On Tuesday, Freman Hendrix asked for a recount of the ballots cast in Detroit’s November 8 mayoral race and it appears he is going to get it: Wayne County judge Mary Beth Kelly ordered the Michigan Secretary of State’s office to hold the ballots in a locked vault until a hand recount can be conducted.

Hendrix, who lost the election by more than 14,000 votes to incumbent Kwame Kilpatrick, says an official hand count will help alleviate discrepanices that still abound, such as problems with voting machines, suspected vote tampering and the late-counting of 3,000 ballots that a Free Press investigation uncovered as “missing”.

Hendrix’s request came the same day the city Board of Canvassers announced its official tally results for the race, which certified that Kilpatrick was, indeed, the winner.

According to this article in yesterday’s Free Press, though, Department of Elections rooms – where the ballots were held during the Board’s meeting to certify the election – were left open and unguarded.

The recount will cost Detroit taxpayers somewhere between $200,000 and $500,000.

It is not yet clear whether Kwame Kilpatrick will challenge Hendrix’s request.

Just because I am in New York this week, doesn’t mean I haven’t heard the chatter about the horrible game the Detroit Lions played yesterday. Quite the contrary: the miserable 27-7 Thanksgiving Day-loss was the subject of many a conversation last night, as well as this morning.

Apparently, my soon-to-be relatives aren’t the only ones that discussed yesterday’s humiliating game, either; a google news search a few minutes ago turned up 580 related news stories on the subject.

Although Mooch was not fired today, the FREEP and the Detroit News both reported yesterday that Mariucci’s time is just about up in Detroit, and other sources say the coach will be sacked early next week.

Is Steve Mariucci to blame for the Lions’ heartaches?

Brisk winter winds prevented the jolly clown and whimsical dragon balloons to float along the streets of downtown Detroit yesterday for the Thanksgiving parade. Sadder still was that some of the lesser known balloons were also not able to make their debut this holiday. After the traumatic 1990 Chilly Willy incident which carried the hapless pengiun, and 5 of it’s tethered handlers 20 miles away and into Lake St. Clair, the balloon selection process has become more and more difficult to pass jury selection.

This reporter has discovered that while Snoopy and the Pink Panther have enjoyed wide appeal and acceptance for parades around the country, the seedier but more realistic underside of Detroit has not been represented in balloon form until this year.

Take for instance, Clyde the Rat. Clyde was to represent big business being farmed out to foreign lands. His presence at the Thanksgiving parade would have given new hope to those whose jobs are being outsourced.

Then there’s that small (but oh so clever) group of people who know all of the lines for Monty Python British sketch comedy. Their balloon, the vicious, razor-toothed rabbit (ala’ Holy Grail) was to be their pride and joy. Other floats offered up by the Pythoniacs included a 50 foot dead parrot, and a 35 foot tall Shrubbery.

And as far as the “Couch Potatoes of Southeastern Michigan” are concerned, this season’s balloon-preventing high winds caused their 45 foot tall inflated potato mounted in a recliner chair to “get stuffed.” An anonymous member of CPOSM voiced his outrage that, though he and his constituency never actually planned on going to the parade, they did plan on watching the whole thing on television.

and so, despite most people having had a great time at yesterday’s parade, there do remain quite a few disgrunted folks who hope for calmer skies next Thanksgiving for their representation.

Not too long after Vancouver joined the family, we also welcome Islamabad to the Metblogging family.

Of course it’s that time again! Hope you replaced that bent snow shovel from last Winter, and you found your gloves/hat/scarf right? (HINT: they’re on the top shelf in the back of the hall closet – remember?) It is slippery out on the roads so if you need to drive at all (and of course you do – you have to finish up the Thanksgiving shopping!) drive slowly!

The Widen family will be taking the easy route this year – letting someone ELSE do the cooking.