9.21.07 Crisis shows who holds trump card
BY BRIAN DICKERSON
FREE PRESS COLUMNIST
Oak Park Police Sgt. Solomon Bell was only 30 when he died. But you probably don't remember his name, even if you were in Detroit's MotorCity Casino the day Bell blew his brains out on a blackjack table.
Bell took his life in January 2000 after dropping $20,000 in a single day of wagering. His suicide closed the casino's top floor for a whopping five hours, but plenty of patrons gambling on the other three floors didn't know what had happened until they read about it in the papers.
So if you thought casino operators were going to let a few squabbling state legislators slow them down, well, you've forgotten who calls the shots in this petri dish of pathology we call home.
As stalemated state legislators stumble closer to the deadline for adopting a balanced budget, Gov. Jennifer Granholm is quietly making contingency plans for a suspension of nonessential services. Granholm hasn't said precisely what would happen in the event of a shutdown, but possible consequences include school and park closures, reduced police patrols and the suspension of gaming at Detroit's three casinos.
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