Urban News

(DETROIT) -- One day after Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick and Police Chief Jerry Oliver announced an agreement with federal civil rights officials to try to clean up the police department -- and avoid an imposed cleanup by the U.S. Justice Department -- a woman accused police of illegally arresting her and holding for about 14 hours.

The Detroit Free Press reported Samantha Nolden has filed a suit alleging that detectives investigating a triple homicide at a suspected dog-fighting den in her neighborhood took her into custody because they believed she might be able to give them information about the case.

It was an especially gruesome case. Three men were shot in the head and killed, and one of them was partially decapitated and dismembered with a chain saw. On top of all that, the suspected dog-fighting house was torched.

Nolden's lawyer said it appeared his client was arrested because police thought her brother might know something about who ran the dogfights. The suit alleges that Nolden's three children were also taken into custody.

According to the newspaper, Nolden's arrest raised questions about whether the police department has truly put an end to its longstanding, but illegal, practice of dragnet arrests. Kilpatrick and Oliver promised federal officials in the agreement announced last week that the practice was a thing of the past.

(DENVER) -- Public education officials in Denver reported that enrollment in the city's public schools grew slightly in October, as compared to October 2001.

The Denver Post reported that growth was slower than it had been in recent years, with enrollment rising by just 180 students. In a continuing trend, Denver Public Schools reported enrolling more Hispanic students and fewer blacks and whites.

The district's Hispanic majority now stands at 56 percent, said the paper. In 1981, Hispanics accounted for just one-third of the city's public school students, and white students have not made up a plurality in Denver classrooms since1986.

Officials were at a loss to explain why the system lost 651 second- and fourth-graders. Superintendent Jerry Wartgow said it might be a reflection of a slowing economy.

"Many of our population are living day to day." Said Wartgow. "If there's no work one day, they're just going to pack up and move."

(NEW YORK) -- The bloom seems to be off the rose in New York, where Mayor Michael Bloomberg's approval ratings have plummeted -- apparently because he has announced plans to cut services and raise taxes to address a budget deficit most recently estimated at $7.5 billion for the current and next fiscal years.

One day after the Quinnipiac poll began on Nov. 13 the mayor proposed raising property taxes by 25 percent and cutting $780 million in services. From that point on, Bloomberg's overall approval rating dropped to 41 percent -- down from 57 percent just four months ago.

However, 54 percent of New York City voters said they're all for the mayor's proposal to ban smoking in restaurants and bars. The Quinnipiac poll showed that 41 percent disapprove.

(PHILADLPHIA) -- Mayor John Street has proposed an overhaul of city government -- including the elimination of 10 percent of the work force -- to cover a projected $612 million budget deficit in 2007 and to pay for his anticrime program.

The mayor's workforce reduction program would cut 2,500 jobs from the city payroll over five years.

"We must fundamentally and responsibly reform and permanently reduce the employee population," he told City Council in a rare mid-year budget address.

The Philadelphia Inquirer reported that Street said layoffs are possible. The paper said the mayor's message came as Street prepares to begin his reelection campaign.

The first details of what Street calls his plan to "right-size" the city's infrastructure are likely to be announced in January, when he proposes his next city budget.

Philadelphia has about as many municipal employees and at least as many police stations, fire stations, miles of road and recreation centers as it did in 1955, when the city had 2.2 million residents and taxpayers, said the Inquirer. The 2000 census counted 1.5 million people in the city.