detroit

The widely accepted narrative on the Ambassador Bridge Gateway legal battle repeated endlessly in the bridge company-hating Detroit media is that the details of the contested contract were clear, simple, and well understood, and that the bridge company has stubbornly refused for years now to stick to the contract or to obey a judge's order to rebuild to contract specs. And not just the local media.

A state court of appeals has overthrown the jailing of two top officials of the Ambassador Bridge, Matty Moroun and Dan Stamper by Wayne County Court judge last month.

The Ambassador Bridge company (DIBC) has released an annotated commentary on a Michigan DOT Question & Answer statement on the long running Gateway Plaza controversy that has generated so much heat in Detroit. This has seen expensive demolitions, demands for more demolitions and rebuilds - all located on the private land of the bridge company.

Several of our readers have expressed sadness at the prospect of Jailin Judge Edwards being taken off the Ambassador Bridge case in Detroit MI. They say their day often gets off to a great start with peels of laughter, and you-won't-believe-this coffee machine banter after reading about the latest antics of the Jailin Judge there in Detroit.

One suggested they could do with a Jailin Judge in her hometown in Texas.

The legal soap opera over the Ambassador Bridge Gateway project in Detroit goes on. After about 30 hours in the Wayne County lockup for supposed contempt of court Manuel 'Matty' Moroun, 84, head of the bridge-owning family, and bridge company president Dan Stamper, 62, are being released this evening pending hearing of appeals February 2.

The Windsor Star recently ran a front page story headlined "Washington set to act on bridge". A reader would think the paper had word that the US Government was set to intervene to get "the bridge" built - "The Bridge" being local shorthand for a proposed fourth crossing in the region downriver of the Ambassador Bridge known as the NITC or DRIC, a crossing sponsored by the state and the Canadian feds to provide competition with the existing crossings.

The Windsor Star report is a rendering of an interview with US Ambassador to Canada David Jacobson.

In Detroit the Ambassador Bridge company (DIBC) lost another round in court this week in its epic legal struggle with MIchigan DOT. In a largely technical case the state Court of Appeals refused to intervene against the rulings in favor of MDOT by Wayne County Judge Prentis Edwards.

Michigan DOT won the latest round in the longrunning court battle over the US Gateway plaza project. Wayne Circuit Court Judge Prentis Edwards, without hearing any new evidence on the state of construction, reiterated previous rulings he'd made that the bridge company was in contempt of court for not followings orders he'd made on demolitions and construction in the Gateway area.

Gary Wolfram, a professor of economics and public policy at Hillsdale College notes in a new report that the highly speculative new governments toll bridge proposed at the Detroit River (NITC) can be made legally the financial responsibility of the Canadians and of investors in its bonds, so giving the appearance of protecting Michigan taxpayers. read more »