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LANSING, Mich. - After his preacher problems, Barack Obama doesn't need another association with a charismatic, radioactive public figure. Still, Kwame Kilpatrick, the tarnished mayor of Detroit, is a hard man to avoid completely. That places the Democratic presidential candidate in a bit of a dilemma when he campaigns in Michigan this week and later in the race. Obama meets voters Monday in Troy, a Detroit suburb, just when his party needs to ease wounds from its internal fight over the renegade Michigan primary. The party's rules committee decided Saturday to seat the state's delegates at the convention but hold...

The married mayor also signed off on a confidentiality agreement that hid from the Detroit City Council the role those text messages played in an exorbitant $8.4 million settlement of a whistle-blowers' lawsuit by former police officers. The scandal has led the City Council to ask Gov. Jennifer Granholm, a fellow Democrat, to remove Kilpatrick from office for misconduct. The council accuses the mayor of violating provisions in the city charter as part of the whistle-blowers' settlement. The nine-member council also is expected to begin forfeiture of office proceedings against the mayor in about two weeks.

A day after a judge lashed out upon learning Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick had skipped a court hearing and taken a trip to Texas, the mayor tells WXYZ the uproar "had nothing to do with me."

DETROIT- Attorneys for Kwame Kilpatrick are catching a judge's anger after the Detroit mayor missed a hearing in 36th District Court. Judge Ronald Giles complained Tuesday about Kilpatrick's absence and the short notice given of a weekend trip to Texas. Tuesday's hearing was on a motion filed by defense attorneys. Kilpatrick informed the court Saturday that he was flying to Texas on city business that night. His bond allows travel outside the state, but Giles has said the mayor is to attend hearings. Kilpatrick and former Chief of Staff Christine Beatty face a Sept. 22 preliminary examination on perjury and...

Lansing, Mich. (AP) -- Gov. Jennifer Granholm's office will review a City Council request to remove Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick from office, the governor's staff said Tuesday. Kilpatrick already faces perjury and other criminal charges involving a whistle-blowers' lawsuit settlement, and Granholm has said she wants the criminal process to play out. But that could last months, leading the council to ask the governor to remove Kilpatrick. State law allows the governor to remove an elected official from office for a number of reasons, including when an officeholder has been guilty of official misconduct. The 10-page petition and the supporting...

The Detroit City Council Tuesday will officially ask Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm to remove Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick from office. Last week, council members voted 5-4 to begin forfeiture of office proceedings against Kilpatrick. On a separate 5-4 vote, they approved asking Granholm to terminate Kilpatrick's hold on the mayor's office. A third vote -- to censure the mayor -- passed on a 7-2 vote.

Detroit City Council Votes to Begin Removal Process of Mayor Kilpatrick. In a 5 to 4 vote, however one Council Women thinks the Mayor may be making overtures in regards to resigning

The Detroit City Council has taken the first step toward removing Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick over a scandal involving explicit text messages to his former aide. The council's 5-4 vote Tuesday begins a process aimed at removing Kilpatrick. Council members also voted to ask Gov. Jennifer Granholm to remove the mayor and voted to publicly censure him. . . . The mayor's office has said the council's actions are politically motivated. . . . Prosecutors have charged the two with perjury and obstruction of justice.

DETROIT- Kwame Kilpatrick is adding "talk show host" to his mayoral duties. The Detroit mayor on Monday taped the first installment of his new cable public access television show. WWJ-AM and WXYZ-TV report Kilpatrick's first two guests were city Police Chief Ella Bully-Cummings and City Council President Pro Tem Monica Conyers. Kilpatrick says he liked doing the show. He'll have a two-minute commentary at the end of each new show. "Real Talk with Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick" debuts on Comcast Channel 10 on Monday, May 5. The show repeats on Wednesday and Friday.

A judge on Tuesday allowed the release of raunchy text messages that a lawyer allegedly used to get Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick to shell out $8 million in city money to make a police whistle-blower lawsuit go away.

Racism in the pulpit has been an ugly reality in the black community for some 40 years. Yet, it took the mad rantings of Barack Obama's pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright Jr. to bring it to our national consciousness. For the sake of the future of our great country, it is time we spoke frankly about this insidious cancer.

Just when the party needs them most, the Dems super-delegates are dropping like flies. First there was William Jefferson, followed by Eliot Spitzer, then Kwame Kilpatrick, and today, Anibal Acevedo-Vila. This morning’s announcement of the indictment of Puerto Rico’s governor along with twelve others, including prominent Philadelphia democratic fundraiser Robert Feldman, worries party faithful for more reasons than one. Governor Acevedo-Vila , “a Harvard educated attorney and politician,” who according to AP, “was elected governor in 2004 after campaigning on an anti-corruption platform,” just last month endorsed Senator Obama for president.But as WaPo’s the Trail points out: " The reach...

Embattled Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick is picking up financial support from some high profile national business and political leaders to help mount a defense against charges of perjury and other felonies. On Tuesday, Kilpatrick and his former Chief of Staff Christine Beatty were arraigned on multiple perjury, conspiracy, misconduct and obstruction of justice charges. They face a June 9 preliminary examination in Detroit's 36th District Court. The charges stem from statements Kilpatrick and Beatty gave under oath last summer during a whistle-blowers' trial. Both denied having a romantic relationship in 2002 and 2003. Supporters of Kilpatrick’s Detroit Justice Fund include...

It's hard to imagine how Detroit's liberal populace can charge hip-hop Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick for perjury. After all, doesn't everyone lie about sex? I'm not certain that Kilpatrick should be charged or convicted either. Those of us who live in cities like Detroit or Los Angeles accepted that kind of political double standard long ago. Detroit clearly needs to loosen up a little -- maybe create its own ethics commission. That's what works for us. In LA, our Ethics Commission makes it unnecessary for police to investigate messy corruption scandals or other embarrassing felonies. Our Commission would issue a warning...

Oh, no, this Negro didn’t. Somebody please tell me that Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick did not play the race card in his recent state of the city address. Please tell me that he did not compare himself to Dr. Ossian Sweet, the famous Detroiter who, in 1925, held off, by force of arms, a riotous white mob threatening to drive him and his family from their home. Kilpatrick’s problems are nothing like Sweet’s, and Kilpatrick brought them all on himself. Sweet was exercising his right as an American citizen to live where he wanted free from harassment and violence. Kilpatrick’s...

Mathis: I Do Not Support Mayor Judge Mathis Denies Heading Up Defense FundPOSTED: 12:57 pm EDT March 27, 2008 UPDATED: 1:11 pm EDT March 27, 2008 DETROIT -- Embattled Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick is establishing a legal defense fund called The Detroit Justice Fund to pay his mounting legal bills. "Of course, all fundraising requirements will be met," said an official from the Mayor's office. "There will be no set donation amounts." One of the names tied to heading up this defense fund committee was Detroit native Judge Greg Mathis. On Thursday, Mathis sent out a statement denying his involvement....

DETROIT (AP) - Legal experts say that the heart of the perjury case against Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick—steamy text messages that seem to contradict his sworn denials of an affair with an aide—might be less open-and-shut than many believe. Kilpatrick's attorneys want to keep the intimate and sexually explicit text messages out of a trial, and at least one outside defense lawyer says the admissibility of such high-tech communications is an unsettled legal question. Even if they are admitted, experts say the defense will exploit any ambiguity in the messages, in the questions the mayor and former Chief of Staff Christine...

DETROIT - Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick and his former top aide have pleaded not guilty to charges they lied under oath about having an affair. The mayor and former Chief of Staff Christine Beatty were arraigned Tuesday. Not guilty pleas were entered for them on charges of perjury, conspiracy, obstruction of justice and misconduct in office. Both are accused of lying under oath about an affair and their roles in the firing of a top police official. Steamy text messages first reported by the Detroit Free Press revealed a flirty, sometimes explicit, dialogue between the two. Attorneys for both say...

Detroit's sex-scandal Democrat mayor---married father of three---was charged with perjury after steamy text messages undercut his sworn testimony that he didn't have an affair with a top aide. Kwame Kilpatrick, 37, was also charged with conspiracy, obstruction of justice and misconduct in office...... His former COS, Christine Beatty, 37, had denied under oath that she and her boss had a fling, was charged with perjury and obstruction of justice. The probe began after the Detroit Free Press published excerpts of text messages going back to 2002. "I'm madly in love with you," Kilpatrick texted. "I hope you feel that way...

Two weeks since the ABC and NBC evening shows took multiple days before getting around to informing viewers that disgraced New York Governor Eliot Spitzer belonged to the Democratic Party -- after every ABC, CBS and NBC morning and evening news program last year immediately highlighted the party of Republican Senators David Vitter and Larry Craig -- Monday's broadcast network evening newscasts all failed to note, verbally or on-screen, Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick's party. ABC anchor Charles Gibson announced on World News: “Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick was charged today with felonies that could cost him his job and 15 years...

Kilpatrick, Worthy at a Glance By The Associated Press – 1 hour ago NAME: Kwame Malik Kilpatrick. AGE: 37. EDUCATION: Bachelor's degree in political science, Florida A&M; law degree from Detroit College of Law at Michigan State University. POLITICAL CAREER: Detroit mayor, 2002-present; Michigan House, 1996-2001; minority floor leader, 1998-2000; House Democratic Leader, 2001. PROFESSIONAL CAREER: Teacher in Detroit Public Schools, 1993-97. PARENTS: U.S. Rep. Carolyn Cheeks Kilpatrick, D-Detroit, and Bernard Kilpatrick, former chief of staff to Wayne County Executive Ed McNamara and a former county commissioner. PERSONAL: Wife, Carlita; twin sons Jalil and Jelani and son Jonas. DEFINING CHARACTERISTICS:...

DETROIT (AP) - Kwame Kilpatrick, a one-time rising star in American urban politics who embraced his "Hip-Hop Mayor" image as Detroit's youngest elected leader, was charged Monday with perjury and other counts after sexually explicit text messages surfaced that appear to contradict his sworn denials of an affair with a top aide.

Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick, a one-time rising star and as Detroit's youngest elected leader, was charged Monday with perjury and other counts after sexually explicit text messages surfaced that appear to contradict his sworn denials of an affair with a top aide. Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy also charged the popular yet polarizing 37-year-old mayor with obstruction of justice and misconduct in office. Former Chief of Staff Christine Beatty, 37, who also denied under oath that she and Kilpatrick shared a romantic relationship in 2002 and was charged with perjury and obstruction of justice. In all, Worthy authorized a 12-count criminal...

This is going to be FUN!

DETROIT - A prosecutor poised to reveal the results of her probe into whether Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick and his former top aide committed perjury or other crimes insists her own re-election bid did not affect the investigation. On Monday, Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy will put an end to two months of speculation when she announces what she found in her independent review of a text-messaging sex scandal that has consumed the city. "We're not the ones that created this scenario," Worthy said Friday. "We are the ones who simply want to do the right thing and do a thorough...

On Monday, March 24 at 11am, Wayne County Prosecutor Kim Worthy will announce her decision about whether to bring charges against Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick and/or any of his staff in the text messaging scandal.

You just can't make this stuff up:Mayor Would Attack Messages' Authenticity http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080321/NEWS01/803210357Other Detroit Free Press updates: Kwame Crocker sez:Mayor Kilpatrick: 'Enough is enough' http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080321/OPINION02/803210334 And the City of Detroit's money bonfire continues:Judge stops effort to block text messages http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080321/NEWS01/80321020

DETROIT - Prosecutor Kym Worthy promised Wednesday not to further delay announcing whether she will bring perjury or other charges against Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick and his former top aide. Her decision had been expected by the middle of this month, but Worthy pushed the announcement back. "It will be next week, for sure," the Wayne County prosecutor said. Worthy has been looking into claims that Kilpatrick and one-time Chief of Staff Christine Beatty lied under oath during a whistle-blowers' trial last summer when they denied having a romantic relationship in 2002 and 2003. The Detroit Free Press in January reported...

DETROIT (AP) - A nearly unified City Council voiced its displeasure with Kwame Kilpatrick on Tuesday, calling on the scandal-tainted mayor to resign. The lone vote against the resolution came from Monica Conyers, the council's president pro tem and the wife of U.S. Rep. John Conyers.

DETROIT - The Detroit City Council on Tuesday called for the resignation of Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick, who is being investigated over an alleged affair he swore under oath he did not have. He quickly rejected the request. The resolution, passed 7-1, amounted to a "no-confidence" vote because the council lacks the power to force Kilpatrick to step down. Mayoral spokeswoman Denise Tolliver said Kilpatrick has no intention of quitting. "City Council, according to the charter, is free to pass nonbinding resolutions. However while certain members have been playing judge and jury in the court of public opinion, Mayor Kilpatrick has...

Stunning closing to speech also may haunt Kilpatrick DETROIT — The swift resignation of New York's governor, Eliot Spitzer, just days after he was linked to a high-priced prostitution ring, has put new pressure on the embattled mayor of this city, Kwame Kilpatrick, with critics calling for him to step down quickly. "Lying under oath, I think most people would think that's more serious a crime than hiring a prostitute," the Michigan attorney general, Mike Cox, said last week. "Eliot Spitzer, whether you like him or not, did put the state of New York above his own interests. But the...

Lansing, Mich. (AP) -- The state attorney general said his office will look into new claims that Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick threw a party with strippers at the mayor's mansion in 2002. Attorney General Mike Cox told reporters Thursday he wants to meet with retired Detroit police desk clerk Joyce Rogers. The woman recently came forward and said she read a report filed by stripper Tamara Greene claiming she was assaulted by Kilpatrick's wife during a party at the mansion. Rumors of a party involving strippers at the mayor's official residence have never been substantiated. Kilpatrick repeatedly has denied the...

You might think the resignation of New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer would put more pressure on Detroit's embattled mayor, Kwame Kilpatrick, to do the same. But Kilpatrick, seven weeks into his own text sex scandal, shows no signs of giving up the fight. In fact, with a prosecutor contemplating perjury charges and his city council in revolt, Kilpatrick has chosen the nuclear option in this deeply divided city. At the end of an otherwise routine state-of-the-city speech Tuesday night, Kilpatrick went off on a racially explosive tirade against his critics and the media.

Check out Kwame's meltdown before his hand-picked, by-invitation-only audience at his State of the City speech in Detroit on Tuesday, March 11. These people went from Escorts to Escalades after they became Kwame appointees, so naturally they still support their meal ticket. http://youtube.com/watch?v=Z3WBeXBjjZA

AG Cox: Kilpatrick should quit for lying, using N-word 3/12/2008, 7:47 p.m. EDT The Associated Press DETROIT (AP) — Michigan Attorney General Mike Cox says Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick is a liar and a race-baiter who's unfit for office and should resign for the community's good. Cox tells WJR-AM's Lloyd Jackson he was shocked by the black leader's televised use of the N-word and his appeal for support while attacking opponents as racist. Kilpatrick's statements came at the end of Tuesday's State of the City address. Cox, who is white, calls it "race baiting" on par with segregationists David Duke...

Breaking news in the detroit free press...

DETROIT (AP) - Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick has lashed out at his opponents and the news media in the aftermath of the scandal over his exchange of sexy test messages with a former top aide. It happened Tuesday night at the end of his State of the City address, which till then had only a brief allusion to the text-message controversy. The case has led to a criminal probe of whether Kilpatrick lied under oath when he denied the affair. After an hour-long prepared address focusing on development plans and economic initiatives, Kilpatrick said he and his family have received...

DETROIT - Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick lashed out at his opponents and the news media Tuesday night, accusing them of showing a "lynch mob mentality" amid a scandal over his exchange of sexually explicit text messages with a former top aide. The criticism came as he finished reading the written text released before his State of the City address, which only briefly alluded to the text-message controversy. The case has led to a criminal probe of whether Kilpatrick lied under oath when he denied an affair with former Chief of Staff Christine Beatty that was revealed in the text messages. Kilpatrick,...

Ex-DPD Clerk: I Saw Manoogian Fight Report Last Update: 5:42 pm JOYCE ROGERS AFFIDAVIT (2.2MB) There's a new twist in the investigation into the death of an exotic dancer rumored to have performed at the Manoogian mansion. A former police senior clerk says she saw a police report filed by Tamara Greene claiming she'd been assaulted by Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick's wife Carlita.

She was more than a stripper, more than a statistic. Mom, daughter, business woman, friend. So who killed her? And is there a cover-up? As Scott Lewis uncovers in this FOX 2 Problem Solver Investigation, there's a lot more to her story.

DETROIT - Embattled Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick said Thursday he won't resign because of a text-messaging scandal that has engulfed his administration, but acknowledged the uproar has reduced him to tears. Kilpatrick, during an appearance on a morning radio show, was asked whether he would step down. "Absolutely not," Kilpatrick said on "The Paul W. Smith Show" on WJR-AM. "I don't understand when people say `resign.'" The mayor's comments came a day after the state's highest court rejected an attempt by Kilpatrick to prevent documents from being made public that detail a city settlement that helped conceal an apparent affair with...

DETROIT (AP) -- The Michigan Supreme Court has declined to hear an appeal from Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick to keep documents from a secret settlement of a whistle-blowers' lawsuit from being made public. The documents are related to embarrassing and sexually explicit text messages between Kilpatrick and his former top aide, but they do not include the actual messages. The city filed its motion to take a state Appeals Court ruling to the higher court Feb. 15. The Supreme Court ruled on Wednesday morning. It concurred with an Appeals Court panel that said a circuit court judge was correct in...

"Momma, we have a problem." http://www.kwamekilpatrick.com/

DETROIT -- A member of Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick's staff filed a police report claiming Detroit City Council Pro Tem Monica Conyers threatened him with a gun at a board meeting on Wednesday. A general retirement system board meeting turned into a profane shouting match when Conyers asked the board to pay a firm to conduct a study about a potential investment. Pension board member DeDan Milton told Conyers the board could not afford to fund the study. Witnesses said the argument quickly escalated and profane language was used.

8:33 AM (3 hrs ago) AP DETROIT - The deadline is approaching for Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick to file a second appeal to keep documents from a whistle-blowers' lawsuit settlement secret. The state Appeals Court has given him and the city until 5 p.m. Friday to appeal its ruling upholding a lower court decision to release the documents and an attorney's deposition. If no appeal is made, documents from the $8.4 million settlement to three former officers are expected to be made public Tuesday. The deal kept secret intimate and sexually explicit text messages involving Kilpatrick and his former Chief...

Text Of Kwame Kilpatrick's SpeechPOSTED: 7:42 pm EST January 30, 2008 UPDATED: 7:57 pm EST January 30, 2008 Mayor KilpatrickGood evening, Detroit. I want to start tonight by saying to the citizens of this great city, I’m sorry. To all of you who have believed in what we have been doing in this city since 2002 … to all of you who have believed in me and my leadership … to all of you who have stuck with me through difficult times … to all of you who have prayed for me … I’m sorry. For the embarrassment and disappointment...

DETROIT - Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick pleaded for forgiveness from his family and his constituents Wednesday in an emotional televised speech, his delayed response to recently revealed racy text messages that contradict his sworn testimony that he did not have a physical relationship with a key aide. "I truly apologize to you," Kilpatrick said, turning to his wife, Carlita, who sat by his side, holding his hand, at their family church. Kilpatrick did not publicly specify, however, what he was apologizing for, saying legal matters prevented him from doing so. A prosecutor is investigating whether the mayor and chief of staff...

DETROIT (AP) -- Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick named a new chief of staff Tuesday, a day after the woman who previously held the post resigned amid allegations that she and the mayor lied under oath about an affair. Kandia Milton, who has served as deputy chief of staff and liaison to Detroit's City Council, was appointed to Christine Beatty's job, Kilpatrick announced in a written statement released Tuesday. The mayor's office also said he planned to address the city for the first time since the scandal broke. He was set to speak from his church Wednesday night. In a letter...

DETROIT - Christine Beatty, Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick's chief of staff, said Monday she is resigning amid allegations that she and the mayor lied under oath about an affair. In a letter to Kilpatrick that was released by his office, Beatty said she believes she can no longer effectively carry out her duties. Her resignation takes effect Feb. 8. "I painfully regret the devastation that the recent reports have caused to the citizens of Detroit, to my co workers, to the Mayor's family and to my family and friends," Beatty wrote in the letter. Kilpatrick spokesman James Canning said the...

Mayor's Text Messages Show Romantic Getaways On City DimePOSTED: 11:37 pm EST January 26, 2008 UPDATED: 1:27 am EST January 27, 2008 DETROIT -- More potentially damaging evidence of perjury by Detroit's mayor has been uncovered by the Detroit Free Press just a couple of days after the paper released thousands of personal text messages between the mayor and his chief of staff. The sexually charged messages between Kwame Kilpatrick and Christine Beatty explicitly indicated that a romantic relationship did exist between them despite their denials under oath during last summer's police whistleblower trial. The newly released messages present evidence...