Urban News

DETROIT BUDGET BLASTED BY AUDITOR

An expansive budget plan for Detroit, compiled by its mayor, has been roundly criticized by that city's top auditor.

Auditor General Joseph Harris says Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick's $1.4 billion fiscal game plan for the city could lead to massive layoffs and run the city some $200 million farther into the red.

The Detroit Free Press says Harris believes the city is "sticking a finger in the hole in the dike next year."

Harris noted to the Detroit City Council Kilpatrick had been warned by his predecessor, Dennis Archer, that drastic actions had to be taken to prevent the city from falling off a financial cliff.

While Harris did not blame the current mayor for all of the city's woes, he told the council the plans worked out by Kilpatrick will not get the job done in some areas.

TORONTO TOURIST OFFICIALS WORKING OVERTIME

Tourism officials in Toronto are tying to undo the damage done by a week-long health warning about travel there.

The World Health Organization had warned worldwide travelers to steer clear of the Canadian metropolis because of concerns about the spreading SARS epidemic. That warning was rescinded this week because no new cases had been reported in the general population in recent days.

Toronto had nearly 40 active cases earlier this week and nearly 500 people still in quarantine, though.

Canadian travel authorities, however, still must step up screening at the city's ports of entry, including its sprawling international airport.

HOUSTON POLICE RADIO LINKS CRITICIZED

Terrorism experts in Houston say it's imperative the city enter into a plan to coordinate both local and county radio links.

The southwest Texas port city is the largest urban area in the nation that does not have a coordinated plan that brings together in-city and out-county emergency radios so all police and fire jurisdictions can talk to each other.

A recent study of how to remedy the shortfall is now in the hands of the Houston City Council.

The Houston Chronicle says the city has what communications experts call a "patch." That is a kind of routing device that can funnel emergency radio traffic in and out of the city to rural cities and surrounding areas.

CHARLESTON POLICE FIND ALIENS IN PORT

A federal team this week found some 35 illegal aliens working on a major bridge project in the harbor at Charleston, S.C. The task force went to the construction site for the new Cooper River bridge to make the arrests.

The Charleston Post and Courier says experts are investigating how the illegals got jobs in the first place.

The publication says the arrests mark the first successful operation for a task force nicknamed SeaHawk, set up to investigate suspicious containers and other cargo on ships in Charleston harbor and in other areas around the port.

A company that had leased land adjacent to the bridge construction helped the marshals in their investigation.