Okay, yes, that's stinky and suspicious. But the News' fixation on this particular little tree sends them whizzing past a towering forest of taxpayer waste with barely a raised eyebrow. The article does do a drive-by on facts regarding the big picture, but fails to tie it together...

...council members' own office accounts have few restrictions on spending. Council members are allocated $650,000 to spend pretty much as they wish on running their offices.

What's missing?

That $650,000 office allotment is about SIX TIMES larger than what the average member of the Michigan House of Representatives gets for the same purpose -- paying the bills of running their legislative office. And it's also noteworthy to point out that Michigan lawmakers are the second highest paid in America, while Detroit is one of the poorest big cities in the nation.

So, yeah, $12,000 to send the help on a world tour is one bad cough from a patient that's been hacking for years. Ten council members getting at least a half million each more than than they need every year is the pneumonia in plain sight that the Detroit News is ignoring.