Judge declines to dismiss Bell charges

In a scath­ing 10-page rul­ing, Judge Kath­leen Kennedy re­jec­ted a mo­tion to drop cor­rup­tion charges against six former Bell City Coun­cil mem­bers, dis­miss­ing their ar­gu­ment that they were en­titled to an­nu­al salar­ies as high as $100,000 and say­ing that serving in the small, work­ing-class city was “some­what akin to win­ning the lot­tery.”