Tag: Flint (page 2)

SAGINAW -- A Saginaw-based advocacy group for the poor has filed a federal lawsuit against the state Department of Human Services seeking to prevent more than 11,100 Michigan families from losing cash assistance under stricter enforcement of a 48-month limit on welfare benefits.

Attorneys for The Center for Civil Justice were due in U.S. District Court in Detroit today to ask for a temporary restraining order and a preliminary and a permanent injunction to keep the benefits for those eligible.

With 50 murders this year alone, one wonders if Michiganders should even get anywhere near this war zone.  And apparently NEAR is enough, is enough to get you hurt:

Rison said today that she spoke to a woman in her 80s this weekend who told her about a stray bullet ending up in her home.

"They are not really shooting at targets all the time," Rison said. "They are just shooting."

Oh, and before someone goes all crazy with a "guns are bad, m'kay" comment, let me point out the story is about calling in the Michigan Guard..  An ARMED force.. That uses GUNS.. To defend people..

People, who apparently are not armed enough to defend themselves..  

Which wouldn't need to happen if law enforcement would do its job.  The prosecutors office can claim that it has had it's budget cut, but deals with murderers do not exactly send a message that leads to less work for them later.

Remember that guy from Michigan who went around stabbing people?  That guy, Elias Abuelazam, has been arraigned on a charge of assault with intent to murder. And while he has only been charged for one attack, more charges can be expected. Abuelazam, to date, is accused of stabbing 13 people in Flint, 5 of those resulting in death. There is also 1 Ohio non-fatal stabbing, an additional 3 non-fatal attacks in Virginia, and an investigation into a probable link to a 2009 homicide stabbing in that same state.

Last Thursday, Abuelazam was extradited from Atlanta to Michigan. The extradition process alone was drawn out and costly.

The Virginia connection has problems however.  It seems while the Flint attacks were linked to the Virginia attacks, a full two weeks before the extradition process, there was no attempt to contact the Virginia officials by the Genesee prosecutor.  In fact, the prosecutor for Loundoun County in the Commonwealth of Virginia, Jim Plowman publicly criticized David Leyton for not returning his calls or messages. On one occasion, Plowman claims he asked to speak directly to David Leyton regarding the Abuelazam case.
 

"You'd think they'd return my phone calls, especially since I have information that will help them,"

"I know multi-jurisdictional cases are tough, but I should be able to get my counterpart on the phone."

Graves says 10 of the 12 fires are being investigated as possible arson.

He says a total of 107 fires have been reported in April, which he says is a "gigantic" increase from the 37 reported in the same time period last year.

And coincidentally, there was a simultaneous downturn in firefighter employment, which made the situation even more critical..

Flint recently laid off 23 of 88 firefighters and 46 of 150 police officers to help close a budget deficit. The cuts have been accompanied by a wave of suspected arsons, many in abandoned homes.

Is it me or does there always seem to be a lot of coincidence surrounding public employee issues?

• Michigan Abortionist Alberto Hodari Fined $10,000 For Killing 2 Birds With One Stone - Woman's Death After Abortion


• Michigan Abortionist Gets Probation


• Michigan Pro-Life Groups Condemn Abortion Hack Alberto Hodari's Slap On The Wrist For Death Of Yet Another Mother After Botched Abortion

Let's start with the "municipality" and work out way up, shall we?

We learn today that the Detroit Public Schools, long a paragon of Lefty administrative virtue, have 257 "ghosts" on the payroll.  According to the Ivory Tower these are folks who are pulling down major bank but aren't even supposed to be on the payroll.  The local public school bureaucracy is so wasteful of taxpayer dollars they don't even demand a lick of work to get them.  

There were 37 unclaimed paychecks and 220 unclaimed direct-deposit slips totaling about $208,000, said Odell Bailey, DPS' auditor general. He added that the recipients are not on approved leave.

Robert Bobb, DPS' state-appointed emergency financial manager, also said an audit has begun to determine if employees have unapproved health care  dependents that are running up costs.

Probably important, too, that we don't blame this entirely on the bureaucracy. That means there are 257 individuals who at one time or another were entrusted with the education of Detroit kids whose integrity was so poor they continued cashing the checks they knew they hadn't earned.  

DPS might want to audit their character assessment and their hiring practices next.  And they're not the only ones.  As frustrating as a chronically bungled payroll can be it isn't nearly as dangerous as the mistake the Granholm-Cherry administration made this week when they took a convicted murderer who'd wracked up 124 "major misconducts" since entering prison, took him out of jail and dropped him off at his grandfather's house without medication.  

Because that sounds like a safe thing to do.

Read on...

Responding to remarks Limbaugh made yesterday on his top rated afternoon radio program where he agreed with Genesee County Treasurer (and Democrat) Dan Kildee's suggestion that abandoned buildings and vacant space be torn down, Stanley and half of the Lefties in F-Town just plumb lost their minds. The Flint Journal Reports:

...Stanley, D-Flint, said he dismisses a lot of what Limbaugh has to say, but at the same time, "You can't diminish the words that he said."

"Cities are not just buildings or concrete or trees -- cities are people," he said. "You're making reference to people and that is not appropriate at all."

I don't like to devolve into personal insults and name-calling.  I think by in large the entire community here at RightMichigan has been pretty good about sticking to issues, at least on this site, but Woodrow... you're either being hyper-partisan, intentionally dense a mile beyond the point of absurdity or you, sir, are an idiot.  Period.

Let's recap...

(Please read on...)