Muskegon Heights Schools

• Report: Several Muskegon Heights school teachers not certified by state  Oops? So how is that going for all the conservatives in Lansing? Does chartering a school district must vastly improve education in the US? LOL! Chartering is just a way to make money off educating children. That is shameful and is in no way what the educational system is for. If they think they will do this to Detroit, they have another thing coming.
•  1 in 4 teachers at Muskegon Heights schools quit during first 3 months of school year (after it was turned into a charter DISTRICT) 
• EM turns Muskegon Heights schools into charter district, terminates staff 

Benton Harbor

• Whirlpool and Emergency Manager move to take control of Benton Harbor Parks  An interesting view on how parks may be getting slid into private hands. Detroit beware. 
• Jean Klock Park - see what happened to this lakefront park under the EM (and other people who did not seem to honor the wishes of its donor)

Flint

• 4/8/13Flint City Council, mayor's pay suspended as part of new emergency manager law

About Emergency Managers in General

• 6/20/2013 Detroit's Debt Crisis: Everything Must Go
• 5/13/2013 NAACP lawsuit claims emergency manager law violates voting rights of half Michigan's African Americans
• 4/4/2013 Michigan ‘czars’ strip away citizens’ rights   
• 3/28/2013 Lawsuit Filed  See the complaint on this web page. 
• Lawsuit Documents from the Sugar Law Center   
• 3/25/2013 Austerity's Cruelest Cut: Democracy Denied in Detroit  How often and to what degree have Detroiters overwhelmingly voted against Snyder? All the time. 
• 3/22/2013 Congressman Peters & Conyers summon the cavalry, ask Government Accountability Office to investigate Michigan Emergency Managers   
• Michigan's Shock Doctrine Continues: Governor Appoints Emergency Manager for Detroit
• 1/17/03 Dome Magazine analysis of new EM Law by a judge.   
• The Actual Emergency Manager Law (Act 436 of 2012) passed in December 2012
• 12/14/12 (New) Michigan Emergency Manager Law passes  
• 4/25/12 Ex-Pontiac EM: Law is a Quick Fix Destined to Fail
• 5/2012 Michigan Emergency Manager Survey - Note that this is done by the Business Leaders for Michigan.
• 1/24/12 Rome Redux from the National Review. If nothing else alarms you, this one will. 

Detroit Emergency Manager

 General

He NEEDS to PACK HIS BAG AND GET OUT OF THIS CITY!

• 8/5/13 Road to bankruptcy paved with secrets and lies 
• 8/5/13 Detroit EM Refers To City As “Dumb, Lazy, Happy And Rich”
• 7/12/13 Regime Change in Detroit A blog piece that looks at how Detroit's EM and upcoming election is a template of "governance" for a cold global, corporate world.
• 5/30/13 Emails show Detroit emergency manager enjoys perks while taxpayers foot bill
• 5/16/13  Moody's: Detroit emergency manager plan puts bondholders at higher risk  Because this is all about banks and bondholders and nothing about the residents of this city (except their money)
• 5/13/13 EM Orr's First Report   More than likely, its really Snyder's team who wrote it with our tax money. It is a ghastly plan full of wage cutting, pension cutting, privatization and questionable financials. They have a cookie cutter plan they have practiced on the other smaller minority cities (see the other blog posts). Every retiree across the country, every city worker, school/library worker, resident of Detroit, residents of surrounding areas, and the residents of Michigan who pay Orr's salary (and now his chief of staff and others) and anyone in this country that believes in democracy and doesn't want this in their city should be protesting this.  
• 4/10/13 Ethics Experts: No Conflict in Jones Day's Detroit Role LOL 
• 4/8/2013 Jones Day Costly EM Contract 
• 4/3/13 Detroit Emergency Manager Disavows Mayor's Letter Stating City Will Stop Honoring Union Contracts Oops? 
• 3/18/2013  Detroit Now Has a White, Republican Mayor and City Council: State Take Over Coming to a Black City Near You 
• Investors in Detroit Municipal Bonds are Nervous If you wonder if the EM was put here for the benefit of bondholders/banks, read this old 2011 article.
• Michigan Citizen  This newspaper has too many articles to list here on the Emergency Manager situation. Check it out.  
• Voice of Detroit Many online articles to explore the issues.
• Free Detroit 

Protests

• 4/5/13 Slow Down  I-75 
• 4/4/13 EM Out Movement Grows
• 4/1/13 Oreo Delivery Protest 
• 3/29/13 Detroit Athletic Club Protest 
• 3/28/13City Hall Protest  
• 3/28/13 Lawsuit: Emergency manager law creates 'new form of government'
• 3/25/13 Visit to Jones Day in Cleveland 

 Detroit Water Department 

• 4/7/13 Detroit Emergency Manager Orr should take privatizing the Detroit Water & Sewerage Dept OFF the table
•  About the judge who took Federal oversight off the Water Department 
•  3/27/13 (the day before the new EM law took effect) Federal oversight of Detroit water department ends after nearly 36 years 
• The People's Water Board advocates for Detroit's Water Department to stay in the hands of the people. 
• How the water department's bonds are "handled" and the plan to reduce the staff to 374 through outsourcing and privatization.
• See Pontiac's water department for an example of what an EM does with one. 
• Here is an older but clear and educational piece on the way water companies work in the world.
• Water for All is an advocacy group for water who published the above.
• Food & Water Watch Problems with Water and Sewerage Privatization
• Sold Up the River for 14 billion 
• Borrowing Trouble: Water Privatization Is a False Solution for Municipal Budget Shortfalls
• DETROIT WATER DEPT. “ON THE TABLE,” SAYS EFM; COMMISSIONERS APPROVE REPORT ROOTED IN LIES

Detroit Institute of Arts

• Selling off artwork that belongs to the people of Detroit (and Michigan, and anyone on earth who comes to Detroit to see it) to pay the debt - NYT article. SHAMELESS GREED. 

Videos of EM Public Meeting June 10, 2013

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ZpVoTlGWrw
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0PIQGxKekjA 
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BEqCBVcX1C4
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ZpVoTlGWrw  

Detroit Public Schools Emergency Managers

• 4/9/13 Who Grades the Detroit Public Schools Emergency Manager? This article looks at how the current DPS EM took down the debt that Bob Bobb, the old financial manager, made. It says that of the $8,600 per student, $1,021 is for debt service. That means NOT smaller class size, music lessons, gifted classes, and science which every child in Detroit has a right to. SINCE WHEN DO CHILDREN NEED TO PAY DEBTS OUT OF THE TAX MONEY FOR THEIR EDUCATION? AND DEBTS INCURRED BY A PERSON NOT EVEN ELECTED? SHAMEFUL.
• 4/6/13 State Should Bow Out of Detroit Public Schools This is by Dr. John Telford, the superintendent chosen by the Detroit School Board (in exile).
• 3/28/13 Detroit's Roy Roberts fires superintendent, repeals contracts with freshly sharpened EM hatchet

Pontiac

• 4/16/2013 Pontiac EM planning on axing retiree healthcare/increasing pension payments 
• 1/11/2012 U.S. Rep. Gary Peters successfully works to correct mismanagement of multi-million dollar decision by Pontiac's Emergency Manager
• May 2012 Emergency Financial Managers: Michigan Municipalities Unwelcome Savior Explains the role of an EM well. A must read to understand the issues. Yikes.