When pro basketball hall-of-famer Dave Bing was elected May 5 as Detroit’s third mayor in less than a year, a voter turnout of just 14 percent showed they’d prefer a duke to an emperor, and age to outrage.

Convicted felon and former Detroit mayor Kwame M. Kilpatrick today lost a hardship bid to reduce $6,000 in monthly restitution payments to the city for his crimes.

It’s beginning to feel like a shoot-out at the O.K. Corral.

Yesterday’s indictment of Puerto Rico Gov. Anibal S. Acevedo Vila brings the tally of Democratic super delegates facing criminal indictments, or threat of indictments, to four. (Make that five, if you count former New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer, who was pledged to support Hillary Rodham Clinton, but resigned March 12 in a sex scandal and therefore lost his super delegate status.)