Detroit Free Press from Detroit, Michigan • Page 11

www.freep.comnews Call City Desk: 1-313-222-6600 Tuesday, March 3, 1998 Section Helroit Jfvcc Vvcs INSIDE Relic Confederate jawbone may be headed for proper burial Page 3 Obituaries, Page 2 ilirO vrfyj City's consumer advocate to leave post in shake-up 7 7 I ill I A i "I don't see it as a retirement. I see it as a change of situation. ESTHER SHAPIRO, Detroit's consumer affairs director Director Carl Greene. Friends and city hall associates disputed whether Shapiro is leaving voluntarily, but it is certain that the activist at 80 is entering a new phase of her life. "I don't see it as a retirement," Shapiro said Monday.

She declined to discuss who decided that it was time for her to leave. "I see it as a change of situation. I will be doing some consulting and checking into other opportunities. I will remain active in the consum- Please see ADMINISTRATION, Page 8B by darci mcconnell And bill mcGraw Free Press Staff Writers Metro Detroit's best-known consumer advocate will leave city hall early next month. Consumer Affairs Director Es- UBuOlt ther Shapiro's departure was announced Monday as part of a major shake-up of Mayor Dennis Archer's administration.

Ten department heads are to leave or switch their posts by mid-July. Also leaving is Detroit Housing Commission WILLIAM ARCHIEDetrolt Free Press Consumer Affairs Director Esther Shapiro is among the 10 department heads leaving or switching their posts. Stale Coalition seeks support with petitions for an amended casino ordinance Trf Et MKUFC i i road ismmsj STATE DATELINE Saginaw Internet link ends with arrest A Michigan man was arrested Monday, accused of luring two 14-year-olds from Kentucky to a motel in the Saginaw area, Michigan State Police said. The FBI was seeking kidnapping charges against the Carrollton Township man, who was held in the Saginaw County Jail pending formal charges and possibly an extradition hearing, police said. The man drove a rented car more than 400 miles from his home near Saginaw to Kentucky on Saturday night, picked up the girl and boy and took them to the motel near Saginaw, Detective Joe Schutzman said Monday from Villa Hills, Ky.

Schutzman said the man, married with a young child, met the girl on the Internet and had been communicating with her for more than a year. She had said her parents were strict. "She made some comments about her rough life, and we found out later it was no more rough than any other 14-year-old," said Sgt. Cameron Henke of Michigan State Police. "He basically told her, 'I can give you a better life here in Henke said the man told the girl he would go to Kentucky and get her.

The girl and her boyfriend went with the man, who rented a motel room in Saginaw County for the youths and left them there, Henke said. Meanwhile, using a phone number in the youths' home computers, police reached the man's wife in Carrollton. When he got home, he learned his wife had talked to police. He returned to the motel to tell the teens to call a crisis center and go back home. Officers found the two Sunday afternoon at a Taco Bell.

"They were dirty, scared and kind of broke. But there was no indication of any sexual or physical assault," Henke said. The two returned home with relatives. Traverse City Murder suspect held in Chicago A man suspected in a recent beating death was ordered held without bond Monday in Chicago, awaiting an extradition hearing scheduled for today. Kevin Holtzer, 25, was arrested Sunday while getting off a train in Chicago, police said.

He had been sought in the death by jeff gerritt And melanie eversley Frfe Press Staff Wrilt'rs Michigan's battered roads would get an added $300 million over the next six years under an agreement reached Monday by U.S. Senate leaders. If the measure passes the House, more money would be available for repair and rebuilding projects, long-term fixes and keeping good roads in top condition, Michigan Department of Transportation spokesman Gary Naeyaert said. "It's the kind of money we think we need in transportation," Naeyaert said Monday. He declined to identify projects that would be added to the list of those slated for 1998, but he said the money would not go for new roads.

-J t. r-yW Tt teg? sj I i FBI pulled out all stops to build Detroit mob case maj Under the Senate agreement, the money would come from 4.3 cents-per-gallon of federal gas taxes now set aside for reducing the deficit a use which has long been a sore spot among state road officials. Federal gas taxes make up a total of 18.3 cents a gallon. Members of Michigan's congressional delegation have said they expect the next round of highway funding will pay for repairs to sections of 1-75, and sections of M-57 in Genesee County. "It's great news for us," said U.S.

Sen. Spencer Abraham, who helped negotiate the highway bill. In putting together a 1998 budget to spend a record $1 billion on roads and bridges, the state had expected Please see MDOT, Page 8B his alleged underlings. But as the scope of the investigation is revealed in a federal courtroom in Detroit, lawyers for Tocco and four men on trial with him, suggested they produced only bits of information that led to no charges 16-20 years ago and cast innocent meetings in a nefarious light. Tocco, 71, of Grosse Pointe Park and four others accused of being his captains and soldiers are charged in a 30-year conspiracy of extortion, loan-sharking, illegal gambling, ob- Please see TOCCO, Page 8B Lighter side BEAL Cmf BUZl At Friday's dinner, Brooks Patterson, the Oakland County exec, dusted off a familiar shtick and warmed up the crowd by explaining how you know you're in Beal City, Engler's hometown: "If beef jerky and moon pies are two.

of the major food groups." "If your family tree doesn't fork." "If you consider a six-pack and bug-zapper quality entertainment." "If you think Dom Perignon is a mafia leader." "Your zip code is FM-E-I-O." ENGLER ON OEMS: "The Democrats are in some disarray. Their left hand doesn't known what the far left is doing and, referring to the three main contenders for governor, Larry Owen, Doug Ross and Geoffrey Fieger "They remind me of the old NBC sitcom, 'Men Behaving By Tim doran Vtev I'ressSlaffWrili In scenes worthy of Hollywood, an FBI agent infiltrates the mob. a spy plane flies over the suspected election of a Mafia boss and agents use a camera hidden in a briefcase to capture photos of an alleged organized crime operative. The FBI has used all those techniques, along with the more mundane practices of listening through walls, planting bugs and wiretapping phones, during its more than 20-year quest to snare Jack Tocco, suspected of being Detroit's Mafia boss, and NICO TOUTENHOOFDDetroit Free Press Ernest Johnson, left, carrying petitions Monday for a casino ordinance ballot measure, is greeted by Willie Baxter at the City Clerk's Of fice. The Community Coalition petitions ask the City Council to amend the ordinance to include a "Detroit-based developer" with a casino license elsewhere.

Black businessman Don Barden has a casino in Gary, Ind. Story, Page 8B. first 'nonpartisan' salvo in Supreme Court races of 18-year-old Kalee Joy Bruce, whose body was found Feb. 17 at the Beach Condominiums, where she was a clerk. Holtzer had lived at the condo complex, Grand Traverse County sheriffs deputies said.

Bruce was a first-year student at Northwestern Michigan College. East Lansing MSU food aid program grows Since its inception in 1992, the Michigan State University Student Food Bank has seen its budget, all from charitable contributions, grow from $1,000 to $50,000. Unfortunately, one organizer says, the clientele has had a similar increase. "We're seeing more nontraditional students returning to school, people who are switching careers or have been downsized," said food bank president Allyn Shaw. "And we're seeing more undergraduates paying for their own education." Since 1992, the number of students using the food bank has grown from about 200 to about 1,600 a month.

MSU has about 40,000 students. The food bank offers 17 items, ranging from packaged meals to powdered milk. About 5 percent of the food is donated. The food bank buys the rest at a discount from the American Red Cross, the Lansing State Journal reported Monday. Engler fires PI as it begun again? Well maybe.

I TTio ic in trio I fl I politicization or, if you will, corrupting of supposedly nonpartisan Michigan Supreme Court races, a trend that gets nastier and more heavy-handed with each passing election and in which Republican Gov. John Engler seems to lake special delight. That's not to suggest that Democrats are innocent. They most certainly aren't It's just that they seem to be quieter or more subtle about it. Engler is not subtle.

Take last Friday night's Iincoln Day Dinner in Oakland County, always an annual orgy of GOP partisanship. At both the 2000 Club reception and at the dinner itself, Engler took special pains to recognize two potential 1998 Supreme Court candidates, appeals court Judges Maura Corrigan and Jane Markev, of TV attack ads on otherwise reputable judicial candidates to be paid for by state parties andor their corporate, union and association toadies. The usual.hand-wringing about how clumsy and contradictory it is for Michigan to nominate Supreme Court candidates at partisan party conventions and then turn around and elect them at supposedly nonpartisan elections. And the usual calls for getting rid of this mess and replacing it with a less partisan, less politicized system of merit selection and appointment of justices and other high-level judges. Finally, when the next election cycle rolls around, look for nothing no thing to have changed and for the voting public to be eveh more cynical about the supposedly nonpartisan nature of Michigan's judiciary.

What a shame, eh? majority. Interestingly, Taylor had noted during predinner reception remarks that "these races are becoming increasingly partisanized," a fact he described as "lamentable" and "fractious." Then he joined Engler and other state and local GOP bigwigs for dinner at the head table. So? So, where does this lead? Well, for openers, you can bet Democrats are paying attention and plotting ways to promote their nonpartisan Supreme Court candidates, including, presumably, Justice Mike Cavanagh who is up for re-election, and two others to be nominated by the parry in August. And, come the thick of battle this fall well, look for: The term "nonpartisan" to disappear altogether and for party types to begin routinely referring to their "Republican" or "Democratic" candidates. Slime and nastiness in the form Minn fl" MCDIARMID and to introduce Justice Cliff Taylor, whom he'd appointed to a court vacancy late last year and who must run this year to retain his seat.

And, of course, he pitched the importance of winning this year's Michigan Supreme Court elections. Did Engler flat out say it's important to get "Republicans" elected to the Michigan Supreme Court? no. But he pointedly told the crowd of 680 or so ardent Republicans to "remember the nonpartisan ticket" and work hard this fall in order to produce a high court "of remarkably high caliber," i.e., with a Republican.