Detroit Free Press from Detroit, Michigan • A4

4A WWW.FREEP.COM THURSDAY, METRO PENSION IMPACT: Making newly hired teachers and other school employees ineligible for a pension and instead giving them a 401(k) would cost Michigan $465 million more annually in the first five years, legislative experts said Wednesday. The analysis was released a day after House and Senate Republicans proposed identical bills to close the 7-year-old hybrid plan to school workers hired after Sept. 30. Associated Press Agrowing number of exotic dancers want to block a national class-action settlement alleging workplace exploitation by Michigan-based Vu clubs, saying it will pay many dancers only a few hundred dollars each. Kalamazoo dancer Merry Clark said in a letter to the court that the proposed million settlementis near for her and other dancers she says have been outrageously exploited by Vu Services and related companies for gross Also, attorneys from as far away as Massachusetts and Tennessee have filed objections to the settlement ahead of a June 6 hearing in federal court in Detroit, saying the proposal is not fair, reasonable, or adequate.

Attorneys for the lead plaintiffs and for Vu say the settlement is fair and contains many non-monetary benefits for the dancers. They say objectors still represent a tiny handful of the more than 28,000 dancers and former dancers who are class members. U.S. District Judge Stephen Murphy modify the proposed settlement, but can only accept it or reject it as is, attorneys say. The case centers on whether the dancers are employees or independent contractors aclassification that affects issues such as whether the clubs must pay them a minimum hourly wage or can instead charge them for doing business inside the clubs.

Though billed as a million settlement, the proposal would provide only $920,000 in cash payments to settle claims from more than 28,000 dancers who worked at 64 different clubs in 18 states, including 11 in Michigan, Boston attorney Harold Lichten argued in a May 12 court filing. Most of the rest of the unfair and settlement would pay for coupons the dancers could use to offset future fees charged by the clubs, plus about $1 million in attorney Nude dancers balk at settlement not nearly enough, some say By Paul Egan Detroit Free Press See NUDE, Page11A Despite hopes of a turnaround in a decades-long decline, Detroit lost population in the latest U.S. Census estimates, down 0.5% or 3,541 people. The annual decline is the same as a year earlier, when the exodus of residents slowed to its lowest rate in decades. Mayor Mike Duggan has placed special emphasis on rebirth being measured by population growth, among other things.

Spokeswoman Alexis Wiley said Wednesday that despite the census estimates the administration sees other positive signs. are pleased in the direction that we are heading. The data are a year Wiley said, citing building permits, home prices and 3,000 more occupied residences reported by DTE Energy in the city in March versus the same time a year earlier. The numbers, based on data from July 1, 2016, show Detroit slid down the largest cities list, dropping from No. 21 to 23.

Last year, for the first time since before the Civil War, Detroit fell out of the top 20. The population peaked in 1950 at 1,849,568. The latest data have the population at 672,795 residents. one city out of the top 25 has lost population since 2010 and that is said demographer Kurt Metzger, founder of Data Driven Detroit and mayor of Pleasant Ridge. Of the latest Detroit estimates, Metzger said it is important to remember the numbers relate to last July do not account for the large number of (residential) units that have come online since then, as well as those in the pipeline in downtown, riverfront and areas.

Clinton Township in Macomb County surpassed the 100,000 mark for the first time this year, according to the data. The community had 100,392 residents in 2016 a gain of 541 or 0.5% from July 1, 2015, to July 1, 2016. Bob Cannon, township supervisor, took the news as an opportunity to boast about the continued growth. is a great community to have a Cannon said, touting local hospitals, educational institutions, retail, parks and recreation, and a civic center that includes eight new courts for pickle ball a sport the USA Pickle- ball Associationdescribes as a combination of badminton, tennis and ping-pong. The city of Flint continued to lose residents at a rate of 0.8%, about 754 fewer people, to an estimated 97,386 in 2016.

That rate matched the decline of the two previous years. The whole state saw a marginal increase in total population 0.1% or 10,585 people, during the same time period. In Oakland County, the top three communities for population growth were Lyon Township, which grew 5.2% the third highest rate in the state; Sylvan Lake, up 2.3%, and Oakland Township, up 1.7%. In Macomb County, Washington Township grew the fastest at 1.8%. Macomb and Shelby townships followed with growth at 1.1%.

Only four communities saw growth in Wayne County: the city of Plymouth, which was up and Brownstown, Canton and Huron townships, which grew at rates of 0.8%, 0.5% and 0.2%, respectively. Nationwide, the Census Bureau found that cities in the South grew at a faster rate than any other region in the country. the 2010 Census, the population in large southern cities grew by an average of 9.4%. In comparison, cities in the West grew 7.3%, while cities in the Northeast and Midwest had much lower growth rates at 1.8% and said Amel Toukabri, a demographer in the Census population division. Contact Kristi Tanner: 313-222-8877 or No population turnaround for Detroit: City falls to No.

23 in the country By Kristi Tanner Detroit Free Press MARY FREE PRESS Mayor Mike Duggan has placed special emphasis on rebirth being measured by population growth, among other things. SEE THE DATABASE in a phone interview Wednesday that many more Morse accusers could be stepping forward in the future. The two lawsuits are the tip of the Fieger said, but declined to give a number. Fieger reiterated earlier statements that he has no business rivalry or personal vendetta against Morse. care about Mike Morse.

I care about my Fieger said. go looking for people who were sexually assaulted by Mike Morse patently In the latest suit in Oakland County Circuit Court, Samantha Lichon, a former receptionist at firm, claims that Morse, who is divorced, on multiple occasions made lewd sexual comments and groped her breasts after she began working there in September 2015. According to the lawsuit, he also invited her to his hotel room on Dec. 12, 2015, via Face- Instant Messenger app. Lichon says she complained about behavior to her superiors and the law human resources department, but action was taken and the sexual assault and sexual harassment the lawsuit says.

Lichon says she was terminated from the law firm after being unresponsive to advances. The lawsuit says Lichon was contacted May 15 by an attorney at the Mike Morse Law Firm who asked whether she was going to file a lawsuit against Morse and tried to persuade her to not take any action. That was the same day Fieger held a news conference to announce the first lawsuit against Morse. In the phone interview, Fieger said lawyers from firm called phone while she was in his office. actually called her while she was in my office, and we have evidence of that he said.

The lawsuit accuses Morse of sexual harassment, sexual assault and battery. It accuses both Morse and his law firm of inflicting emotional distress Aformer receptionist for Mike Morse claims the personal injury lawyer groped and sexually harassed her on the job in a $15-million lawsuit filed Wednesday by attorney Geoffrey Fieger. It is the second lawsuit this month against Morse alleging unwanted advances toward women. Last week a Novi woman filed a $10-million lawsuit accusing Morse of groping her breast at an upscale Farmington Hills restaurant and then attempting to coerce her into withdrawing her police complaint. The female plaintiffs in both cases are represented by Fieger.

Morse has strongly denied the Novi claims in the first lawsuit and denounced that suit as bogus, manufactured lawsuit and an attempt to extort money from me by the Fieger Law In a statement Wednesday regarding the latest lawsuit, Morse said the receptionist was employed at his firm for about 18 months, until April 7 when she was fired for cause. never made a complaint during the time she was employed at my Morse said in the statement. employ approximately 145 people, about half of whom are women. I have been in business for two decades and I have never been the statement continued. am not going to continue to participate in Mr.

media circus, or his bid to attract more attention to himself and encourage baseless lawsuits. These matters will be handled in Fieger told the Free Press 2nd woman claims Morse groped and harassed her Fired suit asks $15M By JC Reindl Detroit Free Press Mike Morse Geoffrey Fieger See MORSE, Page6A Patricia persistence has paid off: After two years and countless calls to City Hall, the City of Detroit is going to remove a pile of rubble left over from a mysterious demolition in her east-side neighborhood. The property is owned by the Detroit Land Bank Authority, but spokesman Craig Fahle said city officials know who tore it down in January 2015. Fahle said no one pulled a demolition permit, and the Free Press could not find any demolition or asbestos abatement notices on file with the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality for the property on Westphalia between Gratiot and McNichols. have no idea who did the demolition Fahle said.

a But, he noted, was an illegal For Kobylski, the pile of rubble is a blight on her neighborhood, where she tends to the vacant lots behind her two-story home and uses discarded tires as planters for marigolds. Kobylski said the tangle of siding, brick columns, wood beams, glass and other debris is home to rats (she says she can hear them), possums, raccoons and rabbits. Whoever demolished the house left the garage standing at the rear of the lot. was here one day, and it was gone the JENNIFER FREE PRESS Patricia Kobylski has been trying to get the City of Detroit to remove a pile of debris left from an illegal demolition in her east-side neighborhood. holding an envelope with notes on her calls to officials.

Detroiter wages a war on blight, wins 2years after demolition, Detroit to clean up mess By Jennifer Dixon Detroit Free Press JENNIFER FREE PRESS Kobylski has decorated two vacant lots near her home with planters made from used tires. She said care of our is a priority for her. See BLIGHT Page6A.