DETROIT

Talking to some people I ran into that live in Detroit. They said Detroit stopped using the boots because they are easily defeated using common household tools. Since they are worth around $400 the criminals resell them on the black market. They further said unless the police actually catch you removing the boot there is little the police can do to prosecute.
So I am wondering how successful this program will be in Toledo since we are so close to Detroit.

Last Updated: February 24. 2010 12:07PM
DPS privatizing bus service
Plan saves financially strapped school district $50 million; 289 drivers to lose jobs
Tom Greenwood and Oralandar Brand-Williams / The Detroit News
http://detnews.com/article/20100224/SCHOOLS/2240342/1026/DPS-privatizing...
Detroit -- Detroit Public Schools' move to privatize bus service for thousands of students will mean nearly 300 drivers will lose their jobs with the district, but savings of about $50 million over five years.

This interview happened last month and caused a controversy when Shepard Smith said he would burn down the Detroit Public Schools if he was a parent there. Watch the whole segment and you will see where Shepard Smith's outrage is justified, yet this situation occurs here in Toledo. There are still some schools which are failures and continue to be so, yet we have administration and board members who never want to hold these schools accountable. And you know TPS does not want to do anything about problems, the Dan Burns situation indicates they have no clue problems exists and contrary to board members and administration officials wanting to put this behind their back saying things are fixed, they are not and won't be without creating a new proactive system to identify and deal with problems as they come up whether it is academic performance or employees stealing money. Urban schools suffer from a serious case of accountability. If TPS wanted to prove they are going to be proactive in dealing with problems, quickly addressing problem schools is a great place to start because at least they are well documented and known. Our community cannot wait one week more for schools to continually fail.
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Another ranking politicians will want to ignore.
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Last place in the small-business-vitality rankings again belongs to Detroit, which continues to pay the price for the decline of the domestic automotive industry. The Detroit area lost 298,000 jobs during the past five years—an employment decline of 16.3 percent, easily the worst in any metro. It also experienced short-term drops in population and the number of small businesses.

Joining Detroit in the bottom five, in descending order, are Youngstown, Dayton, and Toledo, Ohio, and Milwaukee.

Is it right that our country is bankrupt but is borrowing one hundred million from China to give to Haiti? China which has a bounty of eight hundred billion of the U.S. treasury is donating a miserly one million, go figure?
Detroit with 50% unemployment and a Michigan state on the verge of bankruptcy has its Nonprofits organizing Aid to Haiti.

Detroit Nonprofit Organizes Aid to Haiti
Rina Miller (2010-01-22)
Listen Now
http://www.publicbroadcasting.net/michigan/news.newsmain/article/0/1/160...

Fox Toledo's Barrett Andrews' interview with the Chrysler Girl makes the Auto Blog and the Do you come with the car? Blog. Read for yourself.
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FOX Toledo reporter Barrett Andrews thought he could be sly by slipping a come-on into his chat with a lovely auto show model who kindly humored him by granting an interview request.
http://doyoucomewiththecar.blogspot.com/2010/01/fox-reporter-shut-down-b...

Reporter gets deservedly dissed by Chrysler model

January 14. 2010
Obama wants banks to pay for auto bailout losses
David Shepardson / Detroit News Washington Bureau
http://detnews.com/article/20100114/NATION/1140433
http://wheels.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/01/11/a-spot-of-tea-vs-a-plea-for-m...
The White House wants the nation's largest financial institutions to repay taxpayers for the costs of bailing out banks and automakers.

Under the proposal, the largest 50 banks -- including GMAC Inc. -- would pay $90 billion over 10 years to cover taxpayer losses under the $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program.

Does anyone know of a shuttle service that goes from Detroit Metro back to Toledo?

Bizjournals is reporting the latest Milken Institute rankings of tech jobs and Toledo rounds up the pack at 198 out of 200, only followed by Detroit and Flint. How depressing.
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No other major Ohio city finished higher than Columbus, though Cincinnati (138), Dayton (183) and Akron (186) all moved up the list compared with last year. The lowest-ranked Ohio city in the Milken report was Toledo, which finished 198th – just ahead of Detroit and Flint, Mich.

http://columbus.bizjournals.com/columbus/stories/2009/11/09/daily23.html

WTH?
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LANSING -- A Toledo-based company that plans to build a $12.4-million plant in Detroit to build parts for Chrysler Group LLC is among 10 projects granted state tax credits with promises they'll produce 1,507 new direct jobs, Gov. Jennifer Granholm announced Tuesday.

Ohio Module Manufacturing Co. plans to hire 200 employees at the plant, which will build chassis for the Jeep Grand Cherokee and the Dodge Durango assembled at the Chrysler Jefferson plant. The company will get a tax break worth $1.8 million over five years.

U.S. NEWS OCTOBER 28, 2009 GMAC Asks for Fresh Lifeline
Lender in Advanced Talks for Third Slug of Taxpayer Cash -- at Least $2.8 Billion By DAN FITZPATRICK and DAMIAN PALETTA

In a stark reminder of how some battered financial firms remain dependent on government lifelines, GMAC Financial Services Inc. and the Treasury Department are in advanced talks to prop up the lender with its third helping of taxpayer money, people familiar with the matter said.

Allowing gambling casinos in Ohio would be a mistake for which Ohioans would pay dearly. Gambling can become an addiction as deadly as drugs or alcohol. When people first start to use drugs or alcohol they assume they can "control" their usage. Some people can control the use of alcohol and never become alcoholics but sadly many peoples lives are ruined by it. I have seen firsthand friends, family members and neighbors who have destroyed their life and the life of those around them by drug, alcohol AND gambling addictions.

Monday, October 19, 2009
The Bosses Have the Public Sector in Their Sights.
http://weknowwhatsup.blogspot.com/

What happened in Detroit doesn’t stay in Detroit. The market don’t discriminate

As referenced in the previous post, Toledo did not fare well in the recent Bizjournal/Portfolio.com's job analysis. From 2008-2009 Toledo dropped from 97th to 99th place. What city was 100? Detroit.

The sobering facts which you won't see on Toledo letterhead:
Private Sector Job Growth 04-09: -6.7%
Private Sector Job Growth 08-09: -8.5%
Raw growth in private sector jobs (04-09): -31,900
Raw growth in private sector jobs (08-09): -23,400
Unemployment rate: 14.2%

Congratulations leaders of Toledo, who happen to be almost all Democratic, this ranking is for you. You know it is bad when the Dems say they need change and then campaign on it-what an indictment of their own leadership style. But watch, they say they want change, then continue to do the same idiotic stuff. This will eventually catch up with them and for Toledo's sake, let's hope soon. So think about this the next rain garden that is created, the next flower planted, and what ever else these "leaders" say to distract you from there own accountability and lousy performance.

Catching the Detroit premier of Capitalism: A Love Story with Rep. Marcy Kaptur and Michael Moore
http://www.toledocitypaper.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article...

Posted: Oct. 9, 2009
EDITORIAL
A city's pain made manifest
Cobo crush points to widespread desperation
http://www.freep.com/article/20091009/OPINION01/910090313/1069/opinion01...

Detroit, Motor City......the once great and proud automobile manufacturing center of the United States.

http://vodpod.com/watch/2235162-video-michael-moore-and-rep-marcy-kaptur...
General Motors didn't allow Michael Moore into the GM Renaissance Center for press interviews before the Detroit premiere of 'Capitalism: A Love' story even though they were invited in advance. The interviews had to be moved to the Marriott across the street, but after the interviews had finished, Mike went into the Renaissance center anyway and we became our own press.
Congresswoman Marcy Kaptur and Michael Moore speak at the premiere.

Marcy makes it to another movie screening of Capitalism, but we are still waiting for a town hall. This puts her at least 3 screenings (NY, Detroit, D.C.) and 0 town halls.
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Prior to his film’s screening at the AFI Theatre in Silver Spring Monday night, Moore sat down with POLITICO. He told us, “I’ve had more requests from members of Congress to get a copy of the film. … If millions of people in this country go to see this movie, [Congress] wants to know what [the public’s] really looking at, especially if it affects them.”

Thursday, Sep. 24, 2009
Detroit: The Death — and Possible Life — of a Great City
By Daniel Okrent
http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1925796,00.html
Quotes:
But Detroit, once our fourth largest city, now 11th and slipping rapidly, has had no such luck. Its disaster has long been a slow unwinding that seemed to remove it from the rest of the country. Even the death rattle that in the past year emanated from its signature industry brought more attention to the auto executives than to the people of the city, who had for so long been victimized by their dreadful decision-making.