Category Archives: People

Huntin fer Osamy

Posted on July 22, 2008 by admin

By Luke Warm Guest Writer [donation] Hey! Did I say Obama, nutcase? Negatory, good buddy. I did not. I done writ OSAMY. As in Al Qaidee. I’m not no John McCain, see, tryin to get our next Chief Executative assasserated … Continue reading →

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Hizzoner vs. hizzoner

Posted on July 21, 2008 by admin

By Joel Thurtell Eat your heart out, Kwame. You won’t see this in Detroit: A mob of people swarming the mayor, acting like he’s some rock star. Like Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick, Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa had and affair … Continue reading →

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Reverend huckster

Posted on July 10, 2008 by admin

By Joel Thurtell [donation] A minister? A lobbyist? Wait a minute — this is the same person? Can somebody out there tell me what the hell a minister was doing trying to persuade members of the Detroit City Council to … Continue reading →

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Brooks barges in

Posted on July 9, 2008 by admin

By Joel Thurtell Where were Bob and Kwame? The scene couldn’t have been more Detroit, more Wayne County: I’m standing on a barge docked at the mouth of the Rouge River opposite Zug Island. The huge black blast furnaces of … Continue reading →

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Kwamegate vs. Sludgegate

Posted on July 2, 2008 by admin

By Joel Thurtell There’s a thing in architecture called perspective. Look at a five-story building by itself, without comparison to other structures, and it looks big. Stand beside it, and it seems gigantic. Build a 60-story tower next to it, … Continue reading →

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Holy Grail: Questing for a Pulitzer at the Detroit Free Press

Posted on June 13, 2008 by admin

By Joel Thurtell Why such huffing and puffing from the Free Press about the First Amendment and the paper’s — and presumably the public’s — right to know what was in every one of the text messages tapped out by … Continue reading →

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Wannabe lawyer: Monica Conyers

Posted on June 9, 2008 by admin

  From my files…(updated) By Joel Thurtell Hubby’s a lawyer, and so is she. But what’s this? Monica Conyers, a Detroit city councilwoman and wife of U.S. Rep. John Conyers Jr., is not in the Michigan Bar Directory. Yet her … Continue reading →

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A week late, and short a few bucks

Posted on June 8, 2008 by admin

By Joel Thurtell A week after a federal jury acquitted Geoffrey Fieger of charges that he used “straw donors” to cover more than a hundred grand he donated to the 2004 John Edwards presidential campaign, the Detroit Free Press finally … Continue reading →

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The governor and history — John Swainson’s house in Plymouth

Posted on May 21, 2008 by admin

Revised November 20, 2024 to note Swainson-related stories HISTORY ONCE LIVED HERE and PICKING UP THE JUMBLED PIECES Here is the speech I gave Wednesday, May 21, 2008 to Friends of the Plymouth Library: Pontiac has its Governor Moses Wisner … Continue reading →

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Great story, but…

Posted on May 20, 2008 by admin

Wonderful story in Sunday’s (May 18, 2008) Detroit Free Press about hizzoner’s self-dealing before he became Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick. “Kilpatrick helped friends get grants,” the Page One headline blazed. Subheads tell us, “He steered funds as state rep” and “Money … Continue reading →

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