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ON GUARD FOR 177 YEARS
WWW.FREEP.COM
TUESDAY
NOV. 18, 2008
METRO FINAL
CASINO STRUGGLES UNDER BANKRUPTCY
◆ ◆
1st peek at ’10
Mustang!
1B
GREEKTOWN
Congress
OUT OF LUCK? adds new
demands to
auto bailout
House bill wants veto over
carmakers’ business moves
By JUSTIN HYDE
and TODD SPANGLER
FREE PRESS WASHINGTON STAFF
2007 photo by WILLIAM ARCHIE/Detroit Free Press
In October, Greektown’s revenue was $24.7 million, compared with MotorCity’s $37.9 million and MGM Grand Detroit’s $48.4 million.
Growing cash crisis puts new hotel in jeopardy
By MARGARITA BAUZA
FREE PRESS BUSINESS WRITER
A growing cash crisis won’t close
Greektown Casino, but work could stop
soon on its nearly finished hotel, dimming hopes for reversing the fortunes
of the perennial third-place finisher in
Detroit’s casino competition.
The Michigan Gaming Control
Board told a federal bankruptcy judge
Monday that the contractor working on
the 400-room hotel set to open in February won’t get paid for millions of dollars worth of work unless Greektown’s
performance improves.
Gaming board officials said the casino owners could run out of cash in De-
Drug charge to
send Abraham
back to prison
Love triangle to
blame in fire death?
As an Inkster home sat in
charred ruins Monday, police
said the 71-year-old
occupant’s ex-girlfriend, 63,
was expected to be charged in
setting the fire that killed his
current girlfriend, 52, and left
the homeowner with minor
burns.
Story, 4A
By L.L. BRASIER
Wayne,
50¢
Oakland &
Macomb counties
75¢
Elsewhere
See GREEKTOWN, 13A
INKSTER WOMAN KILLED
FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER
Nathaniel Abraham will be back behind bars after pleading guilty to possessing and selling the drug ecstasy.
Abraham, 22, entered his plea Monday
before Oakland County Circuit Judge
Daniel O’Brien. He faces 24 to 40 months
in prison under state guidelines. His attorney, Byron Pitts, said he agreed to the
plea after learning that the judge would
sentence him in the mid-range.
He remains in the Oakland County Jail
and will be sentenced Dec. 22.
“He is not happy about it,” Pitts said of
his client’s return to incarceration. “But
he understands, as we all do, that we have
to be productive members of society.”
Abraham made headlines when, at age
11, he was charged as an adult for the 1997
fatal shooting of Ronnie Greene Jr. outside a Pontiac party store. In 1999, he was
cember.
Greektown general contractor
Jenkins Skanska has tried to reach an
agreement with Greektown that guarantees it will be paid for its work
through completion. Greektown filed
for Chapter 11 in May.
JOSE JUAREZ/ Associated Press
Nathaniel Abraham, listening to his attorney
Monday, pleaded guilty to selling ecstasy.
convicted of second-degree murder, but
was sentenced as a juvenile and released
last January on his 21st birthday.
In May, Pontiac police said they
watched Abraham make what appeared
to be a drug sale, and later found hundreds of ecstasy tablets in his car.
Contact L.L. BRASIER at 248-858-2262 or
brasier@freepress.com.
SNOW SHOWERS —
ONCE AGAIN
Way too cold for November!
Chuck Gaidica forecast, 23A
32 23
HIGH
LOW
WILLIAM ARCHIE/Detroit Free Press
INDEX
Vol. 178, Number 198
© 2008
Detroit Free Press Inc.
Printed in the U.S.
Bridge ..............2E
Business ..........1B
Classified .........1E
Comics........7C, 8C
Corrections.......2A
WASHINGTON — House
and Senate Democrats unveiled competing versions
Monday of a plan to start funneling $25 billion to U.S. automakers before the end of the
year, but lawmakers from both
parties and the Bush administration withheld support, demanding tough conditions as
part of any rescue.
The complicated debate
threatens to consume whatever time Congress has set aside
this week to consider help for
ailing automakers in a lameduck session, with the Senate
vote not expected until late in
the week. With a 60-vote hurdle to ending Senate debate
and the possibility of an automaker bankruptcy without
aid, backers faced increasing
pressure to reach a compromise.
“There’s no indication that
the car companies would do
anything different than what
Automakers, UAW
set to testify today
Heads of Ford Motor Co., General Motors Corp., Chrysler LLC
and the UAW are to
appear today in Washington.
❚ When: 3 p.m.
❚ Where: U.S. Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and
Urban Affairs
❚ Chairman: Sen. Christopher
Dodd, D-Conn.
Keep track on freep.com:
Live Webcast and news
updates through the day.
More coverage in Business
❚ GM selling stake in Suzuki. 1B
❚ Job-loss scenarios are dire. 4B
they’ve been doing, which has
been a big failure, which is why
they need a bailout,” said Senate Minority Whip Jon Kyl, RAriz. “There’s no reason to
throw money at a problem
that’s not going to get solved.”
Both proposals would draw
See BAILOUT, 20A
Seize this moment
to end oil addiction
Rescue should set clear plan in motion
A
mid all the finger-pointing at executives, labor
and Wall Street accompanying the Detroit automakers’
request for a government
rescue, let’s not lose sight of
an important question:
What’s the plan?
As we consider putting
billions in taxpayer money on
the line to avoid economic
calamity, I’d really like to
know, from both the car companies and our national leaders, how we avoid being in the
same spot in March or June
or five years from now.
Can we use this moment of
crisis to finally do what our
leaders have been talking
Deaths ...........16A
Editorials .......22A
Horoscope ........5C
Life .................1C
Local News.......4A
Lottery ............2A
Movie Guide .....2C
Puzzle Page ......2E
Sports..............1D
Television.........7C
RANDY ESSEX
about since gas went over 40
cents a gallon the day I got
my driver’s license in 1974,
and forge a policy that seriously moves us toward energy
independence?
We are told repeatedly
that this is a national security
issue. Can we act like it?
One of the auto industry’s
See ESSEX, 21A
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