Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick said today that he should remain in office because the alternative would put a city and state in economic turmoil even more at risk. "There's a danger of unplugging. There's been such a knee-jerk reaction of leave, leave, leave. But what happens the next day?" Kilpatrick told a crowd of more than 300 people at a forum with the region's other top elected officials today in Birmingham. "You'd have a temporary mayor and an election in 90 days. You could have four mayors in 15 months."

Kilpatrick also said that while the news media hounds him about his legal problems -- which include felony charges for perjury and obstruction of justice in the text message scandal -- progress is under way in the city. "What you see on television every night is not what's happening in the city of Detroit," he said. "We're closing deals, fixing streets and solving crime." [MORE]