Category: Analysis
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Mayor Neeley reflects on sixth anniversary of Flint’s water crisis, extends curfew to mid-May; Chief Hart says homicides are up. overall crime down
By Tom Travis On the eve of the sixth anniversary of the Flint water crisis, at a Zoom press conference called Friday afternoon, Mayor Sheldon Neeley said, “We still find ourselves working through it” and clarified one outgrowth of it — a secondary water source pipeline which has come up again recently before the Flint…
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Education Beat: Flint schools board adopts deficit elimination plan, dismisses three administrators
By Harold C. Ford At its April 21 meeting, conducted via Zoom, the Flint Community Schools (FCS) Board of Education adopted an amended Enhanced Deficit Elimination Plan (EDEP) to send to the State of Michigan for review. The board also dismissed three building administrators for “performance issues” without detail provided to the public. Further, not…
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Ten-hour Flint City Council committee meeting covers secondary water source pipeline, revised ’20-’21 city budget
By Tom Travis Flint City Council met electronically in a succession of four committee meetings Wednesday night for 10 and half hours from 5 p.m. until the final adjournment at 3:30 a.m. In addition to the committee meetings, a 30-minute-long executive session began at 1 a.m. All nine City Council members were initially present. The…
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950 residents receive food weekly at the Martus/Luna Food Pantry
By Tom Travis Over 40 cars lined up on the streets around the Martus/Luna Food Pantry on Wednesday. Art Luna, President of the Martus/Luna Memorial Association which organizes the weekly food give away, said on average 950 people receive food each week. The first week in April they had 305 cars come through the line,…
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Coronavirus Diaries #1: Viral time and the witching hour — when the dead wander in and out
By Teddy Robertson Ed. Note: Here is the first of an East Village Magazine’s new feature, the Coronavirus Diaries — personal accounts and commentary from our writers to attempt to capture some of what we’ve all been going through and reflecting on what it means. Sunday has become my day to write to friends. It’s a…
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Democracy rolls on: Election/voter deadlines today/tomorrow for May 5 election
As the nation, state, county and city attempt to cope with the Covid-19 crisis, the League of Women Voters/Flint Area reminds voters that an election approaches May 5 and that some aspects of that election have been altered by the crisis. Details below, provided by the LWV, with some light editing by EVM: The deadline…
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Flint eying significance of AG actions, “bombshell” VICE story as water crisis repercussions bubble up again
By Jan Worth-Nelson As the coronavirus pandemic occupies and overwhelms much of the public’s attention in Flint, another controversy — still painful and unresolved in many ways, affecting almost every aspect of Flint life — appears about to create news again on top of everything else in Vehicle City. The sixth anniversary of what is…
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Get ready: Court Street construction beginning Wednesday, April 22; trees will be saved
By Jan Worth-Nelson What the project engineer is calling “full reconstruction” of Court Street from Dort Highway to Crapo Street in Flint is scheduled to begin Wednesday, April 22. Work on the estimated $7 million project is expected to last through August, and will entail adjustments for motorists on one of the city’s busiest east-west…
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Michigan families to receive additional food benefits in pandemic EBT program
Emergency food assistance for Michigan families with children age 5 to 18 is on its way through a federal program adding benefits in response to the coronavirus crisis. The Pandemic Electronic Benefit Transfer Program (P-EBT) will provide $193.80 per eligible student for March and April and $182.40 for May and June in additional “Bridge Card”…
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Flint Schools Supt. Derrick Lopez suspended, Anita Steward named interim
By Harold C. Ford At a special meeting of the Flint Board of Education on April 15, Derrick Lopez, Flint’s superintendent for the past 20 months since his appointment in Aug. 2018, was suspended with pay “pending investigation.” Notably, Lopez had been absent from the last two meetings of the board. Assistant Superintendent Anita Steward…
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