Lansing State Journal from Lansing, Michigan • Page 1

1 rf aosHiro $1.50 4 SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 22, 2009 THE POWER OF KNOWlVkr 1855 WWW.LSJ.COM Who'll win an Oscar The champs are back in town A dllU WIIU SIIUUIU 1 if There's always room for a surprise MSU will honor its 1979 championship team today at halftime of the Spartans' game against Wisconsin PAGE ID at the Academy Awards Life 1C i 20 LOOKING BACK: 1-496 CONSTRUCTION aC0j fPLIGATED Severances, settlements atBWLtop $1.3 million Disclosure of expenses since '07 comes as rate hike sought LEGACY HOMES BUSINESSES CHILDHOODS CHANGED FOREVER Jeremy W. Steele jwsteeleSlsj.com The Lansing Board of Water Light has agreed to more than $1.3 million in severance and settlement costs for six former or departing employees in the last two years. More than half of that figure is a $730,000 lawsuit settlement reached last year with former general manager Joseph Pandy who was fired in 2002. BWL's liability insurers paid that tab. The remaining payouts nearly $600,000 for which BWL is responsible Online Extra A Ky come from severance To view the or settlement agreements separation with five employees who agreements BWL left their jobs in 2007, after made with six a new general manager, J.

employees, see this Peter Lark, took over. report online at The Lansing State Jour- www.lsj.com. nal obtained the settlement and severance agreements under the Michigan Freedom of Information Act. Several of the deals require BWL to keep the payouts secret unless requested under the state open records law. Disclosure of the expenses comes as the utility pursues a 25 percent rate increase on its electric, water, steam and chilled water services.

BWL officials last month also said the utility faces a budget shortfall from falling electricity use and higher than expected costs for its re-tiree health care trust fund. ROD SANFORDLansing State Journal Lost dreams: Albert Kelley says he was forced to sell his home on West St. Joseph Street at a loss to make room for Interstate 496, which was constructed in the 1960s. Now 86, Kelley never bought another house. 1-496 slashed through key black neighborhood in the '60s See BWL Page 5A WRESTLING DISTRICTS JSP 667 number of housing units demolished to make way for 1-496 Matthew Miller mrmillerlsj.com i was chance that Lonnie John-1 1" son was on hand to see a A 1 front-end loader cut into the roof of his childhood home.

It was 1965, a warm day in early fall. Johnson was late for work, driving from a new house in Churchill Downs, going fast. He passed 1212 W. Main St. just as the machine's claw came down.

"I slammed on my brakes right in the middle of the street," he said. "I don't know what I expected to do." The house wasn't his anymore. It belonged to the state. That resounding crack of shingles and timber was still like a knife to the heart. Johnson is 70 years old.

He's lived for 20 years in the Indian Hills subdivision in Okemos, for 13 years in Detroit before that. But when he dreams about home, he still dreams of 1212 W. Main, a house long torn down, a yard where the weeping willow trees have been uprooted. And he dreams of a neighborhood cut in half to make way for Interstate 496. Lansing State Journal file photo Tearing it down: A home at Main and Logan is crushed in 1966 as part of the connector route clearance for Interstate 496.

Online 1 jyj Extra INTERACTIVE Census analysis: 1960 vs. 2000 population and household statistics block by block Aerial view: Side-by-side views of the highway bed, 1960 and 2005 I Photo galleries: Relive the construction and remember the houses demolished to make way for the highway www.lsj.com KS fcZ Ad I INSIDE Dissertations record some of the impact and emotions of the displacement of black families and businesses, Page 8A It was the largest black neighborhood in the city, as it happens, created by the Realtors and mortgage men who upheld the written and unwritten rules of segregation, swelled by migrants who streamed into Lansing after World War II looking for work in construction or on the line at Oldsmobile. And eviscerated by the unyielding Sfe 496 1 Page 8A KEVIN W. FOWLERFor the Lansing State Journal Fight for control: Jordan Dick (right) of DeWitt fights off Marshon McFadden of Sexton during their 189-pound semifinal at the Division 2 Individual District tournament Saturday in Mason. Sports, Page ID SPEED READ Arrest warrant prepared in Chandra Levy case a MORE INSIDE i LOOK FOR HELP SOON: Obama says people should see cuts in their payroll taxes by April 1 Pg.

3A i TIME FOR CHANGE: Some experts believe the time has come to temporarily nationalize banks Pg. 3A i TENN. ARREST: Woman who faked cancer and took money from people wanting to help faces up to 60 years in prison Pg. 14A i .4 A Investigators in the 2001 slaying of Chandra Levy, an intern in Washington, have prepared an arrest warrant for a Salvadoran immigrant convicted of Military split on timetable for troops' exit from Iraq President Barack Obama is facing mixed opinions within the military on how quickly to withdraw American forces from Iraq. Page 17A 'Cyberchondria' increasing Doctors report an increase in a condition known as "cyberchondria," the tendency of people to type their illness into a search engine and diagnose themselves with a terminal disease.

Page 13A Levy KARIM KADIMAssociated Press Abu Ghraib's new look: A sewing workshop is part of renovations at the notorious Abu Griraib prison, now renamed Baghdad Central Prison in Baghdad, Iraq. Story, Page 17A similar attacks in the park where she disappeared, a person close to the investigation said. Page 3A INDEX Main A Local Life Books 6C Sports Lottery 2A Our Towns Celebrations Comics Inside NFL 6D Opinion 10A Deaths Travel 5C Classified Source Weather 6B "051 5 Copyright 2009 Lansing State Journal, Lansing, Michigan A Gannett Newspaper CJ I Paczki's a5 mm (Poonch-Key) Enjoy delicious QD Paczkl, but hurry, they'll be gone after Fat Tuesday (Feb. 24th). Enjoy them with QD Coffee, Milk or Juice! Rtmmmbar trtttr sarty it: wwrwdwtpnsaxou mm (Poonch-Key) 1 1 Flavors Available Sj (Orange Juice) I f33 (Milk) (Coffee) FAT TUESDAY, FEB.

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