One of the tens of thousands of foreclosed houses in Detroit that you can read about
here.
At
The Atlantic, Rose Hackman writes
One-Fifth of Detroit's Population Could Lose Their Homes—Many families could stay put for just a few hundred dollars, if only they knew how to work the system:
As Detroit seeks to leave bankruptcy behind and get back on its feet—ramping up development with construction of a light rail and a new hockey arena that will cost the city hundreds of millions of dollars—it is simultaneously bearing witness to a process that could evict up to 142,000 of its residents, many of whom are too poor to pay their property taxes.
Detroit is 83 percent African-American, and 38 percent of its population lives below the poverty line. But the older, blacker Detroit starkly contrasts with a whiter, wealthier new Detroit that's been wooed in by tax breaks and living incentives—which gives these evictions a heavily racial subtext. […]
This year in Detroit, there have been 22,000 foreclosures on properties whose owners failed to pay property taxes three years in a row. Of those, 10,000 are estimated to be occupied, meaning this year's foreclosures are set to oust about 27,000 Detroiters from their homes.
That’s a large number in a dwindling city with fewer than 700,000 residents, but the figures are set to get even worse. In the next couple of months, Wayne County's treasurer will be serving foreclosure notices on 110,000 more properties, 85,000 of which are in Detroit, according to its chief deputy treasurer David Szymanski. With half of those Detroit properties estimated to be occupied, this means a further 115,000 Detroiters might lose their homes next year.
Blast from the Past. At Daily Kos on this date in 2010—An update from the front:
The war in Afghanistan? Not going all that well.
The war on drugs? Um, move along please.
The war on poverty? Are we still even fighting that one?
But don't despair. There is a battlefront where there's been significant progress—the war on reality.
In case you think that the general Tea Party lunatic positions on taxes, health care, and Aqua Buddha have distracted them from the battle lines of this engagement, Southern Fried Science has compiled a series of Tea Party statements where candidates and supporters reaffirm their allegiance to non-science. Whether it's O'Donnell's fury over mice with human brains, Sharron Angle's angle on the "hoax" of global warming, or the near universal disdain on the right for evolution, the Tea Party has not surrendered one inch to research and reason.
The editors of the journal Nature have declared that
The anti-science strain pervading the right wing in the United States is the last thing the country needs in a time of economic challenge. ... The [Tea Party] movement is also averse to science-based regulation, which it sees as an excuse for intrusive government.
Tweet of the Day
i've always took the firm stance that it's not bullying when it's directed at the bullies
— @MattBinder
On
today's Kagro in the Morning show, Christie's tired of something, so everyone stop. David Perdue hates America. Drunken, trombone-playing clown GunFAIL! Suppose they gave a constitutional crisis and nobody came?
Joan McCarter joined us to discuss the CIA-Senate fight, 15 minutes of fame for ID's Hitching Post Wedding Chapel, health care flip-flops from Kasich & Tillis, Brown's laughable debate line, and the Koch brothers' last-ditch efforts. The "devoted gun enthusiast" who attacked a GA courthouse wore a double layer of body armor, but accidentally shot himself in the leg. And
Scott Wooledge joins us along with
Armando for a more in-depth discussion of the Hitching Post stunt.
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