Mayor, Detroit Mayor | featured news

Former Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick was found guilty of multiple counts of racketeering and extortion, a jury decided Monday. Kilpatrick was convicted of 24 charges, including racketeering, extortion, attempted extortion, bribery, mail fraud, wire fraud and filing false tax returns. Both Kilpatrick and contractor Bobby Ferguson were found guilty on most counts. Kilpatrick's 71-year-old father, Bernard Kilpatrick, was only found guilty of one tax count.

Detroit is in a state of financial emergency, Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder (R) said Friday. "There's probably no city that's more financially challenged in the entire United States," said Snyder. "We need to start moving upward with the city of Detroit." Mayor Dave Bing has a 10-day period in which he can request a hearing, after which point, according to the Associated Press, Snyder can appoint an emergency financial manager for the city or revoke his decision.

Kwame M. Kilpatrick, the former mayor of Detroit imprisoned on a probation violation, was charged under a federal racketeering law.

Kwame M. Kilpatrick, who resigned as mayor of Detroit and pleaded guilty to obstruction of justice in 2008, was sentenced on Tuesday to as many as five years in prison for violating his probation. The sentence was harsher than expected, and elicited loud gasps in the courtroom.