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Obama again turned to Zients for help.
• Now, as Obama's health care website continues to be plagued by a rash of technical problems that have turned it into an administration embarrassment and a source of frustration for uninsured people trying to sign up for coverage that the law now requires many of them to have, who has Obama called for help? Zients, his Mr. Fix-it.
• Faced with mounting questions about the website and its hiccups, the Obama administration announced Tuesday that the longtime management consultant will help fix the problems and turn the site into the breezy, one-stop shopping portal Obama promised it would be.
• Zients came out of a temporary retirement from the federal government and quietly dived into his new assignment on Monday. He left the administration earlier this year after the budget director's job went to someone else. Last month, Obama announced that Zients would take over next year as director of the National Economic Council, becoming the president's chief economic adviser.
• ___

• DETROIT (AP) -- The city of Detroit for months has disclosed the awful condition of its finances. Now it's up to a judge to determine if the largest public bankruptcy in U.S. history really can go forward.
• An unusual trial starts Wednesday, pitting Detroit's emergency manager and his legal team against unions and pension funds that claim the city isn't qualified to scrub its books clean under Chapter 9 bankruptcy.
• A city isn't eligible for a bankruptcy makeover unless it shows that key steps were met, especially good-faith talks with creditors earlier this year. It's a critical decision for Judge Steven Rhodes: If Detroit clears the hurdle, the case then would quickly turn to how to solve at least $18 billion in debt and get city government off the ropes.
• "It's a crucial point in the case," said lawyer Chuck Tatelbaum, a bankruptcy expert in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. "There will be others, but this is the go or no-go. ... If there was ever a poster child for what Congress decided when they enacted Chapter 9, it's for a city like this."
• Jim Spiotto, a bankruptcy expert in Chicago, said it's "virtually impossible" to argue that Detroit is solvent.
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