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Koch Carbon piling up mountains of potentially toxic petroleum coke on banks of the Detroit River

By on May 20, 2013 in Detroit, Global climate change

What could possibly go wrong?

On the banks of the Detroit River, giant three-story tall mountains of black rock have been accumulating, quickly and quietly enough to take a lot of Detroiters and neighboring Canadians by surprise. The piles are petroleum coke or “pet coke”, a by-product of the processing of tar sands oil from Canada. A newly upgraded Marathon Petroleum refinery in Detroit now allows them to process the tar sands oil, producing copious amounts of the high-sulfur, high-carbon waste product.

A recent New York Times article shows that Michiganders and Canadians alike are concerned by the use of land directly on the Detroit River to store the potentially hazardous pet coke.

Click through for more.


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Kevyn Orr gets down to business in Detroit

By on May 14, 2013 in Detroit, Emergency Manager Law, Emergency Managers

Detroit Rock Bottom

Photo by Anne C. Savage, special to Eclectablog

Yesterday, Detroit Emergency Manager Kevyn Orr gave a frank State of the City report that showed that the city is “clearly insolvent”. Not a big surprise to anyone except a handful of folks who seem to think it’s all a big mistake and the city is just fine financially. For as much as I despise the concept of an unelected Emergency Manager taking over the running of a city, I do believe that Detroit will never move forward if those in charge aren’t living in the real world where even profit sharing they’ve been denied by the state isn’t enough to patch the holes in their budget.…


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Keep Growing Detroit cultivates more than fresh produce

By on May 13, 2013 in Detroit, Highland Park

It’s growing stronger communities, one garden at a time.

Spring is finally springing in Michigan, more or less. But at Keep Growing Detroit, gardening season is well underway.

You could call Keep Growing Detroit an urban gardening and farming project, but it’s much more than that. Established in 2013 as an offshoot of The Greening of Detroit, Keep Growing Detroit’s primary mission is to create a food sovereign Detroit, where a majority of the produce eaten in Detroit is grown right in the city.

I was first introduced to Keep Growing Detroit when I attended TEDMED in April, where Co-Director Ashley Atkinson was one of the speakers.…


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UPDATED x2: Detroit Public Schools Emergency Manager Roberts to leave, says he was instructed to “blow up” & “dismantle” district

By on May 2, 2013 in Detroit, Emergency Managers

The truth emerges…

Detroit Public Schools Emergency Manager Roy Roberts announced this morning that he’s stepping down as EM when his contract expires later this month. He said, in his mind, the crisis is over and the DPS is on its way to being financially stable.

Roberts said something else, however, that shocked those who were present. He told them that his instructions when he took the job were to “blow up the district and dismantle it”.

Click through for more.


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Why does Sen. Pavlov want even MORE schools in the Educ. Achievement Authority? Because it’s a cash cow?

By on April 30, 2013 in Detroit, Education, Emergency Managers

Dude, slow down

It looks like expansion of the Education Achievement Authority (EAA) in Michigan is going to be put on hold, at least until this summer. Why? Because Republican Senator and Education Committee Chair Phil Pavlov is unhappy. Why is Phil Pavlov unhappy? Because the EAA legislation passed by the House only allows for FIFTY SCHOOLS to be taken over by the state and put into their “school district for wayward schools”. Apparently Sen. Pavlov wants to be able to take over even MORE schools than that.

Could it be because the EAA has become such a cash cow? I’ll explore this question after the jump.


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Flint and Detroit and Belle Isle, oh my!

By on April 25, 2013 in Detroit, Emergency Managers, Flint, Michigan

The State of Michigan is in a weird state

A collection of stories about Detroit, Flint and the jaw-dropping stuff happening in these two cities.

Click through for the Full Monty.


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Michigan Emergency Manager news round-up – 4/17/2013

By on April 17, 2013 in Detroit, Emergency Financial Managers, Emergency Manager Law, Emergency Managers

It’s hard to keep up…

It’s been awhile since I’ve done a summary of the latest news about Michigan’s Emergency Manager Law and the new surrounding our illustrious saviors dictators Emergency Managers so I thought it would be a good time to so. On a personal note, I was interviewed by freelance journalist Chris Lewis this past week for a piece he’s doing for The Atlantic so it’s clear to me that this story continues to receive national attention.

It’s all there after the jump. And there is a LOT there after the jump.


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Detroit Emergency Manager Orr should take privatizing the Detroit Water & Sewerage Dept OFF the table

By on April 7, 2013 in Detroit, Emergency Managers

Sometimes not “everything” should be on the table

In a recent interview prior to assuming his new position as the Emergency Manager of Detroit, Kevyn Orr said that “everything is on the table” with regard to solving Detroit’s financial problem. Not only that, he specifically said that “everything is on the table” with regard to the future of the Detroit Water & Sewerage Department. This could include, according to Orr, sale or privatization of the department.

This would be a HUGE mistake. Click through for why sale or privatization of the department should be taken OFF the table before any further discussions take place.


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Your Wednesday afternoon Moment of LGBT Awesomeness

By on April 3, 2013 in Detroit, LGBT

I’m verklempt

Last Saturday, the band Garbage had a concert in Detroit. Two of the concert goers were Scott Sauter and Domenick Viviano. The two had flown to California in the past to a benefit show for a friend of the band named Wally who was very sick, something that clearly impressed lead singer Shirley Mason. How impressed?

Click through to find out. (Do it. You won’t be sorry.)


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Detroit Public Schools Emergency Manager Roy Roberts boldly lies on national television about his “success”

By on March 30, 2013 in Detroit, Education, Emergency Financial Managers, Emergency Managers, Lies

Roy Roberts may be a convincing liar but he is still a liar

Michigan’s experiment with Emergency Managers has begun to catch national attention, thanks largely to the efforts of Rachel Maddow and her staff. One of the things that has become quite clear from the things I have written about here and the terrific reporting by The Rachel Maddow Show is that, despite the fact that our state is relying on budget-cutting Emergency Managers to solve problems that are complex and multi-faceted, they have yet to show that they actually WORK. Simply stated, outside of one tiny village, there has yet to be a city or school district that has emerged out from under and Emergency Financial Manager or an Emergency Manager and remained financially stable.

The Detroit Public Schools has been under the control of an Emergency Manager or Emergency Financial Manager for many years. The first Emergency Financial Manager, Robert Bobb, actually left the school district in a bigger financial hole than when he arrived. He was replaced by Governor Snyder by an auto industry marketing and sales guy, Roy Roberts.

Roberts is very proud of his work and went on national television to tell the world that the Detroit Public Schools are back and, not only are they back, they are kicking some serious academic ass, surpassing the state average MEAP scores in a majority of categories.

As it turns out, it was a complete lie. Click through for details.


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