Excerpts from Kilpatrick's prepared speech

�One of the continuing concerns of all of our citizens is police presence in our neighborhoods. Research has shown that one of the most effective deterrents against crime is police visability�Therefore, in the coming year the Chief will institute six Mobile Police Stations to be deployed in each one of our Police Districts. They will be accessible to citizens who can visit, make police reports, make accident reports and obtain information about police, community programs and other initiatives. They also will serve as a hub for officers walking the beat in the various neighborhoods. We�ll be able to move them to areas we identify as hot spots or to areas where a block club or neighborhood association has been asking for a heightened police presence.�

DEVELOPMENT

�In total, counting large and small projects, we have rehabilitated 75 buildings in downtown Detroit.

Latest Bankruptcy news

Sharper Image gift cards' value gutted by bankruptcy

Here's another cautionary tale about gift cards: Sharper Image Corp. stopped honoring its own gift cards Feb. 19, the day the electronics chain filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.

That stuck Sharper Image customers with $43-million in outstanding gift cards, so we're not talking a few Ionic Breeze air purifiers here.

It's all because accountants treat gift cards as loans until they are redeemed. So once a retailer files for protection from creditors, people holding gift cards get in the back of the line at bankruptcy court with unsecured creditors waiting for the unlikely event of a payoff.

While some wags wondered where bored husbands will kill time playing with gadgets without a Sharper Image around when their wives take them shopping, Brookstone smelled opportunity in its rival's pain.