Isn’t this EXACTLY why Kwame Kilpatrick is sitting in jail? [Caricature by DonkeyHotey from photos by Anne C. Savage for Eclectablog] NOTE: This story has been updated HERE. When Kwame Kilpatrick went to jail this year on corruption charges, it was because he basically used the city of Detroit as a personal ATM machine to dispense money to his friends. […]

Drunk. With. Power. Michigan Republicans control just about every single thing in our government structure. We have a Republican Governor. A Republican Lt. Governor. A Republican Attorney General. A Republican Secretary of State. A Republican-controlled House of Representatives. A Republican Senate. The state Supreme Court is majority Republican. Basically, at any point where there is a decision to be made […]

Students and community groups amplified the real voices of women to put people before rhetoric in the conversation on abortion in the United States. Having an abortion is never an easy decision. For many of the 1 in 3 American women who will have an abortion in their lifetime, talking about it can be even more difficult because of the […]

Sometimes what’s best for a city doesn’t have a price tag on it

Back 2011, Michael Davis, Julie Swartz, Evan Major, and Jeffrey Doe formed a vision for an urban farm and community garden on group of five city-owned lots in Hamtramck, Michigan that had sat abandoned for thirty years. The lots were unable to be sold due to pending litigation so they approached Mayor Karen Majewski. Later that year, they were issued a permit under the city’s Adopt-A-Lot program to use the lots for a period of five years. Over the next two years, they transformed the lots into a farm with garden plots and fruit trees, including an almost unheard of fruit called the Paw-Paw which was originally native to Michigan.

Then, in June of this year, came the Emergency Manager. It’s Hamtramck’s second EM and, when Cathy Square, entered the picture, the future of the project became uncertain.

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Happy Halloween! This was VERY popular the last several years so I’m reposting for your Halloween viewing pleasure. Enjoy. I love Halloween but I’m not much of a punkin carver. However, I love looking at them. Here’s a bunch of the coolest punkins I could find on the web. Well, except this one. It was taken by my wife: Here’s […]

This is why NERD Fund opacity is such a BFD Photo by Anne C. Savage, special to Eclectablog NOTE: This story has been updated HERE and HERE. I (and so many others) have talked a LOT about Michigan Governor Rick Snyder’s NERD Fund, financed by unknown corporate entities and wealthy individuals. Because they have been paying for Detroit Emergency Manager […]

Finding out that your health insurance plan has been cancelled is terrible — especially when you have cancer. This practice, known as recision, was one of the worst and first insurance industry abuses banned by the Affordable Care Act, along with annual caps on coverage and pre-existing conditions for kids. Discovering that your insurance policy doesn’t cover much of anything […]

“What I learned from my military experience is that…there’s no way this is sustainable and there’s gonna be one day when we go back and die for this stuff.” I meet a lot of really terrific people in my travels but Gordon Soderberg is one of he most selfless, compassionate men I’ve met in a very long time. He has […]

Hispanic leaders joined the campaign to raise awareness about new healthcare options under the Affordable Care Act. Inscríbase América y líderes Hispanos de Michigan unan sus fuerzas para elevar el nivel de conciencia sobre las nuevas opciones de atención médica. Pueden leer una historia sobre esto en Español aquí. With nearly 63,000 eligible Hispanics currently living without insurance in Michigan, […]

Even when he has the choice to do the right thing, Gov. Snyder doesn’t Photo by Anne C. Savage, special to Eclectablog Yesterday during his testimony in the court hearing to determine Detroit’s eligibility for Chapter 9 municipal bankruptcy, Michigan Governor Rick Snyder revealed an astonishing fact: although he had the opportunity to shield Detroit retirees from cuts to their […]

The claims that the Obama administration lied about people being able to keep their coverage are greatly exaggerated. The report by NBC News stating that the Obama administration knew that millions of Americans couldn’t keep their health insurance doesn’t tell the whole story. But it certainly gives the opposition fodder. In fact, the GOP is already gleefully rubbing their hands […]