Jerome Vaughn

Former Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick has been charged, along with his father and three top aides, with racketeering, extortion, taking kickbacks and attempting to personally enrich themselves through the mayor's high office. The case is one of the biggest corruption indictments in Detroit history.

In an upset, Carolyn Cheeks Kilpatrick (D-Mich.) lost in the primary to Michigan state senator, Hansen Clarke. Kilpatrick had served in Congress for 13 years. She is also the mother of disgraced Detroit mayor, Kwame Kilpatrick and wasn't able to effectively distance herself from her son in the primary. WDET news director, Jerome Vaughn has more on why she was defeated.

Warren Evans unexpectedly resigned from his post as Detroit’s chief of police Wednesday. He had held the position for under a year and his rocky tenure will probably be marked by a scandal in which a 7-year-old girl was shot and killed by a police bullet in a home raid. The incident was caught on tape by a reality TV crew which was following Evans for a show called “The Chief” about his job as the city’s top cop. The show painted him as a cowboy-like cop and may also have pushed the mayor to ask for his resignation.

The family of Aiyana Stanley-Jones, a seven-year-old Detroit girl killed by a police bullet during a raid early Sunday, filed a lawsuit in state and federal courts, alleging police misconduct in the incident. The family has retained high-profile attorney Geoffrey Fieger, who said at a news conference Tuesday that he has seen a tape of the incident that was shot by a crew from the A&E reality show, The First 48.

Across the country, dozens of cities are facing serious budget deficits, that are requiring officials to cut everything from swimming pools to firehouses. We're taking a closer look at two of those cities: Detroit and Baltimore. In Detroit, residents are worried that a shortfall of around $450 million may actually force the city to file for bankruptcy. Jerome Vaughn, news director at WDET joins us.

The national media has given prominent coverage to the woes of the Motor City. For example, Time recently embedded journalists in the city for over a year for its ambitious "Assignmen...

When President Obama spoke to the nation yesterday he touched on everything from the ongoing political turmoil in Iran to health care here at home to his trouble quitting smoking. The...

General Motors is expected to file for bankruptcy this morning, leaving thousands of workers in Detroit worried about what will happen next. To talk about this American business miles...

Auditors for automaker General Motors are raising "substantial doubt" about whether the company will be able to continue operations. They say the company may need to file for bankrupt...

The Commerce Department is reporting that the economy contracted at a staggering 6.2% pace during the fourth quarter, the worst contraction in 25 years. Declines are across the board ...

It's Friday and once again we are joined by Allison Williams, associate editor of Time Out New York, for a look at what should be on our weekend to-do list. Allison Williams' reco...

The number of soldiers who have given their lives in Iraq and Afghanistan is 4,253. As each soldier returns home, their bodies lay in coffins that are flown back to the U.S. through...

Mount Kilimanjaro, the highest peak in Tanzania, is famous for its snow-capped peaks and that snow cap has gotten a lot of attention recently. Climate change experts say its melting g...

Among the more creative ways the White House plans to pay for its spending is a carbon emissions cap that the President says will produce $150 billion. The money would finance renewab...

An alleged follower of al Qaeda may soon face terrorism-related charges in U.S. federal court. The move would eliminate the possibility of a military tribunal for the man who is th...

The Association of South East Asian Nations, known as ASEAN, is usually thought to be more of a figurehead organization that rarely takes real action. That might be changing though as...

As George Mitchell, President Obama's special envoy to the Middle East finishes up a day in the West Bank, we're taking a look at the challenges that lie ahead for all the President's...

As America has become more diverse, its law schools and firms have followed suit. But the pipeline to the judiciary is blocked—white males are overrepresented on state appellate bench...

The Obama administration's budget plan asks Congress to raise taxes on the wealthy to help stem the flood of red ink. One of the strategies to increase tax revenue is a cap on the rat...

Governors in nine states, mostly in the South, are thinking about rejecting millions of dollars in federal stimulus money pegged for increased unemployment insurance. Joining us this ...