Detroit Free Press from Detroit, Michigan • 3

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 8, 2009 WWW.FREEP.COM 3A 1 I On freep.com tJury to deliberate in double murder case that led to closure of Detroit police crime lab. I More metro news, 25A A PARKING ISSUE: Milford Township soon may get its first overnight lodging. The township's Zoning Board of Appeals is to decide today whether to allow additional parking in front of the home where the Milford Guesthouse Bed and Breakfast would be located. A GMRdaMLFoRDii. MILFORD.

SjXT Buno Iv. Umm jjlntiac Trail SkTl jWIXOM Detroit Fr Press i 1- Detroit awyer sues over Kil li She alleges reverse discrimination for her 'ghetto court' comment contended in a letter that the remarks were racist. Atkins is named as a defendant in the lawsuit. "There are few things worse than being called a racist," Fett said. "I don't have a comment at all," Atkins said Tuesday.

Cockrel's spokesman, Daniel Cherrin, said he could not comment on a pending lawsuit. I CONTACT BEN SCHMITT 313-2234296 OR BCSCHMirrefREEPRESS.COM "The Slang Dictionary defines 'ghetto' as 'backwards and messed Leavey's lawyer, James Fett, wrote in the suit. "Leavey's African-American colleagues have never been subject to discipline, admonishment or ridicule for using the term Leavey, who is on leave, said she was forced to resign her post as interim corporation counsel after 36th District Chief Judge Marylin Atkins By BEN SCHMITT FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER The City of Detroit's former top lawyer sued the city Tuesday, saying that she was illegally demoted when she described the 36th District Court as a "ghetto court." Kathleen Leavey, who is white in a court where most judges are black, said in the lawsuit filed in U.S. District ghetto court because of the way they treat people," Leavey said, adding that she was referring to long lines and slow service. In her lawsuit, Leavey, a Detroit resident, alleges reverse race discrimination, retaliatory defamation and First Amendment retaliation in the lawsuit.

She is seeking damages in excess of $75,000. Court that she was not talking about race when she criticized the courthouse Jan. 14. Leavey told the Free Press at the time that she got into a heated discussion with a court administrator about the court's handling of a lawsuit against it, in which it asked the city to pay a $400,000 judgment without warning. "I told her people regard this as a L.

i Metro Detroit Grants will help cleanup blight Homeowners on the edge will benefit, too By STEVE NEAVUNG FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER Detroit, Warren and Sterling Heights will clean up blight and help people at risk of losing their homes, with state grants announced Tuesday by Michigan Attorney General Mike Cox. The $250,000 grants to each city are part of a settlement with Countrywide Financial over loans issued to people the company knew couldn't pay, Cox said. The remaining money will fund programs to help homeowners avoid foreclosure and aid people who were victimized by Countrywide's predatory lending. Warren plans to use the money to demolish or renovate up to 70 blighted houses in neighborhoods hard hit by foreclosures. The city had 725 foreclosures last year.

"Ridding our city's neighborhoods of dilapidated buildings has been a priority of my administration," Warren Mayor Jim Fouts said Tuesday. Detroit and Sterling Heights have not decided how they will spend the money. The settlement also will fund a forum on April 28 in which thousands of residents will be able to meet with financial counselors at Ford Field. "For most families in Michigan, the largest investment they'll ever make is their homes," Cox said. "But too many families can't go home again due to foreclosures" I CONTACT STEVE NEAVUNG: 586S26-7255 OR SNEAVLING9FREEPRESS.COM Photos by SUSAN TUSA, Detroit Frw Press DETROIT State helps DPS out of funding jam The state superintendent approved the Detroit Public Schools' deficit-elimination plan Monday, according to a letter released Tuesday.

The Michigan Department of Education's deci- sion was needed in order for the district to apply for a state-backed, $168-million loan to help make payroll and pay bills through the summer. The state also agreed Monday to advance two months of state aid to the district. The state-aid payment that is due on April 20 was processed Monday, the Office of State Aid and School Finance confirmed. About $19.7 million of the district's payment will go to the state retirement fund. DPS fell behind on payments to the retirement system this year.

The payment for May 20 will be advanced on April 27. DPS has accumulated a $305-million deficit since last school year, its emergency financial manager, Robert Bobb, announced last week. He said he plans to release a list of 18 to 20 schools this week that will be considered for closure this summer. WESTLAND Fire official arraigned in auto accident Westland Fire Marshal Chris Szpara was arraigned Tuesday in 29th District Court in Wayne for failure to stop at a property damage accident. Judge Laura Mack was assigned to hear the misdemeanor case after the two judges in 18th District Court in West-land disqualified themselves from hearing it.

Mack scheduled Szpara's preliminary examination for April 22. According to Westland police, Szpara struck the side of another car while driving a city-provided Dodge Charger on March 24 as he drove along Mer-riman Road near Cherry Hill. He is accused of leaving the scene. He was stopped by police from Wayne. Oakland BIRMINGHAM City votes to quit board for Dream Cruise The City Commission voted Monday to resign from the nonprofit group that operates the Woodward Dream Cruise.

As of May 6, the commission will no longer be involved with decisions about the event. But it will continue to hold Dream Cruise events in its downtown, officials said. And, said Dale Daw-kins, who heads the all-volunteer Woodward Dream Cruise Inc. board, "They have assured us they will support the cruise with police." I coMPii by pratt WWW. CtCH ANGEL AND WU LAI1NER Jay Noren greets the president of the University of Miami, Donna Shalala, after his inauguration Tuesday at the Detroit Institute of Arts.

Pomp and circumstance were toned down in light of economic hardships, and Noren decreed that donations go toward scholarships instead. MAKING IT OFFICIAL Wayne State inaugurates 10th president with high praise at a low-key affair if Noren, who has repeatedly painted WSU as a laboratory that can lead to solutions for urban problems in "metro Detroit and elsewhere, talked about WSU's strengths and potential. Among his ideas: a national higher education trust fund and more locally stronger partnerships with Detroit public schools as well as an "urban land grant" program in which blighted land would be given to the university to revitalize. Noren said he wanted to make the inauguration "minimalist" in deference to tough economic times and students' difficulty in paying for school. Steering the donations to scholarships, he said, underlines WSU's core mission to make higher education accessible.

"It just is one small piece of a much larger commitment," he said. I CONTACT ROBIN ERB; 313-222-2708 OR RERB OFREEPRESS.COM By ROBIN ERB FREE PRESS EDUCATION WRITER Amid scaled-back pomp and circumstance, Jay Noren became the 10th president of Wayne State University on Tuesday. Noren has been leading WSU since August. And well before the ceremony, his effort to understand WSU's students had been noticed, student council president Jacob Kinde said. Noren shows up at student events and asks for student input on decisions affecting WSU's future, Kinde, 22, said after Tuesday's ceremony at the Detroit Institute of Arts.

Noren is praised for respecting students. At the ceremony, students return that respect. "He seems to genuinely care about what we're thinking," Kinde said. WSU officials said planners scaled back the ceremony, and Noren redirected $26,200 in donations for the event to act as seed funds for a scholarship Detroit JLr i) li il III: II 21 il il IS II II I- I. II It I- I II ti il is ii i jj il il (t i Council: Tear down train station on its owner's dime "3 i II II II 9 .1 -i ii a 'I II II II il II It l.

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Jl il II li ii I 4. MX i i ii Richard tit'MroitfrwPrm million to demolish the depot in his proposed federal economic stimulus funding list. His plan calls for Moroun to reimburse the city for demolition costs. But Collins said, "The city should have no obligation whatsoever to tear it down." The city likely could demolish the building under a 1984 city ordinance that allows it to raze a "dangerous building." Under the ordinance, hearings must be held with the owner at the Buildings and Safety Engineering Department and with the City Council before a privately owned building can be demolished. Further complicating the process, special permission must be granted to use federal funds to demolish a building on the National Register of Historic Places.

The station, built in 1913, was placed on the National Register in 1975 and placed on the State Register of Historic Sites in 1974. Moroun, a billionaire who also owns the Ambassador Bridge and wants to build a second span across the Detroit River, has 30 days to respond to the council's resolution. Calls to Moroun's staff were not returned Tuesday. "It should've been down years ago," Council President By NAOMI R. PATTON FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER The Detroit City Council passed a resolution Tuesday requesting the emergency demolition of Michigan Central Station at owner Manuel (Matty) Moroun's expense.

But the process to demolish the storied train station in southwest Detroit could be complicated by a plan Mayor Ken Cockrel Jr. has to raze it using federal stimulus money. "I want it down now," said Councilwoman Barbara-Rose Collins, who introduced the resolution to raze the depot, which has sat empty since 1988. Cockrel has allotted $3.6 Michigan Central Station Is on the National Register of Historic Places. It has sat empty since 1983 and is owned by Manuel (Matty) Moroun.

against the resolut ion. Councilwoman Brenda Jones is hospitalized and was absent. I CONTACT NAOMt PATTON 313-2233327 STATT WRIU JOHN GAUA.MIR CONTRIBUTED TO THIS REPORT. Monica Conyers said, adding she would consider other options if Moroun "came up with some type of plan to make it viable," like a shopping outlet. Sheila Cockrel was the only council member to vote.