'Color Purple' coming to Detroit
National tour star gives preview at Fox
BY MARTIN F. KOHN
FREE PRESS THEATER CRITIC
Detroiters on Monday heard something that New Yorkers haven't heard since Broadway stagehands went on strike Saturday: someone from "The Color Purple" cast singing a song from the show.
Montego Glover, who plays the main character, Celie, at Wednesday matinees on Broadway, was at the Fox Theatre to launch the publicity campaign for the national tour of "The Color Purple," which will play the Fox May 20-June 1. Glover is scheduled to star as Celie when the show plays Detroit.(Read More)
Pep rally welcomes Quicken to Detroit David Josar and Christine Ferretti / The Detroit News
DETROIT -- At a press conference inside Rock Financial Place in downtown Detroit this afternoon that quickly turned into a pep rally, Quicken Loans announced it would move its headquarters and about 4,000 jobs to the city in about four years.
"This is more than a project to me it is a movement," said Quicken chairman and founder Dan Gilbert.
The announcement is considered the most important for Detroit since Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick took office in 2002.(Read More)
Shanelle Jackson
Detroit Democrats unveil plan to make auto insurance more affordable
Consumer protection package will eliminate credit scoring, increase accountability.
House Democrats recently unveiled consumer protection legislation to combat excessive insurance rates; eliminate credit scoring, the unfair practice of basing a person’s auto insurance rate on their credit rating; and open the Michigan Catastrophic Claims Association (MCCA) to public scrutiny.(Read More)
Thanksgiving Parade official Grandstand tickets now on sale
America’s Thanksgiving Parade
Hundreds of thousands of spectators will make their way to downtown Detroit on Nov. 22 to enjoy the fun and magic of America’s Thanksgiving Parade. Enjoy this year’s parade in comfort with your family and friends from official Grandstand seats, offering you the best view of this cherished event.
Grandstand seats offer you prime location in downtown Detroit, with the ability to see live and up close more than 75 units of your favorite floats, balloons, marching bands, specialty acts and celebrity guests. Enjoy the convenience and comfort with the best views along the parade route.
Tickets are easy to order and you can choose from three options:
General Admission seating is located at Step-off (Mack and Woodward Avenue), Foxtown and Grand Circus Park; these tickets are priced at $22 each.
TV Zone Grandstand seating is located in the Merchants Row area where the lights shine as the parade is broadcasted live to millions. TV Zone Grandstand tickets are priced at $27 each and include viewing of WDIV-TV 4’s one hour pre-show.
VIP Grandstand seating includes access to The Parade Company’s VIP pre-parade breakfast locations, including the Hard Rock Café, Hunter House and Detroit’s Breakfast House & Grill @ Merchants Row. VIP Grandstand seating is located near Campus Martius and the Merchant’s row area. VIP Grandstand tickets are priced at $45 each.
Grandstand tickets can be ordered at www.theparade.org or by calling Jennifer at (313) 923-7402. Grandstand tickets are non-refundable.
Mayor's legal tab: $575K
City records obtained by The News show high cost of defending whistleblower suit even before trial began.
David Josar / The Detroit News
DETROIT -- City taxpayers have shelled out more than $575,000 to four law firms that unsuccessfully defended the mayor and the city in the whistleblowers lawsuit filed by two former cops.
That tally is for legal bills from September 2004 through June 30 -- and doesn't include fees in the weeks leading up to and including the trial that ended last month when a jury awarded the two officers $6.5 million, according to records The Detroit News obtained Friday through the Freedom of Information Act.
The best-paid attorney, Thomas M.J. Hathaway, made $345 an hour, or a total of $67,861 for 196.7 hours of work.(READ MORE)
Conyers to hold congressional hearings on Jena case
By TODD SPANGLER
FREE PRESS WASHINGTON STAFF
WASHINGTON – House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers today said he plans to hold hearings in Congress on the case of six black teenagers in Jena, La., who were initially charged with attempted murder in the beating of a schoolmate who is white.
The statement by Conyers, a Detroit Democrat who is African American, came on a day when thousands of people descended on the tiny Louisiana town to protest the charges and a rally was held in Washington in support of the students now being referred to as the “Jena Six.” (Read More)
Family of Murdered Teen Speaks Out
A Detroit high school student is gunned down. His family says he lost his life all for some headphones and candy. Watch the video as FOX 2's Camille Amiri speaks with the victim's family. (Read More)
New Attack Ad Goes After Granholm
A new attack ad goes after Governor Jennifer Granholm. The announcement currently being aired on some local radio stations portrays Granholm as a doctor and Michigan's economy on life support. It gets even uglier and, as FOX 2's Kerry Birmingham reports, some believe the commercial goes too far.(Read More)
Fieger talks about run for mayor of Detroit
Geoffrey Fieger talks about running for mayor of Detroit and the Ed McNamara political machine
In part two of his interview with the Michigan Chronicle, famed lawyer Geoffrey Fieger talks to senior editor Bankole Thompson about running for mayor of Detroit and the Ed McNamara political machine, among other issues.
Michigan Chronicle: You seem to have ill feelings toward Gov. Jennifer Granholm.
Geoffrey Fieger: No. She did something during that election that I told her was inappropriate. The one thing that I asked from her and all the other people that I chose was loyalty. And the minute that I selected her, McNamara and Mike Duggan had her stab me in the back. She followed along with it. It came to a point where they were advising her not to appear on the campaign trail with me. I thought that was disloyal and I told her so. But McNamara brought me into a room and told me what it was going to be. I’m not the type of guy that you tell what to do. I had done it on my own. McNamara didn’t help me. I didn’t owe him anything. I would be glad to take his insight, but I wasn’t about to be his boy. (Read More)
Detroit Football Classic canceled for 2007
Detroit businessman and former Detroit Lions defensive end Robert Porcher has announced that the Detroit Football Classic will not be held in 2007.
Porcher said he intends to redevelop and reintroduce the Classic to Detroit in 2008, according to reports. He said it’s necessary for organizers to take a step back this year to take account of their goals and re-establish their strategies to meet or exceed them.
Porcher founded the De-troit Football Classic, LLC with a group of investors in 2002 to increase the awareness and exposure of Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) to Detroit’s youth and adults.
One of the biggest attractions to the event has been the Battle of the Bands. Detroit NAACP calls for court reform
The Detroit Branch NAACP, under the leadership of Rev. Wendell Anthony, recently unveiled a campaign to reform Michigan’s court system, which the civil rights organization argues discriminates against people of color, the poor and the disabled.
The majority of the prison population is African American and poor.
In conjunction with the Michigan ACLU, the NAACP has cited six areas it said are either unconstitutional or in urgent need of change. On the county level, the courts provide inconsistent legal care for defendants; defendants don’t appear before a jury of their peers (only 12 percent of the jury pool is Black, despite a 40 percent African American population); and habeas corpus rights to be released by a circuit court judge have been denied them.
As part of its “And Justice For All Campaign” the NAACP is working on proposed solutions which it intends to bring before the state Legislature.
Eminem, Live Nation together may run St. Andrew's Hall
By BRIAN McCOLLUM
FREE PRESS POP MUSIC WRITER
A pair of Detroit music institutions may join forces and reconnect a local superstar to his past.
Eminem’s manager, Detroit native Paul Rosenberg, is vying to lease and operate the St. Andrew’s Hall complex in downtown Detroit, sources familiar with negotiations told the Free Press this week.
Entertainment conglomerate Live Nation, which has owned and managed the venue since the late 1990s, has chosen not to sell the property, after quietly placing it on the market earlier this year.
But sources said the company is hammering out a deal with Rosenberg that will likely give him control of the hall’s liquor license and day-to-day operations. Live Nation would retain the property and rights to concert booking.
The deal, which may be completed next month, would run to several hundred-thousand dollars, said a source. Like others, the source asked not to be named because of the sensitivity of negotiations.
Spokesmen for both Eminem and Live Nation did not comment today. (Read More)
ROYCE DA 5’9” BREAKS HIS SILENCE ON DRINKING, DRAMA, AND MUSIC
By Biba Adams The Michigan Citizen
Royce da 5’9 began his rap career in the late 90’s, by the dawn of the Millennium, he was writing songs for Dr. Dre and touring with Eminem. He was a rising star that seemed to have the world in the palm of his hand. Yet, his career has had more ups and downs than a roller coaster. He got a deal with Tommy Boy, which later went bankrupt; then to Columbia, which later dropped him; then to Koch, which mishandled his promotions. He has had (and lost) more big opportunities than most rap artists ever dream of. (Read More)
Faith and Policy
Black Colleges should Rap Hip-Hop Attackers
Anthony Bradley
Historically black colleges and universities have been the bedrock of black economic progress since 1837. Although America's 105 black colleges represent 3 percent of the nation's institutions of higher learning, they graduate nearly one-quarter of all blacks who earn undergraduate degrees. (Read More)
Pastor garners Award for Work in Criminal Justice
Gregg Krupa / The Detroit News
The Rev. Deedee Coleman is accustomed to being recognized.
The pastor of the Russell Street Baptist Church stands out as one of a comparatively small number of women who are Baptist pastors, and her ministry to prisoners and former convicts is a task that not many clerics embrace, let alone as vigorously as Coleman.
For her work in criminal justice, the American Baptist Churches, USA is recognizing her with its highest award -- the Edwin T. Dahlberg Peace Award, which was first presented to the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.
"When I got the call, I was just floored," Coleman said. (Read More)
Old Black Hospital could become History Showcase
Oralandar Brand-Williams / The Detroit News
DETROIT -- A group of black doctors hopes to turn the old Dunbar Hospital into a showcase museum this year.
Opened in 1918, Dunbar is one of the city's first black-owned hospitals. It was housed in a three-story Victorian home on the city's eastside.
Andre Lee, a member of the Detroit Medical Society, said renovating the old mansion into a medical museum will give the public an opportunity to learn more about the contribution blacks made to the medical profession.
"It's just been sitting here so we thought we could fix it up and open it up for tours and for organizations to meet in," said Lee, who is spearheading the renovation project.
The hospital was opened by black physicians denied practicing privileges at white-owned hospitals in the city, in an era in the country's history when few blacks were admitted to white-owned hospitals. Closed in 1926, the red-brick mansion on Frederick Avenue, is located in the shadows of the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History.The Detroit Medical Society, an organization of African-American doctors in Metro Detroit, has owned the house for 80 years. Physicians who were members of the society founded Dunbar Hospital.(Read More)
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Ricardo Thomas / The Detroit News
"Say to the world, 'Something went wrong with our leadership! " Louis Farrakhan says to the crowd about President Bush.
Farrakhan: A Call for Unity
'Do the right thing,' leader urges followers
Gregg Krupa / The Detroit News
DETROIT -- Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan urged religions to unite and urged people and politicians to force President Bush from office in a long-awaited speech Sunday.
Speaking to about 30,000 people at Ford Field for what was billed as perhaps his last speech before a large audience after fighting cancer and surgery that kept him from the public eye since September, a robust 73-year-old Farrakhan said that only religions can save a world bent on destruction. (Read More)
Rice: Obama's Run Shows Black Progress
The Associated Press
Sunday, February 25, 2007; 4:51 PM
WASHINGTON -- Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice finds Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama appealing and says it won't be much longer before race isn't a barrier to becoming president.
Obama is a top-tier contender among Democrats and his wide support early in the 2008 race "just shows that we've come a very long way," Rice said Sunday. She and the Illinois senator are black. (Read More)
Oprah gets Abraham to apologize to family
Jennifer Chambers / The Detroit News
What Michigan's juvenile justice system, dozens of lawyers and social workers and nearly $1 million tax dollars could not do in a decade, Oprah Winfrey did in mere minutes: elicit a face-to-face apology from Nathaniel Abraham to the family of the victim of his crime.
Abraham's lawyers have discouraged one-on-one media interviews for the convicted murderer, saying continued public scrutiny could hinder the 21-year-old's efforts to transform from a locked-up criminal to a free man. ( Read More )
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