NEW MAYOR HAS A FULL PLATE: CITY STILL ISN'T OUT OF THE LEGAL WOODS

The president of the Detroit City Council, Kenneth Cockrel Jr., will take over as mayor. Cockrel's late father was a prominent political figure in Detroit, and his stepmother, Sheila M. Cockrel, is also a member of the council.

Cockrel, 42, was one of five council members who voted in May to ask Gov. Jennifer Granholm to force Kwame Kilpatrick out of office for misconduct. Cockrel has said a special primary could be held within 90 days with a general election in May.

The council does not have a reputation for working well together. Moreover, the FBI is investigating whether illegal payments were made in one of its recent multimillion-dollar contract approvals.

How the city will be governed in the immediate future is an open question. "It will be a long time before anyone can say we recovered from this crisis and are fully back on track," said John Chamberlin, a professor at the Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy at the University of Michigan.