Word: detroits
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This morning, to the relief of Detroiters and the Democratic Party, Kilpatrick went back on those words. "I lied under oath," he admitted in a Detroit courtroom before accepting a plea deal negotiated with Wayne County prosecutors. Under the agreement, the mayor will resign his office, plead guilty to two counts of criminal obstruction of justice, pay $1 million restitution and spend four months in jail. "I gave that up a long time ago," said Kilpatrick, who has long battled with the local media, when the judge asked if he understood that he was giving up the right...
...resolution is a bittersweet ending for the people of Detroit. When Kilpatrick, the former minority leader in the Michigan House of Representatives, was elected in 2001 as the city's youngest mayor, the charismatic African-American politician brought energy to the economically decimated city. In the years since, thanks largely to the construction of both a baseball park and an NFL stadium downtown, the city has slowly begun to rebuild. Small but growing numbers of young professionals have moved in from the suburbs to live in newly constructed loft apartments, helping to slow the exodus that has slashed Detroit...
...cost to Detroit taxpayers for Kilpatrick's abuse of power has been high - over $10 million so far, including legal fees and an $8.4 million confidential settlement paid to whistle-blowers, including the former deputy police chief that Kilpatrick had fired for investigating his after-hours activities. The same sum could put several hundred new police officers on the streets of the country's most violent city. Or knock down more than a thousand of the abandoned buildings that dot Detroit's streets and breed crime. TIME called Kilpatrick one of the worst mayors in America...
...Kilpatrick scandal has also damaged an already weakened Democratic brand in Michigan. Governor Jennifer Granholm is nearly as unpopular as Kilpatrick, and was dragged into the mess when the Detroit city council asked her to hold public hearings to determine whether the mayor should be forced from office, a power the governor has under Michigan law. The hearings began yesterday, and their suspension in the wake of Kilpatrick's guilty plea now allows Obama to become the most visible Democrat in the state heading into the fall campaign. Obama will need the next two months to make up for what...
...With reporting by Joseph R. Sczcesny / Detroit...