Warning sign for America? Detroit Plans to Cut Retirees’ Pensions… City not alone under mountain of long-term debt

Detroit Plans to Cut Retirees’ Pensions

DETROIT — Gloria Killebrew, 73, worked for the City of Detroit for 22 years and now spends her days caring for her husband, J. D., who has had three heart attacks and multiple kidney operations, the last of which left him needing dialysis three times a week at the Henry Ford Medical Center in Dearborn, Mich.
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/22/us/cries-of-betrayal-as-detroit-plans-to-cut-pensions.html?_r=0&gwh=A3EA0201EBBF6D284EEB36240840C075

City not alone under mountain of long-term debt
Detroit may be alone among the nation’s biggest cities in terms of filing for bankruptcy, but it is far from the only city being crushed by a roiling mountain of long-term debt.
At the heart of Detroit’s problem is a growing unfunded debt on benefits owed to current and future retirees — some $3.5 billion, according to its emergency manager, Kevyn Orr — which mirrors a circumstance being seen across the U.S.
http://www.freep.com/article/20130721/NEWS06/307210073/
Warning sign for America?

Gov. Rick Snyder (R) of Michigan could be forgiven for sounding like a bit of a cheerleader when discussing Detroit‘s bankruptcy Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”
“I’m very bullish about the growth opportunities of Detroit,” he said.
On one hand, finding the silver lining of perhaps the worst fiscal disaster in the history of America‘s cities is his job – it’s hard to imagine Michigan truly thriving so long as its largest city is an economic millstone. Yet, on a much more personal level, it seems like Governor Snyder sincerely believes he was built for this.
http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Politics/2013/0721/Detroit-bankruptcy-Is-it-a-warning-sign-for-America
SOLD: Struggling Pennsylvania capital auctions Wild West artifacts
http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/07/22/us-usa-pennsylvania-auction-idUSBRE96L00W20130722