By Charlie LeDuff

Detroit Breakdown

Federal lawmen are back in Detroit, shaking sheets and busting balls. Their corruption probe, which began more than two years ago over the potential abuse of $260 million in federal demolition funds, is coming to a head, according to those with direct knowledge of the investigation. A grand jury is still empaneled.

Contractors this week, were summoned by assistant U.S. Attorneys and agents of the FBI to solidify their testimony as to how demolition contracts were manipulated and on whose orders. The names of city officials at the highest levels were discussed.

The feds are also looking to see if those officials steered other city work at inflated prices to demolition contractors.

As is becoming his custom, Mayor Mike Duggan was not in town for the feds visit. He was spotted in Israel.

Motor City Shakedown

Wall Street sharks must not be reading the local papers. The bond rating agency Moody's voted thumbs down on the Detroit comeback. In a report to investors, the agency called Detroit a poor credit risk, citing bad schools, deteriorating neighborhoods and declining population, not to mention rising crime and falling tax collections.

Moody's graded Detroit's credit score as Ba3 -- meaning speculative, high-risk or junk.

The simple math? Whoever loans Detroit money is going to want big points.

That spells big trouble for the Little Caesars Arena. A $260-million balloon payment, financed by the public, is due January 1st.

What the cost of refinancing that note will be in the wake of Moody's report is anybody's guess. The Downtown Development Authority, which oversees the stadium's financing, is being tight-lipped about how much more it may cost the cash-strapped city.

The DDA declined to even offer a list of its board of directors. I found one anyway. As per cracker-jack reporter Rob Snell of the Detroit News: the DDA board is stacked with the mayor's appointees. They include an ex-con, a convicted shoplifter, a raft of tax delinquents, personal bankruptees and a central figure in the Flint water poisoning.

How's that for financial know-how?

Working a Man to Death



Acting Sgt. Michael Lubig

And how does all this play out for the common man? I am sad to report the untimely death of yet another Detroit firefighter.

Acting Sergeant Michael Lubig, 46, died in the shower of the Squad 4 fire house last week. The cause of his death is still under investigation, but it is believed he suffered a heart attack brought on by exhaustion and dehydration.

Sgt. Lubig, a father of four and a marathon runner, had responded to three fires that day as well as a medical emergency run.

The old saw of "doing more with less" is indeed a fact in the post-bankrupt Detroit Fire Department. There are less firefighters working in Detroit than ever before and they are now responsible for making medical as well as fire runs. Rank and file complain of stress and fatigue.

As a consequence of the bankruptcy, the family of Sgt. Lubig will no longer be covered under his city insurance since he is dead.

At the funeral of another firefighter last year, Mayor Duggan promised confidential and non-punitive heart screenings for the entire department. That promise remains unkept.

Rest in peace, Sgt. Lubig: you will be remembered as a good man and public servant.

Was Flint's Emergency a Fake?

Blockbuster testimony by the man who was ultimately in charge of the Flint Water Treatment plant has gone almost completely unnoticed in the wake of the political Blue Wave.

Daugherty Johnson, the former Flint utilities administrator, told a district court judge last week that he and others concocted a fake environmental emergency in order to get around Flint's inability to borrow money. A fake emergency created around a small sludge pit allowed Flint to get $100 million for a new and unnecessary water system. The scheme ultimately led to the poisoning of 100,000 people.

"You're telling the court that (the sludge pit) wasn't an emergency?" asked special prosecutor Todd Flood.

"Correct," Johnson testified.

Among the other architects of the financial scheme mentioned in court was Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan's chief operating officer and an appointee to the Downtown Development Authority (see above).

You Get What You Pay For



Gov. Rick Snyder (file photo)

Never buy a $99 plane ticket.

Never get a $500 boob job.

And never-ever pay 45 bucks for a surf and turf dinner.

But that's exactly what the Capitol press corps did this week, when hosting a farewell dinner for Gov. Rick Snyder, Lt. Governor Brian Calley and their wives.

According to the invitation, the evening was to include a cocktail hour, a steak and salmon supper, followed by a short program of sigh speeches.

Bad look guys. The evening does little to instill confidence in the media whose battered reputation is at an all time low.

One wonders if they were served Flint water.

And thanks for all the fish, Mr. Governor.