i think it's interesting to talk about the difference between lansing and flint where gm never replaced the plants it tore down, and auto employment has gone from 80,000 in the late 1970s to 7500 now. and as a result, the town has half the people it had, and its murder rate so high, its murder rate is 60 per 100,000, and if new york had the same murder rate, it would have 5,000 murders a year. so it's -- when you look at murders of cities in the western hemisphere, flint is up there with latin american drug capitals. but flint, it was crippled by the legacy of the sit-down strike because the flint autoworkers never let go of that militant spirit. strikes there were more frequent and lasted longer than anywhere else in the gm universe, so gm dispersed its workers to less militant locals. i also discovered a company in lansing which makes particle accelerators for physics experiments, x-ray imaging devices, and the company's president told we lansing was one of the few places he could operate the business because he'd hired retired gm craftsmen and very few places had both the academic kn

from east lansing, michigan, welcome, the very persistent dave ellis. hey, dave. [cheers and applause] my, gosh. nine times altogether. >> nine times. >> six different cities. kept getting the rejection letters, the cards we give to you. >> brought 'em with me. >> you brought them with you here? so you saved every one? >> i always took one with me as motivation for the next time that i took the test. say, "look, i'm gonna show you guys. you're gonna pick me one of these times here." >> and look at you now! it paid off. >> now i have the ninth postcard that says, "congratulations. you're in the pool." and now i've got something even better.

what we need is consistent policy from washington, consistent policy from our state capital in lansing. we need people to support us instead of turning their back on us. >> stephen: you live in detroit and also work in the newspaper industry. are you a glutton for punishment? ( laughter ) >> you might say that. i came back to detroit from washington six years ago. and people looked at me like i was insane. but it's my home. >> stephen: and maybe you wanted to live someplace less corrupt. >> a little less corrupt. it's my home. it's a place that produced me. it produce aid lot of people i know making great contributions in the city and in the country. i wanted to raise my kids there and i'll stick by that. >> stephen: well, good luck. ( cheers and applause ). until this thing blows over, why don't you call chicago and ask if all of detroit can crash on their couch. >> well, we might have to do that. >> stephen: stephen henderson from the "detroit free press." we'll be right back. ( cheers and applause ) >> stephen: hey, welcome back, everybody. information, after liewgz the hispanic vot

it was, i went to high school across the street from the fisher body plant in lansing, michigan, andit was perfectly integrated into the industrial life of the state. the high school was kind of part of the supply chain. it would provide the workers for industrial labor. and there was a saying that you had a diploma in your hand one week and then a ratchet in your hand the next week. people would just walk right across the street two weeks after graduation, and they'd have a job. and when i was going to school, i remember inhaling paint fumes as i ran on the track. there was sort of, it was just this sweetish chemical odor. and seeing workers standing in the balconies during friday night football games watching from are across the street. and, of course, there was a bar across from every entrance. the prologue of the book is called gus' bar, and it's about an immigrant to lansing in 1960 because an american consul told him the most jobs were in michigan, so he figured that was the most promising place. by the time i started high school in 1982, the unemployment rate in michigan was 1

. >>> joining me now from lansing is michigan governor rick snyder. governor, thank you for being here. >> happy to be with you. >> governor, detroit we know, as a city spent $1 million more than it took in, borrowing the rest. "the wall street journal" called this a long, sad decline. you had to make the final decision on this bankruptcy. were there any other options? >> no. there were no other viable options. i view this as an opportunity to say, let's stop the decline. this is a situation that's been a period of decline of 60 years in detroit. and it's resulted in $18 billion in debt that the city can't afford to pay and more importantly it's resulted in services that are not good nor appropriate for the wonderful people of detroit. to give you one illustration, response times for the police in the city of detroit are 11 minutes. t one way to do that is to go through this difficult process but to use bankruptcy to say, let's do a plan for creditors but also a plan to invest more in services to citizens and grow detroit and let's get on a positive p

you know, tried to file something in the county court in lansing and tried to block the governor from doing this, but right before hearing was set to start on that motion around 4:00, the city filed for chapter 9 bankruptcy. unprecedented. the largest municipal firing in u.s. history. the question is what happens next. what happens to city services? many are distressed about what could happen over the next year or so. the emergency manager seems to think that best case scenario detroit could come out of bankruptcy by late next year but that remains to be seen. some experts say it could take several months, some say it could take several years. that's part of the questions they're hoping to ask the governor at the news conference which starts in just a little bit. to try to reassure the residents of detroit that no city services will be impacted now. the city will move on for this better, chuck. >> we'll let you go to that press conference. kevin orr right here on the show to ask some of those questions gabe was just bringing up. to politics and fight to frame next year's election. whe

for more, let's turn to the mayor of lansing michigan who ran against rick snyder and lost in that election. also with us is msnbc analyst dr. eric dyson. gentlemen, great to have you with us tonight. >> thank you. >> great to be here, ed. >> virg, you ran against snyder for governor. did you talk about detroit? >> it came up quite a bit. you about brought a tear to my eye. you are a national treasure and detroit owes you a debt of gratitude for talking sense. yes, the problem of detroit came up. we both agreed over and over again that detroit was michigan's first leading city. failure was not an option. we today make detroit work. detroit is the face of michigan. and we would be job one to wring back jobs to the state and in particular to detroit. i got to tell you, with all due respect to the governor, this is not sour grapes. until this bankruptcy, we haven't seen any action in detroit. there hasn't been a focus on detroit. the governor who said over and over again that everything he did would be seen through the prism of all jobs created for the state, i don't know of one job he brought

consistent policy from lansing. we need people to support us. >> there will always be those people that you can never help. >> we may be one of the first. we are the largest. but we absolutely will not be the last. >> did you hear what glenn beck just said? he said there's always going to be people out there that you just can't help. really? people that have worked for 35 years and paid into a pension fund. we can't help them. that's a great place to be, beckster. you ought to change the name of your website to blazing saddles instead of the blaze. a major federal court ruling this week has cleared the way for michigan governor rick snider to put detroit through bankruptcy. state law doesn't matter. state constitution doesn't matter. privatized, city workes will have to take a huge cut. but remember, glenn beck said, there is always going to be some people that you just can't help. even though they paid into it. this is the systematic destruction of an american city. it is a government coup, basically, without viole

that, of course, directly at odds with friday's ruling by county circuit judge aguilar in lansing who said the state bankruptcy was unconstitutional because state pensions are guaranteed in the state constitution and judge steven rhodes is going to hear argument about that in federal court on wednesday. he's a reagan appoint iee and a expert on ponzi law and in what will be one of the most complex bankruptcies in u.s. history and in detroit city fire fighters staged informational pickets today. they say that their pensions should be protected pointing out that as city employees they don't pay into social security so their pension is all they have got. >> that's what makes chapter 9 really so difficult. >> we may not come home one day so to lock at us as a spreadsheet is to me un-american. >> and that's part of the complication is the issue of whether the state pensions should be absolutely guaranteed as the state constitution suggests, and as these employees unions say or if given the massive amount of underfunding and the billions of dollars something has to give, and that's all ulti

first scuffle in this case, and it's come about because five minutes before a state court judge in lansing was to take the bench and issue an injunction against the city of detroit filing bankruptcy, the city filed for bankruptcy. there are several -- there are several different actions pending through which parties are proceeding against the city in state court with the hope of delaying the bankruptcy or pursuing separate claims, either directly against the city or indirectly through the governor or the emergency manager. now, in detroit the city couldn't file bankruptcy until the governor okayed that decision by the emergency manager. what is happening here is that there is a very, very specific argument being made about whether or not the emergency manager and then the governor should be granted the same protections of that automatic stay that would extend to the city of detroit, and what the city is asking the court to do is to confirm that none of the litigation, be it against the city or the city's officers or against the governor, anything that would prevent the bankruptcy from goin

a state judge, rose marie in lansing has ruled that the bankruptcyings unconstitutional because the statehear more arguments on that. the federal judge has set a hearing on wednesday that will be held here in detroit. like any hearing in a bankruptcy case it is crucial in terms of setting the tone. there are only two items on the agenda, the city's protection pro credited terse under chapter nine and a motion to halt all other legal action including actions in state court. once and for all but meantime there are also efforts to sway the public opinion, the city's firefighters stage attorney general informational pickets throughout the city today, insisting that those pensions need to be protected, that the city and the state need to keep their promises. bill and kelly? >> a story that we'll continue to follow all week. more on today's market, and what can move your money tomorrow after a quick break. on their 401(k)s?!dden fees seriously? seriously. you don't believe it? search it. "401(k) hidden fees." then go to e-trade and roll over your old 401(k)s to a new e-trade retirement account.

onk is from lansing, mich., the independent line.n eisenhower built the highways, the states collected the taxes to keep their state up. if you have a greater population, you collected more taxes. i would like to know when the sent their taxes to the government and the government said you do not need as much to get by on. when did that happen and why do the states not take care of their own roads? guest: there are a lot of questions in there. i would like to unpack a little bit. i would like to correct something you said. the states are collecting the money and sending it to the federal government and the feds are sending it back. in one way, you could say it is true. by and large, the states collector on revenue. the federal government collects its revenue. the taxes are collected at fuel distribution points. it depends on where the gasoline is being shipped on who collects a tax. the states have another system themselves. states and localities are large players in infrastructure spending. this is an issue about the federal gas taxe

from easto now to lansing, michigan. caller: good morning. i have several concerns.s the fluoride added to the water. it is a very reactive product. i am sure the pipes would have lasted longer if we have not added fluoride. some salesmen from the fertilizer industry decided we needed to add this to our teeth and sold it to the dentist saying it would be great for tv, but now we have toothpaste that has the fluoride in it. in our waters?t i am sure many of the problems in this nation is drinking fluoridated water. the: is this something american water works association has looked into. guest: the preeminent health association and the american metal co -- medical association and dental association. this is an informed public process. we do not think the public should for something on a majority of customers but the health benefits of fluoridated water is are beyond dispute. significant health impacts. he must have been very enterprising indeed to convince the u.s. centers for disease control and the world health organization and other organizations are mentioned about

that's where i got my start, free lansing for -- freelancing for them. i decide a little commercial writing. i wrote nor original banana republic, and army pants from india and by the tame i came to the job, the clothing was not being found in exotic places. was made to look like it was found in exotic places and then we have to come up with stories for the clothes, little story. >> host: so you had make those stories up? >> guest: i'm saying we made those stories up. yes. >> host: david chow from new york city e-mails: miss roach do you consider your work and findings to be scientific? how would you define signs to be differentiated from work which does not conform in this method? >> guest: do i consider my work to be scientific? i consider -- what i do is i report on work that is scientific. i think of scientific as in you're doing formal research published in journals. so i am reporting on the scientific material published in journals. what was the second half of that? i think do. >> host: i think that was the point. whether or not you consider your w

dick is from lansing, mich., on the independent line. caller: when eisenhower built the highways, the states collected the taxes to keep their state up. if you have a greater population, you collected more taxes. i would like to know when the states sent their taxes to the government and the government aid you do not need as much to get by on. when did that happen and why do the states not take care of their own roads? guest: there are a lot of questions in there. i would like to unpack a little bit. i would like to correct something you said. the states are collecting the money and sending it to the federal government and the feds are sending it back. in one way, you could say it is true. by and large, the states collector on revenue. the federal government collects its revenue. the taxes are collected at fuel distribution points. it depends on where the gasoline is being shipped on who collects a tax. the states have another system themselves. states and localities are large players in infrastructure spending. this is an issue about th