Detroit Schools released from 11 years of state oversight

DETROIT (AP) — A commission on Monday released the 47,000-student Detroit Public Schools from more than a decade of state financial oversight, restoring full control of the district’s finances to the city’s elected school board.

The last time the district was fully in charge was in 2009, before a series of state-appointed emergency managers were installed with a directive to fix a district neck-deep in red ink and whose students routinely scored at or near the bottom on standardized tests.

The Detroit Financial Review Commission voted unanimously to grant waivers from oversight for the Detroit Public Schools Community District, which is in charge of educating students and other school operations, and Detroit Public Schools, which was tasked with paying off long-term debt.

The waivers are in place through Dec. 31, 2021, when the Detroit Financial Review Commission will revisit the district’s finances.

Longtime federal appeals court Judge Juan Torruella dies

BOSTON (AP) — Judge Juan Torruella, who served nearly four decades on the Boston-based federal appeals court and took part in such high-profile rulings as the tossing of Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev’s death sentence, died Monday at the age of 87, the court said.

Susan Goldberg, circuit executive for the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, confirmed Torruella’s death. She said she could not provide the cause of death.

“It is a great loss to the Court of Appeals and the First Circuit. Our hearts go out to his wife and family,” Goldberg said in an email.

Torruella, who was born in Old San Juan, Puerto Rico, was appointed to the 1st Circuit in 1984 by President Ronald Reagan, becoming the first Puerto Rican to serve on a U.S. federal appeals court. A decade later, he replaced Judge Stephen Breyer as chief judge of the 1st Circuit when Breyer was elevated to the Supreme Court. Torruella served as chief until 2001.

Massachusetts U.S. Attorney Andrew Lelling called Torruella “a strong advocate for the rights of Puerto Ricans” who “spent his career advocating for their equal rights as U.S. citizens.”

“His insight and passion for the law will be missed,” Lelling said in an emailed statement.