CHICAGO (Reuters) – The emergency manager appointed to put Detroit's troubled public school system on a firmer financial footing said on Thursday he was sending layoff notices to all of the district's 5,466 unionized employees.

In a statement posted on the website of Detroit Public Schools, Robert Bobb, the district's temporary head, said notices were being sent to every member of the Detroit Federation of Teachers "in anticipation of a workforce reduction to match the district's declining student enrollment."

Bobb said nearly 250 administrators were receiving the notices, too.

The district is unlikely to eliminate all the teachers. Last year, it sent out 2,000 notices and only a fraction of employees were actually laid off. But the notices are required by the union's current contract with the district. Any layoffs under this latest action won't take effect until late July.

In the meantime, Bobb said that he planned to exercise his power as emergency manager to unilaterally modify the district's collective bargaining agreement with the Federation of Teachers starting May 17, 2011.

Under a law known as Public Act 4, passed by the Michigan legislature and signed by the state's new Republican governor in March, emergency managers like Bobb have sweeping powers. They can tear up existing union contracts, and even fire some elected officials, if they believe it will help solve a financial emergency.

"I fully intend to use the authority that was granted under Public Act 4," Bobb said in the statement.

He was appointed emergency financial manager for Detroit's schools two years ago by then-Governor Jennifer Granholm, a Democrat, to close chronic budget deficits brought on by declining enrollment in the city. Over just the past year, Detroit's population has dropped 25 percent, according to census data.

Bobb has closed schools, laid off workers and taken other steps to cut spending but the district still faces a $327 million budget deficit.

(Reporting by James B. Kelleher; Editing by Jerry Norton)

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Spending by rich Americans on luxury goods is set to grow by $26.6 billion in 2011, with the number of affluent families planning to spend more almost doubling in the past three years, a poll found on Friday.

As the United States gradually emerges from its worst economic crisis in decades, the American Express Publishing and Harrison Group survey forecast spending on luxury goods to increase nearly 8 percent to $359 billion this year compared to 2010.

"It is a relief to finally be able to see a significant return of affluent consumers to the luxury marketplace," Jim Taylor, vice-chairman of Harrison Group, said in a statement.

But he said "the affluent consumer remains needs-based, resourceful and research-oriented."

"They will exercise discretion. They will pursue authenticity and extraordinary quality. They will engage in the art of the deal and the discount with relish. And, they will operate as families in need, not want," Taylor said.

The Survey of Affluence and Wealth in America polled 1,458 families with a discretionary income of more than $100,000 -- representing the wealthiest 10 percent in the United States who account for about 50 percent of all consumer spending.

It found that 15 percent of those families plan to spend more in 2011, up a quarter from 2010 and almost double from 2008, while the number cutting spending was nearly halved from last year to 9 percent and down two-thirds from 2008.

Taylor said that while 70 percent of affluent Americans still believed the country is in recession, they are less anxious -- concern over job loss has fallen 50 percent from 2010 and worries about the potential failure of their company are down to 11 percent from 28 percent.

"In the end, the increase in spending we foresee is not a return to the wanderlust of the past, but rather, an expression of sensible, resourceful, self-confident consumers expanding their portfolio of needs," he said.

"The nearly $4 trillion in their money market funds gives these consumers the power to purchase with cash. Their value equation reflects the price of recession: mature judgment," Taylor said.

A 2010 stock market rally, which pushed up the Dow Jones Industrial Average 11 percent, has also helped woo consumers.

Consumer spending, which accounts for 70 percent of U.S. economic activity, grew at a brisk 4 percent pace in the final three months of last year. But U.S. retail sales posted their smallest gain in nine months in March, as auto sales plunged and consumers felt the sting of higher gas prices.

The online wealth survey was conducted from January 31 to February 14 and has a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.

(Editing by Mark Egan and Eric Walsh)

OKLAHOMA CITY (Reuters) – A tornado killed at least one person and destroyed the only school in the small southeastern Oklahoma town of Tushka on Thursday evening, authorities said.

The tornado, spawned by a cold front that swept through the state, struck about 7 p.m., residents said.

"It looked like Tushka School is pretty well wiped out. It's totaled," said Bennie Evans, chairman of the local school board.

The tornado also damaged about a dozen homes, a propane business and a fruit stand and left downed trees and powerlines around the town, Evans said.

Michelann Ooten, spokeswoman for the state Office of Emergency Management, said the state medical examiner's office confirmed one death from the storm.

At least 25 people were treated at Atoka Medical Center, said spokeswoman April McElmury. Most of the injured were released but a few were admitted to the hospital, she said.

The high winds rolled semi trucks onto their side, said Regina Cooper, a dispatcher with the Atoka County Sheriff's Department.

Some residents of the small town remained trapped either in their homes or their storm shelters several hours after the tornado struck because of the heavy debris, said Kim Winters, jail administrator for the Atoka County Sheriff's Department.

"We're going door to door right now checking," she said.

The school in Tushka, located 135 miles south of Oklahoma City, served 496 students from kindergarten through high school.

U.S. Highway 69 northbound was closed to clear the debris, according to the Oklahoma Office of Emergency Management.

(Editing by Peter Bohan and Jerry Norton)