Robert Snell, Darren A. Nichols and Christine Ferrett, Detroit News

Emergency Manager Kevyn Orr unveiled a historic plan Friday to restructure the city’s finances and avoid the largest municipal bankruptcy filing in U.S. history, a proposal that was met with degrees of fear, outrage and stubbornness from creditors.

Orr will push ahead with his restructuring plan and attempt to fashion a deal by meeting with labor officials Thursday in Detroit while insisting resistance could push the city into a Chapter 9 filing later this summer.

The restructuring plan includes pension and retiree health care cuts, offering some creditors less than 10 cents on the dollar and an abrupt decision to stop paying unsecured debt so the city can fund essential services. Orr also said he wants to spin off the city water department to a regional authority.

“We are tapped out,” Orr told reporters following the nearly three-hour meeting at a Detroit Metropolitan Airport hotel.

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We talk about the financial chaos of Detroit and how Frank and I are perplexed as to why Kevyn Orr is not pursuing legal action against the banks namely UBS for their role in rigging the LIBOR index and how the involvement of UBS in the LIBOR rigging scandal is responsible for nearly a third of the City of Detroit’s long term debt.

We discuss how part of Detroit’s problems are due to political leaders in Lansing both Democrats and Republicans having “White Jesus Syndrome” when it comes to Detroit.

“If I have to be troubled to reach all the way into my pocket and pull out my driver’s license to buy a box of Sudafed, why can’t we burden the scrap yard to ask for ID when someone’s trying to unload 700 tons of steel I-beams?” -Dan Austin, Detroit Free Press

Since the Great Recession began in 2008, the Detroit metropolitan area has become a haven for scrap metal collectors.  These men and women or “scrappers” who are usually laid-off autoworkers, drug addicts, high school dropouts flock to Detroit’s industrial ruins and plethora of abandoned office buildings, schools and homes and to lay claim on everything made of metal as if it were the California Gold Rush of 1849.

Scrappers stealing a railing at an abandoned school. Courtesy of Steve Neavling at Motor City Muckraker

Things that were once considered off limits like religious or historical items are now up for grabs. Thieves have stolen church bells and in one case thieves even stole what they thought was a bronze Jesus from a crucifix at the Church of the Messiah which was actually plaster colored to look like aged bronze. Scrappers are stealing manhole covers and exhuming coffins to steal the jewelry and the metal coffins of the dead.

The situation is so bad and competition so fierce that scrappers are now stealing A/C units, furnaces and hot water heaters from homes in the suburbs while people are at work.  Thieves are stealing catalytic converters from Cadillacs and the minivans driven by soccer moms in posh suburban communities like Bloomfield Hills and Rochester.

Several wannabe electrical engineers were electrocuted when they tried to steal the copper wire from a street light that was powered on.   Michael Lynch, DTE Energy’s director of security, told the Detroit Free Press, “that in the past six weeks alone, 22 of the utility’s substations have been hit by copper thieves, causing power outages to thousands of Michiganders and costing DTE tens of millions a year.”

You would think the self-proclaimed “law and order” Republican members of the Michigan Legislature would act swiftly to crack down on this lawlessness so they can brag to their constituents in next year’s election that they helped end this scourge that has been plaguing Michigan for the last half decade.

MI State Rep. Tom McMillin, the voice of illegal scrapping at the Michigan Capitol.

Think again, the GOP controlled Michigan Legislature actually loosened the regulations regarding scrapping after lobby for the scrap metal industry paid a visit to the state Capitol and began writing checks.  Members of the House agreed with the scrap industry’s lobbyist that it was too much of a headache for the scrap metal shop buying the metal to ask for identification from the individual selling them the scrap.

During testimony in front of the Michigan House Regulatory Reform Committee, police, prosecutors, utility companies and business owners told lawmakers that illegal scrapping is a plague that is a threat to businesses and individuals and endangers public safety. Such pleas from the law enforcement and businesses didn’t persuade Tea Party Activist and Anti-Tax Zealot GOP State Rep. Tom McMillin, who actually asked police and prosecutors, “How much more policing do you want businesses to do for you?”

McMillin is implying that scrapping is a problem created by mismanagement of police funds and personnel.  As a former Mayor of Auburn Hills, McMillin knows that such a statement is just plain ludicrous.

In what could be considered a twisted joke while the House Regulatory Reform Committee was killing a bill requiring stricter rules and enforcement of illegal scrapping, the GOP controlled Michigan Senate was passing legislation recognizing September 19th as “Talk Like A Pirate” Day.

An obviously tired German bank employee fell asleep on his keyboard and accidentally transformed a minor transfer into a 222 million euro ($293 million) order, a court heard Monday.

The Hessen labour court heard that the man was supposed to transfer just 62.40 euros from a bank account belonging to a retiree, but instead “fell asleep for an instant, while pushing onto the number 2 key on the keyboard” — making it a huge 222,222,222.22 euro order.

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Wells Fargo (WFC) has been acquitted by a jury of giving kickbacks to a real estate firm in exchange for mortgage business.

A group of homeowners who sued the nation’s fourth-biggest bank and the real estate firm Long & Foster real estate failed to prove that Wells Fargo funneled referral fees to Long & Foster, a Maryland jury found Friday.

The verdict ended a class-action lawsuit filed in 2007 with the U.S. District Court in Baltimore by homeowners who obtained mortgages from Prosperity Mortgage, an entity the homeowners alleged that Wells Fargo and Long & Foster formed to facilitate the collection of fees and payments.

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 “You know, there are some words I’ve known since I was a schoolboy: “With the first link, the chain is forged. The first speech censured, the first thought forbidden, the first freedom denied, chains us all irrevocably.Those words were uttered by Judge Aaron Satie, as wisdom and warning. The first time any man’s freedom is trodden on, we’re all damaged.” – Captain Jean-Luc Picard

Video of reporter Steve Neavling of Reuters and Motor City Muckraker being roughed up by Wayne State University Police

Steve Neavling, Motor City Muckraker

Although Orr and his advisers were warned that as many as 1,000 Detroiters may show up, they held the event in a cramped, 250-seat venue at Wayne State University.

As a journalist in Detroit, I’ve come to expect the dangers of the job: A gunman chased me on the east-side last year, only the second time in as many years I’ve had a pistol pointed at my head while exploring a story. While documenting the dangers of abandoned buildings in neighborhoods, undercover police handcuffed me at gunpoint because I was “in the wrong part of the city.”

But I didn’t expect any of that Monday evening at Wayne State University, where Detroit Emergency Manager Kevyn Orr was holding his much-anticipated first public meeting to address residents and field questions. Although Orr and his advisers were warned that as many as 1,000 Detroiters may show up, they held the event in a cramped, 250-seat venue at Wayne State University that predictably filled up with students, media, city officials and the lucky residents who arrived early enough to gain entrance.

Police began forcibly removing residents from the public building, pushing them into the rain.

While capturing the moment on video, I turned my camera on an officer forcibly removing Deadline Detroit reporter Jeff Wattrick from the building. Seconds later, a cop pushed me from behind, shoving me out the door and onto the cement. My glasses and camera crashed onto the sidewalk, corrupting some of the video files. (We are trying to salvage them)

Read more here

Support local investigative journalism like you see at the Motor City Muckraker.  Steve Neavling is one of Detroit’s premier investigative journalists and a former City Hall reporter for the Detroit Free Press.  That was until Detroit City Council President Charles Pugh had an adolescent temper tantrum about how Neavling quoted him in an article and pressured the Free Press to fire him. -Steve

“You know, there are some words I’ve known since I was a schoolboy: “With the first link, the chain is forged. The first speech censured, the first thought forbidden, the first freedom denied, chains us all irrevocably.”Those words were uttered by Judge Aaron Satie, as wisdom and warning. The first time any man’s freedom is trodden on, we’re all damaged.” – Captain Jean-Luc Picard

3 Year old wheel chair bound Lucy Forck crying as she is forced to endure a humiliating pat down by TSA agents

Nathan and Annie Forck were flying  from their home in Lambert-St Louis International Airport for a family trip to Disney World with their wheelchair-bound daughter Lucy and their two other children when Transportation Security Administration Agents forcibly confiscated little Lucy’s teddy bear, Lamby and proceeded force Lucy to a pat down and swabbing of the wheelchair when her mom, Annie pulled out her smartphone and began recording the incident that led to 30 minute showdown with TSA Agents. Annie Forck took a six minutes video documenting Lucy’s cries for her mother and saying through her tears that she didn’t want to go to Disney World anymore.

Nathan Forck, an attorney, told the St. Louis Fox affiliate that he knew it was legal to record the event and said that if the same instance had occurred outside the setting of an airport, it would be illegal, “Just because you slap a TSA badge on – I don’t know this person – and they’re going to be putting their hands on my child but you put a TSA badge on and now all of a sudden it’s okay”

After 30 minutes of stand their ground against the army of TSA personnel who now encircled them, a TSA official allowed the Forck family to be rescreened and allowed to continue on their trip. Nathan Forck said they had absolutely no problems getting through the TSA checkpoint in Orlando on the way back to St. Louis.

And yes, Lucy was also reunited with Lamby before the family left St. Louis.

“This is like doing business with a praying mantis. You get seduced, and then eaten alive afterwards” -Steve Jobs

American banks and American businesses have been stomping on the rights of Hispanic-Americans since the U.S. annexed what is now the American Southwest from Mexico after the Mexican-American War in 1848. The U.S. government either turned a blind eye to these abuses and in some cases quietly condoned it.

That was until the Alianza Federal de Mercedes led by Juan Valdez and Reies López Tijerina mounted a brazen daylight raid on the Rio Arriba County courthouse in Tierra Amarilla, New Mexico in 1967.   This incident ignited the Chicano Civil Rights movement of the 1970s that guaranteed equal rights for all Americans of hispanic descent.

Unfortunately, with the aging of Reies López Tijerina and the death of Juan Valdez last year, Hispanics are once again receiving broken promises by the U.S. Government and having their rights trampled on by American businesses.  Banks like Bank of America have illegally displaced thousands of Spanish-speaking American homeowners since the financial crisis began in 2008 especially when it comes to loans owned by Fannie Mae like the one the Garcias have.

Fighting For Their Rights in “El Norte”

Angel and Estela Garcia are an example of the countless stories I have heard from Hispanic homeowners who have been victims of dual tracking and “Sleight of Hand” tricks by Bank of America against Hispanics but Hispanics who use Spanish as their primary language.  All of these homeowners claim that Bank of America denied them access to Spanish speaking staff.

Being based in south Florida and being a former Bank of America depositer, I know Bank of America offers services in a variety of languages including Spanish. Bank of America even goes as far as to send Hispanic homeowners in Florida their mortgage statements in Spanish.

With the decision handed down by the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals, saying Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are government entities, As Fannie Mae’s servicer, Bank of America should have foreclosed judicially and allowed the Garcias their day in court.  Instead Bank of America opened the door for the Garcias to sue them in a civil rights action saying that their 5th and 14th amendment rights were violated.

Angel Garcia’s story of coming to America from central Mexico is no different than the stories my great-grandmother used to tell me about coming to America from Poland except that Mexicans and other immigrants from Central Americans do not get to experience the breathtaking view of passing the Statue of Liberty as depicted in the movies like “The Godfather”

Mexicans coming to the U.S. legally have to endure a much more perilous journey getting to the border than their European counterparts.  Unlike Europeans, Mexicans often have to defend themselves against drug lords, sex traffickers, kidnappers, rape gangs, corrupt cops, thieves and slew of other groups that make the bandito thugs from Sergio Leone movies look like the Salvation Army.

For Angel Garcia, the risk of facing these groups for the thousand mile trek through Mexico to the Texas border so that he and his family could live a new life filled with unimaginable opportunities they would never see in central Mexico was worth it.

Clutching to his Green Card as if it were a golden ticket from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Angel Garcia finally made it to the Texas border.  For the next decade, he worked his way across America as a migrant farm worker living in dilapidated barracks with other migrant workers.  He would go to sleep every night dreaming of the day when he would be reunited with his wife, Estela and their children who were back in Mexico waiting for permission to emigrate to America.

After settling in the picturesque Polish enclave of Cedar, Michigan, Angel Garcia was finally able to reunite with his wife Estela and their children in the mid-1990s.

In December of 2003, Angel and Estela were able to do something they could never do in Mexico – they bought a house on a piece of property they actually owned.

In 2011, disaster struck when Angel received a botched hernia surgery and couldn’t work for nearly a month.  He and Estela fell behind on his house payments that up until then had been paid on time.  Bank of America who was servicing the loan for Fannie Mae, refused to allow Angel or Estela, who don’t speak English, to speak to a Spanish-speaking representative even though this is a service Bank of America readily offers throughout the U.S.

At wit’s end, the Garcias turned to the CRA housing non-profit, Northwest Michigan Community Action Agency (NMCAA) for help since one of their major benefactors is Bank of America.  NMCAA reached out to both Bank of America and Bank of America’s attorney, Trott & Trott and after jumping through all the hoops, Bank of America agreed to give Angel and Estela a temporary modification.

Garcia 1 St Mod Offer by Steve Dibert

Angel and Estela made the payments as requested until last May when they received the following letter dated May 26th stating Bank of America had agreed to give them a permanent loan modification:

Garcia Perm Mod Offer by Steve Dibert

After making several payments on time, the Garcias then received a check from Bank of America returning the payments and received this letter dated August 6, 2012 from Trott & Trott claiming because they didn’t make any payments or accept the modification offer that Bank of America was now proceeding with foreclosure:

Garcia Trott Letter by Steve Dibert

As word got around that I was working on another article about how Bank of America was reneging on modification offers made to Hispanic homeowners and then threatening them with eviction, I have received nearly 50 phone calls and emails from Hispanic homeowners with Bank of America loans across the U.S. telling me that Bank of America  is offering them modifications and then canceling the agreement and proceeding with foreclosure.