Hot day but few fireworks at Bluebell Beach 49th District candidate forum
By Paul Rozycki It was the morning of the Fourth of July, when most people are preparing for picnics, hot dogs, and fireworks, and it was hot and humid on Mott Lake. But that didn’t prevent four of the six Democrats running for the 49th state House of Representatives seat from attending a lakefront candidate forum at Bluebell Beach. As part of The Tom Sumner Radio Program’s regular broadcast, (92.1, WFOV) John Cherry, Jacky King,...
Flint Registry, built to monitor, link and advocate for community health, gears up for September launch
Flint Water Advisory Task Force Final Report, presented to Gov. Rick Snyder, March 21, 2016 Recommendation #7 to the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services , p. 10: “Establish and maintain a Flint Toxic Exposure Registry to include all the children and adults residing in Flint from April 2014 to present.” By Teddy Robertson In a significant marker of forward momentum in the aftermath of the water crisis, that 2016...
Commentary: A primary primer for the Aug. 7 election — REMEMBER TO VOTE
By Paul Rozycki In less than a month, in the midst of summer vacations, art fairs, festivals, and car shows, Michigan will hold its regular primary, and the turnout is likely to be low, as it has been for years. That’s unfortunate because, for most officials, the primary is the real election—whoever wins the primary is likely to win in November. That’s because most of our election districts are gerrymandered to favor one party or the...
Review: Connor Coyne’s “Urbantasm: The Dying City” original, dark, magical, and infused with Flint
Urbantasm Book One: The Dying City by Connor Coyne Review by Robert R. Thomas Connor Coyne’s Urbantasm is the most original take on Flint I have read to date. Set in the fictional Rust Belt city of Akawe, Michigan, “an hour’s drive north of Detroit,” Coyne’s allegorical tale is a serial novel of four volumes the author says has taken 22 years to create. Book One: The Dying City will be published in September. The jacket of my...
Village Life: Why I moved to Flint
By Ted Nelson My first experience of Flint was Bishop International Airport. I still wonder about the “International” part. Could it be that Flint itself is another country? Perhaps there are secret flights here in the dark of night — aliens sneaking in from all over the world to benefit from the city’s abundance of jobs, services, and amenities. Who knows? I, however, was on a mission of another kind. I was at Bishop...
Arts millage up for a vote Aug. 7 could add $8.7 million per year to county’s “good news stories”
By Jan Worth-Nelson and Patsy Isenberg A proposed county-wide millage that could bring in up to $8.7 million/year for the arts in Genesee County for the next ten years will be on the Aug. 7 ballot. Backers of the proposal say it would guarantee substantial support and widened access for what its backers call one of the area’s “good news stories,” including educational enrichment and free admission to the county’s best-known cultural...