Proposal cuts gay rights, Roe v. Wade, climate change, NAACP from public school standards: hearing Monday
by Harold C. Ford EVM staff writer Ford, a 44-year veteran of public education, now retired, surveyed the 138-page draft proposal described below and which is available for perusal in full here. The Michigan Department of Education (MDE) is holding a series of nine...
Flint declared “Tree City USA”–300 seedlings planted
By Jan Worth-Nelson Flint is one of 3,400 city nationwide to be named a 2018 "Tree City USA" by the Arbor Day Foundation. It was the 18th year in a row for the city to receive the designation. To celebrate, staff of the Genesee Conservation District, managers of the...
Commentary: Water shutoffs do no one any good
By Laura Sullivan In 2015, Dr. Sullivan, a Kettering University professor of mechanical engineering, worked with other activists as part of the Coalition for Clean Water to return the city of Flint to Detroit for its water supply. Since then, she has helped to...
City Council fails to override Weaver’s budget veto: next steps uncertain
By Meghan Christian Flint City Council (FCC) did not have the six votes needed to override Mayor Karen Weaver's veto of the amended budget they proposed at a special city council meeting at 11 a.m. today. The proposed budget included eight amendments, totaling a...
Review: Flint welcomes “The Moth” in celebratory night downtown
By Patsy Isenberg and Jan Worth-Nelson Perhaps the biggest stories of all about last Thursday’s performances of “The Moth” storytelling show at the Capitol Theater weren’t about “The Moth” at all. There are at least four other options: That the performance was in the...
Mayor vetoes City Council budget on $267,000 difference, override vote attempt set
By Meghan Christian and Jan Worth-Nelson A version of a 2018-2019 city budget proposal calling for eight amendments approved six to three June 4 by the Flint City Council was vetoed Monday by Mayor Karen Weaver. The $267,000 difference in what the council wants and...
Five-day “Freedom Festival” honoring Juneteenth kicks off June 15
By Jan Worth-Nelson A five-day long Juneteenth "Freedom Festival" in north Flint starting Friday aims to honor the June 19, 1865 freeing of the slaves in Texas. But that's not all. Organizer April Cook-Hawkins says after a bruising four years of the water crisis,...
Commentary: Beyond the water crisis, another Flint crisis looms
By Paul Rozycki In its own clumsy way the Flint water crisis seems to be slowly drifting to some sort of resolution. Most scientific reports are showing a significant reduction in the lead levels in our water. As a result the state has ended its distribution of free...
Review: “JFK: The Last Speech” juxtaposes power, the arts, and eloquence with a local angle
By Ed Bradley The reflective new documentary JFK: The Last Speech recalls a time when not only could it be assumed that the American president knew how to spell the word “poetry,” but also that he could recite verse at an important event without an eyebrow being...
East Village Magazine – June 2018
The latest issue of the East Village Magazine is available for download here:
Genesee County Medical Society departs from Hurley docs on “lead-poisoned” word choice
By Jan Worth-Nelson Emphasizing, "there is no safe amount of lead to be ingested by children, pregnant women, or any person daily for 15 months without any risk to health and/or development," the Genesee County Medical Society has chosen not to concur with a recent...
Review: Politics, misused power, poverty all play a role in Anna Clark’s riveting “The Poisoned City”
By Robert R. Thomas A current Flint kerfuffle is the Hurley Medical Center controversy about whether we Flintstones were “lead-poisoned” or “lead-exposed.” Anna Clark’s riveting reply to that question and many more is The Poisoned City: Flint’s Water and the American...
Activists’ letter aims grievances at Marc Edwards; he calls it “science anarchy”
By Jan Worth-Nelson Note: This piece was updated Saturday evening, June 2, to add several paragraphs from flintwaterstudy.com's response to the flintcomplaints.com letter, received after the article was originally written. A Virginia Polytechnic Institute professor...
New Evolution Center opens summer project with $64,000 from African-American fraternity
By Harold C. Ford The New Evolution Education Center (NEEC) will open its doors to 50 youth in grades kindergarten through 8th grade this summer for six weeks running from July 9-Aug. 17. The nonprofit NEEC will focus on literacy, science, and math, 8 a.m. to 3 p.m....
Citizens to Hurley board: “lead-exposed” word change “preposterous,” and devastating to trust
By Jan Worth-Nelson Six Flint residents, all of whom described searing effects from the Flint water crisis, spoke up at the meeting of the Hurley Medical Center Board of Managers Wednesday night to say, "Words matter." They asserted that a recent statement by a group...
Public comment open on Hurley docs’ “exposed/poisoned” word change at today’s board of managers meeting
By Jan Worth-Nelson There is no item on the agenda of the Hurley Medical Center Board of Managers meeting today (Wednesday) pertaining to the recent decision by Hurley's doctors to substitute the word "lead-exposed" for "lead-poisoned" for children who experienced the...
A look at the city’s new economic team: the “director” is his company, Rodrick Miller explains
By Jeffery L Carey Jr. Does the City of Flint have a director of economic development or not? And is the position, financed as part of a $2.9 million Kellogg Foundation grant, being filled by a person or a company? Is there a conflict of interest built into the way...
Boil water advisory lifted
BOIL WATER ADVISORY LIFTED BY THE CITY OF FLINT The City of Flint has lifted its precautionary boil water advisory. This information has been received through a memo from the University of Michigan - Flint.
Drinking water warning issued for City of Flint residents: Boil even your filtered water before using
The following is a word-for-word notification from the City of Flint: DRINKING WATER WARNING The City of Flint water system lost pressure and contamination may have occurred BOIL YOUR FILTERED WATER BEFORE USING Due to a drop in pressure in the City of Flint water...
JFK documentary with Flint/East Village Magazine connection airing on PBS June 2
By Jan Worth-Nelson A documentary about John F. Kennedy's last major speech, which spotlights, among others, a Flint man present at the speech and the effect it had on his life, will be aired on two local PBS stations at 6:30 p.m. Saturday, June 2. In the interest of...
Local Grocer part of network striving to end “food apartheid” and address lead toxicity
By Darlene C. Carey Erin Caudell, co-owner of The Local Grocer on Martin Luther King Boulevard and a longtime farmer and food activist, chafes when she hears the term “food desert” to describe Flint’s food availability challenges. “A desert is a diverse, thriving...
Flint residents getting first looks at $55.8 million proposed 2018-19 city budget
By Meghan Christian A proposed City of Flint 2018-2019 budget of $55.8 million, of which $23.2 milion, or roughly 59 percent, is earmarked for public safety, and a proposed 2019-2020 budget of $56.6 million, was presented by Chief Financial Officer Hughey Newsome for...
As Woodside takes on new life in its MCC era, neighbors praise, question and complain
By Jan Worth-Nelson A small patch of trees known for decades as the Woodside Woods has become a point of contention since Mott Community College bought the historic Woodside Church on the southeast side of the campus eight months ago, with neighbors in the College...
Flint Roller Derby team pairs competitive sport with high-energy fun
By Dylan Doherty and Meghan Christian Grace Seymore had been a roller derby skater for a year before her team dissolved as she was considering moving from Clarkston to Flint. Looking to join a team again, she dropped in on a practice session of the Flint Roller Derby...
The “universal good medicine” of Flint artist Pauly M. Everett
By Jeffery L Carey, Jr. In Flint artist Pauly Everett's work, a mixed media mash-up of pop culture icons and comic book details are delivered in exuberant primary colors and a hip-hop street art flavor. He calls his signature style "city psychedelic art," and from...
