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Remembering Michael Jackson
11A-12A Metro Final
Terry Tarrant of Detroit lights a candle at Detroit’s Motown Museum Friday.
John T. Greilick The Detroit News
SPORTS, 1B
Saturday, June 27, 2009
Meijer in talks to open Detroit store
BY JACLYN TROP The Detroit News
Conyers admits trading Synagro vote for cash
FACES UP TO FIVE YEARS IN PRISON OVER BRIBERY
BY PAUL EGAN The Detroit News
THE SYNAGRO SCANDAL
Meijer is in negotiations to open its first store in Detroit, at Woodward and Eight Mile next to the Michigan State Fairgrounds, to anchor the long-awaited Shoppes at Gateway Park development. An attorney for Meijer, Stephen Palms of Miller, Canfield, Paddock and Stone, P.L.C. in Ann Arbor, confirmed in a Sweet 75: letter to the city of Detroit Meijer General Retirement Syscelebrates. 5B tem that the company is in discussions to locate a store at the $80 million open-air mall. The retirement system is financing the project. The opening of a Meijer would mark the return of a major grocer to the city — Farmer Jack was the last big chain in Detroit, closing in 2007. City residents have long complained about the lack of grocers and shopping options; Detroit has no supercenters such as Wal-Mart or Target. In the letter, Meijer said the negotiations are incomplete and “a number of issues” remain open. But “based on the progress that Please see Meijer, Page 13A
Detroit — Detroit City Council President Pro Tem Monica Conyers, who loudly proclaimed her innocence for months, spoke softly in federal court Friday when admitting she took bribes in exchange for her vote on a $1.2 billion sewage sludge TODAY’S contract. Conyers, the FOCUS wife of the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, U.S. Rep. John Conyers, D-Detroit, became the scandal-rocked city’s third official in less than a year to plead guilty to a felony that will put her behind bars. Her plea to a bribery conspiracy charge spells the end of a colorful City Council career in which she publicly derided the council president as resembling the cartoon figure “Shrek,” was accused of threatening to shoot a mayoral aide and allegedly had her hand out for favors to others besides Synagro Technologies Inc., which won the sludge contract after Conyers changed her position and cast the deciding vote, 5-4. “Monica Conyers said today: ‘I did it,’ ” said Andrew Arena, special agent in charge of the FBI in Detroit. “It’s a historic day for the city of Detroit and this area.” Conyers became the sixth defendant to plead guilty in a wide-ranging federal corruption investigation that dates back at least four years and also has netted convictions related to corrupt contracts at the Cobo Center, the home of the North American International Auto Show. Her plea to taking $6,000 in bribes lifted a cloud that hung over her council colleagues for almost a year. Federal prosecutors announced no other City Council members will face charges in connection with the Synagro contract, but stressed the investigation is not over. Please see Bribery, Page 6A
MORE INSIDE
Monica Conyers profile: Her behavior leaves friends puzzled. 5A Detroit reaction: Residents say they’re sad, angry. 6A LeDuff: Councilwoman’s different sides. 8A
Son to be arraigned in parents’ slayings
Mount Clemens — The son of a New Baltimore couple found slain in their home is scheduled to be arraigned July 6 on firstand second-degree murder charges, court records reveal. Sources told The Detroit News that Ronald Jabalee Jr. was arrested Friday and is being jailed. The news comes about three days after a grand jury was convened at the Macomb County Circuit Court to determine whether charges will be issued in the Jabalees’ 2006 deaths.
METRO, 3A
State Police troopers reject unpaid leave; 100 to be laid off
Lansing — One in every 10 Michigan State Police troopers will be off the roads starting Sunday, after troopers rejected taking unpaid furlough time that would have prevented 100 layoffs. The troopers union voted 702-558 this week to turn down 37 furlough hours spread over six weeks. Law enforcement officials have said diminished police ranks lead to reduced traffic safety and longer response time to calls. There will be fewer than 1,000 troopers left on the job, the lowest level in 40 years.
METRO, 3A
U.S. Marshal Service
Detroit City Councilwoman Monica Conyers pleaded guilty to bribery conspiracy in federal court on Friday.
BACKGROUND
A Houston waste company wins approval of a $1.2 billion contract to haul sludge in a 5-4 vote. Monica Conyers, who originally opposed the deal, switched her position to cast the deciding vote.
OTHER PLEAS
In January, Synagro official James Rosendall Jr. pleaded guilty to bribery conspiracy. Jackson pleaded guilty to the same charge earlier this month.
INVESTIGATION
Federal officials investigating public corruption were alerted to wrongdoing in the Synagro deal through wiretaps, video surveillance and other means.
GM to spend $800M to revamp Orion Twp. plant for small car
General Motors Corp. said Friday it will invest as much as $800 million in revamping its Orion Township factory to build a new small car. The move will preserve about 1,200 jobs in Orion Township and 200 at the Pontiac Metal Center stamping plant and will erase some of the job losses in a state hit hard by manufacturing cuts.
BUSINESS, 5B
FRIDAY’S DEVELOPMENT
Monica Conyers pleads guilty to bribery conspiracy.
WHAT CONYERS DID
On Nov. 20, 2007, at approximately 3:15 p.m., Conyers met with an individual sent by Rayford Jackson in the parking lot of the Butzel Family Center in Detroit and received an envelope containing cash. On Dec. 4, 2007, at approximately 2:30 p.m., an individual sent by Rayford Jackson met Conyers and her aide in a MacDonald’s parking lot in Detroit at which time the individual delivered an envelope containing cash. The bribes totaled $6,000.
Rosendall
Jackson
ONGOING PROBE
According to court records and sources, the following individuals are under investigation: Sam Riddle, a former aide to Conyers; John Clark, former aide to City Council President Kenneth Cockrel; former Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick; his father, business consultant Bernard N. Kilpatrick; contractor and Kilpatrick friend Bobby Ferguson; and former Kilpatrick aide Derrick A. Miller.
PENALTIES:
Up to five years in prison; loss of her City Council seat.
Index • •
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Colleague says Rep. Conyers shaken
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Elsewhere
Washington — Rep. John Conyers, D-Detroit, spent Friday casting a long series of votes and avoiding reporters’ questions as news spread at the Capitol about his city councilwoman wife’s guilty plea. “I have no comment,” the Detroit Democrat who chairs the Judiciary Committee said as he left one vote on the House floor and headed down a marble stairwell. One colleague described him as seeming shaken. Having served nearly a half-century in the House, Conyers has survived periodic controversy, and his colleagues believe this time won’t be any different. But back home in his Detroit-area district, political hope-
fuls see an opportunity to unseat a congressman who hasn’t had a close election in years. “This has been a trying time for the Conyers family and, with hope and prayer, they will make it through this as a family,” Conyers’ office said in a statement. “Public officials must expect to be held to the highest ethical and legal Conyers standards. With this in mind, Mr. Conyers wants to work towards helping his family and city recover from this serious matter.” Michigan colleagues expressed sympathy for the 80-year-old Conyers,
who, according to several people interviewed, isn’t expected to suffer any fallout affecting his powerful chairmanship as a result as of his wife’s difficulties. Conyers, who assumed the Judiciary Committee chairmanship after Democrats regained control of the House in the 2006 elections, has not been implicated. And last week, a spokesman for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Conyers had her “full support.” When he runs again for re-election in 2010, some Republicans said he might face a strong Democratic primary challenge. That happened when the text message scandal involving Please see Shaken, Page 6A
Vahid Salemi / Associated Press
Worshippers at Tehran University heard a top cleric say demonstrators should be executed.
Iran cleric urges harsh punishment for protesters
Tehran, Iran — A senior cleric on Friday urged Iran’s protest leaders to be punished “without mercy” and said some should face execution — harsh calls that signal a nasty new turn in the regime’s crackdown on demonstrators two weeks after its disputed presidential election.
NATION & WORLD, 14A