Eric Mays, America’s Councilman, out on his ass.
Now he’s airing the dirty laundry.
Flint is corrupt. And he’s got the laundry tag to prove it.
And while we’re in town- an expose. Mayor Sheldon Neeley, the modern day Al Capone.
With reporter Ronnie Dahl.
Mike Duggan & Dr. Sonia Hassan- k-i-s-s-i-n-g? or b-i-l-k-i-n-g the public’s millions?
Detroit’s Political Bonnie & Clyde.
The Great Coney Caper. Crook chows cheesecake to die for or at least serve 6 in the county jail… and man was it worth it.
And Brian Woodward, an elegy.
#NoBSNewshour
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I am like, y’all already got the money. So what’s going on? Well, we in church, we shouldn’t cuss and fuss about that. We just should relax and never say a mumbling word. What about the money? Never say a mumbling word. He never said a mumbling word. Listen me. Now you’re talking about that he still supposed blood. Yeah, I’m see he’s saying something, but he ain’t saying what he’s supposed to be saying. I want to be quiet.
Live downtown. It’s
Nine. No
Bullshit.
Just breaking this. Double bullshit. Double bullshit.
All right. You want to know what bullshit is? What? Omics. They’re bullshit. They don’t work. Inflation’s up again higher. If you’re looking at the core numbers, that means credit card rates are up. So every time they raise it, the prime rate goes up. And then the credit. So the credit card is now about 25% on average. That’s what you’re paying. So you’re
Paying more for credit,
Right? We just eclipsed $1 trillion in household credit card debt. A record. Wow. Okay. So whatcha going to do? You’re in a pinch. Home equity loans on average across the country are eight and 5%
Interest.
Yeah. Instead of 25. You know what I mean? If you have equity in your home, think about it. If you’re feeling the pinch and you’re living off that credit card, do it now.
It’s like a safe cart transfer. Balance. Balance in that balance to something else and pay a lower interest
Rate. Right? Exactly. I mean, okay, so look, you can do that. You can call Hall Financial at one 800 call Hall or go to call hall first.com. And if you are buying that house, there’s an offer a thousand bucks. Hall Finance is going to give you a thousand dollars back when your loan closes. So all you got to do is go to call first.com/charlie. Apparently that’s a thousand
Page,
You guys aren’t in on it. Call first.com Charlie or call one 800 Call Hall. Alright, I want to say this before we get going. Flint. We got Flint, we’ve got Detroit, and we’ve got a so long farewell to our good friend Brian, but I’m local news. You know enough about it. Here’s how it works. They do about 10 crappy stories a day, right? And then they cut ’em up and they juggle ’em and they repackage ’em. They bring in two new plastic dolls every half hour, and you’re watching the same shit for 24 hours, sometimes 36
Hours, sometimes longer than that, Charlie. Exactly. Sometimes longer than that. And the bad part about it is, is that usually by the time you watch the evening news, you’ve already seen a story or that item on some social media platform. For me it’s Twitter, so it’s already recycled. But then for the next two or three days, you’re seeing that repackaged story again and again and again.
People ask me like, dude, you still on news? I go, no, you still watch it? So what I want to say about this show, this I know tv. This is the best hour around. It really is. So it’s five people. Should
We dress better?
You, me, red Byron, mark five. Right? This hour we could take and cut up a million ways and five people could make you a day in news. So I want you to watch this show if you’re listening. Thank you for listening. We love that. But you really should go to our social media or what is it? No bss NewsHour on YouTube.
Yeah, at no BSS
NewsHour. My Twitter. Karen’s Twitter, our Facebook and watch these because Byron, our videographer, he’s from here. He did 10 years with local news too. He doesn’t want to do it. Went to LA Made his life. He was on Deadliest Catch. You remember that show? And it looks like it. So you want to look at these. And this is America’s Councilman Eric Mays with over 1 billion social media views because he might be a son of a bitch, but he does the people’s work does okay. But because he’s a son of a bitch, the city council voted him off. They suspended him for a month. Really? So America’s councilman suspended and we caught up with him at Kim’s dry cleaning on Saginaw and Alma. So I like to call this America’s Councilman Airs his dirty laundry. Flint City Councilman Eric Mays with some time on his hands these days and he’s catching up with a little laundry here taking his drawer in. Kim’s dry cleaners.
Come on. Ready? Yep. I’m ready.
One black
Number
Work suit. One navy blue City Councilman suit. That’s Mr. Choi says dry cleaning shop.
I really like him. He working very hard for the city. Yeah. Well, thank you. Yeah, I talk to a lot of people. He’s a good counselor. Good one. Mayor
T-shirts there. His fellow council members voted him to go away for one month. You got a big fan here. This guy loves you. What happened?
I called two of the councilmen and somebody in the mayor’s office a bad name.
What was the name? What’s the bad
Name? I’m scared to say it.
No, go ahead.
I called them
Who
Called them assholes.
Oh, that’s good. That’s good.
And so they voted me out for 30 days for saying that. I don’t think you can do that.
Took upon somebody an asshole. That’s it. That’s it. I think there’s some politics at work. A man call you an asshole and he threw a democratically elected councilman. You call somebody an asshole and they tell you to go away. Mr. Choi? Yes. Where are you from? I’m from the South Korea. South Korea. So when you were growing up, it was a dictatorship, right? Yep. Dictatorship. Very corrupt. Did they ban people from parliament, from calling each other asshole?
We don’t do that. Yeah, I was Reed
And the thing that they put you out. Yeah, we don’t
Think they can do that. We in court right now. We going to find out.
Well just wait for the time and just go on in there and then just kind of talk to ’em a little justifiable.
I don’t, they talk to me a certain way. I talk to them a certain way. They act. Act a certain way. You ain’t
Got to act the way. They’re
Never said a mumbling word. He never said a mumbling word. Bo me.
Discrimination is defined by law is different treatment for the same conduct. The same conduct is evil. Calling me a narcissistic asshole. I call them all assholes,
Evil worthy. Call me a narcissistic asshole. I told her because she asked did I want her to say it again. I said, yeah. And then Councilwoman Burn said, well, you told her to see it. I say, what if I told her to do a flip off of the Mackin, our bridge, would she do it? I say, what if I told her to do a double flips belly flop off of the Ruper city hall When she do it, the mayor sent his deputy chief of staff in the meeting, which started at six o’clock and about a quarter to seven, they had seven or eight police lined up.
The hell is going on in this town.
You ain’t got freedom to speak. Some might think, let’s see what the courts say.
You think they’re going after you just because you annoy them.
Not just because I annoy them because I try to uncover corruption. I call it out. I see it. I know what people are doing right and wrong. I know which council people, the mayor’s calling to his office. I know who’s in cahoots with who,
And we got all that federal Biden money.
I’m highly suspicious. That’s why they’re trying to take me off the scene for the next 30 days while people maneuver and vote on that 30 to $50 million.
Is that coming this month while you’re gone?
It’s on the agenda now. It was on the agenda when they made the bogus move to put me out
Wednesday’s the city council meeting.
Yeah, Wednesday, August the ninth.
So if you’re not reinstated, will you be going as a private citizen?
Yeah, I might speak during public comment.
But isn’t that capped at two minutes? Huh? Isn’t public comment capped at two minutes per person?
Yeah. If I speak three, I might be arrested. Yeah. Ooh, I’m nervous
So long. Councilman, good luck. Oh, what a beautiful, that was brought to you by XG Service Group. If you’re staggering in the darkness of the digital dome call, XG Service Group specialized in a voiceover internet security cameras, off campus access control, wifi, and cameras for your home, your business. They will design it and install it. If you have restaurants, they do drive-through systems. If you’re public safety, they have railroad cameras, total wireless camera systems for your home and business. The supernova of customer service called Matt Sitz at 7 3 4 2 4 5 4100. Mention Noble News Hour and receive 100% off.
What?
That’s Oh, I’m sorry. It’s 10% off.
You never know.
So Charlie, they have seven or eight police officers to escort Eric Mays out of a meeting. But yet, and still they don’t have police officers that respond to 9 1 1 calls. That’s
Interesting. Oh, that is interesting. You would say that because that’s Eric Mays on one wing. He’s America’s councilman. He is. He might be irritating ass asshole, but he does his work. I’ve known him since the water crisis. Okay, fine. He pawned his city laptop, but he got it out. He’s a human being. That’s why he’s liked. You saw there in the He didn’t sell it. No, you pawn it, you get a loan and you go back and get your money back. You pay a lot to get it back. Mr. Cho loves him. The minister loves him. His constituents like him. The internet loves him. Mr. Doc loves him. I can’t say I love him because that wouldn’t be journalistically ethical, but he’s a damn interesting man. And I know that he works hard now to his Batman. Let’s bring the joke, or as I like to say, Flint’s, modern day Al Capone mayor Sheldon Neely. We didn’t forget you. Flint. See what I’m saying?
Check the mic and make sure it
Flint Mayor Sheldon Neely has a lot of things and a lot of trouble. And here to help me make sense of it all, it’s my old friend, Ronnie Dah, who used to be an investigative reporter in Flint until they wouldn’t let her investigate anymore. Let me rapid fire here. Kevin Flint. Mayor Neely has a police department that didn’t answer half of its 9 1 1 calls last year. Maybe that’s why violent crime is up 25%,
But they’re reporting violent crime is down.
Well, maybe that’s what happens when you don’t answer half the 9 1 1 calls
Or people stop calling as one resident told us because the police aren’t going to show up anyway.
I didn’t see that on the Flint Local news.
No, you probably won’t.
They wouldn’t let you.
Let’s just say a lot of things don’t get reported in this town.
Flint Mayor, Sheldon Neeley has a police department spokesman who costs the city $177,000 for sexual harassment of another officer.
Now Charlie, those were never proven allegations. However, they did settle with the officer to try to make it go.
Would the woman tell you,
Let’s just say she probably should have gotten more money than what she did.
Was that thing about a blowjob? You told me.
Let’s just say there may have been allegations that certain people wanted sexual favors.
What kind of favors
He wanted? His dick sucked. Okay. I mean,
Mayor Neely’s got a city car he wasn’t entitled to. And when we caught him, he banned the public from the parking garage for security reasons.
Yep. Can’t go down there. It’s not safe.
Mayor Neely’s got a friend in former campaign aid who’s charged with knowingly infecting a 15 year old boy with H I V. Now the mayor says he hardly knows the guy,
Don’t know the guy. But a few weeks earlier he was caught at the Easter egg hunt campaigning for the mayor
With kids
With kids. And it was the mayor’s Easter egg hunt.
The mayor’s got a fire department with fire trucks with the wheels falling off. What he doesn’t have is a full-time fire chief. The old fire chief alleges he was fired after he refused to cover up the death of two boys in a house fire.
That is correct.
Flint Mayor. Sheldon Neely has a city council that behaves like this.
My skin is black too. I checked the black box. It has nothing to do with color right now, but all to do with your behavior.
She’s yelling at Meze.
It’s always the show. Of course,
Flint Mayor Sheldon Neely has a lawsuit because he hasn’t finished replacing all the pipes from the Flint water poisoning.
But if you go by the mayor and the mayor’s office, they’re what? 98% complete. I think that was the quote.
And is it
Let the court documents speak for themselves?
Flint Mayor Sheldon Neeley decided to give a company the trash hauling contract that costs $9 million more than a competitive bid.
They must be doing that Detroit math.
What Flint Mayor Sheldon Neely doesn’t have is a college degree. Even though he is been saying forever that he has the college degree.
He didn’t say it. Come on. That was just a mistake by one of his staffers. Charlie,
This because like the George Santos of Mid-Michigan.
Oh, and how did a certain TV station in town not know that considering he worked at that station for decades? I don’t know
What Flint Mayor Sheldon Neely doesn’t have is an ability to run a city among the people who have either resigned or been fired or the chief financial officer, the deputy chief financial officer, the public works director and the aforementioned fire chief.
They drop like flies in Flint.
Mayor Sheldon Neely of Flint also doesn’t have a set of balls. What did he say about me
If he saw you one more time? Apparently you made a visit to the parking garage and the mayor wasn’t too happy. So he was going to kick your ass.
He was going to kick my ass.
Kick your ass. Stay out of the parking garage. Charlie, what are you doing
Mr. Mayor? It’s Charlie LeDuff from the no Bullshit news hour. I’ve got some firsthand hearsay that you wanted to maybe beat me up a little if you saw me in Flint again, I’m not thinking that could be true, but I am right outside and in any case, I got some questions for you. It has to do with fire department, the police department, municipal contracts, secret settlements, you know, that kind of thing. So I’ll be here for a few minutes. I’ll finish my cigarette, give me a call. Have a wonderful day if I don’t talk to you.
So did he respond
Right here?
He didn’t come outside.
He didn’t even text.
Oh wow. The gall.
This town is like it’s Detroit North.
Yeah, it is just like Ronnie said. I mean they’re doing the Detroit method of doing business.
Everybody at that top is getting hooked up, man. Everybody in that town is making money. Contracts 9 million higher than a competitive no sense bid and rebidding it like, you know what I mean? You know what this reminds me of? Reminds me of the modern day Bonnie and Clyde that run this town. Yeah, my or Mike Duggan and his wife Dr. Sonya Hassan, which we’ll get to when we do our Detroit section. But I want to give a shout out to Luke Nacky. He and his family are suing a covid drug manufacturer. After his father Dan suffered two massive strokes. Dan got two doses of Rem Desi. That was the first Covid drug that was approved by the F D A. They gave it to him in November, 2021. And he had his strokes and they gave him two doses, five doses, but two were a bad batch. And so a month later, the company Gilead issued a recall a month later a 50,000 doses because they had glass particles in it like glass particles. So the Trump company tried to weasel out of it citing the Federal Prep Act, which is an emergency measure that shields drugs companies to get the shit to market. But correctly, a Michigan judge said that has nothing to do with glass particles in the medicine.
Judge did the right thing it all through the
Bullshit. Yeah. Besides the fact that a dear friend of ours really hurting because he loves his father. He’s one of the caregivers. That’s kind of dude. Luke is, but 11,000 of those 50,000 doses are unaccounted for. They just don’t know. So for everybody out there, if you suspect that a loved one of yours in this timeframe, like November December, 2021, took REM Dessi and had a stroke. You should, I dunno, you should probably call Ben Johnson. That’s who’s representing the family. He’s a lawyer here in Michigan. I don’t have his number. He doesn’t advertise on the show. I mean, I’m not petty like that, but I just don’t have his number. So you can look that up. Ben Johnson Law firm. Or you can watch Jason Carr’s podcast because Ben’s a heavy,
He is his number one
Advertiser and guest. Yeah, he is number one guess and only advertiser.
Hey, that’s better than nug.
Exactly. Yeah. You got all that Ben Johnson shit in the back. So
That’s Avin Johnson podcast featuring Jason Carr.
Yeah, but Ven will get it done. I mean, give that lawyer credit because it is hard to take on a pharmaceutical company with the prep Act behind them and find the logic, right?
Yeah. But Charlie, you wonder why the general public is so distrusting of everybody and everything because they just don’t do the right thing. They don’t do what they’re supposed to do. And so when everybody was talking about, Hey, this is coming to market too fast, everybody was criticizing people that really didn’t feel it upfront. And so now you see all these things. Well, we moved too quickly. We made an whatever.
And then just the humanity of it in this Covid era. And they’re bouncing Luke’s dad around, I believe. Sorry Luke, if you’re listening, I get it wrong. They had to amputate part of his dad’s leg. That’s right. I’m sorry. And then remember he was on the show once and he was going ballistic. They just was treating them like a bag of laundry.
People are not disposable and we need to stop treating them that way. And people do. Politicians, that’s it. Pharmaceutical companies, even some grocery store clerks. Everybody treats people like they’re worthless. And that’s not cool at all.
Well, it is ship. The government’s fucked up it. There’s nothing wrong with the American system. It’s like greed isn’t infected. Its citizens and they now occupy this. The government works for the very rich and then they get some crumbs and we can fuck off you. Flint, you’re being hustled. Detroit just went out. Am I still on here? It’s this just went up Mayor earphones for some reason. Oh weird. But yeah, you’re being hustled and I’m sick of it and it’s making us all nervous. It’s making us all upset. I don’t want to narcotize. I don’t. You know what I’m talking about over there, young lady. I don’t
Be a narc.
So isn’t a nice little segue, I suppose. Next evil naturals, right? So you can maintain your wellness, have your routines during the summer if your sleep schedule’s disrupted by feelings of anxiousness, you don’t want to take medication, something natural. Try the C B D oils. They have a process. They’ve infused it with water so your body’s better able to absorb, to ingest and absorb it. There’s not T H C in it, so you’re not tripping out. You’re not high. You seem to like it. Yeah, I do. My relatives like it. Mark likes it.
Mark loves it. He does. Well, you don’t want to sleep if you take a bunch of T H C, right?
Yeah. I can’t sleep. Yeah,
It makes people drowsy and tired.
But when I was her age, oh yeah. It was a party. It was a gas man. Bong. Bong rep. Bong rep. New. Just saying you finally grew up girl. It’s
Over. I mean, it’s great for partying, bad for Medicaid.
You always look at old people. No, I don’t touch that one anymore. C B D is the natural way to go next. Evil Naturals, get the stress or sleep complex. Stay well with the smarter CCB D from next Evo naturals. Go to next evo.com/nobs to get a 25% off plus a free bottle of the premium. Pure CBD $50 value limit. One per customer. I believe Red will take the one per customer. I got one. That’s N E X T evo.com/nobs. 25%. Huh. Now speaking of local news, the big story in Detroit this week, nationwide, internationally international news was the great Coney Caper. That’s right. Somebody smashed through the American Coney Island window, help themselves, took the cash register. I don’t know who thinks restaurants closing and there’s cash in the register. Someone
Who has never worked in a restaurant, period.
That wouldn’t make any sense. It’s somebody watching Old Bonanza and Ponderosa. You know what I mean? Yeah. Give me all your money. Okay. It’s a stick up. So the education of comedian Detroit Red as we try to make him the best weatherman in town, the best reporter, a comedian living in a home with no electricity might do a better job. It’s coming. This is the story and he asks all the pertinent questions. I want you to notice the style, the depth of questions, because he might not have gone to Specs Howard, but he’s a quick learner and he knows how to ask the questions. Local TV media would ask, but read should ask has sources. Yeah. The ones that you should ask. And here is on the streets. James Harvey Weatherman.
Hi, this is James Harvey Weatherman on the street. And this weekend we had a breaking story happen at one of our legendary Detroit landmarks. Come on with me and let me show you what happened. And we get the facts of the story. Come on. As you can see right here, this is where the person came in. He broke the glass out with a brick from what I’m hearing and was told. And he broke inside to steal a register and do other amounts of major damage. Like literally he had to drive a scooter to go somewhere and find a brick to come back and take about an hour to break in. Hello, Grace Cameron? Yes. How are you doing today? James Harvey weatherman with N B N News. We’re here to find out about the recent breakin that you had over the weekend. Yes. When you saw the broken glass, did it break your heart?
What?
When you saw the broken glass, did it break your heart?
No. Pissed me off.
It pissed you off. Take me to the paint.
What
Walker’s throwing? It made me. Show us what he did. Getting ready.
He busted out the windows. If you notice there’s board on our windows over there.
How do you think he got in?
Took a brick and threw it through the window.
Did it just
The boards weren’t there. It was glass.
That must’ve been a mighty big brick,
I guess. Yeah.
So once he came in, what did he proceed to do after that? Show me
There was a register here. He didn’t take this one per se. We took this one and moved it there. Tried to get in, didn’t work. Double cup it.
Well maybe he didn’t know how strong your to-Go cups were.
Drink the pop. We’re here to go. I will not reenact this part. Dumped it all over the register. Tried to play with it. Went back to drink some more pop. You know what you guys refill?
Oh, you got it. Doing refill. Of course, they’re first one’s free, right?
Yeah, right. It was all free, right? He’s waiting. Sees the cheesecake. Hard to see in the camera, but we know exactly what he did. Took it fed into it with his hand. I would’ve chose coconut personally. But anyways,
I’ve not a big cheesecake fan. Huh?
I just like preferred coconut. So we know he likes orange pop and cheesecake.
Do you think you were targeted?
No.
Do you think Lafayette, your competitor had anything to do with this?
No.
So from the information we gathered, the person took the cash register. How much money do you think he got?
Who keeps money in a cash register
After this incident? When you start putting your registers up just to keep your glass from getting broken,
That is not for you to know what I’m going to do.
If you wanted to tell anybody out there anything, what would you suggest they could do to prevent this type of thing from happening?
Okay, questions.
So do you think that the Detroit police in apprehension or going to solve the crime,
The Detroit police already solved the crime. They caught him.
Really? Where did they catch him at?
I mean, listen, you’re walking down the street with the cash register. It’s not that hard.
So he came in, took the cash register and walked down the street with it. Where did the police catch him?
Walking on the bus.
What? With the guys register.
He had already pitched that dude. Really?
So I want to know, are you now afraid to come to work in Detroit since this has happened?
Fuck no.
So I guess I have to ask you, after this traumatic experience, superiorly has you very second, how will you recover from this?
You asked the stupidest questions.
Well, ma’am, the people want to know. We’re just trying to give the people the heads up on what’s going on.
Are we almost done? Here
We are. But I have to ask you one more question, and this is going to be off the record between me and you. Was this an insurance shop?
Bye.
Well, as you can say, she’s very torn up here at the American legendary Coney Island where they were broke into this weekend. And apparently the theme was hungry, thirsty, and likes to collect empty registers. This has been James Harvey weatherman on the streets bringing you the breaking news.
Oh my God.
Must be some damn good cheesecake. I want to have to try a piece of the name before I
Leave. There’s one piece left. They’ve been flying off the shelf since that guy tasted it.
Oh, Jesus Christ. This cheesecake is so good. It’s criminal. That’s not the guy. Understand why he’s going to get for the cheesecake.
American Coney Island, where the cheesecake is so good. It’s criminal.
So what was with the black face?
No, that was just his TV makeup.
Oh, okay. Black. I just thought he was trying to
His pan makeup. He’s trying to keep the shine out. Just trying to
See what was going on
There. That’s TV news, makeup. Don’t you see it on tv? Yeah. Yeah. It’s his pancake makeup house of pancakes now. Wow. Hilarious. I wonder what happened to the kid. I don’t know. Once they caught him,
That’s very simple. Simple. They caught him on the bus, took him to juvenile and when they took him there, there was nobody to take him into jail. So they dropped him off at his auntie house on the honor system and said, please turn yourself in tomorrow.
And did he
Actually, he did. So he’s stupid twice. You let me go. I’m not coming back. Catch me fucker.
Oh my God.
Unbelievable. There’s no county deputy working intake.
Wow. That’s
Ridiculous. And I heard this a little extra piece of news. They waited for two hours for somebody to show up to take him in.
So who took, I mean, if I can ask, was it a D p D officer that, I mean who took,
Yeah, it was a D P D officer. Back up to Mike, man. Oh, and then they wasted some of our fucking taxpayer of gas money to drop his ass off at home. You should have put him back on the fucking bus. Don’t waste no of my
Money.
Nevermind. I’m just saying.
Why didn’t they detain him?
They did. Here, lemme slay this. Here we go. Here’s, here’s what happened. He’s still
Learning. Okay.
The criminal justice system’s so fucked up here, right? That nobody was, you can’t put a kid part of the consent agreement. You can’t put him in Detroit lockup over at Mound. So he’s juvie. So they got to take him over Hamtramck, wherever they’re moving them now it’s disaster, right? Kids raping kids and so terrible. So nobody’s working. So what happened at the Wayne County Jail, instead of having five guys, five deputies on a floor, they have three. Two guys were murdered in a month. Didn’t you hear that one last month? They put a dude in 53 year old dude drunk driving. He’s doing 71 days for drunk driving. You’re letting fucking attempted murderers out on the tether and this guy’s into jail. Nobody came to check. Nobody did their rounds and he got beat to death. That’s what’s going on, right? Red?
Yeah, basically.
And it’s a hell of a report, bro.
Thank you. And on top of that, he was Ward of the state, so he’s already kind of in the system. So the state wasn’t an award. They wasn’t even there to receive their own ward.
So it goes back to the accountability thing that we’ve talked about a lot of times in terms of criminals being let go bat out, back out on the street, repeat, repeat offenders,
And you got to pay people’s own family to take care of their own kid. I mean, I get that though. You know what I mean? That’s the best place for ’em to be and people aren’t rich. But I mean, it’s fucking mess. But that, sir, that was Emmy worthy, answered every question I had. It’s an exclusive. I like how you stack the facts brick by brick like a wall. And if this career doesn’t work out for you, there’s the brick layers and allied workers local to a Michigan who are looking for hardworking men and well, that’s not you all throughout the state of Michigan, whether you have experience in any of the travel trades, this is your place. If you have no experience, there’s free training with job placements starting at 26 plus Benny’s and earn while you learn as a registered apprentice, experienced tradesmen and women in building new or restoring old masonry, installing tile, marble, terrazzo, caulking or finishing concrete. Maybe I’ll do this. Make anywhere between 26 and 37 plus Bennys, like Blue Cross Blue Shield, two, pensions, two and an annuity. What is this? 1978 free year-round training workshops and certifications with the possibility of more referral signing bonuses you get on, you get another guy on, you get two grand. Just do bricklayers.org/charlie. What is this? I’m just making that part up. It’s almost tempting, but they have to offer me a piece of the company or a thousand bucks for experienced apprentices. Visit bricklayers.org to learn more.
But think about this. You’re talking a thousand dollars bonus for this. You’re talking a thousand dollars back from Hall and research shows that most Americans don’t have a thousand dollars saved. Here’s the opportunity to Not a bad Put yourself back on track.
I ain’t saved right now, you’re telling me, man. Okay, so listen on that. This story, this Coney Island caper was not just local, it went national. In fact, it went international. Our man crack journalist, Vinny limo up in Ottawa trying to get to the bottom of this. And he sent us his work. And without further ado, here’s Vinny’s report on the Coney Caper
Detroit Police media relations. How can I help you?
Hi, I’m calling. I’m with the news up in Canada there in Ottawa. I’m one of Charlie’s friends. Somebody tried stealing the safe out American or Coney Island there about above Charlie Lauff studio and they’re American. They walked out with the cash register. Apparently they broke in.
So any questions or any information that you’re requesting, sir? You would have to submit in our immediate request form.
Oh, it needs a meet a request from him. It used to be back my godfathers who? Gordon. He just used to call the cops and he used to tell them it’s media. You know what I mean? And we’re verified immediately.
Yeah. Unfortunately a lot of things have changed. So any media outlets requesting information need to do that via our media request
Form. Except if your Fox two or something like that, you got a special deal with them. Apparently you could tell them what’s going on. They were there and everything and media was, I saw your media cops there. So it’s okay for Fox
To have idea. I have no idea what you’re talking about. I don’t do that. But you can submit a media request form.
Yeah, it’s just like calling Gretchen Whitmer, right? You call Gretchen and you got a buffer. That’s what you guys are like. You’re scared to tell the truth or something. I don’t know what’s going on there.
I just don’t have authority to give you any information. So that’s why you have to fill out a media request form.
Okay. Alright then. Thank you. Okay,
Bye. Okay, you’re welcome.
Yeah, this is the Detroit Police Department over on Atwater?
Yeah.
Okay. I’m with the media there. And I just saw in Fox too that somebody tried Steven from American, Coney Island is the robbery detectives in,
Excuse
Me, somebody broke robbery detectives, American Coney Island there down the street from Lafayette and somebody broke the window and stole the cash register and all that. I don’t know if the people who it was up in there and everything, you think it’s safe to go up in there with that kind of stuff happening to go get a hot dog or
Something? You can still go eat, man. You still go eat.
Yeah. You think it’s safe where people just coming into windows and stuff? Yeah,
You can stay still safe to eat.
Yeah. Well, I’m wondering, Charlie’s guy in there, Charlie Duff’s guy, just got him a new crib. I was wondering, was the guy trying to steal the rent money? So red would have to go back to the Normandy Hotel or something. You think that was what sir?
I dunno. Nothing. I dunno nothing about that. But you’re still safe to eat out here downtown.
Alright. Alright. Thank you. Detroit’s a wonderful place. Thank you, officer. You’re welcome.
The fuck is he doing?
He’s helping you out, Charlie.
He is. He keeps sending videos. We don’t use him, but he’s
Trying.
That was good, Vinny.
It was interesting. But you know what, I have to say this, the people that answered the phone were very patient and very nice. They did
A hell of a job
To him. Yeah, they did. Because I was surprised that they entertained that for so long.
Well, he got nothing.
Well, he tried.
They were very polite
Inpatient. Yeah, they were. And they were patient because I would’ve thought they would’ve just hung up the phone on him, but the guy was like, I don’t know anything about that. But you can eat downtown.
I have no idea what you’re talking about, which is important to say.
It is. But
All this high jinx goes on at night. But I will say that’s the second late night smash and grab of a register, which in 106 years has never happened here. That’s true. Not during World War I, not during prohibition. Not during World War ii, not during the riots or interaction, whatever you want to call it. Not during the 84 World Series
When they were down here tearing up everything.
Not through the summer of Floyd. Nobody touched this place and they’re like, this is what you’re getting. This is what’s really up.
Well, like Red, ask somebody behind it. But no, I just think it speaks volumes about the circumstances and the conditions that people are living in right now.
Nobody at the jail. You see what I’m doing? Nobody at the jail. You know what I mean?
Yeah. And if he’s already awarded the state, should he have even been out or should he have been watched?
I can’t do all that. All I know is I pay my tax dollars. I expect my government to do something. Good luck. You know what I mean? This is ridiculous. What is Ru with these fucking earphones? Are you hearing it? Is my mic or is it? I think it’s your cans. Yeah. Your headphones. Yeah, my cans. Sorry. It’s fucking sexist. Radio work. Misogynist motherfucker. Yeah, that’s me. Well, which brings us to the Bonnie and Clyde of Modern Day Detroit, which is these two. Mike Duggan and his wife, Dr. Sonia Hassan. What’s the news there, Karen?
All right, so let me say this, and I think this is important that Dr. Hassan is, she’s recognized, she’s respected as an accomplished blah, blah, medical professional. No, I want to say that because I think that she
Supposed to purpose supposed do that afterwards, but no, I’m just going
Kidding. I’m saying it now. I want to get that out of the way. But her office at Wayne State University, which is the office of Women’s Health, you’re
Reading this? Yeah, I am. Oh, from who wrote
This? I did. Okay. I made my notes, Charlie,
Then I accept it. Well,
Thank you. I’m glad you did. Yeah.
I hope you’re not doing Wikipedia, man. No, I’m not. She wrote it
Our LinkedIn page. These are my notes. No, that they were awarded 8 million grant from the state. So $8 million was included. I yelled
All over it. Give me how great she’s again.
No, that’s fine. No, no,
No. Give me how great.
I just want to make that point because I think because of her relationship and now her marriage to the mayor, I think that who she is and what she had accomplished prior to that, maybe get watered down. So I said that she was recognized as an accomplished medical professional in her own right. I want to say that.
I don’t want
To
Diminish that, but what does she
Specialize in? Women’s health, maternal and infant mortality prevention. That has been her thing. If you remember the Make the Date program was the program that the mayor’s office, I would say got in trouble, but they really didn’t get in trouble because he was steering money and using his staff to direct funds to that program. She was recently, she meeting Dr. Hassan and her program at Wayne State University, which is the Office of Women’s Health, was awarded $8 million in this state’s budget from Governor Whitmer.
Okay, so let’s go like this. Okay,
So the mayor was stooping her. Right? Okay. Somebody put a private eye on the mayor and they can catch ’em going over there and getting a midnight booty call. Then the guy takes the tape because nobody in Detroit will say, Hey, maybe there’s a conflict here. So Bob Carmack rents a truck with a trailer with a jumbo screen, and he’s driving around city hall showing this tape. Mayor gets called out. Media starts to ask questions after Bob has to do his own thing and says she getting any special papers. You look into it and she’s getting, got $400,000 from the city. These things are terrible. $400,000 from the City, city staff is raising money for this. Make your day. She’s a professor of, they’re going back and forth kind of prevaricating, fibbing about it, free press, freedom of Information, exit. They get some stuff back, and then it’s found out that the staff was directed to delete the emails, which is against the law. It goes to the attorney general, this dummy who says, well, they didn’t really break a law because the emails were able to be recovered even though they did delete ’em.
Right. You’re absolutely right. And she actually said that preferential treatment was not illegal. That’s what Nestle said as a conclusion to her investigation.
Okay, maybe it’s not preferential treatment with public dollars. Give it to your squeeze. Right. That’s a fine line.
If it were anybody else, it would be a different story
If it was an opponent. So dug his wife, divorce him, dug it, play it like it’s
Because he was married when he was seeing her.
It’s simply professional. And then they get married and we’re all forgetting all this. Okay, fine. And then the Michigan budget is settled on June and then afterwards, governor Whitmer comes in. Whitmer did. It slid $8 million to her
Program
Office in Wayne State.
That will keep 5% in administrative fees, which is pretty average for grant management.
And then there may be bonuses for her the more funding she
Has. Remember the story you did for Deadline Detroit that talked about how she got a promotion. I mean, there was some second, the whole
Question, the vice president or something up
There. But in her second position, I believe she was making less, I think had been, her salary had been cut almost in half. She was only making 200 and some thousand dollars. So she was making quite a bit of money at Wayne State. But they said that in her new role, which I assume is the one she’s still holding now, she would be able to receive bonuses through Grants. Grants. Exactly. So it all depends on how this money will be managed or mismanaged.
Now, fuck this man. Come on. They’re pretending that Wayne state’s, I’m not going to say pretending. I mean their official word is we didn’t lobby. It was a group of medical professionals up there discussing it with lawmakers, and all of a sudden the governor just happened to give it to the mayor’s wife. Really? Yeah. You don’t have to lobby who’s who,
But let’s look at the impact that this has had or has not had over the past few years.
Before we get to that, wait a minute. No. The whole thing is, how the fuck did this go right into her? There’s something called the women’s program at the University of Michigan in the gynecological department. Well, how did you settle on this one?
Out of the 10 people that you said went and talked about it at the state level,
And now we go into, okay, so you picked her, but what’s her record? Is she really fantastic?
Well, again, like I said, she’s respected in the medical industry, but I wanted to look at the numbers. Black infants are continue to fare less about
All infants.
Well, I’m going to get to that, but black infant mortality in Detroit has always been a significant concern. And so that’s what the city’s predominantly black, but it reached a historic low in 2019 at 12.2 per 1000 live births. And at that time, Duggan held a press conference crediting the state, the city and private programs like the city’s. There’s another sister friends, which pairs pregnant women with community mentors and offers rides to prenatal appointments. But since then, mortality among black infants in Detroit has rebounded in 2021. It was 18.1 per 1000, and it’s the highest it’s ever been. So infant mortality among white babies in Detroit also spiked from less than one per 100,000 to 12.1 per 100,000 in 2021. So everybody’s been negatively impacted. So it’s not moving in the needle at all.
Where’s the link that, did you email that to me or did Yes. Okay. Pull that up.
You mean from the story that you did for Detroit?
No, where you got those numbers that you were reading?
Hell, Charlie, I don’t know where I, I mean come on now. Said, okay, but I mean, Jesus Christ.
Okay, here, let’s see.
I got ’em. Let’s do infant mortality in Detroit. That’s how I got it.
Yeah.
All right. Let me
See.
Come on, mark. Save the day. It is simple.
Save the
Day. Yeah, you always do. No, no. All right. Don’t go anywhere, everybody. We’ve got this. Okay, so I just Googled infant mortality. You want to see it? There
You go. I did see, well, let’s see. Is this, where’s the chart?
Infant mortality. Click the link. Click the link. Charlie,
This was yours. I want to make this clear. All
Right. I don’t know how much more clear you want it, but go ahead.
You
Can click. It’s on Henry Ford Health. You can click the link. Okay.
Is this
Charlie? I’m
Going to wait.
Okay, we’ll say something. We shouldn’t have dead air.
That’s why.
Here you go. Okay. You’re a television person. I’m a radio
Person. That’s not it. Dead
Help. I don’t have my glasses on. Oh,
Okay. Here, let me make it simple.
Hey, it’s an iPhone. Don’t.
When the mayor got involved, and he was doing this, okay, more or less in 2014, infant mortality was
15 per thousand kids. It’s now 18 per thousand kids. What magic bullet, why does $8 million of unknown money getting funneled over here? It went up. It hasn’t worked. Three or four out of a thousand. This is a disaster. This is what we’re getting. You’re getting fucking peanuts out here. Lemme give you another one on this guy. Same shit. Dave Eron Flint. Dave Eron was the lawyer that put that water deal together, the one that poisoned you. Then he came to Detroit. The mayor hired him. He becomes the Chief operating officer. The chief financial officer. He is not a C P A. He’s not a C P A. Then he goes off to Whitmer to do the budget for one year. A lot of easy Covid dollars. Again, not an accountant, not a C P A. Then he moves to the same graft pit University, Wayne State University that Dr. Hassan works at. Listen to this guy’s jobs. He makes over a half a million dollars. He is the, pardon me here, the chief business officer of the university, the chief financial officer of the university, the senior vice president for finance and business operations and the treasurer. So
Wait, these are all simultaneous.
All simultaneous.
I didn’t know you could do that.
You see how supposed to be able to, I’m telling you folks, you see, now I’m looking at Reddit subreddit Detroit. Oh yeah, man, a skyscraper. Guys, look, JC Rendell of the Free Press is keeping track of this hustle. So they put in their paperwork to get all those income taxes from construction workers that normally would go to all of us. It would go to the general fund, but in this deal, whatever jobs he creates in this ridiculous thing in that book tower, that’s ridiculous. We did. It’s not done at all per job. They don’t even check. They don’t even check these jobs. It’s a signed affidavit. So in the latest filing, let me put it this way. In 2021, they filed for their money that they had created 1300 construction jobs, but they made a mistake. They weren’t required, but they made the mistake of taking all the part-time people and then adding them up and full-time jobs. And that skyscraper in 2021, they admit are 93, 93, but they’re going to get paid for 1300. Now what, this last year, right? This last year, I watched the skyscraper every day they say they’ve created 6,000. Now
You’re talking Bedrock.
Yeah. The Hudson’s building 6,000 new construction jobs in the last year over at the book with the pipe sticking out, and you can see the boxes in the window. They claim they created 7,000 new construction jobs. Now, there’s no definition or details or hours or what company you work for, but it comes out of the budget and you now see what we get. So Dr. Bonnie, mayor Clyde, you know what I mean? The Sundance kid with the skyscrapers, Butch Cassidy over there with the hockey arena.
But think about this too, Charlie, when they go before council to present these plans and all this stuff, the whole thing is, oh, we want to make sure Detroiters are getting these jobs. If they aren’t checking how many jobs are actually there, they don’t know if Detroiters are getting these jobs or not. So there’s no sense of accountability for any of this. We
Don’t even know if there are these, Josh.
It’ll follow through on anything, but that’s always the caveat. We’ll do this. That’s getting sold to the public. Exactly.
The Office of Inclusion. We checked it out. You worked for the mayor. Mayor, how come we the public can’t see it? JC Ren couldn’t see it. I can’t see it. I don’t believe it. So you won’t pretend this thing’s growing because it’s not higher than the Cadillac Tower, which at its peak is 4 63. So stop being on the internet telling me that’s 500 feet tall. It’s not. They threw glass up and there’s nothing going on. Okay, there’s something going on, but 6,000 new jobs, no way you get to, you know what I mean? No way. All of a sudden you get paid to sit there and now you want to uncork my property taxes. That one’s coming and we’re on it, right? But if you do have a home, you need to save some money. Check your insurance, call Legacy Partners. They shop for you.
They won’t let you get fleeced. They keep an eye on your rates and continuously shop when you are a client for all the carriers to make sure you’ve got the best program. If you haven’t called them this year, call ’em now. It’s never too late. Now, does Legacy do home and auto? They also have great life insurance, and they can get you signed up for Medicare, Medicaid. That’s coming up. So give ’em a call for any instance or need at 5 8 6 2 0 9 4 1 0 6 or just go to their website, legacy partners insurance.com to get started with a new quote.
Did you see that? They were in the thread when people were talking about insurance rights on Twitter? Somebody mentioned Legacy Partners. They said, well, hey, I reached out to Legacy and they saved me two grand.
What it had to do with,
Well, somebody was saying they wanted to talk about why the insurance rates, how the governor gave everybody $400, and they turned around and raised the rates. It was just a thread. People were talking about insurance rates in Michigan and somebody just said, Hey, I reached out to Legacy and they saved me $2,000. I sent you guys a screenshot. Me too. Yeah.
Did you bring it
The screenshot? Yeah. Yeah, I got it.
You said
It’s in there. I send you guys a lot of stuff. Yeah,
But bring it here.
It would be in the same thread that I’m sending to you, so I’d have to sit there and do the same thing you’re doing.
You can’t just print it.
I
Can’t. I got to print everything around here. My printer doesn’t work. I
Printed the outline today. My printer
Doesn’t work.
See, there it’s, I’m telling you, mark saves Good day. My computer
Is like a thousand years old.
Look at that. Look at Mark. Look at that. See, it says Call Legacy. They sell. They helped us save two K.
What is this a thread of Brian
And Twitter’s a threat on Twitter. When people were talking about Michigan insurance rates, so I don’t know who these people are. Does somebody just randomly say, are
You really dialing around on, do you search Michigan insurance rates? No.
I was reading the thread, Charlie. I know,
But what was the post?
The post was about Brian? No, I don’t even remember. But it was about insurance rates and how Michigan continues to have the highest insurance rates in the country and Detroit. I just started reading it.
Is this what you’re doing? Right.
Sometimes
I’m reading tweets about no fault insurance.
So what I’m trying say,
You’re so smart, you’re not going to
Love. No, I’m always interested in what people are saying, what’s going on in their work. I’m just, do me a favor, move on, Charlie,
Pull up that link with the mortality rates. I want to get this right
And next time send it to me. So pull it up on
The screen.
Yeah, send it. Well, I had it, but I can’t print.
I got too much stuff on here.
Karen is, it’d be 11 and like dinging. Ding, ding, ding, ding, ding. I love it. Here’s a thread under no fault
Black. Okay,
Wait, but see,
I know, I know, know. I know
Endeavor. Endeavor to get it right.
Okay, you’re right. Which city? Okay, I got it. You said this wasn’t it, but
Is
It? See, I got, you
Really want to go down this alley
Again? No, I don’t. I’ll find it. I promise I’ll find
It. Do it now,
Please. I can’t find it, Charlie. I’m under pressure.
Okay. No, this is lesson learned, my friend.
I understand, but you didn’t tell me what a
Graph. You’re hitting us with so many. It’s right here. This is a graph not hitting us with so many links that we can’t keep track
Of it either. I know. I can’t. This is a graph. Charlie. I can’t see the small numbers.
That’s not it. It’s the numerical graph. Okay.
Well, numerical.
This is just bars. That’s not the, that’s
Still a graph.
It’s not the one.
Okay. Wait,
See, mark. Is there some technology?
Mark Health,
Love, Karen’s things.
I’m going to be neater in it.
Okay, wait a minute. Maybe it’s the group one.
Maybe. So
Wait, well, then I do have
It. Send it to the crew. Crew
Source, Michigan Department of Health and Human Services. Charlie, this is a graph. I don’t know what else. It’s
Mortality in. No, it’s the numbers. Need numbers. We need the numbers.
It has the numbers here. It says here,
Mark. No, let me see it. It’s the bar graph again. Yeah, it’s the bar graph, but it has
The number’s one. Okay. But it has the numbers next to,
No, it doesn’t look, and it only goes to 2019. I think I’ve seen that one here. Mark. Okay, mark. Teller. Teller. I’m tired of being the bad guy. You’re not the bad guy. I’m not a bad person.
You’re not Charlie. I’m
A good person.
So says
Charlie. Okay, here’s some links and notes. No, it’s fine. It’s the same one. Wait a minute, then you sent me Microsoft. I don’t use Microsoft on the phone. You know why? You know why? Because they mine. All your contacts don’t use Microsoft. Oh,
Nice.
Did you check the permissions on that? No. Like hell, I can’t get out of the page. Karen
R helps Kirby somebody. You’ll come look the look
At the screen. No, that’s the wrong one. But it’s not. It has
Numbers. Charlie
One, it doesn’t.
Okay, wait,
Maybe it does. That’s
What I said.
No, hold on,
Let me zoom in on it.
They’re numbers and it’s what year?
What
Year? Okay. I can’t see it. It’s on the left.
Get over this fucking shitty desk. It’s falling apart.
Charlie, don’t do that. Oh my God. Don’t do that, please.
She only goes up to 2016.
No. Okay.
Are you still looking for the number?
Mark has my phone. It’s right here. I give up. That’s okay. All right.
Oh, no, no, no, no, no, no. Tell a joke. Red.
I don’t
Tell a joke.
We have a list meeting. I would tell a joke, but then I would really get in trouble because it may be considered insensitive. Say, well, now I want to hear it. No, now I have to hear it. No, I will not say that. They’ll come after me. No.
Where is all of this? No, no. Come on. Come on. Find it.
I don’t have,
I’m not letting it drop, man. I’m letting nobody out there bust my balls. You got me all worked up for it and then you guys couldn’t even find it. Henry. Now
Everybody gets to see what it’s like to work with Charlie. Let’s see, and that’s a good thing. I mean, because that way you make sure everything that we say or talk about is,
And you know what? You did
Confirm. What did I
Do? What you did is you resent me that stupid chart. Did I? No, I did that. Yeah. You pull up, pulled up so I could pull it
Up on my computer
Here. I got it. All right. Okay.
Good for you.
Charlie. This is from the Michigan Department of Children’s Health in 2014. The in Detroit, where the good doctor works. Okay. 2014, when the mayor comes, he comes, he makes this a priority. It was about 13 infants, the mortality, 13 out of a thousand, and the latest number 2021, it’s 16 out of a thousand. That is remarkable. That’s a 20% increase. I think I could find a better steward of this money. And I want to know how those don’t work. Look at the dates on them. Detroit air quality and smoke conditions.
Well, they started posting that.
No, they got that because they got another grant going through that office.
Okay, so there’s 21, 11 through 21.
Yeah. Okay. We found way to go
Hot. It’s like when the teacher calls on you in class.
No bullshit. No you, and there’s nothing you fuck with Bonnie and Clyde. You better bring, you don’t bring a butter knife to the gum
Bite. And let me say this, there is nothing wrong with this. There is nothing wrong. This is how it’s supposed to be. So when you say, oh, I’m a good person, because people send comments, stop yelling at mark, stop yelling at Karen. This is what has to be done. So it’s not about being good or bad or mean. It’s about making sure that what we say is accurate. I just wanted to say that because people always send messages. I don’t
Care. Stop listening.
No, don’t stop listening.
Go to the local news. You want to be a dummy? Stay a
Dummy. Look what we did. I just want people to know the effort that is put in to make sure that the information is accurate
And the infant mortality in this city is double that of the state. Yes,
It is.
See, so we can tell you things and so you can see us work. I didn’t want to leave him with that because this all has its consequence, this selling, this snatching of contracts and you’re 5% and you get to control it. And all of a sudden you have the women’s health industry because, not because you’re great, because nothing really points to it. Great. Well, respect is on Wikipedia. Whatever, what I know of you, you haven’t earned that. How’s that? Right? So you can imagine my sadness to see the old warhorse dying in a hospital bed buried beneath medical machinery and plastic tubing. And he’s begging the nurse to give him a shot, something to put him down to end his life. You all saw it. I asked him, how you doing, man? He said, I’m on my way out. I asked him, does it scare you?
Yeah, you could tell by his eyes. Anyway. Many of you by now are aware of the sad and ironic death of Brian Woodward, a quadriplegic man whose healthcare was snatched from him under the now notorious auto insurance reform of 2019. Woodward was 64, and he was guaranteed lifetime care under the old insurance law. He lived a full and productive life after breaking his neck in a car accident in 1983. That’s 40 years ago. In that time, he earned a college degree. He worked full-time. He maintained his own home. Brian from his wheelchair coached little league baseball, sang in the church choir and was an avid hunter and fishermen, all with the help of caregivers who were paid from the catastrophic auto insurance fund. But once Whitmer signed the new law, all Gideon smiles up there in Mackinac with all the insurance muckety mucks and the political big shots. The new law reduced reimbursements to those caregivers by 45%. And Brian could no longer afford the in-home aids as the aides could not afford to work for $16 an hour. So Brian was bounced from nursing home to hospital bed, to nursing home to hospital bed. He was moved more than two dozen times. Over the time I knew him. I watched him degrade. He suffered bedsores, sepsis, heart arrhythmia. He was treated a little better than a bag of soiled bedsheets.
And I watched him slowly die. And then last week, as you know, Brian fed by a morphine drip, died barely. An hour later, the Michigan Supreme Court issued an opinion stating that the stripping of his coverage was contractually unconstitutional, if not criminally immoral. That means it was against the law. Forget law school definitions. That means what they did was against the law. But by then it was too late for Brian. And I’d gotten to know him well over the past two years. He was a warrior. He advocated for the return of healthcare for 18,000 others like himself. He was the poster man of a movement of social justice and dignity. And nobody covered him. I felt ashamed of myself after meeting Brian when the Republican controlled legislature, yes, the Republicans and the Democratic governor and the Democratic mayor of Detroit were crowing and cajoling about the auto reform bill and how great it was going to be.
I hardly looked into the specifics. Michigan had the highest auto insurance rates in the country, and the politicians promised us better coverage for less money. And I got buried in the avalanche numbers and spin. I wasn’t curious enough to realize that thousands of vulnerable human beings would be thrown on the garbage pile, or that Republican leadership was strong arming and threatening members of its own caucus who had misgivings about the law threatening to take them out. It should have been easy to see. How else would insurance companies make money except fucking the rate payer. So for that, I’m truly sorry. And I promise the memory of Brian and all of you that we will do better. And that’s what you were seeing in the end. The reforms saved us nothing. Our rates went up, but we got a $400 election year rebate check. But insurance rates, as you know, are higher.
But the executives got paid, the politicians got contributions, and Brian got a funeral. The pastor presiding over Brian’s memorial at the Tidy Baptist church in Redford last week. Put something like this. Brian felt the sting of corruption of the rich and powerful, those who prey on the weak and vulnerable. But Brian never grew angry or bitter. He won’t reap the fruits of his labors, but others will. And he’d be okay with that. Amen. And it’s worth reminding the public that just because someone has a disability doesn’t mean they are less than it’s worth. Reminding the public that the promises of carrots and sugar cubes made to them by modern day politicians rarely materialize. The promises of lower property taxes and lower insurance rates and great soaring skyscrapers and tons of manufacturing jobs are a Trojan horse of the money class. So when a political boss dangles a carrot over your snout, remember she’s wielding a club in the other hand. Rest in peace, Brian. Goodnight, Karen. Goodnight Charlie. Goodnight everybody.
