Sarah Hulett

President Obama is scheduled to sit down with Canada’s prime minister in Washington D.C. tomorrow.

The meeting comes just a few days after the release of a government report that said only 32 miles of the two countries’ four-thousand-mile shared border has an “acceptable” level of security.

Michigan Congresswoman Candice Miller says the report confirmed what she’s been saying for some time.

"Not to minimize the problems with the drug cartels and the problems we’re having on the Southern border, but we are under-resourced on the Northern border, and with the small amount of resources we have, to have them continue to raid those resources and ship them to the Southern border, I think is a mistake."

Canadian press reports say President Obama and Prime Minister Stephen Harper are close to signing a landmark security and trade deal.

The city of Detroit could soon lure more of its men in blue back within its borders. Detroit Mayor Dave Bing is expected to announce a program on Monday aimed at encouraging police officers to live in the city.

John Mogk is a law professor at Wayne State University. He says it makes sense to want to keep public safety workers in the city:

"They’re closer to where their responsibilities are, they provide a degree of security in the neighborhoods in which they live, the compensation they receive, more of it stays in the city and circulates within city businesses."

Mogk says police officers are also paid middle-class wages, which helps a high-poverty city like Detroit.

Detroit had a residency requirement until 1999, when the state Legislature outlawed it.

Proposed new rates for customers of Detroit’s massive water system have done little to tamp down criticism of the department.

Water bills would go up an average of about nine percent in July, and sewer rates would climb a little more than 11 percent.

Water department officials say lower demand is to blame for much of the increase. But critics are not happy about how the rates are calculated. State Representative Kurt Heise represents western Wayne County:

Detroit Public Schools officials have announced their biggest wave of outsourcing yet.

The district will eliminate more than 800 custodial and engineering jobs next month, and contract the work out to the facilities management giant Sodexo. Sodexo, in turn, will subcontract to seven local business.

The second round of meetings in a project to re-imagine Detroit starts tonight.

Update January 27, 4:18 p.m.:

Detroit Mayor Dave Bing says it’s “ludicrous” to suggest that the city give up control of its massive water system.

Legislation at the state Capitol, and a motion filed this week in federal court, would do just that.

Mayor Bing says he plans to examine the system’s problems, and he plans to fix them.

"I’m not here to defend past practices. I’m not here to defend the management, on a historical basis. My job here today is to look forward."

Bing says people think Detroit is in a weak position, and they’re trying to take advantage of that.

Update January 27th, 8:24 a.m.:

Wayne County Executive Robert A. Ficano has issued the following statement regarding the current situation with the DWSB:

"Today, we met as regional leaders to discuss Mayor Bing's plans for DWSD. It was a very productive meeting, containing very open and pointed discussion of the serious challenges within the department.  I am disappointed in the filing by the Oakland County Drain Commissioner, as this action contradicts the spirit of the discussion earlier today.

I believe in giving the Mayor an opportunity to explore the current operation, correct the mistakes and practices by the previous administration, and allow him to move forward and put in place accountable, transparent operation.

I believe now is not the time to be divisive, but to work cooperatively."

January 26th, 6:10 p.m.:

Oakland County is asking a federal judge to create a regional committee to oversee Detroit’s massive water system. It’s the latest development in a long-running dispute between the city and the suburbs over the scandal-plagued department.

John McCullough is the Oakland County Water Resources Commissioner. He says some $200 million are expected to be spent upgrading the system in the coming year.

"And since 60 percent of these corrections are going to be paid for by suburban customers, it really provides an effective way of the entire region to weigh in as to the proposed solutions and how those costs will be addressed."

The Detroit Water and Sewerage Department has been under federal oversight since the late 1970s because of Clean Water Act violations.

Late last year,the Justice Department identified 13 scams in which water department contracts worth tens of millions of dollars were allegedly steered to a friend of Detroit’s former mayor, Kwame Kilpatrick.

Plans for a light rail line in Detroit got a boost with a $25 million grant from the federal government.

The money will help with the first phase of the project, which will connect Detroit’s downtown and New Center areas. That 3.5 mile stretch could ultimately extend up Woodward Avenue to the city’s border at Eight Mile Road.

The project is backed by a powerful group of business leaders in the city – including Dan Gilbert, Peter Karmanos, and Roger Penske. They’ve helped pull together about $125 million in private funding. In an unusual arrangement, the federal government agreed to match those private dollars. Normally the city would have to put up the money, but Detroit is broke.

The project is expected to break ground this year.

Detroiters are hopeful police have found the person responsible for raping seven women on the city’s east side.

A “person of interest” is in police custody The man has not yet been charged. Detroit Police Chief Ralph Godbee says investigators are being careful not to rush things:

"We have 48 hours to present a warrant to the prosecutor. That is in any case. If it goes outside the scope of 48 hours, as in any case, we would have to have an exception that would allow us to do so."

In most cases, the women were waiting for a bus or walking near a bus stop when they were attacked.

Detroit Public Schools has a brand-new, state-of-the-art police headquarters.

It’s part of a $42 million initiative to improve security in the school district.

The facility includes a detention center, K-9 kennels, and an alarm system that will alert officers when doors to school buildings are opened when they shouldn’t be, said DPS Police Chief Roderick Grimes:

"We have a command center that will house state-of-the-art camera systems, which will allow us to look at the interior and the exterior of every school, 24 hours a day."

Money to pay for the building’s construction came from $500.5 billion bond initiative voters approved in 2009.

Detroit City Councilwoman JoAnn Watson says she wants the city to lawyer up in preparation for a fight over the city’s massive water system.

Legislation introduced at the state Capitol this week would transfer the majority of control over the Detroit Water and Sewerage Department to the suburbs. The bill would create a regional authority that would manage rates and contracts.

Watson urged her colleagues to hire an attorney to prepare to fight the move:

"If we sit and wait and do 'Kumbaya up in Lansing while they got their hands on our water system, we’re going to be in trouble, and the citizens here are going to be blaming everybody up here for not being armed and ready. We need to be armed and ready with litigation, and go to court."

Former governor Jennifer Granholm vetoed a similar bill several years ago. But the idea has gained new traction in Lansing, with a Republican governor and Republican-controlled House and Senate.

A recent federal indictment also renewed interest in revamping how the department is governed. The indictment detailed allegations of kickbacks and corruption related to water department contracts.

Updated at 1 pm: 

Governor Snyder says the economy will be the focus of his first State of the State speech tonight.

That should come as no surprise, considering Michigan has a massive budget deficit and one of the nation’s highest unemployment rates.

Snyder says he’ll talk about economic development, and about a state partnership with the University of Michigan, as reported in this story on annarbor.com. He says he also plans to present a “report card” on some key issues: 

We’re going to have probably 21 different measures in five different areas. Things about the economy, about the health of our people in the state, public safety issues, a number of different areas. Education.

Snyder says the report card, or “dashboard” as he calls it, will be revisited in each of his State of the State addresses to see whether laws and policies are improving things. A spokeswoman for the governor says it will be made available on a Web site that's slated to go live later today.

8:08 a.m.:

Governor Rick Snyder will deliver his first State of the State address tonight at 7 p.m.. He'll deliver the speech to a joint session of the Michigan legislature in the state's Capitol building in Lansing. Though details of the speech have not been released, we do know the speech is expected to last about 40 minutes and is likely to focus on ways to improve and reinvent the state's economy.

Detroit Public Schools officials are getting ready to submit their latest plan for shoveling the troubled district out from under a crippling deficit.

The plan could include a proposal to split the district in two. It’s an idea Michigan Radio first reported last April, and the concept is similar to the way General Motors restructured.

Emergency Financial Manager Robert Bobb says he’s reduced expenses by more than $500 million in the last several months, but there’s still a “legacy” deficit that tops $300 million:

"We’re whittling away at it, but we have to create a long-term plan so that we’re not in this situation 12 months from now or two years from now."

 DPS officials say another option is a New Orleans-style overhaul that would convert many schools to charters. A third option is to use the state’s tobacco settlement money to erase the district’s debt, or the state could opt for some combination of all the above options. Lawmakers rejected a proposal last month to use the state's tobacco settlement to pay off the district's debt.

Detroit Public Schools is recruiting businesses to adopt schools for academic and beautification projects. Angela Hoston heads the program:

"The goal is to have every school have a partner, and not just one partner but multiple partners. We want to raise the academic achievement levels of the bottom one-third of every classroom, and get them to the highest achievement level possible."

Hoston says each business can work with a principal to craft a unique program based on what the school needs and what the business can offer.

The initiative was announced at Gompers Elementary, where staff from the Doubletree Fort Shelby Hotel have built a garden and mentor students.

An experimental school in Detroit is trying something new with its seventh and eighth graders.

Palmer Park Preparatory Academy is the first “teacher-led” school in Michigan. It’s instituted a program that puts students into customized reading and math classes based on their abilities instead of their grade level.

Ann Crowley is one of the school’s founders.

"We had to get the schedule set up so that the three teachers in those subject areas taught side-by-side at the same time, and also have a common planning period together," said Ann Crowley, one of the school's founders. She added:

"The logistics of it, with over 250 kids, was pretty intense."

Crowley says students are constantly monitored for improvement so they don’t get stuck in an instructional track for low-performing students.

An official with the school district says the program could be a model for other schools in Detroit.