Urban News

(CINCINNATI) -- According to a report in the Cincinnati Enquirer, top city officials are demanding that U.S. District Court Judge Susan Dlott replace a Berkeley, Calif., lawyer who was appointed to oversee police reforms.

Otherwise, city officials say, the city might withdraw from two settlements to improve police-community relations.

Mayor Charlie Luken, among others, was exasperated when Dr. Alan Kalmanoff -- who charges $100 an hour -- sent the city a bill for $55,000 after just three weeks on the job. Luken said he has told Kalmanoff to reconsider his assignment and stop his work in Cincinnati.

"(Dr. Kalmanoff) said he will stop in eight days if we don't pay it," said the mayor. "I think that this is great news."

Luken said Kalmanoff "has got to go ... he has shown arrogance about the city, about the agreement and about the council." He said the city's relationship with the monitor is "spoiled beyond repair."

The City Council was scheduled to vote Wednesday to refuse payment to Kalmanoff, and to ask a judge to appoint someone else to enforce deadlines in two settlements -- one ending a Justice Department investigation into the police department, and another suspending a racial profiling lawsuit.

Kalmanoff 's bill included several itemized expenses that Luken and other city officials questioned, including:

$100 for attending and making a speech at the ceremony announcing his appointment.

$100 for a press conference and meeting with the press in general.

$500 for attending an NAACP event, working on notes, e-mails and administrative tasks.

$675 for a ride along with a police officer.

And $50 for attempting to see members of the City Council.

Officials with the NAACP said the city has no authority to change the arrangement with the monitor, arguing that the reason a monitor was appointed in the first place is that the city had a practice of not following through on its promises.

(BALTIMORE) -- Voters in Baltimore overwhelmingly approved a plan in Tuesday's election to reconstitute city government, cutting four seats from the 19-seat city council and doing away with multimember districts.

The measure -- Question P -- passed by a margin of almost 2-1. It was a stringing defeat for some city leaders who resisted the plan but were outmaneuvered by tenacious community-labor coalition -- with help from a ruling by Maryland's top court.

According to the Baltimore Sun, the plan is aimed at saving money and making it easier for challengers to get elected in races against established politicians. Critics warned the plan could diminish council representation for minorities.

City Council President Sheila Dixon, who opposed the plan, told the paper backers of Question P could come to regret the change.

"The people looking from the outside sometimes don't have a real understanding about what goes on and how this could be a detriment to moving the city forward," said Dixon.

The ballot measure would create 14 council districts, each represented by one member. Currently, Baltimore has six districts, each represented by three council members.

(NEW YORK) -- Metal detectors make students late for classes in public high schools, but according to a report in the New York Times the daily inspection routine might not make students all that much safer.

Some of the 4,000 students at John F. Kennedy High School in the Bronx are late to their first period class after standing in line for 30 minutes -- sometimes longer -- waiting to be cleared by security guards.

In all, said the Times, 65 New York high schools have similar screening processes. Metal detectors were installed at Kennedy this fall after a student was stabbed to death outside the school over the summer.

Benjamin B. Tucker -- the head of the education department's Office of School Planning -- told the paper the metal detectors keep schools safe. But some students and teachers at Kennedy aren't sure the screening has improved matters much at their school.

"The problem wasn't really weapons," said 17-year-old Kennedy senior Leidy Colon, "it's people fighting and things like that. But people can still sneak things in. They bring in cell phones and if they wanted to bring in other stuff, there'd be a way."

(WASHINGTON, D.C.) -- Officials in the nation's capital say they are ready for the annual battle with winter snow, ice and sleet.

District officials told USA Today that about 1,000 municipal employees have gone through a training course -- the third annual Snow Summit. A Department of Public Works official told the paper that D.C. has about 250 snowplows ready to be put in service -- more than half of them new.

That represents progress from the disaster of 1996, when a blizzard hit Washington, and the city only had about 100 pieces of equipment it could use to clear the streets.