Recently in Detroit Category

From the Detroit News:

According to a criminal complaint, (Leon Desmond Barrett, 37,) sent about 14 threatening letters to the NFL Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio and NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell between 2006 and April. 

Some of the letters referred to an alleged dispute between Barrett and Bettis and his family. "We do not want to have a gunfight with them but if we have to, we will," said one of the hand-written letters.

"I guess it (sic) going to be another Virginia Tech. massacre all over again in Detroit." A letter dated Aug. 18, 2007, said: "I'm getting ready to start killing some more people. Beyonce, Jay-Z, Jerome Bettis and Tune-up Man are the first 4 people I'm getting ready to kill."

Similar letters were sent in 2009 to former Miami Dolphins quarterback Dan Marino, care of the Hall of Fame, and former University of Notre Dame football coach Lou Holtz, the complaint said.

Most of the letters bore Barrett's signature and home address, the complaint alleges.

DETROIT -- A Detroit man who said he started robbing banks to pay for his mother's plumbing was sentenced Tuesday to two years in prison, a lenient term from a judge who said the defendant had been an "outstanding citizen" before his crime spree.

Prosecutors wanted U.S. District Judge Bernard Friedman to stick with federal sentencing guidelines, which would have given Jimmie Lee Fortune five years to six years in prison for stealing nearly $14,000 from five Michigan banks. Fortune, 29, had pleaded guilty in March, with prosecutors agreeing not to charge him with three more robberies.

Fortune had told investigators that he robbed the first bank in April 2008 to fix his mother's plumbing and get his driver's license reinstated. After that, he just kept going.

"I was so stressed and depressed," he told U.S. District Judge Bernard Friedman on Tuesday. "I found it difficult to separate life from fiction."

He entered banks demanding money and yelling threats such as, "Large bills or I'll start shooting," according to the FBI. Fortune was not armed during the robberies.

A report in USA Today notes that the FBI claims criminal gangs are responsible for 80 percent of our nation's crime. Here's the story.

No Chargers in Industry this year, at least that's a what a report in the San Diego Business Journal claims.

Local soldier Sgt. Hy Thai, of Monterey Park is profiled on News Blaze, for his work in Iraq.

Detroit cops slow to respond to reports of frozen body in abandoned warehouse, according to the Detroit News and the Associated Press, which cites the indifference of cops there as part of the city's overall problem.

LASO unveils new technology in the pursuit of criminals.

Another bit of sad economic news from my hometown, Detroit. Apparently a local elementary school is asking parents to donate toilet paper and light bulbs.

Pretty sad. Here's the lede:

DETROIT -- A Detroit elementary school is asking for donations of toilet paper and light bulbs to continue functioning.

The principal of the Academy of Americas sent a letter to staff, parents and partners asking for donations of items "that are of the utmost importance for proper school functioning and most importantly for student health and safety."

In the letter, Principal Naomi Khalil cited budget constraints within the district as the reason that the school could no longer stock the items.

The district is grappling with a more than $400 million budget deficit and is on the verge of being assigned an emergency financial manager by the state.

 Here's the district Web site

Thanks to Ed Barrera, aka Gotham Pundit, who pointed out another Web site devoted to the demise of a great American City that happens to be my hometown.

The site, Detroit Funk, has some great photography and interesting videos from Motown.

Enjoy -- or just cry.

Things are pretty bad in Detroit, bad enough to hurt business at Jon Jon's, a topless club in Warren, Mi. near GM's huge campus. Table dance prices have been cut in half, and drink prices reduced. The owner has even cut back operating hours.

From the Detroit Free Press:

Jon Jon's has lowered prices on drinks, but business is still down 50% from a year ago, Sander said. She now opens the club at 6 p.m. instead of 11 a.m.

"People can't afford to go out and have fun the way they used to," said Sander, whose club on Mound Road is roughly halfway between GM's Technical Center and the GM Powertrain and Chrysler pickup truck assembly plants. "Of course it has to do with the economy."

*Check out this 52-week stock chart for RICK, a strip club conglomerate:

On Thanksgiving, I took my hometown to task for turning into an American Baghdad or Beiruit.

The idea came from the arrogance of the Big Three heads seeking bailout money from the U.S. Government while being completely tone deaf about taking corporate jets to their hearing.

While the possibility of a bailout remains up in the air, more bad news flowed out of Detroit this week. The town's two daily newspapers, the Free Press and the News announced they would scale back deliveries to three days a week.

Regardless of the bad news, for the most part Detroiters continue to defend their city against perceived attacks. And, it's true there's nothing worse than getting kicked when you are down.

WHittier PD, the DEA and the Orange County regional narcotics supression team served federal search warrants at three southland locations as part of an ongoing effort to bring down a viscous group of drug traffickers, officials said Thursday.

The group, known as the Jorge Cuveas-Mares DTO, was targeted by the Whittier PD, but hte investigation quickly became national in scope, a Whittier PD official said.

Warrants were also served in LA, San Francisco, Detroit, Indianapolis, Philly and Dodge City, Kansas.

The investigation ultimately resulted in the seizure of 300 kilos of coke, 160 pounds of meth and $3 million in cash.

Arrested were Jennifer and Nicolas Sendis of Whittier. They are in federal custody. 

Happy Thanksgiving. Eat a lot, watch football and have a good time with your families....

Be thankful, you could be in Detroit, for "America's Thanksgiving Parade"

From Fox News 

NOVI, Mich. --  A 33-year-old Clarkston man faces two 20-year felonies after authorities say he arranged a meeting for sex with an online contact he believed was a 14-year-old girl and showed up wearing a T-shirt that read: "World's Greatest Dad."

Daniel Allen Everett was arraigned Tuesday in Novi district court on charges of child sexual abuse and using the Internet to attempt child sexual abuse.

Magistrate Andra Dudley set bond at $50,000 cash.

First of all, the print version of Tuesday's column again contains a mistake about the debuts of the Model Ts and Model As.

Wikipedia says this about the whole controversy.

I'm sure that when Bill Ruh wrote me he meant to say that Ford didn't produce the Model A until late 1927. (Of course as a caller just pointed out he might have meant that Ford produced the Model T until late 1927.)

When I cut and pasted his email into my column I didn't read it closely enough to make that distinction. But several readers have seen the error, so I've fixed it in the blog and will fix the online version as well.

Here's the link to the "Ruins of Detroit" website.