Lions need
healthy
Snyder to name Corrigan to Cabinet
Murders
fell 15%
in Detroit
last year
Community input,
smarter deployment
get credit for drop
BY GEORGE HUNTER
The Detroit News
Detroit — The number of
homicides in the city fell by 15.4
percent in 2010, according to pre-
liminary year-end statistics re-
leased Monday by Detroit Police,
continuing a downward trend lo-
cally and nationwide.
The city reported 308 mur-
ders in 2010, down from the 364
reported in 2009. Nonfatal
shootings dropped by 10.5 per-
cent, to 1,170 last year from 1,307
in 2009.
Police Chief Ralph Godbee
credited smarter deployment of
officers and more community in-
volvement, for the declines. God-
bee also reintroduced Monday a
daily police blotter that had been
discontinued under former
Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick.
“Our strategic deployment ef-
forts, based on daily crime trends
and intelligence; working with
the community and our law en-
forcement partners are contrib-
uting factors toward this reduc-
tion,” Godbee said in a written
statement.
Other large cities also report-
ed a decline in homicides in 2010.
Chicago recorded 435 last year,
down from 460 in 2009. Cleve-
Please see Murders, Page 7A
Murder rate falls
The number of homicides in Detroit
has declined in recent years. Police
officials credit smarter deployment of
officers, and a statistical-based
method of crime fighting, for the drop.
418
420
400
380
360
340
320
300
2006 2007 2008
Source: Detroit Police
Index •
Advice .........................2C
Arts&Style....................1C
Business .....................8A
Classified.....................7B
Comics ........................6C
Deaths.........................11A
Horoscope ..................2C
Lottery.........................2A
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Why everyone
wants
Stafford
SPORTS, 1B Harbaugh SPORTS, 1B
Tuesday, January 4, 2011 Metro Final
Sources say conservative
TESTING SINGLE-SEX CLASSES
Supreme Court justice
to lead Human Services
Move gives new governor
early high court pick
BY PAUL EGAN
Detroit News Lansing Bureau
Lansing — Gov. Rick Snyder is expected to make a
Cabinet pick this week that will allow him to appoint the
judge with the deciding vote on the state Supreme Court.
Snyder, who began work Monday with a brief session
with reporters before his first staff meeting as governor,
would neither confirm nor deny he wants Justice Maura
Corrigan to head the De-
partment of Human Ser-
vices. But two people fa-
miliar with the situation
said an announcement of
Corrigan’s appointment is
expected this week.
Snyder said his imme-
diate priority is making
spending cuts to elimi-
nate a projected $1.85 bil-
Photos by Brandy Baker / The Detroit News lion budget deficit and
having a two-year budget
Berkley’s Anderson Middle School is experimenting with two eighth-grade language arts classes — one for girls
and the other for boys — to compare test scores with co-ed classes at the end of the year. approved by the Legisla-
ture by July 1, months Dale G. Young / The Detroit News
sooner than other years. Justice Maura Corrigan
Gender separation may “This is our opportuni-
ty to really roll up our sleeves and get to work,” he said.
“Now is the time to get to work. We’ve all prepared for
this for months and in some cases, years.”
improve learning Corrigan, 62, is a Republican nominee on a court split
4-3 between nominees from the Republican and Demo-
crat parties. Supreme Court justices, while technically
nonpartisan, are nominated at party conventions, but
BY MICKI STEELE
run in elections without party affiliations.
The Detroit News The importance of Snyder’s pick to replace Corrigan
is a rare subject on which attorneys on opposite sides of
Berkley
the court’s rulings agree.
E
rin Burke has no- “Whoever is the new justice will in all likelihood be
ticed that girls are the deciding vote on a lot of issues,” said Tom Ludden, a
Bloomfield Hills appellate attorney who has represent-
speaking up more ed corporations in environmental cases and wrote a re-
in her eighth-grade lan- cent history of the court published by the conservative
guage arts class this year. Please see Corrigan, Page 7A
That’s because they’re
all girls, says Burke, who
teaches at Berkley’s An- Consumer Reports won’t
derson Middle School. recommend 2011 SUVs
“We knew it was going to be a Consumer Reports pulled its much heralded
chatty class, and that’s what we Anderson Middle School eighth-grader Suzanne Flood, 13, interacts “recommend” tag from the 2011 Ford Edge and
enjoy,” Burke said. “Some of the with teacher Erin Burke, left. Burke is finding that an all-girl setting Lincoln MKX in its February issue, which is avail-
girls who don’t always find a makes it easier for some of them to participate. able this morning.
chance to use their voice in other In fact, Consumer Reports did not recommend
classes have more speaking op- CyberSurvey:  Are school teacher in the district any of the six 2011 SUVs featured in the February
portunities.” separate classrooms for from 1995-99, said he observed issue including the Edge, Chevrolet Tahoe and Jeep
Under a pilot program that be- girls and boys a good that learning achievement Grand Cherokee, as well as the more luxurious
idea? Vote and comment at
gan in the fall, two of Anderson’s among high-performing boys MKX, Porsche Cayenne and Infiniti QX56.
detnews.com/cybersurveys.
eighth-grade language arts class- seemed to slip in middle school. BUSINESS, 8A
es have been separated by gen- He approved Anderson’s year-
der: girls in one class, boys in an- the end of the school year, based long single-gender experiment
308
other. on benchmarks set in the fall. after a four-week trial run, sug- Health care repeal vote set for Jan. 12
Administrators at the Oak- “It’s the same curricular ex- gested by Burke and fellow teach-
land County school plan to com- pectation,” school Principal er Theresa Cabalum, proved suc- Washington — Eager to show who’s now in
2009 2010 charge, the House’s new Republican majority plans
The Detroit News pare test scores from the single- Vince Gigliotti said. “But the de- cessful in the last school year.
sex classes with those from two of livery of it may look different.” to vote to repeal President Barack Obama’s land-
five co-ed eighth-grade classes at Gigliotti, an elementary Please see Separated, Page 7A mark health care overhaul on Jan. 12.
NATION & WORLD, 6A
Market Watch..............9A
Metro ...........................3A
Movies .........................3C
Nation & World............6A
Opinion .......................12A
Sports ..........................1B
TV/Puzzles ...............4-5C
Weather.......................2A
UAW outlines new strategy for foreign auto plants
Union to use more ing the union.
Gone now are demands for
and a common mission,” pro-
pose “no disparaging the other
cline.
Except for the twist that
Journal in an interview. “It’s
unlike anything that’s been seen
LOW
20
subtle approach in employers to remain “neutral” in party” and underscore the dem- suggests the good ol’ days are in the UAW in many, many
organizing efforts and to aban- ocratic foundation of secret not altogether gone. That’s the years.”
organizing efforts don the secret ballot in favor of ballot elections. promise of waging PR wars The union’s principles seek to
“card check,” frequent corner- Welcome to the new, smaller, against any foreign automakers bar coercion and threats from
BY DANIEL HOWES stones in the UAW’s failed efforts ostensibly more positive UAW. that reject the union’s proffered both sides; eliminate “repercus-
The Detroit News to recruit new members at Nis- Determined to revive its sagging principles for “free and fair sions” from union and manage-
I
n the United Auto Workers’ san Motor Co. and Toyota Motor membership rolls, especially elections,” inviting protests at ment; preclude wage and benefit
11 “Principles for Fair Corp. plants in the South, to within the auto industry, the their U.S. plants and foreign promises to employees; provide
Union Elections” to orga- name two. union is aiming to strike a del- headquarters. “equal access” to would-be vot-
nize foreign-owned automak- Instead, the union’s carefully icate (if sometimes contradic- “We have, in many ways, ers; and ask management to
$1.00 ers in the United States, re-
leased Monday, confrontation
reasoned principles, approved by
its 17-member International
tory) balance between recog-
nizing the realities of global
pretty deep pockets in terms of
what we’re willing to spend” —
“explicitly disavow, reject and
discourage messages from cor-
is taking a back seat to a more Executive Board last month, competition and an institutional at least $60 million, President
cooperative approach to grow- emphasize “respect, shared goals need to reverse its steady de- Bob King told the Wall Street Please see Howes, Page 7A