Of course, they got their act together as soon as I started this blog

Wouldn't you know -- last night, WXYZ all of a sudden went "pro"!   The top story (which took up half the broadcast) was about Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick, who is in epically deep shit at the moment.   Yesterday, the Michigan Supreme Court denied his appeal to keep secret the details of his paying $9 million -- that's right, dollars nine million -- of city money to two Detroit cops who had information that could cost him his job if it got out.  This in a town that is second only to New Orleans in how poor and just generally beat it is.

So Kwame -- the "hip hop mayor" -- pays these guys $9 million dollars of CITY MONEY to keep quiet about fact that he lied under oath and otherwise tried to cover up an affair he was having with a woman on his staff.   Lest you think maybe this is just a Clinton-style witch hunt, it isn't. First of all, there are no republicans in Detroit.  Second, Kwame Kilpatrick is so completely corrupt it is funny.  This is not a question of a capable public servant who had a lapse in judgment.  If Kwame Kilpatrick did something that wasn't crooked, that would be news.

So he buys these guys' silence.  But the story gets out anyhow.  Then the two cops testified about what they knew, and the deal came to light, and of course the city had to subpoena the documents because Kwame refused to release them.  This brings us to yesterday.  The Michigan Supreme Court said the documents were a matter of public record, and ordered them released, and now we have proof of just how bad this guy is.  The city prosecutor deposed two members of the city council yesterday, and they're investigating charges of perjury, obstruction of justice, and various improprieties against the mayor.  Lots of calls for him to resign.

But the credible job done on this important story did not mean that Cheryl Chodun wasn't out in the freezing cold at 11:10 last night, in her white knit hat and parka, "reporting live" from a downtown Detroit intersection (??); or that Glenda Lewis wasn't "live outside the Manoogian Mansion" (Kwame's big house, for now) in the snow and darkness.

True to form, right after this came the car story -- "a strike at American Axle is forcing layoffs in SE Michigan" -- and of course, snow -- the snow just passed -- the Alberta clipper (midwestern for "snow from Canada") forming out in Montana that will reach us Friday.