Sarah Hulett

Michigan's public defender system is consistently rated one of the worst in the country.

But this week, the House Judiciary Committee will consider creating a commission to establish standards for indigent defense.

Marcela Westrate is with the Michigan Campaign for Justice.

She says there are a host of reasons why poor criminal defendants don't always receive good legal help in this state.

"We don't have any statewide training requirements right now," said Westrate. "There's also things like consistency, where the same attorney represents a client until the completion of a case."

The commission would set the standards for Michigan's 83 counties - which each have their own public defender systems. Westrate says she hopes the commission could have new standards in place by the end of next year.

The longest-running housing discrimination case in the U.S. is coming to an end.

A federal court in the early 1970s said Hamtramck had targeted African-American homes for demolition in the name of urban renewal. The city agreed to build 200 homes for the plaintiffs. And 40 years later, they're finally going to be finished.

"It's a huge deal for the city," said Jason Friedmann, the city's community and economic development director. "We're pretty proud of the fact that we're making right the problems that did occur in the past, and we're excited to give these plaintiffs a new opportunity in the city of Hamtramck."

Plaintiffs and their descendants get first dibs on the homes.

"Some of them are great-grandchildren of the original plaintiffs," said Friedman. "Quite a few of them still live in the Detroit area, but we have one person moving in from from California, and I believe there's another person actually moving from overseas."
 
Friedman says the city's fulfillment of its legal obligations will also lift a court-ordered ban on city-owned residential property sales. He says the ban has put a stranglehold on the city's development for 40 years.

Public voting begins today in the second-annual retail entrepreneur contest called Hatch Detroit.

This year's ten semi-finalists include a kayak rental business, a cosmetics company and a biergarten.

"We actually aren't looking for chains or anything like that, though," said the project's executive director, Vittoria Katanski. "We're looking for independent retail. So if you're an independent retailer from Rochester who wants to open a second in the city of Detroit you'd be eligible, or if you're just a person in the city who has has a really great idea you'd be eligible also."

Katanski says there's been a 25 percent increase in business plan submissions this year compared to last year.

The winner will be awarded $50,000, plus about 20-thousand dollars worth of services.

Supporters of a Michigan man who's been held for a year in Iran will hold a benefit concert in Flint tomorrow.

The Iranian government accuses Amir Hekmati of working for the CIA. The U.S. government denies that.

Ramy Kurdi is Hekmati's brother-in-law, and helped organize the concert. He says money raised from ticket sales will help the family with their legal fees. But he says it's just as much about raising awareness.

"We'd like people to know who Amir is, and that's not a secret," said Kurdi. "He's an outstanding person, outstanding son, citizen, brother, uncle, friend."

Hekmati was sentenced to death in January. There have been reports out of Iran that its Supreme Court has ordered a retrial. But family members say they have yet to get an official notice of that.

The concert is tomorrow at 7 p.m. at the University of Michigan-Flint theater.

About half of local leaders in Michigan think the state is on the right track, and that Governor Snyder is doing a good job. That's according to a survey released today by the Center for Local, State and Urban Policy at the University of Michigan.

The governor's approval rating rose more than ten points compared to a year ago. Tom Ivacko is the program manager for the Center. He says partisan leanings do factor into opinions about the governor's performance, "but even so what we found in the last year is increasing percentages also of independents and of Democrats believing that the state's headed in the right direction, and that the governor's doing a good job."

In 2011, 37 percent of local leaders rated Snyder's performance as "good" or "excellent." But Ivacko says at that time Snyder was a newcomer to politics, and an unknown quantity.

"And now that it's a year later and he has a track record - and a fairly bold track record of policy reform in Lansing - what we see now is increasing optimism."

Approval ratings for state lawmakers remain low. Just 27 percent of local officials give the Legislature high marks. A third of them rate state lawmakers as "poor."

Nov. 8, 2007
A high school diploma should mean a graduate has mastered the basics. But that hasn't been the case in Michigan - where many college and university students are learning subjects they should have mastered in high school.

Nov. 15, 2007
Arithmetic and algebra haven't changed for centuries. So why do kids - and adults - have such a hard time with math? One mathematician says he thinks he knows the answer.

Nov. 15, 2007
Bill Schmidt is well known in education circles for his research into the academic content in K-12 schools, testing, and the effects of curriculum on academic achievement. He spoke with Michigan Radio's Sarah Hulett, who asked him whether he believes a "math crisis" exists.

Regents at Eastern Michigan University are threatening to fire the school's president unless she gets her drinking under control.

Three of the university's regents wrote a letter to President Susan Martin after an April incident in Washington D.C. Apparently, Martin got into an alcohol-fueled argument with an alumnus.

The letter also references "prior incidents," although it does not elaborate.

Zachary Payne has a rap sheet that reads like it belongs to someone who’s spent more than 18 years on this earth.

“Four Minor in Possessions,” he recounts, “two retail frauds, resisting arrest, assaulting a police officer, assault and battery, like two or three domestic violences, and a couple other ones I can’t remember.”

Payne might not be able to remember them. But the Internet does.

ICHAT is the name of an online database that anyone with ten dollars can check, and they do - especially employers, looking to vet potential hires.

The state Court of Appeals has reinstated an embezzlement case against the former emergency manager for Highland Park.

Arthur Blackwell II is accused of taking $264,000 in payments that were not authorized by state officials.

The appeals court decision reverses a lower court ruling - which had dismissed the case. The lower court agreed with Blackwell - who said as the city's emergency manager, he had the authority to sign the checks to himself. The appeals court says there's enough evidence that Blackwell acted improperly to try him.

Blackwell was appointed to fix Highland Park's finances in 2005, by then-governor Jennifer Granholm. 

Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy says she's pleased with the appeals court decision.

A round of firefighter layoffs in Detroit might not be as severe as city officials announced earlier this week.

Michigan U.S. Senator Carl Levin says Detroit will be awarded a $22.5 million federal grant that would save most of the fire department jobs slated for layoff.

Word of the grant comes just a few days after the layoff announcement. The job cuts were to take effect at the end of July.

Detroit Public Schools officials say they expect to end this fiscal year with a $12 million surplus. Meanwhile, the district's proposed budget for next year projects the loss of about 15,000 students, and about 1,900 jobs.

Detroit Public Schools is preparing to shrink next year as 15 schools become part of the Educational Achievement Authority. That's the new statewide system for failing schools.

Steve Wasko is a spokesman for Detroit Public Schools. He says the job cuts are not as alarming as they might sound.

"It's not necessarily a net loss of education jobs, public education jobs, public teacher jobs in the city of Detroit - in public schools in the city of Detroit, but a shift that we knew was coming for some time," said Wasko.

A public hearing on the budget is scheduled for next Wednesday.