Charlie LeDuff

Donuts don’t go with poisoned dirt too well… @Charlieleduff

Benson’s origin story must be viewed in a new light. This is not a white woman who got into “good trouble” fighting racism. This is a bored woman who made a career move overseeing its creation. @downi75

Detroiters Get Free Donuts With Their Poisoned Dirt Detroit's leaders hide behind brownies after toxic soil got dumped in demolition holes all over the city By Charlie LeDuff @Charlieleduff I’ve seen a lot of dumb shit from the Detroit political class over the years, but this one literally takes the cake. What’s Detroit City Hall doing about the poisoned demo dirt peppering the neighborhoods? Dirt that has been found too toxic for the human touch? The Demolition Department has launched a marketing campaign held at its job sites. They’re handing out donuts to fat kids, and brownies to junkies—trying to manipulate them into happy poses for their social media channels. “Look! Demolition and Donuts! Board-up and Brownies! Never mind your elected leaders have poisoned you! Eat, Booboola! Eat!” Two weeks ago, there was the picture of a happy-faced kid licking a glazed Krispy Kreme while an active demolition was going on in the background. Never mind the poisoned dust blowing all over him. Post it! Can you imagine the Flint Water Department handing out cups of Kool-Aid to the kiddies? This is the city’s solution to a ballooning scandal that may end up costing more than $100 million to clean up. Money the city doesn’t have. What Detroit does have is one giant scandal, a second federal investigation into the dirt, and zero answers. An ex-con was walking by the pop-up brownie table set up in the street, last week. Influencers from the Demo Department tried to wrangle him into a photo-op. He declined both the selfie and the sweets explaining that he has extra-judicial issues and promotional photographs were of little help to him. I explained the purpose of the event to him. “I knew it was something, man,” he said. “I’m like brownies and board-ups? What the f*** is that about?” And now the neighborhood knows. It’s not been a good first quarter for Detroit Mayor Mary Sheffield. Her predecessor Mike Duggan left the city impoverished, poisoned, and under-policed. Duggan left office, left the Democratic Party, and then launched a bid for governor of Michigan as an independent. To return the favor, the Democratic Party launched an anti-Duggan billboard campaign this week, showing how Mike “Magoo” has poisoned the people. Before he jilted them, the Democrat brass took Duggan’s largesse and kept quiet. Now, they’re after his ass. Sheffield better figure out something, and figure it out soon. After her lavish inaugural parties and perpetual Insta posts, people are starting to call her Mary Antoinette. The let-them-eat-cake strategy is wearing thin. The people are tired of crumbs.

People Call Me for Help Because Our Leaders Are Screwing Us Any wrongdoing by Whitmer or Benson has been ignored by Dana Nessel, and the Republicans are sitting on their hands By Charlie LeDuff @Charlieleduff I received a handwritten note this week. “HELP!” it read. “PLEASE hear my story. Wayne County employees and Affiliates are bullying me. Big Corporations and City Officials, I AM the community.” It was signed, Linda. I also got a call from Paul, a firefighter, last week. He wanted help looking into the connections between a string of arsons and city officials. I got another call from Ray, a guy who once helped me identify the victim of a serial killer. He had a convoluted tip about corruption in Detroit. I get dozens of contacts like this every week from every corner of the state. People who have been victimized by the very government they voted for. I try to help them. But I’ve got my hands full. I’m going through thousands of pages of nursing home Covid documents. The state of Michigan charged me thousands of dollars to get them. The best I can make out, Gov. Whitmer’s nursing home response was a deadly fraud. It cries out for an official investigation. But Attorney General Dana Nessel refuses to conduct one. Why? Whitmer, during that time, hopped on a businessman’s jet plane and took a trip to Palm Beach. When caught, she claimed her campaign fund paid for it. If true, that would be illegal. Again, no investigation. At the same time, Nessel took a luxurious vacation with her wife to Turks and Caicos, which was paid for by a prominent law firm with business before the state. Again, no investigation. Here’s where it gets sick. It was the Republican leadership in Lansing that made Whitmer’s nursing home investigation go away. It was a “go along to get along” arrangement. Senate Majority Leader Mike Shirkey was able to avoid felony charges for campaign finance fraud. In the meantime, Shirkey’s money-raising minions were charged. One faces 14 years in prison. The Republican House Speaker at the time, Lee Chatfield, avoided his own corruption charges until he was out of office. It was only then that Chat the Brat was ratted out by his brother and sister-in-law. He stands accused of using campaign funds for jets, hotel rooms, prostitutes, and drugs. Nessel’s wife was caught up in a similar campaign finance scheme as Shirkey. The root of money in both cases came from DTE’s nonprofit. Meanwhile, our energy bills continue to skyrocket. Documents show that Nessel colluded with Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson—who had issued a criminal referral to Nessel regarding a ballot committee connected to Nessel’s wife. Nessel asked Benson to make it go away. Nessel’s wife, nor anyone connected to her, has never been charged. Benson has not been investigated for that, nor for violating numerous election laws, nor for accepting thousands of donations that appear to have been made from straw donors using stolen identities of elderly people. Benson’s husband, Ryan Friedrichs, was investigated for destroying evidence that showed that his then-boss, Mayor Mike Duggan, was funneling public money into a nonprofit run by Duggan’s mistress. Nessel looked casually into that. Nothing came of it. Friedrichs, now a lobbyist, stands to make millions of dollars from a data center that local residents clearly don’t want. Duggan and current Detroit Mayor Mary Sheffield are trying to cover up their roles in the mass dirt poisoning in the city of Detroit. Sheffield was sleeping with the accused demolition contractor and even voted to give Lover Boy millions more in work while they were canoodling. When confronted with these facts, Sheffield lied to the public. They’ll probably get away with it, though. Just as Republican Gov. Rick Snyder and his syndicate got away with the mass water poisoning of Flint. No one did a day in jail for that debacle. You can thank the incompetent and insidious Dana Nessel. Again. And you can thank Nessel for interfering in a criminal investigation into her drinking buddy, Tracy Kornak, the former treasurer of the state Democratic Party. Kornak was accused of ripping off a brain-damaged elderly woman four years ago. Nessel made that case go away. Whitmer, also a wine pal, was going to make Kornak a judge. That is until a local prosecutor opened his own abuse case. Kornak now faces four felony charges and 15 years in prison. Nessel was subpoenaed by the House Oversight Committee, which was looking into Nessel’s handling of both cases against her wife and Kornak. When Nessel refused to produce documents, the committee hit her with contempt charges. But Republican House Speaker Matt Hall sits on his hands, refusing to bring it to a vote because it doesn’t seem to fit his political calculus. To hell with accountability. Michigan politics is a massive orgy where politicians get off and the public gets screwed. No one is more frustrated than me, Linda. I will call you. But no promises. I don’t have friends in high places.

When Mayor Siver has to come back to the office, Charlie will be waiting. @Charlieleduff

Looks like the Southfield mayor is afraid… should he be? @Charlieleduff

Michigan's Best Mullet Only Gets Trimmed Twice a Year Locals know that Easter is coming when radiator repairman Mel Koykka gets his luscious locks snipped By Charlie LeDuff @Charlieleduff When the ice breaks in the Straits of Detroit and the tankers begin running toward Lake Superior, you know spring has dawned on Detroit. But nothing quite signals the arrival of the equinox than the traditional Easter haircut of Mel Koykka. Twice a year—and only twice a year—do scissors touch the golden drapery of Mel Koykka’s outrageous mullet. Once for Easter and once for Thanksgiving. This makes the cutting a must-see event for someone with nothing better to do. It is Michigan’s equivalent of the swallows returning to Capistrano. “Easter means rebirth,” explains Koykka, 67. “And Thanksgiving is for giving thanks. So I’m celebrating rebirth and giving thanks.” Koykka, it would seem, is no poet. But he is among the last of America’s radiator repairmen. Local men flock to his garage. They come not so much for a new thermostat or a radiator recoring, but rather for a can of beer and a cup of human companionship. There is John the Antenna Man. Sam the Claims Adjuster. Brute the Six-Fingered Mechanic. Sandy the Truck Driver. Matt the Moonshiner. Al the Welder. Like Kokkya, they’re all experts in their field, all semi-retired. Mel's is their unofficial clubhouse. On any given afternoon, you will see these men through the grimy windows of Ferndale Auto Radiator laughing at the same jokes they laughed at a month ago. The flames from the gas lamps give the place the vibe of a laboratory and the beer is always cold. Founded more than 100 years ago by Art Koykka—a follically challenged forbearer—the motto here is: “We repaired your grandad’s radiator.” But today the club has convened to witness the renewal of the Monarch of the Mullet. The Prince of the Pompadour. Business in the front. Party in the back. The sculpting was performed by Austin the Barber, a man so in-demand that his chair is never empty (house calls by appointment only). It was obvious that the Koykka job would be no easy task and would take every bit of the barber’s skill and knowledge. It was three haircuts in one. Pompadour on top. High and tight on the sides, and the slightest of straight trim on the backside. The mullet measured a full 1 foot 6 inches from the crown of Koykka’s pompadour to the bottom of his beavertail. “The mullet is more popular these days than you would think,” the barber casually offered. “A lot of younger guys are coming in and asking me for it.” It was quickly decided among the audience that the younger set had obviously cast an envious eye on Mel the Mullet, liked what they saw, and decided they simply must have one of their own. And just like that, the 1980s started calling. After 15 minutes of scissor and razor work, the Easter rebirth of Mel the Mullet was nearly complete. Nearly, but not quite. Not until Tilly the dog walked in with her master, Todd the Rumrunner. Koykka, the last of the radiator men, coaxed his four-legged manicurist with three dog biscuits before she would lick his cuticles clean.

Southfield, the center of it all… @Charlieleduff