Notebook

Bogus NFL memorabilia is not welcome in Detroit

Fraud crackdown

Department of Homeland Security and U.S. Customs and Immigration officers will focus on bogus NFL memorabilia this week.

At last year's game in Jacksonville, Fla., agents seized some 21,000 pieces of counterfeit NFL merchandise worth $5 million.

On Monday, customs agents arrested a 42-year-old U.S. citizen as he tried to enter Detroit from Windsor, said Capt. Ron Smith, spokesman for the U.S. Customs and Border Patrol. The driver said he was from New York, and his car was loaded with boxes containing 432 phony Super Bowl shirts valued at $1,200, Smith said.

Pittsburgh touts Detroit

Detroit earned high marks Sunday in Pittsburgh during a 9 a.m. newscast on WPXI-TV Channel 11 for its musical history, abundance of theaters and casinos.

But the city's transportation system got a little more credit than it deserves. The reporter claimed the city's People Mover allows visitors to traverse the city with several stops around downtown and Windsor.

That leg of the track is a ways off.

Media gets warm welcome

Michigan's Super Bowl team officially welcomed the international media to town Monday at the Renaissance Center.

Gov. Jennifer Granholm, alongside Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick and Super Bowl XL Chairman Roger Penske, told reporters they would see the state's mettle, can-do spirit and renewed vitality. But it got a little weird when she told the crowd that the Super Bowl excitement had "infected" volunteers like a "virus." Some Vitamin C will clear that up.

Motown Winter Bust?

As temperatures remain above freezing, snowmakers still are determined to deliver their product for the Motown Winter Blast.

Marc Olivier Rioux, of Canada-based Blizzarrr, says about 2,400 of the needed 4,000 cubic meters of snow is ready for the event. He expected crews to resume snow production around 3 a.m. today. Rioux says about 3,200 cubic meters of snow has been made this week. But more than 800 cubic feet was lost due to warm weather conditions.

'Extra-large' jersey

The city's "Jolly Green Giant" will soon be wearing red and blue.

The 26-foot tall statue, formally titled "The Spirit of Detroit," will get into the game this week and don a Super Bowl XL jersey, city officials say.

Workers last week measured the statue seated in front of the Coleman A. Young Municipal Center.

"It's definitely an extra-large," said Gregg McDuffee, general manager of the Detroit-Wayne Joint Building Authority. "It's just a question of how large."

Steelers fans in town

About a dozen Pittsburg Steelers fans greeted the team as it arrived at the Detroit Marriott Pontiac at Centerpoint on Monday morning.

The crowd grew to a few dozen as fans waited for players to check into their rooms and come back out. Players including receiver Cedrick Wilson and tackle Max Starks signed autographs for fans as they boarded a bus headed for the team's practice facility, the Pontiac Silverdome.

Detroit News staff writers Eric Lacy, Christine MacDonald, Catherine Jun, Norman Sinclair, Joe Menard and the Associated Press contributed to this report. You can reach Christine MacDonald at (313) 222-2269. or cmacdonald@detnews.com.