s missing the mark,” Boudreau said. “They’ve come forward with plans before that didn’t materialize.”

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DETROIT -Anyone who has spent time recently within earshot of Detroit City Council member JoAnn Watson knows what’s coming.

Her constant, broken record style, high decibel verbal drumbeat has been to decry the state of Michigan at every turn. She can and does 20 emotional minutes as if in a revival meeting on how Michigan reneged on a deal cut in 1997 between then Gov. John Engler and Detroit Mayor Dennis Archer. It gave the city roughly $270 million dollars a year in revenue sharing funds in exchange for reducing its city income tax rates. She points out that is roughly the number that would keep Detroit out of financial trouble for this year and prevent the need for an emergency manager.

She says any discussion of Detroit’s inability to pay its bills would disappear if the state would simply pay its bills, like a quarter of a billion dollars owed to the citizens of Detroit. She even persuaded Mayor Dave Bing to make the same loud argument in his memorable afternoon news conference inside City Hall last month.

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The headliner at the town hall meeting was Congressman John Conyers, who told the packed house he would use his close relationship with the White House to stop the installation of an EM.

“It just so happens that I have a closer relationship with the 44th President of the United States and his Attorney General, Eric Holder, than I have ever had with anybody in the Washington White House,” Conyers told the crowd.

Councilwoman JoAnn Watson helped organize the event, which also featured a number of civil rights activists, including the leader of the NAACP in Benton Harbor – a city taken over by an emergency manager.

“You don’t want an EFM or an EM, because they’re hard to get rid of,” said Reverend Edward Pinckney, who leads the NAACP in Benton Harbor.

Detroit is facing a fiscal year budget shortfall of 45-million dollars and could run out of cash by April. An audit showed the city could even miss payroll if major changes aren’t made soon.

Governor Snyder has repeatedly said he does not want to assign an emergency manager to Detroit, but he has moved to phase two of the process. Last week his office announced the appointment of a ten-member panel to review the city’s balance sheet. They have 60 days to issue a report. At that time the governor could install an emergency manager.

All four women found dead where African-American. Two of them were found burnt beyond recognition.

Channel 6 Detroit reports:

The chief said at least three of the victims were working as escorts and had posted ads on BlckPage.com, a website which is similar to Craigslist but allows postings for adult services such as escorts, massages, strippers and fetishes. “The link between the three females and this website specifically dealt with prearranged adult dating services,” he explained.

Police stopped short of calling it the work of a possible serial killer, but Godbee warned people using the site to be careful. “We are not passing judgment on any individual who is utilizing this website, yet we felt it was imperative to alert the public that deciding to meet unknown persons via the internet, can be extremely dangerous,” he said.

Read More At Channel 6 Detroit