Michael Lambson
Fraud likely in jobless claims by Detroit city workers, report says. A new audit of the City of Detroit’s employee benefits programs found significant likelihood of fraud in unemployment benefits, including what appeared to be active human resources workers collecting fraudulent unemployment benefits for themselves.
Of 1,484 unemployment claims processed during the review period covered by the audit, 13% or 192 were “likely fraudulent” and another 36% or 536 were found “highly questionable,” according to a joint report released Thursday by the city’s auditor and inspector general. The report which also covers the city’s pension funds and health care benefits, recommended that individuals suspected of fraud be prosecuted. In June, emergency manager Kevyn Orr ordered the investigation into possible waste, abuse, fraud or corruption in the city’s employee benefits programs.
His office released the joint report. Orr is leading the city through a restructuring and historic municipal bankruptcy, which was filed July 18. 19 shocking facts about Detroit's bankruptcy. Nationalreview. Traveling along Interstate 75, it’s only 621 miles from Chattanooga to Detroit. The political distance is more difficult to calculate.
Detroit on Thursday declared bankruptcy, seeking protection under Chapter 9 of the federal code. It is the largest public entity in the United States ever to do so. In 1960, Detroit had the highest per capita income in the United States; today, it is the poorest large city in the United States, with a poverty rate more than 20 percent higher than that of Cleveland, the third-poorest city, and half again as much as that of Philadelphia, the tenth-poorest city. Detroit has suffered the usual problems associated with large, Democrat-dominated cities. Its spending has long been out of control, and former mayor Kwame Kilpatrick and one of his cronies are prison-bound on 31 counts of extortion, bribery, and racketeering.
But these things, as bad as they are, are not the sole reason that Detroit is a failed city. So the people of Detroit went on strike. Detroit: The New Motor City. Detroit, Motown, the Motor City. Michigan and Detroit in particular became the center of the auto industry at the beginning of the twentieth century due to a number of factors. Steel, the Great Lakes shipping industries, and a large and growing workforce all contributed. Perhaps the most striking force though was the unique collection of inventors, dreamers, and designers that made the Detroit area their home. Ransom E. Olds, Henry Ford, the Dodge brothers, David Dunbar Buick, Walter P. Chrysler, and even the French explorer who founded Detroit, Antoine de la Mothe Cadillac, all are household names today, not because of any outstanding achievement, although there were many, but because the cars which they produced or which bear their names are a part of the fabric of everyday American life.
The Big 3 auto makers, General Motors, Ford and Chrysler were all formed and headquartered in Detroit by 1924. Buyers now wanted smaller more efficient cars, and the Japanese had the best. Detroit Decline Causes Include Auto Industry Collapse, Segregation And Politics. -- Blue-collar workers poured into the cavernous auto plants of Detroit for generations, confident that a sturdy back and strong work ethic would bring them a house, a car and economic security. It was a place where the American dream came true. It came true in cities across the industrial heartland, from Chicago's meatpacking plants to the fire-belching steel mills of Cleveland and Pittsburgh. It came true for decades, as manufacturing brought prosperity to big cities in states around the Great Lakes and those who called them home.
Detroit was the affluent capital, a city with its own emblematic musical sound and a storied union movement that drew Democratic presidential candidates to Cadillac Square every four years to kick off campaigns at Labor Day rallies. The good times would not last forever. As the nation's economy began to shift from the business of making things, that line of work met the force of foreign competition. But by that time, Detroit's decline had already begun. How did Detroit fall into the abyss? FILE: July 27, 2011 A section of vacant stores in Detroit.AP The bankruptcy filing for Detroit marks a final step in the chrome-plated city’s decades-long decline – which started with the country’s overall manufacturing slowdown and continued with the departure of U.S. automakers and residents, leaving behind a sprawling city trying to survive on dwindling coffers. Detroit was in the 1950s a worldwide hub of auto manufacturing, making it the fourth-largest U.S. city with one of the country’s highest per-capita incomes.
However, the so-called Motor City’s decline started soon after with residents -- following their counterparts in other U.S. cities – starting to move to the suburbs and take with them businesses, jobs and tax dollars. Historians argue the deadly 1967 riot in Detroit, one of the many so-called “race riots” across the country in the 1960s, accelerated the trend. Orr, appointed in March by Gov. The Associated Press contributed to this report. The Reasons Behind Detroit’s Decline by Pete Saunders.
My hometown of Detroit has been studied obsessively for years by writers and researchers of all types to gain insight into the Motor City’s decline. Indeed, it seems to have become a favorite pastime for urbanists of all stripes. How could such an economic powerhouse, a uniquely American city, so utterly collapse? Most analysis tends to focus on the economic, social and political reasons for the downfall. One of my favorite treatises on Detroit is The Origins of the Urban Crisis by Thomas Sugrue, who argues that housing and racial discrimination practices put in place after World War II played a primary role in the decline of Motown.
I’d argue that it’s closest to the truth of an explanation for Detroit today, but not quite there. Everyone seems to know the shorthand narrative for Detroit’s fall. But here’s the thing. So why has Detroit suffered unlike any other major city? If ever a city stood as a symbol of the dynamic U.S. economy, it was Detroit. Emphasis added. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. Detroit. Detroit's low education = high unemployment, study concludes -- unions and taxes don't matter. The unemployment bottom line boils down to education, according to a study of who's unemployed and who's not by Brookings Institution, a Washington, D.C. -based think tank. According to Brookings, in the Detroit, Warren, Livonia Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA), workers with bachelor's degrees had only a moderately high unemployment rate in 2009 of 6.8 percent, while 21.5 percent of those with a high school diploma or less were unemployed in 2009.
In the last decade, an increasing number of jobs in the Detroit area demand a diploma and not enough workers have them. The study calculates that only 16 percent of adults in Detroit, ages 25 and older have a college degree even though 18 percent of occupations in the region require this level of education. The report also came to a related conclusion that seems to contradict Michigan's current efforts to encourage hiring by lowering taxes and making the state less friendly to unions. Report: 75% Of Detroit Schools Don’t Provide Adequate Education. DETROIT (WWJ) – An annual ranking released Wednesday shows that only one-quarter of the schools in Detroit are providing an adequate education for its students.
Excellent Schools Detroit — a coalition of leaders in many different areas, ranging from education, philanthropic and community groups — releases a yearly scorecard to help parents make sense of the city’s school system and find the best fit for their child. The organization’s scorecard on Detroit schools for 2013 found that — of the 204 schools graded — 51 earned “C+” or higher. Dan Varner, chief executive officer of Excellent Schools Detroit, said the scorecard helps parents draw the line between good schools they would recommend (C+ and higher) and those that are not good enough. “Detroit’s been waiting for this moment to fully understand how our schools rank, not just against each other, but in measuring up to established excellence standards,” Varner said in a statement.
Detroit, Michigan: Crippled and Paralyzed by the Recession. Once the capital of the U.S. auto industry, which almost single-handedly helped to create the American middle-class, Detroit has been crippled by the closing of factories, falling home prices, the exodus of tens of thousands of residents, rampant violent crime and massive poverty. The recession started early in Detroit and is likely to extend well beyond its end, given its unenviable lack of diverse industries and paucity of skilled laborers. While the nation’s unemployment rate has remained around the 9.0 percent level for months – the jobless rate in the six-county Detroit metropolitan area was at 11.6 percent as of May 2011. For the city itself, the unemployment rate was 20 percent – although, unofficially, that figure could be much higher given the vast numbers of people who have probably stopped looking for work.
Indeed, in December 2009, an article in the Detroit News suggested the true unemployment figure in the city might be as high as an astounding 50 percent. 10 reasons for Detroit's historic failures. By Eric Boehm | Watchdog.org The city of Detroit declared Chapter 9 bankruptcy on Thursday, making it the largest city in American history to go through the municipal bankruptcy process. On Friday, a judge ruled that filing unconstitutional, but as the city sorts out its next move, here are 10 facts about the causes of Detroit’s financial mess and 10 photos that reflect just how badly the city is doing these days. NOT SO GRANDE: The main dance floor at The Grande Ballroom in downtown Detroit has seen better days. 1.
The population has collapsed in the past six decades. Detroit was America’s fourth largest city in 1950, when it had 1.8 million people. Yes, fewer people means a smaller tax base, but the real problem is the city’s government did not shrink along with the population — more on that in a bit. THEY USED TO MAKE CARS HERE: The Packard Automobile Factory, where thousands of auto workers once labored, is a ghostly reminder of the city’s past as a manufacturing center. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6.